Blood and Fire

by Gabriela Fišerová

  They searched the whole town during the next several hours, running into other members of Aegis who all echoed the same report—and some also made jokes about Arkemoz wearing Adley’s jacket, which the demon really didn’t appreciate. But moving past that, there seemed to be no vampires anywhere to be found. Which either meant that there weren’t any out on the streets, or that this wasn’t working.

  So once they regrouped back at the Aegis headquarters, a meeting took place about what to do next. Arkemoz got why it was important, but he also couldn’t help but get bored of listening to everyone argue. Adley seemed to share those feelings, judging by the amount of times he’d rolled his eyes so far.

  Maybe he really should try to find a locator spell. Or at least try to remember how to do one. He knew he’d heard about them, but since demons generally had no use for them, spells like this were mostly treated as an afterthought. He was pretty sure it involved a map, though that wasn’t useful at all.

  “All right, enough,” Black finally interrupted when the arguing was getting to a point where Arkemoz was about to yell at them to shut up. “We’ll continue looking into it, and this Circle, whatever it is. And we’ll be on high alert for now.”

  Everyone offered uncertain murmurs of agreement, some more begrudgingly than others.

  “Great. In the meantime you’re all to return to your usual duties. Dismissed.”

  Arkemoz let out a sigh. At least this was over. But he had a feeling whatever was going on here was far from that. He was brought out of his thoughts when Adley nudged his shoulder.

  “Drinks?” he whispered to him, sounding tired.

  Arkemoz sighed. He was about to argue that they had better things to do, but they really didn’t, did they? And being outside among the people would probably be the best way to protect them if there was going to be another attack tonight.

  “Fine.”

  3

  Arkemoz was glaring at the dark drink Adley had ordered for him. He hadn’t tried it yet, but it wasn’t because he didn’t want to. He was just on edge after what had happened earlier. None of it was making sense, and he was pretty sure Adley was bothered by it too, no matter how much he tried to hide it by being cheery. Whenever Arkemoz wasn’t looking at him, a worried frown appeared on the vampire’s face.

  “It’s a shame you have to wear that hat, you know,” Adley said out of nowhere, making the demon frown at him. They were sitting next to each other in the back of another bar, which Arkemoz was happy about because Adley hadn’t given him back his sunglasses. “I mean, the hat looks great, but those horns of yours are adorable.”

  Arkemoz blushed, folding his arms and glaring at him. “Don’t make fun of my horns.”

  Adley’s eyes widened as he shook his head. “No, I mean it. They’re really cute.”

  Arkemoz’s face turned a shade darker. “They’re not supposed to be.”

  “They suit you,” Adley said, laughing and patting Arkemoz’s shoulder.

  If Adley kept going like this, he would soon run out of things to compliment. And they’d known each other for only a couple of hours. Though Arkemoz couldn’t deny that some part of him was enjoying it—he just didn’t want to admit it. Or admit that he had noticed a few of the vampire’s features he wouldn’t mind complimenting in turn.

  “What’s it like, being a vampire?” Arkemoz asked, not even sure where the question had come from. He had wondered about it before, of course, but he hadn’t planned on actually asking.

  “Geez, Arkie, say it a bit louder, so everyone can hear it.”

  Adley hadn’t sounded reprimanding, just mostly amused, but Arkemoz tensed up anyway. It was true—he had been way too loud when asking that. But checking as inconspicuously as he could manage, none of the people around them had heard it.

  “And it’s kinda dull, actually,” Adley replied without any further prompting, keeping his voice low. “Sure, the immortality is nice, but what is it for when food doesn’t taste nearly as good anymore?”

  An amused huff made its way out of Arkemoz’s mouth then, and he froze, staring at his drink in shock. Had he ever laughed before? He didn’t remember doing it. And he was sure he’d seen and heard things that would be, in general, considered much funnier than this.

  “Oh, so you can laugh,” Adley joked, giving him a toothy grin. Even though his teeth were definitely within human norms right now, the canines did look a bit too sharp. Arkemoz wondered what Adley looked like with fangs. “I’ll have to tell everyone. Some of the other vamps seem to think the only emotion you can express is being pissed off.”

  “They...talk about me?” He supposed that wasn’t surprising. He was probably the only demon they’d ever seen. But he hadn’t known they talked about him on a personal level.

  “Oh yeah. You terrify them.” Adley chuckled. “You are sort of intimidating from a distance.”

  Was Adley saying that he’d found him intimidating originally? The vampire certainly hadn’t acted that way at all when they’d met.

  “If any of them give you shit about wearing my jacket earlier….”

  Arkemoz frowned at the suddenly angry tone. Why was he angry at the possibility that the other Aegis members would make fun of him for that? They had already done that anyway, and Adley hadn’t seemed that bothered by it.

  “Are you ever going to drink that? The ice is barely there anymore.” Arkemoz blinked at the sudden change of both tone and topic and looked at the glass in front of him again. Sighing, he picked it up and took a sip, letting out a surprised hum when he tasted it. It was very sweet, which he apparently liked. Interesting.

  “Yeah, I knew you’d like it.” Adley nudged his shoulder with his own and gave him a lopsided grin. “It fits right into your aesthetic.”

  What did that mean? Was he referring to the fact that the drink was such a dark brown that it looked black? What even was this, anyway?

  “What is this called? I didn’t know alcohol tasted good.”

  Adley sniggered. “It’s cola. I didn’t want to corrupt your pure soul with booze.”

  Arkemoz knew Adley was making fun of him, but he was confused by it anyway. “I don’t have a soul.”

  “Then we’re in the same club,” Adley said, raising up his beer. Arkemoz just frowned harder.

  “This is a bar, isn’t it?” Or was that the same thing?

  The way Adley started laughing hard instead of replying really wasn’t helping the demon understand anything. Arkemoz huffed, folding his arms. He had no idea why being laughed at like that made him feel sort of good, aside from getting annoyed, though.

  “Aw, come on, Arkie, I can’t help it,” Adley said, looking like he was having trouble not laughing still. He coughed, snorting right after. “I keep forgetting you don’t know these phrases.”

  Oh, so that was a figure of speech. That made more sense, even though Arkemoz still didn’t know what it meant. Maybe he should just start assuming everything he didn’t understand was a metaphor. Especially if Adley was going to find his ignorance this amusing every time.

  Arkemoz narrowed his eyes at the vampire, but he found it very hard to keep up his irritation with those huge, pleading eyes Adley was giving him. He had no idea why this was effective, but it sure was. How was Adley even doing that? Was that a vampire ability meant to manipulate their victim?

  “How are you so relaxed? Doesn’t what just happened bother you?” Arkemoz asked, hoping that would stop Adley from making that face. It was so hard to look at him without feeling a need to forgive him.

  Adley sighed, his face turning serious. And Arkemoz also let out a sigh—a metaphorical one of relief. “I contacted a friend of mine to look into this. She’s meeting us here.”

  Arkemoz stared at him with wide eyes. Well, that wasn’t the reply he’d been expecting at all. “What? Why haven’t you mentioned that before now?”

  “Well….” Adley scratched the back of his neck, playing with his beer bottle. “The chief wouldn’t like me involving he
r in anything. And also, she’s an—”

  “You could have told me which bar you meant, jerk,” a female voice interrupted whatever Adley had wanted to say. Arkemoz immediately turned around, his eyes finding the woman in an instant. And as soon as he saw her, he tensed up, his breath catching in his throat.

  Her true nature was very well disguised but there was no denying what she was. An angel. Currently in the process of sitting down opposite them. Seeing those feathered, brown wings spreading from her back, completely hidden from moral eyes, was really putting him on edge. Some kind of ancient instinct was telling him to rip them off and fast, before she could strike first.

  But Arkemoz would have to force that urge down, though. They couldn’t just start fighting in the middle of a bar, especially since she was definitely much stronger than him and unlike him, looked entirely human. Arkemoz decided to keep his mental rant about how unfair it was that angels were powerful enough to disguise themselves completely for later.

  “And what is that doing here?” she said, glaring at Arkemoz. The demon glared back, gripping the edge of the table just to stop himself from attacking her. Of course that was what he was going to get for trying to be civil. Clearly noticing the tension, Adley hit the table with his palm.

  “This is Arkie,” he said, grasping Arkemoz’s shoulder. “Also works for Aegis, so be nice.”

  “Uh-huh.” The angel rolled her eyes and brushed her brown hair away from her forehead. “Either it leaves, or I’m telling you nothing.”

  “Fine by me,” Arkemoz growled at her, already getting up and grabbing his cola. He heard Adley call after him as he stomped out of the bar, but he didn’t let that stop him. He didn’t want to be around that angel any more than she wanted to be around him.

  He kept glaring at the ground until he walked around the corner into an empty alley. No matter how angry he was right now, he didn’t need to risk someone seeing his eyes. And he wasn’t sure he wouldn’t hit some random human for little reason now either. He did glare at a woman walking past the alley when he saw her from the corner of his eye, but she didn’t seem to notice.

  It was snowing. And pretty heavily at that. Arkemoz sighed, taking a sip of his cola. He really hoped whatever information that angel had was worth standing out here in the cold. How did Adley even know her? Much like demons, angels hadn’t been around much for at least the past century. Even if Adley was older than that, Arkemoz still doubted he would have had a chance to meet an angel, let alone be in contact with one.

  Soon enough he was really regretting his decision to leave, and drinking the ice-cold cola wasn’t helping either. But he was too stubborn to stop, so he just hugged himself with one hand and carried on drinking. And besides, it tasted good. He really should have tried food earlier if all of it was like this. No wonder humans were obsessed with it.

  Arkemoz sighed, leaning against the wall. How much longer could that discussion possibly take?

  4

  “You didn’t have to do that, you know?” James grumbled as he turned back around to Neriah. Damned angel. Arkie didn’t deserve being treated that way—he hadn’t even done anything. “I would think angels would be the ones with better manners.”

  “Somehow you annoy me even more now,” she replied, completely deflecting his passive aggression. James glared at her. He couldn’t believe she was implying that he’d been better as a bloodthirsty monster.

  Well, actually, he had no problem believing it. Neriah had always had a strange fascination with him. He wasn’t even sure why they’d stayed in contact after his...return to being a semi-functioning member of human society. He definitely hadn’t wanted to call her to ask about this Circle business, but she was pretty much the only contact he had left after he’d moved here.

  “You didn’t have to come here.”

  Neriah gave him that look she used when she thought James was an idiot. “Don’t tell me you actually care about that thing.”

  “Hey!”

  James didn’t get time to defend Arkie, though, because Neriah completely disregarded his protest and continued. “Demons are the worst, most vile things in the cosmos. You said he works for Aegis?”

  “Yeah, for about a month I think,” James answered through gritted teeth. Last time they’d spoken, it hadn’t been quite this tense, but Arkie hadn’t been around, then. James would have to keep that in mind. Either he would have to stop relying on Neriah for information, or he would have to ask Arkie to stay away for these information exchanges, and possibly hurt his feelings. Great.

  Neriah narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “Keep an eye on him. He’s probably up to something.”

  “Oh, we are using the right pronouns now, huh?”

  “Shut up, Adley.”

  James rolled his eyes. Whenever they talked he wondered just why they kept helping each other out at all. But somehow they’d kept doing it over the last two hundred years. Though James was more or less resigned to this relationship ending sooner or later. During his murderous days, he’d gotten around a lot and was usually playing for the bad guy side, so he had information to give to Neriah in exchange. That wasn’t the case anymore.

  “This isn’t about Arkie, all right?”

  “Yeah, I figured. What do you want this time?”

  It was so hard not to keep smarting off at her every chance he got, but James would have to try his best. “Is something going on? Like, in general?”

  Neriah narrowed her eyes at him and stayed silent for a moment. It made James wonder if she was reading his thoughts. He didn’t think she could actually do that, but he couldn’t say for sure. Despite knowing Neriah for quite a while, he didn’t actually know that much about angels.

  “Actually, yes. There is some...turmoil in Heaven.”

  James frowned. He supposed he should have been more specific with that question because he doubted this was related, but now he wanted to know what was going on, too. “Oh, there is?”

  “I’m surprised Aegis doesn’t know about it,” she replied, raising an eyebrow. Which was fair. From what James had seen so far, Aegis loved getting involved in everything. Which was a part of the reason why he chose to go to this nowhere town since they had forced him to join. It was quiet, and while that was a bit boring, it was better than the alternative.

  “Some angels didn’t appreciate how Heaven is run. They formed a resistance called the Circle of Rhamiel, Rhamiel being the angel who started this.”

  James’ eyes went wide. He couldn’t say he’d expected that. Either this was more related than he’d thought at first, or maybe this was just a huge coincidence. “They tried to take over, but were beaten and went to Earth instead.”

  “Which I assume means you guys won’t bother dealing with this?”

  Neriah gave him a withering look. He supposed he could have not gone for that jab, given that Neriah wasn’t all that involved in Heaven business, but she hadn’t stopped lumping James in with other vampires. So James didn’t really care much.

  “We wanted to. But we can’t find them.”

  Well, didn’t that sound familiar. James swallowed thickly. If rogue angels were behind this, James was pretty sure they were in over their heads here. Or were angels about as strong as demons? Because while Arkemoz was stronger than the average vampire, he’d probably have a problem defeating two or three at once. James had no idea. During his long life, he’d only met one angel, and he’d never had to fight her, thankfully.

  “Well, that’s great.”

  “Is this all? I’m meeting someone in ten minutes.”

  James blinked at her. “What? You meet up with other people?”

  Neriah shook her head and got up. “Goodbye, Adley.”

  James watched her leave, frowning. Maybe she’d made that up so she could leave. Which kinda hurt, but he’d accept it. His mind drifted to Arkie again, and he sighed. He hoped the demon hadn’t just wandered off somewhere, especially if he really was vulnerable to the cold.

  James put so
me money on the table, remembering to leave extra for the probably now broken cola bottle Arkemoz had walked off with, and got up as well, walking out of the bar and breathing in deeply. It was snowing quite heavily now, which would no doubt make things more complicated, but it changed nothing.

  He’d been prepared for a long search, but as it turned out, Arkie was just in the alley next to the bar. James had almost missed him, actually, as he walked past the alley without thinking and only noticed the demon out of the corner of his eye.

  Arkie seemed to be sulking as he continued enjoying the remains of his cola. That paired with him being half-covered in snow, and this was a far too adorable image for James not to grin at him. As he walked to him, Arkie raised his head to look at him.

  “Are you okay?”

  The demon scoffed. “Definitely.”

  James rolled his eyes, huffing. “She wasn’t specifically picking on you, you know. She’s this unpleasant with everyone.” Well, maybe that was a bit of a lie—James had never seen Neriah be this unfriendly to someone not wanting to kill her—but it was close enough.

  “What did she say?”

  James sighed. Well, there was probably no reason to force the issue. If possible, he would just make sure Arkie and Neriah were never in the same room again.

  He summed up what he’d learned just now, getting pretty much the same reply he himself had had.

  “This...could just be a coincidence.” Arkie’s little thoughtful scowl sure was something. James forced himself not to grin and focus on the problem at hand.

  “Yeah, I thought so too,” James replied. And he’d mostly thought the same until just now. But when Arkemoz had repeated it, something had dawned on him. “But you said you need angel feathers for that cloaking spell, right?”

  Arkie’s frown turned worried. And yeah, this wasn’t good, was it? But this was all just assumptions. This really could be nothing after all, and they didn’t need to panic just yet.