Evolution (The Divine Series Book 5)

by M. R. Forbes

  Now, she was more like a sister to me. Closer than Obi in some ways, and not in others. Putting my arms around her, holding her close, feeling her warmth against me... only then did I realize how isolated I had become. Maybe I would live forever, but she wouldn't. Obi wouldn't.

  "I'm sorry I've been so out of touch," I said, breaking the embrace. "I guess it's taken the threat of the Rapture to get me out of my funk."

  "Apology accepted." She turned to Alyx. "Who's your friend?"

  "Alyx, meet Elyse. Elyse, Alyx."

  "Cool to meet you," Elyse said, holding out her hand.

  Alyx sat on the couch, staring at it. Then she looked at me.

  "Remember what I said about Rose? Same deal."

  She looked uncomfortable, getting up and reaching out to take Elyse's hand. We would need to work on that.

  "Nice to meet you," she said, quiet and meek. A quick shake, and she retreated to her spot. Elyse glanced over at me, confused.

  "It's a long story," I said. "I have a different one for you first. You want something to drink? This isn't my place, but I'm sure they have water."

  "No. Just let me sit for a few minutes. The demon I dragged through the rift clocked me pretty good when we got to the other side. My head is still spinning a little bit."

  "I'm sure you gave better than you got."

  "Of course."

  She sat down on the couch, opposite Alyx. I could tell the Were was doing her best to not look like she was put out by the presence of a human.

  I spent the next twenty minutes going over everything that had happened, from the moment Rose had shot me, which drew a nice laugh, to the conversation I had with Dante and Alichino. After that, I pulled out Rose's phone and used the last one percent of the battery to show her the video.

  "That's your new friend?" she asked. "She's cute."

  "She's sweaty and has blood on her face."

  "Nothing that a shower wouldn't fix. I like her eyes."

  "If we get her back alive I'll be sure to introduce you. She wants to fight, but she's out there naked right now."

  "There are worse things-"

  "Elle, can you be serious for a minute? She needs some trinkets, some tats, that kind of thing. I was going to talk to you about all this when it was over. I know you understand why I called you now instead."

  She nodded. "This is what we talked about, isn't it? New recruits? If we survive this, and she's willing, I can start getting her ready. She doesn't have the Nicht Creidem bloodline, though. I don't know if she'll do what it takes to make this stuff work."

  It took a small measure of Divine power for the runes and scripture to activate. The Nicht Creidem had been passing what they had amongst themselves via inbreeding for thousands of years. If Rose wanted it, she would have to drink angel and demon blood.

  "We'll worry about that if we get to it."

  "Right. I know you said this was important, but I wasn't exactly expecting to have to attack an angel sanctuary with an archangel inside it."

  "Good, because attacking it would be stupid. We need to sneak in."

  CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

  My phone rang again ten minutes later.

  "Signore," Dante said. "I don't quite remember what we talked about, but I wrote a note to find an angelic sanctuary with new road construction to it, and to call you when I did."

  "Do you have it?" I asked.

  "Here, let me give the phone to Alichino."

  The phone passed hands.

  "Landon. It's been a long time. How are you?"

  "I'll be better once you give me the location of the sanctuary."

  He cackled and hissed. "Yeah. You always need something. No 'hello'. No pleasantries. It's like you were raised by wolves or something." I didn't know if he was just messing with me. They had the note, so he had to know we had talked already. He cackled a little more. "Yeah, so I went digging through permit applications and construction receipts. It was a pain in the ass because its all in Chinese, but you know, I'm good like that. Anyway, the place is called Ming Shan monastery. It's a really secluded place, a patch of private land sitting in the corner of a Chinese national park. Somehow, they got a permit to build a heavy road through the public trees and grass to connect it to the rest of the world. All of a sudden. After three thousand years."

  That had to be the place. "Do you have any kind of intel about the site? Satellite images? Photos? Anything?"

  "Nope. I asked Google. I asked Bing. I even asked freaking Jeeves. The place barely exists. Three thousand years."

  "What about private satellites?"

  "I tried the Pentagon, Chinese National Security, and the NSA. The NSA had some interesting stuff, but no satellite imagery." He cackled into the phone again.

  I figured as much. "I don't suppose the monastery is owned by Taylor Enterprises?"

  "Bingo, buddy. The permit application was signed by one Adam Taylor, C-E-O."

  Adam Taylor? I'd never heard of him, but the shared first name with a certain cyborg seraph didn't skip my attention. "Text me the GPS coordinates."

  "Doing it now. Here, I'm going to put Dante back on. Nice talking to you, D."

  "Whoa, hang on. You have anything new on the head?"

  "Oh, yeah. I totally forgot in all the excitement of reading thousands of lines of Chinese. Dante helped me with some more of the scripture on the inside, and it didn't make a lot of sense until we wrote down 'archangel' after I guess you talked to us last. The scripture is nothing that's been used in this realm before. It has some similarities though. The nearest we can figure, its some kind of force field or something."

  "You mean like a wall, so demons can't get through even if they pierce the outer scripture?"

  "Yeah, kind of. Except, it only works from the inside out."

  That was strange. Very strange. I heard the phone shift users again.

  "Signore. I hope we have been some help to you."

  "You've been a lot of help. Thanks, Dante."

  "Landon, before you go, I... I know things have been a bit strained between us. I want to apologize to you. So many things have happened, and it is my fault. Since the day I listened to Mr. Ross and brought you back to this world... none of it has gone the way I planned."

  I wasn't sure why he was apologizing now. Was he sure I was going to fail? "Okay."

  "I feel responsible for this, for you. Especially now that I am struggling to find my own balance, and recover what I lost. I just wanted you to know that I am sorry. If you need anything else, please consider me your humble servant."

  I was quiet for a few breaths. It was hard for me to see the poet as a humble servant. Still, his apology was sincere. "Don't worry about it," I said at last.

  I hung up before he could say anything else.

  A few seconds later, the latitude and longitude of Ming Shan monastery popped up on my phone. I plugged it in and watched the dot settle on the map.

  "I guess we're going in blind," I said, turning to Elyse.

  "I guess we are."

  Alyx got up off the couch and moved to my side.

  "What is your command, Master?"

  CHAPTER FIFTY

  The biggest problem with angel sanctuaries wasn't that they were filled with angels, because in all likelihood, it wasn't. Normally, they were manned by Touched monks and a small contingent of more elder seraphs, whose job was to guard the Heavenly Light, its primary purpose being used as what amounted to an elevator between Earth and Heaven. While more experienced angels didn't need it, the younger ones used the Light to help guide them between the worlds, meaning reinforcements were only seconds away. The Light had other properties too. It could heal the seraph, it could be used to force Confession, or apparently it could be used to power robots.

  Worse, the altar that focused the Heavenly Light was behind heavily protected doors that could be sealed from the inside. I had stopped a demon attack on a sanctuary once. Now I needed to organize my own.

  Not really an attack. What we
needed was more like a Mission Impossible style break-in, an inception that would allow us to get in, find Rose and Gervais, find Matthias Zheng, avoid the archangel, and get the hell out. Once that was done, I would still need to do something about Adam and the Fists before they managed to tip the balance, and I was pinning a lot of hope on the idea that Zheng would tell me their weakness, either intentionally, or through less... polite... means.

  We stole a cab to make the first leg of the journey, from downtown Shenzhen to the side of the single road that split the Plover Cove national park in two. It was a twenty mile hike from that position to the monastery, and we could have gotten much closer - even driven right up to the gates - if we weren't trying to keep Alyx out of the angels' attention until we needed to call on her. That, and driving to the gates was a little less sneaky than what I had in mind.

  She wasn't happy when I told her she wouldn't be going in with Elyse and me. She protested the decision with a fierce and almost violent anger. Not because she was eager to kill angels, but because she felt an insanely powerful and irrational need to protect me. Knowing I was walking into danger and not being able to do anything about it caused her to curse, whine, tear up the apartment we had borrowed, and otherwise throw a fit worthy of a two year old. Elyse had watched the whole thing with an odd mix of amusement and fascination. I had gotten angry, and thrown Alyx to the ground, standing over her and barking orders.

  I found that she wasn't the delicate flower she looked like, or that I had feared her to be, in her human form. She didn't skulk or pout or otherwise shrink up. She beamed at my dominance, and I realized I had only dug that hole even deeper.

  "You know what to do," I said to her. We were in the middle of the forest surrounding the sanctuary, about half of a mile from the road we had discovered, a road that Alyx said still smelled of gasoline, rubber, and exhaust.

  "Yes, Master. I will wait for your signal."

  "Elyse?"

  "I'm ready," she said. I had let her keep the spatha. It was hers anyway. She had given me a pair of nasty looking daggers in return. Normally it took time for a cursed edge to spread the wound through an angel, giving them a chance to heal themselves with holy water. According to Elyse, this particular cursed weapon would kill in seconds. I wasn't sure why she wanted to trade.

  "Nervous?" I asked.

  She smiled. "Very. This is what we're here for." She leaned in and gave me a short hug. "We can do this."

  "Master? Might I wish you good hunting?"

  There was no point in complicating things. I stepped towards Alyx, letting her wrap her arms around me, and lowering my head so she could kiss me.

  "Don't let them catch you," I said. "No matter what happens. That's a command."

  "Of course."

  We left Alyx standing there, making our way through the trees and brush, covering the ground at a solid run. It was a long distance for Elyse, but she was so well-conditioned that she never slowed.

  Ten miles.

  We covered it in an hour.

  We slowed when we got within a mile of the place. The growth was dense here, dense enough that we couldn't move without pushing through some leaves, or stepping on twigs, or otherwise making what would be a racket to anyone paying attention. We slowed down even more, careful where we placed our feet, being as gentle as we could. The foliage and darkness would let us get close without being seen. It might not let us get close without being heard.

  We still hadn't gotten the actual sanctuary in sight when Elyse put up her hand to stop me. She motioned to our left, holding up one finger, and then four. She'd caught an aura, most likely a Touched sentry. She pointed to herself, and then back out.

  I shook my head, motioning in the direction of the monastery. I didn't want to risk taking anyone out and having them be missed.

  We kept creeping forward. Twice, I got a sharp pain in my soul, feeling another quick shift of the balance, the needle tilting ever closer to Heaven. When it happened, I paused and leaned down against the ground, or found purchase on a tree, and did everything I could to stay quiet.

  The good news was that if Adam was out killing demons, he wasn't defending the sanctuary. It was as much as I could have hoped for.

  We didn't so much find the monastery, as the monastery found us. One second, there were thick bushes and trees, branches heavy with leaves, and the next there was an old stone wall, coated in a thick moss that ran along the uneven stones that had been piled to make it. It was twelve feet tall, and I could see the scratches of faded scripture on the small bits that weren't hidden beneath the growth.

  "This looks like the place," I whispered, putting my head against Elyse.

  "I can sense a few weak auras on the other side. If there are angels in here, they're being muted."

  "How else would an archangel hang out here on Earth without the demons knowing?"

  "I'd feel better if we had some idea of the numbers."

  "Numbers only matter if you get into a fight. Let's not get into a fight."

  She smiled at that, turning to the wall and starting to scale it. She stayed tight up against it, muscles flexing, getting her head up to the top. I waited below while she scouted the landscape.

  She dropped back down a minute later.

  "Touched. Four of them. Swords across their backs. There's also a watch post near a tall iron gate, a tower with another Touched in it, keeping lookout. The gate is new, it looks like it was installed when they added the road. The road goes through a second inner gate, to the inside of the sanctuary. It's going to be tough to get there without being seen. Have you ever been to the Forbidden Palace in Beijing?"

  "Not yet. I've seen pictures."

  "The monastery looks kind of like that, but a lot smaller. Traditional Chinese architecture is long and low, with an emphasis on symmetry, courtyards, and not a lot of vertical walls. I'm sure you've at least seen a samurai flick or two?"

  "Yes."

  "There you go."

  "Okay, so how do we get in?"

  "First, let's circle around back. That will get us out of view of the gate. Then I'll jump the wall and take out one of the sentries."

  "I think they'll notice if we drop a guard."

  Elyse pulled a glove from a pocket of her jeans. It was made of some kind of leather and covered in runes. "This will let me glamour myself to look like the guard. They won't know he's missing right away. I'll cover you while you get over the wall and into the main building, and keep the way out open for you."

  "I wanted you to go inside with me. It would be a lot easier to stay unseen if I could sense them coming."

  "I don't know how else to get you through unnoticed. If you want to try brute force, I'm still with you."

  "No. We'll do it your way. Do you have anything on you that I might be able to use?"

  She held up her hands to examine her rings. "This crap against your power? There's a reason I'm carrying so many, and it isn't because of my fashion sense."

  I smiled at that. "Right. Let's go."

  We circled around the outer wall, staying tight against it and keeping constant watch for any of the outer sentries to return, or any of the inner guards to decide to make a round on top of the stone barrier. The complex was larger than I had pictured it would be, much larger than the sanctuary I had been to in the Catskills. We chose stealth over speed, taking our time getting to the back, reaching it at the same time a light rain began to fall.

  Elyse didn't say anything before she scaled the wall again, resting near the top, holding her weight with the tips of her toes and the strength of her arms. She glanced back at me once, rocked down, and then vaulted over.

  I didn't hear her land on the other side. I pushed my power into my limbs and followed her track up the wall. I stuck my head up just in time to see her go up behind the guard, put one hand over his mouth, and use the other to cut his throat with a small cursed knife. She scooped him up over her shoulder and ran him back to the wall.

  I reached out and us
ed my power to pull, lifting the body up and over, dropping down and catching it on the other side. I lowered him silently to the ground, feeling a short wave of regret when his bloody throat came into view. It was never simple. It was never easy.

  I moved back onto the wall, peering over. Elyse was standing near the center of the open patch of ground between the outer barrier and the inner sanctuary. A small haze shifted around her in the visage of the guard. The glamour. I was able to see through it. The Touched wouldn't be.

  She scanned left and right, keeping her arm out and down, her palm facing outwards. I looked to the left and saw a second guard, making his way to the corner of the grounds and then spinning around and heading back. The moment he vanished from sight, she closed her hand into a fist.

  I sprung from the wall, up and over, landing smoothly at a run, heading straight for her. She turned her fist and stuck her thumb out, pointing it at a heavy wooden door between a pair of scripture covered columns and putting up a finger. I kept running, not even looking at her, crossing the open space in a matter of seconds. I bent my legs slightly as I approached the other side, pushing off the ground and using the force to send me arcing into the air at a tight angle towards the slanted tile rooftop ahead.

  I pushed back against it as I neared, fighting to control the energy and keep the balance centered. Too much effort in any one direction would threaten to dislodge a tile, and make all of our sneaking around for nothing.

  I landed almost gently, my boots making a slight clink along the clay when I landed. I was still for a few seconds, waiting to hear new movement. When none came, I climbed to the apex of the rooftop. There was another guard on the other side, a second outer courtyard with another building ten feet away. The guard was at attention, but he wasn't looking up. I leaped the distance over his head, coming down without a sound on the other side.