Page 38 of Serendipity

It was like a dance really, a macabre ballet. I killed three more, and then this big golden fucker with wings appeared. I aimed my gun but he threw up his hands. “Woah, easy there, Killer. I’m on your side. Cain called us in as reinforcements. Need a hand?”

“No,” I growled, but spun away, shooting a guy trying to kick down the side door.

The Golden dude with wings pulled out a motherfucking huge sword. “Bad luck, Killer. I got your back.”

He whirled it, and then he was spinning through a swarm of armed guys in suits. Honestly, who comes to a fight in a goddamn suit? I threw my knife at a guy who was trying to sneak up on the blond angel. He grinned over his shoulder and I realized he was enjoying this shit too.

Fine. Killing was more fun with company. It was a pity he was so damn chatty though. “So, you’re one of Luc’s Horsemen, then?”

He said it like we were discussing interest rates, instead of him decaptiating a dude, and talking about the fucking Horsemen of the Apocalypse. “Yeah.”

“Not a big talker? That’s okay. I bet you’re Conquest. You seem way too happy to be covered in pieces of brain and skull.”

There was a sharp whistle, and Judas yelled for us to pull back. I huffed, not ready to retreat yet, but in this situation, Judas was General. I fired my gun randomly, covering us as we moved back towards the door. Though the angel didn’t seem all that worried, just strolling along behind me. “I’m Gus by the way.”

“Goliath,” I grunted, opening the door and firing the last of my clip around it. Gus walked into the back of the club, taking in the bullet holes in the walls and the destruction of the bar. “Nice place you have here,” he laughed, and strode over to another angel. This one was huge and black, and he seemed to suck the light out of the room. He made my skin crawl with fear and it wasn’t a feeling I was used to. “This is Mephistopheles. He hates small talk to. You guys would get along great.” The big, black angel nodded to me, and then turned back to Gus. That was fine. I didn’t want to chit-chat

anyway.

I kept low, running toward where Judas and Shots were behind the bar. A bullet wouldn’t kill me, but they hurt like a bitch.

When I crouched down beside them, and tilted my head toward the Angels, who seemed to be cutting the Tenebrae members down like they were picking mushrooms in a field. “Who the fuck brought the Angels?”

“The woman who delivered Serendipity to Cain. Apparently, Dippy keeps interesting company.”

We were fighting angels. Had angels on our side. How do we know which was which? “How do I know which angels to kill, and which are on our side?”

Judas shrugged.

Trigger leaned around the door jamb. “They are about to break through,” he yelled over the noise.

As if summoned by Judas’ words, a woman skipped down the stairs, followed by an Angel with wings the color of a sunset.

The next face down those stairs had black dots dancing around the edges of my vision. Lucifer was here. In the Clubhouse. We hadn’t seen him in decades, and here he was, standing beside the woman and a bunch of other Angels.

The woman with the red hair smiled. “I brought a posse,” she said happily to Trigger.

Lucifer’s eyes focused on us, and his gaze could flay the skin from your bones.

“Judas,” he said softly.

“Lucifer,” the Pres returned. Lucifer’s eyes switched to me, and he winked. He fucking winked.

Blood rushed in my ears, blocking out the sound of the gunshots and shouts in the room. It was like all my focus was on the man, er Devil, in front of us. He’d changed my life irrevocably, and I had equally cursed him and thanked him for that every day since.

Judas looked between the Angels and the Devil. We were out of our league right now.

“Damnation, fall back. Hold the stairs. No one gets to Dippy,” he shouted. Gus looked over at us.

“They are about to ram the doors,” he said to Judas, who seemed less fucking freaked by the appearance of Satan than I was.

I ran toward the stairs, but Judas grabbed my hand. “I need you up there guarding Serendipity. I don’t trust anyone with her life more than I trust you. You and Cain are the last line of defense okay?

She has to live, for their sake.”

I nodded, and clapped him on the back. He was an idiot if he thought he was immune to the woman’s charms.

I bust through the door, and almost got punched full of holes for my impulsiveness. It was only that Cain had good reflexes that I wasn’t bleeding on the floor right now. I looked at the people packed into the room. “Get out into the hall. Shoot anyone who comes up those stairs that isn’t one of us or the redhead.”

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