Chapter 25
My heart was truly in my mouth as I remembered Lucius who was out there all on his own facing the enemy. Nothing could have made my feet fly faster and still it had not felt fast enough.
Charging around the edge of the building, I could not have been more surprised or more relieved unless Lucius himself had been standing there. Rushing forwards, I lowered my sword enough that I did not impale the unsuspecting angel and instead barrelled into Castiel so hard that the poor man was nearly bowled off of his feet.
“Cass, what are you doing here?” I questioned, not really caring as I crushed him tighter to me.
“We came when we heard Lucifer was on the surface. It could only mean trouble, especially when the lord of the dead came back with a terrifying scowl on his face.”
I assumed this was meant to be a joke but as usual the angelic stuffiness meant that much was lost in translation. Still I hugged him a little tighter before coming away with a smile on my face.
“Either way I am glad to see you. Lucius is gone.” I waved my hand through the air non-committedly. “I don’t know where he is and someone is trying to open the gates to hell. Brilliant isn’t it.” I gave a slightly hysterical laugh which made each of Hell’s Angels stare at me like I had contracted some kind of lunacy.
“I can’t say that the probable end of the world is brilliant Miss Holmes,” Castiel replied evenly causing me to release another burst of hysterical giggles.
It would never stop surprising me that that angels took words at face value. How Lucius must puzzle them all, I thought as I allowed my lips to tilt up into an almost smile.
Sobering myself, which was more of a chore than it seemed, I offered the angels a grimace. And each returned it, even Binah, the short exotic beauty with a voice that could seduce the populace with a word or two. It felt wrong that these beautiful, these fallen angels should look so grim.
“We discovered who was involved.” Caius added when we had stood there for a few seconds too long in silence. “We went to the keeper of the hellhounds. Crazy old coot was half out of their minds but we got a name.”
Before he could finish his twin beat him to it. “Claudia.”
My hand which had been hanging loosely at my side fisted tightly around the handle of my angel blade which had materialised at my insistent thoughts. It still amazed me that I had one – a blade that hummed under my touch with power and possibilities. A delicate shiver ran down my spine as I forced myself to meet the wide eyed gazes of the fallen angels before me.
“It’s time we met out enemy.” I murmured, rolling my shoulders to adjust to the weight of my wings as I drew them into my back.
It was difficult to move them around as I hadn’t developed strong enough muscles in them yet but sheer determination, which brought lines of strain to my forehead, left them folded neatly against the curves of my body.
The others stared at me for a moment longer before they all nodded their heads in eerie unison. If I wasn’t already accustomed to the strangeness of the angelic kind I might have thought something creepy was going on. But there was nothing creepy about them -- they were just their normal almost robotic selves.
Castiel and I took the front of our group. I may not have been the most adept with a sword but I was the only one who even had a clue where to go. The others had all been beneath the ground for such a long time that the face of the earth had crumbled and been rebuilt again since then. I’m sure Castiel had mumbled something under his breath about London changing a lot since the Great Fire.
Shaking my head to dislodge the thought, I surveyed the area around us with keen eyes. It startled me to see that Lucius and I had already traversed across most of the distance between my house in Chelsea and the offices in Canary Wharf. The only thing separating us was a bridge across the Thames. Though the way it was currently shaking in the gentle breeze skimming off of the water gave me worry about its safety. And yet it was the only way across unless we wanted to double back on ourselves or walk an extra few miles.
Glancing behind me at our odd little group, I offered them all a cheery smile. To which they all returned. Castiel almost gave me a heart attack when he smiled, well grimaced, enough that I could see his teeth while his arm playfully swept towards the creaking and swaying bridge.
“Ladies first,” he ducked his head in a mock bow that would have been cute if he wasn’t telling me to cross the dangerous bridge before all of them.
“Fine, I probably have more balls than the rest of you anyway.” I muttered churlishly under my breath, not even waiting to see whether they had heard my remark.
The protests at my back were evidence enough. Still with sword clutched painfully tight within my grasp and my free hand going to the rail on my left, I tentatively placed my foot on the bridge. Releasing a breath when it did not immediately collapse under my foot, I allowed my weight to transfer fully on to the limb before following with the other.
The fallen angels were silent behind me, and a quick glance over my shoulder revealed them all to be gone, except Castiel.
“Where?” I started to question when my hair whipped around my face from the sudden winds coming from above. Wincing, I glanced upwards to the see all of the others gracefully hovering in the skies above me.
Spluttering, I strengthened my grip on the bridge as it trembled and swung.
“How?”
“They are older than you by millennia and thus have trained and can operate their wings. You however are a mere fledgling and would probably fall into the Thames and drown if you attempted to fly.”
It was said in such a matter of fact tone that I couldn’t even find it in me to come up with a biting retort. It probably would have rolled straight off of Castiel’s shoulders anyway.
Thus, with dark haired and almost brooding angel at my back, l cautiously edged my way across the bridge. It wasn’t until I was two thirds across that I allowed my eyes to leave my feet to see what awaited me on the other side and bizarrely there wasn’t a lot. The area directly surrounding Satani Media was untouched. It was obviously the eye of the storm and the eerie quietness that hung over the tower alerted me to the fact that we weren’t as alone as it seemed.
My feet were first to touch ground but soon the others had taken position around me like my own armed guard. We were a fearsome sight to behold. At least that was the impression I got from our reflection in the glass windows of Satani Media’s lobby.
“So do we just go in?” I asked when we had stood there for a long silent minute and done absolutely nothing.
“No, we don’t have to.” A voice whispered from behind, causing me to turn to the fearsome looking angel at my left shoulder. “They are coming to us.”
Following his gaze, I noted that he was right. The front doors of the building groaned as if under terrible pressure. I frowned as they bowed out towards us before shattering into an explosion of glass. It glinted brightly in the weak sunlight before dropping to the floor with a tinkle.
I watched this with fascination, not even flinching as I felt a few sharps cut and scrape against my skin from the sheer force with which they flew through the air.
And then there were shadows in the doorway. They lingered for a few seconds before stepping out into the open. On instinct I stepped back. My eyes were not drawn to the person in front, I did not even register their face. Instead my gaze was glued to the figure at her right shoulder, the one who had cut my eyes from their sockets -- the one who was created my nightmares.
Unable to concentrate on keeping them in place, my wings flared out wide, stretching. It was only a halting hand on my shoulder that kept me from going acting on my instincts. And they were very strong instincts too. I wanted nothing more than to cleave of his head with my righteous and very sharp blade. But I couldn’t do it without just cause. It would plague me for the rest of my life.
Dragging my gaze away from my tormentor, I finally allowed my gaze to meet that of their ring leader. And with that one glance I felt not even the smallest drop of surprise. Claudia in all of her power hungry glory stood at the forefront of her hoard of demonic minions. Her lips were curled into a smile which showed to all who gazed upon her that her heart was as black as her lipstick. There was no warmth in that smile, only promise of pain. And that smile was directed straight at me.
Pulling back my shoulders and tightening my grip even further around the hilt of my blade, I smiled back at her. The grin on her face slipped because my smile actually reflected some joy. As I smiled at her, I thought of running my sword right through her cold black heart and make her suffer in agony for what she was trying to do to Lucius, what she was trying to do to Nicole and her son. Nothing would make me happier and that simple thought kept bouncing around inside of my head as I stared her down.
“I don’t want to start fighting like children, just hand us the bridge so we can sweetly spill the blood over the seal and you can go on living your miserable existence. Well most of you.” Claudia’s voice was sickly sweet as she spoke but there was no missing the barb she sent my way.
If she won this battle, this war – I would not live to see what the world turned into.
“You cannot have the bridge Claudia.”
My heart leapt and my gaze darted to the right just in time to see Lucius thump down onto the ground next to Castiel, offering the man a nod in greeting as he swiped dirt off of his shoulders and straightened his wings. There was dirt clinging to his clothes and holes in his clothes but it did not diminish the superiority that oozed from every pore of his being. It was like he was being his true self for the first time in a long time.
“Lucius, what a,” Claudia paused to allow her gaze to trail appreciatively up the length of his dirtied self. “Well I would say pleasant surprise but it is not much a surprise now is it. Where the girl goes, you will surely follow.” She nodded her head towards me towards me while bitterness coated her words. “If it wasn’t so pathetic I might have thought you were sweet.”
“I will take that as a compliment.” Lucius replied stiffly, his eyes never leaving the group before us. “Now, you have committed treason of the highest cause. If you surrender now, your life shall be spared and you will walk for after three centuries in Tartarus.”
“And if we do not?”
Lucius stretched his hand out into the air before him, a bright glowing sword appearing within his grasp, only this time it wasn’t a sword per se. No, it was a scimitar. I watched the man I cared about become the very image of the grim reaper with his powerful fury that promised vengeance if pushed. All he needed was the black flowing cloak.
“You will die.”
Those three simple words would have sent terror down my spine if they were directed at me. Claudia and her minions just blinked them off. My tormentor who stood at her shoulder almost drooled in anticipation, his hands rubbing together as he bounced excitedly from foot to foot.
“Poor Lucius, you never know when to quit do you?”
He opened his mouth to respond but she was already whistling. There were nails scraping against stone and I dared not turn to see the beast whose breath smelt like the fetid stench of rotting meat. I gagged and tried not to show my fear of the beast panting its hot moist breath over my arm.
“You think I fear them? How low could you sink Claudia?”
Clicking his fingers at the hellhounds, he ordered the beasts to his side.
For a moment, it actually looked like they would obey him. They took slow and measured steps towards him with their heads bent to the ground.
But all too quickly it all changed.
The leader of our opposition changed under her breath. At first it had no affect but within seconds the hellhounds changed. They were whining and bashing their ugly muzzles against the floor as they tried to beat their conflicting orders out of their brains. When it didn’t work, their anger turned into ferocity that they directed at us.
This time I stumbled only too willingly away from them while my gaze found the eyes of our smug adversaries.
“You won’t surrender? Fine.” Claudia clicked her fingers and the hellhounds lowered their fronts to the floor while their haunches lifted in the air, each was perfectly poised for attack. “Bring me the half breed. She belongs to me.”
What happened next happened so fast that I barely remember it as more than a blur.
With a wave of Claudia’s hand, the hellhounds were released from their invisible tethers. Snarling and spitting, the leapt towards us with their claws unsheathed and their glowing eyes firmly trained upon us. Raising my blade, I winced as I thrust it outwards. However, my driving force was no match against the sheer weight of the frothy mouthed beast as it impaled itself upon my blade. The hellhound continued to swipe and snarl at me, even as the fires in its eyes had begun to dim.
Avoiding a weak but no less deadly swipe, I placed a boot to the beast’s chest. We stared into each other’s eyes for a long second and then, with a mighty shove, I forced the weight off of me and my weapon. The sharpened metal came free with a slurp, glowing brightly despite the blood which now coated the length of it. And the beast which had been fighting despite its wounds, gave me one baleful look as it stumbled around on its giant paws. Then, with a sorrowful sigh, it keeled over and hit the floor with a thud.
I was so distracted by the creature’s pitiful ending that I did not see the second charging for me. I only noted its presence when its teeth clamped around my arm locked in place. I could feel eyes on me, some with horror, and some with gleeful anticipation. Thus, I put the pain at the furthest reaches of my mind and turned it into power, pure unfiltered power that I directed at the hellhound. Sensing its oncoming doom, the beast shook its head side to side to cause maximum damage. I gritted my teeth against the mauling, focusing intently on holding onto the power before I could unleash it to its full effectiveness.
With the next pull, I drew my blade up and used the momentum of the ferocious and almost rabid beast to plunge my sword through its body like a warm knife through butter. It really did sicken me how easily it pierced through skin, smashed through bone, and obliterated the black heart within.
“Not bad Miss Holmes,” Castiel spoke, as he momentarily sheathed his sword so he could free my arm from the beasts mouth. When the beast refused to let go in its dying resistance, the fallen angel placed both hands inside its mouth, one on each part of its muzzle, and pulled.
I gagged as a sickening crack rang through the air. And it was not because I could now see just how chewed up my arm was, or that the pain was now in the forefront of my mind creating little white spot before my eyes each time I tested its movability. No it was the terrifying way that the stone faced man had ripped apart that hell hound like he was tearing his way out of a paper bag.
Holding my limp and mangled arm close to my body, I let my eyes take in the fighting around me. Lucius was going sword to sword with one of Claudia’s minions, a pile of hellhound lying in pieces all around him. It was a terrifying sight but what I did not like was the malicious grin on the woman’s face as she stood at a safe distance away, laughing with glee at each head that was dispatched from his body.
And most disturbing of all, was the man who had caused her to live in hell. He was gone. There was no body or rolling head to say that he was dead and yet the man was nowhere to be seen.
The back of my neck prickled with awareness. I spun on my heel and barely managed to dodge the blade that would have cut through my wings if I had moved a second later.
“Oh there he is,” I thought grimly as stared up into the features that haunted my dreams.
“Are you ready to play my sweet?” He whispered tauntingly, his lips pulling up into a smile that would have been attractive if it wasn’t for the maniacal gleam within his eyes.
I pulled back my shoulder, ignoring the throbbing in my bloodied arm as I stared straight into the eyes of my tormenter.
“Are you ready?” I murmured in a voice so low and deadly that I did not even recognise it as my own.
Using my tormentors shock to my advantage, I leapt forward, gleaming blade aloft. Undeterred, the man – no demon – did not even flinch. He even looked vaguely amused as I propelled my entire being towards him. And I suppose it did amuse him, I was a novice and he had had centuries to perfect his abilities with a sword.
His complacency gave me a slight advantage, as he nonchalantly batted away my sword, I pulled back my foot and kicked him in his one weak spot. For a second, he did not react. I almost started to wonder if he was perhaps a eunuch but then his eyes widened and his face twisted up into an ugly grimace as the sensation of his genitals being well and truly kicked registered within his mind.
Not giving the man a second to recovered, I pulled back my blade and swung it towards his neck. However it did not go as cleanly as I had hoped and instead my sword got stuck half way due to the lack of force driving it through flesh.
“Oh god,” I muttered, feeling queasy as the demon choked and gasped through blood. But he was very much alive.
The demon raised his hands to pull the blade that was embedded within his neck but he didn’t get that far.
There was a whistling sound, the shriek of metal scraping against metal and suddenly my sword was free. And…
I looked away and gagged as the headless body thumped to the ground while the head rolled across the concreted like some disfigured ball.
I shivered and glanced at my blade, watching as the blood dripped off with horrified fascination. That was one part of my job that I would never come to like, even if I had felt relief when the sick minded demon died.
Claudia’s shrieking caught my attention. I glanced up to see the enraged woman glaring at the massacre with bloodlust in her eyes. But there was also the knowledge there, the defiance that emboldened every step and stab she made on her way through the crowds. She knew there was a high possibility that she would die, that she would not win but she was not going down without a fight.
Unfortunately for me, she was looking straight at me. Stepping around the lifeless forms that were lying here and there on the ground, I moved to meet her. Clangs of metal and the squish and thud of bodies being brutalised came from all sides. It was the bitter symphony that followed me as I moved to meet my fate.
…because it was my fate. She may have wanted to overthrow Lucius, but by pulling Nicole and her child into the equation she had sealed her fate. That was one thing that brought me peace. If I died, it was safe in the knowledge that Lucius would avenge me and he would protect my family. He was reliable in that sense.
We squared each other off, like two boxers sizing each other up before we took our first blows.
“I was going to sacrifice you for my cause, make your death worthwhile but I think I will just kill you for my own enjoyment.” Claudia purred while her lip curled up into a smile. She rubbed her hands up her thigh before she dipped her hand into the folds of her long flowing skirt.
Mentally I took note of the material and its length. It could prove an advantage. Surely the woman knew she would be involved in some kind of battle that day and yet she wore a skirt like she was going to dinner and not just a normal dinner date but one where you plan to pull.
I shook my head to remove the thought and instead flinched at the sudden movement out of the corner of my eye. Raising my blade, I managed to deflect most of the blow but I still felt the blade scratch through the fleshy part of my cheek. And from that barely there scratch I knew that Claudia’s sword was no ordinary blade for no small scratch would burn as fiercely as this one.
I wiped my cheek on my shoulder but refused to let Claudia out of my sight.
“I have to say this will be interesting because you are not angel kind and yet you are not quite human.”
The woman laughed softly, a laugh I was already beginning to hate by this point.
“I poisoned my blade, though I am not sure how effective it will be, it was meant for Lucius.”
I growled and lunged for her, snagging the sleeves of her top. I delighted in the small beads of blood that flowed out of the wound but Claudia gave it a mere look and then ignored it like it was a simple annoyance.
“Now that wasn’t very nice, a little touchy are we?”
Not liking her chatting, I lunged forwards again, aiming a few less deadly slices to her. They made contact as she did not care about the scratches and only blocked the blows towards her move vulnerable areas. However the more slices I delivered, the more blood that coursed from the wound and dripped down her arms. I hoped it would work, but there were no guarantees, Lucius never did tell me just how vulnerable demons were to human ailments, like blood loss and pain. It was all a matter of waiting.
“Do you know what I am going to do after I have killed you?” The voice was sweet, teasing. It was like she was talking about her next great adventure not atrocities that she would undoubtedly bring upon the earth if she was given a moments chance.
“I am going to get your son and feed him to the wayward souls of Tartarus. There are some people down there who would just love a chance to play. And as for the baby, he will be sacrificed in your place and we will welcome hell on earth.” She waved her sword around dramatically before standing up straight with pride in every pore. “And I will be its ruler.”
“You’re crazy. You truly are.”
Behind her, the rest of hell’s angels had gathered. Each of them looked rather unscathed after their ordeals, It was only me that looked worse for wear with my half mauled arm that was starting to really affect my concentration and the burning cut on my cheek which was slowly spreading outwards, numbing my face under the intensity of the poisonous heat.
“No you are crazy to think that you can beat me.”
The woman opened her mouth to speak more but she had irritated and angered me more than she ever should have.
“Oh shut up will you.”
Not giving her time to retort, I slashed out with my blade at the same time Lucius swung down at her from his position in the sky. She didn’t stand a chance. And as blood spurted from her wounds and her life fled from her body, I felt no guilt and no need for remorse.
Glancing up at Lucius, I offered him a shaky smile but his face remained grim.
“We will get your wounds sorted out Savannah, but we cannot relax yet.”
I felt my hackles rise. I did not think I would like the answer to my question but I asked anyway.
“Why not?”
The sympathetic look he spared me did nothing to ease the tension building within me, the fear of his next words. My eyes fluttered closed and I physically cringed in weary anticipation.
“Because this isn’t over.”