Damnation's Door: A Cursed Book (24 page)

The guys were out of their classrooms when I made my way into the corridor. I followed the sound of their voices until I heard them enter the principal’s office.

Two angels were standing on either side of the door, closing it and acting as guards. They saw me approaching and stared at me blankly, but didn’t shift to move out of my way.

My patience ran out in microseconds.

“You can move, or you can get punched in the face. Either works for me.”

The angels glanced at each other with uncertainty. I almost hoped they would test me. After my encounter with Lucifer and consequential breakdown, I needed to feel strong again. If I had to beat up some angels to do that... Well, I’d be making feathers fly.

“She may enter,” came Michael’s authoritative voice from beyond the door.

I shared a mutual glare with the angels before they moved aside to let me pass. I yanked open the door a little too aggressively, smacking one of the angels sharply in the arm.

Score one for me.

Angels stood in the reception area, staring at me with untrusting silence. They lined the walls like white leather curtains. I barely gave them a glance.

Weaving into the principal's office, I found Max, Sephiel and Warrick. Sleep didn’t seem to have done anything for them. Max was slumped on a couch with his head propped in one hand, depressed and miserable. Warrick was leaning on the wall by the door with his arms folded over his chest. He seemed awake and focused, but the bags under his eyes told a different story. Sephiel stood on the right of the desk, rigid as a soldier. Michael, of course, sat behind the principal’s desk with a stony expression.

I walked in like the girl they were about to expel for setting the teacher’s lounge on fire.

“Gang’s all here,” I said, walking straight to the desk and dropping into the chair across from Michael. “Good. Let’s talk.”

Michael narrowed his eyes, clearly not wanting to be in the same room as me. That was fine. He didn’t need to talk. He just needed to listen.

“Who here can find out where Mateo and Drake are going to be next?” I glanced over my shoulder at Max. “Can you?”

He looked at me, frowning as he thought about his answer. He finally shook his head. “It’s too murky. Lucifer must be blocking them from wherever he is in the world.”

I kept my face blank. “He’s in Juárez.”

“How do you know?” Warrick asked.

I flicked my eyes at him. “We came here with Dro. I can’t see a reason for him to be anywhere else.”

Warrick frowned, but it was easier than telling the whole truth right now. Not bothering to return to that recent memory without getting some kind of therapy, I turned back to Michael. The archangel was observing at me with all the interest of a brick wall.

“You can track Lucifer too, right?” I asked. “Maybe not as well as before, but well enough?”

He blinked once. “If you are intending to mock me, I should warn you to stop now.”

“Not mocking,” I defended. “Asking.”

Michael narrowed his eyes yet again. “Yes.”

“Good. Because we need to take the fight to Lucifer and his new friends,” I bit out.

“You mean the fragments?” Warrick asked.

“If we can get them, sure. But I was thinking we go straight for the two human bastards holding them.”

“You think that will make a difference?”

I turned around in the chair so I could face Warrick directly. I don’t want to say I was getting annoyed with him, but my temper was on a short leash right now.

“I think Mateo and Drake are playing a major role and know where the remaining fragments are. I think they know where Dro is, and Lucifer by extension.”

“Do you believe Andromeda is with Lucifer?”

I twisted in the chair to look at Sephiel. I was glad he asked the question, because I wasn’t sure I could stand looking at Max’s heartbroken expression. It would only make the gash in my chest feel wider.

I could have lied. Maybe I should have lied. But after everything we’d been through, my group deserved the truth. Michael didn’t, but he seemed to be quite comfy in his leather chair. My confidence slipped a little bit, and I slumped in my seat.

“I don’t have to believe it. I know it.”

Sephiel’s heart shot to his eyes, and suddenly I couldn’t look at him, either. “How?”

Again, I should have lied. But if I wanted Michael to go through with my idea of luring Lucifer out by targeting Drake and Mateo, then I had to tell the truth. It wasn’t something I was used to.

“Same reason I know he’s in the city. He came to see me.”

The entire room fell silent. Michael’s jaw twitched. It was the first semblance of emotion I’d ever really seen from him.

“When?”

“About twenty minutes ago,” I confessed.

All my friends gathered their breath to scold me, but I was quicker on the draw.

“He didn’t hurt me, I don’t know how he found me, and I don’t think he wants to kill us.”

“That doesn’t sound like the Lucifer who tried to kill you a month ago,” Warrick said coldly. “What changed his mind?”

I thought back to everything Lucifer had said to me. About walking away and accepting his truce. About Dro being happy with her birth father.

Those were the truths I couldn’t seem to tell.

“Does it matter?” I deflected. “The point is he’ll think we’re going for Dro more than the fragments.”

“But if we go after the fragments, we buy more time and draw him into the open,” Max said tentatively. “I can’t really see what happens, but Constance is right. Each fragment carries a part of Lucifer and the Gate’s power. The more we destroy them, the more damage we do to him.” Max’s expression tightened. “I can see that Carver has one with him.”

I glanced back at him. “Your sight is working again?”

Max wobbled his hand. “Still a little spotty, but that part was clear. Carver is our next best shot. I think he’ll be with Mateo and Drake. I just can’t see where they are.”

My gaze shifted back to Michael. I raised an eyebrow. He barely even blinked. I wondered if my gamble of poking at his pride had worked the way I planned. If I’d wasted my breath on a creature that had never loved the company of humans.

Then Michael nodded. It was so small I almost missed it, but there was a conviction in his eyes that hadn’t been there before. That was when I knew I’d snared him.

“I shall work with your prophet to discern the locations of all those we seek. Then we shall confront them.”

Michael rose out of his chair in one fluid motion. I stayed where I was, watching him carefully. Michael towered over the desk and watched me, thinking God knows what. I never broke eye contact. After a second, he glided out from behind the desk and moved for the door. Sephiel stepped back to give him space. He glanced at me briefly with a look that I swear held some disappointment in it. I didn’t know if it was because I’d met Lucifer and not told him, or because Lucifer had been right under his nose and he never knew it.

“Come, Max. Michael is not known for his patience.”

Max sighed. “Great. Always wanted to get my brain picked apart by an angel.”

I pushed myself out of the chair and turned around its back. “Relax,” I said, tapping the hidden tattoo just over my heart, “It’s not like you’re going to get possessed.”

He looked at me like I just told him I wanted to be a ballerina. “Your perception of good and bad is seriously skewed.”

I grinned at him. “You’d be amazed how many times people have told me that.”

Max rolled his eyes, then suddenly took my hand. I wasn’t ready for it, so I didn’t have time to pull away. I knew he was searching me for some kind of hope. He wanted to know if Lucifer said something to me suggesting that Dro was all right. I reacted fast, pulling on every ounce of faith I had so he wouldn’t know that she might have been happier now than she was with us. I let him feel my confidence in this sudden plan, that I didn’t think Lucifer would hurt her, and that I believed we’d get her back.

Only one of those thoughts didn’t feel like a lie.

Max took his hand away from mine and gave me a weak smile. I was better at faking it than he was. Sephiel stood by the doorway, watching us silently. Max blew out some air and followed the ex-angel out of the room.

Which left me alone with my annoyed boyfriend.

“Just say it, okay?”

“Say what?” he asked.

“I don’t know, whatever’s making you look pissed off. I told you that Lucifer showed up and saw me. If he wanted me dead, he would have fried me on the spot. But I’m still here, so everything’s fine.”

Warrick raised one of his eyebrows. “Everything’s fine? That’s what you’re going with?”

“What do you want me to say?” I shot back. “That I know what the hell I’m doing? That I know it will work? That I’m not fucking terrified of something going wrong?”

My voice had gotten a shake to it that I didn’t like. I looked away from Warrick. It wasn’t long until he was in front of me, putting his hands on my arms.

“Do you believe we can do this? Stop Drake and Mateo, take the fragments away from Lucifer, make him weak enough to overcome, close the Hell Gate, and get Dro back?”

A sane person would have said no. That we had a better chance at proving Santa Claus was real. It was a much less painful option, too.

But I thought about overcoming impossible obstacles. I thought about stopping one supernatural enemy after the other. I thought about how good it would feel when I stole the dreams from the people who’d given me nightmares.

“Yes,” I said.

Warrick read my eyes before giving me an easy smile. He leaned in and gave me a quick kiss. I wanted to make it last longer than it did, but that might make him suspicious.

He pulled back and stroked the hair lying against my face. “Then we better get going.”

Warrick kissed the top of my head, took my hand, and led me through the office. I couldn’t help but feel he had finally overcome his overprotectiveness for me. Maybe he finally learned that nothing he did or said would keep me out of danger or harm’s way.

I hoped that was the case, because I was sure I had just lied to him.

Chapter 20

No matter how many times I saw a burning building, I was never ready for it.

The smell and sight of the towering smoke pillars always burned my nose and brought tears to my eyes. The heat was always unbearable. The sound of screams was always new.

Michael hadn’t said where we were going, or what we’d find when we got there.

With the
movens caeli
’s power enhanced by Michael’s teleportation ability, the dozen of us were able to move at once. Max had warned us to be ready for a fight, but when we landed by a green market building called the
Mercado Reforma
, all we saw were the white steeples of the
Cathedral de Ciudad
Juárez
erupting with flame. I tore my eyes away from the cathedral and looked at the people screaming on the streets.

There must have been three hundred of them, all crushed together in a mob of flailing limbs. Possessors made of black smoke hovered above their heads, and the smell of blood was thick. It was a full scale riot, with some stragglers being dragged off to the park on the side to be finished off more intimately.

Almost as thick as the blood was the rage. It grew inside me like a cancer, spreading to every cell and making me tighten my grip on my hatchet.

But worse than that was the subtle desire pushing into me. It was hiding under the rage, but it was there, like the heat under a fire.

I gave myself a mental shake and looked at the group. They were fighting the same addiction I was. Not even Michael was able to overcome it, and he wasn’t even fully human yet. If anything, he was looking at the madness with more rage than the rest of us.

Wait. He isn’t looking at the crowd. He’s looking just past them. What could be more...

I was following his line of sight as I thought it, and then I knew.

Standing in front of the burning church, absorbed by the spectacle of bloodshed, was Lucifer’s gang.

I spotted Drake and Carver taking whatever stragglers they could and venting on them with their fists. Carver was deadly serious, but I could almost hear Drake’s laughter. Behind them, Mateo stood with his fist clenched tightly at his side. He was itching to get into the fight.

I didn’t think it could get any worse, until I saw Lucifer.

He was standing with his back to the massacre, as if he had no idea it was happening. He was more interested in the burning cathedral in front of him. At first I thought he was controlling the fire, since he was making sweeping gestures and pointing things out. But he wasn’t standing alone.

She raised her hands, and the fire rose with them. She pressed her hands down, and it flattened on command.

When Dro turned her head to see Lucifer, I swore there was a trace of a smile on her lips.

I told myself he had been lying. Deception was what the King of Hell did best. He was trying to trick Dro, and she was playing along to learn his faults. But the smile looked too real for Dro to be faking.

My heart seemed to crumple inward, anger taking its place. I couldn’t believe she would fall for this. She had fought too hard for too long. I took my hatchet off my belt. Lucifer would pay for this. I would destroy him, even if I destroyed myself while doing it.

The edges of a white trench coat brushed against my shin. I blinked rapidly to see Michael stalking forward, the
movens caeli
in his hand. Before I could say anything, he immersed himself in the crowd. He was out of sight for a dangerously long time, and then a burst of golden light exploded through the crowd of murder-happy humans. They screamed as the light domed over top of them, and when the light faded, they were gone.

I blinked to clear my eyesight, and found myself staring across the street at my enemies and my sister. Carver, Drake, and Mateo looked furious, Lucifer was as impassive as ever, and Dro seemed caught between indescribable horror and crushing guilt.

Without even blinking or twitching, Lucifer opened a portal. The air parted like sliced skin, blood red fire curling around its edges. Demons tumbled through it, shoving each other aside to get to us.

This had been part of the plan we laid out before we came here. Michael would draw away the distractions, as he was the only one of us who could teleport. While he was gone, we would fight off any demons or Blood Thorns sent our way. The idea was that we could buy enough time for Michael to return and use his powers to strengthen our defense.

Seeing all the demons and possessed Thorns headed our way now, I wasn’t so sure we’d have the time we wanted.

I watched them pour out of the torn air, feeling my skin tighten and my heart begin to pound. The monsters rushing through the portal weren’t run of the mill demons. There were no brutal Reds, no flesh-hungry ghouls, not even hulking Shredders or howling Wretches.

Bounding out of the red tear were dogs the size of Irish Wolfhounds. But these weren’t furry, gentle pets. Not unless you liked your dogs with greasy black skin, curved horns behind sharp ears, razor claws, and serrated teeth. Eyes that were solid black save for a few, stringy red veins stared at us with hunger and hatred. I gripped my hatchet for reassurance. I’d fought hellhounds before, and barely survived. Fighting four of them wasn’t going to send the odds into my favor.

But worse were the two shapes morphing behind the hellhounds. The warrior elite of Hell that I didn’t stand a chance against. They weren’t called Knights for nothing. Both had the tall, powerful build of a boxer or a professional linebacker. Their bodies were covered in a thick, scaled onyx armor with demonic symbols crudely etched into them. Two wide bat wings stuck out from their backs, and they each held a saw-toothed scythe in their gauntlet-covered hands. Their faces were covered in a helmet pointed like a jouster’s, wisps of smoke snaking out from the eye-slits, obscuring the burning red eyes behind the mask.

The angels rushed into the fight before I could tell them not to. Sephiel was even screaming for them to draw back and take out the possessed Blood Thorns first. They forgot they were human now, and it was going to get them all killed.

I wasn’t sure what I could do until Michael came back, but I couldn’t there and watch them all die. I followed the angels into the fight.

I couldn’t save the first one who swung his sword at the Knight he approached. The Knight leaned back, swept his scythe forward, hooking the sword and tearing it from the angel’s grip. The scythe flew up on a backswing, and cleaved the angel in two.

Tearing my eyes away from the shower of blood, I turned my head just as a hellhound leaped for my chest. I twisted to the side, seeing the dark blur fly past me. Hellhounds were insanely fast and able to blend into the shadows, literally hunting in darkness. By the time I turned around to find the hellhound, it was already slamming into me.

My back hit the concrete hard, and I barely got my arm under its throat to keep the beast from tearing into my throat. Its weight pressed down on me, the edges of its sharp fur poking into my jacket and the front of my shirt. I crossed my forearms under its neck, turning my head to the side as it snapped at me. Its savage roar was deafening, and the saliva that dripped onto my cheek and throat was burning hot. The smell of wet dog and sulfur gagged me.

Knowing I couldn’t hold it off much longer, I pushed my feet into its stomach to force it higher. The hellhound screamed furiously. Still keeping one arm under its neck, my hand darted into my jacket and grabbed a silver knife. I sliced the weapon across the hellhound’s throat. It twitched and barked. The skin was thick and hard to break with a single move, but the pressure eased off me. I kept my arm moving, reaching around the hellhound’s head until the tip of my knife plunged into its eye.

That got a reaction.

The hellhound yowled and thrashed its head, ripping my knife away from me. Its far paws brushed over my chest as it stumbled away from me, giving me the chance to breathe and get to my feet. I swung the hatchet down for its muzzle, just as it snarled and lunged for me with open jaws. The blade of the hatchet struck the edge of its upper jaw, leaving a shallow cut but still twisting its head to the side.

I stepped back to get distance on the hellhound, when arms coiled around my chest and trapped me.

“Come on now, sweetheart,” a Blood Thorn rasped in my ear. I smelled the reek of sulfur coming from his skin. “Give the dog a bone.”

I grimaced. “Okay.”

I snapped my head back, crushing his nose. He roared and rocked back, too dazed to hang onto me. The hellhound leaped forward just as I twisted to the side. The hellhound crashed into the possessed Blood Thorn. They tumbled and the man screamed, until the scream was replaced by a choking gurgle.

I eased back as the hellhound gorged itself, not ready for the solid punch that landed in my cheek. I stumbled with the hit, unable to get my bearings before someone else grabbed me and picked me up.

I was getting sick of that.

The man behind me hooked my arms while another man rushed in front of me and grabbed my legs. I growled and twisted, jerking one of my feet back until the Thorn in front of me lost hold of my boot. I snapped my foot into his chin, knocking him back and freeing both my legs. I leaned against the man behind me to keep myself elevated, then kicked the man in front of me in the throat. He lurched back and clutched his neck, gasping for air.

The man at my back snarled as we pitched forward, my feet hitting the ground again. He twisted my arms painfully, trying to force another submission hold on me. I stomped on his foot and he howled, loosening his grip. I was able to slip away from his arms, but he thanked me by punching me in the ribs. I hissed and kept twisting until I was in front of him. He swung at my head this time, so I ducked and slammed my hatchet into his leg right above the knee.

He screamed in pain while I reached into my jacket and drew another knife. I silenced him by stabbing the blade into his chin. I ripped it free and looked over my shoulder, seeing the choking Blood Thorn regain his breath to charge me. I tossed the knife with as much strength as I could muster. It was enough, embedding deep into his eye.

Adrenaline was pumping through my veins even as I retrieved my knife. I turned and took a second to see what was happening around me.

I’d been on the edge of the Heaven Gate battle, fighting human enemies while desperately buying Max time to make our escape with the
movens caeli
. It had been a horrible battle to witness, but actually being in this one was worse than I could imagine.

Nearly half of the angels were lying on the ground, blood soaking through the jagged tears of their white coats. Around them were two hellhounds and the gory remains of four Blood Thorns. Black smoke lingered in the air, Possessors in their natural form trying to find a new home. I was terrified they might be able to possess the angels, but they seemed to be deterred when they got too close.

They must have Michael’s sigil tattooed on them, too. Thank God.

My gaze shifted from the corpses to the living fighters. The remaining angels were trying to avoid the wickedly fast Knights, kicking away Blood Thorns when they had the chance. I couldn’t see Max, but he was probably smart enough to watch the sidelines and shout warnings when we couldn’t see a threat behind us. Sephiel was holding off the hellhounds, watching them carefully and lashing out with his short swords when they tried to bite him. The hellhound on his left snapped for his forearm, but Sephiel was just as quick. His left sword hacked down on the monster’s neck, causing it to cripple in half. The hellhound on his right charged, but Sephiel swept out his sword and cut open the beast’s throat.

Finding Warrick wasn’t hard. He was fighting Blood Thorns hand to hand, delivering powerful hits that left his targets stunned if not completely unconscious. Drake had been watching, and was sneaking up behind Warrick with a huge knife. I took in a breath to scream, but Max warned him before I could.

“Drake’s behind you!”

That was all Warrick needed to hear. He whirled around and lashed out, catching Drake in the cheek with a powerful back-fist. He grabbed the knife and tried to snap Drake’s wrist, but the larger bounty hunter used his free hand to punch Warrick in the head instead.