by Elicia Hyder
“Az had a backup plan? That’s a miracle,” Fury said.
“I know. Thank God he did. Dana worried about Azrael’s strange behavior, but she didn’t know about the blood stone or how he would be affected by its absence. She told us about the pregnant woman at Echo-10.”
I looked at Fury. “I knew that plan would never work.”
“Was he really going to swap Adrianne’s baby with the ICU woman’s kid?” Nathan asked.
Fury sighed. “He was going to try.”
“Sounds like something Azrael would do,” Jett said.
Fury and I both turned to look at him. It was weird to think this man-child, a stranger essentially to us both, had more history with my father than either of us combined and multiplied exponentially. Azrael and Jett would have existed together since the beginning of time.
My head ached from information overload. “Does Azrael remember me? The last time he lost his memories, he didn’t know me at all.”
“This is very different from the last time,” Nathan said. “When he lost his memory before, he was a blank slate when he was found. This was gradual. Painful to watch.”
“My dad says it resembled the decline of dementia and Alzheimer patients. That part of his brain just faded away,” Sloan said.
“Cassiel says his exposure to the Morning Star and Iliana may have slowed the progression of the condition,” Nathan added.
“But you’d supposedly died before that happened.” Sloan’s eyes saddened. “It was really hard for him, and to be honest, his memories fading eased that pain. When we were still in contact, he remembered you in theory, but probably only because Adrianne helped him hold on to some information,” Sloan said.
“Where is he?”
“The last we knew, he and Adrianne lived at the beach house in Kill Devil Hills. Across the bay from Claymore in the Outer Banks,” Nathan said.
“So he’s still running the company?” Anya asked.
“For now. We heard he has plans to transfer ownership to his son.” Nathan looked like he might vomit. “His other son.”
“The Morning Star.” I was so horrified, my voice didn’t even sound like my own.
“More commonly known on Earth as Michael Claymore,” Nathan said.
My stomach turned.
“Azrael and Adrianne named him after you.” Sloan’s chin quivered as she fought back tears.
A devastating thought occurred to me. “Oh god, Sloan. What happened with you and Adrianne?” They’d been best friends since they were kids.
“I told her the baby was the Morning Star, but she didn’t want to believe it. What mother would? Deep down, I think she knew the truth, but the baby was so normal when he was born. Tiny. Cute. Pooped a lot. Even we questioned for a while that Michael was really the Morning Star.”
“Didn’t he have migraines after being around Iliana?” I asked.
She shook her head. “We found out later, Chimera had given the boy her sanctonite stone. He and Iliana were immune to each other.”
My fists clenched at my sides. “Chimera gave the Morning Star her stone?”
“Warren, Chimera was in on it from the beginning,” Nathan said.
“I knew I didn’t trust that bitch,” Fury hissed.
“She’s been helping the Morning Star develop weapons against humans and angels,” Sloan said.
Nathan lowered his voice, and pointed to where Torman was being guarded at the four-wheeler. “They had Rogan for a while. Took him right out of his bed while their family was on vacation. Chimera and her minions tortured him for almost a year before we found him.”
“Tortured?” I asked.
“Tested their weapons on him,” Nathan clarified.
Iliana nudged me with her elbow. “Now do you understand why I detained her father?”
“Yeah, I do. Want me to kill him for you?”
The corner of her mouth twitched up.
“Chimera convinced Azrael to move to the beach house permanently about a year after the baby was born. Adrianne, of course, went with him. They had two more kids together. A girl and another boy,” Nathan said.
“Human kids?” I asked, surprised.
“As far as we know,” Sloan said.
“Do you still talk to her?” I asked.
“Not in years. We think Michael came of age and understood his identity when he was really young. Nine, wasn’t it?” Sloan looked at Nathan.
He thought for a second. “Eight.”
“You’re right. He and Luca were the same age. We went to visit them around the holidays, and it was obvious the boy wasn’t normal.”
“How so?” Anya asked.
Sloan’s eyes widened like she was unsure of where to begin. “He spoke with the vocabulary of an adult, though he tried to hide it.”
“Yeah. What kid from North Carolina uses whom correctly in a sentence?” Nathan asked with a smirk.
I smiled, but there was little amusement behind it.
“The boy had zero emotion. A lot like Azrael could be sometimes, you know?” Sloan asked me.
I nodded.
“But it was infinitely worse,” Nathan said.
Iliana crossed her arms. “And he had no interest in playing with me or my brother. I remember that clearly.”
“It was unsettling,” Sloan agreed. “He just stared at Iliana like he was memorizing every little detail.”
“It was so uncomfortable, we left early,” Nathan said.
“Did you talk to them about it?” I asked.
Nathan frowned. “Talking to Azrael about any of it was pointless. He literally has no memory of the supernatural.”
“None of it,” Jett echoed, sadly shaking his head.
“I mentioned it to Adrianne privately a few days later, but she blew me off,” Sloan said. “I didn’t bring it up again until Adrianne’s mom got sick the following year. She was diagnosed with stage-three liver cancer, so they came back to Asheville.”
“Let me guess. The Morning Star healed Adrianne’s mom?” Fury asked.
“Correct. I tried to tell Adrianne again that the Morning Star had the power to heal.” Sloan’s whole body slumped. “She cussed me out, and we haven’t really spoken since. That was…” She thought about it. “God, that was about eight years ago.”
“Eight years?” I asked in disbelief.
“Nobody holds a grudge like Adrianne,” Sloan said.
Nathan grinned. “Remember how she was with Shannon?”
“Yeah.” My head dropped. “I’m so sorry, Sloan.”
She forced a strained smile. “Like I said, I think Adrianne knows. Logically, she has to. I just hope she doesn’t get caught in the crossfire of everything.”
“Sounds like there might be a literal crossfire if the Morning Star’s in charge of Claymore now,” Anya said.
A chill rippled my spine.
“He’s not in charge of it yet,” Nathan said.
“Technically, I guess, he’s too young,” Sloan added. “He’s younger than Iliana. Seventeen.”
“I thought you had a controlling interest in the company,” I said to her.
“I did, but they pushed me out a long time ago. We were given a lump-sum payment and the Wolf Gap property to go quietly.”
Nathan glowered. “A lot of good it does us, when Chimera knows the security system of Echo-5 in and out.”
“Is Echo-5 still connected to Claymore’s servers?” I asked.
“No. We had it rewired, but I don’t completely trust it,” Nathan said.
“What happened to SF-12?” Fury asked.
“No longer employed by Claymore. Enzo was recruited by the NSA before we broke ties with Claymore. He’s some hotshot up in Washington now,” Nathan answered.
“That’s what Kane told me,” I said.
Nathan looked beyond us, and I followed his eyes to where the group was talking by the lake. “A few of the guys stuck around though. A while back, Kane, Cruz, Lex, and Cooper started a firearms-training co
mpany for police special-ops units. They were based in Asheville, so they could still keep an eye on all of us. It went really well until the fever hit. It killed Cooper before we could get Iliana to him.”
“What fever?” Anya asked.
“Blackmouth Fever,” Iliana answered.
Fury shook her head. “Never heard of it.”
“You wouldn’t have,” Sloan said. “It didn’t exist before a few years ago. It was like airborne Ebola. Highly contagious. Extremely deadly.”
“It was a weaponized virus,” Nathan added.
Fury caught my eye and held my gaze for a second.
My jaw clenched. “Weaponized by?”
“The official answer is no one knows.” Nathan crossed his arms. “It’s called Blackmouth Fever because it killed everyone in the town of Blackmouth, North Carolina, just forty-seven miles north of New Hope.”
I swore.
“They found the first dead rats there that carried the virus. Lab rats,” Nathan said.
“By then, it had already started popping up in the demons’ favorite cities.” Sloan started counting on her fingers. “Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and San Antonio.”
I pulled both hands through my hair.
“All those are international hubs,” Iliana said.
“So the virus jumped continents.” Anya pinched the bridge of her nose. “Wow.”
Nathan grimaced. “Unfortunately, that isn’t the worst of it. Some of the earliest and hardest-hit places were the major military installations in the US. Even the US government, who has been wildly in denial that this was domestic bioterrorism, agrees that the bases were deliberately targeted. Fort Bragg and Camp Lejeune, both in North Carolina, were the first to fall. Followed soon after by Fort Benning, Fort Campbell, Fort Lewis, and Fort Hood.”
“What do you mean by ‘fall’?” I asked.
“The disease spread like wildfire. Almost three-quarters of the bases’ populations were infected, and the mortality rate is ninety to ninety-five percent.”
“The population at Fort Bragg alone went from almost three hundred thousand to seventy-five thousand in a month,” Jett added.
“Within eighteen months, the US military lost more than half its members. The majority who survived were reservists,” Nathan said.
“And guess who filled the gap?” Sloan asked.
My heart sank. “Claymore.”
They all nodded.
I felt sick. “I almost don’t want to know, but what was the death toll?”
No one spoke for the longest time. Finally, Nathan shifted uneasily on his feet. “Over two billion dead worldwide.”
“Shut up,” Fury said, her mouth gaping.
Anya hugged herself and closed her eyes.
I just stood there, staring.
“It did the most damage in China and India, and it decimated the most densely populated cities around the world. I doubt any family on Earth was left untouched by it,” Sloan said.
“Who that we know?” I asked.
“Cooper and Wings from SF-12. Both of Kayleigh Neeland’s grandparents. She stayed with us some while she finished college. My mom’s sister, Joan. She died before we even knew she was sick.” Sloan tapped her fingers on her lips.
“Taiya’s mom,” Iliana said.
“That’s right. Melinda Harmon died trying to get to Asheville. Almost made it too. Warren, you remember Taiya?” Sloan asked.
“How could I forget?”
Taiya, the Seramorta daughter of the demon Ysha, had lived with us for a wild few months when Sloan was pregnant with Iliana. Taiya had been raised by her father, and the prolonged exposure to him from such a young age had fried her brain. She was Sloan’s age with the mental capacity of a six-year-old.
“She’s living with us again.”
“No kidding?” I asked.
Nathan chuckled. “Definitely not kidding. She’ll be very excited to see you.”
I touched my chest. “Me?”
“Oh yeah. She’s still very much in love with you,” Sloan said.
“She has your picture framed in her bedroom,” Iliana said. “It was almost the only thing she brought from New York when she came to live with us.”
“Is she here too?” I asked.
“No. She’s back at home with my dad and the others,” Sloan said.
“How is your dad?”
Sloan’s happy expression faltered.
“What?” I asked.
“He retired last year, sold his house, and moved in to help us manage Wolf Gap. I think he got lonely. Anyway, we found out he had pancreatic cancer after Cassiel told us you were alive—”
“He got sick around you?” I asked Iliana.
She looked away.
“When she came of age, her powers balanced each other out.” Nathan put his arm around Sloan’s shoulders. “Iliana can heal, and she can kill, but it’s only intentional now.”
“She wanted to heal her papa, but he asked her not to.” Sloan reached for Iliana’s hand. “He said he wanted to go to Eden and be with my mom. He’d been ready for a while. Even when the virus swept through, he refused to let Iliana protect him. He died peacefully with us at home.”
My head tilted. “But you said he’s with Taiya at—” I swore. “The spirit line was destroyed. He’s stuck here.”
She nodded. “He passed right before we got word.”
I gripped my temples.
“But he’s OK. He’s not sick anymore, and he’s still with us. Iliana can communicate with him.” Tears were sparkling in Sloan’s eyes again. “He sends his love.”
I looked up at the sky. “Damn.”
“Everything has changed since the fever. Lots of others got sick, including Nathan’s whole family.” Sloan gestured toward our daughter. “But Iliana saved them.”
“She did more than that,” Nathan said. “This girl projected a whole damn healing force field. That sickness didn’t come within thirty miles of Asheville.”
Iliana’s cheeks were tinged with pink. I put my arm around her and kissed the side of her head. “I’m so proud of you.”
“Asheville is the only city in the US that’s grown through the epidemic,” Jett said.
I squeezed Iliana’s arm. “I bet.”
“Have they gotten it under control now?” Fury asked.
Sloan tilted her head from side to side. “For the most part. The World Health Organization implemented really strict quarantine laws that helped, and we did receive some assistance from the Father and the Angels of Life.”
“Really? The Angels of Life?” I asked, surprised.
“I’m sure he had to force them to come, but yes,” Iliana said.
“Did Azrael have a hand in spreading the virus?” I asked, terrified to hear the answer.
“Knowingly? No,” Nathan said with so much conviction that the tension building across my shoulders immediately eased.
“But we do have reason to believe that the Morning Star is only getting started.” Jett’s tone was ominous. “Now that the spirit line is gone, nothing will stop him from trying to annihilate the human race.”
Fury looked at me. “I wouldn’t say nothing.”
Her confidence lifted my spirits.
“What assets do we have?” I asked Nathan.
“Angels or human?”
“Both.”
Sloan and Nathan looked at Jett. “Cassiel can give you exact figures”—of course she can, I thought—“but a rough estimate would be a few thousand Angels of Ministry, a couple of Angels of Knowledge, and a few prophets, including Sandalphon.”
“Sandalphon, really?” I asked, surprised because Sandalphon rarely left Eden.
He was an angel, a bit like Iliana, born on Earth with two angel spirits and no human soul at all. He was an Angel of Knowledge and Prophecy, and his physical body was a few hundred years old. Because he was some kind of angel/human hybrid, the power of Eden couldn’t restore his youth as it did with humans.
In Eden,
he was known as the Oragnosi, which loosely translated to “old wise dude.”
“Cassiel asked him to come before the spirit line went down,” Iliana said.
“That’s good for us, I guess.”
Jett grimaced. “Not as good as it should be. Without the auranos, prophecy is extinct.”
“Who else is here?” I asked.
“About a thousand Angels of Death, and about a third of the guardians,” Jett said.
“Reuel will be happy about that,” Fury said.
“I assume the Angels of Life and the messengers hightailed it back to Eden?” I asked.
Jett nodded. “As soon as the veil tore apart, exposing the spirit line.”
“But Ionis and a few others are here,” Nathan said. “And Gabriel. Iliana is our only Angel of Life—”
“Don’t forget about Mom.” Iliana pointed at Sloan.
Sloan rolled her eyes. “Yes, please forget about Mom. The help I can offer won’t amount to anything.”
Iliana looked up at me. “Don’t let her fool you. She’s more powerful than she thinks.”
“Some things never change,” I said, holding Sloan’s gaze. “Any other Archangels? Me, Gabriel, Cassiel, Anya.”
Anya’s face whipped toward me. “Me?”
“You will be once we restore the spirit line.” I looked at Jett for confirmation.
“If we restore the spirit line, yes,” he said.
“What does that even mean that I’ll be an Archangel?” she asked me.
“For starters, it means you’ll become immortal. And I’d imagine, that, like me, as long as you stay in Eden, your body won’t age anymore.”
“And you’ll be able to fly,” Jett added.
“Cassiel says restoring the spirit line can’t be done,” Sloan said.
“Did she say why?”
Sloan scrunched her nose. “She did, but to be honest, it didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.”
“I know that feeling. I’ll talk to her,” I said.
“Wait.” Fury’s brow pinched. “Cassiel is here?”
“She came to Asheville to tell us you both were alive,” Sloan said.
“And she’s been here on the island with us since we came,” Iliana added.
“Huh.” Fury crossed her arms. She was more than intrigued. She was worried. Maybe even jealous.
“Looks like you’ll finally get to meet her.” I couldn’t squash the smile that was fighting its way to my face.