by J. T. Hardy
Daniel staggered to my side, pale yellow-gold smudges on his face and neck. He favored his left leg, but his knife glinted in his hand. "I told you to run."
I swallowed, shoving my terror away. "When has that ever worked?"
"You're too weak to protect her," Kokabiel taunted, extending impossibly long and deadly arms.
I inched closer. "Give me the knife," I whispered.
"You're deluded," Daniel spat back. For a second I thought he'd meant me, but his gaze never left Kokabiel. "A brief manifestation of a soul won't fool Him, no matter what ritual it comes from."
Daniel lunged at Kokabiel's heart. He dodged under his strike and slashed him across the chest. Kokabiel grunted and turned, seizing Daniel's arm and twisting it. Bone snapped and he screamed, dropping the blade. Kokabiel tossed him against the wall yet again, turning his back to me.
I swung the makeshift bat. It shattered across Kokabiel's shoulders like it was clay. For a moment, he stood alone and clear in the angled beams of the flashlights, and terrifyingly beautiful.
"Down!" Roberto yelled.
I hit the dirt as deafening gunshots filled the tunnel, followed by flashes streaking through the darkness. Kokabiel barely staggered back, shrugging the bullets off as if they were pebbles thrown by a child. He snatched what was left of a beam and threw it at Roberto. Roberto dodged and the light shifted, coating me in shadows. I had no clue where my flashlight had fallen.
In a heartbeat, Kokabiel's fingers gripped my throat, the tips of his claws sharp against my skin. He bent me backward until I hung from his hand. I pulled at his fingers, but it was pointless.
I was going to die here. We'd all die here, all except the one who deserved it.
Kokabiel ripped the bandage off my neck. He smiled, and a set of fangs glistened in the dim light. "It lacks the elegance of the ritual, but this is how your legends do it, yes?" He sank his fangs into my neck and I screamed.
Visions swirled in my mind; the village, the running women, a city of light and beauty. Kokabiel lifted his head and gasped, a wondrous ecstasy shining on his face.
I bit back the pain as his skin shimmered, his face growing brighter with every breath. Luminescent.
"I feel it," he gasped. "My soul."
My fingers raked over the shattered wood around my feet. He wants to play vampire? Let's see if he dies like one.
I found a shaft of wood, sharp on one end. Kokabiel's shirt hung in tatters, exposing the gash across his chest like a crack in stone. Legends or not, the stories had to come from somewhere, and he was not going to cheat his way into Heaven.
White light shimmered under his skin and radiated from him, brighter than our flashlights, but not quite as bright as Dad's cross had been. Kokabiel gazed down at me, smiling. "Thank you, Hannah Grace."
"You don't deserve Heaven." I dragged myself to my knees. He deserved every horrible option available. "Go to Hell." I plunged the stake into his heart--this is for my mother.
Gold light burst from him, illuminating the wood from within. He screamed and staggered back, but the light grew brighter, purer...
"No!" He did not get to use my blood to get his way. I reached for another stake and--
The light darkened, shifting to a deep and ugly red. Gold sparks flickered across his skin and dropped like molten metal to the ground. The floor cracked where the sparks fell, gravel sliding into the earth, widening the crevices beneath him.
A much deeper rumbling shook the mine.
Uh oh.
"Knock him into the incline shaft!" I shouted. I rolled to my back and kicked Kokabiel with both feet, shoving him a few steps closer to the mouth of the tunnel. Pain vibrated down my legs.
Metal cocked and Libby surged forward with the shotgun in her hands. She fired and Kokabiel stumbled back another step. The red light bled into the green as cracks formed in his skin.
The rock around him bubbled and a wave of heat washed outward, racing down the tunnel. Sulfur burned my nose and eyes, and I really wanted to believe it was just bad air released in the blast.
Something that wasn't Kokabiel growled and I chilled despite the sudden heat. He looked wildly about, kicking below him in the shadows. The fissures in the shaft's floor widened and dark shapes crested the surface like long-limbed, lethal dolphins.
"Libby! He's still too close!"
She fired again. Kokabiel stumbled out of the tunnel and fell to one knee next to an ore cart, as far as he was going to go. Tons of rock and earth blocked the tunnel where we'd laid our trap. The fissures raced after him, sucking down more stone and turning the rock into a pool of molten sludge.
Kokabiel thrashed and screamed. A fiery orange glow turned his beautiful features into a nightmare. Charred claws burst from the sludge and seized his arms. More scaly black hands raked the ground, widening the hole further.
Okay, now those were definitely demons.
Daniel stumbled to my side and braced himself on the wall. He gaped at the demons dragging Kokabiel down. "What did you do?"
"Told him to go to Hell. I didn't think he'd do it."
He stared at me, fear and awe rippling across his face like the lights across the rock walls. "You punished him," he whispered, and fear won control of his expression. "That's not possible."
"I just stabbed him with a stick. I didn't do anything else." I did not have superpowers. Especially not ones that frightened fallen angels.
Daniel stared at me, looking dazed. This was not a good place for this conversation. There will never be a good place for this conversation. I backed away and waved at Roberto, holding several grenades in one hand. "Plan B!" I shouted.
He lobbed the grenades. The blasts drowned out the shrieks and snarls, but the rock groaned louder, then shifted. Red light illuminated tiny stones as they whizzed down the tunnel like missiles, cutting skin and bruising bone.
Kokabiel roared, other voices laughed, but he--and they--vanished under the rumble of stone, the snapping of timber, and the whine of metal. The shaft collapsed. Heat rolled out, thick with the smell of sulfur and a disturbing hint of honeysuckle.
Roberto yelled something I couldn't make out, but his face told the story I couldn't hear. The mine was coming down and it didn't care if we were in it or not.
I caught a stronger whiff of sulfur and shivered. Or whatever had opened for Kokabiel was pulling the mine under. What you opened, you mean?
Not thinking that. It wasn't me.
Libby kept her light on the rubble filling the incline shaft, watching molten sludge seep through the rocks. Cavanaugh stood beside her, staring at me with that same horrible awed expression he'd had before.
"We gotta move, now!" I said.
Libby wiped a hand across her mouth. "What the hell was that?"
"Come on."
Daniel twitched, but didn't move. I grabbed his arm and dragged him away from the collapsing shaft, running with the others down the exit tunnel. We fled the hissing and scratching and indescribable noises coming from inside the rocks.
"Did you see those...things?" Libby asked.
I'd see them every time I closed my eyes for the rest of my life. "You know what they say--when Fate closes a door she opens a window."
"Did you see that freaking window?"
"Pretty sure it led into the basement."
I stopped thinking, kept moving, while the tunnel grew hotter and hotter. Sweat dripped down my face and back, but my feet were freezing and sluggish, every step an effort.
That wasn't right...
I looked down.
Water swirled past my ankles. Crap. "Guys, don't panic or anything, but I think we cracked into the aquifer. The mine is flooding."
Roberto grunted. "Double time, people."
The gurgling grew louder as we hurried down the tunnel. Debris-filled water flowed past us, cold and dark, almost to my knees now and rising up the walls at an alarming pace. Sparks of gold and green flared in the light as they whooshed past.
I kept moving. Woo
d creaked from above and I tried not to picture the braces giving way and dumping tons of rock on our heads. Refused to think about demons and portals and where Kokabiel had gone. What he had become.
"How much farther?" I asked.
"I see the winze," Dad said, shining his flashlight over the connecting tunnel between drift levels. A hand-built ladder stretched upward, and the narrow passage was barely wide enough for Roberto's shoulders. Dust and bits of gravel rained down through the hole.
"It goes up about thirty feet," Daniel said. "There's another tunnel that leads to the outside."
We sloshed through the water and climbed the ladder, Daniel zipping up first. He held the light down for us and we climbed after him. Roberto came last, pushing through with a grunt.
"This way." Daniel led us down the dark tunnel. The dust in the air made it difficult to see and just as hard to breathe. I pulled my shirt over my nose and mouth, but it didn't help much. No water yet, but the creak of wood and scrape of settling rock echoed all around us.
"Is that light?" Cavanaugh asked.
My night vision was screwed up, but the tunnel ahead looked more gray than black, and small silvery pieces glinted in the shadows. Then a bright flash nearly blinded me. I held up my hand and blocked the beam from the flashlight.
"Grace?" Anita called.
"It's us!"
"Thank the stars."
Pale light brushed the edges of the tunnel, growing brighter the closer we got to the exit. The sun had set, but night hadn't quite fallen. We reached the others, standing close together a few dozen feet in from the exit.
"We got them," I said, and five relieved breaths exhaled as one. "But we need to get out of here before--" The mine shook, staggering us. Everyone reached out to grab whatever was closest.
"We can talk later," Jerry agreed.
We ran to the exit. The others kept going over the edge and down the slope. I stopped and grabbed Roberto's arm. "Do we have any grenades left to seal this tunnel?"
Roberto held up two. "Was saving these for just such an occasion."
"Blow it."
We moved away from the entrance and he tossed in the grenades. A few seconds later double explosions shook the trail and the mouth of the cave collapsed. Roberto and I half fell, half slid down the rim of a basin that had probably been filled with water at some point, maybe the old slurry pond. Small spouts of water squirted out from a few spots lower down the slope, gathering at the bottom.
Libby held up both hands, her fingers crossed.
The dust cloud cleared. Cavanaugh sighed, but I waited for something horrific to seep through. "Think we trapped them?" he said softly.
Still nothing. I exhaled, daring to hope. "We might not know for--"
The ground below us rose and a deep thud echoed through the rock, more felt than heard. The slope dropped away and we tumbled farther into the basin.
Rocks bit into my skin as I bounced between Libby and Cavanaugh. Roberto and Daniel fell below us. The rest above us. We all hit a muddy pool in a tangle of arms and legs and a whole lot of swearing.
Above us, the mine...burped...jerking into the air, then collapsing in on itself and a good five feet lower than it was a few minutes ago. Dirt poofed into the twilight and glittered as it floated on the air and settled around us.
Libby sat up first and pushed her muddy hair off her face. She gazed up at the now-closed shaft. "I think you killed it."
Maybe, maybe not, but as long as we'd trapped everything inside for the next hundred years, I could live with that.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
I pulled myself up. "Everyone okay?"
Roberto gave me a jaunty salute. Cavanaugh hesitated, then nodded. Jerry stuck a thumb in the air.
"You guys good?" I asked the others. Wil was staring at the mud like he had no idea where he was. Dad was helping Anita to her feet. "I'll let you know," she said.
"You did it." Daniel glanced at the mud-covered people around us. "This was...impressive."
"No, that rescue plan was impressive. Libby, Roberto, MVP status, absolutely."
Roberto chuckled, but Libby rolled her eyes. "I think she's delirious."
Just happy to be alive.
I crawled up the side of the basin and followed the now-uneven path to the mine entrance. The mine wasn't so pretty anymore, poor old gal. The facade had cracked down one side and collapsed, leaving a shallow pit where the incline shaft used to be. No one was getting in or out of there any time soon--a good thing considering where the back door led.
We followed the bent and twisted tracks around to the front. Several of the buildings had given up and fallen down, and one had joined its sibling in a tangled pile on the side of the hill. A few pipes jutted out of the ground that hadn't been there before.
The truck sat where we'd left it, although at a sharper angle than before. If Libby had parked it ten feet closer to the mine entrance, we'd have been walking back to Sedona.
I turned to Daniel, scanning the area. "See anything?"
"No. I heard everyone but Suriel in the mine, and he's not up here."
"What about--"
Daniel raised a hand and spoke to Zack in the angel language. From the tone and the way they both kept glancing over, they were talking about me behind my back right to my face.
I crossed my arms. "That's rude, you know."
Daniel chuckled, but his expression was grim. "He thinks Suriel went back to the mountain to collect his data and scientists."
"We can't leave that place open for business," Libby said. She whistled sharp and loud and everyone turned to her. "One more stop before we head home, folks. This isn't over yet."
Groans all around, even from me.
"She's right, Grace," Dad said, frowning. Clearly, he didn't want to go back any more than I did.
Daniel nodded. "It must be destroyed."
"Back to the evil lair we go, then."
Suriel wasn't there. Neither were any scientists.
The tunnel had been cleared enough for one person at a time to crawl through, but everything else was pretty much as we'd left it. Daniel and Zack had done a lengthy recon to make sure it was safe, and now it was our turn to explore.
"Computers are missing," Dad said as soon as we walked into the lab. "I'll check the files, but even money says they're gone too."
He was right.
Everything else was still here--the lab gear, the chairs, the beds, even the fancy TVs. Suriel must have had the scientists grab what they could carry and skedaddle.
"We can blow this up when we're done collecting evidence, right?" I asked.
Dad nodded, Roberto smiled, Libby shook her head. "No more explosives," she said.
"I'll check the shed," Dad said. "They had to blast this out somehow. Could be some dynamite left."
He and Roberto headed out, Zack behind them as security--just in case.
"Okay people, let's see what we can find."
After an exhaustive search, we'd found little more than a few papers with hospital names and numbers, a coffee cup from a local shop, and the fancy Bible Kokabiel had given Cavanaugh to use for the communion ritual. It was a little damp around the edges, but it had escaped most of the holy water.
Even though he'd seen it before, Cavanaugh held it like it contained all the knowledge of the universe. Who knew, maybe it did. It looked old enough.
"This is priceless," he called back to me, standing on the steps of the altar. The silk they'd used to tie me down was still there, stuck to the stone after the holy water attack. "Just look at the craftsmanship."
I stayed in the hall outside with Daniel while Cavanaugh and Libby went through the cathedral. Cavanaugh paused at the now-dried smear of his blood on the pillar and looked at me. I shrugged. He could think what he wanted about his recovery. I had no better answer for him.
"You ready?" Daniel asked.
"Yes." I had one room I wanted to search personally, and he insisted on coming with me.
I
headed to the far end of the lair, which Libby had dubbed the fangel dorms. Five rooms of various styles, from Spartan-bare to Vegas-casino-opulence. Three of them had been setup for roomies, but the last two had been home to the big boys.
"Which one do you think was Suriel's?"
Daniel peeked in both rooms and pointed to the one on the right. "That one."
It took three seconds to realize telling the rooms apart was easy. Just like his clothes, everything about Suriel's room was subdued style. Well-made furniture, tasteful art, rich carpet. No computer or any personal items. Nothing to tell me which of his minions killed my mother.
"Do you guys sleep?" A full-sized bed sat tight against the wall. I'd have figured Suriel for a king size.
"We rest. It's not the same."
It irked me, Suriel having this nice room while the people he'd kidnapped shivered in the cells. He deserved to be back in a cold, dark, hole deep in the ground.
"You'll find him for me?"
He cringed, cocking his head a little to the side like a cute little puppy. "I'd prefer you let him be."
"Not after what he did." He'd clearly been working with Kokabiel for years, tracking down people with the right DNA. Mom must have been one of them. Dad, too. Two thousand years was a long time for genetic material to scatter throughout the world.
Daniel smiled gently. "Avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord."
"Preach all you want, I'm still staking that bastard."
"It won't be easy. He won't stop trying to find a way home. None of us will." A dark flicker rippled across his face. "Most of us, at least."
"All the more reason to find and stop him. If he took the lab equipment he's going to start this all over again." I poked him in the chest with one finger. "That means looking me up again."
"Not if he has other options. He knows you're more trouble than your worth."
Not if he ever found out my blood had worked. Granted, not the way Kokabiel had wanted, but maybe if Cavanaugh had blessed me and done the communion it would have.
Still, it was small comfort. I was safe, but not the next person in my "family" who had the right DNA. "Listen, is all that Mary stuff Zack told me true?"
