Armageddon (31 page)

The Custodian cried out. Tongues of flame jumped from his armored body as he lifted his burning sword and spread wide his white, speckled wings, leaping into the air.

The Void Angels recoiled, screeching in surprise, each taking off in pursuit of the Nephilim caretaker.

The Custodian quickly changed his course to attack the Void Angels with renewed vigor. But his rally was to be short-lived. He was outnumbered and the Void Angels fought viciously, raking and tearing away pieces of his armor.

Melissa heard Cameron gasp beside her, and shared his horror as they viewed the old angel plummeting to the ground, crashing violently upon the stone floor.

The Void Angels cackled, dropping down from the air to finish what they had started.

“Get up!” Cameron cried. Once again, he attempted to escape the netting, but did not have the strength.

The Custodian lay still as the Void Angels casually sauntered closer.

“First we kill the old angel,” William stated. “And then we deal with our friends in the net.” He gestured toward them with a clawed hand. Melissa was disgusted by the ribbons of bloody skin that hung from his razor-sharp fingertips.

“I think we should take our time with them,” Kirk said, “seeing as they’re pretty much helpless.”

“Helpless is just how I like my prey,” Russell added. “You can be really creative then.”

Melissa noticed the Custodian move.

“Get up!” she screamed. “Get up or you’re dead for sure—we’re all dead for sure!”

The old angel’s eyes flickered and his body tensed.

The Void Angels were almost upon him.

Suddenly, he bolted up from the ground with a grunt, his wings flapping pathetically as he charged haphazardly forward. One of his wings was badly broken, and Melissa was stunned by the amount of blood that had pooled beneath him.

“Get him!” William screeched.

The Custodian was almost at the net covering Melissa and Cameron, when Russell, Kirk, and Samantha jumped him,
their claws mercilessly slashing at what was left of his armor and his flesh beneath.

He did not scream as they tore him apart. So lost were the dark angels in their vicious work that they did not notice the Custodian extending his arm toward the golden netting.

Melissa held her breath, watching as the angel’s fingertips brushed against the woven strands of fire. The netting evaporated in a rush of air.

The Void Angels stopped their savage attack on the ancient sentry as Melissa jumped to her feet, feeling her strength return. She glanced to her left to see that Cameron had recovered as well and was ready for a fight.

“Oh poo,” Russell said, disappointed. “I was looking forward to making Melissa scream while Cameron watched.”

“Do you want to hear me scream?” Melissa asked Cameron, her eyes locked upon the Void Angels as William joined them.

“Not really,” Cameron said. “Laughing would be good. Screaming I could live without.”

“How about these guys, though?” she asked, gesturing toward the Void Angels with her chin. “Any interest in hearing them scream?” A sword of fire ignited in her hand.

Cameron paused for a second, and smiled cockily. “Now that you mention it.”

The Nephilim attacked, remembering their extensive combat training from the likes of Aaron, Vilma, Verchiel, and the Morningstar. They were perfect together, one’s attacks
complementing the other’s. It was like a force of many as they leaped and spun in the air, their swords of fire putting the hideous shadows of their deceased friends on the offensive.

Melissa and Cameron were a sight to behold, and would have made their teachers proud.

Back to back they paused, their breath coming in short gasps as they assessed their situation.

The Void Angels had been driven back toward the entrance, but they suddenly darted off, each in a separate direction, disappearing into the shadows.

“I don’t like that much,” Melissa said.

“Not crazy about it myself,” Cameron agreed.

Darkness spread like a living cloud, swallowing up the light as it flowed toward them like water across the floor.

“Must be one of their nasty little tricks,” Melissa said.

“Shadows don’t like light,” Cameron stated, and she noticed that his sword had brightened and his skin had taken on a luminescence as well.

She too focused her inner divinity on her weapon and her body.

The two of them together, glowing like a star.

Darkness oozed around them, trying to smother their divine light. Walls of shadow built around them, and Melissa felt Cameron tense at her back.

“I think something’s about to—,” he began, but stopped as the Void Angels exploded from their curtain of concealment.

Without another word, the two Nephilim lunged at the shadows, plunging into its cold embrace.

It’s like being underwater,
Melissa thought, the darkness attempting to force its way into her mouth. But she would not stand for it, willing herself to burn all the brighter, as she hacked and slashed with her weapon of flame.

She could sense the Void Angels swimming in the shadows like sharks. Holding her blade close to her face, she waited for the inevitable.

It was two-pronged—Samantha coming from the right, and Kirk from above and to the left. Their claws slashed at her, and she replied in kind, swinging her sword with all her might. The Void Angels screamed their rage at her, furious that she would not submit to their violent intentions.

Then their attacks suddenly ceased. The darkness continued to flow about her like the thickest of fogs, and she spun slowly, ready to strike at whatever came at her.

In the light of her sword she caught a glimpse of something that turned her blood to ice. The four Void Angels were preparing to converge on Cameron.

“Cameron!” she cried out. “You’re surrounded!”

Melissa threw herself into the black, thrusting her sword out before her in an attempt to reach her friend before their enemies.

Screams rang out close by, but she could not find her friend. Panic gripped her. She willed her body to burn, brighter and
brighter still, but it wasn’t enough. Cameron was still hidden in the darkness.

Then Melissa stopped. She turned her sword in her hands so its point was toward the ground. She lifted it high and, with all her strength, plunged it down into the rock.

The chamber was filled with an explosion of absolute brilliance. Divine radiance overwhelmed the shadow with its holy purity.

The Void Angels wailed, recoiling from Cameron’s limp form. Melissa was already diving across the expanse of space to get to her friend.

Kneeling down beside him, she quickly assessed his situation. His clothing was torn and he was bleeding, but none of his injuries appeared to be fatal.

But she knew that could change in an instant, for shadows were already beginning to swirl and coalesce in the chamber.

Cameron moaned as she helped him to his feet.

“We need to find someplace where we can hold them off,” she said.

Laughter echoed from the stone walls, as the Void Angels reappeared.

Melissa tried to maneuver away from their advancing foes, Cameron leaning heavily on her.

“Leave me here,” he grumbled, attempting to free himself from her support. “Get to the back. Gotta be a place there for you to fight them off.”

“Not a chance,” Melissa said. “We’re in this together, or not at all.”

He looked at her, his dark eyes attempting to focus on hers.

“Besides, we’re a mated pair.” She winked at him, then created a particularly nasty-looking sword of holy fire in her hand.

The Void Angels were closer now.

“Tell you what,” William began, his voice dripping with malice. “We’ll kill you quickly, and then I’ll put a special request in to the master for you to join my team.”

Cameron managed to hold on to his balance, calling upon his own weapon.

“You all right?” Melissa asked, not taking her eyes from their enemies.

“To take care of these punks?” he returned, trying to sound confident. “Absolutely.”

The air crackled with electric anticipation; a powerful storm of chaos about to break.

Then the chamber shook violently, and a nearly deafening hissing sound came from behind them.

Melissa spun around to see what new threat was at her back.

A thick cloud of rolling white mist billowed toward them, and within the mist moved something—a great many somethings.

A ragged and bloody Custodian stumbled out from the mist.

“What did you do?” Melissa asked, suspecting the truth, and finding herself suddenly terrified.

“Thought we could use some help,” the old angel wheezed.

Nephilim—more than Melissa had ever seen before in one place—emerged from the fog, each and every one clutching a weapon of fire.

And looking very, very angry.

*   *   *

Aaron never again wanted to see such a look in his lover’s eyes.

“What does that mean?” she was asking him, a hint of hysteria in her tone.

“It means that I’d be the Metatron,” he said flatly. “The personification of God’s power on earth. I’d be able to set things right.”

“You hope,” Taylor interjected, also disapproving of Aaron’s decision.

“And once things are set right?” Vilma probed.

Aaron was silent, not sure what would follow after he assumed the guise of the Metatron.

“You don’t know,” Vilma answered her own question. “You’re planning to take this power into yourself, fix the world’s problems, and you have no idea what it means for you—for us.”

“Vilma, please,” Aaron said. He reached out to her, but she pulled away.

She might as well have stabbed him.

“I don’t have any choice.”

“There’s always a choice,” Taylor countered.

“Look me in the eye and tell me there’s a genuine alternative,” Aaron said, fixing his mother with a steely gaze.

She met his eyes, but quickly looked away. “I haven’t waited all these years to have you in my life, only to lose you,” she said, folding her arms across her chest.

Vilma moved over and put her arm around the woman’s shoulders.

At any other time, Aaron would have been thrilled to see his girlfriend and his mother getting along so well, but now he was just annoyed, for he knew he wouldn’t get anywhere arguing with either.

Gabriel had been strangely silent, lying on the floor, watching the entire discussion, and Aaron turned to him, hoping for some support. “What do you think?”

Gabriel pondered the question before answering. “Maybe we should ask Dusty,” he suggested.

From what Aaron could gather, something had happened to Dusty back at the school after his encounter with the Abomination of Desolation’s exploding sword.

Something about being able to see multiple aspects of the future.

Dusty had gone off with Mallus and the Unforgiven to prepare a place for the transference. There was no doubt as to what they and Levi believed should be done.

“Maybe we should,” Aaron agreed, looking over to his mother and Vilma to see if that might satisfy them.

They just stared back at him with disappointment in their eyes.

Gabriel stood and walked to the office door before turning back to Aaron. “Are we going?” he asked.

Aaron waited to see if Vilma and Taylor would join them, but they just stood there.

“Yeah,” he said, opening the door so he and his dog could leave.

The two started down the cold concrete corridor, Aaron lost in his thoughts until the dog interrupted them.

“This means you’re going away forever, doesn’t it?” Gabriel asked.

“Yeah, probably,” Aaron said. “And no matter what you, Vilma, and Taylor think, I’m not okay with it, but it’s . . .”

“It’s the only answer right now,” Gabriel finished. “A long time ago I probably wouldn’t have been able to understand that myself, but since my change, I get it.”

“Thanks,” Aaron said.

“You’re welcome.”

They were about to enter a garage area where the army had kept their vehicles, and where Mallus had been brought by the Unforgiven, when Gabriel paused.

“Aaron?”

“Yes, Gabriel?”

“You are the best friend a dog could have.” Gabriel turned his dark-brown eyes to Aaron. “And I will never forget you.”

“You are the best dog,” Aaron told him, doing everything in his power to keep his voice from cracking. “And I will never forget you.”

“Aaron!”

Vilma was coming down the corridor, Taylor close behind.

Taylor opened the door, allowing Gabriel to enter the garage first, then followed him in. “We’ll be inside,” she said, leaving Aaron and Vilma alone in the corridor.

Aaron knew how strong Vilma was, how powerful, but right then, before him, she looked like she might shatter.

He was afraid of what would happen if he moved closer, but he was inexorably drawn to her, and there was no way he could resist her pull.

“Vilma, I—,” he began, desperate to make things right between them before—

She came at him full force, throwing her arms about his body and squeezing him so tightly that he feared she might break him.

“I know what you’re doing, and I completely understand,” she said, pressing her face to his chest. “It doesn’t mean that I like it or I accept it, only that I understand it.”

“If there was any other way,” he said, holding her just as tightly.

“I know,” she said. “And if I’m not careful, I get selfish and
think, why him? Why does it have to be the one I love more than anything in this world?” She looked up at him, her eyes brimming with tears. “Haven’t we already sacrificed enough?”

He had no answer for her, as he brought his lips down to kiss the top of her head.

“Maybe this will be it,” he said. “Maybe after it’s done, everything will return to normal.”

“It won’t ever be normal again,” she told him.

He held her as she started to sob.

“You have to promise me that you’ll be strong. The others are going to need you.”

“We don’t even know if they’re still alive,” she said pathetically.

“They’re alive,” he told her, not sure how he knew, but he did. “They’re going to need you, and so are Gabriel and my mother.”