The Angel King (boyxboy)

Chapter Eight

Luke

I had a few hours before the war council in Hell. I planned to make the most of it.

The last fight with Jesse had shaken me. It wasn't so much what he had done; I supposed that visiting Antias wasn't that big of a deal. It's not like Jesse was cheating on me with him, after all. It was more his accusations, his insistence that the reason he did it was because he was human. It was the suggestion that because I had been born a child of Lucifer, I was forever programmed to be evil.

It wasn't my fault I was born a demon. If I could be human, I would be. And I knew I had done many horrible things in the past, but I was getting better. I didn't kill people, I stayed loyal to my boyfriend, and in general, I didn't scar little kids with images of spiders anymore. Generally.

I knew I loved Jesse. I didn't know about Will. Did I love him still, after all this time? Was he on equal footing with Jess?

I needed help. I couldn't go to Hamilton - our relationship was too weird and I knew he was majorly pissed at me right now. I didn't want to deal with Deimos'  harsh and practical advice, and I could just imagine Morpheus' response: "Oh sweetie, are you sure you're okay? Everything's gonna be okay, honey, I promise. I loooooove you." 

Okay, maybe I was slightly exaggerating. But still. It was a human's advice I needed, and with Jess obviously out of the question, I could think of only one person to go to.

The moment I materialized on the Surface, a busy sidewalk in Chicago, I was attacked with a blinding light. I gasped out loud and was promptly knocked over by a man rushing by.

"Watch it!" he said irritably. Any other time, I would have paralyzed him, but it was so damn bright. None of the humans seemed to be affected, either. Angels. It had to be. Their presence on the Earth was hurting me. Quickly, I materialized a dark pair of sunglasses from my room. They didn't do much, but at least I could see now.

Emma's apartment was only a few blocks from here. I could make it on foot. As I walked by, I began to notice subtle differences among the humans. Everyone seemed happier. Girls wore more modest clothing, even though it was dead summer. I saw no hookers on the street corners. And I got more than one dirty look, even though there was nothing scandalous about how I looked. Clearly the humans could sense there was something off about me, even if they didn't know I was a demon.

Discouraged, I was hesitant to knock on Emma's door. What if she treated me like everyone else was? Jesse's accusations stung me yet again. It wasn't my fault I wasn't human.

But when she opened the door, her eyes lit up, and she squealed. "Luke!" she cried. "Come in, hon, come in!"

Emma was thirty years old now. She had fair skin and auburn hair, with pretty green eyes. It wasn't her good looks that made her stand out though; there was something about her personality, genuine and pure, that made everyone like her immediately.

"Hi, Em," I murmured as she ushered me in. Her apartment was small and messy, in other words, perfect. She guided me to her tiny dining table, which had crayon markings all over it.

"Watcha doing here, Luke?" she asked sweetly.

"I want to talk," I said as casually as possible. "Do you have time?"

Emma laughed. "Plenty of it, now that Harley's out of school. We've been reading books together. Why?"

I stared at her fondly. It was always so easy to talk to her. But did she deserve to have all my crap dumped on her? I took a deep breath - and told her everything. I started from meeting Will, to meeting Jesse, to the Uncivil War, to the Holy Descent. She listened attentively, cooing when I told her about Jesse and gasping when we got to the angels.