by J. E. Taylor
A snort from the couch pulled my attention and CJ sent a glance over his shoulder, his derision snaking over me like a hangman’s noose.
I knew it was poor manners but I shot the question out anyway, “What the hell is your issue?”
CJ stood, turning toward me. “You. You’re my issue,” he pointed at me. “They think you’re something special, but all I see is someone who killed for sport like my father did. But in this case, you did it for centuries, upon centuries.”
“Damian didn’t kill for sport,” Naomi said before I could form a response.
CJ challenged her with an arch of his eyebrow.
“He’s right,” I said, pulling her gaze to mine. “I killed with abandon, but I only killed those worthy of death. So in that way, I differ from your father.”
“Who are you to judge,” CJ said and I stood, crossing the distance, extending my hand.
“Go ahead,” I challenged, knowing he had the same power to siphon memories as Steve.
He looked at my hand and the muscles in his jaw jumped. When his gaze locked on mine, he reached out. The moment skin contacted a rush of memories assaulted me. Sound swirled around me and a power I couldn’t comprehend gripped every muscle. CJ’s memories flooded my mind, just like Steve’s had, but there was something else that came with them that hadn’t been transferred when Steve did his mind meld.
Just before his grip loosened, I felt the power crawling back into its host and the room came into clear view. In my mind’s eye, I reached out, grabbing hold of the last ribbon of magic, feeling a piece tear off and settle inside me.
CJ’s gaze hardened and he yanked his hand from my grip. He stepped back, rubbing his palm, just staring at me. He looked down at his hand and back, like I was still the shadow being, his silence just as unnerving as the flurry of memories.
Whispers, like faint echoes caressed my ears but I kept my gaze on CJ, waiting for his judgment. Instead of speaking, he slowly lowered to the couch.
He licked his lips, formulating broken thoughts before speaking.
“You really are an angel’s descendent.” It wasn’t a question, just a statement that I let hang on the air for a full beat.
“Do you think I’d really spend the last few hours bullshitting you?”
“Actually, that’s exactly what I thought. I couldn’t read much from either of you.” He glanced between Naomi and I. “I just thought you were here to pull one over on us and you somehow snowed Uncle Steve. I couldn’t figure out what your deal was.”
“And now?”
“At least I know you’re not a liar,” he said.
Chapter Fourteen - Damian
Naomi offered me a tired smile as I sat down on the edge of the bed.
“I’m not tired,” I said and brushed the hair from her face before planting a soft kiss on her lips. The whispers continued and I shook my head, wondering just what the hell I was hearing. “Do you hear anything funny?”
She shook her head. “Why?”
“Because, I feel like I’m in a theater and everyone is whispering.”
Naomi let out a little laugh and I could have sworn she said, you’re so weird sometimes, but her lips never moved. Still, it was her voice in my head and I studied her.
“I’m not weird,” I said, testing the waters and her eyes widened.
Holy shit, you can hear me?
I started laughing. It had been a couple of months since I could hear her in my head and I missed being able to read her. On the heels of realizing I could hear her thoughts; I realized the buzz I was hearing were the random thoughts of the others in the household. My smile faded and I glanced at the door.
“I think I may have transferred a bit of CJ’s talent when we shook hands,” I said and brought my gaze back to hers. If I’d pulled in a little of his mind reading ability...
Before I could complete the thought, a knock on the bedroom door interrupted us.
“Come in,” I called and stood, half-expecting CJ.
When Steve pushed open the door, I met his stare.
“We need to talk,” he said.
I nodded and turned to Naomi. “I’ll be up in a while,” I said and headed out of the room, meeting his gaze as I closed the door.
“CJ thinks you may have gotten some of his shine.”
“That’s what you’re calling it?” I asked, avoiding the question.
“Stop being such a cocky son of a bitch,” he snapped and turned, expecting me to follow. He stopped at the top of the stairs and I got a hint of frustration. He wasn’t able to read me or command me like a normal human, the transfer of memories had been incidental, something he hadn’t intended, especially after ordering me to give him my gun and I didn’t comply.
Now he was even more wary of me and instead of pushing his buttons and taking advantage of his hostility, I followed him downstairs where CJ sat flipping through the television channels.
He tossed the remote onto the table and glared at me.
I didn’t give you permission to take any of my juice, he thought and I shrugged.
“Look, I didn’t plan on it either,” I said, taking the seat on the opposite couch.
“How did you do that?” Steve asked.
“Honestly, I’m not sure. I felt the infusion of power when we shook hands and when it started to retreat, I guess I grabbed onto a piece of it.”
They exchanged a glance and I took a minute to study their histories. Steve had done something similar, but in his case, it was the full absorption of power and it wasn’t something he consciously chose to do.
When I refocused on the two of them, I had no more answers than they did.
“Maybe it’s the angel’s grace. Michael had said I had his and Naomi assumes I also have my father’s, so it could be... disrupting the natural order,” I said.
CJ burst out laughing. “Disrupting the natural order? Dude, your entire existence disrupts the natural order. We’ve dealt with a lot in our lifetimes, but the existence of vampires and demons and hellhounds and Lucifer isn’t anything we’re equipped to deal with.”
“CJ,” Steve said, his concentration focused on the back yard. “I’ve had to alter my beliefs more than once during my lifetime. This is just another window that’s opened up. A god-awful one, but if we sit in denial and turn our backs on Damian, we’re setting up the end of days.” He turned from the glass.
CJ sent a glare in his direction.
“We’ve dealt with angels and ghosts, along with some of the most evil bastards on earth, so what’s a few more.”
“All due respect, but after tonight, Naomi and I will find somewhere else to go.”
“Why?” Steve asked.
“Look closely at my memories, the ones with Lucifer,” I said, moving my gaze between the two of them, waiting as they did as I asked.
CJ blanched a little, but Steve just sighed and refocused on me.
“So?” he said.
“I was no match for him even in shadow form, so how do you expect to beat him?”
CJ stood and put his hand out, his mind commanding me to fly into the wall. Nothing happened and his face turned red with effort. He dropped his arm to his side, his eyes going wide as he stared at me. Jesus, you took it all.
“I didn’t. Try moving something else,” I said.
He glanced at the coffee table and it rose off the ground. The relief in his face made me smile. Then he turned his gaze to me.
“Are you consciously trying to stop me?” he asked, trying to dissect why his powers didn’t work on me.
“No,” I said and thought about it. “I mean I heard the command and felt what I would categorize as a breeze, but nothing like what you envisioned in your head.” I shifted my gaze to Steve. “When you demanded the gun, I did feel compelled to give it to you, so that was a conscious choice to ignore your request.”
“So you’re immune,” Steve ventured and traded a glance with CJ.
“If I’m immune, you can bet your ass Lucifer i
s too.”
“I’m not so sure. I’ve pulled Ty back down to the earth,” Steve said, triggering that memory.
“He’s not an arch angel, is he?”
“No,” Ty’s voice boomed in the quiet room.
“Then we can’t assume your influence or powers or whatever you call it, will affect him in anyway. I’d rather err on the side of caution and assume that it can’t. If I’m wrong, then it will be a pleasant surprise for all of us, but if I’m right, at least we’ll be prepared with something else up our sleeves,” I said.
“What about trying to trap him,” Steve asked and even his guardian angel laughed.
“No. I don’t want him within a hundred miles of Naomi.”
The garage door swung open and the chill pulled my attention away from the conversation. Tom and Raven stood just beyond the door and they were not alone. The terror in their eyes pulled the air from my lungs; and when two demons stepped through the door holding knives to their throats, the horror of coming here slammed home.
“Put the knife down,” all three of us commanded, one voice, three wills and the knives tumbled from the demons hands.
The minute the immediate threat neutralized, Tom flipped the bastard holding him and Raven slammed her heel into the demon’s foot but he tightened his grip around her neck.
A white blur shot through the air, hitting the demon holding Raven, peeling him off her and leaving her shaking. Naomi’s snarl drowned out the demon’s dying screams. Tom grabbed Raven, pulling her to where we stood. I didn’t wait for the second demon to react, instead, I tried to do exactly what CJ had willed to happen to me and I blinked in shock as the bastard flew into the wall, cracking the drywall and pulling Naomi’s attention away from her dead catch.
“How did you find me?” I asked and the bastard smiled, his gaze dropping to the cut on my leg. The cut made by a hellhound’s teeth.
“You’re marked,” he said and laughed.
I roared with the anger filling my soul, willing the unthinkable.
Blood mist filled the room and I blinked, staggering back a step before dropping to the couch. I didn’t understand what just happened and Steve waved his hand in front of my gaze, pulling my attention away from the spot the demon had been. My ears buzzed and my gaze dropped to the massive tiger nuzzling my lap. Naomi’s tongue ran a warm path across my cheek and she pushed into me again. I scanned her blood soaked fur and looked up at Steve. He wore the same gory mess that the rest of us did.
“What happened?” I asked, looking from Steve to CJ and then beyond to Tom holding Raven in his arms. My gaze transitioned from the people to the actual room and my mouth dropped open. Blood even dripped from the ceiling.
“You made him explode.”
I turned toward CJ, meeting his horrified gaze and then I looked beyond him at the pristine angel behind him.
“I did that to someone once,” he said glancing around the room and then back at me. “It’s pretty fucking messy.”
I let out a bark of a laugh.
“It happens when the juice gets away from you, and I’d say that’s exactly what happened here.”
Instead of dignifying his comment with an answer, I ran my fingers behind Naomi’s ears, glancing up at Tom and Raven. “Where did they ambush you?”
“In the garage, after we got out of the car,” Raven said.
“And you didn’t warn us?” CJ glared at Tom.
“No time,” he signed.
Naomi’s ears flattened and she hissed at the back door.
I turned and stared at the pack of hellhounds keeping watch.
“Fuck,” I whispered and chanced a glance in Steve’s direction.
He bolted for the training room, his fear hanging on the air and agitating the dogs outdoors. Jennifer argued with him until he pulled her into the family room and then she dropped silent, letting him move her beyond Naomi and me to where the rest of their family stood together.
It wasn’t until the air outside shifted and the pack parted that I felt the first threads of fear.
“Do you have salt?” I asked. A moment later, a container of Morton’s salt appeared. I pulled my gaze away from the man standing in the midst of the hellhounds and looked up at Steve. “Pour a line in front of the doors and on the window sills. Now.”
Steve crossed and laid a patch of salt across the floor in front of the sliders and then the garage door. He disappeared and did the same to the front door and the windowsills, coming back with a near empty container that he set on the counter.
I knew it wouldn’t stop Lucifer, but it would stop demons.
The tap on the back window pulled all of our gazes and I stared into Lucifer’s angry glare. He scanned the room and his expression turned to disgust, but it wasn’t his face that had my attention. It was the wings. Lucifer came calling in his deadliest form.
Wings next to me fluttered into view and Ty Ryan chose to appear in full glory.
Lucifer bared his teeth at the angel next to me. “Uriel,” he growled loud enough to hear through the glass and Ty laughed shaking his head.
“Try again, asshole,” he said.
Lucifer focused on Ty, his gaze narrowing
I took the opportunity to meet Steve’s wide gaze. “Go,” I whispered and nodded toward the stairs. “He can’t get in and neither can anymore demons.”
I wasn’t so sure about the hellhounds but they seemed to be held at bay for the time being. I grabbed the salt and lined the bottom stair, creating a buffer to the rest of the family.
Naomi hissed, pacing in the small space.
Lucifer snapped his fingers and Ty’s smile disappeared. Standing next to the devil was a bloodied and beaten man, his haunted eyes matching that of the angel standing next to me.
“Chris,” he whispered stepping forward.
I reached out and grabbed his arm, my fingers gripping solid flesh and not air like I expected. Ty looked down at my grip and then into my eyes. The window to his soul opened and I saw even more than what I gleaned from Steve.
The hellhounds surrounded Chris, toying with him. The first rip of flesh brought forth a soul-crushing scream and Ty struggled against my grip.
“That’s my brother,” he said.
“He’s already dead,” I said.
“So am I,” he tried to yank from my grip.
“You can’t save him.” I met his irritated gaze and I knew where his heart was, but he wasn’t thinking straight, not with the brutal spectacle outside the glass. “You cannot open that door.”
“I have to try,” he said, tears filling his bright blue eyes.
“If he gets into this house, who do you think he’ll kill first?”
Ty glared at me. “You.”
I shook my head and suddenly the truth hit him and he dropped to his knees, remembering the dark period when he hung between life and death. He glanced up, pain filling his features as the hellhounds tore Chris apart in front of us.
“You can’t kill a ghost,” I whispered.
“No, but you can torture a soul for eternity,” he replied, his voice filled with anguish.
I kept hold of his arm, watching the blood spill, the anger building, agitating Naomi and she charged at the glass, stopping short and putting her claws on the window.
It was a stupid move that exposed her belly and I saw the hellhound lunge. It hit, cracking the glass into a spider-web fracture. Naomi leapt back, retreating to the spot in front of Ty and me.
“Naomi, go upstairs,” I said and she turned her head, baring her feral teeth. “Go,” I whispered and pointed, ignoring her angry stare. I finally dropped my gaze. “I will be fine. I need you to protect our family.” I didn’t need to expand anymore and she turned, heading upstairs like I requested.
The second dog hit the glass, sending shards our way. I still had a grip on Ty’s arm and we traded a glance. “It’s your house,” I said, dropping my hand.
He looked around the room and then back at me.
“Vapo
rize the fuckers,” he said and the power surged in my chest.
His brother’s screams bled through the glass and when another dog launched, I let loose.
Lucifer stepped back, shock filling his features and his gaze locked to the spot the hellhound had launched from. All that remained was a back paw; Lucifer was wearing the rest of the creature in a spray of blood and guts.
Lucifer wiped the blood off his face and looked at his hand before leveling a glare at Ty. He wrongly assumed the angel had killed his hound. Neither of us corrected him, either.
Chris’s screams had subsided but the sound of flesh tearing still permeated the glass. Lucifer pointed to the decimated form. “This is now your brother’s fate. He will suffer an eternity of being ripped to shreds by my dogs,” he growled and then his gaze turned to me.
“When I return, there will be nothing you can do to stop me and my army from getting to your precious wife.”
In a blink, he was gone, and so were Chris and the dogs.
Ty hung his head. “That should have been me,” he whispered.
I stood transfixed, my body trembling. The expenditure of energy didn’t diminish the magic flowing in my blood stream, instead, it magnified.
“Damian?” Naomi’s voice cut through the waves of thought and I glanced at my surroundings until my gaze landed on her at the base of the stairwell.
“He’s coming back, and he’s bringing... things with him.” I didn’t know if it would be demon or vampire or something else entirely, but no one in the house was safe. Not even the angel beside me kneeling in defeat.
Chapter Fifteen - Damian
“How much time do we have,” Steve asked, swiping his clean face with a towel.
“I have no idea, but whatever he’s bringing back...” I stopped and closed my eyes for a minute, thinking on some of the things I knew about Lucifer and the monsters he commanded. “If he brings vampires back, Naomi and I are safe, but you aren’t.” I met his gaze. “They can get through the symbols and salt and once even one symbol is compromised, Lucifer can get in.”
“I thought you said there were no more vampires,” he said.
I opened my mouth to speak and then just sighed. “I honestly don’t know. I thought Eve was the last, but who the hell knows.”
