Chapter 2

  Veroseline

  “Hang on, I’m coming to get you,” I hollered, making my way down the steep hill toward him and ignoring all my body's angry warnings of exhaustion and pain.

  The angel showed no sign of hearing me. He said... something. I couldn’t make out the words, but his tone appeared relaxed, and then he let out a bark of laughter.

  I grimaced. Well, he wouldn’t be the first angel to go mad since the war.

  My sword grazed a tree as I ran past, reverberating with a twang and sending vibrations up my arm. It took all of my strength to keep my blade upright. My energy was far too low to defeat this massive horde, but I flew into the pile of zombies anyway, knowing the probability of him having a chunk or two missing was high.

  I’m too late. With a sinking heart I cut through the first jumble of stinking corpses.

  The sword in my hands roared to life with burning celestial energy. I punched and slashed and stabbed my way through the group. After much too long, and two close calls, I finally drew near enough to him to see his dark blue jeans. Arms shaking with the effort to keep my sword upright, I stood over him like a protective mother shielding her child. Spots and speckles lingered in my vision and I had to shake my head to clear them.

  I sensed rather than saw the guy shift and use a sapling to pull himself up. Thank Almighty, he’s not in critical condition. I didn’t think I could drag him back to Resvener by myself, especially not while being pursued by a gaggle of undead.

  “Can you walk?” I asked, still brandishing my sword to keep the undead at bay. Luck was on my side because my celestial energy was holding out. The clump of zombies seemed to melt away from the cold radiant power, which I was thankful for.

  We might just survive this.

  Without glancing back, I addressed the oddly quiet angel behind me, “Look, I know you’re scared, but you need to suck it up and start making your way back to Resvener. I can’t hold them off forever. What were you thinking, leaving the stronghold? Didn’t you hear the bell?”

  There was no response. Probably he’d gone into shock. Almighty save me. I didn’t have time to coddle this guy. My head ached as if it was being thrust through a meat grinder.

  “Look, I’m not angry. I recognize idling in the stronghold all day is restricting, but situations like these are why we take precautions,” I babbled, trying to break him out of his trance. “We can discuss the details later of how you stole out of the barrier. For now, you need to get yourself to the medical ward. I’ll finish up here.”

  Suddenly the angel’s brawny hands were on me, wrenching my arms behind my back and twisting upward so that my sword clattered to the ground as pain slithered up my shoulders.

  “Oh, I don’t think so,” a cynical voice like crushed poison rumbled in my ear. “Perhaps you should have heeded your own advice and stayed within that tricky little barrier.” The angel swept my feet out from under me. My cheek and chest collided hard with damp dirt.

  Bile arose in my throat. Behind the pain of a giant boot pinning one of my wings down, I detected the scent of a magical signature—smoke and red pepper. Then, a wave of demonic energy followed, blasting into the back of my head like a massive stone. Pain clattered through my skull, rattling my teeth with its force.

  Dark seeped into my vision.

  ∞∞∞

  The dreamless bliss stretched on forever. . .until it didn’t anymore.

  Gummy and burning, my eyes cracked open, only to find I still couldn’t see.

  Great. He blindfolded me.

  Taking mental stock of my body, I shifted. Nothing was broken or seriously damaged, but there wasn’t anywhere that didn’t ache or twinge, and I was wet and slimy as if someone had dipped me in a bath of my own sweat. Thinking to wipe the moisture from my face, I found my attacker had secured my wrists to the solid chair I was sitting on.

  Okay, blindfolded and bound. But I was alive. Lucky me, this would be a drawn out death.

  Don’t get ahead of yourself. First things first, figure out where you are.

  Skipping past the unpleasant sour cadaver stench clinging to my soiled garment, I observed my new surroundings. The air was cool, but there was no wind, so he had moved me indoors. Leaning forward in the chair, I breathed deeply, catching the scent of musty old things and bleachy lemon cleaner.

  Not that I’d had any genuine hope of rescue, but I wasn’t near Resvener anymore. The few ghost towns surrounding the angel stronghold didn’t have luxuries like chemical cleaners. We’d wiped them out in the first two decades of being Earthbound. Now we propped the windows of the citadel open, even in winter, to keep the stronghold free of the dank smell that accumulated when so many bodies lived together in one place.

  Next, try to escape.

  Easier said than done. I wiggled my nose uselessly in an attempt to maneuver the cloth down my face. The bindings keeping my wrists together were tight. I strained at the rope, my flesh digging into its itchy fibrous grip as I looked for a weak spot. Finding none, I let out a huff and crooked my finger, thinking if I could angle it just right, I might be able to claw at the tight knots until they loosened. Soon after, with my nails getting raw from all the scratching, a door before me creaked open. Like a rabbit spotted eating carrots in the garden, I froze.

  “Who’s there?” I pulled vibrato from deep in my chest, making my voice sound more threatening than I felt.

  Heavy bootsteps and behind that, smaller shuffling of bare feet reached my ears as two people entered the room. “Everyone’s darkest wet dream, little snack. Tell me, sweet heaven biscuit, do you have any idea what you’ve gotten yourself into?” My captor’s voice was like black silk.

  I swallowed dryly. “You’re a demon.”

  “Oh, I better watch myself, Nurse. Wouldn’t want to cut anything valuable on that sharp wit.” The way he exaggerated the T made me flush with anger. “Let’s see. What type of Angel are you….?” There was an audible inhale as he sniffed the air. “Guardian?”

  Try not to let the enemy get under your skin, Veroseline, instructed Michael’s voice in the back of my mind. Combat 101. I was quick to follow his orders.

  “Specialist.” I bit the end of my word, mocking the demon.

  Whoever Nurse was, they were quiet. I strained my senses to glean any information about the room’s occupants, but there was nothing to go off through my stench and the lemon bleach.

  The male continued as if he hadn’t heard, “You could even say I’m the demon. Not to toot my own pointy horns, but you happen to be talking to Akmon.”

  Scouring my brain for any glimmer of that name only made my head throb.

  There was a moment of awkward silence.

  “I’m all the rage in your precious book,” Akmon prompted.

  Closing my eyes, even though I couldn’t see to begin with, I concentrated. After a few more seconds, I lifted my shoulders in a halfhearted shrug. “I don’t make it a point to know the names of demons I cross paths with. I only have business in gutting them.” Or I would, if I had any leeway in this situation.

  “Well, Lucifer, take my soul. You’re the first Angel I’ve met who didn’t recognize the infamous demon who took Eve in the Tree of Knowledge. Consider me humbled.”

  “You’re the snake who tempted Eve?” It was difficult to hide the scaling squeak at the end of my sentence. This was a high-class demon. I’d squared off with enough of them to last a lifetime. Normally, only Archangels like Michael fought against them, but I’d been in a mood. I didn’t think I could take one now while my celestial energy was so weak, but I couldn’t let him know that. Clearing my throat, I pictured the flaming candle and recovered.

  “Incompetent humans, always getting that part wrong,” Akmon muttered.

  “Pardon?”

  “Listen here, at no point during the duration of my time with Eve did I ever morph into my snake form.” Abundant ire colored his voice.

  Looks like I touched a nerve. Whoops.

  “It was my snake, you know.” Akmon whistled in a crude, suggestive manner.

  Almighty. Save. Me. “All right, then.”

  “And the temptation wasn’t fruit… if you get what I’m saying.”

  “Okay, that’s enough.”

  “Temptation is a pretty loose term anyway, if you ask me. She nearly knocked Adam over to get to all this.”

  There was a rustle of fabric and I could only imagine the demon was running his hands over his own clothes and I really needed to get away from this subject. “Akmon, what exactly is it you want with me?” I asked, because why didn’t you kill me? sounded a tad too ungrateful.

  “What do I want? Nothing. In fact, I came to ask you that very question.” Akmon scoffed. “Why did you interfere with those zombies? Thanks to your little stunt, they became distressed and almost bit me. Do you have any idea what trouble you’ve caused?”

  “No?” Still feeling weak from the blow to the head, I sank into the cushioned seat. My apologies, Lord Lewdness. Next time I’ll let them eat your demon face right off.

  “I believe you, judging from the way you sit there shaking—”

  “Shivering,” I corrected curtly. “My clothes are wet.” I would not let him think I was afraid of him, even though things weren’t looking too good for the home team right now.

  Akmon ignored me. “—I very much doubt you had any inkling of the bond you created between us.”

  I stilled as powerful Hellish energy rippled through the air like a wave of static electricity. Akmon’s heavy boots thumped across the room, sounding loud and sure even though there was soft carpet under my bare toes. My angelic power was low right now, so I couldn’t feel the high-frequency vibrations this time, but I detected his demonic signature again as it infiltrated my nose.

  Smoke and spice.

  I tried not to shrink into the chair as the demon drew nearer. Slowly, like the sun coming out from behind the clouds, the temperature climbed around me, making the little hairs on my nape stand on end.

  “When you save a demon—the way you did when you stopped those zombies from biting me,” Akmon purred. “They must return the kindness in full. I owe you that favor now. A life for a life. An insufferable bond that can’t, as far as I know, be broken until it’s completed. Think of it as an unwelcome parting gift to demonkind from the fucking Almighty.”

  My tongue sizzled as he used the Almighty’s name in vain. The pain was sharp, but I didn’t cry out.

  He went on. “Now, I apologize for the rough handling, but obviously I had no intention of hanging around that deadly barrier until Lucifer knew when, waiting for the opportune moment that your angelic behind needed saving. Naturally I dragged you home to play S and M until this bothersome matter can be remedied.”

  A life-debt bond. My heart shriveled in my chest. This magic must have come as an added punishment when Lucifer first fell from grace, as a way to make demons work together. Most types of Almighty ordained contracts were positively unbreakable.

  What have I done? I need to get back to Resvener.

  Akmon paused as a quiet male mumble, presumably Nurse, interjected. His voice was like the hum of insect wings. I didn’t make out what it was saying before Akmon replied, “Yes, well, you were the one who dragged her along. My skilled hands are far too divine to risk damage by commoner work.”

  Akmon suddenly pressed in close, making me jump. “Get comfortable, halo baby,” he said, hands falling on either side of my shoulders. The temperature of his fingers was a shock to my system, not scalding, but flirting with the line of too hot.

  He must be covering them in demonic flame.

  It unnerved me that aside from his purposeful heat, Akmon’s touch was light and even comforting against my body. All my Specialist training had not prepared me for this situation. Abusive treatment was what I’d been expecting. Instead, he touched me like a lover, kneading skilled thumbs all the way down into my aching back muscles. Divine hands—he hadn’t been joking. A ridiculous urge to sink into that warmth flitted through me before I squashed it like a bug.

  If I had the choice, I’d rather take abuse. Quick as a cobra, I turned my head and took a snap at him with my teeth. He was faster than me, perhaps suspecting I’d do something like that.

  Akmon grabbed my jaw and forced my head forward. “I’ve tried to think of a reason you would want to save a sworn enemy,” he said, harsh and hot in my ear. “The only thing I can come up with is that you need something you can’t get in the confines of your stronghold. What is it? Tell me.”

  “Nothing.”

  “I don’t think that’s true,” he whispered, a silky dangerous sound.

  Will he kill me if I don’t have a good enough response for him? I hoped not because it was just an honest mistake.

  “Ahhh. I got it now,” Akmon drawled, his voice pulling into a seductive and playful quality. “Tell me true, angel love, are you that lonely? Feeling an itch to walk on the dark side, hmm?” As he spoke, he trailed his other hand down my cheek and then dropped it to the hollow of my throat. He paused there, maybe imagining squeezing the life from me. “Did you think if you came in sword swinging, a sexy demon like myself would return the favor by sticking my cock in that pretty hole of yours?”

  Shocked to my core, I felt the blood drain from my face. “No. Way.” I spat on the ground for emphasis. “I mistook you for an angel. Nothing more.” My face grew as fiery as Akmon’s flames as he moved in to place a kiss at the curve of my neck. I knew he was baiting me, but I wasn’t accustomed to being talked to in such a way. Not that angels didn’t have sex sometimes, but as a Specialist I’d been so busy with training, and then fighting in the Great War, that I didn’t have time to explore the basic desires as my mentor, Michael, had called them.

  “Oh?” Akmon sounded amused. “How’s that? I don’t see any tacky white wings on my back, do you?”

  “I see nothing.” I snapped. “You have me blindfolded. I only caught a glimpse of you through the zombies.”

  In my memory, Akmon’s skin had been tan, not the reddish tint most demons had from the underworld sun. Skin color changed depending on which sun you lived under for most of your existence. From that glimpse of his muscled chest in the forest, I would blacken my halo to bet Akmon had walked on Earth for a longer amount of time than he had walked in Hell.

  The angels’ skin would change now, too, though not for many hundreds of years, melting from the stark white that our pale, cold sun in Heaven produced and darkening to something closer to a human complexion.

  “I almost want to believe that. But surely these gave me away,” Akmon said, bending down to rub one arching horn against my cheek. It was smooth like polished stone and chill as bone against my skin.

  I shuddered in revulsion. Yes, he was definitely a demon.

  “See, even your body quivers at the very thought of—oh disgusting!” Akmon cut his remark short, making a wet coughing noise somewhere in the back of his throat.

  Gagging at the thought of having sex with me, is he? Well, good then. The feeling was mutual.

  Smooth twists of Akmon’s single braid slithered across my shoulder as he jerked upright again and moved swiftly away from the chair. “A precious sentiment, but I have much better prospects, even at the end of the world. I think I’d rather sleep with Nurse.” The door slammed open, and Nurse’s soft footsteps shuffled out of the way.

  Akmon’s steps paused, and I sensed him turn back towards me.

  Stupid angel. I’d forgotten Akmon’s quiet companion was in the room with us, watching the whole scene, and my shame deepened.

  “That’s enough pillow talk for now. Sit tight. I have a call to make. Until next time, sugar bite.”

  “Great Almighty, my name is Veroseline.”

  “I don’t like it. Too angelic.”

  “But it’s my name,” I protested.

  He let out a dramatic sigh. “Fine. How about Vero, then?”

  After a moment of debate, I nodded once. I could handle Vero over sugar bite or halo baby.

  “Be good for Nurse now. He’ll help you into a bath. You’d put the dankest sulfur pit of Hell to shame.” A pause, as if something else occurred to him. “Cliché, but know that there is no sense in trying to escape.”

  “Is that a threat?” I asked.

  “No, a friendly warning. The moment you step foot off this property, Vero, it will be a very painful death.” With that final declaration the door snapped shut behind the high-spirited demon, but I heard the muffled, “And wouldn’t that just solve all my problems.”

  Chapter 3

  Akmon

  So much blood. . .

  Our eyes locked as the warrior demon hit the ground with a heavy thud, a gash as long as my forearm decorating her rib cage. Shoulder-length dark brown hair stuck to her face as she died, the strands held there by sweat and matted blood. It was a slow death, considering the size of her injury.

  Ruby liquid trickled from her mouth and pooled on the ground. The blood ran hot at first and then eventually cold as it leeched toward my hiding place, dripping down in thick droplets between the spidery roots of a maple tree partially torn from the ground. It was as if the tree was greedily drawing her blood in, desperate for moisture after the fire and trauma that had sucked it all away.

  I backed up as much as I could in the almost man-sized hovel. A Deserter.

  Before I made it to the end of the hall, my legs gave out. My knees collided against rigid, cream-colored tiles with a dull crack. Sharp pain spiraled up my thighs. Nausea constricted my throat like a snake crushing the life from its prey. I tried to keep my lunch down by covering my mouth with a shaking hand, but the inevitable was coming. My gut roiled and bubbled as violently as an active tar pit. Within moments, I defiled the pristine baseboards with the contents in my stomach.

  Even that was not enough. I spent the next eternity dry heaving. When my stomach finally stopped clenching, I had to use the support of the wall to haul myself up. With trembling fingers, I searched for the expired Zofran I kept in my pocket for such delightful occasions and brought two tiny white pills to my lips. I couldn’t even manage to swallow. Damn it all.

 

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