by Amy Barrett
The chains were heavy and smelt more metallic than the metal alone could account for. They were hell chains and as such they had the scent and colour of blood permanently embedded into them. By wrapping the chains around the throats and limbs of those who escaped hell and then killing them, they were sent howling back to the pit.
She intended to catch all the dogs and chain them up in her home again, but she needed the dark. She could use it to be stealthy and pick them off one by one, avoiding a full-on attack by them. They could never organise themselves in the dark to hunt her. It wasn’t a full moon and if she was lucky, the alcohol she had seen them carting in would dull their sharp senses. Yet she wasn’t sure what she was going to do when she saw Nick. She had to bring him back to hell, but she was curious to see what he was like on earth. It would be like meeting the real him. She shrugged off the thought. She had a job to do. The wind slipped past, ruffling the greasy mane of the corpse behind her.
***
As the sun set, Ivan and his gang were on the bus on their way across town. The night was cold, and Ciara shuffled closer to Ivan for warmth. Zerachiel sat in front of them in the aisle seat. He leaned up and tried to watch were they were going through the front window. When the bus door opened to let someone in or out, he would peek out to scan the street.
Ciara looked across at Ivan. He was distracted by licking the condensation off the window.
“Ivan what are you doing? That’s disgusting.” Ciara yanked him back by the collar of his jacket.
Ivan shrugged her off. “If I am gonna go back to being a reaper with no life but collecting silver people for two tyrants, I am gonna do all the stuff I have always wondered about first. “
Ciara shook her head. “You wondered about licking a window?”
“No.” Ivan poked the window and the condensation turned to a bead of water. “I wondered what this water tasted like and why no one ever tried it.”
Ciara tried not to look too uncomfortable while sitting next to a grown man who was licking a window. People did stare, and one guy even elbowed his daughter and had her look. The rest of the journey passed as any journey might with a window tasting lunatic beside you. Soon they reached the place. Zerachiel didn’t even tell them they were here. He just flew from his seat like a spring and catapulted out the flimsy doors. Ciara dragged Ivan behind her and raced to catch up. They found themselves on a deserted street with streetlights starting to awaken in the dim. Zerachiel turned to the two of them and gestured down the street. “I am going to rent us a car, so I am just down there. If anything happens call for me.”
Ivan rolled his eyes. “Yea cause you responded so fast to my prayers last time.”
“Don’t pray.” Zerachiel started walking away. “Shout. I am not in heaven anymore.”
Ivan sucked on his teeth. He didn’t want to say it but that had never occurred to him. “He should still be able to hear prayers. Not a very good angel, is he?”
Ciara stayed quiet and watched Zerachiel disappear around the corner.
“So, do you want to die or something?” Ivan went up and down the pavement, balancing on the edge.
“I have a couple of things scheduled in before then.” Ciara giggled.
“Why come with us then? This is going to be dangerous. You must be outta your mind to throw away your life like this. Cause Zerachiel and I have never hunted monsters before… well I haven’t, I actually don’t know about Zerachiel. My point is, I don’t see this going well.” Ivan didn’t mention that when it came down to it he was hoping they would fail. Not enough to die, just enough that they would have to stay in the world of the living.
Ciara looked down at her toes and traced a crack in the pavement with her foot. “I don’t know. I suppose I want to be around you guys.”
“Of course, we are awesome, but enough to die?”
“I feel at ease around you both, especially you.” She lowered her voice for the second half of the sentence. “I feel like I know you and that’s rare for me. Most people are so alien to me.”
“You are all human.” Ivan mused outloud. “How can any of you be alien to eachother?”
Ciara played with the end of her hair. “Never mind.”
“No explain. I want to know it all before I have to go back.”
“Nobody knows it all.” She laughed.
“I still want to try.” Ivan sounded like a child who was told that he couldn’t have an icecream. He didn’t care if it was possible or not, he wanted to hear everything humans had to say to him.
Mercifully for Ciara Zerachiel returned quickly. He had a small red Fiesta to show for his trouble. It chugged around the corner and came to a jerky stop beside them.
Ivan wrinkled his nose and drew his finger across the dust coated hood. “Couldn’t have bagged a sports car or something?”
The angel glared from the car and flicked his head towards the inside. “Just get in your highness.”
Ivan began strolling for the passenger door, but Ciara was quicker than that. Her legs flailed like ribbons as she ran, and her hand was on the door in seconds. Despite her having got there first, Ivan jumped for the door and began to yank at her arm.
“Hey! Stop!” She giggled.
“I will not. I am his best mate and I will be sitting in the front of this tiny vehicle.” Ivan was not laughing.
“Be a gentleman and let the lady have the seat,” Zerachiel yelled. His tone implied they didn’t have time for this.
“A gentleman? Mate why can’t she be a gentlewoman and let me have it?” When no one supported Ivan’s idea he simply let go of her hand. Ciara pulled the door open and made to get in. Ivan was a mad bull, as he charged and tried to slip in past her. Both got lodged in the space of the door.
“Ivan,” Zerachiel barked. He sounded like he was preparing to get out of the car and unleash some of heavens wrath.
“Fine.” Ivan held his hands up as if the car were a weapon he had been warned to drop. “Just seems unfair is all.”
“It’s unfair because you don’t get your way?” Ciara stuck her tongue out at Ivan as she made a show of settling into the front seat. Zerachiel reached over her and shut the door while commanding Ivan to just get the hell into the car.
Ivan dropped in and leaned between the front seats. His face poked through like a whackamole game.
“All I’m saying is that this whole gentleman thing is kinda unfair for guys.” Both of the front passengers ignored Ivan.
They started driving before Ivan could rant more. Ivan glanced back at the road being swallowed by the horizon behind them.
***
It got dark fast. Nick hadn’t remembered that night basically collapsed onto day in the winter. He was looking at his own reflection in the upstairs window. The room was only half there and dropped off onto the bottom floor a few feet away. One of the wolves had given him a candle. It was purple and smelt like lavender. The smell gave Nick a headache, but he didn’t want to live in the dark, so it would do. He shivered. It was freezing. Not that the wolves would know. All their running around must be keeping them warm. Nick gulped at himself in the glass.
“You can do this,” he whispered, “nothing is going to happen. It might even be fun.”
The flame of the candle flickered as if in doubt. Nick’s resolve did the same. He wanted to cancel the whole thing. It was too dangerous but now even the Elders insisted it was a good idea. One against a whole pack would never win. He jumped as the music started from downstairs.
He heard cheers and whoops from the massing organism of the dancers. He couldn’t put it off any longer, so he strode down the stairs as if to the gallows. Brushing past the people he noticed that they shimmered with sweat already. Some tried to dance with him but to no avail. He knew where he wanted to be and made his way there without a smile. It was the top of the room by height as well as distance from the door. The wolves had moved some rubble, so it made a stand of sorts. Up until this point, people had been flying off it and cro
wd surfing. The practice had only just started but when Nick stood in the spot, they all began chanting for him. Nick blushed a bit on his ears and shook his head. They didn’t give up for a while but even the most persistent partiers have their limits.
From his post, Nick watched over his family. He was so tense that the muscles in his back ached.
He saw their smiles, glowing eyes. They basked in the comfortable heat of others and licked traces of sweat from their shiny lips. He smelt the thick stench of the pack, watched how they swayed and locked eyes with each other. They kissed and forgot their partner before the next song. Nick tapped on his thigh to the beat. The tiniest smile broke his face. Seeing them so carefree and happy was almost enough to erase the tension within him.
Then the air changed. A charged heat coiled around him. It choked the smile and forced him to grind his teeth. He had spotted Abyzou in the crowd. The sight of her reminded him of Dan. He heard his scream echoing in his memory and flinched. As Dan crossed his mind a pain started in his chest.
Abyzou had no sooner appeared across his line of sight than she was gone into the shadows of the moving bodies. Nick dropped into the crowd. He saw only bodies and blurs of light. He knew she was there. The serpent of rage still tightened around his heart. No matter where he looked, she was invisible to him. He would find her and make her pay for what she did to Dan.
Like lightning striking the earth, she crashed into him with deadly charge. Nick tensed to fight back. Her hand looped around him and fluttered along his spine. He pushed her away, but she stopped herself from being shoved too far. There were only a few inches between their bodies.
“I’m not here to fight you,” she mouthed to him. Her liars’ eyes dared him to relax. She smirked like she wasn’t even trying to fool him.
“Good, then killing you will be simple.” Nick growled and moved towards her frail-looking arms, intent on breaking them in half and alerting the others of her presence.
From the sleeve of the giant sweater she wore, a knife emerged and with one swift motion of her arm it kissed against his throat. It seemed like if his pulse beat too hard, the blade would cut him open. She was closer to him than before. Her movements brushed her body against his.
“I will fight you,” she said.
Abyzou swayed against him and Nick cursed his gaze for wandering from the knife arm. He felt rather than heard her chuckle. His beast within hissed and thrashed for her. He wanted to roughly grab her and throw her against the nearest wall. The image of pinning her between his body and the wall came to his mind. A shameful heat spread along his skin. He was going to combust at any moment. He hated her but more than that he hated how when he looked at her he saw those moments when she was gentle with him in hell. They were his only moments of solace. Something as simple as her caressing the side of his face was such a mercy it made him want to weep. The memory of Dan’s face split in half broke his train of thought. She was a monster and he needed to remember that.
She leaned into his ear to talk to him. This was a mistake. With her arm at this angle, he had more than half a chance of throwing her off and slaughtering her before she could move the knife, which was pressed almost as much to her skin as his now. When her breath hit him, he didn’t move. The gargoyle within thirsted for her. Nick knew it would rip her apart if he just let it have control, but he reeled it in. Abyzou was so close now that a breath would be trapped by their bodies. Nick sucked in her familiar smell past his teeth. He tasted her on his tongue.
“You feel it too.” Her voice lacked the coldness Nick had become used to. He shook his head. His body trembled under the spell of her eyes. Right then he should have removed her head. But Nick couldn’t even bring himself to lift his eyes and see her gaze. Abyzou leaned closer to his ear and licked her lips against his skin.
“There is a part of you that yearns for me. I know it. The demon inside you wishes we were still in hell.”
Nick had to pull himself together. He seemed to have entered a fog and lost his way back out. She skimmed a hand on his arm and relaxed her grip on the knife. Nick hadn’t remembered that the blade was there. He clung to the thump of the music. It kept him in the real world.
His heart began to beat fast. Abyzou melted against him. Nick felt more of himself slip into her fingertips with each inch she touched. He knew this was wrong and guilt chewed up his insides, but she was intoxicating. He didn’t want to think about Dan and the pack in that moment and it would have been so easy to give up after all this time fighting. He had been fighting since he was a child. His monster nature broke through a bit as he grasped her arm forcefully. The knife fell to her side and their faces hovered just a hair apart.
That was the second that the door banged open, and strangers wandered into his home. Nick’s nerves were put on edge by the loud sound and he drew back to try to regain himself.
Chapter 8
Ivan had never actually been in a party. He had reaped a few people in them but feeling the beat in the soles of his shoes was something else. The lights flickered into his eyes and made him squint. The smell of sweat washed over him and he wrinkled his nose. He began to hop on the spot. This was going to be fun, he thought to himself.
Zerachiel’s shoulders were hunched close to his ears and he was rubbing the back of his neck. “Okay Ivan, we are here to find out what we can about these people and how to restrain them to get them back to hell. We aren’t even going to consider fighting them until much later when they are all drunk.”
Ivan shrugged. While Zerachiel scanned the room for god knows what, Ivan took off to find them both drinks. He danced through the crowds and reached the makeshift bar quickly. The issue of money occurred to him. It had been a recurring problem at this stage. He lingered around the outside of the bar group until someone else went and got a drink.
“Thank the lord,” he said when they didn’t have to pay.
Ivan strode to the bar. The young person behind it had a ponytail and looked bewildered when he saw Ivan. Not caring Ivan leaned as close to him as he could without sharing his air. “Alcohol please.”
The guy looked around with a bemused expression before shrugging. “What kind?”
Ivan really wished people would stop asking him questions he didn’t understand. Not wanting to appear as an idiot he went for the first thing which he read on a bottle within view. “Smirnoff.”
“Just vodka?”
“No. Not vodka. Smirnoff.” Ivan scoffed at the guys stupidity.
The youth filled a plastic cup full of the drink and handed it over.
“Thanks mate.” Ivan lifted the glass to his lips. It didn’t make it there before he remembered Zerachiel. “Oh, yea and one for my mate.”
Another was supplied, and Ivan now held a serving of vodka in each hand. As he made his way to look for Zerachiel, he took a gulp of the clear drink. It burnt his throat like gasoline. He did his best to cough it back up.
Someone stood on him and he tried to complain but his throat was still under attack from the drink, so it came out as a croak. Stumbling he nearly fell so he made a split-second choice. Throwing one of the plastic glasses overhead he used his now spare hand to catch himself on a dancing stranger. Ivan ducked his head and moved into the crowd when he heard a voice yell out asking what idiot was throwing vodka around. Given the fact that Zerachiel had said that these people where werewolves, this was the worst place to get into a fight in the history of the world. Besides, Zerachiel wouldn’t be too happy if Ivan caused a riot not five minutes into his fact-finding mission.
***
Nick was woken from his trance by a shout. It had seemed to be inside his head at first but then he placed it in real life. Some idiot had dropped a drink and started an arguement. With his feet firmly back on the ground, Nick reacted to the presence of the demon against him in the way he always should have. He snarled and grabbed for the knife. Abyzou, spun from him and slashed his face with the blade. It was a shallow cut, but the pain was enough to set the mons
ter in his veins free. After all the effort to contain it, Nick was unable to hold it back once his own blood trickled over his lips. Pitch dark wings and vicious teeth burst out of his body. The layer of fur spread over his skin and the canine ear and demon horn emerged on the sides of his skull.
Abyzou darted into the crowd. He would have chased her, but the beast was in control now and it noticed a unique scent in the haze of wolves. It was silver and wine and it made his mouth water. He had never tasted something like this before. He desperately wanted a bite.
***
Ivan was not blind and as such had seen the demon-like creature burst into being in the middle of the room. Its howl shook the walls and pieces of human skin flaked into the air as its wings sprung out. The flickering party lights cast shadows over its long muscular middle and as it turned its head to look around the horn on one side of its head threw an eerie shadow across the floor.
It crossed Ivan’s mind that the creature was raging around because it was upset that he had wasted the drink he had previously tossed. Then that birthed the idea that it was going to come for him, and he felt sick and weak at the notion. He needed to run. Making for the door, he spun back so fast that it took a second for his coat tails to catch up. He had almost forgotten Zerachiel. He moved through the crowds of people without a problem. They had all stopped moving, standing like mannequins in a window. One even fell into another when Ivan shoved him, rather than move. They must be scared stiff, Ivan mused. He had heard that this was a thing but of all the dying people he had seen say it none of them actually stayed still.
Ivan assumed there was something odd about a whole room of people standing totally still while a demon-like creature threw a hissy fit. So, he looked for his friend quickly, with the drink still in his hand. Ivan started to shout for Zerachiel. When he finally laid eyes on him he was about to give out about being ignored but Zerachiel was engrossed by the monster who had come to within a few steps of him. Its wings were as large as the angels but the opposite colour. Its jaws sagged open with rage. The look in its eyes would be impossible to describe to anyone who hadn’t seen it. All Ivan could think when he looked at it was a single word: hunger.