“How? I mean did you have trouble with your power? Like I did?” If she found out that she was the only one struggling, she didn’t know how she would actually feel about that.
Isabelle nodded, her smile tinged with sadness. “My gift meant I couldn’t be around people, not without feeling their emotions. So I used to keep to myself. Ammon ripped that apart and held me while my life took a new path. Officially, it was Ilianna who told me about myself, my power, and what I was meant to do. Have you met her yet?”
“Yep. Little woman needs to work on her people skills, but sweet. It feels like she is somehow directly connected to me.”
“Yes, I felt the same way. We’re all distantly related as far as I can gather.” Sitting up, Isabelle took Sera’s hand.
Sera stared at their joined hands, already feeling a kinship with this woman. This was something that went deeper—it was far more profound than anything she could describe. She could feel a bond in her blood.
“I’m sorry we didn’t find you sooner—” Isabelle began, holding up her hand when Sera opened her mouth to protest. “No, I’m sorry I didn’t, Sera. I should have forced one of the others to come earlier. What with Hades dying and Tanus missing, it has been a fight for every step forward. Each time we make headway something else happens.”
“Hades is their father, yes? Ze has not talked about him much. I think he is hurting more than he will admit. But did Lucifer tell you what the angel Jophiel said to me?”
Isabelle nodded emphatically. “Yes! It’s fantastic news. Not perfect, but it’s a step in the right direction. Just knowing Tanus is alive has given them all a new wind. We’ll find him and remove this curse that Michael put him under. I don’t know him as well as some of the others, but he’s family.”
Sera loved the determination she saw on Isabelle’s face. She wanted that—a family. Now it looked like she might have one.
“I’ll help. Ze is worried about him and Belor.”
Isabelle frowned. “Belor? What’s wrong with him? With everyone searching for the children, we’ve been out of contact back at the apartment.”
“Ilianna didn’t say specifically, just that he was in trouble. Then we woke up and here you are. We’ll update everyone as soon as we get the group back together. Once we find the kids.”
“Well, that’s what I’m here for. Finding these children should be easy. They must be scared, and fear like that has a marker. We will find them, Sera, I promise.”
Sera leaned against her, feeling that close kinship. They clicked as if they had always known one another. A soft knock at the door had Sera rolling her eyes and Isabelle chuckling. They couldn’t be back already, and she didn't think the Malakhim were the knocking sort. Sera went to the door.
“That was more like three minutes, Ze. Did you forget your key card?”
She pulled open the door only to come face to face with Peter Walsh, the boy who just that morning had been taking a long look at her cleavage in church while she handed out flyers. The same one Ze wanted to gut for looking at her. This couldn’t end well.
“Peter? What are you doing here? Did they find the kids?” Why else would he be here but to update her on the search? Yet after a few moments, her smile faded.
Peter’s blue eyes were sunken into his face, his blond hair studded with twigs and bits of dead leaves. He was dressed the same as this morning—jeans and a t-shirt—but now they were covered in mud. He was wringing his hands and eyeing her with something close to disgust. Her hand tightened on the door as his gaze moved down her body, taking in the oversized shirt, exposed legs, and bare feet. The message was unmistakable. He wanted her.
“No, not exactly. Why are you with him? That…that man.” He spat the word man from his mouth, and Sera felt a rush of jealousy hit her hard. Behind her, she heard Isabelle on the phone whispering, she guessed to Mammon.
“I don’t know what you mean, Peter. You look tired. I’m sure you’ve been busy all day looking for the kids. You should go home and rest.” Sera moved her foot behind the door, preparing to slam it in his face if need be.
“He came to me, you know? I thought I was nothing, but he picked me. He told me that you were being corrupted by a demon. I can see him, you know? See through the fake skin he wears. He is a monster under that pretty face. Are you aware of that, Sera? There were two of them, him and another. They’re both monsters, hideous beasts.”
She felt her stomach dropping like a stone. Somehow he could see the demon within Ze. Peter’s tone rose as he spoke. He shifted from foot to foot, glancing behind him warily. Sera was ready to close the door when Peter reached behind him and pulled out a small handgun.
“The Archangel told me I needed to bring you, that you could be saved. I’m so happy—we can be together then. I know you were hiding out on that farm. I used to go out there and watch you sometimes. I was good at hiding. I knew I had to remain hidden. You only ever showed me your skin. Only me, it was your gift to me! Then he came. Why, Sera? I know you were just waiting for me to be old enough so I could come to you, but you betrayed me.” His whole demeanor screamed of insanity. “But Michael, he said I could have you now. That God would allow it. He said he could wipe the demon from your memory so it could go back to how it was when it was just you and me. He chose me to protect you.” His shook as he pointed the gun at her.
Sera backed up as he advanced toward her. How had she not known someone was watching her? Because she never ventured further than her house and greenhouse. She believed she’d been safe on her land. God, she’d been so wrong. How could she have known that sweet, innocent, shy Peter was watching her from the trees? It didn’t matter now, though. She must try to help him—he didn’t deserve to be Michael’s plaything.
She surreptitiously scanned the room. Isabelle must have hidden in the bathroom. “Peter, you need to put that gun down. You will hurt someone. It’s okay. Whatever this person told you is a lie…”
“It’s not a lie! I saw it. He is white, a white demon, with ugly wings and vile claws. His eyes glow silver, and he has taken your soul! That is the only way he could have made you love him! You’re supposed to love me!”
Whatever Michael had done to this once-docile boy had ripped his mind in two. Now in the light, she could see his eyes were blood red, wide and crazed. Jealousy and rage rolled from him. She could feel it, feel the temptation pounding in her blood to purge his soul of the sin that was destroying him.
Sera attempted to retreat once more, and the boy shook his head as if voices were plaguing him. “Peter, please, you need to listen to me. No one has taken my soul. I’m right here.”
“Liar! He said you would lie. The angel told me you would try and protect the demon! But it’s not your fault, he has you under his power. They all do. Michael told me. He showed me the truth, opened my eyes. They’re the ones who took the children. They’re evil. He said I would be one of many, that we would purge our town of this darkness.” Sweat glistened on his skin as be became more irate.
Sera’s heart thundered in her chest. One of many? In a town like this, filled with believers, he would have his own army by the time the sun rose. None of the Sins would be safe. They were out there now, trying to find those children. If Michael was corrupting others, then someone would do something stupid and hurt one of the brothers. She didn’t want to think about what Lucifer or Mammon would do if a human turned on them.
“You’re coming with me. Michael says he needs you. Come on, Sera.” He gestured with the gun and Sera glanced toward the bathroom. She could see a violet eye peering from the crack between the door and the frame. Isabelle was keeping quiet, keeping hidden. That was a good thing. Sera didn’t know what instructions Peter had been given in regards to anyone else found with her, but she doubted it would be to let them go.
“Okay, Peter. I’ll come with you.” The boy visibly relaxed and waited for Sera to walk past him, keeping his gun trained on her.
The night air was cold on her skin as Peter push
ed her toward his beaten-up little Toyota Corolla that had seen way too many ditches.
“You drive, and make if fast. He’s waiting. Then he said we would be together. I’m doing this for us, for the town. They won’t leave here alive, I promise. I will save you from the demon.”
Sera wanted to scream at him, slap him until he woke up from this trance he seemed to be under. Yet the powers she’d gained from her demon told her all she needed to know. All Michael had done was open his eyes. He might be following orders, but he was not under anyone’s control, it was by his own choice. Sera was amazed at how deeply she could feel his envious hatred. Had it always been there, locked away under his humanity? But now that his humanity had been stripped and cracked, his true self lay bare.
She surveyed the parking lot, hoping that Ze and Mammon would appear from around the corner of the building. Isabelle had been on the phone with her demon so they couldn’t be far away—unless something had happened to them. If Michael had managed to persuade more people, this wouldn’t end well.
“We’re an army. The others are hunting down those horrific creatures. Starting with the one that took your soul. He will give it back before he dies. He won’t be coming.” The words were spoken in that once-shy boy’s voice, but they were so much more—filled with madness and zealotry.
Sera opened the driver’s side door and slid in, Peter seating himself on the passenger’s side, the gun still trained on her. She started the car and pulled away with one last quick look at the motel room door. She could see Isabelle’s shadow against the lit room as she watched, hidden from Peter’s view.
“Where are we going, Peter?”
“2563 Elmhurst. Michael said he could return your soul and get his weapons against the demons there.”
Elmhurst. There was only one person she knew on that street. One person who was so deep in her belief that she would do anything for ‘God.’ Always participating in church bake sales and events. One of the loudest voices when it came to the “terrible girl living on the outskirts of town.” Best friend and co-conspirator of the gossip monger Margery Dunham, AKA Freya. And now, apparently, she’d graduated to kidnapping children who would become weapons for God’s angels. Sandra Marshall.
Ze focused his attention on the group of six men at the edge of the general store parking lot. They were armed to the teeth, shouting to each other.
“I saw them go this way!”
“We have to stop them!”
“They know where the children are!”
Their words chilled his blood. They were hunting demons, stopping anyone they saw. Their very souls were leaking energy around them, confusion and madness growing by the second.
He slipped around the corner and turned to Mammon, who’d just hung up the phone. He was obviously pissed off—raging at himself and the stupid humans for succumbing to Michael’s poisonous charms.
“Isabelle says Sera was forced into a car with some kid at gunpoint. She couldn’t stop them without the kid losing what little mind he had left.”
No doubt Isabelle wasn’t getting any more ‘girl time’ alone outside of a protected house anytime soon. Not that he blamed his brother since he’d just come to the same conclusion with regard to Sera.
Ze pushed down the sweeping wrath that threatened to fracture his control. He needed to trust Sera. She would trust that he would find her. No way in hell he was letting her down. First, though, they had to get out of this predicament without getting shot by any of the crazies with guns. Peering around the corner, he saw two men splinter off, running down Main Street toward the post office. He needed to pull Mammon from his brooding mind so they could concentrate on what was ahead of them, or neither of them would see their woman again.
“Ring the others to warn them. Tell them Michael has done something to these people. I can’t fathom what it is, but if they can see our true forms, they’re going to shoot first and not bother with the questions later part.”
Mammon nodded, dialing the number for Lucifer. “I’ll call Lucifer.”
As long as Isabelle remained hidden from view, Ze doubted the brainwashed masses of this town would harm her. She was a Seer, after all, a pure soul. If somehow these people could indeed see the hidden world, then they would know she was not a threat. At least he hoped so. If Mammon lost her, then they would lose him all over again.
“What the hell is going on out here?” Odin’s booming voice filled the dark street.
“Shit! Damn it, old man. Get out of there.” Bullets might not kill a god, but they would do a damn good job of showing him to be immortal. Ze studied the four remaining people, their eyes going wide as they ‘saw’ Odin. Not the old man they had come to trust as one of their own.
“He’s not human!”
“What is he?”
The voices all seemed to erupt at once, guns raised in insane blindness. Ze didn’t know how they would perceive a god. Gods were not inherently evil or good, they just were.
“What are you talking about, Steven? It’s me, Phillip. You’ve known me for twenty years.” Odin was attempting to calm the small mob of people now baying for the blood of anything not human.
“No, you’re not him. You look nothing like him! Stop using his voice! The angel told us there would be false gods trying to sway us from the path!”
Ze made a move to join the god, only to be held in place by his brother.
Mammon nodded toward the scene unfolding. “I think Odin is getting annoyed.”
Sure enough, as Ze watched, the old man started glowing.
“False god? I assure you, there are no ‘false’ gods here, Steven Matthews. Put down your weapons and let me help you.” For a moment the man seemed to falter, looking around uncertainly.
Then the sound of a shotgun blast shattered the early morning darkness. The others opened fire, the night erupting into bullets, which ricocheted around them, forcing Ze back behind the stone wall. The once-subtle glow around the old god now blazed brightly, and the roar from a pissed off All-Father made the ground shake. Ze’s eardrums vibrated in the sudden silence that followed, and the glow dimmed, finally flickering out.
Ze and Mammon emerged from the alleyway to see Odin hovering over four collapsed human forms. Blood stained his shirt from multiple gunshot wounds, forming a small puddle at his feet. He turned his gaze to the demons and then back to the fallen humans.
“Odin…” Ze began, but the old god lifted his hand and silenced him.
“Don’t apologize, demon. This is an inherent weakness in the human race. Their blind acceptance of belief so strong that nothing else, even sanity or conscience, can prevail against it.”
“Are they dead? I sense nothing.” Mammon looked down at the bodies. If the god hadn’t killed them, he was very likely going to.
“They will be, soon. Their minds are gone. Shattered by Michael, gouged open to reveal the truth of our world. Seeing me just broke whatever small hold they had on their sanity. This is why as gods we never visited mortals directly. Despite all their claims of fealty and belief, they can’t comprehend our true existence without breaking something deep inside their souls. These people were my friends…” Ze felt sorry for him. Odin watched in silence as the last vestiges of life left the cooling bodies on the concrete, then he straightened his shoulders and faced them. “Where is Sera?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
“You’re driving too slow!” Peter was getting more and more twitchy the longer the drive became. He held his head, his hand wavering. Sera watched him from the corner of her eye, waiting for the right moment.
“Sorry, Peter. I’m not used to this car.” Turning the car onto Elmhurst, she realized she only had a few more moments to pull off what would no doubt be a stupid plan. But rather a stupid plan than be taken by Michael.
“We’re almost there. Then he will save you. He will save all of us.” Peter watched the street, looking for the house.
Sera took her chance. Slamming her foot down on the gas, the car
accelerating quickly. Peter swore, waving the gun in her direction. His cries were lost to her as she turned the wheel sharply. She closed her eyes, bracing herself as the car slammed into a tree. For an extended moment, nothing existed but the sound of twisting metal. Stinging pain bit across her face as glass from the shattered windshield flew in toward her. The car jerked to an abrupt halt, forcing the air from her lungs. Only the seatbelt saved her from being crushed against the steering wheel. No air bag, stupid hand-me-down thirty-year-old car.
Sera leaned back, the seat belt tight across her chest. She was going to have a bruise in the morning. Sera checked on Peter and felt bile rise in her stomach. He was slumped against the dashboard, his head having made a spider web pattern against the windshield. Blood poured from the wound on his forehead, gushing down his face. The gun lay at his feet. Sera considered reaching for it but knew she needed to run. Someone had no doubt heard the crash.
Thanking the God—or rather Gods—for Peter not wearing his seatbelt, she attempted to open the car door. It only groaned in reply. She put her body weight into it, gasping at the pain in her body. She banged her shoulder against it, once, twice, and finally, it gave way, opening with a loud screech. Stumbling out, she could smell gasoline leaking from somewhere. The engine smoked and ticked ominously in the darkness. Moving around to the passenger side, she pulled open the door, testing Peter for a pulse. She let out a breath. It was there, thready, but there.
She grabbed his shoulders and pulled him free of the wreckage. No doubt he had a neck injury from hitting the windshield that hard. He might have threatened her with a gun, but she also didn’t want him to burn alive if the car caught fire. She left him in the grass, straightening and panting hard as she glanced around. Odd that no one had come to investigate. Had Michael managed to influence everyone on the street?
Thank God for small favors, she jogged across the damp grass, the wet chilling her bare feet. She could feel little bites of pain. No doubt she’d stepped in some of the shattered glass. Just fucking perfect. Peter hadn’t given her a chance to put on any shoes when he forced her from the motel room, so she would just have to make do. She made her way along the back fences toward Sandra Marshall’s home. The lights shone from the windows, and Sera crept across the yard, making her way toward the back porch, hugging the wall until she could peek over the edge of the windowsill.
Envy's Kindness (Seven Deadly Sins Book 2) Page 21