I wailed, mourning for my friend. Claire hugged me tight. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry,” she repeated, over and over.
Ryan leaned against the opposite wall, his rifle in hand, tears drawing clean lines down his dirty face.
“Could you grab a cloth and wipe her forehead?” Claire said. Ryan didn’t hesitate, digging through the pack and then patting down my brow. He combed back my wet hair with his fingers and then kissed my cheek. “Doing good, Nigh. Hang in there.”
I began to speak, but the urge to push came again, so I heaved. I pushed so hard that my body trembled. Yelling seemed to help, so I did. I yelled, and screamed, and cried out. I cried for Kim, and for the pain, and for fear of what would happen once Bean was vulnerable.
Jared held open my shaking knees. “You’re almost there, Nina.”
Just as he said the words, the baby seemed to spill out of me and into Jared’s arms.
He laughed out loud, in shock, holding his blood-covered child in his arms.
Claire helped me to relax back against the cushion, and then she assisted Jared in cleaning off the infant and cutting the cord.
Bex pushed his back against the door. “We’ve got some nasty ones on the way! They’re boiling up straight from Hell!”
Ryan gripped his rifle, and Claire stood. “Oh my God,” she whispered. “They’ve sent an entire Legion.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Mother
There is a distinct difference between the ability to create life and the innate need to protect it, to cherish it. Appreciating that life is the one being you love most in the universe becomes duty, and as a direct result, one must neglect all else to preserve it.
The mother that throws herself in front of an oncoming car, the mother that eats a can of generic peaches when the last bit of food isn’t enough to share, the mother that wears a ratty dress to work so that she can keep much-needed shoes on those tiny, precious feet…that is the distinction of a mother’s love: self-sacrifice.
The moment I heard the cries of the tiny, gooey baby in Jared’s arms, nothing else mattered. Not even me.
“Is he okay?” I asked.
“Uh…yeah. She’s okay.”
“It’s a girl?” Claire squealed.
“It’s a girl?” Bex groaned.
Jared wrapped her in a clean blanket, and carefully lifted the tiny bundle to look into her eyes. He had no expression except for the smallest hint of a smile. His eyes focused on me, and then put her in my arms as if he were passing on the most fragile, priceless, precious treasure in existence.
I nestled her in the crook of my arm, and until that moment the times I thought I had sacrificed seemed trivial. Everything and everyone in my life was less important, less urgent. My life was simply an extension of the tiny, soft, innocent wonderment before me. I knew how millions of other women before me could behave so erratic, be so forgiving, and so courageous. My heart was no longer on the inside of my body. It was in my arms.
“Jared?” Bex said. With one hand he held the door closed, with other, he gently slid Kim’s lifeless body away from the door and against the wall.
A loud bang vibrated the wall, and Bex flew back, skidding across the floor. The door blew open, and creatures filed into the room, immediately attacking. A foul odor filled the room, and I held my baby close to me. Jared stayed close, violently fending off any demons that dared get close enough to his family.
Every window on the opposite wall from the door exploded. Jared covered us with his body to shield us from flying glass. When the dust cleared, Samuel stepped into the room, standing next to a familiar face in full armor.
“Michael,” Jared breathed, stunned. It was Isaac’s father; his entire army of warrior angels behind him.
The demons snarled and shrieked.
“You shall not touch this child,” Michael said, drawing a long sword.
“Come!” Samuel challenged, raising his arms. “We welcome Hell’s most terrible wrath!”
The demon that had taken me from the Sepulchre lifted his head and bleated, and then led a charge into the street.
Bex and Claire stood to the side, watching hundreds of demons surge past them, casting off wind like a freight train barreling through the room. The clash outside between Heaven and Hell was audible, like nothing I’d ever heard before, and then at once, it was silent, crossing planes.
Jared grabbed each side of my face with a broad smile. “We did it, Nina! Heaven will protect her!”
I sighed with relief and hugged my daughter to my chest. The quiet we shared was frozen in time. The end of the war around us was instantaneous. Bex, Ryan, Claire and Jared all looked in wonder at my little girl. She lay still, peering around with her big, round, cloudy eyes, blinking at the bright light.
Jared kneeled before me, still breathing hard, his face red and marked with shades of blood and dirt from his fight to reach us. Ryan and Claire crowded around us, their worried expressions softened by the sight of the child wrapped in my arms.
“You’re amazing,” Jared said. His voice cracked an infinitesimal amount as he spoke, but I couldn’t look away to see his expression. The little girl in my arms was breathtaking.
Claire took a few silent steps until she was next to me. She rubbed her palm on her jeans and then reached out her small hand, extending her index finger to touch the baby’s pinky. “She’s…here,” she whispered, in awe.
“You did it,” Ryan said with a half-smile.
Jared crawled to the opposite side of Claire, tenderly putting one arm behind my neck, the other touching his daughter’s cheek with his thumb. He kissed my hair and leaned in to whisper in my ear. “I didn’t think I could love you more than I already did.”
I looked into his eyes and smiled. “You did it, Jared. You saved us.”
Jared’s blue-grey eyes glossed over, and he pulled me closer, the three of us in a tender embrace.
After a few quiet moments, Jared’s arms tensed, and he looked to the doorway. Claire flipped around, her hands balled into fists at her side. Bex stood in front of my makeshift bed, crouched in a defensive stance.
Ryan quickly cocked his gun and aimed at the door, ready for whatever the Hybrids were bracing for. “What now?” he said, his eyes focused at the same point as the others.
Claire shoved Ryan against the wall and then pointed at him. “Stay there,” she said firmly. “Don’t. Move.”
Ryan lowered his weapon, and waited.
The door opened slowly, and a man in a white suit walked, slow and lithe, through the threshold. His hair was shiny and black, his eyes deep-set and calm. He was beautiful and grotesque at the same time; a baby-faced supermodel with eons of hate and bitterness flowing through his veins.
Bex took a step, but Claire held out her hand and flattened it against his chest, restraining him. “Stand next to Ryan.”
“But…” Bex protested.
“Do it!” she growled. I’d never heard her take that tone with her little brother.
The man’s eyes darted to the youngest Ryel, his head unmoving. It was unnatural, frightening. Bex slowly walked to the wall, wary of the pair of eyes that studied his every move.
I pulled my infant daughter closer to me, turning slightly so that my shoulder was in a position to protect her. I didn’t notice the movement until I realized it had drawn the man’s attention back to us.
“Desecration,” the man breathed. His was more of a hiss than a voice. “Even more than your father.”
“Do not speak to her,” Jared said, his tone low and terrifying.
Ryan looked to Claire. He was confused and worried, but he didn’t move.
