Heart of a Demon (The Dark Angel Wars 1)

“How many?” I glared into Kate’s big brown eyes. “Tell me, Kate. How many have died?”

She gulped. “Five. Elder Sarah was the first to go. Then Ruth Baker disappeared. Trixie, from the diner. Bonnie disappeared on her way to the town meeting. The last person to go was Queenie. The goddess took her from her home.”

It felt like I’d been shot in the chest. Queenie had been one of my favorite people in the world. Always cheerful, never harsh like Granny. If she was gone, the world had lost a saint.

Kate’s tears were really beginning to fall. Raquel took a Kleenex from her purse and handed it to her without a word. She nodded her thanks and blew her nose before continuing.

“My mom made me take some of the younger girls into Rapid City for a while. We’re hiding out at a house on the south side that belongs to Dr. Richt’s sister, until they can figure out what to do. I was just stopping here to pick up some stuff for the girls.”

It was really bad if the Elders had allowed people to leave town. That had never happened. Not even during the big demon slaughter fifty years ago.

“I’m really scared, Lizzy.” Kate reached out and softly grabbed my hand. When I didn’t pull away, she closed it between both of her clammy hands. “I’m worried about my mom. She won’t come with me. She says she needs to help protect our town. I think the goddess is going to kill her.”

Looking at Kate standing there, so fragile and afraid, I knew I had to do something. In a way, this had all started because of me. It was time it ended with me.

Chapter Twenty-One

As soon as we got back from Rapid City, I marched right up to Luke’s office in the manor and burst through the door. To my surprise, he wasn’t alone like usual. Sitting in the plush black chairs across from Luke’s antique library desk was Gabe and Adam. I was too caught up in my anger about Kate’s news to give them much pause.

“Luke, please tell me you didn’t know the goddess has been picking people off at my hometown?”

The guilty look he shot me told me all I needed to know. He opened his mouth to say something, but I cut him off.

“You’re kidding me!” I took a couple of shallow breaths to keep my temper down, but it was reaching boiling point. “From what I heard, the disappearances started the day after Gabe brought me here. All this time, you didn’t say anything? I have a right to know these things.”

“Lizzy…” Gabe began. I put my hand up and refused to be distracted by him. The last thing I needed was his handsome face talking me out of saying what I’d come here to say.

“I didn’t want to upset you.” Luke put his hands on the desk and pressed his fingertips together. In another life, he would’ve made a good therapist. All he needed here was a couch. “You’ve already been through so much.”

“You don’t get to treat me like a child, Luke. I’m sorry you missed that part of my life, but it’s over and done with. I’d appreciate it if you remembered that.”

Luke pressed his lips together and slowly closed his eyes. At the same time, Adam snorted behind me and I could practically feel the leer I knew was smack dab in the middle of his face. I took a step back and nervously tucked the hair behind my ears. As angry as I was for being kept out of the loop, I didn’t want to destroy the relationship Luke and I’d been building.

“Look, I’m sorry for losing my temper.” I sighed, rolling my eyes to the ceiling. “You don’t deserve that. But I want to be kept in the loop from now on.”

Luke sucked in his cheeks and opened his eyes. “I’m sorry, Lizzy. I shouldn’t have been so secretive. You’re absolutely right.” He pointed to the remaining empty black chair. “Please, have a seat. We were just discussing it, actually.”

I glanced at the abnormally quiet Gabe and Adam, and realized quickly that both looked a little worse for wear. Gabe had a cut that extended from his shoulder to his cheek. Adam’s shirt had been shredded across his chest like a giant cat took a swipe at him. Weary expressions pulled at their chiseled jaws.

“What happened to you?” I couldn’t help taking Gabe’s face in my hands and turning it so that I could look at the wound better. It was long, but shallow. No permanent damage. “Were you out patrolling?”

He took my hands in his and pulled them off his face, looking up at me with an earnest expression that melted the remaining anger I had left.

“I’m fine. Adam and I were patrolling the northern woods. We ran into some unsavory company.”

“Don’t worry, I’m okay, too,” Adam grumbled.

I ignored him and turned to Luke, my hands still clasped softly in Gabe’s. “The goddess?”

He nodded. “Please, let’s talk.”

Reluctantly, I pulled my hands out of Gabe’s and sat next to him. Behind me was a large bookshelf that housed works from Socrates to Tina Fey’s memoir. From what I’d learned about Luke so far, he was an eclectic reader. I suppose, when you’d been around for hundreds of years, reading would be one of the ways to remember your humanity. Living in a manor in the middle of a national forest probably isolated most of the Nephilim here. Raquel had become a voracious watcher of reality TV. I didn’t have the heart to tell her most of that stuff was scripted.

Luke leaned forward in his chair and ran a finger over one of the dozen books opened on his desk. “This demon that you call the goddess is known to us as Margaret. She is a deceiver demon that slipped through the gate and took the founder of your little town of Hanna. That is the body she still wears to this day.”

I put my hands on the arm rests of the chair to keep the world from tilting. No wonder this demon had been so obsessed with the women of my town. She’d created it. Her portrait still hung above the altar of the church. That decrepit and decaying creature was once the beautiful and prim Margaret Thatcher. I could hardly wrap my mind around it.

“Unfortunately, Margaret has evaded our capture for hundreds of years. The sacrifices and worship of her by the townspeople of Hanna have made her stronger. She derives power from being worshipped. A human sacrifice would’ve given her an untold amount of power, which is why she wants you back. She’s been attacking your hometown and has taken five of the residents there. I take it you already knew that?”