by Amy Braun
“It wasn’t fake,” I told him confidently. “Nothing fake would be that goddamn painful.”
Michael opened is mouth to say something else, but turned around as the curtains behind him were drawn apart. Sephiel appeared in the doorway, looking between Michael and me. He seemed amazed that we weren’t trying to stab each other. Frankly, so was I.
“It is time for a new watch.”
“No,” I countered. “It’s time to wake everyone up. We’re ending this now.”
Sephiel hesitated. “Constance, I realize that being without Dro is agonizing to you, but–”
“This isn’t about Dro,” I cut in. “This isn’t about getting revenge or running or waiting for Lucifer’s next move. This is about doing what we should have been doing in the first place. Closing the Hell Gate.”
I heard Max creaking the floorboards on his way down the stairs. Warrick opened the storeroom door behind me a second later. I looked at Michael, but spoke for all of them.
“You can confirm that Mateo and Drake will have the fragments?”
Michael was practically grinding his teeth when he nodded.
“Then we need to draw them out. If we can lead them out of the city, we can kill them and remove the last two fragments, and close the Hell Gate.”
Michael started to protest that we didn’t know which of them might have the fragment inside of the, or that Dro might contain one inside of her, but I wasn’t going to entertain that idea for myself until I saw her and had more proof.
“If nothing else, we can get them out of the city for a few hours. People might come to their senses and leave. Even if we save one person’s life, it will be worth it.”
Michael narrowed his eyes defiantly, but I was beyond caring. I’d given him the most important warning I could. He was difficult to read, but I would go with my gut in thinking he would let me handle Dro.
“Lucifer will likely be coming with them,” Warrick said. “Dro too.”
It hurt to hear him speak her name so grimly. “Focus on destroying the fragments. If we need to escape, we can use the movens caeli. Right, Max?”
“Yeah,” he confirmed hesitantly. “I guess. But where are we going to go to draw their attention? Mateo and Drake are Lucifer’s pet pit-bulls.”
“There’s one thing we can do that I know will get their attention.” I turned to look directly at Max. “Do you trust me?”
He grimaced. “Yeah, but when you say that I wonder if I should.”
I grinned for the first time in days. Too bad it was the grin I’d used as an enforcer to terrify my targets. Warrick, Sephiel, and Michael tensed uncomfortably, and Max actually shrank back a little. Good to know I hadn’t lost my charm.
“Pack up your stuff, boys. It’s time I took you to my place.”
***
Mateo hadn’t changed anything about the Rocha hacienda since the death of his father. It was still a beautiful, two-story plantation house made of dark brown sandstone. Tall palm trees were behind the perfectly trimmed hedges that lined the cobblestone driveway. The road circled near the front of the house, a huge white marble fountain in the middle of the circle. Dim, gold light shone through the curved arches of the windows. On the left of the main house was a narrow apartment building where the housekeepers, cooks, groundskeepers, and security lived. Where Dro and I used to live.
It was hard not to think about the memories I had attached to this place. Granted, most of them were tainted by Emilio’s omnipotence, Mateo’s betrayal, or the physical and emotional tortures I’d suffered here, but not every memory was a bad one. Dro and I had been safe from the demons. She’d been loved and accepted by the staff. I learned how to fight and grew stronger. I’d fallen in love. It had been a fucked up life, but it had been a stable one.
I might miss this place one day. But not tonight.
We hid in the trees behind the staff apartment, away from the gates and any guards who might have been walking the grounds. I looked at Max.
“You see anybody inside?” I whispered.
He closed his eyes and sighed. As he concentrated, I looked at the rest of the group. We’d had to raid an auto-repair shop to get dark coveralls for Sephiel and Michael to wear, Max and Warrick had donned darker clothes, and I had raided Maria’s closest until I found another plain black shirt to replace the one that had been soaked in blood.
I wondered if I would ever have a time in my life where I could wear a new color and not worry about it getting covered in grime and gore.
Michael was holding one can of gas, and Warrick had the other. Given how many fires were burning in Juárez, you’d think that everyone would be hogging petrol, but that turned out not to be the case. We were lucky, in a brutally ironic way.
Max exhaled and opened his eyes. “You’ll get in fine,” he said. “The big players aren’t inside, but there are guards. You’ll have to be careful and sneak around them, because they all have Mateo on speed dial. We light our fire as soon as you get back out here, and then we’re gone.”
I nodded. When he could see them, Max’s visions were usually solid, but that wasn’t to say that things couldn’t go wrong. We’d play it just as safe as if he hadn’t made any confirmation.
“All right,” I breathed, rolling my shoulders. “Let’s start the barbecue.”
I slipped out of the cover of the trees and jogged toward the back of the apartment. Warrick and Sephiel followed me, Sephiel covering the rear while Warrick did his best to keep the sloshing gasoline quiet in its can. I pressed myself to the wall, looking around the corner to make sure the coast was clear. When I didn’t see any Blood Thorns coming or going, I sprinted out and ran for the side of the hacienda.
We made it without getting caught. I mentally thanked Max for his gifts, but knew better than to get cocky. I peered around the side of the windowsill and flicked my eyes through the hardwood and sandstone walled room. Two elegantly carved high-backed chairs with wine-colored leather seats were placed on the far ends of the stretching, black wood table. Under the table was a red and black Victorian style carpet. It was the perfect place for cover, among other things.
I stood in front of the window and slipped a knife out of my jacket. I laid the blade flat on the sill, sliding it under the small crack holding it shut. I found the latch and flipped the blade to push it open. My fingers squeezed under the narrow crevice and pushed up. I jumped at the sharp, grinding noise made by the window as it slid up, but no guards came running, so I figured we were still in the clear.
I hooked my leg over the ledge and ducked into the dining room, the familiar smell of roses and spice filling the air. How many meals did I have in here? How many times was I living a lie with the face of a family?
Shutting the memories away, I watched the entranceway while Warrick and Sephiel climbed in.
“Start in here,” I whispered, slowly making my way toward the kitchen.
The smell of gas filled the room as they splashed it onto the floor. I stopped at the entranceway and pressed my back to the doorframe. I couldn’t see anyone at the front of the house, but I heard voices echoing from the depths of it.
“Hey, you smell that?” one of them said.
“Smell what?”
I looked over my shoulder, seeing Sephiel standing across from me. We nodded to each other.
“Man, it doesn’t smell like gas to you?”
They were in perfect range. Before his friend could respond, I swung out from the dining room and jabbed the man closest to the wall in the face. His friend was reaching for a gun when Sephiel appeared and grabbed his wrist. The shocked man tried to swing at the ex-angel, but Sephiel was too quick. He delivered a vicious uppercut to the Blood Thorn’s jaw, then crashed his elbow into the top of his head.
While he was doing this, I was moving in on the Blood Thorn I had punched. Now that I had the space, I was able to spin and deliver a roundhouse kick the side of the head. He was unconscious before he hit the floor.
Sephiel and I grabb
ed them and began dragging them out of sight. Warrick was looking at me for direction, holding the gas can tightly in his fist.
“Do the kitchen next,” I told him.
Warrick nodded and darted out of the dining room. Sephiel looked at me as he pulled the second body along the marble floor.
“It does not seem fair to leave them inside when we do this,” he panted.
He was right. Yes, these men were Blood Thorns, part of the most ruthless gang in all of Ciudad Juárez, but I didn’t recognize them. They had been hired after I’d left, so I didn’t know if they’d found themselves in the same hopeless situation I had. Lost and scared, running from something they thought would be more dangerous than what they were running to.
It had been a long time since I felt sympathy for a Blood Thorn.
“Yeah,” I agreed, looking around the house. “We’ll leave them in the hallway,” I said, pointing to the corridor behind the kitchen. “They can get out of the basement that way.”
Sephiel nodded and we started dragging the bodies again. A couple minutes later, we left the two men in a heap and hurried back around the corner into the kitchen. The entire room stank of gasoline. I tasted the fumes in the back of my throat and felt them sting my eyes. Warrick finished turning on all the burners on the stove, then grabbed some meat from the fridge and threw it onto the stovetop. He coughed into his sleeve, then turned to look at me. He held out a gas lighter that he’d found in one of the cabinets.
“Care to do the honors?” he asked me.
“Definitely,” I replied. “After we get the fuck out of here.”
Warrick didn’t need to argue with that. The three of us ran back the way we’d come, not caring about subtlety as smoke began to rise from the stove. I stopped at the end of the gas trail, careful not to step in any of it, then took the lighter from Warrick. I hesitated for a moment, hoping that all of the staff was sleeping in the apartment, and that this trick would work. I wondered if Lucifer would find a way to rein Mateo’s anger. I doubted it was possible, since Mateo’s hatred for me was insatiable, but the King of Hell didn’t get his title by being lenient and understanding.
At the same time, I found myself needing this. Burning away a dark part of my life wouldn’t wipe the blood from my hands or save my soul. It wasn’t right, and doing it for revenge wouldn’t make me happier. But it was a part of my life that I wanted to let go. By burning the hacienda to the ground, I could be saving people from a huge mistake. Maybe it wouldn’t make a difference. The Blood Thorns weren’t the only gang in Juárez, merely the worst.
But there would be one person out there who might thank me for this. More than that, I could close this chapter of my life forever. The ghost of my old self still lived in these walls. She needed to be set free before we met again on the other side.
I clicked on the lighter, and pressed it to the petrol soaked carpet. The tiny flame ignited the gasoline with a powerful whump. I stepped back to avoid the flames, Warrick gripping my shoulders and pulling me toward the window. He saw me through before climbing out to safety. I stepped back, watching the blaze rise from the carpet to the dining table. It ate up the chairs and devoured the curtains. I watched the wall of fire through the box of the window, knowing the fire was following the trail into the kitchen where everything was set to explode.
Warrick grabbed my hand and dragged me out of range. We ran with Sephiel toward the front lawn where Michael and Max were drawing the note in gasoline. I don’t remember the last time I’d run that fast. I listened to people shouting from the inside of the hacienda and the staff apartment. We had just reached Max and Michael when half of the hacienda exploded.
Even from the distance, I could feel the heat of the massive blaze. My ears rang as the blasting sound echoed through the night, burning debris flying through the air and landing on the ground. All the lights in the apartment were on now. We had to move fast.
“Is it ready?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Max replied, stepping back from the grass and digging the movens caeli out of his pocket. “But I don’t know how long the effect will last.”
I spun the lighter and looked at the gasoline drenched grass. “It’ll last long enough for Dro to understand what it means.”
The guys stepped back while I bent down and ignited the gas. I lurched away from the blaze, caught by Warrick who held me close while Max opened the golden cap on the heaven-mover. The world erupted into golden light and white noise, but all I could think of was the burning house and the two words I left for my sister.
OWL CREEK.
Chapter 23
Owl Creek RV Park had been abandoned after the massacre nearly seven years ago. After the formal investigation that took months to discern why nearly three hundred people had been suddenly and mysteriously butchered, park officials had wisely closed the park. The investigation became a cold case, since nothing could account for the mangled corpses, missing limbs, and scorched trees. Superstitious believers had claimed that the massacre was caused by everything from werewolves to aliens to the wrath of God.
The only survivors had been Dro and me, and we had been too busy running to come forward and tell the truth. Even if we had gone to the authorities, who would have listened to two orphans claiming it was monsters from another dimension? That was the fast track to a foster home and ultimately separation.
Not that it mattered, did it? You still lost Dro anyway.
Grief stung my heart, but I pushed it down. This was finally going to end tonight. I looked at the grass, and kicked a clump of dirt. Maybe lying underneath it wouldn’t be as bad as I thought.
“How long do you think we have?” Warrick asked.
“Not long,” Max said. His jaw was set in concentration. “They’re just getting the word that something is wrong, but they’re still a couple hours away from the hacienda.”
“Perhaps it is time to make one final battle call,” Michael said. We turned around to look at him. “Every angel wanted to see the end of Lucifer’s reign. Perhaps some of them are still willing to fight for it.”
Michael held out his hand to take the movens caeli from Max, then looked at Sephiel. The ex-angel who rebelled against Heaven to protect the daughter of Lucifer, was visibly surprised. He looked at us, as if he wasn’t sure where he was needed more.
“Go on, Seph,” I told him. “Just hurry up.”
Sephiel held my eyes and nodded gratefully. There was a small smile on his face, a way of saying he was thankful.
Don’t thank me unless we live through this.
Sephiel gripped Michael’s arm, then they blinked out into thin air.
“Think they’ll be able to find anybody?” Max asked dubiously.
“Guess it doesn’t hurt to try.” I turned around to face Max. “You’re going to stay hidden, right?”
Max frowned. “Look, I know I’m not Hercules or Captain America or whatever, but I can still fight, Constance. You’re going to need all the help you can get.”
“True, but what I need more is for you to be safe. If something happens to me, but Dro lives–”
“Nothing’s going to happen to you.”
I forgot whatever I was going to tell him. That was the kind of sentence I would expect from Warrick, not Max. But he looked as determined as I’d ever seen him.
“You’re the toughest woman I know. If anybody survives, it’s going to be you. Besides, Dro can’t live without you.” His dark, puppy eyes were sad. “I don’t know what she’s going through, but she’ll come back to herself. When she does, she’s going to need you more than she ever needed me.”
I didn’t want to give him a pitying look, but I couldn’t help it.
“Max…”
He waved me off. “It’s okay. You both have something that I can’t match. I get it, and it doesn’t make me upset. Dro needs to be loved, and nobody cares about her as much or the way you do. I love her with my heart and soul, but I can never compare to you. And that’s okay, because she’ll kn
ow that she’s always going to be loved by somebody if everyone else is gone.”
I’d seen Max as a friend from the moment he stopped being scared of me. Over the last few months, I started seeing more of a brother. We shared the loss of a father figure and cared about the same girl, if in different ways. Max knew what he was and what he wasn’t, yet he always stayed, even when he was hopelessly out of his depth. I couldn’t have been more grateful to have met him.
I flung out my arms, snared him, and crushed him into a hug. Max sputtered, obviously more shocked than I was. But soon his arms looped around my back and he settled into the embrace.