The Kiss of Death

by Auryn Hadley

  Avoiding the body against the cliff, I searched for a way to Luke. Where humans would have stood shoulder to shoulder, demons needed more room. Their wings were massive, and Luke's were no smaller. Each one had to be at least twelve feet long, which meant about twenty-five to the next man, if I had to guess, and that was a lot of distance to run when angels were trying to kill me.

  But I did it. Running bent at the waist, I covered my head with my hands and just went. A wing flared over my head. A bolt of something crashed onto the moss to my right, and Luke was making a lot of sparks. Sparks I could only assume cost him aether – but I still had more to give.

  "Luke," I called as I reached his back. "Refuel incoming!"

  Then I grabbed his wing with one hand and palmed his back with the other. Holding on kept me out of his way. It also made me aware of the vibrations coursing through him. They said aether was life, but it was also music, made up of the microscopic vibrations of particles, all humming together in symphony. It wasn't loud, but it was still hard to miss, and getting harder. Like grabbing a jackhammer, I could feel the tremors in my bones and I realized something. I'd been doing this wrong the whole time. I'd been trying to play by their rules, but those limitations didn't apply to me.

  No, I created and destroyed. I painted and erased. I didn't need to work in patterns or suggestions. I was an artist, and the only thing inhibiting me was my own lack of imagination. As the last of my excess aether flowed into Luke, I was feeling a little too inspired. I was a god damned magnet, and their power was nothing more than my iron filings. They had it, my friends needed it, and I could make this happen.

  "I gotta get more," I told Luke as I let go. "Just give me a second."

  He thrust out an arm, forming a small shield between us and the open beach then looked back at me. "You need to stay by Bel, Sia."

  "Nope." I glanced around, quickly counting the number of angels still in the air. "There's more of them than us. Hold the ledge. I'll be right back."

  "Sia!" he hissed, but I was already stepping back to the gap between this place and Earth.

  I hit the corridor and saw too many glowing specks. Some were close, more were farther away, but the army assaulting my friends on Vesdar was nothing compared to the numbers here. Good. That's exactly what I'd hoped for. If there were six hundred and some odd angels available to take me down, then that was a shit ton of power for me. I just had to catch it before any of them could touch me.

  And hold it.

  Without bursting.

  But I was a vacuum. A funnel. A magnet that pulled so hard I could bend the veils, and if that was going to be my bane, then I'd make it my strongest power. I'd do this through sheer willpower, if nothing else.

  A wave of my hand changed the protective screen beside me into a wall. A thought made a chain spring up from the billowy ground to clamp around my leg. A really big chain, attached to an even bigger bolt that went so far through the center of this plane that nothing would be able to drag me out of here without permission.

  Just as the first angel reached for me, I dropped the last of my protections, threw my head back, and just pulled. In my mind, I saw myself as a drain, sucking all the life force into me. It didn't matter where it started, in an angel or flowing on the current, I needed it so it would come. I believed it with every cell in my body and I pulled as hard as I could possibly imagine anyone having pulled before.

  It worked.

  Angels began to scream, their voices echoing through the corridor like banshee wails. Slapping my hands to my ears, I tried to ignore it. That was all I could do. That, or give up, but my friends needed me right now. They needed this power, and I was going to make it happen. If nothing else, this would be my legacy, downing more angels than even Beelzebub, but by doing it my own way. As I felt the aether flow into my body, stretching the limitations I hadn't even known existed before now, I just hoped that history would remember me as theirs. As the Demons' Muse, not just some stupid girl who couldn't get anything right – so I pulled harder.

  Filling with too much aether feels strange. It's like being stuffed after Thanksgiving, but all over. My mind, my heart, my fingers, and even my hair felt bloated and stretched, as if the cells themselves were about to burst, but I couldn't stop. If I ruptured whatever aether bladder a person had, I knew someone would fix it. Luke or Nick, probably. Those guys always took care of me, and I had to do this. There was no other way to –

  Suddenly, the corridor fell silent. The sound of the wind rushing past was the only thing I could hear because the voices were all gone. Forcing my aether-puffed eyes open, I looked, shocked to see grey silhouettes of angels scattered around, lit by a glow pulsing out of me. The aether. I had too much, but I knew exactly how to relieve just a bit of it.

  Tossing my hand out, I imagined painting those bodies as dust flying on the breeze. In my mind, I could see them lifted, dissolving, and dissipating in the winds until they'd be impossible to collect. Molecule by molecule, the angels would tumble between worlds preventing anyone from putting them back together. Before me, it happened. At least fifty angels dissolved right in front of my eyes, making the balance of power just a little more equal. But I couldn't stay to enjoy this. I still had friends to save.

  I tried to step back, but my leg jerked to a halt. Sucking in a little breath, I remembered the chain. A thought dispelled it and I tried again, this time stepping easily through the veil and into a world of chaos. The skies of Vesdar were filled with lightning, energy balls, glowing swords, and the screams of men. I paused for a split second to find my bearings, then shoved both hands down, painting the biggest protection I could imagine with the force of my will.

  A gigantic bubble appeared, mimicking the gesture. It formed at the top and grew, using the aether inside me to make a shield from raw power. Like an oil slick, it shimmered in a myriad of colors but I could see through it enough to watch every angel on the other side pause in shock. Nothing would be able to get through that.

  "What did you do?" Nick asked, turning to look at me.

  "We're shielded and I cleared the corridor. Guy's, let's go!"

  But Nick was shaking his head. "Sia, there's no pattern." He turned back and my eyes followed his.

  "Oh, shit," I breathed, realizing my mistake.

  There was no pattern to my shield, just pure, raw aether, there for the taking, and the angels hadn't hesitated for long. All of them pulled, sucking at it, but the way I'd built it had only made things worse. I couldn't pull it back. I couldn't stop them. No, instead of helping my friends, I'd just given aid to the enemy, and the beautiful swirls of life were getting thinner and thinner right before my eyes.

  "Sam," Nick snapped. "Get her home. Luke, make sure she learns something this time." Then he sucked in a deep breath. "Bel, you're with me."

  "Always, Satan," the big guy promised as he moved to stand beside Nick.

  "No," I gasped, holding up my hands. "I can fix this."

  "Get her safe!" Nick ordered.

  But Sam and Luke looked like they dreaded leaving as much as I did. "Just..." I thrust my hand out, banishing the shield to swirl away in the atmosphere. "Give me back my aether, Mike."

  "Come to Angelis with me, Muse," he countered, dropping lower to see me better. "Come with me, and I'll even let your friends go back to their forsaken little home."

  "Damn it," Nick snarled. "Sam!"

  Beside me, Sam took a deep breath and braced. "I'm not leaving you, Nick. We are legion."

  "You need to protect Sia," Nick growled while Michael's hands were starting to glow brighter and brighter. "She can wake me up, you idiot, but she can die." He turned to meet Sam's eyes, nothing but determination on Nick's face.

  "Let's go," Luke hissed, daring to grab my arm, but it was already too late.

  Mike thrust both palms out, and behind him, the other angels did the same. My one mistake had just become even bigger as the wrath of at least a dozen angels rained down on us in the form of sprites. Big ones
, little ones, and all sizes in between, the angels cast them at us, knowing we could either defend against the beasties or defend against their masters, but not both. The one thing they didn't count on... was me.

  That was my aether. This was my mistake. For my entire life, I'd had to learn how to fix it when I screwed up, and I was damned good at it. So I pulled. I pushed. I waved them away while beside me, my friends hacked and slashed at them. Luke threw something white – I didn't get the chance to see what, but it flashed like a strobe. There was just one problem.

  Mike wasn't stupid.

  He must've been able to feel the drain, because his only target was me. Beelzebub did his best to block and deflect, but I was busy. I had to get that stupid archangel out of play or we'd all end up regretting this. Changing my focus, I ignored the rest and reached up, calling to only the life inside that one arrogant asshole, just as he threw something big.

  "No," Nick yelled, launching into the sky.

  The something was hideous, green, and about the size of a big dog. Nick grabbed it, but the blob was still forming, growing teeth as I watched, then arms, legs, and wings. All of them had claws, and every single one found a home in Nick's flesh. A leg slashed at his wing, tearing through the flight membrane. A hand hacked at his chest, marring one of the wards. That wasn't the worst. I watched in shock as long, sharp teeth buried themselves in the uppermost bone of Nick's other wing and pulled.

  Then Sam vanished from beside me, just to reappear in the air by Nick. An ethereal dagger in his hand plunged into the sprite as he wrenched it away, but he was only one man. He'd removed the beast but Nick's wing was useless and gravity was more powerful than wishes. Nick fell, crashing into the plush moss that had been an amazing bed only hours before – and didn't move.

  "Nick!" Sam screamed, dropping down at his side.

  Me? I didn't bother screaming. I couldn't quite find any tears to cry. All I had was rage, and it was fueling something deep inside me. Something that rumbled, begging for release and all it needed was a form. Nick had asked me once if I could kill a butterfly and I'd said yes, to save the rest. Well, right now, I couldn't think of anything more perfect to extract my revenge.

  If a sprite had just killed the man I loved, then I wanted a million sprites to make them pay. Every drop of aether I'd stolen from those angels went to fuel it, burning as it rushed out as a mass of delicate blue and black wings. Perfect, beautiful little monsters to make those assholes pay, I made them in droves with no other desire than to consume the flesh of angels. Not demons, not dragons, and certainly not of humans. They only wanted the sweet metallic skin of angels, and I ordered them to continue until they couldn't find any more.

  "What the –" Luke gasped as he ducked under my surge of blue to rush for Nick.

  Bel's response was even better. "Damn," he breathed.

  But Mike couldn't see the threat. Butterfly after butterfly appeared, some bursting from my body while others materialized in the air beneath our ledge, and the idiot laughed. He dared to laugh at the most beautiful and harmless looking weapon he'd probably ever seen. That is, until the first one reached him, because my butterflies weren't like any others.

  Those tiny little bodies and harmless little heads opened to be nothing but teeth. Having read too many dark fantasies, I'd made the proportions impossible, the fangs extra sharp, and their appetite unstoppable. Like a lazily flapping school of piranha, my sprites fell on them, clinging with their six sticky little legs, and they began to bite off hunks of metallic angel flesh to keep them going.

  "Send them back," Bel yelled over the screams of pain. "Sia, send it all to Angelis!"

  Perfect, and all it took was a wave of my arm and the last of that power inside me. I'd been to Angelis. I knew the resonance and Luke had taught me how to move people to other realms, but never before had I sent so many. I didn't bother to think about it, I just did it, forcing every angel on this entire planet to cross the dimensions whether they liked it or not. The bloating inside me vanished as bodies disappeared right in front of my eyes like candles blown out on a cake. My head felt light, my heart began to race, and my knees crumpled out from under me. Just as I fell into the moss, I realized that the world had gotten a whole lot quieter.

  The only sound I could still hear was Sam calling Nick's name over and over. "Satan. C'mon, Satan, take it! Take my damned aether, please."

  Chapter 39

  "Nick?" I gasped, struggling to get back to my feet.

  Unfortunately, I didn't have the energy left to do more than crawl. I finally understood what Gabe had felt like when I'd sucked his life out, and it wasn't a good feeling. I also didn't have time to worry about it. Nick was lying unconscious, his head limp in Sam's arms. I didn't even care that my guys only barely looked familiar in their demon forms, all I could see was my lover's lifeless form.

  "Is he..."

  Feathers rustled as Luke bent to wrap his arms around me. "He can't die, Sia." Without asking, he pulled me against his chest. "You can't say the same. I don't have much, but..."

  His hand cupped the side of my face and I felt it. My own protections were made from Luke's life and they wouldn't keep him out. Oh no, they welcomed his gift of life and I felt the rush inside me like kisses up my spine, all too personal and so very sweet. I sucked in a breath, but I simply could not ignore that feeling.

  "Luke, stop," I breathed.

  He bent, pressing his head to my brow. "It's ok, hun. I know it feels weird, but you need this."

  "No," I grumbled as he began to push again. "Luke, I'm human. I'm fine. I don't need as... Oh!"

  I swear every cell on my skin flushed and reacted when my body reached a sustainable level. There were no words to describe the sensation, but it was sweet, erotic, and so very sensual all at the same time, but my gasp was the sign Luke had been waiting for. With a chuckle, he cut off the flow of life between us and smiled.

  "Nick's out, Sam's running on fumes, and I don't have a lot left. You're going to have to pull from Bel, Sia. He's the only one with enough to spare to get Nick awake long enough to key you into Daemin."

  I glanced over at the terrifying monster my friend had become. "This isn't enough, Luke. There's no extra aether on Daemin."

  "I know, but let's get you in there and then worry about it. The angels won't stay gone for long."

  I pulled out of his grasp and stumbled to my feet. "Longer than you'd guess. I sent the butterflies with them and told them to use their meals as fuel to keep going as long as they could."

  "Then you may have bought us enough time to fix this. We still need our wounded to be someplace safe."

  Ok, he had a point. The problem was that if getting a refill from Luke was that exciting, I wasn't quite sure how this transfer from Bel to me to Nick would go. Talk about making things awkward, but I could handle this. I always did. I was a pro at awkward.

  Besides, these were my guys.

  "Sam?" I asked as I knelt beside him.

  He looked up to reveal beautiful magenta nebulas in his eyes. "I can't get through his wards. He never let me in."

  "I know," I whispered, pressing my hand over his on Nick's cheek. "And he told me about long ago, but you can't do this. You don't have enough left."

  He nodded. "Sia, he's never been drained before. Not once, and with all these wounds, it's going to take a lot to get him fixed. He's vulnerable out here."

  "Yeah." Then I glanced back to Bel. "So let's get him home and safe, first. I swear, Sam, I'm going to take care of the rest, ok?"

  He shifted his hand to catch my fingers between his. "I know you will, sweetie. I'm so glad he has you."

  I didn't know what to say to that, but I knew how to do something that would help. "Yeah. Bel?"

  The big guy knelt down beside me. "Take all you need, Muse."

  "No. I'm taking enough for him to get us in, but we need one of y'all to guard our backs, ok? Nick said they'd come at us in the corridor." I looked back to Sam. "When he's safe, I'll get more.
He won't sleep more than a few days, I swear."

  "Just do it," Bel grumbled, thrusting out his hand.

  I took it, pressing my other over Nick's seal, and then I let the life just flow through me. I'd expected it to be awkward, to feel the seductive rush from Bel and the desire of giving to Nick, but it wasn't like that. It was different, maybe better.

  This time, I began to understand what they meant about nurturing. It felt like that warm glow in my stomach when I'd saved a kitten, or the contentment found with my head pillowed on my demon's shoulder. This magic I was playing with was life and love, and everything in between. It was responsibility and seduction, care and temptation, all wrapped into one. It felt like what I'd imagined it would be like to have a family.

  Nick hadn't been empty, but the damage from the fall had used its own share of his life. He was hurting, drained, and a complete mess, but this was Satan, the one man who had never succumbed before. The moment his body reached the minimum threshold, he gasped, sucking in a deep breath as those starry eyes flew open.

  I kept pushing.

  "Enough," he croaked, having to force the word out.

  "Shut up, Nick," I said and kept pushing. "You have to get me into Daemin. That means you need a little to burn keying the veil to me."

  He paused, taking that in, then asked, "Where are the angels?"

  "Angelis, along with about a million sprites. I bought us enough time to get through."

  Then he looked over my shoulder at Beelzebub. "Don't let her do anything stupid. Her heart's too big for her own good, and not everyone will be happy to know there's a new Muse."

  "Then they can come through me," Bel swore.

  Nick smiled and grabbed my hand, lifting it from his chest. "That's enough, dove." He groaned at the movement. "Sam? I'm going to need you to help me."