32. Welcome to the red house
Nevaeh
T he sound of metal clinking and boots stomping with unparalleled coordination makes my stomach sink. I squeeze my eyes shut when it finally dawns on me who they are.
“Please tell me I’m hallucinating, and I don’t hear Heaven’s warriors marching up the hill,” I plead.
“You’re hallucinating, and you—”
“I will kill you, Sharky.”
Clapping his hands, Seiji wedges himself between Hazel and me to pull me away. “Hey, save that rage for the army coming to bury us here.”
But how did they find us?
Angel kept today’s mission as close-knit as possible because he didn’t want the entire kingdom to panic over us going to The Forgotten Realm. No more than half a dozen high-ranking warriors knew about our whereabouts, so I don’t understand how we are in this mess.
If Heaven's army is here for us— without an exit strategy —then this is a suicide mission. It’s hard to wrap my head around Heaven sending their soldiers on a suicide mission just to target a couple of innocent kids.
Okay... we're not really kids per se and aren’t all that innocent either, but this is still extreme.
Closing my eyes, I focus on the movements to estimate the number of skilled warriors marching to their deaths.
30… 45… 53. Fucking shitballs, we’re so fucked.
Looking at the shocked faces around me, I answer the lingering question, “Over sixty warriors trained by the gods themselves. This is not good.”
Suddenly Angel is repeatedly clearing his throat and expectedly looking at Hazel, who is shuffling on her feet nervously. The exchange momentarily steals my attention from our reality.
Why do I get the feeling that, for a change, I’m not the one responsible for this mess?
Throwing her duffle bag on the floor Hazel starts retrieving gun after gun from inside it. Skillfully ignoring the glare Angel has directed at her she continues passing out the human weapons until every hand in the room is armed. Grace and Anxo refuse since they already have long-range weapons on them.
I would much rather rely on my fists than these machines I cannot figure out for the life of me, but alas, desperate times call for desperate measures.
The weapons keep coming, and it takes me a second to size them up before I realize the siren has an enchanted bag. “Hey, we don’t work with witches’ you traitor!”
With a guilty grimace, Hazel flashes me a tiny smile, “It was before you.” My glare only intensifies, so she adds, “I blackmailed and threatened her if it makes you feel any better.” It does.
Hazel goes rigid when Angel bends so they’re at eye level. Pointing his finger at the window, he asks her in a tone that doesn’t leave room for excuses or deflection, “When did you piss off Heaven?”
Hazel struggles to keep her composure, but I know from experience that the moment Angel loses his carefully structured patience, she’ll be in a ton of trouble.
Hazel opens her mouth to snap back, no doubt, but the look on Angel’s face stops her.
“Recently.”
“How?”
She mumbles so quietly I miss them but not the steam coming out of Angel’s ears. “You stabbed Hermes?!”
Hermes: The ancient Greek god of trade, wealth, luck, fertility, animal husbandry, sleep, language, thieves, travel and blah blah blah.
I've heard he’s the sleaziest of the bunch.
“He wanted to fix my ‘fertility issues’ . Fucking creep. He’s lucky I didn’t cut his dick off to save the world from another one of his offspring.”
I don't need the whole story. I’m on the siren’s side.
I can practically see the wheels in Grace’s head turning as she thinks out loud. “If you think about it—”
“You really don’t have to.”
Grace ignores Hazel and continues piecing Hazel’s mess. “We’ve earned quite a few enemies in recent years.”
“And I’ve heard almost all of them blaming a certain mouthy siren for their passionate hatred for us,” Seiji adds, which earns him a stink eye from Hazel. For the first time, he has the opportunity to get Hazel in trouble, and he’s taking full advantage of it.
“Come out, you demented abomination! I have a debt to settle!”
Uh-oh. I take it back. I still have a hand in this mess.
So that’s Victor. Another high-ranking warlock I have a teeny tiny issue with.
“I’m actually very busy, but my mate would happily take my place!” I shout back.
“Seriously, you sell me out that easy? I’m offended, sweetheart.” Despite feigning offense, Angel pecks me before turning back to Hazel. “I want a list of everyone you’ve pissed off and why, when we get home.”
Seeing Hazel’s frown, Angel adds, “I won’t make amends if you had a good reason like Hermes, but I can’t have people scheming behind my back just because they asked about your heritage or looked at your daggers a certain way.”
Hazel’s face sours and she grumbles under her breath before agreeing.
Walking over to the window, Seiji cracks his neck, “Grace? grab my inhaler. I’m about to fuck some shit up.”
“But you don’t have asthma. In fact, you can’t—”
“You don’t understand dramatic effect, do you?” On his sassy remark, Grace backs up with her hands raised.
When Angel comes to stand in front of me, effectively hiding me from view, I get this insane urge to kick his knee from behind. I swear on everything in this dumb realm, if he asks me to hide behind him like some damsel in distress, I’m going to punch his pretty face!
A hand nudges me, and I look down to find Angel holding his hand out for me. Gently pulling me beside him, he asks, “Ready to kick some ass, sweetheart?”
The mischievous smirk on my mate's face promises chaos, and I’m here for it.
He’s definitely getting extra kisses tonight.
Unstrapping her crossbow, Grace jogs up the stairs to cover the large windows upstairs. Following her lead, Angel leaves to set up camp at a better vantage point.
The soul twins take cover behind the windows on the left side while Seiji and I take the ones on the right.
I’m confused if these soldiers are simply idiots or extremely confident that they don't even bother surrounding the cabin. I pity the fool who taught these warriors such weak-ass battle strategies. Papa would’ve laughed until he cried if he was here.
“I can’t believe Heaven is conspiring with the coven. What the fuck did we ever do to them?” I mumble to myself, not exactly expecting an answer.
“What did we ever do to them, you ask Grim Reaper’s unnatural child?” Seiji looks at me like I’ve grown two heads. “Are you forgetting the war your dear father and uncle caused by breaking into Heaven, stealing Divine to make a daughter, and then naming her backward Heaven just to get that ‘fuck you guys’ across?”
“That’s history.”
“History in which they lost. I think we’ve given them more than enough motive to make a deal with the witches.” Seiji gulps nervously, counting their numbers.
Victor barks just as the first round of poisonous arrows comes flying in our direction. “I should’ve killed you when I had the chance!”
Without warning Hazel aims through the window, shooting with such precision that the bullet lands perfectly between Victor’s eyes.
Damn girl.
The thud of Victor’s body hitting the ground breaks the eerie silence. In a blink Heaven’s soldiers are charging forward, shooting viciously as they try to get closer to the weakly built structure of this house.
The way Victor’s death has deepened their resentment gives away just how close Heaven has gotten to these snakes. With a warrior cry, one runs straight at the door and crashes against it with enough force to make me flinch.
I thought I knew how far someone will go when they don’t have much to live for, but watching these warriors run at the house to break our defense without caring about bullets makes my blood run cold. This troop is well aware their defeat is imminent but they're not walking away without drawing our blood first.
Just like we trained, Angel and Grace stand guard from the second floor over the railing, raining arrows on anyone who crosses the trashed doorframe. Harvey and Seiji switch their empty guns with whips and swords, working as a team to cover the left part of the house.
Beside me, Hazel is slicing men open before tossing me two Wakizashi swords that I quickly tuck into my belt. I still have some bullets left before I’ll need to whip out the two mini swords. Together, we start clearing up our side of the room as more and more warriors barge inside, making us struggle to keep our pace.
With our combined efforts, it's not long before no more than thirty warriors are left. The boys are doing a great job of tackling their side when I take a second look and find Grace now standing above Harvey on the dining table, her crossbow dripping with blood.
A sudden pain in my left arm alerts me back to my surroundings just in time to dodge another strike. Somehow, I end up getting cornered by half a dozen warriors choosing me as their sole target by forming a circle around me.
Bloody Heaven-bound assholes.
In the middle of diminishing my circle, I catch a glimpse of a warrior creeping on Seiji from behind. Without overthinking it, I use the tiny gap between the soldiers hovering over me and shoot the warlock.
My lack of attention gives my opponents the perfect opportunity to gang up on me. I barely dodge the first attack, a sword grazing my shoulder, but not the one aimed at my thigh. Swallowing the blinding pain of my flesh slicing, I whip out the sharp wakizashi swords to slice the hand that comes for me next.
I’m twisting limbs and breaking knees when I see Harvey lowering Grace from the table and carving a safe path to the main door. Grace is in good shape, with just a small scratch on her shoulder, but Harvey on the other hand, has a deep gash on his forehead that’s bleeding, and a cut on his shoulder that’s halfway cauterized.
My desperate need to make sure Harvey leaves unharmed gets the better of me, and I send one of my swords flying at the sneaky warrior closing in on him.
When they successfully make it to the door, Seiji takes over keeping guard. His whips makes it impossible for anyone to get closer without getting their flesh torn apart.
With Hazel and Grace now covering the only exit, Harvey turns to help me. Shaking my head, I barely manage to speak in between unsteady breaths, “Angel first.”
From the corner of my eye, I can see them make a safe passage for Angel to cross the room. We are in different corners of the house and him being farther away means it's easier for him to get trapped.
The constant slicing and getting stabbed starts taking a toll on me and I’m barely managing to hold myself up with a non-functioning leg. I'm struggling to pull out my mini sword from a skull when suddenly Angel is breaking through the circle around me.
As much as I want to scream at him for not putting himself first and risking his safety for me, I’m too drained to protest. Limping behind him backward, I cover our backs. I don't really have to because the moment Angel is with me, Harvey and Hazel start raining bullets.
A foot from the door, I relax thinking it’s over when unexpectedly a warrior leaps up from the floor. I'm not quick enough to gauge the attack when he impales me just below my collarbone with a sharp dagger.
The screams of my friends gasping in horror get muffled by the warrior cackling like a maniac and all at once it hits me without my Divine, if I die here then that's it. No saving me.
Shoving the fleeting dark thought out of my head, I blink past the black spots and watch Angel stab the warrior’s neck with his arrow, and the cackling finally stops.
Crossing the room, Angel drags a half-dead warrior to our feet and Harvey quickly steps in to hoist him over his shoulder. I don’t ask what they want with the man and simply move out of the way to lean against the door frame— or what’s left of it .
When I open my eyes next, Grace is running to me, saying something I don't understand. Without any warning, she grabs the handle of the dagger still buried in my chest and pulls the blade out in one swift moment.
I yelp, “Fuck woman. Have you never heard of giving a warning before you do something like that?”
“I thought I did! I'm so sorry, but the blade was clearly poisoned so I acted rashly.”
I breathe through the pain and dizziness now I know is the poison's fault before assuring my sister I'm fine and she can stop hovering over me .
Standing at the entrance of a house splattered with blood and filled with dead bodies, I remember promising Micah a blood ceremony for his death.
This is so much better.
Without wasting another breath, Angel strides to me, covered in blood from head to toe, and swipes me off my feet. I hiss when the cut on my thigh sting and gasp out, “I can walk.”
I don’t miss the pain on Angel’s face when he rests his cheek on my head, not caring that it’s damp with blood. “Let me. Please. ”
I scan everyone else and whine in my head about the differences between us.
Seiji is nearly unscathed, not a single scratch on him. I’m seriously jealous of his whips. They create the perfect barrier around him, and the few minor cuts he did have are already healing.
Hazel is scratchless. No surprises there .
Angel, on the other hand, has a gash on his head similar to Harvey, but not as bad. Other than that, he’s in perfect shape, too.
Why do I always have to look like I just crawled out of a bloody ditch?
A wave of dizziness hits me again and I rest my head on Angel’s shoulder and wait for it to pass. When the heartbeat beneath my cheek picks up dangerously, I open my tired eyes to find my mate’s gaze fixed on my injuries.
“I’m okay, Angel. Just a little dizzy. I would tell you if I wasn't.” I try to assure him, but I know he won’t believe me until he checks every inch of my body with his eyes and hands. For someone whose mate is covered in decade-old scars, Angel hates seeing something as small as a mosquito bite on me.
The walk to our exit out of this realm doesn’t take long, and once again, we are standing before a similar cliff.
Seiji is the first to dive into our experimental exit route, and of course , he complains about none of us having any regard for his precious young life. Harvey ushers Grace next and follows not even two seconds behind her with the unconscious soldier on his shoulder. Hazel jumps next, after making sure we weren’t followed.
I can’t stop a whimper from escaping when Angel adjusts me in his arms to wrap my thighs around his waist. Holding my face in his hands he asks, “Trust me, sweetheart?”
“With everything in me.”
There’s no hesitation this time. In the last five months, Angel has proved that he’s the only one for me. There wasn’t a single day he didn’t make me feel protected and loved by him.
“Thank Fates. I was going to ask you to jump with me, and it would’ve been really awkward if you said no.” Angel grins like a Cheshire cat before his lips brush against mine. Taking my bottom lip into his mouth, Angel sucks lightly. He kisses me with a softness that weakens my knees more than they already are.
Walking over to the edge, he whispers, “Close your eyes, baby.”
Hiding my face in his neck, I squeeze my eyes shut and try not to pay attention to the sudden whoosh of wind or the feeling of not being on the ground anymore. Wrapping myself in his warmth, I trust him not to let go.
I jolt when Angel bumps his forehead with mine, and I look around to see we are back on solid ground and out of that bland realm.
Angel carefully lowers me next to my horse so I can lean on Diamond before trudging over to the battered soldier with calculated steps.
When he bends to hold both sides of the warrior’s head, I noticed the change in Angel’s body language immediately. The muscles in his back tense and the veins in his forehead protrude with how he’s straining himself to dive into the warrior’s head.
“ Archangel Michael . I thought Horsemen had made it clear that we don’t like obedient dogs sniffing around in our business. This is my first and last warning to Heaven. Do. Not. Interfere unless you’re prepared for a war we both know you won’t win.”
Once Heaven receives the message loud and clear, Angel tosses the warriors down the cliff.
Returning to me, Angel carefully helps me on his horse, before climbing behind me.
I’m surprised when Diamond obediently follows Angel’s direction to follow behind him. Even when I’m not his official rider, it’s good to know Diamond recognizes Angel as my mate and respects him as a Horseman.
“Rest sweetheart. I’ll be here when you wake up.” Angel kisses my forehead softly, and my eyes flutter shut, refusing to open again.