Demon Evolution (3 page)

The sound was so soft that at first Gabriel
thought he might have imagined it. But then he heard it again. A
soft patter of a footstep, a scuff of a shoe on the rocky floor:
someone was tiptoeing down the corridor, trying to muffle their
presence.

Gabriel watched the door intently, ready to
spring into action if needed. For all he knew it could be his
executioner, and if so, he would fight like hell to protect
himself. But some instinct told him that it was a friend, rather
than a foe, and thus, he prepared himself to run and follow any
instructions that were given.

The tread of footsteps ended abruptly and
silence resumed. Gabriel strained to discern whether the visitor
had stopped outside his cell. The clink of metal on metal: a key
was inserted into a keyhole;
it was very close, it had to be his
door.
Ever so slowly, without so much as a creak, his door
opened.
Good old fashioned angel engineering
, Gabriel
thought.

When the door was halfway open, a familiar
face crowned by a fully white shock of hair popped through the
opening and hissed, “Hey, cowboy, it’s time to get the hell outta
here!”

Gabriel stared at his friend in surprise.
“Sampson? I never would have…I thought you were true blue angel all
the way.”

“If you want to stand here and discuss the
pros and cons of treason, I’d be happy to, but then we’ll have to
share a cell when we get busted, and I really don’t see us as being
very good cellmates.”

“Right, sorry, let’s go!” Gabriel raced
through the door and into the corridor.

Sampson noiselessly closed the door and
whispered instructions to Gabriel as they snuck towards the exit.
“The only guards on duty right now are
ours
. They’ll ignore
us like we don’t even exist. Follow me at all times; there is only
one way this is going to work.”

“Won’t those guards get charged with treason
when the Council finds out I have escaped?” Gabriel asked.

“Maybe. That’s a risk they’ve agreed to take,
but it’s likely that there won’t be sufficient proof to charge them
with anything.”

They reached the prison gates and, without
hesitation, Sampson unlocked and pushed them open. They turned to
the right, down a passageway.

“Wait, Sampson! Where are we going? The way
out is the other direction!”

“Didn’t I just tell you to follow me? Trust
me, there is a much better route, unless you want to pass through
the highest-traffic areas just to make this a challenge?” Sampson
joked.

“Maybe next time. I’ll just follow you if
that’s alright?”

Sampson picked up the pace and they quickly
reached full angel running speed, blazing down the tunnel much
faster than a pair of humans could. Gabriel was hot on his heels as
they followed the path deep into the mountain. He could easily
follow his friend, who was built like a tank—shorter than him, but
far denser. Along the way, they encountered several angel guards,
each of whom pretended that they didn’t see the pair of streaking
angels fleeing down the tunnel. They passed many sealed doors that
contained warnings of “Authorized personnel only,” or “Restricted
access,” until the path finally reached a dead end—a rock wall
blocked their progress.

“I told you, Sampson, there is no way out
down here!” Gabriel snapped.

“Watch and learn, my friend,” Sampson replied
calmly.

Sampson took a few large steps back, and then
charged directly towards the solid rock wall. Gabriel thought his
friend had gone mad, but then, when his shoulder drilled into the
rock, Sampson crashed straight through it, rather than getting
thrown back like Gabriel had expected. The mountain shuddered from
the impact and the surrounding attack sensors were tripped, causing
loud alarm sirens to blare throughout the underground complex.
Their escape was no longer a secret.

Gabriel followed his friend through the rock,
where a hidden passageway had been revealed. Sampson said, “We dug
it just for you, buddy, now let’s not waste it by getting
caught!”

The pair flew down the tunnel, their feet
barely touching the ground.

T
aylor heard her
father answer the door. She was in her room packing, but his
booming voice easily carried up the staircase.

“Hi, Sam,” he said.

“Hey, Mr. Kingston,” Sam replied. “How was
your Christmas?”

“It was great, Sam, although I think I’ve
spent about 10 hours over the last two days trying to set up the
new surround-sound system that James bought me.”

Sam laughed. “Electronics never were your
strong suit,” she said.

“No, I suppose not,” he replied. “Taylor’s in
her room finishing packing. You can leave your suitcase here until
she’s finished.”

“Thanks, Mr. K,” Sam said. Taylor heard her
friend’s footsteps marching up the stairs.

Sam entered her room and flashed a
model-perfect smile in a flurry of shimmering blond hair and lots
of legs, highlighted by what Taylor would consider an overly short
skirt. Taylor said loudly, “I am nearly done packing, but first I
need your advice on which bikini to take.”

“Taylor, we’re not really going to need—” Sam
started to respond.

Taylor gave her friend an icy look and asked
loudly, “This one or this one?” She held up one black swimsuit and
one red.

Catching on, Samantha raised her voice and
responded, “Why not take them both, Tay?”

“Great idea,” Taylor said, throwing them both
in her suitcase. She zipped it shut and said, “That’s it, let’s
go.”

Taylor hauled her suitcase down the stairs to
the door, where Eddie was waiting for them. Before he could open
his mouth, Taylor said, “Don’t worry, Dad. We’ll both be very
careful and I will call you every day as I promised I would.”

Taylor’s dad gave a wry smile and said, “And
no boys, right?”

“Of course, Dad, see you in a couple of
weeks.” Feeling somewhat bad about having to lie, she gave him a
quick kiss on the cheek.

Following the girls outside, Mr. Kingston
said, “Drive safe, Sam.”

“I will. Bye, Mr. Kingston.”

“Bye, girls.”

Once they were on the road and heading for
the airport, Taylor felt it was finally safe to speak openly. “Any
news from Chris on the mission?” she asked.

“Why don’t you ask him yourself?” Sam
replied.

“What?” Taylor asked, puzzled. Then she
screamed, as a pair of hands covered her eyes from behind,
temporarily obscuring her vision.

“Guess who?” a deep voice asked from the back
seat.

Pulling his hands from her face, Taylor
whipped her head around. A black-haired stud with two days-worth of
rugged stubble was looking at her. “Geez, Chris, you practically
gave me a heart attack.”

“Sorry about that. I just thought I should
come along to personally transport you back to the Lair.”

“Thanks, but that was really unnecessary. Any
of the other demons could have done it. You should really be
helping with the
other
mission. You know, the important
one?”

“We should tell her, Chris,” Sam
interjected.

“Tell me what?” Taylor asked slowly.

“Well, it’s nothing really. Your safety has
just become a bigger risk, so I wanted to see to it that you made
it back without any problems,” Chris said cryptically.

“We haven’t seen a single evil angel since
we’ve arrived home, why would we be in danger?”

“I received a report from one of Sam’s
security guards ten minutes ago. It seems that an angel scout
followed Sam over to your house. As soon as I received the report,
I teleported into her car.”

Sam said, “Yeah, you think you were scared
when he put his hands over your eyes, Tay? Imagine driving along,
when a dark form suddenly appears next to you. I practically
swerved off the road into a tree.”

“What are we going to do about the damn angel
scout?” Taylor said.

“Nothing yet. As long as he keeps his
distance, we will just stick with the original plan: Park Sam’s car
at the airport and then teleport from there.”

A scratchy voice suddenly spoke from the
backseat. It came from Chris’s radio. “Chris, we have a situation
here. Two other angels have joined the scout and they are flying
above you, following your car. How should we handle it?”

Chris said firmly, “Take them down.”

“Consider it done,” the voice confirmed.

“Shoot,” Chris said. “That was our rear
guard. They are following behind us in a car, but will have to stop
to get rid of those angels. The car in front of us is also full of
demon guards though, so we should still be protected.”

G
abriel and Sampson
burst through the end of the tunnel together, their shoulders
lowered to absorb the impact of the thin rock wall that had been
enacted to disguise the entrance.

Once outside, Gabriel paused to gulp down
deep breaths of fresh air. “Ahhh,” he sighed.

“This is no time to stop and smell the
roses,” Sampson said. “We gotta get outta here now!” In
near-perfect synchronization, the two angels’ wings burst from the
base of their necks and majestically spread into a V. They leapt
high into the air and powered away from the earth in a burst of
light, harnessing the energy of the full moon.

But they were too late.

The attack came from above and the impact was
mind-numbing, like a sledge hammer to the head. One angel collided
with Gabriel and another slammed into Sampson. Three or four more
angel attackers piled onto each of them, swiftly tying their wings
together with glowing ropes, rendering them useless. Their arms
were also bound behind their backs before the squad of angels
carried them back to the earth.

Knowing they would both be put to death,
Gabriel and Sampson fought like cornered animals, but with only the
use of their legs, they were no match for the strong angels, and
were quickly wrestled to the ground and subdued.

“You’re gonna pay for this one,” the leader
of the group sneered. He was young, probably no older than Gabriel,
and athletic-looking—Gabriel could see his lean, sinewy muscles
straining through his shirt. His mouth formed a snarl.

Sampson gritted his teeth and said, “You’ll
get what’s coming to you, Lucas.”

Somehow Lucas’s mouth widened into a smile
while maintaining the snarl. He laughed, deep and throaty. “Now
that’s the funniest thing I’ve heard in my entire life. I am going
to build my career off of the back of your mistakes, Sampson, and
the mistakes of Gabby here.” He turned to Gabriel. “You would’ve
been a star, but instead you’re a dead man, and I’m the rising
star.”

Gabriel stared at him, unspeaking.

Lucas was about to unload another threat when
Gabriel saw a flash of fire come from the side, barely within the
spectrum of his peripheral vision. Lucas’s reflexes were up to the
challenge; in less than a second, he was wielding a dazzlingly
bright sword, raising it swiftly to thwart off the incoming attack.
Despite the speed of his defense, Lucas was thrown back by the
deafening metal-on-metal impact of the fiery sword against his
own.

Moments later, there were a dozen bursts of
fire around the group, as the demon special-attack force surrounded
them, brandishing flaming swords and shields. The angels moved into
formation to prevent their captives from being rescued—their
brilliant swords lit up in response to the attack. With a yell of
“Attack!” from one of the demons, probably the mission leader, the
battle began. The clash of swords sounded like thunder in the night
and, for someone watching from the distance, it would have looked
like a small fireworks display.

The angels were mercilessly outnumbered and
during the hand-to-hand combat one of the demons was able to slip
through their defenses and slash the ropes away from Gabriel and
Sampson. They were free, again.

Sampson immediately drew his sword, but the
demon that had freed them said, “This is not your fight, I will get
you out of here.”

Seeing the wisdom in this, Sampson replied,
“Okay. Gabriel, get over here.”

Gabriel was gazing at the battle, debating
whether to jump into the fray, despite not having a weapon other
than his bare hands. “Give me your sword, Sampson,” he
commanded.

“Gabriel, there will be a time and a place to
get your revenge. But now we must escape.”

Gabriel watched as Lucas struck down the
demon he was fighting. He thrust his sword directly into the heart
of his struggling victim. With a look of pure hatred, he stared at
Gabriel and pointed his sword at him. For Gabriel, retreating from
a fight with Lucas was the hardest thing he had ever had to do in
his life. Every instinct was telling him to destroy the rival
angel, but instead he listened to his friend, who had risked his
life to help him escape.

Just before Gabriel was teleported from the
battle, he saw Lucas raise his arm and slash his thumb across his
neck. Gabriel understood the message: “I’m going to kill you.” It
didn’t bother him though, because he was thinking the same
thing.

T
aylor watched as
Sam gripped the wheel harder, her knuckles turning white from the
pressure. By applying more force to the accelerator, she had
managed to stay close to the lead car when it sped up in response
to the reports about the angel pursuers. Taylor had never seen her
friend this nervous—typically she was highly confident, bordering
on cockiness at times.

The road they were on was quiet—no one was
outside and they were the only cars on the road. That’s when they
lost their last line of defense.

One moment the lead car was zooming along,
about three car-lengths in front of them, and the next moment it
erupted in a ball of fire when a basketball-sized pulse of light
struck it, like a heat-seeking missile finding its target. The car
flew thirty feet in the air before landing in a heap on one of the
well-manicured front lawns they were passing.