Dark Destiny (30 page)

Raphael rolled his neck and mentally prepared himself for battle. His senses were on high alert. Nothing stayed hidden from him. Not even the stirring shadows that attempted to hide the Stalkers.

Gripping his blade, his eyes shifted from one Soul to another.

He saw the white mist Souls known as Poltergeists.

The mirror-hopping Apparitions.

The powerfully deadly Specters.

The soul-splitting Wraiths.

The spell-casting Phantoms.

And, almost at the top of the hierarchy, the Shades. In the back of his mind, he knew some Shades had the power to rival Angels.

A fight against some Shades might take out a quarter of the city, destroying all the Lesser Souls in the area. Raphael scanned the crowd—thousands were here. He couldn’t be responsible for so many dead Souls. Yes, he was a warrior, but a truly great warrior didn’t always need to kill. Besides, these weren’t demons; they were Souls.

He let out a frustrated huff.

Before him, the horde parted slightly and he narrowed his eyes. It was a Shade, sitting on a throne that appeared to be made of bones.

Raphael, that’s the Master. His gift is what is controlling most of the lower caste Souls. Even the Stalkers.

The Master stared beyond Raphael, at the Revenant, his expression wild and fierce.

Raphael furrowed his brow, his hands gripping his blade harder as he stared at the Master. In return, the Master slid his tongue along his upper row of teeth and smacked his lips.

Then he leaned forward, resting his elbow on one knee as he pointed at her.

Behind the Master, the sound of his horde went wild. They threw their hands in the air, cheering at the top of their rotten lungs. Pleased with his horde’s answer, the Master brought his hand down. Raphael understood it as a mental command for the horde to get ready.

The Master leaned down to whispered something to Obsidian. Raphael focused his ears to hear . . . “When the attack starts, let the Angel waste his power and energy on the filth before making your attack.”

Obsidian sneered with a nod.

Raphael sensed his brother coming. Relief flooded his being and he smiled. Gabriel
blinked
next to him as Raphael exhaled a sigh of relief. “A little more quickly next time.”

Gabriel simply replied, “I was preoccupied.”

“And the Horseman?”

“I’m sure he’ll be here shortly.”

Gabriel turned toward the Revenant. “Greetings. It is my pleasure protecting you,” he said with a sure nod. “Rest assured, while we are here, you will not experience a painful, agonizing death. We will not allow anybody to rip you apart limb from limb.”

He turned away.

“Thanks?” she replied with a slight, confused smile, then gasped.

A Stalker leapt through the shadows on to Raphael’s back. It reared back, baring its massively sharp teeth as it jerked forward to bite down on Raphael’s neck. Raphael’s hands darted up and back faster than sight to grab at the Stalker. He clenched his hand around the creature’s slimy head and heaved it with all his might. The Soul flew like a bullet into an office building across the street, shattering concrete and glass. Debris rained onto the sidewalk, evaporating before any of it hit the ground. Another Stalker slunk back into the shadows, hiding itself along with its cowardice.

Raphael clenched his jaw, angry at being momentarily distracted as the mass of rotting Souls rushed forward, trampling one another to get to him and the Revenant.

Behind him, the Revenant remained in a trance. Raphael searched for the Witch to stop her, but neither he nor Amblin could locate her. She was lost in a sea of deadly Souls.

“You take that side,” yelled Gabriel stomping the ground in front of him. A large portion of the street shattered, breaking apart and collapsing into an underground sewer. The hole appeared like a large crescent moon, one city block in length. Lesser Souls fell into the sewer, and splashing sounds echoed.

“I’ll take the last section of the street,” Raphael bellowed as he brought up his blade and stabbed an undamaged section of the street. The white blade glowed until a blade of pure light took its place.

As before, a Wall of Light jetted up. He stared past its translucent barrier to some of the Lesser Souls trying to bang on it. Beyond them, he spotted the Shade known as Kei placing his hand on his chest, covering one of his tattoos, an Asian character of some sort. Kei removed his hand and the tattoo was no longer there. Placing his hand on the wall in front of him, Raphael saw it shimmer.

Ooohhh . . .
Amblin said,
he needs to ground the tattoos before making them solid
.

This new revelation brought some ease to Raphael’s mind. That would make it somewhat easier to take this Shade out, if need be.

With a sharp motion, Kei threw the removed tattoo in Raphael’s direction. A large Asian character crashed into the wall of light, the sound of the impact shattering nearby windows.

The displaced tattoo pulsed, and became shrouded in a black light, quicker and quicker until it became a blur. The Wall exploded. Sharp white shards flew in multiple directions, impaling many of the Lesser Souls in the area. They fell to the broken asphalt, holding their wounds. Many groaned in pain, while others tried to pull out the shrapnel. Raphael glared at Kei, who returned a menacing smile and a nod. The remaining Stalker growled, exposing its teeth at Raphael. It sniffed the air, crouched down, and then leapt on top of one of the fallen Lesser Souls. It bit down into an open gash in the Soul’s chest, shredding and tearing into the flesh of its victim with claws and teeth.

The wet, chunky sound of flesh being torn and the sharp crack of bones pulled on Raphael’s heartstrings as the Stalker ripped out and devoured the Lesser Soul’s core.

White light filled its mouth, growing brighter as it pulsed with electric fury.

“Uh-oh,” said Raphael as he reached for his blade. It obeyed, appearing in a flash of light. He held his sword, ready to parry the blast.

Raphael called to Gabriel, “Spirit crack!”

He knew that Soul energy was a great source of power. What made Stalkers and Shades so dangerous was that they had the ability to harness that energy into a powerful projectile, one that could severely harm an Angel. Every Soul, in its own way, was a small nuke waiting to blow.

Gabriel
blinked
in front of the Stalker and grabbed its neck with both hands. He cranked its head up and the s
pirit crack
launched into the sky, hitting the top two floors of a nearby building. The top half exploded into fragments that rose up into the sky, rather than falling to the street. Dark clouds contorted into a black and brown whirlpool, absorbing the debris.

Five white mist Apparitions hovered over the divide of the street, gliding in Raphael’s direction.

“Back!” Raphael yelled as he slashed his blade in an upward angle. A powerful gust of wind blew the Apparitions into neighboring buildings, swallowing them in darkness.

A large explosion erupted to Raphael’s left. Then another, a few blocks down. It seemed Gabriel was keeping himself busy.

Raphael glanced at the Revenant, she was still behind him. The Witch was still out there somewhere. He scanned the crowd, searching. The horde continued forward from the opposite direction, slashing, chewing, scratching, and biting.

Raphael slashed the street and a powerful shockwave erupted, sending many Souls flying backwards. Then another. Another. Unconscious bodies littered the streets. Three Phantoms appeared next, coming toward him like possessed private school girls in their black knee length skirts and formal suit jackets, planter’s hats and black leather boots. Their white collared shirts and white and black checkered ties shone in the darkness. In unison, they turned their palms face up in front of them.

“Wait,” screamed Obsidian, jumping in front of the Phantoms and striking the ground with the end of his staff. He struck with such force that the concrete buckled, spreading out in a straight line toward Raphael and the Revenant as if a gopher were barreling beneath the broken up concrete toward them, gaining in size and intensity. Raphael braced himself as the ground at their feet rose up at them with force, not hard enough to budge Raphael from his stance, but hard enough to launch the Revenant into the air a few feet so that she came down hard onto the cold, debris covered street. The shoulder bag containing her snow globe from the Light flew off into the rubble. Lesser Souls stepped over it and continued to try and push their way forward.

“No!” Raphael yelled.

He kneeled beside her in an instant. She was covered in dirt from head to toe. Her eyes remained closed but she was alive, her breath slow and labored.

He touched her arm in another attempt to
blink
. Nothing happened. They were still under the spell’s effect.

Obsidian readied his staff. “It’s time.”

Wednesday, 2:55 am (Purgatorium)

The air shimmered and pulsed. Orange and black embers appeared and then swirled. Dust wafted up as the Reaper
blinked
onto the sidewalk. Black mist danced around him, dissipating into the wind like flecks of ash.

Nobody moved. Raphael’s eyes darted back and forth between the Reaper and Obsidian. His grip on his blade tightened as he waited.

Raphael, I don’t know what happened, but his power level is surging,
Amblin told him.

The Reaper glanced at the fallen Revenant. A low, guttural growl escaped from within the hood. The Reaper charged. Not the Shade, but him.

Raphael brought up his sword. “No, Horseman, wait!”

But the Reaper continued, his scythe a blur in the air, closing the distance between them in a heartbeat. Their blades collided. Scarlet sparks exploded from the impact. A metallic clang rang out.

The Reaper’s blow forced Raphael back a couple of steps. Still the Reaper came forward, leaping at Raphael with another massive horizontal strike. Raphael brought his blade up, once again, barely in time to block. Crimson lightning flashed on their blades.

The Reaper
blinked
from his current position into a striking position with his blade up, angled down. With intense fury, he brought his blade down.

Unable to
blink
himself, Raphael’s eyes went wide, but he managed to raise his blade over his head to parry the blow. Their blades collided once again with a hot flash of red. Even with the parry, the strength of the Horseman was overwhelming. The weakened concrete sidewalk buckled, sending Raphael almost knee deep into the ground.

With his annoyance mounting, Raphael yelled, “We are trying to protect her!”

The Reaper growled reared back for another strike.

Raphael leapt out of the buckled sidewalk, then tucked and rolled to his feet. Just as quickly, the Reaper was on him again.

Another strike came. Then another. The Reaper’s attacks were relentless, ruthless. They left no room for a counter-attack.

Raphael’s hands were numb from parrying the strong blows, his arms tiring from the sheer weight of the massive scythe blade. He let his attention wander for a split-second as he searched for Gabriel. He needed his brother’s assistance, but he soon realized Gabriel would be no help. Gabriel was trapped within a window by a couple of Apparitions.

“Great,” Raphael muttered, blocking another incoming blow from the Reaper.

“Now is the time,” Kei announced, bracing himself to attack.

Raphael’s attention snapped to the Shades and understood they were about to charge. A disturbance stirred the air. He sensed his eldest brother’s arrival and braced for the impact. Michael would level the place if he had to. His job was to prevent any Soul from getting ahold of the Revenant, no matter the cost.

“Gabriel!” Raphael shouted.

“I know!” Gabriel screamed, trapped, inside the window itself. Three Apparitions stood by, holding onto him. Forcing his arms up, Gabriel flexed his muscles and the window exploded, leaving him standing alone.

The air crackled, signaling Michael’s imminent arrival. Members of the horde continued rushing toward the fallen Revenant. Raphael knew Michael would appear right in the midst of them. With the power of his arrival, he’d kill them. Still fending off the Reaper, his eyes darting back and forth between the Shades, Raphael panicked. He cried out, “Oh God! Michael, no!”

In the center of the horde, a jagged bright light appeared, as if a piece of lightning was frozen in time. It pulsed once, like a heartbeat, before detonating.  The explosion threw every member of the horde within several yards back with incredible force. Some of the Souls flew into the department store windows, shattering them. Others bounced off the walls of the buildings, crushing the concrete. Michael appeared, mid-stride, and continued walking forward casually.

He moved toward the Revenant and Raphael, who was still blocking the Reaper’s frenzied blows, ignoring the bodies scattered around him.

Michael held his head high, his lip barely curled in disgust as he surveyed the scene before him. His long, straight black hair flowed behind him.