by Ivy Asher
Her neighbor, Maria, waves back, watchin’ us as she smokes.
“That’s not a cigarette, is it?” I whisper, watchin’ as fifty-somethin’ Maria takes the longest suck on a stick I’ve ever seen.
“Nope,” Delta answers before she waves one more time and then shoves open the door and steps aside for me.
I walk through, and she closes the door behind me before stuffin’ her scythe in an umbrella holder nearby. I follow suit, the tall staffs lookin’ out of place there.
Delta presses her palm to the closed door, and a faint black light starts to glow between her fingers while she mutters curses under her breath. After a second, she drops her hand. “Fuck, that’s hard.” She turns to look at me with a shrug. “I’m still learning how to do wards. That shit’s not easy.”
“Oh.”
I look around at the interior of the house. The livin’ room is a cozy size, with carpet that’s slightly worn and a couch that looks like it’s been loved for many years. The kitchen is gleamin’ though, lookin’ like it’s been completely redone.
“I like your house,” I say honestly. “It’s comfy.”
Delta nods. “Thanks. It belonged to my parents—my adoptive ones,” she clarifies.
“Where are they?”
Her gray eyes dart away. “They died.”
I immediately feel bad. “Oh. I’m so sorry.”
“Me too,” she answers with a sad smile. “Here, come sit down on the couch. Make yourself at home. I’ll go grab us some beers, and we can talk.”
I move to the couch while she hurries off to the kitchen, and I hear her rummage around in the fridge before closin’ it and walkin’ back out. I try not to study the way she moves or her features, but I fail miserably. I feel like some creeper who can’t take her eyes off of her every move.
She sits down next to me on the couch, her back to the armrest as she hands me a beer and curls her legs up beneath her, wings tucked in tightly.
I tip the bottle back and take a long drink, the fizz and the quiet immediately settlin’ my nervous stomach.
“Thanks,” I say after a long swallow and a sigh. I run my hands through my hair. “That was...intense back there.”
Delta nods and rests her own beer bottle on her thigh. “Believe me, I get it. Those assholes always do this shit. Dropping info bombs left and right. Don’t worry, no one will bother us here. The guys know better,” she says with a mischievous grin as she takes another sip.
“You live with them in the mansion?”
“Yep. But every time they piss me off, I come here to chill, and they know they’re not allowed to butt in. My scythe is scary enough that they don’t fuck with me.”
I chuckle a little, feelin’ better by the second, and just like that, all the weirdness fades away between us. For the next three hours, the two of us just talk. About everythin’.
I learn all about her life, and I tell her all about mine. It isn’t awkward or strained. Once we just start goin’, tradin’ stories like we’ve known each other for years, it’s the most natural thing in the world.
Delta tips her head back and laughs. Between the two of us, we’ve polished off a six pack of beer and opened up a bottle of wine. We’re not feelin’ it much, because of the demon thing, but it’s nice to shoot the shit over drinks. Makes me feel a semblance of normalcy. “Your parents sound awesome,” Delta says as we polish off the last of the wine.
“They are. They’ll love you,” I tell her. “Purple is Mama’s favorite color.”
Delta chuckles again and then nudges me with her foot. “So...what’s the story with Flint and Alder?”
“What do you mean?” I ask innocently, starin’ into my empty wine glass.
She snorts. “Don’t get shy on me now. Those two are hot.”
I lift my eyes up to her. “Did y’all ever…”
She frowns. “With Flint and Alder? No, of course not. The four I have is about all I can handle.”
Relief washes over me. “They’re always talkin’ about you. I thought maybe somethin’ went on,” I say, tryin’ to go for nonchalant but not landin’ anywhere close to it.
A smirk crosses her face. “They’re probably trying to get a rise out of you. See if they can make you jealous.”
I blink at her and set my glass down. “What? Why would they do that?”
“Duh. To see how you’ll react. To see if you’re interested in them. You are, aren’t you?” she presses.
“Duh,” I echo back.
“Ha! I knew it!” she grins victoriously. “So? Did you have yourself some hot demon sex yet? It’s the fucking best.”
I feel my cheeks grow warm. “Oh, God. We just met a few hours ago, and we’re already gettin’ into sex talk?”
She lifts a shoulder and picks at the shirt she’s wearin’. “Why not? We’re sisters and shit. Might as well dive right in. I always wanted a sister.”
“Me too,” I say honestly. “And no, I didn’t have any hot demon sex. Though not for lack of wantin’ or tryin’,” I mumble.
Delta’s eyes glint with excitement, and she sits up straighter. “Really?”
“I wore a leather skirt,” I tell her, as if that’s proof enough.
An impressed whistle comes out from between her lips. “Nice.” She gets it. “And they didn’t pounce on you yet?”
“Not yet,” I shake my head. “Even after I threw myself at them after I scythed-out and had my demonic itch,” I say with embarrassment.
“Oh, I just learned about that. How was it? Was it bad?” Delta asks with excitement.
I smile a little. I thought Delta was all-knowin’ when it came to this demon stuff with the way Alder and Flint talked about her, but she’s almost as new to this as I am. In a way, it’s nice, because she knows exactly what I’m goin’ through.
“No, not bad...just the horniest I’ve ever felt before. Probably would’ve been epic sex if Flint and Alder were more demonish and less gentlemanly,” I grumble.
Delta laughs. “Don’t worry, it’s just a matter of time. I saw how those two looked at you.”
“How did they look at me?” I fish, curious for an outsider’s perspective.
“They look like they’d rip this realm in half if you needed them to, and like they wanted to eat you up.”
Please, Lord yes.
“Well, I—”
BOOM!
A noise rocks the house so loud that I swear, I feel the foundation shake.
Delta and I are on our feet in an instant, just to land on our asses the next when a second roar bursts through the air, makin’ the whole damn house rattle.
Delta trips over the coffee table, her body flippin’ back and landin’ hard on the floor. I manage to barely catch myself on the edge of the couch. My wide, scared eyes swing around, notin’ that the last of the sunlight looked like it just got sucked right out of the sky. The sound of somethin’ peltin’ against the window panes starts up, so forceful that I worry the glass is a second away from shatterin’.
“Delta!”
I call to her where she’s still on the floor, sportin’ a wicked gash on her shin. But it’s not the cut that worries me. It’s the wild look in her eyes.
“It’s a storm,” she whimpers before clampin’ her hands over her ears and squeezin’ her eyes shut tight.
It doesn’t sound like any storm I’ve ever heard before.
“Delta!” I say again, but she doesn’t answer me. She just stays curled up on the floor, mutterin’ somethin’ to herself. When another loud boom goes off, I race to the window and yank open the curtain to look out, and the blood drains from my face.
Outside on the street, there’s a line of six demons—I know this, because they’re definitely not human. Every single one of them has camouflage skin and their hands raised in the air, and sickly yellowish-gray clouds seem to be blowin’ out of their palms like pollution that’s gatherin’ above us in the sky. Some kind of hail is pourin’ down from the bilious clouds, but it’s
more like fire and brimstone with the way the air is filled with the scent of sulfur.
“Delta...” My throat tightens and fear pulses through my body.
I catch some of the neighbors outside on their porches, lookin’ up to see what the hell is goin’ on. Someone in a car drivin’ by nearly crashes, as some of the bigger hail pelts into the windshield and dents the metal roof. But it’s clear by the way everyone eyes the sky with a bewildered look on their faces that they can’t see the demons on the street and that this all looks like some freak weather storm.
“Delta,” I repeat again. “We need to go.”
As one, all six demons drop their heads and look at me through the window, their eyes emotionless and cold. And then they start movin’ toward the house.
“Shit,” I curse before I slam the curtains shut and whirl around. In one leap, I grab our scythes from the umbrella holder and race over to my sister. “Delta, we need to go! Now!” I shout, my voice barely loud enough over the deafenin’ noises outside.
She doesn’t respond, so I kneel down and rip her hands away from her ears. I’m taken aback by how lost she looks in this moment. I saw a neighbor go into a similar state every Fourth of July when I was younger. It was like the noise just yanked somethin’ traumatic out of him, and he had to go somewhere else until the fireworks were over and the noise stopped settin’ him off.
Delta’s gray eyes are pained and far away, and her breathin’ is fast and shallow. I don’t wanna make things worse for her, but we need to get out of here.
“Delta, listen to me! Demons are out there, and I don’t know how to shift. You have to get us out of here! Please!”
Maybe it’s the desperation in my voice, but her crazed eyes seem to flicker for a moment. “Medley?”
“Yes! We need to go!”
Suddenly, the big window I was just lookin’ out of shatters, and both Delta and I scream, duckin’ our heads beneath our arms to try to fend off the shower of glass that rains down. I feel the glass bitin’ into my skin, and all I can think is, dammit, not again.
I shove Delta’s scythe into her hand and stand up, because I don’t know if she’s mentally capable to get us out of here right now, but there’s no way in hell that I’ll let them take us without a fight.
The curtains billow back as wind rushes in, the air fillin’ with a smoggy, jaundiced color as it pours in the reek of sulfur.
The demons are closin’ in, probably doin’ their best to break whatever demon wards are put on this place. The closer the pollution demons come, the colder I feel and the more black fog rolls over my vision as Tribulation Medley surges up.
Here we go.
24
The first camouflage-skinned demon crawls through the now paneless window like it’s squeezin’ through a small hole. Darkness crawls over my vision, settlin’ like I just put sunglasses on. Everythin’ is a shade darker, and yet, I see the world so much more clearly now, like I didn’t just put lenses on but somehow took my blinders off. I waste no time reactin’. My body and instincts know what needs to be done.
The demon crawls through and makes it waist-deep into Delta’s house, its gangly limbs grippin’ the frame and shards of glass without even a flinch. Without pause, I rush forward and lob its head off in one smooth, practiced gesture.
Before the head even finishes rollin’, another demon starts squeezin’ through the open window frame, and then another, usin’ the dead demon as leverage. I swing again and again, like I’m stuck in a Hellish version of Whack-a-Mole.
Black blood splatters all over the walls and carpet, and I instantly feel bad at what’s bein’ done to this house. It’s plain to see what this place means to Delta, and it enrages me that these demons are destroyin’ it.
Two more camo-skinned, sulfur stinkin’ bodies start to force their way into the house, and even though I only counted six outside, I don’t know if that’s all there is.
From what Delta’s demons said, the Ophidian—aka Morax—is scramblin’ right now. His army has been destroyed, and he’s on the run, but it’s clear from his power he can find minions anywhere, whether they’re willin’ or not. Hell, he nearly had me walkin’ out the door of the club with him. It’s obvious how easy it is for him to get others to do whatever he wants. But Morax ain’t here, so I can’t even be sure he’s the one who sent these demons to attack us. Either way, we need to get the hell out of here.
I look over at Delta, who seems like she’s tryin’ to pull herself out of the fog of whatever is goin’ on, but I can see that it’s a struggle. I’m not sure if I can keep us both safe, but maybe I can stall long enough to help her snap out of it.
I decapitate two more demons and then rush to her side. “Can you run?” I ask, lookin’ down to see blood flowin’ freely out of the gash in her leg.
Before she can answer, I squat down and wrap the arm that’s not clingin’ to her scythe around my shoulders and stand up. I lift her off the ground, surprised by the ease in which I do it, and I take it as a good sign that she holds onto her scythe and works to move with me as I aim us for the back door.
I debated hidin’ in the house for all of two seconds. It might buy us a little time, but the thought of demons destroyin’ this place just doesn’t sit right with me, so I opt for tryin’ to make a break for it the same way we got here—through the backyard.
“Alright, Delta, we’re makin’ a run for it. You just keep doin’ what you're doin’, and when you’re ready to pop us out of here, we’ll go. I got you until then, okay? I don’t know what’s goin’ on, but you just know that I’m here, I got you, and I ain’t goin’ anywhere.”
I half carry, half drag my newly-found sister to the back door and throw it open. I fight the need to gag at the heavy smell of sulfur in the air as I rush out to the backyard. I quickly head toward the part of the fence that’s bent at the top, figurin’ it’ll be the easiest place to get us both up and over, but another camo demon steps up on the other side of the fence, and I skid to a stop.
It smiles at me, and a long yellow tongue snakes out and licks its warthog-like fangs. Its eyes are the color of puss, and there’s no discernible nose on its face. It’s a thing of nightmares. Destruction and pestilence flow off of it in waves.
I spot more movement to my left, and I look over to see more of these disgustin’ things movin’ to surround the fence. I take a deep breath and set Delta back down by my feet where she falls to her knees, still trapped in her head, and I ready myself.
I try to stand over her without puttin’ myself in a position to trip over her as she works to pull herself from whatever horror she’s relivin’. I hold my scythe out like the threat it is as the demons bend their knees and then jump clear over the fence, landin’ twenty feet away from us with dirt sprayin’ up beneath their feet.
I’m not sure why, but advice my daddy once gave me when I was younger about bears and wild animals comes to the forefront of my mind. He told me to make myself as big as I can and yell as loudly and threateningly as I can to try and help scare them off before they can hurt you. So I do just that.
I square my shoulders and fill my lungs with putrid air, and then I bellow out a feral roar that causes goosebumps to crawl up my arms. The demons pause for a fraction of a second, and I have a heartbeat to think, holy shit, did that work? before they continue to close in. Damn.
Out of nowhere, I feel a hand on my thigh. I almost jump clear out of my skin, my mind demandin’ to know how somethin’ snuck up on us that fast, but I look down to find Delta’s watery and haunted gray eyes starin’ up at me.
She blinks twice and then gets to her feet, her face paler than usual, but her eyes no longer hold that wild, lost look in them.
Relief washes through me as she stands, scythe in hand, and grabs on to me. “I am so sorry, Medley, I’ll get us out of here,” she tells me shakily, emotion swimmin’ in her tone, and then I feel the telltale sense of weightlessness that happens when a demon pops you from one place to the next.
/> The only problem is that when the weightless feelin’ dissolves, we’re still in the backyard of her parents’ house.
“What the fuck?” she asks with newfound panic, just as surprised as me.
But there’s not time to try and figure out what just went wrong, because the ring of demons around us converges.
Delta snarls fuck as she spins and presses her winged back against mine. And then, the demons rush us all at once. All we can do is fight and slash and scream and curse as we do everythin’ we can to protect ourselves and each other. The two of us fightin’ back-to-back is like havin’ another piece slip into place in who I am, and I didn’t even know I was missin’ it until this exact moment.
Good thing my scythe is double-ended, though, because I have a feelin’ I’ll need both of these curved blades to get out of this alive.
I move so fast, cuttin’ demons apart with one end of my scythe and turnin’ them to dust with the other. I imagine I look like a propeller blade. I can feel Delta movin’ at the same pace, and I have no doubt that we’re a sight to see.
Fewer and fewer demons move in around us to fight and die, and it’s like I can see the light at the end of this sulfur and demon-blood soaked tunnel.
“Oh no you don’t, I just fucking found her!” Delta shouts out, and she shoves me forward just as one of the camo-skinned demons who somehow snuck too close to my side lashes out with its long claws.
She hisses out in pain as the claws rake down her chest instead. In some impossible gymnastics move I didn’t even know I was capable of, I flip over her, scythe raised, and I dust the demon who has another swipe aimed her way while I’m still upside down. My feet hit the grass, and I push a hand against the blood seepin’ out of the claw marks across Delta’s chest.
“Are you okay?” I ask as I apply pressure to her wounds with nothin’ other than my hand and my will for her to stop bleedin’. With my other hand, I arc the no nonsense side of my scythe and dust the row of demons closest to us.
Are they multiplyin’? How many of these damn things are there?
She grits her teeth. “I’m fine. It’s a bleeder, but I’m okay,” Delta reassures me, and then the strangest thing happens. The blood seepin’ through my fingers from where my palm is pressed against her wounds heats up. And not only heats up, but somehow moves up my damn hand.
