Mystic Realms: A Limited Edition Collection

by Nicole Morgan

  “We were blindfolded on the way here,” Simeon said. “But I have a good feeling we’re high up in elevation. Somewhere in the mountains. There was snow on the ground when we were walked inside, and the air was colder, crisper. No noise except the wind blowing through the trees.”

  Judd rolled his eyes. “Abby, you ready to get up and walk around? Get some blood flowing through you? Get away from Satan’s little helper?”

  Simeon tightened his grip on me.

  A new throbbing sensation pounded in my head. “I’m not moving until someone tells me what happened. Last thing I remember, I was being forced to go night-night by Malakai’s magic fingers. What did he do to me anyway?”

  “I warned you he’s powerful, sweetheart,” Simeon whispered, glancing up at the ceiling every so often. “The rumor is he’d learned some of his tricks from a coven of human witches. He might’ve even taken some of their souls as his own to make him stronger.”

  “Witchcraft? Souls? Never mind.” I’d save that conversation for later. How had I been so naïve to think I’d known all there is to know about demons? Simeon and I were going to have a long talk after we got out of here.

  We? What was Judd doing here anyway?

  I rubbed at one of my temples and nodded to my best friend. “When did you come into the picture?”

  “Right after Triple S knocked you out, I guess. I was driving by the half-breed’s house to check on you when I heard the commotion. So I ran in and joined the fun.” He ran a hand through his mussed hair and leaned against the brick wall. “It was stupid. I should’ve called for backup, but I panicked.”

  “And then he was ambushed,” Simeon added.

  “Thanks to you. You coulda helped me out, but you just sat there holding Abby.”

  “Why would I waste my energy on you? I care nothing about you.”

  Judd snorted. “Yeah, and you didn’t want to mess up daddy’s maniacal plan to take over the world, did you?”

  Simeon’s heart pounded against my back, and the testosterone filling the air was almost enough to gag me. Here we go again. I slipped out of his hold and settled into a spot against the wall, cuddling up into the leather jacket. They could argue all they wanted. I needed to rest my throbbing head.

  “I didn’t want Malakai to take Abigail’s life,” Simeon seethed, apparently forgetting all about keeping his voice down. He stood to his feet and faced Judd. “And he nearly did before you showed up with fists blazing and no backup. I thought Angels were supposed to be semi-intelligent. Or maybe it’s the male Angels who don’t have a clue.”

  “Right, right. And you keeping Abby in your home where Malakai knew where to find you was real smart, half-breed. What the hell were you thinking? Don’t try to tell me you care about her when you’re the one who put her life in danger in the first place.”

  “My home was more secure than your Demon Control building.” Simeon gave me a quick glance. “I thought she’d be safe from the attacks if she was with me.”

  “You were wrong, chump. Now we’re all screwed.”

  I rubbed at my eyes, trying to ignore the fact that they were talking about me as if I wasn’t my own person and didn’t make my own decisions. More pressing issues needed to be discussed. Like how we were going to get out of here.

  The sound of footsteps on the ceiling made us all pause and look up. The trapdoor swung open, and there was some murmuring and cursing before a body was dropped down. A man with long black hair and tattered, bloody clothes fell to his hands and feet with a thump.

  A breathy moan pushed out of him as he collapsed onto his stomach.

  “Kaleb.” Simeon went to his nephew’s side and, with Judd’s help, propped him up against the wall in a sitting position.

  They pulled the blindfold from his eyes.

  “Kaleb?” I forgot about my headache and forced myself to walk to where he slumped over, beaten badly, but still alive.

  “Who’s this?” Judd asked, standing back. “He’s Simeon’s nephew.”

  “Human?”

  “Yeah.”

  Kaleb’s bruised and swollen eyes met mine as I kneeled in front of him to gauge his injuries. Humans were so fragile, and it was odd seeing someone as powerfully built as Kaleb in such a delicate state. He had a laceration on his cheek and his upper lip was cracked as well.

  “He’s bleeding,” Simeon said, tilting up Kaleb’s chin. “Right here.” He pointed to two thin cuts under Kaleb’s jaw.

  They weren’t deep enough to reach a major artery but the amount of blood seeping out wasn’t something to ignore.

  “And here.” Simeon ripped open what was left of Kaleb’s T-shirt to display two more slices across his abdomen.

  Kaleb squirmed a little. “I just need to walk it off. Get out of my way.”

  “Don’t move.” I slipped out of Simeon’s dress shirt, bunched it up, and pressed it to his neck. “How did this happen?”

  “Malakai’s henchmen showed up at Naomi’s house.”

  Simeon stiffened beside me. “Is she okay?”

  “She wasn’t there.” His breathing was ragged as he spoke. “No one was. Everyone was at church. Those fuckers found me in the garage.”

  “Did they hurt the car?” I couldn’t help myself. MOG forgive me.

  Kaleb smiled and then winced. “No, sugar, they didn’t hurt the car. Just me. One of ’em slashed me with his sharp-ass fingernails. I didn’t know some of ’em have claws.”

  “The older ones do,” Simeon said, solemnly. “I’m sorry they went after you. I don’t know why...” He let his words fade and then turned to me. “Can you heal him?”

  “Me?”

  I’d heard of rare occasions where Guardian Angels had licked their human’s wounds to quicken the healing times. There was something in an Angel’s saliva that could multiply a human’s platelet count, speeding up the healing. But as an Angel who’d had very little contact with humans, I’d never seen it done or attempted it. I glanced back at Judd, who’d stopped pacing and was now giving me his full attention, his arms braced tight in front of him.

  “Don’t look at me, honey. My tongue is for women only.”

  “Tongue?” Simeon and Kaleb both asked at the same time.

  I turned back to Simeon. “I’ll have to lick the wound to heal him. I’ve never done it before, so I’m not sure how effective it is.”

  Simeon drew out a breath. “That’s the only way? Isn’t there some sort of miraculous healing prayer you can say?”

  Oh, geez. If there was, I sure the heck didn’t know it.

  “It doesn’t work that way,” I said.

  His red lips twitched up to a brief scowl. “Fine. Do it quickly. We need him strong enough to walk, at least, and if he’s lost too much blood he’ll be nothing but deadweight.” He shot up and walked to the other side of the room.

  I rolled my eyes to the ceiling. Like this was my idea. Sheesh. Like I really wanted to lick Kaleb’s nasty wounds and taste blood.

  I bit back a few curse words that were bubbling at my throat and turned my attention to Kaleb. “You mind?”

  He grinned and winced again. “Hell no. Go for it, sugar.”

  I took a calming breath and then removed the cloth I had pressed against his neck. New blood immersed from the edges and trickled down his neck. Why did Dracula come to mind? Yuck. I definitely had no desire to suck Kaleb’s blood. Quite the opposite, actually.

  It’ll be over with soon enough, I promised myself as I leaned over and closed my eyes. I pressed my tongue against his salty flesh and ran it over the deeper of the two cuts.

  He hissed in my ear and gripped my hand.

  “Sorry,” I said, tongue still hanging out.

  I pulled it in and tasted the mixture of salt and copper run down my throat. It wasn’t too horrible. It wasn’t cherry cheesecake, but it wasn’t awful either.

  More important, it seemed to be working already. The redness around the edges paled and the blood clotted.

  “How’s
it look?” he asked.

  “Better.” I mentally patted myself on the back. Who knew I could heal people? Not me.

  I went on to the next cut and got the same result. A burst of excitement rushed through me, and I got the sudden urge to mend every laceration on the man’s body. Eagerly, I moved on to the slices on his abdomen. Then his cheek. His lip...

  Kaleb cleared his throat, breaking my concentration. “Is it wrong”—he met my eyes, his pupils enlarged—“that I’m getting a hard-on from this?”

  “Yes,” both Judd and Simeon barked out.

  “Very wrong,” I said with a stern warning but couldn’t help but smile.

  Judd stormed over and kneeled beside me. “Are you almost done?”

  “I guess.” I shrugged. “What about broken bones? Do you have any?” I asked Kaleb.

  He tried to sit up and cringed. “Probably a couple of ribs...” He lifted his hand. “And I think I broke a few bones in my hand when I got in a shot. But I’ll be okay. Thanks.”

  I patted his knee, watching curiously as his bruised swollen eyes minimized and gained some normal color back.

  “Those bones should heal faster than normal since I’m in your blood stream now.” I turned to Judd. “Right?”

  “The hell if I know.” Judd got to his feet and started pacing again.

  How long were we going to have to stay in this room until Malakai decided to finish us off? If that was his plan anyway. He’d obviously planned on killing off the Angels. But what about Simeon and Kaleb? Kaleb wasn’t a threat to anyone but Simeon. He didn’t seem to be on Malakai’s good side, that was for sure. But could Malakai kill his own son? Was Malakai, Satan’s Senior Servant, that evil?

  I took another sweep of the room, and the simplest thought occurred to me. The trapdoor appeared to be wooden and easily breakable by any Angel or demon. What were we waiting for?

  I caught both Simeon and Judd’s eyes and motioned them over. They huddled in.

  “What’s up?” Judd asked, sending an annoyed look at Simeon when their shoulders touched.

  I grabbed Judd’s shirt to warn him I meant business. “Why is it we’re not breaking through that door and getting the heck out of here?” I kept my voice as quiet as possible. Didn’t want to the bad guys to hear me.

  Simeon chuckled. “Do you think they’re going to make it that easy?”

  “Why don’t you tell us, half-breed?” Judd said. “It’s your daddy who put us in here.”

  Ugh. “Listen,” I growled. “What’s our other choice? Wait for them to come to us? Why not take them by surprise?”

  Kaleb braced his hand on my shoulder. “She’s got a point. What’s your plan? I don’t have any of your powers, but I’ll do my best.”

  I thought it over for a second. “Simeon seems to be the strongest.” I put my finger up before Judd could object. “He could climb up there, kick the sucker wide open. Judd can follow, and you two can distract whatever guards are up there until I can hover up with Kaleb. What do you think?” I glanced from silver eyes to blue to brown and back again.

  Simeon spoke first, and I was glad since I’d given him the biggest duty. “I can do that. You know I’ll do anything for you.” He pushed a lock of frizzed out hair behind my ear.

  I gave him a big smile. Then looked for Judd’s answer. “Well?”

  His mixed expression transformed slowly from irritation to acceptance. “Fine. Let’s do it. But we need to keep the conversation going so whoever’s up there won’t catch on.”

  Before I could blink, Simeon set to action. He gripped the wall and started climbing. “You’re an imbecile, Judd,” he said.

  Judd smiled. “Me? You’re the reason we’re here in the first place, half-breed. If it wasn’t for you and your daddy, we wouldn’t be locked up in this Hell hole.”

  Super. I guess conversation meant more insults.

  Judd persisted. “What is that smell anyway? Is that what demon shit smells like? Damn. You smell that, Abby?” He didn’t wait for me to reply because Simeon had reached the door, his entire upper body flexing as he held on. “Did you shit your pants, half-breed? Did your daddy scare you shitless?” he laughed.

  I bit my lip. Maybe Judd and I could go to Angel therapy together. He really had a sick sense of humor.

  Kaleb joined in. “I didn’t know Angels were such assholes. Why don’t you shut the fuck up, fairy boy?” He turned to me with a boyish grin, split lip gone. “S’cuse my language.”

  At least he was feeling better.

  Judd spouted out a few more remarks while keeping his attention on what was happening above. Simeon looked down at me and mouthed, “Ready?”

  I jumped to my feet and pulled Kaleb with me, then nodded to Simeon. He released one foot from its grip on the ceiling, bent his leg, and kicked up with a swiftness I’d never witnessed before.

  As I’d suspected, the door tore off its hinges and flew somewhere out of sight.

  “Go!” he yelled as he launched himself through the hole.

  Judd went second. It’d been years since I’d seen his wings spread to their full length, and it was an amazing sight. Glimmering, feathery translucence filled a good portion of the room as he flew up and out the trapdoor.

  “Holy shit,” Kaleb murmured, eyes huge as he witnessed the act. “You all really have wings?”

  “You can see that?” Interesting. Not only was this human above a demon’s influence, he was able to see Angels in action. But that was another discussion for a later time.

  I heard a struggle above and wondered for a moment if my job should be to guard Kaleb below or join in on the fight.

  Oh, heck. I couldn’t let Sim and Judd do all the work.

  “Hang on to me, Kaleb. We’re going up.” I sprouted my wings and braced my hands on his waist. I’d have no problem lifting his weight, but his height might make this awkward.

  Once he seemed to get over the shock, Kaleb wrapped his arms around me. “No one is ever going to believe this,” he mumbled in my ear.

  Black locks of silky hair fell into my face. I blew it away from my mouth.

  “Don’t tell them then,” I said and willed my wings to flap, sending us up.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Kaleb’s head hit the ceiling when we reached the top. Oops.

  “Sorry.” Okay, maybe it wasn’t the best idea to try to fit us both through at the same time.

  Kaleb didn’t complain though. He grabbed hold of the frame of the small trapdoor and pulled himself up with my help. I followed quickly, maneuvering through the hole and onto the floor above, where I quickly willed my wings back in and situated myself in a defensive stance in front of Kaleb.

  It was quiet. Too quiet.

  I noticed the boys had taken care of two demons, one with his heart ripped out of his chest. The nasty looking organ was lying on the floor next to his limp body. Simeon’s bloody hand told me he was the perpetrator.

  “Little much, Sim. Sheesh.” I wasn’t sorry I’d missed that. I swallowed down the moisture filling my throat. I would not allow myself to vomit.

  “Better him than you,” Simeon said, throwing me a much needed grin.

  The other demon was in a headlock via Judd’s arms.

  “Do you want us to do the same to you?” Judd asked the demon, who I recognized from the attack at Simeon’s house.

  He had spiky blond hair and large green eyes that seemed to be getting larger by the second. I decided to call him Spike. I would’ve tried to identify the other demon, but I didn’t want to heave, and I knew I would if I took another look.

  “Fuck you,” Spike choked out.

  “Where are the others?” Judd asked, his voice a deep growl.

  Great question. Why would Malakai only leave two demons to guard us? It didn’t make any sense.

  I did a swift scan of the room. We were in some type of cabin…in the woods, maybe? A sheet-covered sofa sat in the middle of the one-room shack. A dusty bookshelf with a lit oil lamp on top was p
ushed up against the wall. Nearby, a wooden table and two chairs were knocked over, probably from the struggle. The windows were boarded up with plywood. And no light seeped through.

  What time of day was it? I took a few steps toward the door but thought better of it. Who knew what would greet me on the other side. I turned on my heel and bumped into Kaleb’s broad chest. I was about to apologize but figured it was his own fault for following me so closely.

  “I’ve never seen a dead person before,” he said. His face was pale and he looked like he’d had the same nauseated reaction I had.

  “He’s not a person,” I said. “He’s a demon.” And I knew what would happen next. I pulled up a chair for Kaleb and faced it away from the dead body. “Here. Sit down and save your energy.”

  He followed my advice sans smartass remark. He must be feeling ill.

  “Listen,” he said, grabbing my arm. “If we get out of here alive, I’ll give you my Citroën.”

  “Is that supposed to motivate me?”

  “Hell, yes.”

  “I don’t want to take advantage of you in your weakened state, so I’ll settle for weekend visits.”

  “You got it.”

  I heard the Hell Spirits coming and felt the gush of hot air, so I decided to stand behind Kaleb and wait for them to take the body away. It didn’t matter that the demon was lifeless, it was still an eerie sight. I could handle the heat and the sinister, black smoke, but once they formed into hundreds of fingers and wrapped around the body, I refused to watch.

  Simeon brushed by me and wiped his hands off on the sheet that covered the couch as if nothing had just happened. He didn’t look at anyone as he spoke. “You may as well kill him or deport him, Judd. It’ll be one less enemy to fight when the rest come for us.”

  I couldn’t imagine what this could be doing to him. He was fighting for his life against his own father. No. He was fighting for all of our lives.

  “Good point.” Judd released Spike and threw him up against the wall. “How would you like to go home, demon? By my hands or by my thumb?”

  I closed my eyes and braced myself for the sound of blood splatter.