Demon Curse

by Linsey Hall

  Mari and I led her into my kitchen. We sat at the table, and I pushed the feather across the gleaming white surface toward her. “I know that you’re here to help Mari find the origin of the orb, but we were hoping you could give this a look.”

  Mari had a bit of seeker ability, and she’d already tried to find the origin of the feather with her magic. No luck, though.

  Del picked up the feather. “Tell me what you know about it.”

  I described the crime scene from last night, including the bit about Wally identifying the feather as belonging to a fallen angel.

  When I finished, Del closed her eyes, and her magic flared. I held my breath as she worked. When her brow furrowed and lines of worry cut in around her mouth, disappointment welled.

  She opened her bright blue eyes. “I’m sorry. I’m getting nothing. I think there’s a protection charm on it. Something that hides the original owner from tracking charms and the like.”

  “I can’t say that I’m surprised.” Mari crossed her legs and sat back, folding her arms over her chest. Today, she was dressed in her black leather fight wear, since she was planning to get right to work with Del, tracking the orb. Her hair was done up in a high ponytail, and her usual black eye makeup obscured much of her face. “Someone that powerful—a fallen angel committing murder—will have access to good spells to cover their tracks.”

  Mari met my eyes, and she knew exactly what I was going to have to do now. “I’ll go with Del to try to track the shards of the orb. That’s as likely to lead us to the answer as the medallion. You’re going to go to Declan?”

  “He’s the only fallen angel I know, so yes.”

  She nodded. “Good luck.”

  “Thanks.” I was going to need it.

  A half hour later, I found myself standing outside Declan’s building in the Business District. It was one of the tallest buildings in town, and the bottom half contained offices.

  The top, however, were some swanky penthouses that I’d never been inside. I looked down at the note he’d left for me a few days ago. It had his phone number and his address written at the bottom, and since he hadn’t picked up the phone, here I was.

  It took a little fast talking to get past the security guard, but I managed. At the top floor, I went to the apartment on the left and banged on the door.

  After a few minutes, when there was no answer, I pressed my ear to the door. There was a noise coming from within. A rushing kind of sound, or a low rumble.

  I pulled my lock-picking kit from my pocket and knelt down, making quick work of the lock. When I pushed open the door, I figured it out almost immediately.

  Declan was in the shower.

  That was probably why he hadn’t answered my call.

  I strolled into the massive apartment. The style was simple and modern, and I’d bet twenty bucks that he’d hired someone to fill it with furniture. He didn’t seem like the type to hit up an Ikea. It was nice, though, and expensive. Clearly, bounty hunting paid well.

  I strode toward the massive wall of windows that ran along two sides of the apartment, taking in the view of the city below. At night, the city lights would sparkle like stars. Right now, I had an amazing view of the ocean on the other side of town, gleaming a midnight blue beneath the sun.

  The shower water turned off, and I frowned.

  On one hand, I’d just broken into his apartment and was about to ask him for help. Maybe that wasn’t ideal, from a manners standpoint.

  On the other hand, the damage was already done.

  So I took a seat on the massive gray sofa, leaning back and draping an arm over the low back.

  When Declan walked out with just a white towel around his waist, I couldn’t help the wolf whistle.

  It was meant as a joke, but honestly, the sight of his broad chest and powerful arms did deserve a second look.

  I couldn’t help it, but a connection forged between us immediately. It crackled like a live wire as our eyes met.

  I hadn’t seen him in five days, but I hadn’t forgotten this.

  How could I?

  There was no surprise on his face as he looked at me. “I thought I heard someone enter.”

  “Just thought I’d pop by for a visit.” I uncrossed and re-crossed my legs, my gaze roving over his chest. “Can’t say I have any complaints about the welcome committee.”

  The corner of his mouth picked up in a smile, and I rose, unable to help myself. He called me to him like a moth to flame, and I strolled across the room toward him.

  As I walked, memories of our kiss flashed in my mind. Of his lips on mine, his strong shoulders beneath my hands. It had made me lightheaded then, and it made me lightheaded now. There was no fighting it.

  I stopped in front of him, looking up into his face.

  “You never called me back.” His voice was a low rumble.

  “I’m here now, aren’t I?”

  He smiled fully, having a devastating effect on my composure.

  “And I did call,” I said to distract myself. “You just didn’t pick up.”

  “When?”

  “Twenty minutes ago.”

  “So you came right down here?”

  “Couldn’t wait.” In the back of my mind, I knew there was a reason I was here. It was important—extremely important. But for this very moment, I could only see him. Smell him. The scent of a rainstorm wrapped around me, heady and fierce.

  I wanted him.

  More than I ever had before.

  I leaned forward, pressing a hand to his arm. I leaned up to kiss him.

  5

  Though heat darkened his eyes as I approached for the kiss, the muscle in his arm jumped slightly beneath my fingertips. Flinching.

  Shit.

  Reality crashed back into me.

  The nullifying power.

  I withdrew my hand, and sank back onto my heels.

  He frowned, a protest in his eyes, and his big hand landed on my waist, as if he didn’t want to let me step away from him.

  I caught sight of a tightening around his lips, a barely perceptible sign of discomfort.

  I pulled away from him. “You can feel my nullifying power.”

  “Not enough to bother me.”

  “Of course it bothers you. I can see it.” And I’d heard Cass describe it once. How it felt like it was sucking out your soul.

  “That’s my problem, not yours,” he said.

  Everything that had gone unsaid after we’d last seen each other hung in the air. The memory of that kiss sparked, along with the fact that I’d finally started to trust him.

  Then…nothing.

  Because of the nullifying magic that I’d created to help defeat the Oraxia demon, I couldn’t be with him without making him ill.

  So I’d stepped back.

  There was no point in pursuing something like this, and it was for the best.

  Feeling was too dangerous. Trusting was too dangerous. Because I wasn’t just trusting him with the secret of my true nature. If I got too close to him, I could be trusting him with my heart.

  So not worth it.

  I didn’t want to talk about this now. I couldn’t. So I reached into my pocket and pulled out the feather, then held it up in front of him.

  Annoyance flashed on his face—probably because I was changing the subject—but his attention zoomed in on the feather, as I’d thought it might.

  “Recognize it?” I asked.

  He frowned, reaching up to take the feather from me. His hand brushed against mine—a deliberate gesture, I was sure—and I couldn’t process how I felt about it.

  So I focused on the problem at hand. Considering it was a problem that could kill me, it was where my attention needed to be.

  “It’s from a fallen.” His frown deepened as he turned the feather around, inspecting it from every angle.

  “Found it under the body of The Weeds.”

  “Dead body?” he asked.

  “Yes. Dead as a doornail, with his heart rip
ped out. And some burn marks on his skin.”

  “That’s interesting.”

  “Does it give you a hint who the feather might belong to?”

  “No, but I wonder if removing the heart was a message. Or if he wanted the heart.”

  “The Weeds had weak magic, so I can’t imagine he wanted the heart. But I’ve no idea.”

  Declan frowned. “A message, then. Not to mess with him.”

  “It makes sense. We think—hope—that The Weeds hooked the fallen angel up with the demons who attacked our house yesterday.”

  Declan’s gaze sharpened on me, worry flickering in their depths. “But you’re okay, right?”

  Ooh, shit.

  What should I tell him?

  I was so used to playing it close to the vest that my first instinct was to lie and say I was fine.

  But I could die.

  I had just days to catch this fallen angel and find the cure, and I’d need all the help I could get. Dedicated help.

  And didn’t I owe it to Declan?

  We didn’t know each other well, but there had almost been something between us. Even if there couldn’t be now, I didn’t want to tell giant lies anymore. It was starting to weigh too heavily on me.

  “It depends on how you define okay,” I said.

  “If you have to say that, then you’re not okay at all.” He gripped both my upper arms, concern digging deep lines into his forehead. I tried to pull back, but he didn’t let me. He wouldn’t let me go until I told him exactly what was going on with me. That was clear enough.

  “They hit me and Mari with some kind of curse. It lights a fire in our veins that will burn until we’re dead.”

  His skin paled and his grip tightened. “You have only days.”

  “You’ve heard of the curse?”

  He nodded. “Fire veins. And you think the fallen hired the demons who did this?”

  “It’s one of our only clues. The demons who attacked us were wearing the same charm as the necromancer and Oraxia demon from before. They’re all connected. Mari is tracking our only other clue—the fragments of one of the orbs that was used to turn Magic’s Bend inhabitants to stone.”

  “And you want my help tracking this feather.”

  “Exactly. Will you?”

  He gave me a look that suggested I was an idiot for even asking.

  “Let me get dressed. We need to move on this right away.” He withdrew his hands, and I stepped back, knowing that I was being a weirdo but unable to help it.

  I waited while he dressed, inspecting his apartment. There weren’t many personal touches here. He didn't live in this space—he just existed in it. I’d bet a hundred bucks he was one of those people married to his work.

  But then, it was important work.

  A few minutes later, he returned, dressed in dark jeans and a black, long-sleeved shirt. He gestured me forward. “Come on. We can start our search in here.”

  “In here?”

  But he’d already disappeared through the doorway.

  I followed him, the feather gripped between my fingers. The hallway led past an enormous bedroom with a sweeping view of the sea in the distance, to a room filled with so much technology that I stopped dead in my tracks, staring.

  “What the hell is this?” I asked, my gaze moving over monitors and bits and bobs of metal that I didn't recognize.

  “Don’t really have a name for it.” He turned to me, a grin stretching across his face. “How about command center?”

  I approached a flat table that had crystals arranged on it. Massive amounts of magic radiated from the colorful rocks.

  I pointed to it. “This must do something interesting.”

  Declan joined me. “This place is my side project, though it helps with the bounty hunting.”

  I looked up at him. “You’ve joined magic and technology, haven’t you? And you use it to find your targets.”

  “That’s the gist of it.” He pointed to the crystal setup. “This is primarily magic. It can replicate a spell.” He turned to a huge computer monitor that flashed with a dozen languages. “And that can find people based upon their known magical signature. Though it doesn’t always work. Still got some kinks to work out on that one.”

  “You invented all this?” I asked.

  “In my free time. I enjoy it.”

  “Wild.” I held up the feather. “So, what have you got that can help us with this?”

  “Probably not much, given that it’s the feather of a fallen, but we can get a few clues before we go to the High Court of the Angels.”

  “We’d go there?”

  He nodded. “If we want more info, yes.”

  Shit. “I’m not going to like, burst into flames when I arrive or anything, am I?”

  I had a bit of a shady past, at least as far as a bunch of angels would be concerned.

  Declan grinned. “You’ll be fine. You’re no worse than I am. We wouldn’t be invited to stay, or given access to all of the High Court or heavenly realms, but we can at least get an audience and ask some questions.”

  “Well, then. Let’s give it a go.”

  Declan held out his hand for the feather, and I gave it to him. He strode to the corner of the room where a complicated setup of coils of silver and golden wire were positioned over a steel platform. Magic sparked around the coils, feeling like tiny pinpricks of energy.

  “What is this thing?” I asked as he laid the feather down on the metal platform.

  “It helps determine the age of the magic in an object. All magic decays at a certain rate. A bit like the half-life on carbon. Using that theory, I built this to determine how old an object is.”

  “Ah, that’s pretty cool.” Magical decay was a big issue, especially for objects that weren’t living. Eventually, an object that was enchanted with a powerful spell would decay to the point where it would explode.

  I watched Declan fiddle with some dials. It was rare to see technology and magic combined in such a way. Often, they weren’t very compatible. “So, you’re some kind of genius, huh?”

  He shrugged. “Not sure genius is the word. I just like to fiddle with things.”

  “This is a long way from the demon battlefields.” The story he’d told me of fighting on the front lines of the angel-demon wars was still stuck in my head.

  “Can’t say I mind,” he said. “I enjoyed aspects of military life, but watching your friends die sucks.”

  I nodded. I’d been lucky in my life. I’d never had many friends, and those I did have were immensely powerful. Their magic protected them—made them great fighters—so the worst I’d had to see were a lot of grievous injuries.

  But I imagined that what he’d experienced wasn’t too far off of the fear I’d felt as a child when Aunt and Uncle had threatened Mari with bodily harm if I didn’t comply with their demands. Especially given the fact that they’d often followed through on their threats.

  Magic sparked more fiercely around the metal coils, and the feather began to vibrate. Pale green light glowed from the contraption, and a tiny computer screen began to blink with some words.

  “What language is that in?” I asked.

  “High Angelic.”

  “I didn't realize you had a language.”

  “We do, though we keep it quiet. That way, no one outside of our ranks can interpret any lost communication. It worked well during the demon wars.”

  “Well, what does it say?” I squinted at the weird writing that flowed by on the screen.

  Declan finished reading, then turned to me. “Older than written record, but the feather has only been off the angel for two days.”

  “So The Weeds was killed two days ago.”

  “I’d be comfortable assuming that.”

  This angel had a two-day lead on us. Dang it.

  “One more test.” Declan picked up the feather and went to the other side of the room, where a vat of sparkling viscous goo sat under a gleaming pink light. “This will determine what kin
d of magical powers the angel has. Hopefully.”

  He dunked the feather in the goo, then fiddled with some dials. A moment later, magic sparked on the air, sharp and stinging. I flinched.

  Declan stuck his hand into the goo, then winced.

  “What is it?”

  “Feels like the angel can emit electrical shocks if you touch him.”

  “Like lightning?”

  “Roughly, yes.”

  “And this contraption works by hitting you with the magic that the object possesses?”

  “A more minor version of it, yes.”

  “That makes sense, given the burns I saw on The Weeds.” I studied Declan’s pale face as he drew the feather out of the sparkling goo.

  “We won’t want to let him lay his hands on us, that’s for sure.” He looked around the room, then nodded his head slightly, as if he’d made up his mind. “That’s about all we can do here. We can go to the High Court if you’re ready.”

  “You have time? You can just drop whatever you’re working on?”

  He gave me a long look. “You’re cursed with deadly fire. I think I can clear my schedule to help you fix that.”

  “And by ‘fix that,’ you mean not die.”

  “Yep. And we should get a move on.”

  I saluted him. “Agreed.” Then I lowered my hand, feeling a bit awkward. “And thanks. For helping me.”

  He nodded.

  I didn’t know where we stood now, but I appreciated him. A lot.

  “Come on. We need to head to the roof.”

  “The roof?”

  “Only one way to get to heaven.” He shot me a grin. “Not that it’s actually heaven. More like angel headquarters.”

  “Then let’s go.” I followed him out of the apartment to a stairwell that led to the roof.

  We climbed quickly, reaching the top a few moments later. There was a pavilion with chairs and a grill, along with a few trees in massive pots.

  Wind tore at my hair, and I sucked in the fresh air. It was so mundane compared to the laboratory down below. But nice. “Not a bad place to spend time.”

  “Theoretically, I agree. Haven’t had time, though.”

  “Too busy hunting demons?”

  “Exactly.” He gestured me toward him. “No way to do this without me holding on to you.”