Cast From Heaven: A Paranormal Fantasy Romance (Lili Kazana Book 1)

by Leigh Kelsey

  Lucifer’s mouth popped open in outrage and Lili winced. “I can talk to her,” she offered. “If it helps.”

  Lucifer ran a hand over his face. “That woman is our only lead for information about the breaches. If she won’t tell us what she knows, there’s no telling when we’ll next have a chance like this. And with the archangels escalating their efforts to get into my home…”

  Lili’s shoulders slumped. She wouldn’t trust something this important to herself either.

  “The human won’t talk to anyone else,” Bernard offered, sounding more like his unfriendly self. Although if she hadn’t known better, Lili might have thought he was backing her up.

  “I know what’s at stake,” Lili whispered. “I don’t want demons on Earth, either.” Mostly because that seemed to be the perfect excuse for Gabriel and his vile friends to break into Hell. And Lili didn’t want that man anywhere near her. Or near her new friends. She looked at Lucifer as he turned, searching her gaze. “I’ll take this seriously, Luc. I won’t mess it up.”

  His eyes softened, and Lili blushed furiously when she realised why. She’d called him Luc. Not Lucifer. Luc. But he didn’t seem mad. “Alright, Little Lilith,” he sighed. “You have an hour to get whatever information you can out of Melissa.” His heavy gaze seemed to say I trust you, but maybe Lili was just reading what she wanted to see.

  “I won’t let you down,” she vowed, and set off up the path towards the manor. “Um,” she said, halting to face them again, her breath momentarily taken away by the sight of them both—Lucifer dark-haired and shadow-swarmed, slim and compact beside the sheer side of Bernard, whose arms hung at his sides for once instead of crossed intimidatingly over his barrel chest, both of them powerfully masculine in the aisle of flowers and living sculptures. “I don’t actually know where she is.”

  Bernard expelled a growly sigh. “I’ll show you. Follow me—and keep up. I’m not slowing for you.”

  Lili scowled but manners forced her to say, “Thank you.”

  Behind them, Lucifer chuckled under his breath.

  Outside Melissa’s cell door, Lili closed her eyes and pictured Gabriel’s face, drawing up the image of him sneering at her, his cold stare, the curl to his lip right before she sank her teeth into his neck. Rage and magic flowed through her veins and Lili almost buckled with relief. At least her demon magic knew when she needed it and seemed ready to rise to her aid.

  No—it wasn’t helping her, she was using it. She had to stop thinking of it as something separate instead of a part of her. She was half demon, half angel. Little Lilith… Lili shook her head to clear the words. She’d never met her mother, even if her story was legendary. She was the first demon woman, as old as Lucifer himself, and was said to be a seductress and corrupter of innocents. But knowing how archangels could lie, Lili now doubted this story. Lilith had lived for millennia, until Lili was born and the difficult birth killed her. Lili didn’t think of it often, the fact that she’d killed her mother, this fierce and terrifying demon. She didn’t want to consider what that said about her, to have ended the life of someone so formidable. Lucifer’s best general.

  “Anytime you’re ready, Angel,” Bernard gritted out, and Lili’s eyes narrowed on him with every bit of her demon anger. His mouth twitched, a smile she might have missed if she hadn’t been glaring at him so intensely.

  He was the opposite of Cerny in every way—massive where Cerny was trim, rough-hewn and glaring so often it was impossible to call him handsome, unafraid to bark his opinion whereas Cerny measured his words, and apparently he stifled any emotion on his face unlike Cerny, where every feeling blazed across his features.

  But Lili knew to look for it now in the tight lines of his scowling face, the tiny smile creases bracketing his mouth. He was amused by her.

  Lili scowled harder, lifting her foot and stomping down on his boot with all her petulance. “Stop looking at me like that.”

  “Like what?” he rumbled, an thick eyebrow lifting.

  “Like—like I’m cute. Like I can’t do this because I’m not as big or as mean as you, because I’m a girl or I’m small or I’m too trusting.”

  “You’re projecting,” he remarked, watching her throw her arms at her sides and pace. “Stop being dramatic, and get in there and talk to her.”

  “What, so you can laugh when I mess it up?” Lili dialled up her glare.

  “So I can return to my job.”

  Lili’s mouth fell open in outrage. “You—you’re babysitting me.”

  “Yep.”

  “You … bastard.”

  He smirked. “And proud of it, Angel. Now stop stalling.”

  Lili sighed, putting as much attitude and scorn into it as possible, and closed her eyes once again, drawing up magic and anger. She had to be the Lili who’d spoken to Melissa out on the road, who’d gotten her to agree to a bargain.

  “Any time now,” Bernard muttered.

  “Shut it,” Lili snapped, pointing at him, the heat of her rage and power rushing through her blood. Bernard blinked but showed no other reaction as she reached for the key in the big stone door, twisted it, and let herself inside. She didn’t bother with any parting words as she slammed the door in his face.

  “Melissa,” Lili greeted, taking a seat at the metal table opposite the human woman and not allowing a bit of surprise to mould her face. She’d expected a dungeon, cold and damp and austere, but this was an interrogation room. Clean, imposing, but not somewhere you’d get hypothermia just for being there.

  “Finally.” Melissa lifted her head from where it’d rested on her arms atop the table, scowling from Lili to where her wrists were handcuffed to the table. “What took so damn long?” she spat.

  Lili lifted an eyebrow, a move stolen right off Lucifer’s face. “Should you be snapping at me, since I’m the only one who offered you a deal? Does this mean you don’t want me to make sure your sister’s safe?”

  Melissa’s nostrils flared but she mashed her lips shut. Lili took it as a minor victory and nodded.

  “How did you find out about angels and demons?” Lili had been thinking through her questions on the walk through the gardens, and this was the one she kept coming back to. It seemed the most important. How had a human discovered their secret world and ended up slipping through a breach into Hell?

  Melissa glared but with reluctance she spat, “I saw a demon climb out of a pit in the middle of Chicago, okay?”

  “Wasn’t that scary?” Lili pressed. It was like getting blood from a stone, but she was determined to make sense of the situation. She wouldn’t let Lucifer down, and she wouldn’t allow any more breaches to open up, spilling demons into Earth. Gabriel would not have a single reason to come into this house.

  Melissa snorted, the sound surprisingly sarcastic and her brown eyes narrowing in her caramel face. “Obviously. I saw a zebra and a horned man claw their way out of the fucking tarmac, so yeah, I was a little scared.”

  Lili processed this. “How did you go from fearing demons to climbing into Hell?”

  Melissa’s mouth pursed as she mulled over the question, her eyes drifting around the clinical cell. The table and two chairs were the only bits of furniture; there was nothing to distract her from having to answer, “I first saw them four months ago. I only saw another demon, a red-skinned woman with a tail, but I was watching the crack—that’s what I called it, the doorway or window or whatever I used to get here.”

  “The breach,” Lili corrected, nodding in encouragement, committing every word to memory. She waited for Melissa to continue but when she appeared done, Lili prompted, “Weren’t you scared that coming to Hell would make you like them—the zebra demon and the woman with a tail? It’s been known to affect humans in odd ways.”

  Melissa’s face paled. “Since I didn’t know anything about Hell, or demons, or that it even existed before a few months ago, no. How was I supposed to know the risks?”

  Lili sighed, sitting back and narrowing her eyes. �
�You don’t make sense, Melissa. You say it scared you, but you still came to Hell. Why?”

  Melissa’s brown hands flexed on the table. “Look, an angel came to me okay?” The way her eyes dropped to the table gave Lili sudden understanding; either Melissa had feelings for the angel or they were together. “She told me I was in danger, that the demons knew I’d seen them, but she’d protect me.”

  Lili nodded, trying her best not to let her emotions show. An angel was involved. Lili had serious trust issues when it came to angels these days. How many times had Gabriel sworn to protect Lili? Melissa’s angel could be lying too. “Okay. So this angel looked after you?”

  Melissa nodded, her dark eyes still on the table.

  “What was her name?” Lili pressed.

  Melissa’s head shot up on a glare but when Lili let some of her wrath rise, the human spat, “Sara. Satisfied?”

  Sarathiel, it had to be. An archangel. It made sense—Gabriel and his peers were investigating the breaches, trying to get them shut. Of course they’d talk to the people who’d seen demons come through. “So she protected you. Sara?”

  Melissa nodded, the glow of ire in her eyes becoming suddenly defensive. “I’m not giving you details.”

  Lili blushed to the roots of her hair. “I don’t want them.”

  Melissa smirked.

  “When did you start to resent being human?” Melissa stopped smirking instantly, so Lili pressed on, leaning forward. “You wanted a life with her,” she guessed, and hid her wince at how closely those words mirrored what Gabriel had offered her. “You must have realised she’d live longer, that a relationship couldn’t work between an angel and a human.”

  True rage sparked in Melissa’s eyes and it was all Lili could do not to flinch away. She grabbed onto the heat and wrath of her magic for strength and held Melissa’s gaze. “Fuck you,” the human spat.

  “I think that answers my question,” Lili replied coolly, still channeling Luc. “And I’m sorry.” She gentled her voice. “You love her, I can tell. That can’t be easy.”

  “I repeat. Fuck you.”

  Melissa didn’t know what Gabriel had done to Lili, couldn’t know how deeply she hurt for the human and how badly she hoped that Sarathiel loved her too. Nobody deserved to be lied to and betrayed the way she had been.

  “This is what I think,” Lili said softly, watching Melissa’s hands curl into fists. “I think you found out about her lifespan, and I think it haunted you. I think you realised becoming an angel like her wasn’t an option, that you’d have to be born that way, but somehow you found out about demon magic. And you thought if you had magic, you could live as long as Sarathiel, have a real life together. You just didn’t realise that Hell could change your appearance as well as your life expectancy.”

  Melissa was quiet for a long moment, something bereft about her expression. “Sarathiel?”

  Oh dear. Lili realised her mistake too late. “I think that’s her name. Tall, red hair, always wears a green dress?”

  Melissa’s eyes flickered. “Yeah.”

  Lili’s heart ached. “She’s an archangel, Melissa. One of the most powerful angels to ever exist. A demon hunter.”

  Melissa shook her head, then resorted to her default mode: glaring hatred. “Why the hell should I even believe you?”

  “Because you don’t have a choice,” Lili said gently. “Because you’re all alone in Hell, and you used an illegal breach to enter, and Lucifer would have punished you if not for me.”

  “Fine,” Melissa spat.

  Lili watched her for a long moment. “She didn’t ask you to come here, did she? If she did—”

  A bitter laugh answered her. “Sara would flip her lid if she knew I was here.”

  Something in Lili sank in relief. She believed Melissa. “Good.” Getting back on track, she asked, “When you decided to come to Hell, did you use the breach you’d seen in Chicago?”

  “No.” Melissa twisted her hands together, throwing a pointed look at the cuffs that Lili ignored. “When I went back to use it, there were demons crawling all over it.”

  Lili’s heart hammered. This was important information to pass to Lucifer. And if Melissa hadn’t used the breach in Chicago, that meant Lili could give him the location of two. “Did you create a breach yourself?”

  “No.” Melissa snorted, her shoulders curling inward. “I spied on some of the demons for a few nights until I heard them talking about demons coming through in Atlanta. Got a Greyhound, scoped out the place until I found it. You demons don’t do a good job of hiding in plain sight, you know? How the fuck we haven’t noticed you before now, I don’t know.”

  “Magic,” Lili said with a smile. More specifically, glamour, which allowed humans to see what they expected to see. Horns became a strange hat, a fluffy tail became fur boots, and a leopard demon passed for a Golden Retriever.

  “Makes sense,” Melissa said bitterly.

  “If it makes you feel any better,” Lili offered, “if you’d got here uncaptured and managed to absorb some demon magic, it would have withered you into a husk and sucked your life from you. You’d either have become a full demon or died.”

  “That’s supposed to make me feel better?” Melissa demanded.

  Lili shrugged. “We stopped you before you could die.” Lucifer had told her as much, but he hadn’t necessarily spared Melissa for kind, selfless reasons; it was so Melissa would stay alive long enough to tell him what he needed to know. So he could close the breaches and hunt down all the rogue demons and spirits. What would those spirits do? Lili knew what happened when demons escaped to Earth, but the spirits of deceased humans … she had no idea.

  “Thanks,” Melissa said bitterly, slouching in the metal chair.

  Lili nodded as if she’d genuinely thanked her, offering a bright smile. “So. You tracked demons to a breach in … Atlanta did you say?” It was a hard task, keeping track of all these Earth cities. Lili only knew a few of the major ones like Tokyo, New Delhi, and London. “And then you snuck through, and fell to Hell where we found you.”

  “Yep.” Melissa made a pop on the P of the word, staring again at her bound hands.

  “And Sarathiel didn’t put you up to this?”

  Anger flashed. “I already said no, didn’t I?”

  “Just checking. Do you know who made the breaches? Did you overhear something about it when you were spying on the demons, maybe?”

  “Mostly they just talked about fucking women and getting hammered.”

  Lili blushed at the coarse language but nodded. “And that first time you saw the demons come through the breach—what made you look at them? You shouldn’t have been able to see them, the glamour should have hidden them.”

  Melissa turned cagey. Well, cagier. “I don’t know, alright? I just woke up and wanted to go for a walk. I know it’s fucking stupid, and I’m not the sort of dumbass who goes for a stroll in the bad side of town at four in the morning, but…” She shrugged. “I dunno. I just went for a walk.”

  Lili sat back, frowning. It didn’t make sense, but she didn’t think Melissa was lying. And it was possible that Sarathiel, or maybe even a demon, had used magic to make her walk past the breach that night. “Alright,” Lili said. “If you think of something else, tell me.” Lili stood. “And what’s your sister’s name?”

  “Crystal Wallace. She lives in Chicago, Ashland Avenue.” A hint of gratitude softened her scowl. “You’ll make sure she’s fine?”

  “I’ll do my best. Now, tell me where to find the two breaches.” Lili listened closely as Melissa listed two addresses, one breach on the outskirts of Chicago, the other in downtown Atlanta.”

  Lili turned to go and relay the information to Lucifer and Bernard—if they weren’t somehow listening to this interrogation—but she paused, something Melissa had said out on the road echoing back to her. “What did you mean before? When you said I’d spare your life if you ‘rat out’ all your friends.”

  Melissa paled as Lili lo
oked hard at her, reading panic in the woman’s expression. “How much of what you just told me was a lie?”

  “None of it,” Melissa blurted, holding her hands up as much as she could when they were cuffed to the table. “I swear I didn’t lie, don’t hurt Crystal!”

  Lili didn’t assure her she wouldn’t, even if she’d never punish Crystal for what her sister had done. “Who else was with you?”

  She’d been so stupid, so fixed on Melissa—they all had been—that it never occurred to her that more than one person might have come through the breach with her.

  “No one,” Melissa breathed, her voice weak.

  Wrath rose in Lili, lava burning in her veins. “You’ve put everyone on Earth at risk, including your sister. You need to tell me the truth before the breach widens even further and more demons escape. Have you seen what they can do? Have you seen that sort of violence first hand?”

  Melissa’s pallor suggested she had. “Hypocrite,” she whispered, glaring again. “I saw you, cosying up to that monster and the devil. How can you say demons are violent when you’re close to them?”

  Lili didn’t let her see how hard that struck, how doubts began to wind through her. What if Cerny, Russ, and Bernard had hurt humans, had burned houses and laughed and hunted women like she’d heard rumours of? What if they were responsible for the scorched city she’d flown over that time?

  Lili’s breath hitched but—Melissa wanted that, wanted her off balance. Rage poured through her, shoring up her cracks. “You’re defending demons,” she pointed out. “Your friends, they’re demons aren’t they? You … you came to an agreement with them—you’d help them get to Earth if they helped you get here, am I right?”

  She was close enough judging by Melissa’s clenching fists.

  “I gave you a chance,” Lili said, backing to the door. “You should have taken it and told me the truth first.”

  “What are you going to do?” Melissa breathed, rattling her handcuffs. “Hey—hey!—”

  Lili closed the door behind herself, locking Melissa in the interrogation room. She slid against the outside of it with her eyes shut. She’d got the information they needed, she knew where to find two breaches on Earth and Lucifer could close them. But it felt like she’d lost. She’d been lied to and believed the lie wholeheartedly. Again.