by May Dawson
Levi stared back at him, his deep blue eyes full of fury. But the boys were unarmed now, their weapons on the floor. Beliel kicked them away down the hall.
Levi knelt and dragged Jacob's bloodied body over his shoulders.
"Nim?" Dani stared around the room, her eyes wide and confused. In the chaos, none of us had noticed her as she woke and stood from the couch. As much of a badass as she was, her fists dangled at her side. "What's going on?"
"We're finally getting out of here, sis." Nim said. "You and me together."
"What happened?" She rubbed her head as if it was clouded. Her eyes were still glassy and unfocused.
"Mom hurt you. But I'm going to make it all better." Nimshi smiled encouragingly at his sister. "She's dead, by the way."
Dani nodded, expressionless.
"Enough talk!" Beliel roared. "We have to get them into Joseph's car."
"Right." Nim jerked his head at the door. "Everyone out. Dani, you're coming with me."
Dani walked ahead of us out of the door. When I stepped onto the porch, everything felt eerie. The lush green lawn spread out in front of me; far in the distance, I could see the glint of metal barrels. I remembered the vision in the Far, the men with the assassin's rifle and the machine gun. I found them, in the grass, lying near the fence where I had expected them to be.
My men would die here if I didn't save them.
I shivered, because I could feel a dozen guns sited in on me, and I knew that one wrong move would riddle all our bodies with bullets.
A black paddy wagon drove up the driveway and stopped in front of the house.
"There's your ride home," Nimshi said. His arm was tight around me as he shoved me to the edge of the porch. "Watch your step on the stairs."
"Fuck you," I said.
"You really can't come up with a good quip right now, can you?" Nimshi grinned, his lips near my ear. "You know, I've thought a lot about life without my soul. How I'll go out in a blaze of glory, if I ever have to go out."
"Yeah? What's the deal you made?" When I spoke, I felt my throat press against the cold blade of his knife. "What was worth selling us all out?"
"I would've sold you out for free," he promised me, grinning at Beliel, who passed us to pull open the van door. "But the Company has willing bodies for us to transfer demons into. I'll be more than forgiven. I'll be a god among demons."
"You can bring Hedron back," Beliel said.
"Dad'll be so proud," Nimshi said. He turned his lips into my hair, his breath a whisper across my neck. "Sorry, sweetheart."
He pushed me away from him, so hard he knocked me off my feet. I stumbled into the back of the van.
Nimshi had the Final blade out as soon as his arms were free of me.
"Go on," he told Ryker and Levi. "Some guardian angels you are for this poor girl, huh?"
Levi climbed in beside me, lowering Jacob down onto a fabric seat. He rested a hand on my shoulder, but his furious eyes met mine and he didn't speak. There was nothing to say.
Ryker started to climb into the van, but stopped and turned back.
"I'll find you," Ryker promised Nimshi.
"And if you do, you'll regret it," Nimshi promised him.
Beliel laughed and slugged Ryker with the hilt of his sword, punching him hard across his jaw. Ryker fell into the bottom of the van.
Nimshi swept his legs up, pushing them into the van. For just a second, those brilliant green eyes met mine. He winked, the gesture quick and mischievous.
The door slammed shut on us.
"Take them home," Nimshi yelled at the driver.
The driver nodded and turned his head over his shoulder to look at us through the metal grill separating the cab from the back of the van. He wore a black baseball cap and an ugly grin. I drew a shocked breath before my brain caught up.
Beefy. It was Beefy, the evil guard from the asylum.
The dead guard from the asylum.
"We're going to have some good times," Beefy told us.
The van pulled forward. Through what I could see of the windshield, we headed to the gates at the end of the driveway. I turned back to Ryker and Levi. Ryker rubbed his bruised jaw; blood trickled from one corner of his mouth. Levi’s hand rested on Jacob’s shoulder; Jacob’s limp arm sprawled off the seat, his wrist with his cuff and bracelet dragging across the floor.
Beefy slammed on the brakes hard. I lurched, and Levi reached out to steady me.
Ryker sat forward, his deep green eyes cool. "I'm going to kill that demon.”
"Which one?" Levi leaned over Jacob, checking for his pulse, even though his fingers slipped in Jacob's blood. Jacob's glassy eyes stared up at the ceiling, unseeing. Levi bent his head over his brother's body, as if he realized Jacob was gone, but then he pinched Jacob’s nose, took a breath, and breathed in for him. He folded his hands on Jacob’s sternum and began to pump, trying to get his heart to beat for him.
"Both.” Ryker’s eyes were on Levi, but they were full of anger. He knew that Levi’s attempt at CPR was futile. "All. Every last one of them."
The passenger door swung open. Mr. Joseph joined Beefy in the cab. He looked back at us, holding a bloody napkin to his cheek. He lisped when he spoke, as if the ghosts had torn away part of his face.
"We meet again," he said. "And you animals are in captivity, as you should be."
"The lisp really ruins the monologue," I told him. "You aren't scary, little man."
"A little man with a lot of mercenaries," Mr. Joseph reminded me. "Back in the cage with you."
"Why?" I demanded. "You got what you wanted. Your murdered wife won't haunt you anymore."
"That is nice," he admitted. "She got in my way when she realized what I was really working on. There's so much power in the Far. And you three will unleash it for me. The dead will become weapons."
Levi shook his head, his jaw set.
"Well, we'll see." Mr. Joseph nodded to Beefy. "Your bodies are disposable to me. I brought this lug back, after all. When you watch me take this girl of yours apart, piece by bloody piece, I think you'll find you're willing to negotiate."
49
There was a thump across the hood of the car. We all looked up as Zuriel slammed Nimshi into the metal. Their bodies deeply dented the engine block. The car shuddered and died. Suddenly, without the engine, the world was quiet except for the angel and half-demon scrambling across the metal, trading furious blows.
Beefy tried the ignition, but the engine stuttered and stalled. He and Mr. Joseph exchanged a look of horror. Then Beefy reached for his gun.
"You killed my son!" Zuriel screamed.
Beliel jumped on Zuriel. The two demons fought the angel in the front yard as the Company scattered, avoiding being casualties of the chaos.
Ryker lunged, trying to open the door, but the latch wouldn’t open in his hands. "I know the tactical thing would be to let our enemies tear each other apart. But I want to help the angel."
"I'm not sure he's our enemy," I said. "Not now."
"That was pretty touching, actually." Jacob shoved Levi's hands away, sitting up. "Christ, man. That hurts."
We all stared at him, perplexed, as he sat up. Then Ryker fell on his knees, hugging Jacob, who looked surprised and a bit horrified. Levi hugged him, too, throwing one arm around him, and held his other arm out to welcome me in. What sounded like lightning and thunder boomed in the front yard as war raged between Heaven and Hell, as we hugged, grateful to have Jacob still alive.
"Get off me," Jacob said, waving us off. "Come on. That's enough. Let's go kill some Company men and get our manhood back."
"We thought you were dead." I poked him in the chest, hard. "What the hell just happened?"
He tilted his head back, revealing a tattoo overlaying the runes on his chest. Nimshi's mark. The same kind that Nim had put on me.
"He hit me with it when he turned on us, back in the demon's case," Jacob said. "I didn't realize what it was at first. Not until he came in at the end, t
elling me to play along. Beliel didn't trust him. He was never going to let us all walk out of here alive."
“And there was no way past the Company without…” Levi glanced towards the front of the car.
Jacob scrambled to his feet. "It's touching that my father's all worked up, but we have to stop him before he kills Nimshi."
"He used his power," I said, thinking back to all the visions we'd seen in the demon's case. Nimshi had shown us hundreds of nightmares, of Jacob being tortured as a kid, of my sister dying.
"Yeah. He played us," Jacob said. "To save us. More than once."
Ryker stared at Jacob and Levi, his face icy.
Jacob clapped his shoulder. "You're having a hard time processing this, aren't you?"
"Yep." Ryker still seemed furious.
"Well, let's save his ass now. We'll talk it out later." Jacob said.
"We've got to get out of the car first," Ryker said.
"Get rid of the angel," Mr. Joseph snapped at Beefy.
Beefy nodded, nodded, nodded, as if he agreed, without actually doing anything. Mr. Joseph opened his mouth to scold him. Beefy’s fist suddenly shot out, and he cold-cocked Mr. Joseph across his open mouth. Mr. Joseph fell against the window, and then his head slowly drifted forward to rest against the airbag. Beefy had knocked him out.
"What the hell's going on?" Ryker asked aloud.
Beefy turned to look at us. "Parrish made some changes in my programming when they brought me back this time."
He threw open his car door.
Zuriel and Nimshi wrestled across the hood. I saw the faint glow of the Final blade in Nimshi's hand as the two of them struggled for the one weapon that could strike a killing blow.
"If Nimshi's stabbed with the Final Blade..." I trailed off.
"Then he'll go to Hell," Ryker said grimly.
The van door rattled back on its hinges. Beefy threw the bag with our swords at our feet.
"Programming change or not," he said, "I hope you die out there."
50
Jacob bent, grabbing the hilt of his sword and pulling it from the sheath. He grabbed a second sword from the bag and threw it over his shoulder. "Honestly, you guys really thought he could have gotten behind me like that? I'm hurt."
Ryker and Levi grabbed their weapons and leaped from the car. I took my sword and followed them.
In front of us, Zuriel threw Beliel across the yard like he was a dog tossing a dead rat. Beliel fell against the grass, a heap of mass and muscle, and did not move again.
Nimshi took a step back as Zuriel turned on him. The Final Blade glowed in Zuriel's hand. Nimshi raised his hands as if in supplication, continuing to walk backwards toward us.
"What the hell are you doing?" Nimshi demanded of his brothers, still fixed on the glowing eyes on the angel who was stalking him. "Take Ellis and get out."
Jacob took a quick step alongside him. He flipped his sword in his hand, holding it lightly by the blade, and offered the hilt to Nimshi. "We're not leaving you. That's not what brothers do."
"Christ," Nim said. "And here I thought you were the one who never said stupid things."
"No, he says stupid things all the time," Ryker said.
Levi joined Nim on the other side, his hand so tight on the hilt, his knuckles were white. Ryker tried to nod me behind them, and I shook my head. Ryker grabbed my hand with his free hand and pulled me into line with them, the five of us ready to spread out around the furious angel.
"You're still thinking about killing me, aren't you?" Nimshi asked Ryker.
"I think he's about fifty-fifty," Jacob said.
Zuriel took a step toward us. His beautiful face was alight with rage. "Jacob?"
"Hey, Father," Jacob said. "I'm not dead. Nimshi was tricking Beliel to try and get us out of here—"
"You and the demon are working together?" Zuriel asked.
"Yes..." Jacob said guardedly.
"I do not want to kill you, son."
But the angel turned into a ball of fire just then anyway, as he strode toward us, his long legs eating up the ground between us fast.
I felt the hum in the hilt of the sword before it burst into flame. The five of us looked down at our swords in surprise for just a second before our gazes returned to the angry angel.
Except for one gaze.
Nimshi's arm was around my waist, his lips near my ear. I twisted to look at him. His bright green eyes were alight with mischief, and for a second, I thought he had another one of his diabolical plans.
"I know you hate hearing it," he said, "So I just wanted to tell you that I love you. Just once. You don’t get to say it back to me."
Before I could ask him what the hell he was talking about, he took a step away from me.
"Blaze of glory," he reminded me.
Then Nimshi ran for Zuriel, jumping past his brothers.
His figure blurred, and then there were six Nimshis running for Zuriel. Even the angel was confused. He stopped, trying to focus on the right figure to attack.
"Don't," Jacob called, running forward to stop Nimshi.
"My life for theirs," the Nimshis said to Zuriel. "You have no reason to hurt them if you've killed me."
The Nimshis shuddered and blurred together. There was just one Nimshi standing now in front of the massive angel.
The angel didn't answer.
He drove the Final Blade through Nimshi's chest.
My breath stopped in my chest. I hoped it was yet another trick.
The flame rushing over my sword's blade flickered, as if it might blow out, but the flames continued to lick over the steel. They were just quieter, more muted flames now.
"Nimshi?" I reached for my tattoo with my free hand, touching it with my fingers.
I didn't feel anything. I dared to take my eyes off Zuriel just long enough to look down.
The mark was gone.
Nimshi was gone.
Zuriel pulled his sword out of Nimshi's chest. The boy crumpled to the grass.
Behind him, the Company men were running back into position, getting ready to take up battle.
And then suddenly, Zuriel froze.
On either side of him stood another angel, with blazing swords in their hands and faces of flame.
"This is your battle, children of women," the angel on the left said, indicating the Company men with a lazy smile.
"But he is not," said the angel on the right.
Then the three of them were gone.
There was nothing in front of us but Nimshi's crumpled body and the Company men, and before we could react, the first bullets pinged toward us.
This was the place where my boys died if I didn't act. I could feel the sniper in the grass beyond, the machine gun watching us.
Mr. Joseph staggered out of the van.
Ryker ducked low as he ran across the yard, closing the distance between him and Nimshi. He threw his brother over his shoulders and ran back as Levi returned fire, trying to give him some cover.
I ran to Mr. Joseph, slamming him into the side of the van, which was between us and the sniper.
"You're going to call off your guns," I ground out between gritted teeth.
He shook his bloodied, groggy head.
"Call them off, or I'll kill you now." I pressed the tip of my sword into his lower abs, imagining where his internal organs were. One strike, and I could slide this blade into the soft mass of his stomach through the bits he needed.
Those cold eyes of his met mine. And then he turned his head, calling to his men in his rough, broken lisp. “Hold your fire. Let them go.”
A gray ghost slammed into his face, wrapping around him. He fell to his knees, and I jerked my blade away.
He screamed and staggered with the ghost into the middle of the field, into the line of fire.
He fell to his knees, wrestling with the ghost wrapped around his face and throat. "Ellis, help me!"
I let my blade fall, looking towards the Company men. A few of them started
towards us to help Mr. Joseph and then hesitated. He struggled with the ghost, his chest heaving, as if his dead wife were suffocating the air from his lungs.
I took a step back, looking for the boys. And then I turned and ran for the Lexus. "I'm going!"
"I've got you," Jacob said. He pulled the gun from his waistband as the two of us sprinted for the Lexus. I could feel my lungs burning as I ran, trying to move faster than a bullet, but no one fired on us yet. Maybe Joseph’s orders would hold, or maybe they were just confused.
I got to the driver's side and threw myself in, slamming the door shut behind me. I knew the car wasn't really cover, and that bullets could still punch through the sides, and my hands shook as I fumbled for the keys under the driver's seat. My fingers wrapped around the key. I stuck it into the ignition, twisting it almost before I had the key seated.
The Lexus' engine turned over smoothly. The car rumbled to life beneath me.
I'd never been so grateful to a car.
Jacob fired one last shot over the hood of the car and jumped into the passenger seat. I put the car into reverse, trying to get close to Ryker and Levi and provide them some cover. Levi reached the car first, wrenching the door open, and Ryker dumped in Nimshi. The boys piled into the backseat.
I drove for the locked gates. The Company men scattered.
I winced when the bumper hit the gates with a scream of metal on metal. The gates burst open and then swung back toward us, looming large in the windshield.
I yanked the wheel hard to the right, taking us down the smooth road that led out of the posh neighborhood. We were sure shaking this nice place up. I held my foot down on the gas pedal. The speedometer climbed steadily, the houses flying by.
"He's gone," Levi said, his fingers on Nimshi's pulse.
"I know." I couldn't make sense of anything that had happened yet. It was too much, too fast. I felt a lump in my chest, but the world was too fast and blurry for me to give way to tears now.
Ryker twisted in his seat to watch the Company; they were scrambling to help Mr. Joseph. We were forgotten. And then we were gone, and they were left behind us.
"We'll see if the dogs are called off now that Joseph's dead," he said. "Or if the Company goes on without him."
