The Angel of Death (The Soul Summoner Book 3) (39 page)

* * *

“What happened?” I asked when I woke up. My leg still hurt like hell, but the worst of it was over. The bone under the bandages felt wrong, but solid. My chin was quivering from shock and the freezing air against my wet clothes.
 

Warren was holding me on the ground. “You’re like the bionic woman. I don’t know how the hell you survived that.”

“I told you. Things have changed.” I looked around. Nathan, Cooper, and Lex were gathering up the weapons. Enzo and Kane were carrying another soldier out of the woods. And the FBI agents were sitting on the ground a few feet away from us. “Where’s Azrael?”

He shook his head. “I’m not sure. Shit got crazy between him and the big guy. The woods went silent not long after you killed the ginger.”

The ginger.

“Taiya,” I said, slumping in his arms.

“What?”

I looked up at him with tears in my eyes. “Ysha said if I killed him, Taiya would die.”

He didn’t say anything. He just kissed the top of my head.

Something heavy was coming through the woods to our right. When we looked, Reuel stumbled into the clearing. The trunk of a tree, at least four feet long and six inches in diameter was running through his chest between his right shoulder and his breast bone.

When he saw us, his shoulders wilted with relief.

Warren gently slid me off his lap and got up. He jogged over and caught Reuel under his left arm before the big guy stumbled. I gasped and struggled to my feet.

My left leg was significantly shorter than it had been before the break. The bone had healed at a horrible angle, but it was a small issue compared to the man standing before me who was impaled by a poplar.
 

“I guess this explains where you were when shit got ugly,” Warren said as helped Reuel kneel down.

Reuel grunted.

He looked up at me, his eyes pleading.

I grimaced. “I’ll heal you, but we’ve got to get that thing out first.”

He nodded.

“Dude,” Nathan said as he and Enzo walked over.

“I’ll hold his chest, if you want to push,” Enzo offered, looking at Warren.

“You sound experienced in this,” I said.

Enzo smiled. “It’s happened to Azrael more than once.”

Warren blew out a heavy sigh, shaking his head. “Let’s get this over with.”

Enzo braced Reuel from the front while Warren pushed the log forward. Nathan ended up having to help him. It was the nastiest thing I’d ever seen which was saying quite a lot. It took forever to heal. Everyone else began packing up the HOKs while I closed the gaping hole in Reuel’s chest.

“You owe me big time for this,” I said.

He chuckled, though it was obviously painful.

“I wonder what would happen if I didn’t heal it.”

Reuel’s head jerked up and he looked around.

“What is it?”

“Shh.”

The look on his face was worrisome.
 

He grabbed my arm, his eyes wide with alarm.

The second I looked up, the sound of rapid-fire gunshots ricocheted off the falls again. Most everyone dove to the ground, except Enzo, who face-planted in the grass. Reuel pulled me behind him and Warren and Nathan ducked behind one of the HOKs. Agent Silvers showered the area in bullets with an M-4, shooting Agent Voss in the head and blowing out the kneecap of one of Azrael’s soldiers I didn’t know.

Then she stopped, but she didn’t lower the weapon.

“Silvers, what are you doing?” Agent Clark shouted.

She didn’t respond. Her eyes were glazed over and not really staring anywhere in particular. I’d seen the same look on Warren’s face when Kasyade was controlling him in San Antonio.

Suddenly, the HOK flipped forward, landing upside down a few feet from me and Reuel, leaving Nathan and Warren exposed and vulnerable. Silvers turned the gun toward them.
 

Lex raised his sidearm in her direction, but before he could fire, he was knocked sideways off his feet by an invisible blow. My eyes frantically scanned the area, looking for the demon responsible. Then I saw her. A young Hispanic girl, maybe thirteen, standing at the edge of the woods.

Reuel saw her too. “Phenex.”

I expected someone older.

“Kill them,” she said, her calm voice eerily amplified for all of us to hear.

She aimed the rifle at Nathan.

I screamed.

Silvers fired.

And Warren jumped in front of the bullets.

* * *

Azrael had once told me that adrenalin makes everything easier, which explained why I broke from Reuel’s powerful grasp like his fingers were coated with butter. Power exploded from my fingertips like a nuclear explosion blasting the Hispanic girl off her feet. Before she hit the ground, Samael appeared out of nowhere, grabbing her and vanishing into the air.

Another agent fired a round from a handgun into Silvers from behind. She toppled forward, losing her grip on the rifle. Lex jumped on her, and someone else grabbed the gun.
 

Warren landed on top of Nathan.

Blood was everywhere.

I ran across the field, falling twice before I reached Warren. The front of his shirt was riddled with bullet holes and soaked with blood. His dark eyes were vacant and staring into the sky.

Nathan was checking for a pulse.

A pulse I knew he wouldn’t find.

“Get out of my way!” I yelled at him, fanning out my fingers, igniting my fingers with every ounce of power I had. As I reached toward his lifeless body, Samael descended on top of me, yanking me away and holding me back.

“Sloan, you must not!” Samael’s lips pressed against my ear.
 

With all my strength, I kicked, elbowed, and punched him. “Let me go!”

He held me firm, covering my arms with his own to keep me from using my power on him. “Listen to me!” His voice was unyielding. “If you succeed in summoning him back to this body, his being will be splintered between this world and the next.” He shook me. “He will likely die a painful death, regardless. And if he lives…it’s not a fate that should be sentenced on anyone.”

I crumpled in his arms, but continued to writhe against him. “I have to bring him back!” I screamed through my tears.

Samael tightened his grasp. “You must not. You must love him enough to let him go.”

His words jarred me. My father had said those words before.

29.

Samael held me as I cried. When he finally released his grasp, I sank to my knees next to Warren and touched his blood-speckled face. Tears streamed from my eyes and mixed with the blood on his cheeks. I cradled his head in my arms, and our daughter kicked in my womb as I bent and kissed his frozen mouth.

Someone else was sobbing behind me. I glanced back to see Nathan seated in the grass, his eyes buried in his palm as tears dripped off his chin. Samael put a hand on his shoulder, but Nathan flinched away from his touch. He pushed himself off the ground and walked away from us all.

A few feet away, Warren’s armored vest lay draped over the rucksack he’d carried in.

As I withered into hysterics again, the air came alive, buzzing with energy all around me. I looked at Samael, just as his face snapped up. Across the clearing, Reuel stood to his feet, angling his ear toward the sky.

Impulsively, Samael grabbed me again, hooking his arms under mine and pulling me swiftly backward. Warren’s upper body slumped onto the grass as I was dragged from under him.
 

A gentle vibration grew beneath us, spreading and building until all the terrain rumbled violently. The rocks along the waterfall split open and tumbled into the waters below. Nathan and the few soldiers who had been standing fell to the their knees.

“What’s happening?” I shouted over the thunderous quake.

A violent wind rushed over us, and the air around Warren’s body visibly fractured in a thousand different directions. The space suddenly erupted into the most brilliant light I had ever witnessed. It was both blinding and inviting—the whitest white, icy and warm at the same time.
 

Samael’s arm shielded our eyes against it as splintered through the sky.
 

There was another flash and as the light dissolved around us, the storm faded. Then standing before us was Azrael…and Warren.

His strong chest heaved with heavy breaths.

My heart stopped.

I’d slammed my skull pretty hard during my fall with Ysha, certainly bruising my brain. Maybe this was a hallucination. Maybe I was dreaming again. Maybe I had actually died and this was some vision of the afterlife. But the pressure from Samael’s grip on my arm when we stood, convinced me it was reality.

“What. The. Hell?” Nathan’s words were slow and over-enunciated as he walked up beside us.

Warren took a step forward. “Sloan.” It was his voice, strong and even.

My feet were rooted to the forest floor.

He closed the space between us, and then his arms were around me. I couldn’t move, and I stood there like a mannequin, petrified in place as he lifted me from the ground. His body was no longer rigid with death, his warmth seeped into my skin, and his energy surged through my nerve endings, stronger than it ever had before. I remembered to breathe as he settled me on my feet again. Our daughter fluttered in my belly.

Everyone else withdrew a few steps in horror.
 

“Sloan,” Warren said again.

I pressed my eyes closed, and then reopened them. “You’re alive?” I stammered.

He nodded. “I’m alive.”

I shook my head. “No. This isn’t possible. You were dead.”

“I’m not dead anymore.”

Carefully, I searched his face. There was no trace of blood on his skin or on his clothes. His eyes were sparkling in the mid-day sun that was peeking through the dissipating gray clouds, but something about him was alarmingly different.

I couldn’t see his soul.

Recoiling from his touch, I grasped the sides of my head, fearing my skull might explode. “No, this isn’t you. You’re different.”

Azrael appeared at his side. He was smiling. “You’re right. He is better. Much better. He no longer has the weaknesses of humanity.”
 

My head snapped back. “No longer human?” I started laughing. Hysterical, maniacal laughter. I spun on my heel and walked away from them, still shaking my head and holding my head together with my hands. Nathan, with his mouth hanging open, grabbed me by the arm to stop me. I looked into his eyes and pointed back over my shoulder. “You’re seeing this shit too, right?”

He nodded but didn’t, or couldn’t, speak.

Warren spoke behind me. “Sloan, look at me.”

I turned back around.
 

Slowly, he approached with his hands up in surrender. “Everything we’ve been told is true. Our little girl is very special. Now I have the power to protect her, and you.” He took my hands and pulled them against his chest. I could feel his heart beating. “Please trust me.”

For a long time, I stared at him. I touched his cheek, and his eyes closed as my fingertips graced his warm skin. When he reopened his eyes, peace washed over me. Tears slipped down my face. “You were dead.”

He swiped his thumbs under my eyes. “And now you’ll never worry about that again.” He leaned in and kissed me, his power making me dizzy.

When he released me, Nathan was waiting with his hand outstretched. Again, Warren looked at it for a moment. Then, instead of shaking it, he stepped forward and embraced him. Neither of them spoke, but neither of them had to.

Azrael’s hand came to rest on my shoulder. He looked down at me. “I assumed you would have known I’d have the power to bring him back.”

“Seriously?” I asked, crossing my arms.

“You have the ability to control the human spirit; I command the Angels of Death. I thought this would be a natural conclusion given our circumstances.”

I shook my head. “Not really. An explanation would be helpful.”
 

“I’ll explain everything soon,” he said.

My eyes narrowed at him. “Where were you?”

“Trying unsuccessfully to subdue The Destroyer,” he said.

“Where is he now?”

Azrael shrugged. “I couldn’t stay with him and go after my son.”

A thought occurred to me. “Can I recall Warren’s human side now, so he’d be the same as he was before?”

Azrael sighed and shook his head. “Warren’s human spirit is gone forever.”
 

“But Samael said he can’t survive if—”

Azrael cut me off. “As a human, he could not easily survive without the power his body has become dependent on over the years.” He touched my forehead. “Remember those migraines?”

“It would kill him,” I said quietly.

“Most likely.”
 

“What about Taiya?” I asked. “Could she still be alive?”

He hung his head. “It’s doubtful.”

Tears pooled in my eyes. “I killed her.”

He gripped my shoulders. “You can’t think that way. It was not your choice.” He pulled me against his chest as I began to cry. Of all the things Azrael was capable of, I was surprised tenderness was one of them. He dipped his head and spoke quietly just to me. “And you know it is not an empty platitude when I tell you if she is gone, she’s in a better place.”

His words made me feel better, but only slightly.
 

Just then, sirens howled in the distance.

“Someone must have heard all the explosions,” Nathan said. “We’re about to have some confused and angry deputies on our hands.”

My eyes widened at the mention of law enforcement. The rest of our group was still scattered around the field. I took a step in their direction, but Azrael put a hand on my chest to stop me. “Agent Voss is dead.”
 

I looked at him.

He pointed to the field where Agent Clark was performing triage on Agent Silvers. “This is your opportunity to do more than just bring someone back.”

I rubbed my palms together. “It’s time to clear my name.”

* * *

The Halifax County Sheriff’s Department was thoroughly perplexed when they descended on Calfkiller Creek and found the FBI and Claymore Worldwide cleaning up from a “training exercise.” I don’t know what the agents told them, and I didn’t care. All that mattered was I wasn’t going back to jail…not yet, anyway.