Forged by Fire (Angels at the Edge Book 1)

by Michael Arches

  Cleo and I hurried to catch up with them, and when we got close enough behind, I merged with the brunette, who was closer. Her name, at least her latest name, was Roxy. She was actually a four-hundred-year-old demon who’d been born as Katherine in Wales.

  I’m Roxy, I told Cleo. Who’re you?

  Alice. She was born in 1806 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. At the moment, she’s so thirsty for blood she can hardly keep my fangs retracted.

  Roxy wasn’t in any hurry, though. At the next clothing shop, she entered and found a full-length mirror. For a full minute, she admired the sexy vixen staring back at her.

  Her skin was pale—flawless and scented from an afternoon at a nearby spa. “Damn, I’ve never looked this good.”

  “We have the best magic, girl,” Alice replied. “Guys are going to grovel before us, but I really need a drink.”

  Roxy strolled back into the mall, and pretended not to notice as many people stared at her. Younger men showed their interest more brazenly, and so did a few younger women. Alice also got plenty of attention. Guys stared at her perky boobs straining to pop the buttons on her silk blouse.

  This was the best part of being an angel, the power to read others’ minds. No more looking into lying faces and wondering what the truth was. Dude, they can’t hide it from you anymore.

  Older men tended to look away from the two of them quickly, but even for them, if Roxy passed a guy close enough, she and I could feel the lust he was trying to hide.

  I’m beginning to sense human emotions, I told Cleo.

  That’s the vampire feeling, not you. With time, you’ll grow into that power, Gabe, but not until you earn your wings.

  Roxy was thrilled to weave through the crowd, which was surprisingly large for a Tuesday night. The closer she got to men, the better she could sense their excitement. They ached for her, and some of the younger guys even threw out come-on lines she and Alice ignored.

  All that attention empowered her somehow. I asked Cleo, Why does she get a buzz from guys ogling her?

  Dark feelings make demons stronger. They can feed on human emotions. That’s why they work so hard to scare and anger people with forest fires and other mayhem. Recently, they’ve been on a nonstop terror campaign. They’re fighting a guerrilla war for control of Earth…and winning.

  In my surprise at such a weird experience, I’d almost forgotten why we came. Once I caught myself and stopped reveling in mindreading, I ransacked Roxy’s head for useful memories.

  Pay dirt—she’d been to Evangelist, and it wasn’t far. But it didn’t open until ten p.m.

  I told Cleo, I found the club we’ve been searching for, but it won’t open for a while.

  She thought back, Wonderful! I knew you were the right man for this job. Milton will be thrilled. It sounds like we can stay here and perhaps keep these two evil spirits from hurting someone.

  Cleo had a good heart. I’d really gotten lucky when Milton made us partners.

  Roxy strutted down the mall savoring her power over men. Her four-inch heels should’ve been killing her feet, but those flimsy shoes felt great. And they made her legs look longer and sleeker. She whispered to Alice, “I’m get the biggest rush from these assholes’ perverted desires. Your magic was brilliant.”

  Alice giggled and whispered back, “Brush by as many men as you can. That gives me the best jolt. And keep looking for a target, a big one, so we can both feed completely. I want to drain someone dry tonight.”

  I didn’t know much about vampires, but twisted Roxy had murder on her mind. They apparently could tap someone and drain off a quart or two without killing someone. This stone cold killer wasn’t going to be satisfied with that. She planned to bloat herself with blood.

  I told Cleo, I’m looking forward to taking these two out soon. They’re evil incarnate.

  Cleo sighed. Get used to it, Gabe. This is why so few angels would volunteer to spy on demons. You have to spend too much time surrounded by evil.

  A few teenage boys followed the vampires down the mall, and Roxy patted their arms to collect their emotions, but she kept vamping along. They weren’t big enough to satisfy her cravings.

  “Hey,” Alice said eventually, “let’s go into Sinsation. I’ve always hunted successfully there.”

  The music was loud, a driving rock and roll, and the bar was packed with people. They advertised two-for-one drinks after nine p.m., so I wasn’t surprised. Colored lights flashed randomly in the darkness like a cop car, and that increased my sense of uneasiness.

  The two vampires entered and slowly wove through the crowd. As Roxy passed each guy or woman, she touched them. It was impossible not to. Their feelings washed over her, mostly lust and gluttony, but a few were pissed at being jostled all the time.

  Their anger empowered Roxy. In particular, one heavyset blonde pushed back against her. “Stop crowding me! I can’t breathe.”

  “Tough shit,” Roxy said, as she patted the woman’s arm. The lady’s rage gave my vampire a zing before the woman headed for the closest door.

  “Where should we go?” Roxy asked Alice by yelling in her ear.

  “We need to cut out a horny guy, a big one.”

  We were surrounded by horny guys, but Alice apparently wasn’t impressed yet. She and her partner kept bumping into drunks and basking in their raw emotions. A couple of thin guys tried to talk to them, but Alice kept moving along.

  A few minutes later, she yelled in Roxy’s ear, “To your right. The giant with the tattoos.”

  “Why him?” Roxy asked.

  “He’s the biggest man here, and his eyes are glazed,” Alice said. “Easy meat.”

  Alice and Roxy snaked through the crowd toward the big lug, and his gaze locked on the brunette’s tits. His twisted leer was scary, but Roxy found it thrilling. He was probably already wondering where he could take her to attack. Joy bubbled up inside her as she patted his arm.

  Cleo told me, His name is Jack. This pig was a star athlete on his high school football team, but now he’s twenty-six and unemployed. He just got out of jail and lives by stealing people’s identities.

  I couldn’t believe how eager Roxy was to go after this jerk.

  “Hi, handsome!” she said. “You look lonely. Mind if my friend and I join you?”

  He shook his head as though to clear it and probably tried to remember her. The guy must’ve been wondering how he could have forgotten a babe as hot as her.

  “Yeah,” he said. “Great. Let me buy you two some drinks.” Because he stood taller than anyone, he didn’t have any trouble catching a waitress’ attention. He ordered four beers.

  Roxy gave him a kiss on the cheek. A thrill from his lust shot through her and almost made her pass out with excitement. “I’m Roxy. We met at a party a few weeks ago. You were funny but awfully drunk. I’m surprised you remember me.”

  Someone pushed her toward Jack, and she used her free hand to wrap around his waist to keep from falling over. He dropped both of his hands onto her hips.

  Roxy sighed. “Maybe you deserve a little variety in your life, man. I happen to love big guys who buy me cool stuff.”

  He grinned. “I’ll buy you nice things.”

  She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him on the lips.

  “Baby, let’s get out of here,” he said.

  Should we stop Roxy and Alice from luring him to his death? I asked Cleo.

  How do you plan to stop him? she replied. You can’t fight a mortal, and even if you were to appear before him and tell him the truth, he won’t believe you.

  I still felt human, and I used to be a cop. Does he deserve to die for his stupidity?

  Cleo laughed in my head. Does he deserve to die for planning to rape both these women if they try to change their minds?

  Maybe. At least I felt a lot better about those two monsters draining a third one of all his blood.

  Jack led them by their hands toward the bar’s door to the outside. Along the way, he knocked people asi
de. Roxy savored the surge of anger around us.

  It was time to check out. I waited until we were outside to shift out of Roxy’s head into my disembodied self. Cleo did the same. The two vampires and their all-too-willing victim vanished into the night.

  -o-o-o-

  ONCE WE WERE alone, Cleo and I changed into our human forms. I checked the time on my phone. It was a little after ten.

  While we had a minute of peace, I said, “I’m surprised you’re so cheerful all the time. For thousands of years, you’ve been dealing with that much evil?”

  She tittered, and the sound soothed my disappointment in letting the vampires go.

  “I was born into a family enslaved by the pharaohs. My father was worked to death building a pyramid that still stands in Egypt. He didn’t make it to his thirtieth birthday. I was sold as a sex slave at thirteen, and I was brutally raped by men for ten years and gave birth to three children taken from me right away. Did I enjoy that job? I did not. Then an angel came along and saw something in me worth saving. Since that day, I have loved everything about my immortal life.”

  She set you straight, Dude. No more whining. “Okay, I’m an idiot. I don’t know when I’ve got it good. You’re inspiring.”

  She patted me on the shoulder. “I’ve enjoyed working with you, too. I feel like we’re making great progress in our investigation. Do you know where to go from here?”

  I looked west in the darkness and made out the lights from surrounding strip malls. “Yeah, this big mall is surrounded by lots of smaller clusters of stores. The one we want is just west of here about a half-mile. In the vampire’s memory, I saw a bookstore I’ve shopped at. It’s across the street from the demons’ club. We could walk there, but we’ll be taking our lives in our hands. Folks drive like lunatics this late at night.”

  She laughed. “We have no lives to lose, Gabe. A meteor could smash into us, and our spirits would survive. Only dark immortals can destroy us.”

  Duh! It was going to take me a long time to fully come to grips with that change in my life.

  We walked through the parking lot surrounding the main mall, and we started dodging cars. The access road from the surrounding main streets didn’t have a sidewalk next to it, and the landscaping contained huge rocks that kept us from walking next to the road.

  It was full dark, and the drivers acted like we would make attractive hood ornaments. A couple of drivers honked at us, and a guy focused more on his phone than us had to slam on his brakes at the last instant to avoid running me over.

  When we got to an intersection with a light, there was no crosswalk or a pedestrian signal, so we careened across the road until we reached an adjoining strip mall.

  That was the worst of it. Five minutes later, we reached the right group of stores without testing our immortality. This parking lot was almost empty because all of these stores had closed for the night. The place was blessedly peaceful in comparison to where we’d started.

  I approached the brick façade that supposedly contained Evangelist. No windows showed us the interior, and the only door had a closed sign taped to it. Nevertheless, a few cars were parked nearby.

  “This is where the vampire visited,” I said. “She pushed that black button.” I pointed at it. “Someone spoke on the intercom, and she gave him the password, ‘Free the fallen.’ They buzzed her in.”

  “It doesn’t matter what the password was,” Cleo said. “We can’t enter in our bodies. I do feel the presence of dark spirits inside, so I’m sure you’ve brought us to the right place. Good detective work.”

  That made me glow inside. “Okay, we wait for a couple to merge with.”

  “Exactly.” Cleo paused for a moment. “Unless they happen to be fallen angels. They’re powerful and could certainly detect us. That would create a huge problem for us, unless Honah or Milton could retrieve us quickly enough.”

  She and Diana kept reminding me about getting too close to strong demons. It had to be a serious risk. Without bodies, we’d be stuck in place while dark immortals attacked us. “Any fallen angels inside?”

  “I’m not sensing anything nearly that powerful. If one shows up later, we’ll have to beat a hasty retreat. Is there any other exit from the club?”

  I shrugged. “I think Roxy must’ve gotten pretty drunk when she was here. Her memories of what’s inside were hazy at best.”

  “If a fallen angel shows, everyone else will try to leave to avoid becoming prey. I’d hope we could escape during the carnage.”

  It was a calculated risk, and I wasn’t about to go without seeing this club I’d searched for so hard. “Fine. We hope for the best.” That hope didn’t keep me from worrying.

  We stood right by the door and became incorporeal so that anyone who entered would have to come close enough for us to merge with.

  In that form, it was impossible for me to judge the passage of time. I had no normal senses, but I could tell Cleo remained close by. That was reassuring.

  A pair of dark immortals approached.

  Cleo told me, Let’s try these were-cougars on for size. Isn’t that the expression?

  I replied, You’re referring to clothes, but that works for me.

  I merged with the male’s mind. His name was Leonardo, and the moon wasn’t full, so he’d taken on a human form. I saw his partner Sandy. The only signs she wasn’t human were her ears were more pointed than normal and her eyes were amber.

  Leo pushed the button and spoke into the intercom, “The fallen shall rise again.”

  Something clicked near the doorknob, and he opened the door.

  We seemed to have time-traveled back from twenty-first century America to a medieval England. This place was a tavern. One reason Roxy’s memories had been hazy became obvious. This room was filled with smoke from a wood fire raging in a large stone fireplace.

  The bar’s floor was dirt covered with straw. Its walls and ceiling were made from roughhewn boards stained almost black from smoke.

  The dim light from the fire and a dozen tallow candles within the room showed twenty tables of various sizes. About half were already filled. Thank God, I didn’t have to breathe. The place reeked from the stink of unwashed bodies, rotting food, smoke, and spilled beer.

  Leo led his mate to an empty oak table that had been scarred from long use and stained in several places.

  One corner of the tavern contained three trolls arguing with each other, eating, and drinking from large pewter tankards. They were big, hairy, and covered with open sores. One of them threw a pork chop bone to a pair of large black dogs waiting nearby.

  Are those hellhounds? I asked.

  Cleo laughed in my head. If you have to ask, the answer is no.

  The dogs snarled and fought over the bone, snapping and growling at each other until the bigger one chomped on the other’s left front leg. That dog yelped, bolted away, and licked his wound under an empty table.

  Everyone in the room ignored the fight.

  A middle-aged woman wearing a filthy red dress covered with a stained leather tunic approached Leo’s table. She handed him a sheet of parchment with a handwritten list of food on one side and drinks on the other. He looked at the drinks first. They included beer, whiskey, wine, and three kinds of blood: goat, cow, and human. No prices.

  “Two pints of the house porter,” he said.

  The waitress shuffled off muttering to herself.

  I love this place, Cleo told me. It reminds me of so many pubs and taverns I visited in Europe during the Middle Ages. What a pity they only serve the damned.

  I couldn’t share her enthusiasm. Evangelist wasn’t ranking high on my list of favorite watering holes. I’m happy we can’t be killed by normal means. The food and drinks here are probably filled with germs. The beer is served in leaden mugs that’ll rot your brains.

  She sighed. We all lived like this for thousands of years, and most people loved these old gathering places. We have to convince Honah to take this tavern over for angels to enjoy
.

  In her excitement, she seemed to have forgotten our goal. Instead of planning your next birthday party, we should be trying to find someone with a connection to the forest fires. If that doesn’t pan out, we want intelligence on the demonic leaders, right?

  Her voice in my head stayed wistful. Of course, but just give me a minute to peruse the bill of fare.

  I checked Leo’s memory to be sure he didn’t know anything useful while Sandy took the menu from him and flipped it to the food side.

  Cleo snickered. I knew it, they serve pickled cow’s tongue. I haven’t tasted a decent tongue in centuries.

  I left her to her memories.

  Then Sandy said to Leo, “I’m having the tongue. What about you?”

  “The leg of lamb. They claim to serve it so rare, it’s barely warm in the center.”

  Or waitress came back with two mugs of beer. Leo tasted one, which was warm and sour. He smacked his lips. Yuk.

  That was enough waiting for me. Cleo could reminisce about the halcyon days of yore if she wanted. I merged with the waitress. She was so drunk, her brain barely functioned.

  When she dropped off a tin cup filled with whisky at an adjoining table, I slipped into the mind of a sorceress there. That was a waste of time. I ransacked her brain for news about the fires or powerful demons, but she simply complained about the ridiculous cost of laudanum from her apothecary.

  I switched minds to the other sorceress at the table, but found nothing useful in her head either. All day long, she pretended to read fortunes for the gullible at an occult shop on East Colfax in Aurora.

  So, I worked my way around the room, and Cleo did the same thing. These were all bottom feeders in the demonic world.

  When I happened to land at the same table as Cleo again, I asked her, Are all these demons really evil? Most seem like regular working stiffs just trying to get through the day.

  The nymph Cleo was inside snickered. Most demons inherit their immortality from one or both of their parents, Gabe, but at least one of their ancestors first became immortal by swearing allegiance to Satan.

  That sounded too much like visiting the sins of the fathers upon children unto the fourth and fifth generations. It was a famous quote from the Book of Exodus that my preacher father had tried to explain to me, but I’d never understood how it could be fair. So, they’re condemned to live this life because of their parents’ sins?