A Touch Menacing (30 page)

“Oh my God,” she whispered, covering her face. Her hands shook against skin slick with blood. Az’s arms wrapped around her, pulling her against his chest. She clung to him.

“Shhh,” Az whispered, cradling her. “I’m here. It’s over.”

She dropped into the crook of his arm as the horrible taste of ashes and rot filled her mouth.
No,
she begged.
Ten seconds. Just give me ten more seconds with him.
But already everything inside her writhed in agony. Eden heard Jarrod and Sullivan coming and moved just enough to see them. As they came closer, she saw how Jarrod limped, leaning heavily on Sullivan.
They’re both all right, though,
Eden thought.

Gabe cowered against the brick wall.

“I know you didn’t do this,” Az said to him. He held out a hand. With a sigh of relief, Gabe took it. “The Bound betrayed you. They set you up to find her hurt and to keep you from—”

“How did you get here?” Gabe asked. His eyes wavered back to Eden, broke away again.

“They attacked Kristen’s,” Az said.

Gabe’s grip tightened. “No. When?” he asked as Eden fought to sit up.

“Help them,” she wheezed.

“There was a ball tonight,” Jarrod said from next to them. He clamped one arm to his chest. His wrists had bruises so dark they were black. He’d fought hard. “Everyone went.”

“Go to Kristen’s, Gabe,” Az said. “I’ve got this.”

With a pop, the air swirled a tornado of snow, and the space where Gabriel had been was empty. Eden fought to get enough air to speak. “Are they all right?” she asked.

When Az loosened his grip, Eden’s head drooped back before she could catch it. Her vision blurred, gritty with ashes.

“I’m here. I’ve got you,” Az whispered, lifting her up again.

She knew he still held her hand, but things had gone fuzzy. Her lungs felt like they’d been dipped in drying concrete.

“Oh, Eden, no.” The terror on Az’s face almost broke her, but she wouldn’t let herself look away. “No, I made it on time. You’re okay!” Az juggled her into his arms. “We have to get somewhere safe.”

Leaning in close to his chest, Eden listened to his thudding heartbeat. It took all her strength, but she got an arm around his neck, felt his skin, cool beneath her feverish fingers.

“They knew you guys were staying at Zach’s,” Az said. “The Bound are in the Bronx. They won’t expect us to go back to your apartment.” His grip on her tightened as he lurched to his feet.

She felt a tremor pass through Az’s shoulders as he unfurled his wings. “Sullivan, can you and Jarrod make it there yourselves?” he asked.

Eden heard Jarrod arguing, but the words seemed to skip and bounce, unrecognizable. Blinking, she tried to focus, but everything blanched to gray.

For a moment there was nothing, and then Az’s voice pulled her out of the darkness. “Stay with me!”

It’s too late,
Eden thought. She lost her grip on Az, her hands falling away.

There was a scream. A rush of air when Az launched into the sky.

And then there was nothing.

CHAPTER 18

T
he orange glow of flames lit the hazy smoke-filled lawn. Half of Kristen’s second floor was engulfed by the fire.
I’m too late.
Gabriel’s stomach curdled.

He pictured himself near the door to the back stairs. Cold air rushed through him, and he materialized there with his face nearly pressed against the hot glass. He cupped his hands and stared in between them. The stairwell was pitch-black.

When he opened the door, smoke swirled out, burning his throat, but Gabe could see no fire on the wooden stairs.

She’s dead.
A terrible thought crossed his mind, that he’d run over what was left of Kristen as he searched the house, grinding the ashes of her into the carpet as he passed. He tucked an arm over his mouth and nose, and started to climb the stairs as he heard distant sirens. He’d check her room and whatever else he could before the firefighters arrived. He rounded the corner, feeling his way in the dark the same as he’d done a dozen times before.

He kicked something that bounced against the trim with a hollow thunk. When he stooped down to pick it up, he was surprised to find a phone.
Light,
he thought, pressing the buttons so that the display illuminated in a pale glow. He swept it out in front of him. Just around the turn of the stairs, a heeled shoe hung over the edge of a step. Gabriel jumped toward it. The light found a face, eyes open and staring blindly.

“Madeline!” he cried out in surprise. He fell to her, swiping curls from her face. The skin under his finger was slick. She didn’t move. Didn’t blink. “Oh no,” he whispered. “Madel—” A choked gasp caught in his throat. The middle of her chest was caved in, a jagged hole where her breastbone had been. Gabriel stared in horror.
But she’s not ash.

“Come on, Madeline. We have to go.” Sliding an arm underneath her neck, he tried to move her, to lift her. Her head lolled. The blood that had pooled in her mouth spilled onto his legs. “Oh no, sweetheart.”

He tried to wipe her cheek clean, but his own bloody fingers only made things worse.
They took her heart out. They took her soul.
She couldn’t be alive.
But why is her body still here?
When Siders ended, they disintegrated. Above him, he could hear the thump of water spraying the roof, the hiss as it hit hot coals.

He had to go.

Tucking the phone into his pocket with a shaking hand, Gabriel closed his eyes and pictured Kristen’s room. Madeline’s fingers were still laced in his when he phased out. He came back a second later alone and leaning against Kristen’s bed. “Hello?” he whispered.

“She’s not here.” The voice startled him. He turned toward the angel behind him. The face he knew so well, had once delighted in seeing, now sent sorrow coiling through him.

“Were you with them, Michael?” Gabriel collapsed onto the bed. The blood on his hands, Madeline’s blood, smeared onto the comforter. “Did you kill my friends?”

Michael hissed a warning as he arched his neck toward the closed door. “Careful words, Gabriel. There are others about. You’re being foolish.”

When Michael took a step toward him, Gabriel bolted off the bed and stumbled against the dresser. “Raphael sent me after Eden. Because you didn’t want me to stop you here!” He wiped his hand across his cheek and nose without thinking. His sticky fingers skipped across the skin. “Madeline risked everything to help me when I was Fallen. She’s the reason I knew everything I told Raphael about Downstairs. You killed her, didn’t you?” Gabriel’s eyes flicked down to Michael’s hands. They were still covered in blood.

Michael’s own gaze fell to Gabe’s fingers. “You, too.” A thrill of what seemed like hope trilled in his voice as he asked, “Is the death breather finished?”

Gabe flexed his hands. The drying maroon near his knuckles cracked, showing clean skin underneath. Outside the door, fire crackled. He had a vision of Kristen in the very room in which they stood, painting her toenails at the vanity, her long dark hair running down her back.

“I thought I had done you a kindness by not allowing you to participate here. It seems you don’t see it as such,” Michael said, his voice awash in disappointment. “You look at me as a monster for doing pleasing works. For cleansing the Earth of a plague threatening the mortals. The Siders
will
be driven to extinction, Gabriel. They are not your friends.” Michael shook his head slowly. “Your part ceases with the completion of your task. End Eden. Come home. I can’t shelter you any more than I have.”

“Shelter me?” Gabe blurted in disgust. Anguish bubbled inside him, threatening to take over.
Gone,
he thought.
Madeline’s gone.
Kristen’s gone. How many others?
Michael had taken them away, just as he’d tried to take Az away so long ago. “Tell me if Kristen still exists,” he whispered.

“Shhh.”

Gabriel stilled. Michael would relish telling him she was gone.
So why isn’t he answering?

Hope tried to burrow in, but Gabe wouldn’t let it, wouldn’t be able to stand it if he was wrong.
Please let her be safe.
Gabe sent out a thought.
Please, tell me where she is.
He grabbed Michael by the neck. He smelled the same as he had centuries ago, like a fall breeze.
Did you spare her for me?

“The answer will only cause you pain,” Michael said, leaning in to brush a delicate kiss against Gabe’s cheek.

I thought you’d help her. I thought you’d do that for me.

“She did escape, Gabriel.”

Gabe jerked back.

“With Lucifer,” Michael finished.

Hope and horror left Gabe stricken. “At least she’s away from you,” he said.

“Gabriel, you are dimming. Is it not enough to act as if the Sider plague is somehow salvageable, now you endorse one who takes up with
Lucifer
?”

“This,” Gabe said quietly, “is not right.” He walked past Michael to the sounds of glass and wood breaking, the firefighters entering through the front of the house.

Michael snatched his arm. “Gabriel, you must let them go.”

The truth passed Gabe’s lips before he thought to stop it. “I can’t.”

He closed his eyes, smoke passing through him as he transferred to the backyard, near the bushes. Red, blue, and white lights burst across the burning house. Flames crackled through holes burned in the roof. He took the thin path through the ivy covering the lawn. Behind him, a window in the attic shattered from a burst of fire. In the sudden brightness, Gabe saw a glimmer of pink tangled in the bushes. It trailed into the shadows, trimmed in lace. A dress.

He crouched, hoping against hope that Michael wouldn’t come after him. He’d seen no other Bound. “I’m not going to hurt you, but they will. Run,” he whispered.

A sob of relief came from the bushes. “Gabe?”

He pushed aside the branches. The girl tucked inside had a deep scratch across her cheek. Her thoughts were scattered terror. “Erin? You’ve got to get out of here,” he said, but she shook her head, grasping his arm.

“Everyone’s still inside. Help them!”

“They’re ash, Erin. I got here too late.” His voice broke.

“Oh God. Maddy.” She let out a staggered sob, the last hope draining from her. “Sebastian, he . . . he lowered me out of the window, and I ran. I thought he’d be right behind me, but he went after Kristen.”

At a sudden yell, Gabe spun around. A team of firefighters circled the side of the house.

Gabe charged into the bushes and grabbed Erin under the arms, dragging her out the other side into the neighbor’s yard. In the open, he could see her grotesquely swollen knee. “Can you walk?” he asked as he lifted her to her feet.

She limped a few steps and then shook her head. “Not without help,” she said. Her eyes searched his.

If the Bound catch me helping her, I’m done,
he thought.
If Michael tells the rest of the council what I just said to him, it’s over for me anyway.
“Okay,” he said, staring off down the street. “Okay, come here,” he said, scooping her up.

CHAPTER 18

T
he orange glow of flames lit the hazy smoke-filled lawn. Half of Kristen’s second floor was engulfed by the fire.
I’m too late.
Gabriel’s stomach curdled.

He pictured himself near the door to the back stairs. Cold air rushed through him, and he materialized there with his face nearly pressed against the hot glass. He cupped his hands and stared in between them. The stairwell was pitch-black.

When he opened the door, smoke swirled out, burning his throat, but Gabe could see no fire on the wooden stairs.

She’s dead.
A terrible thought crossed his mind, that he’d run over what was left of Kristen as he searched the house, grinding the ashes of her into the carpet as he passed. He tucked an arm over his mouth and nose, and started to climb the stairs as he heard distant sirens. He’d check her room and whatever else he could before the firefighters arrived. He rounded the corner, feeling his way in the dark the same as he’d done a dozen times before.