Page 14
CHAPTER 14
N ight had fallen by the time they returned to the mansion, which was filled with displaced angels. The east wing's marble floors were crowded with makeshift sleeping arrangements. Fear rolled off the fledglings in waves that made Amelia's heart ache. These young ones had never known anything but Heaven's perfect order. Now they huddled in small groups with their wings trembling as they processed the attack on their home.
"Here." She handed a cup of hot chocolate to one of the smallest angels. It was a female who couldn't have been more than a century old. "It helps with the shaking."
"Thank you." The fledgling's wings rustled as she accepted the drink. "Is... is Heaven going to be okay?"
"Of course it is." Amelia infused her voice with a confidence she didn't entirely feel. "The other archangels are already working to repair the damage. You'll be home before you know it."
"We need a better solution," Izzy muttered as she ran a hand through her hair. The Dark Warriors had transformed three entire floors into emergency celestial housing. Their resources were stretching thinner by the hour. "These kids need more than just beds and hot chocolate."
"They need stability," Rami agreed as he wrapped an arm around his charge’s shoulders. "And right now, that's in short supply."
"Between Heaven's foundations being shaken and Lucifer running loose down here?" Amelia shook her head. "Stability feels like a distant dream." She gave him a smile and made her way to the makeshift command center. The mansion's dining room was too crowded with angels to serve as their war room anymore.
Her muscles still ached from channeling so much power in Heaven. Their victory had come at a cost. Many had been lost, and Heaven's foundations had been shaken. And they now had an archangel on the loose. Who knew what chaos he would add to the mix.
Sarah looked up from an ancient text as Amelia entered. The bookstore owner's green eyes were rimmed with exhaustion, but her fingers never stopped turning pages. Abraxos hovered nearby. His back was stiff with tension as he stood guard. The warrior hadn't left her side since she'd started digging into her texts.
"I found something," Sarah announced without preamble. "But you're not going to like it."
The wards lit up like a Christmas tree on crack and stopped whatever else she was going to say. Magic slammed through the mansion's defenses with enough force to make the younger angels start screaming. Shit. Perfect timing for Heaven's most wanted to make his move.
"The Dark Warriors are reporting demon activity across the grid," Izzy said as she entered and went to the computer. Her fingers flew over the keyboard, her vampiric speed making them blur. "It's everywhere."
Amelia studied the pattern of activity, cursing under her breath. "The river. He's using the fucking Mississippi as his conduit."
"Rivers have always been doorways." Sarah's voice was grim as she clutched an ancient text. Abraxos loomed behind her like a wall of lethal intent. His massive frame was coiled tight. "The Mississippi's power... its spiritual significance..."
"Makes it one hell of a gateway." Amelia felt the Key at her throat start to burn as something massive stirred beneath the city. The French Quarter's historic streets trembled as shit began to crack. Time to rock and roll.
She grabbed her grandmother's spell book. Its pages whispered secrets. " Sarah, bring everything. We're gonna need it all ."
"The command center's mine." Izzy pulled up satellite feeds. "Warriors are moving into position."
The library doors exploded inward as Camael arrived in all his avenging angel glory. His ice-blue eyes locked onto Amelia. His white wings were spread wide enough to fill the doorway. "Lucifer's forces are converging."
"No shit, angel." She checked her arsenal. Each artifact from her grandmother's collection hummed with recognition. "Sarah found something that she’s going to share later. Right now, we need to hit the riverfront."
“Let’s go,” Camael said as he turned to go. Amelia hit the mansion's courtyard at a dead run. Her combat boots struck the pavers. In front of her, Camael's massive wings created shadows that danced across the wrought iron and brick like living things. The angel moved like sex and violence wrapped in a muscled package.
"Air or ground?" he demanded in a voice as rough as gravel.
"Air." She didn't break stride. "The faster we get there, the faster we can stop this shit show."
The angel's arms locked around her waist like steel bands. One powerful thrust of those midnight wings, and they were airborne. Before she could blink, the French Quarter sprawled beneath them like a war zone waiting to happen. The first sign of trouble came at Jackson Square.
A pack of lesser demons had cornered some tourists. They were all claws, fangs, and bad intentions. The Dark Warriors hit them like a SWAT team from hell. Black leather and sharp weapons made short work of the ugly bastards.
"This is just the appetizer," Amelia muttered as they soared over Decatur Street. "The main course is gonna be worse." She wasn't wrong.
Canal Street had become ground zero for supernatural warfare. Angels carved through demon ranks with flaming swords while Dark Warriors created kill zones with brutal efficiency. The Rowan sisters had set up on opposite corners. Their magic kept the humans inside and turned entire city blocks into demon purification zones. Their mates moved like shadows around them as they eliminated anything that got too close to their females.
Blood, ichor, and magic painted the pavement in abstract patterns of violence. The smell of sulfur and ozone hung thick in the air. It was punctuated by screams that were both human and decidedly not. "There!" Amelia pointed toward the riverfront as something massive shifted beneath the surface of the Mississippi. "I’m getting a real bad feeling about this."
Camael banked hard. His wings cut through the night as they approached the water's edge. The malevolence hit her like a physical blow. It made her magical core recoil in protest.
The Mississippi had gone darker than a demon's soul. Its waters moved with unnatural purpose. Things breached the surface that belonged in the deepest pit of Hell. They were twisted masses of eyes, teeth, and tentacles that made regular demons look like therapy pets.
"Well, shit." She checked her arsenal as Camael set them down near the water's edge. "Lucifer decided to bring out the collector's edition nasties."
Sarah's voice startled Amelia. Her head swiveled, and she saw the female safely behind Abraxos, her angelic shield. "I didn't get to tell you that he’s trying to restore pre-Creation chaos."
“Good to know,” Amelia called out as a wave of hellspawn hit them. Camael's Sword of Light carved through their ranks while his Angels of Retribution fought with desperate precision. Unfortunately, the corrupted river kept birthing more.
The thing that erupted from the Mississippi's depths next made Amelia's magical core do a hard reboot. Picture a great white shark after a nuclear accident and an orgy with a giant squid and Cthulhu's uglier cousin. Its primary body stretched longer than a city bus. It was covered in overlapping plates that looked like rotting iron mixed with decomposing flesh. Dozens of eyes blinked where a face should've been. Four massive tentacles, each studded with hooked barbs that dripped black ichor, whipped through the air while a forest of smaller ones writhed beneath.
A maw big enough to swallow a Hummer opened beneath those eyes. It was lined with row after circular row of teeth. They were all spinning in opposite directions like the world's most fucked-up garbage disposal. The stench coming off it was worse than the Quarter during Mardi Gras.
But the true horror was the way it moved. It was too fast and smart. Its attack on Sarah was precision-targeted chess while everyone else was playing checkers. Those tentacles came at her like guided missiles. They forced Abraxos into defensive positions while smaller demons – ones that looked like demented piranhas with way too many legs - shot past him toward her books.
"They're trying to destroy the knowledge!" Sarah's cry galvanized Amelia into action.
Power exploded from her hands as she channeled both light and shadow through her grandmother's crystal. The demons went up like flash paper. The cost of using so much was immediate. Blood ran from her nose like a faucet.
She couldn’t stop. She had to drive that thing back. Unleashing that power nearly broke her. Light and shadow poured through her like rivers of pure force. It took a major effort to remind the powers of their natural harmony. To her utter relief, the Mississippi began to clear as ancient power burned away Lucifer's influence. Demons caught in the wave transformed as their darkness found balance with light.
The last thing Amelia saw before consciousness fled was Camael's face. Pride and fear warred in those ice-blue eyes as she channeled power that should have burned her to ash. Then darkness took her, and she knew no more.