“You’re not showing it either.”
She shrugged. “I’m terrified. But there’s no point freaking out about it. We’ll just have to deal with it when it comes.” Her voice broke for a quick second; I almost missed it. She bustled about me, taking my pulse, but I could see her eyes were shining with tears.
“Margot…”
“Peanut, it’s fine.” Her smile was clear. “Don’t be sorry about anything. My whole life’s mission has been about protecting the innocent, you know that. And that’s you.”
“I’m not innocent,” I muttered, biting my lip. Both of us were dangerously close to tears.
“You’re the most innocent one amongst us. Well,” Margot said, putting her head on the side. “Maybe Clover. She still has no idea what’s going on.”
I rubbed my face with my hands. “Nate is going to put her in a portal to another dimension,” I told Margot. “I think we’ve all decided she must be protected at all costs.”
“What dimension?” Margot had taken to this new information like a duck to water. She had a brain like a sponge - she was sucking up as much knowledge as she could get.
“He’s ruled out most of the Fae realms. They would be too keen to get her knocked up with a little faery baby as soon as possible, and the shifter realms are too wild and unpredictable. Alex has a vampire friend who will keep her safe for a month or so.” I gave a wry grin. “Nate isn’t too happy about her going to the Vampire Realm, but I think she’ll have the most fun there.”
“Nate sounds like he’s getting attached.”
“No one can get attached to Clover. She belongs to everyone, and to no one.”
There was a knock at the door. “Can we come in?” It was Alex.
“Yes!” I called out. “You should be in here anyway,” I said as he filed in. It wasn’t just him though. Nate followed close behind, then Nimue and Malach. Beyond them stood a stony-faced man whom I'd never seen before. He was clearly human and middle-aged, but with the tense stance and resigned air of someone who knew exactly what was going on, and was braced for anything. Soon, the little medical office was packed with bodies.
“We’ve got news,” Alex said grimly.
“What?”
“The army is on the way,” Nate replied. He pushed the stranger forward. “This is Connor. He’s one of Zel’s spies, he was traveling with Vane’s human army.”
The man stared at me, his calm, assessing gaze taking in every inch of my body, his eyes following the lines of my belly. “You’re the one they’re coming to kill,” he said.
I nodded, trying to swallow my fear. I felt no violence coming from this stranger, but I could tell he was incredibly dangerous. “Are you with them, or with us?”
“I’m with humanity,” the man replied quietly. “I’m with the side that would choose love over anything else. Love over murder. Love over destruction.”
“I am the destruction,” I told him honestly. “I think you should know exactly what side you’re picking.”
He shook his head slowly. “You’re potential, that’s what you are. Those guys - Percuitait. They are destruction. They revel in judgment and vengeance. They’re the end of us, not you.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“I’ve seen a lot in my life.” The stranger spoke slowly, deliberately. “I’ve served my country, special ops, in four different wars. I’ve spent time in captivity, behind enemy lines. I’ve been tortured…” He trailed off, his eyes unfocusing. The room was silent for a long minute.
“Fanatics,” he said softly. “They always think that the ends justify the means. But it doesn’t. It never does.”
I swallowed heavily. “So you support us because you don’t think they should kill me, an innocent girl?”
“I have my other motivations,” he said gruffly, shrugging slightly. “The Percuitait murdered my lover. They should be stopped for good.”
Nate cleared his throat. “Connor can see things that other humans cannot,” he explained. “Most probably because of being tortured so badly in captivity. He met his partner back in New York, years later.”
“It was in a PTSD support group. Gerry was with Doctors Without Borders,” Connor said, his voice flat. “He’d never been with a man before, and neither had I, but I loved him like I’d never loved anyone.” Connor's expression didn’t change, but I saw his jaw tighten. “Gerry was walking across the street towards me, and I watched as one of those white-haired motherfuckers appeared out of nowhere and moved a bus into his path.”
“Oh,” I breathed out. “Oh, no.”
“They murdered him for the crime of loving a man,” Connor said softly. “They think it’s a sin. I’ve traveled all around the world; I’ve seen things that would make your hair curl. But the purest love that Gerry and I shared?” He shook his head. “Apparently, the Percuitait think that that is the worst thing. Well, I committed myself to taking them down ever since.”
Malach flexed his muscles and groaned. “They are not like the rest of us,” he said bitterly. “They are rogue angels. They are nothing but killers, just like the rogue demons. They’re the same. Exactly the same.” He hung his head. “I can’t believe we didn’t see it sooner. I cannot believe we let them get away with it for so long.”
Nimue put her hand gently on his arm. “We have all failed in that respect, at one time or another. I too have had friends who have gone rogue, but I turned a blind eye, hoping they would come back to the fold. We all make mistakes, my love,” she stroked his head gently. “We all have faith in our friends. It is a failing, but it is also our greatest strength.”
I nodded at Connor, who had paused in his story. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”
“It sent me off the deep end. Everything turned out ok though. Zel found me; I was about to walk into a fundamentalist meeting with an AK47. He talked me out of it.” Connor chuckled once, a hard, bitter sound. “He saved me. I thought that killing other fundamentalists would make me feel better, but he was right. It would just make me a killer.” His stony face gave nothing away, but underneath, I could see him grappling with his enormous reserves of grief and pain. “I’d made peace with what I had to do in wartime,” he went on quietly. “I suffered in caves and in trenches. I’d be damned if I was going to risk my soul because some twisted, demented angel provoked me into killing a bunch of stupid evangelical white supremacists.”
The pain rolled off him in waves. I felt so bad for the guy. Here was a living, breathing example of a man processing his grief and sins before death. “You’re better than they are,” I told him. “You understand everything, better than anyone.”
“Damned right. But as soon as my head was on straight, I knocked at their door, pretending to be a crusader. That’s what they’re calling themselves, you know. The Crusaders.”
“Vane’s army?”
He nodded. "He had me help recruit other humans for him. I did a shitty job,” Connor chuckled darkly. “I think I freaked most of them out with my crazy-act. Anyway, there’s about a hundred insane fundamentalists on their way here right now. We took a private plane and landed in Cairns around six hours ago. I managed to eavesdrop on a conversation between Vane and another one of those slimy angels while we were on the way over. They’re resting tonight, and are planning to get here as the sun reaches its zenith in the sky. They think because you’re all creatures of darkness, that the daylight will put you at a disadvantage.”
“Idiots,” Malach growled.
“I managed to sneak away as soon as we landed. They’ll be here at midday.”
“Just the humans?” Alex asked.
“The supernatural creatures are traveling with them, but they are invisible to everyone but me,” Connor replied. “They appear to me as flashes of bright light, and when I focus on the space around them, I can make out their forms. I’ve tried to keep a tally, however my numbers might not be accurate,” he frowned for a second, his stony face hardening. “I’ve been giving updates to Zel whenever
he's contacted me.”
“Where is Zel?” I looked around the room. “And Dale?” They’d ducked away through a portal on a mini-honeymoon.
“Not back yet,” Alex told me. “What are your final numbers, Connor?”
“Just under one hundred humans,” he replied. “Thirty Percuitait. A dozen or so of those cherub things. And there’s another bright light, bigger than the rest, that keeps flashing around from time to time. I can’t get a fix on that one.”
“Uriel,” Malach growled. “He has joined the enemy. He has not shown his face in Heaven in several long months.”
I frowned. Just a dozen of the Katadonis?” Connor looked at me blankly, so I elaborated. “The cherubs?”
He nodded.
“No other funny little cherubs, that might, I don’t know, have glasses, or seem a little nerdish?”
Connor’s stony face didn’t stir.
“The Seraphim will not join the fight,” Malach’s voice was icy. “I have ensured that the Record Keepers are too frightened to move from Heaven.”
Nimue smiled up at him proudly. “You’ve been busy, darling.”
He locked eyes with her. “I want to do everything I can.”
“Well, I guess that evens up our numbers a little,” Alex muttered.
I gave him a side-eye glare. “You’re kidding. Literally, everyone that can fight is in this room. Except for Zel and Dale,” I reminded him. “We’re up against a hundred bloodthirsty zealots, thirty insane rogue angels, an archangel, and a handful of creepy fat diaper babies?” I shook my head, incredulous. “That’s the numbers evening up a little?”
He gave me a wicked grin. “You haven’t seen me in action.”
“Oh, honey, I have. I saw what you did to the Sanctum Domeni monks. I know you whooped them in the end, but…”
“I know we’re outnumbered, woman” he countered. “It’s going to be a helluva 6fight.”
“Boys.” I huffed out the word. “Always looking forward to the fight. Well,” I struggled off the table, heaving my enormous belly with me. “I guess we’ve got work to do.”
Margot stood beside me while we watched the guests being loaded onto the bus.
“You know,” she said to me out of the corner of her mouth. “I thought you were joking when you said Met would probably put the fake nose and mustache glasses on me.”
I chuckled darkly. “I did warn you.”
Margot and Met, in disguise as environmental scientists, had just delivered the emergency evacuation notice to the management at Revelations. We were now helping evacuate the whole resort. Every single staff member was on hand to assist the guests to pack up and shift outside as quick as they could. The ones that had brought cars with them had already left, but most of the rich folk had been dropped off by limousine. They were now submitting to being loaded onto a giant Greyhound bus.
Surprisingly, there were few complaints. Most of them, especially the older ones, looked faintly excited. I even heard one old woman exclaim that she hadn’t been on a bus since the seventies.
Additionally, we still had a half-dozen or so of the charity workers staying with us. They were causing more trouble, because they kept trying to help with the evacuation - carrying luggage for other guests, sneaking into the kitchens to make sandwiches for the journey and generally trying to make everyone else comfortable. The Revelations staff were handling them the way they did most guests - by shoving a mimosa in their hands and frog-marching them onto the bus.
The evacuation was happening, slowly but surely. As soon as the last guest was loaded onto the bus, it slowly eased out of the grand driveway and took off down the road, disappearing into the jungle.
As soon as they were gone, Martin started hollering at the staff to get onto the other bus. “Don’t dally,” he said to me sternly. “Take off as soon as you can.”
“I will,” I promised him. “Alex is just grabbing my case, and we’re taking his car.”
“Listen to these EPA guys,” Martin pointed at Margot and Met, standing a few feet away from me. “They’re not going to let anyone stay here.”
Met shook his head sternly. I tried not to laugh. As I predicted, instead of creating a glamour to disguise their appearance, Met had shoved Margot into a makeup chair and proceeded to spend several hours on special effects makeup. He’d gone overboard, using wigs and latex, the works. Margot was now a brunette, with very bronze skin and a large, bulbous nose.
He’d done a fantastic job. Margot was almost unrecognizable. The only thing that she couldn’t disguise was her signature laserbeam glare, which she was giving to Met in spades.
Met, on the other hand, had spent so much time on Margot that he didn’t have time to do much on himself. He managed a bald cap, some lighter foundation, and some oversized glasses before he ran out of time.
He fooled everyone, though. He’d spoken to Martin, for some reason using an absolutely flawless Scottish accent, and had handed over official papers ordering the whole site to be evacuated immediately. Margot nodded alongside him, so embarrassed I could see her cheeks glowing through her bronzer.
Martin had done the right thing and swung into action immediately, giving the orders for two buses to come in to evacuate all the guests and staff.
Now, outside the resort, he gave me a hug. “See you at Plan B.” He winked.
Plan B was a luxury resort in Palm Cove, also owned by the Bentleigh group. It had none of Revelations' exclusivity or glamour, but it did have the same kind of hedonistic party vibe. I got the feeling that both the staff and the guests were going to love this little break from tradition.
Martin blew me a kiss and bustled off, shooing a couple of maids onto the bus before him.
Margot was still complaining. “You’re an archangel, for God’s sake,” she hissed at Met. “You're supposed to be able to bend matter to your will. And you can’t do a stupid glamour?”
“Oh, he can,” I reassured her.
“I could,” Met said stubbornly, raising his chin, “but where’s the fun in that?”
Margot sighed. “I was thrown off my game. I’ve had all my environmental jargon rehearsed for days. And you wreck it all by turning me into bloody Anuk-Su-Namun from The Mummy, so I don’t know how I’m supposed to act.”
Met’s eyes grew round. “Oh! You do look like her! I honestly didn’t do it on purpose. I was going for a focused, bronzed, intelligent woman of middle-eastern descent.”
They continued to bicker while I watched the staff bus pull out. “Hang on a minute,” I frowned. “Where’s Clover?” I stared hard at the staff bus, trying to see past the glare bouncing off the windows. “Is she on the bus? She didn’t say goodbye.”
Nobody answered me. My heart thumped a little. Right now, my nerves were on edge.
The Percuitait army was on its way. We only had a few hours before they would be here, according to Connor.
As if my heartbeat bid him, suddenly Alex was beside me. Gratefully, I reached out and took his hand.
“Is everything okay?” he asked. “All your friends have gone?”
“The guests and staff, yes. But have you seen Clover?” I frowned. “I’m sure she’s not on the bus. She hasn’t come to say goodbye yet. It’s not like her to leave without saying goodbye.”
Alex looked slightly shamefaced. “Uh, yes, I’ve seen her.”
Just then, a bright-red Ferrari roared up the drive and screeched to a halt in front of us, and the passenger side window rolled down.
Clover stuck her face out. “Eve! Baby!” She shrieked at me, and grappled with her seatbelt.
“Oh. There you are,” I said, relieved. I wasn’t surprised to see her getting a ride with a guest. I just didn’t know she was seeing a new one. “I was worried you were leaving without saying goodbye.”
“Never!” She exclaimed, leaping out of the car and wrapping her arms around me. “Sorry, it’s all happened so fast,” she gushed, her face red with exhilaration.
“What’s happened so
fast?”
“I met someone,” she replied, blushing. “We’ve bonded pretty quick.”
“Uh… you did?”
“And when we heard about the evacuation, he offered to fly me to Lord Howe Island on his private jet. Just for a couple of days,” she added hastily. “I’m rostered on to work after the weekend, so I gotta get back.”
“Clover,” I said hesitantly. “Uh, who is this guy?”
“Don’t worry, Eve,” she said brightly. “He’s Alex’s friend. Alex has vouched for him.”
I turned slowly to glare at my lover. “Your friend?”
“We met at the wedding,” Clover gushed, gesturing back towards the Ferrari. “Drake, his name is. He turned up right at the end, right after you and Alex went to bed.”
I peered into the car. There was indeed a hulking body behind the wheel. The window whirred down again, and an incredibly handsome, swarthy man that I’d never seen before flashed a grin at me.
“Good evening, Ms. Horne,” the man said in a heavy Russian accent, his voice sending a thrill down my spine. “Apologies, I not come out of the car to greet you.”
“He’s hungover,” Clover explained with a grin. “The sun is hurting his eyes.”
“Right,” I said skeptically. “The sun.”
So this was the vampire friend that Alex had summoned to look after Clover. Alex leaned down and whispered in my ear. “It’s actually working out really well. She’s happy, and Drake owes me a favor and will protect her. It’s best for her, trust me.”
I sighed. “She looks happy,” I whispered back. “She better come back in one piece.”
I didn’t have to add that there was a high chance that there would be no world for her to come back to. This was the safest thing for her. I just had to accept it.
Met bent down and waved happily through the window. “Hi, Drake!”
“Met, is that you? My old friend,” Drake purred. “I didn’t know you were here.”
Revelations: The Last War Page 16
