The Devil's Heir

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The Devil's Heir Page 32

by Leilani Lopez


  I squeeze my eyes shut, will myself somewhere else. This can’t be true. There’s no way. Lily met her. She would have known. She should have known.

  “You’re one of the Fallen,” Lily says in fascination. “I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting one of you.”

  I whimper at her answer, a pit brewing in my stomach.

  “That’s correct, Lilith,” she says kindly. “And you truly live up to the fiery reputation you hold.”

  “Maybe we can chat one day about how you managed to possess a witch and fool my father into impregnating you. Truly, it’s the best deception of all time.”

  “Lilith,” her brother snaps her name.

  She shrugs.

  “What are you doing here, Mother?”

  “I brought you a present.” Aunt Polly reaches down and hauls me up from the floor, pushing me forward as if she’s presenting me to him. This is the first time Luke looks at me since he arrived. I want to look anywhere but at him, but I’m not going to give him the pleasure. If he wants to avoid me, that’s what he can do. I stare straight up, meeting his gaze directly, with quivering lips and a pounding heart.

  “Don’t you like it?” she says.

  His eyes soften at my defiance.

  The angel pulls against Lily’s hold, but she punches him in the back of the head, momentarily stunning him.

  “What is it you want, Mother?” Luke asks with his eyes still on me.

  “Have you seen your father?” she repeats.

  “No, I haven’t seen— No, Mother.” His voice picks up in urgency. His eyes widen as he glances between me and the woman beside me. He reaches out to grab my hand but I’m pulled backward, just out of his reach. “Mother, no, please.”

  I shudder at his pleading, at the sheer desperation in his tone; never would have believed he would stoop so low.

  Aunt Polly wraps her hand around my arm, securing me to her side. “I’d really like your help in finding him.”

  I’m tense by her side, for the first time not feeling at home or calm when she touches me. I crane my neck away from her, my skin crawling. The ache in my chest starts to burn again. A feeling I haven’t been able to shake since we arrived in Diablo.

  Someone is speaking but I can’t hear it. There’s a ringing in my ears, and I claw at neck of my shirt, pulling it away from my damp skin.

  “What did you do to her?” Luke’s voice rises. “What have you done?”

  I’m panting, feverishly fanning my face.

  “Calla,” Lily says cautiously, “you’re—”

  “Apollyon’s damaged that human.” The angel almost sounds amused. “Corrupted the girl’s soul with poisoned angelic divinity.”

  “It’s not poisonous,” Polly snaps.

  “You became un-pure the moment you took sides with the rebellious one.”

  I look down at my shoulder. The darkness that feathered around my bruise has traveled up to the shoulder that Aunt Polly has a hold on. And that’s when I realize, it’s not my chest that’s burning. It’s where she has a hold on me. And it’s like liquid fire, hotter than the effect of Luke’s touch.

  Luke’s eyes follow my movement, and he steps gingerly toward us, his hands out low as if approaching a wild animal. “I’ll help you find him, Mother, but don’t take Calla.”

  “It took a long time for me to break out of that cell and get back to Heaven to rescue her for you. Of course, dropping the soul on the way down was never my plan…poor thing ended up in some random woman’s fetus before they killed her and her father. I would have found her faster if the angels hadn’t sent one of their best warriors down to hide her from me. Took me seventeen years, but I found her.”

  My heart squeezes with fear. My feet frozen to the ground.

  I was never even meant to be born. My real parents never had the chance to get to know me. Everything that Grandmother told me about them was probably a lie. She killed my parents and made them out to be worse than scum, made me feel just as inferior my whole life.

  All I ever was, was a pawn in Aunt Polly— Apollyon’s—game.

  I heave and cover up a whimper with my trembling hand.

  Luke swallows thickly.

  “Thank you, Mother,” he says slowly.

  The angel breaks free from Lily’s hold. He spins out of her arms, raises his knife, and holds his knife up and moves to strike down on the redhead. But Lily’s faster. She holds up her own weapon and I watch in shock as sparks fly when the knives clank. Lily expertly maneuvers around the angel, almost like a dance she’s been practicing her whole life.

  We all stand and watch the battle take place. None of us move, only to take a step back when the angel or Lily get too close. I watch in shock, Aunt Polly with indifference, while Luke seems to focus on her form.

  The angel anticipates onto Lily’s next move and spins with her, his blade narrowly missing her side. A small piece of red hair he manages to slice slowly floats to the ground. In stunned silence, both siblings stare at the string of hair and frown.

  The angel’s eyes widen, as if he’s pleased with the assault he’s made against her.

  Luke is anything but amused. And I can read him better than I can myself in this moment.

  I try to shout out, but it’s too late.

  There’s a whizz in the air followed by a thud. My eyes fly over to see Luke’s knife sticking out of Tyler’s chest.

  For one minuscule second, I see Tyler’s blue eyes staring back at me. One corner of his mouth turns up, making the smallest sign of acknowledgment that he sees me before that light is gone as he hits the floor, effectively burning out Tyler’s soul from within him.

  I moan into my hand.

  Lily points her knife at her brother. “I had it.”

  He doesn’t listen to her. Luke reaches a sturdy hand out to me, begging for me to take it. “Mother, I need her.”

  I take a step back from him and he stares at me bewildered. “Calla.” His voice is strained, a warning lingering.

  “You promised me!” I sob, gaping at Tyler’s body. “You promised me you wouldn’t hurt them.”

  It’s the first coherent sentence I can form. He takes a step toward me.

  “Calla, please,” he begs, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry about your friends, amour.”

  It almost breaks me seeing him. His hand reaches out, his face wearing something I’ve never seen on him before: fear.

  For a second, I believe him.

  The angel at my side jerks me back, away from her son before snarling out a word I’m unfamiliar with.

  “Neci.”

  Disbelief crosses Luke’s face seconds before there’s a rift in the air, a strong energy force coming from beside Apollyon. The hair on the back of my neck stands up as a familiar rumble breaks through, a deep growl emerging from the center of the energy.

  The creature that emerges from its center can only be described as a morph between a bear and a large wolf. The mass is almost transparent, a smoky figure with the exact glowing orbs I saw in the woods the night Luke summoned his own hound onto that boy.

  “Malum!” Luke calls out.

  A second creature crawls out from underneath the floor. This one is a feline looking creature.

  Neither of them need instructions on what to do.

  In a shriek of rage, both of the hounds pounce on each other to fight on behalf of their masters. Though their bodies seem like they’re made of smoke, small flames are left on the floor where drops of blood might be.

  Everyone stays out of their way. Even Lily dodges when the creatures roll through the fire pit, right toward her.

  The sounds emitting from them are terrifying. It can only be described as a screech, high enough to make your ears bleed.

  I’ve never seen anything like it. These two animal-like monsters are battling to the death, all because their masters demanded it of them.

  Luke puts distance between him and the creatures. The bear like one attempts to get close to him but the more agile, feline o
ne pounces on its back, its massive jaw sinking into the one called Neci. But that doesn’t stop it from hunting down Luke.

  With every move Luke makes, the creatures are on him. He meets my eyes, or perhaps his mother’s, over the flaming monsters and releases a roar that drowns out the hounds.

  The side planks of the barn rattle from the intensity. And for the first time, I’m afraid of what I see. His face transforms, reveals every dark inch of him that he works so hard to hide. His entire body shakes with rage.

  And now I know why he hates his father so much. Luke is the epitome of a dark angel; with angelic beauty but insides that have no doubt been tortured for centuries. And I’m sure his father is the one to blame for it.

  Lily made me feel like I never had to fear her father. But I know who I should be afraid of.

  I try to step back, jerk away from him and the scene in front of me, but Apollyon has her hand wrapped around my forearm.

  “Don’t worry. I got you, Calla, I’ve got you.”

  She says it so calmly, almost motherly, the same way she did when she held me in her arms and cried when I came from almost being assaulted.

  I shiver.

  “We’re almost done here. Then we’ll go.”

  Go? Go where?

  Luke manages to put enough distance between himself and Neci to leap over the hounds, contorting his back to avoid the swipe of an enormous paw, and lands on the soft ground in front of me.

  “Calla.”

  He reaches his hand out toward me just as his mother flings us backward, his fingertips barely touching mine before I’m in flames.

  The last thing I hear is a scream.

  I don’t know whose it is.

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  LeilaniLopez.com

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Since I dedicated this book to myself, I suppose I’ll give someone else the spotlight! This book would not have happened if it weren’t for three people: my sister, my mom, and my Harmony.

  Vic, thank you for never actually reading a full draft because of the insane amount of times I changed the story line. Thank you for telling me “Yeah, no,” when no one else would and for brainstorming with me. The story wouldn’t be the same without you. Thank you for being my co-writer. Thank you for being my editor. And thank you for being my creative partner. Thank you for being the best sister/cousin I could have asked for.

  To my mom, thank you for always lending your ear and your constant support. Thank you for believing in me since day one and never calling me out on my own BS when I start and quit projects over and over again. Without you, I’d never have learned to believe in myself. Thank you for always being my biggest fan. I love you!

  To Harmony, thank you for letting me stress over the same thing night after night and always finding a different way to tell me that everything is going to be okay. I wouldn’t have even started Book Two if it weren’t for your insistence. Thank you for being my sanity and for pushing me to be the version of me I’ve always wanted to be.

  Thank you to my Beta readers: Gisela, Kassandra, Vance, and Jeff for reading the crappy second draft of this book but for supporting it for what it was! I hope this version lived up to your expectations!

  Thank you to my college roommate, Vanessa Scott. Thank you for listening to me verbally plot out the early stages of the book in our college rental kitchen and not looking at me any different when I said I’m writing about demons. I love you forever! ITB.

  Thank you to the ladies of Rare Bird Editing. A true God sent! This book would not be what it is without either of you. Thank you for your patience and all of the dedication you gave to my book.

  Lastly, thank you! Thank you for giving my book a chance and for supporting me as an author. I sincerely hope you’ll continue following me on this journey because I’d love to have you with me. I’ll see you in the next one.

  xo.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Leilani Lopez writes romance books. Sometimes she writes about Paranormal romance (The Devil’s Heir Trilogy). Sometimes she writes about college romance (coming soon!). But, she always writes a love story with some cool side-kicks. When she’s not writing, Leilani can be found drinking an iced caramel coffee with breve, watching a rom-com, or filming a video for her Authortube channel.

  She graduated from the University of California, Riverside with a degree in Creative Writing and is part of the Delta Gamma Fraternity. Leilani currently lives in the Bay Area with her Doberman Pinscher named Koda (@KodaDoberman) and her Maltipoo, Casper.

  Connect with Leilani:

  Website: www.LeilaniLopez.com

  Instagram: @LeilaniLopez

  YouTube: @LeilaniLopez

  Facebook: @Author Leilani Lopez

 

 

 


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