Divine

Prologue

Demons.

White hot panic rushes through my veins. Adrenaline burns through my skin. My teeth begin chattering and my hands start shaking. No other word can send my entire body on edge. No other word can sound so horrible. And yet to most people that pass through this loud and oh so human celebration, it is a word for their obnoxiously loud neighbor or the children that pester them all day. But for us, it is the creature that lurks in the dark with its fangs and its deadly desire.

Viera twirls back to look at me, two pools of violet-blue widened with horror. Her soft ash blonde hair falls into a feathery frame around her face. The sweet if not somewhat clunky Russian accent her earth body was given has been twisted into something that can only be described as the sound of pure terror. "Nova!"

"We need to go!" I hiss, grabbing for her arm. She's nearly a foot taller than me. "We need to get out of here!"

They are indistinguishable from the rest of the crowd. Until you see the blades tucked into their pants and the way they keep looking over at us with crooked grins. There are four of them. A girl with ivory skin and red hair falling loosely around her shoulders fingers the handle of the blade as she stares at us. Another girl with olive skin and the hood of her jacket pulled up tilts her head to one side. Two boys stand by the water fountain, silhouetted. There eyes gleam at Viera and I through the blaze if the multicolored lanterns.

We brush past a man in an orange windbreaker who is talking about how the one hundredth birthday of this small town in very important. I knock over a drunken lady who falls backwards against a booth selling lanterns. People make protests as we shove through the crowd at a jogging pace. There's too much noise following us.

I glance back to the fountain, and ice fills my body as I realize that they're gone. "Go! Go!"

We finally escape the mass of people and end up at the back of town square. Shops line us on all sides. I sweep the area before finding a small alley that runs between a grocery store and a flower shop. Viera breaks into a run at the sight of it, sweat glimmering on her forehead. I follow closely, my breath coming in short, panicked gasps.

I've only heard about them. Never met one or even seen one. These killing machines are so familiar and yet unknown. And the unknown is terrifying. It's been a month. This is the first time I have encountered one. I am one of the lucky ones.

Our footsteps echo loudly in the darkness. The sounds of human excitement becomes distant as we weave our way through the maze of alleys that run behind and between shops. A low chuckling erupts from the darkness behind us. I turn my gaze directly at Viera. She looks back at me, her panicked face a mirror of my own. The movement from the darkness is fast and there's no time to react. One minute Viera is standing next to me prepared to dash off, the next she is on the ground with a shiny black blade lodged in her back. She gasps and flounders on the ground, trying to find the thing that's impaling her. I look at her helplessly. The figures in the distance are visible now, making their way towards us slowly. They're sure of themselves. They have a kill.

"Go," Blood runs out of her mouth as she gurgles that word. I know about the Hell Blades; the way they cut through everything, regardless of being divine or damned; the way they can kill us as easily as a normal knife can a human. I know the girl I fell from Grace with is beyond help. And yet I stay fixed in my spot, staring at her face and the blade and the wound that glows like the color of the night sky.

The insane cackling is what awakens me from my trance. They're less than thirty feet from me now. The idea that they have only one blade isn't likely. I run my eyes over my doomed friend one last time. Her lips curve up into and attempted smile, but it's just a grimace. I turn and run.