She used her palm to open a huge iron door at the end of the hall, and we had to wait upwards of a minute for the machinery behind it to get it open. She stared at me the whole time.

  “Can I help you with something else, Miss…?” I realized I hadn’t gotten her name.

  “Smith,” she replied, with a wink and a smile. “To be honest, I was just admiring your physique.”

  I didn’t know what to say. I wasn’t glamoured, because they’ d probably have seen right through it anyway. That meant it was just me, which in my opinion wasn’t really that impressive. Thin build, a little bit of muscle, but a Hollywood idol I was not.

  “Did I embarrass you?” she asked. “I promise I can make it up to you later, once your business with father is concluded.”

  The door finished its slide up into the ceiling, and she led me ahead, into a red carpeted hallway. Hanging from the walls on either side were display cases of thick, bulletproof glass. Inside of them were a whole mess of things. Arrowheads, daggers, chalices, clothes. It seemed they’d put the demonic stuff on one side, and the angelic stuff on the other.

  “You don’t look like you need any more of this stuff,” I said, trying to get off the last topic. I have to admit, her giggle was really cute.

  “We can never have enough, until we have it all,” she replied. We reached the end of this corridor, stopping at a pair of heavily runed wooden doors. She used her palm one more time, and the doors swung inward.

  It was like an underground palace. Glossy marble floors, a high ceiling with a fake skylight at top, and two decks of hallway connected by twin staircases. It reminded me of Rebecca’s father’s penthouse, except much, much grander. In the center of the room, glinting in the fake sunlight that was focused on it, was the hilt and last six inches of the blade of a sword. The rest of it was jammed into a large, smooth stone. I couldn’t help but stare.

  “Do you like it?” She asked me.

  “It’s incredible,” I replied. “It reminds me of King Arthur’s sword. Excalibur?”

  She giggled again. “I have to go get father. Please wait here.” She headed off to a door on the east side of the room.

  “Just take it,” Ulnyx said. “You can get out of here before she gets back.”

  “Don’t be foolish, Were,” Josette replied. “There is nothing natural about the light that’s shining down on it. It’s probably an alarm.”

  “I was thinking the same thing,” I said. Still, I wasn’t sure I would have much choice. I wasn’t about to let the bracelet go, even on the off chance they would be willing to trade for it.

  “Oh, what would that be?”

  I hadn’t meant to say it out loud. I turned east to where Ms. Smith was standing with an older man. He was a military type, with a white flat-top, a grizzled face, and a tough expression. He also looked like he could whip me six ways to Sunday.

  “I’ve never seen anything like it.” I walked over to him and held out my hand. He ignored it, his eyes going right to the bracelet.

  “I’ve never seen anything like that,” he said. His voice had a weird, constant hoarseness to it. Like he spent ninety percent of his time yelling. “Where’d you come across something like that?”

  I didn’t answer right away. I was still considering my options, and realizing I didn’t have any. I took a deep breath, reached up, and took off the sunglasses. “An archangel gave it to me,” I said, dropping my disguise and letting them See me if they could.

  “Divver,” Ms. Smith cried. Before I could blink, she had a dagger in her hand, and was crouching down, ready for a fight. Her father hadn’t moved.

  Divver? That was a new one.

  “Interesting,” he said, looking me over. “I’ve heard about you. I didn’t think you’d be making an appearance though. It’s Landon, right?”

  I wasn’t that surprised he knew who I was. You couldn’t collect so many Divine artifacts without being pretty up on our day to day. “That’s right,” I said. “And you are?”

  “Joe,” he replied. “Father Joe to my family.” His daughter was still crouched, ready to fight. He looked over at her. “I’ll tell you what, Landon. You beat my girl in hand to hand, I won’t call in the rest of the troops and I’ll listen to whatever it is you came to say. I figure if you were here to fight, you would’ve gotten to it already.”

  It was more reasonable than I’d expected, based on what Max had told me. “F-“

  Before I could finish speaking, she had launched herself at me with a speed that should have been impossible for a mortal. I got my hands up in time, crossing them over to block her downward strike with my forearms, then pushed back against her to break us up.

  “Not bad,” she said with a smile. She turned the knife over in her hand, putting it against her arm, and came again.

  I had enough time to focus now, and I slipped away from her attacks without too much difficulty, twisting and turning away from one slash after another, then a kick and a leg sweep. They wanted to test me, so I decided to test her.

  “More than not bad,” she said, her breathing a little heavier. “Do you do other things as well as you fight?”

  I could only imagine what she meant. I felt a little rush of blood headed upwards. “You’ll never know,” I replied.

  “Don’t count me out so quickly.” She came at me again, faster than before. I don’t know how she did it, but even pulling on my power it was tough to keep ahead. It was time to stop fooling around. I went on a short offensive, returning her strikes with some of my own. I got one through to her chest, and with my enhanced strength and speed I thought it would be over, but she didn’t even bat an eyelash.

  I hesitated for just a second, trying to figure out why she hadn’t gone flying away. Something on her had to be shutting me down. She took advantage of my confusion, bringing the dagger up and across my face, digging it deep into my cheek. I grunted and took a few steps back, ready to defend against her next blow.

  It didn’t come. She stood there, shocked that she had cut me? I glanced over at Joe. He had a curious expression. Then I realized they were waiting for me to die. The blade was enchanted after all. I hadn’t gotten a good look at whether it was Cursed or Blessed. Either way, the wound healed.

  “So it’s true,” Joe said. “Divine weapons can’t hurt you.”

  “No, they can hurt me,” I said. “They just can’t kill me. Not unless you take my head off.”

  I shouldn’t have said that. She crouched down and charged towards me again, somehow dialing her speed up another notch.

  I moved away, looking for something to use as a weapon. My back smacked into the stone in the center of the room. Why not?

  The light burned my hand as I reached in and grabbed the sword’s hilt, pulling it out of the rock in one smooth motion. I shifted it to my other hand just in time to start deflecting dagger strikes, the burning causing more pain than I thought it should have. I could only imagine how Izak felt.

  Ms. Smith sped up, I sped up. We both moved faster and faster, the two blades smacking against each other in an impossibly quick rhythm. Block, parry, dodge, strike. On and on it went, twirling around the room like some kind of sharp waltz. It was a work of art, I knew. A composition even Mozart would have been proud of.

  Then it was over. I caught the dagger between the blade and the guard and twisted, pulling it from her hands and sending it tumbling away. She tried to go after it, but I managed to put the edge against her neck and stop her cold.

  “I win,” I said.

  She looked at me and smiled. She had a hunger in her eyes. A hunger I’d seen before, in someone else. It made me uncomfortable.

  Joe’s clapping got my attention.

  “Bravo,” he said. “My dear, I’m amazed by how much you’ve improved.” He looked at me. “And you. You’re a virtuoso.”

  It wasn’t really me. It was Josette’s connection that guided me in the fight, but he didn’t need to know about that.

  “So. What can I do for you, Landon?”

  Chapter 21

  The blue door rolled open, exposing me once more to the outside air. It was much later than when I had gone in; too much later for my taste, but the fact that I was going out with the Deliverer in hand had made it worthwhile.

  It had taken a long chat with Joe to convince him of my need to borrow the weapon. In the end, he had been wise in recognizing that the Beast was a threat to all of our ideals, not just those of the Divine. It didn’t hurt that the Nicht Creidim had a credo that fell pretty close to my own goals. They believed the end of the world was unavoidable, and they wanted to be sure to have the best chance of defending the remainder of humanity from the coming Divine hordes.

  I wish that could have meant they would agree to more of an alliance than a loan, but their goal was to survive the Apocalypse and get rid of the Divine once and for all, not prevent it and keep living in the current state of stalemate. From my position I could see where they were coming from, even if it meant that in the end, if I were the last ‘Divver’ left standing, they would be out for my blood too.

  “Good luck, Landon,” Elyse said, putting her arms around me and leaning up. I tried to turn my head to let her kiss my cheek, but her other hand came up and held it. Her lips found mine, sending me off with soft, warm passion. “I hope to see you again.”

  I didn’t kiss her back, but she didn’t seem to notice, or care. “You will,” I said, holding up the sword. “I promised I would give this back to you.”

  That was the one hitch in my successful retrieval of the weapon. I’d sworn to Joe I would return it once the Beast was defeated. I swore on an ancient copy of the Bible, and I’d felt the inner chains that made the promise binding. I didn’t know what would happen to me if I reneged, but I had a feeling it wouldn’t be pleasant. Somehow, I had to convince Adam, Kassie, and the rest of their crew that it had been necessary, and they’d have to pay Joe a visit on their own if they wanted the Canaan Blade back. The good news was it only mattered if we succeeded.

  I gave Elyse one last wave, and the door rolled closed. I stood out on the empty street for a minute and took a deep breath, and then headed back to the car.

  “You should’ve taken her up on her offer,” Ulnyx said. “A body like that.”

  Her body had been the work of a higher power. I was surprised they had shown none of the physical signs I associated with the inbreeding Max had claimed.

  “Shut up,” I replied.

  “There was something about her,” Josette added. “Not her looks, Were, before you comment. It was the way she fought. If she were a Divine and appeared that young, I could understand, but she was all of twenty years old?”

  “I thought the same thing,” I said, remembering her speed and skill. “I just assumed it was her Divver kit.”

  “It may be,” she replied.

  It also may not.

  “Sure took you long enough,” Adam said when I reached the car. “I’ve been stuck here with this one for hours. It’s one thing that he’s a demon. It’s another that he never stops talking.”

  Max turned around. “You should appreciate my good humor, instead of sitting there pouting.”

  “I wasn’t pouting, I was thinking.”

  “Guys,” I said. I held up the sword. “Mission accomplished. Adam, it’s time to fly.”

  The angel got out of the car, his eyes fixed to the sword. “May I?” he asked, reaching for it. I pulled it back.

  “Sorry, Adam, but I’m not letting this thing out of my hands until Abaddon is disintegrating in front of me. I’ve been screwed too many times.”

  Adam nodded, but he didn’t look happy.

  “There he goes pouting again,” Max said. “Chin up, my good man. You’ll be caressing that lovely soon enough. How many did you have to kill? Were they tough? So many questions, so little time.”

  I turned the blade over so I could hold it against my body, and lifted my arms for Adam to get a grip. “I didn’t have to kill any of them, but yeah, they were really tough. See you around, Max. Thanks.”

  Adam hooked his arms under mine and bent slightly. Max put his fingers to his forehead and gave me a mock salute. “Give ‘em Hell. Or Heaven. Or whatever kills ‘em the best,” he said. Then we were going up.

  I didn’t get quite as much enjoyment out of the second flight as I had the first. It probably had something to do with the fact that I was headed for a direct confrontation with the most powerful demon on Earth; a demon that even Izak ran away from. I could still remember the cold feelings of hopelessness just being near him had given me. It wasn’t something I was looking forward to. I gripped the Deliverer tighter.

  “You won’t be able to get too close,” I said to Adam once he started descending. There was a thick layer of clouds here that left us blinded to the world around us. “You’ll have to drop me.”

  I wasn’t looking forward to that either. With the bracelet on, I couldn’t slow my descent. All I could do was accept the broken bones and pain, and wait for it all to heal. It would be an excruciating and vulnerable couple of minutes, during which I was dependent on getting lucky that Abaddon wouldn’t notice, or couldn’t reach me in time.

  “Are you sure?” he asked. I could tell by his voice he thought I was crazy.

  It was crazy, but also necessary. I wasn’t sure what would happen to the seraph if he got too close. “Positive.”

  The clouds gave way about a thousand feet over the monastery. Immediately I could see why they had chosen it. It sat on a level mountaintop, at least five hundred feet over the surrounding landscape, making it a difficult proposition for someone like me to approach unseen. Except, they hadn’t been planning on me taking the Angel Express.

  The second thing that registered was the desolation and destruction of everything around it. From up here, I could see the surrounding land, and the green of verdant field and forest. Until it got within a half-mile of the monastery. There, everything was brown and dead. Everything.

  I knew there would be no other Divine, save for Abaddon and Avriel. I knew there would be no people either, that they would have been killed or have fled. Would they even know what had done it? To mortals, Abaddon was plague and pestilence, not a demon with a shrouded but very real face. Just more casualties in the hidden wars raging around them.

  I could tell when Adam began feeling Abaddon’s effects. His descent lost control for just a hair in time, his body seizing up and his grip on my arms tightening. He didn’t let me go then, he kept trying to go further. We were still seven or eight hundred feet above the ground.

  “It’s time for me to drop,” I said.

  “I’ll get you closer,” he replied.

  “Adam, let me go.” I tilted my head so I could see his face. He was getting pale, and his forehead was beginning to sweat.

  “I can get you down.”

  “Dammit, he’s going to know I’m coming, you idiot,” I shouted. I shoved my elbow back into his stomach, and he let go with a grunt. Trying to ignore my velocity, and block out the fear of the pain I knew was coming, I focused on making myself Sight neutral. I could only hope the demon hadn’t caught me already.

  To say it hurt would be understating the pain of hitting the ground from a five hundred foot free-fall. I did get lucky to land in a somewhat soft spot, my drop broken by a few branches of a tree before I smacked into the soft ground. I had held the Deliverer point down, knowing it would sink into the earth, which was better than having it go flying off to wherever.

  I felt the bones break. Ribs, arms, legs, spine. The shock ran up my entire body, and I think it may have even caused some brain damage, because my eyesight dimmed and everything felt off for a minute. I bounced once, high enough that when I let go of the sword I could see it buried in the ground to the hilt, and then laid there.

  I did my best to keep my focus, to hide myself from Sight and beg myself to heal. In the moment I had dropped contact with the blade, I could feel the dark helplessness of Abaddon’s power circling around me, trying to catch me in its emptiness.

  “That rocked it pretty hard,” Ulnyx said with a laugh.

  “You don’t feel the pain,” I replied. “So, shut up.”

  I laid there for three or four minutes, looking out for the demon. In this case, his power was a benefit, because I would see the dark tendrils arriving long before the actual creature did. It was a tense few minutes, but my body mended itself, and Abaddon didn’t appear.

  I pushed myself up, pulling the Deliverer from the ground as I did. I was only a dozen feet or so away from the monastery walls. I could see the gold towers rising above them. Was Avriel somewhere in one of those?

  The place was larger than I had expected. How long would it take me to find the angel, even if I did defeat Abaddon? Time was still an issue. Even though the Beast couldn’t find me now, I knew he was doing something in Mumbai, and I didn’t need to know what to know it wasn’t good.

  I skirted the wall until I came to a tower with a porch and an open doorway. I stowed Excalibur and shifted, pulling on Ulnyx’s power and giving myself the size and strength I needed to leap the distance. Huge claws dug in on the floor, and I climbed up, shifting back once I reached the doorway.

  The inside was as stunning as I expected, filled with a mix of ancient oriental architecture and modern renovations. It was also deserted, dark, and cold. Dead monkeys lay huddled together on the floor, along with a pair of dead people. They were frozen on the ground, their mouths open, as though they had died of sheer terror.

  I kept walking, letting go of the alterations on my Divine signature. Now that I was whole and inside, I wanted Abaddon to find me. It would make everything much easier.

  It didn’t take the demon long. I had only just reached the main courtyard when the pitch black tendrils of his power began snaking along the sides of the buildings and covering the sky in unnatural darkness.

  “Diuscrucis,” it said, the word reverberating through the tendrils. “Did you come to die?”