Page 13 of By An Angel's Grace

Than your guardian angel can fly…

Tab…

I should have known that after all we’d been through, we weren’t going to get any down time. “I’m in trouble. I love you” had been the prayer from my girlfriend. My all-too-mortal girlfriend, alerting me to get onto the Bluetooth. I saw the demons pursuing her motorcycle, and I saw her peeling off, away from populated areas. This wasn’t a fight mortal authorities or bystanders were going to be any help with. Then I saw them catch up, and they blurred as a demon grabbed her, and began a teleportation to take them wherever its master would be. I prepared to use my own divine mysticism to find her again, hoping that whoever had her now hadn’t obscured them too much. Then I thought better of it. Powerful enough demons and Fallen Angels might be able to block my senses, but their spells rarely impeded common devices, and they didn’t often think they’d have to. I checked the handheld phone device again to get the GPS coordinates on her bike.

Smart girl – she left everything on. I couldn’t see what was happening, but heard it just fine, including a familiar voice, as Addy was unholstering her .45s.

“Oh come now, Addy. You won’t need those. I’m far too powerful for them to have any effect.” Lucifer’s voice. I’d thought, even hoped, that after all the recent fighting and escalation to near warfare between Heaven and Hell, he’d take the time to see to his own damaged realm, and I might have some downtime. That obviously wasn’t to be. We’d thought it was the start of a vacation, but I was going to have to be a soldier again, for at least a little longer.

“What the fuck do you want?” Addy demanded.

“I want Tabbris to have precisely what I have, which is not what I wanted!” He’d wanted Iaoel, the Angel of Visions, and my ex. He’d gotten precisely that, but she’d lost her gift for prophecy along the way. I should have expected Lucifer to try and gain a measure of revenge, but risking the wrath of the host in a fit of pique didn’t seem like him. Either way, I had to move quickly. I had her location for the moment, now that the GPS had finished spinning and recalculating, but it wouldn’t last long before Lucifer realized he was being eavesdropped on, and I’d lose my chance to catch up – or have to go back into Hell after her.

I wasn’t sure where she was, or how much attention I might draw. Thankfully, we’d been on a bike trip together. I was flying before, but the Harley I’d been using wasn’t far away. It only took a moment to collect it; just in case. Besides, as I listened, gaining a better idea of the noises of demons around her, I got an idea.

I gunned the Harley, picking up speed and starting to focus on the coordinates. I put in a last, quick call to Gabriel as I picked up speed.

“Lucifer has Addy. I’m going after her.” I didn’t wait for a response.

The bike and I faded out of existence in one spot, and reappeared in Death Valley Junction. No one could say Lucifer didn’t have a sense of drama.

He and the demons looked plenty surprised as I appeared at full throttle. I flared my wings and lifted off the bike, continuing its momentum. The bike careened at full speed into a knot of demons, while I slammed, shoulder first, into Lucifer, sending him flying. I had my sword out within moments, and beheaded the demon that I presumed had knocked Adelaide out, then ran another through before he could respond. As Lucifer was standing, and the others were untangling themselves from the wreck of the bike, while determining what was going on, I picked up Adelaide’s unconscious form in one arm, wrapping my wing around her on that side in protection, while holding the sword in the other.

Unsurprisingly, Lucifer stayed back, letting the demons take their shots at me, while I was fighting with one arm a little worse than tied behind my back. The fastest of them was paying too much attention to my sword and got caught by surprise when I bashed him aside with my free wing. He slammed into the demon closest behind him. The third avoided getting hit by the flying demon, but was off balance when I put my sword through his throat.

While most of the host had taken to quiet roles, either avoiding interaction with mortals, or serving more as mentor figures, I’d been a warrior and guardian for my entire existence. It had been enough to take on uneven numbers plenty of times, including quite recently. So far, that edge in experience and practice was proving to be enough.

Even so, they had numbers, and if they got their hands on Adelaide, they wouldn’t hesitate to use the hostage against me. Given any time to adjust, they’d also shift instinctually to wolf-pack tactics to try and wear me down. The first demon I’d hit didn’t look to be getting up right away, but the second was already struggling to push his companion off to get to me. I stepped on his throat and ground my heel down before he succeeded.

The fourth and fifth, both still showing signs of the collision with the motorcycle, tried working together, moving to flank me. I didn’t bite on the feint coming from the fourth. I’d been in too many fights with demons, especially recently, to not catch on. Lucifer’s own effort to trap me in Hell was particularly informative with the constant fighting through the lower levels. Instead, recalling similar signs from those fights, I charged right at the fifth, going shoulder first into him, then putting my sword through his gut. When his companion realized what was going on, he pounced, but I freed the sword in time for his own momentum to carry him on to it.

With half of their number down, just like that, the others stopped their rush, and started to try and form a ring, as Lucifer watched. Two Fallen Angels in motorcycle helmets moved to flank him, their swords at the ready. They had bows, and, more importantly, they had Lucifer. Whatever edge I might have in experience and recent practice would be more than made up for by his sheer power, if he got directly involved. For the moment, though, he remained true to form, focusing on his own safety, letting his minions fight and die for him, and letting them try and wear me down.

I didn’t even have to look behind me. The slight flinch from one of the Fallen told me an attack was coming. I reversed my grip on my sword and stabbed backwards, catching a demon by surprise. A second attacker caught a wing to the face, twisting his head around with the impact. The others backed away again after having slowly tightened the ring.

I’d finally had enough time to piece the scene together and caught on to more of the specifics of the situation. I also remembered more about previous dealings with Lucifer. Ignoring the demons, I looked to him. “What is it you want?”

“I’d have thought that was obvious, Tabbris. You and your girlfriend, dead, and both of you back on the torture racks in Hell where you belong.”

One of the demons lunged at that, but shied away when I blocked his claw swipe with my sword. I turned in time to stop another from reaching me, or possibly reaching Addy’s unconscious form, backing him away with the tip of my sword pointed at his throat, the demon back-pedaling before I could diminish the numbers more.

I was pretty sure that was absolutely true. Most of his best lies had that side to them. “More specifically, what do you want right now, today?”

Lucifer sighed. “Always so to the point. You should have brought Gabriel. He... or is it she today, I’m never sure... would at least provide more entertaining banter.”

“Gabriel will probably be here soon. Don’t worry.”

“But you think it’s Michael coming with him I should be worried about?”

“You did rather directly just assault a mortal,” I said. “Which you really shouldn’t be doing. He’s looking for an excuse for round two with you.”

Another demon lunged, and again, I didn’t bite on its feint, swinging a wing around and catching a different demon off-guard, knocking it aside – not as hard as I’d have liked; it was already starting to get back up, but it backed them off again.

“Oh, please. Your girlfriend is the former host of an angel’s grace. She’s been to Hell and back, twice. She’s dating the Angel of Free Will. Do you really think she qualifies as a mere part of the mortal flock anymore?”

“Do you really think Michael will quibble over technicalities?”

“Speaking of technicalities, I did nothing of the sort. I haven’t laid a finger on her.”

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