Michael was not blind; Gabriel didn’t like the idea of killing the children, so he would spare his second from having to witness the deaths.
“Gabriel, keep watch outside. If that screeching harlot is right, the demons will not be far off. I don’t wish to be disturbed during the ritual.”
His second hesitated, lips parted to speak, but Michael fixed him with a stare, and Gabriel nodded sharply, vanishing from the room with the sound of feathers. Michael turned his gaze to the sniveling kiss-ass that was his brother Raphael and nodded. He opened his mouth to speak but didn’t get a chance as the human woman, reeking of old age and death, rushed into the room and threw herself at his feet.
“My Lord Michael, I have everything ready, just like you asked. The demon whore is tied up downstairs. She tried to shake my conviction, my lord, but I held fast. I know a being as pure as you would never lie to me.” Michael looked down at the haggard female and curled his lip. She stank of mortality and weakness. It turned his stomach. He glanced at Raphael and gestured to the woman.
“She’s yours. Do with her what you wish. I’m going to visit to our little Seer.”
Oh, the pure unadulterated joy he experienced as this pathetic woman realized that the Seer was right. The sick smile that now graced his brother’s face would have chilled even a demon’s blood. He had some dark fetishes. For a second, Michael almost felt sorry for her. The woman grabbed for him, her red-painted nails, now chipped and broken, sinking into his arm. Michael hissed and ripped his arm from her gnarled fingers.
“My Lord! Did I not follow your orders? You said I would be given a place in your Eden! You swore to me!” Michael knelt next to her and lifted the woman’s chin so that she was looking up at him. Hope shone in her eyes.
“I lied. You’re more than pathetic—a mother who beats her own child to death. Yes, I know all your sins. My Eden will be absent of your disgusting species. You stink up the world with your sense of self-importance and righteousness. I wouldn’t forgive you and allow you in, even if I were merciful, but not to worry. Raphael here will take good care of you. I can’t promise you will enjoy his attentions, but what mortal can say they were touched by the divine, hmm?”
“Please, my Lord! Have mercy!”
Michael stood, dismissing her with a wave of his hand as he exited the room. “Trust me, mortal, giving you to Raphael is a mercy.” The smile on his face was filled with satisfaction as the woman’s scream rent the air. It was like beautiful music to his ears.
Sera had never before heard such a scream, but she knew it was Sandra. Trembling, she twisted her wrists again, warm blood making the cable tie slick. Her hands were almost free—just a little more. The sound of the basement door opening stopped her dead, and a wave of hate blasted through the room.
A soft whimper came from behind her. One of the children was awake, her wide brown eyes staring at the man as he entered the room. Sera eyed the figure, trying to hide the shaking of her body.
He looked like an angel should: beautiful wings of shimmering black and silver feathers, impeccable suit, a face like carved marble, high cheekbones, and beautiful warm brown hair falling to his shoulders. But his eyes—what should have been warm copper was cold metal, promising pain. His cold smile was evil and dark.
“Hello, Sera, Seer of Hindsight. You know, I never expected you to be this much trouble. It should have all gone smoothly. Jophiel picks you up, brings you to me, you open the box, and boom—we’re done.”
He came over to where she was lying on the floor, still partially attached to the chair. He righted the wooden chair violently, bringing her face-to-face with pure evil. She could see it in his eyes, feel it against her skin.
“But no, you had to fight back, you and that fucking Sin of Envy. You have brought disaster to those around you. These poor children will die tonight because of you.”
Sera wouldn’t let him make her doubt herself or allow him to make her feel guilt over her actions. She spat in his face, her eyes locked on his in pure defiance. Okay, probably not a good plan, but screw it. She would give her life if only to hold him at bay long enough so that the demons could find the children. He lifted a hand to his face, wiping her saliva from his cheek. She didn’t know which was more terrifying, his smile or the look of quiet rage that shimmered in his eyes.
She expected pain, but she didn’t expect the backhand across her face to send her flying, chair and all, into the wall. She felt her cheekbone crack, shards of wood digging into her skin from the shattered wood. At least the force had broken the chair and stretched the cable ties to their limit. Her hands were free, but her fingers were stiff from lack of circulation. Coughing through the agony, Sera felt fingers in her hair. She hissed in pain as Michael yanked her around to face him. His eyes were filled with loathing.
“Stupid whore. I swore to Jophiel that I would make you pay for taking his life. And I will, but I need your demon first. I will make him watch as I break your spirit and make you my willing slave. All, of course, after you watch me slit the throats of these sweet little angels. Then maybe I will make you kill your demon with one of the very angelic blades I will create tonight.”
“Fuck you. Jophiel was right. You’re out of your mind.” That earned her nothing but her head being pulled back in an almost unnatural position, her bones screaming from the strain.
“Bitch, how dare you speak his name!” His rage was palpable.
“He came to me, you know? Spoke to me. He said you were sick, you all are. I freed him. He thanked me!” God damn, it hurt to talk. Her cheek screamed from where he’d hit her, but that was nothing compared to the body-shattering agony of being thrown across the small basement room, feeling her bones breaking as she hit the concrete wall.
Air left her lungs in a rush. Wincing as agony swamped her mind, she spat blood on the floor and gazed up at the real demon before her.
His wings quivered in fury. “You will pay for those words, Seer. But…” He rolled his shoulders, composing himself. He ran a hand through his hair and straightened his suit. “But first, you will witness the creation of the Blades of Heaven. With these weapons, I will cut down anyone who stands in my way. Starting with Envy.”
Ze gasped suddenly and fell to his knees in the damp grass, grabbing his chest as pain ripped through him. Wincing, he leaned forward and pressed his forehead to the damp earth. He closed his eyes and reached for Sera. She was in pain. A lot of pain. He forced himself to his feet and stumbled toward the house, which glowed like a beacon on the dark street. He pushed the agony to the back of his mind. He had to focus on getting to his female. She was all that mattered.
Moving into the backyard, he paused as he noticed a pair of feet sticking out from under a bush. Kneeling, he brushed the leaves aside. It was Freya, her eyes open in death, a single bullet hole in her head. So a god could die from being struck by a bullet. He supposed it was possible, given how weak both she and Odin had become. Reaching out, he slid her eyelids closed. He would come back for her body. It was the least he could do for Odin.
“I’m sorry I was not here to prevent the death of the goddess.” A familiar voice brought the demon to his feet quickly. Gabriel stood beside him, gazing sorrowfully at Freya.
“You don’t seem to have been much help at all, Malakhim. You claim to have come here to stop Michael, and yet here you are, outside the house. Sera’s in immense pain and only one man would be causing her that.” Ze wanted to rip into the arrogant bastard before him.
“Michael sent me out here. I could not disobey without raising suspicion. Trust me, demon, right now, I’m all you’ve got.”
Ze snorted as the two Cerberus brothers, in hellhound form, emerged from the shadows. Each bared their deadly teeth at the angel, and Gabriel backed away warily. Even an angel might not survive an encounter with two hellhounds and a demon.
“I stand corrected. The hellhounds can hide their presence well. You’ll need them. I sense the approach of my brothers. Now would be a good ti
me for them to put that talent to good use.”
Ze wanted to break the bastard’s nose, but he couldn’t deny the tingle he felt running over his skin. A portal from another realm was opening close by. He nodded to the hounds, watching as they vanished like fog on the wind. Ze didn’t get the chance to speak again as a fist to his face took him off his feet and to the ground. The angel leaned over him, hand around his throat.
“Stay down. It’s the only way you and the Seer will walk away from this,” Gabriel hissed in his ear.
The air pressure around them changed suddenly, dropping and making his ears pops. Ze gritted his teeth. He hated following the orders of this jumped-up pigeon, but perhaps Gabriel was not a total dick. The angel stood slowly and turned to face his brothers.
“Gabriel? Is that Envy?” Ze viewed them through slitted eyes.
Gabriel nodded and looked down at him. “Michael wanted him alive, so I knocked him out. Keeping him alive is crucial. For what he did to Jophiel, he will pay.”
Fuck! Gabriel sounded a bit too convincing just then. Ze managed to hold back the seething urge to pummel the angel into the ground. He abhorred this having to ‘play dead’ bullshit.
“Yes, retribution for our brother. I will enjoy watching him suffer.”
Suffer? I’ll make you suffer in a minute, you prissy canary! Ze felt Gabriel’s foot mashing down on his fingers. Clearly, he wasn’t ‘unconscious’ enough.
The more Ze listened, the more the truth became apparent. There was something terribly wrong in the Malakhim, and only Gabriel seemed immune. The angels Ze recognized as Zadkiel and Chamuel strode toward the house. Fuck! The ritual was about to get underway, and he was wallowing on the grass, about as useful as a bump on a damn log. Ze heard Zadkiel speak somewhere in the distance. This was taking too long. Had they planned this? Keep him busy so Michael could harm Sera? The more he pondered this, the more it made sense. Had it been a trap all along?
“Are you not coming, brother? This will be a great victory.”
“Someone must watch Envy. I will secure him and be along shortly. Soon brothers, victory, and then the final stage of Michael’s vision will be complete.” Gabriel had his back to him. Enough pissing around. Ze was taking no chances with Sera’s life. With a growl, he moved like liquid metal, dagger-like claws grabbing Gabriel around the throat. A second later, Ze had the angel pinned against a tree, his feet dangling in the air.
Gabriel sucked in air as he and Ze glared at each other. “Envy, it is a ruse. Calm yourself. I swore I would not allow harm to come to those children, and I plan to keep my word. Release me!”
“Your acting skills are impeccable, Gabriel. How do I know you weren’t acting as a fly to lure us into Michael’s hands?” All Ze could think about was Sera, and here he was, having to fuck with Gabriel. Had this been his plan all along?
“You don’t know, but you have two choices. Trust me and rescue Sera, or try and do this with just you and the dogs, and see how far you get. Raphael awaits inside. He will cut you down. You know you are no match for him and Michael.”
Ze bared his fangs at the angelic being, his anger burning hot in his blood. He desperately needed to find Sera, needed to know she was okay. He was not thinking straight. The pain she was in was being broadcast to him through this link the Oracle had spoken of. He needed to find her—and soon—before he lost what little control he possessed. He released the angel, allowing him to slide to the ground, where he commenced coughing.
“So, Malakhim, what’s your plan? Know this, though. If you betray Sera or me, Michael will be the least of your worries.” From the look in the angel’s eyes, Ze had no doubt that Gabriel believed him.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Michael had moved them from the basement into the large open living room. Sera almost gagged as she saw what remained of Sandra Marshall spread across the floor of her kitchen. The sickeningly happy look on one of the angel’s faces told her just which one had gutted the women like a fish. She appraised him as she and the children were lead past. His ice-like eyes watched her every move.
Pain radiated from Sera’s back and encircled her chest. Michael had probably broken a few ribs when he threw her against the wall in his rage, but the pain had to wait. She needed to stall, do something—anything to keep the kids safe.
Right now, Michael and two of the other angels were in the kitchen, where they merely stepped over the cold body of Sandra Marshall as if she were nothing more than a speck of dirt on the floor. Sera supposed that in their eyes, humans were just that—insignificant specks of dirt. No being could decide to wipe out a race of people and have a heart in his chest.
The four children huddled together in the corner of the room. The boys, bless them, had little Marie tucked between them, trying to shield her. Young as they were, they were protectors—all three of them. The twins stared at the angel who knelt before them. His yellow eyes returned their gaze.
“Hey, leave them alone you bastard,” Sera wheezed.
The angel stood, his short-cropped brown hair falling forward into his yellow eyes. “Shut up, Seer. You should feel privileged to witness such an event. These children have been chosen. They will be reborn.” Despite his words, Sera could swear there was a flicker of unease in his sunlit eyes.
“You don’t believe that. Not truly. I can see it inside you like a flicker of flame. You don’t want to hurt them. Please, let them go.”
The angel opened his mouth to speak, then lowered his gaze. He was at war with himself. She could see it. A little more urging and he might relent, maybe let the children escape.
“Silence, Seer!” A phantom hand wrapped around her throat, choking her and cutting off what little air she’d been able to pull into her shattered chest. Michael entered the room, and all signs of unease from the other man vanished like a breath on the wind. Sera tried to suck in oxygen, but she couldn’t. That cold voice robbed her of her strength while the phantom grip closed on her throat.
“Chamuel, do you not remember what I told you? The Seers have gifts of their own. They can manipulate weak minds. Clearly, you are proving my point.” Michael’s copper stare might as well have contained daggers for the pain it brought. The light behind Chamuel’s yellow eyes faded, and he nodded, turning his back on her to face the children.
“Now, little Seer, enough with the words or I will choke the life from you. Understand?”
Suddenly the grip on her throat was released, and she could breathe again. How could someone like her fight against something so powerful? She coughed, hugging her ribs. Agony spread with each lungful of air, and tears burned her nose. But she refused to give the sonofabitch the satisfaction.
Michael smiled down at her, then spoke to Chamuel in a voice that chilled her soul. “Bring the girl. She will be first.”
Chamuel moved to do as he was bid. The three boys attempted to fight him off, kicking and biting. He tossed them against the wall as if they were merely annoying insects. The angel reached for the little girl, lifting her like a rag doll. Eyes wide, she cried out for her mother, for her father—her voice ripped into Sera. She couldn’t sit by and watch.
“No!” She threw herself at the angel, ignoring the stabbing pain in her body. A hand grabbed her hair and threw her against the wall beside the three boys.
“You are bringing all this pain on yourself, Seer. Just relax. It would be unfortunate if you died before I’m done with you.” Michael’s smile and copper eyes sickened her.
She struggled to sit upright, gasping at the fire in her chest. She pushed the boys behind her as best she could. Michael laughed at her attempts to shield the children as he exited the room. Sera knew she didn’t have much fight left in her. Her body was broken. Where was Ze?
Gabriel winced. The Seer was clearly losing the fight against her own immense pain. Again, he pulled the damned demon down so that he was hidden below the windowsill. Damn the infuriating male, he was going to blow the whole plan. Right now Gabriel was shielding them a
nd the hellhounds from the other Malakhim, but it could not continue to hold up to the rage being emitted from the half-mad demon beside him.
“Stop, Envy. I can’t hold this shield for long. We need to wait for the right moment, and I will be the distraction. Remember, you are not to strike anything vital, understand?” Gabriel was pretty sure the demon would take an inordinate amount of pleasure in his suggestion to rip him up a bit for appearance’s sake.
Despite the look of glee in that silver gaze, Gabriel trusted him. What had changed for him to now trust one of the Seven Deadly Sins more than his own brothers? For all the bluster and rage, Envy had only one focus, and that was saving the woman he clearly loved and saving those children from becoming the next weapons of the Malakhim. Gabriel saw in him more humanity and conviction than he had seen in his own brother in almost five centuries.
Gabriel had never experienced such love before. Lust, yes. He had committed the gravest sin by taking a female human with Seer blood to his bed, and the result of that indiscretion was his daughter, Aria. Yet for everything that drove him to bed her mother that fateful night, he had ‘felt’ nothing for the woman herself. Only Aria brought out any real emotion within him. Well, Aria and the Seer now held captive by his brothers in that house.
“He is hurting her. I will rip his wings from his back and tear them to shreds before his eyes.”
The rage in Ze’s voice made Gabriel hesitate. Michael was his brother. They had been together for eternity. No, that man—that monster within those walls—was not the Michael he remembered. The Michael he had followed his whole life would have balked at the idea of taking the life of a child, even to create a holy weapon.
Envy's Kindness (Seven Deadly Sins Book 2) Page 24
