by A. Catherine
Lillith leaned in closer till Duma could feel the heat of her breath.
“And her bite hurts a lot more than mine.” She nipped at his ear for good measure, but Duma remained still.
The serpent continued a path up and down Duma’s collar bone.
“I’m not entirely sure what started this little tussle. But from what I can see, the Heir is hurt, both him and Daevas are busy inside the Nephilim’s mind, and our last remaining demon is showing you chastity-fuckers what it’s like to bleed. So why don’t we all calm ourselves and take a deep breath,” Lillith suggested.
No one spoke, but the tension in the room remained.
Lillith smirked and opened her mouth to speak again when a bright golden light filled the room, and then Gabriel was walking towards them all.
“Enough. Angels, stand down,” Gabriel ordered his angels.
But the demons also slowly began to relax. Lillith’s serpent retreated back to her neck and solidified under an unspoken order, Seere straightened, releasing the staff from Jade’s neck.
Slowly Lillith and Seere backed away from their opponents, Jade and Duma regained their footing putting distance between them by moving closer to the archangel.
Gabriel took a look at each and every one of them, ensuring that they all weren’t about to attack once more—before he landed his gaze on the three inside the now ruined protection circle.
“How long have they been in?” Gabriel asked no one in particular, his attention flicking between the bleeding Heir and the Nephilim laying on the table. Worry etching lines into his skin.
Iaoel was the one who answered, sounding quieter than before. “About thirty minutes.”
“Why didn’t you wait for Gabriel to get here before going in?” Duma demanded.
Gabriel held up a hand to silence his angelic comrade. “It’s fine. Iaoel made a judgement call and I trust that it was necessary. If both Kaleus and Daevas had to go in it must be serious.”
“But—”
“There is a time and place for this argument, Duma. It’s not now.” Gabriel interrupted.
The Spectral stiffened and when he met the steady gaze of the archangel he nodded in understanding and relaxed. Duma backed away to stand outside of the group, folding his arms and taking steadying breaths.
“Tell me what happened,” Gabriel instructed Iaoel.
So they did. Both Seere and Iaoel contributed to telling Gabriel every detail of what had happened since before the Library.
While listening, the archangel took his time assessing each of the three, spending more time on Kaleus to inspect the mysterious wound that had no obvious source.
It looked like a stab wound, but according to Seere and Iaoel’s reports the wound showed up randomly while Kaleus was apparently using excessive energy.
Gabriel stood at the head of the table and pressed his fingers lightly to Heather’s temple.
When he focused on her mind he was met with only blockades. He was only able to get inside one’s subconscious while they slept, their consciousness was beyond his abilities.
Everyone jumped in surprise when Kaleus and Daevas simultaneously gasped for air—jolting out of their mental state with wide eyes. Gabriel knelt next to Kaleus and gripped his arm.
“What happened?” he demanded.
Kaleus coughed and winced, clutching at his side. He bared his teeth and glared at Daevas.
“That’s what I’d like to know,” he said pointedly to his third.
Daevas’ eyes were on Heather’s still unconscious face, looking distressed. “She lost her grip at the last second.”
“Then go back and get her!” Kaleus yelled.
Daevas still had a grip on her hand, already trying. His brows bunched together in further anguish.
“I can’t. The edge of her consciousness crumbled away as we left.”
“What does that mean?” Gabriel demanded.
Daevas looked up at the archangel. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen that happen before. Whatever is in there is defying all the rules of body and mind. There’s no way we could prepare for it,” he explained.
“What did you see?”
Daevas shook his head and looked at Kaleus, who answered.
“My guess is that it’s a primordial of some kind. But it didn’t resemble anything I’ve heard of. And it changed form. What I saw was a shadow silhouette that could solidify into shards of black crystal and glass.” He gestured to his bleeding side. “Which is what did this.”
“Did any of it hit Heather?”
Kaleus rolled his eyes and waved a hand over her unbloodied body. “Does it look like it hit her?”
Gabriel glared at the Heir. “And now she’s stuck in there?”
“I’d go back in myself, but my mental powers are spent,” Kaleus stated.
Gabriel looked back at the still face of the human, her eyelids no longer fluttering and twitching like they were before. “What you described doesn’t sound like any primordial.” He spun to face Seere. “Why was she so afraid to go alone in the Library?” he asked her.
Seere bristled, rolling her shoulders back. “I assumed it was just nerves. But then after we realized that the place had wards on it, we thought maybe her fear was just her body’s reaction to them. Like her angel-half was signaling her in some way,” she explained.
“And you’re sure that you didn’t see anything when you found her?”
Iaoel was the one who replied. “Just her flashlight on the ground.”
Kaleus groaned. “I know where your thoughts are going, featherbrain. But I don’t think whatever is in her mind came from there. If it changes form, wouldn’t it make more sense for it to be what we both have seen in her dreams before?” he asked.
Gabriel had wondered that himself. “Why was the Library warded?” Daevas asked.
Iaoel shrugged. “We didn’t find anything worthy in it. Maybe something used to be there that needed to be protected, but those old chambers have been excavated a long time ago.”
“A relic maybe?” Gabriel guessed.
Kaleus coughed. “Maybe. We’ll have to go back there at some point.” His hand pressed hard against the wound, blood still dripping into the large pool of it that now lay beneath his chair.
“You’re not healing,” Gabriel stated. Kaleus shook his head. The archangel knelt again, motioning for him to move his hand. When he did, Gabriel hovered his hand over the stab wound. A golden light protruded from his palm towards it.
Gabriel’s brows narrowed in concentration as he attempted to heal Kaleus’ injury with his own power, but nothing happened. He sighed and lowered his hand. “I can’t heal it either.”
“Should I try?” Jade asked.
Gabriel shook his head, “If it’s beyond mine and Kaleus’ powers, it’s unlikely to respond to yours. You may need to heal the old-fashioned way,” he sighed. “We need to get it cleaned up and dressed.”
Seere reached his side and began to help support him up, Daevas rushed to the other side and helped. Kaleus winced before jerking his head towards the Nephilim.
“What about Heather?”
“Maybe I can take her to Azrael, see if she can—”
Gabriel was cut off suddenly when Heather shot up, gasping loudly for air.
She coughed, clutching her throat. Gabriel was at her side in an instant, putting a hand on her back to support her. She sucked in air with so much force like she had been drowning.
“Heather? Are you alright?” he asked.
Everyone in the room had moved closer, worry written on all of their faces. Kaleus resisted getting closer, leaning on his two friends for support.
Once Heather’s breathing regulated, she looked around frantically, seeing each and every one of their faces.
Horror and fear were written all over her, but with each face she locked onto it eased. Lingering on Kaleus and his still bleeding body, and then it stopped lastly on Gabriel.
She touched her face and neck, running hands thr
ough her hair as if reminding herself that she was alive.
“How—” it came out in a rasp at first, she swallowed to clear it a bit more. “How am I, how did I get out?” she asked.
This time she looked at Daevas for an answer. He extended a free hand and lightly touched her ankle. “What happened after Kale and I disappeared?” he asked.
Heather’s eyes bulged with confusion and dread. “That was—” she paused and looked around again, “How long after you did I come out of it?” she asked quietly.
“Only a couple of minutes,” Kaleus answered, watching her closely—even as his skin looked paler than death.
Heather looked down, her gaze flicking around without direction—counting internally.
“Heather.”
She looked up at Kaleus.
She read the weariness on his face, and the question behind all of the others as well.
“You disappeared, and then…” She closed her eyes and shuddered.
A tear streamed down from each of her eyes before she opened them again and answered.
“It felt like I was in there for weeks.”
FORTY
Heather
I COULDN’T ANSWER THEIR QUESTIONS at the moment.
Every muscle in my body was still trembling feverishly. I had to beg them to leave me be for a little while, let me collect my thoughts, remind myself that I was in the real world again and not in my head. Kale and Gabriel both read my discomfort and sent everyone away.
Minutes. I was in there for only a few minutes?
Seere and Daevas took Kale up to his room to clean up the damage on his side that wasn’t healing anytime soon. Gabriel helped me up the steps, and when I asked if I could take a bath he told me there was only one bathroom in the warehouse with a bathtub. He led me into a dark room and then into the bathroom attached to it.
I waited, leaning against the sink counter while he filled it with hot water. I stared off into space, my skin cold whenever I let the memories consume me over again.
I jolted when Gabriel touched my arm, drawing me from my thoughts.
“It’s okay,” he said. “You’re safe. The water is ready. Do you need anything? Food? Something to drink.”
Just the thought of food made me queasy, so I shook my head in response. He nodded and swept a stray piece of hair away from my face.
“I’ll leave you be then. Just call if you need anything.” He leaned forward and gently kissed the top of my head and then was gone, closing the door behind him as he left.
I stared at the full tub of water, the steam that rose from it and shivered. I took a deep breath and undressed. The bathroom wasn’t huge, or extravagant. The tile was white and black, the walls a pale blue color. In the far corner there was a standing shower with glass doors. Across from it a simple porcelain toilet and the sink was made of simple wood topped with a white stone counter.
There wasn’t a mirror. Strange.
I jerked back at the first dip of my feet in the hot water, but then finally relaxed into its warmth. The tub was deep, completely covering my body in water without having to sink down low.
I sighed as it chased away the chills that still coated my skin. I took some time to clean off, and then I just sat there, holding my knees close to my chest.
It was so quiet. Only the sound of water dripping off my hair broke through the silence.
Minutes. Goddamn. I massaged my temples with my fingers, easing the headache that had been there since I awoke.
I closed my eyes only for a moment but behind them all I saw was that shadow creature staring back at me. I shot my eyes open and shook my head.
I’m out. I’m safe. I said to myself. It’s over. At least this part of it is over. If this is what happens when I join the angels and demons on their searches, then maybe staying here was for the best.
I would need some time before I’d be ready to experience something like that again. I imagined that wraith that they brought back prisoner last week.
Gabriel said that other primordials were so much worse than that one and the vetala. I brushed my wet hair back behind my ears. Was that thing in my head a primordial too?
Darkness dwells where one can’t see.
The wraith said that just before they killed it, when they asked what I had to do with all of this. Was the wraith talking about this shadow creature than lingered in my subconscious?
I missed my home—my apartment, my bed. Being able to take a soothing bubble bath and then eating a slice of strawberry cheesecake while binge watching Criminal Minds on Netflix. I missed the smell of coffee and the sounds of chatty college students in the Bistro café just outside the science building.
I missed soaking in the sun at the lake, reading a dystopian thriller, then cooling off in the green mucky water. Hell, I even missed only feeling nervous when I sat down in an old wooden desk to take a test, the feeling of a pencil in my hand and the flipping of paper as other students turned over the page.
Small mundane things that seem so outside my reach now.
A life without shadows and blood.
Blood. So much blood.
Blood staining my fingers as I desperately tried to staunch its flow, to stall the end of a life. Feeling the warmth leave their body, the light empty from his eyes…
My vision cleared, refocusing on the water in front of me. A drop fell from my face into the bathwater below my raised knees. I reach up and touched my cheek. I was crying.
I let loose a sigh and wiped my eyes clean. The water in the tub had gone cold—I hadn’t realized I had been in here that long. I braced my hands on the edges of the tub and lifted myself up—wrapping a clean towel that was folded on a small shelf by the door.
I looked around and realized that I hadn’t brought any clean clothes with me.
I didn’t even know whose room I was in.
A black cotton robe hung on the door hook. I touched the fabric; its soft surface was warm and comforting. I wrapped my hair in the towel and put the robe on, securing the tie tightly. It wasn’t terribly large or thick.
The hem reached down mid-calf, but the arms were a bit longer than expected. I rolled up the cuffs to my wrists and turned to check myself in the mirror only to stop short, remembering that there wasn’t one in this bathroom.
I gathered my dirty clothes in a pile in my arms and turned the handle on the door. It opened into a larger bedroom. The walls were made of the same concrete as the rest of the place, only in this room there were more rusting steel columns and pillars, adding a touch of red and orange to the dreary gray color of the cement. A large wooden canopy bed stood in the center against the wall.
And laying in it was Kale.
“Oh! This is your room,” I gasped.
He was sitting up, his chest bare and his side bandaged up. “I see you found my robe,” he stated.
I touched it just above my heart. “Sorry, I didn’t bring any clean clothes. I’ll wash it, I promise.”
He chuckled and only winced a little from the motion.
“It doesn’t bother me when beautiful women wear my clothes, although I wouldn’t have minded if you came out naked,” he teased.
I huffed a laugh and walked towards the bed. “How are you feeling?”
“Shouldn’t I be asking you that?” he countered.
I put my pile of clothes on the floor at the foot of the bed and continued up the side, sitting on the bed beside him.
“I’m not the one who got stabbed.”
“No, but you are the one who got left behind.” I tried not to feel the sharpness of that statement.
“It wasn’t Daevas’ fault. He had his hands full with you, how was he supposed to know the ground would disappear beneath us,” I chuckled.
I looked at his bandages and reached my hand up to lightly touch the outside of it. He flinched only a fraction, but it was enough for me to pull back.
“You’re still not healing?” I asked.
He moaned, cracking his neck. �
�No. My powers are nearly back to full strength, but no healing. Of all the things I envy about mortals, this is not one of them.”
“Since when do you envy mortals?”
He smiled distantly, fidgeting with the dark green silk sheets. “It’s a long story.”