Page 5 of Feathers and Scales

“And what forgiveness have you reached, wannabe?” One of the rock formations hobbled closer, dragging its stalagmite leg. Its high-pitched voice grated into Izzy’s mind. “Last I checked, you Fallen are stuck as lowly, reincarnating humans.”

Izzy aimed the gun and fired. An arc of blue light flashed. The bullet struck the shadow between the rocks like exposed flesh in armor. Scratchy screams ravaged her insides like she’d rubbed two glass beakers against each other. Another bullet barked as she dealt the killing blow to its neck.

Rocks crumbled to the ground as the demon died. Static sizzled against her skin as three new feathers joined her barely feathered wings.

“I forgot you like to skip the banter,” Thea said, smiling full force.

Izzy aimed at another. “Toying with each other’s emotions in this way is pointless.”

The other three threw themselves at Thea and Izzy. Izzy sank into the numbness of her spirit and listened to that instinct to kill until she’d collected fifteen more feathers.

As the last rocks toppled over, the impression of sulfur didn’t dissipate as expected. Izzy met Thea’s eyes.

Thea’s stare shifted behind Izzy. Pushing energy from her hands into a light shield. Izzy whipped around. A sharp rock pierced her weak yellow shield, nicking her shoulder.

“Any slower and you would have been dead,”Fotios’s voice whispered in her head.

“Got it.”

A demon face built of darkness and dust shoved against her light. She faltered back under the weight. Thea slammed into the demon, knocking it away from Izzy. It attempted to dissolve into the wall, but Thea wrapped a blue light rope around its neck. Lifting her sword, Thea advanced.

“Wait,” Izzy called.

“Oh, now you want to wait.” Thea threw a taunting glance over her shoulder.

“Yes.” Izzy stood on shaky legs and focused energy on her shoulder to repair the rip in her spirit-created shirt. “I can use this one for research.”

“Go ahead,” Thea muttered. “You know it won’t tell you anything.”

Izzy couldn’t find eyes in the swirling dust, so she looked above Thea’s rope. “What do you know of the carvings here?”

It stayed silent.

“I can feed you energy.” She lifted her arm and focused her yellow light into a short laser beam.

While Fallen reincarnated back onto Earth, the demons reincarnated in Hell. She’d discovered that giving demons power before they left Earth always seemed to grant her some answers. She beamed yellow light onto the shadowy section of the demon, and it fidgeted. In the Angelic militia, she was the power supply, recharging others. Her power wasn’t strong, but it was long-lasting.

“That still grosses me out.” Thea made a retching gesture.

Izzy stopped the flow of energy. “If you want more, tell me what you know about the carvings.”

The demon spoke Demonic in a hoarse tone. “Is before we attached.”

She fed it more energy and kept track of the calories her human body was losing in the process. She’d need more than just a breadstick after this. “So, the carvings were here before someone Summoned you here?”

No answer.

“Do you know what or who carved them?”

Rocks clattered to the floor as it whimpered, and more of the demon’s darkness dissolved into the cave wall as it tried to escape. It was afraid. More terrified of the cave carvings than of either Thea, Izzy, or returning to Hell. Peculiar. She gave it more energy to pacify it. Maybe she could make it feel strong enough to explain.

“Tell me,” Izzy said.

It screeched. “Is before we attached.”

Izzy waved her hand at Thea. If it didn’t want to answer after all the energy she had given it, repeating her question was futile.

Thea bathed her short sword in blue light and stabbed toward the rope of light encircling the dusty demon’s neck. The demon exhaled as if in relief, and the sulfuric presence vanished.