Fallen by Suzanne Wright

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

I’msupposed to call you home and straight to the courtyard, Celia went on, but don’t come. They just want to trap you like they’ve trapped our entire goddamn lair—Castiel surrounded the monastery with a forcefield so no one can get out. I was the only one outside, so he grabbed me before I could teleport away. Castiel’s calling for you to come face him.

Maddox clenched his teeth and, forcing himself to think through the rage that pumped through both him and his demon, asked her, What about the cathedral? Have they apprehended it?

No, Celia replied.

Good. Sit tight. Without hesitation, Maddox teleported himself, Raini, and Carmen to the attic of the cathedral.

“What the fuck?” Raini burst out, blinking rapidly. “Why are we here?”

“Castiel has come,” Maddox told her, striding toward the small arched window, knowing that no one below would see him through the stained glass. His demon hissed at the sight of the monastery contained by a forcefield. It looked much like the ones that Maddox could form, except that it crackled with white and gold energy.

A tall, winged man stood a few feet away from the energy construct, laughing at a ranting Celia, who stood so unnaturally still that it was clear some sort of power was holding her in place. Two dozen halo-bearers were also present, glancing in every direction, clearly waiting for Maddox to appear.

Beside him, Raini gasped. “Oh, fuck. I’m guessing that’s Castiel.”

“Those shit-eating bitches,” snarled Carmen. “He’s containing everyone so that they can’t teleport to safety or come out and fight him, isn’t he?”

“I would say so,” said Maddox, feeling his nostrils flare. “I suspect he’d be burning down the entire building as we speak if it wasn’t protected from holy fire. He came in the morning because he knew it was the likeliest time to find us all here—other times of the day, some of us are working at or guarding the club.”

“And because everyone aside from us three is in fact home, there are no lair members for us to call on,” said Carmen.

“If it wasn’t for Celia, I could have killed the bastards in one swoop with psychic hellfire,” said Raini. “But if I let out a wave of it, she’d get hit, too. Do you think you could, I don’t know, teleport to her and then whisk her away in a flash?”

“No,” replied Maddox. “But I think Castiel is hoping I’ll try it. Look at how very still she is.”

“Shit, he’s trapped her there somehow,” Raini realized. “He’s probably hoping you won’t notice and that you’ll go to her— placing you right in his path. Essentially, she’s bait.”

“Yes.” A sense of urgency riding him hard, Maddox looked from Raini to Carmen. “I need you both to stay inside. I’m going to—”

“Now hold on a second, you cannot be thinking of going out there alone.” Raini shook her head hard. “No. No way. No fucking way.”

Touched by but not liking the fear in her eyes, Maddox took a step toward her. “Baby—”

“Don’t you ‘baby’ me. You have seen how many of them are out there, right? You do realize you’re totally outnumbered?”

“I’ve fought higher numbers—”

“At times when an archangel was included in those numbers?”

Maddox cupped her neck. “I’ve got this. Trust me. I wouldn’t go out there if I didn’t believe I could come out of the fight alive and back to you. Stay here with Carmen. I can see you’re balking at that, but it’s vital that Castiel doesn’t get to you. That’s why I brought you here instead of leaving you with your family. The cathedral is protected, the same as the monastery—those angelic bastards can’t get in here or burn it down.”

“I’ll keep her safe,” Carmen promised him.

Maddox nodded and kissed Raini hard. “I have to go. No matter what happens, you stay inside.”

Raini’s mouth firmed. “Fine. But if Celia somehow gets away, teleport out of sight and then I’ll psychic-hellfire the shit out of those motherfuckers.”

Maddox nodded. After sending a brief telepathic message to a certain someone, he teleported to the doorstep of the cathedral. “Took you long enough to turn up, Castiel.”

The archangel and halo-bearers swerved to face him and braced themselves to attack. Moreover, a dozen additional angels appeared out of nowhere.

“Maddox Quentin, I presume,” said Castiel in a booming voice that rang with power.

“You presume correctly. I was beginning to think you’d never work up the nerve to face me.”

“You think me afraid of you?” scoffed Castiel. “How very foolish. Killing you will be easier than squashing a bug.”

“Hmm, then I’d have to question why you’ve brought backup with you—and so very much of it.”

“My angels are simply here for the pleasure of witnessing the demise of the demon who murdered their brothers.”

“I wasn’t alone in that. Members of my lair helped with utter delight. You’re not going to drop the forcefield so they can come out and you can punish them, too? I’m thinking … no. I think you would rather keep them contained so that I don’t have any backup.” Maddox gave a lazy shrug. “I suppose I should be flattered that you see me as such a threat.”

Castiel sneered. “You are nothing.”

“A ‘nothing’ who none of your minions were able to take down—not even when they outnumbered me.”

“Those fools were weak.” Castiel’s chin notched up. “I am not.”

“And yet, you do not feel comfortable facing me unless I’m without aid.”

Castiel’s upper lip curled back. “Wrong again. I would not care if you had backup.”

Both Maddox and his demon smirked. “It’s funny you should say that … ” He sent a brief telepathic signal, and the people he’d called on mere moments ago swiftly appeared. Viper and his brothers gathered around the halo-bearers, their eyes bright with bloodlust. “As you can see,” began Maddox, still smirking at Castiel, “I’m not alone.”

His gaze landing on Viper, Castiel did a double-take. “You.”

Viper grinned. “Me.”

“Traitor,” Castiel hissed. He glanced at the other Black Saints, and his scowl deepened. “You’re all traitors.”

“And you’re delusional if you think you have a chance at being made one of the Seven,” said Viper. “That’s never going to happen, no matter how many grand gestures you try to make. But hey, don’t take my word for it.”

Castiel’s nostrils flared. “I will kill the descendants here,” he told Viper. “Then I will kill you. And I will take your body home with me. They will all see then that I am—”

“Completely fucking delusional, like I said,” Viper finished. “You won’t defeat Maddox, let alone me.”

“You were right, Viper,” said Maddox. “He is incredibly arrogant. You know, Castiel, even if you were to win this battle—which you won’t—you’d never get the promotion you seek,” said Maddox. “Not when your higher-ups hear that you brought my anchor’s lair into this. Her family now want you gone. They’ll demand retribution.”

His eyes red, Castiel let out a derisive snort. “They won’t get it.” He coughed again. “No one will ever hand me over to them.”

“No, they wouldn’t. But you’d be in their bad books for pissing off demons, wouldn’t you? That risks starting a war. They know that. They don’t want it. You really should have stuck to fucking with my lair—they won’t care so much about that.”

“All will be forgiven once your breed has been wiped out.” The archangel conjured a high-powered ball of holy fire.

Maddox almost snickered. Oh, the halo-bearer who passed on his “message” would have also told Castiel that Maddox seemed immune to holy fire. But Castiel would no doubt believe that Maddox had no chance of withstanding an archangelic blast of holy fire—it would be so much more potent, so much more lethal.

Castiel slung the orb at Maddox, who didn’t make the slightest effort to dodge it. He let it come at him; let it explode into nothing mere inches before his body.

Castiel gasped.

Maddox smiled.

Then sheer chaos erupted.

Her eyes glued to the sight outside, Raini rocked back and forth on her heels, filled with a restless energy that had nowhere to go. Anxiety nibbled at her insides, rubbed her nerves raw, and made her stomach curdle. Her mate—her mate—was currently fighting a fucking archangel.

When more halo-bearers had wavered into the courtyard, she’d almost lost her everloving mind. She might have tried to barrel her way outside if the newbies, who Carmen told her were fallen angels of some kind, hadn’t appeared. They were fighting hard. They also seemed to be thoroughly enjoying themselves, like they either had some bad history with the halo-bearers or they were quite simply sociopathic.

The presence of one of the Black Saints, who Carmen had identified as Viper, made all the difference. He was so much more powerful than his “brothers,” and that strength made up for the fact that they and Maddox were outnumbered—especially when the number of halo-bearers was rapidly dropping.

The battle was an ugly one. Fire hissed, power sizzled, the courtyard statues crumbled under the assault. The Black Saints bit into their foes, ripping out chunks of flesh or gulping down angelic blood. Maddox and Castiel were focused on each other, merciless and relentless.

The air was lit up with orbs of hellfire, holy fire, red crackling energy, the gold whips of lightning that shot from Castiel’s fingertips, and whatever weird shit the Black Saints were throwing. The flaming balls were like holy fire in that they glowed and burned brightly, but they weren’t pure white. They were ultraviolet, and they were doing real damage to the halo-bearers.

Poor Celia remained in the center of it all. An occasional orb of hellfire had accidentally hit her, so she was in some serious pain, but she wasn’t fatally injured.

Raini’s entity did not want to be up here in a musty attic, observing the battle through the small window. It wanted to be with Maddox, protecting and fighting alongside him. Raini wanted the same, but she knew better. Her presence would only distract Maddox, and the one thing he did not need when up against a goddamn archangel was to be distracted.

Behind her, Carmen placed a hand on her back. “He’ll be fine, Raini.”

“So will Hector, but I’ll bet your head is all kinds of messed up knowing he’s trapped in the monastery and, more, you can’t be with him,” Raini hedged.

Carmen sighed. “Yeah, it is, so I get why you’re panicking. But Maddox has been through battles before, and he’s survived every one of them. He’ll survive this one, too.”

God, Raini hoped so. She pressed both palms to her stomach—the damn thing felt heavy as fuck, like a damn rock sat in it. She moved closer to the window. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I would rather you were down there with him than up here with me.”

“That’s not happening. Maddox would tear my head from my shoulders if I left you.”

“I’m safe here—”

“He’s strong, Raini. Uber strong. And the Black Saints have totally got their shit together. Trust him to have this.”

Shifting from foot to foot, Raini blew out several short, calming breaths. They didn’t help. Like at all. “I just feel so fucking helpless. He’s right there. I’m—”

“Exactly where he needs you to be. I know it’s frustrating, but he’ll fight better if he isn’t wondering where you are and if you’re safe.”

Raini dragged a hand through her hair. “You’re right. I know you’re right. But I don’t like it and—” She cut off at the sound of a loud thump. Pivoting on her heel, Raini sucked in a breath. Carmen was on the floor, seemingly out cold, and Euan stood over her, a gun in each hand. Son of a bitch.

“I wouldn’t think of lunging at me, if I were you,” he said, his smile pleasant.

She would have lunged if he wasn’t pointing a gun at both her and Carmen, who now had blood leaking out of her ears. Panic gripped Raini’s insides. “What did you do to her?”

Euan shrugged. “Just caused a little brain aneurism. Maddox could save her. I’m sure you’re counting on him to save you both. That won’t happen. And if you’re thinking that you might as well charge at me if she’s really a lost cause, consider this: a bullet would hit you before psychic hellfire hit me. So it might be best for you to simply behave.”

Raini’s surroundings flashed white, and then all three of them stood in the fucking mausoleum.

“I can’t have you telepathing your lair members to seek help, can I?”

Raini ground her teeth, and her demon lost its mind, demanding retribution, intent on ripping this prick apart with its bare hands. “How the hell did you get out of the monastery?” she asked.

Euan grinned. “I wasn’t inside it when Castiel and his minions arrived. I was in the vegetable garden. I teleported to the lower level of the cathedral out of sight.”

Raini stared at him, her lips parted. “You didn’t think to call for help? You deserted your own lair?”

He gave an unrepentant shrug. “It can be rebuilt.”

“Oh, I see; you’ll be its new Prime, huh?”

“Of course. Admittedly, I will not be whatsoever sorry to see the others go—they had their chance to make me their Prime; they didn’t.”

God, there was something so disturbing about seeing someone so satisfied at the prospect of his entire lair being wiped out. “So, you’re hoping the archangel and his helpers will do your dirty work and destroy them all?”

“I do want some part in taking Maddox down. The easiest way to do that would be through you.” Euan’s finger flexed on the trigger of the gun he was pointing at her head. “If I kill you, I weaken him, and he’ll then be easily defeated by Castiel. I’m not going to kill you right here, though. You see, he won’t be only physically weakened by your death, he’ll be devastated. I want to see that devastation on his face.”

Her gut roiled, and a knot of fear built in her throat so thick she could almost choke on it. No. No, Maddox would do just as Carmen had assured her he would—he’d survive this battle the way he had survived the others. And Raini would be damned if she’d let this pathetic asshole use her to bring down her own mate. No, not happening.

Silently ordering herself to calm the fuck down, she took in a slow breath and fought the urge to lift her chin in defiance. She couldn’t let Euan see her determination to fuck up his plans. She needed to do as she’d done with Maddox for months—remain cooperative, say nothing to piss Euan off, give him the illusion of complete control.

Seething, her demon wanted to peel the flesh from his bones, but it didn’t urge Raini to attack. It understood the value of biding its time. They would bring Euan down. Their opportunity would come. They just had to be patient, which would be a whole lot harder than it fucking sounded.

“The Black Saints are vicious, but they’ll be overpowered eventually,” Euan went on. “The three of us will hang out here until the halo-bearers have decimated as many of the Black Saints as possible.”

She could only pray that the battle would be over before Euan teleported them out of there; that he’d make his move too late.

He released a satisfied sigh. “Hearing your voice coming from the attic earlier, I knew it was a sign to act. Fate put you in my path tonight.”

“Is that so?” she asked, wishing he’d give her some kind of opening so that she could lunge. Wishing he’d look away, drop his guard, sneeze, something. And then an idea came to her.

Raini let out the tiniest sliver of a sexual pheromone, so subtle he wouldn’t sense it. She wasn’t aiming to arouse him, just make him a little flustered. She had to move carefully, though; had to let the effects build so slowly he wouldn’t notice until it was too late.

“You know, I didn’t originally plan to drag you into my game,” he said. “But my attempts to undermine Maddox didn’t work as well as I’d hoped. Not even when he inserted himself in your life. I had to take … other measures.” He smirked. “How is your sister, by the way?”

Raini froze. “You were the one who kidnapped her; the one who kept her captive.”

“I needed people to look at others for any moves I made against you. Your sister and her anchor were the obvious choices, given that they were both possible culprits of the boycotting, so I took them. I wasn’t entirely sure that either of them was guilty. I didn’t particularly care. I just needed scapegoats. Taking them was necessary, since I couldn’t very well have left them wandering around. Maddox would have delved into their minds and seen that neither was responsible for all that was happening. Then he would have looked much more closely at other suspects, such as me.”

She narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean neither were responsible for ‘all’ that was happening? Wait … it was you who sent those texts to my lair members,” she realized. It had to have been him, because both Dwain and Demi were already missing at that point—missing, and in Euan’s custody.

“Yes,” he replied, a flush beginning to stain his cheeks, which meant the pheromone was doing its job. “Dwain was kind enough to tell me who in the lair didn’t like you much. He stupidly thought I’d spare him. It was a pleasure to slit the whiny bastard’s throat. I would have killed your sister too, but I need her to tell others how Dwain kept her captive. I need everyone to believe that he was the only bad guy in this scenario.”

Well, that plan hadn’t worked out, because many knew that Demi’s memories were edited, but Raini chose not to enlighten him on that yet awhile.

“Since people are now under the impression that he’d do something so cruel as to keep his own anchor captive, they’ll find it easy to assume that he also hired the harbinger, so they won’t look at someone else for it.”

Raini felt her head jerk back. “You set him on my ass?”

“It seemed wise to ensure you were without power before I tried to kill you. I didn’t know back then that you possessed a substantial ability, but it always pays to be careful. I’d intended to pin your murder on Dwain, but the dagger failed to do its job. As did Gunther, even though he was in a haze.”

“It was you who dumped me in the mausoleum.” Motherfucker.

“I acted as soon as I heard that halo-bearers were at the club, knowing people would naturally assume it was one of them who took you. It would have been perfect if Gunther had succeeded in killing you. Maddox would have been in such a rage that he’d have killed Gunther, despite the demon not being in his right mind. People would have turned against Maddox for that. But you survived the attack, and you helped Gunther. Basically, Raini, you’ve been a pain in my ass.”

Well, she was all about tit for tat. “And you’ve used all that’s going on around you as a curtain to hide behind while you played your own sly games. All this because, what, you want to rule? Why not just go somewhere else and start your own lair?”

Euan dug his tongue into the edge of his incisor. “Did Maddox ever tell you that many of our lair died in a battle with another lair of descendants?” The question sounded so idle, yet there was a dark note to his voice. There was also a fine sheen of sweat on both his forehead and upper lip, proving that the pheromone was still at work.

“Yes.” Unwilling to take her eyes off Euan for long, she briefly dropped her gaze to Carmen. The sentinel still wasn’t moving. And there was fuck all Raini could do about it.

“Initially, that lair came to us in peace. The Prime, Louis, merely wanted the strongest demons from within our lair, and he offered to leave us alone if Maddox and his father, Joseph, agreed to join. The rest of us would have been spared. But Joseph and Maddox refused to go, and our own Prime refused to force them.” Euan’s face darkened, soured, twisted. “I lost so many people—my parents, my brother, the woman I intended to take as my mate—all because Joseph and Maddox wouldn’t simply leave. If they hadn’t been such selfish fuckers, the people I lost would be alive now.”

Raini gave a slow shake of the head. “It wouldn’t have happened that way, Euan. Louis wanted to take away the strongest descendants to make your lair easier to wipe out; he knew you’d be too powerful to defeat otherwise. It’s a trick that’s been used many times before. Louis would have returned to your lair another day and destroyed you all. If Maddox and his father had tried to seek vengeance, they’d have been killed, too.”

“You’re wrong. It was no trick. It was a genuine offer. All Joseph and Maddox had to do was transfer to another lair. It’s not difficult to switch. People do it all the time. But they wouldn’t, and now so many are dead. Maddox knew he had every chance of surviving. He knew it was possible he’d be made Prime if our own died. That’s why he refused to go. And he was made Prime, and now he also has a mate. Why should he get to have everything when, because of him, I was left with nothing?” he clipped with a snarl, his eyes cold and dark as flint.

“It was never really that you wanted to rule,” Raini realized. “You just wanted to see him fall.”

“And he will. He has no chance against an archangel. None. Maddox will die tonight. So will you. I will take everything from him that means anything to him, just as he did me.”

Bile burned the back of her throat. “Euan—”

“I will let him watch you die, just as I watched the woman I loved die. And then I will watch him die. But first … ” He fired two bullets.

Maddox ground his teeth as a gold energy ball smacked into his hand; the impact reverberated up his arm. The orbs packed a real fucking punch. It was like being hit with red-hot electricity. It jarred. Zapped. Burned. It also seared cloth and skin. He was thankful that the archangel didn’t seem able to scatter-shot it, because if any slivers of that energy buried themselves inside Maddox, he had the feeling they could kill him from the inside out with no trouble.

Maddox retaliated fast, firing off a series of hellfire orbs in quick succession. Three clipped Castiel’s head, another struck his shoulder, and the latter hit his chest—adding to the many burns, blisters, and scorch marks he already sported.

Hissing, Castiel jutted out his chin. “You can fling as many of them at me as you like. They will not kill me.”

No, they probably wouldn’t. But the pain would tire him. It was tiring him—which was why he’d ceased flying around in an effort to both dodge the orbs and grab Maddox. It hadn’t really helped Castiel much anyway, since Maddox could easily teleport from one spot to another to elude the archangel.

As Viper had warned, Castiel was far from weak. He was sharp, swift, strong. It was clear he was no stranger to battle. He could even withstand the deadly effects of the ice-cold energy Maddox conjured. Any slivers of it that buried themselves in Castiel’s body seemed to hurt him, but no more than that.

The archangel’s biggest weakness was that he relied too much on holy fire. He wasn’t adept at fighting without it or falling back on his other abilities, so he was flailing a little here. And Maddox was fucking enjoying it.

“I will end you,” Castiel swore. “I will end your entire lair, including your anchor.”

His demon pulled back its lips, baring its teeth. Like Maddox, it was sick of listening to Castiel’s repetitive threats of how he’d do this, that, and the other. Still, just hearing the archangel mention Raini made the entity want nothing more than to bludgeon the bastard to death with his own fucking leg.

“So you keep saying,” said Maddox. “But I’d be surprised if you truly believe it.”

A rush of adrenaline spurred him on as he attacked with a combination of hellfire, ice-cold energy, and telekinetic power. Castiel ducked, dodged, and retaliated, his reflexes admirably quick.

Around them, voices grunted, cried out, yelled warnings, or laughed. Yeah, the Black Saints laughed a lot. Like this was merely a rough-and-tumble Thanksgiving football game among relatives. They either did it to infuriate their opponents or they genuinely found some joy in battle. If it was the latter, Maddox could relate. He’d always enjoyed being in battle. There was always a feeling of … release when he broke into violence.

He and Castiel both stilled as a halo-bearer zoomed through the air between them and crashed into a nearby statue, sending it sprawling to the ground along with him.

“Your numbers are dwindling,” said Maddox. Bodies littered the ground—bitten, broken, blistered, and bloody. All were halo-bearers.

Castiel scoffed at the corpses. “They were weak.”

No, the Black Saints were just that good. Maddox was right in predicting that Viper’s brothers weren’t common types of angel. They were too fast, too powerful. And they were definitely seasoned fighters. A few had suffered fatal wounds, but then they’d fed on halo-bearers and, that easily, they’d healed.

Maddox wasn’t sure if all blood healed them that fast or only holy blood. Whatever the case, it kept the Black Saints strong. He also wasn’t sure what the hell those ultraviolet fiery orbs were—probably some warped version of holy fire—but they were potent enough to wrench cries of agony out of their opponents.

Castiel whipped up his arm, and the head of a statue sailed through the air. Maddox sidestepped it easily, and then they were fighting again, each striking with telekinetic power—punching, shoving, kicking, choking. Maddox knew he’d have bruises, because each hit landed like a damn mallet. One caught him in the kidneys, sending pain rippling through him.

His demon surfaced a few times, determined to get a few licks in. Maddox welcomed each surge of adrenaline. With the strain of shelving his pain and expending so much psychic power, he could feel himself tiring. It was slowing him down, which he fucking hated. The only reason the archangel hadn’t been able to take advantage of it was that he too was slowing.

Just then, Castiel hurled an orb of holy fire—something he did occasionally, as if he hoped it would begin to affect Maddox at some point.

Sighing, Maddox slanted his head. “Surely your minion told you that holy fire can’t harm me.”

A resentful snarl twisted Castiel’s face. “The holy blood in your veins is strong. It is only that that keeps you alive. If you were pure demon, I’d have killed you by now.”

“If you were fit to be one of the Seven, you’d have killed me by now.”

His neck corded, Castiel let out a battle cry and attacked again.