by Elicia Hyder
One of my angels dropped from the sky. I peeked around the Challenger’s bumper to see who had fallen.
Lachlan.
Iliana started past me, but I grabbed the back of her shirt to hold her back. “Whoa! Whoa! You trying to get yourself killed?”
“It’s Lachlan! We can’t leave him to die!”
“I’ll go,” Jett said, stepping in front of her.
Panic flashed across her face. “What? You were just shot.”
“And I was just healed.” He grabbed her arms. “I have crystal water running through my veins. They can’t hurt me.”
That was true for actual Eden crystal water. I wasn’t so positive about the concoction we’d cooked up in the kitchen.
“Will you cover me?” Jett asked, looking up at me.
I had to choose to keep this kid alive twice? Was there a father on Earth with that kind of willpower?
“Of course.” I reached for one of the rifles Reuel had commandeered from the soldiers down the street.
As Jett turned to step out from behind the car, Iliana grabbed him and planted a hard kiss right on his mouth.
“Hey! Hey!” I shouted. “Do you want me to protect him or not?”
Jett’s cheeks flushed red. I shook my head and pushed him toward the car’s bumper. “Go on. Get out there.”
Iliana was still smiling and touching her bottom lip.
I rolled my eyes and positioned the rifle in the groove of the tire well. Reuel stepped to the side of the car and extended his hand. This time, instead of the gunmen being pulled forward, they all stumbled back, allowing Jett a second to get to Lachlan.
The Angel of Death easily outweighed Jett by a hundred pounds. My eyes were focused on the recovering firing squad beyond him, but I watched Jett in my peripheral vision low-crawl toward Lachlan.
He rolled Lachlan onto his back.
One of the soldiers aimed. I fired first, my bullet striking the man’s shoulder, toppling him backward. Reuel blasted all the troops backward again.
Jett was lying back-to-chest on top of Lachlan. Reaching back, he hooked his arm under Lachlan’s leg. Then he rolled to the opposite side and up onto his hip, balancing Lachlan across his shoulders, executing a nearly flawless fireman’s carry.
With only a slight stumble, Jett started toward us, with Lachlan’s body oozing black sludge down Jett’s arm.
A sniper’s bullet zinged by my head, grazing my ear. I flinched, and the army opened fire again. I recovered and shot an operator in the thigh, but not before a bullet struck the back of Jett’s leg. He crashed down onto one knee.
A helicopter soared over the top of the monument behind us. I looked out from behind the car in time to see Fury aiming her rifle from the helicopter’s outboard. With a single shot toward the roof of a neighboring building, the sniper plummeted to the street below.
She dropped the rifle, and Cruz handed her a grenade launcher. She fired at the Morning Star’s SUV. Cruz fired down the side street to our right.
Fwoomp!
Fwoomp!
Fwoomp!
Someone else was shooting from the other side of the helicopter. Jett was limping along, mostly dragging his injured leg behind him.
A second later…
Pop!
Pop!
Pop!
Hissssssss!
Tear gas fogged the army, sending the soldiers scrambling for gas masks they didn’t all have. It allowed Fury, Kane, and Cruz time to fast-rope through the pouring rain, to the ground. Anya and Rogan stayed in the helicopter.
Fury ran to Jett. She wrapped her arm around his waist and helped him limp back to the top of the hill.
Gabriel and I grabbed Lachlan when Jett and Fury were close enough. We eased him down onto the ground behind the car.
I wrenched the vial of crystal water from my pocket and unscrewed the cap. When I reached to pour some into Lachlan’s gaping mouth, Gabriel caught my arm. “It’s too late.”
Lachlan’s gray face was spiderwebbed, and his eyes were solid black and staring into nothing. He was gone.
I sank back on my heels and hung my head.
“He’s dead?” Jett asked in disbelief.
“Yeah,” I answered through gritted teeth.
The others ran behind the car. “Everybody whole?” Kane asked.
Fury shook her head.
“I was too late.” Jett stared at Lachlan. His pant leg was pulled up. The bullet had torn through his calf muscle but had mostly gone straight through. Iliana was helping close the wound.
Fury walked over to her son and examined his bloody shirt. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.” He looked up at her. “You saved my ass out there.”
She lifted a shoulder. “What are mothers for?”
He gave a sad, but genuinely grateful, smile.
Fury knelt down next to me. “You OK?”
I fisted her hair and kissed her. “Nice shot, babe. Where’d Anya and Rogan go?”
“An RPG team was setting up a few streets over. They’ll be back,” Fury said.
“Better?” Iliana asked Jett, pulling her hands away from his leg.
“Better. Thank you.”
“Iliana, you went completely dark when you took off in my car,” I said.
“What do you mean, dark?” Fury asked.
“She’s the most powerful angel alive. She’s pretty damn easy to find, except for today.” I looked at my daughter. “What did you do?”
“High-Z cuffs. I figured if they could stop my power, they could hide me from the Morning Star.”
I’d have applauded her if I hadn’t still been pretty freaked out by it.
She grimaced. “Sorry about the car. Claymore had all the inbound roads blocked off. I had to drive it up a one-way street.”
I ran my hand down my face.
Gunfire was the only thing that saved her from a safe-driving lecture. The ceasefire ended as the helicopter returned.
Fury stood and tossed me a smoke grenade. “Smoke ’em!”
I pulled the pin and hurled it over the car and down the street. Kane, Cruz, and Fury did the same as the helicopter lowered overhead. A wall of thick purple smoke ballooned up between us and the army.
When the firing mostly stopped, Rogan dove out of the helicopter, and Anya slid down a rope. Once she was on the ground, she started barking orders. “Guardians, unat oruku urak!”
The guardians flew in from every direction. They lined up in front of the car, linking arms to form a massive wall of bodies in front of us.
“What are they doing?” I asked Fury.
“It’s called a unity lock.”
“I understood that much. What is it?”
“When they’re locked together, they’re impenetrable. Nothing will get through that line.”
I shook my head, impressed. “Never saw Abaddon do that.”
“You never saw Abaddon really lead anybody.”
“True. Where’d she learn it?”
“Azrael.”
The fog was beginning to clear, and once again, the remaining soldiers raised their weapons. But before anyone could fire, Anya raised her hands toward them.
Her mouth opened, and a shock wave of energy exploded from it. The wave rippled the air all the way down the hill. When it hit the soldiers, every single one let go of their weapons to cover their ears. Some crumpled. Some scattered. All of them were in obvious pain.
Behind her, I heard nothing.
Whatever it was, the firing stopped. Even the Morning Star had ducked and covered his head with his camouflaged arms.
Fury crossed her arms. “Pretty cool, right?”
“What the…what?” I couldn’t even form words.
“Sound waves. You can only hear them if you’re in their path, but they’re deafening.”
Iliana came and stood beside me. “OK, that’s badass.”
Most of the soldiers had run away.
Anya stopped, finally out of breath after nearly
a solid minute of…doing whatever it was she was doing.
The Morning Star straightened, his face red with anger. He extended his hand toward the SUV behind him. Its back door flew open with so much force the top hinges snapped.
Azrael fell out of the backseat sideways, landing hard on the pavement, on his side. His hands were cuffed behind his back, and the aura holding his mind captive was so thick it shimmered like diamond dust around him.
The Morning Star jerked Azrael off the ground so that he hovered in front of him.
“Let him go!” Iliana ordered, pushing through the wall of guardians.
“Your life for his! That’s the only deal I’ll make!” The Morning Star curled and tightened his power around Azrael until my father was struggling to breathe.
“Have it your way,” Iliana hissed.
She raised her hands toward the thundering clouds again. Like lightning rods, her arms drew the power of the skies. Streaks of white light surged through her, then her hands flew forward toward the bottom of the hill.
Lightning shot straight for the Morning Star, slamming him and Azrael against the side of the armored SUV.
Electricity sizzled through both of them until the aura surrounding Az exploded in a violent spray of sparks. The energy suspended him off the ground as it pulsed through him.
His eyes were open.
His mouth was screaming.
Iliana finally dropped her hands, and the beam of energy receded like a wave that had crashed onto the beach. The rain stopped as quickly as it had started.
The Morning Star crumpled in a heap against the tire. Azrael lay motionless on his back. And almost all the remaining soldiers scattered, now free of the Morning Star’s hold.
The rest of us were stunned.
“Is he dead?” Jett asked, breaking the silence.
I wasn’t sure to which he Jett was referring, but neither Azrael nor the Morning Star were moving. My father wasn’t dead; I would have sensed it.
“Jett, Rogan, cuff them!” Iliana ordered.
We all set off down the hill. The few Legion Nine members left standing were relieved of their weapons.
Rogan took the high-Z cuffs off the belt of a soldier and slapped one onto the arm of the still-sleeping demon. When he went for the other arm, the Morning Star shot up and grabbed Rogan by the neck.
There was a flash of movement beside me. The tip of a shiny blade was pointed at the Morning Star’s throat before I could even turn to see that it was Anya beside me.
“Let him go,” she said calmly.
The Morning Star smiled. “Do you really want to kill me?”
I carefully placed my hand on top of her wrist. “No, she doesn’t.” I was staring at Anya’s profile as I gently pushed her arm down.
If she killed him now, the whole army—and Azrael—would die with him.
Reluctantly, she lowered the sword, but she stopped just below his belt line. “How about castration instead? Think you’ll be able to regrow a dick that’s been severed with a helkrymite sword?”
Oh.
The Morning Star’s eyes widened. Then his hand released Rogan’s neck. Coughing and gasping, Rogan fell to his knees.
I cuffed the Morning Star’s other arm, and I felt his powers leave him. It was like shutting off a generator. We all relaxed.
“Reuel, help me move Az,” Iliana said.
Reuel touched my father’s arm, and a spark singed his hand. He recoiled.
“What the hell was that?” I asked, walking over to join them when Jett took hold of the Morning Star.
Reuel lifted both shoulders.
My father’s foot twitched. And sparked. I looked at my daughter.
She turned up her palms. “I have no idea.”
“Az?” I asked, taking a knee beside him. I lowered my hand toward his chest and watched the air crackle in the space beneath my palm. It was like static electricity with jumper cables. His body hummed with energy when I touched him.
A violent blast knocked me forward, and a spray of glass shards sliced my skin. Shielding my eyes with my arm, I looked back to see the side of an office building smoking. “Mortars!”
Anya searched the sky. “Guardians!”
Another round came from the east, striking the courthouse over the hill.
Anya glanced at me. “You good?”
I gave her a thumbs-up.
Without another audible word, she touched her ear, and two angels I didn’t know lifted her into the sky. Rogan, Jett, and Reuel stayed behind with us.
Iliana’s hands were on Azrael’s chest, and she was sending her healing power into him. The black spot had disappeared, but nothing else was happening. “I don’t know what’s wrong,” she said.
Death certainly wasn’t the problem. Azrael’s life was solidly intact. “Maybe nothing is wrong. Can you get those handcuffs off him?”
“Yeah.”
Close by, car horns sounded. The city streets hadn’t exactly been silent since the angelic had staged a coup, but this was different. This was desperate honking. Angry honking.
Another mortar blew apart the spired tower on top of one of the oldest skyscrapers in the city. Rubble rained down from above, and Reuel cast a shield over us.
Everywhere, humans were screaming. Iliana started to get up.
I grabbed her arm. “Where are you going?”
“To help.”
“We don’t know who else is out there. Someone is still obeying orders. It’s too risky.”
“I can’t let them—”
“Iliana!” a man’s voice echoed down an alleyway.
Nathan.
“Dad?”
Nathan and Ionis darted out from between two buildings, past the debris from the first mortar strike.
Iliana ran to him. “What are you doing here?”
Out of breath, Nathan jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “Your mom sent me to make sure Tupelo Honey was OK.” He pushed the rifle he was carrying behind him, then grabbed her and pulled her close. “What do you think I’m doing here? Geez.” He kissed the top of her head.
He was wearing his olive-drab ball cap. On the front was the “Regular Guy” patch I’d given him years ago.
“It’s too dangerous out here,” she said against his chest.
“You’re my daughter. If you drive headfirst onto the battlefield, you can bet your ass I’m going to follow.”
“I’m sorry,” she said quietly. “I couldn’t stay home and let—”
“Shh. It’s done now. Besides, Gabriel told us you subdued Michael.”
“From the looks of it, he was right.” Ionis looked over at the Morning Star and let out a slow whistle. “Hey, Mike! You look sexy in handcuffs!”
The Morning Star ignored him. He was glaring at Nathan. “Hello again, Mr. McNamara. We didn’t get to say goodbye before your departure yesterday.”
Nathan smirked. “Isn’t that a shame?”
“You know what else is a shame?” Ionis asked out of the corner of his mouth. He pointed to the Morning Star. “That you didn’t drown him at birth.”
The Morning’s Star’s eyes narrowed.
Nathan chuckled and walked toward the demon. “How does it feel being abandoned by everyone who’s supposed to love you, or at least follow you? We saw the Claymore vehicles hightailing it out of the city.” He tapped his finger against the Morning Star’s chest. “And your own mother drove us across the state to get away from your ass.”
“I have no mother,” he hissed.
Nathan smiled. “I think she’d agree.” As he turned back toward Iliana, Nathan’s gaze snagged on Azrael, who was still hidden behind Reuel. “Is Az…?” Nathan swallowed.
“Unconscious,” I said.
As if he had heard his name, my father groaned in pain.
I grabbed his hand. “Azrael, can you hear me?”
With a gasp, he bolted upright, and his eyes popped open. The dark irises were swirling with energy, like a midnight sea after a storm. His
hands rose slowly in front of his face, sparks popping at his fingertips.
“Holy shit,” I said.
Iliana crouched down beside me. “Is that magic?”
“Magic,” Azrael whispered, mesmerized by his hands.
I smiled at her. “You know, he hates it when people call it that.”
She grinned.
“Too bad he doesn’t remember how to use it,” the Morning Star said with an eyeroll.
“What’s happening to me?” Azrael asked her…or me, I wasn’t sure.
“He needs the blood stone.” Iliana grabbed my wrist.
The Morning Star laughed. “Warren, did you tell them about our car ride?”
Iliana looked at me. “What’s he talking about?”
The corner of my mouth tipped up. “I have no idea.”
“Now who’s a liar?” the Morning Star asked. “Tell them about the blood stone. Tell them how you watched me destroy it.”
I pulled the chain around my neck, hauling the duplicate stone from beneath my shirt. “You mean this blood stone?”
“Impossible.” The Morning Star started forward, but the barrel of Cruz’s rifle at the center of his chest stopped him. “I destroyed that stone myself.”
I lifted the chain over my head. “You know what’s really interesting about this stone?”
He didn’t answer.
“You created it.”
He scoffed.
“It’s true,” Fury said. “With one of your illusions in Nulterra.”
“But illusions aren’t reality,” he argued.
“Maybe not.” I fisted the stone. “But the penicillin, food, and water worked the same way down in that pit, and I’ll bet this thing does too.”
The shock on his face told me I was right.
I offered the stone to my father. “Put this on, and if you think about it hard enough, I’m pretty sure you’ll remember why your hands are buzzing.”
He reached for the stone, but hesitated.
“It’s OK,” Iliana said gently.
He looked up at her, then took the necklace and put it over his head. I was pretty sure she was encouraging him, but it clearly didn’t matter. My father’s eyes rolled back the instant he put it on.
“What’s it doing to him?” Iliana asked.
Nathan crouched next to us and put his hand on her shoulder. “Oh, just a few hundred thousand years of data dump.” He smiled at me, and we both laughed. I’d said the same thing to him the last time we’d been through this with Azrael.