Graves of Wrath

by Lina Gardiner

  Britt’s gut twisted. What the thing didn’t know was that Jess would never beg for mercy. Not for a second.

  But Jess’s life was hanging in the balance. A few months ago, she’d actually died and was revived when they’d saved Uriel from a fate worse than death. Thanks to Jess, he was now safe.

  Britt focused on Jess again. How many lives did a vampire have? He couldn’t risk this beast taking over her body fully. He started to pray as loud as he could. He had to kill this thing.

  “You lose!” the demon shrieked, turning into a bird-shaped black dust cloud and diving fully into Jess, disappearing into her just seconds before she dove off the tower.

  Britt didn’t have to think. If Jess died, he’d go with her. His feet let go and he stretched out his arms as if diving into water, hoping that he would cut more quickly through the air and catch up. He did.

  He wrapped his arms around her and they tumbled and flipped midair. While his body and mind spun out of control, he fought to think. He had to find a way to kill the demon before it was too late, even if it killed Jess in the process. She’d want that. He grabbed her close and pressed his mouth close to her ear. It felt like they were moving in slow motion, even though they were hurtling to the ground.

  The demon inside her clawed and pushed and tried to get away, but Britt had his arms and legs tightly wrapped around her as he continued to pray. Suddenly, the shadows left Jess and the giant bird formed again, clutching them in his talons. It stopped their downward spiral and pulled them higher.

  That didn’t stop Britt; he recited the prayer over and over until the demons began to scream and curse. The shadows dropped them again, and they began a freefall more like skydiving, only now Jess was facing him. Her green eyes widened as the rest of the demons flew out of her mouth and burst into flames on the air, then blew away in the wind.

  He’d forced the demons out, but it was too late. They were both going to die.

  “Jess,” he said in her ear. “I love you.” He wondered why they hadn’t hit the ground yet.

  “I know,” she said. “I knew what was happening all the time the demon was inside me. You did the right thing.”

  Britt’s head began to buzz. He felt as if his body had just burst into flames. The heat inside him became so overpowering, so excruciating, he lost himself to it. Maybe it was a blessing that he didn’t see the ground coming at them, faster than either of them could survive.

  He heard Jess’s voice from far away. “Britt. What’s happening?” Then her voice faded away and his mind clouded. He didn’t feel the impact of the ground. Did instant death mean no pain?

  Seconds dragged on like minutes while his eyes remained focused on the beautiful face of Jess, the woman who meant everything to him. Had her body been smashed beyond belief and he was still seeing her the way he always had? Were they both dead and he was seeing her soul?

  “Britt, yank yourself out of it,” Jess said suddenly, snapping her fingers in front of his face. He blinked.

  “What the . . . ?”

  “You saved us,” she said. “We’re both okay.” He couldn’t ignore the way she kept looking over his shoulder, as if there was someone behind him.

  “Are they all dead?” he asked. “Did we kill the demons?”

  “We squashed them like bugs,” she said smiling.

  “Why aren’t we squashed like bugs?” he asked vaguely, still unable to remember how he got here, sitting on the ground in front of Jess.

  “I’d say you’ve learned a new trick,” she said. “Your angelic DNA kicked in and saved us. Saved me. Don’t you remember?”

  He shook his head. “I only remember my body burning. Maybe the demon slashed my back on the way down.”

  “No. That’s not it,” she said.

  “How do you know?” he asked, finally unable to stop himself from turning to see what she kept looking at. His mouth dropped open. “Holy hell, I’ve got wings.”

  “You do. And they worked very well. We made a five-point landing.”

  “I don’t remember that.”

  “Must’ve been the trauma of sprouting wings at such a critical time,” she said, unable to take her eyes off the impressive, large silvery wings extending out behind him.

  Sampson ran out of the building. “The demons are gone. . . . Wait a minute! What the—Britt, you’ve got wings!”

  “I know. I have no idea how it happened, but I’m certainly glad it did.”

  Sampson stepped up beside Jess, who’d moved around Britt to stare at his back. She touched a wing, but to him, it was as if she’d caressed his shoulder blade.

  “Can you feel that?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Neat.”

  “How does anyone expect me to live a normal life, walking around with these huge things waving behind me? I can’t even fit in a car.”

  JESS WAS IN AWE. This cemented the fact that the man she loved was an angel. He had frigging wings that had sprouted halfway down the tower! She pushed at his wing again, testing to see if she could tuck it down under his arm. It wasn’t going to cooperate.

  “Ouch,” he said.

  Jess’s cell phone rang somewhere and she turned to see it in Sampson’s hand.

  “It didn’t die. I thought you’d want it back,” he said.

  “Thanks, Sampson,” she said, taking the phone and pressing talk.

  “Jess dear, are you okay? Were you successful? The power just came back on here. We’d like to leave the archives, but I wanted to make sure first,” Regent said.

  Jess looked around. “We got them all, didn’t we, Britt?”

  He nodded. “They’re gone.”

  “I heard him,” Regent said in her ear. “I can’t wait to hear how you two did it.”

  Jess snickered, then looked repentant when Britt frowned at her. “Oh Regent, you’re going to be so surprised. Britt single-handedly saved us and the city.”

  “I’m on my way. Tell me the rest when I get there,” Regent said.

  She could tell he’d put the phone on his shoulder while he spoke to the others. “It’s safe to leave. Let’s get out of here.”

  “We’ll wait for you at the Eiffel Tower, then?” Jess said.

  “See you in a couple of minutes.” Regent hung up.

  She shrugged her shoulders. “He’s on his way. I didn’t have time to warn . . . er . . . tell him your good news.”

  Britt stood and twisted so hard, he nearly turned in a circle trying to get a look at his wings. They flapped a couple of times. “Hey! I did that. I thought about moving them and they moved,” he said.

  Sampson was quiet, but Jess saw the excitement in his eyes. Her scientist wanted to figure out how those huge feathered things had sprouted from Britt’s back—she’d bet her non-life on it.

  “Face it, Britt. You’ve evolved.”

  He frowned. “I’m not sure I want this.”

  “It’s not like you have a choice,” she said. “It’s kinda like being a vampire. We make the best with what we have. By my thinking, you got the better end of the stick.”

  He looked repentant. “Yes, you’re right, Jess. Thank you.”

  She frowned at him. “Thank you? For what?”

  “For making me realize I’m lucky, and I have to accept everything that being a Fallen one entails, especially things that saved us from a fall from that height.” He tried to swallow. “I need to sit down again.”

  Jess held his hand while he sat, then she plunked down beside him on the curb. “You okay?”

  “Yes, I’m just a little tired. All that chanting must’ve worn me out.”

  “Flying might have done it, too.”

  “I flew?” He shook his head. “Really flew? I didn’t just slow down our descent?”

  �
��Nope. You carried me like a superhero. It was cool.” She grinned at him. “You might want to buy a pair of glasses. You know, for when you’re undercover.”

  “Not funny.”

  “Uh, Britt,” Sampson said from behind him. He’d been behind Britt ever since he first noticed the wings.

  “Yes?” Britt turned around to see what he wanted. The wings were gone. “Hey, where’d they go?”

  Sampson cleaned his glasses with the edge of his T-shirt. “They just started to shrink and finally disappeared. I can’t even see a line where they came out.” He adjusted his glasses and Britt could practically feel Sampson’s breath on his back. Talk about a getting a check-up.

  Too late, Regent pulled up in his vehicle. He got out and approached them, a huge smile on his face. “You did it. You sent the demons back to hell.” He narrowed his eyes on them. “Wait, what’s going on? You all look shell-shocked.”

  “Britt has wings,” Jess said.

  “What?”

  “Angelic wings,” she said. “The final few demons joined together into one massive flying demon. It possessed me, then made me jump off the Eiffel Tower. Britt dove after me.” She turned to him. “Why did you do that, by the way? I’m assuming you didn’t know you’d sprout wings?”

  Britt looked troubled. “I’ll be brutally honest, my love. If you were going to die, I didn’t want to live without you. So I followed you down.”

  She inhaled sharply and pulled his hand and held it to her heart. “Please, don’t ever do that again. I want you to live, no matter what happens to me. Promise me that you’ll never do anything like that again, John Brittain.”

  Regent rubbed his chin with one hand. “I think I know how you sprouted wings,” he said.

  Everyone looked at him. “How?” they said, in unison.

  “It was a selfless act. You were willing to give up your life in order to save Jess’s. That’s how you acquired your wings. You earned them, in essence.”

  “You know, that actually feels right,” Britt said.

  “I don’t know,” Jess said, shaking her head. “It’s one thing, having a relationship with a man who has angelic DNA, but now that you have actual angel wings, you’re pretty much fully fledged, pardon the pun. How can a vampire and an angel be together?”

  Britt looked stunned by her statement. His mouth opened and closed, but before he could comment, Regent spoke up. “The same way you always have. You two are the same people you’ve always been. Don’t ever second-guess that.”

  A tear slid down Jess’s cheek. “I’m sorry, Britt. My insecurities make me afraid I’m going to taint you, but instead, I always hurt you.”

  He wiped the tear away with a gentle swipe of his thumb. “Never, Jess. I adore you beyond words. And after what happened tonight on the tower, you can’t possibly doubt my feelings for you.”

  “You don’t have to prove anything to me. You’ve shown me in so many ways.” She smiled at him, unable to voice her true ragged feelings at that moment. If she didn’t change the subject, she’d have a meltdown. She glanced over at Sampson, who was still poking at Britt’s fully healed back through his shredded T-shirt.

  “It’s as if he never had wings,” Sampson said, awe still in his voice.

  “I wish I’d seen them,” Regent said with a sigh. He looked around them as streetlights began popping on again, and people started poking their heads out of their apartment buildings. “Tomorrow, the city can start rebuilding,” he said.

  Jess’s cell phone rang. “It’s Veronique,” she said, then read aloud the captain’s text. “Did you do this?”

  Jess texted back. “We had a hand in it.”

  “I don’t know how to thank you,” Veronique texted.

  “No need.”

  “Can you and Britt meet me tomorrow to brief me on how you did it? Just in case it ever happens again?”

  Jess made a face and looked at the men.

  “Sorry. It’s not a transferrable ability. Just be happy the city is safe for now.”

  No text came back and she figured Veronique was fuming. She’d probably hear from her later. She shoved her cell back into her pocket. “Has anyone heard from Morana since this whole thing started?”

  Regent looked instantly pained. “No. Do you think the demons got her?”

  “I doubt it. She’s resilient and knows how to look out for number one. She probably went to ground when things got dicey. She’ll turn up, Regent, never fear,” Jess said.

  Jess’s dawn alert started vibrating on her cell phone. “Time for me to go home,” she said.

  Britt stood and Regent hugged both of them.

  “Isn’t Paris exciting?” Britt said unexpectedly, a lopsided grin on his face.

  Jess couldn’t help but understand his unusual statement. “We nearly died, but I agree, it was a life-affirming experience.”

  Strains of purple began to filter into the dark sky.

  Regent’s cell phone rang. “Hello? Morana? Thank God you’re okay,” he said.

  “Morana made it,” he shouted to everyone. He listened to her speaking, nodding every now and then he said, “Okay then. See you tomorrow?”

  Jess’s eyebrows lifted. She’d hear about the conversation tomorrow night when she spoke to Regent. She could have listened in, but didn’t have the energy right now. Her head was too full of the spectacular things that had happened tonight. She didn’t even know how she could possibly come to terms with Britt having wings.

  “Wait a minute,” Britt said. “Isn’t that . . . ?”

  “Randolph?” Jess said. The man wandered past them on the sidewalk, looking confused and dazed. But he wasn’t possessed anymore, nor did he recognize them.

  “Guess that answers the question about the possessed. They should all be okay,” Regent said.

  “Oh wow, that’s such good news,” Sampson said.

  Jess yawned, then stood and slapped one hand on her leg. “Bedtime for me, boys,” she said. “We’ll have a lot to discuss tomorrow night.”

  Britt took her hand and they strolled down the sidewalk. “I’m glad it’s over,” he said.

  Jess tipped her head in his direction. “Me, too. So why do you sound like you don’t think it’s over?”

  “Regent is in Paris for the next two months. And we haven’t figured out how to decipher the ancient book he found. He was led to it deliberately. Which means . . . his work here isn’t done yet. And neither is ours . . .”

  The End

  Britt’s right! His and Jess’s work in France is just getting started.

  Don’t miss the next book in Lina Gardner’s City of Bones trilogy,

  Silenced by the Grave!

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  About the Author

  LINA GARDINER,
author of the award-winning Jess Vandermire Vampire Hunter Series, has writing in her blood. Living in New Brunswick, Canada, a hotspot for legendary ghosts and tall tales of odd happenings, has probably added to her love of a good mystery. That, and the stories her grandfather told in the “parlor” when their grandmother wasn’t paying attention, added to her love of storytelling, and the wonders of imagination.