Hellsbane Hereafter (8 page)

I looked his way. Eli’s dark brows knitted tight, his eyes questioning and maybe a little hurt. A look of doubt and mistrust that became more and more familiar crossed his face again, and his body stiffened, the irrational emotions of a Fallen stirring irritation.
Ugh.
I shrugged, trying to apologize with my expression. But it wasn’t the same as hearing my voice in his head, and I just couldn’t do that. Not if I wanted Eli to earn back his grace. I couldn’t keep tempting us both.

“Yeah, twelve, for now.” Pete kept his hands safely shoved in his Dockers pockets and tossed his head to get his falling bangs from his eyes. “The house fits thirteen. Jude bailed on us last semester. We’re interviewing potentials, but so far we haven’t found anyone who really fits in. Until we find someone, Abe and I have our own rooms. I can show you around if you want.”

I forced a smile and nodded. I mean, I was supposed to be there to see the house, right? “Sure. That would be great.”

Pete led the way from the living room, back through the entry hall and into the dining room. The high-gloss table filled the room, long enough to fit eighteen. We stopped, staring at the room appreciatively, nodding at the big china hutch and the classy bar cart in the corner.

“You guys host a lot of dinner parties?”

Pete rolled his shoulders. “Not really. We host a lot of meetings and a few fundraisers, but usually it’s just us.”

“Fundraisers?”

Like I’d opened some weird self-imposed floodgate, the golden-haired Pete stood straighter, eager to explain. “Yeah. All the time. Political fundraisers, debates, registration drives. We even had a couple congressmen and one senator spend the night before.”

“And you’re all Republicans?” Young, good-looking white men from affluent families? It seemed like a safe bet.

He scoffed. “Hell no. Independent.”

“Right.” Okay, so that would’ve been my next guess.

“At least that’s the closest party we identify with, but even they lose track of what’s important, what we need to do to get this country, get the world, back on track.” Pete’s blue eyes lit up, his body suddenly taller, energized.

“Yeah,” Andy said from the pack following behind. “We’re starting our own party. It’s called The United Party. Cool, huh?”

I looked at him and could almost see the idealism shining off him, all sparkly and new. Enthusiasm lit his eyes and made his smile wide, his back straight. I glanced at his housemates and saw the same “we’re going to fix the world” optimism glowing from each of them.
Kids.

“Very cool.” Who was I to squash their ambitions with a reality check on American politics, corporate backing, and the influences of lobbyists? Besides, human politics were meaningless in the grand scheme of things. There was a real war going on, a war between good and evil, Heaven and Hell, and these boys, these nephilim, were exactly the kind of people pulled out of their comfy, ignorant lives to fight on the front lines. Let them have their human dreams and ideals while they could.

“Abe does a daily vlog about what’s going on, what we’ve accomplished, and what still needs to be done. It’s awesome. Have you seen it? We’ve got almost a million subscribers.” Andy beamed. The kid was seriously into this stuff.

I shook my head. “No. Sorry. I don’t really follow politics.”

“It’s more than just politics.” Pete rubbed the back of his neck as though the explanation was terribly complicated to explain. “Abe talks about what’s going to happen in the world, not just politically, but socially, economically, everything. He does a whole report on what he’s been told and what we should do about it.”

My smile dimmed. A bad feeling squirmed in the pit of my stomach. “What do you mean, told? Who tells him this stuff? Where does he get his info?”

The boys traded wary glances before Pete sighed. He planted his feet wide, folded his arms across his chest, and leaned back on his heels. “Okay. So any time we tell people about Abe and his
sources
they either laugh in our faces or just walk away. But they always stop laughing when Abe turns out to be right.”

“So who are Abe’s sources?”

“They’re—”

“Shut up, Pete.” Jim broke his silence. “If Abe wants to tell her, let him do it.”

Pete glanced Jim’s way, irritation creasing his brow. He wasn’t happy at all that his frat brother had put a plug in his info purge, but he dropped his hands and stood straight. “If we don’t tell people what he can do, how do you expect them to know why they should listen?”

“He’ll show them.” Jim stopped in front of his frat brother and poked a finger into his chest. “Until he does, they never believe anyway.”

Pete shoved the finger away, glaring. “She’s different. She’s one of us. You felt it. He’d want her to know.”

“Know what? Who are his sources?” I asked again, already suspecting the answer.

“Angels,” a voice said from the entry hall outside the dining room. We all turned just in time to watch a small entourage of young men file in to join us. The floor of my stomach dropped out so hard and fast my knees went weak.

Damn, I was right. Every one of the boys in the house was a nephilim. And I had a feeling my little brother knew it. Maybe they all did.

The third one through the archway spoke in the same voice as before. “They’re talking about the angels who visit me. Crazy, right? Except I think you, of all people, know it’s not. Isn’t that right, Ms. Hellsbane?”

“Are you Abram?” I asked, my heart in my throat.

We didn’t look a thing alike. To begin with, he was shorter than me, which, at five-foot-four, is really sad for a guy, and he had strawberry blond hair, more blond than strawberry. He was cute, with green apple eyes, straight teeth, dimpled cheeks, and wavy hair that could use a trim. He dressed well, like the other boys, in a white buttoned shirt, red tie, and gray dress slacks. He’d rolled up his sleeves to the elbows and shaved his face except for a narrow strip of hair down the center of his chin. Normally I detest facial hair, but it didn’t look bad on the kid.

Abram stood with his feet planted, hands in the front pockets of his slacks, a cocky smile hanging lopsided across his freckled face. The other boys gathered around him like the plumes on a peacock, all of them towering behind him, loyalty practically radiating off of them. Abram was definitely his father’s son.

The young man smiled. “Hello, Emma.”

I flinched at his use of my first name. I thought I was undercover. I’ve been wrong before…occasionally. “Do you know me?”

“I know
of
you.” He winked at me, his ginger eyelashes nearly translucent. “I was told an advocate was coming for me. I just assumed it was you based on our
reaction
to one another. Plus, the realty company told us your name.”

“They did?” Andy’s nose wrinkled.

Pete elbowed Andy in the chest. “Shut it.”

The other boy huffed in pain and rubbed the spot, scowling at his frat brother.

They told him an advocate was coming? Jukar wanted the kid kept in the dark. Something didn’t track. Was someone on Jukar’s team deliberately defying him?
Oh wait. I don’t care.
“Advocate. Hadn’t heard that.” I tugged the side of my skirt lower out of habit. “The realty company told you that?”

My brother winked, very flirty and super creepy. “Not exactly.”

Oh, that so was not gonna happen.
Eww.

Before I could push him for an answer, the other boys stepped forward, one by one, to introduce themselves, several of them offering excuses for why they couldn’t stay and adding polite apologies. A few minutes later all the boys had filed out, and the only people left in the dining room were Eli, Abram, and me.

Abram glanced over his shoulder as if to ensure the last of his brothers had left, then looked to me with another wink. “Guess we should talk.”

You have no idea, frat boy
. “Who told you about me?”

“The angels.” Abram rested a hand on his puffed chest, grinning.

“What was the angel’s name?”

Abram’s strawberry brows went up. “You believe me? Just like that?”

“Just like that,” I said, totally serious. “What’s his name?”

He shrugged and snorted. “They’ve never said. I’m not really in a position to ask.”

“They?” I’d just assumed Jukar, in his twisted sense of justice, had been feeding his kid enough information to keep him ahead of the human curve. But who else was visiting Abram? Did Daddy Dearest know?

“Yeah.” He pulled one hand from the front pocket of his slacks and reached up to scratch his head, looking away like he needed to think about it. “I’ve been visited by seven or eight different angels. A couple I’ve only met once, but the rest show up at least once a month. One of them gave me this.” He held out his right hand, flashing the ugliest ring I’d ever seen.

Except I had seen this ring before. The thing was huge, way too big for the kid’s stubby fingers. Made from some dark metal, it had a pentagram carved on top and small humanoid figures on the sides. The creepy little people had horned, animal-like heads and vertically set rubies for eyes. The ring was nothing but trouble.

Eli stepped closer. “The Ring of Solomon.”

“You can’t keep that, Abram.” I reached out on reflex, but he pulled away even quicker.

“Yes, I can.” He held his hand close to his chest, smiling as though he wasn’t sure I was seriously trying to take it.

“It’s not safe.” Eli shifted closer, his hand flexing as though he considered snatching the ring off of my little brother’s finger. “Whoever gave that to you has put you in great danger.”

Abram angled away, his brow creasing at Eli’s movement. “An angel gave it to me. I think they know what they’re doing.”

“You’d be surprised.” I patted my hips for my cell phone, which I’d left in the car.
Crap.
“I need to run out and grab my phone.”

“Go. I’ll stay with Abram.” Eli looked at my brother. “Perhaps you could show me where you…vlog? Is that correct?”

Abram’s green eyes stared at Eli, full of mistrust. “Yeah. I guess. Follow me.”

It took everything I had to walk at human speed behind them into the entry hall. But the second they turned to go up the stairs, I teleported to the limo outside.

The car still rocked from the force and speed of my arrival as I searched the seats for my purse. It wasn’t there. But it had to be. I twisted around and reached under the seats, blindly groping through the space-time vacuum that exists under all car seats. I found a poorly folded map, a wadded, old napkin, a few putrefied fries, and three pens, but no purse. On my hands and knees I crawled across the compartment to check the other long seat. It was dark as pitch under there, but I found thirty-six cents, two peanut shells, a lip gloss, my lip gloss, a tube of hand lotion, my hand lotion, and finally the rest of the spilled contents of my purse.
Awesome
.

I grabbed my purse strap and pulled it out, reaching under again and again until I was sure I’d found everything that had spilled out. Everything except my phone. My face on the black carpeted floor, I crawled and stretched and groped and finally found the stupid thing on the opposite end of the bench seat in the farthest corner.
Of course.

I didn’t even bother hopping back onto the seat before I ran through my contacts to find Mihir Thingal. I hadn’t spoken to him since college. What were the odds he hadn’t changed his number? Sitting on the floor of the limo, I thumbed his name and waited for it to connect.

After the fourth ring, I had my answer. “You have reached the voicemail of Mihir Thingal. I can’t answer the phone right now, so please do not hang up and call back another fifteen times in hopes I’ll be annoyed enough by the constant ringing to answer. It won’t work, and I will find you. Just leave a message.”
Beep.

“Mihir. What the hell? You were supposed to keep the ring safe. Do the words ‘epic fail’ mean anything to you? Call me back. Oh, this is Emma…Emma Jane Hellsbane. From college. Hi. Now call me back.”

I thumbed the end button.
Too pushy?

Chapter Six

When had the police arrived?

I closed the limo door behind me, slipping my cell phone into the snug pocket of my skirt. The marked car sat parked right behind the limo. Had I totally missed it when I teleported from the entry hall to the limo, or had it pulled up while I was on my hands and knees digging around under the seats?

Thanks to an ex-boyfriend, I knew a lot of Pittsburgh cops. Unfortunately, he’d gotten custody of most them in the breakup. In fairness, they were his friends to begin with. What were the odds whoever had come in that squad car was one of the few who didn’t hate me for breaking Officer Danny-boy’s heart? Not that I’d done it on purpose, and not that he hadn’t bounced right back two weeks later, hooking up with a new recruit, or so I’d heard.
Crissy something.
Whatever.

“Emma.”
I flinched at the strange voice inside my head.
“Emma, come quick. He’s going to kill them!”

I snapped my attention to the house, scanning up to the small arched windows on the third floor. It was Abram. I recognized his voice now. I didn’t know how he’d done it, and I knew I didn’t have time to ask questions.

My power swirled inside me, called up with a simple thought. I pictured the landing at the top of the stairs inside and took a step. With my next I was there, teleporting again up the second flight, then again down the hall, then again up the stairs at the end to Abram’s room. It was a series of movements, decisions made and executed, but still faster than any human could track, so it seemed that one moment I was on the sidewalk outside the house and the next I stood at the doorway to Abram’s third-floor room.

My brain did a quick inventory. Despite being on the third floor, the ceilings were high, and the room had the advantage of spanning the entire length of the house. Not only did Abram have a room to himself, but he had the biggest room with its own bath. He had plenty of room for his king-sized bed set, a nice, dark cherry desk, and a seating area around a big flat-screen TV complete with an Xbox and PlayStation.

There were four bodies in the room, and three of them had weapons drawn. Instinct zeroed me in on the most deadly of the group.

“Eli, stop,” I blurted the second I could.

He stood at the center of the room, his arms stiff, hands double-gripping his sword. Abram peered around the big angel from four feet behind. My attention snapped the other way to the business end of Eli’s sword.

“Emma. Thank God. I don’t know what’s going on but they all just started pulling out weapons.” Abram moved to step around Eli, but the big angel shifted to block his path.

The kid was in good hands, so I turned to the real problem. “Dan.” My ex-boyfriend, Officer Dan Wysocki, had his gun drawn, the barrel pointing at my current boyfriend’s head. Not that it would actually hurt the angel, but still.
Men.

“Get your dog on his leash, Emma, or I’ll let her put him down.” Dan didn’t take his eyes off of Eli.

The
her
in question was a female officer standing in front of Eli with an illorum sword pointed at his neck.

“Is this Crissy?” I was happy for Dan when I’d heard he’d stared dating one of his co-workers, but did she have to be so…hot?

“Officer Horton,” he corrected, then risked a glance my way. “And yeah. This is her. Now, are you gonna do something?”

I gave her the once-over. “She’s an illorum?”

Abram pushed to his toes, peering over Eli’s shoulder. “What’s an illorum?”

Dan ignored the kid with the rest of us. “Yes.”

“Your sword?” I asked, already guessing the answer. An illorum’s life isn’t easy. In fact, it pretty much sucks with the demon attacks and fighting for your life every other day. It’s not the sort of life you want to drag the people you care about into. If Dan really cared about his new girl, he would’ve made sure she never came near his sword. But that’s just my opinion.

He huffed, then looked away and back again. “Yes. It was my sword that triggered her power, but not intentionally. It happened before I could stop it. Can we talk about this later?”

“What power?” Abram asked, looking like Kilroy behind Eli.

Before he could stop it.
Yeah, I knew what that was like. It’d been like that for me, picking up Tommy’s sword before he could warn me off. It’d sort of been that way for Dan, too. He’d grabbed my sword in the heat of battle before I could stop him, not that he’d wanted to be stopped. Dan knew what he was getting into. He’d wanted it. Dan was a cop, a warrior from the word
go
. Becoming an illorum was just a natural evolution of the man.

I folded my arms over my belly, giving Dan’s lanky blonde the once-over yet again. She was taller than me and about ten pounds lighter. In my defense, I’m a cute little powerhouse. Those ten pounds are all muscle. Mostly. This chick was rail-thin, all skin and bones.

She was…she was…oh, who was I kidding? She was all long legs, narrow hips, and big boobs. With full lips; thick, cream-colored hair pulled up into a bouncy ponytail; huge, gray-blue eyes; and flawless, sun-kissed skin, even I had to admit my ex’s new girlfriend was a knockout.
Crap.
Hate that.

“She’s pretty,” I said grudgingly, and not in the least bit worried for Eli. Before he’d fallen, Eli was scary powerful. He’d been on Earth for eons, and before that he’d fought in the first war in Heaven. In angel evolution, age equaled strength, and strength equated to rank. He wasn’t as old and strong as an archangel, but close. The fall had weakened him, but Eli was a fighter. He was good at it. Nothing could take that away from him. Plus with me at his side, the shiny new illorum, Crissy, was about as dangerous to him as a mosquito.

“Emma,” Dan snapped.

I jumped, straightening, refocusing on the standoff at hand. “What? Just put your weapons down. It’s Eli. You guys know each other.”

Abram stepped to the side. “You guys know each other?”

“I knew the
angel
, Eli.” Dan still aimed his gun at Eli’s head. “This
thing
is a Fallen.”

“Seriously?” I sighed.

“Angel?” Abram pointed at Eli. “You’re an angel?

Eli gave him a sideways look and a shrug. “Fallen.”

My brother’s strawberry brows went high. “Fallen. Like the devil?”

Eli scowled at the kid and looked away without answering.

“Fine.” I cupped my forehead. I could feel a dull throb starting. “But you know bullets won’t kill angels, even
fallen
angels.”

“No. But they’ll hurt enough to slow him down, giving my partner the time she needs to take his head.”

“Whoa, what?” Abram’s hands went up. “Seriously? You wanna hack of the dude’s head?”

“You bet, kid. Tell me again why we’re not already doing that?” Crissy asked, sword at the ready.

Oh no, she di’int.

I could see Dan glance her way, and I recognized his frustrated expression. I’d put it on his face enough times in the past. “Just hold your weapon.”

“He knows it won’t work.” Eli scoffed. “And he doesn’t want you to die today.”

Crissy gave him a sassy, squint-eyed look. She was just too pretty to pull off hard-ass. “It’s worked pretty friggin’ well so far. Took out three of you deviants this way. And here I am. Still sucking air.”

“Yes, well, we’ve only just met,” Eli said, all ominous and creepy. He did bad angel really well. Too well.

“Eli.” I held up a warning finger to my handsome lover. “You’re not helping.”

“Yeah,
Eli
.” Crissy shoved her sword a half inch closer in Eli’s direction. “You really don’t want to piss me off.”

“Oh, no, honey,” I said, kinda bitchy. “He’s not the one I’m worried about. Trust me when I say you haven’t met a Fallen with Eli’s power.”

She glared daggers at me. “How the hell would you know?”

“Because, like you said, you’re still sucking air. This?” I waved a finger at the three of them. “You wouldn’t survive.”

Dan reached over and rested a hand on his partner’s double fisted grip, though he looked at me. “Listen, we didn’t come here expecting a fight.”

“Then what are you doing here?”

Dan’s attention shifted to Eli. I could tell Dan was getting tired. You can only hold your arms out like that for so long before your aim gets shaky. He turned to me. “We were sent to check out the kid. He claims he talks to angels.”

Eli tipped his chin at Crissy. “She offered the boy her sword.” His own outstretched sword held steady as stone, his shoulders straight. The angel didn’t show the slightest bit of fatigue.

“What? You wanted to give him yours?” The pretty cop sneered at Eli, her whitening fingers readjusting their grip. “Steal him for your side?”

“Hey.” Abram’s hands went up again. “I’m not picking sides. I don’t want anyone’s sword. Maybe this is something you guys should talk about. You know, like somewhere else.”

“I want him to remain human.” Eli’s voice remained steady. Only someone who knew him well could see the flare of anger in his eyes and the struggle to suppress the more intense emotions of a Fallen.

Something dark and edged with pain flickered across Dan’s face. “You were never concerned about Emma staying human.”

Eli looked his way, his jaw tight. “No. I was a different man then. I’ve grown tired of war and the deaths of those who had no choice in their fate.”

Dan lowered his gun. “What are you saying? If you could do it over…”

Eli’s pale eyes studied the two cops for a half beat. Deciding they were no threat, he lowered his sword. “My choices would be different.”

Something pinched in my chest, made my throat tight. I tried to take a breath without it shaking through my lungs. I couldn’t.

I blinked, trying to hear over my hammering heart. Crissy met my eyes from across the room and considerately looked away, finally lowering her sword. Even she understood what he’d said without actually saying it. He wouldn’t have made the same decisions. I had been one of those decisions. God, had he really just said that…now…in front of them?

Dan asked the question I couldn’t. “You wouldn’t have fallen?”

Eli blinked, as though he wasn’t sure of the question. “I wouldn’t have agreed to the first war. All events that followed would be moot.”

Like the floor shifted under my feet, I could feel it when all eyes in the room turned to me. Their pity radiated off of them like heat from a furnace. My face warmed, and the sound of my own heart almost deafened me.

Eli followed their stares, understanding slowly coming to his eyes. “No. Emma Jane. I—”

“Wait. What?” Abram covered his mouth with his fist, hiding his laughter. “You fell for her? Like, because of her. And now you’re telling everyone you’d take it back. Dude, that’s cold.”

Eli looked back to Dan, his expression severe. “Falling for Emma Jane was not a choice. Had it been, I would’ve joined her the moment her age was appropriate.”

Dan nodded, but I knew him well enough to see he was just placating Eli.
Dammit.
This was none of their business. I did not want my love life discussed in front of my ex and his perfect girlfriend.

I plastered a smile across my face and cleared my throat, though doubt clung to me like pinesap: invisible and impossible to wipe off. “So, Dan, you checkin’ out the kid as an illorum or a cop? Who sent you here and why?”

The compact cop looked my way, eyes wide as his brain spun its wheels trying to catch up to the change in topic. “Ham clued us in, but other than that…”

Ham—Humastrav—was Dan’s magister, his angelic trainer the way Eli had been mine. It wasn’t the source I’d expected. It seemed too much of a coincidence that illorum would show up at Abram’s house after I’d just told Michael all about him.

“Why would anyone tell the police about me?” Abram asked, braving notice now that all the weapons had been put away.

Dan glanced at my brother. “He doesn’t know?”

“Doesn’t know what?” Abram waved a hand, trying to get our attention. “Hello? What don’t I know?”

I shook my head. “Not everything.” Hell, I wasn’t even sure how much Dan knew.

Abram got that he was special; he’d been visited by angels. He just didn’t know how special. “Excuse me. Hey. What don’t I know?”

So much for being undercover with the kid. By the sound of things, though, my cover had been blown before it was created. I am so
not
the next 007. What was Jukar up to?

I sighed. “I’m not just your new landlord. I’m your protector. Sort of.”

“You’re my advocate.” Abram rubbed the back of his neck, his nervousness showing. “I know. They told me you’d be coming.”

I shifted on my feet, an awkward unease jittering through me. If the milk was already spilled, I figured I might as well try to mop it up. I took a breath, feeling like I was about to tell the kid there was no Santa Claus. “Abram, do you know why angels visit you?”

“Not angels,” Dan said, but I shushed him. Dan knew they had to be fallen angels. Seraphim would never stain their spirit enough to speak to a human no matter who he was. They were jerks that way. But the kid didn’t need that tidbit slapped in his face just yet.

“I’ve got this.” I looked back to Abram. “Listen to me. Y’see, you’re not exactly normal. You’re special. You’re half human and half angel. Like us.” I gestured to myself, Dan, and Crissy. “Except your powers are still dormant. As long as you don’t pick up any swords, they’ll stay that way. You’ll have a nice, normal, safe life. Just like anyone else.”

The kid blinked big green eyes at me, his freckled cheeks reddening. “Cool. What happens if I pick up a sword?”

Crap.
People don’t value normal enough anymore.

“You’ll be dragged into a deadly war where there can be no true victor.” Eli imbued his words with angelic power, so he seemed larger than life and supernaturally scary. “All those you love, anyone near you, will be at risk. As in any war, innocents often die in the crossfire. Do you want that for your friends, for your parents, your siblings?”