Blinking, I looked from one to the other, then realized Asmodeus's mouth moved as well.
The world still moved slowly. Had Ariel's magic given me some sort of cushion on the world? Was I removed from it?
As I turned my head, I saw a demon, a large, red, spiky thing that would fit right into any tale designed to terrify a small child. He raised his hand behind Joel, and I saw a spike extend from his palm.
And when I knew I was the only one with eyes on the danger, I raised my hand and sent a small burst of power over Joel's shoulder and into the demon's heart. It burst into flames and disappeared, it's essence returning to Abaddon where it could escape again.
When they all turned to see what happened, my hearing returned, and my vision went back to normal. The speed of the world righted itself. I wasn't sure if it had been a shock reaction or if it was Ariel's magic imprisoning me in the weirdness, but it was over.
I couldn't give up. Just because she was scared of me now didn't mean she would be forever. We had to get to her. The sooner we got her away from Raphael, the sooner she could begin to have a normal, loving childhood.
As normal as the daughter of Lucifer and Lilith could have, anyway.
7
Immediately, I began flying around the city, blasting demons. Sometimes I used my magic to send them back to Abaddon without destroying them, but sometimes they were in the middle of doing something that pissed me off enough to make me annihilate them.
Lucifer flew behind me, unable to help, but he stayed close and provided a second set of eyes on my back.
When nobody came to report to Joel or Asmodeus about seeing Raphael, I knew they'd left. They didn't dare stay on Earth with every angel and Fallen searching for them. "Let's split up." I wiped demon blood off of my cheek and shook it off my hands. "We'll take Asmodeus. You three hit different cities. Send the demons back to Abaddon so they'll at least not be visible to the humans."
A woman ran by and I saw the demon inside her. Reaching out a tendril of magic, I yanked it out of her and sent it away. She collapsed when it left her body, but I didn't have time to coddle the humans we saved. They'd have to coddle themselves.
Michael and Gabe gave me a quick kiss, each named off a city they were going to go fly through and disappeared.
"Come on. Let's finish here before we move on," I said. We flew around the city, searching for demons. Luc pointed them out, and I sent them on their way. Back to Hell.
We worked our way around the city, then hopped to the next big city I could think of. Dallas. Each place was as chaotic as the next. The only good thing was that there were no new reports. At the same time, it was bad, because it meant he'd taken my daughter back to whatever dimension he'd been keeping her in.
Wherever it was, it made her age rapidly. She looked two years older today than when I'd seen her just a few days before. How was that possible?
We were about to leave the city when someone screamed in an alleyway. I flew toward the sound of the terrified woman and found a possessed man with his hand around a small woman's throat. He had his pants down and was seconds away from doing something to her she'd never in her life be able to forget.
I yanked the demon from the man and obliterated him. The man's body collapsed, freeing the woman in the process. I made myself visible and glamoured myself to look like a proper angel as I tamped down the raging fury inside me.
"Darling, are you well?" I hated the thought of the human male being charged with attempted rape when it hadn't been his fault. At the same time, I wished I could have obliterated that demon again. That son of a bitch. We had rules for a reason! Demons weren't to be on Earth without Fallen supervision, but we knew they slipped out. It was hard to keep all of them consistently inside the gates. So, more than that, we had strict rules about things like rape. Seduction? Sure. Temptation? Of course! But rape was never allowed and had always been punished fiercely. They weren't to murder. Possession was a lesser offense, but still punishable.
The demons had to have believed they'd never be faced with Lucifer or I again to break the rules so thoroughly.
She curled into herself and stared at me with wide eyes. She nodded. "He didn't get me," she whispered.
"Good," I said. "I killed the demon that possessed him. He was a victim too. Will you see that he gets treatment?"
She nodded. "Are you a real angel?"
I gave her my warmest smile and trickled healing energy into her as I magicked her clothes back on and mended. "I'm a real angel and you're going to be just fine. We'll fix this mess, okay?"
As quickly as I appeared, I disappeared to find Lucifer standing with his arms crossed. "You're too soft-hearted."
"Oh, hush," I chided. My anger bubbled up my chest. "They've lost all regard for the system. For the rules. I'm tempted to destroy them."
Luc rolled his eyes. "If we had that kind of power at our disposal, we'd be able to solve all our problems."
I sighed and tried to let my anger out.
"Let's go to the next city." We'd cleared so many demons here they were beginning to be hard to find. I needed to blast some assholes and vent my anger."
When we appeared in the next city, Seattle, I went to work quickly. It felt great to blast more and more demons, sending them away from humans.
As I whistled to draw
