No Angel (20 page)
“Good,” I said coldly. Over at the refreshment table, Debbie tossed her hair, laughing with a couple of other girls as they filled up their wineglasses. “Because that’s a friend of mine.”
“What?” Horny did a double take, his eyes flicking over me. “Wait—you’re him!”
“You know me? Hey, wait!”
He was already backing away, looking as nervous as if I was an abandoned parcel that had just started ticking. Without another word, he scuttled off.
“Great,” I said under my breath. I couldn’t actually blame him. If the only guy enrolled at a school full of girls had approached me, I would have been sidling away with my back to the wall too. I cast around for another victim and found a couple of guys loitering under the sign to the toilets, muttering to each other. They broke off as I wandered up. “Hey,” I said, nodding up at the sign. “What
is
it that girls do in there that takes so long?”
Actually, thanks to my stint as school guardian angel, I knew the answer to this mystery of life—that it takes an unbelievable number of powders and creams to look as if you haven’t done anything at all—but moaning about girls was always a good icebreaker. From the alarmed looks on their faces, though, I might as well have opened with a comment about quantum mechanics.
“You’re him, aren’t you?” one said, staring at me wide-eyed. Given that he was wearing bright yellow contact lenses with vertical slit pupils, the overall effect was of a cat who’d just seen a dog. “The—”
“—boy who goes to school here,” the other one interrupted, giving his friend a surreptitious kick with one cloven hoof. I had to admit, their subtle demonic costumes were pretty awesome. “Rafael Angelos. We’ve heard of you. From the girls, of course.”
“Oh, right.” I leaned against the wall next to them. “Hey, do you guys know the ginger guy with the tail?” I jerked my thumb in Billy-Bob’s direction.
“Yes, of course we do,” Hooves said, and my heart sank. So much for it being that easy. “But not personally.”
“He doesn’t exactly move in our social circles,” Catboy muttered, crossing his arms over his chest. His friend booted him again.
“Hi, boys!” Kate came out of the bathroom, followed by another girl. “Oh, hi, Raffi. Having fun?” Without waiting for a reply, Kate turned to Catboy. Sliding an arm around his waist, she batted her eyelashes up at him. “Sorry to leave you so long. Miss me?”
“Like the tide misses the moon,” he said. I blinked at the sudden confidence in his voice. He brushed a finger over her smiling lips, his cat-slit eyes practically smoldering as he gazed deep into hers. “I warn you, I’m not letting you out of my sight again. We only have this one precious night. If these memories have to last me the rest of my life, then I want to brand you into my soul.”
Rather than vomiting—which was what I considered an appropriate reaction to such utter cheesiness—Kate giggled. “Who says we’ve only got one night?” She leaned her head on his shoulder. “Come on, let’s dance. See ya, Raffi.”
“Hey, Raffi!” I turned at the tap on my shoulder to find Debbie behind me, her over-full wineglass tilting precariously. “D’you know where my date went? I thought I saw you talking to him.”
“Yeah, about that.” I took her elbow, drawing her aside. “You got a moment?”
“Sure, but make it quick.” Debbie held up her drink with an evil smirk. “I’m on a mission. By the way, I spiked the punch. And so did Claire. And Julie. And probably more.” She giggled. “And I saw Ms. Oleander empty a whole bottle of vodka into it. God, I love that teacher. So watch—Raffi! What the hell are you doing?”
“You a favor,” I said, handing back her wineglass, which I’d just emptied into a vase of lilies. “Trust me. Debbie, your date is bad news. You don’t want to get hammered around him. Take my word for it.”
Debbie gave me an exasperated look. “That wasn’t for me, it was for
him
. The guy is sex on a stick.” She sighed. “Unfortunately, the stick is up his arse. I’m just trying to get him to loosen up a little.”
Why did girls always seem to go for total dicks? “Well . . . just promise me you won’t go off alone with him, okay?”
Debbie burst out laughing. “Raffi, are you kidding me? That’s exactly what I’m trying to do! I keep suggesting to him that we could leave this party and find somewhere more private, but he’s not getting the hint.” She shook her head, grinning. “What, were you worried about my virtue or something? That’s so sweet.” She patted me on the shoulder. “Now, in the nicest possible way, butt out. I’m a big girl, I’m not your sister, and it’s none of your business.”
I caught her arm as she tried to slip past. “Wait—you’re trying to seduce
him
?”
“Hello? Have you seen the guy?” Debbie fanned herself with one hand. “Hot as hell.”
I froze.
No. Impossible. They couldn’t manifest outside a pentagram.
But both Michaela and the Headmistress had said that manifested demons couldn’t hide their true nature. That costume had been
really
good . . . and if the guy wasn’t after Debbie’s body, maybe he was after her soul.
Good thing the Prince needs a nephil to possess,
Krystal said in my memory. Just a casual, throwaway comment. But ordinary demons didn’t need nephilim. Ordinary demons could possess ordinary people. And no Prince would travel without a proper entourage.
“Bit of a nerd, though,” Debbie continued blithely as all this flashed through my mind. “I don’t think he’s met many girls. Talks like a cheap romance novel. And kind of disturbingly intense. He’s already pretty much proposed to me—crap, Raffi, that hurts!”
My knuckles were white on her wrist. “Debbie,” I said urgently, not letting go, “listen, don’t talk to him again. Not another word. In fact, get out of here. Go for a walk or something—”
I stopped dead. We hadn’t been speaking loudly. There was no way anyone should have been able to overhear us over the music. But Catboy and Hooves—neither of them closer than ten feet—had, totally independently, just turned around to look at us.
Too late, I remembered the Headmistress’s warnings about demons’ ability to eavesdrop.
“Okay, now you’re getting weird.” Debbie tried to twist free of me. “Raffi, don’t make me hit you! What’s your problem?”
I thought faster than I’d ever thought in my life, as the two guys whispered something to their respective dates, then started to converge on us. “My problem”—I dropped to one knee, grabbing for Debbie’s hand and pressing it earnestly to my cheek—“is that I’m in love with you.”
Both guys paused midstep. Debbie gaped at me. “Not again,” she said. “Two in one night? What the heck did Ms. Oleander put in that punch?” Her expression turned suspicious. “Wait . . . you’re playing a joke on me. Oh, very funny, Raffi. Get up.”
“I’m dead serious.” I surreptitiously leaned to one side, trying to peer past Debbie. Catboy and Hooves were exchanging glances with each other, eyebrows raised. “Seeing you with another guy made me realize. You’re the only one for me.”
“Oh, so that’s how it is, huh?” Debbie’s expression of deep disgust was not exactly the reaction I’d been hoping for. “You weren’t interested in me at all before. But now you think I’m easy, so you’ve decided to try your luck? And here I was thinking you were a nice guy.” She jerked her hand away from me. “Well, you can go screw yourself, Rafael Angelos. Because I’m certainly not going to.”
“Wait—” I was talking to her back. She flipped me off as she stalked away into the crowd. A couple of her friends converged on her, obviously scenting fresh gossip. From Debbie’s gestures, my reputation was about to be thoroughly trashed.
More important, the two “Winchester” guys had drifted off with amused expressions. I didn’t dare try to track them too closely, in case they got suspicious again. Heart hammering against my rib cage, I hurried off in search of Michaela.
“Get your filthy—” Michaela cut off as she saw who had touched her elbow. “Oh, it’s you. Get your filthy hands off of me,” she added seemingly as an afterthought. Then she frowned, peering more intently at my face. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, babe,” I said loudly, draping my arm over her shoulders despite the fact that this was about as wise as embracing a porcupine. “Listen, have any of the guys here been bothering you?” I stared into her eyes, willing her to understand. “Because there are a few here that I don’t like much. I don’t understand how
their sort
got in.”
From the way Michaela went rigid, she’d gotten my hint. She leaned against me, nuzzling my neck. “Are you sure?” she whispered in my ear, her lips barely moving. “Manifesting, not possessing?” I nodded slightly, and she hissed under her breath. She broke free of me, pacing a few steps like a caged tigress. “But that’s impossible—” She stopped dead, staring at her feet. Then, “Come on,” she said, seizing my hand. “I have to go look at something.”
“What?” I said as she dragged me through the crowd.
“The bigger picture.”
There was a little spiral staircase in an alcove at the front of the hall, leading to a small pulpit halfway up the wall. A couple of girls were already up there, leaning over the edge to watch the dancing, but Michaela managed to dislodge them at ten feet just with the force of her glare. She waited impatiently for them to file out of the opening, then dashed up the stairs two at a time. I was out of breath by the time I caught up with her. “Good view,” I said, looking down at the party. From this vantage point, we could see the whole hall. I picked Horny out of the crowd, though Catboy and Hooves were impossible to spot. “There’s one of the guys I met earlier.”
Michaela shook her head. She wasn’t looking at the dancers at all, but rather at the floor. From this height, it became apparent that what at first glance appeared to be a random jumble of tiles was in fact a deliberate mosaic, all done in the same shade of white, but with some tiles polished to mirror-brightness. They stood out against the duller tiles, reflecting the candlelight in looping, shining lines. . . .
“Rafael, we have to get everyone out of here. Right now.” Her fingers practically crushed my arm. “It’s a pentagram.
The whole hall is a pentagram!
”
Michaela had forgotten about demonic senses too. Horny’s head jerked up as if he’d heard a gunshot. He turned to stare directly at us.
As did every other guy in the room.
Including Billy-Bob.
H
is eyes still locked with mine, Billy-Bob bent his head over Faith’s, resting his cheek on her shining hair. She was tucked up against his chest, her back to us, as they swayed in a slow dance. Over the top of her head, he smiled at me.
He knew. He knew that we knew. And he didn’t care.
Never breaking our eye contact, Billy-Bob trailed his hands down Faith’s spine to rest on her hips, drawing her even closer against him. He spun her on the spot, one of his hands floating outward in a flourish that encompassed the rest of the hall. All through the room, as if Billy-Bob’s smile had been some sort of signal, demons were turning back to their partners. Demonic hands on innocent backs, demonic lips whispering temptation into unsuspecting ears, demonic kisses on laughing mouths . . .
Completing his spin, Billy-Bob lifted his eyebrows at me in mocking challenge. The message was clear.
Well? What do you think
you
can do to stop us?
I spread my wings, taking care to make sure they stayed invisibly in Heaven. My feathers burned so fiercely that the darkness around them boiled and seethed, but Billy-Bob just looked amused. At my side, Michaela made a low, distressed sound, the points of her drawn daggers twitching from target to target in an agony of indecision. Even if we took out Billy-Bob, we’d still be outnumbered ten to one—and the demons had hostages.
“Michaela?” I said under my breath. My fingers hovered over Krystal’s pentagram charm. “Scream.”
I grabbed the charm, whirled, and set fire to the nearest draperies.
Michaela had a good set of lungs. Her scream pierced the air like an arrow. Dancers stumbled in sudden gracelessness, every head turning in our direction.
“Fire!” someone yelled. “FIRE!”
A mass shriek erupted from the crowd. The hall exploded in a mad stampede for the nearest exit. Not even Ms. Hellebore could hold back the tide. Some of the demon boys were swept along like twigs in a torrent, only to hit the edge of the mosaic as if it was a solid brick wall. I caught a glimpse of Debbie frantically tugging at Horny, trying to haul him over the invisible barrier. He fought free of her, retreating back into the room, and she fled without him.
“Come on!” Michaela was already scrambling over the edge of the balcony. I grabbed her around the waist, manifesting my wings just in the nick of time to stop us from splatting headfirst on the marble. We still hit the ground hard enough to knock all the breath out of me. For a second, all I could do was clutch at my bandage, white-hot pain stabbing through my chest.
“Sancte Michael Archangele, defende nos in proelio!”
Michaela’s angel hurtled like a flaming meteor down from Heaven as Michaela leaped for Billy-Bob. He jumped out of the way of her daggers, flinging Faith aside—
Straight into my waiting arms.
I folded my wings around her. Beyond our embrace, all was chaos—Michaela’s knives whirling, her angel battering against Billy-Bob’s darkness like a moth against a windowpane, inhuman shrieks of rage and shouted prayers—but here, just for a moment, we stood in the eye of the storm, encircled by white light.
“It’s us,” I said, so close to Faith that we breathed the same breath. Our bodies pressed against each other, our hearts beating as one. My wings burned like the sun itself. “It’s always been us. Faith, we have to save everyone. We have to close the Hellgate.”
My lips touched hers.
I don’t know what I’d been expecting—a blast of heavenly fire, some sort of shock wave, demons shrieking “Noooo!” as they were sucked into a closing vortex—but it certainly wasn’t a knee in the groin.
I collapsed into a ball of pain, the light winking out as my wings folded like the rest of me. “I’m sorry, Raffi, I’m sorry!” Faith babbled even as she shoved me away. “But I can’t do it. I can’t send my mother to Hell. I can’t!”
“Faith, no!” I wheezed through the agony, trying to catch her sleeve as she turned back to Billy-Bob, who was effortlessly forcing Michaela’s daggers away from his throat. “He’s the Prince, Faith!”
Faith let out a strange sound, half sob, half laugh. “I know he is. I deliberately stepped on his tail. He said
ow
.”
Even Billy-Bob looked rather nonplussed at that. Tossing Michaela to one side like a beanbag—she flew ten feet and hit the ground rolling, coming up at my side with broken wings and daggers crossed—he raised one red eyebrow at Faith. “You know what I am, and yet you come willingly?”
“Yes.” She looked around at Michaela and myself, tears streaking her face. “I’m sorry, I can’t close the Hellgate, I can’t choose light with a willing heart.” She spread her wings. Storm-cloud patterns chased across her feathers, light and dark locked in conflict. “I love my mother. No matter what, I can’t condemn her to eternal torment.”
“She’s a demon!” Michaela guarded my back, her daggers and my light holding the demon boys at bay. “She’s betrayed you!”
“I know. But this is my decision, Michaela. I’ll take the consequences.” Faith took a deep breath, raising her chin to meet Billy-Bob’s curious eyes. “I’ll bind myself to you. And then Michaela and Raffi will kill me.”
“What?” Michaela nearly dropped her daggers in shock. Above her in Heaven, her angel seethed with furious light. “No!”
“Promise me you’ll do it, Michaela!” Faith pleaded, opening her hands in supplication. “If you destroy my body with holy fire, the Prince has to go back to Hell. I may not be able to close the Hellgate, but I can make sure I’m the only one to suffer for it.”
“Damn it, Faith, for once in your life open your eyes!” I yelled at her, struggling to my feet. I spread my wings, indicating the watching demons. “The Prince isn’t the only demon who came through the Hellgate!
This is not all about you!
”
Faith blinked, looking around at the ring of grinning demon boys as if noticing them for the first time. She went pale. “No,” she stammered. “My mother—she isn’t evil. She wouldn’t let demons possess her students.”
“Of course I would.” My heart froze in my chest as the Headmistress emerged from the back of the hall, Krystal struggling in her iron grip. The rest of the chapel was deserted now, though shouts drifted in from the open doors as the teachers tried to get the panicking students back under control. Bits of burning silk whirled over our heads as the fire spread. “I would advertise it as a unique feature of this school, if it would not cause undue comment. Why do you think we have a Masked Ball at all? Every year, the best and most promising girls receive the great gift of a demon companion. Not only do the girls gain powerful allies to help them on the path to wealth and power, they are also liberated from foolish hindrances like ‘compassion’ and ‘kindness’. I would be remiss in my duty of care if I
didn’t
give my students the opportunity.”
The Prince caught Faith’s wrist as she tried to back away. “Not so fast, pretty little nephil. I haven’t yet decided which of the bodies on offer I prefer. It could still be you.” His tail flicked lazily from side to side as he cast the Headmistress a pleased glance. “So kind of you to have offered a selection.”
The Headmistress’s face was an impassive mask in the flickering firelight. “Thank you, Prince Beelzebub.”
“Beelzebub,” Michaela whispered in horror-struck tones. “Lord of the Flies. Prince of Pride. Second only to Satan Himself.”
“My reputation precedes me!” Beelzebub brightened as if this had made his whole day.
“Fly, Raf!” Krystal yelled, through her coughs. The hall was rapidly filling with smoke. Her face was red from the heat. “Get out of here!”
“I’m not leaving you!” I could possibly grab Michaela and fly into Heaven, but there was no way I could get to Krystal before the Headmistress ripped her apart. My fear for my friends fueled my own fire, my halo brightening until the closest demons had to take a step back. If I could just get to Faith, if she would join her light to mine this time—
“You think you have even the slightest chance of getting anywhere near me?” Beelzebub said as if reading my mind. “Me? A Prince of Hell?” He laughed. “You were right,” he said to the Headmistress. “His vanity is indeed delicious. Perhaps I
will
possess him rather than your daughter.”
“No!” Faith twisted to grab Beelzebub’s sleeve. “I’ll join with you, I will, if you swear on your name you won’t hurt my friends!”
“Faith!” Michaela’s desperate eyes met mine. “Rafael, I beg you, save her.”
“Yes, Mr. Angelos.” The Headmistress’s emotionless stare bored into me. “If you are willing to sacrifice yourself, you can save her. You can save them all.”
I froze.
All those tearstained letters, from Lydie and the others who suffered under the demons’ rule. All those photos in the corridor outside the Headmistress’s office, all those powerful women with hungry eyes. Hundreds of Balls. Hundreds of girls unwittingly corrupted with evil. Going out into the world and making it a little darker, a little crueler, a little more like this school . . .
And I knew what I had to do.
“Michaela!” I whirled on her. “Stab me!”
Michaela, understandably, stared at me as if I’d gone insane.
“Self-sacrifice,” I said as fast as I could, grabbing Michaela’s shoulders. Above her, the angel stretched its wings wide, burning like a thousand suns going supernova at once. It knew what I wanted, it knew I was choosing with open eyes, it was ready to use me as its channel to the mortal world. . . . “Like Gabriel’s original plan, but me rather than Faith. I’m willing, I choose this, so for the love of Heaven,
stab me
!”
“NO!” shouted Beelzebub. The demon boys lunged forward.
Too late.
I didn’t even feel Michaela’s daggers enter my chest. The instant the tips pierced my skin, the angel’s power burst into me. No human flesh could have withstood that supernatural heat for so much as a heartbeat. It seared even my nephil body, setting every one of my feathers alight with agony, but I forced my wings open before the fire consumed them. All three girls were knocked flat by the blast of light. The demonic darkness evaporated like mist at sunrise. Beelzebub and the demon boys twisted for a second, agonized shadows caught in the eye-searing whiteness—then they too went out like blown candles. Only the Headmistress was left, a lone dark shape in a world of white. Her eyes locked with mine.
For the briefest instant, she smiled.
Then, like a puppet with cut strings, she collapsed.
“Mother!” Faith cried out as my light died away. She struggled up and ran to her. “No,
no
, please . . . Mother!”
“Raf?” Krystal crawled over to me. “Are you alive?”
“Yeah,” I managed to say on the second attempt. I felt like a spent match. Flat on my back, I stared up at the flames flickering across banners overhead and just wanted to go to sleep. “I think I closed—”
Before I could finish the sentence, something curled around my ankle, and yanked me down into Hell.