by Evans, Misty
Cephiel had gotten rid of the salt in his salt-and-pepper hair. He’d also lost a few pounds and toned up. All because of my WA nemesis, Marcia. She was president of our group, and even though Ceph was an angel impersonating a Catholic priest, she’d worked some kind of magic on him. He had it bad for her.
Totally icked me out.
Ceph closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh. “Dear God.”
“Sorry, not God. But from what I hear, the Big Guy’s not too happy with you these days.”
Cephiel’s eyes flipped opened and he muttered something under his breath before he gave me a disapproving frown. “What have you done this time, Amy?”
“Me?”
Before I could retort further, Zayfeer struck the tip of the sword into the floor and hundreds of glass fragments rose into the air in unison. With one swift flick of his wrist, they went flying in Cephiel’s direction.
Chapter Five – Strange Angel
“Stop!” I held up a hand and the flying glass came to an abrupt halt in midair.
My magic or Zayfeer’s? I checked my chest and found my magic lazily watching the show and doing her nails. I couldn’t get a beat on Z’s magic. Dark? Light? Harmless? It seemed to sail around the shop like a bird, never stopping, reminding me of my own air magic, but the flightiness made it hard to lock onto.
Cephiel’s was easier. He might have been an angel but his magic was heavy, rock-like. Maybe that’s why God had sent him to Earth. Ceph’s magic was terrestrial. He blended in well here.
Zayfeer held the sword pointed at the window opening, the fragments of glass hovering between him and Cephiel. The street behind Cephiel was dark except for the weak light coming from the lamppost on the corner.
“Put down the glass,” I told Zayfeer. I wasn’t a big fan of Ceph’s, and had, once or twice, plotted his demise, but there was no way I was letting a strange angel who’d been in purgatory shred him to pieces in front of my shop.
An awkward silence ensued, Z and Ceph staring daggers at each other in a Mexican standoff. Behind me, the smoke column gurgled and burped and I cut my eyes between that and the warring angels, expecting a new set of demons to rise from the pit at any moment. Mikayla watched, too, fear rolling off her and her magic boogying along with it.
As I watched, Zayfeer’s sword hand twitched.
“Get down!” I yelled.
But the glass shards suspended in air didn’t hurtle themselves at Cephiel. Instead, one by one, they reformed the window, skittering over one another until they found their place in the puzzle and locked in. The last splinter, a piece so small it would have fit on the end of my pinkie, darted over the rest until it located its original home. Once there, it wiggled into place and the whole window hummed. A sigh of relief?
My old window was back, good as new, and Cephiel was now cut off from us.
His lips formed a tight, straight line as he glared at Zayfeer. The ill-wind angel chuckled and said, “Man, you sure got screwed with him for your guardian angel.”
“Tell me about it.” I made my way over to the door and started to unlock the deadbolt.
“Wait.” Z held up his free hand. On his palm was a sigil that looked vaguely familiar. I stared, but couldn’t figure it out. “He’s going to send me back to purgatory.”
“And?”
“You said you’d keep me around if I helped with the demon problem.”
“I changed my mind.”
He scooted close, eyes pleading. “Let’s make you a deal, broker. You stop Cephiel from sending me back and I’ll do something for you.”
The guardian angel in question stood on the other side of the door. “Let me in, Amy.”
No doubt purgatory really was the best place for Zayfeer, and I was going to need a guide, so one way or another, he was going back. But curiosity toyed with me. “What will you do for me?”
“The Mark.” He nodded at my forehead. “I can get rid of it.”
He had my full attention. “How?”
He sheathed the sword, gave me that annoying grin. “Magic, of course.”
Great.
Cephiel banged a fist on the door. A low growl came from the smoky pit and Mikayla screamed.
Hells bells. How many more visitors were we were going to get tonight? Not the best time to be making deals with a rogue angel, but…
Reckless and foolish, here I come.
I gave Z a nod.
Chapter Six – Heaven’s Terminator
A flying demon came out of the pit, spread its wings and started to take off. Zayfeer decapitated it in one swift move.
Body parts fell to the floor. Z used the sword to prod them back into the pit.
Sighing, I unbolted the door. Cephiel charged in, pointing a gloved finger at Zayfeer’s face. “How dare you use that sword.”
Z stood his ground, a debauched angel with nothing to fear. “It’s mine, why wouldn’t I use it?”
“He stopped several demons from escaping the shop with that sword,” I told Ceph as I relocked the door. “Cut him some slack.”
Grabbing Ceph by the coat sleeve, I tugged him toward the pit and smoke column. “Lucifer made that hole, opening the gate to purgatory, when the Mark sent him to Hell. You need to close the hole and get Luc back.”
Cephiel made a big deal of removing his gloves and unbuttoning his coat as he eyed the smoke and jagged opening. Underneath the coat, he wore a tux.
I pointed at the monkey suit. “You going somewhere?”
His cheeks colored. “Yes.”
“Where?”
He looked everywhere but at me.
“You have a date.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” He waved me off and made a closer inspection of the hole. “We’re just friends.”
Marcia. I took a few steps back and sat down hard on the edge of a booth.
“Amy?” Ceph’s brows drew down. “What’s the matter?”
“I think I’m jealous.”
Ceph glanced at Mikayla and Zayfeer, who were taking this all in. “Jealous? Of what, pray tell?”
“You’re an angel and a priest and yet you get to hang out with your girlfriend and kiss her at midnight like a normal person.” They all stared at me. “I, on the other hand, am a normal person and what do I get? Nothing. Nada. My boyfriend is in Hell and purgatory central is in the middle of my ice cream shop.”
Mikayla came to my side. “Luc’ll be back any minute.”
“Then why hasn’t he shown up already?”
Z fiddled with his sword. “Probably using a different Hellmouth. He avoids purgatory.”
“Hellmouth?” Mikayla’s voice wobbled and her eyes cut to the hole. “That’s a Hellmouth?”
Silence from both angels.
I threw my hands in the air. “Gate to the underworld, Hellmouth. What difference does it make? Why didn’t anyone” —I gave Ceph a pointed look— “tell me my shop was over a Hellmouth?”
My guardian angel shrugged. “Lucifer must have mentioned this to you.”
No, he hadn’t.
Behind him, Z shook his head. “Sure, blame Luc. Hide information from her and then make it his fault. Everything else is his fault, right?”
Ceph shook a fist at him. “You listen here, you lying, cheating Judas…”
“Enough.” I rose from the booth, gave Mikayla a pat on the shoulder. She was too pale for my liking. “If you’re okay, you should go to Keisha’s party. We’ll figure this out. Tell her I got a little tied up and I’m not going to make it.”
“Party?” Zayfeer’s face lit up. “Can I go?”
“No,” Cephiel and I said at the same time.
I pointed at the hole. “We have to close this. Lucifer or no.”
Z bounced on his toes, watching Mikayla head to the back room for her coat. “Cephiel can stand in for Lucifer.”
“Not so fast.” Ceph held up a hand. “We can’t simply close the hole that God’s Mark made. There is a reason for all things, including this.”
God coul
d bite me. “It was a mistake. An accident.” I banged my forehead with my palm. “This stupid thing is a curse. I want it gone.”
Cephiel’s eyes darkened. “It is not a curse, Amy. You would be wise to accept its protection.”
We could argue this for eternity and neither of us would cave. Time for a new tactic. If Ceph wanted to bring God into this, so be it. “Surely God never intended for purgatory to be ripped open so its prisoners could go free.”
“Well,” Zayfeer said, eyeing me. “With you standing guard, it’s an effective form of eliminating the monsters that crawl out. You’re like the Terminator, eliminating all evil.”
Cephiel rocked on his heels. “And yet, you’re still standing.”
“Hardy, har, har. You always were a barrel of laughs, Cephiel.”
Out of the smoke, a vampire shot out of the hole, flew through the air and landed in front of both angels. His eyes were blood red and he snarled, fangs extending long enough to cut his bottom lip.
“Perhaps we can at least form a net of magic,” Cephiel said, backing up.
Mikayla returned from the back room, head bent as she tugged on her gloves. “Are you sure you don’t need me to…”
She stopped in her tracks when she lifted her head. The vampire sniffed the air and turned his focus on her. In two lightning-quick strides he was in front of her, grabbing her ponytail and bending her head back to expose her neck.
For Satan’s sake. What was with these vampires and Mikayla?
I didn’t have the ice cream scoop so I picked up a toppled chair by two legs. “Vampira. Over here.”
He had Mikayla bent backwards with his body, his gaze zeroed in on her neck, but he must have seen me out of the corner of his eye. Straightening to glare at me, his head made the perfect target. I swung the back of the metal chair, hearing a satisfying crunch when it made contact.
Mikayla dropped to the floor as the vampire’s head snapped back like a baseball heading for the bleachers. Lucky for him, his body stayed attached. My aim was true and the vampire ended up back at the hole, his balance so off, he obligingly slipped and cartwheeled backwards into the swirling cesspool.
Z peered into the smoke. “Nice job, Terminator. Or maybe I should call you Babe Ruth.”
I set down the chair and helped Mikayla stand. She gave me a hug and I patted her back. I kept an arm around her shoulders as I turned to my guardian angel. “What is this about a magical net?”
Cephiel gave the smoky hole a disgusted look. “The three of us can form a triangle around the pit and use our magic to seal the opening.”
“The three of us?” I pointed at my chest. “Have you forgotten about my magic-free oath?”
Zayfeer ogled my chest area. “What’s an oath when the gate to purgatory is open and demons are running amok?”
“What about Mikayla?” She had strong, fresh magic. “Can you form the triangle with her?”
“Won’t work.” Ceph eyed her with disappointment. “Her magic is too raw, too uncontrolled. This type of net will take a huge amount of magic and three entities that know how to call it up, direct it and then shut it down.”
Everyone turned to me and my pulse jumped. Next to my heart, my magic did a Snoopy happy dance.
Settle down, there, Snoopy.
I could break my WA oath and use magic to close the pit or stand there and fight monsters for God knew how long. Not exactly the way I wanted to start the New Year.
Luc, I called mentally. Could really use some help here.
As if in response, the smoky pit burped and out came an ugly slithering snake demon with a wingspan the width of the shop.
All of us went into attack mode, Zayfeer wielding his sword, Cephiel his magic. I grabbed another metal chair and Mikayla snagged the broom, muttering a spell to imbue it with magic.
The snake creature swung his head from side to side, taking me out with one wing before the Mark could fire up. The wing cuffed Mikayla and her broom flew through the air. Ceph didn’t have any better luck because the snake blew fire at his face, singeing his hair and eyebrows and interrupting whatever heavenly power Ceph was about to rain down on him.
Zayfeer hopped up on the ice cream counter, jumped on the monster’s back and brought the sword down in the center of its head. It tried to buck him off, and while it was distracted, I rallied Ceph and Mikayla for another attack.
For the next three minutes, we dodged and struck and dodged again. Finally, the Mark struck home, the monster fell back into the pit and we all dropped to the floor, wiping snake venom from our skin and breathing as though we’d run a marathon.
Cephiel rallied first. “Quickly.” He motioned for me and Zayfeer to form a triangle around the pit. “We must close that hole before another beast appears.”
“But what about my magic?”
“This is for the greater good, Amy.” He held out a hand. “You get a free pass, okay?”
What could I do?
I reached for Cephiel’s hand.
Chapter Seven – Spell Bound
The first hit of magic almost made me cry. It was like hearing a favorite song from childhood. Coming home to a favorite meal. Having the person you love smile at you from across a room.
Cephiel’s hand in mine was smooth and firm. As the hum of power rose from him, he lit up like a blue Christmas tree, a blue-white arc of cold energy running from his hand into mine.
Zayfeer glowed a buttery gold and his hand was hot to the touch. Rough, too, with calluses I assumed came from swinging a sword. His power flowed warm and molten into my hand, volcanic rock.
As their combined magics snaked under my skin and searched for mine, my pulse raced, my eyes closed and every one of my nerve endings sang the Hallelujah chorus. I’d kept a tight hold on my magic for so long, I now hesitated to let it out of its cage.
And while the magic in my chest had always been eager to escape, it now held back, shy and uncertain. Sure, I was cracking open the door, but my magic craved the dark, not the light, and these angels were a tangled mix of both. I didn’t trust either of them and my magic sensed that.
Tipping my head back, I reached out and started to dip a toe into the muddied magical waters and…
“Stop,” a dangerous, but oh-so-familiar voice said from behind me.
I opened my eyes and looked over my shoulder. “Luc?”
There he stood, scowling and, hello, naked. His clothes were still on my apartment floor. “What the hell are you doing?”
We all jumped back, kids caught stealing from the cookie jar. I dropped Ceph and Z’s hands and blinked. Twice. Luc’s body…oh, my. “I, um…You must have heard me call you. Thanks for…coming.”
Just call me Amy “Lame” Atwood.
Zayfeer clapped his hands together. “Lucifer, old buddy, old pal. Looking, uh,” —he started to slap Luc on the back and thought better of it when Luc shot him a don’t go there look— “good. Very…au naturel. But good.”
Better than good in my opinion. Apparently in Mikayla’s opinion too. She inched closer, eyes dazed and a big, happy smile on her face.
I cut in front of her, lifting my arms to hug him. “Are you okay?”
He backed away, keeping out of my reach.
Slowly, I dropped my arms. We stared at each other for a moment. In his eyes, I saw a rare vulnerability that told me there was more to his reluctance to embrace me than fear of the Mark. His dark gaze traveled from me to Zayfeer and back. The vulnerability in his eyes disappeared. “Leave it. I’ll close the gate.”
I wanted to say I was sorry. For the Mark, for not being able to control it and for allowing myself to get so distracted, I’d set it off. But really, I couldn’t control it and he knew that. It wasn’t like I’d purposely caused all this.
Moving out of his way, I watched the easy glide of his muscles as he marched past me and toward the jagged hole. His body was absolutely beautiful, the only disfigurements two scars, long-healed but prominent, from the places his wings had been cut
off. Every time I saw those, my heart clenched.
Zayfeer and Cephiel moved aside under Lucifer’s glare. Authority and supremacy rolled off him. Not just power and strength, but a potent sense of prerogative. The Hellmouth belonged to him. He would take care of it.
The closer he got to the pit, the more the smoke gurgled and whirled. Tendrils of dark enchantments bubbled to the surface reminding me of boiling water in a cauldron. They reached for Luc, fusing with his natural-born power and obeying it.
He held out a hand to Zayfeer. “Give me your sword, soldier.”
The fallen angel bowed his head, took a long moment to retrieve the sword from his belt holster. Inch by slow inch, he handed it to Luc.
Why the reluctance? Questions about their shared past rose in my mind.
Luc hefted the sword skyward, closing his eyes at the same time. The sword lit up and so did he, his magnificent body taking on a reddish glow. A flush spread over every muscle, every tendon. The smoke curling out of the hole retreated and Luc’s body shimmered with a glimmering blaze of heat, expanding with each breath he took.
My heart hammered, thudding in my ears and drowning out the world around me. The heat rolling off Luc’s body circled mine, teasing and toying. The magic in my chest welcomed it and I couldn’t tear my eyes away from him. Couldn’t move away from his power. A warm intensity took hold of my lower region, spreading down my legs and melting everything in its path. The heat climbed to my chest, my nipples, my throat, building and stroking and…
In the throes of heady lust, I threw back my head, shut my eyes and let go of a low moan. The sigil on my forehead came to life, and at the same time, Luc said something in Latin. Bright light exploded inside the shop, forcing me to shield my eyes.
My body grew lighter and I levitated off the ground. Still caught in the heat and desire coming from Luc, I didn’t fight it, only let it take me higher. I cracked open my eyes and saw the enchanted tendrils from the pit circling me, raising me into the air. My skin glowed as red as Luc’s.
And then the light he and the sword created died. With it, the bottom of my ride fell out.
