Page 60 of Destined for Eternity
She was down on all fours at this point, but she caught sight of two nerou going down under the onslaught. Jeriel was doing his best to execute the demons as fast as he could, but the archangel could only do so much under the deluge by himself. Cori couldn’t stand the idea of nerou dying because she was selfish and wanted to keep her mate with her when he could save many other lives.
Bartol let out a growl of frustration. “I can’t leave you like this.”
“I will escort her,” Kerbasi offered.
“No.” His gaze ran around the battle. “I’ll find someone else.”
“There’s no time,” the guardian argued. “I’m one of the strongest here who is available, and I will protect your mate with my life.”
At this point, Cori didn’t care about anything but getting to a safer place to have her baby. They say the second child often went faster, so she was in a serious time crunch.
“I’ll go with him,” Melena said, helping Cori to stand. “I’ve got my pistol, and I can lace the bullets with my blood to send them back to Hell if they get close. We will protect her, Bartol. I promise.”
Jeriel flashed next to them and looked at Kerbasi. “We will make a path for you to get out. Take her, and I’ll have two of my men follow until you’ve reached safety.”
Bartol appeared torn. The battle was getting worse, and people were calling for him. After another moment of hesitation, he grabbed the guardian by the throat. “If she dies…”
“She won’t,” Kerbasi vowed, eyes glowing silver.
Bartol took Cori’s face in his hands and pressed a desperate kiss to her lips. “I’m sorry I can’t go with you. Please take care, and I’ll be there as soon as possible.”
The head of a demon landed near them. Its mouth opened and closed, but it made no sound.
Cori hugged Bartol. “You take care, too. I love you!”
“I love you, too,” he said, squeezing back.
With one last look that said everything he felt about her, he flashed away. The next thing she heard was Bartol calling for everyone to head to the gate and clear the way. Already, Jeriel and Remiel were there, slashing through demons and tossing their body parts as far away as possible to keep them from coming back. Occasionally, they used their white smiting powers to tear through a line of them, but she’d heard they had to use that judiciously since it took a lot of power and could drain their energy fast. Yerik joined them, just as fierce and deadly with a wicked sword and red lightning bolts flying from his hands. Before long, the road that led to the gate was clear on their side.
“Let’s go,” Kerbasi said, picking Cori up. She was in no shape to walk fast at this point and didn’t argue.
Melena led the way to her Jeep. They strapped Cori into the backseat, barely getting her buckled before she was doubling over in pain. The sensor started the engine while Kerbasi climbed into the passenger seat. Melena checked her pistol and bit herself to get blood down the magazine and onto the cartridges. There was no time to do them one by one.
After locking and loading the weapon, she handed it to the guardian. “I’ll drive, and you shoot any demons that get close.”
“I haven’t practiced much with these,” he said, holding the pistol between his fingers like it was a dirty diaper.
“Cori’s life is in your hands,” the sensor warned. “You better get good because my blood will only work for about five minutes on those bullets before it’s no good.”
He adjusted his grip on the weapon. There was a look of sheer determination on his face as he began surveying their surroundings. The way past the gate cleared and Melena hit the gas pedal, racing the Jeep out of the compound. They drove past the fighting, sometimes with demons no more than twenty feet away. One of them broke loose from the crowd and came for them. Kerbasi shot at it and hit it in the leg. Not great aim, but it was good enough. The demon crashed down, unmoving. Melena’s blood had done its job.
Five more rushed forward from the other side of the vehicle. Cori cried out in warning, “Over there!”
Kerbasi couldn’t get a clean shot from the passenger seat. But just then, the two angels Jeriel had assigned rushed the demons. They knocked them down with a slash of their swords and then smote them with their white bolts. With so many coming at them, they had to use whatever resources they had at their disposal to keep the evil creatures at bay.
“How many of those bastards do you think there are?” Cori asked. She wouldn’t mention her contractions were coming less than four minutes apart. Right now, they just needed to get away from there.
“More than my senses can count, but it could be upwards of a thousand.”
Cori swore. “I don’t get how they snuck up on us or found us.”
“They have their ways,” Kerbasi replied. “Just like we have archangels, they have high demons with extraordinary powers. They must have found out about the graduation and snuck the demons to somewhere nearby in anticipation of this.”
Fear clogged Cori’s throat, and she had to swallow it down. “Think our guys will be okay back there?”
“I don’t know,” he replied.
“Just worry about the baby for now.” Melena slowed slightly for a particularly bad rut in the road. “We’ll check on our guys when we can.”
They got past the last of the attacking demons and the way cleared. Cori twisted in her seat to check behind them. The battle raged on with her able to spot far more demons than people from their side. She hoped and prayed she wasn’t leaving them to their deaths, or that helping her escape didn’t cause more to die.
