Curse of the Fallen by Eve Archer

Chapter Twenty-Four

Ella

“What the hell?” I gaped at Dan, unable to believe what was happening. “You’re working with them?”

Sara’s head bobbled between Dan and the demons. “Wait. Is he a demon?”

“No.” I pinned him with a furious gaze. “He’s not. He’s a fallen angel. One of Dominick’s Fallen. But it looks like he’s actually a traitor.”

The word made Dan flinch, and his eyes flashed with anger. “I’m not the traitor. Your precious Dom is the one betraying all of us.”

“What are you talking about? How is he betraying you?” I swept an arm toward the burly men, standing with their arms folded over their chests. “You’re the one conspiring with the enemy.”

Dan clenched his jaw, the muscle twitching. “The demons aren’t our enemies. They aren’t the ones who expelled us from paradise. The angels are the ones who ensure that we can never be redeemed and now that he has you, Dom thinks he can use the prophecy to get back into the archangels’ good graces.”

I gritted my own teeth. “You don’t know that.”

A smug look crossed his face. “But you know about the prophecy, don’t you? You know that’s the reason Dominick is so obsessed with you—the slightest possibility that finding a mate who’s been marked by an angel will restore the Fallen has him forgetting thousands of years of penance.” He cocked his head at me. “I’m surprised he told you about it.”

I didn’t respond, and his eyes flared with satisfaction. “He didn’t tell you, did he?”

I remained silent as Sara shifted her gaze to me. “Dominick didn’t tell you about the prophecy and you being marked by an angel?”

I slid my pained gaze to her, and she reached for my hand.

“So, who was it?” Dan continued. “Rami? No, he’d die before going against Dom. You didn’t spend time with the rest of us, aside from me and Gadriel, and Gad is too interested in his own good time to interfere in Dom’s personal life.”

“It was Jaya,” I finally said taking a step back. “But it doesn’t matter. I know Dominick cares about me for more reasons than some stupid prophecy.”

“Do you?” The growl of his voice seemed to echo in the deserted alley.

“Listen,” Sara said. “I don’t know what’s going on here, but there’s no way Dominick will let you get away with this. The guy might be an annoying control freak, but he’ll move heaven and Earth to protect my best friend. It’s his only good quality, if you ask me. He’ll find out you betrayed him.”

Dan scowled at her, motioning to the demons. “Not soon enough, he won’t. Besides, I’m one of his most trusted deputies. I’ve been by his side for millennia. He won’t believe me capable of deception.”

Fear slid cold fingers around my heart as the demons closed in on us, and I realized that the fallen angel was telling the truth. He had all the appearance of being loyal and trustworthy, and I knew Dominick trusted him. He’d trusted him with me before.

“It was you,” I said, narrowing my eyes at him as the burly demons grabbed me and Sara by the arms. “You orchestrated my abduction.”

“Not alone.” The fallen angel stepped aside as the demons propelled us toward the SUV, keeping our arms tight to our sides so we could only struggle impotently. “I was only one cog in the wheel.”

Anger simmered in my stomach as I was shoved roughly into the vehicle behind Sara, who was doing her best to kick at the demon holding her. I remembered Dan telling me that Dominick had been killed in the demon attack.

Before I could do much more than right myself in the backseat next to Sara, two demons were flanking us on the bench seat, and Dan was jumping in the front seat of the SUV as it accelerated down the alley.

I gave a mournful look out the window at the retreating nightclub before turning my attention and anger back to the treacherous fallen angel. “You encouraged Gadriel to leave us alone in the market, and then you lied to me. You told me Dominick had been killed.”

Dan glanced out the window, as we sped away and onto the seafront boulevard, the tires squealing as we cornered. “I didn’t enjoy lying, but I needed you upset enough not to notice me jabbing you in the neck with the sedative.”

“You jabbed her with a needle?” Sara gasped, then swung her head to me. “You hate needles.”

“Yeah, I do.” Instinctively, I put my fingers to the place on my neck where he’d stuck me, my gaze never leaving him. “How did you convince Dom that you weren’t involved? It was your job to guard me, after all, and you failed pretty spectacularly.”

Dan directed the demon driving to take another turn, leading us farther away from the city center and Dominick. “I had one of Jaya’s demons knock me around a bit, and then I disappeared so that it would look like we were both taken. When I showed back up claiming to have been dumped in a nearby church by the demon attackers, no one asked too many questions.”

The thought of the former angel’s betrayal made the sharp tang of bile burn the back of my throat. “Dominick had no reason to think you would ever lie to him.”

“I wouldn’t have any reason to lie to him if you hadn’t shown up.”

I shook my head. “I don’t get it. You’d betray your fellow Fallen, the angels you were cast from heaven with, just because you have an issue with me?”

He raked a hand through his hair. “You don’t understand.”

“I definitely don’t understand.” Sara braced one hand on the seat back as we made another sharp turn and glared at him. “If the prophecy says that a human with an angel’s mark can help restore the fallen angels to their position in heaven, why would that be a bad thing?”

The SUV accelerated as we began to drive up into the hills, away from the pulsing nightlife and the busy streets. My stomach clenched as I wondered where Dan was taking us. I was almost certain he wasn’t involved with the Solanos, so I wasn’t heading back to their villa.

“When we were first cast out, we all spent centuries lamenting our fate,” Dan said, staring out the front windshield. “We wanted nothing more than to find a way to get back into heaven. We clung to the prophecy, even though none of us were sure it was real, searching for humans who carried an angel’s mark. After millennia of failure, we stopped hoping and we resigned ourselves to immortality on Earth. We built an empire that stretches all over the globe. We amassed wealth and possessions to make our existence pleasurable. We reveled in forbidden desires. We became what we truly were—fallen.”

“So, if you’re restored to your angelic status, you’ll lose all that?” I said. “But I thought returning to eternity in heaven was what you wanted above all.”

“It will never happen,” Dan said, twisting his head to face me and spitting out the words. “The archangels will never allow it. We are everything they despise. They’ve barely glanced at humanity for hundreds upon hundreds of years, because they have no interest in the possibility of interacting with us.”

“Then what’s the big deal?” Sara asked as the SUV slowed to a stop. “If it won’t happen, then everything stays like it is. Ella doesn’t change anything.”

I couldn’t help noticing that we’d stopped high in the hills overlooking the city lights that spilled down the hills toward the ocean. There were no houses or even other cars on the darkened road, and my heart raced as the vehicle idled.

Dan’s dark gaze flashed at me. “She changes everything. She makes all the Fallen turn their eyes to the heavens and start wanting what will never be ours. She heralds the return of despair and loss. She will be the ruin of everything we’ve worked so hard to build.” He jabbed a finger at his chest. “She’s a reminder of all I’ve struggled not to desire or mourn.”

Despite wanting to wring his neck, I tempered my voice. “I have no intention of doing any of that. I just want to be Dominick’s girlfriend.”

Dan shook his head slowly at me as he opened his own car door and stepped out. The demons flanking us opened their doors, and Sara and I were tugged from the SUV.

“I’m sure you had no clue about any of this, which is why I’m sorry you got sucked into it,” Dan said once we were all standing outside the car. “Dominick said you didn’t even know about your angelic connection.”

“I didn’t,” I said, cutting my eyes to Sara and hoping she had more of a plan to escape from the situation than I did. “I’m not even sure I believe it’s real.”

He let out a cold laugh. “Oh, it’s real. We can all sense it.” The demons now stood on either side of him facing us nodded. “It’s the strongest one I’ve ever felt.”

“You can’t think that abducting her again is going to stop Dominick.” Sara braced her hands on her hips. “I’ve seen the guy in action. He’s a bit of an arrogant ass, but he doesn’t give up. He’ll keep hunting until he tracks her down again.”

“I know.” Dan pressed his lips together as he drew a gun from his jacket. “Which is why I’m not abducting her.”

My skin went cold, and I stopped breathing, the black muzzle of the gun pointed at me rendering me speechless. Now it made sense. He’d driven us up to this remote overlook to dump our bodies.

“I’m sorrier than you can imagine.” He leveled the gun at my chest. “Killing a human will make my eternal torture in hell even more excruciating, but I can’t let you bring down the Fallen.”

“Not on my fucking watch!” Sara yelled as the gun went off, shoving me to one side.

I fell to the ground, my hands hitting the dirty pavement hard and pain shooting up my arms. I craned my neck to see Dan unfurling his wings and lifting off the ground, flying away as a swarm of black-winged angels descended from above, the ground trembling as they landed around us.

My heart raced as pandemonium erupted. The demons tried to get in the car and escape, but they were quickly tackled. Within moments, Dominick was by my side, flipping me over and patting me down.

“No blood,” he mumbled. “But we heard a gunshot.”

“Sara pushed me aside,” I said, then my heart lurched. I looked over to where Sara lay sprawled on the ground, Rami cradling her body in his arms. A red stain was spreading across her abdomen, even as he held a hand to it.

Crawling over to my best friend, I put my hands on top of Rami’s, which were already slick with her blood. Her eyes were closed and her face pale. I shook my head. She couldn’t be dead. Not Sara. She’d always been the one person I’d had when everyone else had been taken from me. I couldn’t bear to lose her now.

“Sara,” I cried. “Wake up!”

Her eyes fluttered open, locking onto mine.

Hope fluttered in my chest as I heard Dominick calling for an ambulance in the background. “Hang on, Sara. You’re going to be fine.”

She smiled at me, her own eyes filling with tears. “You were always a shit liar.”

“Maybe, but I’m not going to let you die. Not today.”

She let her gaze slide to Rami. “There are worse ways to go.”

I choked out a laugh, even though Rami’s expression was stricken. “He’s just your type, too.”

“I know. Tall, dark, and immortal.” Sara managed a laugh, then drew a raspy breath, her eyes going wide. “Stay with me.”

I bobbed my head, my throat so tight I could barely croak out the single word. “Always.”

She dragged in another jerky breath; her eyes fluttering shut. Then her body went limp.