'Are you fucking insane? ' Ethan shot back, his voice echoing out. 'Think about what you're saying, Azazel! Think about the pain they inflicted on us all over the centuries!'
'They inflicted it on us, Helel, while you sat quaking in whatever dimension you created for yourself. Don't talk to me of the pain of the Shedim when you turned your back on your kind a long time ago. Lucifer poisoned you, Helel. He poisoned your mind to the truth and infected you with his lies.'Turning his face up to the skies, where the Seraphim and Council waited, Blake called up to them.'Blessed Seraphim!' Blake pleaded with them, gesturing to me. 'Rightful descendants of the Throne, this is proof of my devotion, proof of my commitment to you! I will give you the witch. Do with her what you will, but I beg you to grant the Shedim a pardon. We denounce Lucifer. We denounce the ways of the First to Fall. We will no longer defy your rule. Please, I beg of you, redeem us our powers and let us'No,' I gasped. 'No.'Ethan glanced towards Blake, lowering his voice. 'Please, Casey, please listen to me. I have to finish this now. Angels? Demons? It makes no difference. They are one and the same. Look at them. Both want to control this world, but it doesn't belong to them. The First might have been the first Angel, but the First was not the first being to walk this earth. Humans were here long before we arrived. The First Angel knew this and knew we didn't deserve to claim it. That's why the Seraphim killed her.'My mouth fell open. ' Her? ''The First was female, Casey, or at least as close to it as it was possible to get.'I rocked back on my heels, feeling overwhelmed by his words, overwhelmed by the pain in my broken arm, but mostly overwhelmed by what I knew he intended to do.'There must be another way,' I said. 'There has to be. You can persuade them, Ethan, if anyone can change things, you can.''This is the only way things can change. Usu
'You sure you want to do this, Case?'Addi's brow was a mess of worry lines as he looked at me, his gaze flitting down to where my hand rested on my distended stomach. I'd been rubbing it without even realising it. Rubbing it because I could feel Lily moving around inside. Rubbing it because it calmed me. Addi knew that and I knew what he was thinking now. He thought I didn't want to do this. He thought I'd changed my mind.I looked into his eyes and smiled.'Yes, Addison. Perfectly bloody sure, thank you.'I chewed on my lower lip as I studied his face, suddenly uncertain whether he was trying to dissuade me because he didn't want to be a part of this. I couldn't blame him. He might have enjoyed being a gangster once, but things had stepped up a level since his days of dealing drugs on Davey's patch.'You know, if you don't want to be here, Ads, no one's going to stop you from leaving, or think any less of you for not sticking around.''Speak for yours
Breathe. Breathe.No. Don't breathe. Don't breathe because they'll hear you. Not a sound now.Let your muscles curl, tense, wind around bone, pull you in to the tightest of balls. Be like marble. Like stone. An impenetrable castle. A fortress.Don't breathe. Don't make a sound. Be still as the dead.They're coming.Oh God! they're coming.There was a momentary break in the maddening beat.A brief, but beautiful few seconds of silence filled me with a buzzing elation, as the warmth crept into my stomach, almost like butterflies, their wings tickling as they fluttered, spinning and eddying. I relished the sensation as it spread outwards, igniting my body and quickly filling every part of me, each vein, each muscle, from my toes right to the very tips of my fingers. As I held my arms aloft, I was sure I could see it, this energy, this blissful heat, crackling like lightning under my skin.Wait for it, wait for it...And the
'For fucks sake, Casey, I told you to go easy. Didn't I tell you to go easy?'Davey had been pacing the floor for twenty minutes already, punctuating his rant by throwing things, kicking stuff and generally shouting so loud that my already-pounding head felt like it might split into two.Not that I could blame him. He had warned me before we'd left the house, albeit in that very casual, nonchalant way of his.Go easy, leave some for the rest of us, yeah babe?In other words, go easy because he was worried there'd be none left for him, not necessarily because he was worried something might happen to me. But that was Davey's attitude towards everything. He worecasual like a coat. Practically had awards in it and everything.Not that he was acting casually now. I'd ruined his night. His big night. That one night he could never get back because his stupid junkie of a girlfriend had taken too much, flipped out like a complete nutter on the dance floor
'Please don't worry,' I said, shooting him my most reassuring smile and doing my best to look completely genuine. 'I know I went too far the other night. I did too much. I knew it before I even went out I think. But you know what it was like. We were all so hyped up, all ready for a top night and when the gear's there on tap, sometimes you just lose your head and go a bit crazy with it. I shouldn't even have gone, but I didn't want to let Davey down. Turns out I did that anyway, like the fucking idiot I am, but honestly, I'm fine now. I'm alright, Ads.'God, if I ever needed a hit of something, I needed it then. I felt naked under his scrutiny, not literally, but the kind I hated. The kind that made feel like it had all been stripped away, all the bravado, all the fuck-everyone-and-everything show that kept it all at bay. A little something now would help. Just one line or one pill that I could wear like a fucking Wonder Woman cape, and then I'd do the twirl and look him in th
'Mr. Turnbull will see you now.'Oscar's silverback of a security guy gestured at me to go in, like I was waiting to go into a job interview. I tugged at the hem of my dress as I stood up, feeling stupid dressed like this in the middle of the afternoon and definitelynot like I was dressed for an interview, unless of course the job involved swinging upside down from a pole in Oscar's club, wearing nothing but my knickers and a fake smile.It had been cold outside, my thin jacket barely doing anything to ward off the winter chill or the chill of my three-day comedown, but in Oscar's club, it was as if the heating had been cranked up to make-them-fucking-sweat level. I could already feel my dress sticking to my back.The staccato-beat of the crappy dance music was muffled in the small velvet-draped foyer where I'd been sitting. Through the other door, the girls were already parading the stage in a whirlwind of tassels, bare flesh and hairspray, while half a doz
'You and I have known each other, for what? Over two years now? You come in here, looking knock-out, say the right things, give an old bastard like me a reason to smile. Davey asks you to do this, do that and you do as you're told, all because you know how hard he works, don't you? Because he does. That boy's a fucking grafter, best I've ever had on my patch, I can tell you. What's more, he knows how to run a fucking business. He's discreet and he knows how to make sure all his boys stay discreet. That's why he's successful. He gets up there and does his thing - not that I know fuck all about music, mind you - and he makes sure his boys sell my shit without causing so much as a ripple in the water.'He wet his lips with one sweep of his tongue.'So of course, you can understand why I would be very surprised to hear that Davey's girl would put all that at risk?'I couldn't breathe. I stared at Oscar, wide-eyed, and he just stared right back at me, unflinching, and I
Oscar. Davey. The drugs .Oh, fuck, the drugs.Even then, with that creature behind us, I felt the pull. The stomach-churning, cataclysmic realisation that I was going to have to explain to Davey - and to Oscar - that I'd lost twenty grands worth of gear. My pace slowed, almost like it had back in the alley and I'd been stuck fast in the moving, shifting tide of air, only this time I was the one forcing the world into slow motion.The man tugged on my hand, glancing towards me with irritation.'Come on,' he urged.'Wait... my bag.' It was pathetic. Reckless. I knew it was even as the words left my mouth. Back there, thundering down the alley behind us was something terrible, something that clearly wanted to hurt me and yet I was still thinking about the bloody bag. About Davey banging Star. Seeing Oscar's hand on my thigh.'I have it,' the man replied. 'Now just keep fucking running.'He did have it. I saw it then, the black designer