Shea’s face was pressed against the glass, looking out the window as we left Angel City, and made our way into the war zone.

“Tonight is just a drive-by. We want you to see what we’re up against, get a sense for the terrain. To hear the noises, see the risks, and then come right back,” Lincoln told us as he paced the aisle, holding onto the handrail above him intermittently. “You’re rookies. You won’t be doing missions for a while, so don’t ask,” he barked to our small group of nine second-year rookies and Noah, plus the driver.

Luke raised his hand. “So people, like, live out here? Why don’t we just ferry them into Angel City by the busload?”

Lincoln’s face took on a hardened expression. “Unfortunately it’s not that easy. A lot of the people out here are slave bound. Those who aren’t are trapped into some kind of deal with a demon that keeps them here. The demons out here run the war zones like a mafia. If you live in their territory, you have to pay protection money.”

“Oh,” Luke said and looked out at the desolate landscape. We were passing the area we’d done the gauntlet in. The broken-down neighborhoods and shelled-out buildings, some still smoldering, were depressing to say the least.

“Another issue is resources,” Lincoln continued. “Angel City is only so big, and we only have so much to go around. The demons outnumber us greatly, and they’ve taken so much of our land. We try to push back and take back certain parts, but when we finally do, they look like this.” He gestured to the windows.

Geez, I was very fortunate to be living in Angel City. They didn’t cover the war on the news or anything like that. The news was still run by the humans, and they mostly talked about things going on in Angel City, with an occasional story about Demon City, or beyond the wall. I’d never seen a news crew out here, or heard a Fallen Army soldier interviewed. We knew the war with the demons was ongoing, but we were safe in our little city and we had enough to worry about with the Awakening and all that stuff. I felt kind of selfish now, and was glad I had joined the cause.

“Now we’re going to be entering Inferno. It’s a town run by demons that’s unstable, but we’re close to taking it back. They don’t have walls up or guarded checkpoints, so we’re able to infiltrate it easier. Some of the more outlying towns, deeper into their hold, are much more secure,” Lincoln explained, as our bus crawled deeper into the smoky black night.

I raised my hand and Lincoln nodded in my direction.

“Inferno?” I asked.

Lincoln smirked. “We’ve named all of the local demon strongholds after the levels of Hell in Dante’s Inferno. The city of Treacherous, formerly San Francisco, is the most powerful demon stronghold in the world.”

I wanted to chuckle at the silly names, but his statement gave me chills. It reminded me that we were a small part of a very big problem that extended all over the world. Every major city, in every state, in every country was divided—Angel City on one side and Demon City on the other.

When the bus dipped onto a side road, I saw streetlights up ahead, and the buildings looked more and more put together. Lincoln’s hand moved to rest on the butt of his gun as we rolled closer to Inferno.

“I want everyone to just look outside the windows, get accustomed to this town, because it’s our current base. The goal is to take it back, then extend the wall of Angel City out here, and start cleaning it up,” Lincoln announced. “But that’s obviously confidential. Fallen family only,” he added.

“Fallen family” was another word for the army. That meant any of this intel could be shared among others in the Fallen Army but no civilians.

Wow, we’re going to be taking an entire city back from the demons? The thought was both thrilling and terrifying.

As we pulled onto the main road, I started to hear music and see a hustle and bustle of people scurrying along the sidewalks.

My eyes landed on a Mugwort demon. They were total alcoholics, and you could tell one not just by the yellowish bone-colored horns that protruded off their warty faces, but also by their drunken walk. The one I saw now was swaying with a beer in his hand, singing something.

Shea and I kicked one in the balls once. They were lecherous assholes, constantly hitting on women. The one Shea and I had attacked had been too hammered to retaliate, so luckily, we’d gotten away scot-free.

As if he wanted to prove my thought, I saw the Mugwort demon reach out to a passing woman who looked human and grab her ass.

I waited for her to smack him with her purse, or flip him off, or at least scowl, but she didn’t. She just gave him a hollow look and kept walking, like maybe she’d been grabbed too many times to react anymore.

Oh God.

It was such a small thing to notice, but it affected me deeply, as deeply as if I’d seen an innocent woman murdered or raped. Because they were the same. They’d broken that woman’s spirit, and that was as horrifying as death to me.

My eyes flew to a street fight that was in progress, and I gasped when I saw it was children. The two boys didn’t look more than twelve years old, but they were throwing punches that resembled those of a trained fighter. Demons stood in a circle around them, cheering them on, and waving dollar bills in the air.

No.

“Don’t look away.” Lincoln’s voice shook me from my trance, and I pulled my eyes from the fight to see him speaking to one of the other rookies on our team—Valerie, a Necromancer. “You have to see what we’re up against, and you have to get the shock over with, because the next time we bring you in here, we’re going to need your help. We need to save these people, and we can’t do it without you,” he declared.

Something unfurled in my chest then. A deep purpose was growing within me; I was having a total paradigm shift. I no longer wanted to just get by and have a job for money. I wanted to fight, I wanted to be the greatest soldier the Fallen Army had ever seen, and I wanted to kill every demon on this Earth. I also wanted to be a healer like Noah, running out into the trenches, and healing humans from their demon-inflicted injuries. The two opposites warred inside of me.

Lincoln’s eyes met mine and something passed between us. I could see it in his eyes—this was his passion too. Each time he came out here, I wondered why he kept coming back. He was always getting injured, or was gone for weeks at a time, but now I knew. We needed to liberate these people.

I needed to find James. My old friend from Demon City was Sighted. He would be able to tell me if the prophecy regarding Lucifer and me was true. Because if it was, I was going to kill that bastard. Even if it cost me my life. I wanted the world back the way it was when I was a kid. Yeah, bad shit still happened, but nothing like this. If I could do that, then I could think of nothing better for which to live my life.

Lincoln’s walkie-talkie squawked, interrupting my life-pondering.

“All available units near Madison and 4^th, requesting help. I’ve got a Succubus demon trying to take a little girl. Repeat, all available units, please respond.” Lincoln’s eyes widened and we all just stared at him. He wasn’t answering the call.

What the hell is a Succubus demon? I’d never seen or heard of one, other than in horror films.

“Someone else will answer. We’re not taking calls tonight,” Lincoln told the van filled with terrified rookies.

Standing, Noah walked to the front of the bus, where Lincoln’s hand was poised over the walkie-talkie.

“Mayday!” The voice came back, more urgent that time. “All available units to Madison and 4^th. This innocent kid is going to die!” he shouted.

Lincoln cursed and picked up the walkie-talkie as Noah instructed our driver.

“Sergeant Lincoln Grey here. I’m with a team of rooks on a sightseeing quest, not cleared for missions. What’s your status?”

“Lincoln! It’s Tanner,” a new voice came over the walkie. “We’re at the Madison Apartments doing our street patrol, and the girl’s mom ran out screaming for us. I tried to enter the apartment, but the Succubus threw me across the room. She’s already taken one kid. They were twins.”

My whole body flinched as bile rose in my throat. “Tell him we’re coming!” I shouted and stood.

Were. He said they were twins. That meant….

Lincoln cut me a glare and spoke into the walkie. “Noah and I are coming to assist. I’ll have the driver take my rooks back to Angel City. ETA two minutes.”

Pushing out of my seat, I beelined it for my boyfriend. My sergeant. My asshole, who was about to tell me I couldn’t go inside.

I tried to lower my voice. “Sir, we may not be trained for missions, but we all passed the gauntlet. If it means saving this little kid’s life, then let us help you.”

Lincoln looked down at me like I was a child. “Do you know what a Succubus demon is? Have you ever seen one?”

I squirmed, holding onto the rail as we took a hard turn. “No.”

Lincoln looked pleased with himself, as if he’d won some battle with me. “It’s the only female demon we’ve ever seen, and she’s a fucking nightmare. She feeds off children’s fear and bad dreams, which usually kills them from the shock. Then she escapes into open portals back to Hell, which she leaves open so more demons can filter through.”

I winced.

“Oh, and she shoots razor blades from her mouth for fun,” Lincoln added.

Well, that definitely didn’t sound awesome, but it only served to reinforce my point. “You can’t take her on with only four of you. You need all of us, especially me. I have dark magic, and I can use it against her.”

It was the first time in a long time that I’d ever thought about using it.

“We’re going!” Shea shouted and stood. I turned around to see the other rookies suiting up, adjusting their weapons and tightening belts.

Lincoln gave me a death glare. “Has anyone ever told you that you’re really bad at obeying orders?”

I nodded. “All the time. So what’s the plan?”

Lincoln sighed, his eyes dropping to my wrist cuffs.

“You have Sera?” he asked.

I pulled her from my thigh holster.

Lincoln looked back at Noah, who nodded.

“Okay, here’s the plan. Noah, the other two senior Fallen Army guards, and I will go in first. We alone will battle the Succubus while you guys split into three groups. The first group will grab the dead child’s body and bring it back to the van so this poor mother can have a proper burial. The second group will grab the other little girl, hopefully still alive, and ferry her to the van to be with her mother.”

We all nodded our understanding, and then he looked at Shea. “You closed that Hell portal one time. Think you can do it again?”

Shea nodded without hesitation. “Absolutely.” She’d been working with Mr. Claymore in her advanced independent study, and was doing all kinds of stuff she shouldn’t know how to do yet.

“The third group, which will consist of Luke, Shea, and Brielle, will close the portal and make sure everyone gets out of the apartment alive,” he finished with a heavy sigh.

I nodded. He was letting me go in, giving me a big job, and I wasn’t even nervous. That was weird.

Noah crossed the space, and placed a hand on my shoulder. “You’re the only healer here besides Lincoln and me. Remember that. If the girl is injured and it’s minor, you can help heal her while we’re battling the Succubus.”

I gave him a curt nod. I forgot sometimes that I was all of those things: fighter, healer, part angel, part dark magic wielder.

Lincoln threw a sideways glance at me. “Don’t be a hero. Let us handle this, and you just extract the little girl. Do you understand, Atwater?”

Me? Be the hero? Never.

I grinned. “Yes. Sir.”

Our bus pulled up to the curb, where I could see two Fallen Army soldiers comforting a grieving mother.

Lincoln held the walkie to his mouth. “All available units make your way to Madison Apartments. We’re going in to sequester the Succubus.”

The radio squawked. “I’m inbound, but I’m a good twenty minutes from you,” said a familiar voice over the radio. Darren.

“She’ll be dead by then,” Lincoln told us. Over the radio, he simply acknowledged Darren, and then we were moving out.

“Luke, can you shift for me? I might need you to knock the door in,” Lincoln asked the Beast Shifter.

Luke nodded. “Men, always using me just for my body,” he joked and then disappeared behind some bushes. The two Fallen Army soldiers helped the grieving mother onto the bus, then gave Lincoln and the group a rundown of the situation.

“She’s powerful. She chucked me across the room like a tornado,” one soldier said. I glanced down at the insignia on his chest to see he was a Necromancer.

Lincoln nodded. “Let’s move. We don’t have a lot of time.”

We quickly split up into the groups of three, while the driver stayed behind to keep the mother on the bus.

As we were taking the steps up to the second floor, Luke roared behind us, announcing his presence.

“You scared the shit out of me!” Shea shrieked at him as his fur brushed against my leg. He bounded along beside us and then squeezed past me, knocking my body into Shea. Soon he was at the front of the line, right beside Lincoln.

It was in that moment that I heard the small, yet mighty scream of a child. Adrenaline pulsed through me, and emotion tightened my throat. I wasn’t sure there was anything else in the world that motivated a soldier more than the wail of a helpless child.

Lincoln jiggled the door handle and then nodded to Luke.

“We’re on borrowed time!” Lincoln shouted, pulling his sword as blue splinters of light shot from the blade.

Luke wasted no time, rearing up on his hind legs, and then charging the door. Putting all of his probably five-hundred-pound weight into the push, he came down on top of it. The door was one of those cheaper aluminum ones, so instead of cracking or falling apart, it simply burst off the hinges and then fell flat onto the floor, revealing an apartment.

Lincoln waited for no one, charging past Luke and running headfirst into the house. My man was fearless. I hadn’t yet decided if that was a good or a bad thing.

We all waited as Lincoln, Noah, and the other two Fallen Army soldiers ran into the apartment. Then the first team went in—the one tasked with removing the dead little girl’s body. My heart ached at the very thought of seeing a dead child. I had every intention of being a good girl and awaiting Lincoln’s next instructions until I heard Bonnie’s call for help.

“She’s not dead!” my classmate screamed.

Instinct took over then. Bonnie was a Necromancer—she knew death. If she said the little girl wasn’t dead, she wasn’t dead. I was the only healer available, so if the little girl needed help, it was going to have to come from me.

The second I started for the door, Shea and Luke trailed behind me without question.

“What are you doing?” the second group whispered. They were waiting by the door for Lincoln’s okay to come get the second twin.

“Don’t worry,” I told them, and then I was in the apartment.

As I entered the space, the first thing that hit me was the smell. It was surprisingly sweet and alluring—vanilla, but with an underlying decaying odor.

There were some gnarly battle sounds coming from the bedroom, and it took everything in me not to go in there, and try to help out. I had to trust that Lincoln had this handled.

‘If he doesn’t, I’m ready,’ Sera told me. I patted her hilt in an effort to calm her. I had every intention of not seeing that Succubus.

“In here!” Bonnie whisper-screamed, and I turned toward the sound. They were all hunched over a small child’s form, and the familiar swirls of purple and orange Necromancer magic—that I’d grown up seeing with my mom—were dancing around the little girl’s body.

I frowned. “I thought you said she wasn’t dead?” The little girl’s brunette hair was cropped short and splayed out onto the carpet behind her, and she was seemingly lifeless. If she wasn’t dead, why was Bonnie using Necro magic? Even if she was, why the hell was Bonnie using Necro magic? Besides it being forbidden to raise the dead in Angel City, it was doubly forbidden to raise a child.

Bonnie held her hands over the girl. “She’s kind of half in, half out. Her soul keeps jumping from that room back here into her body. I’m trying to pin it into her,” Bonnie explained.

That was some crazy shit. My mom tried to explain to me once how she knew someone was dead even from twenty feet away. It was the light, the aura, the soul. Necromancers could see it, sense it, manipulate it at times. It kind of freaked me out.

“Can you force it down? Then, maybe I could heal her.” Bending down, I ran my hands over the little girl, trying to do a healing scan. It was a third year study but Noah had shown me a little so I was going to wing it. She was human, obviously, and therefore quite frail from the trauma. There would be no supernatural healing kicking in for her.

Bonnie shook her head. “This is some advanced shit. The Succubus in the room is doing something. I’m pulling against her.”

I breathed in and out slowly, trying to feel for something I could heal, but there was nothing I could sense that needed healing. Her life-force felt so weak, and I wasn’t sure how to help that. I needed to work on my healing skills with Noah more.

“Lincoln, look out!” I heard one of the boys call from the room, and then a crashing sound rang throughout the house.

Screw the rules.

I pulled Sera from my thigh holster and took off running to the bedroom. I wasn’t going to let some little demon bitch hurt my man and steal this little girl’s soul.

I have the mark of Lucifer himself, and I’m not scared of any demon. They should be scared of me!

With all the confidence of a lioness, I ripped the door open and readied myself for a fight. But when my gaze fell onto the creature suspended in midair, I nearly pissed myself.

“Holy shitballs.” I breathed.

And then she tried to kill me.