by Darcy Town
Dahlia flipped her off. “Shut up!”
Andy laughed silently. “Dahlia Devil Woman, I like that.”
“You mentioned something earlier about feeling more pain than us?”
“Yes, it really—”
Dahlia punched him in the stomach and smiled. “Good to know.”
***
Belial opened her eyes. The world was blurry and dark. She licked her lips and tasted blood. “Nast.”
Water splashed her face. Now her mouth tasted like chlorinated blood. She spat and tried to sit up. Hands pressed into her back, helping her. She whipped her head around. Pain shot up her spine. Belial ignored it and looked at her helpers.
Tracy, Celeste, and Jacob’s expressions wavered between shocked smiles and terror. Dirt and soot painted them in blacks and browns. Jacob’s hands and arms were clean up to the elbows and he reeked of pool water.
Belial set their appearance aside and listened. There was nothing in the air but their breathing. Her gaze rose to the sky. It was still dark, the sun had not hinted at rising. She sniffed. None of the other Fallen were around. They were alone.
Belial wrinkled her nose. “Great.” She shrugged off her human helpers and sat up by herself. She spotted Tokala unconscious on the ground. “Bring him here.”
Jacob picked up the limp Lilliam prince and set him beside Belial. She looked him over and found the wound on his back. She bit down on the area and sucked. She tasted iron. She wiped her mouth. “Iron tainted.”
Jacob looked between the two. “Is he dead?”
Belial touched Tokala’s face. “No, but he is not well. He needs a healer soon.” She stood up. Her legs burned like fire. She looked down at the red skin, healed but in agony. She remembered her trip through the house. Her head whirled around. “Helion!” The lawn was empty except for human bodies. She limped through the grass. “Helion!”
Tracy followed her, her hands out to catch Belial if she stumbled. “Which one is Helion?”
“My brother! Leo.”
“He took off with Whitney. He followed Andy and Dahlia I think.”
Belial stopped her progress across the lawn. A single white wing glowed on the grass, its purity stained by a fair amount of blood. Sympathy pain burned through the scars on her back. Tears formed in her eyes. She sucked in air, clamped down on her emotions, and turned away. “We are leaving now.”
Jacob nodded and picked up Tokala. Celeste looked back at the smoldering mansion. “Shouldn’t we wait for the police?”
Belial flicked Celeste in the face. “You’re stupid, stop speaking.” She looked at the two girls. “Give me your extra clothes, now.”
Tracy slipped off her jacket and handed it to Belial. Celeste didn’t have anything extra. Belial zipped up the hoodie. She motioned towards the front of the house. “We’re leaving.”
Celeste didn’t move. “Why?”
“Because I say we are.”
Celeste balled her hands into fists. “Why don’t you tell us what’s going on?”
Belial whirled around, her fangs and claws out. “You will follow me and shut that mouth of yours before I break it! I don’t want you along, got it? But Dahlia would kill me if I left you, so you’re coming whether you want to or not!”
Celeste took a step back. “Why would she kill you?”
Belial smiled. “You stay here and you die. So I leave you and essentially, I’ve killed you. The Solomon Soldiers will no doubt be along shortly. If they’re smart, they’ll use you as hostages to get at Dahlia. Whatever they do, you’ll end up dead.”
“Who are they?”
Belial lifted Celeste off the ground. “I’m in a lot of pain and you are ticking me off with these questions.” She pointed a razor-sharp claw at Celeste’s face. “I have poor impulse control and I like killing humans. Don’t push me right now.” Belial dropped her. She stalked off around the house. Jacob and Tracy ran after her. Celeste followed along numbly.
The front of the house was in shambles. Burnt out cars were nothing more than metal and melted plastic. Belial eyed the scene. “Damn it.” She limped towards the driveway and swore under her breath.
Tracy ran up to her. “What can I do to help?”
Belial eyed Tracy. “Find me a car, luck charm.”
Tracy nodded. She scanned the yard and took off running.
Belial cocked her head. She twisted around and leapt at Celeste. Celeste shrieked and ducked. Belial swiped at the human who had hobbled up behind her. She impaled him with her claws and shook him. “Do you have a car?”
The man dribbled blood and died. Belial retracted her nails and let him slide off her fingers. Jacob and Celeste were frozen, gaping at her. Belial shoved Celeste at Jacob. “Keep walking, children.”
Jacob gaped. “You just killed that guy!”
“Yes and?”
Celeste looked at the body. “But, that’s illegal!”
Belial smiled. “I’m a fucking fallen angel! I’ve been alive forever! I don’t care about your stupid laws.”
Jacob nodded. “Understood.”
Celeste scowled at him. “Jacob!”
Jacob threw up his hands. “I have no idea what’s going on right now, but those guys were trying to kill us earlier. I don’t want to die!”
“That’s the spirit! Let’s not die tonight!” Belial marched towards the road. Sirens wailed in the distance. She grabbed Celeste and pulled her towards the tree line. “Come on, Jacob.”
Celeste pulled back on her hand. “But, the police can help us.”
Belial shut her eyes. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She put Celeste into a headlock and squeezed. Celeste passed out. Belial threw her over her shoulder and ducked into the shadows; Jacob followed close behind.
Headlights flashed at them. A beat-up car hit its brakes and skidded in the gravel. Tracy leaned out. “Found one and it still had its keys!”
“Lucky us.” Belial smiled. She opened the back door and threw Celeste in the backseat. She motioned for Tracy to move over into the passenger side in the front. Jacob got in the back with Tokala. He buckled Celeste in.
Belial checked their rearview mirrors. “If any of you get carsick don’t barf on me.”
She put the car in gear and spun it around. She floored it and raced out of the driveway. Police and fire trucks came into sight. Belial turned off the headlights and drove down a hidden side road. The car bounced dangerously, but she kept it in control, able to see in the darkness.
Tracy closed her eyes. Jacob kept his eyes on the speedometer. Belial grinned as they hit the highway behind the police. She got their car in the fast lane. “Let me know if you see signs going southeast.”
A car veered into their lane.
“Fuck off!” Belial snarled. She did a double take. The driver wore the characteristic white and iron of the Solomon Soldiers. She cranked on the wheel and cut across traffic. The car followed. Belial watched them in her mirrors. “Everyone duck.”
Jacob and Tracy got low in their seats. Iron bolts pierced the car where their heads would have been.
Belial cringed. “Jacob, pull the ones out of the back of my seat please, thanks.”
Jacob kept low and grabbed at the metal. He held the bloody bolts in his hand. “What do I do with them?”
Belial looked at him in the mirror. “Don’t let them touch Tokala, but besides that I don’t fucking care. Start a collection if you want.”
Jacob gulped. “Kay. They can’t touch him because they’re iron right?” She nodded. He dropped the bolts under the seat and stayed low. “So you’re a fallen angel, he’s a fairy or something, and Dahlia is involved in this somehow?”
Belial swerved the car. “Jacob, I’m kind of busy right now.”
He nodded. “I can’t help it. I talk when I’m nervous.”
Belial slammed on the brakes. The chasing car swerved and plowed into a truck. She snickered and hit the gas. “As long as I don’t have to answer, talk as much as you like. You guys c
an sit up now.”
Jacob did not change his position. “Those people are trying to kill us. No one’s tried to do that before.”
A phone went off at Tracy’s feet. Everyone’s eyes swiveled to it. Belial held out her hand. “Yours?”
Tracy shook her head. “No, I lost mine and my purse.” She handed the phone to Belial.
Belial flicked it open. “Yes?” There was angry shouting on the other line. She smiled. “Your men were killed, violently. Have a nice day.” She broke the phone into pieces and tossed them out the window.
Jacob popped his head back up. “Why didn’t you keep it?”
“They probably are able to track it somehow.”
“We could have used the phone though.” Tracy looked through the glove compartment and pulled out a set of pistols. She shoved them back in the glove compartment.
Belial shook her head. “Good idea in theory except all of our phones were destroyed back at the house. Paimon might have one, but he probably blew it up accidentally.”
“Paimon?” Tracy looked over. “Was that Monty?”
“Yes.”
“Yeah, he lit on fire and made this huge explosion. He threw fireballs at the angels.”
Belial smiled. “Sounds about right.”
Jacob looked at Tokala and Celeste. “Can we contact our friends or family?”
“No. I am not drawing more of your kind into this. People are going to get killed and you guys need to accept that real quick. If you want your loved ones to stay loved and alive then you do not contact them. This is dangerous for you too; I already have to modify my plan to include you guys.”
“Plan?”
“Go east; well that was the original idea.” She checked signs along the road. “But now I need to get Tokala to a good healer and the only one I know of that’s working aboveground is in Arizona, so that’s where we’re going.”
Jacob looked at the iron bolts. “He’s an elf, or something isn’t he.”
Belial laughed and merged onto a highway heading south. “Pointy ears and everything.”
Jacob pulled back Tokala’s hair. “Whoa.”
Tracy hugged her knees to her chest. “His brother Nodin, he’s one of these fairies too?”
“Yep.” Belial looked at them both. “Now shut up and get some sleep while you can.”
Jacob nodded. “Wake us up when you need to switch off.” He took in her expression. “You don’t sleep. Got it, right, that makes sense. Okay. Goodnight.” He closed his eyes and sank into an exhausted sleep.
Tracy stared out the window at the starry sky. Her lips curved into a slight smile. “A fairy. No wonder Nodin was an amazing lover.”
***
Lucifer’s mood swung between agonized terror and anger, but he was too weak to do anything about either. Berith carried him like a baby; it was humiliating when he had enough sense to think about it. Lucifer could barely hold on to a coherent thought, the pain in his chest was all consuming. He scratched at Berith’s arm. “Dahlia!”
Berith grimaced and ignored the gouges, his attention on Apple. She scouted ahead, her form barely visible in the pre-dawn light. They moved into suburban areas, using the human population as cover and a shield. They’d already avoided two Solomon Soldier patrols.
Apple ran back to them. Her red eyes were luminous in the darkness. “Clear and enchanted. No one’s going to hear him shout.”
“Good.”
Apple touched Berith’s bloody arm. She scowled and stopped him. “Again?”
Lucifer rolled his eyes to her. “Dahlia? Dahlia?”
She touched his forehead. “Calm yourself.”
A quiet came over him. Lucifer blinked and recognized her. “Appleadris, we need to turn around. I am ordering both of you to turn around.”
Berith shook his head. “No, for the two hundredth and third time, no.”
“You are my Archangel, obey me!”
Berith snorted. “Sorry, lost that title when I lost my wings.”
Lucifer grabbed Berith’s shirt collar. “I will hurt you.”
Berith smiled. “Fine, but you can’t right now, so why don’t you just be quiet.”
Lucifer seethed. The panic flooding his body was far worse than the pain. He struggled to get out of Berith’s grip. “Put me down.”
Berith sighed. “Why?”
“I can walk.”
“Really.” He set Lucifer down on his feet.
Lucifer set his jaw and stubbornly took a step. Pain clawed at his insides. He fell to the ground and curled into a fetal position, focusing on the wound that would not heal. Madness possessed and overwhelmed him. “Dahlia! Dahlia!”
Apple plugged her ears. “I can gag him again.”
Berith shook his head. “He will eat it and choke on it like earlier.”
Lucifer stretched an arm out, thinking to crawl north. Berith watched him writhe on the ground. “I wish we had some of Paimon’s tranquilizer darts.”
Apple smiled. She pulled out a set of syringes from her jacket pocket. “Talking about these?”
Berith took one and eyed it. “Why didn’t you mention it before?”
“I was hoping he’d come to his senses. I didn’t want to use them unless he became a raving lunatic. The pain is only going to increase, yes?”
Berith nodded. “It will get worse, but he was not like this last time. Last time he gave up and tried to die, silently at least.”
“Dahlia! Dahlia, I am sorry!” Lucifer looked at the moon. “I love you! Dahlia, where are you? Michael, I will kill you ten thousand times over! You and your spear, I will break it and smash it into your head. I will erase your presence. Dahlia! I am coming to save you!”
Berith stabbed Lucifer in the back with one of the tranquilizers. “That qualifies as raving.”
Lucifer went limp. He stared at the fading stars. “I. Oh. Berith?”
Berith picked him up. “Yes?”
“I think I am going to pass out.”
“Okay, Lucifer.”
Lucifer looked at him with blurry eyes. “You will keep an eye out for Michael. If he comes, I will kill him! Only me! He hurt Dahlia.”
“Yep.”
“Good.” Lucifer closed his eyes and slipped into a comatose daze. Drool seeped out of his mouth.
“So…” Apple skipped along beside Berith. “Some date this is.”
“Date?”
“Yes.” She smiled. “I assumed when you whispered all those lovely words to me while running through the woods that we’d be dating now.”
Berith went red. “You heard me.”
“Iron paralyzes, poisons, and kills.” She winked. “It doesn’t make us go deaf.”
Berith remembered all of the things he’d said while he’d carried her body. “If I hadn’t seen you take the wounds myself, I would swear you did that on purpose.”
She shrugged and looked away. Something strange passed on her features. She looked into the woods. “Sani is dead. I am the eldest now.”
Berith nodded. “You will be queen someday.”
“I will have to have children,” she spoke to the sky.
He frowned. “We don’t know that we…you and I, that we can’t do that. No one knows for sure either way.”
She nodded. “True.”
Berith looked at her. “Let’s not think on that right now?”
She managed a smile. “All right.”
Lucifer blinked awake and reached for Apple. “Dahlia?”
***
Paimon trudged through thickets and brambles. Morning light filtered through the canopy above, leaving patches of brightness in the evergreen shadows. He hummed as he jumped across logs and small streams. He loved the forest, especially the smell of the earth and plants, but currently he couldn’t smell anything expect for blood and sweat. His clothing stuck to him, chaffing his skin. Furcas leaked various fluids all over him. Paimon tried his best to ignore it. He broke into a new song.
“I liked the last one better.”<
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Paimon whirled around, but no one was there. He remembered Furcas was on his back, tied to him with a makeshift harness. He turned his head to the left. “When did you wake up?”
“Somewhere between two songs I hate,” Furcas spoke with a pain-blurred slur. His working eye was half-open. He raised his stumpy arm as far as the bandages would allow. “Why isn’t it growing back?”
Paimon bit his lip. “You got hit with the spear, Furcas.” He turned back in the direction he had been headed and walked on. He hit a slope and hopped down.
Furcas breathed into his ear. “So, it won’t come back?”
Paimon wished he had his shades on so that he didn’t have to look Furcas in the eye. “No.”
“Why can I only see out of half of my face? Why does it hurt? What happened to my face?” Furcas got his right arm loose and touched his sewn up cheek and neck.
Paimon grabbed Furcas’ hand and held it. “Let’s not think about it right now, okay?”
“My eye is gone.” Furcas’ legs contracted and locked around Paimon’s midsection.
Paimon wheezed. “Easy on the death grip, Furcas, I’m trying to walk here.” He picked up his pace. “Your face will be fine.”
“I am ugly,” the words were a whisper, despairing.
Paimon expected rage, anger, hits about the head, not this. He shook his head. “Shush.”
“I’m a horrid, pus-oozing monstrosity. I’m worthless.”
Paimon heard him sniffle. He stopped and squeezed Furcas’ hand. “I don’t think you’re ugly or worthless.”
“You don’t count.” Furcas shifted to Faith, but the cuts and wounds remained. He shifted back to Furcas. “Fuck.”
Paimon reached up and touched Furcas’ good cheek. “I always liked this side of you more anyways.”
Furcas kicked him. “Liar.”
Paimon smiled. He didn’t look where he was going and slipped down a hillside. He wind milled his arms and caught on to a tree before he toppled over. He righted himself. “Shit! Sorry about the rough ride.”
“You’re always a rough ride.” Furcas laughed and winced. He touched the fabric that kept him bound up. “You could have at least tied me up with silk. These clothes feel like they are from a giant superstore. They are, aren’t they?”