by L. L Hunter
“Grandma?” asked Eden. “What happened?” The look on her grandmother’s face hit her like an arrow to the heart. She hoped no one had died.
“It’s the demons. They’ve started attacking. Some have breached the wards of the Academy. Several students are dead.” Then she looked to Gabe. As she spoke the last words, her voice broke. “Including your grandmother, Gabe. I’m so sorry.”
Melody gripped Gabe’s arm, but he pulled away. He held up his right palm. Green electricity began to spark from it.
“Let’s finish this.”
Chapter 17
What’s taking him so long?” Willow exclaimed. “I wanna get this over with.” She lay on the bed in the makeshift operating room and wreathed in discomfort and impatience. It had been hours since she had let Melody go and collected the last of her blood. And now she was getting sick of lying on this bed while Melody’s blood flowed into her body.
“We still have two more bags of blood to go through before the soul can be inserted. Patience,” said the male demon.
“Ugh. Well, is it at least working?” She craned her neck, trying to see the computer that was connected to her, but all she could see were blurred lines zigzagging across the monitor.
“We won’t be sure until afterwards.”
She let out a long sigh. “Fine. I just wish Abraham would hurry up. What the heck has he been doing this whole time?”
As if the mere mention of his name had summoned him, the door opened, and Abraham sauntered in. The two crystal spheres which held his soul and Jazmine’s clinked together at his throat.
“About time! Where have you been?” Willow tried to sit up, but the demon nurse pushed her back down. She waved him away. He sure was bossy. She would have to fire him, she thought.
“Taking care of business. It’s done,” Abraham said, brushing invisible dirt off his hands.
Willow studied his face for any sign of what the former Angel of Death had been up to the past few hours, but he had the best poker face she had ever seen.
“What’s done? What did you do?”
“I did what you asked. I went for the heart.”
“What are you talking about? I didn’t ask you to do anything.”
“Or maybe it was Samson,” he said, scratching his stubbled chin in confusion. His curly light brown hair was unkempt, and he wore a checked shirt that was ripped at the bottom. She guessed he cared less about his appearance after losing Jazmine’s body. “Anyway, I found Gabriel’s weakness and exploited it. My demons have breached the wards and attacked. The Nephilim are wounded literally. It’s the perfect distraction.”
“You went after Gabriel? You didn’t kill his lover, did you?”
“No. She’s human now. She’s already weak. No, I killed his grandmother, the principal of the Academy, along with several of the students.”
“You idiot! You know that wasn’t in the plan. Now they’re going to come after us tenfold and bring back-up.”
“Yes, yes. I know. But not for a while. We still have time to finish this off,” he said, gesturing at Willow laying on the bed with the tubes of blood flowing into her.
“Let’s get this over with then. I need to test if it’s working.” Willow lay back on the bed. Then she turned her head and met his gaze. “I need you to kill me.”
Chapter 18
2 hours earlier
Abraham dissipated into smoke and reformed outside of Michael Academy. He stood on the opposite side of the street and made sure to remain within the shadows of the buildings around him so he wouldn’t stand out or be seen by anyone looking through the windows across the street. He watched as his army of demon soldiers swarmed closer and closer to the invisible barrier surrounding the angel school. There was only one way to infiltrate the magical wards that kept beings like him out. He would have to possess one of the students with a demon soul. But it would have to be someone with mostly angel blood so the wards wouldn’t detect any trace of the demon soul inside.
And thanks to the thousands of demons surrounding the school, the principal had ordered every student inside. His plan had turned around him and bit him in the arse. He would have to wait it out.
Thankfully, he didn’t have to wait very long. Around the corner came a young woman and man. But that was not the concern. What worried Abraham was the six-foot-tall male guardian angel tailing the couple.
So, Scarlett had sent more guardians to earth.
Guardian angels were some of toughest angelic beings out there. They were fierce warriors. One of them had destroyed Jazmine’s body.
But he was the still the Angel of Death unofficially. Young Max Blackbell was still in training and finishing his schooling. He would have to do this on his own. Well, not completely alone. He had his demons. He closed his eyes and whispered to all the demons floating nearby.
“I have a job for three of you.” He sent the message telepathically.
“Yes, Master,” replied one of the demons.
“What do you want us to do?” said another.
“See the three people walking down the street in front of me?”
“Yes,” hissed a few.
“I need you to possess them. Only three. One host each. The rest of you, get as close as you can to the wards. They’re about to be breached.”
“Yes, Master.”
One by one, Abraham watched as three demons approached the two Nephilim and the guardian angel. They turned themselves translucent and snaked their way into each of their unsuspecting hosts. They each gasped as the demon entered them, and then Abraham watched on in glee as their eyes turned inky black before turning back to their normal eye colour. Phase one of his plan was complete.
“That was easy,” he muttered to himself. “Now for phase two. Time to breach the wards.”
The three possessed angels walked up the stairs toward the front doors of the Academy and entered. The wards wavered as they passed through, but they didn’t prevent them from entering. They were through. Phase two was complete.
Now onto the next part. He sent out another message to his demon army as he crossed the street.
“It’s time. The wards have been breached. Let’s go inside.”
He walked straight up the doors and pulled them open. The alarms sounded. He held up his hand to signal his army, and then as one dark inky mass, they entered the Academy.
The windows burst inward, exploding in a shower of glass, and the demons swarmed in. Students screamed and tried running away, but it was no use. The demons picked them up like toys, snapping the necks of some and possessing others.
As Abraham walked into the spacious foyer, he looked around and soon found what he was looking for. Lucky for him, his target and most of the students were huddled together in the one place. No, wait. He couldn’t see Melody or Gabe. Eden and Asher and Max weren’t there either.
“Where are they?” he demanded, grabbing Ms Abigrine by the neck and holding her up in the air.
“I… I don’t know what you’re talking about.” she spluttered. She desperately tried to gasp for air, but the reaper’s hand only squeezed tighter on her windpipe.
“You’re Gabriel’s grandmother. Correct?”
Her eyes went wide with fear. He squeezed her neck again, and she gasped her answer.
“What was that? I can’t hear you.”
“Yes. Gabe is my grandson. Please don’t hurt him.”
“Tell me where he and his friends are, and you’ll live. If not, you and all your students will die horrible, horrible deaths.”
Ms Abigrine wriggled and squirmed under his grasp, and he reluctantly set her back down on the ground. He let her go so she could talk. She rubbed her throat as soon as he let go.
“Where are they? Where are Gabriel and Max?”
She met his gaze and stood up straight. “I will never tell you where they are.”
Abraham growled. “Very well.”
Then he reached forward and took her head in his hands and twisted. He snap
ped her neck and threw her lifeless body to the ground. He was about to walk away from the carnage and devastation he had caused when an idea came to him. With a smirk, he reached down and reaped the grandmother’s soul from her body and put it safely inside a crystal sphere, and then hung it around his neck. He now had his leverage. Now to send a message and wait.
“Let’s go,” he said to his demons, and then he walked out of the Academy, his boots treading in pools of blood on the way.
Chapter 19
Present
When Gabe, Melody and their friends, along with the rest of the guardians and Beth made it back to the Academy, the aftermath of Abraham’s presence left them devastated. They felt like the scene in front of them. Ripped apart and broken. There were bodies and glass everywhere. Blood coated the walls like macabre new paint, and all of the chandeliers were laying on the ground in pieces.
“Oh, my God!” cried Beth.
“Gabe…” Melody tried to grab his arm, but he was running down the corridor. “Gabe?”
She found him in the doorway to the dining room kneeling in front of a body. When Melody got closer, she was shocked to discover it was his grandmother and the principal of the school, Ms Abigrine.
“Oh, no.” She knelt down beside Gabe. Ms Abigrine had bruising around her neck, and he body lay broken on the tiled floor. Her neck was bent at an awkward angle. Her neck had been broken. She wished she could have protected him from this. She wished she could have protected him from all the stuff he had gone through lately. A boy that young shouldn’t have to lose almost all the family he had ever known in such a short span of time. He shouldn’t have had to experience this. No one should.
But this was the world they lived in, unfortunately. Melody placed a hand on his shoulder. He looked up at her with tears in his eyes.
“I’m so sorry,” she told him.
“No. Don’t. It’s my fault. All this has happened because of me.” He pushed himself to his feet. His fists were clenched, and green sparks were coming from them.
“I’m going to kill that son of a bitch and finish this once and for all.” He started for the door.
“Okay, but I’m coming with you. I know where they are.” Melody ran after him. He stopped before reaching the doors and turned to her.
“Are you sure?”
“I may be human now, Gabe. But deep down, I am still Melody. And I love you. I am never leaving your side for as long as you live.”
“Good.” He pulled her to him and kissed her like it was the last kiss they were ever going to share. “I love you too, by the way.”
The others joined them at the doors. Gabe turned to face them.
“Who’s ready to kill a reaper?”
“Say that again?” Abraham was distracted. He was still reeling from killing Gabriel’s grandmother and some of her students. But he hadn’t meant to. He merely did it to lure Gabriel and Max in. Those boys were still a risk to him, Jazmine, and demon-kind. They couldn’t be allowed to live. He had hoped they would be at the school, but somehow, he knew they wouldn’t. That was too easy. So, where were they? That’s why he’d sent a telepathic message to Max as he left the school.
“Tell Gabriel I have his grandmother’s soul. If he wants it back, come to the hospital in West London. The one across from the old cemetery.”
Max was sitting with Aria and his friends when he received the message from Abraham. Dyston and Lakyn had been called in to help with the plan of attack, as well as Samuel, as they were well versed in battle strategy. He and Aria, as well as Eden and Asher, had been sitting outside in the garden when it happened. Eden had just risen to her feet after laying on the soft grass beside Asher. She’d wanted to help with the battle plan. So, she was walking toward the house when Max cried out. She spun around and ran back to him.
“Max?!” she screamed. Aria was holding him and supporting him as his eyes rolled back in his head.
“What’s going on?” asked Aria.
“It looks like he’s receiving another vision. Just let it run its course. Hold him, Aria.” Eden sat on the opposite side of Max as the vision took over.
Abraham stood in front of the Academy. In the background filling the sky with darkness, turning it into a premature night, were thousands of demons. Abraham’s red eyes stared straight into Max’s soul. When he spoke, his words were haunting and made his blood freeze in his veins.
“Tell Gabriel I have his grandmother’s soul. If he wants it back. Come to the hospital in West London. The one across from the old cemetary.”
Then he blinked and the vision faded to black.
* * *
Max sat up gasping.
“Max? What did you see?” asked Eden.
He pushed himself to his feet with Aria’s help and began to run to the house.
“I need to find Gabe!”
Eden, Asher, and Aria followed him, and when they joined him in the dining room of the Sanctuary, the biggest room in the house, Max was holding onto Gabe’s arms and speaking to him frantically.
Lakyn met his daughter’s gaze across the room, and then looked at Max and Gabe.
“What’s going on, kids?”
“It’s Abraham,” said Gabe, stepping forward to address the room. Everyone stopped what they were doing to listen to him. “He’s stolen my grandmother’s soul to send a message to me. He wants me to meet him at the hospital in West London. Near the entrance to the Realm of Death. I’m going, and I need your help. We’re going to end this once and for all. I’m going to kill Abraham and anyone else he’s working with. Who’s with me?”
The guardian angels hollered and hooted, and his friends stepped forward and told him they were with him. But not everyone was happy. His aunt Rachael walked forward with a sad expression on her face.
“Gabe?” she said. He turned to face his aunt, and the expression on her face instantly made him regret his decision.
“Aunt Rachael, I’m sorry. There’s no other way. I have to do this. He’s not going to stop until Max and I are dead. You and Uncle Lakyn will help me, won’t you?”
“Of course, we will. And I want him dead as much as anyone, but please, don’t do anything reckless. I love you like my own son, Gabe.” Her voice broke with the onset of tears as she spoke the next few words. “Your uncle and I have been talking about this for a while, and we wanted to ask you if you’ll let us adopt you.”
A lump formed in Gabe’s throat as he considered his aunt’s words. “You… you want to adopt me?”
“Yes. If that’s okay. I want you to know that we’ll always be here for you.”
He threw his arms around her waist. “Thank you,” he whispered. Tears fell soaking into his aunt’s shirt. Rachael sniffled and kissed her nephew’s head.
“You’re most welcome.”
Chapter 20
The hospital in West London didn’t look like your usual hospital on the outside. It looked more like an apartment block, but that was one reason why Abraham and Willow had chosen that location. The other reason was that of its location. It was situated just across the street from the cemetery which housed the entrance to the Realm of Death. It was quite an obvious location, Abraham thought, as he waited for Gabe to show. He stood at the window on the top floor and looked down on the path leading up to the front door. It was growing dark, just turning dusk, and it had been raining all day steadily. The old gas lamppost outside the hospital cast an eerie golden sheen across the black asphalt.
“What are you looking at? We’re running out of time.” Willow had been moved to the upper floor. The transfusion was complete, but a nasty reaction had occurred when her body started to reject Melody’s blood. She had gone into shock, and her heart had stopped. While she was temporarily dead, Abraham inserted Jazmine’s soul into Willow’s body and waited. That was when it happened.
Nothing.
Nothing happened.
Willow didn’t wake up. That was an hour ago. Abraham was still waiting, and his patience was growing th
inner by the minute. So he had taken to pacing in front of the bed where Willow lay and the window. But he was done waiting. He went back to Willow. Willow was dead, and now the soul of his true love lay dormant inside.
“Come on, love. Wake up.”
He heard a sound on the roof followed by more sounds coming from downstairs. He listened and heard voices and footsteps. He smirked, stroking Jazmine’s new face.
“They’re here.”
“It’s a funny spot for a lair,” mused Gabe.
“It’s close to the Realm of Death,” said Eden.
“It’s an old hospital, which was perfect for what they are planning to do—or have already done,” added Melody.
“Is everyone ready?” asked Dyston. Everyone nodded and moved off. Scarlett and Dyston worked together, scanning the surrounding bushes and the building for demons. Samuel and Ruth went to the rooftop with some of the guardians, and Lakyn and Rachael stood with the teens Asher, Eden, Max, Aria, Melody, and Gabe at the entrance to the hospital. They each got their traits and weapons ready and then entered the hospital.
They had searched all the rooms for signs of life—of the human, angel or demon-kind anyway—but found nothing but empty drug bottles or cat poop. Stray cats and drug users had been its only residents. Melody paused outside the room where she had been held captive. The room in which her immortal life had ended.
“Hey, are you okay?” Gabe asked, stopping beside her. The others went ahead and scanned the rest of the rooms. Melody was stuck, frozen in place. She wasn’t talking, either. She was in shock. Gabe slid his hand in hers and tugged. That snapped her out of it.
“Yeah. I’m fine. Let’s go.” They walked along the shadowy corridor. It was filled with old rusty bed frames and food carts that had long been raided for their contents. Discarded syringes were also scattered along the dusty floor.