Chapter 53 Lucian #2
"Do I look stupid?" She clenches her fist, and Emily screams. "Put the angel down. You go get it. Try anything cute, and I'll finish what I started with those pretty wings."
Through our bond, I feel Seraphina's consciousness flicker dangerously. We're out of time.
"Deal," I growl. "But Emily comes with me."
Morgan's eyes narrow. "The witch is insurance. She stays. You have ten minutes, vampire. After that..." She strokes one of Seraphina's mangled wings, making her whimper. "Well, let's just say there are worse things than death."
I lay Seraphina down as gently as possible, my hands shaking with rage. Emily meets my eyes, and I see steel beneath her exhaustion. She has a plan.
"Tick tock," Morgan singsongs.
I force myself to turn away, each step feeling like betrayal. But as I reach the stairs, Emily's voice rings out—strong and clear:
"Revelatio Mortis!"
The spell hits Morgan like a sonic wave of pure light. She staggers, her concentration breaking—and Emily moves. Her hands slam into the ground, and a shockwave of power ripples outward, shattering Morgan's undead minions.
I blur into action, fangs bared. Morgan recovers fast, hurling a bolt of necromantic energy that nearly takes my head off. But she's focusing on me—missing Emily drawing symbols in blood behind her.
"You really think you can beat me?" Morgan laughs, darkness swirling around her like a tornado. "I am death incarnate!"
"No," I bare my fangs in a savage grin. "You're just a distraction."
Emily's spell hits with the force of a nuclear bomb. Sacred magic collides with dark energy, and the explosion throws us back. Morgan shrieks—a sound of pure rage—as golden chains of light wrap around her, burning where they touch.
I snatch up Seraphina and run, Emily right behind me. Morgan's howl of fury follows us up the stairs, along with the sound of her power trying to break Emily's binding.
"It won't hold her long," Emily pants as we sprint. "We need to move. Now."
She's already pressed her phone to her ear, barking orders: "Get to the car. Plan B time."
The bond pulses weakly in my chest, Seraphina's life flickering like a dying star.
Hold on, baby girl. Just hold on.
Behind us, Morgan's power swells like a tsunami about to break, dark energy crackling through the air. The metaphorical shit isn't just about to hit the fan—it's loading into a industrial-grade cannon aimed straight at our asses.
Time to see how fast we can really run.
The ballroom's crystal chandeliers blur past as I streak through the crowd, Seraphina's blood dripping in our wake. Masked faces turn—nostrils flaring at the scent of my injured angel. A hundred pairs of predatory eyes lock onto us like heat-seeking missiles.
Move. Move. MOVE.
I wrench open the Cadillac's rear hatch, the SUV's black lines gleaming under the moonlight. With infinite care, I ease Seraphina into the cargo area, her mangled wings filling the space—white feathers, matted with her blood, scatter across the carpeted floor.
The rapid patter of running feet pulls my focus. Emily, Sable, and Brax—now in his usual scary as fuck demon getup—sprint across the parking lot, their faces painted with desperate urgency. Relief and dread twist in my gut as they close the distance.
Then all hell breaks loose.
A searing flash burns my retinas, followed by a deafening BOOM that feels like a sledgehammer to the chest. The shockwave slams me into the Cadillac, the rear hatch buckling under my spine. Glass shatters, metal groans, and the bitter taste of magic scorches my tongue.
What the everloving fuck?!
Ears buzzing, I force my eyes open. The parking lot swims into view, now a jagged metal and debris hellscape. Ozone and burnt flesh clog my nostrils, underscored by the cloying scent of blood.
Far too much blood.
"No... God, no..." Denial and horror claw up my throat as I stagger forward, searching for the others.
Brax is nearest, his hulking demon form shielding Emily. Emily's wild eyes find mine, desperation and dread swirling in their depths before darting to the blast's epicenter.
Fucking Christ...
Sable lies broken and bleeding at the heart of a blackened crater. Razor-edged shrapnel protrudes gruesomely from her body, glittering obscenely in the moonlight. But it's the gaping, fist-sized hole punched through her sternum that steals my breath.
I'm at her side instantly, hands hovering uselessly over the grievous wound. Her heart...fuck, I can see her shredded heart through the gore and splintered ribs. It beats weakly, each contraction expelling more vital blood.
"Sable! Shit, stay with me!" I rip into my wrist, pressing the bleeding wound to her slack lips. "Drink, goddammit! DRINK!"
But my blood merely mingles with hers, spilling past her chin in rivulets. Her injuries... they're too catastrophic. Even vampire blood can't regenerate damage this extensive.
"SABLE!" Emily's anguished howl rips through the night as she crawls to her best friend's side.
Her hands tremble violently as she presses them against the carnage, trying desperately to hold Sable's life inside her broken body.
Each sob carrying the weight of a thousand shattered hopes.
"Sable... no...no…oh god, please. Please don't leave us. "
"This all could've been avoided." That voice, smooth and cold as a razor's edge, cuts through the chaos. A figure emerges from the darkness, his dark cloak rippling. "The stone. Now."
I know that voice. Why the hell do I know that voice?
And who the hell is this asshole who can throw fucking nukes like hand grenades?
I snatch the ring from Sable's lifeless fingers and yeet that fake-ass piece of costume jewelry at Captain Creep's hooded face. With any luck, they'll be too busy jerking off to their "prize" to realize they got punk'd with the supernatural equivalent of a gumball machine trinket.
He plucks the ring from the air with the casual arrogance of someone who's never had their ass properly kicked.
"You son of BITCH!" Emily unleashes hell. Fire erupts—a big 'fuck you' in technicolor glory, a rapid-fire barrage that finally convinces our cloaked douchebag to retreat.
"Emily! She's dying!" Brax seizes her, dragging her back even as she screams and thrashes. "Both of them are fucking dying!"
Seraphina. My angel, broken and dying mere feet away.
I scoop Sable's ruined form into my arms, self-recrimination and sorrow warring in my chest. I'm so sorry. I'm so fucking sorry.
But Brax is right. We're out of time.
I lay Sable's broken form in the backseat, each movement weighted with grief and guilt.
Blood—Christ, so much blood—seeps into the leather upholstery.
Emily scrambles in after her, tears carving paths through the grime on her face as she cradles Sable's head in her lap.
Her shaking hands stroke Sable's blood-matted hair while she chants desperately, pouring every ounce of power she has into keeping her best friend's soul tethered to her ravaged body.
Don't you dare check out on us, Sable, not like this.
Brax vaults into the passenger side, slamming the door—his hulking demon ass barely fitting in the front seat, horns gouging the headliner. The Cadillac's engine roars to life, and the powerful purr is jarringly normal amid so much carnage.
I slam my foot down, and the Cadillac launches forward with a scream of rubber on asphalt. The engine's roar drowns out everything except the sound of Emily's desperate sobs and Seraphina's labored breathing.