Ascend (Celestial Academy Book 1)

by Maya Nicole

  "I did a rotation during my guardian days as a security guard. The security guards are always guardians. No special medical skills needed, and no one questions why they wander the floor and go in rooms. There's typically only one guardian per department. I'll just go in there and start screaming about angels. Lure one out." I was surprised at how calm my voice sounded with the lies spewing out of it.

  "And if the security isn't a guardian?" Paul was tapping one of his hands on the steering wheel. I could tell the idea excited him.

  I shrugged. "We'll know as soon as we spray him with that shit you have and we can either take him anyway and dump him or just let him go. If this works we can hit several hospitals."

  "Where should we start?" Paul asked, pulling over and getting out his phone. He was the only one of us that had one. I didn't bother bringing mine since I knew they would have taken it.

  "Nearest hospital." It didn't matter where we went, the guardians would be ready and make a show of it.

  Ten minutes later, Jimmy sat in the driver's seat and I made my way to the emergency room doors after letting Paul take several swings at me. With blood pouring out of my nose, I walked in the sliding door and went right up to the reception desk.

  "I need to see an angel." The man and woman that were sitting at the desk had already started to rise as I had approached the desk.

  "Sir, we'll have a nurse to get the bleeding to stop and it will be a couple of hours to see a doctor."

  I laughed at the woman's words and slammed my fists down on the desk, leaving blood smeared on the counter.

  "I said I want to see a fucking angel. So either go find one or I will-"

  "I got this," the security guard said from behind me.

  I spun around and took a swing at him, but he stopped my fist with his hand and wrenched my arm behind my back, a little too hard for my liking. He shoved me forward and we stepped out of the sliding doors.

  Everything happened in a blur then. I twisted away from him, Paul sprayed him with demon blood serum, and then I snapped his neck. Completely not part of the plan, but shit, my shoulder still stung from him twisting it.

  Paul stared at me and shook his head as Jimmy pulled up beside us. We secured the angel's arms and legs and tossed him in the back.

  We hit three more hospitals, resulting in a total of four angels with snapped necks. They were easier to deal with being incapacitated completely, but would heal in a day or two. Paul dropped Jimmy off and we were on the I-110 South headed towards the Port of Los Angeles, straight to the heart of the beast.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Danica

  Over two weeks had passed since Asher went undercover with the Fallen. Whatever was happening, we weren't privy to it, not even Tobias. It was completely understandable since we had gone rogue in our attempts to find out what the Fallen were doing. Classes continued, weird stares and hushed comments followed me, and a small feeling of normalcy crept back into my life.

  "I want to drive your car," Olly announced after a movie finished. I should have known something like this would happen after watching The Fast and the Furious.

  Olly and I had fallen into a comfortable pattern of movie watching before dinner and studying. Sometimes we would even watch the entire movie instead of making out the whole time.

  "Excuse me? You want to drive my car?" I laughed at the absurdity. "Do you even know how to drive?"

  "It can't be that hard, can it?"

  Laughter bubbled out of me at the vision of him trying to drive a car. I mulled over his words and shrugged my shoulders. Everyone has to start somewhere.

  "We aren't supposed to leave campus."

  He made a dismissive sound. "It's the middle of the day and I'm starting to feel claustrophobic being stuck here, kind of like I used to feel when I was in heaven. If we don't go then I'm bound to do something stupid." He poked my ribs and stood up, offering me his hand. "Maybe when we’re done we can park somewhere and make out."

  I grinned up at him and let him pull me to my feet. I could totally get on board with a make out session in the car, especially with him. We hadn't slept together yet, but we had certainly been having fun building up to it.

  I drove to a high school parking lot and let him slide behind the wheel of my baby. I explained the basics and made sure he understood what each pedal did before I let him put it into drive. This was either going to go surprisingly well or I would finally understand how parents feel when teaching their kids to drive.

  He caught on quickly and after a solid thirty minutes of driving at a snail's pace around the parking lot we switched back. No lives were lost in the parking lot during our lesson, although I felt like I might have a bit of whiplash from all the stopping and starting we did in the beginning. Next time he'd probably be ready to drive around a housing tract with extra wide streets. Maybe. If it wasn't trash day.

  I slid back behind the wheel and smiled over at Olly before leaning over and giving him a kiss. He grinned ear to ear and I matched his glee. The closer I got to him, the more I realized how hard his short life had been. Small experiences that so many other angels had as human or angel just weren't in his schema of the world.

  We pulled out onto the road and then the highway, heading back towards campus. The sun was setting, making the sky glow a beautiful blend of coral, pink, and purple. Olly put his hand on my thigh as I drove, a comfortable silence falling between us, with the radio playing in the background.

  Angeles Crest Highway finally wound its way into the rocky hills and the Angeles National Forest sign greeted us as we started winding our way along the two-lane highway. On the driver's side was the opposite lane and the rock face, and on the passenger side were the slopes of hills and mountains and splattering of guard rails when needed. I enjoyed this drive, feeling like I was on a rollercoaster. Even if I had wings, I wouldn't give up the feel of asphalt against my tires and the relaxing lull of controlling a beautiful piece of machinery.

  "I don't think I'll be ready to drive like this for a while," Olly said with a laugh.

  "You learned quickly today. I half expected to yell at you or slam my foot on the invisible brake pedal on the passenger side. I was lucky I had already driven plenty of go karts before actually driving a car."

  "Is that something we can do too? Drive go karts?"

  "We can do anything you want. I'm sure Asher and Tobias would like to tag along too."

  We passed a turnout that had a viewpoint looking out over the hills with the city in the distance. Olly moved his hand off my leg and turned in his seat to look out the passenger window as we passed and then twisted towards me to look out the back window.

  "A gray van and a truck just pulled out after us." I clenched the steering wheel at his words and looked in the rearview mirror. The truck was about four car lengths behind. Olly had his eyes shut. "There are three Fallen in the van and three in the truck."

  "Call Tobias." Olly had his phone out and to his ear before I finished speaking.

  We were approaching another viewpoint, and just as we were at the entrance, the truck gunned its engine, moved into the other lane, and sent me spinning into the lot for the viewpoint. I could hear Tobias yelling on the other end of the phone as it flew out of Olly's hand on impact and landed somewhere on the floor.

  Everything was a blur as the car came to a screeching halt. I must have slammed on the brakes at some point because the smell of burned rubber filled my nose and made me gag. We had no time before they were on us. The van, the truck, another van that had been waiting.

  The doors ripped open and both of us were pulled from the seats and thrown to the ground. I caught a brief flash of white as Olly's wings extended but saw him on the ground with a net over him. Our eyes met, the fear in his matching my own.

  I managed to stagger to my feet. Most of the men were surrounding Olly now, his fight fierce, but no match for the net that was more than likely doused in demon blood. One of the Fallen grabbed Olly's head and gave it a sharp
twist, snapping it.

  Rough hands picked me up and slammed me back into the cement and a steel-toe boot kicked me in the ribs. Pain filled my body and I coughed as my chest got tight. I felt like a thousand pounds were sitting on my chest. I could taste blood in my mouth and a cry lodged in my throat as my hands were jerked behind me and metal clicked around my wrists.

  "Get them in the vans," a rough voice commanded as I was yanked to my feet by my hair, a wet cry leaving my throat.

  My ears rang with a high-pitched fuzziness as I was dragged to one of the vans. My vision sparked with pops of color before going black. I was jolted awake as my body was slammed onto the cold metal of the van before I was knocked out again.

  Hands were under my armpits. The hands set me on something cold and hard. I couldn’t see or even really hear, but I could feel. Drops of something warm hit my face. There were two blurry blobs off to the side of me. The voices were muffled for a while and then I heard an agonizing cry before the pain took me back to darkness.

  Pain. So much pain. Just let me die already. Every bone in my body had to be broken. It felt like my eyeballs were ripped to shreds. Was my skin on fire? A scream ripped out of my throat causing me to cough and splutter. Everything went numb and I felt my body floating upwards. Finally.

  Awareness returned to me before my body was fully awake. Cold concrete. The smell of blood. Fuck. I was in hell. I think. I never asked my dad what happened when you got sent to hell. Where was he?

  Drip. Drip. Drip. The sound echoed in my skull and I jerked awake, my eyes going to a sink in the corner. On the other side of thick medal bars. What in the hell?

  I moved my eyes around the room, everything clear in the dim light filtering down from a single lightbulb at the top of the staircase. Nothing good ever came from a basement with a single light bulb.

  I was in a cage against a far wall, all four sides being reinforced with two-inch diameter steel rods. Chains were bolted to the floor. Four. One for each limb. Luckily, they weren't attached to me.

  I ran my hands over my body; it was perfectly intact but caked with blood and dirt, among other things. This was some next level shit I was in. I reached through the bars and grabbed a water bottle that sat just within my reach. I ripped open the bottle, chugging the entire contents in one gulp. My throat was so raw it felt like I had swallowed shards of glass, or maybe that had been from my screams.

  The basement was the size of a small apartment with a staircase leading up to a door, and another door on the far side of the room. There was also a table with slats in it and a basin off the side of it. It was an autopsy table.

  Bile rose in my throat and I swallowed it down as I racked my brain for what had happened. The Fallen had captured us. They snapped Olly's neck. Then there was lots and lots of pain. The thought of the pain made me wretch, sending the water I had just gulped out onto the floor. My stomach felt like it was in a million knots, twisting tighter by the minute.

  The click of a lock at the top of the stairs ripped me from my agony and I felt panic rising in my chest. I quickly laid down and curled in a ball facing the wall. Maybe they would leave me alone if they thought I was still passed out.

  Three sets of footsteps made their way down the stairs. Oh God, where was Olly?

  One set of feet sounded heavy, as if the person didn’t really give a shit, another was a pair of heels, and the last was firm and sure.

  I tried to control my breathing as they approached. They stopped what sounded like a few feet from the bars. Several long minutes passed, and I wondered why they were so quiet.

  “How long has she been out? He healed her. She should be awake by now." A woman spoke, her voice sending a slight shiver through my body.

  "Just over twenty-four hours. Do you want us to try to wake her?" a gruff voice asked, stepping closer as he spoke.

  "Wait until I'm gone. What is the status of our supply?"

  "We are at eighty percent of what is needed. The archangel has been an added benefit, but if we drain him too much he can't heal the rest."

  The woman made a sound of annoyance in her throat and then her heels moved back towards the stairs. "Make sure she's fed and cleaned."

  Her heel taps faded as she climbed the stairs and exited the door. I trembled slightly, feeling their eyes boring into my back. A set of keys jingled and the sound of the metal lock clicking made me whimper.

  "Do you need help?" The gruff voice spoke again from the same spot he had been in. "I don't think I can stomach this shit, man. She's not even a fucking angel. You clean her up. I'll lock the door just in case and go get some food for her."

  "You do that." Asher's voice nearly caused me to jump up and fling myself at him, but I bit down on my knuckle instead, holding back the sob that was threatening to spill out.

  He was here.

  He was going to save me. Save Olly.

  The heavy feet retreated up the stairs and the lock slid into place after the door was closed. Asher let out a shaky breath and opened my prison, kneeling next to me.

  "Hun... I'm so fucking sorry." He pulled me into his arms, my body shaking with sobs and fear. "I need to hurry and get you cleaned up before he comes back."

  He scooped me in his arms, not caring how completely nasty I was, and walked past the autopsy table and to the door on the other side. Inside was a bathroom, a gross looking bathroom, but it had a shower, toilet, and sink.

  He set me down on the toilet lid and went back into the room. I heard him opening a cabinet and then he came back with a towel, washcloth, and what looked like scrubs. He turned on the shower and pulled me up.

  "Where are we?" My words left my lips, my teeth chattering. I wasn't cold, but my body was reacting to the bone deep fear coursing through my body.

  I had thought fear was sitting outside the principal's office waiting for my dad. Watching horror movies with the lights off at night. Having to talk to the police about the joint in my locker. I was wrong about what fear felt like.

  "Port of Los Angeles. They plan on taking a ship with the angel blood out into the Pacific and creating another gate to hell." I let him take off my clothes as he talked. "This has been in the works for a long time, Danica. Years. That woman and some fucker named Adamson are the masterminds behind it all."

  My hands gripped Asher's forearms. "John Adamson?" My heart had already been beating fast, now it was reaching its peak. Could a heart explode? I was pretty sure mine was about to.

  "You know him? Or them? There's two of them, although the kid was only here once." I loosened my grip and he moved me into the warm water of the shower. He grabbed a washcloth and began cleaning me. I let him because my mind couldn't even handle what was happening.

  "I punched that fucker in the nose because he was trying to get me to join his 'church' to be a dealer."

  Asher silently cleaned my body and hair without speaking. He was processing that new information. Hell, I was processing that information. He shut off the water and started to dry me off.

  "So this goes even deeper than we thought. Your dad is going to lose his shit even more than he already is. It took four angels to restrain him and keep him from coming to get you. I think that's what they want."

  "John Adamson Senior was my doctor. He delivered me. He's known this whole time."

  I stepped into the scrub bottoms Asher held open for me, balancing myself by putting my hands on his shoulders. "Who's the woman?"

  Asher pulled the scrub top over my head and ran his hands over my arms.

  "She says she has no name like we're in Game of Thrones or some shit. She wears a scarf around her head and sunglasses even inside so I don't even really know what she looks like. Listen, we don't have much time before Paul gets back."

  He pulled me to him and hugged me, raking his fingers over my tangled wet hair. He lowered his voice to a whisper. "After sunset tonight all hell is going to break loose on this place. I'm going to pretend to lock the cell and then unlock the door upstairs later. You can
't try to escape until you hear all the noise. Okay?" He pulled back and looked in my face. "I will be freeing the others and you need to run. Take a right at the top of the stairs and just run. No matter what you hear or see. Do you understand?"

  I nodded.

  "No. I need to hear that you understand." Tears were in his eyes. "What's out there... promise me you will turn right and run."

  "I promise I'll turn right and run, no matter what."

  He let out a sigh of relief and scooped me back into his arms to carry me back to my cage. Just as he was shutting the door, the lock turned at the top of the stairs.

  "I love you, Danica."

  I wish I could have said it back to him before Paul came down the stairs.

  Chapter Nineteen

  I loved him. I loved them. I don't know how it happened so quickly, but I knew in my heart that I loved all three of them.

  Sitting on the cold concrete floor in scrubs that were made for a man, probably the same doctor who had delivered me eighteen years ago, suddenly all the stupid shit didn't seem so important anymore. What mattered was that I hadn't even gotten to say 'I love you' to the three men who had swooped in and captured my heart.

  I didn't want to sleep for fear of passing out so hard that I might not hear anything upstairs. I could occasionally hear voices, but since Paul and Asher there had been no one.

  I was losing my battle, fighting to keep my eyes open when I heard the lock slide in the door. It didn't open. I stood from my place on the floor, my ass stinging with pain from sitting in one place for so long. I wished I had shoes, but they were nowhere to be seen. I opened the metal door and crept up the stairs towards the door, listening intently.

  Turn right. Run.

  I played his words over and over in my head as I waited for chaos to erupt outside the door. I don't know what I expected, but it wasn't to hear gunfire erupt suddenly. I nearly fell but managed to hold onto the door handle to regain my balance.