Reap & Redeem (31 page)

“Yes.”

“No!” Ruth screamed.

Camael pulled Maeve farther up, placing his mouth against hers in a grotesque kiss. Ruth wretched as Maeve’s body began to tremble and shudder. Camael’s host body crackled and desiccated even more as he forced his essence into Maeve’s body. Soon all that was left of his former host was dust, and Maeve tumbled to the ground.

Everything stilled. The chasm remained, but the screams had been silenced, replaced with low keening.

The sound of Ruth’s pulsating heart filled her ears as her vision coned to a pinpoint. She fought for consciousness while Maeve hunched on the floor silently for several long moments. Maeve reached back and pulled out her hair tie, letting her glistening black hair fall loose to the middle of her back. She rolled onto her heels and drew herself up from the floor.

But of course she wasn’t Maeve any longer.

Her hair swung over her shoulder and across her chest as she switched around to look at Ruth. A mocking smile broke out across her face, and her head cocked jerkily to the side as Camael adjusted to his new home.

The temperature plummeted in the room, and Maeve shimmered in front of Ruth, stepping into the void and dissolving into the ether. The chasm began to suck all the power and energy from the room behind her like a great vacuum. The door tore from its hinges and was pulled into the gorge, as were the remaining furniture and other accoutrements in the room. Ruth’s bed began to roll toward the abyss as well, and she scrambled to untangle herself from the coverings. She still wasn’t strong enough.

A brilliant white light filled the room, blinding her.

Her eyes shut tight against the glare, Ruth felt the bed roll to a stop and waited for the sickening, stomach-dropping fall into the abyss. When it didn’t happen, she opened her eyes to find an angel hovering over the chasm, blazing with light and dressed in full regalia, wings spread across the length of the room.

With a touch of the angel’s spear to the edge of the split, the chasm began to mend itself deep within the Earth, sealing the bottom of the crevasse but leaving five floors below them exposed.

Chaos shook the hospital corridors as hospital staff raced to evacuate the surviving patients.

Alarms rang throughout the building and an automated voice over the intercom directed a new message for the swift and orderly evacuation of the building along marked disaster routes.

“Who are you?” Ruth asked, pain overcoming her.

“Temperance.”

Ruth’s vision pinpricked to black.

Chapter Forty-Two

Nate and Bo flashed into a war zone. The hospital was bedlam. Not only was the floor where Ruth had been staying all but destroyed, but the hallway to her room was blocked by mangled concrete and steel. A twelve-foot fissure traversed the floor beneath them. Bocephus crouched near the edge of the crack and growled into the void.

Unease struck him like a sledgehammer. What if something horrible had happened to Ruth? Not only that, but Maeve was just…gone. His fragile connection to her from their energy share had been severed. Trying to make sense of the destruction, he searched for Ruth’s room number along the now-crooked wall. A white glow pulsated from the doorless entryway as he picked his path through the rubble.

Even though he was staring right at it, he couldn’t make sense of what he was looking at. At first he thought Grim had deigned to visit them, but then he realized that the angel before him was female.

Scary as hell, but definitely female.

When he approached the doorway, the angel raised her spear and pointed it at his chest. Nate couldn’t see past her wings to determine if Ruth was still in the room.

“Whoa, there. I’m a friend.”

“Temperance, no. Let him pass.”

“Ruth?”

The angel lowered her spear, although she didn’t seem too happy about it. Her wings stayed extended, flames licking from their feathery tips. Her wings were perhaps a bigger threat than the spear had been.

Slowly, hoping not to rile the angel, he entered the room, keeping to the edge, well away from her wings. The chasm still gaped open in the floor, but it was covered by a shimmering light. Nate took a tentative step onto the clear platform, and then crossed it to join Ruth.

“Nate,” Ruth whispered weakly from her bed.

“What happened, Ruth. Where’s Maeve? And who…or what is your new friend here?”

Ruth tried to sit up to talk to him, but the effort made her grimace in pain at the effort. Temperance growled a warning.

“No. Ruth. Stay put. Just tell me what happened.”

“Nate it was awful. Demons were everywhere. So many souls were torn free in the hospital.”

“And now? Can you still feel the departing souls? Are they gone?”

“They’re gone. They were taken after Camael…”

“Camael was here, too?”

“Nate, he took Maeve. No, not took her.
Possessed
her.”

Nate’s heart dropped into his stomach. Not. Possible. Maeve was the strongest woman he’d ever met. There was no way she’d fall prey to Camael. But the broken tether said otherwise.

“How is that possible, Ruth? He’s an angel, not a demon.”

“He’s an angel no longer.” Temperance offered. “When he fell, he lost his ability to maintain his angel form here on Earth. He requires a host, just as demons do.”

“It’s true,” Ruth said, “His host was disintegrating before our eyes, and he wanted a reaper. He wanted me, Nate. He thought I would acquiesce because I’m so injured, but Maeve…”

“Maeve saved you.”

“Yes. Camael threatened to open the portal and drop the entire hospital into the chasm. He was determined to leave with one of us. Maeve offered herself. But now? Oh, Nate. She’s not Maeve anymore.”

Ruth sobbed into the pillow and Nate took her hand in his own, trying to make sense of how this could have happened and what it meant for them all. Now that Camael had a reaper’s body, he’d have free reign on Earth. Nate couldn’t even imagine how much worse things could get in the coming days. If Camael had been limited to a quickly deteriorating host previously, he would be unstoppable as long as he possessed Maeve.

Temperance’s wings ignited in yellow and red flames. She spread them around Ruth’s bed as a commotion in the doorway drew her attention.

“What the hell is this?” Deacon’s voice bellowed from the hallway.

“That’s new.” Kylen offered.

“And it’s a chick.” Raguel chimed in.

Other familiar voices joined in the general melee.

“Temperance! Let them pass.” Ruth said.

Temperance extinguished the flames to a slow burn and tucked her wings in just enough to let the group of men pass. Nate had never been so glad to see a bunch of reapers as he was at that moment.

“We felt the pull. It was so strong we couldn’t ignore it. What happened? Are you okay, Ruth?” Deacon rushed over to her and carefully pulled her into his arms. Nate watched as he carefully clutched her hands in his and pushed his green healing light into her. The energy flowed up both of her arms until it reached her shoulders, and then he stopped the flow. With time, she would heal completely, but it would take longer than usual because she could only be given small amounts of energy at a time.

Ruth’s face smoothed, the lines of pain temporarily erased.

“Deacon, Camael has possessed Maeve. We need to find her. Now.” Nate turned to look at the Authority reapers. They were all present. Even Olivia. Tears were welling in her eyes, but she was trying to stay stoic.

“Unbelievable.” Kylen pulled Olivia closer. “And this?” He nodded toward Temperance.

“She’s my guardian angel. No. Not mine.” Ruth squeezed Deacon’s hand. “The baby’s guardian angel. She’s been sent to protect us.”

A great groan rose from the floor below them as the building’s supports began to give way under the strain. The floor shifted, pitching the reapers against the wall.

“We need to get Ruth out of here before this entire building collapses around us.” Deacon said.

“Agreed. Where do you want to take her?” Kylen asked.

“Home. I want to go home,” she said, her voice small.

“That’s going to be a problem, baby. The house is gone, Ruth. Camael burned it to the ground. It’s a long story. I’ll tell you all about it on the way to Oakland Hospital.”

“What do you want us to do, boss?” Ragu asked. “We dispatched a couple dozen demons between the six of us and cleaned up the mess. It was a busy night. When we got to the house, we didn’t know what to do. Everyone was gone, but since there weren’t any bodies or detached souls, we assumed you’d all turn up eventually. We were waiting there when we felt the pull and came right here. Say the word, and we’re on it.”

* * *

Kylen knew Deacon was itching to get Ruth to Oakland, and there was no reason he should bear the burden of their familiar details.

“Deacon, take Ruth. We’ll get things sorted out at home, and we’ll start fresh with our search tomorrow night. It’s dawn and the demons will be down for a while.”

Deacon nodded to him. “Thank you.”

“Bring Nate with you, too. He’s dead on his feet, and he could use the rest. And for God’s sake, take the mutt with you.”

Deacon turned to Nate. “Let’s go. We’ll find Maeve…soon. In fact, the way things have been going, I’m pretty sure she’ll find us. All we have to do is figure out how to free her. You and Ruth did it once, Nate. We’ll do it again.”

“We got this, boss. No worries,” Ragu said, and the reapers murmured assurances, too.

“Come, Bo.” Nate grabbed the scruff of the dog’s neck.

Deacon scooped Ruth into his arms and the three of them picked their way through the rubble and out of the hospital, Temperance following close behind.

* * *

The remaining reapers flashed back to Ruth’s property. Kylen debated whether he should have sent Olivia with the others, but there was no way he could willingly part from her again so soon…or maybe ever.

“Ragu, Samkiel, we need housing here. When Ruth comes back from the hospital, there needs to be a place for her to live. For all of us to live. I want six thirty-foot trailers circled end-to-end there before dark. Leo and Zak, you salt the ground within the circle of protection, and when Nate gets back, he’ll cast it again to include all of us. Dare and Oreo, you’re responsible for filling the trailers with all the household necessities.” Kylen turned to Olivia. “Can you help set up Deacon and Ruth’s trailer?”

“Of course.”

“The rest of you jokers are on your own. Outfit your trailers how you like, but keep the center of the circle clear. Any questions?”

“I have some clothes already packed up in my apartment that Ruth can probably wear. I was planning to give them away when I was…dying.” Olivia swallowed hard but then smiled up at Kylen, and he couldn’t help but kiss her.

So much for his tough-guy persona. One of the reapers whistled, and he broke free to pinpoint the culprit, but by then they were all whistling different tunes to protect the perpetrator. It was clearly an us-versus-them sort of thing. The new guys against the old. But the mood was lighter, and Kylen actually felt good to have a plan that didn’t involve fighting demons. Yet.

“Everyone have their marching orders?”

“Just sayin’, it would be nice to be able to communicate with each other directly rather than relying on dumb luck or random summons,” Oreo offered.

“Done. I’ll take care of communication while we’re in town today. You’ll all have a place to lay your head tonight. Let’s go.”

They flashed off to complete their various missions, leaving Kylen and Olivia alone in the ruin.

“Are you afraid?” Olivia asked.

“Only of losing you.”

“Can Maeve survive this?”

Kylen frowned and circled his arm around her waist, drawing her against him, the sun warm on his face. “I don’t know. I’ve never known of an angel, fallen or not, possessing a human. We’re in uncharted territory here.”

“But you’ll help her?”

“We all will.”

Epilogue

It turned out that Meridian was a spiritually porous city. Camael’s apparent ease in opening portal after portal was no accident—the town sat on a supernatural fault line, where the veil between the realms was at its thinnest. Now that the fallen angel had proven how effectively he could manipulate that weakness, the Authority was working feverishly to clean up the mess while Grim and Rashnu worked the problem from their own angles.

Camael was a busy, busy boy since inhabiting Maeve’s body. Uninhibited by the limitations of a human host body, he was now able to come and go from Hell as he pleased. New portals kept popping up like Starbucks, spewing forth demon after demon. Mercifully, none of them stayed open for long. Camael’s powers still weren’t strong enough to hold one open permanently.

As Kylen stepped into the Maple Park cemetery after yet another interminable night of hunting, he wondered how long it would be before the coming battle tore the city irreparably apart.

He flashed home.

The homestead was a respite from the chaos of the city. They had taken every precaution during the reconstruction, and with the newest wards and protections cast by Nate, the place was basically impenetrable. While before Ruth had originally been the main source of power for the circle of protection, now everyone who lived at the compound was part of the spell. With Temperance’s help, Nate had even secured it against the four elements. Deacon dubbed it the fortress of safety, but Kylen knew that no place was truly safe.

It had been two months since the small rock-sided house had burned to the ground. Still, their ramshackle reaper trailer park had a homey feel to it.

Each pair of reapers had their own shiny, bullet-shaped trailer, with a makeshift common area in the middle. Only Nate lived alone.

Deacon and Nate poured over blueprints and plans for the construction of a new house on the few nights they took off from hunting and destroying demons. It was still the dead of winter in the Midwest, though, and they couldn’t break ground until spring, a good four months away.

Despite their concentrated efforts, Maeve was as elusive as the wind. They’d tried to track her down as soon as they regrouped at home, but apparently Camael’s plans included keeping her out of their sight. Nate spent every night tracking Maeve with Bo. He’d become obsessed with the search.