Page 76 of The River of Hatred

I take out the zip ties I borrowed from Syrin’s kitchen and restrain the passed-out mortals’ hands and feet. “It’s not like Lucifer gave us a choice,” I murmur. I can feel my face heating up. Why am I letting his judgment get to me? He wasn’t there, he doesn’t know what it’s like to be told to choose between your soul and your heart.

“That’s not–”

“Enough, Son,” Nephithar intervenes. I turn to see him giving me a knowing look. “She never had the choice.”

I bite my lip. “Ash thinks he’s planning something. Something to do with archdemon and mortal couples… maybe children.”

The demon’s eyes widen.

“What?” I take a step closer. “What do you know?”

He hesitates. “There is a prophecy,” he says slowly.

“What kind of prophecy?” I ask, growling with impatience.

The demon shakes his head, his red eyes narrowed in apology. “Ask Syrin when we’re back, she’ll know it better than me as she likely transcribed it eons ago. Her mind’s a vast archive of knowledge. Mine’s mostly preoccupied with thoughts of making love to her.”

“Ew, Dad!”

The burly demon shoots a shit-eating grin at Mike, then continues down the makeshift hallway. I let Kevin pass and fall into step with my other best friend.

“Are you mad at me?” I ask, chewing on the inside of my cheeks.

Mike blows out a gust of air before wrapping an arm around my waist. He pulls me along after the other males. “Dad’s right, I have no idea what I’m talking about and should’ve counted to five before I opened my cocksucking mouth.”

Nephithar groans from ahead and Mike’s eyes get that evil twinkle I know so well. Payback’s a bitch, I guess.

Before I can open my mouth, gunfire sounds from the other side of the warehouse, an endless rat-tat-tat of bullets being expelled from weapons.

“We need to hurry,” I gasp, shaking Mike off and picking up my pace. As we burst through the iron door at the end of the office area, the space opens up. There’s an old, likely defunct forklift to our right, and in front of us are endless rows of incredibly tall shelves.

“The gunfire isn't coming from here,” Kevin says, turning in circles to take in every shadowed corner.

“Let’s move, then.” Nephithar’s words spur us back into action. We pass row after row, their far sides fading into darkness, but we don’t seem to be any closer to the source of the sounds of battle.

I must’ve grown complacent to what I sense in my surroundings or just that worried about my friends, because the next thing I know, we’re surrounded by more Cambions. And this time there’s nowhere to hide.

Chaos engulfs us as we all spring into motion. Nephithar throws himself at the nearest Cambion, grabbing his arm and pushing it up just as the mortal squeezes the trigger of his gun. Instinctively, I duck, then use the move to barrel into another enemy’s midsection. As I bring the pudgy man to the ground and start whaling on him, I briefly wonder where all the women are. Surely their families aren’t all boys? This seems like a question Simone would be able to answer. If we ever got to talk to her again.

Once the scumbag under me is well and truly passed out, I blow a loose strand of hair from my sweaty face. In front of me, Mike spins to dodge a blow, ending the rotation with a roundhouse kick. He did not learn that in our self-defense class when we met. With that big demon as a dad, he must’ve known how to fight since he was in diapers. So what was he doing in that class? I’m going to have to ask him later.

I get up in time to catch Kevin in my arms, then push him back at his two opponents. We’re grossly outnumbered and I feel like we stepped on a beehive. I wish I could use my hellfire, but… I still can’t aim with it. I don’t want to hurt my friends.

What happens next transpires too fast for my brain to grasp. One moment I’m looking for my next target, the next I hear Mike screaming my name. He barrels into me with a thud and we both drop like a sack of potatoes, the smaller male on top of me.

“What the heck was that, douche canoe?” I grumble, pushing at his shoulders, but get no response. “Mike?”

“Michael!” Nephithar roars.

With shaking limbs, I roll until Mike’s lying on the floor and pat him down. “What’s wrong, buddy?” I ask, trying to find the source of his paleness. When I notice the pool of blood spreading underneath him, I feel my face pale as well. I turn him over until I’m faced with his wet back, a hole in his plain leather armor. “Fuck, no, no, no,” I whine, reaching for one of my daggers with a trembling hand.

Kevin’s knees hit the ground next to us. “What do you need?” he asks with an earnest voice.

“Watch our backs!” I hiss, grabbing the collar of Mike’s top and using my blade to cut it down the middle.

“It’s almost over,” Kevin says and reaches over to help me clear the wound. Once the hole is visible and I see dark red blood seeping out, my heart clenches. That’s a bullet hole and it’s clearly still inside him. Or it would’ve been inside of me.

In the sudden silence, I look up to see Nephithar frozen in horror, looking down at his bleeding son. Tears well in my eyes and I angrily brush them off with the back of my hand. He’s not dead. He can’t die. We’ve only just reunited.

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