attach sex to feelings. I hated Azariah and myself for wanting anything from him, even if it was just my biology buzzing.
I opened my mouth, ready to tell him off, when a red glow from beyond the gate caught my eye.
“Oh no,” I whispered. “Oh no no no no.”
“What—”
Azariah had barely turned around to look when I found myself running toward the gate.
I didn’t scream their names like the townspeople at the gate did. I didn’t want to draw their attention away from their enemies, not for a second.
“Succubus!”
“Fuck you, Feather Butt,” I snarled over my shoulder and then huffed at the weak insult. I’d think of a better one later when Zach wasn’t being surrounded by smoke wraiths and Stavros wasn’t pointing a freaking kid’s toy at a demon general.
Kais was busy trying to save Zach, but he was just a few more wraiths away from being swallowed up in their smoke with the younger man, and if Stavros was going to stand a chance against the general, he needed Zach and Kais at his side.
He needed me.
“Fuck feelings. Fuck angels. Fuck hellions,” I snarled, taking a running leap over the gate.
I hunched my shoulders and ducked my head down, horns thrust forward as I ran full speed for the wraiths, a snarl on my lips.
“Zach!” Kais gasped, digging through the smoke, his own lungs already scratched from the wraiths. “Deyva?”
I didn’t answer as I reached the melee, my hands shaped into claws, all the power Stavros had given me dressing my skin with electric energy. I ripped into the wraiths, shredding them like ugly, Halloween tissue decorations, their screams shrill and scratching in my ears.
“Holy shit,” Kais gasped as I tore through the tangled web of hellions surrounding Zach.
“Help Stavros,” I snapped. I caught one brief glimpse of Kais’ wide-eyed stare and then he spun around, hurrying back to Stav’s side, firing his crossbow into the hellish general heading toward us.
At my back, holy light burst forward, cutting through the wraiths, my own grasp flinging wraiths into the light until Azariah and I had carved our way into the heart of the tangle.
Zach, beautiful Zach, was white as a sheet, his skin marked with red claw marks, his breath shallow, and the two different colors in his eyes stark and vivid. Azariah burned away the last of the wraiths as I fell to my knees and searched for Zach’s pulse. It was there, but faint, and I pressed my hand over his heart, softening the burn of the energy I’d used against the wraiths, and pressing it into him. I was low now, but it was enough to make sure his heart wouldn’t stop before we got back to safety.
“This is my fault,” Azariah murmured.
I growled, checking to make sure no more wraiths were near before standing and whipping around to face the angel.
“You’re fucking right it is,” I hissed. And then I reached for his shirt collar and yanked him against me, pulling unapologetically on his hair to bring his mouth to mine.
Azariah stiffened but didn’t fight me, and I took two deep gulps of his life, his power, our mouths pressed together in a cold imitation of a kiss. The angel tasted of love and anger and fear and confidence, and something explosive, like the birth of a star in my belly. I moaned and ignored the flood of arousal that ran through me, pulling away and staggering back.
“Watch him. And if you let anything else happen to him, I will drain you dry,” I warned Azariah.
He nodded, face stony, arms glowing. “And the general?”
“I’ll manage the general.”
Azariah knelt over Zach, sheltering him with his good wing, and I turned to face Kais and Stavros. Kais was on his last shot, aiming carefully, and Stavros was checking the small tank of his gun. The general had nearly reached the gate, only a few yards away, and I could almost feel the faltering faith from the townspeople, the sudden doubt that their priests would survive this. I had a feeling that if that faith failed, so too would the gate.
“I’m out of holy water,” Stavros warned Kais. “Jesus, Deyva, what are you doing out here?”
“Aim for an eye socket and leave the rest to me,” I said, settling my hands on Kais’ shoulders, giving him some of the angel’s strength to steady his hand.
“You’re sure?” Kais asked.
Was I sure that Kimaris wouldn’t rise up behind this general and grab me in his fist and drag me back