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Redemption 1

The Half-Breed Demon

Three men, born with one foot in the mortal world and one in the

paranormal, are destined to either become fearsome generals of
Hell or powerful and holy knights of Heaven. Dante Moore has

been plagued by demons his entire life. Before he can finally
succumb to them and commit the ultimate sin, an angel comes

down and saves his life, and prevents him from harming others.

Jeremy Stewart has been assigned to protect Dante and keep the
demons from transforming him, but he never expected that there

would be more to the tortured man than was obvious. He slowly
finds himself falling in love with him.

Their love is short-lived when another powerful demon uses it
against them and tortures Jeremy until Dante agrees to be taken

into Hell. Jeremy must now rescue his lover before the
transformation is complete, and they are forever forced apart onto

opposite ends of the battlefield.

Genre: Alternative (M/M or F/F), Contemporary, Fantasy
Length: 39,153 words

THE HALF-BREED DEMON

Redemption 1

Marcy Jacks

EVERLASTING CLASSIC

MANLOVE

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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Everlasting Classic ManLove

THE HALF-BREED DEMON
Copyright © 2013 by Marcy Jacks
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62242-275-3

First E-book Publication: January 2013

Cover design by Harris Channing
All art and logo copyright © 2013 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be
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All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance
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PUBLISHER
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Letter to Readers

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THE HALF-BREED DEMON

Redemption 1

MARCY JACKS

Chapter One

Dante Moore just wanted a fucking coffee without the noise of

traffic, too many pushy and crowding people, and some whining kid
screaming in front of him at his mother while he threw a tantrum over
some stupid and insignificant thing. He just wished the stupid light
would change so he could cross the street and get away from all the
screeching.

Dante would never have been allowed to throw a fit like that with

his father. If he had, the old bastard might have tried to kill him.

Tried to kill him much sooner than he already had, that is.
Dante rubbed the pulsing pain at his temple. It was only ten in the

morning. He’d gone into work feeling good, no abnormal sights to
see, no voices in his ear. He’d prepped his staff for the coming
meeting, and everything was moving ahead of schedule.

Except for right now. It was like the second he left the office all

hell broke loose inside of his mind.

He told himself that the little green, yellow, and black gremlin

things he was seeing weren’t real. The tiny demons that jumped into
people’s hair and made faces at them, sticking out their forked
tongues and trying to get attention, they weren’t actually there. Years
and years of therapy told him so, and when the tiny creatures turned

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Jacks

their attention onto him, their snake-slit eyes narrowed, their grins
showing off their perfectly yellowed, perfectly sharp teeth, he ignored
them to the best of his ability.

Somehow, maybe because they were a figment of his imagination,

they still knew he could see them, and they tried to take advantage of
that to drive him insane.

Unlike the general public, whenever the fist-sized creatures

jumped on him, shouted into his ears, and clawed their fingers into his
hair, he could feel them. Their touch alone was enough to make his
body itch and to make him want to scream and rage and just push
them all off of him.

All he could do was grit his teeth and scowl. It was the only

outward sign he gave that something was wrong with him. Anyone
who looked at him would just think he was on the verge of a
meltdown of his own, brought on by noisy and shoving people, the
stink of car fumes, and the noise of that damn kid who was still
bitching at his mother.

The shrieking had gone up several decibels, and the pulsing in his

head turned into a full-blown migraine.

He wanted to kill something.
That thought made all the noise around him just stop. Everything

had suddenly gone quiet as the strange panic fisted his insides, and he
looked around at the crowd of people.

They’d all stopped moving. All of them were frozen in whatever

position they’d been in, whether it was chewing gum, faces scrunched
in the midst of a sneeze, or, in the case of that boy, spittle flying from
his mouth as he shouted down his weary-looking mother.

Oddly enough, this wasn’t the part that he found scary. What was

most frightening to him was the fact that he’d thought he wanted to
kill someone, and he’d meant it.

Looking behind the boy, he noticed that the kid’s back was to the

street. Traffic had also stopped, but there was a bus coming up just
behind him. All it would take would be one shove. No one would see

The Half-Breed Demon

him, they were frozen, and no one would―

Dante stumbled back, hardly able to believe that thought had just

gone through his head. Jesus Christ! Did he really just consider
shoving some little kid into an oncoming bus?

“You know you want to,” a low voice whispered into his ear.
Looking down, Dante could see all the little demons staring up at

him expectantly, and all had those same grins on their faces. The ones
that showed off their teeth.

He did want to. Dante clenched his fists. God help him, but he did

want to kill that boy. He wanted to push him in front of that bus and
watch as his body made impact once the world went back to normal
and started moving again.

What the hell kind of monster was he?
He could actually picture it in his mind. Shoving the kid, and

when his blood spattered, covering the crowd of people in it, he
imagined the satisfaction he would feel, and he imagined himself
licking the blood up from his fingers and face while the others
screamed.

The worst part of it was when he stepped forward toward the boy.

He tried to stop himself. He tried to plant his feet, but he just kept
right on moving.

He’d imagined himself doing horrible things before, and had

horrible nightmares about himself and everything he could do to other
people that made him cringe when he woke up, but he hadn’t felt a
pull like this in so long, and never before had it been as strong as this.

He kept on walking toward the boy. He could already feel how hot

his hands would be when he wrapped them around the kid’s neck and
how satisfying the smack of his body would sound when he was
thrown in front of the bus.

Closer and closer still. No one in the crowd moved. Dante didn’t

think he could stop himself from stepping forward even if the world
wasn’t frozen like this.

Almost there. He was just about there, and the tiny demons behind

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Jacks

him cheered him on, raising their skinny little arms high up and
shouting and jumping as he neared his target.

His hand was inches away from the child before Dante finally

managed to breathe and pull back.

Jesus Christ! What the fuck was he doing?
Sweat beaded on his forehead and poured down the back of his

neck. The little demons behind him were shouting their
disappointment now and still trying to get him to push the child.

The urge was still there. His hand, his whole arm, shook with the

effort to stay back, but he still continued to reach out for him. If he
didn’t do something, he was going to kill this boy. The revelation was
like a kick in the stomach. He didn’t want to be a murderer, and he
certainly didn’t want to be a child murderer.

“Do it. Do it,” the little voices inside of his head sneered, and God

help him, but he wanted to do what they said. That wasn’t him. Was
it?

Dante gritted his teeth and looked back at the small demon

creatures, all of whom stared at him with wide and excited eyes as
they jumped up and down.

He had no doubt in his mind that it was somehow their collective

voice he was hearing.

“Push him. Kill him. Push him!”
He took several quick steps forward, his body ready to do just as

they commanded, knowing it would stop the pain he felt from the
resistance.

“No!” Dante yelled, and ran right past the boy instead, stepping

into the street just as the world went back to normal and everything
started moving once again.

The hard smack against his body certainly felt as though he’d

been hit by a bus, and the crack on his head made a flash of white
pass over his eyes before the blackness took him.

The last thing he heard was the shouts and sudden screams of the

people he’d jumped into traffic in front of, including the noise coming

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Jacks

Chapter Two

Shit. Shit. Shit! Jeremy had been trying to save the man, not kill

him by shoving him down onto the sidewalk so hard that he knocked
the man’s head against the dirty pavement.

People made space around him as he leaned over Dante’s body.

They gave him a wide circle but were all so interested in seeing what
was happening that they crammed against each other for a better
view. Some even pulled out their cell phones and started taking video
footage.

Jeremy hated it. Some humans really were stupid.
That was fine. He just had to keep the man from dying and

everything would be okay. These people would go about their
business eventually.

“Does he need a doctor?” someone yelled.
Jeremy wasn’t sure he wanted a paramedic here poking around

Dante’s body. Not when the demons still had so much control over
him. If he woke up on a gurney with lights flashing in his eyes, would
that make it worse? Would he panic? Would the demon half of him
finally and completely take over?

He couldn’t help the massive inward sigh of relief that somehow

Dante had managed to go against that influence to keep from hurting
the boy, but killing himself was also a mistake, and it would be a
trade-off that the demons would gladly accept if they could.

Still, it meant he could be saved. Jeremy just had to make sure that

happened.

“I’m a paramedic,” Jeremy said. Using his cloaking powers, he

made the crowd see him in a different light. They would look at him

The Half-Breed Demon

and see a man in uniform, with a stethoscope around his neck and
those little clear plastic gloves on his hands.

He wasn’t sure what paramedics actually wore or looked like, but

his ability to take control of the minds of the people around him so
that they not only saw what he wanted them to see, but also believed
it as well, worked. It drained his energy considerably, making so
many people see something that wasn’t there, but he’d be able to
recharge once he got back home.

“Everyone go about your day. Give him space to breathe and he’ll

be fine,” Jeremy commanded.

It was a command that only those with a strong mental

countenance would be able to fight against. Jeremy held his breath,
but thankfully, everyone did as he told them to and scattered,
reminded that they had their own lives to get back to or just too
caught up in their little devices and what was playing in their earbuds
to really care for very long.

Then it was just Jeremy and Dante on the sidewalk. Soon, people

started passing them by as though no one noticed them at all.

Jeremy grabbed Dante by the arms and tried to haul him up, but a

sharp prick in his side halted him.

“Ah!” he cried out, and then hissed at the sting as he rubbed his

ribs. A tiny spot of blood was on his palm when he pulled his hand
back, soaking through his clothes.

He glared down at the little demons, all of whom were sneering

back at him.

“You cheated,” they complained without moving their lips.

Several of them had tiny little pitchforks, of all things, in their
grotesque claws. Others just had overly large claws, and they all
looked like they wanted to start running at Jeremy and attacking him
for what he’d just done.

He went back to what he was doing and lifted Dante up and off

the sidewalk. The man was still breathing evenly and was heavy as
hell, but Jeremy managed to walk away from the road with him,

14 Marcy

Jacks

toward the park that was just behind them. Again, he made it so that
no one noticed. If anything, people would see a man carrying a heavy
bag of potatoes or something and not another person.

The demons followed on his heels, nipping at him and trying to

spike him again with their claws and weapons.

“Cheater! Cheater!” they all shouted. Some spread their tiny bat-

like wings and started flying at his head, diving and swooping,
perhaps in an effort to steer him back to the road where the demons
could try again to make Dante either kill someone or kill himself.

“Whatever, you’re all demons. You guys cheat all the time,”

Jeremy muttered.

The little demons hardly seemed to care about that as they

continued to follow him.

Dante groaned over Jeremy’s shoulder, and his heart lurched at

the sound. He knew that groan had nothing to do with the
uncomfortable position Dante was in. The demons were trying to take
command of him again. They were slowly releasing their poison that
would make the man lose his sense of right and wrong and allowing it
to seep into Dante’s body.

If he was going to get Dante to recover, then he was going to have

to get rid of the demons.

That was easy enough. He was a soldier, and he had powers.
When Jeremy found a nice bench that was clean enough in

appearance, he set Dante down to lie on it.

The little demons jumped around him like fleas, coming to rest on

the arms and back of the bench, and all were looking down at Dante
like he was their own personal prize or something.

That would not do.
“You all need to go now,” Jeremy said, glaring at them.
The little demons must’ve felt his energy building the second he

started up, because they began jumping up and down like mad,
waving their little fists at him, their glowing eyes turning into angry
slits as they tried to attack him with their evil influence.

The Half-Breed Demon

Jeremy was neither a chosen nor a human, so their small powers

had no effect on him. He spread the wings on his back, allowing the
light from the sun to catch in the white feathers, creating more energy
for what he wanted to do.

It was overkill. It really was. The tiny demons annoyed him,

however, and he wanted them incinerated.

That was exactly what he did. He allowed the light and energy

from his body to pass over the little demons in a wave, and their
bodies disintegrated into black ash that vanished before it had the
chance to fall to the ground.

Their destruction left Jeremy with no pleasure, however. Little

demons like that were as common as cockroaches. More would be
coming soon. Jeremy would have to protect Dante from them. As the
man’s new guardian angel, it was his mission.

He looked down at his charge and was surprised to see that

Dante’s jet-black eyes were open, and he was staring with a parted
mouth right at Jeremy.

* * * *

Dante couldn’t allow himself to believe what he’d just seen. He

was hallucinating again, he had to be, but the fact of the matter was
that the little demons were gone, and the gorgeous man kneeling
beside him had somehow made his body flash, and now they were all
dead.

The urge to hurt, either other people or himself, was also gone.

His headache had vanished, and there was no longer the wet feeling of
sweat soaking his black hair to his head or the back of his neck.

The stranger swallowed hard. “I―”
“Who are you?” Dante asked. He pushed himself up to sit instead

of lying back on the park bench.

Wait, the park? He’d just been at the crosswalk down by the―
Oh, fuck. With a startling clarity, Dante remembered what had

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Jacks

happened, and he also remembered throwing himself in front of that
bus before he could throw that boy. He should be dead. He should be
splattered on the pavement over there, yet here he was. He was alive
and in one piece.

Unless…“Am I dead?” It would certainly explain that ethereal

glow that was about the stranger and the way he’d managed to get all
those damned little monsters away from him.

The man shook his head, pursing his pink lips. “No. Not dead.”
“What are you?” Dante asked, trying not to stare at the man’s

mouth or notice the way the light continued to catch on his golden-
brown hair or how bright those amber eyes were.

The man looked to be in his midtwenties or so, and while Dante

worked out and thought he had a good-looking body, the man in front
of him definitely had more muscle on his frame. It was just the right
amount, too. His shoulders were broad and his chest was large, but all
without being too large.

“Can’t you tell?” asked the stranger.
Dante blinked at the odd response. “Should I?”
The stranger seemed to breathe a deep sigh of relief. “Don’t worry

about it. Here, let me help you up.”

Dante took the offered hand and allowed himself to be pulled to

his feet. When the sudden dizziness overcame him, he stumbled.

That is until a strong arm and welcome hand wrapped around his

waist, keeping him upright.

“What did you do to me?” Dante asked.
The stranger pursed his lips. “I saved your life. You took a pretty

bad conk on the head. Sorry about that.”

Dante thought back to that sudden pain he felt and the white that

had exploded behind his eyes, followed by a tingling sensation he
couldn’t place.

That hadn’t been the bus hitting him, though it should have been

obvious to him by now. This man had saved him and pushed him out
of the way.

The Half-Breed Demon

He looked a little closer at his strange savior. Someone, this man,

had actually pushed him out of the way of danger, risking his own life
in the process.

The last time that happened, people had died.
“Do you have anywhere you need to go? I can walk you there,

make sure you get home safe if you want.”

Dante would love nothing better than to get back into bed and

pretend the whole thing about him nearly murdering a child never
happened, but he still had his life to see to, and his company.

He wasn’t about to share with a complete stranger these

insecurities that were going through his mind. He was already being
half carried through the park. He wanted to at least appear strong
enough for this.

“No, I’m fine. I need to get back to my office. I have a meeting to

get to.” Dante swallowed hard. “Thanks for saving me, by the way.
That was real clumsy of me, stumbling into the street like that.”

“Yes, it was,” the stranger agreed.
Well, at least now he didn’t look like a suicidal lunatic in front of

the man.

After several more steps, Dante had walked off most of the pain

and dizziness and was able to keep going on his own, but the other
man was still there walking with him until they made it to his office
building.

Moore’s Advertising Agency was written in black Circula font on

the window. He could see the receptionist, Tiffany, inside, not
looking up from behind the black, rounded desk she worked at.

She was probably checking her Facebook page again. For the first

time in forever, Dante didn’t feel any deep resentment or rage over
that fact.

He looked at the man standing next to him and thought of the way

he’d managed to get rid of those little creatures that had been
plaguing him for as long as he could remember.

Somehow, it had been his doing. Whatever this man was, he was

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responsible for Dante’s new sense of control.

“What’s your name?” he asked. He had to get a name. He couldn’t

just let the man go without finding out who he was and whether or not
they would be able to see each other again.

“Jeremy,” the man―Jeremy―replied, shoving his hand through

his short, honey hair.

That was a nice name. Dante wanted to say it over and over again,

and he was suddenly appreciating Jeremy’s body a lot more.

Whether his sexual arousal was because he was looking at Jeremy

with just a hint of hero worship or because just being near the man
made him feel like a normal human being, he couldn’t say. It felt
good, however.

“When can I see you again?”
“Look, maybe I should go now. Make sure to put some ice on

your head, okay?”

Dante felt the panic rising inside of him as Jeremy took a step

back. He reached out and grabbed the man’s arm before he could get
any farther away.

“No, I mean”—Dante immediately noticed the way Jeremy tensed

up when Dante grabbed him, and he let him go—“come inside and
have some coffee or something. You saved my life, I need to at least
say thank you.”

The hesitation on Jeremy’s face didn’t bode well for Dante’s

chances. What an idiot he’d been, grabbing the guy like that, but he
couldn’t just let him leave yet. Dante had a first name, but not a last
name or even a phone number. Somehow he got the feeling that if he
let Jeremy go, he might very well never see him again. Granted, the
coffee machine in the office produced a liquid that could only be
described as shit, hence the reason why Dante had left in the first
place, but he could get someone to deliver something better, he was
sure.

Jeremy smiled softly at him. Whether that was the prelude to a

gentle letdown or an acceptance of his offer, he would never know,

The Half-Breed Demon

because the next thing he knew, Tiffany was opening the glass door
and calling out to him.

“Mr. Moore! Sir, the new clients are here. They’re waiting for

you.”

“What?” Dante looked down at his watch. They were a little early.

“Tell them I’ll be with them in a minute. I’m speaking with another
client.”

She nodded and hurried back into the office now that she’d done

what she was supposed to do.

Dante turned back to Jeremy and was stunned to see that no one

else was there. He was all alone on the sidewalk.

He turned and looked around, thinking he would maybe see

Jeremy several steps down the road or something since no one could
silently walk away that fast.

No one. The other pedestrians were all walking by, but the street

wasn’t so crowded that he shouldn’t have been able to see the other
man if he was nearby.

A spot in Dante’s chest sank. He’d blown it, but that was to be

expected. He’d kind of doubted that Jeremy had believed his lie about
stumbling into traffic anyway. Why would a man like that want to
spend any more time than he absolutely had to with a guy who’d
basically just tried to kill himself?

He shook off the disappointment he felt. Whatever uplifting

feelings he’d felt when that other man was near had to have been a
product of his own imagination. No one had ever been able to make
Dante’s inner demons go away simply by being around.

It was better this way. He wouldn’t want to drag that man through

his own personal shit anyway.

He opened the door to his building and walked to the desk where

Tiffany was sitting, scrolling through something on the computer
monitor with her chin resting in her hand, manicured fingernails
tapping against her cheek. She looked bored out of her mind. She was
definitely on Facebook again.

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Jacks

“Did you see that man I was standing outside with?”
Tiffany startled as though coming out of a dream and then looked

up at him with shock. “I—uh—”

Dante clenched his teeth and fought for patience. “I don’t care that

you were on Facebook again, I just want you to tell me which
direction the man with the brown hair went.”

Now she was looking at him like he’d gone a little crazy himself.

That was the look he’d always tried to avoid when it came to his
employees or clients. He didn’t want them knowing about some of the
things he’d seen around him. “I’m sorry, sir, but I didn’t see anyone
out there. I thought you were on the phone.”

She tilted her head, as though searching for the elusive earpiece he

would have been using.

Dante turned to keep her from seeing that there was nothing in his

ear. He didn’t want her thinking he’d been talking to himself.

“Never mind. Which room are the Bakers in?”
“Room C. Uh, sir?”
“Yes?” Dante asked, already moving toward the conference room.

They were more than an hour early, so he doubted there were any
refreshments waiting for the clients inside. He was going to have to
call someone about that.

“Did you want to go into the bathroom and get cleaned up first?

You look like you had a fall.”

The Half-Breed Demon

Chapter Three

“Good work, Jeremy. That was a close one.”
Despite the praise that came from his commander, Jeremy felt

anything but happy with the results. That had been a close call. If it
had taken him any longer to get down to Earth, to notice what was
happening in that street with all the tiny demons, Dante would be
dead and probably be a general in Hell right about now.

“Thank you, sir,” Jeremy replied, and he straightened his back and

looked John in the eyes.

John was not one of the original angels who were created around

the time of Earth, but he was still much older than Jeremy was, and he
took his commanding position very seriously. There was an almost
infinite number of soldiers to serve, and billions of commanders to
lead them, and each commander was given their own unit to lead. The
men lined up in front of him belonged to him, and though this was a
small unit, John treated them as though they were a unit of a
thousand.

John nodded to him and addressed the other angels. For some

reason he’d decided to hold this meeting outside of the golden city,
and in the clouds near the gates. No one questioned him. John was a
brilliant commander, and it was with his guidance that Jeremy had
found Dante to begin with. The first general was safe, for now.

There was his second-in-command, Kale, who was only slightly

smaller in build, and his short black hair was a stark contrast to John’s
even shorter blond hair. Then Mathias, another guardian chosen to
find the second general, as well as Daren and his brother Luke. Daren
would be searching for the third general, and Luke was to remain with

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John for reasons Jeremy didn’t yet understand.

There was at least a dozen other lesser soldiers in their group, men

and women whom Jeremy did not know, but that was to be expected.
There were always so many more people willing to serve than Jeremy
could ever get to know. Sometimes he would learn a name only to
hear later that they had died whilst battling undead knights.

He tried not to get too close to the men and women who fought

with him for just that reason.

“We’ve found one of the generals, but the demons had gotten to

him first. That can only mean that they have already either found the
other two or are closing in on them. We must find them first. That is
our top priority,” John said, his face hard as he looked over every
single one of his soldiers.

The fact that Jeremy had even found Dante to begin with had been

pure dumb luck. The humans have a saying, something about
following the money. Jeremy had just followed the trail of poisonous
demon shit and found the poor man practically swimming in it.

He’d known from the second he saw him that Dante was one of

the chosen, and he was also too late. If Dante hadn’t managed to fight
off the influence of the demons, he would have killed that boy and
sealed his own fate.

He hadn’t. Dante hadn’t hurt that child, and though he’d tried to

take his own life, Jeremy was at least able to prevent that. That was
the important thing.

“How will we find the others?” Kale asked, hands firmly clasped

behind his back, his wings fluttering as he stared at his commander.

Jeremy would like to know that as well. They couldn’t rely

completely on dumb luck anymore after this. Once was one thing, but
two more times…and that wasn’t even considering the fact that they
might have their numbers wrong. Only three generals to lead Hell’s
army? There had to be more than that, but all they had so far were
three possibilities, brought on by some mysterious information that
John had come across, and he would not yet share with the rest of his

The Half-Breed Demon

team.

John clenched his jaw. “The demons have a pool of sorts. They’re

herding recently dead souls into it. You all know how souls are a
source of power for both of our sides. Somehow they’re using this
massive collection of souls to seek out and find their generals. They
might even use it to feed them later.”

“Where is this pool of souls?” Luke asked. “I’ve never heard of it

before.”

Jeremy had never heard of anything like this before either. It was

true, souls were a source of power, but that power tended to come
from the number of individual souls fighting for either side once they
had been allowed access into either Heaven or Hell, not as a battery
source.

“It’s on neutral land. The souls are being taken before they have

the chance to enter either Heaven or Hell and are being brought to
another location entirely to perform this ritual.”

“Neutral―?” Jeremy cut himself off before he could say anything

that would insult his commander, but he couldn’t help the small trace
of doubt that crept into his voice as he realized he and the other
members of the team were all positioned as if ready to go on an
attack.

“Are we getting ready to go into Purgatory?” Jeremy asked.
Every pair of eyes was suddenly much more focused on their

leader than they had been a moment ago.

Angels were only to go to that sad place with permission from

higher authorities. John was not high enough on the food chain to be
able to give that permission, and had it been granted by another
source, Jeremy would have known it. He would have felt it. They all
would have.

Leaving the gates and going to Earth was one thing, but Purgatory

and Hell were forbidden unless there was a battle to be had, led by a
much larger army.

Nothing could prevent angels from going to Earth. It was one of

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the little loopholes in their existence. If demons were capable of
coming and going as they pleased, then it hardly made sense to
restrict the angels who were to fight them by placing so many rules
around their ability to go and do their jobs.

Purgatory, however, was where souls went to be forgotten. Jeremy

had never been to that place, but he’d heard the stories.

The haze of depressing emotions that attacked angels and demons

alike, robbing them of their hope and the will to fight on, was a
dangerous thing. Many did not return from a place such as that, and
only because they’d allowed the atmosphere of the land to hold them
back, rather than because of injury or death.

“Jeremy, you are to return to Earth and watch over the hybrid.

Make sure he does not attempt to harm anyone else or himself. Keep
him alive until he is strong enough to resist on his own or until his
birthday has passed. He can either be one of Heaven’s greatest
enemies or a valuable ally. Do not allow him to become an enemy.”

“Yes, sir,” Jeremy said, and then breathed a sigh, grateful that he

wouldn’t be required to go on such a dangerous mission with the
others, and then he felt like a coward for allowing a thought like that
to pass through his head.

“And us?” Mathias asked. “Would you really have us enter a

place such as this to search for this supposed power source?”

“Can you at least tell us where you came upon this information?”

asked a female angel with dark-black hair pulled back tightly against
her head into a ponytail.

Jeremy tried to recall her name. Lana, perhaps? He was terrible

with names, and she’d only just been introduced to their squad
yesterday at Daren’s recommendation.

John’s cheek did that tightening thing again. Jeremy wondered if

the man was aware that he did that whenever something bothered or
annoyed him.

“A demon told me.”
The entire group fell silent, and all eyes were wide on their leader.

The Half-Breed Demon

“Commander, you can’t seriously have us follow up on a tip from

a demon!” said Lana.

“Are we going without the permission of the council? Or even

their knowledge?” Kale asked. There was no shock in his voice, but
there was a sort of awe as he stared at their leader. It was obvious to
Jeremy that Kale worshiped John as a hero.

“Both,” John replied, eyeing every member of the team. “Some of

you I had to bring in for the numbers, but for the rest, you know I
wouldn’t be doing this unless I thought I was right. I gave this
information to the council, and they refuse to listen. They insist that
demons don’t have that kind of power over souls, no matter how
many they can attain.”

“But they are the council. They would know something like that,

wouldn’t they?” Lana asked again.

“The council isn’t used to dealing with new ideas to ancient evils,

and the source I’ve had was very reliable. It was a fire knight
belonging to Annabel. Whether it lied during interrogation or not
hardly matters, the story needs to be checked out.”

Jeremy tensed up slightly. Annabel was a dangerous kind of

demon. She was one of the higher-ups, but no one was really certain
how high she was on Hell’s food chain or how she’d gotten there to
begin with. Jeremy had never met her personally before, but he’d
heard stories of her deceit and trickery. If she was investing time into
this, then that wasn’t good. It just made things a whole lot more
difficult.

John looked away from Lana and back up at the rest of the men

and woman standing before him. “I won’t force anyone to come.
Anyone who wants to stay behind and tell the council of my plans,
step back now. No questions, and no hard feelings.”

Some of the angels looked amongst each other. Most stepped back

and walked away.

Jeremy wasn’t surprised when Kale stayed put. The commander

had saved his life more than enough times to earn the younger angel’s

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Jacks

loyalty. What did surprise him was when Lana also didn’t move.

It was just Jeremy, Kale, Mathias, Luke, Daren, and Lana standing

there now.

John turned to watch the others flying off into the distance. He

looked back at the rest of his squad. “I guess this only leaves us with a
few minutes before we have guards coming after us for treason.
Jeremy, get back down to Earth. It’ll be better if you stay there and
don’t come back up for a while. You’ll at least have an excuse. Say
you were focused on the mission and following my orders. Hopefully
that’ll be something should you be caught and questioned before you
can get back.”

Jeremy clenched his jaw. Throw John under the fire troll like that?

It put a sour taste in his mouth, but he would do as he was told. “Yes,
sir.”

John wasn’t done giving him his orders. “I doubt any guards will

come for you while you’re on Earth. They won’t want to make a
bigger spectacle than this already is, so don’t tell him what you are or
what he is unless you absolutely have to. If you do, the angels
watching you will have no reason to stay away, and they’ll go down
and get you regardless of whether or not he sees. You found the first
of what could be many generals. Do whatever you have to do to keep
him from being turned before his birthday. Conserve your energy.
You won’t be able to come back and recharge as often as before, so
you’ll have to get creative.”

Jeremy nodded. “Yes, sir,” he said again.
He could already picture himself racing back down to Earth with

royal guards flying behind him, trying to catch him before he made it
to the mortal realm. He could outfly them any day if it meant he could
protect Dante. He itched to return to the man, but he didn’t move out
yet. He waited for the order.

John’s deep-blue eyes scanned over the rest of his team. “Mathias,

you’ll come with us for the time being, since we’ll need as many men
as we can to get through Purgatory, but should we get a lock on

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Chapter Four

Dante sighed when he sat down at his desk. Those meetings had

gone on for what seemed like forever, and his headache and poor
mood were back full force.

Thankfully, the little gremlins he’d imagined being there earlier

were still gone, but at the sight of Tiffany on Facebook again, he’d
snapped and fired her, yelling her out of the building, which had
forced him to act as his own secretary as well.

There weren’t a lot of people willing to put up with his constantly

shifting moods, and he didn’t want to go through the process of trying
to find someone else to replace her. He was going to have to call her
tomorrow and offer her her job back.

The thought of that coming embarrassment only served to worsen

what he already felt.

He was way too fucking tired for this. He really hoped Jonas and

Dean were nearly finished with those projects they were working on.
Dante still had to actually get started on the one for the new clients,
write up a draft for why every company in the country should buy
their small motors, and it was already going on nine at night.

Just the thought of pulling an all-nighter only served to worsen his

mood. He’d once loved this job, being his own boss, long hours or
not, but the stress lately, coupled with what he’d nearly done earlier
today and that handsome savior of his who’d disappeared on him, was
getting to him.

He was the only one left in the building, and he had work to do.

Maybe it would help him get his mind off of the shit that was still
swirling around him.

The Half-Breed Demon

He worked against the light of his computer for the better part of

an hour before he looked at his watch and stood up.

Dante stretched his hands over his head, listening to the satisfying

pop in his lower back before he fell back in his luxury leather desk
chair.

He needed some caffeine. He got back up and switched on the

lights to his office, blinking a few times against the sudden brightness
that assaulted him. Dante switched on all the lights as he walked
through his floor of the building. He needed to stop working in the
dark. Maybe that was the reason he kept on seeing things so much
lately.

He’d just gotten back to his office and was trying to think of any

coffee houses he liked that were still open and would possibly deliver
when his phone rang.

The shrill sound in the silence of his office was so sudden that he

nearly jumped. Who the hell was calling him at this time? He tried to
think of any clients he had that were in a different time zone, but he
was close enough with them that they would know to shoot him an e-
mail instead of calling.

He picked up the phone anyway and answered as though it were

an everyday occurrence. “Dante Moore.”

The voice on the other end was uncertain, but Dante recognized it

immediately.

“Uh, hi, look, you met me earlier today and―”
“Jeremy,” Dante said. The absolute relief he felt at the sound of

that voice was stupid. “Yeah, I remember. What can I do for you?”

He had to fight to keep from saying anything else or asking if

something was wrong. He would do anything for the other man,
anything at all to get his last name and to see him one last time. Just
hearing his voice over the phone was like being cleansed in crystal-
clear water. The blackness that surrounded him was vanishing once
more.

There was a sharp intake of breath, as though the man were

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Jacks

hissing softly. “This is kind of embarrassing, but if you were feeling
up to doing me any favors and all, I was wondering if you had any job
openings?”

He was calling to ask for a job? He already had one in mind. “Do

you like Facebook?”

There was a pause on the other end of the line. “Facebook? No, I

don’t even have an account with them.”

Dante would’ve given him the job no matter what the answer had

been, but this only served to make his decision all the sweeter. “I have
a job opening available immediately. Can you start tomorrow
morning?”

* * * *

Jeremy could hardly believe his good luck. It had been a little

sneaky of him to get back into contact with Dante like this, but it had
been the only thing he could think of, and he was grateful it had
worked.

He had to wash himself in the bathroom of one of the cafes down

the street just to make himself presentable. Something must’ve
happened to the rest of his squad, because while Jeremy still retained
most of his angelic powers, they were considerably weaker than
before.

He must’ve been cut off after he and the others dispersed. John

had told him to deny everyone and everything once he got back down
to Earth, but those other warriors would still have seen Jeremy
standing at attention, ready to serve John’s commands. They would
have told the council that he was just as much a traitor as the others.

He was pretty sure that the only reason no one came down to grab

him by the wings and haul his ass back home was because he was
already in the middle of his mission, and clearly, the others weren’t
anywhere near him.

Despite that good luck, it meant that every time he used any of his

The Half-Breed Demon

abilities, he got hungry. This wouldn’t be a problem if he was back in
Heaven and able to recharge. Food was everywhere in Heaven. No
one went hungry, ever.

For the dead souls who lived there, eating was more about habit,

as well as enjoying the delights of the taste buds without all the
aftereffects. For angels, eating any of the fruit that grew on the trees,
or drinking from the fountains, would always heal any injuries and
produce more energy with which they could fight.

The ambrosia within the food also kept them from becoming tired

or aging, along with rejuvenating their powers.

Here on Earth, the food had no ambrosia in it. Jeremy could eat it,

and it would satisfy his hunger, but his energy would not return to its
normal state.

He had to conserve it, and if that meant washing himself in a

public bathroom sink instead of simply wishing away the dirt and
stink, then so be it.

God, but he was still hungry. Angels hardly carried any money

around with them, and he’d had to call Dante’s office from a pay
phone with some of the change he’d found on the ground. He was
glad the man had been there, and now all Jeremy had to do was come
in and keep watch over the man.

He managed to be ten minutes early for his meeting with him,

since he had nowhere else to be.

He was glad he’d come in early at the sight of the little fist-sized

demons bouncing around the otherwise empty office. Dante was
sitting in one of the chairs in the lobby, his back to the doors that
Jeremy had just come through.

From the looks of things, he hadn’t even heard the door open. Not

that Dante could blame him, considering all the racket those little
bastards were making as they jumped around the man, screaming at
him and making faces.

Dante kept his head down. He had his elbows resting on his knees

and was massaging his temples slowly. His eyes were closed against

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Jacks

the noise from the demons that tried to manipulate him, but Jeremy
could still see the black cloud that seemed to be surrounding him.
Him and only him.

It didn’t take Jeremy much effort at all to banish the little

creatures. He growled a low warning, deep in his throat. It was the
kind of sound that Dante’s ears wouldn’t pick up, but the demons sure
as hell heard it. They suddenly stopped their awkward dancing around
Dante’s body as they all froze to look up at him.

Just a little push was all it took, only a slight bit of power to make

them scramble. The ones that didn’t get out of the way of the blast
were incinerated, their shrill screams the last thing that Jeremy heard
before they vanished in puffy black clouds and orange sparks.

Dante wouldn’t have felt the blast the same way the demons did.

To him, it would only have felt like a gust of fresh air had come over
his body. That was when he suddenly looked up and turned around.

His eyes were bloodshot, and Jeremy found himself taking a step

back. Jesus, had they managed to change him already? Jeremy hadn’t
even been gone a full day. How could the demons have convinced
Dante to become a general for their side so soon?

Dante smiled as he stood up and approached him. “Hi, I’m glad

you came.”

Dante reached his hand out and took hold of Jeremy’s, shaking it

with a strong grip despite his frail appearance.

Jeremy breathed a sigh of relief. Not a demon general then, just

tired. “You look like you haven’t slept all night.”

Dante looked away from him. “Well, you know, things to get

done and whatnot. That happens sometimes, but I wouldn’t worry too
much, it won’t be happening with you. All I’ll need you to do is sit at
this desk, keep my appointments, and play nice with the clients when
we have any come in for anything.”

Jeremy was aware of Dante’s close proximity as they walked as

well as the hand that was at the small of his back. Clearly he was able
to sense that Jeremy was somehow able to keep his demons at bay,

The Half-Breed Demon

otherwise he doubted the other man would be willing to stay so close
to him.

Dante showed him to the desk that was now his. It looked pretty

well cleaned up, like someone had just gone over it with a wipe or
something. There wasn’t even any dust.

“Was the person before me as clean as this?” Jeremy asked.
“She wasn’t a slob or anything, but that was hardly a quality I

appreciated whenever she went online to check the status of her
friends.”

“Ah, now I get the Facebook thing,” Jeremy said.
Dante managed to blush through his pale cheeks, then he cleared

his throat. “Yes, well, I’m glad you’re here. I’m understaffed enough
as it is, and I can’t have Dean and Jonas taking my appointments and
answering calls between the clients they’re already invested in right
now. You’d be a big help doing this for me,” he said.

Dante had no idea how much that was true.
He took Jeremy through the offices, gave him the passwords he

would be needing to log in to the company files, and in less than an
hour everything was all said and done and Dante brought him into the
break room to sit down.

“Any questions?” Dante asked, pouring Jeremy a coffee from the

little machine on the counter. It was hardly the stuff of the gods, but
Jeremy was just glad to have something hot in his stomach.

He then looked around the empty break room as he thought of an

answer to Dante’s question. “Yeah, where is everyone? You said you
had two other staff members?”

“It’s Saturday, so they’re off, but they stay on call should any

clients have to contact them for emergencies or anything.”

“They work from home on the weekends?”
Dante nodded. “Yeah.”
“Then why are you here?”
Dante actually managed to smile at him. “I’m the owner. I’m the

last person on the list who gets a day off when there’s work that needs

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Jacks

to be done. Basically it’ll be a slow day today, but having you around
to answer the phone, write up any future appointments, and whatnot
so I can catch up on my projects will really help. Making sure I get
my bills paid on time is also something I’ll be needing you to do, but
I’ll show you that one later.”

Jeremy nodded.
“I’ll also be needing your last name and your Social Security

number if you want me to pay you,” Dante said, that same smile still
on his face.

Jeremy nearly dropped his coffee. “What?”
The look on Dante’s face faltered a little. “You have an SSN,

don’t you?”

No, he didn’t, and why the hell hadn’t he thought to get one on his

trip back down here? He could probably use some of his remaining
powers to make a card with a number appear in the little wallet he
was keeping on him. At least then he would have something to give to
the other man so he could stay here as an employee. Really, he could
spare the energy, most likely. Provided no other little demons came
around to start their havoc again.

He’d made up his mind and was about to do just that when Dante

spoke again.

“Look, I’m grateful to you for saving my life when I…tripped and

fell into the street, which is why I want to give you this job. You
haven’t even given me a resume, and I don’t have any references to
check either, but that’s all right, too. If you don’t have any ID on you,
I’ll be patient and wait for you to get some. Until then, I at least need
your last name and a phone number where I can reach you.”

Last name he could do. He could make up something really quick.

He’d been looking at a magazine stand earlier today when he’d just
gotten back down to Earth, and there was probably a name on the
front cover he could use as his own.

Shit, he couldn’t remember what he’d seen. He needed a last name

and he needed it now!

The Half-Breed Demon

“Stewart,” Jeremy blurted. “My last name is Stewart.”
Dante’s smile returned. “Great. That’s good. I’ll write it in the

files.”

“I don’t have a phone number though,” Jeremy admitted

sheepishly. “Or a phone,” he added when Dante looked at him.

“Oh.” Dante put his mug down. “That complicates things a little.”
As if to further humiliate Jeremy, his stupid stomach rumbled

loudly and painfully, cutting through the awkward silence with even
more embarrassment for Jeremy to deal with.

“Hungry?” Dante asked.
Jeremy bit his lips together. He could feel the heat rising in his

cheeks. He really didn’t want to answer that. It wasn’t like eating
would satisfy his real hunger anyway.

Dante checked his watch. “We can still get breakfast, and so far

the phones haven’t been ringing.”

Jeremy watched him as he stood up. “Where are you going?”
“I’m taking you out to get something to eat.” Dante reached his

hand down, as though to help Jeremy out of his seat.

The only time when someone had ever offered to help him to his

feet was that one time when Jeremy had been struck down by the fire
spear of a hell knight in battle. The spear hadn’t done more than dent
his armor, thankfully, but the force had still knocked him back and
taken the wind out of him. He could remember coming out of his haze
just to see John’s hand in front of him.

Through all the chaos, the commander hadn’t left him behind, and

he’d returned to help Jeremy back to his feet so he could rejoin the
battle.

Looking at Dante’s hand made Jeremy feel that same out-of-

breath shock that he’d felt that day so long ago.

He let his hand go up and into Dante’s. He noted the way the man

gripped it tightly as he pulled Jeremy out of his chair, and he allowed
the other man to take him to breakfast.

There was only one thing that went through his mind as he

The Half-Breed Demon

Chapter Five

It was clear to Dante that something wasn’t right with the younger

man in front of him. Dante knew all about hiding from his inner
demons, both real and the ones that may or may not be just inside of
his head.

Jeremy had no money on him, no ID, and no phone number. Were

those even the same clothes he wore when he pushed Dante out of the
way of the bus? He couldn’t exactly remember that one. It was
suddenly a blur, but he was sure the colors had been different, which
meant he had to have gone somewhere to change them, and had spare
clothing available. Maybe wherever he was from, he couldn't go back.

He was hiding from someone, or something, and Dante wanted

the other man around too much to even think about turning him away.
Jeremy had saved his life, and even now his presence soothed the
headaches and voices that Dante had been dealing with so much for
the past several months. Hell, for most of his life, if he was honest
with himself.

Even if Jeremy hadn’t given him a last name, Dante would’ve

offered him Tiffany’s old job on a gold platter. Jeremy was helping
Dante, whether he knew it or not, and so he was going to do
everything in his power to help the younger man.

At the moment, that entailed watching the poor guy shovel down

his second plate of pancakes, eggs, bacon, and toast. That ethereal
glow that had been there the first time Dante had opened his eyes and
seen him was gone, but that didn’t matter. He still remembered it.
Whether it was a product of his own imagination or it was something
else entirely he was still trying to figure out.

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He’d asked Jeremy what he was, and the man had, in return, asked

him with some disbelief in his voice if he could tell or not.

Maybe it had meant nothing at all. Maybe it meant something.
Dante was still on his first plate, and he was going to be fine with

just that. He tried to not be too obvious about it when he looked over
the other man’s body, noting the way his clothes fit perfectly against
him. Jeremy had broad shoulders and strong arms, and Dante didn’t
doubt that there would be a flat stomach beneath the secondhand suit
jacket and blue button-down shirt. There might even be a six-pack of
muscle there as well. Jeremy had a youthful face, suggesting he was
maybe five or six years younger than Dante, but he definitely had
more build on him, that was for sure.

It made him wonder all the more what a guy like this could

possibly be hiding from. Or who.

The thought occurred to him that Jeremy might very well not have

a place to stay for the night. Sure, he was wearing different clothes
than yesterday when he’d pushed Dante out of the way of that bus,
but even though it was still relatively early, they looked rumpled, as
though he’d been in them for hours. It was possible that he’d changed
out of his other clothes when they’d gotten dirty from the fall and now
these clothes were well on their way to looking just as worn out.

“So,” Dante said, taking a sip of his orange juice. Jeremy had

mostly finished his, and now Dante was just looking for a way to
bring this up without making the other man run away from him.

Jeremy looked up from his bacon and eggs, his cheek outstretched

like some kind of giant squirrel. It was cute, and it made Dante smile
and forget a little about what he was going to ask.

“Where are you staying? After we get everything settled, I can

drop you off and pick you up tomorrow, if that’ll be easier for you.”

Jeremy had decided to gulp down the last of the juice that was in

his glass, probably to help get all the food he’d shoveled in down,
when Dante made his offer.

Bad timing, he supposed, because the first thing the man did was

The Half-Breed Demon

choke.

Dante was just about to get out of his seat and help when Jeremy

managed to dislodge the obstruction on his own, swallow properly,
and then look at Dante with wide amber eyes. “What?”

Some of the waitstaff had stood close by the table once they’d

noticed the choking, as well as the fact that Jeremy had managed to
save himself without any of their help, but now that everything
appeared all right, they went back to serving their other tables, leaving
the two of them alone to their booth.

Dante was almost afraid to ask again for fear of another choking

session, but he already had his answer. “You have nowhere to stay,
don’t you?”

Jeremy blushed again, his face transforming into a bright red that

made Dante ashamed to see it because he was the one to put it there.

“How old are you?”
“Uh, twenty-five.”
Dante nodded. An adult, but still young.
He couldn’t lie to himself and say he was doing it for purely

selfless reasons. If he was that kind of man, more homeless people
would be finding themselves under his roof, but he did tell himself he
was only doing it because he owed Jeremy a debt, and the man
somehow managed to keep his demons away.

And he was strikingly handsome, but that was on the bottom of

the list of why he was going to offer this.

“Okay, look, I don’t know what your story is or what you’re

hiding from, but I’ll help you out until you get back on your feet. You
can work for me under the table for the next couple of weeks until
you get some ID that I can use, and you can stay with me until you
find another place.”

“Uh, stay with you?”
Dante nodded, but he still noticed the hesitation in the other man’s

voice. “I don’t want you thinking I’m some kind of creep or anything.
I have a big house and you’ll have your own room, and this will only

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be until you’ve worked enough to get a place of your own.”

Jeremy drummed his fingers on the table and then looked down at

the breakfast that Dante had bought for him.

Dante didn’t want to offer anything else or point out that staying

with him would mean he would have access to three meals a day,
clean clothes, and showers. That would only be rubbing the man’s
nose into the fact that he didn’t already have those things.

Finally, after Dante began to worry that maybe he’d overstepped

the line with his offer, Jeremy’s head bobbed a little.

Dante had to be sure. “Is that a yes?”
Jeremy looked up at him, and Dante couldn’t explain the flutter in

his chest when those glowing eyes met his. “Yes.”

* * * *

Jeremy allowed Dante to take him back to the office, and he was

silent the entire way. He was grateful that Dante seemed comfortable
enough to just allow Jeremy his time to think, because he was hardly
in the mood for any sort of idle chitchat as he thought over what had
just happened.

God, he really hoped John and the others were having better luck

on their end. The council might not be one-hundred-percent on board
with the idea of several men on Earth being corrupted to become
some of Hell’s most feared generals, but now that Jeremy had seen
the darkness around the other man, he knew for a fact that John had
been right.

But would John approve of the method Jeremy was using to stay

close to his target? Dante seemed to think that Jeremy was some
homeless guy in need of saving. Homeless, yes, but it wasn’t Jeremy
who needed saving, it was Dante.

It was true, he did have nowhere to go and no money or real name

to speak of, but so long as he’d used his powers conservatively, he
should’ve been able to at least stay by the man’s side in a working

The Half-Breed Demon

environment, maybe even befriend him to spend more time together
after hours. Something along those lines should have been enough for
Jeremy to work with, to keep the tiny demons that pestered Dante’s
mind at bay. Hell, the little bastards were already back at the office,
waiting in the lobby like a hundred small dogs with really sharp teeth.

Dante saw them and cringed, and Jeremy was immediately aware

of the way his hand came up to massage away the building headache.

Jeremy quickly banished the creatures before they could do too

much damage to the other man.

Dante blinked as the evil little critters all vanished with pops of

smoke and orange sparks. He looked at Jeremy, his eyes suspicious
and yet still wide that such a thing had happened.

Jeremy just smiled back at him, pretending he hadn’t seen a thing,

much less had caused the small demons to retreat.

“So, I guess you’ll do your thing and I’ll stick around here?” he

said, motioning with his head toward the desk that was now his.

Dante blinked at him, his black eyes still staring at Jeremy with

wonder and something else he couldn’t place. “Yeah.” He cleared his
throat. “Like I said, it’s probably going to be slow today, so if you
could just go through the log of clients and try to make yourself
familiar with them, the last time I sent them a message, that kind of
thing, that would be great.”

“And no Facebook,” Jeremy said, going for a joke.
Dante smiled at him. “Yeah, definitely not.”
They continued looking at each other for a time before Dante

spoke. “We won’t be here for very long. I’ll still want to show you
where you’ll be staying, and again, it’s Saturday, so we’ll call it in
early.”

“Great.”
“Do you have any bags or anything that you want to bring with

us?”

Jeremy’s whole body went tight as yet another aspect of mortal

life was thrust on him that he’d forgotten about. Right. It would be

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expected that he would at least have a change of clothes or something.
Especially because he hadn’t been wearing this faded-looking suit
yesterday when he and Dante first met.

“Uh, actually, no. I traded my other clothes in at a Goodwill store

so I could have this to wear today.”

God, that sounded so bad. If Jeremy wanted, he could conjure

himself up new clothes right now, but he couldn’t tell Dante that, and
just doing something like that would take up more of his energy that
he couldn’t spare. That breakfast had been delicious and all, but there
was no ambrosia in any of that human food, and his tank was still
running at about only half. He needed every little bit if he was going
to keep the demons away from Dante.

He wished he’d had the time to go and take some apples from the

garden before he’d had to rush out of Heaven or even to ask one of
the others to see if they had any on them for the trip. All fruit grown
in Heaven had ambrosia in it.

Dante, bless his heart, didn’t so much as give off the impression

of pity. His face remained neutral as he nodded. “I’ll see to it that you
get a change of clothes.”

Jeremy really hoped they wouldn’t be anything new or expensive.

That wasn’t what this was about.

He cleared his throat and tried not to look too embarrassed about

the whole thing. “Well, I should get to work.”

“Yeah, me, too. I’ll come and check on you in an hour or

something. We’ll get out of here at about three, and I’ll take you
home.”

“Sounds good,” Jeremy said, moving toward the large desk that

was now his and sitting down.

* * * *

Dante turned his eyes away from the man before Jeremy could see

him staring at his ass, and he went back into his office and shut the

The Half-Breed Demon

door behind him.

He had to lean his head against the cool wood when he was alone.

His headache was gone, so that was not what had been bothering him.

He’d seen it again. That strange glow when the little demons

vanished, all popping and exploding into nothingness.

Jeremy pretended like he had nothing to do with it, but Dante had

seen it again.

He was either insane, or the things that had been haunting him his

entire life really were real.

He wasn’t sure which option was scarier.

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Chapter Six

Jeremy was glad when Dante came out of his office to announce

they were done for the day.

“Anything else that the clients need, well, they can e-mail me,”

he’d said, holding a case in his left hand that Jeremy had no doubt
would contain his computer and a few files that he’d been working
on.

Jeremy got up to help him close the place down, which didn’t take

much other than shutting off the lights since it had only been the two
of them all day. Then they left.

Jeremy had never been in a car before. He’d started out as a

human, once upon a time, but he could barely remember when that
had been. All he knew was that in that time there had been no cars.

Dante and Jeremy had walked to the diner where they’d had their

breakfast, but now it seemed that getting to Dante’s house would
require this form of transportation.

He didn’t know much about cars, but just the look of it meant that

Dante took excellent care of the thing, and when he opened the door,
the leather seats even smelled new and clean, and there wasn’t so
much as a layer of dust or even a candy wrapper on the floor.

Even he knew that humans could be slobs with their cars.
Maybe Dante had noticed his unease when he sat inside the thing.

“I just got it, haven’t really yet broken it in.”

“Oh,” Jeremy said.
He watched the way Dante bit the inside of his cheek, as though

he regretted what he’d just said, though Jeremy couldn’t figure out
why.

The Half-Breed Demon

The drive itself took them all the way down the highway and onto

the other side of Haven. With traffic, it took about forty minutes
before Dante pulled up the smooth, black drive of his house.

Jeremy looked out the window and was pleasantly surprised.
It was just a house. A normal, albeit very nice looking house. It

had a gray-stone exterior and the arches that seemed to be in fashion
nowadays, but it wasn’t gated in, and there were neighbors. The
houses weren’t close together by any stretch, but still close enough
that Dante would likely see other people once in a while from over the
wooden fence, should he ever go into his backyard.

“Come on, I’ll show you around,” he said, pulling the key out of

the ignition. There was a garage, but Dante didn’t bother opening the
door to park the car inside. The people on this street must trust each
other and look out for each other. That was also a good thing.

Jeremy wouldn’t be around for the other man forever, so figuring

out how to get Dante involved with other people would help him out
tremendously when it came time for him to start dealing with his
demons by himself again.

John had said that all they had to do was wait until after Dante’s

thirtieth birthday. That was another three days away. By then, if the
little demons still hadn’t succeeded in converting Dante, they would
have to give up. There was still the chance that the information John
received was wrong, and that it wouldn’t matter if Dante’s birthday
had come and gone. Jeremy didn’t want to risk it. He didn’t want to
risk that Dante would be helpless against the demons should Jeremy
be forced to leave or if the whole birthday thing was wrong.

Thirty was supposed to be some sort of special number,

representing a full cycle in life. Maybe that was why the chosen
generals could only be attacked and transformed within that time.
Anything after that and the cycle would be broken and worthless.

Whether it was the correct theory or not, Dante had so far proven

himself to be more than a soul tortured by the things he was forced to
endure. He was a kind man, offering to take Jeremy in when he had

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no idea who Jeremy really was.

Sure, there was some of his own agenda in there. Jeremy was

fairly positive that Dante suspected he was the cause of the absence of
the demons, but that could be forgiven. Dante was still feeding him,
giving him work, and allowing Jeremy to stay in his house.

He did not deserve to be tortured by demons, and Jeremy was not

about to allow him to be forced into becoming a general in Hell’s
army.

“You have a nice house,” Jeremy said, unable to take his eyes

away from the man as he got out of the car.

Dante smiled at him, showcasing his dazzling white teeth.

“Thanks, but I think you’ll get a better kick out of the pool in the
backyard.”

There was a pool, too? And Dante was willing to let Jeremy go in

it?

As nice an offer as it was, Jeremy would have to decline. He

wasn’t on vacation here, so the only way Dante would get him inside
of his pool would be if Dante went with him.

He wasn’t sure why the thought of putting Dante in swimwear

made him blush, but his face felt hot.

“Something wrong?” Dante asked.
Jeremy shook his head. “It’s nothing.”
He managed to get Dante to lead him up the steps and into the

house with no other problems, but Jeremy could hardly appreciate
what was no doubt a beautiful interior when the heavy blue smog in
the house nearly choked him.

He had to stop and get his bearings, and he took a quick sniff of

the place, making sure that Dante wouldn’t notice as he hung up his
coat.

This wasn’t smoke, like from a burning oven or something like

that. This was the scent of ruin. Those little bastard demons had been
here, and not just today when Dante had been away. The stink was
deep down in the carpet and furniture.

The Half-Breed Demon

Jeremy hadn’t smelled this on Dante when he first came into the

office. Dante must’ve spent the night there. He couldn’t blame the
man if this was his reason.

He looked over at Dante, but the other man kept his head down

and walked past him. Jeremy was still able to make out the scowl that
marred Dante’s face.

Did he notice the smoke the same way he did with the little

demons? Jeremy wasn’t entirely familiar with the way the demons
worked. There were so many different kinds of them with even more
ways of attacking their mortal victims, but this cloud reminded
Jeremy of something he’d been through whilst sitting in a grimy
battlefield.

John had been speaking with him, Kale, and several other

members of the squad when the smoke had rolled over them. He’d
immediately ordered everyone to cover their mouths and noses with
their robes to keep from inhaling as much of the stuff as they could.

The smoke had still managed to get to some of the others. Some

angels had turned violent and had started attacking each other, others
had been blinded by the heavy smoke, but John and his team had
prevailed and killed the demon that had been the cause. The wind had
taken the rest of the smog away, and everyone had been able to
resume the battle, winning for the side of Heaven.

This smoke seemed different from what Jeremy remembered that

day. It didn’t affect him like it did Dante. Within seconds the man had
gone from cheerful to sour. Jeremy could hear him sifting through his
fridge, grumbling about how much he’d forgotten that he hated this
house, that there was nothing to eat in his cupboards, and on and on.

Right. He didn’t see the smog or know what breathing it in was

doing to him.

Jeremy went to stand behind the man as he searched through the

fridge before he finally slammed the door shut and walked to the
phone. He looked over at Jeremy, as though just recalling that he was
there, and he actually managed to blush.

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“Sorry, just realized I’m out of something to feed you with. It’ll

just be a few minutes until I can get something delivered.”

Jeremy flashed the man his best smile. “No problem. You’re the

one doing me a favor here. I can wait.”

The return smile was weak, but it was there, and Jeremy was glad

for that.

He stepped back and took a seat at the bar, watching Dante closely

as he fought the urge to fume against anything and everything.

The demons had been planting their seeds longer than Jeremy

originally thought for them to have put this sort of atmosphere in
Dante’s house. How long had they known of Dante’s existence? John
had only found out about the generals within the last six months. The
demons surely must have been making themselves known to Dante in
one way or another for longer than that. Long enough to influence
him into killing either a young boy or himself.

Jeremy definitely couldn’t allow this to go on, but what excuse

could he give to the other man to get him to leave his own house?
There was nothing he could say, and while Dante had been kind to
him and nonjudgmental because of the things that Jeremy was doing
for him, if Jeremy asked him to leave this place with him and get a
hotel for the night, the other man would think he was insane.

Or hitting on him.
Jeremy blushed again, but this time he allowed his eyes to travel

over Dante’s body. Through the tailor-made suit, Jeremy could tell
there was a handsome body beneath. It was very likely that Dante had
a personal workout room somewhere in this house.

He coughed and looked away just as his eyes turned down to the

swell of Dante’s ass.

No. He was being inappropriate. Dante most definitely had a nicer

body than the last human Jeremy had been assigned to protect, but
that was no reason for him to be having thoughts like these. He was
here on a mission, not sitting around to have good time.

He closed his eyes and focused, but the sound of Dante’s angry

The Half-Breed Demon

voice as he argued with the other man over the phone about why it
was ridiculous that he couldn’t deliver to this house was hardly
soothing.

Still, he managed to concentrate enough to find out the strength of

the fog in the house. It was deep, all right. It must’ve been here for a
while, but it felt too strong to him. Something like this would’ve
needed a chance to build up, especially for a small space on Earth.

It wasn’t strong enough to resist Jeremy’s influence. Not for long.

That was the important thing.

He focused his energy on the house. This would use up more of

his powers, leaving him even more empty than he’d been before, but
it had to be done.

He reached out with a mental hand and felt the energy and

influence leave his body, stretching outward and beyond himself,
Dante, and the kitchen. It coated everything and purified as well.
Jeremy felt the energy travel through the floors, the carpet, and up
into the ceiling and into the bedroom, and even into the wires that
carried the electricity into the house.

There was more, and he couldn’t stop it. It seeped into Dante’s

body, contaminating his blood and his soul. Jeremy reached again,
allowing his influence to wrap around the other man like a warm,
heavy quilt. Dante stopped shouting into the telephone, but he didn’t
turn around.

A cool sweat built along his brow as he pulled the last of the evil

wisps of smoke from Dante’s body and swept it outside where it
could vanish.

He had to stop himself from using any more of his powers, even

several seconds after he was sure that there were no longer any traces
of that evil lingering, and now he was merely triple-checking
everything. He felt his body separating from this world and being
pulled into the next, where he could recharge, but no. He couldn’t
leave. Not yet.

He was dizzy when he finished what seemed like too many

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minutes later. He keeled over, unable to keep from falling off of the
stool he’d been sitting on.

Strong hands grabbed him around the arms and kept him from

hitting his head as he went down on the floor.

“Jeremy! Jesus, are you okay?”
“What?” Jeremy blinked up at Dante, then he looked around the

bright and sparkling clean kitchen.

He smiled at the sight of his work. He’d done it. This house, and

more importantly, Dante, was now free.

He turned to smile up to the other man. Dante didn’t return it.
“I’m calling for an ambulance.”
“No.” Jeremy reached out and snatched the other man’s hand

before Dante could leave his side. He felt how quickly Dante’s pulse
raced beneath his skin, and against his will, some of his energy,
energy that he could barely spare, crackled and traveled into Dante’s
body.

Felt like it had, anyway, but he didn’t feel any more drained than

before. If anything, he kind of felt slightly recharged. “Don’t, please,
I’m fine.”

“You just fainted,” Dante said, looking very unconvinced, and his

racing heart still didn’t return to normal.

Jeremy inhaled deeply, smelling the other man now as well. He

smelled of good, clean sweat and whatever soaps he’d been using
throughout the day.

Sitting so close with Dante above him, he was able to look into his

eyes and see that they weren’t actually black, but just a very dark
brown. It was almost unnoticeable, especially with how dilated his
pupils were, but there it was.

There was something else lingering in Dante’s scent, and then he

realized what the dilated pupils meant.

Dante desired him. Only with that realization did Jeremy

understand what the warmth pooling in his belly meant, that same
warmth he’d felt for the man ever since pushing him out of the way of

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Chapter Seven

“I didn’t pass out. I just got a little dizzy there for a second.”
Dante’s eyes widened, and he put his arms around Jeremy’s waist.

He had such a nice waist, but he tried his hardest not to focus on that.
It wasn’t right that his blood got to humming as he helped the other
man back into his seat. He’d nearly conked his head on the tiled floor
for God’s sake!

“Really, I’m fine,” Jeremy said, but Dante waved it off. He’d

finally managed to convince that delivery guy that he was indeed in
their delivery zone right before Jeremy nearly had his accident, but
the food would take too long to get here.

There wasn’t much in Dante’s cupboards, but he had seen some

bread, along with peanut butter and jam. That should do for now.

“Is it sugar levels? You need to eat or you’ll…” He trailed off, not

wanting to draw more attention to a condition that Jeremy may or
may not have.

“Something like that,” Jeremy said, sounding reluctant about

sharing that information.

“Well, there’s food on its way, but I’ll give you something to

snack on until then.”

Dante pulled open the cupboards and proceeded to make four

peanut butter sandwiches as quickly as possible.

Jeremy didn’t complain or try to stop him until he started on the

fifth. “I really don’t think I can eat that many without ruining my
supper,” he said with a laugh.

“I remember how much you ate at breakfast,” Dante said, pointing

the butter knife at him, and then he suddenly remembered that he

The Half-Breed Demon

hadn’t exactly fed Jeremy anything between then and now, and he felt
like an idiot.

He cleared his throat and shoved away the emotion as he finished

the last of the sandwiches. “I’m sure you’ll do fine with these.”

Jeremy smiled at him, that same attractive smile that Dante was

falling into. He didn’t realize it until he handed Jeremy the plate of
sandwiches and sat down next to him, but his bad mood had vanished.
It was gone, like someone had flicked off a switch and the air around
him wasn’t so heavy and suffocating anymore.

When he first bought this house, he’d loved it. It had been his

place that he’d paid for with money he’d earned from his business. It
had felt like an achievement, a silent fuck-you to his father who’d told
him he would never be anything, and he’d sworn to himself that there
would only be happy memories in this place. If Dante ever wanted to
start a family, they would be more than glad to be here as well. There
would be no midnight shouting matches, no one would attack anyone
else with knives. It would have been perfect.

The added bonus was that whenever he came to see the house, still

pretending like he’d only been thinking of buying it, the demons
hadn’t come here with him. He’d hoped this place would be a sort of
sanctuary for him and that they wouldn’t follow him.

Within weeks of moving his stuff in, the little voices and demons

had returned, tracking him here as well. They’d whispered to him on
and off, more so within the last six months, and soon merely stepping
foot into his own home made him angry. He’d hated it, and every
panel of wood grated on him almost as much as that kid he’d nearly
shoved into traffic. There had been times when he’d considered
burning it to the ground just to be rid of it forever.

He hadn’t, obviously, and now he was here. With Jeremy Stewart

beside him, eating the sandwiches that Dante had prepared for him, he
took a minute to actually look around.

Everything almost looked different, all the way down to the

cabinets and even how the air smelled. Dante no longer felt like he

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was being pulled from all sides or the hatred he’d felt earlier for this
place.

It was almost the equivalent of stepping inside the house for the

first time with the realtor. Everything looked exciting and new once
more.

Dante tried not to stare at Jeremy, and when that failed, he tried

not to make it too obvious what he was doing.

Jeremy had literally crashed into his life, and now more than ever

Dante was feeling the kind of peace he’d never thought he could have.
It had something to do with Jeremy, it just had to. Hell, the first time
he’d seen the man, Dante had assumed he’d died.

“What are you?”
For the second time that day, Jeremy choked on his food. This

time Dante was able to slap him on the back a couple of times to help
dislodge what had gotten stuck.

“What?”
Only with those wide eyes on him, and the look of fear on

Jeremy’s face, did Dante realize how stupid what he’d asked sounded.

He thought quickly, but that didn’t get him very far. “Uh, more for

you? I can make you some more sandwiches, but right now I think
you’ll be needing some water.”

“Oh, sure, water would be great,” Jeremy said, his eyes still

watering from the effects of choking.

Dante got out of his seat and grabbed a glass. He then grabbed a

pitcher with a water filter inside and poured Jeremy his glass of water.

“Thanks,” the other man said, taking hold of the glass.
When their fingers touched, Dante felt a tingle of electricity that

shot through his arm and went all the way down into his cock, and he
pulled away sharply.

Jeremy would’ve had to be blind to not notice that sort of reaction.
“Sorry, I just…I thought I felt something.”
Jeremy only stared at him. Dante started thinking back to

yesterday when the other man had pushed him out of the way of that

The Half-Breed Demon

bus. He tried to remember if there was a time before now when he’d
touched the man’s skin and not merely rested his hand on the small of
Jeremy’s back. The tingle was certainly familiar, but nowhere near as
intense as right now.

No, Dante had grabbed his hand earlier, but what he'd felt then

was nothing compared to what was happening under his skin right
now. From the look of it, Jeremy felt it, too.

It was likely the biggest mistake Dante would ever make in his

life, and it would probably only drive Jeremy away, but now that he’d
experienced his touch, this touch, for himself, he had to have more.
The pull would not be ignored, and Jeremy had the sweetest-looking
lips Dante had ever seen.

The tingle was back when Dante put his hands on Jeremy’s cheeks

and pulled his mouth forward. That tingle turned into an all-out
fireworks show behind his eyes when their mouths touched.

Jeremy inhaled deeply through his nose, and his mouth remained

tight as Dante kissed him, almost like it was the first kiss he’d ever
had before in his life.

Something like that was just too unlikely, and when his mouth

softened and opened, Dante was convinced that it was not the case.
He’d merely thrown the other man for a loop, that was all.

Dante slid his tongue inside. He could still taste the sweetness of

the jam, along with another taste that belonged entire to Jeremy. He
couldn’t stop the movement of his mouth or his tongue as he
practically claimed the younger man. There was something so
rejuvenating about kissing him that Dante couldn’t bring himself to
stop.

His hands roamed around as if they had a collective mind of their

own, pulling out Jeremy’s shirt from where it had been tucked into his
pants and then sliding his fingers up and underneath it, more of that
tingle that felt so good popping and sizzling against his fingertips.

“Dante…Dante…” Jeremy moaned and breathed his name as

though it were a prayer between kisses, and Dante hadn’t even started

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touching his nipples or feeling along his ass yet.

When Dante’s fingers did find those hard nubs, Jeremy moaned

like he was getting ready to come, and he pressed himself wantonly
against Dante’s touch.

He was going to take him. Dante was going to have this man on

his back right now, and he wasn’t about to let anything stop him.

He grabbed Jeremy around the waist and pulled him up from the

stool, somehow finding that he had the strength to get Jeremy onto his
lap.

From beneath their clothes, he could feel how hard the other man

was for him. Dante was hard, too, so much so that it hurt. Jeremy
touched and kissed Dante back with wild abandon. There wasn’t
much skill or finesse in his movements, but he went at it with so much
enthusiasm that it only served to make Dante harder.

This wasn’t going to get to the next logical step. There was no

time for it, and Jeremy thrust his hips against Dante’s in such a nice
way that he couldn’t bring himself to tell the other man to stop.

He held on to Jeremy’s hips and rocked the both of them together

harder. Jeremy held on to Dante’s shoulders, moaning like he was
having the best sex of his life, and didn’t something like that go
straight to Dante’s ego?

He was pretty sure he’d never brought a lover into this house, and

how appropriate it was that the first one he had here was also the one
who chased away the darkness. He was never letting Jeremy leave
after this. This man was his. His.

Jeremy came with a shout, and Dante followed right behind him.

The warmth that spread inside of his pants was both embarrassing and
invigorating. He enjoyed the feel of Jeremy’s hard thighs around his
hips for just a little longer before the other man pulled away slightly.

He was like a frightened wild animal, what with the way he stared

at Dante.

He should probably clear this up. Damage control with his new

employee and all that. “I didn’t invite you here for that, but I didn’t

The Half-Breed Demon

mind.”

Jeremy’s face was so red it was adorable. He shook his head. “Me

neither.”

“Didn’t mind?” Dante clarified hopefully.
“No,” Jeremy said, his voice low and husky and making Dante’s

cock twitch once again.

Just like that, Dante knew that this was far from over. He had to

have the other man again.

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Chapter Eight

Jeremy stared at himself in the tall mirror in Dante’s bathroom,

his hands clenching the sink. Somehow, they’d managed to fumble
their way upstairs and into Dante’s newly spiritually cleansed
bedroom.

Dante was still in there, getting ready for…for what they were

about to do.

Jeremy tried to think back to his time on Earth, when he was still

alive, that is. Had he ever had sex before? Was he going to go out
there and have no clue what to do? Or would instinct take over? Did
angels even have instincts for this kind of thing?

He heard the push and pull of drawers being opened on the other

side of the room as Dante hurriedly fumbled around. When Jeremy
had said he needed to use his bathroom, he could still feel the burning
heat of Dante’s hard cock pressing against him through their clothing.
It was like the thing had been pointing at Jeremy, and it was obvious
to him what Dante wanted to do with it.

He had only been in here for a minute, not long enough to make

the other man worry or doubt himself, yet.

Jeremy splashed cold water on his face and quickly unbuttoned

his shirt, exposing his chest to himself. He supposed this would be
what mortals would consider attractive.

Regardless, something had passed between them as Jeremy rode

on Dante’s lap like he was in heat. It had been another exchange of
energy, one that left them both gasping, their hearts racing. It almost
seemed to heal the other man just as much as when Jeremy let his
energy flow through both him and this house, but Jeremy didn’t feel

The Half-Breed Demon

drained after the fact. He wanted more.

If this would help Dante, if it would strengthen his resolve against

the demons who wanted him, and Jeremy had no doubt in his mind
that more would eventually come, stronger ones, then he should do
this.

John had told him to do whatever he needed to do, but Jeremy was

not so naive as to think that his commander meant this. If Jeremy did
this, he would do it of his own free will.

He looked down between his legs. His pants were still on, but he

could see the tent there, as well as the wet mark from what he and
Dante had done ten minutes ago downstairs.

His cock still pulsed and ached like it had never done since he

woke up behind the golden gates. If he did this, he would also do it
gladly.

He blew out a long breath through his mouth, and with his mind

made up, he turned toward the door.

* * * *

Dante had almost started to get worried with how long Jeremy

was in his bathroom, but then he heard the sink running.

Washing up then, that was fine. Dante fumbled through his

drawers, searching for the unopened box of condoms and lube he
knew he had somewhere in here.

He’d never brought anyone to this house before, but he’d still

been hopeful, once upon a time, that he would. That had been so long
ago that now he couldn’t remember what he’d done with them.

Finally, he found them. They were situated in the very back of one

of his nightstands and weren’t yet expired either.

Dante breathed a sigh.
The door opened.
Dante spun around. The room was hardly dim, but with the

bathroom lights behind him and his shirt opened and exposing his

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taut, muscled chest and stomach, it almost looked like a holy light
was enveloping the other man from behind.

His lungs and heart squeezed at the sight. It had been way too

long since he’d gotten laid.

Light shimmered behind the other man when Dante sighed. It was

a strange sight, kind of like something he would have seen after a rain
when the sun came out, and Dante had to blink a few times before his
vision returned to normal.

He thought he saw―no. That was impossible, but the little

creatures he saw, the demon-like things.

Could they actually be…?
“You look like you’re having second thoughts,” Jeremy said, not

exactly looking unsure of himself, but definitely not confident. Not
that he’d ever been.

“Second thoughts are the last thing I’m having. Look what I

found,” he said, holding up the box of condoms and lube.

Jeremy stared at them curiously for a minute before his eyes

brightened, but he didn’t say anything.

Strange.
“Come here,” Dante said, sitting back on the bed and pushing

himself until he was in the middle.

It forced the other man to put his knees up on the mattress and

crawl over to him. They were both barefoot now, and it was just a
matter of getting the rest of the clothes out of the way.

“You’re so damn beautiful,” Dante said.
Jeremy blushed and smiled.
Dante grabbed him by the hips and pulled him until he was

straddling Dante, just like downstairs in the kitchen.

As though thinking about it, too, Jeremy pressed down on him,

and Dante felt the base of his dick and balls through the materials that
separated them. He was hard, and Dante was ready to come all over
again.

That refreshing tingling feeling was back, full force, and Dante

The Half-Breed Demon

had to have it. He had to have the man on top of him because Jeremy
made him feel normal and not like he was about to snap.

“Do you have any idea what you do to me?”
Jeremy didn’t answer, but the feeling of his calloused fingers on

the back of Dante’s neck, pulling them closer, was answer enough.

He knew, all right. Dante was going to get his answers, one way

or another, about just who, or what, Jeremy was and how he was able
to do this, but right now his cock was firmly in the pilot’s seat. That
was going to have to wait until much later.

The other man rubbed their cocks together like it was the only

thing he knew how to do, and if he wasn’t careful, they were both
going to come in their briefs again, and Dante wasn’t sure if he would
be able to do this for a third time in one night.

Still, he couldn’t help but let himself be tortured, and he ran his

fingers up and along the smooth muscles of Jeremy’s stomach, his
sides, and his chest. He found the small, hard nipples and pinched
them.

The responding buck and cry nearly undid him, and Dante

scrambled for his belt.

“Take those off,” he commanded the other man whilst he was

busy trying to get himself naked.

Jeremy’s bright eyes were clouded with lust, but after blinking

some of that away, he did as he was told and started undoing his belt
and fly with a much calmer grace than Dante was pulling off.

Jeremy lifted his hips and then eased himself off of Dante just

long enough to get his pants off. Dante followed suit, kicking them
away before pulling at the buttons of his shirt.

He watched as Jeremy was shrugging out of his own jacket and

button-down.

“Wait, leave that on.”
Jeremy blinked at him, more of that lusty haze making his eyes

huge. It kind of reminded Dante of an owl. “Don’t you want me
naked?”

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Christ, what kind of question was that? “Of course I do, but you

look sexy like that. Leave it on.”

Again, Jeremy blushed at the compliment. It was beyond cute, and

when Dante looked down at the perfect swell of his ass, he knew this
was definitely happening.

He reached over and grabbed the box of condoms, practically

ripping the thing open and taking one of the little packets before
tossing the rest onto the nightstand. Dante set the condom aside for
now, and he grabbed the bottle of lube, as well as Jeremy.

He pulled the other man back on top of him, but made sure that he

stayed on his knees instead of sitting on his lap again. Jeremy just
looked at Dante and the lube in his hands, as though waiting for him
to do something with it.

Dante grinned and kissed the man, feeling the tightness in his

mouth melt away as his tongue slid across Jeremy’s perfectly plump
lips.

Jeremy’s hands were on his neck again, and soon he was kissing

back with all the zeal he’d used when they’d humped each other’s
brains out on his kitchen stool.

He couldn’t help but slide his eyes closed, and he clumsily opened

the cap and slathered some of the lube onto his fingers. Jeremy
jumped and made a cute noise when Dante’s fingers touched his
asshole.

“You sure you’re okay with this?” Dante asked. Never before had

he been the kind of guy to give a partner, especially right before sex, a
way out, especially considering the hard time Dante had with getting
and keeping his bed partners.

This was somehow different.
“Yes, it’s nice. You just surprised me.”
That had been the only chance Jeremy was about to get, and Dante

wasn’t about to stop and ask again.

They resumed their kiss, and Dante adored Jeremy’s mouth so

much, the flick of his warm and wet tongue, the tingle he felt, and just

The Half-Breed Demon

the newness of having a lover here with him. He’d almost forgotten to
get back to the part where they were supposed to be fucking.

He rubbed the tips of his fingers around Jeremy’s pucker, again

and again, enjoying how the man felt and how hot his body became as
they held each other.

The second Jeremy’s muscles relaxed, Dante slid his middle

finger inside of him.

Jeremy made a sound between a moan and a gasp, and soon he

was humping back against Dante’s finger as they kissed, much more
frantically than before.

There, that was what he wanted, for Jeremy to stop being so

nervous and to just go with it.

He slipped a second finger inside of him, and then a third,

stretching him out and pushing inside of him as far as his fingers
could go. His arm started to cramp up with their positions and what
they were doing, but he didn’t stop.

His fingers pressed against the smooth lump inside of Jeremy’s

body, and the other man bucked against him, hard and fast, and those
amber eyes of his flew almost as wide as his mouth as he moaned.

This was it, Dante couldn’t wait anymore.
He continued playing around with that spot, pressing kisses that

he was pretty sure Jeremy didn’t notice against the hollow at his
throat as he fumbled for the lube and condom with his other hand.

He had to take his fingers out of Jeremy’s ass to get everything in

its proper order, and the sound of Jeremy’s disappointed moan when
he did that made his stomach go tight with want and desire.

“Love the sounds you make,” Dante said, stroking the lube onto

his cock before lining it up with Jeremy’s hole.

“I love this,” Jeremy said. The red flush on his face was

absolutely exquisite.

Dante pushed into him just as Jeremy sat down, and he nearly

came as Jeremy began riding him hard and fast right away.

“Oh, fuck!” he shouted, throwing his head back and gripping

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Jeremy’s hips with tight fingers.

Jeremy’s eyes were squeezed shut, his mouth parted just enough

for the little moans and gasps to escape that he was no doubt trying to
hold back.

Then Dante saw them, for real this time, and not something that

he could shrug off as a product of the light or his own imagination.

They were made of the light, just like before, only now they were

much clearer, and Dante could really see them.

Wings. Jeremy had honest-to-God wings on his back, the white

feathers shimmering like they’d been dipped in microscopic diamonds
or something.

He wasn’t seeing this. It wasn’t in his head and he wasn’t crazy.

This was how Jeremy was able to keep away the demons that had
plagued him for so long.

His new knowledge energized him all the more, and he thrust

inside of the other man harder, pushing Jeremy down onto his cock
until the other man moaned for him, for real this time, loud and long,
and not those held-back little things he’d been doing before.

More of that energy entered him as he took the man above him. It

felt like light, and love, and safety, and he thrust harder, trying to milk
more of it out of the other man.

He looked up at Jeremy just as the other man looked down at him,

and their eyes met. He wanted to say something clever or romantic,
something along the lines of, “I’m glad you’re here,” or, “I’m never
letting you leave.”

Words like that, spoken even while his voice was husky with lust

and want, probably wouldn’t sound the same spoken out loud as they
sounded inside of his head, so he stayed silent and fell into those
bright amber eyes.

Then Jeremy shut them again as he threw his head back, exposing

his neck for Dante to press his lips against. He darted his tongue out
to taste the skin, and it was salty, warm, and perfect.

Jeremy rode him harder and faster, and then he came, his warm

The Half-Breed Demon

cum shooting over Dante’s chest, and Jeremy’s asshole tightening
around his cock to the point where it almost caused pain.

Dante wasn’t about to complain, and he got through it, the

pleasure spiking for him as Jeremy continued to move his hips at an
impossibly fast rate. Then his cock swelled and the surging started in
his balls as he came inside the other man.

Jeremy collapsed on top of him when they both finally went still,

and Dante could feel the smile on Jeremy’s lips pressed against his
shoulder as the other man, angel, kissed him.

Those hands were at his neck again, massaging and soothing.

Everything about Jeremy’s touch was wonderful, and Dante never
wanted to leave this bed, and he never wanted to pull his cheek away
from the comforting, warm wall that was Jeremy’s chest.

“Thank you,” Jeremy said.
It looked as though Dante had the answers he’d always wanted

and was now fitted with a guardian angel.

He couldn’t help but chuckle. “Do all angels thank each other

after they have sex?”

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Chapter Nine

Jeremy was much too at ease from the pleasurable sensations still

sparking through his body to be properly surprised by Dante’s words.

Likely, that was the reason why the other man continued to kiss

and nuzzle his neck, and only when Jeremy felt the gentle nibble
along his earlobe did he pull away. That was when Dante’s much
darker eyes squinted up at him, the brows furrowing.

He decided to put the man out of his misery before he started

doubting his own sanity again.

“You saw them?”
Dante released a small breath. “Yeah. I like them. They’re nice.”
They were meant to be. Angelic wings were a thing of beauty

compared to the leathery, spiny things that some demons used to get
around. Despite that, this was hardly the reaction that most mortals
had whenever they were faced with a being of Jeremy’s caliber.

“Does it not make you uncomfortable? Knowing what I am?”
“Why would it? Your existence means that I’m not crazy. That

everything I’ve ever seen and heard is real, and not part of some
psychological problem.”

Dante’s mouth twisted in a way that was hardly like the gentle

look he’d had whenever he and Jeremy kissed.

Jeremy did not know much about Dante’s past. He’d only just

managed to find the man recently, so there had been hardly any time
to study his subject.

All he knew was that Dante’s mother had been attacked by a

demon and impregnated, later dying during the birth. That was only
known amongst Jeremy and the rest of his comrades because,

The Half-Breed Demon

according to John’s source, that was the way the half breeds destined
to become generals were brought into the mortal world.

He did not know much else about Dante’s past, what he had to go

through during his childhood, but that twist of his mouth gave Jeremy
all sorts of terrible ideas.

“My existence also means something else that should be important

to you. More important.”

Dante’s eyes remained fixed on him as Jeremy gently lifted

himself off of his penis and sat down beside him. He did not lay back
and make himself comfortable on the large bed. That was not his
place. Dante might still look at him with gentle eyes, but those eyes
would become hard once Jeremy made his confession.

His mission, as of this moment, was to confess to Dante

everything without the other man throwing him out of his house.
Jeremy still needed to protect him.

“What else should I know?”
“Is it not obvious? You are wanted by the demon world. That is

why they plague you. They want you for their purpose.”

Dante’s lips thinned, and he looked away briefly before turning

his eyes back to Jeremy. “That boy I nearly…” Dante’s face colored
but still contained that angry expression. “They want me to kill
people?”

Jeremy nodded. “Something of that nature would contaminate

your soul beyond repair. They would own you if you ever took a life.”

“Why do they want to own me? I don’t understand what I ever

did.”

Jeremy looked down and noted the way Dante’s fists were

clenching the sheets. His knuckles were turning white, and because
that could not be good for him, Jeremy reached out and took him by
the hand, lacing their fingers together.

Dante still clutched his hand tightly, but that was all right. Jeremy

figured he would need someone grounding him for this next part.

“It’s not about what you did, but who you were born to be.

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Heaven didn’t even realize you existed until recently, and even now
the council doesn’t completely believe the stories.”

“Council? What are you talking about?”
He had to stay focused and not get off track. “Dante, your blood is

half demon. That is why you can see the creatures that plague you,
hear their harsh words, and feel the sting of their weapons whenever
they attempt to…intimidate you. You can experience the pain they
wish to heap on you at a greater scale than others.”

Jeremy decided to stop talking when Dante’s dark eyes widened

to the point where Jeremy could see the whites all the way around.

He swallowed, and he didn’t release Jeremy’s hand. “Why?”
John had said that Jeremy was to do whatever needed to be done.

Dante’s knowledge of these events could only strengthen his resolve
to stay on the path of light, especially when he was tested again if
Jeremy should be unable to protect him.

“My commander discovered this after a battle with a group of

demons, I’ll not tell you their kind as that is of no consequence, but
they had been on Earth, protecting an entry zone.”

“What’s that?”
“A portal between Hell and Earth.”
Dante’s face drained of color.
“This is hardly uncommon. There are many of these portals deep

within the cracks of the earth. For my kind, getting to Earth is much
easier since we only need to fly down. Though portals are still used to
get between Heaven and Earth, it’s faster and there aren’t as many
restrictions for us as there are for demons.”

This revelation did not have the wanted effect of making the color

on Dante’s cheeks return.

“There are many of these portals for demons,” Jeremy continued.

“But none so heavily guarded, or wide open, as the one John had
found. I was not there for the battle, but he found the size of the portal
to be disturbing, and he feared that the demons might attempt to bring
something big through.”

The Half-Breed Demon

“How big did he say it was?”
Jeremy looked around, trying to find a suitable comparison to

what John had told him. “Perhaps the size of this room. Maybe larger.
I wasn’t there.”

“You said that. How big are these portals supposed to be?”
Jeremy cupped his hands close together, making a small bowl out

of them.

“Oh,” Dante said.
“Yes,” Jeremy said, taking his hand again. “For demons, the size

of the portal should hardly matter, unless something powerful was
coming through. Lucifer would only be able to come to Earth if there
was a portal the size of the city itself, so a portal the size of this room
would be an unusual sight, which was why John acted. He took his
team and went on the attack. All the demons were killed, and the
portal closed for good measure, but the rest of his team had been
slaughtered as well.”

“I’m sorry,” Dante said, his hand rubbing up and down Jeremy’s

arms for comfort.

“I did not know them, but I was sorry for their deaths as well.

John went on to tell us that he’d managed to keep one demon alive for
a time. He would not speak of the things he’d done to make a creature
like that talk, but talk it did, and it told him the purpose for such a
large portal.”

“Me?”
Jeremy nodded. “Yes. The portal was an hour south of Haven, so

we knew to look in this area for you. I found you just in time as well.”

“But why me? I don’t get it.”
Jeremy bit his lips together. This was it, and if he said all that

needed to be said to the other man, there would no longer be any
secret to keep, and the angels above would no longer keep their
distance. There would be no need to, now that Jeremy had revealed
everything.

They would come for him, and they would take him, and Dante

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would be assigned another guardian.

“You have been born to a different fate from other mortals. You

have one foot in the demon world and one in the mortal world. You
are destined to be one of many generals capable of leading Hell’s
army, or a soldier fighting for Heaven. Hell would rather we not have
you.”

Dante covered his mouth with his hand. He lifted his knees,

drawing them closer to himself at the news. “A general…for the
apocalypse?”

“No, only the four horsemen can say when that will be, and they

are neutral.”

“Then where would I lead an army to?” Dante asked.
“Heaven.”
“Oh, God.”
Jeremy didn’t like the way Dante ducked his head and gripped his

hair. He could already feel the presence of the other angels coming for
him.

He’d revealed key secrets to a mortal, a man who had deep

connections with the spiritual world, yes, but still a mortal. They were
not going to keep their distance from Jeremy any longer, regardless of
his position.

It wasn’t like they had to hide away from Dante now that he knew

of their existence.

“Dante, listen to me.” Jeremy gently took him by the wrists and

pulled his hands away from himself. The other man looked up at him
with despair in his eyes. “I’m sorry for this. For everything, but I
thought that if you knew, you would have a better chance of
resisting.”

“Why didn’t you just let me die and get it over with?” Dante

asked. “When I…fell in the way of that bus. If I was dead, you
wouldn’t have to worry about me turning into a monster and killing
more people. Why take the chance?”

“Dante, you and I both know that you didn’t stumble accidentally

The Half-Breed Demon

into the street.”

Dante’s eyes widened, and he turned away.
Jeremy slowly reached out, and he took Dante’s face in his hand,

cupping his cheek. His skin was rough and smooth at the same time,
due to growing a beard that would need shaving in a few hours. What
Jeremy really wanted to see were Dante’s eyes. “Killing yourself is
still murder, and your soul would still belong to them. You cannot die,
and you cannot kill anyone else either. You must wait it out.”

Dante did not look comforted. His gaze was half-accusing. “At

least this explains you. Should’ve known better than to think anyone
normal would want me.”

Jeremy winced. He would have liked to tell Dante that he’d saved

him because there was more between them than was obvious and that
he thought Dante had a gentle soul that was worth saving, but at the
time, that wasn’t why he’d saved the man.

He’d been too focused on his mission, doing as he was ordered,

and now he was ashamed for his own lack of feeling when it came to
doing his duty. Dante was worth more than duty. He would save the
man again and again, regardless of who he was.

“Dante, you must be strong, I need to leave.”
Dante’s head whipped around, and his eyes were once more

impossibly wide as he stared at Jeremy. “Go? Where?”

“I was assigned as your guardian by a commander who is now

considered a traitor. When I came here a second time, the only reason
why I was left alone was because I was here and mingling with other
humans, but I’ve told you secrets that I should not have. I will be
taken away and reassigned.”

Dante shook his head. “No.”
“You will be given another guardian.” Maybe. “Likely that person

will not have to interact with you.” Much. “You won’t even know
they’re there.”

“I want you here.”
Even after Dante discovered that Jeremy had deceived him?

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“I can’t stay. Not after that.”
“Then why did you tell me?” Dante demanded, then reached out

and grabbed Jeremy by his shoulders when he tried to get out of bed.
“Why tell me if you know it’s just going to separate us? Don’t you
care at all?”

Jeremy forced himself to look into those dark eyes, regardless of

the pain. The angels were getting closer. He could feel their energy
and their strength. It would be a matter of minutes now before they
arrived to take him away.

He might have been able to hide behind the just following orders

bit that John had commanded him to use, but that would mean nothing
now that he’d allowed a human to see him for what he really was.

“Of course I care. More than I should, but I could not keep the

truth from you when you already knew of it. You found out. You
knew. I couldn’t deceive you about it any longer. You’re much
smarter than that.”

“I―”
The house rumbled, like a small earthquake was rattling the

foundation, and it cut off whatever argument Dante was about to
come up with.

He straightened, searching around as though expecting the house

to fall down around him. He didn’t loosen his grip on Jeremy’s
shoulders.

Jeremy could hardly blame him for the confusion or the fright.

They weren’t exactly in an earthquake zone.

“Someone’s here. Jeremy―”
“Shh, it’s all right,” Jeremy said, curling his fingers around the

back of Dante’s neck. “They’re here for me.”

Dante’s eyes went from confused and frightened to hard and

determined. “I won’t let them take you.”

That’s not your choice.
“I don’t care what you are or why you’re here. I’m

not…Goddammit, I can’t let you go.”

The Half-Breed Demon

“You hardly know me. You don’t know me. You will be fine

without me.”

Dante’s face twisted in a sort of anger that Jeremy had never seen

on any creature before in his life. “You―”

They’d left the door to the bedroom open. It had only been the

two of them in the house, so there had been no need to close it. The
heavy stomping of feet sounded down the hallway before two men in
traditional heavenly armor appeared in the doorway.

The metal of their breastplates, gauntlets, and everything else

glittered as beautifully as their pure wings.

Both angels looked at him and Dante in bed, but only one nose

crinkled at the smell of their sex. Angels were not accustomed to such
scents. Neither was Jeremy, but he didn’t think it was something to
wrinkle his nose over. At least the angel with the red-brown hair was
able to show a little more tact than his partner.

They were too polite to put their hands to their noses. They just

put the extra effort into their glares as they looked at Jeremy and
Dante.

“Come with us,” said the angel with the red-brown hair that fell to

his shoulders. He spoke first, which made him the leader between the
two.

Dante was frozen completely as he stared at the other angels in the

room, to the point where, when Jeremy attempted to pull away, he
couldn’t. Dante wasn’t softening his grip on him. If anything, his
fingers only tightened.

“Dante, you must let me go.”
His voice seemed to draw the other man out of it just enough for

Dante to start whipping his head between the two angels in his
doorway and Jeremy, who was still in his bed.

“Jesus Christ, you weren’t kidding.”
Of course he could see their wings and their armor. They weren’t

exactly using any of their powers to hide it, and their bodies pulsed
with power, so much so that there would be no way for Jeremy to

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fend them off with the little he had left.

Still, Dante’s words confused him. “You thought I was not telling

the truth?”

“Well, no, I believed you, but just…Christ.”
“Jeremy, rise, now,” commanded the angel once more. Though his

face was a stone mask now, it was clear to Jeremy that he was losing
his patience.

He put his hands over Dante’s, who still clutched at his shoulders,

and tried to gently pry them off. “Let me go, Dante,” he said softly.

Dante leapt from the bed and put himself between Jeremy and the

angels, seemingly unhindered by his nudity.

“Get out of my house.”
“Dante…”
“No! You’re not taking him.”
The two angels looked him over from head to toe. Jeremy

wondered if they could sense the demon blood within him now that
they were so close. Perhaps this meeting would help John’s cause, if
the council was forced to take his claims seriously.

“A new guardian will be provided to you. You have nothing to

fear,” the angel said, and Jeremy really needed to learn the man’s
name.

“I don’t want another one. I want him.”
The angel looked at him with a trace of interest.
Jeremy wished Dante wouldn’t be so difficult about it. He reached

for his pants and put his legs inside. A robe would be given to him
once he returned to Heaven, though he doubted he would be allowed
to wear his armor ever again.

“It’s not a matter of what you want, Dante. I broke the rules. I

need to be brought in.” He needed to be punished. No sense in telling
him that.

Dante whirled on him. “You’re just going to let them take you?

You won’t put up a fight or defend yourself? You’re going to leave
me?”

The Half-Breed Demon

“I have no choice,” Jeremy said, bristling a little at the accusation,

as well as fighting the soreness creeping into his throat. Couldn’t
Dante see that he didn’t want to go? After what they’d just done,
being taken away to be punished by the council was hardly the kind of
thing that he yearned for. Especially knowing that another guardian
would come, someone that Dante may or may not interact with.
Someone who could take Jeremy’s place.

“Then don’t let them take you!” Dante yelled, pointing a finger at

the men in his room as though they were vile intruders instead of
heavenly saviors.

Jeremy looked over Dante’s shoulder to the angels waiting for

him. They did not advance on him with shackles, but that was only
because they knew how weak Jeremy was. They wouldn’t need
shackles.

“Could I stay? If only for his sake?” Don’t make me leave.
The angels both shook their heads, as though they were of one

mind and did not need to think it over. “You are to come with us. You
broke the law.”

“It’s a law?” Dante asked, and he still kept himself between

Jeremy and the other angels. “What are they going to do to you?”

Jeremy wouldn’t answer him. He didn’t know what they would

do, but questions on John’s plans and whereabouts were likely to be
included.

He tried to walk past Dante to the angels who would take him

back to Heaven, but Dante seemed dead set on being stubborn.

Jeremy sighed. “Dante, please, at least allow me to go to my fate

with dignity.”

“What are they going to do to you?” Dante seethed.
“We will not kill him, if that is your concern,” said the second

angel in the room.

Perhaps they were taking Dante’s emotions into concern now that

they saw, and knew, what he was.

Even Jeremy could make out some of that dark cloud returning to

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hover around him. His mouth dropped just a little as he watched it
seep from his pores and surround his body like a small fog. His eyes
brightened, and at first Jeremy thought he might begin to weep, but
tears did not come. Red did.

No. He was certain that he’d taken it all out of him. How could

this be?

“Dante, please calm yourself,” Jeremy said, putting his hands on

Dante’s shoulders.

The fog did not dissipate, and Dante only scowled harder, though

he did not shrug him away. “You went to bed with me because you
thought that would make me happy? Didn’t you? Was that part of
your duty?”

“Of course not,” Jeremy said immediately, shocked that Dante

could think such a thing, but then he was stunned to realize that, yes,
that was exactly what he’d done, and Dante now knew it.

He could not lie about it. It would only serve to make this worse.

“I wanted to give you some of my energy. You take it in without
draining me like the use of my other powers will, but that was not the
only reason. I’m fond of you. You’re kind and noble. You were
willing to sacrifice yourself to save that child, and you accepted me
into your life so easily. No one has ever held me or looked at me the
way you do, and I was glad to be with you.”

Dante’s lips thinned as he stared down at Jeremy. The building

red behind his dark irises did not fully submerge back under those
nearly black depths, but it did fade.

Dante turned back to the other two angels in the room. “If you

take him, I’ll let the demons take me.”

“Dante!” Jeremy yelled, appalled.
Both angels stood there, and for the first time, their faces also

stretched with shock as their mouths fell. “You would do such a thing
to yourself? After the secrets he has just given you?” asked the angel
with the red-brown hair, though his voice sounded more thoughtful
than appalled.

The Half-Breed Demon

“He’s lying,” said the other, narrowing his eyes at Dante in

warning.

“You willing to risk that I’m not?” Dante demanded, showing his

teeth to the angels as he scowled at them. “You can’t kill me because
you know what I’ll become, and I can’t let the demons take me
because of what they’ll turn me into. Who’s to say that I won’t just
get fed up with all your otherworldly bullshit and end it all?”

Now Jeremy was angry. Dante was lying, he had to be. Even with

the cloud of evil that surrounded him, there was still enough of
himself in there to know better. He hoped.

The simple fact that Dante could say such things, threaten them,

was unthinkable.

“He’s too weak to properly protect you,” said the leading angel.

“He has hardly an ounce of his former powers left now that he’s used
them all on you. We can get another, more powerful angel to be your
companion. I can be at your side myself if that is what you wish.”

“I don’t want another companion and I don’t want you! Make him

stronger again if that’s what it’ll take!”

Jeremy thought he saw fire sparks erupt from Dante’s nose and

eyes. This was not going well. Soon, Dante’s threats would not be
empty, the evil would consume him, and he would carry them out if it
meant getting what he wanted.

“I only need a taste of ambrosia to regain enough of my powers.

Have another guard here with us if that will satisfy your commander,
and when this ends, after his birthday, I will come quietly.”

Dante growled at the birthday part of Jeremy’s speech, but

otherwise said nothing else.

The two angels looked at each other and then at Dante. They were

apparently having trouble deciding whether or not Dante was actually
telling the truth when it came to his threats. Jeremy also could not tell
for certain.

“Markus will stay here,” said the leading angel with the red-brown

hair. “I shall return home with this new offer, as well as an update on

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the…subject,” he said, watching Dante carefully. The angel then
nodded to his companion, and the other man turned and left the room.
Likely to guard the door to keep Dante from escaping.

“How long will it take you to get back?” Dante asked.
“Mere moments,” the angel said.
“How long?” Dante growled.
“Twenty minutes. Fifteen if he is quick.” Jeremy was torn

between hoping that the other angel was quick, simply so he would
have his answer on what was to be done with him as well as get some
of the ambrosia he was starving for, and dreading the angel’s return.

“That’s fifteen minutes that you don’t have to be in my bedroom,”

Dante hissed, and he marched forward to the other angel.

Jeremy tensed, and he was about to rush forward to keep Dante

from fighting the other man, but Dante merely shoved him back a step
and then slammed the door on his face.

The door cracked from the impact on the angel’s nose, but of

course, it didn’t harm him.

Then Dante’s red eyes turned to Jeremy, who swallowed past an

odd and painful lump in his throat.

The Half-Breed Demon

Chapter Ten

“I won’t let them take you,” Dante said. His voice felt raw, like

he’d spent the night in a screaming fit, but unless his memories were
messing with him, he hadn’t been doing that.

Jeremy stared at him with a somewhat apprehensive look on his

face, which was far from the relieved expression Dante would have
liked to see.

“That is not for either of us to decide, Dante.”
“No!” Dante yelled. The room felt sweltering hot around him,

probably because of how fast his heart was beating beneath his ribs. It
felt like there wasn’t enough air getting into his lungs. Maybe he was
having a panic attack.

After everything he’d seen and learned, that would make sense.
“You can’t just come into my life and make me feel this and then

walk away like nothing happened! You can’t tell me these things and
sleep with me and then not try and do something when someone
wants to take you away.”

“It’s not my choice,” Jeremy said.
“Bullshit,” Dante snapped back. “That is a load of fucking

bullshit. You didn’t even try to convince them. You would’ve gone if
I hadn’t done something, and I did, and now they’re going to go and
get another answer. They would’ve checked with a superior if you’d
just asked them to.”

“It’s not that simple. Dante, please calm yourself.”
“Why should I?” he yelled.
Jeremy pressed his lips together in a firm line, then he held out his

hand.

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“What?” Dante asked, looking down at the offered palm like it

might be holding a trap or something.

“Come with me,” Jeremy said.
He was still angry as all hell, but Dante put his hand into

Jeremy’s. That cleansing tingle shot through his hand, up his arm, into
his chest, and through his bones, making his nerve endings crackle
pleasurably.

He felt immediately better, but the anger was still with him.
Jeremy led him into the bathroom, and he saw in the mirror what

had the other man so afraid of him.

He nearly broke down at the sight of himself. Perhaps he would

have if Jeremy’s arm had not wound around his waist, keeping him
up. “Oh my God.”

“It will go away. Don’t worry,” Jeremy said, though not worrying

was the last thing that Dante thought he could do. “Just let the anger
leave you and it will go away.”

“Are you sure?” Dante asked. “I’ve never…I’ve never…” He

couldn’t even bring himself to talk about what it was that he saw or
what he looked like.

He’d never looked like this before, even when he was

experiencing some of his worse moods, and he didn’t see how it could
just go away.

It was like there was a fire under his skin, turning it a charred

black, with cracks similar to the dried-out lands in Africa marring
him, and each one glowed a bright red. So did his eyes. There were
twin bumps on either side of his forehead as well, and he would have
thought they were just oversized pimples, but when he touched them,
he could feel the sharp sting of pointed bone beneath.

He was growing horns.
“Jeremy.” The name was nearly a sob on his lips, and he felt

Jeremy’s pure arms wrap around his shoulders, drawing him closer
until Dante had his face pressed against the crook of Jeremy’s neck.

“It only looks so bad because we are close to the end of your

The Half-Breed Demon

cycle. Relax. You must relax or it will only get worse.”

“Don’t see how it can get any worse,” Dante said, squeezing

Jeremy with all the strength he had in him. He didn’t want to let the
man, angel, whatever he was, go. He wanted to feel that cool skin
pressed against his own for as long as possible, before Jeremy decided
that he was too hideous to touch and pulled away from him.

“How am I supposed to calm down when you want to leave?”
Those pale, strong arms tightened around him. Dante could feel

the strength in Jeremy’s fingers as he gripped him all the tighter.
“Please don’t say that. Of course I don’t want to leave.”

“Then don’t!” Dante pulled away just enough to take hold of

Jeremy’s cheeks, and he brought his mouth forward for a kiss before
the other man could realize what Dante was up to and try to escape.

He didn’t. Jeremy stayed where he was and allowed Dante to kiss

him, and Dante knew he wasn’t imagining the way those lips were
pressing back against his.

That cleaning inner light and tingle returned, and it intensified by

a thousand when Jeremy’s tongue reached out and gently licked along
the line between Dante’s lips.

Dante opened his mouth and suckled along Jeremy’s bottom lip

before opening to him entirely.

The light went behind his eyes, blinding him with its strength, and

the tingle passed all through his body, same as before. Through his
bones, his muscles, his nerves, and blood.

When Jeremy reached up to cup his cheeks, the skin there didn’t

feel so tight anymore, like he’d spent all day for several days in the
sun without any sunblock.

When he opened his eyes, the flashing spots of light were still

blinding, but after blinking several times, he was able to look over
and take note of the difference in his reflection.

The demon was gone. Dante was all that remained.
He sighed and smiled at Jeremy, hugging him tighter.
“It’s still in you,” he said, ruining the moment.

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“But I thought―”
“I know, and I wish I could erase it entirely from your body, but I

tried and it didn’t work. It’s too much a part of you.”

Dante’s spirit sank. “Do I have any chance at all?”
Jeremy’s hands tightened on him. “I know how these demons

work. You have battled them your entire life. It only seems worse
now because the demons are desperate to change you. They’re
running out of time, and you have been so strong thus far. Don’t give
in.”

Hearing those words of encouragement and praise was like

nothing that Dante had ever heard before in his life. Words like that
and the feelings they’d invoked had been hard to come by in his life,
and now that he had them in spades, he didn’t know how he was
expected to survive without them if Jeremy chose to leave.

“Come back to bed with me?” he asked, pulling Jeremy out of the

bathroom.

Jeremy seemed genuinely stunned, despite the smile, but he didn’t

resist and allowed himself to be led away. “Again? So soon?”

“I need you,” Dante said, wishing he could somehow make

Jeremy feel how much that was true. He needed Jeremy’s body, and
he needed him as a person to just be here, to stay.

When Jeremy said that no one had looked at him or held him the

way Dante did, well, he wasn’t the only one. No one had ever touched
or looked at Dante the way Jeremy did either.

He figured they had another ten minutes until that other angel

came back with news on whether or not Jeremy would be allowed to
stay or forced to go, and Dante wanted every second of those to count.
If the guy happened to come back whilst he was still inside of Jeremy,
well, they knew how to wait.

He took Jeremy slowly and deliberately this time, putting the

other man on his back so that he could feel Dante’s weight on top of
him as he thrust in and out of him. The way his eyes rolled up before
the lids closed, and how his mouth fell open, was absolutely beautiful.

The Half-Breed Demon

Dante kissed and touched him. He tried to memorize every indent

in the muscle, every scar―while wondering where they came
from―every curve of his body, and the exact salty taste of him as
Dante pressed his mouth to Jeremy’s lips, and his neck, and his chest.
Everywhere.

Jeremy held him tightly when it was over, running his fingers

through Dante’s hair and trailing his fingertips down his neck and
back. He kept his legs firmly locked around Dante’s waist, the ankles
crossed together, and he showed no signs of wanting to move.

For the first time, Dante felt the pain Jeremy felt. He sensed it in a

weird way that made absolutely no sense, but it was there. Maybe it
was the way the other man held him or how his body trembled
slightly as they kissed. Jeremy really didn’t want to leave him. It was
comforting and frightening all at once.

“I am an angel, Dante. I will fight to stay with you for as long as

you wish, but after your birthday, whether we like it or not, I will be
forced to return to Heaven. I have no choice, but if I did, that choice
would be you.”

Dante told himself the burn in his eyes was because of the inner

demons he was fighting and not because he was trying not to cry.

There was a hard knock on the other side of the door that made

the both of them jump out of their comfortable embrace.

Jeremy sighed, pushing himself into a sitting position. “That will

be them.”

“You said you would do whatever you could so they would let

you stay,” Dante reminded him, his eyes hard on the other man,
making sure he didn’t forget it.

Jeremy took his hand and pressed it to his heart. Dante wouldn’t

have thought angels would need hearts, but he definitely felt a strong
beating beneath his palm.

“I will get down on my knees and beg for their mercy if that is

what it will take,” he promised, “but I cannot fight them. They are
good, loyal angels. Even if I had the strength, it would be wrong of

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me to attempt to harm them.”

Dante wouldn’t have any such problems with harming them, but

there was nothing to be done for it.

He inhaled deeply, clenching his neck as another loud knock

penetrated the room and bounced off the walls.

“We’re coming!” he snapped, getting to his feet.
He would have liked to keep his hand linked to Jeremy’s while

they both dressed, but that was impossible. They came back together
when all was said and done, and together they moved toward the
door.

Both angels were there once more, and neither of them looked at

all happy.

Dante’s heart was fluttering around in his chest, and it made it

difficult for him to breathe. He thought it might give out just from the
palpitations he was getting, but he’d survived shit that was arguably
worse than this. He could do this.

Both angels looked grim, not at all like they had been when they

first came here in their determination to take Jeremy away from him,
and for the briefest of seconds, Dante allowed himself to feel hope.

“We have been given…new instructions,” said the leader, his

mouth twisting as though the words were sour on his tongue.

“New instructions?” Dante asked. “Can you clarify that?”
The angels didn’t glare at him for his lack of understanding, but

both were staring at Jeremy somewhat differently compared to before.

“It seems your commander, John, has made it well within

Purgatory, though he has sent one man back here to Earth.”

“He has? Who did he send away?” Jeremy asked.
“The one called Mathias. We are not entirely certain of the

reasons, whether it was because of the dangers of bringing anyone
into Purgatory or if they discovered the location of another supposed
general, it is unknown.”

Both angels turned to Dante. “His reaction toward you

complicates things, especially since you’ve made the decision to

The Half-Breed Demon

partake in coitus with him.”

Dante wouldn’t have described it so coldly, but maybe that was in

the nature of angels. Maybe they didn’t have sex at all.

The second that thought fluttered through his brain, his eyes

widened, and he tried his best to not look over at Jeremy and wonder
if he’d just taken the man’s virginity or not.

Jeremy seemed entirely focused on the two angels before him, like

they weren’t his potential jailers. “So, I will be allowed to stay?”

“For the moment.” The angel with the red-brown hair turned his

cold eyes onto Dante. “I am more than certain you lied to us earlier
and would not have killed yourself, but your attachment to him is
problematic. That will need to be dealt with.”

Good luck with that, Dante wanted to say. He didn’t want to push

his luck, so he kept his mouth shut and glared at the guy.

The angel then reached beneath his gleaming breastplate and

produced a single, small, and perfectly red apple. He handed it to
Jeremy, and the other man gladly took it like he was being offered a
diamond of about the same size.

“That should keep you sustained for a time. Please make an effort

to not use more power than you need to.”

Jeremy was already munching down on the apple like he hadn’t

eaten anything in days. It was one more thing that Dante was going to
have to ask him about.

“I won’t,” he promised between bites.
The angel snorted at him then wrinkled his nose again as he

looked behind them into Dante’s bedroom.

“How do you stand that smell?”
Dante bristled.
“It’s actually quite nice,” Jeremy said, eating all of the apple, even

the core and stem.

Both angels looked like they didn’t believe him. “Markus and I

shall remain close should you need more, but we have been given
strict orders to bring you in after all of this is finished. Proof of his

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connection to Hell has still yet to be determined.”

Dante blinked at that. “But, you saw what happened to me. How

could he be lying about that?”

Markus was the one to wave away the question, as though it were

inconsequential. “You could merely be possessed by a demon or even
be a half blood, as John and Jeremy insist that you are, but that hardly
means you are destined to become a general of Hell, and if such is the
case, then Jeremy did not have the right to reveal any secrets to you
and must still face a trial for his lack of judgement.”

Dante’s face went cold. A trial? Punishment? What the hell had

Jeremy gotten himself into?

The Half-Breed Demon

Chapter Eleven

The whole of that day, and all of Sunday, was spent in a kind of

agony for Jeremy, one that he’d never felt before in his very long life.

Dante did his best to make the most of their situation by keeping

them in bed for as long as possible, and while Jeremy enjoyed his
attention, as well as making Markus and the other angel
uncomfortable with the noises and smells they produced, he was still
on edge.

He could still recall with the best of clarity the hesitation on

Dante’s face when he asked if Jeremy had ever bedded anyone before.

At first Jeremy thought the man was staking a claim and would

enjoy the knowledge that Jeremy had no others that he knew of, but
his face had only paled before he swallowed hard.

“What is the matter? I thought this was preferred,” Jeremy said,

not understanding Dante’s reaction at all.

“For some people, but I’ve never been anyone’s first before. It just

feels kind of nice that you would pick me and adds some pressure to it
at the same time.”

“What do you mean?” Jeremy asked.
Dante’s face had then colored an amusing shade of scarlet. “I just

wouldn’t want you to regret it.”

Was that it? Jeremy smiled at his lover. He liked that word. Lover.

He could get used to that. “I could never regret you.”

Dante grabbed Jeremy around the neck again and pulled him close

for a kiss that seemed to go on forever and did not end until both were
moaning and moving together beneath the sheets of Dante’s bed.

Both seemed to be waiting for any more demon attacks on Dante,

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and every hour that passed with nothing happening only served to
twist their stomachs even more.

Dante asked more questions between periods of sex―and Jeremy

discovered that his favorite part of that was when Dante put his lips
around Jeremy’s cock―and Jeremy answered them to the best of his
ability, if only to keep their minds from wandering back to the more
difficult matters they had to eventually face.

Dante’s questions ranged from Heaven and Hell, what they looked

like and where they were, to more personal enquiries, such as
Jeremy’s favorite color and his true age.

Red was Jeremy’s favorite, but he did not know his own age. Not

really. It had been difficult trying to explain that to the other man.

“Is it bad that I kind of want the demons to come after me just to

prove to your friends you had a good reason to tell me those things?”
Dante asked. “I mean, if we prove to them that I am what you say I
am, then they can’t lock you up or punish you.”

“It’s not bad,” Jeremy said, dressing in the clothing that Dante had

offered him. It was now early Monday morning, and they were both
getting ready to go back to Dante’s office. “Perhaps a little stupid of
you, but I would hardly call it bad.”

“Thanks a lot,” Dante said, his voice flat.
Since Jeremy was now Dante’s unofficial guardian as far as the

powers that be were concerned, he was still required to conserve as
much of his energy as possible. Thankfully, sex with Dante didn’t
drain him, and he still had reserves from the ambrosia-filled apple
he’d eaten earlier. The other two angels were nowhere to be seen in
the house as he and Dante left for the day, but Jeremy was certain
they were around, somewhere, keeping an eye on them. They
certainly couldn’t allow themselves to be seen now that Dante and
Jeremy were going back out into the world.

Jeremy had to remind himself that he still had a mission to see to.

This was the last day before Dante’s birthday, and they still had so
much ground to cover before everything came to an end.

The Half-Breed Demon

Jeremy still had to find a way of convincing Dante, of making him

accept, that he had to let Jeremy go when the time came. So far, every
time Jeremy had attempted to bring it up, Dante had always changed
the subject or distracted him with sex. This could not go on.

They were in the car now, moving slowly with the morning

traffic, so there could be no distractions now. Dante might very well
attempt to change the subject, but Jeremy could not allow him to do
that.

“Dante, I know you do not wish to listen to this.”
“Let’s see what’s on the radio,” Dante said, casually leaning

forward to flip some lit, blue dials on the dashboard of his car. “This
will kill the silence in here.”

“It wasn’t silent. I need to speak with you.”
“No, you don’t,” Dante said, still pressing buttons expertly

without taking his eyes off the road.

“Please stop,” Jeremy said, putting his hand on top of Dante’s to

still his movements. He felt the way the other man tensed.

“You promised me,” Dante said, his voice low and just on the

cusp of angry.

“I did, and I will keep my promise and do whatever I can to stay

for as long as I can, but I am an angel, Dante. So long as there are
wings on my back, my place is not on Earth. I fear I would starve to
death here.”

He tried to say the last part with a smile and a laugh in his voice,

something to lighten the mood. Of course he wouldn’t starve, exactly,
but without the ambrosia to keep him sustained, he would waste
away.

“What time were you born?”
“What?” Dante looked at him. “My birthday’s tomorrow.”
“Yes, but at what time?” Jeremy asked.
Dante’s lips thinned. “My birth certificate says 12:01 a.m. Why?”

There was a heavy dose of suspicion in his voice.

So early? Jeremy could hardly believe they had so little time left

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together. That was barely more than sixteen hours.

“After that time passes, you will be safe from the demons who

have been haunting you. Even the higher-level demons will not be
able to attack you after that.”

“They’ve barely come near me at all since you showed up,” Dante

said.

“Yes, but this is not over. Are you certain you cannot simply work

from home today?” he asked. He didn’t like the idea of any demons,
little or not so little, coming to attack Dante while he was in the place
of business that he had worked so hard to build.

Dante’s hands gripped the steering wheel tightly, and his jaw

clenched. “I need to be there at least to show my employees that I am
there when they need me. I can tell them I’m sick, and you and I will
leave early after postponing my appointments.”

Jeremy liked the sound of that, and he nodded.
Dante sighed. “I guess I actually will have to offer Tiffany her job

back, if you’re not planning on staying.”

Jeremy winced. He really wished that Dante wouldn’t make that

sound like an accusation.

* * * *

John wiped the sweat from his brow and grabbed the ankle of the

demon knight that attempted to crawl away from him. He dragged it
toward him, lifted his fiery sword above his head, and slammed it
down onto the creature’s neck, severing the head.

The knight vanished in an explosion of black smoke and red

sparks. It was dead.

He straightened, checking on the rest of his squad. Kale was

finishing off a demon knight of his own, plunging the blue-flamed
sword he carried into the chest plate, and the demon shrieked and
vanished in much the same way as John’s had.

The swell of pride was impossible to push away. He had trained

The Half-Breed Demon

the man, so it was difficult to not feel a sort of inner victory over
Kale’s kill, as well as relief that he’d survived the battle.

Similar small explosions sounded off another four times before

the battle ended. They had won. They had killed all the guards, and
aside from some injuries, not a single one of them had paid the
ultimate price for John’s decision to come here.

He sent out a prayer of thanks for that much.
Luke and Daren had fought practically side by side, and of course,

Lana had stayed close to them. It kind of made John wish that Kale
had done the same. Then maybe he wouldn’t have that long gash
down his shoulder. John was going to have to get that seen to before
Kale got some kind of poisonous infection.

“You were right, they’re swarming around here like bugs,” Daren

said, attempting to wipe some black demon blood from his shoulder
but only smearing it. “They’re definitely hiding something here.”

“Do you think we’re getting close?” Kale asked.
John closed his eyes and inhaled the scent of burning. This was a

deeper sort of scent that was much more putrid than that of the demon
ash that was scattered around the ground.

Purgatory was a plain sort of place, consisting of mostly white and

pearl colors. There was gray fog everywhere, but the marble floors
were always impeccably clean, until now.

All he had to do was follow that stink and they wouldn’t get lost.

He had already sent Mathias to Earth after the man had taken out a
demon. It had been carrying around a sort of charm in the shape of a
wolf, and inside, like a locket, was the photo of a man.

At least the next general would be much easier for them to find

than the first had been.

“We’re getting close,” John said. “I can feel it. Everyone move

out. Kale, come here, I can treat your wound while we walk.”

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Chapter Twelve

Dante went through his work routine with about as much

enthusiasm as a robot, probably for the first time since he’d opened
his business, and that wasn’t good for work morale. He’d already
been asked by both of his employees whether or not he was feeling
well, and both times his answer was no, followed by a small glare.

Assuming he didn’t come out of this as some kind of demon

warrior hell-bent on the annihilation of Heaven, he was going to have
to apologize to them.

He was the boss, and he’d worked hard to be where he was, but

with only two other employees under him, it wasn’t like there was any
kind of excuse for him to behave the way he was. Not if he wanted to
keep the help he had.

He was pretty sure Dean and Jonas would forgive him for firing

Tiffany and showing up to work in a bad mood. Dante did his best to
not bring his demons to work with him, but whenever he did, his
employees seemed much better about it after he’d kissed their asses a
little. Hell, most of the time both men referred to him by his first
name. It wasn’t like Dante was so high up a chain of command that he
demanded they call him Mr. Moore.

Still, he attended his appointments, made conference calls, and

patched up projects he’d taken on with his mind somewhere else.

On the clock, for one thing, he now had less than twelve hours to

go before Jeremy was taken away from him forever. The other place
his mind kept on returning to was Jeremy himself. He was just on the
other side of that door, taking calls, booking appointments. He made a
surprisingly good secretary for a guy who’d only been on the job less

The Half-Breed Demon

than a full work day.

Dante had to get out of here, and he needed to take Jeremy with

him. What the hell had he been thinking, coming in when it might be
the last day he ever saw the other man?

He finished his call, made some last notes on his calendar, and

saved the file he’d been working on, then he grabbed his jacket off the
hook at the door before stepping out.

“We’re going,” he said, barely casting Jeremy a backward glance

as he moved for the glass doors of his office building.

Jonas was sitting in the lobby with a woman Dante had never seen

before. The man got up when it was obvious that Dante was about to
leave.

“Dante, this is―”
“You were right, Jonas, I’m not feeling well. I want you in charge

for the rest of the day. Can you handle it?” he asked, looking down at
the blonde woman and wondering if she was perhaps a client he was
supposed to be meeting with.

He could hear Jeremy’s footsteps behind him and sense the man’s

body heat, but he wasn’t standing that close to him. Maybe it was just
their reaction to each other? Didn’t matter. It was enough for him to
realize that he didn’t care if this woman was someone that Dante had
promised to meet with from last Christmas. His mission was to get the
hell out of here, with Jeremy, and nothing was going to get in the way
of that.

“Sure thing, Dante. He’s leaving, too?” Jonas asked, looking over

Dante’s shoulder at Jeremy.

“He’s going to drive me. Kind of dizzy right now, you know?

Will you be able to man the phones if he can’t come back?”

Jonas looked a little confused, but he nodded anyway. “Of course.

Dean and I should be able to finish our projects and take care of
things here.”

That was why he loved these guys.
“Thanks, I’ll make it up to you later.”

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“Take it easy,” Jonas said as Dante left the building.
Jeremy quickly moved to catch up to him and walk beside him. “I

don’t know how to drive a car.”

“That’s fine. I just needed to get out of there.” They turned the

corner into the back parking lot, and both of them stopped.

“What the fuck happened to my car?” Dante said, rage filling him

at the sight of the ruin that used to be his brand-new vehicle.

It looked like someone had smashed the entire hood down with a

dropped safe or something, but there was definitely nothing peeking
over the top. Broken glass was scattered all over the pavement, and
the tires, all four of them from what Dante could tell, were flat.

Not just flat, but shredded.
A strong hand gripped his upper arm. “We need to leave, Dante,

right now.”

Dante barely heard him. “I’m getting the security feed and finding

whoever the fuck did this.”

He was already pulling out his phone, getting ready to call the

police when some unseen force yanked the thing from his hand. It
smashed into the side of the car and broke into several little pieces of
glass and metal, like someone had taken it and thrown it like it was a
baseball and the car was the batter.

“What the―?”
“We need to go, Dante. Right now.” Jeremy was tugging at his

arm, and this time, he couldn’t entirely ignore him, especially when
the pavement of the parking lot began to give out.

No, not give out. There was a heavy stomping and a loud cracking

sound, as though a giant was walking right in front of them and
moving slowly toward them. An invisible giant that left its heavy
footprints in the pavement.

Dante didn’t need any other incentive than that. He and Jeremy

locked hands and ran back the way they came. Something loud and
birdlike shrieked after them, and then the heavy feet crashing into the
pavement stomped after them.

The Half-Breed Demon

“What is it?” Dante yelled. He sure as hell hadn’t seen whatever it

was. Maybe Jeremy had.

“I don’t know!”
They made it back to the front of the street, but Dante’s relief was

squashed when he realized there would be no sanctuary here for them
with the number of people who were going about their day.

Everything was silent and still, like someone had hit the pause

button on the whole street. People were frozen in midstep with their
phones to their ears. Cars were jammed together on the road, and
while several people did have the look of angry and rage-filled
drivers, there was no honking of horns or even the sound of so many
engines running and exhaust being pumped out the back.

There was even a woman on the other side of the street who

looked like she was trying to yell at the man writing her a ticket for
the car she had parked in a no-parking zone, but their faces were just
as still as everyone else’s.

Dante looked behind himself real quick to stare through the glass

of his building. The same thing in there. Dean was pouring a cup of
coffee for that woman who’d come in, but the black liquid was frozen
in midair before it could make it inside of the mug.

“Jesus Christ,” Dante said.
“Yeah,” Jeremy agreed.
Only then did Dante realize that the angry roar and giant, heavy

footsteps were no longer following them. With the silence that was
out here, he was pretty sure he would have noticed something like
that.

“What do we do?” Dante asked.
Jeremy had said something like this might happen, that the

demons might get desperate to transform him now that the final hour
was nearly on hand. He’d joked that he’d wanted to see something
happen, just so Jeremy could have proof for his superiors that he was
breaking their laws for a good reason. Now he was scared.
Goddammit, he hated to admit it, but he didn’t want to be turned into

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a demon general that would attack and kill anyone it could find in
Heaven. Including Jeremy.

Jeremy squeezed his hand in what Dante took to be a reassuring

way. Then he stepped forward and looked up at the gray sky.
“Markus! Are you there? We need help.”

He was calling to the other angels who’d said they would help

keep watch over them. Dante never thought he’d be glad they’d come
down to Earth to begin with.

“Are they just going to fly down and get us?” Dante asked.
“Possibly,” Jeremy replied, which Dante took to mean that he

wasn’t sure.

Then he pointed his finger to the sky. “There!”
Dante looked up, and he had to squint against the sun and shield

his eyes with his free hand, but he did see what it was that Jeremy
wanted him to see.

There was a black dot in the sky, almost directly above them. It

seemed far away at first, but then grew steadily closer and closer,
until Dante could make out dark hair and white, shimmering wings.

“That’s Markus, right?” Dante asked, still having trouble seeing

against the sun. The world might’ve stopped spinning for a minute,
but the sun was as bright as ever.

Dante couldn’t wait for the angel to hurry up and get down here

before whatever it was that was behind his office building decided to
come back and kill the both of them.

“Yes, but something’s wrong,” Jeremy said, then his eyes went

wide. “He’s falling!”

Jeremy released Dante’s hand and started pulling off his shirt and

jacket until his chest was naked. The wings appeared there, much
easier to see now compared to the first times when Dante had caught
sight of them, but there was something different this time. They didn’t
have the exact same look as before, and it wasn’t something Dante
could put his finger on until Jeremy nearly fell backward and Dante
had to catch him.

The Half-Breed Demon

Jeremy ended up falling right on top of him, nearly crushing him

with his weight. It was almost as if he’d put on an extra two hundred
pounds overnight.

“Christ! What’s wrong with you?” Dante yelled, trying to get

Jeremy off of him before he had all the air crushed right out of his
lungs.

Jeremy’s voice sounded like he was experiencing something

similar. “My wings! They feel like they’re made of rock!”

The angel falling from the sky must’ve been experiencing some

similar problems, because he didn’t straighten out and land gracefully
on his feet.

The hood of the car he crashed into, the entire car itself, smashed

in a downward motion that shattered the glass and twisted the metal
and plastic. The car even jumped a little before coming to a rest on its
squealing tires. No doubt the frozen person inside who had been
driving was also dead, but somehow Dante doubted that all that blood
was coming from one person. He hadn’t known angels could bleed,
too.

“Jeremy,” Dante said, not knowing what he wanted to say.
Jeremy managed to wriggle to the side so that Dante could slide

out from beneath him, but it was still a pain in the ass to get out from
under those heavy wings. Jeremy hadn’t been kidding. It felt like they
were both trapped under cement.

He finally managed to free himself, and he had to give Jeremy

both of his hands, but even then he was barely able to help him sit up,
let alone get back to his feet.

“When did this happen to you?”
“I don’t know,” Jeremy seethed, and then his eyes seemed to

widen just a little. “And I can’t make it go away either!”

“How could you not notice when something like that happens?”

Dante touched the wings, and though they looked soft and gentle, they
were hard and rough against his fingers. “I think I’d notice if someone
dumped a ton of cement onto my arms.”

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Jeremy only glared at him in response.
“We need to get out of here,” Dante said.
“You’ll have to leave without me.”
“What?”
“Oh yes! Leave without him!”
They both turned their heads up in time to see the second angel,

the one who had been in command of Markus, descend from the sky
at a leisurely pace, as though his friend wasn’t squashed against a car
right beneath his feet.

He must have known, because the bastard actually landed on the

ruined car gently enough to keep from making so much as another
piece of glass fall out of the windshield. His sandaled feet kept well
out of the way of any blood that was dripping all over the place.

Dante wanted to hit the guy. “What the hell are you doing? Help

him!”

The angel pulled a sword that Dante hadn’t even seen before from

a sheath on his hip. It glowed with bright red-and-orange flames, and
the formerly soft eyes of the angel also turned red.

Panic returned to Jeremy’s voice once more. “Dante, run. Now,

go!”

He couldn’t run. Dante felt as frozen as the people around him,

even when the angel pointed his sword and Jeremy began to scream at
him.

At the last second, the angel angled the sword just enough so that

it was pointing at Jeremy, and something actually blasted from the tip,
striking him and making him scream with pain now instead of anger
at Dante.

“No!” Dante finally managed to find his feet, and he charged at

the angel. He was so tall and big, especially because of the way he
was standing on top of the car. The only thing Dante could do was
grab at his ankles and hope to throw the man off balance.

The angel kicked his foot out instead, catching Dante in the face

and sending him flying backward. He landed painfully on his back

The Half-Breed Demon

next to Jeremy, and he swore he thought he heard something crack
when he landed.

At least the guy had stopped hitting Jeremy with whatever it was

that he was using to torture him.

It had looked like fire, but it couldn’t be fire because Jeremy’s

face wasn’t burned black.

There were little wisps of smoke that snaked from his hair and

skin. Maybe angels were just a little more impervious to real fire.

“What are you doing?” Dante asked.
“Run,” Jeremy said again.
Dante reached out and took his hand and squeezed it tightly as

though that would keep them together. Even if he had to slowly drag
Jeremy out of here himself, he wasn’t about to leave the other man
behind.

Maybe Jeremy saw that in his eyes, because his face twisted with

despair.

“Watching the both of you interact gave me all sorts of ideas,” the

angel said, drawing their attention back to him.

Dante was shocked―though he didn’t know why, considering all

the things he’d seen of late―to watch as the man’s larger body
seemed to melt down, the skin becoming paler, softer, the hair
lengthening and making a transformation of its own from red-brown
to straight, golden blond hair with red highlights.

The angel transformed into a woman, but she was not an angel.

The strange thing was her choice of clothing. It was like she’d
dropped off at a cheap Halloween store and picked up the first devil
costume she came across.

The skintight, red, one-piece spandex suit left absolutely nothing

to Dante’s imagination. She even had little red horns growing out
from the top of her head, but judging from the thin red tail that waved
around at the back of her ass and ended in the classical devil spike, he
was willing to bet that the horns were real.

“You’re a demon?” Dante asked.

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“Annabel,” Jeremy hissed.
They knew each other, it seemed.
Annabel waved with a big smile on her bloodred lips. “Hello,

sugar. Thanks for wrapping him up for me. It was a pain in the ass
trying to make some of the guards think that I was an angel, but
letting go of that little trick will be more than worth it now that
you’ve given me the first general.”

Annabel jumped neatly off the car and landed on her red high

heels like it was the most normal thing in the world.

“Stay away from me!” Dante yelled, bolting upright.
Then he screamed and fell back down at the horrific pain in his

back. Maybe he hadn’t been imagining that crack he’d heard after all.

“Dante, what’s wrong?” Jeremy asked, squeezing his hand when

all Dante could do was breathe hard through his mouth.

“Can’t move.”
He gasped out a pained breath when that Annabel woman pressed

her foot down, with extra pressure from the sharp heel, onto his chest.

“Remove yourself from him!” Jeremy demanded. He managed to

get back to a sitting position, but Annabel kicked him back down as
well.

“He’s mine, angel. You had your chance, and you failed. I’ll let

you tell John that for me.”

“Fuck you!” Jeremy spat and tried to get up once more. He

screamed a little through his teeth when she pushed him down so
easily. “What did you do to me?”

She smiled sweetly down at him. “You really should not accept

candy from strangers. Didn’t anyone ever tell you that?”

The apple. Jeremy had explained it to him when Dante had asked

about it. The fruit that grew in Heaven was filled with something
called ambrosia, and it was the thing that kept angels in the shape they
needed to be in order to live and fight. That was why none of the food
that Dante had given him had really helped him, but it had been
Annabel, when she’d been disguised as an angel, to get and grab the

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fruit.

Clearly, what she’d given to Jeremy was not what it had seemed.

She’d probably plucked it from a tree in Hell for all he knew.

Annabel looked down at their joined hands and kicked them apart

with that evil, pointed shoe of hers.

Jeremy screamed in rage, and Dante screamed in pain as he was

sure some of the bones in his hand were now broken.

Jeremy shrieked at her even more when she grabbed Dante by his

ankle and began dragging him away, like he was made of straw
instead of a healthy two-hundred-pound man.

Annabel didn’t take him very far, only a few feet away, enough

that Dante could no longer see or reach for Jeremy, then she dropped
his leg and leaned down until their noses were practically touching.
“You’re mine now, little prince,” she said.

“Fuck you,” Dante said. “I know how this works. You’re never

getting me to agree to be a demon.”

A long fingernail, red, of course, and as long and sharp as an

icepick, made little circles at his throat. “There’s always something,
and you both gave me the best idea. Really, I was starting to get
worried, and I just needed a little time to let my poison sink in.”

“Poison?”
“For the wings,” she deadpanned, then quickly got up off of him

and moved to where he couldn’t see, to Jeremy.

Jeremy’s screams were loud, striking through the silent air and

slamming into Dante’s heart. It was the worst sort of torture because
he couldn’t see what she was doing to him.

“Stop it! Stop it!” he yelled, twisting and turning against the pain

in his neck and back to try and see, to just get a look. Maybe if he
could just catch a glimpse of Jeremy’s eyes…

There was a ripping and popping sound that was so grotesque and

loud that it cut its way through Jeremy’s screams.

Annabel came back with something in her arms. From his

peripheral vision, he thought she might be carrying a small body, but

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then she was within sight, and she dropped the bloody wing next to
his face.

Dante wanted to puke. He closed his eyes and looked away from it

instead, but there wasn’t anything he could do about the scent of
blood.

Annabel smiled wickedly at him. “He has another wing that I can

take off, you know.”

He thought about it. God help him, but he was actually thinking

about it.

“Dante!” Jeremy’s yell was strong and angry. “If you agree to

anything she says, I swear in His name I will never forgive you! Do
you hear me?”

He heard all right. That didn’t change the fact that he was thinking

about handing over his body and soul to become a demon general.

“Maybe you just need a little more convincing. Don’t worry, we

have lots of time by ourselves. This place we’re in, in between time,
none of the other angels, the real ones, will find you here.”

She walked away and out of Dante’s sight, and Jeremy’s screams

were all Dante had to focus on as she tortured his lover.

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Chapter Thirteen

Jeremy tried sending out any sort of distress signal he could to get

the attention of the angels. The real angels. Someone had to be up
there watching this, but he couldn’t find anyone. He couldn’t sense
anyone who might come down to save them.

Annabel had been right. She had them in some place in between

time. It was almost like there was a shield around him and Dante,
blocking them from the outside world. Jeremy tried to focus, to get
past it, but he could hardly get past the pain in his body or the sounds
of Dante’s screams.

Whatever was in that apple that Annabel had given him was

definitely not ambrosia as he’d once thought. No, this substance was
something that only made him feel rejuvenated, gave him enough
power to function, but its real purpose was to ground him. It made his
wings useless and his body more susceptible to the pain he felt, and
he felt much of it.

Annabel threw his other torn-off wing near Dante when she

finished with it. It landed like heavy rock, and from the sound of it,
broke apart that way, too.

“I’ll take a leg off next. Would you like that?” Annabel asked,

reaching down to grab on to one of Jeremy’s ankles.

A spike of fear lanced through him at the thought that she would

actually rip him apart just to force Dante to become a demon. Hell,
there was still more than eleven hours left to go before his thirtieth
birthday, and whether or not any time that passed in this place
counted was something that Jeremy would not put his hopes in.

If she killed him, then she would have nothing left with which to

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inflict this mental torture onto Dante. The demons that attacked him
all his life never went out of their way to harm Dante, not really. They
needed his body in good condition for what they planned. Annabel
could torture Jeremy to death, but she could never really do these
things to Dante.

Jeremy had to allow himself to die. He had to let go of this life

and go back to Heaven. He would go into the light and no longer be
an angel and would not be able to help Dante. He didn't know what
would happen to him really. Humans were not permitted to know
their fates after death, and it was the same with angels. But he was no
longer an angel now, so where would he go?

It didn't matter. Only with Jeremy’s death would Dante be free of

this place, and the next eleven hours would pass in the presence of
angels who would protect him, so much better than Jeremy had.

He had to let Dante know that this wasn’t hurting him as much as

it really was.

Annabel was still leaning over Jeremy’s body, his leg in her grasp

as she looked over his shoulder and yelled at the man she wanted to
make a general out of.

“Pathetic! You won’t even lift a finger to save your lover!”
Jeremy reached up with a tired hand. With his wings removed, his

body was no longer nearly as heavy as it had once been, but he
remained weak, and there was blood on his fingers when he tapped
her on top of her head.

She looked up at him, and he smiled at her, making sure his voice

was loud enough to be heard. “Do you really believe that this tickling
contest will work? You worthless demon bitch, I am so much stronger
than you.”

And to finish off, just because he could and he knew it would

enrage her, he spat in her face.

She shrieked to high hell, clawing at her own face to remove the

bloody glob and then clawing at him.

He bit down on the inside of his cheek when her fingernails

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105

burned into his skin, taking away strips of his cheeks, neck, forehead,
everywhere she could get at. He would not scream, not even when he
feared that she would tear his eyes out. He would not scream.

Then she grabbed his arm, twisted it in a specific way and brought

her hand down hard against his elbow, breaking it. He had to scream
then. He could not contain it.

When he came down from the fog of agony, he couldn’t help but

wonder. What was wrong with him? He felt more pain after eating the
poison apple, to be sure, but this was something he’d never before
experienced. This was beyond what any evil and magical apple should
be able to do to him.

He opened his eyes, grateful that he could still use them to see,

and felt the sensation of being dragged. His broken arm flared and
complained, and Jeremy cried out, but of course, Annabel held no
sympathy for him.

She kicked something out of her path, moved forward a little

more, and then dropped Jeremy directly beside Dante. Annabel
crouched down beside the both of them, and with one hand on both of
their heads, she forced them to look at each other.

Dante sobbed at the sight of him. “Oh God.”
Did he really look that bad?
“God is not here. Do not count on him to save you. Save yourself

and him. Agree to come with me and this will end.”

“I’ve taken worse than this, Dante,” Jeremy lied. Inside he wished

he would lose consciousness, or die, and it was a battle to not sob
over the pain. “Don’t do it.”

Dante squeezed his eyes shut, but he would not turn away. When

he opened them again, a new light seemed to shine in his eyes, some
sort of determination that made Jeremy hopeful.

Dante turned to Annabel. “You have to promise to stop hurting

him.”

Jeremy tried to move, but Annabel took him by the hands, even

the hand that was connected to his broken arm, and stretched them

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above his head.

No amount of biting down on his lip could keep the pained yell

from escaping him. Pained because of the unforgiving jolts to his
broken arm, but also because Dante was actually going to do what
Annabel wanted him to do.

“Don’t you dare do it!” Jeremy yelled, focusing all the pain and

anger into his voice, and if he sounded more determined because of it,
well, all the better for him. “Dante, do you hear me? Don’t you dare!”

“Boring little whining…” Annabel muttered, reaching down and

taking hold of Dante’s belt. She managed to yank the thing off of him
without hardly any problems, and then she gagged him with it,
keeping the buckle tight behind his head.

“Look at us, sweetheart,” Annabel said, speaking to Dante now in

such a soothing voice that, had Jeremy not known who she was, he
wouldn’t have thought she was the enemy. “Tell me what I want to
hear.”

He looked over at the both of them. Jeremy glared at him, if only

to keep trying to convey that he shouldn’t be doing this.

He must not have been getting the message across, because Dante

swallowed hard. “You have to promise to let him go first, alive. You
have to stop hurting him, too, and you don’t get to sic me on him later
when I’m a demon.”

Jeremy noted the pulsing vein twitching beside Annabel’s eye.

“Anything else?”

Dante thought about it. “I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
It wasn’t a bad thing to ask for, even though Jeremy knew that

Annabel couldn’t do it.

“You’ll be a demon general, sweetheart. I can give you the last

little bits that you ask for, but not that. It’ll kinda be in your job
description,” she said, confirming Jeremy’s thoughts.

Dante blinked away the moisture in his eyes and swallowed hard.

“Okay.”

Jeremy struggled, but Annabel tightened her grip on his hands,

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increasing the pain he’d nearly forgotten about in his broken arm
while still pressing his raw back down against the hard pavement.

“Okay?” Annabel asked.
“I’ll do it,” Dante said. “Let him go and I’ll do it.”
Annabel was off of Jeremy in an instant, but he still found he

could barely move. His injuries were what kept him grounded now.

“That was much too easy,” Annabel said, sneering down at Dante

with her hands on her slim hips. It almost looked like she was
disappointed in him.

Jeremy kind of was, too, but not for the same reasons.
“All it takes is one person to show you a little love for once in

your miserable life and you fold like we were playing a game of
poker.”

“Heal him,” Dante demanded, but his voice was no longer his

voice. It was rougher now, and Jeremy could smell sulphur in the air,
that same evil smell that had alerted him to the presence of demons in
Dante’s house.

He turned his head as much as he could, just to catch a glimpse of

the two people beside him.

Dark gray smoke was wrapping around them, but it wasn’t

coming from Annabel or some other demon that had arrived. It was
coming directly from Dante’s body. His eyes were red again, and the
cracks in his skin were back and glowing as hot as ever. Sharp horns,
the same as the ones that hadn’t quite pierced his skin before, slowly
punctured the flesh on his forehead. They grew out in a hook sort of
shape, reminding Jeremy of heavy thorns on a rose bush.

His vision blurred from the smoke in his eyes, and he had to blink

several times to clear them.

It wasn’t just the smoke. He was crying. Jeremy had one mission,

an easy one, really. Protect Dante for three days. He’d failed.

“That wasn’t in our bargain,” Annabel said.
“You can’t leave him like that! He’ll die! I said you couldn’t leave

him for dead!” Dante shrieked, more and more of that demon sound

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entering his voice until it was hardly human at all.

“You told me to leave him alive. That’s what I’m doing. He may

or may not be dying, but that’s of no consequence to me.”

Jeremy certainly felt like he was dying, and there was nothing he

wanted more than to slip into that dark abyss and let death take him
when Annabel took hold of Dante’s red form, just as his body began
to grow and burst through his clothing, and vanished from his sight.

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Chapter Fourteen

There were lights everywhere, and for a moment, Jeremy did

think he’d died. The voices sounded far away, as though through a
tunnel, but then the pain returned to him with full force, and the light
became a stabbing annoyance behind his eyes.

No. He couldn’t be dead. Jeremy could not recall his own death so

many years ago, but he knew that if he’d died and was becoming one
of the many souls who went to Heaven, then pain was the last thing he
should be feeling.

The lights flashed, then horns sounded, or something that sounded

like horns. Very long and drawn-out horns.

Kind of like it came from an ambulance.
Jeremy’s eyes snapped open, and a flashlight came down and

made him want to shut them again.

“He’s awake!” someone yelled. A pair of fingers pulled his eyes

back open so that the wretched light could blind him again.

“You’re going to be all right, sir. Just let us see.”
“My boss was with him. He was supposed to be giving Dante a

ride home. We didn’t see how this happened.”

That sounded like Dean. Great. Annabel put Jeremy back in the

normal world just in time for everyone to see him and call the
authorities, and he didn’t have the energy to wipe their minds or make
them all think they were seeing something else. Not this many people.
Not even one person.

There were so many people as well, and his back still hurt. He

turned his head as much as he could to see what was going on.

“Don’t move. Don’t move,” the paramedic said, but Jeremy

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wouldn’t listen.

The car that the other angel had crashed into was still bloody and

squished, and the glass from the windows was still in thousands of
pieces all over the ground, but there was no sign of the angel who’d
crashed into it.

Jeremy couldn’t see his wings anywhere either. Maybe they’d

turned into dust and been carried away by the wind. Maybe Annabel
took them with her as a gift or souvenir. He wasn’t sure, and he didn’t
care either.

He shifted his body, the forgotten pain flaring in his arm, and he

grunted. Someone had taken the belt out of his mouth.

He really was human then. Otherwise his broken arm would have

set itself by now, regardless of whatever poison Annabel had fed him.

The gentle hand of the paramedic went down onto his chest in an

attempt to keep him still. “Don’t move. We’re still patching you up.
Can I get a gurney over here?” the man shouted behind him.

“I got it.”
Jeremy’s eyes snapped open at the sound of the familiar voice. He

wanted to cry. Mathias. He was cloaking himself so that it looked like
he was wearing another paramedic uniform, and he stared down at
Jeremy with a kind smile on his face.

Annabel, while she’d been disguised as an angel, had mentioned

something about John sending a man down. He’d thought she was
tricking him, after he learned the truth about her, but now that he had
a friend here, he didn’t quite feel so alone and helpless.

“Let me help you,” Mathias said.
The human paramedic barely spared him a glance as he wrapped

something stiff around Jeremy’s neck and arm. Though he was pretty
sure he didn’t need the neck brace, the one on his arm was more than
welcome.

They put him on the gurney, lifted it, and then carried him to an

ambulance.

“Matt,” Jeremy said, his voice sounding the roughest he’d ever

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heard.

“Shh, speak later,” he replied.
They loaded him into the ambulance, and Mathias looked at the

other paramedic. “I’ve got this. You stay with the others.”

Jeremy’s heart fell a little at that. He’d forgotten that someone

was likely dead in that squashed car. Had there been anyone else
inside? A child maybe that he couldn’t see? He couldn’t remember
much.

Without asking any questions, the paramedic promptly turned

around and got out of the back of the ambulance.

Mathias closed the doors, punched the roof, and Jeremy felt the

rumble of the engine and the road as they drove away.

Mathias was kneeling beside him quickly, and he put his hands on

Jeremy’s chest. “I―I don’t think I can give you your wings back,” he
said, sounding unsure of himself.

Jeremy doubted that he could. Mathias would be able to use some

of that energy of his for healing, but he couldn’t make angels out of
humans.

“That’s all right. I need to find Dante.” Already Jeremy could feel

the soothing, cool energy flooding through his body. The bones in his
arm were being knit back together, and the pain was no longer
throbbing quite so much in his back, until eventually, that too left.

Mathias was more suited to healing people with his energy, but

Jeremy would hardly be surprised if he were to look in a mirror and
see large and deep scars where the bones of his wings used to be.

They were gone now, and he couldn’t dwell on it.
Mathias took the neck brace off of him, as well as what had been

put around his arm, and Jeremy sat up.

“I need to find Dante,” he said again. “Where did Annabel take

him?”

“Likely into Hell to show him his new castle, but I don’t know. I

was not able to follow their signatures after they left.”

Jeremy would not allow himself to fall into self-pity. If Dante was

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lost to them, then it was no one’s fault but his own. “Is there nothing
we can do to bring him back?”

Mathias’s lips came together in a thin line as he thought it over.

“John would know more about that, but I cannot go to him now. Not
with him so deep into Purgatory. Even then, there would be no telling
if he would know for certain.”

“But there must be something. What time is it? His birthday is not

for another several hours at least.”

Mathias told him the time, and Jeremy clung to it like it was the

last thread of hope he had left.

It really was.
“We have more than nine hours. If I could just see him―”
“Jeremy, you have no wings, and I cannot take you into Heaven or

Hell like this. You can no longer go to those places without death
taking you. There is nothing for you to do.”

Jeremy winced. Mathias did not speak those words with a cruel

tone, but they were still a reminder that he had failed in his mission.
Dante was gone, and unless Jeremy could find some way of breaking
the spell the demons had on him, he would be lost forever.

“If I could only see him. I’m sure there would be something I

could do. Even fallen angels retain some of their power and grace.
I’m sure I could cleanse him.”

One of Mathias’s thick, dark eyebrows rose up at Jeremy’s words.

“Why would you believe that the little power you have left would be
able to cleanse him when the full power of other angels would do
nothing?”

Jeremy’s cheeks heated, and his fingers clenched into fists over

his knees. “He and I became lovers.”

Mathias’s eyes widened, and for a few brief seconds, he did not

speak. “Lovers. As in the human term?”

“I’m pretty sure the idea is the same no matter what term you

think of it in,” Jeremy said, unable to help the sarcasm that crept into
his voice.

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“Of course, but I―ah.” Now Mathias’s face was the one to turn a

bright red, as though he didn’t know what to say to such a thing.
Finally, he took in a deep breath. “I suppose if you are to save a lost
soul, there is no better weapon than love.”

It warmed Jeremy to know that Mathias thought love had

something to do with it. It did, and Jeremy was in love with Dante,
and he was fairly certain the other man felt the same, but he was glad
that his comrade was not looking down on his and Dante’s union as
merely something they had done for the sake of pleasure. Angels who
took lovers and felt no love tended to be cast out. Jeremy had never
heard of what happened to the ones who did such things when love
was involved.

“Annabel used me to force Dante’s hand. She tortured me until he

agreed to go with her to make her stop. He screamed when she
refused to heal me, even when his demon half took over. He did not
kill himself or another innocent, so he can’t be under the full control
of his inner demon. I know he will listen to me.”

“But you are human now,” Mathias said, rubbing his chin and

looking him over. Jeremy hadn’t known the man long, but he could
tell when he was thinking about something.

“I cannot take you into Hell as you are, nor into Heaven, but

perhaps we can convince the demon―Dante,” he corrected himself
quickly on Jeremy’s glare. “Convince Dante to come back to Earth.”

“What if he has already gone into Heaven to wage war?” Jeremy

asked.

Mathias sighed. “Without the aid of the other generals, despite all

of his power, the other angels will overthrow him and kill him. We
should pray that he hasn’t broken away from Annabel’s influence just
yet.”

* * * *

Dante ripped the wings out of another attacking demon before

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grabbing it by its throat and throwing it down onto the hot, dirty stone
that made up the ground in Hell.

He lifted his hideous red foot―even the claws were red―and

brought it down hard onto the demon’s face.

The bone and horns and flesh crunched down, like Dante had

stomped on him with a heavy pair of steel-toe boots instead of his
bare feet. Black demon blood spattered everywhere, as though the
head were a popped water balloon or something.

That was the tenth demon he’d taken out, and he wasn’t even

panting for breath yet. He was powerful, and he was angry.

Annabel clapped her hands and cheered for him gleefully from the

sidelines, a giant bowl of popcorn in her lap as she pumped her fist
into the air and told him what a good job he was doing.

He didn’t care. “Give me another!” he yelled in a voice that was

not his own. He circled around the wide space the other demons had
given him to fight, but no one else stepped forward to fight him. If
anything, the fighting ring had widened now that pretty much all in
attendance were convinced that he was the real deal and not simply
claiming he had advanced powers that they did not.

“I want another! Give me another!” Dante screamed. All he could

think about was the look on Jeremy’s face when he agreed to become
this thing that he now was, as well as the glazed look in his eyes when
Annabel took Dante by the hand and vanished with him.

He was alive. He had to be. Dante hadn’t been smart enough to

ask for the healing, but he had demanded that Jeremy be alive when
they left, so there was still the chance that he was okay. Still a chance.

“Give me another!” Dante roared, now turning on Annabel,

stalking toward her. He would fight her if it meant getting what he
wanted.

Someone who could take him long enough to get a few painful

punches in. Dante wanted them. He wanted to be hurt. He wanted that
feeling in his chest to go away.

Annabel knocked the popcorn off her lap and danced out of the

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way. She didn’t have that same cocky smile on her red lips that she’d
had before. She was wary of him now. As she should be. Dante had
yet to test the theory out, but he was pretty sure that, if he really tried,
he could kill her. She was a higher-ranking demon in Hell, but he was
one of the fabled generals.

“You want another fight? Okay, take this one.”
Annabel reached her hand out and made a fist. There was a roar

from within the crowd of demon onlookers, and everyone stepped out
of the way as something that resembled an enormous man with the
head of an ox was pulled in from the crowd and dragged forward by
an invisible hand. Annabel’s invisible hand.

The creature was twice the size of Dante, even in this new form,

and the noise it made was so familiar, but it still took him a second to
place it.

When he did, he saw red. Literally. This creature was the same

invisible thing that had trashed his car and chased him and Jeremy out
into the street where Annabel was waiting for them with her trap.

This was better. He’d wanted to kill Annabel before, but now that

he had this, he figured he could put that off for a little while longer.
She was training him on how to properly use his powers, so he did
still need her. At least for a little while longer.

The ox demon, forced into the ring with him, stopped staring at

him like a scared dog as it snorted through its giant nostrils, its eyes
glowing red, and then it roared at him before charging.

Dante allowed it to come at him. He braced for the impact and

spread his arms out, catching the creature as it slammed into his chest.

It was like there was nothing charging at him at all. There was no

contest, and Dante wasn’t even pushed back as though the weight of
the creature in his arms meant nothing to him at all.

He wanted to kill them all. He hated all of them. They put him

here so he was going to punish every single one of them!

He hooked his arms beneath the creature’s neck and lifted it up

high until the demon’s legs were up in the air. It snorted and

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struggled, but there was nothing to be done about it as Dante slammed
the creature’s head down onto the hard stone. A resounding crack
echoed through the endlessly dark chamber they were in, and he
doubted that sound came from the stone floor.

The body fell lifelessly to the ground, and black blood pooled

around the horned head. It wasn’t enough. It wasn’t goddamned
enough!

He turned his angry eyes back to Annabel as she jumped up and

down like some kind of overzealous cheerleader.

He started walking toward her again.
She stopped jumping up and down as he approached, and then she

ran to him. She jumped into his arms like she belonged there, putting
her arms around his swollen neck and hooking her legs up until he
was carrying her bridal style.

“That was amazing, but you’re still hungry for more, aren’t you?”
He shook his head, trying to banish away the sugary sweet sound

of her voice. “You’re…you’re trying to manipulate me,” he said.

“But you want this. I know you do.” She leaned up just a little,

until her breath was at his ear, her teeth nipping. “You’ve always
wanted this. Even your dear daddy saw what you were. That’s why
that ungrateful prick tried to kill you. Poor baby, you were only a little
dear at the time, weren’t you?”

“Stop it,” Dante demanded, gripping her so tight that she should

have been hurt, but she only seemed to thrive on the crushing pain
that he was no doubt inflicting.

“Grabbed a knife and tried to slice your throat when you were just

a boy. On your birthday, too.”

It had been so long ago, but Dante would never forget that day or

the look in his old man’s eyes as he finally lost it.

He’d always been a prick, but that day, on the morning on his

seventh birthday, he’d actually come downstairs hopeful. The place
hadn’t been decorated or anything like that, but his grandparents had
been there, and there were a few blue and red balloons, along with a

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117

present or two waiting on the table next to some pancakes.

The happiness he’d felt lasted only a couple of hours before his

father went crazy and tried to kill him with the knife he’d been using
the cut the birthday cake.

His grandmother wanted to have it for lunch that day because she

and her husband had to leave early.

Dante could remember his grandfather stepping in the way, taking

hold of his father’s hand after he’d made a slicing motion at Dante
with it.

The cut across his chest had been shallow, and it did eventually

heal, but his grandfather was stabbed to death as Dante’s grandmother
took him upstairs and tried to call for help.

She’d managed to hold off his father in time for the police to

come. She’d died in the hospital, and Dante had no one after that.

“He’s here, you know,” Annabel whispered sweetly, circling her

fingers around one of his horns.

He looked down at her sharply. “Who?”
“Your old man. No one goes to Heaven for killing their in-laws

and then hanging themselves in prison, you know.”

Dante looked away from her. “I don’t want anything to do with

him.”

“Would feel a little guilty about sticking it to dear Daddy?”
He frowned at her, but oddly, her jokes and teasing were no

longer as annoying as he once thought.

“That’s all right, you know. He’s not really your daddy.”
Now Dante did growl at her. “What?”
“You’re half demon, sweetheart. Mommy died in birth and all

that, and she was no demon. You can’t really think that a general
could be born from two humans, did you?”

“How?” Dante demanded.
She shrugged. “Demons like to play with humans all the time.

Might’ve been a shape-shifting demon, maybe it raped her. Don’t
know, don’t care, but demons can’t exactly sire babies with humans.

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Unless there’s something extra special about that little bundle of joy.”

She was talking about him. So that was how the demons had

found him. It would also explain why the man he’d thought was his
father had hated him for as long as Dante could remember and then
later tried to kill him.

“You’re saying I’m extra special?” Dante asked, his rough demon

voice flat and unamused as he looked down at her body and noted the
way she was clinging to him.

“Don’t flatter yourself, sweetheart. I have slightly different tastes.

You’ll meet my man as soon as I get him to fall, but for now, why
don’t I show you how we’ve been treating your adoptive daddy. You
can do the rest if you like.”

He did like. There was nothing in the world he wanted more right

then. There were some things he was pretty sure he was forgetting.
Something important from above, but that could wait until later. His
tail twitched with anticipation as he thought of all the ways he was
going to pay back his supposed father for killing his grandparents and
his childhood.

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Chapter Fifteen

Mathias had never been in Hell before, but considering what

would happen to Heaven if he didn’t so much as try to lure that
demon general back to Earth, he had to do it.

He wasn’t stupid enough to try and get in through the front gates.

No. He’d be picked off too fast for that and allowed nowhere near the
demon, and if they did let him near Dante, they would play the
recording of Jeremy that Mathias had brought with him, and there was
the very real chance that Dante would rip Mathias’s wings clean out.

He just had to sneak in, find Dante, and then fly like the devil

himself was on his tail back to Earth.

It was almost true.
Getting into Hell was actually fairly easy. The portal that John

spoke of was closed, but the demons had been creating a second one
that was large and powerful enough to fit a demon general through,
and they had yet to close it.

Finding it had been easy. All he had to do was sniff out the

sulphur and kill the demons who had been guarding it. Even Jeremy
had been able to help him with that.

The problem was how the other man could not follow him into the

belly of the beast, and Mathias was alone as he made his way through
Hell.

It looked nothing like how he expected it to, other than the fact

that demons were everywhere, ranging from the small and annoying
to the larger ones who posed more of a problem should they see him
flying above them, hiding in the black clouds and dead trees.

It had taken him perhaps a half an hour to locate the demon, and

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when he did, Mathias’s heart sank for Jeremy.

This creature surely could not be saved.
He watched as the giant red beast slashed and tortured a human,

some poor dirty bastard who begged and screamed for every strip of
flesh that Dante ripped from his face.

To his credit, Dante didn’t eat the skin, but Mathias’s stomach

wanted to relocate all of its contents when Dante threw away the
flesh, just to have it gobbled up by the small, round, and fat little
demons that were scattered around like cockroaches.

The skin always grew back immediately after Dante ripped it

away, and he wondered how long this had been going on for.

The other demons were enthralled as they watched, which was

likely the only reason why no one had noticed him yet.

Until Annabel looked right at him, that is.
Damn.
She didn’t shriek at him or send the horde of demons who were

still milling around on the attack. Maybe she didn’t want to draw
attention to him. Perhaps she was worried about what he would say to
the creature who may or may not still be Dante.

She was correct to worry.
He jumped out of his hiding place in the dead tree before she

could command it to do something ghoulish, like having the branches
wrap around him and pin him down.

Nothing of the sort happened, and he landed on his feet in the

center of the wide circle the demons made for Dante.

The human noticed him at once and started to scream for him.

“Help me! Help me, they’re monsters! Help me!”

Mathias would do no such thing. He didn’t know what sins this

man had committed to deserve to be down here, but he did know that
the only people who came to Hell were those who’d earned their
place here.

He pulled the recording device that Jeremy had taken from

Dante’s home out from the pouch at his hip.

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121

The red demon’s eyes glowed at the sight of him. “What are you

doing here?”

Annabel was already at Dante’s shoulder, whispering into his ear,

but Mathias could still hear every drop of poison that she spoke.

“One of the angels who did nothing to protect you. They will not

even allow Jeremy back into Heaven.”

The teeth in Dante’s mouth grew longer. “What?” he demanded,

his voice slurred from the large fangs. Smoke snaked from his ears,
eyes, and mouth. He was angry.

“Jeremy is not dead,” Mathias said quickly, pressing his thumb

against the only button on the device and then sliding his finger
around on the glass until he was able to get to the recording that
Jeremy had made for him.

Honestly, Mathias wished he understood the human need to own

such strange devices.

“The part about Heaven is true, however. He can never be allowed

back because of what she has done. Listen to his voice.”

The recording started, but somehow it was not as loud as it had

been back in that bedroom where Jeremy and Dante had been
spending their time together.

Mathias blushed as he listened to Jeremy speak, but there was

nothing that could be done for it. He had to be here for this and then
make his escape before he could be captured and killed.

* * * *

Dante listened to the voice of his lover that had been recorded

onto his iPod. Love and regret and shame filled him at the thought of
how he’d all but forgotten about Jeremy whilst he’d been here,
torturing demons and the soul of his adopted father.

“Dante, I’m sorry I failed you. I’m sorry you’re in Hell now, and I

have no idea if you’ll even understand what I’m saying.”

“Take him. Grab him!” Annabel shrieked, pointing a long finger

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at the angel.

Dante roared, keeping the other demons back as the angel stood

firm, holding the iPod out for Dante to listen to.

Some of his words were lost in the racket, but Dante still caught

the end of Jeremy’s message. “Please come back. You’re not lost yet.
You haven’t killed anyone or yourself. I can still save you…I love you.
Come back to Earth.”

A deep longing expanded inside of Dante’s chest cavity, right

where his heart should be. It pulled at him and sucked away at
everything else he’d felt, the revenge he’d wanted and the anger
against all the demons and his father, like a black hole, until there was
nothing left but him.

He looked down at his hands. They were still huge and red and

hideous, but he was more aware now than when he first came down
here. He looked down at his father. The man was sobbing like a child,
and Dante remembered that he’d been peeling the skin from his face,
and he wanted to puke for what he’d done. He could hardly believe
that had been him doing things like that without even flinching about
it.

Dante didn’t want to be here, and he didn’t want to hurt any more

souls. He wanted to go home. He wanted to go back to Jeremy.

He took a step toward the angel. He didn’t know this angel, but

Dante sensed something in him that was different than what he’d felt
when Annabel was passing herself off as one of their kind.

The sensation was kind of tingly, and it felt light, just like Jeremy

did. This was another angel for real this time, and he was going to
take Dante back to Earth. Jeremy wanted to save him. Jeremy still
wanted him. He loved him. That thought alone filled him with hope.

“Take me to him,” Dante said. He was more aware of himself, but

his voice still sounded demon rough.

“No! It’s a trick!” Annabel shrieked.
“We can go back the way you came in. The portal is still open and

large enough that you can fit.”

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123

Annabel raced in front of Dante and held her hands out. For the

first time, Dante saw something akin to desperation on her face, and
he wondered what her stakes were in this.

“This is a trick, Dante. Look at what you’ve become. There will

be angels waiting for you above. Jeremy himself will lead them, and
they will kill you. They will never allow a demon of your caliber to
exist.”

Dante looked down at his hands once more, and he flexed his

fingers. His claws had black demon blood stained beneath them, and
he couldn’t for the life of him ever remember when he’d seen
something so ugly. Not even when he’d looked at himself in the
mirror the first time he’d nearly transformed.

Jeremy had comforted him then, and Dante had been grateful for

it. Would he be willing to so much as look at Dante now that he was
in this horrible body?

“If they want to kill me, they can have me,” Dante said, walking

toward the other angel. “I will not spend an eternity as a monster.”

What he did not say was that if Jeremy wanted to kill him, then

Dante would let him. Better he die by Jeremy’s sword than Jeremy die by
Dante’s claws, should he ever allow himself to forget who he was again.

The angel seemed to grow a little more confident at Dante’s

words, and he even nodded as Dante passed him by.

The fact that Dante was not attacking the angel must have been

enough to convince the other demons to not attack. They knew he
would kill them if they so much as tried.

Annabel shrieked a terrible sound from her throat, and Dante spun

around in time to see the red flames of Hell rise around her. The fire
consumed her, and as quickly as it had appeared, it vanished, and her
with it.

Dante didn’t understand. “Did it kill her?”
A smooth hand, unmarred by scars, scales, or warts, wrapped

around his wrist. “No, she went to Earth. She’s going to attack
Jeremy!”

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Chapter Sixteen

Jeremy could do little else but pace as he waited for Mathias to

return, hopefully with Dante.

He waited in Dante’s home, in the bedroom where Dante first

introduced Jeremy to the pleasures of the body. Despite Dante’s
change, the house remained cleansed of all demon energy, and that
was good.

If they met here, in a pure spot that contained happier memories of

their time together, perhaps he could convince Dante to listen. He
could pull the man away from his demon side before it took control of
him forever.

The house shook briefly, and Jeremy felt a strong presence enter

it.

That had to be them, but they were downstairs.
Jeremy frowned when he put his hand on the door handle. He’d

asked Mathias to bring Dante to this room specifically, but he could
always have teleported downstairs with the intent of walking up with
him.

No, it was not Dante, nor was it Mathias. There was only one pair

of heavy footsteps coming up the stairs and into the hall. Jeremy had
no powers anymore, but he was still a warrior, and he was going to
face this challenge head-on.

He opened the door and stepped out and was surprised to see John

standing in front of him, looking down at him with disappointment in
his eyes.

“John?” Jeremy stepped aside, allowing the other man into the

space that Jeremy considered sacred. He did not close the door. That

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125

was only for when he and Dante were in here alone.

“You’ve lost the first general,” John said, looking around the

room. The bed was made and clean, but John seemed to stare a little
longer than usual at it before he looked at Jeremy once more.

“I have not lost him, sir. He has killed no innocents and his

birthday has not yet passed. His soul can still be saved.”

There was only less than two hours until the time of Dante’s

thirtieth birthday was upon them, and he wished Mathias would hurry
and come back.

“No, he is gone to us. Heaven will not accept a warrior who has

served in Hell.”

“But he hasn’t served! Not yet.” He said the last part softly, aware

that he was nearly yelling at his commander.

John was raising a single brow at him, annoyance clearly on his

features.

Jeremy became suspicious. “What happened with the others?

Where are Lana, Daren, and Luke?”

“They are not here now.”
“But were they not serving with you? You were so determined to

find the other generals before, how can you simply brush aside the
chance to save Dante now?”

Just in case this truly was not his commander standing in front of

him, and Jeremy was ever suspicious that it was not, he did not want
to speak about information that could be vital. Like the fact that John
should be in Purgatory at this very moment searching for a pool of
souls that was supposed to aid Hell in keeping control of the generals
when they had them.

John’s eyes narrowed in an unfamiliar way, then he smiled. The

voice he then spoke with was not his own, but more feminine.

“I should have known better than to think I could get you twice

with this trick, but that’s okay. This works out just fine, too.”

Like lightning, Annabel, still disguised as John, snapped her hand

out and wrapped her fingers around Jeremy’s throat.

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Her strength surprised him. If he’d had his wings and was not

suffering the effects of whatever poison she’d given him, he would
have been able to throw her off of him with relative ease. Now, he
was helpless and unable to breathe as she lifted him off of his feet and
into the air.

“If Hell can’t have the first general, then Heaven won’t have him

either,” she said, her eyes flashing red for a moment.

Another rumble shook the foundation of the house, right before

the scent of sulphur came into the bedroom, and Mathias and Dante
appeared.

He assumed the large, glowing red hulk was Dante. It released an

angry roar at the sight of Jeremy being held by his neck.

Annabel smiled, twisting John’s features so that he almost

appeared ugly. When she spoke, she did so using John’s voice. “I
bestow your punishment in the name of all the angels for your
failure.”

She managed to slam his whole body into the wall, his head

smacking on impact, twice, before Dante grabbed her by the wings
and threw her off of him.

Jeremy could hardly think at that point, and he could barely keep

the darkness from swallowing everything around him, but he did see
Annabel wink and blow him a kiss right before vanishing just as
Dante leapt on her. Then all was dark.

* * * *

Dante turned on the other angel when he bent down to add to

Jeremy’s injuries.

“Get away from him, you winged scum!” he roared.
The man had no choice but to shoot to his feet and back away,

hands raised just enough to give the impression that he meant no
harm.

Dante knew better. “Annabel was right. You’re all no better!” he

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127

seethed, crouching down to lay his large hand on Jeremy’s chest.

He felt a beating from within, but it was so weak it could have

belonged to a small bird, and it was only getting weaker by the
second.

The angel had his hands up, like before, trying to show Dante that

he wasn’t a threat. “That wasn’t an angel. Annabel did this.”

“I know what I saw!”
Blood pooled from Jeremy’s head and stained Dante’s carpet.

Jeremy was going to die. He was going to die, and Dante hadn’t even
gotten the chance to…

“Stay away from him!” He swiped out his claws when the angel

tried approaching. The man jumped back as gracefully as though he
evaded attacks like that every day.

“I can heal him,” he snapped.
“You’ll only make it worse.” Dante did not trust the man. Not at

all. He looked down into Jeremy’s pale face, and he brushed his cheek
with his large and ugly hand. “Maybe you only said you loved me to
get me up here, or because you’re an angel you fall in love easier than
other people, but”—Dante took in a deep breath, one that nearly made
his throat seize up—“I don’t care. You’re the only one to ever tell me
that, and I love you, too.”

Dante pressed his face into Jeremy’s hair as the declaration made

him cry. He hadn’t realized it until just then, but he did. He did love
Jeremy, and not only did he have that revelation to deal with, but also
the new knowledge of just how much he’d needed that love and how
broken he was now that it would be gone once Jeremy’s heart stopped
beating.

“I won’t be a demon general. Not for anyone if that’s what you

want. Do you hear me? I promise.”

Jeremy’s body twitched, and Dante’s heart lifted with the hope

that maybe the stubborn fool angel had heard him after all.

“Jeremy, I need you. Please wake up.”
Jeremy shook a little in his arms, but of course, in his new human

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body, the sound of Dante’s voice wasn’t enough to combat his
injuries, though he could tell the man was trying. He’d promised
Dante that he would try to stay with him, and Dante could see him
trying for all he was worth.

The angel who brought Dante here—he was sure the man had

given his name at some point, but he couldn’t remember it—stepped
forward. “Please, he’s a friend. Let me heal him. I promise you, on
my life, I will not harm him.”

Dante looked up at the angel, and he glowered. “On your life then.

If you lay your powers on him, and he dies, I will rip your head off.”

That was the demon in him speaking again, but Dante stamped

down the urge to be violent after he’d made his promise to Jeremy.

To the angel’s credit, he did not flinch away or back off in fear.

He nodded, and when he knelt down closer to Jeremy’s weak body,
Dante did not push him away.

The angel held his calloused hands out. One over Jeremy’s chest

and the other over his head, where the wound would be. His hands
glowed, and Dante sensed that same cleansing energy from before,
and some of his suspicion ebbed away.

That suspicion vanished entirely when Jeremy’s weak heart

started beating with real strength, his breathing became less strained,
and then he opened his eyes.

The healing did not stop there. Dante was more focused on the

man in his arms, but he was still aware of his own body. Dante
seemed to shrink a little, his muscles no longer bulging and swollen,
and his arms faded from a bright and horrible red to the regular tan his
human form kept.

Jeremy smiled and reached for his face. When his fingertips

touched Dante’s cheeks, Dante realized that he was still crying.

Dante smiled down at him. “You came back.”
“I promised I would stay,” Jeremy said, and then he cupped

Dante’s face with his palms. “Happy birthday, Dante.”

Dante looked up at the clock on his nightstand and then back

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down at Jeremy. “Not yet, but it will be now.”

He soundly kissed the other man, because something occurred to

Dante that would make his birthday a very good one indeed.

Jeremy had told Dante that he could not stay on Earth so long as

he had his wings. Well, though Dante was sorry for the way they’d
gone, now that they were no longer a part of Jeremy, that meant he
could stay on Earth, and Dante wouldn’t have to be separated from his
love.

“I’ll leave you both alone,” said the other angel, rising to his feet

with some noticeable color on his cheeks. “I need to contact John and
let him know of our progress, and find my own charge as well,” he
said under his breath.

“You will stay until his birthday?” Jeremy asked, appearing

somewhat worried as his friend walked toward Dante’s bedroom
door.

“Yes. I will stay as your guardian until the time comes and Dante

will no longer be a threat to us. After that I will have to search for my
own ward. From what I can gather, he lives just outside of Haven and
is perhaps a shape-shifter of some sort.”

“Thank you,” Jeremy replied, wrapping his arms around Dante’s

neck and holding on to him with all of his strength.

Dante did the same. He never wanted to let Jeremy go.

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Chapter Seventeen

They counted down the minutes together, tightly holding hands as

they sat on Dante’s bed, and then when midnight came and went, they
counted another thirty minutes more just to be on the safe side.

No other demons came for them, and Annabel did not return.

Dante was free from the curse he’d been born with. He was free from
the influence of Hell. That last part especially was cause enough for
him to cry a few tears over the things he’d done, but Jeremy held and
comforted him the entire time, until he’d stopped and got a hold of
himself.

“Will I ever turn into that thing again?” Dante asked, looking

down at his hands and remembering how ugly they’d been when
Annabel had taken him into Hell.

Jeremy ran his fingers through Dante’s hair. They were both

naked in Dante’s bed, and Jeremy was still in Dante’s lap. “I don’t
think so. If you ever choose to fight for Heaven, you will be given a
new form. I think,” he added.

“Will I get wings?” Dante asked, somewhat excited for that part.
“I don’t know, but I do know that we are safe from Annabel. At

least for now. I don’t think she will be able to return to Earth for a
good while.”

“What makes you say that?” Dante asked.
Jeremy pushed Dante back on the bed, then hooked his leg over

Dante’s hips. “Even she has superiors to answer to. I doubt they will
be pleased after her failure. She will have to pay for that,” he said,
then slowly thrust his hips against Dante’s groin.

Dante felt the way Jeremy’s cock and his balls slid down and up

The Half-Breed Demon

131

as the other man swiveled his hips, and his prick twitched and ached
in response as relief and adrenaline and all sorts of emotions that
hyped him full of energy passed through him.

Dante shimmied the both of them to the middle of the bed, and he

placed his lips on Jeremy’s neck as his lover humped and teased him.
He needed this. He needed the other man so badly. He needed his
love.

Jeremy reached for the lube that was still on the bed from the last

time they’d come together. A nice victory fuck after everything they’d
both gone through, celebrating their happiness as well as their future
lives together, was definitely in order.

They kissed and fumbled together with the kind of enthusiasm

that Dante had never before experienced with any of his partners.
Before, the few times he was able to have sex, getting out of his
clothes and getting the act done and over with had always been about
speed, because he didn’t want his demons to come to him while he’d
been intimate with someone else. This was different. They were only
going so fast because they were impatient to have each other and not
because something would try attacking Dante while he was
vulnerable.

But then, when Dante put the lube onto his fingers and reached

around to Jeremy’s hole, something changed.

No, this would not be fast. They were eager to have each other,

but this was going to be perfect, and it was going to be different. It
was going to be slow, and it was going to be torture. It was going to
be a combination of everything they would be feeling for the rest of
their lives.

“I love it when your cock is inside me,” Jeremy said, thrusting

back against Dante’s fingers. “Put it inside of me.”

Dante loved it when Jeremy, an innocent angel that he’d

deflowered, spoke like that when Dante fingered him. He wouldn’t
admit it to the other man just how hot it made him. He’d save that
revelation for later.

132 Marcy

Jacks

“Lift yourself up a little. That’s right, now come back down.”
Dante held on to his prick with one hand, trying to keep himself

from coming as Jeremy went up and onto his knees and then sank
down onto Dante’s dick.

He loved it. There wasn’t much in the world that he loved more

than this, aside from the man riding him, that is.

It was perfect, probably because he loved the man so damn much,

but Dante couldn’t get enough of Jeremy’s mouth as they kissed, and
his hand instinctively sought out Jeremy’s dick, stroking him while
Jeremy moved up and down at a leisurely pace.

Jeremy’s face contracted as he moaned, but Dante put his hand

behind the other man’s neck to keep him from pulling back.

It was good, so damn good. Dante wanted to have Jeremy like this

every night for the rest of his life.

“You’re not leaving,” he said on a gasp. “You’re staying here with

me?” He’d wanted it to come out like a possessive demand and be all
alpha male on the guy, but it came out like an uncertain question,
making him sound like he had no confidence at all in what they had
become.

Maybe part of his head, his common sense, was still back in Hell.
Jeremy didn’t reprimand him for that, probably because he was

too busy riding Dante’s cock and enjoying himself. “Not leaving.
Love you. Want to stay.”

Each short sentence was punctuated by another forward thrust and

a groan. Dante had never seen anything so beautiful in his life.

He bucked up, lifting Jeremy off the bed and enjoying the squawk

he made between moans as Dante put him on his back and kept right
on pounding into him.

Jeremy reached down and around, putting his hands on Dante’s

ass and pulling him closer, as though trying to make him go deeper.

He really didn’t think that was a possibility at this point.

* * * *

The Half-Breed Demon

133

Mathias could not enter Purgatory a second time. John and the rest

of the team were too far within that place for him to follow on his
own. He was forced to speak out a letter and will it to the other man
and then wait with the little patience he had for John to write back.

Speaking letters was similar to what Jeremy had done with that

device belonging to Dante, only with no buttons or glass. All Mathias
had to do was open an empty parchment, speak to it, and then roll it
before sending it on its way. His words would still be written on the
parchment in the event that John opened it in a location where
discretion was key.

He kept on looking around as he stood on the very edge of the

void. The entrance to Purgatory was beneath a cliff that was unnatural
in formation. Perfectly smooth. There were no rocks or boulders or
awkward trails. It was like standing at the edge of a perfect square.

When Mathias looked over the edge, light-gray storm clouds

covered the entrance, preventing him from seeing inside and keeping
most others from seeing whilst they were visiting.

It was easy to get lost in Purgatory. The only way to get in was the

jump over, and the only way out was to fly.

Mathias hoped the others were well. If they were in a battle of

some kind, then he could not expect John to reply right away, but he
still grew nervous that someone would see him. He was in a wide-
open space. Guards rarely came here due to the odd sensation the
place left them with, but there was still the possibility of being caught.

Finally, something glittering flew up and out of the storm clouds

beneath him. A scroll, and the golden string tied around it glinted as it
came out of Purgatory and into the light.

Mathias smiled and reached for it. He quickly opened it, and

John’s voice was spoken through the words written on the parchment.

“Good work, Mathias, and pass on my gratitude to Jeremy. A

shape-shifter? That might complicate things. Keep on your toes. I
think we’re getting close and I don’t want you to get caught by any

134 Marcy

Jacks

guards. The council will have to see soon enough after this. They
won’t be able to deny it forever. Thank you for the update. Keep me
posted when you can, and go out there and find your shape-shifter
before it can do any harm.”

Mathias rolled the parchment and put it away, then opened a

portal that he could use to fly down to Earth.

Jeremy’s success had given him hope, and now that the others

knew about it, too, they would be eager to continue with the mission.
Mathias would not fail them.

* * * *

Taylor Slade looked up and away from the kill he’d just made. A

buck, and the fresh, warm meat tasted good on his tongue as his jaws
tore at more of the flesh, but something distracted him. Something far
away.

Something was searching for him.
The little demons that pestered him poked their sticks at his paws,

and he growled at them and tried to step away, but their hissed words
would not leave him, and they followed him when he tried to step
away.

Another meal ruined thanks to them. The buck hadn’t been

enough. They wanted him to make a human kill, and their whispers
and wide smiles, showing off their razor-sharp teeth, were getting
harder and harder to ignore. Even the meditation he’d taken to doing
no longer helped, and his mind was warping under their desires, and
his inner wolf was growing angry.

No. He had to ignore them. For as long as possible, even if he died

trying, he would resist.

He looked up at the night sky. A star shot across the sea of

blackness, and he wished with everything inside of him that―

No, that was a ridiculous wish, and he wouldn’t dare to hope for

it, not when he barely knew what hope was anymore.

The Half-Breed Demon

135

With nowhere else to go, Taylor went home. He prayed that his

wolf was sated enough that the demons, or hallucinations, whatever
they were, wouldn’t take control of him in the night and send him on
another running spree.

The last time that had happened, he’d barely regained his control

in time to stop himself before attacking a neighboring farm.

THE END

WWW.MARCYJACKS.COM

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Marcy Jacks lives and works in Ontario, Canada, where she is

fervently pursuing the writer’s life while writing about lots of
gorgeous guys. She loves hearing from readers, and you can reach her
at authormarcyjacks@gmail.com.

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