Page 4 of Demons & Damnation

“Need I remind you,” Balthazar said, stabbing his index finger into his brother’s solid chest. “That we are stuck like this because of you. You’re a damn curse—always have been. If you want to cause misery to everything and everyone you come into contact with for all eternity, go ahead and be my guest, but don’t drag me down with you. Asshole.”

Azazel quirked up a sandy coloured eyebrow, delight filtering through his eyes at the taste of a challenge. “You’re kidding me, right? You think we’re stuck like this because of me?” He poked Balthazar in the chest with two fingers, causing his brother to stumble back a step. “You might want to re-think that little statement, Octavio.”

Balthazar’s brown eyes swirled with flecks of blackness, the hint of his demonic form scratching just beneath the surface, ready to unleash at any moment. “That. Is. Not. My. Name.”

“No?” Azazel asked, giving his younger sibling a smug smile. “Let’s follow your little ideals for a moment, shall we? Let’s say you find that person, that special one, your demi-soul. You know what you need to do to have that love confirmed. And it involves everything you were as Octavio. Everything.”

Balthazar tilted his chin up with a defiant flick. “I’m fully aware of the rules. There’s someone for everyone, Azazel. Every year we come here is my chance to find her. The right one will love me despite my past. I know that. It matters what I am here and now, not what I was or have been.”

Azazel chuckled. “You’re nothing but a soppy hearted idiot with idealistic views of love. I would have thought after two millennia, you might have learned something.”

“I have learned something, you infantile moron. I know I don’t want to continue much longer without feeling love. Unlike some.”

Tipping his head back, Azazel laughed so loud it echoed through the dark skies. “But that’s where you’re wrong. I do feel love—” Azazel grabbed his groin in a crude gesture, looked back at his brother and grinned “—I feel it right here.”

“And what would Cassia think of you if she could see you right now, hmmm?”

In the blink of an eye, fuelled by fury, chiselled cheek bones became lost under a sea of dark purple veins as Azazel’s demonic form came to the surface. Jade green eyes gave way to obsidian depths, the gleam in them nothing but dangerous. “Don’t you dare speak her name, you vile piece of—”

Blessed with feline reflexes, Balthazar hurled a clenched fist at his brother’s face. The crunch of bone splintering bone thundered through the sky. Turning away from his uncouth brother, a whispered curse left Balthazar as he walked across the frosted grass, chastising himself for being drawn into another physical fight. He drew a deep breath and re-focused his mind on this year’s destination.

Azazel shook his head, his demonic features evaporating as quickly as they’d appeared. He shouted a stream of curse words as his broken nose realigned itself, each shattered piece of bone clicking back into place.

“Why can’t you just accept that we’re different?” Balthazar asked, glancing briefly at his brother over his shoulder. “Why do my ideals of love bother you so much?”

Azazel paused for a moment, thinking over his brother’s question. “Because we have immense power and magick, more knowledge than any amount of books could ever contain, and an eternity to enjoy it all with. Why would you want to give that up just to live eighty years with some human whose looks will fade after twenty years anyway?”

“But that’s my choice. Not yours.”

“I want what’s best for you,” Azazel said, the feeble tone to his voice not quite passing off his sincerity.

Balthazar chuckled. “No, you don’t. You just can’t stand the thought of me finding happiness before you.”

Azazel pressed his lips together and stared at the grass beneath his feet. His brother had hit the nail on the head.

Seeing Azazel lost in his thoughts, Balthazar took his opportunity and lifted his hands, tracing his fingers through the crisp night sky. He drew a large triangle, his fingers leaving behind a shimmering glow of silver and purple specks hovering in the air, like a plane leaving vapour trails.

“Transporto,” he said, giving his brother a quick sideways glance before he said the next two words. The stillness around them began to change, a slight breeze strengthening into a powerful vortex. Spinning in all directions, the turbulent energy ripped a hole in time and space. A sharp crack, as if the sound barrier had been broken, signified the completion of the closet-sized magickal doorway being opened.

Sucking in a deep breath, Balthazar spoke his final words as fast as possible. “Amor aeternus.”

Azazel snapped his head up, his face contorting into a picture of horror as he glared at his brother. “What the fuck did you just do?” He launched himself at Balthazar, rugby tackling him to the ground. “You fucking bastard!”

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