All That Falls (39 page)

“A test run…” he murmured, furrowing his brows.

“They killed me to get you out of the way. The last time Reziel was involved in a plot to get you out of his way, they tried to take over heaven. And who did Reziel conspire with?”

Lysander clenched his jaws and nodded bitterly. “Lucifer.”

“What if Reziel plans to enter the world with the devil himself? What if they plan to open a gate big enough for the most powerful demons in hell to pass through?”

“Only flesh-and-blood angels can fight demons of the flesh. At present, that’s just me and Nathaniel. If Reziel and Lucifer brought the twenty-five highest-ranking demons in hell with them to earth, even with Merrick and Nathaniel joining the fight, I probably couldn’t stop them from taking over the world.”

“Then we have to keep them from ever opening a gate that wide.”

“Yes,” he said, frowning. “But I don’t see how they could do it. Even if Ileana’s alive and Reziel spills every drop of her blood it wouldn’t be enough to open a portal that large.”

They swooped down to the roof where Merrick was pacing and talking on his cell phone. When he spotted Lysander, Merrick ended the call.

“That kid, Hayden Lane, shot Ox and Richard North and took Alissa. I’ve emptied the building of my guys. I’ve got everyone on the street looking for them, but Lane’s probably out of my territory by now, and word is that one of the syndicate helicopters lifted off and headed north toward the Etherlin.”

Lysander whirled and scanned the horizon.

Cerise jerked her phone out of her pocket and called her sister. The call went straight to voice mail. She called her father next.

“It’s Cerise. Is Dorie there? Is she in the house?”

“Of course,” her dad said.

“Are you looking right at her? Is she in front of you?”

“No, why? What’s going on?”

“I need you to check, Dad. Right now.”

She waited, holding her breath.

“Did you see Dorie go out?” her dad shouted to someone, presumably an ES bodyguard. “She’s not in her room! Check the rest of the house. Do it now!” Into the phone he said, “I last saw her about two hours ago. She said she was going to sleep for a while. I don’t know how long she’s been missing. What’s going on? Where do you think she’s gone?”

“I think she might have gone to meet Hayden Lane, but if she did, it won’t be Hayden she finds. It’ll be the demon who’s possessing his body.”

“Oh, God!”

“I’ll call you right back. Give me a minute to talk to Lysander and I’ll call you back, Dad.” She lowered the phone. “Ileana’s blood wouldn’t be enough, but what if they had three muses? Would the sacrificial killing of three muses be enough?”

Lysander tipped his head back, clenching his eyes shut and shaking his head in despair. “Yes, three would be enough.”

“What are you doing?” Dorie screamed as the helicopter lurched.

Alissa had attempted to escape twice without success. For her trouble, she had snow-soaked clothes, a sprained ankle, and a broken wrist from Reziel slamming her arm against a metal strut when she’d almost gotten his gun away from him.

Prevented from escaping, Alissa decided her next course of action would be to use magic to persuade the pilot to land immediately, before they got to their destination. The jerky descent came from Reziel interfering.

“Help me get this door open,” Alissa said, the pain in her wrist wailing as she tried to unlock the latch.

“Are you crazy? What if we fall out?”

“Better that than being sacrificed in some demonic ritual. Get over here now,” Alissa said.

“Wait!” Dorie yelled.

As Alissa got the door open, she felt a sharp pain in the back of her head. She buckled forward, falling as the world went black.

Multiple human sacrifices had been arranged at the four other caves that made up the points of the inverted pentacle. But the
key to everything, Tamberi knew, would be the muse sacrifice at the cave of ancients in the Etherlin.

Ileana Rella had finally caught on to the fact that she wasn’t being taken home, despite many promises of fabulous rewards or ransom. Now Rella vacillated between shocked silence and noisy sobbing. Tamberi controlled the latter by hitting Rella in the face whenever she lost control.

“In demon-raising, as in life, you get what you pay for. Animal sacrifice, lesser demon. Human sacrifice, humanoid demon. Muse sacrifice…” Tamberi licked her lips. “Well, that’s gotta be a show worthy of the circus big top. Here’s our stop,” Tamberi said, dragging Rella out of one of the helicopters she’d stolen from the syndicate.

The dozen guys still willing to stick their necks out for Tamberi climbed out of the chopper with their loaded assault rifles. Tamberi doubted she’d need them if things went off as planned. Line the muses up and cut them down. That was what they were going to do.

Tamberi was sorry she wouldn’t get to slaughter Cerise Xenakis, the woman Griffin had loved more than Tamberi, as part of the ritual. Of course, slicing Alissa North’s throat would be almost as good. Alissa had killed Cato in the exact cave they were traveling to.

Tamberi hoped Reziel followed her advice and taped the bitch’s mouth shut and handcuffed her hands behind her back. The blonde was crafty. If they weren’t careful, they wouldn’t end up with a cadre of demons. They’d end up with a bunch of harp-playing ancient muses with a blinding light that burned the skin off the bones of the unworthy.

“Where is that demon?” Tamberi said, looking at the sky. “He better not be too late. Merrick might not have wings, but you better believe that bastard won’t take long to get here if he figures out where we’re bringing blondie.”

One of her guys got set up to hammer spikes into the mountain, and Tamberi shoved Rella toward the clearing in front of the cave.

“C’mon, Rez, get your ass here,” she murmured. Then she heard helicopter blades chopping the air and she smiled. “Speak of the devil.”

The muses had been strung up like animals ready for slaughter. They were at the mouth of the cave of ancients positioned in a triangular formation with a fire blazing in the center.

The sharp pain in Alissa’s right wrist dragged her to consciousness. To hang from ropes that tethered a broken bone was excruciating, but the pain helped her overcome the fog of her head injury. Alissa shuddered as blood oozed down the back of her neck from the place where her scalp was torn.

Cold and sick and barely able to breathe, she twisted, trying to get her feet firmly on the ground. Hayden’s eyes blazed red as Reziel read from a tablet.

Tamberi Jacobi, leering with excitement, stood next to Alissa. The ventala witch held a thin blade in her hand. The hilt looked very old. Was it bronze? The dirt on the dagger made Alissa think they might have just unearthed it from some nearby tomb.

Tamberi took the tablet and read a passage. The throbbing in Alissa’s head made it hard to listen.

“Let’s salt the earth to prime it,” Reziel said and grabbed Dorie’s leg. She struggled and kicked, but couldn’t wrench free. He sliced Dorie’s ankle over a vein. She screamed behind the tape over her mouth.

Alissa gagged, afraid she might vomit behind the tape and choke. Although maybe that would be a mercy. Then her heart would stop and wouldn’t provide them with as much pumping blood when they cut her.

Through vision that blurred and then cleared as though she were diving underwater and surfacing, Alissa saw Reziel watching her. Was he worried she might suffocate before they finished their ritual? She might be able to use that. She had to stop them.

Reziel cut Ileana’s leg. Ileana seemed to be in a state of shock and didn’t even try to resist.

Blood slithered down Alissa’s back in a sinister trail and dripped on the ground. She shivered, but knew that if she could get the tape off her mouth, she could use the muse blood to open a portal that would do Reziel no good at all. She arched up, making a show of her struggle. Then she heaved.
Screaming pain shot down her arm from her wrist, but Reziel stalked forward and reached for the tape on her mouth.

Tamberi stopped reading and grabbed his wrist. “Don’t. You can’t let her speak a single word. She’ll ruin everything. Let her pass out. I’ll slit her throat while she’s choking to death.”

Reziel watched Alissa twist and gasp, jerk and gag, but he stepped back. She closed her eyes, desperately trying to think of something, anything, to circumvent the demonic ritual, but she was bound too tightly. She tongued the tape, but couldn’t loosen it enough to shout from underneath it.

Tamberi’s voice echoed through the clearing and into the cave, and a foul wind whistled from it. Alissa smelled sulfur and rotting meat. Her stomach heaved, and she had to swallow the acid that rose. Sweat beaded on her neck and forehead, and waves of pain crashed over her.

Don’t pass out. Stay alert!

If a chance comes, you have to be ready.

Her vision darkened, fading to black. She heard distant moans and growls. Something that was not human gnashed its teeth, impatient to enter the world.

Cerise felted weighed down by the two daggers, gun, and belt with several clips of ammunition. There hadn’t been a question of whether she would go with them. When Lysander had told Merrick to give her weapons, Merrick had raised a brow, but hadn’t objected. He equipped her and, in a matter of minutes, they were back on the roof. She tested a retractable blade. Lysander reminded her how to use it to the best advantage. In an aerial attack, she and Merrick would crouch, drawing the demon down and lurch up and thrust the blade. The spring-action blade would slide out in an instant to impale the descending demon.

They believed that the most likely site for the ritual would be at a cave near the muse’s retreat center in the Etherlin where the ventala had tried to open a portal once before. As Merrick hooked industrial cable to a utility belt, Lysander prepped them.

“Cerise, with my blood in you, you should be harder to kill and more able to channel my skills. Use your magic to inspire
yourself to move the way I do. I trained or fought many of the damned angels who may emerge. I know their weaknesses. Trust your instincts. They’re exceptional.”

She nodded, using a hook to link herself to the cable.

“Merrick, there are four that are more dangerous than all the rest. If possible, leave them for me. First, Lucifer. You’ll know him by his horns and his manner. He’ll charge forward and then drop back and flank to his left. Be wary of letting him get behind you. He’s catlike when he fights; he likes to attack from the back. If he leaps, roll under and get behind him. Cross cut him through the back, right to left.” Lysander illustrated a quick move. Cerise and Merrick watched. Cerise mimed the movement, but Merrick only nodded.

“Uriah is next. He has a claw mark on his right shoulder, and he fights equally well with both hands. He likes to thrust upward with his dagger as if it were a switchblade. It leaves his upper chest vulnerable. With a vertical leap, you can come down, blade behind his left collarbone, for the kill. You know the move, but you have to deflect his blade or you’ll impale yourself on it when you land.

“Reziel. He’ll come for me first, but if I’m killed you’ll be next. In his natural form, you’ll know him by his wings. They’re black, but gold-tipped on the ends. He used to like to come straight overhead and the retractable blade worked well, but he’s learned over the years that I know that weakness and his style has changed. When he’s wounded and recovering, he returns to old habits. If possible, wear him out and bleed him down. Then he’ll come from overhead. And finally Purim. He’ll be the smallest. Only six feet and thinner than the rest. He moves like quicksilver. You have to move fast and don’t let him anticipate you. Be unpredictable in what you do. If you can hit his face a few times or jab him in the face with your blade, he’ll protect his head and neck excessively and leave his heart and wings unprotected.

“All twenty-seven are powerful and dangerous, but so are you. Use your training, your experience, your instincts. On your best day, you can defeat any of them,” Lysander said, putting a hand on the side of Merrick’s neck and nodding. “Today has to be your best day.”

Merrick inclined his head and said, “We’re burning midnight. Let’s go.”

Lysander slid an arm around Cerise’s waist, but his attention was still on Merrick. “You can’t afford to be distracted for even an instant. Your best chance of saving Alissa is to stay alive and fight. Don’t forget that.”

Merrick’s grim expression left little doubt that he understood what he had to do, even if he didn’t like it.

Without another word, Lysander’s wings beat and they rose into the deceptively silent night. When they were about fifteen feet above the roof, she felt the cable become taut as Merrick was lifted into the air. Even with the added weight of two additional bodies, Lysander’s flight through the clouds was swift and steady.

“One for luck,” she whispered and pressed a kiss onto his cheek.

“One more,” he said.

There was no change in their progress across the sky, even when he touched his lips to hers. She kissed him and made it count, knowing it would likely be the last time.