Page 42 of Indecent

Guilt struck Daniel. “I’m sorry. It was only a few days in Hell.”

“Time passes strangely there,” Draego said. He stood apart from the group, holding his elbows loosely. Brother, Daniel recalled him saying, and his gaze snagged on the embers in Draego’s eyes.

“I also started out in Purgatory,” Daniel explained. “I have no idea how long I was there. I just… woke up there.” He frowned, thinking back to those confusing moments when he hadn’t known where he was or how he’d gotten there. He still had worrying gaps in his memory. “I don’t remember how I died. Is that normal?”

Nicolas’s concerned gaze bounced from demon to demon.

Malachi, sitting between Luke’s legs, waved a dismissive hand. “It’s pretty normal after the transformation, yeah. Some of us don’t ever remember.”

“I still barely remember Hell at all,” Storm said. The multicolored lights bounced off his white hair like a halo.

Which reminded him…

Daniel took a long pull from the beer and sat back. “I need to tell you guys about the angel.”

Silence greeted that statement.

Shadrach sat forward, bracing his elbows on his knees. His loosened tie hung between his forearms. “I’m sorry, the what now?”

“The angel.”

“Like an actual, feathered-wings angel?” Talon asked.

“Yeah. That’s why the gates were closed. An angel broke into Hell.” He wasn’t sure that was the right way to word it, but after seeing the angel in action, it seemed appropriate. “Lucifer is the reason I’m a harbinger and not a halfling. He implied that we would need my powers. There’s also—some kind of symbol tattooed on my chest. Chaol and I didn’t know what it was.”

Stunned silence followed again. They exchanged looks between themselves, and finally, Julian slashed a hand through the air. The twinkling light of the disco ball reflected in his golden hair.

“Wait, hang on,” he said. “Start at the beginning.”

Daniel pursed his lips, scowling. He could try, but the only thing he remembered clearly about Hell was Chaol. Chaol, and walking, and Chaol, and pain, and Lucifer, and fighting off the angel as he and Chaol tumbled through the gate.

“Uh,” Malachi said slowly, stroking his chin, “like Storm said, halflings don’t typically remember things all that well right after we get out of Hell. Things are hazy for a while even after we return to the surface. I mean, I barely remember those first few years. Granted, it’s been a few hundred, but still. There’s a good chance Danny won’t be able to go into a lot of detail right now.”

“I remember the angel,” Daniel said grimly. “He was attacking demons in Hell. Sucking some kind of red essence from them. Lucifer called it their Wrath. It’s like a demon’s soul.”

“This is news to me,” Shadrach said, pressing a hand to the tie on his chest. “I assumed we didn’t have souls—at least those of us born in Hell didn’t.”

“It’s obviously not news to Lucifer,” Talon said.

“They don’t exactly teach us things like that in the underworld,” Valac said.

“There’s a library there,” Daniel said in confusion. “A city. How do you not know about it?”

“Many demons can’t read,” Talon said.

“I could not,” Ashmedai agreed. “Not before coming here. Nic-las has been teaching me.”

Nicolas shot him a besotted smile, and the ache in Daniel’s chest sharpened. He wanted that. He’d had a taste of it. Where the hell was Chaol?

“We have a city,” Draego said, “and a library, yes. But there are only a handful of scholars there who protect and maintain the books.”

“What does he want this Wrath for?” Isaac asked, folding his arms across his chest and leaning back against Shadrach’s extended arm, which laid across the back of his chair.

“I don’t know,” Daniel said. “Lucifer…” He rubbed his forehead, searching his foggy memory. “Lucifer told us that we could kill him here on the surface, but not while he was in Hell. That was why we had to lure him with us through the gate.”

“So he’s here on Earth now,” Nicolas said. “And hunting demons.” He shot a worried look around the group, lingering on Ashmedai and Daniel.

“Is that a bad thing?” someone from the crowd of ex-paladins called.