If he’d been anyone else, he might have gotten angry. I probably wouldn’t have been too thrilled myself. But Uriel was different. Not just from the other Fallen, but he was different than anyone I’d ever met. Nothing seemed to anger him. And nothing ever seemed to get him down. Okay, that wasn’t entirely true. I’d seen his face cloud over once. When talking about Arkas, the Fallen they’d lost many yearsago.
“Erela. Uriel.” Ramiel gave us both a sharp look. As the de facto leader of our group, it fell to him to keep us all in line. Sometimes, I felt kind of sorry for him for that, but secretly, I was pretty sure he enjoyed bossing us all around. “Can you please contain yourself until we’re done taking control of this boat? Honestly.We’re right belowthem.”
I stuck my tongue out at him. “Partypooper.”
His face softened, but onlyslightly.
My relationship with Ramiel was…complicated, to say the least. There was no doubt that I had feelings for him, and our shared kisses had made it seem as though he had feelings for me, too. But he was constantly taking his title as boss man so seriously that he pushed and pulled and pushed again. It was like he couldn’t decide whether he wanted to punish me or kiss me. Or maybeboth.
“Come on,” he said, clearing his throat. “Let’sclimb.”
And so wedid.
When we made it to the deck, everything erupted into chaos. The demons spotted us just as we were pulling Lizzie over the rusted railing, her fingernails knocking off faded chunks of paint. There were about a dozen of them, but none of them were armed, and we’d definitely taken them by surprise. Their mouths were open in wide expressions of shock, and high-pitched squeals swirled into the night air. On the other hand, every single one of us were armed to theteeth.
Grinning, I pulled my twin daggers from the sheaths I kept strapped to my thighs at all times. My fellow Fallen followed suit, and an impressive array of weapons were lifted into the air. Still, the demons screamed and ran straight at us, their dry yellowed hair trailing behindthem.
I came face-to-face with a male demon whose greenish skin matched the color of his teeth. His leg kicked out toward my stomach and I jumped back to dodge the blow. Gritting my teeth, I ducked and swung my dagger toward his right leg. I expected it to land with an ominous crunch that would cause a roll of nausea to go through me. As much as I loved the adrenaline shot of a good fight, I had to admit that I hated the gore that often came along with it. Demon blood? It wasn’t my favorite thing on theplanet.
But, that moment never came. Instead, the demon anticipated my move and slammed his fist straight into my wrist. Pain lanced through my entire arm. My fingers, the traitorous things, loosened my grip on my blade, and it scattered across the wooden deck. Before I could catch my breath, his fist slammed into my other wrist. More pain. More growling. And my second blade joined thefirst.
“Much better,” the demon said with a grin, bouncing on his feet as he raised his fists. “Let’s see how you fight without your crutches,Angel.”
Dammit. I was a good fighter.With weapons. Ramiel had been training me to be better with my fists, but I was still a work-in-progress where that was concerned. I needed my damnblades.
Wasn’t going to let this demon know that though. If he wanted a fight? I’d give him a damnfight.
“Go on then,” I said, matching his grin with one of my own. “Bringit.”
He just grinned, still bouncing on his massive feet. Swallowing hard, I risked a glance around at the fight. All my fellow Fallen members were busy with their own demons. Swords whooshed through the air, fists punched stomachs, and daggers bounced off tiny plates the demons were using as shields. I’d have to deal with this demonmyself.
An idea sparked in my mind. A pretty terrible idea, actually. I might be at a disadvantage on the whole fists thing, but there was definitely one thing I could do to give myself an edge.No, my mind fiercely hissed back at me.You can’t use the fire demon powers. While Ramiel and I had been working on my fighting skills, Sam had been taking me through what it meant to have fire demon blood running through my veins. I’d improved with my fireball aim. Kind of. From a far distance? Well, I sucked ass. But this close? I could totally send this demon screaming in the otherdirection.
The only problem was…I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to be embracing these powers. Like I said, fire demons meant murderers, meant destructors, etc, etc. You get the point. They sucked. And I did not want to be one ofthem.
But…
Narrowing my eyes, I raised my fisted hand before me, letting the anger boil in my veins. Heat quickly spread from my core and shot down my arm, sparking every single cell in my body. The demon’s eyes widened, and that irritating toe bouncing finallyceased.
“You’re a Nephilim,” he said in a whisper just as I hurled the fire at hisface.
If I was the kind of hero I’d always dreamed I would be, the fire would have hit my mark. And then I would have saved all my fellow Fallen before sailing the boat off into the glowing moonset waters. Unfortunately, my life wasn’t that kind of story. The fire ball flew straight up in the air. And then it hurled back down to where every single one of us stood. Toward the demon, yes. But also towardUriel.
* * *
The fire ballactually fell on Uriel, a fact that made my heart split in two. His eyes widened and his mouth opened into a silent scream. As he jumped off the edge of the boat, he met my gaze. I reached out just as he fell, and our fingers brushed. Tears streamed down my face as I sunk to my knees. I should have known not to use my demon powers. I should have known that no good would come of thefire.
A strong hand landed on my shoulder. “He’ll be okay.See?”
Down below in the water, Uriel’s head crested the soft waves. He let out a laugh, shook the water from his hair, and beamed—actually beamed—up at me. “Thanks for trying to keep me warm, Erela! But I think I’d rather stay cold if that’s alright withyou.”
Relief shuddered through me, but it didn’t shake the horrible twisting in my gut. I could have killed him. I could have scarred him beyond recognition. Hell, I could have killed any of them. Any ofus.
“And look,” Ramiel said with a nod in the direction of the fight. “You scared the shit out of the demons. They’re fleeing. The boat is oursnow.”
Yay?
Chapter Two
