by Hanna Peach
“I told her to wait at the north entrance.”
“What? Why the hell would you do that? You know she’s always welcome here. Let her in.”
“No, sir. It’s not her...it’s all the others that she is with.”
“What?” This woke Mason up. Others?
Mason grabbed an overcoat and strode towards the northern entrance of the underground station, Owl skittering along behind him.
When he reached the entrance he saw Alyx’s face, sooty, bloodstained and looking like she had aged a decade with worry lines. With her were more figures, almost two dozen of them, all with eyes like hers, feline and unhuman. Christ almighty. What in the blazes was going on?
“Alyx?”
“Mason, please. We need your help. Can we stay?”
Mason could feel a frown pulling on his features.
“You said if I ever needed anything...”
“Yes,” Mason growled. “You. If you ever need anything. Who are all these people? Or,” he raised an eyebrow at Alyx and lowered his voice, “can I even call them people?”
Before Alyx could answer, Mason spotted Israel lying on a makeshift stretcher. Near him on another stretcher was a large-set man crusted with dried blood, who Mason recognized from his short time at their hidden community.
“Jesus. What happened? Did the robbery go bad? Wait, wait.” Mason lifted his hands up. “I don’t want to know. No, actually I do need to know. Are the cops onto yer?”
Alyx shook her head. “No. This isn’t because of the cops, Mason.”
The demons, then. A hundred filthy curses went through his head. This was getting worse and worse. “Is Israel going be okay?”
Alyx started to say something, but she stopped and pressed her mouth closed. Mason knew by the quiver of her lip that it wasn’t good news.
“Please,” she begged. “We don’t know where else the demons have infiltrated. We have nowhere left to go.”
She was fighting to keep the moisture welling in her eyes from spilling over. It hit Mason right in the heart. He would do anything for her to keep her from crying. “Of course. You can stay.” He waved an arm out to Owl. “They can come in.”
“Thank you, Mason,” Alyx said, and she half-collapsed into his arms. “Just for as long as it takes for us to figure something out.”
Mason pressed his lips to a thin line as he hugged her back. “Of course.”
“If we can just get Israel and Marin a compartment… Everyone else can sleep out on the station floor. We don’t want to impose too much.”
Mason told Owl to wake a few others. Then he spent the next few minutes barking orders to his sleepy men. Breakfast was to be started. Bedding was to be procured. Within seconds the station was alive.
Later, Mason opened the door to the compartment where they had placed Israel. Alyx was still sitting by Israel’s side, pressing a cold compress to his forehead. Israel looked pale and he seemed to be sleeping at the moment. He was shirtless with a gauze bandage wrapped around his chest.
“Come out for breakfast, Alyx,” Mason said.
She shook her head.
Mason stepped to her side and eased an arm around her, pulling her to her feet. “You need to eat. You’re no good to him if you don’t keep your strength up.”
She let him lead her from the compartment and to a small bench. The dining area had mostly cleared, as it was now late morning. At Mason’s nod, one of his men came over with a small bowl of cold porridge and a spoon. Mason tried a joke. “Don’t tell me yer needs me to feed yer too?”
Alyx didn’t smile. She took the bowl from him and began to spoon the contents into her mouth. By the vacant look on her face, Mason knew she wasn’t tasting any of it.
“What happened?” he asked after a few minutes of silence.
“We thought we were being so clever,” she said as she played with the porridge in her bowl with her spoon. Mason waited for her to continue. “We succeeded in stealing the Black Stone. We thought we had just beaten the Darkened to it. But they were waiting for us at each location. They watched us steal the Black Stone and followed us. Then they attacked, stealing the Black Stone and capturing our people. Only three of them made it back. The Darkened offered a trade. All of their prisoners’ lives...for Israel’s.”
Alyx paused to place a spoonful of porridge in her mouth, chewed, then swallowed.
“I came up with this idea. This wonderful plan to rescue them, to save Israel and to capture Samyara at the same time.” Her voice was bitter. “Warriors from our community and others hid nearby. I thought I was being so smart. Turns out Samyara had a plan of his own. He preempted me. It turns out he had hidden a locator on Marin and left him behind so he could to return to our community. The Darkened attacked Aradale while we were making the exchange. Samyara got away. He would have had Israel as well if I hadn’t disguised myself as him using magic.”
Mason rubbed a hand on her back in an attempt to soothe her. “At least that’s something. You did what you could.”
Alyx snorted. “I lost the Black Stone and helped Samyara destroy our community. Ky, Ana’s son,” Alyx looked over at the gaunt-looking woman staring vacantly into space and her eyes suddenly filled with moisture, “he was killed. And now Israel is dying. Because of me.”
“You’ll find a cure. Of course you will.” Mason tried to infuse as much confidence into his voice as he could. Alyx didn’t need any reminders from him about how bad her situation looked.
“I should go back to him. I don’t want him to be alone if he wakes.” Alyx stood and walked away, leaving her half empty bowl on the bench.
Mason stayed on the bench for a few minutes, watching these supernatural creatures setting themselves up in his station. He frowned. His men weren’t stupid and he needed to tell them something as to why these people were here. So far the street pirates had managed to stay out of the supernatural war that raged through their streets at night. What would happen now that they were harboring the supernatural? How long would it take for one of the supernaturals to slip up and reveal one of their magics? How long would it take before one of the men figured it out?
Mason had heard whispers of how supernatural blood was coveted as a drug in some lesser-civilized circles. But these lesser-civilized circles paid well. Sometimes greed overruled morality. And fear – fear of someone or something different – made it easy for some men to justify their behaviors.
Then there were the demons. Alyx had said that the demons had followed them from the Black Stone locations, hidden a locator on one of them. What if the demons had followed Alyx down here? His station, his men, they would be at risk from attack as well. He needed to triple his watch, warn his men of a possible attack. Mason scowled and rubbed his forehead with his hand. He couldn’t help but silently begrudge Alyx.
She had brought her war to his doorstep.
* * *
Angelsong (Dark Angel #3)
Hanna Peach
If he dies, she dies…
Israel lies dying from a poisoned knife wound. To save him, Alyx needs Mayrekk’s help and the knowledge contained within the Threads of Dark.
But Mayrekk remains imprisoned in Michaelea, being punished for his hand in Alyx’s escape, and Michael himself guards the key to Mayrekk’s freedom. And the Threads of Dark is kept within a secret chamber deep under the Archives of Urielos, a Seraphim city clinging to cliffs somewhere along the coast of Italy. Even if Alyx does manage to find a way into the city, the chamber is guarded by ancient riddles and deadly traps.
Can Alyx rescue Mayrekk and retrieve the Threads of Dark before Israel slips away?
To Dani – this one is most definitely for you.
You know why.
Chapter 1
Alyx sat at Israel’s side in his train compartment in the Saint’s Revenge, pressing a cold wet cloth to his forehead. The Saint’s Revenge was an old disused subway station under Saint Joseph, turned home base of Israel’s old street gang. The Seraphim usually remaine
d separate from the mortals. But Alyx didn’t know where else to bring the survivors of Aradale after Samyara, a demon Lord, had attacked and burned down their home. Not everyone had survived.
Since they had arrived here a few hours ago, Israel had developed a fever from the demon poison and hadn’t woken back up. The golden glow had been robbed from his skin. Even his plump lips seemed to have lost their fullness and color. If they didn’t get him a cure soon there was no doubt in her mind…he would be dead.
She heard the compartment door creak open but didn’t bother turning around. Footsteps crossed the short space between the door and the bed. She felt a hand touch her lightly on her shoulder.
“Hey, lassy,” she heard Mason say.
Mason had been wonderful so far, making room for the survivors of Aradale in their home and making sure that his men were welcoming. This couldn’t last long, though. Alyx and the other Rogues needed to find somewhere else to live. The only one who knew about them – about what they really were – was Mason. They wouldn’t be able to hide their inhumanness from the other men for long.
“How’s he doing?”
Alyx had to swallow to unstick her throat. “His body seems to be resisting the poison, but…it won’t for too much longer.”
Tobias thought it was probably the demon part of Israel that was slowing the effects of the poison, which would have been highly lethal for a pure mortal. It certainly would have been lethal for Adere, for whom the knife was meant. Adere, Israel’s ex-girlfriend whom Israel had saved by taking the knife himself.
Now it seemed that the dark, unwanted part of Israel was the thing that was keeping him alive…for now. Alyx couldn’t help but see the irony.
“Do you know how long he has?”
Alyx shook her head and a fresh set of tears filled her eyes as she thought about what she had let happen in the last twenty-four hours. She had let Samyara get away with all the Black Stone that they had tried so hard to keep from him. She had played into Samyara’s hands and left Aradale unguarded, allowing the Darkened to attack. The Darkened had kidnapped Mini, poor Mini, who had been through so much already. And Ana’s son, Ky, had been killed.
She, the Guardian, had failed. And now Israel lay dying.
If Israel dies, I die. This deadly consequence of Israel’s and her Guardian-bond partly terrified her, yet also comforted her. Her chest tightened. At least if Israel died, she would not have to live without him.
“Don’t you worry, lass. Scrapper’s tough. He’ll pull through.”
Alyx shook her head. “He won’t if I don’t find a cure.”
“You’ll find it.” Mason squeezed her shoulder. “I'll come back later and bring in some dinner for yer.”
Mason’s hand left her shoulder, then she heard the compartment door click shut behind him. Without Mason’s sturdy presence, the melancholy was able to fall across her again.
She turned back to Israel and reached out to him with her mind. She had tried to appear to him as she had done so many times before, but she couldn’t. He wasn’t there.
Before she began to panic, there was one more thing to try.
Alyx steadied her breathing and felt herself drift into air. As her skin dissolved, her consciousness ebbed out and flew across the horizon. She searched for his soul – his light – as she had done so many times before through her Guardian-bond with him. Normally his soul would be there, shining brighter than any other. But this time, his light was not to be found.
How was this possible? What did this mean? Had Israel’s soul already left this Earth? Why was he still alive, then? Or was his body just a shell?
Alyx drew back into her body with a sob. She grabbed his hands and twisted her fingers around his in a death grip.
“Where are you, Israel?” He answered not, stirred not. “Please,” her voice fell into a whisper, “please come back to me.”
She pressed her trembling mouth to his, desperately hoping it would spark their bond awake. Hoping that wherever he was he would feel it and come back.
Where her soul would have usually felt the pull towards him…there was nothing. Nothing. She didn’t want to believe – couldn’t believe – that their bond was broken.
She had to find a cure. But how?
Her mind brought forward the image of a pale, wispy blonde.
Adere.
She had been possessed by a demon, turning her Darkened until Israel took that knife for her. It was an act of love, the only thing that would exorcise the demon. Anger flooded like molten lava through Alyx’s cold grief. The poison that choked the life from Israel had been meant for Adere. This was Adere’s fault. So Adere needed to make things right.
* * *
They could not afford to keep watch over Adere, so Mason had placed her in a caged area in a back section of the subway station. When Alyx stepped up to the front of the cage, Adere’s body sat like a pile of crumpled matchsticks in the corner. Her eyes were vacant and she barely blinked. She didn’t move except to fray the edges of her dress with fingers crusted in dried blood from bitten-down nails.
“I need your help.” Alyx cleared her throat. “Israel…he needs your help.”
Adere said nothing. Her silence was an insult to the man that saved her pathetic little soul from that demon. The man who now lay dying because of her.
“Adere. Look at me.” Alyx moved around in front of the bars trying to get Adere’s attention. “Israel’s dying. Do you understand? I need to know how to save him.”
Still, Adere remained silent. She didn’t even look like she had heard Alyx, except that the rhythm of her fingers against her hem increased. Alyx felt her anger bleeding across her vision so that it narrowed to encompass only Adere.
“Are you just going to let him die? After saving your life? Answer me, damn you!” Her anger, like a ghostly puppeteer, jerked her hands forward, slamming them against the bars. Adere flinched.
Good. Be scared. If that’s what it will take to make you talk. Alyx’s fingers drifted to the handle at her hip. What about a blade? Will that make you talk?
Alyx thought that she heard a whispered “yes” as her fingers curled around the handle of her dagger.
“She is not in a place where you can reach her at the moment,” a soft girlish voice came from behind her.
Alyx jolted her fingers from her weapon and spun to face this intruder. It was Xiang, the lithe Asian mortal that she had seen with Vix. Alyx gritted her teeth, trying to ignore the icy trickle of guilt that was spilling into her burning blood. Had she really been considering drawing a weapon on Adere?
Xiang spoke again, “Getting angry at her will only push her deeper within herself.”
“If she doesn’t talk soon Israel will die. I can’t give her the luxury of retreating from this world, from her responsibilities.”
Why the hell should Adere get that over anyone else? Weren’t there moments when Alyx wanted to crawl into a corner and disappear? Didn’t she want to forget about everything that had happened? About everyone she had already lost? Damn Adere to Hell. Weakness was not an option right now.
“Israel saved her life and now he lies dying. This makes it her responsibility.” Alyx stabbed a finger through the bars at Adere. “She needs to make it right.”
Xiang’s small, dark features pulled into an expression of sadness. “She has suffered greatly as a Darkened. She still suffers. The torment of returning to your own body after losing control of it to a demon…what she knows, what she has seen, what she has done…how she let this happen to her…all these things eat at her and threaten to destroy her already tattered soul.”
“What the hell would you know?”
Xiang’s face hardened. “I was once Darkened. Vix saved me. And it is only through her love that I was able to recover from the experience. Adere has no one who loves her to help her through this. Not even Israel, the man who saved her. It is clear to everyone, including her, that he is in love with you. Instead we have caged her, like an animal, lik
e a criminal, which will only serve to confirm her opinion of herself.”
“We have to cage her. Otherwise she will run.”
“Tell me, Alyx,” Xiang said softly, “where would she run to?”
Alyx felt her face drain of blood as a pang of sympathy clutched at her. Then she stood taller and tried not to let Xiang’s words faze her. “It doesn’t change the fact that Israel will die if she doesn’t pull herself out of it. I can’t afford to give her time to escape into her head.”
Alyx turned back to stare at Adere’s broken figure, eyes vacant like a china doll. Wherever Adere was, it was clear that she wasn’t here.
“It’s not fair.” Alyx’s voice came out as a whisper.
“You are strong, Alyx. Much stronger than her. That is why you were chosen as the Guardian.” Alyx felt Xiang’s little hand clasping her arm. She didn’t pull away. For some reason Xiang’s words and that little touch began to soothe her turbulent insides like the first ray of light through storm clouds. “You will find a way to save Israel. But you won’t find it through her. And you won’t find it if you let yourself fall apart.”
Alyx felt tears welling up in her eyes. What if I can’t save him? She tore her arm away from Xiang and stormed off down another dark tunnel before Xiang could see the fat, hot tears slipping down her cheeks.
Alyx kept moving away through the tunnel until she was far enough into the dark so that she was sure she was alone.
“You will find a way.” First Mason, now Xiang. Everyone expected that she would find a cure. But would she? Did she even have the strength not to fall apart? The world expected miracles from her, when all she wanted to do was let somebody else take the weight. The pressure of this expectation bore down on her, causing her legs to grow weak. She slumped against the wall, the dampness seeping through the material of her shirt, matching her wet cheeks.
