Page 61 of Destined for Eternity
Chapter 22
Bartol
Bartol fought with everything he had to keep the line of demons at bay. Melena’s Jeep had made it past the gate, but the attackers kept swarming that side of the compound as if they knew precious cargo was inside the vehicle.
The angels, nerou, nephilim, and Bartol worked as hard as they could to clear the way. One of the graduates next to him had three demons on her at once, and though she fought valiantly, her aggressors overtook her. He lost sight of her blond hair in the melee. Before he could try to save her, four more vicious creatures blocked his path. He swung his sword in a clean stroke, taking two of their heads off. For the next one, he kicked it in the chest hard enough to break ribs and sent it flying backward. When the last jumped on him, he grabbed its arms and ripped them off. It took another couple of minutes to extract the essence from each of the four while they struggled with their wounds and missing body parts.
By the time Bartol finished and reached the blond female nerou, she lay on the ground unmoving with her blue eyes open toward the sky. He checked her pulse but didn’t find one. Over a year’s hard work, and she’d finally had her chance to go out into the world. Now, she was gone. He wanted to mourn her loss, but he had no time.
Cori was nearly past the danger. They’d reached the edge of the demon horde, and the two angels assigned to escort them were battling the infiltrators there. Gunfire rang out as well from the vehicle, taking out another demon. It killed Bartol to stay there while his mate fled for her life as she labored with their child. He desperately wanted to go, but the best way to protect her and everyone else was to stay and kill the demons so they could never come back to hurt anyone again. He had to trust Melena to keep Cori safe…and Kerbasi. That was the most difficult. Would the guardian truly do his job and protect Bartol’s mate? He could only hope the man had reformed as much as everyone claimed because he was staking Cori’s life on it.
Bartol hacked and slashed his way through the last demons along the road where they tried to race after the fleeing vehicle, not having time to kill his opponents for good. The important part was to keep them from their target, but he left a wake of crawling body parts behind him. He tossed away the arms, heads, and torsos closest to him. Trees shook and rustled nearby where they were littered with moving limbs. Bartol wasn’t the only one getting rid of the demon parts that way.
The Jeep finally left their sight, and a few minutes later Jeriel’s angels returned to report Cori was safely out of the way. Bartol turned back and got a good look at how many more of Hell’s spawn remained. It was impossible to count. The fighting raged along the road and well into the compound where fires burned and many dead bodies lay—from both sides. Bartol never could have imagined so many demons would find their way to Alaska, but he was beginning to wonder if the portal in L.A. was the only one. Perhaps The Trio had opened another they hadn’t found yet. They would have to search for it, but that was a job for another day.
Moving along the line of stunned demons the nerou had waiting for him, Bartol started pulling their essences out as fast as he could. He was down to only needing fifteen seconds for the weaker ones, but the stronger ones could still take up to a minute. Some were rising back up before he could get to them. One clawed at his face before a nerou could stun it again with her blood.
After finishing that one, Bartol continued down the line, getting kicked and bitten by those that awakened too soon. He didn’t dare stop. Pain wracked his body from numerous injuries all over, but he kept pressing his hands onto the demons’ chests and siphoning their essences out one by one. His father was inside the compound working as fast as he could as well. Bartol couldn’t see Raguel from his vantage point, but he heard him shouting every so often.
After finishing the demon bodies along the road, he ran through the gate to search for more. He passed Remiel taking on at least a dozen at once. The archangel’s white robe was covered in blood and ripped to shreds, but if he was wounded, it didn’t appear to slow him down. He moved with lightning speed over his opponents, cleaving some in half, taking the heads off others, and zapping groups of them with lightning. A demon arm clung to the bottom of his robes, trying to climb its way up. When it reached his hip, he pulled it off and threw it away. Remiel might have been the one who’d sent Bartol and Lucas to Purgatory when they’d committed forbidden acts, and they might hate him for that, but he certainly made a good ally in this battle.
Bartol left the archangel to it and kept moving. Near the dorms, there was a heap of demons waiting for him that several nerou had stacked up. He started to go toward it, but something else distracted him.
Ivan was surrounded by ten demons, attempting to fight them all at once. He was one of their strongest fighters due to Lucas teaching him even before he left Purgatory, but he could not handle that many foes alone. Bartol hesitated, knowing he needed to execute the stunned demons in the pile before they rose, but Ivan needed help right then. He gestured at the three nerou who were stacking up bodies as they wounded their foes, using blades soaked with their blood. “Keep them down. I’ll be there soon!”
They grumbled but kept at their work.
Bartol raced over to Ivan. The large, muscular nerou was already wounded with one arm dangling down by a few tendons, but he held his sword up with his good side and kept hacking away at his attackers. Twice, he paused long enough to recoat the blade with blood from his wounds so he could stun the demons and keep them down while he fought the others.
By the time Bartol reached him, three were on the ground. Another was crawling about with no head. It took less than a minute to execute them all. After that, he positioned himself back to back with Ivan and fought the other seven. They were growling and vicious with knives or swords in their hands and no compunction about using teeth if they could. One of them snapped at Bartol’s arm, tearing into his flesh. He jerked away, then he raised his sword and plunged it into his foe’s heart.
At that moment, an idea formed in his head.
While the demon struggled to free itself from impalement, he concentrated on pulling its essence through the blade and into his hand. To his surprise, it worked. The essence could travel to him through the metal like electricity. In ten seconds, the demon was down and gone for good. He kicked at another that came close, sending it flying as one of its friends came for him next. Bartol repeated his trick by stabbing that one in the heart as well and pulling out its essence.
Meanwhile, Ivan grunted behind him as he fought his share of attackers. Just as Bartol was taking down his third demon, the male nerou cried out. He turned to find Ivan lying on the ground. His guts were hanging out from a wide and deep slash to his stomach. He also had a cut on his neck where blood flowed freely. He gasped for breath and clutched at his wounds.
“Micah!” Bartol yelled, searching for the nephilim, but unable to spot him in the chaos. Other than Ivan, Lucas’ brother was the next best healer he knew.
He yelled for him twice more as he fought off two more demons that came running at him and the injured nerou. They’d already lost at least three people on their side that Bartol had seen, and they couldn’t afford to lose more. He might not have gotten to know most of them very well, but they were good people who did not deserve to die before they had a chance to truly live life on Earth.
Micah flashed before him. “I’m here. Go help the others.”
Bartol lingered a minute more to be sure the nephilim wasn’t attacked while he worked on Ivan. Several demons ran at them in that space of time. He made quick work of them, killing them so they would not rise again. Once Micah had closed the wound on Ivan’s throat and started on his stomach, Bartol took off.
He ran toward the pile of bodies the nerou had waiting for him by the dorms. There had to be at least forty of them there, and it made him proud the students had done so well. One by one, he pulled their essences out and released them into the atmosphere. Though he went as fast as he could, his powers began depleting. It started to take longer and longer with each one. His hands began to shake by the time he made it midway through the pile, and the nerou were having to re-stun the demons while he worked.
Jeriel came to his side. “You must finish them faster.”
“I’m nearly drained,” Bartol said, hating to admit his weakness when everyone needed his ability the most. “I’m not sure how much longer I can keep this up before I have nothing left.”
Last December, he never would have imagined he could extract that many demons’ essences in one day. He must have executed nearly a hundred so far, but there were many more to do.
The red-headed archangel put a hand on Bartol’s shoulder. “Don’t move.”
Every fiber of his being wanted to jerk away, but he forced himself to stay still. A white light sprung from Jeriel’s fingertips. With it came warmth and energy that poured into him. Some of his discomfort lifted. The archangel was giving up some of his precious power so that Bartol could continue his work. Within a minute, he was as strong as he’d ever been.
“Thank you,” he said as Jeriel pulled away.
