“You remember I mentioned the friend that died?”
“Yes.”
“He was sent to retrieve a soul, but found a trap instead. Ten more reapers found their deaths before I tracked down the person responsible.” Azriel paused, and regret touched the air. But over what it had cost him, I thought, not what he’d done. “I was not a dark angel—not a Mijai—at the time, but I did what I had to do to uncover the killer.”
Which was what he’d advised me to do not so long ago, and the only reason I’d come here to see Jak today. “And doing what you had to do involved sex with a human?”
“Yes. Seducing the killer’s former mistress was the only way I could uncover his location.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Why couldn’t you have simply read her mind, or even waited until he came to see her again?”
“As I said, she was his former mistress. Apparently he’d stopped seeing her just before the killings began. And though it is extremely rare, there are minds reapers cannot read—that is why you sometimes see the classic gray shroud form of reaper.” He shrugged. “Violence was out—I would not desecrate my position as a soul guide that badly—so my only option was seduction. It took two weeks to gain her trust and get the information. That time was… enlightening.”
I bet. “So you became a Mijai because you seduced a woman?”
“And scattered the soul of my friend’s killer to the four winds, never to be reborn.”
Holy shit… He really had got his vengeance. “How the hell are you even still alive?”
I might not know a whole lot about the reaper world, but I did know that sort of action was out of bounds unless it was ordered by whoever was in charge of the Mijai. Or dark angels, as they sometimes called themselves.
“It was a close decision,” he said softly. “And I am still paying for my actions, even as a Mijai.”
“So your becoming a Mijai, and then being assigned to follow me, is part of that punishment?”
“Yes.”
No wonder he’d been so hostile at the beginning of all this. “So when this assignment is over, will you be forgiven?”
“I doubt it. My sin was great. My penance will be a long one.”
I eyed him for a moment, suspecting there was more to his punishment than what he was admitting. “And you don’t care, do you?”
“I care that I will never again be a guide. Beyond that, no.”
Because he’d avenged his friend. And to think I’d once thought this reaper wasn’t capable of emotion.
I lifted my cup, then paused, the coffee washing warmth across my lips. There was another odd glimmer in the shadows behind Azriel. It definitely wasn’t smoke from the deep fryers or anything like that, because it was stationary under the vents. Steam would have been sucked out.
What? His voice slipped into my mind as smoothly as dark silk.
I think we have company.
Where? He didn’t move, but blue fire began to flicker across Valdis’s sharp edges, a sure sign that sword and master were ready for action.
It’s behind you.
His eyes narrowed a little, and power slithered through the air. His, not that of whatever it was behind him. It is neither a ghost nor a day walker—although there is one in the room.
I raised my eyebrows. Day walker?
The spirit of one who has left his living body to roam this world.
Ah. An astral traveler. So what about those shimmers of silver I keep seeing?
Those, he said, his mind voice flat, are Ania.
I had no idea what that was—other than that it wasn’t of this world—but right now there was a more important question. Why didn’t you sense them before I did?
He hesitated. My concentration was wholly on you rather than on our surrounds. It is a mistake I shall endeavor not to repeat.
Considering all the mistakes I’d made over the past few weeks, I could hardly grumble at his one brief lapse in concentration—and it was oddly gratifying that I was the cause of it. I frowned at the shimmer still standing in the shadows behind him. What is an Ania?
The ancient Greeks gave them the name—it means, literally, the female personification of trouble.
Which doesn’t exactly tell me what they are. Or why they’d be here in this café, closing in on us.
Ania are demons. They can be summoned to perform a number of tasks, including harassment, assault, and murder. He paused. It is unusual to see them in great numbers. They are normally solitary beings.
Two is hardly what I’d term great numbers. And given the size of the shimmers I’d seen, as demons went, they seemed to be on the small side.
There are at least six here, and size is not an indicator of dangerousness when it comes to demons, he chided softly. Ania are rarely seen outside the dark realm. They are hard to summon and harder to control.
So they’re not the type of demon that breaks through the portals of their own accord?
No. His expression was grim as it met mine. Whoever summoned them has been able to do so simply because the strength of the portals has been weakened.
Because there were now only two portals protecting us from the hordes of hell rather than three. And that was entirely my fault.
Losing the first key is a blame that lies on us both.
Considering he’d been busy protecting me, and all I’d had to do was hold on to the key, that wasn’t exactly true. But it was pointless getting into an argument over it—no amount of arguing or remorse was going to change what had happened. So the Ania are here to kill us?
If killing was their intent, they would have attacked immediately.
Then what the hell do they want?
That I cannot say until they actually act. He hesitated. But Amaya and Valdis are well equipped to handle Ania.
That I knew. Valdis practically glowed with the blue of her fire and Amaya’s hissing rolled across the edges of my mind, filled with eagerness and the need to rent and tear.
It wasn’t the swords I was worried about. Or Azriel. It was me. I’d proven woefully inadequate when it came to protecting myself against the more dangerous elements that kept coming at us.
You are alive, Risa. Given what we have been through, that in itself speaks volumes about your ability to survive.
Surviving and fighting were two entirely different things. So what do we do?
We attack.
I glanced around. There were at least half a dozen people eating and drinking in the café, not to mention the five staff members. Not with all these people in here, we won’t.
He raised an eyebrow. Power slid through the air and, as one, everyone got up and walked out.
I blinked. I guess that solved one problem.
But it caused an even bigger one.
Because the minute the people left, the Ania attacked.
Chapter 2
I scrambled out of my seat and pressed back against the café’s rear wall as I drew Amaya. Lilac fire fell from her blade, spilling across the floor in a ribbon. It was almost as if she was marking a line in the sand.
The Ania crossed it.
I swept my sword from left to right. She hissed and spat, the sound becoming oddly satisfied as her sharp point tore through one of the approaching wisps. The Ania moaned—a sound abruptly cut off as her fragments were swept up in Amaya’s trailing fire and burned to a crisp.
Two more Ania came at me. I swept the sword around again. This time they ducked, but as the blade whooshed over their heads, they lunged forward, one seizing my sword arm, the other my legs. Their ethereal fingers sank into my skin like talons, drawing blood.
I tried to shake the thing from my arm, but even as I did, the one on my legs heaved, and suddenly I was on my butt and being dragged forward. Toward what, I had no idea, but the sensation of power suddenly surged and the air near the café’s door started to waver oddly.
Fingers began clawing at my hand—a third Ania trying to break my grip on Amaya. The sword hissed furiously, her black blade ablaze and spitting fire all around us, setting the wooden furniture alight. The flames leapt upward with unnatural speed, filling the room with smoke and setting off the alarms. Sprinklers came on, soaking me in an instant, but they failed to quench the thirst of the fire.
As the flames crawled along the roof, I threw myself sideways, rolling in an effort to squish the Ania clinging to me. Their ghostly forms briefly scattered, and I quickly switched the sword from my bloodied right hand to my left and stabbed sideways across my body. The sharp edge of the blade ran across my belly, becoming ethereal where demon-forged steel met my flesh, leaving me unharmed as she slid deep into the wispy heart of an Ania. Purple fire wrapped around the creature, capturing it, drawing it back into the sword. Feeding on it.
Chills crept down my spine, but I had no time to think about a sword that fed on fellow demons. The Ania had latched onto my legs again and were dragging me forward. This time I knew what they were trying to do. The surge of power I’d sensed before had been a doorway forming. A dark and decidedly creepy-looking door to god knew where.
I dragged in a breath that was all smoke and swung Amaya again, her lilac fire like a comet’s tail as she bit through the air. The Ania dropped my legs and scattered, then suddenly Azriel was standing in front of me, Valdis screaming her fury as she sliced through the two retreating Ania. They exploded and a second later the doorway was gone, sucked back into whatever realm it had come from.
I scrambled to my feet. Flames were crawling down the walls, consuming everything in their path. The whole place was alight, and yet there was no heat, just smoke. Lots and lots of smoke.
I sheathed a still-hissing Amaya. She felt heavier on my back, as if the weight of the Ania she’d consumed had somehow increased the mass of her steel. I shivered at the thought, then grabbed my bag from underneath the table and slung it over my shoulder.
Azriel clasped my elbow, his blue eyes as fierce as the fire that swarmed Valdis’s side. “We need to get out of here.”
“What about the fire? Can you stop it?” The words came out wheezy. The fire might not hold any heat, but the smoke was thick and it clung to the back of my throat, making it hard to breathe, let alone talk.