Wings of Darkness: Book 1 of The Immortal Sorrows Series (36 page)

     “Ashrael, you may be Death
incarnate, but even you cannot stand against a soul’s Judgment.  You will never
be able to find her.”  Her lip curled back in a nasty sneer.  “You’ll
lose her forever.”

     I swallowed hard against the lump
rising in my throat.  I had to stop this, but how?  Isabel twisted
hard in her grasp, and her beautiful hair tore, but at least she was
free.  She backed up towards her father’s unconscious body, kept herself
between him and Fate.  “You’re one crazy bitch.  No wonder he didn’t
want you.”

     Fate laughed, low and hard. 
“I will miss you, Izzy. I truly will.  If ever I’ve had a child of my
heart, it is you.”  She shook her head, still bemused.  “I’m not
going to kill you, you silly child.  Ashrael fixed that when he gave so
much of himself to you.  I didn’t count on that.”  Her teeth gleamed
in a predatory smile.  “And there’s the crux to my little problem. 
Since you are so unique: a Reaper made and not born, you are uniquely hard to
kill.  Now, Ashrael could do it, of course, as you are his to kill or
claim.  But I don’t think he will go along with that, do you?” 
Isabel just stared at her.  There was nothing to say.

     I shook my head.  “You know
that I will never do that.”  I was numb with fear.  Since my time
with Isabel, I had grown increasingly familiar with that emotion, and I still
did not like it. 

     “Your other option,” she said to
Isabel, “would be suicide, but that so often leads to damnation.”  She
shook her head, pityingly. “A tasty little thing like you will not last long in
the City of Sorrows.  You’ll be gobbled up and spit back out, in no time
at all.  In any case, you’ll be gone, and that’s the important thing.”

    “Do I have a third option?”  She
placed her hands upon her knees, ready to fight or flee.  I knew that look
in her eyes.  She would not flee; not without her father.

     “Well, you could choose to save
yourself.  I would go with that option, if I were in your shoes.  No
one would blame you.”   That is exactly what she would do if the
tables were turned. 

     “None of that sounds particularly
appealing, but thanks, anyway.”

     “I will sweeten the deal.  Do
this for me, and I will not only let your father live, but I will make it so
that he never knows what happened here.  It will look as if you died in
the wreck you had.”

     Isabel looked doubtful.  “You
can do that?”

     “I can do anything.”

     “Anything, except make Asher love
you.”  It was true, but what was she doing?  Purposely baiting Fate
was not a good idea.

     The smile faded from Clotho’s face. 
“I rather thought you’d feel that way about it.”  She pulled the thread
she toyed with taut one final time, and it snapped.  Isabel screamed and
lunged for her father. 

    Time had run out.  Halo was at his
side in an instant.  “Finally,” she muttered as she placed her hand above
his heart, and tore his soul from his body.  It was a violation, swift and
vicious.  There was no mercy, no peace to be had in what she had
done.  His whole body shuddered violently.  He gave one final gasp,
and died. 

     There was no ascension.  With
dread, I saw the soul hover beside his body in confusion.  He did not know
that he was dead.  I had seen it happen before, but even lost, he should
have left.  He remained, a shapeless mist that hovered over his only
daughter.  I believe that he would have gone to Isabel, had Fate not
stepped in his way.  Whatever she did caused him to change course. 
Instead of rising as he should have, his soul sank.  Like low-lying fog
the shimmering purple mist sank into the ground and disappeared.

     “What did you do to him?”

     “Oh, nothing,” Fate said
modestly.  “I just collected him for later, since you were too good to do
it. I finally found a use for all the worthless lost souls wandering about.”

     “What use?”  The woman was evil,
straight down to the core.  She would not allow even the dead to have
their dignity.

     “That, my darling, is none of your
business.  I did try to tell you both; there really are worse things than
death.”

     Isabel watched everything, and her
face never changed.  She neither flinched, nor looked away.  I
expected tears, possibly hysterics.  Anything, but that terrible calm that
settled over her.  Her only outward sign of grief was a single tear that
slipped over her lashes and slid down her pale cheek.  Her breath slowed,
along with her heart rate.  I had seen that look before, but always on the
face of a suicide.  It was grim determination.  She had made a
decision, and there was no question that she was ready to follow through.

     “It wasn’t Asher,” she said to
Halo. “It was me.  I killed your girlfriend.  You knew that,
right?  She knew,” her head tilted ever so slightly, indicating
Fate.  Her voice was quiet, almost conversational in tone, and it scared
the hell out of me.  “Funny thing, though, I can’t remember her
name.  I remember that I enjoyed it, though.  She died screaming; I
remember that.”

     Halo glared, and her eyes glowed
red as she started for Isabel at the same time I did.  Her rage was a
powerful thing, an entity in itself.  All I thought of was Isabel’s broken
body crumpled on the ground, and lost to me, forever.

     I tackled her and rolled her to the
ground as Halo started to charge her.  Fate jumped out of the way, content
to witness the havoc she had caused.  She enjoyed herself, I had no
doubt.  She fed off the misery of others the way a vulture feeds off
rotten meat.

     We had mere seconds.  “What do
you think you are doing?”  Isabel and I were so close, her breath was hot
against my face.  There was madness in her eyes, as well as the dim glow
of coals at the center of her pupils.  She was still weak from saving me,
and no match for an angry Reaper.

     “What do you care?  Didn’t you
hear anything that I just said?  It was a trap.  There’s no possible
way to survive it.  Go away before she takes you, too,” she bit out as she
shoved me away.  I rolled to my feet, stronger now, but still not at a
hundred percent. Not yet.  Still, I was not going anywhere without her.

     “That’s so sweet, don’t you
think?  She’s worried for you, Ashrael.  I do believe she really
loves you.  Such a pity.” 

     “Go screw yourself, bitch.”

     “You’ve developed a little bit of a
temper, Izzy.  It must be that friend of yours that Grim is so fond of.
She’s a bad influence on you.  I must make a point to visit her soon.” She
was not bothering to veil her threats, now.

     Halo’s chin came up.  “I’ll do
it.” Fate placed a restraining hand on Halo’s arm.  “So you shall, but
that’s enough for now, dearest.  You’ve had your revenge, now be a good
girl and calm down.”

     Halo would not calm down anytime
soon, not without more blood being shed. She had a taste for it, now. 
Even weakened as I was, I could handle Halo, but Fate was an unknown element.
 She was older than any of the Reapers, and her immortality had never been
put to a true test.  I had to get Isabel to safety.  Given enough
time to heal, I could keep her safe, I was sure of it.

     I grabbed Isabel about the waist
and started to take her elsewhere, even as she struggled against me. 
Nothing happened.  No distortion of time or space. No shift. My power was
useless.

     Fate laughed that tinkling laugh
that never failed to set my teeth on edge.  “Are you experiencing a little
problem, Ashrael?  Allow me to introduce you to my littlest Sorrow.”

     Isabel no longer tried to get away
from me.  She went completely still in my arms, her breath hitched in her
throat.  “Madeleine?”

     “
That
is Madeleine?”  The ghost of a child stood miserably at Fate’s side. 
Perfectly formed, she was the most articulated spirit I had ever seen. 
Her fingers knotted into the material of her dress, and she bit her lip as if
she were trying to stop herself from crying.

     Big, terrified eyes turned to
Isabel.  “I’m so sorry, Izzy, but she made me do it.”

     “She’s the one hunting the
Sorrows?”  The child nodded.

     “She hurts me if I don’t do what
she tells me to.”

     “It’s ok, Madeleine, she hurts
everything she touches.”

     “Madeleine is my little
secret.  My backup plan, in case Izzy, here, didn’t work out.  I
always have a backup plan.”  She smoothed her fingers down the child’s
face and smoke curled up in their wake.  The little girl cringed, and a
tiny whimper escaped her rosebud mouth.  Only Fate would take pleasure in torturing
the spirit of a dead child.  “With a few alterations, I’ve found that the
Sorrows can make Reapers virtually powerless.  There’s just something
about them; they escaped their own Reaping in the first place.  So right
from the start they have a natural immunity, if you will.  I like to think
of them as Null demons.”

     “You’re a sick bitch. Sick and
evil.”

     “Perhaps,” Fate agreed.

     “Izzy,” the child spoke, and it
cost her dearly, if the look of pain that crossed her face, was any
indication.  “You aren’t like the others.”

     Izzy nodded.  “I know, honey.
This isn’t your fault.”

     “No.  It’s yours. I gave you a
simple task, and you deliberately tried to ruin everything.”  Fate dropped
all pretenses; there was nothing beautiful about her now.  Her true nature
revealed itself in the cruel lines of her face.  “Suriel,” she spoke
sharply.  “I have Ashrael’s attention, if you’d like to speak with him.”

     Suriel materialized out of the
mist, and with him came half a dozen Reapers.

    “Hello, Ashrael.  I thought we might
discuss the terms of your surrender.”

     Isabel stiffened against me. 
I loosened my hold on her, but I kept her in the circle of my arms.  “We
had a deal Suriel.  Let Isabel go, and we will discuss anything you
wish,” I said, calmly.

     Suriel laughed. He did it so
rarely, it came out cracked, and rusted sounding.  “I think the terms of
our previous agreement are
null
and void, don’t you?  I’ll have your wings, with or without your
cooperation.”  He spread his arms, and his followers circled us. 
Isabel’s fingers trembled against my back as her grip tightened.

     “I have always known you for a
coward, Suriel, but this is a bit much, even for you.  The child holds my
power, and still you felt the need for reinforcements?  Perhaps you should
have brought more help.”

     His face darkened in rage.  “I
will enjoy watching you bleed, Ashrael.”

     Whatever he might have said after
that was lost.  The tingling sensation was subtle, at first, and not
unlike touching a live wire.  It was a numbness that turned quickly to
pain.  In my confusion, I thought the child caused it, but I was
wrong.  It was Isabel.

     “Isabel, you must not.  You
are too weak.”  Her face turned up to mine, and her eyes already glowed a
bloody red.

     “They aren’t taking you,
too.”  The redness spread and brightened till it looked like the white-hot
heart of a flame.  No Reaper had eyes like that.  She was both
beautiful and terrifying. 

     Power rushed through her and she
smiled, then laughed, delighted.  It reminded me of the first time she had
taken energy from me.  She had been stealing the life essence of those
around her by accident, then.  Now, she did it intentionally, and with
abandon.  Her skin glowed golden, lit from within by massive amounts of
stolen energy.

     “What is she doing?” Fate snatched
the child’s arm and twisted it.

     “I told you; she isn’t like the
others! I can’t control her.”  There was triumph in the girl’s eyes. 
Whatever she had been turned into, had not changed the core of her.  She was
still a child, and she had done her best to help her friend.

     “Suriel, do something!” 

     There was nothing he could do. 
Nothing any of us could do.  Isabel drained energy from the very air
around us.  Everything was a source of nourishment to her, from the
Reapers who circled us to the very earth itself.  She drained it all.
Everything except me.  Somehow, she passed over me in her hunger. 
Holding onto her was like trying to hold onto lightning.  I felt both
blistered and burned, but I could not let go of her, for fear of losing her.

     The Reapers panicked once they
realized what was happening.  Some of them tried to get away, but she had
taken enough of their essence to weaken them irreparably.  There was no
escape for any of them.  They had met a new kind of Reaper, but none of
them would survive to tell the tale.

     That much power cannot be contained
for long.  She screamed as it exploded out of her.  It held the power
of an exploding star, and it destroyed everything in its path.  I clasped
her to me as she fell, tried to protect her, but how can you protect someone
from what is inside?

     All around us was silence.  A
quick, upward glance revealed several bodies lying in a circle around us. Halo
lay sprawled face down in a ditch, her mop of short, blonde hair was bloodied,
and a gash ran the length of her back.  Suriel stared lifelessly up at me:
his immortality at an end.  At least he looked surprised.  There were
others.  Many others, most had been caught trying to escape, it seemed. 
Isabel had destroyed them all. 

     It took several long seconds for me
to realize that she was not moving under me, that she was limp in my
arms.  I pulled away from her, desperate to hear her heart beat.  My
breath caught on the lump in my throat.  Her eyelids fluttered open, and
the emeralds had returned to her eyes.  She was my Isabel, once
again.  I let the breath escape, and held her face in my hands.

     “Are they dead,” she asked.