“Let me go first,” Ash said. He gave her hand one last squeeze then dropped it and moved up to stand beside Ryan. As he raised his hand to open the door, he turned back to her. “Everything will be all right,” he said. “Trust your instincts.”
What did that mean? Her instincts were telling her to run screaming in the opposite direction. She nodded and gave him a weak smile.
“Good girl.”
She stepped back and bumped into Ryan.
“If I ever called you a ‘good girl,’ you’d call me a patronizing bastard and punch me in the nose,” he murmured.
“You are a patronizing bastard.”
“So just how ‘good’ were you?” He managed to leer and smirk at the same time.
“Again—piss off, Ryan.”
At that moment, the door opened and bright white light flooded the stairwell.
Footsteps sounded behind her. She glanced quickly away from the light and over her shoulder. Christian was climbing the stairs, Tara beside him and more people close behind them. She recognized the red-haired man from reception. Others she’d never seen before.
Ash had paused in the doorway. Now he turned. “How do you want to do this?” he asked Christian.
“I want you to take Tara to safety.”
“Christian—”
“It’s not an option, Tara. I want you away from them. They can’t kill me—not easily anyway—but you’re vulnerable, and I want you out of the way. Right now, we can still negotiate, but if anything happens to you, I’ll rip them into fucking pieces and beat them to death with their own sodding wings. And they’re not going to want to talk after that.”
Did he really believe there were real, genuine angels out there? With wings? Flapping about. They were kidding weren’t they? The light flared brighter.
“I’ll take her down,” Ash said. “The humans as well. Then I’ll come back.”
Christian nodded. He bent down and kissed Tara. “Faith, Ryan, and Graham—you go with Ash and Tara.”
“Er—where are we going?” Faith asked.
Christian turned to her and she saw a flicker of amusement flash across his face. “Ash is going to take you to his place until this is over.”
A shock wave hit the building and they all swayed. Faith rested her hand against the wall.
“And the sooner the better,” Christian added.
Ash’s place? She wanted to ask where that was. He’d mentioned Hell, but he’d been joking—hadn’t he? She’d presumed he had an apartment over at CR International, like Ryan. Maybe they were going there. From the roof. But she couldn’t see how that was going to work.
Christian stepped up beside Ash. She hadn’t noticed before, but he had a fucking great sword in a scabbard down his back. And a pistol at his waist, but somehow the sword seemed scarier. She felt like she had stepped into a dream.
He reached behind him and drew the sword with a rasp from the scabbard. “Let’s go.”
They stepped out onto the open rooftop. It was still long before dawn, but the sky in London was never truly dark. A blast of light shot toward them, Christian moved as though in slow motion, the great blade flashing in the bright light. The blast hit the steel and bounced off, showering sparks and lighting up the rooftop.
Someone touched her arm lightly and she jumped. She peered sideways, not wanting to take her eyes off Christian and his big sword. Ryan tapped her again and nodded toward the left and up in the sky.
Holy shit. A real, honest to God, goddamn angel. More than one.
Of all the things she had seen and heard that night, this one was too much. At least seven feet tall and glowing and with white wings that beat languidly and obviously held them up in the air so they floated high above the rooftop.
White wings—she could make out the individual feathers. A group of three and as she watched they spread out. Each raised an arm and simultaneously white fire streaked through the sky, heading for their group. Someone grabbed her and hurled her to the ground. An arm wrapped over her head, protecting her as the explosions hit the ground all around them. She peered out through the small gap. Christian moved with inhuman speed, deflecting the blasts, but then, he wasn’t human.
“Are you going?” he snarled over his shoulder.
At first, she thought he was talking to her, and then she realized it was Ash who was on top of her sheltering her with his body. She peered around. Tara stood at Christian’s back. Graham cowered behind a low wall. Ryan had ducked back inside the still-open door.
Ash rose to his feet, dragging her up and covering her with his huge body. All around stars exploded in the sky like fireworks. Not stars though, but more of the same.
More angels.
The blasts had stopped. One of the first three angels flew toward them and alighted in front of their small group.
“Hand over the abomination.” The voice was like music.
“Piss off,” Ash replied.
“Hand her over, and we will let you all pass.”