The Demon of Angels (Bk. 2)

TIRES SCREECHED ACROSS the dry pavement. Evan’s Jeep came to an abrupt halt a few feet to the right of us. Burnt rubber drifted through the night air, and I reached us and lightly pressed my fingers to the sore spot on my head. I winced upon contact, drawing my fingers back with blood coating the tips. My eardrums had popped, the white noise drowning any sort of sound around me. It was a ring I couldn’t shake.

The glass from the windows and windshields was shattered everywhere, not a single shard where it should have been. The GT was nearly flattened, and I had no recollection of how many times we rolled. I only knew that my body felt paralyzed, unable to move my libs at will. I groaned, Zeke echoing me as he sat up in his seat.

The cool night air skimmed over my skin. I hissed as the breeze brushed against my exposed wounds.

Shit.

Another couple of groans sounded from somewhere outside, and I breathed a breath of relief. Evan and Noah were alive. Hopefully, they were in better shape than I was. They had been wearing their seatbelts.

“Celeste?” Zeke muttered, calling out to me. “Are you okay?”

I tried again to move, but a sharp pang exploded in my head and abdomen, stabbing me with throbs of pain everywhere. I halted my movements and winced. “Define ‘okay’,” I grumbled, squeezing my eyes shut.

Car doors opened to our right, my shoulders sagging upon Noah and Evan walking with minimal wounds on their bodies. Glass from Evan’s Jeep had torn at their suits, a few cuts along their arms and chest. Noah’s lip was bleeding, a small cut along his cheekbone. Evan had a small nosebleed, and besides a minimal tear on his chest with a small trickle of blood dotting his blue tie, he seemed alright.

Noah started calling my name. “Celeste?!” Noah’s feet pounded against the cold ground as he ran to the car.

“Zeke!” Evan shouted, bolting to Zeke’s side of the car. I could see Zeke struggling to open his door from the corner of my eye. Noah’s feet planted themselves in front of the passenger door. He grasped onto the handle, ripping the door from its hinges in one fluid motion. I could hear Evan doing the same to Zeke’s door. I would have found it hot if I wasn’t writhing in pain.

Noah crouched down, peering into the car. He gave me a sympathetic smile. “Hey, Cupcake, you okay?” He tried to calm his voice, but the worry and fear were easily heard.

I gave the glass-covered pavement of the car– the only view I had at the moment– a hard scowl. “Peachy,” I grumbled. Noah chuckled, relieving some of the tension off his shoulders at my dry humor.

Noah slowly reached inside the car, wrapping his hands gently under my upper back and legs. There was a deep grunt and a thud next to me. I assumed it was Evan pulling Zeke from the car and someone hitting their head on the frame. Noah grunted as he slowly pulled my dismantled form from the damaged car. My body had started going numb, slowly healing itself. There were already a few bones I hadn’t realized were broken, snapping back together, my body mending itself slowly.

Once Noah had dragged me across the grass a few feet away from the car, he laid me down then squatted beside my head. His eyes scanned my body with concern, looking for anything major.

Letting another groan loose, I cupped my head with my hand, wincing upon contact. “What happened,” I mumbled.

Noah frowned, his eyes not leaving my body as he continuously assessed me. “One moment, we were racing down the road, and the next three figures are standing in the roadway. We both rolled after hitting them, but you guys took the brunt of it.” There was a hint of horror in his voice, his eyes distant like he was replaying the scene in his head.

I shivered, attempting to block the scene from memory, but one snippet stuck with me, regardless of how far I shoved it down. There were three dark figures on the road, and that’s why we slammed on the breaks. They hadn’t even looked human, more like a shadowed formation of three.

“I’ll kill them,” Zeke growled, his arm draped around Evan’s shoulders as he dragged the alpha over to Noah and I. “It was like they appeared out of thin air.”

Evan’s eyebrows pinched together. “What were they?” He asked, worry lining his brows. Noah shook his head with a shrug.

“Who gives a fuck. They’re as good as dead,” Zeke grunted. He was trying to make an attempt to inch closer to my crumpled body.

Evan realized what he was trying to do, then slowly brought him next to me and lowered Zeke to the ground. With a grunt of pain, Zeke planted himself next to me, placing a reassuring hand on my thigh. I didn’t know if it was for him or me, but touching each other seemed to have a calming effect on us.

“You lay a finger on us, Hybrid,” an unknown voice, vocal cords scratchy and void of life spat at the man next to me. “And you’ll be wishing for a quick death when I’m done with you.” The voice sounded slightly feminine, but barely.

Each of us froze as another snippet of the accident returned, my eyes widening in horror. “Ezekiel.” I swallowed as my voice hallowed. For the life of me, I couldn’t remember the colors of their eyes, but I had a feeling I knew what those figures were. Zeke’s head turned towards me, a worried expression on his features. “What color were they?” I asked.

“Green, pink, and white.”

I groaned and started to laugh softly as shock overtook me. My head went into overdrive. “Great, just fucking great,” I mumbled, sitting up and crossing my arms over my chest. I probably looked like a lunatic, but I didn’t care. If they thought shit was bad now, just wait.

Noah leaned toward Evan with a disturbed expression. “Why is she laughing?” he stage whispered. Evan shrugged, his features twisted into the same disturbed expression.

“Do you know who are they, Celeste?” Zeke asked, worry creasing his forehead. He rubbed soothing circles along my thigh. It relaxed me slightly, giving me the courage to tell them as the fear began to sink in.

“They’re three of the seven princes of hell,” I sighed. Curses flew from each of their mouths. “Well, I take that back. The one with green eyes was Envy, and she’s a woman. She goes by the name Leviathan. She’s a powerful demon of darkness and chaos. She inspires arrogance and, obviously, envy.” My nose scrunched. “I think.”

Zeke raised an eyebrow. “And I’m going to take a swing in the dark and say she was just the one that threatened to eat me?”

I covered my mouth with my palm, containing my laughter. Nodding, I confirmed his intuition. “Yup.”

“The guy with pink eyes is Asmodeus, also known as Lust. He also so happens to be the demon that first attacked me at the game a couple of weeks back.” A groan and another curse stilled the silent air.

“And finally, the dude with white eyes is known as Gluttony. His real name is Beezlebub. He likes to inspire unholy desire, jealousy, war, and murder.” Each word that left my mouth had more sarcasm laced within my vocal cords than the last. I was losing my mind.

“As much as we appreciate the History lesson, it doesn’t tell us why they’re here,” Evan stated like the parent he sometimes was. I scowled at him and he flashed me an apologetic smile.

“Or why haven’t they attacked yet?” Noah pipped up, scanning the area with his Hellhound eyes out and glowing crimson.

The last of my bones snapped and mended back together. The boys winced from the sound it made, and I sighed in slight relief. Finally able to stand to my feet, I scratched the uninjured side of my head as I lost myself in thought. “Asmodeus hadn’t attacked me that night, only stared from a distance,” I offered, as what I hoped to be some good news in this dreaded situation. Noah groaned, tipping his head back. Evan stayed silent, chewing on his lip as Zeke let a few not-so-heavenly approved words slip out.

“The prophecy,” Evan piped up. “You think that’s why they’re here?”

I nodded my head. “There’s no better explanation. My father has plans, and all of them involve me. He’s made it clear he has connections,” I grumbled, fear taking over as the images he had shown during that nightmare came flying through my head full force.

The deaths, the screams, all from innocent human beings who deserved none of the torture they were receiving. All because I was unable to stop him. I whimpered, eyes misting.

“Celeste?” Zeke called. His voice was muffled, like he was behind a dense wall, trying to reach out to me. My eyes were squeezed shut and my breathing became ragged. I tried to force the images away, but they only came back full force.

I cried out as their innocent screams pierced my ears. I could hear the boys yelling, trying to figure out what was happened and how to fix it. Unfortunately, similar to Zeke’s voice, theirs were muffled as well.

If it weren’t for the small circles being drawn across my back, I would have lost myself to Death’s misery and had a severe panic attack. The touch kept me stable and anchored to reality.

“Breathe, Celeste,” Zeke whispered. “What do you smell?” Despite the cries of agony and screams of horror and death, I listened to the voice and took a deep breath.

“Tire and pine,” I whimpered.

“Good,” he soothed, the circles along my back never stopping. “What else?”

Sighing, I took in another gulp of air. Familiar scents drifted around me, floating on the breeze that flowed through my hair. “Cinnamon and vanilla.” I picked out multiple more; each individual scent belonged to something I knew. Something that was real.

Tires to the boys’ vehicles; the smell of pine that clung to Zeke like a second skin; Evan’s vanilla body wash; Noah’s cinnamon cologne. They were home, and they brought me back from the horrors Death wanted to instill in me. He wanted to haunt me, obliterate me from the inside out, then take me when I couldn’t defend myself and use me for whatever he had planned.

After a few more deep breaths, my eyes slowly fluttered open. I met a pair of silver eyes laced with concern and relief. I smiled up at Zeke, thanking him with my eyes.

My relief was gone as quick as it came.

“Miss Allen,” a deep and ragged voice called out in the distance. Noah shot up straighter, guarding Zeke and I with his body. Evan’s head whipped around, trying to find the source of the voice.

I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to swallow my fear, and whispered his name. “Asmodeus.”