by J. E. Taylor
“My orders were to sit tight, but I wasn’t in the mood to sit and do nothing.” Josh turned back to the front window.
His statement broke through my numbness to tickle my curiosity. “What did you do?”
“I kicked some demon ass with some of Kylee’s weapons,” he said. “But not without getting myself into a little trouble. I guess that’s when Fate sent along some vigilantes to help. I had a little time in the hospital, and when I was finally released, Michael was waiting for me at the airport.” He nodded toward Michael and focused back on flying the plane.
I just couldn’t see our kind, sweet, calm pilot fighting demons, but I guessed it was always the quiet ones who are the most courageous.
“While Josh was running around trying to be the hero, I got a call from CJ.” Michael squeezed his hands together, and his jaw tightened. “My mom and brother went missing.” He blinked several times and took a big inhalation through his nose, filling his chest with air, and then slowly exhaled. “I’m not sure if it was Grace or Bridget… Either way, someone coerced them to leave the safety of the Ryans’ and they haven’t been seen since.” He closed his eyes. “Shortly after I got to the house with Alexis, April called her mother out on a few things. Including Alex’s disappearance.”
My entire body felt like someone had sliced me in half at the mention of his name. Pain tore deep, and I wrapped my arms around my mid-section to try to keep myself together. Tears blurred my vision, but I blinked them away.
“CJ told her to run. If she ever showed her face near his family, he would put her down like the traitorous dog she was.” He wiped his face. “I’ve never seen him that angry. I’ve never seen a man sprout wings and look like heaven’s wrath had been handed to him.” He shook his head. “He wouldn’t allow her near April, and April didn’t want to go with her mother anyway. I’m not sure if she will ever regret that decision, but she didn’t want to be on the side where evil reigned. She believed in the light and she believed in you.” He pointed at me. “Well, needless to say, Bridget ran. And so did we. We went to New Hampshire, to Paradise Cove.” He glanced out the window. “To the place we were born,” he said almost too softly to hear.
The box of memories shook in my head in response to his whisper. I clamped down on it. I had Michael’s father’s memories stored in my head, and they were the ones that blew my circuits to begin with. I didn’t want another repeat of what had opened these breaches in the first place. So I brushed it aside and focused on Michael.
“Did you ever find out what happened to your mom?” I asked, wiping the tears from my cheeks.
He shook his head. “But the emptiness right here,”—he pointed to his chest—“that tells me one of my siblings isn’t here any more, and if he’s dead, so is my mother.”
Kylee cocked her head at him.
“It’s a triplet thing,” he muttered.
Or just an accurate conclusion. Lucifer was a greedy bastard, and even if he was in Alex’s form, he’d still kill them for the grace that resided in their hearts.
“So, I left Alexis with CJ and Valerie, and came over here to wait for you.” He glanced at Kylee. “I lost almost everything to Lucifer, but he wasn’t in hell, and if there is anyone who could successfully escape that place, it’s you.” He took Kylee’s hand and squeezed.
“We didn’t encounter much after we went back to the portal. And I didn’t mean to hit Levi when he jumped out, but the thing shimmered like it had when demons came through, and I reacted,” Josh said from the cockpit.
“It was just a flesh wound,” Levi said from my lap.
Josh smiled back at the dog and continued to fly the plane.
The rest of the trip was quiet, and Kylee, Michael, and Levi fell asleep.
I took a seat in the co-pilot chair and stared out at the Atlantic. It was deep blue, like the mood threatening to overtake me. I had a moment where I thought we would all be better a thousand leagues under the surface, but Tom’s words echoed in my head.
I closed my eyes. “Damn him,” I whispered, unsure of whether I was targeting Tom, Alex, or Lucifer with the statement. Maybe all three.
“How are you holding up?” Josh asked after a few minutes.
“Not very well,” I said. “What’s Alex going to be like after five months of being possessed by Lucifer?” I glanced at Josh. “What am I going to be like if I have to kill him?”
Josh didn’t have answers for me, but he did cover my hand and squeeze.
A lump formed in my throat.
Josh disengaged the autopilot. “Take the yoke,” he said and nodded towards the controls in front of me.
My eyes widened. “What?”
“I want to see you fly the plane.” He crossed his arms, and we started losing altitude.
“What the…” The voice came from the main cabin.
I grabbed the controls and steadied the plane before I sent Josh a glare. He smiled at me in a way that alleviated the aggravation. I scanned the gadgets on the dashboard, checking speed and altitude. Everything made sense. I looked back out the window as the thrill of flying the plane erased everything else in my mind. It was a temporary fix, but it drove the darkness away and replaced it with a rush much like Alex’s kiss.
“What if I can’t save him?” I whispered.
Josh sighed. “I don’t have answers. I’ve never fallen in love.”
A profound sadness filled me. Everyone should feel the glow of love at least once in their lifetime. “You should.”
He laughed and glanced over his shoulder. “Yeah, well, maybe destiny has other plans for me.” He shrugged and met my gaze. “And I’m okay with that.” He nodded towards my yoke. “Keep us steady and on course.” He tapped the course heading.
I looked back at the instruments, adjusted our heading, and focused on getting us home in one piece.
Josh took over when we neared our destination and glided us into a smooth landing in Wolfeboro. I didn’t know if he realized what he’d done for me by thrusting the responsibility of flying on me, but he might have saved me from a true mental breakdown.
He pulled us to a stop next to a town car outside a hangar. After helping us put our luggage into the trunk, he and Kylee and Michael exchanged hugs before they got in the car.
Josh opened the back door of the car for me, and Levi jumped in without prompting.
I turned to Josh. “Thank you,” I said and gave him a hug.
He returned it, squeezing hard. “Be good,” he said, and I nodded.
I slid in the back seat of the car with Levi. The ride to the lake was short and quiet as we all battled our own jet lag. The radio played softly in the background, and every song hit raw exposed nerves in my soul.
When we finally pulled up to the cottage, the pull of Paradise Cove was almost overwhelming.
I wanted my mother to hold me and erase the pain in my chest. I wanted her to tell me everything I had done was not in vain, but I knew that was impossible. Only Alex could make me whole, but I had as much control over my situation as I had over the moon setting over the mountains across the lake.
Instead of running to the cove like I wanted, I headed inside with Kylee and Michael.
CJ stood from the couch when we walked in. He looked ragged, like he had aged ten years. His hair was as out of order as the papers on the kitchen table and his welcoming smile did not reach his eyes. Frankly, he looked as shell-shocked as I felt.
It was close to two in the morning according to the clock over the fireplace. No one else was up to greet us, so just CJ and the stillness of the house grated on me.
Kylee gave CJ a hug.
“Alexis is in the far room. There’s a double bed in there for you,” CJ said and pointed.
“Thanks,” Kylee said. She gave me a nod and headed towards the room with Michael clasping her hand.
I turned back to CJ, and another thing I noticed about him was how much he looked like Alex. I nearly crumpled on the floor.
“Awkward,” Levi
whispered next to me and I sent a glare to shut him up.
CJ approached me, but I couldn’t do this right now. I didn’t want a hug. A hug from him would open the floodgates again. Not when he and his son looked so painfully similar that my heart tore in two at the sight of him.
My chin trembled, but before I lost it, I turned and fled out the door, across the yard, and onto the soft moss of Paradise Cove. I fell to my knees as sobs crushed my chest. I couldn’t articulate the pain ripping me to shreds.
I just wanted my mother.
A hand landed on my shoulder, and I looked up, expecting what I had wished for.
Tom squatted before me, and his sad eyes reached into the depths of my hurt. He placed a blue knife on the ground. It seemed to reflect light even in the darkness. “Death asked me to give this to you.”
I pushed him on his ass and stepped back, away from heaven’s blade. “No.”
He closed his eyes and hung his head. “It has to be done.” When he looked up, tears tracked down his cheeks, sending prisms across them. He was breathtaking and devastating at the same time. “It has to be you.”
I sank to my knees. “I can’t. Alex is still in there. Please. Please don’t make me do this.”
Tom put his hands on his knees. “Life isn’t fair, Faith. Sometimes you have to step up and take the hit for the rest of the world.” He glared up at me. Frustration framed his face as he pressed his lips together. “You are not done yet.”
At least he hadn’t told me I was young, and I would eventually find someone else that would make me feel the same way Alex did. If he had, I thought I would have blasted him right into hell.
My insides were shredded as if Leviathan had swiped his claws right through my flesh. I covered my face as a fresh wave of tears gripped me.
Leaves crunched and I stiffened. No thoughts came through, so I looked up. CJ stood at the entrance with his gaze locked on the knife. A single tear rolled down his cheek as he met my stare.
His pain hit, nearly doubling me over. He wasn’t capable of doing what was necessary. He might have found the courage to kill Lucifer if he had still had Tom’s likeness, but his son… He would sooner die than bury a knife in his son’s heart.
I squeezed my fists tight and screamed my anguish to the heavens. When my voice failed, I reached forward and picked up the knife, resolved in what I had to eventually do.
But I wasn’t going tonight, or tomorrow, or the next day. I needed time to steel my nerves and hone my skills before I took on the devil.
I climbed to my feet and headed back to the cottage with the father of the boy I was destined to kill.
The End
JUDGEMENT DAY – BOOK THREE
Nothing is easy. Especially when your only choice is between death and never existing at all.
Faith Kennedy faces the toughest challenge of her young life. She must hunt Lucifer and put him down at all costs, or otherwise the world will burn.
But if she succeeds, she may wipe herself, and everyone she loves, out of existence.
Chapter 1
I stared at the deadliest weapon to ever touch mankind’s hands. It glowed, filling the cabin with a soft light that belied the danger it represented. Anyone I cut with the blade made of heaven’s light would cease to exist.
No heaven. No hell. Just poof. Gone.
It was a responsibility I did not want.
I wanted to smash it to bits. To erase it from existence. But the knife was the only thing that would stop Lucifer. Not even the combined power of angel fire, my natural fire, and Tom Ryan’s powers could take out Lucifer. That would only serve to kill my boyfriend and send Lucifer’s spirit back to hell, where that bastard had the potential of escaping again.
Plus, I didn’t think I could burn Lucifer while he was wearing Alex Ryan.
So, this ungodly knife, forged in heaven by Lucifer himself, was the only hope of mankind.
I still couldn’t believe I was contemplating killing my boyfriend. Patricide was bad enough, but killing Alex… I just couldn’t wrap my brain around that.
The worst thing about the knife—no one knew how it worked because it had never been used before.
There were two camps on the subject of what timeline heaven’s blade would destroy. The first group thought the knife would wipe the slate clean to the point before the person—or archangel in this case—came into existence. The other train of thought believed it would blink someone from existence from the point in time when the blade sliced into flesh.
Either choice sucked.
Wiping the slate clean meant Lucifer never existed. No hell. No monsters. No Ryans, and no me.
But what exactly would remain? No one had a clue. It could be far better or infinitely worse. The thought of me blinking out of existence, along with Alex wasn’t as awful as it should have been given the circumstances.
The second line of thought would mean I would kill both Alex and Lucifer in one thrust of the blade. Doing that would strip me of my soul. Anything good inside me would die with Alex. I was as sure of that as I was of the sun rising in the morning.
Using this knife on Alex would make me lose my sanity. And who knows, in that kind of state, I could very well grant my father’s greatest wish and turn the world to ash.
The monster wrapped in dog form on the ground huffed. I ignored him. I didn’t need Leviathan’s wisdom or his sarcasm right now.
I stood and crossed to the alcove at the window, then took a seat on the comfortable bench cushion. He followed and jumped up, curling up on the other side of the window bench.
“Just leave me alone.”
“Not with your mind so clouded with darkness,” he muttered and sent me a sideways glare.
I looked away. The lake outside the window didn’t have the same calming cadence of the ocean waves in Maine. It only served to make my nerves more jumbled. This cabin stood on sacred ground, and a part of me knew I shouldn’t be here. Not with Lucifer’s blood raging inside me.
“Pft,” Levi huffed at me. “The Ryans share Lucifer’s blood, too, so you should not discount your inherent goodness based on who your biological father is.”
It was my turn to scoff at him. I wasn’t inherently good. I was a walking fire hazard, and now I had this crazy level of power that wiped out an entire island.
I climbed to my feet and left the cottage, closing the door on Levi. I needed to be alone. I needed to set my mind right, and I wasn’t going to get there with him staring at me like I was a wounded bird.
I crossed to the gazebo and sat on the swing inside the wooden structure. The cabinet in my mind that Valerie had helped me lock up had many answers, but I was hesitant to open it. I didn’t want to be overwhelmed with thousands of years of memories and open all sorts of breaches again. But I knew if I didn’t take a look at the history I had, I wouldn’t be prepared to battle Lucifer.
I needed to see his games. I needed to understand his strategies. I needed to know just how horrifying Lucifer was.
It was chilly enough outside for me to shiver from more than just the thoughts flitting through my mind. Instead of going inside to grab a coat, I figured the caress of cold air might be good. It would keep my fire in check.
I pushed off with my feet, letting the swing sway back and forth, and I closed my eyes, concentrating on shoring up my mind so this didn’t go haywire. I envisioned the file cabinets we made to organize the memories and knelt down in front of the one containing the oldest ones. The imaginary key appeared in my hand, and I unlocked the drawers that had the name Damian Andreas printed on the card.
Perusing his memories was a delicate matter. It was as if I had stepped back to almost the dawn of time when the earth was lush and the deserts hadn’t fully formed in the Middle East yet.
I scanned through memory upon memory of Damian’s, from vague images of his father, the archangel Gabriel, to the people who raised him. He even went to war with his comrade, but he was the only one to come back. His friend made Damia
n promise to take care of his wife, Athena, and his child before he died on the battlefield. Damian kept that promise, and Athena ended up being the love of Damian’s life, or at least of that life, before darkness befell him.
And darkness came in the form of Lucifer because Athena was a Nephilim. She was Michael’s daughter, and heartbreaking was the only word for what Lucifer did to her. He made Damian watch as he tore Athena’s heart from her chest and ate it. Then he threw Damian into a pit of bloodthirsty monsters.
Athena’s child had been visiting with family and survived to continue Michael’s bloodline, and luckily, Lucifer had no idea that Damian was Gabriel’s son, or he would have suffered the same fate.
Still, being turned into a vampire wasn’t exactly the most humane choice. Damian survived the pit, and Michael pulled him from that living hell, giving him an ultimatum: keep his angelic bloodline safe or be smited on the spot. Obviously, he chose to be Michael’s bloodline protector.
Michael was as fearsome as Lucifer, and until Damian met Naomi, he quaked every time Michael appeared.
Damian came across Lucifer many times before Naomi, but it was usually from the shadows as he plotted his revenge against the dark lord. Naomi was never meant to be someone he fell for, she was just something Lucifer wanted, and Damian was hell-bent on destroying anything Lucifer coveted. Unfortunately, Damian didn’t know she was one of Michael’s descendants.
Naomi was fearless, and when Damian bit her, she bit him back, turning herself into a vampire in much the same way Damian had been turned. If she had ever been afraid of Lucifer, she never showed it.
I shook my head and refocused on Damian’s memories, putting my assessment of Naomi aside.
Every encounter with my father was bloody and depraved. He certainly was a master at manipulation and torture. He wiped out entire families in an attempt to get what he wanted. He wanted trinity blood to build an army. Well, now he had more than just trinity blood. He had the entire host of angels.
