Araton

by Brenda Trim

  It was a sobering moment, but it didn’t stop Araton’s cock from jerking inside his pants. “I’m not sure what came over me. I have never lost sight of a task as I did just now. I shouldn’t have done that, but I can’t bring myself to be sorry. You are the sexiest female I’ve ever met.” His announcement made her cheeks flush as she glanced away.

  “We will continue this later,” she promised. “Seeing as sex is clearly on the table for angels. I wasn’t sure.”

  “My brother Abraxos invented sex,” Araton teased. “Angels are definitely big fans of the act. Although, my brothers would say I live to fight. That I’m impulsive and act without thinking.”

  “I look forward to seeing exactly how impulsive you can be…wait. There’s movement. We will pick this up later,” she promised.

  It took a ton of effort to keep his mouth from hers and his hands to himself. She drove him to the edge with need. When she headed to the back entrance, Araton followed. He kept his wings hidden and stayed far enough back that he wouldn’t interfere with her job. He enjoyed watching her move silently through the night in her black uniform.

  When she took off running, he initially increased his pace, but stopped when he didn’t sense any malignant energy in the area. This was her job. A shout had him moving again. After several steps, the pop of a gun made him teleport.

  When he reappeared in the courtyard in the middle of the businesses, he froze at the sight in front of him. Natalia was standing over the prone figure of a human male that was bleeding from a gunshot wound.

  “What the fuck happened?” He demanded.

  The look on her face when she glanced up at him was filled with horror and indifference. “He tried to run then pulled a weapon on me. I need to call this in.”

  A knot filled Araton’s gut with dread. This wasn’t Natalia. He didn’t know her very well, but something assured him this wasn’t how she would normally react. The question was what the cause of the dissonance was. And he didn’t see any weapons near the body.

  Natalia pressed the radio on her shoulder and called the incident in to her fellow cops and asked for emergency medical assistance. Araton thought that was a waste of time. The human was dead. And she had killed him.

  “You do know your bullet killed him, right?”

  Lia turned rapidly and glared at him. “Would you have rather allowed him to plunge that blade into my heart?” She growled the words and pointed to a silver glint he’d missed earlier.

  Relief was sweet when it hit. The knife had fallen under the guy. He’d begun to believe she was starting to turn. “No. I wasn’t sure if you should let whoever is on the other end of that radio know.”

  Shaking her head, sirens started blaring in the distance. “They will make the call. Not me. A ton of cops and medical personnel will be arriving any moment. There’s always a chance they can save him. But you need to disappear,” she told him.

  He cupped her cheek and looked into her eyes. “I’ll be right here. We have unfinished business.”

  Lia licked her lips, but her name being called out by responding officers interrupted the moment. Araton made himself invisible and wished he could ignore the fact that he heard her mutter under her breath. “He was going to kill me, right? There was nothing else I could do.”

  Once again Araton’s blood went cold. It seemed Lia wasn’t as confident as she portrayed. He was going to have to keep an eye on her.

  Chapter 10

  Lia ran a hand through her hair. She’d taken her ponytail down after returning to the station to deal with the aftermath of the shooting. She was exhausted and ready to sleep. And, looked like death warmed over. That could be the large bruise still on her cheek from the other night. Angel blood healed the worst of her injuries, but it hadn’t gotten rid of that entirely.

  “So, the perp came at you with his weapon raised above his head and you reacted to save your life,” her Chief clarified as he read through her statement. “I shouldn’t be surprised by the increase in violence. With this virus spreading faster than the doctors can deal with, everyone is on edge. Even my cops are trigger happy.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Lia snapped at Chief Williams.

  Williams lifted his head and stared at her with narrow eyes. Anger bubbled just below the surface. First Araton questioned her actions and now her boss was. What did they want? For her to allow herself to be killed?! She reacted precisely like she was trained.

  “I suggest you watch your tone. I know you’re under stress and losing Turner has impacted you greatly. You were partners for lack of a better term. If you need to go home and get more rest, I will take you off the rest of your shift. I don’t need IA up my ass because I had officers on duty that shouldn’t have been there,” her Chief told her.

  It took more effort that she cared to admit to keep herself from raising her voice with Williams again. Several deep breaths later, she uncurled her fists and placed her palms on her thighs.

  “I’m good. Tired yes, but nothing that’s impeding my performance. I just need a cup of coffee and I’m good to go.”

  Williams lifted an eyebrow and stood up, signaling to her their meeting was done. “Don’t be a martyr and overwork yourself. It will do you no good if you start making stupid mistakes. Only more paperwork.”

  “Yes sir,” she replied with a forced smile. Lia walked to her desk and grabbed her tumbler and filled it with coffee then headed out the door. She hadn’t been in her car for two minutes when she was called to a body that was found in a warehouse nearby.

  Her heart started racing in her chest as she flipped her siren and lights on. Slowing as she approached the red light, she blasted through a second later when she was sure the coast was clear.

  It had been months since she’d been called to a death in the business district. It was impossible not to wonder if it was the demons killing more people. Not that she’d been called to one scene involving the supernatural all night.

  Now that she knew about their existence it was impossible to think about anything else. Especially after she’d been kissed by an angel. Araton was impulsive and took her by surprise with his kiss. Her lips still tingled from it, and her body ached for more.

  A full body shiver made her feel like she was having a seizure the moment she turned down the street leading to the scene. Her mind screamed evil. If there were dead bodies, there was no doubt of something malicious at play. Even if it was just a matter of some homeless dying alone in a location they’d snuck into, it still qualified as cruel. Society should do better by its people. With that thought in mind she shut her sirens and lights off.

  Lia contemplated calling for backup and decided on Araton rather than her fellow men in blue. She’d gone in after she’d input his digits and added the angel emoji. It made her chuckle to see the cute little figure. The real angel was so very different from the smiling peaceful image.

  “What’s wrong?” Araton barked into the phone after she pressed the icon for his number.

  “There are so many ways I can answer that. But right now, I need you and your brothers at a warehouse on the east side. There are reports of at least one dead body and when I turned onto the street, I nearly crashed from the sensation of being suffocated,” she admitted as she pulled to the curb in front of the location.

  “A human should not be able to feel the presence of evil,” Araton informed her.

  “Thanks, Captain Obvious. I wasn’t aware that this was a new and frightening sensation for me to have. I blame you for this by the way. With your angel blood running through my veins God only knows what I will feel next,” she snarked and scanned the front of the building.

  The place looked desolate and empty. She doubted it was used at all at the moment. The weeds growing up through cracks in the parking lot and the dirt covered window on the side attested to that.

  “For your sake I hope you have my essence inside you deeper than those shadows.” His comment was muttered low, making her wonder if he wasn’t r
eally speaking to her. Either way she ignored it. It was too tempting to reply with a double entendre.

  “I don’t see a sign of activity anywhere in the vicinity. Whoever called isn’t here anymore, either,” she told him as she got out of the car.

  “That doesn’t mean much. The demons and skirm could be inside. Stay on alert. We will be there soon.” The sound of wings flapping told her he was flying as he spoke to her. How the heck did he manage to hold a conversation on his cell while flying?

  “Okaaa…aah,” she shouted when something hit the concrete next to her. Gun in hand, she had it poised to shoot while she turned to the side. “Fucking hell!” She screamed.

  Araton lifted his head. The look on his face spoke of his thousands of years killing demons. It might have been the way his massive red wings extended out to the sides of his body. Or perhaps the flaming sword in his hand. It was the look of death on his face coupled with the wings and flaming sword, she decided.

  Ayil and Abraxos landed a second later. “You enjoy taunting the human,” Ayil told his brother. Lia couldn’t tell if it was a recrimination or not.

  Araton leveled a look at his brother. “Feel that? It’s almost as strong as it was at that house the other night.”

  Abraxos who she thought of spending more time flirting was hyper-focused at the moment as he scanned the area. She sensed something the second she turned down the street, but it hadn’t gotten any worse. In fact, she barely sensed anything now that she thought about it more.

  Araton’s warning about the evil energy seeping into her pores and changing her made her swallow bile. She wasn’t turning, was she? The way he’d looked at her after shooting the guy behind the store flashed through her mind.

  She wasn’t about to try and talk to a perp that was threatening her with a knife. Sure, she had a gun. But that didn’t mean his weapon wasn’t potentially lethal. Her actions were warranted. The look on the guy’s face told her he was going to kill her.

  “Demons,” Ayil and Abraxos said at the same time. “I’m calling Dante and Zander. The Dark Warriors can help deal with this scene,” Ayil added.

  Lia stepped forward and held up her hand. “Now, wait just a minute. We don’t even know what we are walking into. My Chief will send backup if I don’t report to him soon. Everyone knows I accepted a call here about a dead body. You can’t make it disappear.”

  Araton shook his head. “We have no time for this shit. Demons could be getting away as we stand here and debate how this will be handled. I am going in.”

  Natalia ran after him when he moved to the entrance at a fast clip. “You can’t just ignore me.”

  “You understand this is a matter of life and death, right? Shit won’t stay calm for long where demons are involved. You should have learned that lesson,” Araton called out to her as he continued without pausing.

  They were close to the entrance and Lia was forced to lower her voice. “I get what’s at stake here. You forget I’m the breakable one. I almost died once at the hands of demons. You’re immortal and can’t die.”

  Araton stepped close to her body with tension making him stand stiffly. “You will not be harmed on my watch. And, I can be killed. It’s very difficult to manage, but no being is unkillable.”

  The fierce expression on his face told Lia he meant every word he said. She wasn’t sure how that made her feel. She was used to taking care of herself. The guys she’d dated had never done much beyond dinner for her, and here was this sexy angel promising to make sure she wasn’t hurt.

  You’re not dating him, Lia. Get your head on straight, woman. Grateful that she reminded herself of pertinent facts here, she focused on what she actually had an issue with. “All I’m asking is that we don’t erase everything. I need to be able to call in detectives and the CSI team if they are called for.”

  Araton nodded and turned to enter the building. Ayil was hovering near a window high up on the building. He made some hand signals down to Araton and Abraxos. She had no idea what they were trying to say, but apparently it was the all clear because the angels had the door open and were through it before she knew it.

  The scent of blood and rot blasted her in the face. Initially she couldn’t see where the smell was coming from. It was too dark inside the warehouse. Her vision cleared in stages. First, she saw tall shelving units along the far wall. There seemed to be boxes stacked on some shelves. She withdrew her flashlight and shone it around the area, but the beam didn’t reach very far.

  Next, she noticed Araton and his brothers standing back to back as they scanned the area. Her light exposed debris on the floor. Mostly trash and a few metal parts. As her head moved around the space, she noticed there were stairs in one corner leading up to what looked like an office. The door was hanging precariously, and the windows were broken leaving only shards in the bottom of the frame.

  When she glanced back at her angel, she saw what was at his feet and bile started rising like the tide up her throat. It didn’t take much to figure out what the wet substance was on the floor. The lumps had a distinct human look to them. That was an arm, she thought.

  As she moved closer, she realized it was actually a leg. A torso with a pentagram carved into the flesh was tossed next to it. A noise behind her made her jump toward the brothers.

  Araton and Ayil were in motion before she moved an inch. They flew in opposite directions while Abraxos stayed close. Snarling in Araton’s direction sounded loud throughout the mostly empty building. The area was one massive room with remnants of machinery to one side and the shelving on the other. There might be a separate area in the back where Ayil had headed, but she couldn’t tell.

  She rolled her ankle when she stepped on something soft as she moved away from the violent noises. Red-orange flames swiveled through the air as Araton flew up a few feet in the distance. Something black and dog shaped leaped after him. The flaming sword slashed at the same moment and a loud screech was cut short when the demon died.

  Able to look away after the body fell to the ground below Araton, Lia looked down and confirmed her suspicion she’d stepped on a limb. This time it was an arm. The beam of her light seemed to be glued to the gruesome sight.

  She took a step away from what seemed to be a pile of bodies and pointed her beam around the shelves in front of her. “Are there anymore here?” Abraxos called out behind her.

  She’d assumed they were going for quiet but realized how ridiculous that was given the noise now coming from Ayil’s direction. “Not in this direction,” Araton replied and landed beside her a second later.

  “Do you need help, brother?” Araton shouted to Ayil.

  “Fuck off,” came the grunted response.

  “What happened here?” She asked as she illuminated more of the area around them. Blood splattered on crumpled boxes and metal shelves. There was a large puddle about three feet from where the bodies were piled.

  She wondered at the dismemberment. Typically, a body was cut up for easier disposal. It was harder to identify remains if you couldn’t find all the pieces. During the academy she’d learned about the few serial killers that ate their victims. Seeing the pieces laid out above the bloody pentagram told her why it was done in this warehouse.

  “Another fucking ritual to call Lucifer,” Araton spat.

  “Did they succeed?” Lia blurted, suddenly very worried about having the Devil himself traipsing around her city.

  “They might have,” said a familiar voice with a heavy Scottish accent. The Vampire King came into view a second later. Dante, the Cambion Lord and his daughter were next to him.

  “Word on the street is that Lucifer is possessing a human somewhere in the Quarter,” Dante added as they all stopped a few feet away.

  Izzy scanned the ground and swallowed thickly then met Lia’s gaze long enough for her to see the Princess wasn’t as hardened as Natalia originally believed. The horror was undeniable, regardless of how much anyone had seen.

  What happened to these innocent
people was abhorrent and she wanted to make sure no one else was harmed by these vile fucking demons. “How do we find out if he’s out there killing in my city?” She demanded.

  Araton lifted his wings as he walked toward the pentagram. “Before we get to that. We need to clear the worst of the scene but leave a body so Natalia can call in her colleagues. Humans were called here. There’s no need to have you guys try to erase all traces from the police databases.”

  Lia glanced at her angel grateful he’d thought of what she needed to do here. The body parts and blood coupled with the smell would draw media attention and become national news even in the current climate. It would cause even more panic in her city.

  Dante glanced around and pulled his phone from his back pocket. “I’ve called Aison and the others here to help deal with this. I will check with more of my contacts to the Underworld. It’s possible archdemons are spreading lies to keep other, lower level demons in line. Shit has been chaotic since Crocell went off the path.”

  “Och, that bitch needs to leave our kids alone,” Zander cursed. “You might be right about the rumor being false. Lucifer being on Earth is likely the only thing that will get through to her. No’ that it will help. Lucifer will be far worse than having to keep her from taking our kids.”

  Lia had no idea what the Vampire King was talking about. She’d care that some crazy demon was hunting children, but he was right. If Lucifer was here that needed to be dealt with and fast.

  “I don’t think he will be able to maintain possession,” Araton cut in. “He is bound to the Underworld. That will pull him back sooner rather than later.”

  “But he could find a way to break that bond before being pulled back,” Abraxos added.

  “You try and find more information, Dante. Let’s comb through the…bodies here. We might be able to find clues as to who walked away from this massacre,” Lia told them, refocusing the conversation.