by C. L. Coffey
“What happened to Asmodeus?” I forced out, my voice weak and rasping.
Cupid moved to one side and I spotted Asmodeus. He was lying on his back, staring up at the sky with unseeing eyes. From the center of his chest was a single arrow.
Then he was gone.
Or rather, then I was gone.
The next thing I knew, I was in my bedroom, Cupid holding me tightly. I lurched to the side, disorientated by the sudden transportation, but Cupid’s strong grip kept me upright. My vision was still a little blurry, but I found Joshua in front of me. For a moment, I saw anger in him, but when he realized who was in front of him, it vanished, being replaced with distress.
“Angel, what the hell happened to you?” he cried, darting to me.
I fell to him, his arms feeling as welcome as my bed at that point. “I kicked ass,” I muttered as the strength left my legs. Joshua caught me and scooped me up. He took me to my bed and set me down.
“I will get bandages,” Cupid declared from behind me.
“Darlin’,” Joshua sighed. “You look like… like you should be in a hospital.”
“I’m fine,” I lied, forcing my body to ignore my brain as I instructed it to sit upright. The effort had me gasping at the amount of pain I was feeling.
“You’re a crap liar,” Joshua muttered, reaching under my shoulders to help me up. He gently tipped me forward so he could push some pillows behind me, when Cupid reappeared. “You want to tell me what happened?”
“First I would murder for a milkshake.”
Joshua’s eyes narrowed. I’d been speaking in a whisper and judging from the scrutiny that appeared in his stare, he had probably assumed that it was from the fact I looked exhausted. When his eyes fell on my throat, he whirled around to Cupid. “Is there any milkshake in this place?” he demanded.
“Maybe in the kitchen,” Cupid shrugged. “We should probably get those wounds seen to first.”
“No,” I said.
“Angel,” Cupid chided. “You don’t have to act brave.”
“No,” I repeated. My voice cracked, but I sounded firm. “You need to get back to the Port. You need to make sure everyone is okay.” As soon as I said the words, Dion’s face appeared in my mind and I was unable to bite back the sob.
“Angel?” Joshua questioned, reaching for me.
I sniffed, but no tears fell. “Dion,” I said quietly as numbness seemed to set over me. “He got stuck in a trap and then one of the Fallen attacked. He was under a container,” I managed. “I don’t think he made it.”
Cupid’s mouth slowly fell open. He stared at me for the longest time. “Stay here, let Joshua dress those wounds. I’ll make sure everyone knows and we’ll discuss it tomorrow.” He walked over to Joshua and handed him the medical supplies, then turned to me. “You’ll be okay,” he assured me, placing his hand on my knee. “We’ll be okay. All of us.”
He disappeared, leaving Joshua and I alone. “Oh hell, Angel,” Joshua muttered, gently.
“I just need a minute,” I said, slipping back into the pillows.
The next thing I knew, a knock at the door was waking me. I opened my eyes in time to see Joshua closing the door, a large yellow milkshake in his hands. “I didn’t mean to wake you,” he apologized as I sat up.
I took the drink from him, taking a few sips, before responding. “How long have I been asleep?”
“Twenty minutes, if that.”
I took another long sip. For only twenty minutes, I was already feeling better – or at least my throat was. My voice was no longer raspy. The rest of me wasn’t feeling any different. Much as I wanted to go back to sleep, I pulled myself off the bed and limped into my bathroom.
I looked at myself in the mirror and then instantly regretted it. Wow, I looked a mess. Joshua wasn’t kidding when he said I belonged in a hospital, although he could easily have specified the ICU. My arms looked like I had been dragged across asphalt. They were covered in angry, red scratches and grazes. I turned around and wasn’t surprised to see they stretched all the way up to my shoulders and across my neck. Hell, the tank top I had worn was shredded in places and the skin just as damaged underneath. My neck looked like Joshua’s had done in the early stages – except I could see a footprint. There was a freaking footprint on my throat.
My face – I looked like I was trying to give Harvey Dent a competitor in the looks department. When I stared at my reflection, I couldn’t stop myself from crying. Part of it was vanity – I will admit to that. Mainly I was just thankful to be alive. My looks were nothing compared to how I felt on the inside. At this point, I wouldn’t have been surprised if my organs were mush.
As soon as the tears started spilling, Joshua was at my side. He looked like he wanted nothing more than to hold me, which was exactly what I wanted, but I shook my head. “I don’t think I can,” I managed. “Not yet.”
“We should get you cleaned up so you can rest,” he said, softly.
I made an effort to wipe my eyes, but I couldn’t lift my arms. “I can’t,” I whispered. “Not by myself.”
“It’s a good job I’m here then,” he said. He took one look at my top, then turned to the bathroom cabinet. When he turned back around, he was holding a pair of scissors. Silently he cut my top off. It fluttered to the ground and he balled it up and threw it in the trash can. His eyes quickly scanned the top half of my body, before dropping to the jeans. “Let’s get them off, and then you can rest.”
Joshua must have removed my boots while I was sleeping because I was barefoot. When I fumbled with the button, his hands replaced mine. Gently, he tugged the jeans down. They’d been covered in blood, but short of some really thin patches, the biker gear had held up well. After supporting me while I stepped out of the jeans, they joined the top in the trash can.
Even more remarkable than the jeans surviving, was the state of my legs. Somehow I didn’t feel like I’d broken any bones, anywhere in my body, so I wasn’t expecting any jutting bone or something similar. I was expecting at least one scrape, but there were only a few forming bruises. I was never leaving the convent without my jeans again.
“I need to take your bra off,” Joshua said, softly.
I nodded, too tired to be embarrassed, and allowed him to remove the underwear. “I’ll be quick,” he promised.
He focused on my back first, cleaning off all the blood and dirt. Finished, he allowed me to sit on the toilet lid, and crouched down to clean my front. His touch was warm and gentle, but not once did it feel like anything other than someone tending to my injuries. When my arms and torso were clean, he dressed a few of the more serious injuries like the bullet wound, wrapping bandages around me.
Normally, I would have told him not to bother, that they would heal quickly, but there were a few cuts which still had blood glistening in them and I was sure it would take a while for me to feel normal again. Finished, he disappeared into my bedroom. I could hear him looking through my drawers and then he reappeared with the largest t-shirt he could find. He slipped it over my head and then helped my arms through the sleeves.
Last of all, he turned his attention to my face. I stared at his blue eyes but they were focused on a cut on my cheek. I still hadn’t managed to stop the tears, and Joshua took a fresh piece of cloth and dabbed them away before meeting my gaze. “Please don’t ever send me away like that again,” he begged. Joshua stood and made to rinse the cloth, but he paused, gripping the side of the counter, watching the water run. Eventually he sighed and looked at me via the mirror. “I’ve never been so scared,” he admitted, quietly. “Angel, I love you. I have known it for a while, but until tonight I didn’t realize just how much.” He turned the tap off and turned to face me, rather than continue the conversation in the mirror. “I don’t care how you came into my life, or why you’re in it, but after tonight I don’t ever want to experience you not being in it.” He walked over and crouched down in front of me, reaching for my hand. “This,” he said, placing my hand over his hea
rt. “This is yours.”
“Mine,” I said, slowly.
“Yours,” he agreed. “And you need to take care of it because I’ve never given it to anyone before.” With his hand holding mine, he entwined his fingers through mine. “I don’t give a crap if you’re my guardian angel. You’re my girlfriend and I should have been there to help you.”
“I can’t make that promise, and it’s not because I’m your guardian angel. It’s because I love you,” I told him, softly. I pulled my hand free, only to use it to place Joshua’s hand over my own heart. “It might beat a little weird, but this is yours, and while it beats, in its weird little way, I will do everything I can to keep you safe and your heart safe, even if it means I have to get you to somewhere safe.”
“I wanted to leave but Cupid had put a damn guard on the door,” Joshua admitted.
That explained the anger. “I didn’t ask him to do that,” I told him. “But I’m glad he did.”
“At least tell me we stopped Asmodeus from doing whatever he was going to do?”
“We did better than that,” I said, breaking into the first smile of the evening. “Cupid killed him. We stopped Asmodeus.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Where there’s Smoke
I awoke in the middle of the night with a start, unsure what had disturbed me. I still felt like I had gone ten rounds with a dump truck, and despite waking, I felt like I could sleep for another week. I lay in bed, staring at the shadows on my wall. My internal clock told me it was the early morning but there were still a couple of more hours to go before the sun was going to break the horizon. Beside me, Joshua stirred, sighing heavily, but he remained asleep.
I was still half asleep myself, and the small bed we were sharing meant it was warm and cozy. I snuggled closer to him, smiling as his arms wrapped around me: even in sleep, his touch was gentle. Ready to succumb to sleep, I took in one last breath, inhaling deeply. The scent of Joshua’s shower gel, the lingering smell of the laundry detergent in his clothes, and smoke filled my nostrils.
Smoke?
That wasn’t right. Joshua had showered. Cupid had eventually returned and announced that the cherubim would come to the convent in the morning, but no human lives had been lost. Only Dion was unaccounted for. When Cupid had added that we’d go through everything in the morning and left us, I’d gotten in bed while Joshua had taken a shower.
I opened my eyes, the urge to sleep fading quickly as my brain started to fire into action.
Smoke….
The building was at least two hundred and fifty years old, and was heated with a boiler, but with the unnaturally warm weather, it hadn’t been used – I wasn’t sure if it would ever get used, considering none of the angels needed it. If there was smoke, that meant only one thing.
“Fire,” I said, shaking myself free of Joshua’s hold.
Beside me, Joshua poked an eye open. “It’s too early, darlin’,” he muttered, his raspy voice thick with sleep.
Before he could close his eyes, I was sitting upright, urging him to do the same. “I smell smoke,” I told him.
There was the briefest pause while he thought about the words I was saying, and then he was up following me to the door. I was reaching for the handle when he stopped me. “Wait,” he commanded, placing the back of his own hand against the wood. Whatever he was looking for, he found, opening the door. As soon as he did, smoke started billowing into the room.
Thick, black clouds, which felt like it was trying to wrap its fingers around us. I peered out into the hallway, my eyes already stinging as they started watering. At the end of the corridor was the door to the next corridor and the staircase. As we both started coughing, Joshua slammed the door shut. “What are you doing?” I asked.
“There’s too much smoke in that corridor,” he said.
“Then we’re going out of the window,” I told him, pulling him towards the large window in the corner. “Cupid!” I yelled in my head. “There’s a fire. We need to get everyone out.”
Joshua pushed open the window and stuck his head out. I did too, looking along the building towards St. Mary’s Church. The flames had already escaped the ground floor windows where the armory was located and were licking up the walls. There were bedrooms above there. “Cupid!” I yelled down the psychic connection.
“Already on it,” he told me, though I couldn’t see him. “I’m working on getting the angels out. They’re all awake.”
“The fire’s in the armory,” I told him. I darted around my bedroom, gathering up my weapons, grateful for being lazy as I strapped the black dagger to one thigh and the quiver to the other.
“What are you doing?” Joshua demanded. “We shouldn’t be wasting time with getting dressed.” The only thing he’d done since leaving the bed was grab his gun.
He was wearing only the shorts I had lent him, and I was in my underwear and a t-shirt which barely covered me, but putting my clothes on was not my focus. “I have a bad feeling about this,” I told him. “The night we defeat Asmodeus and the convent sets on fire? I’m not going out there unprepared.” I draped the bow over my shoulder and, with a second thought, grabbed my cell phone, before returning to the window. My bedroom was at the front of the house but it sat above the parking lot and the concrete below. “I need you to trust me,” I told him.
“Always,” he responded, making to climb up onto the windowsill. I followed him up, but before he could crouch and lower himself down, I scooped him up into my arms. “What are you doing?” he asked me.
“You said you trusted me,” I pointed out before crouching. “Keep trusting.”
And then I jumped.
Joshua wasn’t so heavy that I struggled to lift him, but I didn’t think about considering the extra weight as I landed. My bare feet slammed down on the concrete sending so much pain shooting up my already aching legs that I was certain I had shattered a dozen bones in my feet. I stumbled, but regained my balance before I dropped Joshua. “Angel, are you okay?” Joshua demanded as I set him on the ground.
“I’m fine,” I lied, doing everything in my power not to show how much I had hurt myself. “I need to you to dial 911.” I thrust my phone at him, along with the bow.
“What are you going to do?” he asked.
“Make sure everyone is out,” I said. I pointed to the corner of the parking lot. “Wait by the gate in case you need to get out of the grounds. I’ll send the angels over to you.”
“Be careful,” he said, already dialing as he hurried over to where I had said.
I turned my attention to the convent. If Cupid was getting them out, he wasn’t leaving the angels this side of the house. I ran around the back. The gym was separate to the main building but the fire had spread to this side, and it was close enough that wind could send the flames over. With how hot and dry the weather had been, the wooden paneling to the building would be like kindling. Movement in the gym confirmed my fears – Cupid had been moving the angels in there.
I continued on, picking up speed until I burst through the doors. About a dozen faces turned to me, all looking worried. I scanned their faces, counting. Fifteen. That was half. “The gym is not safe. I want you all to get out and head for the gates. Do not leave the grounds unless you’re told to by the fire department or it looks too unsafe to stay where you are.” Collectively they nodded, and filed past me. “Just keep calm. The fire department is on the way.”
As I spoke, Cupid appeared in the middle of the gym, Nyle and another angel clutching to him. They were coughing and their faces were covered in soot, but they seemed fine. “I’m going as quickly as I can,” Cupid told me.
“You need to head to the gates where the others are,” I instructed Nyle and the other angel. I looked to Cupid. “I know,” I said. “But you can’t bring them in here. It’s too close to the convent,” I told him.
“I can’t go anywhere else,” Cupid said, shaking his head. “What if I appear in the middle of the grounds and we’re seen? There a
re still people lingering around the church, even at this time in the morning. Angel, I have to go, there are still angels in there. I’ve gotten them out of the north side, but that fire is tearing through the building.” He disappeared, leaving me in the gym.
“Nyle, wait!” I cried, before the angel could disappear from sight. He stopped and jogged back. “I need you to stay at the door but direct the angels to the others as Cupid brings them out.”
“You’re not going in there?” he asked, alarmed. “You can’t transport yourself like Cupid can.”
“No, I’m not,” I promised him.
I left him at the door and ran for the side gate. I could hear the sirens in the distance, getting closer and I was certain that Cupid would get the other angels out in time, but I had a nagging feeling in my gut to check the building next to the church. I ran past the main gates, already open for the fire department. The reason I had used the side gate was because I didn’t want Joshua to see me, knowing he would follow me. Thankfully, his attention, like the angels, was on the burning building.
I ran past, heading for St. Mary’s Church. There was a small crowd opposite, staring up at the building. As they realized the gate was open, they moved further down the street, looking for a better view of what was going on behind the walls. I ignored them as I continued to the shop next door.
I’d never been in the shop before, but I did know that the old couple who ran it lived in the flat above. Thankfully, they were standing in the doorway. “Is everyone alright in there?” the old lady asked me.
“We will be,” I said, sighing in relief. “I wanted to make sure you were out, just in case.”
“That’s very kind of you, dear,” her wife said. “But you should go back and make sure everyone is out.”
“You two need to keep safe too,” I told her.
“Don’t you worry about us,” the second woman assured me as I started to make my way back.
I jogged, albeit with a limp, back to the gate and did a quick headcount. We were up to twenty-six. Joshua was busy with one of the angels who looked like he was struggling to get his coughing under control. I knew the angels were all as hardy as me, and like me, they didn’t need oxygen as much as a human, but examining some of the angels, it looked like they had just stood in their rooms, staring at the smoke. Ugh, I hoped that wasn’t the case.
