Infernal Games by Jenna Wolfhart

11

Az set down on a rooftop only a few blocks away. He hadn’t wanted to remain in the sky for long to avoid Lucifer—or humans—spotting us. He’d found a roof that held a maze of concrete structures for us to hide among, but it all felt a bit pointless to me. If Lucifer really wanted to find us, wouldn’t he?

Fisting his hands, Az paced before me. Tension rattled his body, and a strange, sizzling heat seemed to waft off his skin. I’d never seen him like this before. Like he was just as shaken by what we’d seen as I was.

“Why are we here?” I asked. “Won’t he know exactly where we are because of his smell tracking thing?”

Az shook his head. “That’s not how it works. He has to be actively tracking someone to keep his sights on them. One he focuses on something else, he loses that connection, though he can pick it up again if they get near enough.”

“Near enough,” I said flatly. “Like we just did.”

“That was a big building with a lot of people. Besides, we weren’t actually that close to him. There were two walls between us and several stories,” Az said, ruffling his dark locks. “As powerful as he is, he isn’t infallible.”

“So, we’re safe?” I asked with a hopeful hitch in my voice.

“No.”

The ground fell out from beneath my feet. “Oh.”

Az shot me a sharp glance. There must have been something in my voice that gave away my fear. Not that he’d have to be a mind reader to get it. I knew I was visibly terrified.

Suddenly, he was beside me so quickly that it was as if he’d moved through time itself. He gathered me into his arms and pulled me against his chest. His heartbeat thundered against my ear.

I knew he was trying to help me relax, but nothing about this soothed me. All I could think about was his lips near my cheek and his muscles hard against my breasts.

“I’m sorry you had to see that, Mia,” he murmured, his breath tickling my neck. “I had no idea that you’d have to see something like that.”

Unshed tears flooded my eyes. I’d seen a lot of terrible things in the past couple of months, but nothing quite like this. The King of Hell had snapped an old man’s neck right in front of me, and he’d wanted me to see it. All part of his game. One clearly meant to terrorize me.

Sniffling, I pulled back to search Az’s eyes for answers I knew he didn’t have. “Why did he do that? What is all of this about, Az? We keep trying to find answers, but it makes less and less sense.”

“I don’t know, Mia.” He palmed my cheek, dropping his forehead to mine. “Did you know that man?”

I shook my head. I’d never seen him before in my life. He couldn’t have been younger than eighty, and while his salty hair reminded me of my own grandfather’s, they shared no other resemblance. Grandpa Martin was at least six feet tall, and he had wide shoulders and a sly smile. The victim in the window had been a slight, wiry man with glasses.

Now that I’d had a moment to process what we’d seen, I couldn’t get past the strangest part of it. The man hadn’t looked scared at all. Resigned, maybe. Like he’d expected this to happen. Maybe he had.

“Could he have been a demon, Az?” I asked. “Maybe I signed the contract with him, and he was the one who wiped my memories.”

“Demons don’t age, Mia. Not once they’re fully grown.”

“Oh, right.” I flushed as the hand on my cheek slid down to my shoulder. Even as we spoke about demon contracts and forgotten memories, I was hyperaware of his every move. “What does all this mean, then? What do we do now?”

This had been our only lead. The only hope we had of finding answers. Tears trailed down my cheeks. There was something wrong with me, and no one could tell me what it was. No one except for the most powerful demon in the world. The one who wanted to steal me away to the underworld.

I just felt so lost, like an essential part of myself was vanishing into the past. Mia McNally, the dancer, the pigeon lover. My mortal life had been next to impossible the past few years, but at least it had been mine. Who was I if I wasn’t me?

Az gently wiped my cheeks with his knuckles. Embarrassed, I tried to pull away, but he held me firmly in his arms. The warmth of him flooded my senses, chasing away the fear and pain.

“I’m going to kill him,” he muttered, pulling me against his powerful chest.

“I thought you couldn’t kill a demon,” I whispered back.

“Yeah, well.” Anger rumbled from his throat. “I’ll do the next best thing. Rip out his heart and bury it on the other side of the earth.”

Chills swept down my arms. His viciousness should scare me, but it did the opposite. It made me feel safer than I ever had. As far as I was concerned, if he ripped out Lucifer’s heart, he’d be doing the entire world a massive favor.

“He doesn’t get to make you feel like this,” he continued, his voice rumbling against my ear. “I won’t allow it.”

I tipped back my head to stare up into his tense face. “What happens if you did decided to fight him? He’s the one in charge, isn’t he? I’ll admit, I know next to nothing about Hell, but he’s the King. Can’t he make you return to Hell if you try to go against him?”

He nodded, his jaw rippling with tension. “He can order us to return to Hell anytime he wants. But as powerful as he is, we could try to resist him…”

He didn’t sound particularly convinced.

“We’ll have to wait for the right moment,” he continued, his gaze growing distant. “We need to act as normal as possible. Pretend that we’re still playing along with his game. And then when the moment comes, the Legion and I will destroy him. I will never let him get his hands on you. Do you understand me?”

I shivered and dropped my voice to a whisper. “What happens when someone destroys the King of Hell?”

“The next in line takes the throne.”

“But that’s you.” I palmed his chest and stepped back. Horror and confusion and hope tangled together in my gut until I didn’t know where one emotion ended and the other began. “Does that mean you’d have to leave Manhattan? What about the game for souls? What happens then, Az?”

“It’s the only way, Mia,” he murmured, capturing my eyes with those flaming shards.

“No, it isn’t,” I said, my hands fisting. “Only this morning, we decided the way forward was to play the game and convince Lucifer that I’m not a problem. Right? And then he would go on his merry way back to Hell. Why can’t we go with that one? Why do you have to pick the most extreme option that’s available?”

“Mia.” He took my hand and tugged me back to him. “You aren’t understanding what we just witnessed.”

“Oh, I’m understanding, alright. Lucifer just killed maybe the only person alive who knows what was in that contract.”

“Yes. And no.” His lips flatlined. “He left the address visible for us to see. So that we would follow him there. It was a message, Mia. Going against him is futile. He will do whatever it takes to win.”

I closed my eyes. “So, Priyanka was right. He’ll never give up, will he?”

“He won’t give up until he gets what he wants,” Az said in a dangerous voice. “And that thing is Mia McNally as his bride. I will never let that happen. He will have to rip my limbs off my body and scatter them around the far ends of the world before I will let him lay a single hand on you.”

Pain pounded out a rhythm in my heart. More tears leaked out of my eyes. I couldn’t stop them. If only I had just ignored my damn curiosity, Lucifer might have left Manhattan in a week or two. He never would have caught my scent. I’d be safe. The Legion would be safe. None of this would have happened. “I fucked up.”

Az cupped my cheeks with his palms, and his dark gaze bored into my soul. “No. I won’t let you blame yourself for this.”

“But it’s my fault, and we both know it. If you die trying to protect me, I’ll never be able to live with myself.”

“I’m never going to die, Mia,” he said roughly. “It’s impossible.”

“He could still destroy you,” I whispered, hating even the sound of those words. It seemed impossible. Az, gone from this world. But he wasn’t indestructible even if he was immortal. The same method he wanted to use against Lucifer could be used against him, too. He’d lost one of his demons just like this.

“I am stronger than you think I am. Just because I haven’t shown you the full extent of my powers doesn’t mean they aren’t there.” His palm swept down the side of me before resting on my hips. “Trust me, Mia. I am one hell of a force to be reckoned with.”

My chest burned as I stared into his eyes. That zing went through me once again, and a sudden burst of shadowy memories rushed through my mind. Too fast for me to comprehend them. And then they were gone.

What was that all about?

Confusion rippled through me as I leaned toward Az. I felt inexplicably drawn to him more than I ever had. Maybe it was the fear and the adrenaline. Maybe it was the danger in his voice when he spoke of stopping Lucifer from ever getting his hands on me. Or maybe it had something to do with that weird zing.

“Az, do you feel that?” I whispered to him.

He searched my eyes with his. “Feel what?”

“That weird feeling. Like a bolt of electricity or something…” I trailed off, realizing how ridiculous those words sounded out loud. A weird blast of electricity? Really, Mia. It was probably just my raging hormones.

A strange expression whispered across his face. “Interesting.”

Interesting?Yep, definitely not the response I’d been hoping for.

“I know it’s ridiculous. Just ignore what I—”

His mouth claimed mine, shutting down whatever nonsense I’d been about to say next. A thrill shot through my core, and heat enveloped me. Desperate desire rose up within me as I pushed up onto my toes and wound my arms around his neck. A low growl rumbled in the back of his throat. Animalistic and urgent.

Everything fell away as his lips tore through me with hunger. I clung onto him, my need ripping through me like a hurricane. His hands palmed my ass and tugged me close. Our bodies melted together, forming one.

Questions popped into my head that I tried to ignore. What did this mean? Had he missed me the way I’d missed him? Did this mean our night together had actually meant something to him?

Pesky thoughts. None of that really mattered right now. One hand slipped between my thighs, and sparks lit up my entire body. I shuddered as his fingers brushed against my jeans. My legs squeezed tight around him, and a moan slipped from my throat.

Stumbling, my back slammed against the concrete block behind me. I reached between us to unbutton my jeans. I didn’t care where we were or who was after us. A hot, desperate ache tore through my core. I was going to explode.

Suddenly, he pulled back and shook his head like he was trying to get water out of his ears. A gulf of cold air roared between us, erasing the heat. Disappointment fell like an anchor in my gut. My hands dropped to my sides, and I forced my heaving chest to calm the hell down.

“He’ll smell you on me,” he said, fisting his hands.

“I don’t care,” I shot back. Because I very much didn’t. Not right now.

“It isn’t safe, Mia.” He took another step away from me. “I won’t do anything to jeopardize your safety.”

“You keep saying that.” I lifted my chin and stalked toward him. “But don’t you think it’s my decision to make? Or is this just an excuse to push me away? Again?”

Turned out I was still a little angry that he’d plopped me in Brooklyn and ordered me to stay away from the only people who had ever accepted me for who and what I was, other than Serena. And to stay away from him when he’d known, deep down, that I’d wanted to see where this thing between us led.

Instead of answering me, his wings flared wide on either side of him. The sunlight glimmered against the deep black, filling out the lines of every feather. Power hummed from his body. The scent of ash swirled toward me like a puff of smoke. I was momentarily struck by the beauty of those wings. Mouth dropping, I stared.

Bad idea. I shouldn’t have gotten distracted. Az took the opportunity to haul me into his arms and shoot off into the sky again.