“Fine,” she muttered, “but I’m confirming with Luca first that his angel stuck around long enough for him to talk to him, and that he isn’t holding out on us and secretly has a new gift.”
Colin was still smiling. Luca would have bragged about it as soon as he had the chance, and they both knew it. Colin pulled into the parking lot at the Visitor Center of the Garden of the Gods and turned off the ignition. Colin and Anna would have to wait for the other hunters to arrive as they’d been delayed when they discovered the gas station they’d stopped at had a Dunkin Donuts right next to it.
Anna dug in the ashtray for quarters and Colin watched her curiously. She smiled up at him. “There’s one of those tower viewer things over there. I want to look through it.”
Colin followed her to the tower viewer but as he looked around, he was less impressed by the natural topography of the place than the sheer size of it. How the hell were they ever supposed to find three fallen angels that they couldn’t even sense when they were right next to them? Anna was undaunted. She was too busy watching someone scale the side of one of the red cliffs in the distance.
“Ever wanted to try rock climbing?” she asked Colin.
Colin didn’t need to look at the climber. “Nope. Not even a little.”
Anna backed away from the tower viewer and put one of her delicate hands on her hip, but her dark brown eyes were alight with the pleasure she took in teasing her husband, and Colin adored her for it. “Where’s your sense of adventure? Even if we fell, it wouldn’t kill us.”
Colin peeked through the viewer. “May not kill us, but falling from that distance would still hurt like hell.”
“Baby,” Anna teased. She looked through the viewer again and exclaimed, “Look, rams! Real ones, not the demonic ones we usually see.”
Colin snickered, but Anna had already moved away so he could look through the tower viewer. She pointed to the top of one of the orange-red bluffs in the distance and Colin followed her finger. He had just spotted the rams when something moving in the shrubs next to them caught his attention. The lumbering gray form was too familiar by now for him to mistake it for anything else. He didn’t need to see its face. Jeremy was on top of the cliff.
Anna sensed everything Colin was seeing and thinking, and she didn’t want the fear and panic to seize her as it had in that prairie outside of Boulder, but if Jeremy were here, then those fallen angels were here, and the tricks they’d played on her mind before had been so horrifying, she’d prayed for death. She was certain if Colin hadn’t done something to get rid of it, she would have gone crazy.
Whether it kept her asleep for the rest of her immortal life or forced her to lose her mind, she couldn’t be a hunter anymore and that’s what these bastards were after. After all, who would know better how Heaven was using Immortals to combat demons on Earth than angels that had fallen fairly recently? Angels who had themselves probably once helped Immortals in their battle against Hell?
“Hey,” Colin backed away from the tower viewer; he was only vaguely aware their friends had just pulled into the parking lot. His focus was on Anna, his wife, his only reason for existing. “It’s not coming near you. Ever again.”
Anna felt the energy from the world around them being condensed around her like a cocoon. This wasn’t the first time Colin used the gift from The Angel to protect her like this. But it left him defenseless, unable to use it to fight, which meant Anna couldn’t be separated from him. She and Andrew were the only ones who could protect Colin now.
As soon as the other hunters got near them, Anna’s terrified expression tipped off their friends that something had already gone unexpectedly wrong in the Garden of the Gods. Or maybe unexpectedly right. After all, they had come to look for these demons.
Luca was still faster than Dylan or Andrew and he broke into a sprint as soon as he saw the O’Conners; he reached Anna’s side first.
“Anna, what is it?” he asked.
The concern that was set so deeply in his features made Anna feel even worse about being so spiteful this morning at his apartment. Luca, like all Immortals, had a great capacity for love, and he loved his friends immensely. It was also why he never got involved with one woman for too long. He knew how easily he could fall in love, and how often he would lose her to death. If he were to remain committed to a life of immortality, then he would have to do it alone.
Colin pointed to the massive orange-red sandstone formation in the distance where the rams still stood, unconcerned about the demon’s presence so close to them. “It’s here. Jeremy’s here.”
Dylan moved to the tower viewer but Anna’s time on it had run out. It was completely dark when he tried to look through it. He turned to her and held out his hand. “I need another quarter.”
Anna placed it in his palm and watched him as he tried to spot the gray beast that used to be their friend, their group leader in Baton Rouge. Colin and Anna waited silently as Dylan stared through the viewer, but his facial expressions, his posture, the way his hands had instinctively curled into fists, all told them he had spotted Jeremy as well. He finally backed away and allowed himself to close his eyes and take one deep breath.
“We’ve got nothing on how to undo what they did to him. If it’s even possible. And Luca’s angel seemed to think it wouldn’t be possible to kill it with these fallen angels protecting it. So what are we supposed to do?”
Andrew was watching the cliff warily. “You think they stay here? These fallen angels that are now… full-fledged demons. Can’t they go back and forth like regular angels?”
Luca was still holding Anna’s arm, unwilling to let her go. At that moment, Colin felt guilty for every moment he’d teased his old friend as well. Luca caught him though, wearing that look of regret in his eyes, and he knew Colin too well. They’d known each other for over three centuries. How could he not?
“Don’t even start with your ‘I’m so grateful you’re willing to protect my wife’ bullshit, Colin. This is my sister. No goddamned fallen angel is torturing her again.”
Colin thought Luca was a little bit telepathic at least.
“I don’t guess,” Colin ventured, “that your angel gave you this energy gift last night?”
That question actually did seem to surprise Luca. “No. I asked, of course, but he said it wasn’t up to him. If he had it to give, he would have given it to me. Figures. Even Heaven has a bureaucracy, and my telekinesis is caught up in the red tape.”
Andrew sighed in exasperation. “What? Because you’re not technically in a life or death situation like we were? How close do we have to get to death before they’re willing to admit we need all the help we can get?”
“Guys,” Dylan interrupted, “argue about Heaven’s reluctance to dole out superpowers later. The demon is moving and we need to decide if we’re going to follow it or not.”
Luca took a deep breath, and his grip tightened on Anna’s arm so slightly, just enough for Anna to notice that their mentor, this living legend, was nervous as well. “We follow it. We’re hunters. It’s what we do.”
Anna knew Colin wouldn’t let this shield down and it had worked before, but he’d also been attacked by one of these demons they couldn’t see or sense. If Colin was focused on protecting Anna, then she and Andrew had the only power that even affected these demons. And all three of these demons, these former angels, may be hiding in the shadows of Pike’s Peak. She didn’t like their odds.
Luca stayed close to her as they walked toward the base of the mountain. He’d occasionally even reach out and hold her hand or her arm again; Anna wasn’t sure if he was trying to reassure her or himself that they weren’t all about to get killed. By now, one of the demons must have become aware of their presence and knew the group of hunters was here, but as they got closer to the brick red formation where they’d spotted Jeremy, nothing seemed out of place here. Everything in the Garden of the Gods belonged in this space.
Dylan slowed his pace and stared up toward the t
op of the massive rock formation. “Hold up. Let them come to us. What if we’re walking right into a trap?”
Everyone stopped walking. It had occurred to Colin and Anna that they were doing just that, but what else could they do? They were never meant to fight fallen angels, because fallen angels shouldn’t be on Earth; this was never part of their deal. But they were here to exterminate every Immortal, and somehow, they’d known about Colin and Anna first. So they had targeted the only immortal couple alive, and were intent on killing them before moving on, and if they were successful, that meant Luca and Andrew and Dylan were next.
Andrew glanced around nervously, but he tried to keep his aloof and intimidating composure. He was a hunter. He was an Immortal. “Think it’ll work? If we stay out here, they’ll just get tired of waiting and come after us?”
Even Luca was out of answers. Over six centuries of experience hadn’t prepared him to deal with creatures that never should have walked this Earth. “We’re in a better position here. If we get to the base of that mountain and you and Anna have to defend us, you could trigger a rock slide. We have no way of knowing if there are rock climbers on the other side or hikers nearby who could get killed. Dylan’s right. We’ve gone far enough. Let them do the rest.”
Anna bit her lip as she listened to him, taking in his features that never changed. She heard herself saying it before she could stop herself, realizing what a stupid question it was to ask him when they were all scared and anxious and quite possibly just standing in the middle of the Garden of the Gods waiting to die.
“Do you ever wear your hair down?” she asked him. As long as she had known Luca, he had kept his shoulder length black hair tied back. She’d never seen it change. He never grew it longer or cut it shorter either.
All of the hunters, even Colin, stared at her, and Anna was pretty sure she was blushing. But Luca finally just laughed and held her hand again.
“Of course. Every time I go to bed. Women like it.”
“God, Anna, you just had to ask, didn’t you?” Colin teased.
“Sorry. Just struck me how he’s always the same. I mean, we all are, but he keeps everything about himself the same. Only his clothes change over the years. But we always know exactly what to expect from him. We don’t have a lot of normalcy in our lives, and that’s kind of comforting. I couldn’t help wondering if part of the reason he never changes is for us. All of us, I mean.”
Colin was examining him now, too, and Luca exhaled impatiently. He knew they were talking about him.
“You two make it hard to love you sometimes.”
Colin just smiled. He knew Luca wasn’t serious, and he suspected Anna was right. Luca had lived his long life helping others like him acclimate to a world that was more terrifying than they could have imagined, that was far lonelier than they could have anticipated. He was their anchor in a turbulent world, their mooring in a sea of violence and chaos. And if the O’Conners failed, he was defenseless against these demons now.
Colin wanted to offer some sort of gratitude that wouldn’t have embarrassed his friend in front of Andrew and Dylan, but he didn’t have time to think of a way to thank him. Someone was walking toward them. It was human, but his features were impossible to make out from this distance. As the hunters bunched together, waiting for the figure on the horizon to get closer, Colin and Anna realized it wasn’t just anyone. Jeremy was coming to meet them.
Chapter 3
Dylan recognized him at the same time. His hand gripped his dagger, and he chanced a brief glance at Colin and Anna. “It can’t be him, right?”
Anna forced herself to look away from the young man quickly approaching them, still strikingly handsome like a young Bradley Cooper with perfectly styled auburn hair and even the perpetual five o’clock shadow Jeremy had always kept carefully groomed. There were no bony growths, no hideous fangs or goldenrod eyes. Anna even recognized the shirt Jeremy was wearing. But there was no stench either, no smell of rot and decay and death.
“No,” Anna whispered back, because he was close enough now that he might hear them. “If they were to free him from possession, they could lose him. I know this feeling though.”
Anna suddenly felt cold. She was wearing long sleeves and the warm sunshine had kept her comfortable only moments before. But she was so cold now her teeth were chattering.
Colin knew why his wife recognized these sensations and she had to physically stop him from trying to attack the fallen angel who had disguised himself as Jeremy to approach this group of hunters.
“It may not be the same one who kidnapped me, Colin. Or maybe all three of them were there and taking turns. It doesn’t matter. You can’t fight him. He’s too powerful.”
Jeremy stopped in front of them and Anna knew all of the hunters sensed the same unnerving feelings, the same cold and inexplicable fear she had experienced while trapped inside the camp near the Amite River. They wanted to back away from him, but they didn’t want to let on how much his presence disturbed them.
“So Heaven found us,” he said. His eyes were fixed on Anna. She wouldn’t answer him.
“Apparently,” Dylan said, his voice dripping with so much animosity, Anna found herself hoping he wouldn’t do anything stupid. He had suffered more loss than any of them recently, but he had to remember what they were confronting.
“Dylan is smart. He won’t be reckless,” Colin assured her.
Jeremy never looked away from Anna. The expression on his face betrayed his growing frustration. He was trying to reach her mind and couldn’t. And Anna was suddenly terrified he would give up and turn on Colin. She desperately wanted him to keep his attention on her. Demons were awfully stubborn, after all. Maybe he wouldn’t give up that easily.
“Why show up like this?” she asked him. “Hoping we won’t kill you if you look like our friend you murdered?”
He tilted his head and kept his hard gaze on her, and even though he smiled, the frustration he felt was still evident in his face. “What makes you think I’m not Jeremy? That I haven’t been changed again? How can you really know?”
“Because I’ve met you before, remember? Doesn’t matter what you look like. I’d recognize you.”
The demon’s smile faltered, but he forced it back into place. “You have some new gifts, I see.”
“So what did it for you?” Anna pressed. He couldn’t reach her. And she hated this bastard more than anything she had ever hated before. She wanted to make him suffer the way she had, but it was impossible. But she could hope to annoy the hell out of him. “What tempted you from Heaven and made you fall?”
“Because I don’t like working for a side that can never win.” His eyes flickered to Colin and Anna’s heart threatened to jump from her chest.
“Bullshit,” Luca interrupted. “Hell has always been jealous because far more people choose it over your boss.”
Jeremy actually sighed and turned his attention to Luca. Anna used the distraction to grab onto Colin’s hand, but she had no way of letting Andrew know what this demon was trying to do.
“Of all people, you should know how hopeless your situation is. If it were as simple as people choosing sides, you’d be dead by now.”
Luca was unperturbed. “Didn’t you ask Anna this same question? About believing our side was so much stronger? I’ve got the same answer, asshole. We may not be stronger, but we are so much better.”
Jeremy spread his arms around him and kept that sardonic smile in place. “And yet, here we are.”
He turned his attention back to Colin, and Luca knew what he was doing, too, and tried to distract him again, but this time, Jeremy wasn’t playing along.
“And what would you be willing to sacrifice for your wife?” he asked.
Colin didn’t answer him.
This seemed to piss off the demon; they didn’t like being ignored anymore than they liked waiting around. The demon’s eyes narrowed and he took a step closer to the group, but a voice behind them made them all stop
. And Colin and Anna knew that voice so well.
“Leave him alone, Adriel,” The Angel warned.
“No,” Anna thought. She wouldn’t let herself turn around. Colin wouldn’t turn around either even though the other hunters did. Their Angel shouldn’t have come here. She was defenseless, helpless against this demon, and her life would be far more valuable to this fallen angel than any hunter’s.
Jeremy seethed and hissed through his teeth, “Zadkiel. Of course you would sacrifice yourself for humans.”
“Zadkiel? So Zadkiel is not a ‘he’ after all?” Colin wondered.
Anna thought of all things to find astonishing at the moment, the gender of their angel was at the bottom of their list. “Angels don’t have a gender, Colin. You know that. She has chosen to appear a certain way to us. And who she is shouldn’t surprise either of us.”
Colin agreed, but after three and a half centuries of not knowing who their angel really was, he figured Anna couldn’t really blame him for his surprise. He had never expected to find out while they were still alive.
The Angel stepped closer to Colin and Anna and they both reflexively moved in front of her, keeping their eyes on the demon before them. The Angel may be willing to die for them, but they were just as willing to die for her.
“You know I would,” she answered. “And I wish I could say I was surprised to discover it was you here. Your kind should have never been created.”
The ground shook beneath their feet as the demon’s anger channeled into the orange-red earth. But he wasn’t so angry that he forgot there were five hunters protecting this angel, and for some reason, he couldn’t immobilize Anna as he had in the past.
“Take that issue up with your boss,” Jeremy spit out, his teeth gritted, but The Angel was right. Even Heaven could make mistakes, and angels of death and destruction never should have been created. Most of their kind had already fallen. Once the rules governing the battle between Heaven and Hell were codified, and it was determined that angels could no longer fight, those angels whose sole existence had been to fight for Heaven had no purpose. Anna and Colin were surprised this angel had held out as long as he had.
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