by Maya Nicole
His laughter faded, and he pushed himself up to take my face in his hands. "I do." He kissed me gently. "I love you too."
We made our way into the bathroom. My chest felt tight, and for once, it wasn't because I was about to have a panic attack. It was because my heart was fuller than it had ever been.
Chapter Seven
Danica
I felt useless staying behind while everyone went to kick demon butt. Yes, I had just been angry about being included and then injured in a training exercise, but this was different. This was real. People's lives were at risk.
Wasn't I supposed to save the light from the dark? How could I do that if I was sitting on my ass at the academy? I should have been fighting. I could have possibly incapacitated a demon enough for a more capable angel to kill. Hell, maybe I could have even brought them all to their knees.
I scrolled through my phone, scouring the internet for any mention of demons or monsters attacking in the area. I even scanned the police logs.
There was nothing. It was probably for the best. People would lose their shit if they knew what existed on the other side of some magical barrier.
A magical barrier that could easily be manipulated with angel blood and opened completely with my father's blood. Supposedly.
If it was so simple, wouldn't Lilith have blown the barrier wide open by now?
I sent Ava a text. She was working, but usually, she called me on her breaks. Never in a million years did I think I'd be the one still in school, and she'd be the one with a full-time job.
The charges in her breaking and entering case had been dropped, but the damage was already done. Stanford hadn't rescinded her admissions, but Ava had decided to take a gap year.
My best friend, the one who had straight As and perfect attendance, had decided to have a quarter-life crisis.
I couldn't say I blamed her. I was on the verge of one myself. I needed a year off. Or maybe ten.
Fifteen minutes later, my phone rang with an incoming call from Ava.
"Girl, you will not believe the juicy piece of gossip floating around Blue Wave," Ava said as soon as the call connected.
"Hi to you too." I laughed.
Blue Wave was the hottest restaurant and bar in Santa Barbara. It was also the reason Ava was taking a break from school. She said it made her feel alive. I wasn't sure how swimming around in a tank all evening with men gawking at her seashell bikini top made her feel alive.
"I'd like to think we're past the stage of pleasantries." I heard a beep, and then the sounds of the restaurant disappeared. "So, do you want to hear what is making the rounds tonight at the bar?"
Gossip was just what I needed to distract myself from the fact that my guardians were somewhere fighting a hoard of demons without me.
"Sure, go for it." I sat in my chair and propped my feet on my desk.
"So get this, they found Dr. Adamson's body in some abandoned warehouse in Asia. He had a giant crescent or something carved on his chest."
I gripped the phone in my hand. "What?"
"He had been dead a few months. Isn't that crazy? I guess karma got ahold of him for all that weed he sold to high schoolers."
My heart was pounding so hard that I wondered if Ava could hear it on the other end of the phone. My feet slid off the desk, and I damn near fell out of the chair.
"Dani, you there?" She sounded concerned. I had gone radio silent.
"Yeah. It's just, that was it? They just found his body?" I stood and started pacing. Hadn't Lilith been using him to run her experiments on blood? Why would she kill him? Unless she had gotten what she wanted and didn't need him to experiment anymore.
"That's all the information anyone has. I feel a little bad for John. He was already pretty fucked up, and now with his dad being murdered..." She sighed.
While I understood her bleeding heart, I wouldn't go as far as to say I was sorry for John. I didn't know if that made me a horrible person or one that just saw things for what they really were.
I cleared my throat, still processing the fact that Lilith had killed John. Had she killed my father? Would she?
"I miss you. I can't believe your school wouldn't let you leave for the summer. See, this is why you should have taken a gap year too." I was grateful she changed the subject before I had more time to think about Lilith killing the doctor and leaving him to rot in an empty building.
"I feel like my entire life has been a big giant gap year." I sat back down in my desk chair and spun a few times. "I actually like my classes. Maybe I just needed to find something I was interested in. Math and studying poetry were definitely not my thing."
"Sir, you aren't supposed to be back here." Ava's voice was muffled like she was holding her phone against her shirt. "What are you-" Her scream pierced my eardrum, and I nearly dropped the phone.
"Ava?" I jumped out of my chair, sending it toppling onto its side.
There was scuffling, and a grunt before the line went dead.
With shaking fingers, I called her phone back. It went to voicemail. I tried calling again.
Damn it.
I quickly slid my feet into my shoes and took off out of my room like a bat out of hell. The building was empty since most of the staff were off fighting.
I ran as fast as my hybrid ass could to the first student building, which was where Cora and Ethan lived.
No one answered when I pounded on Ethan's door. I took the stairs to the next floor and banged on Cora's door. Where the fuck were they?
Panicking, I called their phones. Wings would come in handy right now.
I was pacing in front of Cora's door, trying them again and again when the elevator slid open, and Betty sauntered down the hall. You know, because my night wasn't shitty enough already.
"Eve. What an unpleasant surprise. Please tell me you aren't stalking me now." She looked me up and down with a scrunched-up nose.
"Have you seen Cora or Ethan?" I bit out. I was half tempted to call one of the guys but knew they wouldn't answer either.
"Do I look like your personal surveillance?" She rolled her eyes and stopped at her door with her keys in her hand.
"Goddamn it! Can't you for one second not be such a bitch?" I shoved past her but didn't make it very far before she grabbed my arm. "Don't touch me."
"What's wrong?" She wasn't sarcastic or condescending for once. "You aren't normally so... neurotic."
"What isn't wrong? I don't need this right now. What I need is a pair of goddamned wings!" I flung open the door to the stairs and ran down to the bottom floor.
Once outside, I tried to calm myself down. Good decisions weren't made when I was panicking. I called Ava again, her phone going straight to voicemail instead of ringing.
Maybe I could just ask a random student to take me to Blue Wave. Not every angel hated my guts. I would say that most tolerated my presence now.
The door to the building opened, and Betty stepped out. "Where do you need to go?"
I spun around and narrowed my eyes. There was no way she was about to offer to take me somewhere without some kind of strings being attached or a prank involved.
She would probably drop me and laugh as I splattered.
"What's your angle?"
"I'll take you where you need to go to make up for the injuries I caused earlier." She shrugged her shoulders as if what was happening wasn't a big deal.
It was a big deal. Betty did a complete one-eighty out of nowhere.
To say I was shocked by her offer to take me to Blue Wave was an understatement. I only hesitated for a second before accepting her offer. Beggars can't be choosers.
She wrapped an arm around my waist, and we shot into the sky. I kept my eyes closed and prayed she wouldn't let me go.
We landed and I breathed a sigh of relief. I was lucky she hadn't taken me somewhere and left me to find my own way back.
I rushed inside the restaurant, which was packed. There was no way anyone inside would have heard Ava scream. It had onl
y been ten minutes; maybe everything was fine.
I should have called the police or the manager, but in my panic, I had only had one thought: get to Ava.
"Table for two?" The hostess asked as I approached the hostess station.
I looked over my shoulder to find Betty right behind me. I told her when we landed that she could go. I hadn't expected her to stay. She was probably collecting information to use against me.
"Ava. I need to find her."
The woman raised her eyebrows and took a better assessment of me. I'm sure I looked like hell after the day I had.
"She's on her break. Do you want a table in the bar area? Otherwise, we have about an hour wait for a table."
"She was outside, and she screamed. Please, where's a security guard or the manager or someone!" I gripped the edge of the counter, and Betty stepped next to me.
"We aren't allowed outside on our breaks. Especially not the mermaids."
Did this hostess not understand simple English?
I was about to lose my shit when Betty slammed her hand down on the counter. "Get the fucking manager."
My eyes widened, and I looked over at her. She looked back and shrugged as if she did this all the time.
The hostess backed up several steps and then pressed a button on the phone. Less than a minute passed when a burly man joined the hostess.
"What seems to be the problem?" He looked confused as he took us in. At first glance, we looked like college coeds out for dinner.
Before the hostess could even get a word in, I repeated what I had already said.
"Come with me." He turned and headed towards a set of stairs. I looked at Betty, and she nodded before we followed the man with the word 'Security' on the back of his blue tee-shirt.
Upstairs appeared to be the VIP section. The mermaid tank extended up into the area, with a platform where they could get in and out of it.
"Wait here." The security guard was a man of few words. He opened a door that led down a hall and disappeared.
"I've heard they are going to open one of these places in the Los Angeles area soon." Betty was attempting to make small talk while we waited. "I wonder how much a gig like this pays."
"Thirty an hour plus tips for the mermaids." I nearly jumped out of my skin at the voice behind me.
I turned, and the security guard was back with a man that looked like his suit cost more than my car. I knew a quality suit when I saw one. My heart ached at the thought of my father.
"My friend, Ava. She was on her break and-" I felt like I had been repeating myself for hours.
"She's fine." He looked between Betty and me. "She's in my office."
Betty gripped my arm, but I ignored her.
"I want to see her."
He nodded and then opened the door to the hall.
"Danica," Betty whispered. "He's Fallen."
I didn't care what he was, as long as my best friend was in one piece. His office door was open, and when Ava saw me, she jumped up as fast as her mermaid costume would allow and threw her arms around me.
"How'd you get here so fast? Danica, you're squeezing me a little too hard." Ava pulled away from the hug. She had been crying but didn't look like she was hurt.
"Doesn't matter. What happened?" I should have planned a better response to her question. Ava was smart. There was no way she would let go of the fact that it had been barely twenty minutes since we talked on the phone.
Santa Barbara was almost two hours away. Maybe she'd believe we took a helicopter?
She sighed and sat back down. She looked over at the man who had brought us in to see her as he sat down at his desk.
"A man attacked her." He folded his hands over his stomach and leaned back in his chair. "I took care of the situation."
I looked at Ava, and she bit her lip. There was more to this than they were saying.
"Where's the man?" Betty asked from behind me. I had almost forgotten she was there.
"He's locked in a room downstairs until he can be taken care of." I looked back at who I assumed was Ava's boss.
"You mean until the cops arrive?" I raised my eyebrows.
I examined the man in front of me. He was slender but had broad shoulders under his suit jacket. His hair was black. He looked dangerous in a low-key kind of way.
"We can't call the cops on this one."
Ava made a whimpering sound from her chair, and I sat down next to her, taking her hand. She looked pale and was trembling.
"He... he... he had fangs." She gulped and gripped my hand. "It was him."
I stared at her, and then my eyes widened. "What do you mean it was him?"
"The man from your house," she whispered. "That one I thought I was in love with."
Fuck. I thought my dad had banished him back to hell. Had he been able to get through the barrier?
"What does she mean the man from your house?" Ava's boss narrowed his eyes at me. "Who are you?" He looked from me to Ava. He should have been able to tell we weren't human.
"Who are you?" I demanded.
His hands were folded on his desk, and he was leaning forward slightly. "Kai Matsui. I'm the owner." He shook his head. "Stop doing that."
"Stop doing what?" As soon as I finished asking the question, it occurred to me that I was commanding him to answer my question.
He didn't answer and instead got up from his chair. Betty shifted uncomfortably from her spot by the door.
"If a vampire is visiting your house and then tracking down a girl like Ava, I want to know why." He moved his suit jacket back a bit, and I saw he had on a holster with a gun and knife.
"You aren't supposed to be carrying weapons." Betty stepped forward as if she was going to disarm him.
I'd give it to her. She had some balls.
Kai snorted. "And I'm pretty sure you shouldn't be here right now." He looked at me. "Your signature doesn't look the same as hers. Why?"
Ava was looking between us with confusion written all over her face. I was going to have to tell her something. There was no way she wouldn't remember every detail of the conversation we were having in front of her.
"She doesn't need to answer to you. Should I give Michael a call? I'm sure he'd love to hear about the heat you're packing." Betty surprised me again. Mere hours ago, she was trying to get me killed. What had Asher said to her?
"That won't be necessary. I was only curious. Would you like to see her attacker before we dispose of him?"
From the corner of my eye, I saw Ava's face pale even further. I was surprised she hadn't dwelled on how quickly I had gotten to Santa Barbara. Or maybe she hadn't completely processed it yet.
Trauma could really do a number on the brain.
We followed Kai downstairs and through the bar area to the kitchen. He took a set of keys out of his pocket and unlocked a door off of a hallway.
As soon as we entered the storage room, the hairs on my arms stood on end. The vampire was sitting against a far wall with chains wrapped around his ankles and wrists.
"Chains will hold him?" I looked to Kai, who had just locked us in with the vampire.
"They do if they are from Heaven." I raised my eyebrows and then looked at the vampire.
He was definitely the one from my house. As soon as he recognized me, he let out a laugh that almost made me piss myself.
"Danica Deville. And to think I once thought you were a prostitute." He shook his head. "How is your daddy doing? Oh, wait..."
I regretted that I hadn't made Betty stay behind with Ava upstairs. She certainly didn't need any more ammo to use against me.
"Why are you here? How are you here?" I stepped closer, and his eyes seemed to look right through me. "Answer me."
He met my eyes. "I'm sworn to Lilith. You shouldn't be able to control me." He laughed. "But apparently you can."
"Do you know where she has him?"
"You are all screwed." He blinked a few times. "She's in the castle. In Inferna. That's where she has him."
> I shut my eyes for a moment, and when I reopened them, he had his head cocked to the side. "You can stop her." I narrowed my eyes at him. "She's using Lucifer's blood to put a hole in the barrier. It won't be long before Inferna comes to Earth."
"What the hell is he talking about?" I ignored Kai's question.
"How is she doing it? I thought she was giving demons angel blood."
"She is. But our bodies fight it and eliminate it pretty quickly. When we have an injection, we have a minute to get through to Earth if we're strong enough. The same with his blood. Plus, a little dark magic." He shifted on the floor like he was trying to move his hands up, but the chains were wrapped too tightly around him. "I'm telling you too much."
"Why are you after Ava?"
He coughed, and a trickle of blood ran out of the side of his mouth. "Pure... so pure." He toppled over onto his side and looked to be in pain. "You have to kill her." When my eyes went wide, he shook his head. "Lilith. Kill her before..."
"Before what?"
He passed out before he could answer.
Kai cleared his throat. "Is he serious?"
I looked down at the vampire and then turned towards the door. Shit was getting way too strange. It wasn’t like I hadn't heard Michael or Reve talk about vampires, but seeing one was something else entirely. They looked human, well besides their pointy teeth. But the one laying on the ground didn't even have those out.
We had been learning about all kinds of demons in Reve's training. Many of the myths humans believed in were a reality to some extent.
At some point, I needed to tell Ava about me. Her life had changed because of me. I at least owed her the truth. Maybe just after I saved the world from my mother.
I hesitated at the door and then turned back to face Kai. "Tell Ava I had to go. You'll make sure she gets home all right?"
He nodded, and Betty and I left Blue Wave.
We landed outside the faculty building sometime well after midnight. The vampire wasn't dead but was close enough to death that there was no use in waiting around to see if he'd wake up again.