Angel Tormented (The Louisiangel Series Book 3) (28 page)

I whirled around, just as a fist clobbered
the side of my head. Somehow it didn’t knock me out, but it did send me
careering to the ground. I reached for the sword, only just getting it out when
a foot connected with my hand. I let out a yelp of pain as the sword went
skittering across the ground.

I was going to scurry after it, but it dawned
on me that was what my attacker would probably be expecting me to do. Instead,
I lunged to the side, rolling, and using the momentum to get to my feet so I
could spin around. It worked – I managed to stand – and I found myself face to
face with Asmodeus.

“Where’s that charge of yours?” he asked
me, rolling up the sleeves to the bright purple shirt he was wearing.

“Nowhere near here,” I assured him,
curling my hands into fists.

“Good,” Asmodeus grinned. “That means I
can kill you without risking hurting him.”

“You can try,” I ground out. Determination
and anger were replacing the pain and aching muscles. Or maybe it was the
adrenaline. Either way, one of us would be walking away from this fight and,
for Joshua’s sake, I was going to do everything I could to make sure it was me.

Asmodeus had thousands and thousands of
years on me, which meant he was way more skilled and experienced. My strategy
was going to be to get him to wear himself out while I tried to retain as much
energy as possible. Then he lunged for me, and all planning went out of the
metaphorical window.

He was quick. I managed to jump out of the
way, but before I could turn and keep him in front of me, his fist caught me in
the kidney. I fell to my knees, clutching at my side with one hand as nausea
washed over me like a tsunami.

“I don’t understand why they recruit things
like you,” Asmodeus mused as he sauntered over to me. “You’re nothing more than
cannon fodder. It’s not even a challenge.”

While he was busy insulting me, I grabbed
at the ground, scooping up a handful of dirt and gravel, and then I threw it at
his face. Enough went in his eyes to allow me to jump up and give him an
uppercut which sent him flying backwards. I didn’t give him time to get up
further than his knees. I kicked, aiming for his face. I was fighting dirty and
I didn’t give a damn.

As I went in for the second kick, his hand
shot out and grabbed my foot. Before I could react, he had twisted, sending me
face first into the ground. I only just managed to get my hands out in time to
stop my head hitting the dirt. The next thing I knew, he was towering above me
kicking me in the side again. It was all I could do to curl up into a fetal
position and try to fend off some of his attacks. This was it: this was how I
was going to die, for real.

Then, they stopped.

I lay there, dazed and unable to think
clearly. I hurt all over, and I could barely see through the dots that were
swimming in my vision. As I struggled to find the strength to get to my feet, two
of Asmodeus’ faces appeared above me. While I tried to make two become one, he
pressed his foot against my throat and leaned down.

“You ruined my shirt, you little bitch,”
he snarled at me. It was all I could do to try to push that foot off me as I
clawed at his ankle. “I’m going to squish you like the insect that you are.”

The two heads were slowly fading out as
Asmodeus stood. There was a moment of pressure, and then it was gone. I rolled
over, coughing, spluttering, trying to get my lungs to fill even though the
action hurt. Cupid was at my side then, helping me into a sitting position.
“Are you okay?” he asked me.

“What happened to Asmodeus?” I forced out,
my voice weak and rasping.

Cupid moved to one side and I spotted
Asmodeus. He was lying on his back, staring up at the sky with unseeing eyes.
From the center of his chest was a single arrow.

Then he was gone.

Or rather, then I was gone.

The next thing I knew, I was in my
bedroom, Cupid holding me tightly. I lurched to the side, disorientated by the
sudden transportation, but Cupid’s strong grip kept me upright. My vision was
still a little blurry, but I found Joshua in front of me. For a moment, I saw
anger in him, but when he realized who was in front of him, it vanished, being
replaced with distress.

“Angel, what the hell happened to you?” he
cried, darting to me.

I fell to him, his arms feeling as welcome
as my bed at that point. “I kicked ass,” I muttered as the strength left my legs.
Joshua caught me and scooped me up. He took me to my bed and set me down.

“I will get bandages,” Cupid declared from
behind me.

“Darlin’,” Joshua sighed. “You look like…
like you should be in a hospital.”

“I’m fine,” I lied, forcing my body to
ignore my brain as I instructed it to sit upright. The effort had me gasping at
the amount of pain I was feeling.

“You’re a crap liar,” Joshua muttered,
reaching under my shoulders to help me up. He gently tipped me forward so he
could push some pillows behind me, when Cupid reappeared. “You want to tell me
what happened?”

“First I would murder for a milkshake.”

Joshua’s eyes narrowed. I’d been speaking
in a whisper and judging from the scrutiny that appeared in his stare, he had
probably assumed that it was from the fact I looked exhausted. When his eyes
fell on my throat, he whirled around to Cupid. “Is there any milkshake in this
place?” he demanded.

“Maybe in the kitchen,” Cupid shrugged.
“We should probably get those wounds seen to first.”

“No,” I said.

“Angel,” Cupid chided. “You don’t have to
act brave.”

“No,” I repeated. My voice cracked, but I sounded
firm. “You need to get back to the Port. You need to make sure everyone is
okay.” As soon as I said the words, Dion’s face appeared in my mind and I was
unable to bite back the sob.

“Angel?” Joshua questioned, reaching for
me.

I sniffed, but no tears fell. “Dion,” I
said quietly as numbness seemed to set over me. “He got stuck in a trap and
then one of the Fallen attacked. He was under a container,” I managed. “I don’t
think he made it.”

Cupid’s mouth slowly fell open. He stared
at me for the longest time. “Stay here, let Joshua dress those wounds. I’ll
make sure everyone knows and we’ll discuss it tomorrow.” He walked over to
Joshua and handed him the medical supplies, then turned to me. “You’ll be
okay,” he assured me, placing his hand on my knee. “We’ll be
okay
. All
of us.”

He disappeared, leaving Joshua and I
alone. “Oh hell, Angel,” Joshua muttered, gently.

“I just need a minute,” I said, slipping
back into the pillows.

The next thing I knew, a knock at the door
was waking me. I opened my eyes in time to see Joshua closing the door, a large
yellow milkshake in his hands. “I didn’t mean to wake you,” he apologized as I
sat up.

I took the drink from him, taking a few
sips, before responding. “How long have I been asleep?”

“Twenty minutes, if that.”

I took another long sip. For only twenty
minutes, I was already feeling better – or at least my throat was. My voice was
no longer raspy. The rest of me wasn’t feeling any different. Much as I wanted
to go back to sleep, I pulled myself off the bed and limped into my bathroom.

I looked at myself in the mirror and then
instantly regretted it. Wow, I looked a mess. Joshua wasn’t kidding when he
said I belonged in a hospital, although he could easily have specified the ICU.
My arms looked like I had been dragged across asphalt. They were covered in
angry, red scratches and grazes. I turned around and wasn’t surprised to see
they stretched all the way up to my shoulders and across my neck. Hell, the
tank top I had worn was shredded in places and the skin just as damaged
underneath. My neck looked like Joshua’s had done in the early stages – except
I could see a footprint. There was a freaking footprint on my throat.

My face – I looked like I was trying to
give Harvey Dent a competitor in the looks department. When I stared at my
reflection, I couldn’t stop myself from crying. Part of it was vanity – I will
admit to that. Mainly I was just thankful to be alive. My looks were nothing
compared to how I felt on the inside. At this point, I wouldn’t have been
surprised if my organs were mush.

As soon as the tears started spilling,
Joshua was at my side. He looked like he wanted nothing more than to hold me,
which was exactly what I wanted, but I shook my head. “I don’t think I can,” I
managed. “Not yet.”

“We should get you cleaned up so you can
rest,” he said, softly.

I made an effort to wipe my eyes, but I
couldn’t lift my arms. “I can’t,” I whispered. “Not by myself.”

“It’s a good job I’m here then,” he said.
He took one look at my top, then turned to the bathroom cabinet. When he turned
back around, he was holding a pair of scissors. Silently he cut my top off. It
fluttered to the ground and he balled it up and threw it in the trash can. His
eyes quickly scanned the top half of my body, before dropping to the jeans. “Let’s
get them off, and then you can rest.”

Joshua must have removed my boots while I
was sleeping because I was barefoot. When I fumbled with the button, his hands
replaced mine. Gently, he tugged the jeans down. They’d been covered in blood,
but short of some really thin patches, the biker gear had held up well. After
supporting me while I stepped out of the jeans, they joined the top in the
trash can.

Even more remarkable than the jeans
surviving, was the state of my legs. Somehow I didn’t feel like I’d broken any
bones, anywhere in my body, so I wasn’t expecting any jutting bone or something
similar. I was expecting at least one scrape, but there were only a few forming
bruises. I was never leaving the convent without my jeans again.

“I need to take your bra off,” Joshua
said, softly.

I nodded, too tired to be embarrassed, and
allowed him to remove the underwear. “I’ll be quick,” he promised.

He focused on my back first, cleaning off
all the blood and dirt. Finished, he allowed me to sit on the toilet lid, and
crouched down to clean my front. His touch was warm and gentle, but not once
did it feel like anything other than someone tending to my injuries. When my
arms and torso were clean, he dressed a few of the more serious injuries like
the bullet wound, wrapping bandages around me.

Normally, I would have told him not to
bother, that they would heal quickly, but there were a few cuts which still had
blood glistening in them and I was sure it would take a while for me to feel
normal again. Finished, he disappeared into my bedroom. I could hear him
looking through my drawers and then he reappeared with the largest t-shirt he
could find. He slipped it over my head and then helped my arms through the
sleeves.

Last of all, he turned his attention to my
face. I stared at his blue eyes but they were focused on a cut on my cheek. I
still hadn’t managed to stop the tears, and Joshua took a fresh piece of cloth
and dabbed them away before meeting my gaze. “Please don’t ever send me away
like that again,” he begged. Joshua stood and made to rinse the cloth, but he paused,
gripping the side of the counter, watching the water run. Eventually he sighed
and looked at me via the mirror. “I’ve never been so scared,” he admitted,
quietly. “Angel, I love you. I have known it for a while, but until tonight I
didn’t realize just how much.” He turned the tap off and turned to face me,
rather than continue the conversation in the mirror. “I don’t care how you came
into my life, or why you’re in it, but after tonight I don’t ever want to
experience you not being in it.” He walked over and crouched down in front of
me, reaching for my hand. “This,” he said, placing my hand over his heart.
“This is yours.”

“Mine,” I said, slowly.

“Yours,” he agreed. “And you need to take
care of it because I’ve never given it to anyone before.” With his hand holding
mine, he entwined his fingers through mine. “I don’t give a crap if you’re my
guardian angel. You’re
my
girlfriend and I should have been there to
help you.”

“I can’t make that promise, and it’s not
because I’m your guardian angel. It’s because I love you,” I told him, softly.
I pulled my hand free, only to use it to place Joshua’s hand over my own heart.
“It might beat a little weird, but this is yours, and while it beats, in its
weird little way, I will do everything I can to keep you safe and your heart
safe, even if it means I have to get you to somewhere safe.”

“I wanted to leave but Cupid had put a
damn guard on the door,” Joshua admitted.

That explained the anger. “I didn’t ask
him to do that,” I told him. “But I’m glad he did.”

“At least tell me we stopped Asmodeus from
doing whatever he was going to do?”

“We did better than that,” I said,
breaking into the first smile of the evening. “Cupid killed him. We stopped
Asmodeus.”

I awoke in the middle of the night with a
start, unsure what had disturbed me. I still felt like I had gone ten rounds
with a dump truck, and despite waking, I felt like I could sleep for another
week. I lay in bed, staring at the shadows on my wall. My internal clock told
me it was the early morning but there were still a couple of more hours to go
before the sun was going to break the horizon. Beside me, Joshua stirred,
sighing heavily, but he remained asleep.

I was still half asleep myself, and the small
bed we were sharing meant it was warm and cozy. I snuggled closer to him,
smiling as his arms wrapped around me: even in sleep, his touch was gentle.
Ready to succumb to sleep, I took in one last breath, inhaling deeply. The
scent of Joshua’s shower gel, the lingering smell of the laundry detergent in
his clothes, and smoke filled my nostrils.

Smoke?

That wasn’t right. Joshua had showered. Cupid
had eventually returned and announced that the cherubim would come to the
convent in the morning, but no human lives had been lost. Only Dion was
unaccounted for. When Cupid had added that we’d go through everything in the
morning and left us, I’d gotten in bed while Joshua had taken a shower.

I opened my eyes, the urge to sleep fading
quickly as my brain started to fire into action.

Smoke….

The building was at least two hundred and
fifty years old, and was heated with a boiler, but with the unnaturally warm
weather, it hadn’t been used – I wasn’t sure if it would ever get used,
considering none of the angels needed it. If there was smoke, that meant only
one thing.

“Fire,” I said, shaking myself free of
Joshua’s hold.

Beside me, Joshua poked an eye open. “It’s
too early, darlin’,” he muttered, his raspy voice thick with sleep.

Before he could close his eyes, I was
sitting upright, urging him to do the same. “I smell smoke,” I told him.

There was the briefest pause while he
thought about the words I was saying, and then he was up following me to the
door. I was reaching for the handle when he stopped me. “Wait,” he commanded,
placing the back of his own hand against the wood. Whatever he was looking for,
he found, opening the door. As soon as he did, smoke started billowing into the
room.

Thick, black clouds, which felt like it
was trying to wrap its fingers around us. I peered out into the hallway, my
eyes already stinging as they started watering. At the end of the corridor was
the door to the next corridor and the staircase. As we both started coughing,
Joshua slammed the door shut. “What are you doing?” I asked.

“There’s too much smoke in that corridor,”
he said.

“Then we’re going out of the window,” I
told him, pulling him towards the large window in the corner. “
Cupid!
” I
yelled in my head. “
There’s a fire. We need to get everyone out.
”

Joshua pushed open the window and stuck
his head out. I did too, looking along the building towards St. Mary’s Church.
The flames had already escaped the ground floor windows where the armory was
located and were licking up the walls. There were bedrooms above there. “
Cupid!
”
I yelled down the psychic connection.

“
Already on it,
”
he told me,
though I couldn’t see him. “
I’m working on getting the angels out. They’re
all awake.
”

“
The fire’s in the armory,
”
I
told him. I darted around my bedroom, gathering up my weapons, grateful for
being lazy as I strapped the black dagger to one thigh and the quiver to the
other.

“What are you doing?” Joshua demanded. “We
shouldn’t be wasting time with getting dressed.” The only thing he’d done since
leaving the bed was grab his gun.

He was wearing only the shorts I had lent
him, and I was in my underwear and a t-shirt which barely covered me, but
putting my clothes on was not my focus. “I have a bad feeling about this,” I
told him. “The night we defeat Asmodeus and the convent sets on fire? I’m not
going out there unprepared.” I draped the bow over my shoulder and, with a
second thought, grabbed my cell phone, before returning to the window. My
bedroom was at the front of the house but it sat above the parking lot and the
concrete below. “I need you to trust me,” I told him.

“Always,” he responded, making to climb up
onto the windowsill. I followed him up, but before he could crouch and lower
himself down, I scooped him up into my arms. “What are you doing?” he asked me.

“You said you trusted me,” I pointed out
before crouching. “Keep trusting.”

And then I jumped.

Joshua wasn’t so heavy that I struggled to
lift him, but I didn’t think about considering the extra weight as I landed. My
bare feet slammed down on the concrete sending so much pain shooting up my
already aching legs that I was certain I had shattered a dozen bones in my
feet. I stumbled, but regained my balance before I dropped Joshua. “Angel, are
you okay?” Joshua demanded as I set him on the ground.

“I’m fine,” I lied, doing everything in my
power not to show how much I had hurt myself. “I need to you to dial 911.” I
thrust my phone at him, along with the bow.

“What are you going to do?” he asked.

“Make sure everyone is out,” I said. I
pointed to the corner of the parking lot. “Wait by the gate in case you need to
get out of the grounds. I’ll send the angels over to you.”

“Be careful,” he said, already dialing as
he hurried over to where I had said.

I turned my attention to the convent. If
Cupid was getting them out, he wasn’t leaving the angels this side of the
house. I ran around the back. The gym was separate to the main building but the
fire had spread to this side, and it was close enough that wind could send the
flames over. With how hot and dry the weather had been, the wooden paneling to
the building would be like kindling. Movement in the gym confirmed my fears –
Cupid
had
been moving the angels in there.

I continued on, picking up speed until I
burst through the doors. About a dozen faces turned to me, all looking worried.
I scanned their faces, counting. Fifteen. That was half. “The gym is not safe.
I want you all to get out and head for the gates. Do not leave the grounds
unless you’re told to by the fire department or it looks too unsafe to stay
where you are.” Collectively they nodded, and filed past me. “Just keep calm.
The fire department is on the way.”

As I spoke, Cupid appeared in the middle
of the gym, Nyle and another angel clutching to him. They were coughing and
their faces were covered in soot, but they seemed fine. “I’m going as quickly
as I can,” Cupid told me.

“You need to head to the gates where the
others are,” I instructed Nyle and the other angel. I looked to Cupid. “I
know,” I said. “But you can’t bring them in here. It’s too close to the
convent,” I told him.

“I can’t go anywhere else,” Cupid said,
shaking his head. “What if I appear in the middle of the grounds and we’re
seen? There are still people lingering around the church, even at this time in
the morning. Angel, I have to go, there are still angels in there. I’ve gotten
them out of the north side, but that fire is tearing through the building.” He
disappeared, leaving me in the gym.

“Nyle, wait!” I cried, before the angel
could disappear from sight. He stopped and jogged back. “I need you to stay at
the door but direct the angels to the others as Cupid brings them out.”

“You’re not going in there?” he asked,
alarmed. “You can’t transport yourself like Cupid can.”

“No, I’m not,” I promised him.

I left him at the door and ran for the
side gate. I could hear the sirens in the distance, getting closer and I was
certain that Cupid would get the other angels out in time, but I had a nagging
feeling in my gut to check the building next to the church. I ran past the main
gates, already open for the fire department. The reason I had used the side
gate was because I didn’t want Joshua to see me, knowing he would follow me.
Thankfully, his attention, like the angels, was on the burning building.

I ran past, heading for St. Mary’s Church.
There was a small crowd opposite, staring up at the building. As they realized
the gate was open, they moved further down the street, looking for a better
view of what was going on behind the walls. I ignored them as I continued to
the shop next door.

I’d never been in the shop before, but I
did know that the old couple who ran it lived in the flat above. Thankfully,
they were standing in the doorway. “Is everyone alright in there?” the old lady
asked me.

“We will be,” I said, sighing in relief.
“I wanted to make sure you were out, just in case.”

“That’s very kind of you, dear,” her wife
said. “But you should go back and make sure everyone is out.”

“You two need to keep safe too,” I told
her.

“Don’t you worry about us,” the second
woman assured me as I started to make my way back.

I jogged, albeit with a limp, back to the
gate and did a quick headcount. We were up to twenty-six. Joshua was busy with
one of the angels who looked like he was struggling to get his coughing under
control. I knew the angels were all as hardy as me, and like me, they didn’t need
oxygen as much as a human, but examining some of the angels, it looked like
they had just stood in their rooms, staring at the smoke. Ugh, I hoped that
wasn’t the case.

I moved to one side, watching the fire. It
was concentrated in the corner of the convent which shared a wall with St
Mary’s. Even if the fire department arrived now, that corner was lost: the
flames were behind the upper windows. As I watched the reds and oranges
flickering behind the glass, the window exploded. “
Cupid, tell me you’re all
right in there!
” I demanded, automatically ducking at the bang.

“
Other end of the building. Two left.
”

I sighed, watching as some flaming fabric
– probably a curtain – fluttered to the ground, landing in front of the side
door of the church… the open door of the church.

It was three in the morning and that
building was supposed to be shut. The wall the convent shared with the church
was a thick brick one, but I could see the glow through the open door. The door
that shouldn’t have been open…. The fire engines were getting closer, taking
far too long to get here, and there was something that was telling me
someone
needed to go see what was in there.

“The roof!” someone yelled behind me.

I looked up and saw that the fire had
spread to the church roof. I needed to move, and I needed to move now.

I sprinted across through the garden,
forgetting that there was a crowd including humans, and ran straight into the church.

The smoke in here was thick – half of the
pews at the front, near the alter, were already on fire. The flames were
licking at the alter itself, and the glow was turning the once beautiful
ceiling mural of Mary ascending into heaven into something which looked like
her trying to escape a fiery hell.

I scanned the area, the smoke tickling at
my throat sending me into a coughing fit. For a moment I thought I had
overreacted, then I saw the girl. She didn’t look much older than sixteen,
although she was dressed like she was trying to get served in one of the bars
on Bourbon.

She was on the opposite side of the church
to me – the fire between us – but instead of trying to get out, she was just
sitting there, albeit, doubled over and coughing, like she was waiting for
someone. I didn’t think – I just leaped through the flames, ignoring the fire
as it seemed to grab at me. “What are you doing?” I demanded. Even as I
crouched in front of her, trying to get below the smoke, she just remained
where she was, coughing. “We need to get out of here,” I said, pulling her off
the pew and to the floor.

She looked at me then, tears streaming
down her face, although I couldn’t tell if they were due to the smoke or fear.
Judging from the way she yanked herself free of my hold, it could have been
insanity. “No!” she screamed. “If I leave, he won’t know how much I love him!”

“Are you kidding me?” I yelled at her,
before coughing.

Above me, something cracked. I looked up
and found the fire eating away at beams.

“He said that I had to prove my devotion!”
she shouted getting back up onto the pew.

“Your devotion is no good to anyone when
you’re dead,” I told her, pulling her back down.

“No!” she screamed again, clawing at my
face. Her nails raked at my cheek and I jerked back, just as one of the far
beams came crashing down behind us. The impact sent burning debris raining down
around us and we both screamed as it landed on us.

“Enough of this crap,” I roared, my back
felt like it was on fire, whereas the dagger against my bare leg felt like it
was branding me. Against her struggling, and not really caring enough at this
point if she was burned too, I picked her up and flung her over my shoulder.
The smoke, fire, debris, and her struggles made it almost impossible to move,
but I kept a firm grip and got us both to the far wall, following the end aisle
to the main doors. I could barely see and the smoke was so thick in my throat I
could hardly breathe. Knowing the door would be locked, with my free shoulder,
I launched myself at it, bursting out onto the street.