by Zoey Ellis
He finally came upon a busy part of the neighborhood where Thea had been. Again, collapsed humans lay in the street shielded from human view by demon energy. And then he saw her.
She was crouched over a human woman, who was on her knees while Thea's hands were around the woman's throat. Cam stared in horror as Thea began to glow. She was taking energy from humans! He watched, shocked. That energy could corrupt her and destroy all angelic energy that remained within her.
He soared down towards her and saw the small smile of pure satisfaction on her face. A wave of nausea rose in him and suddenly he realized what it must have felt like for Thea to see him enjoying the brutality of killing the Legion demons. She must have been horrified and sicked by the sight of him. He pushed those feelings away as he lowered a few feet from her.
The demons around her watched him but did not move to stop him. He noticed that they were shielding her from the other angels in the area, and they were Asmos demons, so they weren’t easily defeated.
The human woman dropped to the floor and Thea straightened, her smile spreading into a grin as she looked up to the sky and cracked her neck. When she lowered her eyes, she caught sight of him an expression of a rage crossed her face, as if the feeling suddenly boiled up inside of her. She turned towards him and he couldn't help noticing how fiercely beautiful she was, even though she looked wild and out of control—her pupils dilated, her nostrils flared.
“Thea,” Cam said, his voice low. “What are you doing?”
“Taking what I deserve,” she spat, her eyelids narrowed. "Taking what you could never give me. Peace, satisfaction, true power."
"Do you know how many humans you've hurt?" Cam asked, his voice hard. He took a step towards her, but she squared herself tilting her jaw upwards and readying herself.
"They're not hurt," she scoffed. "They'll recover. And I'm only taking from those that don't deserve it."
"They don't deserve their lives? That energy is their life-force."
Thea's amusement turned to a scowl. "They don't deserve more fulfilling lives than me. Why should I have nothing because you couldn't keep your promise?"
Cam took another step forward but she flew up into the air hovering above him, her expression ferocious. "This isn’t you, Thea. You've never wanted to hurt anyone."
"And what do you know?" Thea snapped. "You don't know me anymore. You've hardly spoken to me in nearly two years. People change."
"Not that much. Are you aware that Amber may not survive? Where’s her daughter?"
Thea's expression faltered but only for a split second. "Don't try to manipulate me. Amber has the life I should have had. She's ungrateful. I hate her and I hate you."
Cam let her words bounce off of him. This was definitely not Thea. He flapped into the air, hovering in front of her.
“Get out of my way, Cam,” she hissed, as numerous energy balls materialized around her.
Cam eyed them. They vibrated with energy more powerful than anything he felt from her before, but he was glad that she was still using angelic energy. He pulled together a shield. "Are you going to attack me, Thea?"
"I’ll do whatever it takes to get what I need."
Cam drifted closer to her. "And what's that?"
As he came closer, Thea growled. With a flick of her head, two energy balls shot towards him.
Cam braced himself. He would face her if he needed to in order to keep her safe. The more she fed off the humans, the more powerful she was going to get and the more she would become a shadow of her true self. If Cam didn't find a way to stop what was happening to her, she would grow completely out of control.
The energy balls hit his shield and the vibrations rocked him to his core. She was strong, stronger than he had ever remembered her being.
"You can't stop me," Thea taunted. "You might be the most powerful warrior in the Angel Realm, but there are more humans than there are angels. Isn't that what you told me once? I have all the power I need, right here."
No. He couldn't allow that. Cam flew toward her, intending to restrain her.
She closed the distance and threw a punch that he blocked. They exchanged a flurry of hard hits that didn’t connect, before Thea kicked him dead center in the chest. The blow knocked the wind out of him. He grabbed hold of her ankle and pulled her towards him, holding onto her tight. She struggled, eventually kneeing him in the stomach and he was forced to let her go. She twisted and slapped her hand down on his neck. Immediately, he felt energy being sucked out of him. He pushed her back sharply with a growl, and she laughed, her eyes bright and hungry. Flapping away from him, she drew on energy to form a spike, which she shot at his face. He darted to one side but still felt the energy sear his cheek. Blood trickled down his face as she flew backward away from him.
"I’m more powerful now, Cam," Thea called, creating more energy balls. "I'm not the weak Nephilim you trained. Stay out of my way."
Her energy balls pummeled him, seemingly from every angle. He expanded his shield and created another one underneath to absorb the shock waves, but he lost sight of her as he tried to deflect them. By the time they stopped, Thea was nowhere to be seen.
Chapter Fourteen
THEA
The voice was ecstatic.
‘Why didn't I think of it before?’ it said almost gleefully. ‘Angels have the most power. And you can take us to the Angel Realm can't you, Thea?’
Thea was half conscious inside her mind. She sensed Cam but couldn't communicate with him. The voice was controlling almost every part of her now and it wanted even more. This didn’t seem like a dream anymore—it seemed too real.
Drawing from her memories, the voice took her to the nearest portal, but when she arrived, she saw something she hadn't seen before.
A girl stood at the portal. She looked to be about fourteen years old and wore normal human clothes under a pale green robe, like what angels normally wore in the Angel Realm. She had creamy wings and a golden staff, and pure black, curly hair.
She stared at Thea in confusion. "Why can you see me?" she asked.
"Who are you?" the voice made Thea say.
"I'm the Cherubim that guards this portal," the girl said, taking a step towards Thea. "But you shouldn't be able to see me in this form."
"What do you mean?" Thea looked at the wall for the symbol of the angel, but it wasn't there. "Are you normally sketched into the wall?"
The girl nodded. "That is how angels see me. Demons and other beings see me in this form."
"Why? What do you do?"
"I do what all Cherubim's do. I guard the portals against demons and humans and any other beings that are not angels but somehow manage to find them."
"Do you know who and what I am?" Thea asked.
"Of course," the girl said, a smile on her lips. "But you are more angel than you are human, so you have always been permitted. That's why I'm confused."
Thea tried to grasp meaning from what the girl said, but the voice forced her thoughts aside and made Thea shrug and say, "I think it's something that needs to be brought to the attention of Thrones. I'm going to see the Dominion League, I'll mention it to them."
The girl stared at her for a long moment, her eyebrows furrowed. "I'm in direct communication with Thrones, I'll let them know."
For a moment the voice contemplated killing the girl, but the girl tapped her staff and an arch appeared where the portal was supposed to be.
"Thank you," Thea said, with a forced smile. "It's a shame I don't get to see you guys."
The Cherubim lifted a shoulder. "We’re not very talkative or sociable," she said with a wry smile. "We love our families and we draw energy from them to repel undesirable beings entering the Angel Realm. We don't need more than that. It was lovely to meet you, though."
Thea nodded at her and stepped through into the Angel Realm.
She immediately came upon two angels, a male and a female, who seemed to have also just entered at the arrival grounds. Thea smiled at them
both, the hunger in her rising at the feel of their energies. She strode to them, blocking their way. Both angels looked at her strangely, but before they could speak, Thea darted forward and clamped her hands on both of their necks. The angel energy surged through Thea like a lightning strike. It electrified her body, crackling throughout her limbs and down her spine. The voice kept drawing all the energy from the two angels until they collapsed on the ground in a heap of limbs.
‘Yes,’ breathed the voice. ‘This is what we need.’ It sounded as though it was high. ‘More,’ it demanded. ‘The angels have never accepted you, Thea. They’ve never looked after you. This is the only way they can ever be of use.’
Thea was vaguely aware of the instruction and what she was doing. All feelings gone, she moved as the voice forced her to, emotionless and with a foggy mind, taking to the air seeking out more angels.
She encountered three Powers walking in the direction of the training center. Swooping down, she sent a massive blast of energy into the back of the head of the male on the right, knocking him to the ground, while she dropped between the two females and placed her hands their necks, pulled on their energy. When she got to the third, he was groggily getting up. She lingered back; he had more energy than the others, more for her to take, and the voice was excited by that. He didn’t even fight her when she lunged at him, the surprise on his face almost comical. She drained him greedily, reveling in his energy until all life left him, and his body evaporated into a curling mist.
The voice was thick with satisfaction, unable to control the glee and admiration in its tone. It praised her and encouraged her as it propelled her forward, heading in any direction. It was only concerned with finding more angels. Thea stopped often, draining singular angels or those in small groups who were out and about, but it was late evening in the Angel Realm and most angels returned to their quarters as it got dark.
‘Is that so?’ the voice said thoughtfully, as it read Thea’s half-formed thought.
It headed her into a nearby spiral-shaped building that housed mostly Virtue angels. Based on Dani’s powers, Thea knew Virtue angels could be extremely powerful and formidable but not all of them were like Dani.
‘Exactly,’ agreed the voice. ‘In your current state of power, none of them will be a match for you. Not even those Power angels were able to get the upper-hand on you, Thea. You should give yourself more credit.’
She flew up to the top floor of the building and forced her way through a window, sliding in and landing in a hallway that connected the rooms of the Virtues. She blasted open the door with an energy ball, then pushed her way inside. She drained the Virtue in that room and moved on to the next one. She moved from room to room, taking the energy from every Virtue she came across before she made her way down the staircase to the next floor.
She arrived on the next floor, only to encounter a number of Virtues, ready for her. One of them shot off a bolt of electric energy that hit Thea like a punch in the stomach. Thea kicked out at the other angel nearby, knocking her over, then felt arms grabbing her and restraining from behind as another Virtue shot another bolt into her shoulder. Thea howled and ripped away from the angel behind her, writhing away from his grasp. She created five energy balls and flung them out in all directions towards the angels. As they hit, she went after the angel that had restrained her. She pulled back her fist and punched him in the face, feeling the crunch of his nose and the warm gush of blood. He fell over and she held her hands out over him, began draining his energy without even touching him, pulsing through her palms as she drew from him with her outstretched palm. The other angel, further down the corridor, began to get up and Thea moved one of her palms to face her and began draining her too, taking from both of them at once.
The voice laughed through her with absolute glee when it realized she didn’t even need to touch them to drain them; she just needed to get close enough.
By the time she left the building, almost all the angels were partially drained of their energy, and it pulsed vigorously within Thea.
‘We still don’t have enough yet,’ the voice said, gently. ‘We need more, and we need to get it quicker.’
Thea stared out over the Realm. As the brilliant blue sky gently darkened, the Stream shone bright and beautiful in the distance.
‘Yes, of course,’ the voice said. ‘We need to draw from the Stream. Hopefully, we can draw directly from the Creator and get all the power we need.’
Thea shot into the air with one powerful flap and made her way toward it.
Before she was even halfway, Power angels surrounded her, keeping their distance.
"Thea," called one of them. He flew closer to her. "Fight it, Thea! You can fight it!"
Thea peered at the speaker and realized it was Asteroth. A jolt of awareness shot through the fog around her mind.
The voice laughed inside of her. ‘Does he honestly think that he can persuade you? Who is he anyway?’
Thea fought against the voice as it delved into her memories, drawing on those of Asteroth training her, speaking to her in the Dominion League room, and seeing her when she was ill.
‘He is unimportant,’ the voice said. ‘If we drain him maybe the others will keep their distance.’
Desperation rose in Thea as the voice forced her hands up against her will, her palms facing Asteroth. No, she couldn't allow this to happen. She had to stop the voice!
"Tap into it, Thea," Asteroth shouted to her. "Tap into the energy, use it for yourself. Use it to repel—"
At that moment, the voice began to pull energy from him. It flowed like a river out of him, folding and twisting itself into her palms, pulling from him relentlessly.
Thea tried to scream at the voice, tried to tell the voice to stop. She fought against the fogginess in her mind, the rigid grip on her body but she could not break the hold it had on her. She watched in horror as Asteroth was drained completely, disappearing into a curling misty smoke.
The Powers hovering in the air, surrounding her, stared at her in disbelief. The voice laughed and moved Thea forward towards the Stream. The Powers kept in formation around her but didn't try to engage her.
Thea's feelings dulled again, the horror of the event fading away.
Chapter Fifteen
CAM
Cam rocketed through the Angel Realm, heading directly toward the strange energy he felt emanating from Thea.
His heart pounded in an erratic rhythm as he kept tight control of the panic and anxiety that swirled in him. Thea entering the Angel Realm was the worst possible scenario. The amount of damage that she could cause here was immeasurable and exactly what the demons would want.
Flying faster than he’d ever done, he was still too far away when he watched Thea drain and extinguish Asteroth. A cold shock shuddered through his body. She killed him. Killed Asteroth. She hadn't even touched him.
He could barely breathe. Thea killed an angel; he grappled with the thought. His Thea, somewhere inside her own mind must be horrified. She liked Asteroth, well, she liked him more than the other Dominion League angels. Surely that act would take a toll on her.
He watched her move towards the center of the square. He’d been too gentle with her when he fought her earlier. He should have attacked her as though she were a demon, knocking her out so that she could be detained. Her energy had changed so much that when he first searched for her, he wasn’t sure where she was and if she had left the human world or if he just could no longer detect her. It was only a guess that she entered the Angel Realm, and it was now clear she had absorbed the energies of many powerful angels. If he had fought her fully, using all the gifts the Creator gave him, he probably could have stopped her from getting into the Angel Realm. Asteroth’s death was on him, not Thea.
Apprehension bubbled to the surface as he made his way to her. He had already attacked her and cut her before and couldn't bring himself to even think about attacking her again. But what was the alternative? He watched as the Powers surro
unding her flew with her, staying in their circle formation and yet not sure how to engage her. He was the one who really knew her, the one that had trained her, and the only one who was capable of bringing her down.
As he moved along with her towards the Stream, he could feel the stolen energy from yards away, radiating off her like heat from the sun. She was already so powerful. How much more did this demon want?
Approaching the Stream, the Powers surrounding her seemed to realize that they let her get too far. They began to attack using the method normally reserved for fighting a singular Legion demon. Two Powers on opposing sides of the circle attacked then retreated, then another two did the same, and then another two. This kept Thea busy enough to not drain any of them and stopped her advancement towards the Stream.
However, she learned quickly. Cam watched as she kicked one Power in the face, hard enough for his head to snap back and send him spiraling down, while she drained the other attacking Power.
Cam created a number of energy balls and spikes, readying himself to attack. He moved to release a spike in her direction but hesitated. If he hurt her again, how would she ever get over it? How would he?
Cam saw movement out of the corner of his eye and turned to see three large angels approaching. His breath left him when he realized that they were Thrones, and he knew then that they were coming to kill her. His heart sank. He turned towards Thea.
Flying at her, he launched a spike and an energy ball directly at her. Thea was draining two Powers when the energy hit and sent her spinning away from the Stream. She flapped her wings hard to stop her trajectory, righted herself and turned back towards him in a fury. Cam prepared himself to fight her. He had to. If he didn't, if he couldn't stop her, the Thrones would kill her without hesitation. Thea launched her own energy balls at him, and he billowed his shield out to create another one underneath.
They threw energy ball after energy ball at each other, each more powerful than the last until Thea pulled a dagger from her waist and threw it at him. He caught it, although it cut the middle of his hand. He glanced over at the Thrones. They were watching. He knew that if it looked like he was out of control, they would step in.