Hunted tgl-3 (35 page)

I spied Dante and grinned. He caught several demons with lightning bolts, coming to Sykes’ aid without him even knowing it. Sykes was busy having fun throwing ninja stars, his grin deliciously devilish. On the floor to my left, Remy and Kael stood back to back, taking on four demons. I couldn’t see Izzy or Lunaris, but Solaris was unstoppable with her lethal whip, the metal tip sailing through the air and slicing demons in half.

Someone landed on me, knocking me down and causing me to lose hold of my knife. I flung them aside and jumped up, tripping over demons in costumes. Looking at their wizened faces, realization hit me like a ton of bricks—Solange was using the Athame. The zombified demons on the stairs made sense.

An older demon blocked me. He winced with pain, but still moved closer. “Your father needs you, Lilith,” he begged. “Only you can help him.”

“No one told him to come back from Tartarus,” I retorted.

“He didn’t ask to be brought back. Bring her to the island,” he added.

He teleported just as an arrow pierced my left side, I sucked in a painful breath. Numbness spread on that side of my body as I searched for the demon that had attacked me. I found her reloading her crossbow.

I didn’t stop to think. I just reacted and willed lightning bolts, vaporizing her on the spot.

Bran appeared beside me.
You okay?

I could be better
. Biting my lower lip, I grabbed the shaft and yanked it out.

How bad is it?
he asked.

It’s already healing. Watch your back
.

He turned and rejoined the battle. My side hurt, but now wasn’t time to cry or complain. Not using our powers sucked, but our bodies could still self-heal. The numbness was already fading away, my wound healing faster because of the Kris Dagger’s powers.

A loud cackle came from the top of the stairs and I turned. Solange had her dagger pointed at the remaining half-dozen demons, red light streaming from their eyes to the tip of the dagger. Once again, ghastly memories flashed through my head—Coronis draining Bran and my friends with the same Athame before we killed her.

I sent the knife I’d dropped toward Solange. She dissolved into smoke and floated away. The blade flew back to my hand as drained demons rolled down the stairs, some of them still alive, their sunken eyes following me and begging me to end their misery.

“Sorry, can’t help.” Not without using my powers again. I kept an eye out for Solange. She materialized near the rail several floors up. I followed.

“Come on, little sis,” she mocked when I rematerialized. “Pull out the Kris Dagger and fight me.”

“That’s too easy. You’ll be dead in seconds.” I had to catch her off-guard and set the trap. “Take a whack at me. I know you’d like nothing better than to punish me for being Daddy’s favorite,” I laid it on thick.

Her eyes narrowed.

“I’ll give you the dagger if you beat me,” I added.

“I’ll just take it after I beat the crap out of you,” she bragged, then shoved the Athame in its sheath. “I’ve wanted to do this for sixteen years.”

She rushed me, throwing a punch. I feinted to the right, swung and aimed for her ribs. I got a solid hit, but she didn’t even flinch. Her grin widened as though pain was her source of pleasure.

“You’ll have to do better than that, little sis,” she mocked and came at me with a kick, her movement so fast she was a blur.

I teleported out of the way, causing her to lose her balance. Reappearing behind her, I brought my elbow down hard on her back. She went down on one knee and shifted into smoke.

“Not bad,” she said when she rematerialized.

“How about not shape-shifting?” I dared her.

“If you swear not to teleport,” she retorted and lunged at me again.

I met her, trading blows, kicks and jabs. She was fast, but I was better trained. I caught her with a roundhouse kick, the force whipping her around and causing her to lose her balance again. She broke her fall and came back swinging, catching me on the still-healing spot the arrow had hit. I hissed at the pain and staggered back.

Laughing gleefully, she launched herself at me again. I side-stepped, grabbed her arm and used her weight against her, sending her flying over my head. Instead of going down, she flipped over like a gymnast and landed in a crouching position, then came at me low, barreling into my stomach.

I brought my elbow down on her back, but the effort was lost when we both went down, arms and legs tangled. She got some lucky hits before I flipped her and pressed my elbow against her neck. I reached for the crystals to trap her.

She cheated and shifted into smoke form, leaving me on all fours before she aimed a vicious kick on my side. I hissed at the pain, sure she’d cracked ribs.

A hand yanked me from the floor as though I weighed nothing. Solange laughed and dissolved into smoke form. I twisted, ready to fight my captor, and gulped. “Grampa?”

He scowled. “Stop wasting time. Finish with her and get out of here,” he ordered. “We have the situation under control.”

My mouth opened and closed, but I didn’t ask the questions that burned the tip of my tongue. How had they found us? Was he angry we’d disobeyed them again? Too late—he was already gone.

I got to my feet. While Solange and I had been making up for missed years of sibling rivalry, I had forgotten about the other Cardinals. The battle had taken on a new intensity. Lord Gabreel and his followers had abandoned their home, leaving behind their mummified friends on the stairs. Solange’s demons had changed to their real forms—hairy or scaly faces, horns and tails, fangs and rows of shark-like teeth. Nephilim powers were enhanced when they took their real shapes.

Solange surprised me, landing a blow on my chest and slamming me against the rail. Grampa was right. This was no time for games. I got inside her head before she realized my intention.

Sit down
. Her legs folded and she dropped on the floor.

“That’s cheating,” she screeched.

“So did you.” I removed the crystals from my pocket, then, with a flick of my fingers, placed them around her. Light shot out and curved above her head, creating a cage.

Solange sneered. “I’ll never tell you where our father and Kim are.”

“I already know. What is it with you demons and islands? Can’t stand living among humans?”

“Not when we can’t rule the…” Her voice trailed off and her eyes widened.

I turned to see what had her eyes wide with fear and my heart sank. “The archangels,” I whispered.

Lightning flashed around the court, the surge of power knocking me backward. I skidded on the floor until my back slammed against the wall. The floor shook and a continuously fizzing, brittle sound came from behind me.

I turned to see fissures race across the glass wall and teleported out of the way, but there was no place to hide. Shards of glass rained down on us. Lights went out, leaving the angelic lightning as our only source of light.

Panic and chaos followed as the archangels swooped down the tenstory foyer, their wings causing a gale, swords gleaming under the flashing lights and reflecting their emotionless, perfect faces. How could beings so beautiful be so vicious?

“
Thanks for this,” Solange said. The windstorm created by the archangels’ wings had knocked away the crystals and released her from the trap. She shoved the Kris Dagger in a pouch with weird markings. I’d first seen that bag with Valafar the night I recovered the dagger. “It even allowed me to hold it. Should be easy to control.”

She teleported before I could lock on the dagger. I searched for her, but it was impossible to see in the jarring flashes of lightning. It was worse than being on a dance floor with strobe lights.

Above, the sizzling clouds covering the ceiling formed an impenetrable barrier. Demons stupid enough to brave it came back down charbroiled. Below, some covered their ears to block the sound, not understanding the archangels were already inside their heads and what they were hearing didn’t come from outside. Others screamed in terror, not realizing the scenes playing in front of them were false.

Solange wasn’t going anywhere. The trick was to find her before Raphael found me.

Remember, don’t let them inside your heads
, Grampa’s voice rang in my head, but I knew he was reminding all Guardians to have reruns of their happiest moments. It also meant minimal telepathic communication. The archangels could use the link to get inside heads.

Heart pounding, I tried to find Grampa. The archangels had a glow around them, which helped pinpoint their locations. Bran and the other flyers were in the air, battling several of them. I counted at least a dozen more hacking down demons and Guardians like they were weeds, not caring who they killed.

Screams of death filled the air, the demons’ burning bodies mixing with flashes of light as Guardians died. How many would ascend? Or were they doomed to end up in Tartarus because they had gone against the archangels?

I spied Solange drifting toward the ballroom. I teleported after her, delaying my reappearance until I saw her aura. She wasn’t alone.

There’s a secret passage behind this wall
, she telepathed her partner.
We can use it to avoid the archangels’ shield
.

Are sure you have the right dagger?
someone asked.

I recognized the voice of the old man who’d begged me to help my father.

Yes. See?
The pure energy of the Kris Dagger appeared as Solange pulled it out of the bag with demonic writings. I locked on it and willed it to fly to my hand as I rematerialized.

Solange and her friend whipped around, but the dagger was already bonding with me, the writings appearing like slithering snakes on the blade. In the darkness, my skin glowed, the writing coiling and gliding. I didn’t have to look in the mirror to know my eyes were glowing too.

“I told you, the dagger belongs to me,” I snarled in a voice I didn’t recognize.

“Lilith, your father—”

The old man didn’t finish his words. A thud came from behind me and I whipped around. Raphael. He couldn’t even give me a moment to savor outsmarting my evil sister. Big sparkly wings outstretched, cold eyes narrowed, he sauntered toward us like he knew he had already won.

Mewling sounds came from behind me. I turned to find Solange and the older demon on their knees, gripping their heads. Then they dropped like sacks of potatoes.
Call for backup
, the irrational part of my brain screamed, but telepathy wasn’t an option. Besides, I had trained to take this bastard down.

Instead of panic, an eerie calmness settled on me. I assumed a fighting stance and waved the dagger. Compared to his sword, which he hadn’t bothered to draw, my weapon was puny, but it glowed with the brilliance of stars.

“So, how do you want to play this?” I said, going for cocky and liking how calm and confident I sounded. “My head on the guillotine?”

Surprise flickered in his eyes. “That would be nice, but since we don’t have one, why not just come with me?”

I laughed. “Right. Like, I’m not going to make this easy for you.”

He scowled. “I’m trying to avoid fighting you, Lilith.”

“Why? Scared?”

“If you give up, my warriors will stop killing yours.”

I considered the offer for about a second. “Sorry, but if I die, and that is a big if, I want to go down like a Cardinal Guardian. Fighting.”

“Silly girl.” He pulled out his sword. It was huge, light bouncing off its blade like stars. He moved closer. I shuffled backward, searching for an opportunity.

“Do you think you stand a chance against me?”

“Hmm, let me think. Me and my dagger against your sword and those deadly wings, I think we are about even.”

He moved so fast, the sword arcing toward my neck before I raised my dagger. I barely managed to teleport out of the way.

“Do you know how many battles I’ve waged this millennium alone?” he asked.

“If you feel you have to brag…”

He rushed me again, moving so fast he was blurry, but I was ready. I pointed the dagger and blasted him. The force propelled him backwards, the look of utter disbelief on his face comical.

I grinned. “You thought you neutralized the only weapon that can send you back home.”

Lightning bolts shot from somewhere near him and singed the air as they raced toward me. I battled bolts with bolts, causing the room to light up like fireworks. Temporarily blinded, I felt rather than saw him move and teleported. Slowing down, I watched him move around in circles, searching for me. It wouldn’t be long before he sensed my energy.

I rematerialized behind him and brought the dagger down on his back, aiming for the base of his right wing. The dagger cut deep. Instead of blood, light poured out of the wound, blinding me.

Next thing I knew, his other wing slammed into me like a ton of bricks and sent me flying across the room. I hit the table, pain radiating up my side. I scrambled to my feet and searched for my dagger.

“You dared to cut my wing?” he bellowed.

Where was my dagger?

He closed in on me. I zapped him with bolts of lightning but they bounced off him like ping-pong balls off a table. He had a shield protecting him.
Now, Goddess. If I’m meant to be your vessel, use me now
.

Instead of the Goddess, Remy appeared beside me and shoved a sword into my hand.

“Find Grampa,” I told him.

“No, I’m not leaving you with him.”

Raphael swung his sword wide arc and brought it down fast. Remy blocked and turned, but the archangel had already disengaged his blade and attacked again. I came at him from the other side, but he was fast and a better fighter than both of us put together. Nothing we did seemed to slow him down. In fact, I had a feeling he was toying with us.

Remy swore. “Damn, he moves like…,”

“A dancer,” I griped.

“Like his sword is a freaking extension of his arm,” Remy said.

“Starting the party without me?” Sykes asked, appearing behind the archangel.

Raphael smiled without looking his way. It was a cold smile. Cruel. Mean. “No, waiting so I can to dispatch all of you to Tartarus with one blow.”

“We don’t go to Tartarus, bonehead,” Sykes said.

While Remy kept him busy, his sword changing shape every few seconds, I slammed the archangel’s right side with lightning bolts while Sykes pelted him from the other side with energy balls. The bolts and energy balls didn’t hurt him, and I realized why. His wings were wrapped tight around him and acted like a shield. They were protecting him.

Remy noticed too and upped the ante of the attack, hoping to give me an opening, but he miscalculated. Raphael turned, his injured wing slanting at a weird angle. The tips caught Remy across the chest and he went down, bleeding.

Remy!
I yelled, becoming distracted. I felt rather than saw the wing move toward me. It caught me across my arm before I teleported out of the way, leaving behind a nasty wound.

Pissed, I telekinetically lifted Remy’s sword and mine and continued to attack Raphael. At the same time, I tried to zap him again. He redirected my lightning bolt toward Sykes. The force threw Sykes across the room, where he hit the wall and came crashing down with a sickening thud. If the fall hadn’t kill him, I was afraid that the burn from the light had.

“If you killed them…,” I warned, lifting my hands.

“It will be your fault,” Raphael said. “I gave you an offer, which you turned down. Now, it’s just you and me. No more of your friends to distract me.”

“That’s where you are wrong, Raphael,” Grampa said from the doorway and he wasn’t alone. Bran was beside him. Both of them had bruises on their faces and torn coats. “It’s over. Stand down.”

“I have my orders,” Raphael said.

“We’re summoning the Tribunal. You and your warriors must stand down.”

“Until I receive different orders…”

Grampa and Bran teleported at the same time. They reappeared behind Raphael, each of them grabbing a wing. Raphael tried to shake them off, his wings whipping up and down, left and right, but his injured wing slowed him down.

“Now, Lil,” Grampa yelled.

I willed all my power, mine and the Kris Dagger’s, from deep inside me. Heat rose and suffused my body. My body tingled and started to glow. Not just my arms. My whole body. I raised my arms, redirecting the powers. Above the glow, my eyes met Raphael’s. He couldn’t protect himself with his wings trapped. Fury distorted his flawless face as a flood of bright light shot out of my hand and hit him square in the chest.

“You are going to wish you agreed to our deal, young Guardian,” the archangel bellowed just before he exploded.

The force flung me across the room. Disoriented, my ears ringing, I just lay there, waiting for my breathing to slow down, wondering how many bones I’d broken. My body felt like I’d been stepped on by an elephant.

Slowly, the pain ebbed. Were Grampa and Bran okay?

I turned my head and saw Bran getting up, his back feathers singed and reduced to stubs. Grampa, already standing, offered him a hand, and the two walked toward me. The lights were back on, the broken bulbs repaired. Way to go, Earth Guardians.

I sat up and grinned. It was over. We had won.

“Stop whining. You’ll both be fine,” Cardinal Hsia’s voice reached me and I turned.

She held a hand over Remy, sparks leaping from her palm to his chest, and the other over Sykes. Remy was busy grimacing at the gaping wound on his chest, but Sykes smirked when our gazes connected. I looked at his chest and my stomach roiled. His entire upper torso had deep burns. It was hard to tell where his singed clothes ended and his charred skin began. Still, I was relieved they were okay. I looked at my arm. The wound inflicted by the archangel’s wing was already healed.

How many Guardians had survived?

“They’re not going anywhere,” Izzy said, and once again I turned and sighed with relief. Her face and hair were a mess, but she didn’t appear injured. Then again, as a healer, she self-healed faster than most Guardians. She and Solaris were setting crystals around Solange and her minion. “You can interrogate them now.”

“Are you okay?” Grampa asked.

I stood and hugged him tight, tears stinging my eyes. Bran gripped my hand, his emerald eyes searching my face for visible signs of pain or maybe he was worried about the archangel’s threat. Raphael’s words still rang in my ears, but I didn’t want to think about them. We’d won, and that was all that mattered.

“Are we really going to summon the Tribunal?” I asked.

Grampa stepped back and patted my cheek. “We have to, because Raphael will keep this up until he accomplishes his mission.”

“Which means he’ll bring back more archangels,” I said, feeling tired just thinking about fighting him again. We had barely managed to send him and his tribe home.

Grampa nodded. “And we’ll keep fighting them. You did great tonight, but you should have contacted us as soon as Raphael cornered you. We were searching for you when we heard his bellow.” Grampa shook his head and chuckled. “You nearly chopped off one of his wings.”

Nearly wasn’t good enough. “What happened to his warriors?”

“We clipped a few wings, injured some.”

“How many did we lose? Will they ascend?”

Grampa’s expression grew sober. “Quite a few, mostly SGs, a few Cardinals. And yes, they will ascend, but we are more united now than we’ve ever been. Guardians. Demons. Neutrals. All fighting to protect you. When the archangels come back, we’ll be ready for them. In the meantime, help your friends, then join us. We must start the summoning. Solaris, we’ll get all the information from those two later.” Grampa teleported.

Left with Bran, I studied the bruises on his face, his wings. I reached up and touched the cut on his forehead. The bruised skin disappeared.

“Your wings,” I mumbled, touching a stubby feather. It slowly filled out.

He gripped my hand, then placed it on his cheek, his gaze on my face. “My wings will be okay. Why didn’t you telepath me when he attacked?”

“You were busy and I didn’t want you distracted.”

“Come on, Lil,” Cardinal Hsia called out. “We are only four healers and there are many Guardians with more serious injuries than Bran. Finish with these two. Izzy, come with me.”

I rolled my eyes. “We just sent an archangel and his warriors home,” I whispered. “You’d think we’d have a hero’s moment.”

Bran laughed, cupped my face and gave me a sweet, but oh so brief kiss. “We’ll have our moment after this. What deal was Raphael talking about?” he asked as we walked toward the others.

“He’d asked me to surrender and his warriors would spare the Guardians. Maybe I should have.”

“You heard your grandfather; they’ll ascend, and we are more united than before. Tonight we fought as Nephilim against a common enemy. The Brotherhood, Dante and his nature-bender friends, Lottius and her demons were all united because of you.”

And so many were dead too, because of me. “But when the archangels come back—”

“We will fight them again. No one is surrendering. Where’s your dagger?”

I looked around. “It’s in here somewhere, but it’s only active when I touch it.”

“I’ll find it.” Bran ran his knuckles along my jaw. “Don’t ever think of surrendering. You wouldn’t want to leave me behind, would you?”