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The only way to know her enemy was to learn about him. Malphas was the key. Abeona gave Bella use of her private offices, which seemed to be her base of operations for now. She scoured every book on Nephilim lore, Malphas and any connection that might be there. Bella learned a lot from those books, like that Malphas was powerful enough to rival Morningstar himself. She didn’t need a book to tell her that, he’d killed one of the wives of Hell. In her vision, he broke her neck like a twig and if that wasn’t ‘I don’t give a fuck,’ Bella didn’t know what was.
The vision itself bothered her. It was like she was watching, but it didn’t feel like it was her. Bella frowned, wondering if part of her new powers was the ability to astral project. It made more sense since she hadn’t had another vision since, still, that didn’t seem right. Bella growled in frustration all of this information leading nowhere. Granted, it was more than she’d known about herself for a very long while.
Bella was gaining more control over her power, her wings opened up with a mere thought, and the night before she took to the skies in her first flight. The cold wind the higher she flew took her breath away, but she could dive and twirl and she broke through the clouds that covered Seattle that night. As the glow of the moon cascaded over her body, it was one of the best moments of her life, a sense of freedom Bella couldn’t describe.
“Nightshade,” Abeona opened the door and stuck her head around it. “You have a guest.”
Bella looked shocked. “Who?”
“The demon, and he has some kind of raggedy guest,” Abeona grimaced. “He stinks of sulfur. Yan, Henri and I will have a hell of a sage to do tonight.”
“That doesn’t sound good.” Bella closed the book that was open on the desk and followed Abeona.
Ose stood by the door, an angry frown etched deep in his perfect face, and at his feet there was a thin man with his clothes half burned off. He seemed to be smoldering after a hell of a fight.
“Uh, what happened to him?” Bella asked.
“Fucking Malphas,” Ose said angrily.
Wheeler came to stand next to them. “He smells like shit.”
“Wheeler, go to your room,” Abeona said. “This is grown up stuff.”
He kicked at the floor with the end of his sneaker. “I used to live on the streets, I can help.”
“Not with this,” she cupped his cheek. “I want you nowhere in the affairs of demons.”
“Fine,” Wheeler turned and grumbled. “But I know I can help.”
Bella watched him walking away, thinking he was probably right, before focusing back on Ose and what seemed to be his unwanted guest.
“What did Malphas do?” Bella asked.
“Well, he started the war in Hell, that’s what, and while the big rollers are enjoying the hell out of it, refugees are going to start coming out and trying to possess anyone they can,” Ose said, and he ran his hand through his hair. “And for some reason, they’re my people so they think I’m their savior.”
“So this guy is in...”
Ose finished Bella’s sentence. “Some bum he found along the way.”
“Oh, we can’t have that,” Bella said angrily. “Tell him to let that guy go right this instant!”
“And then he is either in true demon form or wafting around in spirit form in Abeona’s house,” Ose pointed out.
“We certainly don’t want that,” Abeona said.
Bella turned to Abeona and pointed to the demon at the same time. “We can’t have them running around possessing innocent people either.”
“Very true.” Abeona directed a question to Ose. “How many would you say there will be?”
“There are as many demons in Hell as angels in Heaven, maybe more the way they like to procreate,” Ose explained. “We are looking at hundreds of demonic refugees topside.”
“I though they couldn’t leave Hell unless they found...” Bella’s eyes widened. “A doorway, they found the freaking doorway!”
“Give that girl a prize,” Ose answered. “If we help them, they can lead you to your doorway.”
Abeona frowned. “Help how, exactly?”
“With somewhere to put them,” Ose exclaimed. “They seem to be coming to me and I don’t want them! If we could find a way to direct them to another place to hide, that would be perfect.”
“For how long?” Bella asked. “I can’t have a gazillion demons running loose up here. I’ll have to start killing them.”
Ose pointed at Abeona. “She bound her club, maybe she can bind a bigger place and stop them from leaving. They can fornicate in there to their hearts’ content.”
“Eww,” Bella grimaced. “Do they need to be fed?”
Ose looked down at the man at his feet. “That would be left for me to handle, I just need somewhere to put the wretches. They are quite happy in the bowels of Hell, they don’t want to be up here either.”
Bella frowned, her mind racing and then an idea formed in her head.
“Wheels, c’mere a sec!” she called out.
Wheeler shuffled out with a sullen face. “I thought I wasn’t supposed to be involved in whatever this is?”
Bella put her arms around his shoulder. “That’s your mom trying to give you a childhood to play video games and be a kid. Trust me, none of us had that and would give anything to go back and live that kind of life. So take it as a gift, kiddo.”
Wheeler sighed. “What’s up?”
“When you were on the street, was there anywhere secluded that you and other street kids slept, somewhere that felt safe?” Bella asked.
“Yeah, tons of places,” Wheeler answered.
“It would have to be big.” Abeona saw where Bella’s idea was heading.
He thought for a moment. “There’s old warehouses near Puget Sound, even train cars just rusting away there.”
“That would work,” Ose said, “I can leave some kind of trail for them to follow so they don’t show up at my fucking apartment.”
Bella laughed. “How did they get your address?”
Ose looked down at the demon. “How did you know where to find me?”
The demon in human guise looked up at him, shocked. “I thought you knew... your address is on the walls of one of the tunnels used to hide when the knife or his soldiers are in their moods. It said, ‘for help in the human world, Ose the dark soul resides at...’”
The demon listed his address and Bella laughed. “They put your address on the demon version of a bathroom wall. All it needs is ‘for a good time, call.’”
“I’m glad you find this amusing,” Ose said mildly. “Imagine you are there eating like you usually are when annoyed and they show up, or Malphas?”
“I’d welcome Malphas, get this thing over with once and for all,” Bella replied.
Ose frowned. “Your naivety is going to get you killed.”
“I wouldn’t be so naïve if people would tell the truth,” she shot back.
Abeona clapped. “Children, let’s not argue.”
Bella asked her friend, “Abbie, would you be able to cast a boundary so wide that they couldn’t escape and no one could go in?”
“Of course, that’s child’s play,” she scoffed. “I will even make it so that the spell recognizes demon energy and lets them in but not out and keeps all humans away.”
Bella looked her up and down. “Well, aren’t you fancy, with all your fancy magic and shit.”
Abeona grinned. “Well, I try.”
“This new relationship you have is very strange,” Ose murmured. “But can we get to doing this, please, before my doorman has heart failure and brings my new guests up to the building manager?”
“Slip him a few hundred dollars, he will let you wax his back to make a coat,” Bella rolled her eyes.
“You know if you were nicer to him...”
“I’d die from being nice to that asshole.”
“Very well, then.”
“Let’s get on the move, and he’s going to show me that doorway first.” Bella turned and gave Wheeler a hug. “You’re a rockstar, kid.”
Her words made him grin and that was all he needed, he rushed back to his room happy that he could help. She understood the need to feel useful and in turn loved, especially when you grew up on the streets. Bella was looking at the man who was possessed by the demon, who seemed to be breathing a little easier and who looked a little more hopeful.
He also became a bit more conniving as he relaxed. Typical demon, they always had to try stupid shit. Bella knew before this was over she would have to kill a few of these so-called refugees from Hell.
Abeona went to gather her things and Bella waited for her while Ose took the demon back outside. Yan instantly lit four white sage smudge sticks, handing two to Henri, and filled the living room with the cleansing smoke. They passed it from head to toe over her once or twice, making her cough.
“Thanks guys,” Bella coughed. “I think I’m good and cleansed.”
Henri nodded with a smile and while Yan continued to work in the living area, Henri went down the hallway, and when she heard Wheeler’s “Hey!” Bella knew the thirteen-year-old was going to be cleansed whether he wanted to be or not.
“Nightshade, come with me to your room,” Abeona called from the hall.
“Abeona, I thought we agreed, we’re friends and you will never see my yummy yummy good stuff,” Bella said, walking towards the hall.
Abeona rolled her eyes. “Trust me, if I wanted it that badly, I could get it.”
Bella shrugged as she entered the room and saw folded clothes on the bed. “You probably could. And what’s this?”
“A new set of clothes to suit your new evolution in more ways than one,” Abeona said. “I think you understand your purpose now, that you are a warrior and it’s a gift not a curse.”
“I haven’t decided on that part yet.”
Bella’s words trailed away as she lifted the bodysuit that seemed to be made of soft leather or suede. It wasn’t black but a chocolate brown and its sleeves were cut down to the wrist. There was a black leather type of waistcoat built over the top with mental buttons matching the brown color. The legs would fit easily over her boots but there was a sheath built into each side for her blades, which was safer that just shoving them in between her boot and sock.
“If you look on the inner side of the sleeves, there are two more sheaths easily accessible, and the cut would hide two thin but strong athame-type blades which I am having made for you,” Abeona explained. “I will infuse them with the magic they need to always protect you. The jacket is a type of fabric rarely seen but no blade will pierce it. While you may heal quickly, we don’t want to take chances. Finally, on the back...”
Abeona stopped speaking so Bella could find it for herself. She turned it around and while she thought it was a whole swatch of fabric, there were two distinct flaps with an overlay stitched pattern and Velcro to open them up.
“For your wings,” Abeona said gently. “I believed we would have an issue with you using them with regular clothes after we had to cut holes in your shirt for you to fly off the roof.”
“You did this for me?” Bella asked incredulously, never having received a gift like this.
“There are several being made but this one was needed tonight,” Abeona said. “You are a warrior, time to dress like one.”
Bella rushed into her arms and squeezed her friend tight. “Thank you for this, for everything.”
Abeona squeezed her back. “Get dressed. We’ll be waiting in the parking garage.”
Bella undressed quickly and found there was even a pocket on the front of her waistcoat for her cellphone, and of course the silver charm from her treacherous angel was right there with her even though she left it in her coat. The fabric was warm and after she put her boots back on, Bella went to join her friends down in the garage. Everyone turned when she walked up and Bella looked away in embarrassment.
“Well, this is new.” Ose’s eyes roamed greedily over her. “Please tell me this will be a new and permanent change in your attire.”
“What’s wrong with my old clothes?” Bella asked Ose.
“You normally have a more Nirvana grunge style that has too many layers,” he explained.
“Fuck off, I like Nirvana,” Bella said too sweetly. “Let’s get this show on the road. Two cars, Abbie, you and Yan go to the abandoned warehouses and do your thing. We are going to the doorway so I can scout around to see what’s up or if there are any clues to who opened it and how we can close it.”
“Be careful,” Abeona said sincerely and glared at Ose. “If she is harmed I will turn you inside out.”
Ose winced. “Understood, bruja.”
The two cars went in different directions when they left the garage. Bella’s heart thumped in excitement. For too long she’d been playing defense. She was ready to go on the offensive and kill Malphas or whoever else got in her way. That doorway would be closed.
* * * *
The lesser demon in the back of the car was crunched up in the corner. Bella felt something was off about him and frowned when she met his gaze in the rear-view mirror and saw the glint of evil. Well, he is a demon, she thought while Ose maneuvered the vehicle per his directions. The distance was much too far for him to have run all this way to Ose. This was a trap and Bella had the sneaking suspicion it wasn’t just for her. Pulling her phone out of her pocket, she scrolled to Abeona’s number and started to text quickly.
Ose looked at her curiously. “What are you doing?”
“Checking in with Abbie about how the spell is going, you know how thorough she is,” Bella said lightly. She needed to let Ose know it was a trap they were walking into.
It’s a trap, go home! They wanted us out of the house and in the open.
Bella handed the phone to Ose with a laugh. “Look what she said about you.”
Ose read the message and in his usual fashion, his face was expressionless when he spoke. “Funny.”
Luckily Abeona texted back they hadn’t reached the abandoned warehouse yet and she was turning around. A sigh of relief almost escaped Bella but she had to keep it cool, the demon in the back was getting fidgety.
“This is quite a distance,” Ose said casually. “We’re almost to the woods where the state line is.”
“We’re demons, we move fast, you know that, Sire,” the demon answered.
“Sire?” Bella raised her eyebrow.
“Don’t,” Ose growled the warning.
The demon sat up quickly. “Didn’t he tell you? Sire has legions to command on the third level of Hell. Everyone likes that level, Sire keeps it chill and easy, as long as we stay on task, of course. If he gets mad, all hell breaks loose.”
“Nice pun,” Bella said dryly.
“What is pun?”
Bella shook her head. “Never mind, how does Sire punish you if you happen to piss him off?”
“He wills us up to this world,” the demon said. “It smells funny, we don’t like it, but Sire doesn’t come downstairs often anymore.”
“Oh huh,” Bella murmured. “So who’s in charge when he’s not there?”
“Sire is always in charge, even though no one sits at his chair,” the demon said.
“It seems crystal clear someone is vying for your seat,” Bella told Ose under her breath.
“It will be regretful when that does not happen,” he answered just as low.
“What’s your name?” Bella asked the demon.
“No name, we are numbers,” he answered.
Bella looked at Ose. “You don’t name your demons as hatchlings?”
“There are thousands of them, it seems easier to give them numbers, everyone does it,” Ose explained. “We don’t have time to name lessers. Unless you are born to a higher demon, you get a number.”
“I’m number three thousand and eleven,” the demon said with pride, “I was one of the first ten thousand, Sire numbered. Stop here!”
Ose pulled the car over on the side of the dark, insolated road and they stared out into the darkened woods.
“Seems legit, let’s put a doorway in the middle of nowhere,” Bella said.
“We walk from here, old graveyard with a stone mausoleum, it’s crumbling but that’s how we got out,” the demon explained as they got out of the car.
“The land is consecrated, we shouldn’t even be able to step on the soil,” Ose pointed out as they walked. “And yet you got out and didn’t die in a puddle of your own putrid flesh? Where are the other refugees? Are they close by?”
“I...” The demon couldn’t find the words to back up his story now.
Ose took off his coat and folded it before he hung it neatly over a low branch. “Did Malphas tell you that you would sit in my chair if you led me to my death? How much for the Nephilim as well?”
The demon grinned. “You are no longer worthy of Hell, you sit up here with these flesh bags and live in luxury while your seat stays empty. It is time for a change.” He looked at Bella. “He doesn’t want you dead, he needs you.”
“For what?” Bella demanded to know.
“Oh, you’ll see, indeed you will,” he said the words in a sing-song tone. “And when I take over as the leader of the third...”
Bella heard a gun fire and saw the demon drop to the dirt. Ose walked towards him and as he tried to scramble away, he put a foot on the demon’s chest, pinning him to the ground.
“You as a lesser thought you could usurp me, a prince of Hell?” Ose’s tone was deadly. “Malphas sent you to betray me and die.”
“You can kill this body and it will just send me back to Hell.” The demon’s laugh was nasty.
“There will be no going back for you. I made you and I will end you, I’ll need a new three thousand and eleven,” Ose said almost gently. “I hate to destroy you but an example must be made.”
“No, Sire!” he cried out.
But Ose reached down, pulled the demon from the homeless man’s body and Bella watched in shock as Ose seemed to erase him from existence or absorb him. Either way, it was kinda creepy and she didn’t want to think about it so she focused on the man bleeding from his shoulder. She went to him and used a piece of his tattered shirt to press against his shoulder wound.
“What are we going to do with him?” Bella asked.
He was unconscious but Ose bent down and passed his hand over the man’s face. “Sleep. We’ll pick him up on the way back,” he said, beginning to walk.
“If we make it back,” Bella said doubtfully.
Ose grabbed his coat. “Oh ye of little faith.”
“It’s super creepy when you quote the other book,” Bella told him.
It was about a ten-minute walk from the car to the old, crumbling graveyard. Bella looked around, knowing that nature had taken this place back long before modernization came to Seattle and Oregon. There was a silhouette of an old church steeple made of brick while all the rest of the structure more than likely was crumbled and covered with foliage. The mausoleum was easy to pick out from between smaller stone markers. It was small and the cherubs covered in moss stood out, telling Bella it belonged to a child. She could see perfectly in the dark and given the aura of energy around the mausoleum, this was the doorway.
“Here lies Fife Connolly, Hated among his family and community, may be walk in hell.” Bella read. “What the hell did he do?”
“Think he is in one of the darker levels, the name is very familiar,” Ose told her. “Liar, cheat charlatan, adultery, greedy, coveting another man’s wife abuser of women and children, the community of Bruin despised him.
“Damn, what a fuck up,” Bella said “Well Abeona said it would be a grave of a man who has sinned, he seems to have done all of them a few times over.”
“The rest of the graveyard is consecrated but his mausoleum is dark and nothing grows a few feet outward,” Ose pointed out. “Getting out, lesser demons would still burn, beyond that point.”
“Would Malphas burn?” Bella asked walking around it.
“Barely,” Ose answered. “But non of us want to feel the pain of consecrate ground.”
“It’s too small to crawl into,” Bella said, walking up to it slowly. “And I still don’t know how it got opened or how your demon friend got through.”
“He didn’t.” Ose stood at the border of the graveyard. “I cannot enter lest I burn, so he didn’t come through this portal. And if he did, someone led him out, I mean literally following each footstep to the end of the graveyard.”
She turned to him and watched as Ose pushed his shoe forward and it began to sizzle.
“I don’t think any angel would do that unless they were trying to start the end of the world sooner rather than later,” Bella said.
“Nightshade!” Abeona’s voice rang though the night. “Run!”
Then all hell broke loose. A deafening roar came from behind Bella, so loud it shook the stones of the mausoleum and they began to crack and fall away. She watched in horror as the cherubs split apart and fell to the ground. Ose was knocked aside and into a tree by a huge, hulking creature. Bella couldn’t call him a man, no one was that big. The face looked like it was cut from granite and this demon didn’t care to hide his massive horns. This was Malphas and somehow he’d gotten beyond the consecrated ground. Ose wasn’t moving on the ground and Yan dragged him away quickly.
“Bella, run, come to me,” Abeona said urgently. “We must leave, do not let him touch you.”
“He can’t, I’m on consecrated ground!” Bella said bravely.
Abeona cried out, “He has a key and you are part of it!”
Bella frowned, what the hell was she talking about?
Then she saw a figure crawling out of the stone structure and her heart stopped in her chest. This being was hunched over with two large protrusions on its back that hung like wings except it only had a few feathers on its bare, pale skin.
The hair was almost white and thick, coarse and matted. This thing shuffled along and she could make out abnormal hands. When it turned, Bella’s heart stopped. The features were close to hers but deformed. It was one of her sisters, the ones doomed to die when the angels decided to kill them all in utero. Malphas held out his hand and her sister took it. Bella noticed her hand had six fingers before Malphas’s massive hand enveloped it.
It all fell into place, a Heavenly being that helped open the door to Hell, the key of salvation. The angels knew she was alive and wanted her dead just like they wanted Bella. Did the other two survive, and how was that possible?
“How?” the word rasped from her dry throat.
“While Heaven didn’t want you, we cherish your kind, Nephilim,” Malphas’s voice was deeper than baritone. “All you have to do is join us, and you and your sisters will be unstoppable.”
“Why does she get to be pretty and I do not?” her sister asked. “You have wings, don’t you, like mine?”
Bella nodded. “Yes.”
“Let me see them!” her sister said eagerly.
“No,” she whispered while shaking her head.
“Because they are beautiful, like you are.” Her sister’s voice was bitter and she looked up to Malphas. “You promised that I would be pretty.”
“And you will be,” he promised. “I need all three of you to make it happen.”
“All three of us,” Bella repeated the words slowly and asked her sister, “What’s your name?”
“Hemie,” she answered. “You’re Bella.”
Bella smiled, feeling tears fill her eyes. “Yes, please come with me.”
“Father said you’ll help make me beautiful,” Hemie said eagerly. “If you come with us, we will be more powerful than anyone in this world or any others.”
“Hemie, he’s using you, he wants us to wage a war against Heaven,” Bella implored.
“And is that so bad? Look what they did to me!” Hemi cried out. “Maybe you side with them because they made you beautiful!”
“No, I take no side in this fight except for the innocents I protect,” Bella explained and held out her hand. “Please...”
“Bella, you pull your fucking hand back and step towards Abeona,” Ose said firmly. “It is not your sister, not anymore, it hasn’t been since it was lost.”
Bella looked back at him. “Look at her, she needs us!”
“It’s not a she, Bella, stop looking with your heart and use your fucking mind!” Ose shouted.
“Ose is right,” Abeona cried out. “Nightshade, I would never steer you wrong, you need to come to us now.”
Bella shook her head furiously and swiped away angry tears. “No, she needs us and I’m going to help her. Come with me, Hemie, I promise you’ll be safe.”
She held out her hand and Hemie stepped tentatively closer to take her hand. The smile on her face grew and grew until it deformed her face, taking her nose higher, and those wide eyes became slits. Before Bella could take her hand, she was snatched away by strong arms and rolled out of the way, across consecrated ground and outside the border.
The sizzling sound filled Bella’s ears and she looked up to see Ose trying to slap out the patches of fire that were on his body. He took the pain of being on consecrated ground to keep her away from her sister, though at the time she couldn’t see it as anything other than betrayal.
“What the fuck was that about?” Bella shouted. “I almost had her.”
“No, she almost had you,” he snapped.
Malphas roared and called forward some of the demons he had brought out through the doorway as well. The fight began in earnest, Ose using his gun and Abeona using magic to keep them away from Bella and Yan. Bella was focused. If she killed Malphas, her sister would be free and then she could help her sister see she was being used.
With a war cry, Bella arced the energy at her fingers to make the flaming blade while she attacked the second-in-command of Hell. He dodged her swipes and parries with a booming laugh.
“Bring him down to your size,” she muttered. Everyone else was in the midst of a battle for their own lives and it was up to her to destroy the demon holding her sister captive.
Bella ran at high speed toward the hulking beast of a man and slid between his legs, using her car-blade to cut at the backs of his legs. He didn’t go down. Instead there was a rage-filled cry of pain that filled the night. Hemie acted in defense of the demon she called father, attacked Bella with dark energy that knocked her off her feet and sent her careening back into the dirt. She might have taken on the deformities of the Nephilim but was as strong as, if not stronger than, Bella.
Malphas moved towards her menacingly when Bella heard loud snarls and a large gray and black wolf jumped out of the darkness and onto the demon’s back. It clamped its teeth onto the back of its neck and shook savagely, drawing black blood. The demon reached back easily and pulled the wolf from his back, slashed at its belly and tossed it aside. It shifted into a very naked Dax, the leader of the wolf pack, and he was bleeding from a deep wound in his stomach.
Anger and hurt filled Bella and she slapped her hand into the ground. “Enough!”
Instead of the sword of energy, she sent that power into the earth, making it shake, and as it travelled along the dirt, demons started to fall. Watching his demon army start to dissipate into black ash, Malphas took Hemie’s arm and they disappeared out of sight along with what was left of his demons.
“No!” Bella reached out her hand to her sister’s form before it was gone. She sat there with her hands in the dirt, starting at the empty space until Abeona put her hand on her shoulder.
“Nightshade, we have to help Dax,” her friend said gently. “There are things to discuss so you understand what we are dealing with.”
Bella gave a stiff nod, not willing to forgive anyone for not helping with her sister. She moved over to where the leader of the Knight pack lay in the dirt holding his stomach.
She looked at the deep wound. “Goddamn, that slash is deep, Malphas almost eviscerated him. We need to get him to a hospital as soon as possible.”
“No hospitals,” he said. “I heal fast.”
“My house is closest to here,” Bella said. “If we can get him there, he can sleep and eat to heal. In fact, none of you are safe right now, I think we should move home base to my house.”
“Yan and I will go get Henri and Wheeler,” Abeona said without hesitation. “Can you manage to get him to your car?”
“We can manage,” Ose said. “Wish he was wearing clothes though.”
Bella was in a mood to lash out and hurt, especially Ose, who’d stopped her from saving her sister.
“If it wasn’t for all the blood, I think it’s kinda hot,” Bella said, and that got a grin from Dax. “Let’s get you on your feet and to my place.”
“This was not how I wanted to see your bedroom,” Dax gave a grin through his pain.
“Play your cards right, you might still get the chance to see it properly,” Bella teased.
“I’m right here,” Ose pointed out.
“Yeah, I know,” Bella’s voice was cool and he sighed.
There would be a lot to talk about when they returned to her manor house and from there she would make her own decisions. Bella was still trying to come to terms with the fact that one or all of her sisters were alive. This would be a perfect time for Sach to be there to explain this shit.