I plummeted toward the earth.
I fell.
One
Silas
“We’re heading out,”Zenon muttered.
Rocco jerked his chin up.“See you there, Si, yeah?”
“Right behind you.”I patted my pockets and growled, or I would be when I found my car keys.
Zen walked out onto the balcony, bounded onto the railing, and dove off in a head-spinning death-drop before bursting into the air, his batlike wings catching the wind, then beating slowly as they carried him up into the night sky.Roc unfurled his white-feathered wings tipped with silver and did the same, but without the death-drop.
I tore my eyes away, my heart finding its way into my throat as I strode out into the hall, then stepped into the elevator.The steel box plummeted a floor before the doors slid open.
I tried not to dwell on what I’d lost, it was an exercise in futility and grossly self-indulgent, but sometimes, like now, the pain hit me out of nowhere so hard it squeezed my chest and drove the oxygen from my lungs.
Several years had passed since the angels, my own brethren, hacked off my wings and tossed me from Heaven like unwanted trash.At times like this, though, the physical and soul-deep pain made my fall seem but a moment ago.
The door ahead of me opened and Zenon’s mate, Mia, walked out with Zephyr, their three-year-old son, at her side.He saw me, and his face lit up before he ran at me, his shoulder-length black hair streaming out behind him, holding out his arms.
“Hey, Zeph.”I scooped him up.
“You got any candy, Si?”he said in his sweet, raspy voice, his tiny hand delving into the pocket of my leather jacket.
“Zeph,” Mia said, shaking her head.“How about saying hello before you start searching people’s pockets.”
He tilted his head back, looking up at me, and planted both of his sticky little hands on my face to make sure he had my attention.“Hello,” he said.
I smiled, it was impossible not to.“Sorry, bud, no candy today.I’ll make sure I get some for tomorrow though.Yeah?”
He nodded, his smile widening.
Mia took him from me.“You’ve done it now.”
I chuckled.
“I thought you were on patrol tonight?”she said.
“Forgot my keys.”
“Oh.”She gave my arm an affectionate squeeze before turning her attention back to her son.“Right, little monster, let’s go say goodnight to your cousins, then bed.”
He nodded.“Then Grandpa?”
“Yes, then you can call Grandpa,” she said.
His grandpa, well, great-grandfather, was Lucifer, and the pair were thick as thieves.“Night, Zeph,” I said as they headed toward Eve and Lazarus’s quarters.
Opening my door, I scanned the room.
I’d lived at the knights of Hell compound ever since I was cast out of Heaven.They’d been good to me, had treated me like one of their own.
The knights had been protecting Roxburgh from demons for centuries, and now they had help from the hellhounds and Rune, a demon appointed to the city to keep those of his kind that had been granted sanctuary under control, and it mostly worked.
We still did nightly patrols, picking off the demons that shouldn’t be here, or the ones breaking the rules, but we’d recently turned our focus to Oldwood Forest, where the demon population was increasing rapidly.They were the kind of demons that couldn’t pass as human, but most concerning was the increase in female abductions.The demons dwelling there were actively snatching females off the street and using them as breeders.