Page 44

Saving an Angel

“R afferty?” Helena asked. Her voice came out small as she lifted her head. The eerie feeling he had known before washed over him, but this time, it didn’t set his teeth on edge or make his skin crawl. It was warm and welcoming like the lapping waves of a sum mer ocean.

“You’re too weak, you’re giving too much of yourself,” he said, reaching out to hold her, but she pu lled away.

“No, don’t touch me,” she sai d sharply.

His fingers flexed just inches from her, but he respected he r command.

A breath later, she looked up at him, her golden eyes asking a thousand questions. Where have you been? How could you leave me? How can you look at me now? Do you hate me? She didn’t need her to say them for him to hear them.

“I’m so sorry,” he whispered to her, heedless of Vassago’s sniggering over his shoulder.

“Aww, this is so cute. You could be a Lifetime movie,” the dem on crowed.

Rafferty peered deep into Helena’s eyes, not flinching at their intensity. How could he have ever thought her terrifying or overwhelming? “Helena, I’m so sorry—”

“Oh, for hell’s sake, I’m bored now,” Vassago interrupted, before turning back to Eleanor. “You want to wi n or not?”

“Yes…” Eleanor answered automatically, confused and stunned by what she was w itnessing.

“No matter what you do, demon, you’re not going to get what you want!” Helena snapped, her eyes flashing golden fire as she struggled to her feet. She was still unsteady but didn’t notice as Rafferty reacted, reaching for her waist to help her up. She braced her hands against his shoulders so that she could meet the demon eye to eye. “Any deal you make you will not get her soul.”

“And what are you going to do to stop me?” Vassag o laughed.

Just like that, Rafferty realized the piece of all this he had been missing, so caught up in everything that he almost hated himself, it was so obvious.At least, if he hadn’t violated his agreement wit h Vassago.

“She’s sacrificed herself to take Eleanor’s place,” Rafferty said, standing up to face his demon, while keeping his hands steadily on Helena.

Vassago’s whirlpool eyes went impossibly large and wide as his demon understanding followed Rafferty’s im plication.

He then whirled on Eleanor, growing bigger as he did so, the claws sliding out of his fingers. “You made another deal with an angel!” h e growled.

Eleanor whimpered as she backed away from Vassago’s true self, the long teeth inside the overlarge mouth making it more difficult for him to speak.

Angel? Vassago’s admission set Rafferty back on his heels. The sly old demon had known what Helena truly was. Had known this whole time that angels were real?

“Leave her alone! It was my choice to make!” Helena pleaded, pulling out of Rafferty’s arms, only to drop again to the ground, her weakened legs unable to hold her and her ungainly wings up.

“Wh-what’s the problem?” Eleanor stuttered out. “You’re still going to get your soul food… or-or-or whatever.”

“I can’t touch her!” Vassago roared. “You stupid bitch! You tr icked me!”

“I… I… why?! How?!” Eleanor asked, stumbling onto her back as Vassago’s teeth dripped with acidic spit. She cried out as a bit plopped over he r forearm.

“No! Stop!” Helen a shouted.

“She didn’t trick you!” Rafferty roared, his voice thundering over all of th eir cries.

Vassago twisted his head back nearly completely around in an unc anny spin.

“Rafferty, don’t!” Helena pleaded, but he stepped around her to place himself between them.The demon’s aura washed through him, but the mortal man didn’t care nor heed it. He just wasn’t afrai d anymore.

“He can’t hurt me,” Rafferty said, stating it calmly.

“I could kill you in one bite. Swallow you down whole,” Vassago t hreatened.

Rafferty leaned in, breathing in the foul odor of Vassago’s teeth. “Do you feel like the deal between us has been broken?” he asked, pitching down his voice.

The stench washing over his face grew stronger as Vassago began to pant, the realization of how badly he had lost the game dawning on him. Rafferty could see it now, his own lack of control over his form. As much as he wanted those watching him to think this was a threat, Rafferty knew it wasn’t. Fur had broken out over Vassago’s skin, mixed in with brown, broken feathers, all pulling toward the back of the room with an invisible wind. The demon’s muscles were straining, resisting a pull. His whirlpool eyes darted toward the far door, now standing open since Rafferty had pushed it in and left it there.

The circle was calling him back. The price had to be ast ronomical.

“They’re calling you,” Rafferty whispered.

Vassago flinched, the n growled.

“There is nothing you can do to stop this,” Raffer ty pushed.

The demon’s eyes flicked back. “Yes, there is,” he g round out.

Without a deal, the demon couldn’t take any of the desperately needed energy to pay his price, not from any of them. But he could kill Eleanor trying. Or out of spite. Rafferty’s bargain didn’t extend that far to pr otect her.

As if realizing that same thing, Elean or bolted.

While he had the demon’s attention, she had gotten to her feet and was now making a run for it. Why she chose the furthest away door, Rafferty couldn’t have guessed; panicked minds didn’t always make the most logical o f choices.

Vassago immediately leapt after her.

“No!” Rafferty and Helena cried in unison.

Rafferty attempted to grab for the back of Vassago’s coat, but the oily fur and feathers slipped through his morta l fingers.

Eleanor screamed as the teeth came after her. The demon’s speed outpaced hers easily as a cheetah after a gazelle. Still, Rafferty tried to do the same, finding himself moving faster than he anticipated. Human adrenaline was no match for a demon, but it wasn’t nothing either. Grasping at Vassago’s fur again, he only managed to hold on a second longer, being dragged along with the great monster before sli pping off.

At the same time, the overly large teeth caught the back of Eleanor’s chef’s jacket. The cloth ripped like tissue paper as the attack pulled her down. She oomph ed as the wind was knocked from her as Vassago’s overly large body slammed her down. Shaking his head like a dog, the demon tore away what bit of cloth still clung to t he jacket.

In the split second it took to spit the cloth out so he could clear his mouth for another attack, figures appeared at the door.

“Demon! Demon!” a woman’s voice bellowed. It was Age nt Sophia.

“All agents, convene at the secondary ballroom,” Agent Archon ordered, though to whom Rafferty had no idea. In the same moment, she lifted a firearm and shot.

Energy arched out, striking the demon. He arched back, roaring like the monster he was as the bolt went th rough him.

Rafferty scrambled away, in danger of being trampled or clawed by the demon’s thrashing. He encountered Helena, who had crawled after. Her wings came around him protectively, shielding him as her arms embraced his shoulders.

“I’ve got you,” she said.

He turned in her arms and wrapped his own around her. “I’ve got you,” he answered.

“I’m so sorry about this,” she whispered, burying her face un abashedly.

“This isn’t your fault,” he assured, cupping the back of her head with his hand, her horns pressing along his neck. He then slid his other arm down and under her, gathering her legs. She was heavier than the last time he lifted her this way, but he remained steady on his feet. Managing to keep one wing up, Vassago was trying to protect his back as the agents battled with him. Rafferty moved the others away from the action. Helena’s hands were weak, barely able to hold on to him.

“I’ve got you,” he repeated over and over, as he mar ched away.

More bodies were entering the room from both doorways. Rafferty braced himself to be stopped by two agents charging toward them. He expected them to question or even demand he put down the unearthly creature in his arms. Yet, just as he approached, they went around them as if they hadn’t even seen them. Maybe the demon-fighting behind them had been mo re urgent.

At least that had been what he thought until another agent tried to stop them leaving through the door. “You! Stop there—” and then he paused. His gaze went long and then through them, only to widen as his eyes took in the demon be hind them.

“Keep walking,” éliott said, appearing beside them in the doorway. He seized Rafferty’s upper arm and pulled him along. “They will walk around us and not register that they saw us. Honey is waiting outside.”

With éliott’s sure guidance, Rafferty carried Helena down a short hall that drained out into the Wrightwood Ballroom’s foyer. All the glass doors were standing open with other agents escorting chefs, helpers, and crew out to the street. Police vehicles and a firetruck arrived, their lights flashing brightly in various colors, blindingly bright in the dark.

Rafferty balked a moment at the sight of so much unfeeling authority, but éliott’s tug was insistent.

“Keep walking. They do not see her as she is, keep walking!” he called over the din of the emergency.

Holding to his fledgling faith, Rafferty continued to follow. And it was as the other angel had said, no one sto pped them.

Rafferty’s arms ached horribly as he carried her a b lock away.

“We’re almost there,” éliott assured him, out of breath, glancing back the way they came, assuring himself no one followed them. Whatever energies the angel was expending on their escape was taki ng a toll.

At last, Honey emerged from a parked car and scurried around to open the doors to the back. “Come quickly.”

“Honey, she’s not…” Rafferty tried to say, but he nearly dropped her. Both of Helena’s wings dragged on the ground as her head lolled off his shoulder, flopping backward to hang bonelessly. “Helena!”

“Don’t stop, keep going!” éliott growled, not with anger bu t urgency.

“I can’t get her in the back!” Rafferty snapped back, “He r wings…”

“One moment!” Honey said, her gentle voice cutting through their fear-l aden ones.

Then with an easy gesture, the car shifted into a cargo van, the side door sliding open on its own. On the floor of the van was a cushioned pad. Rafferty brought Helena to it as Honey hopped inside to help guide the broken angel into the back.

“She will be alright, sweet comfort,” Honey assured him once Helena was settled on the floor.

Rafferty panted as his back hit the inner side of the van, but he didn’t even wait a breath before he gathered Helena’s upper body into his lap. Cradling her in his arms, he ignored everything else as éliott joined Honey upfront and told her what happened. Rafferty coul dn’t care.

“Please, please, stay with me,” he whispered to Helena’s unconscious form. She felt so cold in his arms, but the uncanny feeling still dashed over his skin where he touched her. Brushing her beautiful red-gold hair from her face, he kissed her, willing his life to enter her and r efill her.

It didn’t.