Guardian

by Kerri Morrigan

  “We just have to bide our time,” Caleb said, then swiftly took down the daeva closest to him. Grace nodded to show her understanding and then turned to face her first demon of the battle. She resolved to maintain focus on what she was doing and not let her concern for the others cloud her judgment. She had improved immensely, surprising herself, but she was still a relative rookie and needed to place all her attention on staying alive. She had to trust that Caleb, Gav and Joe were more than capable of protecting themselves.

  The daeva in front of her must have pinned her as an easy target, greedily approaching her with outstretched claws. It was a fatal mistake. She ducked, then forced herself up between its arms. She grabbed the demon’s head and snapped its neck before it realized what was happening. The thrill of the first successful kill whipped through her, firing up her adrenaline. She was ready for more.

  As the battle progressed, the acrid, gagging smell of the hundred or so daevas that had first filled the quarry became nothing but a mild annoyance. Her thoughts were so entirely focused on the undulating sea of bodies that she no longer noticed the rain, the wind, or the smells. Despite their efforts, she and the others were barely making a scratch in the mass of teeth, claws and rotting flesh pressing in against them, no matter how many daevas were dying at their feet. But it would all be okay in a few minutes when Azra’s team arrived.

  “We are losing ground!” Joe said as he raised an arm before his face to block a demon from raking his eyes out.

  “It shouldn’t be much longer!” Caleb answered. His voice drew her attention from her target. She reflexively turned her head for the briefest of moments. It was one moment too long. A group of daevas, leapt on top of her in a pile, tearing at her with their claws. She threw her hands over her face to protect her eyes, and tried to buck the demons off of her. She let out a cry of pain when one successfully sunk their teeth into her thigh.

  Every second was agony. She couldn’t shake it off, pry it off, beat it off. Nothing. Her entire thigh felt like it was burning. Then the daevas were yanked off of her, the last one taking some of her flesh with it. The sight of the flap of bloody skin mixed with jogging pant made her sick.

  “Grace, are you alright?” Joe stuck his hand down toward her. She took it and pulled up to her feet. Gav and Caleb had altered their positions to better shield her and Joe. Even in this chaos they still focused on protecting her.

  “I’ll be fine,” she said confidently, trying to ignore the pain shooting through her leg. They both turned to reenter the fray when the demons started to scurry backward.

  Where were those reinforcements? She opened her mouth to ask but the earth started shaking beneath her feet. Small pebbles scampered down the steep quarry sides, followed by larger tumbling rocks. The ground heaved and sent her flying backward. Joe tried to catch her, but she slipped through his fingers. In a split second she was soaring through the air. Caleb was running after her. Then a giant creature burst forth from the ground in front of him. He wasn’t going to be in time to catch her. At least the last thing she would see would be his face. She didn’t even feel her body slam into the quarry wall behind her.

  Chapter 16

  Panic flooded Kalev as Grace crashed into the rocks and fell to the ground like a rag doll. When the earth had begun shaking, he’d run for her, knowing what was about to erupt from underneath the surface. But he was too late. Now a Giant Mephistos demon stood between him and her. The huge, worm-like being towered over him. It’s head, solely a round gaping mouth with row after row of razor-sharp teeth, bent toward him, ready to swallow him whole. Its flesh was pale and wrinkled, bulging in a cascade of rolls down the length of its body. While they couldn’t move particularly fast, the size of Mephistos demons made them forces to be reckoned with.

  Kalev turned. Daevas were flooding back into the quarry now that the worm had made its way to the surface. Gavriel and Jophial motioned for him to go to Grace; they could handle themselves. Without saying so, he could tell they’d come to the same conclusion he had - Azriel and the Guard weren’t coming. How could Azriel have stooped so low as to set him up? He’d known that Azriel had disliked him and had felt threatened by Kalev’s near promotion into the Council, but he’d never dreamed Azriel would go so far as to essentially hand him over to the enemy.

  He was screwed even if they managed to get out of here. Azriel would pretend to have never known anything about this plan and claim that, once again, Kalev had gone rogue. He could kiss his Guardianship, hell he could even kiss Soul Recovery, goodbye. The Council would be beyond furious. He couldn’t imagine what menial task he’d be assigned to. He was probably going to spend the next thousand years guarding graveyards.

  Kalev forced his mind back to the present. He couldn’t afford to think further about Azriel and his betrayal. He needed to focus all his efforts on getting to Grace. The only silver lining to her current state of unconsciousness was that he, Gavriel and Jophial could unleash the full extent of their powers. Kalev used his to add speed to his movements, trying to dodge the Mephistos demon any way he could. He first tried running around it, but the sheer size of its bulk was enough to touch the quarry at both ends, easily blocking any attempt he made. It thrashed and snapped at him; its massive body crashing into the surrounding walls, threatening to bring more rocks down.

  Kalev made one run towards the ‘head’ of the worm; it reared up and then plunged its mouth toward the ground trying to swallow him whole. Kalev waited until the last possible moment then dashed to the left and pushed off the ground. He was flying over the demon, had Grace in his sights, he was almost past — the worm demon’s tail swung at him like a baseball bat, pelting him out of the sky and sending him sluing across the ground.

  With a groan, Kalev pushed himself to his feet. He knew better than to try to evade this demon in a small space; it was too large. He would have to kill it in order to reach Grace, but he couldn’t very well fight it with his fists. He took a deep breath, focusing all his angelic energy into his back, chest and shoulders. He struggled. His powers were weakened; from too much fighting or not enough over the years he wasn’t sure. He wasn’t sure about anything anymore. It didn’t matter. He didn’t have time to worry about it; he could only act with what he had. It would still be enough.

  Kalev let his ebony feathered, battle wings erupt from his back, his pectoral muscles morphing to accommodate their altered function. Each feather was razor sharp, outlined with a faint blue glow, and the leading edge of the entire wing could easily cut through steel. Kalev pumped his wings rapidly, lifting off the ground, going higher into the air until he was hovering about twenty feet above the Mephistos demon. But before he could send himself in a spiraling dive to hack off the demon’s head with one of his wings, a throng of arrows rushed past him, narrowly missing their mark. Loray must have arrived with a squad of infernal archers.

  Kalev looked down at the battle. His friends had wisely chosen to remain on the ground, using their powers to enhance the force behind their blows and increase their speed. Flying into the air would make them vulnerable to the archers as well as rapidly drain their powers. Battle wings were a last resort that angels rarely used. Each pair, the shade of the wing and the color emitted from them, was unique to each angel; while a few sets might look nearly identical, no two were ever the same.

  For an angel to unleash their battle wings meant only one thing - they were facing imminent annihilation or capture. They were not allowed to unfurl them for any other purpose - not even to save a human soul. To use their wings meant that an angel was willing to sacrifice all of their power if need be in order to escape the ordeal they were in. The drain on their powers was so strong, the wings would only last a short period of time - an hour at the most. If an angel used almost all their power, it would take them years to recover. If they used all of it, they would cease to exist.

  In Kalev’s entire existence, he’d only utilized his wings once - the day of the Fall. The battle between Michael’s forces
and Lucifer’s forces had been raging for days. It was on that final day, that Lucifer had transformed into an immense red dragon with seven heads and began to decimate the angels that had sided with Michael. They’d known that if they did not defeat Lucifer on that day their numbers would be decimated. They had all spread their war wings simultaneously and launched at Lucifer, flying past his forces. The enemy responded in turn, taking out entire squads of angels, but it was reach Lucifer or die trying. Thousands were eviscerated. Kalev’s own squad had lost half of their members by the time they’d reached Lucifer and began looping, twisting and diving around him like angry hornets around a nest. It took seventy squads of twenty-five angels each swarming at Lucifer to weaken him enough for Michael to hit him with the final bolt of power that cast him out of the heavens. His armies had followed without further warfare.

  After the nearly 50-minute ordeal, Kalev had been able to put his wings away; it had taken seven years for his powers to return to full strength, and he was one of the lucky ones. Over 70% of the loyal angels had been destroyed, either by Lucifer’s forces or by having drained every drop of their power in order to fight. The remaining angels had vowed to only use their battle wings again if the need was beyond dire, and only then to save an angel.

  His situation was indeed dire, but Grace was not an angel. It didn’t matter. She was worth more to him than any angel he’d ever known. He corkscrewed down through the air, gaining speed as he plummeted. His wings split though the skin, tissues and organs of the giant worm like a knife through butter. It hit the ground with a resounding crash, it’s head and body cleaved in two.

  Coming out of the dive, Kalev assessed the scene, realizing with dismay that their efforts were not enough. The three of them could not possibly hope to fight their way, demon by demon out of the quarry. For every demon they took down, three more took its place. Loray seemed to have an endless supply of daevas to throw at them; if it weren’t for the tight quarters of the quarry, they’d have been surrounded and overwhelmed already.

  He flew towards Grace’s crumpled form; he would protect her until he used the very last drop of his power. He was prepared to meet the end of his existence; he just didn’t want it to be hers. He flew at her, dodging arrows as he went. Some glanced off him as they hit the hardened feathers. He was being careful to angle his wings in a way that made it nearly impossible for the infernal archers to hit their target.

  He was only a few yards from her when an idea struck him.

  “Gavriel, Jophial, grab Grace, and start flying out of here!” he yelled.

  “They’re going to follow, we won’t be able to get very far,” Jophial called back.

  Kalev came up behind the two. “I don’t need you to,” he said with quiet resolve. “Just get her out of the quarry.”

  “What are your inten-” Gavriel started, but Kalev cut him off.

  “No time to explain, just do it, please. I will never be able to thank you two enough for what you have done for me this day, but know that, regardless of what happens, I am eternally grateful.”

  The two angels dispatched the daevas they had been entangled with and ran for Grace; there had been no time to respond. Kalev flew high up into the air, his wings spread wide, crackling and sparking with the amount of power coursing through them. Another volley of arrows flew at him, this time a few hitting their mark; he ignored the pain. Kalev put as much power as he dared behind him. He hurtled toward the earth; his fist headed straight toward the ground in the center of the battlefield.

  At contact, the ground split and a shock wave of air sent a sonic boom hurtling through the quarry. The rock walls, already unstable, began crashing down, burying anything in their path. Daevas shrieked, turning on each other as they attempted to escape. They were a choppy sea of panicking death. Kalev pushed off, hovering a few yards above the ground to avoid the chaos. Dust and debris swirled in the air, reducing visibility to zero. He could only hear the piercing cries of the enemy dying in droves. He relished in it. He had dealt them a crippling blow.

  When the dust settled, both Daemon and Loray watched from the edge of the clearing. Daemon began to unfurl his own wings, but Loray put an arm on his shoulder, holding him back. The three of them shared one, long, murderous look.

  “I told you, Kalev,” Daemon called across the quarry, “there would come a day it would all come crashing down.” Then Daemon, Loray and the meager remains of their forces disappeared.

  Kalev gently landed on the desecrated earth. He was exhausted; his limbs seemed to weigh a hundred pounds apiece, his shoulders ached, and his chest throbbed from the effort of beating his heavy war wings laden with blade-like feathers. He could’ve easily collapsed to the ground where he stood. Instead, he began walking out of the quarry toward where he had last seen his friends take Grace; he was too drained to fly. He had no idea if she was alive or dead.

  He’d reserved just enough of his angelic energy to remain functional. He wasn’t going to be able to use it for years. It didn’t matter; he would give it all up, every ounce of it, to give Grace the chance to live. Since the Fall, his sole purpose for existence had been to earn his way back to heaven. He’d bowed and scraped, served and saved, struggled and fought, all in the hopes of eventually attaining a high enough rank to be readmitted to paradise. But now, none of it mattered if Grace wouldn’t be there. If she’d been captured and taken into hell, he’d have gone right there with her - the only place he wanted to be was beside her. He would do anything for her.

  Gavriel met him as he turned the corner toward the parking lot. He had a grave look on his face. Icy fear washed over him like an ocean wave in the middle of winter.

  “Is she…” He couldn’t bring himself to finish the sentence.

  Gavriel shook his head. “She is well, Kalev. A stone collided with her temporal bone, rendering her unconscious. Do not be afraid. Jophial has already partially healed her. She is resting, awaiting your arrival.”

  Kalev had never experienced such sweet relief; she was safe. He had succeeded in his task. He had saved her, at least for now. “Why do you look so concerned then?” Kalev asked him. Gavriel’s face still made him uneasy.

  With a look of genuine surprise, Gavriel responded, “Is it not obvious to you? I am concerned for your wellbeing! You used your wings. How much power have you lost?”

  “Nearly all of it,” he replied, uncaring. It had been a trifling price to pay.

  “Come, give me your hands,” Gavriel responded, holding out his own.

  “There is no need, Gav.”

  “Yes. There is. Take them.” Gavriel’s voice came out as a stern command. Stunned at the vehemence behind his request, Kalev gave him his hands without further hesitation.

  Gavriel’s power flowed in two fluid streams of light from the center of his chest, down his arms, into his hands, and then into Kalev. A man lost in the desert who had found an oasis of cool water could not have felt more relief than Kalev as the power surged into him, replenishing some of what he had lost. It moved through every fiber and sinew of his being, restoring his vitality.

  “I am regretful that I have so little to give you,” Gavriel said releasing his hands a short time later. “I cannot donate more and still be able to fulfill my duties. I will give you more as my own stores replenish.”

  “It is more than enough, Gavriel,” Kalev said. A sudden surge of emotion caught him off guard. “You have done more than enough.”

  “We are friends,” he said simply.

  When the two rounded the final corner, Kalev caught sight of Grace. She was running towards him, limping slightly, but with arms outstretched, her sopping wet hair plastered to her cheeks and neck. She’d never looked more beautiful. When she reached him, she launched herself into his arms and he spun her around, kissing her fiercely. He didn’t care that Gavriel and Jophial saw them. When they separated, he looked deep into her eyes. They glistened with tears.

  “Are you alright?” He asked her, still holding her in his arms
, “You’re crying.”

  “Because I’m happy that you’re alive, silly,” she said, her voice breaking.

  “Um, I hate to interrupt, but I think we need to get out of here. Council representatives will be here any moment,” Jophial said.

  “Council?” Grace asked, looking puzzled. The look Kalev saw on Jophial’s face told him he’d realized his mistake as soon as he’d said it.

  “I’ll explain later. For now, let’s go home,” he whispered to her. She squeezed his hand.

  And he decided. He would tell her everything. He couldn’t lie to her anymore. If he hoped to spend any part of her life on earth with her, if he hoped to ever see her again in heaven, he needed to be truthful with her. What could be between them without the truth? The Council was already going to demote him to the lowest rank they possibly could, perhaps even banish him. What was the difference if he broke one more of their orders? Daemon had been right after all. He was willing to break every rule for Grace.

  He would tell her as soon as they got back to the apartment and were warm and dry. He’d make her a coffee while she took a hot shower. They could sit together, and he’d tell her all about himself, and angels, and the ring, and Joan - all of it. He hoped she would understand. Maybe she’d be angry at first, but she would come around. She was a rational woman; she would appreciate that he’d told her the truth. That’s what she wanted wasn’t it? His decision made, he was overcome with a firm resolve. He wanted whatever life he could have with her and he would do whatever it took to get it.

  Chapter 17

  Kalev closed the door to his apartment, relieved that he and Grace had made it back without further trouble. Although they’d ultimately failed in their objective, they’d inflicted enough damage to force Daemon and Loray to back off for the time being.