Her Wicked Angel (Her Angel Romance Series Book 6) (37 page)

He flexed his fingers and curled them into fists. Liora would hate to see him as he was now. She wouldn’t want to be in these arms that longed to hold her close to him, to shield her from the violence of the three realms and keep her safe.

She would see him as a monster.

Pure evil.

A true king of demons.

Just like his master.

The Devil straightened and tipped his chin up, holding Asmodeus’s gaze. The shadows fluttering around his master’s shoulders spread and grew, until they streamed from the back of his black shirt and flickered over his hands. Darkness shifted beneath his skin and his red eyes bore into Asmodeus, challenging him as his power flowed over him, pressing down despite the magnitude of Asmodeus’s own power.

“I warn you… do not try to reach her, Asmodeus. Do not be a fool. I swear she is safe, unharmed, and she will remain that way. I do this for the good of the world.”

“Good?” Asmodeus readied his blades and flashed his fangs. “You know nothing of good. What you do is evil… you seek to separate us… you seek to keep my Liora from me and I will not allow it. She is
mine
!”

The Devil’s eyes blazed crimson and he growled, revealing his own vicious fangs.

“Try, Maggot. Only I can access the place where she resides and any who attempt to reach it will die.”

His master cast his left hand out and Asmodeus roared at him as black tendrils shot around him, snaring his wrists and throat, choking him.

“For the good of the three realms, Asmodeus, do not be a fool.”

Darkness swallowed him and then black slammed into him. He pressed his hands against the charred slabs, pushed himself onto his knees, and threw his head back and roared at the cavernous ceiling of Hell and the ruined castle before him.

His master would pay for daring to send him here, back to a place that only worsened his pain, heightening it until it ate away at him.

He lumbered onto his feet and breathed hard, trying to rein his anger in and subdue the darkness. The shadows slipped from his skin and his armour, and his horns shrank back into his head.

He had to look normal. He couldn’t let them see him like this.

He couldn’t let them see what was going to happen before it was too late.

He clutched the pentagram around his neck and grinned.

He needed to borrow something from his twin.

He needed to locate Liora within the fortress.

He needed a witch.

A
pollyon was growing tired of Asmodeus’s behaviour. He checked his swords over and sheathed them at his waist, settling the curved golden blades against the pointed strips of armour that protected his hips. Everyone else on the island had already armoured up and were ready to leave as soon as he had retrieved Serenity from the other side of the island. She was trying to communicate with the idiot’s two hellhounds, hoping to discover what he had told them about his plans, if anything.

He looked around him at the others, glad that they had agreed to come with him to Hell in search of Liora and Asmodeus. God only knew his twin didn’t deserve their help after heading off alone like that, leaving Erin with his rabid dogs.

Erin paced near the fire, muttering dark things beneath her breath. The Devil had refused to respond when she had opened a line of communication with him and demanded to know whether he had sent his Hell’s angels to snatch Liora, breaking the tentative truce between them. Since then, she had been detailing all the ways she was going to rip into her father and make him pay.

Veiron remained close to her, barely holding on to his more angelic form. Darkness ruled around his red eyes though, a warning that he could turn demonic at any moment. His gaze followed his female and from time to time he reached out and she would touch his hand as she passed. The act seemed to ground Erin, causing the shadows that constantly flickered around her hands to abate for a few minutes.

Amelia and Marcus were deep in conversation, strategizing and discussing how they were going to keep Erin from launching a dark unholy war on her father. She was in no state to fight, not without harming the baby. Everyone had silently agreed on that, exchanging looks that had created a pact. No matter what went down when they were in Hell, Erin was going to be surrounded at all times, held back from the fight and safe from danger. She would hate them for it, but she wasn’t thinking straight. She was angry and wanted the Devil to pay, and everyone here knew where that would lead.

They were in no position to declare war on the Devil.

At least not while he had Liora.

Apollyon looked at the endless blue sky, charting the position of the sun. It had been hours since Asmodeus had gone off on a suicide mission. In a handful of minutes, he and the others would do the same, throwing themselves into Hell in order to take Liora back from the Devil.

How many times had he told Asmodeus to guard Liora more carefully, ensuring she was safe? The fool had let her go off alone and something had snatched her. He would be having words with the idiot when he reached him in Hell.

As soon as Serenity returned.

What was taking her so long?

Erin cast him a glance and then lingered, frowning at him. She ground to a halt on the white sand and brushed her jaw-length black hair back from her face.

“Holy fuck.” Her amber eyes shot wide. “How long have the puppies been gone?”

“What do you mean?” Apollyon turned and stalked towards her. “The hellhounds are gone?”

She nodded. “I could feel them a minute ago… and now I can’t. Veiron?”

The tall scarlet-haired Hell’s angel shrugged his crimson wings. “Nope. You’re right. They’ve popped off my radar. I could sort of sense them before.”

“Serenity,” Apollyon breathed and turned his focus to her, seeking her.

Normally there was a connection between them, a link between him and the witch who was his master. Now, there was nothing. He pressed his hands to his chest and closed his eyes, focusing harder and searching for her. A familiar tug behind his gold-edged black breastplate pulled him downwards, towards the sand.

Towards Hell.

Apollyon growled. “Asmodeus.”

His twin was going to die for this.

He concentrated on the call Serenity was sending him.

It disappeared.

He gritted his teeth and curled his fingers into fists, clenching them tightly.

“He took Serenity?” Amelia said, her grey eyes beginning to turn silver and her emotions rising, tainting her power in a way that he could sense. “Why?”

“He has to have a reason,” Erin piped in and ignored the scowl Amelia tossed her way. She settled her amber gaze on Apollyon and rubbed her belly, smoothing the black material of her dress over it. She was the only one not wearing armour, having complained that it hurt her baby and she didn’t need it because she could teleport in a snap. “Maybe he wants Serenity to find Liora?”

A reasonable explanation. It would take a witch to find a witch. Apollyon was still going to kill him though.

The quiet voice at the back of his mind mocked him, pointing out that he had left his female alone and something had snatched her. He was no better than Asmodeus.

He let out a frustrated growl.

“We need to find them.” He turned his focus towards Serenity again but felt nothing.

He had travelled in Hell for centuries and had heard rumours that Asmodeus held court in a distant region of the realm, having constructed himself a castle there that was fitting for the so-called King of Demons. None of the demons he had tortured for information had been able to give him a location though. They had only stammered that none went there. The King of Demons ruled a barren land and killed any who strayed into his realm.

He had never seen it for himself and didn’t know where to begin looking. Hell was as vast as Earth and Heaven. Without a location, it would take months or years to track Asmodeus down, and he had a feeling that they had only hours.

“I cannot feel her. I do not know where Asmodeus has taken her.” He looked to Erin. “Can you feel him?”

“I don’t know how. I know he said that he could feel me… and I know he brought you here because he could sense my location… but I don’t know how he does that, and I don’t know if I can do it. I try to feel him and I get nothing back.” Erin settled her hands on her stomach and looked to the others, her black eyebrows furrowing in frustration. “There has to be a way to find him before he does something insane… like that whole angel-bait incident with the shark.”

“He does not get that from my blood,” Apollyon muttered beneath his breath and frowned at the sand, his frustration mounting and getting the better of him. He needed Serenity back. He couldn’t trust that Asmodeus would keep her safe in Hell. She was immortal now, but she could still be harmed. She could still die.

“There has to be a way to find him,” Marcus said. “Can’t we just head down to the plateau and await him? He is bound to go to the Devil’s fortress.”

“No. If we leave it that long… if we’re late… Serenity might end up… well, you know.” Amelia cast Apollyon an apologetic glance when he scowled at her, silently cursing her for voicing his innermost fears.

Veiron remained silent and still, his gaze locked on the charred black logs in the fire pit.

“Veiron?” Apollyon said and stepped forwards, coming to stand on the other side of the dead fire.

Veiron lifted his head, fixing crimson eyes on him that swirled with gold and black flakes. The gold began to dominate the red. Apollyon had seen his eyes do that before, when it had become apparent that he had formed a contract with Erin and he had been lost in a vicious temper, battling the Devil. Since then, his eyes had never turned golden. That they were doing so now unnerved Apollyon and put him on his guard.

“Nevar,” Veiron growled.

“My guardian angel?” Erin said with a frown and Veiron nodded stiffly.

“He is obsessed with Asmodeus… he has been tracking him.” Veiron turned his golden and crimson gaze back on the blackened driftwood. “If anyone knows where he is, it is Nevar… but… I do not want Erin to come with us.”

“Why the hell not?” Erin planted her hands on her hips and glared at her male.

Veiron gently laid his hand on her swollen stomach and sighed down into her eyes, the gold in his fading. “Nevar is dangerous. Fucked up. I don’t want you near him.”

The last time Apollyon had seen the white-haired guardian angel, he had been intent on killing Asmodeus. Asmodeus had awakened evil in him, a terrible darkness that had fed Nevar’s wrath and turned him on Asmodeus. He had still been recognisable as the male who had served Heaven, protecting Erin from a distance, but evil took hold quickly in angels with the capacity for it, dragging them swiftly down into the darkness.

“When did you see him last?” Apollyon looked across the fire pit to Veiron, fearing what his answer would be.

“A few weeks ago. Villandry called me to London… you remember?” He looked at Erin and she nodded, her amber eyes filling with concern. Veiron took her hand and squeezed it. “Nevar wanted nothing to do with me. He was… is… there’s something very wrong with him. I barely recognised him.”

Apollyon’s black eyebrows met in a frown. “Evil. The darkness has him. Asmodeus awakened it in him.”

“Well, it sank its claws pretty damn hard into the bloke. He is seriously messed up.”

“But you think he will know where Asmodeus is?” Apollyon was willing to risk the wrath of a poisoned angel to find Serenity. He was strong enough to take down Nevar if he had to.

Probably.

Veiron nodded.

“Then I will pay him a visit. Where will I find him?” Apollyon stroked his blades and ignored the irritated and incredulous looks the others threw at him.

“
We
will pay him a visit. So where are we going?” Erin held her hand up when Veiron went to protest. He growled, his dark crimson eyebrows knitting hard above his red and gold eyes.

“Where would you find the damned?” Veiron gathered Erin into his arms, tucking her against his side, and held his hand out in front of him, his palm facing outwards. The air shimmered and the landscape beyond it distorted. Veiron grinned as curling black smoke formed and then a portal erupted in white fierce flames. “Cloud Nine.”

He leaped into the portal and Apollyon followed him, landing in a grotty street outside a red brick building. There was a metal door with a neon sign above it. It was switched off.

A small black camera mounted on the wall above the door swivelled towards them.

Veiron saluted it with his middle finger.

The metal door creaked open and a huge shaven-headed man wearing worn black jeans and a charcoal grey t-shirt three sizes too small for his rotund stomach lumbered out. His gaze locked on each of them in turn and he pointed meaty fingers.

“No.” Amelia. “No.” Marcus. “No.” Apollyon.

To Veiron and Erin, he grinned, flashing yellowing teeth, and jerked his thumb over his shoulder towards the dark room beyond the door.

Apollyon beat his black wings, shot across the narrow strip of grimy pavement between them, and grabbed him around the throat and slammed him against the door, bending it backwards until it smashed into the wall.

“You think to deny me?” Apollyon squeezed, digging his fingers into the male’s chubby neck, until his flesh bulged from between them and his eyes watered. Veins popped out across his forehead and he turned red.

“I really wouldn’t piss him off.” Veiron sauntered past, guiding Erin into the building. “The Great Destroyer has anger management issues.”

Amelia and Marcus sidled around them, giving him as wide a berth as possible, and followed Erin and Veiron into the dark club.

Apollyon leaned in, staring hard into the demon’s eyes, his own swirling blue with his fury.

“You. Think. To. Deny. Me?” He spat each word, tightening his grip by degrees.

The demon tried to speak.

Apollyon loosened his fingers and waited.

“Mistake. Enter.” The demon wheezed, his eyes watering and pleading him for mercy.

Apollyon tossed him across the narrow street, sending him crashing into a wall there, his anger getting the better of him. The male dropped to the ground, revealing an impact crater in the red brick, and landed in a puffing heap. He wisely remained there, even though Apollyon silently dared him to move so he could unleash some of his pent up fury on the worthless male.