Her Black Heart (The Dark Amulet Series Book 2) (3 page)

CHAPTER FIVE

Aza’zel

Aza’zel, found himself inside a dank place that stunk of human excrement. He’d concentrated on the human, Julia, like Deus had told him and reappeared in a ruined structure. The ceiling above was cracked and leaked water. He crinkled his nose. An ammonia smell was also present. His eyes watered.

What is this hellhole?

The odor reminded him of the Void in Netherworld.

He inhaled. Julia was definitely there; he knew her scent, not by name, but aroma. How could he forget what she smelled like? He’d thought of her often ever since meeting her. When he first saw her, she’d been an innocent child. Their last encounter occurred after she’d become an adult. She captivated him. He’d never been the same since.

“Julia?” he said, peering into the dim lighting. She didn’t answer but he heard the rustling of clothing. “I know you’re here.”

“Get away from me.”

“No. I’m—” He inhaled deeply. Julia wouldn’t recognize his real name. “I’m Pan and—”

“I said get away from—wait, what did you say your name was?”

“You called me Pan.”

“This night just keeps getting weirder.” She leaned forward in her crouching position against the wall. “Holy shit. Wow. You look
different
. But I can still kind of see the resemblance.”

Aza’zel looked at her sharply. “You can?” He stepped toward her. A single bare bulb dangled in his path. He batted at the fixture, suspended from a cord attached to the partially rotted out ceiling. He grumbled under his breath and ducked as the bulb came back at him. Again, the light returned and conked him on the back of the head. “What the fuck,” he snarled and caught the cord.

“No. Don’t!”

Aza’zel ripped the cord out of the ceiling. He jumped to the side as plaster, along with a lot of dust, landed on the concrete floor.

Crackle. Zzzz.

A bare wire still stuck in the ceiling sparked and white smoke billowed. He threw the fixture to the floor.

Buzzz.
Pop!

“Fuck.”

Julia snorted. “Slick!” She bounced up from her squat against a wall and rushed past him. “Come on, let’s go,
Pan
. Before this whole place goes.”

The wire continued to arc and buzz. Heat scorched his back and prodded him forward. He followed her to the exit of the building.

“How do you recognize me?” he asked, jogging to catch up with her. He no longer had horns and red skin, or goat legs.

“I just can,” she called over her shoulder near the exit. When she reached the door, she stomped her feet. “What are you doing? Are you crazy? Water and electricity don’t—”

Zzzz.
Whoosh!

Blue flames shot out from the ceiling. Sparks flew. Fire flared behind him with temperatures close to molten rock and he arched his back. Julia pushed the door open and went out of sight. Aza’zel exited before the rusted metal panel had a chance to shut in his face. Outside, the rush of air cooled his skin. It had rained here; the pavement was wet.

Julia sped down the alley away from the fire, jumping over puddles. He raced after her, reveling in the rainwater. His hand made contact with her shoulder and he whipped her around so she faced him. He regretted the touch instantly. He stared at his palm.

“What’s wrong? Burn yourself?” she asked.

“Where are you going?”

“In case you hadn’t noticed, you started a fire. I’m leaving, unless you wanted to stick around and toast marshmallows.”

He searched her face for her meaning. “I might. What are marshmallows?”

She rolled her eyes. “Pan. Oh, my God.
Jesus
.”

He sighed. “This is not my name.”

“If you’ve come looking for the necklace you gave me, it’s gone. Stolen by some freaks.”

“How’d you know this is why I came to see you?”

“Well, everyone
else
wants it, why not you too?” she snapped. Her eyes went round for a second. 

“I was told to help you find it.”

She scrunched her face up. “By who, and why?”

“Deus.”

“Who?” He blinked at her.

“Deus. The amulet must be destroyed.”

She mouthed,
wow
, turned, and began walking. “Okaaay. Let’s try this again.”

He caught up to her and kept pace alongside her. “Try what?”

“Ohmygod.”

“No. Deus.”

Julia gave her head one quick shake and mumbled to herself, “You are
so
much dumber than a box of rocks.”

Aza’zel was insulted by the assumption. True, he was a bit addled; he knew this, but the comparison wasn’t accurate. Rocks didn’t have brains. “Julia, maybe we can help each other.” Okay, now he was only repeating what Deus told him.

“You want to help me steal the amulet back, sooo…you can destroy it, is that what I’m hearing?”

“Yes. It’s not what you think it is.”

“Why are you so interested in having it back all of a sudden?”

“It’s been poisoned by Abaddon.” At some point, Aza’zel knew he told her too much. The Creator had warned him to be wary of her.

“Who the hell is Abaddon?”

“Darkness.”

“This ‘darkness’ told you to help me find the amulet. Did he give you normal legs too?”

“No, you’re not following. It was Deus. Darkness is my master.”

“You have a master? What are you, a
slave
?”

Aza’zel sighed. “No. Yes. Well, not anymore. I should say he
was
my master. Now…I, I dunno.”

Julia looked both ways and stepped off the curb. “So you’re
not
a slave?”

He followed her across the wide lanes of moving traffic to the other side. The driver in the car that whizzed by them honked the horn. Aza’zel had been around the camping humans in the woods enough to learn about cars. It amazed him how many different styles there were. He liked the more compact vehicles. They seemed to go faster.

“Julia, Deus sent me to help you and he was the one who made me look like this.”

She stopped on the sidewalk, glanced at him, then resumed walking. “What is a day-yous?”

“The Creator of All Life.” How did she not know this?

“Like God?”

“Yes. This is what Deus means.”

Julia stared at him for a pregnant moment. “I’ll tell you what, I’ll let you help me. Got any money in those pockets? And where did you get those pants anyway? They’re huge.”

Money.
This was a word he knew. He didn’t know what it looked like exactly but he’d definitely heard the word. He reached into the back pocket of the jeans and pulled out the rectangular leather folded pocket he found in one of the boots. Julia’s eyes widened and she took the wallet out of his hand.

She opened the it and named off the contents. “ID, useless; photos of the fam, oh,
how
adorable; Amex, maybe…” She must have found something worthwhile because her eyes lit up like she’d discovered fire. “Well, this is actually something useful.” She grabbed pieces of paper, fanned the folded over bills to reveal the denominations and shoved them into her front pants pocket. Julia extended her hand with the wallet and shook it at him. “Here. Hold this until we find a trash can.”

His arm froze for a few seconds and his hand twitched at his side.

She sighed. “Take it.” When he didn’t reach for it right away she dropped the wallet on the ground. “Or not.”

For the first time, one corner of her mouth perked up into a half-smile. Aza’zel took a deep breath and wrinkled his nose.

Ahh
…s
trawberries!

That was her scent. He focused on her mouth while he breathed deeply.

“What’s that look for?”

“I’m hungry.” His mouth watered and he licked his lips.

“Incredible. You want to eat right
now
? This is what you’re thinking about? Food?” He nodded. “All right, whatever. I guess that’ll give us time to figure out what to do next.” She threw her hands up and spun around. “S’pose
you
can probably eat, unlike me.”

He scrunched one side of his face. “What?”

CHAPTER SIX

Julia

Julia leaned forward in the booth across from a demon at Nick’s All Night Diner. Thank God, this place was seat yourself; she couldn’t handle an employee staring right through her.

How many? Oh, just one.

No thank you to being reminded she’d died earlier. She shivered.

A waitress came up to their table. Julia eyed the woman through her lashes. Her gray-rooted ponytail sagged down the back of her head. Ketchup and gravy smeared the front of her apron. “What can I get you?” The demon pointed to the pictures on the menu and the server scribbled on her order pad. Her eyes looked up in Julia’s direction. “And for you?”

Startled, Julia asked, “What…you can see me?”

The waitress smirked. “Yeah, honey. Rough night?”

Julia glanced down at her disheveled appearance and shrank into the booth. “It’s just…never mind.” She could use something to eat. With five hundred twenty dollars in cash they could afford to feed themselves. This place was cheap and had decent food for the price. The waitress took her order and returned to the area behind the counter.

A bus boy eyed the scrapes on her arms while he placed glasses of ice water on the table. The demon’s eyes went round.

“What’s the matter now?” she asked.

“What’s in the water?”

“Ice. Cubes,” she said, looking at him out of the corner of her eye. “You know, frozen water.” She remembered he liked cold things,
especially
water.

He reached for the glass with a shaky hand. Condensation had built up under the bottom. The cup slid a couple of inches across the Formica. He put his eyes on level with the glass. “It moved.”

She giggled and shrugged a shoulder. “Yeah, so?”

“So, that’s incredible.” He smiled revealing a chipped tooth.

“Whatever floats your boat.”

“I don’t have a boat.” He looked her in the eyes for a second. She never noticed the color of his before. If someone had asked her earlier, she would’ve guessed incorrectly. They were steel blue with perfect lashes and symmetrical eyebrows, masculine even though they appeared as if they’d been shaped. She continued to watch him as he sipped his water. He had a quiet way about him.

“It’s just a saying,” she said.

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

Her pause brought his eyes up again.
Crunch…crunch.

“What?” he said with a mouthful. “I love this frozen water.”

Julia laughed. Tonight was full of firsts for her. “People don’t usually chew ice.”

He shrugged.

“How did you chip your tooth?” She tapped her fingernails on her teeth.

His hand went to his mouth. “I-I didn’t know it was broken. I…”

“Not a clue, huh?”

The demon shook his head profusely, seeming to contemplate the question for a moment.

Julia waved off the obviously unanswerable question. “Don’t worry about it. Anyway, what’s your real name? I know it’s not Pan. I figured that one out a long time ago.”

“Aza’zel.”

She repeated the name aloud. “Uhzaazuhl. Hmm.”

The waitress set their food on the table. “Do you need anything else?”

“Nope, thanks,” Julia replied. “How do you spell that?”

“I dunno,” he said without looking at her.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Aza’zel

Stupid goat.

Aza had never learned to read, spell, or do any math beyond basic addition. His master Abaddon forbade instruction of any kind. He sighed and picked up a crispy stick. He didn’t know what he’d ordered but the pictures looked delicious. Steam rose from his food.

“It’s called a French fry,” Julia told him. He raised his eyebrows asking for more information. “They’re potatoes.”

Everything was new to him to the point of frustration. The demon took a bite and spat the stiff golden potato onto his plate. He sucked in a breath and fanned his mouth. “Hothothot.”

“Yeah, you should probably blow on them.”

Aza wasn’t sure how this would help but leaned over the platter of food and exhaled. Saliva dripped from his mouth.

Julia laughed. His cheeks warmed and his hands found his lap.

“I know who took the amulet,” she said between bites.

“Who?”

The girl picked up a bottle and squirted a thick red substance onto her plate. She dipped a French fry into it then ate it. When she saw his crinkled forehead, she said, “Here, try some.” She tried to put some on his plate. He covered the fries with his hands. “What’s the matter?”

Aza shook his head. Her hand pushed his out of the way, brushing her skin against his.

“Don’t touch me!” he hissed and jerked his arms back. His body seized.

Julia put her palms up in surrender. “Okay, jeez. Chill.”

He growled and tore into his food. Aza crammed chunks of a white meat covered with a crust into his mouth. The potato sticks made their way to his stomach in barely chewed pieces. He grabbed her glass of water and tipped it back. The liquid poured down the back of his throat and splashed his beard and the front of his shirt.

“What’s wrong with you?”

“What?” Food fell out his mouth as he spoke.

She sneered. “You’re disgusting. This is a mistake, us working together.”

No.
He couldn’t be banished from Earth. Deus hadn’t exactly told him that, but Aza wasn’t going to take any chances. The Creator told him to help find and destroy Abaddon’s sigil and he wouldn’t fail.

He face palmed and inhaled deeply a few times. “Sorry. You said you know who stole the amulet?”

“Yeah, his name’s Bryant. He’s a real fucktard. Are you done?”

“Done with what?”

She rolled her eyes. “Are you finished eating?”

He scooted out of the booth. She looked up at him. “Okay, guess you are,” she muttered under her breath. “Wait for me outside for a minute.”

Aza paced along the outer wall of the restaurant. When he started to wonder if she’d ditched him, she bolted though the door.

“Come on, let’s get out of here!” she yelled, pumping her arms while she ran. He chased her up the street. They rounded the corner of the block.

“Slow down, Julia,” he panted.

“Can’t. Didn’t pay,” she snapped, her focus remaining directly ahead.

“I thought you were supposed to pay for our food.”

“Yeah, well…I…I didn’t,” she said between gasps.