Azrael's Light [Demon Runners of Unearth] (Siren Publishing Classic) (7 page)

She answered his sarcasm with silence. Why couldn’t everyone just leave her alone? Please?

“Alia, your mother is going nuts with fear and, shockingly, maybe even a smidge of guilt. Your father is ready to tear Earth apart with his bare hands. You have to go home. You’ll be safe there. You know it.”

“I do know I’ll be safe, and I am truly sorry that Mom and Dad are worried about me, but I can’t go home yet.”

“Why not? What are you waiting for?”

“I’m waiting for someone and something, but it’s not clear yet. I’m not even really sure, exactly, but it’s important that I don’t go home yet. You know as well as I do that as soon as I cross the keep’s gate, Dad will lock the place up tighter than ever. It may be another century before he lets me out. I’m needed for something first.”

“There’s more to it than that. I know better, Alia. Who are you waiting for? You know I could just tell your parents where you are and this would be over in no time. Earth would be safe and so would all of Unearth. You do know what you’re risking, right?”

“Yes. I know. But even when he is his maddest, through all his anger and bluster, Dad is smarter and in more control than anyone believes. It may be close, but I’ll make it in time. And you cannot tell my parents where I am. I mean it. I am calling in one of my favors.” She hated to play hardball, but in reality she was also doing him a favor. He owed her some pretty steep debts. In truth, she hated to hold them over his head at all, but in Unearth one always had to watch their backs. Always.

Still facing the water, she knew his reaction when he sucked in a startled gasp.

“That’s playing dirty.”

“Yes, but as you said, everyone knows I’m a brat of the first order. Look at it this way. You now only owe me one favor. Half of your debt to me is paid.” She’d tied his hands behind his back and given him a tremendous gift at the same time.

“Fine. You have me bound and bent over a barrel, but please think about what you’re doing. Everything hinges on you and your safety right now. Please don’t let your father’s cockiness take over. Use that brain of yours and think this through. I don’t know what it is that you have to do, but it can’t be more important than that fragile connection between the realms. Nothing is.”

She wasn’t so sure about that, but there was no explaining it.

She felt his disapproval and then his absence when he left her alone on her cold boulder. It may not be much, but she would take her comfort where she could find it.

There was no way she could explain it to him, and she didn’t know that she would if she could. She loved Cyril like a favorite uncle, but he was caught in the same box as everyone else. There was so much more out there if one only opened their eyes to see.

* * * *

Even for a weeknight, the club was busy. They all worked double time to keep pace, but not even the chaos kept her mind occupied.

Leaning across a table to clean up a spilled drink, she paused when a pair of mortal arms snaked around her waist and hard hands moved up to grab her breasts in a painful, pinching grip. She shook her head in resignation. Sadly she had become a professional at fending off the unwanted mortal advances that occurred almost nightly.

“Hey there, sweet thing. When’s your shift end?” Words slurred with too much alcohol whispered in her ear. At least she thought it was supposed to be a sly whisper. It was a wonder that half the bar hadn’t heard him. She’d have to handle this quick because if Brick or one of the other bouncers saw, they’d flatten him without a second’s thought. He was stupid and wasted, not mean. She could handle him with one arm tied behind her back.

She reached for his wrists to untangle him and put him in his place, but they were gone. His presence was gone from her back. She turned to face the drunk, and stopped cold. She’d been worried one of the boys would find the creeper. This was so much worse.

Azrael stood with one arm straight out in front of him, his fist tangled in Bill’s leather coat. The other was pointed in the creeper’s face. His enormous booted feet were planted to the ground like tree roots and his body vibrated in rage. Bill’s feet dangled eight inches from the ground. There was no mistaking the fury etched on Azrael’s face. His eyes blazed. A storm of tightly leashed fury pointed right at one of her regular customers.

Bill’s wife had recently left him for another man. Clearly the loss continued to trouble him. Yes, he’d been wrong to grope her, but she didn’t want him to suffer Azrael’s wrath.

“You have no right to put your hands on her. None. I should end you now. End. You. Now.” The tremors in Azrael’s arms stopped. With a faint nod, he closed his eyes.

“Sadly, there’s no point. In exactly eight months and three days you will once again drink yourself stupid, get into your car, and plow it and yourself straight into a tree. What a waste.” The tense anger leached from his features. He lowered Bill to the ground and pointed to the exit doors.

Bill scrambled away, and Azrael turned to face her head-on. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine. Let me call him a cab. I’ll be right back, and then we can talk.” His eyes dimmed. He was grieving. He grieved because in eight months Bill would die and he would be there to witness it and then deliver his soul.

“Don’t bother. He’ll make it home safe tonight. So will everyone else in the city and planet for that matter.”

“How? I don’t understand.”

“The Fates are on vacation for a couple of days. While they’re off the clock, every mortal is safe. It only happens once in a very long time, but I can guarantee he’ll live through the night. At least he will if he stays out of the bar.” He turned to watch the door, as if daring Bill to come back through it.

“He’s really not too bad, at least when sober. I keep hoping he’ll turn his life around.”

Azrael turned to look her in the eye. “He won’t. I’m sorry. His irresponsibility will cost him his job, and his life will only spiral further out of control. I wish I were wrong, but I never am. It’s a curse more often than not. Are you sure you’re okay?” He placed his hands lightly on her shoulders and looked down at her.

“I’m fine. Truly. Not even a bruise.”

A silly, lecherous grin spread across his face slow and sure. “Are you sure you don’t want me to check? You know, just to be sure?”

“I’m sure.” Images of Azrael’s hands on her flesh, cupping, molding her breasts filled her, making her breath catch. She stepped back until he had to drop his arms or follow her. A frown creased his brow.

“Have you heard from Alia?” he asked.

“No, nothing.”

He arched an eyebrow in disbelief and stared her down.

“Honestly. I haven’t seen her or heard a single peep. I spent all night and day thinking and I don’t know where to begin searching, either. Believe me, if I did, I would have found a way to drag her skinny ass home. I’m worried about her.”

“I’m worried about what will happen to everyone else if we don’t find her. There’s some nasty business about, and I worry it could all be connected.”

“Do you think the recent demon sightings and attacks could be related?”

“I seriously doubt they’re a coincidence. Numerous men have been slaughtered, and they weren’t on the Fates’ list. Only six women have been attacked, but each one was left alive. Why? There has to be a reason they were left alive while the men were murdered. Cyril, another Runner I know who specializes in rogue tracking, hasn’t been assigned to find the culprit. We can’t figure out why the Fates haven’t put him on it. It’s what he was created for.”

Chills tiptoed up and down her spine, and they had nothing to do with the temperature of the busy club. She feared she had no choice but to work with Azrael. The picture surrounding Alia grew darker by the minute, and without her powers, there was virtually nothing she could do to help. She was truly out of options.

“What do we do?”

“As much as I hate to, I think we have to wait and watch. You wait here. I’ll take the streets.”

What would he give to have one thing in this world be exactly what it seemed? Azrael watched the scene below from the roof of the city’s tallest building, the Orlacomp Tower. Before finding his perch, he’d flown through and surveyed the city from corner to corner. Everything appeared to be normal.

His gut told him differently, and he agreed. Not being able to find what caused the hair to stand on the back of his neck nagged him.

Just like the knowledge that a certain brunette, who still hadn’t given him her name, was more than she pretended to be. But why should he be surprised? She was Lilith’s sister, her twin. There wasn’t a more devious woman in all of Earth or Unearth than Lilith. Why would her twin be any different?

She said her powers hadn’t been stripped from her, but what else could have happened to them? He wouldn’t put it past any immortal to lie. And if they had been stripped? She would have had to seriously piss off the elder gods. It took an agreement from three elder gods, and each had to be from a different religion. One of the few intelligent things the gods had done, the system had been put in place at the dawn of time and was intended to prevent the typical, petty backstabbing from causing permanent damage.

The only downside was that getting two gods from the same belief system to agree on anything minor was a challenge. Getting three elder gods from different doctrines to agree on stripping another’s powers? It took a feat of utmost treachery to prompt them into acting.

Even though the brunette was Lilith’s twin, he couldn’t see it. Something didn’t add up.

And neither did the picture appearing before his eyes. He spied a dark form coalescing in the park below. What was he doing in the city?

He closed his eyes and felt his boots land soundlessly on the grass.

“Cyril. Funny finding you in town. I didn’t think there were many bounties worth your while in the city. What’s up?”

Cyril wiped something dark from the knife he held onto his jeans and slid it into the sheath at the hip opposite the hand holding it. The night was hot and still. The city was quiet.

“Funny thing about renegade demons. You never know where they’ll turn up.”

“True. Who or what are you looking for in Capital City?” There was no telling what foul beast Cyril had been sent after. He did not envy the male one bit. He’d seen him take down rabid demons three times his size without breaking a sweat. He cringed to think on what could have brought him to town.

“Nothing too nasty yet tonight. I just dispatched two full-grown Lilitu. The numbers of runaways have tripled in the last week. Something has them running scared from Unearth.”

“Hard to imagine what would have them willingly face a potential death sentence. The best they could hope for living on this side of the gate would be skulking in the shadows and scavenging for scraps.”

“Yeah. I’m finding runaways in all sorts of odd places.” Cyril gave him a hard, piercing look. “How is your search going?”

“It’s not. The only lead I have is a confusing woman who looks and smells like a human but has no Kor. There’s no Light signature marking her as an immortal. She claims to be the girl’s aunt. She swears she has no idea where to look. On that I think I believe her, but I’m not sure what to think about the rest of it.”

“Luc has a sister? Why didn’t I know this?” Genuine confusion marked Cyril’s hard face.

“No. She claims she’s Lilith’s twin.” The confusion turned to shock and then full-blown amusement, and the Demon Runner burst into deep, booming, laughter.

“Good luck with that, man. She’ll have you tied in knots for sure. Apparently every female in that family is trouble.”

“No shit. I can’t wait to wash my hands of them all.” Deep, sparkling emerald eyes flashed in his mind.

“Have you been to Cocytus Lake lately? There’s been odd activity there also.”

“I haven’t made a run to the ninth circle in ages. I think the Fates have forgotten the beasts that live there.” A chilly shiver wriggled its way up the back of his neck. That was one creepy-ass place, and he was happy he didn’t have to travel there often.

“Believe it or not from time to time, I come across runaways there. You never know what you’ll find. Seriously, when you get time, you may want to check it out.”

Yeah, like he would have time to hang out with phantom monsters for shits and giggles anytime soon. Cyril gave him a look that was nothing but life-and-death serious.

“You should check it out. Soon.”

“Sure.” Azrael felt for the male, he really did. Cyril worked countless hours doing nothing more than hunting down rogue beasts and demons. He spent virtually no time with regular immortals. Maybe it was finally getting to him. “I gotta get back and check in with the aunt. Take care.”

“Sure, Az. Take care.”

Why did Cyril sound disappointed in him? Whatever. As much as he’d like to help, he didn’t have time to sort out someone else’s drama. He was up to his eyeballs in his own mess.

* * * *

“Ready?” She slung her purse and the tote bag containing her boots over her shoulder and went out the door Brick held open. She wasn’t sure how she’d manage the tote on his motorcycle, but she hadn’t been able to bring herself to wear another skirt tonight. So, to go with her tight-as-sin hipster jeans she’d worn her sky-high “fuck me” boots. No question they brought in the tips, but she’d changed into her old sneakers the instant the last patron walked out the door. Her feet screamed at her.