Good Side of Sin

by Haigwood, K. S.

  “Josh-el-lyn… go—way—” Thoros tried to warn her, but the long fingers around his throat constricted, cutting off his words as well as his air. It was the second time in less than twelve hours he’d been in this position, and he didn’t like it anymore now than he had the first time.

  The demon chuckled, her laugh full of evil and menace.

  “Set him down, demon,” a guy with long sandy colored hair demanded, stepping up to fill the void beside Josselyn, and Thoros could have sworn he recognized him, though he couldn’t pin-point exactly where they’d met. It didn’t matter, because the demon ignored the request and squeezed tighter, sending his eyes rolling into darkness.

  Josselyn

  I didn’t let the fear that was pulling at my insides take over me. Thoros would be all right. Eventually. I knew that. He was immortal, after all, but we had to get him away from the demon. She may not be able to kill him, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t kidnap his immortal shell and drag him to Hell. Isaiah’s sweet little soulmate had done the same to me, so I knew it was possible, even if it was against the rules.

  Lucifer had stopped playing by the rules a long time ago. Now that Heaven was falling apart, I was afraid Lucifer was playing by a whole new set of rules, but those rules only the occupants of Heaven and Earth would be forced to tolerate.

  “He doesn’t have what you’re looking for,” I said, and felt the protection of the others surround me. They were ready and waiting for me to give them the okay to send the hell hound back to where she came from. “I have the souls he took.”

  The demon’s black eyes widened in surprise and she snarled as she threw Thoros’ limp body to the ground behind her. I flinched but kept my eyes on her as she took a step toward me, and then another. Crap! Surely she wasn’t stupid enough to think she could fight us all… and win.

  “Give them to me, girl!”

  “Tell me why you want them and I might consider it.”

  She cackled at my response, but didn’t say anything else, nor did she stop stalking toward me. There were only about fifty feet between us now and we needed a plan and answers. And we needed them both fast. The way she just kept coming at us, like we were nothing but mere mortals had me thinking she had more tricks up her sleeve than we had imagined.

  “If you won’t tell me why you want them, then maybe you will tell us who you are.”

  She recoiled and hissed when Isaiah took a rosary from beneath his shirt, pulling it over his neck for all to see. The female demon in front of us was the only one affected by it. Baddon, Damien and the rest of the half-souled immortals didn’t seem to be bothered by it at all. Isaiah held it out at arm’s length and she squatted into a ball, hiding her face from the holy object and squealing out as if she had been doused with acid.

  I stared at her in stunned silence. I knew demons couldn’t touch holy objects, but I’d never witnessed the effect before. Isaiah’s hand reached out to grab my arm when I took a slow step toward her.

  He shook his head as I turned back to question him, but never took his eyes off her crippled form on the sidewalk. “No, Josselyn. Never approach a demon in distress without protection.”

  I raised my own cross from around my neck and cocked an eyebrow. Isaiah glanced to me, then back at the wailing demon, but didn’t appear to be assured all would still go well, even with the other angels behind us holding their crosses out.

  “What is your name, demon?” Isaiah demanded in a loud, clear voice. All he received in return was more of the terrible screaming. He took my hand with his free hand and nodded. We took a few steps, holding out our crucifixes, and Isaiah repeated himself, his voice booming over her screeching. “In the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, I command you! Tell me your name, demon!”

  She still didn’t respond. I found that terribly odd, since I had learned in the LOD Academy that demons became pretty much hypnotized when faced with a holy object. A cross to a demon is like kryptonite to Superman. They become weak, unable to control their bodies, powers or even their minds and, from the looks of this one, it was extremely painful.

  The screaming subsided, but low growls of warning came from the huddled figure as we carefully approached. I came to an abrupt halt and cut my eyes over to Isaiah, who had stopped in his tracks, too. There was more than one demon in that body, from the different ranges of growls and whining, and now laughing. There were several. Holy crap! Was that even possible?

  “What the hell are we up against?” I spoke to Isaiah with my mind.

  “I do not know,” he replied, and even his mental voice sounded shaky.

  “Well, it can’t kill us, right?”

  “It cannot, but death is never the worst thing that can happen.”

  I knew that. That’s exactly what I was afraid of.

  My eyes shot to Thoros as he moaned and tried to lift the top part of his body by his arms from the patch of grass he’d landed on. Our eyes met and he reached out to me.

  “Stay down, Thoros! The demon can’t know your soulmate is here or she will use it against you.” Isaiah unknowingly said through my mind, and when Thoros fell immediately back to the ground my head did a whip-a-round to look at my guardian angel.

  “What tha’—”

  I watched as he squeezed his eyes shut, as if he’d said or did something he hadn’t meant to. “Not now, Josselyn. I will attempt to explain it to you if we make it out of here in one piece. Just, please, help me get us out of here and don’t ask questions now.”

  I swallowed hard, my heart suddenly beating a reggae rhythm against my ribcage.

  “No—No, Isaiah—”

  “NOT… NOW, Josselyn! Please, can you just focus on the demon? Help me get us the hell out of here without it hurting anyone!”

  I stared at him though narrowed eyes, my thoughts all over the place, but all of them leading back to only one conclusion, a conclusion I refused to accept: Thoros was my soulmate. Of course—how could I have missed it? I was completely livid that Isaiah had obviously known this—How long had he known? Since the beginning?—and not told me. I was shaking so violently it was all I could do to stand beside him and not scream. I was tired of everyone keeping secrets from me and lying to me because they didn’t think I could handle it! “Fine!” I snapped, and then turned my glare back to the demon, but continued to speak to my guardian angel. “You want her gone? I can do gone.”

  Gripping the shiny silver cross in my palm tighter, I thrust my hand out, breaking the link at the back of my neck, and walked forward without hesitation.

  “Josselyn…” Isaiah said through my mind, but I didn’t respond. “Josselyn, stop!”

  I didn’t. “Unclean spirit, I command you! Tell me your name!”

  The wicked chuckling that escaped its throat sent chills up my arms, but I still didn’t stop. I felt the support and holy protection from the others and knew they hadn’t let much space come between us before they’d followed in my footsteps. I would have advanced on the creature regardless of their decisions to join me or stay behind and watch.

  The metal in my fingers began to warm the closer I got to the demon. Not knowing if that was normal or not, I ignored the uncomfortable sensation and focused on the fiend.

  I took another step toward her and shouted into the night, “Soulless fiend, Lucifer’s minion, unclean spirit from Hell, in my Lord’s name I demand you tell me your name!”

  Her head jerked up quicker than I could follow and all I could see were fiery red waves of hair tangling together through the air, and then black eyes, wide and evil, as they locked on mine. I stopped walking. If the cross was affecting her in any way, she wasn’t showing any signs now.

  “Your Lord,” the voices that emerged from her throat shrieked, “is putty in Lucifer’s hands!”

  I swallowed hard, but didn’t dare let the beast know how scared I was. The cross flamed hot. I could feel it searing my skin, but I squeezed tighter and tried my best to ignore this thing I wasn’t used to feeling: pain.


  The demon cackled and let its head fall back, reaching for the sky with two arms stretched Heavenward. “He is coming!” it shouted in delight.

  “Lucifer can’t come to Earth. He is bound!” I said, and then took another measured step forward.

  She looked back at me, the hollow depths of a soulless creature staring back at me through the black, bottom-less windows of her eyes. “He won’t be much longer.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “Really? What makes you so sure?”

  “He grows more powerful as Heaven grows weaker. I will be the one to free him and he will reward me handsomely.”

  I laughed. “He will squash you like a bug under his shoe.”

  She snarled. “Fuck you!”

  “You’re not really my type, but I bet Lucifer will do more than that to you once we send you back to Hell, where you belong. Who are you? Tell me your name.”

  A sly smile spread wide across her face, revealing a perfect set of white teeth. “Would you like to know that?” She nodded, and so did I, as if her power was influencing me to do so. I shook my head and concentrated on blocking her out of my mind. “Will you give me the souls you’ve stolen from me if I answer your questions, angel?”

  As much as I needed the answers she had, bartering the pure souls was not an option. “I didn’t steal them from you. You possessed Thoros and made him steal them from the innocent for you. Why? Why use him? Why couldn’t you just take them yourself?”

  The demon lost her smile and jerked her head to the side, her black eyes making a back-and-forth motion as if she were listening to a conversation—or several—in her head. Thanks to Isaiah, I knew all about that.

  With her eyes cast away from me, I took a guarded step, then another. I didn’t know what I would do when I reached her, but my instinct was screaming at me to get my hands on her.

  I picked up my pace and began to speed-walk the remaining forty feet of distance between us. I could hear shouting from behind me and Isaiah’s warning in my head, but I didn’t have time to listen, so I blocked them all out; the shouts became a mute whisper in my mind as I focused all of my attention on the demon. She sneered when she realized I was advancing on her so rapidly.

  Obviously, she thought she would win this round.

  I grinned.

  Right then, a voice broke through my concentration, catching me off guard. My name was being shouted from the other side of her and I watched in horror as Thoros scrambled to his feet, tripping and stumbling, but obviously going to reach the demon before me.

  NO!

  I tripped in my panicked state, but my palm brushed the sidewalk and I bounced back up into a full out run, only losing one precious second of my time. I knew in my heart if he got to her first that she would take him. I couldn’t let that happen.

  The demon snarled and turned to face Thoros. He was going to get to her first. He was closer.

  NO!

  I pushed myself harder and could see worry cross over the demon’s face for the first time. I was going to make it. I smiled through my tears. I was going to make it first.

  “Josselyn! No!” Thoros shouted, but I ran even harder and watched as the demon looked to me, and then to Thoros, and then back to me, before shrieking loud enough to wake the dead.

  I joined in with her screams as I threw my arms out wide and closed my eyes a second before I wrapped my arms around her body. I heard a fleeting pop, and then felt the hard impact of our bodies crashing into one another.

  I had a hold of her and she wasn’t fighting me. My mind was too jumbled to question it. I had her. She wasn’t moving and everyone was safe. It worked! With my eyes still closed and trying desperately to catch my breath, I squeezed tighter and just held on until Isaiah could get to us and do what was necessary to make her talk.

  What happened next startled me. The thing I was holding onto wrapped its arms around me, giving me a hug and a light kiss to the top of my head.

  My eyes shot open fast and I swiftly looked up into green eyes—green eyes that belonged to Thoros. He sniggered as my mouth fell open. I began to look in all directions for the demon I was supposed to be clinging to.

  “Where did—” I began, but Thoros cut off my words.

  “I think you scared her off with your banshee yell.”

  I looked at him aghast. “Me? I was trying to catch her, and then you had to play the hero and come to my rescue. I had everything under control, and then you had to jump up and ruin everything!”

  “She would have taken you,” he said, and then smiled as he shook his head. “I couldn’t let that happen.”

  “She wouldn’t have taken me! She would have taken you!”

  “And you didn’t want that to happen?” His expression turned somber as his arms left my body and his hands came up to gently frame my face. I closed my mouth and swallowed, suddenly at a loss for words. Those green eyes bore into mine and I forgot we were standing on a sidewalk with an audience.

  “Kiss him, Josselyn,” Isaiah whispered through my mind.

  I closed my eyes and turned my head. Sighing, I pushed my way out of Thoros’ embrace. I couldn’t do this. Even if he was my soulmate, I couldn’t waste any more time pining over a lust-filled demon when souls were missing, one of my closest friends was gone and Heaven was falling under the control of an ancient fallen angel. The demon had proven that last bit only a few moments before; the cross hadn’t really affected her at all. Her act had all been for show, to trick us.

  I opened my eyes and looked at my fingers where the cross had burned them. Blisters had formed and the affected area was red and hurting. It should have already been healed.

  I watched as Thoros brought his hands up to mine and then traced his fingers around the outside edge of the burned area. I sucked in a breath through my teeth when he touched the sensitive area and he jerked his hand back. A moment later I was pulled against that hard chest of his and trembling arms enveloped me once again.

  “Whatever needs to be done to stop this, Josselyn, I will be right beside you.”

  I nodded in gratitude, and then allowed myself a moment of comfort. It really did feel right to be in his arms.

  “DEA! Nobody move!”

  I turned swiftly to see two wide-eyed humans looking at all of us.

  Ignoring the irate woman with the gun, Thoros pointed at the guy beside her. “Hey, that’s him.”

  Chapter 19

  Josselyn

  There weren’t enough seats in the small apartment where everyone could sit down comfortably, so I thought it best to bring the humans back to the mansion to interrogate—I mean, sort things out, just in case the demon decided to come back. Most of the angels and half-souled had already gone on ahead, and so I stood with Isaiah as Baddon and Thoros tried to calm the girl down enough so she would at least lower the pistol. Not that it would hurt them if she pulled the trigger, but that was a conversation that could be had later.

  We didn’t want to scare them, but there was obviously something linking the male mortal to Thoros—or the demon that had just left—and my aim was to figure out what that something was. And I needed to do that fast; time was definitely not on our side.

  Isaiah didn’t want us to fleet the humans; he was afraid it would frighten them too much. It was either that or one of us ride back to the house with them in a cab. I didn’t trust they wouldn’t awake from their state of shock and freak out halfway through the twenty mile ride. I could only imagine what the cabbie would do if the chick started waving her gun around in his backseat. And Heaven forbid if she actually got a shot or two off before I could restrain her. Of course, I could always tamper with his mind and make him go directly to the house and not remember anything he’d seen or heard, but… yeah. The bottom line was it would take too long and I was tired of wasting precious time.

  “It’s just not safe, Josselyn,” Isaiah said, pleading with his eyes.

  “Nothing about any of this is safe, but luckily I’ve been trained in the Not-so-Safe Department.
Give me a little credit, Isaiah. We have a whole lot more problems lined up on our path to saving Heaven than the Queen of Demons, if you know what I mean. I came here to do a—”

  “I’ll fleet with them,” Thoros said to Isaiah as he walked up to join our disagreement.

  I turned and gave him a narrowed stare. “I think I can get them from here to there in one piece. I don’t need your help.”

  He took my arm and turned me to face him when I started to walk away. “I’m not letting you out of my sight, Josselyn. The demon has seen you now, and I won’t let—”

  “You don’t need to worry about me, Thoros! Your focus needs to be on protecting the human soul the demon wants. Obviously she knows where you are at all times and only has to summon you for you to black out and fleet right to her. And wouldn’t it be just real convenient if the human she wants most of all already has his hand grasped with yours as we travel back to your residence?”

  “Of course I want to protect the guy and his soul. That’s what I came here to do: figure out what the hell is going on and get it fixed so you wouldn’t have to, but I worry about you—”

  “If you think I need backup, then I’ll let Baddon fleet with us.” He stiffened and I watched his jaw flex, but he didn’t move otherwise. “You are the only threat here that I can see.”

  “Fine.” He glared at me a few seconds more, and then turned swiftly to look at Baddon and the two humans. They were as calm as could be expected, considering everything they had seen in the last few minutes. I had a feeling Baddon may have messed with their minds a little. They were just sort of standing there, staring off in a daze. “Fleet with them back to the house,” Thoros continued. “Don’t…” He let the sentence fall short as he stared at his friend. I realized then that he wasn’t jealous that I had chosen Baddon to take us back to the house; he simply just didn’t want me to get hurt. After all, I was the one carrying the souls the demon wanted now. But would Thoros blame himself if for some reason I did get hurt?

  “Most likely,” Isaiah replied to my inner monologue as Baddon nodded to Thoros in understanding. “Just be careful. Thoros is right. The demon has seen you now. We don’t know what it wants with the soul or what it is capable of doing to get it. Maybe you’ve bought us a little time with that stunt you pulled.”