Angelic Surrender: The Kavanaugh Foundation, Book 2

by Crista McHugh

  Her mouth flapped open like a fish’s, and he released her wrist. Wonderful. He’d finally shocked her into silence. The gleam in her eyes, however, told him her mind was still working at a mile a minute. “I thought all the Fallen Angels were condemned to Hell. You don’t smell like brimstone.”

  “Anjali, my pet, haven’t you ever heard the expression, ‘Heaven doesn’t want me, and Hell’s afraid I’ll take over’?” He tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “Hush. We have a train to catch.”

  “This isn’t the end of this conversation, Will.” But she remained quiet until they boarded the Number Five train heading south. As it rocked side to side, she leaned her head on his shoulder. “At least I have some idea what I’m dealing with now.”

  He wrapped his arm around her and enjoyed the peaceful moments the ride afforded them. Was this what it felt like to be a human in love? To feel a level of closeness to another soul just from a simple touch? Her acceptance warmed the hard pit in his chest and made it beat stronger. He had no idea what the future held for them, but for once, he was anxious to explore that possibility.

  Anjali eased into Will’s arms, relishing how well she fit in them. For a brief moment, she forgot they were both freaks of nature. A demon hunter and a fallen angel. What an odd combination. But to her, they almost felt normal, like they could be any new couple on a subway train. Her heart thumped. Could she actually be falling for Will in more than just a sexual sense?

  The scent of brimstone interrupted her happy delusions as they pulled into the Broadway-Nassau station. She tightened her hand around his. “Will, we need to get off here.”

  A line appeared between his dark brows, but he nodded and followed her lead. When the train disappeared and the crowds thinned, he whispered in her ear, “You found them?”

  She wrinkled her nose from the sting of sulfur. “Not exactly, but they’re close.” The scent grew stronger in the direction of the tunnel to the A-C trains. She focused her second sight as she tracked them. “How many am I looking for?”

  “Three. I managed to send one back last night.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me there was more than one?” She weaved past anyone slow enough to get in her way.

  “I didn’t know there was more than one until they ambushed us last night.”

  “So your boss has been withholding information from you?”

  “In more ways than one.”

  They reached the other platform, and she scanned the people milling around, looking for abnormal shadows on the walls or scorch marks on the ground. “It would be helpful if you shared what you knew with me.”

  He lowered his voice so only she could hear him. “All I know is that someone opened a rift between worlds and took four of them.”

  A shiver coursed through her veins. “Who would do such a thing?”

  “That’s what I’m trying to figure out. Believe me, when I find the person responsible for this, I’ll have his head.”

  Another shiver raced down her spine. The hard edge to his threat left little doubt in her mind that he’d carry it out. In her experience, most of the demons she dealt with were those that managed to sneak through a pre-existing portal. This incident had the makings of something far more sinister.

  A train came through and exchanged the people in the station. She froze and waited to see if the scent vanished as the train pulled away. It didn’t. The Skinwalkers were still here, somewhere.

  Across the tracks, her second sight zeroed in on a group of men. They sat on a bench near each other, not doing anything that attracted attention, but the rest of the people steered clear of them. The skin over their faces seemed to be stretched too tightly over the bones, distorting their features into hideous expressions. Bingo!

  She touched Will’s chest and nodded in their direction when he turned to her. “See them?”

  “How can you—?” His question broke off as he studied their appearance. A hunter’s smile spread across his lips. “Anjali, you are a marvel.”

  She wanted to discuss a game plan on how to capture them without attracting too much attention, but he wrapped his arm around her waist, pulled her to him, and kissed her in front of everyone around them. Unlike the slow, sensual kisses from this morning, this one was brief but strong enough to throw off her equilibrium and leave her dazed. Then he released her and dashed toward the staircase that led to the other side, ignoring that catcalls he received from a few bystanders.

  The platform wobbled in front of her, and she realized she was the one wobbling, not it. She reached for the wall to steady herself. Damn, that man could kiss. Then she remembered the demons across the tracks. Her half-insane angel would engage them in front of dozens of witnesses and possibly endanger their lives. Idiot!

  She ran after him, hoping to catch him before he did something stupid. When she reached the opposite platform, she couldn’t find him. Maybe she’d been wrong about his destination. Her heart still raced from the run up and down the stairs, but it kicked up a notch when one of the Skinwalkers looked up at her and contorted its borrowed features into a malicious grin. It stood and took a step toward her.

  The air wavered around her, and the familiar wave of reassurance washed over her. Will was here, even though she couldn’t see him. Fortunately, neither could the demon, who continued to creep toward her. Long claws broke through the flesh of its fingers as it prepared to attack.

  The people on the platform instinctively backed away, but they stood close enough to get hurt should the Skinwalker shed his latest disguise. Despite the fact her lungs struggled for quick, short breaths, she shouted, “Back off!”

  The demon paused and blinked at her as if no one had ever ordered it around like that. Then it lunged.

  Anjali twisted to the side, hoping to avoid its claws. Instead, it froze like it had collided with an invisible wall. Its mouth hung agape like someone had just punched it in its stomach. She sucked in a cool breath and called on her magic. Will would need help fighting this one off.

  A gaping hole illuminated by pale blue fire appeared in the Skinwalker’s gut and raced to the outer edges like a flame consumes a piece of newspaper. A high-pitched wail filled the subway station, freezing everyone who heard it. A child cried as the blue flames licked away the remnants of the demon’s face.

  Pandemonium erupted less than a second later. People bolted for the stairs. A member of the stampede shoved her to the floor, making her lose her focus. The magic she’d gathered dissipated from the force of the blow. Wonderful. We cause a scene, and I get new bruises.

  Two figures ran in the opposite direction. The other Skinwalkers. They hopped down to the tracks and ran into the darkness.

  Her jaw tightened. Like hell she’d let them get away. She jumped to her feet and ran to the edge of the platform. A lump formed in her throat. Following them meant running into rats, trains and risking electrocution. What kind of suicidal mission am I on?

  She glanced behind her at the last bystanders hustling up the stairs. Images of the victim in Harlem flashed in front of her eyes. If they didn’t catch the demons soon, more people would die. She gathered her courage and jumped.

  Chapter Ten

  What the hell is she thinking? Vassago silently screamed as he watched Anjali teeter on the edge of the platform. Then she jumped.

  His wings never appeared so quickly in his existence. He caught her just before she landed and carried her to a place where he knew she wouldn’t be electrocuted. The glamour faded as his anger grew. “What are you trying to do?”

  She whipped around. Her eyes focused directly on the pale blue glow of his sword. “When did you get that?”

  “Answer my question first.”

  “The other two went this way.”

  He shoved past her and plunged deeper into the blackness of the tunnel. The sound of small footsteps behind him told him she was following him. “So you thought you’d take on both of them by yourself?”

  “I could at least trap them unti
l you came. You said yourself that you wanted to catch them. I didn’t want to lose their trail.”

  A new surge of rage flowed through his veins. How could she be so careless with her life? Did she even understand what she was up against? “Go back to the platform.”

  “No. You’re the one who hired me to help you find them, and I’m sticking around until the job is done.”

  He turned to her with half a mind of flying her back to her apartment and tying her to the bed until he got back. Instead, he almost found himself laughing at her pose. Her arms crossed over her breasts, and her chin raised in defiance. He should have known his little demon hunter wouldn’t back down from a fight. “I think I can spot them now. Go back where it’s safe, please.”

  His sincerity seemed to surprise her. She blinked a few times and relaxed her shoulders. A rat scurried by, and she flung herself into his arms with a squeal.

  This time, he couldn’t hold the laughter back. “Brave little Anjali will take on Skinwalkers, but she scared of a small rat?”

  “There’s nothing small about New York rats, thank you very much.” She pushed him away with her lips pressed in a tight line.

  “Maybe, but—” The sounds of scuffling behind him made his nerves stand on end. He tightened his grip on his sword as he tried to zero in on their location.

  “Will, behind you,” she managed to shout before a rock hard wall tackled him. His sword rattled along the tracks when he hit the ground, landing just out of his reach. Above him, the Skinwalker licked its fangs. He braced his arms against the demon’s chest to keep from becoming its new chew toy.

  “Off!” Anjali’s command punctuated a bolt of magic that collided with the demon and flung him backward into the stale, inky void.

  Free of the demon-sized paperweight, Vassago scrambled to his feet and grabbed his sword hilt. A fresh blade of blue fire illuminated the darkness. Several feet away, he saw a shadow rise. Another stream of magic whizzed by him and coiled around the Skinwalker. The demon struggled against the binding.

  “I have it. Send it back.” Her voice shook, and the strain on her face told she wouldn’t be able to hold it much longer.

  Forget sending it back. He had his sword again, and it was time to stop playing around with those motherfuckers. The demon snarled as he approached it, challenging him with its glare. He raised his blade, ready to plunge it into the demon’s core, when a sharp cry broke his concentration.

  He whirled around, his gut clenched. Anjali lay splayed across the tracks with the second Skinwalker hovering over her. An icy chill wound around his throat, cutting off his air. He forgot about the demon in front of him and charged the one that threatened his little demon hunter.

  His sword sank into the demon’s flesh like a hot knife into butter. “Wrong move, asshole,” he grunted and sent his angelic flames into its core. They spread out, consuming its body in seconds. With nothing left to hold it, the blade sank to the tracks.

  “Will, it burns.”

  Anjali’s muffled gasp pulled him out his exhaustion. He lifted her head and saw her dilated pupils staring past him. Her body trembled. “What burns?”

  “My skin. It burns everywhere.” She raked her nails over her arm. A large gash dipped blood onto the tracks, far bigger than what she could have done to herself. “Make it stop.” She clawed herself again.

  Sweat prickled his brow. The Skinwalker’s venom. He ripped off a section of his T-shirt and made a modified tourniquet from it to keep the venom from spreading further. She fought him off like a mad woman, making incomprehensible moans every time their skin touched. “Don’t worry, Anjali. I can fix this.”

  The ground began to shake under him. He looked back and saw no trace of the last demon, only a bright light barreling toward them. He gathered her into his arms and extended his glamour over her like he did last night. She writhed against him, making him wish she was unconscious instead of in danger of slipping from his arms as the next train threatened to run them over.

  “Relax, my pet.” He focused his powers into her mind, and her body stilled. With a few flaps of his wings, he managed to get them back to the station and away from the train. The air whirled above the heads of the humans as he flew over them with his precious cargo, but they ignored them. He navigated the tight tunnels until he got to the surface and entered the freedom of the sky.

  Vassago stood in the doorway of Anjali’s bedroom, never feeling more helpless than he did at the moment. For the last hour, he’d watched her suffer. He glanced at her cell phone and wondered if Jen’s number would be in it. Maybe the witch could find a way to ease her agony.

  A new howl of pain made his whole body shudder. She had remained docile through most of the flight, but the moment he entered her apartment, the venom seized control of her. Her muscles tensed, and her nails tried to shred her skin. The only way he could keep her from mutilating herself was to tie her hands to her headboard using a bright orange sari he found draped over a chair. Her body arched off the bed, and her wild eyes rolled in their sockets. If anyone witnessed her behavior, they would swear she was possessed by a demon.

  A wave of nausea rose into his throat. He’d managed to save her from the Skinwalker, but the venom tormented her in ways he’d never imagined. Even after he tried to clean her wound, she continued to have hallucinations that made her scream that her skin was on fire. She no longer responded to his voice, his touch, his powers. Instead, she remained a prisoner of the mental hell that filled her mind.

  Her body flopped back on the mattress. A sheen of sweat coated her face. Her breaths slowed. Her eyes fluttered closed, and a new tremor radiated through her limbs. “Will?” she whimpered.

  He almost pounced on the bed in joy. At last, the venom seemed to be losing its grip on her. “Yes?”

  She murmured something he didn’t understand and relaxed further into the pillows. Tears glistened on her eyelashes.

  He wiped them away and stroked her cheek. She’d finally found peace. He bent forward and kissed her forehead. “Sleep, my pet.”

  Exhaustion tugged at his bones, pulling him closer to the floor with each step. Although he longed to lie next to her, he feared he’d reawaken her hallucinations if he dared linger too close. He kicked off his shoes and flopped on the couch.

  He lay there, half-dozing until the sun cast long shadows in the apartment. A gust of wind blew through the room, and his body tensed. “Who’s there?”

  Caim’s playful laughter echoed off the walls before he materialized. “Sleeping on the job?”

  “More like resting.” He sat up and rubbed his hands through his hair. The sight of his torn T-shirt made him grimace.

  The other Fallen nodded and sat in the chair across from him. He tossed a small bundle his way. “I hope you don’t mind that I grabbed a few of your things on my way over. It’s no fair that you have such a nice place on this plane while I’m stuck down there. I’m jealous.”

  Vassago unwrapped the clean clothes and started changing. Normally, he would have enjoyed a nice, long bath after the day’s events, but he still couldn’t shake the feeling of dread that threatened to smother him. “Second trip out in the same day. What do you have to tell me?”

  “Only that Lucifer’s majorly pissed at you for destroying two of the Skinwalkers.”

  He shrugged. “It’s not my fault I’m left with limited resources on how to deal with them. Maybe if he’d been a little more upfront with the details—like telling me four got out instead of one—maybe I’d have been better prepared.”

  Caim caught a glimpse of Vassago’s hilt and reached for it. “Holy shit, you got your sword back?”

  Vassago covered the hilt before Caim could touch it. “It seems even the egomaniac wants this nipped in the bud. So if Lucifer has issues with me destroying demons, he can take it up with God. I’m tired of playing the middle man.”

  The other Fallen swore under his breath. “You have no idea how things are down there.”

  “And I hav
e no intention of finding out.” He tossed his old clothes in the trashcan. “I have one more Skinwalker to catch before Puriel takes control of the situation.”

  Another hissed curse word erupted from Caim. “That’s bad news.”

  “Tell me about it.” He tried to comb his hair straight. “Anything else I should know?”

  “Only that we managed to kind of get a lead on the location of the original rift on this plane. It wasn’t too far from the portal, and let me tell you, there’re some tongues wagging that you were involved in it.”

  “Why the fuck would I want to create more work for myself?”

  “Why did you need to hire a human to help you find them?”

  “Why would I destroy two demons after going through all the trouble to bring them here?” He punched his fist into a pillow. “Hell’s full of idiots if they think there’s any truth to that. Either that or someone’s trying to deflect attention away from himself.”

  Caim opened his mouth to speak, but then closed it and rubbed his chin. “You might be on to something there.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Let me go back and check out a few things.” The Fallen dashed toward the window.

  Vassago caught his arm just before his glamour fell into place. “Be careful. Just because they can’t kill you, doesn’t mean that can’t leave you a broken mess.”

  Caim flashed him a reckless grin. “If I find something out, I’m putting in for a week’s pass up here and crashing at your place. Think of all the fun we could have with the ladies.”

  He disappeared and kicked up a whirlwind of papers as he flew outside.

  Vassago glanced at the sleeping figure in the bedroom. There was only lady he wanted to have fun with, and as soon as he caught the last Skinwalker, he intended to indulge her for hours on end.