by Misty Evans
They all knew who I was talking about. Dru played dumb anyway. “Arman? Maddy’s tending to his wounds. He’ll be fine in a day or two.”
Traitor. I turned to Cole. “Where is il pistolino?”
What I really wanted to ask was, how could he do this to me?
A deafening explosion hit the church, worse than the previous one. Everyone dove for cover.
Everyone but me.
I faced the front opening, feeling angelic magic flooding my house with a fiery concentration of power and strength.
But the angel didn’t come through the front door. He ripped off the roof.
Michael, on a mission to take back his beloved sword, descended from heaven on a horse breathing fire and brimstone. Revenge was in his eyes.
Chapter Fifty-one
Would the sword work against its master?
I didn’t know, nor did I care. I raised it, mimicked War’s battle cry and launched myself into the air.
We met in what was previously my second story bedroom. All that remained was a hole in the center and the walls around the outside edge.
I swung the sword blindly, not sure how I was managing to fly. My feet peddled air—a Wile E. Coyote imitation—and yet I continued to rise instead of fall.
My demon burst forth in a show of black lightning bolts, reflecting the flames shooting from Michael’s steed. Both the angel and his horse were ginormous. I must have truly looked like an ant attacking a giant.
I didn’t care. I cursed Michael, calling him every name in my wide lexicon of swear words. Shaking the sword at him, I blasted him with evil energy. “This is my home, my town. These are my friends. You’re not welcome here on Earth.”
My tantrum was short lived. He took one look at me and sneered. White light exploded from his eyes, twin laser beams of death and destruction. They hit me in unison, ripping through me and catapulting my body end over end until I lost momentum and fell toward the ground.
I was out over the cemetery, the marble grave markers and snow-covered ground speeding toward me much too fast. Welcoming it, I let the sword fall from my hand as I prepared myself to die.
The beat of giant wings filled my ears. A powerful rush of angelic mojo caught me and suddenly the sword was back in my possession.
“Your raw gutsiness is admirable,” Lucifer said in my ear as he wrapped those beautiful wings around me. “But your life is not forfeit today.”
He swooped through the air, avoiding a blast of fire from Michael’s horse, then landed with me in the cemetery. A protective bubble of magic formed over us.
My demon bowed her head, disappointed she didn’t get to take a swing at Michael, but relieved too. The rest of me was simply raw, miffed I’d been cheated out of death. “Damon’s dead.”
Lucifer scanned the sky, brought his attention back to me. “He never should have let Amy come here on her own. He was tasked with keeping her safe.”
“You can’t control her either, can you?”
He sighed and I knew I was right.
“She brought me the sword,” I said, wanting him to forgive her. “Without it, I couldn’t have killed the Horsemen. You have to give her credit for doing the right thing.”
The archangel galloped overhead, searching for us. Lucifer ignored him. “You didn’t kill all of them.”
“Why didn’t you tell me Rad was the White Horseman?”
“Would you have believed me?”
No. “I would have been better prepared.”
He chuckled. “Even your lover didn’t know. How could you prepare for that?”
How indeed. “Will I have to kill him too?”
“He’s no threat to you or the humans without the other three. Leave him be.”
Thank Satan. Literally. “Where’s Michael’s army?”
“He cannot lead it without his sword.”
“So it’s just you and him, mano-a-mano?”
“Appears as such. Without the sword and the Horsemen, he can’t start Armageddon. This fight is between the two of us. There’s not much he won’t do to get that damn sword back.”
I handed him the sword. “Kick his ass. He deserves it.”
Lucifer didn’t take it. “I’m surprised you care.”
“I don’t. I just like a good fight.”
His cocky smirk told me he didn’t believe me.
Stupid fallen angel. “Bring Damon back. I know you have the power.”
The smirk faded. “I cannot undo what Michael’s sword has done.”
“Bullshit.”
He shook his head, sadness clouding his black eyes. “Damon trained you to be strong. To take his place. It’s time for you to live up to that.”
Spreading his wings, he rose into the air, the bubble of protection evaporating with his absence. For a moment, I watched the two angels fight … fire, wings, and magics clashing in a chaotic frenzy.
Those inside the church poured out to watch as well. Behind them, fires burned in the skeletal remains of my house.
In the crowd, I saw Maddy, Cole, Dru looking for me. Absent was Rad.
Good thing too. The numbness inside me hadn’t spread far enough to stop me from killing him.
I turned my back on all of it—the fight, my friends and Damon’s death—and started walking, dropping the sword on the ground.
Chapter Fifty-two
Four hours later, I sat in Damon’s dark office, rocking in his leather chair.
The Institute was deathly quiet even though the majority of residents and visitors had all returned. Eavesdropping on their whispered conversations, I confirmed Lucifer had repelled Michael. An outcome I’d watched in the distance from a bench in Millennium Park.
The humans in the surrounding areas thought it was a fireworks display. Or a meteor breaking apart in the atmosphere and raining down fiery bits and pieces. Or a freak aurora borealis no one could explain. An alien landing…
I heard dozens of excuses for the fire and brimstone display while walking through Chicago that night. Every possible reason under the sun except the real one.
Whatever reason they picked to believe, the humans stopped fighting and rioting. That was a good thing. By the time I arrived back at the Institute, reports were being received all over the Chicagoland area that the epidemics had peaked and were subsiding. The red water in Lake Michigan had returned to its normal, wintery gray.
Two days later, the first person to break my silence was Amy. She burst into the office, where I’d camped out, flipped on the lights and smiled at me. “I want to make a deal.”
I wasn’t up for talking. My throat was healed, but it still felt tight and unwilling to make sounds and converse like normal, especially with a perky witch who wanted to make demands on me.
But she was Lucifer’s mistress. His pregnant mistress.
And she’d brought me the sword.
I motioned her toward a chair. “How did you get Michael’s sword?”
She made herself comfortable, the golden wings of the sword in its scabbard peeking out from under her coat. “Ever heard of the angel Raguel?”
I sat back, the memory of the catacombs surfacing. “The angel of vengeance.”
She glanced at Damon’s library of antique books. “He appeared to me, in my shop. Gave me the sword, told me to get it to you, regardless of what Lucifer wanted.”
“Why did he go through you? Why didn’t he give it to me himself?”
“Right? I asked the same thing.” She acted frustrated. “He said it was better if the two of you didn’t meet. That if you did, you’d set off some kind of a weird karmaclysmic explosion.”
“Karma?” I couldn’t keep the irritation out of my voice.
She made air quotes. “'Divine unbalancing’ is what he called it.”
Huh. Sounded like he was chickenshit to face me. Like someone else I knew. “So what is this deal you want to negotiate?”
“I need a place for a couple hundred of the Fallen to stay and train. To recoup from being
held prisoner for so long.”
I gave her my blank face. She couldn’t seriously be suggesting…
“You have room here at the Institute,” she continued. “Lucifer said there’s an entire wing that’s empty and you have one of the best training programs around.”
Swallowing my disbelief, I saw an opportunity. “I want Damon back.”
She screwed up her lips. “I can’t offer that.”
When she saw me set my jaw, she put up a hand. “I already tried to get Luc to release him from his contract. He said he can’t. For now, Damon’s in the pit…the sword sent him there. While there may be ways around Damon spending eternity in hell, the means are few and…well…you should leave that kind of magic alone or risk your own well-being.”
I rocked the chair, thinking. “Your vodun priestess. She ever raise anyone from hell?”
Amy blanched and I knew I’d hit gold.
“Who was it?”
“Me. Sort of. She didn’t do it alone, though, and I wasn’t really dead.”
Interesting. “She ever raise a demon?”
“Don’t know. Don’t want to know.” Removing the sword, she laid it on the desk. An offering. “This in exchange for housing the Fallen and training them to be the warriors they were born to be.”
“How did you manage to keep it from Michael?”
“Luc’s creative when he wants to be. You should hide it. Michael will be back for it.”
“Not interested.”
She slowly let the air out of her lungs, reaching for something, anything that would make me bite. “I’ll talk to Keisha. See what she says about raising a demon. Between she and I—you know I’m a Fallen, right?”
I nodded and she continued. “Between the two of us, we can probably figure out a way to get Damon topside again. But Luc won’t let him out of his contract.”
“Does Lucifer know you’re here? That you want me to hide Michael’s sword?”
“He sent me. You know, a woman-to-woman thing. Thought I might have better luck getting you to agree. He says you’re a malapert.” She made air quotes around the Damon-like term. “I don’t even know what that means, but he says you don’t see things his way and piss him off. A good trait, if you ask me.”
She winked, but I kept my face stone.
The forced brevity left her aura. “Luc wants you to know that he appreciates your sacrifice for our child. So do I.”
I’d frozen my heart into a solid lump of granite. Nothing could penetrate it. Not pats on the back, not bribes, not thank yous.
But, dammit, something about this fallen-angel-turned-human-witch got under my skin. Satan take me, I liked her. “My sacrifice?”
“You took on the Horsemen to save the human race from the apocalypse, and lost not one, but two men you loved. You gave us and our child a chance. Prophecy says this child is destined to reunite heaven and hell one day.”
Yeah, good luck with that. “Why would Lucifer ever want to go back to heaven?”
She looked sad for me. “I use to think that way, too, but I’ve changed my mind about it. It’s not all bad.”
I almost asked her how she knew. Tried to harden my heart again. “I wish you well with your baby.”
“Do you have children?”
“No.” And I never would.
“Can I tell you something I haven’t told anyone else?”
Oh, jeez. “Sure.”
“I’m scared shitless. I don’t know anything about being a mom.”
I thought of my own mother. My little sister. Maddy. “Have patience with him and with yourself.”
“Him? It’s a girl.”
Nope. I had the distinct impression it was a boy. His aura pushed through hers, reaching for me. “How far along are you?”
“Only a few weeks, but I know it’s a girl. I have, um, insider knowledge.”
She jumped a little, like something had pinched her, and her eyes widened. “Oh, God. I think she just kicked me.” Her hand rubbed her abdomen. “That’s not possible, is it? I’m not far enough along to feel the baby move.”
Hell, if I knew. What I did know was that the child was no girl. “Amy, I don’t want to burst your bubble, but the baby is a boy. I can read his aura. One-hundred-percent male testosterone. Angelic male testosterone like his father.”
“What?” She sat back down. “That makes no sense. The baby’s supposed to be a girl.”
Kirill was no baby doctor, but I wondered if he could confirm my belief. “Would you like to see our resident doctor?”
The air in the room heated and shimmered. Lucifer appeared, moving toward Amy before he was fully solid. “What is it? I felt your distress.”
Amy looked into his face and her expression softened. “It’s nothing. Stop freaking out over every little thing.”
I really liked this female.
Lucifer’s jaw tightened and he took her hand, kneeled beside the chair. He shot a damning look my way. “What did you do to her?”
I locked in my shields, repelling the heat coming off him. “Told her the truth about the baby. It’s a boy.”
Nothing could prepare me for the way the devil’s face morphed into surprised joy. “We’re having a boy?”
Amy glanced at me, back to him. “I…I don’t know. I was sure it was a girl.”
And then, I felt it. A small, shy trickle of magic, hiding behind the forceful male energy. I couldn’t help but smile. “Mamma mia. I don’t believe it.”
They both looked at me and in unison said, “What?”
I rose from the desk and waved at them to follow me. “Let’s go see Kirill.”
Chapter Fifty-three
Kirill, healed and back to his old ways, confirmed it around a mouthful of chocolate fudge cake. “Twins. A boy and a girl.”
“What?” Lucifer and Amy said again in unison.
“That’s not possible,” Amy mumbled.
I gave her a you’ve got to be kidding look. “You’re a fallen angel. Lucifer loves you. You just faced down the Horsemen of the apocalypse and won. How is having twins an impossibility in your book?”
She gave me a sheepish grin. “It’s just I … I don’t know how to handle one baby, much less two.”
Lucifer kissed her forehead. “This will be a piece of cake compared to what we’ve already been through.”
“Speaking of cake.” She eyed Kirill’s quickly-disappearing slice. “Is there more of that somewhere?”
I led them downstairs to the cafeteria, made sure they had all the cake they wanted and accepted Lucifer’s strained thanks.
Before I could escape, he pulled me aside. “The Chaos demon is in great pain.”
Good.
Every time the memory of him and Parker fucking in front of my fireplace flashed through my mind, I was in pain. Every time I remembered how he’d fooled me and met with her behind my back, the pain turned into anger.
And when I remembered how he’d grabbed the sword from my hand and killed Damon in front of my eyes, the anger morphed into revenge.
I’d stayed away from thoughts of Rad since then, but Lucifer’s comment snuck up on me.
Steeling my emotions, I trained my eyes on the ugly linoleum at my feet and made a note to myself as the Institute’s new director: update the cafeteria’s flooring. Check. “I hope he’s agonizingly miserable.”
“He did what you wouldn’t do. He deserves your thanks, not your hate.”
“Seriously? You, defending a lowly half-human, half-demon?” I met his hard gaze. “He cut off Damon’s head. That’s unforgivable.”
“He followed Damon’s orders to save you from having to do it because he knew you’d never forgive yourself.”
My breath stuck in my throat.
Was this true?
I’d never considered that. Still… “He should have left the job to me. I had a solution to work around Damon and still behead Death.”
Lucifer didn’t believe me. “You’ve lived a long time, vengeance demon. Your
heart is stone.”
“Keeps those ugly emotions at bay.”
“Does it? You find righteousness in being alone and miserable.”
Damn right. “Not all of us have lived a charmed life like you.”
My malapert insolence irritated him. “Forgive the Chaos demon. He did the right thing.”
“Have you found a way to release Damon from the pit yet?”
“Yes, but he still must complete his end of our bargain.”
Hope unfroze part of my heart. “Is he okay?”
“He lives.”
As if that were enough. Maybe it was. “He’s not guarding Amy.”
“Michael has returned to heaven. You possess the sword. When my brother returns, and he will, he’ll come after you. I have other uses for Damon’s skills at this time.”
So much for appreciating my sacrifice. The devil wanted his archenemy hunting me and not him and Amy when he came back. “Damon belongs here.”
“Damon is serving a greater purpose.”
I almost laughed at the ridiculousness. Lucifer was being purposefully ambiguous and enjoying my frustration. “When will you cut him loose?”
“When the time is right.”
“Can he earn leave? Just for an hour or two? I need to talk to him.”
He sneered and my skin burned, his magic cutting through my shields like they were paper.
I pleaded. “Please. I need to see him and know he’s okay.”
The sneer faded. “I’ll see what I can do.”
I left the cafeteria, my pride and my righteousness stretched to the limit, but hope making my heart softer than it had been in days.
Chapter Fifty-four
I lived on that hope for the next week. Meanwhile, I threw myself into Damon’s job, resumed my duties as vamp queen, and let Maddy completely redo Yasmin’s empty room into a bedroom for her. Think Goth princess meets Aeropostale. Arman, healed and back to normal, spent a lot of time in there with her.
Seraphina and Kirill shacked up in his apartment and set up a proper lab to care for all the new and incoming guests we had. Damon’s room sat exactly the way he’d left it. I never attempted to cross the magical barrier again.