I shrugged. I still didn’t really know what she was talking about. “So what happened?”
She pinned me with a dark gaze. “I followed Lucifer into Hell and became a Fallen, like the rest of his loyal soldiers.”
My mouth fell open. “Wouldn’t that make you thousands of years old?”
She idly examined one of her perfect red nails. “Yes, I’ve been Lucifer’s blade for many years of both war and peace.”
“War?” At least Zel was a good distraction from my worries. “What war?”
“The Great War.” She waited for my response, but I just shrugged again, and she rolled her eyes. “The war between Heaven and Hell?”
“Oh, right.” I probably should have guessed that. “Is the war still going on?”
“No, it ended a little over thirty years ago when Lucifer and Archangel Michael signed the Earth Accords, and we were all forced to leave Heaven and Hell to live in this dull realm.” She sneered. “Supposedly angels and demons have been at peace since then.”
“Why don’t you sound happier about that?”
“I prefer war,” Zel snapped.
Her words had a tone of finality, but clearly there was more to it than that. While I debated whether to let it go or ask more questions, because I still had a million of them when it came to angels and demons, the sound of windows shattering filled the room.
I screamed as shards of glass rained down on us. Zel was immediately on top of me, protecting my body with her own, pressing me to the marble floor. I managed to crane my neck up as people with demonic, bat-like wings and stony gray skin poured into the room, and I nearly screamed again.
“Gargoyles,” Zel practically spat. “Stay down!”
Fine with me. No way was I getting near one of those things. If I’d had any doubts about demons existing, they flew right out the window the second I saw the winged monsters arrive.
Zel jumped up and sprang into action. I watched, mouth agape, as she whipped two daggers out of holsters at her thighs and began to mow the creatures down. She threw some incredible moves with the daggers, and they flew almost faster than I could see in her hands. One glowed with white light, while the other had a strange black glow that reminded me of Lucifer’s wings. But the gargoyles seemed almost impenetrable, with skin like stone, and her kicks bounced off them. Only the glowing white dagger seemed to do much damage to them.
I scrambled back from an inhuman snarl behind me as hot, fetid breath wafted across the base of my neck. One of the gargoyles had gotten around Zel. With a panicked yelp, I crawled across the carpet on all fours, knees digging into the tiny beads of shattered glass. The gargoyle grabbed my leg, dragging me toward him with a vice-like grip, and sheer terror flooded me. I grunted and kicked at his face with my other leg, successfully connecting with his nose.
It was like kicking a boulder.
I was pretty sure I did more damage to my foot than to his face. These fuckers really were made of stone. His impossibly strong fingers dragged me toward him, no matter how much I fought back, but then Zel threw her light dagger at the beast’s chest. The creature howled and released me, giving me enough time to scramble away.
The door to Lucifer’s library was open and I bolted for it, running faster than I’d ever done in my life. I darted through and tried to close the door from the inside, but another gargoyle slipped his hand through and grabbed the door at the last second, stopping it from shutting all the way. He shoved the door open with inhuman strength, and I cursed and backed away.
I looked around the room frantically, searching for a weapon. Anything that would help keep this monster off me. My gaze landed on that ornamental sword mounted on the wall behind Lucifer’s creepy desk. It seemed to call to me, and I was unable to tear my gaze away.
Before I could question my actions, I stood on tiptoes and jerked the sword from the wall, ripping it out of its jeweled sheath, then lurching forward when the weight of the blade surprised me. The tip nearly hit the ground before I corrected and swung it up, just in time for blinding white light to burst out of the blade as it slashed across the gargoyle’s chest. The glowing sword cut through his stone skin like butter, and I gasped as he hit the ground, dead.
The impact of his stone body hitting the marble floor left cracks in it and sent rubble and dust flying. As soon as the life left him, his wings vanished and he changed, looking for all intents and purposes like a normal human. A normal, very dead human.
Holy shit, I’d just killed someone.
Before I could process what I’d done, another gargoyle charged into the library after me. By sheer instinct and some sort of survival mode I’d switched on, the sword kept moving, cutting down my attacker as I wielded it with the kind of skill I never dreamed I possessed.
I didn’t have time to question it. More gargoyles poured through the door, and my hands kept moving, as did my whole body as I danced and sparred and killed. It was like I’d discovered a muscle memory I never knew I had, like I’d spent most of my life with a sword in my hand. And a good thing too, because here I was, swinging this damn sword and hitting my target every time like my life depended on it—which it totally did.
Gargoyle after gargoyle fell to the ground under the sharp, shining blade, and then Zel was fighting alongside me, her movements impossibly fast and shrouded in darkness. She’d throw a dagger, then use shadow tentacles to pull it back to her hand, and if I hadn’t been fighting my own demons, I would have stopped to stare.
“You all right, little mortal?” Zel yelled, as she stabbed a gargoyle through the neck.
“I think so?” I called back, as I narrowly dodged a gargoyle’s claws. With a mighty swoop, I chopped the head off of him, like some kind of bloodthirsty warlord riding a battle high. Okay, maybe I wasn’t all right. But I couldn’t stop either.
Zel cut down the last gargoyle, and then we were alone. Standing amid a circle of dead bodies. Panting heavily and covered in dust and blood.
I looked down at myself and the horror of it all finally hit me. The adrenaline left me in a rush, and the sword fell from my hand and clattered on the floor. I looked at my trembling hands, wondering if they were mine. How had I done all that? I’d never even held a sword before, as far as I could remember. Yet somehow I’d cut down my opponents like it was nothing. Like I’d been born for combat.
“How?” I looked up at Zel, my heart racing and bile rising in my throat. “How did I…?”
Zel leaned against one of the large bookcases, looking completely at rest as she wiped off her daggers with a small cloth. “That was some show. I have to admit, I’m impressed, little mortal.”
“I killed them.” My gaze flew over the lifeless bodies, knowing I’d been responsible for their deaths. “Oh god, I killed them.”
She shrugged, like it wasn’t a big deal. “It was you or them.”
Pushing off the bookcase, she nudged the sword I’d used with her boot, then carefully picked it up with her cloth, like she worried it would burn her, even though the bright light had faded. I felt a pang of something like possessiveness when she touched it, like I wanted to snatch the blade from her and shout, “Mine!” I stepped back instead, shaking my head to clear it. What the hell was wrong with me?
“How did I do this?” I asked, my voice faltering.
“That’s not my story to tell,” she said. “You’ll have to ask Lucifer.”
She walked out of the library, leaving me standing amid a circle of death—one caused by my own hand.
12
Lucifer
I landed hastily on the balcony of my penthouse, taking in the destruction. The windows of the living room had all been shattered, and tiny pieces of glass shimmered in the moonlight. Panic and dread fought for control inside me as I rushed inside.
“Hannah?” I yelled.
My furniture had been tossed about and broken, and a thin layer of dust and rubble coated the floor, along with blood. No bodies though, and no sign of Hannah or Azazel either.
I ran to Hannah’s room, but it was empty and untouched except for the broken windows and the glass all over the floor. Where was she? I returned to the living room and turned in a circle. My rage and fear nearly overwhelmed me. Darkness slipped from my fingertips, eager to find someone to punish for this invasion. How dare they attack my penthouse? Where my woman was?
“She’s fine.”
Whirling, I nearly blasted Azazel with dark magic before I reined myself in. “Where is she?”
“In your room. She’s asleep, and unharmed.”
Relief settled over me and I let out a long breath, then rested a hand on Azazel’s shoulder. “Thank you for protecting her. I knew you wouldn’t fail me. Gargoyles, was it?”
She bowed her head slightly in acknowledgement. “They were trying to kidnap Hannah.”
My fists clenched at my side and filled with hellfire, waiting to be unleashed. First imps, then shifters, and now gargoyles. Were all my demons turning against me? And why attack now? They must have known we were going to be away rescuing Hannah’s friend. Another betrayal against me.
“There’s something you should see,” Azazel said.
She led me into the library, where the gargoyles’ bodies had dropped in a circle. The clean-up crew was still working here, and they all gave me a low bow before continuing their work. Even though much of the carnage was gone, I spotted some heads removed from their bodies, and there were many more attackers than even Azazel could face.