The Angel Side (16 page)

“No. We stay together! Bad things only happen when we’re separated
,
Ra. Don’t you see that
?
If we stay together, we can do this.” Etta pleaded as I gripped around the Templar.

With an air of arrogance I lifted my chin
and
puffed out my chest.

“Don’t you
dare!
” Etta commanded.

“We’re all going to die. I can’t allow it to happen. ” I said
,
shooting a glare at her over my shoulder
seconds before
the Templar and I
flashed.

Th
e
bastard! Leaving me…again.
Time to remind him who he is messing with.
Knowing Ra’s stubbornness, he ran off to Purgatory to get my spirit without me. I had faith in his fighting capabilities, but he would be unable to navigate through the terrain once inside the gates or find my essence on his own.
Only
I had the ability to pinpoint my soul’s exact location.

I understood
Ra
was
upset with me for acting childish but what he didn’t know
was
I had been blocking out the voices, cries, pain
,
and screams of my fractured pieces. Everything they said, heard,
and
felt, I did as well. It
was
as if my mind
had been
quartered by four invisible horses, making the simplest of thoughts near impossible.

W
ith the chaos in my head I needed to figure out how to get to Purgatory’s gates before Ra entered. Without the capability of flashing, it left me with
only
one mode of transportation. When I first spotted Ra at the gates of Heaven, I had been filled with so much happiness I swelled.
I had to shake off my emotions.
I needed to get happy again.

With the voices chiming in with their different opinions about what to do
and
the distressed chattering of the
A
ngels behind me, finding my happy place seemed futile. Fighting for a moment of clarity, I
swu
ng the war hammer
around
, concentrating on how to handle it if I should encounter a foe, when a tickling sensation manifested in my hands, followed by a rippling effect.

“Hold the scutum tight to your
body
. Raise it until the top reaches the bulb of y
our nose.
” A coarse voice whispered in my ear. Looking at what might have caused the sudden sensation, I saw two clawed hands inside of mine, one squeezing my hand around the war hammer, the other around the straps of the shield.

“Get away from her!” Dad
shouted above the rest. As the Demon’s body turn
ed
to face my father, my insides swished around making me giggle.

“
It’s
okay
,
D
ad. Nicor won’t hurt me.”

Ignoring my father’s threat, Nicor turned back to me, “Look up. Never down. The tip has the same poison as an Arch’s wings, so be very careful. Tuck the hammer in, spike outward, head inward.
You don’t need a lot of force to drive the spike into a skull, so gently bring it over your shoulder, perpendicular with your body,
and then
simply tap the spike in
to
your target. Like so.” With Nicor controlling my arm,
it
came up then down in one fluid motion, as if
he had been
tapping a nail in
to
a wall.

“If you’re surrounded, once you’ve tapped the enemy in front of you, make sure you have a firm grip on it. Don’t yank the spike out. Move it upward and back
,
using the head to slam the one behind you but never, and I mean
never,
let the head hit the ground.” Nicor repeated the movement a few more times before stepping back.

“Now, you try without my help.” Nicor said, crossing his arms over his chest.

I gave it a go, hitting myself in the face with the hammer. Dad rushed toward me, only to be held back by Nicor’s outstretched arm.

“Let her try it again. Tap the boulder.” Nicor instructed.

Turning to the boulder I gave it a small tap causing it to break into halves. The tip had stuck
in
one half, ripping it out of my hand. In a flash Nicor caught the war hammer before it hit the ground.

The group held their breath in anticipation. Uriel warned what would happen if Nicor ever got his hands on his war hammer
,
but I
hadn’t been
worried
in the slightest
. At any point in time I
was
sure Nicor
had the ability to
snatch his former weapon from me and disappear.
Yet, he hadn’t.

“Again.”
Nicor kept his steely gaze on me
.

E
veryone except Nicor watched with concern as I gave it another go, this time without error. As fun as learning how to use
my weapons had been, I still hadn’t found my happy place
.
Suddenly
the craziest of ideas dawned on me.

“Nicor, you’re a water Demon!” I exclaimed joyously. Nicor flashed a Cheshire grin and nodded his head in agreement.

“Dad, you go get the other piece of me and bring it to the gates. Nicor, you and I are going on a little journey.”

“You’re not going anywhere. Ra said we can’t flash with you in your condition. And how do you know about the other piece?” My dad rebutted.

“You can’t flash with me
,
but a water Demon can and what better water Demon than the king of them all. Oh
,
and
D
ad, sound travels faster through water. I hear everything.”

“
W
here are you going?”
Dad replied, brushing off his embarrassment
.

“I’m going to get my husband before he does something stupid.”

“
The coward ran
. He can be anywhere. Think about this, baby girl. Is he worth risking your whole existence for?”

With the millions of negative
things someone
might
say about my husband
,
Ra, coward hadn’t been one of them. My dad never hid his feelings about Ra. I knew he didn’t trust him and
believed
I’d been able to
do much better but the truth
was
,
there
was no better. Ra had been the only Angel or Demon I ever wanted to be with. Despite our troubles, I loved him wholeheartedly. As much as I wanted to stand up in Ra’s defense
,
I
had
n’t want
ed
to waste any more time on
petty disagreements.

“Without him, I have nothing to exist for. Now, stop arguing with me. I’ll meet you at the gates once you’ve gotten my other piece. Nicor
,
you ready?”

Nicor put his hands in mine and before I knew
it,
we were landing behind a pile of rotting corpses. Seconds later, a flash of light went off behind us. Astaroth had followed.

“What do we do now?” Astaroth asked as we crept around to another pile of bodies.

“We find Ra.” I answered when I saw a Templar running up the rubble encrusted cliff side toward us.

“He told me to wait out here for him. I was getting ready to go back to the group when I saw yo
u three.” Panting from the exertion
, the Templar who served as Ra’s taxi came up beside us.

“Where did he go?” I asked.

“Found him.” Nicor said
,
pointing toward the gates.

With a dozen pole
arms aimed for his throat, Ra stood, hands clasped behind his head in
capitulation
. The Guardians had him surrounded. My breath hitched, and a strange pulsing in my stomach started as Lilith walked out of the gates and approached Ra. The closer she stepped to Ra, the stronger the pulse became
.
M
y spirit shouted out to me
to run for Ra
.

“What do you want to do? Should we wait for your father
, Etta
?” Astaroth asked.

Shushing him
,
I concentrated on blocking out my soul’s cries for help and listening in on Ra’s conversation. Their voices barely above a whisper
,
I had been able to make out the last thing Ra said before being led
through
the gates by the Guardians.
What does he mean a
life
for a
life
?
If Ra believed for a minute Lilith would trade my soul for his, he
was
a bigger fool than I thought. I had to save Ra from her clutches, even if it meant leaving my soul behind.

As Lilith turned to follow her minions, I saw a stone figure being dragged behind Lilith by a golden chain attached to her wrist. Entering the gates, the pulsating subsided to a dull throb.
My soul!

“Let’s go before the gates close!” I ordered.

“What about the others?”
the Templar asked
.

“We don’t have time.
You wait here in case they show up
” I said as I took off for the gates
.
Nicor snatched me by the arm.

“You have got to stop touching me.” I giggled
, unable to control the ticklish sensation coursing through me at his touch
.

“We can’t rush in blind.” Nicor contested
.

“I know the place like the back of my hand.”

“But do you know where she’ll be holding your essence and Ra? We can’t go in th
e
r
e
weapons blazing. We need a clear, concise plan.
Besides, if something happened to you
,
your
…
”
Nicor
paused
,
glancing over at Astaroth who had been watching us closely
.
“
b
rother
would never forgive me.” he corrected his argument
.

“Lilith has my spirit
,
and knowing her she’ll take Ra to the dungeons. If we go now we may be able to cut them off near the armory.”

Shaking his head, it seemed Nicor understood arguing with me
would prove fruitless
. My mind had been made up.

“Tell us where the armory is and how it looks…every detail.” Astaroth insisted.

Nicor and Astaroth closed their eyes and listened intently as I gave them every detail I remembered, starting from the gates to the armory just above the dungeons. When I finished, Nicor snatched me into his arms and flashed.

Appearing in the armory, we were met with a small force of
four Guardians. With a graceful indifference
Nicor spun one around, stepped up his back,
and
ripp
ed
off the Guardian’s head.

“Where do you suppose a spirit goes if it dies in Purgatory, Brother?” Astaroth jokingly asked Nicor as he sliced the throat of another with his broadsword. Nicor responded with a
poofing
motion of his free hand as he shoved his claws in
to
the final Guardian’s chest. Staring deep in his eyes, Nicor watched with a wicked grin as the life faded from the Guardian’s eyes.

Nicor seemed
to have
faded into a state of euphoria as he sucked in a deep breath and slowly released it.
Seeing how enjoyable the kills had been for them gave me pause.
Did I make a mistake bringing them with me? Should they turn against us,
would
Ra
be able to
fight the two
off
?

“They’re coming this way.”
Nicor whispered as he put his ear to the armory door.

“How can you tell?” I asked as I took position behind
the two Demons
.

“Your chest is lit up
similar to
the lava flows of Hell.” Astaroth said, pointing his chin to my chest. I hadn’t had a chance to look
at what he
was
talking about
as
Nicor flung open the door, rushing the group of Guardians on the other side.
Following him and Astaroth into the cavern, I spotted a group of Guardians pushing Ra and Lilith back when
one
took a swing at me.