Wingless ~Book Two of Winged~

Barzakh

I sit on the couch of the hotel room nervously tapping my foot as Dominic pushes the service cart and the leftover dirty dishes on it into the hall. Even though he said that they would be fine, I can't help but worry about Etheriel. Dominic comes back in and leans against the wall, staring at me.

"You're still worried." He states and I look up at him.

"Of course I am. What if they're out numbered? What if Eli shows up and kills one of them? Flora can just teleport back to heaven, but Etheriel and Nathan can't they're stuck there until they can get away. The demons can do the same, I've seen you do it numerous amounts of time and they can use passages just to get behind them." I continue to ramble on about my worries. Dominic steps away from the wall and just as he does so the window behind me shatters and a silver arrow whizzes past and lands right in front of Dominic. I stop in middle of a sentence, my eyes widening as Dominic stops and stares down at the arrow. Since it is no longer moving, I see that there is a black tarnish spread on it in some places. I quickly stand and face the window, unable to see where the hell the arrow came from.

"Who is it?" I mumble. I feel Dominic approach from behind me.

"A Prince of Hell." He mumbles and suddenly grabs me, twisting me around. I feel Dominic's body tense behind me and a pained groan escapes him. I turn and before I can face him, he pulls me into his chest and flames grow around us. They die down and we are in an alley. He immediately collapses against bricks. He sucks in a breath of air and I scan his body to see an arrow stuck in the back of his leg. His hand shakily wraps around the arrow.

"Don't. Ever. Let. One. Of. These. Touch. You." He gasps as he pulls the arrow out. The arrow burns up in his hand and his body physically relaxes.

"Why? Why did that hurt you so much?" I drop down beside him and lightly touch his leg. He winces, but doesn't pull away.

"It is a one hit kill. If that hits you anywhere... it will kill you." He tilts his head back against the bricks. "I only survived because of how I was twisted into a demon and it only hit my leg." His leg isn't healing like it did with the bullets and I move the fabric of his jeans to look at the wound.

"Why aren't you healing?" I question and he cracks his neck, sighing at the same time.

"It will take time... For now, we need to get you somewhere safe." He struggles to his feet and I quickly stand and awkwardly wrap my arm around him to help him walk. We leave the alley and come out into an empty dark street.

"Where are we?" I ask and we start walking in a random direction.

"London..." Dominic's voice sounds pained.

"If it hurts to walk, why don't you use a passage?" We stop at a corner and look out for cars before crossing the street.

"I can't... You'd end up stuck in Barzakh. The sucked my energy away." He pulls away and leans against a wall.

"Barzakh? What's that?" Dominic looks down at his leg, probably wondering if it has started to heal yet, which it hasn't since there is a trail of blood behind us.

"The barrier between here and Hell and Here and Heaven. Passages open a hole in the barrier so that we can get to Hell without having to die or going straight to the doors and if I'm not strong enough to carry us both there, you'll just be dropped into Barzakh. You'd also be stuck in Barzakh if you walked into a passage without having physical contact with me." Dominic scans the street and he makes me also look around. I notice immediately that it is strangely quiet and that it is extremely empty for the amount of stores that are around.