Page 14 of Give a Devil his Due
Pulling the dagger from the sheath strapped to my thigh, I scrape the tip under my nails and watch him shout from the top of his lungs for the Archangel. Narsi darts around the corner, skidding to a stop where I’m leaning on the wall and latches onto my leg koala style, his head flicking back and forth between us.
“Shadow makes Narsi angry.” My sidekick bares his yellowed teeth, his empty eye sockets scrunched in frustration. “I will eat his face.”
“No, you won’t.” Snorting, I pet the top of his unruly curls, and he leans into my touch like an excited puppy. “We said no eating the faces of anyone in this house, remember?” The reminder makes him pout, but he smoothes his tiny hand over the shirt he is wearing.
Eric bellows down the hall, “Raphael. I know you’re there, so get your feathered ass in the common room. Now.”
I don’t point out that technically both of them are feathered pains in my ass. My attention is drawn to Narsi’s shirt and the golden feather pinned like a broach on his chest. The same one he found when the Fates pulled us into their own space, which fell from my wings. The childlike fingers grazed it gently, reverently, like something of great importance had been bestowed upon him.
My shoulder blades tingle.
“He is ignoring me on purpose.” Eric stomps toward me, his fists balled at his sides. “And you”—His finger points at Narsi, making my sidekick’s upper lip curl over yellowed teeth—“stay out of my way today, or I will kick you back to Hell before you have a chance to fight me on it.”
Narsi’s head tilts up slowly, and he turns his face toward mine, where I’m looking down at him. “Can I eat him now?” It takes everything in me not to bark out a laugh at his pleading expression.
“Not yet.” Head cocked to the side, I give Eric a pointed look and a smirk. “Depending on how today goes, I might let you do it later, though.”
With a shake of his head, Eric spins on his heel, his yell making me flinch. “Raphael, Helena is hurt.”
My mouth opens to call him out on his lie, but I’m too late. Multiple pairs of feet create a thundering stampede headed our way from two directions. Colt, Beelzebub, and George rush from our left, and Satanael, with Raphael and Cass on his heels, dart from the right. All of them skid to a halt when they see me propped on the wall with Narsi wrapped around my leg, while Eric stands in the middle of the hallway, his hands on his hips and a grin plastered on his lips.
I snicker and proceed to clean under my nails with the dagger.
“Oh, great. All of you are here, so I don’t have to go looking.” Eric sneers, his anger directed mostly at the Archangel. “It’s almost as if you knew I needed to talk to all of you.”
Narsi chortles like a deranged person.
“I should’ve known my brother was having a tantrum and using his mate to get attention,” Colt spits between clenched teeth. “Some of us need to gather what we require for our trip. We can’t sit around to chat.”
It’s obvious they are all upset, and an argument is about to explode in the tight space. Knowing them, there will be fists flying too, something I’m really not in the mood for. Mind spinning in search of something to say to defuse the situation, whatever is ready to come out of my mouth is stuck in my throat. Face twisted in fury, Eric points an accusing finger at my face.
“She will die if Raphael and I are killed. One of us not surviving an injury will cost Helena her life.”
The silence is oppressive.
Seven pairs of hard eyes and one pair of empty eye sockets pin me to the wall. My nervous laugh doesn’t help, but I lift my hands in surrender, inching as close to the nearest door as I can. “It’s actually not as horrible as he makes it sound.” Narsi drops his legs on the ground and digs his heels in to prevent me from moving.
Eric is lucky we just had sex. There will be no tumble in the sheets in his near future for doing this to me. If he knows he’s up to his earlobes in shit, he will be groveling instead of glaring at me like I just spit in his cereal. Asshole.
“Helena?” Raphael’s tone is low and full of horror when he steps around Satanael’s large frame. “Is this true?” His golden eyes bore into mine, speeding my heart rate to alarming levels. “Back in the village where we found your father. My shoulder … I thought, but it cannot be.”
A muscle is quivering in my jaw.
“Someone better starts explaining. What are you talking about, Raphael?” Satanael grabs the Archangel, yanking him around to face him. “Stop blabbering like a fool and say what is on your mind. What does your limb have to do with my daughter?” he demands.
Eric puffs up, and I make sure he knows I’ll stab him later for this. “I’ll deal with you later.” With a sigh, I press more of my weight on the wall. “We don’t know for sure that your injuries can kill me, for one. Second, what any of this means for us is all a guessing game, for now.”
“One of the demons latched onto my arm, and as I turned, it wrenched it out of its socket.” Great, I guess they are going to act like I’m not standing right here. “Helena was rubbing hers in the same spot, and she was favoring the same arm. I did not see her receiving any blows in the fight.”
All six males start talking at once, trying to outshout one another. It’s surprising to see George getting in Eric’s face, most of all since my hunter friend has been getting more accustomed to all the creatures of Hell and Heaven prowling around him lately. He didn’t watch Underworld inhabitants with disgust anymore, but right now, hatred burned in his irises.
“Not a boring day around here, amirite?” Cass bumps her shoulder on mine, ignoring the cluster of red-faced males crowding the hallway.
“This is called ‘fuck you very much Helena’ for making sure all of us survived the jinn,” I tell her with a cheerfulness I don’t feel. My arm is raised so I’m ready to snatch Narsi at any given moment if he goes for someone’s face.
He looks too perky.
“Is it true, though?” My friend peers at me, a cloud of bouncy chestnut curls dancing around her shoulders. “Anyone can hurt you by stabbing one of them?”
