It seemed to work. The reaper was watching her wings and seemed to relax its shoulders. It lowered its scythe.
Kara cleared her throat.
“Reaper, I command you to leave us!” she said in the most authoritative voice she could muster. She hoped that it was enough.
It did not work.
The reaper raised its arms. There was a crack, like lightning hitting a tree, and black tendrils shot from its hands and wrapped around her ankles.
Kara desperately tried to hack at the tight black coils with her blade, but the tendrils were as strong as metal and would not be cut. She cried out as the tendrils burned her M-5 suit and her legs. The poison entered her body, and she could feel it rising into her abdomen.
Suddenly, Kara was lifted in the air and slammed into a wall. She slumped to the floor. She opened her eyes groggily and caught a glimpse of David as he kicked and pushed his way to get near her.
“No,” Kara groaned.
She tried to yell, but she hadn’t the strength. She kicked out with her legs, but they were pinned by the black tendrils that were working their way up toward her chest.
David came into view and whistled through his teeth.
The reaper swiveled its head.
David spun and side-kicked the reaper. Surprisingly, the creature staggered back and dropped it scythe. Its connection with Kara was lost.
“David don’t—please—we can’t defeat them,” Kara said.
“I’m not going to let you die. See, I think I injured it.”
But the reaper recovered, and faster than David could move, it hurled a beam of black tendrils at him.
The force picked David up and threw him down to the ground with such force that it cracked the floor. David raised his head slightly, and Kara could see the poison of the tendrils entering the skin on his face like black veins.
The reaper moved toward David and raised its scythe.
“No!” Kara hurtled herself at the reaper with the last of her strength.
Like a linebacker, she hit it hard with her shoulder, and they both went down. As soon as the creature’s acidic hide touched her, the skin of her M-Suit burned and began to wither. She could feel her strength was failing. Her eyes began to blur, and she could hear souls crying and could feel their pain. It was like dying over and over again.
Kara thought she was about to go mad. She could see her angel essence was being sucked out of her body and into the reaper’s scythe.
For a moment she felt release as the reaper loomed over her. She had almost abandoned herself to death when she realized it was toying with her.
She had to fight back.
The thought of David empowered her with enough strength to prop herself on her elbows. But then something even more horrifying caught her eye and her hope faded.
Six more reapers had appeared in the doorway. The seven reapers. They were all here. But why?
The guardians stood in a line with their weapons raised, but Kara could see the fear in their eyes.
What could they do with such foes? How could they defeat creatures that had no weakness?
Kara fell back in despair. She had done her best not to call forth the darkness inside her or to succumb to its power. And now it was too late. Her body and her wings were so damaged that she could barely move. She was like a dead bird whose wings could no longer flutter. She was dying.
She wished silently for her elemental power. With her arms outstretched, her face flat against the cool floor, she waited in agony to die.
Chapter 22
A Ring in the Sky
A shudder rippled through Kara’s body.
Her fingers pulsed with a new energy. It began with the tiniest sensation, a whisper of power. It pulsed in the tips of her fingers and moved across her hands and into the rest of her body. Though she shivered from the pain and anguish, she could sense the strength returning to her wings as well. The darkness throbbed inside her like cold blood that wanted to be free. She knew she had to try and control it, that she only needed the tiniest spark of dark energy.
Kara called to it to come forth. She wasn’t sure how she would direct it, and prayed she could still control it once it was released. She felt the power surge, pulsating in her hands and legs. She groaned and rose.
The reaper cocked its head, surprised to see her stand. It wiggled its scythe, mocking her, showing her the tool with which it was going to end her life.
Kara’s eyes went to the red, blistering scythe. She hated it. If only she could get close enough…
And then she knew. Like a memory suddenly returning, she knew how to kill it. She couldn’t explain it. She just knew.
With the last of her strength, Kara moved her right wing. The black power rippled through her, and she used some of it to knock the scythe from the reaper’s hands.
The red sword flew into the air and crashed to the ground next to Kara. She didn’t know what possessed her, but she flung herself at the scythe—and stabbed it with her blade.
The effect was immediate.
The reaper fell to its knees and howled like a thousand dying beasts.
The scythe bubbled and steamed from the puncture hole she had made. It glowed red hot, and Kara backed away from the burning heat. The scythe undulated and popped like hot magma. And then it shuddered one last time and burst into a mess of red liquid.
For a moment nothing happened. The red liquid evaporated. But then it was replaced by little particles that glimmered and hovered like a carpet of the most dazzling diamonds.
And then a great beam of light particles shot directly at Kara.
Kara staggered back in surprise as the strands of light coiled around her like a brilliant whirlwind. She watched the spinning beams of light, and through them she saw thousands of smiling faces. They looked like the transparent faces of ghosts.
She couldn’t help but smile. An overwhelming feeling of release and happiness surrounded her. It was almost as though the souls who had been trapped in the scythe were thanking her.
Thank you Kara. Thank you! Thank you!
She could hear the voices of the souls. The voices of thousands of men, women, and children were all whispering their thanks and appreciation to her.
And then the souls lifted into the air, blasted through the highest window, and disappeared into the sky like fireworks of light.
Kara heard a moan behind her.
The reaper’s eyes flashed red once, and then it too melted into a red and black soup. Its howl diminished to a whisper, and then it was silent.
“You did it, Kara! You figured out how to kill them.” David spun around and shouted. “We can kill them – look!”
He pointed to the steaming red and black puddle. “Kara did it! It’s their scythes. Kill the scythes and the reapers die!”
He charged at the nearest reaper. The reaper swung at him, but David blocked the reaper’s scythe and kicked the reaper hard in the gut. The creature staggered and fell. David leaped over the reaper without any hesitation and brought his blades crashing down into the reaper’s scythe. The weapon sizzled and then exploded into red soup. The trapped souls rose into the air and drifted out of the building through the window.
David smeared the red liquid with his boot. “Told you I’d reap you in the end, soul-sucker.”
It only took a moment for the other angels to comprehend what had just happened. The unbeatable threat could be defeated. They turned on the reapers.
The remaining five reapers backed away in fear.
Kara called upon her black energy one last time, and with Ashley at her side they charged the last reapers.
Ashley dove and twisted under the swing of the first reaper’s scythe. She came up behind the creature and drove her soul blade into the red metal. The scythe hissed and melted away, and the reaper turned into a puddle of red. Ashley’s eyes were wild, and she threw herself at the next reaper, hungry to avenge the deaths of her friends.
One of the reapers had backed away in
to the shadows and was sneaking silently away from the battle.
Kara didn’t take her eyes off the wandering reaper. With a great beat of her wings, she flew at it with the force of a cannon ball. She hit it. The reaper flew backwards and crashed into the wall. In a flash, she speared the creature’s weapon with her own. It never had time to fight back.
The reapers all fell at the hands of the angels until nothing remained of them but piles of red soup.
The guardians stood together and watched as the grateful little soul particles floated away.
“We did it!”
David surveyed the carnage. “They’re all gone. All seven. And we know how to kill them if any more show up. I’d say this is a real win for the legion.”
Kara surveyed what was left of the legion. From the fifty guardians who had arrived with Gabriel perhaps only twenty remained. She wouldn’t call this a win. They had lost many angel lives. But it was a start.”
“You don’t look happy.”
Kara forced a smile. “I’m…”
She wanted to say scared.
“I’m not sure what I am.” It was the honest truth. “I guess I don’t feel so victorious. I keep feeling that we’re missing something.”
“Well, I’d go for a beer right about now.” David beamed. “Make that two.”
Kara was pleased to see that Gabriel was still in one piece.
“Good work, everyone.”
The archangel’s voice was rough and Kara had to strain to hear him better.
“I’m very grateful to you all. You’ve demonstrated courage, strength, and great skill and ingenuity at defeating the reapers. Thank you. Now, let’s get back to Horizon, to heal our wounds.”
Kara wondered if he meant to heal their own wounds, or if they could heal and reclaim the souls of those who had been lost in the battle.
Ashley walked alongside Kara and smiled. It was the first time Kara had seen her smile an honest and genuine smile. And from that moment, she knew they were friends.
Kara found it strange that it was dark outside the hospital. It had been midday when they had first arrived. Had time passed so quickly?
Newspapers littered the polished hospital floors, and Kara picked one up. The front page read, Strange virus leaves thousands dead. Doctors are mystified. The Center of Disease Control and Prevention is calling it the New Black Plague.
She started to read a smaller article just below it. She flinched.
She felt a panic slowly growing in the pit of her soul.
“David, what’s today’s date?”
David scratched his head. “Uh…I think it’s the eighteenth. Why?”
Kara didn’t answer but handed him the newspaper and pointed to the small article.
Ashley moved next to David to get a closer look at the paper.
Kara smacked her forehead. “Of course! It all makes sense now. It wasn’t the Eighteens. The imps were chanting the eighteenth of August! The eighteenth of the month! How could I have been so stupid? Why didn’t I see this before?”
“Kara, what are you talking about?” Ashley frowned.
Kara sighed heavily. “They tricked us.”
“What? Who?”
“It was all a diversion,” said Kara, realizing that it was true as she spoke the words.
“Can’t you see? The reapers were a diversion all along, to keep us busy. They wanted us distracted so that we wouldn’t notice the eclipse.”
Kara glanced out of the front doors. The sudden darkness made sense now.
“Raphael told me that the archfiends couldn’t open the prison with just the key. They needed a rare astronomical event when the mortal world was in shadow.”
“And the world is in shadow with a solar eclipse.”
Ashley paled as she looked outside. “Oh, no.”
“Exactly,” said Kara.
A single, great golden ring had replaced the sun and was casting long shadows on the world below.
“How long does it last?” asked David as he moved beside Kara and craned his neck.
Kara stared at the ring in the sky and shrugged. “I don’t know, not long I guess. Hurry, we have to get back to Horizon and warn them before the imps use the key—”
“It’s too late,” said Ashley.
She pointed into the sky behind the hospital. “Look.”
A beam of fire erupted from the bowels of the earth, shot up through the air, and tore a hole in the sky.
Then out from the beam of fire emerged the winged beasts.
Chapter 23
An Unlikely Alliance
Kara leaned on the back wall of the old farmhouse out in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The smell of wet earth and old pine planks helped to calm her. It reminded her of her childhood at her grandmother’s cottage. But it wasn’t enough.
When all the angels had arrived back at Horizon to heal their wounds, they had been told to rendezvous at a safe house back on earth to discuss their options. Peter and Jenny were still in the Healing-Xpress, so Kara, David, and Ashley had made the trip here with the rest of the legion.
As she stood waiting, she couldn’t stop thinking of the winged creatures she had seen in the sky. Their leathery black dragon wings had looked just like hers.
The one that had injected her didn’t have wings, so he wasn’t an archfiend. But there was no doubt in her mind that he must have been their servant, like the imps. He was probably a lower creature, like the lower demons and cast-down creatures of the Netherworld.
They had not gotten close enough to get a really good look at the winged creatures that had emerged from the flames, but Kara could tell that they were humanoid, big, and winged.
Gabriel’s triumphant look when they had defeated the reapers had darkened when the creatures had emerged. He had urged the angels back quickly to Horizon, but he had stayed back. He had looked defeated as he gazed at the winged fiends, and Kara had looked away, feeling she was intruding on something personal.
Kara had felt a connection toward them, too. She felt a sense of familiarity, like when you look at an old picture of a family member and see features of yourself. She was frightened that one day she wouldn’t recognize herself, and that she would turn on her friends and the legion. She was scared that she would become a creature of darkness, an angel killer.
And now as she leaned back, she felt the weight of her wings again. It was like a heavy burden that was yet to come.
The thirty-something senior guardians waited for Gabriel and Ariel to show up. Ariel had told them to sit tight and wait once they got to the safe house. But wait for what? Planning was usually done in Horizon, not in some remote dilapidated and abandoned farmhouse on Earth.
What defense strategies was the legion working on now? What scheme would prove effective against these dark gods? Another prison? She doubted the archfiends would fall for that again.
Kara could see that Ashley was admiring a large pitchfork as though she would love to be given the chance to use it. Kara was surprised at their friendship. Never in a million years had she thought that the two of them could be friends. And now they were. The spat between them had lifted, and now they were as thick as thieves. She couldn’t imagine fighting the archfiends without Ashley’s help. She was a skilled guardian angel, and Kara could learn from her, just like she had learned from David in the beginning.
David…
David sat on an old wooden bench next to her. His right knee was bouncing restlessly, and he was deep in thought. He was as handsome as ever, even with his forehead wrinkled with whatever was going through his mind. Kara wished they could be alone together for a while. She knew he was thinking the same thing. What was the legion’s plan? How were they going to destroy the archfiends before they destroyed the world?
There was no point in trying to hide her wings anymore. Everyone had seen them. She was marked all over again…
There was a loud creak, and the double barn doors pulled open—
David cursed.
Kar
a cursed.
Ashley picked up the pitchfork.
Ariel and Metatron strode into the barn. They were followed by twelve higher demons.
The higher demons were identical in every way, just as Kara had remembered them. They were tall and strong, and wore expensive-looking gray suits that were tailored to perfection over their muscular bodies. Their short white hair shone unnaturally in the dim light and added an eerie gloom to the already somber atmosphere. Their grayish-blue skin still looked like that of a corpse a few hours old, and their eyes were as black and soulless as she remembered. Most of all, she remembered how much she hated these guys.
Kara instinctively moved forward with her soul blade in her hand.
“At ease, Kara,” said Ariel and raised her hand. “Lower your weapon, please.”
But Kara did not lower her blade. She crossed the room and did not take her eyes off the black-eyed men. Her hatred and anger throbbed inside her like a white-hot force that was about to explode. She wanted to gouge out their eyes with her blade. The higher demons must have tricked Ariel and Metatron. Why else would they be here?
“I said lower your weapon,” repeated Ariel ominously. “I will not say it again.”
“You heard her, little bird,” said Metatron.
His smile was really a reminder of the deal she had made with him. Although she had not forgotten about Metatron, she had been distracted by their battle with the reapers and had not thought about him. Clearly that had been a mistake.
“And what do we have here?” Metatron’s smile widened at the distress he saw on Kara’s face.
He seemed to take pleasure in sizing up her new wings.
“My favorite little bird has learned to fly. That will come in handy.”
He moved around the room, tapping his cigar ashes on a few unsuspecting guardian angels, and finally he leaned against one of the back panels of the barn and crossed his arms over his chest.
He surveyed the room from behind his sunglasses. It was almost as though he was protecting the demons. But that was absurd. Metatron was corrupt and twisted, but he was loyal to the legion. Wasn’t he?
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