by Skyler Andra
“Three years?” Raphael blinked as if he couldn’t comprehend this. “It only felt like a few days.”
Mike wiped a bloodstain from his boot. “Do you think that Luc kept you asleep the whole time?”
“Maybe.” Raphael pulled the blanket tighter around his shoulders.
“Do you know why he took you?” Mike asked.
Raphael sat up, rubbing his chin and sucking in a breath. “He needed my powers.”
Mike leaned forward, clasping his hands. “For what?”
“I can’t,” Raphael started, shaking his head furiously.
It was clear that Raphael didn’t want to talk. Too painful to speak of. I understood his suffering. The way the darkness had transformed him.
I swallowed back the lump in my throat, moving to the kitchen to boil some water. He could use a warm cup of tea to chase away his bad memories. I prepared three mugs, each with a tea bag and a little sugar and cream.
Mike watched me intently. The look in his gaze spoke of his worry for me. That and the fact he counted down the moments until he could continue his inquisition. But, we needed answers on Lucifer’s plans and anything that might help us stop him.
The water boiled and I poured it in each mug. Brown tannins blended with the cream into a milky mixture. I carried the three hot mugs to the lounge.
“Hello, brother,” I said, finally introducing myself as I offered him the first mug. “I’m Jophiel.”
“Thanks.” Raphael gave me a solemn smile as he accepted the gift. But his reluctant eyes didn’t meet mine. He had nothing to be ashamed of with me. I didn’t judge him for being caught by Lucifer when I’d been taken too him twice now.
Mike nodded as I handed him a mug. I set mine on the coffee table.
A palpable tension stretched between us I as I sat on the chair opposite the two angels, clutching my tea with both hands. He wanted to hold me, comfort me, tell me everything was going to be fine. But it wasn’t. I was forever stained with darkness. Forever marked with the death of that demon. My beauty forever spoiled. Now I truly understood why Uri had drowned in his alcohol addiction. I rubbed my arms, unable to get rid of the coldness refusing to leave my body.
“How many more of us are left?” Raphael questioned.
“Just myself, Jophiel, Zadkiel, Uriel, Jeremial and Chamuel,” Mike replied, staring at his tea as if the faces of all the lost angels swirled in it.
“I don’t remember much before I was kidnapped,” Raphael admitted. “The drugs blocked out a lot. I just remember Luc waking me sometimes. For what I don’t know.”
Mike’s pensive expression turned even more somber and he hung his head. “It’ll come back in time.”
Raphael took a long sip of his tea, clutching the cup like he needed something tangible to cling to. I imagined after being locked into slumber for so long that he had desired to be free once more. But beneath his grace lay something else. Something dark. A secret. One he hid to and refused to show me. I glanced at Mike, wondering if he sensed it too. If he did, he didn’t let on.
Mike got up and paced the small room for a long while. With each step his agitation grew. His face clouded with impatience. He lifted his wrist to check his watch, which was no longer on his person.
“Fuck,” he growled under his breath. “Luc stole my watch too.”
At the end of our taxi ride, I’d checked my jacket pocket to find the spending card the Nephilim had given me gone. Lucifer had taken it along with Mike’s wallet and phone too. Mike had said he’d have to purchase everyone new phones. But with what money? We hadn’t been able to pay for the ride back from wherever forcing Mike to resort to a glamor of sorts to convince the driver that we had.
“Dammit, what time is it?” Mike said. “Where’s Zak and Uri?”
“I’m sure they’re out looking for us,” I reasoned.
Mike grabbed the television remote and switched on the device. The date displayed at the bottom of the news channel’s scrolling screen. “Fucking hell. Today’s the day of the concert.”
The reality of that news set in. We’ve been missing for over a day. What else might have happened in that time? Alarm pumped through me. I sat up straighter wondering if Zak and Uri had also been kidnapped. Or had they gone to stop the concert on their own. My chest tightened at the prospect of them walking into a trap.
I stood up. “We have to go to the concert.”
“No, stay here,” Mike ordered, his gaze landing on me. “Look after Raff. He’s in no shape to be going anywhere. I’m going after Uri and Zak.”
I read between the lines. He didn’t think me up to it after my assault. Maybe I wasn’t. But maybe I possessed a strength even he didn’t know about.
After the kidnapping, Mike shouldn’t be going alone when he didn’t know what he might face. We were both still weakened from the drugs. He’d said as much in the taxi ride back here. That meant going in at disadvantage.
“What if you’re walking into a trap?” I countered.
Mike’s eyes crinkled with worry. “I can’t leave them.”
“That might be the case,” I said, fiddling with my fingers. “But we shouldn’t split up. If Zak and Uri were with us in the City Square we might not have been kidnapped.”
“It’s my decision and I’m asking you to obey it.” He’d made that abundantly clear in Uri’s foyer a night or two ago.
I sucked my cheeks in, clasping my hands, glancing at Raphael, who held his head in his hands.
Mike crouched beside me and touched my knee. This time I jerked away from him because he was so stubborn and proud. But the words that came out of his mouth struck with as much force as a bolt of lightning. “You’re thinking like a true warrior.”
The honor carried in his words made me arch my back and thrust my chest out. He’d never thought of me as a warrior before. I’d just been an inexperienced Archangel with no combat practice. To have that recognition made me finally feel like part of the team. I know I still had plenty to learn, but to be acknowledged lifted my spirits more than he could know.
“I appreciate that.” I bent my head trying to hide my grin.
“Sometimes we have to stay behind to look after the wounded,” Mike added as he climbed to a stand. “It’s just an honorable role as fighting.”
30
Michael
Fuck. So many people at the concert. All about to infected if I didn’t do anything. I took long breaths in an effort to calm myself. After Luc’s drugging, I still wasn’t one hundred percent, and felt the disgusting medicine sitting in my system. Bastard. It left me weak, lethargic and feeling like I wanted to puke all the time. The least of my worries for the moment.
As I navigated the mob of humans, searching for an exit to get out the back of the power stadium, part of me wondered if Luc had released me on purpose. I mean, it was all too easy, letting us go like that. If the roles were reversed, I wouldn’t have let him out of my sight, or the sight of guards.
Speaking of security, three guards gathered up ahead. One bent his head to talk into the walky-talky on his shoulder. I bowed my head and pulled my jacked higher. They could not spot me. I took the next entrance into the stadium, intent to bypass them by crossing to the next exit.
I hurried along the rows of seats, and left out the next door, glancing back at the guards heading in the opposite direction. A few hundred yards away I found a service exit that I hoped would take me to the heart of the stadium.
“That’s for staff only!” someone yelled.
I glanced over my shoulder. A security guard marching toward me.
Beat it, buddy.
I waited for him behind the door, catching him by the throat, strangling him with my forearm, until he lost consciousness. Leaving his slumped body behind, I navigated my way along the halls, searching for the substation supplying power to the stadium.
These tunnels only led to the services facilities as well as the delivery area out back. I had to find another way to the area I needed. At the next exit, I eme
rged into the concourse again, finding it empty. Everyone had entered the stadium. Only the service and hospitality staff remained.
Shit, a band was about to commence.
I hurried my step when a wave of darkness swept over me. Music blared from inside the stadium, reverberating through the entire building, rattling it. The crowd roared with excitement. My insides deadened from the tune of that horrid fucking song. I leaned against the wall for strength as the sound zapped it from me. Bile rose in my throat and I held it in. I didn’t have anything in my stomach anyway when I hadn’t eaten in over a day.
God.
Angel’s Blood were on stage. I was too late. They opened their set with a song I didn’t recognize, but it was still packed with plenty of darkness.
I dragged my fingernails along the bricks, trying to stand straight. It took all my effort to carry myself forward.
“Are you all right, sir?” one of the attendants asked me as I stumbled down the concourse.
I didn’t answer him. Each step carried me deeper into the darkness. I wretched as I staggered along. When it became too much, I stopped, holding my stomach, fighting the pain in my gut.
“Keep going, Mike,” I said through gritted teeth.
I pushed myself ahead until I reached the entrance I was looking for.
I continued into the heart of the stadium; a powerhouse of chilled, concrete tunnels, cables and pipes. Where the lights had dimmed as if some of them had been cut. Each step into the depths, the itch on my skin heightened with the faint trace of darkness. The silence made me twitch with warning. I still wasn’t up to full potential with my powers, but I felt my strength seep back into my body if I needed to fight. Irrespective of that, I still had to be careful. If I ran into L I’d be in deep shit at a loss with reduced connection to my grace. That fight might not end well.
A soft drone in the tunnel—the electrical supply to the stadium—guided my way. My shoulders relaxed a little as my enthusiasm ramped up. Just a bit farther. I followed the buzzing to a space that opened up to fit a substation with electrical coils, transformers and distribution wires feeding the power to the stadium.
By now, my angelic senses were crawling with darkness. A headache sprung in the back of my skull. My skin burned. A queasiness stretching from my gut to my chest. Any minute I was going to puke. Rat security guards I assumed. Best to keep going.
To cut the power to the stadium, I needed to locate the incoming cables at the back of structure. Taut and on alert, I inched deeper into the room. But something stopped me. A revulsion in the pit of my stomach. A souring at the back of my throat. Bad signs.
“Glad you could join us, brother.” Luc’s voice rung out. Full of victory and smugness.
Dammit.
He knew Jophiel and I had escaped. Set himself up here to stop me from cutting his next supply of darkness to heal him.
I continued around the corner of the substation, encountering Uri and Zak, swarmed by Luc with his shit-eating grin, rats and fallen angels. My whole body set on edge. Uri, Zak and I weren’t going to be able cut the power in time to end the concert.
My shoulders drooped. No. I refused to accept that Luc had won a-fucking-gain. The fight to cut the power and get out of here was not going to be easy. The last two confrontations with him only involved us versus him and his filthy rats. This time he’d smarted up and beefed up his arsenal. He’d never had a head for war. Although he certainly had one for revenge. This concert must be mighty important to him. He must really need the juice after what Jophiel had done to him. We’d have to pull some kind of miracle to win this one.
The superior smile on Luc’s lips warped into one of annoyance. “Although if you’re hear, that means you and Jophiel escaped.”
“Yeah,” I said to Luc, glancing at the fallen angels, calculating the moves I’d need to take them down. “Your security could do with some improvement.”
No need for him to know the little detail about Raff. Now that we finally had him back, we had to protect him at all costs.
Luc’s eyes cut to one fallen angel. Nadriel. A former head of the Seraphim. They could unleash a powerful scream to burst your eardrums. Bloody banshees. Muscles in the fallen angel’s cheek rippled as he swallowed. He was going to cop a lot of shit if he returned to Luc’s den alive.
In my mind, I ran over the possible attack scenarios, calculating the most likely to succeed and get us out of here alive.
Uri and Zak glanced over their shoulders at me as if waiting for the okay to attack.
Zak’s face darkened and he cursed under his breath, “Fuck, Mike’s weak, man.”
Uri didn’t seemed phased by it, his face a peaceful mask. Nothing worried that guy. I don’t know how he remained so level-headed. It was a mistake letting him leave the team. We could have used his abilities in the tight spots over the years.
“Don’t worry about it,” Uri said to Zak. “Let me handle it.”
“Now that you’re all here,” Luc started on one his typical, lame villain monologues, pretending to count his enemies. “Wait. You’re missing the Archangel of Beauty. Tell me, where is my dear sister?”
“Dead,” I lied. Why not make him think he’d won?
Luc’s brow pinched and his eyes tightened. “I don’t believe you brother.”
I never could get anything past him. He used to call me the brawns and himself the brains of Heaven.
He rubbed his hands together. “I quite enjoyed destroying her.” His head lifted and he sniffed the air. “Her darkness smells so sweet. Irresistible, really.”
Both Zak and Uri turned to look at me, their eyes demanding answers. I shook my head. Not here. Not now.
“What did you do to her, you fuckwit?” Zak growled.
Luc laughed. “Such spunk. I sense your darkness consuming you. Not long now brother until you’ll be all mine. My bitch. Not Michael’s.”
Always eager for a fight, Zak jerked forward and Uri yanked him back.
“Enough.” Uri produced his staff of light, lifting it in the air, and thumping it on the concrete. Brilliant red light illuminated the space.
Luc hissed and lifted his arms to shield himself. The fallen angels staggered backward. Rats howled and stumbled behind the substation to hide.
Taking the opportunity, Zak lunged forward, his spear lengthening in his palm. He hurled it at the distribution cable and it sparked.
“No,” Luc cried, stumbling to grab it.
Uri brightened the light on his staff, burning him like a serious case of sunburn. Exposed skin blistered and peeled and he screamed, clutching his face.
I joined in, punching some of the rats, knocking them out. At least I still had some strength. I tried to pull out my sword but it refused to manifest.
Zak stabbed the power supply again. Sparks exploded from the damaged unit. Electricity crackled as it hit Uri. Fiery red flames set alight across his skin as he absorbed the power. All the lights in the tunnel and substation room went out as the power fed into him.
“Now,” Uri shouted, and in the blink of an eye, I was carried out of the substation and into the field of the stadium.
“Thanks,” I told Uri who had teleported me out of there, his skin charged with red bolts of lightning.
Zak stood off to the side. “We better be ready.”
Our victory was short lived when Luc and his minions appeared thirty feet from us, their very presence staining the grass black. Uri and Zak got to work dealing with them.
Beyond the fray, I observed Luc hold out his hand where a magical flute rested in his palm. His angelic weapon gifted to him by the Most High. A device to corrupt and deceive.
Luc tugged at his sleeve with his free hand. “I was willing to play nice,” his voice beat in my head. “But now you’ve just pissed me off. Now I’m going to give you a choice, Michael. The choice I never had.” He lifted the flute to his lips.
“Choice?” I glared at him. “What choice?”
Luc smiled, devious and deadl
y. “You get to choose which humans to save.”
What the fuck? Sick prick. “I’m not doing that.”
“Then I’ll do it for you.” Luc shouted, his face reddening. He blew a note into the flute and black notes piped out the end of it.
“No,” I cried, widening my stance and holding my hands up. “Wait.”
Fuck.
With Zak and Uri were busy beating back the fallen angels and rats, I was alone. Not strong enough to diffuse the other bombs by myself until the full might of my grace returned. Luc knew he had me by the balls. My brother would let a bomb off anyway if I didn’t choose.
Bastard.
I’d have to make a sacrifice. Save an entire zone or those by the stage. May as well save as many people as I could. For the greater good.
I closed my eyes, shaking with rage. Left me with no other choice, I growled, “The stage.”
“A weak choice,” Luc replied with a triumphant smile in his voice. “A bit like your predicament. But a choice nonetheless.”
He released a torrent of deadly notes that detonated a bomb, cutting through the confused silence and whispers in the stadium. The stage exploded into fragments of wood, metal and plastic. Walls crumbled from the set up. Scaffolding and other supports came crashing down to the stadium, crushing people and security. Screams rose above that noise as patrons pushed at each other to escape the commotion.
The fighting among the angels ceased. Uri and Zak kicked glance around at the horror, their expressions stamped with shock.
I stared at the black stains of the bomb. Destroyed seats, stage and equipment. All the bodies and blood. Terrified screams replaced the ringing in my ears. Patrons fled their seats in a panic, shoving strangers to get down the stairs and out the exits.
What had I done?
Above all the calamity, I heard the cocky laugh of Luc in my head. “I warned you there’d be consequences if you interfered, brother. Either way I win. I always win. Thank you.”
My fists curled. I wanted to kill him more than ever. Shake the last breath from him. Make him repent. My knees gave way, bringing me crashing to the ground. I’d just delivered my brother the dose of darkness he desperately needed to bolster him.
