Chapter 16
The return to Cardiff was just as eerie as our first trip.
Thick black clouds hung heavy in the air despite the fact that the weather was forecasted to be bright and sunny. There were too many places burning for the sun to ever have a chance at shining through. It would take days, maybe weeks, before the damage was brought under control but it was already too late. The place was in ruins and there was nothing left to be salvaged. It was a painful reminder of what we were fighting for.
It was what we were fighting to prevent.
Cardiff was one city - a city that had been thriving and alive only a few weeks ago. Now there was nothing left but a scorch mark where it should have been. And all of the people, they were gone. They were either dead or injured. It didn’t matter because they were gone and it was unlikely that they would return.
The hotel wasn’t difficult to find. It was one of the few structures that remained untouched by the violence happening on either side. It was just standing there, tall and proud while the world came crashing down around it. The building was old and required a bit of TLC but it was still standing strong.
And yet, as I stared up at the building from the smoggy streets, I could sense that there was something off with the building.
I rubbed a hand up and down my arm to soothe away the gooseflesh that had formed. It was exuding wrongness. My stomach roiled and I had to clamp my jaw closed to stop my breakfast from making an appearance. I dragged my gaze away and almost instantly the nausea lessened to a mild discomfort.
Glancing over my shoulder, I would have rolled my eyes at the two men if the situation wasn’t so serious. Both were trying to be covert in the human sense of the word but were having great trouble. The crumbling piece of wall they were hiding behind was far too small to hide one of them. As a result I could see odds and ends sticking out from either side of the unstable brickwork.
“Get over here you two and stop trying to hide, you’re terrible at it.” I waved at them.
The angels stood up and wiped of the debris from their clothes. Then, they closed the distance between us as if they had not a care in the world. I growled under my breath.
“You two are ridiculous. We are at the enemy’s door and you are walking around as if you actually enjoy the ambience. Get serious now.” My harsh whisper cut through the air but neither Lucius nor Castiel were affected by my words.
“We were angels. We didn’t do covert. When we arrived at battle, the heralds called out before us to strike fear in the waiting armies.” Lucius shrugged his shoulders and wiped a smudge from his trousers. “There was none of this … playing.”
I turned my back on him and bit my tongue. It was best not to speak. Now was not the time to argue.
“Well, right now I get the feeling we will need your Devil mojo not your angelic heralds.”
If I wasn’t looking at the man, I would have missed the way that he folded his arms across his chest and his lips formed into a childish pout. I felt my heart warm at the gesture. Since things had become so tense in the world, with one near apocalyptic disaster after another, Lucius had rarely let his childish side shine through. But here it was, in the middle of a disaster zone.
“Fine.” He huffed after an indeterminable amount of time. Lucius opened his hand to accept the weight of his own angel blade as it materialised. “I will bring my A game for you but I’m telling you, the herald thing works.”
“It may have worked in 100 BC, old man.” I met his gaze and allowed my lips to tilt up into a smile to take some of the bite out of my words. “But this is a new world and this threat is something you have never seen before. They will not be intimidated by a little fanfare. They are horsemen of the apocalypse and we need to start treating them like it.”
When no one else offered sage words of wisdom, I glanced back at the hotel. The nausea returned but I was prepared this time. My stomach roiled in protest but I maintained a steady gaze while my teeth were clenched together.
“Plan?”
“We go in through the front door. They won’t expect that.”
Lucius laughed gleefully as he swung his glowing blade through the air.
“I like it. Direct.”
Without waiting for the rest of us, he surged forwards with both hands wrapped tightly around the hilt of his sword. His steps were unwavering as he progressed closer and closer to the building. I took a step to follow but it felt as if my feet were stuck to the ground with tar. I dragged my body forward with sheer determination, glancing at the man moving further away from me with each second.
“Cass?”
“I feel it too.” He murmured from beside me, his coat flapping in the hot ashy breeze.
“Someone obviously doesn’t want visitors.”
“Or they only want one visitor.”
At the gravity in his tone, my gaze snapped back to the front of the hotel in time to see the doors slamming shut behind Lucius with a sharp crack.
“Stupid man.” I cursed before wrenching my feet forwards, forcing my body to move even when everything within me was trying to pull in the opposite direction.
The doors gave a little resistance as I wrapped my hand around the handle and gave a sharp tug. There was no eerie groan as it swung smoothly on its hinges but I imagined one anyway. The interior of the building was so different to the world and chaos outside that it would be easy for anyone inside its wall to forget the destruction happening just a few feet away.
The carpet was immaculate. I could even detect a fresh lemon scent on the air which was a pleasing respite after the cloying scent of death and destruction that now clung to me like a disgusting perfume. And the most fascinating aspect was the fact that the electrics were working perfectly fine within this building. As a result, I found myself standing in the middle of the lobby, dirtied and sword in hand, while twenty sets of eyes stared at me from their varying vantage points.
Lucius had come to a halt just a few feet in front of me but his sword was gone. Not that it made a difference. We were foreign interlopers in a strangely serene scene. Did these people even know what was happening outside? I shook my head to get rid of the thought. There was no way that they could have ignored the end of the world that was happening just outside of the hotel doors.
I clenched my hand around my angel blade before dropping it to my side. I refused to will it away. Something wasn’t right here and even if these people appeared to just be that, I refused to be comforted by a false sense of security.
Keeping my back straight, I put one foot in front of the other until I approached the check in desk. The girl sat behind it was pale, dark circles were under eyes while her lips were pressed into a thin line. I was no expert at body language but I could see it in her rigid posture. She was terrified. She raised a shaky hand and brushed a mousy brown strand of hair from her face while her reddened eyes never left me. Well, I reconsidered, her eyes never left my sword arm.
“I won’t harm you unless you try to harm me first. Understood?” I stated it calmly, as a simple statement of fact.
Her gaze flitted away for a second before coming back on me. She nodded.
“Okay, can you tell me why you all are here?” I asked the question softly but I may as well have shouted at the poor woman. She flinched away and I had to stop myself from glancing over my shoulder to look for an attacked.
“We cannot leave.”
I turned my head to glance at the old man who had spoken. He didn’t look well. He was slumped on the floor, paler than any others in the room. It was the patch of reddish brown which had stained his shirt that concerned me most. His watery eyes followed my gaze and he let out a bitter chuckle.
“It’s not my blood.” He stared at his hands which were covered in more of the rust like substance and gave a weary sigh. “I tried to leave so in turn, He made me watch my wife die.”
I didn’t offer any words. They wouldn’t have helped. The old man, with his balding head and defeated eyes, would not appreciate them. Only defeating our enemy would bring him any kind of solace.
“Where is He?”
The others gathered in the lobby shifted uncomfortably in response to my question before their eyes lifted to look at the ceiling. I closed my eyes and groaned. We were in a ten storey hotel and we were going to have to search all of them to find our enemy.
“Thank you. Maybe you should get out of here, hide somewhere away from this place.” I glanced over at Lucius and Castiel. They did their own silent communication before Castiel nodded his head and marched towards the door marked with ‘Stairs’. “Things are about to get just a little bit messy.”
“You don’t understand. We can’t leave the hotel.” The woman behind the desk stood on shaky legs and waved her hands at the doors. “Every time someone has tried to leave, they have been stopped. And no one has come in either. Until you that is. How did you get in?”
I felt my brows pull together as I stared across at the mousy woman. “I opened the door and walked in.” It wasn’t quite that simple but then it was. The door hadn’t been locked but if it wasn’t for Lucius storming in ahead of me, I may never have had the courage to walk through the doors, mainly due to the bad vibes that just radiated out of the place.
“Maybe we can open the doors from the inside too. We’ve already done it once after all.”
I rolled my shoulders and tried to ignore the unease that ran down my spine. My feet carried me back to the lobby doors. My hand hovered over the handle for a second. The anticipation caused my stomach to clench and my palms to become clammy. I drew in a deep breath and touched the handle.
Nothing happened.
I breathed out a sigh and pushed forwards. I felt something intangible pulsing under my hand. Resisting and fighting me. It was almost as if someone had put a heavy object in front of the doors to bar the way. My sword vanished with barely a thought before my now free hand pressed flat against the door. I closed my eyes and after several deep breaths I pushed my body against the door.
“Lucius? Can I get a bit of help here?!” I muttered as the door groaned under the pressure. It edged forward a centimetre before lurching to a stop.
“I don’t suppose you kind folks would consider looking the other way while I try and bust open this door?”
I glanced over my shoulder to Lucius addressing the humans with his hands out in a placating gesture. It didn’t move these people. They stared back, unflinching despite the terror that they had lived through.
“Just get over here Lucius.”
“It was worth a try.”
I rolled my eyes.
“We’ve got bigger problems right now than trying to keep our world hidden. Besides, I think most of them are fully aware the stories are actually real.”
“Let your wings out.” It was the only words Lucius muttered before his body pressed up against the door beside me. He let out a calming breath and his beautiful wings unfolded seamlessly from his body. I loved his wings. They were a sight that could steal even the weakest mans breath away.
Closing my eyes, I let my own wings loose and beat them gently to stretch them out .
There were several gasps and several cusses from the group behind us but I blocked the sounds out. Instead I met Lucius’ gaze.
“On three?”
“On three.” He confirmed. “One.”
I braced my legs against the floor and placed both of my hands flat against the surface of the door.
“Two.”
I drew in a deep breath and closed my eyes.
“Three.”
With a war cry, I pushed against the door, beating my wings angrily to give that extra push. I could hear Lucius beside me, using his supernatural strength to force the door forwards. The door bowed and groaned under our combined efforts.
It gave a few millimetres. And then, like something had snapped and the door lurched open. It was only my quick reflexes that stopped me from falling face first into the ground.
“So, the door is open.” Lucius finished lamely, brushing a lock of dark hair off of his forehead, his eyes glittering merrily.
I shook my head as a hysterical giggle escaped my lips.
I glanced back into the lobby and the people gathered there. They were all in varying states of shock and awe. Only the old man appeared unaffected by the latest turn of events. I chose to ignore it and instead held out my hand.
“what are you waiting for? Run.”
My words spurred a flurry of movement. Several pushed to their feet while others stormed gathered bags and rushed to the bar area and pillaged the remaining supplies. They stuffed the salted peanuts and bottles of water into every pocket and bag before hurrying towards the door.
I stepped back to allow them to pass, my wings folding against my back to allow more room.
They all brushed past me and then paused just outside of the doors, their mouths dropping open one after the other as they took in the chaos that had become of the world.
“Maybe we would be safer inside.” An elderly woman muttered, clutching at her necktie as she watched the black clouds gathering above.
“It won’t be safe, this building is about to become a battle ground. It’s best if you are as far away from this place before the trouble arrives.” I murmured, placing a consoling hand on her shoulder.
The woman sniffed and then shook my hand off of her shoulder.
“Fine, I’ve survived one war. What’s another?”
Taking the lead, she marched out into the city with a strong dignity. Her footsteps did not even falter when she walked past charred skeletons that were laid out on the remains of the road. She kept her head high and her haughty airs and graces about her like a security blanket.
One by one the others followed. The old man, who had lost his wife, was at the back of the group. He moved to pass us and then stilled.
“There are others inside. The housekeepers and the waiters are all up there with him.” He grimaced and wiped a hand over his face in an attempt to remove the weariness. “I’m not certain how many are alive. None of them have returned since they went upstairs.”
I nodded my head and allowed Lucius to show him out of the building. The Devil kindly offered his keys and gestured and pointed a few times. I waited for his return, keeping a firm hold on the hotel door to prevent it from closing. A small broken piece of wood served a door wedge to keep the door from closing once more.
From the threshold, we watched as the group of people hurriedly navigated through the streets, not even bothering to spare a glance for those of us left behind. I closed my eyes and sent a prayer to the big man himself and asked for their safety. I had seen too much death and destruction in my short life. I wanted at least someone to come out of this mess alive and whole.
“Let’s get this done. “ I murmured when the last of them disappeared through the smog and left my line of sight.
Lucius grunted from beside me before his hand found mine. I took brief solace in his gesture of comfort before willing my sword back into existence. We backed into the hotel lobby once more before turning.
The room was still but I shook off any unease. There was nothing nice about what was going to happen and unease was not going to stop me from seeking justice for those that had perished at the hand of these powerful entities.
I nodded my head towards the door marked stairs.
“Let’s go and catch us a horseman.”
With a laugh that was brighter than the situation called for, Lucius kicked open the door with such with glee plastered on his face and marched through the door with a merry little skip.
A groan escaped my lips as I followed. That man was going to get us all killed.
--- Unedited and has not been proofread ... as usual -- :)