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Pain flooded Muriel’s mortal body as she lay immobile on the cold stone floor. The screaming agony of ruptured organs and fractured bones flowed through her with every breath.
She cursed her own vulnerability. Just days ago, she had been one of the most powerful creatures in the universe. She could defeat an entire army of lesser demons with her bare hands. One cold look from her would cause humans to quiver with fear. Now, just a handful of Azazel’s men rendered her powerless body irreparably damaged.
Through the pain, she creaked out a defiant smile. It didn’t matter anymore. She had distracted the demons, thereby allowing Samuel and his mate to escape sure death. He would survive and stop the apocalypse, just as the prophecies foretold, and her self-sacrifice would earn her way back into Heaven. As soon as her mortal heart stopped beating, she would have her wings back.
Her lungs forced a breath up and out of her throat and she tasted blood mixing with the air on her tongue. The hard tip of a boot slammed into her ribs, and Muriel steeled herself against the pain and now familiar sound of bones breaking. Bring it. The harder they beat her, the faster she would rise as a gloriously powerful angel.
Another foot kicked her in the side of the head, and her entire world went black. She regained consciousness and instinctively rolled into the fetal position even though she knew she was already as good as dead.
A rough voice shouted, but she didn’t have the energy to look up. Blood poured from the newly opened head wound, and she wasn’t sure whether she could see, even if she tried. The menacing presence of the demons surrounding her retreated; she rolled onto her back and fought the urge to cough up more blood. Every cough put pressure on her cracked and broken ribs as the shooting pain threatened to pull her back into unconsciousness.
A demon stood over her. She felt his looming presence. Why didn’t he strike? She tried to see him then. She focused on opening her swollen eyelids, but she couldn’t get them to move. She might not be able to see him, but his presence was still there. Still promising pain. “It’s not every day we get a fallen angel down here.” The demon’s voice was surprisingly close to her face. He must have been kneeling just above her.
A shiver of fear snaked through her, but she shook it off. Pain didn’t scare her. She was secure in the knowledge that she had sacrificed herself to save a mortal and would be getting her wings back.
“All of your organs are bleeding inside your body, yet you still manage to look smug,” he sneered above her. “Fucking angels,” he muttered.
She would have loved to tell him where he could shove it, but it was impossible for her to speak, what with the blood filling her lungs and all.
He whispered close to her ear; his warm breath sent a shiver down her spine. “Did you really think we would let you back into Heaven?”
A few drops of warm liquid fell against her lips. Adrenaline surged, giving her the strength to open her bruised eyes. She tried to evade the blood, but he was much faster than her.
One fist curled in her hair as a strong wrist with a neat gash through the veins was pushed against her mouth. His forearm blocked her nose. “Drink up, my angel.”
Muriel willed herself to suffocate before she ingested any of the vile substance, but her damn mortal instincts caused her mouth to open and lurch for air to aid her injured lungs. Even before she took her first swallow, his blood trickled down her throat.
The substance quickly traveled through all corners of her being as she screamed against the wrist still being forced to her mouth. Her own ice blue eyes met the dark eyes of the demon as she committed his features to memory.
She was no longer an angel, so she could not feel her soul, but she knew that drinking a demon’s blood would forever darken even the purest soul. As the dark magic filled her, healing her wounds and soothing her pains, her soul was being corrupted. Destroyed.
The demon smiled and drew his bloody wrist away from her. “’Til we meet again, angel,” he mocked.
In the space of a heartbeat, he was gone, transported to only God knew where. When she glanced around the dark basement, Muriel saw that all the demons were gone.
As the pain of the savage beating left her body, it was replaced with a simmering rage that no true angel would ever feel.
Every angel knew that a soul tarnished by demon blood could never enter Heaven. The demon ensured Muriel would never get her wings back.
She let out a gut-wrenching scream loud enough to cause the earth to quake. No matter if she had to move Heaven and Earth, his soul was hers.