Damnation's Door: A Cursed Book (10 page)

Sounds like an understatement,
I thought.

“Where do we find these people?” I asked. When Raphael didn’t move to free Dro, I went to the back of her chair to do it myself. “The fragment carriers.”

“This I do not know,” Raphael admitted. “We checked every body we could once we discovered the massacres, but we found nothing. It is likely the carriers retreated before they could die, or the fragment was taken by another.”

“What I don’t get is why the attacks don’t happen all the time,” Max said while I stepped back from Dro’s chair and let her get to her feet. “I mean, if these people have a literal wildcard in their body, why aren’t they playing it all the time? These massacres should be happening on every corner.”

I thought back to encountering Drake only days ago, and had a very uncomfortable idea.

“Maybe they’re being hidden, and under orders.”

All eyes went to me. I folded my arms over my chest. “Drake said he was looking for something in that store. Maybe he was looking for a fragment. Maybe he’s a fucking carrier himself.”

Warrick’s eyes darkened with rage. Max’s expression was grim, but more with anxiety than anger.

“I fear that with Lucifer, anything is possible,” Sephiel said icily.

“Regardless, you must find these fragments and stop Lucifer by closing the Hell Gate.”

I turned to Raphael. “I take it you’re not going to be lending a hand.”

Raphael almost smiled at my snarky proposition. It would have felt more real if his eyes weren’t so sad.

“I fear I cannot be of any more assistance. It shall be challenging enough to explain that you overcame me and escaped.” The Not Smile vanished all together. “Michael has been focusing on his efforts on locating Lucifer and destroying him once and for all.” Finally, he looked at my sister. “It is why he was prepared to bait you. Normally, I would not be adverse to his idea, but all of us following him have grown weary. We have seen the destruction he has wrought, and we no longer believe we are strong enough to defeat Lucifer. Not when we are assured that we can never return home.”

That was what it boiled down to. The only reason Raphael was helping us was because the Heaven Gate was locked for good. If it hadn’t been, Sephiel would have been ruthlessly punished, and Dro would have been killed.

We had made an ally here, but not a reliable one and certainly not a friend. I wasn’t sure if we’d gotten a short-term blessing or a long-term curse.

Raphael stalked through the chairs toward Sephiel. He placed his hand on the auburn-haired man’s shoulder.

“The others shall not inform you, but I believe you ought to know. Rorikel is dead.”

We all fell silent at that, but Sephiel looked like he’d been punched in the stomach.

“How? When?” was all he could breathe out.

“Lucifer saw him help you escape at the Heaven Gate. His rage was catastrophic.”

Sephiel dropped his head. There had to be more details about the death of Sephiel’s former partner, but Sephiel didn’t need to hear them. We all knew what Lucifer could do when he was mildly annoyed. Nothing and no one would be able to escape him if his rage was “catastrophic.”

I thought about Rorikel. Pale eyed and cranky as hell, we’d never gotten along with the uptight bastard. He had been committed to protecting Dro in the beginning, but his disdain for humans– and me in particular– had been about as bare as the skin on a nude beach. Rorikel thought all humans were bound to sin, and he’d been a huge supporter of Heaven’s plan. The moment he learned what Dro
really
was, he went from crotchety asshole to cold-hearted assassin.

But then he saved us at the Heaven Gate. I never knew why Rorikel chose to save us, and now I never would. I hadn’t liked the son of a bitch any more than he’d liked me, but now I felt guilty for hating him, and I would never have the chance to thank him for what he did for us.

“You must leave now,” Raphael said, stepping back from Sephiel. He walked over to a wine barrel in the corner and pried off the lid. He reached inside and brought out all of our weapons. I practically jumped for joy when I took my hatchet from Raphael’s hands.

Once we had all of our belongings intact, we formed a circle. Sephiel took control of the
movens caeli,
his head still bowed down. While he began to manipulate the device, Raphael put his hand on my shoulder.

I jumped under his touch and started baring my teeth. Raphael wisely stepped back. “You must make it seem as though I was attacked,” he informed. “It shall make the story of your escape easier to believe.”

I stepped out of the circle and shook out my hands. “You sure about this?”

Raphael smiled weakly. “It is not the first time I have received pain in combat.”

“I meant about lying to Michael.”

That caused Raphael’s grin to falter. He sighed. “If there was a way to convince him to join forces with you, I would have found it. But since losing Gabriel and his powers, he has not been in his proper mind. He is filled with venom and hate, though I cannot tell if it is due to his loss of power, or the influence of this city.”

Since he seemed to know a lot about what was going on, I was willing to bet he knew the truth, but didn’t want to admit it. That was fair. I wouldn’t want to admit to either truth if I was him.

“Don’t worry,” I said. “I won’t let you think about it too long.”

I punched him in the face, not caring if he was ready or not. If he wanted to sell this, I would deliver a premiere product. It took another two punches to the head and one solid kick to the temple before Raphael collapsed into a heap on the ground.

I stared down at him, feeling a twinge of guilt. This could all be a ruse, a trick planted by Michael, but then I recalled the sadness in Raphael’s eyes. He wanted this over as much as I did. He was willing to let himself be beaten if it meant he could live the rest of his life on earth, die on earth, and return to another realm of Heaven.

Leaving the archangel behind, I took my place in the circle between Dro and Warrick. I glanced at Sephiel across from me. His shoulders were slouched, his hair was limp, and the dark circles under his eyes were trimmed with red. I hadn’t known how close he was to Rorikel. They never really seemed like friends, and they’d betrayed each other when Sephiel chose to help Dro instead of siding with Rorikel and Heaven. But I had never asked about their lives before us. For all I knew, Rorikel could have been Sephiel’s best friend.

Seeing all that barely hidden emotion suddenly reminded me of how human Sephiel had become.

Without another word, Sephiel unscrewed the top of the
movens caeli.
The world exploded into thunderous golden light. Our bodies were yanked into the light, rocketing us from the cellar to somewhere else in this Hell on earth.

Chapter 9

While I’d been punching up Raphael, Dro had directed Sephiel to a now abandoned, family owned taco restaurant. When we’d been living on the streets, restaurants had been my favorite places to raid. They always threw out unwanted, but perfectly edible food. I’d picked through the garbage, stolen unattended plates from the windowsill, had even broken into this particular restaurant once after they locked up to take an armful of food from their fridge.

Even now, I could remember the taste of their home-cooked food. The juicy pulled pork, hearty beans and rice, crunchy corn and spicy
pico de gallo
, all wrapped up in a warm, soft tortilla.

My stomach reminded me how hungry it was, letting out a quiet snarl, but there was nothing to eat in the restaurant now. That was plain to see, since all the chairs and tables had been removed or taken outside. Broken glass covered the floor. Wallpaper had been stripped from its place, revealing cracked grey drywall. The air smell stale and old, and there wasn’t a scrap of food left in the fridge.

While the guys looked for anything salvageable, I wandered to a booth in the corner, the only one that hadn’t been ripped off the wall. Most of the leather had been peeled away, but I needed to sit down. At this point I didn’t care if I was going to get a splinter in the ass.

I put my face in my hands and started running my hands through my hair. My moment of solitude was quickly interrupted when Dro took the seat across from me, placing her hands on her lap. She lowered her head, and I didn’t try to start a conversation with her either. I wasn’t sure what to say. She didn’t know that I heard her conversation with Max, that she believed she was going to kill me.

To be honest, it wasn’t a conversation I wanted to have either.

“He didn’t want to touch me,” Dro finally said.

I lowered my hands. “Max will get over it–”

“Not Max. Raphael.”

She lifted her chin just enough so I could see the sadness welling in her icy blue eyes. “Raphael untied the rest of you, but he wouldn’t come near me.”

“So? The only angel we’ve ever met who hasn’t had a stick up his ass is Sephiel, and he’s a special case in basically every sense of the word.”

“It doesn’t feel like that. He must see me as a plague or something. Maybe he knows what I’ll become.”

“You’re not going to become anything. You’re just Dro.”

She lowered her eyes and sighed, shaking her head. “Not anymore. I used to be, but I’m different now, Connie. I can feel it. That nightmare...” She opened her mouth to speak again, but couldn’t get out the words.

“It won’t happen, little sister.”

Dro looked at me. “You don’t know what I dreamed.”

“Doesn’t matter. If you don’t want it to happen, then it won’t.”

She held the stare for a long time, then said, “Back at the house, I told you that I knew it was going to happen. I knew that I was going to lose control. I wanted to just let it all go. I can’t stop what’s happening to me, Constance. It’s just going to get worse.”

That gave me pause. “What are you trying to say?”

Dro hesitated, biting her lip. “You would save me from anything, right?”

We both knew it wasn’t a question, but she was waiting for an answer anyway. “Of course.”

“Even myself?”

Any other coherent thought I had stopped. “You’d better not be suggesting what I think you’re suggesting,” I warned.

“Constance–”

“No. I’m not going to entertain that thought because it will not happen, do you understand me?”

There was no room for negotiation. Not this time. There was nothing I wouldn’t do for Dro.

Except what she was asking for.

“I nearly got everyone killed,” Dro pleaded. “I burned Max, and you would have died if I didn’t find you.”

“But you did,” I pointed out. “You found me, and you saved me.”

I was proud of the small grin I managed, but Dro was still too upset. I reached across the scarred table and held out my upturned hand. Dro stared uncertainly at it, like she wasn’t sure she could touch me. I kept waiting, and she finally put her hand in mine.

“We’ll figure this out, little sister,” I promised. “The best thing we can do right now is find the fragment carriers.” I twisted my face into a grimace. “Ugh. Kinda sounds like an STD, doesn’t it?”

Dro’s laugh was so unexpected that I was sure I was hearing things. And while it was a small laugh, it was her through and through. I missed the sound so much that it almost hurt to hear again. Thankfully, I wasn’t the only one who did.

“What did we miss?” Max asked, slowly taking his seat next to Dro. He distanced himself at first, then started shuffling closer until his arm was touching hers. It was a slow start, but it was progress.

“Nothing I want to repeat,” I told him, glancing over my shoulder as Warrick slipped into the booth next to me. His arm stretched along the edge of the seat behind me, like it was the most casual thing in the world for him. Damned if it didn’t relax me.

“We’ve got bigger problems now,” I said, getting back on track. “We need to find those fragments.”

I turned my head to Sephiel, who was standing in front of the booth like a waiter about to take our orders. He was paying attention, but his eyes were more distant than usual. The news of Rorikel’s death must have been hitting him harder than I realized. Usually he was jumping at the chance to put a wrench in Lucifer’s plots.

“You think Raphael was telling us the truth?” I asked him.

Sephiel didn’t look up when he responded. “Angels see little use in lying, especially archangels. I cannot confirm what he shall tell Michael upon waking, but his theory is sound. Lucifer is fond of these sorts of games.”

Ah. There was the bitterness he thought he was hiding.

“So how the hell are we supposed to find these people? It isn’t like they organize Bring Your Own Knife block parties.” Max suddenly looked uncomfortable with his comment. “Do they?”

“Doubt it,” I responded, not liking where this was going to go. “But I do think they’re under orders from someone. Not just Lucifer.”

“Drake is the kind of guy willing to take orders for money,” Warrick said, barely masking his own anger. “Which leaves...”

“Yup,” I sighed. “Mateo and the Blood Thorns.”

The table went silent at the mention of my ex-lover. I always knew I would cross paths with him sooner or later, but I was seriously hoping for the later option. He’d never forgive me for the depths of my betrayal, just as I wouldn’t forgive him for his. The next time we met, one of us was going to be bleeding.

“Are you positive it’s him and not just some random guys?” Dro asked. She had never trusted Mateo when we were together, and I had just brushed it off as jealousy at the time.

Now I wished I had listened.

“I’m very sure,” I told her. “Think about what Drake said.”

“He could have just been saying that to freak you out...”

I was shaking my head. “No. He knew what he was saying. Then think about where the attacks have been taking place, and in what order.” I looked deep into my little sister’s eyes. “Every single attack has been in a spot where I did a run. He started at the beginning, at the warehouse.”

I held back my shiver as the memory threatened to surface. Dozens of bodies, riddled with holes that still dripped blood, sightless eyes staring at me, a man’s tongue being cut out before a bullet shattered his brain.

We send messages, Constance
, Emilio recited in my head
. You will never be respected if you do not make them remember you.

My shoulders stiffened when Warrick’s hand rested on my shoulder. He rubbed his thumb along the side of my neck, the slow, tender motion drawing me back to reality.

“I know where the next attack will be,” I said. “Simon is next.”

Dro winced. The night I helped Mateo kill the stupid thief was also the night I promised Dro that we’d find a way out.

We did, but only barely. This time I wasn’t sure we’d be so lucky.

“No offence, Constance,” Max said warily. “But how do you know they’re even involved? I mean, they were with Lucifer last time, but why would he trust them with the Key to Hell?”

“Anarchy strengthens the Gate,” Sephiel reminded us. “Causing chaos while sending a message to Constance would be efficient on many levels.”

I wasn’t about to argue that. “Mateo has enough control over the Blood Thorns to make sure they know where to go and when. Maybe he holds all the fragments and is giving them to a Thorn when he wants to use them. I’ll ask him after we have a nice reunion.”

A nice reunion being when I buried my hatchet in his heart. If he didn’t have the fragments, he would know where they were. Blood Thorns always had ears to the ground. Besides, the sooner he was dead, the less I would have to look over my shoulder.

“Okay, let’s assume he does have them, and these are messages to you,” Warrick said. “We don’t know when the next massacre is going to take place. We won’t have time to just wait for it.”

“What’s the date?”

Warrick looked at me curiously, then glanced at his watch. “August 19.”

I sighed. “We won’t have to wait long. The attack will be tomorrow night.”

The room fell silent. I could feel Warrick and Dro’s worried eyes on me, but instead of meeting either, I slouched in my seat and crossed my arms over my chest. Warrick turned his head.

“Max?”

The psychic exhaled and closed his eyes. After a couple moments of concentration, he blinked open his eyes and gave Warrick a pitying look.

“She’s right. I saw an attack and...” he glanced at me nervously, “and Constance got hurt, but that was it. Everything in this damn city is blocking my precognition.” He put his elbows on the table and lowered his chin into his cupped hands. “This frigging sucks.”

Dro paused, then reached out and touched Max’s arm. He glanced at her, but didn’t flinch. They smiled cautiously at each other, and then Max lowered his far hand to slide it across the table and take hers.

I was glad Dro was working things out with her boyfriend. She would need someone to talk to when I was finished telling them my plan.

“Mateo has got to be running out of patience. If we don’t move now, he’s going to turn the city upside down to find me.” I shook my head absently. “It’s a fucking wonder he’s waited this long. But I know him. If we don’t give him what he wants, he’ll find another way to take it. He’ll burn down every building in sight if he has to.”

And, here comes the tricky part.

“We need to draw him out,” I said. “Bait him and trick him. There’s only one way to do that.”

Max and Sephiel were waiting for my answer, but Dro and Warrick already knew.

“Con, you can’t,” Dro protested and the same time Warrick said, “No fucking way.”

“It’s the best way to make sure they have the fragments. It’s me he wants, anyway.”

“Which is exactly why you shouldn’t go,” Warrick said aggressively.

“It isn’t like we have a lot of options right now,” I defended. “I know that street and building just as well as Mateo does. I can hold my own against him.”

“He tried to cut off your head last time.” Warrick was getting riled. “Mateo has Drake with him now. They have the Blood Thorns. They’ll swarm you with demons. You are not going alone.”