Dark Angel

by Kim Richardson

  Surprisingly, I wasn’t nervous or scared. The only emotion I felt right now was anger. Deep, satisfying ass-kicking anger. I still didn’t know how to use the Holy Grail, but I would figure it out. I was an angel now—a dark angel—and I was going to use it to kill the archdemon bastard.

  Jenna halted suddenly and pointed to a headstone on her left.

  Demonic symbols and runes were painted in dark maroon on the stone. Though I had some knowledge of the demonic languages, there were still hundreds of different dialects, and these I didn’t know.

  Tyrius moved among the symbols, his eyes traveling over the markings, slowly. “I haven’t seen these kinds of symbols in a very long time,” informed the cat. He read one of the markings and then looked up at me. “These are old. Eons and eons old. Like… Biblical.” His gaze moved to Jenna and Lance. “You sure Lucian wants his wings back?”

  “Of course we’re sure,” snapped Jenna, her face pinched in a frown. “It’s the only reason he took the Holy Grail. To get them back. Why else would he be here?”

  The cat screwed up his face in a scowl. “You angels will never learn. The answer is not always about what’s in front of you, but rather what you can’t see. And with this guy, I’m guessing whatever you think he’s doing with the Holy Grail… it’s not it.”

  A quiver ran through me. “Tyrius. What do the symbols say?”

  And then somewhere in the darkness and shadows of the cemetery, a woman screamed.

  Layla.

  25

  I was running.

  It was a strange thing running without the feel of adrenaline or the gulping down of deep breaths that pushed me farther, harder. But what I did have was good old fear. Even as an angel, it was still a valuable emotion, one that propelled my legs faster.

  Whatever fuel was in this angel body had ignited, like the start of an engine. But not just any engine—a Bugatti engine.

  Holy crap! I’d never run this fast in my life before. Gravestones were a blur of grays as I soared through the mess of tall grasses and tombstones, my legs moving with superhuman velocity. I was unstoppable. My speed matched a vampire’s, and it was exhilarating. A nod to my angel body. Damn.

  My body resonated with the power of the unfamiliar angel body. It wasn’t unpleasant at all, and I wished it was.

  My surroundings barely registered as I sprinted in the direction I had heard Layla’s scream, hoping I was going the right way. I was running so damn fast I could have missed her. But when a faint, distant moan reached me, I knew I was on the right track.

  A sheet of black haze rose up before me, to envelop a part of the cemetery in a circle, arching both overhead and leveled with the earth, forming a dome of protection.

  I halted right before I smacked into it.

  Semi-transparent, I could see shadows of movement inside. I strained my eyes. The longer I looked, the shadows coagulated until I could see a silhouette of a tall man standing before a rectangular granite monument the size of a large table. Lucian. There was a faint hum of chanting, and tiny yellow lights flickered from candles on its flat top. In the middle of the candles, flickering in the ripples of light, was a golden cup. The Holy Grail.

  My gaze darted to the dark bundle on the ground next to Lucian’s feet. Layla.

  More demonic symbols were painted on the gravestones forming a ring around the sheet of haze like a protection circle. Angel wards. The arcane symbols ignited with a bright red glow, forming complex patterns on the gray stones as we moved closer. I could feel the wards. A tingle whispered through my mind with demonic power, a warning. I stiffened. Long, warped lines connected the symbols, crisscrossing and winding to each tombstone like a network of radiant lines.

  Lucian had sealed this part of the graveyard with his own blood. Damn. The power emitting just from his blood made my knees shake—from the promise of pain and from simple, primitive fear of darkness.

  I hated the bastard.

  “This is it,” said Jenna and she appeared next to me, staring at the black haze with enough hate to scare off little kids. “This is as far as we can go. These wards will kill us.”

  Lance came up next, followed by a panting Gareth and Tyrius.

  “Jesus, woman!” shrilled the cat. “Did you pop some speed or something?”

  My gaze flicked around the demon runes. With a soft shiver, the dark power spilling out from the wards rose through and around me, coalescing around my mind enough to leave a nasty taste of sulfur on my tongue.

  I stilled. What if they were wrong? What if I couldn’t pass through the wards?

  “It’s time, Rowyn,” urged Jenna, and she had the nerve to give me a slight shove. “You need to hurry. Get the Grail and bring it to me.”

  I stared at her, trying to calm my anger. “To you?” I was going to kill Lucian first, but she didn’t have to know that.

  “Yes,” she said and then added quickly. “Lucian won’t be able to fight us once we have the power of the Grail. He’ll be powerless against us.”

  “You sure about that?”

  “Yes. The one who holds the Grail holds the power,” she said in a steady voice.

  That sounded like a cheesy action movie line. “And Layla?” You promised .

  Jenna’s eyes went past my shoulder to the bundle on the ground, and I could see the slight narrowing in her eyes. “We’ll save her too,” she said, though she didn’t sound convincing, and I could almost hear the lie in her voice.

  She thought Layla was dead. She wouldn’t help her.

  My anger soared. I didn’t know how to use the damn cup, but Jenna did. And I was going to make her do it. I’d kill her if I had to. Then we’d be even.

  Bracing myself, I took a step closer to the barrier of black haze and thrust my left hand through it—

  Fire suddenly erupted against my hand, thought-stealing pain radiating out from my fingers all the way up my spine.

  “Ow!” I cried as I jerked my hand back. Jolts of demon energy darted through my fingers and over my skin as the full spectrum of the ward spread to my hand, burning like fire. Oh, God, that hurt.

  Pain crawled over me like hot knives, cutting from my chest and working its way through me, and I screamed. I brought my hand to my face to see that it was covered in a black-hued energy, burning me from the outside in.

  Pain as an angel was the same as pain as a mortal. It hurt like hell.

  Black spots marred my vision. I moaned, bending forward as I strained to keep from passing out. Gareth reached for me and I lurched out of his reach, stumbling several steps away as I found my balance by myself.

  I lifted my head and glared at Jenna, seeing her frown. It wasn’t a concerned frown for my wellbeing. It was a frustrated frown that I couldn’t get through.

  “You told me I could get through!” I shouted, panicked but more pissed. I could have walked right in there headfirst. Angel or not, that would have definitely fried my brain. I looked at my hand again. The dark energy was gone but my hand was charred and blistered. Threads of white light seeped from the cracked skin on my hand, my angel essence.

  For the first time since I became an angel I felt a sudden surge of cold fill me. I’d died for nothing.

  “I don’t understand. It’s supposed to work,” said Jenna, clearly mystified.

  “It’s not.”

  “It has to.” Jenna grimaced. “You’re the only one with the archdemon essence. The Legion said so.”

  “The Legion was wrong. I can’t enter.”

  “Try it again,” commanded Jenna through gritted teeth, her eyes wide in confusion.

  I looked at Tyrius and he mouthed the word “no.”

  “Do it!” Jenna howled, and the bitch grabbed me by the arm. “Do it or we’ll all die!”

  I yanked my arm free. “Touch me again, and I’ll shove this soul blade into your brain,” I hissed, and I heard Lance growl.

  The next second, Gareth was next to me, his hands in his coat pocket with a strange smile on his face. It was
almost like he wanted a fight with the angels.

  Jenna’s expression suddenly became manic. “You must get the Grail. Do you understand?” She took a step towards me, her soul blade pointed at my chest. “Do it now, or I’ll kill you.”

  “Do as she says,” threatened the dog, his lips pulled back to show his very large and pointy teeth, looking like he was about to take a bite out of me.

  Angels. Got to love them.

  “You touch my Rowyn,” menaced Tyrius as he arched his back, his demon energies shifting around his fur indicating he was about to Hulk-out, “and I’ll rip your bastard angel skin from your bastard angel bones.”

  Oh, goodie. We were going to have a fight.

  “Do it!” Jenna screamed, her soul blade swinging dangerously close to my shirt. I stared at her. The bitch was going to stab me again. I believed it.

  But I wasn’t a fool. I knew if I stepped through that black haze, I was a dead angel. I’d already died once today. I wasn’t planning on dying twice.

  Through the black haze, Lucian’s voice rose in pitch, to something inaudible. He was chanting in an ancient language I’d never heard before. Though I couldn’t understand it, the tone and sense of his words were as clear as rain. They were words of hate, of darkness and suffering and of death.

  I forced my jaw to unclench. “Screw you.” I raised my own blade and lowered myself into a fighting crouch.

  “This is what you were meant to do!” she screamed. “It’s why you became an angel. Why the Legion chose you. You idiot! This is your mission. Your destiny.”

  “Screw my destiny,” I countered and heard Tyrius give a growl in agreement. “And screw your Legion. I know a scam when I see one. This here,” I waved my blade, “is all bullshit. If I step through that protective wall, I’m a dead angel. I can’t get the Grail if I’m dead.”

  Jenna’s eyes narrowed. “Think of the lives you’re going to let perish. Think of all the angels that will die because of you. The mortals. All those lives, gone. How can you be so selfish?”

  I cocked a brow. “To save my own ass? Very.”

  “I think I can help,” calmed Gareth, though his hands were still in his pockets. “I’ll need some time, but I think I can trick the ward into thinking Rowyn is a full-fledged demon.”

  My eyes darted to the elf. “Really?” I was seriously impressed.

  Gareth was nodding. “It’ll be tricky, but I’m confident I can manage. It would be like a glamour.”

  “There’s no time for your insignificant magic, elf!” shouted Jenna. “If Rowyn doesn’t get the Grail now, it won’t matter. You won’t matter. Your magic won’t matter because we’ll all be dead!”

  “I’m not going in there,” I said again.

  Jenna’s eyes looked black in the darkness. “If you don’t go through that ward and bring me that Grail right now, I’ll kill you. I swear it!”

  “Really?” I laughed. “You’re on, bitch.” Like hell I would let her stab me again. She’d have a blade perforating one of her pretty hazel eyes before she flicked her wrist. Maybe she had orders to kill me if I didn’t obey. Maybe I didn’t care.

  Jenna’s expression turned ugly. “You fool. You’ll kill us all!” she screamed, filling the night with her anger.

  “Bite me, princess,” I glowered. I was ready. Fury lit through me, twisting inside as I braced myself.

  “You will die for your part in this,” snarled the angel, her face twisting into fury.

  A loud sizzling erupted around us, making my ears pop. Jenna’s weapon hand twitched. The dome walls shifted and lifted.

  And then the wards fell.

  26

  In a blur, I grabbed Jenna’s weapon wrist, pulled her towards me, and gave her one of my signature head-butts.

  “You stupid cow,” I said as I released her and she stumbled back, dropping her weapon.

  I turned and looked around.

  The black haze lapped about the air, touching me and recoiling like a living thing until it disappeared completely.

  I had a really good view of Lucian now. And of Layla. She lay on her side on the ground in a puddle of her own blood. Deep cuts slashed across her wrists. The bastard had bled her.

  The archdemon wore a white three-piece suit with a red tie and matching gleaming red shoes. His features were highlighted eerily by his sleek black hair. Yellow light flowed up from the candles on the monument, where the tools of his ritual were ready to complete the ceremony that would get his wings back.

  He had what looked like a death blade, its edges sharpened to razor keenness, grave dirt, a lot of it, black candles, and several glass containers with undeterminable ingredients. Over to one side was a circle, laid out in blood—Layla’s blood—upon the graveyard ground, maybe twenty feet across.

  The archdemon took a long drag of his cigarette, watching me. I’d expected to see shock on his face at the sight of my new angel-badass self, but he was calm and smiling.

  My eyes found Gareth, my tension rising. “Did you do this?”

  “No,” he said, his face mirroring the shock I felt. “I was watching Jenna.” He pulled his hands free from inside his coat.

  “If Gareth didn’t do this,” said Tyrius, materializing at my side. “Then it could only mean one thing.”

  “The wards fell on purpose,” I finished. We were too late. Lucian had finished his ritual.

  As I stood there, movement caught my eye.

  With incredible speed, Jenna shot past me, her arms pumping as she made a dash for the Holy Grail. She soared across the graveyard, through the fallen wards and tombstones.

  And Lucian stood there, exhaling cigarette smoke through his nose.

  “Something’s wrong,” I said and then I scrambled forward and shouted. “Jenna! Wait!”

  The words were barely off my lips when a crack of thunder rent the air and had me staggering while covering my ears.

  The earth under my boots rattled and shook like a 9.8 earthquake on the Richter scale. I let out a gasp and fell to my knees just as the earth split, a hundred feet across in a jagged cut, making a separation between us and Lucian.

  A howling, whirling torrent of wind shot out from deep inside the crevice, sending sand and debris about me. A flash of green light was followed by a thunderous detonation and the sharp scent of sulfur as wind mixed with green fire spewed out from the hole in the earth, into the air, and up into the clouds above, sliding back and forth like a gushing spring of unearthly flames of green.

  The flames caught Jenna in mid-run, and her body disintegrated into a cloud of ash.

  Lance howled as he dashed forward. I pitched myself toward him, tackling the white dog, and we slammed against the ground.

  “She’s gone!” I shouted and wrapped my arms around the wriggling dog angel. “Don’t! You’ll die too! Is that what you want?”

  With Lance pinned beneath me, I raised my head. I couldn’t see Lucian or the Holy Grail anymore as a sheet of green fire continued to spew out of the earth.

  I glanced over my shoulder. Gareth and Tyrius were both wide-eyed and staring at the sheets of green fire.

  With another crack of thunder, power exploded from the large crevice and into the air, wild and raw, spewing everywhere with hurricane force. Trees shattered and fell. Chunks of granite gravestones flew in the air like they were leaves.

  A wave of power hit me and I let go of Lance as it sent me flying. I rolled on the ground and grabbed ahold of something cold and solid. Probably a gravestone. I blinked through debris and sand until I could see clearly.

  Holy shit.

  Through the veil of green flames poured a mass of demons.

  They crawled out of the gap, writhing together in mindless hunger for blood and mortal life. It ruled them and they would slaughter everything in their path to quench it. Creatures of nightmares burst from the opening, reeking of undeath and hungry for blood. Gray and black tongues licked uneven jaws with huge yellow teeth. Their claws were the size of kitchen knives, and
their black eyes flashed, seeking prey—all fueled by hunger for the living.

  It was like the earth had split open and was vomiting all the foulness from her belly. It was just unfortunate it had to be thousands of demons.

  Blinking, I slowly got to my feet.

  The graveyard teemed with demons. Damn. The light pouring from the gap in the earth bathed the graveyard and the night sky in an ugly greenish glow. The primitive side of my brain screamed and howled in terror. Oh, my God.

  The beastly vomit of demons split into separate groups. Some ran into the trees while some disappeared beyond the darkness of the graveyard to the human streets. And as luck would have it, a shitload came straight for us.

  There wasn’t time to run for cover. There wasn’t time to do anything but fight and pray to the souls that my angel-ass survived this onslaught of the Netherworld’s children.

  They were a mass of wriggling, horrid creatures as mindless and nasty as a school of hungry piranhas, just a hell of a lot creepier. Lesser demons. They didn’t have much more intellect than your average dog, driven by the hunger for blood and human life. Still, their mere numbers were scary as hell.

  “Heads up!” I yelled and gripped my soul blade. Lance positioned himself a few feet ahead of me, his lips pulled back all the way as he growled at the oncoming horde of nasties.

  Tyrius emerged by my side. “The next time the Legion asks you to go on a mission,” he said, his body glowing with an internal light. “You say NO!” There was a sudden flash, and then no tiny cat shape was left, but a large, gleaming, three-hundred-pound black panther.

  Gareth appeared to my right, a mix of emotions flashing on his face. There was no time to really say anything. But before I could tell him that, he grabbed me and kissed me.

  The kiss sent a sensation of fire driving from my lips all the way to my feet.

  “Go get ‘em.” He stepped back and pulled his hands from his pockets. Red dust sifted from between his fingers, falling on the ground like glowing faerie dust.

  I gave him a tight smile. We both knew we couldn’t fight this. We wouldn’t survive this many demons. I could tell he wanted to say more, but there wasn’t time. In an onslaught such as this, a mortal had a zero probability of escaping, and so did an angel.