Fall From Grace, page 29
part #9 of the Preternatural Chronicles Series
My eyes looked down at Ulric again, who had a genuine expression of fear plastered across his usually confident face.
The sky cracked as a blinding light cooked the very air, making everyone but me drop to the ground and seek whatever shelter they could find.
Everything went in slow motion as I called on the fourth dimension to surround me, watching with a divided heart as the first of the lightning swallowed Ulric’s feet.
My face was marred with indecision as I witnessed the attack slowly move up and swallow Ulric’s calves, then his knees—the human flesh disintegrating under the furious attack from the powerful wizard wielding Thor’s mighty hammer.
Ludvig…I said inwardly as I remembered the hammer exploding from his grave to land at my hip. Now his wife wielded the weapon, and I couldn’t help but feel like I had been nothing but a vessel for the Norse weapon, waiting for this moment to come to fruition.
Ulric’s thighs and buttocks were consumed by the lightning, and I knew he was going to die if I didn’t do something.
But I wanted him to die. I wanted to watch the life fade from his eyes as his soul fell to Hell, where I would find him and send him to Sheol. After that, I would find my way back down into the darkness and make fucking sure his soul was permanently extinguished. Hell, Uriel might kill him on sight for me, though that would be much less satisfying. Either way, oblivion was the only punishment that would let me rest easy at night.
Ulric’s lower back evaporated like a leaf blower aimed at a mound of soap bubbles.
He was going to die, and I was going to watch.
Lily.
“FUCK!” I screamed as I dropped to one knee, willed everything I had to reinforce my armor, and covered Ulric’s torso with my body.
As the lightning moved over me, it felt like a torrent of boiling water filled with razor blades and lemon juice was shooting from a fire hose onto my bare skin.
I screamed through my teeth at the pain, all the while focusing on keeping the rest of Ulric from being turned into atoms.
I hated what I was doing. It would have been so easy to just move out of the way and let the bastard die. To add to that sentiment, Hayley had the right to claim vengeance for her family, and I was keeping her from fulfilling what was owed to her.
“Lil…y…” I hissed through teeth that were shattering from how hard I was clenching my jaw.
The attack washed over me, and I remained crouched over Ulric, my skin bubbling beneath my armor. I was keenly aware of the acrid smell of burnt flesh, and I wasn’t sure if it was mine or Ulric’s…or both.
I could hear Hayley drop to the ground somewhere nearby, and I managed to will muscles that were dried like beef jerky to turn my head in her direction.
My teeth were repairing themselves as my body struggled to heal from the insanely powerful attack, all while my celestial batteries blared a warning that they were on E.
“Hay…ley…” I hissed like a zombie from how barren my throat was. I was surprised my tongue was even able to articulate the L sound of her name with how crispy it was in my mouth. “P…P…Please…”
“Please?!” she shrieked, her hair still wavering wildly as her eyes began to fill with black. “He killed my family!”
“Oh no,” Locke let out as he saw what was happening to her eyes.
“The Ether…” I hissed as the center of Hayley’s black eyes glowed with a white center.
With Ulric half dead and me currently in shambles as I used the remainder of my energy to heal after dipping into the fourth dimension and surviving her attack…there was no way in hell we could stop the Ether, or whatever facsimile thereof, if it gained hold over the powerful Hayley.
The difference between Magni and Hayley in terms of power was like trying to compare a stationary bike to a space shuttle; not even remotely in the same ballpark.
To make matters worse, Hayley wielded one of the most powerful weapons in the known universe, and was bringing it up to prepare for another vicious strike.
I wouldn’t be able to survive even a fraction of another of her attacks, and I got the distinct impression this one was going to be like dropping a nuclear bomb directly where Ulric and I were.
“Hayley!” I cried out, fear injecting power into my words. “Don’t!”
The clouds rumbled as static built all around, making everyone’s hair rise toward the sky, including Meli’s and the Fae’s who were several yards away.
“She’s going to kill us all!” Locke croaked, indecision freezing his muscles.
“DIE!” Hayley shrieked as she lifted Mjolnir to the sky and the last bit of her eyes was swallowed by the blackness.
I turned and slammed my eyes shut, preparing for what I couldn’t stop. There was a wet slosh of impact, and the static in the air dissipated as quickly as it had come.
“Huh?” I breathed out as I turned to see Hayley standing frozen in place, a look of confusion on her face.
The memory of Ludvig about to bash Ulric’s brain in before his face turned to that of surprise superimposed itself on Hayley’s body.
An obsidian blade pierced through her chest where her broken heart was. A single drop of blood dripped from the tip to fall at her feet.
“N…No…” I tried to say, but only my lips worked to make the words, my lungs refusing the command.
The black in Hayley’s eyes began to drain as if a plug had been yanked free, and the glowing whites returned to their normal color.
Hayley’s human eyes stared down, disbelievingly, at the obsidian blade sticking out of her chest.
Hayley Broadway struggled to look up at the clouds, which were returning to normal with each passing second, and smiled as a beam of light pierced the veil.
Mjolnir slipped from her weakening grasp and fell to the ground, the handle sticking straight up toward the sky.
“Ludvig…” she whispered before her face went slack, eyes went unfocused, and her body went rag doll. Only the blade kept her from falling.
Depweg eased the knife from her back, and gently helped her to the ground before running his fingers over her eyelids, closing them.
“Dep…” I mouthed as a choking ball of grief filled my throat before I could get the rest of his name out.
“Oh no…” Locke sighed from behind me. I could feel the loss he was experiencing in his words. A loss not only to the Council, but to him as well. Hayley had saved Locke’s life after Ulric had stripped him of his warlock powers.
But in Locke’s words, I could also make out an understanding that what Depweg had just done had been the only choice.
“No,” I hissed, slowly shaking my head as my body continued to heal. “No!”
Getting to my feet, I strode to Depweg and pointed an aggressive finger at him while barking through building tears, “You didn’t…have…to do…that…”
Ludvig flashed in my mind, compounding on my emotions. I had failed to protect both Hayley and the baby. I had let my friend down.
Dropping to my knees, I cupped my face and began to sob.
Depweg stepped over the body and made his way to where Meli was getting up from where she had cowered on the ground along with the remainder of the Seelie Court.
Then it hit me, and my tears stopped, like turning off a faucet.
“You killed her…to save Meli…” I accused.
“You didn’t think I did it to save you, did you?” Depweg shot back with a tone that might as well have been a punch to my throat.
He stopped short of where Meli was looking at him with a hesitant expression, as if she was learning a terrible secret about the man standing in front of her.
Without turning to me, Depweg corrected his statement, saying, “I did what must be done.”
I sucked in a deep breath as I remembered Jose saying, This must be done, just before we went back in time…and ended Depweg’s happiness in one fell swoop. I hadn’t said those words to him, had I?
I didn’t think he meant the words in the way I took them, mostly because he was still staring at Meli and was apparently trying to backtrack how heartless he was coming across. But the words still stung, and I felt like I was nothing but a preprogrammed pawn in a digital game of chess, my moves already decided for me without my input.
A bloom of warm, glowing light emanated from Thor’s hammer, and a dense beam shot skyward, drawing the eyes of everyone still standing on the marred battlefield.
A powerfully built man rose from Mjolnir, like an apparition rising from the ground, and floated a few feet above where the hammer lay.
“Ludvig!” I called out in excited surprise. It felt so good to see my friend again.
“Dad!” Magni cried out, emotion choking his throat.
Thor Odinson looked back over his shoulder at Magni, nodded once, and said, “I told you I’d see you when dis was all over.”
Magni attempted to form a response, but only a jumble of emotionally filled vowels streamed out.
“I’m proud of you, my son.”
Something clenched at my heart, and I grabbed my chest while tears began to stream at the love Ludvig had for his son.
He continued to smile, nodded once more, and returned his gaze to his fallen wife.
Extending an ethereal, glowing hand toward Hayley, Ludvig called upon his beloved from the afterlife.
A dim, pale arm lifted from where Hayley’s lifeless arm remained unmoving. Next, an incorporeal head and torso rose from the still warm body, and Hayley’s confused face peered all around.
A part of me felt the urge to chuckle at seeing how many freckles were on her dim, ghostly face, but my surprise kept my entire body frozen.
Hayley’s wide eyes noticed the glowing, powerful light above her, and lifted her gaze to see Ludvig holding a welcoming hand out.
“Heya, handsome,” she greeted with an outflow of love that could be felt building to tears of joy—or maybe that was just me crying.
“Heya, beautiful,” Ludvig’s loving, strong voice replied. “It’s time to go home.”
“Home?”
Ludvig nodded. Even though I was looking at the back of the large man, I could see the smile on his face through his ethereal body.
Hayley reached up, taking hold of Ludvig’s open palm, and something miraculous happened. Where they touched, Hayley’s dim body began to steadily glow, like watching an electric burner’s coils coming to life with pure energy.
She rose into the air until the two were standing face-to-face, though Ludvig’s legs extended much further past the bottom of Hayley’s feet.
The two embraced, and the light grew until it was blinding to look at, prompting me to hold a hand up to shield my eyes.
Then the light was gone, and I lowered my arm to see only the hammer lying close to Hayley’s empty vessel.
I wiped at the streams that ran down my cheeks, and dared a smile.
Magni was sobbing tears of joy behind me, and I wanted nothing more than to embrace the young man.
“John!” Locke called out to me, snapping me back to the now, and I turned to see him staring down at a convulsing Ulric.
“Shite!” I yelped in my Irish brogue as I scrambled over to where the top half of Ulric lay, foaming at the mouth.
I looked up at Locke, and he regarded me with an expression that morphed into one that wordlessly said do it.
“What’ll you do?” I asked.
Locke glanced first at Hayley, and then Depweg, before returning his gaze to me.
“I got this.”
Nodding, I moved to save Ulric’s life, and in so doing, the life of the only woman I have ever loved.
Grabbing Ulric in one hand and the bag of armor in the other, I mentally grasped the scene around us and shifted to the only place I could think of.
50
The familiar aroma of oak filled my nostrils, enhanced by the recent restoration provided by Director Baker. Bright lights illuminated the cathedral, suddenly making me long for the deliciously dark room where Father Thomes and I had spent truly countless hours in—now just a memory that had been bulldozed by perfection, as if the church were to be the perfect and pristine poster child for all future houses of worship. At that moment, I realized I didn’t like it.
Muffled voices came from below, my ears barely able to pick up the distinct spaces between words and inflection of syllables.
Ulric stopped convulsing on the ground, his vampiric powers returning to him and delaying his death—at least for the moment.
I knew I should have shouted for Father Thomes to come upstairs so we could figure out how best to deal with the general of Hell, but the intensity of the conversation—though perceived at the very edge of my hearing—struck me as one of importance. It was like being a kid and hearing your parents argue behind a closed door. You knew the conversation was private, but you couldn’t help but inch closer and closer to their door, a feeling of unease rumbling your guts while making you have to pee more than any other time in your young life.
Quietly getting to my feet, I gave Ulric one more look to make sure he was unconscious but alive—well, unalive, to be exact—before walking with shadow steps that produced no sound. I silently prayed for the bag of armor I was holding to remain quiet as I leaned my ear forward to better hear.
“You weren’t to interfere, Gabriel,” a harsh voice that I thought I recognized whispered.
“Michael…” I mouthed while daring another step closer to the spiraling staircase that led belowground.
“What choice did I have?” Gabriel’s voice countered. It was hushed like Michael’s, but hearing his name spoken just a moment before filled in the gaps, assuring me it must be him.
“You cannot interfere, brother!” a third voice stage-whispered. I had never heard it before, but quickly reminded myself that there were untold scores of angels, both currently employed and forcibly retired. “We walk upon a razor’s edge.”
At that moment, it occurred to me that an angel’s natural speaking voice was not an aggressive and harsh whisper. Remembering my brief encounter with Michael on Mars and how he had almost blown my head up with the sheer power of his unaltered voice, I took another step forward in anticipation of a fourth voice.
As I moved, the ivory bag containing Valenta’s stolen armor clinked against the stone wall, making me cringe with the sudden noise that was as loud as a train’s horn in the silence.
“We are not alone,” Father Thomes said, thus explaining the hushed tones, especially from Michael. I took it that they were simply trying not to kill the priest, especially if I had been hurt by his raw voice.
There was the sound of three distinct flaps of wings, followed by silence once more.
“Join me, my son,” Father Thomes called out to me.
“Shit,” I mouthed.
Taking in a deep breath and accepting that I had been caught snooping, I gave one last look at Ulric and turned to make my way downstairs.
Reaching the bottom, I crossed the distance down the hallway and stopped where Father Thomes Philseep sat in his reading chair.
A man, younger than when I had first met him, stared at me without the aid of his bifocals.
Father Thomes set a large, ancient tome on the table next to his chair, crossed his legs, and interlaced the fingers of both hands around his propped-up knee.
“What brings you here, John?”
Dropping the bag of armor that had given me away, I held up an index finger to indicate hold on a moment.
Quickly making my way down the hallway and up the stairs, I returned to where Ulric was still unconscious, picking him up.
Once again returning to the subterranean section of the church, I stopped in front of the renovated vampiric prison and pointed to the door with a smile that didn’t touch my eyes.
“By God! What happened?” Thomes asked while shooting to his feet and jogging the few yards to the cell door.
Extending my arm, I held Ulric out by a wrist. I noticed his other hand was missing all the way up to the middle of his forearm.
With the mangled Ulric—who was nothing more than most of an upper torso with one good arm—on my grasp, I shook him once while throwing on a deep Southern accent, and theatrically said, “Wheeeeeew, boy, this here’s gonna be some good eats tonight! Was gettin’ reeeeeeal tired of them raccoons an’ possums what was gettin’ smooshed on the county road. Fire up that there grill and let’s have us some gooooood roadkill tonight! Mmm-mmm-MMMMM!”
Ulric continued to dangle as Father Thomes stared at me, his brain attempting to comprehend what was happening.
Dropping my arm to my side—and accidentally letting Ulric’s head smack into the stone floor—I let my hillbilly expression drop into a scowl as I flatly said, “Sounds like you already know what happened.” To add a point to my thinly veiled accusation, I gestured toward the fireplace where I pictured the three angels had gathered around the priest.
Father Thomes’ expression went still as knowing eyes stared back at me.
“Clever boy.”
“It was Gabriel…wasn’t it?” I asked, taking his comment as a confirmation of my question.
“You’re referring to…?” he prompted, letting the last word linger, testing my knowledge.
“The light. The light—from Earth—that appeared in the sky just before the Ether attacked it with its mutated lightning.”
“It was,” Father Thomes admitted. His tone was slightly hesitant, as if he knew he wasn’t supposed to be telling me this, but his eyes held a pride that couldn’t be disguised.
“So why shouldn’t he have interfered? It saved my unlife.”
“That…is not for me to say.”
We stood for a moment, staring at one another. An unstoppable object racing toward an unmovable wall.
Hayley came to mind, dying just as Ludvig had, reminding me that all coincidences were to be scrutinized as if in a court of law.
“Don’t…fuck…with me, Thomes…” I growled, growing real tired of the game I was trapped in the middle of.
“All you are doing, at this very moment, is proving the point of those who wish to keep you ignorant, John.”
