Dark Destiny (44 page)

He figured he had ten seconds, give or take, before she hit the ground. Hopefully, more give than take.

10.

Calmness overcame him. The rushing air was loud as he fell, though he only felt the pressure of it against his eyes and skin. He focused hard on her, his eyes narrowing. She was falling fast. Pain still fluctuated in his system, stopping him from using his Shade flight.

9.

Stories whipped past in the blink of an eye. Head straight down, his body like an arrow as he pulled his arms in tight, he gained on her fast. Her hair whipped in all directions. The pale moonlight gave her an angel-like glow.

8.

Her arms were spread out in a cross formation, clothing flapping against her. Her eyes were closed, her face completely relaxed.

He had to reach her.

“Stupid, stupid, stupid,” he muttered to himself. Couldn’t believe that she was actually going to kill herself.

7.

Legs pressed together, body straight. Closer. Almost within reach. Flagpole zipped past, almost collided with her. He shifted just a bit to avoid it himself.

6.

He stretched out his right arm to grab her. Wind battered his eyes, making it hard to see. Not much time left.

Almost there
.
Need to stretch
.

Fingertips on her sleeves.

5.

Soreness formed in his shoulder from the strain. She opened her eyes and gasped. Panic in her eyes. She yanked herself away. Must have felt him on her sleeve. Blood rushed to his head from being upside down.

4.

Only a few seconds left before she hits the ground
.

It didn’t matter, he would be on her in less than a second. His ears popped. He willed himself to move faster.

3.

High above him, from where they jumped, a sonic boom shattered glass and almost blew out his ear drums. Something came down fast. He felt the pressure building above him. Kei? A large gust of wind assaulted his back, pushing him down almost into her. Obsidian? Did they need to be so dramatic?

2.

Just then, almost in slow motion, Jared glanced left and saw Raphael make eye contact with him as he flew past.

“Are you serious?” Jared muttered as Raphael caught the Revenant.

The Angel banked up swiftly with her in his arms and soared up into the sky. Jared was mere seconds from crashing into the ground. Still new to his Shade powers, he wasn’t sure if landing head first into a cement sidewalk would knock him out. At the last second, he tucked his head toward his stomach and rolled forward midair, bringing his legs down.

1.

He landed hard, smashing down into the asphalt and creating a shockwave centered under his feet that spread out in all directions, lifting up debris, cars, stop signs and a bus stop booth.

As cool as that was, he didn’t have time to appreciate the damage. His gaze darted to Raphael and the Revenant. He bent his knees, feet shifting in the rubble. His arms swung back with a little more flare than he would have liked as he gathered his energy. When he was ready, he pushed off the ground with everything he had.

Sailing after them, the air felt heavy, once again pounding at his face and body.

He closed his eyes and concentrated.
Amber, I hope you’re listening. The Angel showed up and grabbed the Revenant. It’s now or never. If he teleports with her, we’re done here. We won’t get another opportunity
.

He opened his eyes and hoped she had gotten the message.

Wednesday, 8:14 am (Purgatorium)

“I got you,” Raphael said gently to the Revenant as they rocketed up higher into the sky.

She exhaled, her body shaking hard. Raphael felt her h
eart pounding
, her pulse racing as her blood cascaded in surges through her body. She gripped him tight and gave him a shaky nod. If he were human and had just experienced what she had just gone through, his voice would probably be stuck in his throat as well. Bravery was not a very common trait for humans. What he had just witnessed had taken a lot of guts.

“You did a very brave thing,” he said gently and gave her a single nod. “Well done.”

Her eyes shifted toward his and she gave him a gentle smile. Her body was shaking, probably terrified from the fall. Raphael smiled back.

Amblin’s voice thundered in the depths of his mind,
Raphael, that Seal Witch is back! I can feel her pressing through on us. Boom, she’s removed your blink again! Wait…oh, great, now she’s working on removing your flight
.

“Oh, lovely,” he muttered.

Land before you go plummeting down to your death. I’ll work on trying to push her out. I’ve managed to delay her for now, but I can’t hold her off much longer.

“Do what you can. I’m counting on you,” said Raphael.

On it!

The width and length of these buildings were massive, perhaps the size of an entire city block. Raphael blasted up, the Revenant cradled in his arms, his air stream visible behind him. They ascended halfway up the side of a tall, dark brown building but stopped before they came to the peaked roof. Instead, they came to a rest on the side, on one of its huge glass windows.

He let his energy flow into the Revenant and together they shifted their weight to suit the change in direction. Gravity shifted with them and when Raphael set her down, the Revenant found she could stand easily on the side of the building. He tried to get his bearings.

“Who do you keep talking to?” she asked.

“Amblin. She’s my cherub. Each Angel has his or her own personal connection or assistant to the Light. She tracks my movements and provides me with intel. I think the easiest way to put it so you can understand is she’s my own private encyclopedia.”

“Like you have Wikipedia in your head?”

“Wiki—er, yes.”

“Interesting,” she replied.

Raphael grinned. “Don’t let her hear you say that.”

In his mind, he felt Amblin’s energy lower, which was the equivalent of her rolling her eyes. Then, her energy level spiked.
Raphael, I found her! She’s in front of you, across the street! Look…

“Hang on one moment,” he said to the Revenant. “I need to focus on something.”

She nodded once again.

The Seal Witch was there, directly across from him, standing at the top of the Bank of America building, perched atop its large needle. Her hair whipped about her in the breeze. Her violet eyes burned him, flickering lighter and then darker, glowing bright in the night sky.

“So, she survived the destruction of the building,” Raphael said.

The building vibrated as if it had just been hit by a wrecking ball. Once. Twice. Extending his awareness beyond his body, he found them. The Shades had discovered his location. To his left, he felt the big one who called himself Obsidian moving toward them.

He must have the ability to shift gravity for himself as well, for Obsidian was on the wall running toward them easily. Intensity radiated from Obsidian, his staff held tightly in one hand, as he let loose a loud, dark battle cry.

Raphael extended awareness to the right and he felt the other one, Kei, also coming for him. In his hands was his pair of short swords, which he dragged along the side of the building, causing sparks to shoot out.

Extending his awareness farther, he found the youngest Shade. He was flying toward them. He’d arrive in moments.

It looks as if they have completely recovered
, Amblin informed him.

“This is going to be difficult,” said Raphael.

Forget them, and take out that blasted witch! Hurry, I can’t keep her out much longer!

Raphael knew Amblin was right. If that Seal Witch removed his flight, there would be no way out of this.

“Hold on,” he said to the Revenant. His arm tightened around her waist.

“I trust you,” she replied, clinging around his neck with both arms.

Raphael kicked off the building, his airstream projecting him forward, and flew toward the Seal Witch. Seconds later, the Shades kicked off the building, flying after him.

Raphael, I’ve managed to trace her signals and I’ve removed whatever power she uses to teleport or shift planes. She’s fighting me back, but now is the chance! Take her out!

Raphael said quietly, using some of his power to project his voice in her ear. “May you finally find rest.”

Shifting the Revenant’s body weight to his left side, he gripped the air with his right hand. In his fist, his white katana materialized out of a blinding flash. He slashed vertically through the darkness, collecting the power in the air. The blade glowed brighter as it collected the forces around it, power dancing throughout the white metal, growing stronger and stronger. A force of wind blasted out from the blade, sizzling the air as it raced toward the Seal Witch.

He saw the panic on her face as her eyes widened. The explosion of wind and power took out the top half of the building, cutting all the way through, launching the top half upwards a few feet. The impact was deafening. Concrete dust shot out in all directions. The witch lost her balance as she toppled over, her scream ringing out in Raphael’s ears. The top half of the building came down unevenly and slid, first in slow motion, down past the bottom of the building. The mass of concrete and glass picked up speed as it fell. Raphael, his eyes apologetic, watched the witch careening head over heels in her death fall, following the rubble to the streets below, before being swallowed up by the rising wall of dust.

Amber had felt a presence in her mind. She tried to push it out, but apparently it had done something to her. She was no longer able to control the streetlights. If she couldn’t control them, she would not be able to make them flicker. If she could not make them flicker, she wouldn’t be able to switch realms and chances are, she would hit the pavement and go splat. This would be quite annoying if she had to die . . . again. And this time, there would be no coming back.

Alarm filled her. Her heart pounded in her chest. Her hair was whipping her face, annoying her. She commanded it to stop. It did. At least she still had some of her gifts.

Quickly, she searched her mind for a spell that would save her. Nothing came, only dread. If she couldn’t make those lights flicker, well, this might actually be it. The only other thing to do was . . .

Damn.

Careening through the wall of dust, she gulped at the concrete rising up toward her. It was coming too fast. She ripped the ankh off her neck and held it in front of her toward the street. Her hands were shaking too much. The air blasting every part of her body did not help her concentration.

She gripped the ankh tight enough to break the skin of her hands. Her blood poured out from the cut and coated the metal. The ankh seemed to accept her blood as it began to give off a purplish glow.

She forced out the words she didn’t want to say, “Open. The. G
—
”

Out of nowhere, Jared burst out of the wall of dust and caught her mid-air.

Relief flooded throughout her insides.

She had almost done the unthinkable.

Lifting her gaze at him, she kissed him on the cheek.

He shot her a surprised glance. “What the hell?”

“I almost had to do something I didn’t want to do,” she answered.

“What?”

“It’s not important. Just . . .” She trailed off for a moment. “Thank you, my undead love mate.”

“Whatever.” He rolled his eyes but couldn’t help the little smile that had formed deep inside him.

“Right here is good,” she said as he pulled up to an unnamed red brick building.

She hopped down. Jared rocketed off, back in the direction of the Angel. Down below, something caught her attention. Obsidian had arrived on the street and grabbed a disheveled lesser Soul that had been digging in a dumpster. The Soul appeared to be a homeless zombie, dressed in heavy clothing. He’d most likely been homeless in the land of the living too. He’d probably frozen to death during one of Baltimore’s cold winters.

Amber glanced sideways at Obsidian, wondering what he was up to. Then, Obsidian plunged his hand into the homeless zombie’s chest and ripped out his Soul. The limp body collapsed on to the city street. Without a glance at the corpse, Obsidian soared back up in the direction of the Angel and the Revenant, with the zombie Soul in his hand.

She smiled at the ruthlessness of these Shades. Then, she felt a moment of sadness. Was that also Jared’s fate? Becoming ruthless and nasty. She shook her head. She didn’t need to think about this. There were more pressing matters. With a final push, she managed to get that annoying cherub presence out of her mind.

A streetlight flickered, plunging her in smothering darkness. When the light returned a split second later, she was gone.