“My assistant will be there to keep an eye on you, Devi,” he said. “I strongly suggest you say yes.”
Damn. So there was an insider.
“I’ll consider it, but only if you let us leave this place. All of us.”
Clover moved in front of Faye and me. “If you need an angel to help your cause, I will be glad to assist.”
“What?” I said, alarmed. “Clover, you can’t stay here. You’re…”
Clover raised a hand and light blazed towards me, wiping out my vision.
4
The light faded, and I found myself on my knees, in the middle of Nikolas’s living room.
“Where the hell is my car?” I exploded. “Oh—shit, sorry, Nikolas.”
Nikolas looked from me to Faye with a bemused expression. He, Fiona and Rachel had fallen back to the room’s edges out of range of the burst of light as Faye and I had crash-landed.
Faye scrambled upright. “This isn’t exactly how I hoped to meet you,” she said. “Er. I’m Faye. Former celestial.”
Nikolas stepped forwards to shake her hand. “Nikolas Castor. Warlock.”
“Shadow warlock.” Awe crossed her face. “I knew you existed, but you’re too elusive. We never managed to get a picture of you for the Warlock of the Week feature.”
“Yes, cameras seem to break around him for some reason,” said Rachel.
That, and he used his mild psychic ability to send potential photographers running in the opposite direction.
“And you are?” asked Faye warily.
Rachel tossed her bubblegum-pink hair over her shoulder. “Rachel. Warlock. You’ve met Fiona, I assume.”
“Is there any reason you landed in my house?” Nikolas enquired.
“Clover,” I said, like that explained anything. “The rogues took a holiday and Clover just kind of—threw us here. Is my car around?”
Rachel bounded to the window. “Your car’s outside.”
Good. I’d half expected to find it wedged in a wall. “Clover hasn’t lost her edge,” I said. “She stayed on Purgatory. I can only assume being an angel grants her immunity to their evil divine overlords, but she wasted a bunch of power pushing two people and a car onto Earth and then stayed there.”
“Did you say Purgatory?” said Nikolas, with a look at Faye as though debating whether or not to kick her out.
“Yes,” I said. “By the way, Faye is the person the celestials think was responsible for the demon attack that destroyed their old headquarters. She knows about pretty much everything, up to and including the fallen, Casthus, the celestial rogues… anything Clover knew, basically. She’s an ally, for what it’s worth.”
I believed that, but it didn’t mean I liked that the person behind the site which had allowed vampires to invade my privacy was in on every single one of my secrets.
“I’m sure Clover has her reasons for staying behind with the rogues,” Faye said.
“I bloody hope so,” I said. “She’s seventy and has a bad leg and no resources. Purgatory was a wasteland before they killed all the angels. She barely has any power left, while they have a shit-ton and the Divine Agents yanking their strings like puppets. And now I have to tell the guild the inspector is dead or imprisoned, and the rogues are going to come and ‘pay a visit’ in a week.”
Apparently, it was my destiny to keep dragging the guild out of trouble for all eternity.
“Are you two going to the guild now, then?” Rachel asked.
Faye shifted her weight as though ready to leave. “No,” she said. “I’ll have to show myself to the guild eventually, but I’d rather do that in my own time.”
“I thought you and Clover had a plan,” I said. “Now she’s gone. Did you expect her to do that?”
“I’ve learned to expect the unexpected as far as Clover’s concerned,” she said. “And I’m planning on staying in the city for now, provided nobody blows my cover. I should head home and check the vamps didn’t break anything while I was gone.”
“Oh, I can go with you,” Fiona said.
Not to deprive her of the chance to fangirl over her hero, I said, “Sure. I don’t know how long I’ll be at the guild for, but it’s probably best that I go alone. Would have been nice to have Clover with me for moral support, but apparently she’d rather go sightseeing on Purgatory.”
“I’m sure she has a plan,” said Faye. “Half the time she doesn’t even tell me what she’s doing, and we’ve been trading information for four years. I’ll see you around, Devi.”
She and Fiona left, while I turned to a frowning Nikolas. “If anything, I should thank the Grade Fours for doing a runner. Now Javos can’t send his warlocks to hunt them down.”
“He’s more concerned with challenging me over leadership of the warlocks,” Nikolas said.
“Seriously?” I said. “That’s not much of a choice for them. They can choose someone who effectively led armies on Babylon, or a temperamental prick who nearly strangled a human to death.”
“Most of them don’t know that, Devi,” said Nikolas. “They want stability, especially now. If I took leadership, some of that would disappear.”
“Javos accidentally destroyed their own headquarters,” I pointed out. “I wouldn’t call that stable in the slightest. Where are they based now, anyway?”
“A temporary headquarters has been put together at the home of another warlock,” he said. “I’d prefer to avoid offering up my house.”
“In case we end up sheltering Zadok, a bunch of wayward vampires or the fallen again?” I said. “Or the entire celestial guild, at this rate, assuming they listen to me.”
Rachel snorted. “I think Niko should just declare himself leader and be done with it.”
“It’s not that simple,” he said. “The battle left a lot of damage, not least to the humans. There are an awful lot of complaints and lawsuits facing the next leader.”
“Argh,” I said. “Sorry. I’m probably responsible for at least some of that, since Lythocrax and I pummelled each other half to death in the middle of a public street.”
“It looks like the guild’s stepping in to pay for some of the damages,” Nikolas said. “But the warlocks have to deal with the rest, and for now, Javos is still in charge of funds. If I wanted to take over, he could offload all the city’s problems onto me and make my life difficult.”
“The good news is that the warlocks can’t find the rogues now they’re gone,” said Rachel. “Right? Unless they’re still on Earth?”
“No, they set their old headquarters on fire,” I said. “So you can tell Javos there’s no point in sending anyone to hunt them down. As for me, I guess I have to tell the guild a cult of maniacs is coming to take them over in a week.”
Rachel caught my arm on the way out of the door. “That’s not the only reason you want to go back to the guild, is it?”
I hesitated. She knew me too well. Unlike Fiona, she didn’t see through rose-tinted glasses, or believe the best of me.
“No,” I admitted. “I wanted to sneak into their files, since the rogues destroyed their backups. There’s an insider there, too.”
“What, from the Divine Agents?” asked Rachel.
“Yeah,” I said. “This has been going on for a while. Damian Greenwood was one, but they as good as said they have spies there now. I need to stop the Agents from getting to anyone else.”
“Hmm.” Rachel’s mouth pressed together. “If you say so. Just—remember the real enemies are outside this world.”
Using the celestials as puppets. Anyone might be an enemy. Lythocrax’s death wasn’t even the end of it.
I left Nikolas’s house to check up on my car, finding that it had only a few scratches. Thank the Divinities for small mercies. “Good,” I muttered. “They don’t design these things for inter-dimensional travel.”
“What the—?” Rachel exclaimed, pointing at a flashing light in the sky.
My heart plummeted. Another attack?
A second flash followed, closer. Like
lightning unaccompanied by a storm. Then, screaming.
“Seven hells.” I stood on tip-toe, trying to see over the houses. “What now?”
The screams grew louder. I sprinted to the road’s end, Rachel on my heels, and around the corner, expecting to see demons exploding out the sky like when Lythocrax’s army had attacked. Instead, a human stood there, fire pouring from his hands, and two celestials faced him down. One had her blade out, burning white-gold.
“What’s going on?” I demanded.
“This man is using demon magic,” said the celestial.
So he was. His hands flamed with infernal light, while lightning kept flashing further down the street. The guy was maybe my age, mid-twenties, with dark skin and dreadlocks. He looked utterly terrified. And his aura was grey.
“Put the blade down,” I told the female celestial. “He’s human. Grey aura.”
“Devi?” said the female celestial, recognition flashing across her face. I knew her. She was Sandra Yun, former partner of one of the demon virus’s first victims a few months ago. “How do you know he’s human?”
“Aura vision doesn’t lie.”
Another flash came from ahead, and a little blond girl sprinted around the corner, pursued by a woman I assumed was her mother. “Help her!” she said.
The girl yelled, and lightning sparked over her hands, like a paler version of the shadowy lightning Nikolas used. But her aura was as grey as the man with the flaming hands.
Speaking of—the flames had gone out. The man stood rigid, turning his hands over, and jumped when one of the celestials grabbed his hand.
I took a step closer to look. No marks covered his hands or wrists. No indication of any demon marks like mine… but mine only existed because my Divinity had fallen. Ordinary humans shouldn’t be able to develop demon powers.
But Fiona did. And she wasn’t marked at first. Is Azurial back? No—Clover had ripped out the part of him that was possessing Fiona. This was different.
“Help her,” repeated the girl’s mother.
The two celestials exchanged helpless glances.
“Call the guild,” I told them. “Tell them not to overreact, for everyone’s sake. I don’t think these incidents are isolated.” The ongoing screaming carrying over the rooftops was proof of that, at least.
But who was responsible: the Divine Agents or the demons?
Lightning flashed over the girl’s head again, and the celestials’ attention turned to her. At the same time, the screaming grew louder, closer.
“Don’t hurt them!” I warned the celestials, and took off in the direction of the screams.
Around the corner, a large number of people had gathered in the street, facing a house which had a pair of devil horns balanced on the fence. This must be the warlocks’ new headquarters. I hadn’t known it was so close to Nikolas’s house.
“I’m not in charge,” said a swarthy warlock with a forked tail. “You’ll have to ask—”
“Me,” Nikolas said calmly, walking up as though he’d been behind me the whole time. Warlocks moved damned fast when they wanted to. “What exactly is going on here?”
Voices rose, drowning one another out, but I got the gist: the humans had all, spontaneously, developed what appeared to be demon magic. Flaming hands. Lightning strikes. Invisibility. None of them had any demon marks. Nikolas moved from one to the next, taking questions, and finally stopped beside me and said, “We can talk inside the headquarters. I’m the warlocks’ leader, so you can ask me anything.”
“I think you’ll find I’m the leader of the warlocks.” Javos approached from the opposite end of the road, scowling.
He’d always struck me as a living, walking statue of a Greek god. Huge, muscular, with arms big enough to snap my neck. He’d lifted my entire body off the ground one-handed when he’d strangled me. And that wasn’t even getting into his telekinetic powers, which he’d used to accidentally destroy the old warlock headquarters. His gaze passed over the confused-looking humans to Rachel, who didn’t meet his gaze. She’d stopped speaking to him after the strangling incident. Since she was the only person he actually liked—possibly because she’d developed an attachment to him after she’d been rescued from Pandemonium’s tunnels as a kid—he wasn’t happy, to say the least.
Nikolas moved closer to Javos, and I heard him whisper beneath the humans’ worried muttering, “Don’t be absurd. You rescinded the position when you broke the law. These humans need someone to speak to who doesn’t try to terrorise everyone he meets.”
Javos’s eyes narrowed. “Fine, take your humans,” he spat.
He turned on his heel and marched off, back the way he’d come. The humans huddled closer together, looking warily at the warlock’s retreating back.
I moved to Nikolas’s side. “Are you sure you want to deal with this yourself?”
“It needs to be sorted out, before…” He looked at the celestials, who’d reappeared behind Rachel and me as though they didn’t have a clue what to do with themselves.
“Before the guild takes their usual inept approach and makes a mess of things?”
My phone rang. Right on cue, the guild was calling me.
“Is that them?” asked Rachel. “Niko, I’ll help. Devi… you should probably get rid of your celestial friends.”
“That’s the plan.” Shit. Maybe this is the Divine Agents’ new move. I was supposed to warn the celestials about the rogues’ oncoming visit, not warn them off attacking innocent humans.
I put my phone to my ear. “Yes?”
Mrs Barrow, the celestial’s newest leader, said, “Devi, where are you?”
“With the warlocks. Why?”
“I need you to come to the guild.”
Uh, yeah, I was kind of on my way there before shit hit the fan.
“Is it to do with the humans spinning fire from their hands?” I asked. “Because they’re not demons and it’s not their fault. I have no idea what’s going on, but if you’re thinking of arresting anyone—”
“We’re being absolutely overrun with complaints,” she interrupted. “My colleagues are demanding action and the council will be here any day now, in the aftermath of the former inspector’s disappearance. They know something is terribly wrong.”
“You’re telling me,” I muttered, thinking of Purgatory. I needed to tell her in person, as unlikely as it was that she’d believe me. Nobody had last time, since the Grade Fours were listed as dead and my word counted for nothing in their eyes.
I looked back at the humans crowding around Rachel and Nikolas. More innocents, taking the fall for something that wasn’t their fault.
“Look,” I said. “If warlocks can coexist with humans and celestials in peace, and they have demon magic, there’s no reason why humans can’t. Just let it all blow over and it’ll be fine. Hell won’t get a war from this. Don’t play into their hands—again.”
“Warlocks have been part of our community for as long as the city has existed. These… humans might have dealt with hell for all we know.”
“Oh, you know that’s absurd,” I snapped. “You buy all your supplies from the warlocks, remember? The guild is dependent on their resources, so you have to keep them in your good books while shoving your prejudice under the carpet. But as soon as humans develop demon powers through no fault of their own, it’s a crisis. Tell your people not to do anything stupid.”
And I hung up, belatedly noticing everyone was staring at me. Oops. The humans had heard.
“Don’t worry,” I said to them. “The guild’s not spectacular at dealing with change. If it’s any consolation, people who are cool with warlocks and vampires will be fine with you, too.”
Not that that would be much of a reassurance. If their demonic powers turned out to be permanent, there was one possible reason: a demon’s mark. But which demon?
“I doubt the guild will listen to you after you just yelled at them, Devi,” said Rachel.
“No,” I admitted. “But maybe I j
ust want to punch someone in the face, and Bad Haircut Sammy is usually a willing candidate.”
5
Bad Haircut Sammy did indeed greet me at the entrance to the academy which now served as Haven City’s main celestial guild’s headquarters. After losing two bases in as many years, I didn’t blame them for just sticking everything in one place.
“You’re back, traitor?” said Sammy. How he’d managed to survive when so many good, decent celestials had lost their lives was a prime example of natural selection fucking up big time. I could only assume that the Divinity who’d marked him had been high, and not in a heavenly sense. Big and hulking with hair that looked like a flying saucer, he was possibly the least motivated celestial soldier ever, except when it came to annoying the crap out of me.
“Lovely to see you,” I said. “Mrs Barrow invited me here, so get out of the way.”
I’d also been incredibly rude to her on the phone, but it wasn’t like I was a registered celestial any longer. She had no power over me. Neither did Sammy, come to that. The resident bully had pretty much lost his reputation after accidentally helping a demon he thought was the former inspector, and he’d spent all his time since then trying to get the guild to blame me instead.
I’d never had the best relationship with the celestials. They swept up everyone unfortunate enough to be marked as a celestial soldier and drilled us with propaganda. I’d spent the entirety of my celestial training at the academy engaged in petty rebellion and driving my tutors out of their minds. Aside from Rory and Clover, Gav had been my only real friend. I’d long suspected Lythocrax might have had a role in his death, too.
Mrs Barrow strode into the reception area. Tall, with her dark hair pulled into a bun and her glasses perched low on her nose, she wore the celestials’ usual pale grey uniform, embossed with a silver arrowhead badge and another marking her as the guild’s new leader. A blond celestial soldier wearing the same uniform stepped out beside her. Lydia.
Huh? I’d thought she’d permanently joined up with the outcasts on Purgatory. I’d also thought there was no way out. She wasn’t even Grade Four. Unless…
Celestial Storm Page 4