by Mandy Lee
“Whatcha got there?” he asked.
Sergei held up the beautiful black feather, it was shot through with streaks of midnight blue.
“I found it on the balcony.” he said.
B raised his eyebrows. “That must have come from one really big bird; it’s almost the size of a feather from an angel’s wing.”
Sergei looked up at B, a brief flicker of surprise streaked across his face before it settled. “Who knows, I’ve never been much of a bird watcher.” He shrugged and stuffed the feather into his jeans pocket.
B wasn’t quite sure what to make of Sergei’s reaction to the feather, but gave an internal shrug. They’d all been through a stressful couple of days; it was no surprise that they’d all be a bit weird.
Sam sauntered over to join the two men. “No word from Mara?” he asked Sergei.
Sergei shook his head. “Nothing. I know she left her phone here, but she knows my number by heart.”
“I can’t sit here any longer doing nothing.” B turned to Sergei. “You need to give me her address. I’m going over there to check on her.”
Sam nodded at his two friends. “I hate to say it — but there’s definitely something wrong. An hour ago, I’d have said she was taking a long bath and lost track of time, but now I’d say something’s up.”
B clenched and unclenched his jaw from the stress. “All right, Sergei. Time to cough up that address.”
“Yeah. I can do that.” Sergei frowned. “I just don’t think you should go alone. There seems to be a major hit out on you guys. It might be safer for everyone to travel in groups for the time being.”
“Look, I’ll bring a small army with me if that’ll make you guys happy, but let’s get moving, I need to make sure Mara’s okay.” B was clearly agitated.
Sam nodded. “Agreed. The three of us will head to Mara’s.” He leaned around B to shout over at Bill and Al. “Can you guys stay here and keep an eye on things?” He surreptitiously tipped his head in Gadreel’s direction.
The other two fallen nodded in unison, shooting worried looks at Gadreel. He was sitting in a chair in a lonely corner, staring out the window. He hadn’t moved in quite some time.
B shook his head sadly as he looked over at his friend. “All right, guys. Let’s get moving.”
Sergei led them out of his building and down the street. B didn’t register anything around him — the world whizzing by as he walked beside his friends, his mind locked on all of the possibilities that they might discover upon reaching Mara’s place. What if she’d been hurt? What if she’d been killed? What if she’d changed her mind about him and was hiding in her house to avoid coming back to see him? All of the above made his heart beat faster and his stomach to clench. B watched as Sergei reached out to knock on the door, it swung open as soon as his fist made contact. B’s stomach dropped as he took in the destruction. Her apartment had been tossed and her door was busted. He swallowed past the lump in his throat as he stepped over the threshold into a fresh nightmare.
“No. No. No. No.” B muttered as he ran through the apartment. “Mara!” He shouted as he threw open the bedroom door.
He stood there, standing in the empty bedroom among the tattered remains of her life. Clothes were strewn over the floor, drawers were upended, and the closet doors hung limply on their broken tracks. Sergei and Sam charged in after him, stopping dead when they saw the empty room. B turned slowly to face his friends, a look of devastation and pure agony on his face. He felt as though his heart had been ripped out of his chest and crushed in front of him.
“Shit,” Sam whispered softly.
B opened and closed his mouth, as though he were trying to formulate a sentence, but couldn’t.
“Guys, there’s something on the bed,” Sergei said softly as he rounded the room and leaned down to pick up the piece of paper that had been carefully laid out on the rumpled duvet cover.
Sergei glanced over the note as he walked back over to the guys. “Um, B, I think you’re gonna want to read this.” He held the paper out to his friend.
B snatched it up. It was addressed to him, a note written in blood, demanding his presence at a specific address at a specific time in exchange for Mara’s life. Part of him was relieved that she hadn’t run from him, the other part of him shuddered in fear at what might be happening to her at this very minute.
That address was familiar to him — it was the mansion where he’d been held and tortured.
His long, painful crawl to freedom had allowed him to familiarize himself with the neighborhood. He glanced over at the bedside clock and realized it was almost time for the meeting. He had to leave right away if he was going to make it on time. He’d already put Mara at risk just by being in her life. There was no way he was going to be late when he had a chance to save her.
“I’ve got to go.” B said, tossing the paper on the floor. “I’m going alone; you guys need to stay out of this. I’m not letting anyone else get hurt because of me.”
Without waiting for an answer, B charged out of the apartment. Sam and Sergei stood there for a moment, staring at the empty doorway. Finally, Sam turned to Sergei.
“What did the note say?” he asked.
“It’s a trade, B for Mara’s safety.” Sergei bent down to pick the paper up from the floor. “There’s an address,” he said as he held it out to Sam.
Sam reached out and took the note, perusing it quickly before setting it on the dresser beside him.
“All right. Let’s get moving. There’s no way we’re letting him do this alone. I don't give a rat's ass what he says.” Sam turned to leave.
“Damn straight, but it’s gonna be a trap,” Sergei said from behind him as they walked out the front door into the hallway.
Sam chuckled. “Of course it is. But we’re not leaving any angel behind.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Mara stared up at the bedroom ceiling in frustration. The dead blood was starting to wear off, but not fast enough. The burning in her extremities was excruciating, but she refused to cry out in pain. Philippe would like that too much; it would surely cause him to come back into the room to toy with her. A single tear slid out of her eye and rolled down the side of her face. She would never give him the satisfaction of knowing he’d managed to hurt her again. Gritting her teeth, Mara turned her head to the side slowly, allowing the agony to wash over her in waves. The only way to hasten her recovery would be to feed. There was no way she was going to consume Philippe’s blood; the idea of taking any part of him into her body was revolting and made her shudder.
She squeezed her eyes shut and took herself to her happy place. B’s hands sliding along her body as he kissed her with pent-up passion, lying in bed with him laughing about his snoring. Mara knew she had to free herself, that she was being used as bait to lure the fallen to this house. Philippe had laughed about it earlier, taunting her with what was in store for them when they staged their inevitable rescue. The mansion was surrounded by a strong magic that would lock any of the fallen within the confines of the home. Keir and Nyx were lying in wait with arrows tipped in the blood of hellhounds. The toxic blood would burn through their veins, rendering the fallen immobile and locked in a hallucinatory state. Unable to move, it would be a simple task to infect them one by one with Satan’s blood, binding them to his will for eternity. They would be chained by Wolframite, condemned to suffer as they watched each other succumb to the darkness of Satan’s poison. Philippe had laughed as he described their trap. The joy on his face had made her sick to her stomach. How had she not been able to see the evil that lurked within him when she was young? It seemed to ooze out of his every pore.
Mara made a silent wish that B would leave her here and stay away, even though she knew that was futile. His love for her would drive him to find her, no matter the cost to himself. With nothing to lose, Mara sent a desperate plea to anyone in Heofon who might be listening...it was a snowball's chance in Sheol, but maybe someone would hear her...
> Chapter Thirty-Two
Uriel flipped the giant tome he’d been reading shut with a bang. He heaved a sigh as he looked up at the high shelves of solid gold, stacked full of volumes that chronicled the history of the universe, both light and dark, since the beginning of time. The grand library of Heofon was like a home to him. Long ago, he’d been a warrior angel, but had traded his fiery whip for ancient texts many centuries ago. He was now one of the premier scholars in Heofon, but for all of his ancient knowledge, he hadn’t yet found a way to locate his young charge, Leila. The battle at Halja castle — Satan’s home in the centre of Sheol — had been brutal. He had lost track of Leila in the heat of the fight. She had been Uriel's charge, his responsibility, and he had failed her. He had to find a way to free her from an eternity trapped in the abyss of souls. Uriel’s head dropped. He’d been through hundreds of volumes of satanic lore and had found nothing of any use. His frustration boiled over and he threw out his arm, sending the heavy tome to the floor with a thud. There was a rustle of feathers as the other studious angels turned toward the unusual commotion. Uriel took a deep breath and made a motion of apology for the disruption.
He leaned his elbows on the golden table and dropped his head into his hands. Closing his eyes, he opened his mind to the voices that streamed up to Heofon on a constant basis. He listened on a regular basis now, hoping for a whisper of Leila's whereabouts. For a while there was only silence, but suddenly he felt the pull of a single mind connecting to his.
The request was a simple one — if anyone in Heofon was listening, to save the friends of a lone vampire. Her tone was desperate; her mind radiated pain and despair. Uriel started as he heard the names of those she wished to have protected echoing through his mind. He knew them all; they were his former heavenly brethren. Baal, Gadreel, Azazel, Belial, Samael, and the vampire Sergei. Uriel breathed a sigh of relief that his daughter, Katia, was not included in the list of those that needed protection. He’d visited her and her husband, Lucifer, in their well-warded castle many times over the past few weeks, developing a much overdue relationship with his daughter.
Shoving himself back from the table, Uriel stood and stalked out of the grand library, his shoes echoing off the marble floors. He kept a lock on the vampire’s desperate voice with part of his mind as he reached out telepathically to his angelic brother, Michael. They’d worked together in their last battle with the forces of darkness, and Michael would be more than willing to go up against Satan’s minions again given the chance.
Michael, my brother, the fallen need our help.
He continued his walk through the halls as he waited for a response from the other angel. The sunlight that streamed through the multitude of stained glass windows bounced off the pure white marble of the hall throwing rainbows everywhere. Ordinarily Uriel would have taken the time to marvel at the beauty of the universe, but on this trip through Heofon he was laser focused. He felt a slight tickle in his mind as he walked, a sign that Michael was about to respond.
Is it Lucifer? Does this have something to do with your daughter?
The concern in Michael’s message warmed Uriel’s heart. He was typically a cold warrior, but since the last battle and the loss of Leila, Michael had softened slightly to the plight of the fallen. Perhaps seeing his former soldiers for the first time in centuries had reminded him of how close they’d all been in their heyday, and how much the fallen had lost.
No, Katia and Lucifer are well. I’ve connected to a vampire that is close to the other fallen. They’re in imminent danger.
Uriel saw the bright golden light of the sun shining onto the marble up ahead. He was nearing the take-off and landing pad.
I see. Have you got a location for this vampire?
Uriel strengthened his connection to the vampire, following the line of thought through the spider’s web of telepathic communication that floated through the atmosphere. Her mind was strong; they’d have no trouble following her thoughts down to her location.
Yes. Join me at the launch pad and I’ll share the thread with you.
He exited the long marble hallway into the glowing sun of the semi-circular marble balcony. Angels flashed in and out as they went about their business in the clear blue sky. The sun shone like gold. Heofon truly was the most beautiful place in all the realms. The shining domes and turrets of the pure white castle reflected the light of the sun, moon, and stars. At night, the sky was a midnight black blanket of velvet decorated with millions of tiny diamonds.
A burst of light pulsed beside him, and Uriel turned toward his friend Michael.
“Thank you for your help.” Uriel said, clapping him on the back in greeting.
“You know all you need to do is ask and I’m here,” Michael said solemnly. “Particularly if it means avenging Leila’s death by hurting those in the service of Satan.”
Uriel nodded sadly. “I fear I’ve not yet been able to find a way of freeing her soul from the abyss.”
Michael reached out and laid his hand on his friend’s shoulder in comfort. “I have faith that you’ll find a way. In the meantime, how can we help the others?”
Uriel nodded. “The vampire is being held captive. She fears the fallen will stage an ill-fated rescue. A trap has been set to hold the fallen by dark magic. If we get there in time, we may be able to counter the spell with light magic, allowing the fallen to free her.”
“Well, then, what are we waiting for? Let’s go,” Michael said with authority.
The two angels walked toward the edge of the balcony that looked out over the tops of the clouds below. Uriel raised his hand and placed it on the top of Michael’s head. He closed his eyes and concentrated on that thread of thought that would lead them to the vampire. As his mental grasp on the thread grew stronger, he pushed the image telepathically toward Michael. He felt a tingle as his friend caught hold of the thread, now they would both be able to follow it down to the human realm.
The angels opened their eyes and nodded in readiness. They stepped to the very edge of the balcony, spreading their wings wide, the breeze ruffling through their feathers. They jumped together, free-falling for several seconds, the wind whistling past their ears before spreading their wings and arresting their fall. The streak of light from their take-off slowly faded from the sky as they made their way down to the earth below.
Chapter Thirty-Three
B snuck along the tall hedges that lined the long driveway of the mansion. Dark magic was at play here; the sky around the house was black as night even though it was the middle of the afternoon. B wondered what the neighbors must think. Then again, knowing who he was up against, the spell was likely only visible to those of the otherworld. Humans probably had no idea that there was anything out of the ordinary happening in the midst of their quiet world of manicured lawns.
It had been simple for B to find his way back here. The landmarks he passed on his excruciating crawl through town were burned into his memory. As he got closer to the house, he saw that the window he’d crashed through had been boarded up. Dammit! He’d hoped to sneak back in the way he'd snuck out. B blew out a frustrated breath and slinked along the flowerbed that ran the entire way around the house. A whistle made him jump. He spun in the direction of the noise to find Sergei and Sam hiding in the shadow of a bush about ten feet away. B rolled his eyes and waved them over. The two men tumbled and dodged through shadows before arriving at B’s side.
“What the fuck are you guys doing here?” B hissed in annoyance.
Sam raised an eyebrow at him. “I think we can all agree that this is a trap. There’s no way we were going to let you go alone.”
B sighed. “Of course, it’s a trap. There’s no way Keir would be stupid enough to stay in the same place where I was held hostage if he didn’t have something planned.”
“We figured you could use some backup.” Sergei piped in.
“I’m going in alone. I’m willing to risk anything to save Mara, but you guys don’t need to walk into this
with me,” B said, shaking his head. “This is my fight; not yours.”
“Not a chance in hell,” Sam said forcefully. “We’re family and you’re not doing this without us.”
“I’m not talking you guys out of this, am I?” B asked.
“Nope,” Sam said, shaking his head. “Sergei, you stay out here as a lookout. We need someone on the outside in case things go ass backwards. B can scale the trellis and go in from above; I’ll sneak around back and go in on the ground floor.”
“If we split up, one of us might be able to avoid any traps that are set for us,” B said, nodding in agreement.
“All right, let’s do this,” Sam said, nodding at Sergei who moved to melt into the shadows behind him.
B mouthed a silent thank you to Sam as he reached up and grabbed hold of the trellis, starting on his climb to the upper floor.
Sam snuck below the boarded-up window and continued on around the corner of the house. Making as little noise as possible, Sam passed under several windows. The lights in the lower floor of the house were all off. Odds were that the trap was somewhere on the main floor. If he could be a distraction long enough for B to get to Mara, it would all be worth it. It was wonderful that two of his friends had found love. Luc was living a happy life with his new wife Katia. And here was B, the most unlikely of them all, risking his life for the woman he loved. Sam sighed quietly. There was a reason he’d sent B up to the top floor. He figured the trap would be in the most accessible part of the house — downstairs. If anyone was going to get caught, it would be Sam. B had a chance to be happy with Mara, Sam’s curse made that happiness impossible. He could never truly love a woman, or rather; he could love a woman but never touch her. What woman would want that? Sam had the least to lose.