by Rae Foxx
"Actually," Michael said. "It's not that simple. I'm pretty sure Uriel is in heaven. And his betrayal will be an enormous blow to the angelic forces." Uriel was another Archangel. "It will take both Gabriel and me to bring him to heel."
"I want all Raphael's followers in that barn. I'm giving them to my Queen." He looked back at me with dark admiration in his eyes.
Oh, I liked that. A shiver of desire trickled up my spine.
"Any idea where we might find Genevra and Ezekiel?" I asked.
"On Earth, almost certainly. Genevra is a Principality and Ezekiel is a Throne. They're charged with economic interference, sometimes war if God notices something he wants shifted or changed. Politics. Originally a Throne was charged with guarding God's literal throne, but he never uses it. He prefers to move about undetected." Michael explained our other two targets as he and Gabriel dressed.
"It would be better if the two of you went after them since you have your powers and they're nowhere nearly as powerful as you are. We can go after Uriel," Gabe said.
I looked at Luc and shrugged. "Okay with you?"
He nodded. "Absolutely. Any chance to see you at work again."
I snorted and took his hand. "Let me see if I can sense them."
With my newly unlocked magic, I funneled it out of my body so it could stretch and roam. Gabe and Michael felt it blanket over them and sucked in deep breaths. "I've always loved the feel of your power," Michael whispered. "Like coming home."
It amazed me how I could be so many different women. To Vincent, I was the formidable Queen of Abaddon, the stuff demons had nightmares about. Then an hour later, I'm comfort for Michael.
I was a damn enigma and it was about time I remembered it.
Throwing out my power, it lifted into the air and stretched. "This will be a beacon, unfortunately," I said. "Every angel will know I'm doing it."
"And every demon," Luc said.
That put an idea in my head. "Oh, that's a great idea."
As I pushed more and more power out and it stretched high into the sky, spreading across the atmosphere, I called out to my demons. Go home to Abaddon and stay there. Do not return to the Earth realm until and unless I permit you. Shore up the walls and gates. Fix the holes or hide them. I repeated that over and over as my power spread.
Under that message, I searched. Angels were dotted here and there across the globe and most felt me send a tendril of magic toward them to see if they were the ones I searched for, but when I left, they dismissed me as searching for demons as most of them were.
Within minutes of my magic stretching worldwide, I found them.
Since sending the demons home was a good idea, I pulled away from our two targets and continued my message until I felt all the auras of the demons disappear from this realm and go to a place I couldn't follow.
Calling my magic back, it took several minutes to contain it again, but it was thrilled to have had such an important task. Power and magic loved to be used, especially for important matters.
"Genevra is close. She's in Colorado, in some bar. Ezekiel is in a home in South Africa. He was harder to find. I think he may have some sort of magic cloaking him, but it was no match for this."
"What about Raphael?" Michael asked.
"He is not in this realm," I said, my voice full of disappointment. I'd been hoping I'd come across him. "I don't believe there is a power strong enough to hide him from me now that he's used some of the most powerful Relics in existence."
Raphael, Michael, and Gabriel were very, very powerful. But Lucifer and I were the first. We were created together, meant to be companions for one another, and God's chosen children.
Or, we were. When we Fell, we became decidedly unchosen, but once upon a time, we were the most powerful Angels in Creation.
Now we were the most powerful Fallen. And I had my powers back.
Angels were created in waves of 2-3
10
Michael and Gabe disappeared to find Uriel in Heaven. I didn't envy them their job. It wouldn't be easy to remove him from that realm. I grabbed Luc's hands. "Looks like we're a team, as usual." He winked at me and we disappeared, materializing in the parking lot of the bar I'd found Genevra in as the sun slipped behind the clouds. It was freaking freezing in Colorado. Our human bodies did nothing to mask the cold for us.
Wiggling my legs against the cold, I wrapped my arms around myself. "I guess let's go inside and hope she won't want to make a scene in public," I said. But when we walked inside, I realized my crucial error. The parking lot had been empty, as was the interior of the bar. I hadn't even noticed. Rookie.
Genevra sat in a corner booth, alone, with two glasses of amber liquid in front of her. "I wondered when you'd come," she said. "I figured my time here was short when I felt your powers engage. Figured it would be soon."
"You felt that?" I asked. I hadn't realized they were that loud.
She chuckled. "Oh, yes. Every angel in existence knows when the Lord or Lady of Abaddon is in the realm. Your powers shout your praises to everyone around. I don't know how Michael and Gabriel stand it, honestly."
I shrugged and made a mental note to ask them.
She motioned to the other glass. "Please."
"As much as I appreciate the hospitality, I don't have time. Would you be so kind as to come with us? If you cooperate there will be no reason for you to fear us."
Genevra smiled the smile of the damned. She knew she was in too deep. I didn't have to trigger her aura to see that. "I'm afraid I can't do that. If he finds out, I have to at least be able to say I put up a fight."
"He's got that much of a hold on you?" Lucifer asked.
Genevra looked at him for the first time. "Lucifer," she said in surprise. "I didn't see you there."
Luc rolled his eyes and pursed his lips, and damn was it hard not to chuckle at him. He hated not being the most powerful in the room. I was used to being the quiet power. The behind-the-scenes power. He was the flash and muscle, but I was the snake that slithered through the garden. Not literally. That had been him at the time, but that wasn't important at the moment.
"So, you're going to make me force you?" I asked. "I think you know I can."
"But why bother?" she asked. "It would be so much easier to let him do it. Your job would become infinitely easier."
I narrowed my eyes on the beautiful woman as she drained her whiskey and reached for the glass she'd offered me. She sipped it and closed her eyes.
Gathering my power, I held it close. "This is your last chance, Genevra. I've already destroyed one of your cohorts today. I'd rather not hurt you until you've been given the chance to tell me what I need to know."
She smiled around the rim of the glass and sipped again. "You're welcome to try," she said. "He will save me."
It all made sense in that moment. She was stalling because she believed Raphael would come save her. I highly doubted she mattered that much to him, but I burned with curiosity. Why would she think that?
"Why in the world would Raphael save you?" Lucifer asked.
Genevra smiled and touched her stomach. "He has incentive."
Oh, sweet Abaddon. She was pregnant. Angels could have children with other angels, of course. How else would we have bolstered our ranks once God stopped creating angels? But it was exceedingly difficult for a female angel to get pregnant. We suspected God made it that way on purpose, so we didn't overflow the universe with angel babies. I probed her with a tendril of magic to confirm her words. Sure enough, a little nugget grew inside her.
Part of me wanted to congratulate her. Another part wanted to strangle her. While I wouldn't kill a pregnant woman, not even an evil one, I could still do plenty to get her to talk. Including bluff.
"Do you think that will stop me?" I wrapped her in power and lifted her from her chair. The amount of magic I used was negligible, but by the expression on her face and how tense her muscles were all over her body, she was expending all hers to try to fight me. Bless it.
"Do you think an abomination of a baby will make me hesitate to kill you as I try to find my child?" I pulled her close and for the first time, her face changed from weary resignation to fear.
"You'd kill an unborn child?" she asked.
I knew what happened to the souls of unborn children. As soon as the heart took its first beat, the little tadpole's soul formed. Usually, those souls were rebirths. Sometimes they were new. Either way, if the pregnancy was terminated, the soul didn't die. It was nurtured and cherished and given another shot.
Still, I wouldn't hurt that baby. It wasn't in me. But I smiled at Genevra and nodded. "In a second." I had a reputation to consider, after all. Queen of Abaddon, and all that.
She screeched and fought harder, enough to make me slip out another tendril of power to wrap around her. "Calm down," I said. "We're not at the point of hurting you yet. But it may come to that if you don't have the information I want," I whispered.
Reaching out my hand, I waited for Lucifer to slip his warm fingers through mine, then I moved us from the bar in Colorado to the barn in our backyard. Or close enough, anyway.
It was empty save for the blood still all over the place. Ugh, I hated the smell of old blood. "Why didn't someone clean this up?" I asked.
Lucifer shrugged. "I don't know, I was with you."
I gave him a sharp look, and he winked at me. It was hard not to giggle, but that would've ruined the big badass Lilith image I was trying to portray.
"Whose blood is that?" Genevra whispered. "Why is there so much of it?"
"Don't you know?" I asked. "When all the blood is removed from a body, especially an angelic body, it looks like so much more than it is. Due to our wings, we have more blood than a human. Fun fact." I put another half-crazed smile on my face and internally congratulated myself for my acting skills.
I hadn't been acting with Vincent when I'd ripped him limb from limb. But I hadn't seen Genevra's aura yet. I hadn't passed any judgment, so that rage that had fueled me to destroy wasn't in me at the moment.
"But who did it belong to?"
"Oh, what was his name?" I tapped my pointer finger on my lip and looked at Luc. "Do you remember, Darling? They all sort of run together, don't they?"
Even though I wasn't looking at Genevra, I knew she swallowed hard. I heard it. Again, laughter tried to burst out of me.
"Vincent, I believe," Lucifer said, getting into my charade. "He was a screamer."
"Oh, yes." I snapped my fingers and smiled at Genevra again. "Vincent. Nasty one, though. You should've seen some of the things he got up to."
Genevra's face, already wide-eyed and scared, paled further. "He's dead?"
I hummed and wiggled my finger. I didn't technically need to move my hands or fingers to get my magic to do physical things for me, but I enjoyed it. I lifted Genevra into the air and asked my magic if it would please hold her there until I returned.
It pouted a bit, knowing it would be separated from me for a while, but I promised that it could play with the mouse it held as long as it didn't harm the babe or cause any lasting mental or physical damage. That would come later when I'd had time to fully question her.
The offer appeased it, and a small chunk of my power broke away to do as I asked. It was temporary, and I could've called it back at any time.
"Luc," I said. "Someone has to stay here. You've got enough power to call me or one of the guys if something happens. And you can't go find Ezekiel alone."
His face turned into a thundercloud. "A word."
Yikes. I waved my hand and the magic holding Genevra up plugged her ears and covered her eyes. "She can't hear or see us now."
"You can't go alone," he growled. "It's too dangerous."
I didn't tell him that something about Ezekiel wasn't right. I felt like I had a fight on my hands, but he didn't need to know that. "Luc, I'm at full power."
He crossed his arms and wouldn't budge.
"Lucifer, my love, you've never been this protective of me." As sweet as it was for him to care, it wasn't warranted.
With a sigh, he stepped forward. "You're not in your angelic body. You don't know for sure your powers won't do something wonky or even hurt this body. In this situation, nobody should go anywhere alone, and after losing Ariel, maybe I'm feeling more vulnerable than I ever have."
I pulled him into my arms. "I love you so much," I whispered. "And vulnerable Lucifer only shows how much he loves me."
He gave me one of the most tender kisses he ever had, with his hands on my neck and his thumbs caressing my jaw. When he pulled his lips from mine, he kept his nose pressed to mine and his eyes closed. "You are the most important thing in all of Creation to me. Ariel is as well, now. If I lost you, I'd burn the world to the ground. I hope you know that."
"It's nice to know I'm the only thing holding you back from wanton destruction," I said.
Lucifer burst out laughing. "No pressure."
He pulled me closer and buried his face in my neck. "Be careful," he whispered. "Come back safe and soon."
"I will. Keep this bitch from escaping, okay?"
He squeezed me, and I disappeared from his arms, putting myself close to the house I'd sensed Ezekiel in. Time for round two.
11
As I studied the property that I couldn’t get near, probing it as surreptitiously as I could with my magic, I worried about Gabe and Michael. If they returned with Uriel, Luc would send one of them to help me. The more time went by without their return, the more I worried Uriel had bested or hurt them.
My mind focused more and more on the property and less on anything else.
What the hell did Ezekiel have to keep him this protected? He didn't have nearly enough power for a ward like this. I wasn't sure Raph himself did.
Not another damn Relic. Raphael and his Relics were going to be the death of me. Possibly literally.
Abandoning pretense, I slam my power into the ward and try to break it by battering it. Then, as I walked around the property, I tried using my magic like a mighty sword, stabbing and hacking at it.
I tried lifting it.
I tried pushing it.
I tried pulling it.
I tried coming from the top.
Underground.
Fire.
Water.
Teleporting through it—that one hurt.
Nothing worked.
Frustrated, I sat on a log and considered my options. I could've waited for help. Calling for Michael or Gabe wasn't an option. I couldn't distract them in the middle of whatever they were dealing with. And Joel may or not have been helping them, so he was out. I didn't have a call-in-times-of-need relationship with any other angels, except maybe Sandalphon, and I was still too aggravated at him to call on him. Besides, he had very little power that would help in this situation.
Tapping my foot, I stared at the house and considered my options. I could wait until I had help, giving Ezekiel, who damn sure knew I was here, time to bolster his defenses or run. I could sit here and wait him out while Raphael got further and further ahead of us. What else could I do?
"Gabe," I whispered with a bit of power in my voice. "If you can hear me and you're available to come help, I could use a little more power."
After several minutes of no answer, I tried the same with Michael, then Joel.
Nothing. Damn it. Now I was frustrated about not being able to get to Ezekiel and even more worried about them.
Did I know anyone else that was already in the Earth Realm that could help?
If I could get to Asmodeus, he had plenty of power to assist. But he was in Abaddon, and my human body couldn't go there.
I wondered if I could at least take it to Purgatory but was nearly certain the realm wouldn't even open for me. But I tried anyway. I closed my eyes and willed myself to Purgatory, but nothing happened. Damn it!
After a few minutes of pouting, an idea popped into my head.
The Voodoo. Maybe she had some magic that would help. I
had no idea what sort of Relic Ezekiel had in there, assuming that's what he was using. But that Voodoo, Mary, had some serious power at her disposal.
Without many other options, I popped into the breezeway of her building and rapped on her door. The little boy answered it again. "It's the demon again," he called into the apartment. "Come in," he said. "She said you'd be back."
I hurried behind him, through the living room and around the corner into Mary's tiny kitchen. She stood at the sink with her hands in soapy water.
One of the most powerful beings I knew of, and she was washing dishes by hand because she refused to use her power for personal gain.
"Do you realize how much potential you have?" I asked. "The witches of this world don't hold a candle to you."
She chuckled and rinsed a bowl. "I know exactly how much power I have, Demon. And I use it as I see fit."
"I need your help again," I said.
"You know my magic comes with a price, do you not?" she asked, sliding a plate into the soapy water. She continued washing as she spoke. "Sometimes I ask the price, sometimes the magic asks."
"I know you believe that," I said carefully. I didn't want to risk upsetting her. "And now that I have my own power back, I can give you anything your heart desires. Except for the one thing I need from you."
"I could give myself anything my heart desired." She chuckled and rinsed the plate, then placed it in the drainer. Grabbing a cotton towel, she dried her hands and turned to me. "What is it you desire?" she asked. "You have changed since we last met, as I knew you would. You have more darkness in you now than I've ever seen."
Lowering my lashes, I acknowledged her observation, at the same time igniting my powers to read her aura.
When I looked up, I gasped. She had a nearly all-white aura. Not quite the pure white of Michaels. I wasn't sure anyone, but an angel could have pure white. Hers was a pearly cream color, laced with vines of silver, gold, bronze, and deep, dark blue. She was the descendent of angels, and the blue made me think Fallen.
