by Nour Zikra
“What’d he say?”
“Just that he made a mistake leaving you. Then he walked away. I thought it was weird he was here, but I didn’t worry about it. Five minutes later, we heard gunshots. That was when I called you. I didn’t know it was him until later.”
It was all a nightmare, and I knew I was to blame. “Let’s just go find your missing angel.”
Reed raised his index finger for me to wait and started walking away. “Before that . . .” He hurried to the back of the library, disappearing behind the aisles and rows of bookshelves. After a minute, he came back with a dozen or more people in tow. “They were hiding,” he explained.
Some of the students were obviously hurt, with cuts on their faces and blood dripping from their lips and hands. The rest, however, seemed normal. It was like they had just walked out of a dreadful exam they knew they had failed. While they would be scarred for some time, they didn’t look it. I was glad for that.
“Is anyone badly hurt?” I asked.
“Nothing that won’t heal in a few days.”
One life was lost, but at least no more.
Without saying a word, I led them out. Adriel lingered behind. When we made it outside, he came to stand beside me, Devin’s pistol in his hand.
Seeing the weapon, I shrank back. “What are you doing? Your fingerprints are all over that thing now!”
He shrugged. “I wasn’t human until a few days ago; there are no records of me.”
“Do you even know how to use that thing?”
“I have an idea.” He released the magazine from the pistol and unloaded the last bullet. “But I’m not going to start using one today.” Walking to the nearest trash can, he dumped the gun and came back with a smile on his face. “No more guns for you.”
I had no time to appreciate his reckless gesture when noise stirred among the group of students. They ran off in separate directions with fright contorting their expressions.
Turning around, I discovered where Madadel had been this whole time. Across from us, the angel flapped his huge, white wings in the air. And he was not alone.
“Crap.” Reed jumped forward, his eyes never leaving his guardian. “He’s going to die.”
The herd of cops we had seen earlier was moving in on Madadel. Twenty or so pistols were aimed at the angel, ready to annihilate him.
None of it made sense, but I moved to stand next to Reed. “What are they doing? What’s wrong with them?”
The answer became clear when a couple of the officers spotted us. They shifted their bleak, empty eyes onto Adriel, Reed, and me. Madadel shoved them back with his wings. Still, they outnumbered him. Two officers escaped Madadel and hastened in our direction.
“Here.” Adriel put a cold, slim object in my palm. “We have to fight them.”
I looked down and saw the Swiss Army knife I’d dropped before I was shot. Adriel had retrieved it for me and tucked the knife in for safety. I pulled my favorite stealthy weapon out, knowing what I had to do.
Adriel had apparently also recovered his large knife, one of the few I’d brought in the duffle bag with us. He extracted it from his pocket and dashed across the school’s small road to the sidewalk opposite from where we stood.
I went to pursue Adriel but stopped. “Reed, hide!”
“No.” Reed stood his ground, his eyes on his angel. “I won’t leave until this is over.”
“Reed, please . . .”
I wanted to do something about the demented cops, but I couldn’t leave Reed unprotected.
Placing his hand on my shoulder, he gave me a reassuring smile. “It’s okay. I’m fine. I can take care of myself.”
“But, Re—”
“Go!”
He nudged me to the other side. With one last look at him, I ran. I saw Adriel not far down the road, swiveling his knife at an officer in protective gear. Another cop with a thick goatee advanced on him, grinning from ear to ear. The void in their eyes gave me no hope.
Lucifer had warned me about this. He said he had built an army. I just never thought it would include officers of the law.
Taking a deep breath, I charged onward. When I reached Adriel, we snapped into a unified rhythm, working side by side as if we’d done this before. I’d never had any sort of training and never been in a fight as intense as this one, but I somehow knew how to move to avoid the enemies’ attacks. As soon as I ducked, Adriel launched an attack, and when his back turned to the enemy, I spotted him. It also helped that Adriel had managed to steal the officers’ pistols and unload them somehow. Bullets scattered all over the ground. Now, all they had were their batons and Tasers, both dangerous in their own way.
The fight went like that until all four of us began tiring. The cops slowed down, drawing back. They glanced at each other like they were calculating their next move. We took that time to catch our breath too. When they started attacking again, we struck back twice as hard—or at least, that’s what I wanted to believe.
I fell on my behind three times and got Tasered once in the leg. The electric shock passed through my body, moving up my spine and immobilizing me. I lay on the ground for what seemed like forever. All I could think of was that I needed a good, long nap.
Adriel pulled me to my feet, his face lit with rage. In one swift move, he caught an officer by the wrist and, with his other hand, slit his throat. The cop’s lifeless body dropped to the ground. Blood trickled from the fountain of his split flesh, leaving a trail around his corpse.
I recoiled. My gut clenched and I swayed back and forth on my feet, wanting to throw up. Though the cop no longer had a soul, I couldn’t help but feel terrible. Beside me, Adriel seemed unfazed. His hair stuck to his sweaty temples, and his chest rose and fell with rapid breaths, but it was more from exhaustion than fear.
The vision I had of Lucifer teaching Adriel how to slay demons came to mind. I shuddered.
“Two against one,” Adriel said, looking at the second officer with the goatee. “How do you think this will turn out?”
“You’re wrong, boy.” The officer raised his chin and glanced behind us. “You’re the one who’s outnumbered.”
Adriel didn’t look back, probably out of caution, but I did. And I saw nothing.
“What are you talking about?” I stared into the bushes and trees before turning back around. “Are you on drugs?” I asked the cop.
He smirked. “You can’t see because they don’t want you to, but there are more than you can imagine.”
“More what?”
“Demons and angels.”
I looked again, still not seeing what he saw. Madadel and the eight other officers were farther down the road, battling behind the officer facing us. I wasn’t worried about Madadel; he was defending himself just fine.
“In case you were wondering,” the officer said, “there are more of us than there are of you.”
Without warning, Adriel leaped forward and stabbed the cop right in the throat. When he pulled the knife out, the officer’s pitch-black eyes faltered, turning olive. He wilted over his partner. I watched the blood pool around them, bright red and thick like soggy mud. The smell of metal and sweat filled the air.
My empty hand flew to my mouth. Like a merry-go-round, the earth spun beneath my feet. I took two steps back with my eyes on the floor to avoid Adriel.
“Addy . . .”
I swallowed, attempting to get rid of the vile taste in my mouth. “You made that look easy.”
“Because it was easy. They’re not humans, Addy. Their souls are gone.” Taking three long strides, he closed the distance between us and pulled me against him. He wrapped his free hand behind my back, keeping the bloody knife far from me. “They were going to kill you.”
“I know.” I just couldn’t shake the sense that we had just killed people. Actual living people.
“Hey.” To my horror, he slipped the bloodstained knife in his pocket and swept a few loose, runaway strands o
ut of my face. He tucked them behind my ear and looked at me with seriousness. “It had to be done.”
“I know.”
“We should get out of here.”
“But . . .” I glanced around, still seeing nothing. “Didn’t you hear him? We’re not alone. We have to do something.”
Pressing his hand against my cheek, he gazed at me with a scowl on his face. “Not right now. It’s too risky.”
He started steering me toward the library. I resisted, planting my feet firmly against the ground. From here, I saw Reed where we left him; he held something in his hand.
“This isn’t the time to be stubborn,” Adriel said as he tugged me forward.
“We can’t leave the school like this.”
“I promise you they will be fine.”
“Except they won’t!”
“Addy, that cop was bluffing. There might be a couple of demons more than there are angels, but they don’t greatly outnumber them.”
“How do you even know?”
“Because of two reasons.” He pushed me two steps. “One, Madadel is having an easy time fighting all those cops. He wouldn’t still be standing if he couldn’t handle it.” He pushed me three more steps. “Two, because I can see the rest of them, and they are helping him.” He glanced at me. “Besides, you look like you’re going to faint.”
I crossed my arms. “I am not.”
He ignored me and marched on, pulling me with him. “Come on.”
Somehow, he managed to drag me down the road to the library. Then again, it wasn’t like I weighed much.
Reed didn’t notice us until we were within five feet of him.
“You’re back,” he said, holding a pistol in his hand.
I frowned. “Where’d you get that?”
“Huh?” Reed looked away from Madadel and down at his hand. “Oh, I just fished the gun from the trash and put the bullets back in. Your boyfriend here might not want to use it, but that doesn’t mean I can’t.”
I felt my face turn red at the mention of Adriel being my boyfriend. I glared at Reed, both for using the wrong word and for taking a gun he should’ve left behind for his own good. Adriel still had his hand behind my back, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw him study me.
Drawing myself away from Adriel, I said, “Reed, you have to come with us. You can’t stay here.”
Reed’s body tensed. “I’m not leaving.”
“Reed . . . if you stay, I stay.”
“Addy,” Adriel interrupted. “You nearly died and then fought demons. It’s time for you to rest.”
Reed faced me but kept the gun pointed away. “Look, I’ll be fine. As soon as this is over, I’ll go somewhere and let Madadel do his job as a guardian. But I’m not leaving him.”
“What if you get hurt?”
“My best shot is with Madadel.”
I sighed. On the one hand, I wanted my baby brother to follow me. On the other hand, I understood where he was coming from. He was an adult now. He had to make his own decisions, no matter how risky they were, and I needed to be a tad less protective over him.
“Will you please call me as soon as you’re out of here? Will you tell me when you’re safe?” I grabbed his shoulders and squeezed. “Please? I need to know you’re safe. I can’t lose my brother.”
He pulled me in for a hug. “You won’t lose me. I promise I’ll call.”
I kissed him on the forehead and reminded him to point the gun away from himself. “I don’t want you dying for a stupid reason.”
He grinned. “Yes, ma’am.”
As Adriel and I walked away, it occurred to me to tell Reed something. “Hey, Reed,” I called out. “Don’t talk to Erica anymore.”
He raised his eyebrow. “Why is that?”
“Trust me. She’s not right.”
“Addy?”
I stopped walking and pinched the bridge of my nose. “She sold her soul to Lucifer, Reed. She’s been fooling us our whole lives.”
No words came from his mouth. He gave a single nod and went back to surveying Madadel and the cops. But I knew the news was hard to grasp.
Letting the subject go, I walked back with Adriel down the path we’d taken on our way in. My thoughts remained with Reed as I hoped and prayed for the first time in a long time for his safety.
Grandma Di would have been proud.
H
Back at the motel, silence overtook us. I kept checking my phone, yet nothing came from Reed. Lizzy, however, had left five text messages asking if we were still alive.
“Yes,” I wrote back to her. “Are you?”
She responded with, “I’m peachy. Nate made fajitas.” It was as if nothing had happened in the past twenty-four hours.
I threw my phone onto the duffle bag and crashed on the bed. My eyes blinked at the ceiling, counting each piece of peeling paint.
Adriel paced the room for a while without saying anything. I wondered if he was worried about Reed and the others like I was.
Finally, my phone vibrated. I shot to my feet. Adriel stopped pacing and watched me, his hand pulling his hair back. I looked at the screen and saw Reed’s name. Taking a deep breath, I read his message.
“It’s over. Two angels and ten fallen angels are dead, according to Madadel. The demon cops are mostly dead too. We’re safe for now.”
“Glad you’re good,” I wrote back.
“So?” Adriel said.
“It’s over.”
He gave me a gentle smile. “I told you they’d be fine.”
“You did.”
Closing the distance between us, he put his hands on my waist, just barely holding on with the tips of his fingers. “Are you sure you’re okay?” Seriousness returned to his face.
He had asked me that question ten times during our car ride here. I kept assuring him I was fine, but he continued asking.
“I’m fine,” I said again. “I promise.”
“You’re not secretly in pain?”
I couldn’t help it; I smiled even as I rolled my eyes. “No, I’m not secretly in pain.”
My joking tone didn’t convince him. “You’re not feeling faint?”
“Just guilty.”
One of his hands went into my hair, cupping the side of my head. “I almost lost you today,” he said with a low, soft voice. His gaze lingered on my lips.
I couldn’t escape his hard stare. His other hand wrapped around my midsection, pulling me closer against him. I put my hands on him, feeling the tightness in his chest while it rapidly rose and fell.
I swallowed. “But I’m fine.”
He leaned his forehead against mine and closed his eyes. “I just found you. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you.”
My face flushed red. Everywhere his skin touched felt hot, more so than usual. An electric current charged up my back, dizzying me.
“Adriel?”
He drew my face in the rest of the way, and then his lips were on mine. I closed my eyes, lost in him. He pulled away for two seconds, but only to look at me. Then we crashed together, sharing one breath, arms around each other. His powerful tongue slipped inside my mouth, taking everything it could. I met him halfway in a lightheaded battle.
Lifting me off the ground, he kissed down my neck, trailing his lips against my collarbone. I wrapped my legs around his hips and my arms around his neck, wanting more and more. None of this felt like enough. I wanted him; it was crazy, but I did. I wanted him more than anything else.
I lifted his shirt off and threw it on the floor. He paused for a flicker of a second, his dark eyes studying mine. When he kissed me again, we were moving, me in his arms.
He laid me down on the mattress and hovered above me, hesitant.
“I’m fine,” I said and reached to pull him in.
His body relaxed, and his lips fell against mine. His left hand remained under my head, but his right hand descended my body. It swept over the hill
s and valleys in hunger. My body rose, meeting his bare flesh. I brushed my hands over the grooves at his waistline and curled my fingers into the waistband of his pants, tugging.
I couldn’t tell who did what at that point. In the chaos of our kisses, my jeans came off along with his. His hand plunged under my blood-soaked tank top, discovering my body.
With a gasp, I felt him inside me. I opened my eyes and saw that my wide-eyed look mirrored his.
We moved against each other, clinging on for dear life. At some point, my top came off. He let out a groan in my mouth just as my head fell back, and I felt him pulse inside me.
My fingers scraped at the skin on his back, pleasure consuming me. And as the electric wave shot through my body and soul, I knew there was no going back.
Chapter Twenty-Four
ADRIEL
Falling for Addy was wrong, but I just didn’t care anymore. I didn’t care that I once was an angel. I didn’t care that I was human now. I just didn’t care. Seeing her almost die caused a part of me to feel hollow and lost, like having a pit in my heart, and I hated it.
I’d had hundreds of humans under my care as a guardian angel. Each one died in the end. The only one alive today was Jenna, if they hadn’t executed her for killing her son the way humans sometimes did when punishing murder, something that never made sense to me. Why commit murder to bring justice to another murder?
And yet for all the humans I’d lost, the threat of losing Addy brought a sense of finality to my existence. She was everything I had here on Earth, and I didn’t want to discover the world on my own.
Addy now stood in our motel room with her phone in hand. The sight of the crimson red on her body pushed me over the edge. Her bloody tank top had nearly dried, but not completely. My hands transformed into fists. I wanted to scream. I wanted to break something. I wanted . . .
