“Bringing her back would mean killing everything else,” I said. “Is there any part of you that believes that your mother would have wanted that, when she wouldn’t even accept the sacrifice of a single demon?”

  She was silent for only a moment. “No. You’re right. I’m being stupid.”

  “You’re not stupid, but be careful reading too much into what you see. For all we know, the Beast or Gervais are planting those visions in your head somehow.” I didn’t really believe that. Father Tom had said all true crossbreeds were destined to go insane. I had been inside Sarah’s head. I understood why.

  She broke the connection, and then walked over to me and put her arms around me. “I love you,” she said.

  “I love you too,” I replied. “I know you won’t let anything happen to us, and I know you’ll make your mother proud.”

  We returned to the group. There still wasn’t too much communication between them, but what did I expect? For the most part, they weren’t friends. They were allies, rallying around me for their own sake as much as everyone else’s.

  I took center stage, and coughed to get their attention. “If you’ve seen one of those cheesy speeches from the end of one of those movies where the fate of the world is on the line… yeah, that.” I smiled and put my hand into the center of our jagged circle. Obi was next, followed by Charis, Melody, Sarah, Adam, and Izak.

  “I’m not a fighter,” Alichino said. “I’ll stay here and wait for you to come back for me.”

  “You’re coming,” I said to him, looking at our group. We had two mortals, two Divine diuscrucis and two angels. We needed a second demon. It was a better balance. “Even if Sarah has to make you do it.”

  Alichino frowned, and hopped forward to put his hand in.

  “One… two… three…”

  We shouted as one, all of our different histories, different goals, different motivations, and different allegiances for a moment forgotten.

  “Break!”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  It could have been Hell on Earth, but I didn’t think even Hell was that bad. We came out of the other side of the rift into a war zone unlike anything that could be described, or make any kind of sense. There was no logic to it, only destruction.

  The rift had once been below the High Court of Bombay, a judicial house that saw many of the legal cases in the city. The High Court had been decimated around it, the rift left intact in order to give us passage through. The hundred demons I had borrowed were nearly all gone in the four seconds it took to enter the maelstrom, ripped apart by a pair of wraiths that were circling the rift, a crowd of thousands behind them.

  It was early evening. The sky was dark, with heavy clouds blocking out the sunlight, although no rain was falling. The ground held a sheen of sweat from earlier precipitation, and the heat of the fires burning throughout the city was enough to add a few degrees to the ambient temperature. There were possessed and undead as far as I could see, and plenty more people who were no longer moving under any circumstances. They hung from windows, dangled from cars, and lay broken in the streets. There was smoke everywhere, the sound of alarms, screaming, crying, pain, and suffering.

  It nearly took my breath away. It nearly broke me before I could act, ripping the bracelet from my arm and pulling in the power I needed with a ferocity I couldn’t remember having felt before. I leveled the blessed sword in front of me, and rocketed towards one of the wraiths. Black tentacles reached for me, contorting and shifting to pointed edges and heavy balls that aimed to crush my body. The ground below me cracked and tore into dozens of cement shields, rising up to block the creatures efforts, and I brought the blade down with a cold satisfaction.

  I turned towards the second wraith, and was blinded by the beam of light that shot up into the sky, courtesy of a small etched disc Adam had placed on the ground. Before the wraith could move in on any of us, Fredeline fell from the sky, tearing into it with the Deliverer. Fifty angels fell into the surrounds, crashing up against the evil creatures the Beast had made the mortals into.

  “It’s about time you arrived,” they said, a hundred thousand voices all rising at once in his voice. It was a wave of sound that crashed over us, threatening our sanity and will. “You seem to be a little outnumbered.” He laughed, and they laughed. “Did you bring the Box?”

  I stepped right up to one of the possessed. “Why don’t you tell me where you are, so we can make this quick?” I asked.

  Thousands of heads shook at once. “What would be the fun in that. I told you I would win.” A hand grabbed for me. I brought the sword up and around.

  “Landon, where do we go?” Sarah was standing in the center of our group, and we circled up around her and began wading into the masses. They tried to push past, to grab, to strike. Izak brought up a wall of hellfire around us, incinerating the slow and knocking the rest back. As soon as the flames subsided, they charged in again.

  “Dante is going to send us a signal,” I said. I knew it couldn’t be too far from where we came in. He would want to grab her, and take her back to his prison before we could even think about stopping him.

  I heard wings then, and a mass of devils and fallen angels dropped over the throng, landing right in front of Sarah and reaching for her.

  “No,” she shouted. Her Command went out like a shockwave, and the ambushers froze in their steps. “Kill them.” She pointed past us. Most of the demons complied. The ones that fought off the order fell before they could recover their momentum.

  I swung the sword, focusing my strength on my body, enhancing my sword arm to make clean cuts, and my other hand to throw solid punches. I tried to ignore the faces of the people I was killing, their human eyes and heads and clothes. I tried to see them only as they were, shells for use by an angry being. I tried to keep us from being swallowed in it.

  Was it even possible? With each passing second, it felt less and less so. There were almost seventy of us now, between the angels and the controlled demons and our initial group, yet it was barely enough to keep the circle intact, and to keep them from reaching Sarah. Nobody was tired yet. Nobody had fallen.

  Then came the signal, Dante’s signal. I had no idea what it was going to be, but he didn’t disappoint. All I had to do was look up, and see the change in the formation of the clouds above us. With one look, it was dark and threatening. With another, I could see the reddish orange of the setting sun against much higher clouds, and all of the dark nimbuses had pulled together, creating a series of arrows that all pointed to a ring shaped formation that from my vantage looked to be a mile or so away.

  I felt something else when it happened, something I couldn’t describe. As if I could sense that the universe had just been stretched beyond repair. Whether it was a minor pucker, or a complete tear, I couldn’t know.

  “There,” I shouted, my sword reaching through another neck, my foot lashing out and throwing back a dozen undead from my left. I had lost Josette, but a lot of her skill had stayed, learned subconsciously through repetition.

  “That’s not close,” Obi said. He had his knife in hand, and he was doing good business with it, but I could see he was getting bruised and bloodied by the sheer number of flying arms and legs.

  I heard a scream, and shifted my attention backward. One of the angels had been lost beneath a sea of humanity. A second later, and another vanished.

  “This thing has no power against them,” Fredeline shouted, the Deliverer nothing more than a sharp piece of metal when demons weren’t involved. She was a good fighter, but she didn’t have the power to overcome them. She could Calm them, but they would be replaced faster than she could talk.

  “Dante?” the Beast asked. “You sent Dante? You thought he could stop me?”

  They started laughing again. All of them. An insane thunderclap of mirth that would have drove the courage from anyone. We were losing. We were going to lose.

  A great howl pierced the din, rising above the laughter of thousands. It was followed by a dozen more, than even more. The laughter stopped. I looked back, and I could see the bodies flying away from a dark mass, thrown aside like matchsticks. A gout of flame rose up in front of us, searing the bodies in our path before subsiding. It was hellfire, but it was nearly blue from the intensity.

  “Cavalry’s here,” Alichino said. He was hunched behind Charis, doing his best to stay alive, bringing his claws down on the foot of an enemy when he could so it safely.

  The Great Were’s massive shape landed next to me, a single slash sending a dozen bodies away from us. Ulnyx turned his sharp maw towards me and grinned. “I thought I was going to miss the good part,” he said.

  “How many did you bring?” I asked.

  “All of them that were fit to die. Three hundred.”

  Another blast of hellfire removed another ten feet of flesh from our path. We moved forward to fill it as fast as we could. Another angel died, and two of Sarah’s controlled demons. The reinforcements had helped us double our distance in a matter of seconds, but I still wasn’t sure it was enough.

  “Great Were,” the Beast said through his multitude of mouthpieces. “I can offer you anything. Don’t waste your time on the wrong side of this fight. Grab the girl and bring her to me.”

  Ulnyx looked at me, and then back at Sarah.

  “Can you bring back the dead when their bodies and souls are lost?” he asked.

  “I can,” he replied. A lie.

  The Were was unimpressed. “I’ll think about it. Killing you is too much fun right now.” He smashed another pile aside.

  We moved forward another two blocks before the Beast upped the ante. Sitting in the road in front of us was a huge stack of crushed cars, melted together with a blast of hellfire. The wall ran across from one building to the next, completely choking our ingress. We cut a channel through the undead and possessed, and then came face to face with the barrier.

  “Now what?” Obi asked. He was out of breath, and his arms and hands were covered in bleeding cuts. Pieces of flesh were torn from him, and his clothes were tattered. Melody didn’t look much better standing next to him, covered in blood, though her body was healing underneath.

  I focused, reaching out the the metal, forcing it to corrode. It started to happen, but there was just so much, and a new distraction made itself known.

  “Sarah.” The voice echoed through the streets. A familiar voice. I looked up to the top of the wall, where Gervais was standing, staring directly at his offspring.

  It was as if everything else paused while the parent and child had their moment. They locked eyes, and I stared at Sarah, waiting to see how she would react to him once more.

  “Kill him,” she Commanded the two fallen angels that remained of those she had taken. They flew up at the demon, but all it took was a touch from him to make them fall to ash and ruin.

  “Now that is no way to treat your father,” he said. He gathered himself and jumped, falling towards us. He never made it.

  Izak’s own leap brought him slamming into Gervais, and the two of them knocked back against the wall of cars. Gervais tried to put his hand to the demon’s head, but he held it off with his good hand, while the broken remains of the other lit up with hellfire, pressed against the archfiend’s chest. He might not bleed, but fire could still incinerate him. He shoved Izak away, and jumped back up the wall.

  “We need to go around,” I said, finding the door to the building on the right. It was a hotel or something, with a revolving glass door that had been shattered to pieces, and a formerly glitzy inner that was shredded and mangled. We changed direction, still moving the mass of humans aside.

  “Don’t you think I wanted you to go in the building, kid?” the Beast taunted. “Why don’t you just give her over now, and save us all the trouble. It will hurt less for you.”

  I didn’t answer. I used my fists, feet, and sword to punch through the mob.

  “Melody!” Obi’s shout broke that focus, and I glanced over to see the angel on the ground, a vampire hunched over her, a cursed blade in her gut. He kicked the vampire off. “Holy water!”

  “There isn’t any,” Adam said. “We used it all.”

  He broke free of the fight and knelt next to her. More demons began appearing amidst the mortals, sneaking along with them and launching themselves at us. Obi had a pair of fangs in his neck before he brought the knife up and into his assailant, and he cursed and yelled. Melody lay at his feet.

  “Damn you all,” he roared. He threw the corpse of the vampire into the crowd, knocking a few more back. I smelled a sour odor, like bad citrus, and then the vampire was up at and him again. When Obi stabbed him, there was no blood.

  “Ulnyx, help him,” I said. The Were broke from my side and hopped over, grabbing the vampire and ripping him in half, throwing the pieces away. I covered his spot, focusing harder to keep them at bay.

  “Melody,” Obi said. He joined Adam kneeling with her.

  “We have to move,” I told them.

  “Landon, she’s dying,” he said.

  “We have to move, or we’re all going to die.”

  He knelt and lifted her, throwing her over his shoulder. As he did, Izak crashed into the ground in front of Sarah, his back breaking under the force. Gervais landed on top of him.

  “Hello, my love,” he said to her. She punched him in the face.

  It didn’t do any damage. He started to laugh, but then a streak of heat blasted into his side and threw him away. Vilya.

  “Get inside,” I shouted. “Get inside.”

  Izak healed, and regained his feet. We started moving again. Two more angels fell, and then a few of the weres. From what I could see, the nearly four hundred plus we had started with had been reduced to less than fifty. We were only a quarter of the way there.

  “It still isn’t enough,” I said to nobody.

  “No, it isn’t,” the Beast replied in a thousand voices. “It never was. Just give it up, and let me take her. I’ll tell you what. You hand her over now, and I’ll kill you quickly. Maybe.”

  I saw Gervais just in time.

  He was headed for Sarah again, at a full run, trying to grab her and get away like a thief. I was out of physical range, but there was more than enough detritus lying around. I focused, pulling up a heavy block of concrete and smashing it into his head. He tumbled away, his head partially caved in, but he didn’t stay down. He grabbed Fredeline, and destroyed her., turning her to ash with a touch.

  “No,” Adam shouted. He threw himself at the archfiend, almost getting his sword down before Gervais knocked him to the ground. He would have killed him too, but Izak got back into the fight, scalding him with a well-placed ball of hellfire. The angel picked up the fallen Deliverer, taking up her place in the circle.

  I smelled the bad citrus again, and looked to where Fredeline’s outline of ash lay on the street. A moment later, Obi screamed.

  It was Melody. She had died while he carried her, and the Beast had taken her body. She had planted her sword into his back, and it stuck out the front of him. He hefted her up in his strong arms and threw her away, then dropped to his knees.

  “Get it out,” he shouted. Sarah came up behind him and took the sword, pulling it from his body while he cried out in pain. Blood poured from the wound, but he got back to his feet, fueled by his anger.

  We reached the doorway, and stumbled inside. Izak had vanished, lost in the scrum with Gervais, and we had only a small collection of weres and seraph remaining. The hotel had already been used up, and so it stood empty. As soon as we were all inside, I focused, bringing up every bit of junk that I could find to seal the windows and the doors, to keep the crowd outside from getting in.

  “Ulnyx, Adam, make sure the entrances are covered. We need to regroup.”

  The Great Were growled orders to his pack, and Adam directed the remaining angels. I rushed over to Obi, who fell to the ground on his side, gasping for air.

  “I’m sorry, man,” he said to me. “I wanted to do this.”

  “Shut up,” I said. “You aren’t dead yet.” I put my hand on his wound. He pushed it away.

  “No way. You’re too weak.”

  “I’m not going to let you die,” I said.

  “I’m not going to let you save me,” he replied.

  I could feel the tears rising to my eyes.

  “Don’t cry for me, man. I’m going to be in Purgatory, waiting for your sorry ass.”

  No. He was going to be taken by the Beast. Unless we burned him. I looked for Vilya, who was sitting on the ground, exhausted. Where was Charis?

  “You aren’t dying yet, Obi,” she said, coming up to us from the other side. She looked like crap, but she was still alive. She knelt down, and took my hand, putting it back on his wound with hers. “It will be easier if we both do it.”

  I smiled at her, and then focused. I felt her energy joining mine, and our hands grew warm together. Obi coughed, but the color started returning to his face.

  “I lost Mel,” he said, once he had healed. There were tears in his eyes.

  I didn’t know what to say. I just nodded.

  “Come out, come out, wherever you are.” An avalanche of sound blasted the hotel, shaking its foundation. My barrier vibrated from the pounding of thousands of fists.

  I looked around the room. Adam, Ulnyx, Vilya, Charis, Alichino, Sarah, and I; plus a few dozen other weres and seraph, against one million or more.

  We had lost.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  I closed my eyes, and tried to figure out how we had gotten to this place, this moment. I had only been dead for five years. I had been a champion for man for a blip in time, such a tiny fraction compared to Josette, or Charis. I had failed, and miserably. It sucked.

  I kept my hold on Charis’ hand, leading her to where the others sat, trying to regain some strength. I could hear fighting in the background, the back door, the loading dock, wherever there was another way in. It was a tight fit though, and the bodies would pile up and make it harder for more than one or two at a time to get through. A Divine could handle two at a time with ease.