“Hey, I thought this was a two-bedroom. What you gonna do with the second one?” I kicked off my shoes as he pulled the blanket back.
His dark hair was tousled over his forehead, making his blue eyes pop. “I was thinking an office or a music room. Start collecting guitars.”
A grin curved my lips. “Definitely a music room. With a little corner for your poetry books,” I teased.
He poked me in the rib cage, and I fell onto the bed in a fit of laughter. I was so exhausted it was like being drunk.
“You said you were going to let that go,” he told me with mock hurt. My man was crazy for poetry, and I loved it.
“I love you,” I remarked, looking up at him.
Noah peeked over his shoulder then. “Aw, I love you too.”
I could no longer keep my eyes open, so I just smiled in response, and let them close.
“She’s never been this tired before, not even when I tried to kill her in boot camp,” Lincoln explained to the healer.
“Heard that,” I mumbled.
“Dude, she produced a freaking Celestial orb. That takes nearly all the light we carry. She just needs rest.” Noah’s voice was lighthearted; he clearly wasn’t concerned.
“Just scan her, bro. I’m serious,” Lincoln urged him firmly.
“Fine.” Noah’s voice was clipped.
I felt it then, the warm buzz of Noah’s energy, scanning down my back.
The bed was so comfortable, my body melted into it as I drifted off to sleep.
“Oh… interesting.” Noah’s words were all I heard before I hit dreamland.
Chapter Eleven
I awoke feeling refreshed, and rolled over to see the clock said it was noon.
Oh my God! I overslept.
I sat upright and looked for Lincoln, but instead, found a piece of paper with his small block letter handwriting on it.
Had to see Raph about something. Wanted to let you sleep. Food is in the fridge.
Love you.
Linc
PS: You snored like a train last night.
I smiled at the letter. It was so Lincoln.
Pulling myself out of bed, I quickly showered, and totally swooned when I saw Lincoln had transferred my pink toothbrush from the trailer to his new place. He’d even kept some of my clothes in his top drawer. I changed quickly, and then poured some cereal into a large bowl. Cereal for lunch was totally my favorite thing.
I texted Shea that I was awake, and there was a knock at the door thirty seconds later.
“I totally didn’t get laid,” she exclaimed, barging past me.
I snorted. “What?”
“After all that sex Olympics talk, he rejected me. Said I’d been drinking and he wanted our first time to be special,” Shea declared with a frown, as if a special night of sex with Noah was the worst thing in the world.
I chuckled. “Okay, and what’s wrong with that? He’s being a total gentleman.”
My bestie was wearing Noah’s shirt, which hung halfway down her legs, and her wild curly hair was in two puffball pigtails. She looked adorable.
“I know. Maybe I misjudged him.” She collapsed onto Lincoln’s couch dramatically, like she was auditioning for a daytime soap opera.
“Ya think?” I managed through my cereal-stuffed mouth.
She sat up, fully erect as shock marred her face. “Oh my God.”
Panic seized me. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m totally in love with him,” she declared.
I smacked my forehead and decided to drop the subject. Shea was utterly clueless when it came to all things Noah.
“How crazy was Luke last night, gushing over Donnie?” I asked, choosing to switch gears.
Shea laughed. “Oh my God, I thought Luke was going to start humping his leg. So cute and sad.”
I nodded with a smile, but then my mind shifted to more important topics. “You ready for tonight?”
I needed Sera back. She was an extension of my soul, so being without her was physically painful at that point. I felt half empty inside.
Shea’s face took on a look of determination. “Totally. We’ll get her back. Don’t worry.”
My phone buzzed then, nearly yelping when I saw it was Clark.
I scrambled to grab it, and mashed the green button to accept the call.
“Hey, any news on my brother?” My voice was frantic. He’d said to give him another week. It had only been a day. Something had to be wrong.
“Hey, Bri.” Mikey’s voice flared through the phone instead, it had dropped three octaves and was hoarse.
Relief flooded my entire body and I burst into tears. I hadn’t heard his voice in over a month. Part of me thought I might never hear it again. Shea rushed from the couch to sit with me as I tried to find my own voice.
“You’re okay?” I finally managed.
“I’ll be okay. Yeah.”
“Have you called Mom?” My poor mother was worried sick over the whole situation. Not being able to talk to, or see him was torturing her.
“Yeah. She’s coming to see me tomorrow. Clark says it’s safe,” Mikey confirmed.
I swallowed. “Well I’m free this afternoon. Shea and I will come right now.”
“Tomorrow is best,” Clark’s voice broke in, and I groaned. This alpha was a real piece of work. Talk about control freak, but he’d gotten my brother back, so I couldn’t complain.
“Tomorrow’s fine,” I agreed.
My thoughts were going a mile a minute. Did Clark take my brother’s wolf to the cemetery to see my dad? Had that healed him somehow? I didn’t want to ask and trigger anything, but I really wanted to know at some point.
“Love you, Bri. Gotta go,” Mikey breathed.
The tears were back. “I love you too. Even though you annoy me all the time, I freaking love you, Mikey. Okay?”
“Okay.” I could hear the smile in his voice.
After I hung up, Shea just held me as I laughed, and cried happy tears.
My brother was going to be okay. Now I just needed to get Sera, win Fight Night, and buy my mom’s contract.
I would get her out of Demon City. I had to. It’s what my dad would have wanted.
Night had fallen, and we’d been granted shadow passes to tag along on Blake’s mission with his team. But little did the Fallen Army leaders know, we were going to split off, and retrieve my infinity weapon.
After passing through the military checkpoint at the edge of Angel City, Lincoln checked in with Blake, and we set a rendezvous point to meet up after we’d gotten Sera back. Now we were all in a bus, a dozen of us including Chloe, Donnie, Luke, Noah, Darren, Shea, and some of their trusted army buddies, one of whom was a powerful Light Mage named Nora. Her hair was as white as cotton, but she looked way too young for it to be natural.
I was touched that everyone had come together on my account. Okay, maybe they’d come because my boyfriend was a lieutenant, well-loved member of the army, and Sera was a seraph blade currently stuck in Hell, but whatever. They were here—that was all that mattered.
We drove in silence to the apartment building where I’d seen my first, and hopefully last, Succubus demon.
I shivered a little, thinking about what she’d looked like, especially those sunken pits for eyes.
Before I knew it, we’d pulled into a parallel parking spot at the front curb. My mind went back to that night, and what I’d learned recently in my history class.
“Hey, Lincoln,” I whispered.
My lover was in a conversation with Donnie. After looking over at me, he wrapped it up, then came to sit by me. “What’s up? You ready? Feeling okay?”
I nodded, tightening the steel cuffs that he’d given me around my arms. “I was just thinking. If Sera was thrown into the portal on the second floor, and the underworld is directly underneath us, then should we open the portal on the bottom floor? So I can search the ground in Hell?”
Yes, I just had a normal conversation about opening a portal to Hell.
Lincoln nodded, thinking. “That’s actually a good plan, but it gives us a higher chance of something coming through since we’ll be at their ground level. That Succubus could have dropped Sera in the middle of a Demon City in hell for all we know.”
There were Demon Cities in hell! Of course there were. Then she’d probably been stolen. All I’d seen before that portal closed was a hazy red sky, and then Sera was gone.
“I think it’s our best shot,” I told him.
He stared at his hand a moment and then nodded. “All right. Let’s do it.”
After relaying the slight change in plans, our team embarked on the journey.
Nerves were tightly grabbing hold of me as we walked over to the apartment door directly below the one I’d lost Sera in that night.
Lincoln banged on the door loudly and it creaked open, the handle missing.
He stepped inside, lighting the way with the scope on top of his weapon. “Fallen Army, anyone here?” he shouted.
Noah went in behind him and they both did a quick sweep. When they returned, they beckoned us inside.
“Abandoned. Looks like Snakeroot demons used to live here. Everything is acid charred, so watch your step,” Lincoln called out into the hallway where we stood on standby.
As I stepped forward, I felt total and complete hope that I would find Sera, and that scared me. If I didn’t, I was going to be crushed.
Nora, the Light Mage, approached Shea as we stepped into the living room. “You’ve opened a Hell portal before?” she asked skeptically, no doubt eyeing my second-year best friend like a newbie.
Shea was anything but humble. That’s where she and Noah were perfect for each other.
“I’ve mastered it. Trust me, I can open and close this thing in sixty seconds if need be.” Shea propped one hand on her hip for snarky emphasis.
The Light Mage held her hands up defensively. “All right. I’ll ready the spell to amplify your connection to the weapon, Brielle, and then we can do the retrieval spell. But first, I need some of your blood to tap into the energy you share with the weapon.”
My eyes bugged a little. What was it with these people and wanting blood samples?
“The retrieval spell might not be necessary. I’ve learned how to call my weapon from far away from Archangel Michael,” I told her.
She nodded. “We can try it, but just know that down there, everything is different. Trust me.” The expression in her face told me she’d been through something, and I should trust her.
I simply nodded, handing her my finger.
Lincoln was right beside me the entire time as the rest of our group fanned out to protect us. Half were ordered to focus on outside threats here in Inferno, while the other half of our team had to protect us from anything that might try to come out of the portal.
The sound of cracking bones pulled my attention but I didn’t even bother to look over, knowing it was Luke shifting back to human form.
As Nora sliced my finger, my blood dripped onto a purple crystal. “Is it true you can talk to the weapon? Like a true mental connection?” she asked. Up close, her face had fine lines around the eyes, and I thought she might be a bit older than she looked. I also wondered what had turned her hair white, or if she’d been born with that unique shade.