Return to Eden (21 page)

Yes, Gideon?
he heard in his head. He hadn't known Malini could communicate telepathically, but he was sure it was her.

I think it's because you used the stone. This is new for me, too.

We have to fight. We have to get you out of here
, Gideon thought.

No. It’s not time yet. Plus, you know as well as I do that you won’t leave her. Whatever Abigail does today, you need to see it.

Then, I should stop her?

No.

Abigail entered the room, escorting a young girl who Gideon recognized from Paris. He’d never met her personally but he was sure it was Stephanie Westcott. He’d seen her picture in the paper when she’d gone missing. The girl walked willingly to the platform. Abigail trailed behind, her eyes empty and soulless.

I’ve got to stop her.

You can’t. Even if you try, you won’t succeed.

I can’t watch this.

You have to. I’ll need you when it's over.

Gideon’s fingers clutched Malini’s hand.

I know you’ve thought about falling, Gideon. Don’t. After today, Abigail won’t be the same. You’ll give up your salvation and she will slip through your fingers.

Stephanie climbed onto the platform. Her face brave, sad but resolved, as if she had accepted her fate. With an eerie calm, she lay down on the stone slab and turned her head to face Malini and Jacob. Abigail stepped behind the altar, in front of the machine that was now emitting a loud roar.

Gideon tried to force his thoughts into Abigail's head.
Run! Fight! Don’t do this!
She’d never been able to read his mind and the blank look on her face was a clear indication that any connection they’d had was completely gone.

Lucifer raised his hands. Fire swirled from his palms, forming a sphere of red and gold that encompassed Abigail, Stephanie, and the machine behind them. The smell of sulfur filled the room. A chorus of moans joined the mechanical roar. As the sound grew louder, Gideon realized it was the screams of the Damned, their tormented souls calling out from the pits of hell. Lucifer fueled his magic with their suffering.

The hooded forms behind him began to chant. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched them rock back and forth, a hideous congregation cheering on the ceremony. Gripping Malini’s hand for strength, he looked back up toward Abigail, the ache in his chest threatening to consume him completely.

The lights blinked into darkness, as if all of the power was drained into Abigail, into what she was about to do. She lifted a knife from the altar, an obsidian blade glinting in the light of Lucifer's circling magic. Of course it was obsidian. They weren’t just sacrificing Stephanie’s body; they were sacrificing her soul. She would pass to neither heaven nor hell. It would be the saddest of conclusions, doomed to oblivion.

Abigail’s hands came together on the hilt of the blade. She raised it over her head.

No! NO!
Gideon reached his free hand toward her, silently begging for her to stop. Malini’s grip kept him rooted to the spot. She was right; there was nothing he could do. Abigail was a shell, completely given over to Lucifer’s will. Her eyes were vacant.

Stephanie, that poor girl, stared right at him, as if she could see him crouched next to Malini’s chair. Her ice blue eyes held a deep understanding, soulfulness he never expected to see in one so young.

Stephanie's lips moved but it was Abigail’s voice that reached Gideon's ears. "Some things are more important than love. Some things are more important than any of us. I’m sorry, Gideon."

The knife plunged into Stephanie’s chest. Black blood sprayed from the wound, showering Abigail whose body shrunk. Her hair darkened and her mouth opened to a scream. But the scream was a human scream and as Gideon watched in horror, Abigail became Stephanie and Stephanie became Abigail. The illusion faded away as the black blood ran from the sacrifice’s body.

Forgetting where he was, Gideon dropped Malini’s hand and let out a battle cry.

Chapter 31

Aftermath

Gideon’s howl went unnoticed in the chaos that ensued. Stephanie, released from Abigail’s influence, eyed the knife in her hand and the body in front of her. Her mouth fell open and her chest pumped out a scream that Gideon could see but couldn’t hear over the shaking walls, the roar of the machine, and the cacophony of voices.

One voice did rise above the rest. "NO!" Lucifer boomed. He tried to run forward but his magic, the revolving flames, kept him from the sacrifice. Pounding his fists against the sphere of tortured souls, he narrowed his eyes at Abigail’s blood dripping to the floor. Black hoods scattered, trying to avoid Lucifer’s wrath.

Gideon, now! Free Jacob and me, now
.

Manifesting, Gideon's light sent the crowd into a panic. He shattered the chairs, tossing the corpse arms away from them. Jacob leaped into action, a sword of ice forming in his hands as soon as his feet hit the floor.

"Can I kill something now?" he yelled to Malini.

She nodded her head. "Anything with black blood. Gideon, come with me. We have to get to Abigail."

Gideon’s eyes widened. He clapped his hands together and a sword of blue fire erupted between his palms. With a surge of his powerful wings he jumped to the platform, swinging the blade at Lucifer’s waist. It passed through the devil’s abdomen and harmlessly out the other side, leaving a trail of black smoke.

"You have got to be kidding me," Lucifer yelled, turning on his attacker. He backhanded Gideon, sending him flying off the platform. He landed next to Jacob who was frantically slicing the shoulders of anything in a black robe. He kicked someone who bled red in the gut, sending them flying backward while simultaneously plunging his blade into a Watcher behind him.

"Gideon, what are you doing? Get up there and help Malini!" Jacob yelled. He twirled and sliced across the chest of another black robe. Red. "Damn!" he said, kicking toward the man's gut.

Still seeing stars, Gideon shook his head and pulled himself up. Of course he couldn’t fight fire with fire. Taking to the air, he rolled energy in his palms. Not the fire of destruction all angels could rain down, but the power that came from deep within, a combination of faith, hope, and love. To humans, it was a healing power, but Gideon hoped it would have the opposite effect on Lucifer. He hurled it at the center of Lucifer’s back. Jackpot! The devil writhed in pain and turned away from Abigail and Stephanie.

"That’s right," Gideon said. "Let’s play." He dodged a fireball flung from Lucifer’s hand. The devil's eyes bled yellow, his illusion faltering with his anger. Gideon let forth a barrage of blue energy, rolling through the air above the crowded pit.

The other Soulkeepers swooped in from their stations to help. Below him, Lillian, diced up Watchers with Jesse who popped in and out of existence, pulling off hoods and incapacitating the humans in the group. The twins arrived on the other side of the crowd, melded together in the form of a giant. Swinging their club, they launched a Watcher into the air. Gideon dodged the flying body, just as Lucifer regrouped and opened fire.

A ball of flame singed Gideon’s wing, sending him tumbling to the platform. He landed in a heap of feathers and muscle behind Malini. She was halfway into the sphere Lucifer had created around the altar, her skeletal hand holding open a window that she carefully stepped through.

Gideon flipped to his feet, pounding Lucifer with another purple sphere. The devil broke from his illusion entirely, becoming a towering mass of horns, claws and cloven hooves. He returned fire, sending Gideon somersaulting off the platform. The fire tore through the bones of his left wing, sending searing pain through his body. Broken, the wing dangled uselessly behind him.

Lucifer lips peeled back from a grotesque fang-filled grin. He jumped down from the platform and straddled Gideon's body. "I'll enjoy crushing you." He licked his lips with his forked tongue.

There was no escape. Gideon crab-walked backward, his white blood leaving a glittering trail across the floor. Abigail. Malini’s healing hand lowered toward her chest. He prayed with everything he had left that somehow it would work. Even if he should die, he prayed Abigail would live. Her surviving would make it all worth it. He collapsed to the floor and looked up into the face of the devil, his heart peaceful and ready for what may come.

Everything went white. Lucifer turned his face toward the small sun that glowed from above, shielding his eyes with his hand. All around him, the fighting stopped. Soulkeepers and fallen alike stood dumbstruck at the power, light, and warmth that shone down. Gideon stared into the light, equally awestruck although he new exactly who it was above him.

A soft voice cut through the sound of the machine, barely a whisper yet louder than anything in the room. "Your debt has been repaid."

A beam of light hit Gideon’s body, a lightning bolt of energy that came with a clap of thunder. The room washed away. Blinded, he let himself go. The warmth and heat washed through him, stripping away the pain of his broken wing, the sight of the death around him, and the hum from the platform. Everything dissolved but peace and light.

Then it all came back to him.

* * * * *

Within the sphere, Malini lowered her healing hand toward Abigail’s chest. She could not heal Watcher flesh, but her gut told her it was the right thing to do. Before her palm touched, a white light blinded her, causing her to pull her hand up short. She forgot herself in the awesome power that filled the pit. God hovered above them all. Her commanding presence burned like the sun. A bolt of lightning flowed from her into Gideon and Abigail. The power cut right through the rotating red sphere, and blew Lucifer off of Gideon like a flake of dust.

Thrown back from the force of it, Malini watched in wonder as Abigail’s body seized with the power flowing through her. Abigail’s black scaly skin smoothed to a peachy flesh tone. Her leathery wings dissolved under her back. Straight, platinum hair darkened into honey curls. The hard features of her face softened, and her body changed. Shorter, rounder, softer. The lightning changed Abigail into something almost...

"Human," Malini whispered.

When the light stopped and chaos erupted on the floor once again, Malini lowered her healing hand onto Abigail’s chest. The new body trembled under her touch. A charge of electricity flowed from her hand into Abigail’s new human heart. Once and again her body flailed on the altar, until her mouth opened and Abigail took her first breath of air as a human.

Beneath Malini’s hand, Abigail’s lungs expanded and contracted. Her heart beat strong and true against her palm. And although the wound from the obsidian blade was difficult to heal, Malini focused until the hole closed. The black blood turned red between her burnt fingers.

Abigail’s eyes flipped open, soft blue eyes that were beautiful but ordinary. They locked on Malini as the red blood seeped from under her hand and dripped to the platform below.

"NO!" Abigail screamed, clutching the blood to her chest. She sat up, her face terrified by the trail of crimson that trickled from the altar toward the machine. Malini realized what was happening and reached for the rolling drop of blood, trying to stop its progress with her palm. Abigail did, too, but she dropped from the altar awkwardly, her new human body learning to move all over again. Both hands fell short of their goal.

Only a dribble got through. It worked its way under Malini’s palm and channeled into the machine, still pulsating with the magic of the sphere. For a moment, nothing changed. Then the sphere opened, melting into the platform. A hurricane force wind blew out from the machine. Malini tripped backward, grabbing Stephanie and Abigail by the arms before they tumbled into the pit.

The room shook and the earth split, cracking the altar and the platform down the middle. The machine peeled back, a black hole tearing through the center to reveal an army of Watchers in formation. Nod. The wall unraveled behind the platform and Lucifer’s battle cry rose from the place where he recovered against the wall of the pit.

Then all hell broke loose.

Chapter 32

Invasion

Gideon tried to react to the army of Watchers marching into the pit, but his body and mind fumbled on the floor. Jacob’s hand appeared in front of his face.

"Let me help you," Jacob said.

Pulled to his feet, Gideon couldn’t keep his balance and fell forward, barely catching himself with his hands in a kind of weak push up before his face slapped the floor.

"You don’t have wings anymore," Jacob yelled, yanking him back up to his feet. He thrust a bow and quiver into his hands. "No time to celebrate. Take these. A human tried to kill me with them earlier. Lucky for us he didn’t succeed."

Slinging the quiver over his shoulder, he allowed Jacob to drag him back against the staircase. Jacob propped him up in the corner and helped him string an arrow.

A Watcher came too close and Jacob spun around and sliced it in half. "Give it a try, Gideon. That one there." Jacob pointed at a Watcher who’d slipped past Lillian and was advancing toward them.

The string pulled to his cheek, Gideon did his best to aim at the Watcher and released. The arrow fell short of its target, skimming harmlessly across the floor. The Watcher stepped over it.

"Whoa! You really are human." Jacob dodged the Watcher’s talons and thrust his blade through its chest. He kicked the body away and returned to Gideon to help him string another arrow. "I’ll tell you what. Shoot if you have to, but if anything gets too close, reach behind you and poke it in the eye with an arrow."

Gideon nodded. His throat was too tight and dry to respond.

Jacob winked then launched himself into the advancing army, wielding his blade. Black limbs flew from the trail Jacob forged and a head rolled toward Gideon's feet. He flattened against the wall when it melted into a pool of black ooze near his toes.