Redemption (A NOVEL OF THE SEVEN SIGNS) (40 page)

Her tortured soul wailed, writhing, crucified on ugly spikes of truth. Japheth had given her hope. She’d almost believed redemption was within her reach.

But her hope was an evil lie.

They’d never forgive this. Not heaven. Not her sweet Tainted angel. Not anyone.

“Her little heartbeat pounded in your ears.” Fluvium was on his knees beside her, rubbing against her, reveling in her pain. His breath came hard and fast. “She ran, didn’t she, Rose, she tried to get away but you were too big, too strong. She had no chance. You tore her little throat out and then you fainted, didn’t you? You passed out, and I took her. And now she’s mine…”

She yelled, hoarse, anything to block out his horrible, hypnotic voice. Someone was screaming her name. Over and over, shouting for her. Was it Japheth? It was so distant, just a ghostly echo, lost in creeping horror.

She was damned. Lost. She’d go to hell forever.

Nothing could change that.

Then save her instead!
She howled a silent prayer, pleading with anyone who’d listen.
Save Bridie! She’s only six. She doesn’t know any better
…

Bridie crawled forwards on all fours. Her little hands slicked in the blood. The golden vial in her fist—yeah, that, Rose had almost forgotten it—banged on the rippled floor. “I’m hungry,” she announced again, gazing at Fluvium expectantly.

Rose shuddered, broken. She’d heard a single vampire heartbeat. Just one, among all those victims. Bridie had killed them all. And she was still hungry.

“Of course you are,” Fluvium said fondly. “Have you finished all those ones already?”

Bridie nodded proudly. Like she’d completed her homework, or braided her hair.

“All by yourself? Such a big girl! We’ll get you some more, I promise. But first—” His gaze gleamed with sudden purpose. “Let’s play a game! Give me that vial, sweetie.”

Bridie giggled, and held it out to him.

And golden heavenlight tore the skin from Rose’s eyes.

Driving angel wings blasted her face with hot breeze. She screamed. Bridie screamed, too. Japheth hit the floor in a flurry of gilded feathers, flinging Bridie onto her face in the blood.

Lightning flashed, a deafening howl of thunder. And Japheth rolled, and lighted to his feet, the vial clutched in his hand.

*   *   *

Holy flame ripped up Japheth’s arm, bathing him in bloodthirsty glory.

Hot, glittering, everything he’d ever thought he’d lost. The vial pulsed in his hand, feeding his life force, stroking his senses to sweet pleasure…

He shuddered, on a perilous edge. His flesh tingled, energized like magical quicksilver. Current arced along the catwalk, and the cursed air boiled in fury.

Inside the burning golden vial, liquid sloshed. Wrath in earthly form. The most powerful heavenspell in creation. The vial wasn’t empty. Which meant Fluvium wasn’t done. He could still be stopped.

Just sacrifice Rose and the child, and it’d be done. Fluvium dead. The vial safe. Mission accomplished.

He flashed his sword, a blinding strike of sky blue. With this vial in his hand, the power was his again, like he hadn’t felt it in fourteen hundred filthy, Tainted years.

He crouched, ready to dive at Fluvium and chew the sick monster’s skin off.

But Rose’s heartbreak shredded his nerves, an overvoltage
of rage that sizzled his righteous fervor to ash. None of this was her fault. She’d suffered enough.

His fingers clenched on the burning vial, and it lit him up like fireworks. But his heart still stung, defiant. She didn’t deserve hell.

Hot blue warning whispered in his veins. But he ignored it. There had to be a way to save her.

His voice reverberated, echoed in myriad harmony. “Rose, come on. Nothing you can do here.”

And he reached out a flaming blue hand for Bridie.

*   *   *

Rose stared, openmouthed, as her angel exploded in heavenly blue fire.

He’d help her. Try to save Bridie. He still believed there was hope for her…

Current crackled from the vial, up Japheth’s arm, arcing along his golden wings. The air stung with ozone. His eyes blazed with purpose, and he reached for Bridie.

But the little girl spat bloody flames, and scuttled away under the pipes.

“Bridie!” Rose stumbled to her knees. Her sprained leg squealed. She crawled, slipping in the gore, and stretched her arm out, desperate, grasping for Bridie’s outflung hand…

A flash of stinking ash, and Fluvium swept the child into his arms and darted away. “Get off her, bitch. She’s mine now.”

“No!” Rose screamed, mindless, and dived for Bridie. Her little girl, in that foul beast’s embrace. The horror was too much to bear.

But Fluvium just grabbed Rose’s hair, lightning quick, and slammed her into the floor.

Her breath squeezed out. She gasped, but her lungs wouldn’t fill. Her eyes bulged, and she lay there, helpless, gulping like a grounded fish.

And Fluvium faced Japheth, a knowing grin on his handsome face. “Ooh, didn’t count on that, did you? Now give me that stinking golden piss pot, or they both die screaming.”

*   *   *

Shit. Time for Plan B.

“Go ahead,” Japheth growled. “The vial’s mine. You lose.”

Fluvium propped Bridie on his hip. “Nice try, angel, but I don’t think you can watch them die. I’ve seen how you look at my little wife. You can save her, Japheth. She can be yours. All you have to do is give me the vial.”

His vision misted red. Temptation mesmerized him, a crawling velvet hellspell. He could keep her. Hold her, love her, make her his very own…

But the vial’s strength powered through him, and he shook the spell off, a crackle of lightning. “Your filthy magic won’t work on me. Now choose, demon. A clean death on my sword? Or shall I shove this glory down your throat and strangle you with it?”

Fluvium nipped at Bridie’s little wrist, and she giggled as he licked the blood. “I choose door number three, angel. Give me the fucking vial, or I drink this little bitch’s blood dry.”

Rose yelled, a heart-ripping cry of misery.

The water’s already contaminated, Jae.
That serpent voice, sweet poisoned reason in his head.
Remember Bethesda Fountain? The Sign is done. You can’t stop that now. What’s a little more blood, compared to her pain? Give Fluvium the vial and let her live.

He gnashed his teeth, trying to sever that ugly temptation. If Fluvium poisoned the rest of the pipes, two million people in Babylon would succumb to the curse.

Why should you care about them? They sure don’t give a shit for you. But Rose does, dumbass. Can’t you see that? How can you let her die? What kind of monster are you?

The selfish screaming in his heart shocked him cold. That was the demon in him talking. The evil inside…

I’m not a demon, Jae.
Sorrow, bleak and cold like storm water.
I never was.

I’m you. I’m fourteen hundred years of pain and emptiness and stupid suffering you didn’t deserve. I’m the part of you that hates them to their fucking marrow for what they did. And you can’t ever cut me out
…

He shuddered. Two million deaths. Heaven’s children, burning in torment. Hell on earth.

Sweet revenge.

And for a bloody, shocking moment, he relished it.

Mercy, it was unthinkable. Impossible. He couldn’t surrender God’s holy wrath just to soothe his selfish rage.

But Rose trusted you. How can you let her die? And this little girl, poisoned by a demon. Don’t they deserve to live a little longer?

The vial glowed white-hot in his hand. His fingers quivered, aching to the bone. The hollow where his soul once lived boiled over, sorrow and confusion and bitter loss, and he screamed his anguish to the unseen sky.
I can’t do this! I can’t make this decision. I’m not strong enough.

His knees buckled, and he fought to stay upright.
You win, okay? You’ve beaten me. Just tell me what to do
…

But silence resounded. Deep. Cold. Never ending…

Crunch!
Something hard crashed into his wrist. Pain arrowed up his arm.

And the sword dropped from his broken fingers.

Stunned, he stared into Rose’s face. Pale, tear streaked, her eyes shadowed black. She’d kicked him. Right on the point of his wrist. Such a delicate dancer, his warrior beauty.

Blindly, he scrabbled for his knife, but it was gone. He’d dropped it when he’d tackled Bridie. And now Rose gripped it, jabbing the point into the vein in his throat.

CHAPTER 36

Rose quivered, but she held the knife steady.
I have to believe I’ll be forgiven. I have to believe.

I have to.

Her foot still hurt where she’d kicked Japheth’s wrist. Her angel was strong. But heaven’s steel could kill an angel, just a surely as a demon’s blade. And Japheth’s rippled knife didn’t burn her. He’d made sure of that, when he gave her his mark.

Her treachery sickened her. But it had to be done.

“Let her go!” Her whisper boiled into a scream. “You can have him. I’ve done everything you asked! Just let my little girl go.”

Fluvium laughed, gloating. “Good work, Rose. I knew you’d come through for me. Do you like that, angel? She’s been working for me all along. And now I’ve got you right where I want you.”

Don’t look, Rose. Not his eyes
…

But her gaze sucked upwards, ineluctable.

Beautiful, this angel’s eyes. Brimming bright with passion and sorrow and unspeakable emotion. It pierced her, stabbing through the fuck-you armor of hatred and violence she’d so painstakingly built up.

He didn’t see a hellslave, or a monster. He saw
her
.

Her heart twanged, like hot wires broke inside.

But only Bridie mattered. She’d failed her de facto daughter once. Never again.

She jabbed the knife point deeper. Blood oozed. It must have hurt—God, she felt it herself, as if the blade lodged in her own flesh—but Japheth didn’t flinch. Didn’t shift that ultragreen gaze from hers.

He just flexed his shattered wrist, and it healed, wreathed in blue flame. “Ouch,” he said softly.

He didn’t mean the broken bones.

I’m sorry!
she wanted to scream.
I had to. It’s not you
…

But there was no time. No space. No reason. He’d never forgive her. Never understand that saving Bridie was more important than her life, or her soul.

The end of the world didn’t matter. If she could just save Bridie…
then hell won’t have won.

She flung a frantic glance at Fluvium. The demon still supped at her little girl’s wrist, slurping in contentment. “Mmm. I’ve gotta say”—he licked gory chops, and Bridie laughed—“she tastes damn fine. A bit like you, Rose. I can see the resemblance. I wonder if she feels like you, too? Y’know, inside, where it’s soft and warm…”

“Shut up!” Rose yelled. “You win, okay? Just let her go.”

Fluvium kissed the child’s nose tenderly. “Of course I win. What did you expect? Now bring me the vial.”

Japheth spat at him. “Coward. Come get it yourself, and see what happens.”

“Give her the vial, angel,” Fluvium snapped, “or I eat this child and your bitch of a girlfriend stabs you in the throat. I believe that’s what you call a lose-lose situation.”

Trembling, Rose reached out, and wrapped her fingers around the vial.

Japheth’s hand twitched. Such a strong forearm, roped with muscle. She’d always liked his wrists. His aura glowered in the firelight. But he didn’t fight her. Didn’t flash his sword.

He just let her take it.

It didn’t make her feel better about fucking him over.

A soldier does what’s necessary.
His words from hours ago
echoed, hollow.
A life for a life? I have to give up one to have the other? Where’s the justice in that?

The golden vial spat angry fire in her hand, a vow of awful retribution that shivered her soul. Without Japheth’s mark, she’d surely have fried on the spot.

She held it out to Fluvium, sick.

Triumphant, he took it, eyes gleaming. It howled, crackling with furious voltage. But Fluvium was a demon prince, one of hell’s chosen few. His magic crawled over him, an ethereal black shell, deflecting the wrath with a smug hiss of smoke.