by Amy Vansant
“He—” She shook her head, realizing it would take an hour to explain Seth’s role in everything. “He’s an Angelus. Stick with me and keep your eyes peeled for the Cherubim’s red auras. Really concentrate. They might not be skilled enough to hide them well.”
At the mention of red auras, Tyannah turned to Rathe and smiled. “Rathe is doin’ real good. I think he needed this. Like, a confidence boost, y’know?”
“It helps that they aren’t attacking him. They seem programmed to only attack Angeli.”
“Don’t tell him that. Look at him.”
Rathe’s face was alight with excitement as he drained another victim, spinning him in the air on the tip of his wing with unnecessary flourish.
Anne winced. “He does look happy.”
She spotted a small pack of Sentinels on their senseless way to the killing ground established by the Angeli. Something about one of them caught Anne’s attention. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but the wandering soul seemed interested in the carnage around her, whereas her mob-mates stared straight forward, obsessed with the Angeli.
She was about to pass Tyannah.
“Hey!” Anne yelled, grabbing Tyannah’s arm.
The woman’s head turned, milky-white eyes locking on Anne’s. Pupils rolled into their place. The Cherub’s red aura flared as it grabbed Tyannah’s other arm and it shifted into energy form in an attempt to abscond with the girl. Anne leapt forward and stabbed into the mass of red energy, disrupting it enough to force the girl to manifest as human once more. The Cherub threw Tyannah at Anne and tried to run.
She didn’t get far.
The Cherub slammed into Emma de Gauder. The ancient Sentinel wrapped the Cherub in her cable-strong arms, siphoning. The act would have appeared loving had Anne not known better. Instead, it was a fly in the loving embrace of a spider.
The Cherub thrashed, trying to break free, as Anne charged forward and stabbed her. With a burst of light the girl disappeared.
“That’s a nice trick,” said Emma, flush with new power.
“Thank you.”
“I wish—”
Emma’s eyes grew wide and her mouth hung open, silent.
“Emma?”
Anne reached out before she’d noticed a network of brilliant red tentacles reaching through the floor at Emma’s feet. They coiled around the Sentinel, weaving into her thighs, reappearing below her shoulders and snaking around her neck. Before Anne could grab her, she faded and the tentacles whipped her down through the earth as if she had never been there.
“Where’d she go?” screamed Tyannah.
Anne bolted for Con.
“Phase me down,” she demanded, slowing her run by grabbing him and using him as an anchor.
“What?”
“Through the floor. Something grabbed Emma and pulled her down. There must be something beneath us.”
Con backhanded a Cherub Sentinel and sent it spinning. He looked at the ground.
“Here? Just go down?”
“Over there. Next to Tyannah.”
Con grimaced and grabbed her arms, first carrying her to Tyannah and then phasing through the earth.
They reappeared in a hallway, roughly carved through stone.
“You were right. There’s a whole network of tunnels down here. I can feel the empty spaces around us.”
“Can you feel anything moving? Anything alive?”
“Emma?”
“Emma or what grabbed her. A Cherub of some sort.”
He shook his head. “Nothing.”
Anne used one of her glowing blades for light, illuminating the thin corridor. On the ground before them sat a pile of white ash. Anne recognized it as the sort of residue left by a drained and defeated Sentinel, and her stomach fell.
“Is that her?” asked Con.
She squatted on her heels and touched the powder with her fingertips, uncovering small chunks of bone. “We’re too late.”
“Shite!”
Anne stood. “I was really hoping to talk to her when all this was over.”
Con touched her arm. “It will never be over if we don’t get back.”
She nodded, watching a rat scurry past them and down the hall.
As Con phased her into energy, she thought she caught a glimpse of tiny wings on the rat’s back.
A trick of the light, no doubt.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Taksi spotted a rat standing on its haunches beside Casso’s feet. The creature sensed their presence, though she and her counterpart remained invisible to the people battling all around them.
They watched from their corner as Boudica’s blue broadsword claimed another Sentinel. Very few remained.
“You’ve lost,” said Taksi.
Casso bent down and phased his hand into the physical plane long enough to grab the rat.
She chuckled. “Taking your toys and going home, eh?”
He held the rat to his face where she could read the word burned into the creature’s forearm fur.
Varymor.
The rodent’s eyes glowed red as a ruby in the desert sun.
“I live to fight another day. There’s no shame in going home,” he said, slipping the rat into his pocket.
With a last nod of his head, he disappeared.
Taksi smiled, took one last lingering look at her mighty Angeli, busy dispatching the last of Casso’s Sentinels, and headed for home.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Anne and Con returned to the cavern to find the battle ended.
“Did someone kill the remaining Cherubim?” Anne asked Tyannah.
“Sundance spotted one. I helped. He was weak and already nearly drained.”
“That leaves us two short.”
Michael and the others joined them in the middle of the room.
“Where’s Emma?” asked Achilles, searching. The ashy remains of hundreds of Sentinels littered the floor. Other than their immediate group, no living creature was left standing.
Anne frowned. “Something grabbed her. Phased her into a tunnel running beneath us. Con and I pursued and found nothing but dust. Remains.”
Achilles hung his head.
“What about Seth?” asked Anne.
“Seth?” echoed Michael.
“He was the seventh head. He’s the one who showed me how to dismantle the dragon.”
“He did? You did that?”
“Did you think it just exploded?”
Michael shook his head. “Who knows. So Seth is here?”
“He was. He left when the Sentinels came for him. He looked normal, well, back to what I assume was normal before Perfidia. He said there were four more Cherubim, and since then we've killed two that I know about. Did anyone else kill one?”
All heads shook.
“I gave the place a good looksee, but didn’t find a thing,” said Sundance.
“Maybe Emma got them before we had a chance?” suggested Sundance.
Michael put a hand on Achilles’ shoulder. “There’s one way for us to check. ’Chili, take Yuko, return to HQ and use the scanners to look for our returning brethren. Let us know how many we’re short.”
He nodded and together he and Yuko disappeared.
“Hey!”
All heads turned as Seth appeared from one of the tunnels. He wore a denim long-sleeve shirt and khakis.
“Seth!” called Michael as he approached. “Is it you? You look healthy. You’re all right?”
Seth smiled. “For the first time in a long time.”
There was a shimmer and Achilles reappeared.
“They’re all back!” he announced.
“All?” Michael turned and looked at Rathe. The others followed his gaze.
“How can they all be back if he’s still here?”
Rathe’s expression opened like a flower as he strode toward the group. “I’m an Angelus now. I told you!”
“Open your wings,” said Michael.
“What?”
�
��You heard me.”
Rathe expanded his wings.
“Red. Not blue. You’re not an Angelus.” Michael turned to Achilles. “Are you sure everyone has returned?”
“Did a full headcount. Everyone is accounted for.”
Anne could see Tyannah struggling to contain her glee. The girl walked to Rathe and put her arm around him, careful to avoid his wings as they retracted.
“Maybe they abandoned him. They’re letting us adopt him,” she suggested.
Rathe looked down at her. “You make me sound like a stray dog.”
“Would you rather be a dog or back in Chaos?”
He smirked. “Woof.”
Michael sighed. “Angeli, gather everyone and return to headquarters. Take the Sentinels wherever they need to go.”
“Where do you want to go?” Boudica asked Con, a saucy smirk on her lips.
“Wherever you’re going.”
“Nope,” said Michael, without looking at him. “She’s going back to HQ for debriefing.”
Boudica scowled.
“I’ll take Tyannah to Anne’s, okay?” asked Rathe.
Anne nodded.
“You’ve got the cowboy,” said Achilles to Leo.
“Seth can take him.”
Michael shook his head. “No. You take him. I want Seth to go directly to HQ.”
Leo huffed. “Fine.”
The others partnered up and disappeared, leaving Michael and Anne alone.
“I guess you’re stuck with me,” she said.
“I guess so. Just my luck.”
“You think it’s over?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know that it’s ever over. I don’t like that Rathe is still here. It doesn’t make sense.”
“You think Achilles is wrong about all the Angeli being back?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. Maybe somehow Rathe did change enough that he doesn’t count anymore? We’ll have to figure it out. If everyone is back, though, it will be harder for the Cherubim to regain a foothold. At least now we’ve learned some things. We won’t make the same mistake: sending an Angelus to Chaos in the hopes of cleansing him of Perfidia.”
“That would be stupid.”
“That’s what I said.”
“I mean really dumb.”
“There was no way for us to know.”
“Idiotic, really.”
“Okay, okay, I get your point.” Michael moved closer to her and tilted his head down as she tilted hers back. Their lips nearly touched before he whispered to her.
“You know there’s no way I’m kissing that face, right?”
She stepped back. “What?”
“Have you seen yourself?”
She stared down at her blood-soaked clothing and knew her hair and face must look the same.
“It’s not that bad.”
“Are you kidding me? I think there’s a tooth in your hair. Or is that an eyeball?”
She slapped his arm. “Come on! A dragon exploded on me.”
“I beheaded a dragon myself, but look at me.”
Michael stood, spotless.
She rolled her eyes. “Not everyone can just zap themselves a new outfit.”
“That is a shame.”
Anne opened her mouth to complain, but he put his finger on her lips to shush her. They kissed.
His nose wrinkled. “You taste like iron and plasma.”
“But yet you kissed me.” She wrapped her bloody arms around his clean clothes and stared into his brilliant blue eyes. “I guess beauty really is in the eye of the beheader.”
Epilogue
“I’ll be with you in a second.”
Seth nodded as the interviewer left the room. He scratched at his arm and sighed. Scratching again, he rolled up the sleeve on his shirt.
The word Varymor was burned into the skin of his forearm.
It itched.
“Sorry,” said the interviewer returning. “Ready?”
Seth rolled down his sleeve and buttoned it as the man sat. He smiled.
“Ready.”
THE END
Thank you for taking time to read Varymor! If you enjoyed it, please consider telling your friends or posting a review on Amazon or GoodReads or wherever you like to roam. Word of mouth helps poor starving authors so much!
Thank you for taking time to read The Angeli Trilogy! If you enjoyed it, please consider telling your friends or posting a review on Amazon or GoodReads or wherever you like to roam. Word of mouth helps poor starving authors so much!
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Amy specializes in fun, comedic reads about accident prone, easily distracted women with questionable taste in men.
So, autobiographies, mostly.
Amy is the former East Coast Editor of SURFER Magazine but the urge to drive up and down the coast interviewing surfers has long since left her. Currently, she is a nerd and Labradoodle mommy who works at home with her goofy husband.
She has rocked water aerobics at a fifty-five and over community, but has yet to play serious bingo. She’s heard it’s vicious.
Other Books by Amy Vansant
Pineapple Lies (Pineapple Port Mystery: Book I)
Pineapple Mystery Box (Pineapple Port: Book II)
Slightly Stalky (romantic comedy)
Angeli (funny/dark urban fantasy adventure)
Cherubim (Angeli Book II)
The Magicatory (middle-grade fantasy)
Moms are Nuts (editor: humor anthology)
The Surfer’s Guide to Florida (non-fiction: out of print)
