by Stone, Leia
Shea relayed directions to Lincoln as to where to find the park, while I grabbed another gun, adding it to my arsenal. I had a really bad feeling about this. We were a good five- to ten-minute drive to Wilson Park, and it was all side streets. Shea and I used to play there a bunch as kids since it had a skate park, which made it the regular teen hangout. It was especially popular for Tainted Academy kids.
Walking toward the front of the bus, I knelt down next to Lincoln. “I don’t like driving into something we have no idea about,” I whispered. “I’m going to get on the roof, and fly over the park with Michael to scout it out.”
Lincoln’s neck veins twitched. “That’s a good idea, but have Noah go. I want you with me the entire time.”
Reaching out, I clasped his arm. I could see that being in Demon City was already causing him pain; everything about his features looked strained. “Noah and Michael don’t know this city. I can get us there and back in no time. I’ll be with an archangel. Trust me.”
He was silent a moment. “Okay, but just a flyby. Then come right back.”
With a nod, I kissed him on the cheek, then quickly relayed the plan to the others.
Emberly crossed her arms, sulking at the fact that she couldn’t fly with us. “Stupid useless wings,” she muttered.
As I was climbing through the open roof hatch—with Shea’s hand on my ass, shoving me through it—I heard Lincoln’s phone beep.
“Help is incoming,” he announced. “Raph is bringing the full army, leaving Grace’s new team back to protect the academy.”
My eyes flicked to Grace, who tipped her chin up in pride as I pulled myself onto the roof. Michael gave me a hand, helping me get on top .
“What’s up?” he asked, the wind whipping past us as Lincoln turned, and we reached out to steady each other.
“I want to do a flyby of the park. I know where it is. Let’s see what we’re driving into,” I explained, knowing he’d heard the slave girl’s response to me.
“Good idea,” was all he said, and then kicked off the roof, shooting skyward.
When I popped out my wings and kicked off to take flight, a dull ache spread down my back. My shoulder had already healed, but it was still tender. I chose to ignore it.
Michael let me take the lead, and instead of having to drive down straight streets, we were able to fly diagonally toward Wilson Park. It was weird to be this high up, and see the demon bound slaves all walking toward the same place. There must have been hundreds. I flew over the buildings of my old neighborhood, trying not to pity those still living here. Yes, it was Demon City, controlled by the ruthless baddies, but there were also a lot of good people here. People who needed loans, or healings, or whatever else they sold for their contracts. It didn’t seem fair that they should have a lifetime of service for one mistake.
As soon as the park came into view, horror ripped through me and I gasped. Huddled together in a large fenced-off area, were what looked like a bunch of free souls, humans. Standing atop the edge of the skate park, was an Abrus demon with a gun to a human’s head.
Slave bound families stood all around the edge of the park, and behind them were hundreds of demons. I couldn’t hear anything from my vantage point, but from the small pile of bodies resting at the bottom of the skatepark pit, I knew what was happening. The huge half pipe where skaters would drop down into, was now filling with corpses.
And they were about to add another.
The youngish girl under the Abrus’ gun was shaking her head vigorously, while her family members cried out for her to agree. He was asking her to sign a contract, I knew it.
I couldn’t go back to the bus. I couldn’t turn my back and let this girl die. It just wasn’t within me. I’d rather die, than know I allowed a life to be taken while I played it safe.
“You take the Abrus demon. I’ll get the girl to safety,” I told Michael.
The Archangel of Protection grinned. “You read my mind.” And then we dropped like birds going after their prey.
Tucking my wings to my back, I allowed my body weight to increase my speed, only opening them at the last minute. My shadow was the only thing that alerted the Abrus demon. Startled, he looked up as I loomed over him, but it was too late. I crashed into them both, hooking my arms under the girl’s armpits, but my chest slammed into her face so hard and fast that I’d probably broken her nose. Still, she went with it. The second she saw me, and felt my hands go around her, she clung to me for dear life.
Demon City didn’t have Celestials, so there was no need to explain who I was. Even with my wings being half black, she’d know I was with the Fallen Army and here to help. Her head pressed against my chest, her legs wrapped around mine as I flew her to where I knew Shea would lead the bus—down Rose Drive.
The moment I saw the bus with Noah on the roof, keeping a lookout for me, relief surged through my chest. When Noah’s eyes found me coming at him with a girl wrapped around my waist, his eyebrows shot up, but to his credit, he quickly recovered and opened his arms to catch her.
“I’m going to let you down to my friend. Unhook your legs,” I yelled over the wind to her. She did as I asked without complaint, and when Noah’s hands came around her thighs, she let go of me.
After releasing her, I landed on the roof, wincing when I noticed the blood on her face. I had indeed broken her nose. “I’m so sorry. I’ve never grabbed someone in mid-flight like that.”
The girl looked a little older now that I saw her up close—maybe late twenties—and seemed to be in shock. Just then, she reached up to touch her nose. “It’s fine. You saved my life. Thank you.”
Guiding her by the shoulders, Noah lowered her into the bus, while my mind attempted to process what I’d just seen and done.
“Brielle!” Lincoln yelled.
“I’m fine!” I shouted back, knowing he was probably having a mini heart attack, not knowing what was going on up here.
The bus took a turn toward the park, and Noah and I held on to each other to steady ourselves, as I quickly relayed what was happening there.
“So, they know we’re coming?” he asked.
I’d just flown in and taken a chick mid-air, and Michael had nabbed an Abrus demon. “Yeah, they know.”
Noah nodded, sticking his head into the roof hatch, and relaying orders to the team.
As the park came into view, my stomach dropped. There was mass chaos. Demon bound ran frantically, while the humans in the caged-off area could only huddle together, trying to shield themselves. The demons were forming a barricade around the fence, and each one was armed to the teeth, with guns and knives. The small sliver of hope in the situation, was that they’d stopped the killing now that we’d arrived.
The handful of fighters we’d brought on this first bus wasn’t going to stand a chance against the hundreds of demons I saw amassing at the scene.
“Get in the bus!” Lincoln shouted as he slammed on the brakes. The demons had spotted us and were raising their weapons.
Noah and I sucked in our wings and leapt into the bus, jumping through the hatch just in time to avoid the bullets snapping at the side of the vehicle.
“Raphael and the backup team better get here quick. We can’t get out of the bus. It would be a suicide mission, and I don’t know how long I can keep them distracted,” Lincoln stated.
Stepping up to the front of the bus, Shea grinned. “I have an idea.”
Oh God, I’d seen that look before. It was the same one she got when she suggested we rob a Cloud Nine donut store, for my dad’s funeral expenses.
Noah must have recognized it too, because he looked terrified as well.
“I’m all ears.” Lincoln had stopped the bus, and now the demons were stalking toward us. I was hoping the armored vehicle lived up to the hype, because we were about to find out just how much destruction it could take.
If the fate of our lives hinged on one of Shea’s crazy ideas… we were screwed.
Eighteen
“What? No way! To
o much could go wrong,” Lincoln told my bestie as the demons advanced on our bulletproof bus.
“I’m a master at portals. I got this,” she reassured him.
Lincoln gave her a quick ‘I call bullshit’ look. “We haven’t tried out the technology Metatron left us, and we don’t have one for Emberly.”
Shea wanted to open a huge portal to Hell and have us drive through it with the demons following us inside, then close it before opening a new one for us to get out, trapping the demons there. It was a crazy bananas plan.
“Oh, I’m fine. I mean, it hurts to be in Hell, but it won’t kill me,” Emberly offered.
Grace’s head reeled back at her daughter. “And how exactly do you know that?”
Emberly’s cheeks burned. “Mel and I tried it once. Don’t worry, I started by putting my foot in. I’m not stupid.”
Grace buried her head in her hands, clearly at a loss for words with her wild teen. I guess the fact that Emberly was half human allowed her to enter Hell unharmed.
“Let’s do it,” Tiffany, of all freaking people, chimed in from her place at the back of the bus. “I think it’ll work, and the more demons we trap inside, the fewer casualties the Fallen Army will endure once they arrive to back us up. It’ll also serve as a distraction until help arrives so no more free souls are injured.”
We all looked at her in shock for agreeing with Shea. The only thing breaking our silence was a thump on the roof.
Michael?
The demons were shooting at the bus now, en masse, and I was worried about the tires blowing. We needed to do something quick, and getting out of the bus to fight wasn’t smart right now.
“All right, start the portal while I talk to Michael about it,” Lincoln told Shea, then jumped up from the driver’s seat with Noah quickly replacing him.
My mind whirled as I took a deep breath. Maybe I could erect my shield to cover the entire bus, protect the tires and windows from further damage while we did this portal thing…
My plasma-like wall began to rise up off my body, and I pushed it outward, covering Shea and then Noah.
“Umm… what the hell is that?” Tiffany’s shrill voice came from behind me.
Ignoring her, I focused on my breathing.
“Oh, Emberly told me about this. I’m excited to experience it.” Grace walked headfirst into my shield fearlessly, as I thinned it around her body to make room for her.
“Tickles, huh?” Emberly commented, stepping inside as well.
“Don’t touch me with that thing!” Tiffany scrambled toward the back of the bus, retreating from my advancing shield.
I rolled my eyes, pushing the plasma film out even farther. Lincoln stood on one of the seats, his head popped out of the roof while talking to Michael, as I covered him as well.
Tiffany screamed in fear as my shield came for her, just as a fresh round of bullets hit the side of the bus.
“Oh, shut up already!” Shea growled, trying to keep her concentration on opening a giant bus-sized portal to Hell. The film finally engulfed a freaked-out Tiffany, and moved on to Mikey, Luke, and the others, who didn’t seem to mind as my protection wall passed over them.
Once I was convinced that I’d covered the entire bus, I looked out the front window. A slight panic rippled through me at the sight of the desolate wasteland of the underworld. My time in Hell had left its mark on me, and going back there was always my least favorite thing to do.
“All right, listen up.” Lincoln jumped down from his perch. “Brielle, good job on the shield. Try to keep it going—Michael says he’ll help. Noah, Michael and I are going to attach the discs now, and we’ll go ahead with Shea’s plan. Michael says Metatron would never give us something unless it worked 100 percent.”
That was only slightly comforting, because if it didn’t work, then my husband, his best friend, and Michael, were all going to die instantly.
As he and Noah attached the discs to their forearms with leather wristbands, I focused on keeping my shield strong. At least a hundred demons had reached our bus now, and were shaking it, shooting at it or trying to slash the tires. At least we’d distracted them from killing the humans, and that’s what mattered.
Noah revved the engine as Shea pulled the portal wider.
“Can I help?” Catia stepped up next to her.
My bestie looked at the Light Mage and nodded, directing her on how to utilize her energy to assist in keeping the portal open.
“What if they just come right back out?” Noah asked his fiancée.
“Shhh, I got this.” Shea’s forehead was slick with sweat, hands out before her as she chewed her lip in concentration. Catia looked strained now as well, and I decided that being a Mage was probably one of the harder magical gifts.
I was staring through the portal into Hell when I saw another portal opening on the other side. It looked like it led back to this world.
“Shea, are you doing two portals at once?” I asked, completely dumbfounded.
She didn’t answer, all of her concentration on the task at hand. Even Catia, standing next to her, looked completely focused.
“Go. Fast. Now,” Shea ordered calmly, and Noah gunned the bus so hard that I flew backward into Lincoln’s outstretched arms.
Mikey and Luke grunted as we mowed down a few demons, and we shot right into Hell. Lincoln’s body tensed against me, when we sped through the portal and into the Devil’s homeland. Catia and Shea held onto the railing at the front, while they kept throwing their magic at the portal.
Please God, keep them safe, I sent up to the man upstairs, just in case.
The bus was fully in Hell now, and the demons were running in after us, just as planned.
“Are you okay?” I looked over at Lincoln, whose brows were pinched together.
“Yeah. It’s… tolerable.” He seemed in awe.
Relief poured through me, but it was short-lived.
“Okay, stop!” Shea instructed Noah, and the bus came to grinding halt. We were in Hell, in the middle of nowhere. Red misty fog rolled across the dirt ground, and there were a few mountains off in the distance, but that was all.
I peered behind me to see the demons had followed us in here. A good-sized crowd was still waiting at the portal opening on Earth, but we’d lured about half, which could be the game changer we needed.
Shea took a deep breath and clapped her hands together. In that moment, the portal behind us closed, trapping the demons inside with us.
“Sigillum,” Shea whispered, causing green light to flare inside of the bus, then looked at Noah. “Go!” she roared.
Noah didn’t question her as he gunned it, rolling our huge bus across the hellish desert toward the second portal she had opened, which looked like it led to the other side of the park on Earth. The demons were running and flying after us, but we were faster. Bullets and magic spells crashed against the bus, yet, I held my shield strong.
“Faster!” Shea screamed, and Noah pressed the pedal down to the floor.
As the front of the bus went through the portal to Earth, Shea and Catia started to shrink it around us. “Sigillum,” Shea said the second we were fully through, and that green light flared out once more.
Noah slammed on the brakes, crashing halfway onto someone’s front yard, and we all braced ourselves, trying not to be thrown forward.
The rooftop hatch popped open then, and Michael stuck his head in. “Naughty, naughty. That was dark magic.” He looked at Shea, but she just shrugged, which made the archangel grin. “Well done. Let’s load the humans and get out of here.”
“What was the green light stuff?” I asked my bestie, as I reached for my gun.
“After you were taken to Hell, Lucifer made it so we couldn’t create any portals while in Angel City.”
I grinned. “You learned the spell, and locked the demons inside?”
She nodded. “They’ll have to walk quite far to get out.”
Perfect.
A low growl from behind us
broke up our conversation. My brother’s wolf wanted to pass us, eyes glowing yellow and ready to fight.
“Stay by my side,” Lincoln ordered me, leading us out of the bus while I dissolved my shield. I needed to keep my strength up for fighting, and boy, was I ready to fight. These bastards would pay for what they’d done to the humans.
The moment I stepped off the bus, I let my wings free and stepped beside Lincoln with my sword drawn. A very enraged-looking Brimstone demon was leading the gang of Hellspawn that descended on our small group.
Michael leapt from the roof and landed before us, holding his blade aloft. Blue sparks glimmered off the sword, so brightly even the advancing demons shied their gaze.
“Surrender, or be met with swift death!” Michael’s voice boomed as if it were amplified.
In response, a fiery ball of magic hurtled through the air, right at the archangel. Michael reached up and sliced the ball in half with his sword, and the war began.
We all charged forward then. Mikey was a mass of muscle and fur, ripping past me to land on the Brimstone demon and tear his throat out. Luke was right behind him, and they worked as a team.
I stayed at Lincoln’s side, as he’d asked me, and we were just cutting down a gang of Snakeroot demons when a bloodcurdling scream drew my attention. Pulling my gaze to the direction of the noise, my stomach dropped. An Abrus demon was inside of the gated-off area with the humans, and he had a knife to one of their throats, asking the others to do something. Probably take a contract.
Without thought, I burst from the ground and tore through the air. I heard Lincoln call my name but ignored it, my gaze solely focused on the demon with the blade. My wings cut through the air as I pumped them faster, sailing over the tall fencing. I dropped into the pit just behind the Abrus demon and took his head in my hands, jerking quickly to the side like Lincoln taught me, I snapped his spine.
The hand holding the knife fell away from the girls’ throat as his lifeless body clattered to the ground with a sickening thud. Did I trust that an Abrus demon with a broken neck wouldn’t somehow come back to life and kill me? Hell no. Reaching to my hip, I pulled out my sword and cut his head clean off in one swift movement.
