They formed a line and pointed their swords at my chest. Michael patted Zayfeer on the shoulder. “Your trap worked, good and faithful servant. Well done. Your Father will be pleased. We’ll take things from here.”
Zayfeer frowned. “But I’m supposed to transport her to Heaven.”
Gabriel fluttered his wings. “Your orders are to stand down.”
Talk about a traitor. My mind began forming an anti-angel spell. I’d sent Gabe back to Heaven once. I could it again. I just wasn’t sure if I could handle all of them at the same time. “Come on, guys. Can’t we all just get along?”
Michael’s eyes blazed with anger. His loud, inhuman voice rang in my ears and echoed off the pillars. “Suffer not the witch.”
Gabe stepped slightly in front of the others, never taking his eyes off me. “I’ve got this, my brothers.”
He pointed the tip of his sword at the base of my throat. “It’s time you stopped screwing up the order of the Universe.”
I swallowed down my fear and locked my magic into overdrive. “And it’s time you went straight to Hell.”
Chapter Twenty-six – Slay The Dragon…
Gabriel lowered the sword. His ginormous hand latched onto my neck so fast, I didn’t have time to flinch. He lifted me off the ground so I was eye to eye with him. “I prefer Earth.”
I kicked my legs, swung my arms. Made contact with his tree-trunk legs and steely shoulders, but I might as well have been a bug buzzing around his face. He spread his wings, effectively screening us from the others, and whispered between gritted teeth. “Be still, witch. I’m trying to help you.”
Gabriel help me? I stopped fighting and whispered back. Whispering was all I could do since the big lug was squeezing off my oxygen. “Did Keisha send you?”
“Adam and Eve tried to warn you, but as usual, you were too stubborn to listen.” He rippled his wings in a show of power and raised his voice. “Prepare yourself to meet the Maker, Amo.”
“Now, wait a minute there, big guy.” Zayfeer appeared in my peripheral vision. “God and I have a deal. I bring her to Heaven and I get to stay.”
Gabriel’s fierceness was nothing to sneeze at. His wings expanded full-length. He flared his nostrils and sent a wave of powerful mojo at Zayfeer. “You dare argue with me, Fallen one?”
Zayfeer flinched as Gabe’s magic slapped him and he raised his shining sword. “I’d dare just about anything these days to stay out of purgatory.”
Gabriel swung his sword at Z’s head, still holding onto me. My legs dangled like a rag doll’s and I gripped his wrist to ease the hold he had on my neck. Zayfeer ducked and jabbed at Gabe’s thigh. The archangel swerved, swinging me around.
“Enough!” a shout rang out. Loud, insistent.
God-like.
Lucifer emerged from the church, twice his normal size and bearing down on Gabe. Gone was the business suit and in its place…nada. All Devil everywhere my eyes landed, and, wow…I blinked. Blinked again. Gave up and stared openly.
There was no getting around it. His nakedness never failed to impress.
Lucifer’s wings had been restored, their black tips, like the dragon’s, sparked as he walked. Even from this distance, I could feel his heat, his magic. Power rolled off him in waves.
Zayfeer felt it too. He shuffled back, nearly falling in his hurry to retreat. The other archangels shifted to let Luc pass, and in the process, they all grew bigger as well.
Hallucination. I must have eaten a purgatory-laced mushroom and now was seeing things, because ditto on the wow factor.
The Devil, naked and taller than Shaquille O’Neal, was headed my way, with everything…well, moving in a shocking display of sin. Undulating. Swinging heavily. You get the picture.
I would have swallowed hard except for the fact Gabe still had me dog-collared. My heart pitter-pated and I bit my tongue to keep from drooling.
Luc sauntered down the stairs. His gaze never left me and I reared back as best I could when I noticed his pupils were blood red. That little fact had escaped me up to this point. My attention had been a little distracted.
“Release the witch.”
Gabriel said something under his breath in a language I didn’t understand. A swear, by the sound of it. His hand opened and I plopped unceremoniously to the sandy ground at Luc’s feet. Gabe retreated.
The Devil stalked me asI scooted backwards on my butt until my back hit a marble slab jutting up from the sand. “Luc?”
My voice squeaked. I told myself it was because Gabriel, the weasel, had done serious damage to my vocal chords.
That had to be it. Not the fact my bladder, and every other organ in my body, quaked in fear. “Are you okay?”