Page 7 of Forbidden (Dark Delights #3)

Ira squeezed into the backseat of Talon’s sports car. Soon they would see the Rink for the very first time. He capitalized the word even in his own head. It would have such significance to their future, he couldn’t lessen its importance by correcting himself. It was Important.

“So where exactly are we going?” Alex asked, turning in the passenger seat to look back at him. The headlights from Malachi’s cherry red Mustang behind them lit up his face.

Ira gave them directions to the old building but bit back any more explanations about it. He wanted to see it for himself first, make sure it felt right.

As the car wove in and out of traffic toward their destination, Alex asked, “How are you doing with all of this, by the way?”

Ira blinked in confusion, his mind stuck on the Rink and all its potential. “All of what?”

One corner of Alex’s mouth lifted, but it was a bitter thing. “Everything. Leaving the guild. You’re the smartest of us, y’know? Luke and I, we waited until things with the guild blew up in our faces. I admire you for realizing where things were headed before it got to that point.”

Nausea pitched in Ira’s gut, and he took a slow breath to quell his anxiety. “Oh. Well, I had your experiences to guide me. I might not have made the same choices if I hadn’t watched you two go through it all first.” He blew out a breath. “I don’t even know if I’ve prevented anything by leaving voluntarily. Things are different for the prophets. We can’t just retire. Even though I’ve stopped reporting to HQ, I’ll continue to receive these visions. And they’ll do whatever it takes to keep me there, reporting to them . They never would’ve accepted a simple resignation. That’s why I left the way I did. I’ve had to disappear from the life I had before. I can’t go home. I couldn’t bring anything they could use to track me down or contact anyone who might give me up. And there’ll still be… things that happen in the future. Things I don’t think I can stop.”

Fire.

Rubble.

“Kill them!”

Talon cut in. “You’re saying they would force you to continue working for them? Telling them your visions? Even if you didn’t want to?”

It had never been done before, but… “Yes. Without the prophets, the guild would be operating blind. They wouldn’t know where to go, who to fight. They’re very protective of us. They don’t let us go into the field or interact with others in the guild who might compromise the order of things. They want us to stay in our bubbles and feed them information.”

“But you’d been having visions of us,” Talon said. “Visions of Wolf and the rest of us all working together.”

There was so much more to it than that, but essentially, “ Yes. For six months now, since that first vision that I gave to Alex.”

“But telling them that would be suicide,” Talon deduced.

“Most likely. I couldn’t risk telling them any of it. Can you imagine what they would’ve done to Alex or Luke if someone had told them ahead of time that they would be leaving to… be with a demon?”

Alex ducked his head, while Talon scowled dangerously at the road. “Yeah, I imagine that would’ve been bad. It was bad enough the way things played out—although seeing Malachi get all bloodthirsty was pretty fun, and I suppose things have worked out for the better so far.”

Alex elbowed him in admonishment. “Luke nearly died.”

“But he’s fine now,” Talon said. “A little near-death experience never hurt anybody.”

Alex looked like he was fighting laughter. “I don’t think that’s true at all .”

Talon chuckled, reaching over to take Alex’s hand. His dark eyes found Ira’s through the rearview mirror. “Well, you have my thanks for keeping those visions to yourself. We definitely benefitted from your discretion.”

Ira shrugged one shoulder. “It benefitted me, too. And I was afraid it would’ve driven them to something even more drastic than what actually happened. If they had any idea that we three wouldn’t be the only ones…” He shook his head. “I couldn’t risk something like that happening. And I believe it would have. They would’ve insisted on knowing the names of everyone who was going to leave.”

“Do you know exactly who all is going to leave?” Talon asked.

Ira fidgeted. “I’m honestly not sure. I know some. I can’t say for sure if that’s all of them, though. It’s hard to tell how much of the big picture I actually have.”

Talon hummed curiously. “Wait. You said you receive these visions from God , right?”

“That’s what we believe, yes.”

The car came to a stop at a red light, and Talon turned in his seat to cast him a smirk. “So it’s almost like you’ve been receiving these visions because God wants you guys to be with us.” He shot Alex a smug look. “I knew you were meant to be mine.”

Alex chuckled. “I never had a doubt.”

Ira smiled, turning to look out the window as the city night continued to pass by in streaks of color and darkness. Was Talon right? Was this all part of God’s plan? If the visions were from God, and the visions led him down this path, what else could he assume but that this was how things were meant to be? Maybe they were the beginning of a bridge between the humans and demons. He couldn’t be sure, but it didn’t feel wrong . Nothing that involved being with Wolf felt wrong.

When the city lights gave way to darkened streets and pockmarked parking lots, Ira leaned forward and said, “We’re getting close. There’s something you should know.”

“Okay,” Alex said.

“There are demons inside the building, and there are a couple of kids inside who’ll need our help.”

“Shit, kids?”

“Yeah, some teens who were spray-painting the back wall, I think,” he said with a snort.

“Petty vandalism,” Talon drawled, turning off the highway. “Nice.”

“They’ll make up for it. They’re good kids. But anyway, they should be the priority. The demons aren’t going anywhere. Get the kids out, then go back in for the demons.”

“Good plan,” Alex agreed.

The old parking lot was full of potholes and weeds sprouting through the cracks in the asphalt. The ancient chain-link fence around the property was bent and broken in places. The building itself was a squat, wide thing with metal siding and no visible windows. A big sign was taped to the inside of the glass front door, written in permanent marker. ‘For Sale ,’ with a phone number scrawled underneath.

Alex stared at it dubiously as they got out. “ This is our base of operations?” he asked. “This place is a dump!”

Ira scowled indignantly, and Talon laughed as Malachi’s Mustang rolled to a stop beside them.

“It is not,” Ira said, but that wasn’t true. It definitely wasn’t true. The place was a dump. But it wouldn’t always be. “Okay, it needs some work, but it’ll be fine!”

“What’ll be fine?” Luke asked as he and Malachi joined them.

“Ira here tells us this is going to be your new base of operations,” Talon relayed gleefully.

Luke’s head whipped toward the building, finding the ‘ For Sale ’ sign and then taking the rest of it in with growing uncertainty. “Really? This place? Was the actual dump taken?”

“Ugh, whatever. You’ll see!” Ira said. “Now, we’ve got demons to kill and kids to help.”

“Kids?” Malachi asked.

Ira filled them in on the plan, and soon, Alex and Luke were grabbing weapons from Malachi’s trunk.

Malachi’s crimson eyes lingered on Luke as he strapped his sword to his back. His expression was mostly unreadable, but there was a tension in his shoulders that Ira recognized. He sidled closer.

“No injuries tonight,” he offered.

Malachi blinked over at him. “What?”

“I saw the aftermath. Luke won’t get hurt. He’s going to be fine.”

Malachi’s lips parted, and the tension drained from his body. “Really?”

Ira nodded earnestly. “Hand to God, which probably means more to me than it does to you.”

Malachi laughed weakly. “Yeah, but the fact that you’re the one saying it makes it mean something. Thanks. He doesn’t… He hasn’t hunted quite as much since he left the guild. I don’t want him to ever get hurt again.”

There was a deep softness within Malachi for Luke and Luke alone. Ira had seen it in visions but never been privy to the real thing. It reminded him of Wolf, the gentleness with which he regarded Ira.

A high-pitched scream cut through the air, and they all turned as one toward the Rink.

“Time to go to work,” Alex said, clapping Luke on the shoulder. They both had hands-free lights clipped to the front of their belts.

“Ira,” Luke said, handing Ira a sword. “I assume you know how to use this.”

Ira balked, hefting the blade. It was a lot heavier than they made it look. “The pointy end goes this way,” he said, aiming it in front of him.

“Dear Lucifer, keep him in front of me,” Talon said, and Malachi snorted out a laugh. Ira couldn’t muster any offense, especially when he was dubious about his ability to even carry the thing.

“Watch our backs, then,” Luke said to the demons, and together they strode toward the Rink.

The front entrance was locked, so they went around to the back in search of another door. There was a car parked near an old dumpster there—belonging to the teens, no doubt. Ira tripped over the craggy parking lot, scraping the sword on the asphalt, and behind him, Talon uttered a curse. The wind whispered through the bushes tucked around an ancient privacy fence separating the Rink’s lot from a closed-down restaurant on the other side.

“Open door over here,” Alex said, leading them to the back door, which was indeed standing ajar.

Ira peered inside the yawning black maw of the doorway and shivered. “It’s very dark in there.”

Malachi patted his shoulder and eased in front of him. “You stand back—way back, and don’t point that thing at me—and I’ll go first. We see better in the dark than you humans.” He gently pushed Ira’s hands away so the sword was pointing to the side.

“It’s not my fault they don’t give us field training!” he hissed at Malachi’s back.

“Hm, true,” Alex said. “We’ll get some spare lights for next time. And maybe we should teach you some drills so you at least have the basics.”

Ira would like nothing less, but now wasn’t the time to voice all his perfectly valid protests.

“Can we focus, please?” Luke said, following Malachi into the darkness.

“In theory,” Talon quipped under his breath, trailing after Alex, which left Ira to bring up the rear of the group .

The darkness inside the building was oppressive, even with the small pockets of light created by Luke and Alex’s flashlights. He stuck close to their heels as Talon and Malachi walked ahead, scouting out the darkness beyond their small beams of light.

“Hello?” Alex called. “We’re here to help!”

Up ahead, there was a crashing sound. “In here!” a young voice screamed. “Help us, please!”

They picked up the pace, moving through what might’ve been a hallway and out into the main room. The wooden rink floor, once polished to a shine, was now dingy and gray.

In the middle of the room, a boy and girl were wrestling with a black-skinned monster. The boy was on the floor, and an overturned LED lantern lit up a big section of the room, reflecting off the mirrored, domed ceiling.

The girl, who couldn’t be more than sixteen, was holding an old roller skate and hitting the demon repeatedly in the head with it as hard as she could, screaming obscenities at the top of her lungs. The demon’s claws were snagged in the lower leg of the boy’s jeans, dragging him closer and snapping its teeth at him. The girl was the only thing keeping the boy from the monster’s jaws.

“Ira, get the kids out of here and wait outside for us!” Alex said quickly, and then he and Luke were running toward the chaos.

Ira rushed after them, his heart pounding. He hooked a hand under the boy’s arm and hauled him up. His jeans ripped free of the demon’s claws. The girl whirled around, hefting the skate at them, so he shouted, “Come on, let’s get out of here!”

She followed, glancing over her shoulder as Alex and Luke circled the monster with their blades raised .

They didn’t have a flashlight on their way back out, and Ira nearly lost his footing more than once. Moonlight spilled in through the open door like a beacon, and he ushered the kids outside into the cool night air.

“This way!” He led them around the building to Talon and Malachi’s cars.

“ Damn , those are nice cars,” the boy said.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Ira said, popping Malachi’s trunk. It should probably give him pause that they carried a bunch of dead paladins’ weapons around with them, but it was hard to care when he remembered they’d tried to kill Luke. Luke , who’d never been anything but a loyal soldier. Who’d lost his entire squad but still kept fighting because it was what they’d trained him to do. That is, until Malachi came along and showed him how much more there was to life.

Ira handed each of the kids a holy dagger. “You won’t need these, but I think they might make you both feel safer. They’re special weapons that can kill monsters like the one that attacked you in there. Are you both okay? Injured anywhere?”

The boy turned his leg. Through the rip in his jeans, Ira could see shallow scratches. He reached into the trunk and patted a rectangular black case that looked more like a suitcase than a first-aid kit. At least they were thorough.

“This is a first-aid kit. Can you clean and bandage it yourself?”

“Yeah, no problem. I mean, I don’t even think it’s still bleeding.”

“Angie did a good job keeping it off you, then,” Ira said, and they both shot him wide-eyed looks. Oops, right, he wasn’t supposed to know their names yet. “I have to go back inside and help them. You two will be safe out here. We’ll explain everything once the hive is dead, okay?”

“Hive?” Angela asked faintly.

“Uh. Yeah. I can’t explain yet, I’ve got to go before Alex gets hurt. I’ll be right back!” He didn’t wait for a response, sprinting back around the building with his sword dangling from one hand.

It was a little easier running through the black hallway this time, because he’d passed through it twice so far. He knew he’d be fine if he just stuck to the center. Strange noises filled the air, guttural hisses and snarls, the scrabbling of claws on wood or tile. He could hear the shouts of the others up ahead.

When he emerged into the main room, an inhuman shriek cut through the air behind him. He shot a glance over his shoulder. One of the coal-skinned demons was behind him, claws gouging into the wood floor as it chased after him.

Another burst of adrenaline hit him, and he lengthened his gait. His grip was painfully tight on the pommel of his borrowed sword.

Alex appeared in front of him. “Ira, duck!”

Ira dove to the floor, rolling, and the monster sailed over his head, its black skin like hot coals, cracked with molten orange. The scent of sulfur hung in the air.

Alex pulled him to his feet. “We told you to wait outside with the kids,” he said sternly.

This was it. This was the moment he’d seen in his vision. Ira gasped, twisted in his grip, and plunged a blade into one of the black creatures sneaking up behind Alex.

“And that’s why I couldn’t,” he said breathlessly. “You’re welcome. ”

Alex’s grin was blinding. He clapped Ira on the shoulder. “Wow, thanks. Nicely done.”

Across the room, Luke was dispatching the last of them while Talon and Malachi pinned it down.

“Was that the last one?” Alex called when the Rink grew quiet.

“I think so,” Luke replied.

“Yes,” Talon said. “I don’t sense any others.”

“Neither do I,” Malachi agreed.

Ira picked up the forgotten lantern and carried it over, setting it on the partition wall and bracing his hands beside it, panting. The Rink had seen better days, certainly. He had no doubt it would take some convincing to get Alex and Luke to sink their time and money into such a place. But as he looked around the shadowed ruin, he didn’t see it as it was. He didn’t see the dust and detritus and graffiti. He saw training mats out on the skating floor, gleaming weapons on racks hanging from the walls. Practice dummies lined up across the room. He heard laughter, saw humans and demons mingling together, working together toward a common goal.

When he turned to look at the others, Talon was studying him.

“There’s something special about this place,” Talon guessed.

Ira nodded. “Yeah. This is it.”

“It?” Talon asked, and the others sidled closer to listen.

“This is where we’ll do some of our best work. This will be our base of operations for the most important era of our lives.”

Alex glanced around dubiously. “This place?” he asked doubtfully .

“Yes,” Ira insisted. “It needs a lot of work, but it’ll be worth it. There’s a ‘for sale’ sign out front. You two should call the number first thing in the morning and make an offer to buy it outright. Don’t worry about the price, they’ll take whatever you offer them just to be rid of it. And then we can start working.” He inhaled, imagining the scent of takeout, fresh paper, and incense rather than the stale, musty air that actually filled his lungs.

Alex and Luke exchanged a look. “Can we even afford to fix all the problems this place probably has?” Luke asked.

“Yep. There are a couple of kids outside who’ll be able to help, too. Come on, we should check on them.”

He led them outside, pretending not to hear Talon’s low, “So, prophets are interesting,” and Alex’s sage agreement.

Just as he’d known, the kids were still waiting by Malachi’s trunk. The boy was leaning against the car, but the girl had rallied, brandishing the dagger at them all as they approached.

“Okay, weirdos, what the hell? How did you know my name? How did you know we were here? Who the hell are you?”

“I am a prophet of the Lord,” Ira said matter-of-factly. “You won’t believe that at first, and that’s fine, most people don’t. Basically, I see the future. I know your name is Angela Alvarez, and this is your brother, Zachary. I know you both come here to blow off steam while your father is at work or drunk, usually the latter. Those things inside the building were demons from Hell, yes that Hell, and no, they weren’t the only ones here on Earth. There are others. We are warriors who fight them?—”

Malachi cleared his throat pointedly, and Talon snickered.

“These two are warriors who fight them,” Ira amended, pointing at Alex and Luke. “The other two are actually demons, too, but not the bad kind. They’re here to help us.” He clasped his hands in front of his chest and smiled in a way he hoped was calm and disarming. “You’ll have many questions, which we will all answer in time, so you’ll forgive me if I cut to the heart of the matter: eventually, you’re going to ask us if you can join us and help us fight. The answer is yes. We could use your help. We’re going to buy this building and fix it up, make it our base, of a sort. This place has been a sanctuary for you from your father’s temper, and that doesn’t have to change just because its ownership is changing hands. If you want to learn more about what we do, you can come by tomorrow afternoon. It should be in our possession by then, and we’ll start the process of cleaning the place up. And since a lot of that graffiti in there is yours , you can help us.” He arched one pointed brow.

Zachary looked away sheepishly, and Angela glanced over at her brother as though searching for a reaction.

“Okay,” Zachary said, straightening. “Yeah, we’ll come. You’re right, it’s all hard to believe, but I can’t deny that that thing in there wasn’t… normal. I want to know more, so we’ll come by after school.”

Angela nodded her agreement.

Ira grinned. “Perfect.”

Because they had Ira’s assurances that they could buy the Rink in the morning, they saw no reason not to go ahead and get started on the place while they waited for the sun to rise. Alex had Talon teleport him to a store to purchase some cleaning supplies, and they reappeared laden with shopping bags, brooms, and mops. It would take a lot more than that to really fix all of the Rink’s problems, but it was a good starting point. The place had been abandoned for long enough that no one would care about their trespassing, and when Alex and Luke told the current owners they wanted to buy it immediately and waive the inspections and red tape, they’d jumped at the chance to be rid of it. No one would ever know they’d gotten started early.

They set up lanterns around the building for light and got to work. They swept and dusted and mopped. Ira lost count of the number of times he sneezed. Some of the back rooms were worse than others. Some food for the snack bar had been left behind when the original business shut down, and a broken window had allowed animals inside. They swept up animal hair and old droppings, rotted food, and nesting materials, carting everything out in bulging garbage bags. Alex thought to prop open all the doors and service entrances to let a fresh breeze into the musty space. It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing.

By the time Wolf arrived, they were all lying in the middle of the newly mopped rink floor, not far from where Zachary had been sprawled when they arrived. It would need to be sanded and polished, but that was a problem for another day. At least it was clean.

“Hello?” he called as he pushed open the glass front door.

“Over here,” Ira said, flapping a hand in the air.

Wolf strolled across the floor, glancing around at everything. “This place is a dump.”

“Ouch,” Luke remarked. “We’ve been working on it for hours. ”

“Oh, so it looks better than it did?” Wolf asked.

“Unfortunately, yeah,” Ira said. “I did say it needed a lot of work. We haven’t even been in the bathrooms yet.”

“I pissed outside,” Alex said without shame. “I was too scared to see what it looked like in there.”

Talon barked out a laugh. “Did you?”

“Hell yeah!”

Ira giggled. Wolf knelt down beside him, smiling fondly.

“You’re dirty,” he noted, brushing a finger along Ira’s cheek.

“I feel dirty,” he said. “It’s gross in here. Those storage rooms were disgusting. We’ll need to remodel some things and update even more. But it’s gonna be great once we get it all in working order.”

“How about we head home for a while? We’ll order food and you can shower.”

“And then come back?” Ira asked hopefully. “Those two are going to sign the papers for the place soon, and then it’ll be all ours.”

Wolf looked around. “Oh good, just what I’ve always wanted,” he deadpanned, and Malachi sniggered.

Ira held out a hand, and Wolf helped him to a sitting position. He followed Wolf’s gaze around the room. It looked better than it had, but Wolf was right, it still wasn’t filling anyone with confidence like this. It would , but they were going to look like jokes until they managed to at least get the lights and water working.

He must have looked a little forlorn, because Wolf chuckled and dropped a kiss to the top of his head. “Food and shower first,” he instructed. “I’ll bring you back in a few hours so you can keep working. I also promised you a cell phone, remember? ”

“Oh, right. Can I have one of those cool touchscreen flip phones?”

Wolf pulled him close. “You can have whatever you want.”

He slid into the space under Wolf’s arm, leaning against his sturdy side. “Actually, I take that back. Those phones probably aren’t very durable. I need something that can survive a demon attack.”

“One ancient Nokia, coming right up.”