Fallen Angel of Mine (40 page)

The passage split into five more ahead.
Bella pointed at the second from the right where a bright green
slash marked it. We followed. So did the giant worm, snake, dragon,
or whatever the thing really was. I looked back. Its mouth scooped
up loose rubble like a vacuum where it vanished into the glowing
maw. A pulsating light emanated from deep down the corridor of its
throat.

Good god, I hoped that thing couldn't
spew fire.

Curtis kept talking, spouting facts
about leyworms, though I could hardly hear half of it over the din
and roar of the creature or the cacophony of falling
rock.

I looked forward just in time to see
Bella jabbing a finger at one of two tunnels just ahead. As before,
a green slash marked the way. I angled for it, barely keeping my
feet as a chunk of rock broke loose and rolled directly into my
path, nearly blocking the tunnel. I sucked in a breath, somehow
squeezing past with my two passengers. I heard a thump and a yelp.
Curtis's educational lecture on leyworms abruptly stopped. His head
bounced against my back.

"Whoops," I mumbled. I hadn't been
quite as precise as I'd hoped and probably knocked the poor man
senseless against the rock. Alejandro, for his part, seemed
unharmed. But holding him tucked under my arm was cumbersome.
Another close scrape like that, and we might not make it. "I'm
putting you over my shoulder," I said.

Slinging him over my shoulder from his
position was a hell of a lot harder to do while running than I
thought it'd be. Somehow, I did it without throwing him over like a
pinch of salt and into the worm's mouth. I figured Lina, should we
live to see her again, would be grateful for that.

As we cleared the next tunnel, we burst
into a massive chamber ringed with dark tunnel entrances on all
sides. Bella sprinted ahead, obviously uncertain which one we
needed to take. I quickly saw why. Glowing green slashes marked the
air in front of almost every tunnel. Were they all safe? Or had
someone tampered with them?

The group raced to the center of the
room. Elyssa abruptly stopped and held out her hands. "The
rumbling. It stopped."

I looked back. She was right. The worm
or whatever had been chasing us was gone.

"Where the hell did it go?" Beck asked,
pivoting on his feet as if it might burst from beneath us at any
minute.

"Far away I hope," Elyssa
said.

"They're all marked!" Bella said,
breathing heavily, her face red with exertion and possibly anger as
she looked at the passageways around the room. "I have no idea
which way to go."

"Someone please remind me to get better
underwear next time," I said, panting.

"Eew, what did you do?" Fausta said
with a grimace.

"Not what you think." I blew out a
breath. "But I have the mother of all wedgies and it
hurts."

"You carried them all this way?" Elyssa
said, looking querulously at my passengers.

I gave her a
What can you do?
shrug
and, sensing we might possibly safe for at least the next few
seconds, put Alejandro on his feet and lowered Curtis to the ground
so I could pry my underwear out of my own crevice. The ginger
sorcerer's head was thankfully still intact, albeit bleeding from a
bump. His pointy Gandalf hat, however, was long gone. It was a
miracle I hadn't tripped over the ridiculous robes he
wore.

"Thanks," Alejandro said, gripping my
shoulder and giving me a quick bro hug. "You saved us."

"Uh, sure," I said.

"You never think, do you?" Elyssa said.
"You just plunge straight on without a thought, as if everything is
going to somehow work out."

I gave a rueful chuckle. "You've made
that observation about me before."

She squinted, as if trying to see me
through different eyes. Her effort seemed to fail. "What
now?"

"Now," said a strange high-pitched
voice from ahead, "it is time to see an end to this merry
adventure."

All heads turned to face the voice. A
tall thin man with unruly black hair and bright commanding eyes
strode across the room. Next to him stood a shaggy four-legged
beast with a feline face, and tall pointed ears. A long thin tongue
lolled from its mouth. The creature looked odd, no doubt, but the
strangest thing about it was the luminescent glow emanating from
its body. It wasn't a bright light, but it was certainly enough to
illuminate a twenty-foot radius around the creature.

"Vadaemos?" I said, moving my curious
gaze back to the thin man.

"You have found him." His imperious
voice bore a combination of several accents, none of which I could
pick out. If anything he sounded slightly British with a twist of
Russian.

I clenched my fists and squared my
shoulders. "You're under arrest."

He replied with a high-pitched,
hysterical giggle. I couldn't believe this was the super-dangerous
fugitive I'd heard about. When Vadaemos regained his breath, he
looked me up and down. "You are a strange one."

"I'm strange?" I returned his
once-over. "You're the one living beneath a cursed city with a
glowing chia pet."

"Was that thing behind us all that
time?" Beck said, pointing at the animal.

Vadaemos nodded. "Yes, he did an
admirable job herding you where I wanted, but I couldn't have you
mapping out safe routes, now could I?"

"The leyworm was your doing too?"
Elyssa said, tone defiant, chin jutting out like an angry
child's.

"More or less. I don't control those
wondrous beings, to be sure. But Yolo was quite capable of
diverting him onto your path." He gave the shaggy creature an
affectionate pat on the head. Its eyes narrowed in appreciation and
a soft braying noise wheezed from its throat.

"What in the hell is that thing?" Beck
asked.

"A mutant. An outcast like me. But a
wonder nonetheless." Vadaemos strode closer, obviously unafraid of
us, drawing to within a few feet. He wore expensive-looking slacks
and a dark red, button-up shirt. The worn, yellow flip-flops on his
feet bore a marked contrast to the rest of his clothes. I wondered
if they indicated eccentricity or hinted at an intellect so cunning
I could never hope to understand why he'd chosen such footwear over
a comfortable pair of Crocs.

Beck flashed toward him. Before he
could get to within a foot of the fugitive, he bounced off an
invisible barrier, his nose making a sickening crack with the
impact. Groaning, the Templar reeled backward, arms windmilling to
keep his balance while blood poured down his face.

Vadaemos laughed. "Not the brightest of
the bunch."

I couldn't blame Beck a bit. I'd been
ready to do the same thing before he beat me to the punch. Even
though his nose healed quickly, blood crusted his face and neck. He
looked like a vampling.

Inspiration hit me all at once. I
pulled out my smartphone and powered it on, inwardly cursing how
slowly it took to get to the home screen.

"What do you plan to do with us?" Bella
asked, leaning against her staff. Her olive-toned skin still looked
sickly pale from her earlier exertions.

"I thought we could sit down for tea
and crumpets," the demon spawn said, clapping his hands together
with feigned delight.

"Tea and crumpets?" Beck said, using
the shirt he wore over his Nightingale armor to wipe away crusted
blood.

Vadaemos shook his head with
exaggerated sadness. "Oh you poor boy. You really are quite daft,
aren't you?"

My phone finally reached the home
screen. I tapped the camera app and, holding the phone
unobtrusively by my side said, "So tell me, Vadaemos, why did you
ambush all those Templars at Thunder Rock? Why did you kill your
own people along with them? Are you a complete
psychopath?"

His eyes lit with blue flames. His
fists clenched as the skin on his body rippled and undulated. Tiny
black horns pierced the skin on his forehead, curving up as they
lengthened. "You accuse me of murder?" he roared, his voice now
considerably lower in pitch and a hell of a lot scarier.

Coils of striated muscle wormed beneath
his skin, stretching and snaking around the bone, thickening and
pulling tight until his thin arms grew brawny. I was mesmerized by
it in the same way my eyes would be drawn to a tub of squirming
snakes. Vadaemos was spawning right before our eyes and I knew what
that meant. He'd lose all control and crush us into meaty bits.
Yolo, however, didn't seem too concerned about his bestest buddy in
the world turning a literal shade of Smurf blue and growing horns.
A long tail tore through the seat of Vadaemos's slacks and
uncurled, lashing back and forth like that of an angry cat's. It
was blue and prehensile, but looked almost reptilian with a little
pointy fork at the tip.

My long-lost relative fixed me with his
glowing eyes and spoke. "I was fooled. Tricked!" A growl sounded
deep in his throat. Razor sharp teeth protruded beneath dark blue
lips. "That cursed Daelissa did it to me. Promised to cure all my
problems at once and then used me as her scapegoat."

I noticed with some relief as his
transformation stopped somewhere between fully manifested demon and
human—a bizarre but badass combination. "Who's Daelissa?" I asked,
desperate for a solid lead.

But Vadaemos was too preoccupied with
proclaiming his innocence. I recorded him, hoping against hope the
video quality from this phone was decent enough for anyone viewing
it to make a solid ID.

"When Orionas and I left House Slade
and Assad, we wanted nothing more than to be happy and live in
peace. But our families hunted us relentlessly. We fled, but the
other great houses wouldn't take us in or offer protection." He
braced one of his large blue hands atop Yolo, as if his
half-spawned demon form needed emotional support. "I told Orionas
to go back to House Assad. I told her we had no choice and it was
the only way to protect her from harm." A crystalline tear sizzled
from his eye, caught in the blue flames burning against the
blackness of his orbs.

"What happened?" I asked, softening my
voice with false sympathy.

Vadaemos wasn't listening to me. His
eyes were looking into the past at a tragedy only he could
see.

Elyssa cast a questioning glance over
her shoulder at me and noticed the phone. Her gaze turned
immediately to understanding. She turned back to the distraught
spawn and asked, "Where is Orionas?"

For another long moment, it appeared he
wouldn't answer. But then he looked up abruptly as if realizing he
still had guests he intended to kill. "She went back to her family,
or so I believed at the time. But my family would no longer have me
back. They said I was out of control."

"You were stealing souls," I said,
remembering what Meghan Andretti had told me about her father. How
he was tricked by a rogue demon spawn into trading his life essence
for a cure to his sister's cancer.

"I took what was mine by right,"
Vadaemos spat, clenching his fist tight. Sharp black spines
unfolded along each knuckle. "They made deals with me.
Bargains."

I suddenly knew for sure this
half-insane spawn was the one responsible for Meghan's father. He
had to be. The timeline fit and it was patently obvious he was the
kind of person who'd do it and suffer no remorse. "What about the
bargain you made with the Andrettis?" I said, unable to remember
her father's name. "After having one of your minions give her
cancer?"

The flames in his eyes leapt higher at
the accusation. Then a sharp-toothed smile carved his blue lips.
"Perhaps I tweaked the conditions to suit my needs. But I am
Daemos. I am above mere mortals."

"You are crazy," Fausta said, lips
curled back in disgust.

"You killed all those Templars," I
added. "Killed them with creatures from the demon plane. Left their
soulless husks to wither at Thunder Rock."

"And killed your own people," Elyssa
said. "Ambushed them like a coward!"

"That was not me!" Vadaemos's roar
echoed off the walls. He tilted his head back and loosed a howl
filled with anguish and rage. His foot slammed hard against the
stone floor, crushing what was left of one flip-flop. His head
snapped down. Eyes focused on me. "I was told House Assad hunted
down my beloved Orionas and killed her like an animal. I was told
they burned her to ash so I could never look upon her beauty
again." His fists crackled with tension and more tears sizzled. "I
planned my revenge against House Assad. Vile murderers." His voice
trailed off in a harsh hiss as he paced away from Yolo. Stopped and
faced us. "Daelissa told me this. Claimed she would aid in my
revenge. Instead, she drew the Templars and the others to Thunder
Rock after me. She activated the Amber Arch. The gateway into the
Void. She unleashed the vilest demon spawn from that place and
laughed as those creatures destroyed my persecutors. Had I not been
near the way station, I would have died. As it was, I barely
escaped to this place before the husks reached me."

I wanted to ask him more about Thunder
Rock, about the strange room of arches I'd found. Was that the way
station he spoke of? And the husks—what were they? Maybe they were
demon spawn like the crawlers.