“And that’s why you left us in the middle of the night, without even a note?”
“Yes. I took my platinum talisman if you remember and I went. If I told you, you would have tried to stop me. You wouldn’t grasp my reasons. I knew that, eventually, you would both understand.”
I bit hot anger back. “Understand? Lucy tried to . . . she tried to . . . don’t you get it? She thought it was her fault because she argued with you all the time. She thought she drove you away. She’s not the same person she was, and that’s simply because of you.”
Raychel nodded, her round pale face in agony. “I see that now. But once I’d left there was no turning back.”
“And when you saw us as Chosen? When your witch coven met Cheyne, and you saw us right in front of you?”
“I’d been warned. I knew it was going to happen days before it did. Even so, I almost collapsed.”
“You’d been warned.” I shook my head. I’d asked for straight-talk and this was it. No sugar coating. No emotions. “You know,” I said. “That you’re done, right? There’ll be no reconciliation. No fresh start. Even if we beat Lucifer. Even if Lucy hadn’t been made a vampire. It would have been better if you’d actually been abducted.”
I turned my back on her. It was harsh. I didn’t really mean it. But she had to face it. She’d destroyed our family two years ago. We’d never forgive her.
“I’m sorry.”
“You think that’s enough?”
“No, but it’s true. I was told I would help save the world. I put that before myself and my family.”
I grated my teeth. I’d been faced with a similar predicament and had taken Lucy with me to war.
But look where that got Lucy.
It wasn’t the same. I guess I could have left Lucy behind in York but look at it now. The focus of a new hellgate. Demons were already razing the streets. And not only that – Lucy had been revealed as one of the Chosen.
She’d helped save us when we all went down to Miami.
I saw Belinda hovering at the door to the big council room and walked off without another word. Raychel was dead to me now. I wouldn’t talk to her when I could talk to someone else. I approached Belinda with an expression that was half-smile, half-grimace.
“Looked intense,” she said.
“It still hasn’t sunk in. It’s bloody crazy.”
“Here.” She thrust a plate at me. When I looked at the bacon, sausage and beans I realized I was starving. I didn’t even look for a seat, but just wolfed it down standing there. “That’s nice, got any beer?”
“Not for you.”
“Strawberry milk then?”
“That’s better.”
It soon became clear the council was reconvening. Ceriden stepped up to a raised stage with Lysette alongside him. I liked the idea of Lysette being a joint-leader. I trusted her. I was still struggling with the fact that Leah was our new healer and Cleaver was harboring some kind of power. I wished I’d asked Lucy about her powers and how the vampire blood had augmented them. But now, Ceriden was calling for quiet and he looked deadly serious.
“These are our final hours,” he said. “In this room, this one place in the entire world, the fate of all humans and Ubers will be determined. Together, we will decide, but apart we will fight. Say your last prayers, if you speak to any god, and say your farewells to friends new and old, for some of us, or all of us, will never be together again.”
I hadn’t known these people for very long, but I knew they were as good as the world was ever going to get. I knew they were genuine, honorable and principled. They were ready to stand against the ultimate evil. There were military generals standing for thousands of troops around the world. Our council was being beamed to over two hundred war rooms from Hawaii to Australia. Everyone that could, stood ready to act.
“Kinkade affirms what the Las Vegas PD and local army factions are telling us,” Ceriden said. “Lucifer is making Vegas his base of operations. He’s turning Caesar’s Palace into his pit. His home. Kinkade has eyes on that.”
I’d been to Caesar’s once. There were a lot of statues.
“But first,” Ceriden said, “we have our two elves leaving to embark upon their quest. We wish them good luck finding the Old Ones, which may be our last chance. But still, we have to think of another way to win.”
We couldn’t count on the Old Ones, I knew, even if Amber and Jade managed to find them. I looked to the back of the room where the two elvish sisters were standing. They were tall and resolute, determined. They nodded as we looked at them and then turned away. I also recognized a bunch of others right then, turning to go with them.
It was the Dino Hunters. I remembered their enthusiasm and skill. It was a good move on their part.
“Vegas is being evacuated,” Ceriden was saying, “and every town close by. The demons have it now. I’m open to ideas.”
Hours passed. It became clear that we were all skirting around the same issue: If the Devil was in Vegas then we had to attack Vegas.
En masse.
Around the world, commanders spoke of their readiness if a joint attack was required anywhere in their region. If the Chosen split up, we could lead the attack on many fronts. Ceriden spoke of Vienna and how the vampire army was trying to hold it whilst its citizens escaped. York was floundering but a coalition of lycans and local army divisions were trying to keep a good-sized town to its north side safe, where residents could flee. I knew that town. I had good friends there.
The other hellgates were being attacked. The military was holding its own, but barely. We tried to concentrate on our own job.
“A stealth attack would be better,” Cleaver proposed. “We could do it. We have the power right here, the Special Forces men to lead it. They infiltrate with the Chosen; we get close and rip that bastard’s head off.”
“And now the Chosen are stronger,” Leah said, coming forward. “You have a new healer.”
I couldn’t imagine the inner strength it must take for an untested civilian to come forward and offer to walk with us into hell. To face the Devil. Then I remembered I was going too and shuddered.
Face to face with the vilest being ever to exist?
Could we even kill him? I guess we were going to try.
“Cleaver is right,” Ceriden said. “An en masse attack would alert every demon for a hundred miles. We’d lose thousands of men. If we send our most powerful assets, quietly, they will get further and stand a better chance.”
Belinda was close, as ever. “I guess that’s it then,” she said with that note of fatalism I recognized. “We’re headed right into hell.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Amber and Jade exited the council room and headed straight for their vehicle. It was a heavily armored G-Wagon, straight from a local celebrity security firm. It had a midnight black appearance. With them, were the Dino Hunters. Amber had a perfect memory and remembered them even though their initial meeting had been brief.
Sam was the guy with the eyepatch. Lizzy worked a heavy-caliber machine gun. Roy wore reflector sunglasses and drove like a pro. They said they’d lost another of their number along the way. They were ex-special forces and drove a Dodge Ram that sported the gun and a wild harpoon. They listened to the Dino Hunters’ network broadcast and ceaselessly traveled to every sighting they could, taking the demonic beasts out.
They were selfless. Amber liked them.
She appreciated honesty and gallantry. She valued intelligence. She didn’t rush in but liked to take her time, to assess. Jade on the other hand was impulsive, especially for an elf. She usually got herself into the kind of trouble Amber had to help extract her from. Amber had been known to roll her eyes at her younger sister.
But they were family and shared an unbreakable bond. Their parents had raised them to be caring, happy and proud. Amber hadn’t appreciated some of the ways they did it at the time, but as she got older, she saw the wisdom of it.
Well, most of it anyway.
She was
both sad and eager. Sad that her king and queen, Eldritch and Eleanor, had died, but eager to undertake this quest and find the Old Ones. It was an untested, ancient legend, but she was sure they were still there.
Other than that, she knew nothing.
Jade nudged her as they neared their vehicle. “Where are we going?”
Amber sighed. “You don’t know? To the airport where we have a private jet waiting.”
“I know that. But then where?”
“We start with the oldest elf we know,” Amber said. “The elder, Harad. And we hope he can guide us.”
Jade nodded, the green tips of her hair flicking up and down. “And where’s old Harad now?”
Again, Amber sighed. “Don’t you know?”
“I never listen.” Jade grinned.
“Oh, I’m aware of that, sister. To everyone except a fellow elf you are reserved and wise and all powerful. You’re their teacher, their rock. To me – you’re a pain in the ass.”
“And happy to be.” Jade held in another question as the Dino Hunters approached them.
“We’ll follow you,” Sam said, fiddling with his eyepatch. “In the Ram. We’ll hold off everything that attacks us to enable you to get on that plane. Trust us. We’ll have your backs.”
“We’re rolling down the runway onto the plane,” Amber informed him. “We won’t be stopping.”
“Understood,” Sam said. “And wise, I think. If McCarran’s empty we’re golden. If not, you’ll be under fire as soon as you approach.”
“Planes are still taking off,” Jade said, pointing at the skies.
“They’ll close it down very soon,” Amber said. “Too many winged demons around. I think, if we’re lucky, they’ll be helping Lucifer build his new pit for a while.”
They all nodded. Amber climbed into the driver’s seat of their G-Wagon a second before Jade reached it, ignoring the fake-hurt expression. She pressed the start button and made ready to drive. Jade climbed into the passenger seat and flicked on a radio Roy had given her.
“Good to go?” she said.
“We’re ready. Good luck.”
“And to you.”
They drove away from the building where the council was being convened. It was a forty-minute drive to Vegas and McCarran Airport. The road they chose ran dead straight, empty and was surrounded on both sides by brush and shrub. Amber drove as fast as she dared, making the journey in about thirty minutes.
Outside, the day was waning, blue skies turning darker. The sun was headed for the bordering hills. Las Vegas appeared ahead, its signature hotels and casinos marking it like no other city in the world. Millions of glowing, multi-hued lights gave it the appearance of gold in the desert.
“We’re on the wrong side for McCarran,” Jade said, checking a map. “Head down here until you come to East Russell and then get off. Go east.”
“Got it.”
The sights and sounds that greeted them in this city were probably being repeated in a hundred others around the world. Maybe a thousand. Amber made Jade get on the phone and relate to Aegis exactly what they saw.
Fires burned in streets and on rooftops. Some of the higher hotels like the Cosmopolitan and the Stratosphere had great, smoldering pyres on top, their flames reaching up to the clouds. Thousands of windows had been shattered. There were no flying beasts. At the heart of the city they saw enormous shapes, monsters stalking Las Vegas Boulevard. Demons entered every building they could, working in haphazard fashion, acting like conquerors. There would be no prisoners taken.
A great fire burned at the heart of the city and, when she slowed, Amber saw countless bodies had been thrown into it. She saw demons stalking the roofs of some buildings and climbing the sides of others, using their claws to dig handholds out of sheer stone surfaces. She saw the Paris hotel crumbling at the top where something huge had hit it. She saw the Eiffel Tower toppling and heard the resounding crunch as it hit the ground.
“There’s no plan,” Jade said. “No strategy to it. I think, in a good way, that will help the Chosen.”
“I hope so.”
Amber guided the car down East Russell, conscious that they were nearing the airport and passing pockets of demonic activity. The Dino Hunters were close behind, their headlights bright in the rearview. McCarran Airport was visible ahead. Amber could see runways and burning planes. She saw a 737 powering up to take off suddenly slew down the runway and tip half over, breaking one of its wings. The noise was tremendous, heartrending. Demons capered along its spine, roof and cabin.
“It’s falling apart,” Jade said, watching. “We’re going to be trapped here.”
“We’ll be fine,” Amber made her voice sound far more confident than she felt. The simple truth was they had to get airborne. The Old Ones dwelled somewhere far away from human habitation, a place they couldn’t even start looking for until they found Harad in Hawaii. Thinking fast, she picked up the two-way radio.
“Sam, can your Ram bust through that fence?”
There was a brief silence and then an answer. “You see further down where that service gate is? Slow down and let me pass.”
The Dodge Ram powered past them, engine roaring. Amber pressed down on the gas pedal to keep up. They raced past darkened buildings to one side with the open expanse of the airport to the other. Things capered and leapt in the dark, keeping pace with them, the only signs of malcontent being the burning red glow of their eyes.
Sam smashed into the gates at full speed, ripping them off their hinges. No safety measures were active, which was useful since Amber had been half thinking bollards might rise out of the ground. Clearly the airport was already overrun.
They barreled through the remains of the twisted gate and slewed along a service road. Jade leaned forward, trying to get a better view. Amber clicked the radio.
“Best to find a plane that’s already running, even taxiing. Anything, even a cargo plane. Wait, what’s that?”
To the left, a wide bank of maybe fourteen windows exploded outward from McCarran Airport. The windows overlooked the runways. Amber saw demons surging out amid the glass and after it, jumping down to the ground in a crazy, unstoppable torrent. Sam gasped over the radio.
“They look pissed!”
The streaming horde bent to chase their two vehicles. Amber saw nothing ahead. No way out of this. If they failed there would be no more elves to help the humans and the Old Ones would never be found. Earth would lose, she was sure. The denizens of hell outnumbered them three to one.
Amber pushed hard on the gas, knowing what Sam had to do. Lizzy was already set up in the Ram’s bed, machine gun prepped. When Amber blasted by with the demons in hot pursuit, she opened fire. The gun was incredibly loud, reverberating the G-Wagon’s windows. Demons were blasted apart on the runway, body parts exploding from amid the running mass, smashing into and tripping fellow demons. Amber raced ahead.
“There,” Jade said.
Amber saw it. A comparatively small Gulfstream jet, taxiing out of a hangar ahead. The hangar was dark, so the jet had remained hidden until now, with some high-paying human passengers being secretly ferried abroad. Amber increased her speed until she raced alongside it.
Jade opened her window and maneuvered her body so that she could sit on the window and shout up at the co-pilot.
“Slow down,” she shouted. “We have to get on.”
The co-pilot’s face was terrified, as white as a sheet. As soon as Amber saw it she knew what the answer would be.
He mouthed the single word: Sorry.
Jade was as feisty a person as Amber had ever known. When she started shouting at the co-pilot he blanched even whiter and had a quick conversation with his colleague. Ten seconds later though the result was the same.
“They’re not going to slow,” Jade reported.
“I got that message,” Amber shouted. Ahead, the runway stretched into blackness.
“Sam,” she said. “We need some heavy persuasion up here.”
The plane slowed. The side door was forced open. Amber turned the wheel, getting Jade closer. The elf was as physically fit and strong as her kind could be and found no problem leaping from the moving car into the doorway and grabbing hold. Then she turned to Amber.
“You planning to come too?”
Amber ignored her, slowed and allowed Roy to transfer from the Ram to her G-Wagon. The similar comparative size of the vehicles helped. Then Roy took the wheel.
“Just get me close,” she said. “I’ll do the rest.”
Amber jumped from the vehicle, grabbing Jade’s hand. Lizzy fired volley after volley at the pursuing, screeching creatures. Blackness and then roaring fires passed by as they screamed down the runway. Once Amber was on board, the pilot accelerated and Jade slammed the door closed.
Amber turned to the shocked and frightened passengers and crew. “Brace yourself,” she said. “We’re about ten seconds from the end of the runway.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
As much as Lilith wanted to stay with her mother, she knew there was only one way to keep her safe.
Leave.
“I can’t stay,” she said. “But I will come back. When this is over.”
She hadn’t explained about the King of Hell, Samael, and how Lucifer had given him a duty to protect her always. Part of that duty was to keep her safe, most of it was to keep her close.
Abi wiped tears from her eyes as she stared at her daughter. Lilith stayed strong. It would be so easy to stay, but utterly lethal.
“There are a few things I have to do,” Lilith said. “Aegis need this bible.” She shook her backpack.
“Take this,” her mother said, holding out a Tupperware box.
Lilith teared up when she saw it and an old memory resurfaced. Her mother had handed her cookies in a Tupperware box before.
“They’ll give you energy,” Abi said, smiling.
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