Summon Toren(67)

The angel swung his arms right and the shrapnel exploded the walls of the cabin out. Ezekiel scrambled to a far wall with the women under his arm as the metal bits slammed into a herd of the same monsters. The angel had taken down an entire front line of the creatures with his little explosion trick but there remained a seemingly endless mass that barreled down on the cabin like an ominous dark wave of growling thunder.

The angel shot into the air. He landed on one knee with bone rattling force, delivering one massive punch to the earthen floor. Countless blackened spears erupted from its surface, skewering the entire herd of demonic beasts like bugs on pins. Howl’s pierced the air and Ezekiel saw the sky rippling, like they were in some kind of metallic bubble.

The angel slowly straightened and brought his palms together in a loud clap. Each of the metal spikes somehow expanded to encase the impaled creatures, saving the screams to seal off last. The cocoons shrank until the cries stopped and they were the size of spikes again. The angel swiped his hand at the earth and the surface opened as though he’d held an invisible giant blade. A metallic groan filled the air and the entire mess was swallowed up as though the hole suddenly became a supersonic vacuum.

The angel turned and headed toward the cabin, twirling a finger in the air as he did, shutting the earth with a wicked boom.

As the angel entered what was left of the cabin, his wings folded into themselves, every feather sounding like metal doors being slammed closed.

Ezekiel became aware of his heart beat as he stared at the dude, never having been filled with so much holy fucking shit in his life.

But this…angel was one…bad…ass!





** ** **



Skylar gawked at Sam, who gawked at the angel before repeating, “Flash?”

“You know, travel? From here to someplace else really fast?”

“In what?” Sam asked.

“My angel spaceship.” The few seconds of are-you-for-real speculation ended with the angel’s chuckle. “I’m kidding. It’s a technique I couldn’t explain.” He held his hand toward Sam. “You hold on to me, Skylar holds on to you and EZ can hold on to Skylar.”

Sam looked at his outstretched hand seeming hesitant to take it. But she did. “Where are we…flashing to?”

“I need to get all of you out of harm’s way. I was planning to take you to meet the other humans.”

“Other humans?”

The angel didn’t even pay Ezekiel a glance for the man’s curiosity. But he was sure looking mighty hard at Miss Samantha. If Skylar wasn’t mistaken, she was seeing some rather extreme fondness oozing from those mirrored looking eyes.

“If we don’t leave here now, everybody here will be in jeopardy. Us leaving is the safest thing. The people remaining here have their angels here to protect them to the extent that they are allowed once the barrier is lifted.”

“What barrier?” Sam reached her hand toward Skylar, still staring at the angel.

“The one we erected to hide my presence from the demons.”

This was insane. All of it. Just nuts. An angel? Demons? Them expecting her to just be with a man she didn’t know? Do things with him? Things you only did with a man you loved? She didn’t even know him. Or like him.

She glanced his way and her stomach flipped when she ran right into his gaze. She reached for Sam’s outstretched hand. Insane as it all was, she wasn’t crazy. She believed what she saw. And she believed in God. This was it. The end of the world. She always wondered if it’d come in her life time. Always had a feeling somehow that it would. She couldn’t deny having daydreamed about her role in it either. She knew she was meant to be something besides cowboy lust fodder.

She was basically being asked to help save the world. Far cry from a stupid rodeo queen. But then there was the what they were asking her to do. She regarded the foreigner out of the corner of her eye, standing there, not nearly so cocky looking as before. Having his heart pulled out of his chest must’ve cooled his jets a little. She chewed her lip at how funny that was and yet so not. Because when an obviously real bad-ass like him looked overwhelmed in a pool of trouble—then things were serious.

Well? It was one thing to marry a stranger under her stepfather's dictatorship but an entirely other under God’s. And this guy was at least easy on the eyes, even if he was chauvinistic swine dung. Her lips tingled at the vivid memory of his lips on hers. Not the right at first part but at the point when he’d held her head and taken over her sorry attempt to kiss him. She’d done it merely to save their asses when she saw him go all wimpy. She allowed herself to dwell a moment on the way it had felt. She really needed it to light a fire in her heart and soul and body. To carve a path of purpose in her spirit.