“They aren’t here, Devi,” she said. “The majority of the active soldiers, and novices, relocated to the academy. The story is that the injured are too unstable to move, but you and I know that isn’t true.”
“He gathered his most loyal people around him,” I murmured. “It’s the perfect setup. Add in those vampires—the whole thing about him making a register is just an act. He’s not planning to kill those infected. It’s a cover. They’re recruiting an army.”
She didn’t need to respond for me to know my guess was right on the mark.
“And there’s no cure,” I added bitterly. “My best friend’s turning, and they—they’re tricking the vampires into thinking they can help. But they just want them in their army. Against… us? The rest of the celestials, or the warlocks?”
“I can’t say I know,” she admitted. “But all isn’t lost. They might be ahead of us, but not as far ahead as they’d like to be. You weren’t supposed to find out any of this. That ability of yours has given you access to information you’d never have found otherwise.”
“Everyone wants to use me as a bargaining chip, and I’m not even deep into the war yet,” I said heatedly.
“I’m afraid you are.”
I frowned at her. “Look. You have an awfully convenient habit of disappearing right up until the convenient moment, Clover. Call me suspicious, but you’re not supposed to know any of this either. You’re supposed to be a retired soldier who doesn’t even come to the guild anymore.”
“You’re right.”
“Then…” I paused. “Who are you, exactly?”
“A friend.”
“I should hope so,” I muttered.
“You might need these.” I jumped as her cold hands scattered demonglass fragments into my hands.
“Thank you,” I said. “I can still reach you by phone, right? Because seriously—shit’s going to fly one way or another if I don’t meet the vampire queen’s deadline.”
And even if I did, she’d kill the vampires I’d helped, believing the celestials’ orders were the right ones. Damian really had fooled her. Like the celestials.
“You can reach me for now,” Clover said, “but I can’t promise I’ll always be able to help you. This war… it’s beyond both of us.”
Not if I can help it.
I threw down the demonglass, and stepped through.
The journey back passed in a painful rush, the glass spitting me out onto the storeroom floor. I groaned and rolled over. “Nikolas.”
He wasn’t there. Oh no. Did something else happen? We supposedly had forty-eight hours before the vampire queen came, but then again, the other side had no intention of playing by the rules.
I lurched to my feet and ran from the room, in the direction of the smell of brimstone. Nikolas. Rachel. “Hey!” I shouted, running around the corner. “Guys—”
I stopped. The lab was in ruins. Burn marks scorched the walls, half my ingredient jars lay shattered, and Rachel stood amongst the mess, picking up bits of broken glass.
“What the hell is going on here?”
Rachel turned around, her face pale. “Fiona,” she said. “She—she turned.”
No. Please, no.
“She went vampire?” I stared at the scorch marks on the walls. “But—what did that?”
“She didn’t go vamp. I don’t know what she did, but fire came out of her hands.”
“Shit.” I stared at her. “Where—?”
“In her room. We managed to sedate her. Not before she burned us all. Good job Javos isn’t here.”
“Where in seven hells is he, then? I’ve had a night of it already. Did she do it before I left?”
She winced. “I didn’t have the chance to tell you. You were all set on going to the guild, and considering everything else—it’d only have distracted you. I hoped they did have a cure there.”
“Believe me, so did I,” I said heatedly. “But they didn’t. There isn’t one. It’s a cover. But Fiona… It wasn’t Azurial who bit her, was it? Or his power?”
A human couldn’t turn into a fire demon. Right? That was too much, even for today.
“What do you mean by a cover?” Nikolas asked, entering the room.
I sank onto the ruined sofa. And told them.
“Just who is this Clover person?” was the first question Rachel asked. Not what I’d expected.
“A friend,” I said. “Well. I thought she was. She retired from the celestial guild years ago, but considering she always seems to know what’s going on… I’ve no idea. Maybe it doesn’t matter. Let’s just say she’s on our team, for what it’s worth.”
“But she’s not around,” Rachel said. “And those vamps—they might not know it, but they’re on the enemy team.”
“I know.” I scrubbed my hands over my face. “It’s a mess. I don’t know what else to do. The guild’s gone off the rails. This arch-demon… he’s taken over the city, effectively, and the ordinary humans don’t even know it.”
“Did you see the inspector’s demon mark?” asked Nikolas.
“No,” I said. “His hand was covered, and he didn’t use magic either. So I’m guessing you don’t know which arch-demon it is?”
“Unfortunately not,” he said. “Without the mark or a signature, I can’t make an educated guess. You said you didn’t know which realm was on the other side of the pentagram?”
“Probably Pandemonium. But the demon responsible might have raised Damian from the dead.”
“That’s not possible.” He frowned deeply. “Arch-demons can’t raise the dead. Are you certain it was really him?”
“I’m not certain of anything, to be honest.”
Whichever arch-demon it was, they were on the side of Azurial and the vampire king… which suggested it might be the same one who’d marked me. But that wasn’t necessarily true. From what I knew of arch-demons, though, they disliked one another at best. They didn’t work together.
Maybe I needed divine assistance to win.
I left the lab and went to Fiona’s room. She lay prone on the bed, breathing evenly. No signs of demon marks. But my aura vision potion would have worn off, and the evidence was clear. She was no longer human.
Nikolas placed a hand on my arm. “It’ll be okay.”
“She’s marked.”
“So are you, and you’ve done a remarkable job defying authority anyway.”
Not if the arch-demon calls my name. Damn it all. I turned to him, tears of frustration pricking my eyes. Nikolas’s arms came around me, and I sobbed, surprised by the force of the emotion. I hadn’t cried hard since the night Gav died. Things had happened too quickly to process, and seeing Fiona lying there—knowing I was responsible—unravelled me.
Nikolas’s strong arms were my anchor, and I held onto him, wishing the world would stop spinning, wishing I could just breathe. Wishing I could undo the damage I’d done and the lives I’d ruined.
When he lifted me off my feet and carried me to my room, I didn’t object.
I blinked awake hours later, confused and disorientated. I had vague memories of being carried to my room, but I’d thought I’d been covered in weapons at the time. Someone had removed them, not to mention my jacket. I hadn’t been wearing the anti-warlock trap… which was a relief, considering I wasn’t alone.
Nikolas lay beside me, and our bodies had moulded together while I’d slept. A shiver traced down my back. I hadn’t been this close to someone since Rory. Not for lack of trying, but every relationship I’d pursued in the last two years had felt trivial compared to the bond I’d formed with my partner. Stupid, really. Rory would have wanted me to move on. But every time I tried to connect with someone, I felt disengaged. Empty. Deprived of that connection, the innate understanding that formed with years.
Nikolas and I… what we had wasn’t exactly that, but it was something good.
His eyes half-opened. I froze. At least he’d kept his clothes on, and I was reasonably confident that my demon mark would
have woken me if he’d touched it, but I’d been that out of it last night…
“I didn’t want to leave you alone,” he said, in a half-apologetic, half-worried tone. Not one I’d heard from him before. He made to climb off the bed, but I reached out and stopped him.
“It’s okay,” I said. “I want you to stay here, Niko.” I grabbed the back of his shirt, pulling him back. My demon mark awakened at the close contact, and when he lowered himself onto the bed alongside me again, heat from his proximity seared my skin through the fabric of my shirt. The whole bed smelled like him—brimstone and heat, lightning and fire. Powerful yet somehow comforting at the same time. I shivered, feeling his shadowy magic rush over the mark, and shifted onto my back.
He leaned over me, our faces inches apart, and traced his lips over mine. At the same time, his hands delicately ran down my hips, moving towards my wrists—and my demon mark. I felt its urge to take in his power and pulled my hand back, shaking my head.
“It wants to steal your power, Nikolas.”
“I don’t mind at all,” he murmured. He returned to stroking my hips, his hands slipping under my shirt. I moaned at the sensation, my skin tingling underneath his touch, and undid the clasp of my bra to allow him access. My fingers dug into the waistband of his trousers, pulling him on top of me. I could feel his readiness against me, but he busied himself exploring every inch of me, fingertips trailing over my ribs, circling my nipples, teasing until I was quivering all over, damp and trembling with need.
His mouth closed over my peaked breast, and I gasped, turning my head into the pillow as he moved his mouth to the other one, delicately nipping at the soft skin. When he eased down my trousers and underwear and kissed his way down the inside of my thighs to the wetness at my core, I lost all semblance of control. Lust surged through my veins like fire, drawing me to him, into him. I couldn’t get enough. One breathless kiss followed another as he shed his clothes. A naked warlock was something to behold. Golden skin etched with hard muscle, faint shadows on his back where his wings sometimes appeared… and a condom in his hand.
“Glad one of us was prepared.” My breath quickened as he straddled me, and I took the condom and rolled it onto him. With one powerful thrust, he was inside me, hands gripping my hips. I moaned, writhing beneath him as every thrust threatened to undo me, to send me over the edge. Pleasure sparked through my nerve endings with each movement, as we found our rhythm and moved against one another, torn between drawing out the pleasure and chasing it to its inevitable conclusion.
Tingles exploded through my body as I climaxed, gasping, my spine shuddering. He came moments later, and for a moment, shadowy wings appeared at his shoulders. Heat shimmered in his gaze as he climbed off me, removing the condom and throwing it into the bin. My demon mark, quelled for the moment, stirred when he lifted my hand and pressed his lips to the mark. I moaned again, the pleasant ache between my legs igniting once again.
“I don’t mind if you borrow a little of my magic,” he murmured against my wrist. Shadowy power poured down my arm, sizzling in my veins.
“You just want to be inside me again, don’t you?” I moaned again. “Damn, Niko.”
“Tell me when to stop.” The power kept flowing, the heat kept building.
“Don’t stop,” I said, and pulled him onto me again.
Chapter 12
By the time we emerged from my room, it was mid-morning, and we had a day to figure out how to hide a bunch of vampires and stop a war with someone who was, knowingly or unknowingly, working with an arch-demon to take over this realm.
So, you know, no pressure or anything.
Firstly, Nikolas, Rachel and I gathered to clean up the destroyed lab. At least the vampires slept during the day. Though if Javos came back and found out exactly what had transpired last night, he’d probably wake them all with a tantrum.
Fiona stumbled in, looking pale. I jumped to my feet, instinctively raising my demon marked hand.
“It’s okay!” she said. “I’m not going to attack anyone.”
I took a wary step towards her, guilt rising at the thought that I hadn’t been there to help her yesterday. “Can you remember what happened?”
She shook her head. “No. I just blacked out.”
“Ah, shit.” The first celestial victims had been the same—losing all memory of attacking people. But what she’d done was something else entirely, and far beyond my area of expertise. I’d killed Azurial. No part of him should have survived.
I looked at the others. “Can you see her aura?”
“It looks human,” Nikolas said, frowning. “Do you have a strange mark on your wrist?”
“No.” She held up her arms. “Believe me, I’m as much in the dark as you are. I don’t remember anything since you went to meet the vampires.”
Ah. “Did the others fill you in?” After the morning I’d had with Nikolas, the state of everything didn’t seem anywhere near so dire, but seeing Fiona reminded me of how I’d failed her. But if killing Azurial wasn’t enough, there was nothing I could have done.
Her brow furrowed. “Yeah, they did. To be honest, I’m more confused than before.”
The front door slammed.
“That’ll be Javos,” said Rachel. “I’ll go and divert him. He’ll flip out when he sees the state of the lab.”
“Shit, yeah.” I looked at Fiona.
“I’ll go with her,” Nikolas said, nodding to me. I took it to mean he’d explain the situation delicately, in such a way that wouldn’t cause Javos to throw the vamps—and Fiona—out the window.
Seven hells.
“Is someone going to tell me why I can suddenly throw fire around?” Fiona asked. “Am I a demon?”
“Not according to your aura,” I said, picking up one of the bottles which had survived being knocked to the floor. “I’m sorry. I really don’t know. And you’ve probably heard our cure attempts didn’t work out either. The last one I tried caused an explosion. And then I lost yesterday to angry warlocks, vamps and celestials.”
“And you slept with Nikolas.”
I nearly dropped the bottle. “Fiona.”
She grinned and shrugged. “You’re transparent as glass.”
I sighed. It felt wrong to be happy when so much was going to shit. “I don’t want to lose you to a demon.”
“Believe me, I don’t want that either,” she said. “If it’s too late… I can’t believe the guild got taken. Not the inspector, anyway.”
“I know. The celestial vamps are being turned into soldiers for the enemy. That won’t be you, Fi. You’re human. The worst that can happen is—”
“I’ll turn demon vamp, and possibly go dark and attack people.”
She was right. Unfortunately. And with the vampire bite victims apparently mobilising on the side of the celestials under hell’s banner, it became clearer that someone had played everyone in the city for fools.
They’re marking out souls. Souls were currency in the netherworld. I’d been chosen, and so had the others—but not by choice, and not on the same side.
Or are we? For all I knew, the arch-demon had intended me to fight alongside my allies… against the rest of Earth. Not a happy thought.
“Can’t you go and find a Divinity?” she asked suddenly. “I know—I know it’s stupid, and heaven knows I regret going on that website at all, but if you have a divine ally… maybe they can win this. Or a non-divine one. The person who marked you is on our side, right?”
“Maybe,” I admitted. “But I don’t know how the arch-demon answered me before, when he marked me. I’ve never been able to contact him since.” Not for lack of trying either. “I don’t know what to do. The arch-demon holds all the cards. I can take out the inspector, but the demon would just find another host. We’re fucked.”
“Not necessarily,” she said. “Not all the celestials are turned. The ones who weren’t bitten. This city isn’t the world.”
“Maybe not, but if the demons get in, the othe
r celestials won’t be able to get them out. Not if the Grade Fours are compromised. No celestials here are a match for an arch-demon, even one using a proxy. And if they are, some of them would rather die than kill one of their own. They really will be their own undoing.” Damian was right on that one.
“Actually… there were a few celestials’ pictures on DivinityWatch,” Fiona said. “From this city. People are curious. Since they broke the news of the attack on the shopping centre the other week, membership numbers have absolutely exploded. I reckon we can warn people that way. Anonymously.”
“What, tell everyone that the celestial guild has been compromised?” I said. “The soldiers aren’t there. Clover told me they relocated to the academy, so they don’t all necessarily know what’s happening. But the guild knows they don’t ask questions.”
“So make them ask questions,” she said. “By some of the posts on DivinityWatch, I’m positive there’s at least a few celestials who are members, under aliases.”
Rachel skipped back into the room. “It’s a good idea. DivinityWatch is one way of getting around behind Javos’s back, too. He doesn’t really do technology. So I made an account.”
“When did this happen?” I looked from her to Fiona. “I thought you didn’t know what DivinityWatch even is. More to the point, why sign up there? They think there are angels hiding amongst us. Not to mention about a quarter of the members are vamps looking to hook up with a celestial.”
“Maybe,” said Rachel. “But they’re also on top of all things netherworld, and behind the celestials’ backs. So I figured I’d keep an eye on them. There’s a bunch of conspiracy theories, but I reckon you could get the truth out that way. The celestials who aren’t working with the enemy would find out quickly—even the ones outside the city.”
“True,” I acknowledged. “There’s not supposed to be internet access at the academy, but we used to sneak around that rule anyway. I suppose using DivinityWatch might counter the rumours that usually show up in the newspapers. The tabloids are already insisting we’re all doomed. I’d blame that one on the arch-demon, too, but who knows.” I shrugged. “I doubt the inspector’s doing media interviews. He looks like he’s staying out of the limelight. The whole setup relies on nobody finding that pentagram in the tower. I can’t believe they haven’t yet.”
Celestial Ashes: The Celestial Marked Series: Book Three Page 10