“I do agree, old friend,” Uriel said, dropping a hand on my shoulder. “If there’s even the slightest chance it’s true, then I will keep my hands to myself. I cannot bear the thought of her dying. She has snuck her way into my heart.”
“Well, don’t tell her that,” I muttered.
I myself had said far too much to her. I loved the girl. I truly did.
But this prophecy said that she would die, trying to save the love of her life. And then Apocalypse 2.0 would begin.
So, we had to make certain that would never happen.
Chapter Fifteen
Erela
At least someone in this house was getting some action. When I wandered into the living room after a fitful night of sleep, I found Lilith and Rourke curled up together on the couch. Once again, he was topless.
“You know, both of you have bedrooms where you could be doing your kinky blood sex,” I said, loud enough that they both awoke with a start. Lilith was immediately on her feet, adjusting her shirt and her pants while Rourke just smiled lazily up at me.
“You still high on the blood thing or something?” I arched an eyebrow.
“Nope.” He grinned. “Just happy.”
“Jesus.” I turned to Lilith. “What have you done to the poor guy?”
She turned toward Rourke and winked. “Rocked his world a few times.”
“Alright, listen.” I laughed and held up my hands. “That’s enough information.”
“Hey, you’re the one who played matchmaker,” Rourke said.
“He’s got a point,” Lilith preened. “How could you possibly be complaining when you were the one who wanted us to get together in the first place?”
“Get together.” I gave Lilith a soft little push toward the door. “In your bedrooms. Other people have to sit on those sofas, you know.”
“The radio is in here,” she said, pointing to the contraption with about half a dozen antennas. “It took Harry forever to find the exact right spot so that it could get all the signals. If we move it, then…well, it’ll be a pain.”
“I can’t help but notice said radio is off.”
“We may have turned the volume down so that we could…” She glanced at Rourke and bit her lip. “Concentrate.”
She said the last word just as he said, “Do activities.”
I rolled my eyes, now understanding why Ramiel was so hardcore about people focusing when on duty. Boinking caused distractions. But at the thought of Rourke, all the light-hearted banter I had cued up on my lips disappeared into a puff of smoke. Last night had sucked ass, and a part of me kind of felt adrift after our conversation. Ramiel had broken my heart. And what’s worse, I understood why he did it.
Now, I had to live and work and fight in an Order where I had to spend all my time side-by-side with four males I knew I could never have, and that I knew I would always want. I had fallen for these males, in more ways than one. While I’d wanted to stay on earth to help fight against the demons here, I’d also stayed for them. Because I wanted them. Because I loved them. Every single damn one of them.
“Erela?” Lilith said, tilting her head and frowning. She must have sensed the change in my mood. “You okay?”
“No.” Tears filled my eyes, but I blinked them away. “Actually, yes. I am fine. Let’s get back to the radio thing. Should we turn the volume back up?”
She opened her mouth to say something, but then seemed to think better of it. She turned to her lover and said, “Why don’t you go and get some rest? We’ll take over the radio shift from here.”
Without a moment’s hesitation, Rourke stood and made his way out of the room. Lilith stared after him, lust and affection blazing in her eyes. After a moment, she cleared her throat and moved to the radio, turning the dial until we could hear the unmistakable sound of…well, absolutely nothing. It was just static. Lots and lots of static.
“Now, you see why we turned it down. Not really a good soundtrack for—”
“I get it.” I held up my hands. “Trust me, I get it. No need to explain beyond that.”
She chuckled, eased into the wing-backed chair that had replaced the recliner, lacing her hands behind her head. “You didn’t seem nearly so allergic to affection in New York. Trouble in paradise?”
“If by paradise, you mean my love life, then there’s no such thing as paradise.”
“Ouch.” She leaned forward and propped her elbows on her knees. “I thought you and your lovers were getting along splendidly.”
“We were. And then I got dumped. Twice. Well, I guess four times since one of them dumped me for the rest of them. It turns out that dating four fallen angels at once isn’t acceptable even down on earth.”
“Honey, that kind of thing isn’t acceptable anywhere, but we’re in the middle of the apocalypse. I say you do whatever you damn well want.”
“Thanks, but they don’t seem to agree.” I sighed and shrugged. “I guess I’m officially in the forever alone club.”
“Have you ever thought about, I don’t know, just choosing one of them?” Lilith lifted an eyebrow. “I know you have feelings for them all, but—”
I shook my head so hard that my long dark hair slapped my face. “Ramiel seems convinced that any romantic relationship between Order members will only lead to major problems. Besides…” I let out a light sigh. “I couldn’t choose, Lilith. I could never choose. My heart will always belong to all of them. It wouldn’t be right or fair to anyone if I tried to pick one and ignore the others.”
“Least of all you.” She gave me a knowing look. “You have a big heart, Erela, as evidenced by the rat that seems to be scurrying over to see you.”
My lips tilted up into a smile when the rat in question climbed up my pant leg and perched on my knee. “Mr. Whiskerson. At least you haven’t abandoned me.”
He twitched his little whiskers, scurried down my leg, and then raced across the room to the radio. Frowning, I watched as he spun in circles, almost like he was trying to tell us something.
“What do you think that’s about?” I asked.
“I haven’t the foggiest. You’re the one who can speak rat.”
“Funny,” I said, still watching the creature dance his little jig in front of the radio. “He’s obviously not doing that for the hell of it. Is there something wrong with the radio?”
“Honestly, Erela. He’s a rat. How could he—”
But I’d stopped listening. Instead, I stood and walked over to the radio, bending down to stare at the wires and antennas and the various little knobs. As soon as I’d begun to approach, Mr. Whiskerson had stopped spinning. Clearly, he was trying to tell me something about this thing…
“What happens when I twist this knob?” I pointed to one of the dials.
“It changes the station. But every news alert I’ve ever heard has been on this station here.”
I turned the dial. At first, nothing happened. Just more static. And more and more and more. But after I’d spun the dial about halfway around, crackling voices filled the room.
“Stop!” Lilith jumped to her feet and raced across the room. Her eyes wild and her cheeks dotted with pink, she took over, spinning the dial a bit further until the crackling dropped away, revealing a very clear female voice, speaking in a British accent.
“We don’t quite know what to do. There have been at least two hundred more deaths in the past few weeks. Our communities are suffering. The food supply seems to be cut off, and there’s no way out. If anyone, anyone hears this, please help. Or please stay away. I honestly don’t know which would be worse. We need your help, but there are hundreds of them.”
Lilith and I exchanged a glance. There was only one thing this woman could be talking about, and that was the portal. The demons had discovered that it was open then, and they’d been swarming through. Killing innocent humans, destroying food, and god knew what else. We needed to figure out where she was, and we needed to get there stat. If we didn’t…things would only get worse.
* * *
We listened for a few moments longer, and the woman began her news alert again. This time, we got to hear the beginning. She and her friends were located in London. They’d holed up in the Tower of London, the perfect location to keep humans safe from the demons outside in the streets. Until a new portal had opened. From inside the Tower. Knowing Berith, it made sense. It was the exact kind of move I would have thought he’d make.
The survivors had holed up in one of the dungeons until the demons got bored and broke out of the Tower. They’d spilled out onto the streets, leaving behind a trail of bodies.
Ramiel joined us in the living room, and we listened as the girl read out the news alert again. I could tell it wasn’t a recording. Every now and again, her breathing would change as if she were crying. A word would be different here and there. I couldn’t help but wonder how many times she’d said this exact same thing, hoping and praying that someone out there would hear her.
Wishing for her guardian angels from above to come save her. Guardians who couldn’t care less.
At least there was us.
“What do you think?” I asked after we’d listened to it three more times.
He gave a solemn nod. “It seems legitimate. I assumed that Berith would open the portal far from where he’d hidden the amulet, but I suppose he did not have a great deal of time.”
“So, we need to go to the Tower of London,” I said. “And it sounds like we might need to free some humans who are trapped in a dungeon.”
“That probably explains why the radio station is different,” Lilith said. “They’d have set up a different antenna to make it work down there.”
“What’s London like, anyway?” I asked. “Is the demon population anything like it was in New York?”
Ramiel pressed his lips tightly together. “It’s worse.”
Chapter Sixteen
Erela
Once again, we all piled into Lilith’s truck, only this time Captain Rourke decided to join us. It seemed as though his connection with Lilith was making him lean a bit more heavily toward the heroic side.
As the truck rumbled down the road, I leaned forward where he sat in the front by Lilith’s side. “Last chance to stay in paradise,” I said, thinking back to Lilith’s comment about my love life. Rourke probably felt that paradise was by her side, and staying behind would be pure hell, so he’d rather walk straight into danger if it meant they could be together. Too bad my own unrequited loves didn’t feel the same way he did.
“I’m going with,” he grunted. “I’m not letting Lilith go straight into a horde of demons alone. Need to make sure she’s safe.”
“You do realize that she’s a blood demon, right?” I arched a brow. “And you’re a human.”
“I already tried that reasoning on him, Erela,” Lilith tossed over her shoulder as she changed gears, lurching the truck forward and back. “He’s not having it.”
When we started to get closer to London, I could see what Ramiel had meant about it being worse than New York. Already I could see plumes of smoke dotted across the horizon, building up into a massive cloud that hulked over the taller buildings that made up what used to be the City where financial execs had worked long into the night. The closer and closer we got, the thicker the smoke and the thicker the scent. It mixed with the iron tang of blood.
I pressed my hand to my mouth and tried not to gag, shivering when a heavy blanket of invisible darkness settled over my body. It pulsed against my skin, seeking for weaknesses, calling out toward the demon that lurked inside of me. Gritting my teeth, I squeezed my eyes shut against that call, hating that part of me with every fiber of my being.
“And that,” Az spoke up from behind me with a harsh, yet eager voice, “is what the portal feels like. At least we know we’re heading in the right direction.”
It took us another two hours to pick through the debris in order to reach the Tower of London. The truck might be built like a tank and prepared for war, but it still couldn’t bulldoze its way through piles of lamp posts that had been placed across the road to block travellers. Buildings on either side of the road had been demolished, and their remains had been used to create even more obstacles. We would stop the truck, clear as much space as we could, and then plow forward until we reached another blockade.
The entire time, I could feel the pulse of evil. The call of it. It sang in my bones, tempting my soul. Every now and again, I would glance at Sam to see if he heard it, too, but if he did, he did not acknowledge it.
Downtown, things were far worse. A few fires burned in random shops that we passed. They’d been raided and torched a long time ago, but their shells still raged with flames, as if the new demons who had entered this realm had decided to follow in the footsteps of their brethren.
Bodies littered the ground. I swallowed hard and glanced away from them. Despite the horror of New York, the violence had been more hidden there. Or rather, the violence had happened many years before I’d ever arrived. This was fresh and new and very real. New demons had just arrived in this city, and they were hungry for blood.
“Looks as though there are some fire demons and some blood demons among the mix,” Lilith said, turning up her nose at the bodies. Despite her own need for blood, this violence was the very opposite of everything she wanted for this world. She had once told me that there were more demons out there like her, but so far, we hadn’t met any. “I can tell by the way these humans have been attacked that this is the work of my own kind.”
“Fire demons, we can handle,” Ramiel said without even casting a glance in my direction. “Blood demons might be more of a problem.”
“Because we can’t kill them,” I said.
“They are extremely difficult to defeat,” he said. “Weapons are no good against them, as you have seen first hand with Lilith. We can get a brief respite. Our weapons can weaken them. But if they have fed recently…”
That was why Lilith had fallen so easily. Because of our trip from New York to Rhode Island, she didn’t have any of her human companions to feed from. Her defenses had been lower than they would have been otherwise.
“We just need to get into the Tower,” Uriel said. “If the human girl on the radio is right, the demons who attacked them there are long gone. They’ve moved on to other victims. We might come across a few here and there, but it doesn’t sound like any of them are guarding it.”
“No, it won’t be that easy,” I said quietly. “Berith would have made certain of that.”
Good old Berith. Nothing was ever straightforward with that demon. He would have left some kind of assurances in place that there would be more than just an unguarded open portal for us to find. After the massive snake we’d encountered in his castle, I wasn’t particularly looking forward to whatever we’d find waiting for us inside the Tower of London.
“She’s right,” Sam said, but he didn’t bother to elaborate.
“Wow,” I said, sarcasm inching into my voice as I turned his way. “I’m surprised you bothered to even acknowledge my existence, much less admit that I’m right about something.”
His face looked pained, but he didn’t bother to argue.
“Erela,” Ramiel said.
“What?” I frowned. “It’s true. You’ve all gone weird, even Az.”
“Now is not the time to talk about this,” he said, his voice firm and harsh.
Tears blinked into my eyes and I gritted my teeth, glancing out the window to look at anything other than any of their faces.
When we were about a block away from the entrance to the Tower of London, Lilith pulled the old junker to the curb and cut the engine. We all stared ahead at the arched entryway and the cluster of old stone buildings beyond. The sky was a steel gray, a murky backdrop to the ancient tower. A very, very long time ago—far before the demon apocalypse even happened—Kings and Queens had used this place for torture and executions. Many believed the souls of those who perished there haunted anyone who s
tepped foot inside.
Of course, that was nonsense. Humans might have been right about angels and demons and vampires (kind of), but ghosts were nothing more than a figment of their overactive imaginations.
That said, I could see why some had gotten the idea into their heads, and we hadn’t even stepped through that archway yet. There was something distinctly…off about this place, and it was more than just the aura of evil that emanated from the portal to hell.
Because, I mean, obviously that was still happening. There was just something more there, too.
“Is this what the portal always feels like?” I kept my face forward when I asked the question. Right now, I couldn’t bear to look at any of them.
“What do you mean, feels like?” Rourke grunted. “All I feel is pissed off.”
“There’s an aura in the air, sweetheart.” Lilith patted his knee. “Don’t you worry about it. To answer your question, Erela. No. It doesn’t always feel like this. Berith has obviously left us an extra present. I’m sure we’ll all have fun tackling whatever that is.”
We all piled out of the truck, grabbing our various weapons. Beneath my skin, my fire buzzed, the depths of my demonic powers awakening to the pull of whatever fresh hell sat waiting inside the Tower. I shuddered and pushed it down. Now was not the time for my skin to become flames. Now was not the time for the demonic part of my soul to come alive. I’d lived eighteen years as an angel, and I’d done just fine without the fire taking over my mind. I couldn’t let it take over me now.
“You okay?” Sam asked, taking my elbow in his hand.
With a sigh, I stepped away, pulling my elbow out of his grasp. “Fine.”
“Erela, come on,” he said, his voice pleading.
“Don’t,” I said. “You’re the one who said we should keep some distance between us. I’m only following along with what you said.”
“And this is exactly why I said we needed to keep our distance,” Ramiel said, grabbing his sword from the back of the truck. “We need to focus. Stop arguing.”
Nebulous: Order of the Fallen - Book Two Page 8
