Azazel (Demonology II)

I

FINN

  We waited for seven months, reaching out to anyone who would help. The Holy Shield refused to aid us, as we had betrayed them. We tried rallying demons, but they were all in it for themselves. The only people we could turn to were my mother; who was somewhere out there, dealing with something that she didn't want to trouble us with, Marc; who was spending time with his family in Washington, and Thalia; who was somewhere in the depths of hell. We were royally screwed.

  "Let me check," Lilith - Eva - said. I had tried calling her Lilith before, but she insisted that I call her Eva. She didn't want to think of her past. She was the first demon ever created, meaning that she was almost as old as Lucifer himself, but she turned against him, for she believed that human life needed to be preserved rather than tormented. Her vessel, however, was only twenty-seven years old. She had created it herself, using her extraordinary abilities.

  She checked my vitals. I was a Nephilim - half-human-half-angel. My angel blood made me resistant to mundane weapons, but my human blood made me weak to the dark arts. My body was still recovering. Months prior, my body had been used for the dark arts twice. Eva had used me to open a gate to Heaven, which was absolute torment. And I had later used my body to sustain a demon in order to escape a tomb in Heaven. It was a miracle that my body was still functioning.

  Eva had drawn a hexagram on my chest. It was one of the strongest demonic symbols in existence, and was designed to draw the demonic aura from my body. There was a giant risk that came with it, however. If I used my abilities too much, the effects of the hexagram could be reversed, and I would be filled with demonic aura. I would become a demon.

  "How does this feel?" Eva asked. She pressed a hand to the hexagram and it began to glow a deep red. My vision blurred and paresthesia spread through body.

  "Like pins and needles," I said. "Pins and needles all over my body."

  "Then you're healing." She pulled her hand away. "It's been seven months already, so you should be fine soon." And in those seven months, I hadn't experienced much. Most of it was spent travelling the world with Eva in search of clues and help. The only highlight was my eighteenth birthday, for which I got to see my mother briefly. After that, it was back to the old grind. We were in France, and were going to visit the catacombs in search of religious artifacts.

  "We need to get back into the fray soon," I said. "Who knows how much progress the other side has made?" By "other side" I meant the Council and demons. There were two servants of Hell - Azazel and Abaddon - who were supposed to be giant obstacles for us. We needed to act fast before they got a lead on us.

  "Not a chance," Eva shut me down. "Azazel and Abaddon are out there somewhere, and you're still shaken up. Besides, we scheduled our catacombs trip for 4:00, and it's already 3:00. Let's get out of here." She tossed me a shirt. It was an old, withered shirt, but I could still make out the Blizzard of Ozz album cover. I put on the shirt and followed her out of our small flat.
 
  When we traveled, we had to stay in small locations. A month earlier, we had decided to do some looking around in London. As soon as we arrived, we ran into a group of demons disguised as taxi drivers. It was messy, and we had a lot of covering up to do. We made sure not to make that mistake again.

  We caught the metro to the Paris catacombs and made it before four. Eva showed the guards our papers and fake IDs. They waved us through without question. We were in. 

  "We need to make this simple," Eva said as we descended the long staircase into the catacombs. "If you see any artifacts, you bag them." She gestured to the large bag over her shoulder. "If you see anything that looks out of the ordinary, avoid it."