by Tamsin Baker
The shiver of an earthquake before the life-ending tsunami.
I needed to pull on my old strength, and I didn’t know how to do that when Kadie made me soft.
“Alright. Let’s go.” I clung to my beautiful little human and we flew away.
Away from the safety of Tabitha’s realm, and towards the cold air that surrounded the Demon castle.
My spine tingled with heat as we landed indicating that Demons were around the premises.
“Damn it!” Of all the rotten luck. It had to be the day I’d brought Kadie with me.
“What’s wrong?” Kadie asked.
“We’re not alone.”
Kadie’s eyes sparkled with excitement. “Great. Let’s go kick some Demon ass.”
I drew my sword from my back and gripped the hilt tightly. I knew that convincing Kadie to stay here while I explored the property was a waste of breath. “Don’t get caught, no matter what. Blast the shit out of them.”
Part of me was terrified that she would become so scared that she would freeze or even worse, run. I couldn’t stand the idea of her running away and being caught. Tortured, or burning.
But if she stood and fought, she would kill them with her magic. I knew she could. And I had to have faith, that under the right pressure, she could do it again.
“Will do.”
I took a step towards the castle and then looked back over my shoulder at my red-haired beauty in her hippy long skirt and cardigan.
Not a picture of a warrior I ever thought I’d see going in to battle.
“Our son needs you Kadie. No matter what, you find a way out of there.”
I didn’t know how she’d get back to Manhattan from here without me, but I’m sure she’d find a way if she needed to.
Kadie glared at me.
“He needs you more, Angel. You’re the immortal one, not me.”
“But…” I stopped. She probably needed to know. I stepped closer to her and grabbed her shoulders, needing the connection to her as I told her this. “I won’t survive without you Kadie. Didn’t you understand what Tabitha said about Angels? We love with all our hearts. If you die, as her mother did so long ago… I won’t be able to exist without you.”
Kadie’s eyes went wide with surprise, her mouth falling open. “I thought her father…”
I shook my head. “No Fallen Angel would die at the hands of a Demon unless he was severely compromised. Or it was a huge group attack. To me, and to Tabitha it’s obvious. He didn’t want to be on this Earth without her.”
Tears swelled and began falling down Kadie’s cheeks. “But… you can’t do that Gabriel! Nathaniel’s a baby! Please, you need to promise me that you’ll never leave him. Please! No…”
I dropped the flashlights and grabbed her by the arms once again, hauling Kadie close to me and pressing her mouth to mine. She responded in kind, groaning and pulling her body to mine as though she wanted to become part of me.
We’d been unable to enjoy much lovemaking over the past month as her body continued to heal from her labour and the poison and I missed it.
But as she pressed her pelvis into my hardening cock and thrust her tongue between my lips, the passion between us flared to life like an out of control bushfire.
The heat on my spine intensified, and I knew it wasn’t due to the arousal flooding my system. We had to survive. Just so we could take off where we were forced to leave. I regretfully pulled away from her embrace and twisted around to grab my sword from where it lay on the dirt and hold it up in defence.
There was nothing there, but as my heart pounded like an anvil against a stone, I knew danger was not far away.
“What is it?” Kadie panted, stepping up beside me.
I glared at the front door, now hanging open. “They’re here.”
I looked over at my lover who stared back with determination in her eyes.
“We come out alive, no matter what,” I declared.
“Both of us,” she said.
I gripped my sword hard and Kadie swooped down to pick up the torches I’d dropped. Together, we took our first steps towards the front door.
Chapter 2.
We took careful, measured steps towards the front of the looming castle. One of my biggest fears was that we would not only be battling Demons in this castle, but humans as well.
It was well against my code to kill humans, and I wasn’t sure how Kadie would respond if she had to do the harm humans.
But then again, as I watched Kadie move stealthily beside me I realised that she was kidnapped by humans. Perhaps she wouldn’t be as empathetic as I first believed.
We stepped forward and took a deep breath. This was it.
It was deathly silent. I couldn’t sense any Demons in the front room, but I didn’t trust my instincts in this place. There was something about being inside this place that distorted reality somehow.
I held my sword at the ready and stepped through the front door, swinging the blade around in the empty room.
Nothing.
I motioned to Kadie to come in.
“Safe so far.”
She nodded and her gaze turned unerringly towards the hall that would lead us to the rooms where she had been held.
“Do you remember this place?” I asked her.
She frowned, her forehead dotted with sweat. “I don’t know… maybe. That hallway looks familiar somehow.”
We moved stealthily along the hallway, Kadie a foot behind me at all times.
My ears pricked for any sense of movement, any hint of human activity. But there was none.
We stepped over the rotten carpet and moved along the corridor until we came to the door that I’d found Kadie in.
“This is it, isn’t it?” she asked, her voice catching in anxiety.
“This is where I found you, yes.”
I couldn’t tell what was behind the door, and that made fear skitter along my spine. There was dark magic at work here. Cloaking its inhabitants. Making my senses dull.
“Can you feel anything Kadie?” I asked, wishing I’d brought Margaret with us now. Or even Simone. I should have used the Witches that were at my disposal better.
“No. Nothing.” She shook her head and my fear transitioned into a feeling of disappointment that this visit may also be a waste of our time.
“Well, let’s go in and see if you can remember anything.”
I slid my sword onto my back and took one of the fog lights from her. I pushed open the door and blinked at the inky blackness. This room was definitely laden with an unnatural darkness.
I sensed no movement and saw no light in the dark. Nothing to indicate that there was anyone inside the large room. I took a breath and walked into the room, holding the light up high.
The heavy fog lamp barely penetrated a foot in front of me.
Impossible.
“Come in, but we’re not going to be able to see anything.”
I gestured for her to move closer, my senses telling me that we were safe for the moment.
Kadie hesitantly stepped into the room with me but as soon as she was within arms-reach, the door slammed shut with an almighty bang.
Flames burned all around us and Kadie screamed as two men grabbed her by the arms and pulled her backwards.
“No!” I yelled, dropping the lamp and pulling my sword from its sheath. I tightened my grip on the hilt and took several steps forward, the light from the flaming Demons giving me some help to navigate.
“Ow! Let me go!” Kadie cried out. I couldn’t see what they were doing to her.
Fear gripped my heart with an icy hand and I threw caution out the window.
“Release her!” I charged forward, ready to fight and die this time.
Then Kadie staggered towards me, clutching her neck.
I grabbed hold of her and held her tightly against my body. I held my sword out in front of us and pointed it at the Demons in the room.
They flared a brighter orange and moved forward as on
e. stepped backwards to try and locate the door behind us.
“Can you find the handle? We need to get out of here!” I urged Kadie, my heart beating like a drum in my tight chest.
Suddenly, someone turned on the sun. I blinked rapidly, struggling to see in the bright light.
The room lit up with a stark white light and that was when I saw two men standing at the end of the room near what could only be described as a crack in the air.
A crack that was more than two metres tall and a metre wide.
A crack where I could see the whirling blackness of Hell and the Demons that marched on the damned souls.
Oh Heaven, help us.
“You’ve lost Angel. We have her blood. The last missing ingredient. Our Demons are going to march on Earth and no-one is going to be there to save you.”
I watched in horror as the men threw a syringe of blood into the crack and a blistering fire began to blaze in Hell beyond.
“Oh no, oh no. Gabriel, we have to go. Now!” Kadie was yelling at me hysterically. Pulling at my shirt, yanking at my arms.
The Demons around me weren’t moving. They were frozen. Watching.
“But…” I can’t just leave!
The door flew open behind me and the Demons didn’t flinch at the sunlight as it streamed inside.
Oh no….
The crack that had begun as merely the size of a large man, expanded. Bigger and bigger it grew until it swallowed the floor beneath it.
A Demon stepped out of the crack and then another. Their fiery presence flushing heat along my face. The room exploded like a sunset of orange and yellow.
“Gabriel!” Kadie yelled, clawing at me to retreat.
I gripped my sword and stared them down. I wanted to fight.
I needed to fight!
If this was the portal in which they were entering our dimension, then this was where we needed to stop them.
I slashed at a Demon that closed in on us. Then another. Sweat rolled down my back and my arms bunched with strength and anger.
Three more rushed toward us and I sliced up two of them with a single swing. But the third snuck up beside me and caught hold of one of my wings.
Pain blistered my side and I cried out as my feathers burned.
A white light blasted the Demon into black ash.
I turned my head to see Kadie shooting magic from her fingertips.
She glared at me. “Gabriel, we need to go! Now!”
“No! We need to stay and fight. Keep them all here.”
If we could keep them contained, we could find a way to seal the entrance to Hell and stop them from ruining the Earth.
“They’re not all here!” She screamed at me, her fear a palpable thing.
That was when Tabitha’s voice came through my head.
Gabriel, they’re out in force in New York City. In day light. You need to save the people. Quickly.
“Fuck!”
The huge crack in the room was now the size of a crater. More and more Demons came through. Too many for me and Kadie to fight. There was no easy way out of this problem.
I had to trust my Angel Agent and the woman behind me when they told me I had to leave this Hell hole.
“Damn it!” I cursed and began to back towards the door.
Much to my chagrin, I turned and ran. I scooped up Kadie and ran all the way to the front door of the castle.
I secured Kadie around me, making sure she wouldn’t fall off.
I launched off from the concrete the moment we stepped outside and flew as fast as I could to New York.
What the hell had happened back there?
I looked down to see Kadie alive and seemingly well, but holding her wounded neck tightly.
We landed outside her house, the only place I thought to go since Tabitha hadn’t given me any instructions on where I was flying.
“You need medical aid,” I pulled Kadie’s hand down and gasping at the huge gash they’d made in her neck. Blood flowed freely when I took the pressure off and she placed her hand back on the wound to stop the flow.
“It can wait. We need to get to the epi centre of the chaos.” She went to turn and the breath hissed from my teeth as blood ran down her neck.
“No.” I couldn’t have her bleeding to death when I needed her so much.
Kadie stared at me, reading my thoughts as she always did. Then she rolled her eyes, turned and ran inside her house.
I send a message back to Tabitha. Is the baby alright?
Yes, he’s fine. Are you near Central park? That’s where I’m sending everyone.
Everyone? It’s the middle of the day, Tabitha. We can’t be seen!
She groaned loudly.
Gabriel. They are coming to destroy New York, and all of the inhabitants. There will be widespread mayhem and chaos. This is the war to end all wars, we can’t worry about being seen! I don’t know how they have managed to break into our world, but they have. They’re coming in from everywhere, in the daylight.
I could feel her exasperation and fear that the rules we believed were infinite, were in fact, very malleable.
They took some of Kadie’s blood and it seems to have opened a portal.
Oh Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Then she’s the key Gabriel.
Please don’t tell me that means she has to die, Tabitha. Because you know I won’t survive that.
Silence.
Oh fuck… no.
Do what you can Gabriel, but know that your son is safe and I will be here for you all, at the end of this.
Kadie came running back from her house, her neck covered in white bandages.
“I’m fixed up. Let’s go.”
Ignoring the intense feelings of pain threatening me, I wound us in invisibility and Kadie clung to my neck as I launched off.
I flew high into the air, the terrified screams of people around us ringing in my ears.
Just follow the flames to the park.
It was my worst nightmare come true.
New York. On fire. The buildings. The people in the streets.
Chaos. Everywhere.
They were running for their lives, screaming in terror.
I could see Central park up ahead of us. It appeared, so far, to be untouched. Which was un-nerving considering the destruction around us.
But why was the park untouched when chaos reigned everywhere else? Why was this patch of land left unscathed? Maybe there was some sort of magic woven into the trees? And, if that were true, were the weavers of this magic friend or foe?
I shook my head to clear the worries and flew lower. Tabitha had never steered me wrong.
I landed on the lush green grass of Central park and glanced around.
“Why are we here?” Kadie asked, her confusion a feeling I shared.
“Tabitha told me to come. She said she was sending everyone over here.”
And by everyone I assumed she meant the other Fallen Angels on Earth. All five of us currently on Earth.
We’re done for.
“Don’t say that!” Kadie admonished.
I grabbed her hand and began running through the park. I didn’t want to be here, safely protected where the world couldn’t see.
I wanted to be in the streets fighting, but there had to be a reason that Tabitha sent us here.
Up ahead of us I saw movement, flashes of colour. People running.
We made it into a clearing and stopped. There were more people than I could count.
“Who are all these people?” Kadie asked.
As though a siren had gone off, the huge group all turned to look at us. Whispering, smiling.
Titan, another Fallen Angel, walked up to us, his black wings tucked into his side.
“Gabriel. I’m glad you’re here, brother.”
Titan and I had never gotten along in Heaven, nor here on Earth. But in this moment, I was intensely glad to see him.
“So am I. Who are all these people?”
“Witches. Mostly. And, of course�
��” Titan moved aside and spread out his arm to indicate something hidden.
Behind him was a legion of Angels, their white wings glinting in the sunlight like regal magic.
My warrior brothers. Two dozen of them at least.
“They’re here to fight with us?” I asked, baffled.
Angels of Heaven were forbidden to step onto the Earth’s surface.
It was part of the original agreement between Heaven and Hell.
Titan grinned. “Yeah, since they’re breaking every rule in the book we figured, we could too.”
I wasn’t sure how the Gods could justify such a thing, but I didn’t care. If this meant we could turn the tide and save the humans destined from a Hellish existence, then I was all for it.
“This must be Kadie,” Titan said, stepping closer to my woman.
I lifted my arm to create a wall between them, stopping his trajectory.
“Yes. Kadie, this is Titan. It seems that we have an army to fight with us.”
Titan gave me a surprised look, then fell back as he began to understand how important she was to me.
“There has been whispers of a champion stepping forward to win the war for us, but I didn’t think it would be a woman.”
Kadie and I exchanged a look. We hadn’t thought so either.
“I’ve heard predictions from Witches also, that our son will be the warrior to win this war for us, but he is still very young.”
Titan’s eye brows rose up his forehead as the shock of that statement struck him.
“So, it is true…” He now looked at Kadie with a renewed respect.
I’d had enough of this chatter.
“Titan, we need fight. People are dying in the streets.”
I could feel their pain and fear as though it were my own. It was taking all my strength to block it out. My throat was dry and my arms already ached like they’d fought a month-long battle.
Titan nodded. “Then we need a plan. We don’t know how these Demons are getting onto our plain, or why they’re attacking in daylight. But this is bad.”
“It is. I’ve been told that Kadie is the key, but we don’t know how to use her to fix this. We saw a crack in our dimension at the castle when Kadie was held hostage, and there are Demons coming through there too.”
