Chapter 11

Istood inside that space of limbo, staring at the man I loved almost as much as I loved my children. "Killian."

His head lolled toward me, green eyes hooded, and that grin that was his alone spread across his lips. "Lass. You came for me. I knew you'd find me on this side of death."

I rolled my eyes and dropped beside him. "I'm not dead, Kill, they fooled you. But you are dying. I need you to hang on. And you need an ass kicking for believing I could die so easily." I let myself lean forward and kiss him gently, trying to give him something to fight for. He smiled under my mouth.

Next to us Ipos materialized, his body strong and solid where Killian's was fading. Dying.

"This is the one?" Ipos crouched next to Killian.

I wanted to say no. I wanted to tell him that Killian was mine, not his. "You can save him?"

"Heal up his body, no problem." Ipos nodded. He reached out and put his hand over Killian's heart, digging his fingers into the fading flesh. "He has to give consent. Even I'm not that good."

This was where the crux was—convincing Killian to let a demon inhabit his body. I knew what it was to have a handler. But how different was that to a demon? I suspected not very.

"Killian. Focus on me." I held his face in my hands, leaning over him. "I need you to say yes."

Ipos nodded. "Will you allow me possession?"

Killian mumbled something, and I shook him lightly. "Say yes."

His smile was for me. "Yes."

Ipos winked at me and shoved me out of limbo. "I've got it from here, firebird."

I blinked and was standing on the broken tarmac. The screaming had stopped, but I could see that my job was far from done. Mario's crew had shown up to help, though it looked like they'd just stopped Pete from killing all the cops.

Easter jogged over to my side. "You blanked out there for a good ten seconds."

"I'm fine," I said without her actually asking if I was okay. "We need to sweep the birds for any tracking devices, get Mario's people on to them and get moving. I kept the pilot." I pointed to the guy on his knees beside me. "I'll deal with my brother."

As if things would be that simple.

Easter headed in Mario's direction as he strode toward us. I turned and made my way back to the truck we'd rolled in on. I flung the back door open and pulled the flak jackets off Carlos and the handler. Both were alive.

Though the woman was definitely worse for the wear. I had a hard time feeling bad for anything that happened to her. Even if it had been Eligor, I wasn't sure I could drum up much sympathy for those who would destroy so many for their own shame, for those who would kill their own children.

Carlos sat up. "She sang like a canary in the mine," he said, and the handler groaned, whimpering. "The reason they want you is because you're ascendant."

"Right, and?" I didn't hold a hand to him. He didn't need it.

The handler didn't so much as try to sit up.

Behind us I could hear the helicopters start up again. Easter had gotten everyone moving. That was good. I had a sneaking suspicion Mario would move a hell of a lot faster for the pretty redhead than his asshole long-lost sister.

"You are a specific line of fallen blood. Your grandmother was a hunter of the fallen. She had abilities that could stop them. She had abilities that could kill demons."

Chills rippled up and down my spine, but I didn't flinch. "And?" There was more, I could feel it as surely as I could feel my body reacting to his words.

"She could control the fallen if she connected with them. Gardreel thinks you might be able to control other abnormals that same way. If they have you, and that's true, then they don't have to actually kill them all. They just turn them into their own private army to help take over the human governments around the world. And then they have slaves too. Or still kill them if they wished."

Jesus, the handler really had sung out everything. "Anything else?"

"If they can't have you, they'll go after your boy. And if not him, then they'll go ahead with the plan as it had been before. Brainwash as many abnormals as possible and then set them loose. Let terror reign and then Gardreel would step in as a savior of sorts."

I stared down at the handler. "Sounds sacrilegious to me, making himself a savior. I'm pretty sure he's going to hell for that one."

She groaned; the sound wet with her own blood. "He hates humans and abnormals. But he needs one to wipe out the other. He wants this to be a place for the fallen. He'll call them all to him when the earth is cleansed."

Cleansed did not sound like a good time and I didn't like the connotations of a raging fire it brought up. "You don't just mean getting rid of the abnormals and ruling the humans, do you?"

"No," she whispered. "The Cleansing Fire will come. He has been looking for the spell for it and last I heard, he was close to finding it. Maybe it's more of a curse. A killing curse." She struggled to take a breath in. It was like now that she was speaking, she couldn't stop. "You have very little time to stop him. The spell would be spoken on the night of the bleeding stars. Then he will release it. It will cleanse the world. He will start the world anew, as if he . . . is God."

Carlos whispered a prayer under his breath.

I frowned, not really giving a shit about the religious implications and focusing on the spell instead. "If he's found it."

"If," she agreed, her voice weakening even as she spoke. "There are two spell casters that know it, that we know of. Both are in the labs, being worked on by handlers. One is a Magelore. The other is ascendant, like you. If he can get that spell, he won't bother to look for you."

I swallowed hard, already knowing that one would be my mother's empty shell. That explained why she was still alive. I would have asked more but the handler's body began to convulse. I knew the signs of death stalking someone. Her chest lifted and fell twice more and then stilled as she shuddered, and the last breath slid out of her. I narrowed my eyes.

This was the moment of death; she was still warm, and in theory she could be given CPR and we could bring her back. So dead. . . but not dead dead.

Eligor had an essence pulled out of his body. Could the same be done to her? I had no idea, but I was going to try.

"Grab me a bottle, anything that we can shut tight," I barked at Carlos as I bent and grabbed the handler's head. I wrapped my fingers around her skull and pressed my thumbs to the middle of her forehead, tried to recall just how Gardreel had done it.

He'd kind of plucked at Eligor, drawing his essence out. I closed my eyes and sunk into the meditative state, sliding down through the currents and into the fog-ridden world.

I blinked and stared at the figure in front of me. She was petite, with a massive wide wingspan with feathers as brightly white as if I were staring at the sun. Her hair was flaming red, though, like Easter's.

And then I understood. "You're her mother."

She put her hands over her face. "I didn't want to hurt her. None of us do! We have no choice!"

"Then help me stop him," I growled. "Help me stop him from hurting everyone."

She crumpled to her knees and her wings went wide, slowing the fall into a graceful crumple. "You need to bottle me up, so he can't take me back."

"How?"

"There is a word that commands the spirit of the fallen as they die. But I cannot speak it. You must find it."

I all but pushed off the ground in that foggy limbo in order to get back to my body. My eyes flew open as Carlos pushed a bottle into my hand. I wasn't fucking around with her if she couldn't help me.

I held the bottle open and stared at her slumped body. "A word, Carlos, a single word will pull her essence into this bottle."

"How the fuck—"

"I don't know." Only I did know, or rather I knew someone who might have the word. Eligor. Fuck, that would mean reaching out to my captor and asking him for help.

There wasn't a lot of time. Either I trusted myself enough to fight off Eligor if he tried to take me over for Gardreel, or I didn't.

My jaw ticked and my hand tightened around the glass bottle. If I let her spirit go, Gardreel could in theory bring her back. And then he'd know what we knew. He could move my mother's body, or the Magelore. Unless I planted false evidence.

"We'll go after the Magelore, Carlos. That's our best bet."

He startled and I gave him a look. "You sure, boss?"

"Yes. The other one is just a shell from what we know. The Magelore will give us anything for freedom; just look at how Pete threw in with us."

The body below me twitched and the chest ticked almost like a breath. "Leave her here."

I jumped out of the truck and Carlos followed. Of course, we got out just in time to see the skies darken with wings of leather.

Four of them to be exact. The same four that had headed for the airport. They'd waited for the gunfire to be over.

"Fuck these monstrosities," I growled, then raised my voice. "Mario, get your people into the two helicopters! Easter, get them the fuck out of here!"

I would have to deal with Mario later.

Movement rippled around me, and I saw out of the corner of my eyes a body slung over a pair of broad shoulders—a body that looked like Killian. Not exactly as gentle as it could be, but if he was out then there was a chance, at least.

But why the fuck hadn't Ipos gotten him back on his feet?

I turned to face the four fallen as their twisted legs touched the ground. Ruby snarled and started barking, sharp and piercing. I didn't shush her. The noise kept their eyes on us and not the fleeing abnormals.

What had my life come to, now I was sacrificing myself for the ones I used to hunt? A slow smile spread over my face. "Dinah, you ready to try out the special rounds?"

"We've got those, a few smokers, and an acid round. If we could pull some lightning through Killian, I think we could really fuck them up." She paused. "And yeah, special rounds first!"

Acid. That was new, I must have grabbed it from Carlos's stash and not realized. The four fallen weren't rushing me. "Carlos, get out of here. Hide them as best you can." When he hesitated, I shoved him away. "Literally not a thing you can do about this right now. Off you fuck, man."

"They will kill you," he said simply, and straight to the point. "And then what will happen to us?"

"Then you will have Bear to protect," I said, hating that if I died here, the fate of the world would rest on my son's shoulders. "He is like me. He could stop them. You keep going, you keep getting the pieces together."

Carlos gave me a quick nod, turned and ran toward the helicopters.

The front runner of the fallen four finally made a move. "Come with us, and we will not harm the others."

That was kind of what I was hoping for. A chance at Gardreel, face to face.

Wait. The word rumbled in my head, and I didn't know who or what was talking to me, but I felt it in my bones.

My grandmother was close.

I would face Gardreel. But not yet.

I snapped my fingers at Ruby and pointed at Killian who was in the bird closest to me. "Guard him, Ruby."

She whined, low and frustrated, but ran across the broken tarmac, leapt into the helicopter, and lay down next to Killian. It was the best I could do.

"All right then, boys." I pulled Dinah free, and she gave a sigh. "Take me if you can."