LAILAH
TWENTY-EIGHT
When we both came back to our senses and the white light was gone, I was still wrapped around Jay, but this time we were sitting instead of laying down.
Looking around, I found the guys yelling at each other and making gestures towards the barrier that was keeping them out.
It also dawned on me that I couldn’t hear them.
Had something changed? Moments ago, Tony had been able to talk to me, so why couldn’t I hear now?
Jay, still holding me, stood and said another intricate phrase, dropping the wards on the circle.
They guys rushed in and surrounded us, all speaking at once.
“What the actual fuck just happened?”
“Angel, are you okay?”
“What was that bright light? How did it change the barrier so we couldn’t get to you?”
“God damn it, Trouble, don’t scare us like that! So not cool.”
Still a little shocked and disoriented, I clung to Jay, hiding my face in his neck.
The energy between us thrummed through my body, telling me that what just happened wasn’t a dream.
Somehow, without having to utter a word, Jay had given me his Oath and the angels had accepted it.
Why was I shocked? Honestly, I don’t know, because Jay was always actions over words.
“Guys, enough,” Jay said, silencing them all instantly. “She’s fine. It was my fault. I didn’t think it would happen like this, but it did—Lailah accepted my Oath.”
“Wait, what? You didn’t say anything though?” Parker challenged.
Micah turned on Parker and slammed him into the wall with his hand around Parker’s throat. “How would you know that? You weren’t around when any of the others gave their Oaths.”
“Let me go,” Parker gasped while Tony tried to break them up.
“Not until you give me an answer, you cock sucker,” Micah seethed.
Parker reached up and grabbed Micah’s wrist with both his hands and launched himself at him.
They rolled on the ground, swearing, kicking, and punching until they were back in the circle.
The rest of us had moved out of it, so when one of them said the incantation, sending the barrier walls back up, it was just the two of them.
Micah shoved Parker away as he hopped up to his feet, his dual swords ready in his hands.
Parker followed suit with his long-bladed staff, wiping the blood off his face from getting hit in the nose.
“What gives you the right to even ask me that question? You had the chance to be with her and you turned it the fuck down. So what if I gave her my Oath and she accepted it? That is between the two of us, not the rest of you,” Parker growled.
Micah let out a battle cry filled with rage and descended upon Parker, blades and bodies moving so fast I couldn’t keep up with what was going on. Still in Jay’s hold, I turned to him. “Can they truly hurt each other in there?”
Jay looked at me a moment, and I could see him weighing the answer before he spoke. “Yes, they can hurt each other, or even kill one another.”
“Why isn’t anyone stopping them?!” I gasped, trying to wriggle out of Jay’s hold.
Jay leaned down and bit my earlobe. “Be still, Beautiful. This needs to happen if there is any hope of the two of them mending things. There is lots of pent-up anger that goes beyond you.”
As much as I hated it, I knew deep down he was right.
After all, this had been my whole plan to get them to work things out.
I just didn’t understand how volatile it would be when it happened.
All I could do now was wait and watch for two men that I loved and cared deeply about to figure their issues out their own way.
Bursts of flame flashed as Micah started to lob them at Parker, who deflected them with his staff, but even I could see that Micah had the upper hand in this battle and Parker was going to lose as soon as he ran out of steam.
Then it happened.
Micah used his flames to distract Parker as he dove in and gut checked Parker to the ground with twin swords at the ready to slice his throat open.
When Micah didn’t back off and I watched his hands tighten on the blades, I’d had enough.
Breaking out of Jay’s hold, I ran to the circle, and with a flair of power was able to pass right through, stumbling to my knees next to them.
The absolute rage that was on Micah’s face scared me, and the resigned look of acceptance from Parker broke my heart.
He knew Micah would kill him without a second thought, and he felt like he deserved it for some godforsaken reason.
“Stop, please,” I whispered, placing my hands over Micah’s on the hilts of his swords. “I can’t let you do this, Micah.”
“Is it true?” Micah demanded through gritted teeth. “Did you accept his Oath?”
A tear trailed down my cheek as I looked deep into his sapphire eyes. “Yes, it’s true.”
His swords dissolved as the shutters closed over his emotions, cutting me off from him as if we were back to square one.
My heart wrenched, and I didn’t know how to stop him from walking away from me, because I needed to make sure Parker was alright.
Loving more than one person was the best thing I’d ever experienced, but as I was learning in this moment, it could also be far more painful.
Before I could do or say anything, the door to the room burst open and a man gasping for air looked at us with wild eyes.
“Ubel has a chapel full of students trapped and is threatening to kill them all if Synergy doesn’t come talk to him.”
“Fuck!” Micah spat as he took off out the door, the rest of us hot on his heels.
Jay grabbed my hand, and we ran. Even though I had been put through the ringer today, the terror of knowing people’s lives were held in the balance of me getting there in time to stop him fueled me.
When I checked my power source, I noticed that it was replenished and still had small hints of silver floating through it.
Seems that as we sealed the Oath, I’d pulled energy from him, and I couldn’t be more grateful.
When we exited the underground facility, we were in a large hangar with Humvees and other military-grade equipment for missions.
Micah was already behind the wheel of a tactical Jeep, and Jay tossed me up into the passenger seat as he hopped in the back.
The other four piled into another Jeep since Micah already slammed on the gas, sending us rocketing out of the hangar into open pasture at the back of the property.
Hanging on for dear life since there were no doors, seatbelts, or even fabric walls to keep us in, we drove over the rough ground.
When we reached campus, I saw more Elementi herding students away and blocking off the pathways to the quad where the chapel, now used as an auditorium, sat.
It wasn’t lost on me that Ubel had picked the chapel for this stunt since it was the beginning of what this university had turned into.
The first stand Ryevick made against evil to teach and train others to fight against them.
Now, knowing what and who I am, I wasn’t at all surprised that I’d focused on that particular building to study when I first got here.
It might have also been why Ubel was using it as his epic taunt towards me, knowing the history it represented.
Micah barely gave the guard time to pull the barrier out of our way as we sped through the walkways of the school, sliding to a stop in the middle of the quad.
I stood in my seat, holding onto the roll cage of the Jeep and looking at the chapel in the glow of the setting sun.
Tony and the others pulled in beside us moments later without all the screeching and smoking tires.
Up on the bell tower balcony, the doors were pulled open, and Ubel walked out. He didn’t look the same, but I knew it was him. How I didn’t see it before was shocking, but I’d only met the man once since the first time when I’d been delirious with demon venom running through my veins.
“Oh, I see you’ve finally connected the dots there, Synergy.
” Ubel grinned, leaning on the railing, looking down at us from Mr. Creed’s face.
“I have to admit, I was saddened that it was so easy to fool all of you. These so-called Knights should have known I wasn’t the real Mr. Creed.
They’ve spent years taking lessons from him.
Especially that brooding Fire Knight of yours… such a pity.”
Swearing and the sound of crumpling metal drew my attention down where Micah was wailing on the dash of the Jeep.
“That one would make an excellent vessel for Aeshma, the Greater Demon of Wrath, should he decide to awaken. Goodness, you might even be like me and just be blessed with one of the Greater Demons’ powers as their conduit,” Ubel chattered on.
“What do you want?” I called, unable to take his ramblings much longer.
Ubel’s face and body started to shift and change until he looked like the man I met at the pond.
“The Dark Lord warned me that you were stubborn, but I think it might be because you are just too stupid to understand what’s going on.
It’s not about what I want—no, it’s about what the Dark Lord needs.
You see, your Spirit Knight was correct when he said that the Greater Demons were still sleeping and needed demonic energy to awaken and fulfill their work here on Earth.
So how do we do that? Well, we take large groups of people and give them the serum, letting them welcome lesser demons into a new home.
Oh! I almost forgot, I figured out a way to aerosolize it, giving us the ability to administer it to large amounts of people, much like this chapel full of students.
For you, though, I think the old-fashioned way would be best—just think what it would be like if we injected you with the serum, being as powerful as you are?
Would you be able to host one of our great Princes of Hell? ”
All the dots started to connect. Each time the Dark Lord came to taunt me, he pushed me to see how much stronger I’d gotten since the last time we’d talked.
When I proved that I could shield myself from him at least slightly, he’d left me alone and sent Ubel instead.
The Dark Lord couldn’t test me further as he was; he needed someone in person who could push me to gain strength to be of better use to them.
If I gave myself up and let them inject the serum into me, it would bring down the rest of the walls of my own self-doubt and reservations, freeing me to be at my most powerful state.
“By the look of terror on your face, I see you fully understand what I’m talking about.
How delightful! So, what’s it going to be, Synergy?
Am I going to take these two hundred innocent lives and turn them into the perfect vessels to feed our sleeping lords, or will you surrender to me?
” Ubel questioned, giving me a smile that was more teeth than anything.
“I’ll give you some time to think it over.
If you decide to surrender, all you have to do is call out my name and it will be a done deal.
Don’t take too long, though—I do get bored easily these days. ”
In a swirl of green smoke he was gone, leaving me with an impossible choice.
Crumpling back into my seat, I curled up into a little ball, trying to find any way out of this other than the obvious one.