Page 17 of Angel I Am Not

That idea had me panicking more than babysitting demons though. “Not going back there.”

Raphael tried to cut in again but I shook my head before he could get more than one word out. “Where are the rest, Dante?”

“I’ll point you to the others when you finish with the first two. They aren’t far away.”

The fact that he created seven fucking demons that he didn’t have time to mentor is fucking irresponsible. Hell needs rules.

When Dante chuckled, I knew I had said that shit aloud.

Sighing, I gave up, realizing that if all I needed was a week to get my soul back, it couldn’t be too bad, could it? “When do I start?”

Dante smiled. “You just did, sweet girl. Everything you need is in their dorm, and if it isn’t, just ask them to get it for you. I’m sure you can follow the road, yes? Excellent. They’re waiting by the brick pillars at the entrance.”

I pushed against Raphael, not wanting to wait for any additional speeches or arguments. Dante and Raphael slid out of the booth, Raphael looking on with concern as I slipped past him, intent on making a dash for the door.

Dante caught me by the shoulder, a wild grin on his face as the entity wrapped around me seemed to disappear.

“What did you just do?” I patted my chest frantically, completely confused. It was gone but I still felt its warmth somehow.

“Just opened your chakras so you’d stop fighting your own essence.”

My brows furrowed as I glared up at him. “That’s not a thing.”

His laughter rang through the small café as he released me. “No, it’s not. But something in you has been strangled into submission for a very long time, sweet girl. I merely loosened the leash.”

I stared at him. “That sounds significantly more concerning.”

“It was meant to.”

I had a mind to ask him if he knew exactly what I was, but the desire to put as much distance between me and him was still there. I gave him a slight nod, whispered a goodbye to Raphael, and took off down the street, intent on going anywhere but the institute.

Perhaps I could just vanish. Escape all the expectations and crazy bullshit placed on me and go somewhere I wanted to go. Anywhere else really. Away from angels and demons and college and rules.

Dante had my soul and while I wouldn’t be going back to Heaven, I didn’t really want him holding onto it longer than necessary.

Lucifer

Eyes peeled for anyone out of the ordinary, I leaned back against the archways leading onto the college campus. I fucking hated it here, as did my twin, Satan or Nick whenever we were around humans, which was why we spent most of our time running away from our guides rather than focusing on college.

Our dear mentor and creator, Dante, believed that with enough guidance we’d settle into our demonic ways, but he had apparently forgotten that he was the fucking king of Hell.

It was also obvious that while there were more of us, Nick and I had somehow become the favorites, growing up in hell until we were required to participate in the same training that all demons were subjected to. Pride and Wrath weren’t cute little nicknames Dante had slapped on us either. They were what our essence answered to. There were five others carrying the remaining sins somewhere under Dante’s ridiculous umbrella of responsibility, although Nick and I had barely spent enough time with most of them to call us anything resembling family.

My essence was Pride. People heard that and assumed vanity, which wasn’t entirely wrong, but it went deeper than liking myself a little too fucking much. Humiliate me, question my control, threaten Dante or Nick, and something inside me sharpened. I didn’t need to throw the first punch when I could usually figure out exactly what to say, who to use, or where to press until someone regretted fucking with me.

Nick was less patient. Wrath didn’t give a shit about strategy once someone pushed him far enough.

“Still waiting for the bitch that dad’s sending us?” I glanced over to see Nick torturing one of the male freshmen by kicking him in the back of the knee, sending the kid’s books flying. He grinned, proud of his work before stepping closer to me. A few of the frat boys nodded to us but we didn’t return the greeting.

One perk of being on Earth was the human meat suits our demonic bodies were stuffed into. While these forms weren’t as freeing, our essence seemed to create whatever was hot and sexy on this plane. It meant that regardless of our gifts, we didn’t need to try. We just had to be us—as terrible as we were—and the humans were fawning at our feet. I was sure that our terrifying demonic forms could have drawn in just as much loyalty, if not more, but sometimes total adoration felt a little better.

Granted, Nick still had a penchant for acting like a fucking kid and if we hadn’t bribed the dean, we would have been expelled a long time ago.

“Earth to Luc. Where’s the bitch? Dante said to wait like an hour ago.”

I growled at him to back off, his deep crimson eyes flashing at me in warning. “Dante said he had to go talk to her, tell her the rules.”

Nick stared at me for a second. “He went himself?”