Chapter One
Another day, another demon.
I landed on the ground in a kneeling position, my muscles ready. I closed my eyes for a moment, gathering my breath and taking in everything around me.
I sensed—heard, and smelled—the demon on my left begin to rouse, evidently not as unconscious as I thought he’d be after a brutal kick to the head. I remained kneeling, eyes closed, clearing my mind of everything except the perception of him. In the far recesses of my mind, I scanned the area for any other creatures who may be hiding in the shadows.
His breathing was labored, which made following his movements child’s play. So far, I had kept to hand-to-hand combat, mostly because it was invigorating and kept things exciting.
I smirked, as the beast noisily got to his feet. My pulse raced like a car, blazing on an open track, but despite the high of the adrenaline rush, I felt like I should probably stop playing with the monster and get it over with. After all, it was my job.
In the swiftest of movements, I jumped to my feet, sensing the indicative burning at my palms. Swirling in place, I lifted my hands a few inches apart from each other, building the divine friction between them. It was a gift I was blessed with as an Angel, and it never failed me. As I turned to face the demon, knowing that he’d be within a couple of feet of me by now, I opened my eyes and aimed.
With a powerful roar, the bluish-white flames jetted toward him, encompassing his stolen body—a shell of what it once was, barely resembling the human that he had stolen it from. He stopped moving, mid-lunge, his eyes wide with shock, and for a split second I felt a deep sadness for the human he had destroyed. While some demons chose to possess the humans they made deals with, using the bodies to infect society under the guise of belonging with them, others claimed their souls, leaving the bodies behind for their loved ones to mourn over.
This demon was obviously once a man, likely weakened by greed, and with the ultimate trade, the demon had claimed his mind and body. I quickly reminded myself that the thing that stood in front of me wasn’t that man anymore– it was evil incarnate, the mortal he destroyed long gone from this Earth.
And he wasn’t even a very impressive enemy. This monster that lived within was just a low-level demon, nothing like the superior Dark Angels that I longed to battle. The kind of evil that could only be defeated by a member of the Legion of Angels.
The kind of evil that took my parents from me so many years ago.
Don’t get me wrong, when a human was faced with the temptations that a demon minion offered, even as low-level as this one was, the humans were at its mercy. When darkness tapped into a mortal’s mind and discovered exactly what was so desperately desired, the darkness was almost impossible to resist.
I kept my eyes glued on the dark creature, satisfied to see it getting the punishment it deserved, but I couldn’t help but wonder what the human wanted so badly that he felt his soul was worth trading. To be successful? To be loved? To be famous?
I kept my magic aimed at the hulk of evil until its entire body was engulfed in flames. Its skin rippled from the heat, crackling and flaking off in large bits of charred flesh. I intensified the power, flooding it with another blast of Divine Purity. The demon’s dark eyes suddenly bulged with rage. He choked and gurgled as he rapidly disintegrated from the inside out. For a fraction of a second, he was frozen in place, like water in a balloon after it’s been popped. Then he crumbled to the floor, into a pile of steaming, glittering dust.
“Rumor?” a voice called from behind me, as the door to the otherwise abandoned bar, banged open. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a flash of red hair as my friend, Ember, made her way into the room. “Damn it, I’m late!”
I shook my head. “Actually, you’re not even on shift tonight.”
Ember frowned at me in disappointment, but I didn’t have anything to say that would make her feel any better. I had been in a dark place for the last few days, and I just needed to cover a few shifts on my own.
“We used to do all of our shifts together,” she reminded me with sad wistfulness.
I looked back at the conquered demon on the floor. A small billow of smoke continued to pour from the remains, but it was otherwise gone. “I know.”
Ember arched an eyebrow, and I knew she was one breath away from snarling at me.
“What a freaking mess. Is this really necessary?”
I scanned the room, registering the many overturned barstools, the billiards table that was cracked down the middle, and a handful of demon-sized dents in the plaster walls. “Yeah,” I shrugged. “Sometimes it is.”
She shook her head in disbelief.
“What? I need to stay on my toes. I’m getting old.”
“Give me a break. You’re not even thirty yet!” she protested teasingly, rubbing her hands together, and taking stock of the disarray.
“Yet being the operative word.” My lips curved into a smirk of my own. “You know that very well.”
“Yeah, don’t remind me. But you’re still older than me, if only by a few days. Now step aside if you’re not going to help.”
Ember held her hands out, closed her eyes for a minute, and then clapped her hands together once, sharply. Though her hands looked soft, they made a resounding crack that reverberated through the room. In the blink of an eye, the barstools righted themselves, the dents in the walls popped out until the plaster was once again smooth, and the billiard table was repaired. She even managed to fix the lightbulb I had cracked when I shoved the demon up into the light fixture.
I bumped her hip affectionately. “Good job.” I noted the crackles of energy that still sparked at her fingertips. She had generated more than enough magic for the simple task.
“Well, I figure I ought to help out somehow.”
I heard the self-disdain in her voice, and it nagged at me. “You’re good at what you do, Ember. You know that.”
She smiled at me, her moment of self-pity lingering only briefly. Then she shrugged. “Yeah, you’re right. It’s not my fault you didn’t wait for me.” She bumped me with her hip, a bit harder than I had done to her.
I felt my spine stiffen in annoyance, but the last thing I wanted was to come across as defensive. Ember would never understand how slaying the darkness helped me cope with the loss of my parents, and I wasn’t ready to dig into the reasons why it helped. One thing I knew for certain was, that on most days I wasn’t just slaying demons in front of me, but also conquering the demons that haunted my memories.
I glanced over at her and saw that something had caught her attention. Her eyebrows twitched slightly, but the rest of her body was completely still. I knew that look; I had seen it many times before. She was sensing something nearby.
“What is it, Ember?” I asked, squaring my feet and tuning my senses outward. I caught a hint of what she’d detected, and we both answered my question at the same time.
Vampire.
We turned toward the door, but I paused to glance back at the pile of demon ash left behind on the floor.
“You couldn’t clean him up?” I raised my eyebrows in mock annoyance, and she chuckled.
“He’s your kill, Rumor.”
I swept my hand at the pile, twisting my fingers as if I were conducting an invisible orchestra. The remains swirled, spinning faster and faster until they slammed together and formed a crystalized sphere, no bigger than a marble. I summoned it toward me, and it floated lightly in mid-air.
“Black?” Ember asked, noting the color of the crystal, indicative of the demon’s eye color and status.
“Yeah, low level. He was working as a drug dealer, preying on the weak.” I held my hand out and the demon’s remains fell into my palm, cold and hard. I dropped it into the back pocket of my jeans, like it was nothing more than the wrapper from a stick of gum, even though it was so much more than that. It was all that remained of the human that had traded his soul to the Devil. I took a deep breath, saying a silent prayer for that human, and then turned to leave.
“So, do you think he had anything to do with the Vamp that we’re sensing?” she asked, as we emerged from the building and made our way onto the street.
“I don’t know, but I doubt it.”
From there, we headed west, making our way toward the dark energy. Pausing at the top of a hill, I looked behind me at the twinkling fairyland that was the city at night. Jets flew overhead, arcing toward the airport. The contrails painted a misty white veil across the ebony expanse of sky. I took a deep breath of cool, fresh night air, and stared up at the brilliant stars, pinpricks in the deep black overhead.
Then, reluctantly, I turned my attention to the large, gray house at the end of the street below, and growled in disgust, feeling the evil energy that lived within. I wasn’t sure how I hadn’t sensed the creature before now, and that made me feel a bit uneasy. Usually I could detect these bastards from half a mile away. Ember was probably right, I shouldn’t be slaying on my own.
“Blood-sucking bastard,” Ember growled, as if reading my thoughts. “Let’s get him.”
We walked soundlessly down the cracked and overgrown cement walk until we stood in front of a decrepit narrow gate that would give us access to the property. We quickly leapt over it, moving into the shadows, making our way to the side of the large estate.
“Back door?”
“Yeah, sounds good.” Ember replied.
I wanted to gain entry quickly. It was approaching the darkest hour, and the last thing we wanted was for the vamp to awaken before we were ready to strike.
“Holy water?” I asked, as we approached the back, noticing a pane of glass that ran alongside the doorframe. It would make entering much easier.
“You don’t have any?”
“I’m low. I didn’t refill before I went out.”
She smirked at me. “Yeah, I’ve got a full vial, and of course, my dagger.”
I looked at the short piece of sharp wood that sat in the leather pouch strapped around her waist, and quirked an eyebrow. I personally always used a spell to summon stakes when needed, rather than carrying one around, but Ember had always preferred to make her own.
“And a stake. Clearly, you come prepared.”
She chuckled. “Of course.”
“Then, let’s do this.”
I nodded at her, and in the next moment, we both took one purposeful step forward. Of course the door was locked when I tried the knob. I looked at Ember from the corner of my eye, but she was already stepping up next to me. Within seconds her elbow had broken the small window next to the door, and she was reaching her hand through. Door unlocked, we quietly made our way into the house hoping the bloodthirsty creature hadn’t been disturbed by our break-in.
The large parlor room was decorated in aged elegance—the creature was certainly eccentric. It was rare to find a vampire who fed into the archaic imagery about his people—if you could call them people—but some embraced the overdone characteristics of their legacy.
Ember crept across the wooden floorboards, making her way to the bottom of the large staircase, and I followed, looking up to the landing above us, surveying the area. The hallway was wide and open, offering the perfect amount of space for us to use our wings.
I nodded, expanding my wings at the same time she did. We stepped forward, and I watched the first floor disappear below me, the second floor receded away in the next moment. I brought my hands up and caught the banister that guarded the third-floor landing. I looked to find Ember hanging on as well, already retracting her wings. When mine had folded into my back, I lifted myself lightly over the banister, and touched down, with barely a whisper of a sound.
Since we were so close to the target now, we continued the conversation telepathically.
He’s in his coffin. Room right ahead of us.
I know, Ember. We got this.
I took a step forward and twisted the doorknob, surprised to find it unlocked. Pushing it open slowly, we stepped into the room.
Ember quickly drew her sharp dagger from its sheath on her belt, ready to strike. I quickly scanned the room, my eyes settling on the black granite coffin on the opposite side of the room. It shone with newness, out of place in the antiquated home.
Ready? Ember’s voice sounded in my head.
Ready.
She directed her attention to the coffin in the corner. “I command you to surrender!” She didn’t say anything else. Words meant nothing to a creature like this. From that moment on, actions decided everything.
I squinted at the coffin, my own hands up and ready to attack. There was no sound from the coffin, but I sensed the rousing thoughts of the dark creature inside. In seconds, it crawled from its place of rest, and stood before us with its red eyes wide and glowing. The sight of the creature sent a chill down my spine, the blackness that lived inside threatening to unleash itself, thirsty for our lifeblood.
That wasn’t going to happen. Not today.
Without hesitation, Ember threw her silver-tipped dagger at the creature, the blade slicing the air with a soft hiss before making impact. It stumbled back as blood spurted out in a crimson-tinged jet, the blade burying itself to the hilt in the vampire’s chest. It wasn’t enough to kill a vampire, but the silver would burn its flesh and seriously weaken it.
The creature snarled, its ashen face twisted into a mask of agony as the silver bled through its veins, infecting it with the holiness in which it was blessed.
I lunged forward, my own dagger ready to slash at the monster, but a blast of white light zoomed by my head, crushing the vampire in a storm of magic fire. I joined with Ember’s power, unleashing a blistering white energy that found no home inside of the blackened heart of the beast before us. The energy tore at its flesh, filling the body with a light that made its skin appear translucent as it screeched for mercy, knowing mercy would not come.
The magic ceased with a rush of warm wind, and the smell of charred flesh filled the room, as we tackled the creature, and wrestled it to the floor. I pinned its arms down with my full strength as it struggled beneath me. Ember knelt beside us, carefully avoiding the vamp’s outstretched jaw, its sharp fangs eager to connect with her soft flesh. She lifted the wooden stake that had materialized in her hand, and aimed it at the creature, just below the dagger that was still embedded in the beast’s chest.
Her knuckles were white as she slammed the stake down, piercing the ghastly skin. The vamp’s eyes went wide, and he arched and writhed, but it was useless. The shriek died on its lips, but I remained in position even after I felt the body go limp beneath me.
Ember pulled the dagger from the corpse’s chest and stood, pulling a vial of luminescent water from her pocket. She uncorked it and held it over the creature while I maintained my grip on the dying monster. I opened my eyes in time to see the cascade of holy water fall onto the vampire, which immediately began to smoke and sizzle. I rose from my knees and watched him melt into a gray, cloudy puddle on the floor. Ember’s stake fell to the floor with a soft clunk.
“You can clean up this time,” she said, taking in a deep breath. She was obviously affected by the exertion of magic that she used to defeat the vampire.
I closed my eyes and concentrated on the room around me, specifically, the shattered coffin lid, the splintered door frame, and the pool of purified vampire remains on the floor. I clapped my hands together sharply and envisioned the room rectified, the floor dry, the coffin in one piece, and the remains gone. There was a whooshing sound, and my palms tingled slightly, as the power flowed from my fingertips. When I opened my eyes, the room looked just as it had when we entered.
“He must’ve been young to have bought into the whole coffin thing.” Ember scoffed, taking in the room around us.
“Yeah.” I rubbed the toe of my combat boot over the spot on the floor where the creature had been moments before, confirming what I already knew—that it was dry and unaffected by the purification of evil that occurred there.
“Easier to live on the run, if you ask me.”
“If you don’t have to lug around a massive stone box, you mean?” I asked, smiling and walking toward the window, diagonal from the coffin.
Ember nodded. “Exactly. I just don’t get it.”
“Don’t try to understand evil, Ember. It’ll never make sense to you.”
“Yeah, I know,” she replied. “So, do you want to go grab a drink?”
“Dear God, yes,” I replied, and she pursed her lips at my playful blasphemy.
Even though we were Angels, our generation was certainly nothing like the one before. We had long since broken free from the traditional stereotypes that our forefathers had unfortunately fostered during their time.
Instead, my generation of Angels drank, cursed from time to time, and if we found ourselves in a relationship with someone we wanted to commit to, we didn’t always wait until marriage to sleep together. We knew what truly mattered, and it had nothing to do with what we wore, what we drank, or who we slept with.
Nevertheless, even though we had revolutionized the idea of what was acceptable behavior for Angels, we still dutifully served God, Michael, and the Legion.
“Relax, Ember,” I chided, shaking my head. “It’s just a saying.”
“It’s about respect, Rumor.” She sounded only the tiniest bit exasperated, as we made our way out into the hallway and back toward the staircase. “And leading by example: holding yourself to a higher standard, striving for perfection, and all that. As an Angel, you know what’s expected of us.”
“Sorry,” I replied, trying to sound genuine, but she knew better. “I think committing my life to defeating evil and being a kind and good person, is more important than any of that.”
I made my way outside and then turned to look over my shoulder at my friend, who was trailing behind. “Hurry up, girl. I need a drink. And get rid of the damn stake. We’re not going into a bar with that blood-stained thing attached to your side.”
A dagger could be easily hidden beneath our clothes, but her stake would draw too much attention, and right now I just wanted to slink into a corner uninterrupted, and have a cold beer.
She laughed and rushed to catch up to me.