by Diem, J. C.
He took it all in for a few moments before speaking. “How did you break out of the cell? The doors can only be opened from the outside. If your friend snuck inside to help you, then he can’t have let you out.”
“One of the demons that I’ve ingested is a hellscribe,” I explained. “He can create magic runes and one of them acts as a doorway. I painted the rune on the wall with Bob’s blood and Sam and I escaped into the back alley.” The rune was different from most. It could only be used once before the door disappeared. It also used more magic and tended to alert the stronger demons like lords if they were nearby.
Shaking his head in amazement, he wore a half smile that was almost admiring. “You have a hell of an imagination, kiddo.”
“I still have Bob’s dagger. Do you want to see it?”
Instantly wary, he shifted away slightly. His body language told me he was ready to block any attack that I made. “Show me,” he said in invitation.
Moving slowly so I didn’t startle him, I reached into my pocket and pulled my dagger out of the sheath. It was dull silver and runes were inscribed on the blade. He squinted at them, but he wasn’t particularly impressed.
I was about to put the dagger away when scarlet light blazed to life, indicating that danger was nearby. “She has a weapon!” someone shouted from below us.
One of the officers had crept up the stairs to spy on us and was peeking around the corner. He pulled his gun and pointed it at me. My dagger didn’t just react to danger from demons, it also reacted to peril from a human.
₪₪₪
Chapter Seven
My instincts kicked in and I surged to my feet, which startled the uniformed officer into pulling the trigger. Reynolds shouted something, but it was drowned out as the gunshot echoed throughout the stairwell. The bullet tore through my shoulder and I staggered backwards into the bell tower. A gust of wind hit me, pushing me towards the low brick wall. I was sure that Nathan would be here at any moment, but I couldn’t risk being captured. Reynolds realized what I was going to do and lunged forward to grab me. I managed to pull away and clambered over the wall onto the roof.
“Call for an ambulance!” the detective shouted at the ashen faced cop who was right behind him. His gun was still pointed at me. Putting it away, he obediently reached for his radio and spoke into it frantically. Backing away again, I tried to keep my balance on the steeply angled roof. The tiles were slippery and one wrong step would end in my death. “There’s nowhere for you to go, Violet,” Reynolds said as he climbed over the wall. “It’s time for you to stop running. Let me get you the help that you need.”
He couldn’t see the crimson light that emanated from my dagger. He was just a human and he couldn’t see magic. It hurt to move, but I slid the weapon back into the sheath and edged away from him. “I’m not crazy,” I said. “Everything that I’ve told you is true, but you should probably keep it to yourself.”
“Why?” he asked as he followed me.
“If the demons find out that I’ve told you about them, what do you think they’ll do to you?” I spoke quietly so his lackey wouldn’t overhear me.
He halted as he realized what I was getting at, then shook his head. “I know you believe in demons, but they’re just a fairytale. You need help and I’m the only one who is willing to assist you.”
His desperation was touching. He didn’t even know me, but he cared enough to do everything that he could to help. “Don’t worry,” I told him. “I have friends who are watching my back.”
“What friends?” he asked in frustration. “That kid who leaped off the High Line with you?” He shook his head in remembered amazement. “I don’t know what drugs he’s on, but they can’t be good for him.”
“Sam’s not like us,” I said as I backed towards the edge of the roof. “He’s an imp.”
“What the hell is an imp?”
“He was a human who was taken to hell while he was still alive. Over time, his body and soul became entwined, which turned him into a hideous creature. He’s slowly changing back since we pulled him out of the portal, but he still has a long way to go before he’ll be normal again.” My words were slightly slurred. I’d lost a lot of blood and I was starting to feel faint. My pulse was pounding in my temples and I wasn’t sure how much longer I could hold onto consciousness.
“Okay, so Sam is an imp. What are the rest of your friends? Leprechauns?”
I sniggered at his sarcasm, hoping Nathan would turn up soon. It wasn’t easy to keep my balance with the wind constantly pushing against me. “No. They’re angels.”
“Of course they are,” he said sarcastically and came close to rolling his eyes. “I’m sure one of them will come swooping in to save you at any moment.”
“I hope so, because I think I’m going to faint in a few seconds.” My words sounded strange inside my own head and the white spots in my vision were back.
A red flash of light hit my eyes and I winced. Reynolds froze and focused on a spot on my chest. I looked down to see a red dot come to rest in the center of my sternum. Then a much more powerful bullet slammed into me and I was swallowed by monstrous pain.
Spun around by the force of the blow, I fell face-first off the roof. The ground rushed towards me and I knew I wouldn’t survive the fall. Before I could think that all hope was lost, Nathan materialized on the immaculate lawn beneath me. A sixth sense made him look up. His wings burst out of his back and he launched himself into the air. He caught me before I could hit the ground and cradled me in his arms.
I caught a brief glimpse of Reynolds staring down at us with his mouth hanging open, then Nathan teleported us away. I wasn’t sure if the detective could see my guardian’s wings or not, but I doubted he could convince himself that something supernatural hadn’t just happened.
Fluttering on the edge of unconsciousness, I could sense Nathan’s desperation as he pressed his mouth against mine. In seconds, the bullets were expelled and the tears in my flesh healed. My wounds were just physical rather than magical this time and my strength came flooding back. Filled with the bliss that only he could give me, I wrapped my arms around him. I kissed him back with all the passion that I’d been holding at bay.
Nathan had enough sense to stop pouring his essence into me, but our kiss continued. My hands were tangled in his hair and my body was pressed up against him. Wind buffeted us and I vaguely realized that he was keeping us aloft with his wings high in the air over the city.
We broke apart to take a breath and I glanced down to see the tops of a few nearby skyscrapers. Then my attention was drawn back to Nathan again. Need pulsed through me and I was desperate to be with my guardian in a way that was forbidden. My hands slid under his sweater and he shuddered when I stroked his naked back. His wings had torn through his clothes and they were close to falling off him.
Staring into my eyes, I saw his intense longing for me. Then his mouth came down on mine again and he devoured me with the same desperation that I felt for him. He was the only angel who could make his wings manifest in this dimension, which meant that our friends and allies couldn’t reach us here. We were addicted to each other and no one could stop us.
“I want you to be more than just my guardian,” I whispered in his ear when we broke apart to take another breath. “I want you to be mine.”
“I am already yours,” he replied huskily.
“Then be with me,” I demanded and kissed him again. “God is gone. There’s no one to stop us from being together.”
I saw the desire in his eyes and triumph blazed through me when he surrendered to his vessel’s desires. I pulled him to me and our kiss was scorching rather than blissful. Nathan’s hands slid beneath my hoodie and t-shirt and he started to slide them up. My body tensed in need, knowing that he could bring me pleasure unlike anything I’d known before.
The moment was shattered when something crashed into his back. He clutched onto me tightly as we lurched through the air. Angry squawks, chirps and twitters
sounded as a motley flock of birds surrounded us. Hearing the mocking caw of my feathered nemesis, I twisted around to see the undead raven circling us from a safe distance. It’s single milky eye almost seemed to wink at me as it directed its minions to attack us. Worst timing ever, I complained to myself.
Snapping out of his daze, Nathan couldn’t hide his fear at how close we’d come to breaking one of the rules that God had set down. With a thought, he teleported us away from the flock and back to Sophia’s store. Thankfully, he took us to my bedroom rather than to the front room downstairs. I was in no shape to see anyone else just yet.
He took a step back and his wings disappeared. “Are you alright?” he asked cautiously.
The bliss that I felt every time we kissed still suffused me. “It’s nothing that a cold shower can’t fix,” I joked quietly.
“I was almost too late to save you from death that time,” he said. He was still shaken by how close I’d come to dying.
“You saved me again, just like you always have.” I wanted to launch myself forward and wrap my arms around him, but it was too dangerous. I’d returned to my senses and I was ashamed that I’d tried to talk him into sullying himself by sleeping with me. “How much grace did you give me this time?” I wasn’t as enervated as I’d been in the past, but it would get worse by the second until I found a way to burn the extra energy off.
“Not as much as I have in the past,” he said with a grimace. “I will still be weak for a few days. You will have to promise me that you will not need to be rescued until after I have my strength back.”
“I’ll try to stay out of trouble,” I said with a small smile.
Feet thundered up the stairs and Sam rounded the corner. His eyes widened when he saw the two bullet holes and the blood that covered me. “I told you not to do anything foolish and then you allow yourself to get shot twice!” Tears stood in his eyes as he wrapped his arms around me.
“I’m okay,” I said soothingly and patted him on the back. “Nathan managed to catch me before I splattered to the ground. It’s a good thing you found him in time and sent him to rescue me.”
He took a step back and I saw that his face had gone pale. “That is just the thing. He was not here.” He slid an almost accusing look at my guardian. “Neither were Leo nor Sophia. They were all gone.”
I raised my eyebrows and looked at Nathan. “Was it just a coincidence that you appeared just when I needed you?”
He gave an uneasy shrug. “I had a feeling that you were in trouble and decided it would be wise not to ignore it.”
“Is the link that you used to have with me working again?” It had been shorted out once he’d arrived in Manhattan. I was pretty sure the demon wards that surrounded the city were suppressing it.
He shook his head. “That link is still inactive. I believe I sensed your peril due to the infusions of my grace. It seems to have created a new kind of connection between us. I felt that you were in danger when the Collector stabbed you in the neck as well, which was how I managed to arrive before you bled to death. This seems to confirm that it was not just my imagination.”
“Your eyes are beginning to glow,” Sam warned me.
“Where’s Leo when we need him?” I said. It was strange that no one had been here when Sam had come seeking help.
“We will go in search of him,” Nathan said. He placed a hand on our shoulders and concentrated. He had the ability to track us through the bracelets that Brie had made. I still didn’t know why, but Nathan was different from his fellow angels. He possessed abilities that none of the others had.
In a blinding flash of white light, we teleported to another location.
₪₪₪
Chapter Eight
Nathan staggered when we reappeared and Sam caught him by the arm. He nodded at the imp in silent thanks. It was too soon for him to teleport, but he didn’t trust himself to watch me while I burned off the energy that he’d infused me with. He wanted another angel to be nearby, just in case.
I looked around to see we were near an abandoned warehouse. I saw someone standing near the building, but I couldn’t make out who it was. It was a man with brown hair wearing a dark suit.
Leo was hunkered down behind a low concrete wall and appeared to be listening intently. Sam shifted and Leo’s head whipped around. His guilty expression turned to alarm when he saw us. “Get down,” he hissed, motioning for us to hunker next to him.
We hastily dropped down below the fence line. “What are you doing?” I whispered.
“Trying to listen to Hag and Orifice,” he replied just as quietly. I smirked at his usage of the nicknames that I’d come up with for the pair. I could always count on him to cheer me up. “I think they are planning something.”
We fell silent and I strained to hear their voices. Apart from distant traffic, I couldn’t hear anything.
“They have gone inside,” Nathan said a few seconds later. “I can no longer sense their bracelets. They must have set wards that hide them from me. What did you hear?” he asked Leo.
“Not much, I am afraid,” he replied. “I did not learn anything that was incriminating.” He had short, curly blond hair and guileless blue eyes and he was one of the few angels I knew I could trust.
“Isn’t it dangerous for you to spy on them?” I asked.
“Probably. We are not supposed to know where their lair is. At the very least, they would be suspicious of my behavior.” Noticing the blood and bullet holes in my hoodie and seeing that my eyes were glowing, he sighed. “It would appear that you have managed to get yourself into trouble yet again.”
“You know me,” I shrugged. “Trouble is my middle name.”
“She needs to work off her excess energy,” Nathan said. He could have found a place to take me himself, but it wasn’t safe for us to be alone together right now. I was still battling the urge to wrap myself around him. Now that the heat of the moment was gone, I felt increasingly embarrassed that I’d thrown myself at him. I’d practically begged him to divest me of my virginity while we’d been hovering in mid-air somewhere over the city.
“You are flushed,” Sam observed when Leo whisked us back to the sports field that I’d run around the last time Nathan had healed me. “I hope you do not have a fever.”
“I’m just feeling hot,” I said and stripped off my hoodie. My blood was bright against the white t-shirt. I dropped the hoodie to the ground and began to sprint around the sports field. The East River was only a short distance away, but it was inaccessible due to the wards that were invisible to us.
Nathan’s gaze followed me as I did my best to burn off the energy that I’d gained from his healing touch. My lips still tingled from his kiss. I felt mortified that I’d made out with both of the guys who I loved on the same day. My reaction to them both was as intense as it was uncontrollable. I could no longer lay the blame squarely on the legion of demons that were inside me. Sophia had informed me that I was a new breed of Nephilim. I was a being that had no right to exist.
Sometime in the distant past, two hundred curious male angels had taken possession of human vessels. They’d used them to mate with some of the most beautiful women the Earth had to offer. All of the women had fallen pregnant and had been torn apart giving birth. Their offspring had become giants that were twisted and evil. God had wiped them out during the great flood, along with most of humanity. He’d forbidden a union between angels and humans from ever happening again. To break that rule would mean banishment from heaven and to be cast into hell.
An enterprising demon had come up with a new way to create the forbidden offspring. Collectors harvested female angels of their grace and then they were forcibly impregnated. I’d been the first successful hybrid child of such an unholy union. I was also the only Nephilim to have acquired both angelic and demonic essence. My mother had removed my soul in an effort to hide us. It had worked for nearly seventeen years, but they’d eventually tracked us down. I still didn’t know how they’d found u
s.
My life had been turned upside down when my mother had been murdered and nothing would ever be the same again. I didn’t know which demon had raped my mother and had fathered me. If I ever found out who it was, I’d make it my mission to end his life.
“You look happy,” Leo said when I joined them. “What are you thinking about?”
I didn’t want to tell them that I was contemplating the murder of my unknown father, so I came up with a lie for my grim smile. “I’m glad I wasn’t wearing my favorite jacket when the cops shot me. I’d never be able to fix the bullet holes.” Not while I was on Earth anyway.
“You mean like this?” he asked and touched a finger to my hoodie. The blood and holes disappeared until it was in perfect condition again. He fixed my t-shirt as well.
He handed the hoodie to me and I pulled it over my head. “Thanks. I forgot you can work your magic on clothes.”
He shrugged sheepishly and flicked a look at Nathan, checking to see whether he was annoyed by his frivolous use of power. Nathan was staring at the river, completely unconcerned that Leo had used his grace to clean and repair my clothes. His expression was serene, but I saw the tension in his body. We both knew how close I’d come to dying once more.
“How did you managed to find Hagith’s and Orifiel’s headquarters?” Sam asked.
“I stumbled across it by accident,” Leo replied. “I was on a patrol and spied them talking.”