Redemption (A NOVEL OF THE SEVEN SIGNS) (33 page)

The hatesuckers grabbed him in their warty fists, and plunged him face-first into the blood.

Hot, thick, disgusting. His head slammed into the pond’s marble bottom. He couldn’t break free. His skin was on fire, the evil blood hissing like a hungry devil. He scrabbled for a heavenspell, an immolation, anything to get these vile hatesuckers off him for just a moment…

But his talent scuttled away into the dark, smothered in blood and doubt, and fear scrambled in to fill the emptiness. He’d screwed up. Heaven couldn’t help him. He couldn’t even flash out, not with Rose still at Zuul’s mercy. And the burning blood licked over him, crawling through his hair, into his ears, under his eyelids, up his nose…

Japheth’s stomach convulsed.
Christ. Don’t vomit. Don’t
…

Acid bile exploded into his throat. He couldn’t spit it out. Couldn’t open his mouth. If even a drop of this horrible stuff went down his throat…

What if it did?
Would it be so bad?
The whisper coiled around his heart, a serpent with cool, calming scales.
An end to all this fighting. Aren’t you tired of fighting, Jae? Aren’t you sick to your heart of denying what you want?

His cheek scraped the marble. He fought not to gulp for air that wasn’t there. After fourteen hundred years, he was weary to the bone. Of not understanding, of fumbling in the dark. Of following rules that didn’t make sense, the blind keeper of an empty ritual.

Then suck it in. Drink it up. Join them, and you could have her, Jae. You could have everything you ever wanted.

But I want heaven!
Stars spun before his eyes.
I want to go home
…

Do you really?
So reasonable, this devil voice.
Or do you just want to stop hurting?

A scream bubbled in his chest. He didn’t need oxygen. He knew that. Didn’t need to breathe but every minute or two to stay alive… But hot panic chemicals flooded his body, wild and demanding, licked with golden temptation. He wanted it. Wanted that dark coppery flavor, the heat, the sweet delight, to
consume
…

His lungs stung and spasmed. His diaphragm contracted, desperate to drag in air…

Drink, Jae. Swallow. Drown in it, and you’ll never have to deny yourself again.

No.
Horror clawed him ragged.
I don’t want to want like this! I loathe it. It’s foul. Make it stop. Cut my heart out, I don’t care. Just say I’m not past saving. Don’t let me be evil
…

Dark laughter slicked his throat. Already, his jaw weakened, his lips easing apart…
Too late, Jae,
that demonic voice whispered, sparkling with bright diamonds like an archangel’s curse.
You
are
evil. You always have been.

*   *   *

Black hatemagic swarmed over Rose like angry piranhas. Zuul’s minions pinned Japheth down, face-first in the bloody fountain. Up to his chest in it, his wings thrashing in a hail of blood. The hatesuckers were laughing, crimson to the elbows, their massive chests soaked. One had a long lank
braid of hair, and it hung over his shoulder, licking into the gore.

Zuul just stood there, arms folded, and smiled his slick demon’s smile. “Wow,” he shouted, “that’s nearly a minute. Amazing, viewers! Can he last another? Text ‘die, heavenshit!’ if you think so!”

Japheth’s massive muscles strained, but the hatesuckers ground his guts into the marble, squeezing away his strength. If he sucked in even one mouthful…

No.
Clarity flashed in Rose’s heart like ice, burning away the fog.
I can’t let them do it. Not like this
…

She cared what happened to him, for fuck’s sake. Where was her fire? Her hatred, the only thing that kept her safe? He was an angel, a deceitful messenger of her despised heaven. Everything he stood for was a dreadful lie. All he desired was her suffering. He
deserved
this…

The two hatesuckers who held her giggled, watching the fun. One of them had a hard-on, and he rubbed it against her ass, enjoying himself. Rose barely noticed. She gritted her teeth, trying to grind away this horrible sympathy that wrenched tight like hot wire around her heart…

But it wouldn’t break.
We’re ugly. Japheth’s beautiful. I can’t let them destroy him.

She coiled her thigh muscles like whips, and kicked the hatesuckers in the face.

Both of them. She swung her legs up like clubs, folding her body at the waist and using their grip on her shoulders for leverage. Her tendons shrieked with the effort. She was supple, ultra-flexible, agile, able to take a beating and carry on. To dance eight shows a week, she needed to be tough. Skip even one show for a bruise or a strain, and there was always some other ambitious, talented girl chomping at the bit to take her place.

Christ, how long ago that seems.

Her boots connected.
Crack!
Bones broke. The hatesuckers howled, confused, spitting blood and teeth…and their grip on her shoulders slipped.

She whiplashed to her feet, and sprinted for the fountain’s marble edge…and Japheth’s fallen sword.

She dived for it. Tumbled, the bloody tiles scraping her knuckles. The blade was dark, bereft of flame or life. But it was still sharp. And she was one pissed-off vampire.

Her fist closed around the warm hilt. She rolled to her feet, and launched herself at Zuul and his two sniggering buddies.

Her other two warty pals were already howling, waving their bulging arms, their waxy white faces a mess of blood and bone splinters. She grinned, fierce.
Howl away, assholes. This little girl got the drop on you. How’s that feel?

She swung the blade two-handed as she ran, and
schllp!
The long-haired hatesucker’s pale head sliced off and splatted into the red pond. His braid cartwheeled and followed, sliced neatly in half.

Zuul whirled, rage burning around him in a cloud of black ash. The other hatesucker froze, shock dulling his eyes, and in a blur of bloody gold, Japheth exploded to his feet and tore the thing’s head off with his bare hands. He hurled the head into the grass on a rich angelic curse, and it burst into flame.

Rose’s heart thumped. He was filthy with blood. It clotted in his hair, soaked his wings, ran in a crimson wash down his face. It sizzled to smoke, his burned skin healing. If he’d swallowed some…

She screamed in wordless disgust and swung her sword at Zuul.

Japheth sprang forwards. “Jesus, Rose, don’t drop your guard—”

Too late, she saw the wicked green fire blazing in the demon’s eyes. But she couldn’t stop her stroke. Couldn’t halt her forwards motion.

And quick as a striking viper, Zuul hurled a fistful of ash into her face.

She choked, blinded. Bitter grit coated her tongue. Her sword whistled wild, flinging her off balance. And white-hot agony bladed deep into her belly.

She staggered, and screamed. Her vision shorted out. Ice and fire, excruciating. The stinking ash dissolved, and with an evil grin that froze her blood, Zuul twisted his poisoned dagger deeper into her guts, and ripped it out.

Time slowed, a stop-motion horror film. Her fingers flashed
numb. The sword clattered to the gory tiles. And she stared down in dizzy shock at the blood flowering on her t-shirt.

“Ooh, I bet that feels good,” Zuul hissed, and in a puff of hell-spelled glitter, he vanished.

CHAPTER 30

Rose choked, and dropped to her knees. Blood bloomed on her belly, her thighs, her clutching hands.

Japheth’s heart stopped.

Just for a moment. But long enough for the silence to cut through his throbbing pulse.

Gut stabbed. With a demon blade. Poison already chewed through her body.

Zuul was gone. The hatesuckers howled, beating their chests with bloody fists, and advanced on her. And the vampires—until now busy screwing and moaning and sloshing about in the blood—screamed as one, and sprinted for the fountain.

The hell-bright moon glared, scorching Japheth’s skin afresh. His heart jerked, and started again. And his warrior instincts screamed alive.

No time for doubt or self-loathing. Rose was dying. These foul creatures would feast on her corpse. And she’d fall struggling into hell.

Not on my watch.

He scooped her up, and flashed out.

Blackness swamped them, sweet relief. He almost hadn’t
dared try it. For all he knew, his magic had withered, along with his righteous intentions. But still, heaven chose to help him.

He laughed, sick. Good intentions. The road to hell. He’d heard that one before.

Rose shivered in his arms. So warm against his chest. So human.

Disoriented, he jumped from the ether, not caring where he landed. Grass crunched beneath his feet. Scorching red moonlight, the dappled shade of elms. Beyond, in the distance, the tall apartments of Fifth Avenue. Cabs whizzed by under neon-bright virtual billboards. A guy sold hot dogs next to the police barricade. A skinhead in jeans and no shirt brandished a machete, yelling nonsense, out of his brain on hellcry. A Kevlar-armored riot cop shot him, and he collapsed. She took his machete. No one paid attention.

Still in the park. Whatever. He didn’t smell vampires. Safe, for now.

He laid Rose on the soft grass. She muttered, sweating, her breath shallow. Her lashes fluttered. A sick greenish hue glowed from her skin. Blood oozed from her belly. Lots and lots of blood.

He scraped away the dirty ash that clotted the mark on her forehead. His hands were bloody. Shit, he was still drenched in it, despite his angelic healing. He wiped his face with his forearm. Rose’s t-shirt—the one he’d borrowed from Iria, how long ago that seemed—was soaked. He ripped it apart, exposing her skin from waist to breasts.

Holy Jesus.
He stared, sick. Surely, even her cursed vampire resilience couldn’t heal
that
.

The wound was ragged, deep. He could see muscle, dark and inflamed, and beyond it the soft shapes of organs. Mottled black corruption sank cruel roots into her flesh. The torn edges were already rotting. He’d seen enough demon-poisoned wounds to know what happened next.

She was going to die.

God, he wanted to flash out, run away, hide from this awful sight.
What the hell do I do now?

But he already knew.

Defiance blazed in his heart, bright like unseasonal sunshine, inescapable like fate. He didn’t bother to pray. He knew healing humans was forbidden. He had the power, more or less. Just not allowed to use it. Another of heaven’s senseless rules. Suffering was all they wanted.

Well, screw them.
Heaven was obsessed with death. He wanted to live. And Rose deserved to live, too. Not flicker out in a blood-stinking park with a demon’s poisoned blade in her guts.

Does that make me evil?
This time, he did pray, searching his heart for the truth.
Does feeling something other than hatred when I look at her make me a monster?

Then send me to hell. I’m ready.

He conjured his dagger. It slapped into his hand, a strange, dark flash of violet. The heat seared his eyes, a heavenly warning.

But it was too late for warnings.

He slashed the blade across his palm, letting the blood sacrifice flow free. His Tainted sigil burned bright, that same weird purple glow.

More blood. More death. That should make them happy.

He clenched his bloody fist, and raised his gaze to heaven.
I don’t know what I did to make you shun me. I don’t know why you’re helping me now. But my will is my own, Lord. I’ll accept the consequences. Don’t take this choice from me.

If I ever pleased you at all? Grant me this before I go.

And he pressed his bleeding hand to his vampire lady’s flesh, and gave her back her nightmare.

*   *   *

God, it hurts.

Rose groaned. Ugly fingers of pain grasped inside her, clawing ever deeper. Piercing flesh and sinew and organs, jamming into crevices, forcing up inside her bones, and no matter how she pleaded, they wouldn’t stop.