Demon Born (Hellfire Academy Book 1)

by C. L. Coffey

  The woman, who was maybe twenty years older than Gabriel—well, his vessel—gaped up at him. Her mouth fell open, and I swear, she was seconds away from drooling over her keyboard.

  All of a sudden, she straightened her back, pushed her boobs out, and flashed him an appreciative smile. “Of course, sir. I’d say fraudulent activity was pretty likely. It looks like the account was wiped out a couple of days ago.”

  “Where was that?” I asked.

  “I can’t tell you that,” the woman responded, barely looking at me. “If you suspect fraudulent activity, I will need to hand this over to the fraud team and let them investigate.”

  “That’s a shame,” Gabriel muttered in a low tone.

  I looked up at him. Was he … flirting?

  He had his chin resting on the back of his hand as he gave the woman the most glorious smile. I didn’t even know that smile existed, and here he was, dazzling the cashier with it.

  The woman let out an audible sigh. I had to step back out of the way before I laughed. This was working? “It was Boise, Idaho,” she told him.

  Why the hell was my mom in Boise? How the hell did she get to Boise? The cost of a Greyhound ticket would have been close to what was in my account, and she’d taken the money out after she had gotten there?

  Boise?

  I’m sure it was a nice city, but my mom had never, ever, mentioned Boise, much less Idaho.

  OK, I could figure that bit out later. Now I had to get there.

  I walked out of the bank, waiting for Gabriel to follow after me. It had started raining. “Take me to Boise,” I told him before the door had barely closed.

  “I will take you back to college.”

  I shook my head. “You heard her. My bank account was emptied in Boise. My mom is there. All you need to do is that…” I waved my hand like I was patting the air. “Blink-and-we’re-in-another-state thing, and I will do the rest.”

  “I will take you back to college,” Gabriel said, again, reaching out for me.

  Not trusting him, I stepped out of the way.

  “Boise.” I folded my arms and scowled at him. “You’re the one who promised you’d look after my mom. The least you can do is zip me to Idaho so I can find her.”

  “This is not a conversation to have in the middle of the street, in the rain,” he said, emphasizing the weather.

  “No. Which is why we should nip off to Boise.” I walked away. I didn’t have time to pretend I was cold from the rain I couldn’t feel, but I accepted that the two of us just ‘disappearing’ in the middle of the street wasn’t advisable.

  I jogged a few buildings away from the bank and ducked into an alley, checking it for cameras. Nothing. I turned back to Gabriel. “No one is watching. We can go now.”

  “We can’t just go to Boise.”

  I couldn’t figure out if he was amused or irritated.

  “Why not?” I demanded. “It will literally take you all of two seconds to take us there.”

  “And then what?”

  “And then you can go to whatever angelic thing you need to do, and I will look for my mom.” What did he think I was going to do when I got there? Go sightseeing?

  “With what?” he pressed. “You don’t even have a coat.”

  “I don’t have anything anyway. The only clothes I have at that school are extra sets of this uniform. Anything of value I own is in this bag.” I patted my shoulder bag. “And everything else might be with my mom in Boise, if she didn’t throw them out before she left. I can’t go with anything because I don’t have anything.”

  Gabriel’s expression didn’t turn to one of pity like I expected. Instead, it went menacing as his eyes darkened.

  “Watch out.” He shoved me to the side.

  My body slammed into the wall, but he hadn’t thrown me as hard as I knew he was capable of. My gasp was more from the shock than the pain. I turned back to yell at him, just in time to see him pull a dagger from what looked like a pocket. By the time it was at eye level, his blade was the size of a sword, deflecting another sword from it.

  “What the hell is happening?”

  I had no idea where they came from, but two men were busy attacking Gabriel.

  Or trying.

  Despite it being two on one, Gabriel handled the two attackers like there was only one of them. I was midway through asking myself and the universe who fought with swords in Las Vegas when I realized they weren’t extras from a show, but more likely, fallen angels.

  I stood, rooted to the spot. Even though Gabriel was holding his own, I wanted to help. Only, despite all the talk of being ‘trained’ for something, nothing had ever materialized other than homework and textbooks.

  I knew some self-defense, and I’d broken up enough fights at the various nightclubs I’d worked security at, but none of them had involved swords. I wasn’t stupid enough to get in the middle of that.

  And then, as I was focused on the fight in front of me, an arm wrapped around my waist, clamping my arms to my sides. Just as I let out a scream, a hand clamped down over my mouth.

  Hell no.

  I stomped my foot down on my attacker’s, then I dipped my head so that I could snap it back and headbutt them. It hurt, but the crunch I was rewarded with was worth it as I was released.

  Spinning on the spot, I brought my fist with me. It slammed into the side of his head, sending him reeling. I was not about to run away and leave Gabriel with three men to fight, and while I had never been formally trained, I was scrappy and strong, and I wasn’t allowing anyone to take me against my will.

  Not today.

  The man who attacked me righted himself, wiping the blood and rainwater from his nose with the back of his hand.

  “Why are you attacking? You’re one of us.”

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  I had no idea who he was, so I found it highly unlikely that I was ‘one of them.’

  “Then back off and leave us alone.”

  “I can’t do that,” he said, advancing towards me.

  I balled my hands into fists, bringing them up in front of me. I kept my attention on him, ready to counter anything he tried. Only he put his head down and charged at me, his shoulder ramming into my chest as his arms wrapped around my waist.

  He didn’t stop moving, shoving me backwards into the building behind me, so hard, my head bounced off the mortar with a crack.

  Stars danced across my vision, and I felt like I was going to throw up, but I brought my knee up as hard as I could. At the same time, I slammed my elbow down on the man’s head.

  I felt his chin jab into my thigh, then he let go, stumbling backwards.

  He righted himself, clutching at his jaw.

  “He said alive, but he didn’t say what state.” The man growled. From under his jacket, he pulled out a sword.

  What was it with swords? I suppose I should have been grateful no one had brought a gun, but it seemed a strange choice in weapon. Unlike Gabriel’s, this wasn’t a magical knife that grew. It was a short sword, but it looked sharp enough that it would do some serious damage.

  “Gabriel, help,” I yelled, not wanting to take my gaze off the man in front of me in case he tried something. I could hear the chink of metal as Gabriel continued to fight with the men attacking him, but he didn’t respond.

  “He’s a little busy trying to stay alive,” the man in front of me told me.

  “Who are you?”

  He grinned, and I swear, his teeth looked sharper than a human’s normally did. Fallen angels possessed humans, right? “Olivier.”

  “I don’t mean your name.” My vision was still dancing, and I was trying to get a better look at him.

  “You’re just like him,” Olivier sneered.

  I had no idea who he was talking about. Gabriel perhaps? Was that a compliment or an insult?

  With no time to find out, he lunged at me.

  I dove to the side just as his blade caught my arm, and I yelled out in pain. Somehow, despite the shock
, I landed in a roll, splashing through a puddle. I spun around and scrambled backwards. Now was the time to channel some of this speed. Even if these men were human, which I seriously doubted, Gabriel had done his magicery-pokery to make his sword appear, and this guy wanted to kill me or kidnap me, and neither were options I was willing to accept.

  As I moved backwards, my fingers landed on something cold and metallic. I wrapped my hand around it, brandishing a piece of pipe in front of me just as Olivier swung again.

  My pipe was long and thin. It certainly wasn’t sharp and pointy like Olivier’s weapon, but I was going to do some damage with it anyway. Being wet, it was hard to hold onto, but I held it up, ignoring the pain in my arm, I rolled to the side to avoid another attack, and spun, swinging the pipe as hard as I could.

  Dropping the sword, Olivier snarled at me. Definitely not human teeth.

  But before he could make another move, he turned on his heel and ran. “Chicken,” I yelled after him.

  “Kennedy, don’t taunt the Fallen.” Gabriel wrapped a hand around my wrist. “And don’t stand there.”

  I glanced over his shoulder. The two men—fallen angels—he had been fighting, lay dead on the ground. Then just as one of them literally exploded in front of me, Gabriel got us out of the alleyway.

  Next thing I knew, I was inside a room I didn’t recognize. I wasn’t sure if it was just the transportation or the fact that my head felt like it was going to implode, but the dizziness washed over me like a tsunami, and I stumbled forward.

  Gabriel was in front of me in an instant, and as I fell against him, he wrapped his hands around me, helping to keep me upright.

  I clutched at his shirt, soaked from the rain and wet against my face, waiting for the world to catch up with me.

  He didn’t try to move me, nor did he let go.

  I was as soaked as he was, water from my hair running down my back. My head was pounding, the source seeming to resonate from a spot on the back of my skull. I took deep breaths, trying to get the building wave of nausea to pass.

  Slowly, Gabriel scooped me up, carrying me over to a dark armchair where he gently set me down in it. “Stay here.”

  Although my head felt like there was a jackhammer inside, my vision was clear enough to watch Gabriel move around the small apartment we were in. I didn’t recognize it, and it wasn’t full of many personal items for me to get a feel for where we were.

  The armchair I was in, like the rest of the furniture, was worn but comfortable. There was a couch accompanying the armchair, both facing an unlit fire in a fireplace, which seemed too big for the room. Behind me was a small dining table with a wooden chair on either side. Off to one side behind that, I could see through an archway to a small kitchen.

  My attention drifted back to Gabriel as he hurried up some stairs. I could hear the floorboards creaking as he moved around, then instead of using the stairs to get back down, he appeared in front of me, holding a handful of fabric in one hand and a first aid kit in the other. The plastic case seemed too modern for the room we were in. He set it on the couch then hurried into the other room.

  From within the kitchen, I heard a fridge open, ice chink, and a door close. When he walked out, he had a balled-up towel in one hand and a bottle of water in the other. Gabriel gently pressed the towel against the back of my head.

  “I don’t think that has the effect you think it does.” The weird resistance I had to temperature meant that although I was aware there was an icepack being pressed to my head, it felt more cool than cold.

  “It doesn’t mean it’s not going to help.” Gabriel reached for my hand, lifting then using it to replace his hand holding the icepack. He looked down at me. “Although the nephilim qualities you have mean you heal quicker than humans, you are not immune to illness. I also need to dress that cut.”

  I wasn’t sure what he was talking about, and I followed his gaze to my arm. The moment I saw the blood was like I had flicked the pain switch on. The blood had mixed with the rain-soaked sleeve of my shirt, turning everything red from where blood was seeping out of a cut.

  “You need to get out of those wet clothes.”

  Maybe I did, but I wasn’t doing it in front of him. I looked up and shook my head. “I don’t think that’s appropriate.”

  Gabriel’s lips settled into a thin, unimpressed line. “Kennedy, I assure you, I do not see you that way. I’m an archangel.”

  Archangel or not, the Fallen proved that angels were capable of falling in love with humans, or at the very least, sleeping with them to create babies. I was living proof of that. I ignored the fact that his comment stung. That wasn’t why I was unwilling to get undressed—even partially—in front of him.

  Half of my body was covered in a spiderweb of burn scars. Most thin and silvery, but a few were still red and angry. They were hideous, and I hated looking at them. They were also a reminder of why I shouldn’t let his comment upset me.

  They were only there because he tried to kill me.

  I knew he was aware of them. He’d seen a small part of them when he’d seen my tattoo, but Gabriel had never seen how much of my body was covered in them. Gabriel might not see me that way, but I didn’t want anyone to see me at all.

  “I’m fine.”

  “That’s a lie,” Gabriel responded.

  “It’s a scratch. And you say I’m not immune to illness, but I’ve never missed a day of school or work from being ill. I don’t even remember the last time I had a cold.”

  “Kennedy, just take off the wet clothes. I have dry clothes for you to change into.” Gabriel pointed at the pile on the sofa. “I will turn around if that makes you feel more comfortable.”

  I glanced back down at the pile of clothes, and then to my arm. There was a lot of blood, and it showed no sign of scabbing over. “Fine. But you need to turn around.”

  Gabriel didn’t wait. He spun on the spot, folding his arms.

  I set the ice pack down on the floor and stood, examining the pile of clothes. Combat pants, a black T-shirt, and at the bottom, a towel. There was no doubt these were Gabriel’s clothes.

  I toed off my shoes and rolled off the tights; they were ruined. The skirt came off next, slumping on the floor with a splotch. I glanced over my shoulder.

  Gabriel still had his back to me.

  “They were fallen angels, weren’t they?”

  “Yes.”

  “How did they know you were there?”

  The combat pants slid up my legs easily, and I was unsurprised when they hung low on my hips. Too much movement, and these would fall down easily. Gabriel was slim, but not slim enough.

  “I don’t think it was me they were after.”

  “You think they were after me?” I whirled around.

  Gabriel shifted slightly before turning his head a fraction. “I think they had an eye on your mother’s apartment,” he said, turning fully.

  Guilt was lining my stomach again. I caught my lower lip between my teeth, chewing on it. For years, my mom had said ‘they’ were after us. How long had they been watching that apartment? How long had they been following us?

  How many apologies did I owe my mom?

  “I cannot say,” Gabriel said, tilting his head as he watched me.

  What if my mom had run again because she knew she was being followed? “You need to take me to Boise.”

  Gabriel shook his head. “You are injured, and as we’ve just discovered, clearly unprepared for fighting fallen angels.”

  “And whose fault is that?” I snapped at him. “You and Pinnosa have had me reading textbooks and writing assignments since I got here.”

  “I think it is time we rectified that, but I will not take you to Boise.”

  “That’s my mom,” I said, taking a couple of steps towards him. “My mom, who’s had us hiding, always running away, from things I didn’t even believe in when she told me. And now, she’s all alone, somewhere in Boise. I’m not just going to leave her.”

  “You
don’t know where in Boise she is, much less whether she’s still there.” Gabriel’s gaze fixed on me. “I’m not taking you to Boise.”

  “You owe me,” I said, closing the distance between us so I could shove him. “You were supposed to be keeping an eye on her, and she’s not there.” I shoved him again. I might have had enhanced strength, but he barely moved. “I’m not even asking you to help me look for her. I just need to get there.”

  “For the last time, I am not taking you to Boise.”

  I was getting tired of his broken record.

  “Fine.” I didn’t need him to get me there. I wanted him to because he could do it in the blink of an eye, but I would get myself there without his help. I would walk down into Greenwood and catch a ride. I could hitchhike across the state if I needed to.

  Making a beeline for the door, I went to move past him, but his hand wrapped around my arm. His grip was just below the cut, and it made me hiss in pain.

  “You’re not going to Boise, either,” he said. “And no one is abandoning your mother. We have people all across the world, we will use them to keep an eye out for her. But someone is after you, and it’s not safe.”

  “What do you care about me?” I scoffed. “You tried to kill me, remember?”

  Gabriel sucked in a deep breath before releasing it slowly. “Replace your shirt so I can dress your cut.”

  “My mom–”

  “We will find your mother. The sooner you allow me to treat your wound, the sooner I can leave and get our people looking for her.”

  I could feel the tears of both frustration and fear forming in the corner of my eyes. Gabriel was right. I had barely fought off the fallen angel that had attacked me. In the end, it was Gabriel who scared him off. My mom was human. She was out there alone, and there was very little I could do.

  “Please sit down and let me dress that wound,” Gabriel asked, softly.

  “Promise me, you’ll really have people look for her.” It wasn’t a demand, so much as a plea.

  Gabriel nodded. “I will.”

  “Okay,” I said, even though unease continued to churn in my stomach.