03 Before The Devil Knows You're Dead-Speak Of The Devil (16 page)

“It would have happened anyway,” Mal said. “If not the reapers, then the Angale when you married Matt. Then all the psychos would have thrown in together and tried to take power. So really, it was only a matter of time until you set this off with one of your harebrained mistakes.”

“Who are these Angale and why do they want to kill you?” Stavlinski said, his voice sharp. “Besides you being an apparently incompetent Angel of Death.”

“Hey.” I narrowed my eyes at him. “I’m not incompetent.”

“No she’s not,” Aurelia said, “and don’t make me come over there and beat that into your mortal brain because I will. I can do things to you young man that will make you beg to be back in Afghanistan.”

“So who are these other people and how did you piss them off? These Angles or whatever you call them?” he asked, ignoring Aurelia’s threat.

“The Angale is an army of angelic nephilim who sort of think that the Apocalypse is their party to plan, and when they’re not planning for that, they like to hunt demons in their spare time. Or they did until my fiancé took over and started trying to get them to try more productive alternatives.”

“Your fiancé is in charge of an army full of crazy, apocalypse-loving angels?”

“Nephilim technically, but yeah.”

“Let me guess.” Stavlinski glared at me. “You expect them to show up to fight for the other side any minute now?”

“One of them already has.”

“Brenda?” Mary Beth asked.

“Yep.”

“Should have known. She’s been spouting crazy bullshit about bringing about the End of Days and punishing all of us since my brother had her locked up.”

Captain Stavlinski raised an eyebrow and looked between us. “Do I want to know?”

“My fiancé’s ex-girlfriend. She didn’t take the breakup well.”

“Of course not. So you took some crazy chick’s boyfriend, screwed up your job, pissed off some angels, and pretty much caused the end of the world?” Stavlinski threw his hands up in the air.

“Jeez, it wasn’t like I did it on purpose and, if we can get this under control, it won’t be the end of the world—or Pittsburgh for that matter. We simply need to, you know, figure out how to stop them.”

“You know what? Don’t bother explaining any more of it. I don’t think I want to know. What about this doctor you said stabbed your friend here and then took off? Where is he? Is he prowling around outside, looking for a way in?”

“No.” I shook my head at him. “He’s gone.”

“You’re sure?” Stavlinski asked.

“He’s dead,” Malachi said. “Faith took him apart in a way that even a full-blooded angel wouldn’t be able to come back from. There’s no worry there.”

“So will you help us?”

“You’re kidding right? I did not survive three tours of duty in the ass end of the Middle East to come home and see my sick daughter get caught up by a bunch of raging lunatic angels with their halos in a twist. Hallucination or not, they disturbed my baby girl’s nap, and I’m not in the mood to hear excuses why.

“So.” He looked at Aurelia. “How the hell do I go about killing a group of crazy angels and where do I get the equipment to do it?”

Chapter Nineteen

“You’re not killing anyone,” Mary Beth said. “Not right now. Right now, we guard the hospital until my brother gets here, and then he’ll tell us what to do. That’s what Matt’s good at, after all. Telling people what to do. So we’re going to sit here and wait for him to come up with a plan.”

“As if,” Malachi said and pushed himself up into a sitting position. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and wrapped the sheet around his waist. “You’re going to find my pants, then the amazingly pissed-off army man and I are going to go rain hellfire and damnation on a whole bunch of reapers. Now hand me my clothes so we can start killing things.”

“No, you’re not.” Aurelia stepped in front of him and jammed her finger into the middle of his chest. “There are only two of you and a bunch of them, you’re not going out there and getting your ass kicked after I helped patch you up—again. There’s a ton of them—”

“One of my legions is already inside the hospital,” Malachi said. “They’ve destroyed the reapers’ advance guard and I’m sure they’re in the hospital.”

“You can’t know that,” Aurelia said. “They could have moved on to other parts of the city. They could have been captured by the masses going cuckoo outside. Hell, they could have switched sides and joined up with them. They’re demons, insanity is their natural response to violence.”

“They didn’t,” Malachi said.

“They could have,” Aurelia snapped.

“He’s right,” I said, even though I knew it would give Malachi more reasons to go on the attack where the reapers who were threatening us were concerned.

“That legion is made up of some of my father’s most elite troops, and my brother, Tolliver, summoned them. He’s an idiot most of the time, but he wouldn’t have gotten demons that could be turned against us. They’ll be in the hospital somewhere.”

“That doesn’t mean that you and one legion can take on an entire army of reapers, with humans following behind them. You could be outnumbered. You could be killed. Not to mention, you have a hole in your leg from where Webber stabbed you. You can’t go running willy-nilly around fighting a bunch of nag—”

Malachi grabbed Aurelia’s face with both of his hands and pulled her lips down on his. He threaded his fingers through her hair and pulled, so she was leaning against him while he deepened the kiss.

Aurelia’s knees buckled and Malachi let go of her, a satisfied smile on his face. “That,” she gasped, “is entirely irrelevant to this conversation.”

“Get my things, please, so that I don’t flash Faith.” Malachi grabbed her hand, kissing the palm. “I’m sure she’d love a glimpse of a real man, but since I’ve been her bodyguard her entire life it might be creepy for me.”

“No creepier than hearing about your naked Twister game with Bassano.” I shuddered at the thought before turning around so my back was facing him.

“You were the demon Dad had the dirty weekend with?” Mary Beth said and I heard her sharp intake of breathe. “Yuck!”

“Do you want to tell me about this?” Aurelia asked. “Or do I need to go find Bassano and have a long talk with him?”

“Uh…” I looked over and saw the confused look on Captain Stavlinski’s face.

“Not that it matters for what we’re doing here”—Malachi shrugged—“but I can switch genders and we needed something to keep Mary Beth’s dad distracted. Like most angels, he completely loses all focus when confronted with a pair of large breasts.”

“What do you mean you can switch genders?”

The room grew cold and static licked at my arms as Malachi pulled on his powers. There was a faint flash of heat and my hunky male bodyguard now had a body that would make a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model weep with jealousy—and he still hadn’t bothered putting any clothes on except for the bandage around his leg.

“Wow.” Stavlinski swallowed and ran his hands through his hair. “You are one really hot woman.”

“Thanks,” Malachi said and his form shimmered and stretched, until he appeared as himself again, wearing a pair of black pants and a tight T-shirt. “But if I’ve got to look human, then I’ve found day-to-day this is a preferable form. My feet were not made for high heels.

“Now.” Malachi stood up and crossed his arms over his chest. “We need to get an idea of what’s going on down there.”

“Crazy reapers have surrounded the hospital and they’ve brought their pet mortals along with them.” I pointed to the window and left the duh that should have been at the end of that sentence unsaid.

“So why haven’t they come into the hospital?” Stavlinski asked. “They came after you once, didn’t they? That was the explosion we heard. Why are they standing there whipping the crowd into a frenzy? Why aren’t they mounting an attack? We’re penned in, if they’re going to make a move, now would be the time to do it.”

“They don’t have the strength to take on my legion. Which is why you and I are heading downstairs, Captain Stavlinski,” Malachi said.

“Phil,” Stavlinski said. “All things considered, I think you should probably call me Phil.”

“Right.” Malachi nodded. “Phil and I are going downstairs to check on my troops and get them organized.”

“I’ll go with you.” Looking past the ring of people surrounding the hospital, I could see that the streets were deserted, cars abandoned in the middle of the street.

“No. You smell like them now.” Malachi pointed out the window. “You smell like Matt and you’re mortal. I’m not sure they’ll be able to control themselves, if they even bothered to try. Besides, I need the three of you up here.”

“I can help. I’m the devil’s daughter.”

“I’m ordering you to stay here,” Malachi said in a tone that didn’t allow for arguments. “I want you to call the other floors and see if they need anything. We’ll go to the top of the hospital and work our way down so you do the same. Find out what they’re short on, and Phil and I will get it and leave it outside the fire doors. Do you understand me?”

“Yes.”

“Keep the other floors calm,” Malachi said. “Keep the kids safe. Find the rest of our family and find out what’s taking them so long. Make sure Tolliver knows that Lisa is safe.”

“Tolliver?” Phil asked. “Who’s he?”

“My brother. Well, my half brother. His mom is Lilith, the Archdemoness of Lust.”

“Satan named his son Tolliver?” Phil asked.

“Joshua was taken,” Malachi said. “Besides, you know how celebrities are when it comes to baby names. They can’t go with anything regular. They’ve got to be super special. So instead of nice normal names like Mary, Margaret, and John we got Tolliver, Hope, and Faith.”

“What about Charity?” Phil asked.

“She died when I was in high school,” I said. “Mom left the gate open and she got hit by a car.”

“I’m sorry?” Phil asked, his eyes wide as he stared at me, shock evident in his face.

“Don’t be.” Malachi closed his eyes before stretching his hands out. Two large swords appeared, one in each hand, their black metal blades glowing with a dull red sheen.

“She was the world’s worst Pomeranian. No matter what we tried the damn thing wouldn’t do her business outside and she was always trying to chew on my cowl. Bloody beast was an absolute nuisance. Do you know how many dog bones I had to use to lure her out of the yard and into the street that day?”

“I don’t want to know,” Phil answered and took the sword Malachi offered him. “Not that this isn’t nice, but you should know that I have no idea how to use one of these things, not much of a call for it now days.”

“You ever swung a baseball bat?” Malachi asked and flipped his sword back behind his head where it disappeared in the space between where his wings would meet. “Same principal. Anyone comes at you pretend they’re a very large fastball and lop off their head.”

“I don’t think this is a good idea.” I grabbed for Malachi.

“Yeah, that makes two of us,” Malachi said and instead of taking my hand, pulled me into his arms for a quick hug. “Then again, I’ve said that about most of your father’s schemes and we’ve all managed to survive this long. What’s one more harebrained idea?”

“That’s the worst logic I ever heard.” I wrapped my arms around his neck and squeezed.

“Yeah, well logic was never something I was good at.” Malachi shook his head. “Now, keep everyone calm, make sure they’re supplied on the other floors, and then find the rest of our family.”

“Be safe,” I whispered when he let me go.

“No worries.” Malachi started toward the door. “If you get a free moment, can you do me a favor? Tell Matt this is the suckiest engagement party I’ve ever been to. Who chooses End of Days as a party theme? I thought your mother was bad.”

He grabbed Aurelia around the waist and planted his lips against hers again. Instead of pulling back she wrapped her arms around him and dug her fingers in his hair, pressing herself up against him so that they were touching from lips to knees.

Malachi pulled back from her and I could see that his face was flushed. “Don’t die. Once this is all handled, we’ve got some things to sort out between us.” He grabbed Phil’s arm and then gave me a quick nod before the two men popped out of sight.

“Do I want to know what’s going on between you and my bodyguard? Or what might be going on in the future?” I asked.

“No more than I want to know about you and my twin brother,” Mary Beth said.

“I have no idea,” Aurelia said, “but, it appears that even old demons can figure out when they made the wrong choice and come to their senses. Although it did take the Apocalypse so I’m not holding my breath that he’s gotten any less stubborn in the past millennia.”

“What do we do now?” Mary Beth asked.

“What Malachi said to do,” I answered. “There are two phones at the nurses’ station. I’ll take floors ten through six and you take five through ground. Once we’ve got a list we page Mal. He’ll find Tolliver and between the two of them they’ll get everyone supplied. Aurelia, go pretend to be a nurse and keep everyone else calm.”

“Are you sure they can do it?” Mary Beth asked.

“The Archdemon of Gluttony and the human manifestation of War, a.k.a. my bodyguard?” I looked over at her and shrugged. “Not a doubt in my mind.”

Chapter Twenty

My cell phone rang before I could sit down, and I pulled it out of my jeans pocket. Who was calling me now? I was not in the mood to refinance my credit cards to a new, super-low, rate today. Besides, how had they even gotten through? We didn’t have any service last time I checked.

I answered the phone and pressed it to my ear, not bothering to look at the caller ID. “Hello?”

“Faith?” Tolliver’s voice crackled and I rolled my eyes. Of course he’d make sure that our cell phones could somehow connect with each other, although, it had probably been J’s idea now that I thought about it. “Faith?”

“Tolliver? Where are you? Have you found Malachi?”

“What do you mean have I found Malachi?” my brother asked. “I thought he was with you?”

“No! He’s got me, your midwife, and my assistant locked in the PICU while he and one of my patient’s fathers went looking for the legion of demons you’re supposed to be leading to our rescue.”

“I got separated from the legion,” Tolliver said and the phone crackled.

“What?”

“Where are you?” he said through the static. “Exactly.”

“The fourth floor of Rogers Hospital. The PICU nurses’ station.”

“Stay right there,” he said and the phone cut off. Which meant we’d either lost signal or, more likely, the stupid jerk had hung up on me—even in the middle of an angelic invasion he had crappy phone manners.

“Who was that?” Mary Beth asked.

“It was Tolliver.” I looked over at her and I knew my eyes were as wide as hers. “He got separated from the legion somehow. He doesn’t know where they are.”

“I’ll go find another phone so that you two can talk.” She stood up. “Give you some privacy.”

“Right. Thanks.” I nodded. “There’s a phone back where we stashed the patients and Aurelia. Why don’t you go check on them and make the calls from there?”

“Sure.” She grabbed my shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “Faith?”

“Yeah?”

“Tell him I said to be safe.” She pulled her hand away from my shoulder and started down the hall. “It’s going crazy out there, and the Anti-Christ is going to need a father after all.”

“Yeah but that baby is getting stuck with Tolliver as a father. The poor kid,” I said as she disappeared around the corner.

A bright light flashed in front of me and I watched as reality ripped itself apart, leaving a tear in reality floating over the top of my nurses’ station. “Where are you?” I asked, the minute his face came into view.

I stuck my hand out, trying to touch him, but the air between us was solid—a window, not a door from place to place. I looked behind him as the window stabilized and saw a large, gaping maw in the background with plants hanging out on either side of its jaws. “Is that a brontosaurus behind you?”

“Where’s Lisa?” He ignored my question and looked around. “Is she safe? Is Malachi protecting her?”

“You really don’t want to know.” I ran my finger against the pendant hanging around my neck. “She’s as safe as any of us and technically, yes Malachi is protecting her.”

“Where is my wife?” Tolliver’s voice thundered through the phase portal, and if I were the dinosaur behind him, I’d have seriously considered eating my lunch somewhere else.

“Malachi trapped her and Hope inside a bubble in Purgatory but don’t worry, I have the key so they’re safe.” I held up the necklace so that he could see the glowing crystal that hung from it.

“You trapped my wife and my unborn child in a piece of ugly jewelry?” Tolliver asked. “A piece of crappy costume jewelry is holding my entire world in it and you’re wearing it around like it’s something you picked up at yard sale? Are you out of your mind?”

“Well we didn’t want to put them in regular old Purgatory. What if the reapers found them? So instead, Mal brought a small bit of Purgatory to us. He thought it would be safer. Did you want me to leave them lying around?” I tried my best to shoot daggers with my eyes but probably failed without any demonic power behind it to give it some oomph.

“Sure, because if they ransack my apartment, the glowing blue crystal is going to evade notice. No one’s going to think of checking what that funny-looking necklace with the weird magic coming out it is? That would be about as safe as leaving them in the Death Department’s waiting room.”

“Fine, fine, but be careful. I know how you are about jewelry. If you lose my wife and child in your purse, I’m going to be really pissed off, Faith.” Tolliver glared at me.

“I am not going to lose my best friend and future toy shopping beneficiary in my purse,” I snapped. “Now will you please focus on what’s important?”

“You transformed my wife into an ugly piece of jewelry. That’s pretty important.”

“Tolliver!” I pointed at the dinosaur behind him. “Forget about Lisa and tell me why you’re eating lunch with a brontosaurus instead of figuring out how to get us out of this mess.”

“According to the plaque in front of the exhibit it’s an apatosaurus. Didn’t you pay attention in science class when you learned about dinosaurs?”

“No.”

“Well, according to what Mom told me they are fun-loving, plant-eating creatures that behaved like a mix between a llama and a polo pony after too many tranquilizers.”

“I so very much do not care about your mother’s fondness for playing dinosaur polo. Tell me where you are and why in the sacred name of chaos and shoe sales there’s a dinosaur behind you.”

“Because we’re at the Carnegie Museums,” Matt said as he came onto the screen beside my brother, “dinosaur wing on the Natural History side.”

“You’re at the Natural History Museum? Why? Now is not the time to be contemplating the extinction of the dinosaurs. If you don’t figure something out, and quick, they’re going to be putting exhibits about the human race—and possibly us along with them—right next to your friend.”

“They’re already in the streets,” Matt said. “The Angale. By the time I’d gotten there Brenda—”

“She’s involved,” I said quickly. “I know.”

“You know?”

“She’s here. In the hospital. Her and the rest of the Angale have sided with the reapers.”

“Shit.” Matt swallowed. “I’m on my way to you.”

“No.” I shook my head. “You can’t. We’re holding them off on our own but Michael isn’t here. If you come here, then we’re all trapped inside the hospital and he’s free to rain down crazy on the rest of the city. You leave the hospital and Brenda to us and you go find Michael and figure out a way to stop this before too many people die.”

“That’s why we’re at the Carnegie Museum. There’s a radio tower at the top, and we were able to hack into it. We’ve sent out an emergency broadcast requesting people stay in their homes with the shades drawn. Then J made it look like the National Reserve had rolled into the streets and they’re supposed to stay patient while they wait to be evacuated. Standard emergency procedures to keep everyone calm and orderly until we can get this mess sorted out,” Tolliver said.

“You think that’s going to work? People will be looting and fighting in the streets in no time. In fact, we’ve got a mob outside the hospital right now, and they are nowhere near calm and orderly.”

“J did some sort of sedation spell on the people we could get to. He managed to run some sort of hypnosis through the radio waves. No one he’s managed to zap is looting. They’re all passively agreeing to do whatever the broadcasts tell them.” Matt ran a hand through his hair and I could see that it was shaking.

“What about the Bible-waving freaks outside?” I asked.

“We couldn’t get to everyone. We tried but the spell only worked on the people who were either in hearing range of the original loudspeaker announcement, or who had a radio on nearby that they could hear.” Matt said.

“Not to mention that some people are too crazy to take care of themselves,” I said.

“We did what we could,” Tolliver replied. “We claimed militant right-wing vegans had attacked the city to protest increased taxes and people should stay in their homes but some of the lunatics went out anyway—probably to help bring about the end of civilization.”

“Oh great.” I huffed. This was just getting better and better all the time.

“Yeah, unfortunately for you, they all seem to be massing in the three square blocks surrounding the hospital you’ve barricaded yourself in,” Matt said.

“Militant right-wing vegans who were protesting increased taxes?” I asked, trying to wrap my mind around their cover story. “You claimed that the city was being attacked by militant right-wing vegans?”

“It was the best I could come up with on short notice,” Tolliver protested. “Meanwhile, did you know that the Angale had a plan in place to overthrow Matt before any of this even happened?

“Yeah, the fact that your ex was downstairs instead of locked in her cell at the Angale compound sort of hinted at the fact that maybe they weren’t as under control as you first thought.” I glared at my fiancé.

“They’ve never been under control,” Matt retorted. “I just thought I’d convinced them to not get too crazy but it’s bigger than that. Brenda’s got a bigger plan than just kicking off the Apocalypse.”

“There’s something bigger?” I asked.

“Turns out she’s been planning a coup for years,” Tolliver said. “One of the few nephilim who stuck around to wait for Matt told us that she was even the one who put Levi up to killing you and trying to steal Dad’s powers. They said she’s been working with Michael to help overthrow the Angale and come after demon-kind for the past three years.”

“Crap that explains the spear.”

“Spear?” Matt raised an eyebrow.

“The Roman Spear,” I said. “Dr. Webber had it. He stabbed Mal.”

Tolliver pushed Matt over so that he was in the frame completely. “You said Malachi was stabbed with the Roman Spear. The Roman Spear. Are you sure?”

“No but that’s what the guy who stabbed Mal called it. He claimed it was the spear that killed J and then he threw it at Malachi. Thankfully he hit him in the leg so he didn’t kill him but it left a nasty wound that he didn’t heal from on his own.”

“Listen to me,” Tolliver said, his voice stern. “Did you notice anything else about the spear? Anything strange?”

“You mean besides the humming, the glowing, and the fact that it turns reapers into big piles of dust? Unless you don’t think those are strange things to happen with a spear?”

“Okay,” Tolliver said. “Where is it now? You said this guy stabbed Malachi in the leg with it. Then what happened? Did he take the spear with him?”

“No.” I shook my head. “I have it. It’s jammed in the handles of the door to keep them locked. I thought it might make the magic protecting the door stronger.”

“Good,” Tolliver said. “Leave it there. Or better yet, find somewhere and hide it.”

“What do you mean hide it?”

“Listen to me,” Tolliver said. “No one can know about the spear. The knowledge of it can’t get out. If Michael or Brenda figures out you have it instead of Webber, every angel with ambition is going to be coming for you so they can steal it. You have to keep it safe.”

“If it’s so precious, why would Webber use it to attack Malachi?” Matt asked. “Wouldn’t he have wanted to keep it hidden?”

“Because he was coming after Faith.” Tolliver said. “Michael wants to make sure that she’s not only dead but completely unable to be resurrected, for any reason. He’s got to make sure that she’s completely dead so she can’t somehow steal her powers back. He must have sent Webber to kill her so he didn’t have to get his own hands dirty.”

“I don’t understand.” I looked between them, confused.

Why would Michael have gone to all the trouble of using a relic to kill a mortal woman? He could have snapped my neck and, without my powers, I’d have been gone. Done for. Trapped in Hell with no hope of returning to the Earthly Realms.

“The Roman Spear steals souls,” Tolliver said. “If Webber would have stabbed you in the heart with it the spear would have taken your soul and everything else. When you stab an immortal creature in the chest with it, the spear has the ability to break the bonds of a resurrection. It won’t simply take you out of the flow of life it will trap your soul inside the Spear.”

“So you’re saying that we can’t let Michael have it, or Brenda for that matter, because she would totally abuse my soul.”

“That’s sort of obvious, brain donor,” Tolliver said. “What you need to do is hide it. Then, once this is all over, we’ll destroy the damn thing.”

“I’ll do it,” J said and came into the room, his feet silent on the carpet. “It’s my responsibility. I’ll destroy it.”

“Fine.” I stood up. “Open a phase portal and I’ll hand it through to you. You can destroy it now and then the rioters outside will have one less weapon to use against us.”

J shook his head at me. “No, you keep it. You can use it. When Michael comes for you, stab him in the heart with it. When that’s done, then I’ll destroy it.”

“I can’t stab one of your father’s archangels with the Roman Spear. He’ll get seriously pissed at me. Your dad I mean. It’s sort of understood that the angel already hates me.”

J’s eyes were dark and flat. “If you get the chance, take the spear and shove it into his heart. Then hold on tight.”

“It’s—”

“Until then, Tolliver is right. Hide it. Put it somewhere safe but keep it close.”

“I really don’t think—”

“If Webber didn’t manage to kill you and bring your soul back to Michael and Brenda, then they know he’s failed and you most likely have the spear. So if anyone comes looking for it, do me a favor.” J said.

“What?”

“Use the spear.” J stormed out of the exhibit hall.

“Is he okay?” I asked, staring at the space my cousin had been standing in.

“One of the few angels he thought of as a friend is in the process of bringing Hell to Earth, you’re in danger, and people have died,” Tolliver said. “ Oh, and to add onto that, he’s got some quarterback in New York who keeps trying to nag him about Sunday’s game. So no, he’s not having the best of days.”

Tolliver stood up and wiped his hands against each other before turning his head to look at where our cousin had gone. “I’ll talk to him.”

I watched my brother follow our cousin out of the room and then focused on Matt. He put his hand up to the hardened barrier between us and I put my hand against his, trying to feel his warmth.