Chaol
Like now. Daniel was sparring with Draego and Ashmedai.
He was shirtless and sweaty, swinging his hellblade this way and that, blocking Draego’s blade and fire with his own, dodging Ashmedai’s claws and parrying his kinetic powers with hellfire, which licked up into the sky in sudden bursts.
Dried, black blood was streaked on his smooth brown skin from wounds that healed almost as quickly as they were given.
The humans’ spars inside looked like child’s play compared to this.
Demons didn’t have to worry about maiming one another because they healed so quickly, so they didn’t hold back.
It wasn’t uncommon to hear the snap of bone when Daniel and Draego really got going.
With Ashmedai in the mix this time, they’d gone a little feral.
Most of the humans had ventured back inside after realizing how seriously they fought, but a few, like Isaac, Nicolas, and Julian, stayed to watch.
Nicolas offered him a lopsided smile. “He’s getting better, isn’t he?”
“Yes. Impressively so.”
Finally, Nicolas spoke. “If I asked you to tell me what happened in Hell…”
Chaol shrugged. “I would. So would he, though, so I’m not sure why you wouldn’t just ask him.”
Nicolas ducked his head, smiling wistfully.
“Danny and I, we were all we had for a long time. We lost our parents when we were young, and we leaned on each other for a lot. If the situation were reversed, I could see myself trying to shield Danny from the bad stuff—glossing over it or downright omitting it, if I thought it might cause him pain.”
“Ah. You worry he’d do that to you, and you’d wind up with only part of the story.”
Nicolas shrugged one shoulder. “Yeah, I guess.”
He was certain Daniel could hear them, even though they were sparring about thirty feet away. If he didn’t want Chaol to tell Nicolas something, he was perfectly capable of interrupting them.
“Well,” Chaol said thoughtfully. “It was Hell, really. We didn’t go through the Pit, where the damned souls are tortured, so he probably didn’t see the most traumatic parts of it.
I wouldn’t have taken him there. His soul would have been in danger, even if he didn’t belong there.
Most demons down there haven’t seen a good soul, and they were drawn to him like moths to a flame.
But they also liked to prey on his guilt.
It was too dangerous for me to leave him alone at any time. ”
“Guilt?” Nicolas asked.
“Yes. When night would fall—yes, there is technically a day and night even in Hell—wraiths would come out of the darkness to try and hypnotize him away from the light of our fire. I stood watch and made sure he was safe, but there was a time when he was ensnared by one. One of them appeared as a human man who accused him of murdering him. Someone named Casey.”
Nicolas looked stricken. “I feel like that was more my fault than Danny’s. Was he okay?”
“Yes. I protected him. Many of the monsters in Hell feed on the humans’ fear and guilt for the sins they committed while they were alive.
Even though Daniel was a good soul bound for Heaven, they found his weaknesses and exploited them.
The easiest way to protect him was to stay close, keep a light burning at night, and never let him out of my sight. ”
“That must have been hard,” Nicolas remarked.
Chaol shrugged. “It was worth it. He was worth it.”
“How did he wind up going to Hell, anyway? You said his soul was bound for Heaven. Shouldn’t he have gone there automatically?”
Chaol shook his head. “I found him in Purgatory. All of the gates to Hell had been shut because, as it turned out, Ramiel had slipped inside. I was locked out of Hell, because I’d been on my way to the surface, and I was in Purgatory when I heard Danny’s voice.
He was talking to a reaper who looked like your mother. ”
Nicolas’s honey brown eyes widened. “Our m-mother?”
“Yep. It was a temptation. The reaper wanted him to leave Purgatory. That’s their job, essentially.
By appearing as someone he would want to go with, it hoped to tempt him to accept his fate.
I gave him another option. He could come with me.
We could go through Hell together, turn him into a demon, and then come back to Earth.
It was the only way I could leave Purgatory with all the gates locked down, and it was the only way he could return to Earth. ”
Nicolas turned away, watching Daniel spar for a few breaths. “What was it like, turning him into a demon? Did it hurt?”
For the first time, Daniel turned to look at them, his expression conflicted.
Nicolas expected Chaol to tell the truth, and the truth was, “Yes, it hurt, but only for a little while. And now he’ll never have to feel like that again. He’ll be with us for eternity.”
The tension in Daniel’s face eased—and then Draego sucker-punched him and drew his attention back into the fight.
Nicolas relaxed, nodding to himself. “You’re right. I’m glad he’s here, even though I do hate that it caused him pain. I don’t ever want him to feel—” He choked, shaking himself. “Sorry. It’s just—I watched him die. I held him in my arms, covered in blood.”
Chaol didn’t want to imagine what that would have felt like. He’d rather die than lose Daniel.
Impulsively, he reached out and rested a hand on Nicolas’s shoulder.
“Don’t apologize. That must have been awful.
Just because he’s here again doesn’t erase what happened.
It’s okay to…” He paused, searching for the right words.
He didn’t know how to do this. People didn’t come to him for comfort.
“It’s okay to grieve for that loss and celebrate his return at the same time. One doesn’t negate the other.”
Nicolas turned his head to meet his eyes. They were darker than Daniel’s had been, a more woodsy brown that Daniel’s whiskey brown had been. He was a little taller, a little broader, but Chaol could easily see Daniel in the shape of his jaw and the line of his nose.
“Thank you,” he said. “It’s weird to feel sad about that moment when he’s back. But you’re right, it was a rough time, and I’m still dealing with it. It’s easier now that he’s back, at least.” He smiled wanly, and Chaol let his hand fall away, returning his gaze to the fight.
“Is he different, now that he’s a demon?” Nicolas asked.
Chaol hummed. “I think that’s something you’ll have to decide for yourself.
I didn’t know Daniel for very long before he transformed.
I don’t think he cares any less about you or me or the people here, but I do think there’s a darkness in him that wasn’t there before—or maybe it was there and the transformation just amplified it. ”
To his surprise, Nicolas’s mouth quirked on one side. “Darkness isn’t so bad.”
Chaol smiled, relieved, for Daniel’s sake, that his brother didn’t balk at the notion. “No, it’s not.”
He should have expected as much from the man who loved a sin eater.
When they returned inside, Menadel was standing in the middle of the room with her hands raised before her, haloed in a hazy, white-gold light.
It seared Chaol’s eyes, and he turned away, realizing as he did that all the other demons were doing the same.
The refugees from the guild were crowded around her, staring in awe.
A few of them were on their knees, tears streaming down their faces.
Chaol didn’t understand it. The only thing that made him want to get on his knees was Daniel.
After a few moments, Menadel lowered her hands, and the light faded. She turned to face them with a soft, patient smile. “It is done. This building is warded against intrusion by any of my brethren, including Ramiel.”
Across the room, Talon folded his arms. “Thanks. Why exactly are you helping us? We’re demons. Surely you don’t care whether we live or die.”
“Even if that were the case, you have humans amongst you who deserve my protection.” She gestured to Alex beside him.
“If that were the case,” Daniel pointed out. “But it’s not?” His fingers brushed Chaol’s arm. Chaol wasn’t sure he realized he was doing it.
“No. I am here to help because you are all deserving.”
“Begging your pardon, your holiness—or whatever—but I find that hard to believe,” Shadrach drawled, striding to the snack bar and reaching for a bottle of liquor.
Menadel approached slowly, laying a gentle hand on each human as she passed them.
She stopped beside the snack bar, glancing around at each of them in turn.
“Contrary to what much of your modern media suggests, angels and demons are not natural enemies. We both have our place in the fabric of the afterlife. The dark souls must go somewhere, just as the bright ones do. You are no more monstrous than I am. You were just born of a different place.”
“But the demons who come to Earth and kill people…” Alex began, looking conflicted, and Talon reached for him, brushing his fingers down his arm almost exactly the way Daniel had done to Chaol. Like he needed the contact.
Menadel nodded sagely. “They’re animals. They break the rules. That is why groups like yours exist.”
“Why can’t you help?” Alex asked. “Why do good people have to die? Why did my—my family have to die?”
“Yeah,” Malachi added, standing with Luke by the air hockey table.
He gestured to Luke, and his red eyes flashed with quiet fury.
“These humans are down here busting their asses to protect people while you do nothing. If demons are naturally weaker than angels, then you could be making their jobs a hell of a lot easier. Instead, they give their lives to the cause while you assholes sit up there on clouds and do nothing?”