by C C Solomon
Faith, who had already stood up, banged her fists together, her tattoos glowing and powering her up. “We have no problem with fighting our way out of here. You wraiths aren’t that hard to beat.”
I mean, they were a little hard but now wasn’t the time to argue. They clearly wanted to fight but we had no plan or backup. We needed to get the hell out of here.
Yasmine’s smile grew, practically splitting her face in half in a horrific mask like the others. Her eyes went from brown to green, her pupils narrowing similar to a snake’s. Now this was different. She pulled at her hair and it slid off. A wig. As she rolled her shoulders back, her skin faded and changed into a brick red. Cracks in her skin formed, turning scaly like a lizard.
Well, she was clearly no spirit. “You’re a demon. And if I looked like you, I would probably skin people, too.”
Her eyes flickered in that lizard-like way as a thin film covered her eyes then receded. “I am going to enjoy skinning you alive. I would eat you too, but I can smell the demon on you, so your body is worthless to me.”
“That’s the first time anyone’s ever said that to me. How’d you know I was a demon?”
“You smell familiar.”
“Why couldn’t we smell that you were a demon?”
“She masked her scent,” Azrael replied, heading to the door.
“Okay, got all my answers,” I cried before leaping on the desk and bringing my sword down on Yasmine.
She quickly pushed out her arm and I found myself flying through the air but someone grabbed me before I hit a wall. I turned my neck slightly to see it was Felix.
Before I could give a thank you, the door to the office flung open and several wraiths stormed the room. Felix released me and I slid to my feet, already swinging my sword and connecting with the wraiths I hit. I caught several in the neck and shoulders as Faith did her power pummels, and Azrael and Felix brought out their magic weapons.
Azrael’s weapon of choice being a giant silver sickle that was almost the size of the angel’s body. Azrael decapitated several wraiths in one spin. To my right Felix pulled out his trusty machetes and began to slice away, flinging wraiths off of him as he stabbed.
I turned to find Yasmine standing on her desk and looking down at the fighting below her with a smug smile. I planned to make that smile wider by slicing her face in half. I ran toward her, ducking and slicing as I made my way back to her desk.
Suddenly my sword shook in my hands and I tightened my grip in confusion. What was going on? My sword pulled forward and yanked me with it. I pulled back and crouched down just in time to avoid being bitten by an attacking wraith. I tried to swing my sword forward at it but my sword was resistant, still pulling in the other direction like it was drawn to a magnet. I instead kicked my leg out and caught the wraith in the stomach, knocking it to the ground. That slight distraction caused my sword to gain ground and fly out of my hand.
I wanted to see where it went but the wraith was already back up and charging for me. I pushed out my faerie magic and zapped it with my electricity, its body convulsing before dropping to the ground. It wasn’t strong enough to kill it without concerted energy that I just didn’t have right now. However, the creature was unconscious for the moment and I had bigger fish to fry.
Spinning around, I narrowly missed being cut in half and leaped to my right as Yasmine brought down my golden sword in the space I just vacated. What in the entire hell? How dare she put her lizard hands on my sword. And, how did my sword betray me like this? I pushed out my hand, willing my sword back to me but it refused to come back.
Yasmine made a fake shocked face. “Oops, did you lose your sword?” She waved it in the air. “Why don’t you try to get it back?”
I pushed again, swearing, but my sword did not even look like it was moving at all. How had she gotten such control over my weapon and why was I so weak to get it back? What level demon was this bitch?
Screw it, no time to figure that out. I zapped her with my magic and Yasmine fell to the floor, still clutching my sword. Her body darkened and smoke blew off her body from my electrocution but she seemed unbothered as she stood up. She ran toward me, sword in the air and I quickly teleported to another part of the room. The fighting had now carried out into the hall and I could no longer see the others.
We were in trouble here. We had a whole town against just the four of us and I was assuming no backup would magically appear that quick. If she was as powerful a demon as I thought she was then her ward had probably prevented telepathic calls for help from getting out as well. For now, we were on our own and the odds weren’t good. We had to get the hell out of here and we’d probably have to fight our way out.
Chapter 18
Before Yasmine could stab me, I teleported again. I hated running away from her but she was a tough one and I had to fight smart. I needed to cut her head off. That always worked. Unless she could get it back with her body. I dug into my pocket and flung my shuriken at her. It landed in her shoulder and quickly exploded, tearing her arm away from her body before she could pull it out. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get the shoulder that had my sword. Still, one arm was better than nothing.
Yasmine screeched a room shaking sound that startled me for a moment. Just a moment. I teleported in front of her and grabbed the hand holding my sword. I yanked against her still tight grip but for someone squirting blood out of her body, she was still pretty damn strong. I grabbed another shuriken out of my pocket and began to bring it down on her hand when an agonizing heat hit my fingers, making me drop my weapons. I looked up and was shocked to find that Yasmine’s eyes were now two orbs of laser beams which were now retracting back into her head.
I teleported out of the room and stumbled over the dead body of a wraith in the hallway. Laser eyes? What kind of demon was she? Felix appeared in front of me, battered, bruised, and bloodied. However, he didn’t seem to be concerned about his own condition as his eyes narrowed to my right hand that had previously held my shuriken. “Shit, Fran.” He bent forward and grabbed my hand.
I looked down and noticed for the first time the tips of several fingers were missing from my hand. She’d lasered part of my fingers off. The fighting adrenaline must still have been working in my favor because I could only feel cold numbness.
Felix hovered his hand over mine and a healing magic warmed my fingers. “Azrael can grow the tips back but I want to make sure it doesn’t get infected or hurt.”
I nodded, absentmindedly, still in shock as I looked at Faith and Azrael stand back-to-back as more wraiths approached. Was everyone a fighter in this town? They probably were and they were all in young, healthy bodies too. I dropped my shoulders. We had to call this fight or we would get hurt more.
Yasmine walked out of the room, still holding my sword with her hand pressed against her bloody stump of an arm. “Give up?” She looked to me, clearly thinking that I ran the show.
I looked back at the others. They all looked tired but they stared back at me with fighter’s eyes. They wouldn’t go down without a fight. It made me like them more. However, dying right now would get us nowhere. Yasmine wasn’t planning to kill us right now, which meant we still had something she wanted for later. That meant we had time. Time to find a way out of here or to break the ward and get back up.
I looked back at the grotesque demon bitch. “Fine.”
She gave me a face splitting demon grin. “Wonderful. Send them to their rooms for now. I need to reattach my arm. If they cause any trouble, kill them. I did want to wait until the full moon when their magic is at its most potent and delectable but they may not be worth the trouble.”
We were our most powerful under a full moon? Hadn’t read that on the internet. We made the walk back to our hotel surrounded by jittery wraith with all manner of weapons pointed at us.
I leaned toward Felix. “When’s the full moon?”
“Tuesday night,” Azrael answered for him, walking up to my left.
It was a
Monday. We had one day to find a miracle.
The wraith minions shoved us all in my room instead of allowing us our two suites.
Azrael turned to the guard. “Is it too much to ask for to let us get our things from our room?”
The male wraith smirked. “For what? You aren’t going to need them,” he replied before slamming the door.
From his perspective he was right. We’d be dead tomorrow, who cared about a toothbrush?
Apparently, Azrael did because the angel disappeared and then quickly reappeared a minute later with their things as well as Faith’s.
I collapsed on the couch, feeling incredibly exhausted. I wasn’t used to losing. In my mind I felt like I was the greatest warrior there was but I’d just had my greatest weapon snatched from me with barely a struggle. Had being Alister’s girlfriend all this time made me weak?
Azrael appeared in front of me and then sat on the coffee table. The angel took my injured hand and inspected it. “This was a clean cut. Very few demons have laser eyes. The dark prince being one of them.”
I shrugged, not really caring about Yasmine’s brand of demon. I just needed her gone. “Well, maybe she’s his cousin.”
Azrael caught my poor humor and kept a serious face as they covered both my hands with theirs. The angel then lowered their head and began to speak in a language I did not know. The angelic language? A bright silvery light shown from their eyes, flooding our hands with a tingling heat. Soon after an irritating itch began to trouble my fingertips. I could only assume that was the healing magic. I wanted to snatch my hand away and submerge it in a bucket of ice. Instead, I stayed still and gritted my teeth as pools of sweat began to spread under my arms and down my back from the healing pain.
Faith leaned toward me with amused eyes. “Need me to knock you out so you don’t feel anything?”
I glared up at her, exposing my gritted teeth. She thought she was so funny. “You want to die before tomorrow?”
She straightened up and winked at me, clearly unbothered by the poor weakling that I had now become for the moment. Maybe Herrod and the angels were lying. How could I be the child of a powerful fae Queen and a demon King and get my ass kicked by a demon who wasn’t even ruling an underworld?
Something didn’t add up and I knew, assuming I could trust him, Herrod could give me answers and also help us from certain death. However, if I went and used his calling card now then that would only draw more suspicion from the others. Did I really want to keep this secret from them? The others already didn’t trust me, if they thought I was getting close to a demon King and that he was my father, they’d never trust me.
But did I even care? I looked over to Felix who gazed down at Azrael still working on my hand like he was an instructor overseeing his student’s work and realized that yes, maybe I did care what he thought of me. Sure, he was half-demon but not of royalty. Did that make it better or worse?
Less important than what they thought of me was the overwhelming fear of owing a demon. After Alister, I didn’t really want to be at the mercy of any other demon ever again. Nadia was different because she was my bestie. There was also the fact that I was unemployed and needed a place to stay.
There would be no telling what Herrod would really want if I called for help. And without a blood test, I really didn’t know if he was my father. Wait, did demons have DNA?
On the other hand, if I died because I was so insistent on my independence, what the hell would it matter?
“Everything okay?” Azrael looked at me with suspicious eyes as the angel leaned back on the coffee table.
“Huh?”
“I asked you, how does your hand feel?”
I looked down at my hand and noticed it was now resting on my thigh as good as new. I’d been so deep in thought I had successfully blocked out the pain and the angel’s voice. I looked up at Azrael and nodded. “It feels great. Thank you.” I began to wiggle my fingers and press the tips to my thumb. Yup, felt normal.
Felix moved to sit down beside me. “I haven’t been able to make contact with anyone telepathically. Just like Yasmine said.”
Faith sat back in a dining room chair and balanced on the back two legs. “Me either. You think Amina being asleep really is disrupting our connection?”
He rubbed at his face before moving his hand back through his long hair. He looked exhausted but less battered than earlier. I could only assume he used some of his healing magic on himself. “Yeah, I haven’t been able to reach Lisa telepathically when she goes to help Joo-won. We aren’t as powerful without Amina.”
Faith gave a displeased sigh. “So, we’re just basic bitches now.”
I wanted to laugh. Basic bitches didn’t touch people and kill them or power-up through their tattoos. “Well, not everyone has to be part of the fabulous Six to be special. You’re not some elite group to us peons. You were just six people brought together by a spell to do public good. You’re basically public servants. Thank you for your service.”
Felix rubbed my shoulder but his face looked distracted. “We didn’t mean it like that, Franny.”
Azrael stood up and stretched. “Beyond all of that, I haven’t been able to connect with Monica either. We knew this could happen. It’s probably why she wasn’t able to connect with the other angels.”
Yeah, that was one way to take it. Or she could be ignoring us. For all we knew she was sending some fireball down on the whole town, looking at the place like a lost cause. I had a tough time believing she didn’t know this town was full of wraiths. “Or she could be ignoring you.”
Azrael gave me tired eyes before turning toward the balcony. “She has a lot on her plate.”
I made a fart noise with my mouth. She knew we were in jeopardy here and she could have kept a close eye. Now she was all M.I.A. when we needed her.
“You have a right to your doubts but we won’t know for certain why we can’t reach her until we can confirm we are warded in. We can do that tonight when there are fewer people around. Assuming we aren’t able to break the ward to this room that I’m sure we are under. How did Amina break the ward cutting off communication to Hagerstown those months ago?”
Felix leaned his head back on the couch and closed his eyes. “Witches worked together around the clock.”
Of course, she had help. “Welp, guess we don’t have that option. Even if we can break down the ward to this inn, we aren’t strong enough to break a ward to a whole town.”
Azrael let out an exasperated sigh. “So, without trying, what would you have us do?”
“I need to think.” I got up and went to the bathroom, turning on the exhaust fan and sink for privacy. If we snuck out to test the ward we’d be killed on the spot if we couldn’t get out. I needed to see if my link with Herrod could work and if it did, I’d have to find a way to get his help without the others knowing.
I took out a small knife hidden underneath my left breast. We’d gotten a very unthorough pat down from the wraiths, although they’d taken all my shuriken. No matter, I could easily make more with my magic.
I pricked my finger with the knife and drew Herrod’s symbol with my blood on the sink. I stood still, having no idea where he would appear.
Minutes passed. If he didn’t hurry up, they’d think I was doing something more in here. And although I shouldn’t care what they thought, I really didn’t want them to think I was stinking up the bathroom. I’d turned off the sink and decided to turn the shower on. It was better for them to think I was washing.
I sat on the bathtub ledge waiting, leaning my elbows on my thighs.
“Sorry for the delay, my daughter,” came a quiet voice from inside the bathroom.
I jumped up and looked around, landing my eyes on the mirror above the sink where an image of my father appeared. It’d worked! That meant that dear old, alleged, dad was stronger than the magic here if we could connect even with the ward up. Good to know.
“I didn’t expect to be hearing from you this quickly,�
�� he stated, a hovering half body in the mirror.
“I’m in trouble and I need your indirect help.”
He raised a brow with a look of confusion. “Please define trouble.”
“So remember when you said to be careful.”
“Yes,” he said in a cautious voice.
“Yeah, so I wasn’t and we got in a big fight and are now trapped by the wraiths and warded in.”
Herrod slapped his forehead, closing his eyes.
I gave him a wide smile knowing I’d messed up. “But wait, there’s more. If we don’t get out before tomorrow night, we’re going to be eaten. We can’t take on the whole town to even try to get to the ward and break it. We need back up.”
“I’ll send a horde.”
I shook my head quickly. “No, please don’t. I haven’t told anyone about our connection and they might get suspicious if they know you saved me. Can you get in touch with my friend Nadia? I’m sure you know who she is. Tell her where I am and that I need help.”
Herrod worked his jaw from left to right and then gave a nod. “Smart. The fewer people that know about our connection the safer you’ll be.”
I hadn’t even thought of that point but it was a good one.
“I’ll contact her.” He put up an index finger. “One moment.”
He closed his eyes and I waited patiently as he telepathically dialed up my BFF. He then opened his eyes. “Sorry, line’s busy.”
Was he kidding me? “What? That’s not how it works.”
“It actually is. I can’t connect with her. She could be busy defending her territory. Rumor has it that there are some who still aren’t happy with her being the leader.”
That was true and very inconvenient for me now.
“Shall I come now?”
I raised a hand. “Nope. Keep dialing or whatever.”
“And if I can’t reach her?”