TWELVE
Aziel
Why the fuck are most angels in Heaven unreachable?
Oh, that’s right. All angels are afraid of Gabriel.
He wasn’t even an archangel anymore, but the fucking angels remained loyal.
I snorted as I grabbed Lilith’s dagger from the bookshelf and twirled it between my fingers. No. They weren’t loyal. They were fucking weak. “You have to know something.”
“I don’t!” Tears streaked the angel’s bloodied cheeks, making clear trails through the rusty colored liquid splattered over his face.
I’d snatched him up as soon as I saw him teleport down. I was lucky enough to run into him when searching for signs of divinity in the living realm. If Heaven was where Lilith was, that was where I’d be.
I have to find her.
“See…” I tossed the dagger in the air before catching it, and my hellfire spread along the blade. “I don’t believe you. A demon-angel-vampire hybrid is being held captive in Heaven. How could you not know a thing?”
His bloodshot eyes widened a fraction as they stared at the blue flames inching toward him. “I don’t know! Please! I swear.”
I clicked my tongue three times in a row before touching the blade to his face and tracing along his jawline. His skin singed, the smell of burnt flesh hitting my nostrils. He cried out, sobbing like a pathetic warrior of Heaven.
The flames grew as I pulled the blade away, and my anger spiked. “You may not know where she is, but you know something.”
“I don’t!” He hiccuped, snot dripping from his nose. “I swear.”
I sighed, extinguishing the flames. We didn’t have time for this. “How long have you stuck to that story? Do you intend to protect Gabriel until I kill you?”
Killing didn’t faze me. I’d kill whoever I had to in order to find her.
Terror flickered in his gaze and he shook his head. “I’m not protecting him! We don’t even like him! What he did to Lilith was horrifying!”
“Yet, you were one of the angels who held me down to watch it.” My voice was dangerous, low, menacing, and all I wanted to do was rip the fucker’s wings off.
Being held down as the love of your life was tortured and murdered was something I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy...actually, if Gabriel had a lover, maybe that would be a sort of poetic justice. White-hot rage coiled in my stomach.
“I’m sorry, Aziel.” His voice was strained as he wheezed for air. The cut on his face had already healed, but hellfire at least made it hurt. “What Gabriel had us do that day has haunted most of us since. But he was a higher rank. We could not refuse.”
“And now?” Blaise asked, and I snapped my head toward the portal in the office where he, Kai, and Thaddeus came in.
Each of them glanced in between the angel and I with a judgemental gleam in their eyes.
A low growl rumbled from my chest. I was still pissed that they had gotten themselves in a blood oath with Zelek, but that oath would be gone in one more week. She’d been in Gabriel’s clutches for almost an entire month. Desperation clawed at my already dry throat.
“He’s lower rank than the archangels. None of us listen to him anymore,” the angel said, and Blaise’s eyes narrowed at the angel tied up in the chair with Hell’s unbreakable chains.
“He’s telling the truth.” He turned toward me after a few beats of silence. “I delved into his thoughts. He doesn’t know anything about Lilith.”
“I don’t sense any form of lying from him either,” Kai quipped.
I growled as my lip curled up in a snarl and threw the dagger toward the wall. It pierced it with a squish as the damned blood poured out until the blade was dislodged and fell to the clay ground with a thud.
The angel wouldn’t be able to hide any information from Blaise or Kai, but still, I hesitated. My thirst for blood was clouding my judgement. I needed my beloved back in my arms where I knew she was safe. I sucked in a shaky breath before stalking across the room to pick up the dagger. Holding the blade in my palm, I squeezed. It sliced through my palm easily, and I could hear them freeing the angel, but the roaring in my ears made listening difficult.
“You may not know anything, but surely, you could teleport Aziel to Heaven with you?” Thaddeus asked.
“I’m sorry, but any angel who brings an outsider into Heaven has declared themselves an enemy of the Queen’s. If I don’t die here, I'll die when we get to Heaven,” he said.