Chapter 10
Whatever had motivated my angels to leave had to have been big enough to overcome their obsession with me.
If I was Sam, what would motivate me to leave?
When nothing came to mind, I decided their decision to leave had something to do with me, somehow.
I didn’t imagine they trusted Kaito, but maybe they thought there was something they could do to deal with the “demon problem” Sam had mentioned.
Not sure how he planned on accomplishing that, but the sooner I tracked them down, the better.
Plus, I still needed to talk to Cole, and I had promised Kaito I would travel to the Astral Plane under the protection of the twins.
I searched Central Hall first, avoiding the Dean’s office for now. I had a feeling once that conversation started, I’d be stuck for a while.
And my angelic mates were the kind of thing that needed to be seen to be believed.
A blast of fire caught my eye in the distance. I ventured into one of the rooms, looking out of a window to see that the building between Lux and the female lower-level dorms was… on fire.
“What now?” I lamented, descending the steps to go check it out.
I couldn’t remember exactly which building that was. Maybe the Monster Barracks? That’s where the allied Demonspawn held their classes and kept their population more or less segregated from the rest of the campus, more for practicality purposes.
It would make the perfect target for a couple of angels who wanted to take care of the Academy’s “demon problem.”
Cursing, I ventured out onto the streets, avoiding a pack of shifters who definitely wouldn’t be stopping to answer a few questions.
I wasn’t sure how to ask, anyway.
Hey, have you seen a couple of identical super-hot angels walking around? They might be trying to purify the place. No biggie.
“Lily!”
The familiar voice had me sighing in relief. Turning toward it, I saw Jess hurrying my way. She caught up to me and hugged me close while I did the same, so grateful to see a familiar face—one that wasn’t in a rush to get away from me, or pretend like I had some contagious disease.
“Why is the Demonspawn quarters on fire?” I asked as we broke apart.
“That’s a complicated answer,” she said softly, shoving her hair back.
That was when I got a decent look at her.
A strong Demonspawn female, and gorgeous as hell, Jess rarely looked anything less than perfect.
Now, though, her normally sleek coif was pulled back into a ponytail to accentuate her horns, some of the shorter strands in front curling in wisps around her face and damp with sweat.
She wore a fitted tank and what looked like running tights, clothes that revealed dangerous curves, but were simple and utilitarian, meant for function over fashion.
“What’s happened?” Even though I doubted I wanted to know, I had to ask.
“A lot of shit.” She planted her hands on her hips. “Did I hear you say you misplaced some angels?”
“I didn’t misplace them,” I said defensively. “They took off while I was talking to Kaito.”
“Same result—they’re missing, right? I’ve got an idea where they might have gone.”
I glanced back at the Barracks. “I think it’s obvious.”
She narrowed her eyes, then laughed. “What? No! That’s just a fire drill. I haven’t seen your angels around, and the Demonspawn are fine.”
“Oh.”
Then where were they?
“I came to talk to you about something else. I don’t know where your angels are, but without your Virtues—especially Orion—everything is falling apart.”
“How do you mean?” I asked. I’d noticed the students rushed and panicked, but that was to be expected with the current situation.
“Orion was a rock,” she lamented, “even for those of us who aren’t Demis looked up to him.
He’s just… a leader.” Jess’s eyes took on a pinched look and her lips thinned out.
“Luc did a damned good job of trying to turn this into its own version of Hell. Without the mentors here, the students are going crazy. Cindy and I are trying, and a few others, but we’re just not enough. ”
There was an unvoiced question there and although I had to find my angels, and start figuring out a way to help my unconscious mates, I couldn’t leave my friend without trying to help.
“All right. I’ll do what I can… I can’t stay for long, though.”
Relief softened the lines on her brow and she grabbed me in a quick hug. “That means the world to me.”
I followed her across the campus, recognizing bits and pieces as we moved, but other areas were foreign, parts of Monster Academy that had merged with Fortune Academy when the realms crashed together.
My gut tightened as Jess led me past Lux, the large, decadently styled dorm that had typically housed Orion and the other Demis.
It sat desolate and empty and I wondered where the other Demis were.
The dorms for the lower-level females loomed in the distance but that wasn’t our destination, either.
Jess stopped at the yawning maw of a structure that looked like a row of teeth up close, and even from a distance of a couple of yards, the energy of the place made my skin prickle.
“This is the Monster Barracks,” Jess confirmed, slanting a look at me before focusing her attention straight forward. “We… the allied Demonspawn live here. Our classes and training are here. The vampires, incubi, and succubi are usually housed here, too. Shit is bad inside, Lil. I’m not joking.”
I stared at the barracks, my mind trying to make sense of it.
It was almost like a cave had been pulled from the bowels of the earth and dropped onto the terrain in front of us, jagged spikes and spires jutting up into the air, the slick stone dark as night and absorbing the light around us.
It was nothing of this world and the age of it made my bones ache.
“Let’s get this done,” I said to Jess, infusing my voice with more confidence than I felt.
We went inside and the prickle of magic made my skin break out into goosebumps. Sensing the presence of more Demonspawn, I looked around but save for Jess, we were alone.
“Where is everyone?”
Jess pointed toward a massive central staircase that narrowed as it climbed before hitting a landing where it broke into two separate directions, each new path spiraling off into a different direction.
“You’ll see,” she said as she took the stairs to the left and I followed, closing my wings in tight against my back as we climbed.
Several flights later and we reached the end, the floor opening out before us to show the entirety of the floor from wall to wall.
Several areas were sectioned off, a rippling wall of magical veils separating one space from the next.
Some of those spaces were larger than others, one set aside for training, others for classrooms, a couple that looked to be common areas for the students to gather together.
A familiar face caught my gaze and I focused on one of the groups gathered in a section far to my right.
Cindy.
Also known as the Mother of Monsters.
She spoke to a group of Demonspawn and vampires, with a few succubi and incubi mingling in the group. The restless edgy energy of the group was a bad omen, but they weren’t the ones who had me worried.
Havarti, one of the stronger succubi, paced back and forth, shooting Cindy angry looks while more of her own kind stood close to her, clearly supporting her rather than Cindy. Their agitation was obvious, all of them vibrating with tension.
No. They weren’t agitated.
They were hungry.
“Shit,” I muttered. I didn’t have to know the specifics to realize this was one giant clusterfuck waiting to happen.
“Without Orion here to help the incubi and succubi feed safely, those demons are losing it,” Jess explained. “Some of the stronger ones are in better shape, but it’s just a matter of time…” Jess drifted off. “None of them will be able to hold on much longer without feeding.”
I didn’t need to ask what would happen. I already knew.
Cindy’s voice rose, husky and warm, what would normally be a sexy purr but was now flat and commanding. “You have to remember—we are allies!”
The succubi and incubi gathered around Havarti. As their new leader, she stood tall and beautiful, her eyes glowing red with hunger and anger.
She released her claws, making the vampires hiss. “What we remember is that we are hungry and that we die without feeding, unlike the Demonspawn,” Havarti snarled. “You want to be allies and that sounds fine and dandy, but none of you are at risk of dying as we wait around for somebody to save us.”
The urge to run back to Kaito’s office and drag him up here so he could help me talk sense into these students was overwhelming. It wouldn’t take long—I knew if I outright asked him, he wouldn’t deny me.
A snarling hiss from a vampire standing with Cindy yanked my attention back to the nightmare in front of me. I didn’t have time. A succubus had slipped over the invisible line that separated her group from Cindy’s.
An incubus pushed the vampire behind him and snarled at his female counterpart. “No,” he bit off. “These are our friends.”
“See the problem?” Jess leaned in, speaking so quietly, I barely caught the words.
“Yeah.”
“Cindy would have just blasted a few of them at one point, but she’s not like that anymore. She doesn’t want to kill students, even just one or two of them. And it’s not like the succubi and incubi can control who and what they are.”
“No.” Swallowing the knot in my throat, I looked at Jess. “I’ll do what I can.”
I didn’t know if it would work, but damn if I wouldn’t try.
I took one step forward.
Cindy’s head jerked up and her gaze shot toward me. “Lily!”
As if her distraction was exactly what Havarti and her supporters had been waiting on, the succubi and incubi advanced. It was a slow, sensual sort of assault, so smoothly done it would be hard to describe what happened as an actual attack, unless one knew how a succubi or incubi fed.
A tall brunette stroked her fingers down the cheek of a Demonspawn only a few feet from me. He swayed and stumbled, almost going to his knees before the others around him caught him and yanked him away, a red trail of visible lust leaving his body as the succubus inhaled.
The succubus who’d touched him swung her attention to another but before she could choose another snack, I caught her arm and spun her away, shoving her back toward the others.
“Stop!” I demanded.
Several Demonspawn had moved forward, ready to fight. The sound of my voice made them pause. Vampires, who craved sex almost as much as they craved blood, stood shoulder to shoulder with the Demonspawn, their allies in battle. They, too, hesitated.
The succubi and incubi pressed on.
The sensual demanding pull of their energy was enough that even I felt it. It only empowered me, because I was part succubus myself, but I couldn’t even imagine how the others stood against it.
I didn’t need to imagine it, though. Since I had the same powers, and more, I could take control for a moment.
“Stop!” This time, when I made the demand, I infused power into the order so the succubi and incubi had to obey.
They stumbled, some of them crashing into another as they fought against the hold I’d wrapped around them, others simply staring blankly into space.
The Demonspawn lunged, going on the offensive now that they weren’t being drained down to nothing through the simple touch of a finger along a cheek or a hand on the shoulder.
I didn’t know where my angels were. Most of my mates are lying in a coma. And now I had the students of the Academy trying to turn on each other.
“Enough!” I bellowed the word this time and power exploded from me.
It released in a shockwave of golden light, unlike anything I could recall seeing before as my crown sputtered and finally vanished.
Because I was embracing my angelic side, now, something the Hell Crown couldn’t compete against.
The students went rigid, all of them, even Jess who stood at my side and should have been unaffected.
As the golden light started to dissipate, they all went to their knees, bodies strangely lax, as if they no longer had the strength to stand. The power I’d released still hummed in the air—connecting me to them.
“Enough,” I said again. “We can’t afford to turn on one another. If we do that, we might as well just tell Lucifer we’re done and turn the Academy—and ourselves—over to him.” I paused, then asked, “Is that what you want?”
A few murmurs rippled from them, a soft no rising from the crowd.
“Then this shit has to stop!” I looked across the sea of faces now turned toward me.
The dazed look had faded from their eyes. They were angry, desperate, hopeful, hopeless, and defiant. The gamut of emotions I saw reflected my own and I had to take a breath, gather those emotions and stuff them back down before speaking further.
“I’m going to do everything I can to get Orion and the others back.
But I can’t do that if I’m here trying to keep you from killing each other.
Do you want me here? Or out there?” Hands on my hips, I looked across the room, gaze lingering on the succubus who’d crossed the line and fed from the male Demonspawn.
“Lucifer is out there, hurting people. Killing them. Maybe somebody you know, somebody who matters to you. And if he hasn’t done it yet?
It’s just a matter of time. So we either stand strong and work to stop him or we go belly up.
” I paused a moment. “And I don’t plan on going belly up. ”
The power stretching between us drew taut and I severed it.
They all surged to their feet, color returning to the faces of the starving succubi and incubi, while the Demonspawn slowly regained control, now that they weren’t looking like dinner for the nearest hungry student. Even the vampires looked refreshed and blood was almost always a ready resource.
Drawing in a breath, I met Cindy’s eyes.
She gave me a short, tight nod.
“Now, all of you… go find a way to make yourself useful. We’re getting ready to go to war—and not against each other.”