Beauty Awakened aotd-2

by Gena Showalter

  Once upon a time he’d possessed a head of hair to match. Long, thick and black, intricate beadwork woven throughout the prized strands. Now... He scrubbed a hand over the smoothness of his scalp. Now he was bald, his precious hair sacrificed in favor of vengeance.

  Now he looked like his father.

  Before he could stop it, his mind took him back to one of the many times he’d stood at the bottom of a deep, dark pit, thousands of hissing serp demons slithering over feet that had been flayed like fish...around a neck that had been sliced like Christmas ham.

  Serps were very much like snakes, and they had continually sunk their fangs into him, all over him, dripping venom straight into his veins. But through it all he’d stood utterly still, remaining strong, refusing to so much as groan. His father had promised to remove a finger for every sign of weakness he exhibited. And when he ran out of fingers, he had been told he would lose his hands, his feet...his arms and his legs.

  Back then, he hadn’t yet reached full maturity—hence the reason his wings had not grown back—and he would have been unable to regenerate the limbs. He would have suffered all of his life, and he—

  Beat the ugly memory to the back of his mind, where it belonged. So his father had tortured him for eleven years. So what? He’d been rescued by Sent Ones, and had later become part of an army himself. Not the one he was currently in, but a different one, commanded by the now-deceased Ivar. Back then, Ivar had been the best of the Elite, and being under his command had been an honor.

  Yet, in a fit of temper very much like the one he’d just displayed, Koldo had thrown that opportunity away, besting Ivar in front of his men.

  Regret still haunted him. Such a lack of respect for such an admirable man...

  Koldo had been kicked out of the army and left on his own—for a while. He’d used the time to return to his father’s camp and obliterate everyone and everything.

  The single greatest day of his life.

  He reached up and gripped the rock above him. Now I’m part of this new army, led by a man once known only as Ice. Tomorrow, Zacharel would have another mission for him, one far below his skill level. Koldo knew this, because his leader had sent him out every day for the past three weeks, allowing him no time to break a heavenly law and bring judgment upon his head. At least, supposedly.

  Koldo could lie.

  Koldo could steal.

  Koldo could kill.

  He could do any number of other things their kind was not to do. But he wouldn’t.

  Thankfully, he wouldn’t have to worry about being paired with Axel. Zacharel liked to assign him a new partner for every new mission, probably to keep him off-kilter.

  Sadly, it was working.

  And yet, there was one bright light, he realized. The girl from the hospital in Wichita, Kansas. The redhead. He still wanted to see her.

  Surely she wasn’t as tiny as he seemed to remember. For all he knew, she possessed the long, lithe legs of a dancer. Surely her hair wasn’t the sweet color of strawberries. It had to be fire-engine red or an ordinary dark blond. Surely he’d imagined the purity of her tone. Surely.

  He straightened, anticipation overshadowing all else. He had to know, the desire a living entity inside him.

  First, though, he would have to hunt her down.

  CHAPTER TWO

  KOLDO SPENT THE REST of the night digging through the heavenly archives kept on every human ever to live and learned several interesting tidbits about the blonde and the redhead. The comatose girl was Laila Lane, and the other one, the one he wished to observe, was Nicola Lane. They were twenty-three-year-old twins, with Nicola being older by two minutes, and unmarried.

  So young. Too young.

  The two were identical. The only reason Laila had blond hair was because she’d bleached it, hoping to be “unique.” The girls had no other family, and relied only on each other. Their parents had died in a car accident five years before.

  Koldo left the library and flashed to Laila’s hospital room. Once again Nicola was nowhere to be seen. But he wasn’t worried. According to the gossiping nurses, she came every day. He had only to wait.

  He strode to the edge of the bed. This time, the Most High’s gift was not in operation, so, when he looked, he saw the blonde rather than the demon hiding under her skin.

  The sight was almost as bad.

  Her hair was dry, thin and matted. There were bruises under her eyes, and her lips were chapped. Her skin was severely yellowed, her liver obviously shutting down.

  She wouldn’t last much longer.

  The Water of Life was a powerful liquid capable of repairing the most damaged human flesh, and the only thing capable of saving her. It would also rid her of the demon. But her thoughts, words and actions would influence its continued success.

  The grzech could return to her and try again to poison her. So, even if Koldo fed her the Water, she would have to learn to fight the forces of evil—and then actually fight. Was she willing to engage in any kind of battle?

  Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, Koldo wasn’t willing to suffer and sacrifice, and he would have to do so to even approach the shoreline of the River of Life. First, he would be whipped. Second, he would be forced to give up something precious to him. Last time he’d relinquished his hair. And there was no telling what he would be asked to give up next. His ability to flash? His captive mother?

  Never!

  The practice had not been created by the Most High, and wasn’t even supported by Him. But Germanus refused to end “a tradition that had been with their kind since the beginning,” as a means of proving the depth of their determination. So, once again free will prevailed and the practice continued year by year. Koldo saw no way around it.

  The room’s only door opened suddenly, and Nicola stepped inside. Koldo straightened, and even tensed at the sight of her. He frowned. His body had only ever reacted this way before battle. Why was this happening with her?

  At least she had no idea he was there. He was in the spiritual realm, and she in the natural, so he was blocked from her gaze.

  He looked her over from bottom to top, then back down—far more slowly. That fall of strawberry curls was once again in a ponytail, the thick length tumbling over one shoulder. There were dark circles under her eyes, and the color in her cheeks was high. Her lips were swollen from being chewed. Despite the heat outside, a worn pink sweater draped her shoulders, the lapels pulled tightly together.

  She was a tiny fluff of nothing, just as he recalled, her frame heart-wrenchingly delicate. He towered over her, and could easily break her in half with a single twist of his wrist.

  Can’t ever touch her, he told himself.

  For some reason, the tension inside him only increased.

  The same demons stood sentry behind her, following close at her heels. They spotted Koldo and spewed a mouthful of dark curses.

  “Why are you here?”

  “What do you hope to gain?”

  He ignored them, and they decided to do the same to him, perhaps hoping he would go away this second time, too.

  “Hey, La La,” she said softly. “It’s Co Co. I’m told you’ve taken a turn for the worse.”

  The words were encased by a thick, grim shell, yet still her voice stroked over him. A feather tickling. A brush of velvet caressing. He savored the odd sensations, even...liked them?

  Nicola pushed the smallest chair next to the bed, struggling under its weight. The demons snickered at her. Angered, Koldo stepped toward her, intending to help her, but immediately forced himself to still. Now wasn’t the time to reveal himself. He would frighten her.

  The demons caught his aborted action and scowled at him. So much for ignoring him.

  “You’re not welcome here, Koldo,” Lefty said.

  Responding to a demon invited conversation. Conversation invited lies. Koldo wasn’t so foolish as that. But he wasn’t surprised the creature knew his name. With as many demonic kills as Koldo had made throughout the centuri
es, the entire underworld knew of him.

  “We can make you leave,” Righty proclaimed.

  Fine. He was foolish. He said, “You can try.” No matter what, they would fail.

  Nicola reached out and gently patted her sister’s hand. “Oh, did I tell you? Blaine won the race.”

  The monitors beeped steadily, the comatose girl never moving, never twitching.

  Sighing, Nicola sat back in the chair and began to relay the trials of her workday.

  This time, he would help her, Koldo decided. To start, he would have to do something to ensure she listened to him, and actually acted on what he said.

  That was the only way she would come out of this.

  And perhaps it was his only way out, too. In saving her, he might finally find some sort of atonement.

  Atonement. The word echoed in his mind. It was something he sometimes craved, but not something he deserved. Sometimes, when he closed his eyes, he could still hear the agonized screams he’d caused...could still feel the barb of his victims’ fear.

  Clenching his fists, he resolved himself. He could do this. And so could she.

  “You’re going to get better, La La,” she suddenly announced, as though drawing hope from his thoughts. “You have to recover. I won’t allow anything else. I’m the big sister, and you have to do whatever I tell you to do. Nothing else is acceptable.”

  Gaze locked on Koldo, Righty bent down and whispered into her ear. Spreading poison.

  The color drained from her cheeks.

  Lefty squeezed her shoulder, and she slumped forward, as though some of her energy had evaporated in a puff of smoke.

  She stopped talking victory, and went back to discussing her day.

  Koldo rubbed the back of his neck. What had just happened was a prime example of the life she had probably always led, pulling herself up only to be knocked down again.

  Well, no more.

  His body tensed all over again, preparing for war. But this was different than what he’d felt when Nicola had first entered the room. There was no sense of anticipation, no hint of excitement. He just wanted to flat-out raze his enemy into the ground.

  He held out his hand and summoned a sword of fire—another gift every Sent One received from the Most High. One he always had a right to use.

  Righty and Lefty jolted to attention, gnarled wings popping from their backs.

  “You sure you want to do this?” Righty asked with a gleeful smile. The horns on the creature’s head grew...grew...becoming monstrous ivory towers. Fangs stretched between his lips, extending past his jaw. “You’ll walk away, but you’ll be in pieces.”

  The same grotesque transformation overtook Lefty, little sparks of fire flashing underneath his scales.

  Koldo didn’t bother with a response. He simply launched forward, blade arcing through the air. The two demons flew apart, moving out of harm’s way. He expected the action and went low as he landed, twisting to the right. Flames slicked over Righty’s thigh.

  The demon grunted from the pain, the scent of burned hair filling the room.

  Koldo jumped up, kicking a leg forward and a leg backward, nailing both of his opponents at the same time. He landed, and they recovered enough to leap at him, punching. He blocked one, but purposely took the other’s abuse, grabbing on to Lefty’s arm and holding tight as he used the appendage as leverage to swing up both of his legs into Righty’s throat with a brutal slam slam of his booted feet. Then he flipped Lefty over and tossed him to his back to stomp on the creature’s face. Bone crunched, suddenly a jigsaw puzzle that needed to be put back together.

  Before the second stomp, Lefty rolled to his feet and bounded on the bed—the females utterly unaware—and, without pausing to consider a wiser way, slammed into Koldo’s back. A long, thick tail wound around his middle, squeezing. The hook on the end sliced all the way to Koldo’s intestines.

  Lefty raised sharpened claws, intending to slash through his windpipe, but Koldo flashed to the other side of the bed. The moment he landed, he leaned forward and grabbed the end of the creature’s tail, jerking and spinning Lefty’s entire body.

  As the fiend careened forward, Koldo flashed behind him and swung his sword. The demon tried to dodge, but wasn’t fast enough. Fire met scales and bone, and scales and bone immediately lost. The demon’s arm detached, spraying black blood over the floor.

  Blood the humans would never see.

  A howl of agony erupted as Lefty grabbed the appendage and flew out the window, into the afternoon sunlight. Unlike Sent Ones, demons couldn’t regenerate limbs. The creature would have to have the arm reattached.

  Deep down, Koldo knew this would not be their last battle.

  Cursing, Righty turned in a half circle, his gnarled wings sweeping in Koldo’s direction. He could have dodged, but he chose to allow the end of one wing to clip his ankles, knocking them together, sending him flying to the floor. The beads in his beard rattled as he hit, air bursting from his lungs. He pretended to lose his hold on the sword, and the weapon vanished.

  Righty dived on top of him, just as he’d wanted, fangs bared. Koldo punched with all of his might, and broke the demon’s nose, sending fragments of cartilage into his rotting brain. Then, Koldo flashed behind him, summoning the sword of fire, swinging. The demon shot forward, staying low. But not low enough. The scent of smoke and sulfur filled the air. A loud thump sounded. One of the creature’s horns was now missing.

  Features contorted with rage, the demon hopped to hoofed feet, black blood leaking down his face, from his busted nose. Roaring, he lunged. Twisting left, twisting right, Koldo stepped into the battle dance. Righty knew when and where to move, sometimes managing to avoid injury. They tangoed from one side of the room to the other, up the walls, down the walls, on the floor, across the ceiling, rolling over the bed, falling through Nicola as she continued to chat with her sister, not so much as a hitch in her breath.

  Koldo released the sword and grabbed a fistful of fur on the demon’s chest. He launched the creature through the far wall. A second later, the fiend raced back into the room.

  “The girl is mine,” Righty snarled, stalking a circle around him. “Mine! I’ll never let her go.”

  “You were foolish when you decided to follow Lucifer rather than the Most High, and you’re foolish now, to think you can best me. You fight from a place of defeat, and you always will.” Long ago, the Most High had crushed all the forces of hell. But still the creatures struck at humans, determined to hurt those the Most High loved.

  And the Most High loved all humans. He wanted to adopt them, as He’d done the Sent Ones.

  A hiss of rage sounded. “I’ll show you defeat!” Rather than initiating a full-scale attack, the demon backed one step away, two...three. A slow grin lifted the corners of his lips. “Yes, I’ll show you defeat. Very, very soon.” With that, he disappeared through the wall.

  Koldo waited, at the ready, but the demon never returned. No doubt, he’d gone to recruit a few of his friends.

  I’ll be ready.

  Only problem was, “very, very soon” told Koldo nothing. In their realm, one day could be as long as a thousand years and a thousand years as short as one day.

  “What the heck is going on?” Nicola exclaimed. “It’s like two boulders have been lifted from my shoulders.” As she spoke, a smile lit her entire face, transforming her from plain to exquisite. Her pale skin took on a radiant sheen, her eyes becoming the color of summer rather than winter.

  The moisture in his mouth dried.

  “Oh, La La. It’s wonderful!”

  Wonderful, yes, but still the toxin flowed through her veins. That would have to be dealt with.

  He would have to find a way to gently reveal himself to her, something he’d never done with a human. He would have to garner her trust, something he’d never before cared to try. But when? How? And how would she react?

  Be as shrewd as a serpent yet as harmless as a dove, Germanus used to tell him.

&nb
sp; Funny, but Koldo was far less assured of his success with the girl than he’d been with the demons.

  CHAPTER THREE

  The next day

  THE ELEVATOR DINGED, and the double doors slid open. Nicola Lane stepped inside the small enclosure, relieved to find she was alone. She was—

  Not alone, she realized with a jolt of surprise. Oh, wow. Okay. In the far corner, a very tall, very muscled man shifted from the shadows. How could she have missed him, even for a second?

  The doors closed, sealing her inside with him. I don’t judge by outward appearance. I really do not judge by outward appearance. But oh, wow, wow, wow, he had to be a time-traveling Viking sent here to abduct modern women to give to his men back home—because they’d killed all the women in their village.

  I watch too much TV.

  He certainly gave off an all-dangerous-all-the-time vibe. And now, it was too late to avoid a possible pillaging.

  Her heart fluttered, the warped beat making her light-headed.

  “Floor?” he asked, his deep voice filled with more jagged edges than a shattered mirror.

  “Lobby,” she managed to reply, and he pressed the appropriate button.

  It was a miracle the entire elevator didn’t split apart from the force he used.

  There was an exaggerated shake, and the cart began to descend. The scent of morning sky and—this could have been mere fantasy on her part—rainbows filled the small enclosure, and every waft came from the man. It was, quite possibly, the best cologne she’d ever smelled, and like the ladies in the AXE commercials, she had to battle the urge to lean into him and sniff his neck.

  And wouldn’t he just love that? He would demand to know what the heck she was doing, she would panic and her heart would give out, just as Laila’s had, and...and...she wasn’t going to think about her beautiful, precious Laila right now. She wasn’t going to think about losing another loved one. First her mother, father and br— No, she wasn’t going to think about that, either. She would break down.

  And was that delicious heat coming from the Viking, too? For the first time in years, Nicola felt enveloped by warmth, the cold from her medications and poor circulation finally chased away.