Jaylen dashed up to the archdemon then stopped in front of its large claws. His blond hair rustled in the hot rancid breath from the archdemon and he visibly shivered. He was so small compared the massive winged demon. Even its claws were twice his height. But he remained there, staring into the blazing orange globes of eyes surrounded by black scales.
Oviel and Liaxa had to hold Zeriel's arms to keep him from running out there to get his paladin. "Let me go! I have to save him. Jaylen is my paladin and I have to save him!"
"If you go out there, you will die as well." Oviel tightened his grip around Zeriel's arms. "We will think of something that isn't so risky."
Jaylen's empowered voice instantly grabbed Zeriel's attention.
Jaylen held out his arms as he knelt down in front of the archdemon. "Take me. You want me, so take me. Let my friends leave unharmed. I surrender myself to your complete power, demon. Just promise me that my sacrifice ensures their safety."
The demon nodded its scale-covered head then reached out to encase Jaylen in its claws.
Zeriel cried out as the demon lifted Jaylen up to his mouth and tossed him inside. "Jaylen!"
Jaylen screamed as the demon closed its mouth and swallowed.
Everyone stared in disbelief at each other while the archdemon fluttered its leathery wings and turned away, leaving them in stunned silence. Zeriel's mouth went dry and his heart seemed to stop. "It ate Jaylen."
Chapter 15
Oviel covered his mouth with his hand. "Sola protect him."
"It ate him. It actually ate him." Liam looked terrified as he continued repeating it over and over. "It ate him."
"Shut up, will you?" Zeriel tied the cloak around his waist. "I'm going after him."
Liaxa caught his arm. "You can't take on an archdemon. It will devour you just as quickly, maybe even quicker because it hates angels."
"I have to do something. Is no one else going to stand up to that thing? No one? How can you all sit there and do nothing as Jaylen is eaten alive? Doesn't that matter to you?"
"It does matter, Zeriel, but there's nothing we can do. He's probably dead already."
"He's not dead. We are bound and I'm alive, so he is as well. Oh, hell." Zeriel dropped to one knee as he vomited and groaned. "I think Jaylen is injured, though. I'm feeling it."
"Just stay calm and let it pass."
Once he could stand up again, Zeriel wiped his face then stormed out from behind the crystal, much to the dismay of everyone else who called after him, begging him to come back. He didn't care about what they wanted. In that moment of decision, Zeriel had only one person on his mind. Jaylen. He stopped behind the demon's large armored legs. "Hey, demon! Down here."
The archdemon stopped where it was then lowered its wings. It made a low guttural sound as it turned around to face Zeriel with its orange eyes locked onto him.
"Do you like riddles?"
The archdemon growled.
Zeriel glared at the demon. "What is big, ugly, and demonic with blood all over?"
The demon growled again.
"You!" With a cry of anger, Zeriel spread his injured wings and slammed his hands onto the ground. A rumble of thunder sounded in the distance and lightning flashed overhead. As the lightning began to strike around the area, Zeriel closed his eyes and began the sacred chant. "Sola, beauty and grace, shelter my holy paladin in your embrace. Sola, matron of the sun, bless me with strength, for I am your chosen one. Sola, heavenly and divine, grant me your power one more time!"
The sky split open as a blinding white ray of light surged down and surrounded Zeriel. He held up his hand into the air as a strange metal object materialized out of the light. He looked at it curiously and spun it in his hand. Was that some kind of . . . trigger? Why would Sola give him this out of every ethereal weapon in Heaven? He had seen something like this being used onboard sailing ships with pirates, but what did they do exactly?
The archdemon let out a roar as he lunged towards Zeriel with claws slashing through the air. Zeriel dodged the heavy claws then aimed the weapon at the demon's face. With one squeeze of the trigger, a volley of small glowing metal balls flew through the air and embedded themselves into the archdemon's slick skin between the scales. The ones that collided with the plates of hard scales bounced off and ricocheted back, landing in the dust a few feet away.
"Whoa ho!" Liam cheered from behind the crystal. "Way to go, Zeriel! Shoot it again, shoot it again!"
Liaxa slapped the boy on the arm. "Shut up, will you? Don't distract him."
"But distractions are what I do best." Liam leapt over the crystal and took something from his pocket. He tossed it at him. "Hey, Zeriel, catch."
"Go back to the others." Zeriel grabbed the vial out of the air then dropped to the ground and fired again as the archdemon's wings sliced overhead. He rolled away and tried to take off flying, but he only made it about ten feet off the ground then his wings gave out and he fell flat on his back. "Ah!"
Oviel pushed Liaxa out into the open. "Go! Do what you can to keep the demon off of Zeriel. I'll tend to his wounds. Liam, do your thing, buddy."
"Yes, sir!"
"Zeriel, what is that magic?" Liaxa asked as she ran up towards the demon with her shadow magic spinning around her arms.
Oviel knelt down and sheltered Zeriel with his turquoise wings. "That, my demon friend, is Sola's Rays. It seems that Sola has given him a shotgun."
"Why is she helping him if he's Fallen?" She asked, sending a ball of shadows towards the demon.
"I'm not sure. But Zeriel is her son. Mothers are usually very forgiving of their children."
The archdemon screeched and flew up in the air. Seconds later, an inferno spread across the ground, engulfing everything. Oviel picked up Zeriel in his arms then jumped into the air. "Don't stand in the fire!"
Liam tripped and fell then he let out a blood-curdling scream as the flames leapt onto him. "Oviel!"
"It's okay." Zeriel jumped out of Oviel's arms and landed hard on the ground. "Save Liam."
"But he's already dead." Liaxa said.
"I gave you an order, Oviel!"
Oviel met eyes with him then bowed. "At once, my prince."
Zeriel grinned. It had been far too long since anyone had called him that. He pulled himself to his feet as he watched Liaxa going one on one with the archdemon and Oviel pulling a screaming Liam from the fire. Then he picked up his glowing shotgun from the ground. It was time to do something that a true prince of Heaven should have been doing all along. "If you hurt my paladin, I'm going to kill you, archdemon!"
A raven swooped down and landed on a nearby crystal before turning into Xair with an ancient wooden staff in his hands. He pointed the gnarled staff at the archdemon. "Aim for the demon's stomach so we can take it down. It's the weak point."
"We can't kill it! Jaylen is in there."
"What?"
"It ate Jaylen!"
Xair frowned. "Well, that's unfortunate."
"Any ideas about how to get Jaylen out of that thing?"
"We could blow it up. I have some black powder."
"Let me rephrase. Any ideas about how to get Jaylen out of that thing alive?"
"Alive? Not really. It's surprising that he's still alive right now. I've been around a lot of demons, but not one that I would want to inside of." Xair turned around as Liam was howling in pain. "Those burns are bad. Run! The demon is breathing fire again!"
Zeriel ran around the demon's legs, firing blasts of lead into the archdemon's face. "Liam, are you okay?"
"My legs! I can't feel my legs!"
"It's no use, Zeriel." Xair unleashed a bolt of electricity from his staff then spun it around and slammed the end into the ground where a field of ice extinguished the flames. "We don't have time to keep doing this. Every spell I cast is draining me of mana. I don't have much more with me."
"Mana? I used to eat that in Heaven."
"Where do you think I got it?"
"It's a druidic thi
ng." Oviel shielded Liam under his wings. "They use mana to fuel their spells."
Zeriel fired another shot and watched most of the metal balls ricochet off of the demon's scales. "Jaylen! I know you're alive in there. If you can hear me, do something. Cast your magic. You'll think you can't do it, but I know you can. It's a part of you. Losing your hand didn't take that away from you. Your magic is a part of your soul! Call out to Sola for power and she will hear you!"
Xair shot out a tall barrier of water to prevent more fire from entering the immediate area. "Jaylen has one minute to get out of there or I will personally cut this archdemon's belly wide open and spill its guts all over this place."
"He's right." Oviel leapt out of the way of a ball of fire. "Stephan will be returning soon."
Liaxa slid underneath the archdemon's legs, cutting as deeply as she could with her shadows. She rolled ahead then turned back around with a large shield of shadows to block the fire that followed her. "Oviel, you should know something. Stephan is a Nephilim. He is insanely powerful. This archdemon isn't anything compared to him."
"I know that already."
"Wait. You knew?"
"Shut up and fight!" Oviel laid Liam down on a broken crystal then poured a potion into the boy's mouth, rendering him unconscious. "Sleep well, Liam."
Zeriel ran and vaulted over a line of flames as he fired more shots into the archdemon. "Is he all right?"
"Too early to tell. We have to get out of here. I'm sorry, but Jaylen isn't worth it. Xair, you have my permission to end this in any way necessary."
"No!" Zeriel screamed at them. "I'm in charge here. You know I have the authority here, Oviel."
"Yes, but as your advisor, you need to listen to my guidance. I know you love Jaylen. We all know it, but there are innocent lives here who need you to do the right thing. Jaylen knew what he was doing when he gave himself to the demon. Either let the archdemon leave with Jaylen or kill it. This round and round fighting isn't getting anything done except hurting people. Liam might have lost his legs."
"He's a damned corpse! He's already dead."
"Not like you think. I actually don't believe his tale. I think Liam is alive."
"Well now isn't the time to be debating that fact, is it?" Zeriel asked.
Suddenly, the archdemon reared back and let out a pained cry that shook the ground under their feet. Its back split open below the spikes running along its shoulder blades as bright white wings punctured through the tough scales.
Liaxa ran backwards as she summoned more shadows from her hands. "Uh, guys . . . did that thing just grow more wings?"
"Watch out. I'm using this . . . thing." Zeriel tossed the thin vial that Liam had given him on the ground near the demon. Once it shattered, a plume of thick black smoke rose up and obscured their sight.
"Really?" Liaxa crawled out of the smoke coughing. "You should have asked him what that did first!"
Zeriel was too focused on the holy white light that shone brightly from between the archdemon's scales, glowing even through the smoke. That was undeniably light magic. But where was it coming from? Oviel was too busy tending to Liam's wounds to be casting his. Zeriel's unexpected surge of light magic was tied up in summoning his shotgun. There was no one else here who could have been using light magic. Then it dawned on him. Jaylen.
"Enough of this!" Xair raised his staff in the air and spun it quickly, the wind causing the flames to rise higher.
"No! Jaylen is alive! You'll kill him. That's his light magic."
"Too bad. We can't stay here. The other archdemons will find out and come to this one's defense. We cannot take on more. Say goodbye." Xair ran up to the demon and shoved the end of his glowing staff into the demon's soft underbelly.
"No!"
The archdemon cried out as it exploded. The bloody pieces of meat, twisted horns, and dented plates of armor rained down over the area, coating everything in a viscous blanket of purple goo.
Zeriel's wings slumped as he pushed back tears. "Jaylen . . ."
"Wait. How are you still alive?" Liaxa asked.
"I'm not sure."
Xair wiped the purple blood off of his staff as he walked around the debris. He leaned over then waved back at them. "Over here! This is the archdemon's stomach. It's still intact."
"Are you serious?" Liaxa asked, wiping sweat from her face. "Gross."
"Jaylen is probably in there."
"Let me." Liaxa drew her father's thin daggers then sliced into the fleshy pod.
"Careful now. Don't hit Jaylen." Xair warned.
Oviel pushed Liaxa away then knelt down in the gooey acid. He pried the slippery sides of the stomach apart and peered inside. He smiled. "Hey, Demon Snack, get out here."
Zeriel's heart skipped a beat as he saw the pale hand reach out from the sticky green goo. He took the hand and pulled hard, falling backwards onto the scorched sand as Jaylen slipped free from the demon's stomach and landed on Zeriel's chest.
Jaylen laughed and laughed as he spit out goo and wiped the acid from his hair. "Remind me not to do that again."
"Oh, Jaylen!" Zeriel held him close then kissed him gently on the cheek. "I was so worried."
"I'm still worried." Oviel pulled Jaylen off of Zeriel and looked him over. "We have to get back to the vampire coven so I can run some tests and tend to your injuries."
Jaylen pulled away from him. "I'm fine, just covered in . . . gross."
"I'm not worried about your body. I'm worried about the status of your soul. We need to leave. Now."
Chapter 16
All the way back to the vampire coven, they cheered and talked about the incredible feat they had just accomplished. They had killed an archdemon in Hell. As much as they celebrated, they still knew that things were way too close to going horribly wrong. If it hadn't been for Xair, they wouldn't have even really scratched the thing. Jaylen knew that the Ka'taylin man's demonology knowledge and background would inevitably come in handy again.
Jaylen nestled into Zeriel's chest as he clutched the amulet tightly in his hand and watched Zeriel work Pegasa's reins like he had done this before. "Zeriel?"
"What's up, Jay? Are you feeling all right?"
"Just tired. Have you ridden Pegasa before?" Jaylen asked. "She was your father's steed."
"Yes. I've known Pegasa since I was a baby. Carvael would put me on her so she could fly me places in heaven. We would play together and she even watched over me in my crib as I did whatever babies do. I think she still remembers me."
"Thank you."
"For what?" Zeriel asked.
"Not letting that archdemon take me. You could have listened to everyone else and left me there to my fate."
"You heard what they said?"
"Everything." Jaylen glanced down to Zeriel's side. "Nice shotgun. How does it work?"
"It runs on my magic."
"Light magic or demon magic?" Jaylen asked.
"I was using light magic as if I wasn't Fallen. I guess Sola isn't mad at me."
"Can you get your white wings back and be holy again?"
"There has never been a single case of a fallen angel ascending again. Though, if Sola heard my prayer and decided to give me one of the Heavenly Weapons, then I suppose it is possible. We will have to wait and see what else comes out of this. And what about you? You used your light magic and didn't die."
Jaylen held up the sky blue amulet. "I think this is helping me. See my magic hand it gives me when I wear it? That's how I was able to cast my magic."
"There's a soul segment in there, isn't there? Please don't wear that amulet all the time. I know it will be tempting, but it could be dangerous. Carvael never gives gifts without expecting something in return."
"What do you think he wants?" Jaylen asked. "Why did he give me Pegasa?"
"Don't think about all that right now. We have a lot more urgent things to deal with today. So, what happens with us?"
"What do you mean?"
"Me and you. I don't expec
t you to forgive me for leaving you in Tivareshen and taking your money."
"But I do. I forgive you. You risked everything to save me today. You really do love me."
"Of course I do, Jay." Zeriel stroked his hair lovingly. "I always have. You didn't know this, but I took care of you when you were an infant. Your mother was in no shape to do it and Doran didn't care. So I would feed you from a bottle and change your diapers. I played with you and took you flying over Ilyan a couple of times. You would cry all the time until I held you. Then you smiled. I think we had something special even back then. I love you and I've never stopped loving you."
"You knew me as a baby?"
"I was there when your mother gave birth to you. Doran . . . Doran was at the tavern getting drunk."
He suddenly felt sick. "Oh. I see."
"I was the first one who held you. I delivered you, actually. The healer couldn't get there in time, so I did what I could. You were so small and had those same beautiful blue eyes that you do now."
"Was my father ever actually a father to me?"
"Do you want the shiny story that will make you feel good or the truth?" Zeriel asked.
"I've gone through too much to have things sugarcoated for me."
"Doran didn't want to be a father. He tried to make your mother end the pregnancy. Then after he came in drunk and saw you for the first time, he . . ."
"Tell me. What did he do?"
"Doran picked you up and threw you out the window. I thank Sola every day that I was there to catch you. I was then able to give you back to your mother and get Doran into bed before he tried anything else."
"He threw me out a window?" Jaylen asked as he choked back tears.
"I'm sorry, Jay. I shouldn't have told you that."
"No. Thank you for letting me know. Looking back, I'm not that surprised. For years, I tried to change my memories, to make my father seem like an honorable man. But those were all lies. All of them were lies."
Zeriel landed Pegasa in the snow-dusted field then slid off and helped Jaylen down. "Listen to me right quick, before everyone else gets here. I want you to know something. What Doran did or didn't do to you doesn't matter now. Yes, it hurts. I understand. However, I am the one who cared for you and who loved you. And guess what? I'm still right here at your side. I am your angel, your defender, and your friend."
Angel of Darkness Books 1-5 Page 37