by Leia Stone
I left the trailer, locking it behind me, and jogged to my car.
Lincoln was standing next to the passenger side with a large duffel bag. “Can you drive?” he asked.
I scoffed. “As if I would let you drive my brand-new car.”
His lips curled into a momentary smile, though it quickly faded and his face took on a serious tone. Unlocking my door, I slipped in and he sat next to me.
“Now, can you tell me what’s going on?” I asked, heading off campus, and onto the freeway.
Lincoln pulled his shirt off in one swift move, and my eyes widened. “Okay… I mean, we just met a few days ago, but I wouldn’t mind a little show,” I joked.
He pulled out a thin chain mail top and started working it over his head.
My brow furrowed. “What…? Why are you putting on chain mail? Lincoln, talk to me! I’m getting scared.” My gut clenched in fear. I hated the unknown.
He sighed, and pulled out a metal breastplate, clipping it over the chain mail. He’s putting on full freaking battle armor. What the hell!
“Every demon slave contract has wiggle room. I’m going to find yours,” he stated.
I was half listening to him, and half wondering if he was going to take off his pants next. But then his words registered, jarring me.
“You need full battle armor for that?” He remained silent. “Lincoln,” I pressed, as we neared the checkpoint.
He threw a long-sleeved T-shirt over the armor, so it couldn’t be seen. “I’m going to fight your boss. Winner gets you.” He revealed it like it was no big deal.
My eyes bugged out of my head. “You? You’re going to fight Master Burdock?”
He glared at me. “I happen to know a thing or two about fighting.”
I hadn’t meant it like that.
The border demon stopped us, and I flashed my card, showing my work hours and allotted travel access.
“And him?” the demon asked.
Lincoln pulled out some laminated card. “Fallen Academy business.”
The demon furrowed his brow at the card, holding it to the light. A holographic image reflected on it, and he handed it back. “You’re not permitted to stay the night.”
Lincoln nodded. “Of course not.”
The demon slapped the side of the car twice, hard, and I drove through.
“So you fight Burdock and he just, what, lets me go?” I asked him incredulously.
Lincoln winced, as if he were in pain. “Look, I can spend the next ten minutes explaining this whole thing to you, as I grow weaker and weaker, or you can take this time to tell me all about your boss. What kind of demon he is, what his weaknesses are, things like that.”
Oh shit. This was real. It was really happening.
“Is this a fight to the death?” I asked him in shock.
Lincoln looked sideways at me. “Yes. Now unless you want it to be mine, start talking.”
Oh my God.
“Burdock is a Brimstone demon. He can spew black smoke and fire out of his mouth and horns.”
He nodded. “Okay. What else?”
“I’ve heard that he can create direct portals to Lucifer, and that he’s impossible to kill unless you cut off his horns first. They carry some regenerative power or something. But those are all rumors.”
“Worth trying.”
We were one block away from the clinic. I wanted to circle for a few minutes just to process everything.
“Can’t Michael or one of the archangels fight? I mean… why you?” I didn’t want him to think I didn’t have confidence in him, but… I didn’t. I was scared for him. Yeah, he was a Celestial, but he was twenty-two going against a demon who was hundreds of years old.
“The archangels can’t intervene in certain human matters. This is one of them. You signed that contract with your own free will.”
Damn.
“And I have all the archangels’ blessing to do this. They chose me, and I’m honored,” he told me defiantly.
Well, okay then.
I pulled into the parking lot of the reanimation clinic, parked the car, took a deep breath, facing him.
“Why are you doing this? I mean, why fight for me?” He could be killed. This is stupid. “Just let me be sold to the Abrus demon, and go on about your life,” I told him grumpily.
He turned to face me, his piercing blue eyes practically glowing. “Because you’re special.”
My entire body melted, warmth spreading throughout my gut.
His eyes widened a little. “I mean to the war and to the fallen angels. You’re special to them, and I work for them, so that makes you special to me.” He cleared his throat, and looked anywhere but at me.
“Right,” I said, as the fire he’d lit inside of me completely died.
He shrugged. “And I might’ve read your file today, and discovered you may not be as bad as I thought you were. It’s really admirable what you and your mom did to try and save your dad.”
And just like that the tears threatened to fall, my throat throbbing as I tried to swallow my emotions. “There’s a file on me? Where is it, and how do I destroy it?”
He smirked, but then the smile faded. “There’s something I want to tell you.”
Everything felt so serious, I was scared of what he was going to say. “Okay….”
He swallowed hard. “The reason I hated you when I first saw you is because my parents and little sister were killed in an attack, and you reminded me of it.”
It was like all of the air was sucked out of the car and into a black hole. That was the trauma he’d been through. My entire body froze. Why would I remind him of his parents’ death?
“We’d gone to a café near the border to celebrate my graduation from the academy. I was running late, goofing off with Noah and the boys,” he continued, staring at his hands.
I rested my hand on his arm, and he didn’t pull away. My breath was starting to come out in ragged gasps as I fought to keep calm. He’d lost his entire family, I couldn’t imagine.
“I was two blocks away when the bomb went off. My mother, father and little sister were gone, just like that.” His voice cracked, and I couldn’t hold back the tears before they ran down my face.
“Lincoln… I’m so sorry.” I tried to hold my shit together, biting the inside of my cheek.
His piercing blue eyes bored into me. “When we replayed the footage, I expected it to be a demon… but it wasn’t. It was a demon slave who waltzed into the café and ruined my life.” The anger in his voice could’ve cut glass.
Oh shit. Is that possible? I didn’t really know much about how the slave mark worked, but I’d heard the demons could control our actions with it, if they wanted. It explained everything, why he was so mean to me.
“I would never do that. I’d rather die,” I told him passionately.
He shook his head. “You’d have no choice. That’s my point. I’m here to give you the choice.” With that, he popped open the door, and turned to me. “Come on. I grow weaker and weaker every second I’m in this city.”
I just nodded. I was totally going to throw up.
When I went to open the door and Lincoln’s hand came out to stop me. “If… something happens to me, make sure my body makes it back to the academy. I don’t want to be reanimated.”
Oh. My. God. The severity of the task at hand came crashing down on me. I could only nod once again.
This gorgeous man, who apparently played guitar, and was still definitely Asshole of the Year, was going to fight a Brimstone demon for me. If he weren’t being asked by the fallen, I might’ve even said it was romantic. And now that he’d shared his parents’ story with me, I was seeing him in a whole new light. I’d be an asshole too if a demon slave blew up my family.
Please don’t die. You’re nice to look at.
And that was the last thought I had, before all hell broke loose.
Pun intended.
Chapter Nine
The moment Lincoln threw open the doo
rs to the clinic, a dark feeling descended. Burdock appeared suddenly, smoke coming from his horns.
“What are you doing here?” he growled, pointing to Lincoln.
I just froze, flattening myself against the wall.
Lincoln pulled his sword free and pointed it at Burdock’s chest. “I challenge you to a fight to the death. If I win, Brielle Atwater is absolved of her slave contract, and becomes a free soul.”
It felt like time had stopped. There was a kind of charged electricity hanging in the air, nobody moving.
Burdock tipped his head back and roared in laughter, black smoke coming out of every orifice, and settling on the ground. My eyes flicked to movement at the back. My mother was watching everything from the open back room door, mouth agape.
“Nothing you can offer me is more valuable than her. Trust me. No deal.” He pulled a mace from his belt. “But I will kill you for trespassing.”
Lincoln didn’t look fazed, as he reached behind his back, and produced another weapon. That one was extraordinarily larger and shinier. It radiated a certain power, and when Burdock’s smoke neared it, it fled, as if in fear.
“I present Archangel Michael’s sword. Freely given to the winner of this fight.” He laid the sword on the ground, the black smoke chasing away from it.
Burdock stood there, in absolute shock, eyeing the weapon with the greediest gaze I’d ever seen. “So, I kill you, and I get the sword and the girl?”
Lincoln nodded, holding out a glowing scroll of parchment paper.
“Signed with the blessing of the fallen angels themselves. All four of them.” Lincoln tossed the scroll on the ground.
Burdock grinned then clapped, a red glowing scroll appearing in his hand. “I accept.” He tossed it to the center, where the sword and other scroll lay.
Lincoln nodded. “Brielle is my witness. Call yours.”
Burdock chortled, showing his razor-sharp blackened teeth. “He’s on his way. Outside. I’ll draw the perimeter.”
Add mental communication to his powers. Oh God.
Lincoln backed through the doors without ever turning his back to Burdock. I did the same. Michael’s sword and the two parchments remained on the floor of the reanimation clinic.
“Kate, watch the collateral. If anything happens to it, I’ll kill you,” he told my mother.
She nodded and scurried forward, picking up the three items.
My mother and I shared a look through the glass door. A look that said everything. She wanted this for me. I wanted this for me. I didn’t know what it meant for her and Mikey though, and that had me apprehensive.
Turning to face Burdock, I saw his witness had indeed arrived. He’d called Shea’s boss, Master Grim. And Shea was in the driver seat next to him. Lincoln was sweating a little, clearly weakening with each moment he spent in the city.
The second Shea’s boss exited the car, Burdock pointed to him.
“You are witness. If I die, this young man gets to leave with Brielle and the sword, and her contract is absolved.”
Grim nodded, looking Lincoln up and down like he was a meal. Then he spat on the ground, the sidewalk steaming where the spittle hit it.
“If I kill him, which I will, I get Archangel Michael’s sword, and get to keep Brielle and her contract. Is that correct, boy?” he asked.
Lincoln nodded and stepped into the parking lot. “Let’s do this.”
Burdock grinned. “Gladly.”
Moving forward, he then bent over, spewing black fire onto the concrete. It chased along the parking lot, drawing a perimeter in a perfect circle around Lincoln and himself. The flames danced about two feet high, and reeked of brimstone, the acidic sulfur burning my nostrils.
Holy end of days. Lincoln’s going to die.
“That’s hellfire, son, so unless you want to meet the Prince of Darkness, I suggest you don’t touch it,” Burdock growled.
My eyes widened. The fire is a portal to Lucifer?
Lincoln glared at Burdock and flexed, popping out his glorious white wings. They stretched in close to a fifteen-foot span, and he flapped them up and down really hard, blowing out half of the hellfire circle.
“You don’t scare me, old man,” Lincoln spat.
Oh shit.
Burdock was a blur of motion. Like a freaking vampire, he was there one second and then standing before Lincoln the next. He swung his mace out and connected with Lincoln’s chest, knocking into his armor and tearing his shirt.
The breath rushed out of Lincoln, but he held steady and used the close proximity to lunge at Burdock with his sword. The Celestial was able to nick his arm before the demon moved away.
I’d forgotten to tell him Burdock was superfast. Oops.
Burdock swung out with his right arm, intending to clip Lincoln in the face, but the Celestial pumped his wings and shot up into the air, hovering above the demon, out of his grasp. That enraged Burdock, who spewed orange flames from his mouth, without warning, catching the tips of Lincoln’s wings. Lincoln panicked, flying higher into the sky, flapping his wings faster and faster in an effort to douse the flames. I chewed my nails as I watched everything go down, wondering how the hell all of this had happened so fast.
The fire sputtered out and then Lincoln suddenly let go. He tucked his wings in, right above Burdock, so he dropped like a hundred and fifty-pound weight, fast and hard. He landed on top of the tall demon, taking him to the ground, and with one hard slash of the sword, hacked Burdock’s left horn off.
“Kill this fool!” Shea’s boss roared.
Black smoke burst from the gaping hole where the horn was, and Lincoln started to cough. The smoke covered their bodies, hiding them from view, until all I could hear was grunting, and the clanging of metal against metal.
My startled gaze found Shea across the lot, looking completely shocked and confused. Her slack jaw and death mark tattoo had a thought forming in my mind. A crazy thought. A thought that could get me killed.
Suddenly, a bright blue light rose above the black smoke, and then Lincoln was flying out of it with Burdock in his arms. My master was hornless, bleeding, and freaking enraged. He shouted in anger as Lincoln flew them higher and higher.
Then he dropped Master Burdock.
From fifty feet up.
The demon screamed the entire way down, spewing fire and smoke as he fell. When he crashed into the parking lot, pavement caved in like a crater, and chipped up at the edges. His legs had to have been broken, but he didn’t seem to care. He pulled a dagger from his boot, and as Lincoln sped toward him, sword outstretched, the demon flung the dagger straight at him. I screamed, but it was no use. It sailed through the space between them and sank into Lincoln’s thigh. With a painful roar, the Celestial dropped clumsily the last few feet and landed awkwardly, snapping his ankle. I could hear the crack of bone from where I stood.
I winced, stepping forward to help in some way, when my mom pulled me back. “No interference or it voids the whole thing. He’s got this.”
I wanted to protest, to run in there and help, but she was right. It was probably against the rules, and he was so close. It looked like he really had a chance.
I could be free.
Lincoln and Burdock were staring at each other, both bleeding and broken. Lincoln took a calming breath and then opened his eyes. They were an eerie blue, and glowing.
“Back to Hell with you, demon!” he roared and then swung his sword. Burdock swung his mace in circles around his head, and then, just as Lincoln got close, he let go, intending for the mace to smack Lincoln in the face. Lincoln raised his sword, and a blinding blue light shot out, sending the mace to the ground, and shattering it into a hundred pieces.
Whoa.
You could see it on Burdock’s face, the moment when he knew he had lost. He opened his mouth to speak, but Lincoln came down sideways with his sword, and took the demon’s head clean off before he could utter a word.
Holy freaking shit. Burdock’s dead.
Th
e glowing red contract in my mom’s hands puffed to ash, and we both gasped.
I was free. I was a free soul.
Tears slid down my mom’s face, and I wanted to enjoy the moment with her. It was everything I’d wanted, to be free of this shithole, everything my mother wanted for my life as well, but I couldn’t enjoy it. Not with my best friend standing across the way, death mark on her arm, dark circles around her eyes and bruises on her face. Tainted Academy was going to break her. Her strong, beautiful spirit was fading day by day, and I’d made a promise to never let that happen. I wouldn’t let her go dark.
“Your slave mark is gone,” my mom said, mystified.
I rubbed my forehead in shock.
Lincoln is so going to kill me.
I reached out, and took Michael’s sword from her. “I love you, Mom,” I told her, then advanced into the circle, stepping over Burdock’s severed head.
I pulled my dagger from my boot and it flared to life, emitting a golden yellow buttery light. I pointed the tip of the blade at Shea’s master.
“Grim, I challenge you in a fight to the death. If I win, Shea’s contract is absolved, and she’s a free soul.”
Chaos erupted. My mother, Shea, and Lincoln all screamed in protest. If Lincoln hadn’t just killed my mom’s boss, I would have fought him to free her but seeing as though he was dead, there was no way to get my mom’s contract. I had to fight for Shea while I had the chance. I knew my mother would understand. Eventually. Assuming I survived.
Master Grim just smirked, his eyes flashing red. “And if I win?” He took off his jacket, revealing a hairy, scarred chest with leathery skin.
I threw Michael’s sword at his feet. “The sword of Archangel Michael. Freely given.” I tried to remember the wording Lincoln had used.
More like freely stolen but I was hoping that wouldn’t matter.
He grinned. “And you. If I win, I want the sword and you. And I change the terms from fight to the death to forfeit. If one of us forfeits, we may keep our life.”
“Fine!” I replied through gritted teeth, before my nerves got the best of me.
“Absolutely not!” Lincoln burst forward, limping. The knife still stuck out of his leg, the tips of his wings were burned, and his hands looked bloody and battered. He hooked a hand under my armpit and started to drag me toward my car. “Are you crazy?” Blood-tinged spittle flew from his mouth in rage.