“Now that the world isn't ending, its love that I'm sending to you.
It isn't the love of a hero, and that's why I fear it wont do.
And they say that a hero can save us.
I'm not gonna stand here and wait.
I'll hold on to the wings of the eagle,
Watch as we all fly away. “
Chapter Twenty - “Hero”
BALT
As I woke up, I felt uneasy. Something was wrong, very wrong. For one, I couldn't see the gold string anymore and I could hear frantic shouting downstairs. Even Marcus was shouting and he was normally extremely placid. Barely raised his voice.
Knocking on Immi's door, I called out for her. I got no reply. Considering that yesterday, she'd opened up to me I wasn't expecting her to suddenly shut off again. It didn't seem like the sort of thing she'd do either, intentionally ignoring someone and hurting them. She was too kind for that sort of thing.
Tuning my senses, I could only feel a little bit of innocence but that wasn't what surprised me. There was a lot of sin in the room. That shouldn't have been there and definitely not enough to almost overpower Immi's innocence. Barging through the door, my eyes sweeped across the room. Immi wasn't here. Her dress was folded and placed on the wooden box, and her shoes were neatly placed in front. She wouldn't have left without putting on her clothes - she was embarrassed when I saw her in her jammies!
Rushing out of the room, I went to the “planning” room. Storming down there, I flung open the rotting door. Everyone froze in their tracks and turned to me. Immi wasn't here either, and weirdly enough, neither was Saria. They wouldn't let Saria loose with Immi. No-one was that dumb enough. We'd all seen how Saria reacted to any angel.
“Where's Immi?” I demanded. I wasn't going to skirt around the issue. Immi was gone and I had a feeling Saria had something do with it but I wasn't sure. She wouldn't break the contract, would she?
“We–she–I...” Emily stuttered before taking a deep breath in. She sounded fearful and I didn't blame her. An angry demon wasn't the best type of demon to deal with.
“Where. Is. She.” I snarled my earlier words. Someone was going to tell me and I didn't care how I was getting the information. I'd take them all down if I had to.
“Would you calm down?” Marcus snapped. I narrowed my eyes at him. He wasn't worrying because his soul mate (who supposed to be dead until disproven a few days ago) was there with him. Mine, on the other hand, was an angel who had no way of defending herself and was missing. Not to mention the ultimate bitch from Hell was missing too.
“We're looking for her, Balt. We'll find her. We protect our own.” Harmony comforted me. How was she going to find Immi? She could be anywhere!
“So where's Saria?” I challenged them.
“When I get my hands on that whore...” I heard Caroline mutter angrily. I was slightly shocked at her use of words. I thought angels were too innocent and good for that language?
“Will you stop using such vile language!” Harmony shrieked at her. “You can say, or do, whatever you want on Earth as long as I don't see! Although you should know better.”
“Are you really going to criticise me on how I speak, when Immi's in danger? Really?” Seems like Caroline had a change of heart. "I owe it to her! She saved me and now she's in danger. We need to find her!" Maybe not then. Maybe she was doing this because she felt like she owed Immi something.
As everyone started to bicker again, I walked over to Bernadette who seemed to be extremely calm. She looked deep in thought.
“Any ideas for where she is?” I enquired.
“How well do you know Saria?” She replied with a question. It made me curious. Why did she want to know that?
“We weren't exactly close. Why?” Saria just argued with every little thing. Even though she lusted for me, she still made a big deal out of everything. All she wanted to do was kill angels and commit sin. Her bloodlust for angels was ridiculous.
“Did she say anything about joining Shax, or Ipos?”
“Shax?” Odd question. “No. Never once mentioned it. She hates the guy.”
“Most people do. High in power, has a ridiculously big ego, thinks the world of himself... but there was always this little nub of information I couldn't get off him.”
“How so?”
“Who was filling him in. We always had outsiders helping, but there was always one number I could never find a source for. Not once.” She stopped for a moment before looking at me. Marcus was trying to talk to Gustav about something. “When we raided Gustav's house, he knew where to look for his office. I could tell that the way he was acting, he was pretending he had no clue where it was. But he knew. Those notes on Immi? They were the only things that Shax took. Someone who knew that house, or had been there, would have filled him in. Gustav was never the person to just invite a randomer off the street in.”
“Then what's this got to do with Saria?” She was making a good point but I had no idea where she was going with it. Marcus had already told us what Dimtri was like and how Saria would be at the bottom of the food-chain. She wouldn't go to them. Or at least, I didn't think she would.
“Marcus wouldn't sell Immi out and I definitely know you wouldn't. Angels stick together and Gustav thought of Immi as a form of experiment. He was testing his theories on her. And who hates angels? Specifically someone who's going to be close to you? It seems like someone who lusted for you wanted to take out a threat.”
Everything Bernadette was saying added up and totalled up to Saria, but I wasn't sure about it still. Surely Saria wouldn't risk being at the bottom of the food chain, right?
“So you think it's Saria?”
“No, I'm positive it's Saria.” She concluded her thoughts. “I don't think it's a coincidence that she's not here.”
“What's your plan then?”
“We hunt her down, find Immi and save her. That's what you guys'll do.”
“What about you?” I noticed how she said that we'd hunt Immi down but she didn't mention about what she was going to do.
“I'm going to destroy the remains of Dimtri.” I laughed at her. How exactly was she going to do that?
“He's a demon. He's not like a ghost where you can burn his bones.” I sobered up before attempting to converse with her again. “He can still be summoned too. Isn't that what they were doing?”
“Not without his heart, you can't. It's still beating. You ever wondered how he was able to survive so many attacks and wounds to the heart when he existed?”
“I wasn't in existence then.”
“Of course not.” She muttered, almost scolding herself. Whilst I may not have existed, I had certainly heard the tales. I'd even seen some footage, it wasn't the most pleasant thing I'd watched. “Anyway, using some form of magic–don't even ask how, it might even have been pure darkness that helped him–he took out his own heart. Locked it away and that is why he's able to be summoned. It still beats, and you know you can only summon a demon that still exists. Technically, he exists by essence but not by body. That's why they need angel blood. It's as complicated as it sounds.”
Nodding, I still had no idea how she planned to destroy his heart. Didn't exactly sound easy. Not to mention that we still needed to find Immi. She was my main priority as we'd already spent years on trying to prevent Dimtri from returning. It's not like it was a difficult task. Just needed to get rid of some idiotic lower dumb-ass demons.
As if she could read my mind, she said, “An angels touch. Either that or just by hiding it somewhere. Maybe in angel territory. It'll slowly torture his heart. If they don't have the heart with them, they can't summon him.” A dark smile drew itself on her face. She laughed when she saw my expression; one of disbelief. "I'm half demon, I'm allowed to like the image of torturing someone. And Dimtri deserves it."
“This is too confusing, you know that?” I told her. Surely, if the heart existed then anyone could summon him?
“His heart is basically protected by pure darkness. And don't you think a higher levelled demon would know if he was summoned?” She'd backed up her information well.
“Touché, Bernadette. Touché.”
We sat there for a few moments, not knowing what to do. Where did we even start? We didn't even know when they'd left. In fact...
“Marcus!” I hollered, he turned to look at me. “You were on watch last night, didn't you hear anything?” He pondered for a moment before he shouted back.
“No. It was silent.”
Then how did they manage to get out without Marcus hearing them? If there was a struggle, he would have heard and I was sure Immi wouldn't go with Saria. She may have been naïve, but she knew Saria hated her.
“That bitch!” Bernadette shouted. Panic was seeping into her voice. “We need to find Immi. She used gold, or manipulated her. They could be preparing her for the possession right now.”
I jumped into action. Dimitri would not get into Immi's body! I wasn't going to allow him to!
"I'll call Henry. The rat owes me a favour." I was going to pull every string I had to save Immi.