A hundred undead Roman soldiers rushed to the scene from a hidden entrance behind the hideous throne. They paused, drew their swords, and rushed Daisy Lane.
Daisy drove her sword into Temeculus throat. “Now you die, general.”
She twisted her wrist to make the cut to decapitate him. A cathedral guard crashed its muscled body into hers. Daisy Lane absorbed the hard blow. Her nostrils inhaled the strong musky scent from its hairy body. She hurtled through the air, struck the glass floor, slid, and came to a stop near the throne room threshold.
The guard lay sprawled on the floor near its wounded master. The other soldiers went straight for Daisy.
Daisy leaped up. With sword in hand, she dropped to one knee and jammed her bright blade into the glass floor at her feet. The glass cracked and popped like ice, a long jagged fracture extended from her sword driven into the floor, and headed towards the cathedral guard who rose to his iron shoed hoofs. The crack went between the guard’s legs, its many eyes glanced down, and its bovine mouth fell open to scream.
A powerful blast broke into the chamber. So strong, the concussion knocked Daisy to the floor. Flames shot upwards and hit the ceiling in a geyser. The undead Roman soldiers and the cathedral guard vaporized into a crimson spray. A hideous red light splashed the entire room as tortured souls lifted into the air from the destroyed floor.
Daisy Lane scrambled to her feet. Her heartbeat pounded in her chest. The tremendous heat singed the hairs on her arms. She spun away from the insanity and ran. Temeculus, his throat clogged with blood, attempted to shout in fury at her escape. A few feet before her, Okura and Lucia faced the balcony.
“Go. Stop enjoying the view and jump,” Daisy said. Okura wrapped an arm around Lucia’s waist, his wings spread out behind him and the two leaped from the balcony and into the pitch night.
Daisy reached the bone built balcony and jumped. She cleared the rail and dove like a base jumper. Her wings spread wide from her back as she dropped towards the ground.
An incredible screech erupted from behind her. The fanged horrors, the Screamers, cried their displeasure at the thieves who stole the Key and wounded their master.
The Screamers charged down like angry hornets. Close behind the swarm raced Lord Wrath. He rode her down upon his steed. Red flames shot from the warhorse’s flared nostrils as its legs galloped against the foul air.
Daisy pumped her wings harder. Still the Screamers plunged ahead to close the distance at a dangerous pace. A heavy hum rose up behind her. Several thousand wings beat against the tepid air like locust. Below, both dead and alive soldiers covered the ground.
A chill ran down her back as the screams increased and drew closer. She doubled her speed to divert the pursuing horrors from Okura and Lucia.
Daisy gritted her teeth. The Screamers closed the gap. When she turned to steal a glimpse behind her, their horrible teeth flashed and glinted. She readied her ancient sword in her right hand. In her left hand a round golden shield appeared, embossed with the Judea Lion in silver.
Daisy Lane sucked in a deep breath and prepared her mind for battle.
41
Okura turned his head to search for Daisy. From his position he witnessed the enemy close in on her. Soon, they would rush after him and his precious charge. He pumped his wings until sweat broke across his forehead. The sweat surprised him. He thought angels never sweat.
Okura refused to leave the Key, or leave Daisy Lane. She saved his life in Japan and his honor forbade him to abandon her. He found a simple answer to his difficult decision. “You must fly hard, and get away.”
Lucia blinked, tears burst from her eyes. “Please, I can’t fly as fast as you…they will overtake me.”
Okura squeezed her hand. She winced and whimpered in pain. “Don’t lose faith on me now, child. You will keep this entire universe alive. You will escape. I cannot let Daisy go like this. Do you understand me?”
The Key nodded her head. Tears streamed down her face. Her coltish wings worked hard to keep up with Okura’s speed. “I understand,” she said.
Okura pulled his katana from its white lacquer scabbard. “Go. We will catch up with you.” He released her hand. Lucia fluttered away like a moth, awkward and alone.
Daisy Lane pushed herself hard as the Screamers gained on her. She glanced back and stared into their black bulbous eyes. Thick saliva dripped over her beautiful armor. She gaged from the sulfur and rotted flesh they breathed out. Ahead, Okura raced to her aid with drawn sword and lips pulled back over white teeth.
Okura opened his mouth and unleashed a shout. Daisy spun in midair and lifted her shield to face the horrors.
Screamers crashed into the shield. She shouted and sliced away at the monsters in midair. White pain exploded in her left wing, she cried out. On her left, two Screamers gnawed on her wing, blood oozed from the wound, bones crunched in her ears. She withdrew her wings to plummet towards the earth below.
Okura shot in above Daisy. He cut his way through the Screamers. Their foul blood splashed his white armor with gore. A grunt came from above, he caught Lord Wrath’s sword bearing down upon his head. He rolled away in midair.
The blade sliced by him and tousled his once white hair now speckled with filth from the dead Screamers. He drove his Samurai sword into Wrath’s armor. The monster’s steed slammed its hindquarter into Okura’s body. He took the impact from the horse’s powerful rump and hurtled through a glassless window, slammed into the floor and rolled to a dead stop. Okura took to his feet as Wrath and his steed blew pass the window towards the embattled Daisy Lane.
Daisy hit the ground hard, so hard the black macadam cracked underneath her armored body. The fast drop dazed her for a precious second, her armor kept her conscious. When she rose to her unsteady feet, the Screamers fell upon her along with their dismembered clan. She dashed away from their onslaught and bumped into a few human soldiers who took her on. They died the instant her immortal body touched theirs.
She slipped her shield upon her back and ran the distance from Hell’s Cathedral towards a battered office building. She dodged destroyed vehicles. Black arrows whisked by her head from the undead Roman archers perched on the cathedral’s battlements. She entered the same building Wrath’s steed knocked Okura into seconds ago.
Daisy stumbled into the building. Her lungs burned as she breathed with effort to fill her strained body with oxygen. She did not realize how much strength she used in fighting the winged monsters. She fought to steady her labored breath. Tears ran from her emerald eyes.
The Screamers paused at the office doorway. Once they gathered the courage and numbers their mouths opened to release a horrible screech, a wretched din doomed to haunt Daisy for all eternity.
Okura stiffened once the high-pitched screams reached his ears. The remnant windows within the building shattered to powder. Another yell rose from the floors below, a war cry. He recognized Daisy Lane’s powerful voice. He unsheathed his sword and dropped down into the concrete and steel until he landed on the first floor covered in white plaster dust. The Screamers swirled around him in a frenzied blur. Without a second thought, he hacked into their Hell born bodies.
Daisy fought until her arms ached. Once again fire filled her lungs. She deployed her shield, its gold and silver gleamed so bright the darkness shrank away. Twisted bodies began to collect at her feet, huge black eyes, now dead, stared into death. Body parts and gore splashed her armor. Through the haze, Okura fought the Screamers.
The Samurai’s active sword became a silver swoosh against the gloom. Beyond the angel Okura, Wrath moved into the building upon his damnable steed. Fire spewed from the mount’s wide black nostrils.
Okura drew his short sword and cut down monsters from both sides. The Screamers started to thin out. He shuffled backwards to reach Daisy Lane.
Daisy drove her sword into a Screamer and flung the beast away from her. She turned as Lord Wrath, twenty feet away, rode further into the building camouflaged by the Screamers
. Wrath dismounted his steed and headed for Okura. The herald drew his weighty sword and aimed the sharp tip at Okura’s thigh.
“Okura!”
Okura turned at Daisy’s voice. Wrath plunged his sword down into Okura’s thigh. His wings shot out from behind his broad back and trembled from the blow. He stared at his thigh in shock. Okura’s lips pulled back in pain. Wrath plunged the sword down further. The tip cracked the concrete floor beneath Okura’s leg. Undead soldiers spilled into the building with drawn swords to join the fight.
Okura thrust his sword at Wrath’s mid-section like a toddler’s attempt to fight off an adult with a wooden spoon. Steel fangs clamped down upon his hand. A scream escaped his throat. Surprise etched his face as the exquisite pain forced his voice to reach a pitch to rival a mesa soprano.
He turned to Daisy Lane. A few soldiers headed off for Daisy who remained across the large office with her back against a wall. “Run. For God’s sake run, Daisy. Don’t wait for me. I’ve done my job.”
Daisy winced at the sword driven into Okura’s right thigh, and a Screamer with fierce teeth locked on his sword hand. Okura found himself trapped. She realized any attempt to save him would mean her life also. She screamed at them all until the building’s foundation shook, raining loose masonry upon the hellish combatants.
Wrath lifted his left hand, opened his palm to unleash a heavy black-spiked chain. The ebony links wrapped around Okura’s body, pinning one wing, leaving the other wing to twitch like a dying gnat’s. Okura struggled for a brief moment and fell to the floor. The heavy chain rattled around his body and reverberated across the room like thunder.
Wrath yanked his blade from Okura’s thigh, and pointed the wicked blood smeared weapon at Daisy. He turned and walked toward the front door with Okura in tow. The Samurai struggled against the chain. Black Army soldiers closed around Wrath to secure his exit. The others turned to face Daisy Lane.
Daisy sheathed her beautiful sword and braced her shield concave side against her right shoulder. She drove her body through the wall and into the pitch-night. Once outside the building, she spread her wings and took flight into the air. Arrows zipped by her head so close, she figured one would hit her. The building dropped away. The frustrated minions screams filled the night air.
She began her search for the one with the ability to hold together the entire universe. Her green eyes took in the city as a scream burst from behind her. Okura’s voice rose into the blackness. A chill assaulted her body. She moaned, turned away, and pressed on.
Daisy floated from the building and her friend. The one she coaxed from Japan to fight against the scourge poised to take over the entire planet and Heaven. Their small souls did not compare to the larger picture they faced. The most terrible prospect conceivable would be to exist as slaves to Satan, or thrown into Oblivion, and Hell’s eternal fires. She recognized Okura’s sacrifice, to give his life, and return to Heaven with no wings for Heaven’s safety and eternal glory.
White light flickered a distance away underneath a church belfry. Upon the belfry, crouched and near slumber sat Lucia. Beneath her, enemy undead soldiers scaled the wall like cockroaches. Daisy Lane’s heart thumped hard from the adrenalin shot through her veins, she refused to lose anyone else to the rescue. Once again, she drew her sword, and threw herself into battle.
42
Through Lucia’s fogged mind rose a deep guttural language. Before the rescue, Temeculus dipped his thick yellow fingernail into a red liquid contained within a human skull used as a bowl. He poked her arm before he carried her down into his throne room. The poison, still lingering in her veins, made her thoughts thick and slow. Too tired to go on she stopped at a church for safety. The escape with Okura drained her.
Sulfur and dead flesh filled her nostrils with a strong odor, causing her eyes to water. She struggled to pull herself from the exhausted grogginess. A cold and dead-dry object touched her ankle, driving a frigid knife through the heavy haze she wallowed in to jerk her back from her dark sleep.
Her brown eyes snapped open.
Lucia’s gaze fell upon an undead Roman soldier. Its worm eaten hand held her ankle in a painful grip. She lifted her hand, in her tiny grasp appeared a silver dagger. She drove the blade into the monster’s rotted eyes. The beast howled in pain, released its hold upon her ankle, and tumbled to the street below.
Other undead soldiers picked up Lucia’s scent and scaled the church brick façade to capture her. She kicked out her foot and struck one upon the head. He fell after the one she stabbed in the eyes. Others clamored around the tower belfry. Clawed hands reached out for her. She unfurled her wings for flight like a hapless baby eagle. Her right wing struck the tower bell. An unmusical note tumbled into the night air as the clapper clanged against the lip.
Another hand shot out from the crowd, this one seized her black hair. Another grabbed her thigh as she gagged from the putrid stench around her. She jabbed out with her dagger to no avail. The undead soldiers closed in.
The tiny angel fought until someone seized her hand from behind. Hands seized her ankles, human voices rose from below. Someone shouted to throw her down to them. The guttural voices grew as she struggled against the cold hands locked around her wrists and ankles.
Daisy Lane paled once the bell’s heavy toll reached her ears. She pushed her wings harder as the Key fought the soldiers who surrounded her. Daisy lifted her body high, screamed a war cry, and drove down upon the enemy. All eyes rolled up at the angel who dove from the night skies like a hawk. Her blade gleamed with light as she struck down the Roman soldier who held Lucia’s ankle.
She fought them, kicked them, and hacked them down until they fled from her. Lucia landed on the tower ledge. She trembled, tears streaked down her face from eyes widened in horror.
Daisy Lane landed upon the ground. She cut down a few humans who dared to challenge her. The others scattered away into the darkness. Her anger rose so strong she thought froth would bubble from her mouth. Lucia remained pressed against the belfry.
“We leave this place now,” Daisy said from below. She floated up to the Key and outstretched a hand wet with gore. “They will return, mistress. We must leave.”
The Key reached forward and grasped the angel’s hand. Daisy pulled Lucia to her, wrapped a firm arm around her waist and flew upwards. She fled Los Angeles, and the angel Okura.
43
Joan stood atop a five-foot high wooden platform overlooking a twelve-acre training field. She wore the Guardians battle fatigues without the white beret. The ten thousand troops before her sported the same light and dark gray uniform. Other platforms sat next to hers with two soldiers on each one, dressed the same as her. The Guardians, armed with wooden swords, stood at attention and open ranks.
The mock swords weighed the same as the swords they would carry into battle. Joan planned to train them first in sword strokes and stance. She lifted the training sword above her head.
“This is a gladius, a Roman sword used for hacking and stabbing. I, and the others standing upon the platforms, will teach you the basics of stance, and the thrust and hack, followed by more complicated maneuvers.”
The angel swung her wooden blade about, flipped the faux weapon in her hand, and assumed a pose for battle. “Soon we will be in combat, and I need you all to understand what you will learn here. President Wallace told me you are the smartest troops around, do not prove me wrong.”
A powerful hoorah exploded from the troops. The motivational shout rose and echoed into the cool morning air. The troops assumed the stance Joan took. Drill sergeants, who wore their legendary campaign hats, walked into the ranks and corrected their stances.
Joan thrust her wooden gladius forward. “Into the solar plexus.”
The troops performed the thrust. She retrieved the sword and sliced the air as if cutting off an invisible enemy’s head. The troops did the same. She trained the Guardians for two hours. They practiced on their own before she moved to their next training
phase, blocks and parries.
Daisy Lane approached the field with the Key next to her. The larger angel, dressed in a white leather outfit, took long confident strides. Her face remained solemn as she stopped behind the wooden platform.
“We lost Okura.”
Joan jumped off the platform and approached Daisy Lane. “I understand, but we needed to get her back.” She patted Daisy’s strong shoulder. The angel remained silent.
“Go help train the troops. I’ll talk to you soon,” Joan said. Daisy nodded in silence and walked off to the training area. Joan and the Key stood alone.
Joan gazed at the clear skies. High delicate clouds slipped overhead, she turned her gaze to Lucia. “Well, you kept us busy around here. I’m glad you’re back safe.”
Lucia folded her slender arms. Her huge brown eyes swept the training field. “I need for someone to explain to me what is going on? I wake up, and find Maria battling Black Angel. Black Angel kills my adopted parents and snatches me, and throws me in a chamber, and then two angels rescue me. This can’t be the Rapture.”
Lucia frowned. “And, you’re training…them,” she said. Contempt dripped from her voice as she gave the troops an inimical glare.
Joan scrutinized the smaller angel. Heat glowered underneath her brown skin. “Them…are allowed to fight a battle against Temeculus. God promised the Guardians armor and weapons from Heaven and the appropriate power needed to fight the Black Army. They are going to fight those minions from Hell, so I think the Guardians deserve your respect. Because you’re not going to join in the battle, now are you?” Joan said. Her voice trembled as she fought to control her anger.
The Key bit her bottom lip, her long eyelashes lowered. “No.”
Angels of War (Angels of War Trilogy Book 1) Page 18