Her pulse fluttered in the curve of her neck. “You stopped it before.”
Me? If she had hoped to find a savior, she would be sorely disappointed. “Not I. I had nothing to do with the last Fall, and this time…” My wings were broken, my element weak. What miracles did she expect from me? “There was a Court. A King and Queen of Hell. Together, they balanced the chaos energies and restored the veil. Do you have a King and Queen, Ramírez? Do you have chaos and control demons to set this right? All you have is me, and whatever was left of me you helped destroy in that box!”
My wings twitched, the bones grating. My growl sounded low and deadly like something worthy of a demon monster.
Her defiance wavered, and inside the building, Christian started back down the stairs, coming to her rescue like the valiant hero he believed he was.
“The government did this,” she said. “We thought they would put it right, but after the first wave hit and nobody did anything—”
“The first wave? Lessers?”
“Many.” Concern dug a V into her brow. She looked again at the tall, swaying grasses, afraid of what was lurking in their depths. “You have to help us, Li’el.”
Christian loitered in the entryway, his finger resting on the rifle’s trigger. They’d asked for my help, yet neither of them trusted me. What did I owe them?
I turned away. “Any demon worth their name would kill you all and welcome their kin through.” I smiled, knowing they couldn’t see it. “Fortunately for you, this world must survive, even if some of you don’t deserve to be saved.”
A strangled demon howl erupted across the grasses near the edge of the highway. That sound was not meant for this world.
“Get inside,” I told them. “The lessers will not attack with me here.”
“Are you sure?” Ramírez asked, referencing my weakened state. “Let me help you.”
I inched my wings open, deliberately breaking swollen sinew and soaking up the jagged stabs of pain. “I’m perfectly capable of crushing the skulls of a few lessers.” And I needed it to shake off the decay from being crouched in the box for so long… for years… and to remind myself exactly what I was capable of.
“Please.” Guilt drenched that single word.
“No.”
She opened her mouth, about to protest.
“I need this.”
I started down the steps and stretched my senses outward. Whether Ramírez listened didn’t matter. After a few steps, I dissolved into air, moving freely for the first time in years. The constant physical pain from my wings faded beneath the sensation of freedom, becoming more of an echo in my ethereal state.
I flowed outward, spreading into a mist, soaring across the silent grounds. At the fringes of my reach, LA lay too quietly, its roads empty. I imagined many had fled at the sight of the veil, but some would have stayed and holed up in their homes. I would help them where I could, but this moment was for me.
Lessers shifted in the grass, venturing closer, sensing weakness.
They were not meant to be here. This city was mine.
I pulled my element in, making myself ghostly. The pain returned, my wings useless, but wings, even ruined wings, were a sign of status among demons and a basic means of signaling strength. Revealing their shredded expanse, I cast my power outward and trawled it over the lessers.
They knew what demon they faced.
I saw them through the mist, felt them breathing and hesitate. Dozens of eyes peered back and more were coming. In large numbers, they were formidable, but no match for my rage.
I smiled. It had been so very long since I’d given in to my most demon desires. Not just the years kept in the box, but farther back to a time when I’d ruled as one of the Seven. To kill, to master, to own, to be demon. I hadn’t always been Li’el. I’d once been a creature of power and wrath.
The lesser to my right inched forward, snout huffing close to the ground. On all fours, it stood as tall as a man. Its crescent claws were designed to rip its prey apart. The tail lashing behind it bore three spikes. Power trembled through its muscles. It was not like the weakest demons left over from the Fall. This lesser had come straight out of the netherworld. Bigger, hungrier, stronger.
I looked it square in the eye. A challenge. It saw my lessened state and smelled the decay on my wings, and instincts told it to take.
“Let’s dance.”
The beast launched through the air with its jaws wide and claws extended, and fell through the ghost of me, stumbling to the ground. My laughter sailed through the air. The beast turned in time to see the real me—a creature made of mist, of smoke, of the very air it needed to breathe—and faced its death.
“I am air and everywhere,” I whispered, sending the words into the mist.
The beast sprang a second time. I whirled away, and before it could land, I yanked the air from inside its lungs, choking it. It tumbled and clawed at its throat. I pinned it beneath my foot, wrapped my hand around its snout, and snapped its head back. An audible crack ricocheted through the silence like a gunshot.
The swarm of lessers bounded forward, spilling out of shadows, from beneath parked cars, and dropping from rooftops. Hundreds.
The lust for the kill burned fiercely. Yes, this would be a slaughter, and I welcomed it.
I flung my wings open, hearing them crack and feeling old bones shatter and mend. Pain strummed and beat and throbbed, and it felt good.
Yes, come to me. Remind me of who I am, what I am, and what I can be.
They sprang and clawed and rushed and snapped. I flung them back, struck some, suffocated others. Countless came and died beneath my hands until demon blood soaked the ground and their stink filled the air. The more I killed, the easier it became and the less of a hold the pain had on me.
I am demon. This city is mine.
The veil throbbed above, its push and pull a reminder of the netherworld and what I had been—a warning and a promise. The netherworld was close, and given the chance, it would come, it would take, and it would turn this world ugly. But I would not give it that chance. LA was mine. Its people were mine to protect. Mine. No one would take the City of Angels from me.
Claws dug into my right wing, dousing me in agony. I arched the skeletal framework high, flinging the beast off, but another landed on my back, clawing and biting to maintain its grip. My growl shook the air and earth. I whirled and flicked the creature off. Another rushed in. Another tore at my wings. Teeth sank in, yanking me down.
No, not my wings…
They should not have been this strong. The veil hadn’t fallen. They should have been weaker and disorganized.
I turned to air, let the beasts fall, struck them down by suffocating them, and tore through their numbers. When it was over and no more beasts came from the mists, I stood alone, my shredded wings dripping blood and painting my now solid flesh with their gore.
Stretching my element far, more demons scurried away. Hundreds—no, thousands. There shouldn’t have been so many. This was not a normal force. Had the princes beyond the veil driven them through, or was something else drawing them here?
“I need you to tell me everything that’s happened in my absence,” I said.
Ramírez had approached near the end of my killing spree, her rifle poised, first on the lessers and then on me. I had wondered if she might shoot, but she had hung back and watched me kill. She had seen me in an alleyway once, my wings intact, my vessel perfect, civilized. She might have believed then that I was good. Now she saw a creature, skin wet with blood, wings virtually destroyed. I stood raw and exposed as completely demon. No more facades. No more charming Li’el. I tossed her a smile, revealing sharp teeth, and she witnessed why humans had once named me the devil.
I saw fear on her face, fear and horror. She was right to fear me. Just because I played at being human, it didn’t mean I wasn’t everything she knew of demons.
“Am I everything you thought I was?” I turned, letting the wings fizzle away, w
ashed the blood from my body with a gesture, and rebuilt the magnificent male vessel with his Hollywood smile and perfectly tailored casual clothes. By the time I’d crossed the blood-soaked ground, my shoes were shining and my cuffs were perfectly aligned with the jacket I’d created. She saw the suave black man, the clever camouflage that had helped me blend in with humans for centuries, and the honest fear in her eyes grew. Now she understood the creature she had bargained with.
The stinking demon carcasses scattered around us could have easily been humans felled by my claws. Once, they would have been.
“Remember this scene the next time you consider betraying me,” I said, passing beside her through the parting mists and up the steps to the museum.
“I…”
I didn’t know what she would have said. I’m sorry, perhaps. I didn’t understand. I didn’t want her excuses. The past was done. Now I had to salvage the future, if there was one for this world.
Chapter 11
“Public attractions—where people gathered in large numbers—were the first to close,” Ramírez explained. “Fifty-two people were killed at the city zoo. That’s how we knew more lessers were getting through.”
Ramírez and I sat in the large cafeteria on the ground floor of the science museum. Chairs and tables had been abandoned. A discarded kid’s coat was draped over a nearby ice cream counter, but the quiet was thick and telling.
Christian patrolled the building out of sight, moving through the air on the first floor.
“Once the city issued a curfew and the military got involved, people started leaving. Then the government issued a notice to stay, saying we’d be safe in our homes. My department was supposed to help keep order. The city had to keep functioning. It barely survived the first Fall, and now this…” She trailed off. “Then they closed the roads.”
“Why?” I asked.
She regarded me warily as though I might leap across the table and kill her. She had nothing to fear from me, though I had no intention of telling her that—yet.
“The official line was, For our safety, but… I don’t know. It feels different this time. Last time, it happened fast, and it was over in days. This time…”
“Because this time it’s not coming from the netherworld. It started this side of the veil.” I leaned in. Ramírez stilled, not wanting to flinch away. “Christian said the government was hoping to harness the veil. What do you know about that?”
“Right before this started, the governor announced there had been a breakthrough in clean energy, right here in California.” She shrugged. “Californians are used to big claims. If it’s not batteries, it’s solar. We’ve heard it all before.”
“But this time?”
She pressed her lips together. “I’m not even sure there’s a connection.”
“Unfortunate timing if not.”
“Ask Christian. Maybe he knows more.”
While my blood was running hot, the best place for Christian was far, far away from me. I had my control reined in for now. “How did you meet up with him?”
“He was with the team that swooped in as soon as Catherine gave the green light to have you… dealt with.”
“Dealt with… like a stray hound.” I arched an eyebrow and relaxed back in my chair. “Delightful.”
“I searched for him when I figured you could help us. Turns out, once there were no more demons to catch, he started freelancing as a private demon hunter. I was already in touch with him when the lessers started attacking.”
“So, he told you where I was.”
She nodded and picked at her thumbnail, focusing there instead of on me. “They closed your attraction after the earthquake—Look, I’m just a cop. I don’t make the decisions. I couldn’t stop them from capturing you or what they did… afterward.”
“Sure you couldn’t.”
She threw her hands up. “What was I supposed to do?”
“Come visit,” I replied, the picture of calm.
“I…” She hesitated.
“Hmm?” I encouraged.
“It wasn’t right…” She scowled at her chewed-up fingernails.
“I appreciate the sentiment.” I could have told her how I had searched the thousands of anonymous faces for hers and how I’d looked forward to seeing her, even just once. Strange how one human woman had spent so much time occupying my thoughts. Strange and curious. She had lost her family to demons. She was firmly on the side of the righteous and hadn’t sought me out until she’d needed my help. There was nothing between us but misunderstandings and curiosity. At least that was what I told myself.
“We have no right to ask you for help,” she said and finally met my gaze. “But you’re the only one who understands what’s happening.”
“I wouldn’t say I understand it, but I am the only one who can help control it and find a solution. What has Christian said about my helping?”
“That you’ll use us, then kill us the first chance you get.”
That would be the demon thing to do. “He’s right.” I hid much of my smile but let a little show through. “You don’t have to worry.”
“Will you use us—him?”
“I haven’t killed any people in a long time, despite how strategically removing many of your lesser specimens from the gene pool would greatly improve your species.”
“That wasn’t what I asked.”
Clever. She knew how I played with words. I had forgotten that about her. I placed my hand over my heart. “I solemnly swear I have no intention of killing any human beings.”
“Thank you.” She frowned. “I think.” Then she held out her hand across the table.
I looked at it, adopting my own frown.
“Marianna Ramírez,” she said. “My friends call me Anna.”
Friends? I closed my hand around hers, finding it small and warm. “Prince of Pride and restaurateur, among other things. You may call me Li’el.”
Her smile twisted up my insides in strange and unusual knots that weren’t entirely unpleasant. I released her hand and leaned back in the seat, making a mental note to incite that smile more often.
“So, Li’el, where do we start?”
“Most man-made disasters begin with one person and cascade down to the general population. We find that person who has all the answers.”
“And how do we do that?”
“We go back to where it all began.”
“Li’el?” Noah launched himself from one of my many couches as though the cushions were on fire. He bounded toward me but pulled up short, noticing Anna and Christian at the last second. “I… What the… I didn’t think I’d see you again.” He puffed out a sigh and rubbed the back of his neck. “Damn, you’re okay. You’re really okay?”
“You doubted it?” I scanned the clothes, empty takeout cartons, and beer cans strewn about my apartment living room and what I could see of my disheveled bedroom beyond.
Anna and Christian drifted forward, toeing through the mess.
Noah trailed after me. “Yeah, I doubted it. What they did—”
“It’s done.” I turned. Shallow depressions darkened his eyes. In my absence, he had turned into a shadow of his former self. I knew how that felt. Frankly, I was surprised to see him. As far as I could tell from the dust and disarray downstairs, the restaurant had been closed for some time. Noah should have been with his family, not crashing on my couch.
He looked me in the eye, and when he spoke, he lowered his voice. “When they took you, it happened so fast. I tried to tell them what happened to Rosa wasn’t you, but they—”
I squeezed his shoulder. “We have more pressing matters.”
Anna picked up a slip of a little black dress from a chair arm and raised her eyebrow.
Noah blushed. “Er, that’s erm… that had nothing to do with me. Some people stayed here months back, and I… it was… I didn’t have anywhere else to go.” He sighed and ran trembling fingers through his hair. “You’re not pissed?”
A
smile touched my lips. I patted him on the back. “It’s good to see you.”
He gulped, but concern and guilt tightened his smile into a grimace. Two years had passed, I reminded myself. Much had happened. We all had regrets.
In the kitchen, I opened a few cupboards and found them sparse. We had seen market stalls on the way into Hollywood. The military was allowing supply vehicles through the roadblocks to keep the city functioning, but prices had crept up. LA was barely clinging on by its fingernails.
“Is this cocaine?” Christian asked. He knelt next to the coffee table beside the window and pushed around the dregs of some white powder.
“That’s not mine,” Noah immediately denied. “I found it. Erm…”
All eyes turned accusingly to me. “I’m demon.” I dug out a dusty bottle of bourbon and a glass. “It’s the bodies in the basement you should be concerned with.”
Christian’s rifle rattled.
“He’s joking,” Anna said. “I think he’s joking. You’re joking, right?”
“Yeah,” Noah offhandedly replied for me, but his tone had an unfortunate question behind it. “Yeah. I’ve been down there. There aren’t any bodies.”
The quiet got awkward, especially considering the last time I’d set foot inside my restaurant I’d been accused of murder.
I smiled to myself, poured the last of the bourbon, and lifted it to my lips. All three watched me, one frowning, one about to shoot, and the other eyeing me as though I might vanish at any second. Entertainment would be scarce over the next few days and weeks. Playing with these three would do nicely.
“You’ll be staying here while we search for the source of recent events,” I told them, leaving no room for discussion. “There is one main entrance that can be easily fortified, and a fire escape that is quite secure. You’ll be safe here.” More muted silence. “Unless you all have somewhere better to be?”
“No. This is good,” Noah agreed.
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