by Jill Cooper
“Jess—.” Duncan warned as she took aim. Heaven’s angels stared her down, but no one moved. Jessica had no ideas of how to get away from the flock or how to drive them from the church. Subduing her might be easy for an angel, and truth was, Jessica didn’t really want to find out. But the moment she started pulling the trigger and tried to kill agents of good like these, well the battle was over.
Jessica would really be lost and she didn’t want that any more than she wanted to lose Amanda to the underworld.
“We can save her. We can rid her of this curse. We just need more time.” Jessica’s voice pleaded.
An angel stepped from the crowd. She was unconcerned as she placed her hand on the barrel of Jessica’s gun. “That is not the real problem, Jessica. The real problem is the underworld is without its queen and that cannot be allowed to continue. The high court of Hell is spilling into the underworld. They are slithering up through the Earth and that is something that must be stopped.”
Jessica stood her ground, even as her head spun and her heart was rocked by the angel’s words. “So Lourdes was free and ready to destroy the world. Amanda slays Lourdes and this is the thanks she gets? No wonder no one wants to work for you guys.”
The angel’s face didn’t even flicker. Was there nothing Jessica could say or do to get through to them?
“As evil as Lourdes was, she played her part, as we all do. We regret Amanda’s been made to suffer after everything she’s done, but it’s the way of things.”
“I bet.” Jessica glared at her. “So where were you guys when we needed you? When our parents were killed and we needed saving? Where was our divine intervention?”
The angels glanced down at the ground. So, what, they could feel shame? Regret? Well, good. Good, that’s exactly what Jessica wanted them to feel.
“You cannot stand in our way, Jessica. If you do, no matter what good you’ve done in the past, heaven will smite you. We are sorry. We don’t want it to come to this, but continue down the path you’re on, and it’ll bring destruction to the world you’ve fought so hard to save. Amanda must take her place in the underworld.”
The angel seemed honest enough, but Jessica couldn’t just let them take Amanda. She just couldn’t. “So you’re here to convince me to step aside? To give up?”
The angel smiled. “You’ll never give up. It’s not in your nature. In the stars it’s written and there it shines, Jessica Blood will stop at nothing to save the ones she loves. Commendable, except in this instance,”
The legion of angels surrounding them drew their swords.
“Obstruction will lead to your death. Now put your weapon down or we will impale you, no matter how our hearts break for you. You stand against heaven; you die against heaven. Mercy will not be yours in the underworld. Regrettably, it is the way of things, child.”
Jessica glanced over at Duncan. She didn’t know what to do and from the scowl on Duncan’s face said he didn’t either. Her nose flared as Ron gripped the barrel of her gun and tore it from her hand.
“Ron,” Jessica gritted her teeth. What was he doing? What the hell, slimy butterball bastard—
“You’re going to get us all killed, you know that. And for what?” Ron handed the shotgun over to the angel in charge.
“Thank you, Ronald Wax,” The angel said with a nod of her head. “Your help was greatly appreciated.”
“You son-of-a-bitch,” Duncan whispered. “Damn it, Ron.”
Jessica thought to kill Ron in that moment. Had he been working with the angels from the moment he arrived in Vegas to help them? Had any of what he said been the truth?
Ron shrugged like he couldn’t decide between chicken and beef. As if it was nothing, and now Jessica might lose her sister—because of this guy? Because of the guilt Jessica carried, for what she did to Ron?
“What would you have me do? They can help me more than you can. More than her.” Ron pointed at Jessica. “They showed me what would happen here if I didn’t help. You’d all be dead and the human race, it’d be worse for wear. We can’t heal Amanda. Even if we could, we shouldn’t. If not for Amanda, who else can take the place in the underworld, huh?”
The angels sheathed their swords. “For your loss, Jessica. We are sorry.” They started their retreat from the church.
“Go to hell!” Jessica screamed and the angels paused. Did that insult hurt too much? Good, Jessica wanted to hurt them as she hurt, but she didn’t think it was possible. They spoke of crying in heaven, but Jessica couldn’t believe they knew what it was like. To lose a mother? A father?
A sister?
“If we meet again, your lives will not so easily be spared. Let this be a warning. Your one and final warning. If you stand against us again, you enter a battle you cannot win.”
Jessica watched them leave and with a giant boom, they took flight through the night’s sky. Just like that? They left just like that? But they didn’t even go into the back. They hadn’t got Amanda.
Oh, no….
Heart slew in her throat, Jessica ran for the basement so fast, she tripped and tumbled down the stairs. She landed at the foot of the cage. Please let it not be true, but her mind was spinning. The angels had been a distraction. They had been buying time. No—it was true.
Empty.
The cage was empty. Her sister was gone.
Chapter Twenty-Two: Amanda
Awake our queen, Awake.
Amanda moaned and rolled her head to the side. Conk-conk. Her temple collided with the side of steel bar. A cage. Gripping the bars, Amanda slowly looked around the room. A church. A different church, but the prison she was in vibrated with a familiar energy—just like the one Jessica had been placed in a few days ago.
So this was her sister’s big plan was? Use the church, as it had been used to heal Jessica?
Had a nice synergy to it, but it wouldn’t work. These bars would never hold her.
Amanda gripped them in her hands and shook the cage from side to side. Snarling, Amanda used her power to melt the bars, but it stayed locked. It wasn’t ready to open yet.
In her mind’s inner eye, Amanda saw demons circling. They were flocking to the church to get to her. Demons, they wanted to be near her now. Almost laughable if you considered they wanted her dead all her life. Yes, Amanda might laugh, if she didn’t just want to cry.
But she didn’t want any more death. Her friends were good people, loyal to a fault. Amanda didn’t want them to suffer just because they thought she could be saved. Just because they had hope when she had none. But Amanda could do so much more than just save herself. She could save everyone.
Everyone.
Amanda’s hand sparked and the cage door clicked. Unlocked, she pushed the door open and crawled out. On the outside, the surge of Lourdes’s power cranked back to full tilt. Amanda struggled with a deep breath feeling that surge of electricity racing through her veins. She crawled along the floor, sitting on the carpet and stared up at the bright window that once helped piece her soul back together.
She wondered…wondered.
Amanda placed her black vein stricken arm in the light of the window. Her hand tightened into a fist as smoke rose up on her skin. Groaning, she sucked her breath in and called out in pain. Could she be fixed…could she…?
Could it really be that easy?
The veins retreated, but then like a sprint runner they charged on, tightening across her arm. Amanda yanked it from the light and cradled it with her free hand. She sobbed, to think she was so foolish, and a prayer left her heart.
Am I still good? Do I have your favor at all anymore? God, please….
But those thoughts were pushed from her mind even as she begged for forgiveness. Even as she begged on bended knee to be accepted. Demons entered her thoughts and they were growling, drooling, mindless animals.
Stay where you are, for now. Hold your ground. When Jessica comes, if she comes, you slow her down, but you don’t kill her. You won’t harm another human again; do
you understand your queen?
Their movement stopped. They didn’t argue and they didn’t continue their march. Instead they bowed their heads and they just waited. Amanda too, was ready to make her escape. Ready to take her final into the underworld, but first a message. First a final good-bye.
Amanda pressed her finger into the carpet around the cage. The carpet burned with cursive writing. Bitterly, Amanda bit her lip and turned away from the message meant for her sister.
I’ve gone home. Goodbye, sister.
She escaped out the back door, and in the alley Miriam waited. Her hands were folded patiently, but as Amanda approached, her wings spread. Her eyes cast quickly across Amanda’s face, as if to stare upon her was too painful. “Humans on death row are allowed a last meal. A final wish. Before you are sealed away for an eternity, is there anything you’d like to see one last time? A special place?”
Amanda thought about it and she realized the message she wrote for Jessica was what she wanted to do more than anything. Her lip quivered. “I want to go home.” Tears rose so deep in her chest that Amanda could barely speak. “Since I was eight, I haven’t been home. I want to see it, one more time. Please.”
She could barely remember what it looked like. How it smelled.
Miriam nodded. “I can think of no greater final wish. Come.” She offered Amanda her hand.
Behind her, a voice shrieked. “Amanda!”
Amanda took Miriam’s hand and gazed at Jessica’s frantic face. Forever she’d remember the worry lines pressed around her eyes and how her mouth parted when she was most scared. “Goodbye,” Amanda said to her and ignored the shining tears in her own eyes.
“No!” Jessica screamed and lunged for Amanda.
Miriam took flight through the sky like an eagle and Amanda’s body transformed. She soared like a black crow toward the one place her heart longed to be.
Home.
Chapter Twenty-Two: Jessica
Her sister was gone. Ripped from her by the angels and cast off God knows where. For Jessica, defeat wasn’t an option. She turned on her heel and ran back inside the church. Didn’t know why, but Jessica needed to search the basement. There had to be a clue. A lead. Something.
If the trail was cold, Jessica couldn’t find Amanda, and if she couldn’t find her—No negative thinking. She would find her. She could still do this. She could.
But as Jessica heard footsteps charging down after her, hope left her. There was nothing here. No clue, no maps. No magical items that would lead Jessica to her sister.
An empty cage and nothing left behind.
Jessica would fail. She couldn’t do anything more than fall to the floor beside the cage and sob. The carpet on the floor was burned with fire and her finger stroked it. Amanda went home. That was the message she left, but how could she be so far gone that she would think of the underworld as home?
How? Why? The magic of Lourdes had her so messed up, that Jessica didn’t think she’d ever be able to reach her.
The pain kept on coming and she had no choice but to take it.
Duncan was on the ground beside her and Jessica didn’t know when he’d gotten there. She wasn’t sure if he said anything, but his hands caressed her shoulder. His face was against hers. “We’ll figure it out. We’ll get through this.”
That warmth and comfort? Jessica craved it, but didn’t want it. She needed to be strong. Push through. Love wasn’t the answer for her, but Jessica couldn’t push him away. A sob eked from her chest and she buried her face against his neck. Just feeling the heat of his flesh comforted her in ways Jessica couldn’t put into words.
But her fingers sought him out and gripped his. “With Amanda? Or without her?”
“With darling. Don’t count us out yet,” Duncan whispered and his lips grazed ever so gently against hers.
Thank God, he hadn’t given up. If he had, Jessica thought she might drown. Part of her had given up. Even now, Jessica didn’t see a way. What could they do against a flock of angels?
“You’re a fool if you go against them,” Ron said. Hands on his hips, he paced the room and leveled a stare straight through Jessica. “You heard what they said. The world is in danger without a replacement in the underworld. Don’t you care?”
Care? Jessica sat up straighter and her lip snarled. “Don’t you lecture me, Ron Wax. You played us. Played me from the moment you stepped into Vegas.”
Ron smiled and splayed his hands. “You fell for it too. Just the way I knew you would. Jessica Blood wears guilt like a badge of honor. I knew you wouldn’t question me after everything you forced onto me. You played right into my hands. All I had to do was save your precious Amanda…Even got you to agree to turn yourself in. Well, that was priceless!”
Smug smile. Jessica couldn’t stand to stare at it anymore. She rushed him, and cut him off mid-sentence. Grabbing the collar of his jacket, she jarred him against the wall, knocking over a table laden with old books. A look of panic set in on his face, as her hot breath washed over him.
“Get revenge on me all you want, but to put Amanda in the middle like that.” Jessica drove her elbow against his sternum and an uppercut into his jaw. Ron grabbed her jacket, but Jessica used the full force of her weight and anger to keep him pinned exactly where he was.
“I would have honored our agreement,” Jessica snarled. “I would’ve cleared your name, you, jackass.”
“And if we were all dead? What good would that have done any of us?” Ron asked. “She doesn’t want to be saved; I know it’s hard for you to let her go—.”
Jessica couldn’t listen to his rationalizations. Her knee came up sharp between his legs and when he groaned, stooping to clutch himself, Jessica hit him sharply with two fists over the head.
“Okay, okay,” Duncan wrapped his arms around her and pulled her off, as the portly man slumped to the ground. “I think you’ve had your say, right? Ready to work through this and come up with a plan?”
She exhaled and felt a little better, but looking into Ron’s beady little eyes didn’t help much. “Get out of here,” Jessica kicked her leg out toward him. “If I see you again before this is done, you’re dead.”
Ron scampered away from the wall before he stood. Teetering on his feet, he grabbed at a table for support. “Neither of you are worth spit. Guess you should’ve killed me when you had the chance, huh? When you slaughtered all my friends.”
“I guess I should have.” Jessica picked up a candlestick holder and flung it after him. He scampered for the stairs and it bounced off the doorframe and tumbled to the floor.
“Feel better?” Duncan asked.
Jessica couldn’t tell, but she thought his voice might be free of judgment. “A little bit, but I don’t know what our next play is. How do we find out where she’s gone to? For all we know, she’s sealed into the underworld already.”
“Let’s go find out.” Duncan slid a toothpick into his mouth and it caused Jessica to give a little smile.
She followed Duncan out of the church. “First, I better call in to Aunt Gwen and let her know what’s happened. She might have an idea that I haven’t thought of.”
Duncan patted Jessica on the arm. “Maybe we could ask them.”
Them? Her eyes swept far across the street, just past the brick buildings that lined the corner. Between the alleys were men in dark glasses and jackets. Men just standing there, staring at them.
If Jessica didn’t miss her guess, they were demons awaiting orders from their new queen.
Well, this was could be interesting.
****
“They’re not moving.” Adorable as he was, Duncan had a penchant for stating the obvious.
Jessica and Duncan advanced on the demon horde that was standing in the alley. Now, Jessica was close enough to touch one she saw maggots churning in their faces. These demons were new. Their appearance muddier than the pink human skin they usually wore.
They must have just finished clawing their way topside.
/>
“Hey,” she shoved the tip of her finger beneath the demon’s jaw, “why are you all just standing around?”
He flinched, but his eyes were protected by sunglasses, so Jessica couldn’t see how he was reacting. Simple enough, she ripped them off and threw them down to the ground. His eyes circled back to her and he barred his jagged teeth.
“Waiting.” He hissed like he didn’t want to speak to her at all. So, the hate was mutual. Good, Jessica could use that to her advantage. .
“For?” Jessica led.
“Our queen told us to wait here.” The demon sighed and the others behind him sighed too. “We just want to be close to her. Want to be with her. We need….”
“We need her,” the rest of the demons chorused together, almost like a song.
It just made Jessica’s skin crawl. “Demons didn’t need Lourdes.”
“Not old ones, no. But we’re still young. Fresh. We were Lourdes’s legion. We need the new queen to help finish us.”
Gross. Jessica’s nose crinkled. “Can you sense where she is? Is that what brought you here?”
The demon answered through a clenched jaw. “Yes. She told us not to advance closer. To wait. No more harm…can come to the humans.”
Jessica snorted and glanced at Duncan. He gave a shrug of his shoulders, yeah, Jessica couldn’t believe it either. “So I can shove my finger up your ass and you can’t hurt me? Was it always this simple?”
Duncan shrugged. “Pretty sure nothing is ever simple.”
“Don’t push it,” The demon said. “We are not allowed to hurt you, but we can stop you. Push us too far, and we’ll see how close to the line we can really get.”
Jessica left the demon there while she and Duncan moved off for a little sidebar. “What do you think? Do you think we can…well, trust these demons?” Duncan asked.
She snorted and crossed her arms. “I wouldn’t trust a demon as far as I can fling their guts, but if he can sense Amanda, we need his help. We need to take him with us.”