Chapter 51

51

Jericho

Ten years ago …

New Haven, Connecticut

Books clutched against her chest, the girl shuffled with brisk steps along the sidewalk, glancing over her shoulder every so often, as if she sensed me stalking behind her. At only fifteen, she was still a bit young for me, but she’d already begun to blossom with feminine curves and sharp wit. Even so, it was her innocence that reminded me most of the girl from my past.

Lustina.

Only, her new name, the one she’d been born with, was Farryn. My chest throbbed and ached for her. That I could swipe her up at any moment, without her father ever knowing what’d happened to her, was a temptation that had hounded me every day since her birth.

I would wait, though.

I’d waited millennia to see her face again, a few more years wouldn’t kill me.

Her ambrosial scent carried on the air, watering my mouth--the sweet aroma of vitality. I longed for the day when I would taste it on her lips and breathe it in.

The short skirt of her uniform swayed with her steps, drawing focus to her long, slim legs. An irritation which goaded me to cover her up, so no one else would look at her that way.

Someone had taken notice, though.

The older man she’d passed, who sat on a bus stop bench. I watched his tongue wet his lips as he eyed her up and down and squeezed his groin. Staring after her, he sat forward, as if he might have had the audacity to follow her.

I wanted nothing more than to flick the pissant off into the stratosphere. Instead, I mentally willed a sharp and excruciating pain to his groin. A sensation akin to my having twisted his balls up into his throat while snapping a thousand rubber bands along his dick shaft. The man doubled over on a yelp and, hand cupped to his crotch, slid to his knees, as I passed him. I smirked, watching his face turn an unhealthy shade of purple. Much as I’d loved to have snapped his neck while I was at it, I couldn’t mess things up. Up until that point, I’d gone unnoticed by the other Sentinels. Even thinking of killing an innocent had probably put me on their radar.

By the time I arrived at Farryn’s house, she’d already made her way inside.

Screams reached my ears. Her screams. Fearful screams.

Muscles steeled, I stormed inside the small bungalow and followed the sound up to the second level.

Swinging open the bathroom door showed her father on his knees beside the tub, holding her underwater. On a rush of fury and adrenaline, I charged toward him. Time around me came to a screeching halt.

Augustus held his arms outstretched. Splashes of water held suspended in the air. Farryn’s hands held tight to her father’s.

“What an absolute freak.”

At the sound of the familiar voice, I turned to find Virgil standing in the hallway. It was only during a pause in time when a fallen angel could separate himself from a human host. Not all fallen angels were capable of manipulating time and space. Only the higher ranking, and only for a short time, as it ate up much of their energy.

“Release him,” I gritted past clenched teeth. He’d clearly manipulated the old man into harming his daughter, as Augustus wouldn’t lay so much as a finger on her, otherwise.

The moment the surroundings set back into motion, Virgil slipped back into Augustus, and the water splashed as Farryn fought against her father, kicking and flailing her limbs.

“You are the spawn of Lucifer himself!” he screamed in a crazed voice.

I rushed forward after him and threw him off her, sending his body flying backward into the hallway wall. A hole marked the impact of his hit, and still possessed by Virgil, he scrambled to his feet and charged at me.

Hand to his throat, I dragged him out of the bathroom and down the hallway. The way his body flopped and flailed about was unnatural for a man his age, and though his strength wasn’t quite comparable, he had gained some of Virgil’s power. As he clawed back toward the bathroom, I threw him backward again, this time holding him pinned to the wall. A fiery amber stared back at me from his ordinarily green eyes.

Blade propped at his throat, I ground my teeth. “Enough of this! Let her go!”

A smile stretched the old man’s lips. “You wouldn’t dare kill an innocent, would you, Jericho?” Though spoken in Augustus’s voice, it was Virgil’s threatening words that clawed at my conscience.

“I will return. Leave her alone.”

“Not a chance in hell.” Eyes screwed shut, Augustus tipped his head back, his jaw slack, and he gasped. When he opened his eyes again, they were green.

“Fuck!” I released him, and dashed back down the hallway to the bathroom, only to find Farryn wasn’t there. With lightning speed, I bolted down the stairs and out of the house to the backyard, where Virgil hoofed it across the yard, holding Farryn’s wet, limp body over his shoulder. Not giving him a chance to cross back over, as I was certain he intended to do with her, I barreled forward and slammed into him, knocking her out of his arms.

The sounds of coughing and gasping were drowned by Virgil’s grunts, as I hammered a fist into his face. Punch after punch, I bloodied his lip and nose, and I drew back for another punch.

“Farryn!”

The sound of Augustus’s voice made for a brief distraction, and Virgil’s fist cracked against my jaw, kicking my head to the side as the impact rattled my teeth.

Anger renewed, I drew back my fist, but halted mid-punch.

A shadow slipped over the two of us.

The surroundings darkened, turning the afternoon daylight into the crepuscular shade of twilight.

A quick glance at Virgil showed him looking around, as if just as confused.

Sentinels.

They’d undoubtedly found me.

Dread sank to the pit of my stomach, and I pushed off him and strode toward Farryn, who lay on her back, passed out, her chest still rising and falling with breath. Her father also lay passed out beside her, an induced fainting, seeing as the Sentinels wouldn’t risk being seen by human eyes. Urgency compelled me to swipe her up and take her away.

Now.

They were coming.

“You promised to return. To come work for me. Instead, I find you pining after a teenage human girl. This is creepy, even for you, my friend.”

At the hint of a threat in Virgil’s voice, I turned to find him aiming an arrow at Farryn.

I tracked his every move, ready to jump in front of that arrow.

There was some bit of truth to his words. The deal was, the Fallen would smuggle me into the earthly realm under a cloak of darkness. An essence, specific to the Fallen, which would disguise my nature. A trick, really, and because I happened to be half demon, it was harmless, unlike many who risked succumbing to its effect. So long as I didn’t use my powers, I’d appear as any other lowly demon. And in exchange? I was to provide souls. Pure, human souls to help boost Virgil’s ranking.

“I’ve given you fifteen years,” he prattled on. “You’ve given me nothing. Not a single little soul in exchange for all I’ve done. Do you even realize what’s at stake here? Helping the banished return to this godforsaken place is grounds for Ex Nihilo.”

A shadow moved across the dark sky, drawing my eyes there again.

“Then, I’ll return now. Let her go, and I’ll return with you.” The idea of giving her up sank like blades in my stomach, but I wouldn’t risk any harm to her. Besides, I’d found my way back to the earthly realm once, I was certain I could do it again. Virgil wasn’t the only fallen overlord in dire need of souls.

Grinning, he shook his head. “I don’t think so. See, I get a sense she means far too much to you. Do you have any idea how valuable that would be to me? How exceptionally wonderful to possess something you desire so badly? Her soul imprisoned to me for eternity would mean I own you for eternity.”

Hands curled into fists, I felt the energy stirring inside of me. Little zaps of electricity pulsing through my veins like fire.

Don’t do it.

Using my most lethal power would only seal my fate.

“Let’s play a game.” On a chuckle, he released the arrow, sending it sailing through the air toward Farryn’s skull.

I lurched forward after it.

Everything around me paused again, including Virgil and the arrow.

On a flash of impossibly bright light, three figures descended from the sky and touched down a short distance from where I stood. Their wings were black, like mine, only unlike me, they’d proven themselves worthy of the heavens. The same three that had dragged me to Nightshade all those centuries ago, when I burned down Praecepsia. Half angel, half demon, they’d passed their tests and earned their place as the dark warriors who hunted evil.

The one named Adimus stepped toward me, his stoic face unreadable. “You’ve defied us again, Jericho.”

“She was reborn. Returned to me.”

“She does not belong to you! She never did!” Hands behind his back, he paced in front of me. “Do you even realize what gifts you possess? What value you’d bring to the heavens?”

“I’m not interested in fighting your wars.”

“You’d prefer to rot in the afterlife?”

“Allow me to have her, and I’ll do what you want.” A stretch, but if they wanted me that badly, they could’ve made an exception.

“A human girl is forbidden.”

“Then, why place us among them? Why would you have us grow to be fond of their scents and their skin and their voices?”

“To test your loyalty and faith. If you can be so easily lured by a mere human girl, you are weak!” He snarled the last word like a bad smell on the air, and his shoulders bunched with the unbridled rage I could see burning in his eyes.

Unaffected by him, I kept my voice level and calm. “If you’ve come to take me back, get on with it.”

“So that you find your way back here again?” With a sneer, he shook his head. “I’ve come to offer you a choice, Jericho. Walk away from her without a single memory of her. Or keep your memories and watch her die.”

No. No! It’d been far too long that he’d waited for her. Waited for the moment when she’d be reborn.?“You would erase everything I know of her?”

“Even your beloved Lustina.” The absence of emotion in his voice assured his threat wasn’t idle. Of course, centuries trapped in Nightshade had proven their sincerity. “It is better this way. You pose more threat to her than you realize. More threat to any of those who stand in your way. It is her destruction, or your willing sacrifice. You choose.”

I’d never survive losing her again, but to forget her—the softness, the sweet smell of innocence, the song in her voice—it was a hell I couldn’t fathom.

Time set into motion again, the arrow slicing toward Farryn as before.

I dove into its path.

Intense and agonizing pain pierced my eye, as it drove through my flesh.

Falling to my knees, I waited for the celestial steel to consume me in flames, but it didn’t. Only the blaze of unremitting pain and shock pulsed through me like molten lava. Through my good eye, I watched Adimus approach.

“You’ve chosen wisely,” he said.

Blackness settled all around me.