One of the belphegors that had moved silently towards Rachel halted, its face twisted in rage.
“I want her soul,” said the demon, who Alexa figured used to be a male angel by his mere size and the thickness of his large shoulders. “Please, let me have it! I want it!”
Willow leaped at the demon, striking him with her hands. A sound like the ripping of paper filled the air as her talons tore into the demon’s flesh. Black blood sprayed the floors. She shot out, grabbed his neck and yanked up, lifting him off his feet before tossing him like a toy doll.
“You dare defy me?” she roared as the demon hit the hard floor and rolled to a stop.
He scrambled to his knees, body trembling, and held up his bleeding hands. “I’m sorry. I’ll never disobey you again. Never! I promise!”
“Good boy.” Willow bared her teeth. “I’m in charge here. I decide who gets what and when, Philip. And right now, I haven’t decided yet.”
“You come near us,” yelled Erik, thrashing his weapon before him, “and I’ll kill you, demon.”
Willow turned her attention on Erik. “Awww. Isn’t that cute? The witty bitty mortal is threatening me! Me!” Her eyes widened and then suddenly she reached out, grabbed a fistful of her own hair, and pulled out the clump. She giggled as she let it drop to the floor. A white bald spot the size of her fist gleamed in the light.
Milo leaned over to Alexa and whispered, “She’s clearly lost her mind.”
“You think?” breathed Alexa.
“It might work to our advantage,” muttered Milo.
“How? We need to get out of here,” said Alexa. Keeping her voice low she added, “Any bright ideas?”
“Not any that don’t involve getting the mortals killed,” answered the angel.
Alexa’s spirits sank. Her mind was racing. Could they chance a fight without getting any of the mortals killed? She just wanted to get them all out of this alive, to make sure none of the mortals—Erik—paid a terrible price for her stupidity…
But then Alexa got an idea.
“I’ve got a proposal.”
Willow stopped twirling like a ballerina who’d just discovered how to perform a plié. “You do, do you?”
“Yes.”
“And what makes you so sure I want to hear your proposal? I haven’t even begun to tell you what I want… and from the looks of things, I’d say you’re not exactly in a position to make any kind of proposals.”
Alexa steeled herself. “You’ll want to hear this one.”
Willow placed her hands on her hips, her toes tapping the floor impatiently, and she looked madder than ever.
“I’m waiting,” said Willow with a forced smile.
Alexa swallowed. “If you let the mortals go, I won’t kill you.”
Willow spat her lollypop out of her mouth. “What?” she coughed a wet, hoarse cough.
“Alexa, what are you doing?” whispered Milo as he leaned closer.
Alexa ignored him and continued, “You said you knew who I was, right?” she twirled her blade between her fingers like a baton. “That you knew my secret? That’s what you just said.”
Willow wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “Yeah,” she said and began winding a long strand of hair between her fingers. “Yeah, that’s right. That’s what I said.”
“Then, you know what I can do. You know that I’ve killed your kind before. So, let me say this again…” Alexa’s voice was rising as she squared her shoulders. “If you let the mortals go, I promise I won’t hurt you. We can all walk away from this. No harm done. What do you say?”
Willow stared at Alexa. The fathomless black eyes leered at her with dark amusement. Willow howled with laughter and then pulled the strand of her hair from her scalp.
“You amuse me, Alexa, truly,” said Willow. “And we all know how I love to be amused.” She plucked at the hairs in her hand and began to eat them one by one as though they were fries. The belphegors around the room all perked up eagerly, as though their mistress had given them some kind of signal.
Alexa tried to keep the emotion out of her voice as she said, “Really? How so?”
“Well…” said Willow exaggeratedly, “for one thing, it amuses me how a little fame has gotten to your head.
“Excuse me?” said Alexa incredulously.
“It looks quite large, as a matter of fact, abnormally large, like it might pop at any moment. That’s right. Look at you. You think you’re something special, don’t you? Think the world revolves around you because of your gift? Well, let me let you in on a little secret—it doesn’t.”
“Cut the crap, Willow,” growled Alexa. “You don’t know anything about me.”
Willow’s eyes flashed. “I know all about your gift, and I also know what happened that night at the museum. I know what a desperate, attention-seeking angel you are. I know that you were a loser when you were alive, didn’t have any friends, your parents had no love for you either—or can’t you remember that?”
“Shut up,” snapped Alexa. Her eyes burned as Willow’s words cut at her soul like a deep wound that never healed because she had no idea if they were true. She felt her plan slipping away from her, like her composure.
Willow howled with derisive laughter, twirling on the spot. The belphegors guffawed stupidly and roared in laughter with their mistress.
“Why would you even want to remember your mortal past?” continued Willow. “The mortal world is so mundane, so dreary and boring, plagued by humans that destroy it.”
“We’re not here to discuss my past,” said Alexa, adding more conviction to her voice. “What’s it going to be?”
“What’s it going to be?” repeated Willow in her mock baby voice. “Again, with the attitude?” She rolled her eyes. “All this Legion attention seems to have inflated your already overly large head. It’s a plea for attention,” continued Willow. Her smile widened at the horror on Alexa’s face. “Clearly, the pagan god affected your head when he tried to kill you—yes—we all know what happened that night when you tried to save a mortal boy, a boy you loved—”
“Shut up,” hissed Alexa. She saw Erik’s head snap in her direction but she stilled herself and kept her attention on Willow.
The anger Alexa had been feeling for days and days seemed to burst through a dam in her chest. She’d taken a step forward before she knew what she was doing.
“What’s this—?” Comprehension dawned suddenly on Willow’s blood-stained face, her blacked eyes moving from Erik to Alexa. She clapped her hands together. “This is the boy, isn’t it?” she said as she pointed a sharp talon in Erik’s direction. “Yes. Yes. Yes. It is. I can tell. How delicious. What a beautiful thing… I can see the anguish and pain of this revelation in his mortal eyes. He didn’t know you loved him—”
“You’re insane,” shot Alexa, cold anger in every syllable. “You can shoot your mouth off and pull out your hair. I don’t care. You’re still going to die.”
At that, the belphegors moved in around them, hissing and growling like a pack of wolves closing in on their prey. The smell of death and rot intensified. Alexa felt the others shift behind her.
Willow lifted a brow. “Really? And how are you going to do that? The last I heard, you didn’t even know how to work your gift, your… soul channeling. Would you use it now and risk the lives of these mortals you care so much to protect?”
Alexa opened her mouth to protest, but the words disappeared from her in a rush.
“I thought so,” said Willow with a kind of savage triumph. She looked down at Alexa, who was still shaking convulsively in anger. “Let me make you a proposal,” said the girl demon, sucking on another plucked hair strand like a spaghetti noodle.
Alexa glowered and shared a look with Milo, his face twisting. His skin was pale and a sheen of sweat covered his forehead.
“You ready for it? Yes?” Willow continued in a lower and more dangerous voice, “Join us… or your mortals die.”
CHAPTER 12
/> ALEXA FELT AS THOUGH THE walls of the gymnasium were closing in on her. She heard the sharp intakes of breaths behind her, the shuffling of feet and nervous shifting of bodies moving away from her, as though she was about to step away from them and hand them over to the crazy-lollypop-obsessed-girl-demon. She wasn’t sure which made her madder—the fact that the crazy-lollypop-obsessed-girl-demon gave her an ultimatum or the fact that Erik and the others believed she was about to hand them over.
Cold fury clawed up Alexa’s spine. “You’re crazier than I assumed if you think we’d even consider it. It’s never going to happen.”
She heard Rachel release a long breath.
Willow smirked as she strolled around them. “Never say never.”
“Never,” repeated Alexa. “You’ve killed innocent mortals. You’ve taken their souls to feed your disgusting habit. Some of these were just… just kids… kids with families… kids that were loved by someone. I’m not going to join you. I’m going to make you pay for what you’ve done.”
Willow let out a raucous scream of laughter. “Is that a threat?” she laughed. “If it is, it’s not a very good one.” More of the demons laughed, though Willow laughed loudest of all.
Alexa felt Erik stir behind her. He might have pissed her off with his attitude, but she would do everything she could to keep him safe—to keep them all safe.
“Just look at you,” remarked Alexa. “What you’ve become… you do know you’re rotting, right?”
Willow giggled like a school girl. “Oh, come on. It’s not that bad. You do get over the…” she looked down at her body, “…ugliness of our bodies, eventually. But what of it, when you have such power!”
“Even if Alexa agreed to this scheme, which she won’t,” said Milo, “you’d just be using her. You’d find a way to make her your pet, so she could bring you all the souls in the world.”
“You’re very perceptive,” Willow said after a brief pause. “It’s really annoying.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” expressed Milo, his swords gleaming in the light.
“Why did you do it?” asked Alexa. “Why did you give up a life as a hero, a protector of mankind, to end up like this?”
Willow shrugged, a very mortal gesture. “Being an angel was beginning to bore me. This is more interesting. To be honest, you’re beginning to bore me a bit too. Do decide whether you’re going to join us or not, will you? Or do you need some persuasion?”
The demons shifted forward a step, their faces twisted into smiles. Some formed words and sentences while others hissed in a guttural language Alexa couldn’t decipher. There was nothing angel left about them.
Alexa had a feeling Willow’s methods of persuasion would probably involve torture. Part of her wished she could kill her now, take this decision away from her. But she knew if she made a move, the belphegors would move in and kill the mortals.
If only she could use her gift, the mortals would have a chance. But what if it didn’t work? What if she tried to channel the mortal souls and killed Erik, Rachel, and Matt in the process? She couldn’t risk it.
Alexa clamped down on her fears. No one could help her. She was utterly alone in this.
“I will not take the life of an innocent,” she said after a moment. “Especially not the souls of children. I will never be like you.”
Willow’s eyes danced with amusement. “A soul’s a soul. I don’t care if they’re five years old or ninety. Makes no difference to me. They all taste the same.”
Several of the demons laughed. A harsh male voice from the midst of the shadowy figures said triumphantly, “They all taste the same! The same!”
“Souls are sacred!” roared Alexa, surprising herself. She hated this Willow more than anyone in the world. Her eyes moved to the dead bodies, discarded like trash, and her hatred grew. She felt eyes on her and turned to see Milo staring at her. His expression of deepest loathing mirrored what she felt deep within her core. She wanted to cut the smile off the girl demon’s face.
“Alexa?” said Erik. His voice was barely more than a whisper, but she sensed the nervousness in it. She felt him move closer and smelled the faint soap from his skin.
“Don’t worry,” said Alexa, ignoring the rising terror in her chest, the dread she had been fighting since they’d entered the school. “I’ve got this.”
Willow and her fellow belphegors had closed in so they were mere feet away from Alexa and the others. Their black eyes gleamed with hunger and impatience for their lives, their souls.
“Sacred,” said Willow after a moment of brief silence, “only because that’s what you were led to believe by the Legion. But souls are not sacred. If they were, we wouldn’t be able to touch them… let alone consume their power.”
A growl escaped Alexa’s throat. “I’m going to kill you, demon bitch.”
Willow made a rude noise. “You’re a very stupid girl. Look around you. There’s no escape. My friends and I will have a feast on your precious mortals, and I’ll make you watch while I devour this one’s soul—” she jerked her chin at Erik. “I know your duty is to the Legion, to the mortals. You can’t let them die because that would be terrible, wouldn’t it? You have no choice.”
“I always have a choice.”
Willow began spinning again, cackling in mad laughter. Alexa knew this was her moment.
She leaned back until she bumped into Erik’s hard chest. Under the cover of Willow’s laughter, Alexa hissed to Erik, moving her lips as little as possible, “On my signal, you take Rachel and Matt and run for the doors—”
She didn’t wait to hear Erik’s reply as she leaned forward again. Milo’s barely visible nod confirmed that he’d heard her.
“They’re all going to die because of you,” said Willow as she finished her spin. “Look at them. They’re trembling. They know death. They can smell it. At least they’re smart enough to know you can’t win against all of us.” She paused for a moment. “Join us, Alexa, and feel what it is to be all powerful.”
“I won’t.”
“Think of what you’re throwing away…” her eyes moved over the mortals. “I promise I’m not going to kill these little mortals, honest.”
“Yes, you are.”
“I won’t,” said Willow, having the nerve to look abashed. “I promise.”
“Your promises mean nothing. You’re insane,” said Alexa.
“You’ve said that. I guess you really don’t like these mortals, then.”
“I won’t do it.”
Willow gave her a large, satisfied smile. “Not only are you going to do it, but you’re going to do it in the next few seconds or we will kill your mortals and the very silent and mysterious Milo.”
Alexa and Milo looked at each other for a heartbeat. His face was set, hard lines around his mouth and eyes. She saw the sweat on his face and the straining muscles in his neck.
I’m ready, he said to her with his eyes. And she was ready too.
“You can threaten me all you like,” said Alexa, turning her attention back to the demon girl. “It’s not going to change my mind.”
Willow rolled her eyes. “Okay, because I’m feeling especially generous today, I’ll offer you one more, last chance, Alexa the soul channeler,” she said. “Accept my offer. Save your mortals, and live.”
Alexa gripped her blade and said, “No.”
Several of the demons let out low hisses.
“You stupid fool.” Willow gave a pout. “Fine then, if that’s what you want.” She flashed a smile that was all pointed teeth and pure evil and raised her voice. “Kill them all—but Alexa is mine—”
“RUN!” Alexa yelled as she spun around and lunged forward. She slammed her body into four belphegors and knocked them down, creating a clear path to the exit. In a flash of swords, Milo was next to her, driving one through the gut of a demon.
The sound of hurried footsteps echoed through the room, and Alexa saw Erik, Matt and Rachel sprint past her. Pivoting, she thrust he
r soul blade up and through the ear of a demon that had lunged for her neck. It fell to her feet, but to her horror, the demon didn’t combust into dust. She hadn’t killed it.
“Angel whore. I’ll take my sweet time with you.” Willow shot forward in a blur of hair and limbs, hitting Alexa’s head in quick successions.
Before Alexa could even prepare herself for the blow, pain exploded in her face.
She stumbled back, raising her arms to protect her eyes. Willow stood, snarling and spitting at her like a wild cat. Her talons were sharp enough to rip through Alexa’s M-9 suit, and her foul smell made Alexa’s eyes sting.
She blinked the tears from her eyes and saw Erik, Matt and Rachel disappear through the exit.
Relief soared through her, but then came uncertainty and fear. Now that the mortals were gone, she couldn’t use her gift. She’d have to rely only on her battle skills and pray it was enough to get away.
Searing pain exploded through her back.
“You should have said yes!” Willow’s hot breath was in Alexa’s ear. “Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!”
Claws raked her back painfully and then something hard hit her on the lower back, knocking her face down on the hard floor. Alexa rolled to the side and sprang to her feet, drawing her blade.
“Not bad, for an angel,” said Willow as she stepped carefully around Alexa.
“I know,” agreed Alexa, realizing it was true as soon as the words left her mouth. She felt warm liquid trickle down her back and tried hard not to think about how bad her injuries were. From the corner of her eye, she saw Milo fighting off four demons. His swords cut sweeping arcs as he slammed down on them while the others stood watching Alexa and Willow, as though they were waiting for the order to kill from their mistress.
“Are you in awe of me?” Willow smiled, her eyes like black pearls.
Alexa nearly tripped on her own feet. “You repulse me.”
Willow nodded. “You’re in awe of me.”
“You’re psychotic.”
“Oh, God, no,” laughed Willow. “No, I’m perfectly sane, thank you. I’m exactly what I’ve always wanted to be.”
The City of Flame and Shadow Page 9
