Dylan stared back down at Jeremy but helped her lift him out of the sandstone, and the Immortals carried him out of the cave and into the blinding sunlight of the Garden of the Gods.
Chapter 22
Colin and Anna waited in Dylan’s apartment for Jeremy to wake up. Luca’s and Andrew’s stalkers had deserted them and both men were coping with the shame of what they’d done, especially Luca. Of all the humans on this planet, he insisted his faith shouldn’t have been compromised, no matter what kind of demon invaded his mind. Colin told him to get over it. He’d left his wife because of what these demons had done to them, and that was far worse than questioning Heaven or claiming they were going to quit hunting.
Luca had finally reluctantly agreed with Colin then Dylan had forced them both to go back to Luca’s apartment and brood there. His friend was alive and when he woke up, he didn’t want Jeremy overwhelmed with the problems of the Immortals.
Anna had spent the past few hours sitting by Jeremy’s side as he lay in Andrew’s bed, which Andrew had offered to give up permanently for him. He said he’d move in with Luca. Anna had cleaned the dirt from his face and arms, and of course Colin and Dylan had wanted to know if the mark was still there. One of the first things they’d done when they brought him out of that cave in the Garden of the Gods was to check his side, and there, like an orange-red crescent tattoo, the mark remained.
Anna kept checking his breathing, his pulse, laying a hand on his chest to feel his heart beating. She watched her former group leader sleeping and even though she had refused to kill him in Baton Rouge because she had hoped to save him, she had never allowed herself much hope they’d be able to do it. And, yet, here he was.
One day, she would tell him how even Heaven itself had worked so tirelessly to figure out how to rescue him, and then Jeremy’s ego would probably never recover. Colin snickered as soon as the thought passed through Anna’s mind and she smiled at her husband.
Dylan came back into the room and set a glass of water by the bed, but he didn’t know why. He was just trying to keep himself busy. He was filled with so much nervous energy waiting for his friend to wake up, to know that Jeremy was ok and it was only Jeremy now, that he needed something to do to keep himself busy.
Dylan pulled a chair beside Anna and watched Jeremy’s slow steady breathing with her. “You think he’ll wake up, right?”
Anna nodded. She didn’t know why she believed that, but she did.
Dylan kept his eyes on his friend, but he was still speaking to Anna. “I didn’t believe you. When you told me you thought you could save him, I didn’t believe you and I should have. One of these days, I’m going to learn not to doubt the O’Conners.”
Anna was still holding one of Jeremy’s hands, but she hugged Dylan with her free arm and told him the O’Conners were human: they were still wrong plenty of times. Dylan just smiled and told her he hadn’t seen much evidence of that.
Another hour passed, mostly in silence even between Colin and Anna as they waited for some sign that Jeremy could recover from the transformation he’d survived, before anything changed with him at all. And Anna felt it first because she was still holding his hand. His fingers twitched against her palm and Anna looked down at their hands in surprise. Colin moved closer to the bed.
“What?” Dylan asked, looking between them, because he wasn’t gifted with telepathy and didn’t know what had excited Colin and Anna so suddenly.
“His fingers are moving,” Anna whispered, but she didn’t know why she was whispering. Maybe she was just afraid she’d imagined the whole thing. But then his fingers twitched again and his eyelids fluttered and they all knew now Jeremy was waking up.
“Jeremy,” Dylan breathed. “Buddy, come on. We’re right here. You’re safe now.”
Jeremy’s eyes opened and he blinked, his eyes darting around the strange room he woke up in.
“Dylan?” he asked, his voice was cracked and broken but it was his voice.
Dylan closed his eyes and exhaled slowly, leaning his elbows on the bed next to him. “I’m right here. Colin and Anna are here, too.”
Jeremy tried to smile.
“I knew that wasn’t your hand,” he told Dylan.
Anna cried and laughed at the same time.
Jeremy’s hazel eyes left Dylan and settled on Anna and he forced himself to offer her a broader smile. “You know, usually when I dream about hot women, that’s not what happens.”
His eyes briefly flickered to Colin and he warned him, “Don’t kick my ass, O’Conner. I hurt badly enough.”
But even Colin was too damn glad Jeremy was alive to be bothered by his sexual references. Besides, he knew he was only joking now.
Jeremy’s eyes settled on Anna again. “Anna…”
His voice cracked again and Dylan handed him the glass of water and helped him sit up to sip from it. Jeremy grimaced because his entire body ached, but none of the hunters knew if that was from the retransformation or surviving the cave-in, and Jeremy may not even know himself.
Each of the immortal hunters were struggling to stay awake themselves. They had each been hurt inside that cave, especially Anna, and their bodies were rapidly healing, but she refused to sleep. Whatever will power she possessed was being channeled now into not falling into that deep sleep that allowed their bodies to heal so quickly.
Dylan put the glass of water back on the nightstand and helped Jeremy lay back down, but Jeremy kept his hazel eyes on Anna. He needed to say this to her, and Anna waited patiently until he was ready. Jeremy blinked slowly and inhaled a slow ragged breath.
“You’re the only one who wouldn’t give up on me. Even when I asked you to. You could have killed me first then gone after Samael, but you were still hoping to save me, weren’t you?”
Anna could only nod in acknowledgment. Jeremy glanced down at their hands and used what strength he had to squeeze her fingers.
“Thank you,” he whispered.
Colin put an arm around his wife and kissed the top of her head. “He’ll be fine. Go get some rest now, Anna.”
Dylan looked back at her and promised he’d stay awake with him so she could sleep, but Jeremy held onto her hand.
“Wait. I need to talk to you. And Colin.”
“Ok,” Anna said nervously.
Colin sat on the edge of the bed and waited to hear what Jeremy needed to tell them, but his announcement, his tone of voice, made him nervous, too.
Jeremy swallowed and looked at the O’Conners, so much pain and regret in those hazel eyes, and Anna had to blink away the tears that wanted to form again. She knew now they hadn’t done this to him; his possession had occurred because these fallen angels had simply stolen his body and mind, and nothing he’d done as a demon should ever make him feel guilty. But he was a hunter, and a good person, and it would be a long time before he was able to forgive himself for what he’d done as a demon.
“When that asshole transformed me, I still remembered being me. Like in that dream. It was like I was trapped in some prison, but I knew who I was. And I still remember everything I learned as a demon, too.”
“Holy shit,” Dylan mumbled.
Jeremy nodded. “Samael was one of the most powerful fallen angels on Earth but he wasn’t in charge here. I don’t know who is, but he didn’t follow you to Boulder. He’s still back in Baton Rouge, waiting to see what happens here. We have to go back home.”
Dylan groaned and sank back into his chair. “Alright. But you’re mortal again, Jeremy. I’m not sure you should be hunting with us again.”
Jeremy shot him a sharp look. “Try to stop me. I have a hell of a lot more reason to want to kill these assholes than you do. Believe me, killing me isn’t the worst thing that can happen.”
Dylan sighed and acquiesced, because Jeremy was right. Like the O’Conners, this had become personal for him.
“Those artifacts,” Jeremy continued, “the shit we kept finding in Baton Rouge that we were cataloging. I know why we co
uldn’t figure out what it was.”
All three Immortals leaned closer to him even though his voice hadn’t gotten weaker. If anything, he seemed to be feeling better and his voice was growing stronger.
“And?” Colin asked excitedly. This had been puzzling him for months. Colin hated not knowing how these demons were fooling them.
Jeremy’s eyes betrayed that same sense of overwhelming grief again as he found Anna’s dark brown eyes, that compassion and empathy always there, and she squeezed his hand to reassure him that no matter what he had to tell them now, they were hunters: they would deal with this together.
“Because those demons in Baton Rouge that were leaving artifacts behind were like me. They were people that had been stolen and transformed and forced to work for these fallen angels.”
“Oh my God,” Anna gasped.
The hunters had been killing people. Granted, they had no longer been people when they were killed, but they hadn’t become demons by choice. Their bodies had been taken from them, their souls imprisoned like Jeremy’s, and they had been enslaved as an army for these fallen angels who weren’t bending rules after all. They were making up their own.
Jeremy nodded sadly but added, “There’s nothing we can do about it. Not unless we’re willing to let those demons kill us. And they will if we don’t kill them first.”
“But if we can figure out who’s responsible for their transformations, maybe they can…”
“Anna,” Colin interrupted her, “we can’t try to save them all. It will put every hunter, even us Immortals, in danger if we think we can go back to Baton Rouge and end this without hunting any of these fake demons.”
Dylan and Jeremy agreed with her, and Jeremy reminded her how death had seemed like such an elusive reprieve from the misery he was forced into. The idea of getting his life back had seemed so impossible, he had never given it any thought. The best those souls were hoping for now was a quick death to allow them to escape.
“Do you know how Samael captured you?” Anna asked. “Why you and not all of us?”
Jeremy lifted his shirt and pointed to the marking on his side. “Whomever Samael was working for in Baton Rouge, this is the mark of one of his minions. I wasn’t possessed or anything when we left that field but Samael found me later that night and transformed me.”
“Because you’d been marked?” Colin asked.
Jeremy shrugged. “Because I’d been injured. I was hurt the most of all three of us who were mortal and weaker because of it. I don’t think they can take over Immortals or they would have already. I know they’ve tried, but it doesn’t seem to work.”
“Did it…” Anna faltered and kept her eyes on the mark on Jeremy’s side. She wouldn’t meet his eyes again. “Did it hurt?”
Jeremy sighed and lowered his shirt.
“Anna,” he said softly, “no. I couldn’t feel anything anymore. Nothing at all. Nothing like humans feel anyway.”
Anna heard even Dylan exhale in relief.
Jeremy tried to sit up even more and Dylan put an arm behind him and helped him, propping the pillows behind his back. “I know you need sleep, Anna. One more thing, then go get some rest.”
Anna finally lifted her eyes to meet his.
“I know how they knew about you and Colin. How they knew you were Immortals and you were blessed, and that’s why they’ve come after you first. How you started this whole thing.”
Colin got off the bed and grabbed Anna’s free hand. They were on the brink of so many answers, and Jeremy looked up at Colin, worry replacing the sorrow in those hazel eyes.
“You have a traitor among you. You worked with him in Barcelona. He sold you both out, and Hell has been chasing you ever since.”
Colin and Anna looked at each other, filled with a new kind of fear and panic, because Immortals weren’t supposed to be capable of betraying one another, of turning against Heaven and fighting for Hell. And, yet, they both knew the truth of Jeremy’s words as soon as they heard them, and there was no way to escape the horrifying realization that not only had they been betrayed by one of their own, another Immortal, they’d been betrayed by Andrew.
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Volume Four
Angel’s Alley
For Arianna. Embrace your individuality; love who you are and the gifts you have been given, because you are a remarkably intelligent and talented young woman. Keep reading and writing: you are destined for great things in this world.
Published by S. M. Schmitz
Copyright © 2015, by S. M. Schmitz. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
This e-book is licensed for your enjoyment only. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations in reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Chapter 1
Barcelona, 1938. Colin and Anna followed the line of tightly packed bodies out of the bomb shelter. The Nationalists had recently begun bombing the city and even though Anna and Colin were immortal, the bombings were so heavy and intense, there was no point in staying above ground. They’d found they were more useful helping to get the sick or elderly somewhere safe anyway, so they’d spent much of the past couple of days shuffling in and out of shelters throughout the city.
On the third evening of the Nationalists’ aerial campaign against Barcelona, Colin and Anna found themselves hunting through the ruins of the city. As always, demons had flocked to Barcelona in the wake of the misery and suffering humans had created here, and they couldn’t keep up with the influx of Hell’s minions that were prowling the streets looking for victims who had given up hope or who were desperate enough for a diabolical miracle. Sometime around two in the morning, they lost count of how many demons they’d already chased down and killed.
“What do you think? A dozen?” Anna asked.
Colin looked at the shell of a building across the street from them, trying to decide if they should pursue the huge bat or the slightly off-shape jackal. “At least a dozen. I’m thinking the jackal. That bat may actually be able to fly.”
“God, I am not in the mood to chase anything that can fly. Let’s go for the bad impersonator. Although maybe it’s a dog of some sort and not a jackal.”
Colin shrugged. He was too tired to care what kind of animal this demon thought it looked like. They were about to cross the street when someone touched Colin’s jacket sleeve and stopped him. It was human, and they both knew that, but there was a vicious civil war being waged, so Colin spun around ready to fight the person who’d just gotten his attention. But the young man held his hands up indicating he had no intention of fighting him and nodded toward the demons across the street.
“Need my help?” he whispered to Colin and Anna in Spanish.
Colin exhaled in relief and backed into the shadows with the young man. Anna followed him and resisted the temptation to tell the young hunter he could have the entire city. They were going to get some sleep.
“Yeah,” Colin sighed. “We’ve been out here all night. We’re exhausted.”
The young man extended his hand and offered them a smile. At least, the O’Conners thought he was smiling. Now that they were out of the reflection of the moon, it was really too dark to tell. “I’m Andrzej,” he offered.
Colin and Anna introduced themselves as well, and Andrew stepped closer to them. “Colin and Anna O’Conner?” he asked incredulously, switching to English now that he recognized who these hunters were.
“Yes,” Colin said slowly, also speaking English now as his tired brain tried to piece together how Andrew had known their last name.
/> Anna caught on before Colin did. “He must be an Immortal. Who else would know about us?”
“Ah,” Colin said aloud. He was pretty sure Andrew was smiling now. “Immortal?”
“Yes, and I’ve been out here all night, too. I could use some help as well, especially from the legendary O’Conners.”
Anna snickered because she hardly thought they were legendary, then glanced across the street again. They were going to have to go after those demons soon or one would run away and the other might actually fly away. “Don’t guess you’re traveling with a posse of Immortals, are you, Andrew?” she asked.
Andrew stepped out of the shadows again and pulled his dagger from the sheath tucked inside his coat. “As far as I know, you’re the only two who ever get to travel with someone else. Are you ready?”
Colin and Anna gripped their daggers in their hands and followed Andrew across the street. Andrew headed toward the unnaturally enormous bat. Colin and Anna decided to chase after the jackal. Or dog. Or whatever canine it thought it was impersonating. The jackal-beast leaped over the rubble it had been picking through and Anna tried to force herself to focus on the running demon; she shouldn’t slow down now to see what it had been trying to uncover beneath the ruins of this building, but if a demon were trying to get to something, it was most likely a person and that person was probably still alive.
“Go, Colin. I have to see if someone’s buried there,” she told him. Colin kept chasing the demon while Anna doubled back to where the jackal had been prowling. She sheathed her dagger and moved heavy blocks of bricks and mortar aside, breathing so quickly as she prayed silently for a miracle of an entirely different sort than these demons were going around offering. She could hear the sounds of both Andrew and Colin fighting these demons now, but she was concentrating on listening for any other sounds that someone might be alive beneath this avalanche of cement.
Her fingers finally brushed against something soft and she pulled the last few pieces of rubble away from the face of the person entombed in this concrete coffin. Colin killed the jackal and ran back to her side, and he hurriedly helped her uncover the woman whose ragged breaths forewarned them she was badly injured. Behind her, Anna heard Andrew approaching, and he knelt beside her and felt the woman’s pulse.
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