Except… when I’d first met the demon hunter, he had said the best thing I could do would be to walk away from my family. In fact, the only reason he’d come back to town after years away was to deal with Van. Had he walked away to keep Sera and John safe, and when his enemies had come for them anyway, returned to save them? Was that why Vassago had wanted her for that ritual?
Maybe it was less because of magic and more because she was bait. I had to admit, it made a certain amount of sense. Now things were starting to fall into place. The only problem was, I wasn’t particularly fond of where they were falling.
“Sera, Danton’s hurt bad. Can you help him?” I asked, dropping down to my knees beside her and putting a comforting hand on her shoulder.
Sera looked up at me with tears streaming from her eyes. “What?” she said, her voice distant and far off.
“Sera, listen to me. You need to help him before he dies.” I shook her lightly and pointed at the wound with my other hand. “Can you help him?”
“Help him?” she replied before something in her eyes completely shattered and everything inside her hardened. “Why should I help him?” She pulled away from me, dropping him. “He left us.”
“Sera, you can yell at him later.” I reached out to her so I could shake some sense into her because neither Danton nor I had time to deal with her flipping out, but she moved out of my reach before I could. “Just save him for now.”
“Oh, I’ll save him, so I can kill him,” she snapped, leaping to her feet and moving to her door. She unlocked it and pushed it open. “Get him inside.”
I summoned my last reserves and pulled Danton inside the room with what was left of my manly strength. Sera was already running around the room like a tornado. She had a weird glowing troll doll in one hand and a jar with what looked like one of those face huggers from Alien in the other. I’d barely shut the door when she dropped down in front of Danton and sliced open his bloody button down with a pair of medical shears.
The wound was way worse than I’d expected. Behind the white glow, I could see bits of intestine and other things that looked suspiciously like organs. If he’d have been a werewolf, I wouldn’t have been worried, but I was pretty sure he was human and most humans didn’t survive getting gored.
“Start praying, Mac,” Sera said, shoving a Bible into my hands. “And if you don’t know how, just flip open to a random part and start reading. God will make sure you pick the right part.”
“Seriously?” I said, looking down at the Bible clasped in my black as the hair on Satan’s ass hand. Demonic tattoos ran up and down my arm, glowing in the light of the room like the last embers of Hell itself. How was I supposed to pray?
“Yes, seriously,” She smeared some goop that smelled and looked a lot like urine onto Danton’s chest. The blood splattered across his torso began to fizz and pop before dissipating into red steam.
“But I’m Cursed,” I said, opening the Bible anyway. After all, what was the worst that could happen? God smiting me down? Then again, I had just gotten kicked out of Heaven. “There’s no way anyone is going to listen to what I say.”
“Sometimes you have to do things you don’t want to do because it helps others. Just read. It will help him,” Sera growled, turning her mom glare on me. I shrank back and looked down at the page even though I absolutely did not have time to do this. Not with my family dying in a desert. Then again, Danton was kind of, sort of a friend.
“Fine,” I whispered, staring down at the pages. Matthew chapter ten stared back at me. What the hell. If all I had to do was read the Bible to save him, I could spare some time for that. I cleared my throat and began to read aloud.
“Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in Hell.” As I said the words, Sera continued to work, closing the wound with expert care and smearing it with another jar of neon yellow cream. With each stitch, she made, soft light filled in his wounds. I wasn’t sure if I was helping or not, but something was definitely happening, something I couldn’t explain at all. Hopefully, it was helpful.
“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?” I continued, and the sound of sparrow song filled the air around us. “Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” As the last word left my lips, the scenery around us shattered into a billion fragments of starlight before melting together like a hallucinogenic daydream.
Storm clouds stretched out around us in every direction. Danton lay before us, golden light spilling off his body like blood. Sera was lying prostrate over him, her eyes shut. Words in a language I couldn’t understand spilled from her lips as she gripped his torn shirt in her bloody hands.
I followed suit, bowing my head back to the Bible. I wasn’t sure if my words were helping, but it sure seemed like they were so I wasn’t going to doubt myself now. “Whoever loses their life for my sake will find it. Anyone who welcomes you, welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me, welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.”
A jagged arc of lightning split the sky and thunder boomed a crescendo. I found myself looking up at the stormy sky above. It shattered like a wineglass, fracturing in a way I couldn’t quite comprehend. Blinding light every color of the rainbow burst from the shattered sky and fell over me like honey. My blackened hand left the Bible as I reached up toward it like a moth drawn toward the flame.
As a being clothed in shimmering gold stepped forth from the light and looked upon us, I sucked in a breath that tasted of honey and springtime while tears I couldn’t stop spilled from my eyes and splattered across the pages open in my lap.
“It has been a long time since one of your kind has dared to step upon Heaven, and you do it twice in one day. It is brave beyond measure for you to bring your friend to me, for I have dashed many of your kind from this world,” she said. Her voice rolled over me like a raging storm, punk rock, cherry ice cream all rolled into one. It swept me up, tore me apart, and left me breathless and broken.
“Can you save him, Michelle?” Sera pleaded, looking up at her with tear-stained eyes. Michelle’s head swiveled, and Sera met her gaze. “Please.”
“Possibly,” Michelle said, cocking her head and regarding her for a long time. “But I’m not sure if I should. To do so would be to prolong his life and keep him from his reward beyond. That is not a thing to do lightly or without good reason.”
Sear was on her feet in an instant, her tiny hands balled into fists. “What do you mean you don’t know if you should?” She whirled, pointing to Danton with one trembling finger. “He’s my husband. He was supposed to be dead. You told me he was gone.” As she met the angel’s eyes, her hands clenched and unclenched with barely restrained fury. “Please…”
“He was gone because he was needed elsewhere,” Michelle said, and her voice lashed out like a whip, knocking Sera on her butt. “You of all people should understand duty.” Michelle stepped forward, completely ignoring me and looked up at the sky. I got the vague impression she was listening to something I couldn’t hear, and all I could do was hope it was good news for Danton. I wasn’t sure what I’d do if he wound up dying because they wouldn’t help him after his years of service. Probably something incredibly dumb.
“Please,” Sera whispered, her voice nearly gone as she stared down at her clasped hands. “Please…”
“His work is not yet finished.” Michelle knelt down beside Danton and ran one hand over his chest. As she did, the wound began to heal, closing over and stitching itself back together in an instant. “But it will be soon.” Her final words sent a chilly dagger through my heart. She would save Danton, but he was going to die soon after. I swallowed hard. Hopefully, her definition of soon and mine were vastly different.
Michelle stood from Danton’s healed body and looked over at me. “I’m surprised you can read that.” She gestured to the Bible clutched in my blackened hand. “Did it burn you, Cursed?” The strange thing was, I couldn’t find anything other than curiosity in her voice. “I’ve heard it often does.”
“No,” I said, making sure to keep my head bowed so she wouldn’t throw me from Heaven. I’d been there, done that, and didn’t even want the T-shirt.
“Interesting,” Michelle said before reaching out and touching my forehead with one slender finger. The cat in my head shrieked so loudly I thought my head exploded. Michelle’s hand jerked back like she’d touched a live wire while the cat in my head continued to scream and hiss.
“Betrayer!” the cat screamed through my mouth. My arm exploded into a flare of crimson and came up with a mind of its own. Hellfire streamed from my outstretched palm, blazing so brightly in the light of the Heavens, I couldn’t even look at it.
“No,” Michelle said, her once confident features fading into worry. “It can’t be…”
Hellfire burst from my hand, ripping out between us and slamming into the archangel. The blast hit her full in the chest and flung her backward across the clouds like a ragdoll. The scene around us exploded into a sheet of flame that burned up the surroundings like a backdrop at a movie set. In seconds, the fire had swallowed the whole of Heaven, leaving us on the floor of Sera’s apartment with the smell of brimstone hanging in the air like fog.
Chapter 23
“Well, that happened,” I said, trying to mentally glare at the cat demon in my head, but she was doing a really good job of not paying attention to me. I could find just the barest glimmer of her presence, and when I focused on it, she responded by giving me the feline version of walking away and whistling.
“I can’t believe you blasted Michelle in the face with Hellfire after she saved Danton,” Sera said, getting to her feet and poking me hard in the solar plexus with her index finger. “You’re lucky she didn’t scour you from existence.” She glared at me. Her sapphire eyes were colder than a glacier. “You need to leave before she comes down here with a whip made of brambles and fire.”
“Is she seriously that bad? I haven’t even heard of an angel named Michelle. How powerful could she be?” I said, mostly because her words caught me off guard. I mean, I needed to leave anyway, but I was covered in blood and had literally just helped her save her husband. Surely some thanks were in order. Speaking of which. “I thought you said your husband was dead.”
“That’s because the male chauvinists who wrote down her name got it wrong. You might know her better as Michael. She’s the angel who defeated Lucifer in the Book of Revelations. You need to leave before she decides to wipe out the entire city block to make sure she gets you. The archangel is nothing if not thorough.” She pushed me toward the door. “And yes, I watched him burn to death in a fire. He went back in to save Maya. As he pushed her out a window, the building collapsed, trapping him inside. We found his charred bones afterward. The dental records matched.”
“I’m sure he had a good reason for faking his death,” I said and turned toward the door because the rage that blossomed on her face actually scared me. It almost made me want to stay to make sure she didn’t actually murder Danton, but something told me I did not want to get in the middle of this. Not by a fucking longshot.
“And I intend to find out what it is,” Sera growled, glaring at her unconscious husband so hard, I expected him to burst into flames. Despite the horrible injury he’d suffered earlier, he looked like he’d never been hurt at all. I don’t know what I’d expected because I’d seen werewolves heal wounds without a trace, but I still sort of anticipated seeing scar tissue or at least new, pink skin. Danton didn’t have either. “Now if you’ll excuse us, I need to figure out what to tell my son about how his dead father is back from the grave.”
“Why don’t you let Danton wake up and tell him?” I asked, and as the words left my mouth, she marched across the room, opened the door, and pushed me outside of it.
“Thanks for your help, Mac.” She shut the door, leaving me standing there in the hallway unsure of what to do. Part of me wanted to protest more, but I wasn’t sure why since the most important thing I could do right now was leave and find my family. It was weird, especially since I couldn’t figure out what made me want to stay here.
“I don’t have time for this,” I said, deciding to take advantage of the out Sera had given me. All I needed to do now was head to the desert and find my family. I didn’t even need to make any excuses to leave the demon hunter in her care. I could just go. The knowledge was strangely freeing. I even had a stolen car downstairs. It was like the universe itself was urging me to go.
A few hours later, I found myself in the middle of the desert. The sun was high in the sky, blazing down upon me like the relentless bitch she was. As I got out of the car, the skin on the back of my neck started to bake, but I ignored it in my haste to find my family. I was so close I could taste it.
This particular spot was about fifteen miles off the nearest highway and seemed no different than the other miles of desert around it, but since I’d ripped the information out of Sal’s mind, the place might as well have had a giant neon arrow pointing at it. Now it was time for the hard part. Digging them out in hundred degree heat.
I pulled the shovel and pick I’d pilfered from a local hardware store mostly because I hadn’t wanted to wait in line to pay for them and waste valuable time. It had been easier than I’d expected because I’d just thrown things in the cart and walked out through the returns section. No one had even looked at me. To be fair, I’d probably go back and pay for them later.
“I can’t believe I’m finally here,” I said, pulling on my leather gardening gloves.
I dropped my pick beside a pile of hastily stacked rocks. None of them were particularly big, but it took a lot longer than I’d have liked to toss them to the side. I’d thought about digging around them to save time, but with my luck, they’d just fall in my hole and make the process more difficult and time consuming.