Page 45 of Camael
"Son of a bitch." Isis's curse carried enough venom to kill a demon lord. "He's going to try turning them before their powers fully manifest and could put up a fight. He’s hitting them when they're most vulnerable."
"That's why he didn't take the older angels," Pema added. "Their grace is too set, too pure to corrupt easily."
"Precisely. Can you track them?" Camael demanded. Hismassive frame vibrated with the need to hunt. Amelia was right there with him.
"Maybe." Amelia reached for her expanded magic. She used her merged power to cast a tracking spell. She raced from the room to find out what her spell revealed about where the angels were taken.
Amelia winced when the war room door exploded inward. Apparently, she’d put too much oomph behind her spell opening the panel. She was eager to see where the fledglings had been taken. They’d been traumatized in Heaven by Jeremiel’s attempt to take over, and now he’d kidnapped them.
She barely registered the movement from the leather couch as her power coursed through the map beneath her palms. The tracking spell she'd cast in a desperate attempt to locate their missing angels was going to work. Movement in her peripheral vision made her turn. Izzy was sitting up on the couch. The warrior princess's usual grace was slightly off. It had to be the lingering effects of too little sleep. "What's going on?"
"About time you joined us, sleeping beauty." Rami's deep voice rumbled from the entrance. Amelia hadn’t seen the Angel of Retribution join them.
Amelia pushed her dark hair back from her face. "The fledgling angels. They're missing." The words tasted bitter on her tongue, and she didn’t bother to hide the exhaustion in her voice. "I cast a tracking spell to find them."
"All of them?" Izzy's expression shifted to one of alarm.
“Those that were here,” Amelia clarified. “Oh, my goddess.”
Camael’s head snapped in her direction. “What?”
“They’ve been taken from the other sites as well,” Amelia replied.
Izzy was fully alert and awake when she pulled out herphone. Her fingers flew over the screen as she dialed the first number on her emergency contact list. "We can’t assume that. Let me verify what happened there."
Izzy’s expression darkened with every call she made. "Over half of the fledgling are missing.” Izzy's voice carried the kind of rage that made the air crackle. "Those bastards swept the safe houses while they were dead to the world."
"Shit." Amelia cursed. The map pulsed with spots of ethereal blue light. Each one was a stab to her heart. She jabbed a finger at the markers, anger building in her chest. "That asshole is really pissing me off."
Jo materialized in the room. The female AOR's presence was a lethal whisper in the room. "He's mocking us."
"Son of a bitch." Camael's massive frame tensed. Power rolled off him in waves that made the crystal chandelier above them tremble. His voice carried through the mansion like thunder. "Remi! Rami! Jo! Az! Malachi!" The names of his Angels of Retribution echoed off the walls. "Ayil! Araton! Abraxos!" He was so lost in his anger that Amelia doubted he realized Jo and Rami were already there with them.
The triplets materialized first. They were ready to go to war. Their synchronized movements were both beautiful and unsettling. The rest of the AORs appeared in rapid succession. Their weapons were already drawn, and their wings were mantled for battle. The air grew thick with angelic power. It made it hard for Amelia to breathe.
Camael updated the others on what had happened. "We're getting them back," he growled. His blue eyes blazed with righteous fury. "Now."
Malachi stepped forward. His dark skin gleamed in the witch-light. "The Dark Warriors are gearing up. We can be mobile in three minutes."
"Wait." Amelia's voice cut through the testosterone-laden air like a blade. She had to do something before the male sheloved and her friends walked into a situation they couldn’t get out of. She planted her hands on the table and met Camael's fierce gaze. "We need to secure the remaining fledglings first. Then we go after Jeremiel. That's how we save them all."
"There's no time—" Camael started.
"There's no point rushing in if he's just going to take more while we're gone," Rami interrupted, earning a sharp look from his commander. "The witch is right."
Az nodded, running a hand through his shock of white-blonde hair. "We need an actual location. We can’t hope he will go after the angels he hasn’t taken."
Camael's jaw clenched, making his muscles tick. His wings rustled with barely contained violence. "I can't find the bastard. We have to do something.”
"What do you mean, you can't find him?" Izzy demanded. "He's a freaking archangel. Don't you guys have some sort of divine GPS?"
"Jeremiel's blocking me somehow." Camael's fist came down on the table. The force cracked the wood. "Every time I get close, it's like hitting a wall of static."
Amelia's lips curved in a predatory smile. "Then it's a good thing you have me and the Rowan sisters." She pulled a black velvet bag from her pocket. Her mate needed to remember he wasn’t alone anymore. "We have magic to find him."
The Rowan sisters smiled and synced like a well-oiled unit. “And together, we’re unstoppable,” Pema said as she stalked north with that ice princess meets predator attitude. Isis claimed the east, with don't-fuck-with-me energy that she wore like designer perfume. Suvi prowled to the south, her curves a lethal weapon as she moved with feline grace. While Amelia took the west.
"What's the play here?" Ayil asked as his brothers flanked him in mirror positions.
