by Michele Hauf
He wrapped his hands around her back and pulled her in. What luck that the second time he should find someone to care about she turned out to be another demon. Did the gods have something against him? Was he never meant to be happy?
Don’t think about it. Take this kiss. Remember it. Never forget the intensity of it. The soft regard of it. The knowing that it was more right than any kiss he’d ever had before.
Take the fall.
Because Zen made him realize that it didn’t matter what you were but who you were. What went on in your thoughts, and how you responded to the actions of others. To arrogantly assume that all demons should die simply because one group of them had hurt him? How dare he? He wasn’t making the world a better place. He was harming it. Demon by demon.
Blade stood back, still holding Zen’s head between his hands. He pressed his forehead to hers. He wanted to ask her, to beg her to stay. To be his. To be the demon he could welcome without judgment.
To be his woman.
But something kept that want from leaping free.
She pulled his hands from her head, and as she lowered them, he reluctantly dropped their connection. “I’m heading to the club tonight,” she said. “You know, the place with the portal.”
Whoa. She was moving fast. And with a determination that felt similar to when he’d been going after demons.
“There’s just one thing,” she said, and she turned to pick up the halo from the couch. “I’m not sure why I held on to this. Like I said, some things are fuzzy. But it’ll be a nice souvenir, I guess. I’ll see if I can take it with me.”
So it was as easy as that for her? Memory returned. Back to her mission. Leave the vampire standing in the lurch.
Of course it had to be that easy.
“What’s wrong, Blade?”
“I, uh...” Sighing out his apprehension, Blade pulled back his shoulders and blurted out what had to be said, “I talked to Kesabel earlier today.”
“Kesabel?”
“You don’t know that name?” Shouldn’t she know the leader of the demon denizen she was to eventually help repopulate? Although, he wasn’t sure if Kesabel was the leader. He had named himself lord of the Casipheans. Whatever that meant. “He’s demon. The Casiphean agent come to this realm to ensure you complete your journey to Daemonia.”
“Oh. So you knew? Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I was going to, but you and your happy bouncing feet beat me to it.”
She nodded. Bounced once more. “It’s pretty cool, isn’t it?”
No. Not cool at all.
“You betcha. Cool. Are you sure about this, Zen? I mean, you don’t even know these demons. And to become their queen... That’s a big commitment.”
“Oh, listen to you, the master of avoiding commitment.”
That snarky response slapped Blade across the face as if her hand had done it. He touched his cheek, because the feeling was that palpable. “I suppose you did want this. It’s why you fell.”
She nodded. “I can’t say why I want this, but if I made the fall it must have been for good reason. So you want some soup?”
Soup? What the— On to a new tangent when he was still drowning in the reality of her truth? Blade shoved his hands into his jeans’ pockets. “I’m not hungry. But thanks for thinking of me.”
“Then, I should probably get going. Things to do before I leave. I was going to donate the car to a homeless shelter. Would that be okay?”
She had really thought this through. “Great idea.” He forced on a smile.
“Then, I’ll be seeing you!”
She grabbed the backpack by the fridge and headed toward the stairs. Blade couldn’t bring himself to call out to her, to ask her to reconsider. To stay. To stop the fall to Daemonia.
She had a mission. He had no right to stop her.
And he had made the fall—only to crash, wings splayed and heart completely shattered.
* * *
Zen drove mindlessly toward town. The birch trees lining the gravel road shushed by like slats on a fence and revealed open field at the stop where she turned left and drove toward Tangle Lake.
She’d had to leave Blade’s place quickly. And without lingering in that incredible kiss. A kiss that had felt like falling. A good kind of falling. But to stay and draw out her exit would have killed her.
Why had she had to remember that she was waited for by an entire demon race? That they needed her to take her place as their queen? To marry and repopulate a dying breed. She’d not told Blade that part. He wouldn’t have taken it lightly.
“I’m a queen?” she muttered. And then with the pride it instilled within her, she announced, “I’m a queen. That’s cool. Right? Queens get crowns. I could so rock a crown.”
Her fingers curved tightly about the steering wheel as anxiety reared up. “Why?” she asked. She didn’t want to lead a denizen of demons. Or an entire race. She didn’t need the crown. She just wanted to stand in Blade’s arms and know he loved her.
But she’d had to leave. Because he’d never said he loved her.
The man—vampire, faery—had just been helping her to get her memory back. A man who had been hurt in the past because he had loved a demoness. There was no way she could expect him to accept her truth now.
She had lost him.
As much as she’d wanted to stay, leaving had been her only option.
She touched her mouth, trying to remember the irrepressible heat of his kiss. Too quickly it faded. She couldn’t remember his mouth against hers. She needed that feeling back!
Slowing at a stop sign at the entry to town, she shifted into Park and bowed her head against the steering wheel.
“I don’t want to do this.”
But she had been destined to this. By falling she had taken on the task, had agreed to this monumental undertaking. She mustn’t disappoint the Casipheans. For if she did, might she risk their anger and a rage of demons storming this mortal realm?
If Blade thought he could take out the few demons that tread this earth now, he’d never be able to handle an entire rage. She had to do this. To save Blade.
Chapter 22
A shout from outside the barn alerted Blade. He rested his elbows on the battered hood of the truck. There was no saving this heap. The angel had obliterated the radiator and the surrounding engine and he bet Beck would tell him he needed to install a whole new engine. He had a few vehicles to choose from to drive, so he’d junk this one. The rusted white Ford had started to leak oil when he’d returned home earlier so he’d drive the Mustang for a while.
The shout came again and he recognized it as his father’s voice.
“In here!” Blade called. He flexed his fingers in and out of fists. He wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone.
Zen had run away from him. She hadn’t been able to get away from him fast enough. Away, and then on to Daemonia. Where she would be crowned a queen. That had to count for something.
And really, he knew not all demons were evil. He just didn’t like them as a species. And he had every right to that opinion.
But he needed to talk to Sim. This was no longer his war. Blade couldn’t, in good conscience, slay the next demon he saw. Not if it was Zen.
“What the hell happened to the truck?” Kai asked as he strolled into the evening shadows of the garage. His father wore a T-shirt, suede jeans and was barefoot. The lack of footwear was a wolf thing that Blade had picked up as a child.
“Had a disagreement with an angel.” He wiped the grease from his hands on a cloth, then tossed it aside to the open toolbox. “What’s up, Dad?”
“I do believe I’ve outdone myself.”
Kai pulled a sword from behind his back and handed it, hilt up, to Blade. “All it took was some of your mother’s faery dust, and I was able to manipulate the metal. Still don’t know what kind of metal it is, but it’s strong and true. This blade needs but to whisper across flesh to draw a deep cut.”
The sword blad
e was about a foot and a half long, and it was wide, honed to cut along each edge. It gleamed and seemed to sing as Blade turned it side to side to look it over. The hilt was simple, wrapped in black leather and impressed with the Saint-Pierre monogram. Yet where the blade joined the hilt words had been impressed in a language Blade did not understand.
“Sidhe writing?”
“It means warrior,” Kai offered. “Your mother thought it appropriate for you. Can’t say that I ever wish for you to be in a situation where you’d need such a weapon, but if so, then you will be well armed. You like it?”
“It’s amazing, Dad.” He swung the sword, testing the weight. It was light, and yet as he curved through the thrust, the weapon carried a definite direction, a focus. Wielding this he could take out a line of demons with but a sweep of his hand. Or one pissed-off angel. “Thank you.”
“My pleasure. It’ll probably kill angels. Uh, you don’t think there are any more angels walking around Tangle Lake, do you?”
“Not sure.” Because if they were determined to stop Zen from making it to Daemonia, now would be the time to kick it into high gear and invade. Did Kesabel know about the angels who were after his queen? “Zen got her memory back.”
“Yeah? So what’s up with her?”
“She’s a fallen angel who was supposed to fall all the way to Daemonia to become the Casiphean queen.”
Kai was rarely speechless, but that announcement hit its mark. His dad leaned a palm on the truck bed and raked fingers through his shoulder-length hair.
“She remembered falling, and that she has a mission,” Blade explained. “She was hit by the bus, so some memories are a little fuzzy.”
“Yikes. So why didn’t she fall all the way to Daemonia? Why stop on this realm? I can’t imagine the bus stopped such a momentous fall.”
“That’s the question. And—” Blade swung the sword before him in an exact cut through the air “—she’s still got her halo.”
“I thought the halo fell away from the angel during the fall?” Kai said.
“Exactly. So she must have been holding it.”
And then it hit him like a demon fist colliding with his heart. Blade’s jaw dropped open. Nothing felt more true to him. Nothing.
“Because she didn’t want to go all the way to Daemonia,” he muttered.
“What?” Kai asked.
“Dad, I think having the halo in hand kept her here on this realm. Has to be,” he said, working the options through. “She didn’t want to become their queen.”
“But why not?”
He met his dad’s wondering gaze. “I have no idea. But I don’t have time to wonder. I’ve got to save Zen before she makes a huge mistake. Will you lock up for me?”
Blade grabbed the keys for the 1964 Mustang he’d fixed last year but which was still waiting for a coat of paint. He slid in behind the steering wheel.
“Need me to come along?” Kai called as Blade backed out of the garage.
He could use backup. But he wasn’t about to put his father in danger. His mother would never forgive him. “I’ve got this, Dad! If you see Trouble, tell him I went back to the club.”
Because if Trouble showed, then he’d have all the help he needed.
“I’ll give him a call!” Kai said, waving him off. “Is she worth it?”
Blade backed the Mustang down the gravel driveway. Worth it? Hell yes.
* * *
Zen entered the mansion with a confidence that virtually floated her across the marble floor. The dancing crowd silenced at the sight of her. They were people. And demons. Or maybe demons that wore a human disguise. All eyes were red. And it didn’t disturb her.
Because they were her people.
Or that was what she told herself. She didn’t really have a people at the moment. She wasn’t fully demon. Nor was she fully angel. She could become...
Could she toss the crown aside and become something else?
She paused at the edge of the dance floor that now flickered to darkness as the music was pulled to a halt. A few dancers looked around like “what happened?” until they noticed her standing there in a simple yellow dress that fluttered to below her knees. Were they all stuck in this nightclub endlessly dancing in wait to lure her toward the portal?
The thought creeped her out. Why not just walk up and ask, “Will you join us? Be our queen?”
The demons on the dance floor separated to form an open aisle for her that led up to the pulsating red oval of—now she was close enough to see it—fire. A fire that blazed yet didn’t seem to give off heat.
The doorway to her destiny. The beginning of her life as a queen who would repopulate the Casiphean denizens and bring—well, she was fuzzy on the details.
Just like she was still unclear on how she’d landed in Tangle Lake. Angels never failed in their course. So why had she?
The clank of the halo, secured at the thin rhinestone chain she’d belted around her waist, alerted her. She shouldn’t have brought it along. The Casipheans would view it as something that belonged to their enemy.
Really? If she had originated as the enemy, why now did she intend to walk through the portal to become their queen? Another question that didn’t make sense. But she was missing all the information that would put the pieces together and show her the complete picture.
Zen didn’t want to turn and look over her shoulder for him.
But she did.
Why she thought Blade would be standing there in the center of the aisle, arms held out to receive her was a question she could not answer. And shouldn’t answer. She had a duty. All those standing in silence around her waited for her to accept that calling.
She turned toward the portal, trying to avoid eye contact, but it was impossible not to. Red eyes looked hopeful. Even pleading. Some thrust back their shoulders in defiance, while the ones standing next to them clasped their hands, settling their ire.
Zen set her gaze straight ahead for the portal even as a vile shriek echoed up from the ranks at the back of the nightclub. Demons all around her mobilized. Feet scuffled and the ripple of wings unfurled. While a few remained at her side, bowing, encouraging her to walk forward into the flames, she was aware of so many others who shifted into their demonic forms and soared away.
As if in defense.
* * *
Swinging the halo blade obliterated the vanguard of demons charging Blade. Black blood spattered his face and shoulders. He licked it off his lips. The faery in him grinned. Oh, yeah, that hit the spot. His fangs descended, eager for a longer, deeper drink.
He didn’t hesitate on the upswing, returning the blade across the throats and chests of the next assault. From behind, he was attacked. Claws cut through his shirt and skin. Teeth gnawed at his boot. He kicked aimlessly, and managed to unloose the ravenous threat.
Ahead, the flaming portal glowed. And silhouetted before it stood Zen, looking small and alone, lost in a greater plan that he feared might swallow her up. She couldn’t step through that portal until she knew what he had guessed. He had to at least try to make her hear him.
Taking a fist to his jaw, he growled at the perpetrator. He grabbed him by the shoulder and sank his fangs into the sinuous black-fleshed neck. Lusciously bitter demon blood oozed over his palate. It tasted so good. Because of the ichor running through his system, and in his saliva, the demon yowled from the burning bite and scrambled off, clutching its neck. It wouldn’t survive long.
“Zen!” His shout was lost in the melee of crazed demons who wanted to ensure their queen made it to the throne. “Zen!”
She was so close. Blade took a knee-bending hit to the back of his legs. Felt as if he’d been plowed into by a truck. He wobbled, grasping at the closest thing—a demon’s bald and slimy head—to break his fall. An inhale filled his lungs with sulfur. His faery pleaded for release. And just as he began to unfurl his wings, the next injury he took was a deep cut to his chest that spilled out his blood, dazzled with ichor. The attacker
retreated from the sting of the ichor. It could eat away a demon’s skin in seconds.
Now thoroughly angered, Blade unfurled his wings. The serrated edges cut through demon throats and appendages and sent some fleeing, while others dived for him, only to be slashed away by a precise sweep of wing.
Ahead, a wall of demons began to form, literally, demons climbing atop one another’s shoulders and linking arms before the dance floor to block him from getting near Zen.
Blade charged the wall. Wings lifting him into a soar, he glided to the top of the demonic wall and slashed the halo sword. He managed to bring down three from the top row, which then toppled them all.
And behind them Zen turned to see Blade land on the dance floor twenty feet away from where she stood. He spread his wings wide to prevent the demons from getting near her, but felt the enemy beat against his wings repeatedly. He couldn’t hold them off much longer.
“You held the halo tight so you wouldn’t land in Daemonia!” he yelled. “You don’t want this, Zen. Don’t go!”
She unlatched the halo secured at her hip and looked at it. A crew of demons that flanked her gestured for her to walk toward the portal. Of course, they couldn’t touch her, or even push her through. As Kesabel had explained, she had to enter Daemonia of her free will.
“Think about it!” he called. A demon landed on his shoulders and fangs sank into his skull above the ear. Blade reached up and ripped the intruder away, flinging it toward an oncoming pack of its brethren. “Come with me!”
“I...” She clutched the halo with both hands. “I don’t know!”
Blade rushed for her, grabbing her by the shoulders. He coiled his wings around them to give them a momentary shield. Her heartbeats were palpable against his palms. Frightened blue irises sought his eyes. Secluding her within his wings, he spoke from his heart. “Zen, you have a choice to step through that portal and become queen. Or...”
“Or?” Her fingers clutched his shirt. Desperation glowed in her eyes.
