Chapter 41
Tobias
With a firm grasp on the multiple glamours currently in play, Tobias decided to ramp it up a notch. They needed to turn the tide on this war and start making better progress before he fell victim to fatigue.
Using Will’s dragon as a pattern, he carefully created a duplicate and began driving demons toward the angel.
“Is that you, Martelli?” Will’s voice appeared in his head.
“Yeah, just herding the enemy into your back yard. Have fun, don’t fuck it up.”
Will’s laugh, even telepathically was a great sound.
Being connected to Will and Rion over the Trinity link might just be the thing Tobias needed to get through this.
At times they irritated him to no end, but if he really thought about it, they were also what grounded him.
The only thing in this fucked up world he could count on.
Neither male acknowledged Christo’s passing, for now was not the time. They’d drown their sorrows later. For now, the male’s sacrifice would not be wasted. They were going to make these Unholy sons of bitches regret underestimating the Immortal Trinity.
A short distance from Will, Westergaard noticed the funnel of demons being directed toward Will.
With a devious grin, and no knowledge of Tobias’ involvement, he and his troops headed to assist. The male had proven to be a greater ally than they could have hoped for.
If they made it out the other side of this damned thing, Tobias would make sure to convey his gratitude.
A blip appeared on Tobias’ Undead radar.
It took effort to juggle the sorcery enough to figure out what was wrong.
Another servant was in pain. He reached through the connection and determined it was Vixen.
Though there was no way to tell what was happening at the penthouse, Tobias didn’t panic.
The stress and close proximity of her due date were an unavoidable combination set to bring about a biological reaction.
She’s having the kid. It’s sure to be painful, but that’s the nature of childbirth. She’s got friends around her and an angel in case of any mishaps. Sorry Vixen, I know you’ll understand later.
He forced an emotional disconnect, to give himself the best chance at maintaining his battle presence. Nobody else could command the glamour but him. It had to be his focus.
Kitty
A wave of nausea washed over Kitty, followed by a sharp stabbing pain. She recognized it immediately; a charge was in trouble. The more the sensation intensified, the more clarity kicked in. Vixen.
This realization only took a second, before instinct took over. She flashed out from the battleground to the penthouse to find Vixen deathly pale and writhing in pain. The bed she shared with Will seemed too vast for her alone, and the metallic stench of blood overpowered everything.
Even if she were not privy to Vixen’s dwindling life-force, the absence of her usual presence – happy, positive, loving, – reflected the state of things.
“We didn’t think you’d take so long to come,” Lori said softly, her eyes glassy.
“We didn’t know what to do,” Charisma added.
“We should have prayed sooner,” the words tumbled out of Lori’s mouth as if she had no idea what she was saying.
Kitty understood. If they’d sought help from mortal doctors, they’d have been forced to breach the wards.
It wouldn’t just risk their lives, but Tobias’ as well.
They hadn’t wanted to pray, knowing that almost every angel likely to respond had already been sent into battle.
Everyone except the guardian who had claimed them.
“You did the right thing.” Kitty had already sat down on the edge of the bed and placed a hand to Vixen’s belly. The life-force of the child was strong. Vixen had already had two children. It made no sense that this one would cause so much strife. Something is very wrong here.
“Where is Kyriel? Why isn’t she performing a miracle?”
Lori started to cry. Knowing how stoic a female she was under most other circumstances made it difficult to watch. “She… She…”
“She Fell,” Charisma finished. “Then, she left us.”
Kitty’s lips parted in astonishment. Of all the potential outcomes of their fight, her mother choosing darkness hadn’t even been on the bingo card. It was too much to digest right now, especially with the fading mortal in front of her, a friend who needed her.
“Has anyone examined her?” She asked.
“It’s too soon to push.” Vixen murmured.
“But there’s so much blood,” Lori threw back. “I’m sure there’s not meant to be so much blood.”
Kitty pulled back the bedding. It was so stained with the precious ruby fluid, that hadn’t just soaked through the sheet to the mattress, it was pooling on top as if the bed wasn’t absorbent at all. If she didn’t know Vixen was in labor, she’d have assumed an artery had been severed.
Then she saw it. A small and seemingly insignificant thing, almost completely concealed by blood.
Almost. The uncovered part, a quarter of an inch, was a crisp white collection of thin fibers.
She snatched it up at once, her suspicions confirmed immediately.
There was no time to wonder at how this had happened. This was now an emergency.
“We have to get that baby out. Now.”
“Is that… a feather?” Charisma’s brows narrowed.
Vixen whimpered. “A feather?”
“Oh God…” Lori choked out the words.
They all knew about the mortality rate of birthing winged babies. They’d read about it in great detail in Kyriel’s journal.
The thick cloud of emotion in the room threatened to overwhelm Kitty’s empathic core, but she had to be stronger than that. Vixen and the baby needed her. There wasn’t anyone else.
“I survived this once, so will your child,” she promised.
Using a knife, Kitty opened Vixen’s belly slowly and purposefully.
She released enough Holy energy to remove the pain, and Vixen barely uttered a sound.
Once the incision had been successfully made, she extracted the infant and cut the cord, taking care to heal the end still attached to the child.
As she handed the winged baby to Lori, Kitty felt Vixen’s soul begin to separate from her body.
“Nooo!”
She positioned both hands near the wound and started to heal the damage. She simply couldn’t weave the miracle fast enough. Vixen was slipping away.
“Hold on,” she ordered, tears falling freely. “You hold on, Vixen. Do you hear me?”
It was no good. She’d arrived too late. In desperation, Kitty grabbed a hold of the soul to avoid complete separation. With Vixen’s shoulders cradled in her arms, she dematerialized, taking the dying female with her.
Tobias
Vixen was in trouble, the kind that could no longer be ignored. Agony tore through his soul as if a blade had cleaved it in two. The prospect of losing a second servant so close to Christo’s demise threatened to break Tobias.
When he’d lost Christo’s father a century earlier, it had incapacitated him for several weeks.
It was expected for any vampire to falter when the bond was severed suddenly.
Losing Christo had been the same, but Tobias was exponentially more powerful now.
Somehow, he’d shoved it all under the carpet for the sake of this battle.
But now… Vixen was in trouble. Losing her would be a bigger deal. Not because he cared about her more than Christo, this was greater than the emotional disarray chasing the heels of shock. It wasn’t that at all. It was her connection to Will.
The child. Oh fuck… the child.
If he lost Vixen, he would lose the child too.
Not only would that be horrific for Will and everyone else who loved her, but the child however unintentionally – was also a servant.
Losing three… what would that do to Tobias?
If it crippled him, everyone on their side would be at risk.
All the bonds they’d awoken, the protection he’d provided, only worked if he was functional. Or at the very least, conscious.
This is what Kitty was talking about. The whole damned castle is going to come crashing down and there isn’t a thing I can do to stop it.
He prayed to the angels, to the Savior Himself, to anyone who might be listening - that Vixen would be okay.
The rift inside of him intensified, as the connection to Vixen disintegrated like a fraying rope. Why wasn’t someone helping her? Angels had been left in case of emergency. Someone do something, damn it!
“What is it? What’s wrong?” Uriel asked frantically.
“Tobias?” Will’s voice appeared in his head. “What’s happening?”
Tobias couldn’t make the words form in his mind, much less past his lips.
He couldn’t tell the male the truth, not if they hoped to continue this battle, or to survive it.
As he tried to conceive a rational explanation, his gaze pulled to the left involuntarily.
Kyriel stood between Rion-as-Oriax and Leviathan, with the black feathered wings of a Fallen.
She’d materialized just as Rion moved to strike the final blow. His axe pierced her body instead.
Before Tobias could process what he’d just witnessed, the last thread of Vixen’s connection to him broke and she was gone.
He fell to his knees, his grasp on glamour slipping further as he descended.
He lost connection with the fake soldiers he’d created, and the dragon.
Next, he lost his grasp on the illusion concealing the true Oriax.
The only sorcery he succeeded in maintaining was the one upon Rion.
Everything was turning to shit, but it couldn’t be for nothing. It just couldn’t.
He wanted to shout at Rion to finish the job before this last glamour fell, but the words would not come. Leviathan’s mournful cries rang out into the night, but the Trinity was crumbling. Rion stood there frozen, the Unholy axe still dripping with his mother’s blood.
Tobias slowly collapsed into a heap on the grass.
Uriel was yelling something, but he couldn’t make out what it was.
It felt as though pieces of him had separated from his body and he could never be whole again.
It didn’t feel like his soul was even in his body right now.
It was more like floating, as if the whole world had slowed down and he was simply watching as a spectator.
The air itself was suffocating him, a male who did not need to breathe.
Across the way, Rion had also fallen to his knees, the axe tumbling from his hand to the ground. The male was in complete shock. He had forgotten he’d been in the middle of assassinating his father.
Tobias might as well have been paralyzed. Words would not come. Not from his mouth, not telepathically, not even as thoughts. He simply watched, knowing he could do nothing to prevent whatever was to come.