by J. J. Dean
"Everyone know what they're doing?" he asks, his hand coming up to briefly grip my hip.
Rolling my eyes, I release Eli's hand and nod, telling him, "If a single one of us doesn’t know what we're doing, I'll be pissed. We went over the plan enough that it's stuck in my damn brain. Yes, we know."
I receive a smack to the ass before Asher growls in my ear, "Smartass." He then tells everyone, "Alright. Meet up outside in forty. Not a minute longer."
With that, we all split up, Noah heading outside with Brutus, and Eli and Asher taking the left side of the airport while Devon and I make our way to the right. We don't mutter a single word to one another, scouring the right side of the building for a security office that we can raid and be done with this entire thing.
It takes some time, long enough that I almost begin to think we have the wrong side of the building or maybe Asher's research was wrong. Devon lightly taps me on the shoulder, and when I turn, he's pointing at a sign that leads us in the right direction. We follow the sign, taking turns and corridors we need to head down, not bumping into a single soul as we search. That's weird. Or at least I think it is.
Devon taps me again, jerking his thumb towards a door just at the end of a corridor. The sign on the door reads: Security Office.
I march towards the door, curious why it seems so quiet. It's just turned nine in the evening in London, but surely there should be an employee or something walking around, if not passengers ready to board their flights. But there isn't a single person in sight, only Devon and me.
We both reach the door and look at one another. Devon's blond eyebrows are drawn down in confusion, mirroring my own. He knocks on the door, only to hear nothing on the other side. There's no movement or rustling of papers. No one to answer the door to two strangers who really shouldn't have found their way to this very room without at least one person stopping us. What the hell is going on?
"Where is everyone?" I ask out loud on a near whisper. I don't expect an answer, mainly talking to myself as I sift through all the possibilities and come up empty.
Keeping his voice the same level, Devon answers, "I don't know, but I don't like it."
Nodding, I knock on the door once more, a little louder than Devon's efforts. When there's still no answer, I shrug and mutter, "Guess we're going in."
Devon puts his hand out before mine touches the door, bracing it over my stomach and gently nudging me out of the way. I don't react immediately, conflicting emotions strumming through me where his hand touches me. He moves in front of me, hand reaching for the door handle. Looking back to me, he nods and opens the door, allowing it to swing open widely.
There's no one there.
I have no idea why that surprises me since that's the theme of this entire scenario right now, but seeing an empty security room with all of the monitors switched on and no one surveying them... I don't know. It's not sitting right with me.
We both walk into the room, Devon shutting the door behind us firmly.
"Where is everyone?" he asks, his eyes scanning the small room around us. It stinks of stale coffee and sweat, empty cups littering the desk just in front of the wall of monitors. There are a coat and hat hanging near the door, signs someone has been here already. But where are they now?
My confusion grows as I near the monitors, looking over each screen and seeing absolutely no one. Not a single human being.
"Devon," I mutter, waiting for him to come closer before pointing at the screens. "What do you see?"
He looks over the screens, leaning on the desk to thoroughly scan each square. "I don't know, what should I be seeing?"
"People, Devon. You should be seeing people. There's no one on these screens. The cameras are live, and there isn't a soul in sight. How is that possible?" I question, a strange feeling growing in my chest. My hand goes to my chest, my palm rubbing against the spot that's tingling underneath my skin. "Do you feel that?"
"Feel what, Luna? I don't feel anything," Devon tells me, looking over with concern.
Instead of answering him, I look around the room. A large whiteboard has been nailed to the wall to the right of the monitors, and I walk towards it, the tingling growing more and more the closer I get to the board.
Looking over the scribbles of someone's poor penmanship, I see nothing out of the ordinary. That is, until I make a move to turn back around, and a sparkle of something silver catches my eye before it's gone. Slowly, I move back to face the board, scanning the entire thing and spotting an empty white patch in the corner that draws my attention.
I walk near to the whiteboard until my nose almost touches the thing, raising my hand to brush against it.
"Luna? What is it?" Devon asks, coming to stand behind me. The sensation in my chest grows so much that it's all I can feel. I don't feel the heat of Devon's body behind me despite how close he stands, I don't feel the board under my fingertips, the air that’s been tickling my face for the last ten minutes, or the clothes on my own body.
Just as the feeling grows unbearable, my fingers brush against something on the board, and a flash of silver sparks beneath my hand. The moment my hand brushes over the unknown substance on the board, my mind grows fuzzy.
"Luna!" Devon yells, his voice sounding like he's speaking through a glass pane so that I can only just hear him. My ears start ringing, the tingle spreading until it takes over my body, and I vaguely feel my body fall before Devon catches me.
My head lolls over his arm, turning until my eyes catch a strange sparkling symbol that appears on the patch my hand touched until it melts away, trailing glitter down the board until things grow too hazy for me to concentrate on anything but the buzzing in my mind.
Chapter 27
Elijah
"Why is it so quiet, man? Shouldn't there people hanging around, wanting to go places or something?" I question, walking backward as I look around.
Asher nods and mutters, "Yeah. I just realized that too. It's way too quiet and way too empty."
"Well, we can't very well question the staff if there are no staff to question, now can we?" I point out, sending Ash a look before twisting on my heel and coming to a standstill. "Something's off. Where is everyone?"
"I don't know, brother, but this isn't right. Let's go find Luna and Dev. Maybe they found something," Asher responds, taking one more look around before jerking his head in the direction we came.
Nodding, I fall into step beside him, taking our strides a little quicker now that we've realized something doesn't feel right. Nothing good ever comes from those kinds of feelings.
Both of us quickly make our way through the airport, passing not one single person as we go. We get to where we all split up, looking around before heading in the direction Luna and Devon went. Taking twists and turns, we head down different corridors, our confusion growing.
"Luna!" A yell sounds out from behind a closed door down the hall we've stopped at. Ash looks at me, I look at him, and at the very same time, we run the length of the corridor and crash into the door. It swings open, flashing monitors on one wall and a flickering lamp on the desk. The light in the ceiling is flashing on and off weirdly, and the alarm at the door is blinking rapidly. That doesn't look right.
My eyes then dart to where Devon in kneeling on the floor, holding a spaced out Luna in his arms. Her limbs are dangling lifelessly, her head hanging over Devon’s arm awkwardly.
"Luna! What the fuck happened?" Asher yells, his large frame rushing over to them. Devon rises, Luna in his arms. Her eyes are filled with the bright silver light, the very same one that flashes when she uses her power. The light is reflected on the whiteboard, highlighting scribbles from a marker pen scrawled over its surface. What happened to her?
"I don't know! We were looking around, checking the monitors when she asked me if I could feel something. I didn't know what she meant, and when I asked, she didn't answer. Just kept walking toward the board before dropping," Devon quickly explains, hoisting Luna up in his arms.
> Moving beside him, I check Luna over quickly, brushing loose strands that have escaped her braids out of her face. She looks okay, albeit a little paler than usual, and her body seems to be vibrating. Other than that and her glowing eyes, there doesn't seem to be anything outwardly wrong with her.
"I think we should get out of here. We're not going to find anything with the place completely empty, and I want Luna out of here. Who knows what the hell is going on with her right now," I suggest, pressing a warm hand against Luna's quickly cooling cheek. She's growing colder the longer we stand here doing nothing.
Asher nods. "Let's go get Noah and get the fuck out of here. This was a complete waste of time."
With that, under a cloud of worry and disappointment, we leave the room, Devon holding on tightly to Luna as we hurry through the ridiculous amount of hallways. Asher sticks to their backs while I lead us out from the maze of corridors and through the front door of the airport.
Only to come to a resounding stop when we see what looks like a small army of Hellspawn surrounding the entire building. Shit.
"That's going to make things difficult," I quip, darting a hand out to stop Devon from moving any further when he doesn't see what I'm staring at.
Asher comes to stop on his other side, growling and cursing as he takes in the scene before us. The ground is covered with nasty ass Hellspawn as far as the eye can see, blocking any exit we could have taken. Their teeth are hidden, their claws retracted for now. They all look freshly turned, their clothes looking a little too spruced up and clean to have been Hellspawn very long, leading me to believe Lucifer got to this place before we could. I'm pretty sure I see a pilot or two, a couple of air hostesses mingled with passengers. That motherfucker.
"Why aren’t they screaming like they usually do? Better yet, how are we going to get out of this? Especially with Luna down?" Devon worries, moving back a step and freezing when the Hellspawn hiss in sync. "Anyone got any ideas?"
I scan for any gaps in the horde or any way to get Luna out of here safely. They're packed in so tight I can't even see past them. It would at least explain where everyone inside the airport went and why it was so devoid of life. But why aren’t they making that fucking awful screech that damn near makes my ears bleed? What the hell is going on?
"Where's Noah? He was outside, right?" Devon asks, sounding more alarmed than he had before.
He's right. Noah was supposed to be out here doing his thing, so where is he? Did the Hellspawn get to him before he could get away? Our first hour on UK soil and we've already been ambushed by Lucifer's goons.
"Yeah. He was supposed to be checking for signs of Ms. Frenchie, but I don't see him," Asher tells us quietly. From the corner of my eye, I see him move forward a little, shuffling his body partly in front of Devon to block Luna. I don't like that move because that move tells me we're going to have to fight these fuckers, and I'm not loving our chances.
"Well, that's going to have to be low on the list of our worries until we get our asses out of here because we are surrounded and so outnumbered it's not even funny," I tell them both, quickly turning to check on a still blitzed out Luna. Of course, just when we need her fully alert and aware, she's completely out of it from whoever the fuck knows after doing whatever the hell she did to get herself in that state.
As if they know we've found ourselves up shit creek without a paddle, the horde of Hellspawn slowly begins to hiss and growl, a handful of them sliding their blackened claws from their nail beds. With only movements seen by a horde mentality, they begin moving, spacing out enough to give themselves room, but not enough to allow anyone to slip past them. They're organized and synchronized, worrying me all the more since Hellspawn are normally rabid and out of control. At least then we'd have more of a chance to fucking escape. Not much of one, but one nonetheless.
"A plan, guys. We need a fucking plan," Devon panics. I can feel it like a physical blow to the gut, and I can't fault him for it. I mean, the guy who can pull weapons out his ass is carrying our doped out angel, not a hand free to do his mojo and arm us all. We're currently flying naked, and it fucking sucks.
"Alright, I've got a plan. Listen closely. Devon, you're going to slowly hand Luna to me, make Eli and I some weapons, and take her back. Make a protective circle around you both as soon as you've got her in your arms. As soon as those fuckers come towards us, Eli and I will fight as many of them off as we can while you run with Luna. Get inside, hide, and do what you can to make sure Luna is safe. Got it?" Asher says, laying out the shittiest plan I've ever heard.
"No, we do not ‘got it’. That's the worst fucking plan ever, bro," I proclaim, sending a wide-eyed look over at him before snapping my head back to the Hellspawn the moment their growling and snarling grows louder.
"Do you have any better ideas?" he snaps, holding his arms out for Devon to hand over our angel.
We're actual morons. We have powers too. It's as though we've forgotten since our wings were taken away. Thinking on the spot, I come up with a better plan that has a higher survival percentage and pitch it quickly. "Alright. Idea. Devon, hand Asher a weapon. Then take Luna and run inside. Stay the fuck inside and don't come out until one of us comes to get you. Asher, you're going to use your Shadow Manipulation to go find Noah. You can sneak past the Hellspawn easily, especially with the sky being as dark as it is."
"What are you going to do?" Devon asks, forming a large, lethal-looking mace with his power and placing it on the floor at Asher's feet. Asher hands Luna over, picks up the mace, and gives it a few practice swings.
Our eyes meet when he rests the weapon on his shoulder and mutters, "Nuclear?"
"Fucking nuclear," I tell him, confirming his thoughts. A dangerous smile forms on my mouth, and I turn to face the Hellspawn who've really notched up the racket.
"What's nuclear? Someone explain to me what the fuck is going on!" Devon whisper yells, a growl sneaking into his words.
Asher pushes a hand on his shoulder, forcing him to step back. To step away from me. Keeping his voice low enough for only us to hear, he tells Devon, "We don't have enough time to explain it, and you won't be around long enough to see it. Rest assured, you'll likely hear it. Now, the minute I vanish... run."
"That doesn't explain any-"
Before Dev finishes his sentence, Asher is gone, slipping into the shadows expertly, and my hands are heating up like a grade A furnace. The snarling becomes deafening, teeth flashing from gaping jaws and deadly nails glinting in the glow the street lamps and the lights inside the airport provide.
Just before I go nuclear, I yell, "Run, Dev!"
He doesn't wait, turning and bolting for the door in hurried motions. Like his getaway sets off a chain of events, the Hellspawn take his departure as a sign to attack, slowly moving towards me before all out running, teeth snapping and claws swiping.
The closer they get to me, the hotter my body grows, sparks dancing along my bare hands. Just as my fire abilities kick in, I add more attention to my destructive side. He blessed me with one of the most powerful abilities, and I've never been more thankful for it until now. While I heat up like a lit flame, building my fire until it's on the verge of being explosive, I tap into my Seraphic Wrath, building the rage inside that I'll need to pull off the holy grail of all stunts.
Hellspawn barrel towards me, growing more unorganized in their frenzy to get to me and the runaway angel who I'm hoping to high heaven has hidden Luna well enough. I bide my time, waiting... and waiting... until the Hellspawn are a claw swipe away and I lose my ever-loving mind.
Letting loose my powers, fire blasts from my hands, covering them with flames and sparks before I direct it all at the Hellspawn. Just as my fire erupts like a volcano from my palms, I channel my Seraphic Wrath, yelling and splitting the damn ground down the middle. The split grows large enough to capture a large deal of the Hellspawn since they've started clambering over one another to get to me, easily picking them off. I dart one hand towards the large rupture
in the ground, sending a wave of flames towards it, burning and ridding the world of the Hellspawn that were unfortunate enough to fall in the massive fissure.
My other hand moves in slow motions, sending fire to the others that are still racing towards me despite the gruesome deaths of a large number of their horde. So many of them get caught in my flames, running on fire toward me until they're downed and motionless.
I fight my way through the oncoming surge of monsters, flinging fire in one direction, tearing the earth apart in others. I tear lamp posts from where they've been buried, decapitating a few monsters that get too close.
Just as I start thinking I'm making a pretty good dent in the swarm, another wave hits and a whole new round of Hellspawn come running towards me. They look a lot less controlled than the first round, and I find myself grossly outnumbered. Even with my abilities, the way these assholes are running tells me clearly enough that I'm not going to get away unscathed.
Deciding to take my leave while I can, I roar into the sky. Tapping into my boiling anger, I slam my fist into the ground, splitting it in half, and watch for a moment as the Hellspawn start falling inside the newly-made fissure.
Not willing to stick around and watch the whole scene unfold, I cut off my fire and turn quickly, bolting towards the door. Before I dive into the airport, I use my Seraphic Wrath and destroy the entire front of the building, flinging the door open and slamming it shut behind me seconds before the whole front building crumbles down and barricades me inside, blocking the entrance from any Hellspawn.
Inside the airport, I start looking around. Luna and Devon are in here somewhere, and the best option I have is to find them and get us the fuck out of here. I can only hope my brother found Noah and are far away from this entire shit show.