Fallen : Part 3

by Tamsin Baker

  “Should we go there and shut it down?”

  “We may need to send some people there, but I don’t believe it’s the cause of all this.” I gestured to the chaos going on in New York.

  The legion of Angels shifted their focus and came over to us.

  My throat tightened as I stared at them. I recognised them all. Men I had fought with for centuries. Only a little while ago my only goal was to become one of them again.

  Kadie pressed against my side and the feelings of regret faded away like morning dew beneath the hot sun.

  I was where I was meant to be.

  The head of the guard walked closer and spoke. “We’re going to start the first rounds of defence. Beginning from the outskirts of the park and moving through New York until they’re all extinguished.” Michael’s arrogant tones carried over the whole group.

  He wouldn’t look at me, and I wanted to roll my eyes for all the shit they believed about me. That I was unworthy of their company. That I’d broken an unbreakable rule, and they’d never accept me back.

  I was lower than dirt as far as they were concerned, but for once I didn’t care. I couldn’t give a flying fuck what they thought now.

  I addressed Titan. “Do what you have to do. Kadie and I will fight alongside the Witches and work out how to stop them from continuing to enter this plain.”

  I gave Michael my dirtiest look and he glanced away.

  Good.

  Kadie grabbed my arm and tugged me towards a large group of Witches.

  Margaret rushed forward, her older face looking stressed and troubled.

  “Gabriel. Thank God, you’re here. What are we going to do?”

  “We need to find out where they’re coming in from. Originally, I thought the portal was inside the castle where Kadie was being held, but we were at the castle guarding that entrance when they stormed New York, so there has to be another entrance.”

  Margaret nodded, a look of excitement in her eyes. “After one of our younger Witches were attacked, we tracked down the men responsible to a place near Queens. We didn’t report them, we just followed them to an old abandoned estate. The magic coming out of that place is toxic.”

  I looked to Kadie and she nodded.

  “Sounds like the place to start,” I said.

  Kadie bit her lip. “Yes, it probably is- but we need to help here too. We can’t just leave all the fighting to everyone else.”

  “You’re right.”

  “Kadie, here. Take these. I thought you may want to get into the fight.” Margaret said, handing Kadie a black pack.

  I pulled my sword from my back as Kadie opened the bag Margaret had given her and dragged out two long knives.

  Kadie turned to Margaret with a smile. “Thank you.”

  She looked at me and I gripped my sword tightly. “You ready?”

  She nodded. “Let’s go.”

  We ran through the park, looking left and right. Waiting for the appearance of our enemy. As soon as we emerged through the trees we saw them.

  Dozens of Demons everywhere. Their flaming fury lighting up the New York sidewalks leaving destruction in their wake

  “Stay close to me, Kadie.”

  I held up my sword and ran forward, slicing the first Demon in half and then the next.

  I kept an eye on Kadie as she attacked the Demons coming at her.

  She cried out as one of them managed to touch her and I leapt sideways, cutting the Demons head off his shoulders.

  “Are you okay?” I asked, assessing her for damage.

  She dropped the knives onto the ground.

  “Yes. But I don’t think these are my weapons of choice.”

  I whirled around and sliced at two more fiery Demons coming at us, the heat of their flames on my face.

  “No. Your weapon is your magic, Kadie. Use it.”

  She nodded and lifted her hands up.

  I could smell the fear on her and it made me weak. I didn’t want her to get hurt, and anger pulsed through my blood.

  I shouldn’t feel like this.

  “Don’t worry about me!” Kadie yelled at me and I watched her from the corner of my eye run off into the distance.

  Yeah right.

  I lifted my sword and slashed through the Demon running at me, the flames of his body folding into a black dust.

  Heat ran down my spine and I twirled around to fight the Demon behind me, cutting his head off and then looking around for Kadie.

  She was nearby, running away from a Demon chasing her.

  “No!” I ran towards her and the Demon turned on me, rushing at me with arms wide spread.

  That was when I heard Kadie’s angry cry and she threw back her head and exploded with white light.

  Three Demons nearby burst into black ash, and an Angel standing close to Kadie stared at her, his mouth hanging open.

  “Great job, keep it up.” I yelled out, relief pulsing through me.

  We fought side by side through the streets of Manhattan, but they just kept coming.

  Several Angel warriors, including Michael, found us on the streets.

  “They aren’t thinning out. No matter how many we kill, they just keep multiplying,” one of the Angels said.

  “We need to stop them at the source,” I said. “One of the elder Witches told me that they think it’s all coming from a place a few blocks away on the outskirts of the city. We need to go there now and see if she’s right.”

  I looked around at the people fighting. Witches and Angels alike. Dare we leave them?

  “Yes! We must go. Come on Gabriel,” Kadie urged me.

  I picked Kadie up into my arms and stared at Michael.

  He nodded once. “Yes, we will go with you. Let’s fly.”

  Three of his nearby Angels took to the sky and I followed them. The heat of the evil in the air lit up my whole body, making it tingle and burn.

  I couldn’t believe how many Demons there were. We’d killed so many and yet they were still growing in numbers.

  “Over there. I can feel it,” Kadie yelled over the wind in my ears.

  I looked at where she pointed and saw the house they were talking about. It did indeed have an evil black energy about it, but was this the place we were looking for?

  The white winged Angels around me flew down, all gasping and spluttering as we landed.

  “Sulphur,” Kadie said, hacking and coughing on the fumes that surrounded us.

  This was definitely the place.

  As though answering my conclusion, Demons ran towards us, pouring out of the house.

  The Angels and I took out our swords and mowed them down. One fiery Demon at a time.

  “We need to get inside,” Kadie yelled, bolting up the hill towards the house and getting away from me. I cut the final Demon’s head off that stood in my way, and while it was still disintegrating into ash, I ran after her.

  “Kadie! Come back!” I yelled, following in the wake of her white energy.

  I moved my legs faster and pumped my arms as hard as they would go. I reached out and managed to grab Kadie’s shoulders just before she opened the door to the massive dilapidated mansion.

  “Hold on. You don’t know what’s in there,” I said, dragging her back.

  “I know it’s not good. You need to let me go.”

  Her words sounded so final, as though she’d already made the decision.

  “No… Kadie…”

  She pulled away from me and gaze me an intense stare.

  “You must realise that I may need to do something in there that you won’t like. But you’re going to have to let me do it.”

  No…. please…

  “I won’t let you sacrifice yourself. You promised me we’d both go home to our son after all this is said and done.”

  She gave me a sad smile and gripped my arm with her hand. “There has to be a world left to go back to, Gabriel.”

  There is no world for me without you in it.

  The other warrior Angels ha
d caught up to us, their swords held high in front of them, ready to do battle.

  Dear Lord, please let this not be it. I was always willing to sacrifice my own life for the good of the people, but not Kadie’s.

  I drew a long breath, attempting to calm the thunderous racing of my heart.

  “Alright, let’s do this then.”

  I could trust these men to do the right thing, but a small part of me hated that Kadie may get hurt.

  Two white Angels flung open the front doors to the mansion and heat seared our faces like we’d entered the very gates of Hell.

  This is the place.

  Kadie grabbed my arm and held me back while the others rushed inside, searching out an enemy we didn’t know how to defeat.

  “We do this together, Gabriel. You already said that. We’re meant to fight by each other’s side.”

  I nodded, my arms trembling with the effort it took to hold onto my sword and not grab Kadie and sweep her off to safety. I looked into her determined face and tightened my grip on my sword, and together we surged inside the dark house.

  As though the realisation was given from a higher power, it came to me all at once.

  Kadie wasn’t my weakness, she was my strength. She was my reason to fight, and for her, I would win. I was sure of it.

  We moved through the house, the heat on my spine so intense I wished for some snow to soothe it.

  “This way,” Kadie yelled, taking a sharp left turn and then pushing open double doors into a huge room filled with Demons.

  Angels rushed forward, slicing at the Demon monsters and carving a path through middle of the room.

  Kadie lifted her arms and screamed as she blasted them with her white light, all the while I fought by her side.

  She was magnificent. So strong and powerful. I was honoured to be her partner.

  Far in front of us I could see the door way to Hell. We’d found it! The path way. The route of this evil.

  It was a crack, very similar to the one we’d seen at the castle. Only so much larger.

  “They must be linked in some way.” Kadie shouted over the noise of the battle around us.

  The Angels fought besides us, their cries and groans of their efforts echoing in the room.

  “Yes, but the question is, which one can shut them all down?” I asked.

  And how? What would we need to be made to close them up?

  A huge yellow fire Demon came at us and Kadie blasted him. Another snuck up behind me and I whirled to take him out.

  Kadie moved closer to the huge gaping hole in our dimension, and suddenly a human man came out of nowhere and stepped up close to the pit of darkness.

  I squinted through the sweat that rolled down my face. Another Demon stepped through the hole, ignoring the man standing by and Kadie destroyed him with a single blast.

  She was getting damn good at that.

  Then it hit me. It was the same man who’d taken Kadie’s blood in the room at the castle. The one who had started this. Who the hell was he?

  The man’s grin was unnerving, his laughter maniacal. His eyes were lit with an evil intent that I could not even fathom.

  “You’ve lost, Angel. You know you have. Soon, New York will be a wasteland, and the rest of the planet will follow suit. The Demons who have come through the portals will not stop until every soul is under their control.”

  “You’re wrong,” I shouted back. And he was, in so many ways.

  Any soul killed unjustly by a Demon would go straight to Heaven. They would ultimately be safe. But what of those left on Earth? Would there be any civilisation left after the Demons had finished with it?

  “You’ll never be able to close the portal. You’re all done for,” the man yelled, his eyes glowing a fiery red to match the Demons nearby.

  I shifted my weight and gripped my sword tightly. I didn’t want to kill a human, but this one was definitely a lost cause.

  I ran forward and lifted my sword.

  Pain hit me like a burning iron through my chest.

  The man before me cackled like a Witch as he through red light at me.

  “You can’t stop me, Angel. You have no powers to speak of.”

  I cried out against the pain, squeezing my ribs and crushing my lungs.

  I couldn’t breathe.

  Couldn’t think.

  He was right. Against the magic of a true Magician, I had no strength.

  My fingers loosened around my sword and it clattered to the ground. My throat began to close up, my head swimming in a vision of black and silver stars.

  Then I was free, falling to the ground in a painful heap.

  I lifted my head to see what had happened.

  Kadie was blasting the male Witch with her magic. Both arms outstretched, white light blasting into his red.

  He groaned as the tide began to turn. The stream of white light powered by Kadie began to move closer and closer to the male Witch.

  I grabbed my sword from where it had fallen and dragged the hot air into my aching lungs.

  Kadie screamed out in anger as her power flowed faster. I watched in awe as the white began to overpower the red.

  I staggered to my feet in time to watch the male Witch fall backwards, Kadie’s white magic pummelling into his chest, leaving him gaping and gasping like a landed fish.

  This was my opening.

  I ran forward, lifted my sword once again, and sliced through the flesh and bone of this evil Witch with ease. I could feel the vibration of death along the metal, leaving a nasty taste in my mouth.

  The man slid to the floor in a pile of blood and bone, his crazy smile still plastered across his ugly face.

  I turned back towards Kadie, uncaring of the murder I had just committed.

  “We need to do something.”

  “I’m the key.” Kadie whispered and fear rippled along my skin like the hand of death on my spine.

  “No… Kadie…” I reached out for her but she side-stepped my grasp.

  “We can’t let them destroy everyone… everything Gabriel.” She stepped over the corpse of the dead man I’d killed, and walked closer to the crack.

  Another fiery Demon stepped out into the daylight and Kadie held up a palm.

  White lightening sizzled from her skin and blasted the Demon apart.

  I heard an exclamation of awe behind me, but ignored the Angel who was obviously watching what my Witch could do.

  She stepped over the Demon’s pile of ash and moved closer to the crack.

  “No. Kadie you can’t do it!”

  She was going to throw herself into that gaping hole, and I couldn’t let her.

  I took off, flying right at her. I reached her in a mere second and grabbed her arms. I attempted to pull her up into the sky with me, away from all of this.

  She pressed her still sizzling palm to my arm and lightening shot up into my shoulder, exploding through my spine.

  I fell from the sky, landing flat on my back.

  “I’m sorry Gabriel,” Kadie whispered calmly as she moved even closer.

  “No! Kadie! No!” Tears streamed down my face as the inevitable end to this story began to unfold.

  She had fought beside me as Jasmine had predicted. And as Tabitha had also foretold, Kadie was the only one who could end it all.

  I rolled onto my side and pushed up with my good arm, the one Kadie had struck was crippled at my side.

  Another Demon turned to ash as Kadie stepped closer to the vortex, tugging at the bandages that covered her neck.

  As the white material fell to the ground, Kadie’s blood began to flow once again. Rivulets of red down the side of her neck.

  “Tell our son that I love him. More than anything in this world.” A small smile quirked up the sides of Kadie’s beautiful mouth. “Well, almost as much as I loved you…”

  “No…” I pushed my body forward, reaching out as Kadie flung open her arms and fell backwards.

  Right into the fiery embrace of hell.

&
nbsp; “No. No. No.”

  I had to save her.

  She was falling and I couldn’t get there. My body was so weak… so much pain…

  The portal began to close, swallowing Kadie.

  She was dying. A sacrifice. For us all.

  I crawled closer to the crack, dragging myself across the ash covered earth.

  When I reached the crack in our dimension, the hot wind covered my face. Then it suddenly snapped shut as though it had never been there.

  I reached out, extending my hand into the space where the gaping hole had once been.

  It was gone.

  “No!” I cried out, slamming my fist into the ground and feeling Kadie’s wet blood on my skin. “No! Impossible. Give her back! She isn’t meant to be down there. No!”

  The image of Kadie’s beautiful face surrounded in fire burned into my mind, torturing me.

  She was gone.

  There was silence all around me as the remaining Demons began to wither and die. The Angels slashed at the final flames, but their link to this world had been severed.

  They weren’t meant to be here, and thus they returned to whence they came.

  The magic they had relied on to keep them here, their tie to Kadie and her blood, was gone.

  There was a great cry of triumph around me as everyone cheered the disappearance of the Demons who had come to claim the land as their own.

  But there was no rejoicing in my soul. Only a deep, dark hole that would never be filled again.

  “Gabriel! Gabriel!” Titan yelled as he ran to me.

  He was covered in black ash, part of his face burned, and yet the obvious pain did not dim the smile on his face. “We won! They’re gone!”

  “I know,” I said, pushing up from the ground.

  The world was saved, and mine was over.

  My son…

  “Where’s Kadie?” Titan asked, his gaze darting around me as though waiting for my diminutive human to appear out of thin air.

  He mustn’t have seen what actually won us the day.

  “She’s gone.”

  I didn’t want to elaborate, but my fellow Fallen Angel reached out and grabbed hold of the arm Kadie had shocked.

  I could feel it now, in a strange, numb sort of way.

  “What do you mean, she’s gone? Did a Demon get her?”

  Some of the warrior Angels who had been fighting with us walked closer. Michael had a sad look on his face that indicated that he’d seen what had gone on.