by Peach, Hanna
There was a knock and Alyx jumped away from the table.
Cleo opened the door. Behind her was a green-skinned lesser demon. But by the unmistakable deep blue of his eyes, she knew it was Balthazar under his usual mirage. Cleo stepped aside to let Balthazar in and shot Alyx a searing look over his shoulder before shutting the door.
When they were alone, Balthazar let his mirage drop. His skin shimmered into a deep blue, like his eyes. “You called?”
“I need your help.”
“Indeed. It must be serious if you were to ask for my help.” He eyed the room. “And to come alone.”
Alyx took out a dagger wrapped in a black silk. She had taken the dagger that had poisoned Israel from the station without anyone knowing. She unwrapped it and held it out to Balthazar.
“It’s dipped in some sort of demon poison. I need to know what kind.”
“Someone has been hurt?” Balthazar took the handle carefully and studied the blade. He sniffed it. “Your bonded?”
Alyx pressed her lips together. “Let’s just say that he is a friend and he is important to me.” At this Balthazar’s eyebrow raised almost imperceptibly. “We have tried to fix him an antidote, but it hasn’t worked. Please. Can you help me or not?”
Balthazar tilted his head. “I will need—”
“Anything.”
“—his blood.”
Alyx froze. “What?”
“I need his blood to determine how to cure him.”
“Can’t you just determine what kind of poison it is by the blade?”
“Demon poison is complicated. And it is made more complicated by how it reacts with different bloods.”
What Balthazar said was consistent with what the Elder and Mayrekk had told her, but… Something was stopping her from saying yes. Handing over Israel’s blood to a demon… Something about this just didn’t seem right.
Balthazar tilted his head at her. “Do you want my help or not?”
What choice did she have? Israel would die otherwise. The thought made her heart ache with pain.
“How much do you need?” she asked hesitantly.
She couldn’t help but be unnerved at the smile he gave her. “Just a small vial is fine. I’ll wait here for you.”
Chapter 38
Alyx stood outside this mortal pharmacy. It was late and everything was dark inside, but she could see the rows of cabinets and pills and products through the glass window. She stood by the door and stared at the lock for a moment. If Israel was here, he’d know how to pick this lock and to disarm the security system. If Israel was here…
A wave of anger crashed over her and she had to put out a hand to steady herself. Israel wasn’t here. Israel was lying underground, dying. She had to do whatever it took to save him. Whatever it took.
She clenched a fist and punched through the glass. It shattered and a loud wailing began to pierce the quiet air of Saint Joseph. Alyx ignored the glass that cut into her hands and ignored the alarm as she continued to break shards out of the window until the hole was big enough to let her through.
She dove through the hole in the glass and tumbled in to a roll along one of the pharmacy aisles. She rose to her feet and strode to the back counter. Leaping over the counter she unsheathed her sword and began to break open cabinets, looking for a needle and a vial. The alarm continued to wail in that accusing tone, but she didn’t care. She shut out the sound and the rising guilt by the wall of determination and the mantra that drummed like a war chant in her mind.
Whatever it takes. I will do whatever it takes.
* * *
“Where have you been, beauty?”
Alyx froze for the merest of moments as she moved into the underground station. Jordan stood in the shadows near the rarely used southern entrance. Dammit. She didn’t think that anyone would notice her sneaking back in. Especially not Jordan. He looked like he had been waiting for her.
“I’ve been out.” She attempted to stride past him.
But he sidestepped into her path, his nearness causing a curl of fire to ignite in her stomach. She tried to move around him on the other side, but he stepped once again. “You’re hiding something from me.”
Alyx felt herself bristle. “What? Like you never hide anything from me?”
He grabbed her hands and brought them up to his lips. “Alyx—”
He froze. She realized he was staring at the dried blood on her knuckles where the glass from the pharmacy had cut her. He held a pained expression on his face as he ran his thumb gently across her fingers. She hated that his touch caused her insides to tremble. Even now. It was a betrayal to her love for Israel.
“I’m sorry for walking away from you before. I shouldn’t have acted the way I did. I shouldn’t have shut off. I should have stayed. I was… scared.”
Alyx knew how hard it must have been for Jordan to have admitted being scared. She wanted to tell him that she knew, that she understood, but part of her was just so damn angry at him.
“How do I know you won’t walk away again when things get too hard?”
“I won’t.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Alyx, please. I know I’m making mistakes but we can work through—”
“It’s too late.”
Jordan froze. Then he let go of her hands. “You took your memories back, didn’t you? You’re in love with him again.”
“You walked away. Then Mason came to me, telling me to take them back. I didn’t know what to do. I looked for you.” She glared at him. “I couldn’t find you. I needed you and you weren’t there.”
“I’m sorry.” His voice was low and pained.
“I wanted to ask you what I should do.” She blinked back tears as she looked up at him. “If you had told me not to take them back, I wouldn’t have.”
She watched him swallow hard. “And now that you have…”
“I hate you.”
He flinched. But he didn’t back away. He just stared at her with a look of understanding on his beautiful face. “You hate me because now… now you love both of us, don’t you?”
“Bastard,” she whispered. He had always been able to see through her mask. Like no one else could. Not even Israel.
“I never thought you would actually fall for me.” The softness, the tenderness in his voice made her want to pull him close and feel the rasp of his stubble and breathe him in. She wanted to kiss away both of their pain.
But she didn’t. She couldn’t indulge in this right now. She had work to do. She was the Guardian, despite how she felt about Jordan or Israel, and she had a duty that she would not fail. Otherwise Mayrekk would have died for nothing.
She needed to make sure that Jordan would leave her alone so she could get Israel’s blood back to Balthazar. So… she had to hurt him. She had to make him walk away again.
As she hardened herself, a part of her heart screamed for her not to do this.
“Just leave me alone. I don’t want to talk to you right now.” The venom in her voice surprised her. It evidently surprised him, as his eyes widened.
She could see him struggling to stay open, to remain loving. “Alyx, whatever you’re going through, you aren’t alone.” He reached for her.
She snatched her arm back. “Don’t touch me. This body doesn’t belong to you.”
Her heart broke when she saw his eyes fill with pain. Then the light in them went out. And she knew he had shut off again. She shoved past him even though she ached to tell him that she didn’t mean it. And he let her go.
She marched towards Israel’s compartment, holding back tears.
Whatever it takes. I said I would do whatever it takes.
Chapter 39
Alyx slipped into Israel’s compartment. He had gotten worse. With every anemic thud of his pulse, the bruise-like veins ebbed under his skin like a deathly Morse code. As she kneeled beside him she could hear the wheeze of his paper lungs.
Alyx tied a tourniquet around his arm and slid
the needle into his vein. She watched the vial fill with dark red life.
I’m sorry, Israel. Please forgive me.
She wasn’t sure which of her sins she was apologizing for.
* * *
Balthazar was still waiting when Alyx returned to room seven in Purgatory.
“Do you have it?” he asked as she locked the door behind her.
She nodded, but she didn’t move from the door.
Balthazar raised an eyebrow. “Can I have it?”
Alyx pulled the vial of blood from her hip pouch. The tiny vial felt heavy, as if she were holding the blood of all mankind in her hands. The glass was still warm. She prayed that she was doing the right thing.
She handed Balthazar the vial.
“I will have an answer for you as soon as I can.”
* * *
Alyx couldn’t bear to return to the Saint’s Revenge to wait. She couldn’t bear the thought of seeing Jordan again. Not yet. Not after the horrible things she had said to him. The guilt of causing him to shut down again would be too much for her. She would give in and confess.
Instead, she went down to the Purgatory bar where she sat on a stool at the bar.
Loki, the bartender, recognized her. “Not here with Jordan?”
Hearing his name caused a stab of pain in her chest. She shook her head.
Loki poured a clear liquid into a glass and squeezed lime into it. He placed it in front of Alyx. “You look like you need it.”
Alyx threw the liquid down her throat. It tasted like fire going down. Then placing the glass back down on the bar she said, “I have no money.”
Loki laughed. “She says after she has drunk it all. That one was on me. This one,” he poured another glass, “I’ll put it on Jordan’s tab.” He winked at her.
She drank the second glass. It made her edges feel fuzzy and her heartache felt wrapped in a blanket. So she kept drinking.
Soon, she couldn’t keep her head up. Her arm was slung across the bar and coated in something sticky, probably something she spilled. Her face was pressed uncomfortably into her arm. Her head spun like she was twirling and she felt herself sliding off the cracked-leather bar stool.
Something soft and firm caught her. Something that smelt like cinnamon.
“Okay, I think we’d better get you upstairs and to bed.” A woman’s voice. An angel’s voice. Israel must have died. And so she must have died as well.
“Are you an ‘ngel?” she slurred. “Come to take me to Heaven.”
The angel laughed. It tinkered like fairy bells. “No, honey. I’m no angel.”
Alyx raised her head as the angel helped support her through the thinning Purgatory crowd. Through her blurred vision she could see familiar features. “Hey, I know you.”
“Yes you do. Now here we go. Up the stairs.”
Alyx didn’t remember much more after that.
Chapter 40
Alyx’s eyes felt glued together. And it sounded like something was pounding a hammer not so far from her head. “Stop it,” she tried to say but only managed a croak.
“You’re awake.”
Alyx groaned and tried to open her eyes to look at the person who was speaking. Speaking much too loud, mind you. And that hammering. Would they stop that hammering?
“Here, wipe your face with this.” Alyx had a cool damp cloth thrust into her hands. It felt like heaven on her face, which felt cracked and dusty. Wiping the crust from her eyes, she was able to open them to look upon Cleo’s smiling face. She held out a glass of water to Alyx. “Sit up and drink.”
Easier said than done. Alyx felt her world tilt as she tried to sit. The water was cool and she gulped it down greedily until there wasn’t a drop left.
She groaned. “Why do I feel like Hell has set up residence in my head?”
Setting off Cleo’s tinkering laugh. “Is this your first hangover?”
Alyx frowned. But that hurt too much so she stopped frowning and settled for a weak pout.
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
Looking around, Alyx could see that she was in a small room with dark mauve walls. She was on a low platform poster bed with black and red drapes that were currently tied back. The only other furniture was a black cupboard which took up one wall and a low side table upon which a warm lamp glowed.
“It’s my room in Purgatory. You were too drunk to take anywhere else, and besides, I don’t know where you live or who I should’ve called last night.”
Awkwardness bloomed in her chest. “Thank you. You didn’t have to look after me.”
Then Alyx noticed that something was fluttering at her chest.
“That thing has been going nuts for a few minutes now,” Cleo said.
Her demon communicator was fluttering like mad. Balthazar. The cure.
“I have to go.” Alyx threw off the covers and jumped to her feet. Or at least, she tried to, her hangover made her limbs feel thick, almost getting her tangled in the sheets.
She froze, stunned at the rush of air around her body. She looked down to see that she was wearing a silky green singlet trimmed with lace and matching shorts. Holy hell. Cleo had changed her as well. Which meant that this stranger had seen her naked. Her cheeks flamed.
Cleo smiled and pointed to a screen in the corner of her room. Alyx recognized her clothes hanging over it. On the floor in front of it was her collection of weapons.
“Your clothes are washed and dried. I even gave your blades a polish.”
Alyx was thankful that she could hide the majority of her embarrassment behind a screen. When she was dressed she strapped each of her weapons to her body.
She stood awkwardly in front of Cleo, who hadn’t moved from the bed. “I don’t know how to thank you…”
“I’m sure you would have done the same for me.”
Alyx nodded and opened the door. Outside, she recognized the flocked wallpaper of Purgatory.
But before she could walk away she felt a hand on her arm. Alyx turned. Cleo was leaning in the door frame, staring intensely at her. “If you ever need to… escape again… you can come here.”
“Okay… thanks.”
“Even if you don’t need to escape, maybe you’ll come visit me anyway?” Before Alyx could reply, Cleo’s hand slid off her and she closed the door.
* * *
Balthazar was already waiting for Alyx in one of the Purgatory rooms. Alyx locked the door after she entered.
“We have the antidote.” The small vial of blue liquid was like a jewel shining in the middle of Balthazar’s palm.
Relief flooded her body. “Thank God. I mean, thank you.”
“Don’t thank us yet. We want to make an exchange in return for this antidote. A contract.” With his other hand Balthazar brought out a small piece of parchment.
Alyx’s hand, which was reaching for the vial, froze mid-air. “What are you talking about?”
“In exchange for his antidote which will save Israel’s life, we want Israel.”
“What?” Her blood began to turn to ice. “Why?”
“Israel is vital to Samyara winning this war. We want to make sure that Israel doesn’t fall into Samyara’s hands. So we want him for… safe keeping.”
“You want to bring Israel back with you to… Hell?”
Balthazar nodded. “It will be the last place that Samyara looks for him.”
Alyx shook her head, backing up so fast that her back hit the door. “No. Never.”
Balthazar shrugged and slipped the vial back into his pocket. “Then Israel shall die. And he will be lost to Samyara. It makes no difference to us.”
“No.” Alyx crushed her hands to her face. This wasn’t happening. This couldn’t be happening. And to think that she trusted this creature. “I thought you were on our side.”
“Alyx, this isn’t a personal thing. I am doing what’s best.”
“And you think that what’s best is either letting him die or taking him to Hell?”
Balthazar
’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t think you realize how vital Israel is to Samyara’s plan.”
Alyx thought back to their discovery that demon blood was mixed in with Israel’s human blood. By now Balthazar would know this, having had a chance to study Israel’s blood up closely. “No. I get it. Perfectly.”
“We could just let him die and our problems with Samyara would lessen. It is only because of our alliance with you that Lucifer is even entertaining to let the boy live. But, if he is to live, he must be secured, and the only way we can guarantee that is for us to keep him.”
“As a prisoner.”
Balthazar tilted his head at her. “As our guest.”
“But Samyara has another half-breed.” Alyx blurted out without thinking. Mini, the half-demon half-mortal girl that Samyara had kidnapped from Aradale. “Even if you let Israel die, Samyara will use her and the Seraphim traitor, Passar, to create a child – a keye.”
Balthazar shook his head. “The girl doesn’t matter.”
“What?”
“It won’t work. For an interspecies couple to create a child, they have to be in love.”
In love.
“It was a Law that God decreed himself. Otherwise there would be millions of half-breeds and keyes running around already.”
Alyx thought of Purgatory and realized how true this was.
Then something else struck her. Israel’s parents must have fallen in love, otherwise he would not have been born. Israel’s blood – which he hated – was created from love. Perhaps if Israel knew this, it would comfort him. She had to save him first.
“This Passar of yours isn’t in love with the half-breed girl, is he?” Balthazar asked.
“No.”
“Then there is no threat. And we are back to Israel. Do you want him to live or not?”
She shook her head. “I don’t understand. If he can’t get a child out of Mini, then he can’t get a child out of Israel. Why is Israel such a threat then?”