“Yes, it is me, in the flesh, so to speak,” said the man who claimed to be the angel Nathaniel. “I’ll admit it takes a little to get used to this new body and its daily functions. It was a surprise to experience hunger and thirst, but they are nothing compare to all the other remarkable sensations and feelings. This is not an inferior M-suit the Legion forced us to wear. This is a real mortal body, not an imitation.”
Horror washed through Alexa. “But how? Only demons can possess a human body. And when that happens, there are signs of sickness and disease. The flesh starts to decay on its human host. But you look… you look well.”
“Why thank you.”
“It wasn’t a compliment, you creep.” Her voice was ragged with rage, but Nathaniel the mortal dismissed her with a wave of his hand.
“You are sadly misinformed if you think that only demons can possess a mortal body. I can assure you, angels have possessed human bodies in the past, but never indefinitely or quite like this.”
“Indefinitely? What do you mean?” Alexa hissed through gritted teeth.
“Again, proof that you lesser angels are being misled by the Legion. Proof of your inferior intelligence and lack of imagination.”
One of the mortal men that surrounded Milo snorted. Alexa wished she could smack him with the staff and see what would happen.
Alexa met Milo’s gaze, his lips thin and eyes wide with shock and horror and grief.
The air around her still contained the incessant sound of metal on metal, the hacking of flesh, and the pounding of fists, all coming from various directions like a steady rhythm that seemed to vibrate deep in her chest.
Nathaniel caught her looking at the battle. “The angels will be destroyed. All those who dared defy us will be killed here, in the early hours of the morning. It won’t take long. They can’t fight back. As you know, angels cannot take a human life.”
“They can if the mortal intends to kill them,” said Milo. “I know the code. It’s self-defense.”
“Perhaps,” said Nathaniel. “But by the time it takes the angel to make the connection—that the mortal actually means to kill—the angel is already dead.”
Alexa’s gaze traveled to Lucifer’s castle. Somehow, she had to reach it. She had to stop this madness. Remarkably, she still held on to the staff. Her fingers clasped around it, gathering courage from it.
“It won’t last,” said Alexa, returning her attention to the mortal Nathaniel. “You might not be demon, but eventually the mortal bodies will reject you. You can’t stay indefinitely in a human host. You’re a celestial creature. These are flesh and blood. And then you’ll be fair game for all the demons. Trust me. The Legion won’t save you. Not after what you’ve done.”
“These bodies will never reject us,” laughed Nathaniel. “And before you ask… yes, this body will grow old and weak and eventually die, but by then I will have discarded it and taken another. There are billions to choose from. My choices are endless.” His grin widened at the horror on her face. “You see, Alexa,” said Nathaniel. “This is not possession. This is integration. A union. The binding of two creatures into one. We become them. They become us. It doesn’t really matter, as we, the angels, take control of the bodies.”
Alexa looked over to Milo, but all she saw was utter confusion on his face.
“I’ve never heard of integration,” said Alexa, as her mind whirled with scenarios on how to reach the castle. “You’ve made that up. You’re a liar.”
“Not I,” said Nathaniel, his voice full of admiration, “but my lord. He made this happen. He made this possible and gave us the gift of integration. His power and wisdom. Without his skill, his infinite power, this union could not be possible. And now, here we are. And here we take.”
Alexa was trying hard to see beyond the mortal mask, the costume which was Nathaniel. She had to remember there was an innocent soul in there.
She blinked the sweat from her eyes. “But what about the mortals’ souls. What happens to them? The mortal bodies don’t function without souls. I know as much.”
Nathaniel pursed his lips. “Trapped, I would imagine.”
“Trapped?” Alexa was going to be sick. “You mean you can hear them? Like, subconsciously?”
Nathaniel smiled. “It was the only downside to the binding. But with a little practice, it’s easy enough to suppress them. I don’t hear Henry’s voice anymore.”
“Henry,” said Alexa. “The man you possessed, the man whose life you stole.” Alexa frowned, trying to get used to the new face with the familiar voice. She couldn’t help but notice that he’d picked a very handsome man to possess.
“I’m not a thief,” spat Nathaniel. “You are. This world belongs to us. It was made for us—angels—not humans. We took what was ours. The mortals can stay, as long as we can ride their bodies.” He laughed. “As strange as it sounds, we need their bodies as vessels.”
“And all these mortals…” Alexa couldn’t utter the words. Storms of rage erupted within her. She knew she was looking at all the members from The Order of the First. Her stomach lurched, and bile stung the back of her throat. She clamped down on the horror with all her might, but even the oracle’s premonition couldn’t shake the dread she felt.
“This is Lucifer’s big plan?” said Milo, sounding both surprised and angry. “To merge angels with human bodies?”
“Brilliant, isn’t it?” Nathaniel gave Milo an easy smile. “To bring about the cleansing of the Earth without actually killing any of the lesser creations.” Nathaniel circled around Alexa and Milo. His mortal body was bigger and taller than the angel one, more like an angel on steroids.
“It’s the new and improved apocalypse,” said Nathaniel. “What? Did you expect something different? The burning of the world, a giant plague that would wipe out billions of mortals perhaps? Or did you assume there would be a demon invasion, like the rest of the angels? That our lord would open the gates of hell and let them in? No. The mortal world belongs to us, not demons. Our lord discovered a better way to take control, one that we angels couldn’t wait to discover, to taste, to rule.”
Alexa’s knees shook. She’d been so wrong. They’d all been wrong. Even Ariel, the Legion, how could they fight this new threat?
“And once all the lesser angels and the other treacherous angels are removed, and the mortals integrated, perhaps we shall bring back the Spanish flu since the world is overpopulated and all. Then we will have a peaceful, pure world without famine or wars. Remove the will of mortals, and the world will prosper.”
“It’s never going to happen,” spat Alexa.
But Nathaniel only smiled and said, “It already has.”
Milo’s eyes, intense with loathing, fixed on Nathaniel. “Has my father integrated too?”
Nathaniel sighed impatiently. “He doesn’t have to. He’s The Lord of Darkness. His power is endless. He can do whatever he chooses, and as it so happens, he chooses to remain in his castle.”
“Maybe he knows something you don’t.” Alexa knew she’d hit a nerve at the uncertainty that flashed across Henry-Nathaniel’s face.
His face twisted into something ogre like. “You know nothing, you worthless brat!” A dribble of spit flew from his mouth, and his face reddened to an ugly shade of purple. “You lesser angels are insignificant. Too weak and stupid to recognize that you’ve only ever been slaves to your precious Legion. There will be no more corrupting and polluting the minds of the first creation. You are the Legion’s mistake, and you are their downfall. You lot are nothing but filth, stains of dishonor, taints of shame on the first creation. The Legion should never have been allowed to use mortals as angels. You should never have been made angels. You should have stayed dead as a mortal because your angel life is worthless.”
“Someone believed in me enough to make me an angel,” said Alexa, her chest swelling as she realized the truth in her own words. She smiled at him. “And someone still does.” She gave a swing of the staff and regretted it as her w
ound stretched and burned. “I’d say that’s worth something.”
Nathaniel looked at the staff in Alexa’s hands. “That staff can’t harm me or any of us, not while we are integrated. Still, it belongs to me. And I will have it back.”
“It was never yours,” said Milo, and Alexa had never heard so much contempt in his voice. “It belonged to the archangel Michael and to the Legion.”
Nathaniel moved to stand next to Milo with the grace and supernatural speed of an angel but with a mortal body. It was unnatural, and it made Alexa feel as though she were watching a movie with added visual effects to enhance the character’s speed.
“As the only remaining son of Lucifer, I will give you the option to choose. If you choose to surrender, you will be brought safely to your father’s castle unscathed. I was told to find you and bring you to him, but he never specified in what condition. It seems he still has faith in you. If you were my son, I would have killed you long ago.”
Milo smiled. “But I’m not.”
“No, you are not.” Nathaniel sighed, looking down into Milo’s ferocious, anguished face. “I have orders not to kill you, but no one said anything about not killing this one.” He turned a little, indicating Alexa. “Kill her. And bring me my damn staff back!”
CHAPTER 22
EVERYTHING MOVED AT ONCE.
Mortals rushed towards Alexa, crowds of them from every direction. Young, old, woman or man, it didn’t matter. They all came for her with brutal efficiency.
Alexa hit them with the staff like she was swinging a baseball bat.
“Sorry!” she shouted as she smacked the staff across the chest of an elderly man, knowing the real man was in there somewhere. It was hard enough just to concentrate, let alone, try to wrap her mind around what she was actually doing. She had to keep telling herself that she wasn’t killing them. She was making them indisposed temporarily until she dealt with Lucifer.
“Didn’t mean that,” she cried and knocked an Asian woman down. “Nathaniel made me do it!”
Alexa sensed others behind her. She spun like a top, just in time to see three more mortals abruptly appear. They were racing to join the fight, grinning.
With a backhanded swing of the staff, Alexa sent a powerful blow at the two of the mortals, catching them hard in their chests. The staff reverberated against her hands.
“Can’t you people just stay down!” she bellowed.
Without pause, the other mortal, a young fifteen-year-old girl, came at her thrashing madly with two death blades in her hands. The girl ducked and twisted, evading the knock-out thrust of Alexa’s staff. But as the girl came around, closing the distance to deliver her own strike, Alexa drew the staff back, thumping it across the back of the girl’s head. She cried out once and slumped to the ground.
It worked that way for a while, but after the twentieth attacking mortal, Alexa began to really feel the effects of the death blade’s poison. She started to tire. No matter how many she struck down, they were quickly replaced by five others.
A new group of mortals had taken the place of the other fallen. They were standing now, scowling at her, but she had caught glimpses of them smiling to each other, apparently pleased with the way they had been able to draw her into their game.
“I’m going to take my sweet time with you, lesser angel,” spat one of the mortal men with black hair and matching beard. “Cut that pretty meat-suit off those lesser bones.” He twisted his death blade in the air, mimicking the way he was going to gut her.
“Screw you.” Alexa took a step back, the staff held firmly in both hands. It was her only weapon.
She felt the air move behind her, but it was too late.
Something struck her hard from behind and she went down, skidding over a puddle of mud and blood. She heard Milo’s voice over the grunts of the mortals, just as something both hot and cold pierced her back.
Alexa screamed in pain as she felt wetness dribble down her back. She had to move. If she stayed down, she was dead.
She bit down on another scream of pain as she pushed upward, her legs buckling as she strained to stand. Using the staff for support, she stood, reaching behind her to wrap her hand around the hilt of the death blade. She hissed as the poison burned her skin and pulled. But the blade wouldn’t move. She yanked harder, but it wouldn’t budge, it was lodged into one of her ribs.
For a panic-filled instant, Alexa froze.
The world spun black and white and red as hands grabbed her and shoved her against the ground, her face smashing into a stone. When she opened her eyes, the world shifted. Blackness was everywhere, and the death blade’s poison was moving quickly through her veins, too quickly.
Two figures stepped into her line of sight.
“Kill her while she’s down!” yelled a mortal woman with glasses. “Get the staff!”
“I’m not touching that,” said a mortal man with skin the color of oil. “You take it.”
“Idiot,” hissed the woman, and she knelt down next to Alexa. She reached to take the staff.
Alexa tossed a handful of dirt and mud into her eyes.
The woman screamed as her hands went to her face and she fell back.
The man’s face went red. “You’re gonna pay for that.”
He grabbed for Alexa. She brought her boot up between his legs. When he cried out, she scrambled on her belly, going as fast as she could. But each stroke sent a jarring pain up her spine, the death blade tearing her skin like a hot knife. Sweat beaded on her brow and trickled through her scalp, but she wouldn’t give up. Again the pain came as she struggled to her knees amidst another tear at her back. She gritted her teeth against her scream.
“Kill her! What are you waiting for? She’s just a lesser angel.” Nathaniel’s voice sent a new surge of hatred through Alexa.
She pushed herself to her feet, just as she felt movement from behind.
Instinctively, Alexa whirled and cracked the staff across the woman’s head. She collapsed into a puddle of mud.
Another mortal with bulbous eyes and a hawk nose threw himself on Alexa, grappling with her and punching her in the ribs. She stumbled back, blinking the black spots from her eyes as he came at her again.
Alexa swung the staff at him, but he ducked, and it caught only his shoulders. His fist in her gut drove her back.
“Your moves won’t work on me,” said the man. “I trained you. I know what you’re going to do before you do it.”
Alexa cradled her stomach and stepped back, shaking her head. “Takumi? Is that you?”
Takumi rolled his death blade between his fingers. “You could have joined the order when Nathaniel gave you the chance. Then you’d get to live out eternity back in the place you’d so admired. I know how much you missed being a mortal. But you missed that chance. That was stupid.”
Alexa stared at the man-angel who’d trained her at Operations level two. He’d recommended her to Ariel’s Counter Demon Division unit because of how fast she’d excelled and how gifted she was in combat training.
Alexa spat blood from her mouth. “I can’t believe you’d turn your back on the Legion for a few mortal thrills. I looked up to you, Takumi. I admired you. How could you do this?”
Takumi lowered his body, and Alexa noticed how he had chosen a mortal who had similar traits, nearly the same height, build, and age. She lowered herself in a defensive stance. She knew what was coming.
“Why don’t you just give up, Alexa?” said Takumi, moving with the grace of a skilled warrior. He wore his knowledge, experience, and skill like a second skin. “It’s over. You’re fighting a lost cause. You could have lived if you had surrendered and joined us.”
With wind-like speed Alexa remembered all too well, Takumi attacked. It took every bit of strength for Alexa to block his assault. She heaved him over the top of her as she crashed to the ground and then rolled to her feet. As Takumi turned to get his footing, she kicked him in the face.
The air rang with the sound of steel. Nat
haniel shouted something, but Alexa couldn’t make it out amid the piercing sounds of yelling and roars from the battle.
Takumi cursed loudly. Alexa kept her eyes on him as he sprang up with blood running from his nose. Before he could charge at her again, something grabbed her from behind.
It threw her to the ground, and something sharp ripped at the back of her throat and shoulders. She thrashed. It let go. Alexa rolled over to her knees, cursing as she felt the death blade sink deeper into her back, and blinked into the face of a young boy, his teeth sharped like the girl she’d seen just minutes ago.
He couldn’t be older than seven. Alexa felt both pity and anger at the sick angel who decided to use this child’s body for play.
He was on all fours, like an animal ready to pounce on his prey. On his hands were gloves with razor blades stitched at the fingertips. He cocked his head to the side, his face stretching into a smile. Her own blood dripped from the corners of his mouth, dribbling down to his chin.
He pounced on her, his claws slicing her flesh, her face. She raised her hand to cover her eyes. He was going to rip her apart. Terror—like she’d never known—took over. Alexa covered her eyes as he clawed at her face, neck, and chest. She swung out blindly.
The staff shook, and she knew she’d hit something. The clawing stopped. Blinking through the wetness from her eyes, she saw the boy on the ground, shaking his head. Blood ran from a large cut on the side of his skull.
She stood over him for a second. Defiance and rage mixed in her soul. Part of her wanted to rip his head off, but he was still a child. Somewhere inside that body was the soul of a child. She couldn’t do it. And then she knew the angel had chosen that body for the exact reason; the angels wouldn’t dare harm him.
The boy sprung to his feet, licking his lips.
“Don’t,” warned Alexa and held the staff in both hands. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Why? I want to hurt you,” said the tiny boy with the voice of a grown man. Alexa’s skin rippled in goose bumps.
Another child—the same little girl—hopped over and crouched next to the boy. She too had the same makeshift razor gloves.
The Lord of Darkness Page 20
