The Noru 7: Rage Of Angels

by Lola StVil

  “Pry, are you suggesting we stand by and watch you ingest a Sive?” Swoop asks.

  “If you look closely, you’ll see a bluish glow in the creature. I had it submerged in a liquid tracker. That way when it goes inside my body, we can track its movement and know where it is at all times. Once it gets to the center of my soul, it will eat the virus, and the mark that represents the virus will fade,” she says as if it’s no big deal.

  “And how are we supposed to get it out of you?” Diana asks.

  “Use this suction tube,” Pryor says, holding out a foot-long glass tube to show us.

  “Do you have any idea how many things are wrong with what you just said?” I ask.

  “No, this will work. Diana, tell him,” Pry pleads.

  “Technically, it could…” she replies.

  “You can’t be serious,” Swoop scolds Diana.

  “I’m not saying we should do it; I’m saying it’s possible that it may work,” Diana offers.

  “The Healer is right, a Sive could eat away at the virus, but that doesn’t mean you should take it. It could eat faster than you anticipate, and it would then end up killing you,” Dylan reasons.

  “Or it could work and we get to save Summit,” Pry says.

  “I can’t believe we’re even having this conversation. Pry, you’re not doing this. We are not risking your life,” I protest.

  “You don’t want to save our child?” she accuses.

  “There is no child. Summit is an idea,” I remind her gently.

  “Really? So you burned down the world for just an idea,” Pry counters.

  “Pry, I want us to have a kid too. I want us to be a family, but I am not willing to risk your life for someone that doesn’t exist. This is crazy.”

  “Aaden, you don’t get it. Summit could be amazing…” Pry says.

  “We had sex in the car with no Tam. That was before we encountered Ever. There’s a chance you might already be pregnant,” I reply.

  “If you’d stuck around, you would have heard all the details of the virus. Tell him, Dylan,” Pryor urges.

  Dylan turns to me and speaks with great reluctance, given what happened to him the last time he gave me bad news. “Even if a Sib was conceived during your last…intimate encounter, the virus would stop the Sib from growing large enough to be detected by Alexi. So even if the First Noru did get pregnant in the car, you two will never see that child. If the Sib isn’t allowed to grow, it will get smaller and smaller until…” Dylan says, bracing himself for my reaction.

  I rake my hands through my hair in frustration.

  “So it’s possible that we would have a kid, but she’s being blocked,” Pryor says as she reaches out to me.

  “But it’s also possible nothing happened. It’s possible Alexi was never coming for us,” I reply.

  “So what? Maybe I didn’t get pregnant from what we did before, but what about the next time or the time after that?”

  “Pryor—”

  “No! Look, I’m not baby crazy. If we can’t have one now, that’s okay. We have our whole lives ahead of us. But Sheba’s kiss doesn’t mean we can’t have kids now. It means we can never have one. NEVER!” Pryor shouts.

  “Baby, I know how hard this is on you. Believe me. But I can’t let you do this. I can’t let you inhale something that will kill you. Don’t ask me to do that,” I plead as I take her face in my hands.

  She steps away and shakes her head. “This is the only way. I have to do this. Please support me,” she begs.

  “I can’t. Pryor, you are not taking that Sive,” I demand.

  “I have given everything to these missions—my family to missions, my friends, my whole life. I will not give up my future. That’s what Summit is, Aaden. She’s a symbol of life after the team.”

  “Pry, stop.”

  “Can’t you see her now, squeezing her hands into fists as she tries with all her might to soar in the sky but only getting as high as your knee? She’ll look at you with pretty purple eyes and beg to learn to fly as high as Daddy. And you’ll teach her, just like you did for Swoop.”

  “Pry…stop it,” I reply again, trying to block out all the images she’s pushing on me.

  “We’ll raise her in the house you built for me. I’ll train her on the same field my dad trained me. Maybe she’ll have your power over flames, maybe she’ll inject fear into her enemies with just a look, or maybe she’ll move things with her mind like your mother. Aaden…don’t you want to meet our baby?”

  “I SAID STOP IT!” I rage as I pick up the nearest chair and hurl it across the room. I throw it with such force it embeds itself into the wall. Everyone in the warehouse is startled, including me. I didn’t stop to think about what I was doing, I just wanted her to stop putting images in my head. The same images I would have to watch disappear once the reality set in.

  “You. Are not. Swallowing. A Sive,” I inform her in no uncertain terms.

  “You can say whatever you want, but you and I both know you want me to do this,” she counters.

  “I want you to risk your life?” I shout incredulously.

  “Yes, because you want that feeling back. The feeling you had when Diana told you that you were going to be a dad. At first you freaked out, but then, it made you happy. It’s like a light came on inside you. And you looked at Diana with this glow of admiration, it was more than romantic love, it was a never-ending, eternal love. The kind that comes from sharing a child.”

  “I won’t stand here and act like I’m good with Sparks being gone or act like I’m okay with us never having a kid. But I am sure not okay with letting you die for something that may or may not work,” I reply, trying to calm down.

  “Please, please let me try this,” she begs.

  Seeing the pain in her eyes makes me want to concede and give her whatever she wants. But I can’t do that, and it’s fucking killing me. “Pryor, give me the Sive,” I order as I reach my hand out.

  “Fine, I’ll give it to you if you answer just one question,” she offers.

  “What is it?”

  “Does not having children change how you see us?” she asks.

  “Pry, I love you. That’s not gonna change,” I vow.

  “Answer the question: does this virus change how you view us?”

  “Well…no.”

  “DON’T LIE TO ME! JUST SAY IT! SAY THIS CHANGES US! THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING!” she yells.

  “Alright, fine! It does change us. I had the same picture in my head that you did. I saw the same things and I wanted them too. Now that picture has changed. I wish we could undo what the virus did but not like this. Not with your life on the line,” I snap.

  “My life is always on the line! Just once I want to risk my life for something other than the world. Something just for me, for us,” she counters.

  “I know it hurts like hell. I can’t even begin to explain how familiar I am with what you’re feeling. But you are not taking that Sive,” I assure her.

  “Yes, I am. This is our future,” she calls out desperately.

  “You ingest that Sive and there is no future. You will die. I can cope with never being a dad again, but I cannot live without you. Now hand over the Sive,” I reply.

  “But Aaden, I—”

  “Pryor, hand me the vial. Now,” I order.

  She angrily throws the vial at me. I catch it before it hits the ground and put it in my back pocket. She leans against the wall and softly cries. The team quietly steps outside so we can be alone. I walk up to her; she pushes me away. I come back again. And again, she pushes me away. That doesn’t stop me. I keep coming towards her.

  She rages and cries out, saying she hates me. She pounds her fists into my chest furiously and demands that I stay away from her. But I keep trying until I am finally close enough to hold her against my chest. She struggles for a few moments, but then she gives in. She sobs as she buries her head in my chest. We cling to the only thing we have left, each other.

  Pryor asks
for a few moments alone. I hate walking away, but I know what it’s like to want space. So I leave her inside. The team looks concerned as they watch me exit the warehouse alone. I assure them everything is fine and that Pry just needs a few minutes.

  “What about you? Are you okay?” Diana asks.

  “No, but I’ll deal with that later. We are really behind on this mission, and if we don’t speed things up, it could be our last one,” I warn.

  “If it helps, you can spoil Nix all you want,” Diana offers.

  “Thanks,” I reply.

  “I’m sorry I could not find a way to fix this. I looked over all the records pertaining to the virus. It’s just so rare,” Dylan says.

  “You know what, let’s just get off this subject and focus on finding the demon we need to get to the Architect. Here, Diana, take the vial of Sive. I don’t want it to fall into the wrong hands,” I instruct as I go into my back pocket to fetch the Sive. There’s nothing there. Alarm washes over me as I dig into my pocket once again.

  “Damn it!” I shout as I race back towards the entrance of the warehouse. The team follows close behind and asks what’s going on.

  “Pryor took the Sive from my pocket,” I shout as I try to open the door. It’s locked.

  “Pry, open the door!” I yell as I pound my fist against it. The door is made to withstand massive amounts of pressure just in case we are invaded. There is a panel in the center of the door, where I can place the tip of my wing and the door will recognize that I am a member of the team. It will then open and let me in. However, that’s not happening right now.

  “She must have jammed it from the inside,” Swoop says as the rest of the team pleads with Pryor to open the door.

  “I’ll go around back,” Bex says as he races past us. He tells us she’s locked all the windows.

  “This is crazy, Pry! You know we’ll get in there sooner or later,” East reminds her.

  “I know, I’m counting on that,” Pry shouts from behind the window in the center of the door.

  “Pry, don’t do this. Don’t take the Sive!” I beg as I pound even harder.

  “I’m sorry, I have to,” she says as she raises the vial up to her face and studies it. The chrome spider moves around excitedly as if it knows it’s about to feast on a Noru soul.

  I slam my body against the warehouse door as hard as I can. It shakes, but the door doesn’t give way. Bex sends one Powerball after another at the door, but it’s holding steady.

  “I can make a larger orb. It would be far more powerful and it will take the door down,” Bex tells Diana.

  “It’ll also take the First Noru down with it,” Diana reasons.

  I look at Pryor’s desperate face through the reinforced glass window. “Pry, please, please don’t do this,” I reason.

  “Monitor me and make sure you don’t pull out the Sive until the mark of the virus is gone. Please,” she says.

  “It’s gonna kill you, Pry. Don’t do it. If you love me, baby, you won’t do this,” I plead as I place my hand against the cold glass. She places her hand against mine and mouths the word “sorry.” She then opens the vial, takes the Sive out, and holds it between her fingers. She leans her head back, opens her mouth, and swallows the Sive.

  “NOOOOOOO!” I scream. She falls to the ground and can no longer be seen through the window. The interference she was causing to the door is gone. I can now enter using the tip of my wing. I quickly rush into the warehouse and find Pry on the floor, convulsing.

  “We have to steady her so the Sive doesn’t run wild in her system,” Diana says as she tries to pin her down.

  “Get the tube. We have to get this thing out of her,” I shout.

  “Silver, she’s already ingested it. You might as well try it her way,” East reasons.

  “No! This thing has been inside her for seconds and she’s shaking from the pain!” I reply.

  “She wants this to happen,” Diana says.

  “I don’t care what she wants. I am not letting her die!” I reply as I reach for the glass tube and try to find the perfect extraction point.

  “No! If you pull it out of her right there, it will tear through her stomach and she will bleed out,” Diana says.

  “The Healer is right,” Dylan says.

  “Then help me, help me save her,” I beg.

  The Sive is moving quickly through Pry’s body. It leaves a faint blue trail in its wake. Diana tries to track the movement of the Sive, but that bastard is moving so fast, it’s nearly impossible to nail it. The Sive slides down Pry’s upper body, hungrily eating its way through flesh and bone. Pry twists and writhes in agony. She screams like she’s being eaten alive, which is exactly what’s happening on the inside. I can hear the bones in her body breaking as the Sive makes its way towards her chest. East tells us that the mark of the virus is starting to fade. I don’t care, because at this rate, Pry won’t live long enough to be a mom.

  Pryor is gray because of the internal bleeding. Her body can’t process the amount of pain that’s surging through her, so it tries to find salvation the only way it can—by trying to black out. But fading to black is a luxury the Sive will not allow. Pry bangs her head against the hard cement floor even harder. There’s no denying it, she would rather die than experience the agony she’s drowning in.

  I hold her head so that she doesn’t crack it open. East and Swoop try to keep her body steady. Bex and Dylan try to find a steady point on Pry’s body to aim the tube and suck out the Sive, but again it’s moving faster than they can aim. Every time they target a location, the Sive turns in a different direction. The Sive is eating away the virus, but it’s also eating away at her soul, just like we feared.

  “Wait! It’s slowing down,” Dylan says, relieved. Diana studies the shadow of the Sive under Pry’s skin closely. Something strange is happening. The Sive is going right and left at the same time.

  “No, no, no, no, no!” Diana shouts at the creature.

  “What’s happening?” Swoop yells.

  “The Sive—it’s splitting itself in two,” Diana says.

  “It replicated itself! I didn’t know they could do that,” East says.

  “It’s growing so much from her soul, it’s now strong enough to do just that,” Dylan says.

  “That means she’s gonna die twice as fast,” East whispers to himself. I tune him out. I tune everyone out and focus on Pryor.

  Diana shouts, “I got it!” as she manages to pin one of the Sives with the tube in her hand. She presses it against Pry’s skin and the tube begins to suck out the Sive. It’s fighting like hell to stay inside Pry. The more the creature struggles, the more pain Pry is in.

  “She can’t take much more. If we don’t get both of them out of her right now, she’s dead,” Dylan says.

  I don’t think about what I’m about to do, I just do it and hope it’s not a mistake. I summon a sharp blade and it appears in my hand in seconds. I raise it above my head and bring it down on my wife’s chest, cutting her open.

  She is immediately bathed in blood. But we now have a clear view of the two Sives. I dig the tip of the blade into Pry’s body and scoop out the two Sives. Bex catches them and places them in the vial as I pick Pryor up and take to the air. But as I look at her nearly lifeless body, I know she will die before I can make it to the clinic. I have no choice but to land at the nearest human hospital.

  I race towards the entrance and burst through the double doors. When the humans see me enter with a bloody body in my arms, they are shocked. And since Pry has no control over her body, she can’t conceal her wings. This makes the humans lose their shit. They go into full-on panic mode. Some of them scream for their lives. Some of them faint at the sight, and others get on their knees and pray.

  I place Pry’s body on the counter and beg them to save her. They just look back at me as if they are in some bizarre nightmare.

  “HELP HER!” I yell, shaking with rage and desperation. The nurses and doctors are snapped out of their
shock and quickly go into action. They place her on a gurney and wheel her into the operating room.

  “EVERYONE STAND STILL,” someone orders from the entrance.

  I turn around and see Fate at the door. He has paused the entire hospital. He signals for me to look behind him; he has come with six Healers. He orders them to the room where Pryor was taken. He instructs them to be quick and stabilize her enough so that she can be taken to a clinic. The Healers agree and get to work.

  It takes almost half an hour for the Healers to get Pryor stable enough to be transported. Fate sends the Paras to wipe out the humans’ memories and clean up. I arrive in the clinic as the Healers race to get Pryor ready to be worked on. The team shows up moments later. They bombard me with questions. I don’t reply. I hear and see them, but it’s like the team is far away, too far for my voice to reach them.

  “Silver!” East says loudly.

  I turn to him in a complete daze.

  “They are prepping her for surgery to try to repair what’s left of her soul. Do you hear me?” he asks.

  I nod but say nothing. I walk towards the operating room, but Diana stops me.

  “They can’t have you in there,” she says.

  “I have to be there…I…I have to…”

  “They can’t let you in there because you’re soaked in blood. So let Swoop help you change and then you can come back,” Bex says.

  Swoop takes my hand and guides me into an empty hospital room with a private restroom. She hands me fresh clothes she just purchased. The blood on my shirt makes it stick to my skin. As I peel it off me, flashes of Pryor’s blood-soaked body invade my mind. I lean forward on the sink and close my eyes, hoping the flashes will go away. They don’t.

  Swoop helps me take off my shirt and she keeps telling me that it will be okay. But we both know she’s lying. I look down at my hands. They are dripping with Pry’s blood. I hear someone crying. It takes a second to realize it’s me. Sorrow drags me down to the cold floor, sobbing. Swoop holds me tightly. I cry out from the deepest depths of grief.