I turned to my father next to me. He motioned toward the other dark souls as they transformed from black to gray to gleaming snow, ascending lightly above us. My dad and I looked one last time at each other.
“You did good, baby girl.” It was time for him to go. I squeezed him around the neck. He gave me a grateful smile as he let me go, and then his spirit rose from the body of Big Rotty. His shining soul flew above me, wings flapping.
“Good-bye,” I whispered to him. But I couldn’t be too sad, because I knew I’d see him again, and he was going to be with Mariantha. All the things that were so crazy on earth would shed away and cease to matter.
The angel army led the way up, and the newly brightened souls followed, rising through the ceiling to their long-lost home. Kaidan grabbed me in a tight hug. As we looked at each other, I felt a strange tug within me.
From our chests, where our badges appeared, dark smoke was expelled, dissipating into the air. We gasped to see each other’s badges change to bursts of white.
And then a rushing of air made us turn to the opening in the earth. Souls of redeemed fallen angels and Nephilim from the underworld were flying upward by the thousands. We watched their ascent with pure amazement.
The building gave an ominous creak all around us, followed by a vicious quaking. Dust and dirt billowed up throughout the room.
“We have to get out of here!” Kaidan yelled.
Surrounding Neph grabbed hands and pulled one another up. We all ran as fast as we could, hurdling bodies on the ground, jumping over furniture and mounds of uprooted earth. Zania fell as the tremors under us increased, but Kaidan and Kopano pulled her up, and we ran to the back alley stairway, where we pushed through the heavy metal doors and sprinted upward, out into the Nevada summer night.
CHAPTER THIRTY
NEW LIFE
In the aftermath of Las Vegas’s worst earthquake in recent history, humanity showed its best. The streets were crowded with people. In the midst of the mayhem, complete strangers were helping and comforting one another. Miraculously, only thirteen people were killed in the quake—an eclectic group from around the world, eleven men and two women, all in the Lunar Room of the Galaxy Nightclub, which sat directly above the fault line. Rumors flew about the scandal of Big Rotty and his “faked death” followed by his real one.
No part of the club was salvageable. Hundreds were injured, and there’d been minor structural damage to surrounding buildings, but otherwise the news called it a modern miracle.
When Galaxy’s owner was interviewed, he said, “We cleared out the club as soon as the earthquake began, but the Lunar Room was locked. We banged and banged, but nobody would answer, and we had to get out of there.”
Reportedly, shots had been fired in the Lunar Room just before the quake began, but that was all speculation.
Kaidan never let go of my hand as we fled the nightclub as quickly as possible, pressing through the crowded streets of dusty chaos and back to the enormous lobby of The Venetian, where people talked animatedly about where they had been during the quake. Lights from rescue squads flashed across the room through the glass doors.
He pulled me into a corner against the wall, where we were partially hidden by an ATM machine. Kaidan grasped my face and I held his waist. All we could do was stare at each other.
“We made it,” he whispered, sounding disbelieving.
The truth of those words exploded inside me. It was over.
“We made it,” I said back. “We really did.”
He held my face, placing kisses across my skin—my nose, forehead, chin, and cheeks, then finally my lips. We were alive. I couldn’t believe it. When he wrapped his arms around me, a terrible, gaping loss gripped my heart, and it felt like I was cracking into pieces. “Patti . . .”
Kaidan held me tight as I broke down.
“I’m so sorry, luv,” he whispered. I felt him kiss my head as I clung to him, the memory of her death slicing through me.
Knowing she was at peace couldn’t stop me from hurting for the fear she must’ve felt when she was captured, and the pain she experienced at the hands of an evil soul. And the fact that I would no longer feel her hugs or listen to her supportive words here on earth. I’d miss her every day of my life.
And then I thought of something. . . .
I pulled back from Kaidan with a frantic feeling inside me.
“Where’s Jay?” I asked. How could I not have thought of him sooner?
I turned, searching the lobby until I saw our group of friends huddled close to the glass and looking out at the craziness in silence. Marna was on her phone. When we made eye contact, her arm shot into the air, waving me over, and she was smiling.
Pure, sweet relief rushed through me. He was okay.
I ran to Marna and we embraced.
“Where is he?”
“He’s actually here in Vegas. He didn’t know where we’d be, so he checked in at another hotel, but he’s on his way over.” She was beaming.