Ramiel’s face was bright red, and he was casting his gaze around for anything in the world to look at but me. Az grinned broadly. Sam stared openly. And Uriel just kept clearing his throat over and over again. He rushed over to me, pulled his shirt over his head and pushed it into my hands. My eyes scanned the ridges of his abs appreciably, but I had to remember that I was still mad at him. Mad at all of them.
“As beautiful of a sight as you are right now, I don’t think any of us will be able to focus on demons until we get you clothed again.” Two pink dots appeared on his cheeks. “You can wear my shirt.”
Rourke suddenly dropped his pants, and everyone screamed. Everyone except Lilith, who just licked her lips and smiled.
“Calm down,” he said gruffly, pointing at his crotch. “I have boxer briefs on. It’s not like I’m showing my bits to all of hell. Here, Erela. They’ll be a bit big, but you can tighten the belt.”
“Er, thanks.” Quietly (and mortifyingly), I pulled on the baggy pants and the oversized shirt. I had to roll up Rourke’s pant legs and twist the belt into a bow in order to keep them situated around my hips. But at least I wasn’t totally naked anymore.
Rourke, on the other hand, looked ridiculous. He stood there shifting on his feet in a black t-shirt and polka-dotted boxer briefs. With black socks that stuck out of his pair of massive brown boots.
I arched a brow. “You sure you don’t want your pants?”
He let out a gruff bark. “It’s hot here. I’m fine like this.”
So, that was that. We’d defeated the demon, and now I was dressed. Our little rag tag crew turned our sights back on to the task at hand: getting to Irkalla and finding the damn portal so we could go back through and close it once and for all.
Now that we’d survived the crazy-ass head-eating horse dude scenario, I felt as though we could beat anything the demonic realm could throw at us. Massive snakes? Check. Archdemons who wanted to rip us apart? Check. Famished demons who wanted to see our eyeballs pop out of our heads? Check again! We’d managed to get this far. Nothing could stop us. Of course, surviving meant that we now had a cloud of pure awkwardness hanging over our heads. Awkwardly.
Did I mention it was awkward? Because it was.
“We’re almost there,” Lilith said chirpily as the city buildings began to rise over the distant horizon. “Another half hour, and we’ll be on the city’s border.”
“Yay,” I said. “Thanks for letting me know, Lilith. It really is nice when your partners in a mission tell you exactly what’s going on. Don’t you think?”
Lilith sighed.
“Will there be any more of those headless dudes in the city?” Rourke asked, seemingly oblivious to the tension.
“No, but there will be many blood demons.” She twisted toward him, smiled a little. “Irkalla has the highest population of blood demons, followed by fire demons. The others tend to live elsewhere, though there are pockets of death demons in the Infernal neighborhood.”
“Blood demons.” He grinned and shot Lilith a suggestive wink. “Are they anything like you?”
“What do you think?” she asked, coolly.
“Careful, Rourke,” I said with a laugh, jerking my thumb over my shoulder. “Or you’ll end up in as much hot water as them.”
Them, meaning my four fallen angels, who had kept the whole prophecy thing a secret. They were merely silent in return.
The city rose up high before us. Tall buildings with pointed tips that scratched against the surface of the foggy sky. Gazing up at it, I couldn’t help but wonder at its beauty. It certainly wasn’t what I’d expected when I’d thought of demon cities. In my mind’s eye, I’d pictured a place painted with blood and engulfed in flames. But this city was startlingly normal. And it was then that I realized why demons tended to congregate in the human cities. Maybe part of it was because there were more humans there to harass, but it was more than that, too. That was where they felt most at home.
“Do you feel that?” Lilith whispered as we drew closer to the city. For a moment, I had no idea what she was referring to. I stopped walking and cocked my head, and there it was. Unlike the other side of the portal, I did not feel an intense, aching evil scratching along my skin. I felt the soft, timid caress of...humanity.
“We’ve come to the right place,” I whispered, swallowing hard. Somewhere within this city, we’d find the portal that would take us back home. But what would we find on the other side? Asmodeus was no doubt waiting.
“This place is a lot more deserted than I was expecting,” I murmured as we passed street after quiet street.
“It’s not normally like this,” Lilith whispered, swallowing hard. “I lived here once upon a time. It was bustling. The streets were alive at all hours of the day. It’s what drew me so much to New York. It was like this but...more.”
“Does this mean all the demons have gone to my world?” Rourke asked.
“I wish I could tell you that’s not what it means, darling, but I’m afraid it does,” Lilith said softly.
Great. So, in our absence, the demons had swarmed. This created a bit of a problem. Okay, more than just a bit. If there were that many demons in the human realm, how were we going to defeat them all? When the apocalypse had first occurred all those years before, that first wave of demons had caused so much death and destruction. They’d been eager, hungry, like rabid wolves let out of a cage. After awhile, things had calmed down to an extent. No, I wasn’t saying that it was peaceful, but the attacks were less frequent, the violence more restrained.
These new demons would be just like the first wave. And I didn’t know if humanity could survive.
With a deep breath, I stopped. The others, startled, followed my lead and gazed around us as if looking for whatever had made me pause in my tracks.
“You guys are going to think I’m crazy, but I don’t think we should close the portal when we go back through it,” I said in a rush of words before I could talk myself out of the idea. There were obviously a hell of a lot of problems with it, but...it might be the only thing that could stop this war once and for all. We needed to get the demons back through the portal, back into their own realm. If we closed it, the humans would be stuck with them forever.
Ramiel’s frown deepened. “Of course we must close the portal. Not doing so would allow even more demons to swarm the human realm. As it is, there are far too many demons there for us to fight alone, as much as I wish the Order of the Fallen could. There are only six of us, Erela. Seven if you count Lilith.”
“You damn well better count me,” she muttered.
“And me,” Rourke added. “This is my fight, far more than it is yours.”
“You should probably add me in, too,” Isaac said, despite the fact that his body still shuddered from his recent fall to earth. “I know I haven’t been with you long, but this Order kicks some serious ass.” His smile widened. “Case in point. I don’t have to use Erela’s ridiculous made-up curse words anymore.”
“Fine,” Ramiel said. “Then, we’re nine. That still doesn’t change the fact that there are thousands of demons in the human realm.”
“Yep, and that’s my point.” With a deep breath, I stepped closer to him, my heart and my soul all too aware of the electricity that still crackled between us. And now that I knew the truth behind his rejection, it was even harder to ignore. I now knew he’d been only trying to keep me safe, but it had been wrong of him to push me away like that. He should have told me the truth all along. Like Az had said, it was my decision what to do with that information. Of course, it also meant that he cared, far more than he wanted to admit.
“There are thousands upon thousands of demons in the human realm. And if we close that portal? They’ll be stuck there.”
Realization dawned in his eyes, and he gave a slow nod. “I understand what you’re saying now. You want to keep the portal open so that we can usher the demons back through.”
“Exactly. If they stay on earth, we’re never g
oing to win.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to just open and close it whenever we find some demons?” Uriel asked with a frown. “We have the amulet.”
“On this side, we can’t control where the portal gets opened,” I argued. “We’d have no idea what we were opening ourselves, and the rest of the world, up to. At least for now, we know it’s open in this abandoned city, not some highly populated place with demons who are hungry for some destruction.”
Ramiel shook his head. “It’s a good idea, but there are problems with it, Erela. Once we send the demons through, what’s to stop them from coming back to earth? They’d have to find the portal again, just like we’ve had to do, but it wouldn’t take them very long. Your idea, while a good one, won’t solve anything.”
“It will if we send thousands of demons through it at the same damn time.” I threw back my shoulders and met Ramiel’s gaze, my whole body burning up from the idea of being able to save the world in one fell swoop.
Ramiel gave a slow nod. “Yes, that would definitely do it, alright. Any idea how you’d get thousands of demons to go home all at once?”
“That...I, ah, well I haven’t figured that part out yet,” I admitted. “All I know is that things can’t keep going on as they have been. Something drastically needs to change or the world just isn’t going to survive. The demons are destroying it. If we trap them in there...”
“That’s something to figure out when we make it back through the portal,” Lilith said. “As it is, we’re the ones trapped in a foreign realm.”
I didn’t point out that Lilith wasn’t anything of the sort. This was her home, but I knew that wasn’t how she felt. Home to her was where she’d made it: back on earth.
“Wait.” Lizzie clutched my shirt’s thin material and pulled me close so that she could whisper into my ear. “There’s someone up there, in between the buildings. Two of them. One of them I’ve never seen before, but I swear the other looked familiar, even though I only saw the back of his head.”
My heart trembled, and I held my body still as I gazed in the direction Lizzie pointed. Two towering buildings sat side by side, only a thin strip of land between them. An alley, much like those found in human cities, but a strange aura emanated from the depths of it. There was someone—or something—in there alright.
“Ramiel?” I asked, voice hitching on the last syllable. As annoyed as I was with him right now, he was still the boss.
“Let’s check it out,” he said slowly. “They might know where we can find the portal.”
Lilith snorted. “If they do, they’re unlikely to tell a group of fallen angels. Leave this one to me. Rourke? You should come with. I can use you as bait if need be.”
“Bait?” His voice sounded strangled and small, a strange sound coming from such a large, intimidating tank of a man. He might talk big, and he might have volunteered to come with us on this crazy mission, but he was still shitting his pants. Figuratively. For now.
“Come on,” Lilith said, grabbing his arm and dragging him toward the alley half a block down the road.
Now, this was the kind of situation where my typical Erela-ness has a tendency to cause problems. I didn’t want to just sit and wait for Lilith and her human boyfriend to find out what was what. I think I’ve made it clear more than once that I kind of just plow forward into situations without really thinking things through. Waiting quietly while others put their lives on the line? Pure torture.
So, that was how I found myself following Lilith and her beau despite the angry whispered shouts that followed me.
But I couldn’t help myself. Lizzie had said one of the forms she’d seen was familiar. It was someone she knew, which meant that it was someone I knew, too. Not to mention the aura felt familiar. It whispered against my soul and my heart, drawing me closer and closer to that alley. It was different than the sensation that poured through the portal on either side. This was something else. Something more.
And when I peeked my head around the edge of the wall, I knew exactly why.
My father was here.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Erela
For a moment, I was frozen. My brain couldn’t make sense of what I was seeing. My father, the infamous, glorious Archangel named Michael. One of the very first angels that ever existed was standing in an abandoned alley having a chat with a male demon whose skin was the color of clouds and eyes were the color of blood. So many emotions churned through me. Shock, fear, anger, and confusion.
What was he doing here? How had he even gotten here? Did he know what had happened to me? Why hadn’t he come for me? Why had he kept so many secrets hidden from me?
Lizzie was beside me in an instant, pulling me back from the wall, as if she’d sensed the truth. Her eyes were wild as she spun me to face her, her skin blanched white. She shook her head and pressed a finger to her lips. She wanted me to stay back. She didn’t want me to confront him. But every cell in my body wanted to storm around that corner and demand for him to tell me what the hell was going on.
I wanted to make him explain everything.
“Ah.” I heard the surprise in Lilith’s voice as it drifted toward me from the alley. “I have to admit I didn’t expect to find an Archangel in Irkalla. Come here often, Michael?”
She raised her voice on the last word, clearly attempting to speak loud enough for me to hear her. My heart, which had gone numb at seeing my father, thawed. Good old Lilith.
Obviously, she could recognize him, even if she’d never met him before. He had the same glowing skin and dark hair I did. Despite the fact that half of my heritage was apparently demonic in nature, I looked a lot like my father.
“You best leave now and not speak of this to anyone,” my father’s musical yet stern voice was so commanding that I had the sudden urge to fall to my knees and bow my head. That was the power of the Archangels at work. Their magic, their aura. It was how they were able to command so many, able to take charge of all the armies. It was almost impossible to resist him. When Michael spoke, angels were forced to listen.
Except...Lilith wasn’t an angel. And neither was Rourke.
“You know this guy?” Rourke asked, and I could just hear the narrowed eyes and frown, as well as his unspoken question: how well do you know this guy?
“No, we’ve never met, but everyone knows who Michael is,” Lilith said with a sniff. “Esteemed Archangel who commands the armies of the Order of the Seraphim, in order to rid the realms of demonic influence. The perfect, incorruptible Michael, who would never consort with a demon, no matter how alluring she might be. No matter how fiery.”
I held my breath in my throat. She’d practically flat-out told my father that she knew about his sordid history, and I expected him to explode into a fiery rage at the suggestion. But his words were far worse than that.
“You know, that’s what I thought,” he said before raising his voice. “Erela, come on out. I know you’re there. I can sense you and your friends.”
All the blood drained from my face, and Lizzie’s grip on my arm tightened. We exchanged weighted glances, all my churning thoughts reflected on her face. As much as I wanted to confront my father and demand for him to explain, I wasn’t ready for it. Just as I wasn’t ready to accept the full power of my flames. If I heard the truth from his lips, it would make the whole thing that much more real. It would be confirmation that I hadn’t just randomly been blessed with the inferno.
It would be confirmation that there was something very wrong with me, that I could end up just like that demon we’d killed in the village.
“Come on,” she said in a fierce whisper. “You can do this. I’ll be right by your side every step of the way.”
I swallowed hard and nodded, taking a deep breath before I turned to gaze at the Order of the Fallen. They were all watching with expressions ranging from anger to shock to fear. And then I stepped around the corner.
The first thing I saw was the body on the ground. It was the demon
I’d spotted earlier, but now his eyes were open wide and blood poured from his ears. I swallowed hard and wet my lips, my skin buzzing from fear and worry. The next thing I saw was my father’s face, glowing and stern and severely beautiful. He didn’t look particularly surprised to see me, and neither did he seem happy. He stood in the center of the alley with his arms crossed over his armored chest and his dark wings flapping gently behind him. It almost blinded me to look at him, for where my skin glowed, his was practically as bright as the sun.
I averted my gaze and found myself bowing my head, all the years of habitual deference kicking in. “Father.”
“Erela.” A beat passed as he flicked his gaze up and down, frowning. “What are you wearing? You should not be in this realm.”
Irritation flickered through me, and I lifted my head to glare against the overwhelming glow of him. “Is that honestly what you want to say to me after everything that has happened? No, ‘hi, Erela, I’m so glad you’re safe’ or ‘sorry I didn’t come to extract you from the Lower Realm’ or, I don’t know, ‘sorry I’ve lied to you all your life, Erela?’” Tears filled my eyes. “Instead, you want to scold me for being in Irkalla? And for being forced to wear someone else’s clothes? Seriously?”
He let out an impatient sigh. “I could not extract you, particularly not when you chose to stay permanently. It is not what I wished for you, but you made your decision.”
“I was down on the goddamn earth for long enough before that. You could have done something,” I said, narrowing my eyes. “Not to mention Lizzie. And the others.”
Lizzie and I hadn’t been the only victims of Asmodeus, and I doubted we’d be the last when all was said and done. He took pleasure in casting an angel from her (or his) rightful place. One day, another unsuspecting angel would choose the wrong day to cross him, and this would happen all over again. Unless we managed to stop him.
Nebulous (Order of the Fallen Book 2) Page 12
