Silver

Chapter 36

I was going to enjoy ripping her head off.

"She's going to kill her, you know that, yes?" Siena glanced to me and I nodded. "When she does, I'll go left, you go right. Siobhan is going to come straight for you. Once I take out the demons on the left, I'll back you up. We just have to hold them off until Grey and Suriel get here. And Michael to take those damn cuffs off."

Oh fuck. How the hell was I supposed to defend myself without my soul? Siobhan would kill Makenna any minute now, and I'd be pretty much useless against these guys without all of my power. All I had really were my wings and my fighting skills. But without the power of my soul, I had no idea how strong or fast I would really be.

This was so not good.

"Try to conserve energy. Just focus on defending yourself. Once I get through those demons, I'll come help you. Once Grey comes, he'll help you out," Siena explained, eyeing Makenna.

Great. Back to depending on my ex boyfriend to keep me safe.

"Either you get the tablet for me within the next 10 minutes, or I snap your pretty little friends' neck," Siobhan broke the silence.

Makenna shuddered, her sobs now echoing across the courtyard. Luckily, it was still early in the morning, and the only people passing by had headphones in or were on their phones, so they weren't paying attention. I could only hope it stayed that way. Otherwise, we might be dealing with multiple reports of our existence in newspapers and magazines, and more Awakened people that had no idea how to protect themselves.

"Jordan," Makenna sobbed, her voice cracking.

My heart squeezed. The Archangels had the tablet. I had nothing. No way to bargain for her life. And even if I had the tablet, I couldn't give it to her for one life, regardless of how important that life was to me. I couldn't risk billions of innocent souls for her mortal life. Hopefully she'd understand once she Pledged to Heaven and passed on. Maybe I'd see her once this was all over.

"The tablet is with the Archangels," I replied, my eyes glued to Makenna's, trying desperately to apologize with a mere gaze.

"Jo-," Makenna began.

"Pity," Siobhan frowned, and with a flick of her wrist, had snapped Makenna's neck and sent her body plummeting to the ground below. I turned away, flinching at the sound of the impact.

And at that, Siena and I extended our wings and soared out towards them. What I didn't realize, is that Demons have wings.

Siobhan extended her own leathery wings, which appeared very much like a bat's, soaring out towards me. Sharp teeth stretched down from her gums, her eyes void of any light, including a reflection. The sight was enough to make the faint of heart pass out. Hell, I nearly did.

A sound erupted from Siobhan's as her wings frantically propelled her in my direction- a sound far from human. It sounded like a combination of a bear's growl and a screaming cat. Whatever it was- it made goosebumps erupt across the surface of my skin, everything inside me yelling at me to turn around and run. I glanced over to Siena, who had slowed her charge on the Demons to my left.

My eyes arose to the black cloud of leathery wings and bodies slowly flying above Notre Dame. They must've been hiding across the roof where we couldn't see them. Regardless, we were so outnumbered it was funny.

I looked back to Siena, her eyes glued to mine. We both knew that the likelihood of us making it out alive was close to zero. Especially without my soul.

By the time I looked back towards Siobhan, she was right in front of me. I barely had enough time to shield my body with my wings before she made impact.

Her claws tore at my wings, desperately scratching at the impenetrable feathers. I knew I only had a few seconds before we would hit the ground, so I pulled my wings in close before pushing them back out with all of my might. Siobhan flew off of me, disoriented. I beat my wings down a few times to regain some altitude.

Siena had attracted much of the demons attention, as she slew through them like one would cut through paper. However, it wasn't fast enough. More and more were coming, and still no sight of Grey, Suriel, or Michael.

When Siobhan charged at me again, I was ready. I effortlessly blocked her jabs, landing a few hits to her gut, but nothing more. I was trying to defend myself, not murder her. Not yet, anyways.

Siobhan then pulled out what I had been hoping she didn't have. A sword. The way the black metal glinted in the overcast light- I knew what it was made of. I don't know how well my wings would hold against hardened Hellfire.

A devious smirk curled on her lips as she charged again, swinging her sword down on me. I pulled a wing up to stop it, but it didn't do much. I felt the blade pierce my wing, cutting swiftly through the lean muscle like it were paper. Fire erupted across my wing, a searing pain that felt most similar to what I'd felt when I'd died burning in the Hellfire.

A scream of agony erupted from my mouth, earning a satisfied grin from Siobhan. I heard Siena call my name as I struggled to stay in flight, my wings flapping in an unsynchronized fashion as I spiraled down. Luckily, I didn't have too far to fall, as I hit the roof of Notre Dame.

It was crawling with Demons. Their faces were human, but their eyes and teeth were far from it. The way they clambered towards me- it would forever give me nightmares if I survived this. I scrambled back against a little tower jutting out of the roof, pressing my back against it.

"I heard you were strong. That's why Lucifer wants you so bad. He'll be disappointed to find out his investment isn't nearly as wise as he thought," Siobhan smirked as she fluttered her wings, gracefully landing on the roof a few feet away from me.

Demons clambered all around her, eyeing her for some order- some direction. Her blade was still coated in my blood, a dark ruby red with a metallic sheen like some molten metal. That must be what Angelic blood looks like. I didn't realize that I'd never seen it before now.

"If you're so sure I'm so weak, why not just kill me already?" I breathed, pulling myself up to my feet. I could feel the skin on my wing trying to heal, the searing pain slowly becoming more bearable. A few more moments and I'd be okay.

"Lucifer wants you alive. You need to be alive to Pledge to him, after all," she chuckled as if I were an idiot.

"I won't be taken alive," I growled out. "Especially not by you."

"Why's that? Because I fucked your boyfriend?" Her head tilted to the side. "Mmm. Grey's always been good at that. Let me tell you- the way he screamed my name-"

I lunged at her without a second thought.

Her sword swung down again, this time aimed for the center of my head. I raised my wrists up, crossing them above my head before she had time to think about what I was doing. The sword came down on my Hellfire bracelets, the impact knocking the air out of my lungs and sending us both flying back in a shockwave. My back hit the wooden tower I'd been against seconds before and I winced at the sheer force that I'd been thrown back with.

I looked down at my bracelets. Unfortunately, they were still there.

But, there was a little nick in each of them- a little break in the weaving black filaments.

I searched. I searched deep down inside me, looking for that powerful soul I knew was in there somewhere.

Siobhan stood back up, wiping silvery blood from her temple. If I was gonna find my soul, I needed to do it now.

Where are you, where are you?

And then- I felt it. It prowled deep inside me, growling against those chains that held it down. I gripped it fiercely with all of my willpower and pulled it up, up and out of the darkness in which it was confined. But those chains still held.

So I pulled harder. And harder. I pulled until everything inside me felt like it might combust.

snap.

With a golden flash of light, I felt those bracelets shatter off my skin. The shockwave sent the Demons that had begun to cluster around me flying off the roof. Unfortunately, it also seemed to catch the roof on fire.