Fallen Angel 5: Falling Stars Read online

  The sudden release of Lucifer’s strung-up wrists had his dead arms falling to his sides as the chains clattered loudly to the ground. At the same instant, figures fell from the treetops surrounding them. Gasping in the sudden rush of air that was available as the dark-skinned vampire was knocked down, Lucifer saw the scene unfold.

  Thanatos was among the intruders, and sent Lucifer a sly smile as he dropped from the overhanging tree branch. His feet collided with Ruthaven’s shoulders, knocking the vampire to the ground. Shouts of alarm erupted, and the vampires and nephilim spun to face the new threat. The icy hold splintering Lucifer’s wings vanished as Ruthaven was hauled back by three of Lucifer’s offspring, two men and a woman.

  “Go! Go now!” Thanatos yelled over his shoulder. His smile was as stunning as it was mischievous. “We can handle this.”

  The nephilim recovered from the shock and lashed out with their swords as the other four vampires joined the assault.

  Lucifer almost hesitated as he pushed up to his feet, the sudden undulating of the ground taking him off balance. The vampires were armed and they’d made their choice. He didn’t want to see the offspring he’d never known existed snuffed out in the name of loyalty. But Lucifer couldn’t bear to stay, knowing that every second down here was another second against the life of his daughter above. A life that might already be gone—but that he could not bring himself to believe had been taken. A burning seed of hope still remained inside Lucifer, sprouting like life itself in his heart.

  “She is still alive,” a voice spoke from behind.

  The hand that grabbed Lucifer’s arm had him whirling with a ready flame bursting from his palm. He stalled at the last second, seeing Bathory who jerked him back. The sounds of clashing metal and grunts of pain grew louder by the second.

  The vampire spoke quickly. “But she will not be for long. There is another end. A new unraveling of fates. The course is not set in stone.” Bathory stepped closer over the quaking ground, wary of Lucifer’s fire but with a determination of his own burning in his silver-blue eyes. “She can save us all—but only if you save her first. Now go. If we’re going to be of any use, I need to stop this feud and combine our forces.”

  Lucifer’s mouth opened with questions, but not a sound fled his lips. Suddenly choking, he whirled, throwing out a partial ring of fire in front of him. The dark-haired vampire that had taken his breath away was thrown back, and Lucifer sucked air.

  Bathory handed him a sword.

  “Thank you,” Lucifer nodded over his shoulder as he crouched down and then launched up—

  Lucifer’s wings cracked as he gained height, larger bones fracturing while still in the process of thawing. Spears of ice vaulted up at him, and he tucked one wing in and spun, then the other to change trajectory. Flinging his feathery attachments out once clear, Lucifer didn’t hold back, he didn’t let the pain stop him.

  He had to get to her.

  Soaring higher, the view below shrank fast. Flashes of ice and fire painted the clearing between soaring trees. The clang of metal drifted high in the air, projected by the swirling wind that coiled up and then tried to drag Lucifer back down. But he wouldn’t let it. Now that Lucifer was gaining height, urgency came alive inside of him. It had been there before, the desperation to break free and save what was his, the life he’d failed to protect from the start. But now it was different. It was like there was something inside Lucifer’s chest, wrapped around his racing heart that was tugging relentlessly. His connection to a heavenly being, but even more than that, his connection to his own flesh and blood. Lucifer was sure of it. Which meant…Bathory was right.

  Evangeline was still alive.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Following the tugging through blue-slate clouds, the full moon and cooled air greeted Lucifer with stabbing pins to his eyes. Silver leaked out, streaming back into his hairline, and then racing down his face as he shot straight up. There. Lucifer could feel his daughter’s exact location from the angelic presence that was so pure and like nothing he had ever felt above before. So close. So very near.

  There was no time to enter through the looking glass. She wasn’t there, but others were. Lucifer could feel them too, tainted light and the darkest of darkness.

  Plucking a feather from his wing, Lucifer batted the starlit sky harder, almost reaching the barrier where air thinned out. Words whispered from his lips, fanning over the feather he clutched—and then he disappeared with a flash of light through the invisible barrier.

  Glowing walls draped in glittering material greeted Lucifer as he reformed. The room surrounding him was one he’d seen before from a time so very long ago. The bed they’d shared was to the back and beside him, still draped in fine iridescent cloth and furs. But even though it stirred Lucifer’s jealous rage and a vengeful need to kill, it was not what held his attention.

  Down the steps that circled the center of the room to a quiet area of reflection was his daughter. Lucifer knew it was her even though she appeared so young in comparison to the many years since her birth. The feeling inside of him that tempted him closer was proof enough, that same angelic presence that called to him as if beckoning him home. The sight of her further confirmed the fact. Her bronzed skin, so much like his, was visible beyond the dirty, drenched robe that stuck to her small body. Her silvery golden hair was a mixture of Gabriel’s and his own, and it flung back from her face as she cranked her head in Lucifer’s direction. Her trust-filled eyes of the most unique color shot to him in surprise with flickers of hope.

  This was Evangeline. This was his daughter.

  Michael stood before her in the pit surrounded by scrolls and a glowing platform that sat to one side. Lucifer’s dagger pointed down at the girl’s chest, ready to plunge into her beating—racing—heart. “You are too late, Lucifer.” Michael didn’t tear his eyes off of Evangeline. His mouth was pressed into a grim line, his eyes strained but unmoving from the deadly weapon he held to the girl’s chest. “Cyrus is here. This must happen now, before it is too late.”

  A lump clogged up Lucifer’s throat at the sight—and at who was missing. Gabriel was not here, fighting to save their daughter, the one being aside from himself that she would risk her life to protect without fail. The reality of her lack of presence almost made Lucifer stumble. Gabriel would have found their child as Lucifer had, by following the angelic connection they had with their own flesh and blood. Not being here meant one devastating thing. Gritting his teeth, Lucifer fought to contain the hot tears behind his eyes. “What did you do to Gabriel?”

  Michael’s gaze fell, but he refused to say a word, solidifying the facts and a hatred in Lucifer that urged him to do something crazy and dangerous. Only his child standing in the crossfire stalled Lucifer’s outburst, forcing him to rein in his wrath.

  The girl’s rosy lips curved upward into the saddest smile Lucifer had ever seen. “Lucifer?” Instead of doing anything to free herself from the evil angel who intended to end her where she waited, she looked up at Michael’s face. “Father?”

  “He is not your father,” Lucifer bit out as understanding dawned. She had believed Michael was her creator, the seed that spawned her. The being that wanted her before she was even born. And now Michael was here, having raised her as his own, ready to end her short life. “I am.”

  The young girl raised a small hand, splitting her fingers around the sharp blade to press her palm over her chest—as if she too could feel the supernatural bond that connected them. She frowned up at the angel that stared down at her. “My father?”

  Michael retracted the blade a fraction and expelled a long breath, almost looking wounded at the child’s recognition. “Yes, Evangeline. Your true father. He is here to stop this. To keep you alive.”

  Lucifer wanted to slaughter the archangel with his bare hands. He wanted to tear him limb from limb. But even more than that, he wanted to protect what was his. And right now he was too far away. Armed with only a silver sword as the dagger Mic
hael held blazed blue, Lucifer would need to leap down there, weapon drawn to strike. But it was too dangerous. If his daughter became a living shield—

  Trying to control his faster breaths, Lucifer clenched and unclenched his hands, fighting with himself and his choice not to react with sudden violence. His palms sparked, but the battle on Earth, being stabbed by that damned dagger, or maybe even the exhaustion of his flight above kept his power at bay. “There is another way, Michael. This fate is not set in stone. Do not do this.”

  To Lucifer’s shock, his daughter wrapped her small hands over Michael’s one that had begun to tremble around the dagger’s hilt. She returned the deadly tip to her chest. “No, father. I know the danger of my blood,” she said, so wise beyond her years. “I know who I am. What I am. I never want to bring harm to anyone. I am ready to go away, to fade and let light live. I want to save you too.”

  “Evangeline, no!” The first and last time she would hear Lucifer call her name as he rushed for her—

  And Michael pressed down on the blade at her chest.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Evangeline was strong for a child that was half as small as her age suggested. Her little hand under Michael’s pressed down on the hilt of the dagger, directing it to the dirty material over her chest and the central point right over her heart. Her eyes peering up at him, with their darker purple flecks, held no resentment or uncertainty. They were open and decided, despite the gleam that made them glossy with goodbye tears.

  Time almost stood still in this world-changing moment. Lucifer and his string of curses as he ran at them slowed, and Michael’s quick breaths became painfully deep and shallow.

  “Goodbye, fath—I mean…Michael.”

  The tip touched Evie’s skin, and Michael felt the resistance as sure as he felt his heart smashing into his ribs in great whacking wallops. His hand under hers tightened, holding back her forward pressure. Michael didn’t want to do this. How could he let the most innocent being in all of existence give up her life? Gabriel had been right. Evangeline was better than all of them. Despite her siphoning of angelic essence, she was pure, and her intentions were nothing short of extraordinary and undeniably selfless.

  “Michael, no! Stop this!”

  Michael flinched at Lucifer’s desperate shouted words as he reached the top steps. He tugged the dagger back an inch, unsure…not ready to let this small child who had warmed his guarded heart cease to exist. “Eva—”

  A flash appeared right beside Michael, coalescing into a human form in record time. Cyrus. The angel sword shone blue from Cyrus’s hand, slicing sideways as Michael lunged to body block Evangeline’s small form. The butt of the hilt belted into Michael’s jaw with enough force to spin him sideways. Evangeline cried out, the dagger’s tip nicking her cheek as it sailed outward.

  But she didn’t fall back.

  Lucifer screamed murderous threats, so close now he could almost catch her. But he never got the chance. Cyrus grabbed Evangeline’s wrist and pushed two black feathers between his palm and her skin.

  A click sounded.

  Evangeline’s cry cut off.

  Eerie silence rose up like a deafening bubble as Lucifer steadied Michael with a look of pure hatred. “I will end you for this and for what you did to Gabriel. You should have let me protect her.” The sword Lucifer held between them shook, trembling with the violent rage that burned in his eyes.

  Blistering heat bloomed where Lucifer gripped Michael’s bicep. He planted his hands into Lucifer’s chest and shoved him back. “You can kill me later. But first…” Michael’s body radiated light like a star, a full-body halo shimmering over his pale skin. “I know where Cyrus took Evangeline.”

  Before Lucifer could lash out, Michael grabbed his enemy’s shoulder. He clicked his fingers, and they both burst into light, raining down in sparkling drops.

  A second later they rematerialized beside the looking glass—to find Evangeline chest-deep in the water with Cyrus holding the glowing angel sword to her throat. Along Evie’s cheek was the cut she’d already sustained, a thin river of silver slowly trailing down to her jawline and shifting course to flow toward her chin. Cyrus was ready to slice her jugular open, to spill her lifeblood into the healing pool that would then become the catalyst for the destruction of Heaven.

  All around noise dominated, the armed soldiers in solid battle gear being fought back by angels into the cramped corridors. But the angels were losing, covered in cuts and bruises that couldn’t heal before new ones were inflicted. But they fought on with their glowing swords, covered in sweat and panting. They didn’t have a choice. Grotesque hellions had joined the attack too, scaling the glowing walls and rounded ceilings to claw their way toward the centralized room as they slashed and snapped their long pointed teeth.

  The angels that had fallen were outnumbered.

  All of Hell was about to be unleashed onto Heaven, and there was only one thing Michael could think to do. To use his body like a torpedo to knock Cyrus back from Evangeline. To save her life and all of Heaven.

  He never got the chance.

  A spitting ball of fire shot through the air, loosed from Lucifer’s thrusting palm. The commotion joined the chorus of shouts, hissing, and growling. Cyrus’s eyes widened and he flinched. The sailing fireball met Cyrus’s weapon-holding hand, and the angel sword jerked sideways—slicing a gaping mouth across Evangeline’s throat.

  Cyrus fell back, and Michael shot through the battlers, falling into the water. His arms came around Evangeline’s drenched body, catching her before her head submerged. He covered the gash in her neck that bloomed with silver, squeezing to stem the flooding blood. The look of love and gratefulness that crossed Evangeline’s young face was short lived—but not because the blood from her neck had seeped through Michael’s fingers enough to fall. The single drop of silver that had gathered from the cut on her cheek dripped from her chin…

  The tiny drop hit the water with the force of the moon falling from the sky down to Earth. The water pulsed with light and rippled, sending an unrelenting shockwave outward with force.

  Stuck in the center, Michael saw the carnage.

  Lucifer was thrown back, his spine hitting a pillar and his wings wrapping backward at an unnatural angle. Every being that spilled into the circular room from the corridors was hit with invisible power, blasted back down the illuminated tunnels to rip claws off the walls and ceilings. The angels felt the rush too, knocked off their feet and flat onto their faces or slammed into glowing walls.

  Cyrus was thrown too, catapulted from the water and made airborne—until he hit the set of stairs that resembled clear, glowing glass.

  The stairs to Heaven.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Leaping into the pool as chaos erupted, water burst up around Lucifer. He snatched Evangeline from Michael. But Lucifer refused to follow his instinct to attack Michael or stop the battle. His daughter, his flesh and blood, came first. Blood flooded out of her, the gash across her neck pouring a stream into the looking glass that turned the water to glittering silver in growing plumes beneath the surface. “Hold on, Evangeline.” Lucifer’s hand clamped over her neck, trying to stem the blood loss. Trying to save her life. But her eyes were dazed, her expression falling flat as her lids slid shut. “You fight, dammit. Don’t you dare give up.”

  Michael laid a hand over Lucifer’s shoulder, receiving a look that could kill. In truth, Lucifer wanted nothing more than to end the angel who had endangered his daughter and taken the love of his life from him. Only stemming the blood loss now flooding out of his child kept him from doing so.

  Michael removed his hand, holding it up in surrender. “You can…”

  The angel looked around then, seeing as Lucifer did, with a split-second glance, the thrown hellions and soldiers clambering back onto their feet. They lashed out at the recovering angels who fought to hold them back. They were failing, fast, overpowered as more and more new hellions appeared out of thin air. The new
ones were already injured, dripping black blood onto the glowing ground. Because the absent vampires, nephilim, and maybe even Lucifer’s offspring, were still trying to hold them back? But their sudden appearances made for winning surprise attacks. Some angels took to the air, their vast black wings giving them a small advantage as they swung their illuminated swords. Others never made it off the ground.

  Cyrus was on his feet now too and clambering up the stairs to Heaven. He barked orders to his recovering followers to get the hell up and do the same.

  Darius arrived with a flash of light at the stairway landing. Bruised and bleeding, his smile revealed his shared triumph. Cyrus’s order—“Heaven is ours. Summon everyone to battle”—had Darius vanishing as fast as he’d arrived.

  Michael looked like he wanted to chase after Cyrus even more than he wanted to avoid Lucifer’s wrath. But he hesitated and spoke fast. “You can heal her.” Michael reached beneath the glittering surface, collecting Evangeline’s limp hand as Lucifer growled. Water beaded down her golden skin as Michael lifted her hand up, trailing back to her elbow as he placed her palm flat against Lucifer’s chest—right over his heart. “You can save her.”

  The touch of Evangeline’s small, cold hand was like a vault of power from God’s hand. It pulsed through Lucifer’s chest, almost breaking through his ribs. And then the direction of power changed, suddenly being sucked from him rather than infused. Lucifer gasped a wheezing breath, feeling the gash grow warm beneath his hand around Evangeline’s neck.

  Michael waded backward through the water, nearing the edge.

  With every second, more and more soldiers and hellions broke through the battling angels, leaving trails of black and red blood as they rushed up the slick stairs.

  The path to all of their survival was racing in, and that knowledge alone forced Lucifer to abandon his lingering need to kill Michael for at least this moment. If darkness reigned over Heaven, they would never be safe, including his daughter, his last light in a world that had taken his lover from him. Managing a nod, Lucifer spoke through vocal cords that felt like they were on fire. “Go. Save Heaven.”