by J. T. Hardy
Anita cleared her throat. "Grace?" she whispered hurriedly.
I wasn't explaining this to the group. I couldn't even explain it to myself. My throat caught on a laugh as it hit me--everyone here shared my blood. My family. These people and I were all distantly related.
The sense of spiders ran across my skin and the hair on my arms stood up. Incoming.
"You are indeed everything I've hoped for," Kokabiel said, walking up to the bars. Stealthy little sucker.
I scoffed. "You're not my type."
"Oh, but you're mine. The preliminary tests prove it." He grinned and his sheer beauty almost overwhelmed me. I fought to maintain my scowl against his smile. "I've searched for you for millennia."
"Should have started earlier. Gone right to the source."
"Not, as they say, an option at the time."
I shifted on the floor of the cell and leaned back against the wall. Forcing my gaze away, I stuck my legs out straight and crossed them at the ankles. Inside, I shook like a paint mixer.
"I take it my blood is full of tiny organisms that give me magic powers?"
"It's full of promise." He smiled wider. "It's full of hope."
"Yeah? Well, you're full of shit. I don't care who or what you think I am, but you're wrong."
He chuckled softly as if I were a stubborn child. "Not this time."
"What do you want?"
"At this moment? Nothing. I simply wanted to see you."
I posed, head turned sideways, one arm up like a spokesmodel displaying a product. "Take a good look, then."
He laughed again. "You are a delight."
I glared. Hard to taunt someone when they found you funny. The least he could do was show a little respect.
He watched me a bit longer, making every inch of my skin crawl. Finally, he nodded slowly. "Thank you. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have much to prepare."
No one spoke to me after Kokabiel left. Anita and Ivy kept on the far end of the cell, huddled together and watching me as if I was one of the Pretty Boys. Jerry studied me like hunters studied prey that might go on the attack at any moment. Wil sobbed in the corner.
Zack wouldn't shut up about killing me.
"It's the only way to stop him," he muttered through the bars. At least he was staying quiet about it and only freaking me out.
"If you say that one more time I swear I'll drive a stake right through your heart." The cots were wood. I could do it. I'd sidelined my "get Zack free so he can help us escape" plan. A weak Zack made for a healthier Grace.
"The fate of the world is in your hands."
"Tell it to take a number." Kokabiel hadn't done much more than test my blood and get excited. I didn't want to think about his "preparations," but clearly, he wasn't afraid of anyone barging in to stop his nefarious plan. Chalking it up to his arrogance kept most of my hopelessness at bay.
The fact that I hadn't been rescued yet meant nothing. I glanced at my watch. It was barely past two. If Daniel had managed to follow me, he'd probably just be getting back to town for reinforcements around now. He wasn't dumb enough to take on Kokabiel's stronghold by himself.
Libby's face flashed in my mind and a dull ache spread through my chest. I'd tried so hard not to think about her bleeding out in Cavanaugh's office, but with nothing but impending doom, the lives of six people, and a potentially divine family tree to distract me, she kept popping into my head.
Dad will take care of her. Or Cavanaugh. Or even Dandridge. She'll be okay.
Didn't mean I wasn't going to kick the ass of the woman who'd shot her. I'd even hold her down while Libby got in a few licks.
Keep dreaming, Grace-face. You are so screwed and you know it.
"What time do the scientists leave?" I asked Anita. She was the only other person wearing a watch. She twitched and squeaked like a startled mouse.
"Six."
"Thank you." Not too much longer. "Is that the only door in and out of here?"
Anita squeaked again.
"Oh for the love of Pete, I am not the scariest thing down here."
Jerry grunted. "But you know what is. Bothers me you're not sharing."
"What do you want me to say?"
"The truth."
An urge to bark back hit me, but only I'd see the humor in it. But I could skirt the truth. "That blond guy who was here before? He's a deranged religious nut who thinks some blood ritual will get him and his followers into Heaven. Somehow he got it into his head that our blood has supernatural mojo."
"Some kinda cult?"
Good a word as any. "Yes."
Anita hesitated, rubbing the back of her neck. "What kind of cult members?"
"Extremely dedicated ones."
Jerry didn't look like he was buying any of this. "That blond one's a charismatic bastard."
"You have no idea."
"You one of them deprogrammers?" He lifted his chin at me. "I read about them when those comet folks were in the news."
"No, I was just trying to find my father and screwed up royally."
He pursed his lips and nodded slowly. "Does seem that way."
"What about him?" Anita asked, her finger shaking as she pointed it at Zack.
"He escaped the cult, but they pulled him back in. He's having a tough time separating reality and fantasy."
She made a sympathetic sound. "Poor man."
"He's been through Hell."
"Not quite."
I jumped at an unfamiliar voice. Guess it was time for our hourly check-in.
A Pretty Boy I hadn't seen before stood outside the cell in tailored silk and a haircut that must have cost more than my car. Darkly handsome where the others were beautiful, but tastefully so.
"Will you people stop sneaking up on us!" No one else was with him. "Where's your boss?" I asked.
GQ Fangel frowned. "I'm no one's dominion."
I'd expected words dripping with fangel arrogance, but he stated it as a fact, plain and simple. He could have said, "The sky is blue," with the same inflection. Kokabiel's ally? Anger boiled under my skin. This had to be Suriel, Kokabiel's partner. One of his minions killed my mother. When I got my hands on him I'd do the same thing I'd done to his buddy in Lauderdale.
"What do you want?"
He stuck a key into the lock of my cell and swung open the door. "Come."
"I'm good here, but thanks."
"Come or I'll break one of the others." The same matter-of-fact tone and all the scarier for it.
The air grew tense behind me, but everyone stayed silent as stones. Zack let go of my hand and I walked forward. "You're a dick."
Suriel stepped aside and I left the cell, nerves tight as he relocked it. I wasn't restrained. He had no hold on me, but there was nowhere to run to and no way I'd escape his reflexes or speed.
"Does Kokabiel know you're here?" My skin crawled, a maddening itch warning danger danger as loud as it could.
I was in serious shit.
Over Suriel's shoulder, I spotted Kokabiel, a frown on his chiseled face. "The others have been delayed," he said, a weariness to his voice. "Put her back."
Suriel rumbled, almost a growl. "I'm tired of delays. The tests confirmed this is the one."
"Patience, Suriel. We'll perform the rite traditionally this time. It's the ritual with the blood that creates the miracle."
Suriel barked something in the angel language and they snapped at each other, their shoulders back, heads high, standing their ground--total power struggle at play here. Kokabiel must have an ace up his sleeve. Maybe Suriel didn't know how to do the ritual?
Kokabiel smiled at him, again the parent who's trying hard not to yell. Tolerant, tight, with a "don't make me tell you again" craziness in his freakishly beautiful eyes. Darker now, with more orange fire than gold luminescence.
"Waiting is good," I said. "I can wait."
Suriel stepped into Kokabiel's personal space. It was weird, so much anger on such beautiful faces.
"Better listen to him,
Surry," I said, putting a little attitude into it. "It's not a good idea to mouth off to your superiors."
Suriel's scowl shifted to me, and Kokabiel gave a tiny, self-satisfied grunt. He said something to Suriel I didn't need a translator for. Smug, condescending, the words of someone who'd won that round. Be nice if he gave me credit for the assist.
Suriel stepped back. Giving up that ground had clearly cost him. Anger churned under his perfect skin and his eyes flashed.
"Like I told junior there," I said, "if it's blood you need, we can work something out."
Kokabiel looked at me almost in reverence. He wasn't seeing me, but the DNA swimming in my veins. Not a person, a golden ticket home.
"I can help you."
He smiled bright as day. "You will, and we thank you for that."
Chapter Twenty-Four
"Well that was a mite odd," Jerry said after Kokabiel and Suriel had gone. Everyone else had huddled together and stared at me as if I were just as weird as Kokabiel. I guess to them, I was.
"These cult fanatics really go all out, don't they?" I tried to laugh it off, but it sounded weak.
Zack was still whimpering in the corner. I returned to his side and took his hand. "We need to get out of here."
"No kidding," Ivy scoffed. She'd been picking at the lace on her shirt, unraveling it inch by inch.
Jerry nodded. "No way to escape far as I can tell."
"Do they feed us dinner?"
"Comes in right before the lab shuts down."
I didn't see any dirty plates lying around. "They come back for the dishes?"
"We get a half hour to eat. Sometimes less."
If the lab rats left at six, that gave us a few hours to prep. "Zack, what's your recovery time if I get those cuffs off you?"
"I...don't know."
"Can you be mobile in four hours?"
"I can't fight them all."
"I'm not asking you to. I just need to know if you can walk."
"Walking, yes. I don't know about anything else."
"We'll keep our fingers crossed. Anita," I called softly, "could you please give us some cover?"
She hesitated, but got up and stood in front of me, blocking any unexpected visits from the lab rats. "What are you doing?"
I knelt and pulled my lock picks out of my sock. Rocky had found all my weapons, but lucky for us, his crispy and smoking arm had distracted him from a more thorough search. "Getting us out of here."
The cuffs unlocked with little trouble and I carefully slid them off Zack's wrists. The collar came next, then his ankle cuffs. He shuddered, taking deep breaths.
"Thank you."
"Repay me by not snapping my neck, okay? Hide those under the blanket, and act hurt." I rose as he huddled back into his ball, then I gestured at the others to meet on the other side of the cell by Jerry and Wil.
"You're making me a tad nervous," Jerry said. "You've got a doing-something-stupid look about you."
"Nice to know your instincts are on target." I tucked the picks back into their sheath in my sock.
Anita tipped her chin at me. "Can you use those picks on the cells?"
"Yes. We'll wait until after they take the dinner plates away, unlock the cells, and make our way out."
"We have to go past the lounge," Anita said.
"Zack can get us past them."
"How?"
"He has a few tricks up his sleeve." As long as anyone in the lounge was human. "Listen everybody. I know this has all been weird, and it's going to get weirder, but if we keep our wits about us and accept whatever freaky things happen, we'll be fine."
"What kind of freaky--"
Jerry huffed. "Give it a rest, Anita. If we get out of here with our hides intact I'm sure Grace'll explain everything." He gave me a pointed stare. "Won'tcha?"
"Absolutely." Not that they'd believe a word of it. "Does anyone know how to destroy those computers without making a lot of noise?"
No one said anything.
"Won't do you any good," Wil muttered from the floor in his corner of the cell. "They'll have backups."
"Can we destroy those, too?"
"Not if they're offsite."
"What does it matter?" asked Jerry.
In the grand scheme, it probably didn't. Kokabiel had blood banks and hospitals all over the country collecting data. The master list of potential victims might not even be here.
"It doesn't," I said, sighing. "We can't risk the time for something that can be recovered by pushing a few buttons."
"That's not how it works," said Wil.
I also didn't have time to argue with a kid over the proper procedure for restoring fangel data. "I don't know what will happen once we get outside. There was a van before, but it might not be there now. It's possible we'll have to escape on foot."
"We won't make it without water," Anita said.
"We'll get water on the way."
"How--?"
"I don't know yet. There's a kitchen. They have to bring in supplies and store them for the hu--cult members. We'll just have to improvise."
"What do we do if we can't find anything?"
"Then you'll just have to decide where you want to die. Here in some creepy ritual or out in the fresh air fighting for your life."
Dinner came and we ate in silence, consuming every calorie we could manage. Jerry licked his plate clean, and I followed his example. It might be the last food we would have for a few days.
It might also be our last meal.
No one mentioned this, though at least Jerry and Anita were thinking it. Both carried themselves like condemned prisoners who had one last Hail Mary pass in the air. Maybe we'd survive, but no one expected it.
Rude Dude from the plaza attack showed up at six and took the lab rats away. Fifteen minutes later, the two minions I'd seen in the lounge took the plates. Neither had spilled sauce on themselves at lunch, which for some reason annoyed me.
I waited another ten minutes just to be safe, and went to work on the locks. Ivy looked ready to bolt, but Anita was holding her steady. My cell opened with a quiet snick and I slipped out and over to Jerry and Wil's.
"You got the kid?" I said under my breath.
Jerry nodded. "He's skinny enough to carry if it comes to that."
The lock opened.
The door to the lab creaked.
Jerry's eyes went wide and he motioned me back to my cell. I was already moving, pulling the door shut. It wouldn't relock unless I slammed it, giving us away.
Anita leaned close behind me. "You didn't get--"
"I know." I tucked my lock picks away out of sight.
Kokabiel arrived with Rocky at his heels. Damn.
I caught Zack's eye and gave the other captives a pointed glance. If I didn't come back, it was up to him to get them out.
"It's time."
Anita and Ivy stayed back, huddling together like before. Jerry stood at the door, one hand on the bars and a slim finger keeping the bolt from relocking the door. Zack moaned.
"Could you come back later?" I said, exaggerating a stretch. "I was about to take a post-dinner nap."
Rocky and I would never have a future together if he kept ignoring me. Without even a glance, he put the key into the lock. Don't notice it's open. Focus on me.
"Ten minutes is all I need. Come on, big guy, do a gal a solid."
Snarling low, he yanked open the door. "Out."
"Fine, but if I fall sleep and mess things up, it's on you."
I left the cell and he slammed the door closed.
The hopeful look in Anita's eyes went out as they hauled me away.
"Holy cathedral," I whispered.
Kokabiel had carved a church out of a mountain. From the way he'd pushed open those lovely double doors I'd seen on the way in, he was proud of it, too.
Twice the size of my entire apartment, with walls smooth as the best drywall work I'd ever seen Dad do. Four pillars lined each side of an aisle down the middle, left in place wh
en they'd cut the rest of the rock away. Gleaming redwood pews angled between the pillars, also four to a side. An altar rose out of the stone at the far end in one seamless piece of red and gray striated rock, and stained glass in an excavated half circle completed the illusion. No sunlight shone through the glass, but something lit it just enough to suggest the sun.
Dad would love this room.
I jerked to a stop. The Pretty Boys should hate this room. They should be sparking and flaming and experiencing all sorts of painful reminders of their naughty behavior.
Kokabiel walked across the polished stone floor toward the altar without smoldering.
"Why aren't you on fire?"
"This is our holy ground."
I gave the cathedral a closer look. As perfect as the craftsmanship was, it wasn't a true church. No crosses anywhere, no holy books or scrolls. Even the arched windows depicted angels in battle instead of saints, their wings sharp as the swords they wielded.
Holy to them, but not consecrated.
"How long did it take you to build this? It has that new-cathedral smell."
"Bring her."
Rocky followed him down the aisle and I stopped being quite so awed at the construction marvel. Candles burned in sconces along the wall, and more ringed the half-circle dais in the rear. White silk draped a Grace-sized altar with gold bondage rings at the corners, sitting under the fake stained glass. Two robed fangels stood behind it, Rude Dude and one I hadn't seen before. Fabio's replacement or one of Suriel's minions? Another robed figure stood by a door in the corner, made from the same redwood as the pews. A woman, so not a fangel.
"Let's talk about this!" I yanked back, but Rocky had been waiting for it. He caught me easily and held me down with both hands, one on each of my upper arms.
"We should have drugged it," Suriel called, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.
"Drugged her," I quipped. "You've been here how many millennia and you still don't know pronouns?"
Tough talk, but I shook like a wet puppy, on the verge of tears and doing something thoroughly embarrassing like begging for my life to creatures who didn't value it.
"I'll not risk the purity of her blood." Kokabiel gestured and Rocky pushed me toward the altar.