Azriel didn’t look fearful, he just looked amused. He gave a nod. “I fell for her, Lucifer. I would never harm her.”
Ace looked positively gleeful. “Not all harm is physical, Azriel, Angel of… holy crap, who’s collecting souls?”
Azriel shrugged, looking uncomfortable for the first time. Happy to fall, happy to be threatened, but at the mention of his dereliction of duties, he finally showed some guilt. That was such an Azriel thing that it made me smile. I walked over and wrapped an arm around his waist, pressing into his side.
Luc was just nodding. “Explains the lack of foot traffic over the last week. I thought the humans had finally managed peace on earth.”
All five angels laughed. I rolled my eyes. That was definitely Angel humor.
Luc walked over and slapped a hand on Azriel’s shoulder. “Do not stress, they have found someone to do it. The numbers have picked up steadily today. I imagine they’ve pulled Raphael in to do it for the time being.”
Luc and Azriel began to talk shop, about soul distribution and other topics that were unbelievably boring considering they were legitimately talking about eternal damnation.
Ace stood beside me. “I am pissed right now, Hope.”
Uh oh. Did she find out about Sera? Not that I was hiding her or anything.
“How come Azriel gets the pretty wings?” Ace said as she looked between her dove grey wings and the rainbow ombré of Azriel’s. Who knew Fallen angels were this vain about their wings?
“Don’t ask me, take it up with management.”
We both laughed. And in that moment I had an epiphany.
Or I was slapped in the face by the brutal truth. “The stranger on the bus. Like the fucking song.” My strangled yell got everyone’s attention. They were looking at me like I’d lost my goddamn mind, and maybe I had.
“It was him, on the beach. Azriel, how could you not know it was him?” I bounced around, no longer able to stand still. What did it mean?
Azriel was looking at me like I was nuts, and Gus came over, wrapping an anchoring hand around my forearm. “Slow down, Pretty Girl. Who are you talking about?”
I took a deep breath. “On the beach, after Michael left, there was this guy walking up the beach toward the car park. He looked familiar, and when I asked if I knew him, he said maybe he was a stranger on a bus. Like the song!” I whistled the tune and Ace laughed. “He had this awful ‘Jesus is my homeboy’ shirt on.” Ace laughed harder. “And after he was gone, we noticed the sword. The guy was The Guy, with the capital G.”
It made so much sense. Michael would never disobey enough to leave behind his sword. Everyone knew that. And I hadn’t magically gotten the power to hold the freaking flaming sword. The Big Guy in the Sky had made his move, but for some reason instead of just getting Michael to shut Uriel down, he gave me Michael’s sword.
I still wasn’t sure of the why.
“Am I the only one who still has no idea what she’s talking about?” Blue asked the room.
Azriel looked shaken. He was staring at me like I was something altogether different. A new creature that he hadn’t yet encountered. “She means that we encountered the Father. He gave her the sword of St. Michael. Now would be the right time to cross yourself, Mulligan.”
The only person who didn’t seem overly perturbed by the idea was Luc. He tilted his head to the side, a huge grin on his face. “Well played, Old Man.”
Gus pulled me into his arms, hugging me tightly. I realized my hands were shaking a little. It wasn’t just that Michael wanted me to bring down an Archangel, because let's face it, even that sounds preposterous. But the other guy…
“Am I the only one imagining Michael totally freaking out right now? It’d be like telling your dad that you crashed his vintage car,” Gusion said, little high pitched giggles sneaking out from between his lips. “That conversation would be worth going back to Heaven for. ‘Uh, Father, I kind of misplaced the Sword of Light you gave me to battle Hells enemies. I checked behind the couch and in the pockets of all my favorite linen shirts, but I just can’t find it anywhere,'” he mimicked, his giggles turning into full blown honks of laughter. Ace was laughing right along with him, and even Memphis seemed amused.
Blue looked completely bewildered. Pale, he leaned his head on the back of the couch and was staring into space. That was the appropriate response. Falling obviously fried more than a few brain cells in the rest of the people in the room.
Except Azriel. I wiggled out of Gusion’s arms, and moved toward him. I touched his face, stroking the tiny frown line between his eyes, marring his normally impassive expression. Well, it was less impassive these days.
“Are you okay?”
He nodded, but I wasn’t convinced. “I didn’t know him. I always thought if I was graced by His presence, I’d know.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I rubbed circles into his lower back and hoped that it was enough.
Luc drew himself back up to his full height. “As amusing as this has been, it is not why my consort and I have come. The how or why the sword came into your possession matters not. What matters is what we intend to do with it.”
That silenced the room.
“We’ve been over this,” Blue said. “You know where I stand.”
“Would the sword recognize Estrella?” Ace asked. “No offence to Hope, but killing doesn’t come naturally to her.”
All four of my guys turned to me. Well, I guess there was no time like the present. “I killed the angel Dalius in Purgatory, and rescued a woman who is pregnant with Uriel’s child.”
In that moment I did something I never thought I’d be able to do.
I shocked the hell right out of the Devil.
And Ace, who literally had a witty comeback for everything. “I… well... “ She waved her hands uselessly in the air.
“I think you may have some explaining to do, Beloved of my Consort.”
Uh oh. I was in trouble now. I think I’d just lost my standing as his favorite.
I hesitantly recounted everything that happened in Purgatory. Well, the finer details anyway. When I got to the part where I accidentally stabbed Dalius with a knife, Ace snorted. So it wasn’t as badass as it sounded, but that didn’t change the facts.
Sera however peaked their interest. “How sure are you that she is indeed pregnant with Uriel’s baby?”
A small smile curled Azriel’s lips. “She said it was yours, Luc.”
That teasing rat bastard. Ace’s head whipped to the side, and the comical look of horror on Luc’s face would be burned into my retinas for the rest of my life. I was going to cherish that look.
“We think Uriel used your name, when he uh, picked her up and fornicated.”
Luc’s cheeks flushed. Nope, that was the image I was going to save in my mind for rainy days when things seemed impossible. If Lucifer could blush like a southern belle, then anything could happen.
“Obviously. I would never.” The more he protested, the bigger Azriel’s grin grew. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one amused by Luc’s uncharacteristic awkwardness.
“Obviously,” Ace said drily. “Where’s the girl now?”
I hesitated. “I’ve hidden her away somewhere safe.” Both of the Fallen angels looked at Blue. Poor Blue. Mentally, he was always going to be the weakest link. By the stormy look on his face, he knew it too.
“Ah. I know of him.”
Now it was my turn to look shocked. “You do?” Had I left Sera with a closet serial killer? What if my gut had been totally wrong about Cain.
“Don’t fret. Cain may be many things, but he is protective of innocents. She is as safe as she can be among humans.” He finally sat, dragging out a chair and then wrapping an arm around Ace’s waist and pulling her onto his lap. His thumb stroked up and down the curve of her hip. They had a love I could only aspire to; but I was going to damn well try. “Let us talk about how you will kill Uriel.”
I blanched. Ace had been right. I
wasn’t a killer, and everyone in the room knew it. But I had a lot of anger at Uriel, and that might just be enough.
“I have a plan,” Azriel’s voice filled the silence in the room. “About how to kill Uriel.”
Maybe this really was the End of Days.
My heart thundered in my chest, but Blue was there to steady me yet again. When had I begun to rely so heavily on his steadying influence? I was in a bustier that pulled tight around my waist until I had an hourglass figure like a burlesque dancer. I was wearing tiny black shorts that had shiny gold buttons up each side and silk stockings underneath them, a long black seam running up the back of my legs from my classic black Louboutin’s to the hem of my shorts. My hair was curled wildly, hanging loose around my shoulders and my lips were painted red. I looked like sex.
But I felt like a mouse in a room filled with velociraptors.
We were back at Uriel’s S&M club, and the room was packed. Blue looked amazing. He was in tight, leather pants which were tucked into chunky, black boots that had probably gutter-stomped half of Boston at one time or another. He was shirtless, and the soft lights made him look dangerous and wild. He was wearing guyliner, and his blue eyes popped so hard that it was like falling into the abyss every time they caught you in their line of sight.
“I got you, Princess. We’ve practiced this. He won’t see it coming. In, out and we are done. We can move on with our lives. Five minutes of bravery for a lifetime of happiness,” he whispered.
We skipped coat check, mostly because we wanted to be able to make a quick getaway and partially because neither of us were wearing very much in the way of clothing. Somewhere on his body Blue had his gun, but I couldn’t spot where in his tight clothing.
We headed toward the bar, blending into the crowd. My eyes kept moving toward the St Andrew’s crosses on the other wall. I wasn’t playing cute little submissive today. I was being a badass.
I ordered two scotches from the attractive and wildly underdressed bartender, and when he slid them across the bar, I downed mine in one gulp. I needed the courage more than I needed the brain cells.
Blue turned me so I was in his arms and kissed me hard. “We’ve got this.” He looked down at his watch and I looked at mine. The plan relied on us being where we needed to be exactly on time. Two minutes.
“I love you, you know that, right? I don’t tell you enough. I love you,” I whispered as I pressed close, the light dusting of hair on his chest scratching against my shoulders.
“I know. I love you too, Hope Jones. And I don’t intend for this to be the first and last time I tell you that, so harden up.” He slapped my ass, and I let out a shocked yelp. “God you look so hot right now, these pants are torture.”
I laughed and kissed him, uncaring that I was smearing him with red lipstick. I pulled back and took a deep breath. “Two minutes. Let's go.”
I squared my shoulders and walked over to the raised dais where Uriel sat like a king over his fiefdom. Girls, and teenage boys tonight, were lined up like prize dolls along one wall of the small alcove. I gritted my teeth at the amount of sludgy red that was smeared across everyone's aura. Blue must have felt me tense, or maybe he just knew me now, because he whispered, “Cutting off the head would make the rest of this scum easier to clean up.” He stilled and I resisted the urge to cling to him. He had to wait at the bar, his thoughts mixed up with those of the rest of the crowd. Uriel would pluck our plan from his brain like he had it written on his forehead if he stepped any closer.
I strode toward the stairs to the dais, only to be stopped by security. The guy was huge, and I didn’t think he’d been there last time we came. Maybe Ace’s little foray inside the headquarters of Tenebrae had shaken them up.
“Let me past.” My voice was cool, confident and I was a little proud of myself for my resting bitch face.
The gorilla just stared down at me.
“Let her through,” came Uriel’s too sweet voice. I gritted my teeth, and pushed past the man mountain only to come face to face with Uriel’s smug expression.
Ace was wrong. I might be a pacifist, but I think I could gladly stab this smarmy asshole.
“Child of Acerezeal. How strange to find you here.”
I screwed up my nose. “I bet.”
I couldn’t keep the sneer out of my voice, so I sucked in a deep breath.
“Look. I want to call a truce. I don’t want to go back to that place ever again.” I didn’t have to fake the terror that made my voice waver. “I’ll stay out of your… whatever this is.” I indicated his small troupe of thugs around him. “Just leave me and the people I love out of it.”
I snuck a small glance at my watch from the corner of my eye. Thirty-seconds. Azriel hated that he had to be left behind, to grab Michael’s sword. The theory was that if he grabbed it, it would disappear and reappear at my feet. We’d tested it over the last few weeks at different distances, and every time anyone tried to grab it, it would appear by my feet. We were going to use that to our advantage. Just thirty more seconds.
“So be it, human. But first…”
Suddenly he was in front of me, his hand around my neck, squeezing gradually like a vice. “How about you tell me how you killed Dalius and stole the whore from Purgatory? Do you think I am stupid?” I struggled, my feet no longer touching the ground as I clawed at the Archangel’s wrists. He was crushing my throat in his huge hand, and I tried in vain to suck in air around my constricting windpipe.
I heard the gunshot, and struggled to look toward Blue, who was suddenly there, gun pointed at Uriel.
HELP! I screamed. I screamed it to anyone I thought would hear. The bullet that had left Blue’s gun stopped, turning and thundering back toward him. BLUE! I lifted both hands and gouged them into Uriel’s sadistically gleeful eyes, loosening his grip just as Memphis and Gusion arrived. Suddenly Luc was there, the temperature dropping as I fell to the ground, Uriel tossing me to the side like a piece of trash.
I scrambled toward Blue, who’s white skin was a mess of blood. “Blue. Blue, it’s okay.” I held my hands over his chest, but the blood was rushing up from between my fingers.
“Hello, Lucifer.”
“You will die, Uriel. And I will enjoy torturing your soul for eternity.”
Then I was gone, sifted back into my apartment. Gus held me in his arms, but I struggled out of them. “Blue! Gus, we need to go back for Blue!”
“Shh, Memphis has him. Do not worry. He is fond of your Mulligan, we all are. We won’t let him die.”
Tears dripped from my face, the image of Blue’s chest covered in blood was permanently etched into my mind. My hands were covered in blood. Blue’s blood. Why did the word blood keep repeating in my head?
“Gus…” I whispered as the edges of my vision got blurry. I couldn’t work out if it was tears or if I was about to pass out. I gritted my teeth, holding onto my consciousness and my sanity. Blue needed me. “He needs me. He needs us. We need to go to him.”
My phone rang, and it was my Eli. “Dad…” and then I cried.
“I’m taking him into surgery now. We are at Mount Sinai.” He barked orders at someone with enough authority that everyone jumped. “We got him here quick, Hope. I’ll do my best.”
“I know,” I whispered, and then the line was empty.
I sucked in a single, ragged sob. And then I hardened up, like Blue said. “We need to get to Mount Sinai hospital.”
Gus nodded. “We should drive. There's nothing you can do until he gets out of surgery, and puking all over the waiting room is not a way to pass the time.”
I nodded. I needed the time to compose myself anyway, or I was likely to shatter into a million pieces. I needed Blue’s steadying hand right at that moment, but instead he was possibly dying on an operating table because of me.
Tears welled up in my eyes again, but I blinked them back. I grabbed the gold queen chess piece from the mantle, clutching it to my chest like a security blanket.
“He’ll
be okay,” Gus said soothingly as he led me out of the apartment and into the elevator. “Azriel is there now. He will make sure his soul stays exactly where it's supposed to be. Blue Halloran is as stubborn as the Mulligan blood in his veins. He is not going anywhere.”
I wasn’t so sure. What if this was punishment for killing an angel? Or making another fall. What if this was karmic justice?
We slid into my Tesla, and Gusion guided the car out of the carpark and into traffic. Gusion was not a good driver. He drove like he flew for a living.
I’d never seen any of them fly. Maybe their wings were decorative, like a chicken.
“Can you fly?”
The question seemed to startle Gus, who jerked the car too close to the curb. I winced at the scrape of my hubcaps on the gutter.
“Where did that come from?” I shrugged, the odd tear still escaping from my eye to drip down my cheek. “Yes, we can fly. These things on my back would be pretty useless if we couldn’t.”
I stared out the window. “Chickens have wings and don’t really fly. Or penguins.”
Gus forced out a laugh. “Sweetheart, I am neither a chicken or a penguin. One day I will take you flying. Maybe after you marry Blue Halloran, or after you give us all two beautiful children to dote on.”
I whipped my head towards him. “Does that happen?” He’s the angel of the past, present and future. “You’d know right, if Blue survives this?”
Gus took a deep breath. “Nothing is ever set in stone. You and your sister were proof of that. Ace getting her soul back is further proof. Life changes every day, and it is in a constant state of flux. You bump into a man in the street, halting him three-seconds in his day, but that three-second delay means he doesn’t get run over by a driver whose vehicle is out of control and mounts the sidewalk. That man gives money to an animal shelter, and that animal shelter adopts a cat to a woman who was going to commit suicide until she found the unconditional love of a pet. That woman eventually finds love, gets married and has a baby who cures cancer and saves millions of people for decades to come. Life isn’t a straight line, it is a complex web of emotion and interactions and energy and intention.”
Hell's Redemption- The Complete Series Boxset Page 86
