I held my breath. “But?”
He takes his eyes off the road for a second, just so I could see the sincerity in their golden depths. “I too want Blue to live. You have to understand that. But nothing I say is a guarantee.” I nodded. I got it. “When I first met Blue, that is what I saw. I saw him chasing around two little red haired children in the backyard of your parent’s house.”
I felt like I could breathe a little easier, despite all of Gusion’s warnings about the future not being a static thing. But in some universe it happens, and I could only pray it was this one.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
I laid my head on my Mom’s shoulder. It had been hours, and I was exhausted. But so was she. No matter how many times I told her to go, she stayed with me, her hand wrapped in mine. All seven of my Dad’s came and went, taking turns to sit beside us, forcing coffee into my hands, or a sandwich, or water. We got more than a few weird looks. Mostly because my parents were a hot commodity for the media. Their faces were recognizable, even if they couldn’t name them all.
And during the whole five hours, my angels stood like sentinels around the room, invisible to the human eye, but I felt their love all the same. They’d dropped their shields until I was bathed in their love for me, and their respect for Blue.
Eventually, everyone left for the night, leaving only Mom, Lux and Ri. They weren’t as young as the used to be, and all night vigils were no longer in their wheelhouse. Except Ri, who was used to being up all night because of the club, and Lux who had never lost his battle readiness.
I don’t think Lux would leave even if he was tired. He was still angry that I tried to stage an Archangel assassination without him, but he couldn’t yell at me because Mom didn’t know. It was why I didn’t protest too hard when Mom insisted on staying.
Finally, Eli walked into the room, and I jumped to my feet. I ran into his arms, and he hugged me tight.
“It went fine. The bullet hit a rib and shattered, and it was hell trying to get out all the pieces. A couple went worryingly close to his heart, but by some strange miracle they stopped. He should make a full recovery. He is in post-op now. Give it a little bit, and then you should be able to go in and see him. We called the Mulligans, who are listed as his next of kin, but no one would come out. I told the nurses you were his wife.”
Then I cried. Again.
Everyone went home, except Lux. He followed me as I walked down the barren white corridors toward the elevator that would take us to the post-op ward.
I was in for it now. “You didn’t tell me.” I shook my head. “Why?”
It was Memphis who answered, even though he was still invisible. “They are going up, Arcadia and the rest of the seven. You have behaved so well for the last twenty years, you could almost be selected for sainthood. Even I can see it. They are all going to Heaven. You fuck up in this life, and you will be back down in Hell. You didn’t fight so hard to be redeemed, only back in Hell for all eternity for killing an Archangel. It was better if you stayed out of it.”
Lux’s jaw tensed. “And if she’d died? What good is going to Heaven if both my daughters are in Hell with you assholes?”
He couldn’t see Azriel. I didn’t tell my parents he was there. It was a drama I didn’t need right now.
We reached the nurses station. “I’m here to see Irving Halloran; I’m his wife” I said, ignoring the note of desperation in my voice.
“Bed six. Only one of you though, sorry.”
Lux kissed my forehead. “I’ll head home with your mother.” He tipped up my chin so he could meet my eyes. “I’d happily go back to Hell if it kept you safe. You know that, right? You mean the world to me. So did your sister.”
I choked down the lump of emotion that lodged in my throat. I nodded, because I didn’t think I could speak.
“Love you, Kid.”
I hugged him tight. “Love you too, Dad.”
I watched him walk away, and noticed the eyes of the nurse following him down the hall. When she looked back at me, and realized I’d busted her perving on my father, her cheeks flushed red.
I gave her a knowing grin. I was used to it. I got all A’s at school the year Mom couldn’t make my parent/teacher interview and Lux went instead.
I pushed through the door and into the recovery ward. The guys were behind me, exempt from the one person rule. Only one visible person, right?
I finally found the right bed. I pulled back the curtain and nearly cried. Blue was asleep, his chest covered in a white, square bandage. A tube up his nose gave him oxygen and the steady beat of the monitor told me that he was okay. His heart was beating it there. He was alive.
I walked over, standing beside the bed and wrapped his hand in mine. I felt its dry warmth and finally I could breathe. I kissed his chin and his cheeks and finally his lips.
I’d almost lost him. I couldn’t lose any of them. My heart wouldn’t survive. It would have been shredded right along with his.
“Hey, Princess,” his raspy voice whispered against my ear, and I let out a little sob of happiness. I laid my head on his shoulder. He smelled of antiseptic and iodine.
“You scared me, Blue Halloran. I hate that you scared me. I hate that you almost died. You aren't allowed to do it again, okay?”
“Okay,” he said, and he sounded completely serious.
The nurse bustled in, checking his vitals now he was awake. I stepped out of the cubicle into the hall with my guys. She asked Blue a bunch of questions that he must have answered correctly because she wasn’t freaking out.
Another nurse walked past me. “Why don’t you go wait outside, sweetie? This won't take a moment, but he’ll probably be asleep again before you know it. We’ll transfer him up to ICU in about an hour. Go get some rest, have something to eat. You look exhausted.”
I felt exhausted, fear sapping me of every ounce of energy I had. I went to tell Blue I was going up to the cafeteria, but the other nurse had been right. He was sound asleep.
I’d fallen asleep in the hard hospital chair beside Blue’s bed. Voices pierced the blackness, but I just groaned and tried to move into a more comfortable position.
“She’s uncomfortable. You should move her onto the bed,” someone whispered.
“I would, but your nurse is scary as hell,” someone else whispered back, and I smiled a little in my sleep.
“You scared her. You scared us. No more shooting bullets at immortals with powers far greater than anything you could comprehend. Your death would have broken her.” That low growl I knew. Memphis.
“He was strangling her. What was I supposed to do?” Blue argued. He had no remorse. His next words proved me right. “I’d do it again if it would save her.”
Someone let out an annoyed noise, and I opened my eyes to see all of my angels standing around Blue’s bed.
Blue’s eyes were bloodshot, but they were the best thing I’d ever seen. I walked over to kiss him, careful where I put my hands. I wanted to kiss every inch of his stubborn, beautiful face. “We have to stop meeting like this, Blue Halloran.” I put the chess piece on the table.
He laughed, reaching out for the piece. I put it in his hand and he curled his fist around it. “You’ve turned the tables, Princess. Now it’s you guarding my body. Come here.” I leaned forward and he kissed me, his lips dry and scratchy. But I didn’t care.
I kissed him back with all the love I had for him. “You scared me.”
He nodded. “I’m fine though. Go home, get some sleep. Have a shower. You look like hell. You didn’t look this bad after you came out of Purgatory.”
I scowled at him. “This was worse than Purgatory, asshole. I thought you were going to die.”
He laughed and then winced. “You can’t get rid of me that easily, Hope Jones. I’m yours for life. Now get out of here.”
I kissed him once more, and stepped back into Memphis’ arms. I let him wrap his big, dark wings around us both and rested my head on his chest.
“I
fucked up, Memphis. I fell in love. How will my heart ever survive loving you all?”
He planted a kiss on the top of my head. “It won’t. We just patch it up with little pieces of our own. We are one unit now. You heart is ours, and you hold all four of our lives in your hands. That’s what love is.”
He sifted us both back to the apartment, straight into the bathroom. He ran the shower and slowly, methodically undressed me. I always felt like such a weakling when I enjoyed this part. But I figured it was win-win; I got to be worshipped and he got to unwrap me like it was Christmas morning. Once I was naked, and magically so was he, he lifted me up and I wrapped my legs around his waist. He stepped into the shower, and the water immediately began to pool where our bodies were pressed tightly together.
“I love you, Hope Jones. For me, you are life.” Then he kissed me like he could prove his words with his lips. He held me effortlessly as I kissed him back, his body rubbing against me in a maddeningly slow but extremely erotic roll of his hips.
“I love you too, Memphis.”
He grinned at me then, and it was so fucking beautiful. “Then you better hold on, Heart of Mine, because I am going to make love to you until you forget anything else but pure happiness.”
Boy, did he deliver.
Once we stepped out, pruny but well-loved, I dressed in one of Gusion’s t-shirts. I wanted to sleep for a week, but first I should probably eat. I padded out into the living room on bare feet, however my plans for toast and a nap dissolved in an instant.
Luc was on my couch, yet again. Gus sat beside him, drinking a beer. Azriel was in the armchair, his eyes closed but his body alert.
“If we keep this up, maybe we’ll have to make this Hell’s palace,” I teased, but it was a fragile sound. Still, Luc smiled. Ace was nowhere to be seen. “Where’s Ace?”
Now his grin grew into something wide and fearsome. “She and your sister are out exacting revenge in the bloodiest way possible. My consort has decided that she would like to make it a full-time project to eradicate as much of the Tenebrae as she can. Starting with the people who watched Uriel strangle you in the club. Then I believe they are going to move down the ranks until they get to the ‘salvageable’ ones.” Luc made quotation marks with his fingers. Sometimes Luc was without mercy, and I could see how he earned his crown. He stood, and I gasped when I saw Michael’s sword in his hand. I’d left it at the club, forgotten in the face of Blue’s injuries.
“You can wield it!” I sounded like a bad extra in a Shakespearean play, but I was that shocked. But the shock was closely followed by relief. I could pass this burden off to Luc. He could squash Uriel like a bug.
He frowned at the look on my face. “No, Hope. I cannot wield it. I can stop it disappearing into the ether. I can hand it back to you. But I cannot destroy Uriel with it. That is your burden to bear, although I would shoulder it for you if I could. Even now, the sword struggles to return to its rightful hand.” As if to prove his point, he uncurled his fist and the sword disappeared, landing at my feet with a thud. I was beginning to hate that sword.
My phone rang and I fished around in my purse. A number I didn't recognize flashed on the screen.
“Hello?”
“You need to get down here now,” someone yelled down the line. “Now!” The phone got muffled as someone yelled “Jesus, get back in the clubhouse. They are here for her!”
The sound of gunfire echoed down the phone, and I almost dropped it. It could only be one person. “Cain!” There was silence and more gunshots. “Cain! Where are you?”
There was a scuffle and the sound of heavy thudding. I could hear shouting. “Get her back into the office and barricade that fucking door.”
Cain’s voice came back over the phone. “Damnation MC Clubhouse, in Oakland New Jersey. Just off the interstate. You won’t make it in time. We’ll hold them off as long as we can, but they aren’t normal.”
“We’ll be there in minutes. Hold on!”
I turned to the Angels in the room. All Fallen, all battle ready. Somehow, while I’d been on the phone, they’d all managed to procure swords. Luc now had two. Memphis had raided Blue’s gun supply. A part of me unclenched knowing that Blue was safe in hospital.
With fierce expressions on their faces, I could only imagine what they would have looked like as part of Heaven’s army.
I bent and picked up Michael’s sword. I tucked my phone into the back pocket of my jeans. “It’s time,” I said, and they all nodded. “They are at the Damnation MC Clubhouse.” Cain was a bikie. No wonder Luc was familiar with him.
The temperature dropped in the room. Memphis stepped forward, wrapping his arms around my waist. Tucking a gun into the back of my jeans, he kissed me. Gusion was next, and then Azriel.
Luc held his arms out wide. “Let’s end this.” Then he disappeared.
Chapter Forty
We sifted into a war zone. It was the only way to explain it. People hid behind the bar, the big front double doors barricaded shut but the windows were all blown out. The clubhouse looked exactly how I thought a bikie hangout would look. A long couch and a pool table in the front room. A small bar behind which three guys in leather cuts held huge ass guns.
When we appeared behind them, a big guy with a huge orange beard spun around, giving a little girly scream. If there wasn’t bullets flying and a giant gun pointed at me, I would have laughed.
“Woah! Cain called. We are here to help.”
He looked at me, and then at my sword. The guys fanned out behind me, their wings spread out wide. Oh, apparently we weren’t even pretending to be human now. The big guy with the beard went super pale. The guy behind him had an honest to god eyepatch.
“Cain said you were going to be trouble, but this is fucking insane,” Eyepatch said. “Cain’s with the girl. Go out the back, and up the stairs.”
I nodded. “I’ll leave these guys with you. This is Gusion and Mephistopheles.” I turned to Memphis and kissed him. “Be safe. Don’t let them die. They didn’t choose this war. This is my fault.”
Eyepatch scoffed. “Listen here, Trouble. They came here, and tried to fuck with someone under our protection. If we didn’t want it, we could have thrown Dippy under the bus. We protect our own.”
I didn’t have time to unpack that whole statement. “No worries, Eyepatch. So do I. And guess what? You are now officially mine.”
It occurred to me that Eyepatch was actually kind of handsome. He was older, maybe early forties. But he had muscles that told me he worked out a lot, and a gruff hardness that made him appealing.
“I don’t like the way you are eyeing the pirate there, Sweetheart,” Gusion teased. I laughed and kissed him.
“Don’t worry, Gus. I couldn’t handle, Eyepatch I think.”
The guy beside him, a beautiful latino man with full lips, chuckled. Red Beard just looked freaked out.
More gunfire shocked us out of our little meet and greet. “Let her through. She’s with us,” he yelled over his shoulder, and nodded to the door behind us.
I rushed toward the back of the room to the stairs. As I stepped through, I saw another two guys with huge shotguns behind the door jamb. One guy was wearing an honest-to-god cowboy hat.
“Ma’am,” he said, tipping his hat. His eyes got wide at the sight of Azriel, his huge sunset wings brushing the doorway.
“Hey, Cowboy.” I grinned at the little guy beside him and ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time. Cowboy yelled over his shoulder, “Let her through, she’s with us.” Geez, how many more were there?
I answered my own question as I stepped into a room filled with about twelve more men and one pissed off looking woman. “Hey Sera. How’s it going?”
I noticed Cain beside her, his face a mask of deadly calm. “We are being attacked by the fucking mob,” he answered for her.
“I’m fine, except they seem to think being pregnant somehow turned me into fine china that can’t hold a gun. I need a gun.” She looked like she
was about to cry. Hormones?
I pulled the gun from the back of my pants, and handed it to her, making Cain scowl more.
“What? Do you want her to cry? Because she’s about to cry,” I warned, and as expected, every single one looked horrified by the idea.
So Sera got her gun and I got to be the attention of every man in that room. Well, me and Azriel.
Whispers rang through the room. “Is that a motherfucking angel?” someone asked.
I heard the heavy thud of a fist hitting flesh. “He’s got huge ass wings. What the hell do you think he is, a friggin’ fairy?” someone else answered in a heavy Irish accent.
“You know how to make an entrance,” Sera said, and stood up. Every set of eyes in that room stared at her like she was about to topple over and fall on her face. That had to be annoying. “Uriel found me fast.”
I rested my sword on the couch. Honestly, because I was worried I would take out someones eye, or smite someone to the bowels of Hell accidentally. Also, because the more I held it, the more I wanted to hold it, and it was giving me the jeebies. “It was my fault. I came at him too early. Blue is in hospital. He was shot,” my voice cracked. “He knew I was out of Purgatory, and I guess he deduced I wouldn’t have left you behind. I’m sorry.” And I was. I’d hoped to keep Sera as far out of this as I could. And I definitely didn't mean to drag Cain and these guys into a war they couldn’t possibly win.
“Did you bring an army?” she asked, looking at Azriel.
The room got very cold. “No, she brought the Devil,” a voice said from the back of the room.
Every single person whirled around, guns raised and pointed at Luc. “Put them down, Kids. They won’t do you any good here. Let me introduce myself. I am Lucifer.” He pointed to Ace, who stood beside him looking like a warrior queen, her grey wings spread wide. “This is my consort, Acerezeal.”
Beside Ace was Rella and her Gargoyles. “Hi, I’m Rella, Hope’s twin. These guys,” she pointed to Romanus and Rouen, “are here to fuck things up.”
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