by Cassie Ryan
Lucifer didn’t look like he would agree, but finally he nodded. “All right, ladies. Here’s the situation. Armageddon could be at hand.”
“Could be?” Amalya didn’t realize she’d spoken until she heard her own voice and all her sisters turned to look at her.
Michael smiled. “Yes, could be. If it comes to pass is up to you four.” He held up a hand to stop Lucifer from speaking, and once Lucifer gave a small nod, Michael continued. “The four horsemen have been imprisoned in Atlantis at the bottom of the Aegean Sea since before the beginning of your recorded time. If they are released, then Armageddon begins, and the outcome is decided at the expense of untold human suffering.”
“The horsemen?” Jez’s voice was laced with just as much disbelief as flowed through Amalya as she tried to make sense of Michael’s words. “As in Pestilence, Death, War, and Famine? Those horsemen?”
“Exactly.” He nodded as if Jez were a prized student.
“Excuse me, my lord,” Galina interrupted politely—the only one of them so far to remember the respectful address. “But what do Armageddon and the horsemen have to do with us? We only came to warn you of Semiazas’s activities before he kills off the entire human race on earth.”
And us, Amalya added to herself.
Lucifer snorted and Amalya bit her lip as she remembered he could pick up her thoughts. “No one wants Armageddon to come about—not me, not Michael, and certainly not our Father. This world is a playground for those of us who rebelled and a grand naïve experiment for those who didn’t.”
Michael cast Lucifer a long-suffering look, but remained silent. This seemed like a familiar argument between them.
“Don’t you see?” Lucifer continued. “Rather than flip the switch and risk the entire thing, we want to exercise the loophole and use a test group, as it were, to prove the world is worth saving.”
“And we’re the test group?” Jez’s last word ended on a squeak.
Michael held up a hand. “You have to willingly take on this responsibility and the contest will be between you four and Semiazas. He will be imprisoned for his crimes and as soon as he is free, he will hunt the four of you down to seek revenge, which is the beginning of the Armageddon prophecies.”
Jez swallowed hard. “What happens then?”
Michael exchanged a glance with Lucifer before continuing. “We will separate the four of you to protect you the best we can until the prophecy begins, and then only our Father, Lucifer, and I will know of the contest. The four of you will have to make your way to safety, find each other, and prevent Semiazas from releasing the horsemen, however you can.”
Reba snorted. “Yeah, that sounds like a walk in the park. Can’t we just do something easy like turn the world inside out or get Lucifer to make up with Daddy?”
Amalya squeezed Reba’s hand until her sister turned to scowl at her. Reba’s temper would get them all killed if she weren’t careful.
When a charged silence fell over the room, Amalya held her breath and snapped her gaze toward Lucifer to wait for his reaction. When he laughed and slowly clapped his hands, she gritted her teeth as she waited for all of them to be killed where they stood. “Bravo. That’s just the kind of spunk and fire all four of you will need to win through this.” His heavy gaze settled on Reba and he raked a sensual gaze over her from head to toe. “Perhaps when this is decided, little one, you’ll come back and pay me a visit.”
“Not likely,” she bit out, making Amalya and, she was sure, Galina and Jez cringe.
Lucifer only smiled and exchanged a look with Michael that told Amalya there was much more they weren’t being told. “There is always a way to win through, ladies, but”—he held up a finger—“there is a catch that I think you missed.”
Silence descended and Amalya held her breath as she waited for another comment from her sisters, which thankfully never came.
Finally Lucifer smiled, making him look like a hungry predator studying his next meal. “None of you will know about this—your memories will be removed. You might find clues along the way, but your choices must come from free will and selfless actions. Any allies you make along the way can help you, but neither Michael nor I can directly interfere other than to enforce the rules.”
“Rules?” Jezebeth found herself asking.
Michael nodded. “If any of the four of you fail—Armageddon begins. Any of the four of you can kill Semiazas if you can, but not before all four of you have stopped the horsemen. And Semiazas can not die at the hand of anyone else. Otherwise—”
“Armageddon begins.” Jezebeth’s words were soft and resigned. “And you said we have to willingly sign on for this. What if we don’t? What if we refuse?”
Lucifer spread his hands wide. “Armageddon begins.”
Anger roiled through Amalya—something that happened more and more often lately—as Jez snorted. “So we have no choice.”
She exchanged a glance with her sisters, seeing the same frustration she felt mirrored in their expressions.
“There is always a choice,” Michael said softly. “You may not like the options, but there is always a choice.”
A wrench of vertigo pulled Amalya nearly in two and she sucked in a breath to keep from throwing up as she realized she was back in Lucifer’s office sitting in the same chair she’d been in when she’d taken his hand.
6
Levi scowled after Amalya even as his logical side told him she was correct in staying behind. The action went against both what he’d promised Lilith about protecting Amalya and his male pride. But he was already light headed from the dozens of shades sliding through him and stealing his energy, the eerie icy sensations making his skin clammy and his vision swim as he forced one foot in front of the other. If he died, he definitely wouldn’t be able to protect her.
The sound of Jethro just behind him told him Amalya’s ploy to draw off the shades seemed to be working. So, not willing to waste her effort, he gritted his teeth and ran toward the farmhouse.
As he reached the front steps, Levi risked a glance behind him and had to dodge out of the way as Jethro pushed past him toward the front door. He raked his gaze over the farm, but from this vantage, he couldn’t see Amalya. Fear merged with protective anger inside his gut and he let adrenaline surge inside him.
He turned to find the front door of the farmhouse standing wide and he ducked inside, allowing a quick second for his eyes to adjust to the gloom. When they did adjust, the light from the front door only barely penetrated the deep gloom inside the room. He cursed as he realized the farmer and his family had probably drawn all the curtains and blocked off all the windows against the shades, not realizing that wouldn’t stop them.
“Straight ahead, and watch out for the farmer. His body is on the floor just in front of the kitchen.”
Jethro’s words sent a chill of foreboding quaking through Levi to blend with the clammy sensation that still clung to his skin from the shades. He didn’t want to see proof that the entities could kill when Amalya was still out there at their mercy.
Levi edged forward until his loafers bumped against what must be the farmer’s body. Then he sidestepped and headed forward again, carefully placing each foot in front of the other and reaching out with his hands until he saw a faint glow from what he assumed was the kitchen.
“I found two fifty-pound bags of salt in the cellar and put them on the table. None of the electricity works. It was most likely cut off at the breaker.”
As Levi edged farther inside the kitchen, he could just make out Jethro’s features, illuminated by candlelight. “We’ll worry about the breaker after we’ve saved Amalya. Let’s find the bathroom.”
“Can’t taking a piss wait? She’s still out there.” Anger laced Jethro’s words, but Levi ignored it.
“We need to dissolve the salt in the tub.”
Understanding flashed across Jethro’s features, and Levi’s respect for the man edged up a notch. At least Amalya had the good sense to have a bodygua
rd who not only adored her enough to lay down his own life for her but was intelligent and quick too.
Jethro hefted a bag of salt over his shoulder and disappeared through the doorway leaving Levi to hurry behind, using the edge of the candlelight to watch his footing. When they reached the living room, Levi carefully made his way back toward the front door and then felt along the front wall until he found the heavy curtains that covered the front windows. When he yanked and the curtains refused to budge, he traced his fingers to the edge until he felt the slick thickness of duct tape.
He bit back a growl of frustration as he pulled one of his daggers from a sheath just inside the waistband of his slacks and sliced open the line of thick tape. Now that he could grab hold of an edge of the curtain, several hard yanks ripped down the heavy cloth, pulling it rod and all to the floor and letting bright sunlight stream in.
He closed his eyes tight until the light through his lids didn’t make him wince and then opened them to see the insides of a quaint farmhouse decorated in the Southwest style.
A creative curse from Jethro made him smile. He might’ve begun to respect the man, but that didn’t mean he was ready to accept his presence on this trip quite yet. This all would’ve been easier if it were just he and Amalya.
“Thanks for the warning, Your Grace.” Sarcasm dripped from Jethro’s voice as he trudged to the upper floor.
“Any time,” Levi called back as he jogged up the stairs after him. “Makes it easier to navigate, doesn’t it?”
Instead of an answer, the sound of running water guided him up the stairs, down the long hall, and toward the spacious master bedroom. The room was filled with sunlight, a testament to Jethro taking the time to rip down the curtains that hung over the window like Levi had done downstairs. This room was more homey and less fashionable. Framed pictures of many different sizes covered every available surface, and the furniture looked comfortable rather than stylish.
Quick steps took Levi to the four-poster bed where he pulled off the multicolored quilt and then stepped inside the master bathroom.
Jethro was busy dumping the five-pound bag of salt into the slowly filling garden tub.
Impatience bit at Levi like hounds nipping at his heels, but he kept a tight rein on the sensation. He dropped the quilt onto the floor and used the nervous energy to look out any window he could find searching for Amalya. As each new view offered nothing but fields or road, he cursed under his breath and moved on to the next.
Finally, he pulled open the curtains in the guest room down the hall and saw her. She lay limp among the nearly grown cotton stalks, a swirl of white mist still surrounding her. Levi clenched his fists as impotence twisted with fear inside him. The fact that the shades still surrounded her meant she was alive, but that didn’t mean she would be for long. He wasn’t familiar with succubus anatomy, so even though he knew she could take more damage than a human and live, he didn’t know how soon that line would be crossed.
“Ready.”
Jethro’s call from down the hall was followed by the sound of water splashing and more colorful curses from the man. Levi entered the bathroom in time to see Jethro step out of the tub still fully clothed, dripping salt water onto the hardwood floor.
Levi stripped off his suit jacket and tossed it aside before he stepped inside the tub and sank under the water. The cold hit him harder than the slap of the shades had. Now he knew why Jethro had cursed.
Thanks for the warning, he thought, and knew it had been revenge for the sudden sunlight from the curtains downstairs. He surfaced with a gasp, more in protest from the cold, wet clothes that clung to his skin than from holding his breath.
As soon as he stepped out of the tub, he grabbed the quilt and shoved it into the water, wetting it and allowing a few seconds for the salt water to penetrate the cloth. He picked it up, still dripping and started for the door. “Salt the window and door frames,” he called over his shoulder to Jethro as he tried to hurry his steps, but his wet loafers threatened to slide out from under him on the well-waxed hardwood floor. When he hit the carpeted stairs, he jogged down the steps two at a time, the banked adrenaline now surging freely through him and urging him forward.
He could imagine Jethro’s angry reaction at being left behind to ready the house, but once Amalya was brought back, they needed someplace to recover that was safe from the shades. Not to mention that since his maternal side added something not quite human to his DNA, Levi was sure he could survive against the shades longer than Jethro who was a hundred percent human.
Levi chafed at the necessity of slowing down when he reached the bottom of the landing and more hardwood floor, but after several deliberate steps he made it to the front porch and shifted into an all-out run.
He increased his pace, ignoring the slap and sting of the cotton stalks that thrashed against his legs over the uneven ground, even though he nearly slipped and fell several times. Men’s dress shoes just weren’t made for running through cotton fields.
As he rounded the building, his breath left him in a quick rush. Amalya still lay unmoving, the mist of shades around her growing brighter as they siphoned her energy.
As he neared, the shades noticed him and a few advanced toward him. When they reached him, they seemed to cringe away, their translucent forms undulating as if in pain or discomfort.
The cool relief that slid through him was short lived as he glanced past them toward Amalya’s still form. He’d never actually had to use salt water against shades, and he was glad this information hadn’t just been an old wives’ tale.
He reached through the mist to spread the wet comforter on the ground next to Amalya, crushing cotton plants under its weight. The shades scattered back as they shied away from his touch but stayed close as if a small force field surrounded him.
As he moved, they undulated with him, zeroing in on Amalya’s still form as if they sensed they were about to lose their prize.
He gently lifted her and laid her on the comforter.
His gut clenched at the clammy feel of her skin, but he reminded himself it could be him after his dip in the frigid garden tub upstairs. He shoved everything else out of his mind except getting Amalya safely back to the farmhouse.
Using the free end of the blanket, he covered Amalya and rolled her in the excess cloth to ensure none of her body was exposed to the touch of the shades.
A low, uncomfortable vibration filled the air around him, making his stomach roil and his head throb as he hefted the bulky bundle in his arms and started back toward the house. As the low rumbling hum increased, Levi realized the sound came from the shades.
The mist began to swirl around him like an angry cyclone as he hurried back over the uneven ground with the bundle containing Amalya’s limp form firmly in his arms. As the vibration in the air around him increased, the sensation that his stomach was going to turn itself inside out made Levi clench his jaw against the sudden bite of bile on the back of his tongue.
He rounded the side of the house determined to make it inside without succumbing to the side effects of the angry shades.
The mist swirled faster and faster around them turning the air opaque and sending a crippling wave of vertigo cutting straight through Levi. He stumbled and fell to one knee, swallowing hard to keep from retching. Sucking in large breaths of air in an attempt to calm the roiling inside his head and stomach, he clenched his eyes tight and frantically tried to think of a way past the shades.
“Levi! Can you hear me?”
Relief speared through him as he turned to orient on Jethro’s voice, keeping his eyes firmly shut. “I hear you. Keep yelling.”
Levi slowly stood, hefting Amalya’s limp form into a better grip before he started forward, following Jethro’s voice until his foot bumped something hard.
“Stairs,” Jethro called, and Levi smiled as excitement surged through him giving him another burst of strength. If he’d made it to the stairs, he could make it the rest of the way.
The swirl
ing and rumbling increased until it felt like the air was a tangible force, and with every movement he pushed through solid gelatin.
He lifted one foot slowly and firmly placed it on the bottom stair before transferring his weight and pulling his foot up behind him. Never had six stairs seemed like such a daunting task before, but with the dead weight of Amalya in his arms, urgency pushed him forward.
“Incoming.”
The words had a split second to register inside his brain before a wall of icy water hit Levi, leaving him sputtering and tasting salt.
When he blinked away the water that had splashed into his eyes, Levi found Jethro standing ten feet in front of him in the doorway to the farmhouse holding a silver bucket.
Levi dashed toward the doorway.
As soon as he passed the door frame, the heavy sensation he’d fought against disappeared and left him stumbling against the sudden lack of resistance. He fell to his knees, careful not to drop Amalya as the door slammed shut behind them.
Amalya blinked across the desk at Lucifer as the overwhelming sensation of reliving the vivid memories slowly died away leaving her exhausted.
“Welcome back.” Lucifer’s expression was intense but left Amalya unsure of his mood. He still held her hand and she tried to tug it back, but her body refused to respond to the command. His fingers were warm and strong around hers and she wondered again that she didn’t feel the biting sensation of his power in such close proximity with him.
“I’m holding my power in check. You’re already weak, and that would only debilitate you further, not to mention make this meeting much more difficult to complete.”
He let go of her hand and she left it suspended in the air for a long moment before her brain kicked in and allowed her to lower it to her lap as the implications of those memories burned through her. “So why tell me all this now? I thought we were supposed to know nothing of this.”
Lucifer’s lips quirked so slightly that if Amalya hadn’t been watching, she wouldn’t have noticed. “I will follow the rules scrupulously. Once you leave here and go back into the human realm, your memories will fade.”
