by C. S. Wilde
Talahel leaned on a wooden table with a big fruit basket atop it, his entire body wrapped in a wine colored bodysuit that neared black, almost mingling with his obsidian kilt. His orange wings lazily stretched behind him, and Ava gasped.
Angels only showed their wings if they wanted to fly, fuck, show off, or fight. And by Talahel’s weary stare, he was preparing to do the latter.
“Then you’ll need to heal every Selfless who falls in the line of duty until the day you stop being the Messenger.” Talahel shrugged. “How long was Cassiel the Messenger before he gave his place to you and went into his long sleep?”
“Two thousand years, give or take.”
“That’s a long time healing an endless stream of angels. You won’t be able to keep up with your normal, and much more important, tasks, brother.”
“It’s not fair, Talahel! The Selfless fight with us in the battle against evil. We can’t let them die just because it’s convenient for us,” Ezra said, anger all over him. “Archibald Brennan was horribly injured. He did not deserve such a fate.”
“Their deaths are always cruel,” Talahel countered matter-of-factly. “Your mercy is admirable, but remember that Archibald will be reborn as the Archangel he used to be, and he’ll become more useful to us.” He took a grape from the fruit basket and popped it into his mouth. “As has always been the way.”
“I never liked the way,” Ezra grumbled, but Talahel’s words seemed to poison him. Eventually, the Messenger’s shoulders slumped. “I suppose you’re right.”
“Do not worry. I will watch over his sacramented body until he wakens as one of us.” Talahel’s eyes glinted with something calculating and cold that sent chills down Ava’s spine. “We’ll find whoever did this to him. I have a name in mind, a demon who stands with the In-Betweens.”
“Jal.” Ezra sighed. “Find proof and then act. In the meantime, I’ll assign my best Guardian to help Archibald’s partner. It’s the least we can do.”
Talahel bowed at him, a mockery in the way he did it. His wings disappeared in a flash of light, which meant he didn’t see Ezra as a threat anymore. “Your mercy knows no boundaries, brother.”
Ava blinked, returning to the roof and the crouching angel before her. She looked around and noticed that Ezra’s wings had spread around them, forming that familiar cocoon.
A part of him must’ve sensed the menace of Talahel, if only too late. His first instinct is always to protect, she realized with a certain pride.
Ezra opened his eyes and looked up at her. “Thank you, Ava.” The smile he gave her oozed with adoration. “I feel better now.”
Ezra hadn’t seen what she’d seen, or else he would be glaring at her the same way she glared at him. He didn’t know about Talahel, or maybe he wasn’t ready to know yet.
Ava understood Jophiel’s intentions now. The Messenger, through his kindness and mercy, could pave the way for the Legion. The peaceful transition the Seraph had mentioned.
Ava simply needed to remind Ezra of who he was. But right now, he balanced on a thin line, and any small blow could turn into a fall that would doom him.
Her chest prickled when she took in the full meaning of this. If she refused to become Ezra’s mate, she would send him down a path that could end him and the Order.
“You need to free Justine,” she said, her throat dry and her heart aching. “She merely spoke the words I told her, the words you need to understand before I’m to side with you.”
He nodded. “Consider it done.”
Ava wanted to run into Liam’s arms, go back to that bedroom in the Legion where only they existed. Her eyes stung with tears she couldn’t shed, not here, not in front of Ezra.
She had a duty, not to the Gods, not to the Order or the Legion, but to everything she fought for, everything that she was.
A friend. A Guardian. His savior.
Ezra leaned forward and kissed her forehead in that kind, warm way that had always soothed her before, but now Ava didn’t know what to feel.
“I believe you, Ava. But if there’s evil within the Order, I’ll need all the help I can get. Will you stand with me?” he asked softly, watching her with a plea.
The words hurt as they left Ava’s throat. “Yes, I will.”
32
Liam
Liam and Jal followed the sidewalk toward the precinct. The demon rambled about great feats of his past—he’d once spent seven days shoved inside a brothel in Amsterdam learning the arts of the flesh with Madame Daan, and he’d also sailed the Andaman sea, surely Liam, you should try that once—but never did he address why he helped the In-Betweens.
Liam was glad that Jal felt well enough to babble, but his mind simply wasn’t there. So he murmured absent “Hmms” as they went, only half-listening to what the demon said.
He did notice the girls, though. Almost every woman they passed shot them smiles of pure lust, especially at Jal.
Demon appeal, he guessed.
Liam narrowed his eyes at the scabs covering half of Jal’s body. “Did you turn into some Hollywood star when you masked your essence?”
“No, they just see my unscarred, gorgeous self.” Jal grinned at two passing brunettes. “The heart doesn’t feel what the eyes don’t see, my friend.”
The demon fixed his hair and puffed up his chest. The brunettes blushed and giggled, their hips moving in sensuous waves on purpose. Jal spun around to watch them go, his gaze lingering on their waists.
Liam was no stranger to flirting. If this was a normal day, and his entire world hadn’t been turned upside down, he would have removed his leather jacket and hung it over his shoulder, showcasing his biceps and tight frame. It did the trick most of the time, and it had gotten him some fine one-night stands. The perks of years of training and fighting for the damn Gods.
But everything had changed. He didn’t need random women; he needed his fierce, kind Guardian, the angel who had shown him a happiness unlike any other. A smile spread on his lips at the memory of his Ava, her soft lavender scent, her kind smile, and the smoothness of her curves, the softness of her skin …
His Ava?
She was meeting with the Messenger, and she would be by his side now. Liam’s fists clenched and so did his jaw.
“If it helps,” Jal said, drawing Liam from the angry mass that clouded his thoughts, “I don’t think they’re having sex.”
Liam snapped his head at the demon, his nostrils flared. “I didn’t think they were until now!”
“My bad.” Jal showed him his palms. “You should be prepared for the worst, though. I mean, he’s a handsome guy, that’s all I’m saying.”
“Stop with the dumb-ass comments, asshole,” he grumbled. “Fucking demon.”
Jal gave him an amused chuckle and patted his back.
They soon neared the block of the Nine-five, and relief washed through Liam. He already needed a break from Jal. Maybe the demon was trying to make him feel better in his own, twisted, demonic way, but he was failing spectacularly.
“All right.” Liam turned to him. “You stay here. I can’t waltz in there with you.”
“Oh, come on. I can mask my essence like I’m doing right now. They wouldn’t know.”
“We can smell a demon from a mile away.” Liam chortled. “You all stink of sulfur.”
Jal craned his neck and peeked at the precinct’s entrance. “Seems fine to me.”
Liam followed his gaze to the empty sidewalk before the precinct. Odd. Usually, Danton and Wheeler would be having their four o’clock smoke by now. But there was no sign of them at the entrance and no inflow of Selfless carrying In-Betweens in special cuffs, either.
Liam shook his head. The boys had probably left early, lazy bastards that they were.
“Look, the Captain will be breathing down my neck as it is,” Liam said. “And I don’t want to piss her off any more than I have to. So you stay right here, you hear?”
“Aha, so that’s why.” The demon laughed. “You’re scared o
f mommy.”
Liam punched Jal’s broken arm. The demon growled in pain, cursing him in a bunch of ancient languages.
Who knew punching Jal could be so liberating? Liam’s chest rumbled with chuckles as he left the demon behind.
He stopped by the stone stairs that led into the building, hoping to find the butt of a cigarette or at least a trace of ashes, any indication that Danton and Wheeler had been there. But the floor was spotlessly clean.
It made no sense. Those two smoked like chimneys.
He took the elevator up to the precinct, warning bells echoing in his head. His hand went to the hilt of his sword.
The doors opened to a deserted office space. Well, it wasn’t exactly deserted. Kevin sat on a chair in the middle of the room, his head hanging low.
Relief washed over him. “Kev, what in the Hells?”
Liam stepped forward, and his feet slipped on something slick. If he hadn’t leaned over a nearby table, he would’ve smacked his butt to the ground. He regained his balance only to spot a pool of blood below his boots.
Something inside him cracked.
He glared at Kevin, who had raised his head to watch him. A purple blotch marred half of the boy’s face, and his chest heaved up and down in the way of a scared deer. His entire body shook as a stream of blood flowed down his left temple.
Liam didn’t know who’d done this, but he would fucking kill them. He grunted a curse and unsheathed his sword, then walked toward Kevin, every step a meticulous move.
Once he got close enough, he whispered, “What happened?”
“H-he tapped the Cap’s phone. He knew you were coming.” Kevin nodded left but didn’t look. “He stacked the bodies inside the cell.”
A void ate Liam from inside as he found a pile of corpses inside the bars. The people he had trained with, the brothers and sisters in arms he’d greeted every morning … they were gone.
The entire precinct. He had slipped on their blood.
“He said—” Kevin’s voice broke, “he said they’d be more useful to the Order as angels. That humans were weak.” His breathing sped up and hitched at the same time. “He made me watch, Liam.”
“Where is he?” Liam growled, his teeth clenched.
Whoever he was, he would die a horrible death.
“With the Captain,” Kevin whimpered. “Waiting for you.” He grabbed the fabric of Liam’s jacket, tears tracing thin rivers on his blood-splattered cheeks. “Don’t go. He’ll kill you too.”
“Kevin, listen to me,” Liam whispered. “I need you to stand up and run. Now.”
“He said they were starting with the main trunk of the Order, and then they would spread their way across the other branches, across the world.” He swallowed. “We have to stop them, mate.”
“We will.” He snapped his fingers before Kevin, hoping this would grab his focus. “But right now, you need to run.”
The boy shook his head. “I won’t leave you alone with him.”
“Kevin,” Liam said patiently but with enough edge to show him this wasn’t a discussion. “Now.”
It took his friend a moment to center himself, then nod and stand. Kevin got up and rushed toward the elevator, limping on his left leg. Liam guessed whoever had done this had twisted Kevin’s ankle to slow him down, to make him powerless enough to watch all his friends die before him.
The level of cruelty here was the same Archie had faced. Whoever stood inside the Captain’s office had murdered his partner, of this Liam was certain.
He held his sword so tight his knuckles turned white. Time for reckoning.
He heard the elevator door close behind him and sighed in relief. Kevin was safe.
Liam stalked toward the half-open door of the Captain’s office, his entire body shaking with anger.
He pushed it open to find the Captain sitting on her chair, her lips pressed into a line. Darkness instead of eyes gaped at him, her empty eye sockets crying blood. The right side of the Cap’s face was almost black from being punched too hard.
His stance dropped as furious tears threatened to come out. The Captain’s voice snapped in his mind, a memory from when he’d first started as a Selfless. “Keep your guard up! Distractions can cost your life, kid.”
Sure thing, Cap.
He tightened the grip on his sword and closed his stance.
Beside her stood Gabriel, holding an empty whiskey glass. Lava burned within Liam, hissing and hungry. This bastard had killed his precinct, and he’d taken out the Cap’s eyes.
“It took you long enough, brother.” Gabriel set the glass on the table, next to the Captain, then picked a whiskey bottle from Cap’s stash and poured. He took the glass and dropped himself on the leather sofa near the wall.
Even so injured, the Cap didn’t scream. Her breathing was calm and steady, but her bloodstained fingers clawed at her wooden desk.
A mountain against an unending storm.
She frowned at Liam and then shook her head. “You shouldn’t have come, kid,” she said, her voice a shuddering whisper.
“Let her go, Gabriel,” he demanded. “She has nothing to do with this.”
“I’m not leaving you alone with this demon,” the Captain snarled.
An annoyed frown creased Gabriel’s forehead as he sipped his whiskey. “You’re blind, Selfless. Do tell me how you can save your precious boy?”
The Cap bit back a remark because the truth was, she couldn’t. No one could help Liam now.
“Stubborn and stupid, just like that lover of hers.” Gabriel grinned at her empty eye sockets. “Archibald, wasn’t it? Utterly useless, the both of them.”
Liam’s lips curled into a snarl. “You fucking—”
“Spare me the rough linguistics of the Selfless. You brought this upon yourself, brother,” he said. “All because you had to grow a conscience, you pathetic fool.”
Liam gulped. Even though his anger demanded Gabriel’s blood, he knew that defeating an Archangel, even with a lot of luck, was pretty fucking impossible. Which meant he would have to be smart, especially if he wanted to save the Captain.
He sheathed his sword. “I see it now,” Liam said, not knowing exactly what it was.
Gabriel’s eyes gleamed with hope. “You do?”
Liam nodded. “Humans are weak. This world should belong to angels.”
Gabriel slapped his own leg. “You saw the truth once. I knew you’d see it again!” He swallowed the rest of his drink, leaned forward, and slammed the glass on the Cap’s table. “Prove it.”
Liam looked from him to the glass. “I don’t understand.”
“Prove to me that you see the truth.” He nodded toward the Captain. “Kill her.”
“She will die in her own time. She doesn’t matter to us,” he inhaled and added, “brother.”
Gabriel peered at him, variables running behind his cruel eyes. “I can still hear your partner’s screams, you know. Such beautiful symphony.”
Liam’s blood boiled and froze at the same time. The urge to rip Gabriel’s head from his neck flooded him, but Liam kept a composed stance. This was a test, and he had to pass.
Gabriel leaned back on the leather cushion. “Archibald had an air-tight case linking me to a couple of human murders. A few unauthorized In-Between takedowns too.” His eyes darkened. “The Throne would cut my head off for that. She’s not on our side, not yet.”
“I’m sure Talahel would’ve saved your ass,” Liam countered.
“He would’ve tried. But the proof was right there, and the Order is still, well, blinded. Too many don’t see the way, but that will change in time.” He chuckled at that, nodding to the Captain. “Archibald was going to the Messenger and the Throne to expose me. I couldn’t let him.”
“So you murdered him.” Liam’s nails bit into his palms. “Why did you torture him? You didn’t have to, you sick fuck.”
He shrugged. “Well, it was just so much fun.”
Gabriel stood, patting his black Archangel’s
bodysuit. He only had one belt around his waist, a holy gun and his sword hanging from it. Usually Archangels were packed with weapons. If Gabriel carried only two, it meant he didn’t consider any of this a challenge.
An entire precinct …
“When I came back to finish the job,” he added, “Archibald’s sacramented body was gone. But I’ll find him, I promise you.”
“You know the demons are using you, right?” Liam said, ignoring Gabriel’s threat. “They’re starving vampires and drugging werewolves to increase attacks on humans, making the Order strike the In-Betweens without mercy.” He shook his head and slammed both hands on his waist. “Can’t you see? The dark is making half of the opposing army annihilate itself without lifting so much as a finger. And you’re helping them, you idiot.”
“What I want is a world without In-Betweens and humans, brother. Eventually, without demons as well.” He rolled his shoulders. “One step at a time. Sure, a few angels might fall in the process, but the strongest will remain.”
“Gabriel, please, you—”
“I’ll make this easy for you.” He pulled the Captain’s chair and grabbed her arm, forcing her up. “If you want to save this precious human, follow us to Dock 5.”
Gabriel withdrew his holy gun and shot five times at the window. The sounds of the blasts mingled with the shrieks of glass cracking and the hollow thud of crumbling concrete. When the Archangel was done, blue smoke crowded the spot, soon revealing a gaping hole in the wall where the window used to be.
“If you see the truth behind my cause, don’t come,” Gabriel said. “Let her die. It’s easy, you know. I’ll do all the heavy lifting.”
The Cap turned a little too much to Liam’s left. “Don’t come, kid. I’ll be fine.”
“She won’t, of course,” Gabriel chortled. “I won’t lose hold of another sacramented body. I’ll kill her, and then I’ll give her the final death once she wakes as an angel.” His brown eyes glinted with insanity. “Time to prove yourself, brother.”
“You fucking monster,” Liam spat, his every muscle clenched, a void biting at his gut.
