“Your eyes,” I say. There was no doubting that it was our kid. Even at an early age he favored both of us evenly.
We were young when we had him.
Too young, perhaps. We had been a couple for nearly a year before she got pregnant with him. In today’s society, that wouldn’t have been a problem if she wasn’t catholic. While she never managed to convert me to her religion, she did push the marriage issue once we found out.
We had to be creative about it. Catholic weddings typically need a lot more preparation time than we had to work with. In nine months we will have this kid, ready or not. So we had to come up with a new plan.
It took a couple thousand dollars for last-minute airfare and hotel stay along with a week’s vacation to get us out of our conundrum. There was only one sensible thing for a couple to do in our situation.
We went to Vegas.
I nearly hack out a lung the moment the light hits my eyes. Across the room I see Sara hogtied on the ground in the corner with Nal in a in a heap a few feet away. Either this is what purgatory looks like, or the bastard let me live.
“Ah, I was wondering when you were going to wake up,” Rick says, entering the room. “Couldn’t let you die before I finish the show.”
“What show?” I say.
“The one where I kill your friends while you watch,” he says. “You have been a thorn in our side for a while now. We had no idea what you were capable of until you got lucky and killed Duncan.”
“Wasn’t exactly luck,” I say. In reality, it was as close to a miracle as I have ever been in my life. Duncan was bigger and stronger than I could ever be, yet there was something there that gave me an edge. One moment I was being stretched apart in the air, the next I was flinging the angel blade through his chest.
“Oh, but I believe it was,” he says. “Duncan’s powers weren’t limited to metal, like yours. I once watched him crumple a rival into a ball with nothing more than a thought because the demon had a passing thought that he could do things better.” He kneels a few feet in front of me before pulling the orb out of his pack. “No worries though. His work will be finished.”
“If your hard-on for the orb is anywhere close to his, you will be dead within the hour.”
Belial laughs. “That is one thing I will miss about you, Mitch. Defiance in the face of death. A pity you joined the wrong side. You would have been a powerful ally.” He reaches into the bag and pulls out something that looks like it used to be a basketball holder and places the orb on it. Guess he didn’t have time to find something more appropriate.
“What do you need with so many souls?” I ask. “Your kind already outnumber the angels nearly fifty to one. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to kill so many people, considering you need a living host to even be here.”
“They are the key to ending this war. Once my task is complete, we will take over this planet within the week. The angels will be powerless to stop us.”
“You planning on killing every angel with my sword? I doubt they stand still long enough for that to happen.”
“I won’t need to,” he says. “Soon the balance of power will shift to our favor forever. Even if God himself decides to get involved, he won’t be able to stop us.”
If I didn’t already know better, I’d swear he was suffering from some major delusions of grandeur. In history, every time someone has said that God couldn’t even stop them… lets just say it didn’t end well. We might be in the middle of the end, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t firmly in control.
“While I’ve enjoyed our little boxing match and chat, I have a deadline to hit.” He places his foot on the fallen soldier and pulls the sword out of his chest. “If you have any last words to say to your lady friend, now would be the time.”
The one thing I’ve never been able to figure out is what they expect you to say during this time. You know they aren’t going to give you hours to have a long conversation. Not to mention that there isn’t much that you can say to make things right in a few sentences. So I ask the only thing my mind seems to be capable of.
“Still got the necklace?” Four little words, not one goodbye. I’m not about to concede that to this asshole.
Not even now.
Sara nods. Even from across the room I can see her eyes start to glow. I haven’t worked with her enough for us to have this move down, but we have lived together long enough for her to know what I mean without extra explanation.
“What is this?” Belial rushes forward, pinning Sara to the ground. “Another demontouched? How fortunate that I get to return two of my brethren back to the world.”
“You aren’t the hero today.” I push through the rubber coating on the ball holder, latching onto the metal beneath. I try not to laugh knowing that he was dumb enough to put something as important as the orb onto something metal. I carefully pull the orb to my hands, careful not to drop it on the way.
My eyes light up the moment the orb hits my hands sending it’s power flowing through my veins. “Might want to keep a closer eye on this,” I say. “Might be a little hard to work your little plan without it.”
“How did you?”
I thrust the holder back at his head. “Here’s your hint.”
“No matter. This time I won’t make the mistake of letting you live.”
“No, you only get to fuck that up once.”
When I see him dash off in my direction I attempt to create a shield like I did in the fight against Duncan. I figure that if it was able to block the lightning, it might be able to block a body… or a sword.
It is worth a shot anyways.
Belial screams as he hits the invisible wall of my shield, nearly dropping the angel blade. “I don’t know how you did this, but It won’t matter soon.”
“No, it won’t.” Knowing that I was able to pull off the shield again, I focus on the sword this time. A smile reaches my lips the moment I feel my power latch into the hilt.
“Impossible!” Belial puts both hands on the blade, attempting to keep it from me. The sword shifts directions a few times before he is able to pull it out of my grasp. Apparently I am not as good at moving other things as I am metal.
I look over at my knife embedded in the soldiers skull and try to latch on. The skull shifts slightly due to the vibration in the blade, but it fails to move otherwise. Belial is on top of me before I can try it again.
He drops the sword to the ground and makes a move for the orb, placing both hands on the side. I quickly counter his move my putting my other hand on it.
“You will not win this time, Demontouched.”
I grasp the orb tightly, but to no avail. The only thing keeping it in my hands is the extra pull of my new power, and even it is starting to fade.
“Tell me how this feels, asshole,” Nal says from behind Belial. The demon’s body moving forward slightly as Nal drives the blade of my knife into his back.
His grip on the orb fades as his jaw drops open. I watch close as his eyes start to turn a milky white. In a last act of defiance, he starts to laugh loudly.
“When they find the orb, I will be free again. The next time we meet I will send you to hell.”
Before the body falls to the floor I put one of my hands on his face. “You won’t be coming back.” Wisps of power radiate from my fingertips and into his eyes. He yells in defiance as I pull his soul from his body and into my own, releasing my grip on his face the moment the soul is secure.
“I don’t know what the hell you just did, but it looked awesome,” Nal says, smiling.
“If I figure it out, I’ll let you know.” I walk across the room and help Sara to her feet. “You did great earlier.”
She kisses me on the cheek and smiles. “I knew you had things under control.”
“Glad you had more faith in me than I did.” I pull my knife out of Belial and grab my sword. “What do you say we check the mall for survivors?”
- 16 -
We pull up to the gates of Uriel’s com
pound sometime around seven in the morning leading a convoy of nearly forty vehicles. While the wing we went through was empty, the other two were loaded with survivors. Many of them were lured here hoping to create a safe community, only to realize it was a trap when they found themselves locked into the stores.
Outside the compound, the soldiers are lined up on both sides of the street. Sara thought it would be a good idea to call ahead and let Uriel know what we had coming ahead of time. She was worried that the soldiers would start shooting at them, thinking they were under attack. From the nervous glances many of them are giving us as we pass by, I can see she is probably right.
I pull onto the side of the road when I notice Uriel walking towards the gate.
“You saved all of them?” she asks.
“Not all of them. We made a few stops on the way to pick up some of their friends and family.”
Quite a few of the people trapped in the mall were there to see if it was actually a safe place. Most of them were only there for a few hours before they learned the truth, thankful we were there to get them out.
“I also managed to find something else.” Nal hands me the orb from the back seat. “They are planning something big with these things. Had to kill Belial before I could find out what.”
“Take that back to the house. We will talk after I welcome our new guests.”
I plop down on the couch as soon as I get inside. After the events of the last few days, it doesn’t take me long to pass out.
“Naptime’s over, princess.” I hear Nal say before I find myself crashing to the floor.
“How long have I been out?” I say, pulling myself back on the couch.
“About twelve hours now,” Sara says. “Hard to know for sure. The power has been cutting in and out all day.”
“Guess the grid isn’t that secure,” I say. To be honest, I’m surprised that it lasted this long. I figured it wouldn’t make it a day after Nal blew the hotel. “How hard do you think it will be to stabilize it?”
“Shouldn’t be too bad, but we are going to need some bodies.”
“Take some of the people you brought in,” Uriel says, entering the room. “Many of them are looking for some way to contribute.”
“Not a bad idea,” Nal says. “I’ll walk around and get some volunteers. We can head out first thing in the morning.”
I nod. While humans can live without electricity, many of us were brought up to rely on it. If the grid is not secure, it is probably a good idea to do what we can to keep it going.
Uriel sits down on the recliner the moment Nal walks out of the house. “Tell me what you found.”
I spend the next few hours going over all the details of the mall. Everything from our grand entrance down to finding out the place was really a prison. I cap off the story talking about my fight with Belial and how I was able to pull his soul inside of me.
“That is an odd ability for a demon,” she says. “That ability is nearly unique to the reapers.”
“Reapers?” I say. “Like the grim reaper?”
“Kinda.” She reaches down on the coffee table and pulls out a book close to the bottom. “Reapers are a class of angel that are able to draw the soul out of a living being to help deliver it to its proper place.”
“So they work on your side then. That’s good.”
“Not exactly,” she says. “Reapers have always been a neutral party. They are just as willing to take a soul to heaven as they would to hell.”
“So explain purgatory then? Why would all the souls end up there right now? Aren’t there many around?”
“We haven’t heard from one in a few years. Not long after the Rising. They were the ones that took the initial wave of people away.”
“There had to have been a few hundred thousand around to take everyone away like that.”
“The number was closer to a few dozen. They are able to work very quickly when the time calls for it. If the rumors are true, they were the only beings to have a clue on when this was going to hit. They were probably positioned in a way to get the most people out as quickly as possible.”
I remember the night it happened very well. We were watching the nine o’clock news, like we always did after getting Jack to bed. Throughout the night there had been hundreds of unexplained disappearances across the world, all seeming to hit after dark. As the day went on, the reports circled around the globe.
I thought it was a bunch of bullshit, something the media perpetrated to put is in a state of fear, until I woke up the next morning.
I got up early that day. About an hour earlier than normal. The plan was to surprise my family with a huge breakfast. It was the start of my two-week vacation at the firm. We didn’t have the money to go anywhere, so we just planned on spending the time together.
The meal took me a few hours to prepare. While I know how to cook, I am not the fastest at it. When the last of the bacon was done, I sat down at the table to enjoy a cup of coffee while I waited for them to join me.
Part of me wishes that I turned on the news before I started cooking. Not that it would have done any good at the time, I would have spent more time looking for them. Part of me believes they couldn’t have gotten that far away overnight. If I had started searching earlier, perhaps they would still be here.
After I scoured the house, I spent the next few hours driving around the neighborhood. It was so odd seeing it so empty. Sure, there were other people looking for their loved ones like I was, but it had a really eerie feeling to it. I drove around well into the night, not stopping once unless I thought I saw them.
I woke up sometime the following day still behind the wheel. I’m still amazed that I managed to get the car into park. Someone must have been watching over my shoulder back then. It sure wasn’t me.
“What do you think we should do with the orb?” I ask.
“After the last one, I think we both know it isn’t safe here. Especially without Ezekiel.” She hands the orb back to me. “You should keep it. Perhaps you can find a way to free those inside.”
“We’ll see.” I put the orb into my old backpack. “I think I’m going to go take a walk. I know Nal can use some help finding people to work on the power plants.”
Uriel smiles at me while she walks me to the door. “Mitch,” she says. “You and Sara should stay here with us. It would be good for the people to have you around more often.”
“You know me, Uriel. I’m not much of a people-person.”
“The people don’t need you to be. They need to see someone fighting against the evil that is stacked up against them in this world.”
“I have something that they don’t,” I say, tapping my chest.
“It isn’t your powers that make you great,” she says. “It’s your heart.”
I turn around and walk away from Uriel. I know what she is trying to do, and I’m not sure that I want to be a part of it. I’m already much deeper in than I really wanted to be.
My mind is working in overdrive trying to piece together everything from the last few days. So much, in fact, that I don’t notice the body on the ground until I trip over it.
“Holy shit, man. Are you OK?” I ask the guy on the ground.
He opens parts his lips to reveal a mouthful of blood. I’m not well versed in first aid, but I know enough to realize that I need to get him off of his back.
With his airway free, he coughs out a nasty puddle of dark red mucus. I don’t know what is wrong with him, but he doesn’t look good.
From the north I hear the sound of a dozen car horns blaring at the same time. My instincts are telling me that something is gravely wrong.
I look around, hoping to find someone to help me with this man so I can see what is going on to the north. Before I find anyone he starts to shake rapidly. Probably a seizure if I had to guess. It goes on for nearly a minute before coming to a stop. I roll him back on his back and pull open his eyelids. I guess you will probably be able to add death to the list of things
wrong with this guy before too long.
“I’m sorry that I can’t help you, but I may be able to save you.” I put the palm of my hand on the mans face. My palm begins to glow slightly, sending the energy into the man’s body. I’m not sure how I am doing this, but it feels natural.
Almost too natural.
Could I have been doing this all along?
I watch with amazement as the shadowy tendrils of his soul are absorbed into my body leaving me with a limp, lifeless body in my arms.
Before I get to my feet, I pull off the man’s jacket and place it over his face. An explosion to the north brings me to my feet. I wish I could do more for the man, but I’d bet someone is looking for the orb already.
This time they I am going to teach them what happens when they attack this place. I’m getting sick and fucking tired of them parading around like they own the place.
The time to play defense is over. The only way to win is to take the fight to them.
I take off at a sprint towards the commotion to the north. It is time to go grab the ball.
Continued in Vessel
Download the complete Saga
Join the List
Want sneak peeks at what’s next?
Join today and get…
SNEAK PEEKS AT UPCOMING RELEASES
LINKS TO OUR FREE PROMOTIONS
JOIN TODAY!!!
The Most Important Thing You Can Do To Spread the Word
Thank you for reading my book.
You’ve already rocketed to the top of my Favorite People In The World List, currently populated by Brandon Sanderson, George R.R. Martin, the late Robert Jordan, J.A. Konrath, and Robert Kirkman amongst others.
But there’s one more thing we depreciate if you have a few minutes…
If you enjoyed this story, or even if you kind of liked it, please LEAVE A REVIEW TODAY.
Reaper: The Demontouched Saga (Book 3) Page 9
