by Azure Boone
The idea of Satan re-inventing the wheel didn't make a great deal of sense to Lucian. "Why would they bother creating something new? Can't they just take possession of humans?"
Kassern nodded "Yes, they can, as long as the vessels are willing, even if their cooperation is gained by coercion and manipulation of the human free will. But demons using sinful, selfish humans with free will to organize a take over the world party is a laughable concept."
"Why don't you guys just destroy all the demons? Surely Archangels could do that?" Jessie's voice remained low, almost timid, and her hand trembled within Lucian's.
Devyn's husband, Troy spoke up. "Believe it or not, there are actually rules to the whole Good Versus Evil battle." The handsome blond guy leaned on one elbow. "As long as they haven't broken any rules, the archangels can't just fly in and wipe them out. They have to fight them using the same doorway the demons created, and on their battle field, preferably before they get too far."
Jessie's hand tightened around Lucian's and he realized she was scared. He put his arm around her shoulder and pressed her into his body. "How many of us are there?"
Kassern sighed. "Right now? All but Dorn and his female are within this room. Eventually, twelve archangels will come, one at a time, and choose a human couple to create a warrior through. I was the first. Dorn is the second."
Lucian frowned. "I don't get how the… creating the warrior part works."
"Easy," Kassern said. "The power of your union is a supernatural life force that we can join our power to and create the warrior needed to fight in this realm. We are basically joining in a spiritual sense with the human couple, thereby gaining access to the earthly realm as part human."
"Like the opposing force," Lucian said.
The angel nodded. "Correct."
"So what about…her." Lucian didn't know how to ask about the girl in his lap, but she seemed like an odd piece in the puzzle.
"Karly is human," Devyn said, answering the wrong question. "It seems that when Kassern gained humanity, he gained the desires of the flesh."
Lucian detected an almost mocking tone in her voice and regarded the angel with amazement.
"It was an unexpected variable. None of us had worked with humans in this way before, and while expected to gain some human characteristics, we had no idea of the scope," Kassern said, once again doing that mouth rubbing thing on Karly's shoulder. His tone was nearly reverent and surely without regret.
"And that unexpected variable upset the power formula being used in binding the twelve archangels' triumvirates." Devyn arched a brow at Kassern as if to ask if she had explained correctly. At his nod of approval, her mouth curved into a satisfied-looking smile.
For people bound into such an important mission, they seemed to have an odd mixture of love and hate going on.
"Triumvirates?" Jessie's voice sounded timid but Lucian admired her courage for asking questions even in such a tense atmosphere.
Troy seemed eager to answer ahead of the others. "It's the term for our threesome." Maybe his way of trying to keep peace?
"You mean foursome," Devyn said.
Troy raised his brows. "Uhhh, yeah."
Lucian sensed a world of trouble and complication in Troy's tone and regarded the angel. The angel/human now. Clearly, the underestimated complication created by Kassern's unexpected variable must have caused quite a commotion. "So…that changed things, I take it?"
Devyn's exasperated laugh sounded hollow. "Ohhh yeah, it changed things alright."
"How?" Lucian asked.
"For one," Devyn laid back next to Troy, "all the other angels have to do the same." She looked at Kassern, brow raised again. "To keep the power ratio even?"
Kassern gave one nod.
"So each angel will have to…"
"Take a wife." Devyn's matter-of-fact tone and words seemed far too simple for such a complex issue.
Lucian could hardly believe it. "And the angels are…are all okay with that? And God, He's—is that lawful?"
Kassern's dry laugh gave all the answer Lucian needed. "It's lawful because I'm part human now and while I could have chosen not to give in to my…humanity, well…" he smiled a little. "It's not like I could resist her."
Lucian found himself wanting to chuckle at that. He looked over his shoulder and found Troy grinning with Kassern. As absurd as it should sound, an angel unable to resist a woman somehow made perfect sense. And by the beaming look on Karly's face, she found that to be quite the compliment.
"As angels," Kassern said, "it was a hard pill for them to swallow. But when they gain their humanity?" He kissed Karly's hand, "They'll see."
The confidence in his words nearly calmed Lucian, until Devyn chuckled. "Problem is, not only do they have just one month to find their couple and get them on a super-sonic path to falling in love and join their powers together to form their warrior, they now have to find a suitable woman to marry and accomplish all those other things with her, as well."
Jessie spoke up. "One month? Why?"
"That's the time limit when forming Duodecim Archángelis ligatum et in puritate." Kassern stood so quickly he nearly dumped Karly onto the floor. "Oh shit, they found us."
Lucian's body tensed and he instinctively pulled Jessie close to him. In the same milli-second, a shimmering ruby trench coat covered Kassern's body, the huge red crucifix on his torso glowed. Troy appeared at his side in a floor-length hooded robe of the purest white, except the blood-red cross on the front and trim along the edges.
"What's happening?" Lucian's heart leapt as he stood, still holding Jessie against his side. The others ignored him as they made ready for… something. An attack? By whom? Or what?
"How'd they find us?" Troy whispered from the station he had taken to the left and slightly behind Kassern.
Kassern looked at Jessie. "Her." His head snapped to Troy. "Here they come." Kassern pointed a seven-foot ruby-looking staff, thin as a toothpick, at him and Jessie and a wall of red fire shot from it.
Lucian gasped at the sudden liquid bubble surrounding him and Jessie. It's a shield, Kassern's voice echoed in Lucian's head and did nothing to alleviate the fear threatening to consume him.
He clung to Jessie as the angel and three humans braced for battle. Lucian did a double take when he noticed the women. Both were miniature replicas of their husbands. Devyn was Troy's smaller twin; two knights in glowing white robes. A massive ruby cross-bow sat across Troy's back and a glowing ruby shotgun with a leaf-blower-sized barrel hung from Devyn's right forearm as though it were welded on.
Lucian's panic sucked all the air from the room and sat on his chest like a malevolent Sumo wrestler.
Jessie screamed as the entire right wall blasted in. Kassern pointed that stick and a wave of shimmering red air met the blast and exploded the wall in reverse. A noise like an entire ocean being forced through an immense drain clogged with aircraft carriers, filled Lucian's ears.
The four of them flashed right into that grinding scream, leaving Lucian and Jessie alone in their little red liquid bubble.
Some property of Kassern's ruby liquid caused it to waver periodically, allowing Lucian to see the battle somewhat.
What were they fighting? Black shadows flashed at inhuman speeds, engaging the four of them like bionic human-sized gnats. Troy shot flaming crossbow bolts rapidly in various directions while Devyn fired a spray of red bullets from her massive shotgun.
The angel and his wife fought back to back, him with that toothpick and her with some kind of weapon on a red rope. He spun the weapon so fast it left red streaks in the air, while periodically the tip erupted with a wave of red air that sent those black shadows exploding back.
Attackers surrounded Devyn until she became nearly invisible. Suddenly, Troy was there, slashing with a knife, a flurry of swift hand to hand combat until figures fell and Devyn was in the clear once more. The pair battled on, side by side until Lucian wondered how many
of them they fought.
Movement nearby caught Lucian's attention and he watched as a fur-covered creature a bit larger than an adult chimpanzee crept through the rift in the wall. It spied the red bubble and seemed to peer straight through it into Lucian's horror filled stare. The thing turned its strange-pupiled gaze to Jessie then and grinned, displaying a mouth full of deadly-looking teeth, even without clear detail. Like it didn't have a concern in the world, it sauntered boldly toward them, head cocked at an angle as it studied the shimmering liquid shield. Jessie shrank closer to Lucian, trembling and Lucian tried to recall everything he'd ever read about large predators, because the thing left no doubt that it was predator, they were prey.
"Try not to show fear, Jessie. Look at it directly but don't meet its eyes, he can't get us." At least he hoped.
The thing circled them, first a few feet away, then drawing close enough to touch. It lifted its oddly elongated snout to sniff the air close to shield, its jaws seeming to unhinge as it opened its snout and choked out strange barks before it licked the air with a giraffe of a tongue.
Lucian kept himself and Jessie still, following it with their heads but not moving otherwise.
The thing paused in its second circuit, directly in front of them. Grinning. It was grinning Lucian was sure, at Jessie, and at this range, he could confirm those teeth were definitely deadly. It lifted its heavy head back and gave voice to a creepy trilling sound that evolved into a deep growl.
A reply came from somewhere out of sight to the thing's rear, back through the ruined wall.
Ice shot through Lucian's veins. What if the shield wasn't enough to hold off more than one at a time? How could he protect Jessie from such things?
Two more loped through the opening in the wall to halt beside the first. The newcomers were smaller and lighter in color than the first, and when the thing chattered at them, they split up and started ransacking the room.
Lucian tried to keep an eye on all three, but they moved much too quickly, the two lighter ones shredding mattresses and pillows, dumping bags and ripping clothing apart. The first one continued inspecting the shield.
Beyond, the battle continued to rage with flashes of intense red light and moving shadows. The creature paused its circling of the shield and stepped even closer. Cocking its head to the other side, eyes riveted to Jessie, the thing brought one hand forward, five talon-tipped fingers spread wide. It paused just short of touching the shield and waited what felt like an eternity.
Finally it allowed the tip of its index finger to fall forward so that the talon first touched, then penetrated the liquid of the shield's outer wall, opening the way for the thing's whole index finger.
At first nothing happened and the thing grinned again, once more showing an unbelievable array of jagged spikes for teeth. Lucian held Jessie's head to his chest not wanting her to watch its clear eyes roam up and down her body. It dropped one hand to its groin and stroked a half-erect penis large enough to belong to a horse.
The obviously sexual threat made Lucian's gut seize up and turn to liquid. Don't show weakness or fear! He leaned slightly forward and drew his lips back in a snarl. "Get out of here!" Lucian shouted, his heart blasting inside his chest.
The creature's mouth flew open with two barking screams at Lucian. A faint sizzling noise began where the thing's finger went into the shield. A pale blue light rose around the point of contact, then quickly spread as the sizzling became louder and heavier.
The creature tried to pull its finger back and whined when it couldn't. It put its other hand flat against the shield and pulled harder, but that hand sank into the liquid as well and became stuck fast. Unable to free itself, the thing screamed and its compatriots came to investigate. One of them grabbed it around the middle and pulled while the third stood back and chattered nervously, shaking its head.
The creature's right hand suddenly came free with an agonized scream and a gush of blood. Its index finger remained embedded in the side of the shield. Screams and a great splash of blood erupted as the thing drew his other arm away, leaving the hand behind in the shield, burned clean off. Jessie gasped as they watched in horrified silence while the creature danced around, flinging blood in broad arcs. The other two watched with obvious glee, chattering and laughing as they pointed. After a moment, two more joined them, also enjoying the spectacle of their injured companion.
Were those the creatures, the abominations, the angels said the devil was creating? That was the only thing that really made any sense, unless Big Foot really did exist and these were his mutated offspring. Lucian could only be certain he'd never seen anything like those things before.
A bolt of scarlet lightening in the hole where the wall had been drew their attention away from the drama of lost appendages. Kassern limped toward the hole through settling dust and smoke with Troy's arm slung over his shoulder.
Troy sagged against Kassern's side, barely upright, head sagging forward, while Kassern's massive ruby wings rose above him. Directly behind them, close enough to touch, Karly and Devyn faced the rear and moved in a crouch, weapons held ready.
Kassern and Troy were obviously wounded, perhaps severely, since they had Devyn and Karly guarding the rear.
Lucian shouted at Kassern, hoping the angel could hear through his own shield.
All five creatures went silent and ghosted into cover. Kassern and the others were walking right into an ambush. What the hell could he do, trapped in a bubble?
Jessie dug through her ridiculously large handbag, rattling mysterious contents. Finally she presented a bright pink rhinestone-covered smartphone in one hand, pepper spray in the other.
Lucian failed to see the plan but he didn't have any better ideas. Did she hope to call for help? 911? She looked up at him, checking the pepper spray canister. "I don't want to be empty-handed if that shield somehow falls."
Lucian cringed as he realized just how useless and helpless he was to protect her.
Kassern slowed as they neared the hole in the wall and Karly and Devyn split up. Moving quickly, they each made a complete circuit of Kassern and Troy. Despite their speed, the women appeared to make a very thorough observation.
Karly and Devyn reunited at the rear and positioned themselves to guard both their flanks and their ass. Kassern shifted his grip on Troy and a massive machine gun materialized in his right hand.
Troy's head hung low and his right leg dragged useless between him and Kassern. His left leg functioned only marginally better. Blood drenched the lower right side of his robe, glistening eerily as light caught the incredibly fine white chainmail the robe was constructed from. Even seriously wounded, he carried his massive crossbow in his left hand, testament to the amazing strength he'd inherited in the union. That weapon, carved from a solid hunk of ruby had to weigh at least fifty pounds.
Lucian's heart pounded with apprehension. Now that he knew for sure the whole thing was real, he had no illusions that mankind's best chance lay with the people about to walk into an ambush.
Kassern finally stepped across the few inches of wall remaining at floor level and practically lifted Troy across at the same time. In the same instant, Devyn took over the rear guard and Karly leapt in front of Kassern, ready to fire on any threat. Jessie raised her phone, screen facing out and strobing red and blue light. One of the creatures broke cover to leap for Devyn's gun. She pulled the trigger while it was still in midair, cutting it down.
Kassern freed Jessie and Lucian with a glance and the shield dropped.
"There's four more!" Lucian's shout cut into the air the instant the shield came down.
In a flurry of action, Kassern flung the gun in an outward arc before him and bullets sprayed, dropping the hidden creatures. He turned and threw that red liquid shield up over the opening where the wall had been.
A quick check of the room apparently satisfied him with their safety for the moment, and Kassern turned to lift Troy to the nearest bed.
&nb
sp; Jessie stepped forward, pushing up her sleeves. "Can I help? I'm a nurse."
Kassern paused and glanced at her. "Unfortunately, these wounds aren't of the human type." He glanced back and surveyed the women, his head stilling at Karly. "Perhaps you can help Karly out of those clothes."
Lucian heard the annoyance in his tone.
So did Karly, who looked down at her outfit. "What?"
Lucian couldn't contain his smile when Jessie ignored the angel's orders and crowded in to examine everyone's injuries.
"You at least have a first-aid kit?" Jessie's professional tone rang through the disagreement. Devyn nodded and indicated a red plastic box, like a small toolbox, that sat on its side, ignored, on the dresser. Jessie retrieved it and started cataloging the contents, allowing the argument to continue around her.
"What?" Kassern easily lifted Troy and placed him on the bed then opened his robe from the front. He laid his hand over an ugly gaping hole and red light glowed. He glanced at Karly again. "Did you have to dress like a woman on the cover of one of those fantasy stroke magazines?"
She gasped and looked down. "This is decent." She lifted her skirt. "It's skorts see?"
Jessie knelt in front of Devyn, apparently having decided she needed medical attention first. "Let me see."
Devyn automatically followed orders as Jessie first inspected, then cleaned and bandaged cuts and scrapes.
"Well it doesn't look like you have anything under that short skirt and you're basically wearing a bra for a top." The angel's tone bit like a whip. He turned a laser sharp gaze to Jessie. "And I thought I told you these injuries weren't of the regular sort."
Jessie paused in what she was doing to look up and answer. "Yes, and I can easily tell the normal bumps and bruises from wounds inflicted by demons. The normal ones aren't black around the edges. A few of these normal cuts are pretty deep and need attention."