Wings of the Wicked

  “As I please.” He gazed down at me, his eyes challenging. He had no fear.

  “Why would you come here, when I asked you not to, and then shamelessly flirt with my best friend? Who is human, no less.”

  His expression darkened, and he leaned over me so close that I felt his breath on my cheek and no one else could overhear us. “Need I remind you, Preliator, that I am not your Guardian? You cannot control me.”

  The way he said that reminded me of how very dangerous he was, no matter how well I had known him in past lives or the fact that he was an angelic reaper. But I wasn’t about to let him walk all over me. “But you serve the angels. I am the archangel Gabriel.”

  He took a deep breath through his nose, brushing the tip of it across my cheek, very much like an animal. “You smell human to me.”

  Reapers were very weird. At least Will didn’t sniff me like I was dinner. When I tried to speak, I realized I’d been holding my breath. “What are your intentions with her?”

  He drew away, and that devil-may-care attitude returned in a heartbeat. “They’re entirely chaste, I assure you.”

  “If you hurt her, reaper, I will take both of your balls.”

  He stared at me for a moment before he huffed and smirked. “You’d try.” That momentary hesitation told me he knew I sure as hell would try. I’d probably succeed, too.

  Marcus knew me just as well as I knew him from decades ago, and he knew what I was capable of. I didn’t quite remember his full strength, but his pause after my threat gave me hope that I could handle myself if things really went down.

  Marcus walked past me into the kitchen without another word.

  I closed my eyes, rubbed the bridge of my nose with my thumb and forefinger, emotionally exhausted. These reapers were going to kill me. Again.

  Later I entered the kitchen to find Kate and Marcus laughing and joking. Marcus had on a genuine smile, rich and gracious. It was strange to see him act so normal, like he was just another guy at a party talking to a pretty girl and not an immortal Hellspawn fighter. The other vir I’d known acted aloof, like they thought they were better than humans. Or they were like Will, who felt he just didn’t belong around humans. Even Nathaniel didn’t attempt to make friends with humans other than Lauren, and in that case they’d met under special circumstances.

  “So really,” Kate said, touching his shoulder. “Where did you get the scar?”

  His grin was playful, but I could tell he was dead serious. “I told you. It’s from a fight. The guy had a knife that was practically a sword.”

  There was puzzled look on her face behind her smile. “But it looks like burn scars, a very clean line of burn scars.”

  “I’m not lying.”

  I crossed my arms over my chest when they noticed me. “Well, aren’t you two just hitting it off?”

  Kate kissed me on the cheek and petted my hair when she saw my frown. “Marcus was just telling me stories of back home in Spain. We should go backpacking through Europe this summer after we graduate. Wouldn’t that be amazing?”

  It would, but only if I survived to see my diploma. “Definitely, as long as we avoid any hostels. I saw those movies.”

  Marcus laughed. “That was fiction, Ellie. The hostels are a great place to stay, and you meet incredible people from all over the world.”

  “Mmm-hmm,” I said sarcastically. “I’m sure.”

  I sensed a body behind me and knew instantly it was Will. I turned to see him.

  “So are you and Marcus finally getting along?” he asked.

  “She threatened to castrate me,” Marcus said.

  I nodded. “Sure did.”

  Will blinked and stiffened uncomfortably. “Oh.”

  “That’s not nice, Ell,” Kate scolded. “Boys need those.” She turned to Marcus and looped her arm through his. “Let’s go enjoy the rest of the party, shall we?”

  As they left the kitchen, Kate flashed me a gentle smile, but it didn’t make me relax. I just had a bad feeling about the whole thing.

  “Hey,” Will said. He gave me a reassuring smile and rubbed my shoulders with his hands. “Everything will be fine. Marcus isn’t going to hurt anyone, least of all Kate.”

  I frowned. “What does he want with her?”

  “Well, he’s just looking for some fun.”

  “And by fun you don’t mean playing pool with the guys, do you?”

  He averted his gaze and stared without focus into the crowd. “Marcus likes girls a lot, especially human girls. That’s not unusual among our kind. Human girls are different from vir girls.”

  “He needs to find some different girls to like,” I said with a huff. “At the very least not my best friend.” I weighed Will’s words for a second and hoped he hadn’t included himself in that observation about reapers and human girls.

  Will’s gaze returned to mine. “Ellie, don’t worry,” he said. “He treats them well, and he doesn’t stick around long.”

  “So he can use them up and break their hearts?”

  “No, he knows the kind of girls he’s after, the ones who are looking for a little fun too. Kate’s a smart girl. She knows how to stay out of trouble.”

  “Yeah, but Trouble’s got his eye on her.”

  He cupped my chin and lifted my face. “You have to let her make her own decisions, and Marcus too. He can be a little wild, but that’s just his nature. He’s never had to grow up and face consequences the way a human does. Everything’s a game to him. He lives for challenge.”

  “But you aren’t like that,” I said. “Are you?”

  “Marcus doesn’t have the responsibilities that I have. If he had someone like you, then he might become a very different person.”

  I gave him a suspicious look. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  His returning smile was warm and beautiful. “You know what I mean.” He leaned forward and kissed me on the cheek, letting his lips linger for an extra heartbeat, but it was long enough to send my pulse racing. He was going to drive me insane.

  “Come on,” he said, taking my hand. “Let’s go make you smile some more. You’ll see that Marcus isn’t going to hurt Kate, and you can trust him. You should be spending time with your friends.”

  “Okay.” I followed him out of the kitchen and squeezed his hand just a little tighter as he led me through the crowd.

  8

  ON SUNDAY NIGHT, WILL AND I WERE PREPARING TO meet Ava and Marcus to hunt the last nycterids. I struggled with what to wear for patrolling gear. Ava’s comments about my outfit shouldn’t have bothered me, especially since she was a reaper and the freezing February air didn’t bother her like it did me. I had to stay warm out there, or I’d be shivering like crazy instead of defending myself. I rummaged through the winter clothes in my closet with the door shut while Will waited. There was a pair of leggings that I went running in that would work. Fighting in stretchy pants would be a lot easier than in jeans. A turtleneck sweater might be enough to keep me warm, since I could just discard my coat if anything attacked.

  “Are you ready yet?” Will called.

  “Just a sec.” I tugged on a black turtleneck and then realized that my leggings were also black. There was no way I was dressing up like a ninja. I threw off the sweater and picked out a purple one. Huge improvement. I scrounged through my shoes and picked out a pair of cute purple snow boots with fur trim to match. Even bigger improvement.

  I emerged from my closet and found Will sitting on my bed. “Have you been staring at my door since I went in there?”

  “There wasn’t much else for me to do,” he said. His gaze dropped to my feet, and his brow flickered. “Nice boots.”

  I put my hands on my hips and glowered at him. “You’re really mean.”

  He laughed. “I just complimented you!”

  “No,” I growled. “You’re making fun of my boots. I’m not stupid.”

  He shook his head, grinning. “Are you ready finally?”

  I picked up my scarf
and coat. “Yeah. Are you?”

  “Yeah. I’ve been waiting.”

  I laughed and tossed my scarf into his face. He caught it effortlessly.

  “You probably shouldn’t wear this out hunting, anyway,” he said, examining it and frowning.

  “Why not? It’s pretty and warm.”

  He held it out. “It’s easy for claws to grab. Strangulation is a bad way to go.”

  I scowled and grabbed it back. “Fine. I won’t wear the scarf. I swear, you guys just want me to freeze to death.”

  “Once you get moving, you’ll warm up.”

  “Not likely. It’s like ten degrees outside,” I grumbled.

  He grabbed my sweater, tugging me closer to where he sat, and gave me a fake serious look. “Stop whining.”

  I swatted at his hand, forcing him to let me go. “I’m going to kick your ass.” I smoothed my sweater back out.

  He laughed and rose to his feet. “Really. You look like a cupcake. Are you ready to go? We have to meet them in a half hour and it’s already dark out.”

  I saluted him. “Yes, drill sergeant.”

  We parked my car in a safe lot downtown and walked quite a ways into a grubbier area. The demonic reapers liked to hunt in the rougher neighborhoods. Fewer people walking around at night meant there were more quiet places to kill and feed without interruption. We found Marcus sitting on the stoop of an abandoned, boarded-up house.

  “You aren’t still mad at me, are you?” Marcus asked as he came down the steps.

  I let out a breath and walked up to him. “No. Just remember what I said.”

  He grinned playfully. “I remember everything.”

  Ava landed to my right, making me jump. She must have stepped off the roof. Her long hair was tied into a ponytail, and she matched Marcus in the same sleek black outfit as the other night. “Do you have any preferred method of patrolling?” she asked, her gaze lingering on my leggings. There was just no making her happy, I decided.

  I stared at her. “Method?” I looked at Will.

  “We’re on combat patrol,” he explained gently to me.

  We’d never discussed terms to describe our hunting habits. We went out, looked for reapers, maybe killed one, and went home. I didn’t know there were other ways of doing it. “Which means we go out looking for bad guys, right?”

  Will turned to Ava. “We don’t practice advanced tactics.”

  Ava’s brow flickered and she said nothing.

  “Don’t give them such a hard time,” Marcus said. “They get the job done, obviously.”

  “If they were more organized, then the Preliator would have a better track record of staying alive.”

  That stung. My jaw tightened and I tried to smile. “Well, maybe I’ll just leave you to show me how it’s done, then. Staying alive, I mean. Best of luck.” I turned toward Will and lowered my voice. “I really don’t want to be criticized the entire time I’m trying not to die.”

  “I understand,” he said. “But I wouldn’t have us work with them if I thought we didn’t need it. We don’t really know what we’re up against, and we can use all the help we can get.”

  “I just—”

  “And I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t think you could prove her wrong,” he said. “I believe in you, and I know what you can do. She doesn’t, because she doesn’t know you like I do. Teaming up with them will be worth it if we can stop Bastian.”

  His expression was filled with conviction, and for a moment I believed him. And then I felt like I didn’t want to disappoint him. And I wanted to prove Ava wrong. I was useful. I was strong. And I knew what I was doing. My soul was thousands of years old and I was an angel. I was Gabriel. Ava had nothing on me and I’d already proven that. If I had to kick her ass again to make a point, then I would.

  I must have been thinking too hard again, because Will grinned at me the way he did when I made funny faces—which was often. “Shut up,” I said.

  “I didn’t say a thing.”

  I gave him the stink eye. “You were thinking it.”

  “Are we ready?” Ava asked behind me.

  I turned around and marched down the street. “We sure are.”

  Marcus laughed. “I told you I liked this girl.”

  A black shadow passed over my head, and the world swelled with the thick odor of brimstone.

  “Ellie! Swords!” Will’s voice shouted from behind me.

  My eyes shot to the sky. The nycterids had arrived.

  I threw off my coat and summoned my swords just as one of the nycterids dived at me. My vision filled with the reaper’s sunken, bony face, her jaws stretching and jagged teeth gleaming. Angelfire erupted, and I sliced one blade through the air. The nycterid lurched left, but my sword ripped deep through her leg. I spun on my heel and sliced the second sword through her leg again, this time through bone. The limb flung free in a spray of blood, and the reaper let out an earsplitting shriek so shrill that I fell to my knees. I groaned as my skull felt like it was about to implode. Forcing my eyes open, I watched the nycterid spiral through the air and crash through a decrepit apartment building across the street. Her body slammed hard through the steel and concrete and made half the building collapse on top of her in a deafening roar.

  I bounced to my feet and shot toward where the nycterid had vanished. Will called my name from somewhere around me, but I kept going. The nycterid was wounded, and I had to finish her off now. I leaped through the rubble and climbed into a hallway. I could hear the beast’s cries from deep inside, below me.

  The floor exploded in front of me, and the nycterid’s horrible face burst through wood and carpet. I slid to a stop in shock, my angelfire dancing off the reaper’s skeletal face in a sinister way. Her wings struggled through the hole, hooking her talons every place she could to drag her body up and forward. Her teeth snapped at me in between her shrieks.

  In a wave of certainty, I climbed to my feet and let out a cry as I swung my sword at her long neck, but she twisted away. My blade made a fiery, shallow gash and the reaper screamed and thrashed her head, slamming my body through a wall and into one of the apartments. I crashed through the wreckage and hit the floor of a kitchen. My head spun and swam with chaos. My ears felt as if they were underwater; the cries of the nycterid and Will screaming my name were so far away. Both my swords were still in my hands, and I climbed to my feet, reigniting the angelfire. Beyond the hole in the wall my body had made, I could distantly hear the colossal reaper struggling, no doubt breaking more and more of the floor beneath her weight.

  My pulse slowed, and time slowed with it, as I waited for the reaper to appear. I exhaled and steadied my blades.

  And then her body exploded through the wall, the ceiling crashing down on her head like a waterfall of dust and debris. She fought forward, and I tightened my grip on my helves. Her gnarled snout shot at my face, fangs gnashing, pale orbs for eyes gleaming and staring into mine without seeing me. She chomped and I twisted. She swung her neck back around, and I screamed as I plunged my sword into the side of her skull. Angelfire engulfed the reaper’s head, spreading down her long neck to the tip of her tail until the flames swallowed her massive body and wings. She vanished in seconds and left only falling bits of flame and ash behind.

  I staggered back breathlessly until I hit a wall. Part of me wanted to drop my weapons and relax against it, but I was afraid of something else bursting through. The building was destroyed. The floor groaned and walls creaked. More stuff fell from the ceiling. Will’s voice called my name again. I wasn’t sure if it was adrenaline that made me feel like a zombie or if it was shock.

  He appeared out of nowhere, grabbing me and pulling me into him. His hands cupped my face, fingers threading into my hair. “Are you okay? Ellie, are you all right? I couldn’t follow you. Are you hurt?”

  I shook my head, forcing my gaze away from the empty space the reaper had filled only moments ago, and looked up into Will’s emerald eyes. In the failing light and billowing dust, t
hey were like bright jewels guiding me home. He was out of breath, and I realized how much I must have terrified him by following the reaper into the building alone.

  “The last—Orek—is outside,” he said, his voice rushed. “I think Ava and Marcus will take care of him. You did amazing.”

  He led me through the rubble and down a steep decline of concrete chunks. My boots slipped, and he caught me before I fell. My body was still shaky, but Will had gotten hold of himself enough to guide me safely from the building. The world slowly became real to me again as I heard the reapers battling outside. Furious voices and roars filled my head, and I felt myself wanting to retreat and run away from the horror. But I had to keep going.

  As soon as we emerged from the collapsing apartment building, I saw Ava fall and smack the pavement. Marcus ran to her side and shielded her, staring up past us at something high above. I twisted around and looked up to see Orek perched on the roof, his wings spread as wide as they could, his tail lashing. His long neck arched and his head swiveled toward me. His pallid eyes blinked, and he hissed, snapping his jaws in warning. His tail beat the pediment, tearing up chunks, and they fell. Will yanked me out of their path and they crashed to the ground.

  Orek raised his head toward the sky and roared, his voice quaking with rage. The howl was shrill and mournful, sending strips of jagged ice down my spine. “Eki!”

  I stepped away from the building and lit up my blades. Instead of diving to attack, Orek clamped the talons of his hind legs deeper into the pediment. If he planned on continuing the fight, he’d be an idiot. He was one demonic reaper against three angelic ones and myself. No matter how huge he was, he was at a disadvantage.

  Orek beat his wings, roaring as he lifted himself into the air and disappeared into the night.

  I let out a long breath of relief and let my angelfire die. I was covered in dust and the dead reaper’s blood. My sweater was torn across my collarbone, and I had the dried remains of a gash on my cheek, but the healed wound didn’t even ache anymore. Will’s hand cupped my chin, and he guided my face around, his touch without fear this time. He inspected quietly, and when he was satisfied, his hand swept along my chin and down my neck.