by Misty Evans
The other vitiums had wanted to accompany me to Sweet Investigations, but I’d begged off, telling them this was simply a fishing expedition and my small office wouldn’t hold all of us. That was sort of true. I wanted to ask my genius computer what she could find out about Michael and his sword.
That was Plan A. Failing that—which I assumed would happen because, let’s face it, Michael wasn’t just going to hand over his precious toy—Plan B would be to continue as planned. There had to be another way to kill the Horsemen and stop the apocalypse. My father had believed the Fallen could do it. All I had to do was figure out where to find the Fallen and how to get them to help us.
Piece of cake.
Maddy went to SI with me. Rad stayed behind, claiming he had an early morning meeting with a new producer anxious to sign the Chaos Demons to his label after their recent awards. Parker’s father had been Rad’s producer up until he’d broken their engagement and left the Nocts. Being a free agent with his band hadn’t hurt Rad in the least. If anything, the breakup with Parker and dissolution of the band’s contract with her father had only given them more exposure.
I thought about Parker’s threats in the torture chamber as I drove. I hadn’t mentioned them to anyone and I was glad Rad hadn’t thrown Damon and the Council under the bus to save me.
But I wondered if Damon had done something worse. At our upcoming meeting, I was going to find out.
Maddy and I arrived at Sweet Investigations around two. Di came, as well, after dropping off Neve at her place. JR was inside doing geeky computer things. I preferred not to know what he did when I wasn’t there, although the worst I’d ever caught him doing was playing some Star Wars role-playing game with a half-naked female on the screen as his side-kick.
I tossed my coat on the couch in my office and relaxed a notch as Sophie’s cultured voice came from hidden speakers above my head. “Hello, Kali. What may I assist you with this morning?”
Sophie knew everything, from trivia about my beloved White Sox to world history starting with the beginning of time. I had a long list of questions for her. “What can you tell me about the archangel Michael?”
I should have set tighter parameters.
On the dozen or so screens on the walls of my office, pictures of the angel flashed on and off. Some were traditional paintings, some were modern-day renditions. Nearly all of them showed him with a sword in one hand and an angelic light around his head. Sophie gave me his history. “A high-ranking angel of the Lord who fought against Satan and his followers and defeated them in heaven. He is spoken of twice in the old testament and twice in the New.”
Like Wikipedia on steroids, she went on for the next twenty minutes serving up trivia about Michael. Maddy hung out for about five minutes before heading to the kitchen and coming back with microwave popcorn and a Coke.
“The name Michael means ‘Who is like God’. The angels in heaven used Michael’s name as a battle cry in the Great War of Heaven against Satan. Michael is host of the angels and of humanity.”
Sophie went on to give us information about Michael based on writings from the Christians, Jews, Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Jehovah’s Witnesses and others. She quoted scripture, listed the shrines dedicated to the angel and described massive art and literature tombs dedicated to him.
Michael, it seemed, was a god in his own right.
When she got to the Later-Day Saints and their beliefs, I interrupted her. She’d given me all the human theories, but still hadn’t answered one fundamental question. “Sophie, is the archangel Michael good or evil?”
For the first time since JR had installed her at Christmas, the computer didn’t immediately answer. After a long pause, she said, “I’m sorry. I do not understand. Please rephrase the question.”
I’d stumped Sophie. Maddy and I exchanged a look.
I rephrased. “If I encountered Michael, would he be friend or foe?”
Another pause. “Michael is a holy force against evil. You are a demon.”
I was also a virtue. “So you’re sure he’s my foe, even though I was touched by Jesus.”
“Michael carries the sword of truth and justice to protect humans and slay demons. He is the Chief of the Order of Virtues. You protect humans and carry out justice. You are a demon.”
A one-word answer would have sufficed, and I still wasn’t clear whether Michael would kill first and ask questions later or possibly be on my side. But Sophie’s explanation got me thinking about the sigils in the catacombs. About the angel of vengeance. I’d have to ask her about that later. “This sword of Michael’s. What can you tell me about it?”
The on-screen pictures changed to a variety of swords. Sophie continued her lecture. “Humans depict a flaming sword of power and strength cast in blue light. A two-edged sword, one side representing truth, the other side, justice. The blade, handle and guard often show sigils and words of holy origin.”
“Will the sword kill a Horseman?”
The screens went dark. “I’m sorry. No data exists for that question.”
Story of my life. “Is there any way to kill a Horseman?”
The screens came back to life with depictions of the Fab Four. “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse will cleanse the world of sin. The dragon will be defeated by Michael and his army of angels who will strike down Satan and remove demons from earth. No documentation found referencing killing the Horsemen.”
None needed. Sophie had just confirmed my suspicions.
Screw Michael’s sword.
Lucifer and his army of Fallen was my only hope.
Chapter Thirty-seven
When I arrived for my meeting with Damon at the Institute, his office was once again empty.
I wasn’t in the mood to chase him around the building so I texted Cole. Is D with you?
It took a minute for his response. No.
Curt. Hmm. He was still hanging out with Brianna. For some reason, that annoyed me. Where are you?
Busy.
An answer but not an answer. Definitely with the vamp chick. I wondered if I should tell him what Maddy had said about Bri being in love with Dru. My demon voted yes.
I decided against it anyway.
It felt wrong not to tell him, but he was having such a good time with her, it felt wrong to lay the truth on him. I’d have to ask Di when I saw her. The goddess of love would know what to do.
If Cole wasn’t there, Damon wouldn’t be in the gym. Damon usually ate in his office and never went into the media center unless it was to do research.
Sitting at Damon’s desk, I closed my eyes and concentrated on him, opening up all my senses to see if I could detect his presence. I didn’t want to call to him mentally in case he was indisposed, like taking a leak in the restroom down the hall. All I wanted to do was test my internal tracking system.
As I deepened my meditation, my astral self began pulling away. It tugged at my physical body, floating out from my center and making my fingers twitch. It felt good…like flying, except without the pain Lucifer’s version caused.
Problem was, it felt too good. Astral projecting to Damon’s location could be more embarrassing than talking to him while he was taking a leak. All I needed to do was pop in while he was showering or something. The image of him naked in the shower doing things to himself flooded my mind.
No! I startled and she snapped back.
Sweat broke out around the collar of my shirt. I cleared my throat and blinked several times as if that would clear away the mental picture.
It didn’t. I got up, paced the room and fanned myself. What the hell was wrong with me?
If I was a shifter, I’d think I was in heat.
Forget tracking him with my senses. I left the room and headed to the media center.
Damon wasn’t there and I was almost relieved. I needed to talk to him, but I also couldn’t look him in the eye at the moment without blushing.
Deciding I could clear my head in my apartment, I took the elevator
to the third floor. Just seeing Damon’s closed bedroom door across the hall made my clothes feel too tight. I marched to my door and used magic to unlock it. The door behind me leading to Damon’s room creaked open.
I didn’t want to look, and I didn’t have to. Instead of Damon’s wood scent and impatient boss-man vibes, Kirill’s aura hit me.
I turned and he raised a finger to his fat lips as he quietly shut the door.
“What’s wrong?” I whispered.
“He’s sleeping.”
Sleeping? Damon never slept. “Is he sick?”
Kirill’s lips tightened and he motioned me to follow him away from Damon’s door. When we were a sufficient distance down the hall, he shook his head. “I can’t find anything wrong with him, but he’s off his game. He hasn’t been right since you two came back from Rome. What happened there?”
Valentina. I feigned ignorance. “I got beat up a couple of times and discovered Maria’s back, but nothing out of the ordinary.”
Kirill frowned, truly stumped. He didn’t even seem surprised about Maria. Guess it was getting harder and harder to shock any of us. “Why didn’t he tell Yasmin and me about your trip?”
“I wasn’t aware he didn’t tell you.”
“He’s acting strange.”
Ya think? “There’s a lot on his plate right now with the apocalypse and everything.”
“Still...” He tapped his chin. “Something’s amiss. His magic…it’s different somehow. I can feel it.”
Maybe it wasn’t Valentina after all. “It doesn’t feel different to me.”
“You’re not an archdemon.”
“What? My deadly sin decoder ring doesn’t let me into the clique?”
“Sorry, no.” His tone turned superior. “Archdemon magic is distinctive. You can feel it, yes, but not the way I feel it because I’m also one.”
I’d felt plenty of Damon’s magic in my time. The latest bout at the castle had left a lasting impression. “Any luck with Pestilence?”
Kirill’s face went from superior to annoyed. “He refuses to see or talk to me.”
Damn. “Keep trying, okay?”
“You don’t get it, do you?”
Of course not. I was just a simple ol’ vengeance demon. “Kirill, you’re an archdemon. Your magic is exceptional, isn’t that what you just told me? Keep trying. Pest will come around to your incredible charms.”
He was so easy. His face morphed yet again, this time to one of self-confidence. “I’ll get back to you.”
He left and I padded quietly to my room. At the doorknob, I stopped. Damon would never blow off a meeting with me to sleep. Something was wrong and I needed to find out what.
I knocked softly on his door, got no response. Laying my hand on the wood, I tuned out the endless questions circling my brain and the growing sense of unease in my chest. A wave of Damon’s protection magic rose from the floor and mingled with mine, exploring, testing. Was I friend or foe?
The magic took its sweet time deciding. Impatient, I held still, allowing it to access whatever it wanted.
Demon, it whispered. Then…
Angel.
The word hit me like Lucifer’s magic—hard, impenetrable.
True.
Virtue and vice, the voice continued. Holy evil.
Holy evil was accurate. Holy hell on a stick was more like it. I jerked my hand back and frowned at the door. My vice was a demon, but my virtue was…
An angel?
My brain stumbled over the word. No way.
Reese’s words now overrode Damon’s protection magic. Don’t you see? You’re part of divine order.
Heaven and hell. Good and evil. Angel and demon.
Damon’s door opened. The archdemon blinked at me, standing there in pajama bottoms and naked from the waist up. “Kali?”
“Hey.” I stammered, shifting my weight and trying not to look at his well-muscled chest and its smattering of curly black hair. “We had a meeting. At three, remember? You weren’t in your office and Kirill said you were sick. If you want me to come back later…”
Stepping back, he motioned me into his apartment. I hesitated, remembering our last encounter alone in his private quarters. “Wouldn’t you rather talk in your office?”
With a sudden move, he pulled me into the room. Shutting the door behind us, he gave me one of his intense gazes and backed me against the door. His magic and his aura surrounded me, heating my skin and making my stomach flutter.
He stared down at my lips. “I’m sorry, Kali.”
The intensity of his eyes had nothing on the intensity of his magic. It circled me, taunted my own magic, running seductive fingers over the prison bars of my demon’s cage. “For what?” I squeaked.
Then he did something I never expected.
He hugged me.
“I never should have let you enter Vatican City alone.”
“I, ah, wasn’t alone.”
“Without me,” he said the words against my temple. “I should have been there to protect you from Maria.”
His arms were a vice around my chest. I patted his back a couple of times and tried to figure out how to extract myself. “You wouldn’t have gotten any farther than Cole. I assume you were able to enter with Lucifer because he performed some kind of spell to protect you and the others.”
Damon dropped his arms, stepped back and looked at the floor. He shot a hand through his already mussed hair. “Lucifer…”
He retreated into his bedroom. I didn’t need to be an archdemon to recognize he wasn’t himself.
“Damon?” I followed behind him, disregarding the intimacy of the room. “What about Lucifer?”
“Nothing.” He waved me off, standing in front of a window facing the lake.
“You called him, didn’t you? Offered a trade so he’d help rescue me. Why? I would’ve gotten out on my own.”
Silence.
“Come on, Damon, I deserve to know.”
“Valentina betrayed me. Us. She figured out our visit wasn’t just so I could show you off to the European branch. Although she wasn’t sure what you were up to, she assumed correctly it involved breaching the Vatican.”
“So it wasn’t Reese who betrayed us, it was her.”
A tight nod. “She sent Isi to notify the Pope you were coming.”
Bitch. I tried to lighten Damon’s mood. “We nailed it, didn’t we?”
He gave me a questioning look.
“Our little ruse. She bought it, and her ego demanded she get back at us.”
“I fear she would have betrayed us anyway.”
Of course, she would have. “Then I’m doubly glad we screwed with her mind.”
A frail smile broke through. “When I found out you and the others were walking into a trap inside Vatican City, I couldn’t sit by and do nothing.”
“Cutting a deal with the devil was a little extreme.”
He sighed, heavy and full of self-derision. “I should have put more faith in you.”
Never thought I’d hear that. I searched for a proper response. “After my performance in the dome, I’m surprised you didn’t.”
“Me, too.”
Again, I found myself at a loss for words. I needed to say something to release him from his guilt. “It was good you came for me. My demon was just getting started when you interrupted her.”
He continued to stare out the window. “Do you know what I wanted to do the first time I saw you?”
A part of me didn’t want to know the answer. He gave it to me anyway. “You were so damaged. Beyond anything I’d ever seen in a demon, and I’ve seen some severely damaged demons.” He touched the window pane, his broad fingers creating steam against the cold glass. “I wanted to protect you. To repair the damage Maria had done to you. You were so fragile under that tough exterior. So…humanlike. I didn’t understand it, but I wanted to mend what she’d broken inside you. What both she and Radison had broken.”
The words were hard to listen to. Th
e conviction in his voice even harder. “It was never your job to fix me, Damon. Or to protect me.”
He continued as if I hadn’t spoken. “So I hired you to work for me. To become an enforcer where you must put yourself in danger every fucking day.”
I wasn’t sure I’d ever heard Damon swear. “It’s what I do.”
The hand on the window curled into a fist. “I throw you into the lion’s den with every assignment.” He faced me, agony distorting his features. “And then I pray to God you’ll come back.”
This was too much. Everything inside me wanted to run away. Wanted to erase the distress in his face. Times like this, I either throw punches or reach for my snark. “I always come back, don’t I? You know me, I’m one stubborn-ass demon.”
One side of his mouth quirked and disappeared so fast I almost missed it. “The end is coming, Kali. Promise me something.”
Promises, promises. Did every male in my life enjoy torturing me? “Anything for you, boss.”
“I need to leave. Soon. While I’m away, I want you to be in charge.”
I gulped. “In charge of what?”
He waved a hand. “The Institute. The Council.”
A nervous laugh escaped and I applauded, then made like I was flicking sweat off my brow anyway. “Phew. Good one. You had me there for a moment.”
Nothing in his expression changed. He wasn’t joking.
“You can’t be serious. Where are you going?”
“I’ll talk to Kirill and Yasmin. They’ll accept my decision.”
The hell they would. “Where. Are. You. Going?”
He faced the window again, his reflection distant and hazy. “While you’re in charge, join forces with Alexandru. He knows what to do. Merge the Institute with the Vampire Nation and Lucifer’s Fallen. But watch your back with Lucifer. Dru you can trust. Never trust the devil. If the Fallen fall again, you and Alexandru will be the only chance humanity stands against Michael and his army.”
Now I knew Damon was smoking demon crack. “Damon, you’re scaring me. What the hell is wrong with you?”
His eyes met mine in the window reflection. Sad. Doomed. “Lucifer will meet with us at sunrise to plan our defense. I’ll call you when he arrives.”