A Beautiful Evil (A Beautiful Book. 1) #Wattys2015

Chapter Twenty-Five - Shattered Bliss

Asmodeus lied. The school wasn't just a few blocks away and somehow he'd been able to find a running car. It was a 2014 Sonic. It seemed real. It felt real, but I just couldn't figure out how he got it in here. Maybe it wasn't real. Everything in Purgatory was odd.

There was a warm pulse next to my ankle. I ran my hand down my leg to grip the familiar handle of the blade my father gave me through my dress.

I'd remembered to grab it after I'd stormed off, mentally smacking myself on how stupid I looked. It totally took away the element of sass and self pride I was trying to pull off. So much for the guys thinking I could take care of myself.

I was sitting in the middle of two the two boys, both steaming over the fact that I hadn't chosen one over the other. And the bad thing about Sonics are; they're not big. Both guys had refused to sit in the passenger seat because that meant the other would have to sit in the back with me. And I wasn't going to make them sit in the back by themselves, because they'd both be heaping lumps of blood and broken bones before we even pulled up to prom.

I looked out the window to my right.

Deserted souls roamed the streets, littering the landscape with small orbs of violet. Some were even on the roads. I flinched every time we'd 'run over one' because I was expecting a jolt from the impact of hitting a human being with a car. But we passed through them as if they were a cloud.

I looked up and met Asmodeus silver eyes in the rearview mirror. "Don't mention me to Sarah."

I frowned slightly. "Why? I know she doesn't like you right now... But maybe if she knows-"

"No," he snapped, his soft silver eyes going hard. His lips were pressed into a thin, white line. I was taken aback at the fierceness of his words. "You will not speak of me to Sarah, is that understood?"

I glowered at his choice of words. He sounded like my father. Like Avery. I wanted to punch him in the nose to make sure he understood that I wasn't his daughter, so therefore I wasn't someone he could push around. But I knew if I did, my father would get to Pandora's box before us, and I couldn't let that happen.

It finally hit me on how hard this must be for the brothers. I still didn't know what was wrong with me, but I was positive that they were demons through and through. They probably loved the idea of Hell on earth, yet they were sticking beside me. Going against their instincts. I glanced the the boys. Their jaws were firmly set and their eyes stared straight ahead. I guess I also didn't realize what they were laying down for me.

Their lives.

If Lucifer found out about their betrayal, he'd skin them alive. Probably use an Archangel's blade to slit their throats.

And then it hit me like a train.

Asmo had said my father had used and Archangel's blade to kill his brothers. My mother was killed by an Archangel's blade. A tiny cut below her ear, but a cut from an Archangel's blade nonetheless. If my father could murder his brothers and stuff their angry souls in a tiny box, who's to say he couldn't murder my mother? But I just didn't understand why. Why would he kill someone he loved? Or maybe he didn't even love her at all... Maybe he was incapable of love, and my whole childhood was a lie. Maybe he didn't love me but just acted like he did so I wouldn't find that damned Archangel's blade and slit his throat with it.

I couldn't breathe and my stomach felt queasy.

A hand wrapped around my own, fingers squeezing slightly. I glanced up to see bright blue eyes and luscious lips that were tweaked up in a smirk. "Hey, I'm here. We'll talk to Sarah and she'll give us the key, I promise."