Damned

chapter 17

Darrton

“Put the beer down, you foolish, alcoholic a*shole,” I gritted through my teeth. Ian was sitting on a park bench in Long Beach, California. His eyes were drooping and he was singing some stupid song. I’d heard it before, I was sure Sam, Elizabeth’s sister, had been singing it.

“Baby, baby, baby, oh,” he sang louder, getting on top of the bench and waving his arms around. “There is no use, Darrton my friend. We’ve lost her. The demons have her!”

All the people passed us by, whispered, and looked away. My control was weakening by the second and I could see myself tearing Ian to shreds. “It’s not too late. We have to go; I am tempted to leave you here.”

Ian fell over the bench and bounced back up on his feet. “Might as well. Ferdia is dead, my son is ’gainst me, and I have no hope for the world.”

I tried not to kill him, though there was a red rage growing at the edge of my vision.

Focus. Focus. Control.

Ian stumbled toward the brick wall of the building behind us. “We do not know what’s happening to the world. Only so much longer and it will end. Everyone will be in Hell.”

I grabbed Ian’s shoulders and shook him. “You have to get yourself together. We have to go. I’m going to leave whether you’re coming or not.”

There was a defeated look in his eyes. He smiled but it was because he was drunk and trying to cover the pain. His child had deceived him. Ferdia was dead. We had found him easily. He was at Ameil’s house where we thought he might be. He was there, dead. War and Caden had found him and killed him. I know it was because Ferdia wanted to back out. Being damned to Earth by our Father hurt all of us, but Ferdia took it the hardest. His face, when Father was damning us, was the worst I’d seen. War and Caden knew that he would try to stop them, so they took him out. It made an anger rise in my chest that I couldn’t control.

The spit spraying from Ian’s signing brought me back. There was a mere inch of hope left in my heart and I pulled it all together. “Ian,” I said, slamming him up against the wall. “Listen to me. At this rate I don’t give a damn whether you make it or not. But I need your help. I need you to push past Scotty and your Gin and Tonic. I need you to help me. I need you to believe that we can make it. And put down that bloody drink,” I screamed, flinging his flask down to the ground.

He frowned as the liquid leaked out of it. “Why, son, did you have to go and do that?”

I hit him. I knew it was wrong and I also knew I didn’t give a damn. His jaw cracked and a low chuckle escaped his throat.

His eyes flashed black as a deep roar escaped his lips. He pushed me back. That was all I needed. He followed me toward the nearest vacant alley, and I watched as his black wings broke from his back. A smile crept over my face. This is what I needed. I jumped into the night sky and followed him.


Lizzie





A steady drizzle of rain fell from the top of the cage onto my forehead and I couldn’t care enough to move. It hit the center of my forehead in a steady rhythm. Drop. Drop. Drop.

It almost made me smile. It made me feel real. There was an image in my head, telling me I was stuck in a sick dream. I would never get out. The rain made me feel. It was the only feeling I had left. After hours of being stuck in the cage, I couldn’t feel my body. There were only two places on my body I even remotely felt anymore. They were the center of my forehead and the soreness in my arm where I had been thrown.

I wasn’t sure how many hours had gone by but I knew it had been several. Suddenly, there was a sliding of shoes across the concrete floor. Warren, Scotty, and Caden followed each other. Warren didn’t acknowledge I was alive and I let out a sigh of relief. He walked past the table in the center and lifted something from a bag. A scale sat beside the black bow. Caden drew a sword from a holster on his side. It shimmered in the moonlight and I recoiled.

Caden smiled. “Nice to see you again, Elizabeth. Have you missed me?”

I didn’t answer.

Warren grunted and disappeared behind the door. “Are you hungry, Elizabeth?”

I looked over and Caden was standing in the cage with me. I brought my knees up to my chest and shook my head. A pain ran through my arm. I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth, trying to ignore it.

“We have to eat, now don’t we?” he asked, stepping closer. I closed my eyes and pretended he wasn’t there. “What would you like, princess?” Caden bent down to face me. He took his fingers and slid them underneath my chin. His pale white eyes narrowed.

“Caden, we have things to do. Leave the child the hell alone.”

Caden stood and gave me a smile. “Scotty, why don’t you feed the princess over here? We want her alive.”

Caden walked out of the cage and disappeared behind the door. I held back the tears that were trying so desperately to fall.

“Are you hungry?” Scotty asked from outside the cage bars.

I shook my head even though my entire body was shaking from hunger. My head was throbbing from not eating, and my mouth was dry with thirst.

He opened the cage door and leaned up against the frame, crossing his legs at the ankles. “You haven’t eaten since yesterday. I know you’re hungry.”

Clearing my throat I said, “Why are you being nice to me?”

He cocked an eyebrow and shifted his feet, crossing his arms across his chest. “Why am I being nice to you? What do you mean?”

I laughed and sat up, hitting one of my fists against the metal floor. “You’ve taken me captive, Scotty, and now you’re acting like nothing is going on? What the hell is up with you? I’m so screwed up in the head right now. You’re nice to me, then help kidnap me, and then nice to me when no one is around. What’s your deal, a*shole? Because you’re starting to piss me off.”

Scotty’s face turned serious, his brow furrowed, and he sighed. “I have no choice anymore, Elizabeth. It’s not up to me.”

Shaking my head, I stood up. “So, let me understand this. You’re saying that you had no choice but to help kidnap me and keep me here? What are they doing to you? Please just let me go. I swear I will not tell anyone ever.”

He laughed but it was a lost and bitter sound. He turned and wrapped his fingers around the bars of the cage. The cage bars bent. When he turned back around, a deep fire burned in his eyes. “It’s not that you would tell. It’s that they need you to help keep Darrton in line. He won’t help unless he thinks they will hurt you, Lizzie.”

I gritted my teeth and ran my fingers through the tangle mess of my hair. “Just help me escape. We can flee and they would never know how I made it out.”

His fist slammed on the bars, making the entire cage rattle. It gave me hope. He could break the cage so easily and get me out. “I’ve taken an oath, Elizabeth. I’ve made a blood bond. I can’t help you. I can’t do anything but what they tell me to.”

“What kind of bond are you talking about, Scotty?”

His blond hair had stuck to his face from the rain outside and it covered his forehead in a tangled, wet mess. “I’ve promised myself to...” He trailed off.

“To who?”

“Satan.”

A sting of pain shot through my chest and I backed up against the wall. “What do you mean...Satan? Why would you have to do that? Why in the Hell would you even think to do that?”

He opened his mouth to say something and then shut it. “Elizabeth, this is worse than you could ever imagine, I swear to you. There are things that are going to happen that I couldn’t even explain if I wanted to. Things are going to cover this earth, to take over this world.”

“Tell me, please, Scotty. I have to know.”

Looking over his shoulder, he stared back at me. His emerald eyes darkened as he pulled up his shirt up and revealed a deep, dark, engraved sign on his lower side. It looked like it was carved with a knife. It had started to heal. It read: 666.

I let out a cry and closed my eyes tight. “Scotty, get away from me. Get away from me!” I screamed and pushed against him.

The door flung open and Warren walked out. His eyes were dark and his fist clenched. “I will not say it again. Leave the child alone. She needs to be safe. Give her something to eat and leave her the hell alone. If one finger is put on her again, I will kill each and every one of you myself. We can’t get Darrton if the girl is dead. Do I make myself seamlessly clear?”

Scotty nodded but didn’t look him in the eye.

Warren turned on his heel and strode back into the room off to the side.

Scotty walked over and pulled out a cheeseburger from a sack that they had brought in then set it inside the cage door. I eyed the cheeseburger as he went back toward the table. When he returned, he was holding a drink and pushing a straw into it. He placed it beside the burger. “Eat something, Lizzie. You will feel better. Don’t worry. Just eat and get some sleep.”

I mumbled a laugh. “Don’t worry...”

Scotty walked toward the door that Caden and Warren had disappeared into and looked back at me. He attempted a smile but it was forced. “Elizabeth, I’m sorry I can’t help. This is out of my hands.”


The burger sat there for hours. I was too scared to let my stomach process anything. The smell made me sick. Everything in the last twenty four hours was making me sick. The carving in his side roamed around in my head. He had the mark of the beast. That wasn’t supposed to have happened yet. There was a screaming inside of my head, a heat burning into my heart. A dagger cutting into my flesh. Everything was wrong. Everything was happening that was never supposed to happen.

Scotty, Caden, or Warren never came back out of the room they had disappeared into. They stayed locked in that room, whatever it was. I wasn’t sure if I even wanted to know what it was. What could they be doing in there? One thing was for sure, I knew it wasn’t anything good.

I drifted in and out of consciousness. When I finally re-opened my eyes for good, I could see a faint light in the distance. I wasn’t sure what had awakened me. It might have been the cold metal floor that had been my bed, or the fact that there were two of the three Horsemen left in the other room, plotting to kill the world. Although that didn’t feel right, it was something different that woke me up. I narrowed my eyes and saw a weak light outside of the window in the far right corner of the warehouse. The window was at least twenty feet off the ground, so I didn’t really know anyone that could have reached that. The light went off.

Someone was out there. I didn’t know who could be worse than the three guys in the next room, but I prayed it was someone to help me. Maybe it’s Darrton or Ian.

The window creaked. I stepped forward in the cage, looking as far up as I could through the bars Scotty had broken. All I could see were shadows in the darkness. I could see a dark shadow. It jumped from the window and landed gracefully on the floor. My heart skipped a few beats and I gripped the cage bars.

“Darrton?” I whispered into the dark.

“Shut up,” someone said. It was a girl. Who the hell is that?

“Who are you?” I asked again, narrowing my eyes, trying to get an outline of the person walking toward me.

“I said shut the hell up.” The voice was closer now. The girl stepped out of the shadow and I noticed the nice chocolate color of her skin and bright eyes. Ariel.

A hopeful scream was begging to get out of my throat. “Oh my God,” I said.

She threaded her fingers through mine around the bars. “If you want out of here, shut up and do exactly what I say. Am I clear?”

I nodded.

She gave me a quick smile. “Now, don’t say anything else.”

My body began to shake as she gripped the bars and bent them backwards. She never once even glanced over her shoulder. But I sure as hell did. The door never opened, never budged. The bars bent back like Twizzlers in her firm grip.

“Would you like to stay in there?” she asked, hand on her hip.

I slipped through the bars and felt a weight lift off my shoulders. I knew she didn’t like me, like at all, but I hugged her, anyway.

“Thank you so much,” I said.

“Thank yous later, okay? We have to get out of here before the a*sholes realize you’re out. Be quiet and don’t say another word, damn it.”

We tip-toed across the empty floor and made it to the door. It squeaked as we opened it, loudly. We both stopped. I’d forgotten about it. I was so excited about being set free that I forgot about the squeak. There was movement behind the door they had gone in. I clenched my fist, gritted my teeth, and pretended to be invisible. The door flung open. The silence weighed heavily in the air. Scotty.

Ariel took a deep breath as she saw him walk toward us, his blonde hair now washed and combed back. He looked like an angel. He furrowed his brow and set his jaw. “What are you doing, Ariel? You can’t take her.”

She was breathing heavily and her eyes were hard, and cold. “I can and I will. You’ve changed, Scotty. What the hell happened to you? You’ve sided with the enemy and after I thought you were someone else. Screw you and your kiss-ass attitude. You would have never done this before. What has gotten into you?”

He reached for my arm but she stood in front of me. She was about six inches shorter than Scotty but she looked like she could stand her ground in a fight. “I can’t let you take her, Ariel. I’ve taken an oath.”

She spat, “You’ve taken an oath and now you’ve lost your spine. Never thought that would ever have happened to you.”

Scotty’s eyes narrowed. He stepped forward. “Give her back and I won’t say anything to them about you even being here. They will kill you and not think twice about it. This isn’t play fighting with friends, Ariel, this is real shit. This is real. You don’t understand. They will kill you, me, and then Lizzie. They have plans and they don’t like people getting in the way of those plans.”

She shook her head. “No you don’t understand, Scotty. I would be just as much of a coward as you if I didn’t stand up for Lizzie. She has done nothing to deserve any of this. I would hate myself forever if I let anything happen to her, even though I’ve cared about you for God knows how long. Just given the fact that you took the oath proves to me that you aren’t who I thought you were. Just because Caden did something, doesn’t mean that you had to. You’ve proved to everyone that you’re too scared to do anything but what Caden tells you to do.”

Scotty reached forward with a pleading look on his face and placed his hand on her forearm. Ariel pulled away. I could tell she liked him. I could tell she wanted him to hold her, but she pulled her arm away and pushed him. He flew back and stumbled to the ground.

“Bye, Scotty, hope you’ve found what you’ve always wanted, to be pushed around and used. Too bad I won’t see you on the other side.”

With that, she grabbed me around the waist and we ran. Well...more like she carried me and we ran. Her wings spread and ripped her shirt from her body. It was kind of weird being carried by such a small person, but her strength was very great for her size. She didn’t speak to me, didn’t look at me. She just flew. I had no earthly idea where we were going. I just hung onto her and let her do her thing. She probably still disliked me. It took a lot for her to swallow her pride and help me. But it was the right thing to do. She really was an angel. She did the right thing no matter that it broke her heart.

When we slowed down, I started to look around and see if it was any place familiar. We were in the middle of the woods. A big emerald cluster of trees surrounded us. It was definitely not located up town, but I didn’t even know where the hell the warehouse was, anyway. The last place I had been, where I knew where I was, was in Vancouver. She landed and her wings disappeared back into her bare back.

She began to walk, leaving me behind.

“Are you going to talk to me?” I asked, running alongside of her just to keep up. For a small person she certainly took some massive steps.

She huffed. “What do you want me to say?”

I ran in front of her and stopped. Glancing around, I noticed we were in the shadowy part of a clearing in a forest. In the distance I could see a little white building. “I wanted to say, thank you. You will never know how much I appreciate you for this.”

She wouldn’t look me in the eye. “It was the right thing to do.”

I nodded. “They will probably come after us, you know.”

“Yeah, I know, and if you don’t mind—” She gestured to her bare stomach. “I would like to go get some clothes.”

I nodded and followed behind her. “I’m sorry for whatever I did to upset you when we first met. I never meant to make you mad.”

She was shaking her head and mumbling underneath her breath for the longest time. “It’s not your fault. I just...I don’t like people being around Scotty.”

I cocked an eyebrow as we made it to the old church. It was a Baptist church and it looked almost vacant. “You like him, huh?” Not that I didn’t already know this, but it seemed kind of rude to admit I had assumed it after she just saved my life.

“I used to like him. I don’t anymore. He isn’t who I thought he was.” She turned around and looked at me when we made it to the stairs of the old white wooden church. “Why am I telling you this? You’re as bad as your sister.”

Sister? I slowed to a stop. “You knew my sister, how?”

She turned toward me, her hazel eyes shimmering. “I know your sister, because I saved her.”

A loud thumping was in my chest. “You mean when Caden threw her out the window?”

Twisting the door knob, she walked into the church. “Yeah, I was there. I had a bad feeling about leaving you two alone together. I knew Scotty. Anyway, I figured I would stick around and see if I was needed.” She rolled her eyes. “And you can see that I was needed. When I saw him throw her, I caught her and brought her back here. I knew there was no way I could fight all of them to save you. So I followed their scent and waited until I thought it was safe.” She shrugged and stopped on the left side of a pew. Pulling down the attic string, she moved back, so the ladder could come down, and motioned for me to go up.

I climbed up the ladder slowly, cautious as to what might be up there. It smelled like old boxes and old books. To my surprise it was really well lit up there. I could hear the faint sound of a TV and I knew it was Samantha.

“Samantha?” I yelled, reaching the top step.

She was sitting on a few boxes, her hand in a chip bag. I noticed she had brushed her hair since the last time I saw her. “Lizzie?” she asked, dropping the chips and running toward me.

Embracing her, I felt something for Sam that I had never felt before. Relief when I saw her. Normally I couldn’t stand to be around her, but then her little arms wrapped around me, and her sobbing into my shirt was the best sound I had ever heard.

“I was so scared you didn’t make it, Sam.”

She laughed without humor. “I thought I was going to die.” She sniffled, pulling back and wiping her snotty nose on her hand. “I’m so glad that you’re okay, too. What is going on, Lizzie? That girl over there won’t tell me anything,” she complained.

Ariel was pulling a shirt over her head. “This girl’s name is Ariel and I told you to ask your sister. I’m not your history teacher. Nor did I take you to take care of you.” She turned to me. “I have no idea how you have lived with her this long.”

I smiled. Finally, someone feels my pain.

Sam stuck her tongue out and went back over to her spot. “Lizzie, I want to know what’s going on, now. You’ve got messed up in some whacked up shiznit, sister.”

I nodded and walked toward her. “Samantha, do you know anything about what is going on?”

Her little fingers twirled around one another and she shrugged. “They have wings,” she whispered.

I nodded. “Do you know why they have wings?”

Tears were welling up in her eyes. “I think they’re bad angels. But that can’t be it, can it?” Sam glanced up at me, a worry line on her forehead. “There aren’t supposed to be bad angels, Lizzie. Angels are supposed to be good, aren’t they?”

Ariel come over and sat down beside me, her hands intertwined between her knees. Her face was calm, elegant, and serene. She was beautiful when she wasn’t sneering. “There is a lot that I think neither one of you knows. There is so much going on that it scares me. I can take care of myself, but I’m afraid I can’t take care of you both.”

Samantha wiped her face. “Why is this happening? Does this have to do with all those people killing each other?”

I nodded. “Samantha, do you remember when Trevor told you that we’d run into our cousin at The Picnic Basket?”

“Yeah, Mom says you’re crazy. We don’t have a cousin named Darrton.”

Ariel snorted. “I see the lies haven’t changed over the years. The lies never get old. Cousins? Really?” She laughed and I groaned.

Samantha waved her hand in front of my face. “Hello, sooo, this Darrton isn’t really our cousin?”

Ariel sat back. “Well, I guess he could be. If you trace your ancestors back to the 1800s, you might be able to find out.”

Samantha grimaced. “Ewe! He is like a thousand, gross, Lizzie!”

“Samantha, it isn’t that easy. He doesn’t look that old...he is like...”

She gasped. “A vampire?”

Shaking my head, I held it in my hands. “No, he is a Horseman, Samantha.”

Her face went calm. There was no emotion.

Ariel nudged me and cocked an eyebrow. “Is she okay?”

I leaned forward and shook Samantha’s knee. “Sam, are you okay? Did you hear me?”

Her eyes crinkled and she smiled. She began to giggle behind her hands. Ariel looked at me and shook her head, her eyes huge. Samantha began to laugh again, falling over herself.

Irritated, I stood up. “Samantha, this is serious. Darrton is Death of the Four Horsemen.”

This only made her laugh harder. Grabbing her shoulders, I made her look at me. “Samantha, this is serious, this is not a game. They are going to kill the world!” I screamed.

She recoiled and looked up at me. Her eyes were wet and her face smooth. She didn’t have any make-up on and she looked much younger than usual. “They plan on killing us, don’t they?”

“I won’t let them hurt us, Samantha. Darrton will come back and he will protect us.”

“Wait! He isn’t here right now?”

“No, he went to go find Ferdia, the third Horseman. Listen, Samantha, War and Conquest are the other two Horsemen. They are taking The Apocalypse into their own hands.”

Ariel snorted.

Annoyed, I turned around to face her. “And what the hell is so funny?”

She got up, walked toward the window, and looked out. “Taking over the world would take more than just Caden and Warren. It will take more. They plan on having more. There is more to all of this than what even you can think to know, Lizzie.”

I placed my hand over my chest. “Well, would you care to enlighten me? Because I would love to know what the hell is going on.”

Ariel pressed her forehead against the cold window and blew a blanket of fog onto the cold glass. “They can’t do this alone. They have to get Darrton in the circle before it can happen.”

I nodded. “I know that much. So, why is Darrton so important?” I asked, sitting down beside Samantha. She had begun to shake. I tried to steady her with my hand but it only made her worse. Samantha was beginning to realize this was all real. I could feel her shivering. She knew.

“After Darrton, who is Death, Satan will follow, that is what they are missing. They need help from the underworld for it to happen. They need Darrton, to call on Him. If they have you, they think Darrton will do anything to keep you alive. They think that he will call upon Satan to keep you from dying.”

Samantha shivered and let out a silent cry. “Why is this happening?” She stood up and kicked the boxes she had been sitting on. “I want to go home, and I want to go home, right freaking now.”

Ariel rolled her eyes and ran her fingers through her short hair. “Listen, kid, sure I could take you home but your parents wouldn’t be able to help you at all. They would die and so would you.”

“Ariel, don’t you have any compassion at all?”

She shrugged. “It’s the truth. Sometimes it hurts.”

Samantha turned her back and began sulking into her hands. “Sam, listen there isn’t much time to be crying right now.”

She jerked her head toward me and narrowed her eyes. “This is all your freaking fault, Lizzie. You’re the one that started hanging around that crazy Derrick guy.”

“It’s Darrton.”

“I don’t care!” she screamed. “We are going to die, Lizzie. Have you not figured that out yet? I’m only twelve and I freaking see it!” Samantha stood up and crossed her arms. “I think I would like to go die in my room. If they come for me, I would like to be listening to Bieber in my bed and eating cookies and cream fudge from The Picnic Basket.”

Ariel laughed and took off her shoes. “Well, I’m not going out there to take you, hon. You better get to walking.”

I glared at Ariel. “Samantha isn’t going anywhere. She is staying here with me.”

“I don’t want to freaking be here with Ms. Hateful Ass and Ms. I Make Friends With Monsters!”

“Do you think I want to be here, Sam? Don’t you think I want to be home with Millie, going to school? I’d rather people throw popcorn at me at school. Throw me into the freaking trash! I don’t give a damn. I would like to be anywhere else but here! I can’t help it. Darrton fell into our yard and I can’t help that I care about him!”

Ariel was shaking her head and continued to take off her socks.

“Is that funny to you, Ariel? Because I think it’s funny that you love Scotty. After he has completely ignored you.”

Ariel was in my face before I could regret what I had said. Her eyes boiled over and a growl escaped her throat. “I’ve loved Scotty for years. I wish he had given me any kind of attention, but at least I have to guts to walk away from him when I know he is bad. At least I didn’t continue to love him after I knew he signed with the Devil.”

“Whoa, hold up. First, I couldn’t get away from Darrton. He threatened to kill me. Second, how do you know he signed? I thought he had to obey Warren and Caden.”

She seemed to be mellowing out a little. “Yeah, they all signed with the Devil. That’s the sign of the beast. I saw him show it to you. Warren and Caden are in charge so he has to do what they say. Caden and Warren get their orders from Satan. They have all taken an oath. There is no stopping it now. That is one tattoo that can’t be taken off.”

”I don’t understand why he would do this,” I said.

She nodded. “I’m not sure why he signed, if they threatened him or what, but something happened. He wasn’t always like that.”

“So what does that deal include? I mean, what is his part of the bargain?”

Shrugging, she stepped back from me. “It could be a bunch of things. But all the deals end with their souls being his.”

“His as in the Satan’s?”

“As in Satan’s.”

Bile began to come up my throat. “Darrton is stuck in his own personal Hell and he can’t get out?”

“No. Would you try and break that deal?”

I shook my head. “Why haven’t I seen the sign of the beast on Darrton then?”

She shrugged. “Have you looked?”

I shook my head. “No.”

Sam hadn’t said anything since we’d started talking about that. She stood by the window. Her long curled hair was lying almost flat and a tear trickled down her naturally blushed cheek.

“Everything will be okay, Samantha.”

She didn’t even look at me. “I sure as hell hope so.” She walked past us and started down the steps. “Going to take a shower.”

“There is a shower here?”

Samantha nodded. “Yes, it’s open and in the pastor’s study.”

“Let me come with you!” I said, protectively.

“I can take my own freaking bath!” she yelled down the hall.

Ariel sighed. “They can’t get in here, Lizzie.”

“Why not?”

“It’s holy ground. They can’t.”

Relief flooded me. “But wait, how are you in here?”

“Nephil, remember?”

“Yes, I remember.” Taking a seat I tried to clear my mind, but all I could see were their faces, so close to mine, so menacingly beautiful. There was something happening soon. I could feel it in my bones. Darrton had to be here. He had to come.

Ariel stood up. “Heads up.” She threw something my way. I barely caught it. A long silver sword was held in my good hand. “What is this?”

“A sword.”

I rolled my eyes. “I know that. But why did you give this to me?”

“In case we have to fight.” She cocked an eyebrow. “Unless you would like me to give that to Samantha?”

I shook my head. “I didn’t even know they could be killed.”

Ariel nodded slowly, running her finger along the sharp edge of her own sword. “You can’t just stab them. That won’t do.”

“Then how?” I put the sword down. It felt heavy and unfamiliar in my hands.

“You have to cut off their wings.”

I sucked in a deep breath of chilled air. “Wings?”

She nodded. “It’s pretty simple, the things growing out of our backs.”

“Are you ever nice?”

“Rarely.”

“Is it easy? Darrton wouldn’t let me touch his. I tried once but he stopped me.”

She smiled. “Our wings are sensitive. It’s the one place that you can feel how we feel. It’s the one place where we keep our secrets. It’s where we can face Death.”

That sent shivers down my spine. “So I could kill an angel or horsemen? All I have to do is cut their wings off? That’s it?”

She nodded. “The wings are easy to cut through. You could pull the wings out, too, but I doubt you would want to do that. That is the cruelest way to kill them. It is also harder to keep the angel still to pull the wings out. Either way, it’s going to work. Either way, it’s going to kill them. But it’s just cruel to do it that way.” Ariel threw the sword up and caught it. “That is how they were killed when damned to Hell at the beginning. Lucifer would pull their wings out, nice and slow, letting the other angels that wanted to go back to Heaven, feel every single inch of the pain. That’s why we normally don’t do it that way. We normally just cut them off. I’ve never killed an angel, but we all know how angels are killed. We all have to know.”

My body felt frozen in place. “Pulled their wings off?” I whispered. “Like a butterfly?”

Ariel glanced down at the necklace that I was gripping. “Just like a butterfly. That’s how he would do it, but maybe you should practice.” She snapped her fingers. “Today. Come on, put your sword up.”

I dug the toe of my Converse into the wooden attic floor. “I’d rather not. I took marital art protection classes when I was younger, but they don’t seem to be coming in handy here.”

Ariel placed her hand on her hip and rolled her eyes. “Well, I’m sure your instructor didn’t think you would be battling fallen angels either, now did he?”

“Probably not.”

“Okay, then. You’re getting a lesson in killing angels from me.” She pointed toward herself as if she were the greatest gift on Earth. “Okay, put up your sword. For me, the easiest way to hold it is on my shoulder. You might have to use both arms to give it a good swing. Don’t miss.”

I placed the blade an inch from my shoulder.

“Good. Now you want to get on the side of the angel, okay? When you swing it, you want it to go a straight line, parallel to the middle of the back. It needs to hit right where the wing connects to the shoulder.”

Bracing myself, I took a practice swing. Ariel shook her head. “That was horrible. Give me a grunt with it.”

“I’m not grunting.”

“Come on, grunt.”

Shaking my head, I said, “No, not going to do it.”

“Here watch me.” She swung the blade and grunted as she did it.

I laughed and dropped the tip of my sword to the floor. “I’m glad you enjoyed that, but I’m not doing it.”

“Okay, well at least give me a semi-good swing. Your swings are girly.”

“I am a girl.”

“But you don’t want to swing like one, especially when our lives are at stake.”

Sighing, I brought the blade back up to my shoulder. I swung with everything I had, trying to make a straight line. “Is that better?”

Ariel shrugged. “I guess that will have to do. Maybe when your adrenaline kicks in you’ll do better.”

“You just said it was better?”

“Better, but not as good as it needs to be.”

Ariel took my sword and placed it to the side with hers.

“Ariel, do you think that we could walk out of this fight alive? I mean, what are our chances?”

“Slim.”

“You’re not scared of slim being our chance at winning?”

“I’ve been around a long time. I’m not scared of dying, especially since it’s the right thing to do.”

“Ariel.”

“Hmm.”

“Thank you for saving me and my sister. I will never be able to repay you for this.”

“You don’t have to. Just kill a fallen angel for me. That will make us even.”

I nodded. “I’ll give it the best I got.”

Ariel smiled and looked down at the swords in the corner. “I’m scared that our best might not be good enough.”


Dawn broke and I was up to watch it. I couldn’t sleep, thinking about what was going on not too far from us. Just thinking about Darrton and realizing he had no choice but to call Satan. Or Scotty, giving his soul up when I knew he still had good in him. Mom and Dad wouldn’t get to tell us goodbye. The reality was, Samantha and I probably wouldn’t make it out of this alive.

It’s only a matter of time.

Warren, Caden, and Scotty will find us eventually.

The sun made its appearance over the trees in the distance. It would have been a pretty sight any other day, but not today. I had a gut-wrenching feeling that this would be our last day to see the sun.