My Funny Demon Valentine (Hell Bent #1)

Chapter 16

16

All t h e Rage

A sh led Eva up to his third-floor apartment, wondering why it was so hard for him to climb stairs right now. Maybe he’d been injured worse in the fight with Mist than he thought. Made sense—the T-shirt still pressed against the wound in his side was steadily soaking through with blood.

Oh well. He couldn’t die from blood loss, and thanks to his curse, he could take the pain. That was the one and only benefit of Raphael’s fuckery.

He hauled his exhausted ass all the way up to the third floor and unlocked the door to his place, pushing it open and gesturing for Eva to go inside. He could feel her eyes taking in their apartment, and he took a breath. Wait for it, wait for it—

“Oh my god, what is that!”

“It’s a ward,” he said, closing and locking the door behind him. There was another one drawn on the inside of the door.

“Is that—”

“Blood.”

“Whose—?”

“Ours.”

“But—”

“Ash?” It was Belial’s voice.

“Yeah.”

Bel stepped around the corner from the kitchen, caught sight of Eva, and immediately, flames danced in his eyes. Shit. Then he glanced down at Ash’s bare torso—wound in his shoulder, T-shirt balled against his side, blood smeared all over him—and those eyes got wide. “What happened to you?”

“Mist happened.”

Belial blanched. “Mist?”

Ash nodded. “You might want to put your cat in my room,” he told Eva. “He’s going to hate Bel more than he hates me.”

The cat responded to this by hissing.

Eva was too busy eyeing Belial warily to respond. Some innate, intuitive sense was probably telling her she was close to something deadly, and it was right. Bel looked pissed, and it wouldn’t take much for him to go off.

“What happened with Mishetsu?” he growled. Flames flickered in his eyes. “And why did you bring a human here?”

Meph and Raum appeared from the dining room behind him, moving slowly and staying quiet. Everyone was walking on eggshells.

“The human is standing right here,” Eva grumbled.

“She knows,” Ash tried to explain, but Bel wasn’t having it.

“This isn’t the fucking time, Asmodeus. I get you’re attached to her, but if Mishetsu actually found you, the last thing we need is—”

“She knows.”

“Shut up. If Mishetsu caught you with her, he could have tracked you back to her place, and—”

“He already did. He already has. She already knows.”

“And if she ends up involved, we—” Bel blinked. “She knows what?”

“If you’re talking about the creepy, gray demon trying to take Ash back to Hell,” Eva said, “then yes, I know.”

Ash groaned and closed his eyes. Here we go.

Bel stared at them.

“Mist already found us,” Ash explained, waiting for the other shoe to drop. “He attacked me in Eva’s apartment, and we took a dive out of a third-story window. Wings got involved. She saw the whole thing.”

“Oh, shit,” said Meph.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Bel’s eyes were almost completely covered in flame now, and his big chest was heaving. They were so fucked.

“Oh, but that was only confirmation of what I already knew.” Eva sounded oddly like she was enjoying this.

Ash shot her a furious look over his shoulder, and she glared right back at him. Evidently, this was some kind of punishment for lying to her and putting her in danger. He supposed he deserved it.

The air around Belial began to waver with heat. “What?”

“She saw everything that first night at that club.” He had no choice but to explain this all now, thanks to Little Miss Stubborn. “She saw us kill the gargoyle.”

“I snuck back inside,” Eva explained, “and saw your fancy angel wings, and I saw you guys murder that ugly troll thing.”

“That’s not possible.” A few sparks shot off into the air around Belial’s head. Shit, the bastard was about to ignite. Eva took a step back warily, finally starting to understand what sort of bear she was poking.

“She has the Sight,” Ash said, shooting a quick glance at Raum, who had crept quietly to stand beside the kitchen sink. He jerked his chin to tell him to get ready to defuse the situation.

“And you didn’t think to tell me that, Asmodeus?” There were actual smoke tendrils coming off Bel now. “You didn’t once think it might be a fucking good idea to share that important fucking information with me? Did it never once cross your mind that it might not be smart to hang around a fucking human that has the fucking Sight ?”

“Easy, bro.”

“ Don’t tell me to take it easy! ” Bel spun and punched the wall. His fist went right through the drywall.

“Great,” said Meph with a sigh. “There goes our security deposit.”

“You need to chill, Bel. There’s a human here, and we need to talk about Mist.”

Belial had grown a bit. His head was inches from the roof now. “ You led Mishetsu right to us. This is supposed to be our safe place, and you fucked it up!”

“I didn’t—”

“ASMODEUS, I’M GOING TO KILL YOU.”

His voice boomed around the room, preternaturally loud. Everybody slammed their palms over their ears, cringing. The sound of Eva’s cat howling from inside the carrier filled the air.

And then the shit really hit the fan.

Those sparks crackling in the air around Belial suddenly ignited, and the huge bastard burst into flames. Giant feathery wings exploded out of his back, shredding his T-shirt in the process. And since he was heading into full rage mode, those white wings burned with hellfire too.

Belial grew even larger until his head hit the roof, his biceps the width of tree trunks and his fists like clubs. His eyes filled completely with flames, and his blond hair miraculously grew until it swirled around his head and shoulders, part of the vortex of flame and smoke and sheer fucking terror.

Ash sighed. He’d seen Belial fly into rages ten thousand times, but Eva hadn’t, and if the scream that tore out of her throat was any indication, she was terrified.

She cowered behind him and gripped his arm with a clammy hand, and he felt kind of nauseous knowing she was scared, which wasn’t a pleasant sensation.

That she sought protection from him after everything that had happened tonight sent another weird feeling bouncing around his gut. Heavy and fluttery at the same time. He didn’t understand any of that, but he did know it made him want to give her what she sought.

Belial was advancing on him now, flames surrounding him. The air pressure spiked like they’d taken a dive deep underwater, and a phantom wind gusted through the apartment. The cat was still yowling. All the lights were flickering.

Normally, Ash would fight it out with Bel a bit, let the poor guy blow off some steam. He always got a few burns for his trouble, but he never felt the pain, and he healed quickly enough.

But now wasn’t time for fighting. He wanted Eva to feel safe. There was no using reason to talk Bel down once he’d fallen this far off his rocker, so that left only one option.

“Raum,” Ash said quietly, as the enormous, raging demon advanced on him with murderous intent. “Get the jug.”

Raum didn’t respond, but he heard the tap running and knew his request was being fulfilled. Without looking away from Belial, he stretched out a hand as Raum crept up behind Belial, reached around, and placed the jug in it.

Ash took it and threw it in Belial’s face. “Snap out of it!”

Instead, dead silence fell. Even the cat went quiet.

The flames around Bel’s head extinguished from the water. Of course, this was hellfire and could easily be reignited, but the water sometimes worked as the necessary distraction.

Or, it made him killing mad.

But this time, they got lucky.

Bel squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head roughly, spraying droplets of water everywhere from his suddenly flowing locks. The rest of his body extinguished, and his white wings folded against his back and disappeared. He shrank substantially, though standing at seven feet tall in human form, he would never not be a giant.

Unfortunately for Bel, once his hair grew in a rage attack, he had to cut it to make it short again. The pale locks now hung past his broad shoulders to his chest, dating him back a few thousand years. He went from looking like a football player to a gladiator. It was a little bit hilarious.

Belial finally opened his eyes—blue again—and glared daggers at Asmodeus. “I will kill you.”

“Sorry, bro, but now isn’t the time for a temper tantrum.”

Belial kept up the cold stare, but it was somehow less effective with his wet hair dripping all over his shoulders. Sighing, he ripped the tattered remains of his T-shirt over his head and chucked them on the floor. “I just bought this fucking shirt. And I have to get another fucking haircut now, damn it.”

“Third one this month,” Raum said from behind him.

“I will kill you all,” Bel grumbled, shaking his sopping wet head.

“You need therapy, bro,” Meph said.

“Big time,” Raum agreed.

“Fuck you both. And fuck you, Asmodeus, for bringing a fucking human into our apartment!” He glanced at Eva who was still hiding behind Ash. “No offense.”

Eva made a sort of choking sound in response.

Ash passed the empty jug back to Raum, who set it on the kitchen counter.

“What happened with Mishetsu?” Bel rolled his eyes at Ash’s wary look. “You can tell me now. I won’t lose it again.”

“Can’t promise you’ll feel the same once I tell you,” Ash grumbled.

“That bad, huh?”

He dragged a hand through his hair. Or tried to—it was a tangled mess from the fight, and his fingers got stuck halfway over his skull, so he gave up and yanked them out. His other hand was still pressing his T-shirt into his wounded side. The fabric felt pretty wet now, but he ignored it.

“He said he was able to pick up my scent at Eva’s place from the first time I was there, and then he just waited around until I came back.”

“Fuck.” Belial ran his hands down his face. “It’s too easy. We should have left the city like I said.”

“He was bound to find us eventually,” Raum said, now leaning against the counter. “He’s called the Hunter for a reason. What I want to know is why you let him get away, Ash.”

“He escaped.” Ash replied, shooting him a glare. He’d like to see Raum try to catch a demon that could turn into mist. “But I injured him pretty badly in the fight, and it’ll take him time to heal. We have at least a few hours to come up with a game plan before we have to worry about him coming back.”

“We have to be out of this city before then,” Bel said, “because when he does, it’ll be with the whole cavalry.”

Everyone groaned. Except Eva, of course. Ash shot another glance over his shoulder. She stood there with those spooked eyes and stared at them like she was seeing ghosts. If only she was looking at something so harmless. He felt another twinge in his gut.

The Eva he knew was fierce and vibrant. She wasn’t scared and meek, and he didn’t like seeing her that way now. And his inability to change it was frustrating as hell. It made him want to grab her by the shoulders and shake her until she became the old Eva again, but something told him that wasn’t the right way to go about it.

“But we just got here,” Meph complained. “I don’t wanna leave.”

“You also don’t wanna go back to Hell, dumbass,” Bel snapped.

“Okay, so we go,” Raum said. Looked like he was being the reasonable one tonight. “Where?”

“Someone needs to be on the other end to draw the gate sigil,” Ash pointed out. His vision swam a little bit, the odd black spot dancing here and there. He was tired as hell all of a sudden.

“We don’t necessarily have to travel by gate,” Meph said. “We’ve still got Nephilim blood fresh in our systems. Mist won’t be able to find us anywhere.”

“Eva has to come with us,” Ash said. “And Mist knows her scent. Which means all the Nephilim blood in the world doesn’t mean shit. We have to go somewhere he won’t think to look for us or we’ll be right back to where we started, and we have to travel by gate or he’ll be able to track us.” He hated to leave Montreal, but he couldn’t deny they had to go. Bel was right—when Mist came back, he wouldn’t come alone.

“Fuck, Asmodeus!” Belial’s arm jerked like he wanted to punch the wall again.

“W-wait.” Eva’s tiny, frail voice interjected. Nothing about Eva could ever be described as tiny or frail, and yet, that was what it was. “Go with you where? What are sigils? And what is Nephilim blood?”

Everyone was glaring at Asmodeus suddenly. “I thought you said she knew everything.”

He glared right back. “Not everything . There wasn’t exactly a lot of time for talking. I just told her the basics.”

Belial blew out a sigh so huge it threatened to take the building down. “There isn’t time for a goddamn history lesson. We need to figure out where the hell we’re going.”

“We have at least a few hours,” he reminded Bel. “Like I said, I injured Mist pretty badly. And if we’re going to be dragging Eva around with us, she needs to know.”

“Tell me,” Eva said, finally stepping out from around him. Her voice sounded a little stronger, and it made the fist squeezing his gut unclench slightly. “And you can all stop talking about me like I’m not here, thank you very much. I’m in shock, not incompetent. What is Nephilim blood, and what are sigils?”

Belial looked at her. “I’ll give you the abbreviated explanation, so pay attention.”

She nodded quickly.

“There are three types of magic in creation: Temporal magic, Sheolic magic, and Empyrean magic. Witchcraft or any magic performed by humans on Earth is Temporal magic. Demons use Sheolic magic, and angels use Empyrean magic. Each type has its own rules and methods of practice. With me so far?”

“Magic is real. Got it.” She swallowed.

“Most magic is done with sigils, which are symbols of power for a variety of purposes. There are wards, gates, keys, seals, whatever. Demons can travel through sigils called hellgates. To use them on Earth, we draw the sigil where we are, and then someone else draws it where we want to go. We step inside, and boom, we’re there.”

“So, those creepy symbols on the walls everywhere are sigils?”

“Yeah, but those are wards, not gates.”

Her eyes darted around the room like she was struggling to assimilate everything. She was starting to get that same wild-eyed look she’d had when Ash had flown in through the broken window. He feared she could only learn so many new things in one night before she snapped, and he decided he’d better keep an eye on her.

Strangely, though, he was finding it hard to keep his eyes anywhere. They kept drooping and sliding in and out of focus. The T-shirt still pressed against his ribs was now fully soaked through with his blood, so maybe it had something to do with that.

“So demons can travel through hellgates,” Eva said, “but can humans?”

They exchanged glances.

“There are ways,” Ash said weakly, blinking hard to keep his head in the game. He was hoping to avoid explaining that one for now because she wasn’t going to like what he had to say.

“Okay.” Thankfully, she let it go. “And what about Nephilim?”

Belial clenched his jaw. “That’s a long story, and there isn’t time right—”

“I’ll tell you the short version,” Meph interrupted with a grin.

Belial and Raum groaned.

“What? She needs to know.” Meph’s smile was slightly evil. “I promise to make it quick.”