by Richard Hein
“The survivors have gathered,” Christina said, pushing past me to unlock the warehouse. The heat shuddered out of me.
“What?” I glanced up at Francis. The ape of a man looked away, eyes drifting out of the now silent plaza. The crystals overhead had ceased their pulsing, returning to their haunting theremin song. The screams and sounds of battle had fallen quiet.
Christina threw open the door. Lights flickered on, spewing out of the opening and throwing sinister shadows across her face as she straddled the threshold. Cold eyes turned to regard me. “I can sense every living OFC member within Sanctuary,” she said. “When Daniel reported back about the involvement of an Archangel, I suspected something larger might be at play. I called back everyone.” Her eyes pressed closed. “It was a slaughter, Samuel. We took most of them with us, but Michael is something beyond our ability.”
“No,” I whispered. “There had to be some away on assignment. Some…” I fell back against the building, a cold ache twisting at my heart.
Everyone? Christina had mentioned a lack of supernatural activity when I’d first reported back to Sanctuary. Had Michael somehow orchestrated that as well, ensuring that as many members as possible would be nearby to answer the emergency call? An Archangel would be able to make short work of any threat, and given his ability to see the future concerning his task at hand… The growing dread in my stomach twisted into a queasy roiling.
Christina ignored me. “Gather what weapons you can. We’re making for the exit.”
My head came up. “We can’t leave. Michael still has Kate.”
“You realize the young woman is likely dead already,” Francis said. He passed his weapon to Daniel and entered the warehouse.
“The binding that Samuel placed on the Archangel requires him to find Chancellor Christina,” Daniel said. He spun the brass and glass device over once, nodded, and hefted it over a shoulder. “He’ll come to her.”
“Screw Kate,” Kseniya said. “No. I’m not dying for Samuel’s fuck up.”
“It makes little difference,” Christina said. “Saving the last members of the organization is paramount. After that…” She rolled a shoulder in a shrug and sighed. “He’ll come after us, back on Earth. His ability to see the flows of time means it will be a matter of hours before he hunts us all down. We’ll need to come up with a plan.”
“No,” I said. Francis passed me one of the strange Victorian-looking gun things. I stuffed the baton into my back pocket and accepted it eagerly. “Come on. You can’t just leave her.”
“We are leaving,” said Christina. She turned and began to walk away. She carried no weapons in hand.
“I’ve got a Plan B,” I blurted. “We can trap him. Cut him off at least.”
Christina paused and turned. I outlined my idea as quickly as possible, keeping my voice low. It was best not to scare the others, given what I was suggesting we do. Lines appeared in The Boss’ smooth, ageless face with each passing word.
“Do you realize what you’re suggesting?” she whispered.
I swallowed and nodded. All too well, but if I could get everyone safe, it wouldn’t matter any more. Dealing with the consequences could come later. “It’d get everyone out and lock Michael and his goon squad away, though.”
Her eyes bored into me, looking like they could read my soul and weigh it right there. I shifted under the scrutiny. “That’s the last resort possible,” she said at last, mouth twisting. “If it looks like we can’t stop that thing… My office. You’ll know.”
Francis hesitated, furrowed brow looking between The Boss and myself. Daniel huddled close to me, while Kseniya followed after eagerly like a steroid-abused puppy. Frankie pressed his eyes closed and gave a slow shake of his head before stepping away from me.
The front door of the main building exploded in a fragment of splinters that showered down into the warped fountain. I threw myself down behind a stone bench, pressing my back against it and craning to peek over it. Francis and Daniel took positions on either side of me. Kseniya snarled something in a language I didn’t recognize and dashed back into the warehouse.
Christina folded her hands in front of her and stood in the middle of the plaza.
Michael strode out of the sundered door. Gone were the ragged clothes and worn expression. His hair was radiant gold instead of weathered gray. His face was timeless, the wrinkles and hard angles now looking like they’d been tricks of the light. He wore the purest of white robes as the others had. It was the same figure, the same angel as before, but different. Regal. Noble.
Angry.
Michael carried Kate before him, hand cupping her throat, her feet dangling above the ground. Her body lay limp in his hand, devoid of life. My heart twisted at the sight, hoping against everything I wasn’t too late, desperate for any sign she was still alive. His other hand pressed out, knocking free one of the wooden supports holding up the awning over the open doorway as easily as a child snapping a candy cane. Two other angels joined him as they strode out into the endless night. Radiant light swirled around them like the beating of wings. Michael’s wrist twitched, and Kate tumbled wordlessly to the ground. I wanted to lunge over the cold stone, but knew that wouldn’t help anyone. Only a calm head would get us through this.
Kate lay crumpled like a discarded sack of skin and bones in a vaguely human shape. I couldn’t even see if she was breathing. Her dark hair lay across her face. Had those supernaturally strong hands crushed the life out of her?
“The Archangel Michael,” Christina said. “I can see by the look on your face you’re just aching to give me a lecture. Well, out with it then. It’s been awhile since I’ve been in the field, but I’d like to get on with whipping your ass.”
“Bit of a pest problem we’ve got here,” Michael said, sweeping a hand behind him and gesturing at the building that had once housed my life. “Shame it had to go down like this, but the taint of the OFC—”
I wasn’t about to let the guy monologue. I popped to one knee, aimed and fired. In the sky above, one of the tumbling crystals hummed to life, a violet pulse of energy matching the swirl of light that arced from my weapon. A coherent beam of violet light swept across Michael’s face to no effect. Daniel had apparently hit upon the same idea and fired beside me. It struck one of the lesser angels with the force of a car at speed. Black fuzz sprayed as the creature flew backward and impacted against the building, wounding but not destroying it. Hope kindled in my chest.
“Kate?” I called. “Kate, if you can hear me, you’ve got to get up and get over here.”
Kate stirred and hope rose in my chest. “Samuel?” she said, words slurred. Her eyes blinked open. She winced and twisted on the stone of the courtyard, pressing her hands against her head, scrubbing furiously at her scalp like she was trying to tear out something within. “My head. Oh, God… Samuel, my head. Pantheon of elephant gods in here.”
“Yeah, let’s do it that way,” Michael said. He regarded the prone woman, a smile growing on his face. “I’m not above irony. Go to them.”
Kate pushed up on a shaky hand, and sapphire eyes met mine. Daniel braced himself against the bench and took aim. A ray of purple slammed against Michael, but the Archangel paid it no mind. It looked about as effective as a squirt gun full of grape soda. Kate groaned and stumbled forward in a staggering run, one hand pawing at the fountain. The other pressed against her head, as if trying to keep her brain from tumbling out in the haze of pain. Her knees buckled with a gasp. I tossed down my weapon and caught her as she spun and tumbled. I heard more shots fired from the others, but it didn’t matter. Kate was alive. I hadn’t failed. I could save her.
“Katherine?” Michael said. His voice was soft, but carried across the courtyard. “Be a dear and kill them all. Start with Christina.”
Blue eyes snapped open. I had a moment of horrified confusion as her elbow drove up into my face. White pain exploded as I crumpled to the ground, and Kate clawed to her feet and lunged at Christina.
> Chapter 17
Hope died in me. Kate rushed forward in a mad tackle. My gut twisted and felt like I’d swallowed bitter shards of broken glass. Violet light flashed around me, a vicious and otherworldly rave. I heard shouting. It was distant and tinny.
I’d failed.
Everything was so much ash driven before the uncaring wind. It was impossible not to fixate on the lifeless bodies strewn around the courtyard. We’d all join them soon enough because of me. Had I not committed enough of myself to protecting Kate? Could I have given her more, shown her deeper things that would have afforded her even a larger advantage? How many lives had been sacrificed to protect her, all due to my faults, all in vain? I watched as she stalked toward Christina, unable to shrug off the mountain that crushed at my heart. Despair took the burning anger within me and quenched it.
Daniel’s hand grabbed at my shoulder. I heard frantic words and another flash of brilliant light beside me. I battered him away, my eyes fixated on the soul I’d been unable to save as she passed me by. So much like Lauren, and I’d led her to the end as well. There probably was a spot for me in the ninth circle of Hell, little demonic butlers dispatched just for my personal eternal torment and everything. Clear blue eyes watched Christina, a few strands of raven hair swirling out behind as she stormed forward.
I frowned. Blue eyes? They were still blue?
“Get up,” Daniel screamed. He all but dragged me with one hand as he fired from the hip once more. I heard his shot strike a building as he missed. Kseniya appeared next to me, sandwiching my numb body between her and the intern, dirty hair matted against her face in a sheen of sweat.
“Leave him,” she urged. “He’s useless.”
“But…”
I stood. Francis shouted something at Christina, but The Boss stood as calmly as ever. The matronly woman gestured with two fingers clasped before her. The ground beneath us shuddered. A few tiles tumbled free of a burned building across at the edge of the courtyard, dashing apart in the silence that followed. Francis’ head swept between Christina and Kate as the stones pathway trembled. Kseniya swiveled and fired a few shots behind, and I heard a harmonious voice cry out.
The stones flowed together, gliding like water, as if a patch two paces wide behind Kate had melted by some intense heat. It bubbled and spun upward, tendrils shaping into fingers as a hand the size of a person exploded from the ground. Francis took two careful steps back and twisted his gun at the monstrous appendage, but it made a grab for Kate.
“Being The Boss has a few perks,” Christina said, sounding more than a little smug.
No. No, this was all wrong. Her eyes were still blue, she wasn’t possessed. This was something different, and that meant I could still save her. Indecision tore at me, but I couldn’t let them hurt Kate. Not if she could be freed. I needed time to explain, to figure everything out.
“Kate!” I shouted, running toward her. “Move!”
The fingers twitched as they grabbed for Kate. She spun at the sound of my voice, skipping to the side. The grasping appendage clipped her, and Kate grunted as she was knocked from her feet a couple yards away. She rolled once and lay still. Francis swiveled on me.
“Samuel, you must leave it be,” the Seneschal called. “She is lost, consumed by the beast within her. You of all people know how this ends.”
Francis lifted his gun at Kate.
“Wait,” I cried. “I had the twins check her out. I’m telling you there’s just one car in her mental garage, man. Whatever this is, it’s different.” I licked my lips, stoking the flame of hope within me. I had to be right. This… this couldn’t end like this. Not again. Every muscle ached with the need for this to be true. The alternative was beyond bearing. “Don’t do this.”
“I wish that this had another ending, but Christina’s safety is paramount.” Francis said, shouldering his gun. Another flash of purple blossomed behind me, and I heard Daniel cry out in pain. “Sanctuary must not fall. Kate is beneath his grasp, and there are too few of us to push that level of possession from her mind.”
I clenched my fists, burrowing down into my well of anger. My bones ached from the hunger of it. There was a chance. Why wouldn’t he just give me a damn chance to save her?
“Look at her eyes,” I said. “Whatever he’s done, she’d not hiding an Entity in her mind. That means she’s an innocent. You can’t just kill her.”
The gun lowered a fraction. “You hesitated with Lauren, and you saw what it cost you. What it cost us all. We can’t afford to lose everything now because of your feelings, Samuel. I am sorry.” The weapon rose. “I truly am.”
“I’m sorry too, Frankie,” I said, and charged him.
Francis spun, pointing his cobbled together device of copper and glass at me, but decided against zapping a plain old human. I bowled into him with a howl. The most amount of sports I played back in the day involved a controller and a television, and I’d had a desk job for a few years. Conversely, Francis was a wall of well-defined muscle with a brain taped to the top. My arms wrapped around him, and he might have grunted, but I didn’t get the knockdown I’d been hoping for.
So I stomped hard onto the top of his foot. When in doubt, reach for the bag of dirty tricks. It doesn’t matter much if you look like a genetically engineered ape. That hurts like hell.
Francis bellowed and shifted his weight, giving me a moment of respite to batter at his weapon with my hands. His gun clattered to the cold stone, and he struggled back as my foot tap danced a tune on his. I took the opportunity to power forward, threw all of my meager office-worker weight against him as I twisted, and we went down in a writhing mass.
“I can save her,” I said. Heat flushed my face, clawing at my throat. The words lashed out, a whip of fire desperate to ignite understanding in him. His hand crept up my face and palmed it, engulfing it like a basketball about to get dunked. “I had her checked out. You have to believe me. This is different!”
“You were consorting with the infested Germans again?” The words came out through clenched teeth, punctuated by a knee to my ribs. I tried to gasp, but someone had borrowed all the air of my lungs and left an I.O.U. in its place. “You let these… these monstrosities into the unsullied halls of Sanctuary? You have been compromised, Samuel, through and through. Why can you not see that? What lurks within your own mind?”
Beyond, I could make out the edges of the battle. Two figures in white robes threw themselves at Daniel and Kseniya, wings of ethereal energy carrying them aloft and hurling them down like angelic arrows of death. Daniel had his back turned, firing at Michael as he approached Christina. The blast took him in the back just as ineffectually as before. Kseniya swore and kicked at the intern, sending him staggering out of the way just before a sword of coalesced stars sliced down through the air he’d just occupied. The muscular woman tumbled away, but not before the second creature swept its blade. Kseniya’s scream was muffled as she landed, anachronistic gun skittering away.
She lay unmoving. Daniel stared at her, chest heaving, and then raced beyond my vision, lit by the purple of his weapon.
Michael gestured, and a blade of molten steel ignited in his hand. The courtyard lit up with its radiance. He dragged the tip of it along the ground, searing a furrow through the stone as he approached the stoic Christina.
“See, I take no pleasure in this,” Michael said. “A job is a job, and I do what my boss wills.”
“Pity,” Christina said. “I’m going to love what I’m about to do, all things considered.” She gestured, and the air around her churned, gusting past and battering at Michael. The angel staggered as it dragged him back a few steps. With a frown of mild annoyance, the burning blade sliced through the wind, and it parted around him as steady steps took him forward once more.
Kate pushed up with one hand, dark hair framing her face. Her her head snapped up and fixated on Christina. I hammered a fist up into Francis’s face to get his attention, and pointed.
“Look,” I ur
ged. “You let me worry about Kate. I’ll let you deal with the biblical threat, okay?”
He paused, one meaty hand grinding my shoulder down to the cold stone, the other drawn back like a plate-sized bullet about to be fired into my teeth. His head swiveled around, and the Seneschal bounced off of me with enough force that I heard ribs creak. He took off at a loping run, the danger to Christina more pressing than our argument. I staggered to my feet and stumbled toward Kate.
This had to be something different that a straight-up possession. I didn’t fully trust Dieter, but he had no reason to lie here. Could the infection have spread from her brother and lain hidden all this time? My mind whirled as I tried to think of any signs I’d missed. Her headaches were the only thing that stuck out to me, but she’d been in an accident and suffered a serious head trauma years before her brother’s death. Dieter’s open-house walk through had corroborated that, and he hadn’t known the details of what had happened to her. Kate had been clean.
Magic? The thought made my heart seize and threaten to punch through my chest in a frantic moment of fear. Could she have followed in Lauren’s path, even unknowingly? It didn’t feel right. I could feel the weaving of magic, and nothing had brought that warning to me. Of course, Christina’s little show of power gave not even a whisper, so all bets were off for me at this point. Still, it didn’t feel like something Kate would have done. Something else, then, something that gave the Archangel control over her.
Michael had played all of us. My mouth went dry as my thoughts tumbled into place, a nightmare jigsaw puzzle falling into completion in the dark recesses of my mind. What if it had all been a long con? What if Ben hadn’t been the instigating factor, but the fulcrum of the plan?
What if he’d gotten to Kate six years ago, whispering to her, shaping her all these years and wiping away her memory of it? A seed planted and blossoming only now?
“Kate,” I said. The word came out mangled from a throat too tight. Kate turned to face me. She looked like the woman I’d come to know. No sign of a foreign intelligence opening up a snack bar in her mind. She looked the same, minus her glasses. Except for her eyes. Piercing blue, they met me without a glimmer of anything within them. No recognition or warmth. Not even hate. Kate simply existed, watching me as if her body was going through the motions of living, moving on autopilot. She’d recognized my voice or her name, though, so I swallowed down the growing feeling of dread and pushed away the needling pain in my chest and held up my hands as I approached.
