Queen of the Immortals
Page 25
“A female Angel, yes,” he replied quickly, clearly eager to redeem himself. “She was using binoculars, believe it or not. That’s how I knew she was watching you.”
“Did you talk to her? She sensed your Presence, didn’t she?”
Roone blinked; it was clear he hadn’t been expecting Nora to ask such shrewd questions.
“I have a Talent,” he replied. “I have powerful vision. I can see something as small as a pin from miles away. I was out shopping, and I saw her watching the house.”
Nora frowned. She was still suspicious. What if Roone was working for Persephone? Shit, they hadn’t even considered that. What if this was a trap?
She readied her Blade, and he looked at it worriedly. “What now?” he asked.
“How did you know where our house was?” she asked dangerously.
She would start there, before she accused him of being Persephone’s bumbling little spy.
He frowned at her, as if it was obvious. “Judy,” he said simply. “She’s been over here before, right? She loves the house; she won’t shut up about it. Kind of annoying, actually,” he added, apparently to himself.
Nora deflated. “Oh.”
“I swear; I’m not up to anything,” he said firmly. “It’s just….you two seem vulnerable, and--I mean, I don’t know what’s going on--but….”
He trailed off lamely.
Nora couldn’t help but feel a maternal sort of pity for him. He was so awkward--almost pathetic. The only threat he seemed to possess was embarrassing himself.
She finally sighed. “Okay--thanks, I guess. We’ve kind of already figured that out, though--our friend’s gone missing.”
He looked ashamed again. “Shit.”
“Yeah.”
An awkward silence descended upon them.
Nora was about to ask him to leave when she felt another Presence.
“Another?” she exclaimed, readying her Blade again. “Friend of yours?”
“No,” Roone said, getting in front of her. “Stay behind me.”
Nora didn’t waste time arguing, just peeked around him as he opened the door.
A woman was walking up the path. She was awkwardly built, with thin blonde hair and pale eyes.
She halted when she saw Roone, who stared at her.
She then smirked. “Looking for your friend?” she asked, clearly amused.
Nora felt her heart stop. She brushed past Roone and ran to her, grabbing her shoulder and pressing the knife to her throat.
“Where is he?” she hissed.
She chuckled. Her voice was strangled as the knife pressed against her vocal chords. “Careful. You know the neighbors will see.”
“Fuck the neighbors.”
“Don’t be rash,” she said, firm now. “Let’s go inside.”
Nora was infuriated by her calmness. This bitch knew where Barry was, and she was being blase about it.
She took the knife from her throat, but pointed it at her gut. “Go on, then.”
The woman smiled, and made her way to the door, Nora keeping her Blade aimed at her torso.
The woman stopped at the front step, studying Roone, who was ashen. She chuckled, then brushed past him.
Nora looked at him. “This is who you saw?”
He nodded shakily. “Yeah….uh….yes.”
Nora nodded too. “Right. You better go. Thanks.”
“I should stay--it’s not safe--”
“I’m Calling my boyfriend,” she said firmly. “You can leave.”
He looked a little hurt, but nodded. He started down the steps, and Nora stepped inside, shutting the door behind her.
The woman turned to face her, another smirk on her face.
“The realtor was right,” she said. “This is a beautiful house.”
Gilla
It was about noon, and the weather was starting to get chilly.
Gilla hugged herself tight against the cool air. The cold couldn’t kill her anymore, but it was still uncomfortable, and she wasn’t wearing a jacket. She rubbed her arms, looking around, feeling very, very worried.
She was on the university campus. Barry had been missing for a couple hours now. Gabriel had found his books and bag, along with his knife, scattered on the lawn. The knife had blood on it, a worrying sign.
Gilla had hoped that it was a big mistake. Barry had cut himself, maybe went inside to wash the blood off, blacked out. Anything other than what they were all thinking.
Her insides burned with anger, and her hands shook. There had only been one instance when she had wanted to kill, and her subject had become very dead very quickly. Now Gilla had another target. She could only imagine the unspeakable things Persephone had done to those two girls. Perhaps more than two. Gilla wanted to stop her, to kill her. And she wanted to look her in the face when she did it.
She sighed. She had been searching for an hour. She was heading back to the oak tree when Michael appeared beneath its branches.
She hurried over, and he touched her arms, looking her over. “You’re okay?”
Gilla nodded firmly and pointed to him.
“I’m all right. No sign of him.”
She shook her head, ran a hand through her hair. God, Barry.
Michael’s phone buzzed, and he fished it out of his pocket. “Hey….fuck!”
Gilla jumped, and he thrust the phone back into his pocket.
“We have a visitor,” he said, looking pale. “We have to go, now.”
She knew what to do. She grasped his hand, and together they stepped backward, falling back onto the wood floor in the foyer.
Angry voices were coming from the dining room. Gilla and Michael hurried down the hall, still holding hands, Gilla clutching at Michael’s shirt. Even with all these incredible powers, she was easily afraid, and raised voices made her tense.
They came in. A woman--an Angel, based on her Presence--was sitting in the middle of the dining table, wearing a bloody jacket and looking almost casual. Gabriel was staring at her, his hands balled into fists, dark eyes blazing. Mel was beside him, and on the other side of the table was Nora, who was also staring daggers at the Angel.
“What did you do to him?” Gabriel hissed, his chest heaving.
“Took him to Persephone,” the Angel said.
“Who are you?” Michael demanded.
“Michael, Ceres; Ceres, Michael,” Nora introduced dryly. “Meet our stalker. She’s been watching us for a while.”
“Just a couple weeks,” Ceres said. “I tracked you from the Knightsbridge house. You have a very chatty realtor.”
“I’ll remember that when I’m shopping for my summer home,” Mel growled.
The air was cool in here, but Gilla could tell he was trying to control himself.
“What did you do to him?” Gabriel breathed.
“He’s alive.”
She paused, and Gilla could tell she was weighing her options, wondering if it was wise to continue.
She apparently decided to do so. “He’s missing a couple fingers now.”
Gabriel roared, and had to be held back by Mel and Michael. Michael took over, holding his hands behind his back while he struggled furiously to get to her. Mel disappeared, and Gilla knew he had gone to let his anger out, away from their vulnerable houseguest, who hadn’t been around his anger before.
Gilla didn’t see the point. This bitch deserved to suffer just as much as Persephone did.
“Let me go, for Christ’s sake, Michael,” Gabriel hissed, staring dead-on at Ceres.
“We need to hear what she has to say,” Michael said calmly, though he too looked at Ceres as if he would have liked to crush her with his bare hands.
Ceres simply waited, drinking some tea Nora had made for her.
Gilla gave Nora a furious look. Tea? She signed.
Nora shrugged desperately. I didn’t know what else to do.
Ceres watched them sign to each other. She frowned. “How can an Angel be deaf?” she wondered.
“I thought we were the ones asking questions,” Nora spat.
Mel returned then, looking ashen, and she continued, “Go on, then. Spill.”
Ceres chuckled at her words. She looked at all of them and said, “I’ve been watching the six of you for a couple weeks now. I figured only--Barry--was human, so I followed him the most. Saw him on campus, everything. Persephone told me to pick him up, use him as leverage.”
“Fucking bitch,” Gabriel breathed.
He had calmed enough that Michael let him go, and both of them stood glowering at her.
Ceres didn’t seem moved. “So I tried grabbing him. I’m assuming one of you taught him how to use a Blade. He’s very good. He slashed me a couple times. He had a friend with him, Katie, and she has some spirit too. I ended up having to Travel back with both of them.”
Gabriel’s lip curled. “Too much fight for an Angel.”
“He didn’t have a lot of fight when I strapped him to a chair and cut his fingers off,” she replied, and Gabriel started for her again.
Michael caught him, and everyone looked around, tense.
“What does Persephone want?” Mel asked, a bite of impatience in his voice.
“Well, now she wants to barter Barry and Katie in exchange for the two of you,” she said, nodding at Mel and Michael. “She thinks she can lure you to her, that you don’t know how many of us there are--which I’m assuming isn’t true.”
“So she’s planning an ambush,” Mel said.
“Pathetic excuse for an ambush,” Gabriel scoffed, and Ceres looked at him.
“You’re right. But she’s lost her senses since Barry escaped Eris. She’s afraid now. Unsettled.”
“Back up. Who’s Eris?” Nora asked.
Ceres sighed, impatient. “Before my siblings and I, Persephone had Lucius and Eris working for her. Lucius had a useful Talent, luring humans, and Eris….all I know about her is that she was supposed to kill our boy Barry, which she failed to do. She let him roll down a sewer, or something. Persephone killed both of them because she’s a fucking nutcase.”
There was a pause while everyone looked at each other.
Nora let out a sigh of relief. “So the first two Angels are gone. That just leaves--”
“Persephone, Horus, Valor, Raziel, and me,” Ceres said, sipping her tea.
Gilla stared at this woman, sitting relaxed at their table, drinking their goddamn tea. Barry had been sitting there just yesterday, worrying over a paper. And now he was god knows where, in pain, missing fucking fingers….
She lifted her hands in the air. Let’s kill you, then, she signed shakily.
Nora sighed again, and looked at Ceres. “She’s wondering what’s keeping us from killing you now,” she said.
Ceres looked at Gilla, intrigued. She replied, “I know where the place is. And I know the code to the elevator.”
She looked at their mutinous faces. “I want to watch my sister die. She’s been a miserable beast. I want to watch my siblings die too. Help kill them. I don’t care what happens to your precious little humans. I just want revenge on the bitch. I want to watch her burn.”
She looked at Mel, but he was unimpressed. “And then, what? We release you back into the wild?”
“What stops us from torturing the information out of you and killing you?” Gabriel asked, his dark eyes still glittering with rage.
“You don’t have the time,” Ceres replied, raising her eyebrows. “Barry’s waiting. And incidentally, none of you have the balls to truly torture someone. You’re too moral.”
Gilla gnashed her teeth together. She would have loved to put that theory to the test.
“I lead you to my siblings,” Ceres said, “I get to watch them die. You get to save your humans. Then, if you really want, you can try to kill me. If you can catch me first.”
There was a silence as everyone looked around at each other. Gilla looked at Michael, and they seemed to agree: This was an impossible situation.
“Please, think it over,” Ceres said impatiently, gulping the rest of her tea down. “I told them to leave Katie alone, but god knows what they’re doing to poor Barry.”
They began to hurry out, when Ceres said, “He told me to say that there was….what was it….going to be a bird on his neck. A blackbird.”
Gabriel looked struck, and she stared at him. “What does that mean?”
He looked away. Gilla was surprised to find the faintest of smiles on his lips.
They left the room, went to the living room. Gabriel was shaking, and was brushing at his eyes, clearly trying to stay composed.
“Anything useful from that phrase, Gabe?” Michael asked, and he shook his head, laughing bitterly.
“God no. Just meant he’s getting a blackbird tattooed on the other side of his neck. It was a….farewell to me.”
He brushed at his eyes again and looked at them. “We can’t say no.”
“It isn’t much of a discussion,” Mel said. “We have to save them. And we have to kill Persephone.”
“We have to kill that bitch in the dining room,” Nora whispered.
Kill her in the fight, Gilla signed.
They nodded. It seemed the only option.
Nora took a deep breath. “Okay….okay. Four Angels--not counting her. So like I said before: Raziel is the one with the fire Talent; you can focus on him, Mel. Michael, Gabriel--Horus and Valor. Gilla….if you think you can….Persephone.”
“Someone has to help Barry,” Gabriel said, shaking his head.
“I will,” Nora replied firmly. “I’ll protect both of them during the fight; get them out of there. I can do it, Gabriel.”
“Nora,” Mel breathed.
“Mel. Let me do this. You don’t have a choice.”
“You’re not experienced enough,” Gabriel said.
“I’m not experienced enough to take your place, either,” she shot back impatiently.
They were quiet. Finally Michael said, “She’s right, Gabriel. And we don’t have time to argue.”
“Let’s go,” Nora said, her eyes dark. “I want her to burn.”
So the three men went upstairs to collect weapons and armor. Gilla could hear clangs of metal upon metal as they rushed around. She put on a jacket and found that her hands were shaking--not out of fear, but out of rage.
She was going to fight Persephone. She was going to win the prize.
She returned to the dining room. Nora had quickly changed out of her jeans and into some leggings for the fight. Her curly hair was brushed into a ponytail, and her face was set. She looked just as angry as Gilla, and coldly ignored Ceres as the three waited for the men upstairs.
Ceres was studying Gilla, her large eyes shrewd. “You have a strong Presence,” she said quietly.
Gilla raised an eyebrow.
Ceres chuckled. Then she said, “A mute Angel, then. Interesting. I’m assuming Father’s work. So many people--Angels and humans alike--worship him, but when it comes to it, his machinations seem just as close to the brink of insanity as my sister’s. I’m sure you don’t worship our Father.”
He’s no father of mine, Gilla thought.
“He produced a bad batch of Angels,” Ceres continued thoughtfully, “four hundred years ago. We’re quintuplets, you know. Extremely rare. They said we would do great things because of it. And look at us now--on the brink of destruction, only having killed a handful of humans. Except for me, of course. I’ve killed much more.”
Nora hissed, and she smirked. “Not in these iron cities, though. I like when they venture out. The forest is my home.”
She looked at the two. “I’m not afraid of death. I know it’ll come soon enough for me. Father won’t allow a creature like me to live forever. But Persephone….death has always been her greatest fear. She loves to kill things, of course. It is her g
reat love. But to die herself….whoever gets the pleasure of doing it, look in her eyes while it happens. The fear you will see will be glorious.”
That will be me, Gilla thought, her heart pounding.
She wasn’t sure if it was arrogance, or perhaps a prophecy, but she knew in her heart that she would kill the bitch, and watch the fear in her eyes as the life drained out of her.
The men returned then, their faces stony.
“We only got armor for the two of you,” Michael said, immediately fitting a chest plate on Gilla’s torso. “We don’t have time for the rest of us to suit up.”
He looked at Gilla as he dressed her. He looked scared, and she felt a pang.
“Don’t be a hero,” he said quietly. “Please. Watch out for yourself. Please, my alskling.”
She took a shaky breath. He rarely called her that.
She kissed him, and for a quick moment he held her face in his hands, kissing her roughly. Then he pulled away, grinding his teeth together, and finished fitting her armor on her thin body.
When everyone was ready Ceres stood up, looking only mildly interested in them.
“We need a plan,” Nora said, eyeing Ceres furiously.
She looked at her, unimpressed. “We need a distraction,” she said, looking around at them. “My sister can manipulate bodies; force your hands to grab your Blades and run them right through you. We need her to not do that.”
“That would be helpful,” Gabriel snorted.
“She can’t kill me, even if she forces me to hurt myself,” Mel said. “Long story,” he added as Gabriel frowned at him, “but it means I can face her--”
“She can still incapacitate you,” Michael reminded him. “One step forward and your neck is broken.”
Gilla frowned, and clapped her hands. I’m Immune, she signed. She can’t hurt me with her power.
Michael instantly shook his head. “No--”
Michael, I have to, Gilla replied, her hands gesturing firmly. This is Barry’s life. I’m doing it.
He swore, held his head in his hands.
Gilla felt an awful pang. But she knew she was right. And she had to do it.
Nora took a shaky breath. “So….Gilla will be the distraction. Michael and Mel will come up. They’re the only ones expected; Persephone doesn’t know there are more of us….”