14. Colt

The entire world is exploding around Colt. Books are flying, the table blasts away from them. Gabby's eyes are closed, her hands raised, and he sees the instant in which the obsidian leaves her hand and molds itself in the center of the spear tip. Suddenly, the silver leaf is now jet black, looking sharper than ever. The glass edge of the leaf is so thin that it sparkles with its deadly desire to reap destruction.

"Gabby! Gabby!" He stumbles forward, fighting the gushing power like a tidal wave. Can she hear him? Is she lost to him? He grabs her arms from behind, shaking her, desperation making his mind spin. In the split second it takes for her to snap out of it, every possible scenario in which he loses his angel passes before his mind's eye.

Gabby's arms jerk, lower slightly, and the power emanating from her cuts off like a light switch. Colt's breathing hard, swallowing his fears, but when Gabby turns and opens her eyes, they're jet black. They are the obsidian itself, a mirror into her soul of what activating the Primordial Darkness and the Spear has done.

Colt is bent to her line of sight, waiting for her to come back to him when Blaise and Sierra burst through the room in a panic. They look at Colt, then Gabby, then the Spear. He hears one of them say, "It is done," but he refuses to take his eyes away from Gabby.

Her black eyes blink, and when she opens them again, the crystalline blue irises he has grown to love are back. Shaken, he watches her look at their friends and nod, before her eyes fall back on him.

"Get ready for war," she says, the calmness in her voice battling with the turmoil of his soul.

He's never been so terrified, as if he lets his hands drop the Gabby he has known and loved all this time will completely vanish. Her eyes are back, but they're hard with determination.

"Gabby?" Colt says, not sure what he's asking.

"I know where they are…" she whispers, her voice full of awe as her gaze rises and holds on the obsidian tip of the Spear.

"Gabby…" Will she wield the spear, or will it wield her?

Gabby looks up at him and smiles, but it's a smile devoid of the vibrancy she usually contains within her. "Colt, we don't have time. We've merged the Spear and the obsidian, I know where the Grigori are. We must go now." She shrugs his hands off and steps away, walking over to the door where Blaise and Sierra stand shocked. "You can stay here or you can come watch me destroy them, it's up to you."

Once outside the door, she plants the spear on the floor and her wings fling out behind her. Gabby's hair seems to stir on some unseen breeze, her skin glowing as she radiates limitless power.

"Decide now, Colt," she demands. "I'm going to end this once and for all, with or without you."

"I'm coming," Colt says, his voice scraping out as more of a growl than an agreement. He stalks forward, but Gabby spins, cutting him off with her wings and making him walk behind her as they leave.

Even from here, behind her, Colt can feel the evil of the obsidian trying to tap into his own darkness and expand it. He looks back at the wide-eyed women who tried to come and help, but they have no words of wisdom to offer. They look as worried as he feels.

When they step into the sunlight, Gabby flaps her enormous wings and jets into the sky with unbelievable strength. Colt spreads his black wings, fists clenched, and follows her.

He may not be able to get her back under her own power, but he sure as hell can keep her safe while she's subjected to the pull of the obsidian. They fly for what seems like hours to Colt, but he knows inside it hasn't been. The distance between him and Gabby has seemed to stall time, stretch it out, instilling him with growing dread.

Gabby tucks her wings and dives, flying through the pillars of a ruined cathedral and slamming to the destroyed marble floor with a spray of stone and dust. Her wings flare, each feather stretching to its maximum, and she stares directly into the eyes of Vladimir and his cult.

Colt lands behind her, mouth agape. Vladimir is around a huge rectangle table, going over what looks like battle plans with at least a dozen men. When Gabby landed, there was a flash of fear in his eyes and then his confidence bloomed and he smirked directly at her without an ounce of fear.

The fool.

"What? Did you think you'd be able to track me down and I'd be with the Grigori? You've had a spurt of luck, angel, I'll give you that, but we're not that stupid. I am not that stupid," Vladimir sneers, his tone condescending.

Gabby cocks her head to the side and smiles at him, making Colt's blood run cold and Vlad sputter in surprise.

"B-besides, they're working on something now. Something you can't stop. Together, we will repair reality and bring back peace on Earth?—"

"Are you sure about that? Are you sure there's nothing I can do?" Gabby's smile widens and she lets out a pulsating burst of dark magic. With both hands, she raises the Spear over her head and slams it down on the ground between her legs.

Vladimir visibly balks, taking a few steps back, but when he backs into the table and his men see him cowering, he squares his shoulders and straightens his coat. "That stick is nothing in your hands, little girl. Give it to me, hand it over now, and spare yourself of the humiliation of me taking it from your cold, dead hands."

"Not going to happen!" Colt roars, diving under Gabby's wings and taking Vladimir out at the shins. They crash into the table, rolling over the top of it and knocking papers and plans everywhere.

Gabby shouts, enraged, and unleashes shooting beams of black light from the tip of the Spear. She flattens her wings, diving into the crowd of men and women. She stabs one man in the chest with the Spear and twists. Veins of darkness rip from the wound and begin devouring his chest until all moisture is sucked from his body and falls dead in a heap. Gabby grins, watching the terror in everyone else's eyes as she turns on them and strikes.

Colt and Vladimir roll off the table, now a tangle of limbs and strength. Colt batters Vladimir with his fists, his wings, his knees, anything to cause the evil man pain. But no matter how hard he fights, no matter that Vlad can't land a single blow, the Cult leader doesn't tire or flinch away from the pain he certainly must be feeling.

"You cannot hurt me, demon," Vladimir hisses. "Not this time. Neither you nor your dark angel can do anything to stop me now!"

Rage flares inside Colt and he leaps away from Vladimir with a powerful thrust of his wings. He crosses his arms over his chest and closes his eyes, reciting a spell he never thought he would have to use. When his eyes open and his arms fling wide, he's got a Damascus scimitar in each hand, blazing with hellfire. The green light flares to life, casting everything in the ruined cathedral into a hellish landscape.

Gabby turns, feeling the burst of power, and her eyes flash with rage directed at Colt. She takes one step towards him, raising her Spear. Her eyes have gone fully black again, her skin splattered with a spray of blood and her dark magic.

"Gabby!" Colt calls, desperate to run to her. With that look in her eyes, it could be the last thing he ever does.

She shakes her head, holding the Spear to stabilize herself with both hands. When she looks at Colt again, he can see the blackness of her eyes flickering with blue. She's fighting the pull. Someone behind her roars with rage and she turns, Spear pointed in one hand and palm forward in the other. Celestial fire explodes from her in a torrent, but it is no longer the blinding white and gold Colt knows it should be. No, now it's streaking with the dark purple taint from the obsidian. The man running at Gabby is reduced to ashes.

Colt realizes he was the last to fall, and this time when Gabby turns her attention is fully on Vladimir. "He"s completely invulnerable!" Colt shouts, moving around Vladimir in a wide circle so they're standing on opposite sides of their enemy. "The witch protecting him must be more powerful than we imagined. We need to break the connection if we ever plan to kill him."

"Together?" Gabby asks him, her irises blue again but the darkness clouding the whites of her eyes.

"Together, now and forever!" Colt roars.

As one, they fly forward, and for the first time since meeting Vladimir, the man has pure unadulterated fear in his eyes. He tries to fight them off, tries to defend himself.

Colt strikes first, both scimitars slicing in an X pattern down on the cult leader's head.

Vladimir ducks, catching the blades in his unharmed hands and pushing Colt back. A hiss of pain darkens his features and Colt sees that his hands, if not cut, have been burned.

"He's susceptible to fire!" Cole tells Gabby.

She nods, sneaking up behind Vladimir as Colt slashes again and again, driving the man back. The tip of Gabby"s Spear bursts into flames so hot that Colt can feel the flare of energy before the Spear pushes through Vladimir's back and out through his chest, burning him through.

The snap of the connection reverberates through the building, making the ruined structure tremble. In the distance, a blood curdling keening can be heard, as if somewhere far away someone else suffered this same wound. Did the witch bind her vitality with Vlad's? Did she feel that death blow as clearly as he did?

Vlad's eyes roll back in his head, his jaw falling slack as his body begins to tremble and shake. A light appears in his mouth, white, celestial, and to their surprise, an angelic soul explodes from Vladimir's body. He drops, the corpse vacant of all life.

Gabby reacts quickly, flinging her Spear out and forming a celestial chain with her dark, stained magic. The chain whips out, lashing the angelic spirit, and when Gabby flicks her wrist, the glow of white flies back to the ground at her feet. Anger burns in Gabby's eyes as she stalks a few feet forward, glowering down at the glowing eminence she's leashed at her feet.

Colt steps forward, a wary hand reaching towards Gabby to slow her retribution. But she doesn't kill the angel. Instead, she flips the Spear in her hand and hovers the malignant tip over the glowing creature and snarls.

"Reveal yourself, traitor!"

A bubbling laughter emanates from the light, and slowly the glow fades and personifies. Colt shakes his head, denial ripping through him. There's no way, no possible way, but as the light solidifies into a creature he can see, there"s no doubt about it.

"Moroni!" Cult snarls.

Gabby bares her teeth, raising her arms and threatening to slam them down, but Colt stops her.

He reaches across Moroni and places his hands over hers on the Spear.

Gabby shudders, eyes fluttering closed, and when they open again, Colt's angel is in complete control. "How can this be?" Gabby breathes, lost in the impossibility of seeing Moroni on the mortal plane once more.

"Anything is possible with the Grigori, dark angel," Moroni cackles, his laughter echoing off what's left of the cathedral around them and rattling in Colt's brain. "Far you have fallen from your grace, and what a perfect time it is! My masters will defeat you easily. They will take what you have so kindly repaired for them, and all will be set right with the world!"

"Over my dead body!" Gabby roars.

A pulse of power explodes from her, shoving Colt back to a safe distance, and she raises the Spear to finish Moroni.

"Gabby, no!" Colt roars, but she can't hear him. The obsidian has her.

Moroni freezes, a soundless scream on his face as he turns to look at Colt and realizes his mistake. Gabby isn't in control, the obsidian's taken over.

She's going to kill Moroni, and the sheer terror in his eyes seems to beg for Colt, of all people, to rescue him.