The Fallen (Angelic Redemption) (28 page)

“Nice throw, Lila.”

“Not really. I was aiming for her head,” Lila
said, collapsing to the floor with a thud.

Joaquin felt blood flowing into his lungs and his
heart slowing. No matter his pain, Joaquin smiled as he watched Karen suffer.

Even outnumbered and injured, the traitor seized
the blade that took her hand and threw it at Lila.

“Watch out,” Sophie cried.

Lila, who was checking her wounds, glanced up and
caught the blade, giving an unimpressed smirk.

“Do better, traitor, because…” Lila paused then
looked at Sophie. “I’m tired. You kill her.”

With that command from Lila, Sophie was on her
feet. Seemingly unfazed by her earlier injuries, she barreled towards the
traitor. Karen moved quickly too, letting go of her wound and sprinting for the
gun lying between her and Sophie. Watching as Karen reached the weapon first, Joaquin
tensed as she aimed it at Sophie.

The blonde never paused as the gun was raised or
even when it was fired. Joaquin saw blood burst from Sophie’s back as several
shots ripped through her. Even newly wounded, Sophie didn’t flinch. Nor did she
pause when she reached Karen.

Joaquin braced himself for a battle, but Sophie’s
first punch turned out to be the only one. Thrusting her fist through Karen’s
chest, Sophie tore the traitor’s heart out with ease. When Sophie yanked her
arm back, Karen’s body flopped to the ground. Just like that, it was over.

Sophie studied the bloody mass in her hand before
tossing the heart next to Karen’s body. Grabbing a sword from a dead villain,
Sophie finished off the traitor then turned to Lila.

“Well that’s done. Now what?” Sophie asked with a
grin.

Smiling, Lila rolled her eyes. “Show off.”

Wobbling to her feet, Lila searched for more weapons.
“Shut the door. Lock it if you can. We also need to finish off these villains
before they regenerate. I need ammo too.”

“Then what? The villains wasted all their bullets
on me and Joaquin. I’ve only found half a magazine left,” Sophie said, shutting
the door and slipping the weak lock into place. “What’s happening outside?”

“Chaos. We have them on the run, but they’re
running everywhere. I don’t know where the brothers are,” Lila said, checking
the single magazine remaining in the mess of emptied weapons.

“And Roman?”

Lila didn’t answer as she shuffled towards the
mostly dead villains. Sophie finished them off with a sword then followed Lila
to where Joaquin lay. As the women stood over him, he felt nervous under their
gazes. Sophie’s eyes were soft though, loving even, as she waited for Lila to
make the next move.

“I’m still a bit fuzzy on things,” Lila said,
wiping blood from her face. “Karen’s the Reaper, but what about him?”

“He’s one of us which is good because I think I’m
married to him.”

Lila glanced at Sophie and rolled her eyes. “Of
course you are. Okay, so we need to get him to safety before those villains
pour in here and take us out.”

“Where is it safe?” Sophie asked.

Lila motioned towards the hall where Joaquin and
Sophie struggled earlier with Karen.

“Let’s hope the darkness allows us to see them
without them seeing us,” Lila said, yanking a jacket off one of the villains.
“He needs to keep pressure on his wound or no amount of hiding will help.”

Sophie took the jacket and pressed it against
Joaquin’s chest wound while studying him with a calm smile.

“Do you understand the plan?”

Joaquin frowned at them, not amused by his role
as victim.

“I can stand,” he said, even though his legs
wouldn’t cooperate. The pain in his chest was intense enough to make him dizzy.

Smiling patiently, Sophie grabbed him under the
arms and lifted him to his feet. Joaquin wished to display his usual talents. Instead
he mostly fell limp as the woman who looked like his dead wife pulled him into
a dark hall while the woman from his dream hobbled after them.

Sitting in the darkness, Joaquin watched the
women check their weapons and noticed blood soaking through Lila’s shirt.
Sophie noticed it too and reached for Lila who smacked away her hand.

“Tootsie Pop time. You need to be all hard shell,
no chewy center right now.”

“Hard shell, I get it,” Sophie said, her voice
again betraying the fear under her cool demeanor. Glancing at Joaquin, she
pointed to his chest. “Keep more pressure on your wound.”

“You should go,” he said. “Staying here, even
hiding like this, will not save you.”

Lila glared at him. Weak and dying, she showed no
interest in going out quietly. Joaquin felt the same way, but Sophie’s presence
and the prospect of watching Heidi die again drained him of strength.

“No one likes a martyr, Joaquin,” Lila said then
turned to Sophie. “I assumed he’d be more, you know, big dogish.”

Smiling, Sophie eyed them both. “We can all be
friends later. For now, we need a plan. Lila?”

“We have about six shots and three swords, plus
the benefit of seeing them coming. I figure we can take out up to ten or twelve
of them,” Lila said then added, “But that estimate might be clouded by my blood
loss.”

“So more like eight then?”

“If we can lure them into the darkness, we have a
better shot at winning.”

Frowning, Joaquin took the gun Lila handed to him.
He realized he would have to be the one to point out the futility of this
situation.

“How can we lure them in here when we can barely
maneuver in our condition? They also have weapons with more than six shots in
them. If they fire into this hallway, we can’t overwhelm them with physical
force.”

“What other option do we have?”

“I am not trying to be a martyr, but we can not
win this battle. The only choice we have is for you two to disappear into the
building. You can wait them out while I make an attempt to slow them down.”

The women responded with identical frowns -
displaying an anger he doubted he should test.

“Karen’s story always felt wrong because she left
her friends to die,” Lila said as she applied pressure to her chest wound.
“Sophie and I aren’t cowards or traitors. If we die, we die together. No
crybaby running away, get it?”

“We’re not going to die,” Sophie said with
certainty. “We need to go to New Orleans to find Ivy. God said so in your
vision.”

Lila bit her lip, her face conflicted now. “Maybe
we find her or maybe Roman does or maybe you do. Visions aren’t always clear
cut. Look at my vision about him. I thought he was the rogue and it was Karen
and she wasn’t even in my vision.”

Lila paused, obviously uncertain, but Joaquin
heard none of the worry in her voice when she spoke again.

“You could make a run for it while Joaquin and I
slow them down. You’re the only one who has a chance to get away, if things
have turned bad outside.”

“I thought you said we were winning?”

Lila shrugged, avoiding Sophie’s gaze. “Yeah, we
beat them back, but the brothers were pinned down when we lost contact with
them. I don’t know where Roman is. As far as we know, we’re the only ones left.
Not all of us can survive a prolonged battle, but you can.”

“Where would I go? I can’t find Ivy on my own,”
Sophie asked, her confidence slipping.

“Go back to Gus. He’ll help you. He can build you
an army, if need be. Ivy knows you as well as she knows me and neither of us
actually remembers her. It doesn’t have to be me. It just has to be someone.”

Sophie looked to Joaquin who showed her no pity.
She needed to leave them if she was to survive. His mind was also on Maximo.

“Heidi and I have a nine year old son. Maximo’s
like us, but he sees things too. Visions. You need to take him with you. If I
don’t make it back, he’s defenseless.”

“He’s alive? Karen said he died when I did,”
Sophie muttered then turned to Lila. “Please tell me what to do.”

“I already did.”

“I don’t accept your solution. We can survive
this. We’re going to win.”

Lila leaned against the wall and sighed. “I can
only tell you that if things turn bad, you should bail and save the kid.”

Sophie knelt down next to Joaquin. “Where is he?”

Joaquin did not respond, somehow afraid these
women were his enemies and this whole scenario was a trick to locate Maximo. He
knew his paranoia felt wrong. Why go to such great lengths to find Maximo when
they could have just followed Joaquin back to his hotel? Yet the idea of this
woman with his son disturbed him.

“If things start to look bad, I will tell you.”

When Sophie frowned at him, he felt awkward under
her gaze. She stood up and returned to the doorway with Lila. Glancing back at
Joaquin, Sophie frowned darkly.

“It’s funny really. I’ve spent the last week
planning to kill you, only to find out we’re married. Yet you’re the one with
trust issues.”

Lila watched them with a grin. “You two can bond
later. We’ve got company.”

The villains entered the same way Lila did
earlier, only to find a massacre awaiting them. Maybe they understood the
implications of Karen’s death or possibly the chaos of the day left them overwhelmed.

Either way, they could only stand dumbfounded in
the warehouse. Joaquin saw them wandering around, mumbling to each other. He
also saw them carrying automatic weapons that would make any potential hunter
last stand very short lived.

Sophie signaled to Lila who shook her head. For
that moment, it did seem the villains might exit the way they came. The hunters
could then escape slowly through the dark halls. One of monsters stopped
mumbling and scanned the room, its face twisted with suspicion.

“We’re not alone here,” it said and the others
raised their weapons.

Watching the woman he so desperately wanted to
believe was Heidi, Joaquin knew their time was up. While Sophie only had eyes
for Lila as they waited for the villains to approach, he sensed her mind was
elsewhere. Maybe to the child she needed to save? Joaquin’s mind was on Maximo
too. He wondered how long it would be before the boy knew trouble was coming?
Would God warn him in time or wait until it was too late as He had done with
Heidi?

“Westport Hotel,” he whispered as the villains
moved closer.

Sophie once again stared at him with uncertainty.
She then nodded and returned her gaze towards the oncoming attackers. Lila
lifted her blade and pointed for Joaquin to get ready. With over twice as many
villains as bullets, Joaquin’s six shots needed to count.

The lead villain, the one smart enough to sense
hunters nearby, lifted its weapon towards the doorway. Joaquin knew the onslaught
of bullets would kill Sophie and Lila before they had a chance to fight back.
He chose to take the shots, even if it meant confirming their location.

The villains moved in quickly, firing their
weapons into the entryway. Lila and Sophie ducked back, avoiding the bullets
while Joaquin used his final five shots to take out the villains with the deadliest
weapons. The click of the empty gun caused a panic in Joaquin who tried to
stand. He knew Sophie was about to die. Whether or not she was truly Heidi, he
couldn’t watch that again.

One of the villains began to fire wildly into the
doorway, the bullets chipping the walls and zipping past the women. The villain
soon moved closer, its shots penetrating the walls. Leaning into the doorway
and taking a few shots to the torso, Lila threw her sword and sliced off the
villain’s head.

“Yeah, that’s what I was going for earlier,” Lila
said, toppling back into the darkness.

Sophie glanced rapidly between Lila, who collapsed
to the floor from her new wounds, and Joaquin, who could only stand with the
help of the wall. Other villains approached, wary now of what the hunters might
do, but unwilling to give up.

Joaquin signaled for the women to back off and
move deeper into the hallway. Lila scooted slightly, barely able to stay
upright as her blood darkened the floor.

Sophie motioned for Joaquin to take the lead.
While it made sense to let her watch the rear because she was the only one who
could fight, Joaquin shook his head. The plan to flee felt wrong anyway. He and
Lila weren’t going anywhere, let alone quickly. Sophie remained the only one
with a chance at survival.

“Go,” he said, pointing towards the dark hall.

Sophie shook her head and shot him that
frustrated look Heidi always used when he refused to save her captive friends.
Arguing with her was pointless, he sensed. Sophie wouldn’t budge and her time
to run ended as the villains again opened fire on the doorway.

As the bullets whizzed around the dark hall, Lila
fell to her side, her hands at her chest. When the shots ricocheted closer to
Sophie, she dove across the open doorway and threw her sword, decapitating one
of the villains.

The remaining villains attacked with fury now,
finally realizing the hunters wouldn’t be throwing swords if they possessed
higher caliber weapons. Sophie crouched next to Lila who glanced up at her.