Imps & Angels

by Indra Frost

  A shuffling came from behind, and we both turned to look at the man standing there.

  "What's going on?"

  The confused expression was completely believable. Even I almost couldn't tell that Walker had come here intentionally.

  Copeland ambled forward to my other side, not making a move against me, but not leaving either. But his presence stopped me from moving forward without him.

  I wasn’t sure what they were planning to do, but I didn't want any part of it. I had to get going if I wanted to find Lucy before Walter did.

  I knew that if Walter couldn't track her down on his own, he would call in his buddies. They had seen her around enough that they assumed Walter and she were dating. He could easily claim that his girlfriend was missing, and they would all jump at the chance to help him.

  This wasn't the best part of the city, that much was true, but Walter was respected in these parts. He was really good at playing the part he needed to get what he wanted. No one at the precinct was aware of his extracurricular activities. The captain didn't believe the reports I know had crossed his desk. They were always swept under the rug, never given the credence they deserved.

  It was frustrating, but I had to admire how well Walter played his part. If I was a better actor, maybe these guys would leave me alone. It wasn't my acting skills they were after though, so probably not.

  “Is everything okay? Where did you get that bruise?” Walker's voice went from light to angry in a heartbeat.

  His mood dropped just as fast and it made me lightheaded at the abrupt change. My empathy pulled back and I was able to get control of myself again. I waved away his words, it didn’t matter anyway, he couldn’t do anything about it.

  “A cop cornered her in the alley,” Copeland answered, walking next to me as I continued on my way.

  “You didn’t stop him?” Walker sounded enraged at that, his magic building and almost seeming to heat the air around him.

  I wanted to roll around in that heat, wrap myself in his magic and combine it with my own. It would be amazing, and powerful. No one would be able to hurt me.

  I shook my head, trying to focus on something else and pulled my wayward magic back under control. It had been a long time since my magic had tried to overpower my will. Magic wasn’t alive, not strictly speaking anyway, but it was almost sentient, aware. When I was younger, my magic had been too powerful to control. I would often lose consciousness when it became too much. My body’s response to the influx of power. As I grew and got stronger, so did my magic. But I also learned how to take control. It had taken years, especially when I didn't want anyone to learn about my abilities. It was painful and tiring, but necessary.

  I finally calmed myself down. Stopping myself from leaping at Walker and plastering myself against him the way I wanted to. All the men that I had met over the past day and a half had been attractive. It wasn’t fair, my hormones were going crazy. I had never in my life been so attracted to someone, and of course when I finally was, it was five different someone's.

  “It wouldn’t have been a good idea,” I stated before Copeland could speak up. “That would have put him on Walter’s radar, and that isn’t a good place to be. Not with what you guys are trying to accomplish.”

  They didn’t speak after that, and I ignored them, even as they continued to follow me. I hoped that if I pretended they weren’t there, they would leave. No such luck.

  My feet seemed to drag, the walk to my place feeling like it was taking forever. The ground seemed to roll under me, and I tripped over my own feet.

  “Whoa, hey, are you okay?” Walker lunged forward at the same time as Copeland, each of them grabbing an arm.

  “I’m fine.” I yanked my arm from their hands, stumbling, but not going down.

  “You’re not fine. When was the last time you got some sleep?” Copeland argued with me, lifting his hand and pressing it against my forehead.

  “I’m fine,” I said as I shoved his hand away. “I’m going home to rest now.”

  “In that warehouse?” Walker’s voice was careful, like he didn’t want to offend me.

  It was sweet, but I knew the place wasn’t a palace. It didn’t hold any sentimental value for me. It was a semi-safe place to lay my head. That was it.

  Sure, I had fought to make it as safe as it was, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t ditch it in a heartbeat if I needed to. Which I did need to.

  “Yes, in that warehouse.”

  They already knew where I lived, it wasn’t like there was a point in trying to hide it at this point. I would need to move on soon, but I was hoping to get a few more nights there, at least until I found Lucy.

  If she was in trouble, she would meet me there eventually. It was safe from Walter and his men. That was something I made her agree to, she couldn’t tell him where I lived. She wasn’t happy. She was convinced he would never do anything to me, or her, when she was there. Yet, she would come there to escape him when his abuse got to be too much. Even after all that, she still hadn't believed he was dangerous.

  A sudden sound, more of a feeling, had me jumping forward. A shape appeared behind us, and I turned, whip already materializing in my hand. I swung without hesitation, aiming for his leg and yanking it out from under him.

  Blayze yelped in surprise as he went down, not able to stop himself when he hadn’t even finished landing.

  I tilted my head to the side, much like Jesse had last night. A predator admiring its prey.

  “Did you have to do that?” The hellhound complained.

  Copeland and Walker were on high alert, looking around like they expected more demons to fall from the sky.

  “Did you have to jump from a roof to try and scare me?”

  “Touché.” He nodded, a smirk on his lips as he started to get to his feet.

  I sent the whip away with a thought, watching it dissolve in the wind. The faint fire it was conjured from fading, but leaving no smoke behind. It took me a long time to master that skill, and I didn’t need that information getting back to the Demon Realm, or Greg. Both of whom would use it against me.

  It was unheard of in half-breeds to have that ability. Though that had more to do with the lack of surviving half-breeds than a lack of ability. Most of my kind were put to death at birth, but my mother was able to keep me alive long enough to get herself killed by my father. Not that she had wanted me to live.

  I was young, but old enough to remember the traumatic experience. She was trying to keep me from being taken to Hell where my father would then warp me into his personal soldier. She hadn’t actually cared about me at all.

  My father started to train me soon after, but quickly gave up when he didn't think that I had any useful abilities. Instead, he started using me as a punching bag. Then, when that bored him, he used me in his deals, and that's how I ended up with Greg.

  “What are you doing here?” Copeland's voice wasn’t exactly welcoming, but it wasn’t as frosty as I felt it should have been.

  The demon had just fallen from the sky, after all.

  “I’m here to make sure Alyth keeps her promise.” He looked at me, eyes intent on my face.

  Reaching out, I felt something akin to regret and fear before he was able to suppress it. It confused me. I wasn't sure how to take this demon, or that fact that he wasn’t a void like he was last night. He was here on someone else's orders to make sure that I would take care of my own captor. It made me suspicious, but I didn’t know enough about this situation to make any plans to protect myself. I would have to be careful; I couldn’t give him an opening he could use against me.

  I grunted at him, not saying anything as I pushed past and headed toward the warehouse I currently called home.

  All three of them fell into step behind me, talking amongst themselves. I did my best to ignore them, not liking the fact that they seemed to be getting along so well. I didn't think it was possible for a demon to work so well with a team. Especially one with an angel as the leader.
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  Down in Hell, you had the leaders and the followers. It was as simple as that. If the demons had to work together, not all of them came back alive. They killed each other off to get more glory, or just because they felt like it. It was sick and twisted, but it was the only way I had ever seen them behave.

  “Alyth,” Walker jogged up to walk beside me, leaving the others to their conversation. “Do you know anything about the demon Selasi?”

  I tripped over my feet, almost falling to my knees. The sound of his name caused such panic that I forgot to breathe. Memories swam through my eyes as his taunting voice ran through my ears. I tried my best to shake it off and turned to the wizard next to me.

  “What?” My voice was breathless as I looked at him with wide, wild eyes.

  My mouth didn't want to form words, I had no defense I could raise, no snarky words to combat this feeling. I was vulnerable, and I couldn't even get angry about it.

  Walter's mouth hung open in shock as he looked at me, his own face starting to show signs of remorse. It took me a moment to gather myself, but eventually I was able to get my heart and breathing back under control. I lifted a shaky hand, brushing hair out of my face. I hadn’t even realized it had fallen out of my ponytail earlier.

  My eyes flicked back to Blayze and Copeland, in time to see Blayze swallow and get his own fear under control. I guess I wasn’t the only one that had experience with that sadistic bastard.

  “I didn’t mean to upset you,” Walker looked genuinely regretful as he turned to face me.

  “You didn’t,” I lied, clearing my throat when my voice wobbled.

  I worked hard to shove the memories of Selasi’s torture from my mind. I didn’t have time to deal with it now. Besides, he couldn't hurt me anymore. I was free of that man forever.

  “I was just surprised. What do you want with Selasi?” Saying his name out loud felt like I was calling him to me.

  Summoning him here somehow.

  Trying to hide my reaction, I turned and started walking again, the guys falling into step behind me once more.

  “There’s been talk of him coming to earth. He’s looking for something, we aren’t sure what, but I wanted to see if it was something to be worried about. We don’t have much intel on him.” Copeland's smooth voice was soothing to my frayed nerves, even as my fear skyrocketed.

  I wasn’t the only one either, the fear coming off Blayze was a match for my own.

  “I take it we should be worried?” Walker asked, peering at me out of the corner of his eye.

  “That’s an understatement,” Blayze muttered under his breath.

  He was staring at the ground; his face so pale I was worried he would pass out at any second. All my tiredness from earlier was gone. The adrenaline running through my system at their words had chased it away.

  “Who do you work for?” I asked, turning to him as soon as I remembered one of the many questions I’d had last night.

  Walker looked up at me in surprise. I had a general idea about who it could be, I had thought about it on my way home, but I wanted confirmation. He flicked a look back at Copeland who just shrugged.

  Looking back at me, he took a deep breath. It wasn’t so much that he didn’t want to tell me, it seemed more like he was debating on how much to tell me. I wondered if they weren’t allowed to tell me certain things. I feel like asking for my help with this case, and talking to the hellhound, would have made that point moot.

  “We work with the paranormal branch of the Bureau.” He didn’t elaborate, but he didn’t need to.

  Everybody knew about the Bureau. The paranormal division was actually split into multiple pieces and specialties. They were only sent out on specialty cases when something happened. The supernatural police would take care of it on their level in most cases.

  The Bureau was like the human’s version of the F.B.I. and C.I.A. all wrapped up in one. They were the people that policed the supernatural. Judge, jury, and executioner all in one. The police still did their job, but when something went really wrong, they called in the heavy hitters at the Bureau.

  His answer also clued me into the fact that this thing with Greg was more serious than I had thought. It gave me hope that they really would be able to take him down. If they were part of the Bureau, they should be powerful enough, and they should have the resources to do it.

  I had called in a tip a few months ago. Greg had been thinking about extending his services to include trafficking women. It wasn't something I was going to allow to happen, no matter what. I had been knocked out for days after making that call, the brand making sure that I suffered for my defiance. But the higher presence of cops made him forget that venture for the time being.

  Those cops went away though. They were easily bought, and they didn’t feel the need to dig further than surface level when it came to the gym. Greg had a few higher ups in the department on payroll and he wasn’t scared of pulling on those strings when he needed to. I had thought they had been ignored, but now that these guys were here, I was relieved. Pain seemed to flare up at my thoughts, and I shoved it aside. I would deal with the brand later.

  For now, I would concentrate on Lucy, she came first.

  I stopped standing outside the warehouse, unable to make myself go closer.

  Something was wrong and it was sending my senses into overdrive.

  I looked around, trying to see if anything was out of place as I tried to detect any magic. I couldn't feel anything, but the threat was thick in the air. Walker was doing the same thing next to me, and the others appeared to feel the warning that was lingering in the air.

  It didn’t feel like this when I had left this morning and I wondered what had changed. Who had come and made my space feel so volatile? It couldn't have been Lucy, but maybe Walter had tracked her here. The feeling seemed too intense to be from the deranged wolf though. He didn’t leave a feeling behind like this.

  Walker lifted his hands, a transparent green globe growing to encompass all of us. The tingle of magic tickled as it pressed against my skin before spreading out. I watched as his eyes started to glow with the use of his magic. The green orb, the same color as his eyes, continued to grow.

  “Copeland.” Walker looked at him.

  The glow of his eyes was eerie, and there was no reflection of light against his skin or hair.

  “On it.” Copeland nodded, then took off like a shot.

  His speed as he ran to circle the block was impressive. He started wide and narrowed down the search area as we watched him speed from place to place. The globe of magic that Walker had conjured continued to glow and stretch until it was big enough to move through the next building over, and a few others as well.

  Jesse stalked forward, looking disturbed as he seemed to smell the air. He backed away as he continued to smell the air. He turned and walked away, but the look on his face made me nervous and I instinctively shifted closer to the Hellhound as he moved closer to me. Our eyes met briefly, an agreement settling into place. At this moment, we were allies. He gave me a nod and we turned back to back with Walker forming a triangle as we waited to see what would happen next.

  It was odd to feel so comfortable working with them when I'd never worked with a team before. It felt natural with them, though. Like we had been doing it for years.

  Nothing popped out at us, and after a few moments I felt a shift in the air. The threat slowly started to seep away. I wasn’t ready to trust that feeling, and if the stiff forms of the others were to be believed, they weren’t either. The feeling of doom didn't leave with the threat, letting me know that whatever I was about to find wouldn't be good.

  A shadow passed overhead; the shape familiar enough that I didn’t bother to conjure a weapon.

  Jesse landed a few feet away from us. His body shrunk in size, but he didn’t shift back to his human form. I watched, confused as he walked over to us, the size of a regular jaguar. His wings continued to shrink until they disappeared into his back.

 
“What? How…?” I let my question trail off, not sure how to ask what I wanted to.

  It wasn’t like he could answer me right now, anyway. I would have to try and research later to see what I could find out. The library was free and with Greg gone I could actually go. It would also be awkward for me to ask him later. So, I would save that gem for when I needed it.

  Copeland came back around the building, his eyes tight, but his stance relaxed. Something had happened, but the threat was gone for the time being. We all settled a bit as Jesse finally shifted back.

  His eyes met mine before he looked at Walker, and the look sent a chill down my spine. That brief flash of emotion, the sorrow I felt coming from him giving me a bad feeling. I looked to the building, dreading what I would find.

  Was it Lucy? Was she injured? Or worse, was she dead?

  I started to run, not waiting for the all-clear, unable to stand the thought of my friend laying in our safe haven, injured. Ignoring my own fear, I thought of my friend. I needed to see what was going on for myself. I needed to find her.

  The guys couldn't control me, anyway. I didn’t know why I was waiting for them to go inside, we weren't a team. I couldn't trust them to have my back. They were only here because they wanted something from me. This was my home, not theirs. And it was my job to defend it.

  “Alyth! Don’t go in there!” Copeland called out to me, turning to run after me as soon as he saw where I was going.

  He wasn’t the only one with the gift of speed, though, and I didn’t care in that moment if I gave myself away. I had to know what had happened. I needed to know if Lucy was alright.

  The smell of blood reached me as I got closer to the building, copper thick in the air. I froze, memories overwhelming me when a familiar smell seemed to hit my nose. Phantom pain bloomed all throughout my body as knives of pain stabbed me in the torso, the memory of my own blood painting the walls of a dark, cold room coming to mind. I forced myself out of the memories and focused on the here and now. I forced myself to take a breath and prepare for the situation that I was about to walk into.