The Unforgiven (35 page)

Rain pelted through the shattered window above Cade’s head. Wind roared, sirens wailed. A slow, rhythmic pounding began on the cathedral’s shattered entrance. Stupid humans. They should be running for their lives.

Azazel took no notice. His eyes swept Cade. “It would be amusing to keep you. Your magic is strong enough to be useful. And your blood”—he licked his lips—“would be most welcome. But you dared touch my daughter. You defiled her body and sought to enslave her. No doubt it would distress her to have you near. No, it would be impossible to keep you. You must die.”

“You’ll slaughter me as I lie defenseless rather than face me in battle?” Cade spat out a laugh. His only hope lay in stirring Azazel’s pride. It was not in any Watcher’s nature to back down when facing a challenge from a rival of lesser power. “Five thousand years of bondage must have shriveled your cock.”

Azazel’s eyes blazed. The next instant, Cade found himself on his feet. He flexed his arms and tested his mind. Both were clear and unencumbered. A wave of elation rushed through him.

“As you wish, son of Samyaza,” Azazel snarled. “We will fight. To your death.”

A strangled sound emerged from Maddie’s throat. “No!”

“Silence, woman!” Azazel roared. “You will not interfere.”

He flung Maddie to the ground. A dark half-sphere of magic sprang up around her. She jumped to her feet and pounded the wall to no avail. Her mouth was open and screaming, but no sound emerged. Even her voice was trapped inside Azazel’s dark protection.

Cade sprang into action before Azazel had fully turned to the battle; he flung the hilt of his ruined dagger at the demon’s head. Azazel, surprised, staggered back. His tail whipped forward and fixed his balance.

Crimson fire exploded the floor under Cade’s feet. He jumped back and brushed his palm down his arm, sweeping the Celtic knot tattoo into his hand. The twisted strands gleamed with Druid magic.

Growling, Azazel beat his wings. His body lifted. Cade melted into Nephilim form and rose with him.

Cade dodged as red fire spat from Azazel’s fingers. Masonry exploded behind him. Shifting his wings, he dived low, watching for the best moment to throw his snare. He didn’t fool himself that he could defeat Azazel, but this net had driven an archangel into the sea. If Cade could immobilize his enemy long enough to snatch up Maddie and escape—

Azazel hurtled through the air. Cade rolled, flinging the net behind him, and his aim was true. The snare struck its mark. Instantly, the magical strands wrapped around Azazel’s limbs and tangled his wings.

Cade wasn’t quick enough, however, to avoid retribution. His enemy angled his plummeting body, and Cade and the creature collided. The monster’s weight slammed him into the ground, and he heard and felt a sickening crack. Pain electrified his left wing, and Cade cried out, gasping. His shoulder blade felt as though it had been ripped from its supporting muscles.

He stumbled to his feet and lurched toward where Maddie stood trapped, palms flat on the dark sphere of Azazel’s magic.
He had to reach her, had to get her away somehow before their foe broke free.

Pain bludgeoned him to his knees. Roaring, Azazel rose almost to the cathedral ceiling. Dark lights flashed on the arching stone, and the Druid magic binding his wings exploded. The last of Cade’s hope drained away. He’d failed. In moments he’d be dead.

“Maddie.” He stumbled toward the sphere of protection and imprisonment, yelling her name, though he wasn’t at all sure she could hear him. He placed his hands upon the surface, over hers. The magic that separated them burned his palms. “I’m sorry,” he said.

The last shreds of Cade’s tattoo net fluttered to the ground. Azazel hovered above, black wings beating the air. A searing wind rushed through the cathedral and flames ignited everywhere.

Cade turned to face his enemy. His last thought was of Maddie, who would live on as Azazel’s slave. It was a final moment tainted with bitter shame.

Power gathered in Azazel’s demonic claw. Laughing, he took aim.

“
No!
”

A blue streak blazed past Cade. Maddie’s fire bolt struck Azazel in the chest, driving him back. Cade spun. Maddie was on her feet, flames spurting from her palm. Azazel’s protection had shattered, and it lay in dark shards at her feet. Cade’s warrior lover surged in attack. Cade’s chest tightened; her fury filled him with awe. After what he’d planned to do to her, here she was, battling in his defense.

“Get away!” the beast roared.

“You will not kill him,” she shouted. Blue fire blazed.

“You will not interfere!” Azazel roared in reply.

“I will!” Maddie yelled. She sprinted to Cade’s side. “We stand together.”

An indigo fire bolt erupted from her hands. It met a matching torrent of Azazel’s power, and the two streams of energy collided and exploded. Maddie careened backward, while Azazel, dark and angry, rose.

The ancient demon let out a hideous screech. “Enough! You wish to die with your Samyaza lover? So be it. No longer will I call you Daughter.” A ball of red flame appeared between his clawed hands. Snarling, Azazel raised it above his head.

Cade grabbed Maddie around the waist. “I love you,” he said again, and he braced himself for the killing blow.

It never came. An impact caused the building to tremble. The remaining remnants of the cathedral doors exploded inward. Azazel was caught in a tornadic roar; his body slammed up and into the ceiling. His fireball went wide, crashing into a supporting column of the church. The stonework began to crumble.

The entire cathedral shook. The fissure that had previously stalled above the front portal streaked suddenly skyward. The great rose window shattered completely; colored glass spewed down like hail. Cade crouched over Maddie, shielding her.

And then, amid the chaos and destruction, a celestial chime sounded and a glorious golden light filled the gap where the window had been. Cade, looking up, raised his arm against the brilliance—and saw a winged celestial warrior brandishing a fiery sword. Raphael.

Holy shit.

Never in all his life had Cade been so happy to see an angel.

“You!”

Raphael’s booming voice reverberated through the cavernous space. “You, Watcher. Azazel. You dare to escape your bondage?”

Azazel hovered just below the vaulted ceiling. Blood dripped from gashes the exploded window had scored across his chest. He brandished the Seed of Life and snarled, “I dare that and more, coward.”

“Come on,” Cade said under his breath to Maddie. “We’re not sticking around for this fight. That way.”

They scrabbled across the ruined floor. Cade winced as his injured wing snagged on a pile of shattered masonry.

Raphael gave no notice to the fleeing Nephilim. He flew toward his adversary, his golden wings vibrant. “Your magic is flawed, Azazel. Do you imagine your evil will stand against my righteousness? It will not.”

Azazel took up a position before the high altar. “It has. And it will again.”

“Long ago,” Raphael raged. “I was a fool. I showed you mercy. I let you live.”

Laughter rang through the cavernous space. “Let me live? You? What farce. You had no choice! You could not kill me. The Seed of Life is mine. I am immortal.”

Raphael’s fiery sword rose above his head. “Immortal life will mean nothing once I return you to your prison. This time, you will not escape.”

“I invite you to try, angel. You will fail.”

Blue fire crackled in Azazel’s hands. A burning plume arced through the air, but Raphael caught it on the flat of his sword. The magic dissipated in a shower of sparks.

Snarling, Azazel flew at his adversary. Raphael moved with equal swiftness, and fire and sword clashed. The air sizzled with both holy righteousness and unholy fury.

The great cathedral shook. A chunk of masonry plummeted from overhead. Cade yanked Maddie into the shelter of a massive column, and the falling stone exploded in the space they’d just occupied. A fragment struck his injured shoulder, and pain rang in his ears. He fought the blackness at the edges of his vision.

“Cade! Oh, God, are you all right?”

“I’m fine.” But it was a lie if he’d ever told one. An entire quadrant of his body was on fire. His stomach was heaving, and the fight to maintain consciousness was a losing proposition.

“We’ve got to . . . get out,” he gasped. “Whoever wins this fight . . . will be coming after us.”

Maddie bit her lip and nodded. They moved farther into the shelter of the side gallery before she asked, “Which way?” All paths were blocked by rubble.

“Not out the front. There’ll be a crowd.”

“That window, then.”

A ruined opening gaped above. Rain blew through, falling in sparkling drops on shattered bits of colored glass. The stone sill was several feet above their heads.

Shifting to Nephilim form, Maddie spread her wings and leaped easily over the destruction and through the breach. Cade, trailing his broken wing, followed more slowly. Heaving himself over the damaged wall, he dropped some twenty feet down on the other side.

He landed painfully. Several moments passed during which he could do nothing but gasp and battle for consciousness.
The shock of the cold rain, despite the partial shelter of a wide buttress, was all that kept him from passing out.

A fire bolt splintered the stone above their heads and Maddie gripped his arm. “One more hit like that and this wall’s coming down.”

Cade lifted his head. The twisted remnants of a wrought-iron fence separated them from a narrow street. Humans ran in either direction, shouting. Luckily, no one looked in their direction.

“Change,” he choked out.

“What?”

“We have to change back. The locals aren’t . . . aren’t going to be friendly if they see us like this.”

She’d forgotten they were in Nephilim form; the expression in her eyes told him so. “You’re right, of course.” She reached out and touched his broken wing. “
Can
you change? I mean, when you’re injured like this?”

“Yes.”

With a long exhale, he let his demon body seep away. Maddie did the same. In human form, his arm hung limply from a shattered shoulder blade.

Maddie circled behind him. “Oh, Cade. It looks like someone took a pickax to your back.”

“It’ll heal,” he said shortly. Though he wasn’t so sure it would. His back felt as though it had been flayed with an iron tipped whip. He might not even remain conscious long enough to see Maddie to safety. The world at the edges of his vision was starting to disintegrate.

He leaned heavily on Maddie’s shoulder as they stumbled in an uneven path through the ruined fence onto the narrow street. Turning left, they headed through the pouring rain toward a swatch of green parkland tucked behind the apse of the cathedral. But if they’d thought to avoid crowds, they soon
discovered that impossible. A frightened mass of humanity huddled under the trees.

Maddie and Cade joined them. Sobs mingled with shouts, curses with prayers. Not one of the humans offered help to the wounded man who stumbled into their midst, or even seemed to notice his partially naked companion. Every eye was fixed on the shattered bank of windows that had once defined a great church.

A crashing explosion shook the ground. A nearby woman wailed. Blue and white—a firestorm of color—exploded through the roof of the cathedral and shot into the sky. The force of that blast threw Cade to the ground. Maddie landed heavily atop him. He fought to stay conscious as debris rained all around. Humans cowered or fled screaming.

Cade hunched over Maddie, shielding her from the worst of the fallout, taking the blows on his already mangled back. He gasped in pain as Raphael and Azazel spun into the clouds. Cade braced himself for their descent, but angel and demon, locked in combat, just streaked across the sky and disappeared.

The ringtone trilled, sharp and tinny. Lucas pressed his now fully charged phone to his ear and steeled himself for the sound of his sister’s voice.

“Luc? Is that you?”

“Hello, Cybele.”

A beat of stunned silence. Then, “Luc! Thank the stars! You’re alive. Are you all right?”

“Yes, I’m fine, Cyb.”

“Where . . . where are you? Where the hell have you been all this time?”

“Montana.”

It was an answer she clearly didn’t expect.

“Montana,” she repeated, as though it were a foreign word. “Why? What’s in Montana?”

Hope,
he wanted to say. He settled for: “I had some business there.”

“Business that made it impossible to pick up a phone?” she demanded.

“Yes, actually.”

“What could that have been?”

He hesitated. “I’d rather not say.”

“Artur won’t accept that for an answer.”

Luc was very well aware that was true. “You will, though. For now, anyway,” he added wryly.

Her voice carried a faint tone of amusement. “If that’s all you’ll give me. But . . . Luc . . . We need you here.” She paused,
all humor gone now. He could almost see her biting her lower lip and fighting tears. His gut clenched.

“
I
need you here, Luc. Please tell me you’ll come to London.”

“You’re in London?” he asked, surprised. “Not Glastonbury?”

“No.” Her tone was strained. “Not Glastonbury. Luc, there’s been . . . Something’s happened. Something terrible. We tried to reach you, but . . .”

The quavering catch to his sister’s voice made his blood run cold. “Cybele. What is it?”

“Oh, Luc . . .”

As she relayed the tale of the massacre, Luc’s blood ran cold and colder until ice seemed to fill his limbs. While he’d been self-absorbed in the wilds of Montana, pondering redemption, communicating with spirits he had no right to summon, his clan had been fighting the opening battle in a deadly war.

A war that, despite Luc’s newfound hope, was also his own.

Cade was dying.

Maddie didn’t want to admit it, but she knew it was true. Huddled in a toolshed tucked in the back corner of a neat vegetable garden, she fought the urge to break down and cry. How could it have come to this? It seemed impossible that she and Cade had survived distrust, dark magic, kidnapping, her transition and his enslavement, and various battles with a vengeful archangel and a resurrected Watcher demon only to face Oblivion in a muddy shack amid hoes, rakes, and watering cans.