I gathered the night around me, spreading my wings wide, before I unleashed it. Like shadowy tentacles, my magic reached out and wrapped around each shifter outside the motel and carved jagged clefts right through them, ripping them apart limb from limb.
Did I need a small army at my back? No. I could destroy everyone here with the slightest thought. I’d simply hoped to avoid bloodshed, thinking that a show of force would cause the shifters to back down and hand over the captives. But that didn’t happen, and now I was really fucking pissed.
More shifters emerged from the motel, chased out by Samael and his Lilim warriors. A huge red fox decided to get brave, snapping at me. The same fucking fox shifter who’d been spying on me and Hannah while we’d been shopping.
As he leaped at me with sharp teeth, I clamped my fingers on the creature’s neck and used darkness to reach inside him and crush his heart and his lungs. Then I tossed his body to the ground as the remainder of his flesh shifted back to human form. He should have heeded my warning earlier.
I looked around at the continued fighting, my chest heaving as I battled the desire to burn each of the remaining shifters to ashes. Perhaps they’d surrender now.
None of them did.
I pushed my darkness outward. As soon as the remaining shifters saw more of the twisting shadows swirling from me they ran, but they were too late. They’d forced my hand.
My darkness snaked around the throats of each of the rebellious little traitors, yanking them back. I sucked all the life out of them, drawing it back inside myself, their resistance only making me stronger.
Their lifeless bodies hit the ground and the battle was officially over. I turned toward the motel in time to see Samael emerge from the front doors with Asmodeus and a pretty Black woman. Her dark skin was dust-covered and there was evidence of blood congealing around small tears in her clothes, but her brown eyes still held a gleam of determination. This must be Brandy.
She was faring better than Asmodeus, by all appearances, and she held onto his arm, like she refused to be parted from his side. The incubus’s olive skin was covered in more dried blood and dirt, as were his ripped and torn clothes. His normally vibrant green eyes were dull and exhausted, and he stumbled forward along the dirt, leaning against Brandy for support while Samael looked on with a frown.
I took a handkerchief from my suit pocket and slowly wiped off my hands. “Tell me what happened.”
“They kidnapped us,” Brandy said, and I was surprised she answered first. A brave one, for sure. “They tortured him, trying to get him to talk about you, but he wouldn’t break.”
“Did you feed on her?” I asked Asmodeus. It would be understandable given the circumstances, but humans could only handle so much of an incubus’s attentions. I needed to know if he’d done any damage to Brandy before I returned her to Hannah.
“No, I didn’t,” Asmodeus said between clenched teeth. He obviously needed to feed, and was doing everything in his power to hold himself back.
“You heroic fool,” Brandy muttered, her eyes softening as she looked at him. “I told you it was all right.”
Heroic? Asmodeus? The incubus who ran my strip clubs and went through human women like candy? I nearly laughed, until I saw the way they looked at each other. With their gazes locked, something intense passed between them, like powerful longing. It must be a side effect of his powers. Asmodeus may have refrained from feeding on her, but the lust he inspired was impossible for humans to ignore.
“I would never hurt you,” Asmodeus said to her.
Samael stepped forward and took Asmodeus’s arm, yanking him away from Brandy with a disapproving frown. “You need to feed, son. I’ll take you now.”
“Yes, go,” I said, waving them off. “I’ll handle things here.”
Asmodeus reached out to Brandy like he was going to stroke her face, but then he dropped his hand and his expression turned grim. Samael’s wings stretched out and he picked up his son, before they flew up into the sky. Unlike Samael, Asmodeus didn’t have wings. He took after his mother, Lilith, instead.
Brandy watched them fly away and brushed her fingers across her eyes, wiping away tears she didn’t wish me to see. Then her head snapped to me and she stared at me with something like curiosity.
“You know who I am?” I asked. As she certainly knew all about demons now, there was no sense in hiding my abilities or pretending to be other than I was.
She bit her lip and nodded, but I was impressed that she didn’t drop her eyes or look away. “Asmodeus told me. I didn’t believe it at first but…”
She was handling things very well, all things considered. I could see why Hannah would practically sell her soul for such a friend. “We’re going to fly you back to my hotel, The Celestial, where you can recover in safety. Hannah is there already.”
“Hannah?” Brandy looked around at all the bodies helplessly. “She can’t be here. This place, this world…”
Perhaps this was a bit much for a mortal to endure. I waved my arm and the night devoured the bodies, causing them to vanish. That only made her jump though, and I wondered whether I’d overdone it. It had been a long time since I’d shown my true self to humans, and I forgot how skittish they became around blood and magic.
“Hannah is the reason we found you,” I explained. “She’ll be relieved to see you’re all right.”
“Am I?” she asked with a short laugh, as she rubbed her arms and gazed at the hotel with dark memories in her eyes. Yes, she definitely needed to leave this place. After my people finished searching the motel for evidence, I’d burn it down in her honor.
I snapped my fingers. “Gadreel, please escort Ms. Brandy back to The Celestial and set her up in one of the luxury suites.”
Gadreel stepped forward and nodded, his pale wings stretching out behind him. She stared at them with her mouth open, and then he said something quietly to her before picking her up. I could have carried Brandy myself, of course, but that felt like a betrayal of Hannah. Another woman in my arms? No. I only wanted the one who was meant for me.
I barked out a few orders to the remaining Fallen and Lilim at the scene, making sure they left no stone unturned in their search. I didn’t know why those shifters had taken Asmodeus and Brandy, but their betrayal made my blood boil. I needed to know if this was an isolated rogue group, or if this was part of a larger act of mutiny. Hopefully when Asmodeus recovered he’d have some answers too.
I took one last look around before taking off into the sky, eager to tell Hannah that her friend had been rescued. My part of the deal was complete.
Now it was her turn.
11
Hannah
I paced back and forth in the penthouse until my feet ached. Shouldn’t they be back by now? I checked the clock for the fiftieth time but only two minutes had passed since I’d last looked at it. I groaned and turned away before I drove myself even more mad.
Azazel watched me from where she lounged on the black leather sofa in Lucifer's living room. With her rich, dark skin and black leather clothing, she looked like a panther—deadly but deceptively relaxed. While drinking a glass of red wine, she watched every single one of my movements like she had to report them all to Lucifer.
“You’re making me tired, little mortal.” She yawned and shifted her position, stretching like a feline.
I stopped and sighed. “I’m sorry my pacing exhausts you. Aren’t you the least bit worried?”
Zel snorted. “Not at all. If your friend isn’t dead already, Lucifer won’t let her be hurt. And if she is, well, it’s already done.”
I threw my hands up at her infuriating response. “What about Lucifer? He’s your boss, isn’t he?”
She laughed in response to that. “You really don’t need to worry about him.”
Maybe not, but I was surprised at how much the thought of him being wounded made my chest tighten and my heart pound. Why did I even care? He was the devil, for crying out loud. Should I be rooting for him at all, or was that like siding with evil? But if he was rescuing innocent women from kidnappers, wouldn’t that make him the good guy? Damn, this shit was confusing.
Still, I probably shouldn’t be worried. I’d only known Lucifer for a few short days, during which he’d basically held me captive. Okay, he’d also bought me a lot of nice stuff and treated me like a queen, but I’d also seen some pretty terrifying things. Not to mention, I’d nearly died too.
To say I was conflicted was an understatement.
I sucked in a breath. All I wanted was for Brandy to be safe. I would focus on that and figure out everything else later.
With nothing to do but wait, I plopped into one of the armchairs and jiggled my leg. Zel moved again on the sofa, cat-like, adjusting so she could see me better.
“So you’re a fallen angel?” I asked, trying to make conversation. Mainly to distract myself from glaring at the clock once more.
“If you must know, I was once an Erelim.”
I gave her a blank look. “Am I supposed to know what that is?”
She sighed and began to speak like she was explaining something even a child would know. “Angels have four Choirs, each with different abilities. Malakim are healers, Ishim can go invisible, Ofanim detect truth, and Erelim are warriors of light.”