Demon Evolution (13 page)

There were still hundreds of angels taking
flight, but they had managed to spread out sufficiently to decrease
the effectiveness of the weapon being used against them. Gabriel
randomly charged and fired the weapon two or three more times,
eliminating a few dozen more enemies, and then he followed the
survivors with his eyes until they had been absorbed back into the
mountain.

He waved his arm once in the direction of the
Lair, signaling Chris to start the rescue operation. Rapidly, his
concern switched back to Taylor, who had fallen over and was lying
in the fetal position. Thinking she was injured, he rushed to her
side and gently brushed her hair from her face. When she opened her
eyes, he asked, “Are you hurt?”

The warmth of her smile filled his heart with
relief. “That was incredible,” she said. If he didn’t know better,
he would almost think that she was talking about another part of
their relationship. Curious to talk to his girlfriend about what
she was feeling, but wanting to get to safety as soon as possible,
he gently lifted her body in his arms and soared into the air. As
they rose, the bright floodlights were extinguished by some unknown
angel technician, once more restoring the night to its natural
state of darkness.

Gabriel looked back once and could still see
twenty-six softly glowing forms, evidence that the angels spies
were still there where he had left them. As he watched, however,
the lights began to disappear in bunches, until there were none
left.
Mission complete
, Gabriel thought.

Looking back at Taylor’s still-smiling face,
he said, “We did it.”

She replied, “I couldn’t be happier. We make
a great team.”

Under the light from the soft glow of his
natural skin, Taylor looked even more stunning than usual. Her face
radiated love and he knew that his own face reflected back the same
love. Unable to hold in his curiosity any longer, he asked, “Why
does it make you happy when I use your aura, but cause you so much
pain when another angel does?”

They reached the cliff cave where they had
started the evening; it was now deserted, as Clifford had likely
teleported back into the Lair to monitor the aftermath of their
unexpected mission. He had taken Samantha with him.

Gabriel lowered Taylor’s feet to the ground
and put his arms around her waist, searching her eyes for the
answer. Her arms remained around his neck, clinging to him. “You
don’t know?” she replied. “Couldn’t you feel it?”

Gabriel tried to remember what it felt like
to connect with her aura. In the heat of the battle he was more
focused on strategy: hitting his enemies, protecting the prisoners,
etc. He hadn’t been very in-tune with his feelings. But now, as he
looked into the beautiful brown eyes of this intriguing and
fearless girl, his feelings came rushing back to him: warmth, love,
mercy, happiness, satisfaction. It was a smorgasbord of the best
feelings that life had to offer and he, like Taylor, immediately
knew the answer to his question.

“Because you are my soul mate,” he replied,
answering his own question.

She smiled. “Exactly, and you are mine. My
lommel
.”

Gabriel sighed, kissing her deeply. When they
pulled away, he said responsibly, “I guess we should get back
inside to debrief the mission.”

“I don’t think they’ll miss us just yet. I
think we’ve earned a little alone time,” Taylor said, pulling his
shirt off. She tugged him to the cave floor.

He couldn’t argue with that. “Lommel…,” he
said softly, wrapping his arms around her.

PART III

“
To all my friends, present, past and
beyond

Especially those who weren't with us too
long

Life is the most precious thing you can
lose

While you were here the fun was never
ending

Laugh a minute was only beginning

Ever get the feeling you can't go on

Just remember whose side it is that you're
on

You've got friends with you till the end

If you're ever in a tough situation

We'll be there with no hesitation

Brotherhood's our rule we cannot bend

When you're feeling too close to the
bottom

You know who it is you can count on

Someone will pick you up again

We can conquer anything together

All of us are bonded forever

If I die you die that's the way it is”

Pennywise- “Bro Hymn”

From the album
Pennywise (1991)

S
eething fury
rippled under his seemingly calm exterior. A raging fire tore
through his bones, burning into the very marrow of his being. How
many lives did Gabriel have? He didn’t care that a few of his
angels had been killed—they were replaceable. What really pissed
him off was that
his weapon
had been used against him. The
demons had dangled the ultimate prize right in front of his face,
like a matador waving a red flag at a snarling bull, and then
whisked it away, leaving him as the foolish, snorting bull.

Stay calm
, he thought.

Dionysus sat cross-legged on a mat, in a
bright, empty room. He was meditating, trying to channel his anger
and frustration in a positive direction. So far it wasn’t working.
The anger relentlessly boiled up, dangerously close to overflowing.
He took a deep breath. Under his breath he repeated, “Anger is
wasted energy,” over and over again until his wrath had subsided.
All he needed was a new plan. Something to focus his energy on.
Something to rally his troops behind.

How do you draw a rabbit out of a hole? He,
of course, knew the answer to this foolishly simple question: bait.
But he had already tried using the angel prisoners as bait and,
while the result was not as he had hoped, he still believed the
strategy to be sound. He just needed more concentrated bait. But
who? The answer popped into his head rapidly, probably a result of
the intense level of focus that meditation gave to him. He smiled
evilly, sprang to his feet, and rushed out of the room. A day and a
half had passed since the New Year’s Eve massacre and he knew that
the Council was growing restless. It was time to call a
meeting.

T
heir New Year’s
celebrations had been ruined by Dionysus, but the successful rescue
of the angel spies gave them a new reason to celebrate. The
twenty-six ex-prisoners, each in various levels of deterioration,
had recovered quickly, their superhuman angel bodies responding
well to a day of rest, proper food, and lots of water. Their
clipped wings had been replaced with the latest in titanium wing
technology until their natural limbs were regrown. A feast was
planned for the second evening from their rescue.

The loss of one of their own, Boyd Chance,
was mourned at first, but then instilled in each of them a steely
resolve to see their rebellion through to the end. Without being
asked, each angel spy vowed to continue their fight against
Dionysus, the Archangel Council, and all who supported them.

Gabriel and Taylor, along with the others who
had participated in the dangerous mission, were debriefed by
Clifford. The strategy going forward had yet to be determined, but
endless accolades were poured out upon Taylor, to which she
responded, “No biggie.”

After the debriefing, Sampson was
embarrassed. “I can’t believe I was the first one down, how
pathetic,” he muttered.

“Yeah, pretty bad, man,” Gabriel agreed.

Chris decided to join in on the verbal
pile-on. “If it wasn’t for Kiren, you’d be mince-meat. She stood
over you like she was defending her first-born child.”

“Kiren has a kid?” Sampson asked, looking
concerned. It was impossible for him to hide his interest in the
dark and tenacious beauty.

“Don’t listen to them, Sampson,” Kiren
replied. “I am single, childless, and I thought you performed
admirably as my steed. You protected me by taking the hit for
me.”

Sampson smiled sheepishly at the
compliment.

Unfortunately for him, it just added fuel to
the fire. “Geez, even after the battle is over, she is still stuck
defending you,” Gabriel taunted.

Trying to negotiate peace, Samantha said,
“From where I was watching, you all would’ve been screwed if it
wasn’t for Taylor.”

“True,” Chris said. “Thanks again,
Taylor.”

Taylor frowned at Sam, irritated that she had
turned the spotlight back on her. “Listen up. I don’t want to hear
anyone thank me, compliment me, or say anything else nice to me
that is related to what happened on New Year’s Eve.”

“Looks like someone woke up on the wrong side
of the bed,” Sam said, giggling. “But, please. Indulge us just one
more time.” Taylor looked at her confusedly as her friend extended
her arms like she was conducting an orchestra. “One, two, three,”
she said, and then, when she raised her arms, the ragtag gang of
angels, demons, and humans said in unison, “THANK YOU, TAYLOR!”

This time Taylor didn’t get mad. Instead, she
couldn’t help but shake her head and laugh at the five beautiful
individuals standing before her. While they were all physically
attractive, she felt that the beauty inside them far exceeded the
quality of their outward appearance. A little cliché, maybe, but
nevertheless true. The dynamic of the group was interesting. Not
only because it was comprised of a mix of three different races,
each linked by evolutionary forces, but also because of the length
of the relationships.

Taylor and Sam had been best friends for
years, but had only been with Gabriel and Christopher for a few
months. Gabriel and Christopher, however, had known each other
somewhat longer, having fought on opposite sides of the War.
Likewise, Christopher had known Kiren, and Gabriel had known
Sampson, since childhood, but Sampson and Kiren had only just met,
and now seemed on a collision course with the first ever
demon-angel romantic relationship. Lastly, Taylor and Samantha had
only known Sampson and Kiren for a few weeks and yet they already
felt as close to them as they did to each other’s boyfriends.

Sam put an arm around Taylor, affectionately
pulling her close. Taylor shook her off, pretending to look mad,
but really she was glad to have her friend with her. Despite having
Gabriel Knight, the love of her life, back with her, she knew that
without Sam she would feel lost and alone. Sam always knew when to
crack a joke, like just a moment ago. Taylor could only wish that
she could ever provide as much support to Samantha as she received
from her.

Still laughing at Taylor, Sam asked, “What
should we do now?”

With a gleam in his dark eyes, Chris
suggested, “Why don’t we go say hello to the gargoyles? You girls
haven’t seen them close up yet, have you?”

Simultaneously, Gabriel and Sampson said,
“No!” while Samantha exclaimed, “Yeah!”

“Why not?” Sam asked, when she heard that the
angels’ reply was opposite to her own.

Taylor replied, “We kind of forgot to tell
you about our last close encounter with gargoyles.” Taylor went on
to tell about Sampson’s brilliant idea to visit the angel gargoyle
paddocks and how the gargoyle had nearly killed them all by
connecting with Taylor’s aura. While Sampson was partly to blame
for them being there in the first place, he recovered some of his
pride when he told, in great detail, the part about how he and
David, Gabriel’s younger brother, subdued the raging beast before
it could seriously hurt anyone.

“So you can see our hesitancy in going
anywhere near a gargoyle again anytime soon,” Gabriel
explained.

Chris said, “I hear you, man, but that
situation only turned bad because it was an
angel
gargoyle
that was able to connect with Taylor’s aura. Demon gargoyles, like
demons, don’t even have the ability to see the human aura, much
less connect with it. I don’t see any harm in taking them down
there.”

Gabriel looked like he was ready to punch his
demon friend, but held his anger back when Taylor said, “Cool it.
He’s right, Gabriel. We won’t be in any danger. It’s completely
different.” After a few minutes of Chris describing the security
measures in the gargoyle cages, the types of stone walls used, and
the strength levels of the steel bars, he reluctantly agreed to
give it a try.

Chris, always the leader while in the Lair,
walked at the front, his arm linked with Sam’s. He led them down a
narrow, spiraling tunnel. Other than the demons, none of them had
ever been in this area of the Lair before.

Taylor and Gabriel followed closely behind
them; Gabriel kept putting his arm around her protectively and she
kept shrugging it off. He could be so damn protective sometimes.
She needed to find balance in her life. While she forgave Gabriel
for his sins, she didn’t want to go back to being just his
girlfriend. She wanted to be herself: strong, resilient, tough,
independent.

Following a healthy distance behind were
Sampson and Kiren. Their flirting had picked up in the last few
days and now, as their hands brushed against each other’s casually
while they walked, they chatted more privately, their voices hushed
as they spoke in fierce whispers.

As they descended, the lighting became darker
and darker until the frequency and strength of the torches declined
enough to thrust them into darkness for long stretches of time.
Already on edge, Gabriel’s glowing lips moved up and down. He said,
“Hey, demonboy, is this really the way?”

Kiren laughed somewhere in the darkness
behind them. She said, “Yeah, Chris. Isn’t there a faster, less
scary way?”

Chris admitted, “I thought the long way would
be more exciting and suspenseful. We could have taken a transporter
directly there, but that’s so boring.”