The shifter bared his teeth and growled.
Thomas made a similar sound deep in his throat. “That was stupid and impulsive,” he said, his grip on the shifter tightening. “What if it killed him?”
“I didn’t stab him anywhere fatal,” I said. “Yet.”
Thomas pressed his lips together and kept his eyes on the shifter. He was difficult to read, so I wasn’t sure if he was pleased or pissed. I was just glad he was on my side.
Like me, he’d do anything to get the girls back to safety. Anything.
“Take a look at that.” I kept my eyes on the wound I’d inflicted, amusement creeping into my tone. “It isn’t healing.”
“You’re right.” Thomas now sounded equally as intrigued. “Try it again. This time, take off a finger. Better yet, a whole hand.”
I stepped up, ready to do what was necessary to convince this creature to talk. Torture wasn’t my thing—I liked to give my enemies quick, clean kills—but extreme times called for extreme measures.
If I had to torture this beast to find Raven and Sage, then so be it.
As I was raising the slicer in preparation to slice off his paw, the creature shifted back into human form.
He was a thin, scrawny thing who didn’t look any older than sixteen. He must have been the runt of the litter. I would have thought he was harmless if it hadn’t been for his creepy red eyes.
And for the fact that he’d just tried to kill us and was clearly working for the greater demon who’d taken Raven and Sage.
“Please,” he begged, his lips trembling as he stared up at Thomas. “Don’t.”
“Tell us what you are, and who took the girls,” Thomas commanded.
“I’m a shifter,” he said. “And I don’t know what girls you’re talking about.”
“Liar.” I sneered down at him, and then looked to Thomas. “Can’t you use compulsion on him?”
“I did,” Thomas said. “He must be wearing wormwood.”
I frisked the shifter’s body as Thomas continued to hold him down. There were no wormwood pendants anywhere.
“Nothing,” I said, turning to Thomas again. “Have you ever met a shifter immune to compulsion?”
“No,” he said. “The only creatures immune to my compulsion are royal vampires, angels, and demons. So what are you?” He dug a finger in the wound I’d made with the slicer, and the boy winced in pain. “Because you’re clearly not just a shifter.”
“What gave it away?” The boy laughed. “Is it the eyes?”
I lunged at him, holding the slicer at his neck.
“Don’t test me,” I said. “Those girls who were just taken mean everything to me. Answer our questions, and you’ll live. If not…” I paused, pressing the edge of the knife hard enough against his neck to draw a few droplets of blood. “You’ll wish you were dead.”
“Fine.” The boy glared at me with dark hatred in his eyes. He’d transformed completely, no longer the trembling boy from a minute earlier. “You’re right—I’m not just a shifter. I bound myself to a greater demon, which made me stronger than ever.”
“How?” I rotated the angle of the slicer, pressing the tip of it into his neck. “Why?”
“As if I’ll ever tell you,” he said with a chilling smile. “By the way—Azazel sends his regards.”
He pushed himself forward into my knife, still smiling as he gurgled up his blood and collapsed dead on the pavement.
I pulled my knife out of his neck and stared down at him in horror.
Our only lead was dead.
Raven and Sage were gone.
How had this happened? I’d never imagined tonight would end like this. From the horror and despair in Thomas’s eyes, he hadn’t, either.
But I wasn’t going to back down so easily. Because while Sage and Raven were gone, they weren’t dead. At least, Raven wasn’t. If she were, I would have felt it through the imprint bond.
She was still alive—and I was going to make sure she stayed that way.
“Let’s go.” I looked away from the corpse and shoved the slicer back into my weapons belt.
“Where?” Thomas sounded like he was in shock.
“Back to the Bettencourt,” I said, already making my way out of the alley. “And Cassandra better be there. Because she needs to do a tracking spell to find our girls.”
Raven
One moment I was looking into the alley, getting ready to help kick demon ass.
The next moment, I was in some kind of underground bunker—one of those places doomsdayers built to prepare for the end of the world. We were in a hall with lots of doors. It was dimly lit and old, rust all over the metal.
Whoever owned this place clearly stopped up-keeping it a long time ago.
Instantly going into self-defense mode, I let my arm go limp and pulled it out of the demon’s hold. Sage had already reached for her dart full of potion that would force the demon—who was clearly a greater demon, since he’d teleported with us—back to his previous location.
The demon must have been prepared, because he swatted it out of her hand before she could jab him with it. It landed on the floor and he crushed it under his shoe.
Her eyes widened in panic.
But the demon was still focused on Sage. So I reached for my boot knife and surprise attacked him, shoving it straight into his back.
He didn’t react at all—not even a flinch. I might as well have stabbed an inanimate object. He simply reached for the handle and pulled the knife out of his back.
“What’d you do that for?” he asked with the grin, tossing the knife down at my feet. “Messed up a perfectly nice jacket.”
I knew regular knives couldn’t kill demons—only slicers could do that—but this didn’t look like it hurt him. It hadn’t even drawn blood.
We were so totally screwed.
Sage growled and started shifting into wolf form.
I picked up my knife and bolted down the hall, hoping to find safety. I hated running, especially since I was leaving Sage to fight off the demon. But we’d trained for this. She was a supernatural and I wasn’t. Getting out of this place and finding help was the most useful thing I could do to make sure we both survived.
I didn’t make it far before the hall hit a dead end. Crap. I ran to each of the doors, trying to open them, but they were all locked. No amount of kicking or hitting them made them budge.
We were trapped.
I looked back over at Sage to see how she was faring against the demon just as three big men burst into the hall behind them. Flashes of red eyes and yellow teeth over their otherwise normal features showed me they were demons as well.
“Watch out!” I yelled to Sage, but it didn’t matter. One of the demons had already thrown a potion pod of sludgy brown liquid at her. It was the same potion the demon in Nashville had used on Noah—the one that had stopped him from shifting.
Sage shifted back into human form, straining against the change the entire time. From the looks of it, the potion didn’t just stop a shifter from shifting their animal form—it also forced a shifter already in their animal form to shift back to their human form.
Once human again, Sage breathed heavily on the ground, glaring up at the greater demon in hatred.
I ran up to help her, but one of the other demons grabbed me into a hold. I tried every self-defense move I’d learned to get out of it, but it was useless. I wasn’t strong enough to fight supernaturals. Not as a human.
Sage got up and reached for her two boot knives, holding one in each hand and gearing up to fight.
The greater demon stepped back, motioning for his two other minions to take the lead.
Sage got a few good slices in, but in minutes, the two demon henchmen had disarmed her and were holding her steady between them.
The greater demon stepped toward her and removed a needle full of deep blue potion.
Complacent potion. How had he gotten a hold of that? Witches didn’t sell complacent potion—they weren’t
even supposed to brew it. Using it was against the law because it took away free will.
Then again, these were demons. They wanted to erase all the supernaturals from the Earth. They clearly didn’t care about following the law.
Stuck in the demon’s grasp, I couldn’t do anything but watch as the greater demon stepped up to Sage and injected her with the dark blue potion.
The fire disappeared from Sage’s eyes, and she stopped fighting the demons’ holds. Her expression slackened until she looked like a shell of her former self.
All I could do was watch in horror.
I hated being human. I was weak—a liability.
If I made it out of here and got to Avalon, I was going to pass the Angel Trials no matter how hard they were.
I’d get turned into a Nephilim or die trying.
“That’s better.” The greater demon smiled at Sage. Then he turned to check on me. “Marco,” he said, addressing the demon holding onto me. “Bring Raven over here. I want to see both girls’ expressions during my big reveal.”
Marco dragged me over until I stood next to Sage. She watched me hopelessly, a single tear slipping out of her eye and down her cheek.
We’d faced speed bumps on our hunts, but I’d always trusted we’d get through them and win.
Now, I wasn’t so sure.
I tried to reach out to Noah through the imprint bond for help. The bond wasn’t broken—something in me instinctively knew Noah was alive. But I couldn’t feel him. His warmth was gone.
How far did the imprint connection reach? Was it possible that we were too far away for me to communicate with Noah?
“Where are we?” I asked the greater demon, on the off chance he might actually answer. “Why did you bring us here?”
“We’re someplace where no one’s going to find you,” he said with an evil grin. His yellowed pointed teeth flashed over the illusion of his perfect ones, and I recoiled in disgust. “As for why I brought you here, you’ll find out soon enough. But first,” he said, turning to one of the demons holding onto Sage. “Give me the antidote pill.”
“Be a good girl and stay right where you are,” the demon cooed in her ear. “No more fighting, you hear?”
She nodded, her eyes panicked as he let go of her. It was like she wanted to fight, but she couldn’t.
Stupid complacent potion.
The demon reached into his pocket, pulled out a pastel pink pill, and handed it to the greater demon. It looked like a Pepto-Bismol chewable tablet, and I knew from experience that it tasted similar to one, too.
The greater demon popped it into his mouth, chewed, and swallowed. The air around him went fuzzy and he morphed into someone I’d seen twice before—someone I would never, ever forget.
Azazel.
Raven
Azazel wore the same leather jacket he’d had on the other times I saw him, and he grinned, clearly pleased with his dramatic revelation.
“Transformation potion.” He flexed his hands, as if adjusting to being back in his body, and studied Sage and me. “From the looks on your faces, this wasn’t how you expected your night to go, was it?”
Icy terror raced through my veins. This was it. Azazel was going to kill us, and there was nothing I could do to stop him.
Sorry, Mom, I thought, looking up to the ceiling and thinking of her. I tried my hardest to save you. I’m so, so sorry I failed.
The lapis lazuli charm necklace I was wearing—the one she’d given me for my twenty-first birthday—was warm against my skin. In that moment, it was almost like she was there with me.
If the Beyond truly existed, at least I’d be able to see her—and everyone else—again eventually.
“What are you waiting for?” I glared up at Azazel, trying to get somewhat of a grip on myself. “Why not just kill us and get it over with?”
I wasn’t ready to die. But if I had to die now, I hoped it was quick and painless—if there was such a thing as a painless death.
“You think that’s why you’re here?” He laughed, so evil and chilling that the hairs on my arms stood on end. “You think I went through all that trouble of transforming my appearance, luring you into that trap in Chicago, and bringing you here… so I could kill you?”
“Why are we here then?” Sage asked.
“Don’t speak.” Azazel raised his hand to shut her up. “That question was rhetorical. If I wanted to kill you, you would have been dead a long time ago.”
Sage pressed her lips together. Thanks to the complacent potion, she was unable to speak even if she wanted to.
At least they hadn’t dosed me with complacent potion too. They must have thought I was weak enough as a human that they didn’t need a drug to control me.
But as long as Azazel was talking, I wanted answers. The more I knew, the better chance I stood at surviving this and saving my mom.
If my mom was still alive.
The possibility that she might not be crushed my soul. But back at the Pier, Rosella had said my mom was still alive.
I prayed she was right.
“So you don’t want to kill us.” I was relieved, even though it was too early to feel that way.
Honestly, I was just glad I wasn’t about to die.
“I have other plans for your lovely shifter friend here.” Azazel leered at Sage, and horror filled my stomach about what those other plans could be. “This isn’t the final stop on Sage Montgomery’s journey. However, I can’t say the same for you, dear Raven.”
I swallowed, fear taking hold again.
He was going to kill me.
I needed to get out of here.
Unfortunately, a human and a drugged shifter didn’t stand a chance against three demons and a greater demon.
“Honestly, I’m not sure what I’m going to do with you yet,” he continued. “My decision will depend on how willing you are to cooperate.”
I glared at him, positive I’d never hated anyone as much as I hated him.
Because did I want to cooperate with Azazel? Hell no.
But I also wanted to live. The longer I stayed alive, the higher the chance that I’d eventually get out of here.
If that meant playing by Azazel’s rules for now, then so be it.
I straightened and met his gaze straight on, determined to do anything necessary to survive this. “Cooperate with what?” I somehow managed to keep my voice cool and steady despite the rage flowing through my veins.
“Despite being human, I take it you’re intelligent enough to have realized you’re being hunted,” he said.
I clenched my fists, furious at his assertion that humans lacked intelligence. “Yes,” I said, forcing myself to control my rage. “I’ve noticed.”
“And surely you’ve wondered what it is about you specifically that we want?” he asked.
“I have.”
“I figured.” He smiled again, clearly enjoying this.
“Are you going to tell me why you hunted me—and my mom?” I asked. “Or are you just telling me all this to toy with me?”
“It’s certainly amusing toying with you,” he said. “But you’ll find out soon, so you might as well hear it from me.”
I stared at him, waiting for him to spit it out.
When he did, it was the last thing I ever expected.
“We’re hunting you because you’re gifted,” he said. “Because you have a unique ability that runs through your blood.”
“Seriously?” I couldn’t help it—I laughed. “I’m like, the least gifted person ever. My mom was the gifted one. Not me.”
“Wrong,” he said. “You’re both gifted.”
“How do you even know?” I humored him, since he sounded pretty confident that he was correct.
“The more gifted a human is, the brighter and stronger their aura,” he said, as if it were simple science. “Most humans aren’t gifted—their auras are watery and dull. Yours, my dear, shines like a beacon. As does your mom’s.”
“She’s alive?” My h
eart leaped at the confirmation. Yes, I trusted Rosella, but it was different hearing Azazel speak about her in present tense. It made me more hopeful than ever.
“She is.” He nodded. “Cooperate, and maybe you’ll see her again.”
I wanted to ask what would happen if I didn’t cooperate, but I held my tongue. I already knew Azazel wouldn’t hesitate to kill me. I couldn’t bear him threatening my mom’s life, too.
“How do I know you’re telling the truth?” I asked instead.
“You don’t.” He looked to his demon guards, the conversation clearly over. “Lock her in with the others,” he said as he walked over to Sage, wrapping his hand around her wrist. “I have business to attend to. It’s time I reunite this docile little wolf with her pack.”
I wished I could shake Sage into focus. But I couldn’t escape the demon’s hold, and shaking her wouldn’t get that potion out of her system, anyway.
Instead, I stood there and watched as one of the demons walked to the door behind me and pressed his thumb against a little black square on the handle. A fingerprint reader.
The door swung open, revealing a room with about twenty people inside. The room reminded me of the hostels I “remembered” staying in when I thought I’d been backpacking around Europe—pretty bare minus the bunks lining the walls. The people inside were of various ages, and as far as I could tell, they all looked human. They wore matching blue jumpsuits, and looked fit and well fed.
None of them tried running out of the door to escape. The despair and hopelessness in their eyes showed they were just as thrilled to be there as I was.
“Meet your new bunkmates,” the demon holding onto me said. “We’ll be back with your uniform soon.”
He shoved me inside, and I had one final glimpse of Azazel teleporting away with Sage before the heavy metal door slammed shut in my face.
Flint
The Angel Trap (Dark World: The Angel Trials Book 3) Page 13
