Angelstone: Dark Angel #2 (Urban Fantasy)

by Peach, Hanna

  Love always,

  Siana

  Chapter 8

  Dinner out on the balcony with Jordan was lovely. The sky was clear of clouds and they could see more stars out here than in Saint Joseph. The only sound was a distant quacking. Jordan had explained that the grounds at Aradale were extensive with a pond and a creek. Alyx made a note to explore the Aradale property when she could.

  Jordan had thrown a red cloth over a small round table and lit a small stubby candle. “Sorry I couldn’t find a white tablecloth or a better candle.” Alyx waved these things off.

  The food was a simple stew, but it filled her up. Jordan made her laugh more than once, and it was a light relief from everything she had endured recently. Alyx almost succeeded in not thinking about Israel. He’d probably have a fit if he saw them now. Good, a voice inside of her spat. Stuff Israel and what he thought.

  Alyx smiled and bit the strawberry Jordan offered her. Jordan rubbed a drop of juice from her lip with his thumb and she tried not to notice the odd feeling in her stomach.

  “There’s somewhere I want to take you,” he said.

  Alyx started. “You mean… just the two of us?”

  Jordan smiled. “I don’t mean like that.”

  “Oh.” Alyx felt a sense of relief. How silly was she?

  “Where I want to take you, we might be able to get some information about Samyara or the Darkened.”

  “Of course.”

  “But you’ll have to keep this to yourself.”

  Alyx couldn’t help the apprehension that began to coil in her stomach. “Why?”

  “Not everyone would agree with our going where we’re going.”

  * * *

  Later that night, Alyx pushed through the curtains of her open window. Jordan and Alyx agreed that they would return to their respective bedrooms pretending to turn in for the night, then meet on the roof. So here she was, sneaking out of her bedroom, feeling as if she was sneaking out of Michaelea again.

  Jordan was already there as she came over the rise of the roof. He squeezed her shoulder in a greeting. Then, silently, he lifted off the tiles towards the sky. She followed.

  Jordan led them to the outskirts of a city nearby that he called Buda-pesth. The city rose out of the horizon before them as they neared it, the domes and spiked roofs piercing the inky sky. Alyx imagined that it was these spikes that had pierced the holes in the sky which allowed the stars to shine through.

  Jordan and Alyx touched down in a corner of a dark street of what appeared to be an industrial area. Alyx glanced around. Buildings and warehouses lined this wide street, but there was no light coming from any of the windows. There appeared to be no one here.

  “I thought you said we were going to a bar? What are we doing here?” she whispered to Jordan.

  “Purgatory is a bit different from most places on earth.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Well, for starters, you can get to Purgatory from Nordlingen or, indeed, anywhere. But for safety reasons I always make it a point to enter from a different city. Just in case someone follows me out.”

  “What?” Alyx shook her head, totally confused.

  “You’ll see.”

  Jordan took Alyx’s hand and led her across the street. They stopped in front of two buildings, number 11 and number 15. “Number 13. We’re here.”

  Alyx raised her eyebrows. She didn’t see a number 13 anywhere.

  Jordan stepped towards the crease in the buildings between number 11 and number 15. Something shimmered. But before Alyx could speak, Jordan pulled her through a slip in space.

  Alyx found herself walking forward through a dark tunnel for some distance. At the end was what looked like a wall of black water that Jordan disappeared through. She followed, her heart beginning to thump.

  Alyx blinked against the increasing brightness and her feet hit polished floorboards. Then her jaw dropped as she looked around. It looked like any other bar – dim, grungy. Not that Alyx had spent a lot of time in bars. But that wasn’t what shocked her. Under a cloud of smoke hovering below the ceiling were Seraphim, the Darkened with their dual-faces, and creatures with rust-colored skin, claws and teeth.

  Alyx recoiled and pulled Jordan back. “What are you doing? There are Darkened in here. And demons. Real demons,” she hissed.

  “Relax. This place is enchanted. They can’t hurt you.” Then Jordan gave her a half smile. “Unless you consent to it, of course.”

  “What?”

  “Try and hit me,” Jordan said casually.

  “Have you lost your damn mind?”

  “No.” Jordan chuckled softly. “Just do it.”

  She studied him for a moment. “Let me get this straight. You want me to hit you.”

  “To prove my point, yes.”

  “Okay, but I’m not responsible for any pain I may inflict.” Alyx pulled back her fist and raised an eyebrow at Jordan.

  He was actually smiling as he tilted his jaw towards her. “Don’t hold back.”

  Alyx gathered the energy in her arm and… she couldn’t move. “What the hell?”

  “I told you. Now can you stop mucking around so we can check this place out?”

  Alyx stared at her fist as if it was a separate entity. She tried punching out again, but again the arm did not move. It wasn’t that she felt any resistance; it was as if the arm wasn’t hers and she was unable to control it.

  Jordan took her hand from the air and pushed his fingers through hers. She was still too stunned to protest. He pulled her through the bar, weaving between tables as they went. They walked past a table of real demons, scaly and red-eyed. Alyx watched them warily. They didn’t seem to notice her.

  She whispered to Jordan, “You said something before, about how no one could hurt you unless you consented to it.”

  “That’s right.”

  “Why would anyone consent to being hurt?”

  “Some people like to experiment with pain during sex.”

  Experiment with… during… Alyx blinked, fighting off a blush. “Are you serious?”

  “There’s a fine line between pleasure and pain.” He grinned. “Supposedly.”

  Alyx’s head was still trying to wrap her head around this concept when they reached the bar. Jordan pulled her close to him. Alyx could feel herself tense.

  “Try to loosen up,” he said into her ear. “It helps if we just look like we’re in here for a good time.”

  His breath, tickling her neck, was sweet. A kind of mint? Alyx couldn’t help but glance down at his mouth. She couldn’t help but notice that his lips were thinner than Israel’s. Dammit. She wanted to slap herself. Was she always going to compare everyone to Israel? Would his shadow cast over everything she did? No. She couldn’t let him haunt her like this.

  Alyx glanced up and saw that Jordan had noticed her eyes on his lips. A small smile tilted one corner of his lips. Jordan leaned towards her. She felt like she should move away, but for some reason she didn’t. A curiosity grew… After Israel what would another man’s lips feel like on hers?

  “You look...” he paused, his lips inches from hers, “…thirsty.”

  Jordan winked at her and broke their gaze. Alyx felt the expulsion of air from her lungs. Jordan nodded to the bartender and held up two fingers. The bartender nodded back. Alyx frowned at Jordan when he returned his gaze to her.

  “That’s Loki,” he said by way of explanation.

  “How can a mortal stand to work here? I thought—”

  “Loki’s half-demon. Proper half-demon.”

  Alyx turned her gaze towards where Loki was now pouring a clear liquid into two stub glasses filled with ice. He didn’t look any different than any other mortal. No horns, no fangs, no scales. Half-demon? “But how?”

  “This is the one place where demons, Seraphim and mortals in the know can come together. Is it so hard to imagine that a demon and a mortal could fall in love and produce a son?”

  Is this where Israel ha
d come from? Is this how he had become part demon?

  “Thanks,” Jordan said to Loki as two glasses filled with clear liquid and ice brandished with slices of lemon were pushed in front of him. Jordan slid something across the bar under his fingers into Loki’s hands.

  Alyx realized that Jordan hadn’t specified what drink to pour. How did Loki know what to pour him? Was Loki a mind reader? And Jordan hadn’t needed to ask how much these drinks had cost…

  “How often do you come here?” Alyx asked, her tone more accusatory than she had intended.

  Jordan shrugged. “Tongues loosen after a few drinks. Information here’s good. Sometimes the company is, too.” He swilled the ice and liquid in his glass before downing the whole thing at once. “Plus, sometimes you need to let loose and have a bit of fun, right?” He winked at Alyx.

  Alyx took a gulp of her drink. She tasted a cool sharpness laced with the sourness of lemon. Then her mouth burned as if it were on fire. She coughed. “God, how do you drink this?”

  “Vodka. It’ll put hair on your chest.”

  “It’s awful.” Alyx pushed the glass away from her.

  “You get used to it.”

  She was about to respond with a retort when she heard a voice from behind her, thick like pouring honey. “You two look like you could use a little extra company.”

  Alyx turned her head. Behind her was a man, strong jaw, jet-black hair styled into a quiff, deep blue eyes rimmed with black eyeliner. Under his tanned mortal skin he was green and had rows of small horns across his cheeks. Alyx’s body reacted by flaring in swirls of disgust. This demonic creature was standing way too close for comfort. Alyx moved her hand to her blade at her hip and cursed inwardly when she realized she wouldn’t be able to use it. The Darkened didn’t seem perturbed by her reaction to him.

  “Before you dismiss me, you should be polite and at least shake my hand.” The Darkened stared intensely at her as though he were trying to transmit his thoughts to her.

  Alyx looked down at his hand – long fingers, tapered fingertips, well-manicured. But she couldn’t get over the hue of the lesser demon skin underneath. She bristled. “I’m not—”

  “Shake his hand, Alyx,” Jordan’s voice was low but his tone was fierce. Alyx looked back at him in surprise. Jordan didn’t meet her gaze. He kept his eyes narrowed on the Darkened. Jordan knew something.

  She had a choice – she could trust Jordan again or she could refuse. So far, he hadn’t let her down.

  Alyx turned back to the Darkened and slowly extended her right hand towards his. He closed his fingers around her hand in a fierce grip. The instant her skin touched him he began to shimmer. The green of his skin faded under the human facade. It disintegrated to a sea of blue that swirled and seemed to ripple. The horns on his face smoothed out and his skin rose up to form ridges along his jawline like gills. She gasped. A mirage demon. A greater demon. The most rare and revered of demons apart from Lucifer himself. What in the holy Angel’s name was a mirage demon doing here?

  Alyx started to speak, “You’re a—”

  “Not here,” he stated simply, although his eyes conveyed much more. He leaned in and lowered his voice, “I know who you are, Alyx.”

  Alyx. He didn’t call her Alyxandria. But Alyx. Alyx’s skin prickled. Who was this demon? And why was he hiding who he was by choosing to look like a lesser demon?

  “What is it to you?” Alyx said pulling her hand from his. The blue of his skin faded into green again.

  “We should talk. Somewhere private.”

  Jordan spoke up, “Upstairs, then?”

  “Yes. It is safest there. We will be left alone.”

  The Darkened pushed off the bar. Jordan nudged Alyx’s back, indicating for her to go first. Wordlessly, she followed the demon as he weaved his way through the bar. Alyx noticed that he was careful not to touch anyone along the way.

  At the back of the bar the demon disappeared behind a red curtain. Alyx paused before it, not wanting to pull it aside, not wanting to see what was behind it and where they were being led. Her heart thudded in her ears. Jordan stepped closer to her and reached out around her to separate the curtain.

  Before her was a flight of stairs between two black walls, each one with a row of searing white lights like diamonds. The glare wouldn’t allow her to see what was waiting for them at the top of the stairs. Perhaps that was the point.

  “Whatever happens,” Jordan said in her ear, “just go along with it.”

  Alyx felt the unease in the base of her stomach grow. But she nodded and began to walk up the stairs.

  At the top was a small reception area, stylishly furnished. Alyx could feel her feet sinking slightly into the plush carpet beneath her. The mirage demon was talking to a lady behind the desk with ginger hair in curls piled on top of her head and secured with simple black pins. Alyx caught the end of what the mirage demon was saying, “...a more standard room, Lady Bluesette. It’s her first time. We wouldn’t want to scare the poor thing.”

  Then Alyx noticed the top of two bronzed horns showing through the lady’s curls and the set of clawed bat-like wings spilling out from either side of her chair. “Lady” indeed.

  This Lady Bluesette looked over at Alyx and Jordan, who had come up beside her, and acknowledged them with a slight nod of her head.

  “And it’ll just be the three of you?” The lady directed this to the mirage demon. “Or will you be wanting additional company?”

  “That won’t be necessary, Lady Bluesette.”

  “Come with me,” she said as she circled around her desk. As the Lady walked past Alyx, she could smell thick vanilla cloying her nose. But underneath it something smelled like rust, which set her teeth on edge.

  Whatever happens, just go with it.

  Lady Bluesette led them through one of the corridors off of the reception area. She stopped in front of a door marked as room number 17, turned the handle and pushed open the door. “I wish you… an adventurous and pleasurable stay.”

  Alyx swallowed and stepped inside.

  It was a large room decorated in cream, latte-brown, and wood edged in gold. The large king-sized bed was covered in a tasteful number of pillows. Two deep red bedside lamps, a single matching red pillow and a vase of white and red roses were the only accents of color. Several bucket armchairs circled a low coffee table. On a black glass table near the bed was a large black box opened on its hinges displaying a silver paddle, a pair of silver handcuffs and a silver phallic-shaped object.

  Experiment with pain during…

  Alyx’s heart thudded when she realized where they were. She jumped when she heard the door close and the lock click behind her. When she spun around the demon had taken off his brown leather jacket, hung it across the back of one of the armchairs and was now loosening his tie.

  What the hell had she gotten herself into? Alyx drew her sword and pointed it at the mirage demon. She knew she couldn’t use it against him but she felt better with the steel in her hand. “Don’t you dare come anywhere near me.”

  “Alyx, it’s not what you think,” said Jordan. “This is just a place for us to talk.”

  Jordan stepped up to the demon and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Balthazar. I thought it was you. You can’t hide those eyes, even under glamour.”

  The Darkened named Balthazar nodded at Jordan. “We meet again.”

  “You know him,” Alyx hissed at Jordan.

  “We have met before, yes. Put your weapon away, Alyx. You can’t use it here anyway.”

  Alyx glared at both Jordan and Balthazar, but neither of them seemed to want to elaborate any further.

  She lowered her blade but kept it unsheathed. “Met how?”

  Jordan breathed deeply as if he were deliberating whether or not to speak. “Balthazar was the one who told me to watch out for the signs from the Blood Prophecies.”

  “What?” Alyx’s head spun. She had assumed that Mayrekk had told Jordan. “Mayrekk didn’t...”

&n
bsp; “Mayrekk warned me that the signs seemed to be appearing, but it was Balthazar who gave me those lines from the prophecies that I recited to you.”

  Alyx’s mind flew over the words Jordan had said to her when they had first met.

  “…see it first in the mind then in the flesh, their bond revealed through a burn-marked death, in the place of mortal remembrance...”

  Alyx stared at Balthazar, who was standing at a side table pouring golden liquid from a glass decanter into three short glasses filled with ice from a small bucket. “How did you get hold of those prophecies?”

  “We have our own prophets, you know,” said Balthazar. He handed Jordan a drink, then held one out to Alyx. “Shall we sit?”

  “I prefer to stand.” Alyx ignored the drink. “Who the hell are you?”

  Balthazar, looking nonplussed at Alyx’s rejection of the glass, started to drink from it himself. He settled into one of the seats, as did Jordan.

  “My name, as you have already gathered, is Balthazar. I am one of Lucifer’s closest.”

  Alyx’s heart skipped at the name Lucifer. Lucifer, the Devil, Satan... she had been taught about Lucifer. Alyx could feel Balthazar’s eyes on her, watching her reaction. She tried to appear unaffected. “So what do you want?”

  “It appears we have a common enemy.” Balthazar took another sip from the glass and placed it on the table in front of him before continuing. “There is a demon, a greater demon, who we are both acquainted with. His demon name is unpronounceable in the human tongue, but he goes by the name of Samyara in the mortal realm. Samyara isn’t happy with how things are done down in hell. He quietly, but never openly, defies Lucifer’s ruling. Unfortunately, no monarch is perfect. Not even God,” Balthazar added with a touch of irony to his voice. “Samyara managed to collect himself a following. Not a large following but large enough, mainly mongrels and lesser demons...”

  “Mongrels?” asked Alyx, having never heard this term before.

  “Mixed-demon breeds,” Balthazar explained. “Recently, Samyara has started promising the Earth for those who join him. Samyara claims that he has a weapon against the Seraphim and that he has gained one of the pieces of the Trinity Amulet, which has the power to make Lucifer his slave.”