Cain turned to Hadrian. “And I have it. You can kill the vampire if your
knife doesn’t get returned.”
Hadrian growled. So
this
was why the demon had insisted he come along.
It wasn’t for extra muscle or because he was a chickenshit. That grudge he had going seemed to be getting stronger all the time.
The tribe leader looked at Hadrian for a long time, assessing him as if
he were a horse she might put out in her field to plow the soil.
“He doesn’t care if I live or die,” Hadrian said. “He brought you
collateral of no value. He tortured me for about twenty hours to get Tam’s location when I helped the
head psycho cycler kidnap her.”
The vampire reeled back when Cain’s fist connected with his nose. The
demon picked him up and tossed him. Hadrian hit the ground hard a few
yards away. White-hot pain shot up his back, and he was convinced his
vampiric nature and fast healing time were the only things that saved
him from genuine damage.
The demon pinned him and growled in his face. “You stupid son of a
bitch, you are risking everything.”
Luminitsa rose from the log to join them. “Boys. Let’s not do this.”
The two of them looked up from the ground. She handed the ritual back to
Cain, but held onto the other paper.
“Leave your vampire for now and go bring me something of actual value, then
I will give you the knife and the other roots and rare spices that you require.”
“What do you want?” Cain asked.
“Bring me your brother.”
The demon leader’s eyes widened. “Fuck you.”
“I heard he’s been one of your demons for a while. Bring him to me so
that I know I will get my knife back.”
Cain transformed into his demon form, growing larger and more monstrous,
claws, horns, and fangs emerging from their hiding spots. But Luminitsa only looked up at him mildly.
“Bring. Me. Your. Brother.”
“Why do you want him so badly?”
“The sun will be up in a few hours. If your vampire melts, the offer is
off. Now go.”
The demon stalked to the blue glowing doorway, not bothering to shift out
of his demon form.
“So, how do you know Cain?” Luminitsa asked pleasantly when the demon
had gone. “Are you hungry?” She pulled her hair back to reveal the pulse throbbing beneath her throat.
Hadrian was hungry, but he assumed Cain’s warning against eating or drinking anything went double for their blood.
“N-no, thank you,” he managed.
She just laughed.
Chapter Thirteen
Angeline startled from sleep and scanned the tent, surprised to find herself
alone. Hadrian should be back by now. Was he mad at her? He’d been
adamant about the claim, but he was young still. He didn’t know
what he was saying or offering.
While a part of her wanted to rush into his arms and throw caution to the
wind, she didn’t know what motivated him. It couldn’t be love.
Though they had a long history, six decades of it had been her
watching him on screens in Heaven like some weirdo stalker. If he’d
felt any emotion at all for her, it had been hatred, and maybe pity.
But pity wasn’t something to base eternity on. Angeline feared if
he gave in to whatever demon instinct insisted he claim her that he’d
come to resent her sooner rather than later.
She couldn’t be irrevocably tied to him—having that link where she
felt him near only to know his deep and crushing resentment. She
wouldn’t let him claim her. As soon as they got out of the demon
dimension, she’d be safe. At night she could use her protective
powers, and when the sun rose she could sleep safely. He wouldn’t
have a chance if she kept her guard up.
Angeline tossed the blankets back and slipped her boots on. She assessed her
appearance in the mirror, still not sure how she felt about running
around in just a corset and jeans. But if Daria could flounce around
the demon dimension in lingerie, why couldn’t she? It wasn’t as
if no one wore corsets as tops, especially one like this that didn’t
even look like an undergarment.
And it wasn’t as if Angeline were a virgin. Whatever brainwashing had
occurred in Heaven, it wasn’t as if she couldn’t reclaim her
comfort with her own sensuality. She was surrounded by sex demons.
Half of them streaked through the dimension without a stitch on, and
the other half wore things that usually didn’t leave the bedroom.
But then, Cain’s dimension was one big bedroom.
Satisfied with the neurotic self-talk, she left the tent in search of Hadrian.
She’d made it a few blocks when someone whistled at her.
“Nice!”
She spun to find a human male ogling her. He stood shirtless with Daria
in the marketplace. Daria smacked him. “Cut it out, Sam. You’re
my dinner, not hers.”
He looked sheepish. “Sorry.”
Daria turned back to Angeline. “Do you need something?”
“I um… I’m kind of hungry, and… have you seen Hadrian? It seems
like he’s been gone a while.”
“Haven’t seen him, love. Sorry. I’ll take you to eat something after I’ve
fed, if you like.”
Angeline blushed, unable to stop herself. “O-okay, thanks.” Sixty years of
celibacy had screwed her up.
She wandered a few more blocks and ran straight into Cain. The demon
leader was even more intimidating when he was on a mission. “H-have you seen Hadrian?”
The demon looked guiltily away, but it was too late, she’d already seen
Cain’s aura. Angeline’s eyes narrowed and a wind picked up around
her, kicking up a sand storm in her fury. She shrieked in anger and
pain as her wings ripped through the corset.
“Where IS he?” she demanded.
Cain took a couple of steps back. She matched his retreat with her own
advance and focused her anger at him. The force field went up and
pushed him onto his ass in the sand.
He growled and made a fireball, but it bounced off the barrier.
“Where. Is. He?”
The demon produced another fireball and lobbed it at her. It bounced off
the barrier once again. The fireball came back on him and singed his
skin before dropping and fizzling out in the sand. Angeline knew she
couldn’t hold him off forever. She didn’t want to think about
what Cain would do when her energy ran out.
“You’d better watch yourself, little girl,” he growled as if to put a
point on it.
But she couldn’t bring herself to stop now. Her emotions spiraled out
of her control, and the more amped up she got over Hadrian’s
whereabouts, the stronger her power climbed, even as she knew she’d
burn out at this rate. Then she’d be at the angry demon’s mercy.
She rushed him and propelled them into the air.
“If you don’t put me down this instant, you’ll find out first hand
what I did to Hadrian the first time he crossed me,” the demon
growled.
She spotted a large rocky-looking cave off in the distance and flew to
it. When she reached it, she dropped the demon. He hit the jagged
side of the cave, then bounced off and hit the ground.
Angeline landed softly a few feet away, spent and shaking from hunger, anger,
and fear.
Cain shifted into his true form and produced another fireball. This time,
Angeline was too wiped to put the shield up again. Fighting a demon
as old and powerful as Cain without feeding first would have been
suicide if she could die. As it was, it was just plain stupid.
The fireball burned her shoulder, and she screamed. He stalked over to
her and picked her up.
“What in the hell is going on out here? Cain, what are you doing?”
They turned to find Tam standing—or more like hovering—in the cave
entrance, her hands on her hips.
“Well? I’m waiting,” she said.
The demons must have seen Angeline fly like a bird of prey with their
leader in her grasp, because a crowd had gathered.
“This lunatic guardian of Hadrian’s started attacking me.”
“Where is Hadrian?” Angeline shouted, having found the energy to speak and
put some measure of threat behind her words again, even though she knew right now she couldn’t back it up with anything.
Tam crossed her arms over her chest. “Did you get the knife, dear?”
“I tried. Hadrian’s with her now as collateral, but she wants Luc. If
the sun comes up before I bring him and the vampire dies, we won’t get it.”
Angeline hauled back and slapped the demon, even though she knew it wouldn’t
hurt him and might bring his anger down on her. Both Cain and Tam ignored it to address what they seemed to feel was the larger issue.
“Why would she want Luc?” Tam asked.
One of the male demons stepped out of the assembled group. “I think I
know why she wants me.”
The demons and Tam turned expectantly to him.
“Cain, you know how when you’re human and you die, you go to that golden
round room?”
“I have the vaguest possible memory of it, yes,” Cain said. It had
been a very long time since he’d been human.
“In one of my human lives I think I killed a member of that tribe.”
“How would you know?” Cain asked.
“I overheard you and Tam, and I remember the tavern and that village. It
could be a coincidence, but I think it might not be.”
There was a loud whistle, and everyone looked at Tam. “I need to meditate
and prepare. And we can’t do this without the knife. The ritual hinges on it. It might not even work, but I know of no other way we
can concentrate enough power for this to work.”
“I can’t give them my brother.”
“You’re not giving me to them. I’m going of my own free will,” Luc said.
Luc’s mate spoke up then. “No! Tam, you can’t let him…”
“Anna, he’s a grown demon. I can’t stop him.”
“Of course, you can stop him,” Anna said, clearly exasperated.
“Not if I want to have the energy I need for this ritual. I can’t solve
anybody’s magical problems until this is done. Work it out among yourselves, and do it away from the cave. I need that knife; make it
happen.” With that, the witch retreated into the darkness of the cave.
At least the focus was off Angeline. For two seconds, anyway.
“They can’t kill me. Whatever they do we know they can’t kill me and
once it’s done you can come get me,” Luc said.
“I’m going with you,” Anna said.
“No. You will stay here,” Luc said, closing off further discussion of
the matter.
“I refuse to be some weirdo ghost person while you’re held captive by
some angry gypsies. They can’t hurt me if I’m not in solid form.”
He sighed. “Fine.”
“I forbid it,” Cain said. “You will not hand yourself over to these
gypsies for whatever retribution they plan.”
By this point the other demons, deciding there was nothing that exciting
to see, began to disperse, leaving only Anna, Luc, Cain, and Angeline to sort it out.
“They have Hadrian?” Angeline asked.
The demon leader rounded on her, eyes glowing. He was still in the big
red scary demon form. He hadn’t bothered to shift back to normal.
“What are you still doing here?” A fireball hovered in his palm.
Angeline put her hands up in surrender. She was almost out of juice. If she
didn’t get some moonlight soon, she’d collapse. “I-I need to feed first, but I’ll go and protect your brother as much as I can,
if you get Hadrian out.”
Cain growled again, but this time it didn’t have much animosity behind
it now that she’d proven potentially useful to him. “Fine. Let’s go.”
Angeline followed them quietly down the many cobblestone streets, past
hundreds of brightly colored tents, through the marketplace, until they reached the portal. Luc and Anna passed through first. Cain took
Angeline’s hand and pulled her through.
Needing to be helped in crossing the dimension only reminded her how she
didn’t fit. Anywhere. She had no people now. She still didn’t understand why the guardians couldn’t organize themselves as the
vampires and therians and angels and demons had. From what she’d seen, the guardians worked mostly for the vampires, but they weren’t
included in anything. Weren’t guardians strong enough to have their own faction and their own leaders and interests?
The other end of the portal revealed a small village that time seemed to
have forgotten. The group moved forward without her.
“W-wait.”
They stopped and turned impatiently to Angeline.
“I-I need to feed. It will only take a minute.”
They waited while she closed her eyes and pushed her wings out through the
destroyed corset. The Moon was nearing fullness and felt more powerful than before. Angeline absorbed the light, trying not to take
too much pleasure from feeding. She wasn’t much of an exhibitionist.
The weakness and tremors subsided, and her strength returned. Without a
word, the demons and Anna turned and continued on, Angeline trailing
behind them.
Angeline wanted the link severed as much as anyone else. Ever since her
experience in the black room and her dream about Rodolfo destroying
her, she’d felt uneasy about their access to her. Even as she’d
told Hadrian that they didn’t bother with fallen angels, she still
feared that they would. Perhaps that was why the guardians didn’t
organize into their own faction, why they were so careful not to call
attention to their wings.
They were all too aware of Heaven’s watchful and unforgiving eye,
knowing they were never outside the scope of the angels’
surveillance and any retribution that might bring down upon them.
Guardians had to be as invisible as possible. They had to blend and
fade, pretend not to exist, so Heaven might deign to forget they ever
had.
When they reached the deserted tavern, Cain did a secret knock. The door
opened to reveal a beautiful woman, her hair as dark as Angeline’s.
“Why have you brought an army to my door, demon? I said to bring that one,
only.” She pointed a bejeweled finger at Luc, sizing him up, a
malicious glint in her eyes.
“I’m his mate,” Anna said, moving closer to Luc.
The gypsy turned her assessing gaze on Angeline.
“I-I’m Angeline. I-I came here for Hadrian.”