Page 166 of Wings of Lies
The other figure stormed past, leaving them to fight.
My shadows darkened as I drilled my gaze into the back of the cloaked figure. The king ordered me to kill anyone who stood in my way. Fortunately for the Nephilim, the king wanted him back, but the cloaked figure may be the first on my list.
Moments later, the front door slammed open, and an Archangel raced out of the house and into the skies. I eyed him for a second, knowing my king wouldn’t be pleased, but brushing away the thought of chasing after him. His day would come. For now, I was here for the female and Saraqael.
“Stay here, pup. Keep an eye out. I’ll be watching.”
Rune butted her muzzle into my hand, a silent confirmation that she understood but wasn’t happy about it.
I wrapped my shadows around myself, left the Nephilim and Marcus to fight it out, and entered the rickety old house.
Scanning each room, I strategically placed my steps to stay silent. Candy wrappers and chip bags, food only found on Earth, littered the living room. Encroaching upon the kitchen, my lip curled at the wretched smell of rot, blood, and rat piss. The surrounding rooms had the added benefit of peeled paint, glass, and more feces.
This place was a shit-hole. An empty shit-hole.
No one occupied the first floor. I was about to go to the second when a scream pierced the air. Diving deeper into my well, I pulled at the darkness, swathing more layers around myself to stay hidden and luscelered to the scream.
I stopped at the threshold of the basement.
The rancid, rotten blood overwhelmed my senses.What kind of sick bastard would make their basement a butcher shop?But the smell wasn’t what stopped me.
Saraqael lay unconscious on a table next to the female, and from all the blood that covered the female’s table, the butchering already started.
Her breaths stuttered in and out, clearly in a lot of pain, with the queen’spethunched over her.
“Sweetheart? Stay here. Stay with me. Please, just hang on a little longer. I’ll take you to a healer first. I promise,” the pet said, not noticing me behind him.
He pulled a knife from her hand, the sound of suctioning blood getting lost in her whimpers.
“Put it in my waistband,” she whispered with no strength.
He listened, tucking the sheathed knife beneath her bloody pants. Afterward, he sheathed his sword, freeing his hands to pick her up. That was a mistake, along with touching her.
I willed a shadowball to coalesce in my palm. It wouldn’t kill him; I’d need his blood for that. But it’d knock him out long enough for me to slit his throat. I wound up and threw it. The female peered at me as I did, like she could pierce through my shadows.
But that wasn’t possible. To her and the pet, I should look like a cloud of black. Only… Her eyes…
They drilled into me. Agony screamed in their star-flecked depths. I didn’t even think. Pulling at the deepest parts of my power, the shadowball darkened as it flew toward the pet’s back with enough force to knock him out for months. For the first time in a century, I allowed my rage to overpower my abilities.
A loss of control, first the king, now me.
“Aspen! Behind you!”
The pet turned, and the female rolled, pushing off the table and diving in front of him. My shadowball sank into her chest.
“No!”
Damn it!I didn’t mean to say that aloud. But fuck!
I hoped she had a high power level, or I’d have to tell the king I knocked the female out for half a year.
She stared at me as my shadows swarmed her body and mind. I couldn’t look away. And my shadows…What were they doing?
They… It almost felt like they were savoring her. Like they found something they liked and weren’t quite ready to shut her down. When they eventually did, it was gentle, like tucking her into a dreamless sleep.
“Lucille!”
Her body went slack in the pet’s arms, and before I knew it, a fireball flashed toward my face.
