by Nour Zikra
My patience reaching its limit, I said, “I’m calling the cops.”
I threw eight bucks on the table to cover the cost of the coffee and the tip and marched out. The diner’s door jingled when I jerked it open, and I ran to my car.
“Hey,” Adriel called out behind me.
I unlocked Lucy and was about to jump in when his hand gripped my arm.
“Hey.” He spun me around and was towering over me, all six feet and whatever inches of him. “I promise I’m telling you the truth.”
The knife remained in my hand, but it was secured shut and useless there in between the two of us. Adriel’s eyes shifted to it a smidge of a second before coming back to my face. To my surprise, his grip on my arm loosened just enough for me to be able to tug myself away and run.
But I stayed there, feeling stupid for doing so but unable to help it.
“Look at the burns on my back. They’re not from a cult. They’re . . .” He looked up at the star-filled sky. “They’re from my wings burning.”
Somehow, someway, I needed to get away from him. “Let go of me.” I tried to breathe evenly; he needed to see I wasn’t afraid of him. “Let go.”
His hand dropped to his side and he took a step back. “I’m sorry.”
At first, I couldn’t move. My legs trembled. I was afraid he would see the fear in my eyes. Drawing in a breath, I placed one foot inside the car. He wasn’t stopping me. I would call the cops when I got back to Reed’s dorm. I had the entire plan figured out.
I only managed to place one foot—just one foot—inside the car, because in that instant, something knocked Adriel down to the ground.
“What—” Adriel started to say, then his back hit the pavement and he shrieked in pain. On top of him was another half-naked man with a scarred back.
I could’ve—should’ve—jumped in the car and raced off. Still, if Adriel was being attacked, then he wasn’t responsible for Reed and was at least partially telling the truth. And that meant this man with the scars knew where my brother was.
I moved toward the man. “You piece of scum,” I yelled and kicked his head.
The man tumbled to his side, giving me a chance to reach a hand to Adriel and help him up.
Adriel stood between the two of us, blocking my view. But when the man rose to his feet, I noticed what was wrong with him. Aside from his disfigured back, his eyes were solid black—not a drop of white in them. He was staring at me.
Adriel shoved him away.
Righting himself, the man spit on the ground. “You’re pathetic.” He glared at Adriel as if he were a cockroach carrying brown egg sacs.
“What do you want with her?” Adriel asked.
“That’s none of your business.” The man punched Adriel in the stomach and laughed, watching him drop to his knees.
I leaned over to help Adriel up, but the man grabbed me by the shoulders with callused hands.
I protested and kicked back in vain.
“Don’t scream. No one will hear you.” Before me, the man’s black eyes wavered, turning brown for a nanosecond. “Shh.”
Something shifted around me. The Swiss Army knife fell from my hand, and I didn’t have time to reach for it. My body contracted. For a moment, I was smaller than a single atom. The world looked like billions of freckles coming together to form shapes.
I wanted to throw up.
The man snickered, the sound coming from deep within his chest. “Fascinating, isn’t it?”
I felt my body return to its normal size; it was a heavy sensation, one that made the weight of my pumping heart almost overwhelming.
“Come on.” The man pulled me through a cavern.
As soon as we entered, my body started pouring sweat. It felt like we’d stepped into a vast sauna. We passed by a hole in the cave wall. There were stairs leading down from it, though I couldn’t tell where they led to. The man dragged me away before I could get a better look. Still, the smell of barbecued meat wafted out of the hole, making me salivate. I wondered if that was a kitchen.
“Are we in a restaurant?”
“Shh.”
Something boomed from the hole. Concentrating, I heard a loud, unnerving scream.
At last, the man led me into a huge chamber. The heat was less severe here, though not gone. The damp air clung onto my skin, suffocating me.
“My lord,” the man holding me said, “I brought you the true blood child.”
Blood child. Was this a sick joke, some sort of prank Reed put on for his amusement?
Opposite from us, a man with shoulder-length black hair sat on a corpse throne. Like my kidnapper, his eyes were also solid jet-black. Craniums and bones stuck out from his high seat. A viper, yellow as a lemon, curled around his leg and rested its head on his thigh. I swallowed. If this was a prank, it was an elaborate one.
While he studied me, crazy, irrational thoughts popped into my head. I wasn’t good enough. Emptiness and a feeling of being alone dug into my chest. I’d failed Reed. My own mother hated me. I hated me. No wonder Devin had left.
Tears threatened, but I blinked them away at the last second.
“Saleos,” the man said to my kidnapper while glancing at me with a grin. “Are you sure this is my blood child?”
“I can sense her noble blood, my lord. You are without a doubt the father. Marcius assumed too quickly earlier.”
The man raised an eyebrow and continued to beam. “So, you are my daughter.” He said it matter-of-factly, like he truly believed I was related to him.
Perhaps I was this creepy man’s daughter. After all, Erica had never mentioned a name. She had never even described what my dad looked like. My father could have been anyone. I had no clue, and this man with the scary eyes was just as likely to be related to me as anyone else. But I really hoped this man wasn’t the one. I would rather be the daughter of a butcher than the daughter of a creepy man sitting on a chair of skulls.
Somehow, I got the courage to speak, even though every nerve in my body told me to run and hide. “I can’t be your daughter. I’ve never seen you in my life.”
The man chuckled. “Is that not how it is most of the time? Kids growing up not knowing who their parents are? Like stray animals, they are brought into the world. Useless beings.” He placed his hand on his chin. “But you are far from useless.”
“You don’t know anything about me.”
“But I do. I could sense you all the way here.” He gestured around himself.
The half-naked man named Saleos still held on to me. I tried to wriggle free, but it was no use.
“Saleos, let her go,” my potential father ordered. “She will not run.”
“Yes, my lord.”
Saleos stepped away, leaving me alone in the center of the room with both the crazy father wannabe and his probably poisonous snake eyeing me. I did a quick scan around the room, but Reed wasn’t there. There were only three others aside from us, plus lots of insectlike creatures crawling all over the rocky walls.
The black-eyed man rested his arms on the skeletal armrests of his throne. “I do know you, my child. You see, you have my blood coursing through you. That means we have many things in common.”
“If you know me,” I said, wiping sweat from my lip, “then tell me: What was the first word I ever spoke? Hell, do you even know my name?”
He chuckled. “You are saucy.”
“And you’re not my father.”
“Actually, I am, even if I do not know your name. Besides, I can prove it.”
He stood up, the viper sliding off his leg and slithering away. He strode over to where I stood, snapped his finger at one of his lackeys, and told him to bring a cup.
My hands shook as my ears drummed with the rush of blood. I had to find Reed, but I needed to stay calm first. I wouldn’t be able to get him out if I was scared.
If Reed was even here.
Facing me now, the man with the eerie eyes loo
med just a foot away, not caring much for boundaries and personal space. Other than the complete blackness in his eyes, he was a good-looking man with a sculpted, oval face, thick, arched brows, thick lashes, and slender cheekbones. I didn’t want to admit it, but he did kind of look like me.
While I studied him discreetly, he made no such attempt. His eyes ate me up the way some hungry men look at women at bars, their gazes lingering in places they shouldn’t. He looked like he was deciding when to leap after a prey. He moved around me and touched my hair. I spun around. Without shame, he licked his lips and let a grin manifest.
This sexual predator was not my father.
His lackey handed him a wooden chalice engraved with a snake coiling around its circumference. The man clutched the chalice in both hands and smiled at me like we were old friends.
“In a minute, you are going to discover the truth,” the black-haired man said, his breath stinking of dill pickles and raw fish.
He tilted the cup my way, showing me it contained water. At first, I thought he was offering me a drink. It didn’t help that I was thirsty from walking through the smoldering cavern. When he produced a needle from who knows where and pierced the tip of his thumb with it, I knew that wasn’t the case. A droplet of blood oozed out. He let it fall into the chalice.
“This is for you.” He offered me the drink.
I held my hands close to my chest, not wanting to take the disgusting blood-water chalice. “What do you expect me to do with that?”
To my horror, he grabbed my left hand and wrapped it around the cup. “Drink it.”
His touch gave my hand a strong electric shock, one that surged through my arm and struck the vein in my neck. I pulled away, almost dumping half the cup’s contents to the ground.
“Now, now.” His black eyes stared into mine. “This will show you what you have been missing all your life. I swear to God this will not turn you into a mule. Just take one sip, and the truth will be yours. Do you not want to know who you are? I promise it will be sweet.”
“And if I don’t?”
“If you don’t . . . well, let us just say your brother will make a few fashion statements with his flesh.” He grinned, baring yellow, rotten teeth.
He does have Reed!
At that moment, I wanted to throw the cup in his face and make a run for it. And I was about to, but I remembered the other men in the room and how strong Saleos was; they were all probably just as strong. I didn’t have a fighting chance.
“Drink,” he ordered, nudging the cup toward my lips.
I placed the chalice close to my mouth and said, “I’ll drink this if I get to see my brother.” Bargaining was my only option.
He nudged the cup toward me again. “You will see him after.”
With my heart pounding, I let the water graze my tongue, hoping with all my being that no trace of this lunatic’s blood went into my mouth. I looked into his dark eyes and forced myself to swallow the tiny sip. Bitterness and acidity washed over my tongue, stinging every nerve there. I thrust the cup back into his hand, almost punching him in the gut with the effort.
“Good girl . . .”
His words echoed all around me. I fell on the hard, stony ground, and everything around me began turning black.
“What did you do?”
No one answered.
My hands felt around, searching for another body, a wall, anything. For a second, I was sure the man had blinded me, but when a bright, hot flame appeared before me, I knew that wasn’t the case. A harsh, deep scream sounded from behind the fire. I started crawling backward, wanting none of it. I was ten feet away when the flame expanded, rushing in all directions. Another scream rang out, vibrating the earth beneath me. I squinted my eyes and looked through the blaze, searching for whoever or whatever was there. That was when I saw them. The huge white wings enclosed within the flames.
The wings flapped around, attempting to extinguish the fire. Little by little, they were turning to ash. Wind carried some feathers away. One of the feathers flew into my hand. Its edges had turned charcoal black. I stood up and rushed to the other side of the wings. I wanted to see what was there.
I came upon the dark-eyed captor who claimed he was my father. He didn’t seem to notice me as he shrieked in pain. The wings were attached to his back, and everything was burning.
“Hey,” I said. “What is this? What’s going on?”
He continued to scream, ignoring me altogether. His eyes never even met mine.
“Hey. Can you see me?”
To my right, a luminous, dazzling light flooded the night sky. A gentle, sweet voice emanated from within. “Lucifer,” it spoke. “You have made your choice. You are hereby banished.”
Lucifer?
Lucifer, my black-eyed captor, covered his eyes and squinted at this new light. A snarl ripped out of his throat. “You will pay for this, Father!”
The light and the fire died in unison, leaving me in darkness again. I stood still, afraid of what would pop out next.
Distant sounds of footsteps against wet ground echoed toward me, followed by whispers. The darkness turned to brown, and shadows darted left and right.
“Tell me,” a man with a charming voice spoke. He was just a dim figure in my peripheral vision now, but I could tell he was smiling by his lighthearted tone. “Do you live in the area?”
A young woman giggled. “Do you?”
The woman’s long brown locks waved in the air. Suddenly, her profile came into perfect view. Soft features, big brown eyes, a slim body. She looked familiar. Maybe I knew her back in college? She wore a black, strapless top and tight leather pants and had a choker around her neck from which a diamond pendant of the letter E hung. She looked like she was on her way to a nightclub.
“I’m from around,” the man said as he, too, came into view. Once more, I observed that he was my captor, who also happened to be Lucifer, a fact I tried and failed to wrap my mind around. He had his long, black hair and the same slender cheekbones. However, his eyes weren’t black; they were dark brown, like mine. He put his hand on the woman’s shoulder and leaned in, murmuring something in her ear.
She froze for a second, her eyes staring off into the distance. “Yes,” she answered.
He put his arm over her shoulder and turned her almost in my direction. I gasped. That woman. I was looking at the spitting image of my mother, only from years ago, when she was about my age. The E-shaped pendant on her necklace stood for her name, for Erica.
“Erica!” I wanted to warn her, even though I couldn’t stand the sight of her half the time. “Erica, don’t go with him.”
It was like she couldn’t see or hear me. I was a ghost.
“Erica.” Tears poured down my face. “Erica, he’s the devil. Maybe literally. Don’t go . . . don’t go with him.”
They walked off into the night with him resting his hand on her hip.
“He’s the devil!”
As they disappeared, I felt the blood in my body heat up in my veins, leaving red trails all over my pale skin. I screamed, but the blood was boiling, burning, blistering inside me.
“What are you doing to me?” I shouted at the nothingness around me.
Inside my head, a vision arose. I saw Lucifer’s naked body entangled with my mother’s. I wanted to puke, but I felt heavy all of a sudden, like the earth had begun pulling me down harder than the rest of humanity.
My blood cooled down to its normal temperature. I stood there panting. Within me, I felt power, strength. My blood was dark and thick, like molten lava. I didn’t know what that meant, though the idea that I was born out of something evil scared me.
My eyes closed for a moment as I tried to figure out how I would get out of this mess. When I opened my eyes again, I was back in the cavern. Lucifer stood in front of me, baring his nasty teeth in a grin.
His yellow viper had made its way between us and coiled itself around both my leg and his. I k
icked it away and moved out of its grip.
“You’re Lucifer.” I stared straight into his black eyes.
“And you are my daughter.”
I shook my head. “You drugged me. You made me see what you wanted me to see.” I could feel the darkness in my blood, but still. That didn’t prove anything.
Still smiling, he said, “You could take my blood for testing, at which point you will see the truth. However, you do not have time on your hands, child. Besides, I am the greatest thing to happen to you. I could give you anything you desire. Do you not want all your wishes granted?”
He was right. Even if I was still just a human, there was something stronger, more depraved inside me. That alone put suspicion in my head. Despite how much I didn’t want to believe him, I sensed he wasn’t lying. Still, I ignored his comment about fulfilling my desires and didn’t move my eyes from his.
“May I know your name?” he asked.
“Adelaide.”
“Adelaide. Now that is a noble name.”
I crossed my arms. “You said I could see my brother if I drank from the cup. Now, where is he?”
He waved over one of his men. Turning my head, I saw a hideous man dragging a pale Reed in. He was struggling, trying to free himself. When he saw me, he surrendered and let the man bring him over.
“Addy,” Reed muttered. Beads of sweat dripped from his brows to his lips.
My Reed, my baby brother. He had always been my child in a sense; I couldn’t remember how many nights when we were kids that Erica would leave us alone and he’d beg me to sleep beside him so the boogeyman wouldn’t get him. Seeing him like this tore my heart out of my chest.
I dashed forward, pushed the man away, and wrapped my arms around Reed. “You’re safe now. I promise.”
Lucifer gave a bitter laugh. “Do not make promises you cannot keep.”
“What are you talking about? You said I’d get my brother back if I drank.”
Lucifer moved to his skeleton throne and sat there. “That was not at all what I said. I told you that you would see your brother. I never said I would give him back.”
My hold tightened around Reed’s weak body. His head fell against his shoulder, and he closed his eyes.
