10. Chaol
Chaol
It was an eerie thing, standing on the shore of the black pool with Lucifer and waiting for Daniel to reappear.
Neither of them spoke, and Lucifer didn’t come any closer, which suited Chaol just fine.
He’d never actually laid eyes on the master of Hell before, and he was perfectly fine with never seeing him again.
There was an unsettling aura of danger around Lucifer.
Chaol was a bug to him, and all he wanted was to avoid Lucifer’s boot.
An indeterminate amount of time passed in absolute silence. The sky darkened, and though he could hear other demons nearby, clicking and skittering, none of them dared to come closer. Chaol didn’t blame them.
Finally, Lucifer broke the silence. “It is done.”
Chaol turned toward him, questions written on his face.
“He will return to you soon. Make your way to the nearest gate right away. The angel will sense his arrival and be drawn to the power he holds. Waste no time. I will see to it that the gate is open. Lead the angel through it and find a way to kill him on the surface. Do this, and you both can spend eternity together in peace. You have my word.”
Chaol nodded, looking more certain than he felt. Dealing with the angel would be hard, but a bigger part of him worried about Daniel. What would he be like when he resurfaced? “What—What did you turn him into?”
“A very rare demon. You’ve heard of Draego, the harbinger?”
Harbingers were very rare indeed. Draego was the only one, and the last Chaol had heard, he was topside.
If he’d been in Hell, maybe he could’ve been the one to deal with the angel.
But with the gates closed, Draego couldn’t get here to help even if he wanted to.
He was incredibly powerful, capable of summoning and controlling hellfire.
Lucifer was the most frightening thing Chaol had ever seen, but a harbinger would be a close second.
“You’ve turned Daniel into a harbinger?” he breathed. His human was going to be a hurricane in a bottle.
Lucifer smiled, a showing of teeth that made Chaol want to cower. “Yes. May he burn the wings from that wretched angel.”
Chaol shivered. He probably would.
He looked out over the pool, pensive, and when he glanced back over, Lucifer was gone. But Chaol didn’t dare to relax.
He sensed Daniel before he saw him, an aura like billowing heat on his other side. Whirling around, he gasped, “Danny!”
On the surface, Daniel looked exactly as he had before he went into the pool.
There was no black residue on his skin or clothing.
His eyes were no longer honey brown but black like his own.
And deep within the pupil, an orange glow burned, like embers of a fire waiting to be stoked.
The front of his shirt was ripped, and a black symbol was visible in the center of his chest. A circle, with a cross rising up in the center and two branching off on either side.
Mine, his instincts roared, just as he’d known they would.
Daniel might have worried that Chaol’s feelings would change, but he’d known better.
Chaol reached out for him, and Daniel turned his head into the cradle of Chaol’s palm, his newly dark eyes fluttering shut as though in ecstasy.
When they opened again, he met Chaol’s eyes with amusement.
“Ouch,” Daniel deadpanned.
Chaol laughed, maybe a little hysterically. His other hand fell to the symbol on Daniel’s chest. It felt like a part of his skin, tattooed on. “What is this?”
Daniel peered down at it. “I don’t know.”
“Are you okay? Do you feel—okay?”
“I feel… great. Strong.” He flexed his hands, then raised them, framing Chaol’s face.
“And you…” Dark hunger crossed Daniel’s face.
His heated gaze roamed Chaol’s face, settling on his lips.
Chaol felt like a bug pinned to a board, waiting to be devoured.
His grip tightened on Daniel, preparing to drag the brand new demon in.
A distant boom split the air. They both turned as what looked like a white meteor rocketed straight up into the air.
“The angel,” Daniel growled.
“Shit,” Chaol murmured. “Right. Lucifer said we should move fast.” There was no time to ask how Daniel was feeling or what he was thinking. There was definitely no time to kiss the hell out of him. They had to survive leading the angel through the gate first. Everything else would have to wait.
Chaol transformed in the blink of an eye and hooked an arm around Daniel’s waist, launching them into the air. “Keep an eye on my back. Let me know if the angel gets too close.”
Daniel hugged him tight. “Okay. He’s still far away right now.”
That wouldn’t be the case for long. The angel was stronger than him, which meant he was also faster, especially while Chaol was carrying Daniel. He pumped his wings hard, focusing on a distant mountain, the base of which housed the nearest gate.
The trouble with flying was that there was nowhere to hide, no cover to take or obstacles to use to his advantage. It was just them and the open sky.
“He’s gaining fast,” Daniel said, tensing.
“Fuck,” Chaol snarled. “Hold on tight.”
Bright light flashed over his shoulder, and Chaol tucked his wings, going into a freefall.
Daniel screamed in his ear as they barreled toward the ground.
Whatever the light was, it missed them. Chaol banked just before they hit the ground, and their feet grazed the dirt as they pulled upright.
On instinct, he dodged from side to side, and light flashed on either side of them, hitting the ground with a boom and sending dirt exploding into the sky.
“What the hell is he shooting at us?” Chaol hollered.
“Some kind of white arrows,” Daniel replied. “Are we close?”
“Yeah! Just a little—”
“Watch out!”
Chaol feared it was another of those arrows as Daniel tensed in his arms. He tried to dodge again, but he was too late.
It wasn’t an arrow that hit him but a body.
A shoulder slammed right between his wings, and Chaol went down with a curse.
The three of them rolled end over end in the hard-packed dirt at the base of the mountain.
Chaol lost his grip on Daniel, and the angel’s weight disappeared from his back.
Pain shot through one of his wings as he rolled and skidded to a stop, on his stomach with his right wing arching up at an unnatural angle. It throbbed furiously.
The clash of blades filled the air. Groaning, Chaol pushed himself to his knees and cast his gaze around for Daniel.
He found him at once, locked in battle with the angel.
Daniel wielded a black blade cracked with glowing orange.
It shot red sparks every time it met the angel’s blindingly white sword.
Daniel’s face was a mask of concentration, his mouth downturned as he fought the angel’s advances.
Chaol glanced over his shoulder, stretching his injured wing out so the bones could reset. The gate was open, looking like a circular hole cut out of the air itself, sparking around the frayed edges. They were so close, barely thirty feet from it.
“Danny!” he roared. “The gate!”
Daniel didn’t acknowledge him, but he circled around the angel, putting his back to Chaol and backing toward him.
“I will have your power,” the angel said.
“You can fuck right the hell off,” Daniel replied.
Chaol snagged the back of his shirt, tugging him toward the gate. “Come on, come on,” he urged.
Daniel’s shirt was nearly ripped from his grasp when he lunged to parry the angel’s next swing. Chaol grabbed his hips next, hauling him away. The angel’s next swing swiped through the air just shy of Daniel’s chest.
“Hurry up,” Chaol hissed.
“Trying not to get stabbed here,” Daniel said over his shoulder.
“Well, there’s a really easy fix for that! We just go through the gate!”
The angel’s eyes narrowed. “You cannot escape.”
“Tell that to the open door behind us, asswipe,” Chaol sneered.
They were almost there. Fresh air billowed in, cooling Chaol’s back. He gave a mighty yank just as the angel rushed toward them. His sword crossed with Daniel’s, and together, the three of them toppled through the gate.
Chaol expected to land in Purgatory and make another run for it, but Lucifer must have pulled some strings to allow them to bypass it.
He held tight to Daniel’s waist as light and color streaked past them.
A hand encircled his wrist, and Daniel lifted both legs, kicking hard with both and dislodging the angel from them.
They hurtled away, and Chaol only hoped they landed somewhere with enough distance between them and the angel to give them a chance to orient themselves.
Daniel slipped from his arms just before the world came to a grinding stop. Chaol landed on his back, jarring his still-healing wing, and he groaned up at the starry sky, panting for breath.
“Fuck me,” he breathed, rolling over and pushing himself upright. “Danny? Daniel!”
Transforming as his wing finally healed, leaving only the ghost of pain in his shoulder blade, he looked around, trying to figure out where he was.
Headstones. Soft earth. Gently swaying trees and carefully maintained grass. He was in a cemetery. The sound of the city was alive in the distance, whooshing cars moving quickly down a highway and the muted wail of a police siren.
They made it to the surface, and there was no sign of the angel. They would have to track him down, but first, he needed to find Daniel.
He grabbed the nearest headstone and pulled himself to his feet, turning a slow circle. He’d held onto Daniel until right there at the end. Surely he hadn’t gone far.
“Danny!”
The whispering wind carried no sign of Daniel. He turned again—and stopped, his gaze falling on the headstone under his palm.
Daniel Joaquin Garcia
Right. He’d died, and just like a halfling, he’d wake up where his body was last located.
Which meant Chaol needed to dig.