by Stacy Gail
“Kill this mouthy monkey,” Dantalion shouted at Bambi. “Do it, and we can be together forever.”
“Okay.” Bambi tongued her hair out of her mouth, and launched.
Chapter Twenty-Two
While hydroplaning at seventy miles an hour on rain-slick roads in hurricane-force winds, busting through barriers with a demon beside her and a batshit-crazy chick throttling her from behind, Nikita discovered it wasn’t a person’s entire life that flashed before their eyes. It was more like a highlight reel. Only the most meaningful moments came to the surface. Leaving Cuba; her mother’s death; her rescue at sea; being hugged by Yolanda for the first time; receiving her bounty hunter’s license; meeting Kyle.
Kyle.
Her one hand on the steering wheel was sweaty-slick while the other grappled to peel Bambi’s fingers off her throat. And as she struggled for a ragged gasp of air and the car swerved drunkenly up the deserted causeway, all she could think was that dying with regret had to be the worst way to go. Too bad she finally understood that, now that it was too late. When it came right down to it, she’d had no control over what Kyle had kept from her, or what he thought about her. The only thing she did have control of was her own reactions. With the benefit of hindsight, she now saw that every time she’d held herself back from experiencing the richness of falling in love, she’d cheated herself. Whenever she’d hidden behind her internal defenses, she’d made herself unreachable. Neither Kyle nor her own emotions fully touched her.
How pathetic. And how utterly pointless all that self-protection was. She’d still fallen in love with him. In the end, she’d hurt no one but herself.
And Kyle, her brain ruthlessly reminded her. She’d hurt him by never telling him that he was loved, and cherished, and valued. She’d never given him that gift.
Now, she never would.
“Humans are so much fun at the threshold of death.” Dantalion’s words were almost lost to Nikita as her world began to dull around the edges. Darkness spotted her vision, and she realized in a dim sort of way the blood flow to her brain had been cut off by Bambi’s viselike grip. But somehow, the laughter in the demon’s voice pierced the haze like an acid-edged dagger. “Shoulda-woulda-coulda, I believe is the best term you creatures would use to sum it up. Predictable and boring on the one hand, but so delicious to experience on the other. The despair of your final moments gives me that much more power, even as your death seals my presence here for all time. How I love the irony that it’s the demise of one who belongs to the Nephilim that will bring me to my ultimate potential. Those abominations, the only ones who had any hope of stopping me, will be that much easier to crush thanks to your death.”
Oh hell, no.
Adrenaline surged in such a rush it tingled in her fingers and feet, clearing her vision so suddenly she saw what she had to do. They were at the highest point of the causeway between the mainland and the manmade stretch of land known as Watson Island, with the bridge rising nearly seven stories above the water. She couldn’t allow herself to be killed by Dantalion’s proxy and be the final nail in the coffin for the world. It had to stop. She had to stop it, here. Now.
The instant the idea bloomed, the demon next to her hissed. “Don’t—”
Idea and action were simultaneous. With the blurring speed he clearly shared with Kyle, Dantalion tried to wrestle the steering wheel from her grasp, but it was too late. Fishtailing from the far left lane all the way across to the far right lane, she floored it and sent the car nose-diving straight into the low concrete barrier, the only thing that kept careless drivers from falling into Biscayne Bay. Falling, like she knew she had to do.
As her mother had realized before her, Nikita finally understood what lay at the heart of sacrifice. In the most harrowing of circumstances, giving up one’s life was an easy price to pay. Thank you, Mama. Thank you for teaching me how to be strong enough to do this. I love you. I hope I see you soon.
The engine screamed, filling her ears.
I’m sorry about your car, Kyle. I’m sorry I left things unfinished between us. You are my love, the reason I smile, my everything. I’m so, so sorry I didn’t tell you. I love you. I love—
They hit the guardrail almost straight on, with all the violence of a meteor smashing into the earth. Nikita believed the sound of buckling metal and shattering glass would be the last thing she’d ever know. No such luck. Pain crunched in her sternum where the seat belt restrained her. Her face tingled numbly at the impact of the airbag, and when the initial shock of impact wore off, the pain in her right knee and foot made her want to scream.
“Well. You’ve lost me my latest proxy. I know they’re hopelessly fragile, but really, did you have to do it in such a dramatic fashion? Drama aggravates me in the worst way.”
Still dazed from the crash and breathless from the agony gripping her right leg from the knee down, Nikita opened eyes she couldn’t remember closing and stared without comprehension at Bambi’s body. The woman had shot from the backseat through the windshield, with her head and torso lying on the crumpled hood, while the other half was still inside. Beyond the hood was nothing more than storm-tossed water that Nikita had tried to make their final resting place.
If it weren’t for the bloody, mangled body of Bambi Dominguez marring the view, it would have been an awe-inspiring vista.
On automatic, Nikita unlocked her seat belt and rolled out of the car door that had popped open with the impact. The pavement was wet, littered with car pieces and chunks of what used to be the concrete barrier. Such a mess. Dazedly she moved, but the attempt to get to her feet shot another stab of pain through her foot and leg. Confused, she looked back at it. At first she couldn’t understand how there could be a river of red mingling with the torrent of rain running down the causeway, emanating from her. The flip-flops she’d borrowed from Sara were gone, and the white bandages Gideon had wrapped around her right foot were now an alarming dark red.
Oh. So that’s where the red is coming from. I’ve sprung a leak.
A pair of legs appeared around the rear of the car. She cursed under her breath and crawled along the road, a grinding pain in her chest making it almost impossible to support her weight on her elbows. Why the hell hadn’t she been lucky enough to send both Bambi and Dantalion through the windshield? Why?
“Because, you irritating bug, even if you had sent me through the windshield, it wouldn’t have done any physical damage. I’m a spiritual being, not a physical one. While your beloved Nephilim can hurt me, you cannot.” He crouched down in front of her, and the contents of her stomach threatened to heave up and out when he caught her by the chin and willed her to look into Kyle’s lazy-eyed, smiling face.
Kyle. Kyle, it’s not right that this twisted sight of your face will be my last.
That beautiful face smiled all the wider as he picked her up by the neck. “In fact, with pain like that, you can only feed me.”
“Dantalion!”
The roar rivaled the violence of the hurricane screaming around them. Half-blind by water blowing in her eyes and the pain exploding in her chest and leg, at first Nikita couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Surely Kyle wasn’t landing on the empty road behind them, shirt gone, his long, lean torso somehow different. Very different. What was it...?
Wings.
Thin, starlinglike wings crackled and glowed in a vivid, electric blue against the washed-out backdrop of the storm. They were fully extended to an easy fifteen feet on either side, unmoving in the ferocious wind as he stalked toward them. As he did, his eyes glowed with the same electricity that created the terrifying additional anatomy arcing like a nightmare out of his back.
So this was what Kyle really looked like, was all her reeling mind could think. When he dropped all the masks and allowed himself to be who he truly was, this breathtakingly dangerous angel-like being was the real Kyle.
/> She had to admit, the man knew how to make an entrance.
“You dare to wear my face to make it nothing more than a nightmare for her?” Thunder seemed to roll up from below. From above. No, wait. It was from him. If she hadn’t been so happy to see him, she might actually have known fear. “I know you’re a demon, but even for your kind that’s a real dick move.”
“I am what I am, abomination,” came the unconcerned reply. “It isn’t my fault that yours is the image that brings this fragile thing the most pain. The fault must somehow lie with you. Whatever have you done to her to put her in such delicious agony?”
Kyle’s eyes glowed pure white. “I will destroy you.”
“Do you worst, abomination—except take care. Try not to fry your bipedal pet as you do so. After all, haven’t you abused her enough?” The thing that wasn’t Kyle crushed her close, and the grinding agony in her sternum was so intense the world went out of focus. By the time it returned in all its miserable glory, the other Nephilim had landed, and what a sight they were to Nikita’s disbelieving eyes. Sara, with six fiery wings resembling the shape of Kyle’s, came in for a landing next to Zeke, who tucked his black wings around himself so tightly they blended with a black armored vest he wore, to give the illusion of being part of a long coat. Nate’s wings were a darkly bruised purple at the base that did a snazzy ombré fade to a radiant white at the ends, and seemed almost too small for his massive body. Menlo rounded off the winged warriors wolf-packing her and the demon, diffidently shaking his bronze-colored wings as if he couldn’t quite stand the feel of the torrential rain soaking into his metallic-looking feathers.
“Stay awake,” the thing that held her raged in her ear. “Stay awake and I will spare your life. I will grant you whatever you desire, if you just stay awake!”
Stay awake? With the pain making it hard to concentrate and a strange enervation creeping over her, she looked back at him...and saw no face. For a moment she froze, then remembered she had glimpsed this peculiar facelessness when she’d knocked Paul Hardy out. At long last, she understood what that meant. Dantalion had been feeding on his proxy then.
Just as he was feeding on her energy now.
“You’ve lost.” Her voice was so weak, just like the rest of her. Why was she so cold? “Why do you think I brought you up here, to the top of this causeway in the middle of a hurricane? No humans are here now, and you can’t feed off the Nephilim. There’s no one left to feed you energy.”
“There’s you.”
She had just enough stubbornness left in her to bare her teeth. “I’d rather die than allow you to use me like that.”
“Don’t talk about dying, Nikita. Negativity feeds him.” Kyle hovered the closest, eyes still glowing and sparks dripping off his fingertips. The others, wisely, gave him the widest berth. “Pain, fear, despair. Just think of me, think of us, and we can put an end to this, baby.”
She wanted to cry. Thinking of them together was a snap, but the pain racking her body was so overwhelming, so intense...nothing but unconsciousness could block out the pain completely.
“That mistake of nature stands there so callously, not helping you, and asking you to do the impossible. Asking you to save the world, when he won’t even lift a finger to do it himself.” It was Kyle’s voice in her ear, and it twisted her insides all the more as the demon once again took his form. “Poor Nikita. It’s almost like that abomination doesn’t even care how much agony your broken body is in.”
Confusion swam in her mind. “Kyle...be quiet...”
Blue-white lightning struck a light post ten feet away.
“Hold fast, Kyle.” Menlo’s calm voice rode along the ear-splitting thunder that shook the causeway beneath their feet. “This unclean bitch knows this is his last stand. Just wait for a mistake—that’s when we’ll strike.”
“Menlo, Menlo, Menlo.” Nikita felt Dantalion’s head turn toward the bronze-winged man. “Michael’s slavishly loyal servant on earth and all-around useless cheerleader. Whatever are you doing here? I didn’t bother you. What’s more, your masters don’t have a dog in this fight.”
“Of course they do. They’re human, and holy men. You and your kind are always on their hit list.”
“Well, you should know about hit lists, as you are the Church’s official assassin of the Nephilim. I find it mind-boggling that you’ve teamed up with them in order to corner me. What are you going to do once you’re done with me—turn around and eliminate them?”
“Before I read their souls, elimination was a distinct possibility. But they’re all pure. Along with the people who have been chosen to be in their lives, these Heroes of Old now enjoy Reverential Status within the Church, just as I do.”
“Nice try in driving a wedge between us, demon.” As Sara’s wings began to glow, the temperature suddenly soared. She moved, so fast Nikita’s unfocused eyes couldn’t see her, but when she felt the arm that held her jerk back she knew it was now or never. With the last of her strength, Nikita smashed her head back against the demon’s face to gain wiggle room, then whirled out of the arm Sara had weakened. Another flash of lightning struck with a deafening crash of thunder, and the force of the white-hot flash knocked her like a ragdoll into the damaged railing. It crumbled beneath her weight, and before she could fully register what was happening, she was falling, falling...
A scream tore from her despite the agony squeezing her chest, just as rough arms came around her and held her tight. Caught between the nightmarish reality of falling to her death and the impossibility of flying through a hurricane, she looked numbly toward the bridge and saw the Nephilim had closed in to tear apart a wax-pale, indistinct shape. Then she looked at the face looming near hers and instantly struggled, clawing to get away from the thing she couldn’t allow to win...
“Nikita, it’s me, the real me, the me you call cabrón and the me who calls you Sparkle. Please don’t be afraid of me. I can take one hell of a lot in this messed-up world, but I can’t take you being afraid of me.”
Nikita froze, hearing the despair in his tone, the longing, and the ice-cold dread of being rejected and alone. That was when she knew, in her heart, she’d at last found her way into the arms of the man she loved. The man she would always love.
“I like your wings,” she whispered, and passed out.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“...metatarsal artery, but it wasn’t as bad as it first looked. And other than a brace, I’m not going to do anything more with her knee, now that the kneecap’s been popped back into place. What’s her BP?”
“One-hundred over sixty, Doctor.”
“Meh. Still lowish, but way better than it was when she first got here. By the way, call me ‘Doctor’ again and I’m going to throw something at you, Ella.”
A snort of laughter. “Old habits die hard. Cut me some slack.”
“Okay, but only because it’s you. Any sign of her coming around?”
“Not yet.”
“You’re obviously not looking hard enough.” Nikita opened her eyes to what looked like a stark-white ER cubicle, with every modern medical machine known to man within reach. Still unsure if she was dreaming or not, Nikita took in her surroundings with blank eyes. “Wow. Since when did you two gain hospital privileges in Florida?”
“Since never. You’re in LSI’s mobile trauma unit, built to my own very picky specifications.” Gideon was by her bedside in an instant. Ella, stationed at her side, came out of her chair to clasp Nikita’s hand. “Sounds like you went on the demonic version of Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. Do you have any idea how fast you were going when you hit that barrier?”
“Fast enough to shove a part of the engine into my foot and embed my knee into the dashboard.” Then it all came back in a nightmarish rush. “Dantalion! Is he—”
“It’s over.” Ella’s satisfied smile was all the confirmatio
n Nikita needed, and the wave of relief that crashed over her was better than any medication they could have given her. “So is the hurricane, strangely enough. It seemed to die the moment the demon was vanquished.”
Worry trickled into Nikita’s heart. “Did Kyle absorb the storm’s energy?”
Gideon shook his head. “Not as far as I know. It just fell apart, like someone flipped a switch on it. The sun’s actually trying to come out now, if you can believe it.”
“I’m grateful Hurricane Oscar showed up when I needed it the most.” For a moment Nikita closed her eyes. The room rocked. A flash of the faceless thing that had held her showed up behind her closed eyelids, so she opened them again double-quick. All righty, then. Lesson learned. No closing her eyes for a while. “I needed to find someplace that wasn’t populated, but there’s nothing like that in Miami—there’s always someone around, even on the most isolated beach. But I figured no one would be at the top of a closed causeway in a hurricane. While big storms like that are a pain to deal with, in this case it had perfect timing.”
“When you put it like that, it kind of makes me think we had a little help in finally closing the book on Dantalion.” Ella shook her fair head before she placed a gentle hand against Nikita’s hair. “Thank you for everything you did, Nikita. Your quick thinking and your willingness to sacrifice yourself saved us all. You saved the world today.”
“Oh...no. No biggie.” Oddly mortified at the heartfelt gratitude shining in their eyes, she tried to shrug and instantly winced.
“Yeah, that was a stupid move.” Gideon smiled while patting her shoulder into submission. “Don’t you know you’ve got a lovely sternal fracture going on, in addition to a dislocated kneecap, broken bone in your foot and a punctured metatarsal artery? No twisting, lifting, reaching or shrugging movement for two weeks, and then light physical therapy for another two. Your own doc will then be able to tell you what you should be able to do, depending on your level of pain.”