I was sure it wouldn't be that easy. Joe was guaranteed to have tricks up his sleeve that none of us knew about. "What are you going to do?"
"We'll wait for you here. Once you get back, we'll need to get airborne and go claim the Destroyer." The demon put his hand on Brian's shoulder. "If you wouldn't mind?"
"I'm in," Brian replied. "I'll go talk to the pilot."
"What the heck am I supposed to do?" Obi asked. "You woke me up just to leave me twiddling my thumbs again?"
"We couldn't exactly leave you spouting latin every time you were conscious," Max said. "If you're itching to get involved, you can ride shotgun with the fur ball."
"Not my first choice, but it beats hanging out here."
"Very well. You three better get moving. Be back with the Box in two hours, or I'm afraid the end of the world as we know it will come sooner than we'd like."
Everything was happening so fast. I glanced at Sarah. "Are you ready?"
"As ready as I'll ever be."
I let go of Brother Shane, feeling myself spread away from his soul and exit his body. Max grabbed him before he could collapse, holding him in a tight grip. I didn't want to know what he would do with him.
An instant later, I was trying to wrap myself around Sarah's soul. I could feel the resistance, the energy roiling around me like a massive lightning storm, and I could hear Max telling her to relax. I pushed into the storm even as it rolled, trying to navigate my way through, trying to complete the connection.
When I did, it hurt. Not like the others, where the pain was intense but manageable. It hurt more than any hurt I had ever experienced, or any hurt I could have possibly conceived. It was as if I had been shattered into a million tiny fragments, and each of those shards had been stabbed with a white hot sun. There was nothing to compare it to, and no way to get around it. I was forced to ride through the whirlpool, to hold on while I was pulled through the broken mess that was at the heart of the true diuscrucis. They always went mad eventually, I knew, but to see it, to feel it, to have it run through me... once I had come out the other side, it was all I could do to hold myself together.
How Sarah was managing defied my understanding.
"Are you with me?" Sarah asked.
I was with her, but she was still in control. "Yes. Sarah, I-"
"Do you remember our conversation on the beach?"
"Yes."
"Let's just leave it at that, okay, Rebecca? I'm trying to forgive you, because I know it's what my mother would want, and what Landon would want. It's not easy, after everything that happened, that you helped to cause."
"I'm sorry." I had to say it. She didn't reply.
"We're ready," Sarah said to Max. "Obi, let's go."
He had retrieved his gun and was standing by the ladder. "I'm waiting on you, kiddo," he said.
We followed him out of the airplane and down to where Ulnyx was waiting.
"The other meat," he said with a laugh. "I'm impressed to see you're still alive."
"These are silver bullets, man," Obi replied, tapping the gun at his hip. The Were just kept laughing.
"Ulnyx, we're ready," Sarah said.
"She's in there?"
"Yes."
He stared into our eyes. "I owe you one for saving my ass." He waved towards the back of the hanger. "The car's out back. Well, it's more like a truck. We don't want to be too suspicious."
We followed him out the back door. When he had said truck, he had meant truck. An eighteen wheeler was parked there, a black big-rig with Japanese lettering running along the side, hooked up to a trailer painted with cartoon characters.
"You get the VIP seat in the back," Ulnyx said, pointing to the rear of the trailer. "Meat and I will be in the cab."
"Seriously, man," Obi said. "Stop calling me that."
I could still hear him laughing as we climbed into the empty trailer and pulled down the door.
"Just you and me," I said. "It would help if I could try your body on, to get used to it before we get there."
The floor shifted below us as the truck roared to life. A moment later I could feel us start moving.
"Okay. I'll give you a few minutes."
Give me? Before I could ask what she meant, I found myself in her skin. I stumbled forward, getting my bearings, and then straightened up. Sarah was young, and she had kept herself in good shape. She wasn't Elyse, but she was much closer to my size than Brother Shane had been. I crouched down and grabbed one of the daggers from her calf. In one quick motion, I hurled it forward, smiling when it stuck into the wall of the trailer. I'd been too long without a decent host, and I'd missed it.
"That's enough," Sarah said. I was kicked out without warning. It left me disoriented and angry.
"What the hell?" I was the spirit. I was supposed to be in control.
"Not here," Sarah said, leaving me to wonder if she could sense my thoughts. "I decide when you get to come out and play."
It was possible to join with her, but not without complications. At least I hadn't tried to take her back at the beach house.
"Your soul is a mess," I said. Just thinking about what I had experienced made me feel cold.
"Tell me about it."
The truck started vibrating and shifting as we got away from the airport and out onto the highway. Sarah and I sat in silence, and in time I began to count the rivets that held the trailer together.
"Rebecca?" Sarah whispered my name out loud, as if she was trying to say it without spitting, or cursing.
"Yes?"
"Max told me what happened to you. He told me that you've changed. Is it true?"
I remembered the look in Obi's eyes at the train station. I remembered his words. "I'm not sure. I'm trying to."
"Do you feel God?"
The question took me by surprise. "I believe in His redemption. I believe in His forgiveness."
"You don't believe you deserve it."
It was a one, two punch.
"I don't know how to win without creating chaos around me." I don't know why I was telling her that. Maybe it was the strangeness of my bond to her, the incompleteness. "On the beach, you said to just do my best. I am, but it's not good enough. Maybe they're right? Maybe I am what I am, and that's all I can ever be."
She'd opened the floodgates, and every doubt I'd had too much time to think about while I was floating back to shore was surfacing.
"Or maybe you need to stop listening to the chatter, and pay attention to your most honest self."
"I have. I want to go to Heaven, and I'm willing to do whatever I have to in order to get there. I want to help Landon, but I also want to help myself. It doesn't sound very selfless, does it?"
Sarah laughed out loud. "No, but then I don't know of a single being that isn't motivated at all by what they want for themselves."
"What about you?"
"What about me?"
"What do you want?"
"To live up to the memory of my mother, most of all. She was a strong person, and a stronger angel. She didn't sacrifice her beliefs for anything. You've seen my soul, Rebecca. I don't know if I can fight the turmoil inside forever, but I hope if the time comes that I can't, I'll have the grace to do the right thing before I hurt anyone."
There were a few minutes of silence while I thought about what she had said.
"Landon was pretty selfless, to throw himself into the middle of the Divine for the sake of everyone else," I said at last.
"I think if you ask him, he won't tell you it was selfless."
"I hope I get to ask him."
"Me too."
CHAPTER THIRTY
Rebecca
We spotted the first Nicht Creidim laying prone on top of a warehouse two blocks from their main facility. Ulnyx had pounced on him from behind, removed his head, and then thrown the sniper rifle he'd been toting down to Sarah and me. We'd left the truck a few blocks back, and hadn't intended for the him or Obi to leave the vehicle behind, but he'd smelled the cleaning
agents they used on their guns at a distance and decided we would need backup until we got a little closer.
I was grateful for the Were's sense of smell when Obi took out a second sniper inside the opposite building.
I knew from Elyse that the sentries wore remotely tracked heart monitors. They knew the moment their people died, and in this case their response was to start blaring an exorcism through hidden loudspeakers.
"We need to shut that up," I said, expecting to start being peeled away, and tightening my grip on Sarah's soul.
"I'm in control, remember? I don't want you to go." It felt as though her soul reached out and took hold of me, steadying my force inside of her. The loudspeakers continued, but I remained planted.
"That crap is hurting my ears," Ulnyx said, leaping down from the building and landing at our side. He had his hands pressed against his head.
"Why don't you go shut it up?" Sarah asked.
"It doesn't look like I'll have a chance." He pointed forward with a massive claw. We looked just in time to see a black clothed figure disappear behind a building. "They're pretty well-armed. We'll clear a path for you." He raised his nose to the air, and looked to the building where we'd last seen Obi. "Hey, meat," he shouted. "You see that?"
The response was a loud boom from the high-powered rifle.
"I smell blood," the Were said.
"Sarah, warn him about Wolfsbane." Joe had taken the pack, which meant he'd recovered the knife.
"Ulnyx, be careful. Rebecca says they have something called Wolfsbane."
He growled at that, but launched forward. Another rifle shot sounded out past the din of the exorcism.
"You're up Rebecca," Sarah said. "I'm a sitting duck out here."
I was in control of her faculties a moment later.
"Don't get me shot."
"I'll do my best." I ducked in a shady corner of a warehouse and kept my ears open. The noise levels rose with an explosion of gunfire, howling, and screaming. I took that as my queue to start moving forward.
I ran a block and peered around the corner. A black-clothed body lay on the ground, a pool of blood around him, running from a single gunshot wound to the head. I thanked Obi silently and raced across the expanse without drawing any fire. The next block was just as clear, and I kept moving until I was right on top of the continuing sounds of battle.
I found Ulnyx pinned down behind a cement truck, his body running with blood from a dozen wounds. Six Nicht Creidim kept up concerted fire from the corner of a warehouse. Of course the Were could smell us, and he looked over and waved us on. We snuck across the space without drawing attention.
"We should help him," Sarah said.
"Not our mission," I replied. "He volunteered for this."
Our target was only a block away. The roll-up door was down, and I was sure they were just waiting for someone to come and try to open it. Had they identified Sarah already? Did they know I was with her? The Eye didn't work through cameras.
We reached our last hiding spot, and I stared at the door. "That's the only way in," I said. "You can bet Joe's got an ambush all set for us."
"We don't have a choice," Sarah said. "You're supposed to be good."
I took the daggers from her leg. "What if they shoot you before the door opens?"
A bullet answered my question, a loud blast that couldn't have come from more than a dozen feet away and up. A body fell from a far window.
I ran as fast as I could. To the normal observer, the door didn't look like it could be opened from the outside. Elyse had known how to get in, and I had retained that information. I just had to hope Joe didn't know spirits could take memories from their hosts.
I crouched at the door, slamming my fist on the ground at its base. A small, seamless panel opened up, revealing a keypad underneath. I was about to type in the code when I had a better idea.
"Let me go. I'll clear the inside. The code is 947468," I said. "Remember it. 947468. Wait twenty seconds and then put it in."
Her response was to throw me from her at a speed that surprised me. I flowed through the heavily runed steel and concrete, and into the room. There were four Nicht Creidim there, with golden Eyes tattooed to their foreheads. They all looked towards me, able to see whatever it was I actually looked like. One of them started chanting.
A stupid idea, I realized too late. I should have guessed they would be more prepared for me, but I had hoped they would have thought the loudspeakers had done the trick. Joe wasn't taking any chances.
Then the door started rolling up, which took all of us by surprise. The exorcist kept going for another couple of seconds, until a hand appeared under the rising door, a dark hand holding a cannon. The bullet tore into his stomach and shut him up forever.
Sarah came in next, rolling under the small space. I urged myself toward her while she threw herself at one of the defenders, her knife work decent but not good enough to keep herself alive for very long. She didn't need a knife though, she just needed to keep them off-balance.
"Stop," she Commanded. Two of them froze immediately. The other squinted his eyes, fought off the power, and charged.
I grabbed onto her soul. It hurt again, but not as much as the first time. I could feel the power of it, the energy churning and twisting and reveling in the control. It was less painful, but it was more frightening. Using the power to Command was accepting the demonic side of her, the chaos and the evil that threatened to unravel her.
I didn't need to ask for the wheel. Her eyes became my eyes, and I brought a dagger up just in time to push back against an incoming attack, their weapon skidding off my own. He backed away and pulled a gun instead, but Obi had gained enough clearance to get in. His shot came first and left us with no one to fight.
"It's not safe for you here," I said to him.
"You're welcome," he replied. "You're lucky I guessed what you were going to try to do. Jumping from that window wasn't fun."
"What do you see?" I asked, looking around. I knew we were in a warehouse. I could see it through the haze of energy that was left by the Deceiver.
"A warehouse," he said. "Nothing out of the ordinary."
He'd changed something, I could see that much. I figured out what just in time.
I threw myself at Obi, catching him in the chest and throwing him out of the building just in time to save his life. There were shooters clinging to the scaffolding, hiding behind boxes and taking aim. Joe had disguised them, made them invisible, which meant I was the only one who could see them.
I was laying on top of him, looking down at his surprised and angry face. "Snipers. Joe's hiding them. Thank you for your help, but you can't help me anymore. You need to stay out here." I put my hand on the Eagle. "I need to borrow this."
I pulled it from his grasp, rolled off and charged back in. I kept moving at a random pace and in alternating directions towards the elevator I knew was there. Bullets ricocheted off the stone floor and scaffolding around me, one coming close enough that I felt it burn through a wisp of Sarah's short hair. I returned fire, conserving bullets and taking shots only when I could see them hanging out of the corners. With this much movement my aim was crap, but it was enough to keep them on their toes.
We reached the elevator. I hit the button and then dove back under the cover of a few crates. The gunfire stopped, but I could hear clanging as they moved around, trying to shift into a better position to kill me before I could get into the underground. I had no doubt that it would be just as hairy down there, but at least there wasn't enough space for long-range combat.
The elevator reached the top and the doors slid open. It was empty. I took a deep breath. "If anything happens, I'm sorry," I said to Sarah. I couldn't be sure the snipers wouldn't hit us. There was only one place to go.
I started running, and then dove and twisted, landing hard on my ass and sliding the last few feet into the elevator while shooting randomly into the warehouse. I heard the shots echo through the open expanse, and I waited
to feel the burning sting of a bullet ending Sarah's life. Pings sounded around me, four of them, and then the doors slid closed. Three more pings told me they had kept shooting, but even the elevator was fortified.
"We made it," Sarah said.
"So far so good. Your turn. If there's anyone waiting at the elevator, you need to stop them."
I went from actor to observer. The energy swirling around Sarah's soul was exhilarating and terrifying. She was letting go of the facade of control she worked so hard to maintain. She was walking into potential death, and her will was responding to prevent it.
The Nicht Creidim stronghold was deep underground, so the ride was long. It felt a million times longer. By the time we stopped descending, Sarah was burning with cold fire. I was a moth held tight against it, unable to flee and mesmerized by its beauty.
We crouched in the forward corner of the elevator while the door slid open. I could sense the power of the Deceiver, and see into the illusion. A single large room, with no other way in or out. Two Nicht Creidim held their weapons ready to fire as soon as we appeared.
"Kill him," Sarah said, the energy of her soul discharging like a solar flare. She hadn't targeted either of them, so they both followed the Command. Two gunshots, two thuds.
Sarah smiled.
"Where do we go?" she asked.
"You can't see it. Let me drive."
"Tell me where." Her voice was empty, emotionless.
"Sarah. Let me in. Landon needs us."
It broke her out of it. I was back in control. I scooped up one of the guns on my way down the hallway. I knew there was a lab down here, and I tried to remember how to get there.
I made a left, and then a right, and then ran down a long hallway. In time I realized that I knew where I was heading. The lab was near where they stored the artifacts. I had to pass Elyse's room to get there.
Was she still alive? I was fairly sure Joe wouldn't have killed her, despite what he had done to her sister. She was his favorite, his pride and joy, and in a twist of irony he had too much respect for her stubbornly strong will to put her down with such disregard.
I stopped at her door and considered opening it. I don't know why I was so concerned about her. I was wasting time checking and putting Sarah at greater risk. It was stupid, and foolish.
Bound (The Divine, Book Four) Page 21
