12LUCIFER
Jasper
“Wake up, Jasper, I’m here,” a gruff voice said.
My body was shaken, my eyes slowly opening.
Pain radiated through me, but was then replaced by a searing heat.
“Give me your pain, friend. Let me take it for you.”
I wasn’t going to fight them. I still couldn’t think straight, couldn’t muster fluent thoughts.
Alex.
The pain began to subside, and my heart began to pound faster and faster.
My mate. My mate. Where was he? He wasn’t close. I couldn’t feel him.
I couldn’t feel anything but pain.
“Jasper.”
I opened my eyes again, this time seeing the fiery face of the Barista. His beard burned, his eyes holding the flames of hell within them. His palms were holding my head, soaking up my own pain. Healing what was broken inside of me.
The truck. I was no longer in it, but now I remembered.
The sky was dark, the leaves rustling as the wind picked up. I could feel the thrum of deep magic, the kind that made the hair stand up on the back of your neck.
“Alex,” I croaked.
“I brought Cambriel,” the Barista said. “He’s the only one aside from Gabriel that can handle this. Gabriel should be here soon. The witches opened up a portal to hell. I can feel the tear in the barrier. Can you walk?”
Could I? I had to. I had to walk. I had to get to Alex before he died.
I didn’t need the mating bond to feel his pain.
“Take me to him,” I said desperately. “Please.”
The Barista nodded, the flames licking his face finally snuffing out. He looped my arm around his shoulders.
I hated when he jumped to places this way, but I had no choice.
We were quickly taken into the deepest, darkest tunnel of shadows. I closed my eyes, trying not to think as it felt like my body was tumbling through space and time and god knew what else.
We hit the ground, my knees buckling.
The Barista let go of me just as a chorus of shrill screaming surrounded us, the wind whipping up.
“Cambriel!” the Barista thundered.
I looked up just in time to see my human caught by the fallen angel and thrown, his beaten and bleeding body rolling out of the circle. The three witches around the circle were screaming, their souls being slowly drawn to the center of a portal that was open in the ground. A dark figure began to emerge, reaching and reaching.
It caught Cambriel’s wing just as he tried to escape the circle, pulling.
The Barista lunged forward, grabbing onto Cambriel.
Another angel landed next to the Barista, the one that had slowly made up for his transgressions against all of us. Gabriel grabbed on to Cam too, pulling as much as possible.