by Misty Evans
Amy Atwood appeared harmless. She was no beauty queen, although she was pretty. She didn’t exude any particularly powerful magic either. She was friendly, open and genuine, and well…ordinary.
Except for those eyes.
Under the delicious smell of waffle cones and chocolate ice cream, she smelled like the wind outside, cool and fresh. Her magic element was obviously air.
My skin crawled with warning. Air witches could fool you. On the surface, they resembled a light breeze caressing your skin. Underneath, they were the hard, driving wind of an ice storm, freezing you to the bone.
Whatever I did, I would not underestimate her. Problem was, I liked her on sight. And not just because she dug my boots.
The special of the day on the menu board above her head said a Mocha Cappuccino Chiller was five bucks. I pointed at the board. “Does the special come with whipped cream?”
She grinned. “Whipped cream and shaved chocolate.” She glanced out at the square where the flag on the flagpole strained in the wind. “If you’d prefer a hot cappuccino, without the ice cream, I can make that too. That’s three-fifty.”
“I’ll take the chiller. I’ve heard your ice cream is the best in this part of the state.”
Her eyebrows lifted a fraction, but she took the praise in stride, grabbed a large paper cup in one hand and a metal scoop in the other. “Chiller it is.”
She went to work scooping first vanilla and then chocolate coffee bean ice cream into the cup. After adding chocolate syrup, she placed the cup under a machine with a drill-like mechanism, flipped a switch and the machine stirred the ice cream and syrup into a frothy mixture. She tapped the cup a couple of times, added more syrup and let the machine mix it again.
The whole time, Cole stood off to the side, eyes scanning every exit, every potential weapon in the place and keeping his back toward the side wall so he could keep an eye on both the front entrance and a hallway in the back. Warriors. Always on the defensive.
Amy squirted whipped cream on the top. “How about you, sir? Can I get you anything?”
Cole glanced at me and I nodded my head, telling him to order something. “Coffee.”
I made a face. That’s it?
Reading my expression, he shrugged. “We just ate. I’m not hungry.”
“You’re always hungry. How can you pass up ice cream?”
Amy smiled as she shaved pieces off a chunk of chocolate over the whipped cream. “One coffee, coming up.”
While she poured Cole’s coffee, I laid a ten on the counter. No reason to get down to business until I’d had a chance to suck down my chiller, and I wanted a waffle cone as well. Hey, what can I say? I’m a bottomless pit and planning face time with Lucifer made me nervous. Besides, it might be my last meal. Might as well make it a good one.
“Jan over at the restaurant said your upper story burned down back in the summer. Didn’t touch the shop?”
Amy handed me a straw and spoon, her eyes avoiding mine as she snagged the ten and rang us up. “No.”
Okay. She wasn’t much of a conversationalist unless it came to boots or ice cream. I spooned whipped cream from the chiller, dug down further and grabbed some mocha cappuccino ice cream. “Wow. This is excellent.”
And it was. I was definitely having a waffle cone before I butted heads with her boyfriend.
Her gaze met mine again. “Thanks.”
I took my change, dropped a few bills in her tip jar and motioned for Cole to follow me to a table near the back. The booth was tucked into a corner and allowed us visibility of both entrances and the street.
Amy busied herself behind the counter for a few minutes, playing with a commercial grade espresso machine. There was a big, hand-written sign on top touting the shop’s new coffee bar selection of hot drinks. Like most places in the Midwest, ice cream probably wasn’t a big seller during the winter.
I forced small talk with Cole as I simultaneously sipped and spooned at my ice cream and watched Amy try to make two shots of espresso. Cole played his part well, still acting like a SEAL instead of my boyfriend, but what could I do? You can take the warrior out of the war zone, but you can’t take the warrior out of the demon.
After a couple of minutes, when it was obvious Amy had no idea what she was doing, I took off my cape and made my way over to the counter. “Need help?”
She used an arm to brush bangs from her forehead. “Trying to expand my business, so I bought this espresso machine from a gal who runs a restaurant up the street.” She chuckled and brushed at her shirt, which was now dotted with dark coffee stains. “Still haven’t gotten the hang of it.”
The Mark of Cain was faint, but I saw it before her bangs covered it again. The demon inside me surged backwards. “Maybe I could help.”
“You know how to use one of these?”
“I worked in a barista in California back in the day.” Back in the day being the 1950s and the barista being The Med on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley. We didn’t have fancy machines back then, but the overall construction and design of the espresso machine had changed little since La Pavoni started producing them in 1905 in Milan.
Amy motioned me behind the counter and offered a hand. “I’m Amy.”
Her fingers were delicate but strong. “Kali. And that’s Cole.” I tipped my head toward my bodyguard. He lifted a finger in a pseudo wave.
“Where you from?”
“Chicago.”
“Just passing through?”
“Yes, if the storm doesn’t ground us.”
I checked the portafilter, saw she had packed the coffee grounds in too tightly. Her witchy strength was high. “There’s your problem.” I smacked out the hard disc of coffee, refilled the basket and tamped down the grounds with a medium force. “You want to match your grind to the brewing method and, since you’re making espresso, the grind should be fine. Then you have to perfect your tamp. Tamping is an art. Too tight, water can’t flow through. Too loose, the espresso turns watery.”
She was a fast learner. A few minutes later, she was making shots of espresso like a pro. She was also making conversation. As I returned to my ice cream chiller, she told Cole and me about the shop’s history, how lucky she was that it hadn’t burned down with the apartment, and she mentioned her friend Keisha and confirmed that a Gabriel worked there part time.
I just hoped Gabriel didn’t show up and turn me to demon dust before I got to talk to Lucifer.
I needn’t have worried.
Lucifer entered through the front door, setting off the tinkling bell as if he were a normal human being. Rain had begun to fall outside and his blue-black hair was dotted with tiny drops. Dressed in worn jeans, a worn leather jacket and a pair of heavy black boots, he looked like one of Eden’s townsfolk, although edgier. I doubted anyone living there realized there was something just a little off about him.
He was as tall as Rad, maybe taller, and as broad as Cole. Power, magic, and a type of energy I’d never felt or smelled before, radiated all around him. His body, his eyes, the very pores of his skin exuded superiority. Like Damon times a thousand. The air around him vibrated with preeminence and incomparability.
Danger. My brain cells registered threat level red. The fine hairs on the back of my neck rose and the natural flight instinct hard-wired into my demon brain kicked in.
And dammit, I hadn’t had my waffle cone yet.
Although humans throughout time had associated the fallen angel with hell, demons associated him with heaven. He was the ruler of our domain, but he wasn’t one of us. We were peasants in hell’s kingdom, and peasants never looked on the king.
He paid no attention to us, but his body tensed ever so slightly as he registered our demonness. We’d kept our magic suppressed as to not tip him off, but we couldn’t suppress the very thing that made us supernatural.
He greeted his witch, the two embraced and murmured low to each other for a minute, his back to us. All the while, Amy’s face shone with love and adoration. I co
uldn’t see Lucifer’s but I could feel his protective, loving energies from across the room.
My heart pinched, an image of Rad singing softly to me on the steps at Nudra’s house flashing through my mind. I wanted to embrace the image, but this wasn’t the time or place.
Amy went to work peeling a banana. Apparently, the devil ate banana splits for breakfast. I glanced at Cole, trying to catch his eye, but he was staring intently at Lucifer, his Adam’s apple working in his throat.
My own throat had a lump the size of a basketball in it. I sucked at my chiller but the flavor tasted flat and artificial now.
While Amy continued to work on the banana split, Lucifer turned to face us. I straightened as he moved in our direction. A soft glow of white light outlining his body.
Hell’s blood. He was handsome beyond words. The most beautiful creature I’d ever seen, and I’d seen my share of extraordinary ones in three hundred years. If the warning siren in my head hadn’t been going at top decibel, I might have groveled at his feet.
Lucifer stopped a short distance away, keeping the perfect amount of distance between us. “What do you want?” His low voice sent a heated flush over my skin.
Danger, my brain screamed again. My demon echoed the sentiment. Get out.
At war with the warnings was my desire to stay in the presence of one so beautiful, so heavenly. Lucifer had been the chief in the hierarchy of heaven, foremost in beauty, power and wisdom. Lucifer’s sin was pride. A sin I understood.
I didn’t dare move, except to lower my gaze as I’d done in Lilith’s presence. He saw me as a threat and the slightest movement could cause my destruction.
Amy noticed he was talking to us and walked over. “This is Kali and Cole. They’re from Chicago.” She held out his banana split. “Kali, Cole, this is Luc.”
Luc? The king of hell allowed the witch to call him by a nickname? How…human. Not only was the fallen angel willing to do anything to protect his witch, he was willing to do whatever it took to blend in with humanity for her as well.
Di would say it was love.
He was still staring at me, ignoring the banana split. The heat rippling over my skin intensified. “I need to speak to you,” I said. “About Lilith.”
Amy blanched. “Lilith?” She stepped back, fear registering. “Did she send you here?”
So the witch knew about her competition. Interesting.
“Yes.”
Lucifer didn’t move a muscle, didn’t even blink, but in the next second, I was jerked from the chair, hauled through the air backwards, and thrown up against the far wall by an invisible force. Bones in my back cracked. My hands were pinned against the wall with the rest of me, so I couldn’t touch my fingers together to call up my protective magic. It was pointless against the fallen angel, anyway, and I had hoped keeping my defenses down would show him I meant no harm.
Cole jumped up, ready to defend me. Big mistake. Lucifer glanced his way and Cole’s head snapped to the side producing a popping noise. Lucifer had broken his neck.
“Cole!” I yelled, but it was no use. His body fell to the floor, lifeless.
There were no curse words strong enough, but I looked Lucifer in the eye and belted out a few Italian ones anyway.
Amy dropped the banana split. Ice cream and banana slices splattered across the black and white tiles. “Luc, what are you doing? You promised no magic.”
His attention never left my face. “What do you want, demon? What about Lilith?”
Amy returned her focus to me. “Did she hire you to poison me? To burn me up? To take me to hell again? Well, guess what? Been there, not doing it again. I took down the other assassins, I can take you down too.”
She was a feisty one. I liked that…even though I had no idea what she was talking about.
Although it wasn’t hard to figure out. Lil had already tried getting to Amy and the witch had outsmarted whatever Merc demons Lilith had sent and was quite proud of herself. She was ready to take me on.
But pride went before a fall. The devil’s mistress should know that.
I wasn’t a common Merc demon, and if I’d had time to structure a plan, I could have worked around the Mark of Cain and made the witch’s life miserable. And if Lucifer destroyed me here and now, Lilith would find someone else to do the job.
The pressure on my body was intense. I could barely breathe. “Not here…to kill you. Work…for…the Bridge Council.”
Lucifer still didn’t move, but something changed in his eyes. “The Bridge Council has no business in my affairs.”
Wasn’t that everyone’s story? “Not yours.” The heat he’d ignited inside me was burning me up. My head pounded with pressure. The room swam in front of my eyes, hot tears pouring down my cheeks. “Lilith’s. She walks…the Earth.”
Outside, the rain had turned to sleet. It pinged against the glass windows. He stepped closer, the fine lines around his eyes tightening. “That’s not possible.”
Blood trickled out of my nose and ran into my mouth. The sharp metallic taste of my blood caused bile to rise in my throat. I searched for my demon, thinking I might have to use her, but she was AWOL for once. “It’s true,” I whispered.
A sharp spike of pain hit my lower spine, making me cry out. The pain flared into my hip joints and lower intestines. A second later, my lungs filled with fluid and I started to cough.
“You’re lying,” Lucifer said.
“No.” I shook my head as much as I could. “She hired me…to take revenge…on you.”
The bell over the door tinkled and the sound of roaring wind and driving sleet filled the shop. Amy whipped around, clear fear on her face that a customer had entered to see Cole dead on the floor and me pinned against the wall, hemorrhaging out.
She raised her hands and started toward the customer. “We’re closed. The storm’s bad. No ice cream today.”
“She’s telling the truth,” a familiar and dangerous sounding voice said. “Let her go.”
Rad.
Damn him to the fires of hell.
He walked around Amy and into my view. The look on his face was angry and full of determination, and it was the best sight I’d seen in a good long time.
But the damn fool was going to get his neck snapped, and what good would that do me?
He stopped a few feet from us, met Lucifer’s eyes straight on. “A witch in Chicago raised Lilith from hell. I saw her. I was there when the queen of hell commanded Kali take revenge on you. She would come after your witch herself if not for the Mark of Cain.”
And then he told Lucifer exactly what’d I’d been thinking. “Killing Kali won’t stop Lilith. The only way to stop the queen of hell is to send her back to her kingdom.”
The invisible pressure pinning my body against the wall eased. I took a breath, but the fire and pain ramming my internal organs and joints did not let up. I bit my bottom lip to keep from crying.
Rad sensed my distress. The wildness of the storm outside intensified. The door and windows on the front of the building rattled. The overhead lights flickered. “Let her go. Let her talk. She has a plan, but she needs your help.”
That he had such faith in me was heartening. I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn’t been fighting for my life.
The fatal pressure on my body evaporated without warning. I slide down the wall and crumpled into a heap on the floor next to Cole.
His neck was broken, but it would heal. That level of injury would take a while, though, to mend itself. Lying on my stomach, I coughed up blood and eased my fingers over to touch his arm. He was going to kick my ass for getting him killed if we survived this.
“There is no witch alive who could raise Lilith from the pit,” Lucifer said.
Rad crossed to me, bent down and helped me sit up. The cracked bones in my back screamed out in pain. He brushed hair from my eyes, wiped blood from my chin. In his gaze, he silently willed me to tell Lucifer the truth.
The truth. I blinked and tried to remember
my plan. Pain still burned in my lungs, stomach, back and hips. I could barely stay conscious, much less conduct an intelligent conversation.
I’d had plenty of time on the road trip to think about Victoria and her abilities. Taking another breath, I swallowed hard and cordoned the worst of the pain behind a mental blockade. “The witch has latent talents, probably from a genetic throwback in her bloodline. There’s demon in her ancestry, I’m sure of it.” The black and white tiles seemed to turn 3-D on me, my blood rising up and hovering over the checkerboard pattern even as it spread. “She ingested supernatural blood, very powerful supernatural blood, and that combined with her latent magical gene pool was enough to get the job done.”
There was a silence as Lucifer thought about it. He still didn’t believe me, but he was watching my blood and I wondered if he saw it levitating like I did. “Whose blood did she ingest?”
Admitting it was mine was embarrassing and didn’t lend credibility to my story. My blood was powerful and so was Nudra’s, but powerful enough to raise the queen of hell? No one would believe it. Especially not Lucifer. “Does it matter?”
“Whose blood?” he repeated, anger deepening his voice.
“Mine,” I squeaked. “And a very old vampire’s.”
“Why would you let her drink your blood? You’re not a Child of the Night.”
And thank the universe for that. “The vampire wanted me to join his organization. I refused. He created blood slaves to keep me connected to him. Victoria, the witch, was one of them.”
Lucifer stepped toward me and Rad tensed. The front door blew open, wind and sleet pouring in and rattling the window blinds.
Amy ran to shut the door and Lucifer narrowed his eyes at Rad. “Enough, Chaos demon. I want to have a better look at this one.”
Rad didn’t relax, but the wind died down enough for Amy to close the door and lock it. Lucifer reached out and lifted my chin, forcing me to meet his gaze. Rad’s fingers dug into my arm as if he would whip me away from the fallen angel if Lucifer tried anything.
The moment Lucifer touched me, my body jerked in response. Once again, my base instinct told me to run away at the same time I wanted to throw myself into his arms. I felt light all of a sudden, as if my organs had turned to feathers, my blood to air. Staring into his eyes, I saw the fires of hell in them right before my mind went blank.
