by E. A. Copen
Leviathan deflected it with the sword, but the blade melted to nothing. He dropped what was left of the sword, horrified, then turned to grab Stefan’s chain. Stefan snapped at him, but he punched my lover in the jaw, dazing him. With a grunt, Leviathan hauled him past me, not bothering to spare me another glance. Good for him. I’d have killed him if he’d so much as looked at me.
The other vampires closed, hissing, snarling, and snapping like mad dogs. I heard none of it. The only sound in my mind was two Enochian syllables I shouted, the only feeling the gnawing pain of loss and righteous rage.
Magic rose, clawing its way out of my blood, Maggie’s blood, and all the other blood shed in that awful place. Even the vampires felt the sudden surge of power. They halted their advance just inches from me as a high-pitched buzz vibrated through their skulls. Pure, powerful white light burst into existence all around me, drowning everything else out. Tongues of flame forced my mouth open and I sank to my knees, consumed by the pain of channeling the power that was mine by blood right. Mine and Maggie’s. For all we’d lost, that birthright was the one thing no one would ever take from either of us. Even dead, she lent her power to the summoning spell.
The ground trembled and cracked open, swallowing whole piles of debris. What was left of the house above collapsed, crashing into the basement all around me. Glass shattered, then melted into more pools of light.
A choir of furious angels chanted their answer, a lurid shriek of denial. Yet, even repulsed, they couldn’t refuse the call. I had suffered at the hands of an absent God, and so would they. I pulled Heaven to Earth and stood in the all-consuming flames, immune but wounded nonetheless.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Stefan
Hunger gnawed at my insides, a living thing. The leash around my neck pulled me onward, half-dragging me through the house no matter how I struggled against it. “Josiah!” The name felt unclean coming from my lips, and strangely foreign. I strained against the chain and reached for the basement door that was about to disappear from view. “Stop! He’ll kill himself. You have to help him.”
“He won’t accept help from me. I just killed his only child.” Leviathan yanked the chain. “Now stop fighting me. I’m not letting you go back there to kill him!”
An invisible knife twisted in my gut as the hunger rose, demanding to be fed. I closed my eyes. I couldn’t fight it, this awful hunger that demanded I feed. “What’s wrong with me?” I gripped my head and staggered after Leviathan to keep the chain loose.
“Vampires tried to turn you, I think. They must’ve been interrupted. The transformation’s not complete.” He turned a corner and halted to look around. “Do you have any idea where Khaleda’s gone?”
I shook my head.
He sighed, and we moved on. “Well, Josiah seems hell-bent on destroying everything in a blast. We need to be clear of it. Khaleda too. If she’s still anywhere in here, she’ll be destroyed along with all the rest.”
“Maybe she got out.”
“One can only hope. We’ll never find her in time.”
He pulled me with him through the collapsing house. Aside from the hunger, I was numb, my thoughts distant. The insides of my arms and legs ached, burning as if there were fresh cuts there. Chest too. My body ached with every step.
I tried to recall what’d happened to me after I went into the basement. My last clear memory had been those things surrounding me, but there were other eyes in the darkness. Eyes that became faces with fangs. I shuddered and stopped trying to remember. Knowing the gnawing hunger was there was enough. Leviathan was right about what’d happened to me.
The front foyer was burning, but we navigated a path through the fire and found the exit just as the roof collapsed behind us. I spun to watch the whole house come down. Josiah’s still in there.
Leviathan’s hand clamped on my shoulder. “He’s survived buildings falling on him plenty of times. I’m sure he’s fine.”
My heart sank into my stomach, and I closed my eyes. “But if he comes near me, he won’t be. This hunger—I can’t make it go away. There’s no cure for it, is there?”
“Nonsense,” said Leviathan. “There’s a cure for everything. It’s just that sometimes the cure is death. There’s no sense in giving you a false sense of hope. Better you forget about him, Stefan.”
Forget about Josiah? Was that even possible? I’d given everything for him, and I would’ve given more. I couldn’t imagine life without him, but that was exactly what I was facing, wasn’t it?
Something tugged at the edge of my consciousness and I turned, scanning the yard, then the valley of lights in the distance. My feet carried me to the edge of the cliff overlooking the city, and the leash was the only thing that kept me from walking straight off. It pulled tight around my neck, choking me. Still, I strained against it, barely able to stop myself. “He’s calling me. Who is that?”
“Your master, I suspect.” Leviathan pulled on the chain, dragging me back from the cliff.
I groaned and quit struggling as he pulled me toward the driveway. Was this how it was going to be now? Eventually, I’d break free of his leash and go to my master. I’d have no choice but to obey his every command, a slave to Spyder’s whim. Stefan Nikolaides was dead.
I closed my eyes. “Just kill me. Please. I don’t want to live this way.”
Leviathan opened the driver’s side door of the Mercedes in the driveway. “You don’t think it’s bad enough I had to kill Maggie? Josiah’s already pissed. Khaleda is missing…” He hesitated, looking back at the collapsed house. “I don’t sense her here, though.”
Leviathan didn’t let go of my leash until the car was moving and the doors were locked. I turned in the seat, staring at the house until it was out of sight.
“We might need magic to find her,” Leviathan said as we sped toward the highway that would take us back to Los Angeles. “Do you know anyone aside from Josiah who might be able to help?”
I rubbed my face, trying to clear my mind. Come on, Stefan. Think past your own misery. “Not here in Los Angeles, but back East, there might be someone who can help. He doesn’t do magic, but there isn’t a camera or electronic device he can’t hack. If she shows up anywhere, Reggie will be able to find her.”
Leviathan shook his head. “She can’t have gone far. I don’t think there were any other cars in the driveway.”
“Maybe she called Thoganoth. He dropped us off in a limo.”
He sighed. “If that’s the case, I can call the little demon and see. First, though, we need to go somewhere neither Remiel nor Spyder can find us. That’s going to mean getting out of the city. I don’t know where might be safe, and they’re likely watching our bank accounts.”
“Not mine. I live on cash. Harder to trace.”
He glanced in the mirror. “You mean you just walk around with wads of cash in your pockets?”
I shrugged. That wasn’t exactly true. Only an idiot would do that. The truth was, I hadn’t completely burned my bridges with the organization. Christof and I were still on good terms, which meant I still had the organization’s resources at my disposal. Namely, their money network. I could move money just about anywhere in North America or Europe without ever touching a check or debit card. One phone call and I had whatever I wanted. Because of the way the world worked, I generally had to live off of one of those disposable, reloadable cards to make ends meet, but they were virtually untraceable as long as I reloaded them with cash.
“Okay, I’ll need to get in touch with your friend back East. In the meantime, we need somewhere to lie low in town. Where were you and Josiah staying?”
I told him about the hotel, gave him directions, and melted into the seat.
The hotel felt empty without Josiah, even with Leviathan there. He spent a lot of time on the phone while I just curled up in the bed. I was almost asleep when he sank onto the end of the bed and dangled his cell phone between two fingers.
“Did you hear any of that?” he as
ked.
I slowly shook my head. My stomach growled, and I curled up tighter.
Leviathan sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I have a contact inside Beelzebub’s forces. I was trying to assess the situation, see if they’d come over to our side. Apparently, however, Beelzebub’s army deserted him almost as soon as the fighting broke out here. They’ve flocked to support Remiel. Even with our combined forces, Khaleda and I might not be able to win this damned war. There are rumblings in my ranks of appealing to Heaven. Heaven! Can you imagine me, the mighty Leviathan, going on bended knee before Michael?”
“He’d kill you,” I offered weakly.
“In a heartbeat,” Leviathan agreed. “There’s no sign of Khaleda or Remiel.”
I uncurled a little. “Josiah?”
Leviathan shook his head. “You look awful, my friend. I know you’ll refuse to feed on humans, but perhaps other blood would sustain you?”
“I don’t want anything.”
“So, you’re just going to die then? Is that it?”
I closed my eyes and pretended to sleep.
He sighed again and stood. “I need to go out, but I can’t very well leave you here alone. You’ll tear through the hotel and rip out everyone’s throats, and then where will we be? Would you consent to be drugged and restrained?”
I opened my eyes to slits and frowned at him. “What?”
Leviathan rose and hefted Josiah’s bag onto the bed. His bag. Had he really left to go to the peace talks without his bag? He never went anywhere without it. That just went to show how distraught he had been over Maggie’s situation. He wasn’t himself.
“I found some sedatives in this bag, and some restraints. They might be enchanted. They’re very pretty. Good, strong material.”
I blushed and sat up. “They’re not enchanted, but I know they can hold me.”
“Can they hold a half-turned vampire version of you?”
“Good point. If you look in there some more, you might find additional restraints. I know there’s rope. Triple-braided. Should work if you can tie it well.”
Leviathan popped open the bag and reached into it. “I assure you, I can tie a knot. You’ll just have to tell me if it gets too tight. I’m not used to restraining humans. Your kind— Ow!” He jerked his arm out of the bag, holding a big red spot on his hand. “What the fuck was that?”
A moment later, Milly climbed to the top of the bag and reared up, challenging Leviathan.
“Milly!” I scooped her into my hand. She was irritated, but she didn’t bite me. I’d handled her plenty of times. “Josiah’s familiar. She must be upset because you were digging around in there.”
“That is not a familiar! If he’s managed to tame one of those… Well, color me impressed at the very least. I’m glad we’re on the same side. You just need to convince her of that.” He handed me Milly’s plastic enclosure.
I lowered her into it and secured it. I’ll have to take care of her now too, I suppose, or find a way to get her back to him. If he survived. I closed my eyes and sighed.
Leviathan finally pulled out the length of rope and laid it on the bed before going to the bathroom to get some water in a paper cup. I took triple the dose of sleeping pills I normally did. It probably wasn’t safe, but I didn’t think it was a particularly dangerous dose. Leviathan secured me to the bed while I started to doze off, and tried to make small talk. I couldn’t follow whatever he was saying. All I could think about was how I should’ve swallowed the whole bottle. If I hadn’t had Milly to look after, I might’ve done just that.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Josiah
I came to in darkness, a heavy weight on my back. Thunder growled overhead, and wood crackled in dying fires all around. With a grunt, I sat up and cast the heavy object from my shoulders into a pile of soot. Ash flew into the sky, dancing in an updraft, the edges lighting like the end of a cigarette. Thick arms of lightning tore at the sky.
Maggie. I went to scoop up some of the ash but found only cracked concrete beneath me. Panic rose in my throat and I spun, sweeping through the debris in search of her body. I moved my other arm, only to be reminded of the searing pain in my shoulder. With a wince, I touched the wound. It’d closed up, almost as if it’d never been there.
“If you’re looking for the Nephilim girl, you won’t find her.” Feathery wings flapped, and Ira touched down on an extended piece of broken wood. “You’re welcome, by the way. For fixing your shoulder?”
“No, she was here. She was right here! I watched her die. Held her in my arms, Ira.” I pushed aside the scorched remains of a chair.
“Really, Josiah? After all this time, you should know better than to assume that merely killing a body makes it uninhabitable.”
Gooseflesh formed on the back of my neck. “Remiel.”
“Bingo.” Ira stepped down from their perch. “Of course, the body was in no condition to go walking about, so I had to assist with putting it back together and getting the heart beating again. You wouldn’t believe how difficult that was. But that was hours ago , Josiah.”
Slowly, I pulled my fingers from the ash. “Then he’s gotten what he wanted—a body that will sustain him. Dominion over Hell.”
“And Heaven will soon follow.” Ira’s fingers closed on my chin, lifting my face to look at their smug grin, that shock of electric blue hair swept to one side.
I glared at Ira, trying to find the right accusation. “Traitor” didn’t seem strong enough, but that was what they’d done—betrayed me and all of humanity, delivering the Earth into Remiel’s hands to do with as he pleased.
Something moved at the edge of the rubble, drawing my attention. Something glowing. I glanced away to find the destroyed house surrounded by the Heavenly Host: Seraphim armed with flaming swords. Each was dressed in white robes, six wings upon each back, their swords resting in the dirt. I had called them down to destroy the house, but I hadn’t expected them to stay.
I looked back to Ira. “What’s going on?”
Ira pursed their lips in a pouty expression. “Aww, poor Josiah’s confused. Here, how about I clear things up for you?” Ira leaned in to whisper, “I’ve been working for Remiel the whole time, turning Michael’s troops against him.” When they leaned back, it was with a satisfied, smug grin.
“You’re staging a coup in Heaven?”
“Don’t act so surprised. You’ve known for a while now, Remiel won’t be satisfied with just taking over Hell. He wants everything he was denied from the beginning. He wants to be God.”
Ira was right. I’d known that was what he wanted. I’d just thought he was much farther from achieving his goal. I had underestimated Ira’s involvement and influence. Now, they had everything they needed to conquer Heaven and Hell and rule both. Everything except God. If Remiel was going to rule uncontested, he would need the God mantle.
I gritted my teeth. “You still need to defeat Michael and his loyalists.”
Ira pushed my head away and let me fall back to the floor. “That won’t be a problem. We have the bigger army now that the boss has Lucifer’s daughter. She’ll bow soon enough and pledge her armies to him. Along with those come Leviathan’s forces, since he signed on with her. We already have Beelzebub’s demons, all the Fallen, and the Host. With Manus Dei and the vampires under our command here, there’s absolutely no way we can’t win.”
“Unless you can’t find God.” I smiled as Ira’s face twisted into an angry sneer.
“That will happen soon enough. We have your troll friend, Reggie, working on it. He just doesn’t know it yet.”
Fuck me, if there was anyone who could find God using surveillance footage, it was Reggie. That troll could find a fly in a Hong Kong dung heap if he wanted to.
Gentle thunder rumbled, and Ira held out their hand. “Looks like rain. Fitting weather for quitting, wouldn’t you say?” Ira offered me a wicked smile and turned away, moving to join the Seraphim as they fell into ranks and disappeared to wherever
they were going to wage their first battle.
I scooped up a pile of ash and watched the wind sweep it away. It was all I had left after everything, wasn’t it? All the abuse, the sacrifice, the suffering… What was it for if I was only going to lose now? Remiel had taken everything from me, and nothing I could do would ever get it back.
Only one thing to do, then. I pushed up out of the ash. “Oi, wait up, ya cunt.”
Ira stopped and turned around, arms crossed. “What? Are you going to promise to keep fighting, Josiah? Tell me you’re coming for me?”
I took my time searching for my pack of ciggies, found it, and lipped one into my mouth to light. Smoke curled to the back of my mouth and crawled down my throat to infect my lungs. Lungs Ira’d healed more than once. Joke was on them, wasn’t it?
“No.” I flipped the lighter closed with a metallic ting. “I just wanted to see if you’d answer to that.”
Ira balled their fists and stomped away.
Rain whispered through the air. Embers died all around me while I stood in the ruins of Spyder’s house, watching angels leave to pledge their allegiance to their Fallen brother. I waited for the last of them to go before wiping my hands clean and pocketing the lighter. “Right, then. Guess I’d better find God before those fuckwits do. But first, I need to deal with Spyder, and that means I need my bag.”
The storm was in full swing by the time I broke into the hotel room. Shadows clung to everything like sticky liquid, the air cool and dry. I debated turning on the lights. Maybe the place was empty. That’d make it easier, wouldn’t it? If I ran into Stefan, I didn’t know if I’d have the heart to leave him, even though I had to. What I had to do next, I needed to do on my own. He wouldn’t understand.
Yet if I didn’t find him in time, the consequences could be even worse. He was bound to Spyder now, and killing Spyder would mean his subordinates would also perish. If I killed Spyder without first severing the bond that held Stefan to him, Stefan would also die, which I didn’t want. Severing that bond, however, carried a price I wasn’t sure I would survive paying. It didn’t matter. I was going to die eventually. Might as well mean something, especially since finding God was a long shot.