Chapter 25
25
Free Fall
A sh stared across the living room at the woman chained to the staircase, yanking furiously at the metal handcuff at her wrist, and the truth hit him like a ton of bricks.
“He’s your father?”
“Yes, and I’ll kill him!” Eva was yanking at her cuffed wrist hard enough to bloody herself. “I can’t believe he handcuffed me to the freaking stairs!”
“Your father...”
“Yes, him!” Eva screeched. “My idiotic, stubborn, pigheaded father!”
“... is a Grigori.”
Oh, hell no, this could not be happening.
“You’re a Nephilim,” he said aloud just to help the horror sink in a little. “That’s why you have the Sight. That’s why you could see through my curse. Because you have angel blood in your veins.”
And no, he was not pleased about that, thank you very much.
In that moment, he didn’t give two shits if his ass was dragged back to Hell and tortured for all eternity, or if Eva’s Grigori father chopped off his head with a consecrated sword. He didn’t give a shit about the fact that he’d inadvertently stumbled upon a live Nephilim, though they were supposedly extinct, and a tiny vial of their blood cost more than most humans made in their lifetime.
In that moment, he would have given anything so Eva didn’t have to spend her life looking over her shoulder, distrusting everyone she met and hiding behind wards.
Eva stopped her futile struggles and froze, the truth of what she was finally washing over her. “Oh, shit.”
They stared at each other.
“But... how? Wouldn’t you have noticed? Wouldn’t I have noticed?”
He nodded slowly. That was strange. How the hell hadn’t he noticed? He hadn’t actually tasted her blood, but he’d gotten about as close to her as he could get otherwise, and he hadn’t detected anything angelic in her scent or energy, not that he was the best judge of what his crippled senses could tell him.
But still. There was no missing that. At the very least, his brothers should have sensed it. But none of them had.
“Maybe you’re not,” he said, hope rising. “Maybe you were adopted. Or maybe your mother got pregnant by another man.”
Eva’s eyes got wider, and he realized that wasn’t as reassuring to her as it was to him. Then her gaze shifted to the blood streaked all over his abdomen. “Are you okay? I can’t believe he stabbed you.” Her voice hitched a little.
Ash looked down at himself and realized he was still in demon form—red skin, horns, wings, and all. He looked back at Eva and didn’t see fear of him on her face, and something tightened in his chest at her acceptance of him. It meant something profound, but he wasn’t quite sure what.
Damn it, though, he needed to learn to understand this shit fast because Eva had said he needed to tell her stuff if they were going to make their relationship work, and he wanted it to work. The alternative was unthinkable.
Still, now wasn’t the time for contemplating feelings. Instead, he shifted partially, reverting to his human size and skin color. He thought this might help Eva calm down, but instead, it seemed to have the opposite effect.
“Oh my god, Ash!” She yanked on the handcuffs with renewed ferocity. He looked down at himself again, wondering what he’d done wrong, and then realized that with his skin no longer crimson, the blood from his wounds was more visible against his paler human skin.
“I’m fine,” he said quickly.
Unfortunately, his curse was still lifted and that meant he could feel the blood leaking out of him, unlike the last time he’d been wounded. It hurt like a bitch. Damn it, it really hurt a lot.
For the first time ever, he almost wished for a return to his black-and-white world. But then he looked at Eva, at that rich dark skin, those brown-black curls and tantalizing silver eyes, and he quickly changed his mind. She was a masterpiece meant to be viewed in color.
“Damn it, I’ll kill my dad for this!” She tugged again on the handcuffs.
“Eva, stop, you’re going to hurt yourself.”
“Argh!” She looked down at the sigil at his feet. “You’re really stuck inside that thing?”
“Empyrean magic is powerful. I can’t break this.” He cursed. “Damn it, I’m worried about my brothers. They have no idea he’s here.”
As in on cue, Belial’s great roar echoed through the forest.
Their gazes snapped together. “That did not sound good,” Eva said.
Bel roared again.
“Fuck!” Knowing it was futile, Ash threw his weight against the mystical barriers of the sigil in some vain hope that he might magically burst through. His brothers were in trouble. At the very least, Bel needed him to talk him down before he started a goddamn forest fire.
Unfortunately for Ash, he hadn’t been kidding when he said Empyrean magic was powerful. As soon as he touched the edge of the barrier, he got electrocuted like he’d touched a live wire and thrown backward.
He hit the ground, cursing the goddamn Grigori to Hell and back again.
Apparently, they couldn’t catch a break, because next thing he knew, Eva was freaking out again, and Bel was roaring, and he was busy being useless, stuck in a goddamn angel trap.
And then... he felt something in the air.
It was some kind of electricity, but not like the sigil’s kind that had knocked him on his ass. Something different. Eva was screaming his name, and strangely, her voice sounded amplified. Ethereal. Haunting.
He swept the hair off his face so he could see her, and his mouth fell open.
Eva’s beautiful eyes were glowing. Glowing .
And oh, will ya look at that , she was growing too. Over six and a half feet tall all of a sudden, she stared at him with those glowing eyes and gave a harpy-like shriek of fury. And then, with one smooth jerk, she ripped the wrought-iron post she was handcuffed to clean off the banister.
There went his hopes about her not being a Nephilim.
But damn, she was hot.
She ran to him and smudged the chalk line of the sigil with a foot, and instantly, he was free and throwing his arms around her. Except she was taller than him now, which was a bit weird, so he shifted back to demon form so he could hug her properly.
She was shaking as if scared by what she’d just done. “Ash, w-what—?”
Bel’s next roar was so loud it rattled the windows.
They pulled apart, and he realized there wasn’t time for an explanation. He grabbed her hand, clawed fingers linking with her delicate ones, and they ran out of the house together toward the chaos.
Jacqueline Gregory was just a human. No secret, angelic bloodline, no special abilities.
And yet, a fierce determination that felt powerful had filled her to bursting. She had to help Meph.
Belial launched another stream of flame, forcing Dan to leap back, and she realized he was retreating. What his plans were, she couldn’t say, but she wasn’t sticking around to find out.
She took a second to take stock of her surroundings. Dan was clutching another knife from the holster at his thigh, and it looked like he was gearing up to throw it. He also had a large broadsword holstered at his left hip, but it was unreachable because he had pinned Jacqui against him on top of it. She knew this because the hilt was digging painfully into her side.
Before he had a chance to throw the blade, Jacqui acted. Twisting in his grip, she managed to spin within the circle of his arm so she faced upward, freeing her hands.
And then she punched him in the face.
She wasn’t a fighter, but she’d taken a few martial arts classes in her day and knew how to throw a punch. And throw a punch she did. In fact, she threw several. She threw them as hard as she could, her fear for Meph giving her the strength to keep punching through the unbelievable pain in her knuckles.
Caught by surprise, Dan stumbled and dropped her.
Landing hard, she rolled away and then sprang up and sprinted toward the building. Not a second too soon, too, because Belial’s next fireball smacked Dan square in the chest, launching him back through the air.
As she reached the building, the heat coming off Belial grew intense, the air wavering with a mirage that made everything look like it was rippling. Eyes stinging, she dropped to her knees, covered her head, and somehow managed to crawl through the doorway inside. She waited for the magic barrier to electrocute her as it was Belial, despite knowing she had passed through it before with no ill effect.
It didn’t, however. Inside, everything was on fire, but there wasn’t time to worry about that. Raum saw her coming and hope filled his golden eyes, replacing the despair that had been there moments before.
“Help him!” he shouted as she scrambled toward them. “I can’t pull it out!”
He held up his hands and Jacqui recoiled. They’d been burned down to the bone. Nothing but blood and gore and strips of flesh remained, and his fingers had been incinerated to the first knuckle joint. If it did that much damage to him, what must it be doing to Meph?
“It’s consecrated. It’s burning him alive every second it touches him. Please. ”
She didn’t waste another second. Crawling to Meph’s side, she wrapped her fingers around the knife hilt, half expecting her own palms to melt off. When nothing happened, she yanked. The knife barely budged. Jesus, how hard had Dan thrown the thing?
She shifted position, bracing the soles of her feet against Meph’s still body. Throwing herself backward and using her body weight for added momentum, she pulled .
The knife finally slid free. Jacqui tumbled backward. Meph howled.
And Belial’s fire extinguished at the sound of his brother’s cry.
Tossing the blade away, she scrambled back to Meph and dragged him into her lap, cradling him like he was her own child, tears streaming down her face. In the doorway, Belial dropped to his knees and gripped his head like he was fighting for control, a low groan escaping him.
Looking up, she saw Dan standing outside, a look of horror plastered across his face. He wasn’t holding any weapons and didn’t appear to have violent intent, so she dismissed him from her thoughts for now, more concerned about the demon in her arms.
She looked up at Raum, who was cradling his horribly injured hands against his bare chest. “Is he okay?” Meph was so pale and still, and it terrified her.
Raum nodded. “We can’t die from blood loss. Without the weapon in him, that’s the only thing wrong with him now. He’ll just be unconscious for a while.”
“Are you okay?” His hands were horrific. “Your fingers...”
“They’ll grow back. Thank you for saving him.”
Belial scrambled over on his hands and knees, long hair falling over his face. “I’m sorry,” he was muttering, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry...” He was still gigantic, and his massive wings dragged on the floor behind him. “Meph...”
“He’s okay,” Raum said. “Jacqui saved him.”
Belial jerked his head up and Jacqui flinched. His eyes were completely obscured by dancing flames. But then he whispered, “Thank you,” crawled the rest of the way to her side, and engulfed both her and the unconscious Meph in his enormous arms.
She went rigid, expecting to be crushed to death, but relaxed a moment later when she realized it was just a hug. She looked at Raum on the ground nearby, watching with those big golden eyes, and she couldn’t resist beckoning him. He shuffled over, and Belial opened his humongous arms and swallowed him up too.
And that was how she found herself in a cuddle pile with three demons.
Dan stared in disbelief at the scene before him. His wife was in a group hug with a King of Hell, and he wasn’t even concerned for her safety. Because only a fool would miss that Belial cared for her and the other demons, and Jacqui cared for them right back.
Just to make him feel like more of an asshole, at that moment, Eva and Asmodeus came running down the path, hand in hand. Or rather, hand in claw. The day was already so full of impossibilities, it didn’t even surprise him to see that they had escaped.
As they reached Dan, standing rooted to the ground outside the studio, Eva shot him a glare full of loathing that cut to the bone. “What have you done?” Without waiting for an answer, she ran to the cuddle pile with Asmodeus by her side.
Belial opened his wings to admit them, and Eva gasped when she saw Meph. Asmodeus’s head snapped up to look at Dan, and his lips peeled off his fangs in a snarl.
“He’s okay,” Raum said, “Jacqui got to him—”
“Oh my god, your hands!” Eva screamed.
“They’ll grow back.”
“B-but—”
“I’m sorry,” Belial was still saying.
“It’s not your fault, Bel,” Raum said.
He hung his head. “I could have pulled the blade out, but I was lost to the fucking rage, and I couldn’t think straight. He could have died, and it would have been my fault.” As he spoke, his body returned to its original size, and his white-feathered wings shrank with him. Angelic white, because Belial was, in actuality, a fallen angel. The second most powerful angel to ever defect from Heaven.
Dan should have marveled that he was looking at the great demon in the flesh. He should have been taking the chance to kill him. But no. He was standing there feeling like the biggest jerk on the planet. All this grief and shame and heartache was his fault. Not Belial’s for losing his temper. His.
And judging by the look Eva was giving him, she knew it too.