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“Smells good, smells fresh,” it whispered, its syllables sibilant. It seemed to draw out and hiss each letter.
“Looks even better,” said the third. “We could have lots of fun wif ‘er. Could split ‘er in half in more ways than one. Eat her afterward.” His smile curled upward nastily, revealing his rotten teeth. “She ain’t a soul yet, is she? Too pink and too pure for that.”
There was a grunt and then the sound of something hitting flesh, and I realized that the satyr had moved to my side and pushed Gabe back several feet. I tried to turn to see what was happening, but the red demon tick-tocked his finger near my face and tsked. I kept my eyes forward. Luckily, the black, shadowy imp at my back had moved away from me, but that also meant he was focused on Gabe, too. I heard another thwack as something was struck behind me again.
“I don’t want to fight you,” Gabe growled. “Just let us pass, and no one gets hurt.”
The three demons tittered with laughter again, and then all three appeared in front of me once more.
The first demon, with the whining, grating voice, hopped up and down excitedly. “We kill her first. We take her!”
“Aye, and then when her little body reforms, we do it all again,” the Cockney demon said as drool dripped from his fat, wide lips. “You gonna wish you’d never been born, pretty thing.”
“Jussst leave her, soul ssstealer,” the imp whispered. “We’ll let you pass.”
Gabriel was silent behind me, and a quick, icy shock of fear rushed through me. What if he did leave me? Why wouldn’t he? Was I more important to him than his own comfort and safety? I couldn’t expect some man… no, not even a man… some thing to be selfless for a woman he just met.
“P—Please,” I managed to stammer out, not even sure who I was talking to. Maybe the demons to spare me, maybe Gabe to save me. I walked backward a few steps, then stopped as I hit something solid. Gabe, it was Gabe looming behind me. I pressed into his chest. I knew right then that my fear had been wrong. Damned creature or not, he was making a stand. Maybe he wasn’t exactly an ally, but he was the devil I knew, and something told me he would take care of me.
“Protect me,” I said, pressing against him tighter, finding reassurance in the solid feel of his torso. He sucked in a sharp breath, the inhale pushing against me and bolstering me even more,
“Don’t you dare touch her,” Gabe said, stepping forward and pushing me gently to the side. Though his tone and his words were stern and even, his face was murderous. The impressive paint job—or whatever it was—really looked like a leering, terrifying skull now. I clung to the back of his shirt like a lifeline, like he was a life preserver in a barren sea, and I’d just been thrown overboard. In that second, he was all I had.
“Marnie, run to the gate,” he commanded.
And I listened.
As soon as I sprinted toward the gate, the fight erupted with a clash. I dodged away from the shadowy imp, then pressed myself against the gate’s wrought iron bars. I was thin enough to slip between them and into the city. The imp would have been thin enough, too, but before he could even attempt it, Gabe came for him. He moved so fast he seemed to blur, looking more like a true ghost than his usual solid, wiry form. In his hand, I spotted a quick flash of light, and it took me a moment to realize he had a switchblade. The cold steel sliced through the shadowy creature, sending sparks up like a log or a piece of charcoal giving its last dying gasp atop a fire. Gabe sheared the creature nearly in half with three quick strokes, moving impossibly fast.
The imp fell to the ground and became black dust. Before I could even congratulate Gabe, however, the other two rushed him. As the satyr came at him with his head down as if to gore him on its horn, the red demon lobbed a fireball toward Gabe. Gabe managed to sidestep, almost blurring to the point of invisibility, then seemed to split in two before my very eyes. Each of his forms seemed less solid, less whole, than when he was one Gabe, but they worked to confuse the demons and simultaneously defend themselves. One of the Gabes barreled into the red demon’s torso at a full sprint, sending them both to the ground. There was an arc of red as Gabe buried his switchblade in the demon’s throat and then yanked it back out swiftly. The resulting gout of blood painted Gabe’s white tee red.
Meanwhile, the satyr was attempting to charge again, but both Gabes flanked him and attacked from each side. They each grabbed a horn, and then, with a disgustingly wet, crunchy crack, they broke the satyr’s neck. His hairy, lumpy body slumped to the ground in a boneless heap.
And then I blinked.
When I opened my eyes, there was only one Gabe, and his shirt was clear of any bloodstains. His switchblade was hidden back in his pocket as well. Save for the three bodies—or what was left of them—there was no evidence of the fight.
“Are you okay?” he said, his features etched with concern.
I stepped back out of the gate and stood by him. It was strange, but it felt like I needed to enter the city properly with him at my side.
“I—I’m okay,” I said a little shakily. “Are you okay?”
He raked a hand through his gorgeous hair. “Right as rain.”
He nodded toward the gate, and I finally took the time to really take it in. I’d been too preoccupied before to see how strange and beautiful it was. It was odd that something in Hell could be beautiful, but it was true. I marveled at the curlicues and intricate designs in the wrought iron. Also in iron, arching over the top, were different words in a number of languages. Mangia. Consume. Comer. I recognized some of them and realized they all meant to eat or partake in some way. Consume especially stood out to me and seemed strangely ominous.
“Do we really have to go in?” I asked, still staring up at the imposing entrance.
“Yes,” he replied as he stepped up beside me.
He brought with him the smell of smoke and his cologne, and I breathed it in deeply. It was better than the smell of sulfur and the cloying iron smell of freshly spilled blood. There was something sour in the air, which I figured might be from the demons’ organs or bodies.
“They’ll revive,” Gabe said, looking down at them briefly as if he’d read my mind. “We need to get into the city. Sometimes, you don’t remember why you died… er, were killed… down here. But if they remember, they might come after me.” He looked down at me, his eyes shining with intensity. “Or rather, they’ll come after you.”
I sucked in a deep breath and tried to step forward, but my steps faltered. It was ridiculous, seeing as how I’d fled through the bars just fine before. But now that I wasn’t running for my life, the iron bars seemed so much worse. Maybe sensing how scared I was, Gabe reached over and brushed his hand against mine. I gripped it, surprising even myself with how badly I needed his hand in mine. Things had already changed between us, even in the short amount of time I’d known him.
“You ready?” he said gruffly, still breathing a little heavy from his fight.
