by Jenny McKane
And just like that, Sunny watched as Asmodeus became the functioning brain of the operation. It wasn’t that the archangels or Eli had necessarily wanted the job or were equipped with enough inside knowledge to actually make the best decisions concerning the Guardian demons, it was just a bit jarring to have the decision-making power wrested from them so quickly.
For his part, Asmodeus looked smug as he looked back down at his menu and motioned for a waitress to take his order. Sunny was sure someone was going to speak up and argue, but when nobody did, she followed suit and ordered dinner.
Later that night, she was cradled in Gideon’s arms, her back pressed against his chest.
“Do you think we’re safe with Asmodeus?” she asked. “Do you know anything about him?”
“I’ve never heard much about him in particular, just that a great many demons with bad intentions were happy that he was imprisoned,” he said. “He has a reputation, as do all of the Guardians, for being quick and harsh in judgement and the demon world got quite the free pass these past few thousand years with their internal police force being locked up. But as far as are you safe? Yes, I think you are as long as the Seal is on your finger and the two of you are bound by your contract,” Gideon continued. “These things are air tight in the demon world and he’s got very little room to maneuver where you’re concerned.”
Sunny didn’t miss the fact that Gideon hadn’t exactly answered her question entirely.
“What about the rest of you? Are you all safe from Asmodeus?”
It took him a moment to speak.
“I’m not sure, Sunny,” he answered honestly, giving her pause. “I’d like to think so, but demons as powerful as Asmodeus are not in the business of helping people out of charity or kindness inherent in them. It doesn’t exist in demons as humans know it.”
She let out a long breath and said, “Are you worried?”
Gideon hesitated before answering. “A little.”
Chapter Twenty-eight
Gabriel got the bad news once the team was airborne, as promised, in Asmodeus’ rented jet. They had settled into their plush leather seats and Asmodeus had ordered a round of champagne, as though they were jetting off to the Cannes Film Festival and not to a tiny hovel of a town 50 miles outside of Mexico City to summon a lust demon.
Lust demons differed from succubae and incubi in a few ways, most notably that the succubae or incubi siphoned their power from the sexual release of their victim—death by orgasm, Sin had called it. He related it to vampires, as much as he hated the analogy, because a vampire could drain a victim dry of its blood and kill it, and a succubus, incubus, or cambion could drain a human’s life force from too much sexual magic.
“What a way to go, though, right?” Sin had been joking. She hoped.
Metatron laughed at the joke and Gideon smirked at Sunny, sending her a wink that heated her cheeks. She was still skittish about being openly affectionate with Gideon despite the recent boundaries they’d demolished between them. She was especially sensitive to sex jokes, namely because they hadn’t quite done that yet. No, with all the flirting and the petting and the amazing things they’d done, both in Seattle before he’d been taken by Azrael and even more recently in the Phoenix hotel, they’d just not quite consummated their relationship.
And it’d been all Gideon who’d held them up, too. Sunny was so amped up and sexually charged with the way he touched her and got her going that she was pretty sure she was going to tear not only her hair out but Gideon’s as well. Her body thrummed with pent up sexual energy just looking for release; the fact that Gideon had maintained such perfect control over himself, and just how far he let them go, made her crazy with doubt and worry.
Was this attraction and desire so one-sided? She knew how Gideon felt about her emotionally, but how was he able to reign their activities in so easily at night when Sunny wanted nothing more than to go full-speed-ahead into whatever sexual oblivion lay beyond.
The question played round and round in her head as the jet reached cruising altitude over the Mexican border.
“Bienvenidos a Mexico!” Asmodeus said in the worst possible Spanish accent ever.
Sunny just groaned and took a sip of her bubbling champagne, puckering at its tart flavor.
“Your modern spirits are certainly a bonus,” Asmodeus said, considering the glass in his hand as he inspected the bubbles. “Definitely a boon to agreeing to this madness.”
Because they were airborne, Gabriel had turned his phone back on and taken a call through the plane’s Wi Fi, something Asmodeus had been utterly blown away by.
“This vast store of entertainment, knowledge and porn just follows you around wherever you go,” he mused. “It’s simply amazing.”
Or intrusive, Sunny thought with a smile. Depended on how one looked at it.
Gabriel returned from his phone call and sat down, his face drawn tight and his eyes unfocused. To Sunny, it looked like he was struggling to come up with the words to say something and she was the only one who’d noticed it.
“What is it?” She blurted the question out before thinking of an easier way to get Gabriel to talk.
At this point, Sunny reasoned, they were past polite conversation and manners. He needed to say something, that much was obvious, and the sooner he said, the likelier the better.
“We’ve got a problem,” he said, his eyes looking up at her finally.
That got everyone’s attention and the chatter in the plane stopped. Even Asmodeus looked up from his smartphone.
“I just got a call from Leema,” he said, as though the name was supposed to mean something. It didn’t, at least to Sunny.
Metatron put his hand over his eyes and closed them, visibly bracing for the bad news.
“Leema is some sort of angel, I presume?” Asmodeus, thankfully, asked what was forefront in Sunny’s mind.
“She is,” Gabriel said. “A good friend of mine who happens to be supporting what we’re doing. She said there’s been an order out on Sunshine for the crime of resurrecting demons.”
Eli shot to his feet and swore.
“Fucking assholes!” He had his hands on top of his head as he paced.
“What? Who are the assholes?” Sunny gripped the arms of her seat, half out of her chair, half hovering.
“I knew they’d do this, Metatron,” he said. “I fucking knew it!”
“Who?” Sunny wasn’t trying to scream, but she was close. Was she in trouble? What did an order mean?
“The Powers,” Metatron answered for Eli. “It seems Tesah and Eron caught wind of what we are doing and petitioned for punishment against you—to stop you from raising more.”
“What sort of punishment?” Something somewhere inside Sunny told her the question was unnecessary. From the grave, pale look on Gabriel’s face to the way that Eli was reacting, it wasn’t good.
“Death, Sunshine,” Eli said, swearing again. “They’re going to track us down and kill you on the spot to stop you from opening anymore summoning stones.”
She looked to Gabriel for confirmation, and he only nodded.
“They don’t want you to summon the remaining generals, it seems,” he said, quietly.
“Why would they care?”
Asmodeus spoke up then, cutting into Sunny’s racing thoughts.
“Ahhhh…a question for the ages,” he mused, a little dramatically. “Why would the Powers care about a human Armageddon? And why would the Powers, who know a Solomon is trying to stop such an event, request permission to execute her on sight?”
Sunny waited for him to answer, growing more impatient by the second.
“Well,” she prodded him. “Why, archdemon? What the hell is going on?”
“Any thinking being would start putting two and two together and wonder why the Powers are instigating such a drastic move,” he said, his words slow and halting for dramatic effect. “Whose pocket are they in? To whom do they owe a debt? Those are the questions we should be asking
if we’re hoping to uncover the face of Death itself.”
Sunny looked back to Gabriel for help. Unfortunately, he had little.
“I don’t know the Powers,” he admitted. “They’re such a reclusive, cult-like group of angels that very few really know their true numbers or names. This just proves that their influence is more far reaching than we first imagined. The deck was already stacked against us and now it seems even more so. I’m so sorry, Sunny.”
He truly sounded it, but Sunny wasn’t ready to feel sorry for herself yet.
“What do they want from me? To give myself up and stop unlocking the Seals?”
Metatron shook his head.
“At this point, the order has been given,” he said. “Your death is the only thing Tesah and Eron are after.”
“Just them?” The thought gave her hope.
“Those two are their enforcers,” Metatron replied. “It stands to reason that they requested the punishment and they hope to carry it out. But we need to understand why and who they’re working with—or for.”
“Should we continue with the summoning in light of all this bullshit?” Gideon spoke up and when he did, Eli spun around to hear the response. For the first time in recent memory, he didn’t look pained when Gideon spoke.
“It’s too dangerous now,” Eli said, obviously in agreement. “They’re expert trackers and we need to get her into hiding immediately.”
“Again, what you need to do is talk to her like she’s right here,” Sunny said, though with much less bite than the last time. “I need to know all the facts. All the angles. What are the stakes? What odds are stacked against us? What are the repercussions if we delay the rest of the summonings?”
Asmodeus cast a look over his shoulder at Gabriel to see if he would explain to Sunny, but when he said nothing, the archdemon gave a shrug and assumed the duty.
“Like I explained before, the Seal set into motion counterparts to what you are doing,” he said. “Death’s plays are now stronger and likely less bound by magic than they’d been previously. Should you go into hiding now, Death will continue to free its minions and assume dominion over the world while the forces you and the humans need to save yourselves remained locked in the dirt. The stakes? Death if you’re caught, death if the Armageddon reaches its full survival, and perhaps even a likely death in armed combat with the nox. Death, death, death—perhaps those are the only odds and stakes offered to you, to all of us on this plane right now. But would you choose your own death fulfilling your end of the bargain or will Death find you cowering in hiding in some far corner of the world?”
Shit.
Sunny closed her eyes and sat back against her chair. The answer was so obvious, yet she still found it terrifying.
“Make no mistake, though,” Asmodeus continued. “The noble route will be just as terrifying. Even now the nox are rising and will eventually find us as we move through the generals. The Powers will hunt us, too, and I’ve heard they’re far better hunters than the nox. We are well and truly fucked as you humans like to say.”
Well and truly. Sunny agreed.
For the remainder of the flight, Sunny listened to Gabriel describe the methods and tactics of the Powers. They had heightened senses, were sensitive to certain demonic presences (namely archdemons), and could move unnoticed through shadows when stalking.
“They sound like demons,” Sunny interrupted. What hope did the seven of them have against natural born predators?
“Excuse me,” Asmodeus said with a sneer, acting offended at the comparison. “Demon hunters are much more talented, given they’re not given the magical senses.”
He sniffed as he said it, letting them all know just what he thought of the angels.
“They don’t have any sense of emotions, either,” Gabriel reminded her.
“Very un-demonlike, need I remind you,” Sin piped in.
It was true. Demons were often ruled by emotions and urges.
“No common needs like affection, sex, or intimacy, either,” Gabriel continued. “Mission-minded. Executing you trumps their need to consume calories and even breathe oxygen, especially as they are closing in on you.”
Metatron joined the conversation at that point.
“Which can almost be a weakness if you’re able to exploit that tunnel vision and obsession with the kill against them,” he said and Sunny considered it.
“Tell me again why you brought them along?” Sunny asked Metatron, as the thought occurred to her that he’d invited them along as they hunted for Gabriel so many months ago.
Metatron stiffened at the question.
“They said they could help,” he replied with a frown. “I’d never interacted with a Power before and I thought they genuinely were trying to help find an angelic brethren.”
“How very human of you, Enoch,” Asmodeus practically sneered, poking at Metatron’s more humble beginnings.
“I thought that using their tracking abilities would get us to Gabriel that much sooner,” Metatron added. “It didn’t occur to me that they might have a little foreknowledge about anything to do with Sunshine and the Solomon seal.”
She pondered the point for a moment. “What if that was what they were waiting around for?”
Gabriel shook his head at the theory. “They would have waited until I woke up, wouldn’t they?”
Metatron pressed forward with his hands on his knees.
“Not if they assumed you didn’t have it,” he said. “You had your hand warded completely. Not only would it not open, but nobody, not even the most powerful healer, could get a clue as to what was in it. They saw nothing and said as much to the Powers. They likely used their angry temper tantrum as a ruse to cover the fact that they were going to break off sooner rather than later.”
“You’re saying the Powers are evil?” The words hung in the air as soon as Sunny spoke them.
Metatron thought about his reply, opened his mouth and then closed it again.
“I’m saying that their sense of duty in this case is wrong. I’m saying that there’s a chance they are being manipulated by somebody else.”
Sunny and Metatron locked eyes for a moment.
“They’re the bad guys in this case, Metatron,” she said, insisting.
Her eyes flicked to Asmodeus, who was clearly enjoying the interaction.
Metatron wouldn’t yield, though. “They’re misinformed, Sunshine,” he finally said. “That’s as far as I’ll admit right now without talking to them.”
Sunny sucked in a breath. “Their misinformation is going to mean my execution,” she said, “What stakes are you dealing with in this little gamble?”
She wasn’t sure where the anger was coming from, but suddenly Metatron’s middle-road approach irked her something fierce. It was becoming glaringly obvious that angels weren’t always on the right side of the battle. Sometimes, like now, they were choosing the wrong side.
“They’re the bad guys in this little experiment, aren’t they?”
Again, Metatron wouldn’t answer and she could practically feel the glee coming off the archdemon.
Gabriel interjected before things could come to a boil.
“You need to decide what you want to do, Rosie,” he said, his tone soft as he tried to diffuse the situation. “Do you want to continue or do you want to hunker down somewhere safe and wait the Powers out?”
Her gut told her there would be no waiting out when it came to Tesah and Eron. She simply had to be faster and ahead of the game if she and her friends were going to survive this, and Sunny had a feeling that Asmodeus and the other Guardian demons were going to provide an advantage that the Powers weren’t counting on.
Chapter Twenty-nine
The food was fantastic and the sparse lodgings were dismal in the tiny hamlet of Las Tunas. Good thing was, they weren’t staying long—not even overnight.
“We just need to wait for nightfall and it’s much easier to do that if we’re not all crowded around a bar somewher
e in a tiny town like this,” Eli said.
Sunny had wanted to just march to the summoning stones that were about 25 miles out of town as soon as they arrived in their two rental cars, but everyone else thought it was a bad idea to go marching out there in broad daylight.
Instead, they found a tiny little motel and sent Sin inside to secure two adjoining rooms. Sunny had basically snuck herself into the motel, as they were trying to be seen by as few people in town as possible. Gideon and Eli had gone to procure lunch and returned with the best street tacos Sunny had ever tasted—and she thought she’d found her own personal heaven at the Austin taco truck she’d discovered while staying there.
But she’d been wrong—tacos in Mexico trumped any taco truck in the United States.
“For a potential last meal, you guys did great,” Sunny joked, but the mood in the room dropped, all eyes on her. She snorted. “It was a joke. Seriously.”
They had the fact that angels didn’t know the whereabouts of summoning stones as intrinsically as demons did. There was the small fact that the Internet basically held all the answers, and that could prove a problem, but the world wide web also held just as many false leads and red herrings. Sunny hoped they were somewhere down in the Florida Keys right now searching for them.
She hoped, but she didn’t suspect. If they were half as good as the angels believed them to be, Sunny was a marked woman and had no room for error.
*****
The summoning stones were located at the base of a volcano because, of course they were.
When they’d first arrived at Las Tunas, Sunny had casually noticed a mountain in the distance, but thought nothing of it. As they neared the thing on their way to the summoning stones, she noticed something strange.
“Is that mountain on fire?” she asked, leaning forward in the front seat while Gabriel drove beside her. Sin and Gideon were in the backseat.
She heard Sin laugh at her and she snapped her head over her shoulder at him.