instincts took over where my brain left off. I heard the crack of the pistol and saw the flash, but before my mind could figure out what all that meant, my body dove for cover. I barreled through the mass of broken shelves and tumbled out the other side as Mario’s bullet pinged somewhere behind me. The sound clicked something on inside my head and the fog started to clear. Through it all, something felt weird about the whole situation. It felt surreal. Not right somehow.
I moved off further through the maze of shelves, deeper into the darkness, doing my best to circle toward the front entrance. Mario and McConnell cleared the debris and followed, veering off to keep me from reaching the exit. The goon popped a shot off here and there as they followed. They rang out through the gloom, ricocheting nearby.
Once the gears in my head found their rhythm Page 64 again, I felt sure the darkness was natural and not some reflection of my damaged skull. I presumed that’s why Mario had such a hard time hitting me in the minimal cover of the warehouse. But again, something seemed off. His shots seemed hurried, desperate almost. As I thought that, he fired off a few more rounds in my general direction. It was like he hoped to get lucky. Not on the first date, buddy.
I worked my way around another shelf and nearly shit myself when I tripped over Mike’s body. Focused on McConnell and Mario, I hadn’t been paying attention to where I was. I stifled a nervous laugh and relieved Mike of his gun. He wouldn’t need it anymore. It wasn’t the supernatural slayer my piece was, but it’d do for now. I searched him for spare rounds and came up with a couple of cartridges, stuffing them in my pockets and scurrying off as I heard my pursuers closing in. A few more shots pinged nearby, drawn by my movement. I kept my head down and crept in the direction I remembered the door being. Through it all, I still had the sense of something wrong. Right then, it hit me.
When McConnell arrived, it had been all confidence and overwhelming superiority. Now, I didn’t get the same sense. Mario popped off shots almost at random, trying to hit me in the dark while McConnell hadn’t done anything since he knocked me across the room. Don’t get me wrong, it was a hell of a shot, but it was far from fight-ending. He’d even let the light spell drop, which was more a detriment to him than to me. Why would a wizard who once stood his own against a horde of raging demons and angels rely on gunmen to take me out?
He was holding back on purpose.
Or maybe he wasn’t.
Indecision is a hobby of mine.
It was time to test a theory. I took off my shoes, set one aside and tossed the other in the general direction of the exit. It landed with a quiet thud, but it was enough. I heard a hiss from the darkness followed by the rapid crack of gunfire as three quick muzzle flashes split the dark, illuminating Mario’s position. Gotcha. I took a moment to aim, then double-tapped the trigger.
Mario cried out as the first bullet struck him, presumably in the vest. His cry was cut short as my second hit with a wet thwack. There was a thump followed by the clack of his gun as they both dropped to the concrete floor. In the blackness next to him, I heard a gasp, then the slap of booted feet running. I oriented on the sound, realizing McConnell was running away from the exit, further into the warehouse. Thrown off by his choice of directions, I held my gun out in front of me and chased after him as fast as I could, dodging through the maze of shelves.
There was a loud boom as something struck the Page 66 corrugated metal roof of the warehouse. I stopped and looked up just as a huge section of the roof was peeled back as easily as a piece of aluminum foil. A brilliant light suddenly illuminated the warehouse, shining down through the hole. Blinded for only an instant, thanks to good genetics, I could make out a shape in the center of the glow.
And what a shape it was.
Scarlett floated toward the floor, her wings trailing behind her, more a manifestation of her power than a physical set. She looked every bit the avenging angel as she descended, Everto Trucido clutched in her hand. The only thing that could have made the moment more majestic was if she had been wearing a skirt. Suddenly, I remembered what I was doing before my libido kicked into overdrive and looked again for McConnell. The room bright with angelic aura, I saw him just as he reached the warehouse office. He flung the door open and hurried inside.
With no idea why Scarlett was there, but grateful for her presence, I shouted for her to follow as I ran for the office. As I neared it, a green light exploded inside the tiny building, seeping out through the door and broken windows before it faded. Unsure of what happened, I held my gun out before me and whipped the door open.
The room was empty.
“Damn it!” I shouted as I ran around the back of Page 67 the office, looking to see if McConnell had slipped out that way. He hadn’t.
“He’s gone,” Scarlett said, sheathing her sword. I wondered if Captain Obvious needed her cape.
“Where the hell did he go?”
Scarlett walked up behind me, glancing into the office. She shrugged. “He used the circle to transport himself away. He could be anywhere.”
I growled, having not realized the ritual circle could be used as a makeshift gate. I thought McConnell was running low on energy, but his having to use the residual magic of the circle to escape meant he was on empty. I could have taken him out had I been faster. Damn. That would’ve earned me one hell of a pat on the back from Abraham. Now, a hole in my shoulder and a headache were all I had to show for it. Fortunately, all that would fade fast. The bullet was already being pushed to the surface as the wound healed beneath it. Irritated, I turned to Scarlett. “What are you doing here?”
“I went by your house, but you weren’t there. I saw the map and figured you’d be at one of the locations marked on it. It didn’t take much to find you from there.”
“So you just broke into my house? Does no one have any respect for privacy anymore?”
Scarlett smiled. “Given how I arrived to find you under attack by Asmoday’s men, I’d think you’d be more grateful.”
“I guess it’s too late to add ‘thou shalt not break and enter’ to the list of commandments, huh?”
She just laughed, more at me than the joke. I shook my head. “Anyway, since you’re here, you can help me. Tell me what that circle was used for.”
I pointed to the office.
“Besides helping your bad guy get away?”
I took a deep breath and held off a second before I answered. “Yes, besides that.”
With a look of feigned indifference on her face, Scarlett went inside the office. She no doubt wanted to know just as much as I did, maybe more. I could see it in her eyes. Pretending patience, I stayed at the doorway as she dropped to her knees in the circle, focusing. I watched as she rocked back and forth, reaching out. The wave of her senses washed over me like tendrils of her hair tickling my skin. I tried my hardest not to be aroused. It wasn’t enough. What can I say? I’m easy. Unlike my mystical sense, which has all the subtlety of a jackhammer on crack, Scarlett’s could peel away the layers of supernatural occurrence like a fine-tuned MRI machine. She could easily pick out the faint traces left behind by wizards, which I would have missed, their footprints buried in the blurry mass of magical stimuli. Her sensitivity had a downside though. She felt everything so much deeper than I ever could. I saw her green eyes go wide. Her hands flew up to cover her mouth as her senses dropped. She collapsed. I raced to her side. Her breathing was labored and her whole body shook.
“You okay?”
She took a moment, slowing her breath, before she answered with a tentative nod.
“What did you see?” I asked, helping her to her feet.
She rubbed at her eyes as if to wipe the vision away. “There was an angel held here.” Her shaking hand pointed at the circle.
I looked to the piles of melted flesh and a shiver ran down my spine. I felt cold. Numb. I knew the ritual had been elaborate, the manacles and dampeners a sure sign, but I would have never thought Asmoday capable of capturing an angel. It put things into perspective. You see, while the old world demons like Asmoday were once angels, they lost a part of their power in the fall. It was the cost of their betrayal. That power was spread amongst the Angelic Choir, ensuring a measure of equilibrium against the Demonic Horde that bolstered its ranks with allies both supernatural and human. With Armageddon hanging over our heads, it was never good to see the balance shift toward the dark. At least now it made sense why McConnell was so short on magic. The capture and torture of an angel had to be exhausting, even with a demon doing most of the heavy lifting.
