Uprising (Alternate Earth Series, Book 2)

by S. J. West

  “Security breach!” one of the guards yells. His words activate an alarm that blares noisily throughout the space, hurting my ears.

  Taking advantage of their invisibility, Malcolm and Nina run ahead of the rest of us, choosing to take the threat of the fairies out of the fight. As Malcolm and the bear approach one another, I watch as Malcolm comes to a complete stop three feet from the charging animal. Just before the bear reaches him, Malcolm swiftly steps to the side and pivots on his heels to grab a hold of the fur on the bear’s back as it passes by. In one swift motion, Malcolm pulls himself on top of the bear with one hand while swinging his sword in one mighty swipe at its neck to decapitate it. Blood gushes out of the large opening as the bear’s head rolls across the floor while the rest of the corpse collapses underneath Malcolm.

  Nina runs straight for the lion without stopping. Even though the lion can’t see her, he can sense that she’s close. When the lion leaps into the air in an effort to tackle his invisible quarry, Nina drops to her knees and bends her torso back so far her shoulders almost touch the floor. She stabs both of her short swords straight up into the lion’s abdomen as it jumps over her, slicing open its belly. The lion lands behind her with a loud thud, writhing in pain as it dies.

  I hear the bolts of the vault door behind us slide back, and I know we’re about to have some unwanted company.

  “Jess, Mason,” Brand says to us hurriedly, “follow Peyton to get Ava and Lucifer. We’ll hold them back.”

  While the rest of our party handles the other four guards present in the room, with the promise of more to come, Peyton wastes no time, and runs to the security panel to open the last of the vault doors. I know we don’t have much time. We need to get Ava and Lucifer out as quickly as possible before we’re overrun and outnumbered.

  After Peyton opens the third door, I see that the other side leads directly into an elevator. We hurriedly get into it, and Peyton hits the solitary red button on the control panel. As the elevator makes its leisurely descent down six floors, music begins to play.

  The moment feels a bit surreal as the piece of classical music is brought to life by a string quartet. I’m grateful when the doors finally open, revealing our destination.

  As we step out of the elevator, I involuntarily gag from the stench permeating the air in the room. The scent reminds me of rotting meat, and it doesn’t take me long to discover where the smell is coming from.

  Both Lucifer and Ava are lying on tables made of the same black polymer that’s on the walls. Each of them is lying naked and unconscious, with their legs and wrists clamped to their respective tables by the same polymer Wayne created. He boasted that only God Himself could punch through the material he made to help imprison angels.

  I rush over to Lucifer and have to hold one hand over my nose before the sight and smell of him makes me throw up. During the days he’s been held captive, it’s obvious one or more of the princes have had their fun torturing Lucifer’s human body. His flesh is simply a series of cuts and bruises. Being who he is, Lucifer is usually able to heal almost instantly, but it seems as though some of the cuts were made a long time ago. The older wounds are festering with infection, which is the source of the rancid smell in the room.

  “Jess?” I hear Lucifer say weakly.

  When I look up at his face, I notice that his eyes appear unfocused, like he’s been drugged.

  “It’s me,” I reassure him. “I’m getting you the hell out of here.”

  Lucifer lets out a small laugh. “Only you would say something like that to me…”

  Lucifer’s eyelids droop shut, as he’s lacking the strength to keep them open any longer. I realize the shot Brand gave me to keep Lucifer cooperative won’t be necessary. Whatever he already has in his system seems to be plenty to keep him compliant.

  I notice a keypad located right above Lucifer’s head. When I look over at the table Ava is strapped to, I see Peyton press a series of numbers into the keypad as fast as she can.

  “What’s the code?” I yell at her, knowing we need to grab our people and get out as quickly as possible.

  “Hold on,” she tells me irritably, steadily trying to find the right code to open Ava’s shackles. While Peyton keeps testing different codes, Mason walks over to Lucifer and me.

  “Why aren’t his wounds healing?” I ask Mason.

  “It looks like they’ve kept him on some powerful drugs to prevent him from healing himself.”

  I hear the clamps binding Ava to her table click open. Peyton rushes over to Lucifer’s table to punch in the code to release his bonds as well.

  I look up at Mason. I know he isn’t going to like what I have to say next, but I think he already understands what needs to be done.

  “You’re going to have to carry him out,” I tell my husband.

  Mason’s face remains emotionless, only the scathing downward glance he gives Lucifer tells of his disgust for such a chore.

  “I’ll get Ava,” Peyton says, promptly grabbing her friend and tossing her over one shoulder.

  Without making any comment, Mason does the same with Lucifer, but still manages to hold his sword in his free hand.

  “Are you sure you can still fight?” I ask my husband.

  “Yes,” Mason answers curtly. I know he isn’t mad at me, just the situation. “Let’s just go.”

  We return to the elevator without delay. Peyton presses the button on the control panel again, and we’re soon on our way back up. I don’t turn my head to look, but I can see Mason’s face out of the corner of my eye as he holds a naked Lucifer over his shoulder. If you didn’t know my husband, you wouldn’t be able to tell something was wrong, but, since I’m his wife, I notice the small tenseness of his jaw. The sooner we get Lucifer back to the castle and inside his cell, the happier my husband will be. I suspect he’ll also want to take a long shower to wash this memory and Lucifer’s unpleasant odor away.

  When the elevator doors open, I feel like I’ve just stepped into a warzone. Over a dozen bodies litter the floor. Brand, Nina, and Malcolm are fighting off at least a dozen more guards by the entrance to the middle vault door. Since they can’t phase, all three of them are using the invisibility of their outfits to their advantage, and ghosting around their opponents to disorient them effectively.

  “We’re here!” Mason yells to them as we swiftly make our way up to the fight.

  As if they were just waiting for us, our friends begin to fight more fiercely to clear our path to the first vault door. Both Mason and I help the others fight through the growing horde attacking us. I’m not sure how long we fight or how many guards we kill. Honestly, I’m not even sure how many of them were angels and how many were human. I’m completely focused on getting to the other side of the final vault door so we can all phase to safety.

  Unexpectedly, someone I recognize joins in the skirmish: Micah – Ava’s husband and fellow Watcher. He stands just inside the vault door, hastily assessing the situation. His gaze rests on Peyton, who is still holding Ava over her shoulder. I watch as he draws his sword and begins to help us clear a path to the door. It takes a while, but, with Micah’s help, we finally make it to the other side.

  Once we finally make it out, Brand yells to Mason, “Go!”

  I grab Mason’s arm, and he phases us both to the safe house on the docks in New York City. Only three of the angelic guards decide to follow us. Rather unceremoniously, Mason drops Lucifer onto the cold, concrete floor so he can give his full attention to the three angels in front of us.

  “Guard him in case one gets by me,” Mason says before charging the three angels with a growl.

  Just as Mason moves away, Peyton phases into the warehouse beside me, with Ava still hanging limply over her right shoulder.

  When I look at her, she explains, “I didn’t want to stay back there, and I didn’t know where else to go. This was as good a place as any.”

  I was sure Peyton had never been to this particular safe house before, and can onl
y assume she simply followed Mason’s phase trail.

  It becomes obvious that helping Lucifer escape his torture chamber has placed Mason in a very bad mood. Unfortunately for the three angels who followed us, my husband decides to take his frustration out on them in a raw, swift clash of swords, which leaves them all dead rather quickly.

  Nina phases into the building.

  “Give me Ava,” Nina tells Peyton, but Peyton backs away from us, with her only leverage securely on her shoulder.

  “Not until you bring me my daughter,” Peyton counters warily.

  Nina doesn’t even try to argue with Peyton. She promptly phases away and returns a few seconds later with an unconscious and transformed Dillon cradled in her arms. Werewolves don’t need to be awake in order to undergo their nightly transformation. Dillon’s wings are so long, the lower portions of them splay outward beneath her against the concrete floor.

  “Is she still alive?” Peyton asks hysterically as she looks at the limp body of her daughter.

  “I gave her a sedative so she would sleep while you helped us,” Nina tells Peyton. “Now, put Ava down by Jess and come get your daughter.”

  “Not until you put Dillon down first and walk away from her,” Peyton says. “I don’t trust you. What’s to prevent you from just phasing away with her after I give you what you want?”

  Without saying another word, Nina does what Peyton requested and gently lays Dillon down on her side, with her wings towards us. Only after she backs up five steps from Dillon, does Peyton place Ava at my feet. Peyton runs over to Dillon and kneels behind her, placing a gentle hand against her daughter’s head and stroking her soft black and white fur.

  As I watch Peyton comfort her sleeping child, I notice her shoulders begin to shake, and I know she’s crying.

  “I’m so sorry,” I hear her whisper to Dillon through her tears. “I dreamed of giving you such a beautiful life. If I had known what Will would make you do…”

  Peyton leaves her sentence unfinished. I can only imagine the evil deeds Will has coerced Dillon into participating in to secure his position within Lucian’s inner circle. The possibility of Dillon ever being allowed to live her life her way is next to nothing. She’ll always be at the beck and call of her father. But perhaps all hope isn’t lost. Tristan was able to break his bond to his own father when Mae’s life was placed in danger. Perhaps, in time, Dillon can find her own reason to refuse Will’s demands and finally forge her own path in life.

  I’m about to suggest as much to Peyton when I see her stand up. Before I can utter a single word, I watch in horror as she reaches for her daughter’s wings and rips them out of their sockets.

  None of us says a word, but I hear myself gasp in surprise. Dillon lets out a pitiful howl in her drug-induced stupor. Her pained whimpers fill the silence with sadness.

  Peyton tosses the wings onto the floor before reaching down to pick her daughter up and gently cradle her in her arms.

  “Peyton, why?” Nina asks, distraught over what she just witnessed.

  “It was the only way to make sure she never leaves me,” Peyton says. “I didn’t want to do it, but you forced me to.”

  “She might have come to you of her own free will in time,” Nina argues. “You’re no better than Will, Peyton. He might have been asking her to do things you didn’t approve of, but at least with him she had a choice. You’ve just taken all her choices away to satisfy your own selfish needs.”

  “I’m saving her from herself!” Peyton argues heatedly, looking as crazy as she sounds. “Until you’ve had a child of your own, I suggest you keep your parenting advice to yourself, Nina. I would die for my daughter! Can you honestly say you would sacrifice your life for someone, anyone else? When you get to that point, let me know. Then, I might actually listen to what you have to say. All I’ve ever wanted is to live a peaceful life with Dillon. I want her to have a chance at saving her soul because, I’m pretty sure I just lost my own.”

  Peyton phases away, leaving us all reeling from what she did. I can’t say I don’t understand why she did what she did, but I do know I can’t condone her actions.

  “Is there anything we can do?” I ask Nina, desperate to find some way to salvage the situation. “Do you think Rafe could use his healing to reattach her wings?”

  Nina slowly shakes her head. “No. Calcium deposit will have already pooled in the wounds. By the time I got Rafe and took him to the island, the calcium would have had time to harden. There’s no way to undo what Peyton just did.”

  Nina walks over to us and bends down to pick Ava up.

  “But Rafe can help Ava and your Lucifer,” Nina tells me. “That much we can control.”

  After Mason picks Lucifer up, I feel him place his hand on my back. Just before he phases us away, I look over at Dillon’s abandoned wings. It seems disrespectful to just leave them lying there, but we have other, more pressing, matters to attend to first.

  We need to know whether or not Lucifer can release the souls of the infected from their decaying corpses. I promised Leah’s mother I would help her in any way I could, and Lucifer is my best hope to do that.

  I pray that he can help us, and I cross my fingers that the price for his help won’t be something that I’m unwilling to pay.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Mason phases us to the basement in the castle where Wayne set up our graviton cage. I assume Nina phases Ava somewhere less stark, where she can recover from her torture in comfort. When we enter the large, metal box that is Lucifer’s cell, I notice Gabriel’s body lying against the right wall of the outer chamber. I’d almost forgotten he was in there. I remember being told that he was being kept down here, but I hadn’t thought too much about him after that. I redirect my attention to the security panel located on the left wall.

  “Please state your name,” the computer says in a soft, feminine voice.

  “Jessica Michelle Riley,” I reply.

  A blue light scans my head, and I watch as the three blue lines, representing a readout of my retinas, brainwave activity, and voice, fluctuate on the screen.

  “Thank you, Jessica.”

  As soon as the door to the cell unlocks, Mason swings it open and carries Lucifer inside, dumping him onto the cot that was set up for his stay. Mason promptly walks out of the cell and shuts the door behind him.

  “I need a shower,” Mason declares, sounding disgusted by his unavoidable physical contact with a naked Lucifer, and wanting to wash away all evidence of it immediately. “Care to join me?”

  “I would love nothing more, but,” I say, looking over at Lucifer’s still form, “I feel like I should stay until Rafe comes. After Rafe heals Ava, I’m sure Nina will bring him down here for Lucifer.”

  Mason sighs. I know that sigh. I’ve heard it a hundred times before, whenever Lucifer ends up being the main topic of our conversation. I wish my husband could understand my feelings for Lucifer, but, hell, who am I kidding? I don’t even understand them myself. It’s…complicated, and unlike any other relationship I’ve ever had in my life. Do I love him? Do I hate him? Honestly, I think it falls somewhere between those two very disparate emotions.

  “Then I’ll make my shower quick,” Mason promises, leaning over and giving me a quick kiss on the lips. “Be right back.”

  After Mason phases, Michael appears to me in a physical form only I can see. I know he’s just a projection that my mind has conjured up to represent him, but having him with me in such a way, in this moment, brings me some much-needed comfort.

  “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen him in this much distress,” Michael says as he looks over at Lucifer. Since he’s a non-corporeal being, Michael passes through the black bars of Lucifer’s cell and walks across the floor to stand beside the cot on which his one-time best friend is laying.

  Michael is even worse than I am at hiding emotions. As I watch him, I can see and feel the concern he has for Lucifer. They may have been on opposite sides of the war in Heaven, but tha
t didn’t stop Michael from continuing to love his friend. There is still a small spark of hope inside my Archangel’s soul that Lucifer will someday find his way back to God and ask for His forgiveness. Though, with each passing year, the light of that hope seems to dim just a little bit more.

  “I wish I could just give up on him,” Michael says, knowing where my thoughts have wandered. “But I just can’t, Jess. Whenever he’s with us, and I see how much he cares about you, it gives me hope that maybe he’s beginning to understand why God asked us to bow down to humanity.”

  “He confuses me,” I admit.

  Michael lets out a small laugh. “He has that effect on people. Even knowing all the bad things he’s done in his life, I can’t seem to make myself write him off.”

  “Sometimes being a hopeless optimist can be a real bitch.”

  Michael looks over at me and busts out in a laugh. “Truer words have never been spoken.”

  “I don’t understand one thing, though,” I say.

  “What’s that?”

  “Why didn’t he just separate his soul from his body when they started torturing him?”

  “I’m not sure,” Michael says, considering my question. “If I correctly understand the principle of this type of cage, his soul still would have been trapped in that place. Maybe he thought the effort wasn’t worth it. Or maybe he had other reasons.”

  “Are you talking to Michael again?” I hear Lucifer ask weakly, letting me know he’s awake and listening. He doesn’t sound as weak as before. Maybe the drugs in his system are slowly wearing off.

  “Yes,” I tell him, unable to see his face from my side of the bars.

  “And how did he answer your last question?”

  “He said your soul wouldn’t have been able to leave the room we found you in, and that you might have had other reasons for staying.”

  “He was always very perceptive about my motivations.”

  “Why didn’t you try to escape from them, Lucifer?”

  “They had answers that I needed.”

  I walk over to the bars of the cell and wrap my fingers around two of them as I stare at Lucifer.