Rockwell raised his hands to grab her.
Eyes closed, Samantha held up one hand, palm out. “Not today.”
Only a step away from her, Rockwell stopped. “What is this?” He struggled against her, but Samantha's will was ironclad. He was locked within it. “What are you?”
Samantha looked inside herself. What am I? Samantha asked herself.
Get to the hilltop and find out, Io replied. Just hurry.
Snapped from her reverie as two gunshots rang out, Samantha felt the bullets pass her, one hitting Rockwell in the shoulder, the other felling Lanier like a redwood.
“She's my daughter, you son of a bitch.” Eva said.
“Mom!” Samantha turned, leaping into the arms of her mother. Charlotte and Jim, each wielding one of the Helltech guns, stepped past them.
“This might not kill them, Sammy, but it'll hurt like Hell. Get out of here,” Charlotte ordered as she loosened the Helltech rope, holding it like a whip.
Lanier took a step closer. Charlotte lashed the cord at him, striking his face. He screamed in pain, a burn down one cheek, and leaped forward.
“Stop,” Samantha whispered, holding her hand up.
Lanier froze mid-air, dropping to the ruined church floor.
Samantha did nothing more than watch.
“What is it, love?” Eva came to stand beside her.
“I can see inside him. Mom, I can see down to every single twisted fiber. His soul. It pulses with an evil so deep and alien it's beyond this reality. There's no fire here, only ice. Lanier is a demon, but he's not from Hell. He's from somewhere darker.” She turned to Rockwell. “Did you know this?”
For the first time since she had seen Porter Rockwell on the screen at Hunters' Ridge, his icy composure cracked. The demon had no answer.
“You didn't. You thought he was just another demon. Tell me, Porter. Do you know exactly what you've gotten into?”
“We're taking back heaven,” he declared, his voice wavering.
“Who is 'we'?”
“Demonkind.”
Samantha shook her head. “Sorry. Won't wash. I've spoken to my father. He's quite content returning Hell to what it should be. Do you even know what Stektes is?”
“A means to an end. The tool of my ascension. A stronger being than a bastard Nephilim.”
“Is that what you think I am?” she replied, plucking the Well of Souls from his hand and tucking it into her belt.
Rockwell began to laugh. “You thought all it would take to end this was a bit of brute strength? A wave of the hand?” His eyes glanced to one side.
Samantha turned her head. The shadowed forms were closing in, filling the broken gap in the wall and spilling into the church. The closest reached for her.
“Sammy!” Her mother yelled, jumping in front of her.
The shadow brushed her mother and she screamed in agony, the skin charring black on her arm where contact was made.
“No!” Samantha twisted, thrusting her mother back into the arms of Charlotte. Eva hung limp and unresponsive as Charlotte lowered her to the ground.
Jim fired a shot past her. A moment later a searing pain erupted along her shoulder. It was Samantha's turn to scream, but her voice wasn't filled with agony. It was rage.
“You hurt my mom,” she growled through clenched teeth, turning to face the shadow. Lanier stepped closer and she flung the two demons back into the wall, holding them there.
The shadow paused momentarily, as if considering its next move, then with both hands, it reached out toward her once more.
Samantha took a breath. “Time to find out what I can do.” She stepped into the embrace of the shadow, clasping at its wrists with her hands.
“Sammy, no,” Charlotte shouted from behind but it was too late.
Samantha was committed. The shadow struggled against her. Pain radiated down her hands, into her arms, but it was manageable. She remained silent, fighting the searing agony, refusing to give in. She believed this creature couldn't harm her and so she forced her will upon it.
A strange thing began to happen. As Samantha dominated the shadow, it became more pronounced, features beginning to appear where the darkness occluded the face. At the same time the golden-flecked cord on her twist began to glow.
Io, I'm doing it! The bracelet the old woman gave me in Dubrovnik. It's alive!
There was no response. In the sky above another lightning bolt accompanied the clash of sword on sword. On the hill beyond, a light pushed back at the darkness. She was on her own.
Squeezing tightly onto the shadow, she imposed her will, pushing it down. The cord pulsed and a golden light shone forth. The pain disappeared. The darkness evaporated and blackness became pale skin. A pair of brown eyes stared back at her from a face wrapped in a shawl. White robes flowed out underneath, falling back to the elbows where frail arms were held in Samantha's death grip. The shadow fell away, revealing a slender woman not much older than herself. The woman looked at her in awe, as if she were some sort of saviour. Her arms dropped.
“Anee hoff-she,” the woman said, staring at her hands. “Anee hoff-she!” The woman looked up at her and smiled, tears rolling down her face.
“I don't understand. What does that mean?”
The woman stroked her face, still crying, and began to speak in what Samantha presumed was Hebrew.
“I'm sorry, I don't know what you're saying.”
“She's thanking you,” Charlotte said, still holding onto Eva's limp body. “You lifted her curse.”
“What did you do to my mom?” Samantha demanded.
Charlotte translated and the woman responded. “It was the curse. The twelve Israeli tribes believed they were being protected from the apocalypse, but in truth, they were being enslaved. She asks if you can do the same to the rest of the tribes?” Charlotte paused for a moment, laying Eva onto the ground. “Sammy what are you? What happened at Hinkley?”
“She's a Nephilim,” Rockwell spat from the back of the Church. “An abomination in the eyes of your God.”
Io, you said I was something more…
The Hebrew woman caught sight of one of the pillars used to trap Io and began to speak rapidly, her voice urgent.
Samantha looked at Charlotte once again.
“She says there's a way to unbind the curse and set them free? Sammy, my Hebrew's pretty rustic.”
The woman pointed at the pillar. “Hirsi et ha-amudim!”
“Break? No. Destroy. Sammy, destroy the pillars. Look! Three symbols on each.”
Samantha followed Charlotte's gaze. The fallen pillar had three Hebrew inscriptions on it, as did the other she could see. Samantha nodded at the Hebrew woman and closed her eyes. Just like at Hinkley, she reached out. This time instead of radiation, she sought the darkness trapping the woman. The sky boiled above, as the angels fought. Samantha began to strip the shadow from the tribes.
At first there was resistance, similar to grabbing her opponent. There was agony too, a searing pain lancing through her middle that grew and grew as she reached outward. Yet, the shadow lifted. Above her, sooty spots became lighter as the spirits under the shroud of darkness were revealed. As each spirit was cleansed, it glowed briefly and disappeared. Samantha spread her arms wide and pulled. The shadow tore free of a hundred and forty-four thousand souls and coalesced above her head, a vortex of boiling violence. The darkness reached for her.
“Sammy,” Charlotte warned.
“Just stay where you are,” Samantha replied. “Protect Mom and whatever you do, don't move. Don't touch me, don't even breathe.”
“What're you gonna do?”
“Take one for the team. I was meant for this.”
There was approval shining from Charlotte's face. And pride.
Eva stirred, her eyes opening. “Sammy? Whu … what're you doing?”
“Don't worry, Mom. It's my time to do the right thing.” Samantha felt good. Great even. There was no panic, no fear. Just belonging.
&nb
sp; Tipping her head up, she invited the darkness in. The cloud plunged at her seeking vengeance for being deprived of its souls. Narrowing into a point, it struck the top of her head.
She screamed. The pain magnified a thousand-fold, yet inside, Samantha knew it was only a sensation. Nerve endings flared, chemicals reacted, as the dark continued to fill her with power. She redirected the cloud into four streams, each aimed at one of the pillars. Holding her hands open, she allowed the darkness to burst forth. Yet instead of black, purest white light erupted from within. Mixed with the gold from the glowing cord on her wrist, she radiated energy.
“No!” Rockwell screamed again.
The beams hit the pillars, the light filling the stone and fracturing it from within as it absorbed the power.
“Get Mom out of here,” Samantha yelled above the roar of the wind. “I don't know how long I can hold this.”
The pillars now pulsed with light. Her heart thumped in time with the glow, connected as a conduit to power. She was the nexus, erasing the curse. The vortex surged through her and into the pillars, refusing to allow her to break contact. It sucked the very breath from her lungs, and she saw spots in front of her eyes.
Just as Samantha thought she would pass out, the vortex ceased. White-hot stone hummed with the power contained inside, shaking her bones. She took a massive heaving breath, staggering away from the dais and out into the graveyard.
In the air not twenty metres from them, both Io and Karael paused, swords in hand, wings spread.
“What have you done?” Karael screamed.
Io laughed, a joyous sound in the darkness. “That's my girl.”
Samantha joined her mother, Charlotte, and Jim in the lee of a stone sarcophagus in the graveyard. The humming increased in pitch, the vibration shaking every blade of grass around them. She put her hands over her ears. “I can't let go.”
Sammy, the curse is within you. Release it and end their bondage.
She looked up to the distant angels. Just as easy as flicking a switch?
Io nodded. Like snapping a twig. Break it, Sammy. Break it, and duck.
She felt for the curse, stewing in the back of her mind, pulsing with the pillars, reaching to pull the power back.
“Oh no you don't,” she said. Imagining it as a solid bar of black, she snapped the curse apart. In a shaft of white light, the church exploded.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Still standing, Samantha was thrown back by the force of the explosion, landing face first on the grass. Pushing herself up, she scrambled over to her mother. “Mom? Mom!”
“She's breathing,” said Charlotte. “Better since you worked that trick with the shadows.”
“Look after her,” Samantha replied. “We aren't done yet.”
“Wasn't that the portal that just went up?” Charlotte indicated the remains of the church.
“I don't believe so,” said Jim.
“Why not?”
Jim pointed to the top of the hill behind them. “Because that just switched on.”
Above a line of trees another shaft of light now pierced the heavens, tapering to a point somewhere in the roiling cloud base above them. Unlike the blast from the church, this light rotated, causing the cloud to swirl and flicker red around its edges.
“The real rune is on the hilltop. The church wasn't the grave of Beelzebub, rather a trap intended for anybody who tried to open a doorway to Heaven. Aeon Fall may only be twenty years old, but those behind this are much, much older. The church contained a map, so Io said. I believe the church was a pointer, directing us up there. What Mom achieved was only a setback for them. I've got to get up there. Where's Clare?”
“She's safe,” Charlotte replied.
“How?”
“You don't think they came alone?” a voice called out from within the trees—a voice she should have never heard again. John Wolverton stepped into the graveyard, his face serious as he stared past her. “Good to see you, kid. You're working the family miracles again, I see, just like your old man. What do you say? Shall we go shut the bastards down?”
At a loss for words, Samantha nodded, walking alongside him. She glanced back to the ruined church.
“Don't worry about those two. If they aren't incinerated, our boys will get 'em. Helltech all around nowadays, and a good thing too.”
They crossed the graveyard into the woods, following the path uphill.
“How?” Samantha finally asked.
“Thorsten can't stab worth a damn, and Alexander certainly can't break necks.” John grabbed his shoulder, wincing. “Doesn't mean it don't hurt like hell though. We needed to expose the mole. We suspected Thorsten and put Alexander in a position to help him. While Thorsten was busy with me, Alexander put most everybody else down with an injection. Except Sejal, whose heart gave out. It was too much for the old guy. His heart was weak to begin with, and the action was too much for him before Alexander made it with the injection. And Swanson, of course. Thorsten didn't like his cousin and went after him. Nobody was meant to die, but in taking out the power, the act that saved the Chateau, it meant Thorsten got the jump on us. Even the most noble of actions have consequences, Sammy. Sometimes you just can't save 'em all.”
Conflicting emotions raced through Samantha. Relief at knowing so many of the council were still alive. Guilt at the loss of Swanson and Sejal. “I don't believe that. You could have held Thorsten.”
“On a suspicion? Sammy we don't work that way. Alexander had one job: to make Thorsten feel comfortable in his role as betrayer. Now we have to make sure Swanson's sacrifice was worth it. We've got to find a way to shut that down.”
The portal continued to rotate, the cloud above spinning and growing darker as descending layers pushed out above the hilltop. Late morning soon became twilight under the trees.
Samantha hurried to keep up with Wolverton. “You can't close this doorway. Io needs to get home. All life on earth could suffer if he does not.”
“It's not an option. Ask yourself what happens if it's not Io that goes through? Or if he makes it to Heaven and they don't like his message?”
“It's a risk they're going to have to take. Someone up there needs protecting and Io's the only one who can do it. You see those wings on his back?” They both watched Io slam into Karael, sending the avenging angel plummeting to the ground ahead of them. “They once belonged to Metatron. You remember him, don't you? And what he did for you all in Hell?”
“I remember,” the old man grunted, “but we can't take that chance.”
In the field ahead Io stood over Karael, sword tip touching his foe's throat. When they were about ten metres away, Wolverton held out his hand to stop her moving closer. Ever the protector.
“It is done,” Io said without a trace of pride in his voice. If anything, he sounded abashed that he was in this position. “We are going home, you and I, brother. You have to answer for your crimes.”
Karael laughed, torn wings flapping on the ground like a broken bird. “You'll never get through that portal, Ioviel.”
“I have the Phaethon Stone. I'm the only one that can complete the activation. The orders need to know about Metatron. About Stektes. Humanity is innocent.”
“Not all humanity.” Karael fixed his gaze on Samantha. “Some of it is barely human, let alone innocent.” Knocking Io's sword away, Karael leapt to his feet, one hand outstretched for her.
“Brother, no!” Io yelled.
In an instant Karael was on Samantha, hand wrapped around her throat, lifting her off the ground. “Ioviel you take one step toward me and ill rip her head from her body. You too, ape.” He pulled her close. For a moment she recalled the face of Lucas as Karel regarded her from within the body of his vessel, sneering, black blood oozing from gashes on his face. The man who once tried to dominate and abuse her talents was the perfect container for this insane angel. “I see why you feel so protective of her. Indeed she's not a Nephilim. She's something more, about to be a memory.”
“Karael,” Io pleaded. “She could be the answer.”
“The answer lies behind us. When Stektes crosses to Heaven in the body of her sister, then you will find the answer revealed. It's time for our Father to retire. A new God will rise from an ancient line.” Karael began to squeeze her throat.
For a moment Samantha flailed, helpless. Then she remembered the knife at her side. The Well of Souls. Pulling the blade out she rammed it into Karael's chest underneath his outstretched arm, burying the blade to the hilt.
A look of confusion passed over his face, his eyes flashing. Black blood bubbled from his mouth. The hand holding her throat went limp and dropped away. From behind her, John Wolverton stepped up, pushing Karael away from her. “Ever hear about the time I killed a demon, Sammy? It's time I completed the set.” With a right hook to the jaw, John sent the angel staggering back up the dirt track. “Nobody does that to one of my girls,” he said, pursuing the angel. “Especially not one wearing the meat suit of that creep Lucas.”
Io moved to trap Karael but Samantha held up a hand.
Let him have his fight. He's dead already. The blade takes all.
You're mistaken. My brother is gravely wounded but he will heal. He's still dangerous. There's only one way to end an angel.
Samantha examined the blade. Black blood disappeared as the knife absorbed it.
“John, leave him,” Samantha croaked, her throat painful. “Please.”
“Not this time. The Shikari will have one last hunt.” Although he was in his sixties, the vigor of the man had not dimmed as he pursued the wounded Karael up the track toward the portal, kicking him to the ground. The light glowed through the trees ahead, making the underside of the clouds a freakish light blue.
John picked the angel up and held him much like Karael had held Samantha by the throat. “You're not so special. I can—“ His words were cut off abruptly as Karael punched through his chest, the hand reaching out through the broken ribs of his back.
“John, no!” Samantha screamed.
Karael grinned in triumph. “One last hunt. One last failure.” John's limp body slid off of Karael's arm, crumpling to one side.
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