The Sinner

“Come on,” Cas said.

We crossed the street and headed up 6th, a thousand unspoken words hanging between us. The dark felt alive, like it had the night we stumbled home from the pub. Only this time I was stone cold sober. We passed a trash-strewn alley, buzzing with flies. A hissing voice crawled up my spine, breaking the silence of the.

“Casziel…”

Deber and Keeb shuffled out, just as they had in the bathroom. Flies buzzed. Instantly, Cas put himself between me and the demons. Deber wore a malicious smirk while Keeb tittered into her shoulder with a stomach-churning giggle.

“Isn’t that sweet,” Deber mused, sauntering closer, bringing Keeb with her. “Lord Casziel, the Nightbringer, the Prince of Demons, playing the part of the heroic—”

“Silence,” Casziel hissed, and the cloud of flies grew agitated, then settled over the twins again, tangling in their hair, crawling over their faces across their yellow eyes.

Deber turned to me. “Did you ask your questions? Did he answer with lies?” She clucked her tongue. “Sweet, innocent little Lucy has no idea with whom she consorts.”

Keeb giggled—a sickening sound—and peered at us from between strands of stringy gray hair.

“Who summoned you?” Casziel demanded.

“You can’t guess?”

“Ashtaroth,” he muttered, his eyes hard.

The demons moved closer, hesitantly, wary of Casziel. Only a few feet away. I felt the tension humming in him, the muscles under my hand tightening. The flies thickened, their buzzing like the static of an old TV, showing me a fuzzy image of me on the floor of my kitchen, broken glass around me…

“You’re a fool, Casziel,” Deber was saying. “He will never let you go. And she…” She smiled at me, showing rotting teeth. “She will know the truth and despise you for it.”

With an angry snarl, Casziel thrust me back. In the next instant, he was in his demonic form—bloodless skin and eyes like black holes, sucking in all light. Somehow, his wings unfurled through the black leather of his jacket without tearing it. An immense sword appeared, strapped between those wings that stretched out, long and powerful and beautifully awful.

The demons shrieked and fell back as he unsheathed the sword and leveled the tip at Deber’s throat, his voice dangerous and deadly.

“Leave her alone or I will hunt you on This Side and the Other until your very existence becomes a burden and you beg for Oblivion.”

Keeb let out a little shriek. The fear in Deber’s eyes was alive and electric, but she smiled in triumph. She backed away, taking Keeb with her into the cloud of flies.

“Beautiful threats, Casziel. But empty.” She leveled a wasted finger at me. “She’s ours now. Not yours anymore. Never again.”

The demons’ bodies disintegrated into more flies that dispersed into the night, leaving the alley quiet and dark. Casziel turned to me, his black-on-black eyes like endless pits of darkness in his pale face. I recoiled and he reverted to his human form.

My throat was dry, my head reeling. “I don’t…I can’t…”

Casziel approached me slowly, hand outstretched as if he were afraid I’d run. But where would I go? Demons lurked in every shadow.

“What just happened?” I asked through trembling lips. “What did she mean that I’d despise you?”

“Nothing. All lies. A demon’s word isn’t worth anything, remember?” His lip curled, and then he raised his eyes to mine, heavy with regret. “Come. Let’s get you home.”

Feeling lost, underwater, and drowning in a hundred different emotions, I let him guide me to the subway station. The car wasn’t even half full—a few friends ending their night out, a few solitary people scrolling their phones. The glaring light was like a slap to the face, and I calmed my harsh breathing, though my heart didn’t stop pounding, even back in my apartment.

Casziel held his palm up. “Zisurrû.”

Green light outlined my door, then faded, and I was overcome with a sense of déjà vu.

“What you just did to the door…I’ve seen it before. The night of the pub.”

“A protective ward,” he said. “I’ll do the same to the window after I leave tonight.”

“And the flies. I’ve seen them too. I remember, I was in the kitchen…” I shook my head, my thoughts wading through a dreamy murk. “You were there… Did you use another word? To make me forget?”

He took another step toward me. “Lucy…”