“Everything?”
“Yep. Everything. For one thing, you shouldn’t punch your son-in-law in the middle of a landing, especially when he’s traveling with precious cargo,” Etta said, as she tied his wrists.
“He deserved it. He should have told us what was happening. I have half a mind to knock him another good one for making us worry. Wait, did you say son-in-law?”
“Ra, top drawer to the left in the kitchen is a roll of duct tape, and in the drawer next to it, you’ll find a dishcloth. Will you get them for me?” Etta spoke over John’s rant.
When I returned, John continued complaining about all the wrong I had done and how lucky I was we were on the same side.
“I can’t say I’m sorry I have to do this, ’cause I’m not. Just know that I love you, devil dawgy.” Etta shoved the dishcloth in his mouth. As she stretched out a piece of tape and cut it with her teeth, John spit out the cloth.
“You don’t need the rag, baby girl,” John pleaded.
“Yes I do. You know as well as I do without a buffer between your tongue and the tape, you’ll just lick the sticky off it.” Etta shoved the cloth back in his mouth and pushed the tape across his lips and cheeks.
“That should hold. Amy, take your position. If any of us need help from her, yell the code word ‘mosh’.” Etta ignored John’s moans through the gag. Once Amy had been put safely up stairs, Etta turned her attention to the living room window next to the fireplace.
“You know this isn’t going to work,” Gabriel whispered as he took position next to me.
“I know, but look at her. She’s confident and in control. I can’t ruin that for her. She’s had enough people not believing in her and controlling everything around her.”
“What’s the plan then?”
“I don’t know. We’re going to have to see how this plays out.”
“So, we’re winging it?” Gabriel asked with a chuckle. His pun raised a little laugh in me as well.
“He just pulled up. You guys ready?” Etta exclaimed excitedly.
“We were born ready.” Gabriel bounced up and down, shaking his wrists and stretching his neck, all part of his intimidating theatrics. The same twinkle that appeared before every battle sparkled in his eyes, assuring me he was more than ready. He’d been craving it.
“Shoot. I almost forgot. Sorry, Dad, but I have to make it look real.” Etta drew back and punched John in the nose before darting behind us.
Lucky for our ears, John’s profane rant had been muffled by the gag as he jerked in the chair. I’m not sure I would have gone as far as hitting a man tied up, but I had to give Etta credit, the girl wanted the scene to appear as authentic as possible.
“Help!” She gave an ear-shattering shriek. Gabriel and I put on the illusion of Ramen and Benjamin, awaiting Vetis to break down the front door to save his girl. As we stood at the ready, seconds flew into minutes.
“Are you sure it was him?” I asked.
“Positive,” Etta replied.
“Something’s wrong,” Gabriel interjected.
Suddenly, the windows exploded inward. I fanned my wings and blocked the glass from piercing Etta as I slammed her down onto the hardwood floor. A blur of black moved through the broken window behind me. Gabriel had snatched a Demon by the throat and pierced him with his wing.
Another aimed his sword at Gabriel’s back. Pulling my mace from behind me, I swung it upward into the Demon’s chin. Before his body hit the ground, Etta stabbed him in the chest with a feather.
Hearing a grunt behind me, I turned to find John out of his binds, connecting punch after punch with another Demon’s face before giving him a death blow with his wing. As his body fell, we scanned for another, but found the room unnerving and still.
“Is that it?” Etta huffed, trying to catch her breath.
“Oh, no. That’s just the beginning,” I said.
“Then I’m going to need a longer feather.”
“No you don’t. You’re going to go upstairs until this is over,” I said, pulling her toward the foyer.
“Oh, no. Amy!” Etta exclaimed and ran up the stairs.
“John, do you have any weapons or shields?” Gabriel asked.
“I do.” He flashed away to retrieve them. Etta came running back to me, ripped a feather from my wing then ran back up stairs. Seconds later, John returned with two swords and shields.
“Ra, you got the mace, so Gabriel, why don’t you take the spares?” John said, tossing them to him. The weight of just the sword would drop most men to their knees, but my dear brother had a way of making them seem weightless as he caught and readied them.
“Amy’s fine. Now what?” Etta said as she hurried to my side.
“You go back upstairs and stay there.”
“No way. I’m not leaving you.”
“Etta, go,” I demanded as I pushed her away from me.
“No. Every time we’re apart something bad happens. Not this time. United we stand, or divided we’ll fall.” Etta slid her hands down my shoulders onto my wings and ripped a feather out of each one.
“Ow. Really? That hurts, you know. Quit doing that.”
“Suck it up, you big baby. I need a weapon.”
“You are not fighting, Etta.” I grabbed her arm and began dragging her toward the stairs. Smacking my hand away, Etta shoved me from behind. Furious, I spun on my heel, ready to rip into her, but found she had already closed the gap between us, shaking her finger in my face.
“I’m not going to let anyone decide what is best for me. And I’m so sick and tired of sitting around waiting to be rescued while everyone else gets to fight. My days of being a victim are over. Do you understand me? So, you can either fight next to me, or go just home right now.”
“Here, you’ll need a handle to protect your hands.” John picked up some rope and wrapped it on the ends of the feathers.
“Really, John?” I protested.
“She fights. That’s an order. Gabriel, man the front. Rahovart, you take the rear. Etta and I will hold the middle.”
An onslaught of Demons charged through the front door and crawled through the windows. The sounds of hooves splintering the hardwood floor turned my attention to the kitchen, where I found twenty or so rushing toward me. I swung the mace at the first Demon I saw and punctured the two at his side with my wings. Another came up from the right, thrusting his sword at me. Stepping to the side to dodge the blade, my wing smacked something.
Glancing over my shoulder I saw Gabriel’s wide smile as he fought off a group of Minotaurs. John slew any that made it past Gabriel. Etta stood behind me, feather in each hand, ready for one to slip past me. It lit a fire in me to see blood trickle down her cheek from where my wing had hit her. I had to keep her safe. In a fury, I turned back to the mob, flinging the mace every which direction. What the mace missed, my wings hit. Stepping forward with every blow, I pushed the line back.
Just as it seemed I’d been making headway, a noise from above caught my attention. Etta tackled John just a second before the ceiling and the contents of her bedroom and bathroom came crashing down. In a downpour of water, Demons began swarming in from the hole. Jumping to their feet, Etta and John moved around each other, slicing and dicing at each one that came their way.
One had broken from Gabriel and charged toward Etta from behind. Before I got to him, Etta spun around, grabbing John’s wing to shield herself. The tip of the Demon’s sword grazed the wing, sending sparks into the air. As he drew back to strike again, Etta dropped John’s wing and plunged a feather in his sternum. My chest swelled with pride as my girl slew Demons like a seasoned Arch. When the last jumped from the second floor into the living room, I turned back just in time to strike another down. The water pouring from the broken pipes made the flooring slick. As I swung the mace toward another, I lost my footing. Able to dodge my blow, the Demon stuck his blade into my shoulder.
“Mosh!” Etta yelled over the melee. Fearing Etta had been hurt, I glanced
over my shoulder briefly. Taking down Demon after Demon, she didn’t appear injured. Before I had a chance to question her call for medical attention, Amy jumped down the hole in the ceiling.
“Where are you hurt?” Amy ran to my side as a Demon made a move for her.
“Watch out!” I shoved Amy downward when the Demon disappeared in a puff of dust. Looking at her in confusion, she bared the same twinkle in the eye and smile as Gabriel did just before a battle.
“When I slap you it heals, but to these monsters it’s deadly.” Amy giggled and rubbed her hands together as if they were the pads of a defibrillator. Remembering what happened last time she “healed” me, I gave her a warning look not to touch me.
“Don’t worry. I have them on low.” She grabbed my shoulder.
“Why can’t you girls just do as you’re told?” I shrieked in pain. It’s not that I didn’t appreciate her healing, but now I had two to protect.
I had to think quickly as to what to do with her. It would be impossible for Amy to get back upstairs by herself. I should throw her back through the hole, but Gabriel would never forgive me if she got hurt from the toss. Unable to come up with a solid plan before another group of Demons came charging toward us, I went with the first thing that came to mind.
“Hold on to my shirt behind me. When I say, you grab the closest thing to you.” Regaining my footing, I continued to battle the never-ending wave of Demons. It seemed for every one I killed, two would take its place.
Another onslaught came rushing behind the group in front of me. As I swung my mace trying to get through the current wave, another mace’s chain entangled with mine and ripped it from my grasp.
I had a difficult enough time keeping them back with the weapon. Now that I had been unarmed, I became panic stricken. Flailing my wings, I tried to hold the line in hopes I would eventually cut through to the end. The harder I pushed, the harder they pushed back. The more punches I threw, the more they landed. Each strike of my wings seemed to be deflected. Fearing a loss, I had no choice but to call for help.
“Now!” I cried. Amy jumped from behind me and started wind milling her arms around, slapping anything that came close and turning them to dust.
I had opened my mouth to yell at her when something wrapped around my throat, choking me as it pulled my head back. Trying to yank it away, an object hit me in the back, dropping me to my knees. I tried to struggle against them until my neck was met with the tips of several swords. I found myself surrounded. To my right, a bloodied and worn John sat with twelve blades on him, including his own sword. Gabriel had met the same fate.
“Don’t you touch her!” Gabriel roared as the beast slammed Amy to her knees.
“Where is the girl?” Pyro, Vetis’s prince of deceit, asked as he strolled through the front door. I sent a questioning look to my brother. His eyes quickly darted to the hole in the ceiling, then back to me. Had I known he would think chucking someone’s wife up through a hole would be acceptable, I would have returned the courtesy with Amy when I had the opportunity.
“You’re greatly outnumbered. If you wish to keep your pretty little wings, I suggest one of you start talking. Where is the girl?”
“You’re wasting your time, Pyro. They’re too proud. Line them up with their faces against the wall.” Vetis appeared in the room as Tristan. One of Vetis’s goons lifted Gabriel and I off our knees, before slamming us into the wall where the wet bar once stood. “Put the Templar and the girl between the two Arches.”
Gabriel’s face snapped to me at Vetis’s command. With him in a corner, and Amy and John between us, he would be unable to even twitch a wing. One wrong move could send them slicing right through the two. With them to my side, that left one wing for me to use, which definitely wouldn’t be enough to get us out of this predicament.
“I will give you all one last chance to save yourselves. All you have to do is answer one question. Where is the girl?”
“She’s far from here,” John answered.
“Oh, Templar, I highly doubt she’d leave her daddy and precious Rahovart behind. No worries though, I have ways of drawing people out. Pyro, give me Rahovart’s left wing. It’ll make a nice present for Master’s birthday, don’t you think?”
“Yes, I do.” Unable to control my wing’s own self-defense mechanism, it fluttered and flapped as the blazing hot steel of a blade touched my skin.
“Hold him down,” Pyro called out.
“No!” Gabriel, Amy, and John cried out as a Demon took me to the ground, face first, while one sat on my back and eight others held out my arms and legs. I tried to wiggle out of their grips, but the more I struggled, the tighter they held me.
“Shut them up,” Pyro ordered as his blade dug into my spine below my shoulders. White hot pain shot through my body, and I let out a guttural scream, drowning out the cries of my companions.
“Just a little twist here,” Pyro gloated.
“Let him go or the pretty boy gets it.” I looked up at Etta, unable to focus on her. Straining to see, I made out the outlines of her legs wrapping around Vetis’s waist from behind with one hand snaked around his neck and the other holding a feather to his chest.
“Stupid girl.” Pyro put his foot on my back. An explosive pop went off inside of me as he ripped out my wing. Dizziness overcame me, and my body shook violently. Vetis screamed in pain.
“You think I’m playing? Kill the head, and the body will fall. I kill him, you all die. One more inch and you all will find your souls in Purgatory. I have lots of friends there who would love nothing more than to get their hands on you.” Fighting off my body’s drive to pass out, I peered up. Etta had pierced his chest just enough to cause pain, but not kill him.
In the past, whenever I talked about my battles with Abihail, she always seemed disinterested or bored. I would find her fidgeting with her nails or staring off in the distance. I assumed she never listened and would divulge little trade secrets no one knew except the Arches about Demons.
But she had remembered my tales about the battle of Jericho, the easiest victory in our history. The Ophidian Lord left himself wide open. Gabriel moved in, plunged his sword in his chest and seconds later, twenty five basilisk legions fell with him. In the midst of pure agony, I smiled at her.
“Kill the girl!” Pyro’s command thundered.
“Now we’re down to a half an inch.” Vetis released another scream as Etta pushed the feather deeper.
“Stop, you idiot. What do you want, girl?” Vetis cried.
“You know what I want. Call him.”
“Call who?”
“Quarter of an inch left. You sure you wanna keep acting stupid?” Etta yelled, twisting the feather inward.
“All right. You win. I’ll call him.” Vetis quietly whispered the words to call upon his Master.
Instantly, Lucifer appeared. “What can I do for you?”
“I want to make a deal,” Etta snarled.
Chapter Twenty
My mind flashed back to Persephone and her warning about Etta. Any deal with Lucifer came with unseen strings. Being a master of words and technicalities, he always made sure he benefitted more than the other participant. Of course this was nothing new. Even when he served as a representative of the Tribunals, he gained quite a bit from his trials and clients. Etta knew this better than anyone else, as his secretary and sister.
“Etta, don’t!” I cried as I tried breaking free from my captors.
“Ra, shut up.”
“And what deal is it you wish to make, Sister?” Lucifer said with an arrogant smile.
“Okay. First off, don’t call me your sister. You gave up that right when you betrayed me and left.” She gritted her teeth.
“I asked you to come with me, dear sister.” Lucifer shrugged his shoulders as he rolled his eyes.
“That’s neither here nor there. Here’s the deal. You leave us alone. Go back to Hell where you belong, and take your rabid cattle with you.”
“I see no
thing in that for me.” He blew imaginary dust from his fingernails.
“Let me finish. You go back to Hell with these guys, and for as long as I am human, you leave me and my family alone. That includes John, Rene, Amy, Ra, and Gabriel. None of that ‘oh she’s your friend not your family’ crap.”
“Ah, for as long as you are human? That still doesn’t work for me. You see, the veil has been opened. You will obviously choose the righteous path and hide behind Heaven’s gates.”
“Well, that’s the deal. Whether or not it works for you isn’t my problem.”
Lucifer seethed as he glared at Etta. He had assumed she would want to make a trade—my life for hers. But his Seers were wrong. Could it be they hadn’t calculated Etta’s true inner strength? Or maybe Persephone’s reach went further than delivering warnings and feathers? Whichever the case, I saw the wheels in his mind spinning, trying to figure out how to turn the situation back in his favor.
“I’ll accept your deal if you sweeten the pot a bit,” Lucifer countered with a wily grin.
“What do you want?”
“His wings.” Lucifer growled, pointing toward me.
“Yeah. That won’t happen. How about this instead? You keep the wing Pyro already ripped out, and I let your little boy toy here live.”
“What makes you think I value his life over yours?”
“Think about it. You can go another fifty years or more without an heir. But without Vetis, all the lies, illusions, and the world he built for you on Earth would come crashing down, setting you back hundreds of years. How many of your followers would remain loyal once your empire begins to crumble? How long would it be before you stood before the Tribunal, alone and unprotected?”
Lucifer’s face went cold and he flared his nostrils. I’d seen that look once before. Etta had him dead to rights, and he knew it.
“I don’t have all night.”
“Deal,” he whispered as he snatched my wing from Pyro.
“What? I can’t hear you,” Etta mocked.
The Human Side (The Demon Side Series) Page 13
