Chapter 39
Chapter Thirty-Nine
T he loss of Kinley’s warmth under my palm when she left the table hadn’t gone unnoticed. I knew she had been going through more than anyone ever should. It wasn’t fair what was done to her. Being an immortal being meant there was no limitation on the number of traumatizing events one could possibly endure.
My eyes followed her until Sylas spoke up.
“This was a bad idea.” He pointedly stared at me.
I refused to believe that getting Kinley out of her rut was anything but what she needed. Being stuck inside the loft for several more weeks was only going to breed more unrest and instability. I knew my sweet angel. Normalcy in the form of structure and expected outcomes was key to ensuring she was calm.
After several moments of tension lingering between us, Rook was the one to cut through it all.
“You two blokes going to have a pissing match here and now?” He dipped a French fry into the puddle of grease around the bottom of his burger before shoving it into his mouth.
My gaze shifted, looking to see if Sy was willing to bend in the slightest on this. When he sat back in his seat, I knew that maybe he was seeing reason after all.
Sylas drew in a deep breath before he finally spoke up. “When she comes back, we should consider calling it a night. We can try again another night.”
Rook looked defeated, and I felt equally downtrodden.
“Let’s see what she feels like when she gets back,” I proposed. There had to be a middle ground somewhere between Kinley becoming a recluse, hiding from the world, and even remotely becoming a vision of her former self. I would take Kinley on a day when she was torturing humans over a day when she was a goddamn ghost.
Another round of silence came over our table before suddenly, a familiar voice interrupted all our thoughts.
“Sorry, I’m late. Round two went a bit longer than I anticipated. I’m a sucker for a girl who can use her tongue.” Zorah stood there with a sated flush still lingering on her cheeks.
Rook seemed to sink into a state of grumpiness at his twin’s sultry confession.
Our stern archangel pretended as though he had heard nothing.
Fortunately, Zorah pushed the conversation further away from our minds as she looked around the table and then asked the obvious. “Where’s Lee-Lee?”
“She went to the bathroom,” I spoke up quietly.
Zorah looked at each one of us and then shook her head. “No. She didn’t. I hit the little girls’ room on the way in here; it was as empty as a liquor store on the first day of Lent.”
Each of us shared looks with each other. Before I could put the question out there, Rook interrupted me.
“On it,” he stated with a voice of understanding. Immediately, the focus appeared on his features before his eyes popped wide open.
I couldn’t quite explain the tremor in his lips as they tried to form words. It may have been worry, or maybe even shock, but in either scenario, it was clear that it wasn’t something he wanted to see when he traced our little fallen angel to her current setting.
Looking over at Sylas, a partial growl left my throat while I attempted to obtain clarity on just what our trickster companion had discovered.
“Where is she, Rook?” My eyes darted over to him.
He had the grace to grow uncomfortable with what he had seen.
“Not far. She’s at a nightclub a few doors down.”
Sy’s gaze was as serious as I’d ever seen it. “What’s she doing there?”
Rook sat there silently, not having a response for him. Thankfully, his sister had more sense than he did. “She’s…” Zorah looked defeatedly at the ground. “Empty.”
“Empty?” I repeated the word back to her. How could she be empty ?
Zorah nodded once more as she never tore her eyes from the ground. “Empty. Perhaps not physically, but I feel nothing but fabricated bad energy radiating off her soul as it called to me.”
Rook’s jaw dropped partially. “Are you trying to say that she’s stuck in her own imaginings?”
Shifting uncomfortably in her stance, Zorah searched for a response that didn’t downplay the situation.
“I’m saying that nothing is tethering her to reality as we see it.” Zorah looked at all of us with an apologetic and yet fearful look in her eyes.
“Goddamnit,” I said under my breath in frustration. “We need to get to her before she does something she will regret.”
Placing a hand on my shoulder, Rook looked at me square in the eyes. “Mate, we need to be smart about this. We don’t know what we’re walking into.”
“As much as I hate to admit it, the trickster is right. A crowded club is far from ideal for discretion. There’s too much liability that we’ll make this worse if we barge in there without a plan,” Sy pointed out.
Zorah’s eyes flicked between the three of us as we tried to come up with a plan that resulted in the least amount of carnage.
Finally, she spoke up with a question none of us wanted to consider. “And if she is too far gone?”
Sy rubbed his fingers over his eyelids. Rook gave a shaken look at me, one that preceded the moment of telling someone really bad fucking news.
I blew out a breath of air harshly and shook my head. “No, that’s not a possibility. I won’t let it be.”
My eyes settled on Sylas as he dropped his hand back down to his side and stepped up to me. Both his hands grabbed my shoulders firmly as his eyes stared at mine.
Staring at me, he spoke firmly, “We have to be prepared.”
“For what?” Zorah questioned as her voice raised an octave in alarm at where her mind was going with all this vague talk.
I gritted my teeth as I kept my eyes focused on the archangel in front of me, his hands squeezing my shoulders. “For Sylas to use his sword on her.” My voice was barely recognizable even to myself under the roughness of emotions scratching it.
“I thought Lee-Lee’s Divinity Sword was the only thing that could take her out?” she asked, the confusion present on her face.
Sy explained, “It is. However, the sword of an archangel trumps that. Each Divinity Sword I’ve ever created contains a small piece of my blade. So, in a way, a little bit of Kin’s sword is in my own.”
It finally struck Zorah how serious things were. Her face shifted from one of sadness and harshly reversed course into one that mirrored a strengthened determination.
“We won’t let that happen,” she firmly stated, as though it could be willed into truth.
All I could do was nod with Zorah’s noble pledge.
Before leaving the gastropub, we all came up with a fast and loose game plan. There were four of us and one of Kinley. Under normal circumstances, those were good odds. We’d see, under a more unusual situation, if they held up.
As we arrived at the nightclub, a small gathering of people attempted to gain access but failed miserably. One human complained about being locked out, while another suggested that maybe they closed early.
“That’s not a good sign,” Rook pointed out.
Sy nodded toward the alley, “Let’s take the shortcut inside.”
Stepping out of sight around the corner of the building away from nosey humans, we took the supernatural way into the club. Our entire group went from standing in the alley to inside the nightclub in a blink of an eye.
The sight that greeted us was a punch straight to my gut. Every human occupant was on their knees, and in the center of the room was Kinley. She was on her knees with her hands clasped together in what looked like prayer.
Sensing our presence, her head shot up as her eyes opened. The spellbinding blue hue I’d come to adore was gone, replaced by an ominous shadow of black and blaze of orange and red.
Rook took a step forward, and Sylas stopped him with a firm grip on the demon’s arm.
“Hold up,” Sy roughly ordered.
Kinley rose to her feet, her blackened wings and her arms extended out to her sides. Her palms were face-up, and swirls of black smoke licked at the tips of her fingers as though her nails were smoldering.
“Leave,” she said with a hollow voice that barely even sounded like the angel I knew and desperately loved.
I shook my head. “We aren’t abandoning you when you need us most.”
“So be it.” There was no argument, no plea for us to change our minds, there was nothing that reflected she gave a damn.
I looked to Sylas, already finding his gaze on me. The situation before us was worse than having her rambling about voices.
She gave a small snap of her wrists, and suddenly, every human in the club rose to their feet. It was a synchronized movement, like a well-practiced army falling in line.
“Then you’ll watch him burn,” Kinley warned us only moments before a blast of heat swept through the air.
It started with one droplet of fire raining down followed by another. It was like watching a summer rain that started with a light drizzle and began to pick up, escalating toward a violent thunderstorm.
The intention was clear as hellfire began to fall from the air all around us that she was going to destroy every mortal soul in there.
There was an eerie silence to the assault. Kinley’s intended victims didn’t scream. They merely stood there, even as the flames made contact with them. An unmistakable stench of burning hair, clothes, and flesh began to weave its way through the air.
It wasn’t just her power we were dealing with anymore; it was Lucifer’s.
There was no time for a discussion, just the execution of the plan we had thrown together. Sy released Rook’s arm, and he took off like a slingshot. His speed put him behind Kinley before the rest of us could take a step.
Zorah was on my left, a purple aura pulsing from the center of her chest. She went straight to work on trying to use her emotional manipulation across the room.
I could only hope that if Zorah could magnify the humans’ emotions enough, it would break past the hold Kinley had on their free will.
As for her trickster twin? His hands clamped down on the sides of Kinley’s head to work on force-feeding her an illusion. Her body swayed lightly under whatever vision filled her mind.
Both Sy and I pushed through the unmoving mass of people to get closer to our girl. The rainfall of flames left us unscathed and unbothered.
Hope was restored as the flickering of fire slowed, showing that Rook was making progress with the influence of his abilities. The pelting of hellfire fizzled out quickly until it was just wisps of smoke in the air around us.
“Mates, I don’t have much longer. She’s pushing back hard,” Rook warned us as his hands visibly shook under the strain of his efforts.
Just as we got within arm’s reach of Kinley, her wings made a sweeping movement, knocking Rook back from her.
The impact of his body crashing against some stereo equipment echoed in the club, causing the crackling sound of a now-busted speaker.
Kinley smiled wickedly as she stood there looking at Sylas and me.
“You all have been very naughty boys. I don’t like it when my toys don’t play nicely with me.”
Looks like I was up next.
“Kinley, there’s no need for this. Let them go, we can get through this,” I said with a gentle tone.
I extended a hand out toward her upward-facing palm, offering her the promise of help. “Together.”
Her possessed eyes critically looked at my hand, and just as she began to reach for it, a shrill scream broke through the air.
The first of the humans snapped out of the daze Kinley had them under. Another soon followed.
Bristling with anger and a deep growl, Kinley immediately recoiled her hand from mine.
“No!” she said forcefully as she raised both hands.
That’s when Sy lunged and pummeled into her like a battering ram.
Sounds of pained panic and fear erupted all around us as each strand of Kinley’s charmed control was plucked away.
Turning to look at Zorah, I yelled loud enough over the commotion. “Get them all out of here!”
Without hesitation, she gave a curt nod and began working on creating the exit path at the front door by nearly ripping it off its hinges. At that point, there was a mass exodus.
When I turned to look back at Sylas, he was engaged in a scuffle with Kinley on the floor.
“Kin! Snap the fuck out of it!” Sylas fought to pin her down on the ground as she flailed about in a mess of limbs and feathers.
Seeing Rook struggling to get up from the heap of electronics, I immediately rushed over to him. On the way, I had to step over a few humans who hadn’t survived Kinley’s fiery attack.
I solidly grabbed Rook’s hand and helped yank him onto his feet.
Shaking his head like a dog shaking out its fur, he leaned against my side. “I need to try again,” he said wearily.
Here we stood, with me propping him up. I wasn’t so sure tapping into his illusions again was a good idea. “You can barely damn stand,” I said, pointing out the obvious.
There was nothing but stubborn determination on his face. “I don’t need to stand,” he said as he lifted a hand, waving it through the air like an artist with a paintbrush over a blank canvas.
Kinley landed a punch straight to Sy’s temple, taking him off guard long enough for her to toss him off her.
“Nothing is going to stand in my way of killing Nicodemus once and for all, not even you!” she sneered at him.
Once Sylas tumbled off to the side, she didn’t hesitate to stand and step on his chest as she turned her predatory focus on us.
The nerves started to ratchet up inside me, and I couldn’t hide them from my voice. “Rook? You want to work a little faster?”
“Bloody patience, lad,” he mumbled.
Stalking ever closer to us, Kinley spoke quietly. “You’ve made a mess of things. I knew I should have listened when I was told to let you all go. You’ve done nothing but try to tame me.”
“Angel, you know that’s not true,” I argued.
Rook continued to swish his hand this way and that. He didn’t take his eyes off Kinley as he lowered his voice just soft enough for me to hear. “Hold on tight, you’re both going back to St. Cassius.”
Before I could question him, the surroundings whirled around me until I found myself back at the top of the fateful mountain.
Standing at the summit of St. Cassius was a bit startling. Memories of the last moments of my cambion lifetime came back to me. Despite knowing all this was a fabrication courtesy of Rook, it was still unsettling.
Ahead of me was the fair-haired angel staring off the cliff of the mountainside. I came up behind her, placing my hand on her shoulder.
Kinley spun to face me, her cheeks rosy from the freezing temperature. Her eyes were as blue as the ocean was deep.
Seeing the saturation of that blue color in her eyes again warmed my heart.
Smiling at her, I reached out my hand to caress her cheek. “Angel, why are you doing this?”
“He won’t stop. He will never stop until he gets what he wants. You, of all people, should know how ruthless he is,” she explained. “He killed you.”
I shook my head at her and spoke with nothing but tenderness in my voice, “He didn’t get what he wanted. I’m still alive, aren’t I?”
Her chin quivered as she stood there staring at me, all her emotions visible in this altered state.
Taking one step closer, I wrapped an arm around her shoulders, drawing her into my chest. I brought my mouth to her ear and whispered lovingly to her. “There is always a way, even if we can’t see it in the moment. If I can make my way back to you, I have faith you can come back from all that you’ve gone through.”
Kinley pressed her face into my chest, her hands grasping onto my sides tightly.
“He’s here, I can feel him in my head.” The mental anguish was evident in how she spoke those words.
I watched as the breathtaking view of the mountaintop flickered around us, the view of the nightclub breaking through. Rook must be burning through the last of his energy, meaning we were on borrowed time now.
“Kinley, you need to stop. You’re giving him what he wants by repeating history.” I hoped my words hit home. “I swear to you, we will find a way to overcome this.”
She pulled her face away from me to look up into my eyes in an almost childlike manner.
The white of the snow began to darken around us.
The dim interior of the nightclub began to replace the snow-covered mountain.
Kinley remained in my arms as the illusion tapered off. The sapphire coloring in her eyes slowly overtook the harsh black as awareness overcame her.
She gasped as her eyes darted around, pulling out of my arms.
Rook stood behind me, his hand clutching onto the slope of my shoulder while he breathed heavily from his exertions. Glancing back at him, I could see that Sylas had an arm supporting him as well.
“I-I thought that he was here, I swore,” she whispered as she looked at the remnants of her damage on the club and several of its occupants. Her wings quickly shrank into her back upon the realization of her actions.
“Kin, it’s okay,” Sylas said as gently as I had ever heard him talk to anybody.
Tears welled up in her eyes as she almost tripped over the human remains of a young woman.
Her voice was heavy with regret as she spoke. “It’s not okay, none of it. I’m just like him.”
“Love, you could never be like him,” Rook reassured her.
She trembled as she surveyed the damage of what she had done. Instant regret overwhelmed her face.
Then, she ran.