by K. B. Draper
I stuck my finger in and swirled it in the quarter-size hole where there had once been black leather effectively covering my big toe. I was seriously over this shit. Someone was going to pay, and pay hard.
I was as close as possible without having my face burnt off. The smoke and flames were blinding. “Mia, status check.”
“Hold on,” Mia said. “I’m in the middle of check-ins.”
I’m not sure you know this about me, but I’m not a good holder on-er. I’m not a good any kind of holder. I’d drink your beer, rifle through your purse, and go all in on a pair of twos. So me standing here with a hole in my boot and no-nothing it while I knew everyone around me was fighting … yeah, it wasn’t a good look on me.
“Mia?” I asked impatiently.
“Danny is good. And … Downtown Michael Brown is … oh damn. Yeah, he fine. And also fiiiine if you know what I’m saying.”
“Mia.”
“Right. One more second. Ashlyn and Grand, good. Loretta, oh damn,” She laughed. “That bitch is crazy. I totally dig her.”
I sighed, attempting to see anything in the growing blackness. “I’m coming back your way. Angels are holding their own. Sammy and Ariel are chasing a couple of rogues that escaped the other side of town.”
“Right. Good. Now where is Beetlejuice?”
“Yeah, he’s—. Whoa, um.”
“Um what?”
“I had him, but then he just vanished.”
“Flash of light?” I asked.
“No, he just jumped back in the hole.”
“Chickenshit. How about Famine?” I asked, already moving in the direction I’d last seen him.
“Yeah, he’s about two hundred yards to your … Never mind, he just blipped out too.”
“Back in the hole?”
“Nope. We had light this time. Michael and Six popped out and straight up snatched his ass.”
Damn it. I mean, “Yay, good side.” I redirected my footfalls. “How about Death?”
“He’s … oh crap, he’s actually coming this way. He’s … AJ, you need to get back here.” Her next words were drowned out by static, and then there was nothing.
“Mia!” My boots were already moving.
I was seeing way too much of this road between the hellhole and Pinckney. This time when I rounded the bend, my knees nearly buckled at the sight before me. Angels lay scattered on the road as if they’d dropped where they’d stood, black tears leaking from their eyes. I screamed into the dark. “Sammy!” But I didn’t wait. I needed to get to Mia. Wings stirred the air, and then feet were running alongside me. “I’m so sorry,” I said.
“Ariel is with them,” Sammy replied. “She called for reinforcements. They will take them home.”
I looked over my shoulder to see Ariel laying a hand on two angels’ chests. A light consumed them before they vanished.
“Are they …?”
“No. Not yet anyway.”
“Can she heal them?”
“She can’t heal them, but she can slow the process long enough to get them home. Hopefully, God will be able to help them.”
“I’m sorry,” I said again.
“I am too.” His sorrow weighing heavy in his voice.
We caught up to Death not even a half mile later. He was off his horse and if one didn’t know better, you’d think the two were merely two supernatural beings out on a quiet night stroll. Minus the part that Uncle Bad Touch left death in his wake. I watched his fingertips caress trees and plants as he passed. They turned black and wilted beneath his touch. And that was enough of that.
“Hey, jackhole!” I yelled.
He stopped for a beat before turning to face me, and I took an involuntary step back. Let’s just say I know where he got his name. Death looked as if he’d spent three days in an unplugged refrigerator in a non-climate-controlled storage locker in Arizona after all the baked fluids had leaked out of his toenails. His horse wasn’t much better.
“Okay. You win. You’re the ugliest,” I said.
“The infamous demon hunter, I assume,” Death said.
“In the flesh.” I made a circle-eight finger motion in his direction. “Unlike some people.”
You know how they say smiling makes people prettier? Yeah, no. This was next-level Stephen King creepy clown. He started forward. I wanted to step back, but I really, really wanted to shove his fugly face up his own blowhole so I stayed where I stood instead.
“Don’t let him touch you,” Sammy said.
I’d figured that out, but appreciated the confirmation. I unsheathed Hall and Oates from my back. “No touching. I’m totally down with that.”
Sammy took to the air, sword in hand.
Death brought a scythe into existence in his right hand.
“Wow, stereotype much?” I asked.
“It’s overplayed I agree, but it’s so …” He transferred the weapon to his left hand with a toss, then swung out, slicing through the post of a nearby No Passing sign with no more effort than a blowtorch cutting through a stick of butter, “Efficient.” And then he charged.
He nearly succeeded in turning my head into a free-range pumpkin, but I managed to lean away enough to lose only a couple of wispy fly-away hairs. Taught them a lesson.
I came under his attack, missing with my first blade strike but getting a piece of him with the second slice. Sammy also came in with a sword at his back, but Death blocked the blow with a whipping motion of his scythe.
I ducked again as the blade came back in my direction, coming up with both blades already in motion. We went on like this for several rounds, parry, swing and thrust, then swing, thrust and parry. He caught the side of my arm, slicing my jacket and, hopefully, merely the top hold-it-all-in-layer of my skin. My arm was still working so I took that as a good sign, even though I could feel warm blood running down the inside of my sleeve. Sammy didn’t fare as well; he caught the back of the blade across his chest. He fell from the sky, slamming into the earth, a wing bent akimbo under him.
Until this point, I’d kept my distance, you know with the whole touch of death thing he had going on, but then he smiled, reveling in the fact he’d hurt Sammy and, well, it straight up teed me off. I rushed him. I caught the scythe in the V of my crossed blades. My momentum carried me forward, and I used it to place a boot in his gut. He stumbled back, bent in two, and I came at him again. He stumbled back, fighting to block my blows. I swung Oates at his wrist, knocking the scythe from his grasp. He swung out, catching me in the same arm that was now throbbing due to the slice from earlier.
The night lit up behind him, and Six walked out and into the fight. Death lunged for his weapon just out of his reach, Six stepped over it and growled. Death straightened and returned his focus to me. I nodded at the glowing entrance. “We can do this the hard way or the easy way.” Six added to my sentiment, releasing a low rumble from his throat.
Death smirked. “Hard way.”
I sighed. “Hard it is.” I returned my blades to my back and stepped aside to reveal Ariel behind me, Jimi on her shoulder.
Chapter 23
Ariel got Sammy to his feet. Her hand was on his chest, the wound already healing. His wing, however, lay limp at his side.
I looked down at Jimi. “I’m glad you started pulling your weight around here.” I looked to Ariel. “He was, what, just lying there in the road? How come I didn’t see him?”
“Dead center,” Ariel replied. “Maybe he wasn’t there when you passed.”
“But how—”
“God doesn’t intervene, but does provide you the things you need. You only have to be open to receiving them.”
“Would God provide me a supreme pizza, extra cheese? I’m in serious need of one about now.”
Ariel smiled. “Maybe.”
“AJ!” Mia yelled and about blew out my eardrum.
“Ouch, Jesus. Super hearing, remember?”
“Sorry,” she whispered. “You okay? I lost you. Everything went down there
for a bit. I had to reroute our signal.”
“I’m fine. The others?”
“Good. Ashlyn and Danny are here. They were going to get ammoed up, but we’re running pretty low.”
“I’ll go see what’s left in Woody.”
“That would be good. Grand said he was headed there a while ago, but then I lost contact and I haven’t been able to reach him. Danny is headed that way.”
“Tell Danny to stay. I’ll find him, grab what’s left, and bring everything to you.” I spun toward Ariel and Sammy. “You guys okay?”
“I’m fine,” Sammy said. “I’ll just be earthbound for a bit.” He tucked his wings away with some help from Ariel.
“You okay?” I asked Ariel. Ariel wasn’t hurt, but I knew what she’d had to deal with back there had to be hard.
“I’m okay. I just pray I retuned them in time. How about you?”
“I’m good. I’m going to find Grand.”
“We’re right behind you,” Sammy said.
Six had stayed on this realm after Death was blasted into the next one. He ran alongside me as I raced toward Woody, which was parked a few blocks away from downtown Pinckney. The sight of Grand sitting on Woody’s bumper, with its tailgate up, was like releasing the valve on my heart’s pressure cooker. I slowed to a jog.
“Oh thank god you’re okay,” I said.
“He’s there? He’s good?” Mia asked.
“Here and good,” I confirmed.
A tired grin lifted the corner of Grand’s mouth. “It is good to see you.”
Grand is a hugger. Grand always hugged in greeting. Fun fact: Grand’s butt was still on the bumper. “What’s wrong?” I asked.
“I’m okay. Just tweaked my knee a little.” He started to stand, but had to use Woody to be semi upright.
“No, no, sit back down” I ordered, grabbing for his elbow.
Ariel stepped in for a closer look, and Six nosed his muzzle under Grand’s hand. “I just tweaked it,” he repeated, as Ariel began to inspect his leg.
“Can you bend it?”
The face Grand made when he tried to do so was a big fat no.
“You fractured your kneecap. I can start the healing and help with the pain and swelling, but it will take time for the bones to knit back together. You’ll have to keep this as immobile as possible.”
“Let’s get you back to Mia. You can hole up there.”
“I’m sorry, AJ,” he said as we positioned him in the back of Woody.
I stopped trying to tuck him in. “Don’t you dare.”
“But—”
“Grand, no. I don’t want to hear any of it. I’d be out of this game three times already.” I flicked at the ripped jacket and the cuts across my torso. “If it wasn’t for Norm.”
“I just—”
I earmuffed myself. “La la la la la la.” He opened his mouth to speak. “LA LA LA LA.” He gave up with a shake of his head. “Good. Now, why don’t we all pile in and head to Mia. Danny and Ashlyn are there.” Sammy and Ariel climbed in the back seat, but with Grand taking up Six’s normal riding spot, Six had to take shotgun, which he was not upset about.
We pulled over and parallel parked a block later. Not between yellow lines, but between the bell tower that had, in the very recent past, topped the courthouse and the front counter complete with an old school cash register, which if I was wild guessing, had once been payment central for Kathy’s Closet if the big gaping hole in the storefront bearing the same name was any indication.
I stepped out and around Woody to take in the reason for the impromptu stop. Six leaned farther out the window to take in the spectacle. A Hulk-sized opening now graced the side of the Pinckney’s courthouse. “That’s going to run up their AC bill,” I muttered as Sammy and Ariel joined me.
A government surplus metal desk came out of a previously closed window, bounced twice, and came to a rest against a nearby light pole. We all leaned forward to make out the face-size dent in its side. “I think he’s playing with him now. Who wants to go in and break up the party?” Sammy and Ariel both took a step back. I sighed. “Fine. I’ll do it.”
I made it three steps before War came out the same window as the desk. Instead of bouncing, he left a horseman-sized skid mark across the lawn. Downtown came out the same window, having to tuck in his wings so he could squeeze though the opening.
“Yo, super angel! I think we’re good here. Plus, you might want to save a little something for …” I shot a thumb over my shoulder toward the red blaze lighting the night sky behind us. Oh did I forget to mention that new detail? Yeah, about two seconds after we headed in this direction the sky turned red. Blood red. I had to give it to Luci; the color went perfect with an apocalypse.
The archangel looked at the horizon. “He’s rising.”
“Kind of figured that. So maybe if you’re done bagel-smearing this guy, we could, you know, maybe go deal with that.” He nodded. “Hold on.” I shot Michael a text, and a few seconds later a portal of light opened up about fifty yards down the street. “How good is your aim?”
Downtown Michael Brown grinned. “Excellent.” He picked War up by an arm and leg, spun twice like an Olympian discus thrower, and released War down the street like a weed-whacker, shearing off two street lights and a mailbox. The light poles went this way and that, but the mailbox flew back at us, bouncing twice before rolling to a stop with the help of Woody. I stared at the portal until War disappeared into and it sealed back up. And I continued to stare.
“AJ?” Sammy asked.
“How bad is it?” I asked, and there may or may not have been a tear or seven.
“How bad is what?”
“Woody. Is the quarter panel dented? The door is crushed in, isn’t it?”
“Um.” I could see him turning out of the corner of my eye.
“What’s wrong?” Downtown Asshole Brown asked, walking up to us.
“You demolished Woody.”
“Woody? What is a woody?”
And me not capitalizing on that particular comment should tell you how deeply devastated I was at the moment.
“Her vehicle,” Ariel said.
“It’s actually not bad,” Sammy said, picking up the mailbox and tossing it a few feet. “It sort of skimmed it. There’s a … oh, maybe two-inch scratch on her back door.”
“Into the metal? How about the faux woodgrain?”
“Just paint and I don’t see anything in the sticker.”
“Faux woodgrain,” I corrected.
Sammy chuckled. “There either.”
I turned on Downtown. “You’re lucky that you’re on our side, Downtown.” I poked a finger into his chest. “Also I’m going to need your insurance card.”
“Downtown?” he asked, but I was already stomping away.
“Nickname. It’s an Earth thing. Mostly an AJ thing. Trust me, it’s easier to roll with it,” Sammy explained.
Downtown and Ariel went to scope out our current and growing situation, while the earthbound Sammy, Six, and I got Grand and the few remaining boxes of ammo to the back parking lot where Mia was posted up.
Danny and Ashlyn met us before we had the doors open. Danny rushed around to assist Grand. Ashlyn greeted Six and me with a kiss, mine on the lips, his on the top of the head. We both went a little mushy. Mia was out of her van heading in our direction as well. Loretta and Rex came in hot in her truck a few minutes later.
“Only a few pockets of demons are left. The added angels helped get things under control, and Rex’s team has most of the stragglers pinned in,” Loretta updated. “But we need more ammo if you have any.”
We made quick work of passing out the remaining ammo. I skipped my turn since I had a few rounds. I did, however, raise my hand for the last grenade.
Danny had stabilized Grand’s knee, and he was tucked away, unhappily, in Mia’s van. Ashlyn had already tended to her own cuts and bruises so she’d tried to go after mine, but I shooed her hands away. “I’m good. Norm already
has me on the mend.” I slipped off, grabbed a new shirt, and changed it out to cover the cut of Death’s blade and the blackness that had started creeping into my veins.
Michael popped out of a portal long enough to get the down-low on our current situation, then flashed back out on a nod. Downtown and Ariel went wheels down as well, along with a few hundred angels, and Ariel’s dog pound. I started to feel pretty good about our odds. One Lucifer against a mega archangel, a few hundred angels, eleven heaven hounds, a Six, a Loretta, and two, count them, uno, dos supernatural demon hunters. Yeah. Boom, bitches.
“His first wave will be here, then he’ll likely arrive, followed closely by—”
“Hold up. Time out,” I said, coming off the sidelines, my hands making a repetitive T motion. “Time out. First wave?”
Downtown cocked his pretty little head at me. “Yes, he will be accompanied by his first legion, then—”
“First legion? What the heck have we been fighting?”
“Just demons.”
“Just demons,” I deadpanned.
“Amy will be back, too. You destroyed her form, but she’s likely regenerated by now.”
“Regenerated.”
“Yes.”
“The horsemen?” I asked.
Downtown closed his eyes. “No, I cannot sense them. They’re not in hell or here.”
The ground rumbled beneath our feet, and we all turned toward the giant form that had poked its pointy head out of the earth. His fucking prison castle’s blackness was stark against the red sky. The screams it brought with it were deafening in the night’s air. And if that wasn’t double fucked enough, it moved, shuddered, stretched and bent. Then it broke apart, and the hundreds of thousands of prisoners it had held began to scatter like rats flushed out of a sewer pipe.