Redeeming Angel (29 page)

“
I’m going to rip out your
sticky bits,” Craig threatened right before he plummeted his bare
fist into a demon’s chest, splattering his shirt and face with
demon blood.

I cringed.

Lexi was plastered to Colin. She was
wielding a whip, twirling and slicing it through the air as Colin
clutched her dagger. His knuckles were white, as was his face. Lexi
wrapped the end of the whip around a demon. “Ooops. Sorry, not
sorry,” she said sweetly, staring down at a pile of ash.

Chase was in the process of shoving a
row of demons and making sure each landed on his blade. Craig,
Hayden, and Travis started working their way through line after
line of monsters. There were a few demons in human skin. I figured
they were called to join the army, but most of them came in all
their ugly glory. Black skin. Long, pointed nails. Some with horns.
Some without. Razor sharp teeth. Demons came in a variety of shapes
and sizes, but the one thing they all had in common, besides their
bloodlust eyes, was they were all skin-crawlingly
grotesque.

I stopped in the thick of the fight
and shook out my hands. A demon tried to grab me just as I spread
my fingers, and I jumped back a step, barely missing being minced
by the creature’s claws. Chase was there in the next blink, sinking
his knife into the demon’s eye socket. It gave an unnatural howl,
shriveling to the ground.

Chase held the tip of his blade
skyward. There was a scarlet eyeball dangling at the end “Well,
that’s just disgusting.” He flung the hilt, sending the eyeball
sailing through the air.

“
I think it’s time to add a
little spice to the party, don’t you agree, Chase?” Travis asked,
looking at me.

“
Definitely.” He squeezed
my hip. “Light ’em up.”

Now it was my time to
shine, but I was suffering from a bit of performance anxiety. I
held my breath, arms outstretched at my sides. If I let my nerves
get to me, we were all dead.
You are not
going to crumble under the pressure.
So I
kept telling myself until…

Fire leapt over my
fingertips, and in that instant I could have whooped for joy and
done a ridiculous happy dance.
I can do
this.

Another demon made a play for me just
as my hands ignited, and this time I was ready, veins filled with
torrid power.

The demon’s eyes bulged. “It’sssss not
possssible.”

Geez, the lisp on these guys was
heinous. “Believe it, atomic jerkwad.” I let the romping flames
loose.

I stopped breathing, waiting to see
what would happen, as did everyone else. The fire traveled through
the air as if it was attracted to the demon, drawn to it, and the
beast was powerless to stop it. His tar skin caught. I held out my
hand, flames crackling over my fingers. One second passed, two,
three. I didn’t know how many more. I lost track of time, and I was
too enthralled with the flames that rushed over the demon’s body,
until it covered every inch. As the demon fell, its head detached
from its body.

Boom.

The body exploded, leaving behind a
black residue burned into a perfect circle on the
ground.

Panting from exertion, my friends had
stopped to watch me with spellbound fascination.

“
Holy shit,” echoed a
uniformed chorus, including me.

“
I think it’s safe to say
that Angel’s a slayer.” Emma said. “You’re going to make a helluva
hunter.”

Chase scowled, his demon eyes glowing.
“You okay?”

I nodded. “Yeah, I am.” The flames
subsided, sinking into my pores, but the heat stayed with me, just
under the surface, ready and waiting to be called forth for more.
“And you? Are you hurt?”

“
I’ll be fine. Nothing that
won’t heal.”

In that instant, I thought
about Mom, Devin, and the small town I’d grown to love. Tonight was
going to be a night many would never forget. I know
I
wouldn’t. Demons were
popping out of every nook and cranny this town had.

The wind had picked up to alarming
speeds and the sky had turned an ugly greenish-black. In the
distance, the emergency alarm sounded, indicating a severe storm
was headed our way. They had no idea. The storm was already
here.

Looking around, I realized we were
barely making a dent. At this rate, the demons would eventually
overrun us. I needed to amp things up. I concentrated on the swell
of energy flowing through my body, and in an instant, it spread
down my arms.

Using my speed, I moved to the next
demon and the next. One by one, I set their asses on fire. Just a
touch and the demon promptly burned and combusted into nothingness.
They had no defense against me. And soon there were no creatures
left in the field.

Emma laughed behind me. “Didn’t anyone
teach you not to play with your kill?”

“
Have you met my
instructor?” I panted.

“
Unfortunately, countless
times.”

“
Is that all you got?”
Travis screamed, provoking Hell as he came to stand beside
Emma.

Chase shook his head. “Don’t count on
it.” He spit blood on the ground, and used the back of his hand to
wipe his mouth.

“
You guys are like the
Avengers,” Colin said in awe. There was black blood splattered on
his cheek, but the blade still seized in his hand was
clean.

“
Let’s get one thing
straight, Rolin. We’re not superheroes,” Chase rumbled.

“
Speak for yourself, man,”
Craig said before Colin could correct Chase for his deliberate
blunder of his name. “I am definitely super.”

Travis chuckled. “Super
lame.”

Hayden and Emma barked out a
laugh.

We all needed a moment to relax and
let the tension of fighting for our lives roll off our shoulders. I
looked my friends over, taking in the cuts marring their skin, the
blood soaking their clothes—mostly demon—and I was more determined
than ever. “I’m going to char that son of a bitch,” I
growled.

“
That’s the plan, Angel
Eyes.”

A smile curled on my lips. “What are
we waiting for?”

Hell didn’t disappoint. My heart sank
to new depths as I spotted another wave of telltale red eyes in the
distance. Two, three times as many as before. My marks twitched,
increasing in alarming speeds, and I heard the groans and grunts of
Hell.

We all got serious in a
snap.

A putrid stink of sulfur wafted in the
air. I grabbed Chase’s shoulder, steadying myself as the ground
quaked. The demons branched off, half surrounding me, half zeroing
in on Chase. The air was so thick and hot it clogged my nose and
burned my throat.

I coughed, suppressing the urge to
gag.

Chase’s eyes meet mine for a brief few
seconds, surging with a magnitude of feelings. Love. Courage. Rage.
Fear.

Here we go
again
.

Do or die.

I summoned the fire. The flames at my
fingertips sputtered before blazing beautifully. So many demons. So
many monsters. It was too late to come up with a different
plan.

Inhaling sharply, I watched as
Alastair suddenly appeared out of the shadows. He didn’t charge
like the lower demons, letting them do all his dirty work, but as
soon as I saw him, I couldn’t take my eyes off the beast
responsible for tearing my life in two.

“
Angel!” Chase screamed. It
was the pure panic in his voice that broke the spell.

I was fenced in by twenty or so
demons. One managed to get a hand on my ankle, his claws slicing my
skin. I winced, and Chase called my name again. Bending my knees, I
tapped my hand on what I guess would be his shoulder. At the moment
of contact, my flames licked over him.

I pushed back the sting of the pain
and turned around in time to see that Colin and Lexi were in
serious trouble. Chase noticed a millisecond before me and started
to move. I was right behind him, but the coconut-sized pit in my
stomach warned that neither one of us was going to make it in time,
not with the army of demons spanning between us.

Lexi screamed.

It was a sound I’d never forget. I
stumbled, my knees weakening at the sight of Colin being raised in
the air by his throat. The lower-demon manhandled him like a doll,
except when I played with a doll, I didn’t rip out its heart and
toss aside its body.

I felt sick.

Oh God. Colin was dead.

Lexi sunk to the ground, her hands
covering the blood spilling from the opened wound on his chest. She
shook her head. “No. No. No,” she repeated over and over again, but
there was nothing we could do, and our situation was looking
dire.

I was dumbstruck.

Wildly, I searched through the
commotion, until I focused on Chase. There were at least a dozen
demons encompassing him as he fought and hacked with his blade,
alternating with his fists.

I knew he needed help, and he wasn’t
the only one. Travis and Emma were trying to keep Lexi from being
demolished as she lay over Colin’s lifeless and bloodied
body.

“
Get her out of here!”
Chase yelled.

Lexi wasn’t making it easy. “I’m not
leaving,” she said in a tearful low growl. I don’t know how she
didn’t fall utterly apart. My guess was she was running on rage.
Lexi got to her feet and swiped at her eyes. From where I stood,
they were pure gold.

Oh crap.

There wasn’t time to breathe. One
crisis led straight to another, and the confidence I’d been feeling
before withered away. I needed to get to Chase. He was in trouble.
My marks flared as his pain registered throughout my body. I raced
toward him, but my worst fear came true.

No matter how many demons I touched
and torched, it wasn’t enough.

A hellhound barreled up behind him and
took a chunk out of his calf. Chase’s wounded cries filled the air
as he fell to his knees.

No. God please.
No!

Breathe
, I told myself.
Just breathe.
I gave myself up to the heat. White-gold flames
spread down my arms, over my chest, down my waist, until I was
basking in nothing but fire. Empowered, I grinned and dove
forward.

Demons fell. My flames licked over
their torsos and faces, howling as they ruptured into
dust.

Buh-bye.

Chase was limping, but at least he was
back on his feet. I never should have doubted him, but I learned
you couldn’t be overly cautious. As much as I wanted to continue
fighting alongside my friends, I needed to focus on what Chase and
I really wanted.

Alastair.

The bastard must have had ESP, because
he suddenly appeared just at the edge of where the fields met the
forest line. Finally, he showed some balls and revealed his slimy
self.

“
I’m going to destroy you,”
I whispered.

Chapter 28

{Angel
}

A gross feeling slithered through my
belly, worming its way up my chest. I faced Alastair. “What took
you so long?” My heart banged at my own courage. The rest of my
body quivered.

“
Ah, I see you brought the
B-team with you,” Alastair said, smiling.

I strode forward, and Chase discreetly
stepped between a formidable Alastair and me without looking my
way. Always trying to be my hero.

“
Wow. Showing your ugly mug
here takes guts. You’ve just issued your own demise,” Chase
rumbled.

“
Not everything is always
as it seems.”

I really hated cagey replies that left
me more puzzled. If his plan was to use suspicion and doubt to get
inside our heads, he was going to need a better plan. “Then you
know what I am,” I declared.

Hidden by the dark green shadows of
the ominous skies and the thick covering of the evergreens,
Alastair’s voice rang out over the field. There was a godly quality
to the texture as he replied, “It doesn’t matter what you’ve
become. What matters is what you’re not.”

The winds hadn’t let up; if anything,
they had gotten stronger. Bits of wheat blew in the air and, in
select spots, circled in a cyclone. “I’ll tell you what I’m not,
and that is your slave.”

He grinned wryly. “Glad to see you
haven’t lost your spunk. It would have been a shame.”

I bit my lip, trying to figure out how
this was going to play out.

“
I’ll admit I’m seriously
disappointed in you, Angel. Such potential. I gave it all to you
and you threw it away, wasted such power. Now you’re useless, and
Chase knows all too well what I do with waste.”

“
I was hoping you would
feel that way.” I flung open my palms, the tips of my fingers
glowing embers.

“
Ah, someone learned a new
trick. I’m quaking,” he mocked, not an ounce of fear or
surprise.

He made it sound like I was a dog,
which pushed my buttons. “We’ll see about that.” I planned to have
the last laugh. Raising my hand, energy crackled at my fingertips
and wrapped down my arm like a snake. I hurled a bolt of fire from
my palm, shooting it across the field toward Alastair.