Hellsbane 01 - Hellsbane

by Paige Cuccaro

  “Okay. Sure,” I said, turning back to my purse. “But not tonight. Tonight, it’s just nice to have an evening without worrying some crazy demon will show up and try to hack my head off.”

  “But you’re taking your sword, nonetheless,” Eli said.

  “Why? The only Fallen that knew about me is cooling his heels in the abyss now,” I said, pulling out my license, my only credit card, and the twelve bucks I had in my wallet and stuffing them into my clutch.

  “That doesn’t mean he was the only Fallen in the area, or that his were the only demons watching.”

  I snapped the clutch closed and turned. “Right.” Pleasant thought, that. “Speaking of watching. Are they? I mean, the Council, are they still watching you? I haven’t seen any angels hanging around on roof tops.”

  “Neither have I, but that only means the Council watchers don’t wish to be seen,” he said. “Whatever made them begin their scrutiny of me, their interest is not likely to wane for some time.”

  “Right. ’Cause time isn’t really an issue for you guys,” I said, forcing a happy smile I didn’t really feel at the moment. “Any fallout from you lending your sword to the fight yesterday?”

  “There’s been no word on the matter,” he said.

  “They’re still deciding what to do?”

  “There’s been no word at all. No discussion. No mention of the incident. It didn’t happen.”

  A cover-up? Sheesh, these guys were more like humans than I thought. “Good thing there’s nobody left to say differently. Glad I’m on your side.”

  “It was my fault,” Eli said. “I allowed myself to become distracted. Many of the events yesterday caught me ill prepared. I did not expect Rifion to so willingly expose himself to humans, simply to kill an illorum.”

  “You were surprised, too?” I said with no small amount of sarcasm. “’Cause someone assured me that wouldn’t happen.”

  Eli shrugged. “Fallen are unpredictable. He must’ve sensed something about you that heightened his paranoia.”

  “It’s only paranoia if they’re not really out to get you.”

  “Very true.” Eli acquiesced with another sexy old-world bow. “And a mind constantly on guard against an unseen threat doesn’t often follow a logical course.”

  “Ah, the old catch twenty-two. They’re only after you because you’re crazy. But them constantly coming after you, y’know, makes you crazy,” I said, collecting my house keys. “And Rifion was crazy’s daddy. He wanted me on his side, or dead.”

  “I’m glad you were able to resist,” Eli said. “Not everyone can. Succumbing to their passions seems to make the Fallen particularly gifted at temptation. It’s quite remarkable that you not only possess the strength of will to resist them, but something about you seems to be a temptation they themselves cannot resist.”

  The doorbell rang, and I hooked the thin strap of my clutch over my shoulder, pride stretching my smile from ear to ear. “Hellsbane. It’s not just my name,” I said. “It’s what I am.”

  Acknowledgments

  Thanks to Ashley and Katie for all your support. Thank you to the ladies of Entangled Publishing for your bravery, your ability to see outside the box, and your courage to make yours and my dreams a reality. And thank you to Stacy for her amazing editing and firefighting skills. Who knew there were so many fires to put out in publishing? You rock!

  BONUS MATERIAL

  Keep reading for a scene in Eli’s point of view!

  CHAPTER NINE

  Part II

  Eli sets the world at Emma’s feet.

  My chest squeezed, memories threatening to consume me. I’d lost sweet Jeannette more than five hundred years ago and still the thought of her could bring me to my knees. A flaw I knew could likely be the end of me one day. But not today. Today I worried for another young mortal woman struggling with the heavy weight of her birthright and all the blessings and horrors it bestowed.

  “Joan of Arc died, Eli. I don’t want to end up the same way.” Emma Jane’s voice trembled with fear, despite the effort she always took to hide it. “This may come as a shock to you, but I don’t want to have my head hacked off or be burned at the stake or have my arms and legs tied to four horses while they run in opposite directions.”

  “I don’t want you to die either, Emma Jane.” I rose, ignoring the sorrow still weighing heavily inside me. The night air was warm and the cool breeze that washed up the hillside to the overlook helped to clear my head.

  “Right,” she said. “That might go over better if I didn’t know most illorum die under your watch.”

  Emma Jane was bright, and braver than she gave herself credit for. She reminded me so much of my Jeannette. Too much. “You’re fighting creatures stronger and more cunning than anything on earth. Their desperation makes them driven, not stupid. Naturally, there’s some risk.”

  “Yeah, I’m picking up on that.” She forced a smile.

  “You were born for this,” I said, wishing she could see the power and strength…and the beauty with which she’d been blessed. “I’ll practice with you. Help you develop your angelic gifts.”

  “Why? So I can die with skill? No thanks.”

  The comment struck at me like a white-hot knife, searing me straight through to my heart. I’d given Jeannette every advantage of my knowledge; trained her to be a living, breathing weapon; and for all of it, she was struck down nonetheless. Standing by while Jeannette suffered as she had, dying slowly as the flames ate at her flesh, had nearly ended me. The mere thought that I might be forced to stand witness as Emma Jane endured even half that would surely send me to the very gates of the abyss.

  It was a risk I’d known full well when I’d taken on her training. So why had I accepted this intimate connection with her and foolishly bargained my eternal spirit to prepare for a battle that might end us both?

  I didn’t know.

  But when I’d first watched her in the parking lot of Saint Anthony’s Chapel, blond hair speckled with demon blood, blue eyes wide and defiant as she’d stared into the face of evil, something inside me awakened. Something that was never meant to stir within the spirit of angels was born in that moment. I knew it then as I know it now—and have resisted it, denied it, every second since.

  “I want to go home,” she said.

  “Emma Jane, don’t you know how lucky you are? How special?” I bit back my words, raw emotion recklessly revealing more than I should.

  She snorted. “Right. Lucky me.”

  Such a stubborn woman. Yet I couldn’t deny how she amused me. “Come.” Tempering my smile, I held out a hand to her. “I have something to show you.”

  She didn’t move at first. I could sense her body’s response to me, heartbeat racing, desire moistening deep within her.

  “I’m outta here,” she finally said, and turned from me.

  With an easy thought, I moved into her path, too quickly for her to see, too quickly even for her to stop before she crushed her face into my chest. Her scent engulfed me: raspberry shampoo, baby powder, and a hint of vanilla in her fragrant perfume. My body tightened and I closed my eyes for a moment, gathering restraint.

  She bounced back, rubbing her nose. “Hey. That’s not cool.”

  “Perhaps you’ve mistaken my statement for a request.” I forced a smile. “It wasn’t.”

  “Ah. So it’s like that, is it?”

  I reached for her before my brain could think better of it, looping an arm around her waist, tugging her hard against me. Her soft feminine body molded to mine, her breath escaping in a small gasp. She braced her hands on my chest and I swallowed down a dangerous surge of desire.

  “Yes,” I said. “It’s like that.”

  I could move us at the speed of thought, but Emma Jane’s human brain would instinctively struggle to match the quick slip of time and space. For her, I transported us at a more sedate pace, though it was still faster than any mere human could track. In an instant the world around us vanished and we plu
nged into the cool, eternal stillness of space.

  All around, distant stars twinkled in the vast emptiness and my mind went quiet. This far from the earth below, the constant din of human thought that always echoed through my mind faded to a soft whisper. I relished this escape, often seeking out the muffling comfort of space. Though I’d never appreciated it more than since meeting Emma Jane. Perhaps that was the true reason I chose to bring her to my silent sanctuary—it was where my mind was unhampered by earthly influences and my thoughts often turned to her.

  Her fear lanced through me, her arms clamping around my neck bringing us cheek to cheek. I closed my eyes, the warmth of her skin like the brush of heaven on my face. “You’re safe in my arms, Emma Jane. Always,” I said, and felt her body shudder against me.

  She leaned back enough to look at me, her blue eyes wide. Blink by blink, trust replaced fear and a smile hinted at the very corners of her mouth. Carefully, I withdrew the invisible shield of my power surrounding her, and her smile vanished. Her gaze unfocused, brows creasing as her mind worked hard to follow the fold in time we’d created in order to travel so quickly.

  She held a hand to her forehead. “What was that?”

  It was as I’d feared. I’d transported us too swiftly. “Your mind is struggling to match speed with your body. May I help?”

  She’d told me once that she didn’t want me to use my power to ease the burdens of her new duties, but she couldn’t truly comprehend how instinctive the urge to care for her was. Like raising your hands to stop a fall or closing your eyes during a sneeze, it could not be helped. But for her, because she’d requested it of me, I tried.

  She nodded and I pressed my hand to hers, sending my power into her, calming the spin of her mind, stilling its struggle—then took my hand away.

  “I hoped moving slower would help lessen the shock, but it seems the effect allowed your vision too much time to try and compensate.” Guilt squeezed my chest that I had caused her even a moment’s discomfort.

  “We moved at angelic speed?” she asked.

  “No. I am able to travel at the speed of thought. We moved an increment slower.”

  “Um, thanks,” she said, distracted by the scene—or lack of scene—around us. She squirmed against me, as though trying to get her footing. She couldn’t, of course; there was nothing to stand on. We were adrift in space.

  She looked at her feet and terror stiffened her to stone.

  I gathered her close again, using my body to give her a sense of stability.

  “Where are we?” she asked.

  “Look behind you.”

  She glanced over her shoulder. “Is that…”

  “Earth,” I finished for her.

  Finally, as though the reality of who she was and what she could do had overcome her fear, she turned. Like a kitten in the center of an ocean scrambling for a scrap of dry land, Emma Jane placed her small feet on top of mine, comforted by the only solid footing to be had, and balanced in my embrace to see the beauty of her world below.

  I kept my hands on her hips, her back pressed snuggly to my chest, and told myself it was only to make her feel safe.

  “This can’t be real. How?” she asked.

  Her awe, her humility in the face of Father’s work—in the face of her own potential— weakened me. I couldn’t resist the temptation to pull her close. My arms around her waist, I whispered in her ear. “In the arms of an angel, Emma Jane, all things are possible.”

  Her body relaxed against mine.

  “Behold what your birthright has brought you, Emma Jane,” I said. “No mortal human could claim as much.”

  “It’s amazing, Eli. Thank you.”

  “This is only the beginning,” I said softly and took a secret pleasure in feeling her tremble at the sound of my voice. “You have been chosen to battle creatures far more powerful than mere mortals. You are not like other humans; you cannot be. Your task requires much of you, and for it, much has been given. Time and space unravel for you to traverse with the same intrinsic understanding as those you hunt. The world is quite literally at your feet.”

  Holding her near enough so my power protected her like an impenetrable shield, I transported us back to Earth to begin the next step in her training. I set her beside me and, when I knew she was balanced, released her from my protection. For me it was an easy progression, one thing done before the next. But to Emma Jane, it would seem as though one moment we were floating above the world and the next she was staring out over a large valley and the ocean beyond. She blinked at a waking cityscape miles below with large water inlets and busy harbors.

  A fast wind tugged at her hair, the blond strands battering against her face, catching at the corners of her mouth. She held back the wild strands with one hand and yelled, “Where are we?”

  We couldn’t converse this way. That was the only reason I reached out and pulled her to me, tucking her under my arm, extending my power to protect her again. Her hair settled, and the wind no longer touched us.

  “Brazil.” I pointed at the cityscape below us. “Rio de Janeiro.”

  “It’s beautiful,” she said.

  I watched as she took in her surroundings, utterly unaware of how her nearness tempted the very core of my spirit. Her small hand grabbed the lapel of my jacket and she leaned over. “No way. Christ the Redeemer? Seriously?”

  We were on the arm of the enormous statue, his white stone face looming like a small mountain to our left. “Remarkable, isn’t it? And yet it pales in comparison to the miracle that is you and those like you.”

  Emma Jane tipped her chin at the milling crowds and the long procession of humans still climbing the mountain below. “They don’t see us?”

  “As in everything, humans only see what they wish to see, what is easily explainable—what is normal.” Emma Jane still struggled to accept that human limitations no longer held sway over her. Not unusual for new illorum. Inevitably, however, I knew they must accept it as fact. “You could reach this spot on your own. It’s within your abilities.”

  “Really? How?”

  “Speed of movement is the key. If not for the physiology of humans, illorum could travel from place to place instantaneously like their fathers,” I said. “But even moving faster than light, there are few places in the world you cannot reach.”

  “Sweet.” She smiled and my chest tightened. “What do I do? Is there a magic word or something?”

  “Put the image of where you would like to go in your mind,” I said. “Allow your desire to stand in that exact spot fill you. Then take a step.”

  I touched her thoughts, reading the quick succession of her decision-making. She wanted to be sitting on the stone railing that edged the base of the statue far below. When she closed her eyes, I teleported to the spot she’d brought to her mind.

  Unfortunately, she over-aimed and went careening into the low stone wall. Much as I should have, I couldn’t allow her to injure herself further, so, lightning fast, I scooped an arm around her waist, steadying her.

  Still, she’d done well for her first try. Very well. I sensed she was actually far more powerful than any other illorum I’d trained. There was a reason for her unusual strength—I was certain of it—but I wasn’t ready to worry about that yet. Watching her discover her emerging abilities was the one pleasure I was permitted. Nothing would have me forfeit this time with her.

  Emma Jane turned and sat on the railing next to me. I leaned close to her. “Don’t aim into solid objects; you’ll hit them.”

  “Thanks for the warning.”

  “I thought it went without saying.”

  “You thought wrong.”

  “Obviously,” I said, pushing to my feet, needing to regain the space between us—needing to rein in my control. “Would you like to try again?”

  She cleaned off her hands. “Where to? Some place soft?”

  “The choice is yours,” I said. “I will know it when the image enters your mind.”

  “Okay.
We’ve been to Christ the Redeemer,” she said. “Let’s not play favorites. Ready?”

  I agreed by way of a bow an instant before I touched her mind. Her destination was clear, like a neon sign flashing in her mind—the eighty-eight-foot Buddha statue atop Elephant Rock in Kurunegala.

  The instant the thought entered my mind, I was there, waiting for Emma Jane, smug with my superior speed. My thoughts petrified, however, the moment the determined woman appeared, stumbling across the folded lap of the Buddha like a freight train off its tracks.

  Naturally, I caught her, her feminine body colliding into mine, her warm cheek pressing against my neck, her sweet flowery scent exploding around me like a puff of smoke. I breathed her in, battling its decimating effect on my resolve.

  This was such folly. I knew it—yet I ignored it.

  My palms held the feminine curves of her hips as she braced her hands on my arms, pushing up to look me in the eyes.

  “You beat me here,” she said as I quickly set her on her feet, sparing myself any further torment.

  But my hands still tingled with the feel of her, and a dangerous part of me wanted to take hold of her again. I rubbed the sensation away, one thumb against the other palm. The effort was useless, so my traitorous hands cupped behind my back instead.

  “My angelic speed is faster,” I said, pointedly steering my thoughts away from desire. “The Fallen travel an increment slower, but still faster than any illorum I’ve known. Most demons move slower than light, but far faster than anything humans can visibly track.”

  She nodded in understanding—so bright, so beautiful…so dangerous. My body warmed, face suddenly hot. What was I doing? Why was I courting this disaster? There were hundreds of magisters capable of taking up her training—hundreds who would not feel the soul-deep lure of her as I did. But it was that strange attraction, that inexplicable connection, that had pushed me to interfere with her destiny at the Church in Pittsburgh, and that left me no choice but to take on her training. It was the same serendipitous attraction that made turning from her now a pointlessly painful act.