“So, let me get this straight. It’s not God who smacked you down for raping human women and screwing with their minds. It’s just a bunch of jealous, uptight angels.” My hand adjusted for a firmer grip on the hilt of my sword. “And, why? To keep humans from evolving into what? You, right?” Disgust made an ugly noise at the back of my throat.
“They are hypocritical fools, using our progeny to do what they haven’t the strength or stomach to do themselves,” Hubert said.
“If you weren’t raping women, there’d be no progeny to send after you.”
“It is only rape if the female is unwilling.”
“It’s rape if the woman doesn’t have a choice,” I said, feeling my growing ire tightening my jaw. “Using your angelic charms is like drugging a woman. You take away her ability to think clearly, to make an informed, balanced decision. That’s rape.”
“That’s seduction,” he countered smoothly. “It’s no different than a handsome man’s smile, an eloquent man’s poetry, an endowed man’s prowess.”
“Except a woman can ignore a handsome smile or a snappy come-on line. When it comes to angelic mojo, a girl doesn’t stand a chance.”
“You seem to be having no difficulty denying the effect.”
My mouth snapped shut, and my brain flinched. He was right. I still felt the seductive draw from him, the desire to be the center of his world, to be touched and kissed and…touched by him. But I wasn’t about to chuck everything—family, friends, divine mission—and throw myself into his arms.
I could say no.
“I understand your concern.” His voice was softer now, as though he’d sensed my brain’s falter. “I share that concern. For eons, your species has been kept stilted and unchanging. The moment my brothers realized you would one day evolve to become equal to them, they began doing all they could to alter humanity’s course. Spreading false propaganda, twisting truths, and casting out those of us who would stand against them, chaining us in the bowels of the earth where our outcries can’t be heard.”
“And yet you stand here, surrounded by bastardized human and angel offspring, triggering powers in them they aren’t near capable of controlling or understanding,” I said. A few of the nephilim looked as though they were following the conversation; most stared like guard dogs waiting to pounce.
“These beautiful souls are the next step in human evolution.” He opened his hands, gesturing to the men and women crowding around him. “Their mothers were chosen to take our seed, to advance humanity. With my help, we’ve compensated for valuable evolutionary time. With my help, our children will become so much more.”
I loved my mom. She was the best. But she was just a normal woman, and this guy was full of it. “What if they’re not ready? What if by forcing evolution you’re skipping a natural, necessary progression? It’s like pushing a newborn bird out of the nest. Just because it’s got wings doesn’t mean it knows how to fly. You can’t give these people angelic power without teaching them how to use it.”
“Was your education so vast? Would you have your powers stripped because your magister’s teachings were lacking?” he said. “Are you any better, any more deserving, any more capable than these people? You would deny them the very thing that gives you confidence to stand here and argue your point with an angel? How very hypocritical of you.”
“I didn’t ask for these powers,” I said. “I didn’t ask to be chased by demons, to have my friend slaughtered right in front of me, to have my family put at risk, my life turned upside down.”
“That is not what I’m offering these people.” He took a step closer, and the crowd around him held their collective breath. Tension spiked, like air pushed into an over-inflated balloon. “I’m offering them the chance to be a part of the greatest thing mankind has seen since the birth of civilization. I am giving them the power to bring Heaven to Earth and live as the gods they were destined to be. I’d offer that same gift to you, if you’d take it.”
“Me?” Maybe he forgot why I was there.
“Yes,” he said. “There’s something about you. Something…different. Your power feels more like my own, more pure.”
My thoughts slowed, a dull ache starting behind my eyes, pressure building. It came on fast, pushed against my eyeballs and stuffed my ears. And then it was gone.
“You have a strong will…Emma Jane. No surprise you can resist my charms.”
He’d probed my mind. That’s what the sensation had been—he’d taken my name from my thoughts. Understanding dawned quickly. He’d forced his will, pushed his way through. That’s why it had hurt. I couldn’t stop him, hadn’t even thought to try. Who knew what other information he’d stolen?
Anger washed over me, thumping through my chest. He had no right. “Stay the hell out of my head, Fallen.”
His soft, pink lips curled into a smile, cocky—confident. “I was right. You are different. My, your father was clever.”
“My father was an engineer. He was a good man. A human. The bastard that raped my mother will be rotting in the abyss before long.”
“Such harsh, angry words from someone so curious, so unsure,” he said. “I can answer your questions, Emma Jane. I can help you understand, show you the truth. Join me, and I can help you become a force of nature.”
Questions? So many rattled through my brain, questions I didn’t want to think about. Could he tell me why this was happening to me, what it all meant? Will I ever be forgiven for what I am if I can’t find and kill my Fallen father? If I’m too sullied for Heaven and too angelic for hell, where do I belong? Who will want me?
The Fallen had looked inside me, deeper than anyone ever had. He knew the questions I’d been trying not to ask, scared of what the answers might be. If I was damned no matter what, did I want to know?
Yes. I wanted to know. I wanted it so badly, the temptation of his offer tied my stomach in knots. I didn’t like wanting this much.
I clenched my fist, my gaze sliding to the demon holding my sword arm. Our eyes met, his so human no one would know by looking what he was. The hate I felt for him, for Hubert, for myself, choked at the back of my throat, and I let it fuel my glare. I jerked my shoulder, and he let me go.
“Your power is remarkable,” Hubert said. “I’d begun to doubt if such a pure melding of human and angelic spirit was even possible. But with your sword at my side, the mighty will kneel before us, and more like you will rise.”
My gaze slid back to him, and the hate inside me flared. The memory of Tommy bleeding to death in my arms stormed through my mind, of my mother seduced by a wicked angel, of these people, consumed by power they shouldn’t have. I wanted to stop him, to make him pay.
“I’m not here to join you,” I said, my voice deadly calm. “I’m here to take your head.”
The Fallen angel stiffened. I could see the war waging inside him, survival instincts urging him to put distance between us and pride refusing to show the weakness. Good.
“You’re mistaken, illorum,” he said. “You will join me or you will die this day. Either way, you’ve done more than you can possibly realize. My brothers will know our mission is within our grasp. We can birth an army formidable enough to put asunder the walls of Heaven.”
“Not if I kill the messenger. Ready to see how good I am now?” I raised my sword, both hands tight on the grip, blade high, ready to swing with every ounce of angelic force pumping through my veins.
Hubert didn’t budge. The conflict I’d seen in his eyes a moment ago was gone. His gaze was cold, devoid of emotion—ice. “You’re a fool.”
Maybe.
Movement at the far corners of my eyes made me look. One side, and then the other. I was surrounded.
Demons, I guessed, judging by the pungent cloud of brimstone steaming off them. They stood shoulder to shoulder in a tight circle around us. The brainwashed nephilim huddled close to Hubert’s shoulder in front of me, making it difficult to land a blow without slicing my sword through one of them first. I�
�d manage.
“You will join me, Emma Jane,” he said. “I can let no other have you as mother to their legions.”
“Mother?” My brain shifted through all the possible implications. “Oh, hell no. Dude, trust me, you are never going to touch this.”
My weight shifted, the world slowed, and power suddenly hummed through my veins, giving inhuman strength to human muscle. In that same instant, the circle around me tightened. Demons advanced. I didn’t care.
A breath before I swung, someone yelled. “Freeze! Police.”
I glanced over my shoulder then turned, my sword dropping to my side, my free hand going up in surrender. Everywhere I looked, all I saw were gun barrels, every one of them pointed at me.
Time caught up, made me blink as my brain struggled, a few beats behind. Police were everywhere, yelling. “Freeze! Drop the weapon! Drop the weapon! Drop the weapon!”
In the snap of a finger, the demons had shifted from seething, threatening beasts to innocuous convention goers. Some melted into the crowd of nephilim onstage; others feigned fear, cowering behind chairs, taking cover next to tables.
The demons set me up. Any visible threat, any justification for my drawn weapon was gone. All that was left was me with my big honkin’ sword, threatening to swing at the spiritualist Richard Hubert and his fifty or so unarmed loyal followers. I admit, it didn’t look good.
I dropped the weapon, put both my hands up in surrender. It didn’t seem to make a difference to the adrenaline-pumped cops.
“Don’t move! Don’t move!” they yelled, edging closer.
“Emma?” someone said.
My gaze snapped to the uniformed policeman among the sea of uniformed policemen washing toward me, guns still drawn.
“Officer Dan?” I groaned.
“Hold your fire,” Wysocki yelled. “Hold your fire. I got this. I got it.”
No one fired, but they still had a bead on me with their guns. One cop darted forward, grabbed my sword, and stepped back like I might try and snatch it. I released the power I’d sent to call my blade and watched the gleaming metal vanish. The cop holding it nearly dropped the hilt out of shock. I didn’t care as long as Dan didn’t touch that grip.
Officer Wysocki holstered his weapon, snagging his cuffs from farther back on his belt. “Jeezus, Emma. Threatening a priest? What the hell’s going on with you?”
“He’s not a priest.” He’s a fallen angel. But I doubted it’d make a difference. Dan spun me around so my back was to him, and I held my hands behind me without being asked.
“You have the right to remain silent…”
The cuffs pinched.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
I think they make the fingerprint ink hard to remove on purpose. Sort of an added humiliation on top of the humiliation of being arrested. The wet wipe Officer Wysocki gave me was practically dry already, and I’d worn holes in it scrubbing at my blackened fingertips.
My stomach dropped when he shoved through the steel door with the itty-bitty window on top, and tossed my official file onto the institutional, gray metal table. It slid a few inches to stop in front of his chair as he sat. “All right, Emma. Want to tell me what was going on today?”
Geez, I wished he’d stay in the room or out of it, so my nephilim senses would stop warning me another of my kind was near. I saw him grimace, so at least he was suffering as much as I was.
“I accidently put twenty bucks in the collection plate, and I was trying to get my change back,” I said. “Those Faith Harvest people are real misers.”
“C’mon, Emma.”
“Okay, okay, Hubert was telling all those people he was an immortal god and I was just going to test the theory with my sword.” Close to the truth.
“Emma…”
“Speaking of my sword,” I said. “I kinda need that back. Um, now.”
He made an amused sniff, then looked me in the eye and realized I wasn’t joking. “Your butt’s going to be on the next transport to the county jail in about thirty minutes, Hellsbane. We don’t normally arm our prisoners with swords, or even sword handles. What is that thing anyway, some kind trick weapon? The plastic blade collapses into the handle or something?”
A horrible thought occurred to me. “You didn’t touch it, did you? My sword—I mean the handle. You didn’t touch it, right?”
I reached for his wrists, my cuffs and the chain they used to attach me to the table clanking against the top as I moved. I managed to snag his right hand, twisting it to see his wrist. No mark. He jerked away before I could grab the other to check.
“Hey. Hey. Enough.” He held his hands up and out where I couldn’t reach. But I could see his left wrist was clean, too. “What the hell’s with you?”
“Nothing.” I shook my head, leaned forward so I could reach to scrub my face with both hands. “Bad day. Really bad, long, bad day.”
“Yeah. Well, mine hasn’t been a bowl of peaches, either,” he said. “What was going on in that ballroom? Were they burning something, incense or drugs or something? The second I walked in there I thought I’d puke.”
“I don’t know.” Why should I spell everything out for him? No one warned me before it was too late. Ignorance is bliss, right?
“No,” he said. “I just got a weird feeling in my gut. Like…”
“Like you were riding a roller coaster?”
“Yeah, one too many. Almost lost my lunch.”
I shrugged. “Maybe you ate some bad sushi.”
“I didn’t eat any sushi today.”
“Bad tuna?”
“Emma.” The way he barked my name made me flinch. I hated that.
He waited a few beats, either for me to collect myself or for him to collect himself, I’m not sure which. “Listen. We’ve had this conversation before,” he said.
“You still got kids?”
“Yeah.”
“Then let it go,” I said. “And while you’re at it, how about letting me go, too?”
“Tell me something, and I’ll see what I can do.”
“Seriously?” I said, straightening.
“I might be able to talk to the people at Faith Harvest. I’ll vouch for you. See if they’d be willing to drop the charges, since no one got hurt…”
“Sweet.”
“First…talk.”
Oh. Right. I didn’t want to be the one to pop his normal-world balloon. I still wished mine had never been burst. “Fine. No, they weren’t burning anything in the ballroom. That’s not what made your stomach feel weird. Good enough?”
“Not by half,” he said. “You still owe me for letting you get away when I caught you at Saint James’s apartment.”
My chest tightened at the mention of Tommy’s name. I pushed the pain away. “Let me get away? Dude, you never had me at the apartment. Wait. I mean…I was never there. I don’t even know what you’re talking about.” Close one.
He snorted. “Clever.”
“And even if I had been there, no way would you have caught me.” I mean, seriously. I could move faster than the speed of light.
“Yeah. About that.” He leaned forward, forearms resting on the table, his big biceps pushing the stretching point of his short cop sleeves. “How’d you move so fast? One second you were standing on the kitchen table and the next you were on the balcony. A second after that you were gone.”
“I…uh…” Me and my big mouth. I couldn’t think of anything he’d believe. “Dammit, Dan, why can’t you just let it go? Trust me, you’ll wish you had.”
His back stiffened, his brows slamming low over his pretty blue eyes. “Is that a threat?”
“No,” I said. “It’s a fact. If I tell you the truth, you won’t believe it. And if you do, it’ll drive you nuts.”
“Try me,” he said. “I’m a cop, Emma. I doubt there’s anything in your little girly life that’s going to give me nightmares.”
A challenge. Yum. “Girly? Really?”
He shrugged. Yeah, he knew it was a dumb
thing to say. I glanced at the big-mirrored wall behind him. “Anybody in there?”
His eyes slid to the side like he’d look but his attention came back to me before he did. “No. Just you and me.”
Bullshit. I own a TV. “Whatever. Okay, if I tell you, you have to promise you’ll get the charges against me dropped.”
“I’ll do what I can.”
“And I need my sword back,” I said, then hurried to add, “But you can’t touch it. Someone else has to bring it to me.”
“You’re not exactly in a position to be making demands,” he said. “How about you start talking, and I’ll decide what I can do to help you out.”
“Fine.” I sighed, sinking back in the hard chair. The stupid thing looked like it had cushions on the back and seat, but the blue-green pads were as hard as the gray metal that made up the rest of the chair.
I squirmed, trying to stop my butt from getting any number. “What do you want to know? Where should I start?”
“How were you able to move so fast?” he said.
“I’m not human.” I stopped myself. Rethought. “Well, I’m not totally human. I’m half human and half”—I glanced at him, watching his reaction—“angel.”
He did one of those slow blinks, the kind you do when your brain hasn’t quite figured out how to process the info it just received. I waited.
Officer Wysocki was a decent-looking guy. Great body, solid muscle. Kind of short, but then again, so am I, so I can’t really throw stones. He looked like a good solid man, a good cop, a good dad, and I was about to blow his world all to hell. Yay, me.
“Okay,” he said, snapping out of his stupor. He pushed to his feet, the metal chair screeching against the ugly linoleum floor. “An officer will be in to take you to the transport in about twenty minutes. Good luck in court, Miss Hellsbane. You’ll need it.”
He grabbed my folder and turned to leave.
“Hey, wait. What about the charges? What about my sword?”
He looked back at me, defeat and frustration stewing on his cute face. “I haven’t got time for this. You’re not going to be straight with me, fine. I’ve got better things to do than help you out of your own mess.”
Hellsbane 01 - Hellsbane Page 22
