Infernal Games by Jenna Wolfhart
7
Az carried me into the Legion’s meeting room and deposited me into a folding chair. The others trailed inside. Caim with his blinding smile—though it wasn’t so blinding now. Concern rippled across his handsome features instead. Valac followed. His bleached white hair fell into his hooded eyes, and Phenex charged in beside him. Bael and Stolas edged into the door, casting each other uneasy glances.
“You alright, Mia?” Caim knelt in front of me and peered into my eyes. His familiar face blurred before me.
“My head feels like it was beaten with a hammer,” I muttered.
Ouch. Even talking hurt.
“Did Lucifer see?” Valac asked in that unnerving, unearthly voice of his. I felt something ripple along the back of my neck as he turned his piercing gaze on me, like he was peeling back all the layers of my skin. I shuddered.
“Valac,” Bael warned in his lilting British accent. “Mate. How many times do we have to tell you not to do that to Mia?”
“Sorry,” Valac muttered.
“Lucifer saw,” Az said, angling his body in front of me. “We need to heal her quickly before he gets back here.”
I blearily peered up at him. By this point, he was nothing but a bundle of dark shadows. “Why does it matter? Werewolves can bleed.”
I knew from experience. I’d watched Serena patch up her wounds after a full moon night spent racing in the woods. I never asked too many questions when she came back like that. But she always had at least one monstrous gash on her legs.
“They heal quicker than humans,” he said, kneeling before me. “A little cut like this would take hardly any time to heal.”
I pressed my shaking hands to my forehead. “It doesn’t feel like a little cut.”
“Trust me, it’s smaller than a seed.”
“And I’m not human,” I whispered.
The Legion didn’t shout cries of alarm or demand for me to explain myself. That could only mean one thing. Az had already found a chance to tell them. Not surprising. The Legion was his family. These demons were his brothers, not by blood but by choice. That made it all the more binding. He told them everything. And I do mean everything.
A relief, really. I didn’t want to have to explain tonight’s bizarre revelations to anyone else. Especially when I didn’t understand any of it myself.
“True,” he said darkly. “But it’s clear that you don’t have access to any supernatural powers. That means I’m going to have to take care of the problem for you.”
“You can do that?” I asked, even though deep down I already knew the answer to that question. He’d never said it outright, but Az had healed me more than once. I’d just never been conscious for it until now.
The thought of him pouring his magic into me brought on a little tickle between my thighs.
Dammit. Now was definitely not the time for those kinds of thoughts.
I just couldn’t help myself. Not when it came to Az.
“He’s coming,” Stolas barked from the door. “Hurry up, Az.”
Az palmed my knees. His feverish hands skimmed across my skin, making me forget about everything and everyone else. Suddenly, we were alone in this room, and all the pain and worry and fear melted beneath his touch. I stared into the flickering depths of his eyes and saw something I’d never seen before.
Recognition. A reminder of the past. But how? I’d grown up in Nashville, Tennessee, and had never been to New York until I’d moved here four months ago. The chances we’d ever met before were slim to zero. I leaned closer with my breath caught in my throat. His tongue whispered across his bottom lip.
Desire curled through me.
He blinked and pulled back. “You’re healed.”
His voice was gruff and distant and hard. All the emotions I’d seen in his eyes were gone, as if he’d pulled a shutter across them. Frowning, I glared up at him. Not this again.
“Why do you always have to—”
“Everything okay in here?” Lucifer breezed into the room, the Legion parting like the Red Sea. Power pulsed on his bronze skin as he came to stand before me. He cocked his head. “You hit your head pretty hard out there. Is the wound not healing?”
His fingers touched my forehead. I stiffened and sucked in too large a breath. The gasp practically echoed in the silent, tense room.
“Hmm.” His hand dropped away. “It’s hot to the touch but feels fine. Looks like your werewolf healing powers kicked in just in time. Why is everyone gathered in here as though that little cut was an emergency? An overreaction, is it not?”
“Sorry,” I muttered. “I guess I’m just a wuss when it comes to blood.”
Probably not the best response, but it was too late to take it back now. I didn’t know much about werewolves in general, but I knew a hell of a lot about Serena. And she didn’t hate blood. In fact, in her wolf form, she craved it.
“You’re a very odd wolf.” He sniffed, and then shot me a wicked smile. “Best get back to dancing. I heard several of the regulars talking about you. They like the way you move.”
My head jerked toward Az. That probably wasn’t good. Some of the regulars would have known me from before. Shit, shit, shit.
He gave me an almost imperceptible nod. The look in his eyes was clear. I needed to follow orders. Best to do whatever Lucifer said.
Shakily, I stood and took the towel Caim offered. I wiped the blood from my hands and squared my shoulders. Time to get back to dancing then. No time to waste. Be a puppet on a string for Lucifer’s amusement. Just as I reached the door, Az grabbed my hand. Something rough slid between my fingers. His eyes caught mine, heavy with meaning.
I gave him a smile and drifted out the door, my heart pounding. He’d slid me a note.
“Asmodeus, you truly do have a strange relationship with some of your employees,” Lucifer said, his voice fading as I strode down the corridor. None of the others followed me. I was on my own now. They’d already done too much. If they hovered, like I knew they wanted to, the roots of Lucifer’s suspicions would only grow deeper. And we’d already planted enough seeds.
With a steady nod to myself, I tucked the note into the corner of my bra.
The night went by quickly. I tried not to think and instead just let the music move my body the way it wanted. The lights blurred before me as I swirled, and the cheers from the crowd fed me like a massive plate of fluffy pancakes.
I didn’t know what would happen when this night was over, but right now, I didn’t have to think.
All I did was move.
When my shift was over, I ducked into the ladies’ room before the girls could pepper me with a million questions about my accident. I sucked in several deep breaths and pressed my back to the door. There was something I needed to see before I did anything else. Hands shaking, I unfolded the note Az had passed me.
My eyes tripped across his words, hastily scrawled in deep black ink.
Meet me on the Brooklyn Bridge at four.
My heart hammered my ribs. Unfortunately, Az didn’t mean four in the afternoon. Limbs heavy, body aching, all I wanted to do was to crawl into bed and sleep my stress away. But I couldn’t. Deep down in my bones, I knew the night was far from over.
I was a supernatural. Maybe. And Lucifer had dragged me back into Infernal.
Could I even go back to my apartment in Brooklyn now? It was full of my stuff. My very human stuff that had no hint of my supposed werewolf identity. The whole place probably reeked of my humanity. If Lucifer followed me back there, he’d know in an instant who I was.
Pain flickered in my heart.
Even after everything I’d done and as hard as I’d fought, I was homeless. Again.
My hand fisted around the note as my gaze dropped to the grimy floor of the club bathroom. I was back in my worst nightmare all over again. The one I’d thought I’d left behind for good. Homeless. Jobless. Friendless.
Only I wasn’t, I reminded myself. The Legion, and everyone who worked for Infernal, had surrounded me in solidarity. And while I couldn’t go back to my receptionist job now, I truly didn’t care. It had bored me out of my mind. So, while I didn’t have a home or an actual job, I had friends.
I just had to trust Az to take care of the rest.
With a determined nod to myself, I flushed the note and turned toward the mirror. I winced as my eyes scanned my face. I’d looked better, that was for sure. My eyes sported some purple bags, and my red hair was wilder than a cluster of thorny bushes. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much I could do to fix that right now.
When I tiptoed out of the bathroom, I hung a left toward the back door that led right into the alley that had started this whole thing in the first place. As I stepped outside, I pulled the cool night air into my lungs and tried to relax. No such luck. I hadn’t seen Lucifer on my way out, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t watching me. And following close behind.
Despite our sneaky little attempt at covering up who I really was, I knew we’d done a piss-poor job of it. He’d know about the hidden fae court and why we’d go there. I wasn’t an idiot. Lucifer probably knew way more about Manhattan than anyone else did. He’d been around for…how long, exactly? Since the beginning of time? It boggled the mind.
Some of the Infernal regulars had already seen me dance. They might not have known my name when I last worked at the club, but they’d known I was involved with Az. We’d been flagrant about it. If Lucifer had heard them talking…
Shaking my head, I picked up my pace, casting an uneasy glance over my shoulder after every fifth step I took. No sign of him yet. Or any other supernatural serial killer. The fallen angels, Rafael and Michael, were probably back from Hell. Would they pick up where they’d left off?
For the first time in my life, I wished I could hide my blazing hair. It made me far too conspicuous.
Shockingly, I actually made it to the Brooklyn Bridge without incident. But fear kept pumping through my veins like acid. One of the things I loved about New York was the energy that pulsed through the streets, no matter the time of day or night. But it was four o’clock, the small pocket of time between the night owls and the early birds. The partiers who stayed out late had drifted to home by now, but dawn was till an hour away. No runners plodded down the bridge, and commuters were still in their beds.
It was so quiet. Too quiet.
I wet my lips as the wood groaned beneath my feet. The bridge rose before me, the beams reaching out like eager fingers toward the sky. In the distance, I spotted Az’s unmistakable form. He hovered toward the center of the bridge, arms braced on the railing. As I strode toward him, my heart flipped. Strength pulsed from his body. I could feel it rippling in the wind, travelling to me on invisible wings.
Strength, and…violence.
Sometimes, it was easy for me to forget that he was a demon, but I’d seen the raw power of him the night of the Covenant Ball. Just before the sacrifice, he’d stalked toward me, almost-feral vengeance in his eyes. The mask he wore for the world had fallen away to reveal the truth. He was extremely dangerous. And he would do anything to protect his Legion. Guilt-free.
That included ripping an enemy’s head off his—or her—body.
“Mia,” he said, as I approached him. His stubbled jaw clenched as he kept his gaze forward, focused on the rippling East River far below us.
“Az.” I joined him on the edge of the bridge, popping up to sit on the wooden railing beside where he stood. “What’s with the cloak and dagger routine?”
“You know.”
I sighed. “Yeah. Though I’m not sure why you wanted me to meet you on the Brooklyn Bridge. It’s not exactly private.”
“Lucifer hates the East River. He won’t come out here.”
I arched a brow. “You mentioned that before. Why?”
“No one knows.”
“It seems there’s a lot about Lucifer that no one knows.”
“Just how he likes it.” Az nodded. “His fear of the East River is one of the reasons why we chose Manhattan as our home base. The river is always here if we need it, though only in emergency situations. Avoiding him only raises his suspicions.”
I sighed and leaned against one of the bridge’s beams. The cool metal bit my skin. “Seems like his suspicions are already sky high. Why did he want me to work at the club? Why do I smell like a fallen angel? Have I lost my soul because I went into Infernal? What’s going on, Az?”
Tears blurred my vision, and I blinked them away. As close as I was to totally losing it, I had to keep my shit together. Breaking down was not an option. I had to stay strong.
“For once, I know nothing more than you do.” He gripped the bridge with his powerful, tense hands, leaning out over the edge to gaze down at the rushing river. “As for the contract...I ripped it up the day after you signed it, knowing you’d end up breaking our deal, eventually. Couldn’t risk you losing your soul. I just didn’t know it would be so soon.”
On any other day, I might have laughed or grumbled at him for being so sneaky. I should have known. He’d secretly ripped up our last contract, too. Az would never truly risk me losing my soul. He might be a demon, but he was not the monster the world thought he was.
“What are we going to do, Az?” I whispered.
He seemed to sense my fear, or maybe he just heard it in my voice. Releasing his grip on the railing, he palmed my knees. Every cell in my body lit up like flames. His warm hands soothed me, even as they transformed my stomach into knots. The flecks of ice in his eyes softened as he leaned in close. The scent of him curled around me, driving away the fishy scent of the river. We were the only ones on the bridge, and his fingers were dangerously high on my thighs.
It almost made me forget why we were here.
“There’s only one way to end this. If it were up to me, I’d send you as far away from Lucifer as I could.” His words snapped me back to reality. I opened my mouth to argue, but he continued before I had a chance. “But that won’t work. He caught us near River’s home, and he suspects we’ve hidden the truth about who you are. If I take you away from here, it will only confirm his suspicions. We’re going to have to play along with his little game, Mia.”
All the blood rushed out of my face and pooled in my gut, heavy and thick like lead. I’d had a hunch we’d have to go this route, but hearing it aloud made it all too real.
“If he really thinks I’m…well, me, then why hasn’t he just taken me straight to Hell already? Why dance around it like this?”
His dark gaze swept across me. Tension rocketed between us. “This is Lucifer, Mia. Everything is a game to him. And if we want to win, we’re going to have to play.”
