Chapter 23

~~David~~

The tunnels of Death’s Grip shared the strange secrets of Hell in ways the mountaintops didn’t. Sometimes the amber veins along the walls converged and circled a pile of bones where something nasty had happened. One case in particular showed a classic example of hate, with two demon skeletons strangling each other, and the remains of their skeletons locked in place by bloodgrip vine. Another display, locked in time by metal, showed four demons with swords skewering their chests in some sort of ritual the girls didn’t know.

In some tunnels, statues grew, and one chamber held an assortment of tetrad demons, the center one apparently Valzanal, the old ruler of Death’s Grip. She was surrounded by other tetrad, giant ten-foot-tall demons that made even Acelina look small. The males, gorujins and korgejins, had two giant wings, while the women, fujaras and bolstaras, had no wings but four arms. All the guys had their dicks out, fully grown, and plenty of them sat in positions that provided easy access to anyone that wanted to sit on them.

And for some reason, a lot of the lady tetrad had a penis, too.

La ... La ... one of the La gremlas hopped over on her hooves, giggled as she hugged one big demon’s giant dick, and gave its tip a kiss. Gross, except not gross, not in Hell, where body residue never lasted. It was, essentially, a perfectly clean giant black metal dick. And about the same size as David’s. Maybe a little smaller? Hello ego stroke.

Jes poked him with her tail and shook her head. Right, right, don’t think about sex. Impas and gremlas were perfectly sexy in their strange, slim shortstack kinda way, and seeing all four of them giggle and hug and quick kiss while dancing around and between the legs of the tetrads was strangely fun. And exciting, hence, Jes poking him with the tail.

“Imps and grems can think maybe five minutes into the future at most,” Jes said, behind him and lips next to his ear. “I know you want to fuck four sisters at once—”

“I don’t—”

“But bad idea.”

“You told me already.”

“Then stop looking.”

“They’re our guides!”

Jes chuckled and gestured. “Our guides are obviously just trying to mess with you, David. You’re human, so they like you, want to fuck you, and want to eat you. They’re playful little bundles of destructive chaos. Remember that.”

“I am!”

Daoka leaned in over his other shoulder and clicked a few times.

“Dao’s right,” Jes said. “Think about—”

Caera, ahead of them along the path through the cavern, snarled back over her shoulder.

“Think about the fact we’re going to run into Cainites,” the tiger said, without bothering to whisper, “lots of them, with apparently hellfire-infused weapons. Think about the fact angels attacked us, on sight, are probably looking for ways to get into these tunnels right now, and the only reason they probably won’t find us is they don’t know these tunnels like our guides do.”

“Yes yes!” one of the impas said. “Trust Lasca.”

“Lasca, right.” Nodding, David picked up the pace a bit to catch up to the other impa. “Lasca, you—”

“I’m Laara!” She pointed back to the original impa. “That’s Lasca.”

“Oh.” Eyebrow raised, he turned to Lasca.

“I’m Lasca,” she said, nodding. Okay, confirmed, Lasca randomly talked about herself in the third person. Or maybe all imps and grems did that. The fuck did proper grammar matter to demons at all, he supposed.

“Lasca, you have any idea where the Cainites got the fire weapons?”

“Nope.”

“You’re sure?”

“Nope nope.”

“Uh, nope as in you’re not sure?”

She shook her head. “Nope nope nope.”

Yeap, he was overthinking this. He asked if she knew, she said nope, and was going to repeat the word if he asked about nuances.

“Okay. How about, these Cainites that suddenly started using dangerous weapons. Do you know where they came from?”

“Cainites everywhere! Claimed all the tunnels.”

All the tunnels? Gulp.

“Any place where they’re grouped up? Lots of them together?”

“Does it matter?” Caera asked, catching up to them. “We keep killing them until we find the ones that killed Kia and Marquez.” After a long growl, the tiger lady glanced back at the tetrad statues and the bones that surrounded them, growled, brushed some bones aside with her tail, and prowled alongside David. No matter what he said, nothing could penetrate the new angry shell Caera wore. Maybe Mia could, but David was more likely to accidentally throw gasoline on the fire than anything else.

“Dozens of them!” Lasca said, turning and walking backward. “Dangerous!”

The new tunnels they walked had little bloodgrip vine, and the imps and grems felt comfortable hopping around, making noise, and being silly. Caera did not appreciate that. She growled, and the spikes along her back and spine stuck up a little straighter.

“Then we just be smart about how we approach and kill them,” Caera said. “We find a secluded group, kill them, David dresses up in their gear, we use him as a distraction, and keep killing every group we run into.”

It wasn’t the best plan, but it was a plan, and plans seemed to be something most demons didn’t bother with or cared for. Humans, on the other hand, sometimes used them, and since Cainites were souls that’d worked together to survive Hell, they might be just a bit too smart to be so easily tricked. Then again, the two he’d met before, the ones who’d jumped Jes and Dao, they’d been suicidally hungry and depraved. They hadn’t behaved human, or even sounded human. More like, psychotic cannibal raiders. Which, they were, now that he thought about it.

“It matters,” David said, “because a group of souls suddenly having access to weapons you can’t normally get, is weird. The timing is weirder. If we don’t do this right, we’ll all get killed. I was hoping we’d get a little more time to figure things out, but I know, I know, we can’t take forever with angels on our ass.”

He very very carefully stepped around the fact that this whole excursion was a detour they didn’t really need to do. Everyone was on board to go to False Gate and then the Forgotten Place, and this trip was purely to help Caera with something completely unconnected. He’d promised he’d help, and he would, but they didn’t have time for this.

Judging from the glare Caera gave him over her shoulder, she knew that, and knew he was thinking about it.

“Lasca,” he said, “you know a place where the Cainites patrol? Maybe just a few of them?”

“Patrol.” She scratched a horn. “Patrol...” Did she know what patrol meant? “Five stay together. Walk in circle. Tunnel below us.” Yeap, she did.

“Think we can sneak up on them?”

“Maybe! Very dangerous.” Her big eyes lowered to the ground, and she stopped. “Lot of demons dead. Dead friends.”

Friends? He almost said it out loud, but glanced at Jes instead. She shrugged. Friendship wasn’t exactly common in Hell, and according to her, imps and grems were crazy volatile. What friendship meant to an imp or grem, he didn’t know, and neither did Jes. But Lasca certainly looked sad, and with her big eyes, he couldn’t help but get sucked into the obvious depression dripping from the mini gargoyle.

But then she stood up straight, put on a big shark smile that would have given Acelina a run for her money, and saluted him.

“We find! We kill! Then kill leader!”

“You know where their leader is?”

“No. Maybe. Far from here. Kilomiles clockwise.”

“Kilomiles?” he asked.

Lasca nodded with the utmost confidence, but didn’t explain. Okay, kilomiles. He could work with that.

He looked back at Acelina. Even with the tunnels opening up and spreading out, the nine-foot-tall demoness had to be careful with every step, either to keep her long wings from snagging on anything, or to keep her steps quiet, something she’d never had to do in the spire. That wasn’t so bad, except that the woman had a hundred cuts on her legs, and a hundred on her wings, some going clear through the membrane. She’d only recently stopped bleeding.

He slowed down until he walked beside her, with everyone else ahead of them.

“You okay?” he asked.

After aiming her featureless face down at him for a few silent seconds, she sighed and scoffed.

“Marvelous.” The sarcasm was deadly.

“Still want to journey with us?”

“Of course not. Do you have any idea how terrible angels are, little soul?”

“I mean, a little? Two of them—”

“If given the chance, and the room to maneuver, a single angel can defeat a tetrad demon in combat.” She gestured to one of the giant statues looming over them as they walked past.

“Fucking yikes.” He stopped for a second to gulp and look the tetrad up and down. A korgejin, which meant giant wings, hooves, no tail, and one of those classic demony skull-like faces, complete with a lot of scary teeth. “The angels I saw were barely bigger than humans. Except ... that one big one I saw right at the gate.”

Acelina shivered.

“I have never seen such a creature,” she said, “but Zelandariel mentioned the angels of the council before. She has never ... had never seen one either.”

Wincing, he nodded and kept his eyes ahead.

“You going to leave us, then, when we get out of this tunnel?”

“To what end? That would be suicide. I am no tetrad. I am a spire mother. What chance do I have against the outside world and its elements and denizens?”

“Well, I mean...” He gestured up at her. Walking side by side, his head hovered around her hips and waist. She was a big lady.

“My size and strength will do little to aid me against a swarm of Cainites, or hungry demons.”

“I dunno. Jes says you can create some really powerful sin auras, too?”

“More powerful than yours, for certain.” She scoffed again and aimed her face down at him. “Your strange auras are but ticklish things compared to what I can craft.”

He smiled back up at her. “Yeah?”

“Indeed. I could have most of the spire itself buried in either suicidal violence, or an orgy of unending proportions, if I so chose. The sin auras of the others are nothing compared to mine.”

He tried to keep his smile under control, but something about Acelina being angry, uptight, and boastful made him happy. Apparently, the zotiva was her most comfortable when being a royal bitch, and insulting him and the other girls brought some zip and pep back to her voice. It also meant she got to spend a few more seconds not paying so much attention to the pain she was probably in.

It passed quickly, and she hissed as she held out one of her long wings in front of her. With gentle claws, she traced the holes, earning more hisses.

“How long will you take to heal?” he asked. “I mean, assuming you can heal that.”

“I can. Given time, a demon can heal almost any wound.”

“Yeah?” He looked to Caera. She was far ahead enough she probably didn’t hear them whisper. Hopefully. “I guess spire seals are different.”

She looked down at him again. “You tell me. You are the unmarked. Your kind can read the ancient language, and can understand and recognize the symbols of the spire.”

“My kind? Five weeks ago, I was just a regular human. The most boring human alive, I’ll have you know.” He waved a hand. “I wanted to know if you were doing okay, that’s all. We’re all pretty banged up, but you got really ripped up in there.”

Again she aimed her head down at him, and with her mouth closed, her face was nothing but a black, featureless mask. Eventually, she looked ahead again, but it was a little while longer before she responded.

“I am hurt. But I will be fine.”

“Good.”

She tilted her head enough she was probably looking at him, but he couldn’t be certain. Whatever reason she had to glance his way, she stayed silent, looked forward again, and the two of them walked side by side without saying a word.

~~Mia~~

Vin fell and fell hard. An electric jolt through the body was not something you could ever get used to, and if the spire leash was anything like that, every muscle in Vin’s body was going haywire while pain simultaneously overloaded his brain. From the half gargled roars and giant muscle twitches, that was exactly what he was going through, and he collapsed onto all four hands as his knee spikes rubbed their blunt sides against the stone.

Azreal fell with him, and landed on the ground hard, too. A single flap of his wings was all he managed before his boots hit the stone, and the weight of his armor and shield cracked the ground around him. He knelt there, panting and coughing up blood, leaning weight onto his shield and his spear with its grip planted on the ground. Poor guy.

Mia held onto her bodyguard’s back spikes long enough for Vin to land before she hopped off. Oh god, she’d made a big mistake. Blood poured from Vin’s shoulder where Shir had stabbed through him, and a pool of the red liquid quickly spread from under Vin’s arm, not to mention the holes in one of his hands and legs. His tail was even worse off, a huge gash several feet long from near the tip down the thick length. Angel swords were sharp.

Or, angels were just that powerful. The weapons weren’t real, physical, metal things. Azreal’s spear had poofed out of existence when Vin had grabbed it, and reappeared in his hand. And Shir’s sword, shield, and armor were all gone.

The runes in Mia’s brain shined brightly and danced in her eyes, three in particular: potram, royam, and batlam. Batlam swam around in her thoughts, brushing the other runes aside, and demanded her attention. It only grew brighter the closer she got to the angel.

She clutched her necklace, and the amber arc vanished. Vin stopped half choking on his roars, but stayed on his hands and knees, panting like a wild animal. The first time Mia used the necklace on purpose, and it might just get her killed if the angels took advantage. Thankfully, they were all just as beat up as Vin, Noah behind them struggling to get up with blood leaking out of various spots in his armor, Shir flat on her chest, and Azreal stuck in his kneeling position as his blood also leaked out from his boots.

Mia sucked in a deep breath, got down on a knee, and pushed Shir over enough to look at her face.

“Oh thank god,” she said. “Still alive.” Alive and ridiculously beautiful. It was almost unfair how beautiful, a young woman’s face with the perfectly symmetrical features you expected to find on a fashion magazine cover. Combined with her muscular-but-feminine perfect body, and now that Mia got an incidental chance to peek, her rather busty body, it truly was hilariously unfair. The fact she had green — emerald — eyes, red hair, and freckles, was too much, and Mia couldn’t help but chuckle weakly as she and the angel traded gazes again.

Warm. The angel’s bare shoulder was warm.

“Why?” Shir asked.

“Why? Because ... Because! I don’t know what’s going on or why everyone’s trying to kill me, but...” But what? She saw in Shir’s eyes, and in Noah and Azreal’s eyes, that they didn’t want to kill her, and because Mia was a weak-willed, overly empathetic and sensitive little girl, she couldn’t let Vin kill them. “Because I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

Vin snarled and shot her a deadly look, but his attempt to get up failed as much as Noah’s. Only Azreal had the foresight to stop trying to move when all it did was make him bleed more.

“No one’s told me what’s going on,” Mia said. “No one! But I’m not going to just let myself get killed, either.”

“Even if—” Noah coughed, and a splatter of blood hit the ground. Vin had thoroughly destroyed the man’s insides with his hammering blows. “Even if you spell the doom of the Great Tower?”

“Even if I...” She turned and stared at Noah. “Even if I what?”

The angel flapped his burned wings until he was up on his feet, and continued to do so, only one foot touching the ground and only with the tip of a toe. He couldn’t land, and blood dripped from the boot. No wounds on the outside Mia could see, but it was a wonder the angel wasn’t a flat piece of roadkill.

“The council has sent scouting parties to find and kill the unmarked,” Noah said, “as you surmised.” He hovered closer, and Mia took a step closer to Vin, but her bodyguard was still panting and trembling. If it wasn’t for Noah also trembling and struggling to keep sword and shield in hand, he’d probably go for her. “And, as you surmised, it is a life or death matter.”

Well, at least they were having a conversation now, even as Noah slowly came closer and closer. Yeap, he was going to try and kill her if he got the chance. So she slipped under Vin’s chest and kept him between her and Noah, while keeping Azreal in the corner of her eye.

“So you think I’ll destroy the Great Tower? The, uh, everything everything tower?”

Noah frowned, paused over Shir, and gently lowered himself down beside her. The relief on his face was blatant, and he patted the woman on her shoulder once as he checked her wounds. Finally, someone else with a little empathy.

“I trust the council,” he said, flapping his blackened wings again until he was a few feet in the air. Slowly, he pointed his shaking sword at Mia, and ignored the blood trail he left behind him. “Submit, for the sake of us all.”

She stomped her foot. “Did the council tell you the unmarked are going to destroy the Great Tower?”

Noah said nothing, but he hardened his silver eyes as he stared at her. He still had his helmet on, but like when Shir had hers, the front of it was open enough she could see his face, the perfect stubble, and bits of dark blond hair hidden along the sides of his jaw. The lack of expression or response was her answer.

“The will of the council is clear,” he said at last. “We—” A shudder worked through him, a small puff of gold lit the area, and his shield disappeared. Snarling, he flapped his wings a little harder, but his weight dragged him down again, and his toe touched the ground once more. “Azrael. Kill her.”

Mia half squeaked and jumped back. Azreal had, at some point, lifted his spear and pointed it at her. Suddenly, his kneeling position didn’t look so much like he was recovering from getting smashed into cliff walls half a dozen times, but like he was getting ready to leap at Mia and stab her.

But he didn’t. Azreal didn’t have his helmet on anymore, and if what was happening to Noah was any explanation, he didn’t have the energy to resummon it. There was nothing stopping Mia from staring at the man, his short and messy dark hair, clean shaven tan skin, and purple eyes. Amethyst eyes stared right back at her, but fell as something heavy pulled them downward.

“Azreal!” Noah yelled.

Mia stood beside Vin, the beast still on hands and knees, head mostly facing toward Azreal. All Azreal had to do was leap around Vin to get to Mia. He didn’t.

“She’s not like the other one,” Azreal said.

“It doesn’t matter. We have to end her.”

Azreal looked to Noah, and then to Vin. The demon lifted his head enough to glare at Azreal, only maybe fifteen feet between them, as he lifted a colossal leg and put his weight on his talons again. He fared no better than Noah, and a fresh wave of blood gushed from his wounds as he failed to get back to his feet. Fuck.

“I will deal with the ragarin first,” Azreal said, standing up. Double fuck.

“You can’t kill him!” Mia yelled. “I need him. He ... He’s my protector.”

Azreal shook his head and held his spear out at arm’s length in front of him.

“He’s a child of the Old Ones. An abomination.”

“He’s my bodyguard! I need him!”

“He—”

A roar cut through the ravine. Vin’s? No. It didn’t come from any of the angels, either.

Everyone looked up as a pair of giant bat-like wings with black fingers and a red membrane descended on them. A demon. A really, really big demon. Not Vin big, but a ten-foot-tall demon with a wingspan at least double that was still big enough it cast them all in a blurry shadow as the tetrad fell upon them.

Whoever they were, they wore bits of meera metal on their body, bent chunks held on by leather straps, and they wielded a colossal black sword in hand. Like the armor, it was the most crude weapon Mia had ever seen, a mess of black blades someone had smashed together into a big, thick sword.

A gorujin tetrad. Mia had never seen one before, but there was no chance she wouldn’t recognize one. Similar to korgejins, but gorujins had raptorial feet and a tail. Similar faces, too, demony and skull-ish. The one coming down at them was no different, a giant of a creature with several dozen skulls dangling from chains hanging from his waist and other bits of his armor.

He landed hard, directly in front of Azreal, and roared down at the angel as he spread his wings like he was issuing a challenge, and bathed the angel in shadow. Azrael froze. Afraid? No, but from the look on his face, he was completely caught off guard.

“Wh-What?” Mia asked. “What—”

More noises. Mia spun around, and her heart sank as an array of horns poked around the curve of the battle-charred ravine behind them. Then her heart jumped as four incubi came into view. Faust!

“Romakus!” Noah yelled. “You—”

More movement came down from on high. White movement. Oh no.

The tetrad gorujin — Romakus, apparently — jumped back and landed beside Vin, opposite of Mia, as a new set of angel wings landed between the two big demons and the three angels. A woman, wearing the same sort of armor as Noah and what Shir had worn, and she wielded the same sword and shield. She glared at Romakus as she pointed her sword at him, and her obsidian eyes held concentrated malice. Dark skin, but the helmet hid her hair.

Chuckling, Romakus spun his sword around a few times in a flourish.

“I was distracted,” he said, voice a playful, bassy purr. “You should have struck me down.”

“You weren’t distracted,” the woman said. “Your feint would have worked, if I had attacked. But I am no fool.” She tilted her head enough to look past him at the incubi in the back, who now scaled the ravine walls with their much, much lighter-than-Vin weight. Soon they stood on vantage points up high. “Noah. Azreal. Shir.”

“Yosepha,” Noah said.

“We should retreat.”

Noah grimaced. “We can’t—”

“Listen to her,” another voice called. Everyone looked up. Oh god no, not another one. Whoever this fifth angel was, they hovered far above them, and had a beautiful bow drawn with a shining arrow in hand. Their armor wasn’t nearly as thick as the others, and their helmet did nothing to cover any part of their face. Bits of white silk flowed from the armor joints.

Wait, what was it Vin had said? Mikalem, rapholem, and gabriem? Three kinds of angels?

“What’re you two doing here?” Azreal asked, never taking his eyes off Romakus.

“Rescuing your impulsive ass,” the angel above said. “More are on the way.” He gestured to the four incubi getting closer, each taking their time and making sure they kept a healthy amount of rock and stone between them and the angels.

An angel, saying ass? The other ones talked super officially and all high-and-mighty and whatnot. Not the one with the bow.

Azreal and Noah shared a glance, Noah borderline growling, Azreal silent and waiting.

Noah wasn’t so easily deterred.

“Shoot the unmarked, Galon!”

“Try,” Romakus said, chuckling as he held out a wing, blocking much of Vin’s body, and thus Mia.

“Enough,” Yosepha said. “Galon is right. Azreal, help Shir. I’ll cover you.”

Noah grit his teeth. “You can’t—”

The sounds of clinking metal cut him off. The incubi each took their swords, and tapped them to the ground in unison and on a beat, creating an almost tribal sound as they smiled at the angels. How oddly unsettling.

“She’s right,” Azreal said. “We took too long. We must retreat.” With an almost subtle shine of gold light, the giant shield and spear Azreal wielded disappeared, and he scooped Shir up into his arms. He struggled. From the way he walked, he probably had a dozen broken ribs, but he held the woman in his arms horizontal, and took to the air, regardless. He struggled with that, too, as if he weighed a million pounds, but he managed.

Yosepha stayed with him, shield up and sword pointing, and her nearly black eyes glared daggers down at Romakus and Vinicius. She didn’t want to leave. She wanted to fight. Only when she had some distance on them, hovering high in the air where the demons couldn’t reach, did Yosepha finally look at Mia.

That was a strange look. She didn’t have the same ‘I must kill you to save the world’ look in her eyes Noah had. If anything, she looked sad. Or maybe regretful?

Mia took a breath she didn’t realize she’d been waiting on for the past minute, and rested on Vin’s shoulder as she looked around at the chaos. The angels went up and up, until their white wings blurred into the fire sky, high enough they touched the flames. They didn’t seem to mind, and flew off toward the vortex.

“Um, hi,” Mia said, and she offered the giant gorujin a small wave. He was small compared to Vin, but a ten-foot-tall demon with mega wings was a fucking giant compared to Mia. Best to be respectful. And looking up at him sent an all-too-familiar chill down her spine.

It only got worse when he turned and looked at her. The classic demony skull-ish face was common in Hell, but his big, happy psycho smile was not.

“Hi,” he said.

“Um...” She gulped and glanced back at the incubi, who were coming to join them. Join them, and not eat them, based on the casual way they were walking. “I’m Mia. You ... saved me?”

“I did save you.” He turned around completely to face her, hooked his wings snug to his back, stabbed his sword into the ground, and leaned on it like it was a fancy cane, complete with crossing one leg over the other at the ankle. If he’d had a cup of tea in hand, or a top hat on, it would have fit. What the fuck.

Vin, rumbling and growling, turned his head enough to glare at Mia, and the rage in them sent yet another chill through her. But she glared right back at him. She would not be intimidated by her bodyguard. Romakus, on the other hand, full intimidation completely warranted.

“Th-Thank you,” she said.

Romakus blinked at her, twice, and laughed.

“Holy shit, Galon was right. You unmarked really don’t belong here in Hell.”

“Galon ... the angel? What?”

The tetrad winked. “Galon met your brother. Yosepha, too. Told me he was a softy, like he’d walked right out of a scrying pool.” Shrugging, Romakus gestured to the incubi with a wing. “You were right, Gallius.”

Gallius stood beside Faustinus, and both of them gave Mia perfect, sexy smiles.

“I’m just glad we told you in time,” Gallius said.

Romakus shrugged. “I was already chasing the angels. I would have shown up in time.”

“Maybe,” Faust said. “Yosepha probably didn’t like you doing that, did she?”

“She doesn’t like anything I do. That’s part of the fun.”

Mia threw up her hands. “What is going on!? I ... I ... what? Someone—” Vin fell over. Mia outright squeaked as the titan fell on his side, almost straight on her toes. “Shit! Vin, I’m sorry! I didn’t think ... I mean, I didn’t...”

On his side, breathing and grunting, Vin let out a long sigh and glared up at Romakus.

“A vulture, come to eat me?”

“Oh I’d love to, believe me. But I saw what happened. You’re bound to the unmarked girl, right?” He stepped around Vin and smiled down at Mia. “I could just take that necklace, and make you my bitch, couldn’t I?”

Vinicius growled, but each attempt to push himself back up to his feet failed. Using the leash on him when he had so many nasty wounds did a number on him, and now Mia was defenseless. Wonderful.

“You ... could take the necklace,” Mia said. “But you won’t, right?” Cue her best big, cute, innocent smile.

“I won’t,” Romakus said, licking a fang. “For now.”

“And, you um ... you know those two angels?”

“He does,” Faust said.

“And you—wait. Vinicius. I need to help him. He’s bleeding and—”

“He’ll be fine,” Romakus said. “Faust told me he’d gotten a full meal earlier. He’ll heal, with time.” Leaving his sword behind, he reached down, grabbed one of Vin’s arms, and yanked him up to sitting. He was not gentle, and Vinicius snarled straight at the demon. If he’d been feeling better, he’d probably have incinerated the gorujin right there. “He’s pretty fucked up, enough that I’d be worried for my life, but a child of the Old Ones? He’ll recover. He’ll be hungry again, but he’ll recover.”

Romakus talked weirdly. He talked ... like a modern human, a young one.

“Good, good.” Sighing, Mia came around and stood in front of Vin, straight between his legs, ignored the blood pool under her feet, and glared up at him. “I’m sorry. I know, it was stupid of me to stop you from killing those angels. They would have killed me. We got lucky we were saved.”

“Luck had nothing to do with it,” Gallius said.

She spun around and glared at the incubus.