Sentinal's Tear (Book #1 in Requiem Series) [formally titled Lacrimosa]

Chapter 13

Nesy

I squeeze into the pitch darkness with Cass and Zane, our skin the only thing to illuminate the darkness. A breeze drifts through the surrounding mist. The scent of the Dark One, ripe with putrid flesh and death, flows with the wind.

"It sure smells like Azzaziel here. He must have come this way." I say, wrinkling my nose.

Moss covered stones poke up through the ground, resembling decaying ruins. Mist floats between the stones and the ground. This place is like nowhere I've ever seen, no where I've ever been. The space in between the worlds. Azzaziel's realm.

Muffled screams fill the air around me. I run towards the sound, desperate. Lori saw me. As an angel. She called me by my human name from so long ago.

Not possible.

"You're too late," a voice says, seeming to come from the stones that surround me.

I draw my sword in a single motion and spin in the direction of the sound. "Show yourself," I command.

Tendrils of black smoke emerge from the stones, forming a face.

Demonic smoke. Great!

"The girl you seek is not here." The smoke-voice says.

"Where is she?" I growl, frustrated. "Show me."

A slight laugh emanates from the smoke. "I cannot show what I do not know. But you intrigue me young angel. Maybe we will meet again one day. Maybe..."

The smoke thins until it disappears entirely, replaced by a suffocating silence.

I really hate demonic smoke. Nothing more than a trickster, you can't trust it.

"She's not here," Cass whispers "I can't feel her."

"That's not possible," I snap. "Azzaziel was only a second ahead of us. Lori has to be here somewhere. It's a trick." I pound the cold stone wall next to me.

Elle . . . Elle . . .

Lori's voice repeats my human name over and over, looping endlessly. For a moment I begin to think she could be my sister.

I shake the wish away, angry. "Blazes!" I yell into the darkness. "We should've been faster. We can't let him hurt her."

"She is not your assignment." Zane's frustration is palpable. "We shouldn't even be here. Your duty is to—"

"Don't lecture me about my duty, Zanethios. There's no way I'm letting Azzaziel hurt that girl."

"Then take care of Aydan, as you were ordered. The Council will send others to take care of the Dark One." Zane clenches his jaw.

I'm sick of his anger. His judgments. "And Lori?" I yell. "Who protects her?"

Cass stares at me, a look of shock on her face. Yelling is not exactly Sentinal behavior.