Chapter 13 #5
Blood poured down her palms as feather blades tore open her flesh.
It didn’t matter. Pain became an old friend, one she welcomed because it meant she was still alive when so many before her had perished.
The fallen one dropped to her knees, the harmonic dissonance of her shrieks and Emma’s cries rising as one to create an earsplitting cacophony. “You can’t have my friend!”
River shimmered into view behind the altar, safe and whole. She held the Eye in her left hand, a bloodied dagger in her right.
“Sariel, Archangel of Death, I command thee back into thy prison!” River’s voice rang with power.
Sariel spun around and faltered, briefly stilling beneath Emma’s continued attack on her back.
“Circe? How did you—how did you conceal the enchantress from me?”
Conceal? Emma hadn’t done anything to hide River’s presence from their foe, but she thanked her lucky stars for the intervention responsible for Sariel overlooking the witch’s true identity.
Chest heaving, palms torn open and bloody, she flipped backward from Sariel’s back and landed on her feet.
Candlelight shone over the blood-smeared hilt of Adrian’s dagger protruding from the fallen angel’s wing joint.
One roundhouse kick to the hilt drove it deep, and a meaty ripping sound preceded the dismembered limb hitting the ground.
Screaming, Sariel collapsed to her knees, with the remaining five wings drooping toward the floor. Her beautiful face cracked and splintered, dark veins popping out against her bronze complexion to reveal the true face beneath. Hatred burned in her eyes.
“I won’t go back!”
“You will,” River declared. “Back to your prison and eternal sleep where you can do no more harm!”
The diamond pulsed.
“Return to the darkness, unholy one!”
“No!” Sariel cried.
Emma placed her foot in the center of the creature’s back and ripped the dagger free before the arcane light engulfed their enemy and robbed her of sight. When the brilliance faded away and Emma could see again, Sariel was gone. Only River remained, with a glowing diamond between her fingers.
“Are you okay?”
After touching her swollen jaw and tender, bleeding nose, Emma nodded. “Everything hurts, but I’ll survive.”
“Do you need blood?”
“I’m not drinking a demigoddess’s blood.”
“Goddess, technically. Don’t be a wuss.”
“It could boil in my veins for all I know. Thanks, but I’ll pass.”
Before they could debate the merit of divine blood, the church doors burst open and the shifter crew spilled inside.
Thomas and Zacarias bounded down the aisle in their animal forms, racing one another until both skidded to a bewildered stop.
Adrian held an assault rifle in each arm, and their leaner raven-shifting friend clutched a shotgun that would probably knock him out with the recoil.
Harrison blinked at the demolished church interior. “The hell y’all do in here?”
“Fight’s over, guys,” River said.
Adrian moved to Emma’s side in an instant, his weapons tossed aside and his full attention turned to her bleeding face. Past his shoulder, Emma saw Zacarias transforming and rushing to his wife’s side. Harrison shrugged off his backpack and pulled out spare clothes for the other shifters.
“The angel?” Thomas asked once he had tugged his jeans on.
“In here.” River held up the diamond for everyone to see.
“The hunters?”
“Both dead,” Emma replied. She gestured toward the altar where both bodies had fallen. She blinked. Only Joe, eyes wide open and chest gaping, lay sprawled over the bloody floor. “Where’d Josh go?”
River twisted around and frowned. “I know he was here before, because I used the dagger with his blood on it for the spell to recapture Sariel.”
“Is it possible Josh was trapped in the Eye as well?” Harrison asked. The raven shifter cocked his head, and then he grimaced while eyeing the enormous wing in the middle of the aisle.
“No,” River declared with confidence ringing through her voice. “He wasn’t anywhere near her, and the Eye is designed to hold only the one prisoner. I would have noticed if he was sucked in with her.”
Zac growled. “We should go after him then. He can’t have gotten far.”
“Leave him. Without Sariel, he’s not much of a threat. At least, not tonight.” Emma sagged against Adrian’s side. “Besides, she stabbed him through the gut. I’d be surprised if he didn’t crawl away somewhere to die.”
“Agreed,” River said. “I say we make a tactical retreat and sleep for, like, a week.”
“What about all this mess?” Thomas gestured to the broken pews, the blood, and Joe’s corpse.
“I believe Lord and Lady Ramsey would be more than willing to have it all cleaned up, considering you saved their lives,” Adrian said. “They were very quick to offer their gratitude once the hunters outside their venue were handled.”
Emma snorted.
When she took a step forward, blood loss disrupted her balance. She pitched forward, but Adrian caught her and hauled her back to his chest.
“I’m okay.”
“You need blood.”
“Yes,” she said without arguing as he swept her up into his arms.
For once, Emma was content to let Adrian be the knight in shining armor.