Chapter 3
CHAPTER 3
Endor
The pull to Mercy’s neural pathways was harsh and fast, and it almost compared to breaking through heaven’s barrier to Earth. Almost.
But before I could get my bearings, all I could see was the dim light of the car.
And blood.
“Stay still,” Mercy said, her voice steady and firm.
The boy in her grasp winced, his entire body reacting as he hissed in pain.
“I’m trying,” he said. “But you’re not the one being stitched up with a safety pin right now and... fuck!”
Another hiss escaped his throat, echoing in the space between us.
I was transfixed on the sight before me.
The boy fighting Mercy’s triage skills looked to be not much older than her. Tall, lanky. Long, disheveled hair.
Big round eyes and full lips.
But it wasn’t the blood staining the side of his face that had me captivated.
It was the way he was looking at her.
I might not have spent time on the surface, but as a demon, there were a handful of things that were just... understood.
Shame, guilt, and remorse... those feelings, those emotions were part of our damn blood.
And the remorse, the guilt... it was radiating off of this boy in waves, crashing with something else so intense, so deep it was hard not to stare.
Love didn’t exist for demons like me. It was nothing but a myth, something we thought about, fantasized about in the same way we dreamed of freedom.
It was nice to think about, but we all knew nothing like that could ever be ours.
And then I felt her.
Warmth ebbed from behind me, like some fire trap.
“Endor...” Val’s voice was soft, careful.
“Shh...” I hushed her, both because I didn’t wish her to interrupt this pivotal memory, and because I couldn’t stand to hear her voice.
It made my skin prickle with goosebumps and my cock twitch.
Her steps were slow, deliberate. As careful as her voice. She slid up to my side wordlessly, but her warmth enveloped me all the same. The desire to close my eyes and breathe in her sweet, sugary funnel cake scent was hard to fight, but I knew I must.
If not for myself, then for Mercy.
Valory’s arm brushed mine and I could hear the soft sounds of her breath as the boy winced again.
Mercy held him still, her thumb brushing over his temple.
“There. Big baby,” she said, her grin slightly lopsided. The fear rolling off of her was almost as thickening as the guilt he kept emitting. But to her credit, she appeared fearless. In complete and utter control.
There was a silence so loud it was almost deafening, until the whir and click of the radio filled the space.
Rain drops echoed on the top of the car as he slid his hand up over hers.
His gaze fell on her as if he couldn’t help himself. As if surrendering to his desire was nothing more than a death note.
But surrender is what he did as she pulled him closer.
It was just an inch, and one might even mistake it as an involuntary response to his touch.
But there was no denying the softest, slightest part as she opened her mouth, and her bright gaze fell to his lips.
His lips found hers with ease as the radio chirped in and out, the singer crooning on about needing to be rescued and never being saved.
And for a moment, I envied them. Mercy and this boy.
The soft shift of their bodies in the space, crashing against the cup holder that separated them as they clung to one another like dew clings to the spider’s web early in the morning.
The reality both saddened me and angered me. There was an innocence in their kiss that I would never know.
It was in my nature to taint the innocent, to draw one to the dark side and to please . And I’d never known innocence, never seen it up close and personal until those last few days. But I wanted it all the same.
Make no mistake, I wanted to sink my fangs, my tongue, and my stupid, twitching cock into the pretty angel and drag her straight to hell. It would be hard for Roche and the contracting department to deny me a promotion if I could tempt a fucking angel, but...
The desire I could feel spreading within my being didn’t want to covet Valory because it was good for business.
No, I feared the truth was far worse than that.
For I wanted to covet Valory for myself.
And Mercy...
I didn’t want to let her go, either. No one ever looked at me the way she did. Like I was important. Like I fucking mattered.
“Miles...” Mercy’s voice was soft, yet slightly raspy, but before Miles could respond, the vacuum sucked me back through those bright green neural pathways.
No. No, no, no...
Not now, not like this.
“Endor!” Val’s hand clamped around mine so hard, her nails dug into my palm, and before I could blink or suck in a breath, we were back on the bench in the train station. My wings bristled against Valory’s and the touch sent a jolt of energy racing through me that I was powerless to stay quiet about.
I groaned as it ricocheted through me. My head was pounding, my body hot like a flame.
Valory’s nails continued to dig into my palm, drawing blood, and reality hit me like a brick.
I yanked my hand away, my wings vibrating with anticipation as my fangs ached with venom.
I shoved her away, if only to get a hold of myself. Being near her right now, like this...
It was probably a bad fucking idea.
“Stay with Mercy,” I said as I slipped away.
Mercy looked up at me with confused eyes for a second, and then, she turned her head. It was slight, the movement almost unnoticeable, like in the car.
It was... observant.
It made me feel on display, and I didn’t like it.
“Endor...” Val’s voice was soft. Careful.
I hated it.
I hated how just the sound made my skin and my feathers react, how hard it was to fight looking at either of them at that moment, but we could not sit there like sitting ducks, bouncing from vision to vision.
The boy had a name.
Miles.
The puzzle pieces were so fractured, disjointed by temporarily stitched memories and faded whims. I needed to think, and I could not think there, with Valory’s thick funnel cake scent and Mercy’s sweet gaze.
I stood, taking two heavy strides away from the bench. Away from them.
“Endor, where are you going?” Val asked, as Mercy cursed behind her about her head splitting.
I didn’t look behind me. My wings vibrated, wanting nothing more than to flex. To fly. To bristle against angel wings and seek out the grace that had poisoned me.
Fucking angels and their innocence.
Fuck them all to hell.
“To get us the hell out of here, Val. What else?”
And with that, I sheathed my wings, making myself visible to the world once more.
The urge to look behind me at Mercy and the pain in the ass angel was damn near overwhelming, and that, in and of itself, was a problem. I wasn’t used to these feelings. In Hell, all I had to manage was myself.
I’d thought such things were a blessing of sorts. I liked my life. Well, I liked it enough , I should say.
How anyone could like slaving away in HAD and fighting off thirsty succubi on a daily basis, is beyond me. But, I digress.
Still, at least then, I didn’t have this nagging feeling, this hunger and ache inside my stomach to turn around, run back to that stupid bench, and wrap my arms around both of them.
The lost soul and the angel.
Just so I could soothe my own tortured self and know they were okay.
We escaped the fucking wolves, and my girls were okay.
My lips pulled back in a snarl as I fought against the stupid sentimentality.
Mercy was not mine.
She was a lost soul, and it was my job to persuade her to join my dark side.
And after seeing her light up with that soul-giving energy, I knew more than ever that it was important that I did everything I could to secure Mercy’s body, so that she could make her choice. So that she could make the right choice.
Problem was, I wasn’t sure what the right choice was. The more I thought about Mercy making that choice, the more it felt like I couldn’t fucking breathe.
Which brought me to the angel.
Valory.
She healed me. I told her not to, told her I was fine, but the stubborn angel just couldn’t leave well enough alone.
Her grace... the way it slithered over my feathers, danced along my tattooed flesh...
Fuck if that didn’t feel downright sinful and perfect, and my cock more than noticed.
But it wasn’t about the juice Val delivered as much as it was about her.
Her bright, cerulean eyes that pinned me without chains, her smooth, soft fingers gliding through my feathers, soaking up my crimson blood.
I forced my eyes shut for a moment as I tried to put the truth out of my mind.
I bled on her. That alone was dangerous, if only for the fact that demon blood was the only thing stronger than demon venom.
If my blood got in her system, there was no telling what would happen. Demon blood was commonly used for witchcraft or to juice up monsters from time to time, but there was no actual telling what could happen if an angel somehow absorbed demon DNA.
Just as there was no telling what would happen if a demon like myself absorbed her grace in my blood.
It was only a moment, but it was dangerous.
Didn’t she know that?
I shook my head as I nearly knocked over a man with headphones, who clearly wasn’t watching where he was going.
I shoved my hands in my pocket and headed toward the line to the ticket station.
She touched me. Really touched me, and for the briefest moment, when I looked at her, I didn’t see Mercy, or the train station, or this chaotic journey we’d been thrown on against our will because of some fucking treaty.
All I saw was Val, and for the briefest moment, I felt like I’d found heaven.
Which was fucking silly, because she was quite literally a piece of fucking heaven itself.
But she was more than that, too; just like I was more than the fire and brimstone in my veins; just like Mercy was more than a lost soul.
What the hell was happening to me?
With my wings sheathed, I could appreciate the cool air inside of the station, the hustling of bodies and the incessant, incoherent chatter that filled the station.
“I require three tickets to Jasper Springs, Arkansas,” I said solidly, hoping the process went smoothly.
The attendant, a woman who looked no older than twenty-five, gave me a deadpan look.
“There are no trains to Jasper Springs, right now, sir. The station is closed for construction,” she said moodily, her indifference pissing me off.
I was too on edge to care, and as such, I pulled my lips back in a snarl and growled at her.
“Then get me three tickets to the city closest to Jasper Springs,” I gritted out.
She rolled her eyes. “That would be Eureka,” she said with a nonchalant huff, and I thought my vein over my eyebrow was about to burst. “And it looks like the only available seating I have is a private cabin.”
“Fine,” I said. “Get me three tickets to Eureka. Stat.”
Thankfully, she complied without grating further on my nerves, and I all but ripped the tickets out of her hand.
She stared at me with that deadpan gaze, and I realized what she was waiting for.
Payment.
I sighed, sliding my hand over the hard leather wallet that didn’t belong to me. I pulled it out, opening it to take a look inside. There was a stack of bills, and counting them, I felt a strange sense of guilt.
Because the angel—the perfect, sweet-smelling angel— stole it.
And she didn’t even blink.
Though, judging by the way the asshole had his hands all over her, I didn’t feel one bit bad about him getting his just desserts.
Aside from about three hundred dollars cash and some dirty coins, there was at least two credit cards, and some crinkled loyalty cards. It wasn’t much, but it would definitely be enough to get us to Jasper Springs, and probably enough to cover a hotel room for a night, if we needed it.
My blood chilled as the truth settled on me.
Roche and Matthew had said Mercy didn’t have long. A couple days at best.
We’d been gone for two already.
I fingered through the bills until I had enough, and slid the money through the window.
I got two feet from the counter before my stomach growled and I realized I was bloody starving.
Which meant Valory and Mercy were likely hungry, too.
I looked at our tickets, then at the large clock that loomed over the station. We’d barely had an hour until our train, which wasn’t a lot of time.
But I’d be damned if I let Mercy suffer any more than she already had on account of me.
So, I made my way to the bustling cafeteria, carefully reading the menus of the kiosks to make sure I could find something suitable for Mercy. Something without meat. I settled on grilled cheese and tomato soup.
Kids loved tomato soup and grilled cheese, right?
Yeah, Endor. Kids. Mercy’s not a kid. She’s seventeen. What the hell do seventeen year olds like? Fuck if I know.
Sure, I’d seen kids and teens in hell, but most of them were born demons like me. The kids and teens who chose to go to hell... or worse, whose soul choices marked them for hell on the surface... well, let’s just say they scared the living shit out of me and I avoided them—like most demons—like the fucking plague.
I placed my order for Mercy, opting to grab myself a spicy cheesesteak sandwich, and I knew I should have left it at that, but I was feeling out of sorts, I guess.
Fighting off werewolves and getting graced by an angel will do that to a demon.
“Will that be all, sir?” the attendant asked, and I let out a defeated sigh.
“I’ll take one brisket and macaroni bowl, too, please.”