“I think I’m going to be sick.” Alexa’s bottom lip trembled. “This is so wrong. Stay away!”
She swung her free arm, aiming at the girl’s face, but missed.
The girl went for her throat, teeth snapping like a piranha. Alexa flung herself backward, only to feel white-hot pain shoot up her back. She pitched headfirst into the ground. Tears welled in her eyes. Her back was aflame with pain. Alexa cried out as they leaped on her.
With a feeling of drowning in dread, she knew her strength would soon give way to the poison that flowed in her. The darkness rippled in her vision. She trembled and sweat trickled down her temples into her eyes. She was cold and hot all at once. The fever from the poison ate away at the last of her strength. How long did she have before another wave of the poison-induced sickness took over her body?
Cold fingers pierced the flesh of her back, neck, and scalp like knives. Alexa screamed and screamed until her voice broke. She slashed blindly with the staff, but they were weighing her down. Her strength was leaving her. She could feel the warmth of her M-Suit trying to heal what it could, but there were too many mouths and fingers tearing at her flesh.
Tears blinded her vision. She wanted to scream, but she could barely open her mouth, too tired to move her head. She’d never imagined that she’d be eaten alive by little kids.
Suddenly, Alexa felt the weight lift from her body. The tearing and biting stopped.
Get up, said the tiny voice inside her head, the oracle saw you defeat Lucifer. This isn’t the end. Get up!
Moaning, Alexa propped herself up on her elbows.
The two angel-mortal-suit-wearing kids were face down on the ground, their wrists and feet bound and mouths gagged. Lance was sitting on the boy, his tongue lolling out of his mouth.
“Don’t know what’s gotten into our kids these days,” he said and winked at Alexa.
Blinking, Alexa saw Nathaniel and his loyal group of mortals struggling on the ground next to her, a metal net secured around them.
“Keep their hands and feet bound,” said a rough voice. “We need to keep them down for as long as possible.”
Alexa turned and saw the archangel Metatron, his large frame soaring over the angels. In his hands was the largest gun Alexa had ever seen. It looked like a rocket launcher. Maybe it was.
But as he aimed it at a group of mortals and pulled the trigger, a metal net shot in the air, opening as it fell over the mortals. They stumbled, and the weight of the metal net pinned them to the ground.
Metatron shot a look in Alexa’s direction. “On your feet, kid. It’s not time for a break!” And then he disappeared in the chaos of mortals and angels.
“I’ll help you.”
Alexa turned and blinked into Milo’s handsome face. He pulled her up effortlessly and with extreme gentleness.
“What’s going on?” Alexa managed, using the staff like a crutch, and noticed that all the rest of the duct tape and bag had been ripped off. The staff was glowing dimly in the gloom.
Looking over Milo’s shoulder, she could see the blur of bodies as they fought and could hear the clang of metal with the shouts of combat. Disappointment rushed through her as she saw the clear signs that the battle was not over. Angel bodies littered the ground, covered in blood, lamenting their last breaths. Angels ran in every direction, some carrying or dragging other injured angels.
But then she noticed a mortal body tied on the ground. And then another. And another.
Movement caught her eye. A female angel in the black CDD gear tossed a net over an unsuspecting short mortal man. With astonishing speed, the angel had already tied his wrists and feet when she grabbed the net and took off running after another mortal.
Hundreds of mortals were immobile, their wrists and feet bound with what Alexa suspected was the same material the angels had used on her.
“They’ve tied up the mortals?”
“Yeah, looks like it. I don’t know how long it’s going to last,” said Milo, casting his eyes over the harbor. “But the Legion’s managed to come up with a temporary strategy to stop the integrated mortals without killing them.”
“Seems to be working.”
Milo’s eyes went over Alexa’s head. “I can see more and more of those integrated mortals spilling through that town. They keep coming. The Legion can’t keep up with this forever.”
“We need to get to your father’s castle—” Alexa made to turn her body towards Lucifer’s castle and flinched. “Milo,” she said, trying to control the pain from her voice. “I’ve got a death blade in my back. It’s stuck. Can you—”
“I’ll remove it.”
Ariel had appeared at Alexa’s side, and her body tightened as the archangel stepped behind her. Alexa bit down on the scream as the death blade was pulled out. Tears spilled down her face. She couldn’t help it. But she immediately felt some strength returning to her body.
Ariel cursed. “They did a real number on your back.”
Heat rose to Alexa’s face. “How bad is it?”
“Put your arms up,” commanded Ariel, and Alexa did what she was told. She was pulled and tugged as Ariel wrapped white gauze around Alexa’s middle until she felt like a mummy.
“There,” said the archangel and she stood back. “It’s not the Healing-Xpress, but it’ll keep you from bleeding out.”
“Thank you.” Alexa felt like she was wearing a metal breast plate.
“Why didn’t you show me the note, Alexa?” asked Ariel, as she pulled the oracle’s note from her pocket and handed it to Alexa.
Alexa looked over to Lance who was still sitting on the kid. “I didn’t think you’d believe me,” she said. “I’ve tried to talk to you before, and I ended up in Tartarus.”
Ariel sighed. She watched Alexa for a long moment. “Well, there’s no time to get into all that. If we live through this, we’ll need to sit down and have a chat about what you two have been doing. Is that the Staff of Heaven?”
Alexa lifted the staff and angled it for Ariel to see. “It is. Do you want it back?”
“It was never mine,” said Ariel. “It disappeared so long ago, we never thought someone other than Michael could use it. I can see we were wrong. It won’t be the first time or the last. It seems as though it was meant to be used by you. The oracle was right in keeping this from us. With everything that’s happened, we wouldn’t have listened to him.” Ariel wrinkled her brows. “If the oracle’s premonition is correct, you, Alexa, must use it against Lucifer.”
Alexa’s spirits fell at the faith in Ariel’s voice. Her palms were moist as she lowered the staff. “But will it work without the blood of a demon? The willing sacrifice?”
“I’m not sure,” said Ariel. “I know the archangel Michael didn’t need any demon blood to use it. Perhaps we don’t either.” She gave Alexa a reassuring smile, but it didn’t help suppress the growing fear in Alexa’s gut.
“But the oracle wrote that—”
The ground shook, and a thundering noise blasted through the air. Forks of green and yellow lightning ripped under the boiling clouds hanging over Lucifer’s castle.
Alexa’s heart shot up to her throat. “What was that?” Just as the words escaped her mouth, the castled shimmered and then lost its solidity. For a moment she could see the mountains through it on the other side of the river. She blinked, and the castle was solid again.
“That’s the sound my father’s castle makes before it disappears,” answered Milo.
CHAPTER 23
“HURRY!” URGED MILO. “We’ve got minutes. Maybe seconds. If we’re not in it before it leaves,” he said panting, “we might never find it again.”
“Angels!” Ariel bellowed as she drew her sword. “With me!”
The archangel Ariel and fifty strong angels charged down the lane towards the castle, barreling through the line of mortals and knocking them down like pins from a bowling alley. The mortals scrambled back to their feet, slashing their death blades, but they were quickly fla
ttened to the ground by Metatron’s nets.
“Traitors,” he spat, his eyes wild as he turned and shot his gun at another group of mortals. “Infidels! Rats! Angel waste!”
“Let’s go,” Milo yelled. He, Alexa, and Lance gathered themselves and pelted after Ariel, heads down, through the midst of the fighters. They slipped in puddles of blood and mud towards Lucifer’s castle.
Alexa’s back burned as she ran. Every stride sent a painful jab at her wound. But the others never slowed, so, neither did she. Determined, and with tears streaming down her face, Alexa pushed herself harder than ever before.
There were more integrated-mortal-angels all along the port. Alexa saw, close to the castle’s main entrance, an angel she knew as Mike in combat with a giant-sized mortal man who had a shaved head and was covered in tribal tattoos.
There was another sonic boom, and Alexa looked up to see the castle shimmer into a mist. Then the dark stone walls loomed overhead again as it took solid form.
“Quickly, angels! Hurry!” called Ariel from ahead of them. “It’s leaving! Faster!”
Alexa sped behind Milo, Lance and Ariel. As they ran, Alexa saw another group of Higher demons standing just outside the castle, watching them as they approached. Next to them was a group of lesser demons and what she recognized as the rotten cadaver-like figures of belphegors.
She felt her body tighten, and her muscles trembled from the adrenaline at the sight of the demons, but then they just stood there as she and the others galloped past.
The castle loomed before her like a giant skull, black and ominous and angry. It hunkered high on a distant hill, giving the impression of a giant floating head in the sky. She could see the bleak, rain-slicked, stone walls. It was the ugliest structure Alexa had ever seen, carved as though it was screaming in pain.
The four of them sped silently into the imposing maw of the castle as it flickered and became semi-transparent. For a horrible moment, Alexa felt as though she might fall through the floor, but then her feet kept hitting solid ground, and she kept going. They sprinted under the barreled roof of the iron portcullis in the shape of a screaming mouth and flew up the path toward a dark entryway to the top of the stone staircase into the entrance hall—just as Alexa felt a shift in the air. Her ears popped as pressure pushed on her from all sides.
Alexa had felt a familiar pressure like that before—like iron chains tightening around her chest, arms, legs and head—when she had stepped through the portal to purgatory.
The castle had jumped, transported to another place while they were inside.
Having seemingly reached the same conclusion, the four of them skidded to a stop. “We made it,” breathed Lance. “We freaking made it. For a moment there, I didn’t think we would. But we did it.”
Milo smiled, looking at Alexa, but she couldn’t smile back. Her face muscles were frozen. Now being inside, Alexa didn’t feel so confident anymore. Tingling dread thickened in the pit of her stomach as the small flame of hope extinguished. A cold bead of sweat trickled down her back. What if the oracle had been wrong…
“Alexa? Are you okay?” Milo’s eyes were full of worry.
“I’m fine,” she lied, and her stomach gave a lurch. “Which way to daddy dearest?” her voice bounced on the cold black walls.
Milo turned his head towards a dark corridor. “This way.”
Heart pounding faster than ever before, Alexa willed her body to move and follow Milo. Ariel and Lance flanked on either side of her like bodyguards. Still, the presence of Ariel and the others did little to quell her fears. She was about to face the Lord of Darkness himself, Lucifer.
The whole idea was absurd. The more she thought about it, the more she wound herself up until she was so tight she felt as though Ariel had wrapped her entire body in gauze. How could she, Alexa, ordinary-angel-fledgling, defeat such a foe?
She had met him before, fooled by the boy Markus. But this was no boy. This was the most powerful archangel that ever was. Not only could he not be killed by any means or weapons she possessed, he could only be defeated by sending him back to his prison—purgatory.
Alexa and the others followed Milo through the corridor. The black stone walls were bare of everything but hissing torches in brackets. As they walked, Alexa could feel the dread of each of the others rising along with hers in a collective apprehension.
With every step, Alexa’s uneasiness increased. She wasn’t ready. She didn’t have the blood of a willing demon. What if Ariel was wrong? What if the staff wouldn’t work without the demon blood?
The corridors were as harsh as the exterior castle walls. It was more of an armed fortress without the pretension of the comfort of a castle. As they followed Milo, Alexa saw just a few crude wooden chairs and torches set in rusty iron brackets. They met no one as they worked their way into the heart of the castle. They came to a large double door, carved from the same black stone from the walls. Milo pushed open the doors. Alexa glanced at them briefly as she passed through and almost started. The face of a grinning demon was carved into the stone, leering at her.
The room was vast and capped with a huge vaulted ceiling. Paintings hung on the walls, depicting angels, attired in the old style of robes, fighting demons. Alexa’s eye went to the largest painting in the room with angels surrounding a glowing figure that looked a lot like Lucifer. His arms outstretched, he looked to be extending his affection to the angels.
Alexa frowned at the painting.
In the middle of the room, above an ornate burgundy patterned carpet, was a massive table that could seat twenty people. Papers and maps of the mortal world littered the long, lustrous tabletop, and at the end of the table sat a woman.
The woman stood up at the sight of them, her delicate features wrinkled in a mask of puzzlement. She wore a white cocktail dress with a halter-like bodice, a plunging neckline, a full pleated skirt, and a waist band amplifying her ample chest. Her short blonde hair was curled neatly in waves against her head.
Even behind the disguise, Alexa knew who she was. Her fears were forgotten as she glowered at the blonde woman whose red lips spread into a false smile.
“Ariel,” said the woman. She stepped away from the table and smoothed out her dress. “Never thought I’d see you on this side of the spectrum.” She took in Alexa, Milo, and Lance. “How did you get in? And what’s that mutt doing in here? I thought I smelled wet dog.”
“And I thought I smelled a rat,” countered Lance. “Oh—wait—it is you. I didn’t recognize the backstabbing, tramp, Sabrielle under all those layers of makeup. Word to the wise—less is more. And who are you trying to be now? Marilyn Monroe? Not even close.”
Sabrielle looked to the others, a blank expression on her face. “You’re too late. There’s nothing you can do to stop it. And why would you? It’s the best thing that could ever happen to the mortals.”
“What’s that?” said Alexa. “Share their bodies with someone else? You know how twisted that is, don’t you?”
“You have very limited imagination,” said Sabrielle.
“And you can’t stand to be the real you,” refuted Alexa, “so you dress up and pretend to be someone else. What’s the matter, Sabrielle? Afraid to show the world what you really look like? Afraid to show how ordinary you are?”
Sabrielle’s face slacked. “I… I am the Lord of Darkness’ most faithful servant,” she added more proudly. “His favorite.”
“Yes,” agreed Ariel, her face darkening. “That you are. You fooled us all with your charming ways.”
Alexa’s face heated at the thought of that woman’s arrogance. Sabrielle had thought to have the glory to herself.
“I do whatever he commands me to do,” said Sabrielle. “I serve him in his work to make the lives of angels in this world better. The only chance we have to better their lives is to become like the rest of the mortals—to live among them.”
“You mean in them,” said Lance. “Can I bite her now?”
“It’s a viol
ation!” shouted Ariel, and her sword shook in her hand. “The mortals were never created so that you and the other angels could play dress-up with their bodies.”
Sabrielle smiled wickedly. “We can do whatever we want with them. We own them. They are ours!”
Before Alexa knew what she was doing, she bounded across the room and pointed the staff at Sabrielle’s chest.
“You know what this is, Marilyn?”
Sabrielle stumbled back, her eyes widened in fear at the sight of the staff. “You wouldn’t?” she said, her bottom lip shaking as her pretty face contorted in fear causing her makeup to crack.
“Oh, yes. I would.”
Gathering composure, Sabrielle smoothed her voice. “I did everything for us—for the angels. Surely you can see that? It was all for us. So we can be free at last from the tethers of the Legion. Free to make our own decisions. Free to live how we want.”
“Free to kill angels and mortals, you psychotic bitch?”
Sabrielle almost never let emotion touch her smooth features, but it touched her face now as her brows drew together in a murderous scowl.
“Why, you good for nothing lesser angel! I should have killed you when I had the chance!”
The staff was an inch from Sabrielle’s face. For a second Alexa really thought she was going to use the staff on Sabrielle. But then she made a fist with her left hand—and punched her across the face as hard as she could.
Sabrielle fell to the floor, stunned and holding the right side of her face in her hands.
“That…is for lying and tricking us into going to purgatory.”
Alexa felt immense satisfaction at sight of tears in the archangel’s eyes. She had a mean left hook.
“You don’t deserve to live after what you’ve done,” said Alexa, pointing the staff in Sabrielle’s face, “but I’m not here for you—”
“No, I presume you are here for me,” a voice behind her said.
CHAPTER 24
The Lord of Darkness Page 21
