by J. J. Dean
Chapter 6
Luna
Eli and I jump in the car. As much as I want to keep looking, my heart is hurting too much, and I want to go home and pretend Francis and Brutus are safely tucked away in the apartment above the coffee shop. I can't imagine it would ease the weight of the metaphorical anvil pressing down on my chest, but it's better than the crushing disappointment I'm constantly feeling when we don't even find the smallest hint of her or the damn dog.
"We'll find them, Flower. Don't lose faith now," Eli tells me, reaching over to clasp my hand in his. I want to believe him,more than anything. Only, as more days pass and we find nothing, the less hope I have that my best friend will ever be found. As much as I appreciate Eli knowing me well enough to try and comfort me, I just can't accept it because I don't know what will happen.
Taking a deep breath, I start the car. We take off, heading in the direction of home when a sudden sickly feeling claims my stomach hostage. Apprehension grows in my chest, and something suddenly doesn't feel right.
We don't get a mile away from the veterinary clinic when there's suddenly the ugliest fucking thing I've ever seen poofing into existence in front of my car. My foot has never slammed so hard on the break before, so much so that I'm half afraid I'm going to push the thing right through the floor. My car comes screeching to a halt a mere foot away from the chubby Cherub who's watching me with his beady little eyes. A shudder runs through my body, and I drop back into my seat with a disgusted look.
What the fresh unholy fuck is Brolos doing here? I've already had my half a century visit.
"What, and I really can't stress this enough, the fuck is that?" Eli asks from beside me. I turn my head and find his face contorted into a look that would be funny if dread hadn't begun to pool in the pit of my stomach. It's never a good thing when I'm visited by Javos or Brolos. More so the fugly Cherub since I can never actually understand what he says thanks to his toothless nature. He mainly just glares at me like an overgrown baby creeper when I stare at him.
"That would be a Cherub," I tell Eli, dropping my head back onto the headrest of my seat.
Eli turns his head and gives me a look of horrified shock. "That is a Cherub? You're shitting me, right?"
"Afraid not. That would be Brolos. He and his brother like to visit every fifty years," I tell him, exhaustion seeping into my body after the hours we’ve spent searching. I so do not need this shit right now.
"Who's Javos, and is he as ugly as that thing?" Eli asks seriously.
I snort and turn my head to face the hunchback baby, narrowing my eyes as I reply to Eli. "Javos would be Lucifer's pet. He's a Gargoyle and less horrifying to look at than His messenger boy."
Eli shakes his head and rubs his hand over the copper-colored stubble that lines his jaw. "Well, Cherubs have been ruined for me for life. Nice."
"You're telling me," I reply, reaching for the door handle and climbing out. Elijah follows, walking around the car to come stand beside me. He takes my hand in his, and we take a step closer to the Cherub before stopping at a safe distance. "What are you doing here, Brolos?"
I honestly don't even know why I asked because all I hear is gibberish when he tries to talk. I cringe and turn to Eli. "Any chance you understood him?"
If the face my redheaded angel is wearing is anything to go by, he's as clueless as I am. Great. He shakes his head, confirming my thoughts, and I roll my eyes before turning toward Brolos. The Cherub glares with his blackened eyes, the beady little orbs creeping me out more than they should.
Opening my mouth to tell him for the hundredth time that I can't understand a single blubbered word, a gravelled voice sounds out behind me. Pebble Penis is back. Fuck. My. Day. As if the Cherub wasn't bad enough by himself.
"He's here for the same reason as I am," the Gargoyle says.
I turn slowly to face him, and my jaw clenches, teeth grinding together in frustration. "Javos. What another unpleasant surprise. Wasn't one visit enough?"
He doesn't answer, his scrunched up face giving nothing away.
"You know, for someone made entirely of stone, you're awfully light on your feet. Didn't even hear you back there," I tell him, faking my calm because the dread just grew ten times worse. What prompts another visit from a Gargoyle and Cherub after their already scheduled pop in? I'm not stupid enough to believe it's anything good.
Javos doesn't respond, once again leaving my sentence to hang in the air. I sigh and drop my head back, glancing over to Eli who looks at Javos before turning to stare at the Cherub with horrified fascination.
"Why are you both here, Javos? I've already suffered one visit from you. I know fifty years haven't skipped on by since then, so what gives?" I ask, releasing Eli's hand and crossing my arms over my chest.
"A decision must be made, Nevaeh. I'm sorry," Javos replies a little ominously. His scrunched up face shows regret that I don't understand, and the worry in my stomach grows until it overtakes my entire body. I don't like this.
Carefully, I tell him, "I've already told you my decision remains the same. I won't change my mind."
I feel Eli's hand rest against my lower back, his body coming to stand closer to mine. Tension practically seeps from my skin, and I suddenly crave for Eli to come even closer, to feel his warmth wrap around me with the comfort I know he can give.
A look of sympathy flashes in the Gargoyle's eyes before a sudden pain laces through my chest. My breath leaves me in a sudden gust of air, and my eyes widen on the stone fucker who just shot me. Slowly, I look down to see a strange bullet buzzing with electricity. Is that a taser bullet? I didn't even know those were a thing. Learn something new when you're being ambushed by ugly monsters and then shot minutes later.
My body grows heavy, and my breathing is labored. With my mind growing fuzzy, I begin to feel lightheaded. Suddenly, I feel my world tilt on its axis. Everything grows blurry, and the ringing in my ears grows unbearably loud. Arms catch me before I fall to the floor, securely wrapping around me and lowering me to the ground gently.
"Luna? Luna!" I hear Eli, his panicked voice sounding muffled through the ringing in my ears. Holy Hell, this shit hurts. "What the fuck have you done to her?!"
Javos' grating voice reaches my ear drums. "She'll be fine."
Another shot sounds out, the noise faint but distinguishable through the ringing. A body falls next to me, and I know Eli's been rendered another victim of these mysterious taser bullets. The warmth of Eli's body seeps into my right side, his chest pressed up against my arm. His breathing is as labored as mine, the feel of his chest rising and falling rapidly as he tries to breathe through the pain.
I grit my together as a shadow falls over my face. My mind grows even fuzzier, concentration becoming harder and harder to grasp, but the outline of the stone fuck is easy to make out.
The last thing I hear before the lights go out entirely is Javos muttering, "I'm sorry it had to be this way, Nevaeh. Unlike you, I didn't have a choice."
***
Waking up slowly, I quickly realize the magnitude of just how very shitty I feel. My chest is aching as though I was sucker punched in the solar plexus by the Hulk, throat is dry and rough, and eyelids feel like sandpaper when I try to open them. There's also what I can only describe as a heavy metal band playing in every section of my head.
I groan as I lift my head, an ache in my neck making it known that it’s been hanging awkwardly for some time now. It feels heavy as I pull it upright and almost drop backward onto the hardened surface behind my neck. Fluttering my eyelids, I do my best to open my eyes through the stinging sensation.
When I'm finally able to keep my eyes open long enough to check my surroundings, it's only to find a darkened room. The walls look like they're covered in mold as liquid drips down the surface. I can hear the repetitive dripping of water somewhere in the room, and there's a chill in the air as though we're underground where the heat can't reach.
"Luna?" I hear whispered from my right.
Sluggishly, I try to move my head, only for it to drop back this time.
"Flower, you have to wake up. Come on, baby. Wake up for me," the familiar voice encourages, his voice kept at a low whisper that’s just loud enough for me to hear. Eli. That's Eli. But why is he whispering?
With my head tilted back, I roll it to the right and go about blinking my eyes open again. When my eyes readjust to the dark, I see his outline sitting beside me in a chair.
"That's it, Flower," he whispers. "Shake it off."
Why is he just sitting there whispering to me? Where are we? And why do I ache as much as though I've been on a bender for a whole week without a break?
I open my mouth to talk, but only a croak leaves me. With far more effort than it should take, I clear my throat and try again. My voice is raspy and dry but easier to understand when I say, "What happened? Where are we?"
Eli tries to move closer, but he looks to be restrained. I narrow my eyes only to realize that he's tied to the fucking chair. What the hell? His wrists and ankles are zip tied to the arms and legs, and a strip of material hangs around his neck. When I look down at my own arms, it's to find I've been offered the same treatment, my wrists shackled to the wooden arms of the uncomfortable chair.
I wrack my brain, trying to understand what happened and how we got here, but I don't remember anything after visiting the veterinary clinic to search for Brutus and leaving empty handed.
"That Cobble Cock shot us with a taser-like bullet. He got you in the chest, so you've been out for a while. He managed to catch my lower stomach, so I woke up sooner than he probably planned," Eli explains. Or tries to. Who the fuck is Cobble Cock?
I must ask that question out loud because he says, "The Gargoyle. Javos, was it? Anyway, him and his creepy oversized baby buddy made an appearance when we left the vet clinic, we got shot, and then woke up here in this shit hole. I don't know where we are, but I've been waiting on you to wake up so we can get the hell out of dodge."
I got shot by Pebble Penis? Ooooh, Cobble Cock. Hah. Good one.
"You okay, Flower? Looking a little out of it over there," Eli tells me, his voice a little louder and more concerned than it was before.
I feel pretty out of it. What the hell kind of bullet was I shot with? That has to be more than just a simple taser.
"I feel like shit," I tell him honestly, groaning when even the sound of my own voice hurts my head. My chest is aching more now than it had when I first woke up, so I look down to check my hoodie. Smack bang in the middle of my chest is a small hole, the edges burnt and frayed. That son of a bitch ruined a perfectly good hoodie. It does, however, explain why I'm aching so much. I take in a deep breath, wincing when the ache grows, before releasing the air with a harsh exhale
I hear the scraping of wood on cement floor and turn my head a little too quickly to the right. The regret is immediate when my head grows light headed and my eyesight turns fuzzy before all goes back to normal. When my eyes focus again, I see Eli trying to shuffle across the distance that lies between our chairs. The scrape of the legs against the cool cement floor is loud in the otherwise quiet room, the sound echoing off the walls.
He doesn't get very far before conceding to defeat and dropping his head back with a frustrated growl. He's quick to shake off the momentary agitation, turning his head towards me. "Okay, we need a plan to get out of here. The Gargoyle and the Cherub haven't stepped foot inside this room, so I don't know how much longer we're going to be alone. Now's the best time to-"
Eli is cut off when the sound of a creaking door opens behind us. Heavy footsteps follow, stone colliding with cement, and I just know it's Javos coming to deliver his lines like we're all taking part in a lame action movie where the villain reveals his plans before murdering the people tied to the chair. That would be us.
In true villain form, Javos comes to stand in front of us, the moldy wall as his backdrop to this predictable scene. I hear the door shut, assuming Brolos followed after him, and I sigh.
Javos' gaze comes to rest on me, his eyes narrowed even while I see a flash of pity in their depths. It would irritate me a lot more if I wasn't tied to a chair and still suffering the effects of the damn bullet I took to the chest. Finally breaking the silence, the Gargoyle says, "I'm truly sorry we've had to do this, Nevaeh. You left us no other choice. You will choose a side, or else we'll have to force it out of you. Don't make this any harder than it has been over the centuries. It's time to pick a side."
That’s what this is? A forced attempt to make me pick Him or Lucifer? You have got to be shitting me. That motherfu-
Chapter 7
Elijah
"You motherfucker," Luna growls, her eyes slowly but surely turning a brighter silver, just shy of glowing in her damn head. That's never a good sign.
Javos doesn't react, simply staring at her, unimpressed. I'm not trying to be funny or anything, but surely we're the ones who deserve the right to be pissed and unimpressed here, right? I mean, we got shot with taser bullets and then locked up like prisoners in a low budget movie in a dank-ass room all to force my Fallen angel to pick Heaven or Hell. What's up with that?
"We've warned you for the last three hundred years that a war was coming. We've told you a decision needed to be made. A war is inevitable, a new reality drawing nearer. You're the only one with the power to tilt the scale, Nevaeh. Only you," Javos tells her, his voice sounding like stone grating against stone. It sets my nerves on edge, but more so the use of the name given to her by Him. I can see it's pissing her off the more he uses it, the bright silver of her eyes pulsing with anger each time he mutters it.
With a sneer that makes me kind of impressed, she says, "It's Luna, brick dick. Start using it, or I'm going to get pissed."
I wince. If that isn't her already spitting mad, then he's in for a whole world of pain if he keeps prodding at that particular wound.
Javos doesn't correct himself. Instead, he walks over to the table I noticed a little while ago. I can't make out what's on the surface, but, given our situation, I can't imagine it's anything good. I can hear clattering, metal clanking with metal. There's a sound that reminds me of Ash trying to untangle wires and then silence. Javos makes his way back over to Luna, holding what looks to be a bunch of thin wires with white rounded tabs at the end.
He makes to place one of the tabs on Luna's temple, but she flinches away with a snarl. That is, until she cries out in pain and her back arches as much as it can in the chair. What the hell?
"You'll soon realize you won't be able to escape until a decision has been made. We've taken extra measures to ensure our safety, so I wouldn't recommend using any one of your abilities, either. That goes for you too," the Gargoyle says, aiming the latter of his sentence at me with barely a nod.
Luna's eyes grow brighter, her irises morphing into nothing but a silver glow. Quietly, she starts singing under her breath. Before she can do any damage, her body locks up, and she cries out in pain. I strain against my restraints, something inside me needing to get to her. It's a fruitless effort since the zip ties are strapped tightly around my wrists.
She drops back into the chair, breathless and a little dazed. Leaning forwards in my chair as much as it will allow, I check her face and say, "Luna? Are you okay? Talk to me."
With strain that has my chest aching, she says, "Oh yeah, just peachy."
I roll my eyes and smirk at my girl. Even abducted and in pain she can be as snarky as ever.
Deciding to give one of my powers a try now that Luna is awake, I tap into my fire ability. I will it to burn or melt away the zip ties, but nothing happens. Instead, a sharp pain stabs me in my spine, right between where my wings are hidden. My body locks up tight, and I growl through clenched teeth.
"You okay?" Luna asks, sarcasm dripping from her lips. So not what I need right now.
Clenching my jaw before releasing a breath, I tell her, "Fucking peachy."
She snorts before turning her attention back to the Garg
oyle. "Alright. I'll admit, that was smart. So, what's the plan here exactly?"
Javos walks closer to her, extending the white tabs. Luna doesn't flinch back this time, likely realizing there's no use in doing so. The Gargoyle roughly attaches the tabs to her temples, the wires dangling over her chest, down her legs, and across the floor to whatever it is that's on that table. As soon as the tabs are secure, Javos walks towards the table, and I hear the distinct clicking of buttons and flipping of switches. Something lights up a faded blue, and a horrible feeling in my gut tells me this shit is going to get bad real fast.
Javos returns to stand in front of Luna, sends me a look with his weirdly squished face, and then looks back at my girl. "We've attached electrodes to your head. Every hour we'll ask you which side to choose. Should you refuse, electricity will pierce your mind and cause a great deal of pain. We'll continue with this until a choice is finally made. The more hours that go by, the more we increase the voltage. Time to pick a side, Nevaeh."
With those parting words, he leaves the room, his stone feet thudding the floor with an echo that bounces off the damp walls. The door closes, but we're not alone. The Cherub replaces Javos, standing five feet away from Luna with a written question on a white piece of paper.
Heaven or Hell?
"Go fuck yourself, you ugly piece of shit," Luna spits, her eyes lit up like a silver bonfire.
Brolos' beady eyes narrow, and his toothless mouth pulls up in a snarl. He flexes his small white feathered wings in agitation then heads toward the table. Before I can even do a single thing to prevent what I know is coming, Brolos presses a button, and sparks race across the wires on the floor and up to the tabs at Luna's head.
The scream that pours from her lips damn near kills me. My jaw clenches tightly, and my hands form into fists. I feel completely helpless. Something I'm feeling a lot since I forced my way into Luna's life. I hate this as much as I hate Lucifer. That would be a lot.