I wanted something from it. A wing would do. Perhaps a leg as well.
My mind pulled into wild abstractions, I digressed from this macabre list of menu items to my last conversation with Hex. Have you ever seen the stars? They are beautiful up here. It was true. Though I was hurtling to the earth at probably hundreds of miles per hour, strapped to my boyfriend, no less, I had to admit it. The stars were beautiful.
But there was a massive hole in them. A vacuum of light. And it was getting bigger. Or nearer.
“Come on,” was all my mind could produce from my lips as the Sword of Light blazed forth, coming to my hand, ready for battle. In its piercing acetylene light. I saw the menacing outline of my enemy.
CHAPTER XXII
NWABA HAD ALLOWED THE others to harass and seek and destroy the inconsequential one while he snipped the wings off the Daughter of El who possessed the Sword.
Simply put, he wanted to add the Sword to his arsenal. With that, the Bloodstone, and the other item in the host’s pink backpack, he would begin to fulfill his potential.
But first he must procure the weapon, which meant she must die. He adored the fallen domain, how it was brutally animalistic, how there was only the hunter and the hunted. He swept his wings back and lunged forward and down upon her plummeting form.
Just when he was within striking distance, she unsheathed the Sword with a shout.
He extended his talons.
***
IN THE BLINDING AND sudden light of the Sword, I had even more trouble seeing my enemy. All I was able to do was brace for impact and pray the blade would make its mark.
As it approached, all I could see were wings as big as an airplane, wicked talons, and a shriek that filled me with terror. I swung the Sword around, praying it would make contact, that it would telegraph information to me like it had on the side of the road in Oregon. But this time, everything was vague and masked. I couldn’t tell for sure what had happened; only that I had cut something and that as a result, Michael and I were sent tumbling out of control.
The next shriek that rent the night sky was delayed, and that told me that I hadn’t delivered a deathblow. No, something else had happened. But that didn’t matter right now. I was fighting for my life, for our lives. There were so many demons left, circling, that wanted to kill us.
As my mind refocused on our more immediate perils, the Sword disappeared. I tried to call it up again but it was no use. Great.
That’s when the last thing She had told me resounded in my head once more. I began frantically searching for the release for the reserve chute.
Desperate, desperate, desperate. I groped, fumbling in the dark as we spun out like a one-winged bird.
I caught a glimpse of the water below. I gasped as I realized how close we were to hitting the surface. It would be bad if we did, at this speed. Water or concrete, it didn’t much matter. Both were just as deadly.
We couldn’t have been more than five hundred feet above the surface of the sea when my right hand finally found the release. I pulled as fast as I could. There was a great sweeping, rushing sound as the reserve chute deployed into the darkness.
But we were still falling very fast; I could see the waves distinctly now and we were not slowing.
At last, when I felt I could reach out and touch the sea, when I, eyes wide, beheld our end and was powerless to affect it, there was a big pop above us. My limbs were wrenched again and I saw stars.
I reached up to the control handles and pulled them both very hard, flaring the chute.
Our feet kissed the waves; the deep reached up and pulled us in. Down.
From the Book of the Brotherhood, Volume 3:
…
Dear Host, it is your privilege to further any advance of the Leader’s Kingdom. You hold your very life forfeit for the cause. You are to obey orders instantly and without question. For when you are finally unmade, you will find the nothing you now seek. The Leader wants to give it to you, but you must obey to the death…
CHAPTER I
Somewhere Over the South Atlantic—Present Day
NWABA WAS ENRAGED. THAT cursed idiot girl had brandished the Blade as if she had known more than she could know. It filled him with perverse admiration, for it was the kind of blow he would liked to have struck. But he had missed her entirely.
The Daughter of El had proven cunning. But how could she have known, been so precise? She had wielded the Sword expertly, had cut the cocoon away from his belly, had separated him from the host, Kim. Plus, she had raked the righteous tip of the Sword across every rib on one side, a clean slice that oozed black blood.
He quivered with deep hatred and anger, looking around frantically for the body of the host of the Bloodstone. The one named Kim was falling like a rag doll to smack upon the welted surface of the sea, lost unless he snatched her in midair.
Worse still, she carried the precious cargo.
Squinting his eyes, he searched, crazed.
There. He saw her flailing and pathetic form below him.
Growling in scalding curses, he launched himself with his great wings and then folded them to intercept her. He could not damage the body of the host; he must get under her and slow her fall gradually. He shot past her like a bullet, spread his wings, nuzzled her onto his back, and then flared just above the surf.
He spread into a glide and slowed, reaching back with a claw and pulling her down to his feet where he could grasp her, look her over, ensure the precious cargo was safe.
The host was intact; now in a kind of hibernation mankind called a coma. The host was, in fact, never better. But the pink backpack was missing.
An unholy roar erupted from the heart of him. That insufferable girl must have cut off the precious cargo as well.
Nwaba was left with two choices, and he hated them both equally: He could either spend himself fruitlessly searching for the wretched backpack, the Bloodstone, and that other valuable cargo— which by now had certainly been swallowed up by the sea—or he could return to his stronghold and attempt to mend and regroup. He could then return with fresh troops, specialized men and Brothers who could retrieve the object of desire from the bosom of the perilous deep.
He called his captains to him and issued new orders: “Pluck them from the sea. And bring them to me.”
***
Cape Town, South Africa—Present Day
MR. EMMANUEL SAT AT the top of the world and clutched his side. This was not good. And it would ruin a perfectly good shirt. Though his laundress could certainly get bloodstains out, it wasn’t practical to introduce the problem in the first place. Too many questions would be asked, he would become quickly bored with it and then certainly have to kill her, and then he would have to go to the trouble and inconvenience to find a new laundress. And he particularly liked how she turned out his shirts.
Exasperated, he stripped it off.
The master must be suffering. And he will arrive soon, no doubt. Mr. Emmanuel sighed and employed the wasted shirt as a bandage, slowing the flow of the blood. It would do for now.
He walked through his fiftieth-floor penthouse toward the gymnasium. This would sting a bit, but the life was in the blood and he didn’t want to go round losing too much of it. Whatever had happened, it was big. The gash was about a foot long, spanning the distance from just under his right pectoralis down one side to just above his pelvis. The inner flesh of all the ribs on that side had been exposed.
In a cabinet in the gymnasium, there were various medical supplies. There were also cans containing an aerosol liquid that he hadn’t quite yet taken public. It was too good for that just yet.
He sprayed it over his wound, the edges drew closed, and the bleeding stopped. It did leave a scar, and it certainly hurt a lot, but it repaired the damage.
The mind was powerful, so much so that the connection between demon and brother would bring about real-enough wounds if one or the other were injured. It was psychical, spiritual, so powerful that it crossed wit
h ease into the natural. But Mr. Emmanuel fancied himself a god, and gods were eternal beings. He was in control of his own mind. Even if his demon died—the one for whom he played host—he would yet live. Besides, the Bloodstone was calling Nwaba onward now, and once they possessed it together, the rules could change. Possibly in my favor; but he dared not think such things out loud yet.
For now, the only change he needed was in regards to his shirt.
He slid the old one down the chute to the incinerator.
***
False Bay, South Africa—Present Day
I HEARD SHOUTING IN the wet dark, but it came and went and was distant. The waves were relentless and unpredictable, crashing in on us, entangling us in the lines of our chute, which, now that it had completed its job of grabbing air, was grabbing currents in the sea, threatening to pull us under.
I flailed. Though he was strapped to me, it was very difficult to keep Michael’s head above water. The only way I could do it effectively was to lie on my back and thrust my belly up, but it was a herculean effort. Even with my superhuman abilities, I would not be able to continue like this for very long.
The shouting came closer, but I still couldn’t make it out. Something about a propeller? Or something called shoo-daway? It didn’t make sense. Besides, I had other things to worry about. Great. We’re saved from certain death at the hands of Brotherhood traitors by an enormous plane crash, which thrusts us into certain death at the hands of gravity. And an airborne horde of demons. I went down the list, thinking that if I were a cat, I would almost be out of lives by now.
My top priority was fast becoming finding a way to release the chute from Michael and me. I thought it certainly had to be like the ripcord pull, only different enough to eliminate confusion. I tried to scramble for it with one hand, but every time I did, we sank under the waves. I was seriously worried about Michael. If his airway became restricted in his unconscious state, he would suffocate and drown. I didn’t know how to release the pack straps; I searched in vain.
Now the shouting was near and very clear. It was Ellie. “…your chute away.”
I figured she was telling me to cut the chute away. Like, duh. Trying that, genius.
“Airel, cut your chute away. Use the Sword.”
The Sword. “Duh,” I said, and focused as hard as I could on my grandfather’s blade. It was obvious when it appeared—the sea lit up all around it, fizzing like crazy. I did my best to cut us loose, being careful not to injure Michael or me. But the cords of the chute were on all sides now, tangled with us. After the first few swipes of the Blade we were in better shape, which was good, because I didn’t have both arms to keep us afloat. I kicked my feet as hard and as quick as I could to keep us up, but I was running out of energy fast.
I looked around for the largest remaining mass of cords and took one final swipe at them. The Sword made the sea boil around us; I could feel the warmth coming across us in alternations of cold and hot. But at last we were free; the parachute fell away and drifted off.
I had figured out by now how to put the sword away with a thought, and I did so. I basically just had to think of something I needed more desperately, and what I needed then most of all was to keep us afloat. The Sword returned to wherever it had come from and I treaded water furiously, hoping Michael hadn’t gotten too much seawater in his mouth.
Then I heard Ellie’s voice. “We’ve gotta stick together. Stay close, okay?”
I was breathing very hard, working even harder. “Okay.”
“We’re in real danger, all right?”
“Well, duh. Unless I’m missing something.”
She spat salty seawater out of her mouth audibly. “Yeah. You are. We’re in False Bay, girlie. There’s no greater concentration of sharks in the whole world.”
As I treaded water, I rolled my eyes. This is impossible. Just one thing after another.
“Is it?” She answered me. “Just watch.”
“So stay close,” Ellie continued. “And here.” I heard a pop and a whooshing sound, like something being filled with air. She slapped the water with it in front of me, and I peered at it in the darkness. “Grab it,” she shouted.
I did. It was a float. Now I truly understood the meaning of the words “life preserver.” I didn’t know where in the world she had gotten one; I figured it had to be just another part of all her fancy survival gear I had seen stashed away in the back of the plane. The plane. Holy crap, we just survived a full-on plane crash. But I couldn’t take the time to be amazed at anything. I had to keep Michael’s head above water.
“And stay close, remember?” Ellie shouted.
“Okay.”
I tried to get Michael higher. I stuck an arm through the inflatable life ring and shifted his weight around, pulling the ring under us and floating us both. I slowed my kicking, just trying to keep us close to Ellie. And breathe. I needed to breathe.
“Now,” Ellie said, a little calmer now that the situation was more in hand, “we just have one more thing to worry about.”
Through my gasping, ragged breaths, I managed to ask her, “What now?”
She pointed up. About a hundred demons were circling above us in the night sky.
“Great.”
***
Cape Town, South Africa—Present Day
KREIOS WATCHED UNMOVED. THE man and his Brother inside were scared; they knew that everything they did from this moment on was in vain. They ran in circles, maddened by his proximity to them, their minds driven to tatters in the drawing out of the moment by the angel standing, waiting at the doorstep. For here now was real authority, and their rebellion had found the beginning of its end.
But Kreios would wait for the signal as he had waited for Joshua, the man of El, at Ai.
The two inside stopped their madness and faced him, cowering, finally bowing down and begging as they had been destined to do. For they had been devoted to destruction. Untouchable by any but the Angel of Death. When Kreios touched them, they would find an end—and a truly terrible beginning, one they both knew and dreaded. Kreios was not the Judge—he merely went before Him to prepare the way.
The moment drew near. He could feel it.
***
NWABA COULD FEEL SOMETHING too. Ordinarily, his master, Lucifer, the prince of the power of the air, owned the very skies. But something was changing. Something familiar drew near in the air, but he could not isolate it and identify it. Who would dare to challenge Lucifer’s principality?
But he knew the answer to that question. At least he thought he did, because still, specifics eluded him. It was a true authority, which meant the artifice of his own was soon to pass away. Oh, how he hated to be reminded that the favor he enjoyed was merely temporal. And it was favor, curse it all. He hated all of it.
He flew on, toward his citadel.
***
FALSE BAY WAS A bubbling cauldron of activity that centered on three huddled individuals treading water. Demons circled above, swooping down upon them, trying to make a play for snatching them out and carrying them off. They descended as near the water as they dared, being as mortally afraid of it as any angel under the sun might have been. Some pumped their wings furiously as they tried to hover, some swooped and dove in massive arcs, aiming for the helplessly swamped daughters of El and the Alexander, the traitor. All they needed to do was snatch them up and be gone.
But this was only one component of peril. The great white shark, terror of the sea, was circling as well, and in numbers not found in any other body of water on the planet. Smelling fear, smelling prey, they closed in.
***
“JUST WATCH,” SHE HAD said.
Well, I’m waiting. I was exasperated. I looked heavenward into a midnight-blue sky, peppered with points of starlight and afflicted by evil beasts that wished only to end us. El … help. We were spent, surrounded, and my Michael needed help.
I heard an unholy shriek from behind me. I turned quickly. In the light cast out into the bay
by the millions of city lights, I saw a demon struggling to stay airborne. Then another hellish scream resounded from another direction and I turned in time to see one of the horde splash down, struggling violently in the sea. There was a frenzy that accompanied it, and I couldn’t make sense of what was happening at first.
Then Ellie said something, awe in her tone. “Airel, look. Watch.” She pointed into the darkness.
Lit in silhouette by the lights on shore, we watched in amazement as an enormous great white shark breached, rocketing out of the water, its terrible mouth clamping onto the hovering body of one of the demonic horde. This one didn’t have time to do much but vomit forth a pathetic yelp before it foundered in the sea, sinking to its death.
I gasped, but was otherwise totally speechless. The sharks were all around us. Contrary to what I had thought, though, they weren’t a danger to us. They were like our vanguard. I wept for joy as our brave cohorts began to defend us.
CHAPTER II
Cape Town, South Africa—Present Day
KREIOS SMILED. THERE WAS the signal; he could feel it. El was on the move.
He stepped forward toward the doors and extended a finger. The glass returned to dust at his touch and scattered to the floor, some to the wind. The door’s metal frame, which had held the glass, oxidized and corroded in seconds, crumbling into blackened slag and falling into a heap.
Kreios looked left and then right, withering every window and frame on the main floor into nothingness—dust. He stepped into the lobby, his body emitting pure white light that pulsed with his heartbeat.
His footsteps left no trace—not even the residue from the soles of his shoes followed him. Indeed, the base elements fairly cried out and abjured him, grains of sand becoming animated and scurrying off to avoid his touch, his vicinity. He moved across the lobby smoothly, without observable evidence.
The Airel Saga Box Set: Young Adult Paranormal Romance Page 60
