The Devil's Due (The Earthwalker Trilogy Book 2) Read online

  Charley raised a quizzical eyebrow when she noticed my distraction. “Waiting on a call?”

  I turned to her and sighed. “Oh sorry, I was hoping to hear from Caleb.”

  Charley frowned. “Is everything okay?”

  “We had a fight,” I told her honestly. “It was pretty bad.”

  “Ouch, I’m sorry.”

  I grinned. “Thanks.”

  Just then Ryan came walking up with our coffee and bagels, an infectious smile on his face. “Good morning, ladies! Wynn, I brought your coffee just the way you like it — with enough sugar to induce a diabetic coma. And Charley, you got the Iced Caramel Latte.”

  I grinned. “Perfect! Thanks, Ryan!”

  Charley took the cup from him and smiled, “Thanks, babe.”

  “No problem, enjoy.”

  She nodded thoughtfully and gazed out the coffee shop window. “I know you don’t like me, but I want you to know I have no intention of hurting Ryan,” she stated calmly. “He’s been good to me, and I love him,” she confessed. “That might not mean anything to you, but he’s the best thing that ever happened to me, and I’m not throwing that away.”

  Her declaration caught me slightly off-guard. She looked so earnest I wanted to believe her. I sighed, taking a sip of my drink and said, “I know, and I’m trying. But in my experience demons have only brought death and destruction. It got my sister killed. So, yes, I’m extremely wary of letting one into my life again. I don’t trust you, and I think Ryan is going to get hurt, it puts a damper on a friendship.”

  The lights flickered overhead, and there was a low rumbling in the ground beneath us. Charley and I glanced around in reaction to it before turning towards each other.

  A pulse of energy ripped through the café, the shockwave shattering the windows and sending glass fragments flying everywhere. People screamed and ducked beneath their tables in search of protection as a gust of wind blew open the door. A pair of black feathery wings appeared, silhouetted against the doorway and slowly unfolded to reveal a woman.

  “Maya …” I breathed.

  “The fallen angel?” Charley gasped. Her eyes were terrified, like she knew just how dangerous they could be.

  Her gaze wasn’t the crystal blue reflection I remembered as her yellow cat-like eyes took in her surroundings. Her tendons flexed around her scimitar as those awful yellow eyes found me.

  Crap.

  Chapter Eleven

  Caught in the Crosshairs

  “You!” she spat furiously. “I should have killed you when I had the chance!”

  Her muscles flexed under her black armor as she unsheathed her scimitar. I looked around at the terrified faced of the people and my heart stung at the thought of collateral damage. Charley had pulled out her phone and was whispering something urgently into the receiver. Her already large eyes widened considerably, but Maya’s attention was on me, so she didn’t notice the other few patrons. When Charley hung up the phone, she started silently ushering them out the door and leading them to safety while Maya’s back was turned.

  “You existed to protect life! You don’t have to do this,” I told her as she brandished her sword again. It was engulfed in a green flame as she came towards me.

  A sharp laugh burst from her dainty lips. “Yes, I do. You’re obviously a bigger threat than we first assumed. You already pulled one of us from our ranks, and I can't allow that to continue. How many more will you seduce away from their calling and corrupt the divine race? I am restoring balance. It’s time you were dealt with.”

  I’d heard that spoken about myself before — the golem asked the Council in my trial why I hadn’t been “dealt with” also. Neither one of them needed to elaborate, I knew exactly what they meant.

  Maya sneered, a malicious twinkle in her eyes. “I said you'd be the death of him. Now I have to watch him wither away and die of old age.”

  A flinch of pain flashed across her face, and I recognized myself at that moment. It was the pain I’d felt when fighting over Ryan in Beelzebub’s trial. Even if they weren’t together in that way, I had stepped on a relationship decades old. They had trained together, served together, and were brothers in arms to an extent. That comradery and loyalty comes with the flipside of betrayal if things go wrong. I’m not even sure that I could scratch the surface of the emotions she was feeling, but I was starting to understand where she was coming from.

  My heart raced in my chest as I knew I had to keep the innocents safe. Knowing she would follow me, I began shuffling away from them to draw her attention elsewhere. Ryan slid out from behind the bar and began to help Charley. I didn’t like him being that close. He grabbed a little girls doll that had been dropped and used it to coax her out from a corner, the mom following suit. He pointed towards the back exit and worked his way to the next person.

  Maya only sneered at my feeble attempts to get away. I threw a chair out into the aisle to block her path, and she telekinetically threw it sideways into the counter. Uh, that was new.

  I tripped scrambling backward and had to crawl underneath a table. “Maya, I may have been the catalyst, but he wanted to leave the Order long before me. I’m sorry you are hurting, but let’s talk about this!”

  The next thing I knew the table had been lifted from over me and thrown halfway across the lobby. I covered my ears and screamed at the sound of impact. She grabbed me by the hair and pulled me up to face her, kicking me firmly in the stomach.

  Her impact knocked the air out of me and as I tried to catch my breath she threw me against the wall. I grabbed a chair and threw it at her as hard as I could, but she blasted it out of the air and shrapnel went everywhere. I felt small splinters pierce my arms and face, so I instinctively closed my eyes.

  In the darkness, the sound I feared met my ears, “Aargh!”

  “Ryan!” Charley screamed.

  I swung around to see Ryan slowly sinking down, a shattered wooden table leg impaling him through the stomach. “NOO!!!!”

  It was happening all over again — I could see it now, we were going to lose him. Both of us.

  Flashbacks from Elyse’s death came flooding back to me as he bled out on the tile. The feeling I both hated and rejected, of being helpless, heartbroken and angry flared up inside me. Instinct kicked in, and I threw myself across the room with renewed vigor, knocking Maya against the table.

  Charley knelt by Ryan’s side and spoke to him, trembling as she tried to stem the flow of blood. Her perfect porcelain face twisted with pain and horror as she held his bleeding body. He was still conscious, but wouldn’t be for long. Blood drained from the jagged wound on his stomach and ran across his chest as his aura began to fade. “Hang in there, baby,” she begged him desperately.

  Ryan coughed up some blood and started convulsing in her arms as he hung desperately to life.

  Maya struggled in my grasp, and I pulled out a small green vile from my jacket pocket. The vile I had asked of Mammon when he delivered my trial for Greed.

  “This potion has the power to save a life by binding the drinker’s life force to a dying person. Be warned, however, it can only be used once, and it has to be activated before they cross over to the other side.”

  After failing to save Elyse, I’d vowed to never leave home without it. This was my chance to not re-live that mistake. “Charley!”

  She looked up at me, red in the face from crying as I called out her name in panic. I tossed the bottle to her and screamed, “YOU SAID YOU LOVE HIM, NOW PROVE IT! SAVE HIM!”

  She caught it in midair and blinked at me confused. “I don’t understand.”

  “Drink the potion!” I ordered in a grunt as Maya and I both grappled with each other.

  I watched her trembling with sorrow as she uncorked the cap and leaned to tell him, “Ryan, let me save you.”

  He was so weak all he could do was sputter incoherently and nod.

  Charlene held him bleeding in one arm with the potion in the other, braced for whatever happened. His hand
some face and blond hair had become messy and smeared with blood as she held him tightly to her. In one fluid motion, she tossed the bottle back and drank it all, her face flinched with disgust and determination at the same time.

  When it was gone, she threw the bottle down and kissed him on the mouth.

  When their lips touched, it seemed the ink from her tattooed arms rippled up beneath her skin and started creeping towards her mouth. It passed from her to him, and color bubbling up on his arm matching the markings left on hers. As the colors grew more prominent, color returned to his cheeks, and he responded to her kiss, bringing new life into his body. The bluish tinge to his lips was gone and his aura returned to normal.

  Elated, she kissed him back, gasping and choking on some blood and sitting back against the wall. The ink rippled back onto her arm with a different pattern into the watercolor sleeve and a pulse of energy shot out from them in unison when it happened. When the transformation was over a silver chain magically appeared around her neck with an hourglass charm hanging from it.

  Both she and Ryan were gasping, not quite sure about what happened, but the bleeding stopped, and he seemed to be okay. When he sat up wide eyed from having been brought back from the brink of death, he saw the new tattoo that had appeared on his arm and that he and Charlene matched.

  I turned back to Maya. “You say you want to protect the innocents. Ryan is an innocent, my sister was an innocent. That thinking is why they got hurt. Hate only breeds more hate.”

  Maya yowled in outrage when she saw them and threw me off her.

  As she escaped my grasp and flipped over one of the tables Caleb came storming through the door. His face was unlike anything I’d seen him capable of, furious beyond comprehension and terrified at the same time. “Maya! How dare you do this to us, to the innocent people standing nearby? Have you thrown all logic and reason out the window?”

  His blue eyes shown with inhuman veracity and a holy light seemed to resonate around his body.

  Her eyes grew wide at the sight of him, seeming embarrassed to have him there, but held her ground regardless. “Look at you, my love. What has she done to you? Poisoned your mind and ruined your potential for being great. I let you down. I should have stepped in sooner before she got to you.”

  “I chose this for myself, Maya. And you know better than to use those terms of endearment. Go back to Michael and beg for mercy from the Court. I’m sure they’ll take pity on you.”

  “I’m not leaving here without you! Not while the Earthwalker still breathes. There’s too much at stake!”

  Caleb growled, taking a defensive stance. “You’re not going to lay a finger on her! I’ll fight you off myself. You’ll have to kill me.”

  Maya smiled. “Oh, my poor sweet boy, you can’t. You lost your wings, remember? You have no power. But don’t worry, we’ll get them back. I just need to rid the world of this vermin first.”

  She started an attack and Caleb flipped around to block her, using an invisible shield to ward off her sacred blade.

  “How…?”

  Caleb smiled thinly, and there was a twinkle in his eyes that made him seem a little dangerous. “I didn’t lose all my powers. I have enough in me for this, and I will defeat you.”

  Maya roared out an anguished cry, and she came at him with all her fury, and he was able to swat her off like flies. He ducked out of the way and charged, grabbing her by the waist and bull rushing her into the wall. It wasn’t exactly glamorous, but it was effective. She was able to slip past, with her eyes focused on me and spread her wings to fly across the café. Unfortunately for her, Caleb saw what she was doing and twisted around to grab her by the ankle and pull her violently back towards the earth.

  It must have hurt because she screeched like a banshee and spun around to punch him, pulling herself off the floor. As the two of them began to battle, I crawled over to make sure Charley and Ryan were okay. What I found was them huddled underneath the counter and clinging to each other for support. “Ryan?”

  “I’m okay,” he told me cautiously. “Charlene got the brunt of it.”

  I eyed her in surprise, and she grimaced slightly. “Charley?”

  “I’ll be fine.”

  “Then get out of here,” I commanded them. “Caleb and I will take care of this. Go over to my apartment and Lacey will let you in.”

  They glanced at one another unsure for a moment before I shooed them towards the kitchen. “GO!”

  Charlene knew it was pointless to argue, and both of us wanted to get Ryan out of here so he’d be safe. This time they heeded my advice and snuck out through the kitchen and disappeared out the back door.

  Once I saw they were safe, I peeked my head out over the counter to see what was going on. Caleb and Maya were still engaged in a vicious battle. She’d managed to grapple him against the table and was choking the life out of him. His face was red as he swatted against her grip and tried to push her off, but nothing seemed to work.

  Without even thinking about it, I grabbed the glass carafe off the counter and flew across the room smashing it hard against her head. The blow managed to disorient her, and Caleb was able to get free. Together we found a way to subdue her, binding her wings so she couldn’t fly.

  As Caleb pinned her to the ground, using the force of his weight to restrain her, two Guardians finally appeared. It was two women this time, each with a flaming scimitar. As they stepped out onto the tile one of them looked me over once and smiled. “You’re the Earthwalker child?”

  I nodded stiffly as they took in the situation, peering out beneath the hoods of their pale gray cloaks with ethereal blue eyes. “Well, it seems like you’ve got everything under control. Caleb,” she addressed him formally.

  He glanced up at her and smiled thinly in response. She had dark, chocolate brown skin and freckles on her cheeks, but her continence was cold and dispassionate. Her eyes sparkled with angelic authority as she unhooked the manacles from her belt and came towards us.

  “Always a pleasure.”

  “You as well, Elinor. Do you mind?” he asked motioning to the captive.

  “Not at all.”

  Maya struggled to break free and whimpered, it took all three of them to finally get her cuffed. The madness in her eyes had faded, and I felt sorry for her. She looked defeated as if something inside her died — the light had gone out for good this time.

  As the two females stood, carrying Maya in-between them, Caleb took his place beside me. “Where’s she going?” I asked him quietly.

  “To the Verdovis, an ice prison,” he responded. “They’re sending her there for rehabilitation.”

  It was only then I remembered he mentioned that place once before, after he’d put himself on trial. I’d never asked him any questions about it, not wishing to make him relive the past, but my interest was suddenly piqued and I wondered if that was another thing I should investigate. I nodded solemnly as they shimmered out of sight and Caleb and I started back to my apartment.

  ~ * ~

  “How’s he handling it?” I asked Charley when we made it back to my apartment.

  She sighed, looking over at Ryan on the couch, who had a blanket wrapped around him and was holding a cup of tea. It was times like this that I appreciated Lacey’s “Mother Hen” attributes and her calm and reassuring presence. She was getting good at playing “Mom” and patching the rest of us up and tempering the more hysterical emotions, usually my own.

  “As well as can be expected. We’re both kind of in shock, I think.”

  Lacey was sitting on the couch beside him as Caleb debriefed them on what happened. The feeling in the room should have been tense, but it wasn’t. I stood there next to Charley, who I’d been gunning for since the beginning, and felt nothing but love and respect.

  She’d protected Ryan when I couldn’t and in doing so put herself at risk. She gazed at him tenderly in the other room, and I smiled watching her. “You love him, don’t you?”

  Charley turned to me
and nodded. “Yes.”

  She still appeared slightly disheveled, with messy hair and blood smeared across her face. In spite of that, however, she seemed totally at peace. We let silence fall between us with a sense of mutual understanding, and I cleared my throat ashamed. “I thought you were using him to get to me.”

  Charley smiled weakly. “I was.”

  I blanched at her admission and waited for her to continue.

  “I wanted to meet you so badly. To find another demon that didn’t lust after power. Another demon that wanted to be something more than what we’re stuck with…” she trailed off thoughtfully. “Do you know what Hell is, Wynn? All those things you take for granted; friendship, trust, love, family. They don’t exist down there. It’s a luxury only afforded to the realms above, yourself included. I had no one when I was down there. No friends or family, no confidant, certainly no one that cared about me the way he does,” she told me quietly. “I came here, and Ryan was nice to me. I’d never had anyone just be NICE to me before, not without a personal agenda. He makes me feel safe, loved, wanted. I fell for him,” she laughed. “I mean, it’s Ryan! Of course, I fell for him, he’s wonderful. How could I love anyone more?”

  Charley turned to him again, this time it was with a look of fervent adoration, and he gazed back at her and smiled. “I never expected this to happen,” she told me quietly, pulling a silver chain from beneath the collar of her shirt. “I’d heard about this magic before, but I’d never seen it in action. After I drank the potion this necklace appeared, and I knew exactly what had happened.”

  I shifted nervously, thinking of my own necklace as a curse, and took the charm between my fingers. It was a silver clock, with mechanical hands going around and a tiny hourglass in the center. “What is it?” I asked her curiously.

  “I think … the spell was able to bind our life-force together,” she explained. “The clock is telling us how much time we have left. Since his life force is tied to mine, when one dies the other dies.”