Burning Midnight

by Rose Wulf

  With no better idea to start, Ben shouldered his sister’s purse and quickly typed in the lock code on her phone. He navigated to her Contacts app and scrolled easily to the Bs. There she was—Belle. No last name. Did Nephilims have last names? Or angels, since he was pretty sure she was married to one now?

  Ben shook his head, tapped the green button, and put the device to his ear. He hadn’t spoken to the woman since Gwen’s thirtieth birthday party, but he didn’t care. His sister’s life was on the line. He’d cold-call any stranger he had to.

  “This is Belle,” a vaguely familiar female voice declared. “Leave a message, I’ll call you back as soon as I can.”

  Ben hung up without leaving a message. He’d try again if he couldn’t find another option. He wasn’t going to rely on someone possibly checking their messages in the immediate future. Fighting to steady his nerves, Ben scrolled down some more in search of Kai’s number. He searched the entire list, twice, but found no one named Kai. Nothing goofy or provoking like ‘The Angel Who Saved Me,’ or ‘Wings,’ or even ‘Blue Guy.’

  But there was another name he’d seen on the list when he’d been searching. A name he hadn’t expected to see that had him coming up short.

  Jaelyn.

  That was Jennifer’s real name. He’d only heard it twice, but he’d never forget it.

  Why did Gwen have Jen—Jaelyn’s—number?

  Ben clenched his hand around the phone, staring at the contacts on the screen, wishing they were labeled with convenient notes. Things like ‘angel I trust.’ Instead, there were a few names he recognized and a few he didn’t. Knowing his sister, it wasn’t safe to assume anything about the names he wasn’t familiar with. Even though ‘Knox’ sort of did ring a bell.

  Ben squeezed his eyes shut. Gwen. What the hell is going on? He could only do so much on his own, especially without a cell phone to even track. He dialed Belle again, hoping she’d answer, but again, no luck. His heart clenched as his fingers slowly navigated their way back down the Js. Hers was the only other name on the list he was certain had the means to help. If he could take his feelings out of it, he knew he didn’t have a lot of options. He also knew he didn’t have a lot of time. Or, at least, that was what his instincts were screaming.

  Jaelyn’s name mocked him, resting tauntingly beneath his hovering thumb.

  If he didn’t do it, if he chickened out, it could be too late to save his sister by the time he figured out another way.

  Ben jabbed the button before he let the fear of that thought fade away. He refused to acknowledge the shake to his arm as he lifted the device to his ear and held his breath. Would she answer? He needed her to. Did he want her to? She has to. That was what mattered.

  “Gwen?” It was her. Jen. Jaelyn. Her voice was the same as he remembered it.

  That made it so much worse.

  Ben swallowed. “No. It’s Ben.”

  Silence met his words and, somehow, that did make him feel a little better.

  “Gwen is—” He cut himself off. How should he say it? What was he sure of? “She’s disappeared.”

  He heard Jaelyn take a breath. “What do you mean, disappeared?” Her question was careful. Too cautious, and lacking far too much surprise.

  “Why aren’t you shocked?”

  “I wasn’t expecting it, if that’s what you’re implying,” Jaelyn said sharply. She paused. “Now answer mine.”

  Ben shifted his weight. “We were at the theater,” he said. “One minute we’re watching a movie, the next thing I know, she’s just gone. Her purse, her phone, were all that was left.”

  “No,” she whispered. This time, she sounded genuinely worried. Before he could say more, she asked, “It was just the two of you? Where was Knox?”

  Knox? That was the name on the list that had seemed familiar, but … why would she have thought the guy would be with them? “I don’t think I even know who that is.”

  Jaelyn released a frustrated sigh. “He was supposed to be keeping an eye on her! Are you still at the theater?”

  “Ah, what?” Ben asked, startled by the statement. “Yes,” he added quickly. Too late considering why she’d be asking.

  The line disconnected a moment later.

  Ben pulled the phone from his ear, his heart hammering with a myriad of emotions he could only partially identify and less understand. Keeping an eye on her?

  A brief flash of green in his peripheral vision drew Ben’s attention and he looked up quickly. He wasn’t, though he should have been, prepared for the sight of Jaelyn standing a few feet away. She looked … stunning. Even with the unusual frown on her lips.

  Her frown softened almost as soon as the thought crossed his mind. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I know this is uncomfortable. But time is precious. How long has it been?”

  Ben swallowed past the lump in his throat and gave a half-hearted shake to his head. “Uh, five … maybe ten minutes? I’m not exactly sure.”

  Jaelyn nodded. “I need to see where she disappeared.”

  His mouth dropped open a little. “Je— We were in a theater. You can’t exactly just waltz in.”

  “I need you to show me exactly where she was seated,” Jaelyn said, already walking toward the nearest entrance. “I won’t let you get into trouble. But this is unavoidable.”

  Ben dragged a hand through his hair. “Okay, okay, fine. If it helps. Room Three.”

  They went back inside, finding no one to question them since they’d entered from a side door, and Jaelyn strode into Room Three ahead of him. Ben had to pick up speed to take the lead, all the while knowing they’d be making a scene and angering their fellow unfortunate moviegoers. Ben led her up the stairs on the left side until they reached the appropriate aisle. He retook his seat and gestured, whispering, “This was hers.”

  Jaelyn stepped past him, taking the seat on the other side of Gwen’s. He turned so he could watch her. She adjusted to mostly face sideways as well and he noted that her blue eyes had begun to glow faintly as she gazed at the chair Gwen had sat in. Jaelyn reached out, her hand outlined in the thinnest shroud of green, and slowly swept it down toward the floor. The glow around her hand flared brighter as she neared the floor.

  “What does that mean?” Ben whispered, leaning in to keep his voice low.

  Her frown renewed, Jaelyn replied, “Use Gwen’s phone. Call Knox. We need him to trace this before the energy fades entirely.”

  Ben felt his own frown forming. “Jaelyn,” he said. Her real name still felt foreign on his tongue.

  She lifted her faintly glowing gaze to his. “This is a powerful demonic signature,” she said. “A familiar one. Call him.”

  “Hey,” someone in the row below them said, angling up to them. “Take your conversation outside. Some of us came here to watch a movie.”

  Ben arched a brow at Jaelyn, knowing if they called in another person the guy would only get angrier.

  Jaelyn sighed and said sweetly, “Please forgive us, sir.” She rested her fingertips to his chair as she spoke and the man muttered an acceptance, seemingly relaxing in his chair.

  Recognizing that was the best they were going to get, Ben rushed back into the hall below the seating area and used Gwen’s phone to dial the number labeled Knox. He didn’t know a thing about this guy, but Jaelyn said she needed him, and frankly calling a mysterious stranger was a lot less daunting than calling his ex.

  The line connected after barely two rings. “Does this start with why the hell you left your apartment without calling me?”

  Both of Ben’s eyebrows arched high at that interesting greeting. If they successfully rescued his sister, he’d have to be sure to ask about her connection to this guy. “Normally, I wouldn’t be happy with a guy talking to my sister like that,” he said, keeping his voice low enough not to carry over the movie. Of course it would be in a quiet scene while he was making a call.

  Knox made an amusingly strangled sort of choking noise.

  “Given the circumstan
ces, though,” Ben continued, “I think I sort of understand. You’re Knox, right?”

  “Ah.” Knox—presumably—hesitated. “Yeah.” Another pause. “Wait, why do you understand? Where’s Gwen?”

  Whoever this guy was, Ben suspected he genuinely cared about Gwen. “Jaelyn says we need you to help us figure that out, actually.”

  A brief stretch of silence gave Ben just enough time to wonder how, exactly, Jaelyn expected him to get there in time to help. Then Knox spoke again. “Where?” His tone had darkened.

  “Movie theater, Room Three,” he said. “I guess Jaelyn can come get you if you need—”

  It was dark around him, with the lights in the theater room dimmed for the movie, but Ben was still able to see the figure of a man step out of the wall just in front of the door across from him. Stepping literally out of the darkness. The figure’s arm lowered as the darkness fell away, revealing details like skin and hair color, and the call simultaneously disconnected. As soon as Ben saw the man’s face, he knew where he knew him from.

  This was the demon who’d visited once or twice while Kai and Belle had stayed at his house. Supposedly helping them keep tabs on the demons hunting Gwen.

  “You’re—”

  “Knox.”

  ****

  Gwen had been taken.

  Or, from the sounds of Ben’s story and the general vibe of the scene, more likely she’d surrendered. For some unfathomable reason.

  This woman is going to be the death of me.

  Knox ground his teeth, his jaw clenched tight in his effort to retain his calm façade. It wouldn’t do for him to lose his temper at that moment. The trail had been too cold for him to trace, but he immediately sensed the reason Jaelyn had insisted on calling for him. There was no forgetting the flavor of that demonic energy, no matter how much it had faded. It belonged to the demoness who’d attacked them before—the one, he’d just learned, whose name was Trix.

  “I still don’t get it,” Ben said, though Knox wasn’t entirely sure if he was talking to one of them specifically or the room at large. They’d left the theater and reconvened at Ben’s house, since apparently, Ben felt weird about them all being in Gwen’s apartment without Gwen. “Why is Gwen being targeted this time? I thought all that was behind us. Wasn’t that the point to her spending all that time with Kai and Belle?”

  “Their job was to keep her alive while Belle healed her,” Jaelyn explained. “Which they did. But it was only presumed that freeing her from the curse would free her future.”

  When Ben failed to appear pacified, Knox crossed his arms over his chest to keep himself otherwise still. “What exactly don’t you get?”

  Ben looked over at him.

  “The demon who held her contract is sore about losing her soul. So he’s sending more demons after her because he wants it back.”

  Exasperation shone in Ben’s eyes. “But it was never his!”

  Knox dug his nails into his arms but held his position against the wall. “Yes. It. Was.”

  Ben opened his mouth again, but this time Jaelyn cut in. “Ben, you’re trying to apply emotion-based reason to a being who primarily operates on dark impulses which defy reason and scorn emotion.”

  This time, Ben made an exasperated sound and shoved his hands into his hair in obvious frustration. And that much, at least, Knox sympathized with. It wasn’t like they were asking the man to like the situation.

  Jaelyn lifted her attention from Ben to Knox without actually rising from her corner of Ben’s couch. “You said you would watch her.”

  Knox arched a brow. Was she really going to blame him for this? “And you said you’d keep a closer eye. What the hell’s any of that matter right now?”

  Jaelyn frowned. “I’m wondering why you weren’t there.”

  Ben’s shoulders stiffened as his arms returned to his lap and he, too, looked over at Knox. “You were supposed to be protecting my sister? I was with her all day, I never saw you.”

  Is this a fucking joke? Knox straightened and took a single step away from the wall. “Both of you knock that shit off or I’ll let you scramble with your heads up your asses like the idiots you obviously are,” he snapped. He narrowed his glare on Ben. “I bailed when you showed at the door. Figured she wouldn’t want you freaking out, or explaining a demon in her apartment.” He threw the glare toward Jaelyn. “I made sure the apartment was at least temporarily secure. If something burst through, I’d have felt it and gone right back. I can’t be held accountable for her going outside.”

  The suspicion in Jaelyn’s eyes faded, suggesting she at least was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt this time.

  Gwen’s emotional baby brother, however, seemed less than convinced. “Well, isn’t that convenient. If she knew someone was protecting her, why wouldn’t she have contacted you at all?” Ben stood up in order to properly face Knox. “If we’re right, if she took me to that theater knowing she’d be captured, why wouldn’t she have called you? My sister’s stubborn, not suicidal!”

  “Ben,” Jaelyn interrupted, her voice gentle.

  “No,” Ben said. He kept his glare on Knox. “I want a good reason. I want a good, solid reason why we should trust a word coming out of this demon’s mouth right now.”

  It was all he could do not to punch the little bastard in his self-righteous, judgmental face. Might have even done that face some good to sport a dented nose or a scarred lip. But Knox refrained, for Gwen’s sake, and did his best to lift his voice above a snarl. “You want my best reason? Well, I’d bet every penny in my bank account that the demoness who kidnapped your sister kept her quiet by threatening you, asshole. Because you’re the one Gwen would sacrifice herself for. So if this is anyone’s fault right now, it’s yours. Just like it always has been.”

  Ben’s eyes had gone wide about halfway through Knox’s response, the color fading from his face, and Knox knew his point had hit home.

  Gwen would probably be angry with him for upsetting her brother, saying it that way, or saying it at all.

  Knox didn’t care. What actually mattered was that he knew he was right. Gwen had sacrificed herself for her stupid, ignorant, pain-in-the-ass brother, and their only hope for rescuing her was the simple fact that demons tend to love to gloat. But even then, depending on where she’d been taken, she could already be on death’s door. No matter where she was, if he didn’t find her quickly, she would die.

  Chapter Nine

  Would she recognize it if she blacked out?

  Maybe she was already unconscious, and this was the moment before her senses returned.

  Perhaps she was having a bizarre out-of-body experience.

  Or maybe I’m dying?

  Gwen really had no idea anymore. Everything was empty and black. Darker than black, somehow, though she wasn’t sure that was possible. Her body was cold. Numb. Or just numb, that was certainly possible. She’d lost any kind of directional orientation. The old which way is up? phrase just did not do the feeling justice. The concept of time was equally meaningless. Had she been floating, or falling, or spinning, or standing, or whatever, for seconds? Hours? Weeks? She really had no clue.

  It was dark. She couldn’t feel anything. Outwardly, at least. On the inside, she was unspeakably nauseated. If she could find the strength to open her mouth, she’d surely throw up all the popcorn she’d choked down earlier, and probably everything else she’d eaten before then. Instead, she was stuck swallowing it down, repeatedly.

  She existed in this perpetuity for what felt like a lifetime, or possibly two, before she became quite certain she was dropping again by the sudden pull of gravity. Her rioting stomach heaved and rolled, finally escaping up past her lips mere moments after her feet—then her knee—hit solid ground. Gwen’s body shook and she flopped to the ground on her ass, a few feet off to the side of the mess she’d just made.

  “Oh, you’re still conscious?”

  Gwen lifted her gaze, turning her head slightly to find the demoness
from before standing on the opposite side of the large room she’d apparently landed in. The sight of her brought reality crashing back and, with it, another wave of nausea. This one, Gwen managed to fight down. She cleared her throat and pushed to her feet, doing her best to ignore her shaking legs. “I did what you asked,” she said. “Was that really necessary?”

  The demoness smirked. “You cooperated, and in return, your brother remains untouched. I never promised to be gentle.”

  Knowing it was pointless to argue, Gwen switched gears. “Okay, so you have me. Now what?”

  “Now,” the demoness said, “my master has instructed me to make sure your soul is thoroughly corrupted before we slay you.”

  That doesn’t sound good. “What … does that mean?” She was absolutely sure she didn’t want to know. However, it did sort of sound like she wasn’t going to be immediately slaughtered. That had to be at least a tiny silver lining.

  “It means that you must sin,” she said, a wickedly delighted shine in her eyes. “Greatly. The more voluntarily, the better, of course, but coercion works, too.”

  “Sin?” Gwen repeated quietly. “Sin … how?” There was nothing good about that.

  With a shrug, the demoness walked up until she could roll some strands of Gwen’s hair between her fingers. “Oh, just about any way is fine. The bigger the better is all. Since your soul was only recently cleansed, we’ll likely have some work to do.” She walked around until she was standing behind Gwen’s shoulder. Gwen fought not to cringe as the demoness leaned in, literally sniffing her skin.

  “Is it a sin,” she started, “not to brush my teeth after vomiting?” It sure felt like one.

  “What—” She released Gwen with a startled shove, stepping away and walking around, eyes wide. But her expression, though surprised, wasn’t nearly offended or angry enough to make Gwen feel good. In fact, a fresh pit formed in her stomach, because the demoness’s expression slowly slid from shock to smug satisfaction. “Well. Perhaps I was wrong.”