Legion weaves through the slush-soaked streets, his jaw ticking with rage. His hands are wrapped so taut around the steering wheel that his knuckles are white. He hasn’t uttered a word since we left the apartment. He won’t even look at me.
“Slow down,” I warn, after he narrowly misses plowing down a pedestrian.
Three minutes ago, he nearly sideswiped a parked car. When he doesn’t react, I try apologizing for the umpteenth time.
“L…I swear to you—I wouldn’t have done it. I would never steal from the Se7en. I’m sorry for not telling you about Crysis, but—”
“You care about him?” He spits the words out with such vehemence, I can’t be sure he just put a hex on me.
“What? No,” I insist, my face screwed in disgust.
“Then why did you make me swear not to tell the others yet? Why did you want me to meet him alone with the promise that I wouldn’t kill him on sight?”
“Because I want to be 100% sure he had a hand in that bombing. There’s been enough unnecessary death. What could be the harm in questioning him before you rip his head off?”
“And these little meetings you had with him…”
“Two. Two meetings,” I clarify, holding up my middle and index fingers.
“He never indicated to you that there was a hit on your life? Or your sister’s life, for that matter?”
“Of course not. If anything, he seemed to want to protect me. He knows about my time in Hell, and how the Alliance would react to that news. He vowed to keep my secret to keep me form being a science experiment for the rest of my life.”
L snorts, “For a price.”
“Yes, but he knew I wouldn’t steal from you. I couldn’t even if I tried. He still kept my secret.”
“But he also conveniently kept you away while an entire building collapsed on innocent people. A building you were supposed to be in. So maybe he didn’t want to hurt you, but it seems pretty damn apparent that he knew someone did.”
I have nothing to refute his theory, so I don’t. I’m just happy that he’s speaking to me again.
“Nephilim aren’t angels, Eden,” he continues. “They aren’t bound to a vow to protect. They’re dangerous, duplicitous, and vengeful.”
“Funny. He said the same thing about you.”
“He doesn’t give a fuck about you!” L roars, smacking his palm against the steering wheel. “That night in the bar…he could’ve stopped you. He could have saved you from going down that dark road. Hell, he could’ve handled that asshole in two seconds flat. But he deceived you, and allowed your anger to fester. If we hadn’t showed up when we did, he would have let you kill those people. He would have stood idly by and let you become a murderer, not even caring about the anguish and guilt you would have had to carry around with you for the rest of your life. He could’ve helped you then, and he did nothing.”
I chew my lip, locked in a prison of my own thoughts before whispering my hideous truth.
“I’m already a murderer.”
“What?”
I take a deep breath, and repeat the words that have been buried deep down in the dark, dusty attic of my soul. “I said, I’m already a murderer.”
“Eden…”
“When I was a child. His name was Lucas. He used to try to…do things to me. I told my mom, but she didn’t care. Or maybe she thought it served me right. I told the teacher, but no one believed me. They thought I was just as crazy as my mother. And there I was—just a child, with this unknown power at the tip of my tongue. I just wanted to make him stop. I just wanted him to leave me alone. So I told him to walk out into the street, just as a bus was coming. I killed him. I ruined that bus driver’s life. I inflicted the worst pain imaginable on his parents. So, no, Legion. Crysis would not have let me become a murderer. I already am.”
I turn towards the window, watching the blurry fragments of buildings and people through watery eyes. “I’ve never told anyone that story. I was always afraid that saying it out loud would make it real. Hell was inevitable. It was always in the cards for me. It was only a matter of when.”
Warmth trails along my jaw as Legion gently turns my head towards him. “If anyone is deserving of grace and mercy—it’s you. You were a child, Eden. You had no clue of the weight of your actions.”
“But what about the people I watched be slaughtered in Hell? I sat there and did nothing. I was quiet…complacent. I am just as responsible as Lucifer for their deaths.”
Legion shakes his head. “When one is cast down to Hell, the mortal notion of death is never final. They are tortured, maimed, disfigured, but they live again to suffer another day. Whether you spoke up or not, they would have met the same fate.”
His explanation give me a tiny shred of relief, but it still doesn’t erase the guilt that has plagued me for weeks. It still doesn’t make what I did—or didn’t do—right.
When we pull up to the diner Crysis arranged for us to meet at, considering our usual meeting place is crawling with law enforcement, I’m the one giving the silent treatment. Not because I’m angry with Legion, or anyone else for that matter. But I’m ashamed. And I’m afraid that what he suspects about Crysis will be true, and I will have added even more names to my growing list of victims.
Legion opens my door and helps me out of the car, keeping his hand on the small of my back as we enter the diner. The place is completely empty, save for a waitress at the counter and Crysis who sits at the farthest booth from the door. His blonde, shoulder-length hair is pulled back, and he’s wearing a black cable-knit sweater. He sips coffee, his shrewd green eyes studying every step towards him. I’m sure he has a gun trained on us right now. It’d be wise. Legion has one aimed right between his eyes from his coat pocket.
When we approach the booth and slide onto the bench across from Crysis, I’m not exactly sure what to say.
Hey, Crysis, meet the guy who shot all your Alliance buddies at the rest stop. Legion, please meet the angel hybrid that blackmailed me to gain information about you.
Thankfully, Crysis puts me out of my awkward misery.
“Eden,” he nods once.
I return the sentiment. “Crysis.”
He trains his emerald glare on Legion with not a hint of anxiety or reluctance. Crysis is only half angel. Legion is a fallen angel turned demon assassin. How evenly matched are they? L doesn’t have full usage of his powers, although, thanks to Niko’s sticky fingers, he has possession of them. I don’t even know the full extent of what Crysis can do, but I think he is biologically human…mortal. However, his challenging stare is of one who does not fear death.
“I assume you’re the Nephilim coward that tried to blackmail and manipulate Eden,” L snorts, looking Crysis up and down.
“And you’re the demon that let her get dragged to Hell because you were too chicken-shit to stop your master,” Crysis retorts. “Funny, you seemed bigger through the scope of my rifle.”
“Funny. I don’t remember seeing you at all, considering you ran like a bitch and let your men die.”
I hold up my hands to halt this ridiculous display of machismo before it escalates. “Seriously, guys? My sister is in the hospital, and you two want to measure your dicks? Look, if you want to fight, do it after we find out who planted that bomb.”
“I told you over the phone, Eden—I had nothing to do with it,” Crysis insists.
“Yet, she was just conveniently with you when it was detonated?” Legion challenges, crossing his arms over his chest.
“If I was in on it, wouldn’t I have insisted that she go see her sister? Not meet me on the next street?”
He has a point. If Crysis was a part of this plot, I wouldn’t have been at the pub with him, far enough away from the blast that I was spared.
“Did anyone else at the Alliance know about us meeting?” I ask him. “Or know we’d had contact?”
Crysis shakes his head. “No. I haven’t told a soul. Not even your father.”
“So unless they didn’t know I had moved out, which is unlikely, there was no way they could have known I was supposed to be there.”
“Which means…” Legion muses.
Crysis frowns, realizing where this is going. “But that doesn’t make sense…”
“That attack wasn’t meant for me,” I breathe.
Legion whips out his phone and urgently taps out a message. “Toyol and Phenex are headed to the hospital.”
“And you can trust them?” Crysis questions with an air of smugness. “I mean, it was one of you that betrayed her and offered her up to Lucifer.”
“I trust them with my life,” Legion answers, his voice filled with authority. That’s the end of that.
“And Lucifer did it because he thought he was protecting me.”
L turns to me and frowns. I place a hand on his forearm and nod, reassuring him it’s all right. “Lilith told me everything. Lucifer was supplied the angel venom if he agreed to use it to kill the Se7en. With them out of the way, I’d be unprotected and vulnerable, and the real threat could move in. Instead, he reneged on the deal and trapped me so he could take me to Hell where I couldn’t be found.”
Crysis leans back in his seat, his brow furrowed. “Damn. So who is the real threat?”
“No one knows,” L breaks in. “Lilith was only instructed to keep tabs on us. She had…other…motivations for her dishonesty, but she thought she was saving our lives. However, we suspect the Seraph have something to do with it.”
“The Seraph?” Crysis’s stunned expression would have matched my own if I hadn’t learned the hard way: nothing is what it seems.
“They paid us a little visit shortly before Lucifer took her,” Legion explains, his lips tight.
“They were here? In Chicago?”
The look on Crysis’s face—a mix of shock and hurt—sends an unexpected pang of sympathy to my chest. I can see it in his eyes…the Seraph considered me important enough to come down to Earth for, yet his father could not be bothered. And while their motivations were most likely malicious, the fact that archangels—the most powerful beings in existence outside of God himself—still came means something is seriously up.
Crysis recovers in the next blink of an eye, and gets back to business. “You think they have a vested interest in Eden?”
Legion weighs his words on his tongue before answering. “Eden. Or…Adriel.”
Fucking-A.
Seriously? Again with this shit?
“Let them have her,” I seethe. “Shit, I don’t want her.”
“It’s not that easy, Eden. You can’t exorcise an angel. It has to be their choice. The only other way to force the process is to…” Legion gulps. “…kill you.”
And there it is again. Another way that Adriel has intruded on my life. Legion loved her. Lucifer wants to use her. And now, possibly, the Seraph want to extract her. At the risk of my demise, of course.
I’m grateful when Crysis pipes up with more questions, saving me from thoughts of Adriel, and the fact that the Seraph could possibly want me dead.
“This could explain why Lucifer hasn’t tried to get her back, right? He doesn’t want to risk pissing them off. But wasn’t he so adamant about protecting her? What now? She’s on her own?”
“I don’t know what motivates Lucifer to do the things that he does,” L shrugs. “He’s selfish—completely ruled by his desires. If this is a matter of self-preservation, he’ll save his own skin.”
“You think the Seraph would actually…hurt me?” I ask, my voice just above a whisper.
Legion turns to me, his gaze warm and earnest. “I would never let that happen. I swear to you, I will fight until my last breath on Earth to keep you safe, Eden. Even at the risk of my soul.”
He touches a hand to my cheek when Crysis snickers from the other side of the table. Legion’s expression instantly hardens when he turns back to face him.
“Awww, that’s sweet. Only one problem though: nothing can beat a Seraph.”
“Nothing but one of their own.” All eyes are on L as he continues. “I know the Seraphim; I was one. It’s true—they are indestructible. And outside of the Almighty, only one of their own can stop them.”
“But you can’t…” Legion going up against the Seraph terrifies me. But not only that. He can’t physically beat them. Not as he is now—only a fraction of himself. He holds the key to unleashing the full force of his power, but that could mean unleashing Hell on Earth. He wouldn’t be the archangel he once was. He would be Legion in all his horrifying glory.
He nods once, ensuring me that he shares my reservations. I don’t know how much Crysis knows—he could be picking this out of my head right now—but I’m not going to show our hand until we know for sure that he’s on our side.
“Can you do some poking around within the Alliance?” I ask him, earning a raised brow. I continue. “Maybe someone knows who’s behind the bombing, or maybe there’s a rogue agent acting alone. Anything would help.”
“Like I told you on the phone: the Alliance wouldn’t do something like this.” There’s a flare of irritation in his narrowed eyes.
Legion pipes up, “Well, fact of the matter is, Alliance tech was used. Whether you want to believe it or not, they’re involved. You’re involved.”
Crysis pinches the space between his eyes and huffs out an aggravated breath. “Fine. I’ll see what I can find. And if I do hear something, then what? What can be done? The Alliance of the Ordained is everywhere. We have numbers. Even if I went against them, we’d have what…eight? Nine, including Eden? That’s not enough to beat them, let alone Seraphim.”
“We might be able to get help from the warlocks,” Legion remarks.
Crysis spits out a curse and roughly rakes a hand through his blonde hair. “Shit. Warlocks? Oh, the Seraph would love that, considering they believe magic is an abomination. Warlocks have no allegiance to either side. How do you know you can trust them?”
“How do we know we can trust you?” Legion bites back. “Besides, I trust them. That’s enough.”
Crysis rolls his eyes before sipping his cold coffee. “Whatever. None are strong enough to beat a Seraph. You’re fallen. Even at full strength, you can’t beat them all. There’s one of you. And there’s…”
“Seven,” Legion finishes. “There once were seven of the Seraph. Now there are five.”
“Well, that’s four more than we have,” Crysis grumbles. “Four and a half, considering you’re only at 50%, demon.”
“Maybe not,” I offer, struggling to sound hopeful in a situation that’s wholly hopeless. “There’s one more fallen Seraph…”
“Hell no,” Legion growls.
“Are you fucking insane?” Crysis barks, mirroring L’s indignation.
“Just think about it… He’s in hiding because he doesn’t want to go up against them. However, if we were all working towards a common enemy, maybe we could temporarily put ancient feuds and biases aside. Then you all can go back to hating each other. Look at you two.” My gaze seesaws between Legion and Crysis. “Sworn enemies yet you’re willing to be civil until we get this shit figured out. Lucifer doesn’t want me dead—we all know that. And he doesn’t get off on hurting innocents. The people that died today? My sister? They’re innocent. And with everything going down, the real culprits knew all fingers would point to Lucifer. This could’ve been a set up by them.”
“But he has hurt innocent people,” Crysis urges. “The children killed at elementary schools at the hands of the Called are as innocent as it gets. Look at the rise in crime in Chicago alone. His hands are dirty, Eden.”
“But do you think he made the Called into killers?” I challenge, pressing my elbows onto the table and leaning forward. “Or were they already headed in that direction? I admit—he’s not completely blameless in those deaths, but those humans weren’t pure to begin with.”
Which is why he chose me.
Even without the Calling, I was prone to destruction. I had a hole in my heart. Had the Se7en not come along when they did, I would have eventually been another mass shooter. Or maybe a serial killer, seeking revenge. I can’t even imagine the damage I would have done had I let the pain and loneliness fester into uncontained rage.
“Absolutely not,” L states with an air of finality. “We don’t need him.”
I want to argue that we do, that Lucifer’s help could do a lot of good. Maybe even help them find some common ground for the good of the human world. But I know discussing this with Legion now, especially in front of Crysis, isn’t going to happen. And as much as I absolutely hate to admit it, my best bet might be going through Lilith.
“So what now?” Crysis asks, looking at his watch.
“Now, we turn over every stone for any clues that lead to the bombing,” Legion replies. “Now, we keep Eden out of the public eye, and protect her sister, Mary, until she’s stable enough for us to move her from ICU.”
“Move her where?” My gaze goes wide with alarm. Not another luxury building with a doorman. None of that will protect her now.
“I don’t know. Away from the hospital though. Somewhere she can get the medical care she needs while she recovers, while being protected. Hopefully whoever was behind this attack thinks she didn’t make it—there’s complete chaos all over the city and it’s impossible to sift through all the carnage. Once we know she’s out of the woods, we’re getting her out of there.”
“I’ll do what I can to help too,” Crysis offers. “Our intel might have picked up something yours missed. We’ve got cameras and bugs set up throughout every hospital in the city. I could check for anyone overly interested in finding a specific victim.”
L nods. “Thank you.”
Those two words send a little blast of warmth to my chest. This is a good start. I know this doesn’t let me off the hook for lying, but at least Legion sees that Crysis’ intentions were somewhat honorable. This cease-fire could be more than a temporary truce.
“And the next time you try to get your filthy Nephilim hands on The Redeemer, I will take great pleasure in carving off every one of your fingers with it, before cutting your fucking head off.”
Legion stands and turns towards the door, leaving me with an amused looking Crysis.
“Um, I’ll talk to you later,” I stammer, before following after L.
Well, so much for that plan. I give them a week before blood is shed.