I stared at her. “I could help—”
Aphrodite held up a hand, quieting me. “No. Your involvement, at the wrong time, would only tip the scales the wrong way. With you shining in his sight, he would continue down his path of denial.”
I nodded in understanding. “He would avoid his inner pain in favor of me.”
Aphrodite nodded. “Not because he is a coward, but because he does not know he is at war. He does not even know he has been at war—for years, now. That he was lied to,” she growled, clenching her fist. “And you are the desirable young nurse fixing up his wounds—a dangerous distraction when his life has been a battlefield of lost friends, pain, and betrayal. He seeks you out to maintain his sanity, not knowing that you are merely his doom. No disrespect intended, of course. He is equally your doom,” she reminded me with a small smile.
That sounded like Nate. Focusing so much on keeping everyone else safe that he overlooked his own problems. As arrogant as he was, he was alarmingly altruistic. I realized I was smiling. “I need a Kansas City Nate.”
Aphrodite shook her head firmly. “No. Never need. Love is not need. That is desperation.”
I considered her words, surprised at her sudden vehemence, but understanding what she meant. “I desire someone at my side who is not divided. But I don’t want a sycophant to grovel at my feet. I want someone to stand beside me, not below or behind me. Someone as commanding as Nate. A man willing to shove me back when I make a mistake and hold me accountable for it. A man who values my city as much as me.”
Ryuu, I thought to myself with a faint blush.
Aphrodite nodded knowingly, as if sensing my thoughts on Ryuu. “Yes, Callie Penrose. I hope that you one day find such a person. There is no guarantee, of course, although I think you are in luck,” she said cryptically. I wondered if she had the answer and was prevented from telling me. That the act of hearing his name from her lips would kill some of the magic in discovering his name for myself. Which made sense. Was it…Ryuu? My heart fluttered nervously at the thought. Aphrodite noticed my suspicious gaze and shook her head. “I will say no more. When I want to, I can clam up so tight that no one may enter.” She shot me a wry look. “And no, the irony is not lost on me. The goddess of sex can be just as closed off as she is opened wide.”
I burst out laughing.
Aphrodite abruptly stiffened, and her eyes darted to the far wall. Then her gaze shot to my weapons belt. “Is that sword the only weapon you have on you, child?” she asked nervously.
I jumped to my feet at her tone, following her gaze. “Yes. Why?”
“Because something very terrible is about to happen,” she said softly. “Right outside.” She pointed at the wall. “I can sense the raw hatred. It is the exact opposite of me,” she whispered. “A demon. A very, very powerful demon,” she said, slowly rising to her feet.
I strapped on my weapons belt and rested my hand on the hilt of my katana. My heart pounded in my chest, knowing that the demon wasn’t here for her. One of the Seven Sins was here. For me.
Where are you, Ryuu? I thought to myself. I could really use the Angel Killer right now.
“No, Aphrodite. I will handle this myself.”
She turned to me with a confused frown. “By yourself?”
“Someone needs to go save Nate Temple,” I said with a smile, not wanting to draw her into my problems. It sounded like she had enough on her own plate—even without Nate. “I’ve got this.”
Aphrodite studied me appraisingly. Finally, she nodded. “He is not here for me, is he?” she asked.
I shook my head. “No. He is here for me.”
Aphrodite nodded slowly, staring down at my ring. “I think the world might not be ready for you, Miss Penrose,” she said. “You are no Catalyst, but perhaps you are something equally dangerous. We could do great and terrible things together, I think.”
I studied her, trying to read the look in her eyes, but they were strongly defended.
“Give Alfred a squeeze for me,” I said. She choked on her laughter. “My city is calling me.”
I turned to walk towards the front door and meet the demon but had one last wish for Aphrodite. “And good luck with your love life,” I said, smirking back at her.
She nodded. “You as well, child. You as well.”
As I left down the hall, I thought I heard her murmuring to herself.
“Great and terrible things…”
27
I stepped out onto the street, checking over my shoulders for ye old sucker punch ploy. Demons weren’t the only guys hunting me on these streets. The nephilim wouldn’t be far behind—either hunting me or the demons, and they would kill whichever of us they found first.
But the streets were empty, and my boots did not tingle in the slightest. I angled them towards the alley leading around to the back of Darling and Dear’s shop, and the tingling sensation started. “Of course it’s an alley fight,” I muttered, imagining the scene from Anchorman—just with less LOL’s. If the nephilim showed up, it really would wind up like that insane brawl.
Although foreboding, a discreet, out of public view fight was better than one in the middle of the street in broad daylight. Part of me considered leaving and returning with backup, but what if the demon wreaked havoc in my brief absence? He most certainly would if he felt me leave. He had come here for me, after all.
I made my way into the shadowy alley, silently appreciating the craftsmanship of Aphrodite’s gift. The armored fabric stretched with each step, yet it still managed to hug me tightly, reassuringly. Had Hephaestus made it? He was the blacksmith god for the Olympians, and I couldn’t think of anywhere else Aphrodite might have gotten it. I realized that Aphrodite had helped me in other ways. My shoulders felt more relaxed and my heart felt lighter after our talk about love.
I would always love Nate, just not in the way either of us had thought. And knowing that it was actually the best solution for the both of us—not just me—I felt downright amazing. Like I could hover over the ground rather than walk. That dark cloud of guilt and anger had hung over my head for far too long.
Today was a new day.
I took a measured breath, focusing on the danger ahead as I flexed my toes inside my tingling boots. A very powerful demon, Aphrodite had said. It had to be one of the Seven. Given that the entire block wasn’t on fire and no one was screaming, I presumed he wanted to talk. I thought about all the buildings around us—most of them commercial retail—and wondered how many people slept in the lofts above. At least it was Sunday and early enough in the morning for very few stores to be open for business.
Perfect time for me to have a date with a demon—while a large number of innocents were safe at church.
Maybe I could lead the demon out of the city entirely. I could Shadow Walk him from this area, at least, since it had so much potential for collateral damage. Maybe go to a warehouse area since they didn’t typically work on Sundays.
Due to recent events, it was no longer so unbelievable to the residents of Kansas City that monsters existed. The majority still doubted, of course, but too many had seen the vampires taking over the city, walling it off from outsiders with a glowing red dome in the sky. Those people did not buy the flowery reassurances given by the politicians and news pundits on the evening news.
People were scared. A lot of them. Enough to draw national attention, perhaps. We were rapidly approaching the day when monsters and magic would no longer be a secret. The epicenter of that awareness would be either Kansas City or St. Louis.
And, unfortunately, fear only served to attract demons. I gritted my teeth, frustrated. How had the Seven Sins managed to enter my city with none the wiser? Who was helping them? If Darling and Dear had no answers, the only other person I could think to ask was Dorian Gray, and that was an exercise in boundaries.
Maybe my date would give me the answer. The homeless population had nominated this dark alley as a premium latrine, so it smelled sharply of ammonia and death.
Dumpsters overflowed, disgorging their contents onto the wet pavement, adding to the stench. I hesitated before an intersection where the alley split to the left and right, forcing me to choose.
“Hello? I’m just a scared little girl walking down an alley,” I called out in an overly frightened tone in hopes that it would draw my prey out. My fingers drummed on the hilt of my katana as I waited.
To the left, I heard a commotion from deeper within the warren of intersecting alleys. I rounded the corner with my blade raised, ready for an immediate attack. Instead, I saw a familiar man leaning against the brick wall. I narrowed my eyes suspiciously, ignoring the alarm bells suddenly ringing in my head.
Legion puffed on a pipe, emitting a pleasant-smelling cloud of dark gray smoke that lessened the stench of decay. He pointed at the fork in the intersection. “Seemed too obvious to stand there,” he said, smiling.
I grunted. “Of course. Crossroads—”
I cut off abruptly, noticing three dead ninjas crucified to the wall about ten feet past the demon. I didn’t recognize any of their faces, but I was sure I had crossed paths with them a few times at Xuanwu’s home. They hardly spoke and were always bowing reverently when I approached. They liked me—I knew that much—but they were a tight, close-knit group, and it would take time for me to get into their circle.
Still…they were my people. I clenched my jaw and lifted my blade. My magic crackled within me, seeming to purr just beneath my skin, anxious to be let out. In fact, it was more of an effort to contain it than it was to call it up. Aala’s work on my chakras had brought my magic so close to the surface that I felt like a quick draw gunman, the fastest spell-slinger in the Midwest.
I glared at the crossroads demon. “You will pay for that, Legion,” I promised.
He gestured with his pipe towards the three crucified ninjas, leaving a trail of smoke so dark that it almost looked blue. “That wasn’t us. We’re desk-demons,” he said, indicating his suit and pointedly not looking towards the corpses—as if he might successfully will them away by doing so. I’d almost forgotten about his use of the plural. I kept my eyes sharp in case he chose to turn into a dozen replicas and demonpile me. “Remember, you asked for this,” he said gently. “Unless you’re willing to sign?” he asked, almost sounding hopeful as he nudged a suitcase sitting on the pavement. “We brought a fresh copy with the changes you requested.”
I shook my head. “No. I am not signing. We agreed on one week. I have a few days left.”
He nodded morosely. “Time is not the only thing you asked me for, White Rose,” he said, jerking his chin past the dead bodies and further into the alleys. “Proceed at your own peril.” He took a deep puff from his cigar and then exhaled it in a long streamer of dark smoke. I jumped back a step as his actual body faded into smoke and then merged with the cigar’s dark cloud. Within seconds, it had dissipated, leaving me alone.
I stared at the dark alley, seriously reconsidering further exploration. Not out of fear of danger, but at the prospect that Legion’s boss was ahead—the demon who wanted to marry me. After my conversation with Aphrodite—my revelation about my heart—the irony of meeting an archdemon who wanted to force me into marriage hit me deeply. It was revolting and frightening and…entirely unfair. Aphrodite had helped teach me what my heart truly desired, and now my choice was to abandon that chance at happiness or risk my city being destroyed.
“Then you’ll just have to kill him, White Rose,” I told myself out loud—my own private cheer squad.
I forced myself to press on, murmuring a silent prayer as I passed the dead ninjas and the pool of blood beneath their bodies, which had collected into one large mass that was slowly creeping across the pavement. I felt a faint resistance in the air as I passed the ninjas, like I had stepped into a steam room. Then it was abruptly gone. I reached out to my magic and was relieved to find that it still worked. So, it hadn’t been a ward. I didn’t bother masking the sound of my steps—Legion had already made me, so stealth was off the table. And…stealth hadn’t saved the ninjas. But why had they even been here? Had Ryuu sent them to guard over me while he finished chopping wood?
Right now, the why didn’t matter. They were dead either way. I wanted the demon to hear me approach. To hear the sound of his own death coming. Legion had said I’d asked for something more. Was he talking about a traditional proposal? Was I going to find a kneeling demon up ahead, holding out a sulfur diamond?
It was almost laughable.
I hoped that my swim with Aala had washed off any potential archangel stink. If not, it was possible that I had lured the demon out of hiding, leading him directly to the leather shop. Yet Legion was already a customer of Darling and Dear. Had…the kinky leathersmiths sold me out?
After several more turns, I stepped into a wider convergence of alleys that formed a hub large enough for delivery trucks to turn around. A small loading area branched off from the alley, leading to a brick wall with a single door—the back of Darling and Dear’s shop. Luckily, the alley was long and curved, so it was concealed from the main streets on either end. As long as no trucks entered, we could fight without anyone seeing us.
The space was utterly empty. No groom waiting to profess his undying love, and no more dead ninjas. I made a slow circle, leading with my katana. “What is this?” I murmured, my boots still tingling—in every direction.
As if summoned by my question, six demons suddenly appeared out of thin air from the alley to my right. They were taller than me, and about as stereotypical as you could imagine—red-skinned with horns and hooves like goats. In fact, they looked like half-assed cosplayers. They even had black, single-handed pitchforks and their scaly tails had those little leaf shapes on the ends. Except they were ridiculously chiseled, as if their favorite place in Hell had been the prison yard.
And their eyes were entirely red. I stared at them in mild disappointment. “Really? Horns and everything?” I asked, tapping my temples—where they each sported a pair of horns. They could have been cardboard cutouts of one another. They hissed, revealing black, pointy teeth.
A sound to my left made me glance down the opposite end of the alley to see another gang of six identical demons.
A dozen demons. Against one Callie.
The air now positively reeked of sulfur. It was time to put Aphrodite’s armor to the test and answer the age-old question—did wearing protection halt the spread of HTD’s—Hell-Transmitted Diseases.
On that note, I absently patted a pocket on my weapons belt to check the two rings I had been carrying around. They had not tingled or given off any magical sensation in response to the demons like they had with Michael. Were they only for angels? My boots were working perfectly fine, though, so I dismissed them from my mind.
“Which one of you assholes killed the three ninjas back there?” I growled, pointing behind me.
One of them sneered and pointed over my shoulder. I spun to see six more demontuplets lurking only ten feet away from me. I tried to keep all three of the squads in my sights as I slowly spun in a continuous rotation. The demon who had pointed out the six new arrivals thumped his chest proudly. “We killed three as well,” he rasped, pointing his trident behind him. A demon from the last gang said something similar, pointing over his own shoulder. “It’s how we set the ward and trap. None may cross it, so don’t even consider fleeing, little human,” he sneered.
Not three ninjas. Nine ninjas had been murdered and put on display.
Not twelve demons. Eighteen demons had forked up and come out to play.
As proposals went, Legion’s boss could have used some pointers for my very special day.
Then again…it wasn’t all that bad.
I smirked back wolfishly, feeling a rush of adrenaline hit my bloodstream. Despite the sudden boost of endorphins, I was raging on the inside. These demons had set a trap for me. They thought to ensnare me, and they had used Ryuu’s men to do it. Ryuu was going to be livid. He wouldn’t show it, but he would fe
el it in his heart and soul. Out loud, he would say something brave about the fallen ninjas all knowing what they had signed up for. But I didn’t agree with Ryuu on that.
They’d signed up to keep my city safe, not to die and then be put on display in a macabre demon ritual.
As an extension of Ryuu’s will, I would make sure the ninjas hadn’t died in vain. I would avenge them and teach the demons a lesson—don’t fuck with the shinobi or the White Rose. Since the demons had outnumbered the shinobi two-to-one, I considered the idea of killing each demon twice in memory of Ryuu’s men—to set a precedent. After I killed them with magic, I could manually go around and behead them all as a symbolic gesture—like a cat leaving a dead bird on your doorstep. Maybe it would show Ryuu how much I cared about him.
Lone swordsmen didn’t last long against almost twenty-to-one odds, so I’d have to use magic to prevent them from swarming me all at once.
I studied the two demons who had spoken up. “You two die last, so you can tell me how to nullify this supposed ward. You’re welcome. I’ll give you a minute to say your goodbyes,” I said, lowering my katana.
They sneered at me, clenching their pitchforks tighter. Then they rushed me simultaneously, craving a little Callie sandwich. Time to teach them what happened when you tried to eat your food to fast.
But first, a tribute.
“The Redgoats are coming! The Redgoats are coming!”
28
I opened myself up to my magic, allowing it to do more than just rest beneath the surface of my skin. I screamed in delight at the euphoria that instantly hummed throughout my body. My soul ignited with magic much faster than ever before, and power rushed out of me like I’d taken the kink out of a kinky garden hose.
It wasn’t my proudest metaphor. Or was it a simile? I could never remember the difference.
Anghellic: Feathers and Fire Book 8 Page 16
