Page 39 of Found In Destruction

Birdie, finish him!Bash cheered me on.

Their silent support meant the world to me. Instead of playing his cat and mouse game, I attacked with stealth.

“Well, I guess since you asked–” I started before hitting him square in the chest with a lightning bolt of pure fury-laced fire.

It knocked him down, and all hell broke loose. Fighting erupted throughout the room and screaming cut through the air. He got back up, his hood pushed far enough back that I could see his face. Rough, gnarled patches littered his tanned skin and his eyes were inhuman orbs of yellow light, his once handsome face marred. Something had happened to him…but my curiosity would have to wait.

His magic took the shape of a long whip, the tail sailing through the sky. Ares’ threw up a magical shield, blocking it as I flew through the sky, trying to get a better angle on him. Azazel flew through the air, hovering near me.

Diana, watch your back!He shouted through the mindlink.

I turned my head and saw more soldiers pouring through the door. Judas’ vampires were holding them off, but some of them slipped through, including the three people behind me. Dressed in black cloaks, they stood behind me in a triangle formation.Their gray hands indicated that they were moon people. I had no clue what they were doing, but it couldn’t be anything good. I flicked my tail, toppling them over. Ares hit them each with stunning spells, and Mal met us on the ground, grabbing one’s cloak in each hand and fading away.

A thunderous clap echoed throughout the room. Smoked eked in through the doors, rolling over the room like a low hanging fog. I saw Desmond standing by the far wall, his shadows mingling with it.

Oh shit, he’s doing it,Bash murmured.

Doing what? What’s going on?I frantically asked.

Bain is by the front doors, watch him work,Desmond instructed me.

I didn’t know Bain well, outside of training and the weird–but hopefully harmless–fascination he had with Angie. He was a Bone Whisperer, which was a rare supernatural being that hung between the balance of life and death, sort of like a gatekeeper of the afterlife? I didn’t understand it well, but I knew he didn’t simply practice Necromancy–hewasnecromancy in the flesh.

The smoky fog that covered the room turned into glowing white spirits. Some of them were from present times, while others were dressed in garb from times past. They attacked the soldiers, leaving a trail of corpses behind them.

Red seemed caught off guard by the swift change in our arsenal, so I took the opportunity to try to trap him in a fire ball like I had with the tiger shifter.If I can detain him, maybe we could get some information out of him.My first ball barely clung to him, disintegrating after a wave of his hand. He quickly came to his senses and threw bolt after bolt of magic my way, battering Ares' protective shield.

I’m trying to keep the shield up, but his magic is strong,Ares linked me.

I fought back with all the power I had, but our blows were evenly matched. A wisp of black out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. It was the third cloaked moon person. He had Azazel caught in some kind of magical lasso as he struggled to pull him down from the sky. Zaz’s wings flapped, propelling him upward, only to be pulled back down by the trap. The magic left burned marks in his skin, and his face was twisted in agonizing pain.

Red saw the whole thing, and his maniacal laugh felt like a knife stabbing my ears. He shot Azazel with a red bolt of magic, right in his wing. My fallen angel tumbled from the sky, landing in a cry of pain on the polished wooden dance floor.

My rage was instantaneous, volatile, and swift. The floor quaked, and the chandeliers and decor shook back and forth, serenading us with clinking and the crack of shattering glass. Shards rained down on me, but I didn’t give a damn. Red dared to hurt what was mine, and he would fucking pay–right here, right now. I was done with this super villain bullshit of his. I faded to Bain, took his hand, and forced him to fade back with me. I channeled my anger and fear and tried to tap into his magic. I busted through something that felt like a barrier, and my whole body vibrated with sharp pain. But it was worth it to have such powerful magic at my disposal.

“Diana, listen to me, you need to be mindful of what you’re about to do,” Bain hissed.

I ignored him, and gathered all the spirits in the room, commanding them to converge on Red. They overran him, swallowing him in a pearly white flash. I heard Red scream, and the cries of the spirits. The battle around us may have been silent or loud as a concert, but I was so focused on avenging Azazel that I blocked everything around me out.

The spirits waned, and I could see Red through their somewhat transparent forms. He looked worse than when hishood fell, a crumpled mess on the floor. A bolt of his magic shot up to the ceiling, and the spirits dissipated. Soldiers came to Red’s aid, helping him off the floor.

“This isn’t over. It’s only just begun,” he rasped before fading away. The handful of soldiers he still had left did too.

Bain dropped my hand, backing away from me with a horrendous expression on his face. If Angie hadn’t described him as a fearless monster with an attitude problem, I’d say he was scared.

My men rushed to Azazel’s aid, jumping over pieces of ceiling and bodies on the ground, and I moved to follow. But fell to the floor. All the invincibility I felt earlier fell to the wayside and was replaced by anxiety and fear. Pain ricocheted through me, tearing me apart from the inside. But none of that mattered. Azazel could be injured…or he could be dying. I couldn’t see whether or not his chest was rising and falling from where I laid on the floor. Everything was blurry, and I couldn’t breathe.

Michael grasped my hand and faded me away to a private room in the infirmary, promptly levitating me into a bed. The familiar neutral cream walls and beeping of machines felt like a cage. I hated this fucking place and didn’t want to be separated from Azazel.

“No!” I gasped, trying to fade us back. I felt my body start to leave, but I wasn’t moving. I couldn’t escape.

“You need to lay down, Diana. Luci is going to be here any second,” he said in a soothing calm voice.

“Pop,please, don’t make me stay here. I need to be with him,” I begged him. He couldn’t keep me from Azazel. The room was a blurry blob of colors and I could barely make out his face in front of me. “I can’t see you!”

“Is she okay?!” Lucifer’s voice sounded wrong, his dominant resolve replaced by uncertainty.

“Dad! Please, I need to find him!” I screamed.

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