Angel Wings, page 12
part #2 of Trappers, Inc Series
“Bullshit,” I said, but he didn’t even smile.
“But it was the deal,” Cirko said. “That’s how deals work.” That was exactly how deals worked.
“True, but there are benefits to being my Aux, and one of them is that you don’t die from a bullet through the heart,” he said. Worse, he sounded serious.
“You’re lying.” My voice broke. “Why are you lying?”
“I’m not lying,” he said with a shrug. “He wouldn’t have died if he saw you, Willow.”
All this time…for three months I’d lived in constant fear of being found, of practically killing Adrian by just looking at his face, and now this guy was telling me that it was all for nothing?
I turned my back on them and closed my eyes. The tears that wanted to come out had to wait. I wasn’t about to let that angel see me cry. I just needed a second.
“But why didn’t you tell us?” Cirko asked. He sounded as shocked as I was.
“Because I couldn’t find you. We’ve been searching for three months, and if we hadn’t caught her mother on camera, we wouldn’t have found you still,” the angel said. “That’s why I’m here. I can always feel where a trapped soul is, anywhere in the world, but I couldn’t feel Willow. My brother must have done something to her, something to keep her off my radar, and I need to know what it is.”
“I have to see him,” I whispered. None of what he said mattered anymore.
I’d spent three months believing that I was never going to see Adrian again. Now that he told me that I could, there was nothing else I wanted. I didn’t even need to pack a bag. I was going to New Jersey tonight.
God, just the thought of seeing his face again and my knees shook.
“You can’t,” the angel said, making me face him again.
“If something’s happened to him and you’re not telling me, I swear to God—” But he stopped me.
“Nothing happened to him. I just took his power. He’s no longer my Aux, that’s all,” he said, looking down at his lap. It was easy to see the guilt hanging on his hunched shoulders.
Laughter bubbled from my throat without warning. “Are you kidding me?”
He’d come all this way to tell me that I could have been with Adrian in the three months that I’d run from him, only so he could also tell me that I couldn’t do that anymore?
“Look, things are much more complicated than you think,” the angel said. “I know how much you mean to Adrian, and I want to find a way to break your deal so you can see him again. I owe him that. If you could take me through your meeting with the Devil, maybe I can do something about it.”
I couldn’t stop laughing. At least I wasn’t crying.
“Why did you take his power away?” Cirko asked.
“Because I had no other choice,” the angel said through gritted teeth. Then, he stood up. “Believe it or not, I don’t have all night to wait for you to make up your mind, so either you tell me what the hell he said to you, or I’m leaving.”
The laughter caught in my throat. It was a miracle I was still standing. I’d practically lived my whole life in lies, and just when I thought I’d broken out of them for good, life slapped me in the face once more with its secrets.
“Willow, do it,” said Cirko, his wide eyes begging. “Just tell him.”
The angel looked at me like he was daring me not to. But he was a fool if he thought that I would pass up an opportunity like this. If there was even a chance, no matter how small, that I could see Adrian again without him having to die, I’d take it.
So I told him what he wanted to hear.
“He told me he could save Adrian, that he could make the bullet disappear and heal him. I said I wouldn’t give him my soul, but he said he had plenty of those. That he didn’t want it.” I could see the Devil’s face right now. Just to talk about him was torture.
“And?” Eae urged me.
“He said all he wanted was for me to get in the car and leave, that’s all.” I took a deep breath to calm my racing heart. “He said that I couldn’t go looking for him or let him find me, no matter what.”
“Are you sure he didn’t touch you?”
“Yes, I’m sure!” I snapped. I would have remembered if the fucking Devil had touched me!
Eae fell back on the couch with a sigh. “I don’t get it.”
“Maybe she just can’t be found,” Cirko said. “She can sense demons when they’re close to her, and that’s unusual among her kind.”
“No, that’s not it,” said Eae. “It must have been my brother. He must have said something.”
“He didn’t.” I would have remembered. “He didn’t say anything else.”
“Unless he didn’t have to,” Cirko whispered.
“What do you mean?” the angel asked.
Cirko looked up at me and smiled. “Willow, when did he tell you that you could never go looking for Adrian again?”
“When we made the deal?” I said with a shrug. “What are you thinking?”
“Yeah, but when?” He totally lost me.
Suddenly, Eae’s eyes lit up, too. “Kid, you’re a genius,” he whispered and turned to me. “When exactly did he say that part? Was it before or after you agreed to the deal?”
I thought about it for a second. I remembered the conversation we’d had clearly. He said to get in the car and just leave. I’d agreed. He’d shouted excellent! and clapped his hands, the sound of which still haunted me in my sleep.
And then he told me to never go looking for Adrian.
“After,” I said in wonder.
Eae began to laugh. He poured his heart and soul into that laugh and turned his head to the ceiling. An icy feeling began at the tips of my toes and spread fast up my legs.
“Lucifer!” Eae called at the top of his voice.
Chills washed down my spine as my entire body froze. I looked at Cirko, desperate to figure out what was going on, but he wasn’t moving. His head was up, still looking at Eae, but he wasn’t even breathing.
When the freezing cold began to let go of me, I wished it hadn’t. Darkness spread in my chest a second before a silhouette appeared right behind the couch where Eae had been sitting. I knew that frame very well. I’d seen it in my dreams for a whole fucking month. It was the Devil, and he was in my house.
I wanted to scream my guts out, to run as far away as possible, and at the same time, I wanted to use the knives that were in my hands to attack him. I would have if I wasn’t so sure I would die on the spot.
But then the Devil spoke.
“Before you say anything, I did nothing wrong,” he said.
What the fucking fuck?
He didn’t sound like the Devil I knew at all. I looked at Cirko again, but he hadn’t moved a single inch. And neither the angel nor the Devil even looked at us. Almost…almost like they expected us to be frozen.
Taking control of my shaking body, I stayed exactly as I was. I only moved my eyes to the Devil’s face, and I kept them there until the very end.
Then, Eae grabbed the Devil by the collar of his black jacket and punched him right in the face.
The Devil laughed. I almost passed out.
“You piece of shit,” Eae spit and let go of him.
“You do know I can’t feel any of it, right? I’m not really here, brother,” he said, smiling brightly. To hear him speak like that was horrifying.
“Fucking bastard,” Eae hissed, but he didn’t hit him again.
The Devil shrugged. “How is it my fault that you’re as dumb as a rock and can’t tell what the hell goes on under your nose?!”
“I couldn’t tell because you cheated!” Eae shouted. He must have really thought that I was frozen, just like Cirko; otherwise he wouldn’t have spoken so openly to the Devil.
“I didn’t cheat. I just…took advantage of the situation. It’s not my fault she’s dumb, either.” Then, the Devil pointed at me. I tried my damn hardest not to blink and to pretend that I didn’t hear their conversation. If only my sweat could do the same and stop coming down my forehead so fast.
“You cheated, Lucifer. Twice—and now you’re going to pay the price.” Eae sounded like he was smiling, though he had his back turned to me, and I couldn’t see his face.
“I didn’t cheat!” the Devil said.
“First with Adrian’s father, now with Willow. Let’s see what the big guys think, shall we?”
Suddenly, all the air was sucked out of the room by the two huge wings that simply appeared on Eae’s back. They were big and feathery, just as I remembered them, and they took my breath away all over again.
“Brother, I played a decent game. You lost this round. There is no need to go on about this because we both know I’m going to win,” the Devil said.
I would never forget the look on his face in that moment. He looked afraid.
“If you’re so sure, then why not head up there right away? I’m sure the Archs will clear their schedule to see the mighty Lucifer. C’mon, you’re going to win anyway,” Eae said, but he was mocking him.
The Devil took a step back. “I didn’t break any rules,” he insisted.
“Just saying. One-third is a lot. How many do you have right now—fourteen, fifteen thousand souls?” Eae sounded absolutely thrilled.
“Don’t play with me, Eae,” the Devil warned.
“I’m not playing. That’s your thing, brother. And even if the Archangels agree that you broke no rules, do you think they’ll let you get away from this without getting at least something out of it?” I knew nothing about angels or Archangels, but looking at his face, I was pretty sure the Devil was scared of them.
The room filled with tension as the angel and the Devil stared at each other.
Then, the Devil sighed. “What do you want?”
“Adrian Ward.” My stomach turned at the mentioning of Adrian’s name. What did Eae mean? Why did he want Adrian when he’d already taken his power off him or however that worked?
The Devil pulled up his fist and hit the wall behind him without even turning his head. A dent the size of my fucking head appeared in it while Eae crossed his arms in front of him and laughed.
“I can’t give—” the Devil started, but Eae didn’t even let him finish.
“Cool, I’ll see you up there, then.” And he headed for the door.
The Devil did the same thing he’d done to me back when I’d made that deal with him—he simply appeared in front of Eae as if he’d been standing right there all along.
“Don’t do this,” he hissed.
“Either you swear to give up on Adrian, or you lose your precious souls,” Eae said, and it didn’t sound like he was kidding.
The Devil grabbed him by his shirt and pushed him back until he hit the wall, his wings spread wide. Eae only smiled.
“That’s no deal, and you know it!”
“It’s a pretty damn good deal, if you ask me.”
“You will regret this, brother,” the Devil said.
“Do I have your word?”
The Devil stepped back. His arms caught fire, and they burned to his shoulders.
“You think this is where it will end? You haven’t forgotten that there’s someone out there—someone who isn’t me—that is going after Adrian, have you?”
What the hell?
I almost asked him what the hell he was talking about, but I bit my tongue in the last second.
Eae didn’t hesitate. “Have you found something?”
The Devil smiled again, and the fire on his arms became smaller. “Not particularly, but I’ve been thinking. Who else—besides me—knows where you are and what you do?”
Now that I could see his face, I could tell that Eae was confused. “Meaning?”
“Well, if it wasn’t me and it wasn’t you, there’s really only one someone who had the means—and better yet, the motive.”
Shivers washed over me. I couldn’t wait for this to be over so I could ask Eae what the hell that was about.
“Lucifer, do I have your word?” the angel said, his voice louder with every word.
The Devil’s grin widened like he was somehow the winner in the situation. “Yes.”
And just like that, he was gone.
Cirko began to cough, and the next second, Eae’s wings disappeared, too. I blinked like I was coming out of a long sleep because that’s what it had felt like. Like a fucking nightmare.
“What…what the hell?” Cirko said, looking around the room like he was seeing it for the first time. I still couldn’t speak, but Eae was all smiles.
“Sorry about that, but I have good news,” he said, and looked at me. That’s when I realized that he hadn’t known that I could hear everything, either.
“What do you mean?” Cirko asked before I could tell him anything.
“We’re going to get Adrian back.”
Chapter Twelve
“Are you sure about this?” Cirko asked me when he stepped into my room to watch me pack. He had considerably fewer things to take with because he was a demon and a gun was all he needed. I, on the other hand, needed my knives, two guns that were very uncomfortable in the holster around my waist, a jacket to keep all the weapons hidden, and one of the black caps I always put on.
No, wait. I used to put on caps when I didn’t want Adrian to find me.
Now, I did. I threw the cap on the bed with the greatest pleasure. Those things were so damn itchy.
“Are you?” I asked Cirko instead.
After the angel told us his story, he said he’d take us with him to go find Adrian at his house in Jersey. Now, he was waiting for us outside while we got ready.
“I mean, do you trust him? Do you really trust that he’s an angel and the actual Devil’s brother?”
I smiled. He only asked that because he’d been frozen when Eae and the Devil had their little conversation. If he’d seen it all, if he heard what I heard, he wouldn’t have asked me that.
“I do. He is. Before when you froze, they had a meeting. Kind of,” I said, checking my weapons for one last time.
“A meeting?” Cirko was confused.
“Eae sort of called the Devil, and they talked about me. And Adrian. Believe it or not, the Devil called me dumb, that asshole,” I muttered. “But apparently, he isn’t allowed to trick people in his deals, so Eae threatened to go to the Archangels. That’s why the Devil promised to stop going after Adrian.”
Cirko couldn’t speak for a long second.
“And you still think it’s safe to go with him?” He sounded more afraid than before. “Maybe we should go find Adrian by ourselves.”
But he was crazy if he thought I was going to wait even a second longer. I made for the door.
“We don’t have to trust the angel, Cirko. But we can trust Adrian. Come on, let’s go. He’ll tell us everything exactly the way it is, and we’ll make up our minds.”
I didn’t know the angel, and just because he had wings didn’t automatically make him a good guy. That’s part of the reason why I didn’t want him to go find Adrian by himself. Whatever this was, we needed to understand it, and we weren’t going to understand shit by sitting around and waiting.
“Angel,” Cirko whispered just as we walked out of the house.
“Of cou—” I started and then looked ahead. Eae was still there, by his car, just like he said he would be, but he wasn’t alone. Someone else was with him.
“It’s another angel,” Cirko said, swallowing loudly.
“How the hell do you know?”
“The smell,” he whispered. “He smells like Eae.”
“Really? What do they smell like?” I was very curious because I hadn’t felt anything different with Eae. He merely felt like a shadow to me, very different from a demon, much closer to how ordinary people felt.
“Like burned sugar,” said Cirko with a flinch.
“C’mon.” I headed for Eae. Whatever this new angel guy was saying to him, he didn’t seem to like it, and I wanted to know what it was.
“You cut a deal with him,” the stranger said, and he didn’t sound happy, either. He was about Eae’s height, with black hair combed neatly to the back of his head, and his dark grey suit hugged his wide frame perfectly. “This has gone too far. First your Aux, now him.”
“What’s going on, Eae?” I said at the mention of Adrian.
At the sound of my voice, the stranger turned around, as if he hadn’t realized that we were coming when I was sure he could hear our footsteps. His dark eyes took in all of me in a second, and he definitely didn’t like what he saw. He actually cringed.
“Why, thanks, pal” I said. “You aren’t so impressive, either.”
“Willow, knock it off,” said Eae, but now was not the time to remind him that he wasn’t the boss of me. On the contrary. I stepped closer to the stranger.
“Who is he?”
“Netzach—and he was just leaving,” Eae said.
“I’m not going anywhere,” the angel said through gritted teeth, turning to Eae like I wasn’t worth his attention.
“Sure you are. I’m going to get Adrian back, and you’re in my way.” Eae’s hands were clenched in fists by his sides. Maybe he wanted a fight. Slowly, I moved my arms behind my back to be able to reach my weapons easier if I needed them.
“Get him back? Are you out of your mind?” Netzach started to laugh.
Eae didn’t. He wasn’t even smiling. He looked at his friend like he wanted to strangle him. I’d definitely help with that.
“What’s it to you if I get him back?” Eae said after a second, so calmly that I barely heard him. But his words cut off Netzach’s laugh immediately.
“You know full well what it is. You’ve been playing with my patience like the world’s your own, personal Garden of Eden. I’m going to make sure you’re stopped.”
“Is that all?” Eae said, his brows arched.
Netzach shook his head. “Whatever do you mean?”
“Is there something you want to tell me, Netzach?”
I had no idea what the hell was happening, and I couldn’t wait to find out. It was like watching reality TV, and I was seriously missing some popcorn.
