Chapter 1
Julian
Six weeks later
Julian’s new assignment was boring. As a warrior for the Paladin Guild of Los Angeles, he wanted to be out in the dark, hunting demons with his squad. It was what he’d trained all his life for. Instead, he was staring at a rusted old building and waiting for something to happen.
This was where the traitors, the Sentinels, operated.
They ran an investigative service and demon hunting business out of this rusted hole, but Sloan was convinced they were up to no good.
Sure, they were all with demons, as far as Julian knew, or at least working with them.
The guild claimed all demons were evil, but Julian was beginning to doubt their word.
He was rethinking a lot of his training these past few weeks, and he knew all of the founding members of the Sentinels from their time in the guild.
They were good men. If they trusted demons, there had to be more to them than they were taught.
Mostly, he was envious of the Sentinels for getting out when they did. Before it all went to shit.
It was a waste of resources to be here, but if Julian said as much aloud, he’d find himself shackled to the cleansing post. So he kept his head down and did the job. That was what Nicolas told him to do.
When Nic announced that their squad would be watching the traitors in shifts, Julian expected more action, for better or worse.
He didn’t like the idea of fighting the Sentinels, but he needn’t have worried, because they didn’t.
There were no attacks from either side. No victims were dragged inside the rusted old building to be killed or sacrificed, like Sloan probably thought.
The Sentinels spent a lot of time inside it as a group, and Julian had noted that a pair of young teenagers also seemed to spend quite a bit of time here outside of school hours.
If they were recruiting, the guild would have a fit.
He’d made sure to leave them out of his reports.
The squad worked in eight hour shifts, and tonight, Julian unfortunately had the midnight shift.
A travel mug of coffee sat in the cup holder beside him while some angry metal played in his earbuds in an attempt to keep him awake.
The parking lot was full right now, and warm light glowed from within the glass door.
He occasionally saw movement inside, but the door didn’t have a good enough angle to reveal much of the interior.
For weeks now, he’d watched this place without incident.
Earlier, he’d watched the humans leave in pairs to go on patrol.
He wondered if they knew he was there, but no one glanced his way.
He parked very far away, just in case, and kept his car off, the windows cracked to let a breeze in.
He didn’t know what would happen if they saw him, and truthfully, he didn’t want to face them.
They used to be his friends; he’d feel awful if they found out he was spying on them.
This wasn’t what paladins were meant for. These people weren’t hurting anyone. He should be out there hunting monsters, not spying on people who were minding their own business.
To his surprise, he saw figures moving toward the parking lot. He thought they were sentinels at first, returning from patrol, until he realized there were too many. They hid in the shadows, and the only reason he noticed them was because he was already attuned to the area.
Were they demons? Halflings? Why would halflings be lying in wait to attack the traitors? They were all supposed to be on the same side now, weren’t they? Maybe they weren’t there to attack, then, though he couldn’t imagine why else they seemed to be lying in wait.
It didn’t take long for more movement in the distance to catch his eye, and he leaned forward, squinting. Two sentinels were back, headed for their home base. They didn’t know they had company waiting to ambush them.
Julian recognized Alex Hawk and Nathan Accardi, and his stomach twisted with unease. Accardi had saved his life during the battle at HQ, and he’d graduated with Hawk. He couldn’t just do nothing if they were about to be attacked.
When the crack of gunfire split the silence, Julian jolted as Hawk and Accardi dove for cover.
Without thinking, Julian grabbed his sword and barreled from the car.
These halflings were cheating. They outnumbered the traitors and they had guns?
That wasn’t a fair fight, and Julian wasn’t going to sit there and watch anyone be mowed down by demons, even people Sloan had declared the enemy. He still knew right from wrong.
He drew a dagger from his hip and flung it through the air as he got close. It sank into a halfling’s back, and he collapsed, the gun bouncing across the broken pavement. Two others turned toward him, shouting out warnings to their companions.
This was what he’d missed. His blood sang with adrenaline as he cut down a halfling and dove into a roll.
The fight was chaos. Hawk and Accardi had joined him, and, he realized as he whirled, others were emerging from the skating rink.
Demons and humans alike were helping to take out these interlopers.
Maybe they weren’t friends with all demons, then.
Were there different factions? He supposed it made sense that there would be in-fighting and disloyalty among their kind. They thrived on chaos, didn’t they?
“Ah!” someone cried out in pain, and his eyes landed on Accardi just as he went down with his hands over his stomach.
Oh crap.
Julian rushed toward him, falling to his knees and applying pressure to the wound.
“It’s okay, you’re going to be okay,” he said mindlessly.
Through his pained grimace, Accardi looked at him in confusion. “Julian? Julian Heroux?”
“Yep, that’s me,” he replied, his eyes scanning the fight around them to make sure no one was about to turn on them. Most of the remaining halflings seemed preoccupied. The numbers had turned in their favor when the others from the rusted-out base joined them.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
Julian winced. “Disobeying, maybe, a little bit.” He wasn’t supposed to let them know he was there. He certainly wasn’t supposed to jump in and help them fight their enemies.
He met furious red eyes from several paces away, and the strange halfling raised a gun toward him. He reached for his second knife, but he already knew he was done for. A bullet would be faster than a knife. His lungs filled with a sharp, panicked breath, and he braced himself for the pain.
But it never came. Something like a whip made of pure shadow appeared in the air, wrapping around the halfling’s wrist. With a yank, it lifted him into the air and sent him crashing to the ground twenty feet away.
“Oh fuck,” someone from the enemy group muttered. “Run!”
“Get down!” one of the black-eyed ones shouted, and all of the sentinels and their demons hit the ground.
Julian decided it was probably best to listen to them, hunching his shoulders and shielding Accardi with his body as more of the strange shadow-whips cut through the air.
They didn’t just grab and throw their enemies.
One of them bisected a halfling completely.
Another cut the head off of one. Black blood and viscera splattered the pavement.
“What the hell is happening?” he shouted.
Accardi grabbed him, like he was afraid Julian would be dumb enough to stand up, so he just closed his eyes and waited for the pandemonium to stop.
When the last body fell, silence descended around them.
Julian raised his head. Standing apart from the rest of them was a massive man in nothing but a sleek, knee-length black skirt that looked like something an ancient Egyptian might wear.
He stood barefoot on the craggy asphalt, and the shadow-whips returned to him, wrapping up his muscular body and merging with his pale skin like ink-black tattoos.
They swirled and undulated on his skin like living things, curling around his limbs and dancing up his neck and even over his bald head.
Glowing, violet irises regarded them all coolly, and he took a slow step forward.
Nearby, one of the traitors’ demons cursed quietly. They were afraid of this newcomer, and Julian tensed, preparing for another fight.
“Paladin Heroux,” Accardi warned. “Don’t.”
He didn’t listen. It was his job to protect people from demons, and this was a demon they obviously didn’t know or trust. Maybe he would die, but he’d die doing the right thing. He pushed himself to his feet and moved to meet the demon.
“Don’t be an idiot, paladin,” one of the demons said as he stepped between the newcomer and the others.
“Stop right there,” Julian said firmly, ignoring the pounding of his heart and the way his hand shook when he raised it.
To his surprise, the demon stopped. His head tilted, like he found Julian curious.
“I helped you,” the demon said. His voice was deep and hypnotic, and Julian was surprised by how viscerally pleasant he found it. Like his body perked up and said, ‘oh, we didn’t know we needed this.’
“Why?”
“I have some questions for the ones behind you.” The demon lifted his chin toward them.
Julian hesitated. “Are you going to hurt them?”
The demon studied him for a long moment. “You are a holy warrior.” He nodded at the holy blade hanging loosely in Julian’s grip.
“I am.”
“But you would care what happens to these demons?”
He took a breath to respond—and stopped. These demons were supposed to be his enemies. Why had he gotten between them at all?
Well, he knew the answer to that. He still considered the traitors friends, despite it all, and it would hurt them if something happened to their demons. He didn’t know how to say any of that without entirely giving away his hand, though.
“I…”
The glowing violet of his eyes was mesmerizing. “Is it a difficult question?”