by Larissa Ione
“Because she’s not Vex. Vex is Vex. She used to be Laura.”
“Dammit, Azagoth, you know what I mean.” Z clenched his fists at his sides to keep from punching something that would get him turned into one of Azagoth’s living statues. “You could have told me from the beginning so I didn’t get blindsided, but you didn’t, even though you knew.”
“I suspected. I sensed that Vex’s soul originated in Heaven. But it wasn’t until I reached inside and touched it that I knew her soul was that of an Ipsylum, and there are very few of you.”
“Why didn’t you tell me, dammit? She was out for hours. Surely you could have found time to give me a, ‘Hey, FYI, Vex and Laura are the same person.’ I could have broken it to her without sounding insane and freaking her out.”
Azagoth rose to his feet. “Does she have any memory of you?”
The question was like a blow to the heart. “No. Do you think it’ll come back to her?” He tried not to hope, but he couldn’t help but hold his breath as Azagoth walked around the desk and pulled a lever on the wall.
“I don’t know,” he said, as the wall panel slid back to reveal the cross-section of a tunnel. Griminions came from the right side of the tunnel, escorting souls through the portal on the left, but only after Azagoth had viewed each one. “Some people are gifted with soul-memory, some can access past-life memories through rituals or dreams, but others will never remember.” He nodded approval as each soul passed, sending griminions through the tunnel in a steady stream.
Great. “So that’s it? I’ll always be a stranger to her?”
Azagoth looked at Z from over his shoulder and the soul parade halted. “Vex might never remember you, but her soul will.” If Azagoth thought that was comforting, he was crazier than a ghastbat in the sunlight. “You’re lucky she found her way here when she did. Jim Bob and Ricky Bobby saved her from one of Revenant’s assassins.”
Z’s gut clenched. If the angels hadn’t been there, he could have lost her. Again. And now he owed those two bastards. “She didn’t say anything about that.”
“She didn’t know. They interrupted before the attack.”
Damn. He’d forgotten that she would be in danger the moment she stepped outside of Sheoul-gra. “Can’t you call Revenant or something?”
Azagoth snorted. “One does not simply summon the King of Hell.” Z wondered if he’d be so la-de-da if it was Lilliana who was walking in the shadow of an executioner’s ax.
“But you can contact him, right?”
Azagoth inclined his head. “I have ways.”
“But you won’t.”
“I already have. He could be here by the time you get back from Los Angeles.”
Of course. They still had to rid Vex of the evil soul that remained inside her. The thought that some vile demon had attached itself to her made him sick, and on the heels of that was anger and a desire to protect her at all costs.
“When do we leave?”
Azagoth produced a business card from out of his shirt pocket and flicked it into the air. Z caught it between two fingers.
“The address is on the card.” Azagoth turned back to the soul tunnel, effectively dismissing him. “You leave now.”
Chapter Nine
The journey to Beverly Hills via Harrowgates only took mere moments. Z would like to have flashed here, but his ability to travel in the blink of an eye was limited to places he already knew. Gates were almost as good though, invisible to humans and peppered all over the human and demon realms.
This particular gate opened up in a small, wooded park, and the moment Z and Vex stepped out, the bright sunshine nearly blinded him. How long had it been since he’d been anywhere but Sheoul?
Too long.
He generally avoided the human realm, not because he hated humans, but because they always reminded him of life before he lost his wings. He’d been free then. Well, as free as a warrior bound to his angelic Order and job could be, anyway. He’d gotten little time off, and he’d spent what free time he’d had with Laura. After he lost his wings and started working for Azagoth, he’d had just as little free time, and what he had was spent searching for Laura.
He glanced at her as they walked from the park toward the mansion where the demon they were going to see lived. She’d barely said two words to him since he’d picked her up from Razr and headed out. And didn’t it just figure that now that Vex was finally behaving like Laura, he wanted Vex back. This sullen silence didn’t suit her and only made the clack of her heels on the asphalt path more stark.
“Are you okay?” he asked as he guided her to a sidewalk that wound its way up a steep hill.
Vex sidestepped to avoid a low-hanging tree branch just off the path. “I don’t know. This is a lot to take in.” She glanced over at him. “You said Laura was Ipsylum. I’m still finding that hard to believe.”
“She...you, didn’t do well as a warrior. You didn’t have the temperament for it.”
She huffed. “Stop saying that. It wasn’t me.”
“Yes,” he ground out, “it was. It was you before you were born as Vex. You were an angelic warrior, but not a very good one.”
“All right,” she said, her eyes flashing. “I’ll play for now. I was Laura. So was the fact that I sucked as a warrior the reason I lost my wings?”
“Sort of,” he said, ignoring her snippy tone. “You weren’t built for violence. You were kind of like a lion who should have been a gazelle.”
Vex frowned as they climbed a set of steps. “So how does a gentle gazelle get kicked out of Heaven?”
First, she’d been kicked out of the Ipsylum Order. But being an Ipsylum was more than just a job...it was truly a class of angel, and as much as Laura tried, she couldn’t suppress instinct. And her instinct after being banished from not just her job but her family as well, was to rebel.
“She tried to fight the establishment,” he said. “That rarely goes well.” Not when the establishment consisted of a bunch of douchebag Archangels, Dominions, and Thrones who wanted to control everything. Z had to admit that as much as he’d loved Heaven, there was much more freedom in the human and demon realms.
Assuming one hadn’t pledged loyalty to anyone. Like Azagoth.
It wasn’t that Azagoth was a bad boss. Far from it. He was demanding but fair, cruel to enemies, but loyal to those he cared about. And the dude held a grudge. Hell, he’d only recently let Hades off the hook for something that had happened thousands of years ago. Azagoth’s realm was his main priority, second only to Lilliana, and if your needs didn’t square with that, too bad. If they did, he was happy to let you have whatever you wanted.
“So what happened to me?” She eyeballed him, a little more interested and less hostile now. “And how old was I?”
“We had just celebrated our fortieth name days when you were kicked out of the Ipsylum Order and joined a rebel group of angels who have been working to shift the balance of power in Heaven for thousands of years.” He’d begged her to not get involved, but she’d been sure she could operate within the rebel faction without being caught.
“Now that sounds like me,” she said with an impish grin that was pure Vex without a trace of Laura. “But why did she do it?”
“Archangels are in charge right now, but that hasn’t always been the case,” he said, watching a white delivery truck turn up the drive to the mansion. The sign on the side said, “Devilish Delights,” and if the malevolent vibe coming off it was any indication, whatever was in that truck was bad news and not delightful at all. “Thrones used to rule the roost, with Dominions always struggling to gain more power and more control over everyone’s lives, angel and human. But during the great Angel Rebellion, when Satan was ultimately cast out, Archangels took the opportunity to frame Thrones and Dominions as the bad guys, and they took over. Now there’s a unified faction of angels of all Orders who want to overthrow the Archangels.”
Vex rubbed her arm absently, and he wondered if the evil soul inside her wa
s stirring. He’d given her another dose of suppressant before they left, but Azagoth had warned them that each dose was less effective than the one before it. “What does all of that have to do with Ipsylum?”
“I told you that Ipsylum are Heaven’s special forces, but they’re also Archangels’ swords. When the other warrior angels are battling evil around the human realm, Ipsylum are battling evil within the angel ranks. So when an Ipsylum goes rogue, the Archangels act fast and with no mercy. You were caught plotting with the rebels before a year went by. Frankly, I’m surprised all you lost was your wings.”
She frowned. “Were you...were we still together?”
He swallowed hard as the memories assaulted him. “Even as I held you in my arms after your wings were severed, you told me you loved me.” Angels had dragged him away from her, but he’d fought so hard they’d had to chain him and bind his wings. It had taken years to find her again, but he’d been too late. She was dead, and he spent decades hunting the bastards who had killed her.
“It must have been hard for you.”
It had been devastating. “Hard enough for me to lose my wings and family over it.”
A warm breeze mussed her hair, creating spiky peaks he wanted to smooth with his palm. So very different from Laura’s long blonde tresses, and he wasn’t so sure it was a bad thing. “You really loved me...ah, her.”
Okay, yeah, it was time to revert back to the her, she, and you part of the story. “She was my world,” he said softly. Now he had to figure out how to fit Vex into that world.
But what if she didn’t fit? The very thought put a knot in the pit of his gut.
“What was she like?”
He smiled. “She was beautiful,” he said, but that didn’t take away anything from Vex, who was stunning in a different way. Hell, he couldn’t keep his eyes off the narrow strip of exposed flesh between the top of her boots and the hem of her skirt. Every time a breeze ruffled the pleats, he caught a glimpse of her fine, toned ass and silk underwear. “She had blonde hair and blue eyes, rare among Ipsylum. And she had the most amazing wings.” All Ipsylum had the same deep burgundy wings, but hers had been tipped with silver, as if they’d been dipped in glitter. “We were born in the same year, so we grew up together.”
They’d done everything together, from learning to fight to learning to fly. Thankfully she’d been better at flying than fighting, because more than once her agility and speed in the air had saved her life when her pathetic battle skills failed.
He stopped at the gated entrance to a massive mansion. To humans, this was the residence of Rowan Arch, a rich, influential Hollywood producer. But to demons, this was the lair of a powerful fallen angel who, while in the human realm, was capable of commanding human and demon spirits to do his bidding. But his true gift was his ability to drain power from souls to strengthen his own abilities. Azagoth hoped he could weaken the soul inside Vex enough for him to remove it.
“How do we get inside?”
“Rowan installed his own Harrowgate.”
She whistled low and long. “He must be a serious badass with a shit-ton of money or human sacrifices or something. They don’t give out private Harrowgates to just anyone.”
No, they didn’t. He looked around until he saw the telltale shimmer of a gate against the backdrop of the stone perimeter wall. “There.”
The gate dropped them directly inside Rowan’s manor. At least, he assumed he was inside the manor. They’d materialized in a huge, cold room more suited to a slaughterhouse than a rich dude’s McMansion. Meat hooks hung from the ceiling, bloodstains darkened the concrete, and at least a dozen demons and humans waited for an audience with Rowan behind an iron fence on both sides of the room.
Azagoth had assured Zhubaal that he and Vex wouldn’t have to wait, and he hoped his boss was right. He didn’t want to be here any longer than he had to.
Ramreel demons armed with crossbows and swords stood watch near the double doors on the far side of the gymnasium-sized room, and two pasty-skinned, eyeless Silas demons roamed around, their creepy presence keeping the other waiting demons in line.
Vex leaned over and said quietly, “Whatever you do, don’t kill anyone.”
“Why not?”
Her gaze shot around the room, and he got the impression she was logging every weapon, cataloguing every individual, preparing for the worst. He could almost believe that she’d retained their Ipsylum training, except that Laura had never been this observant or prepared.
“Because the souls will jump inside me before Azagoth’s griminions can get here.”
Ah, good point.
“Also,” she added, “if the bitchface inside me possesses my body...kill me.”
He turned his head so fast his neck cracked. “What?”
Stopping in the middle of the room, she grabbed his arm and yanked him close. “I can’t go through it again. If Azagoth can’t exorcise the demon, kill me.” She squeezed his biceps, digging her nails into his skin. “Don’t make me beg. If you love Laura as much as you say you do, you won’t want her to do the things this demon will force her to do. Please.”
Please don’t let them kill me.
He closed his eyes, once again hearing the words Laura had spoken to him while they’d waited for the Archangels’ judgment the day she lost her wings. He hadn’t let her die then, and he wouldn’t now.
Opening his eyes, he pinned her with a hard stare. “Azagoth won’t fail,” he swore.
“If he does––”
“He won’t.”
She opened her mouth to argue more, he was sure, but snapped it shut as a Ramreel approached them, his armor clanking as loudly as his hoofed feet.
“Mr. Arch will see you now.” He focused his small eyes on Vex, and Z bristled. “Female. I would extract payment...from you.”
“Payment?” Vex produced a blade from who-knew-where and held it casually at her hip. Damn, she was fast. Laura would have cut herself. And she wouldn’t be standing there, shifting her weight into an attack stance and readying for a fight. Z held back, prepared to obliterate this asshole now that he had his powers in the human realm but wanting to see how Vex handled it first. “What kind of payment? And for what?”
“For allowing you through the Harrowgate,” he said, his gray lips turning up in a grotesque sneer. “There was a sign at the entrance.”
“Yeah, well, we missed the sign,” Z said, “so back the fuck off.”
“I will have payment.” The Ramreel, a good two feet taller than Zhubaal, swung his massive head back around to Vex and stomped his hoof on the floor. “You will only scream for a minute.”
Z had always prided himself on his self-control, but both pride and self-control got tossed out the window when Laura was threatened. Vex had warned him not to kill anyone, but he welcomed the rush of power that funneled to his fingertips, ready to burst from him in a searing stream of hellfire.
His leathery wings flared high as he stepped between the Ramreel and Vex, his fingers flexing with the desire to destroy.
“Touch her,” he said, his voice scraping gravel, “and I will rend you limb from limb and then fuck your dying corpse as you bleed out.”
The Ramreel’s hand tightened on the giant mace he carried, and Z wondered if the sheep-brained idiot was stupid enough to take a swing. Just as Z prepared to take a pre-emptive strike, the demon shrugged and lumbered off.
“Wow,” Vex breathed.
Zhubaal nodded. “Yeah, powerful stuff, huh?”
“Well, it’s quite the visual.” She flipped the blade between her fingers before sliding it into her boot. “I mean, I’m assuming you won’t take the time to strip him before you draw and quarter him, which means that to fuck his dying body, you’ll have to take off his bloody pants. That’ll be really awkward, you know?” He stared at her, almost unable to believe this was truly Laura. “What? I’m just saying that to make a threat effective, you’ve got to think it through.”
“It was off the cuff,
” he said, exasperated.
“Clearly.”
He ground his teeth. Vex’s new name suited her. Just as he was about to tell her that, the double doors at the other end of the room opened, and a human in a tuxedo beckoned them inside.
“You ready?”
There was a fierceness in her gaze that he couldn’t help but admire, so he was taken aback when she shook her head. “I don’t know.”
“What do you mean you don’t know?” he asked, incredulous. “This might be your only chance to get rid of the demon you’re carrying around inside you.”
“And it’ll also make me beholden to Azagoth for the rest of my life.”
“But you’ll be alive,” he pointed out. “He’ll protect you from Revenant’s forces.”
The look she gave him, one of sadness and maybe a touch of revulsion, made his heart sink. “But what is life if you’re bound to someone all the way to your soul?” she asked quietly.
He stiffened. “You mean like we are to each other?”
“Exactly.” She rubbed her arms as if cold, but it was about a thousand degrees in the room. “I can feel you, Zhubaal. I feel so much love for you, but it’s not mine. It’s hers. It’s Laura’s. So you can understand why I can’t enter into a contract like Azagoth’s so lightly.” She met his gaze with a steely one of her own. “Not when I wish I could break the one with you.”
Chapter Ten
The devastation in Zhubaal’s expression tore Vex apart. He didn’t deserve what she’d said, but it was the truth. She was still reeling from everything that had happened in the last couple of days, and she suspected she’d still be reeling tomorrow. And the next day. And the next week, month, year...
I was an angel who pledged my eternal, everlasting love to the male standing beside me.
No, Laura had done that. Vex wasn’t that stupid.
“Are you coming, or not?” The elderly tuxedo guy managed to look bored and annoyed at the same time as he stood in the doorway.