Road to Hell

by J. C. Diem

  “What did she show you?” Leo asked.

  “Cities on fire and burned skeletons everywhere,” I replied bleakly. “I pretty much saw the same thing that Sophia did in her vision she had when I was born. The demons are going to overwhelm the entire planet and everyone is going to die.”

  “Why did Fate choose you?” Brie asked. Her arms were tightly folded and her body language told me that she thought Fate had picked the wrong person. I couldn’t help but agree with her.

  “I don’t know. She said I was different from everyone else, but she didn’t explain how.”

  “Fate uses us as she sees fit,” Nathanael said wearily. “She is not prone to explaining herself.”

  “You have had dealings with her in the past?” Sophia asked.

  He shook his head. “Not I. Someone I once knew had the misfortune of falling beneath her notice.” His lips pressed together, signaling that that was all the information he was going to give us. I had a feeling he knew more about this, but he wasn’t going to fill us in on the details.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Fifteen

  “We’ve added one more soldier to our team,” I said to Sophia. “What happens now? Do we go forth and begin smiting down our enemies?”

  “From what Brie and Leo have told me, that would be unwise. There are far too many demons in the city. We will have to use stealth and cunning rather than brute force to defeat them.”

  “Great,” I said with a grimace. “Because I have so much experience with stealth and cunning.”

  Nathanael turned to look at me. “You managed to sneak out to see your beau without your mother’s knowledge on more than one occasion. Perhaps you have more practice at stealth than you care to admit.” I caught a hint of disapproval in his tone and my face flamed red.

  Leo’s mouth hung open and Brie looked at me as if I was scum. “You are only sixteen and you are already sneaking out so you can sleep with a boy?” she said accusingly.

  I scowled at her erroneous assumption and at my privacy being invaded. “For your information, I haven’t slept with Zach, or anyone else,” I said to her tightly then turned on Nathanael. “As for you, what possible excuse can you have for spying on me like that?”

  “I assure you, I was not spying by choice.” He seemed almost amused by my rage. “I learned of your visits with your beau quite by accident. If you recall, you were almost killed on two separate occasions when you snuck out. I intervened and saved you both times.”

  “So, it is true that she frequently comes close to dying?” Leo asked.

  Nathanael inclined his head. “Indeed. I have never seen anything like it. Her luck is quite horrible.”

  “I know you’re ridiculously ancient,” I said with heavy sarcasm, “but it’s time for you to come into the twenty-first century. Zach is my boyfriend, not my beau. Seriously, no one has used that term in decades.” He looked affronted, but I wasn’t done yet. “Also, I’m not calling you Nathanael.”

  “It is my name,” he said stiffly.

  “Not anymore. From now on, you’re Nathan.”

  Brie looked at him with a hint of pity. “It is for the best. Now that we are trapped in this city indefinitely, it is in our best interests to blend in.”

  He nodded, but he wasn’t happy about his name change. He cut me a sidelong look and I wondered if he blamed me for his circumstances. Rather than blurting out that none of this was my fault, I clenched my hands and bit my tongue. Complaining would just make them think I was even more of a baby than they already considered me to be. I’d only just turned seventeen, but it was time for me to grow up.

  “Have you had any new visions?” I asked Sophia. I mentally crossed my fingers that the answer would be no.

  She shook her head. “Not as yet.”

  “Good,” I said and a weight slipped off my shoulders. “I need a break from action after last night.”

  “There is no time for you to laze around and take your ease,” Brie said snottily. “Have you forgotten that we are at war?”

  “Wars aren’t won in a day,” I said snippily, sick to death of her attitude. “It’s apparently too dangerous for me to go out hunting them even if I did have the skill to fight them, which I clearly don’t. Sophia hasn’t had another vision yet, so we have no idea what to do next. What difference does it make if I take a couple of hours to myself?”

  Brie opened her mouth to make a retort, but Sophia beat her to it. “I think that is a good idea. I will give you some money so you can go shopping.”

  I waved away her offer. “That’s okay. I still have some cash left over from when I robbed Bob.”

  “It is too dangerous for you to go out alone,” Nathan said. He might not want to be lumped with me, but he wasn’t going to shirk his duty. A small stab of pain hit me at the thought that he hadn’t been watching over me by choice. I was just an onerous task to him.

  “Leo can come with me,” I said before he could stand. The teen looked at me in surprise, but he didn’t argue. “I’ll just change into a pair of jeans.”

  “Wear the black ones that aren’t full of holes,” Brie suggested. “That way you will not be mistaken for a homeless person.”

  “I am a homeless person,” I reminded her in the same snotty tone that she was so fond of using. “My mother was murdered and I had to run for my life from demons, remember?”

  “This is your home now,” Sophia said gently.

  “No it isn’t.” I tried not to let my bleakness show, but it was hard. “You’re just letting me stay here until I do whatever it is that Fate expects from me.” I didn’t kid myself that I would succeed. Brie was right, I had no fighting skills. I would fail and the world would burn because I wasn’t up to the job.

  Picking up my bowl and cup, I left the room with their stares following me. They started whispering even before I was out of earshot.

  My hunger was gone, but I quickly finished off my cereal before washing my dishes. If Sophia hadn’t had a vision of me and sent the twins to retrieve me, I would have known true hunger soon enough. Wasting food didn’t sit well with me now that I’d come so close to being penniless.

  After a quick trip upstairs to change, I returned wearing the black jeans that Brie had suggested. I’d teamed it up with the black hoodie. It had deep pockets that could hold my sheathed dagger.

  Brie took in my jeans with a smug smile that I did my best to ignore. Her attitude sucked, but she made sense most of the time. Leo scrambled to his feet when I swept past the table and headed for the door. Pulling it open, I was glad to step outside. It might be dangerous to walk around the city, but I needed to get away from my responsibilities, even if it was just for a short while.

  Leo caught up to me before I’d taken more than a few steps. Shoving his hands into his pockets, he emulated a normal teenager so well that it was hard to remember that he was an immortal being.

  As always, the sidewalks were crammed with people. We wended our way through them, staying on the lookout for demons. I pulled the hood of my sweater up to hide my hair. The bracelet made it hard for them to notice me, but I wasn’t taking any chances.

  “Why did you choose me to come with you?” Leo asked me curiously.

  “You don’t have to come if you don’t want to.”

  “I do not mind. I am just trying to understand why you asked me to accompany you.”

  All illusion that he was a fourteen year old boy vanished when he spoke. Like the others, his speech was far too formal. “You’re easier to get along with than the others,” I said.

  His face lit up in a pleased smile. “Truly?”

  “Yep.”

  “Why?”

  “Because Sophia is too reserved, Brie is a snotty little cow and right now I kind of want to punch Nathan in his stupidly gorgeous face.”

  He didn’t question my assessment of Sophia and Brie. “Why do you wish to assault Nathanael? Er, I mean Nathan,” he amended. “He has saved your life on many occasions. Without him, you
would be dead.”

  I didn’t want to answer him, but I had a feeling he wouldn’t let it go easily. “He’s been spying on me for my entire life.” Then again, that couldn’t be the case. I’d suffered an injury that must have almost killed me when I’d been a baby. I absently rubbed the scar over my heart then realized what I was doing and dropped my hand. “Who knows what he’s seen that should have been private?” I muttered.

  “I doubt that Nathan spied on you,” Leo said in a conciliatory tone. “I believe he is only called to your side when you are in grave danger.”

  “Where does he go the rest of the time?”

  “I imagine he spends his time in heaven. That is where all of our kind remain unless we are sent out on errands.” He seemed wistful and I let the subject drop. It couldn’t be easy for them being trapped here. I had no idea what heaven was like, but I figured it had to be a hell of a lot better than Earth.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Sixteen

  We ambled for a couple of blocks until a jacket in a boutique window caught my eye. It was black and had twin buckles on the chest. Walking closer to the window, I saw the buckles were shaped like skulls.

  “That jacket is very stylish,” Leo observed. “You should try it on.”

  “That’s why I wanted you to come with me,” I said with a grin. “You have good taste.”

  He turned thoughtful then nodded. “That is true. Brie does not care about what she wears. I am always the one who picks out our clothing.” They were the same height and build, so they could easily borrow each other’s clothes if they needed to.

  I pushed the door open and a bell chimed. A couple of people were browsing through the store. I studied them carefully, but they appeared to be human. Pushing my hood back so the attendant wouldn’t think I was going to rob her, I searched the store, but couldn’t find any jackets that matched the one in the window.

  We approached the counter and had to wait for a customer to be served. The clerk flicked a glance at my empty hands and gave me an impatient look when it was my turn. “Can I help you?” Her tone was almost as snotty as Brie’s, which instantly guaranteed that we wouldn’t get along.

  “Do you have any more jackets like the one in the window?” I asked.

  She rolled her overly mascaraed eyes dramatically. “There’s like five jackets on display. Which one are you talking about?” She was only a few years older than me and hadn’t learned the art of diplomacy yet. She also hadn’t learned that less was more when it came to makeup, or push-up bras for that matter. Her shirt was a size too small, which emphasized her bulging chest in an unflattering way.

  “It is the black one with the skull buckles,” Leo said helpfully.

  Huffing out a sigh, she checked the stock on her computer. “Sorry, that’s the only one left.” Her eyes slid past us to the girl waiting in line behind me.

  “It looks like it might be my size,” I said. “Can you get it down so I can try it on?”

  Rolling her eyes again, she pointed at the door as the bell chimed and another person entered the store. “I’m really busy right now. Maybe you can come back later.” Her expression told us to come back never.

  Leo was more outraged than I was by her unhelpfulness. “Is this how you treat all of your customers?”

  “Only the ones who are being a pain in the butt,” she said snidely then smiled at the girl behind me. “Can I ring that up for you?”

  “The service here really sucks,” I muttered to Leo as we walked away from the counter.

  “This is not right,” he said indignantly. “You did not ask her to remove one of her limbs. You simply required her to retrieve a jacket for you.”

  “Clearly, she couldn’t be bothered.”

  Glancing around, he saw that the attendant was ignoring us completely. We’d been dismissed and had become all but invisible to her. “Wait here,” he instructed. “I will be back in a moment.”

  Before I could ask him what he was planning to do, he disappeared. I saw him appear next to the mannequin in the front window. He wrestled the jacket off the dummy then returned to my side. “Here,” he said, proud of his efforts. “Try this on.”

  Shrugging out of my hoodie, I took the jacket from him and examined it. The back, sides and sleeves were made of faux leather, which meant I might actually be able to afford it. The skull buckles were a bronze color and twin straps crisscrossed the shoulders at the back. I pulled it on to find that it was a bit loose, but not so badly that it looked ridiculous on me.

  “Hey!” the clerk said angrily. She’d just finished serving her last customer and realized we were still here. “You aren’t allowed to take clothes off the dummies!”

  Leo looked at her coolly. “You were not prepared to expend the effort, so I took it upon myself to do so.”

  Red faced with embarrassment and anger, she stalked over to us. “Take that off and get out!”

  She reached for my arm and my temper rose. “Lay one finger on me and you’ll regret it.” It came out far more menacingly than I’d intended and even Leo was taken aback. She had no idea that it was an empty threat. Even after a week’s worth of training, I was pathetic at fighting.

  Snatching her hand back, her expression turned sour. “I have the right to refuse service to any customers who cause any problems.”

  “We are not the one who caused the problem,” Leo pointed out. “Your laziness and apathy are to blame.”

  “Just let me pay for the jacket and we’ll leave,” I said. “I promise we’ll never come back here again.” After the treatment we’d received, you couldn’t pay me enough to return.

  Weighing up her options, she huffed out a put-upon sigh and stomped back to the counter. I removed the jacket so she could scan it. “That’ll be ninety-nine dollars,” she said tersely.

  I handed over a hundred and didn’t bother to wait for the change. I snatched the jacket up before she could change her mind and hurried outside.

  “You will not be able to hide your face now,” Leo pointed out.

  He was right. The jacket was awesome, but it didn’t have a hood that doubled as a disguise. “Let’s get out of here before she calls the cops,” I suggested. The clerk was glaring at us through the window and her hand was inching towards the phone.

  We walked for half a block then stopped in the doorway of a deli. A bitterly cold breeze hit me and I shivered. It was only the beginning of November, but it was already starting to get cold. I put my hoodie back on then donned the jacket afterwards. It was snug, but not restrictive. Best of all, I could still use my hood. I pulled it up and turned to Leo. “How do I look?”

  He examined me critically. “You look like you are planning to rob someone.”

  I sniggered then realized I had another problem. My dagger was now inaccessible. Unzipping my jacket, I saw that it didn’t have any inside pockets. “Damn,” I said in disappointment.

  “What is wrong?”

  “I won’t have easy access to my dagger if I wear this jacket.”

  “I can fix that,” he said confidently. Holding the left side of my jacket open, he glanced around to make sure we weren’t being observed then passed his hand over the material.

  I gaped at the pocket that had just appeared. “How did you do that?”

  He shrugged and appeared to be slightly embarrassed. “It was just a small use of my power. I would prefer if you did not tell the others about this. We are not supposed to use our abilities for frivolous purposes.”

  “My lips are sealed,” I promised. Leo had definitely been the right choice to bring with me. He was far less stiff than the others and even had a sense of fun. Turning my back to the crowded sidewalk, I transferred the sheath from my hoodie to the new inner pocket in my jacket. It slid down until only the handle of the dagger was visible. I practiced pulling it a couple of times and grinned at the teen. “Thanks, Leo. It’s perfect.”

  “You are welcome.” He seemed pleased that he’d been able to help me. For the f
irst time since fleeing from my home, I didn’t feel quite so alone. I had at least one friend who I was pretty sure I could count on to have my back.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Seventeen

  We walked the streets at random, sticking to Midtown. Brie had set up magical wards in the streets close to Sophia’s store. The wards would tell her if any demons were nearby. So far, no alarms had gone off, which meant the neighborhood was clear.

  “When did you first realize that you were trapped in Manhattan?” I asked as we window shopped.

  “Brie and I sensed it the moment the barrier was erected,” he replied. “We had been sent to investigate rumors that demons were amassing in the city. Since we were already familiar with Manhattan, we were chosen for the task.”

  “Why are you so familiar with this place?”

  “Sophia is our friend. Once she was stripped of her grace, we took it upon ourselves to check in on her regularly. We teleported straight to her when we felt the trap spring into place.”

  I remembered him telling me that they’d been the ones to save her from whatever the demons had planned to do to her. “She stayed in New York after she was attacked?”

  He shook his head. “Sophia did not move to Manhattan until a few months after she lost her grace.”

  “Where was she before then?”

  “Chicago.”

  A chill went down my spine, but I wasn’t sure why. My mother had lived in Chicago when she’d become pregnant with me. I didn’t know how the demons had become aware that she carried me, their apparent nemesis, inside her, but I knew nothing about her past. It was becoming more and more obvious that her early life hadn’t been quite as ordinary as I’d believed. Someone had trained her to fight. I only wished it was a skill that she’d passed on to me.

  “This store is having a sale,” Leo said and pointed at a large chain store. “You should be able to find the clothing you require in here.”