Protect Her: Part 11 (5 page)

I pushed through the doors into the church, and as I saw the altar, the air lit up in what seemed like a million particles of light. Even though the sun was still coming up through the stained glass windows, it was as it were the middle of the day inside the church. That was when I saw them.

Six men stood circling the altar staring at us. But, of course, they weren’t men at all. They were the six archangels whose mission was to keep peace on earth, no matter what the consequences. I heard Riley’s hiss as he saw them.

I wanted to run as far away as we could, but I knew that this confrontation was inevitable. I thought there was going to be time to talk. To reason. To figure out a way that worked for everyone that didn’t require any more bloodshed. But then I saw the archangels link hands, and I felt the hum of an enormous amount of energy. A pulsating beam of light appeared over the altar and shot through the air toward us. Toward Riley.

“No!” I screamed. I threw myself in front of Riley just as the beam invaded our space. I heard his roar as his hands pressed into my shoulders to shove me away. The world imploded before my eyes.

PART TWO: THE LIGHT

CHAPTER SEVEN –
RILEY

If I lived through the day, I was going to have to have a talk with Paige about continuing to try to sacrifice her life for mine. The beam of pure light energy was meant to decimate me. Instead, with Paige’s body in front of me, it was as if it was filtered through her and into my body. My eyes closed, and I felt something tear through me.

I was lifted off my feet, but I never felt the weight of landing back on them. I opened my eyes and found Paige standing in my arms looking up at me. The space all around us was white. We were in an empty, white room that seemed to go on forever around us. The archangels and the church were gone.

“Any idea where we are?” Paige asked in a quiet voice. “Is this Heaven? Because I’m pretty sure I might be dead. Again.”

I pulled her tight into my embrace. “You silly woman. You need to stop trying to save me. Otherwise, one day you will get yourself killed.” My words were said with only halfhearted enthusiasm. The tides pushed and pulled us together. We were meant to be inseparable. I felt that in my bones.

“If we die together, I can’t think of a better way to go. As long as we’re together, I don’t care if we’re on earth or somewhere else.” Her voice was muffled against my shirt. “Are we dead?” She peered up at me. I wanted to lose myself in those blue eyes.

Finally releasing her, I looked around us. Her hand slid into mine so that she maintained the physical contact. I didn’t mind. I felt different somehow in a way that I couldn’t explain.

“I don’t think so,” I said. “If I were to hazard a guess, this is a waiting room of some kind, though.”

“Like Purgatory?”

“All of the places that exist on the other side of the veil have their own rules of physics and logic,” I said. I wasn’t sure where I was pulling this information from, but it rang true to me. “Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, the ether beyond them. Those are the places we know about. There are more out there. Different planes of existence inhabited by those that belong there.”

“So this is one of those places?”

“I think this is a place where someone put us to keep us out of the way,” I said, choosing my words carefully.

“You look different,” Paige said quietly. She reached up and touched my cheek. “Are you feeling better?”

I thought about the question. Incredibly, I did feel better. The voice that had permeated my thoughts ever since I crushed the relic was gone. I looked down at my arms and gasped. The tattoos that had been there moments ago were gone. “What the hell happened in that church?”

“You’ve been cleansed.” Viho appeared as if out of nowhere. “The tainted curse of the relic is gone.”

“Viho? How are you here?” Paige asked.

“I’ve never left,” he said. There was a sad note in his voice.

“Never left?” Paige repeated, as if the words didn’t make sense.

Of course, to me, they did. “You’re dead,” I said slowly. “You’ve been dead this whole time.”

He nodded. “I perished the night I was taken. The angels escorted my soul here instead of taking me on to Heaven. They assumed that I would be needed sometime in the future when they found my son again. Twenty-eight years in a state of suspended animation, if you will, makes for an incredibly boring existence. I am ready to move on. More than ready.”

“I don’t understand,” I said.

Viho smiled again. “You have fulfilled your destiny, my son. You were a dark angel. One of the worst. You caused pain and anguish for many even in your short stint. There was one who was made to counter and balance you. To be the light to your darkness. Except she couldn’t fulfill that destiny until she got rid of her own monkey on her back.”

“What am I now?” His words burned in my ears. Necromancer. Dark angel. When all along, I had so desperately just wanted to be a normal human.

“Paige has given you a gift. You are an object of light now. Her purity cleansed the darkness of the curse away. She has a knack for healing that has been unheard of for a thousand years, since the existence of the original angels. It was her reward for withstanding the plague of Eva. She has a purpose now that she must discover on her own and use for goodness. Similarly, you have been given a second chance. There is still darkness inside of you, but now it is balanced as it should be.”

“So the archangels cured me through Paige?”

“The archangels used light to try to destroy you. Paige filtered the healing energy inside of it. You are both very lucky.”

I put my arm around Paige’s shoulders. “I know. Will they leave us in peace now?”

Viho laughed. “I doubt it. As long as the two of you exist, you will always appear to be a threat to them. But now that you have your head on straight, and they won’t know what to make of Paige, I think you will find some modicum of it.”

“How do we get out of here?” Paige asked.

“Riley still possesses all the abilities he had before,” Viho said. “He can take you anywhere that you want to go. Just don’t forget that there are hundreds of demons descending on the parish of St. Joseph as we speak.” He cocked his ear as if he was listening for something. Then he shook his head. “The angels have engaged them. The fight will soon spill into the streets unless something is done.”

I nodded slowly. Action was what I needed, because if I thought too long about everything Viho had said, I was pretty sure my head was going to explode. I stepped forward and held my hand out. He smiled and took it.

I gave it a hard pump, and as his hand settled on my elbow, I pulled him into a loose embrace. “Thank you.” It was all I could think to say. “You didn’t have to help me.”

As he pulled away, I could see the sheen of tears in his eyes. “I have always done everything in my power to help you. Your mother as well. It was good to see her one last time, at least, in this lifetime.”

“Will you be able to pass on?” Paige asked.

Viho looked around him. “I won’t be of any use to them anymore. I have a feeling that someone will be along soon to take me to my final resting place. But you don’t need to worry about me, dear.”

Paige took three steps forward and threw her arms around my father’s neck. My father. I had found him and was losing him again. That should have made me angry. The old Riley would be pissed. But instead, I felt full of gratitude for having been able to get to know him at all.

I held out my hand to Paige. “Proctor is a problem. If we take him out, I can release the demons. You up for this?”

She gave a sly grin. “As long as we agree that from now on, demons that we put down stay down.”

“Deal,” I said. I knew that I had made a terrible error in bringing Proctor back from the ether, but it was a challenge at the time, and I wanted to understand if I could do it. She slammed her hand into mine, and the world shifted around us even as I pulled her tightly against me wrapping my wings around both of us.

The particulars of how one moved between realms was still unknown to me. It was simply something that I was able to do if I thought about it, and it didn’t seem right to question it.

“Where do you think Klein is?”
Paige’s question ran through my mind. It was odd, being able to communicate as we traveled through time and space.

“Hopefully, somewhere safe,”
I replied. I had to trust that the kid’s survival instinct would continue to serve him well.

I felt my feet touch down on something solid beneath them, and I unfurled my wings to let the view in front of us take shape. I was confused. We stood in a cemetery.

“Why did you bring us to Calamata Island? I thought we were going back to the church,” Paige said.

“You recognize this place?” I had no idea where we were.

Paige pointed at a small gravel path a few feet in front us. “I got bit by that Typhon demon right there.”

It appeared we had been transported back to where our story had begun. I felt a heaviness inside of me, and I knew then my subconscious wanted something else before we could continue on our journey.

I took Paige’s hand to draw her eyes back to mine. “Paige, I want to be sure you understand everything about me. Before we go back, I have to tell someone what I’ve done.”

She shrugged. “I’m not a priest, Riley. It’s not as if I can absolve you of your sins. We all have the black marks. At least you don’t have to worry about the curse influencing you anymore.”

I struggled with the words that bubbled inside my throat. I sat down heavily on the gravestone nearest to me. Many people might view that as sacrilege, but the dead had been my confidantes for so long that I knew they didn’t care. For them, they were focused on the future and rarely on the present.

“I have to say the words out loud to someone,” I said. “I don’t feel like I can make what I’ve done right until I say everything I’ve done wrong.”

Paige knelt down beside me and put her hand on my cheek. It felt cool and soothing against my skin. “Why do you insist on torturing yourself like this? You are a good man, Riley Stone. I’ve believed that with all my heart since the day I met you. You’ve done bad things. You’ve done good things. If you can stop the angels and demons from attacking each other in Kansas City, in what will surely be the first of a long line of battles that cause bloodshed, you will have done something infinitely good. You will save lives. The rest of it doesn’t matter.”

I took her hand and brought it into my lap. I kneaded the skin of her palm. “You don’t understand. It’s because of those things inside me that the darkness was able to take me to begin with. You heard Viho. The darkness is still there. There’s always a chance that I could go dark again. It might be better if I let the archangels do their worst.”

The words hung in the air between us. I saw the flash of anger in Paige’s eyes. She stood up and stared at me with her hands on her hips. Then she kicked me in the shin. Hard.

“Ow! What the fuck?” I said.

“Big bad dark angel feeling sorry for himself?” She was angry. “Geez, Riley. You don’t have the corner market on darkness. Remember that guy named Lucifer? He’s the real deal. Evil incarnate, darkness through and through. There is no redemption for a demon like that. Ever. But you are so lucky! You get a second chance to make it all right, to undo some of the nasty deeds that you’ve done in the past. Has it ever occurred to you that once this angel demon business is done, you could go back to all those places you’ve been in the last week and set about doing good for those you’ve wronged?”

I hadn’t thought about that. But Paige was on a tirade, and I had a feeling she wasn’t going to stop until she was good and ready. As mad as she was at me, the fire in her eyes made me feel warm inside. She cared enough to give me hell.

“No, of course not. Because you are so focused on trying to make sure that everyone sees your dark side that you forget when you let your good side out. It’s there.” She leaned down and jammed a finger against my chest. “Your heart beats pure. I know that because I don’t believe for one second that love can be born out of darkness. No matter what you do or what you say to convince me otherwise, I know you. You are my other half and with you I am whole. We complete each other. Light and dark. Both co-exist, and both can be used to bring good things into this world. I think that’s what we were always meant to do, Riley.”

I swept her up into my arms and kissed her. She squirmed against me at first as if she still wanted to have her say, but as I rained kisses over her cheeks and hair and finally her lips, they parted in welcome for me. I kissed her with a fierceness born out of love and possessiveness and gratitude for bringing her into my life. I wouldn’t ever take her for granted. She was right. I had a second chance. A second chance with her, and a second chance to right the wrongs that haunted me.

As I finally released my hold on her waist, I saw her cheeks were flushed, and she was breathing a bit heavier than normal. I grinned at her. “I love it when you give me a swift kick in the ass.”

“God knows you need it more often then you should,” she whispered. Then she smiled back at me. She held up her hand and put up one finger. “First, we’re going to find Bruno Proctor and get control of your little army back.” She flipped up another finger. “Then, you’re going to send them all packing.” She flipped up her middle finger. “Last, but not least, we’re going to give the archangel squad the ol’ heave ho and send them packing too.”

I laughed at her understated innuendo. I would be more than happy to give them the old ‘fuck you’ salute as well. “Anything else on the to-do list?” I landed a butterfly kiss on her nose.

“Well, there is the matter of that other original angel who has been sulking about for the last thousand years. I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting him yet, but Viho and Klein said he was pretty badass and damn near indestructible,” she said.

“I’ve been thinking a lot about that,” I said. “Even in my crazy, madness filled brain I had Adam in mind. He might be nearly indestructible, but I have a plan for him.”

“You are finally going to be useful then? No more Mr. Mopeyhead?” She pulled a long face and looked forlorn clearly making fun of me.

I started to tickle her, and she let out a short screech. “Shhhh,” I warned. “We’re in a graveyard. You’re going to wake the dead.”

She wrapped her arms around my neck and rocked back on her heels as she gazed up at me. “I think I already did.”