Downtown Hell

Chapter Nineteen

The temperature in the small restaurant dropped drastically, ice formed at the archangels' boots. But it was quickly turned into a small puddle by the heat eminating from my skin. It got warmer again, the other people at the tables hadn't noticed.

"Michael", I hissed through gritted teeth.
Pride let out a low growl.

The archangel grinned and pulled a chair from the table next to us. He sat on it as if it was a throne and we were merely two blotches of dirt at his feet.
God, if only I could knock out a few of his teeth.
"The fuck do you want here? Don't you have a few innocents to torture?"

"I have a war to win. Against you, if you remember."

"That doesn't explain why you're here."

He laughed. I had liked his laugh once, I remembered. It had given me a feeling of home, of being safe. Now, it only made me shudder.
"No, I suppose not. But on the other hand, I don't have to explain you anything. I only wanted to let you know that you're running out of time."

I scoffed. "For what? Kicking your ass? Believe me, I'll get my chance."

"Get out of here. Now."

I had almost forgotten about Pride. The prince was one breath away from snarling at Michael.

The archangel stood up. "Until next time, °▪︎~○■●~."

He was gone in the blink of an eye.

"What the fuck did he just call me?"

"That was enochian. It means something like 'traitor'. That being said, are we done here?"

Traitor. I couldn't believe it. He had betrayed me first. "We are. Just let me pay and we can go home." I conjured a bit of cash from thin air and left it on the table. A nice little trick that Ilara had taught me.

When we stepped outside, I was greeted with the pleasant smell of rain and looked up at the sky. Dark clouds gathered and the air tasted like metal. A thunderstorm, probably caused by Michael.

"You can go ahead", I said to Pride. "I think I'll stay up here for a while."

"Do you miss it?", he asked quietly.

"Being human?"

"Earth."

I smiled sadly. "I guess I do. There's so much to see. But you don't care about that, do you? You just want it all to end."

"Lillith..."

"No. You should go."

I watched him disappear in a crowd walking past and took a deep breath once he was gone. The first few raindrops fell and all around me, people opened up their umbrellas or hurried to get into the small restaurants and shops to stay dry.

I focused on my powers to stop the water from evaporating from my skin, so the people around me wouldn't notice.

An umbrella suddenly appeared above my head and a familiar face with a wide grin looked down on me.

"You looked a little lost."

"Thanks. What are you doing here?"

Ryder ran a hand through his damp hair. "Had a job a few blocks downtown. Felt that there was something going on here, so I thought I'd check it out."

I groaned. "Michael, that bastard. He just walked up to Pride and me and had the nerve to threaten me. I swear, if there hadn't been any civilians around, I would have melted his stupid face off his stupid fucking head and...."