Authors: Selene Edwards
“I thought about that. It’s hard to say since we don’t know what will happen, but I know I would at least like to try and get a message through to her. Maybe just to let them know the truth about everything.”
“It will change,” she said distantly. “The entire world. I don’t think we can even fully appreciate how.”
He glanced down to her. He hadn’t really felt any sadness during their touch, but he could see it now in her eyes. “You think for the worst?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “I’m not sure I can imagine a world with tens of thousands of people with this power, and in the end that’s what we’re talking about.”
“You’re worried other Demons will be able to speak to their hosts like Shyrah? Convince them to use their powers?”
Sariel shrugged. “Aren’t you? I think when you see what a man like Marivean is capable of, you’ll understand why it’s hard to imagine a world full of people like him. As corrupt and evil as the Covenant is, at least they usually teach restraint with their powers.”
“That will change the more they grow,” he told her. “I doubt Marivean is showing much restraint now, nor will he when we attack. When they want something badly enough, they’ll do whatever it takes to get it.”
“Which illustrates my point.” She sighed and rubbed her hands together. “I can’t imagine a world with more people like that, but I’m not sure there’s another option.”
It was an interesting if dark thought, Damien had to admit. This whole time they had been so focused on survival—and on the web of Covenant lies about the Angels—that they really hadn’t stopped to think all that much about the future. Shyrah had managed to use that knowledge to speak with her Demon and gain great powers…what if other Demons could do that? Not everyone would show restraint. In fact, he doubted very many would at all.
Is that what would come from the truth getting out? Maybe—from what he understood, the Angels and Demons couldn’t really survive here without hosts anymore, at least not for long. They weren’t simply going to leave just because the pesky humans figured out they had alien parasites in them. Were they going to take control of people’s minds somehow? Were they going to start a war between those that were “infected” and those that weren’t?
“I have no idea what’s going to happen,” he admitted softly. “But you know, I’m not sure it even matters. There’s a good chance this secret will never make it out of this city. We still don’t have real proof, and it might not even exist. They may not have any real records or anything else tangible we can use against them.”
She took a deep breath and seemed to push all the doubt from her face. “Well, anyway, I’ve been thinking about ways to confront Marivean—ways we might be able to beat him.”
“Here’s hoping you came up with some good ones,” he murmured. “I’m not sure how I like Kronn’s idea of splitting you and Shyrah up.”
“It’s necessary,” she said. “I think I should face him alone.”
He frowned. “No offense, but she has a lot more experience…you know.”
“Killing people?”
“Basically,” he said with a shrug. “Say whatever else you want about her, but she’s a fighter.”
“She’s also had a whopping two days with these abilities,” Sariel pointed out. “I know it’s really the parasite and not her, but I have a lot more experience directing it.”
Damien sat down next to her. “But you’ve never fought another Angel before. And I also know you’ve never killed anyone.”
She turned away, and he reached out to grab her chin. The spark flared between them again, and he could feel her rush of embarrassment and annoyance.
“You really shouldn’t be embarrassed,” he told her. “Not because you haven’t taken a life. I mean think about that for a minute, really.”
“Neither have you.”
“No, and I’m quite proud of that. I’d rather not start if we can avoid it.”
Her dark eyes seemed to bore straight into his. “People are going to die, Damien. Lots of them—Asurans, mercenaries, whatever else they have standing in our way.”
“I know,” he said softly, “but that doesn’t mean I have to like it, or give up hope that maybe there’s another way. I mean look, everyone is just assuming the only way to get Marivean to tell us anything is to beat him into submission somehow. Maybe there’s another option.”
“All he wants is me,” she reminded him. “Nothing else is going to matter.”
“Maybe there’s a way to use that against him.”
He ran a hand through her white hair. It was soft and silky as normal, and he wondered how the hell she managed that given the conditions they lived in. He also wondered what he would do if Marivean did manage to capture her. He had only known her for one week, and he couldn’t even imagine his life without her. Not now, not ever.
“We can think on it,” she told him, her hand tracing across his chest and working at the buttons on his shirt. “But right now I’d rather do something else.”
He smiled and nuzzled her hand. “It’s kind of busy out there. I’m not sure—”
And then she was kissing him, and he stopped caring about the people outside the room, the dark Angel trying to find them on the other side of the city, or the suicide mission they were about to take. All that mattered was her breath, her tongue, her flesh—and the spark throbbing between their minds.
Yes, he decided, this definitely was the best week of his life.
***
“You know I think you could tell me a dozen more times and I still wouldn’t believe it,” Corin said softly, leaning back on his bed. “And you think you can control it?”
Shyrah nodded, moving from the wall to sit down next to him. “It’s like most other skills, I guess. You know how to do it, but explaining it is a lot more difficult.”
“Except you completely skipped the training part,” he reminded her. “Handy.”
She smiled and ran a hand through his hair. It had been a long time since she had done that—a really, really long time. It was hard to believe how long they had been together. No matter how their lives had changed or what they had been doing, she had always been there.
“You really think we have a chance at this?” he asked.
She took in a deep breath and then let it out as a long sigh. “I don’t know. We just don’t know what they’re going to have in there.”
“I’m not really worried about the guys with guns,” he said gravely.
“I’ll protect you from Marivean,” she told him. “Don’t worry about that.”
He smiled and leaned his head against the wall. “You know, I’m not sure what’s crazier, storming a Covenant fortress with an Angel inside, or the fact that I believe you when you tell me that.”
“It’s not crazy. I mean it.”
Corin looked at her, into those blue eyes he had seen so many times. Joy, terror, pain—he had seen it all in them at one time or another. She was so calloused and abrasive sometimes, but he had seen her at her worst. Powerless, miserable...but he wasn’t sure he had ever really seen her broken. Even in the worst days in the Syndicate when he could hear her cries of pain through the walls, he knew she would endure. She always did, and it usually made her stronger.
Now apparently she had real power. Maybe she was the first of many Demons that would find a way to tap into the creatures inside of them. If not, well, no one deserved it more than she did.
And he knew, he really
knew
, that she would be looking out for him. It made him feel like this crazy plan of theirs might actually work.
“I know,” he said softly, glancing away. “When you guys disappeared that night, I was just…lost. I couldn’t bring myself to believe you’d actually been killed. We figured you had been taken by the ESI, though, I knew you’d get out.”
She shrugged and smiled wryly. “Yeah, well, we got lucky. Plus I’m a tough bitch.”
He grunted. “Yeah, well, I just started thinking about…you know, all the old times—”
“They’re gone and done with,” she said flatly. “What matters is now, and what we have a chance to do.”
Corin eyed her again and wondered what had prompted that. She had been alone in that cell for a while, and she had probably had a lot of time to think about those days—and decide that dwelling on them was pointless. They had both agreed years ago to just let it go and forget about the Syndicate. You never could, of course, not really, but life with the Asurans had made it pretty easy. What they did here they did by choice, and they spent their time with good people—good people with pasts almost as bleak and harrowing as their own. It was a family, of sorts. Certainly more than any family either of them had ever had.
Except, perhaps, each other.
“Well, I’m ready for it,” he told her. “Why the hell not?”
Her smile widened, and he remembered how pretty it could be. A moment later she leaned in and kissed him. Over a decade together, and he had never touched her lips…and he hadn’t really regretted it until that moment. She held onto it for what seemed like minutes before pulling away.
“Try and get some sleep,” she said softly, squeezing his hand. “Tomorrow’s going to be a hell of a day.”
“Yeah,” he replied as she turned and left his room, “it sure is.”
Chapter Twenty
Stuffing a dozen armed revolutionaries into a pair of vehicles that wouldn’t draw attention was a non-trivial task, Kronn had learned a few years ago. Aside from the basic logistics involved, none of it would have been possible without the Asuran’s broad network of sympathizers. Someone had to smuggle their weapons and equipment into the city in the first place, acquire nondescript and legitimate vehicles that wouldn’t set off red flags in every police database, and then manage about a hundred other similarly important but mundane details. And of course, without Corin’s technical skills, he imagined ESI tracking systems would have already flushed them out the moment his arrangement with Portis fell apart.
He grimaced as he checked over his pulse rifle for the third time in the last five minutes. Regardless of whether or not they succeeded or failed here today—regardless of how many of his people managed to survive—the Asurans weren’t going to endure much longer. They simply didn’t have the resources to compete with an organization like Elassian Security. The only reason they had lasted this long was because of his partnership with them.
It almost felt like a regret, but it wasn’t. ESI partnership or not, they had accomplished more in the last five years than anyone could have imagined. They had saved the lives of hundreds of Demons who never would have survived otherwise. They had kept the Covenant from reaching its grasp even further into Solacean politics. Even if they all died here today, they had done something worthwhile.
Still, all things considered, he would much rather live on as a hero than die a martyr.
“We’re coming up on the towers,” the driver said. The other four Asurans did their own last second checks of their equipment. None of them, Kronn noted, had a shred of doubt in their expressions. They understood what was at stake, and they knew what they had to do.
“Good,” Kronn replied. He slid on the black, visored helmet that completed his body armor before thumbing on the com unit. “Shy? We’re about thirty seconds from the door.”
“Understood,” she said. “Corin says he hasn’t seen anything on the landing pad from here, but there’s no way to know for certain until we get closer.”
“All right. Set the timer to three minutes.”
“Aye. And Kronn?”
“Yeah?”
“Remember I still owe you a flechette in the head,” she muttered. “Don’t die in there and take that away from me.”
He smiled. “Right. See you soon.”
“Private joke?” Regis asked.
“Something like that,” Kronn murmured. “Everyone be ready.”
The two vehicles approached the tower parking lot. It was completely empty and gated, just as they had expected. Some fifty meters away was the front entrance, locked and sealed with a sign that read “Under Construction” on the front door.
“Time for the fun to start,” Stanson’s voice came over the com. He was in charge of the team in the other vehicle. “You boys ready?”
“Go,” Kronn ordered.
Stanson’s vehicle accelerated and plowed through the wooden barricades blocking off the parking lot. No audible alarm sounded, but that wasn’t surprising. Kronn doubted it was even rigged that way; more likely, spotters from the tower had simply seen the action and were calling it in now.
The two cars raced up near the front doors, turned, and then stopped. A moment later both side doors popped open and the Asurans charged out. A loud
thump
sounded from one of the men in the lead as he fired a series of grenades through the glass doors to give them cover. Explosions rocked the inside of the building, and billowing clouds of fire plumed out of the now shattered doorway.
Four of the men in the lead activated their shield projectors—wrist-mounted devices that created a five meter wide, shimmering bubble of energy in front of them. They could eat several pulse shots before overloading, and with any luck they would give them the cover they needed to reach their positions. The four shield-bearers leapt inside the building first, and the whine of retaliating pulse fire came not soon after.
Kronn dove in behind them, pressing himself in behind a metallic support column and squeezing off a few wild shots. The shield barriers rippled as enemy fire danced across them, and his people hosed down the entire area with blue-white blasts. The defenders already seemed to be falling back, and Kronn made out several bodies amidst the smoldering debris.
The battle had begun.
***
“There are at least a dozen of them, maybe more,” Zanek reported. “They’ve made it to the first floor, but we have them contained for now. I’ll send a few more—”
“No,” Marivean said coolly, standing near the window on the tower’s seventy-fourth floor despite Zanek’s recommendation he take cover. “The forces we have there are sufficient. Make certain the Chosen have secured the docking pad.”
“You’re still convinced there are more of them?”
“Kronn is no fool. He knows he’ll need to split our forces to reach me.”
“You think the Betrayer will come from the pad?”
“No, but another team will,” the Angel explained. “She will either repel from the adjoining tower or perhaps even risk the unfinished skyway.” He seemed to consider for a moment, then walked over towards his desk terminal. “We need to make sure both options are open to her.”
Zanek watched as his superior entered in a series of codes. “You want to disable the explosives?”
“We can’t risk harming her. The security monitors will let us know she’s coming, and that’s enough. I will do her a favor and meet her halfway.”
Zanek drew in a nervous breath. “My lord, I’m still not comfortable placing you in danger. We can assign the Chosen to—”
“That won’t be necessary. Let them deal with the others.”
“You still believe she can be saved, don’t you?”
“Yes. And if not…” his entire face seemed to darken, and his black eyes narrowed into thin slits. “Then I will destroy the Demon that has claimed her myself.”
Zanek nodded. “I understand, my lord.”
“No, you don’t, but you don’t need to understand. You need simply to obey, and in that you have never disappointed me.” The Angel smiled. “God will reward you for your service. And today, he will smile upon us both.”
“With victory over our enemies?”
“With victory over evil,” Marivean corrected. “And vengeance upon the wicked.”
***
“You know, this would be about a thousand times easier if we had managed to steal those ML5 turrets from that Solacean military base three months ago,” Corin commented. “A handful of shots and we could take out the top ten floors of that tower.”
“And have a dozen patrol fighters on top of us, not to mention police choppers,” Shyrah reminded him. “Oh, and we’d all be rotting in an ESI cell now, probably, since stealing those things would have bumped us up about a million levels on their priority list.”
He waved a hand dismissively. “Details. Anyway I’ve run every scan I can from this range. If that pad is rigged, they’ve done a good job of concealing it.”
“I’m more worried about the Chosen they’ll have guarding it,” she said quietly. “Just a few of them could pin us down pretty easily.”
“That’s what you’re here for, remember?”
“Yeah, well, I haven’t exactly had a lot of practice at this.” She bit down on her lip, remembering belatedly that there were eight other Asurans behind them—men and women who had been told Shyrah’s newfound abilities were the key to them taking this position. “But we’ll get it done. The clock is showing forty-five seconds.”
Corin nodded and slid on his helmet. He looked odd in a full suit of body armor. Though truthfully, he looked odd in anything other than his brown pants and baggy shirt. Still, with luck it would be enough to keep everyone alive. Kronn had done well getting them the best gear he could for this; it had probably used up all of his favors with the smuggling cartels he had somehow convinced to spare most of this equipment.
“All right, I’m taking us in,” she told them, then tapped her com. “Sara, we’re making our run. Start your timer.”
“Understood,” the Angel’s voice came back. “And God bless.”
“Yeah,” she replied tightly. “Right now I’ll just settle for a little alien magic.”
Shyrah juked the wheel hard and spun their shuttle out of the main traffic lanes a hundred meters above the actual streets. A number of horns blared from other irritated drivers, but she ignored it. She focused only on the dormant docking pad jutting out from the nearby tower and silently wished that its landing lights were still working. She was a bit rusty with this thing…
It wasn’t as bad as she had feared; the shuttle came to a rest on the pad with only a mild shake, and as a bonus the entire thing didn’t blow up the moment they touched down. An instant later the shuttle’s top hatch popped open and one of the Asurans pulled up the turret stashed inside. He poured a steady stream of fire across the pad straight into the building, shredding the doors in an instant and blanketing the interior with brilliant bolts of energy. Suddenly thankful her helmet had a noise filter, Shyrah grabbed her weapon and hopped out of the shuttle. The others did the same, the front duo activated their shield projectors the moment they were clear.
Two of her troops lobbed gas grenades in through the door to give them cover in case anything survived the turret’s barrage. They waited until the count of five and then raced forward. The pad didn’t extend very far—only twenty or twenty-five meters—but it felt like charging across a ten kilometer chasm. She was just waiting for someone to pop out and fire, or for the entire thing to explode in their face. She wished she had half of Sariel’s telepathic ability; she would be able to tell from here how many people were inside and maybe even where they were.
The turret stopped when they drew close enough to cut off his firing arc, and it only took a fraction of a second for everything to go straight to hell. A single shot lanced out from the inside of the building and hit the man in the turret squarely in the head. Shyrah had barely even registered what had happened before a torrent of fire erupted towards them, splattering off the shield projectors. Everyone scattered and dove for cover, and she heard the screams of someone taking hits. She reached out and grabbed Corin behind her, yanking him down behind cover—
She barely made it behind a pile of flaming desks before a shot sizzled close enough to her armor to leave a black mark. Even with her helmet’s sensors it was almost impossible to see a damn thing in the sea of fire and rising smoke, and she had no idea how the hell anyone had been able to survive their barrage. Corin swore viciously, and she heard the cries of another one of her teammates take a hit.
They were all dead if she couldn’t do something. After all the talk and preparation, all the debate about whether or not she could handle this, in that moment it became very real. Either she did what she was sent here to do, or her entire team was going to die.
Taking a deep breath, Shyrah tried to focus on the Demon inside her.
Any bright ideas? Now’s the time.
She didn’t really expect a response, and she leaned out to fire a few blind shots at the opposite wall. There had to be at least a dozen defenders in this room still, and she couldn’t even make them out behind their cover. Their shield projectors wouldn’t last long, and the desk she was crouched behind was already splintering—
And then suddenly, in a perfect moment of clarity, she knew what to do. It was that same impossible epiphany she had experienced at the ESI base, but this time she didn’t bother to question it. She leaned out of the cover and concentrated on the room’s damaged floor. Several sections had already collapsed, and she could almost feel the support columns below straining to hold up the rest. She reached out to them with her mind and pulled, and for a moment it felt like the entire building was about to collapse. The floor shook, and suddenly a twenty meter section on the other side of the room buckled and gave out.
It was almost like she had created a giant patch of quicksand. Desks, rubble, and bodies all fell through the now gaping hole in the floor. Some pieces were probably heavy enough to break through the one below as well. The shooting stopped as their enemies collapsed, and she risked leaning out fully to see what was happening.
A few of their opponents—white and black armored soldiers with rifles—were already falling back, racing out to the eastern stairwell as fast as they could move. She reached out with her powers again and managed to grab onto one and hurl him across the room and into the hole. The other three dipped out of her sight before she could stop them.