Chapter 11

ELEVEN

Gabriel

Willow does not stir. Not when we appear in my hotel room. Not when I lay her on the bed. Not when I brush damp curls from her forehead.

"Trap her in the void."

What void? Is this why I cannot sense her? Her body is here. But her mind is gone. I drop to my knees next to the mattress and cup her cheeks with my hands. Angels have many talents. I was created—not born—at the beginning, and my memory is nearly perfect.

From my post in the celestial realm, I have watched over this world. I have seen cities rise and fall. Seen men and women go to war over the smallest slights and the vilest acts.

I have met witches, vampires, shifters, fae, ghouls, and demons. Only one yeti, but perhaps that will change with time.

The woman with the black box was something new. Part fae, I am certain. No other creature could have even tried to influence me. Had she been pure fae, I doubt I would have been able to resist her.

Closing my eyes, I search for a sliver of Willow's consciousness. An odd sensation pulses under the heel of my right hand. Slowly, I stroke my fingers down her cheeks to her neck.

It is stronger here. Tiny vibrations under her skin. Her sweatshirt provides only the barest peek at her collarbone. At the edges of several thin, white bandages.

For the first time in my existence, I am uncertain what to do.

"Can you hear me, Willow? It is Gabriel. We met—briefly. I caught you. Then you ran. Do you remember me? I have thought of you often since that night."

Why am I telling her all of this?

"You must fight your way free of this…void. I cannot find you there and I desperately wish to hear your voice again. And see your smile."

A shift in the air alerts me to a presence in the room behind me. Leaping to my feet in front of Willow, I prepare to do battle with this unknown enemy.

But my gaze locks on a wispy form hovering next to the window. It's Willow . Or her twin. "What are you?" I ask. "A ghost? She is still alive. Her heart beats. And the Angel of Death is nowhere to be found. Are you…her? Or something else?"

The being stares at me, her lips parted slightly, waiting.

"Right. I asked too many questions. Are you a ghost?"

She shakes her head.

"Is Willow dying?" I hold my breath, unsure I'm prepared for the answer.

Another no. I glance up at the ceiling and whisper a quick, "Thank you," to the Almighty.

"Do you know how to bring her back from the void?"

The spirit's eyes widen, and in the next second, she vanishes into thin air.

"Well, fuck."

Willow

Darkness surrounds me. Suffocating me. I can't breathe. Can't see. Can't hear.

I hold the power of the Blade. Hannah and Isaac know it. How? Did I read the book's words aloud? Could they feel it?

Hannah's eyes changed the moment I tried to resist. The kind-hearted woman who watched Ghostbusters with me one night when I couldn't sleep vanished, replaced by something—someone—evil.

My heart shatters into dust. Or…does it? I don't even know if I'm still alive. I can't feel…anything.

Breathe.

Nothing.

Wiggle your fingers and toes.

Nothing.

Open your eyes.

Nothing.

Isaac grabbed me. He ordered me to find the Blade. Then Hannah…she was so angry.

"Tell us where the BLT is, or you'll find out what happens when we turn the WCU up to eleven."

Oh, God. They did it. Each level hurt worse than the last. My whisper screamed. She… disintegrated in agony. I felt her pain like it was my own. Or…maybe I'm wrong and it was my pain.

"Trap her in the void!"

Is that where I am? The void?

"…Willow…have thought of you often…"

There was a man—is a man. I can hear him now. I think. He saved me. I couldn't see him. I couldn't see anything by then. But he tried to stop Isaac and Hannah.

His voice is familiar. It becomes my anchor in this endless storm of nothingness. If I can hold on to it, maybe I can find my way out of here.

But it too fades away, and I'm alone. I'd cry if I could. But trapped, all I can do is wait and pray.

My eyes are gritty. I struggle to open them for a full minute before I realize what I'm doing—and what it means. I'm not dead. I'm out of the void!

But I'm too weak to move or speak. Lying on something soft, I draw a shaky breath.

"Oh, thank the Almighty above," a deep, smooth voice says. That same voice. My anchor. My rescuer. "It has been two hours. I thought…I feared you might never wake up."

Warm hands cover mine. The gentle touch brings tears to my eyes. "Say something, Willow. I do not know how to help you."

I can only manage a weak whimper. If I could, I'd reach for him. Beg him to hold me. Ask him his name. I can't remember.

As if he can read my mind, he gathers me in his arms. My whole body aches, but I feel safe with him. Safe enough to force my heavy lids open.

He's beautiful. Long golden brown hair. A short beard. Perfect skin. Amber eyes that glow with intensity. In his embrace, I feel so tiny. He held me once before.

My cheeks heat. He did more than that. He had me in his lap and…

"Do you remember me?" he asks.

"Gabriel." The single word takes everything I have left. The urge to close my eyes is almost overwhelming.

"Very good, deliciae . You're safe here."

"Nuh-huh." I'm not safe anywhere. AURA will come for me. They'll never let me go. They'll force me to find the Blade. To use it. Shit. What if they can track the WCU? They're part of the NSA. Of course they can track the WCU.

Panic lends me the strength to push him away. He backs up until he's almost at the window, his hands raised. "I mean you no harm, Willow. Who—or what—is AURA? The man and woman at the church were hurting you, and I stopped them."

He says it like he didn't just piss off two people who will stop at nothing to get the power coursing through me.

I can feel the Blade's call, even now. It's far away, but the urge to find it—to possess it—is like nothing I've ever known before. Almost…musical. So soft and alluring, I ache for it.

If I stay here, Isaac and Hannah will find me. My only hope is to run.

"Don't…follow me," I manage and stumble for the door.

"Wait!" Gabriel calls after me. "What is the void? Why did they send you there? I can help, Willow!"

For a single heartbeat, I falter. He was so kind when we first met. But so were Hannah and Isaac. If Gabriel figures out what kind of power I can wield, he'll want it too. I can't trust anyone. Not until I find some way to destroy the Blade. And myself along with it.

The lights of the Embarcadero blind me as I stumble out of Gabriel's hotel. We're nowhere near the cathedral or AURA's lab. The brief spark of hope keeps me going. But for how much longer? And…where? I can't go to my apartment. That's the first place they'd look. UCSF, maybe? But I don't have my ID, my phone, or any money. Hannah "took care of everything" when I agreed to move into the apartment above the lab. She went everywhere with me. To the coffee shop. The drugstore. Grocery shopping.

I filed for a leave of absence from the university. I told Anton I had to take care of some personal business and wouldn't be reachable for a few months. Even if I had my credentials, they probably wouldn't work.

How could I have been so stupid? I did everything Hannah asked without question. Why didn't I realize what she was doing?

She isolated me from my entire life.

Barefoot, still weak from my time in the void, I fight against my rising panic. Ducking into an alley, I rest my back against the wall and close my eyes. But all I see is Hannah's face.

When I tried to resist at the cathedral, she… snarled at me. Her eyes hardened—changed color, even. And her expression… She was so angry. It was like her mask fell away and underneath…was a monster.

Oh, God. "She's not human." But what the fuck is she? A witch?

I'm the worst kind of Other. I don't know anything about this world.

My whisper appears before me, frantic. She points to my neck, then hers.

"I know! They'll turn it on again. They'll send me back to the void. But what the hell am I supposed to do about it?" Sinking down until my ass hits the pavement, I start to cry.

She rakes her fingers down her neck, then stares at me expectantly. Can I really tear the WCU out of my body?

I tug off my sweatshirt and stare down at the four butterfly bandages closing the incision above my tank top.

As I pull off the first one, the tickle starts in my throat. "No! Not yet! They can't…"

My whisper is as panicked as I am. Tears swim in her eyes. It's only a dull hum. I still have time.

Except the power ratchets up several levels after I tear through the third bandage. My vision goes glassy. Across from me, my whisper screams silently into the night.

I claw at my skin, unable to wait a moment longer to get this fucking torture device out of my body. Blood wells under my nails. Too much of it. I can't find purchase. It's too slick, and the pain gets worse every second.

"Willow! Fuck me. Thank the Almighty above. You…"

Gabriel's words are lost to my scream. The device is buried under layers of muscle, too deep for me to reach. Pure agony locks my limbs. My throat spasms.

"L-level…s-seven," I stutter. In a few seconds, I'll be back in the void. I can't see my whisper. I can't see anything. But I'm still here, because I can feel Gabriel laying his hand over the destruction I've waged on my skin.

"This is what is causing you pain." It's not a question. The certainty in his voice is my only hope. He'll find a way to turn it off. He has to. Or I'm afraid this time, I won't find my way back again.

Gabriel

In my arms, Willow shudders. Her eyes cloud over, pupils blown wide. I only found her because of the strange specter floating at the edge of the alley. When the being saw me, it wrapped its fingers around my arm and pulled me into the darkness between buildings.

But as soon as Willow screamed, it lost its corporeal form, and now…it's gone. Blood streams from the wound below her collarbone. I can sense something underneath my palm. But though I have the knowledge of several millennia of existence, I do not know what to do to help her.

Nor do I have time to waste. Her consciousness is fading once more. Whoever controls this device is sending her back into the void. Deeper and deeper with every second that passes.

Pulling her closer, I press my lips to the shell of her ear. "Fight them, deliciae . Hold on for me." There is only one place I can go.

At the last moment, I remember my promise to Sinclair and Zoe. I cannot simply appear in the center of the penthouse. So I focus on the hallway outside their door.

My power sends us there in an instant, but the late hour, my aching wings, and the burden of carrying another with me—twice—conspire to send me to my knees. I barely manage to hold on to the precious human in my arms.

"Sinclair!" I roar as I stagger to my feet. "Open the bloody door! Now!" Punctuating my demand with three swift kicks to the reinforced wood, I pray the penthouse is not completely soundproofed.

Willow's keening cry shatters my control. It is so much more than mere pain. She is in agony. Not only her body, but her spirit. Her soul. She knows what is happening to her. Whatever this void is, she is desperate to never go back there again.

The door swings open. "Gabriel, you bastard—fuck." The incubus is shirtless, wearing only a pair of silk pajama pants. Hundreds of scars criss-cross his chest, a particularly recent one still red and angry at his side.

"Help me." I push past him, striding for the living room and one of the soft leather couches.

"Oh my God!" Zoe rushes down the hall, buttoning one of Sinclair's dress shirts over her naked body. "Who is she? And what?—"

"T-t-ten," Willow whimpers. Her muscles seize, and she lets out a weak wail.

"There is something inside her. Here." I rip at her tank top, exposing more of the wound. "Whatever it is…if we do not remove it, she will end up in a void—a place she will not be able to escape for God knows how long."

"Move," Sinclair snaps.

He has a thin kitchen knife in his hand, along with a bottle of scotch. Using his teeth, he uncorks the alcohol, then pours some over the blade. "Hold her down, Gabriel. This will hurt her."

"No!" My roar rattles the windows, and a vase of flowers above the fireplace tumbles to the floor and shatters. "I will do it. I must do it. Zoe, can you hold her?"

I do not know why, but the idea of Sinclair cutting into Willow angers me. She is mine to protect, and there is nothing I will not do to keep her safe.

"Have it your way, then. I'll call Maddox. Killian may have some knowledge of…"

His words fade away as the sound of my own heartbeat fills my ears. My hands shake.

I must focus.

Having my fingers under a human's skin is not one of the experiences I expected to have in this realm—or ever care to repeat. As gently as I can, I slide the knife into her flesh. She is too far gone to notice the pain.

"She is fading." The words scrape over the lump in my throat. Fear's oily presence slithers along my spine. The tip of the blade hits something metallic. Thank fuck. With a flick of my wrist, a small disc slides out from under her muscle.

Wires snake from the little device. I cannot simply rip them from her body. I could sever something…vital. But I cut them from the little disc with the knife. Her muscles go slack.

Fuck. Was I too slow? Is she trapped in the void? Or merely unconscious? Precious seconds tick by as I search for her spirit—for the smallest spark of her soul. When I find it, it's so faint, I fear she could die at any moment.

"Gabriel?" Zoe touches my arm. "She's still bleeding. We need a healer."

"The wires must be removed as well," Sin adds. "I will call one of the mages. But give me that disc. Something that size…it could have a tracking chip and my wards will only hide us for so long."

I drop the device into his hand. "What can I do for her?"

Zoe passes me a thick, black towel. "Press down on the wound. It'll slow the bleeding. But be careful. You're strong enough, you could snap her bones without even trying."

Fuck. She is right. "Help me. Please. I…I do not want to hurt her."

Shock registers in Zoe's green eyes for a brief moment. "Sit down, then. Hold her. I'll do the rest."

I cradle Willow in my arms, her back pressed to my chest, while Zoe holds the towel to the wound. Sin returns, a small black box in one hand, and more towels in the other.

"Anastasia will be here momentarily. So…who is this woman, Gabriel? And who the fuck is trying to hurt her?"