Angel of Fire - Chasing Destiny - Book Three ***COMPLETE!!!***

Avenging Angel

Chapter 23 

Thinking he was saving me, what Vycandor was really doing was giving up on me. On us. He may not have been able to say the words, but I knew he was telling me goodbye.

The cold, hard reality of our situation stared me plain in the face. The Angels of War had been pre-programmed to carry out Serenity's original plan, which was to keep Vycandor and I from ever uniting our powers. With even one of us out of the way, the demonic-angels would be free to resume their attack on mankind with nothing and no one standing in their way. If they succeeded, the balance of power would be forever tipped in the Dark Ones favor, allowing my dad and the rest of the Angels of Darkness the opportunity to rise up and take over the planet once and for all.

Despite my promise to save myself for Thomas, I couldn't let that happen again. I'd pretty much failed in my first attempt to save the world. Just one more mistake is all it would take to make my name go down in history as the worst anti-hero ever.

Then again, my dad didn't name me Chaos for nothing.

Lucky for me, I was being given one more chance for payback. One more chance to save what was left of mankind. But, perhaps most importantly of all, I was being given one more chance for redemption. I just hoped and prayed that Thomas would understand.

Soaring across the crimson filled sky, I noticed that the flames on the creatures head had all but choked off, leaving its skin blackened and burnt to a crisp as smoky tendrils trailed behind like mini jet streams. My valiant efforts had done little to halt its escape, let alone to get it to release its intended victim.

The tension in the cold morning air continued to mount as I watched the creature flex its arm muscles in an attempt to grip Vycandor even more firmly than before. I knew if I made one wrong move, the creature would bury its fists deep into Vycandor's chest and remove his still beating heart to show the others as proof of his victory.

I shot Courtney a look that said, "Don't-move-or-we're-all-dead." It didn't matter that she and I were both immortal. What did matter was keeping Vycandor alive when it looked like he was hanging on by a thread.

His eyes went wide as I slowly began to crawl up his legs like climbing a rope in gym class. When I reached his waist, I grabbed hold and squeezed. Looking straight up, I had a perfect view of the spark and glimmer of giant black wings whipping back and forth as they carried us to the unknown. Knees bent, feet braced against Vycandor's hips, I prepared to launch myself in the air – knowing if I didn't do this just right the creature might gain the upper hand and alert the others flying just ahead of us.

I stood a chance against one Angel of War. I couldn't say the same about an entire fleet of them.

Aiming for the neck, I jumped high into the air, looping both arm around its throat and flipping my legs around so I could climb onto its grayish-green back with leathery wings outstretched. The demonic-angel bucked and kicked, never relinquishing its grip on Vycandor even for a heartbeat. Before it could scream and warn the others, I zapped it in the back of the head with such force that whatever part of its brain wasn't fried on impact pretty much pulsated out of its ears.

Trust me, it smelled much worse than it sounds. A combination of rotten eggs and sulfur.

We didn't end up merely falling out of the sky so much as we took a major nosedive, heading straight for the ground. I reached out to grab onto sharp pieces of bones jutting out on either sides of the wings, directly above its wide shoulders and used them to steer us to safety.

"Hold on tight!" I yelled. "This thing doesn't have any breaks."

The moment right before we made a crash landing, a brilliant glow of golden light completely surrounded us, making it hard to see. Everything seemed to slow down. As I waited for my vision to clear, I realized we were no longer free-falling out of the sky. In fact, a fuzzy feeling had me thinking I'd dreamed the whole entire thing.