Ruthless (The Seraphim Series Book 2)

by Sophia Stafford

  “What do you see?” Lilliah sat forward.

  “Just stuff. Most of it doesn’t even make sense, but it always has strong ties to religion and faith. But it’s not like you’d imagine. The people I see, angels or whatever, aren’t all in white or anything. They look normal. And most of the time, they’re fighting.”

  Lilliah nodded, Iris was seeing Heaven all right. Lilliah remembered the disappointment she had felt after seeing Heaven when she was made to re-live her past lives. She found it a little disturbing that Heaven wasn’t all white clouds and halos. Everyone had been fighting, stabbing each other in the back. In fact, it had been a lot like Earth.

  Iris looked at Lilliah. “They talk about you. A lot. They talk about war and Lucifer and Azrael. They talk so much and I hear it all, but they don’t hear me. It’s like I’m not really there or something.” Her face suddenly hardened. “Like I said, I’m crazy.”

  “No.” Lilliah shook her head, her eyes filled with pity. “You’re not crazy. You saw Heaven and angels. I know it might seem like the craziest thing now, but it’s not. I saw Heaven too. I know what it’s like up there.”

  “I’ve got schizophrenia and depression. I get anxiety when it’s dark, but that’s when I hear the voices most. That’s why I moved to Las Vegas, because it’s never really dark here.”

  Lilliah wanted to lean over and hug her so badly, but she doubted after a lifetime of suffering that a hug would do anything.

  “Your family is the only one that can talk to angels,” Rebecca said. She tapped Lilliah on the shoulder. “Not angels like Lilliah, of course, because, well, she’s here. But angels up in Heaven. That’s amazing. I get that you’ve always seen this gift as a curse, but here’s your chance to see things differently.”

  Iris was looking at Rebecca, who was staring down at the pills in her hand.

  “You’ll have some time to think about it in the car, anyway.” Rebecca stood. “We need to pick Sebastian up from the airport.”

  Chapter 13

  Lilliah had driven to the airport with Rebecca riding shotgun and a reluctant Iris sitting in the back. None of them had spoken much. Even as they all stood waiting for Sebastian at arrivals, they were silent. Lilliah wanted to give Iris a little more time. It had only been a hour since the girl had fainted, for God’s sake.

  “Do I have a bruise on my head?” Iris asked, tentatively touching the sore spot.

  “Erm …” Rebecca stalled. “Oh look, there’s Seb!” she shouted, waving her hands.

  Iris looked up as Sebastian walked over to them.

  “Talk about a welcome party,” he boomed, grabbing Rebecca in a tight one-arm hug while holding his duffle bag in his other hand.

  “Missed you so much,” Rebecca gushed, standing on her tiptoes to give him a kiss. A few people clapped around them while others aahed.

  “That’s Sebastian?” Iris pointed, looking a little stunned.

  “Yep.” Lilliah avoided looking at the happy couple. “That’s my brother.”

  “And aren’t you the luckiest girl in the world for it,” he teased, finally coming up for air. “Good to see you, Lil.” He reached out and pulled her into a hug.

  “Okay.” Lilliah untangled herself from his arms. “I think that’s enough sibling touching for one day.”

  Sebastian looked down at a bright red Iris. “Is this the psychic?”

  “Her name is Iris.” Lilliah gestured with one hand. “And yes, she’s the psychic.”

  Iris gave an awkward wave and went back to looking at her shoes.

  “Right. She doesn’t look like a psychic,” Sebastian noted as they all headed for the airport’s exit.

  “Can you describe a psychic for me?” Rebecca challenged, staying as close to Sebastian as possible.

  “I don’t know.” He draped his arm over her shoulders. “Don’t they wear headscarves and carry crystal balls?”

  “Just like you have horns and I have white wings, right?” Lilliah led the way to the car park elevator and pushed the number five, for their floor.

  “Okay, point taken.” He finally turned to look at Iris. “Nice to meet you, Iris. I’m Sebastian.”

  “I’ve heard about you,” she muttered so quietly Lilliah barely heard her.

  “Oh, really?” Sebastian grinned when the elevator pinged, and they all walked in. “Starting to get a reputation, am I? What do they say about me?”

  “Don’t answer him,” Lilliah cut in, resting her back against the wall. “We don’t want his head to get any bigger.”

  “It’s okay,” Iris assured, but still too quietly. “The … angels … were worried at first because you’re a … a demon.” As soon as the elevator doors opened, Iris scurried out.

  Sebastian followed, laughing loudly. “Too right I’m a demon.”

  “They don’t mind, you know,” Iris finished quickly.

  “Good. Problem is, I don’t like them.”

  Finally, they reached the car. Sebastian put his bag in the boot and then squeezed into the back seat with Rebecca.

  “Wait, are you driving?” He sat forward when Lilliah slipped into the driver’s seat.

  “Yeah.” She had already turned the car on and was pulling away.

  “Do you know how to drive here? It’s the other side of the road, you know.” He stuck his head between Iris and Lilliah.

  “Oh, really? I had no idea!” Lilliah replied sarcastically. “I’ve been driving for days. I know how to drive here.”

  “I’m just saying it would probably make more sense for Iris to drive.”

  “Oh, I don’t drive.” Iris twisted her neck to look at Sebastian and Rebecca.

  “I need to concentrate.” Lilliah sat forward in her seat, searching for the exit sign. “This place is so confusing.”

  “No one talk. Just concentrate on driving, Lil.” Sebastian sat back, his body stiff.

  “You don’t have to be that dramatic.” Lilliah got more comfortable in her seat when she spotted the exit. “See, we’re out.”

  “We have yet to get to the hotel.”

  They hadn’t even been driving for ten minutes when it happened. Lilliah didn’t know what had happened at first. All she knew was that her head hurt and that her ears were ringing. All she could remember was a loud bang.

  “Lilliah,” Sebastian called out from behind her. “Shit! Is everyone okay?”

  She couldn’t move much. Her airbag had gone off. Iris was sitting beside her, holding her head.

  “Someone ran into the side of us!” Sebastian screamed.

  Lilliah heard unfamiliar voices. Two men were walking up to her. Someone pulled her door open.

  One of the men popped the airbag with a knife and grabbed her face roughly. “You sure this is her?”

  “Oh hell, yeah. If that isn’t the face of an angel, I don’t know what is. Lucifer is going to—”

  The stranger’s hand was pulled from her face. Sebastian was standing in front of her, and the two men were on the floor.

  Lilliah undid her seat belt. “Everyone, out.”

  She almost fell to the ground. Her left side—the side the car had been hit—hurt, and her lip was bleeding. Other than that, she was mostly in shock. She scrambled to her feet and checked that Rebecca and Iris were out of the car and okay. A loud horn sounded as another car sped past her. It was then that she noticed they were in the middle of the road, their car smashed and lying diagonally across the lane.

  She turned to the two men. Sebastian was doing well against them, but they had at least three inches on him and were quickly gaining the upper hand.

  People were gathering in the streets. A few were walking towards them, phones to their ears or pointed at them. They needed to get out of here before the ambulance or police arrived.

  “Grab the girl. I’ll deal with this one,” the dark-haired guy shouted and kicked Sebastian in the face.

  Sebastian fell to the pavement, blood pouring from his mouth and nose.

  The tall, gangly blon
d guy approached her. She could take him.

  “Are you a werewolf?” she asked.

  He winked. Lilliah ran towards him, aiming her first punch at his face and the second at his stomach. He’d been anticipating her attack and moved to dodge her, but she was faster. She hit him hard in his side, and he crumpled over in pain. She grabbed his hair and kneed him in the face. He fell to the ground. She sat on his stomach and carried on hitting him. Her knuckles were bleeding and the guy on the ground had stopped moaning.

  Lilliah scanned the area. Sebastian was also on the ground, with his attacker on top of him. She ran towards the attacker and grabbed his hair, pulling him off Sebastian.

  “Who sent you?” she screamed, punching him in the jaw.

  “Bitch!”

  The guy’s fist slammed into her face, throwing her off balance for a second. She regained her stance. The pain in her cheek was intense, but she couldn’t think about that right now. Sirens sounded in the distance. She didn’t have time for this. She ran and tackled the guy to the ground.

  “How did you find us? Who sent you?” she screamed and delivered hit after hit. Going crazy and needing answers, Lilliah kept on hitting him.

  “Lilliah!” Rebecca’s voice somehow broke through her mad haze. She stopped, her breathing heavy.

  “Is Seb okay?” she asked once she could control her voice.

  “Yeah, he’s fine. The other guy’s waking up, though.”

  Lilliah nodded. The sirens were even louder. She took the man’s face in her hands and looked straight into his eyes.

  “How did you find us?” she asked, much slower than the last time. “Did Lucifer send you?”

  The guy nodded, his eyes glazing over. “He put a mark on you.” He bared his bloody teeth. “Lucifer wants you. Lucifer’s going to get you. He has your Azrael.”

  Lilliah leaned in closer. “I want you to pass on a message to Lucifer. Tell him he made a mistake going after Azrael, because now I’m coming after him.” She was so angry she was shaking.

  The guy laughed. “Why would the Devil be afraid of you?”

  Sebastian hobbled over. “Lilliah, the police are here. We need to go. Now!”

  She ignored Sebastian and spoke only to the guy beneath her. “Because I’m Michael’s daughter. So tell him to count his days. I won’t send him back to Hell. I’m going to kill him.”

  With one quick hit, she knocked the guy out and stood. She could see that police had started gathering on the scene. Their attention was mainly on the crash site; they clearly hadn’t noticed the two unconscious men on the ground. Moving as quick as she could, Lilliah motioned for everyone to start running and they fled the scene.

  Chapter 14

  “This one girl was like a ninja,” the guy on the TV explained. “The guy hit her and she hit him back. She was faster and kicked ass!”

  “Did you witness the car accident? Many bystanders claim the two men ran into the red Toyota, initiating the whole fight,” the blonde reporter asked, then handed over the microphone.

  “Oh yeah, saw the whole thing. They rammed that car good.”

  “As you can see, the car was abandoned in the road. Local law enforcement are currently getting the car off the road. They believe the collision happened around three-thirty this afternoon. The search for the drivers has begun.”

  “Oh, please turn this off!” Lilliah fell onto the bed.

  The news story had been running constantly for the last half-hour, and she was bored of listening to it. The station broadcasted mobile phone footage that clearly showed Lilliah sitting on a man and punching him in the face. She looked crazy.

  “Why?” Sebastian laughed, turning up the volume. “They called you a ninja. No one even talked about me.”

  “Oh, baby.” Rebecca got on the bed behind him and rubbed his shoulders. Putting on a teasing voice, she said, “I saw you. I think you did great.”

  “Aw, thank you, baby,” Sebastian joked back.

  They had decided not to go back to Iris’s house. They had no idea whether the two men had followed them from Iris’s apartment to the airport. Instead, they had booked a nice little motel. They could only afford the one room, but it was a lot nicer than some of the motels Lilliah and Rebecca had stayed in.

  The room had two double beds, but Sebastian had offered to sleep on the small sofa. Iris was coming out of her shell, but she wasn’t ready to share a bed with them yet.

  Iris sat on the other bed crossed-legged. She hadn’t really spoken since the attack. Lilliah had left her alone, unsure how to even broach the subject. She’d talk when she was ready.

  “Have you called Benedict yet?” Rebecca asked, reaching for another piece of pizza. According to Sebastian, it was the only food that would do after a beating.

  Lilliah shook her head. She’d been putting off that conversation and planned to keep putting it off for at least a few more hours. He had probably heard about the fight and car crash and was most likely furious, so she wanted to wait out his anger.

  “You need to speak to him at some point. I mean, we had to go out of our way to buy the phone in the first place. So just call him,” Rebecca said around a mouthful of food.

  “First of all, you need better manners. That’s really disgusting. Second, why don’t you speak with him? Tell him I’m busy.”

  Rebecca laughed, covering her mouth.

  She spoke once she had swallowed. “Hell, no. There is no way I’m speaking to that man. He’s still angry that we broke into his old, freaky house. Besides, I texted him the number we’d be calling him from. It’s your turn.”

  Sebastian reclined, his legs hanging off the bed and his head resting next to Rebecca’s knee. “What freaky house?”

  “Oh, so much to tell you.” Rebecca explained everything to Sebastian, from the house to the spell, and by the end of it, Lilliah was exhausted from just listening.

  Then the phone rang and everyone fell silent.

  “Who do you think it is?” Sebastian asked, staring down at the mobile as if it might suddenly reveal the answer instead of an unrecognised phone number.

  “Only one person has this number.” Lilliah picked up. “Hey, Benedict.”

  She was up on her feet and in the bathroom before he could answer. She didn’t want everyone to overhear her grovelling for his forgiveness.

  “Stay. Under. The. Radar.” He didn’t shout, but he didn’t need to. He was angry.

  “It wasn’t our fault,” she tried to explain, but he cut her off.

  “That was all I asked.”

  “I know, but—”

  “You’re on the news.” She heard him turn up the volume on his TV. “They don’t have your name yet, but your face is on every TV screen in America!”

  “Yes, I know, but—”

  “Everyone at The Cure is asking why you’re in Vegas. I said you left without telling me.”

  “Did they believe you?” The last thing Lilliah wanted was to get Benedict in trouble.

  “No, they didn’t.” He exhaled loudly. “I broke the law tracking Iris.”

  He paused, his words sinking in.

  “I’m sorry.” She felt as if she’d said sorry way too many times over the past week. She couldn’t think of a better way to say it, though. She was sorry. “What will happen if they find out what you did?”

  “Nothing good, Lilliah. Nothing good.” She heard scuffling on the other line. “Look, Lucifer wants you. Every vampire and werewolf on this half of the world is now heading for Vegas. Everyone wants to be the one who catches the angel girl.”

  “They ran us off the road,” she cut in before he could carry on. “It all happened too quickly, and I just reacted. Sebastian was getting hit. My ears were ringing. And you know what? I’m fine. Thank you for asking.”

  She was met with silence and instantly backtracked. “But everything is okay, really. We’ll leave Vegas tonight. Head back to The Cure?”

  “No.” He sounded a lot less angry than he had seconds ago. �
��New York is crawling with magical shitheads.”

  Lilliah had to press her lips together to stop herself from laughing. She’d never heard Benedict swear before. It was like hearing a teacher from school swear.

  “You need to find the Keeper. I have no idea why Azrael wants you to find him, but he does.”

  “The Keeper, right.” Lilliah paced around the small bathroom. “How exactly do we find this Keeper guy?”

  “I’ll do a spell.”

  “Okay.” Lilliah was pumped and ready for action. “One more thing. We don’t have a car. We had to leave it at the crash scene. I didn’t think about it then, but could they trace it back to you?”

  “No, the car can’t be traced. Let me get a pen.” She waited until Benedict spoke again. “Give me the address of the hotel you’re staying in.”

  Lilliah gave him the name, but she had no idea about the address.

  “I’ll call someone about the car. A red Toyota will be outside the hotel in twenty minutes. The keys will be in the ignition. Leave Las Vegas. I don’t care where you go, just leave and throw away this phone. Get a new one.”

  The line went dead before Lilliah could say anything else. She walked back into the main room. Everyone was looking at her.

  “We need to leave Vegas tonight.”

  “We don’t have a car,” Rebecca pointed out.

  “Benedict’s got it covered. A new one will be outside in twenty minutes. Apparently, Lucifer’s put a goddamn bounty on our heads or something.”

  “Good to have that power, you know? To just get a new car at the snap of your fingers?” Sebastian seemed in awe.

  “Ha. Lucifer.” Iris smirked.

  Lilliah smiled at her brother and frowned at Iris. She knew she’d talk sooner or later, but she hadn’t expected her to say that.

  “Yep, Lucifer.” Rebecca stood and gathered her trousers off the floor. “We should stop by Iris’s apartment to pick up some of her clothes and stuff.”

  “I’m coming with you guys?” Iris asked after Rebecca had disappeared into the bathroom to change.