by Elicia Hyder
My head snapped back. “Ionis?” I hadn’t seen him since we were at the Avronesh.
Wings nodded. “Skinny dude with white hair and weird clothes.”
“I know who he is. Just wondering why he was here.”
“He told the guardians about the mandate concerning the Morning Star. Then he spoke with Azrael in private, and they left,” Reuel explained.
“Why did they leave?” Cassiel asked, speaking for the first time since our awkward departure from Venice.
Reuel just shrugged his large shoulders.
“Did you need something?” Wings asked me.
“I wanted to return Azrael’s blood stone, but I guess I’ll hang onto it for a while.” I looked around the parking lot. “Is a woman named Chimera still here working on Ahab?”
Pirez and Wings exchanged a wide smile. “Oh yeah,” Pirez said.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“It means she’s attractive,” Cassiel said with an eyeroll.
“Can you call Nate and ask him to come out here, please?” I asked.
“Roger that, sir.” Wings pressed the button on the side of the radio Velcroed to his shoulder. “Kane, tell the commander that Warren is here to see him.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “He makes you call him the commander?”
“Yes, sir.”
I laughed and shook my head.
“What happened in Venice?” Reuel asked.
“We got our guy. Let’s just leave it at that.” I glanced back at the building. “How are things here?”
“Better now, but the system is still offline.”
The front door opened and Nathan walked out. “You’re back a lot sooner than I expected,” he said, slipping on his sunglasses.
“And we can’t stay. This is a pit stop on our way back to Eden.”
“I heard you caught your killer. Congratulations.”
“Yeah, but unfortunately not before he killed someone else.”
“Saw it on the Italian news. Did they find the girl’s family?” he asked.
I had no idea.
“I don’t think she has any,” Cassiel said.
“They say she’s still on life support. Any way you can get an Angel of Life in there to save her like Sloan saved me?”
Sloan.
It hadn’t even occurred to me that she was inside the building. That was a first. I looked at Cassiel. We hadn’t touched since we left Italy. But maybe she’d had a bigger effect on me than I’d realized.
I hadn’t been hung up on wistful thoughts of my old life so far on this trip, and I didn’t want to start now. “It’s too late. Her soul already crossed the spirit line.”
“We didn’t want her suffering to continue,” Cassiel added, her face falling.
“I’m sorry,” Nathan said.
Cassiel took a deep breath. “So am I.”
“Want some good news?” he asked.
I crossed my arms. “I’d love some good news.”
He jerked his thumb toward the building. “Fury’s girl Chimera knows her shit. She’s been here less than a full day and has accomplished more than the New Hope team has in months.”
“That’s great,” I said.
“She thinks the system will be back online in an hour or so.”
“Will my passphrase change?”
He had a teasing grin. “You don’t want it to, do you? It’s so appropriate.”
I rolled my eyes and ignored him. “Are Sloan and Iliana still inside?”
“Of course. Ahab may be offline, but inside, it’s been full-on DEFCON Two around here since that shit went down with Moloch. I thought I was going to have to do a retina scan just to access the refrigerator this morning.”
I chuckled. “Good. Keep them safe. I’ll be in touch when I know more.”
“You’re leaving now?”
“Yes, but I’d like for Reuel to stay on here.” I looked at Reuel, and he nodded. “I’ll be gone for a few days, at most I would think.”
I prayed so anyway.
“We can keep Iliana inside for a few more days. Not a problem.” His face fell. “But it will be a problem before too long. It’s not right to keep a kid locked up indoors. We’ve got to find and neutralize the Morning Star.”
Glancing up at the two-story structure that looked more like a prison than a home, I couldn’t argue. “I’m working on it, Nate.”
He put a hand on my shoulder. “I know you are.”
“I’ll be in Eden, so call out to Samael if you need to get in touch with me quickly.”
“Call out like…” Nathan folded his hands in prayer and cocked his head to the side.
I laughed. “Something like that. He’ll hear you, just do it outside the building.”
“So weird.”
“I know.” I gave him a firm handshake, then pulled him in and slapped him on the back.
“We’ll be fine,” he said in my ear.
Forcing a nod, I released him. “Please thank Chimera on my behalf for coming so quickly.”
“Will do.”
“I’ll be back soon.”
“Godspeed,” Nathan said with a grin and a wink.
Laughing, I stepped back beside Cassiel and looked down at her. “Are you ready?”
She nodded. “Goodbye, Nathan. I’m sure we’ll see each other again very soon.”
I didn’t like the sound of that at all.
Together, she and I walked toward the open field to lessen the blast of our departure for the humans. Midway through the grass, a crackling sound caught my attention. “Warren, it’s Lachlan. Where are you?” one of my angels asked in my head.
“Asheville, why?” I responded.
“I need you in Chicago. There’s a human spirit here glowing purple.”
“This can’t be good.”
From the parking garage where we emerged from the spirit line, I could see a familiar triangular tan building.
“Where are we?” Cassiel asked.
“Downtown Chicago.” I pointed. “That’s a federal prison. The last time I was here was with Sloan.”
At the garage’s exit, a brawny figure was silhouetted against the sunlight. I didn’t need to see his face to know who it was. His name was Lachlan, another Angel of Death.
“What have you got?” I asked as we approached.
He reached inside his jacket and handed me a sheet of paper. “Know this guy?”
I took the page. A color mugshot was printed in the center of it, a man with graying blond hair, a severely wrinkled face, and two empty eyes. “Please tell me this guy’s dead,” I said, studying the booking sheet.
“I don’t know what he is, boss. I saw him last night when I slipped into the prison—”
“When you slipped into the prison?” Cassiel asked.
Lachlan’s head tilted from side to side. “I might have some business with one of the female guards.”
I scowled.
He grinned. “She didn’t think I could get inside. I proved her wrong in more ways than one.”
Cassiel rolled her eyes.
“Anyway, on my way out early this morning, I saw this guy in solitary glowing bright purple. I remembered something Jeshua said about a spirit glowing purple, so I thought I should let you know.”
“What’s he in prison for?” Cassiel asked, leaning sideways to read the paper.
“Says armed robbery. He was convicted four years ago.”
“But apparently this dude had the shit beaten out of him with a broken bathroom pipe about six months ago. He was on life support until he randomly woke up a few weeks ago and was brought back here.”
Cassiel covered her mouth to stifle a laugh.
“What?” Lachlan asked.
Smiling, I handed him the paper. “A spirit escaped from Nulterra and claimed this man’s body. Little did the spirit know, he was bound for a maximum-security prison. That’s hysterical.”
“If it’s not this guy”—he looked at the sheet—“Gary Hu
ghes, who is it?”
I shrugged. “Somebody Azrael killed a long time ago, would be my guess. Where is he now?”
He pointed the paper at the three-hundred-foot building. “Nineteenth floor. Solitary.”
“You’re going in?” Cassiel asked.
“Yes, ma’am. You coming?”
“Absolutely.”
“Lachlan?” I asked.
He hesitated. “I’d like to keep working this area.”
“Of course. Do me a favor and let Samael know what’s happening here.”
“I’ll let him know, and then I’m headed back to Eden,” Lachlan said as Cassiel and I started toward the building.
“We’ll hopefully see you there soon!” I called back to him.
Cassiel threw her arm across my chest to stop me. “Wait. Do you have a plan or are you just going to barrel your way in there?”
I turned my palms up. “Barreling sounds fun.”
She frowned.
“If we can get into the Capitol building in Malab, this should be a breeze.”
“You don’t have anyone to escort you in, and you can’t knock out the cameras here. It would put the guards in danger.”
I hadn’t thought about that. “What do you suggest?”
With her hands on her hips, she looked up at the three-hundred-foot building. “We need to cross the spirit line and enter inside.”
I chuckled. “And me strong-arming my way into an elevator is too much?”
“It’s quicker. We can get in without drawing as much attention to ourselves.”
“You don’t think it will affect the building?”
She looked up again. “It’s steel and concrete. It’s designed to take worse.”
“If you say so.”
“Getting out might be harder if we try to take him alive. Think we should?”
“You’re the brains of this operation. Do you think he’ll tell a different story from Vito?”
“No, but if we have trouble finding the island, an Angel of Life could summon him back to where he came from. Then we could follow.”
My head tilted as I considered it. “All right. We’ll strong-arm our way out.”
“OK.”
We vanished right there on the street, crossing into the breach but staying in the same area. Everything was distorted, like looking at the world through kaleidoscope glasses.
Together, we rose into the air, and Cassiel counted the floors of the building. At floor nineteen, we passed through the wall to find a long hallway lined with heavy metal doors.
“This is it. He’s somewhere on this floor,” she said.
One by one, we checked the small windows of each cell. Recognizing faces would be difficult with our fractaled view, but spotting the purple fog was much easier.
“Got him,” I said passing through a cell door. Cassiel followed me.
The man was lying on his bed, and even though we were still invisible, he sat up straight when we entered. I studied his face and his disjointed soul. He’d never killed anyone, which was something else my power as an Angel of Death could tell me.
It was rare for Azrael to kill someone who hadn’t committed murder. Then again, Haile-what’s-his-name hadn’t had a death tally on his soul either, even though he’d been responsible for the deadly starvation of many.
“Warren, don’t look at the camera when we enter.” Cassiel was pointing to the corner near the door behind us.
“I’ll destroy it once we’re in,” I said. “Do you know this guy?”
“I don’t know the body or the spirit. That might be different once you separate them.”
“Ready?” I asked.
“Ready.”
Crossing the spirit line indoors was like throwing a concussion grenade into an armored ammo box. The whole building shook around us. Sirens blared. Red lights flashed.
The prisoner had fallen to the floor screaming, his arms wrapped around his head. I threw my hand toward the camera, and it exploded. Cassiel marched toward him, grabbed him off the floor, and pinned him against the wall. “Who are you?” she demanded.
Impressed, I smiled and hung back.
The spirit cackled. “I don’t want to talk to you, woman.”
Cassiel threw the body with so much force into the ceiling that the concrete fractured. I chuckled.
An actual living human would not have been OK after such a collision. This one stood with blood trickling from his ears.
Out in the hallway, voices were shouting. I conjured darkness and threw it over the window before sealing the door.
“Who are you?” Cassiel demanded again.
The man arched his back to stretch it. I suspected she’d done some damage to his spine. Then he pointed at me. “He knows who I am.”
I crossed my arms. “Oh really? I think you have me confused with my father.”
“Oh, I know Azrael. You’re not him.”
I cocked an eyebrow.
“It’s good to see you again, Warren.”
Something about the way my name dripped off his tongue made me shudder.
In two inhumanly fast strides, he closed the gap between us and his hands grasped my skull. The purple energy swirled around both of us, and somewhere in the distance, a voice was screaming.
He leaned in and hissed. “How’s Alice?”
A memory flashed across my mind.
Alice was tiny, and she was crying, pulling on my arm and begging me not to go in the house. Charlie Lockett’s car was parked in the driveway. I wanted to run, but I didn’t.
Charlie stood from his recliner when we walked inside and walked toward Alice, but I stepped in front of her, my tiny fists clenched in balls at my side. “No more.”
His head jerked with surprise, and he cackled with the same laughter echoing around the cell. “No more?” His eyes narrowed to angry slits. “Maybe I’ll make you come too.”
Tears spilled down my cheeks. I was shaking. “I said no!”
Inside the swirling purple fog, I grabbed his throat with one hand and his face with the other. I pushed and pulled, ripping his trachea through his skin as I screamed. His body crumpled, but the familiar wicked spirit that still stalked my nightmares remained.
I unleashed my killing power on him for the second time in both our lifetimes, and Charlie Lockett’s spirit detonated. The building shook again. The window in the door exploded. Prison toilet water sprayed everywhere.
Cassiel screamed and cowered against the wall.
The guards in the hall were clambering to get inside and yelling, “Get on the ground! Get on the ground! Get on the ground!”
I slowly turned as one of them fired stun-gun prongs through the window. Rage pulsed through me, throbbing against the veins in my neck as the electric whirr sizzled all my nerve endings.
Extending both my hands, I let my power dance at my fingertips, then I dropped my head back and let out an ungodly howl that rattled the floor beneath my feet.
Then with another loud crack! I disappeared across the spirit line.
My hands were covered with blood.
Cassiel caught up with me at the Chicago safe house. She was breathless when she ran down the stairs into the bunker. I was slumped over the dining table, my head still spinning with fury and endorphins.
“I thought I lost you,” she said, panting.
I straightened, but only barely. I could hardly hear her over the static crackling in my ears from all my angels checking in. Charlie Lockett’s destruction had been felt around the world and beyond.
Cassiel must have realized why I was squinting because she knelt in front of me, cradled my jaw in her hands, and switched off my ears. My whole body relaxed.
“What happened back there?”
I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out.
She grimaced. “At least you didn’t pass out. It was probably all the adrenaline.” She put her hand under my quivering chin. “Come on. Let’s get you cleaned up.”
I followe
d her to my bathroom, where she turned on the hot water in the shower and sink. Looking at myself in the mirror, I was sickened by what I saw.
Human blood.
And weakness.
When steam began wafting from the sink, I splashed my face and arms with the scalding water and scrubbed. And scrubbed. And scrubbed until my skin felt raw and burned.
“Enough,” Cassiel said gently, handing me a towel and reaching around me to turn off the sink.
I dabbed my face with the soft towel as Cassiel’s hands slid up my sides from behind. She was pushing my ruined shirt up over my ribs. “This thing is trashed.”
It was. My white shirt was covered in blood spatter. When she reached my shoulders, I helped pull it the rest of the way off and dropped it in the trashcan.
“Shower. You’ll feel better.”
I turned toward her. “Thank you.”
Reaching up, she touched my face, and the whole world calmed. My eyes closed, a single tear slipping from each of them. She stretched and kissed one away. And then the other.
Her fingers trailed down my cheek and traced my bottom lip. Then her mouth touched mine. Gently. Tenderly.
I forgot to breathe.
“Warren,” she whispered.
Looking down, my gaze fixed on her icy-blue eyes as they searched me. That piercing, all-knowing stare, seeing me as I was in that moment.
Angel. But human.
Powerful. But weak.
Ripe with all my doubts and insecurities. My vulnerable heart ripped open by a past I feared I’d never be free of.
She stretched up on her toes again, kissing my lips this time without reservation. Her arms slid around my shoulders, and her tongue short-circuited something in my brain. Unleashing a long-suppressed need deep inside me.
My lips worked fast. Hard. And desperately as they consumed her. I fisted her hair with one hand and undressed her with the other. The pants first, letting my palm slide over the gentle swell of her backside.
Then I tore my lips from hers long enough to pull the shirt from her perfect body. My gaze fell to her breasts; then my mouth followed.
“Warren” was the last thing I heard before my body was lost to a tsunami of sensation.
“I think we’re in for another cold shower.”
