Ethereal Underground (Ethereal Underground Trilogy) (37 page)

“Arie,” he whispered. She was fighting a dark haired fallen with a gun in one hand and a large sword in the other.  She moved swiftly as she kicked a fallen to the ground and shot him in the head with a silver bullet. He couldn’t help but feel a bit of pride as she bent down to finish the fallen up. It was t
hen that he noticed another redhead creeping up behind her. It was Endarial. He waited patiently for Arie to turn around and shoot her, but she was too busy trying to saw off the fallen’s wings. He started to scream out to her when he saw Endarial spread her wings as she went in to grab Arie by the neck.

“NNNNNN!” A
small hand shot over his mouth. It muffled the sound of his warning. It pulled him to the ground. Ash closed his eyes, the sound of blood rushing through his ears. He couldn’t hear her scream, but he knew it was out there.

Chapter
Twelve

Annalise

“Fin!” Arie exclaimed as Annalise pushed Ash to the hard ground behind the rock. She could see the anger written all over his face, but she knew that they only had one chance to surprise the fallen that were only a few feet away.

“We will help them,” Annalise whispered, “You must be quiet.” She slowly pulled her hand back from his face, her stance serious. She was trying to focus on getting them all out safely instead of this wave of emotions that was threatening to pull her under again. 

Ash lowered his eyebrows but nodded his head, agreeing with her and pulling her closer to the rock so they could better hear.

“You make me sick, she’s a mortal,” this coming from Loki. Annalise hadn’t ever met him before today, but that deep voice would forever be burned into her brain.

“Do I look like I really care?” Finlay asked, still a touch of amusement in his voice.

A slapping sound resounded through the tunnel. A fallen’s hand against Finlay’s face, Annalise was sure. She could hear Arie fighting against the fallen that held her when this happened, meaning the situation must be worse than they had anticipated.

“If you don’t care, then you wouldn’t mind if we slit her throat.”

“You wouldn’t do that,” Finlay said to test the waters.

Loki let out a menacing laugh, “I thought you knew me better than that, Fin, we have spoken several times throughout the years. I know that you are one of those charged with turning us into what we are today.”

Annalise couldn’t help but throw her hand over her own mouth, surprised that not only had Leon been one of those but also Finlay, and she had never had any idea. She knew that there were many battles with the fallen, but she did not know that both of the seraphs closest to her in her life had contact with them on a regular basis.

“That doesn’t matter. I am well aware that you are one to partake in deals, so make me one,” the seraph’s voice became more serious then.

“There is no deal to make here. I hold the cards, so to speak, I will kill the girl and then I will kill you.”

“No, no you won’t,” Finlay said, trying to convince him otherwise, “She is the daughter of one of the best bounty hunters in the galaxy. If you kill her, Sasha Raines will destroy all of you.”

“I don’t fear that drunk.”

“You shut your mouth,” Arie spat, another slapping sound resonating through the space, followed by the girl’s cry.

“Why don’t you tell her the reason why you gave her the mission to kill me? Hmm? Had that keeper you paid off tell her to come kill me and give her the weapon to do so?”

Finlay paused, and Annalise reached for Ash’s hand, for she had a feeling what was coming next and she feared he would run out to start a fight. She begged him with her eyes to stay with her as the seraph’s voice rang out. “Ash was my charge, and it was his time to die. I knew that if Arie went on such a journey, that he would follo
w. He’s a lot like me,” he said with a laugh, “He is impulsive and irresponsible, and would jump at the chance to kill a legendary creature.”

“Fin, no,” Arie said, her voice low and sad, not willing to accept the information that she was hearing.

Ash turned his face to look at Annalise as the anger came over his face. She leaned into him and whispered, “You cannot get mad at him. He was just doing his duty.”

“You didn’t do your duty when you saved me, that shows me you guys have a choice.”

“Finlay takes his job seriously.”

Ash smirked, “Yeah sure, just like he takes everything else so seriously.”

“He is your friend, do not go back to hating him.”

“Anna-”

“This is what I do as a guardian, Arie,” Finlay said, causing the two of them to pause and listen, “I don’t enjoy sending mortals off to die, but that’s part of what I do. When it is their time, sometimes I have to make it happen.”

“You should have told me.”

“You wouldn’t have listened. I’m sorry, Arie, but after I realized that I wanted to be around you more, I took you quickly as my charge so I could keep you safe. I felt remorseful for sending Ash to die, he was my friend. I haven’t had any real mortal friends before...and I went back to you afterwards, to make sure you were okay since he had been attacked.”

“Oh, how sweet,” Loki moaned, “You are so pathetic, she’s a worthless human.”

“She is not worthless, you spineless snake,” Finlay spat.

Annalise moved closer to Ash as she heard the thunder crack, the atmosphere changing around them as Loki began to lose his patience. He had been the first and only seraph to be created with the ability to control storms, and he was both strong and efficient with his powers. 

“You can do so much better, Finlay. Since you can’t see this, I guess I will have to prove it to you.”

“Can I kill her now?” Endarial’s voice rang out, unentertained, “I am so very bored.”

“Of course, make it nice and slow.”

“Wait!” Finlay exclaimed, “Stop, make me a deal.”

“There’s no deal that you could possibly make to save your friend.”

“You can have me. Take me and leave her be.”

“No, you aren’t going to do that,” Arie argued, “I can take care of myself, don’t let them take you.”

“Don’t listen to her, Loki. You know that you want the knowledge I have, how to make a fallen. I will give it to you, whatever you want, just let her go free.”

“Is that right?” Loki mused, “And all I have to do is let the mortal girl go?”

“Yes.”

“Well I can’t quite pass that up, now can I?” the fallen said and gave instructions to his underlings that Annalise couldn’t quite hear. She could hear several individuals moving around, weapons coming from their sheath, and she had to peek around the large rock to see what was happening.

Just as her eyes focused in front of her, Arie let out a scream. Finlay was willingly kneeling in front of Loki, eyes focused on the floor in shame. The fallen stood behind him, forcing his bent body lower to the ground and grabbing the seraph’s wings. His large sword was in one hand as he brought it down on the wings and began to saw them off, bringing painful grunts from the lips of Finlay.
His eyes were closed as he tried to bite back the pain, and only let some of it escape. Even in this position, Finlay wasn’t going to allow Loki to have all of the control, even though he was agreeing for Loki to remove his wings. Arie was several feet away, being held back by Endarial, fear in her eyes.

“We must help him,” Annalise whispered, flashbacks to losing Leon fresh in her mind. She could not stand to see the
same thing happening to Finlay. If she lost them both, how would she ever return home?

“Not yet,” Ash insisted and held her back against him to keep her from running.

“They will kill him.”

“They’re just weakening him. They need him for information, Anna.”

Loki stood up, Finlay’s wings in one hand, blue blood flowing from them and onto the ground below. The seraph didn’t move, clearly unsure of what to do and humiliated at letting Loki have the upper hand.

The fallen laughed loudly, the same entertained laugh that he had when he had killed Leon, “Alright, kill the girl.”

Endarial nodded, pulling her lighter from her pocket and giggling as she flicked it open. Arie struggled against her, throwing kicks the best she could, and the fallen dropped the lighter, cursing as she took hold of Arie’s hair, “You’ll regret that.”

Ash let go of Annalise and left her behind to run forward to the group. His patience had clearly run thin and he couldn’t wait anymore.  Annalise yelled out for him and jumped to her feet to follow his impulsive behavior. If he was going to run in on the enemy without thinking, she would go with him and try to keep him safe.

At the sight of Ash, Finlay pushed himself off the floor and brought his fist up to ram it into Loki’s nose, blood spurted up into the air. Ash wasn’t far behind him, throwing himself onto the fallen’s back and wrapping his arms around his throat. Loki laughed and flapped his wings to levitate him off the ground, taking Ash with him.

“We meet again, mortal.” Loki said.
Annalise threw her arm out to the side and focused her water on the fallen lord’s mouth, anger fueling her powers. Ash put his hand in the stream and pulled on Annalise’s power to force it down the fallen’s throat. He began to choke, grabbing Ash’s arms and tossing him over his shoulder. Annalise was thankful when Finlay kept him from falling to the floor, using the last of his strength to catch him, both of them hitting the ground with a thud.

Annalise turned from them, her eyes focused on Endarial and Arie. She had faith that Ash and Finlay could take care of Loki if they
worked together, hold off the rest of the fallen until she could get the redhead to safety. Annalise was determined not to lose another one of them, so she kept a trickle of water falling from her hand in case Ash needed it. Endarial picked her lighter up off the floor as the seraph cast a ball of water at her. The lighter was knocked to the floor once again just as the fallen caught a simmer of a flame at her fingertips.

Endarial cocked an eyebrow, “Close, Blondie.” Her hand went up in flames, but Arie pushed the other girl away from her while she had her eyes on Annalise.  She dropped to the floor, kicking the legs of the fallen girl and
knocking her down to the floor.

Arie stood back up and smiled at Annalise, which surprised her. The two of them had not gotten along very well, but now they
worked together to survive. They looked down at an angry fallen, hand still on fire as she directed it at them, but Annalise was ready for it, sending a wave of water onto her which extinguished the flame.

“Close, hot head,” Annalise said with a laugh and looked to Arie for confirmation of her humor. She received a slight smile from the bounty hunter.

“Arie, are you okay?” Finlay’s voice rang out as the girls turned around. He was walking over to them slowly, trying to hide the pain he was in. Ash was trying to help him but Finlay brushed him off and insisted he would be fine, eyes set on Arie.

Arie let out a sigh of relief and pulled her gun from her clothing. She aimed it down at Endarial and hit her with a bullet to stun her before answering, “I’m a lot better now.”
She ran forward and put a careful arm around Finlay. “Will your wings grow back?”

“Yeah, it will just take a few days. I will need someone to take care of me though,” he said, laughing slightly and holding his side as the pain shot through him.

Annalise watched the two of them in a mixture of awe and confusion. She could see how much they cared for each other, so open and honest, and she wished that she had someone to share the moment with.

Ash let go of Finlay and came to stand in front of Annalise. He ran a finger down her cheek, “You okay?”

“As good as I can be,” she whispered and tried to avoid looking into his eyes. Her heart flipped at his voice. “Where did Loki go?” She moved her gaze to the ground where the other fallen had been killed by the duo.

“I don’t know, we just turned around and he was gone.”

“Do-do you think that I can go home now?”

Ash grew silent, long enough for the seraph to look up at him to see what his attention was set on. It was still her, and he looked so very confused, “That’s still what you want to do?”

She wasn’t sure anymore, a large part of her wanted to stay with him. She wanted to tell him how she felt and see what he thought. Her hand came up to cup his face and she gave him a smile as she spoke.
“Ash I think-” but her words were cut off as something slammed into her back and knocked the breath out of her. Endarial’s laughter rang throughout the tunnels as she pulled her fist back and hit her again.