by Diem, J. C.
“We knew you would find a way to escape,” Sam said.
“I couldn’t have done it without Sy’s runes and Dom and Jed’s help,” I said tiredly. It was yet another reminder that I couldn’t do this job alone. I would always need help and I would always put others in danger.
“If Hagith and Orifiel discover Domiel’s and Jeduthun’s involvement, they will surely be punished harshly,” Leo pointed out.
“Then let’s hope they’re good at keeping secrets.” I had a few of my own and they were weighing on me heavily. If my friends found out that I’d ingested Raziel’s grace, they would come to despise me as much as Nathan seemed to. “What’s the plan now?” I asked. “Are we going to hide out here indefinitely?”
“We have not figured that out yet,” Sophia admitted. “Getting you to safety was our first priority.”
“I’m wrecked. I need to sleep.” Oblivion sounded better than trying to deal with everything that was going on right now.
“I put some of your clothes in the dresser,” she said. I stood and shambled over to it then changed in the bathroom. Climbing into bed, I pulled the spare pillow over my face to block the light and the sounds of their whispers and sank into sleep.
Moments later, I appeared in my mental shadowlands to see Raziel surrounded by demons. Their weapons were drawn and he was keeping them at bay as best he could with a blazing blue sword. Morax stood with his arms crossed, head and shoulders above all but the other lords.
“Why am I not surprised to see the new guy being picked on?” I said loudly and everyone froze.
At my gesture, they parted to let me through. The three lesser demons who had been accosting the angel drew away. Instead of gratitude that I’d stopped the fight, hatred twisted Raziel’s handsome face. Just like when I’d seen him on Earth, he was medium height and build and had dark brown hair and eyes. The only difference was that he also had wings and a halo. He wore a white robe with a golden sash for a belt and golden sandals on his feet. To my complete lack of surprise, he leaped at me, swinging his sword towards my face.
Morax moved like lightening to intercept him. He caught the much smaller angel by the throat and drew him up so they were at eye height. “If you kill her you will damn us all!” he snarled.
“I am already damned,” Raziel hissed. “I am trapped inside a being who is as evil as the scum that she has ingested!”
I rolled my eyes, beyond the ability to care what he thought of me. “I suppose it’s too much to ask you guys not to attack him?” Eyes and feet shifted guiltily and I heaved a sigh. “I thought so.”
With a bit of concentration, I built a new structure. It wasn’t a pretty white house this time, but a cell that was fifteen feet square. It had wooden walls and a dirt floor with a thin pallet in one corner. “What is that for?” Raziel sneered.
“It’s your new home,” I replied sweetly.
A wave of my hand transported him inside. The door slammed shut before he could try to leave. He touched the door then yelped when it zapped him. He stared at me through the small window. “You cannot keep me here!” he howled. “I am an angel of God!”
“You were an angel of God, now you’re just another phantom in my head.”
Morax was grinning widely and chuckles swept through the crowd. “It is a fitting home,” he said in approval.
“They thought it would be good enough for me,” I shrugged. If the room had been any smaller, I would have gone insane from claustrophobia.
Before I could end the dream, the door to Heather’s house opened and she waved to get my attention. I whisked myself over to see what she wanted. “Sy has something to show you,” she said excitedly and drew me inside.
Instead of sitting on the floor in the living room, the hellscribe sat at the table. His grin was almost as wide as Morax’s as he gestured at the sketchpad in front of him. “I think I have some runes that might be able to assist you to guard Sophia’s store from the angels.”
They’d all caught flashes of everything that had happened, so it didn’t surprise me that he knew about our dilemma. “Lay it on me,” I invited him.
He’d drawn three runes on a page and none of them looked particularly complicated. “This rune will lock the doors so that only the people you choose will be able to open them,” he said. That seemed handy, so I nodded for him to continue. “This one will prevent anyone else from teleporting in or out.” He moved on to the last one. “This one will cause debilitating pain, similar to the spell that Briathos used in the store against my kind.”
“How can I get them to work only against our allies and enemies? Won’t they work against my friends as well?”
He hesitated as if he knew I wouldn’t like his answer. “You can alter them so that they do not affect your friends.”
“How?”
“By mixing their blood into the rune.”
I made a face at that, understanding his hesitation now. “They’re not going to like that.”
“Especially Nathan,” Heather agreed. “I can’t believe how mean he’s being to you.” She leaned over to hug me and my emotions swelled again. “You didn’t mean to stab Raziel. It was an accident.”
“Was it?” I asked sadly and she pulled away. “Nothing I do is an accident. Every step I take has been planned by Fate.” At least that’s how it felt. She’d told me I’d have to make the right choices if I wanted to save the world, but I felt as if I was just a puppet following her unspoken commands.
“Then he should know that he’s being an idiot,” she said in my defense. “He’ll realize it soon enough and I’m sure he’ll apologize.”
I wished I could be as certain of that as she was, but my heart knew better. Nathan had lost some of his trust in me and I wasn’t sure if I’d ever regain it now. I’d managed to put my hurt that he hadn’t saved my mother from dying aside. I could only hope that he’d be able to forgive me for this.
₪₪₪
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Falling into a deeper sleep after I left the shadowlands in my head, if I dreamed I didn’t remember it. I woke up and just lay there. I stared at the ceiling, trying to dredge up the energy to move.
“Oh good, you are awake,” Sophia said from the tiny kitchenette, reminding me that I was in a hotel room and that I wasn’t alone. “Breakfast will be ready in a few minutes.” I sat up to see Leo and Sam sitting on the plush white couch. Nathan was nowhere in sight.
I climbed off the bed and walked the few steps to the bathroom. The silence rune was still in place, so at least I had some privacy. A plate of waffles and a cup of tea were waiting for me on the coffee table when I returned.
“Thanks,” I said in a subdued tone and started eating mechanically.
“You look better,” Leo told me.
Washing a bite down, I spoke without thinking. “Getting zapped by holy fire tends to recharge me a bit.”
Sam sucked in a horrified gasp. “Why did they torture you this time?”
“Hag decided to teach me a lesson. I’m supposed to be an obedient dog and fetch the metal objects from hell at her command.”
Leo’s young face hardened. “Nathan is right. She has become power mad.”
“Where is he anyway?” I asked.
Sophia answered me. “He is spying on their lair.”
“Isn’t that dangerous? What will they do to him if they catch him?”
“He is excellent at remaining unseen,” she reminded me. That was true. He might not be able to hover between dimensions anymore, but he was almost as good as Sam was at staying out of sight.
“I have some good news,” I told them and took another bite of waffle. Some of my taste had come back after I’d been fried with holy fire. I savored it until Leo nudged me in the side to tell them what I’d discovered. I swallowed and spoke. “Sy showed me some runes that we can use to fortify the store.”
I could tell the idea made Sophia nervous. “What do the runes do?” she asked.
“They’ll pr
event other angels from being able to teleport in or out. They’ll also lock the doors so that only we can open them.” There was no point delaying in telling them the catch to using the runes and I blurted it out. “I’ll have to use some of your blood to create the runes so you guys will be able to enter the store.”
Sophia and Leo exchanged a long look then Leo shrugged. “We will use any tool that can help us at this stage. Perhaps now would be a good time to test the runes, since Nathan is currently absent.”
Sam nodded in agreement. “The runes should prevent him from being able to enter. I am sure he will be very surprised when he discovers that he cannot teleport inside.” A hint of mischievousness made him seem younger than seventeen. Leo grinned at the possibility of pulling a prank on Nathan. He had more of a sense of humor than the other angels.
I was sure my guardian would be surprised, but I doubted he would be amused. He’d seen me ingest an angel’s grace. Using their blood to construct a demon rune wouldn’t endear me to him right now.
Finishing off my breakfast, I chose a different spot on my left palm and nicked it with my dagger. Sam saw the inflamed wound and his brow crinkled. “What is wrong with your hand?”
“I had to keep biting it open so I could paint the invisibility runes,” I said as I used my finger to draw one of the new runes on the wall in my blood.
“Can you heal her?” he asked Leo.
I saw the teen shake his head from the corner of my eye. “Healing spells are beyond my ability.”
“I’ll be fine,” I told them. “I’ll be heading back to hell soon. It’ll heal there.”
Their heads turned towards me in hope. “How certain are you that you will be returning to the underworld shortly?” Sophia asked.
“Very. I saw the next portal just before Hag and her lapdogs kidnapped me.”
Leo glowered and shook his head. “Instead of helping you, they have prevented you from doing your duty.”
“Did you tell them that you had found the portal?” Sophia asked.
Finishing off the first rune, I shook my head. “I highly doubt Hag would have believed me. They were going to make me enter the portal alone, so I thought it would be better to escape and get back to you guys.”
Sam was stricken to hear that news. “They were not going to allow me to go with you?”
“Nope. Orifiel said I could figure it all out on my own from now on, but it was Hagith’s idea.”
Stunned silence accompanied that statement. “It almost seems as though they want you to fail,” Sophia said at last.
“That thought has definitely crossed my mind.”
“We cannot allow them to take you again,” Leo said grimly. “I do not know what they think they will achieve by imprisoning you, but locking you in a cell is not the way to help you to accomplish your goal.”
I nodded in agreement and started working on the next rune. When it was done, I turned to my friends. It wasn’t necessary to construct the third rune, since this was just a test. “I just need a few drops of your blood,” I said.
Sophia used a knife from a drawer in the kitchenette to prick her finger. Leo and Sam did the same. “Press the blood on any part of the runes,” I instructed them. They did as I asked then stepped back. My hand was still bleeding, so I pressed my palm against both runes to activate them. “There. That should work. Now we just have to wait for Nathan to show up.”
Several hours passed and I’d just finished eating lunch when someone turned the doorknob. We all turned to watch and I jumped when a fist pounded on the door angrily. Sam shrank against me. “Maybe it was not such a good idea to test the runes without Nathanael’s knowledge,” he said uneasily.
Sophia hurried over to the door and peered out through the peephole before opening it. Nathan’s gaze went straight to me and tension eased out of his body. I hoped that meant he still cared about me, but I couldn’t be sure. “Why was I unable to teleport into the room?” he asked as he stepped past Sophia.
“Sytry showed me some new runes,” I replied. “They’re designed to stop intruders from teleporting in or out.”
“What else do they do?” he asked.
“They lock the doors so only we can open them.” I didn’t mention the third rune that would cause my enemies pain. That one would be my little secret.
“We have to use our blood in order to be exempt from the spells,” Leo told him, taking that burden from me.
Nathan’s mouth tightened a little, but he merely nodded. “I suspected as much.”
I looked away so he couldn’t see my pain. I felt like I was on a slippery slope towards evil and that one small push would send me flying towards damnation.
“What did you learn from your vigil?” Sophia asked.
“Angels have been sent out to scour the city for us,” he said and took a seat on the bed. “Two are stationed near your store, keeping watch for us. It is probable that they have left some means to alert them if we return.”
“You and I can disable any spells that they have created,” Leo said confidently. “With luck, Violet can construct her runes quickly enough that we should be able to prevent them from snatching her again.”
“Do you feel up to attempting this?” Nathan asked me.
I nodded and stood. “We might as well get this done now. Sam and I have a journey to get to and it would be best if we left as soon as it’s dark.”
“You have found the next portal?”
“Yeah. I saw it in Tudor City.” Back when he’d still trusted me and he hadn’t cringed at the thought of taking my hand in his.
₪₪₪
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Sophia stuffed the few changes of clothes that she’d brought for us into backpacks. I took the one she handed to me and we moved into a huddle. Nathan teleported us to the store and I stared in shock at the mess. Everything had been stripped off the shelves. The items had been either smashed or torn apart and lay on the floor.
“You need to move fast,” Nathan reminded me and I strode over to the closest wall. It didn’t matter where the runes were placed. They would encompass the entire building.
Dropping the backpack on the floor, I sliced my hand open again and quickly constructed both of the runes that Sy had shown me. Leo and Nathan moved around the room chanting in their musical language. The words tickled my brain. I had the feeling that I would have been able to understand them if I concentrated hard enough.
Bright blue light flared on several spots on the walls as they altered Brie’s spells. I knew it wouldn’t be wise to mention that I’d seen them work their magic. The spells faded until I could barely see them, but I knew they were there now. Having Raziel’s grace inside me must have been responsible for this new ability.
“Touch your blood to the runes,” I said when they were done. Nathan was reluctant, but he knew it was necessary. Everyone pricked their fingers and dotted their blood on the runes.
“What does the third rune do?” Leo asked when I activated them and they flared to life.
A fist pounded on the door and the doorknob rattled, sparing me from having to answer him straight away. “We know you are in there!” an unfamiliar voice shouted. “Give Hellscourge to us and we will spare you from punishment!”
Nathan strode over to the door and yanked the purple curtain aside. A male and female angel stood on the other side. They jerked back in reflex at his furious expression. “Leave here and do not return, or I will show you true punishment,” he ordered in a low, dangerous tone. Exchanging frightened glances, the pair disappeared.
“They’ll be back and they’ll bring Hag and Orifice with them,” I predicted. “The runes will keep them out, but it isn’t going to be pleasant having them spying on us.”
“Can they not just break the doors down?” Sam asked.
“Sy’s runes are too strong for them to get through. Not even a tank could get into this place now.”
“I am not sure if I should be reassured or frightened by that,”
Sophia confessed.
“I’d choose to be reassured if I were you. The runes won’t hurt any of you. Just don’t let anyone else in here and you’ll be fine.”
Nathan sent me a sharp look and glanced at the as yet unexplained third rune. He didn’t ask me about it. Maybe he thought it was better if he didn’t know what it was for.
Sophia looked around at the mess and tears stood in her eyes. She bent to pick up one of her prized books that had been torn apart. “I cannot believe they would stoop to such pettiness.”
I’d lost everything when I’d fled from my home in Denver and I knew how she felt. At that thought, my gaze rose to the ceiling. I was the one the angels were after. If they were willing to destroy Sophia’s possessions in a fit of pique, what would they have done to mine? There will be hell to pay if they’ve destroyed my favorite jacket, I thought grimly.
Filled with trepidation, I entered the kitchen and headed for the stairs. The fridge door was open and I saw that the shelves were empty. They’d stolen the containers of demon blood. Now I’d have to either kill a demon and steal their blood, or use my own when I returned to the underworld.
I smelled the rank, yet sweet odor of demon blood even before I reached the top of the stairs. My bedroom door had been left standing open. I stood in the doorway, taking in the destruction. The drawers of my dresser and nightstand were half open and the contents had been removed. Blood had been splashed everywhere. My bed was soaked in it and so were my clothes. Rage beat along with my pulse when I saw my black faux leather jacket on the top of the pile.
The carpet was soggy as I squelched my way over to the ruins of my clothing. I picked up my jacket and it dripped with gore. Someone had used their sword to tear jagged rips in it. One of the skull shaped bronze buckles on the chest dangled by a thread.
Hearing a shocked breath being sucked in behind me, I turned to see Leo staring at the damage in dismay. “Why would they do this?” he asked me plaintively.