by Diem, J. C.
Knowing how good their hearing was, I waited for a few minutes before I followed them. I finally found an exit sign that led me to a stairwell. Climbing up five floors, I hesitated at the thick metal door before trying the handle. It was locked and it took me a few tries before I found the correct key.
Pushing the door open a crack, I peered out to see a large, spacious office. There were windows on three sides. The blinds were open, giving a view to the large, open area beyond. I recognized it instantly. I was in the police headquarters and in the office that Vepar had taken over when she’d assumed the role of their captain.
The building was even more extensive than I’d realized. There were levels beneath their basement and parking lot. From the abandoned state of the rooms, they hadn’t been used in a long time.
Watching the police officers as they went about their business, I saw that half of their faces flickered, giving away that they were possessed by demons. Every single one of them would recognize me instantly if I tried to leave the office. I wasn’t wearing my bracelet that would hide my identity. Even if I had been wearing it, the human cops would still know who I was if they saw my face.
Seeing Vepar step into view, I smirked to see her looking so rattled. “I have just received word that Violet Harper was spotted in the nearby vicinity,” she said.
I made out Reynolds in the crowd and his head jerked up in surprise. He knew who his captain really was and hope blossomed on his face before he schooled it to neutrality again. His partner scowled. Short and curvy, Gomez had long curly black hair and spoke with an accent. I wasn’t an expert, but I was pretty sure she was a Latina.
“Get out there and find her,” Vepar added and her people scattered.
Seizing the moment, I pulled my hood up to hide my face and darted out to merge with the crowd. I’d never been so grateful for my generic clothing before. Some of the cops wore plain clothes rather than uniforms and I blended in with them. It never occurred to any of them that I’d hide in plain sight like this.
Brushing between two female cops, I called on the ability that Sam had given me and assumed one of their faces. My clothes changed to a dark blue uniform and I had to fight down a wide grin. I walked right past Bob and hurried after Reynolds.
“Detective Reynolds,” I called out. He turned around to look at me warily. I’d probably borrowed the face of one of the officers who had been possessed. Nathan, Leo and I had pointed out who was human and who was a monster to him so he could know who to trust.
“Yes?” he said politely, but with a hint of impatience.
“I was wondering if I could speak to you for a moment.” I was stalling until the cops had dispersed enough for us to talk.
“Now really isn’t a good time,” he said and turned away dismissively.
“Maybe we should meet at the diner on Eighth Avenue for lunch sometime,” I said just loudly enough for him to hear me. His shoulders stiffened and he turned back to me. “Have you asked that cute waitress out yet?” I asked then sniggered at the expression on his face.
“Violet?” he said incredulously. It was my snigger that had given me away. “Is that you?”
“It sure is. Where’s your car? I’m not sure how much longer I can hold onto this illusion.” I’d only been holding it for a short time and I was already feeling the strain.
“It’s just around the corner.” He gestured at the side street half a block away.
“I’ll meet you there,” I replied and trotted off.
I managed to make it around the corner before the illusion faded. Exhausted, I would have fallen if Reynolds hadn’t caught me by the arm. He hustled me into the back of his car. “Lie down and stay out of sight,” he told me then climbed into the front.
Waiting until we were a few blocks away, I sat up. “How long was I gone?”
“Nearly a week,” he replied then pulled over. He turned around to face me and his expression was grim. “There’s something you need to know about Nathan.” He fell silent and my brows rose to prompt him to continue. “Something strange happened to him shortly after you were captured by Hagith. He fought it for as long as he could, but we had to restrain him for his own safety.”
“Restrain him? Why? What’s wrong with him?”
He didn’t want to answer me, but he knew I needed to hear it. “He said he needs to return to Vepar and he keeps trying to escape.”
I sagged in relief that it wasn’t something worse. “You had me worried for a minute there.”
“You mean you aren’t worried to hear that he wants to go to a Demon Lord?”
“He doesn’t want to,” I corrected him. “He has to because of the deal he made with her.”
His expression didn’t change at that news. “You know, that isn’t exactly reassuring. It sounds like we need to find a way to break a deal with a demon. Is that even possible?”
“I have no idea,” I shrugged. “Maybe Sophia or Elijah will be able to fill us in. Did they return to our base, or are they staying somewhere else?”
“They didn’t feel safe to return to the store after the demons broke the doors open. I took a quick look to see that no damage was done and to lock the doors again. They feel it’s only a matter of time before the place is infiltrated. They’ve chosen a different base that’s already warded. It should be safe for now.”
“Where is it?”
“It’s the empty suite of offices right across from the angels’ warehouse,” he replied with a sly grin. I’d warded the place myself and knew that it was secure. Only one room had been soundproofed so far, but our enemies would never think to search for us so close to their lair.
₪₪₪
Chapter Sixteen
Reynolds parked a block away from our new base. He led me to a small gap between two buildings that was so narrow it could barely be classed as an alley. It led to the backdoor of our temporary home. The suite of offices on the second floor might be empty, but the other floors weren’t. We waited for a harried looking man to exit from the elevator. He glanced at us and nodded in greeting before heading towards the front door.
We rode up to the second floor then stepped out into the hallway. Hearing our arrival, Sophia emerged from a door at the end of the hall that I knew housed a small kitchen. She held a cup of tea in her hand, which meant the power was on. She smiled in relief when I hurried over to hug her. “We were so worried,” she said and embraced me with one arm.
Elijah sat at a small table inside the kitchen. He surged to his feet and gave me a hug next. My stomach growled again and he grinned. “When was the last time you ate?” he asked as he drew me over to the table.
We all took a seat and I reached for one of the cookies that sat on a plate. “The night I was captured by Hag and her cronies,” I replied quietly. This room wasn’t warded with a silence rune and I didn’t want our enemies to hear me. Biting the cookie, I closed my eyes in bliss.
“They managed to purge you?” Sophia asked.
I nodded, chewed and swallowed. “Yeah. Poor Brie had to take over when Orifice dragged Hag off me. Brie, Raziel and the other two angels that are trapped inside me drove the Wraith Warrior out. They managed to burn the toxin away, but most of my legion were wiped out along with it.”
“What about your other friends?” she asked in trepidation.
“The angels and their house didn’t suffer any damage. Heather’s place was partially destroyed, so she and Sam made a run for Raziel’s place, carrying Sy. Eight of my Demon Lords made it to the angels’ house and took shelter there as well. Their house was demolished, except for the arena. That made it out unscathed, for some weird reason.”
“What happened to the Wraith Warrior when it was driven out of you?” Reynolds asked.
“Brie, Hag and Orifice tried to zap it with holy fire, but it disappeared before they could kill it.”
“Can demonic essence be killed with holy fire?” Elijah queried.
“Some types can. I’ll tell you all about my crazy a
dventure, but first I want to check on Nathan.” I was desperate to use a bathroom and to take a shower, but I needed to see my guardian first.
“He is growing worse by the day,” Sophia warned me when I stood up. “We did not know what to do, other than to restrain him.”
Finishing off the cookie, I stood and crossed the hallway to the room that overlooked our enemies’ warehouse. It was the only room that I’d warded with a silence rune. I’d have to rectify that if we were going to use this place for a while.
Opening the door, I went stock still when I saw Nathan trussed up on the floor. Steel chains crisscrossed him from his chest to his feet. They were too strong for even someone with enhanced strength to break free from.
Twisting and writhing, Nathan was desperately trying to escape. His dark blue eyes met mine and there was no recognition in them. His need to fulfil his bargain had taken over his reason. “Let me go,” he said in a hoarse voice. “I have to go to my master!”
Coldness settled into my chest at hearing him calling a demon his master. Vepar’s hold on him was stronger than I’d realized. “I’ll get you out of this, Nathan,” I vowed. “I promise you’ll be free of her soon.”
Backing away, I shut the door again then turned and sagged against it. I’d spent time here with Leo during our surveillance of the warehouse a while back. I knew there was a bathroom just down the hall. “I need a minute,” I said to my friends.
Sophia nodded in understanding and headed to the counter where an electric kettle waited. “You will find some of your clothes in the room down the hall,” she informed me.
Heading to my room, I saw an air mattress that would be my bed and a couple of plastic bags with clothing inside. All of the rooms that I’d passed had been empty of furniture. They needed new carpet and a fresh coat of paint. The one next to mine had another air mattress identical to mine and a small suitcase. It had to be Elijah’s room.
Grabbing clothes at random, I walked to the bathroom and took a long shower to clean off the blood that covered me. There was no trace of the damage that Zach had done to me. My fractures and internal injuries had been repaired by the angels. I just wished they could give me the power to heal Nathan of his affliction.
When I was dry and was far more presentable, I headed back to the kitchen. Sophia had made me tea and a sandwich. I smiled in thanks, but there was something I wanted to do before I could eat. “Do we have any demon blood handy?”
“There is a container in the fridge,” Sophia replied.
I retrieved it and she rummaged in a drawer and handed me a paintbrush. I chose a spot on the door and painted the silence rune. I then dabbed blood on my palm and activated it. “Now we can talk without worrying about being overheard.” Sophia took the blood and paintbrush from me while I washed my hands then sat down and began to eat.
My hunger abated a bit when I was finished. “Food has never tasted so good,” I said in satisfaction. “Now that the toxin is gone, my sense of smell and taste have returned.”
“My visions have never been wrong before,” Sophia said, “but I am very glad that you avoided the fate that I foresaw for you.”
“Me, too,” I replied wryly. “Turning black and rotting from the inside is one less thing for me to worry about.” Unfortunately, I had plenty more concerns to keep me occupied.
“How did you come to be in the police headquarters?” Elijah asked.
“Hag told her minions that I escaped,” I replied. “In reality, she somehow teleported us both out of the cell despite all the wards they have. She handed me over to Vepar while I was still unconscious from being zapped with holy fire.”
“She must hate you with a vengeance to give you back to the demons,” Sophia said quietly.
“She does, but that isn’t the only reason why she turned me over to them. She made a deal with Vepar and she’s still bound by it.”
Reynolds’ brows rose in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“The deal Hagith made to exchange me for the fragment of metal is still in effect,” I explained. “As long as she has possession of it, she will always have to relinquish me to Vepar if she gets her hands on me.”
“Nathan made a deal with Vepar, too,” Sophia said uneasily. “Is that why he is so determined to return to her?”
“Yep,” I replied unhappily. “His bargain was that he would owe her a favor in return for a vial to harvest my grace. She called in that favor and made him her slave for eternity. He has no choice but to return to her.” From Sophia’s worried expression, I didn’t hold out much hope that there was a way around this. “Is there any way to break a bargain with a demon?”
She dashed my hopes by shaking her head. “The demon who made the deal is the only one who can break it. I highly doubt that Vepar will agree to give Nathan back his freedom.”
“There has to be a way,” I said in despair.
“If there is, I do not know of it,” she replied sadly.
“Tell us what happened to you during the past week,” Reynolds urged me.
“I was unconscious until a few hours ago. Being purged with that much holy fire fried my mind and body. It almost killed me, but Orifiel and Raziel fixed the damage. I ended up in the nowhere lands and stayed there until my mind recovered from the trauma.”
I went silent when I remembered waking up when Zach had zapped me with a cattle prod. They didn’t need to hear about the torture that I’d suffered at Vepar’s and Zach’s hands. From their sorrowful expressions, they already had an inkling. They’d seen the blood and burn marks that had covered my clothes.
“Vepar took me to a room beneath the police headquarters,” I said and Reynolds started in surprise.
“You mean you were in our basement the whole time?” he said incredulously.
I shook my head. “It wasn’t the same area where Bob took me. The rooms haven’t been used in a long time. They’re five floors down, beneath the parking lot.”
He looked disturbed by the information. “I had no idea they even existed.”
“Zach turned up and we spent some quality time together,” I continued. At Sophia’s look of horror, I hastened to reassure her. “He just punched me a few times and broke a couple of my ribs. I started choking on my blood and he made the colossal mistake of taking my shackles off.” I smirked at the memory of what had happened next. “He was still wearing the necklace I gave him, but Sy told me in a dream that he’d placed a spell on it. I had no idea what it would do, but I found out pretty quickly when I activated it.”
“What did it do?” Reynolds asked. He’d grown so used to the supernatural that nothing surprised him anymore.
I described how the necklace had beheaded my ex and Sophia nodded in pleased satisfaction. “I am glad he is dead,” she said. “He certainly had it coming.”
“That’s not the best part,” I told her. “His essence oozed out of his body and tried to enter me, but Raziel and the other two angels helped me to zap him into oblivion with holy fire.”
Elijah gaped and Sophia and Reynolds stared at me in amazement. “I thought demons had to be stabbed in the heart before they were evicted from their vessels,” the priest said.
“Zach wasn’t a full demon,” I shrugged. “But they can leave their vessels if they’re damaged badly enough. I don’t think he would have been able to heal his body like a normal demon could have. I guess he had no choice but to leave it.” If he’d managed to reattach his head, he would have become a shambling zombie.
“Do you think you could destroy the essence of a full demon in this manner?” Sophia queried.
“I have no idea. I think it took a lot out of the angels to use that much power. It might not work on a strong Demon Lord like Vepar.”
Reynolds steered us back to our main problem. “If you’re going to break the deal she made with Nathan, you need some kind of leverage against her,” he said. “What was the deal you made with her exactly? Did you promise that you wouldn’t harm her if she gave up trying to fin
d us?”
I had to wrack my brain to come up with the answer. “I remember threatening to dismember her and keep her body parts separate if she kept hunting for our base.”
Sophia had been there and added her recollection of the deal. “Yes, but when you made your bargain, the wording did not include a ban against you causing her physical harm at all.”
Her memory was far better than mine. “What did we agree to then?”
“Her exact words were, ‘Let me go and I will cease hunting for your lair’,” Sophia recited. “Then you said, ‘Your captains and soldiers will stop searching for us as well. You and your minions will stop evicting demons from their vessels so you can try to follow them to me’. Vepar responded with, ‘My minions and I will no longer make any attempt to locate you or your base’. That was the bargain you made.”
“Oh yeah, I remember now,” I said with a smile. “Neither of us actually said anything about me not being able to harm her as part of the deal when we made it.”
“She’s going to regret that oversight,” Reynolds said.
“So, my best bet is to threaten to zap her with holy fire in exchange for letting Nathan out of his bargain?” I asked.
They exchanged looks then nodded. I had a plan, now I just had to hope the angels inside me would be able to come to my assistance again when I needed them to.
₪₪₪
Chapter Seventeen
There was something else that I needed to share with Sophia and Elijah. Reynolds was the only one who was aware of my new ability so far. It had proven to be useful so many times in the past and I knew it would be invaluable again.
“I spoke with Sam in a dream when I was unconscious,” I said to my friends.
Sorrow flickered over Sophia’s face. She missed him almost as much as I did. “How is he?” she asked.
