by A. J. Norris
She shooed Virgil out of the kitchen again. When she went out into the living room he was sitting on the couch like he had a rod in his spine. Getting used to him sitting around staring at the walls was never going to happen.
What in this realm is he doing?
Amalya no longer inserted the word Hell into the rhetorical question. Hell wasn’t a place she intended to ever visit again. Ignoring him, she started straightening the magazines and fanning them out on the coffee table. Once she was satisfied, she picked up a pair of Elliott’s shoes and tossed them into the only bedroom, the one that she shared with her mate. And apparently, Virgil too now. The first time she’d woken up to Virgil in bed with them shocked her. She’d learned the boundaries of angels weren’t the same as humans, plus the male didn’t like to be alone. Ever. Since the first time he’d crawled into bed with them, Amalya slept in pajamas. Elliott didn’t even think the arrangement was odd. At least Virgil didn’t snore.
She returned to the living room and looked at the coffee table. “That’s it. I need a break. Go stand in the hallway,” she told him, and pointed at the apartment door.
“From what do you need a break?”
“You.” She stood with her hands on her hips, her shiny black wings flaring. She motioned with her head at the table. The magazines she’d organized were stacked perfectly one and top of the other, not how she’d left them.
He pursed his lips for a moment. The angel didn’t protest, he simply walked to the door.
Seconds later Elliott appeared in front of her. A smile crept on her face. He opened his arms for her and she embraced him. His pure white wings folded around her. The feathers of their wings intertwined, and she caught the contrast out of the corner of her eye before she closed them. “You’re the smartest person I know. I missed you.”
Elliott chuckled. “I love you too.” He rubbed circles on her lower back. She smoothed the underside of his feathers with the back of her hand. A purr started in his chest. “Did you want something?”
“Yes, please.” She led him toward the bedroom with him following at her heels. His surrender suited her just fine.
“Um…how come Virgil’s out in the hallway?” he asked.
“Time out.”
His rich baritone laughter filled her ears. “You’re bad.”
“And he’s annoying, so I guess that makes us even.” She shut the bedroom door.
CHAPTER
FOURTEEN
Aza’zel
“Are you sure this is the place?” Aza asked Julia. His eyes roved the hallway of a rundown apartment building. The fuzz covering the floor was matted and smelled musty. Not quite like sweaty asshole, but close.
“Yeah, Bryant lives here. Don’t ask me how I know this.” They rounded the corner, down another corridor of the “L” shaped complex. Aza spotted a brown-haired…holy shit, angel, with a short pointed beard and bulky muscles filling out his shirt. The demon’s eyes went round. Vibrant white wings rose above the male’s head. This wasn’t an angel he wanted to get into a scrum with. Aza reversed a couple of steps.
“What are you doing?” Julia asked.
“Look,” he whispered.
“So? It’s just some guy standing in the—” her jaw dropped, “Wow, an angel.” She moved closer toward the white-winged seraph.
“Julia? Julia!” Aza hissed but she either didn’t hear him or ignored him. He figured it was the latter and shook his head.
Females.
“You don’t look like a goat or a demon or whatever anymore, I’m sure it’s fine.” She urged him forward with her hand then glanced back. “Come on.”
Reluctantly, Aza joined Julia, lagging behind her in case he needed to run. Although he didn’t consider himself a coward, this realm proved to be full of surprises he hadn’t anticipated. Mainly, being attracted to Julia, her jeans hugging her bottom in a delicious way (quit that, you stupid goat), oh, and discovering everything for the first time, although the city gave him déjà vu.
All the talking brought the attention of the angel. He watched them as they approached. The angel’s brows rose while they walked past him, but he didn’t move from his lean against the wall, nor did he uncross his arms. Aza kept his focus on the angel and continued to eye the winged one by turning his head.
Julia knocked on the apartment door, three down from where the angel stood. There was no answer so she rapped on the door again. Still no answer, although Aza sensed someone in the dwelling. “Someone’s in there.”
She pounded on the door with the heel of her hand. “Come on, Bryant. I know you’re in there!” She grabbed the door knob and twisted.
Aza looked and saw the angel had stepped into the middle of the hallway and cocked his head at them.
The door creaked open. “It’s unlocked,” she whispered. “Not a good sign.”
“Why?”
Julia sighed. “Do I really have to explain why?” They entered the apartment. “Oh, man…” She crept over the threshold and he followed in her path. She stopped suddenly and he ran into her back.
He hissed. “Can’t you warn me if you’re going to stop like that?”
“Or maybe you could not shadow me,” she snapped back.
Aza took a deep breath. She had a point.
“Will you look at this place?”
He scanned the area. The furniture was torn apart, a lamp was tipped onto its side on the floor and looked broken, books and magazines littered the floor. Aza sniffed. Blood. He ran through the apartment searching for the source. A trail of red dots led down a hallway. The door to the bathroom was slightly open. Two shoes stuck out into the hall. “Shit…Julia.”
“What is it?” she asked, brushing past him. “God dammit. Bryant, you fucktard, you better not be dead.” She squatted down next to him and looked him over. A pool of blood had formed under his head. His throat had been slit.
“He’s still breathing,” Aza said.
She leaned over his face. Bryant’s eyes went wide and he shook his head. “No…no…” he mouthed. Air trapped in the back of his throat. His hands twitched and his face became paler, if that was even possible.
“Oh, quit freaking out. I’m dead, asshole. But not dead enough. Where’s the necklace you stole from me?”
His mouth opened but he didn’t say anything. Bryant looked at Aza.
Julia grabbed him by the shirt and lifted his torso off the floor. “Where’s my amulet?” The man smiled, revealing reddish teeth. He coughed and wheezed.
“I don’t think he has it,” Aza told her.
“Yes, he does! Where is it?” She shook Bryant. When his eyes looked toward the door she shoved him back down. “Is it still here?”
The bleeding man could no longer answer her; his eyes glazed over and became fixed. He was dead.
“Dammit, now what?” Julia stood up and washed her hands in the sink. She opened a cabinet over the basin and riffled through it, pushing bottles off the shelves. “Well, it’s not in there. Come on, let’s look for clues or something.” Aza blocked the doorway. “Excuse me.”
He stepped aside. Despite the strong coppery smell, he got a whiff of her hair as she walked past him.
Oh…Deus.
“What clues do you hope to find?” he asked when he joined her in the kitchen.
“I dunno. Anything that might help. I don’t think Bryant gave Maurice the amulet yet.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Because he smiled at me and looked into the hall.”
Aza’s forehead crinkled. He wasn’t sure he understood her logic. “I’ll go search the other rooms.” For what, he had no idea. He cursed under his breath while he poked his head into the bedrooms. They needed to make this a quick search, given that Bryant had murdered Julia and maybe others. He was most likely bound for Netherworld and shadow demons would come for him soon. The amount of time they took varied and could be days, hours, or minutes.
“Aza, I found something!” she called from behind him. H
e found her waving a piece of paper in her hand at the head of the hallway.
He grinned. “It’s paper.”
She giggled. “It’s a card from a storage place; it was stuck to the fridge. He’s not very bright, apparently. Or wasn’t, I guess.”
High-pitched squeals filled the air.
Julia covered her ears. “What is that?” Her knees hit the floor. She hunkered down. “Oh God. Stop!” she cried.
Shadows formed on the wall and headed toward where Bryant lay but Aza wasn’t taking any chances. The demons might ignore them or they might not.
“Julia we gotta go. Now!” She didn’t move. “Get up.” She still didn’t budge. He took a deep breath and held it, bent down, and lifted her into his arms. He ran out of the apartment without looking back.
CHAPTER
FIFTEEN
Julia
Julia continued to cover her ears as Aza raced out of Bryant’s apartment. He dropped her next to the door to the stairwell. “Oh, shit.” She put her hands out to break her fall, and still landed with a thud.
“You can walk?” He wiped his hands down the front of his clothing with an anguished grimace.
“What’s the matter with you? Why do you have that look on your face?”
He shrugged. “What look?”
“Like you can’t stand touching me.”
“I can’t,” Aza snapped and turned his head away. He sighed heavily and peeked at her over his shoulder.
Julia decided not to cuss him out. She still needed him and planned to ditch him right after getting her amulet back. She lumbered to her feet, and glanced up the hallway to where the angel had been standing. He was no longer hanging around. Aza opened the door to the stairs, leaving her behind. Julia lingered; she knew he’d wait for her. She ambled back toward Bryant’s door. Aza had left it open. She took a deep breath and peered inside. The place was eerily quiet, she shivered. Goose bumps rose on her skin when she entered. She almost ran out of the apartment, forgetting about the squealing noise.
She crept down the hallway to the bathroom. Bryant’s feet lay over the threshold. His lifeless eyes were open and his skin had taken on pallid appearance. Even though the fucktard had killed her, she felt sorry for him, if the squealing was what she thought it was, Bryant was taken to Hell.
Oh, whatever, he got what he deserved.
However, she did feel weird about just leaving the guy behind for his roommate Chad to find. The poor man would probably lose his mind.
For a second she felt two pinches in her back and arched. She looked behind her but no one was there. Stabbing pain hit her again. “Ahhh!” Julia pitched forward, grabbing both sides of the doorjamb to steady herself. Her nostrils flared as she breathed in and out of her nose in short bursts. “Oh, God.” She sank to the floor at Bryant’s feet and sat there until the pain ebbed then disappeared.
The front door creaked.
She scrambled to her feet.
Where to hide?
Chad would notice her and a dead man in his apartment. The bathroom window overlooked a fire escape. She grabbed Bryant by the hands and dragged him further into the bathroom. The dead weight gave her the willies, plus he was still warm.
Oh, God. Yuck.
She inched him across the tile but gave up. His hands were too disgusting and flimsy to hold onto. His arms smacked the floor. She kicked his feet over and closed the door.
She pushed the window up, but it didn’t budge. She grunted. “Are you kidding me?” She looked around for something to break the glass. Plunger? No. Shampoo bottle? Maybe. A towel wrapped around her fist might work. She grabbed a navy towel off the rack and wound it around her hand a few times. The first strike bounced off the glass because she feared cutting her hand. She punched harder and a spider web crack formed. Her fist broke through on the next jab.
Julia pushed away at the remaining shards of glass. Outside, the pieces tinkled on the metal fire escape. She draped a couple of towels over the bottom sill and stuck her head out. The doorknob twisted. “Bryant?” a man’s voice called.
She sat on the pane with her back to the wind and ducked her head out the window. Above her head, on the outside, she felt around until her fingers found a place in the bricks where the mortar had eroded. She pulled herself up and out, her feet dangling a few feet off the metal grate.
The bathroom door started to open but caught on Bryant’s feet. “What the…?” Whoever was on the other side of the door pushed it a couple times.
She dropped onto the fire escape and moved out of view.
“Bryant…what are you…? Oh my God. Bryant! Oh, man.”
Julia knew that voice belonged to Chad. She held her breath.
Christ. Go call the police or something.
Chad’s gagging noises were followed by something going splat on the tile. A lot of somethings.
Ew.
Crouched below the window, she duck-walked over to the ladder and descended the steep rungs.
Don’t look down.
Her eyes betrayed her and she glanced at the ground. The cement below looked so far away. A shadowy figure paced in the alley beneath her.
“Julia!” Aza shouted.
“Shut. Up!” she hissed and waved him off.
Julia climbed down faster. One foot slipped and her arm caught on the rung above her. She sucked in a breath and kept going until she reached the sliding ladder. She raised her hands, grabbed a rung above her head, and yanked downward. Steel screeched against steel as the ladder lowered. Once she was on the ground, she inspected her arm for any damage.
“Are you okay?” Aza asked.
“What do you think?” she spat then grimaced at her own bitchiness.
He huffed and threw his hands in the air.
“Sorry. I know you were just trying to be nice.” He started pacing again. “I waited on the stairs but you never came out. What were you doing?”
“What were those things back in the apartment?” Julia began walking toward the street, out of the alley.
“What things?” Aza asked absently, falling in line next to her.
Julia sighed, dragging out her exhale. She glanced at him cross-eyed for a second. “The squeals and the black blobs all over the place. Jeez.”
“Oh, they’re called shadow demons.”
“What do they do, exactly?”
“They take humans to Netherworld for…”
Fear spiked inside her gut. “For what? What happens to…what’s going to happen to Bryant?” She didn’t really care all that much about him, but she definitely wondered what her own fate might be someday.
“Depends on what they did in this realm. Different sins have different punishments.”
They reached the mouth of the alley and Julia instructed, “Take a left.” She knew where the four-story Stor-All Self-Serve Storage was located. She looked to Aza, expecting him to not know his left from his right except he headed in the correct direction without being told.
“So these shadows, they torture the humans they take there?”
“No, they just take them there.”
Julia eyes widened. “Um, what did you do in Nether-whatever?” He didn’t answer and she knew why. “How long did you…um…work, er, um…what did you do there?” He stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and turned toward her. She recoiled, although not because she was frightened; he was too good looking for that. He’d leaned into her personal space. She guessed maybe she had issues too. Heat poured off his body in waves and found the way into her core. Her lips parted. Neon light from a sign in the window of a liquor store shone on his face. She wondered what he’d look like without the beard. It hung off his chin like a goat’s—no surprise there. Julia looked away.
“I like chainsaws.”
Her forehead crinkled and she looked back up at him. “What?”
“Bloody and covered in bits of human flesh,” he snarled.
“Are you trying to scare me? ‘Cuz it’s not working,” Julia said, stepping ba
ckward. Aza chuckled under his breath.
She ambled away telling herself to stay calm. The shadow demons hadn’t come for her. Yet. She swallowed hard.
CHAPTER
SIXTEEN
Aza’zel
Aza followed Julia inside the storage building. He sniffed the air. Nothing foul assaulted his sense of smell. A few human males and one robust female loitered around the entrance. The men each gave him a stiff nod.
“The card says locker 236,” she told him. “Must be on the second floor.”
He let her lead the way. The stairwell was empty. His eyes stayed glued to her butt as she climbed the steps ahead of him.
Oh, Deus…
The lockers were all centered in the middle of the building. They passed by locker after locker, Julia reciting numbers until she stopped at the right one.
“Well, this is the one…but the lock is gone. Dammit. I think we’re too late.” Julia pulled a handle and the wide orange door rolled upward.
Pieces of dusty furniture lined the walls. Aza inhaled again. A spicy scent that seemed unnatural yet familiar tickled the inside of his nose. He remembered Bryant’s apartment reeking of the same odor. However, the man himself had a different smell entirely.
“Did Bryant live with another human?”
Julia giggled. “You don’t have to call us humans. But yes, a guy named Chad. Real dork, if you ask me.”
“I didn’t.”
“Anyway. What’s your point?”
“He’s been here.” He took another deep breath.
“How do you know?”
“His odor.”
She stared at him for a moment. “I’m not going to ask.” Julia stepped away from him when something on the floor caught her attention.
He licked his lips as she bent over to pick whatever it was off the cement. She brought a black leather cord up to show him. His eyes went round. “That’s the—”
