Divinity (39 page)

An idea began to form in Julia’s mind, an idea she didn’t like one bit. She hid her thoughts until she was certain. She stopped in the middle of Eastern Europe after witnessing another large collection of matter.

“Michael,” she began, the knot in her stomach growing, “I think I know who sent the
A’nwel
. Or at least, where it came from.”

“Tell me.”

Julia didn’t think Michael had ever appeared to her more solidly than right that second. She stooped to pick up a handful of dirt. “The Earth, Michael. We’re following along a path of energy, and the Earth itself is helping it move forward, almost as if it is directing it.”

“Impossible,” Michael said. “The Earth does not have spirit of its own.”

“How can you say that? Didn’t God create the Earth? Wouldn’t He have given it spirit?”

Michael stared at Julia for what seemed like forever. Finally he spoke. “No.”

“I’m telling you…”

“No,” Michael interrupted. “Earth had no spirit when it was created. Earth was simply a place to house humans. To house you.”

“How can you even think Earth has no spirit, Michael? Have you not seen flowers? Mountains? Trees and sand and all of the amazing things that nature supplies?”

“It was not given spirit.”

“Well,” Julia said, letting the dirt fall between her fingers, “maybe it developed its own. It’s either that, or someone is controlling the Earth and having it direct the energy of the
A’nwel
. And I think I would see the trail of whoever that was if that were the case.”

Michael paced back and forth, eyeing each blade of grass as though it could be a traitor. He finally turned to face Julia. “The implications of this are… immense.”

“And terrifying,” Julia added. She crouched down and put her hand against the ground. She felt nothing. No malice, no raw emotion that would naturally be tied to something as vile as the
A’nwel
. Maybe it was lying in wait. Julia shivered.

“We must carry on,” Michael said. “We must stop this from doing any more damage.”

There were several more “pauses,” some to collect matter, some to kill. Every time it killed, it became stronger. Every time it collected, it became larger. By the time they passed through Eastern Europe it was the size of a ragdoll, and had formed its stick-like limbs.

-
Michael,
- Julia called as they followed the smoke trail, -
it collects only negative energy
.-

-
We know this, girl
.-

-
It kills only those with immense negative energy
.-

-
What are you saying?
-

-
Maybe it’s not as evil as we think it is…
-

Though Julia was flowing along the line of energy, thicker with each passing moment, and her own energy was not in solid form, she could still hear, or perhaps feel, Michael’s frustration. When he answered, his tone was sharp. Sharper than she’d heard from him before.

-
It runs on negative energy. It killed Alex. It has tried to kill you. Everything it touches wilts
.- Michael waited for his words to be heard and understood. -
This is a being of evil. If it comes from the Earth, then the Earth must be poisoned. All the more reason for us to hurry
.-

True, it had killed Alex, and that was the one thing it had done that it would pay for. Dearly.

The trail became clearer as they crossed the Atlantic again, heading for the States. The next time they surfaced, it was in the center of a sterile white room. It held a stainless steel table, equipped with thick leather straps in the center to secure a body, and shorter ones where the head, wrists, and ankles would be. An intravenous unit waited off to the side, currently empty.

“This is an execution room,” Julia said. “The Greensville Correctional Center; I’ve seen it on the news. It stopped here to gather more evil energy.”

“In that case, I’m sure it did well for itself here,” Michael said, shaking his head.

From what she could make out, the
A’nwel
was almost at full size—that is, the size it had been when she encountered it the first time. That thought led her to wondering whether it would ever stop growing. She shuddered.

“Let’s keep moving,” Michael said. “We’re close, I can feel it.”

With a curt nod, Julia continued down the evil substance’s path. It plummeted into the earth again, this time staying just below the surface. After darting all over the country, gaining, gathering, and wreaking havoc, they came to the place where Julia had seen it the first time. She stood on the edge of the forest, looking across the highway at the spot where Alex had been shot. Her jaw clenched and her wings began to spread. She stopped when Michael gripped her wrist.

“Almost there,” he said. “Save your wrath; you may need it.”

Julia nodded, settling her wings onto her back, then reached out and continued.

This time Julia smelled the first traces of the stench she knew belonged to the
A’nwel
. The path she now followed was only a few weeks old, so the remnants were fresher.

Following the trail of the full-sized
A’nwel
was a lot faster than at the beginning, but traveling in its wake left Julia queasy. The smell of evil seemed to drip down the back of her throat, leaving a revolting taste coating her mouth. In a flash, she found herself inside a house, somewhere just outside New Orleans.

They stood before the body of a man sprawled out on the floor of the living room, eyes bulging from their sockets.

“Michael! This is the person who delivered those photos.” Julia looked around for clues as to whom that might be. “It’s the same energy.”

“It seems the
A’nwel
has covered its tracks, then.”

“He looks like he died of fright.”

“I’m not so sure,” Michael said as he rolled the body over and pointed at the huge laceration across the man’s back.

It looked as though he had been killed with a burning hot sword. The taint of the
A’nwel
’s touch was still fresh in the wound, however, and it appeared to be spreading. Julia looked at Michael, her face grim.

“This is what Alex’s leg looked like.” She held a hand over the gash. “It’s still alive. The wound, I mean. The body is dead, but the wound is consuming it.”

“So it appears,” Michael said with a nod.

She pulled her hand away and looked at her skin to make sure none of the taint had transferred. A wound like that would take a massive amount of healing. She wasn’t sure she had enough energy to combat it. Seeing the wound brought back the memory of Alex’s death and Julia quickly let go of the notion that the
A’nwel
wasn’t a bad thing. Michael was right. It needed to be stopped.

“Let’s go,” Julia said. “We have to stop this thing before it does any more harm.” She gritted her teeth and continued her chase.

They plunged into the ground again, this time without stopping. Less than a second later, they stood outside the Woodgrass facility. Julia spun toward Michael, panic speeding through her veins. “Maria! What if…”

“Stay focused, girl,” Michael commanded. “Don’t let it play your emotions.”

Julia glared at Michael. She understood what he really meant. Don’t be human. And he was right. She shoved her emotions down.

The rancid stench of the
A’nwel
permeated her nostrils and she felt the taint of it on her skin, but she couldn’t see it anywhere. She twisted around, her eyes darting in every direction. She spun a shield around herself, consciously threading it with small strands of the energy she had been warned not to use, a small enough amount that she wouldn’t exhaust herself.

“Where is it?” Michael’s voice seemed distant through the hum of her shield.

“I can’t see it!” Julia’s heart pounded. “It has to be here.”

Michael stood to her left, wings at the ready. He sent out a pulse as he had before, only this time it was made of pure light.

Julia saw the absence of light that was the
A’nwel
, just in time to see it lash out with one gnarled talon of black smoke. She pulled back, the stench so strong her stomach clenched as it missed gouging out her eye by inches.

She whipped out a thread of her white light, but the
A’nwel
dodged away with a gurgling noise. Michael shifted, blindly trying to prepare for the next move.

Time slowed. Julia aimed her body to the
A’nwel
‘s left side and shot out a tendril of light to the right. Success. Black smoke seeped from its side.

An ear-shattering screech erupted from the beast as it lunged forward and tore Michael’s right wing with its claws. Michael dropped to his knees, howling.

“No!” Julia screamed, at once sending a huge bolt of her energy toward the
A’nwel
.

The
A’nwel
twisted away from Julia’s attack, screeching as she nicked its shoulder. Heavier black smoke rose from the wound, dissipating through the air. The creature staggered, then gathered itself.

Her wings extended fully, sending out a shock that she felt right down to the core of the Earth. She knew the others would hear her call.

The Archangels instantly appeared behind her, except for Uriel. Raphael sent her green healing waves to Michael as she rushed to his side. Gabriel’s cold eyes shone brightly as he cast a shield over Julia from directly behind her. Heavy clouds darkened the sky, and the wind plowed through the trees. Zachariah and Ariel stood on each side of her, simultaneously forming blinding white swords of light and holding them at the ready. The earth quaked and split all around them like forked lightning across the sky. All sets of wings had opened fully.

The
A’nwel
shrieked and lunged straight for Julia, slicing straight through Gabriel’s shield, but she was ready and dodged off to the side. The heavens flashed as Gabriel’s shield dissolved.

“I could see it!” Gabriel shouted. “When it touched my energy!”

Immediately Ariel, Zachariah, and Gabriel threw blankets of energy in front of Julia.

“No!” she hollered. “Your shields are in my way! You must let me stand alone! You must let me fight!”

The
A’nwel
pulled up to its full height, towering over Julia and the others. It reached forward and cut through the energy of the angels. For that millisecond, they were all able to see the monstrosity before them. Nobody breathed.

Zachariah took a swing with his sword from one side, Ariel the other, but the
A’nwel
had moved before their swords sliced through the air. Raphael continued to blanket Michael in waves of green healing light as she dragged him away from the fray.

-
Light
.- Julia sent the idea into all of their heads at once. -A
wave of light sweeping outward
.- With the idea, she sent the image of what Michael had done when they’d first arrived.

The response was immediate; the three fighting with her dropped the shield and emitted waves of light. At the same time, Uriel appeared behind the creature, his wings extended, sword of light in hand. The
A’nwel
turned toward Uriel just as the wave of light passed over it, exposing it fully.

The second the shield was down, Julia’s burst of white, damaging light seared right through the center of the creature, and through the trees behind it, boring gaping holes. Black smoke rose and scattered.

Its arms flailed and it emitted a horrific, high-pitched wail as it turned and charged Julia. One stick-like arm shot toward her, almost nicking her arm. Julia countered with another blast of energy, this time drawing from her essence, and hit it square in the jagged hole that was its mouth. It reeled backward. Julia attacked, pulling on every ounce of anger and vengeance she possessed. She stepped forward and pushed her energy out onto the
A’nwel
, determined to maintain contact until it was destroyed.

Chunks of the
A’nwel
burst apart under Julia’s attack, and it fell back to the ground, hissing. The grass beneath it died instantly under its touch, and it began to turn to smoke and leak into the ground.

“No!” Julia shouted. She held her hands out, filling them with her essence. She would not let it escape. She would finish this now.

She could hear Raphael shouting, “No! You will burn yourself out!”

Julia threw her energy toward the
A’nwel
, a pure white blanket, covering it completely. The screech was deafening as it dissolved, the vile, black smoke this time consumed by the light. Julia’s knees buckled and she staggered forward, caught her balance, and turned to see Michael lying on the ground surrounded by Archangels.

Raphael sent wave after wave of her beautiful green healing energy over him, but he did not move. The wound on his wing was spreading, the evil still carving out a path through Michael’s being.

Julia tried to take a step toward him, but one knee gave out, then the other. She reached out one hand, placed it over the wound, and with the remainder of her essence, sent a pure, white beam of healing into Michael.

She collapsed in a heap on the lawn, one arm extended toward him.