"Okay, we're clear. Go," Carter whispered.
Angel erupted from the shadows into the empty rear parking lot of the Dallas Regional Medical Center Hospital. The girl waved her left hand over her head sending out a burst of energy to disrupt any security cameras in range. She glanced around and then when she felt it was safe, reached out in front of her with the other open hand. "Open sesame!" she said as she curled her fingers and yanked the fist toward her. The locked rear doors effortlessly flew open, allowing Danny, Carter, and finally Angel, herself, to storm in through the opening.
Fluorescent lights flickered overhead as the trio zipped through the clean, white hallways searching for the morgue.
"Up there on the left!" Carter shouted.
"Gotta move ya'll! Just spotted an orb floatin' back down that corridor. The next shift will be comin' in through here soon!" Danny added.
Angel unlocked the Morgue's door and the three Original Souls filed in to begin searching for a new body for Luisa.
"How about this one?" Carter asked, sweeping a hand over a female with two bullet holes. "Do you think she would like this one?"
"Sure," Danny said, removing his head from the hall to see Carter's selection. He shot the sniper a thumb up. "Hey, so you know, I just saw another orb, guys..." he sang.
"She's pretty. Okay, grab it and let's get!" Angel said.
"It's clear for now! C'mon!" Danny whispered, flinging the door open.
Carter scooped the cold body into his large arms.
Angel and Danny generated their swords. The trucker lead the procession, the cheerleader travelled backwards down the hall at the rear, both of them ready to destroy anything that approached.
"Oh no no no!" Danny shouted as the trio stepped out into the warm Texas air. "Hold up, ya'll!"
Angel stepped around Carter to see what the holdup was. Her shoulders drooped. "Damn..."
A dozen Grigori, evidently the next group arriving to collect the recently deceased, carelessly approached the hospital. They glided across the parking lot like factory workers arriving for their shift, minus the hardhats and thermoses. They stopped upon viewing the three Original Souls standing in the hospital's open doorway, one of them holding a body. In unison, their faces contorting and claws forming from their fingertips, they launched at their enemies from where they floated.
"Come get some!" Danny yelled as he and Angel lifted their swords, readying themselves to fight.
___________________________________________________________________
Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed lightly touched down with six Grigori Prime in tow at the head of her golden regiment of 2000 evil souls. Partially assembled from Himmler's former legions and her own battalion of ex-military killers, the silent, glimmering soldiers turned in exacting mechanical precision to face her.
"At ease, ya'll!" 'Bloody Bill' Anderson shouted as the pair passed.
The clusters of Grigori quietly did as told.
Bezaliel stepped from the darkness of the cave's sandstone entrance into the bright, hot desert sun to greet her golden guests lined up on her doorstep like ethereal toy soldiers. She narrowed her dark eyes as she watched the Countess and her ever-present Confederate companion approach. "Stop! That is far enough!" the witch said with a snarl.
"Great Bezaliel, it seems we meet once more," Elizabeth said, lowering her head in reverence, followed by the rebel's hat removal. "It's a pleasure."
"Enough with the human formalities, Countess, we all know why we are here and it is not to kiss each other's rear-ends," snipped the Watcher.
The Grigori lifted her head to stare into Bezaliel's venomous gaze. "Very well, to business, then?"
"That should be obvious."
"Ahem, yes. Well, great Bezaliel, I bring greetings from my lord, Holok and come bearing orders to defeat our mutual enemies at all costs."
"I don't plan on losing my life to those bastardized humans, do you?" the Watcher asked. "The only costs I intend on incurring are a continued loss of my time rotting down here on this wretched world. Whatever you wish to personally throw away on this shitty planet is up to you..."
"Huh?" Bill asked.
Bezaliel exhaled, jamming a finger to the Southern killer's golden nose. "Don't speak in my presence again, idiot."
The Countess quickly lifted her hand to silence the Confederate murderer as he angrily brushed the digit aside. "I apologize for my assistant's lack of couth. Why don't we focus instead on our strategy, then? Bill tells me you have an Original Soul captive? King David, it seems?"
"Yes, and he is a very large piece of my strategy. He is essentially the key to ripping the gates of Heaven wide open," she said with a grin.
"How so?" the countess asked.
"He is our bait. Wherever this boy is, Michael and those other troublesome Original Souls are not far behind and the Archangel is weak..."
"Then he might easily be destroyed," Bill interjected.
Bezaliel said nothing. She lifted her ashy left hand and pointed her palm at the former rebel.
"Wait, erm, I'm sorry..."
An invisible force flung the golden creature across the desert for several hundreds of yards. He eventually rolled to a stop, kicking up a large amount of dust.
"The Grigori battalions roared with cackling laughter.
"Silence!" Countess Báthory shouted angrily at her troops never turning away from the Watcher. The Grigori woman's rage-filled eyes glared up at the desert witch. "You will treat the followers of Holok with respect or you will find yourself in the same place as your martyr!"
"Are you threatening me, you weak, insignificant thing?" Bezaliel asked as she stepped menacingly toward the countess only to stop in her tracks, noting the 2000 Grigori that had now begun stepping forward toward her in response.
"Tsk, tsk. For all of your power, Watcher, your magic will only get you so far. You may destroy a considerable portion of my army, even me, but in the end, it would just be a meaningless waste of existence for all of us. I suggest you shut the hell up and listen to me, now! I have attempted diplomacy only to have my efforts razed by your sarcasm and condescending attitude. No more!" This time Elizabeth approached the witch aggressively.
The Watcher balled her fists.
"Please do something stupid, Bezliel. Attempt to strike me..."
The desert witch opened her hands, exhaled, and turned, walking away a few steps in frustration. She lifted her nose slightly into the air as if offended and turned. "No, let us continue..."
The countess nodded and indicated with a wave of her hand for her soldiers to return to formation. "Excellent. So, there is evidently much more to your plan than using King David as bait. What were you saying about Michael?"
"Heaven will not let God's favorite pet perish, Fallen or not. It will open the gates to send a rescue party. When those annoyingly loud horns blast across the skies, one of your battalions will be waiting, ready to infiltrate the opening, and then once inside..."
"My troops will never make it in close enough. They would be detected by Chamuel, the seer. The Archangels would never open the door."
"Ah, not if we Watchers are shielding them."
"You can do this?"
"Our order has been invisible to Heaven for thousands of years, believe me, Grigori, we are very good at it, nonetheless, I intend for this hiding to end very soon."
"Do you have the weapons we requested?"
"I have nearly one hundred clones of Azazel's Soul Disruptors ready for your Grigori to train with and use," the Watcher said.
"Excellent," the countess said. "Oh, there is one more thing, Bezaliel."
"What is it?"
"The girl, Angel, is mine," stated Countess Báthory.
"Agreed, and Azazel is mine," replied the Watcher.
"Then it is decided."