“The high volume of demons is drawing on her spirit,” Andras quietly explains beside me, reading my thoughts. “The pain, the destruction, the fear…it’s draining her.”
I look to him and frown. “But she’s been stuck in a house with demons for weeks.” At least it’s felt like weeks.
Andras shakes his head. “We’re not like other demons. Even Lucifer…he’s been dampening himself since he arrived. Probably even while he was in Hell with you.”
I didn’t realize it until now, but he’s right. Lucifer did dampen himself around me. Until he let it slip.
Once.
I remember it all as if it just occurred yesterday. I don’t think a day has gone by that I haven’t thought about that night in his dining room. He had been trying to shock me for days, each nightly display more depraved than the last. It was as if he was trying to woo me with evil. And I sat there, stone-faced and cold, just as Niko instructed.
And then I made a mistake.
I challenged him.
I can still hear the sound of teeth tearing through flesh. Can still clearly see the rich crimson blood pooled at Lucifer’s feet as those girls willingly, almost gleefully, ripped each other’s faces to the bone. And I did nothing. I didn’t cry. I didn’t scream. I sat there and watched those poor women eat each other.
My silence was my approval. And in that moment, I realized that I’m no better than Lucifer. I might be even worse.
“Better?” I hear Phenex inquire a few feet away, crouched in front of Adriel.
She nods weakly, her breathing still a bit shallow. “Yes. Let’s keep going.” She pushes off the graffiti-covered brick wall.
“May I suggest you stay beside Eden?” Lucifer suggests, his voice taking on its usual enticing drawl.
Face pinched, I hastily reply, “Why?”
“Because half of you is angel,” he explains. “You’re stronger together. The first time you wielded light, you were with Crysis. And every time after that, you were with Adriel. The same essence that runs in your veins runs in theirs.”
I nod, not able to admit that he’s right…for the most part. I can’t describe what happened between Legion and me on our last night together. I don’t know if it was holy light that threw him against the wall, smashing my wardrobe into splinters. Or maybe it was his own consciousness fighting through the haze of deception that tried to steal him away from his body. Or maybe it was divine intervention. I. Don’t. Know. But I do know that if something—or someone—hadn’t stopped him, he could have very well killed me.
There was not a glimmer of Legion’s former angel self in that moment. He was all demon—the full embodiment of evil. There was no saving him.
“I think you may be right,” Adriel comments, coming to stand beside me.
I look to her beautiful, pale face and realize that her green eyes are sunken in and lined with purplish circles. We need her. And truth be told, I owe her. We may be in love with the same man, but I don’t believe she’d ever do anything to hurt me. Not when she’s protected me for most of my life.
“I agree,” I acquiesce. “Let’s go.”
We head east to cut through Grant Park in hopes of bypassing some of the shadier areas of downtown. And as we step over mounds of broken cement and shattered glass, I audibly gasp at what’s been left of it. Everything is in shambles. What was once known for being the centerpiece of Chicago is nothing more than deadened grass, chunks of rubble, and twisted metal that were once sculptures. The Art Institute appears to be condemned. The baseball diamonds at Hutchinson Field have been desecrated with spray-paint and garbage. And whatever stagnant liquid lies in the grand Buckingham Fountain is most definitely not water.
“It’s going to get worse the farther we get,” Toyol remarks, a note of sorrow in his tone. I don’t know how long the Se7en have been here, but this is their home too. And to see it like this has got to be fucking with them as much as it’s fucking with me.
I snort sardonically. “Worse than this?”
“Much worse,” he nods. “Most humans on this side of town were able to evacuate. So the demons are centralizing south.”
“And you think Legion would take that risk? Go towards the chaos and violence?”
A dozen different scenarios flood my mind. Maybe that lesser demon was lying. What if they have found him and have already begun to torture him? What if they’ve gotten him to give up the Se7en? Or maybe they’ve taken him to whomever they serve? Nikolai seems to believe that it was Stavros, his father, who is responsible for casting a cloaking spell on me. And if Stavros is still working with Uriel, maybe the lesser demons have crossed over to his side, too. I can’t imagine the Seraph being desperate enough to conspire with the lowest of evil beings, but if they were just using them to further their cause…that I could believe.
And if there is even a shred of truth to any of my suspicions, Legion doesn’t have much time.
I try to shake off the crippling doubt and keep moving forward, but the farther south we go, the harder it is to ignore the niggling feeling that something is seriously wrong. We’re miles away from our destination, and we’ve got at least an hour and change to go before we make it, but I can’t shake the feeling that we’re walking right into a trap. I feel a bit queasy, and hair stands up on the back of my neck. Even the hair on my head feels electrically charged with a warning. We should turn back. We should regroup and try again when we’re better prepared.
But we’d never be fully prepared, even if we trained for a month straight for eighteen hours a day. Not for what awaits us. Not for what steps out of the shadows and surrounds us, forcing us to cluster together in the center of the mob because there’s nowhere to run. Nowhere to escape.
Demons.
Dozens of them. Hundreds.
And they’re not here to do Lucifer’s bidding.
They’re here to kill.
I almost lose a breath when Lucifer casually strolls forward, his expression amused.
Almost.
“Lovely of you all to extend such a warm welcome,” he drawls, seemingly nonplussed, “but you needn’t trouble yourselves. Scurry back to where you came from, and I’ll consider letting you keep your heads.”
A lone brave homeless man inches forward. He’s caked in dirt and dressed in filthy rags, much like the one Lucifer took out before. But it’s no human that says, “You no longer have that authority. You do not rule this realm,”
“Oh? And who does?” Lucifer’s mouth curls at one side, but it’s all a front to conceal his rage.
The demon forces his human host to smile back, showcasing blackened, broken teeth. “He’s coming. You will see him soon enough. And you and your precious mortals shall fall at his feet.”
Lucifer makes a tsking sound before demanding in that rumbling timbre, “Come forth.”
The soiled man, his eyes as black as coal, laughs heartily. “That will not work on us anymore. He has freed us.”
“Who has freed you?” Lucifer lifts a curious brow.
A shake of his head is all we receive in response. He either knows nothing, or he’s refusing to tell us. Either way, we’re screwed.
I scan the crowd of people, my eyes wide with terror. Humans from all walks of life—vagrants, uniformed police officers, doctors and nurses donning scrubs, husbands, wives…these are the ones that didn’t make it out in time. Chicagoans—just like Sister and me—that didn’t have the time or resources to escape to safety. And now they have been reduced to nothing but skin suits for the lowest, most vile creatures in existence.
I should have noticed it all seemed too easy to breach the city. After our initial roadblock—that Andras so resourcefully diverted—it seemed as if the streets had been deserted. Maybe the demon who attacked us was acting alone. Maybe he was warning us. Or maybe he was hoping his assault would prompt us to turn east and fall right into their trap, which is exactly what we did.
The smell of sulfur is so noxious that I feel queasy. And although she??
?s standing tall, legs planted in a defensive stance beside me, Adriel looks a little green as well. How did we not notice it was getting stronger? Or had we grown immune to the scent of death and fire?
Lucifer’s jaw flutters with unshed anger as he flicks a speck of dust off his coat. “How quickly you forget the consequences for defying me. You think your realm of Hell was bad? Try me. I dare you.” His eyes flare bright enough that it casts a dark violet glow across the demon’s borrowed face.
“You speak as if your threats are still terrifying. Yet, you stand with those who betrayed you. Who betrayed us. You conspire with our angel enemies. And you protect a Nephilim girl—a girl who you have allowed yourself to fall in love with,” he scoffs, the word love a malice-laced hiss on his putrid tongue. But that’s not enough to distract me from his outrageous claim.
Love. He said Lucifer has fallen in love with me.
If this were a different time and place, and if we weren’t currently facing off with a hoard of demons armed with baseball bats, metal pipes, and two-by-fours, ready to tear our heads off, I’d laugh in his dirt-smudged face. There’s no way Lucifer could love me. Honestly, I don’t think he even likes me. He just enjoys getting under my skin and pissing off Legion.
Lucifer must see his angle, because instead of denying the accusation, he simply lifts a palm then closes it into a fist. And with that simple movement, the demon-possessed man’s body crumples into a heap of twisted flesh and broken bone. The sound of his body snapping and ripping as it contorts into a human pretzel is something out of a horror movie. He didn’t even have a chance to scream. His vocal cords were shredded the moment his neck was ground into a pulpy mess on the pavement.
And while I should feel some sense of justice, I can’t help but realize that it wasn’t just the demon who was crushed in Lucifer’s palm. That man was innocent. His only crime was poverty and not having the resources to escape the city. All of them are. It’s not these humans that want to kill us, so how can I stand here and let them die for a cause that they have no say in?
“He’s going to kill them all,” I whisper to Niko. He’s on guard, his penetrating ice blue stare boring into the pack of demons hissing at their fallen brethren.
“What?”
“Lucifer. He’s going to kill them.”
“Good.”
“No, it’s not.” I shake my head a fraction, not wanting to draw attention to our conversation. But with Adriel at my other side, Phenex and Jinn at our backs, Cain and Toyol in front of us, and Lilith and Andras at their flanks, I’m sure every word is heard. “These humans are innocent. Are you saying you’d be willing to commit mass murder?”
He looks around, taking in the scene, and, hopefully, seeing reason. There are hundreds of them. I can’t have their deaths on my conscience. There has to be a different way.
“Can you get in?” he asks.
Frowning, I part my lips to ask him what the hell he could possibly mean, but then it clicks. I could breach Crysis’s mind, something even he was surprised about. And now that my Nephilim gifts have been unlocked, maybe I could fling out that power and slip into the minds of all these demons. There are a lot of them, more than I’ve attempted. But I’m also a lot stronger than anyone anticipated.
Still, I’m apprehensive. These aren’t gaudy ass Great Value gangsters in a bar. And the last time I tried to infiltrate a demon’s mind, it felt like my brain was being pulverized into mush. But I can’t just stand here, with my thumb stuck up my ass, because I’m too afraid to try. Even if I fail, maybe it’ll serve as a needed distraction for the others to get away. Shit, maybe to set everything back to how it was before I was created by Uriel. If I’m dead, I’m no longer a weapon. He can’t use me. And whatever score he has to settle with Legion will have to wait.
I suck in a lungful of cold, stale air, and on an exhale, I send my power launching towards the demon closest to the front line. From the outside, she looks like she may have been a schoolteacher, or maybe she once worked in a café as a peppy barista. But as my influence scrapes against her frontal lobe, and her dead stare flares just a fraction at the intrusion, I know that whoever she once was is now gone. I don’t even know if she, or any of these people, can be saved. This could all be for naught, but I have to try. If it saves human lives, I have to do whatever I can.
I’m relieved when I’m not taken to my knees my excruciating pain, but I don’t breathe. There’s a roiling blackness waiting for me. A sticky, tar-like sludge that claws at my invisible hand, trying to capture it with obsidian flypaper. I merge before it can touch me, yet keep one finger of influence firmly planted in the darkness. Then I’m pushing myself out, reaching for the next demon mind to invade. Then another. And another. I don’t want to linger too long. They know something is there, yet they can’t understand what and how. And before they realize that it’s me infecting their consciousness, I want to be far, far away from that murky pit of obscurity. Even with the touch of influence that’s remained within their skulls, I can feel them, like black spiders reaching out, trying to latch on to sink their venomous fangs into me.
I extend myself until the strain echoes in my skull and burns my eyes. My jaw aches as I clench down, forcing every ounce of my concentration to the horde before us. They’re restless, agitated. They won’t let their friend’s death go unpunished. I only have mere seconds if I want to avoid a massacre.
I’m only holding about twenty of them, maybe two-dozen tops. It’s not many, but as I part my dry, trembling lips to utter the words, I pray that it’s enough.
“Fall. And sleep.”
Shocked horror momentarily fills their wide-eyed, black gazes before they crumple to the ground, forced into an enchanted slumber. The remaining enemy demons, stunned, look around in bewilderment, allowing Lucifer and the Se7en to spare a surprised glance in my direction.
“You can’t kill them. They’re humans,” I bite out by way of explanation, forcing all my focus on the approaching threat.
My plan worked, thank God, but it wasn’t enough. The mob seems even more agitated as they realize what’s happened. Dozens upon dozens of obsidian eyes fall on me as vicious snarls ring out into the night. They all know it was me. And I’ve just upped the ante on their bloodlust.
Unnaturally fast, Niko pushes me behind him, shielding my body with his own. He raises his hands, and they erupt into azure flames that lick up to his elbows. With a swipe of his hands, the line of demons is pushed back, tumbling over each other like bowling pins. But within seconds, they recover and are back on their feet quickly advancing towards us. Shit, it even seems like their numbers are multiplying. Where the hell did they all come from?
Niko blasts them back again, while Lucifer turns to take on the opposite side. I grasp his arm before he can raise his palm.
“Please,” I beg. “Don’t hurt them. They don’t deserve to die.”
Lucifer’s swirling, metallic-flecked eyes dim with simmering power. “I can’t make any promises.”
He shrugs out of my grasp and raises both hands, maneuvering them as if he’s squeezing an invisible sphere. The demons begin to cry out, clutching their skulls as they wither to the ground in agony. But more quickly replace them, simply stepping over their writhing bodies.
“Get out of here! Go!” Niko shouts. He throws out another wall of blue flames, but it doesn’t have the same impact as the ones before. There are too many of them. And by the time I tap into their brains, they’ll already be on top of us.
“Not without you,” I yell back.
The rest of us are crouched down with our weapons drawn, anticipating violence, but I don’t want it to come to that. And considering we’re grossly outnumbered, there’s no guarantee we’ll win. We didn’t plan for this. Killing lesser demons or even angels, we prepared for. But not humans. They weren’t supposed to be here.
“Adriel, can’t you do something? Blast them with holy light?” I don’t even care about the desperation in my voice. We need her. I need he
r.
She shakes her head, dashing my last bit of hope. “There’s too many of them. And there’s a good chance they wouldn’t survive it.”
“You’re not even going to try?” I shriek.
“I’m sorry.” Her mouth is saying the words, but I don’t believe them.
“Then why the fuck are you here?” I mutter.
I grit down to keep my rage in check. We don’t have time to bicker amongst ourselves. She doesn’t want to help, fine. But when it comes down to trading her for my mom, I’ll remember her cowardice. Uriel can keep her.
Deep breath, focus. Conjure those emotions that I’ve bottled up inside since I discovered Legion had left us. The fear, the pain. The unexplainable shame.
Orbs of light appear in each palm, and without even thinking, I launch them into the crowd. They explode, temporarily blinding us all and incapacitating the lesser demons long enough for Phenex to grip my arm.
“Come on. We’re getting you out of here,” he urges tugging my arm.
I look over at Niko and Lucifer, both still battling the growing fray. “What about them?”
“They’ll catch up. If we stay any longer, we’ll have no choice but to kill them.”
“But I can’t…” I shake my head. “I won’t leave them.”
“We don’t have time for this shit,” Cain growls out, raising his gun. “It’s either them or us.”
But before he can fire off the first round, there’s a disturbance within the crowd. Gruff voices barking out orders. An almost electrical type of sound. And the demons are falling, their bodies seizing uncontrollably as if they’ve been tasered. I look around. Who is doing this? And how?
And that’s when I see them.
“Fucking hell,” Cain curses.
“No…it can’t be,” Phenex scoffs.
“Shit. This is just what we need,” Andras spits.
Toyol raises his twin Katanas. Lilith pulls back the hammer of her revolver. Jinn unsheathes two curved blades.