Seven Archangels: Annihilation (4 page)

And now, Camael thought, it was his job to get Gabriel out of there.

- + -

Raphael's enraged soul had emitted a shock wave like a depth charge the instant Gabriel had been taken, and within seconds Heaven had responded.

Michael arrived in the park, armored, and he looked around at all the guardian angels. "Where did they go?"

Raphael returned in that instant with Camael, bound with his will, even as more angels arrived: Israfel, Raguel, Saraquael, Uriel, and Zadkiel. They picked up the information wordlessly as Raphael's heart swirled out the details in no coherent order, and Michael laid his hand on his sword.

Saraquael said, "Raguel, come with me," and they flashed away.

Michael turned to Raphael. "Can you get any sense from Gabriel?"

Raphael's eyes were wide as tea saucers. He shook his head.

"If Raphael and I can't pick up anything from him," Israfel said, running a hand through her waist-length black curls, "then he's still unconscious."

Michael huffed. "Did you get an idea of where they were headed?"

Raphael opened his hands. "They were bouncing, and I caught Camael on the third bounce. Remiel followed the other one. I'm not sure where in Hell they went."

Raguel and Saraquael returned. "Wherever they've got him, he's Guarded. I can't get a good feel of where he might be."

Raphael flashed to the clover field, and Michael followed. "This is where it happened."

"The second signature feels like Mephistopheles'." Michael looked back at Saraquael. "Hunt out a Guard set up by Beelzebub. They're bound to be working together."

Saraquael vanished again.

Raguel squared his shoulders, flared his broad wings, and looked down at Michael. "Do we want to invade? I'll summon the army."

The Throne Uriel, who up to now hadn't spoken, said, "Why did they want Gabriel?"

Michael inadvertently projected that he didn't frankly care why they'd abducted Gabriel, but immediately he paused.

With a typical precision and concern on Uriel's heart-shaped face, the Throne added, "Their motive should have a direct impact on how much force we bring to bear."

Michael pointed from Raguel to Camael, who still struggled against Raphael's binding. "Secure and question him."

Raguel took hold of Remiel's twin and flashed him to Heaven. Israfel followed.

Michael returned his attention to Raphael, the color of whose eyes and wings had intensified as his emotions started frothing. His whole form vibrated with tension.

"Any luck reading him?"

Raphael shook his head.

"Try to keep calm." Michael laid a hand on Raphael's arm. The Seraphic heat had begun to escape control, and the resonance of his soul emitted a high-pitched whine. Without a bonded Cherub to absorb his fear, he was discharging power unchanneled.

"You need another Cherub."

Uriel had reached the same conclusion as Michael at the same moment and called into the air, "Ophaniel?"

"No!" Raphael took a step backward. "I'll need all my energy when Gabriel wakes up—"

"And until then," Michael said, "we can't have you rattling a hole in the Earth's mantle."

Ophaniel, the head of the order of Cherubim, had already appeared.

Michael turned to him, saying, "Raphael needs—"

Ophaniel locked his steely eyes with Raphael's, and Raphael's brightness subsided even as Ophaniel began to glow.

"You must realize Israfel's suffering too," Ophaniel said. "She's Gabriel's other primary bond."

"Stick close to Raphael for now," Michael said. "Has Raguel figured out what they want with Gabriel?"

Ophaniel folded his arms and focused on the ground. "Camael said it's annihilation."

- + -

For a minute, Michael heard nothing.

When he managed to break free of the shock, he realized he was standing alongside an emotional volcanic eruption: Raphael's terror and urgency to act. Uriel and Zadkiel were right up next to Ophaniel questioning and questioning.

Israfel and Raguel had returned. Israfel was white as ash, her black hair limp. Saraquael appeared, and additionally two human souls arrived in the park, standing invisible in the clover while children played and parents chatted and insects darted and early rainbow-painted leaves let go their branches.

The two human souls were Peter, Jesus's first apostle, and Mary, Jesus's mother. Uriel caught them up on the facts while Ophaniel led Israfel and Raphael away from the rest of the group.

"Listen," Michael said, and because he was the head of Heaven's army, everyone turned to him. In ordinary times Gabriel out-ranked him, and Raphael too—Uriel would if Uriel ever cared to exert any authority. But for now, they'd yield to him. Michael lowered his eyes, clenched his fists, and tightened his wings to his back.

"Raphael and Israfel can't contact Gabriel, so we have to assume he's out cold, and therefore unreachable to the enemy as well." Michael looked at the other archangels and the two humans. "That at least gives us some time." He turned to Saraquael. "What else do you have to report?"

"There are three of Remiel's sigils surrounding what seems to be a Guarded storage closet. I couldn't slip through."

Israfel drew close. "Is annihilation even possible? What makes them think they can do it?"

Raguel said, "Camael was convinced."

"But didn't God tell us we were eternal, that he would never end our existence?"

Uriel took a step forward and tried to touch her, but Israfel stepped backward, intoning, "Just clarify it for me. I don't remember if he told us we were eternal, or if eternity in his glory was a grand assumption on our part."

Michael waved her down. "If they think they can do it, we have to assume they can. I'd rather react as if it were possible only to find out it's not than assume Gabriel can't be destroyed and find out later he was." He looked at Raguel and Saraquael. "Suggestions?"

Raguel said, "While we're breaking down one door, they might be smuggling him out the back into another place. We need to pull him out of there, and I hate to say it, but a large-scale attack won't facilitate that."

Israfel shook her head as if to knock the panic to the sides and let her think clearly in the center. She glanced at Ophaniel, and he must have drawn off some of the fire because suddenly she regained her focus. "They must have chosen Gabriel because if they get one shot, they want to make it worthwhile. Can we turn the tables and abduct one of theirs?"

"Unless we grabbed Satan, I can't imagine it would help," Michael said. "And even if we did, it might not."

"I still don't think it's possible," Zadkiel said.

For the first time, Mary spoke. "Are you guys aware of what it sounds like you're saying?"

"Annihilation." Michael faced her squarely. "Destroying his soul as if it were never created by God so that the only thing to remain would be our memories. If that. No chances at an afterlife."

"Ezekiel 28," Uriel murmured.

As she wrapped her hands in the hem of her sweater, Mary's olive-toned skin lost color. "Oh."

"Camael meant it," Michael said. "So we mean it too."

Raphael and Ophaniel rejoined them. "I still can't reach him." Raphael's voice quavered. "Working together, we can't reach him."

"That's a good thing." Michael laid a hand on Raphael's arm. "Keep that in mind—if you can't reach him, they can't either."

With a matter-of-fact lack of inflection unique to Cherubim, Ophaniel added, "Either that or he's already destroyed."

Raphael and Israfel both ignited.

"Thank you," Raguel muttered. "It always helps to have a Cherub cover all the bases."

Ophaniel shifted his feet and looked down.

Mary stepped nearer. "Michael, are you all right?"

"I don't have the time not to be all right." He huffed. "If anyone needs the help, it's Raphael. He and Gabriel are like one person."

Israfel glared at Michael. He noticed her look but only said, "Can you sense him?"

"Still nothing."

Michael turned to Ophaniel. "Ideas?"

"Remiel gave us a location," Ophaniel said. "Israfel and Raphael give us a connection. You and Raguel have the power. Once Gabriel is awake, we have enough going for us to slip him out of there. And Remiel, if possible, can send us a signal."

Michael turned to Saraquael. "Can you make contact with Remiel?"

"Not without potentially exposing her."

"Good point." He frowned. "You and Zadkiel question Camael again and see if you can get any other useful information from him: the procedure, who will be involved, how long it takes, and whether they've tested it on anyone."

The two Dominions vanished.

Michael took a deep breath and realized he didn't have a clear path at the moment. He looked up at Raphael, who had flames around his eyes and his wings. Ophaniel himself was trembling with the energy he'd drawn off Raphael and Israfel, so Michael summoned Raphael's bonded Cherub Sidriel, and also Zophiel, another Cherub bonded to Israfel. Then he looked at Uriel, who stood beside Mary, an arm over her shoulders.

Mary looked careworn, strands of grey in her black hair. "What's next?"

"We pray," said Uriel. "We wait for Raphael to make contact, and we pray."

Chapter Three

Gabriel became aware that he was becoming aware. For an angel, that liminality was a new experience, so he made note of the heaviness of his eyes, the weight of his chest, and the dull sound of his body.

The spiritual body he inhabited was held fast, and Gabriel extended his consciousness to probe the world around him. That he'd been taken prisoner he could remember. It was unconscionably stupid not to have realized a six-year-old didn't typically have that kind of vocabulary or scientific perception of the world. They'd clearly singled him out for capture. But where he was and what they intended, that he didn't know, and like an empty basin plunged against the surface of a pool, he trembled for knowledge to fill the emptiness.

Gabriel's form remained limp, but his mind had already shifted into the highest gear with an urgency. Where was he? Chains suspended him upright, arms spread, legs together, wings pressed against a stone wall. One outcropping of rock jutted into the small of his back, but he didn't shift to get it into a more comfortable place. For now he wanted to appear unconscious. He could detect another presence entombed with him.

Next his senses spread to the corners of the room, rolling up against the edge and filling it without overspilling. If he'd spread his six wings to their fullest, Gabriel would have brushed the opposite walls with his primary feathers, and the ceiling he could have touched with his wingtips while standing. He stopped breathing, then stopped his heart in order to hear better. The room sounded empty, but he still could feel someone on guard—distracted, but waiting. Coffee and sugary fake chocolate scented the air. Gabriel opened his eyes the barest amount to see nothing.

The lab area.

Gabriel trembled at the intransigent darkness as thick as tar, then stilled himself, re-closing his eyes because he'd rather not see the hungry dark. His highest output of light would emerge grainy here, like light six fathoms deep. The damned couldn't achieve even that much.

God, how am I doing?

The answer came only faintly. He was, after all, in Hell.

What do they want with me? Why am I here? Where are they?
Gabriel took a deep breath as slowly and silently as he could. Stay calm. If Gabriel wanted more of God in here—and he did—he'd have to find a way to let in more of God.

He reached for Raphael through their bond but couldn't get a sense of the Seraph.

First things first. Gabriel sent his mind into the chains on his wrists and ankles, then asked the metal to lengthen. It started to, but pulled tight around the centers. This much he had expected: the chains were laced through the core with the disembodied will of a minor demon, and it had been told to hold tight.

Gabriel focused his attention on the chain, then commanded,
Lengthen!
After a pause, he thought,
Aha!
even though nothing had happened.

Disheartened to think it had failed, the will-lacing let go of the chain.

Yeah, give him a challenge next time. Gabriel then pointed out the lengthened one to the others, and they gave up too, dropping him unceremoniously to the floor.

The chain links clanked against one another, and Gabriel tensed. He tried to pull his hands from the cuffs, but a higher order demon must have made those: they held fast no matter how Gabriel tried to change their shape or his own.

"Oh, you're awake," said a deep voice which Gabriel realized was Beelzebub's.

Being obviously awake made reconnoitering more difficult. In retrospect, he ought to have put up with the chains until he'd studied everything else.

The scrape of a chair as Beelzebub stood. Gabriel rushed his mind through the chamber to figure out where in the lab area he was. He felt along the walls, which naturally were Guarded so no one could enter.

Although angels seldom Guarded anything, demons set Guards as a matter of course to prevent their enemies (or their allies) from searching their private chambers. Guards permitted entry only to those on good terms with those who had set them, being created directly by the will of the owner, and they were capable of containing a conscious, sane angel. This Guard resonated with a prickliness Gabriel found unusual. He pushed on the Guard to learn more.

"You're wondering why you're here." Beelzebub drew closer. "You haven't got much time, so listen to me."

Gabriel tried to recoil into the stone. The demon Seraph stood so close Gabriel could feel his body heat.

Gabriel pushed again on the Guard. —ah. The prickliness was due to the apparently-single Guard's being composed of several different ones—the one at his back having been set first, then the one on his right. Those felt ancient. The one before him and the one to his left were approximately the same age, with the ones on top and bottom set last of all, only this week, finished off by someone weaving them together.