Exalted (28 page)

When she'd asked Noelle if regular humans could see it,
he'd told her 'no'.

“Only beings with Celestial blood.”

Julia thought how weird it was that she was one of them.
That she had wings sticking out of her back. They were temporary wings, Noelle
had said, but still; she had her own freakin' pair of wings. Meredith would
love that.

Thinking of Meredith brought back a flood of memories, and
Julia titled her head up, so she could see the flickering, spider-webby light
of the net. Was that
them
, she wondered? She, and Cayne, and Meredith?
Was some bit of their essence up there, keeping The Alpha out of Earth?

Julia's chest started feeling panic-attack tight, so from
that point on, she tried not to look at it as she flew. It was so vast, she
could see it in all directions unless she kept her head tipped toward the
ground.
   

As she watched her feet, her mind raced. She wondered why Lille
hadn't given them any updates. If he could speak into her mind, into Noelle's
mind, why hadn't he told them what they'd find in Bel Air?

Before they'd left, Noelle had told her the flight would
probably take less than twenty minutes, but for Julia it felt like an eternity.
When she thought she might go crazy from helplessness, she tucked her arms
around herself, and she played their plan out in her head, conjuring action
images like a sports commentator.

Cayne and Lille would have met up with Andre and his group
of Nephilim almost an hour ago, now. They were supposed to spend their first
thirty minutes together scouting The Adversary's mansion and identifying
targets. They would pick Demons off slowly, taking care not to reveal
themselves until Jacquie and Nathan's group, en route to Bel Air via bus,
arrived. That was
if
The Adversary
wasn't waiting for them.

Once the Swosen and Chosen and the rest of the Authorities
arrived, the fight would begin in earnest. Most would concentrate on handling
the Demons, and Lille would lead a group of Authorities against The Adversary
himself.

While The Adversary was weak and distracted, Cayne would
try to reopen the link and draw some of his power away. Assuming that worked,
when The Adversary was even weaker, and likely trying to find Cayne (who had
sworn up and down he could play hide and seek with the devil for hours), Julia
would strike with a surprise blow: probably the white light special.

She bit her cold lips, thinking about what would happen if
things didn't go as planned. The back-up plan was to severely wound Cayne and
see if his need to heal would open the link he still shared with The Adversary,
possibly making it easier for him to steal his father's energy, or at least
borrow it for long enough so Julia could take The Adversary out. Julia had
required a whole lot of convincing to accept the hurt-Cayne stipulation, and
only under the condition that she was there at the time, to heal him if needed.

If Cayne could drain some of The Adversary's energy, Lille
would send a message to Noelle, and Noelle would do something special
(something involving his Celestial gifts) to get Julia there RIGHT THEN. She
would begin her offensive when The Adversary was at his weakest, and everyone
else there would help.

What they hadn’t talked about, though, was the net. Previously,
Lille had assumed the devil needed more time and energy to work the net into a
position that would truly seal off Heaven from Earth. He hadn't been on Earth
for long, and that they knew of, he didn't have a source of ready energy, so
when they'd come up with their plan, they'd assumed nothing would be going on
with the net.

Not so.

Julia said a quick prayer for Cayne—
please, stay safe for me
—and tried to stop worrying about what was
to come. She looked below her dangling legs at the California landscape. Lots
of lights. Cars, snaking down Interstates and highways. Everything getting
brighter as they flew toward Bel Air. At least, she'd expected things to get
brighter: like driving down a deserted interstate at night and approaching a
city. But that wasn't how it was.

A few minutes later, the sparkling cityscape actually receded.
Noelle dropped back and nodded downward, at the ground, and Julia's stomach
dipped as she followed him to a lower altitude, just over the lush treetops.

Though they were flying over a scenic area, to her right
and left were swatches of city, and Julia wasn't surprised to see some
buildings burning. She used the sight to motivate herself. It was a known fact
that the west coast of the U.S. was lit up by forest fires, and she told
herself that kind of thing was only the beginning, if The Adversary managed to
stay on Earth indefinitely, with Heaven sealed off by the net.

A few minutes later, she and Noelle dropped down even
lower, just above the lush treetops, and Julia found herself staring at strange
clusters of lights punctuated by long stretches of darkness. Finally she
realized the clusters of lights were rooftops—the rooftops of huge, California
mansions.

Noelle led her closer to the trees, so close that Julia
felt sure their leaves and branches would scrape her as she passed; from her
new altitude, she could see a giant, spotlighted gate: curvy and iron,
Hollywood ornate.

All of a sudden Noelle, in front of her, stopped; Julia
bumped into his brown wings. She had to flap her own wings painfully hard to
keep herself from spiraling. Noelle grabbed her arm, and wings were whooshing
all around her as his dark eyes met hers. Inside her mind, he said,
“I'm
sorry, Julia. I just heard from Lille. This hasn't gone according to plan.”

“What do you mean?!”

He angled his body left and stretched out his arm, pointing
toward the iron gates—beyond them—where a long, lit-up driveway led to a white
mansion. The mansion was squarish, with half a dozen huge, round columns and a
wraparound, Southern-style porch and—

Oh, crap.

Julia put some effort into focusing her sight, and she
quickly saw the net was definitely sagging over The Adversary's farce of a
home. It hung low and slightly funnel-shaped on the bottom, like someone had grabbed
one of its rungs and jerked it close to the mansion. But that wasn't all that
got Julia's blood pumping. The scariest thing about the picture in front of her
was the swatch of night sky between the mansion and the net, which was teeming
with Nephilim and Demons. Mostly Demons. There were scores of them, possibly
even hundreds, swarming the sky, and they seemed to be creaming the small
number of Nephilim.

Julia watched with her mouth open as one of the demons used
a short, red sword to behead a gray-winged Nephilim. In an effort to avoid the
gory fallout, she shifted her eyes below them, to the vast, impeccably
manicured lawn.

From their vantage point a hundred feet in the air, it
might be possible to imagine the figures on the ground living it up, enjoying
some lavish, Hollywood party, but as Julia followed Noelle closer and lower, it
was easier to see that the scene was one of chaos.

She watched in abject horror as a man chased a woman with
an ax swung over his head; a teenage girl banged her bleeding face repeatedly
into a parked limousine, mouth moving as if in mid-scream; a herd of men doused
an expensive-looking sports car in gasoline, and a boy no older than ten or
twelve lit a match and threw it on the car, which exploded before any of them
thought to move away.

Julia turned to Noelle with a protest on her lips, and she
was stunned to find he wasn't beside her. Her heart leaped all the way into her
mouth when she saw him below her, descending to the far edge of the lawn.

Crap!

Julia could barely keep her wings flapping, she was so
worried about Cayne. She hadn't seen him yet, and she hadn't seen The Adversary
or Lille, either.
 
When she reached Noelle,
he was hanging in the air between two giant trees, and he seemed to be watching
several Demons overpower a lone Nephilim on the ground.

"Noelle?"

He turned to her and put his hands on her shoulders. Julia
opened her mental mouth to ask about Cayne, but Noelle beat her to the punch.

“I've spoken with Lille again. He wants us to wait here.”

Julia's stomach flipped.
“What?! I can't!”

For a badass Authority, Noelle had a terrible poker face.
His mouth twisted in an almost-grimace, and Julia thought she might throw up.

“Julia, Cayne and The Adversary are going one-on-one.
Somehow Cayne's been able to hold his own. But Lille is afraid The Adversary
will try to use you against him.”

Julia hovered there in the sky, her All-Stars almost
tangling in a tree's branches. It only took her a second before she made the
decision to bolt. She'd go back to Noelle later, she thought as she lunged
across the lawn. She'd only flapped her wings twice when Noelle caught her by
the arm, spinning her to face him, then jerking her back into the tree cover.
“What
are you doing? I told you, you must stay!”

“I want to see Cayne! I need to!”

Noelle hovered in
front of her.
“NO! Listen to me, Julia! Lille knows!”

She tugged out of
Noelle's grasp, her heart beating hard.
“I don't care what Lille knows! If
Cayne has The Adversary distracted, now is the perfect time for me to
attack!"

Noelle had Julia in a Celestial bear-hug in an instant, and
before she knew what hit her, her wings were gone. Her mind was overwhelmed by vertigo.
She screamed, sure he was going to drop her, but Noelle's voice was in her
head.
“Calm yourself, Julia. This is the role you play. You simply stay put!
We wait for Lille's signal. Going in too early would be—"

“LET ME GO!”

“You left me no choice.”

"LET ME GO RIGHT
NOW!"

As Julia struggled against Noelle, she watched the flames
that had enveloped the sports car spread across the front lawn, totally
enveloping a party tent. A thick plume of black smoke rose into the air as
people ran out of the flames screaming. Julia squinted, trying and failing to
recognize anyone in the panic. A line of demons formed a wedge and cut them
down. Some of the victims were Chosen—Julia tried not to look at their faces or
auras—but at least a few were Nephilim. Julia watched one fall; his aura turned
almost black as a group of Demons took a chainsaw to his wings.

Please, oh please let me see Cayne!

At that very second she caught a glimpse of molten silver,
zipping around the back side of the house , and there were charcoal wings!
Cayne flew over the edge of the front law, near the fancy gate; as Julia watched,
he sailed high into the sky, and she was feeling jubilant because he was alone:
no Adversary.

Then she saw huge, red wings round the corner behind him.
As Cayne was turned, surveying the lawn, the house, and the sky, The Adversary
twisted his body, thrust his legs out, and kicked Cayne hard in the back.

Cayne toppled forward, flipping three times before he
righted himself. Julia wanted to cheer as he zoomed toward The Adversary,
wielding what she assumed must be his blood dagger.

She couldn't tell if he made contact, because that very
second, hellfire exploded around him, and he dropped a few feet in an attempt
to dodge it. He made a quick loop up, slashing at The Adversary, maybe catching
him across his shoulder, but she couldn't tell. He got hit by fire, but it
didn't slow him. He zoomed strait up, the devil laughing with glee as he gave
chase.

Julia had seen Cayne fight Samyaza in the sky, but this was
nothing like that. She watched breathless as the two of them chased each other
all around the far side of the lawn.

Every time The Adversary got in a swing, a kick, a punch,
or a fireball, Julia tried to wrench free of Noelle's grasp.

"Keep
waiting,"
he would tell her.

As Cayne and his father soared over the roof, coming almost
level with Julia and Noelle, they were on each other like dogs in a dog fight,
and the fight was all fire.

It didn't take long watching from such a close distance to
see that The Adversary was striking most of the blows. He slammed Cayne in the
eye, and blood spurted out a gash just above his eyebrow.

“Oh God, why is he doing this?!”
Why would Cayne fight
him one-on-one? Where was Lille?!

The Adversary didn't appear to be weakened at all, and the
Authorities supposed to be wearing him down were too busy fighting Demons all
over the property. Julia, still clinging to Noelle, squeezed his arm.
“Where's
Lille? Why isn't he helping Cayne?”

“With the rest of the Authorities. If they Demons aren't
kept in check we'll all be overrun.”

“So no one is worried about The Adversary?!”

“Yes,”
Noelle said calmly.
“Cayne is.”

Cayne dodged another of The Adversary's fireballs, but he
wasn't able to avoid the stream of hellfire that burst against his back. Julia
gasped as he tumbled.

The Adversary was in pursuit, but at the last second, a pair
of beautiful, mahogany wings joined their piece of the sky. Lille! He pulled
back the string of his golden bow and sent a flaming arrow straight at The
Adversary's head.

Cayne regained his balance and gained some altitude as Lille's
arrow hit The Adversary's shoulder; moving faster than Julia thought he could,
Cayne rushed his father, stabbing him in the throat with his blood dagger.

She was surprised to see real, red blood spurt from The
Adversary's throat. He let out a mighty cry as he reached out and throttled
Cayne; the blow was so hard, it boomed; Cayne's wings folded, and he tumbled
several dozen yards toward the grounds.

As Julia shrieked, Lille swooped down to help him right his
course. They flew straight up, higher than before, where The Adversary waited.
Lille readied another arrow, and The Adversary reached behind him, like he was
going to pitch someone a softball, and lobbed the biggest burst of hellfire Julia
had ever seen. It soared through the air toward Cayne's head, and Julia screamed
as it exploded in Cayne's face.