Blessed Fury: An Urban Fantasy Romance (Angels of Fate Book 1)

by C. S. Wilde

  The Captain kept looking outside and ignored them completely.

  Liam straightened his stance. “Little early for that, isn’t it, Cap?”

  “Had a rough night, kid,” she said before taking a sip.

  “Yeah, I can relate.” His tone was weak and mournful.

  A warm pulse beat from Ava’s sword, pushing against the sheath. Ava frowned at it, then at Liam and the Captain. Had they also felt it? They paid her no attention, so they couldn’t have.

  The sword beat again then stopped, almost as if it had been caught doing something mischievous. Ava glared at it. The weapon pulsed again, hard and at once, connecting to something deep inside her.

  The Captain’s office turned into blurred smudges that reshaped into a living room bathed by late afternoon sunlight.

  What was this place? Ava had never been here before.

  A bulky man sat on a couch. The afternoon light turned his hair a fiery blonde, but Ava could see little of his face since the light came from the window behind him, drenching his features in a penumbra.

  A boy sat next to the man, his skin too attached to his bones, and his face smudged by so much dirt it had turned into a dark shade of ash. The boy resembled an abandoned puppy, but it was the eyes, clear green and fierce, that told her who he was.

  Liam.

  They sat on the same brown couch from Liam’s apartment, only this time the cushions were fluffy and looked comfortable.

  “You’ve been through a lot, kid,” the man said.

  That man must be Archibald, and this … this must be a memory. But how Ava stood here, she couldn’t explain.

  Liam shook so hard she wondered if he was freezing, but he didn’t utter a word.

  Archibald gave him a soft smile. “What you’ve been through is called a test of faith.” He laid a hand on Liam’s shoulder, and the boy flinched. Archibald immediately pulled back, giving Liam the space he needed.

  The boy’s gaze locked on the floor’s wooden boards, and after a long silence, Liam mumbled, “What’s faith?”

  “It’s something that lives right here.” Archibald pointed to Liam’s heart. “It’s how the Gods speak to you. Keep listening to your faith, and you’ll be just fine.”

  Ava frowned at Archibald’s definition of faith. It was certainly unorthodox, but at the same time, beautiful.

  In the blink of an eye, the room vanished, and she was back in the Captain’s office.

  She glared at Liam, then at her sword, which now behaved like any other inanimate object. She waited for it to pulse, but nothing happened.

  What in all the Heavens?

  Liam and the Captain kept speaking, completely oblivious to what had just happened to her.

  “Cap, you saw what they did to Archie,” Liam said, his lips tight and fury in his tone.

  A gray cloud pricked inside him, pushing against Ava’s Guardian instincts, an agony at things long gone.

  Ava wasn’t an Erudite, so she shouldn’t have been able to enter someone’s mind. Then again, she wasn’t supposed to lift objects with her thoughts either.

  Nothing made sense.

  She cast a suspicious glance at the sword, wondering if the weapon had played a part in what happened, but that sounded insane.

  The lines in the Captain’s expression hardened, and she took another sip of her whiskey. Her attention went to the window, or perhaps way beyond it. “The Messenger told me to give you a mission involving damage control on vampire attacks from sectors fourteen and thirteen.”

  Liam turned to Ava with a frown that begged for an explanation, but all she could do was shrug.

  He turned to the Captain. “What did you tell him?”

  “That I’d assign you the mission.” The Captain glanced at them, her brown eyes slightly inebriated. “You and your new partner.” The last word came out with a chuckle.

  “I’m not taking a new mission,” Liam said. “Look, someone might be tampering with wolfsugar and stealing legal supplies of blood from the vampires. It’s why the number of attacks have multiplied, and I think it might have something to do with Archie’s death. I have a lead, Cap.”

  The Captain spun her glass in small circles and watched the liquid swirl. “Of course you do.”

  “But if Ezra ordered us—” Ava silenced at the pleading look Liam sent her, a look that told her he needed Ava on his side now more than ever.

  A Guardian’s first duty was to their charge, but this was different. She would be going directly against Ezra’s orders, and defying him in such manner felt like sticking a blade in her heart.

  The Messenger trusted her. He wasn’t only her boss and mentor, he was her friend. Perhaps more than that, considering he had kissed her. But now Ava had also kissed Liam, and nearly done things with him she shouldn’t have. Guilt hung heavy on her shoulders, sticky and pitch black.

  This was wrong, so very wrong. But when she watched the glistening desperation in Liam’s eyes, Ava knew she had no choice.

  Gods help her.

  She straightened her stance and wrapped both hands behind her back. “Yes, we have a lead.”

  The Captain observed her through narrowed eyes. “Guardians aren’t known for rule breaking. But I guess that if you stick with this one,” she nodded to Liam, “common sense leaves you pretty quickly.” She turned to him. “I take it that if you’re here, it’s because this lead will force a contact with a second-tier demon?”

  Even drunk, the Captain was quite perceptive.

  “I need answers, Cap.” He nodded to her drink. “We all do.”

  The Captain inhaled a long breath, then leaned back against the chair. “I can delay the paperwork. And you have permission, of course, though unofficial.”

  “Don’t we need an official permission, though?” Ava asked.

  “I can’t give an official okay for this, not when the Messenger requested a new mission for Liam. But I can stall.” She pointed her glass toward Ava. “Are you fine with following him, angel girl? If Liam dies while facing a second-tier demon, he can always come back as a human or an angel, whereas if you die …” Her hands mimicked a small explosion. “Poof.”

  “I was assigned to help my charge in any way I can.” Liam winced at that, as if the word “charge” bothered him. Good. Now he knew how Ava felt when he called her ‘princess.’ “If my life is endangered, so be it. My charge always comes first.”

  The Captain raised an eyebrow at Liam. “She has good intentions, but she’s too green, kid.”

  He scratched the back of his neck. “I know.”

  Ava shot him a glare of pure death that seemed to amuse him.

  “She learns fast, though,” he added. “We made progress with sword fighting today. And she can create shields.”

  “On myself, yes,” Ava said quietly. “I’m not certain if I can protect us both.”

  Liam snorted. “You don’t have to protect me.” He nodded to the Captain. “We’ll also try to find Archie, Cap.”

  “If you do, you’ll have to kill him.”

  The words seemed to punch Liam, and he took a step back. “You can’t possibly—”

  “I know what you’re going to ask,” the Captain said as sunlight peered through the window, highlighting all the wrinkles on her skin and the darker shades of gray in her silver hair. “The answer is I tried. I really did.”

  “Cap, we need to bring Archie in. We have to help him.” Liam stepped forward. “He’s family; not just to me, but to the entire precinct. Come on!”

  “He isn’t one of us anymore.” There was pain in the Captain’s eyes, and she took a long gulp of her drink. “There’s no salvation for him.”

  “There’s always salvation.” Ava stepped forward and immediately regretted it after the furious glare the Captain sent her.

  “There’s no hope for the damned,” the Captain countered through gritted teeth. “An angel, of all creatures, should know.”

  “That’s not fair,” Liam grumbled.

  The o
ld woman laughed loudly. “And since when is the Gods’ will fair? Go do what you have to do kid, but at the end of the day, we’ll still be on this side and Archie on the other.”

  Liam shook his head and turned to leave. Ava followed, but right before they reached the door, the Captain said, “There are wheels spinning in the background, Liam. Something big is happening, but I can’t guess what. Be careful.” She looked at Ava, and she could swear the Captain’s expression softened. “I assume you can mask your power?”

  “I can.”

  “Good.” She turned to Liam. “Give her some normal clothes, will you? Otherwise your new partner will stick out like a sore thumb.” The Captain poured herself some more whiskey. “You don’t want that where you’re going.”

  11

  Ava

  Ava would never get used to wearing jeans, black boots, and a leather jacket. At least her tank top was white, a small remnant of her Guardian attire.

  “Why do you Selfless dress this way?” she grumbled, still adjusting to the rough fabric of her jeans. What a remarkably itchy material …

  “It makes blending in a lot easier, princess,” Liam said as they entered the Chinese restaurant. “Remember to mask your essence so they think you’re a Selfless like me.”

  Ava nodded and gathered her essence in her core, wrapping a thin layer of her light around itself. Masking essences was easy when it came to humans, but the supernaturals had sharper senses. And Ava was about to step into a den full of them.

  Ignoring her uncomfortable jeans was easy after that.

  Liam led her past the nearly empty tables, then through a fume-filled kitchen, finally taking dimly lit stairs that led down to an iron door in the basement. Liam knocked on it twice and a sliding peephole opened, showing unnaturally crisp purple eyes.

  Vampire.

  Loud music boomed from inside, and beams of green and purple light moved haphazardly throughout the space behind the vampire.

  “Name your business,” the creature ordered.

  “We’re here to see Jal,” Liam said, holding his chin high in a proud, if not defiant, manner.

  The vampire lifted his nose and sniffed both of them. “Jal wants no business with the Order.”

  “We all know the Selfless and the Order aren’t exactly the same thing.”

  “You’re all angels, no matter your wrapping.”

  Liam leaned forward and whispered, as if admitting to a wrongdoing, “We want to make a deal.”

  The vampire’s eyes lit up. “A deal from a Selfless? Oh, Jal will like this very much.”

  The door unlocked and opened to a vast club that boomed with loud music. Neon lights flooded the packed dance floor which was walled by two rows of lounges. The place reeked of cigars, sweat, and alcohol.

  “Heavens, it’s only four in the afternoon,” Ava muttered to herself. “How can they be partying at this time?”

  Liam grinned down at her as if she had said something amusing. “There’s no right time to party, princess,” he yelled over the music. “Especially when you have forever ahead of you.”

  They snaked through the crowd, and Ava caught scents of wet fur and coagulated blood, typical for werewolves and vampires. But there were also other scents: sweet, citrus, musky … so many, so different. That could only mean one thing.

  Humans!

  With her heart pounding against her chest, Ava narrowed her eyes to see men and women being bitten and scratched on the dance floor. She gripped her sword’s hilt, and just as she was about to unsheathe it, the vampire who’d let them enter stopped her.

  He shook his head in a silent warning. “They’re here of their own will.”

  Liam crossed his arms. “And I assume you have the turning requests approved by the Order?”

  “Of course.” The vampire’s smile didn’t meet his eyes. “Then again, some of them simply enjoy feeding us. Becoming a creature of the night isn’t for everyone.” He turned and moved forward, a clear sign for them to follow.

  “What’s the assessment, princess?” Liam muttered as they followed the vampire.

  Ava peered through the humans’ emotions and sensed nothing but elation and eagerness coated by sexual arousal, a red, candy-like cloud that emanated from their bodies.

  “They’re here because they want to be.” She scoffed. “Why would they choose this?”

  Liam shrugged. “When you don’t know if you’ll go to the Heavens or the Hells, living forever seems like a pretty good idea. Not to mention that some people don’t feel like reincarnating. Growing up is a pain in the ass. I’d give anything to avoid going to school again.”

  Ava repeated the words she’d learned during initiation. “Giving yourself to the In-Betweens is the choice of the weak.”

  “Is it?” He gave her a quizzical frown that said he knew more than Ava ever could.

  An icy wave smashed against her at once, a freezing void that reverberated within Ava’s bones. It was peppered with delirium and something sad and tortured, something that made Ava want to scream and cry at the same time.

  She turned to the lounge on the left, where three demons played cards at a round table.

  The source of darkness.

  Two demons worked the cards without paying Ava any attention, but the third observed her with piercing dark-brown eyes and a hint of a smile. Darkness oozed from his back like an oil leak in the ocean, thrumming against her essence. The darkness shaped large wings, and when she narrowed her eyes the shadows disappeared, giving way to magnificent draconian wings that were at least the span of a school bus.

  Wine colored scales that turned black at the tips coated the demon’s wings. They shimmered when light from the dance floor hit them, stealing the color—green, purple, sometimes blue.

  Absolutely breathtaking. A demon’s wings shouldn’t be this majestic, but then again, Ava had never seen demonic wings in real life until now.

  The demon spread them wide, a silent warning that in here, he was king.

  Ava didn’t need introductions to know who Jal was.

  His long dark hair cascaded down his chest in the way of a silk curtain, his deep bronze skin smooth and flawless. As a second-tier, Jal looked remarkably human, unlike the lower demons who accompanied him.

  Swarms of shadows covered all of the first creature; the only visible feature in the darkness was its slit yellow irises. The other demon looked more frog than human with its gray skin and round, jawless face. It grinned at Ava, showing teeth that resembled thousands of needles before returning its attention back to the game.

  It was said that the darkness could make weaker demons take monstrous forms, but for some reason, the light didn’t have the same effect on angels. Why that was, Ava couldn’t say. Ezra had once told her this was the devils’ test, something to churn the weak from the strong. Unlike the light, the darkness was unmerciful and cruel. “Survive that, and you can survive anything,” he’d said.

  This was why Jal looked perfectly human, apart from his draconian wings. As a second-tier demon, he had conquered the darkness in the same way that Archangels, Virtues, and Dominions had conquered the light.

  The stench of sulfur invaded Ava’s nostrils as she and Liam climbed the stairs to the lounge. Demonic scent.

  Jal’s wings transformed into shadows again, disappearing behind him, but he kept watching Ava. Like a predator about to attack.

  “You okay?” Liam asked her as they stopped before the table, his broad shoulders shielding her.

  Ava nodded, but she was actually far from okay. She had never faced a second-tier demon before. Heavens, she had barely managed those third-tiers back in the pub. Imagine one like Jal, whose darkness slipped through every pore.

  Her hands started shaking, so she gripped the hilt of Ezra’s sword to steady them.

  The weapon pulsed once. Strings of warmth connected with her core, and a calming sensation invaded Ava, almost as if Ezra himself had whispered the words of the Gods in her ears.

  “Dem
ons and angels only reveal their wings when they want to fly, fuck, fight, or show off,” Jal said nonchalantly, throwing cards at the table. “Why do you think I showed you mine, pretty angel?” His tone was hard and playful at the same time.

  To show off, naturally. It was why many ascended angels often walked with their wings on display.

  A realization hit Ava like a car crashing against a wall: Ezra rarely hid his wings within his light when she was around. Did that mean he was showing off … or that he wanted to become intimate with her?

  She cleared her throat, steadying her voice. “You wanted to scare me, but you failed, demon.”

  “Did I?” A laugh rumbled in Jal’s chest as he leaned back in his chair. Then he turned his attention to Liam, who still stood between them. “I can’t remember the last time an angel was crazy enough to step into one of my properties. Surely my fame has preceded me, but perhaps you’re foolish enough to ignore it.”

  “The Selfless are no angels,” Liam countered, his tone steel and stone.

  “You say tomato, I say tomahto. Besides, I’m not a fool. You are a Selfless. Your companion?” He clicked his tongue. “She’s as pure and angelic as they come, Liam Striker.”

  Liam masked his surprise beautifully, but Ava could still sense it stabbing his core. “How do you know my name?”

  “I had many dealings with your former partner,” Jal explained. “He never cared to introduce us, though. My guess is you weren’t ready.”

  Liam’s throat bobbed, but he never lost focus. “We have a proposal for you.”

  Jal’s eyes flashed yellow, and a grin spread across his squared jaw. “If you’ll excuse me, gentlemen,” he said to the demons as he stood.

  Jal walked down the rows of the lounge, and Liam and Ava followed.

  Below, on the dance floor, a sea of creatures ground against each other, dancing, fornicating, biting. A shudder coursed through Ava’s body, and she focused on the path ahead.

  Once Jal reached the end of the club, he stopped before an iron door.

  The room inside was a small square with no windows that reeked of cigars. One round wooden table stood in the middle, accompanied by one chair. A wooden box rested atop the table.