Extinction (The Divine Book 7) (29 page)

"Report of a malfunction with the Eye," he said.
 

We headed that way, getting in view of the Eye a minute later. At first, I didn't see anything wrong with the massive Ferris wheel.
 

Then I saw the Fist of God standing on top of it.

"That's a problem," Obi said.

A big problem. The people on the ride had nowhere to go, and so they couldn't escape the battle that was to come. A quick scan of the ground told me that they had all been abandoned to that fate.

"At least we found them," I said, reaching under my coat and bringing out Uriel's sword. I looked skyward in search of Adam, not finding him.
 

Had that son of a bitch abandoned us?

I didn't try to do anything subtle. That wasn't going to help here. Instead, I made a straight line toward the massive structure. I had seen the Eye get destroyed in movies before. I hoped not to make that a reality.

I heard the parting of air before I saw the vampires that jumped us, dropping down from the building to our right and falling into our midst. It was almost a joke for Gervais to start with the creatures. I was pretty solid against them before, and unstoppable against them now.

I danced among them, their scratching claws and biting teeth a blur as I used all of the moves I had gained from Josette's memories, letting my muscles take over as I fed my power to them. I swept in low, bringing the blade up and slicing one of the vamps nearly in half, sucking the power from it as I did. It barely registered a prick on the pain scale its overall Divine energy was so weak. I did a neat pirouette-style maneuver from that one, using the back of a second vamp for balance as I came about, stabbing another of the creatures and taking its power as well.
 

I broke free for a moment, my eyes landing on Obi. He was in the midst of a pair of the demons, a smile on his face. One came in at him, and he caught its arm in his glove, causing a satisfying hiss of steam and sulfur as he pulled it to him and punched it in the face, knocking it down and out. The second pounced, and Obi recovered, bringing his arm up, grabbing it by the neck, and throwing it easily aside.

"Landon," Alichino said, doing as I had asked, running from the vampire that chased him. He slipped between my legs, and the demon wound up impaled on my blade.

I felt a wash of heat, as a gout of hellfire caught me by surprise, searing my flesh on the left side. I grunted in pain, pushing myself back and away and taking the opportunity to heal. Hellfire had always been more challenging to recover from, but now I swept it aside easily as if it were no more than regular fire. I had always been afraid of having too much power, and it was easy for me to recognize why.
 

I felt invincible.
 

I came back down, throwing my power out at the fiend, grabbing him with it and pulling him toward me. He was still in the air when I cut through him with the blade, capturing his power as he fell to the ground behind me. That time there was more of a sting, but nothing I could manage.

"Bravo," I heard Gervais say, followed my sarcastic clapping. "Bravo, mon frere."
 

I scanned the field. The demons were all gone, save for the French fop. He was standing alone ahead of the Eye, looking very pleased with himself.

I glanced up at the sky again, looking for Adam. Judging by Gervais' reaction, I had a bad feeling the fallen angel was working with him. Was his line about getting back in God's good graces all a bunch of bullshit? It wouldn't surprise me.

"Why are you getting mortals involved?" I asked, pointing back at the Eye. I glanced at the scared faces of the passengers. They likely didn't see Divine. What did they see?

"Why not?" he asked. "I figured upping the stakes would keep you from running. You see, if you leave, they die."

It made sense in a typically demonic way.
 

"I'm not going anywhere," I said, noticing he still had a scar on his face where Srizyl had burned him.
 

"Good. I owe you for this, Landon. Among many other things."

If he knew about Adam, he wasn't showing it. But then, why play his hand too early?

"I'm right here. Where's Zifah?"

"Doing what he does best, I'm afraid," Gervais said. "Hiding."

The Fist appeared beside me, its wrist blades extended. I brought Uriel's sword up in time to block the first series of strikes, stepping back as I maneuvered.
 

Game on.

It came at me in a blur, twin blades hacking and slashing toward me as I moved away, frantically angling my own blade to block the attack. I saw Obi move in behind it and make to punch it in the back, only to have Gervais change into his super-vampire mode and tackle him. They rolled on the ground together until Obi managed to throw him off, getting to his feet and squaring up against the demon.

"Alichino, see if you can find Zifah,' I shouted to the harlequin demon. He looked at me like I was crazy and then ran off toward the shadows.
 

Demons. Sigh.

I threw my power out at the Fist. Its scripture flared, reducing the power. It was still enough to drive it back, to buy me a little more breathing room. I teleported as it closed the gap again, moving a couple dozen feet behind it. It turned, raising its arm to fire its bolts.

They launched at me, the Fist vanishing the moment the rounds cleared it.

I dove to the side, rolling to my feet as the bolts hit the wall behind me. The Fist appeared right ahead of me, an armored hand slamming into my face and sending me airborne, ten feet back and onto the street.
 

It appeared right above me, swords ready to come down. I tried to look past it for Adam. If there was ever a time for him to do his thing, it was now.

I felt a hand grab my collar and pull me along the ground, bringing me clear of the blades as they dug into the cement where I had just been.
 

"Close call," Obi said, turning and slapping one of Gervais' claws aside. I threw myself to my feet, hitting the demon with my power as I did and sending him tumbling back.
 

The Fist vanished.
 

"Where the hell is Adam?" I said, getting more pissed at him with each passing second.

"He must have left, man. There's no other way to explain it. First chance he got to get away from you, he took it."

"No matter what happens here, I'm going to find that asshole, and I'm going to cut his damn throat."

"One thing at a time."

The Fist materialized behind Obi, its sword arm already moving forward to stab him in the back. My reaction was instant, tugging at my friend with my power while pushing against the Fist. I managed to create just enough distance to keep him from being skewered.
 

The Fist disappeared once more.

Gervais was close by, and he came at Obi again. I grabbed him with my power before he could, lifting him and throwing him like a ragdoll, sending him hurtling through the air. He went through the wall of the Eye's ticketing booth and landed with a crash.

The distraction worked, the Fist appearing beside me, wrapping massive arms around me and lifting me in a tight bear hug. I strained against it, pushing power to my muscles and fighting back, trying to break the hold. Its scripture flared, fighting against my power, meeting it with imbued Divine energy of its own. Obi moved in, hitting the Fist with his gloves. They were useless against it, and it ignored him.

I felt a rush of cold air as the Fist vanished, bringing me with it to wherever it was going.
 

I stopped struggling for a moment, my heart feeling as though it had stopped.

We were somewhere between realms. Somewhere that time seemed to slow. I felt the stillness of it. The loneliness of it. The silence.

The armor had turned translucent, like bright sigils on a pane of frosted glass. Through it, I could see a face.

Rebecca's face.
 

It was twisted in pain, the eyes sadder than anything I had ever seen.
 

The Fist continued to apply the pressure, to crush me in the place outside of time where it could destroy me before anyone could intervene. I pushed my power against it, harder and harder, to no avail. Gervais had done what he had intended to do all along. To catch me with the Fist. To trap me here where he knew I couldn't escape. To end me, and perhaps to leave my body here for eternity.

The eyes shifted, looking at me. They changed slightly then. She could see me here. I knew she could.
 

"Rebecca," I mouthed, my lungs too compressed to put any air behind it. Was there even any air here to begin with?

She didn't respond. She only continued to look. She was in pain. So much pain. It hurt me to see her like this. Even after all that she had done, it was hard to know she was hurting this bad.

I gathered my power, pushing back even harder than before. I felt some of the pressure against me ease for a moment, letting go as though I were finally shifting the balance of power. A few heartbeats later it was gone, and I heard and felt one of my ribs crack.

I cried out. In pain. In anger. In frustration. In hurt and loss. To have fought so hard and have it end like this? It hardly seemed fair.

Nothing was fair.

I pushed even harder, the strain of the power making my body feel as though it were on fire. Again, the pressure eased, and I managed to grab a single breath before it returned. It was enough to delay the inevitable, that was all.

Except, the Fist was moving, running through the landscape between time and space, crossing the mortal realm in an instant. It went right through a solid wall and into a small clothes boutique where Zifah was standing.
 

Alichino had a single sharp finger to the demon's throat.
 

Somehow, he had not only found Satan's son, but he had managed to sneak completely up on him and take him by surprise, causing the demon to summon his protector.

It paused in front of the scene, squeezing even harder. Zifah knew he could kill me and then save himself as long as he was ready. And he was ready. I could feel my body weakening, and my vision was beginning to fade. I was going to die here unless I did something about it.

I looked at Rebecca again.
 

"Help me," I mouthed, hoping she could understand but expecting nothing.

Her eyes narrowed, shifting enough that I thought for a moment that maybe she had heard, and maybe she would react.
 

"Yes," she mouthed back.
 

The Fist fell from the interim realm, back into mortal time. Zifah screeched a little in surprise at the momentary loss of control, recovering in an instant, the Fist hitting Alichino so hard he went through the boutique window steaming, crushed by the scriptured gauntlets.

It had to release me to do so, and I tumbled to the floor, desperately trying to recover from the episode. Uriel's blade fell beside me, out of my hand. The Fist stepped on it before I could pull it back, holding it in place.

Zifah jumped onto my chest, one of his poisoned needles in his grip.
 

"You almost had me, Landon," he said. "Almost."

Something large and dark hit the window and barreled through in a flash of hair and feathers, slamming into the small demon and knocking him from me. It smashed into the chest of the Fist a moment later, hitting it like a steel wall. I heard Adam's bones crunch beneath the impact, and he slumped to the floor at its feet, halfway between it and me.

"What the hell was that?" Zifah said, reappearing on the boutique's counter a moment later, and then putting his eyes on Adam. "You? What happened to your arm?"

Adam glanced up at the demon. His face was bloody and broken, his wings bent at odd angles behind him. He looked like he was in agony, but he smiled anyway.

"This," he said.

The Fist stood straight up and froze.

"What?" Zifah said, immediately recognizing his loss of control.
 

Five seconds. That was all the time I had.

I only needed two.

With one motion, one massive push and pull, I yanked the sword from beneath the Fist, lifted myself, and blasted toward Zifah. He tried to get his arms up. He tried to run away.
 

He failed at both.
 

I grabbed him by the neck, carrying him as momentum brought us into the rear wall of the boutique and through, out into the alley behind it.
 

"Landon, please, don't," Zifah said. "We can still be friends."

"I don't think so," I replied, stabbing Uriel's blade into his chest.