by Elicia Hyder
He touched the top of the little girl’s head walking beside her. “But I’m sure these little ones have brought a lot of joy.”
I wasn’t sure Adrianne’s son qualified as little. He was easily pushing six feet, not shocking since both his parents were tall. It was odd how much he looked like me when I was thirteen. His hair was lighter, and he had a slim frame like his mother, but the face was all Azrael, just like mine.
In the center of his chest, glowing deep inside him, was the black spot. The capsule of death implanted by the Morning Star.
“What’s your name?” I asked him.
His attention was buried in his phone. Adrianne nudged him with her elbow. “Hey, Warren’s talking to you.”
He looked up.
I smiled. “What’s your name?”
“Phillip.” He turned back to his phone.
Adrianne rolled her eyes. “He’s named after my dad. He’s very happy to meet you.”
“And what about you, princess?” the Father asked the little girl.
The kid looked up at her mom, as if for permission to talk to a stranger.
Adrianne nodded.
“Sloan,” the girl answered.
“Hey! That’s her name too,” Taiya said, pointing at grown-up Sloan.
We all looked at Sloan. “Did you know?” I asked her.
“Not until today,” she said, her eyes sparkling. She leaned down in front of the child. “Sloan, that’s my daughter, Iliana.”
Iliana stuck out her hand. It was glowing with a small amount of healing power. “Hi. It’s nice to meet you.”
The instant little Sloan touched Iliana’s hand, the black spot disappeared. “Hi,” she said quietly.
When Iliana pulled her hand away, she touched Philip’s arm. That was all it took.
Adrianne, none the wiser to what Iliana had just saved them from, was fighting back tears. “Iliana, I can’t believe how grown-up you are.”
Iliana walked over and hugged her—and healed her, too. “We’ve all missed you, Adrianne.”
Tears flowed then. “I wanted to reach out so many times. I just felt so trapped.”
Sloan walked over and hugged her. “It’s done now. We’ll get through this.” She pulled away and looked at Luca. “Why don’t you and Taiya take Phillip and Sloan to our apartment downstairs? Find a movie or something.”
Luca obviously wanted to object. Babysitting wasn’t cool for a senior in high school. To his credit, he nodded. “Sure. Come on guys. We have a lot of old, really crappy”—he flashed a look at Nathan—“movies downstairs.”
Nathan pointed at him. “You watch your mouth, sinner.”
Luca laughed.
“We’ll go with them. Give you all a chance to catch up,” James said to Nathan.
“Thanks, Dad.”
“Who wants a snack?” Kathy asked. “Maybe Nana will whip up some cookies.”
The little girl hesitated, looking up at Adrianne. “It’s OK,” Adrianne said. “These are our friends.”
Taiya knelt down in front of her. “Do you play?” she asked, hopefully.
Little Sloan nodded.
“Me too!” Taiya offered her hand, and the little girl took it and immediately smiled. Taiya had that effect on everyone.
Adrianne was wiping the mascara under her eyes as we watched the kids go toward the lobby. “It’s been so hard on them.”
“I’m sure it’s been hard on all of you,” Sloan said, rubbing Adrianne’s back as she steered her into the living room. “Nathan, can you open a bottle of wine?”
“Of course.” He went into the kitchen as the rest of us followed Sloan and Adrianne.
“We have to get Azrael back,” Adrianne said, crumpling onto the sofa.
“We will,” I said firmly. “Does he know he’s being controlled?”
Adrianne shook her head. “I’ve tried to tell him. He thinks I’m being paranoid.”
I sat down in one of the recliners. “Where’d you get the cuffs?”
“I’ve been stealing them for the past year. One pair at a time whenever I’ve come across them.” Sloan handed Adrianne a tissue, and Adrianne dabbed her eyes. “I knew we’d have to get away at some point, and I didn’t want Michael to be able to follow us.”
“Do they work on humans?” Iliana asked. She and Jett sat on the floor near her mom.
“We made it here, didn’t we?” Sloan answered. “Claymore helicopters were circling the interstate the whole way across the state. They were definitely looking for us.”
“They limit the control Michael can have on us,” Adrianne said. “I overheard him say to one of the guards once to never put human prisoners in the cuffs. I knew there had to be a reason.”
“We need to get Azrael into them,” I said.
“I’ve tried. Wrestled him to the ground one night with them, but then Michael found out and took the cuffs away. He didn’t know I had other sets.”
Nathan returned with a bottle of wine and as many glasses as he could carry. He handed one to Sloan and one to Adrianne. When he offered one to me, I shook my head.
“I’ll take one,” the Father said with a smile from the other armchair.
Nathan handed it to him, then poured his glass half-full.
“Thank you, Nate,” the Father said.
“Anything for you, sir.” He returned to fill Sloan’s and Adrianne’s glasses. “Warren, thought you’d want to know that John is in the kitchen packing up his stuff. He’s about to head out.”
John.
In all the excitement, I hadn’t even realized he wasn’t in the infirmary. I got up. “I’ll go talk to him.”
“It’s too dangerous out there tonight. Convince him to stay. Only you can,” Nathan said.
I doubted that, but I walked toward the door, determined to try. Jett started to get up, but Nathan held out a hand to stop him.
John was at the sink washing out the cooler when I walked in. “You need some disinfectant for that thing?” I asked.
He grinned. “I’m going to bleach the shit out of it when I get home.”
I picked up a towel and started drying the pressure-cooker lid. “Why don’t you stay? We’ve got plenty of room.”
“Sit tight while you all bring the apocalypse down on our heads? No thanks.” He dumped the water out of the cooler, into the sink.
“We’ll be safe underground. I can’t say the same for the roads between here and Claymore.”
He put the cooler on the counter and wiped another drying towel over it. “I appreciate what you’re trying to do, Warren, but I’m ready to go home. I did what I came to do, and now I’d like to get back behind my gate.”
I admired his resolve. “All right.” I put the lid back onto the pot and placed the whole thing into the cooler. He coiled the copper tubing around it and closed the cooler’s lid. “Any of this other stuff yours?” I asked, looking around at the pots on the stove.
“Nope. This is all.” He carried the cooler to the door, and I followed him.
Out in the hall, I offered him my hand. He stared at me for a second before putting the cooler on the floor and accepting. He gave me a firm handshake. “Thank you, John. We couldn’t have done this without you.”
“Well, you almost had to. I still can’t believe I came.”
“Why did you?” I asked, for the first time wondering if somehow Iliana had manipulated him into it.
He looked into the living room. “I came for him.” He was looking at Jett. Iliana was nearly asleep, leaned against his chest.
“You’re a good dad.”
He slapped my shoulder. “Well, I’m pretty sure that boy is your problem now,” he said with a chuckle. “Good luck with that.”
I laughed. “Thanks.”
“Can you ask him to see me out?”
“Sure. Fury will want to say goodbye.”
His face suggested that wasn’t a good idea. “I’d rather not. I’ve had enough goodbyes with that girl to last a lifetime.”
I nodded
.
“Take care, Warren.”
“You too, John.”
He picked up the cooler and started toward the lobby.
I returned to the living room. “Jett, your dad is heading out.”
Nathan was on the couch beside Sloan. “What?”
“Sorry. Couldn’t argue with him.”
Jett got up.
The Father reached out. “Take me with you. I’d like to say goodbye.”
Jett helped him out of the chair.
“I’m coming too,” Iliana said, dragging her weary self off the floor.
When they were gone, only the four of us remained.
Me, Sloan, Nathan, and Adrianne.
Adrianne patted the seat beside her. Obediently, I walked over and sat down, still, after all these years, unwilling to put up a fight against her. She leaned on my arm. “You started all this shit, you know?”
“Me?” I asked.
“We were doing just fine until you showed up in Asheville missing a soul.”
Sloan laughed. “If we’re pointing fingers, I’m pretty sure Detective McNamara is to blame.”
Nathan turned toward her in his seat. “What the hell did I do?”
“You’re the one who plastered my face all over the news to begin with. Warren wouldn’t have ever seen me and come to Asheville had it not been for you trying to force me to become some kind of superhero.”
“Yeah, Nathan. How dare you bribe her with cheese grits?” Adrianne added.
We all laughed.
And it felt good. So good.
“Maybe,” Nathan conceded. “But think of all we’ve built.”
Sloan looked at me. “And all we’ve made.”
Iliana.
“As much hell as it’s been, I wouldn’t have chosen anything different.” Adrianne rolled her head along the back of the sofa to look at Sloan. “Except for maybe walking away all those years ago. I’m sorry.”
Sloan took her hand, threading their fingers together. “I love you.”
Adrianne rested her head on Sloan’s shoulder. “I love you too.”
Fury peeked into the room.
“Hey, you,” I said.
She hesitantly walked inside. “Am I interrupting?”
“Absolutely not,” Sloan said with a genuine smile. “Come join us.”
“Want some wine?” Nathan asked, reaching for the last empty glass on the coffee table.
“Sure.” She sat down next to me as Nathan poured the wine. He handed it to her. “Thank you.”
Adrianne leaned forward to look at her. “Hello, Allison.”
We all had the same reaction. Pure shock.
Fury lifted an eyebrow. “You’ve hated me since the day we met, and now you want to use my Christian name?”
“It’s been almost two decades. If we all live through this, I guess we’ll be seeing a lot more of each other since Sloan told me the two of you are together now. It’s time we start over.” Adrianne raised her glass to her lips. “And I can’t take you seriously calling you Fury.”
Fury smiled. “OK.”
“OK?” I asked, surprised. “It took years for you to allow me to call you Allison.”
She gestured toward Adrianne. “It’s been years for her too, Warren.”
We all laughed again.
“How’s Cassiel?” Sloan asked Fury.
“I think she’s going to be fine. The crystal water seems to be working its magic,” she said. “Anya is with her.”
“It worked a lot more slowly for her than it did for you,” I said.
Fury sipped her wine. “I figure angels are a lot harder to kill, so they’re probably a lot harder to heal too.”
“Good point.” I leaned my head back and stared at the ceiling. “When those guns show up, we’re going to need a hell of a lot more of that stuff.”
Sloan straightened, shaking her head. “I don’t want to be sad or afraid tonight.”
“Sorry,” I said.
She raised her wineglass. “So let’s toast to the next seventeen years. Of all of us together.”
Everyone but me raised a glass. Nathan reached forward and grabbed the wine bottle. “Here.”
I smiled as I raised it with the others. “To the next seventeen years, and to Huffman and Samael.”
“To Huffman and Samael,” they echoed.
“Cheers,” Sloan said as they clinked their glasses—and I, the bottleneck—together.
I drank straight from the bottle.
Adrianne kept her glass in the air. “And if we’re all going to die tonight, I’m glad it’s with you jokers.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
We didn’t die that night.
Quite the opposite, actually. It was the first full night of sleep I’d had since we returned to Asheville. No one woke me up in the morning, and Fury was still asleep beside me. The clock on the nightstand said 7:07 a.m.
Crazy.
Of course, the world could have gone to hell above the surface, and I might’ve slept right through it.
Rolling toward Fury, I curled my arm around her. She gave a soft moan in the darkness, and I pressed my lips against the back of her bare shoulder.
“We’re alive,” she said sleepily.
“I guess miracles are still a thing even, without Eden.”
We’d all gone to bed early the night before to catch as much sleep as possible before the Morning Star’s inevitable attack. Fury and I had made love until we were both too spent to continue. We’d slipped on our underwear in case people or sirens woke us during the night.
“Have you heard anything since I fell asleep?” she asked.
“Only you snoring.”
“I don’t snore.”
“Oh yes, you do. When you’re good and exhausted.”
She arched her spine so that her ass pressed against me. “Then if I did, it’s all your fault.”
I slid my hand up her arm to where it disappeared beneath her pillow. I meshed our fingers together and smiled against her skin. “I’ll gladly take the blame.”
“You haven’t heard from anyone?”
“No, but I’m sure things are hopping upstairs.” I could hear the shuffle of feet overhead.
Before we’d gone to bed, seventeen other angels had already arrived. The Father had taken it upon himself to play host up in Echo-5 once all the beds were filled in the bunker.
“Do you think more angels will come?” she asked.
“I hope so. We need all the help we can get. The Morning Star will attack, but who knows when?”
“I thought for sure he’d sweep in during the night.”
We’d all thought that. My fear now was that he would know we would rally everyone here. Then he’d fly in and start shooting us like fish in a barrel.
But I couldn’t think about that yet. Not during what could be our last peaceful minutes together. I released her hand and hooked the strap of her tank top, sliding it slowly down her arm.
“What are you doing?” I could hear the playful smile in her voice.
“The world might end today. And one more time with you would be my dying wish.”
She laughed softly. “That’s exactly what you said last night.”
“We’ve been given a second chance. We shouldn’t waste it.” I pushed my hips against her, and she reached back and threaded her fingers through my hair.
My hand skimmed her breast as it dove beneath the sheets to slide her panties down her thighs. It was my turn to moan as I entered her from behind.
Someone knocked on our door.
I swore and flattened my palm against her stomach to hold her against me. “If the building’s not being bombed, go away!”
Whoever was outside the door hesitated, but they didn’t leave. I could feel them standing there.
“What?” I shouted.
“No bombs yet, sir.” I heard Nash clear his throat. “But the Morning Star is on his way.”
A lightning-fast cold shower had done little to d
efuse the situation below my belt, so I took the stairs to the lobby two at a time to get my blood pumping to other areas. It was an uncomfortable hike.
Lex was behind the lobby desk. He motioned me over and slid his chair back.
“What’s happening?” I asked, walking over beside him.
“Sorry to wake you, man, but Kane needs you upstairs.” He pointed to the ceiling. “All the way upstairs.”
Over his shoulder, I looked at the monitors. Vehicles were parked all over the grounds outside, all civilian as far as I could tell. “All these angels have been cleared to be here?” It wouldn’t be too hard for members of the fallen to infiltrate this swarm.
“Cleared by the Father himself. Most of them are yours.”
The Angels of Death.
“Cassiel has been checking loyalties at the door since sunrise, just to be safe.”
She would know if any of them were lying to get inside. I was thankful she survived all over again.
“Where’s the Morning Star?” I asked.
“Inbound. You should hurry.”
“And Iliana?”
“With her parents downstairs.”
“Good. Use physical force to keep them down here if necessary.”
He gaped. “Physical force against Iliana?”
“Try,” I said and started toward the exit. “And tell Fury where I’ve gone. She’s supposed to get my sword from the safe and bring it to me.”
“Warren, wait up!” she called behind me.
I turned.
No. Not Fury. It was Anya, now carrying her own sword strapped across her back. She caught up with me as I entered the concrete hallway. “Is it true?”
I didn’t slow my pace, and she had to double-step to keep up. “Is what true?”
“That the whole damn army is headed this way?”
I stopped. “What?”
“That’s what Nash just told me. He said they’re watching it on the news upstairs.”
“Shit.” I broke into a run, and Anya stayed right behind me. She and I were both half-dead by the time we reached the ground floor.
Upstairs, Angels of Death and messengers had taken over Echo-5. Most were in human form; others were not. A few greeted me, but there were so many that I passed by most without being noticed.
I spotted Cassiel and the Father near the front door, but they would have to wait. I ducked into the control room and found Kane and Cruz at the computer watching several news stations on the big screens.
