Chapter 40
We landed on a giant, smoothly-carved tongue before a crowd of wildly colored men. No – demons. Each one had wings, most of them had horns, and just like the people on Earth, they came in all sizes and shapes. Granted, most of them were a little more fit than the average American, but if this was the only way in, then it seemed working out was mandatory.
The guys barely had their wings furled before a greyish colored demon stepped forward, glaring at each and every one of us. Unlike the rest of the demons who looked at my group with respect, this one glared. He snapped out something that sounded like the same language Nick used when sealing me, then braced up before us.
Sam ignored it. "Nick's been attacked, Mammon," he explained as he set me down. "Our home's been compromised."
"Who?" the demon asked.
Sam gestured to the limp form in Bel's arms. "Satan. He's been using Nick on Earth for a few hundred years to blend. Habits."
Mammon, as Sam had called him, shifted his gaze to me. "So you planned to just move your wench with you?" He stepped closer as a cruel smile took over his lips. "Welcome to Hell, my dear. I can only assume you're the reason we're using this disgusting language."
"English," Luke clarified from behind me, "and it is polite."
But Mammon didn't look away. "Fine. I'll give you four a room for your fallen leader, but I get the girl for the night."
"No," Bel said, dropping the word like it was made of stone.
"Come, she clearly likes to walk on the wild side. Let her enjoy a real demon."
I bit my lips together but wisely didn't say a thing. It was harder than I thought.
"No," Bel said again. "Earth has equality now, and she is not a prize. She is our partner, part of our legion."
"A human?" Mammon asked, laughing out the word. "She's your warm, wet hole. Clearly a good one, if you've shown her your real bodies."
"And she's mine," Sam growled, reaching back to grab my hand with his. "Don't make me pull rank here, Mammon."
"And mine," Luke said, stepping up beside me. "And Satanael's."
Bel shifted Nick in his arms and stormed closer. "She is our woman, our friend, and anyone who touches her without her permission will forfeit their aether to Satan."
Mammon's jaw clenched, but before he could say another word, the sound of a deep, rich laugh broke the stalemate. At the back, the crowd began to move, and a form pushed through. People began to murmur in that demonic language, mostly sounding stunned. I couldn't see much, but the spiraling horns on this guy's head were tall enough to look like a pair of masts parting the sea of bodies. When he finally made it through the crush of onlookers, I understood where the myths about the devil's appearance came from.
This man was as red as blood, with hair so dark it was nearly black. The talons on his hands were long and ominous, matching the brick color tipping his wings and tail. He was also huge, and carried himself with an air of confidence, but the most disturbing thing was how he smiled when he looked at me.
"Hello, Sienna. I see you've made friends."
"Uh.." I glanced back to Luke, then over to Sam, hoping for some hint.
"Azrael," Luke told me. "Leader of the people. He rarely leaves this plane."
The red demon smiled at me. "Rarely, but when I heard about you, I couldn't help myself. You have your great-grandmother's eyes, my girl."
"I don't know my parents," I said, shaking my head. "So I have no idea what you're talking about."
"I know." He pushed Mammon to the side and came closer. "I do know, child, but I remember her eyes. Her son had them, too, like peacock feathers. I'm sure I told you that when you were little. I used to check on you often. I couldn't stay, but I made sure they treated you good."
"Who are you?" I paused. "I mean, I know your name, but we've never met."
He offered one terrifying hand. "Charles Hancock, my dear, when I'm pretending to be human. Your CPS advocate. Like I said, I pulled strings where I could, but your demonic nature seems to be very strong."
"Oh yeah," Luke grumbled.
Azrael chuckled. "Mammon, get my great-granddaughter and our other leaders a place to be comfortable. And so the rest of you know, this girl is mine, and I will be offended if she's forced to do anything she doesn't want."
"Your what?!" I snapped. Sure, he may know the name of the guy who helped me shuffle through foster homes, but it was going to take a lot more than that before I bought into his story. "Nuh uh. It's not that easy. You don't get to just claim some relation and think that's going to wipe away all the shit I went through as a kid."
"Sia," Luke whispered as he clasped my shoulder. "We need to get Nick comfortable. He's still conscious."
Hearing that, Azrael's head whipped around to Mammon. "Now! I don't care how much you want his position, Mammon, he has earned it – so treat him like it! The first legion will go with him, to make sure Satan is cared for properly. Anything the rest of you want with the leaders of smiths and warriors can wait until they are rested." Then he offered me that hand again. "Sienna and I have things to talk about."
Again, I ignored it. "I go with Nick."
Azrael's eyes narrowed. "I see. So that's how things are, is it? Hmm." He took a breath. "Lucifer, would you care to join us? To make sure I don't do anything nefarious to my only living descendant?"
Luke leaned closer to my ear. "Sia, he runs the show inside these walls, and we don't need to make waves until Nick can fight his own battles."
"Fine, but I'm not going anywhere alone." I turned to Sam. "Please take care of him?"
"Always, sweetie." He glanced back, paused, then lowered his voice. "Az is ok. I don't know anything about him having a kid, but he's always respected our decision to work offworld. Just keep Luke close, ok?"
I grabbed the last two fingers on his hand and squeezed. "Promise. I also know how to go home."
"I'll make sure Bel knows." This time, he did the squeezing before he pulled away, gesturing for Bel to carry Nick wherever Mammon led.
I shifted closer to Luke. The two of us were the outsiders here, and it was impossible to miss that. His golden skin and feathered wings. My boring human appearance. Both of us stood out like sore thumbs, but Azrael didn't seem to mind at all. Instead, he offered me his arm like a polite gentleman. When Luke nodded, I finally accepted, letting the red demon lead me deeper into the mouth of this strange place. Unfortunately, we weren't going the same way they'd taken Nick.
I knew he'd be ok. They swore he couldn't die, so at worst he'd just lose consciousness and sleep for a really long time. That didn't mean I liked it. That was my man back there, who'd taken the hit meant for me. The sprite that had torn him apart had been thrown at me, but I'd given the angels raw power. No matter how hard I tried to push that aside and keep going, panic and worry kept twisting in my gut.
"This," Azrael said, oblivious to my inner turmoil, "is Hell, as I'm sure you've been told. Just like the angels have a city named Heaven, it's where most of our people congregate, but it's really just a city. Ours happens to be built into the side of a cliff."
Burrowed out of one was more accurate. The halls of this place were huge, rounded at the top, and completely solid. There were no windows, no doors that I could see, and only a strange illumination that leached from the stone. As the number of bodies around us thinned out, I tried to look closer and Azrael noticed.
"It's a bioluminescent bacteria, or close enough for that word to work for you. What little aether makes it into the atmosphere is ingested by these things, so it serves two purposes. The first, of course, is light. Secondly, we're able to use it as a battery in the event we run out of other sources."
"Right." I filed that in the back of my head. "And where are we going?"
"My rooms... I suppose you'd call it a suite. Because of the weather, most of us prefer to live deep underground, so we all keep rooms here. Then there are those who live outside Daemin, like your friends. We have guest rooms for when they return, but many of those are taken with the unconscious. Have your friends explained that to you?"
"No aether, no wakey. Yeah. That's why we need to get Nick some help."
Azrael glanced down at me. "There is no extra aether here, and I'd rather we talk about the rest in my room, child." With a smile, he patted my hand on his arm.
Yeah, that really was as creepy as it sounded. This demon acted like an elderly grandfather but he sure didn't look like one. To my eye, he appeared no older than Sam or Nick, maybe in his mid to late twenties, but I knew that didn't mean anything. He'd been around since the dawn of time, just like they had, yet my brain refused to accept the idea of someone so young as my father, let alone great-grandfather.
After a few more turns, I finally saw the doors that had been missing from the other hall. Azrael went to the first one on the left and pressed his hand to the center. I heard a click just before he nudged it open and gestured for me to go first. I did, half expecting some kind of trap.
Instead, I found a beautiful room filled with furniture I couldn't begin to describe. Nothing was quite like what we had on Earth, yet all of it was close enough to be recognizable. Then again, it made sense. Chairs with backs wouldn't work with wings like these guys had, nor would couches. The tables were taller, but so were the chairs. The one thing I didn't see was a bed. It actually made me feel better about being in here.
"Make yourselves comfortable," Azrael said, heading to a counter at the side. "I'm sure you won't find our water palatable, but maybe wine? Ale? Um..." He opened one of the doors and rummaged inside. "Pamplin juice?"
"She'd like that," Luke said.
I gave him a shocked look. "I will?"
"From Vesdar. Sorta like kiwi juice, if I had to describe it."
"Sure." I looked up and accepted the glass Azrael offered. It was chilled, as if the beverage inside had been refrigerated. Interesting.
Luke got something else that was a lot thicker and almost golden colored. "Wine?" I asked.
"No. It's made from rotten leaves. They call it tariklak." He took a sip and sighed like it tasted good. "We do things a little different when we can't grow the organisms to ferment our drinks."
"Oh." Well, ok. I guess that made sense, but it sure sounded disgusting. "And it's good?"
Luke offered the glass. I put mine on the table beside me and sniffed at his, then took the smallest sip. Surprised, both of my eyebrows shot up and I took a bigger one before handing it back. The drink was very natural-flavored, almost like lemon water, being neither sweet nor sour. Curious now, I reclaimed mine and repeated the process. If anything, it tasted more like honeydew melon juice than kiwi, but yes, it was very good.
"So," Azrael finally said as he eased himself into a monstrosity of a chair. "Who thought it was a good idea to bring the Muse to Daemin?"
Talk about cutting through the bullshit. Damn. Evidently, behind closed doors, Azrael didn't mess around. "That was Nick," I explained. "It seems I'm in a little danger out there."
"And you might be in even more here." He gestured to the far wall. "Out there are almost two hundred desperate demons who know we're losing this war. You think they won't sell you off for a few centuries of peace?"
"You really think the angels will follow through with any of their promises?" I countered. "Because I don't."
We both looked to Luke. "Don't ask me," he hissed. "I fell out of favor over there a long time ago."
"Well, believable offer or not," Azrael told me, "some of these guys would risk it. Besides, it's not like they'd lose anything."
"Except the one person who can seal the angels on their own world," I pointed out.
Azrael paused, his eyes growing a little larger. "I'm sorry. What?"
"Sam – er, Samyaza – said that was a dream around here, to lock the angels away so this crap would stop."
"Yes, but how exactly would you do that?"
Luke gently touched my knee, halting what I was about to say. "I want to hear more about your connection to Sia before she answers that."
Azrael chuckled. "Of course. I'm afraid I won't be able to convince you completely, because what little I know only barely convinced me, but I'll tell you what I've been told." He leaned forward, letting his wings relax behind him, and flicked his tail into his lap. "About five thousand years ago, give or take, I used to vacation on Vesdar. It's a close hop from here, and having so much available water is amazing. Well, I met the most impressive woman." His starry gaze dropped to the ground and he smiled at the memory. "Her hair was as dark as a shadow but her eyes were as brilliant as the tropics on Earth. It took me nearly seventy-five years to convince her I was serious."
"To sleep with her," Luke clarified. "Azrael's English is a bit antiquated, and I'm willing to guess he doesn't know most modern colloquialisms."
"Gotcha." I gestured for the demon to keep going.
"Lucifer is right, but the point is, my attentions eventually brought us a child. A little boy. We named him Therion, and he had a scarlet mane and his mother's blue-green eyes. Oh, he was the light of my life for many centuries, but about fifteen hundred years ago, the angels came. I thought he'd died and mourned him with the loss of his mother. That is, until I got a message."
"How?" Luke asked. "From who?"
"I don't know from whom, but it was left on Kacira's grave. Just a small bit of weaving that told me my line had continued on Angelis, and if I wanted to know more, to leave my mark."
"Mark?" I asked.
Luke tapped his chest. "The innermost symbol."
"It's a signature that can't be faked," Azrael explained. "Well, of course I did, and came back the very next day. This time, it gave me a location on Earth. Now, I have no idea how long that message had been waiting for me, since I don't leave Daemin often, but of course I went to the spot. I expected to find an angel, or maybe another demon. What I did not expect was a common human house with a few dozen foster children running around the yard."
I sucked in a breath because I remembered that. "I was like eight!"
"Yes, and I recognized you immediately. That long, elegant neck of yours is proof that your ancestor was a satyr. Sadly, I don't know what came after my son was taken, but the message said Therion was your grandfather. Needless to say, I did what I could to make sure you were treated well and raised properly, but I'm not a skilled smith or a warrior to make anyone obey. I'm just a politician here, and that doesn't help much on Earth."
"So you just left me?" I asked.
Azrael shrugged. "What did you want me to do, child? Bring you to live in Hell? No, these demons would have been too tempted. Never mind that I saw your power. Even at that age, you were a natural with the type of physics humans don't even believe exist. No, I tried to wean you off it, showing you how to live without the aether you'd already grown to love like an addiction. What else did you think those meditation games were for?"
"My temper," I grumbled. "So why didn't you send a smith to train me?"
He tilted his head slightly. "And show the angels exactly what you are? Let some idiot crush your natural ability with the rules we use in our own workings? No, my plan was to wait a few more years, until after you had your degree, then bribe Ronwe to travel to Earth."
"Who?" I asked.
Luke chuckled. "He's a scholar. A master of aether theory."
"Mm." That sounded rather boring. "Is he as good as Nick?"
The two men beside me shared a look. Azrael shook his head slightly and Luke chuckled, shifting a bit in his chair. "He's got better theory but less practical application," Luke explained. "Nick's made a name for himself with the things he can pull out of his ass when he needs to."
"Lucifer!" Azrael growled. "Language!"
"Not the Middle Ages," Luke shot back. "Trust me, Sia already knows all of those words and isn't afraid to use them."
"Right," I drawled, stopping them before these two could drag this discussion down a path I didn't care about at all. "So you honestly believe you're my great-grandpa? I mean, that would explain why the guys kept saying I was so much like a demon, but what good does it do me? I'm here, with my legion, and I have no intention of just sitting back and watching angels screw up everything I care about. Why does any of this matter?"
"Your legion?" Azrael countered. "Child, legions are for demons."
I lifted my chin and met his darkened eyes. "And you just said I'm part demon. Guess I'm right where I need to be." Then I gulped back another drink of the juice and pushed to my feet. "I need to check on my boyfriend, Gramps. Want to show me the way, or should I just assume Luke knows?"
"I know," Luke assured me, taking his time about standing. "Azrael, give her time to think about this. Sia may be young, but she's not foolish. From her perspective, everyone here is a stranger, and the last thing Nick told her was not to trust anyone."
"Ah," Azrael said as he also stood up. "Well that makes a lot more sense." Then he paused. "Can I at least have a hug, Sienna? Just once, because your kind lives much too fast and I don't want it to be something I regret."
"Your call," Luke said, "but he can't do anything."
Which meant there was no reason not to, so I opened my arms and made the offer. I swear I saw the tension drain from Azrael's body as he stepped into me, pulling me against his broad chest to wrap his arms around my back. Then he bent his head to press against the top of mine, but I didn't expect the wings or tail. It seemed that when a demon hugged someone, they did it completely, and the craziest thing was that it actually felt good. It felt right. Hell, it felt like something I'd spent my entire life wishing for, but I wasn't ready to start playing house with a complete stranger. Not yet.
"Thanks, Gramps," I muttered as I pulled away. "Even if you aren't really my distant relation, it's still nice to think you could be. Weird, but nice."
He chuckled. "Well, after talking with you, I'm more convinced than ever. Go check on your husband, child."
"Uh... boyfriend. We are not married." And I wanted to make it clear that I wasn't Nick's possession.
Azrael's brow furrowed. "But you made it sound as if..."
Luke caught my arm and guided me back. "They do things differently in modern times, Azrael. The first legion is her family, just go with that."
He nodded. "Well, I couldn't think of a finer group of men for her. You all have my blessing."
I opened my mouth to let him know I needed nothing of the sort, but Luke squeezed my arm. Hard. It hurt just enough to make my lips snap closed again as the angel turned me for the door. "I will be sure Satanael knows. Thank you for giving her protection."
"You're welcome, and I do expect you to do the same."
"Of course," Luke promised, but the moment we were through the door he added under his breath, "Just try and stop me from doing anything else."