Bound (The Divine, Book Four) (34 page)

"Don't be afraid, Elyse. The pure of heart will always be healed. Where is your brother?"

"Inside. I'm sorry, but he needed to wake Master Lu."
 

"He did wake Master Lu," a soft, old voice said. The ancient seraph ambled through the door, with Adam right behind him.

"Master Lu, my apologies," Geishon said. "I told them not to wake you."

"Be at peace, my son. You have done well. You have all done well." He took my hand and patted it. "Let go of the fear in your heart and follow the path you know is right."

My heart started pounding again, and in that moment I felt enough joy to bring tears to my eyes.
 

"I've got something for you," Adam said, bringing the Destroyer from behind his back. "It turns out Master Lu is not as confused as Max would have us believe."

"Be wary of that one," Lu said. "I don't know what game he is playing, and it may be that he has the best of intentions. A creature like Samael cannot help themselves but to lie and cheat, even when the truth would be the straightest path."

Enough lies had been revealed in the last five minutes that I didn't need the angel to tell me that. Max was up to something, and the shaky trust I'd been reserving for him was eroding fast.

"Do you know Max, Master Lu?" I asked.

"Samael gave me the sword for safe keeping many years ago. I was never sure of his purpose, and that is why I devoted myself to meditative practice. I needed to know that when he came seeking the blade again I could give it to him with a clear conscience. And so you have come, and so I have released it from my protection. The meditation allows me to see the world as it is, my child, not how each of us would like it to be, or believe it to be." He brought my hand up to his lips and kissed it. "Go now, and be at peace. Even if you lose, you will still win."

I didn't completely understand, but I didn't need to. I felt a strange peace settle over me. "We will. Thank you, Master Lu."

Adam and I headed for the door, while Lu knelt down and whispered to Geishon. I looked back and saw the boy scamper into the room with Sister Xiang. Lu saw me look, and he bowed his head to me.

"You didn't kill the spirit?" Adam asked.

"I don't know how to kill a spirit," I replied. "She ran away, and there aren't any clean mortals she can take for a dozen miles at least. How did you wake him?"

He laughed. "I didn't. He opened his eyes as soon as I approached him and asked me to take him down. The weakness... it's a gimmick. I don't completely understand his purpose here, but it isn't my place to question the Lord's will."

We passed beneath the scripted doorway and out onto the lawn. "Let's get ourselves to Paris," I said. "I'll wait while you change." I set my eyes on him and smiled.

"I don't need to use the wings to fly," he replied, reaching out and gathering me in his arms. "It's one of the perks of being an Inquisitor. They can really get in the way when you're trying to be discreet."

"Adam?"

He had looked up towards the sky, about to take off. Now he stopped. "What is it?"

"The Inquisitors were formed to find the swords. Well, we've found them. What are you going to do after this?"

His breath tickled my ear when he spoke. "Assuming there is an 'after this'? Our main purpose was to track down the swords, but our secondary mission is to find whatever lost relics and artifacts we can. I suppose we'll put a greater focus on that."

"So you're counter to the Nicht Creidim?"

"In a way. We've clashed with them a number of times over the centuries, but the Nicht Creidim are the enemy of all the Divine. Present company excluded, I guess."

"This is a temporary truce," I said. "It will end when Landon is free and the Beast is destroyed once and for all." I had no idea what Elyse planned to do after that. Her father was dead, and her home was ash.
 

He chuckled. "I'd be interested to see how your host is received by her people, after she gave aid to the Divine."

"The Beast is everyone's problem, as are the changelings. Can they be that steadfast in their rules that they won't be able to see how she's helping them?"

Adam lost his humored edge. "Trust me, Rebecca. I know from experience how blind we can be in service to our beliefs."
 

Before I could say anything else, we were launching into the sky.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Rebecca

Adam and I were waiting on the runway when Brian's jet arrived. It touched down without fanfare and taxied over to a spot on the tarmac not far from where we stood. We walked towards it, arriving at the base of the ladder at the same time Max's face appeared in the doorway.

"Ah, there you are, peppermint patty. I take it you retrieved the blade?"

Adam turned his hand, and the Destroyer appeared in it.
 

Max clapped his hands together. "I knew I could count on the two of you." He started climbing down the stairs, with Ulnyx, Obi, Sarah, Izak, and Brian behind him. "We have much to do, and not a lot of time."

"The van should be here soon," Brian said, looking down at his phone.
 

"Well done, my good man." Max reached us and put his arms around me. "So, how is Master Lu? I see your burns have been healed."

I wasn't sure how much I should tell him. The angel's warning was still fresh in my mind. His heart might be in the right place, but I had been on the deceitful side before. If he was as good at it as he claimed, we'd never see it coming. "Old," I replied. "His stand-in, Sister Xiang, gave us the sword. She also healed the burns."

He pulled back and looked at me, testing me for my honesty. "Interesting."

"Is Izak safe to be this close to Gervais?" I asked, looking at the demon past Max's shoulder. The fiend was sticking close to Sarah, his demeanor suggesting the loss of half his arm was nothing more than an inconvenience.
 

"Yes, yes. I carved a ward over the brand. They're easy enough to deal with if you can get close enough to the branded, and if you know what you're doing."

"So, what's the plan, man?" Obi asked.
 

"Good question. Sarah, the Box, if you please. Adam, I'm afraid we'll need the Deliverer and the Destroyer now."

Both weapons reappeared in his hands. "Now? We still only have five."

"I'm afraid so. All of the swords need to make it to the Beast's prison. Any one of us can carry them, but they all need to make it. Do you understand?"

Adam nodded slowly and held them out. Ulnyx stepped forward. He was holding a long duffel.

"Just toss them in here," he said, unzipping it.
 

I watched him surrender the weapons. Max was taking away our best protection. I looked at him for a reaction, but there was none.

Sarah had pulled the Box from a canvas bag, and now she handed it to the reaper. "Now what?" she asked.
 

"We just brought Avriel's Box to Paris," Max said. "By my calculations, we have between three and ten minutes before all hell breaks loose."

We all stared at the reaper.

"That's why we're here, isn't it. In any case, it will spare you the anxiety of anticipation. Don't think, just act."
 

"We're still forty miles from Gervais' chateau, Max," I said. "What the hell are you thinking?" I looked out over the horizon, and felt a chill. Ulnyx was looking that way too, and he started to shift.

"You thought we were going to do this at Gervais' house? Now that would be suicide. Trust me, pudding, and retrieve that dark sword of yours."

The problem was, I didn't trust him. He always seemed to be one step ahead of everyone, and Lu's warning had only cemented it.

"Ulnyx, you'll need your hands free. Rebecca can take the blades."
 

"Just what I wanted to hear," the Were said. He had finished shifting, and used his claws to slip the bag off his massive frame.
 

He heaved the duffel at me like it was made of paper. I let it clatter onto the ground, and then scooped it up by the handle and slung it across my back. I shook a couple of times to make sure it was somewhat secure, and then grabbed the black stone and summoned the spatha. It was weird to be holding such a relatively simple blade when I had an arsenal hanging over my ass.

"What am I supposed to do?" Brian asked. His face had turned white and he was shaking.
 

"Just stay behind me," Sarah said. She held her hands at her sides, her expression fierce. There was no fear there, only a smoldering anger that surfaced whenever her father was involved.

He didn't keep us waiting long.

He came from the air, falling from the sky in a streak of darkness, hitting the ground with a loud smack, and rising to his feet unharmed. A wave of demons landed behind him; fallen angels and winged devils carrying vampires, weres, and fiends. There were at least a hundred of them, a number that would have been challenging but doable for the force we'd assembled.
 

Except, these weren't typical demons.

None of them were alive.

They were damaged in different ways. Some had nasty gashes across the face, others scars along their leathery skin. All of them had a dullness in their eyes, and they moved with such uniform precision that it was obvious their ultimate freedom had been taken from them. They were zombies, much like what the Beast had launched at Landon in Mumbai, only augmented by their Divine size and strength.

"You see, the power of the swords won't help us here," Max whispered to me.

"This is crazy," I said.
 

"Trust me," he repeated.
 

The fate of the world may have been resting in the palm of his hand, and the self-proclaimed God of Lies was asking for trust. I tried to stay calm, but I was starting to feel like I imagined Brian did.

"Do you like them?" Gervais asked. He didn't look much different now than he had before, beyond the flatness of eyes that bore no reflection, no pupils, no living energy. His curly mop of black hair twisted down over them, and his simple beige cotton tunic and pants made him look like he should be vacationing in the Caribbean. "The perfect demons. Completely under my control." He glanced over at Izak, whose own eyes were alight in fury. "Free again, I see. Enjoy it for the few remaining minutes it will last. It is good to see you again, daughter." He leered at Sarah, and then turned to Max. "I'll take that."

Max looked back at me, pausing for only the barest instant.
 

He tossed the Box to Gervais.
 

"Max?" I meant for it to come out as a shout, in anger and pain at the betrayal. It left my mouth as little more than a whisper.

"My apologies, pumpkin pie," he said. Then he punched me in the mouth.

The blow caught me off-guard, and sent me reeling. I could feel the weight of the duffel slipped from me as I stumbled, grabbed by the reaper in one quick motion. There were shouts of confused anger behind me, and all hell
did
break loose.

An angry snarl sounded behind me and Ulnyx leaped forward at Gervais, his huge claws spread wide to scissor his head from his body. It was a rash move, an emotional outburst, and a stupid thing to do. Gervais didn't flinch, didn't move. He just put his hands up and caught the Were's wrists on their way in, a black energy pouring from him. The oil-like power coated Ulnyx, and when it vanished there was nothing but ash. It floated into the archfiend, catching in his hair but leaving him otherwise unharmed.

Gervais looked back at Sarah and smirked. Max had shifted into his reaper from, and he lifted the archfiend away even as a gout of hellfire fell where he had been standing.

"Trust me, my ass," I shouted after him. It was all I had time to do, because his undead demons rushed in at us.

Adam found his way to the front of the horde, a new blade in his hand. It was a standard-issue seraphim sword, but blessed or cursed, it didn't matter. The only thing that would stop them was the cruel cutting edge. We put ours to good use, digging in and getting washed over by the wave, flailing claws and teeth against metal. I heard Sarah try to Command the ones that moved past me, but I doubted it would have much of an effect.

Blasts of heat sent tingles up my spine as Izak joined the fight, his hellfire seeming to be our best weapon against them. I twisted and swung, decapitating a vampire and finding myself facing him. I could see him standing his ground ahead of half a dozen burning effigies, alight in the deadly flames that could reduce Brian and Sarah to ash in seconds. Even on fire, as long as they could move they would keep coming, and Izak lashed out with his good arm to keep them back, only to find more coming his way. They knew who the real threat was, and they focused on it with all of their intensity.

I cursed Max again and jerked away from the tip of a sword, grabbing the wrist that held it and lopping it off with a backhanded cut. There was no cry of pain. In fact, the attacking demons made no sound at all. It was the quietest battle I'd ever heard.

Sarah screamed, and I saw one of the fiends had gotten his hands on her. Izak was too far away. We were all too far away. He brought his other hand up to her throat, wrapping it there and holding tight. For an instant, there was fear, and then it was gone. Something inside her broke. I could almost feel it, even in the middle of the scrum. Her lips curled into a snarl, and she brought her own hands up. The tips had extended into claws of her own, and she succeeded where Ulnyx had failed, bringing them together through the demon's neck and severing his head. The hands didn't let go.

I heard Obi then, his voice loud and angry. He didn't have the Eagle, but he did have a long dagger that he was using with reckless efficiency, tearing through flesh and clearing a path to Sarah. He got to her and grabbed the headless form, forcing it to release her and then throwing it to the ground, where a line of hellfire burned it.
 

"This is bad," Adam said, coming to stand next to me. He had a deep gash on his free arm, the bone protruding through it. "Their touch isn't killing me at least, but it isn't healing either."