by Ching, G. P.
Thankfully, Dane’s taunt was enough to distract Auriel. Spreading her leathery wings, she flew to the second level, and the battle began anew. Bonnie could tell Dane had borrowed Ethan’s abilities. Circular blades flew at Auriel from all directions in a tornado of blessed steel. Behind him, Cheveyo made use of his explosive skills, giving the nearby Watchers pause. That hesitation was enough for Lillian to take advantage of. By her sword, Watcher heads tumbled, flying over the second level railing on either side of Dane as he battled Auriel.
Vengefully, Auriel’s sorcery blazed. She swatted the weapons and heads aside like so many gnats. The stress on Dane was obvious. None of the Soulkeepers could wield their power without consequences, and since Dane was borrowing his, the toll was double. She watched as he jumped down from the railing and backed down the aisle in retreat. The look of defeat on his face said it all. He was done for.
With a flap of her mighty wings, Auriel pursued him, teeth bared.
“Dane, run!” Bonnie cried. Her voice was lost in the noise around her. Worse, more Watchers were coming, staring at Hope as if she were their next meal. Bonnie gripped the baby tighter against her chest. That was how she noticed.
Hope wasn’t breathing.
“Hope!”
* * * * *
Dane staggered back into the concourse, drawing the katana he’d worn on his back, the long curved blade giving welcome weight to his hand. Auriel glided in and landed in front of him, transforming behind a swirl of smoke into the girl he’d met years ago.
“So we meet again,” she said, tucking a strand of her platinum hair back into her French twist. It was a wholly unnecessary motion. Every inch of her illusion was under her control. Messing with the hair was a way to distract him, as was the way she was dressed.
“Was the St. Mary’s uniform necessary?”
“You seemed to like it the day we met.”
“You’d drugged me with elixir. I would have liked you in a pair of discount sweats.”
She rested her hands on her hips, twisting back and forth. “Not nearly as ironic.”
He circled her in a wide arc, maintaining the space between them. “Come on, Auriel. Let’s end this,” Dane said. He sank deeper into his stance, sword slashing across his field of vision.
“We both know how this fight will end. Twice now, I could have killed you. If it wasn’t for Jacob, I would have finished you off in the Paris High School parking lot.”
“Seems like I remember impaling you with something a lot less dangerous than this in Nod.”
She laughed. Her heels clicked on the concrete as she circled him, and he pivoted slowly to keep up. “We both know if Malini’s zombies weren’t there to distract me, you’d be history.”
“No better time than now to test the theory.”
“I could free you, you know.” She met his eyes.
“Free me from what?”
“Your … abnormality. A little sorcery and poof, cured of your homosexuality. Swear your allegiance to me, and I will take care of everything.”
It was Dane’s turn to laugh. “Auriel, there is nothing in this world or the next that would make me want to change who I am or, God forbid, be like you. I’m willing to bet even the Devil has no use for you.”
Dane’s last words sent her over the edge. Auriel attacked in a flurry of shredding claws and slashing teeth. He dodged and scurried, swiped and sliced. The tip of his blade connected with her hand, and a piece of her talon flew off and hit the wall. She never touched him. When she got too close, he pushed her away with his mind. And although his nose had started to bleed, the adrenaline took care of any fatigue.
Heart hammering in his chest, he attacked, blade singing through the air. Ping. Metal met bone. Her right wing dropped to the floor and sizzled.
She moaned and grabbed the stump. “Dane, how could you? Is this what you’ve become? A man who attacks women?” Stumbling back, she pouted and began to cry.
“No. I’m a man who vanquishes evil.” He thrust toward her heart.
She broke apart, funneling into black mist just out of reach. He drove forward, hoping to catch her essence on his blessed blade. Another blade did the job first.
Ethan’s dagger knocked Auriel from shadow. She tumbled from the darkness, shrieking. Her injuries made it impossible for her to hold her illusion, and she formed in front of him all black scaly skin and yellow eyes. Her mouth opened, no doubt to tempt him with some other promise, but Dane was done with hesitations or empty promises. He swung his blade, slicing through her neck.
Auriel ended in a black oil slick in front of a Burger Barn.
“Damn good job,” Ethan said from behind the counter.
“All I can say is I was glad she looked like a Watcher when I killed her.”
“Yeah?”
“Funny what illusions can do to you, you know? When she looked human, some part of me always wanted to save her … even while she tried to kill me.”
Ethan lowered his chin. “Hey, you okay?”
Dane smiled slowly, meeting his eyes. “Yeah, I am.”
“Sounds like war in there,” Ethan said, gesturing toward the stadium.
“We’d better help.” Dane swayed. The next time he opened his eyes, he was sitting on the floor, and Ethan was in front of him.
“My turn.” Ethan gripped Dane’s hand, allowing his power to flow back to the source. Then he kissed Dane on the forehead and ran full speed into the war.
Chapter 30
Winner
Of all the reasons Bonnie had called out Hope’s name, she’d never thought of the consequences. Amid the fighting and the bloodshed, the one person who heard her, the one face that turned, was Cord’s. He stopped and made a slight motion toward Hope, a simple shift of his weight. It was enough. In that fraction of a second, when Cord’s thoughts shifted to her, Lucifer pounced.
One of the Devil’s hands slapped Cord’s wrist, dissipating his weapon with the force of impact. Cord staggered backward, but Lucifer was too quick. He caught the angel behind the neck and thrust his hand into his chest. Bonnie screamed in horror as Lucifer brought his lips to Cord’s. As he laid that deadly kiss upon the angel’s lips, he tore his silver heart from his chest.
Bonnie gasped as Cord’s body dropped lifelessly to the platform. For her, the fall was timeless. In a moment, it repeated itself in her brain. She rushed forward, reaching her hand out to break his fall. When his head hit her palm, he broke apart into a billow of glittery dust that sifted through her fingers. The pieces lifted and blew away in a swirl that tornadoed toward the ceiling and beyond. The death of an angel was an ironically beautiful affair while equally devastating, a visual representation of everything good, all of the kindness in the world, taking to the wind, sucked out of the room with all of the oxygen.
Her lungs collapsed, her chest aching with the loss. He’d protected her. He’d given his life for her. Time sagged with the scattering of light. Blurred faces passed her by. The baby in her arms, Hope, was dead. Gone. Replaced by infinite sadness. The clamor of war and death raged on around her, yet produced a deafening silence only broken by the sound of her own breath.
Strong hands gripped her shoulders and shook. Jacob. What was he saying? His sword pressed against her neck. Was the whole world going mad? Or did he believe she was really Levi? Perhaps he would kill her before he realized the truth.
Wait. The red stone fell into his hand. It was not her neck he was cutting but the leather strap holding the stone. He tossed the gem on the platform.
Bonnie was strangely aware of the Devil racing toward them, but the slow-motion effect from Cord’s scattering ashes applied to him as well. The only one who seemed to be moving at normal speed was Jacob. His sword of ice collided with the stone, melting into the cracks and drilling into the red. The pressure mounted, the stone shivering with the force, and then it exploded.
A supernova of red light formed in the space between her and Lucifer, and then a silhouette walked from the bu
rning center. A ghost with golden-brown hair and ice-blue eyes glided straight for Bonnie. When she reached Hope’s body, she smiled.
“It is not too late,” she said. Then the soul dropped a hand into the baby’s chest and disappeared.
The red boom rolled out to the walls and washed back in, both Watchers and Soulkeepers staring in stunned silence at the fireworks display. A sound Bonnie never thought she would hear again—a baby’s cry, Hope’s cry—filled the stadium. As pink as she was angry, Hope screamed, a swift, strong scream. Bonnie held her up for all the Watchers to see.
It started in the front row. The Watchers fell to their knees, the blue glow sweeping over them, turning their serpent skin to radiant flesh. Those newly turned angels began to fight the Watchers behind them. Even the upper rows on the second and third floors began to change. The mega screen projected Hope’s face for every Watcher in the entire stadium to see, and all fell like dominoes to her power.
The newly formed angels stared at their hands and eventually fought to control the Watchers who were still changing. In the end, the only evil left in the stadium was Lucifer.
“Nooo!” Lucifer wailed. “My Watchers.” He strode for baby Hope, his face a mask of rage. Bonnie braced herself for his attack. It didn’t come. He walked, then jogged toward her, but the platform stretched, and lengthened, so that as fast as he walked, he never reached the baby.
A man formed between them, distinctly Jewish looking with olive skin and long wavy dark hair. He wore a Journey T-Shirt and cargo pants.
“The carpenter,” Malini whispered to Jacob.
“God has come in the image of the maintenance man?” Jacob’s face twisted in question.
“Shhh.”
“My final gift is redemptive love,” God said with an unblinking stare. “The challenge is complete.”
Lucifer seethed. “You cheated. You already gave that gift when you changed Cord.”
God folded His hands behind his back. “The transformation of the Watcher named Cord was Hope’s doing. My gift was her existence. I triggered her Soulkeeper gene before her time. She did the rest.”
“Bah! Your gift is invalid. The contest was for human hearts. All you changed was my Watchers.”
“There was no stipulation against such a gift,” God said. “No rules, remember, except that the humans must have free will. The challenge is over. Let us see where we stand.” He snapped His fingers, and the roof opened up. The scorekeeper descended, marble wings now living and supple, still blindfolded and holding her scales. She landed on the platform and solidified, wings outstretched.
The swaying scales came to rest, and God’s side was clearly lower. The crystal globe in the angels other hand glowed with pinpoints of light.
“It appears seeing you for what you are has driven the humans back to me, Lucifer. You have lost the challenge.” God stuck his hands in his pockets and shrugged, with a calm, matter-of-fact countenance that seemed human, but better.
“You,” Lucifer hissed, punching the air with his fists. “You knew you would win. You cheated. You deceived me.”
“You know I am incapable of both, and you are incapable of winning this challenge.”
“I’ll show you what I am capable of.” Lucifer charged, a cloud of sorcery building between his hands.
The earth began to shake. A giant chasm opened in the platform behind Lucifer, sending angels and Soulkeepers scattering for safe ground. The hole widened until it pressed against Lucifer’s heels. He circled his arms to keep his balance, and the sorcery he’d been brewing dissolved.
“The challenge is complete,” the hollow voice of the scorekeeper boomed. “Lucifer is sentenced to one thousand years in Hell.”
From a safe distance, Bonnie could see the hole behind Lucifer burn red, smell the sulfur wafting from it through the stadium, and hear the howls of hellhounds echoing from below. Perched on the edge, Lucifer contorted his body to keep from falling, but seemed incapable of regaining his balance. Gravity overcame will, and he fell backward into the pit.
Only to be caught by God. The carpenter had grabbed Lucifer’s flailing arm at the last second, holding the Devil fast at a forty-five degree angle over his gaping fate. Lucifer’s fingers closed around God’s wrist, and he met the carpenter’s eyes with a questioning and skeptical gaze.
“My grace is infinite and free,” God said. “Repent and follow me. I will pull you up.”
“What is he doing?” Jacob whispered to Malini. “He can’t possibly forgive Lucifer, not after everything. He’s the Devil.”
God turned his head to look at Jacob and smiled. “You are one to talk, Jacob Laudner, with your anger and your shifting moral compass. Are you saying my compassion is too freely given?”
Jacob closed his gaping mouth and forced a swallow. “Uh, no. I’m good.”
“Thought so.” God turned His attention back to Lucifer. “Your choice?”
For a moment, Bonnie thought it was over. What being wouldn’t jump at the chance for redemption? Of escaping an eternity of torment? But then a wave of arrogance passed over Lucifer’s features. His eyes hardened and tightened at the corners.
“I don’t need you or your grace,” he spat, and then, Bonnie gasped as he peeled his fingers away and jerked his hand from God’s grip. He did not scream as he fell into the abyss. Lucifer dropped to his fate with his arms crossed over his chest.
The Earth swallowed him into its depths.
Chapter 31
The Last Soulkeeper
God straightened and dusted his calloused hands off on his pants. He turned a half smile on Malini. “Well that was something, wasn’t it?”
She nodded dumbly.
“As of today, Lucifer is detained in Hell for one thousand years.”
A cheer rose up, a chorus of newly made angels. Malini couldn’t help but clap too, although it seemed a silly and trite thing to do given the magnitude of what she’d just experienced.
Hope, still nestled in Bonnie’s arms, giggled and kicked, pink cheeks dimpling with her smile.
The Lord approached her with arms outstretched, lifting her from Bonnie’s hands and tossing her above His head before catching her again. “You look just like your mom and dad, Hope,” He said. “Now, my Soulkeepers, I have some instructions for you. Gather ‘round.”
Lillian, Dane, Ethan, Samantha, Cheveyo, and Ghost came down from where they’d ended their fight, covered in black blood and grosser things, to bathe in the light of goodness in their presence. They stood at the base of the platform, staring with wide eyes at the carpenter holding the baby and waiting for the mysterious instructions he promised.
“Aren’t you forgetting someone?” he asked.
At that moment, Grace walked through the door, one arm dangling limply at her side.
“Grace.” Malini and Jacob met her halfway, pulling her into their arms.
“Some of you are injured. Please, allow me to help,” God said. Malini and Jacob stepped aside. With a wave of God’s hand, Grace’s arm returned to normal, Ethan’s face healed, and a number of scratches, gashes, and festering abrasions disappeared from the rest of them.
“Thank you,” Lillian blubbered, tears of gratitude rushing from her eyes. The others followed with a chorus of appreciation.
“Enough. I cannot stay long, and there are things you need to know. Lucifer is gone—” Cheering again from the angels. God raised his hand, and they silenced. “But his echo remains.” He pointed to the scales, tilted only slightly in the favor of good. “There are a lot of people out there who thought someone else should be in charge. They will carry on his legacy. They learned a lot while he was here.”
“We can handle humans,” Malini said.
God placed his workman hands on his hips. “I am sure you will, Malini, but not the way you are used to.”
She raised her eyebrows, knowing something more was coming.
“In everything, there must be balance. Soulkeepers were created as a balance against Watcher
s.”
“And now there are no Watchers,” Jacob mumbled to Malini.
God laughed. “I can still hear you, Jacob.”
Jacob blushed.
“Ah, never mind it all. You are correct … mostly. There is one Watcher left on this Earth.”
Malini’s eyes darted around the stadium.
“He’s not here. He left when he had the chance.”
“Damien,” Malini said.
“Always more interested in doing things the human way, that one.”
“So do we kill him?” Malini asked.
God sighed and a warm breeze coursed through the room, making Hope laugh. “As I was saying, there has to be balance. One Watcher, one Soulkeeper. That Soulkeeper is Hope.” He tickled her belly. “Hope is the last Soulkeeper, a Healer with the power of redemptive love. The most powerful Soulkeeper I have ever created.”
“What about us?” Jacob asked, not bothering with the whisper this time.
“As of this moment, your powers are no more.”
Malini knew. She’d felt it like a change in the barometric pressure. Still, she dug her fingers in the crook of her right arm and succeeded only in creating a bright red mark there. Her arm was her own. Across from her, Ghost stood as solid and vibrant as anyone, and Bonnie had returned to her own shape and size. Next to her, Jacob was staring at his hand and then at his flask as if one of his limbs had simply stopped working. Quiet tears slipped over Lillian’s cheeks.
“You are normal humans again, but that doesn’t mean I am done with you. Now, more than ever, I need you to lead. Be a force for good in this world, not because you are different from those around you but because you are the same. You have seen evil. You’ve walked among it. Teach the world to see it too and to reject it.”
“But haven’t they already seen it?” Grace asked, looking around her.
God smiled. “When I leave here, I will set things right. My final gift to each of you is that you will be the only ones to carry the memories of the challenge. Life will go forward without the burden of these last days.”
