Her Demonic Angel (Her Angel Romance Series Book 5) (31 page)

“We have to help,” Amelia said and then a gust of wind blew against Erin.

“Amelia, no!” Erin shouted but she was too late. Her sister shot into the battle, barrelling through the Hell’s angels and knocking them out of the way with her silver wings.

The Devil caught her by the throat and tossed her aside, sending her careening into the spires of black surrounding the courtyard. He turned his attention on Marcus and Einar next, easily defeating them and leaving his men to deal with them. Erin shook her head when he grabbed Veiron by one of his dragon-like wings, causing him to cry out, spun and sent him slamming into the ground.

Erin moved, rushing forwards, her hands blazing. She wouldn’t let the Devil hurt him.

Not again.

The Devil stepped on Veiron’s prone form and extended his hand to her.

“I am waiting,” he said with a smile curving his sensual lips. “Do not disappoint me, Erin.”

Erin growled with effort and threw her hands forwards, unleashing a huge glowing orange fireball at him. The world disintegrated in a blast of white-hot light.

Erin shot up in bed, breathing hard and drenched in cold sweat. Amelia sat beside her, her wide eyes fixed on the far wall of the bedroom and her silver half-feather half-demonic wings out.

“What the hell just happened?” Taylor’s voice pulled Erin out of her stupor and she jerked to face her. Taylor looked as shocked as Erin felt.

“We need to go,” Amelia whispered, her breathing laboured and fast, eyes still enormous and glowing silver. “We need to go.”

Erin nodded. “We do... we will.”

“Go where?” Taylor said and Erin wasn’t sure how to break it to her.

“I had a vision,” she said and that seemed to be all the information Taylor needed.

“Screw this. We’re going down there and we’re not going alone. We need help and we need it fast, before the boys end up too deep in Hell and we can’t find them.” Taylor pulled a phone out of her pocket and the screen lit her face as she dialled.

She pressed it to her ear and then took a deep breath when someone at the other end answered.

“Apollyon, we need your help.”

CHAPTER 23

E
rin paced the moonlit shore, finding it impossible to keep still. Taylor sat on the edge of the wooden deck of the villa. Amelia sat on the steps that led onto the beach and had told her several times to conserve her energy and that Apollyon would reach them soon. The two of them were wearing black jeans and t-shirts and it was hard to make them out in the low light from the moon. Erin wore similar gear, perfect for sneaking through such a dark grim environment as Hell.

She turned and paced back again, ignoring her sister’s irritated expression. She couldn’t help it. It had been hours since Taylor had called the angel and asked for his assistance. She had expected him to reach them quickly, but it seemed even angels had their limits. Apollyon had left Paris almost immediately, after ensuring that his wife, Serenity, was safe and sound with another angel named Lukas and his girlfriend, Annelie, but it had still taken him hours to cross the world to them. It was gone midnight now.

Veiron, Marcus and Einar would already be in Hell.

Amelia had expressed her concern that Serenity wasn’t accompanying her angel. In fact, she had mentioned it several times, so often that Erin had finally succumbed to her curiosity about the woman. It turned out that she was a witch and Apollyon’s current master. Erin had recently found an ability to deal with almost anything but the knowledge that there were witches in the world had still astounded her. Amelia had mentioned that she had once shared her surprise, but Serenity was a full-blooded witch. Her reason for not coming with Apollyon had surprised Erin even more.

Serenity and the other woman, Annelie, were undergoing some sort of trial that, if they passed it, would grant them immortality.

Erin liked the sound of that.

They were doing it so they could spend forever with their angels and that was something Erin wanted for her and Veiron too. Lukas had remained with the two women to help them through the trials and take care of them. They were highly dangerous and the success rate for those who entered into them was small, but Apollyon believe that with the assistance and guidance of an angel, they would both make it through.

If Erin took the trials so she could become immortal, would Veiron help her through them? Was his help as good as an angel of Heaven’s?

“Here he comes,” Taylor said and slipped down onto the sand.

Erin immediately spun on her heel and scoured the distance, looking for a sign of the angel.

She spotted him a good distance out over the ocean and heading directly for them. It was hard to see him. She had expected him to look like the one she had met on the rooftop in London but he was nothing like that. As he came closer, she could make out his dark hair and huge black wings, and the obsidian armour that barely left anything to the imagination.

The closer he came to her, the harder Erin’s heart beat against her chest.

It couldn’t be.

He righted himself as he reached the shoreline and glided down to land just a few metres in front of her. His keen gaze shifted from Taylor, to Amelia and finally to her, and Erin couldn’t breathe.

She caught a flashback of Hell, of a man with huge black wings, obsidian armour edged with gold covering his shins and hips, and wild black hair.

“Good to see you again,” Taylor said and added, “I wish it was under better circumstances. We all know you hate going down there.”

Apollyon growled low and fierce, “The Devil needs to learn when to stay down.”

“Really?” Erin piped in, her voice a high squeak, and trembled when he looked at her again. “You looked pretty pally with him in Hell... you were doing his work, right? Luring me into leaving with you for some reason so he could convince me to help him or something... just stay the fuck away from me. Got it?”

“Erin, what’s wrong?” Amelia wrapped an arm protectively around her shoulders and turned on Apollyon. “What were you doing down there? Did you try to hurt my sister?”

Apollyon’s eyes widened and he held his hands up at his sides. “I have never met this woman and I have not been in Hell since I was there with Marcus over a year ago now.”

“I swear, if you go near my sister, I’ll kill you myself.” Amelia pushed Erin behind her and unleashed her wings, shielding her with them.

Erin looked over Amelia’s shoulder at Apollyon. He frowned, eyes dark and full of violence, and something else. He stepped back and furled his black wings. His hand came to rest on one of the golden swords hanging from his waist and he drew a slow deep breath, as though preparing himself for a fight.

“I have never set eyes on this woman you call your sister. Never.” He backed off another step and Erin caught the look in his eyes.

He wasn’t intending to attack. He was defending himself, and distancing himself too. She stared at him, gaze tracking over the armour that covered his lower legs, his hips, and his chest and forearms. It was the same as he had worn in Hell, only newer and well maintained.

He looked a little different now too.

While his physical features were the same, his hair was long and tied back in a ponytail at the nape of his neck, and his eyes were dark, faintly glowing blue in the low light from the moon.

It wasn’t the same man, but the look in his eyes and his reaction said that he knew the man she had accused him of being. Time to test that theory.

“I saw someone just like you down there... but he had shorter hair and eyes like a hawk. He flew up to my cell and offered to help me escape.” Erin stepped out from behind Amelia and his dark eyes followed her, his wary look not shifting.

His hand moved away from the hilt of one of his swords and he closed his eyes.

“What you saw was a copy of me,” he said, deep voice low and brimming with resignation edged with something dark. He opened his eyes and fixed them on her again.

“A copy?” That was a creepy thought. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like to have a clone of her running around.

He nodded and heaved a sigh. “When the Devil defeated me the first time, he did not put me to my death immediately. He… tortured me… until I lost my mind and then he drew all that was dark out of me and used it to create the angel you saw. In effect, he is my doppelganger, and he is not a man to take lightly. He is dangerous and cruel, and would not think twice about using you for his own gain.”

“Einar never mentioned you had a twin,” Taylor said and Apollyon’s gaze snapped to her, brightening at the same time, a warning not to call this man his twin as though they were siblings. A strange sensation washed over Erin, pressing down on her and making her tremble, and her stomach twisted. Whoever Apollyon was, he was extremely powerful and it probably wasn’t wise to piss him off.

“I do not desire the creature’s existence to become public knowledge, just as his master hoped it would.” Apollyon glared at them all and Erin got the message loud and clear. She wouldn’t say a word about Apollyon’s evil twin to anyone. “I will deal with him if he ever tries to leave Hell, but so far he has shown no indication that he will. He seems content down there, wreaking havoc for his master.”

So, he had been working for the Devil when he had offered to free her. He had wanted to torment her by making her believe she would soon be free and then watch her hope die as she realised she was still his prisoner.

The bastard.

Erin wanted to kill him for that.

“Now that I have proven I am not a subject of the Devil, we should move quickly. What gate were they using?” Apollyon turned his attention to Taylor and Erin held her tongue as the half-demon filled him in on the details. She could tell that this was his way of stopping them from asking any more questions about his clone and she could understand why he needed to talk about something else. She couldn’t imagine what he had been through when the Devil had tortured him, or how it would feel to have an evil doppelganger, especially if you were an angel.

Erin continued to stare at him. He was impressive. Tall, well built, handsome in a dark and glowering sort of way, and his black wings were huge even when furled against his back. His armour reminded her of Veiron’s, only Apollyon’s had gold edging around the obsidian and rampant lions on the cuffs protecting his forearms.

His gaze shifted to her again. “Any idea why the Devil has set his sights on you?”

She shook her head and then hesitated. He had been trusting enough to tell her something he had kept secret for God only knew how long. He deserved a little honesty from her in return. “I do have some sort of power, and I am Amelia’s sister. He gave me a choice between playing bait and killing her.”

Amelia turned on her. “I think you might have mentioned that to me earlier.”

“I said no, so what’s the problem? And Veiron’s convinced that the Devil wants me more than he wants you now.”

“If he wants you rather than Amelia, then your power must be of value to him, which means that it is strong enough to prove a threat to Heaven.” Apollyon’s dark look didn’t make any of what he had said easier to digest.

Was he saying that the Devil thought that her power made her a great weapon against his enemies? Just what was this power that she had and did the Devil really want her so he could use her against Heaven in this twisted game of theirs? Her stomach turned again and bile burned up her throat. She covered her mouth with her hand and breathed slowly to settle her stomach. Losing it now would do her no good. She had to stay strong so she could stop her vision from happening and could save Veiron and everyone else. Amelia gave her a concerned look. Erin set her jaw, straightened, and sucked in a deep breath to fortify herself.

“What are we waiting for?” she said, her determination rising.

Apollyon smiled, as though she had impressed him, and then looked down at his feet and unfurled his black wings. He beat them hard, sending sand swirling in all directions, and lifted off the moonlit beach.

“Step back,” he said and Erin, Taylor and Amelia moved as one, hopping up onto the deck of the villa.

Apollyon held his hand out towards the sand and Erin held her breath. A tiny orange spot appeared and then a jagged line cut across the sand in both directions, forming a glowing crack that stretched like a barrier between them and Apollyon. That crack grew, flickering brighter and spreading like lava. It widened and then the middle collapsed, leaving molten fire spilling down into a black chasm.

“It will lead us down to the bottomless pit. The gate the others used is close to there.” Apollyon spread his wings and glided down to land on the deck.

“And how do we get down there?” Erin eyed the fault line that stretched over forty feet across the shore and was close to twenty feet wide. Waves rolled up the shore and hissed when they touched the edges of the opening Apollyon had created, steam rising and filling the air with the scent of the sea.

“We fly.” Amelia flapped her wings. “Apollyon can carry Taylor and I’ll carry you.”

Erin could deal with that, as long as Amelia kept away from the edges. She didn’t want to burn herself on the way down because her sister couldn’t handle her weight. Erin doubted she was as strong as Veiron and could carry her as easily.

“Let’s go,” Erin said and then froze when heat flashed over her and a sense that she was in danger followed it.

She looked around, the others leaving her behind as she searched for a reason for her bad feeling, and her eyes widened.

“Incoming!” Erin shouted and threw herself at Amelia, tackling her to the ground at the same time as Apollyon grabbed Taylor and shielded her in his arms.

The man who had claimed to be her guardian angel slammed into Apollyon’s back, sending him and Taylor flying. They landed hard in a tangle with the angel but Apollyon came out fighting, his formidable height and power an advantage over the shorter pale-haired angel.

Erin was on her feet in an instant. Taylor shot to hers and growled a ripe curse as she held her arm. Amelia muttered something equally as black under her breath.