03 Before The Devil Knows You're Dead-Speak Of The Devil (14 page)

Malachi snarled, his black, jagged teeth bared. “They are not going to stay out there forever. Where can we put these people? We need some sort of barrier between the patients and those freaks outside. Think.”

Before I could react Dr. Lee grabbed the phone receiver and hit the speaker button. “Let’s see how well people remember their emergency procedures. All Hospital Staff, Code Yellow. I repeat All Hospital Staff, Code Yellow.”

“What’s code yellow?” Malachi asked.

“Terrorist attack,” the resident said. “Every person they can move will go behind the fire doors and we’ll lock ourselves in. The only area that isn’t on dead lock is—”

“PICU,” I said. “We’ll handle them. Now get everyone behind the doors.”

Malachi snarled and threw his hands out, shooting black power at the doors. “Go now, while I distract them.”

I started ushering kids out and pushing them toward the two doctors. The youngest was tucked in the corner, and I couldn’t coax her out. Not that I blamed the poor thing. If I had my way, I’d be buried in there with her.

“Come on, sweetheart.” I stuck my hand out to her. The little girl shook her head and pulled her knees tighter to her chest. I let out a sigh and looked at Dr. Lee. We really didn’t have time for this. Malachi roared. The lights flickered. In the middle of his display, Dr. Lee and the other doctor shooed the other children toward the swinging doors to the treatment area and I scrambled underneath the desk to grab the little girl.

She let out a yelp and tried to squirm but I kept a tight grip around her waist, dragging her out. Instead of waiting for her to struggle again, I picked her up and handed her to the younger doctor. “Run.”

“What about you?” the resident asked, tucking the still squirming girl under her arm like an oversize football.

“When you’re behind the doors, send the ‘all clear’ notice out over the intercom again. We’ll lock you in.”

“That’s—”

Malachi howled and my blood ran cold as the faint sound of answering screeches echoed back from the street. There was no more time to waste. “Go.” I pushed her toward the swinging doors and stood up, making myself visible. If Michael wanted to kill me and tie up his loose ends, I wasn’t going to hide from him.

A dozen reapers surged forward and I watched as the world outside exploded into flames again and I heard the sound of breaking glass as the doors gave way. Malachi screamed and the remaining glass shattered as I stood behind him, staring at the mass of creatures gathered outside.

Up until this afternoon all these psychos had worked for me. Now they wanted me dead. Talk about a lack of employee loyalty. When this was all over I was firing every one of their asses—unless they managed to kill me first.

“Run!” Malachi snarled.

Chapter Seventeen

“Yeah right, not without you.” I yelled back as I grabbed his arm and pulled him back behind the admitting desk. It wasn’t much of an improvement since we weren’t at all hidden but the desk covered the whole length of the room, neatly bisecting it, and narrowed their points of attack.

“That’s the whole point,” Malachi said as the reapers swarmed into the lobby, slowly filling the room in front of us as more creatures piled in behind them. “I hold them off, and you run, stupid.”

“You want me to leave you here with them?” I jerked my thumb toward the angry mob of reapers stalking toward us, filling the lobby and cutting off our means of escape. “I don’t think so.”

“Hey!” I looked up at the familiar voice and found myself face-to-face with the one bitch I hated more than Michael.

“Brenda? What are you doing here? I know for a fact that you’re not a reaper. I would have never hired you to work for me—even if you were qualified—which you most definitely are not. Did you Houdini out of another prison cell? Not good you little psycho!”

“I’ve had a shift in loyalties,” Matt’s stalker ex-girlfriend said as she came to the front of the group. Her pink twinset was scorched on one arm and dirt smears mixed with something else on her cheek. “After Matt’s incident, I decided that perhaps the Angale wasn’t the best group to align myself with.”

“You mean after Lilith smoked Valerie and you got smacked down you turned tail and ran? To this group of nutsos?”

“This group can do something for me that the Angale never would.”

“What’s that? ’Cause I have to say they haven’t helped your fashion sense in the slightest.”

“No, silly.” She smiled and popped her knuckles. “They’re going to let me kill you. I don’t want you to worry about Matt, though. Once you’re dead, I’ll take care of him like he deserves. I’ll give him the power he deserves.”

“I doubt it,” I said from behind Malachi’s arm. “It doesn’t matter if I’m dead or not, he’s never going to want you. Face it, Brenda, you are officially not girlfriend material. Hell, you aren’t shame-based one-night-stand material.”

“Ooh,” Malachi said, his voice an amused, snakelike hiss. “Nice one. Now, if you’re done taunting the animals maybe you should run?”

A shriek sounded outside and I glanced up to see demons fluttering down into the parking lot. Great, reinforcements—at least I hoped they were reinforcements. The only problem was that there were reapers between us and them and we were the only things currently between the crazy legion of death and a hospital full of sick kids. From what I could see, that meant we were all basically stuck until someone else made the first move toward complete and total destruction.

“You want me to run and leave you to have all the fun by yourself?” I asked, my voice cracking. “I thought you knew me better than that.”

A black-haired reaper in a biker’s leathers from the back of their pack slithered forward, licking his lips. “Give us the woman and we’ll let you go free. Save yourself, demon.”

Malachi snorted and pushed me even farther behind him. “Not likely.”

“Give us the halfling abomination and let us end this,” a blond woman with fluffy bangs that should have gone out in the eighties said. “Run back to your master in Hell and let us rid the world of her taint.”

“I’ve gotten used to her taint,” Malachi said, backing us up toward the door for X-ray. I peeked out from behind his wings and could see the demons outside massing. “Really once she got done with potty training it wasn’t that big of a deal. Before then? Alpha save us, I used to think that girl was a chemical weapon.”

“Mal, what are you doing?” I gritted my teeth as he kept pushing me backward, keeping his body between me and the reapers at the front of the room.

“Stalling,” he said, pushing me toward the exit. “Why? Don’t you think it will work?”

The Hell’s Angel of reapers stepped forward, his arms out stretched. “Give the woman to us, and we’ll leave this realm, Rider of the Red Horse.”

“While I like the reference to my former position, I’m going to decline your less than intriguing suggestion but thanks for offering.” Mal pushed me through the door before drawing in a deep breath and pouring fire into the room beyond.

He slammed the door shut and crossed his fingers over it. “Signum.”

“Is that going to work?” I asked as the shrieks of demons filled the room behind us.

“In the name of all Evil, I hope so.” Malachi shrank back into normal human form, his black claws turning into strong, calloused fingers. He grabbed my hand, his dark eyes flashing red. “Because with the feeding frenzy those reapers are in, and the way you smell like sunshine and cookies, there’s a good chance they’ll attack first and plead for mercy from your father later.”

“Oh crap on a cracker.” I let him pull me down the hallway toward the stairwell. I hadn’t even thought about the fact that the demon legions might not be down with my current relationship. Or that during a feeding frenzy they might not even notice who I was, or give a shit.

“Understatement,” he said, still running, his black curls in disarray.

There was an explosion behind us and the floor shook. I heard the clatter of a ceiling tile falling loose and the crackle of the lights above us. “What was that?” I asked when the floor shook again and I noticed the door we’d raced through dent in from an impact on the other side. There was another howl from beyond and Malachi tugged at my hand again.

“My guess would be more reapers, lots and lots of reapers, possibly with some angelic reinforcements.” He threw his free hand out and the door in front of us disintegrated with a loud pop. “Not that I’m too worried about it right now.”

“Angelic reinforcements? Do you really think the angels would side with the reapers in a bid to take control of Earth?”

“Immortal beings?” He moved his head from side to side and gave me a grimace. “Not exactly known for good impulse control at the best of times and your uncle isn’t known for being very hands on in His management style.”

“So?”

“My guess is there are more than a few who might be willing to toss in with someone else if they thought the odds were good. Michael isn’t exactly alone in his hunger for world domination.”

“You mean—”

He grabbed me around the waist and his tail wrapped around my legs, holding me tight against him. He launched himself upward through the open space next to the stairs. “What floor?”

“Fourth,” I said and tried my hardest not to look down. I wasn’t normally afraid of heights but for once in my life I didn’t have my own wings to rely on as backup if something happened.

Malachi lifted himself over the railing for the third floor just as another explosion rocked the bottom of the hospital. I glanced down through the gap in the stairwell and saw the door we’d closed behind us, flying through the air horizontally and hitting the far wall. A blast of fire followed and I felt Malachi’s grip tighten.

He dropped me onto the fourth-floor landing and landed after me, putting his body between me and the open stairwell while I fumbled with the fire doors. “Come on,” he said and black power raced along his skin.

My sweaty fingers slipped on the door handle but I finally managed to depress the latch and threw the door open. I grabbed Malachi’s hand and jerked him through behind me. He wiggled his fingers and the door slammed closed behind him.

“Faith!” Harold said and I spun around to see the ghost staring at me, his eyes wide with horror and his face even paler than it normally was. “Reapers are in the hospital, and they’re not here for the usual night-shift pickups.”

“I know. They’re in the Emergency room, too.”

Malachi bit down on his thumb and drew blood. He swiped it over the door in the shape of a cross. “Signum.” He zapped the door with an extra jolt of black power and took a step back as the door began to glow with a dull black light. Hopefully between the demonic blood, the energy and the spell the door would hold longer than the one downstairs.

“They aren’t only in the emergency room,” Harold said, his voice tight. “They’re on this floor. Dr. Webber is one of them. Big white wings, whole lot of crazy. Big old spear in his hand.”

“What?” Dr. Webber from the reconstructive-surgery department was a reaper? How had I never noticed that? No wonder he’d avoided me at the staff meet and greet.

“He’s a pissed-off angel with a spear and I’m not using that as a sexual euphemism,” Harold said, “and oh yeah, the first words out of his mouth when I saw him was ‘where’s the Bettincourt bitch?’ so I think that officially means he’s a problem.”

“He’s got a spear?” I yelled.

“Big spear.” Harold held his hands out to his sides. “Huge spear. Very pointy end and that means we need to go.”

“Is he behind the fire doors with the kids?”

“Nope, as he showed up, so did Matt’s sister, Mary Beth, and some other angel that I’d never seen before was right behind her, some little-bitty thing that he seemed to know. He took a swipe at her and that stupid woman…”

“What? What did she do?”

“She kneed him in the balls and then the other one stomped on him,” Harold exclaimed, his eyes widening. “Once she had him down she got behind the fire doors and warded it with him on the other side.”

“Mary Beth kneed him?” I asked. “Or the other one?”

“The little angel kneed him and then Matt’s sister stomped on him.”

“Sounds like my type of girls.” Malachi had taken on his kick-ass demon appearance again.

“Yeah, I’ll set you up with the one that’s not Matt’s sister once we’re done saving the world,” I said. “If we all survive this, that will be the first thing on my post-Apocalyptic agenda.”

“I wouldn’t hold my breath on your survival if I was you,” a cold voice said and I watched Dr. Webber step out of one of the side hallways, his hand wrapped around a big, wooden spear. I looked at the iron tip and swallowed as the weapon began to hum. That really couldn’t be good. Ugly, antique jabby things weren’t supposed to hum.

“Get behind me,” Malachi said and a taloned hand grasp my shoulder. “Now.”

“I’ll go through you.” Dr. Webber lifted the spear, waving it at me. “It’s her I want. Her we need, the devil’s youngest child, his most powerful offspring, the one who can bridge the world of demons and men. That’s who they gave the power of death. A halfling. They gave her our birthright and I’ve come to take it back.”

“Not on your life, freak show!” I said angrily.

“Get behind me now.” Malachi said, his voice low.

“No.” Webber shook his head and then raised the weapon at me again. “Don’t move, because if you do, I’ll kill your demon guard dog and come after you. I’m not much good with a weapon but I think I can figure this one out. Pointy end goes in the other person. Isn’t that what happened to your cousin?”

Uh-oh, the spear began to hum louder and it was now vibrating softly. This was really not good. Dr. Webber had the Roman Spear, the Ender of All Things, Slayer of Immortals, and I got the distinct impression he intended to try the pointy end out on me. Not that he needed to worry about it. Any old weapon would have worked with me in a mortal body. This one though? It was serious overkill.

Harold flew forward, launching himself at the other doctor, even though his body was entirely illusion and wouldn’t do anything more than make the other guy feel icky for a minute. It had created a distraction, though, and I felt Malachi pluck me up and push me against the fire doors and his wings close enough that the black feathers tickled my nose.

“You think you can stop me, Bringer of War? You think you can protect the abomination all on your own?” Webber said and I heard the whistle of the spear flying through the air. Instinctively, I dropped to the floor and covered my head. There was a sharp howl and Malachi stumbled backward, stepping heavily on me, before he crumpled to his knees.

I pulled my hands away from my head and looked at the dread demon, my attention caught on the spear inside his upper leg. The skin surrounding it was black and smoke rose off of it as the smell of burning demon flesh wafted into my nose.

“Oh you son of a bastard angel.” I stood up, rage crackling along my skin where black power should have been. “When I get my hands on you I’m gonna—”

“You’ll what?”

I looked down at Malachi and he nodded. “Do it.”

I wrapped my hands around the shaft of the spear and pulled, trying my best to ignore the dread demon’s groan as the point ripped free of his skin. I flipped the wood around so that the iron tip faced out, then took two steps forward, ramming it into Webber’s chest as hard as I could. He looked down at the weapon and then up at me again, his eyes wide for a second before he exploded into a pile of white ash and crumpled to the ground.

“I’m going to end your miserable existence.” I kicked the tiny pile of ash so that he couldn’t somehow put himself back together again. Unlikely sure, but I’d seen enough paranormal horror movies to be cautious.

There was a burst of bright white light from the ashes and I felt like I’d been hit by a thousand volts of electricity all at once. It was like using my powers on speed, but as I stretched my mind to grasp control of the heat it slipped from my fingers and pulled away, leaving me empty again.

“Faith?” Harold looked at me, his eyes wide. “You okay?”

“Never better.” I looked at Malachi who had shifted back into his human form and was huddled on the floor, his back against the wall, panting. The entire length of his upper leg was turning black and I could see he was fighting to keep silent from the pain. “What do we do? Mal, what do you need me to do?”

“Take the spear.” Mal swallowed and bit his lip, obviously trying to fight against the pain. “When you find Michael, you can use it to get your powers back.”

“How?” I asked.

“How do you think? Pointy end goes into one of the other guy’s vital organs, stupid. Only an idiot tries to kill a Celestial creature by stabbing them in the leg.”

“Harold, go for Mary Beth and the other woman. Get them to release the wards so we can get inside.” I didn’t bother to turn and look at him as I studied the demon who’d spent my entire life protecting me. Watching out for me. Now it was time for me to repay the favor and I wasn’t even going to consider letting him down.