by Skyler Andra
Goodbye, my darkness told me.
No! Anger curled in my chest. It set my body alight. I stabbed the man in the throat again. He shrieked but didn’t let go.
Again!
My pulse charged, drumming in my ears. I couldn’t hear anything above it. My entire body burnt up from the inside. This time when I stabbed him, the needle snapped. The man pawed at his throat, blood spilling over his hands.
Yes. Good. But you’re not finished yet.
Darkness raged in my chest. I clutched the broken syringe with both hands. Releasing a long roar, I shoved it straight into his eye. He clutched his face and fell to his knees, collapsing onto the ground.
I stood, my breath rattling in my chest, shaking all over.
Good, my darkness crooned. He’s dead. You’re safe.
I lifted my shaking hands, examining the blood on them. It was then that I finally came to my senses. My eyes landed on the bloodied body. I fell to my knees, touching his neck, feeling for any signs of life. Nothing.
What had I done?
The guard in the corner chuckled as I stumbled to my feet, tripping and hitting the wall. Using it for support, I felt my way along it, following it to the room where Michael was slumped in his chair. My knees gave out and I crumbled at his feet. I hugged onto his legs, weeping. I don’t know how much time had passed. I might have even blacked out. The next thing I realized, Mike was nudging me with his leg.
“Jophiel,” he said, trying to wake me. “Get up.”
I looked up into his eyes, his pupils dilated, his face red.
“Where are your pants?” he asked, his nostrils flaring.
“He… he…” I couldn’t get the words out beyond the knot lodged in my throat.
A growl rumbled in his chest. “Who touched you?”
I cried into my hands, my whole body shaking.
Mike lifted himself up to his feet, pushing away from me. He shuffled backward, smashing the chair against the wall and freeing himself. Red marks circled his wrists. He fell to his knees, his hands clasping my face, stroking it.
“I’ll get us out of here,” he whispered into my ear. “Wait here.”
“No.” I grabbed hold of his jacket.
“I’m just going to get your clothes.” He ran a hand over my temple.
In an instant he was gone. I huddled in a ball, clutching my knees tight to my chest. A gun fired in the next room and my stomach locked tight. Mike, no! I heard wrestling, grunting, thudding, and another blast. Someone groaned and thumped on the floor.
Some moments later, Mike lumbered back into the room, his hand tied with a cloth stained with blood.
“You’re bleeding.” I grabbed him, falling into his embrace, trembling and sobbing.
He rubbed my back. “Get dressed. We have to get out of here,” he reminded me. An urgency flooded my brain, setting off alarm bells and spiking my blood with a fresh wave of adrenaline.
He was right. What if Lucifer came back and left me in that room again? I couldn’t go through that. Killing that man had taken a slice of my soul.
Our leader scooped me up into his arms despite the pain he must be feeling from his wound. I shivered in his hold, clutching his neck as I clung to him. Whimpering, I buried my face in Mike’s chest.
“I’ll fucking kill Luc.” He carried me out of the room, through the mob of drug riddled lost souls.
Out the corner of my eye, I caught the slumped form on the floor. I closed my eyes. I never wanted to see that again. But like the child that had stabbed me, I knew his face would haunt my every waking hour.
I felt sick again. My head ached from all the punches. Bruises swelled on my neck, bringing with it a dull burn. My grace hadn’t fully returned to heal me yet.
We continued through the underground facility, Mike searching for a way out.
He stopped, spinning me around.
“Do you feel that?” he asked me.
I tried to tap into my grace, but all I felt was fear, shock, and revulsion. All of it supplying the darkness with more strength. I fought back the urge to vomit. Pain scratched at my chest. I closed my eyes. It wanted out. It wanted more blood. It wanted to wreak havoc for the pain caused me. No. I was never going to give in to what it wanted.
“What?” I squeezed Michael harder.
He used my body to nudge open a swinging door. Inside we encountered a bed with a man lying on it. Machines beeped and flashed green numbers. Tubes connected to the man’s arms. Needles pierced his flesh. Reminded of my ordeal, I whined and buried my face in Mike’s chest.
“Fuck,” Mike whispered, setting me down on a chair in the corner of the room
“Get me out of here,” I begged while clinging to him, refusing to let go. I didn’t want to be separated from him. Didn’t want to be alone.
He bent down in front of me, clutching both of my hands, his warmth soothing. I nudged my face to his chest.
“Jophiel.” He moved to hold my face in his hands. His eyes brightened with hope. “I can’t leave him here.”
“Who?” I glanced over Mike’s shoulder at the brown-haired man with fair skin, who slept on in the bed. His face was pinched, his lips tight. What did he dream of? Was he also escaping his terrible life? I thought back to the room and shivered.
Mike let go of me and climbed to his feet with a grim smile. He pointed to the man.
“It’s Raff.”
27
Michael
I grabbed the bags of solution hanging on the IV drip stand and read the label. Horse sedative. Strong shit. What Luc probably used against Jojo and I to knock us out and dull our connection to our grace.
My gaze fell to Raff. Brother. Best friend. Warrior.
Jojo had come to stand beside me, her arms wrapped tight across her waist. Her eyes kept bouncing fro Raff to the door.
Yeah. The sooner we got out of here the better.
A storm raged through my veins. Luc’s death played behind my eyes. For setting off the bomb in the city square and killing those people. Low blow even for him. For kidnapping us and what he’d subjected Jophiel to. But most of all, for holding Raff prisoner, drugging him, keeping him asleep for god knows what purpose. I’d fucking rip his head from his shoulders for what he’d done to Jojo.
I patted him on the cheek a couple of times. “Raff. Buddy. Wake up.”
He groaned and turned his head away. I don’t know how much drug was in his system or how to flush him of it. God knows how long it’d take for him to rouse. Time we didn’t have.
I don’t know where Luc went or when he and his henchmen would be back. But I sensed we’d face a shit fight on the way out. Against the guards with guns that I’d seen.
Jojo came over and touched his hand, running her fingers up his pale skin to where the needle wedged in Raff’s vein. She touched the tip of the syringe, gasped and jerked away, her grace still sensitive to the darkness.
Drugs were one of the foulest sources of it. Among murder, rape, emotional and physical abuse.
She glanced down at the blood on her own shaking hand. Quickly she pulled her jacket tighter, wrapping her arms tight across her chest as if to protect herself from the world. Her ordeal had changed her. Broken her inside. Dark crescent moons clung beneath her eyes. Her natural glow had faded a little. The sparkle in her hazel eyes dulled. Spots stained her pink energy field. Each thing Luc did to her stole more of her beauty, her innocence her light.
Stripped off a piece of her soul and her beauty.
I felt horrible not being able to hold her when she needed me the most. But I had to get Raff out of here. I couldn’t leave him here to rot in that bed.
Knowing she needed something, even just a brief touch, I reached out to calm her, stroke her face. She gasped and retreated. My stomach tightened at being helpless to make her pain stop. I don’t know if she’d be able to fight anymore after this. Her grace had retreated to the back of her ribcage like a frightened child. This world and everything in it terrified her. Tainted
her. She wanted no more of it.
Molten lava pumped through me. I’d kill him. No. I’d bring him to the point of death, let him heal, then kill him.
“We’ll be out of here soon,” I told her, my words, hollow, empty, unable to strip away her suffering. “I promise.”
She nodded absentmindedly.
I tore off the medical tape on Raff’s skin and yanked the drips from his arm. “I’m going to have to carry him out of here.”
She dragged her hands through her hair repeatedly.
Fuck. My touch seemed to frighten her. Once we got back to Uri’s place, I’d hold her for as long as he needed, and if she let me.
“I can walk now,” she assured me, tugging Raff’s blankets from his body.
My breath caught when Jojo pulled the blankets back, revealing him, barely covered in a hospital gown. Muscles in his legs and arms had wasted away from lack of activity. Dark ink pulsated through his veins. Fuck. Even if he did wake, he’d be in no state to walk out of here.
Raff was no lightweight either. At full fitness, he would have weight two hundred and twenty pounds easy.
“God, Raff,” I said, removing the machine from around his thinned biceps and it started to drone. Before it roused any attention, I smashed it with my fist, silencing it. “What have they done to you?”
Dammit. No wonder we couldn’t find any trace of Raff. The drug had effectively switched off his connection to us. Without any faculties he couldn’t send out a distress call to us to rescue him.
I slid my hands beneath Raff’s back and under his legs, hauling him into my arms. Why hadn’t Luc killed him? None of this made sense. I wanted answers and now. But first I had to get Raff and Jojo out of here. Then I’d deal with Luc later. Gently, I lifted and draped him over one shoulder.
I don’t know how far we’d get with guards everywhere. By carrying him I was severely restricted from protecting us. But I’d take the chance.
“Let’s get out of here,” I said, taking Jojo’s hand and leading her out of the room.
The instant I exited the room, bullets fired and bit into my flesh. Two in the abdomen, one in the arm and a fourth in my hip. Pain crippled me and I nearly dropped Raff.
“Fuck,” I growled, summoning my flaming sword, forcing Jojo back into the room behind me.
I shuffled back inside the room, depositing Raff in the chair by the bed. “Stay here,” I warned Jojo. “I’ll take care of this.”
I didn’t want her going through any more trauma.
One twitch of my shoulders called upon my wings and they sprouted from my shoulders. Translucent feathers made from light, tainted with grey from the darkness I’d absorbed. These would protect me from injury, depleting the kinetic energy from the bullets, assimilating it in my wings. Tucking them tight around my body, I moved out. Bullets hit my wings, absorbing the energy, making the fired shells fall to the floor in a tinkle of metal.
Through the wings, I glared at the shooters. Two guards. Dark as they came. Black eyes. Soul completely consumed by Luc’s foulness. They shot more rounds that slammed into the unprotected areas of my abdomen and legs. I swallowed the burn and grit my teeth.
“What the hell?” one of the guards asked when the weapons ceased firing.
I flung open my wings, hurling my sword straight through his chest. He arched back and dropped to his knees. Instantly I recalled my sword to my grasp. Then I tossed it through the air, hitting the second guard square in the chest. He slumped to the ground next to his body, darkness steaming out of him, like the stinking pile of crap that he was.
Another three appeared, along with someone I hadn’t seen in a long time.
Fuck. Another fallen angel. One that had sided with Luc. Lower tier than me, but strong nonetheless. A former high-ranking commander under my govern. Looked like he’d chosen the wrong side.
“Been a long time, brother,” he said, voice hoarse and thick. He looked as sick and pale as Luc.
Damn straight. “Balthazar.”
Lower level angels didn’t have special powers. Those were specific to the Archangels. These angels were comparable to worker bees, sent out to do the Archangels bidding, and were only assigned swords. But they could still do damage with what they had.
Balthazar produced his word, dark as midnight. Our weapons clashed, shooting out sparks in every direction. The drug had weakened me and my full power hadn’t returned. The fallen angel pushed me back with ease, each strike from his sword vibrating through me. My back slammed into the wall and I grunted. He slashed through my wing, tarnishing me with his filth, and causing an energetic tear. I screamed, clutching my incorporeal appendage tight to my body. My feet lost their footing and I crashed into the wall.
“A move you taught me, brother,” Balthazar bragged. “When you cut my fucking wings off.”
Yeah, well I didn’t teach him everything.
And as for the wings, the Most High had ordered it for all fallen angels, and I had delivered the request.
“Now I’m going to show you what that feels like,” the fallen angel snarled.
Over my dead body.
More bullets pinged off my wings. Shit. They weren't letting up. A tactic to trap me. Curse this vulnerable and mortal human flesh.
I released my second wing, enfolding me, intent on retaliating. The fallen angel’s hand punctured the barrier of energy, catching me by the throat. I struggled in his grasp, punching his elbow. He grunted and slammed my head against the wall. I groaned as my vision spun.
Dammit. I needed my full strength to take him on.
Desperate, my elbow lashed out, slamming him in the temple. He let go and I smashed into him with all my body weight. I rammed his head into the wall, breaking the plaster. Balthazar let out a groan but shook me off. His darkness had made him much stronger.
Bullets nipped at my legs like mosquitoes. Pissing me off. I had to stop them. Leave me room to fight fair with the fallen angel.
I smashed the angel’s head through the wall again. Then I flew across the hall in front of the guard, stabbing him in the throat with my sword. Darkness hissed out of him. He went down like a demolished building. I bent down and smashed him in the chin to make sure he didn't wake up. Then I emptied the clip from his gun and shoved it in my pocket.
Bullets pounded my wings from the side. I funneled myself across the hall, throwing myself at the other two guards, hurtling them into the wall. I kicked them both for good measure. I didn’t get the chance to cut away their darkness when Balthazar struck again from behind.
He seized my wing, wrenching it back, and I screamed at the pain cracking in my shoulder blade. Sure, they weren’t corporeal, but they were attached to me like a limb, and could be cut off with angelic weapons or ripped out with a strong enough hand. I spun with him still attached to me wing. With all my force I thumped him into the wall. I launched at him, forcing his head into bricks, making them crumble. Over and over I did this, until he reeled, tripping over a guard. When I loomed over him, ready to destroy him, someone stabbed me in the stomach, and I hunched over.
Fuck. Everything hurt like hell.
Now I faced two fallen angels by the look of it.
I spun around to face my new attacker. Azreal. A long time defender of Lucifer. His skin bedeviled by a flesh eating virus made of darkness.
Before I had the chance to defend myself, a long thorn stabbed him through the back of his skull. A choking noise burst out of his mouth. He clutched his face. Shadow poured out of him in clouds, along with his grace. Another two thorns punctured his chest. One right through his sternum. His grace bled out. Whoever was behind him pushed him away, and the fallen angel flopped to the floor.
Jojo stood behind him, her expression blank. Black grace dripped off her thorned vines. Her hands shook as she turned them over.
Brutal. Unlike her. My heart twisted with the pain, darkness and confusion roaring through her. Fuck. Something had snapped inside her and she wasn't the same old angel I knew. She w
as scarred from two stabbings and a sexual assault. The darkness inside her rose like a cobra ready to attack. It was not about to back down. I wasn't sure if she could come back from that.
Holding my stomach, I moved past her, taking care of Balthazar before he came to his senses. I pierced him through the chest with my sword, right through his grace. Satisfied, I left him there to bled out.
Two more fallen angels appeared from around the corner. I cut down one with my sword, and skewered the other through the heart. Both of them sagged to the floor in a pile of bodies.
Behind me, Jojo stood there, staring at her hands.
“Get Raff,” I growled at her, trying to keep her from going dark herself, because when she came to her senses, she’d regret what she’d done.
I continued on ahead, met with four more guards. Two I grabbed by the head, slamming them together. Skulls cracked and down they were. The third I seized by the throat, shoving his head through the wall. The last I cut away his darkness. Then I stabbed them all with my sword and severed their connection to Luc’s plague.
Time to leave before more came. I returned to the room, collected Raff and hauled ass out of there, dragging Jojo by the arm. On our way out, we encountered a thick sliding door. I wedged a long bar of metal through the handle and the railing along the top, jamming it. For the rest of our escape, navigating the maze of this nest of filth, we didn’t encounter any more trouble. We emerged into the filthy air of an alley. I spun around, trying to get my bearings. I didn’t have a clue if we were still in Sterling City or not. With my mind still foggy from the drugs, I couldn’t pinpoint our exact location.
“Come on,” I said, tugging Jojo and she followed me out onto a main street.
I hailed a cab, and when it pulled over, I let Jojo get in and shoved Raff in beside her. The driver gave me a funny look when I slipped into the passenger seat.
“Too much to drink over lunch,” I lied.
The cab driver huffed. “Where to?”
“We need to get to 101 Incentory Lane Sterling City?” I said, scratching the back of my head.
The driver plugged the address into his GPS system. “That’s two hours away.”