by Lexi Ostrow
“Rafe!” Odette shouted, and the look on her face made it clear she’d just realized she had no weapon to fight with.
Rafe swung the sword and grazed the stomach of the dark skinned male. He retaliated quickly, and Philippe drew his gun and trained it on the Fallen. His finger wouldn’t depress the trigger. The compulsion was too hard to ignore. He’d never attacked a Fallen directly, not without goggles, and he couldn’t fight blind like Kellan. He was thankful for Rafe’s presence, or he had a feeling the Irishman would have been long gone for this world.
“Everyone come near me. Quickly. They’ve been flashing in and out. They have to be low on energy.” Rafe rolled out of the way of a beautiful blonde’s sword swing.
Philippe cursed the moment he realized he was walking towards the Fallen to help them. He swore to himself that they were traveling with two pairs of goggles from then on. It was imperative. He squeezed his eyes and kept walking toward where Rafe had rolled. He felt someone shove him and heard Lucius.
“I’ve got you, darling boy.”
The chuckle after made Philippe mentally promise to hurt him when they were safe.
“Everyone hold onto me. Now!” Rafe’s voice boomed in the small, closed space.
Philippe opened his eyes for a brief second to assure he didn’t miss and grab someone else. He reached his hand out and grasped onto the Angel the moment he roared the command. He only prayed Odette, Kellan and Lucius did as well—though, Lucius would survive trapped there on his own far better than they would.
“You can open your eyes now, we are out,” Rafe’s tone was calm, much like the only way Philippe had ever heard a Pure Angel speak.
It reassured Philippe, but not completely. “What’s to stop them from following?” he demanded as he opened his eyes.
“Flashing is a power drain. If they’d been doing it on and off for an hour, they’re powerless. It’s how I managed to attack Seraphina that night.” Lucius stepped around them and brushed his hands over his suit.
“You poor sod, that thing is never coming clean,” he taunted Lucius.
The demon simply glared.
“Rafe, we could not have done this without you. I would be honored if you would accompany us back to London. Many of the Alliance have never met a Pure Angel. I find you would be an inspiration to them. To show them the strength of a pure heart and the evil inside the one’s that fall.”
Odette sounded so regal; he wondered if she knew how perfect a leader she was. Her father may have sent her to The Americas to get her out of the way of danger for some reason, but she was good at it.
“It would be my pleasure. I have never met Halfling either. Helping you has been an honor. I am grateful to have assisted Layel’s offspring.”
“That’s right! Our Odette has a little bit of demon in her doesn’t she?” Lucius teased, and they all laughed. “Bloody hell, does this mean Greyston and I are no longer unique? We can’t keep bringing home stray demons, it’s ruining my importance.”
Philippe laughed hard, the pressure from the mission being over was finally melting away. He had started off hating Lucius for the personal attack, but he would be more than honored to hunt by his side any day after all they’d been through.
He had a feeling his days of solo hunting were over. Odette wouldn’t stand for it. She would, of course, insist on going. However, he wanted her at the helm. She was not only half Pure Angel; she was the daughter of the man who had created the Alliance. She would be respected for that alone, and she had just shown she had what it takes to lead with a clear and honorable head. Something they had all been working on in their persecution of demons since the appearance of Greyston and Lucius.
“Where’s Kellan?” Odette’s voice snapped him out of his joy of being out of the damned cave. He hadn’t even noticed the annoying Irish accent hadn’t been chiming in.
Philippe’s head darted around. Rafe. Odette. Lucius. The airship. He double backed when he saw the airship just over the curve of the earth and was grateful; it was fully inflated and fixed. Eliza and Greyston were specs in the distance. He watched as the inventor took off towards them, towards Lucius. Greyston followed suit, but there was no Kellan. The idea sickened him, but whilst they had an Angel, he needed answers.
“Rafe, why didn’t the flower work completely? She still enjoys blood, and her fangs haven’t vanished, but I watched her eyes shift back.”
Rafe turned and looked her over.
A fierce urge to warn him off warred with Philippe’s desire to touch the Pure Angel himself.
“She’s tainted. When she shared blood with Seraphina, it likely locked that desire unbroken. She is fully in her own control. There was no sign of anyone else in her mind when I tried speaking with her just then. She’s free, but she isn’t fixed.”
He sighed in relief, not fully hearing the part about her craving blood being the new standard. Odette smacked him across the cheek hard enough to recoil his head a little. The shock stung more than the hit, and he shook his head at her.
“How dare you focus on that? Where is Kellan and where is my father?” her voice rose to a hysterical level.
Philippe took note that she had indeed called him father again and his stomach dropped out from under him. Rafe started to respond, but Lucius cut him off, knowing it was not the time.
“He didn’t make it. I swore the bloke was holding on, but he must have turned after a Fallen at the last moment. Fuck.”
“Then let’s go get him. Right now. You have enough energy correct?” She rounded on Rafe, no sign of being drawn to him, and Philippe wondered if being more demon than human, meant she couldn’t be glamored or suffer from their compulsion.
“Yes. I will need a moment. It is not the easiest process, but if I go alone, it should be simpler. The only problem is that I cannot promise I can flash back. Transporting that many at once was foolish.”
“So you may reach him, protect him, and flash to London when you are ready and able?” She was ruthless in her purest of getting Kellan back.
Philippe shared her sentiment. He had no desire to think about what terrors awaited his friend.
“Precisely. I will be able to catch them, even with a moment’s delay. They were exhausted and would have to be walking Kellan to Seraphina. I know the way, having been intimately acquainted with the prison.”
“Lucius!” Eliza’s voice ripped through them all, as did her body as she threw herself at Lucius.
The demon male chuckled and wrapped his arms around his mate as if he was oblivious to everything around them. Judging by her run, her ankle was healed.
Greyston stopped right beside Odette. His eyes landed on Rafe, and his face turned feral. “Fallen!” Greyston snarled.
No one had time to react. One moment Greyston was snarling, and the next his gun had blown a hole through Rafe’s chest. The Angel’s silver eyes widened, and he gasped just before falling backwards into the sparsely grass covered ground. Smoke trailed from the hole that Greyston had created right through Rafe’s heart.
Philippe turned, shocked at Greyston’s actions, especially given Rafe wasn’t Fallen yet. However, Odette beat him.
“No! You fool! You idiot! Have you learned nothing about not judging a demon at first glance? You are a demon!”
Odette hurled herself at Greyston, fangs extended, and Philippe was terrified of what she was going to do.
“He wasn’t a Fallen. I know you can detect demons, but you’re wrong! Seraphina hadn’t succeeded. He’s the only bloody reason we are alive at all!”
Philippe wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her backwards, barely able to hold her down. He echoed her sentiments in his head, but it was not the time to start a war amongst them. He placed a kiss in her hair just above her ear and whispered for her to calm down. Mistake.
Odette jerked her body out of his grasp and spun to face him, fury in her eyes. “You will not tell me to calm down, Philippe. That was our only hope to save Kellan. We never leave so
meone behind, and now we have no choice because Greyston is prejudiced.”
The inevitable happened. The color drained from her face, and he watched her eyes trail over each and every person standing in a semi-circle around a dead Angel. “My father—when I didn’t see him, I assumed he had come out, that it was too much. But he’s not here. Where is he?”
“Lucius, now,” he snapped.
In an instant, Lucius let go of Eliza and trained his vision on Odette.
Odette’s eyes closed, and she collapsed. He barely got his hands underneath her in time. Lucius had the ability to trance other demons. Whilst he hadn’t been certain it would work, they’d discussed it being necessary to try whilst going to get her from the cell.
He looked around and said nothing to her as he hoisted her over his shoulder. “He’s dead.” He said it coldly to Eliza and Greyston and pushed past. No one followed behind him, and he spun so quickly he almost let Odette slip off his shoulder. “Is no one coming? We need to report back to everyone and let them know what has happened. Then we need to plan to save Kellan. We will not leave him behind forever.”
Philippe stalked off, and he heard the footsteps of the others slowly falling in line behind them. He was ready to wretch everywhere. Betwixt the sudden execution of Rafe, the capture of Kellan and the acknowledgment he had let Agardawes die, he was tired, and it was time to go back to London.
The light was different, almost as if she were back in the cave with torchlight. She cringed as a blast of pain rocked through her head when she moved. She squeezed whomever’s hand was holding hers and groaned aloud.
“Sorry about that, Odette, it’s a side effect.”
Lucius’ voice was utterly too loud in her ear, and when she finally peeled her eyes open, she was shocked to find him much farther away from her than he’d sounded. Her hand went to her head and pushed as if the applied pressure could make it stop pounding.
“Ma belle falle, you’ve been asleep almost a day. Your body needed the rest,” Philippe’s voice was soft.
She could hear the affection in his tone.
“What do you remember, Odette?” Lucius’ obnoxiously loud voice pierced her consciousness again.
“What would it matter what she remembers?” Philippe growled.
Her eyes slowly moved betwixt to the two men. A look of disdain and an unspoken apology shined of out Lucius’ eyes, and she tried to block the men and focus on just what she did remember.
“It can be a problematic side effect of putting one to sleep. Memories can get jumbled from what I’ve heard. It’s not as if I’ve ever not killed the person I’ve knocked out.”
“Mon Dieu! You don’t think that information would have been pertinent before I allowed you to go through with this?”
Philippe’s arm pulled from hers, and she let him stand up. The two men continued to bicker and row over top of her as if she wasn’t still lying betwixt them. She pushed out a slow breath and forced herself to focus. She had no clue where she was, but the strange stitch work of the ceiling above her made her question where the hell she was.
The airship. Odette slowly tilted her head to the side and caught sight of the purple crystals they were using to generate light. It might have been safer than candlelight, but it was slightly eerier in quality. How did we get back onto the airship?
She growled at Lucius and Philippe who were still going at it—boys rowing over an extra sweet. Odette squeezed her eyes shut and focused. She remembered getting the flower and it fundamentally failing. She was not only a half Angel; she also craved blood and had fangs. Images flickered and flashed at different paces. Philippe’s body over hers in the cell. Running through Hell to find Kellan and Rafe desperately fighting three Fallen.
“Kellan!” She bolted up and screamed his name, immediately regretting it as a wave of pain rolled through her.
More images raced through her mind. Kellan not making it out. Greyston killing Rafe before they could go get Kellan. Her father not being with them. Her father not being with Greyston and Eliza when they’d run up.
Tears formed behind her closed eyelids, and a cry of pain escaped her lips. Kellan wasn’t with them He hadn’t made it out. There was someone far more important to her that she hadn’t seen since entering the cave either. Guildmaster Thomas Agardawes, the man who had raised her, the man who, up until two weeks before, she had considered her father.
He was still her father. “Father.” His title was a whisper on her lips, and she heard the arguing stop.
“Odette, what’s wrong?” Philippe’s hand was on her back, rubbing a gentle caress up and down her spine.
Her eyes opened, and the tears in them rushed out. No one had mentioned where her father was. No one. In an instant, she remembered having acknowledged that he was gone, and then nothing after having asked what had happened to him.
“My father—” her voice trembled, and she turned to look at Philippe. The pain in his eyes was all the response she needed. “No.” The word sliced through the airship, her throat raw from the sheer force of it. “No. No. No. No. No.”
She kept chanting, screaming, over and over. Her whole body convulsed with sobs, and wails broke up her screams of denial. It couldn’t have happened. He couldn’t be dead. Another sob tore from her, and she let her head fall to her chest as the pain washed over her like nothing she had ever felt.
Philippe wrapped his arms around her and attempted to pull her to him, but she slammed her hands against his chest. She stood up from the bench as carefully as she could. He had betrayed her. When she had asked about her father, Lucius had done something to her, something Philippe commanded. Her father had not died whilst he was rescuing her. No. He’d been dead prior, she knew it.
Again, he tried to hold onto her, to console her. Her head snapped up, and she hissed at him. “When?” More tears spilled down her cheeks and slipped past her trembling lips into her mouth, but she didn’t care.
He said nothing, simply lowered his head, confirming that she hadn’t been wrong about him.
“Answer me. If my father is dead, I deserve to know what happened.”
“Odette, please, try to calm down. I understand what you are going through. Mine were murdered in an attempt to poison me against Lucius. Please don’t attack Philippe.”
Eliza’s soothing voice was in her ear, and Odette panicked, not understanding how the woman and Lucius were there but the ship was moving. Her head darted, and she saw Lucius was gone.
She spun, and emotions warred within her. So many of them had gone through the same thing, It sounded as if Eliza had been the cause of her parent’s death, just as Odette was the cause of her father’s, but didn’t want anything from the woman. She’d been a liability from the start, and it had cost her father his life.
“Shut up, Eliza. Had you been someone else, someone who could fight, if you hadn’t been injured in the crash, there would have been enough us! There would have been enough of us, and maybe my father would still be here, and Kellan wouldn’t be trapped or possibly dead!” she howled at the woman who visibly backed down.
“That is enough, Odette. If not for her, the ship wouldn’t be ready, and we’d be stranded. Her injury, and mine could not have been avoided. She is not to blame.”
Greyston’s calm voice irritated her to her core. She raised her hand as if to strike the Captain of the Guard and felt a hand wrap around her. She was bloody tired of people grabbing her wrists. She growled and bared her fangs, regret not an option at the moment. They were liars. Every one of them knew what had happened, but her, and he was her father.
Her father.
Another wail came from her as it hit her. She had not been a proper daughter to him, and he had never let it show until she had been in danger. She had been dreadful to him. Tears and sobs exploded out again as she thought about how she had treated him since finding out he wasn’t her blood. Odette had hardly spoken to him. She’d screamed at him that he was a liar and a traitor. Even in the end, he’d
risked everything to save her, and she’d been nasty to him just as they’d entered the cave.
That was his last memory of her. That was what he took to his grave, the image of the woman he gave his life for. Her last memory was of turning her back on him.
Her whole body shook as the weight of her actions tore her apart. When Philippe tugged her to him, she let him. She needed someone holding her. Someone still needed to be alive for her. Shawn. Her children. Her mother. Her father. Everyone, everyone always left, and she needed Philippe more than she hated him.
Tears began to fall slower as panic slipped to disbelief and confusion. Minutes had ticked by to hours, and her whole body ached from crying. She could feel them, all but Lucius, standing around. She willed the tears to stop completely. She needed composure. She needed to know what had happened.
She took a series of deep breaths, unsure how many, before pulling back from Philippe. She looked over her shoulder to Eliza first. “I’m sorry Eliza. That was uncalled for. Without you, I would be dead now.”
The inventor nodded her head slowly, sympathy etched all over her face. “Trust me, I said some very terrible things to Lucius that I regret, and he actually was the reason my parents were murdered whilst they slept.” She walked up and squeezed Odette’s shoulder. “Why don’t Greyston and I leave you and Philippe to talk? For now, you have questions. Get your answers, because when we return to London, there will be an unavoidable meeting, and a void to fill that surely will be impossible to accurately do so.”
Greyston walked past her with Eliza, and she couldn’t even look the man in the eye, she was so embarrassed. The idea of what would happen to the Alliance hadn’t even crossed her mind.