by Lexi Blake
“The Hell plane isn’t some city,” Felicity countered. “It’s actually quite large and the population is spread out. There isn’t a demon on every corner. I assure you it will work on the Hell plane. But not if you’re close to her.”
Daniel shook his head. “You can take your amulet and shove it up your ass. Let’s go, Z.”
He took my hand, and I was willing to let him because like I said earlier, alone gets you killed in the regular world, much less on the Hell plane. I cared deeply for Sarah, but I wouldn’t be much help to her when I got caught trying to navigate Hell with a magical compass.
“It will work around the faery.” Felicity’s words echoed through the church.
Daniel kept walking, but I stopped. I turned and ignored Daniel’s muttered curse. “It’ll work if I’m with Dev?”
“Devinshea Quinn is pure enough for the Revelation to work.” She looked almost sad, like she hadn’t wanted to reveal that piece of information. I had a feeling Dev was her last resort. She would have preferred I’d gone alone.
“Again, I’m not understanding the definition of pure,” Neil said, shaking his head in confusion.
“Why Dev?” I didn’t understand her version of pure either. Dev was absolutely the filthiest man I’d ever met, and I meant that in a very affectionate way.
She stepped forward. “You and Devinshea are closer to what the Revelation was meant to find than the others. The amulet will work, and Devinshea can be your guard. It is a solution that should satisfy your vampire.”
“You don’t understand my definition of satisfaction, lady,” Daniel shot back. “I told you it’s me or Neil. I don’t trust anyone else. I’m not sending her in there with some douchebag lothario who’ll get her killed because he has no idea what he’s doing. How is he supposed to help? If I need a fucking DJ, I’ll call Dev.”
“He would die for her,” Felicity said quietly.
“He still might,” Daniel swore.
Daniel was missing several points of the conversation due to his emotional outburst. I wished Dev hadn’t come up, but if he was the solution then I would deal with it. It was time to bring the conversation back to business. “How does the amulet find Felix?”
“The amulet will point the way to where Felix is.” Oliver stepped up. He seemed to be giving his sister time to recover. “The amulet is worn on a chain by a pure soul. When used properly, it will light the way to the one you wish to find.”
“But the one we wish to find is Sarah,” Neil pointed out.
Felicity nodded. “I believe she is with Felix. From our reports, she is housed in the same area.”
“What are you not telling me?” I asked because she was suddenly blank.
“I believe your friend is being used to torture my brother,” she said quietly.
My stomach took a dive. The thought of Sarah, who loved men and having fun and dying her hair silly colors, being twisted into something evil killed me. It had already taken longer than I planned. I was worried if I waited too long, what we found wouldn’t even resemble the girl we’d lost. I was running out of time and options.
“So Dev and I could use the amulet to find Felix, and Felix should lead us to Sarah.” If that was true, and I had no reason to believe this Felix was going to lead the way to the woman who was torturing him, I still had other things to deal with. “I still have problem number two.”
Problem number two was even worse than problem number one. If I was good enough to bust Sarah out of Hell, there was nothing I could do when Halfer found us, and he would find us. Her contract was iron clad. There was no clause that stated she could go free if her crazy-ass friend managed to bust her out. Halfer would simply show up and drag her back, and no one would try to stop him.
“I can take care of that,” Felicity said.
“Great, and how will you do that?” Demon contracts weren’t easily broken. They were almost never broken. It was far easier to find a creative way to fulfill the contract, but Sarah had already lost at that game.
“Trust me,” she said with a glowing smile. “I will see her redeemed if you bring our brother back to us.”
“Bullshit,” Daniel spat with a deep cynicism that had become a part of his core. “They’re cons, Z. They can’t redeem her. They’re playing us. It’s a simple setup. ‘Hey, we’ve got this magic amulet that will solve your problems but it won’t work if you keep your muscle around you.’ They’re trying to cut you off from your major resources. They’re trying to get you into Hell with only Dev as a backup. Now they claim they can break a contract? What does that sound like to you?”
I knew what it sounded like. It sounded too good to be true, and too good to be true usually went really bad.
“They’re working for Halfer,” Daniel reasoned. I was inclined to agree with him. If Halfer knew a weakness of mine, it was that I got impatient and was willing to try some crazy things. He also had a definite beef with me. “If he can catch you on the Hell plane, he has us right where he wants us. These two are nothing but cons, pure and simple.”
“You insect!” Oliver shouted, his fair face turning red with rage. “How dare you? I could extinguish you with a thought, yet you insult me?”
I rolled my eyes because Danny’s beast was already close to the surface, and Oliver was waving that red flag. Daniel’s fangs had popped out, and his hands were twitching like he needed to wrap them around something. His eyes were already bleeding blue.
“You should start thinking then, asshole,” he growled, but held his position.
Oliver squared off like he was ready to go ten rounds with Daniel. “Do you understand how it pains me to stand in the same space with you, nightcrawler?”
I got close to Danny. Felicity took up the same position next to her brother. Oliver might talk a good game, but I was betting Daniel was meaner, and he’d been itching for a fight since I walked in the door earlier tonight.
“Oliver, please,” she begged.
But Oliver plunged on. His eyes seemed to darken, proof he wasn’t human. “You disgust me. All of you. If it were up to me, I’d send you to the Hell plane myself. You belong there, you perverted animal.” That was said to Neil, who shrugged because he really couldn’t care less what anyone thought of him. Oliver turned back to Daniel. “Blood sucking, junkie low life. You did not wish to be Halfer’s attack dog, but you are the Council’s assassin? How many innocents have you sent to their deaths, but you dare to stand before my glory?” He turned to me. I sighed because I’ve found, when running down a litany of sins, you usually save the best for last. “And you, you’re the worst. The blood that runs through your veins is pure, yet you whore yourself to the demon.”
That was when my gun made an appearance because I was betting this was just his opening salvo, and Daniel was about to blow. I eased the Ruger into my fist, clicking off the safety. I didn’t really care if Daniel killed Oliver Day, but later on he would feel bad about it, so I might have to put an end to this little battle.
Oliver didn’t seem impressed by my firearm. “You could be so much more, but no, you choose a life of crime. You steal from those weaker than you. You can’t even be faithful to your demon husband. You have to whore yourself to another man and your husband stands by. Does he know the things you’ve done with the faery? The things you never let him do to you?”
“Daniel,” I said, knowing as the word left my mouth I could do nothing to stop him.
Daniel closed in on the other man. He didn’t bother with a weapon. He wanted to feel the flesh tear and smell the blood run. Daniel roared as he reached his target, the sound visceral and all encompassing. I nearly closed my eyes because I didn’t want to watch as he killed my only path to success.
Then, just as he was about to tear Oliver Day apart, he went flying backward, hard and fast. I watched helplessly as his body flew past me. He was flung across the sanctuary and smashed into the wall, the wood giving way and cracking under the force of his impact.
“You want t
o know what I am?” Oliver asked as I started to back away, the gun in my hand forgotten.
I suddenly really didn’t want to know. I had an idea now, and it scared me more than any demon could, but Oliver was no longer playing with us. It was like the air in the room rushed to be around him as his wings unfurled. I had an awful glimpse of righteous wings and monstrous rage. Then there was nothing but the thought that I had to get to Daniel. The light was blinding, and it was starting to fill the church.
Here in this old structure, in the middle of the night, the dawn was coming for him.
Yes, this was the part I’d been waiting for. This was that moment of the evening when we started to run for our lives.
Chapter Five
Daniel was already trying to get to his feet when Neil and I started to sprint toward him. I could see blood running down his forehead, a stark red arrow shooting down his face. It was just sheer luck the wooden panels hadn’t pierced any important parts of him.
Neil was faster, but I did my damnedest to keep up. The light coming from the angel followed us like a tidal wave, threatening to crest. I ran faster to try to get to Daniel before that light did. I wasn’t sure the light wouldn’t hurt me, but I knew damn well it could kill him. Neil hit Daniel and knocked him to the ground where he should have stayed if he had any sense. Given the fact that Daniel had just angered an angel from the Heaven plane, I doubted he had any real sense at all.
I heard Felicity yelling at Oliver to stop, but it didn’t seem like he was in the mood to listen.
Neil rolled with Daniel, who finally seemed to understand the danger he was in and was willingly letting Neil maneuver him toward the relative safety of the pews. It didn’t offer a ton of cover, but we couldn’t make it out the door. I felt the minute that light hit my back. It didn’t hurt per se, but I was filled with it. It scared me more than anything I have felt before. That light was real and had mass and motion. I closed my eyes because they didn’t seem to work anymore and leapt toward Daniel and Neil.
“To your left, Zoey,” Neil screamed because a loud hum had filled the room until it was bursting with the sound.
I twisted as hard as I could to my left and hit Daniel’s big body with a thud. From here, we had a little cover. I could see Neil as he tried to shield Daniel with as much of his body as he could. Though Neil was strong, he was small-framed and Daniel was not. Even as I tried to cover the parts Neil missed, I could feel my husband’s flesh charring, the smell sickening to me. Daniel gritted his teeth and shoved his head into my shoulder in an attempt to keep his eyes.
I covered his head with my hands. I’ve never held onto anything the way I held onto Daniel, but it wasn’t working. That light was finding its way into everything. I could feel him coming apart in my hands, his skin burning beneath me. His face was in my neck, and I had the horrible feeling that this was the way I would lose him. I would hold him so close to my heart, and he would fall apart until there was nothing but ashes in my hands. There was nothing I could do.
“Feed.” Neil looked over Daniel’s body into my eyes. I squinted, trying to see. “He needs to feed. His body will try to heal itself if he can feed!”
I pulled Daniel’s head away, alarmed at how weakly it fell back. Neil was right. It was our only shot. If we could just keep him alive through the onslaught, his body would heal eventually. “Danny, you have to feed. You have to feed now. Do you understand? No bullshit. Don’t you leave me like this.”
He let his head slump forward again, but I felt his fangs trying to find a good place to penetrate. With flawless accuracy, he found his sweet spot, and I felt him bite down. For the first time, it hurt. All I’d ever known from the feeding process was pleasure. The blood was entwined with sexual energy until the two didn’t exist without the other. When Daniel fed, we made love. It had never been different until tonight.
I winced against the pain but held him to me. Tears pricked my eyes, the pain was so bad, but I wouldn’t let go. He began to draw against the vein, his strength steadying. His hands tightened on my waist. His will was back and though his flesh continued to char, I knew he would make it. Me, that was another story. I was used to donating for the cause, but he was drawing heavily off me, and I couldn’t keep it up forever.
“Are you all right?” Neil shifted, covering Daniel’s burning arm. “I can pull him off. He won’t like it, but I can feed him, too.”
Neil was very sure of his physical strength, but I doubted he’d ever tried to get between a dying vampire and his companion. He had no idea what was going through Daniel’s mind as he drew the blood from my body into his. In these times, I wasn’t his friend. I wasn’t the girl he’d grown up with and loved and explored everything with. I was his. I was a possession, and he would allow no one to take what was his. He would surely kill Neil if he tried to move me. There would be no thought behind the act. Daniel would regret it later, but he was one large ball of primal instinct right now.
“No, I’m fine.” I forced myself to say the words even as I felt myself weakening.
And then just as quickly as that righteous light had flooded our world, it winked from existence.
Neil sprang up, giving us cover. Daniel took one last long drag from my neck, but this time it started to resemble something like pleasure. He was back in some semblance of control. He let his head fall back, his eyes rolling to the back of his head before he closed them. Even though his flesh was still burning in places, he looked blissful, like a man who’d had his first full meal after days of starvation. He reached up to touch me, but his hand fell back, exhausted.
Neil held a gun in his hand, one of Daniel’s. I’d never seen him with one before. I sat up and pulled Daniel’s head into my lap, smoothing back that sandy hair of his while he shook slightly. I tried not to think about the agony in my neck. I could feel the blood continuing to trickle out and knew when I looked in the mirror I wouldn’t see the twin delicate holes he left when he was careful.
“Look, bitch, I have no idea if this will do anything to you, but I am willing to try.” Neil’s voice was harder than I remembered it ever being. He held the gun properly, and I wondered if Daniel had trained him.
Felicity Day approached, her feet moving with caution. She looked very apologetic, and I did not give a shit.
“You stay away from him.” I pulled my own gun, hoping I wouldn’t have to hold it steady for too long. It wouldn’t do any good, anyway. I doubted an angel could be taken out with a bullet. I knew that, but my empty gesture made me feel better. I felt very vulnerable with a half dead vampire shaking in my lap and nothing but useless metal between me and that light.
“I do not mean him harm. I am so sorry Oliver did that. Please believe me. I didn’t come here to harm any of you.” Felicity held her hands out as if to prove she wasn’t armed. It didn’t make me feel better since apparently she could call the freaking sun to her defense.
“Then I’d hate to see it when you mean to do damage,” I muttered as Daniel tried to wrap himself around me. This was one of those times when I was everything to him. His higher brain stopped functioning as every cell of his body concentrated on healing what was burned. I smelled like home to Daniel. I smelled like healing and safety. He wrapped his arms around my waist, and I pulled him close.
Felicity took in the scene, and instead of disapproval, I saw a longing on her face as she watched us. “I’m truly sorry. If I had any idea my brother would react like that, I would never have allowed him to accompany me. You have to forgive him. It is his nature to be judgmental. He serves a particular function, and with Felix away, he has lost his balance.”
“I really don’t care about the whys or the wherefores, lady. I will not help you. You’ll have to find someone else.” And I would have to find another way because I wouldn’t put Daniel in that position again. Had I known what we were walking into, I wouldn’t have even taken the call.
“But there is no one else,” she said beseechingly. “It must be you.”
&
nbsp; “Too bad.” I had no sympathy for her. I could still smell Daniel’s charred flesh. The burns were trying to heal themselves, but I feared he was going to need more blood. He’d made himself vulnerable by cutting back on his intake. He would need to gorge himself if he wanted to heal. Felicity Day’s problems were no longer any concern of mine.
“I can help.” She took a tentative step forward.
My arm shaking, I raised my gun. “You touch him and I’ll find a way to kill you. I will be very clever, and I’ll make sure it hurts.”
“All right.” She backed away, her face a mask of worry. “I’ll contact you again. I’ll find another mediator. You won’t find anyone else who can help you as I can.”
“Don’t bother. I won’t take the call.”
“You will, Zoey,” she said with serene certainty now. It made me nervous, as if she had figured out something I hadn’t yet. “I’m the only one who will help you. I’m the only one who can answer your questions. You want to know what you are and why. I’m the only one who can make you understand.”
She turned and walked down the hall and, in a blink, she was gone. One minute her petite figure was walking away, and the next there was nothing.
I let loose a pent-up breath and stared down at Daniel. He was breathing, but it was a shallow thing, a shaky rattle of his chest. “We have to get him out of here.”
Neil clicked the safety on the gun and shoved it in his pocket. He walked over to us, his eyes searching the church for more trouble. “He needs a doctor, Z. He’s not the only one. You’re very pale. Your lips are almost blue.”
“I’m fine,” I assured him, the world around me swimming a little. “Just get Daniel to the car.”
Neil grunted as he lifted Daniel’s two twenty frame. He moved quickly and was back for me before I managed to get to my feet. My hands shook, a combination of blood loss and adrenaline.
“Stop there, sister.” Neil swept me up in his arms. “No more walking for you. Hey, those shoes held up nicely.”
