Chapter Twenty-Two

 

THEA

 

Thea woke up to a call from Amber. It disturbed her out of her sleep, and she winced at the trill of its tone. Before she could grab it, the ringing stopped. It was just a few seconds later that the voicemail notification popped up. Thea listened to it, hoping it wasn’t an emergency.

“Thea.” Amber sounded both weak and frightened. “I need your help. I feel… strange. And Leo, he—he won’t let me leave.”

A sense of dread blossomed in Thea’s stomach and she sat up.

“He won’t let me go to my enrollment. I think I’m… hurt… Can you come—?” The message ended.

Thea was still for a moment, paralyzed with worry, fear and regret for not having checked in on her sooner. Amber was the biggest reason she hadn’t wanted to go with Cam to the Angel Realm; she had known how unsteady things were with Amber and Leo and hadn’t wanted to leave her on her own. Yet Thea had abandoned her anyway by wallowing in her misery over losing Cam and aggressively burying herself in demon-hunting. She got out of bed, cursing herself.

Thea dialed Amber’s number, praying that her friend would answer. The call went straight to voicemail once, then twice when Thea redialed the number. She hissed in frustration and raced to get dressed.

In her gut, she was positive that something terrible was happening to Amber and only hoped she could get there in time to stop it. She sped through town, weaving through traffic as fast as she could, and when she pulled up to Amber’s small apartment block she saw Leo’s car parked outside. She held in her hatred as she headed to the entrance. She had no idea what she would do or say if Leo had somehow hurt her friend, if she’d be able to control her anger and keep from attacking him.

When she knocked on the door, there was no answer. Thea peered through the mailbox and keyhole but the light was off. She put her ear to the door and thought she heard a whimpering noise. All of Thea’s angelic energy and strength welled up inside of her, roiling with anger and fear. She shifted and kicked in the door.

Inside, she found Amber and Leo in the kitchen, and the sight almost made her sick. Amber sat slumped in a chair, her head lolling sideways. Her eyes were half-lidded and at first, Thea thought her friend was asleep until Amber’s eyes found her own and lingered for a second before rolling back into her head. Leo was behind Amber holding her by the shoulders, a translucent energy flowing from her to him, folding and sliding along like silk. He glowed an apricot orange and when he looked up, she realized exactly what he was. His face was grotesque and twisted, his horns sharp and deadly. He must have recognized Thea as a Nephilim, because he stopped whatever he was doing to Amber and left her sitting there, hardly hanging on to her position in the chair.

“What are you doing to her?” Thea asked, trying to keep her voice calm. Behind Leo, Amber whimpered softly and tried to lift her head up, but couldn’t. She slid to the kitchen floor in a heap. Thea fought the urge to rush to her friend, to help her immediately, but she had to deal with Leo first. Not only was he a demon, but he was one of the higher-class demons. She couldn’t anticipate what he might do or how strong he might be.

“Well, well, well.” Leo’s eyes flitted all over her body. “Looks like I picked the wrong girl.” He took a step towards Thea. That was good. Thea wanted him as far away from Amber as possible. She took a step backward and kept her eyes on the demon, not once looking away from him. Her whole body was tight and ready to spring, but part of her was hesitant to fight him. She had never fought a higher-class demon and wasn’t sure she could beat one on her own. Who knew what they were capable of? She held her ground.

“There was no need for you to worry, Thea. I was just borrowing a little energy,” he said smoothly

“What are you, Leo?” She needed him to say it.

“I’m an Asmos demon.” He performed dramatic bow that caused a surge of anger in Thea. She grit her teeth.

He lifted a deformed eyebrow. “I’m amazed you are a Nephilim, Thea, but it makes complete sense now. No wonder I’ve never been able to break Amber completely.” He clicked his tongue and wagged his forefinger at her. “You’ve been keeping her spirits up, haven’t you? Making her feel safe and warm and positive? I’ve been feeding off of her for years, and I’m only just making real progress because of your lack of interest in her lately. Thanks for that.”

His words twisted like a knife, in her gut. Thea didn’t let the feeling distract her—that’s what demons did, they fed off of negative emotions to fuel their energy. She had to keep her head straight if she was going to have a chance at saving Amber.

“Why are you trying to break her?” she asked, inching backward.

“Because it’s my right,” Leo snapped. “I’ve been feeding off of her family for generations—they have so much pain and anguish around them, it’s easy to manipulate them into a life of darkness. Amber is one of the last of her line. Her delicate nature makes her an excellent source of pain. She’s so easy to hurt, poor thing,” he said, giving a sigh. “I considered targeting you too, but at eight-years old she was delicious to draw from. I made sure her foster families never kept her for long, so I could engineer our love at first sight meeting. I couldn’t do without her.” He stepped forward, a gleam in his eyes. “If I had known you had Angel energy I would have ditched her, and primed you instead. I might’ve even rented you to some of the locals. Angel energy is so much sweeter than any worn human soul.”

Rage caused Thea’s energy to swirl within her; her palms filled with light. It threatened to overwhelm her completely. She glared at the demon, her whole body warm.

“Are you going to try to vanquish me?” he asked, running his eyes over her. He laughed. “Nephilim cannot challenge Asmos demons. Don’t be foolish. Run along. I’ll get Amber to call you when she’s recovered.” He turned around to go back to Amber.

Thea let off a spike of angelic energy, blasting the demon in the center of his back. He didn’t fall, but did stumble forward a few steps before catching his balance again. He turned around, his horned face full of rage. It would have been terrifying if Thea hadn’t been so angry, so completely infuriated that all she could think about was killing him.

She blasted him again but he moved out of the way this time, pulled out a dagger and began to circle her with it. With his free hand, he sent out a burst of energy that nearly blinded Thea for a moment. She automatically created a shield, but had to blink back tears as her eyes fought to adjust back to normal. No demon she had faced had ever done anything like that before, and in that moment, Thea became scared for the first time since her first demon attack. This demon could be way out of her league, what if she wasn’t able to subdue him? She glanced at Amber’s collapsed body and firmed her mind. She had to try.