by CC Bridges
“Jeff, stop this.” Ian came out of the shadows where he’d been listening in silence, Hank kneeling at his side. “Ronnie will listen to you. She needs… she needs to get out of here.”
“All right.” Jeff ran a hand through his hair, stalling for a moment before pushing open the door and slipping inside, making sure it slid closed behind him.
“Ronnie.” He didn’t raise his voice.
She whirled around, one fist in the air, her dark eyes lit with a fiery light. “Jeff. He won’t let… I can’t leave my baby sister here….”
“I know.” Jeff stepped closer.
“I won’t do it. He can’t have her. They can’t have her!” The tears finally came, caught in her voice that was too raw to yell any longer. Jeff was there to grab her, holding her close while she too sobbed.
“She’s gone,” he whispered. “This ain’t gonna bring her back, Ronnie, and you know it.”
“It’s not right,” she said against his chest.
No, it wasn’t. But Jeff had given up on anything being right and fair. He just lived his life as best he could. “Come home with me and Kayla. Let the doctor do what he needs to. And we’ll take care of her when she’s ready.”
Ronnie didn’t say anything for a long moment, but then nodded against his chest. Jeff closed his eyes in relief.
OUT OF the corner of his eye, Jeff saw a flock of demons, dark specks across the sky as they hovered above the center of the city. He frowned, not quite sure why the sight unsettled him. Jeff shook it from his mind and slipped into the driver’s seat of his truck, slamming the door shut. He raised a hand to wave as Hank and Ian sped by on their hover bikes.
Ronnie sat in the back, too quiet. He wished for Trixie, knowing the dog would never have left Ronnie alone. She had a sixth sense for that sort of thing, and Jeff knew she’d make Ronnie smile despite everything.
His own fingers ached for Gabe. Jeff wanted to lose himself in Gabe’s body, hold the angel close, and let his own grief out. He’d speak to Gabe about Mattie, what she had been like as a child, how the world had a hole in it without her. And then maybe Gabe would convince him everything would be all right. Jeff already felt the cool skin beneath his hands, Gabe’s soft hair against his jaw.
So he might have driven back to the junkyard a little faster than he should have. Jeff just wanted to be home.
When he drove through the gate, Jeff heard the proximity alarms blaring even with the truck’s windows closed. He frowned, knowing the sensors wouldn’t have gone off from his truck.
“Something’s wrong,” he murmured, hand on the door.
Trixie ran toward the truck, barking up a storm, her tail wagging furiously. Kayla pushed her door open and ran to her dog, who backed up in response. With a yelp Trixie ran away from the house, toward the workshop.
A rock settled in the pit of Jeff’s stomach as he got out of the truck. “Gabe? Gabe!” he shouted, but knew he couldn’t be heard over the alarms. Jeff ran for the workshop, following Trixie and Kayla. He was vaguely aware of Ronnie behind him.
“Gabe?” The door had been left open. Jeff skidded inside, slamming his hand on the control panel to shut off the damn proximity alarm.
It was only then that he saw the words scrawled along the wall, written in some kind of bloodred paint.
Thanks for the angel. Luca says you’re square. Dig.
He felt the ground against his knees, and Jeff had no idea how he’d gotten on the floor. All he knew was that Gabe was gone. Any hope he’d had of sharing his grief, his sorrow, and hell, his life with Gabe, had dissipated like a sprinkling of dust in the wind. Gabe had become as necessary as a limb to Jeff. Now he was gone. And it was Jeff’s own fault.
Chapter Sixteen
GABE’S TEETH wouldn’t stop chattering. That damn electrical weapon had reduced his body to jelly. The demons carted him through the windows, and he couldn’t even struggle as they locked him into a sinister-looking surgery chair. The bands came over his forearms, and Gabe strained against them, his heart thundering against his ribs. No, not again.
The metal of the chair dug into his back, pinning his wings in place. They were useless with his nerves fried like this. But he didn’t cry out, not in front of the two demons who still watched with glowing eyes, as a third clamped cybernetic bands over his legs. Gabe took in a measured breath, knowing he needed to keep levelheaded if he had any hope of surviving.
An ominous amount of tech filled the room—screens both flat and rounded like the ones in Jeff’s living room, circuit boards and panels, neural nodes in glastic cases, even holopanes that Gabe hadn’t seen since Heaven. The old and new equipment had been wired and soldered together, a wild tangle of metal and tubing. It clashed with the windows that ranged from floor to ceiling, looking out over the twinkling lights of Old Trent.
Of course, how else would the demons come and go from their own tower? This was their aerie, where they got to lord over the people of downside, like the false angels they were.
He strained his muscles to move his head at the sound of the mechanical whirring of a door opening. Another demon entered the room. Unlike the others, he lacked the grotesque features that usually signified a demon—no horns or talons or fangs. Just a short, thin man in a fitted navy suit about twenty years out of Heaven fashion but still trendier than anything Gabe had seen on the people here. They had more things to worry about than keeping up with Heaven clothing.
“Good job, boys,” the new demon said, his mouth twisting into a grin and his eyes glowing gold. “He give you any trouble?”
“Nothing we couldn’t handle, Mr. Luca.” The demon who’d bound Gabe’s legs straightened up and gave a little nod.
Something sour coiled in Gabe’s belly. This was Luca, the demon who controlled all of Old Trent. The one people spoke of with fear and awe in their voices. He had his gaze fixed solely on Gabe, that cruel grin never leaving his face.
“Excellent. Go down to the medical level and get your upgrades. Last thing I want is you guys bitching about not getting paid.”
The other demons laughed, though they kept their gazes averted as they jostled each other. It reminded Gabe of a teenager with a crush. They feared Luca, yes, but they loved him too.
Gabe tugged at his bindings as Luca circled him, the two of them alone in this room now that the other demons had left. If he could only get loose, he’d show this demon he wasn’t going to sit quietly and let himself be tortured, or whatever it was that Luca wanted to do to him.
Whatever it was that had Jeff agreeing to hand Gabe over.
Gabe swallowed, the thought sneaking into his mind unbidden. He had no evidence other than a demon’s words that Jeff had betrayed him. There was no reason to believe Jeff had done such a thing. But it was starting to make too much sense. Gabe had been in the heart of demon territory for far too long to have gone unnoticed.
“Are you just going to stare at me?” Gabe finally burst out, unable to deal with the pressure from Luca’s smoldering eyes. He needed answers, and Luca seemed to be the only one to have them.
“I thought angels would be more patient.” Luca didn’t speak in a growled undertone like so many of his minions, and he didn’t have any voice mods either. Yet somehow the innocuous, unmodded tone was almost worse. Gabe didn’t know what to expect from him.
“I’m not exactly the typical angel.” Gabe flexed his fingers, wishing for an honest fight instead of this interrogation. Being bound like this reminded him too much of his time being made, unable to protest as Zachary’s people took him apart and then put him back together in an angel’s image.
Luca crouched down in front of him, eyes blazing like fire. What did he see through those modified orbs? Were they augmented enough to see through to Gabe’s hollow bones? “Doesn’t matter. You’ll do.”
“For what?” Gabe needed to know. For a moment, he was afraid Luca wouldn’t tell him, that he’d have to guess. “If you think I have any secrets to betray, you’re wrong. I’m hard
ly high up in the ranks of Heaven.” He had been just another grunt, another angel to be sacrificed when needed.
As if in answer, the door opened again, and two more demons entered, both wearing the protective gear Gabe usually associated with mechanists—heavy aprons, protective goggles, and elbow-length gloves. One of them held a halo, dull instead of its normal shiny golden hue, with wires streaming out of the ports and attached to a network body jack in the hands of the other demon.
So that was where his halo had ended up. Gabe tensed against the chair, sweat pooling at his forehead. “I can’t tell you how it works,” he burst out. He couldn’t fake his reactions to that damn thing. They’d used it to enslave him, and Gabe could never forgive that.
“I already know how it works.” Luca waved the demons over. One took the dangling wires and hooked the halo to one of the computer panels along the wall. “The problem is that it only works with brains specially modified to be angels.”
“No,” Gabe whispered, realizing now exactly what Luca wanted. “You can’t do this.”
“Such loyalty for your masters, angel boy? You should be honored.” Luca picked up the network jack plugged into the halo and jammed it into the back of his own neck. “You’ll be my conduit to the God AI.”
Gabe pressed himself back against the chair, watching as the demon came closer with his halo. All of this for the God AI? Whatever fucked-up scheme Luca had dreamed up, there was no way he could touch the God AI. It was too big for even the angels to contact directly. They were only able to speak to it through Metatron.
It didn’t matter if Luca succeeded. Heaven could fall and Gabe didn’t give a damn. But he’d worked hard to regain his memories, to remember the man he’d been before the angels had erased everything. He never again wanted to forget Rocco and his life before Heaven.
He didn’t want to forget Jeff either. Or Kayla and Hank and Ian and everything he’d learned in Old Trent.
“Don’t,” he choked out, right before the demon slammed the halo onto his head, into the ports designed for it.
KAYLA CAUGHT her fingers in the scruff of fur behind Trixie’s neck. It was easier to bury her face against Trixie’s strong back than look at Dad right now. They’d come home only to find that the demons had stolen Gabe. While they had watched Mattie die, Gabe had been all alone, no one to help him. Who knew what the demons had told him? He was gone and he’d never know that Dad didn’t want to do what the demons ordered. He’d had to.
“Jeff, come on,” Ronnie said, stroking her hand gently over the back of Dad’s head, almost as if he were a dog too. “Let’s get inside, get something to eat….”
At least Ronnie was speaking now. She’d been so quiet after they had left the hospital, sitting in the truck with her shoulders hunched and her head bowed. Kayla hadn’t known what to say. Nothing she said could bring Mattie back, so why even bother? Now Gabe had been taken, and they actually could do something about that. Kayla gritted her teeth. Would they both just let this happen? Just let the demons take Gabe and not fight for him?
If they wouldn’t, then Kayla would fight for him. You didn’t give up on your friends, and Kayla counted the angel among hers. Gabe understood how she felt about her modded body in the way only a man with metal wings could. He’d taken her flying, let her see the world from the skies above. You couldn’t give an angel his freedom only to take it away again.
Gabe loved her dad, almost as much as she did. She could see that whenever the angel looked at Dad, the same way Hank looked at Ian. He’d made a place for himself here, and she could feel the gaping hole he left behind.
It wasn’t like she could rescue him herself. Unlike Gabe, however, she wasn’t alone. She waited until Ronnie had gotten Dad up and out of the workshop, and then Kayla moved to the panel along the main screen, punching in Ian’s code from memory.
“Jeff?” Ian’s voice came from the speakers. He must still be on the road, so he couldn’t see her face on his cam.
“No, it’s Kayla.” She bit her lip, trying to stop the tears from coming. Kayla couldn’t speak if she cried. “The demons took Gabe. And Dad’s just gonna let them!”
“Hold on, shorty.” Hank’s voice came through now. “What do you mean demons took Gabe?”
There wasn’t time for her to explain. They needed to come help, now. “They made Dad do it. He owed them. That’s why the demons brought Gabe here, so Dad could make sure he didn’t go back uplevel until they wanted him.”
Silence for a moment, and then Hank again. “Why do I feel there is a much longer story here?”
“Can you help me?” Kayla blurted.
“Help you do what?”
“Rescue Gabe.”
THE SQUEAL of the proximity alarms brought Jeff to his feet, blood rushing in his ears. He’d been sitting in the kitchen, just staring at Ronnie as she put together a meal out of the scraps in his cabinets, not even listening as she lectured him about being so dependent on nutricubes. If he focused on the movement of her hands, only that, then Jeff could almost zone out and push all thoughts of Gabe from his mind. He could forget for a moment that his own actions had caused this.
He wouldn’t have to choke on the guilt that came up like bile in the back of his throat. Because Jeff knew he’d do it again. He’d save his daughter at all costs, no matter how much he cared for Gabe. How much he loved the angel.
Jeff ignored Ronnie calling after him as he ducked into the living room, checking the monitors to see what had set off the alarms. Part of him worried the demons might come back, that Luca would take Gabe and then destroy Jeff anyway. At first he was relieved to only see Hank and Ian at the main gate and Kayla letting them in. But why hadn’t Ian called ahead? They were supposed to go back to Ronnie’s place to take care of Mattie’s possessions so Ronnie wouldn’t have to.
He shut off the blaring alarm before stomping into the junkyard, determined to find out what the hell was going on. “Kayla!” he shouted, coming up on his sheepish-looking daughter as Ian showed her something inside the hovercart attached to his bike. “What are you doing back here?” he snapped at Ian.
“Kayla called us,” Ian said, in that calm way of his that made Jeff want to strangle him.
Hank propped one leg up against his bike, drawing all eyes to him as he drawled, “We’re going to rescue Gabe.”
Jeff’s heart pounded at Hank’s words, his mind already reaching for plans, for a way to accomplish the impossible. “Don’t be stupid. How would you manage that?”
“Well, I’ve got a few things that might help.” Ian pulled the tarp off the cart, allowing Jeff to see a cache of weapons.
“You have energy guns,” he breathed. “Are you insane?”
“Nah, everyone knows I’m the insane one.” Hank grinned. “Ian’s got his own connections uplevel.”
Jeff shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. We don’t even know where they took him….” He trailed off. Maybe he did know. It couldn’t have been coincidence that he saw a flock of demons returning to center city just as they were leaving. The demons should have been on patrol around Old Trent, not returning to their home base, not yet. “If he’s at their sanctuary, there is no way you can possibly slip in past the sensors with those guns.” Never mind that the complex was a maze, Luca’s headquarters carefully guarded by his loyal soldiers.
“They could if they had a guide.”
They all whirled around as Ronnie spoke. Jeff hadn’t noticed that she’d followed him out of the house. His cheeks burned. “What?”
“You know what I mean.” She moved closer. No tears shone in her eyes, and her voice came out unguarded and clear. Her hands were clenched into fists, and she looked ready to start a fight.
Ronnie couldn’t mean what Jeff thought she did. Yes, someone could guide Hank and Ian through to wherever Gabe was being held, if that person jacked into the demon network and took control of it. The demons would never know they’d been infiltrated.
The only problem being that Jeff
didn’t jack in anymore, had sworn to never ride the net again.
“Ronnie, I can’t,” he said.
Kayla came up beside him, catching her arm in his and putting her head against his chest. He held her close, her tiny body so warm against his.
“Please, Dad? For me.”
Jeff closed his eyes. He’d tried so damn hard to do his best, be the best father he could be, despite everything. When Gabe came into their lives, it seemed like all the rules had been broken. All that Jeff thought he knew to be right was somehow wrong.
Persisting in his vow to keep Kayla safe would doom Gabe to whatever fate the demons had dreamed up for him. He’d been willing to sacrifice the angel—he had no choice. The debt he owed Luca still loomed over them.
Jeff opened his eyes, catching the gazes of Hank and Ian and Ronnie, who stood with her arms crossed over her chest. Maybe it was time to open his heart to more than just one person.
“All right,” he said. “I’ll do it.”
JEFF SLID the jack in the back of his head, into a port that had been kept closed for five years. It should have felt strange and wrong. Instead he relished the way his brain came on line, ready for him to fire up the connection and surf out into the net. His body thrummed, impatient for that final bond with the tech. He flexed his fingers inside the control gloves and settled back into his well-cushioned chair, making sure there was no discomfort.
Kayla pulled a chair up next to him, her hands skimming over the control panel that would monitor his vitals. She needed to forcibly disconnect him if the health levels moved into dangerous territory. Jeff knew of hackers who had died because they didn’t have a failsafe in place. He knew better than to take that chance, especially after five years off the grid.
Ronnie stayed toward the back of the workshop, just close enough to still keep an eye on them. Jeff would need her to take watch. He trusted Kayla, but she was only a child.