The Demon of Angels (Bk. 2)

ZEKE FLEW TO my side, tucking me under his arm, growling at the Demon Prince. Evan crossed his arms over his chest as his body stilled. Noah came around the couch and blocked me from Asmodeus’ view with his body.

Awe, they’re so adorable when they’re trying to protect me.

Calling forth my power, I let it trickle to my fingertips and tapped Zeke’s arm. My mate jumped with a hiss as I electrocuted him, his arms loosening from around my waist. It gave me the leverage I needed to slip from his reach, speed past Noah, and face Asmodeus at the doorway next to Evan.

The Celestial shook his head with a snicker, his lips curving as he took a small step back. Enough to give me the lead, but not enough to let me slip through and catch him off guard.

Asmodeus grinned at me, but the light expression on the demon’s face fell as soon as it lifted. “We need to talk.” I didn’t hesitate to nod.

There was no tick in the back of my mind telling me to stay away from him as there had been at first. Asmodeus may have been the leading cause of our crash, but I could tell he wanted me to win this war just as much as I did. After all, the demon prince did get me out of near literal Hell last night. Looking at him now, as I stepped out of the cabin, I knew there was something else. Or maybe, someone that had him interfering more than he knew he should.

The boys behind me swore under their breaths, well, besides Evan, knowing they couldn’t stop me. Agitation, apprehension, and worry seeped through the bonds, even Evan’s. He was just better at hiding– less macho– calmer in the fits of chaos. I knew they’d be watching, Zeke especially, and that would be enough for me. They always had my back. I just prayed I was strong enough to have theirs when the time came.

Standing in the shadow of the porch above us, Asmodeus avoided my eyes as he gazed out on the lake. He leaned against one of the wooden beams, his chest slowly moving along with the smooth rhythm of his breathing.

After a moment, I spoke. “I never got the chance to thank you for what you did for me– so thank you,” I pushed out. Asmodeus had pulled me from a dark place, one I never wanted to return to, and brought me back by reminding me of the things and the people I was fighting for. Clearing my throat, I asked him, “Why are you here, Asmodeus?”

His magenta eyes flickered to my gaze, then back out to the water. “You’ve Soul Bonded with them,” he noted. I nodded quietly, not understanding why he was bringing it up. “That’s important,” Asmodeus said after a moment.

My eyebrows furrowed. “Why?”

This time the demon met my gaze. “They make you stronger, and you– them.”

That I could understand. Kind of. But my curiosity still wasn’t sated. “How so?” I walked to the beam across from him. Leaning against it, I glanced out to the water, then back to him.

“You don’t know much, do you?” he asked. I refused to answer a question he already knew the answer to. Asmodeus sighed. “Fair enough. A Soulbond, which can only be created between two Purebreds, can be dangerous because it makes the pair, or group stronger. In Hell, it is deeply frowned upon to create a Soulbond without the permission of the King himself.”

I snorted but quickly covered it with a cough. “But why?”

“Only very strong Purebreds of different species can survive the Soul Bond. Hell, I doubted even one of your Archangel buddies could survive the bond. Once- hold on,” he paused, eyeing me. “Did you receive the mark yet?”

I’m going to take a shot in the dark here and guess he’s talking about the tattoo. “The tattoo?”

Asmodeus sucked in a deep breath. “When did you get it?”

I’ll take that as a yes. “Directly after.” His bright pink eyes visibly widened. I frowned slightly, confused by his reaction. “What?” I asked cautiously.

“Look,” he sighed. “The last known Purebred soulmates that fully completed the Bond exploded like a supernova. Their souls became one, as did their powers.”

“How do you know this?” I asked, trying to avoid any other questions regarding turning into a supernova. I was pretty sure I was trying but failing to hide the shock from my face. The boys stood a distance away, but from the current vibrations rumbling through their ties to me, I knew they had heard too.

Asmodeus ticked his eyebrow. “I’ve been alive for a long time, Little One.” His parental tone reminded me never to question my elders ever again.

Michael’s voice barreled into my head then. His conversation about the Soul Bond was nothing of this proportion. It was like he was encouraging it rather than telling me not to do it. “Michael never said anything about possibly exploding,” I said, voicing my thoughts.

Asmodeus leveled our gaze, flickering between my eyes as if searching for something. I don’t think I’d ever be able to guess what the hell he was thinking, even in a million years.

“He probably saw it,” Asmodeus finally said. “He probably didn’t mention the tattoo you’d get after completing the mateship bond either, did he?” I shook my head no. Asmodeus snorted. “Angels,” he muttered under his breath.

“Why wouldn’t he tell me?” I murmured, more to myself than the demon prince.

He replied regardless, confirming my sudden suspicions. “He can’t get too involved. You had to make that decision for yourself. However, him not telling you about the whole supernova stuff shows me that he was intervening in his own way.”

“Trying to make it seem like a good thing?” I questioned. Asmodeus nodded, then another question came to mind. Now that we were officially on the subject of exploding into a gazillion pieces might as well keep it going. “How long after do they usually, uhm, explode?”

Asmodeus’ lips twitched at the edge. “Directly after receiving the mark. It will feel as if a fire has been ignited inside of you, and once the symbol forms, the lines will start to unravel and burst slowly.” The demon made an exploding motion with his hands.

I shook my head, trying to fight the laughter that was bubbling up in my throat. “Well, that’s good that it didn’t happen, right?”

Asmodeus nodded. “Very, it means each of you come from pure lines of descent. Not just purebreds, but a pure being of your kind.”

I nodded, eyes staring off into nothing as Asmodeus raised a perfectly plucked brow. “Have you seen it yet?”

I nodded my head. “But we’re guessing at what it means.”

Asmodeus sighed like an annoyed parent. He twirled his fingers. “Turn,” he demanded.

I snorted but did as I was told. Having my back to demons wasn’t one of my favorite pastimes, but a strong part of me trusted the demon prince. Asmodeus’ finger tugged at the collar of my shirt, pulling it back so he could get a good look at my back and spine. His finger never touched my skin, but a growl of warning from my mate still echoed in the distance. Asmodeus snorted, then mumbled something about insufferable new mates.

After a momentary pause, I heard the distinct sound of a camera going off. My jaw dropped, and I whipped around. Asmodeus had a cell phone pulled out, his finger still hanging in the air where he had just held my t-shirt.

“What are you doing?” I barked, rubbing at the spot on my back.

Asmodeus looked like he was a kid who just got caught snooping on Christmas morning. Then his face contorted into a scowl. “I was taking a picture of it so you could see.”

I stuck my hand out. “Give me the phone,” I demanded. The demon prince raised one eyebrow and crossed his arms over his chest. I scowled at him. “What? You expect me to say please?” Asmodeus’ lips twitched, but he said nothing, just stood there and waited expectantly. After a few moments of a silent stare down, I gave in. “Fine,” I growled. “May I please see the device?”

With a satisfied grin, Asmodeus handed me his cell phone without hesitation. I bit back a laugh as my eyes landed on the picture he took. In the center of my shoulder blades was the same symbol Zeke had shown me earlier, but this time it was a closer picture.

Who knew something so small and beautiful could be so deadly?

I handed Asmodeus’ phone back to him, and silence seemed to take over once again. He didn’t meet my gaze once he found his words. “You can’t lose this war, Little One.”

I crossed my arms over my chest, resisting the urge to roll my eyes. “Tell me something I don’t know.” Bowing my head, I stared at my feet and frowned. “Why did you help me?” I asked. I was too curious to help myself, sue me.

The demon prince sighed, and after a moment, he spoke. “You remind me of my daughter,” he said bluntly. When my eyes widened, he caught my gaze and smirked. No light reached his pink eyes as he frowned. “If you don’t win this war, your father wins, and I lose the only important thing in my existence.”

What a bomb drop.

Slowly, I nodded. “What’s her name?”

A spark of light did reach his eyes at that time. “Rose.”

“That’s beautiful,” I murmured, glancing back out toward the water. The sun was starting to peak through the dark night, and some of the stars were beginning to disappear.

“She is,” he nodded.

Sighing, I ran a heavy hand through my hair. “He had me right where he wanted me, after we hesitated to kill him,” I let the words pour from my mouth, reliving the moments in that cell. “When you got me out–” Asmodeus parted his lips to interject, but I cut him off with a look. “Don’t even try and deny that, I know it was you.”

The demon prince rolled his eyes, sinking into the beam, and gazed at the oncoming stars. Swallowing the lump in my throat, I continued to question everything. Including myself. “It felt too easy, like he was expecting it and let it happen. He had me, so why did he let me go?” The words grew softer as they came to a stop. My mind swirled with possible answers to my never-ending list of questions.

“Think about it,” Asmodeus interrupted my mental chaos. “Death doesn’t act irrationally. He does everything with intent, and he’s been planning for this moment for centuries.”

I met the demon’s gaze. “Okay, so what? I get that my father’s a psychotic egomaniac who occasionally acts like he’s the starring role of some huge movie–” Asmodeus rolled his eyes, his lips twitching at the edges. “–but that doesn’t help me solve any of my problems.”

“That’s because you’re looking at it all wrong,” Asmodeus scolded me like a child. I scrunched my nose, and he continued with a sigh. “You’re looking at it like this has everything to do with him when, in fact, it has everything to do with you.”

I started spitting out words before my mind could play catch up. “Yeah, I’m the only one who can open the gates of Hell; I get that, but what else does he need me for? He has the power to destroy the planet…” I trailed off, losing my train of thought.

Asmodeus sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “The real keys to the gates of Hell have never left Lucifer’s side.”

My mind was running a million miles per minute. “But–”

“Celeste, you’re the key!” The demon prince shouted, startling me. “I found it out just the other day,” he sighed, then scoffed. “I should’ve known, but I instead believed the rumors.”

“What does it mean?” I was so confused.

“It started with the first caretaker of the keys,” he answered.

My eyebrows pinched together. “Lilith...” I trailed off.

Asmodeus spoke without hesitation. “Lucifer’s wife never left his side, and she was the keeper of the keys. But Lucy’s wife was also cheating on him with Mammon.”

I shook my head, unable to help the short laugh that escaped. “Greedy little demon,” I muttered, then sighed, exhaustion beginning to tug at my eyelids. “Okay, so what then?”

Asmodeus chuckled, nodding his agreement. “Yes, indeed he is. Continuing on, Mammon tricked Lucy’s wife into thinking she could have all the riches in the realms of the universe.”

I rolled my eyes. “And she fell for that?”

The demon prince nodded again. “Yeah, she did.”

Women always falling for a man’s words instead of their actions.

“Anyway,” he said, brushing it off. “Lilith left the keys and willingly went with Mammon. But because she was the original caretaker of the keys, only her natural descendants could take over that role.”

“Okay…” I trailed off. “Then what?”

“When Lucifer found out about what his wife had done… he freaked out a little.” I raised my eyebrow, and Asmodeus smirked. “Imagine Hell, but thousand times worse.”

I visibly winced, quickly shoving the memories of Death’s vision of Hell on Earth from my mind. “Okay, I get your point.”

The demon prince nodded slowly, watching as a bird flew from one tree to another. “During Lucifer’s breakdown, Death was able to sneak in and snatch them under his nose.” I cocked my head in confusion, and Asmodeus caught it. “Your father, myself, and the others are all children of Lilith and Lucifer. The rest of the demonic population were created,” he clarified. “The Big Man upstairs would never create such creatures by choice.”

I choked on my own saliva. “Lucifer is my grandfather?!” I shrieked.

Asmodeus nodded turn turned to me with a shy grin. “I’m your uncle, by blood.”

I staggered back a step, unable to fully process what he was telling me. Lucifer was my grandfather; Lilith my grandmother; Asmodeus my uncle; Mammon my uncle; Leviathan my aunt; and his daughter, Rose, my cousin… The overload of information was giving me a migraine. I took a deep lungful of air, backing up another step as the shockwave of emotions jerked through the bonds. The boys were just as shocked as I was.

“That’s why I was able to be conceived in the first place,” I breathed. My lineage was too strong for it not to be possible. But, being Lucifer’s son, my father was risking his wrath directly. It was why it was never done before. But that doesn’t explain my mother’s lineage– I knew she was a purebred Celestial, but I never knew the depths of her family line. It also led me to question Zeke’s ancestry as well.

Asmodeus kept to himself, watching me as I processed an overload of new knowledge. Clearing my throat, I turned back to the High Demon Prince– my uncle. “You said the keys have never left Lucifer’s side.”

“Your father lasted a whole two minutes with the keys until Lucifer found him,” Asmodeus continued. I would have paid to see Lucy rip my father a new one. “He took the keys back, but in the midst of their argument, a small shard of the key broke off. Death found it after Lucifer left, stole it, and hid it. Later, when he found out that your mother was pregnant with you, which actually wasn’t completely planned, by the way–”

“What?” I interrupted, my eyes widening.

The demon prince nodded with a frown. “Your father was fully in love with your mother,” he reminded me. “You weren’t planned, but once you were conceived, Death took his father’s punishment personally. He then took that sliver of metal and melted it. He snuck in while everyone was sleeping when you were born and inserted the liquid metal into your veins. The only reason it didn’t kill you was that your Hybrid side was already extremely powerful at that time, and the powers infused with it interlaced with your DNA, recognizing it as one of its own.”

“So, I’m an extra special freak of nature?”

Asmodeus’ eyebrow raised. “Something like that. But you’re also everything that Death needs to unlock the gates of Hell. Lucifer doesn’t what your father has done to you. Otherwise, you’d be dead already or banished to the Oblivion.”

“Lovely,” I mumbled, rubbing the bridge of my nose. “But that doesn’t explain how he plans to use me,” I uttered, my eyebrows pinching together.

“Your father knows your weakness– or rather, weaknesses and the prophecy. He fully plans to use both to his advantage.”

My heart plummeted to my toes. “The boys,” I whispered. My hand instinctively placed itself over my chest as I swallowed a lump in my throat.

Asmodeus nodded slowly. “He almost got to you once, in that cellar. Do not let it happen again, Celeste,” he warned.

My lungs were growing heavy as the images from the other night came crashing back. All I could see were the boys’ faces as my father stabbed me in the chest and stole me away from them, leading them to believe I was dead. It hurt my heart more than the actual stab wound.

The words of the prophecy came back to me, further explaining what Asmodeus was saying.

The Prophet’s bonded protector and mate

Shall be the light that helps save us all

Or the dark pathway to the Prophet’s self-destruction

The black ink imprinted on my body warmed. My eyes fluttered to the boys on my right, meeting a pair of golden eyes.

We’re in this together.

I gave Zeke a small nod and Asmodeus’ voice pulled my attention away from my mate.

“You are stronger together, Little One. Do not ever forget that.”

Swallowing the new lump that was starting to form at the base of my throat, I gave the demon prince a firm nod and a look of determination. He returned the favor and gave me a small smile. Looking into his magenta eyes, I saw warmth in them and I knew he was thinking of his daughter– and me, his niece.

“She won’t be harmed,” I vowed, speaking of his daughter. “No innocent life will die at the hands of my father.”

Asmodeus blinked away the emotion, and his lips twitched. “I know, Celeste. I know,” he whispered. Slowly, he stood up straight from the beam and glanced back out toward the water with a soft sigh. “I’ve done what I can here. It’s up to you now. Do your family proud.”

Whether he meant my mother’s side or my father’s, I had no idea. Either way, he was now involved in that notion.

“I will,” I promised him.

Glancing over his shoulder, he gave me a small smile. “Good– oh, and Celeste.”

“Hmm?”

“It’s not just my daughter’s safety I’m worried about,” he admitted. As soon as the words left his mouth, the demon prince slowly turned to black smoke, his magenta eyes bobbing with its fluid moments as it disappeared into the rising sun.

My mouth was left agape, and my eyes misty in his wake. Swallowing the lump lodged in my throat, I turned to head back inside the cabin. As my fingers grazed the handle, the door swung open and my eyes were met with a broad chest. They seemed to have headed inside right before Asmodeus left. I smiled and stepped forward into a warm embrace.

“You have no idea how many times I wanted to go over there,” Zeke mumbled into my hair.

I snickered and pressed my head to his chest, listening to the rhythmic beat of his heart. “I would have been upset,” I said after a moment.

“That’s why I didn’t,” he murmured.

Good boy.

“We heard just about everything.” Evan’s voice filtered through Zeke’s heartbeat, pulling me from my little safe haven.

Zeke pulled me the rest of the way inside, shutting the door behind us as I turned to Evan.

“He has a daughter?” Noah questioned randomly.

I snickered, nodding. “Her name is Rose.”

We gathered around in the living room; the fireplace lit as the evening grew into the night and illuminated our features with a soft glow. We rambled as we spoke, going through everything we already knew and what we had learned. Once we were finished, we all sat back in our seats with a heavy sigh.

“Protecting her just got a whole lot harder,” Noah finally mumbled, breaking the silence. I chuckled while my mate glared at him, a heavier sigh leaving his lungs.

“Yeah, but if what her uncle said is true, we can share our abilities,” Evan added.

Zeke agreed thoughtfully. “We’d be unmatched.”

“But we still need to call in reinforcements,” the Celestial pointed out, glancing off into the space in front of him.

My mate nodded. “I know a couple of people that could help.”

Noah scratched the back of his head. “I think I may know someone.”

My eyes flew to Noah in alarm. “You’re not talking about Hannah, are you?” It was selfish, but I wanted the redhead nowhere near my father. It was hard enough as it was, with letting the boys take part in it.

Noah mulled it over. “It’s her choice,” he murmured, pulling out his phone. Evan mimicked Noah, pulling out his device as well. I frowned, watching them. Zeke pressed a kiss to my head, then pulled away and sped upstairs.

Shaking my head with a small smile on my lips. Leaning over, I snatched a controller off the coffee table as Evan started speaking into his phone. My ears perked up as I listened in, unable to help my old habits.

“Hey, Maddie,” he started. “I need your help.”

Noah’s voice quickly interrupted my concentration when he started his own conversation. “Axel, get your ass over here. You’re needed– I’ll send you a pin.” My protector barked into the phone, not bothering to ask, just demanding, then hanging up the phone. I glanced over my shoulder and raised my eyebrow.

Noah caught my glance and rolled his eyes, hopping over the backside of the couch and plopping down next to me. “Half brother,” he muttered as he picked up the other controller. He frowned when he realized I snatched first player controls. I grinned, then tried focusing my attention back to Evan’s conversation, but I was met with silence.

“Maddie is on her way,” Evan said, rounding the couch and sitting next to me.

Zeke came strutting down the stairs, raising an eyebrow in our direction. He came over, lifted me from my spot, sat down, and then placed me on his lap. “There are still a few things you don’t know about us, Princess,” he chuckled.

“Yeah, you’re all full of surprises,” I grumbled. The boys chuckled as I turned my head to look at my mate. “Who did you call?”

“Bragden and Charlie, they’re brother and sister and good friends of mine.”

I formed an ‘O’ with my mouth. “What are they?” I asked.

Zeke smirked. “Demi and Hellhound.”

My face fell. “I ain’t handing out any bacon treats,” I mumbled, leaning back into my mate’s chest as he chuckled.

Noah leaned over his knees and glared at me. “That’s low, Cupcake. Real low. I happen to enjoy bacon.” I smiled to myself as Evan shook his head, trying to cover his laugh with his hand.

Handing the remote over to Evan, I snuggled deeper into Zeke’s lap and let my eyes flutter close. The sound of my mate’s gentle heartbeat, Noah’s whines as he lost and Evan’s soft victory lulled me to sleep. Right as the darkness overtook me, my last thought was of my boys– my family, and they were what I was fighting for.

Death had no idea what was coming for him.