by Susan Illene
Bartol bent to take a knee, and her eyes rounded as he pulled out a little black box.
“You’re not…”
He swallowed hard, and his hands trembled even more. “Would you please be with me forever and marry me?”
“Really?” She wanted to get on her knees and take him into her arms to console him. He was breathing as if he’d just run a marathon and might hyperventilate at any moment. Still, he held himself there and waited for her answer. “I mean, this is what you really want?”
“If you say ‘yes,’ I’ll move in with you tonight,” he said, vulnerability written all over him. This was a man who hated being around crowds, much less speaking in front of one. He’d proposed to her here to show he was trying hard to change and that he did want her.
She cracked a smile, her heart melting for him. “Yes, Bartol. I’ll marry you.”
“And you’ll let me make you immortal when the time is right?” he asked, peeking up at her with hope in his gaze.
It was a sticking point with him, but she understood that, and she wanted to be around a long time for him and their child. “After the baby is weaned, yes.”
He grinned like a man who’d just won the lottery and stood to pull her into a hug. It was just one more sign of how he was trying to overcome his troubles. He was still stiff, and his fingers dug into her back a little more than necessary, but the embrace was heartfelt and warm. Tears rolled down her cheeks. She couldn’t believe he’d finally taken this big of a step.
Bartol pulled away and took her hand, sliding a golden ring on her finger. It had a huge diamond with smaller diamonds set around it. “Soon we’ll make our relationship official to the world.”
“You are amazing.” She put a light hand on his cheek. “I love you.”
“I love you, too. More than you can imagine.” He leaned down and kissed her sweetly.
Rounds of applause rose from the audience and the people standing on the stage. At that moment, Cori couldn’t have been happier. She was finally getting everything she wanted.
But that feeling didn’t last long. Gasps filled the air and tension overtook the joy. Cori’s stomach turned as the hairs on her arms stood up. There was darkness all around them, and it was closing in fast.
“Demons!” someone screamed.
How could they have found the compound? It was well hidden with protection spells all around it. And of all days to attack, the demons had chosen when the nerou were graduating? It couldn’t have been a coincidence, but Cori couldn’t imagine how they’d figured it out.
Bartol pulled her close. “Stay with me.”
The demons appeared at the perimeter fence, and one of them blasted a hole through it. They might have been in human bodies, but they were growling like animals and their eyes glowed red. Her heart leaped into her throat as she saw them. There had to be hundreds all around, and she could have sworn more were just out of sight.
“Get the weapons out of the armory,” Jeriel shouted.
The nerou and nephilim started running in every direction. The place was big, and there were so many areas to cover. Fighting began almost immediately with the sounds of battle surrounding her.
Bartol hurried her off the stage, and they ran into Melena.
“We have to get her out of here,” the sensor said.
“Agreed.” Fear shone in Bartol’s eyes, and his grip on Cori’s arm was tight. “But we’re surrounded.”
“You could flash her out quick,” Melena suggested.
A sharp cramp ran through Cori’s stomach. “Owww!”
“What is it?” Bartol asked.
She could hardly breathe and had to wait for the contraction to pass. “I think I’m in labor.”
Bartol’s eyes widened. “Now?”
She nodded. “Afraid so.”
Cori had been feeling some light contractions during the graduation, but she’d thought they were just more Braxton Hicks. Now the pain had amped up out of nowhere. She’d been in labor once before, and it had gone just like this with her daughter. One minute she was doing okay and the next she wasn’t. Last time, her baby had arrived in less than four hours.
“You’ve got to be shitting me,” Melena said, eyes wide. “This is really bad timing, by the way.”
Cori took a deep breath. “You think I don’t know that?”
Kerbasi flashed next to them. “I’ll take care of her. Bartol, they need your help right now.”
“I’m in labor,” Cori argued.
Kerbasi scrunched his nose. “Tell the baby to wait.”
“Yeah.” Melena rolled her eyes. “Because that always works.”
“I’ll flash you out of here if you let me,” the guardian said, aware she had to let her guard down for it to work.
“The hell you will,” Bartol growled. “I will take her.”
Cori fell to her knees when another contraction hit. “The doctor said I couldn’t be flashed while in labor. It’s too risky with the baby.”
The guardian shook his head. “This is not good. Not good at all.”
Bartol’s fierce gaze ran all around them. The sounds of fighting got louder as the demons came closer. The perimeter fence was halfway destroyed, and at this point, even the angels who weren’t supposed to fight were slashing their way through the demons with their swords and smiting them with bolts of electricity. Unfortunately, the possessed humans acted like zombies and even after being beheaded or limbs cut off, they could walk around tearing at anything they could reach. The amputated arms remained animated as well, clawing their way across the ground to grab people’s legs.
It was one big horror show, and only Bartol and his father could finish the demons off for good. Technically, sensors and angels could send them back to Hell, but they could always return. Executing them was the best method to keep them away forever.
“You have to stay,” Cori said, breathing through the pain. “Help them!”
She was down on all fours at this point, but she caught sight of two nerou going down under the onslaught. Jeriel was doing his best to execute the demons as fast as he could, but the archangel could only do so much under the deluge by himself. Cori couldn’t stand the idea of nerou dying because she was selfish and wanted to keep her mate with her when he could save many other lives.
Bartol let out a growl of frustration. “I can’t leave you like this.”
“I will escort her,” Kerbasi offered.
“No.” His gaze ran around the battle. “I’ll find someone else.”
“There’s no time,” the guardian argued. “I’m one of the strongest here who is available, and I will protect your mate with my life.”
At this point, Cori didn’t care about anything but getting to a safer place to have her baby. They say the second child often went faster, so she was in a serious time crunch.
“I’ll go with him,” Melena said, helping Cori to stand. “I’ve got my pistol, and I can lace the bullets with my blood to send them back to Hell if they get close. We will protect her, Bartol. I promise.”
Jeriel flashed next to them and looked at Kerbasi. “We will make a path for you to get out. Take her, and I’ll have two of my men follow until you’ve reached safety.”
Bartol appeared torn. The battle was getting worse, and people were calling for him. After another moment of hesitation, he grabbed the guardian by the throat. “If she dies…”
“She won’t,” Kerbasi vowed, eyes glowing silver.
Bartol took Cori’s face in his hands and pressed a desperate kiss to her lips. “I’m sorry I can’t go with you. Please take care, and I’ll be there as soon as possible.”
The head of a demon landed near them. Its mouth opened and closed, but it made no sound.
Cori hugged Bartol. “You take care, too. I love you!”
“I love you, too,” he said, squeezing back.
With one last look that said everything he felt about her, he flashed away. The next thing she heard was Bartol calling for everyone to
head to the gate and clear the way. Already, Jeriel and Remiel were there, slashing through demons and tossing their body parts as far away as possible to keep them from coming back. Occasionally, they used their white smiting powers to tear through a line of them, but she’d heard they had to use that judiciously since it took a lot of power and could drain their energy fast. Yerik joined them, just as fierce and deadly with a wicked sword and red lightning bolts flying from his hands. Before long, the road that led to the gate was clear on their side.
“Let’s go,” Kerbasi said, picking Cori up. She was in no shape to walk fast at this point and didn’t argue.
Melena led the way to her Jeep. They strapped Cori into the backseat, barely getting her buckled before she was doubling over in pain. The sensor started the engine while Kerbasi climbed into the passenger seat. Melena checked her pistol and bit herself to get blood down the magazine and onto the cartridges. There was no time to do them one by one.
After locking and loading the weapon, she handed it to the guardian. “I’ll drive, and you shoot any demons that get close.”
“I haven’t practiced much with these,” he said, holding the pistol between his fingers like it was a dirty diaper.
“Cori’s life is in your hands,” the sensor warned. “You better get good because my blood will only work for about five minutes on those bullets before it’s no good.”
He adjusted his grip on the weapon. There was a look of sheer determination on his face as he began surveying their surroundings. The way past the gate cleared and Melena hit the gas pedal, racing the Jeep out of the compound. They drove past the fighting, sometimes with demons no more than twenty feet away. One of them broke loose from the crowd and came for them. Kerbasi shot at it and hit it in the leg. Not great aim, but it was good enough. The demon crashed down, unmoving. Melena’s blood had done its job.
Five more rushed forward from the other side of the vehicle. Cori cried out in warning, “Over there!”
Kerbasi couldn’t get a clean shot from the passenger seat. But just then, the two angels Jeriel had assigned rushed the demons. They knocked them down with a slash of their swords and then smote them with their white bolts. With so many coming at them, they had to use whatever resources they had at their disposal to keep the evil creatures at bay.
“How many of those bastards do you think there are?” Cori asked. She wouldn’t mention her contractions were coming less than four minutes apart. Right now, they just needed to get away from there.
“More than my senses can count, but it could be upwards of a thousand.”
Cori swore. “I don’t get how they snuck up on us or found us.”
“They have their ways,” Kerbasi replied. “Just like we have archangels, they have high demons with extraordinary powers. They must have found out about the graduation and snuck the demons to somewhere nearby in anticipation of this.”
Fear clogged Cori’s throat, and she had to swallow it down. “Think our guys will be okay back there?”
“I don’t know,” he replied.
“Just worry about the baby for now.” Melena slowed slightly for a particularly bad rut in the road. “We’ll check on our guys when we can.”
They got past the last of the attacking demons and the way cleared. Cori twisted in her seat to check behind them. The battle raged on with her able to spot far more demons than people from their side. She hoped and prayed she wasn’t leaving them to their deaths, or that helping her escape didn’t cause more to die.
Chapter 22
Bartol
Bartol fought with everything he had to keep the line of demons at bay. Melena’s Jeep had made it past the gate, but the attackers kept swarming that side of the compound as if they knew precious cargo was inside the vehicle.
The angels, nerou, nephilim, and Bartol worked as hard as they could to clear the way. One of the graduates next to him had three demons on her at once, and though she fought valiantly, her aggressors overtook her. He lost sight of her blond hair in the melee. Before he could try to save her, four more vicious creatures blocked his path. He swung his sword in a clean stroke, taking two of their heads off. For the next one, he kicked it in the chest hard enough to break ribs and sent it flying backward. When the last jumped on him, he grabbed its arms and ripped them off. It took another couple of minutes to extract the essence from each of the four while they struggled with their wounds and missing body parts.
By the time Bartol finished and reached the blond female nerou, she lay on the ground unmoving with her blue eyes open toward the sky. He checked her pulse but didn’t find one. Over a year’s hard work, and she’d finally had her chance to go out into the world. Now, she was gone. He wanted to mourn her loss, but he had no time.
Cori was nearly past the danger. They’d reached the edge of the demon horde, and the two angels assigned to escort them were battling the infiltrators there. Gunfire rang out as well from the vehicle, taking out another demon. It killed Bartol to stay there while his mate fled for her life as she labored with their child. He desperately wanted to go, but the best way to protect her and everyone else was to stay and kill the demons so they could never come back to hurt anyone again. He had to trust Melena to keep Cori safe…and Kerbasi. That was the most difficult. Would the guardian truly do his job and protect Bartol’s mate? He could only hope the man had reformed as much as everyone claimed because he was staking Cori’s life on it.
Bartol hacked and slashed his way through the last demons along the road where they tried to race after the fleeing vehicle, not having time to kill his opponents for good. The important part was to keep them from their target, but he left a wake of crawling body parts behind him. He tossed away the arms, heads, and torsos closest to him. Trees shook and rustled nearby where they were littered with moving limbs. Bartol wasn’t the only one getting rid of the demon parts that way.
The Jeep finally left their sight, and a few minutes later Jeriel’s angels returned to report Cori was safely out of the way. Bartol turned back and got a good look at how many more of Hell’s spawn remained. It was impossible to count. The fighting raged along the road and well into the compound where fires burned and many dead bodies lay—from both sides. Bartol never could have imagined so many demons would find their way to Alaska, but he was beginning to wonder if the portal in L.A. was the only one. Perhaps The Trio had opened another they hadn’t found yet. They would have to search for it, but that was a job for another day.
Moving along the line of stunned demons the nerou had waiting for him, Bartol started pulling their essences out as fast as he could. He was down to only needing fifteen seconds for the weaker ones, but the stronger ones could still take up to a minute. Some were rising back up before he could get to them. One clawed at his face before a nerou could stun it again with her blood.
After finishing that one, Bartol continued down the line, getting kicked and bitten by those that awakened too soon. He didn’t dare stop. Pain wracked his body from numerous injuries all over, but he kept pressing his hands onto the demons’ chests and siphoning their essences out one by one. His father was inside the compound working as fast as he could as well. Bartol couldn’t see Raguel from his vantage point, but he heard him shouting every so often.
After finishing the demon bodies along the road, he ran through the gate to search for more. He passed Remiel taking on at least a dozen at once. The archangel’s white robe was covered in blood and ripped to shreds, but if he was wounded, it didn’t appear to slow him down. He moved with lightning speed over his opponents, cleaving some in half, taking the heads off others, and zapping groups of them with lightning. A demon arm clung to the bottom of his robes, trying to climb its way up. When it reached his hip, he pulled it off and threw it away. Remiel might have been the one who’d sent Bartol and Lucas to Purgatory when they’d committed forbidden acts, and they might hate him for that, but he certainly made a good ally in this battle.
Bartol left the archangel to it and kept movin
g. Near the dorms, there was a heap of demons waiting for him that several nerou had stacked up. He started to go toward it, but something else distracted him.
Ivan was surrounded by ten demons, attempting to fight them all at once. He was one of their strongest fighters due to Lucas teaching him even before he left Purgatory, but he could not handle that many foes alone. Bartol hesitated, knowing he needed to execute the stunned demons in the pile before they rose, but Ivan needed help right then. He gestured at the three nerou who were stacking up bodies as they wounded their foes, using blades soaked with their blood. “Keep them down. I’ll be there soon!”
They grumbled but kept at their work.
Bartol raced over to Ivan. The large, muscular nerou was already wounded with one arm dangling down by a few tendons, but he held his sword up with his good side and kept hacking away at his attackers. Twice, he paused long enough to recoat the blade with blood from his wounds so he could stun the demons and keep them down while he fought the others.
By the time Bartol reached him, three were on the ground. Another was crawling about with no head. It took less than a minute to execute them all. After that, he positioned himself back to back with Ivan and fought the other seven. They were growling and vicious with knives or swords in their hands and no compunction about using teeth if they could. One of them snapped at Bartol’s arm, tearing into his flesh. He jerked away, then he raised his sword and plunged it into his foe’s heart.
At that moment, an idea formed in his head.
While the demon struggled to free itself from impalement, he concentrated on pulling its essence through the blade and into his hand. To his surprise, it worked. The essence could travel to him through the metal like electricity. In ten seconds, the demon was down and gone for good. He kicked at another that came close, sending it flying as one of its friends came for him next. Bartol repeated his trick by stabbing that one in the heart as well and pulling out its essence.
Meanwhile, Ivan grunted behind him as he fought his share of attackers. Just as Bartol was taking down his third demon, the male nerou cried out. He turned to find Ivan lying on the ground. His guts were hanging out from a wide and deep slash to his stomach. He also had a cut on his neck where blood flowed freely. He gasped for breath and clutched at his wounds.