by Ching, G. P.
She took cover behind the base of a massive concrete statue. As she tucked her hair back into her hat, she got her bearings. The park near Sanctuary. Almost home.
Pain shot through her torso. Or maybe the pain had been there all along, but she hadn’t noticed with the adrenaline pumping through her veins. The front of her coat was covered in blood. She unzipped the puffy, purple jacket and tried to pull it away from her chest. It snagged, and a sharp pain shot through her. A large piece of glass had passed through the down, next to the zipper, embedding itself in the space above and to the left of her belly button. With a shaking hand, she grabbed the edge and pulled.
It wasn’t the smartest thing she’d ever done. A gurgle of blood followed the glass out of her body. Pressing her hand over the hole, she stumbled forward. Sanctuary. She had to get home, or she was dead for sure.
Her head swam. Black dots danced in her vision. Bonnie moved as fast as possible toward checkpoint one. She paused. Safe. With her last bout of energy, she sprinted for the rectory, slipping inside the door and closing it behind her. Checkpoint two. Her chest felt heavy when Ghost and Sam weren’t there, or maybe it was the wound that bled through her coat. She couldn’t hear anything outside, but even if she had, she couldn’t wait a moment longer. She needed help.
Lightheaded, she staggered down the steps and spilled into Sanctuary, barely able to stay upright. “Help,” she rasped. Her voice wasn’t working properly, and there was no one in the large open room. “Help,” she rasped again. Where was everyone? She stumbled toward the kitchen, thinking Grace might be inside.
The door pushed open. The kitchen was empty aside from Cord, who locked eyes with her through the bars of the pantry door. “Help,” she mouthed. She flopped to the floor in the doorway, unable to go a step farther. If she were going to die, she would do it here. Vision darkening, her only regret was Sam. She wouldn’t get a chance to say goodbye. But there was no choice. Welcome unconsciousness overcame her.
Chapter 6
Angel
Blissful warmth washed through Bonnie’s body, soothing the ache that had taken over everything moments before. Light turned the inside of her eyelids red. At first, she kept them closed, afraid of the pain of staring into the sun, but eventually her logical mind roused and remembered she wasn’t outside. She cracked one eye, then the other. The glow above her surrounded two beautiful blue eyes and a straight white smile.
“Cord?” she asked.
He retracted his light, folding the white aura inside his skin. His hand lifted from her chest, and Bonnie thought she might cry from the loss of the warmth that went with it.
“I am sorry I broke the rules and left the pantry, but you needed my help,” Cord said.
Bonnie sat up and glanced to where she’d pulled the glass from her chest. The skin under the hole in her shirt was a fresh pink color, completely healed.
“You fixed me,” she said.
“I aimed for pressure to stop the bleeding. Surprisingly, I was able to do more.” He flexed and stretched his fingers, full lips slightly parted.
Bonnie could relate. She was feeling rather amazed at the moment as well. Speechless, she blinked at his hands and then glanced over her shoulder at the pantry. It was still locked.
“H-how did you get out?” she squeaked.
“I blended with the light and passed through the bars.”
“Could you do that the whole time?” Bonnie’s gaze connected with his.
Cord spread his hands and shrugged. “I never tried until now.”
“All those times I left your food too far away for you to reach … weren’t you hungry? Why didn’t you try then?”
His face fell. “I didn’t know I could. I didn’t want to risk angering you and the other Soulkeepers. You’ve been good to me, keeping me alive after what I’ve done. It wasn’t important enough.”
“And I was?”
Cord’s blue eyes met hers, but he didn’t respond.
The sound of pounding feet announced the arrival of Dane, Ethan, and Grace, who was holding Hope on her shoulder. They appeared in the doorway to the kitchen next to Bonnie’s feet. The three Soulkeepers gaped at the scene on the kitchen floor.
Cord leaned over Bonnie protectively, one wing spread behind her back and the other shielding her lower legs.
Grace’s eyebrows shot toward the ceiling. “Bonnie, you’re bleeding. Do you need Malini?” Her mother’s eyes darted between Cord and the bloody stain on Bonnie’s shirt and coat. Dane and Ethan did the same.
Bonnie folded her legs underneath her and stood. “Cord healed me.” She parted her coat to show her healthy, pink skin.
Three sets of eyes widened in her direction.
“Where have you guys been, anyway?” Bonnie asked. “I yelled for help.”
Grace found her voice. “We were soaking weapons in the holy water upstairs. We thought we heard something and came down to see. We would have come sooner, but we thought the others were here. Where is everyone?”
Cord answered. “The one called Ghost came and got them. He said he needed help. I heard from the pantry.”
“Oh dear Lord,” Bonnie said, “my sister! The humans were chasing them too.”
“Too?” Grace gasped. “Why were humans chasing you?”
“Our faces are everywhere, Mom. We are America’s most wanted. And get this—all of the posters say we are demons in disguise.”
Grace shook her head.
“Why would they think that?” Dane sputtered.
“How did they get our pictures?” Ethan asked.
“There’s more—” Bonnie began, but at that moment Malini, Jacob, and Lillian stormed into Sanctuary, pausing deer-in-headlights style behind the group in the doorway.
“Thank goodness you made it back,” Malini said. She cringed at the blood on Bonnie’s jacket and reached for the wound.
Bonnie held up her hand and shook her head.
Lillian frowned at the scene, looking first at the blood on Bonnie’s chest and then reproachfully at Cord. “How did you get out? What did you do to her?”
“He didn’t do anything but heal me,” Bonnie said softly.
“The light.” Cord pointed at the large fluorescent above his head. “I traveled through the light to help her.”
At that moment, Cheveyo, Samantha, and Ghost rushed in. Sam paled when she saw Bonnie covered in blood.
“I’m fine,” Bonnie said.
Sam shouldered her way into the kitchen and tossed her arms around her sister’s neck. “Oh, thank God. We thought…”
Ghost drew in a relieved breath. “We thought you were dead.”
“I’m fine,” Bonnie repeated. She couldn’t think of anything else to say, and currently, her neurons were swarming with questions, about Cord and about herself. She’d almost starved the angel who had saved her. A black hole of guilt opened behind her breastbone and pulled her heart into the pit of her stomach. She pushed Sam away.
“We need to talk about what happened today at the grocery,” Bonnie said.
Samantha quickly agreed. “It’s bad. I think Lucifer has handed out his fourth curse.”
Ghost nodded, focusing on Malini. “Worse than anything we expected.”
“You heard them,” Malini said to the group. “Emergency meeting. Cheveyo, go get Father Raymond.” Cheveyo gave a two-fingered salute before jogging up the stairs.
Cord turned back toward the pantry, but Bonnie stopped him by gripping his wrist. He met her eyes in silent exchange. She couldn’t say all was forgiven. She still remembered the way it felt to have his talons shred her face, but he was different now. She finally accepted the obvious.
“Where do you think you’re going, Cord?” Malini asked, breaking their connection.
The angel glanced at her hopefully, wings tucking down the length of his back as he straightened his posture.
Bonnie’s lips parted as she searched Malini’s face.
“We are not going to keep a bona fide angel
locked up in the pantry, especially not one who can heal. Get out there and grab a chair. You’re officially part of the team.”
Bonnie couldn’t miss the way Cord’s face glowed as he left the kitchen, but she did catch the disappointed look Malini shot her.
“You were right, okay?” Bonnie said. “I’m sorry I fought you on this. It won’t happen again.”
Malini smiled and held the door open for her. “Good. Come on. Sounds like you had a hell of a mission this morning.”
Bonnie nodded. “Unfortunately, that expression is more literally true than any of us imagined.”
* * * * *
The Soulkeepers gathered around the conference table they’d acquired a few weeks ago, fidgeting in the padded chairs. Bonnie grabbed a dry erase marker and headed for the board. “The shop owner had a symbol on his arm, like this.” She tried her best to draw the pentagram with the symbols accurately. “He said no one could buy or sell anything without it.”
“And what’s worse,” Ghost interrupted, “when we tried to leave, people hunted us in the street like animals. Our faces are on wanted posters all over the city. Ordinary humans were climbing all over each other to take us down.”
Samantha hugged her abdomen. “Yeah, I heard them say there was a reward for us, dead or alive.”
Malini cursed. “Are you sure it wasn’t isolated? Maybe they were influenced?”
“No.” Sam shook her head. “When Jesse dematerialized to get help, I saw a police officer in the street. I ran for him, thinking he would help me, until I saw the mark on his hand. Even the cops are in on it.”
“Mr. Harold told us that the brand is part of Harrington’s new security requirements, Demon Eradication 2.0. People have twenty-four hours to get the brand from city hall. After today, no one can buy or sell anything, or work for money without the brand,” Bonnie said. She capped the marker and returned it to the tray at the bottom of the board, then sat down at the table next to Samantha.
“This one, even I should have predicted,” Father Raymond said, holding up a Bible. “Revelation 13:16-17 And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or forehead, and he provides that no one will be able to buy or sell, except those who have the mark.”
Hope began to fuss in Grace’s arms. The older woman stood from her chair and paced to comfort her.
“It’s the fourth curse,” Malini said. “It’s not enough to buy the Harrington Eradication system or sign the contract anymore. Now, if you want to eat, you have to have his seal burned into your skin.”
Jacob cleared his throat. “So, uh, we knew this was coming, right?”
Eleven pairs of eyes came to rest on him. Tugging the string on his hoodie, Jacob shrugged. “We knew there would be six temptations and six gifts. It’s been three weeks since Lucifer unleashed terror on the human race in the form of the apocalypse. It was only a matter of time before the other shoe dropped.”
“Jacob’s right,” Malini said. “I think we all knew something like this was coming. I just didn’t expect him to use the humans like this. We’ve always counted on the sun for protection. Now we’ll have to be as careful during the day as we are in the darkness, not just from the Watchers but from the humans.”
“Malini,” Lillian said. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we are gravely in need of supplies. We might have enough to feed everyone tonight, but Hope is running out of formula and if we don’t replenish our stores, no one eats tomorrow.”
Malini stalked to the white board. “Ideas, let’s have them people.”
“I could go alone,” Ghost said. “I could blink inside, grab what we needed, and blink out.”
The black marker squeaked across the board.
Cheveyo piped up. “You still gotta get to the store, man. If what Sam says is true, walking down the street could be deadly for you.”
“Plus, you can only carry what you can fit in your arms,” Sam said. “No offense, Jesse, but it won’t be enough to feed us all.”
Father Raymond raised a hand. “My face isn’t on the list.”
“You can’t get the mark, Father. It’s your soul,” Grace said.
“No. But I still have the rectory’s car. It’s small, and it’s buried in the rubble, but if you can get it out and working, I can provide transport for Ghost. I can drive to the front of a store, and he can use his gifts to take what we need, right?”
The group nodded hopefully.
“We’ll have to be careful,” Malini said. “Ghost’s power is limited. We use him too much and he’ll be sick. Plus, we’ll have to remove him from rotation.”
Lillian nodded. “We’ll need to ration our supplies.”
Malini agreed. “Priority one is Hope. If nothing else, Ghost and Father Raymond can get diapers and formula. Now, what else? How do we get food?”
“We could use the enchanted staffs,” Dane suggested.
“Too dangerous,” Malini said. “We still don’t know why Lucifer hasn’t called our souls, but the staffs work due to a spell Abigail and Gideon performed before they became human. It’s possible the sorcery could leave a trail Lucifer could follow to us.”
Dane leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms.
Bonnie placed her hands on her hips and stared at the board as if she were looking through it. “Sam and I could try to replicate the cashier we saw at the store—Mr. Harold. We should be able to recreate the symbol on his hand by illusion.”
Malini wrote a number two and jotted Bonnie, Sam, symbol under Ghost’s suggestion. She paused, presumably waiting for someone to rip the idea apart. No one said anything. The room grew quiet. She turned back toward the group. “Any other suggestions?”
Dane and Ethan became obsessed with the carpeting, and the others refused to look Bonnie in the eye. The team was relying too much on her and Sam, and honestly, just the thought felt like a one-ton boulder on her shoulders, but what other choice did she have? She saw pity on each of their faces, but no one spoke up on her or her twin’s behalf, not even Jesse.
“Bonnie shouldn’t have to go again so soon after getting hurt,” Cord said hesitantly, as if he wasn’t sure he was allowed to speak. “I could travel by light. If you give me a list, I can pass in and out of the store unseen.”
Bonnie blinked at the angel, torn between wanting to hug him for offering and the terror that came with trusting the unknown.
Lillian shook her head. “None of us has any idea what he can and cannot do. Not for sure. He could go back to Lucifer.” The table erupted in grumbles of agreement.
Malini tipped her head and pointed a hand in his direction. “He can travel by light. He proved that with Bonnie. He can leave anytime he wants to.”
“But he won’t,” Bonnie said, compelled to stick up for him. “I believe him when he says he won’t.”
Malini stared at the angel with her lips pressed together. “I believe him, too.”
“Believe him or not, he can still only carry an armful at a time,” Ghost said. “Unless we are going to send Father Raymond out twice.”
“We can do that,” Father Raymond said. “It will simply take longer.”
“Maybe we could go together.” Bonnie blurted before she could think about what she was saying. Silence pressed against her. Her mother’s mouth dropped open. “It makes sense that only one of us would take on the image of the shop owner. He was a big man, and even if we chose another human, it will be suspicious if we go together. If I transform into Mr. Harold, Cord can blend into the light and stay with me to protect me and to help carry. Plus, I can keep an eye on him.”
Samantha opened her mouth to protest, but Bonnie saw Ghost’s hand clamp down on her sister’s fingers. She closed her mouth again. That’s right. Can’t risk losing your girl. As for Bonnie, she had nothing to lose. She was like Cord in that.
Somewhere deep inside, she knew that this was Cord’s one chance to redeem himself to the
group. Maybe the tar trap of guilt that had formed in the center of her chest caused her to care more than usual for the angel. Maybe thankfulness for him saving her life drove her suggestion. Then again, maybe it was something more. She didn’t want to admit the last. The idea that she might actually care for the reformed Watcher who’d almost killed her made her shiver. She decided not to analyze it.
“It’s settled,” Malini said. “Dane and Ethan, help dig out the car. Ghost and Father Raymond will go tonight for the essentials. Bonnie and Cord will go tomorrow. Let’s hope this works.”
Chapter 7
Hope
Malini bounced Hope in her arms, wishing Father Raymond and Ghost would get back soon with her formula. The sun was down. Dane, Ethan, and Jacob had already left on Watcher patrol. Malini was beginning to worry that something had gone wrong, and now was not the time. Hope’s last bottle was empty, only half the ounces the babe usually drank, and she’d thrown up most of it.
The baby’s piercing blue eyes misted over, and she scrubbed her face with her tiny, uncoordinated hand. Hope’s eyes would forever remind Malini of Abigail’s, and the shape of her face was all Gideon. What would her parents think of her letting their daughter go hungry?
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but do you know what’s wrong with her?” Cheveyo asked. Off rotation for the night, he was on his way to laundry duty with a basket of black-blood-stained clothes under one arm.
“I think she’s hungry,” Malini said.
“Hmmm.” Cheveyo continued to stare at Hope, eyebrows low and close together. “No. I don’t think so. She’s coughing all the time and not keeping her food down.”
Malini frowned. “I’ve noticed. I’ve been giving her healing energy. Maybe she has a touch of the flu or something.”
“Yeah,” Cheveyo said. He didn’t move.
“Are you going to do laundry?” she asked.
