Redeeming Angel

by JL Weil

  “Here…” Lexi dug into the pocket of her skinny jeans, pulling out something small. “You look like you could use this.” She rolled a tube of lip gloss under the bars.

  Stepping on it with my foot, I bent down and picked it up, rolling it between my fingers. A quick flash of another life flickered through my memory. There one second and gone the next. “Thanks, but I don’t think having moist lips is going to help me.”

  “Well, maybe this will.” She turned and grabbed something off the floor. “I brought you coffee, too. It’s from Starbucks.”

  Suddenly, my taste buds perked up. Boycotting food sucked. “Peppermint mocha?” I asked, eyeing the cup in her hand.

  “Of course. It’s still warm.” She slipped the green and white cup through the bars, careful not to let them touch her elegant skin.

  I whizzed off the bed, taking a long, deep swig. Demon or human, the appreciation for sugar infused coffee was real. “Hmm. Better than I remember,” I said, licking my lips, eyes fluttering open.

  “Travis said you’re refusing to eat. They wouldn’t let me see you,” she said.

  “Travis has never brought me Starbucks. How did you find me if they won’t allow you to see me?”

  “My brother isn’t as smooth as he thinks he is or as cautious as Chase.” She shrugged. “I followed them. He’s always underestimating me.”

  Hmm. And maybe I had as well. My hand shot through the cage, capturing her wrist. “Please help me. Please, Lexi. I can’t stay inside here another second. I’ll lose my mind.” I forced my eyes to well, though it was getting harder and harder to draw out tears. Dehydrated, I was sure.

  “I want to help you. It kills me to see you like this. But Chase—”

  “Doesn’t have to know,” I interjected. “I just want five minutes to feel the sun on my face. I promise. No funny business. I would never do that to you. You’re the only one who hasn’t treated me like a monster.”

  “Five minutes?” she repeated.

  I nodded.

  Her hand went to one of the many locks, and I held my breath.

  Chapter 8

  {Chase}

  I awoke with a start, and a razor edge of pain sliced through my head. Wincing, I lifted a hand to my forehead, expecting there to be a big, nasty cut. It felt okay, just achy and sore, but otherwise okay, which was not something I could say about my current predicament.

  I was sitting in the passenger seat of my car, completely wrong in itself. No one drove my car, and certainly not Kira.

  Shitbucket.

  The cunning demon had even strapped me in. How considerate. Yet, I was feeling anything but.

  A mess of emotions ranging from anger to confusion collided in my stomach as I recalled how she had knocked me out. That was a first. A demon getting the jump on me, and she was female. Not my brightest moment. If Travis had seen it… I never would have been able to live it down.

  I took stock. The demon inside me wasn’t beating to break free, and the pressure that had been clamping down on my chest was slowly lifting, degree by slow degree. And that meant only one thing—we were headed back to Illinois.

  The dream!

  Lexi.

  It might have only been just that—a dream—but I was done leaving things to chance. When it came to Angel and me, our connection hardly ever made sense. I wouldn’t disregard the idea that it had morphed into our subconscious. Who knew the counter effects we were dealing with when it came to the kind of darkness breathing inside her?

  I could only hope I wasn’t too late and my cousin wasn’t having a blonde moment. She wouldn’t really let Angel out—so I kept telling myself—but the truth was Lexi had a heart softer than mine. If it was difficult for me, it was going to be harder for Lexi.

  “It’s about time, Sleeping Beauty,” Kira said, interrupting my thoughts. One hand on the wheel, she drove the car expertly with her other hand hanging out the window, platinum hair blowing carelessly in the wind.

  “Stop the car,” I demanded in a gravelly tone. Being confined in a car on a road trip with the very thing I loathed was certainly not something I ever thought to experience.

  No surprise she ignored me. “We’re not there yet, and you’ve already wasted too much time snoring.”

  “Yeah well, whose fault is that?” I grumbled, shifting forward in my seat.

  A hint of a smirk appeared on her lips. “I had no choice. You were about to lose it. I did you a favor, getting you out of town.”

  I scoffed. “Demons never do favors.”

  “True. You have something I want, and…I might know a way to save your kynt.”

  “Kynt? Is that some kind of demon gibberish?” I wasn’t about to promise a demon squat.

  “It is a very old word for the bond that exists between you and Angel. The three points of Triplici.” The way the words rolled off her tongue made me wonder how old Kira was. There was an ancient quality in her voice she tried to hide, but it was ever present when she spoke words no longer used.

  “You mean the Triforce?” I questioned with twisted lips.

  “Is that what you are calling it? Cute.”

  I rolled my eyes. “What is it you want from me? I’m not in the mood to spend the next hours swapping life stories.” If anything, I wanted to get as far away from her as possible. Being near Kira was making my skin itch.

  We approached a bend in the road. As she took a turn twenty miles too fast, I reached up, steadying myself on the fabric ceiling. It was then I caught a glimpse of a mark on the inside of her wrist. Her demon mark. I felt as if I was free-flying from the sky, my stomach in my throat, and when I hit the ground, the force took my breath away, leaving me rattled.

  The mark was one I knew well. My gaze tapered, and the conversation we’d had in my room about Lexi and Travis rushed back. “How is it you’ve sired children?” I asked, my heart thundering in my ears.

  Her eyes took on a volcanic ember. “I told you I’m different. Whereas most female demons cannot carry a child to full term, I have not once, but twice.”

  A strand of cuss words left my lips. I thought I was going to be sick. It suddenly became very clear just what she wanted from me.

  Kira was their mother.

  That bitch.

  Outrage. It wasn’t an emotion I felt often, but to know this—there wasn’t a name foul enough to describe what I was feeling. My hands gripped the sides of the leather seat, followed by the shredding of material echoing in the car. My gut reaction was to burn Kira until she was nothing but ash blowing in the wind.

  Teeth barred, my chin jutted out, eyes glowing like burning coals. “If you think I would let you harm my cousins, then you are sadly mistaken.”

  Her eyes countered mine. “It is you who is mistaken, Chase Winters. I mean them no harm.”

  I laughed sharply. “Excuse me if I don’t believe you.”

  “I would be concerned if you weren’t suspicious.”

  The new car scent air freshener dangling from the rearview mirror perfumed the interior, making my already upset stomach roll. “You’ve given me nothing. No answers. And no reason to trust you.” Not that I ever would.

  “It’s a good thing we have a long trip ahead of us. Plenty of time to talk.”

  The thing was I hadn’t planned on spending the entire ride back with this demon in the driver seat. While she was blabbing and taunting me, I was thinking of ways to rid myself of her, but not before I got what I wanted. I had to find a way without giving up anything about Lexi and Travis.

  “So talk,” I said, folding my arms and staring out the window, barely seeing the dry land covered in sand and red rock formations whip by.

  She clucked her tongue. “Not so quick. If I give you the information you seek, I am going to need my own assurances.”

  “What is it you want from me?”

  “Just a favor when I need it,” she said.

  An open favor to a demon, to be called in whenever her little heart desired. Every fiber in my body
was screaming no. But what choice was there? Only one.

  Her head angled as she eyed me. “Deal or no deal?”

  What was she, a gameshow junkie? I gave a reluctant nod.

  “You don’t honestly think I would just take your word. Surely, you know that is not how demon deals work.”

  Oh, I knew well enough about making a deal with Hell. I just had never been dumb enough to strike one.

  I held out my wrist. “Get it over with.”

  She kept her foot steady on the gas, never letting the car slow or waver. With her left hand on the wheel, she used her right index finger to slice across my wrist. I watched as blood pooled, streaming down my arm. Then she took that razor sharp nail and opened a small gash on her own wrist, but the color of her blood was black. She smashed our two wounds together, mixing her gunkiness with mine. Her lips formed a chant I couldn’t pretend to understand.

  A blood oath.

  The area around the cut seared. I yanked my hand back from under her grasp and glanced down. As usual, the wound began to slowly heal. It wasn’t a deep cut and should have been gone from sight, unscarred within minutes, except it did leave a scar, a bright red one in the shape of her mark.

  The deal was done. I was bound to my word, to come when she summoned and give her what she sought. God only knew when or what she would ask of me, but it seemed like a small price for what I was getting in return.

  My brow lifted and my body tensed. “Happy now?”

  A sadistic grin curled her lips. “For the first time in over a decade.” Gliding down the highway, a light mist of rain fell from the cloudy sky. She told me what I sought, every gritty, knee-buckling detail. The drizzle was background noise as she spoke, listening as she revealed a method to ridding Angel of the darkness that claimed her soul.

  I gasped at one point, uncertainty weaving through me like tangled vines, intertwining around my organs and squeezing. “I don’t believe you,” I spat, disgust spewing in the air.

  “What? Did you think breaking a bond from Hell would be a piece of cake?”

  No. I hadn’t been that daft, but…

  I’d rally a whole slew of Divisa if necessary. Whatever it would take to protect those I loved. What she was telling me had to be done made the demon inside me shiver and not in a good way.

  Intrigue shone beyond her red-rimmed eyes. “I have to say, your reaction is fascinating. Or rather, the reaction I can feel from your demon is what I find interesting.”

  I rubbed my damp palms on the thighs of my jeans. My body had broken out in a cold sweat. “He tends to get upset when her safety is threatened.”

  “As do you, I see. If you do nothing, her life is damned. Your dearly devoted wears the mark of servitude to Hell. The only way to save her is to step into the darkness with her. What do you have to lose?”

  She was right. What did I have to lose?

  And with that being said, it was time Kira and I went our separate ways. Our journey together ended here. There was no way on this green earth I was going to let her anywhere near my family. She might have bested me in the motel, but it was time to reciprocate. I might not be able to kill the she-devil, and it was impossible for Lexi and Travis to hide from her. They both bore her mark, which meant if Kira really wanted to find them, there was nothing I could do about it. I got the feeling what Kira wanted was for me to assure my cousins she didn’t mean to hurt them.

  No go.

  I had already sealed my fate, soul be damned, and someday I would pay the price for the deal I struck. Someday was not going to be today.

  No doubt Kira expected me to do something foolish, and she was absolutely right. I just don’t think she expected I would also put myself in danger. Cruising down the highway at speeds over seventy, I shifted my eyes up, peering at the side mirror to check the road was clear. Things were about to get bumpy.

  Kira glanced over at me with wariness. I grinned and gave no other warning. She blinked, and during that nanosecond, I extended my arms in nothing but a blur, grasping the wheel. Then I yanked with all my might.

  Bon voyage, mother trucker.

  Motionless, her eyes went wide. The sound of rubber shrieking was followed immediately by the ear-piercing crunch of metal, like a sonic blast that shook me to my very core. Glass fragmented, showering the inside of the car and nicking my flesh as I was thrown from every which angle in my seat, but I didn’t feel it.

  While the car tumbled and rolled again and again across the pavement, I went for the blade sheathed in my sock. The bone-shattering impact of each complete spin made the simple process of reaching down difficult, but I battled against gravity until my fingers wrapped around the handle.

  The demon herself couldn’t be sent back to Hell, but I could force her out of her host. It would buy me the time I needed to get to Angel.

  I was quite acquainted with the feeling of spinning wildly out of control. Kira? Not so much. She let out a war cry of frustration, snapping her seatbelt. Bad move, bitch. Her head whacked the roof of the car, neck angling in a way a human’s was not meant to bend.

  Shit had definitely gone downhill.

  When she came back down, she dove straight at me, nails extended like claws and flaxen hair floating around her face. It made my job of running the blade into her heart as simple as pie. She basically landed on it. I gave my wrist a twist, driving the dagger home. “Apstergo,” I said.

  As soon as I finished the chant to expel the demon from her body, the car finally stopped rolling. It teetered on two wheels before falling back down to the ground in a tremor that rumbled as if it reached the earth’s crust. Kira’s weightless body slumped on top of mine, and I waited for that pivotal moment when she disintegrated to ash.

  Damn demons.

  Of course she wouldn’t follow protocol. Pushing aside the body of some nameless woman who’d been unfortunately possessed by Kira, I dragged in a long deep breath, and as soon as I was sure my lungs were working, I padded my hands over my body. Hella-freakin’-lujah. I was still in one piece. Mostly. No missing limbs—maybe a broken rib or two—and the cuts would heal in a few hours. In a situation like this, it was good to be supernatural.

  Removing my seatbelt, I leaned to my left and kicked the door with my foot. Blood seeped down the side of my face and dripped down the back of my throat. The door clattered to the ground, and I stepped out of the car, taking in my surroundings. There was a line of trees in the distance. The car had tumbled off the shoulder into the grass.

  I climbed up the embankment and looked down at my handiwork. Good grief. My car insurance was going to cost me a fortune. Two totaled cars in a year. I sighed at seeing another one of my vehicles charred.

  The roar of flames licked the car and caught, burning metal and melting plastic. A steam of heat rose up in the vicinity, creating a mirage. Smoke billowed in the air, escalating and disappearing into the clouds. It carried the smell of roasting oil and grease, hardly pleasant.

  Dusting the glass and dirt off my rather ratty clothes, I ran a hand through my hair, shaking loose any debris. I needed new transportation and quick. I could travel the entire way running, and heck, it probably would have been faster, but I’d only wear myself out. Saving Angel was going to be exhausting in itself.

  So I was going to “borrow” the first car I came upon, and hopefully the burning pile of metal beside me would only aid my plight. As luck would have it, I didn’t have to wait long.

  A silver sedan flew by, breaking when the driver caught a glimpse of the crash and me beaten up on the side of the road. I walked up to the driver’s side window.

  “Hey, do you need me to call for help?” a man with slightly receding hair and crow’s feet around his brown eyes asked.

  Granted, this wasn’t my first rodeo. Travis and I had been known to hotwire and hijack cars for shits and giggles, mostly Dev’s until he bought us cars of our own. I doubted Devin was going to get a kick out of me doing so now, but desperate measures and all.

  Holdin
g the man’s gaze captive with mine, I said, “I need to borrow your car, mate. But don’t worry it will be returned. There is no need to alert the authorities. I’m just a friend using your car for a few days. Do you understand?”

  He nodded.

  “Good.” It was far easier than hotwiring, but not nearly as fun. “You have quite a walk home. Better be on your way.” That should buy me a few days. Just long enough to do what I had to do. No harm done.

  At least that was the idea.

  And my plans had a way of backfiring in epic proportions.

  Without a second thought, I slid into the driver’s seat, wrapped my fingers around the key, and turned the engine over. I put my foot on the gas and steered the vehicle back onto the highway with one sole purpose.

  Two state lines later, I came to a fork in the road, and its symbolism to my current situation hit me. Do I go left or right? Could I really do what Kira had suggested? Even now, thinking about it, my demon balked and the man rebuffed. It went against my very nature to protect her at all costs. And that was where the conflict came.

  When it came down to it, would I actually be able to follow through? I was scared I wouldn’t, but even more scared I would.

  Chapter 9

  {Chase}

  I made the long trip back to Illinois in record, law breaking speeds, only stopping to pee and grab a bite to eat. My eyes darted to the rearview mirror for the hundredth time, making sure a demon wasn’t stupid enough to trail me. I thought for sure I’d be pulling over to exercise my ninja skills, but maybe Kira had something to do with my uneventful trip back.

  It was hard to admit that maybe, just maybe not all demons were self-serving assholes.

  I went straight to Angel, not bothering to stop home or let anyone know I was back. The need to see her with my own eyes overwhelmed any other function—including food.

  I did not pass go or collect my two hundred dollars.

  This was it. Do or die.

  Walking down the stairs, I detached myself as much as I could, knowing I was about to partake in something that would darken my soul, whatever was left of it.