by Laurèn Lee
Tori’s smile faded as Adriel leaped into the air and tackled her against the floor. He punched her in the jaw once and pulled his fist back for another jab. Tori screamed in anguish and tried to fight back, but Adriel pinned her to the ground. Mary Elizabeth struggled in the background to put out the fire, but it was too late. Sirens sounded in the distance, and the police would surely be there soon.
“Let me go!” Tori squealed.
“Not a chance.” Adriel cocked his fist back a third time, but a hand caught his fist in mid-air.
“I think I deserve this one,” Charlotte said.
She leaned down so she stood nearly eye to eye with Tori. Tori smirked, blood oozing out of her nose and mouth.
“What? You think you can—”
Charlotte kicked her as hard as she possibly could and knocked Tori out cold. Even demons can get a TKO from time to time.
Adriel slung Tori over his shoulder, and everyone dashed out of the burning house. They could see the firetruck in the distance charging down the suburban street, the horns blaring for the entire town to hear.
The group quickly realized they were running out of places to hide. If Liam was tracking them with Charlotte’s car, someone else could be tracking them, too. It would be too risky to take her car now, at least until they felt safe enough to hunt the tracking device down. For now, though, they needed to run and hide.
Charlotte thought for a moment, what would happen if the police saw them running and chased them down? What would the office do with two humans, two demons, and an angel? She smiled to herself at the very thought.
The sirens grew louder, and the gang sprinted into the backyard of another one of the empty houses. Surprisingly, a narrow river flowed lazily past the boundary of the property. Adriel looked to all the women around him, and they nodded; they’d cross the river and search for safety on the other side.
Seeing as how Adriel was the strongest of them all, he pulled a motionless Tori with him as he practiced the backstroke across the chilly river. Charlotte couldn’t see to the bottom, and her shivers were caused by not only the less-than-preferred temperature, but also because of the unknown wildlife beneath the depths. Charlotte pined for Shark Week every summer, but to set foot in a body of unknown water? Definitely not her favorite.
After a few minutes, Adriel, Tori, Mary Elizabeth, Cyndy, and Charlotte emerged from the river in time to see the fireman putting out the fire across the way. They collapsed in the grassy field behind them, and Charlotte blew a sigh of relief that each of them agreed with.
The sun, which was at its highest point for the day, shone brightly in the sky, warming their bodies and slowly drying their soggy clothing. Charlotte felt her adrenaline fade, and a rush of fatigue plagued her entire body.
“Did we land in a field of poppies?” she asked the others.
“Poppies?” Mary Elizabeth asked, her brows furrowed.
“It’s from a movie,” Charlotte giggled. “I forget you don’t know our culture down here.”
Mary Elizabeth nodded and produced a monarch butterfly in the palm of her hand, already forgetting what Charlotte said.
Around them, tall trees swayed in the breeze, hypnotizing Charlotte. In the grass a few feet away, Tori’s lifeless body stirred. Cyndy backed away, but Adriel and Charlotte studied her. In the next moment, her eyelids fluttered then opened completely.
Charlotte realized the burning around her friend’s eyes had diminished greatly upon waking.
“Where am I?” Tori asked, her voice trembling.
Charlotte and Adriel looked to each other quizzically.
“Char?” Tori asked. “What’s going on? What happened?”
“You don’t remember?” Charlotte asked with furrowed brows. Was this another trick?
“I feel very warm,” Tori admitted. She wiped her sweaty forehead with the back of her hand as she rose to a sitting position. “Did something happen? I have a horrible feeling something bad has happened.”
“Yeah, Tori. You’re a demon,” Adriel said.
“I’m a what?!” Tori’s eyes rolled in the back of her head, and she collapsed once more.
17
Tori woke again, her eyes almost back to their original color, devoid of the blood red rippling through her irises. Charlotte casually sat beside her in the grass, leaving a little distance between them in case Tori lashed out again.
Mary Elizabeth and Cyndy left to look for food and water, so only Charlotte and Adriel remained in the field with Tori.
“Char?” Tori asked, rubbing her eyes. “Talk to me.”
“If this is some kind of joke, I’ll kill you myself,” Charlotte said.
Tori’s eyes expanded with fright. “What are you talking about? Kill me? What happened?” Her voice grew more defiant with every word spoken.
“You want to tell her?” Adriel asked, looking at Charlotte.
The sun hammered down on them in the fields, and all was still and silent. Not even a single bird soared above them.
Tori reached for Charlotte’s hand, and despite her instincts advising her to be careful, Charlotte held Tori’s hand in return.
“Tori, what do you remember?”
Tori bit her lip and closed her eyes, searching her mind for recent memories. “I remember Liam coming to my house. I remember being afraid, and then everything went black.”
Charlotte turned her head toward Adriel, who stood a few feet away, his arms crossed over his body. “Is memory loss like this normal?”
“Sometimes, I think,” Adriel said. “I’ve met a few good people whose minds tried to repress the evilness now living inside them.”
A stray tear escaped Tori’s eyes and landed on Charlotte’s hand. “What am I missing?”
Charlotte breathed in deeply. “There’s no easy way to say this. Tori, you’re a demon. Liam came to your house, killed Adam and turned you. Adriel is a demon, and we have two other friends with us. One is an angel, and the other is human like me.”
Charlotte could see the truth spinning in Tori’s mind. But, would she believe her? This was quite a lot to take in.
“Adam is dead?” She collapsed into herself and erupted into a fit of sobs. “Oh, my god! Adam!”
Charlotte, sensing Tori’s emotions were genuine, pulled her friend into her arms. Adriel also realized Tori wasn’t feigning ignorance and walked away to give them some space. Tori wrapped her arms around Charlotte, and Charlotte felt the heat radiating off Tori’s body like lava flowing down a mountain. Tori rocked back and forth for what seemed like an hour before she pulled away from Charlotte.
“When you said I’m a demon, you mean like a real demon? With horns?” Tori reached for the top of her head, but only felt her own matted-down hair. “This doesn’t feel real.”
“Tell me about it. I’ve been living in this fairy tale for what feels like years now,” Charlotte said.
“I don’t understand. Why is this happening?”
Adriel returned and offered both his hands for the women to take.
“One word: Liam,” Adriel said with a sneer.
“He’s not who you think he is. Or who I thought he was,” Charlotte said. Her voice trailed off, and she gazed into the distance, thinking of life before this mess entangled her.
“Why? Why would he do this to me?” Tori shuddered as a maleficent glow overtook her. “I’ve never done anything to him!
“He’s power-hungry. He wants to take over Hell,” Adriel said.
Tori held her forehead in her hands. “This can’t be real.”
“It is. I’m so sorry, Tori,” Charlotte said.
Tori sat up and looked into Charlotte’s eyes. “Did I hurt you?”
Charlotte blushed. “Well, you tried to. But I escaped.”
More tears leaked from Tori’s eyes. “I feel sick.” She stood and ran off before Charlotte or Adriel could stop her.
“We have to go after her!” Charlotte cried.
“Give her some space, Char. She’s ju
st had quite a shock.”
Charlotte nodded and rushed into Adriel’s arms. Now they were alone in the field with not a single soul around. Charlotte stood on her tiptoes and brushed Adriel’s lips with her own. He responded with a moan and kissed her back. Hard. Adriel wrapped his arms around Charlotte and grasped her ass until she squeaked. Their tongues pressed against each other with a mad, desperate need for each other.
Charlotte hopped up, and her legs squeezed around Adriel’s middle while his hands intertwined in Charlotte’s long tendrils. Adriel, unsteady and writhing inside with lust, stumbled back a few paces and lost his balance. The couple toppled over, with Charlotte landing on top of Adriel. She pined for him, needed him inside of her as if the act would be their last on earth.
“I’m glad we’re alone,” he whispered into her ear.
Charlotte smiled and pulled her top over her head with ease. As she tugged at Adriel’s t-shirt, revealing the abs which called her name, a stick behind them snapped in half. Charlotte and Adriel turned their heads as quickly as a whip, and Charlotte shrieked.
There stood seven men and women with glowing red eyes. Adriel rose, and Charlotte slipped off his hips, landing on the ground below her with a thud. Adriel stood in front of Charlotte, blocking the demons’ view of her.
“Who are you?” he growled.
“Are you Adriel?” the woman in front with a short pixie cut asked sheepishly.
“Who’s asking?”
Charlotte stood and peered at the demons over Adriel’s shoulder. If only the rest of them came back. They could use another demon and angel on their side.
“I’m Henley. These are my friends.” The she-demon gestured to those behind her. None of them bore any signs of attacking Adriel or Charlotte, but still, they had to be cautious.
“What do you want?”
“We aren’t here to cause trouble, Adriel,” Henley said, pushing aside her royal blue bangs from her face. “We actually need your help.”
“Huh?” Adriel blurted. “My help? For what?”
“It’s Liam. He’s even more powerful than before. He’s taken over Hell. It’s not good,” a male demon behind Henley said. He stood taller than any demon in their group, and the sunlight bounced off his bald head.
“What are you asking me for exactly?” Adriel asked.
“We want to join you,” Henley said, her voice trembling. “We narrowly escaped, and we can’t go back down there. We need your help, and we think you probably need ours, too.”
Charlotte stepped beside Adriel, revealing herself to the pack of demons. “Hi, I’m Charlotte.”
Henley smiled, baring brilliantly white teeth. “We’ve heard a lot about you. Besides taking over Hell, you’re the only other thing Liam wants.”
Charlotte spat upon the ground and narrowed her eyes. “I’d say he could rot in Hell, but he’s already there.”
Henley nodded and stepped toward Adriel and Charlotte. Adriel put his arm in front of Charlotte and stepped back too.
“We aren’t here to hurt you,” Henley said with her arms in front of her. “I promise.”
“Demons aren’t always the best at keeping their word,” Charlotte protested.
“Says the girl about to fuck a demon,” one of them in the back of the pack chirped.
Adriel bared his own set of shiny teeth, and Henley stepped in the middle of those on either side of her. “Bentley, shut your freaking hole! Adriel, I’m sorry. Please excuse him. He’s still a kid.”
Suddenly, Tori came back into view, sprinting toward Charlotte and Adriel as soon as she saw the company standing before them. Flames appeared under her feet as she ran.
“Who are you?” Tori threatened. “Stay away from them!”
Again, Henley put her hands up and waved an imaginary white flag. “We’re not here to harm anyone. We need help.”
Tori looked to Adriel for confirmation, and he nodded.
“Hon, are you okay?” Henley asked. “You look fresh.”
“Fresh?” Tori blurted.
Henley grinned. “Like you’ve just been turned.”
“Oh, yeah. I guess I have.” Tori plopped back onto the ground and moped like Eeyore.
“We can help you, ya know, adjust,” Henley offered.
“You will?” Tori asked.
Charlotte gazed at her friend, knowing things would never be the same again. Sure, they could return to relatively normal, but they would be different.
“Okay,” Tori said. “Show me how to be a demon.”
18
Henley told the group she had a place not too far outside of town. She offered the space to everyone for a place to set up and concoct a plan to defeat Liam. While Charlotte yearned for a place to stay or some semblance of safety, they had to wait for Mary Elizabeth and Cyndy to return.
While they waited, Henley and Bentley, twins as it turned out, showed Tori a few new tricks. They showed her how to conjure a flame in the palm of her hand and a few tips for hand-to-hand combat.
“If you’re fighting a human, you can just burn their pale asses, but if you fight a demon, hand-to-hand can come in handy,” Bentley said, snickering to himself.
“You’re such a nerd, Ben,” Henley said.
Bentley shrugged but continued to demonstrate to Tori how to dodge a bullet if someone shot at her.
“This is really insane,” Tori admitted. “Last thing I knew I was with my boyfriend on the couch, just being lazy with no real direction in life, and now I’m a freakin’ demon.”
“Life comes at ya fast,” Charlotte said, lying in Adriel’s lap while he played with her hair.
Soon after, Mary Elizabeth and Cyndy returned with several grocery bags of water, chips, and pop. They dropped the bags once they saw Charlotte and Adriel weren’t alone. After a little coaxing, Cyndy and Mary Elizabeth dropped their suspicions and introduced themselves to Henley, Bentley and their crew of outlaw demons.
“I can’t believe you live close to Buffalo,” Charlotte said.
“It’s a small world,” Henley replied. “I love Western New York, though. It almost beats the fruits of Hell.”
Charlotte cringed a little. Even though Henley and her crew seemed nice, they were still demons after all.
“What?” Henley asked. “I may be a demon, but at least I’m not as bad as Liam.”
Charlotte sighed. “So, my ex-fiancé is now the benchmark for ultimate evil?”
“Pretty much,” Bentley said. “He’s kind of a bastard. How did you manage to be with him for so long?”
Charlotte, Adriel, Mary Elizabeth, Cyndy and Henley’s crew exited their oversized Volkswagen van parked in a gravel driveway outside of a three-story mansion. The paint was chipped, and a few windows were missing, but it had to be better than hiding out in a field.
“I didn’t know what he was capable of until it was too late,” Charlotte whispered.
Adriel put his arm around her and steered her inside. Defeated and exhausted, Charlotte let him guide her into the house.
Inside, cobwebs hung from every nook and cranny, and a thin layer of dust covered each surface. A bat flew around too, causing Cyndy to shriek with dismay. Bentley smirked, and Cyndy shot him a scathing look, terrifying enough to stop the demon in his tracks.
“Well, should we come up with a game plan?” Henley asked.
“I was hoping to take a nap,” Charlotte said with a yawn.
The motley crew of demons gawked at Charlotte.
“What? I’m tired! You know, sleep? Humans need that.” She turned away, frowning.
“We don’t have much time,” Henley said. “Liam knows we escaped. He’ll be after us now.”
“Is it really that bad?” Adriel asked.
“Worse than you can imagine. Hell used to be fun, a paradise for dark and battered souls. Now, it’s torture even for us,” Henley explained.
Charlotte and Adriel plopped down onto a weathered leather sofa. Charlotte put her head on Adriel’s shoulder, and her eyes gre
w droopy and weary.
“He’s knocked off almost every demon who hasn’t pledged their loyalty to him,” Bentley said.
“Kinda defeats the purpose, doesn’t it?” Cyndy asked.
“What do you mean?” Bentley replied, staring at Cyndy with unblinking eyes.
“Well, he wants to grow his army, so what good does it do to kill off the ones who won’t join?”
“Makes the others fall in line,” Henley said darkly. “We were scheduled to pledge our allegiance to him before we escaped. But we couldn’t do it. Lucifer is the only leader we serve.”
“Speaking of the old man,” Adriel asked, “what’s he been doing in all this?”
“Liam has him locked up—has a gang torturing him night and day. It got pretty ugly before we left.” Henley closed her eyes and shuddered.
“He has to be stopped!” Charlotte said, heat rising in her cheeks.
“I’m not sure if he can be,” Mary Elizabeth warned. “Not as long as he wears Lucifer’s ring."
“What do you mean? There has to be a way to get it back to Lucifer!” Charlotte chirped.
“I don’t see how. His power far exceeds anything I’ve ever seen, and having the ring will only make it that much harder to defeat him,” Mary Elizabeth explained.
“He has Lucifer’s ring?” Henley asked, aghast. “It all makes sense now!”
Henley, Bentley, and their crew hung their heads. “He’s going to come for us sooner or later. Probably sooner. He can’t handle anyone not obeying his every last word.”
Silence swept over the room until Charlotte stood to address the group. “What does he want almost as much as power?”
No one answered.
Charlotte tapped her foot. Still, no one knew. “He wants me! I’m the only one he can’t force to love him. What if I offer to give myself over to him if he stops all this. If he lets Lucifer return to his throne or whatever?”
Adriel jumped to his feet. “You can’t do that! I won’t let you.”
“The only way we can stop Liam is if he chooses to stop himself,” she said. “It’s this, or we all die trying.”
