Redeeming Angel (30 page)

A blur of red light flashed
as it rolled and rolled. Not going to lie, I was feeling pretty
good about myself, but there was a little voice in the back of my
head.
This is it? This is the best Hell’s
got?
I wanted to tell that voice to stop
bursting my bubble.

I waited for the flame to take root
and spread like wildfire over his body. I felt the need to hold my
breath. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Travis and Emma inch up
behind me. I lost track of everyone else, solely concentrating on
the bright flame. The edges of Alastair’s body started to flicker,
and I thought this was it. He made an inhuman sound. And
then…

Nothing. Gone.
Poof
.

The orangey-red sparks fizzled out,
not a single drop of ash.

I inhaled sharply.

What the shit?

I didn’t understand. If I
was the slayer, why didn’t he go
poof
?

Well, that just plain
sucked. What was I going to do now? Everyone was depending on me,
and I somehow managed to totally doof the single most important
task I’d ever been given.
Only
me.

Alastair laughed. “You’re going to
need more than that, little slayer.”

The blood drained from my
face.

A cacophony of groans, gasps, and
sounds of shock created this domino effect of confusion. Right
then, I think we all knew it was about survival.

“
Mine turn.” Alastair
raised a bear-sized hand.

I hadn’t even noticed he had moved
until he was directly in my face. My eyes went wide, and I heard
Chase holler my name as Alastair’s hand arched in the air. I
stumbled sideways toward the ground at the force of Alastair
backhanding me. Delirious, my cheekbone pounded with
pain.

Chase roared, vaulting forward, but he
didn’t get far. A trio of demons intercepted. Chase blocked a punch
to the head, only to take one in the side. He recovered like it was
nothing, throwing a quick precession of hits to the
culprit.

“
What are you waiting for?”
Alastair shouted to his subordinates. “Kill her! Kill them
all!”

Demons scurried in every direction,
and my gaze crawled along the field as I slowly lifted my head. My
friends were out there battling for their lives while I was having
a panic attack. Chase fought one after another, pure malice
radiating in his eyes as he tried to get to me, even Lexi with
tears of potent rage streaming down her pale face, was
ferocious.

Horror settled in my gut like
rocks.

Craig cracked his neck. “This stopped
being awesome about five minutes ago.”

“
It’s too late,” Travis
said, grabbing a demon and slamming him into the ground.

Whirling around, Chase pulled me
against his chest, tightening his hold. “I got you.” He twisted,
bringing me with him, and drop-kicked a hellhound in the
snout.

“
It didn’t work. I don’t
understand.” My voice was hoarse, and my throat was dry from the
dirt, dust, and wheat.

“
We’ll figure something
out. Stay close to me,” he told me.

This was one of those times when I was
actually going to listen.

Things went from hopeful to craptastic
in a matter of moments. War had been imminent, but I had always
visualized us on the winning side. Now Colin was dead and the
monsters nightmares are made of were everywhere.

Chase and the others did what came
naturally to them, moving so fast I didn’t think there was a
measure of time available, but the demons were faster. Flying over
the ground, two rushed at Chase and me. Chase leapt, slamming into
both demons. The three of them collided, rolling over the ground,
and my breath faltered as I watched Chase take a direct hit that
was like a cannonball. And another.

My heart tripped.

His pain was undeniable. I felt
it.

Feeling his agony finally snapped a
thread inside me, and I conjured my best means of defense. The bolt
slammed into one of the demons, spinning him around. Seconds later,
he went up and blew to bits as I’d expected.

Lower-demons I apparently had no
problem with.

My brain stopped processing things,
and I went on demon-killing patrol. I was going to take out as many
of these a-holes as I could. At least give us a fighting chance. My
arms continued to glow brightly as I ripped through the demons,
touching this one, touching that one, each going up into flames.
The screams.

The sound was going to be in my
nightmares for years to come.

It was during this rampage that I
noticed something, and it gave me an idea—a stupid, risky idea
Chase would have quickly shut down, which was why I didn’t tell
him. As I touched one of the demons, setting him ablaze, he
slithered once out of my reach, so I gripped his arm. And something
happened. Something different. Then the sucker detonated. But an
idea was born.

I just needed to get close enough to
Alastair.

Using my fire as a shield, I weaved
through the maze of demons toward the commander-in-chief. He wasn’t
doing a whole lot, other than smirking and enjoying himself too
much. I lost sight of Chase. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it
would undoubtedly have repercussions later, assuming there was a
later.

Alastair’s smile officially creeped me
out.

He stepped forward. “I
guess this is it. Just you and me,
slayer
.”

“
Looks that way.” As
inconspicuously as I could manage, I inched my way step-by-step
closer to the higher demon.

“
So tell me, how would you
like to die? Bleeding out takes too long. Snapping your neck is too
quick. How about strangulation? It’s one of my personal
favorites.”

Oh, how nice. He was going to give me
options.

“
No offense, but all those
choices suck. I have another idea.” I appeared at his side and
craned my neck, looking up. “You’ll no longer have control over
him, over me, or over another demon.” Without further ado, I
exploded into action, grabbing his arm and sending a blast of pure
heat straight from my soul to Alastair’s.

His blood-red eyes bulged. Jerking, he
tried to pull away, but the current of energy rolling off me to him
made it impossible. And unfortunately, it was a two-way street.
There was no going back. I couldn’t break the connection either.
“What have you done?” he ranted.

“
If there’s a will, there’s
a way. And my will is strong. Payback’s a bitch.” This was what
Kira had meant when she said killing Alastair could be potentially
harmful or worse. I felt the ripple of the fire flowing from my
fingers to his veins.

To rid him from both Earth and Hell, I
had to fill his veins entirely with the flames of a slayer, but
there was a problem. There was always a hiccup when dealing with a
demon. The longer I held onto him, the more danger I put myself in.
It wasn’t only my energy levels, but my life source.

Alastair screamed as the flames
spanned over his skin, the red of his eyes turning to coals. His
entire body lit up like the Vegas strip, becoming the center of
attention.

I felt a rumble deep in my chest, and
I knew it was Chase. He was about two seconds away from interceding
and this would have all been for nothing.

“
Don’t, Chase,” I
whispered. “Don’t.”

Angel.

I heard him say my name inside my
head. It seemed to touch my heart, my soul, and my body. Our
bond.

Even if he tried to stop me, I don’t
think he could, but I was more worried he would get caught in the
crossfire. I didn’t want to hurt him, and if he touched me now, it
would be lethal. My whole body was burning from the inside out,
veins pumping with fire.

Alastair’s body started to convulse,
and I knew the end was near.

But the longer I fueled the fire, the
weaker I became. My body trembled, and little dots of blackness
pranced behind my eyes. I forced my eyes to stay locked on
Alastair, and it wasn’t until his pupils became large and black,
snuffing the scarlet color, and his head fell forward that I knew
I’d won.

The sound of Alastair’s
soul vaporizing was reminiscent of firecrackers on Fourth of
July.
Pop. Pop. Hiss.

And in one grand finale, he exploded,
the night bursting into a light so bright I went momentarily blind.
Without any support, my knees buckled and I collapsed. On impact,
the flames extinguished and my skin returned to normal. I fell
backward, panting, trying to decide whether I was going to pass out
or babble joyous nonsense. Lying against the brittle grass, staring
up at the stars, I felt my first taste of victory.

It felt
fan-freaking-tastic.

And exhausting.

I felt as if I could sleep
for a month.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank
God.
It was over. And as far as I could
tell, I was still in one piece.

Face splattered with blood and black
goo, Chase closed the distance between us and grinned down at me.
He loomed over me, his features tortured with concern. Fear
radiated from him. Gray eyes scanned every fiber of me, searching
for injury. “You’re okay?”

I nodded. “You’re free. Do you feel
it?”

“
Yes, Angel Eyes, I feel
it. You broke the bond connecting us to Hell.”

I grinned. “But not between
us.”

He leaned forward and kissed my lips.
“Never.”

The skies opened up and torrential
rain poured as if it was wiping clean the mess Hell left behind,
washing away the ash that covered almost every inch of the
field.

Chapter 29

{Chase
}

In the aftermath of Spring Valley’s
“worst storm in history,” the community came together, rebuilding.
The small town was crowded with people from surrounding areas,
helping and comforting others. Complete strangers in the midst of
chaos, removing debris, lending their services, and supporting
their neighbors. Talk flew around town about the destruction and
how, miraculously, the death toll was only one.

There had been no warnings, nothing to
alert the people to safety. The storm had hit swiftly and
violently, blowing through the small town at alarming speeds.
Lightning had lit the sky like this town had never seen, striking
trees and burning a barn to the ground.

Crops were destroyed, homes damaged,
and people injured, and every local news station was reporting how
lucky we all were that it hadn’t been worse, that the whole town
hadn’t been swept off the map.

I didn’t share their
blessedness.

The life that had been lost was my
cousin’s boyfriend, and his death left wounds that would affect her
for years.

They were all clueless about what
really went down during the storm. It hadn’t been Mother Nature
that had torn through our small town. If they knew what was really
behind the devastation, Spring Valley would be a ghost
town.

As we fled the field that night, I
couldn’t seem to let go of Angel’s hand. The rain pelted down on
us, cooling not only the night’s air but also washing the grime and
demon blood from our bodies.

I pulled her into my room and cornered
her against the wall, needing a few minutes alone. I grasped her
face between my hands, and she held onto my waist. All I could do
was stare at her, unsure if I should kiss her or hug her. “You did
it.”

“
We
did it,” she whispered in disbelief. “I can’t believe he’s
really gone.”

The truth of those words did something
funny inside me. It was hard to comprehend. In a way, I wasn’t sure
what to do next.

“
It’s unreal, isn’t it?”
she asked.

I rubbed the pad of my thumb along her
chin, pressing kisses to her cheek, the tip of her nose, her
forehead, and then finally her lips. It made me feel alive. I
wrapped my arms around her, knowing that in another part of the
house, Lexi was crying. She’d broken down.

Hearing her soft cries gripped my
heart, and tears gathered in Angel’s eyes. She buried her head in
my shirt. “She’ll get through this. She’s strong.”

Angel sniffed. “And we’ll be there to
help her.”

“
Always.” I kissed the top
of her head, running my fingers through her hair. We clung to each
other, both knowing how damn lucky we were to have one another.
Death was the hardest on the living.

~*~*~*~

A week had gone by and we were
settling into life without the constant threat of Alastair. I was
officially parentless, but my life was full and rich. No
complaints.

Angel and I were just returning from a
trip in town. Before we went inside, I stopped her. “Hang on, I
have something for you, but first I need you to open your
palm.”

She gave me her
what-do-you-have-up-your-sleeve look. Under normal circumstances
she would argue, but after a moment or two, she rolled her eyes and
opened her hand.