I glowered at him, swallowing my fury because I knew he was right. I was hurt. Mentally, physically, emotionally, all to the point where I just wanted to scream and hit something until it bled. It didn’t help that he was pushing my buttons, though.
“Fine. Then why did you antagonize me?”
“You needed to vent. You may not realize it yet, but this little stunt did release some tension for you.”
He paused, examining my surprised expression. “Besides, I like having excuses to press up against you. Especially when you’re covered in blood. It’s rather fetching.”
The glare returned. “Great. Now let go.”
The demon released me. I went over to the sink and rinsed the blood off, wincing as more leaked out after it all washed away. I poured rubbing alcohol over the wound, gritting my teeth as it stung. Belial waited for me to finish and took hold of my arm, keeping it steady while he prepared the gauze. He wrapped my wrist with surprising gentleness, but then again, he had probably done this a lot.
“How are your ribs?” he asked.
“Sore, but not broken.”
“Pity. I had been looking forward to seeing you without a shirt on again.”
I rolled my eyes, choosing not to rise to the bait. “How long before I get my energy back?”
“Probably a day. Blood spells take a lot out of both Seers and demons. I can’t believe you’ve never tried one before.”
“Sorry. The whole ‘not evil’ thing prevented me from learning about them.”
He gave me an annoyed look. “Blood spells aren’t all evil, you know. I suspect your father figure knew a few of them.”
“Andrew? What makes you say that?”
Belial shrugged. “He was a practicing Seer for almost thirty years. Someone that experienced would have known about them.”
He finished tying the bandage and glanced over me from head to toe. “There. That should hold you together for now. We need to get on the road.”
“Where are we headed?”
“It’s better if you don’t know until we get your mental shields in place. You’re still a young Seer so I’m going to teach you to construct ones that will prevent the angels from locating you.”
“What about Juliana?”
“She’s too young. They won’t be able to sense her since her energy is barely readable. The child can probably see spirits, but she can’t do anything else that a normal Seer can, and won’t be able to until she’s much older.”
“Alright, let’s go.”
He held up his hands. “You need to change first. You’ve got blood everywhere and that will upset Juliana when she sees you.”
I glanced at his bloody right arm, exposed since he’d rolled his sleeves up. “You’re one to talk.”
He ignored me and left the bathroom, then returned with a navy blouse and blue jeans. I let them unfold in my hands, horrified that they looked like they would fit me perfectly.
“Should I even ask how you knew my size?”
A slick grin touched his lips. “Don’t flatter yourself. I’ve been on this Earth for centuries. It’s not hard to figure out your measurements.”
He left. I tossed the clothes on the sink and undressed. Unfortunately, I couldn’t resist looking at my reflection. The sight was grisly. Bruises dotted my ribs, my forearms, and both knees, all of them purplish blotches against my brown skin. I looked like hell. Made sense. I seemed to be on my way there already.
After I got dressed, I checked my watch. Two hours since we fought the angels. By now, they had probably broken free from the blood spells. Belial told me they were only temporary. Demons rarely used them because it meant having to get in close quarters with an angel, and that almost always resulted in death. Still, I wondered if he’d been right about Andrew knowing about these spells. I hadn’t even heard of them until this morning before the incident.
I walked out of the bathroom. Belial stood in front of the single bed in the cheap motel room he’d rented, shoving his old, soiled clothes into a duffel bag. We had driven straight out of Lexington after retrieving the rogue angel, who was currently in the trunk of our stolen car, still unconscious. The sedative would wear off in a few hours and that was when the interrogation would start. I wasn’t looking forward to it after seeing the methods of intimidation Belial had used on the late Mr. Wallace.
We left the motel and drove several miles to meet Juliana with our new ride at the next rendezvous point. I hated the idea of bringing a child along with us—a pair of kidnapping felons—but Belial had a point. She would be safer with us than anyone else. Still, the real problem would be keeping her away from the rogue angel. She was too small to understand much, but just old enough to be at the age to ask a lot of questions. I suspected I would be the one dealing with them. Belial would probably just blow her off.
Our alternative mode of transportation turned out to be an RV, complete with a driver. On the outside, it looked rundown but the inside was almost as opulent as Belial’s private jet. We stashed the unconscious rogue angel in the bedroom with plenty of restraints and locked the door before bringing Juliana on board.
The living room area had a pull-out couch and she curled up with an interactive children’s book in no time at all. We hit the road right afterward, trying to put as much distance between ourselves and the angels as possible. The road ahead would be hard to navigate, but I’d chosen this path and now I had to walk it, step by treacherous step.
Chapter 26
Jordan
“JORDAN?”
I sat a small container of chocolate milk on the nightstand and continued rifling through the McDonald’s Happy Meal box. Juliana swung her small, socked feet as she watched me, her brown eyes bright with interest. I’d heard that in Brazil, Mickey D’s was actually a legitimate restaurant instead of a fast food joint. She’d never had the stuff before. Crazy world we live in.
“Yes?” I answered.
“How come we’re driving so much?” Juliana asked, still in Portuguese. Thankfully, since she was small, she didn’t talk too fast and I could understand the general gist of what she was saying. Belial had provided me with a huge Brazilian-Portuguese textbook and I’d crammed as much basic grammar as I could on the five-hour ride here. Earlier, I tested the child’s knowledge of English and it was minimal. She knew introductions, a few questions, numbers one through twenty, half of the alphabet, and some slang phrases she heard on TV, but that was it. I wasn’t surprised. Her mother was a professor, but Juliana wouldn’t be fluent in the language for years. That is, if I got her out of this mess alive.
I handed her the kids’ sized cheeseburger to hold and grabbed a fistful of napkins. “We’re on a road trip.”
I tucked a napkin in her collar and smoothed it out before helping her unwrap the food. Part of me had wanted to get her a healthier meal, but we were on the run from the law so I couldn’t risk going into a grocery store. Cameras. The driver had nabbed the meal shortly before we arrived at the motel.
Juliana bit down into the burger only a second after I managed to get another napkin on her lap. It caught a glob of ketchup, much to my relief. I dumped the little baggie of fries on the plastic wrapper for her to pick through.
“Stay right here and finish this, okay? I’m going to go in the other room with Bel—er, James—for a while.” I winced, hoping she wouldn’t notice the mix-up with his name.
Juliana nodded, taking another bite of her food. I turned on the television for her and found the Disney channel. Her attention immediately went to the smiling children and bright colors. I rubbed the top of her head and squatted in front of her.
“And don’t answer the door unless it’s me or James. If anything bad happens, get the phone and dial 9-1-1. Understand?”
“Mmkay.”
I stood, slid my cell phone in my pocket, and headed out, double-checking that my key card was safely in my wallet. I made sure that the door was indeed locked before walking down the narrow hallway to a room at the end
. I knocked twice and waited.
A moment later, Belial opened it. “Took you long enough.”
“Shut up,” I grumbled, shoving past him to enter the room. “I’m babysitting your kid for free. You’re not allowed to get snippy.”
He shut the door. “And I’m paying for her meals and the rooms, so we’re even. Now then, shall we get started?”
I exhaled, wishing my reservations would evaporate into the air. “Yeah.”
I turned around. The unconscious rogue angel sat in a chair in the middle of the room with a black tarp underneath him, still handcuffed, but no longer wearing his prison garb. Belial had put him in a green flannel shirt, black tank top, and faded grey jeans. It clashed with his bright orange hair and nearly translucent skin. His head hung inches above his chest. He looked so…human.
Belial walked over to the bed and opened a black leather suitcase. I caught a flash of silver and felt my blood run cold as I saw an array of different knives neatly tucked in a velvet casing. He found a thin stick of smelling salt and snapped it beneath the rogue angel’s nose.
Edmond’s head jerked upward and he coughed several times. His brown eyes wandered around the room, then settled on us—first Belial, then me. His expression melted into a blank, unreadable slate just like when I’d gotten him out of the back of the armored truck.
“Morning, sunshine,” Belial said. “Sleep well?”
Edmond didn’t reply. “The strong silent type, hmm? Most angels are like that. After all, even lowly Scribes like you are trained not to succumb to torture or persuasion. If it were any other demon, you might be safe.”
Belial bent his tall frame so that their eyes were level and lowered his voice. “But I’m not your average, run-of-the-mill demon. I’m an archdemon. I spent centuries in Hell finding every way in existence to torture a soul. So if you cooperate now, this will be quick and painless. But if you don’t…we’ll find out just how tough your Daddy made you.”
Again, the angel said nothing. Belial shrugged and rose to full height. “Jordan, if you will?”
I stepped forward, my arms crossed over my chest. “Edmond, I need your help. I need to know everything you know about the page you ripped out of the Book. I want to stop the Leviathan from awakening. I know it looks bad that I’m working with a demon, but this is the only way I could talk to you. The angels are under orders to kill you on sight. Please help me. We have the same goal. I don’t want to hurt you, but I will if you don’t tell me what I need to know.”
His eyes searched mine for what seemed like ages. At first, I couldn’t quite describe what it felt like with those mahogany orbs boring into my skull. Then I realized it wasn’t hatred. It was conviction. He believed he was righteous. I couldn’t convince him of otherwise. Damn it.
“Very well,” the demon said with a sigh. “Let’s get started. Jordan, my pet, would you hand me that belt on the bed?”
I took a deep breath and picked it up. Belial grabbed Edmond’s lower jaw, shoving his fingers between his teeth so that he was forced to open his mouth. He tied the belt around the angel’s head and pulled it tight so he couldn’t spit it out or make a noise loud enough to alert our neighbors. Then again, in a sketchy place like this, I doubted that the neighbors would care if they heard a scream for help. Plus, with our energy signatures suppressed—a trick Belial taught me on the way here—there was no hope of reinforcements. Not that the angels would be much nicer to him at this point.
I leaned against the far wall, wrapping my arms around my stomach as Belial chose the first knife—a slender one with a blade about four inches long. He rolled up the sleeves of his black turtleneck and tested the tip with one gloved finger.
“I always start with this little number. I’ve had the point sharpened almost to that of a katana. Most people think torture is all about pain. Not at all. It’s about patience.”
He pushed up the right sleeve on Edmond’s arm. “You’re an angel. Angels are incapable of death by human instruments. But pain…no, your Father has a sense of humor so he left that intact. It’s always been one of the reasons I liked the Old Bastard.”
He sliced a neat line along Edmond’s forearm. Blood welled outward, spilling onto the arm of the chair. I breathed deep and told myself to calm down even though every inch of me felt sick. Edmond didn’t even flinch. Belial placed the blade back in its proper place and then reached into his duffel bag. He retrieved a brown glass bottle with a white label. My eyes caught the black letters on the front as he unscrewed the cap. Iodine.
He poured a liberal amount of it on the fresh cut. Edmond stiffened, making a garbled noise of pain against his gag. I dug my fingers into my sides, looking away. Nausea rolled up my torso in a wave. I squeezed my eyes shut, clinging to any rational thought in my head. We had to do this to save those people. We had to.
Belial withdrew the iodine. “That loosen your tongue any, angel?”
Edmond glared at the demon, his chest rising and falling with uneven breaths, but made no indication of giving in.
Belial screwed the cap back on the iodine and set it aside. “Excellent resolve, my boy. You’re quite the trooper.”
The process continued. I lost track of time how long it went on for because I had huddled against the wall trying not to hear the angel’s muffled groans of pain. He just wouldn’t cave in, not even after Belial used about half the instruments in his suitcase. The tarp beneath the chair became slick with blood and other fluids. Finally, I couldn’t take it any longer.
I caught Belial’s shoulder and he paused, tossing a frosty look in my direction. “Can you…leave for a while? I want to talk to him alone.”
He arched a thin eyebrow. “Good cop?”
I offered him a weak smile. “Something like that.”
He sighed. “I despise that routine, but I suppose it’s worth a shot. I’ll go check on the child. Walk with me.”
I followed him to the door. He kept his voice low, staring at me with that piercing gaze.
“You’re not going to do anything stupid like untie him, right?”
I let out a hollow laugh. “After I just stood by and let you torture him? No. He’d snap my neck. Just trust me. Maybe I can get through to him.”
“Are you sure that’s all this is about?” he asked.
“What else would it be about?”
He exhaled, a hot burst of air that brushed my neck and made me shiver. “I feel your revulsion. I can practically smell it on you. You’ve got a weak stomach.”
I glared. “Sorry, I’m not into torturing people like you are.”
“You sure? You seem to enjoy what you’re doing to me,” he said, and the bitterness in his tone made me hesitate.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
He shook his head. “Nothing. Just hurry up.”
He walked out, leaving me in a stupor. Where had that come from? I brushed my cluttered thoughts aside and closed the door. He wouldn’t give me long. Better get this over with.
I walked over to Edmond and he flinched as I reached behind his head. I undid the belt and pulled it out of his mouth, letting it drop onto the tarp. He gave me a curious look, but didn’t say anything as I sat down on the edge of the bed.
“Look, I can’t…apologize to you. I mean, it would be pointless. I just let a demon torture you for half an hour. I should be burned at the stake, if we’re being honest. But this isn’t about me. This is about you.”
I met his gaze, allowing him to see my unwavering resolve. “I know that I can’t possibly understand what it’s like to be an angel. I’d never assume I could. You’ve seen things I couldn’t even fathom. You know about the actual universe, not just this little blue planet. So I’m sure I seem like a petty, insecure insect in the grand scheme of things. I think that’s why it wasn’t too hard for you to kill the other Seers. If you think about it, humans aren’t even the smartest beings on the earth. I know I can vouch for that.”
I licked my lips, choosing my words carefu
lly. “But I also know that you still came to see me at the restaurant and you didn’t try to kill me then. You could have. Michael was nowhere to be found and you could’ve slipped away in the chaos it would have caused…but you didn’t.”
Edmond winced. That one little physical reaction solidified the suspicion I already had in my mind. There was more to him than just his mission. There had to be.
I kept going. “Which means that some part of you knew it didn’t feel right to kill those people, or to kill me. You apologized to me, for Pete’s sake. Look me in the eye and tell me you don’t care.”
He held my gaze and then looked away. “Edmond, please. Help me. We can stop the Leviathan from awakening. You wouldn’t have taken on this mission if you didn’t think you could change the future. I believe you. And I understand what you’ve sacrificed now. I…”
My voice wavered. I swallowed to talk past the lump in my throat. “I gave up my marriage for this. I gave up my friendship with Gabriel for this. I wouldn’t do that if it wasn’t for a good cause so please say you’ll help me. Please.”
“Do you truly believe that?” he asked in a weather-beaten voice. “That you can change the future?”
“Yes.”
He studied me before answering. “The Book told me this would happen. I knew you would come for me. I hoped somehow the others would stop you.”
“Why?”
“I had never met Michael before our confrontation in São Paulo. I had only read about him and heard rumors. The way he spoke of you…the anger in his heart was extraordinary. He could not forgive himself for failing to protect you from me. For the first time, I understood the depths to which he loved you. So I hoped you would not ally yourself with the demon to capture me because now you will not be able to undo what has been done to your relationship. I know that it should be of no consequence to me, but Michael is still my brother whether he recognizes me as such or not. I have caused him great pain and I admit I regret it.”
Paranormal After Dark: 20 Paranormal Tales of Demons, Shifters, Werewolves, Vampires, Fae, Witches, Magics, Ghosts and More Page 234
