by Melody Raven
Well, at least he had helped to bolster her reputation. “What makes you think we can take her?”
“Are you kidding? You know Forrester. He was a fucking moron. Whatever he got, I’m sure he deserved it.”
Hard to argue with that. Forrester was a moron. “I’m not saying it again. I’m not going after her. I’m going back up and going hunting.”
“Didn’t you just corrupt an innocent?”
Kier cursed himself. He had already forgotten his own lies. His excuse for not hunting Muriel when Teryn originally called was because he was holed up with a pure soul. “I’m hungry again,” was all he said. With lies, it was best to keep it simple.
“Something is going on with you, isn’t it? Do you need my help with anything?”
The question surprised Kier. Demons were not known for being empathetic. They didn’t offer help unless it benefited themselves somehow, at least not in Kier’s experience.
Kier’s mind wandered back to Muriel for the millionth time in the few hours since he had left her. He shouldn’t care about her, and he sure as hell shouldn’t care about her feelings, but he desperately wanted to know whether she was okay.
It wasn’t as if he were turning into a saint or anything. He had abandoned her in the middle of a desert, completely naked, just minutes after screwing her up against a car. It was only reasonable to wonder whether she was freaking out.
But he was lying to himself. It wasn’t just screwing on the back of a car. It was mind-blowing, world-altering sex. Usually when he was with a woman, it was to corrupt or seduce. Once he was freed, knowing that Muriel had gone through great lengths to protect him even though she had sworn vengeance against him, he had not been able to contain himself.
Maybe if she had fought him, he would have let her go. Let her go back to her martyrdom and her war against his king. But she didn’t fight him. She welcomed him. Even encouraged him.
Angels weren’t supposed to behave that way. Especially Muriel. As a mortal, she managed to stay away from all temptations for five years, even after being overwhelmed by her new human urges.
How could her monumental self-control rupture so completely around him? And why did he keep biting her?
Demons didn’t really marry, but they would have periods of monogamy if they found an interesting enough partner. He had bit her when he first cornered her in the alley to make sure the leeches who came with him didn’t think he was willing to share.
Even then the taste had been intoxicating. When they were alone together, he had no leeches to push off. He just wanted to mark her as his any way he could. Which was stupid.
“Teryn, I can’t tell you everything, but I’m going through a lot of shit right now. I don’t want to go off on some wild-goose chase for some fallen angel who has a hard-on for killing demons. Make sense?”
Truth. It shouldn’t make him feel good to tell the truth but it did. Maybe Muriel’s plan to corrupt his soul had worked, because there had probably never been another demon in existence who actually enjoyed telling the truth.
“I guess. I got a few offers to join a hunting pack, so I’m going to give it my best shot. I just knew that you would have a leg up on all the others. You and she did have that connection.”
You have no idea. “Tough shit. Call me if you find her.” Kier brushed off any sentimental feelings that floated in his head. He was going topside, and he was going to find the first desperate human he saw and obliterate their soul. Then he would find someone else to repeat the process with. He would do this over and over again until he consumed so many souls that he never thought of Muriel ever again.
Muriel had to stop thinking about Kier. It was becoming hazardous to her health and the safety of everyone around her. Literally.
Ever since they had altered the space-time continuum with their crazy hot sex, Muriel had the nasty little habit of catching on fire every time she thought about him.
Hellfire, to be precise.
Firestarting was a rare trait in humans. It was a dangerous ability and notoriously hard to control. Hellfire was a whole different beast. Only demons could control it, and, until now, Muriel had never heard of any non-demonic being with the ability to create or contain hellfire.
Creating the hellfire was easy for her. She had that down pat. It was the containing part that gave her problems.
Hellfire didn’t jump like normal fires, which consumed all fuel in its path. Hellfire was a weapon constructed by Lucifer, and it behaved as its master commanded. Theoretically, whatever the hellfire was directed at was the only item or being that would be harmed by it.
That didn’t help when Muriel had no control over where she shot it. Every time she thought of Kier and her together, her hands would sprout flames and whatever she was touching would be destroyed.
Luckily nothing too valuable had been a casualty of the flames yet, but it was only a matter of time.
She’d been holding one of Samuel’s guns a few days prior when she remembered shooting down demons with Kier. Immediately the gun was destroyed, melted into a useless pile of iron. Samuel hadn’t been too happy about it.
Ava thought it was badass.
Muriel hadn’t formed an opinion yet. Kier had the gift of hellfire. It was how he killed one of the demons in her home. He held his hand out and focused on the demon. No flame was even visible to the naked eye. It just consumed the demon from the inside out.
If she could do that, it would be useful in the war she was getting ready to wage in Hell. Right now, it was mainly a pain in her ass.
On top of that, she still didn’t know what caused the change. Obviously it had something to do with Kier. Was it from spending too much time with a demon? Drinking so much of his blood? Could the sex have done it? Maybe it was a combination of the three. Either way, Muriel had changed in a physiological way.
She was still strong from Kier’s blood. It had been four weeks since she had last seen him, and her increased energy and strength had not diminished. Usually demon blood was like an addictive drug, getting someone high and making them crawl back for more when they couldn’t stand being weak and defenseless.
Only Muriel never came down from that high. The tingling sensations and lack of inhibitions had left her, but her newfound strength and stamina were still present.
Though Ava and Samuel were both happy she was strong and could better defend herself, they were still wary of the powers. For one, neither would touch her, not that she could blame them.
Hellfire was deadly to demons and angels alike. Humans didn’t stand a chance.
Muriel walked out of her room, careful not to make any noise. She was staying with Samuel at his base camp with Ava and a collection of supernatural beings who all joined forces to fight against the apocalypse.
No one wanted Azazel to break down the Hell barrier, dooming the world to merge with Hell. All the damned souls and demons would walk the Earth, free to wreak havoc. Not to mention the older demons who no longer hunted on Earth due to their unnatural appearance.
And then there were the ones that not even Lucifer allowed to leave Hell.
Muriel shuddered at the thought. Not even all the angels in Heaven could stand a chance against those forces. In the chaos, billions of humans would die, governments would crumble and anarchy would rise.
Well, anarchy or demonarchy. Azazel would likely still remain king of both realms, and with all of his demons and beasts, he would be impossible to overthrow.
No one knew how Azazel intended to bring down the barrier between Hell and Earth, but he was making progress. Earth was already suffering side effects. The barrier to the vampire realm had weakened in recent years, causing vicious and feral vampire warriors to slip into Earth.
Muriel caught word of the vampire invasion a few months back before she’d figured out how to trap Kier. She heard of a half-angel hybrid in New York City and had made a desperate trip to ask her to contact the angels for her.
But the girl hadn’t been able to
call any angels any better than Muriel could.
Muriel cursed herself for not asking more questions when she was a full angel. But no. Truly a perfect soldier, this had never bothered her. All she was told was that Azazel wanted to merge the two realms and that it was possible. Luckily, the prophecy was against him. All she had to do was protect Samuel. “Samuel Singer will live and the apocalypse will not come to pass.”
It was nice to know that the prophecy was there, but prophecy could be worked around. Besides that, Samuel was mortal. He would die eventually. Azazel needed to be stopped before that. There was a timer counting down.
Very few supernatural beings wanted Hell to merge with Earth. They had grown accustomed to modern-day conveniences like electricity and indoor plumbing. They didn’t want to be thrown back into the Dark Ages.
Muriel crept through the dark hallway of Samuel’s base. It used to be some type of boarding school, with long hallways of dorms and various classrooms. The walls were covered in outdated and slightly peeling wallpaper while the carpets were a shag style that had seen better days.
It wasn’t all bad, though. The base was secluded enough that the werewolves hanging around had room to run but close enough that the vampires could go hunting if they needed to.
There were enough rooms that the thirty-three people staying there could all have their own space while still being close enough to head out for a fight or investigation together.
There was a gym equipped with a few pieces of cardio equipment, but mostly a lot of barbells and other various heavy things. Muriel was all too familiar with them at this point. She’d thought she was in good shape to begin with, but Samuel was a brutal personal trainer, turning something she found relaxing during her time in Arkansas into a form of torture.
Every morning he would have her lifting until her entire body vibrated with exhaustion, and then he would have her run until she couldn’t move her legs anymore.
If she were still fully mortal, he probably wouldn’t have pushed her so far. He couldn’t have. It would be too dangerous for her to be in a constant state of exhaustion.
Even with the heavy workouts, Muriel never slept more than five hours and was always completely recovered just a few hours after she could hardly lift her own bodyweight up the stairs to her room.
Muriel passed the closed dorm rooms in the hallway and tried to remember who was in each room. She’d just memorized the names of all of Samuel’s men but had yet to learn the sleeping arrangements. It was hard when none of the doors had numbers on them. Someone must have looted the school at some point, and the numbers on the doors must’ve appeared valuable, though Muriel couldn’t fathom how.
She passed the werewolf and a witch’s room on her right. To her left was a wing of vampires. They liked to stick together.
Farther down the next hallway was a menagerie of other supernatural beings. Earth was originally a magic-less realm, but through the millennia, it had snuck in. Angels allowed it as long as nothing messed with the natural order or altered destiny.
The biggest shock to the delicate ecosystem had been when vampires invaded fifteen hundred years ago. The door between the vampire and Earth realms had been down for a whole year, allowing thousands of pure breeds to cross over. The damage of that many predators mixing with humans was irreversible, but, because humans were their main food source, they decided it was best to keep to the shadows and remain discreet.
Most of the original vampires who crossed over had perished over the years; their offspring now roamed the earth. Angels had slowly been removing memories of their original realm, wanting to squelch any possibility of the vampires reopening the door between realms.
It had worked for over a millennium, but now the door was open again. Not easily and only with the help of magic, but more and more feral vampires had been crossing over in the past three years.
Something Muriel would have known if she had kept in touch with Samuel and been less focused on her stupid plan for vengeance. Less focused on Kier.
Heat filled her and she could feel the sparks start to form on her fingers. She clenched her fists and cleared her thoughts. Focus. Happy thoughts. Puppies and long walks in the woods. Laughing and smiling. Kier smiling down at her. Kissing her. Touching her.
The sparks turned into flames and she cursed. She stood far from the walls and held her hands away from her body, even though the fire never burned her. She was grateful that the flames never ruined her clothes either. They didn’t even feel hot. It was just a pleasant warmth that happened to destroy anything besides her that it touched.
“No smoking allowed!” shouted a vampire from behind her with a snicker.
Muriel sighed in frustration. She hated that her weakness was public knowledge, but it was hard to be subtle when she would spontaneously combust five to ten times a day.
“Suck it, Jared,” she shot back, causing him to laugh harder. At his laughter, even she cracked a smile at her predicament. Just standing in the middle of a darkened hallway, waiting for the fire surrounding her hands to go out.
Jared’s distraction proved to be just what she needed as the flames dwindled down to nothing. She knew he meant no harm with his playful teasing, but her lack of control put her on the defensive.
“Aren’t you supposed to be out hunting?” she asked. Samuel had nightly hunting runs with his men, searching for information. Information about Azazel’s plan to merge the realms or possible ways to kill him. Searching for anything to help them in this war they were waging.
“Aren’t you supposed to not be burning down the entire base?” He walked up to her but maintained a safe enough distance so he wouldn’t catch fire if she sparked again.
“It only happened twice today,” she said hopefully. That was her best day so far.
“At least you’re an optimist.” He didn’t sound too impressed.
“At least I don’t burst into flames whenever the sun touches me,” she pointed out.
“I don’t burst into flames. I roast.” He winked. “Where were you headed before your little combustion?”
“I wanted to practice a bit.” Every day she tried to find time to work on controlling the hellfire. She’d seen demons who could shoot it out of their palms. Kier could burn a demon to death without any flames ever sprouting from his skin.
She considered the hellfire a gift. It was a useful skill that she needed to learn how to use if she expected to use it to its full advantage.
“Hasn’t this school been through enough without you slowly destroying it?”
“It’s for the greater good. I’m sure the school understands.”
Jared snorted. Apparently he didn’t think the school was as heroic as she did. “Samuel is looking for you. He’s over in the gym.”
It was her night off. She was a soldier again now, so she was technically always on call, but she didn’t want to go on a hunt tonight. She was close to gaining control of her hellfire. She could feel it.
Still, this was Samuel’s operation. Even though she had demanded respect from him, she still deferred to his leadership. Except now he treated her as an equal and not like a child.
If he wanted her in the gym, then she would obey his orders.
Jared sauntered off to his room, leaving Muriel on her own again.
The walls Muriel passed on her way to see Samuel were littered with spray-painted graffiti, but it had a specific purpose. The various symbols on the walls were spells from a dead angel language. They worked as a barrier spell to keep demons from entering the compound.
There were seven witches on the compound, and their combined knowledge should be more than enough to keep Azazel’s demons out. Just in case, Muriel had called in Esmeralda to consult. No one knew more about controlling demons than the sorceress.
At the moment, Muriel was not her favorite person. Esmeralda had wanted Kier to be emotionally crippled or dead by the time he was released from Muriel, but instead he was free and he had the handcuffs Esmeralda had wo
rked so hard to curse.
She agreed to stay and help Muriel take down Azazel, but creative scheduling was required to keep Muriel and Esmeralda scheduled on separate hunts.
So it didn’t bode well for Muriel when she entered the gym to find Esmeralda and Samuel waiting for her.
“Jared said you were looking for me.”
Samuel stood against the wall, arms crossed over his chest with his signature stern look across his face. Esmeralda sat elegantly on a weight bench. Her straight, jet-black hair was pulled in a tight ponytail while her body was played to its best advantage in curve-hugging designer jeans and a low-cut black billowy blouse.
“We figured that if you weren’t too busy off daydreaming about your demon, you could actually focus on taking down Azazel.” Esmeralda smirked.
Muriel stayed expressionless, but heat filled her face.
“Muriel works plenty hard,” defended Samuel.
Esmeralda said nothing, but her questioning raised eyebrow said it all. Somehow she knew about Muriel and Kier. Ever since she arrived at the base three weeks ago, she’d been making snide comments about them as a couple or implying that Muriel missed him.
Samuel wrote off the comments as Esmeralda being a bitch, but somehow she knew that the dynamic had changed between Muriel and Kier.
Muriel understood her anger. She would’ve reacted the same if their roles were reversed. They had bonded with their mutual hatred of Kier. Had drank and laughed together as they imagined him suffering and begging them for mercy. Begging them to release his soul.
Instead, Muriel drank even more of his blood and screwed him in broad daylight. She’d let Esmeralda down but had no way of explaining her behavior. If it didn’t make sense to her, how could she tell Esmeralda what she was feeling?
Ava was starting to listen to Esmeralda’s comments. Every time she threw out another line about Kier and Muriel knocking boots, Muriel would see Ava study her for a reaction. At this rate, it was only a matter of time before everyone knew exactly how close she had become with Kier in their short time together.
