Page 55 of The Morning Star
“Thank God you’re here,” one stuttered. “Grand and Broadway are nothing but ripped-up asphalt and tossed cars from here to Ninth, and all of Chinatown and the Stadium are on fire. There’s some flying lizard-hyena that is exploding buildings apart and shooting lightning bolts at cars from the top of the Westin.”
“How many of them are here, and where’s the leader?”
“We’re guessing three to four thousand in the city limits. There’s others north of town and up the coast into Vancouver.”
I winced. That many demons running amok in Los Angeles would take forever to corral. Hopefully once I took care of Samael, I could get control of this mob, otherwise this was all going to fall apart. But that was step two. Step one was finding the youngest archangel and killing him.
“There’s more of you, right?” The guy glanced at my wings again. “I mean, I don’t want to insult you or doubt your abilities as an angel, but there are thousands of them. So unless you can just shout some holy word and smite them from here…”
“This is a delicate diplomatic process,” I managed a completely straight face as I described me killing Samael as if I were heading into a meeting. “These aren’t some monsters that came through a rift. They’re demons—the product of Fallen angels. They’ve come from Hel with a powerful leader. I need to deal with him before I handle the demons he’s got running all around your city.”
Three of the six gasped. One crossed himself and started praying. I’m pretty sure one wet his pants. The guy who’d been talking to me swallowed hard a few times. “Demons. Demons from hell have invaded our city?”
“I know. It totally sounds like one of those Marvel franchise movies, doesn’t it?” Here comes the part these guys were going to like even less—being the subjects of a real-life dystopian situation. “These demons might be here to stay if I can get them to stop killing people and throwing cars around. It’s kind of a new world order thing. Eventually I’d like to have some demon-controlled areas, but until then they’re just sort of visitors. We’ll try to make it so they don’t kill you all off or blow up all the buildings though.”
“The angels are allowing demons to remain here, with us?” There was an edge of anger to the man’s voice that made me think he was two seconds from picking up his gun and blowing more holes through my wings. “We’re going to have to live with demons in our cities?”
“Trust me, it won’t be any worse than living next to angels. Those guys are no fun at all. Bunch of assholes with their rules and endless meetings and stale pastries. No fun. Demons are fun. Kinda violent and you might wind up dead, but fun.”
“Wishing they’d all go back to where they came from and leave us alone,” the praying one muttered. “Heaven. Hell. Don’t care just as long as they get out of here.”
I shot him a sympathetic glance. “The angels have been kicked out of heaven, and you guys are their pet project, so sadly you’re just going to have to suck it up with that one. The demons aren’t so bad. Well, except for this pissed off Ancient who’s taken your city. He wants all the humans and angels dead, and the planet salted and burned into a dead lump of rock.”
“Given that choice, I think we’ll take the angels,” praying guy responded.
The leader narrowed his eyes at me. “You’re talking about them in the third person, but you’ve got wings. And they’re not the leathery bat wings or rotting mangy looking ones these demon guys have. Are you an angel or not?”
Here comes the part where I might get shot again. “Technically yes. I’m an Angel of Chaos. I’m the leader of the Fallen, the Iblis, the Ha-Satan and I sit on the Ruling Council of Angels to represent the interests of the demons and Hel.”
“You’re Satan.” The leader confirmed in a firm voice. They weren’t shooting at me again, but the one guy had resumed praying.
“Yep.”
“And you’re here to…?”
I looked around to make sure there were no Lows or other demons to overhear what I was about to say. “I’m here to kill the asshole in charge of this invasion, then have a chat with his demon army about what’s considered to be acceptable behavior if they want to remain here. Then I’ll spend the next gazillion years dealing with committees and meetings and representatives and governance frameworks to make all this work in a way that satisfies the angels, keeps the humans from getting their panties in a knot, and makes the demons happy, but not too happy.”
Shoot me now. My future wasn’t looking too bright. It was a shame Samael was such a revenge-obsessed dickhead because I’d love nothing more than to hand this sword back to him and resign my duties. That bowling with minivans had looked kinda fun. I could totally spend eternity doing stuff like that.
But no. I needed to kill Samael and face a lifetime of meetings and stale pastries.
The other guys looked to the leader. He shrugged. “Above my pay grade,” he told them before facing me once more. “What’s the leader guy look like? The one you’re searching for? Bear-lion? Snake-chicken? Grasshopper-poodle?”
“White-blond hair. Eyes so light blue they’re practically colorless. Golden skin. Ratty wings with patchy black feathers. He’s super good-looking. Totally hot. Well, until he rips the heart and lungs out of someone’s chest, that is.”
His eyes widened. “That guy? He’s been tearing through clubs over off Santa Monica and the Strip, killing people left and right. Said he’s looking for something iconic to call his home base and set up his empire.”
Huh. If I’d decided to take over LA, that’s exactly where I would have gone. Probably would have chosen something edgy and cool like The Snake Room, or The Abbey. The Roxy or the Whisky, maybe. That’s what I would have done, but I’ve spent over forty years living among the humans. I knew their cities. I kept reasonably abreast on what was trendy and hip. I wasn’t some demon who’d only been here on vacation a total of twenty days in the last eight hundred years. And I certainly wasn’t an Ancient who’d spent pretty much the last two-and-a half-million years in pouty, simmering hibernation. Was Samael taking advice from a younger, more well-traveled demon? Had he grabbed some human in the course of his rampage and asked him where to find the cool clubs?
Or…
“You guys got a car or a SWAT van or something?” I asked the leader.
He nodded slowly, giving me the side-eye.
“Can I get a lift?” West Hollywood and the Strip was a bit of a hike on foot, and I wanted to get there sooner rather than later, and I wanted to get the lay of the land rather than teleport and risk dropping right into the middle of some really bad shit.
He eyed my wings. “Don’t those things work? Can’t you just fly there?”
