by JP Epperson
“Don’t worry, Belleeza, we aren’t allowed to kill you.” Finders laughed as the winds finally began to slow. “We wouldn’t want to anyway. We just can’t wait to see you in all your glory when you join us.”
“We just wanted to play with you a bit, but we have one more message for you, mistress.” Keepers giggled.
The winds were completely still as they spoke in unison once more, “It has been seen that despite our efforts, you will continue to fight off your destiny. We seek only to help you reach your maximum potential, and thus to speed up the process, we will destroy each and every one you love one by one. Only then will you see the true colors of your soul and only alone will you see your full potential. Goodbye for now, our queen.”
My entire body was in raging pain as I sat crumpled on the floor a short distance from Nicholai and Colton. I was flabbergasted by the things I was hearing and disturbed even more by the fact they spoke as though they revered me or feared me—maybe even both. They acted as though threatening to kill my loved ones was a mark of respect.
I struggled to my feet, and once again charged them, but to no avail. They blasted me with their wind—blasted me so hard I heard the snapping of several ribs. I slammed into the ancient wooden door, and they blasted me once more before giggling and vanishing.
The last blast threw me harshly to the right, and suddenly I was being strangled to death by someone I could not see, or so I thought. It took a moment to realize that my feet were dangling a few feet above the dungeon floors. My necklace—the damn necklace Theodore tried to warn me to remove— had got stuck on a wall torch and was now hanging me. I tried not to panic. I knew I was not really going to die from strangulation, but my feet still flailed against the cold brick wall. I could feel the chain cut into my neck as I needlessly panicked. Colton and Nicholai were at my side instantly, despite the fact that a shard of something was stuck in Colton’s stomach and Nicholai’s leg was hanging limply. Colton lifted me easily without as much as a groan, and Nicholai unattached my necklace from the torch.
It was just another day in the lives of angels and demons.
We headed, albeit a little more than worse for wear than before, back toward the girl. Rubbing away the droplets of blood on my throat, I made a mental note to heed Theodore’s warnings with more seriousness as I stepped over the two demons the guys had killed while I dealt with FindersKeepers. I reached the unconscious human girl. She looked as though she had passed out from fright. Not that I could blame her. We were running out of time to get out of there before more backup arrived. I picked up the girl and tossed her over my shoulder.
We ran back to join the others. I wanted to just vanish and emerge, but we couldn’t do that as we would have two human witnesses—well, one at the moment. There was a chance Teddy had seen some of the flashes from our abilities when we were battling, but for all he knew, they were just blasts from guns. Although, I suspected he knew we were not exactly what we seemed to be.
As we made our way through the door that led us to the others, I heard Teddy’s voice say, “Excellent timing, we really should get going now.”
Talon shook his head, looking almost disgusted at Theodore’s keen sense of intuition. Liam and Olivia looked impressed while Colton, Nicholai, and I all grinned. He really was gifted.
“Let’s get back to my place,” I said.
The looks that everyone gave me reminded me that we had emerged here—wherever here was—and now we had humans accompanying us. So that meant emerging was out, but the idea of walking back down those dark corridors where we had already seen one beast of Hell did not sound like a good plan. Especially when we had no idea where they led to or where we even were. I was conflicted. I was halfway tempted to knock the kid out so we could just vanish. Colton gave me a look that said he was willing to do just that, and all I had to do was give him the word.
“It’s okay, I know it’s for the best,” Teddy said, just as Talon clonked him on the back of the head and caught him before he hit the ground. All of our mouths dropped. Liam, Olivia, and Nicholai stood flabbergasted.
“What the fuck was that?” Colton started on Talon. “That’s not the way we work! We talk and make decisions together!”
“What?” Talon asked, bearing the same serious face as usual as he looked upon our bewildered expressions.
Colton rolled his eyes and I grinned. It was just so Talon.
“Problem solved, let’s go.” I chuckled.
Chapter Seventeen
I halfway expected Evangelina and Anselma to be waiting when we arrived back at my apartment. I was surprised to see that Evangelina had kept her word. Not that she had ever broken a promise before; it was just that she was always wherever I needed her to be.
“Make yourselves at home,” I said to everyone. “I’m going to go shower really quickly. Colton, heal Teddy and the girl and then call on Evangelina.”
“No one lets Theodore out of their sight!” I ordered.
I showered quickly, eager to wash off all the filth I felt clinging to me from the many demons we had faced, and especially the beast. It was hard to believe we’d faced that many enemies in one day. It was a long day to say the least—first a beast, then an army of skilled fighting demons, and then a run-in with FindersKeepers. It felt so long ago since we battled the beast that had nearly killed Olivia, but at least we had found Teddy finally.
So that should be case closed. Well, case closed for Colton and me, anyway. I had a feeling the archangels would be taking over from here. They had to find out why the demons were after Teddy in the first place.
I should have felt relieved that we’d found the boy and the job was finally done, but for some reason, that just wasn’t the case. I still felt wary, and the sense of doom I’d been doing my best to ignore was as present as ever. As I thought about everything the others and I had been through, it began to feel like finding the boy was pure luck. If not something more. It was too easy. We found him on a pure whim. After everything we had tried, how did we just happen to find him so lightly guarded? The case just felt wrong.
A knock at the bathroom door brought me back to the present.
“It’s me, Beauty.” I heard Colton’s muffled voice through the door. “Can I come in, babe? We need to talk.”
I agreed. I did want to talk him. I could hardly believe I was thinking this, but I felt like the only person that would understand and that I could trust with my suspicions of this case was Colton.
Picking up a towel, I wrung out my hair then used it to wrap up my body. I looked at myself in the mirror to check I was covered and, if I was being honest, to make sure I looked decent enough to face Colton. The towel was clinging to my hourglass figure and I smiled slightly, knowing how it would affect him.
“Come on in,” I answered.
He walked in with a solemn face that quickly disappeared when he saw my lack of clothing. I rolled my eyes but walked out of the bathroom with a petty grin on my face. As I expected, my bedroom door was closed, and Colton had created a shield around the room so our voices would not carry to the others, despite their keen sense of hearing. We used to talk like this on a regular basis. Sometimes it was to talk about a case, others for more . . . intimate purposes. It hit me that this really was like old times, and my confidence quickly wavered. How many times had we been in shielded in our room only to ravage each other?
I suddenly had a flashback of Colton and me in the bedroom of one of the condos we used to share.
I stood in our room wearing only a towel. We had gotten in later than expected from a case and had gone to clean up. Nicholai and Lorileigh, his soulmate, were in the living room, along with Talon and some others. Colton and I were rushing around to get dressed when suddenly he stopped and made eye contact with me. The sultry look in his eyes made my knees go weak. We forgot everyone and everything. I unwrapped the towel from around my breasts and let it fall to my feet. Instantly, Colton was pressed up against my backside, groping my breasts as he whis
pered words of love and need into my neck. His crazed hand reached up and turned my neck to face him. He kissed me, kissed me good and hard. His left hand frantically released my breast and reached down my naval. His fingertips grazed against my most tender parts but only briefly as suddenly one then two of his fingers entered me. I slung my head back and moaned.
“I want you inside me Colton,” I whimpered.
“I want YOU, Belleeza,” he whispered into my ears.
We made our way to the bed. I bent over and Colton’s hands found my hips . . .
Shaking away the memory, I came back to the present. Only a second or two had passed.
“Something feels wrong,” Colton said. The intensity in his eyes stopped the sarcastic reply I was about to give him.
“I feel it too,” I said, walking into the closet. “I don’t feel any sense of relief or closure whatsoever. Something bad is coming and until we know what the plan was for the boy, we won’t have a clue how to prepare. Has Anselma arrived? Did Evangelina have any new information?”
“Actually, that’s part of the reason I wanted to talk. I haven’t been able to get in touch with either of them.”
“Hmm, that is weird,” I said, walking out of the closet with a fresh tank top and pair of jeans on. “Evangelina? I don’t know. Maybe they’re in a meeting or something.”
“I’m not so sure about that.” Colton looked solemn and I did not like what he was getting at.
“What exactly are you trying to say to me?” I asked, my tone sounding more acid than I intended.
“I can’t find her, Beauty. I can’t even feel her. When has that ever happened before? When have you ever not been able to reach her? When has she ever not been where you needed her to be? She is always a few steps ahead of us.”
“Evangelina, get down here, we need you . . . Evange, get down here!”
I waited, but there was silence. I was fuming. She had never kept me waiting like this before. Colton put a hand on my shoulder. I shook it off and gave him a piercing stare. I was angry at him for suggesting something had happened to her. I knew he was just the messenger, but my anger needed a target. Buried underneath the anger was the fear. Fear because I should have been able to feel Evangelina, but there was nothing, just a blank.
“Please, Evange, give me something.” My voice cracked and I was pleading now, but I knew there would be no answer. She would never keep away unless she had no choice.
“Don’t panic, okay, baby? Don’t panic,” Colton pleaded. He stood facing me, desperately trying to calm me. He rubbed my arms urgently as though trying to wipe away my fears. “I know something is definitely wrong, and I’m not going to try and sugarcoat it, but she is not lost to us. You know and I know that if she died, you would have felt it. That means she is out there somewhere, and I don’t care where I have to go, if I have to go back to Hell to find her, I will bring her back to you.”
I wanted to crumble in his arms—to have a total chick meltdown. Instead, I opted to wrap my arms around his neck. I hugged him tightly and inhaled his irresistible scent. He didn’t smell sweet and succulent, or musky and manly. Instead, he smelled earthy, like he came from a thick undisturbed forest surrounded by a layer of snowcapped mountains. His scent was fresh and clean; it was everything pure and good. I soaked in his intoxicating aroma, and when I’d had my fill of him, I finally released him.
He held each of my elbows and looked at me as though he was trying to see my soul. We stood there, holding each other’s gaze. I stared into his tantalizing chocolate eyes and I felt safe, and yet I couldn’t allow myself to give in to the warmth he was offering. He couldn’t come back after all these years and just erase all that we went through. I couldn’t afford to let my guard down.
Something was going down—something big and bad. I did not know what or when or even how I knew, but I just did. I could feel it. I could feel it in my bones, I could feel it in the blood flowing through my veins. It was as if my body was trying to warn me, and from the look in Colton’s eyes, he was getting the same message from his own body.
“Thank you,” I said. My voice was soft and raw. It sounded like I had cried the tears that threatened to fall only moments before. “I guess I needed that. I guess I needed you more than I wanted to believe.”
“I need you. I always have and I always will,” Colton said. “Nothing can ever sever the connection between us.”
“Apparently not even Hell,” I joked.
Colton gave me a look that said he did not find it funny.
“We have to find her, Colton. We just have to.”
“We will. I won’t stop until I find her.”
Chapter Eighteen
We were all convened in my living room, and after repeated failed attempts to contact Anselma, we agreed she must have been taken too. We would have to tell Theodore who we really were and who he was without Anselma.
“Okay, kid,” I said. “There is no easy way to say this. We are angels—warriors of God, to be precise. We were sent on a mission by the archangel Anselma to retrieve you. She received word that demons were after you, so she sent us to find you first and bring you to her at once. Of course, now she along with my most trusted and longest friend are missing.”
I paused, and Colton gave me a look that said just get it over with. “Oh, right, and you are the half-angel son of Anselma. Your father was a demon. Which, until now, was impossible. Angels and demons cannot have children, unless they mate with a human. The demon that fathered you tricked Anselma and many angels. He had a witch create a spell using dark magic to allow him to mate with Anselma. To what end, we have no idea. All we know is that before he died, he put an irresistible bounty on your head to whoever could find you and bring you in alive.”
“You’re a . . . I’m a . . .” Theodore started.
“Yes, that’s right, an angel,” Colton finished for him.
“Well that’s . . .”
Whatever it was Theodore was about to say, we never got to find out.
My condo was in sudden chaos. It was an ambush. We were surrounded, and the fighting began instantaneously. The battle was vicious as we fought to keep Theodore within our circle and our grasp. I felt sick. We were betrayed, and I had no idea who was behind it. Aside from archangels and Angels of Decision, demons and angels cannot enter my home without invitation. My home is protected by one of the few witches I trust. The protection had never failed me before. I had a spell cast that allowed angels and demons to enter or emerge by invitation only. The disadvantage to the spell, and there is always a disadvantage when it comes to magical spells, was that anyone invited into my home would then have the authority to invite others. Any strength magic is used to enhance must be balanced by some form of weakness. This had never been an issue for me before because it was always only Colton, Evangelina, Nicholai, and Lorileigh.
Someone that had been sitting in my home had deceived us all. I just couldn’t wrap my head around it. Fighting was so automatic for me that my body took care of it while my mind wandered. I looked around at my fellow warriors. One by one, I let my suspicions lead to doubt. I looked first to Colton, since I was suspicious of him the moment he popped into my home. He looked hurt but understanding that I thought first of him. He shook his head and mouthed, “I would never.” And I knew his words to be true—I felt guilty for even considering it.
I looked next to Liam and then Olivia, but I moved on from them quickly. I turned to Talon, his expression menacing as he drove his sword through the heart of his opponent. “Never!” And he really would never; if loyalty had a name, it was Talon.
I turned to Nicholai. His mouth dropped in surprise that I would even consider him. He leapt gracefully, holding two daggers as he toyed with the two demons attempting to take him down. He said with a smirk and a playful roll of the eyes, “Really, Beauty?”
Looking around, I shook my head. I trusted these warriors implicitly—even Colton now that he had opened himself up to me emotionally again. None of
us would betray each other. We had been through so much together. My mind wandered.
Talon and I stood alone against an entire clan of demons that wielded poisonous demonic relics. He was hit four times in the heart. He yelled at me to vanish and leave him there. That was never going to happen. I would never leave a man behind. I fought my way to his side, taking two hits to my back by the time I reached him. He was in bad shape and fading fast. I threw his arm around my shoulders and slung my arm around his back. He was in no shape to run, and we were not getting anywhere fast. Neither of us could emerge because of the poison from the relics, but I could not stop. I would not give up. I fought one-armed while holding the barely conscious Talon up. I could feel my strength waning quickly. He was nearly three or four times bigger than me. I had to get us out of there, but I could not call on help to come until we were in a safer position. I would not risk the life of another for my own.
I could see our way out and I was determined to reach it. To this day, I do not know where the strength came from. I managed to pick up Talon and toss him over my shoulder. I took off, running for the opening, my legs beginning to weaken at the knees, but still I refused to give up.
I reached the exit. We made it out. I fell to my knees, still weighed down by the sheer size of Talon. My energy was fading quickly, and I knew I was about to pass out from the poison. I called out for Evangelina to send help. When Talon and I awoke, we were safe and surrounded by Evangelina, Colton, Nicholai, and Lorileigh.
My memories told me everything I needed to know. The traitor was either Anna or Theodore . . . or both.
Chapter Nineteen
My team stood near me, fighting their individual battles in attempt to keep safe the two people I suspected of betrayal. They were each stealing glances at me, and I knew we had all reached the same conclusion regarding Anna and Theodore right around the same time. Surprisingly enough, finding out whoever betrayed us and led the demons to my home was not at the top of my list at the moment. It could wait . . . for now.
