Both bloodied redcaps had crawled to their elbows. All three of us stared, seemingly frozen in time.
The angel towered above us, honeyed sunlight washing over his perfectly bronzed skin. I caught glimpses of the magic curling from his body, dark as the hair that swept over his forehead. In contrast to the shadows that seemed to pool around him, light refracted off his inky wings, dazzling me.
His clothes looked expensive, finely cut to showcase his powerful body. In the deep V of his elegant shirt, I glimpsed a hint of spiked, thorny tattoos decorating his tawny skin.
Barefoot, he prowled closer to me, his gait relaxed. In fact, his expression looked amused, a lazy smile curling his lips. Our terror, our filth, our savagery, our frantic will to survive—it was all probably a hilarious joke to him.
When he came within a few feet, his power thrummed and sparked over my skin like an electrical pulse. I stared into his eyes—a stormy gray that blended to deep sapphire around the edges. Flecks of silver sparked there too.
Instinctively, I knew that he was a predator, and that beauty was one of his most terrifying weapons.
He stalked closer, and his inhumanly fluid movements sent my blood racing. As he walked, shadowy magic trailing behind him, I caught the breathtaking veins of silver that shot through his feathers, gleaming in the dying sunlight.
That sensuous smile never left his perfect lips. “I’m surprised to find a goddess such as yourself squabbling in the streets with these dregs.” The dangerous timbre of his voice promised death and seduction all in one. “At least you seemed to have the upper hand.”
The redcap at my feet scrambled up. “She did not have the upper hand,” he stammered. “No woman has the upper hand over me.”
The angel arched a perfect eyebrow, his expression faintly mocking. “Perhaps you enjoy pain? Would you like some more?” The threat of extreme brutality underscored the calm tone of his voice.
The redcap pointed at him, trying to feign bravery, even though we could all see his finger shaking. “You think you’re better than us, do you? You filthy carrion birds, vultures the lot of you. You should go back where you—”
The angel cut him off with a flick of his wrist, severing the redcap’s head from his body in a single, brutal instant. The headless corpse thunked to the ground, blood streaming over the pavement, and my stomach lurched.
I gasped for breath, my heart slamming against my ribs. In the next few moments, the sound of clanking filled the air as the second redcap started to sprint away.
The angel turned, cutting the air sharply with his hand. This time, he severed his prey at the waist, and the two pieces of the demon’s body slammed to the ground.
My jaw dropped. Was I next?
My blood roared in my ears, but I tried to hold his gaze steadily, tried to hide the terror that raced through my veins. My knees had gone weak, and the urge to fade into my fae form nearly overwhelmed me.
With his gaze now locked on me, the exquisite angel took another step closer, lethal grace imbuing his every move. The smell of myrrh curled off his body, along with the intoxicating scent of sycamore trees. Everything about him drew me in and told me to run at the same time, my brain a riot of conflicting emotions.
I stared up at him. He stood only a foot away from me now, his terrifying power caressing my skin. If I tried to run, I’d end up in pieces like the redcaps.
The angel reached for my face, and my breath caught in my throat.
He brushed his fingertip over a dab of blood on my cheek. At his touch, an electric jolt seared my core.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a succubus covered in blood,” he said quietly. “The days of the old sacrifices are long gone. Things didn’t turn out so well for your kind on Earth, did they? Pity. What fun it was to watch a naked succubus bathe in the blood of her male sacrifices. I imagine you miss the old days.”
I simply opened my mouth and closed it again.
His sensuous smile deepened. “I’d ask if you wanted to recreate it with me, but for an angel such pastimes might be frowned upon. We can kill, but we can’t appear to enjoy it too much.”
That’s right—I was supposed to be an ancient succubus. At one point, they had practically been deities. I shoved my terror under the surface, trying to summon the regal bearing of a goddess. One who’d once stood in the center of a temple, covered in sacrificial human blood. The succubi ran from no one.
Which, come to think of it, might explain why most of them were dead.
I swallowed hard. “So you remember the old days?” Unlike mine, his ancientness was probably real.
He laughed softly. “Do I look like I was born yesterday?” Arrogance laced his voice. “I’ve walked the Earth for thousands of years. Like you, succubus.”
Of course, any man who’d spent thousands of years looking like he did would develop a bit of an ego.
He cocked his head, studying me. “I’m surprised I’ve never run into you before. I would have remembered.”
A cool breeze rippled over us, toying with my crimson hair. “I’ve spent many years in hiding. There aren’t many succubi left. We have to protect ourselves however we can.”
The angel pulled a handkerchief from his pocket, wiping the blood off his finger. “Indulge my curiosity. Why were you fighting with those two curs?”
I met his gaze evenly. “Apparently, they wanted me to take my clothes off and wrap my legs around them.”
Darkness flitted through his eyes, and I realized I’d just confirmed to him all the despicable things angels believed about demons.
As he stood before me, shadows twisted around him, swallowing the air. “So they had good taste, but poor manners.”
“I had to teach them a lesson, as you might imagine. Sometimes violence is necessary. Things have changed in the past year.” I crossed my arms. “Since the angels commanded dragon shifters to start slaughtering us, things haven’t been great for females.”
“Well, like you said.” His velvety voice seemed to curl around me like a dangerous embrace. “Sometimes violence is necessary.”
All right. I wasn’t going to get into a philosophical debate with him about the justification for mass slaughter, or what the angels had done to the Earth. I had something important I needed to ask him, and I wouldn’t get many other chances.
I cleared my throat, steeling my resolve. “Look, I have a question to ask you. I’m looking for my sister. It’s the whole reason I came to London—”
Before I could even finish the sentence, he spread out his dark wings, the silver strands glinting in the sunlight. The sight dazzled me, cutting off my words.
In the next few moments, he took flight into the skies.
And with him went my only chance to ask an all-powerful being about the fate of my sister.
Chapter 3
It took a full day before I had the nerve to leave the rookery again. And for my next foray into the world outside, Alex declared he was coming with me, whether or not it made him a chauvinist. He didn’t care about being PC anymore.
Frankly, as we walked along Brick Lane, I found myself happy for the company.
The sun would be setting soon. Dusk and nightfall were when the angels usually crawled out of the shadows—when the Hunt came to East London.
But I didn’t want to think about that now. I wanted the good stories—the gold-flaked cupcakes and wine—so I could forget all about what had happened yesterday.
Alex smiled at me. “You never get sick of hearing about the cupcakes, do you, Ruby darling?” The sunlight warmed his mahogany skin.
“I just want to hear the varieties again. I don’t actually care about the gold; it’s more the cake flavors that interest me.” Anything to get my mind off the memory of the severed redcap bodies, the angel’s savage efficiency. “What did the gold-flaked cupcake taste like?”
Alex squinted into the sunlight. “That one tasted like honey, but I’m sure for enough money, you could have had any flavor you wa
nted.”
My stomach growled audibly, and I clutched it. “My sister Hazel used to bake cupcakes every weekend. I would murder for a cupcake right now. Any kind. Vanilla, red velvet. Hell, even carrot cake with the cream cheese. I’d probably murder multiple people for that kind with the molten chocolate in the middle.”
“Murder’s not gonna get you cupcakes, love.”
“I think she used to make molten chocolate cupcakes. That’s real, right? It’s not something I dreamed up, is it? Melted dark chocolate, right in the middle of a cupcake. I don’t know what sort of problem the angels have, but the human race invented those, and that makes them gods-damned geniuses. Molten chocolate cupcakes were humanity’s zenith before the Nightmare began, do you know that?”
He shot me a sharp look. “You okay, fairy? I feel like hunger is driving you mental.”
“Fae. Not fairy. And yes, hunger is driving me mental. Ignoring hunger isn’t part of the fae skill set. At least not until you reach the age of ninety or two hundred or something.”
“Right. Sorry. And you’re… what… eighty?”
I rolled my eyes. “A mere twenty-five. Young as hell for a fae.” I rubbed my rumbling stomach. “Hence, I have no control over my hunger.”
“You and me both.”
I glanced at him. “You must have known about the fae for a few years, right? It’s not a new concept for humans.” Demons, humans, fae… we’d all started fighting each other out in the open five years ago. Years before the angels came and started killing all of us.
“Yeah, I’d heard of the fae, I guess, but I’d never met one. Mostly, once humans learned about supernaturals, everyone was focused on the demons. They just seemed a lot scarier than, you know, fairies.”
“Fae. And we are plenty scary. Let’s not forget the time you watched me go feral and chew through leather restraints.”
“It was honestly oddly cute.”
I scowled at him. “Oh, please.”
Alex shook his head. “And yeah, I guess I don’t know a ton about your kind. It’s hard to keep up with everything we humans had to learn in the past seven years. First we learned that magic is real. Then we learned that magical creatures want to kill us, and we could protect ourselves with spells if we get them right. We were just getting used to the idea of all this, and BAM, the dragons come out to slaughter us all before we can do anything cool with this knowledge. Never even got my hands on those magic books to learn to make myself invisible or levitate.”
“Well, I never learned that either. Really wishing I’d studied one of those old agricultural magic books at some point.”
“I’m with you there. I’m just hoping we can get our bloody potatoes out of the ground unscathed today. The hunger is making me dizzy. And if the ground freezes…”
He let the sentence die in the air. If the ground froze, which it usually did in January, we’d be fucked. There was no way around it—we didn’t have enough supplies to get us through the winter.
“I think I know a way to keep people away from us today.” Only this time, the glamour would take a bit more effort.
I closed my eyes as we walked, summoning a powerful glamour—one that would tax my energy. As I let the spell wash over me, the ancient fae magic tingled across my skin in a satisfying rush. I disguised my pale complexion and my green eyes. I covered up my gaunt cheekbones and my skinny form.
I replaced it all with a gargantuan, scarred hulk of a man.
After the glamour fully took effect, a passerby would see an ogre striding down the street next to Alex, all corded muscle. This glamour would be a struggle to maintain, but at least it would keep the redcaps away from us. Sadly, the glamour didn’t actually change my physiology—I didn’t have the strength of an ogre. I was still me completely underneath it all. It was a sort of bubble of illusion around my body. Only thing I didn’t disguise was the bag I carried—that would just about lay me out with fatigue.
Alex peered up at me, grinning. “You look ugly as sin, and I feel safer already.”
“You know I’ll protect you, my little friend.”
My stomach rumbled, hunger gnawing at my ribs. We walked on in silence, and my gaze trailed over the blackened husks of pubs and apartment buildings that lined Brick Lane.
In one of the alleys we passed, the breeze lifted a few plastic bags. The sudden noise made my heart thump. I think I had PTSD from the whole angel run-in.
I could almost envision this street as it must have been: people bustling in and out of the shops and restaurants, buying trendy clothes and eating curries. Now the windows had been smashed, and a crashed truck blocked part of the road, its rotten contents spilled into the street: old cartons of eggs, blackened in the dragon fires; piles of beer bottles, half-melted.
Did the angels spend much time around this sort of depressing landscape? I didn’t imagine so. They probably had a gilded palace somewhere, and every now and then they’d just fly around unleashing death on everyone for no reason.
A few blocks away, two sentinels drifted silently, their dark eyes locked on us.
At last, we took a sharp right onto Buxton Street, where an overgrown park lined a crumbling cobbled road. Part of the park was enclosed by a brick wall—and this was where our garden lay. We looked furtively around us before crossing to the rusted refrigerator door that masked the garden’s opening.
When we were sure the coast was completely clear, Alex shifted the door aside.
Quietly, we slipped in through the narrow opening, my muscles already aching from the effort of keeping the glamour in effect.
In the safety of our little hidden garden, Alex began to pull up potatoes from the cold ground, while I went to check the traps. I grinned when I saw one of the wooden boxes flat on the ground.
Long ago, my parents had made sure I’d learned the old fae ways—how to live off the forest, to set snares for prey. If larger game like deer ever ran through the city, I knew how to carve a bow and arrow from a sapling and shoot the poor bastards, but I didn’t see that happening any time soon.
My mouth was already watering. We’d be having rabbit for dinner tonight. I snatched up the box, then grabbed the panicking rabbit. It only took a second to snap its neck. Clutching the limp body, I wrapped it in a plastic bag.
As I did, an icy wind rippled over my skin, a shadow passing overhead. When I looked up, my stomach dropped. Under the deepening clouds, the dark-winged angel swooped low, though he didn’t seem to notice us.
Tawny sunlight pierced the iron-gray clouds, gilding his powerful wings.
My heart skipped a beat. Death, wrapped in one beautiful, angelic form.
I smacked Alex’s arm, then pointed at the sky. His eyes went wide. As the angel soared away, Alex let out a long breath.
“Bloody hell,” he breathed. “That the one you saw yesterday?”
“Yeah. That’s your first one, isn’t it?” I asked.
He nodded. “You’re the only one I know who’s seen one. What the hell do you think they’re doing here?”
I shook my head. “I can’t tell. I’m not sure if they care whether we live or die. I tried to ask him about my sister, but he didn’t even stick around long enough for me to finish my sentence. He made some weird comments about succubi being naked and covered in blood, then he just flew off.”
Suddenly, Alex’s eyes went wide, and he pressed a finger to his lips, arching a cautionary eyebrow. Voices echoed off the nearby bricks, and a chill snaked up my spine.
The gangs were out late today. Probably the same gang that had beaten the crap out of Alex yesterday. Didn’t they know the Hunt would be coming through here soon?
I shoved the rabbit into the backpack, then peered out the craggy opening in the wall. I cast a nervous glance at the sky, clenching my jaw. Night hadn’t fallen yet, but the last ruddy rays were slipping away fast.
From my vantage point, the street still seemed deserted, just a few plastic bags and old newspapers drifting in the wind. I turned back to
Alex, beckoning him to follow, and we slipped out into the street. Carefully, I slid the fridge door over the opening to the garden, hiding our bounty. I tightened my grip on the backpack’s straps, and we moved swiftly over the cobbles, back toward the safety of our rookery.
As we moved, the hair rose on the back of my neck. I didn’t see any gangs, but I could feel their eyes on us. They knew we had food they didn’t have the skills to catch. They might not be stronger than us, or cleverer than us, but they outnumbered us.
“Any idea where they are?” whispered Alex.
I scanned the streets, where nothing moved but scraps of trash blowing in the breeze.
As we turned onto Brick Lane, I heard the first footfalls behind us. I cast a quick glance behind me, my heart thundering at the sight of a large street gang a half a block away. There were about twelve of them. Judging by the looks on their faces, my ogre glamour was doing nothing to scare them off.
At the front of the gang, a pale, bearded man gripped a machete. I knew him, in fact. He was the one everyone called Dickhead, on account of the long, thin birthmark on his bald head. Exactly the man who’d beaten up Alex for his food yesterday.
I can’t say humanity had gotten any more appealing after the Great Nightmare had begun.
Dickhead nodded at us. “What have you got in your little bag there?” he shouted. “Something tasty? Why don’t you let us have a little peek? Feeling a bit peckish myself.”
I shot a quick look to Alex. Not giving up the rabbit, I tried to convey with my eyes. My rumbling stomach demanded that we hang on to what we had.
Alex nodded at me, then we broke into a sprint, charging down Brick Lane. Not a brilliant plan, but a simple one.
Unfortunately for me, the glamour was using up half my energy, and already my muscles were searing, my lungs burning. Dizziness clouded my mind, and I dropped the glamour. It was running or magic—I couldn’t do both.
By the time we reached Osborn Street, sweat drenched my clothes, and my breath had grown ragged in my throat.
We hung a sharp left, my throat tightening at the sound of the gang closing in on us. I reached for one of the surgical blades from my belt, grabbing the hilt.
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