Her Wicked Angel

by Felicity Heaton

  Serenity looked torn and then frowned at him. “Take me back to Apollyon. He won’t understand… unless we explain. He will come after you.”

  She sounded concerned and he found that hard to swallow because it wasn’t concern about her own welfare or Liora’s, or even Apollyon’s distress on finding her gone. It was concern for him. She didn’t want her angel to discover her missing and come to Hell bent on revenge and filled with fury and unleash it all on Asmodeus.

  Asmodeus rose to his feet and then sat on a black block of rock nearby, facing her. “I cannot take you back. Not until I know where she is in the Devil’s fortress.”

  “We can find her together,” Serenity said and he wanted to believe she sincerely meant that but he knew Apollyon and he knew the others.

  They wouldn’t help him. He had to do this alone.

  Romulus and Remus came to flank him as they had so many times when he had sat on his throne in this fortress.

  As they had when Liora had been here with him, part of his home, sharing it with him and his hellhounds.

  He missed her.

  Asmodeus growled and curled his fingers into fists, clenching them tightly enough that his bones ached and the points of his short black claws dug into his fleshy palms.

  He didn’t care if everyone came after him. Apollyon could lead a legion of angels to war with him and he wouldn’t care. All that mattered to him now was finding Liora and having her back in his arms where she belonged, filling the hollow space in his chest that she had left behind.

  He didn’t care if everyone cursed him for taking Serenity either. Everyone thought him evil anyway. Only Liora had seen the good in him and only Liora mattered.

  “Find her for me.” Asmodeus left no room for argument in his tone this time. “Then you may go.”

  Serenity stared deep into his eyes, hers narrowing by degrees, and he felt as if she was trying to look through him, seeking out his feelings for Liora. She must have seen them and his desperation, because she nodded and held out her hand.

  Asmodeus reluctantly removed the pentagram from around his neck, rose from his makeshift throne and placed it into her small palm. She closed her fingers over it, shut her eyes and held it close to her chest. Bright ribbons of red swirled around her hand, lighting her fair hair and pale face, and turning her cream dress crimson.

  She was quiet for so long that he feared she was out to fool him, to keep him waiting until Apollyon tracked them down or the Devil sent another dragon to finish him. His patience trickled away, growing thinner by the second, and he began to pace. Remus sat up and watched him. Romulus took to pacing with him, keeping close to his side.

  Finally, Serenity opened her eyes and looked up at him.

  “She is in a fortress as you said. A great one with spires that melt into the darkness. She is deep beneath it… a small room… the floor is white crystal… it is bright and filled with light… she sleeps there.”

  Asmodeus growled. “Sleeps or lays dead?”

  His heart couldn’t bear the thought that it was the latter. It ached and stung fiercely, threatening to shatter and kill him.

  Serenity frowned and clutched the pentagram harder, her gaze unfocused. She blinked.

  “Sleeps.” She lifted her gaze to his again and his relief echoed in her hazel eyes. “She sleeps.”

  Hope coursed through his blood, mending his aching heart, and he held his hand out to her.

  Serenity went to place the pentagram into his palm and froze.

  Asmodeus had felt it too.

  A portal.

  He swiftly turned to face the far end of the courtyard and growled as the fierce white portal shimmered, allowing Veiron and Erin to step through, followed by Apollyon, Amelia and Marcus. How had they found him so quickly?

  The answer to that question stepped through the portal and then was right before him, a twisted grin playing on his lips and his eyes flashing violent purple.

  Nevar.

  Asmodeus turned to grab the pentagram from Serenity. Nevar saw and was there before him, snatching the pendant from her outstretched hand. Asmodeus roared at the male and he shot away from him, taking the precious necklace and grinning the whole time.

  Asmodeus’s heart pounded, adrenaline making it thunder against his chest, and his black claws sharpened.

  “Give it back to me,” Asmodeus snarled and lunged for Nevar. The angel leaped to one side, ending up closer to Apollyon, and Asmodeus foolishly hoped his twin would assist him and grab Nevar.

  Apollyon let him pass without moving a muscle.

  Asmodeus’s fangs lengthened and he growled at Apollyon and then at Nevar. Nevar held the pentagram up. It swung from its silver chain, taunting him. Asmodeus beat his large black feathered wings and shot towards Nevar. The wretched angel flashed him a wicked smile, dived to his right, rolled and came to his feet between Apollyon and the others where they had grouped together.

  Apollyon ignored Nevar again and strolled towards Serenity. She was on her feet and in his arms a second later, and Asmodeus wanted to cry out his anguish and fury. He wanted Liora like that, tucked safely in his arms, not asleep and trapped in the Devil’s fortress.

  Nevar taunted him again with the pendant.

  Asmodeus growled in frustration and called his blades to him. “Return it to me. Do not harm it. It is important. Please… give it back.”

  He focused on making those words into a command, an order that Nevar would have to obey. Nevar frowned and then his vicious smile returned, curving his lips. The angel had found a way to overcome his orders. He focused harder, trying to force Nevar’s obedience.

  He reached towards Nevar but the angel withdrew, keeping the distance between them steady, his twisted grin holding as he wound the chain around his fingers, drawing the pentagram up to his palm. Romulus and Remus growled, their hackles rising as they lowered their heads and bared their fangs, ready to attack if Asmodeus ordered it.

  “Do give it back,” Serenity said and Asmodeus caught the note of fear in her voice. It seemed Apollyon picked up on it too, because he looked down at her and smoothed his palm across her cheek. She lifted her eyes to meet his, her expression revealing the depth of her fear. “It protects Liora.”

  Apollyon’s expression immediately darkened. “Give it back, Nevar.”

  Nevar shook his head and locked his purple gaze on Asmodeus. He held the pentagram up higher, so it dangled between them.

  “Does this trinket have meaning to you? Do you value it?” Nevar’s eyes shifted focus to the pentagram but Asmodeus didn’t dare attempt to attack him. Nevar would see it coming. He glanced at Apollyon and then the others, silently pleading them to help him in retrieving Liora’s pentagram.

  Amelia had already drawn her silver blade and Marcus was ready beside her. Veiron was shielding Erin but the look in his swirling red-gold eyes said that he was with Asmodeus and would help take down Nevar if it came to it. Apollyon moved in front of Serenity and locked deadly blue eyes on Nevar, monitoring him closely.

  “It means much to me, Nevar,” Asmodeus admitted and didn’t hide his feelings from his voice. He revealed all, every ounce of despair and fear, and every drop of hope that Nevar would do the right thing and return it safely to him.

  “And what would you do to retrieve it?” Nevar flicked the star, making it spin, and his violet irises focused back on Asmodeus.

  The bitterness in his voice and the anger in his expression didn’t surprise Asmodeus. He had wronged Nevar and deserved his wrath, but the male was threatening Liora’s safety and Liora’s most precious possession, and he couldn’t allow that.

  “It means everything to Liora… and therefore it means everything to me,” Asmodeus whispered and held his left hand out, keeping his right one around the hilt of one of his blades. “Please… return it to me.”

  Nevar shook his head again, twisted his hand to gather up the chain and opened it so the pentagram sat on his palm. He stared down at it, the cold edge of anger in his pow
er rising. Asmodeus glanced at Apollyon. Apollyon nodded and he knew that as soon as he had an opening, his twin would attempt to retrieve the necklace. Asmodeus would do all that he could to make that opening happen.

  Nevar looked up at Asmodeus through his lashes and narrowed his gaze on him. The area around his eyes bled into black. “Remove this darkness from me… this evil… and I will give you this item you value so much.”

  The angel lifted his head and pinned cold, empty eyes on him. The black around them began to spread and grew up his arms at the same time, reaching beyond the edge of his black and violet vambraces.

  “I valued my life… my soul… and you destroyed it!” A blast of frigid cold shot out from Nevar and crashed into Asmodeus and his power rose to meet it, shielding him from the full force of Nevar’s wrath.

  “I cannot undo what was done.” Asmodeus stepped towards him, losing all of his patience, unwilling to play anymore. He would take back the pentagram even if he had to kill Nevar in order to do it. Nevar had lost his mind, and the corruption in it wasn’t born of anything Asmodeus had done. “Only you can overcome it because all I did was give your natural feelings a push. I did not plant evil inside you. It was already there.”

  Nevar growled and attacked him, lashing out with one blade. Asmodeus blocked it with his own golden curved sword and shoved him backwards. He stumbled, found his footing and snarled at him.

  “You are lying!” Nevar closed his fingers over the pentagram. “I felt the evil enter me… placed there by you. You took something precious from me… and now I take something precious from you.”

  “No!” Asmodeus cried and lunged for Nevar at the same time as Veiron and Apollyon.

  Nevar grinned and crushed the pentagram in his blackened fist. Bright purple and red light burst from between his clenched fingers. Asmodeus tackled him to the ground. Veiron collided with Apollyon.

  Nevar laughed.

  Asmodeus roared and grabbed him by the throat with his left hand, pinning him to the black ground, and grappled with his fist with his other one, trying to prise open his fingers.

  Nevar opened them and fragments of Liora’s pentagram spilled out onto the basalt.

  “No,” Asmodeus breathed and throttled Nevar, using both hands to crush his throat, his heart demanding the angel’s life as recompense for what he had done to Liora. “Die… wretch… you will not live to see another day.”

  Apollyon grabbed him from behind, locking his arms under Asmodeus’s and over his shoulders, and pulled him off Nevar. Veiron caught Nevar’s arm and pulled him onto his feet. Nevar struggled and Veiron landed a hard blow on his jaw, knocking his head to one side.

  “Settle down,” Veiron growled, flashing red sharp teeth. Darkness encroached around his eyes. Asmodeus lashed out at Nevar with one leg, goading him, hoping to push Veiron into turning demonic and attacking him when he couldn’t.

  Nevar twisted violently in Veiron’s arm and bit down hard on his left biceps. Veiron grunted in pain and Nevar broke free. The white-haired angel sprinted towards the edge of the courtyard and Romulus and Remus went after him, chasing him down. Nevar’s black wings burst from his back and he launched himself over the edge. The hellhounds skidded to a halt, narrowly avoiding falling off the edge and dropping into the valley below.

  “Bastard,” Veiron muttered and pressed his hand to his arm. When he took it away, the wound had healed but the blood remained. “I’m going to kill him.”

  “Not if I get to him first,” Asmodeus snarled and broke free of Apollyon’s arms. He stumbled forwards, crashed onto his knees where Nevar had been, and carefully picked up the silver chain and every piece of the broken pentagram. He held them gently in his palm and looked up at Serenity as she stopped before him, concern shining in her hazel eyes. “Will it still work?”

  Serenity crouched before him and placed her hand over his, covering the pieces. She closed her eyes briefly and then opened them, fixing them on his, and solemnly shook her head.

  “The magic has been released. I am sorry.” She pressed their palms together and curled her fingers around to hold his hand, and he wasn’t sure what to do or how to respond. In the end, he closed his fingers over the back of her hand, taking the comfort she kindly offered him. “I can see how much it meant to you… how much Liora means to you.”

  Asmodeus lowered his eyes to their joined hands, his chest aching, and felt Apollyon’s gaze on him, watching him closely. There was suspicion in his twin’s feelings but also curiosity and a touch of what might have been concern.

  Part of Asmodeus demanded he go after Nevar and make him pay in blood for what he had done. The greater part of him, the one that ruled his heart, said to focus on Liora and retrieving her. Nevar could wait.

  This wasn’t like him. Before meeting Liora, he would have gone after Nevar, making the angel pay for disrespecting and disobeying him, just like his master. He would have killed Nevar on sight and taken the pentagram from his cold, dead fingers before the light of Heaven could reclaim him.

  Or at least held him and tortured him until he could no longer clutch the pentagram because he had no fingers in which to do so.

  Now, all he could think about was Liora.

  Asmodeus closed his eyes and held Serenity’s hand, wishing it were Liora’s delicate one warming his. He wanted her back. He needed to find her.

  “Where is she?” The tremulous note in Erin’s voice said that she already knew the answer to that question and didn’t like it.

  “He has her.” Asmodeus opened his eyes, released Serenity’s hand and got to his feet. He produced a small black leather pouch out of the air and carefully placed the pieces of Liora’s pentagram into it, saving them. He would find a way to recreate it for her, and would make it even more powerful this time. Indestructible. “He is holding her beneath the fortress, in a room of crystal.”

  “She is alive?” Apollyon moved forwards, coming around him. He held his hand out to Serenity, who slipped hers into it, and helped her to her feet.

  Asmodeus had expected his twin to erupt and attack him for taking Serenity from the island. The male seemed content with glaring at him. Because he had brought Nevar with him and Nevar had destroyed Liora’s pentagram, not only upsetting Asmodeus but upsetting Serenity too?

  It seemed that his twin wasn’t immune to errors of judgement and mistakes.

  That would have pleased Asmodeus once. Not now. Not while the Devil had Liora and it was his fault for letting her go off alone.

  “She is sleeping, but unharmed,” Serenity confirmed and Amelia and the others closed ranks, forming a tight group with him.

  Romulus and Remus returned to his side, and Remus wagged his tail as Erin rubbed him between his ears, deep in thought.

  “We have to get her back somehow,” Erin murmured and then looked around them, the irritated edge to her expression conveying her feelings. She was annoyed that the Devil had taken Liora and was holding her at the fortress.

  Apollyon looked equally displeased by the news, and Asmodeus knew why. Apollyon couldn’t fight the Devil without risking losing and therefore releasing him from his captivity, giving him free rein to roam the mortal world.

  “Erin,” Asmodeus started and then caught the black warning look that Veiron tossed his way like a deadly blade, point first. He understood the Hell’s angel’s concerns but he couldn’t do as he bid. He had to ask this of her. “If it were not important, I would not ask you this… but I need you to come with me. Only the Devil can access where he is holding Liora.”

  She smiled brightly and flicked her short black fringe from her eyes. “Then it won’t be a problem. Consider me your skeleton key.”

  “No,” Veiron snapped and grabbed her right forearm and she laid her hand over his. “I will not let you do this.”

  “You seem to be forgetting who the master is in this relationship.” She stroked his hand and looked up at him, meeting his glowering gaze. “And I’m forgetting who the man is… come with me then. I
’ll be safe if you’re around to scare away the big bad demons and my father.”

  He didn’t look convinced. Asmodeus concluded that flattery did not get you everywhere.

  “She is my only way in,” Asmodeus said and Veiron shifted his crimson-edged black eyes to him. Fire burned like a corona around his pupils.

  “She is our only way in.” Apollyon stepped forwards and Serenity smiled and took hold of his hand. “If we do this, we do it together. No matter the risks or the consequences.”

  Asmodeus looked down at Erin’s belly and ignored the voice that warned him not to speak the words forming in his head because everyone would think him weak if he did.

  Good.

  Not evil.

  “Veiron.” He waited for the scarlet-haired male’s eyes to come back to him before he continued. “If it turns dangerous, you are to take Erin away. The moment we are in, you are to leave with her.”

  “We’ll leave together.” Veiron wrapped his left arm around Erin’s slender shoulders and squeezed gently. “But if shit goes south, I’ll get her away from there, kicking and screaming if it goes down that way.”

  “It wouldn’t be the first time.” Erin smiled up at him and then looked around at the others. “We’re all in agreement on this then?”

  Apollyon still looked wary.

  “If you think about engaging him, I will take you down myself,” Asmodeus said, shutting out the glares and angry words the others threw his way.

  Apollyon held his hand up to silence them and then nodded. “I will leave him to you.”

  Asmodeus wasn’t sure what to say in response to that. It was unlike Apollyon to show him any support or shred of positive feelings, and he had certainly never trusted Asmodeus.

  He eyed him warily and nodded, part of him convinced that the angel was plotting his demise at the hands of his master and that was the only reason he had agreed to let him handle the Devil.

  “We need a distraction.” Asmodeus looked around at everyone, expecting them to throw him to the lions when he wanted to be the one to save Liora, not give them the chance to be her saviour.