Angels of War (Angels of War Trilogy Book 1) (35 page)

Maria held Daisy’s hand until her chest heaved. Her eyes lay still, her gaze lost in the universe beyond as all her blood drained from her neck. Maria leaned over Daisy Lane’s prone body and cried.
 

Daisy’s hand slipped from Maria’s grip, her body dropped towards the earth, vanishing from sight.

65

Okura loosed more arrows into the Black Army. He studied Temeculus as the battle din rose around him. He produced a dark smile once the general sent Black Angel with her cavalry racing to Denver.
 

The battle did not salve his broken spirit. His rage continued to burn against God and Joan for his dead family. Yes, he volunteered eons ago to fight. Those days sat lost in history.

Young and brash, he lived for the fight. Now older, he enjoyed the comfort his family gave him. He no longer considered mortals pets like God and Joan. She lost her family and never showed any emotion or anger for their deaths.

He remembered what he told Daisy Lane a few days ago. Make a decision in seven breaths. He stared at the impassive Temeculus across the chaotic battlefield. Okura made his decision and ordered his captain to take charge. He slipped away from the fight.
 

The other angels gave the enemy their complete attention and did not catch him leave his post and fly towards Denver to do his underhanded work.

Okura moved like a meteor. He headed for the Denver Bank and Trust company near the city center. High concrete walls surrounded the bank, with soldiers posted around the outside. He came through the glass skylight and landed in the lobby. Inside the bank lobby stood thirty Special Forces soldiers who recognized the angel covered in gore.

“Sir,” a soldier said. “I’m sorry, Joan gave us strict orders. No one is to enter the safe except for her or Daisy Lane.”

Okura frowned. “Are you going to stop me?”
 

The soldier blinked, his gaze wavered from the majestic being before him. “No. Nevertheless, I will inform Joan.”

Okura drew his katana. The sword gleamed from the sunlight filtering through the bank windows. He thought twice, replaced the silver steel, and struck the soldier with a closed fist, knocking him out. The other soldiers began firing at Okura. The angel decided not to kill them. He moved fast and knocked each soldier unconscious. Once finished, he stood in the silent lobby with the closed safe before him.

Okura approached the thick metal door. He stepped through steel eight feet thick and entered the well-lit room. Once inside, he realized no money filled the vault, but his priceless jewel sat in a corner with a book in hand.

Lucia closed the book. Perturbed, she stared up at Okura. “Where’s Joan?”

The angel stood over the Key, fists balled. His once white armor smeared in blood steamed from the overhead lights. He outstretched his left hand. “Come with me, Lucia. You’re needed at the back gate of Hell.”

Lucia blinked, her face darkened. “Not unless Joan or Daisy is taking me.”

Disappointed, Okura lowered his hand. The angel took two steps forward, backhanded the girl into unconsciousness, lifted her up and threw her over his muscled shoulder. He took flight through the roof and headed towards Hell’s back gate.
 

66

Joan remembered her many battles when she moved from life to life. This one upon the earth seemed her most violent. Her fights against humans presented one problem, yet a battle against the supernatural made warfare a gorier endeavor. They did not break and run when the situation became grim on their side.
 

To her left a Guardian drove his spear into a Roman monster’s chest, pinned him in place as another Guardian sliced off the Roman’s head. In turn, this same Guardian’s head jounced off his shoulders from an enemy’s blade.
 

As she studied the battlefield the situation for General Temeculus appeared dire, and this bode well for her. Maria pushed her company hard, and with Owen’s help, Temeculus’s troops fell into the vise. The Black Army funneled into the V as if eager to die. And die they did.

Joan swung her head from right to left. She searched for Daisy Lane. She glanced at Maria, and Maria’s sorrow filled countenance told her. Joan let loose a war cry and the army fought harder. More enemy bodies fell through the clouds to land on the earth below. Explosions rose from the fight in Denver. The army above tightened the vise to grind down Temeculus forces.

General Black kept his eyes on both battlefields, the one above him and the one on the ground to his front. The human enemy attacked in a mad mass and seemed intent to die. A-10 Warthogs destroyed the black painted tanks in the mountains. Their big guns and anti-air guns remained inaccurate, but caused casualties. The Black Army attacked without any strategy. The Stealth bombers pounded the enemy artillery pieces into silence.
 

“Sir, everything is okay so far,” Black said to President Wallace. He held his field glasses to his eyes and studied the battle in the skies. He spotted a black smudge against the clouds as if gnats swarmed toward the city. His stomach tensed. “Sir, check this out.”

President Wallace lifted his own glasses. “What is that, Gerald?”

General Black focused his glasses on the black cloud. He frowned once the cloud shifted towards his frontline. “Enemy cavalry. Get the troops out. Fall back into the city, fall back.”
 

Black Angel led her five hundred cavalry towards the frontlines. With her sword outstretched before her, she targeted the concrete and sandbag barricades. Her steed crashed through the heavy obstacles. Troops and masonry hurtled into the air in her wake as her cavalry followed close behind.
 

Black Angel locked her dark eyes on a frightened soldier. He fired bullets into her hellish frame. The rounds punctured her flesh and did not stop her. She plunged her sword through his chest and flung his dead body aside. Her troops followed up behind her, slaughtering their way along the streets headed into the city.

The American soldiers fought hard against the undead and their human followers. Dead bodies from both sides piled up along the entrenched lines as enemy soldiers broke into the human front.

President Wallace readied his weapon. His heart broke once his troops fled the frontline in retreat. Black pennants decorated with red pentagrams crested the American line. He stood his ground as his men made their escape. Jets started to bomb the embattled front, flying low to strafe the enemy. Several hundred human soldiers from the Black Army died. Still thousands more spilled over the line like crazed rats.
 

“My God,” Wallace said in a low voice. Heat from the explosions baked against his face. The tanks held their ground, firing rounds into the front entrenchments. The enemy cavalry charged forward undaunted, many leaping from their mounts to fight on foot. Some turned upon the tanks, ripping open their hatches to slaughter the tankers tucked inside.

67

Joan continued to cut her way through the horde until a huge hand seized her shoulder. The angel spun around to face Owen.

“Joan, we got a problem.”

Joan turned her eyes to Denver. Beneath her, Black Angel and her cavalry raced for the city. Her heart sank. She came so close to breaking General Temeculus’s army who started to crumble and run. She wanted to complete her vise. Black Angel’s unexpected move drew her away from the main battle.
 

“Maria, Juggernaut, and Owen, with me. To the second line of defense.” She turned to a captain who stood close by. “Captain Lu, stay here and continue to fight.”
 

Joan led her angels below. Captain Lu led the Guardians further into the fight and tore into the Black Army. The enemy started to retreat despite General Temeculus’s orders to stand and fight.

Joan rocketed to the earth and landed next to President Wallace and General Black. The two waited for all their troops to reach the second line.
 

President Wallace managed a tired smile. “Thank you, Joan.”

Joan nodded. “You and the general seek cover. We’ll hold them here long enough.” She glanced at the skies. To her satisfaction, the Black Army collapsed. Soon her blessed troops would turn towards the ground and stand next to the four other angels.
 

Joan realized Okura did not stand amongst them. The ground troops, bloodied and wounded, formed around her. Maria, Owen, and Juggernaut waited at her side as Black Angel cut a swath into the soldiers who continued to retreat. Owen readied his axes. Maria prepared her blade and Juggernaut held out his golden sword and shield.

Joan took a breath to steady her nerves. Black armored Romans headed towards their last defensive line. Outnumbered, but eager to fight until the end, the soldiers near her lifted their rifles. She cursed Okura under her breath.
 

“We stand here. They cannot get into the city.” Joan projected her voice for everyone to catch her words above the chaos.

Maria set her face firm. “I’ll meet you in Heaven, Joan.”

Joan smiled at her. “Not yet.”
 

Half a mile before the combatants, Black Angel charged her cavalry ahead. Both monsters and black clad humans armed with rifles raced towards the second line. The angels and soldiers lifted their weapons. Joan prayed and asked God to grant her the strength to fight them all.
 

Above her, the Guardians headed towards Joan in an attempt to reach her before Black Angel reached the line. Temeculus broken army stopped in midair, reformed, and headed towards the city.
 

“Steady,” Joan said.
 

The enemy neared the second line. Their warhorse’s hooves beat against solid ground, the earth trembled. Her lips pressed together in focus. General Temeculus fled from his army and raced for earth. Fire burned from his chariot wheels as he headed away from Highway 70 and towards the Garden of Angels.
 

Joan prayed for strength to defeat the combined evil they stared down. General Temeculus trapped her, knowing she would never abandon Denver while under attack. “Remember we hold them here. They get no further than us.”
 

In the sky, her Guardian cavalry drove into Temeculus’s army and thwarted their supportive attack. The action brought a smile to her face.
 

Joan braced herself. Black Angel lifted her sword and twirled the rusty blade above her head. Both undead Romans and their human comrades spread out to overlap Joan’s defensive line on the flanks. Joan raised her sword, dust rose behind the foe. She spotted their faces twisted in hate.
 

Black Angel sent out a war cry. Her black stallion plowed ahead. Fifty yards left, the space between the two armies shrank.
 

Maria sprinted from the line and into the empty space between both armies. She angled her weapon and cut the legs from underneath the beast Black Angel rode. Horse and rider plowed into the ground. Guardians and regular army troops attacked to meet the foe. They clamored upon Black Angel’s Hell born warhorse, plunging their swords and bayonets into the four-legged monster from Hell. The beast kicked and screamed. The battle rose to a heightened pitch.

Maria drove her sword into Black Angel’s back before she regained her feet. The angel withdrew her beautiful blade and hacked off the she-devil’s head. The battle turned ferocious. Romans and humans dressed in black pushed into her. They died for their weak efforts.

Owen worked his double axes fast and hard, yet he found the task to crush them almost impossible. Enemy soldiers closed in on them, a circle. They meant to destroy the embattled fighters. “Fight all of you. Fight.”

Juggernaut did his best. He slammed his shield into bodies, cut the enemy down from all positions, but they kept on in an almost endless wave. He fought hard as the human soldiers at his side fought with the zeal and energy he thought first impossible. Soon the entire army moved into a back-to-back fight.
 

Joan moved her head at a high speed and killed at the same momentum. She cut down hundreds. Bodies piled at her feet. The ground became slick with blood and viscera, the air around them filled with a bloody mist. Still she fought on as the combatants slipped and fell into the red slurry and filth upon the ground.

Joan focused on the fight. She set her mind no longer on her enemy’s defeat. They needed to break and push them away. Weapons lifted and lowered, the battle’s clamor grew until a deep throb beat at her temples.
 

The Guardians defeated the Black Army in the sky and swarmed into the fray from above. Several thousand humans and the undead alike died from their blades. The enemy still outnumbered them despite the Guardian’s heroic efforts.
 

Joan cleared her mind. Fear, pain, anger, all evaporated as she cut into one body and the next like an overworked butcher. The enemy army pressed on, dark banners drew closer. The screams began to lower in decibels. Joan sent off another war cry to rally her troops, to hold off the foe and kill them all before they overran their position.
 

68

In heaven, the archangel Michael frowned in dismay at the battle beneath his gaze. He stood helpless as the Black Army surrounded Joan and her Guardians. His right hand tightened on his sword hilt. He lowered his head and closed his eyes. When he opened them, the Guardians still fought hard against the enemy.

A slender figure approached God’s throne. She wore her battle armor with no wings upon her back. The figure fell to her knees before the throne.

Daisy Lane closed her eyes. “Please forgive me, Jehovah. I squandered my talents.”

Michael stepped forward and touched Daisy Lane on the shoulder. “Rise, angel.”

Daisy Lane rose to her feet. “We are fighting hard, Jehovah. But we need help, please help us.”

Michael turned to God who remained on his throne. “Please.”

Jehovah delivered Michael a slight nod.

Daisy Lane smiled. Tears spilled from her eyes, wings grew upon her back. “Thank you, Lord.”