“Nothing. I’m fine.”
Lucius’s dark eyes bore into Chaz’s, and he shook his head. “Call me crazy, but I don’t think you are.”
“Whatever,” Chaz replied, and then turned back to railing.
Lucius eased over to Chaz and pulled something out of his pocket. “You know, I got something here that’ll make you forget all your problems.”
Chaz turned and peered expectantly at him. “Is that right?”
“Oh yeah.” He held out his hand.
There were two or three red pills glistening in the porch light. “What is it?”
An evil grin spread across Lucius’s face. “Does it matter what it is? The only thing that should matter is what it does.”
“It really makes you forget?”
He nodded. “You won’t even remember your name after awhile. It’ll just be smooth sailing.”
Chaz gazed down at the pills again. I felt his chest ache as he reached over and grabbed up two of them. “I owe you one, man.”
Lucius grinned. “Just glad I could help, buddy.” He gave Chaz one last look, and then he turned and walked back inside the house.
When Chaz popped the pills into his mouth and chased them with a long swig of beer, I wanted to scream, “NOOOOO!” Anything to stop him from what he was doing. But I couldn’t.
It was only a few moments before he started to feel funny. He jerked his hands off the deck railing and stared at them. They were clammy and sweaty. He wiped them on his jeans. The exertion caused him to stumble backwards.
The world around him began to spin. When he felt nauseous, Chaz turned to go inside. He stumbled down the hallway to the bathroom. His hands fumbled with the knob, and it took him a few seconds before he threw the door open.
His blurry vision focused on Gage Perkins and a girl making out. That was the last thing he saw before he passed out.
I glanced back at Rafe again. He needed to get to Chaz, but there was no way he could transport in the car, not with Abby with us. I continued focusing on his pain. “Where is he?” I asked in my mind.
Rafe said, “He’s two streets over. The fifth house on the right.” No one in the car heard him but me and Cassie.
I nodded. When I reached the street, I made a sharp turn. “Hey, where are you going?” Abby asked.
“Oh, is this not our turn?” I asked, innocently.
She gave me a strange look. “Um, no, it isn’t. You were supposed to keep going straight to get back to our street, remember?”
I flashed a convincing grin. “Whoops! Guess I really do suck at directions.”
Before she could argue with me anymore, Abby leaned forward. “Hey, wait a minute. That’s Chaz’s jeep!” She pointed to a string of cars lining the street before slowly shaking her head. Her brows furrowed. “But he’s supposed to be working tonight. This is bad. Elijah, will you stop? I gotta go in and find him.”
“Um, okay,” I said. I pulled over behind a pick-up truck. We all tumbled out of the SUV before striding up the walkway. My body reverberated with the thump, thump, thump of the bass pumping through the windows.
Rafe didn’t bother knocking. He just pushed open the front door. I gasped at all the chaos around me.
“Why don’t we split up and try to find Chaz?” Abby shouted over the blaring music.
I didn’t respond. Instead, I looked over at Rafe. “Bathroom,” he mumbled under his breath. He started pushing and shoving people out of his way. Cassie and I followed close on his heels with Abby trailing behind us.
Just as we got to the bathroom, Gage Perkins came bounding out. “Oh God, Rafe. You gotta help me! Chaz just passed out, and I can’t get him to wake up. I don’t think he’s breathing!”
Rafe shoved past Gage and knelt down beside Chaz. A white substance oozed out of Chaz’s mouth.
Abby appeared in the doorway. “CHAZ!” she screamed. Before she could get to him, I pulled her back. “Let me go! I have help him!” she cried, thrashing against me.
Cassie turned to Gage, who stood pacing nervously in the doorway. “Will you take Abby and go call an ambulance?”
For a minute, he stood rooted to the floor. “Gage!” Cassie cried. He nodded and gently took Abby’s other arm.
“Come on, Abby,” he said.
“Chaz! Don’t you leave me!” Abby shouted, as Gage pulled her outside.
“Close the door,” Rafe instructed.
Cassie spun on her heels and quickly shut and locked it. “Is he going to be okay?”
I knelt down beside Rafe. When he turned back to me, his face was grim. “It doesn’t look good,” he replied, his voice barely a whisper.
Cassie’s mouth gaped open in disbelief. “Are you kidding me? We’re in some stranger’s bathroom watching as Chaz’s life slips away, and all you can say is ‘it doesn’t look good’” She shook her head wildly. “Guardians save lives, remember? Even I saved Zach’s life. Don’t tell me you two are just going to sit here resigned to the fact that Chaz is going to die!”
As I stared at Chaz’s lifeless body, I thought about Abby. I couldn’t let her suffer anymore. She’d already been through enough suffering for a lifetime. I had to do something.
“Rafe, what can we do?” I asked.
His troubled eyes peered into mine. “There’s so much poison. It’s too much for just me to take out. You guys… will have to help me.” He shuddered. “It isn’t easy. It’s going to hurt, and it’s going to leave us weaker.”
I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter. We’ve got to do it.”
Cassie nodded in agreement.
Rafe sighed. “Give me your hands.”
Cassie and I both stuck out our hands. Rafe took them and put them over Chaz’s chest. “Now, you’ve got to put all of your strength into drawing out the drugs.”
“How will we know if it’s working?” I asked.
“First, you’ll feel a prickly sensation when the drugs start to enter your system. Then as it continues through, it will feel like a needle is jabbing you all over. Once we’re finished, I’ll show you how to get rid of it. But I’ll take the brunt of it, okay?”
We nodded and closed our eyes. With everything we had, we poured angelic force into Chaz. His chest began trembling under our touch. Then his whole body began quivering and shaking. Just as I began to worry I wasn’t doing enough to help, tingling entered my fingertips. As it flowed into my hand, the jabbing sensation Rafe had mentioned began to invade my senses. The pain caused sweat to break out on my brow, and my stomach to churn. I fought the rising bile in my throat. My body began convulsing as the drugs’ power raced through my system.
“Stop!” Rafe commanded.
Cassie and I jerked our hands away. The force caused us to collapse onto our backs. Exhausted, we gasped and choked to catch our breath. “What now?” I croaked.
Rafe painfully pulled himself to a sitting position. “Just this.” He shook his hand. As he did, tiny amber droplets fell from his fingertips. They floated through the air before slowly disintegrating.
“That’s it?” I asked.
“Yep, that’s it.”
“Hmm, seems too easy,” Cassie murmured.
“Tell me about it.” I rocked into a sitting position and started shaking out my hand. Just like with Rafe, amber droplets emerged. “They seem kinda small to have caused all that pain,” I mused.
Once we were free of the drugs, our bodies seemed normal again. Well, except for the fact I felt like I’d run ten miles up a mountainside at warped speed.
We all glanced over at Chaz. His eyes were still closed, but his arms and legs were twitching slightly as he started coming around. He opened his mouth and breathed deeply before coughing and sputtering.
Rafe pulled Chaz into a sitting position and then leaned him back against the bathtub. His eyelids fluttered, and then he stared into Rafe’s eyes.
“Hey man, you all right?” Rafe asked.
It took Chaz a few seconds to find his voice. “What—what are yo
u doing here?”
“Well, it’s kinda a strange story.” Chaz stared intently as Rafe related the events that led us to the party.
I stood up. “Speaking of, I better go check on Abby.”
“Yeah, and make sure they call the ambulance back to cancel the call,” Rafe said.
Chaz raised his eyebrows at Rafe. “You sure I don’t need an ambulance? I sure feel like hell!”
Rafe nodded. “Besides, you don’t want paramedics running blood tests, or the police showing up, now do you?”
When Chaz got Rafe’s meaning, he lowered his head. “No, I wouldn’t.”
“So Elijah, go ahead and call them back and tell them it was a false alarm.”
I nodded and opened the door, weaving through people standing in the hallway. I finally saw Abby and Gage in the living-room. Gage’s arms were wrapped around Abby, and she was sobbing hysterically. Gage stared helplessly at me. “He’s going to be all right,” I said.
Abby jerked her head up to stare at me. “He is?”
“Yeah, he’s conscious. Gage, call and cancel the ambulance—” He opened his mouth to protest, but I shook my head. “We can’t have them running tests on Chaz. It’ll only get him into trouble.”
“Oh, okay, I got ya.”
Abby raced past me down the hallway, and I followed close on her heels. She burst through the bathroom door and collapsed at Chaz’s feet, throwing her arms around his neck. He held on to her tightly as she sobbed uncontrollably. “Abby, it’s all right. I’m all right. Stop crying.”
She momentarily paused to pull away. After staring into his eyes, she began slapping his face and chest. “How could you do that to me? Damn you, Chaz!”
Without a word, he put his arms around her. “Shh, don’t cry,” he whispered into her ear. I felt like I was intruding on a very private scene, so I rose to my feet. I tugged Cassie’s sleeve, and we went out into the hallway.
Once I got outside, I drew in a deep breath.
“That was intense,” Cassie murmured.
I glanced around. “Where’s Rafe?”
Cassie brows furrowed. “You didn’t see him in the hallway?”
“Nope.”
“He said something about taking care of things. I thought he meant with you.”
“Well, I didn’t see him…” Suddenly, my lungs deflated. I met Cassie’s eyes. A frantic look flashed in hers.
“You don’t think he would’ve gone after Lucius, do you?”
My heartbeat roared so loud in my ears that it drowned out the party’s thumping music. “Get the others home. I’ve got to go find Rafe.”
“Elijah, no! You can’t go after him alone!”
“What choice do we have? Get home and try to get Gabriel and Sophie.”
Tears shimmered in her eyes. “But can’t we try connecting with them now?”
I shook my head. “We’re too weak to do that. You’ll have to get as close to them as you
can.” And with that, I raced out the front door.
“I’ll try,” Cassie called, but her voice was drowned out by the party’s loud music and my heartbeat pumping in my ears.
I skidded out onto the driveway, my eyes scanning the surroundings. My focus was immediately drawn to the deep woods circling the house. I picked up my pace and sprinted around the side of the house, into the woods.
The further I ran, the more the woods closed in around me, enveloping me in a velvety darkness. Clouds blotted out the stars and the moon, and the rumble of thunder could be heard on the horizon. I could barely see my hand in front of me as I sprinted along the uneven ground. Limbs and branches sent scrapes across my arms and neck, but I kept on running, desperate to find Rafe.
I stopped when I got the edge of the clearing. When my gaze flickered across the pattern of Lucius’s shirt, sheer horror crashed down on me, causing my body to shudder. Rafe lay crumpled on the ground in front of Lucius.
Truth pelted my skin like icy droplets. I realized then it had never been about Chaz. Lucius had used him as a pawn to get to Rafe, and in turn, to get to me. His plan had been far more sinister.
When I started to run toward him, a dark bolt of energy crashed into me, knocking me flat on my back. Dazed, I opened my eyes to stare up at the night sky. Desperation filled me as I tried to gain my bearings. More than anything, I knew I had to get to Rafe. I hopped to my feet. I deflected the next energy bolt that came towards me.
There was a wicked gleam in Lucius’s eyes as he shook his head slowly back and forth. “I told Rafe not to fight me. It almost wasn’t fair. Him being weakened and all, but he just wouldn’t listen. You guardians are so damn stubborn.”
Rafe’s face contorted in the agony of a demon’s energy—the only kind our bodies could ever feel.
“I won’t let you win this time, Lucius!”
He arched his dark eyebrows at me. “Oh really, Elijah? You’re going to stop me from finishing Rafe off?”
“Yes,” I growled. My hands clenched at my side into tight fists of rage.
Lucius crossed his arms over his chest. “Surely after all your years on earth, you know what it means for a demon to eradicate an angel?” He paused dramatically, closing his dark eyes and sucking in a breath. “I can skip all the bullshit service on earth and head straight to the top of those in highest level of the Dark Host—the very ones who were thrown out of Heaven. And now all that stands between me and being in Satan’s inner circle is you?” A maniacal laugh erupted from his lips.
“Why didn’t you just come after me to begin with? Why Rafe?”
“Now Elijah, you know the rules as well as I do. I can’t come after you without just cause, and while your little challenge that day at school was nice, I had to wait until the time was right.” His face darkened. “Besides, you all kept diminishing my power by continuing to help souls. I had to do something to stop your power from growing.”
At that moment, I didn’t think about myself. All I could think about was losing Rafe, and it was unbearable. My white-hot emotions sent zig-zagging light tearing at Lucius. It illuminated the dark clearing in a glimmering wave of ethereal energy.
To fight him, I would have to bind myself with positive emotion. I focused on my training with Rafe, remembering how anything negative that seeped through could cripple me. Closing my eyes, my thoughts focused on the sun that lit my world.
Abby.
Her smile, the way she smelled, the way she made my heart accelerate in my chest. Warm images swarmed around me, feeding my energy.
She doesn’t love you, a voice sneered in my head. She’s only using you. She’ll toss you aside when someone better comes along, and you’ll be all alone!
Sweat ran like rivers down my back as I concentrated on not only drowning out Lucius, but on growing more powerful. Ignoring his spiteful words, I continued to think of Abby. I thought of her hands tenderly following the curve of her expanding belly. I saw a fair-headed baby cradled in her arms. I saw myself smiling down at a wide-eyed infant. And finally, I saw our love shining strong and constant like a beacon in the churning waters of a storm.
More than that, you’ll give up immortality to taste the sting of death all for a teenage whore!
I snapped. Rage burned through me from the top of my head down to my toes. Before I could stop myself, my wings broke free. The sound roared through the trees, crushing and breaking trees like twigs.
In his shock, Lucius didn’t have time to break out of his human form. Instead, he stared at me wide-eyed as I grabbed him by the throat. “Don’t you dare talk about Abby that way!” I snarled.
“Quite a comical relationship you’ll have, the fallen woman and the fallen angel!”
My fingers wrapped tighter around his throat. Although I could feel his air supply cutting off, I couldn’t strangle him; he was like me, his body was indestructible. Just as I began to despair about what to do, a blinding light flashed before me and a roaring voice came booming from the tree line. “Banish him.”
; Lucius’s eyes widened in fear as I glanced from him back to the light. “I don’t know if I have the strength!” I cried.
“Channel his evil into the energy you need.”
Images of Lucius’s dark deeds swirled through my mind, blending a mosaic of emotions. I saw the smiling faces of children lost in Auschwitz, those beaten and bloodied at his hands during the Civil Rights Movement, all the lost souls who had succumbed to his charms and whose lives had ended in torment. So much pain and destruction roared through my mind, but I harnessed it until I could feel the power humming through me.
I drew in ragged breath, preparing to utter the words that all members of the Angelic Host were taught in case they ever had to rage war on a demon. “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, I banish you demon back to Hell, and I chain you to that underworld for all time!” I shouted.
Energy like I had never known shuddered through me, knocking me to the ground. Searing white light blared around me, lighting every dark and shadowy place in the woods. Lucius let out a scream as the ground beneath us growled and shook. As it cracked open, steam burned my face, and I turned away.
All I heard was the sound of Lucius’s agonizing screams as he was sucked downward to face punishment from the Dark Host for losing to an angel. The ground rumbled back into place. I turned around to see Gabriel and Sophie standing at the edge of the woods, their faces ashen.
I struggled to my feet, but the moment I stood up, I collapsed. I’d never felt so weak in my existence. Gabriel and Sophie sprinted across the clearing towards me. When I tried to roll myself in to a sitting position, Gabriel stopped me. “Don’t Elijah. You’re too weak, and it’ll only do more harm. We’ll get you home.”
Gabriel pulled me into his arms, and I felt Sophie’s comforting hands on me, filling me with peace. Then I passed out.
***
I woke up to the sound of hushed whispers all around me. It felt like the room was packed with people. My eyelids fluttered open. Cassie sat on the bed beside me, clutching my hand in hers. “Hi,” she said, in a whisper.
My throat raged in agony when I tried to speak. Cassie shook her head. “No, no. Don’t try to talk. You’re too wiped out to do that. Everything’s fine.”