Redemption (Book 4, The Redemption Series) (3 page)

“What’s wrong, Anna?” Vala asks with worry, looking from the still growling Luna to me for an answer as she stands.

“We have some uninvited guests outside,” Malcolm answers for me, hefting his broad sword in his right hand, looking more than ready for the fight to come.

As soon as I grab my sword from the top of the sideboard, it bursts into flames.

“Who are they?” I ask as I turn to face the others.

“Rebellion scum,” Jered answers in disgust.

“I thought those angels were under Lucifer’s command,” I say, not understanding why my father’s subordinates would be attacking us.

No one says anything, but they all look troubled by what has to be a correct assumption.

“He wouldn’t send them here to attack us,” I tell them, trying to wipe away their doubt in Lucifer with my own certainty.

“Anna’s right,” Malcolm says, “I don’t believe this is Lucifer’s doing either.”

“Then who’s controlling them?” Brutus asks.

“I think I know,” I tell them, feeling a knot of dread form in the pit of my stomach. “It has to be Helena. She’s the only one who has enough influence to encourage this sort of attack on us.”

“But why?” Daniel asks. “What does she hope to gain from it?”

“My anger,” I reply, troubled that I’m beginning to understand how Helena thinks. “It’s the perfect time considering what happened tonight. She knows I’m close to breaking and the sooner I do the sooner she can try to control me.”

“No,” Malcolm says resolutely with a shake of his head, locking my eyes with his. “You will
not
break, Anna. Not tonight. Not ever.”

I want to argue with Malcolm, but just can’t seem to muster up the desire for a quarrel. We have more important matters to attend to right now.

“Should we phase the humans somewhere safe before we go out there?” I ask.

“No,” Malcolm says, “we stay together. It could be that she wants us to split everyone up. Besides, the rebellion angels can't phase into this house. None of them has ever been inside it. We’ll go out and meet them. Brutus,” Malcolm turns to our friend, “you stay in here and protect everyone while we handle this. Watch the fight from the window. If it looks like we’re losing, then phase everyone out, but only do it as a last resort. Even though you phase somewhere else, there's no guarantee any of you will be safe. You can still be tracked by it.”

“I would rather fight,” Brutus says, looking rather disappointed that he will have to miss all the fun.

“I promise next time you will,” Malcolm tells him with a lopsided grin.

I walk over to Malcolm’s side and take his free hand with mine.

“Shall we go out and greet our guests, husband?” I ask him.

Malcolm nods. “I believe we should, wife.”

Jered and Daniel flank us as we all walk out the front door together to face our unwelcomed visitors.

Chapter 3

Five men, four women, and a hellhound stand in a straight line on the snow covered front lawn. Half are dressed in the casual clothing most down-worlders wear. The others appear to be from differing cloud cities considering their fashion choices. Standing in the middle of the group is a beautiful young woman with long, straight blonde hair and pink, pouty lips. She’s wearing a black leather dress, which is tightly corseted around the waist with a plunging neckline and long slit up the right side of the calf length skirt. Her style of dress tells me she calls Virga her home.

The woman’s gaze stays steadfast on me as Malcolm and I walk side by side out the door together. Her electric blue eyes practically glow in the dim light provided by the lit rooms at the front of the house. Daniel comes to stand beside me, and Jered stands on the other side of Malcolm as we present a united front.

“Hello, Cleo,” Malcolm says to the blonde-haired woman. Reluctantly, she pulls her attention away from me to look at my husband. “A little late in the evening for a social call isn’t it?”

Cleo smiles, which only highlights the perfection of her facial features.

“I wouldn’t really use the term social call, Malcolm,” she says, arching a delicate eyebrow in his direction.

“No, I don’t suppose it is,” Malcolm replies looking pointedly at the sword in Cleo's right hand. “So, why are you here?”

Cleo’s gaze returns to me. “We came to see her.”

“Why?” I ask, scanning the faces of the fallen angels in front of us and noticing they’re all staring at me with a singular intensity. It’s a little disconcerting considering the fact that they’re all holding swords in their hands.

“We came to see what you’re made of,” Cleo tells me with an almost mocking grin. “We want to know if you’re truly strong enough to lead us.”

“Lead you?” I ask, feeling my heart drop at such a thought. “What would make you think I want to do that?”

“Lucifer has become weak,” Cleo says in disgust. “Ever since he mated with that human, he’s lost sight of our true mission here.”

“And what mission is that?” I ask her.

“To make the human race pay for our expulsion from Heaven, and to show God once and for all just how feeble his favorites can become when pushed in the right direction. We almost had humanity on the brink of extinction during the Great War. Isn’t that right, Malcolm?”

I feel Malcolm’s body stiffen at Cleo’s remark, like it's a reminder of a failure on his part.

“But they came back, didn’t they?” Malcolm retorts. “They always do and they always will. You’ll never succeed in destroying them. They're too strong.”

Cleo smiles tightlipped and directs her gaze back to me.

“That’s not what Helena tells us,” she says, looking me up and down appraisingly. “She seems to think Lucifer's spawn here can lead us in the right direction to destroy humanity once and for all. We’ve come to see if she’s right. I have my doubts considering she’s part human, but I’m trying to keep an open mind on the subject. Either way, Anna will either prove she’s worthy of having us follow her or she’ll die tonight.”

“I can assure you I won’t be dying tonight,” I tell her, feeling my back go rigid with pride.

Cleo shrugs her shoulders. “I guess we’ll see about that.”

Without further warning, Cleo raises her sword and comes running towards me. Before I'm given a chance to respond, Malcolm crosses her blade with his own and pushes her back far enough to place himself in between us, thwarting any attack Cleo might make against me.

I'm somewhat perturbed by Malcolm's overprotectiveness, but I don't have time to think too much about it. I soon have my own fight to handle.

A dark haired man and a redheaded woman charge me in a frontal attack. From behind, I hear a ferocious growl just before I see Luna launch herself at the woman and clamp her jaw tightly around the hand my female attacker is using to hold her sword. The redhead screams out in pain and drops her weapon onto the ground. Luna vigorously shakes her head back and forth seeming intent on ripping the woman's hand from her wrist. Before she can, the redhead grabs Luna by the scruff of the neck and flings her towards the house. I hear a small yelp and distinct thud as my little hellhound pup is slammed against the brick wall behind me. I take advantage of the opening Luna gave me with her sacrifice and quickly swing my sword to cleanly slice off the woman’s head.

The man who joined her in the attack against me thrusts his blade toward my chest while I'm cutting the head of his comrade off. I use my newly acquired telekinetic powers to lift him in the air upside down and then pile drive his body head first into the hard packed snow. As he lay prone at my feet, I stab him in the heart, quickly extinguishing his life.

I briefly turn my attention back to Malcolm. He and Cleo are embroiled in a battle I have a hard time seeing much less following. They’re phasing around each other so fast I can't tell who is where exactly. The other rebellion angels attempt to use the same tactic with Daniel and Jered, but they're nowhere near as proficient in the art of fighting in such a manner as Cleo and Malcolm.

Daniel is fighting off two rebellion angels when I see the hellhound of the group try to sneak up on him from behind. I run towards the dog and draw his attention away from Daniel. The hellhound snaps its razor sharp teeth in my direction. Without hesitation, I fly up into the air above its head, swinging my blade in a downward arc through the back of its neck. Its severed head rolls down towards the fence as the lifeless body drops in place.

Daniel slices through the gut of one of the men he's fighting, causing his opponent's innards to spill out onto the ground. He then redirects his blade towards the other man and rams his sword up through the underside of his opponent's jaw, angling it in such a way to pierce through his attacker's skull until the tip of his blade is jutting out from the top of the man’s head. Daniel quickly pulls his sword out, and the man falls to the ground dead.

I turn my attention towards Jered and see that he's fighting off the two remaining men and woman at the same time. Just as Daniel and I phase over to help him, ten more rebellion angels phase in, swords at the ready.

“Did none of them get the memo about fair play?” Daniel grumbles as he, Jered and I put our backs together to face our new foes as they surround us.

We’re able to fight them off for a while, but as soon as we kill one, two more phase in to take their place. Fighting them is almost like fighting the mythical hydra. Yet, the more of them I kill, the more of them I want to kill. Their increasing numbers begin to irritate me to my breaking point because I know it’s only a matter of time before they over run us. It’s almost as if Helena is trying to force me into doing something. But what?

It’s only when I hear Jered cry out in pain that I completely lose what little control I had over my temper.

I chance a glance in Jered’s direction and see that he’s missing his sword arm. He’s attempting to stem the flow of blood from the open wound at his shoulder with his remaining hand. Three of the rebellion angles have their swords in mid-swing determined to finish him off.

In that split second, I feel my anger burn through to something buried deep inside my soul causing it to explode.

“Enough!” I yell.

The sound of my voice reverberates through those around me causing them to immediately pause in their actions and direct all of their attention in my direction. Even Daniel and Jered are compelled to stop what they are doing and turn to face me.

I rise into the air above everyone and look down at the scene. When I meet Malcolm’s gaze, he looks at me with a blank expression, like he doesn’t even know who I am anymore. I quickly avert my gaze from his because I don’t need to doubt myself. I have control over the situation, and I know exactly what needs to be done.

“Kneel!” I command the rebellion angels.

All of them abruptly fall to their knees as though they’ve completely lost their free will and are only able to do what I tell them to do. I’m faintly aware that Malcolm, Daniel, and Jered have also knelt down before me, but I push that knowledge to the back of my mind to think about later. I find Cleo kneeling not so far away from where Malcolm is and lock my eyes with hers.

“Leave this place,” I order her. “Never return here, or I
will
kill you. Is that understood?”

Cleo nods her head slowly. “Yes. I understand. I'll make sure everyone else abides by your command.”

“Then go and take your dead with you,” I say, not having to raise my voice beyond a whisper to be obeyed.

The rebellion angels do exactly as I say and phase themselves and the corpses littering our front yard away. I soon find myself alone with my Watchers.

I lower my body to the ground.

“Guys, stand up,” I tell them, not understanding why they felt compelled to kneel in the first place.

As if waking from a trance, the three of them stand to their feet. I walk over to Jered who is still holding a hand over the wound on his shoulder where his arm used to be.

“We need to get you some help,” I say to him, looking at the grotesque injury.

“It’s not a big deal. I’ve been through worse,” Jered tells me, even though I can see by the grimace on his face that he’s in a great deal of pain and weak from the loss of so much blood.

“I’ll take care of him, Anna,” Daniel tells me as he comes to stand beside us with Jered’s severed arm in one of his hands. “I just need a healing wand to give Jered’s regenerative powers a head start.”

Malcolm walks up to me and takes my free hand with his own.

“Come on, we have someone else who needs our help too,” he tells me.

We walk towards the front door and find Luna lying near the wall next to it. Malcolm bends down on one knee and gently places a hand on her chest.

“Is she dead?” I ask, feeling on the verge of tears at the pitiful sight Luna makes. Blood spots her fluffy white fur but seems concentrated on the back of her head.

“No,” Malcolm says, handing me his sword so he can pick Luna up carefully with both of his hands. “But we should use a healing wand on her too. Her head seems to have hit the wall pretty hard.”

As soon as we walk into the house, we see Brutus closing the door to the sitting room behind Vala as they both walk out to speak with us.

“No sense in upsetting the others,” Brutus says looking pointedly at Luna, “especially Lucas. I’ve seen how close he and the pup have become.”

“Poor little thing,” Vala says, looking at Luna's limp figure in Malcolm's hands. “Will she be all right?”

“She’ll be fine,” Malcolm assures her. “But Brutus is right. No sense in worrying Lucas.” Malcolm looks at me. “I’ll go heal Luna and clean her up before putting her on his bed. She’ll need a lot of rest to fully recuperate.”

“I'll come with you,” Vala tells Malcolm, walking over to him, “just in case she happens to wake up unexpectedly. She might feel better if I'm with her.”

“I’ll explain things to Lucas and bring him up in a few minutes,” I tell them.

“I think Linn, Bai, and I should stay here tonight,” Daniel tells us. “Just in case there’s an encore attack.”

“I don’t think there will be,” Malcolm says with certainty, briefly glancing in my direction. “But you’re more than welcome to stay here. It’s not like we don’t have enough room.”

While Malcolm and Daniel take care of our injured, Brutus goes back into the sitting room while I phase up to the bedroom to change out of my bloodstained dress. Lucas has seen me wear the blood of others enough for one night. I don't want to scar him for life.

After I change into a pair of slacks and a clean white button down shirt, I phase into the sitting room.

Lucas is the first to see me and runs straight into my awaiting arms. I pick him up and hug him to me. His hold around my neck is so tight I can barely breathe, but I don't complain.

“I don't like that you have to fight so much,” Lucas says, loosening his hold as he rests his head against my shoulder. He kisses me gently on the neck and seems content just to let me hold him.

“Sometimes you have to fight,” I tell him, “especially when it means you need to protect the people you care about.”

“I still don't like it,” he says resolutely. “It makes me worry.”

I smile at his sentiment, but deep down I have to admit to myself that I enjoyed the challenge of the battle. I know I shouldn't have, but I'm not going to lie to myself either. It's not like I actually killed any of the angels. I simply killed the human bodies they inhabited. I didn't use my power to send their souls to the Void. Though, I probably should have. Once they recovered from being displaced from their host, they would simply look for new ones to reside in. I just couldn't bring myself to kill them after what I did to Belphagor. I don't think my soul could have taken on any more guilt.

Perhaps that's what Helena wanted. Maybe she thought I would truly murder the rebellion angels she sent. Thus forcing me to revert into the same monster who killed Belphagor. I knew that dark part of me was patiently waiting beneath the surface, looking for its chance to reemerge and influence my actions.

I tighten my arms around Lucas, attempting to soak up at least a small part of his innocence. Just his presence in my life makes me remember who I am and who it is I want to become. I want to be the type of leader people readily come to on their own. Not one who has to use threats and violence to force them into following my lead. Lucas is a reminder to me that the innocent need to be protected at all cost. He and Bai are the future leaders of our world, and I want to set a good example for him to follow. I know, given enough time, he will become someone who people will naturally flock to. His integrity and pure heart will be traits people can naturally trust and want to emulate. I know I do.