The green demon screeched at the metal in its body and a hot gust of air wafted from the incision Anna had made. Those fangs were bared again and it wrapped its arms around Anna’s neck, trying to reach its mouth toward her, either to bite her or to try to eat her, Anna wasn’t sure. She didn’t plan on finding out. She freed the blade of her dagger and thrust it into the side of the demon’s face, which left another gaping wound, and more of that hot rancid air escaped.
Luca and Colin caught up to her and each of them stabbed the olive demon, slicing open those incisions that would allow the energy this demon possessed to dissipate. With three of them now, it didn’t take long for the demon to die, and its body slithered to the ground like a burst balloon. They knelt around what was left of the demon and everywhere they touched, the remnants of its body crumbled to a fine sage powder. “Stop,” Luca held out his arms to keep Colin and Anna from touching the dead demon again.
“Look at this,” he pointed to the carmine markings. They could only make out part of the pattern now but they couldn’t unfold the skin to see the markings better.
Colin tilted his head and studied the sketches that used to run up this demon’s back. “We’ve never seen anything like it. Doesn’t mean anything to us. No demon we know of leaves these.”
Luca nodded. “I know. I don’t know of any demon that uses these symbols. It’s unique to this thing.”
Anna looked up at Luca in surprise. “How is it possible for you not to have seen something?” She wasn’t being a smartass or teasing her friend this time; Luca had been their mentor. She was convinced there was nothing about the world of demons he didn’t know.
Luca just raised an eyebrow at her and smirked again. “Because maybe it’s never existed before.”
Anna and Colin didn’t like the sound of that. “You mean, like a new kind of demon? That’s impossible, isn’t it?” Anna asked.
Luca shrugged, still smiling at two of his oldest friends, grateful that the damn beast was finally dead but also intrigued by the mystery this particular demon presented. “Nothing’s impossible, my sweet Anna. You should know that by now. And if I’ve never seen anything like it, then yeah, I think we may have a new enemy on our hands.”
Chapter 21
Dylan and Andrew had been dragged out of bed to listen to the story Jas had wanted them to remember, and it was Dylan, as usual, who had the most questions. “Whoa, new demons? Like full-fledged demon. That can only happen if an angel falls, right?”
Luca confirmed he was right, and in the years since killing that olive demon in Berlin, each of the Immortals had encountered a few more minions with those same markings, which led him to believe he’d been right.
“And one of your angels couldn’t have told you an angel had fallen recently and to be on the lookout for new assholes?” Dylan asked.
Anna snickered because she still loved the way Dylan phrased things. By the way Luca’s eyes crinkled at the corners, Anna suspected he found him just as amusing. “Maybe he didn’t think it was that newsworthy. We fight demons all the time. What difference does it make if they have another new boss?”
“Kind of a big difference apparently. Jas wanted y’all to remember this particular demon for a reason, right?”
She had, but she’d also mentioned they needed to work on turning something up about Jeremy’s transformation, and the two didn’t seem related at all. Andrew had been watching the exchange between the hunters, and even though Colin and Anna had only met him a couple of times before he’d come to Boulder and had hardly remembered him, they’d picked up by now that was his usual style. Andrew was an observer: always watching and studying others before jumping in with his own thoughts and opinions. Colin told Anna he couldn’t do that: he was Irish. It was genetically impossible for him to keep his opinion to himself for that long. Anna laughed again and everyone eyed her curiously before rolling their eyes and muttering about how annoying it was hanging out with a telepathic couple all the time.
“Well,” Andrew finally said, “whatever the O’Conners find so funny about this aside, there must be some connection between the new demon and Jeremy’s transformation or Jas wouldn’t have delivered this message from Luca’s angel.”
“Technically,” Anna corrected, “Jas reminded me about Jeremy, and the dream part came from Luca’s angel. Maybe we’re only assuming they’re related, but they’re not?”
Luca shook his head and countered, “That’s too big of a coincidence. And too confusing. Heaven doesn’t play games like that.”
“Yeah, well, they’re not exactly helpful with dispensing their knowledge, either,” Dylan muttered.
“I’ve known my angel for over six hundred years. If he told Jas to have this message delivered to me along with her message about Jeremy, they’re connected somehow,” Luca argued.
Andrew was deep in thought again. Anna studied him closely, looking for any signs that he was still in pain from being thrown into the trunk of a tree the day before and he caught her and smiled. “I’m fine. St. Casimir is still looking out for me.”
“Good, then get your saint to tell us how the hell Jeremy and this demon from Berlin are connected,” Dylan said.
Andrew turned his pale blue-gray eyes on Dylan and smirked again. “Don’t need to. I think I know.”
Colin threw his hands up in exasperation. “For the love of God, were you planning on telling us?”
“Obviously.”
Colin sighed and Anna stopped him from making any more smartass comments. She really wanted to hear Andrew’s theory. Andrew scooted to the edge of his seat and leaned forward to look at the hunters all watching him now. “Only thing I can think of is that this fallen angel must be the same demon that Jeremy’s working for now.”
“Holy shit,” Dylan grumbled.
For once, Colin agreed with him.
“But that doesn’t explain how to save him,” Anna argued. “I thought this would actually give us some answers!”
“Am I whining? I’m whining, aren’t I?”
Colin put his arm around her and kissed the side of her head. Anna interpreted that as a yes.
Luca and Andrew had been staring at each other like they were having their own telepathic conversation. Colin started to wonder if they were. “Something going on with you two we don’t know about?”
Luca smiled and shook his head. “Not my type. No offense, Andrew.”
Andrew snorted and answered him in Polish and Colin thought there were entirely too many languages going around this group now. No one knew what the hell anyone was saying anymore. “Do you even speak Polish?” Colin asked Luca.
“No, but I’m pretty sure our young friend here doesn’t think I’m his type either.”
Anna thought men were entirely too distractible. “Guys, what was with the staring? You know something else, then share it.”
“All the weird stuff going on,” Luca said, “what those demons were able to do in Baton Rouge, your abduction, the way they’re able to target your dreams and minds now and none of us can even sense them. That archdemon you killed in Baton Rouge: we’ve been assuming these others are out for retribution, but maybe we’ve been wrong about it all.”
Colin’s grip tightened around Anna. Luca was on to something but Colin didn’t like where he was going. “The death of that archdemon,” Luca finished, “didn’t start this war. What if it was just a minion, too? What if the reason we’re being outmaneuvered no matter what we do is that we’re not actually fighting demons, not the kind we’re supposed to be fighting anyway, but a group of fallen angels?”
Anna remembered being in the steel gray room with the man who wasn’t a man, but he hadn’t had the signature markings of a demon either. But there had been something so unnerving, so frightening and chilling about him in a way no demon had ever made her feel. The room felt like it was spinning again, just like it had when she’d been trapped in that swirling maelstrom of a Hell.
“Oh my God,” Anna breathed. “Th
at’s why we can’t kill them. Why we can’t even fight them. They may have fallen, but they’re angels. We’re trying to fight some of the most powerful creatures ever created.”
Luca took Anna’s hand and held it. “If we’re right about this, then yeah. And that’s why we were warned about a war. Because those guys aren’t supposed to be on Earth, and we can’t defeat them. No human can.”
“But Colin said angels could be killed. He told me that just a couple of months ago,” Dylan protested.
Andrew inhaled slowly. He may have had the same realization as Luca but he was as uncomfortable with the idea as Anna and Colin. “Angels can be, because they won’t fight back. Fallen angels won’t hesitate to kill us.”
“So Hell has declared war on us. Not on Heaven, but us. The Immortals,” Colin said.
Luca just kept his dark eyes fixed on Anna. “Yes. And they’re coming for you first.”
Garden of the Gods, Book 3 of The Immortals series, coming November 2015
Anna watched nervously as the Russian tanks rolled through the streets of Prague. Only a decade before, she and Colin had watched a similar scene play out in Hungary with disastrous and deadly consequences. They didn’t want to see it happen here, but there was apparently no toleration in this Russian empire. Protestors were filling the streets to defy the Russian tanks and troops, and Colin and Anna stepped back from the swarming crowd, sure that the Russians would open fire any time now at the unarmed Czech citizens.
Those gunshots never came. They watched in astonishment as the tanks rolled to a stop and the angry Czechs climbed on top of them, but they still didn’t fire. It didn’t make any sense to Anna. They had been in Hungary in 1956. They knew what Moscow was capable of. Colin pointed to a cameraman down the street who was taking pictures of the protestors. “The world is watching now more than ever. If they can repress this revolution without killing anyone, there’s far less risk of provoking a war with the west.”
“The west did nothing in 1956 or 1961. Why would they do anything now?” Anna countered.
But Colin didn’t have an answer for that. “Different leader? Maybe Brezhnev will be different.”
“Doubt it. Besides, The Angel sent us here.”
Colin pulled Anna farther away from the street as the crowd swelled and angry, defiant people continued to block the path for the invading Russian army. Some of the Russian soldiers were finally pulling the Czech protestors away from the tanks and pushing them out of the way. Anna’s heart accelerated as she waited for the bloodshed to begin. She and Colin noticed they weren’t the only ones waiting. A few blocks down the street, she caught the signature scent of Hell walking the Earth. Colin noticed it, too. Butterscotch mists had materialized and were apparently deliberating what form to take. One of them settled on a human form; it must have decided there wasn’t enough violence here to make its job easy. Demons could be so damn lazy.
The other one finally followed its lead and took on the form of another human, keeping its butterscotch color for its hair. Anna was about to make a smartass comment about how that should be a giveaway to anyone that it wasn’t a real human when Jas pulled her even farther away from the crowd and into a building behind them. Colin was still standing on the sidewalk watching the demons impersonate people, but it didn’t make any sense. He should have grabbed her hand to start chasing those bastards. Anna knew it wouldn’t take them long to reach them and kill them both because she’d lived this life before. But not with Jas.
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