Fractured Souls by Ava Marie Salinger
26
Morgan caughtmovement at the mouth of the alley behind the warlock. Singh and the Occulta doorman turned the corner of the building housing the bar and rocked to a halt.
“Clear the road, Zakir!” Morgan ordered. “And call for back up!”
Singh nodded shakily as he stared at Cassius and the warlock, the fear widening the Argonaut agent’s eyes telling Morgan all thoughts of berating them had fled his mind.
“Stay back, Samuel!” Suzie barked at the wizard doorman as he took a step forward.
A group of men and women appeared behind Singh and Samuel, guns and daggers drawn. Morgan recognized the insignias of Rosen, Hexa, and Cabalista on their jackets.
“What the hell?!” one of them gasped.
A Hexa agent cast his magic at the shadowy barrier. The pale sphere exploded harmlessly against the ethereal wall.
“Don’t bother!” Adrianne shouted. “You can’t get through this!”
Startled cries left the agents and Samuel when they saw what emerged from the portal the warlock had opened.
“Go!” Morgan yelled, his gaze locked on the skeletal figures rising from the living darkness that now connected this world to their realm. “Get as many people away from this place as you can!”
The men and women retreated.
The war demons came quietly, their leathery wings unfurling with faint cracks as they tasted the air with their forked tongues.
“Shit!” Julia growled, her hand fisting on her sword.
Morgan gritted his teeth. There were at least fifty of the creatures.
From Cassius’s account, the sorcerer who had killed Joyce Almeda had only managed to summon fifteen war demons at the park. Even one of those monsters was more than enough to challenge the average angel or demon.
The war demons’ crimson eyes found the Empyreal who’d shot up to hover above them.
“Kill him!” the warlock ordered.
“No!” Morgan screamed.
He moved back some dozen feet before rushing forward and smashing his shoulder into the barrier.
Morgan gnashed his teeth and cursed the Hells as the insubstantial wall resisted his attacks over and over again, blood soaking his T-shirt where his skin broke. Julia and Zach joined him, blades sparking off the gossamer barrier and fists striking the shifting shadows until their knuckles bled.
They didn’t even put a dent in it.
Cassius’s figure blurred as he engaged the war demons on the other side, his body wreathed in dazzling radiance.
A maniacal bark of laughter left the warlock where he stood watching the battle, his bloodlust making the barrier throb with malevolence.
Black blood stained Cassius’s blazing sword as he sliced and carved at the enemy, the gore evaporating off the blade as quickly as it coated it. His features radiated holy wrath as he deflected the claws and fangs coming at him from every direction, his wings occasionally obscured by the enemy horde surrounding him.
The war demons’ attack was relentless, as was the Empyreal’s defense. Still, Morgan knew Cassius couldn’t keep this up for long.
A claw cut through the protective barrier shielding the Empyreal seconds later, drawing blood on his right arm. Fangs raked his left thigh in the next instant. Cassius kicked and stabbed the war demons who’d wounded him, his face full of unwavering determination.
Despair formed a heavy knot in the pit of Morgan’s stomach. He dug his fingers into the barrier and summoned all of his powers as he attempted to pry it open. The tempest that exploded around him pushed Julia and the others aside some ten feet. Adrianne cursed as her body was inexorably forced backward on the ground.
“Morgan!” she yelled, her voice full of fear.
Morgan barely felt his nails snap. He clenched his jaw.
More! I need more power, damnit!
Cassius cast an alarmed look his way.
Something darted through the air from the warlock’s direction.
A gasp escaped Cassius. He froze, shock flaring across his face and a sliver of blood bursting from his lips. He looked down dazedly.
Morgan stopped breathing.
A thin, jagged spear of pure, writhing darkness had left the warlock’s hand and pierced the Empyreal’s body straight through his back.
“NOOOO!” Morgan bellowed.
The war demons swallowed the wounded Empyreal.
A cry left Adrianne’s lips. Bailey gripped the sorceress’s shoulder, his face pale, an equally ashen Suzie standing helplessly beside them.
Julia cursed and rammed her shoulder repeatedly into the barrier, Zach mimicking her desperate actions.
“I will KILL you!” Morgan screamed at the warlock, smashing the wall with his bloodied fists. “I swear on everything that I am, I will—”
Brightness filled the world.
The war demons shrieked and fell back, clawed hands rising to shield their monstrous faces and wings spreading to block the divine light even as it consumed them and turned their bodies to fiery ash.
Morgan’s pulse stuttered, his wings growing limp in shock. The being who floated above the alley was one he knew all too well.
It was the angel from his dreams.
Shimmering armor covered Cassius’s body from the neck down. His hair had brightened to the palest gold and his eyes burned with Heaven’s Light.
The warlock stumbled back at the end of the alley, his hood shifting briefly to expose part of his pale face, his mouth a rictus of fear. He cursed, gripped the summoning staff, and called forth another wave of war demons.
Cassius frowned at the fresh surge of monsters crawling out of the portal. He closed his left hand around the weapon embedded in his bleeding body and turned his head, his bright gaze locking with Morgan’s across the ethereal wall.
In that moment, Morgan knew he was looking at someone else.
Someone Cassius used to be.
“Lend me your strength, Ivmir,” the angel said calmly, his voice so powerful it cracked the walls of the alley.
The name he spoke flared through Morgan’s consciousness and made his heart throb with an echo of remembrance. The Empyreal stretched his right hand out toward the barrier. A pulse of seraphic energy arced from his fingertips. It shot through the air and slammed into a point directly opposite Morgan, the reverberation smashing the windows of nearby buildings.
A fracture appeared in the sphere of shadows.
Morgan scowled, slipped his fingers into the crack, and wrenched it open inch by slow inch. He managed to squeeze his hand through the gap he’d created just as the war demons swarmed the Empyreal once more.
“Cassius!”
Morgan gasped. Heat exploded deep inside as his soul core connected with Cassius’s across the distance that still separated them. He had little time to fathom the why and how, his entire being filling with a power that threatened to break his bones and shatter his mind. To his everlasting surprise, his body reacted instinctively to the forceful flood, channeling it as if it had done so many times before.
A ball of black wind exploded around Morgan’s hand.
He stared at it, stunned.
“Now, Ivmir!” Cassius roared, his holy blade carving through the war demons crowding him in lightning-fast moves, seemingly oblivious to his bleeding wound.
Morgan scowled. He knew what he needed to do.
He drew his hand back sharply and smashed his dark, storm-wreathed fist into the barrier. Once. Twice. Three times.
The wall warped and cracked with a thunderous sound.
Morgan, Julia, and the others rushed through it even as it shattered around them.
“No!” the warlock shrieked.
A spell tumbled from his lips, the fury of his dark magic making the air throb. Another portal opened next to him. He gripped the summoning staff and stepped toward it.
Anger burned Morgan where he slashed and stabbed the war demons surrounding Cassius.
He’s going to get away!
Suzie scowled. “Oh no you don’t, asshole!”
The warlock cried out as a sphere of the witch’s white magic struck his left leg, breaking it with a loud snap. He vanished in the next instant, the doorway closing behind him with a whisper.
The black wind around Morgan’s hand extended to engulf his sword. The war demons screeched as they succumbed to his and the others’ blades, Morgan felling twice as many as the others, his movements lightning fast and deadly.
Cassius finally emerged from the war demons’ dying midst.
The angel met Morgan’s gaze just as the last of the monsters thudded to the ground, a grateful light in his beautiful eyes. The brightness engulfing him faded, his armor disappearing and his wings slowly returning to their black and crimson colors.
Morgan caught him around the waist as he started to fall.
“What do I do?” the Aerial mumbled, staring helplessly at the spear of dancing darkness that still pierced the angel’s body. “Tell me what to do!”
Cassius swallowed, his face turning ashen as the last of his Empyreal powers faded.
“Destroy it!” he gasped in a voice full of pain. “I know you can.”
Morgan nodded, his vision blurring with tears. He carefully lowered Cassius to the ground, held him in his arms, and took a gentle hold of the spear. Power flared from his soul core as he concentrated.
A black tempest exploded around his fist.
The weapon screamed, a high-pitched sound sure to shatter Morgan’s ear drums. He gritted his teeth and squeezed his fingers. The jagged spear slowly disintegrated in his grip, a low whine escaping it as it succumbed to the dark wind.
Cassius shuddered when it finally vanished from his body. He blinked at Morgan. His face softened. He raised bloodied fingers and caressed Morgan’s cheek shakily.
“Don’t cry.”
Morgan turned his head and kissed the angel’s hand. Cassius’s arm fell and thudded limply onto the ground.
“Cassius?” Horror widened his eyes as he stared at the angel’s unmoving form. “Cassius!”