Celestial Fire (Celestial Marked Book 2)

by Emma L. Adams

  When another vampire ran past, I took my chance to run for it. Tackling the vamp with a flying leap, I staked him and jumped to my feet. Then I sprinted through the carnage, searching for any signs of the portal. It’d definitely been this floor, but the cowering shoppers and shattered storefronts blocked every corner, and the presence of the celestials’ blazing lights reflecting off every surface didn’t help. The demonic portal might be right in front of me and I’d never pick up on it with all the light flaring around. I staked another vampire, while the celestials wielded their blades with the skill of those chosen to advance to the highest level. The vamps should by rights have been fleeing in terror. Anyone else would.

  If I’d stayed, I might have been one of them. The Grade Fours didn’t just kill demons. They were the celestials’ arbiters of justice against preternaturals and humans, as well as other celestials, and they took their jobs very seriously. I was a dead woman if I stuck around and they worked out where my demonic aura really came from.

  A scream drew my attention to a shattered shop window, where a human child hid beneath a clothes rack. I advanced one step and then froze, my gaze catching on his glowing red eyes. “Nice try, demon,” I said.

  The human child crawled out, transforming into a huge gangly figure with pincers. A splitter demon—lovely. I summoned my celestial blade and dodged its attack, cutting upwards into its chest. The beast fell into two sides, and then each side stood up, sprouting a new pair of legs. Ack.

  I’d fought this kind of demon before, and was ready for its attack. I cut from left to right, taking down both sides of the demon in one shot. My celestial blade flickered, and then the beast reformed into four copies. I grimaced. Most of them could only do the multiplying trick once. Not good.

  My blade flickered again, then vanished.

  “Damn.” I leaped high, using Rachel’s boots for leverage, and the demon clones collided on the spot where I’d been standing, pincers snapping. Bloody sword. Grabbing a stake, I thrust it into one creature’s back. Not as effective as a blade on a non-vampire, but it did the job. As the beast collapsed, I deflected a blow from the second, my stake impaling its pincer. With my other hand, I hurled a knife at the third beast as it attempted to ambush me from behind. It went down, and the fourth dropped from the ceiling like a bat, landing on top of me. Twisting onto my back, I drove the stake across its neck, severing its head.

  Kicking its body aside and stabbing the two which lay twitching on the floor, I backed into the shop. Nobody seemed to be alive in here, but the portal must be close. With my celestial light gone, I couldn’t extinguish the portal myself. Which meant I’d have to swallow my pride and go to the celestials.

  They’d certainly done a good job of beating down the vampires. Bodies lay everywhere on the floor. No sign of Nikolas—he must have figured they were as likely to try to mow him down as the enemy, which wouldn’t end well for anyone involved. The celestial who’d cornered me looked in my direction. His mask lowered, revealing someone I knew. Farrell, a Grade Four soldier who’d never particularly liked me. His severely buzzed hair gleamed blond under the celestial light, while his silver celestial badge marked him as leader of his particular faction of celestials. One step below the inspector.

  “Celestial Lawson!” he shouted.

  I raised my left hand. “There’s a demon portal here somewhere. Get rid of that before you start yelling at me.”

  “There’s no portal.”

  “Explain that.” I pointed at the dead demon. “It sure as hell didn’t come here on the train.”

  “Your attitude clearly hasn’t changed,” said Farrell. “And you wear the mark of hell on your aura.”

  Several celestials turned to watch me, hands on their weapons. Great.

  “I got bitten,” I told them. “You’ve heard what happens to the other celestials who get bitten by one of those vamps?”

  “They die,” he said. “I saw you use your power.”

  “They don’t all die,” I said—well, it was technically true. “Some of us get lucky. I reckon I’m immune to whatever virus they’re spreading. But maybe it’s messed up my aura. I wouldn’t know, I can’t see it. Will you stop pointing that thing at me?”

  He didn’t lower his hand. Farrell was one of the pricks who’d taken it upon himself to try to humiliate me in training exercises when I’d been a novice. I’d thought he’d permanently relocated to Shanghai. Imagine an older Bad Haircut Sammy with better personal hygiene and the authority to murder people on command, and you get the picture.

  “What’s she done?” asked a female celestial with dreadlocks.

  “Got here before you did and killed a bunch of vampires.” My heart sank when Farrell’s gaze dropped to my hands, like he could see the demon mark beneath my sleeve. Then his gaze continued to my feet.

  “Just what kind of shoes are those?”

  “Magic ones.” I smiled innocently. “You remember those lab experiments I used to do?”

  “I think everyone remembers, Devi,” he said. “How exactly did you know to come here before we did?”

  “It’s all over the Internet.” I threw up my hands. “I think I should be asking why you didn’t get here in time. And you should be thanking me for helping out.”

  “We’ve got one!” someone shouted. “This one’s wanted by the guild for murder.”

  I spun around and saw Alyson—pinned beneath three celestials and surrounded by bright lights. She spat out a mouthful of blood, looking terrified.

  “Don’t!” I said. “When she turned human, she lost all memory of the attack. At least let her speak before—”

  “We must eradicate them before they do the same to us.” Farrell turned casually. I made to grab his arm, but two celestials seized my shoulders, pulling me back. A blade of light appeared in Farrell’s hands, slicing down.

  Alyson was dead before the sword took off her head, as the cold hand of divine justice ripped her soul out.

  Fury ignited and my demon mark burned again. Calm it. I buried my hand in my pocket to avoid decking him in the face with it, and wrenched my arms free. “You bastard,” I growled. “You didn’t even give her a chance to explain herself. It’s not your job to play executioner.”

  His celestial blade touched my chest, and to my alarm, my skin burned at the contact. “I think you’ll find that is my job, Devina,” he said.

  I took a step back away from the blade. The whole shopping centre seemed to hold its breath. No way would any of these people defend me over him. And if they knew the truth, I’d be next. These people would be my killers.

  “You should know what happened to the inspector when he tried to take authority that wasn’t his,” I told him. “He regretted it. So will you.”

  “It’s on his orders that we’re here,” he said. “He was convicted on a minor offence, not because he was wrong about the threat these preternatural scum pose to our realm.”

  “She was one of you,” I spat. “You just killed one of your own. There’s no law in your book that allows you to slaughter someone who acted under the influence of a demon, except in self-defence. She was surrendering.” I looked around at the crowd, but saw no expressions of support or even remorse. They didn’t care if she was innocent or not. And the real demonic threat went undetected.

  If I told them, I’d likely get arrested, not to mention get the others into trouble beyond belief. If I didn’t, the demons would have an open shot at this realm without anyone knowing the true threat until it was too late to prepare. But the world was black and white to these people. Attempting to get the truth into their thick skulls was like getting a straight answer out of a Chthonian lizard. The absolute best case scenario was that they stayed the hell out of my way when everything went to shit.

  I took in a deep breath and looked at Farrell. Then I drew back my left hand and punched him in the face. It was a magnificent punch, even without the celestial side effects. His head snapped back, and before he could retaliate, I shoved
my way past him towards the escalator. Footsteps and shouts pursued me, but I didn’t pause, leaping over fallen vampires, my trusty shoes allowing me to jump several steps at a time without falling. Once on the ground floor again, I pelted out the open doors, right into Nikolas. His timing was perfect. The instant I slammed into his chest, shadows closed around the pair of us.

  “You might have shown up sooner,” I panted, looking around at the shadowy canyon we’d landed in. “Thanks.”

  “I decided it was best if I didn’t have to kill any of them.”

  “They murdered Alyson.” My fists clenched. “I know she was under the demons’ influence, but of all the people the demons manipulated, she was the one who probably never volunteered for it. And they didn’t ask questions—no trial, nothing. They’ll do the same to me if they spotted us vanish.”

  “None of them saw,” he said. “So they’ll assume we got away on foot.”

  “We need to get Fiona.” I breathed in and out, my heart thudding against my ribcage. “The celestials will go after her next if the demons don’t, and I’m done letting her get hurt on my watch.”

  He nodded. “We’re a little far from the castle.”

  Babylon’s castle was a dark shape in the distance etched against the night-like sky. Too far to walk.

  “Great.” I glared at it. “My celestial power’s still faulty. And the celestials—they can see auras. They all have that ability. Mine’s a dead giveaway. I told them I got bitten, but they’ll work out the truth eventually.”

  And then? I’d be dead. Or I’d end up having to spend an eternity in this demonic realm, which to be honest, was starting to look like a more appealing option. I looked at Nikolas, who frowned. “They can’t prove you’re guilty of a crime you never committed. Besides, they have a more pressing problem.”

  “They do. But they’ll kill anyone they think is infected. Vampires or not. They just straight-up murdered a fellow celestial soldier. They knew her. They trained her. It’s so fucked up.”

  But their approach, unfortunately, might be the only way to stop the virus from spreading to anyone else. The humans, though—they hadn’t been fully infected yet. They might not even know they’d been bitten. As for the vampires—what did that make them? Unwilling hosts for demonic parasites? No… willing ones. They must have been made an offer they couldn’t turn down. That demons could tempt even immortal blood-drinkers wasn’t particularly surprising, but that didn’t make the unfortunate humans they’d bitten guilty of the same crime.

  Fear crawled up my throat. One way or another, innocent people would die if the demons weren’t dealt with. If the Grade Four celestials were unleashed, I doubted they’d check their target was actually possessed before attacking them. Anyone might get caught in the crossfire. And meanwhile, the vampires’ king stood behind the scenes, no doubt laughing at the carnage.

  I turned to Nikolas. “We have to find a decent place to cross over. I take it there isn’t any demonglass out here in the middle of nowhere?”

  “No,” he said. “Aside from the tower and parts of the castle, there isn’t any. We’ll have to use my power to cross over, but not here.”

  He began to walk away, and I hurried after him. On either side of us, the sides of the canyon loomed high, the castle a solid shape in the distance. “Tell me,” I panted. “Please, Nikolas—if you know who marked me, tell me. This is life and death.”

  “I already told you I don’t,” he said. “What brought this on?”

  “The arch-demon who marked me was originally a Divinity,” I said. “The Divinity who gave me the other mark. One’s replacing the other, I think, and that’s why my power keeps going out. But the only way it can be reacting to fire magic is if it’s some relation of Themedes. Right?”

  “Perhaps. We’ll work it out. But we need to leave.”

  “No shit.” I only hoped that after what the celestials had done, we had a home to go back to.

  Chapter 19

  We crossed over, landing on an unfamiliar road, at which point it hit me—“We left the car at the shopping centre.”

  “Rachel will have moved it,” Nikolas said, typing into his phone. “When the celestials showed up, certainly.”

  “Good. Because the last thing we want is them finding us. Actually, the last thing we want is Armageddon, but you know. Complications.”

  Nikolas put his phone away. “I’ve asked her to pick up your friend.”

  “What—Fiona? Damn, you’re quick.”

  “She’ll meet us at Pine Street.”

  We were far enough from the shopping centre not to be followed, but I still walked quickly. I had to, to keep up with Nikolas’s warlock speed. Within five minutes, Rachel drove up alongside us. “Hop in,” she said.

  Fiona waved dismally from the back with her free hand, the other one in a white-knuckled grip on the back of the seat in front. “Devi!” she half said, half screamed. “She doesn’t even have a driving licence!”

  “I don’t just have one licence, I have five.” Rachel scrambled over the seat into the back, allowing Nikolas to take over the wheel.

  “Fake ones,” he said, unnecessarily. “Several of her aliases have outstanding fines.”

  “I’m not surprised,” whimpered Fiona.

  Nikolas took over the wheel, while I got in the back with Fiona.

  “Are you going to explain why you yanked me out of my home?” she said accusingly.

  “Yep. Celestial top tier soldiers running amok and killing anyone who’s infected,” I said. “You haven’t taken the cure so you’re probably fine, but between that and the demons, I figured you’d be safer with us.”

  “No kidding,” she said faintly. “I—top tier soldiers? Weren’t you one of those?”

  “Nope, I only got to Grade Three,” I said. “I could have qualified for Grade Four, but I kept skipping important meetings and I doubt I’d have got a recommendation. They get extra perks, like the ability to see auras, but they also have longer working hours and are at the mercy of the guild’s orders twenty-four/seven. And they directly serve under the inspectors. So nope.”

  “Ugh.” She shuddered. “They—they’re really killing people?”

  “They have a warrant,” I said. “All vampires are potential enemies, and all infected humans are potential collateral damage. But they don’t know what’s really going on.”

  “To be honest, neither do I,” said Fiona.

  “It’s a lot to keep up with. What’re they saying on DivinityWatch?” I asked. “I can’t believe they picked up on the attack at the shopping centre before the guild did.”

  “What in hell is DivinityWatch?” Rachel wanted to know.

  “The website the attack was reported on. It’s run by humans claiming they’ve seen Divinities,” I explained. “They also post any celestial-related stuff, or weird demon sightings. Most of it’s fake, but news of the shopping centre attack spread fast.”

  “That’s because all eyes are on this city,” said Fiona. “But seriously—they’re killing everyone the vampires bit?”

  “The celestial girl had killed people,” I said, figuring it was best to be honest. “But she was surrendering. There are some real pricks in their higher order, and they have the authority to play executioner. Not on members of the public,” I added. “But they’ll certainly kill any vampires they think are acting under the influence of the demon.”

  “They think?” she echoed. “How do they plan to do that—raid the vampires’ places? They’re not allowed, right?”

  “No,” I said. “But they’re from the branch who like to make up their own rules if it’s an emergency. Which it is. Worse, we’ve figured the people behind this portal business are operating from somewhere in a human district, hidden away. So innocent lives are at stake if the celestials wage open war. That’s what we’re up against. And we never did find the portal they entered the shopping centre through. They must have done it that way.”

  “If there’s evidence, the c
elestials will find it,” Nikolas said.

  “Doubt they’d walk into Pandemonium to take care of our problem,” I said. “Sure would help, though.”

  “But might they be following us?” Fiona asked. “I know I’m the least of their problems, but… they threatened you, Devi.”

  “I expected it,” I said. “They know there’s something off about my aura. So we’re off the grid. Those celestials don’t know where the warlocks’ headquarters is, and there are rules against them coming into Javos’s place. I’m not sure just how many they’re planning to break by the end of it. So I guess we’re fugitives.”

  “That’s bonkers,” she said. “I have a job. A family back in Ireland. How the hell am I supposed to explain this to them? They don’t even know I got kidnapped the first time. I said I was jumped by a mugger.”

  “If it’s on the international news, they’ll know something big’s happening. Nobody can hide this.”

  Nikolas glanced sideways at me. “The guild must have planned for such a scenario. Their entire purpose is to defend this realm against demons from the nether realms. Is there an emergency plan for an attack on this scale?”

  I looked out the window, tension gripping my spine. “Yep. Evacuation, and burning the entire affected area to the ground. They’ve had to do it before. But obviously, they don’t know where in the city the vamps are spawning from yet. And with the vampire king—I don’t know why I keep calling him that, it’s not like he’s actually a vampire—he apparently has free rein to send his army wherever he likes.”

  “To keep opening portals, there needs to be a sufficient power source on this side,” he said. “The guild and the warlocks control most of the materials necessary. So removing all the bloodstones from the market would, in theory, stop the spread of the demonic infection and deal with the portal issue in one go.”

  “Not if they already have an unlimited supply,” I said. “They can even bring them through from that dimension. It’s like an endless loop.”

  “Not forever,” he said. “It’s a good question, actually… there’s no limit on the number of portals a person can create, but more than a standard portal is required to bring through such a large number of vampires. They must have done that initially, at least.”