Page 40 of The Black Rider
“What kind of sports do angels play, anyway?”
“It’s kind of like capture the flag, but with weapons and wings. Everyone wants Dice because he’s good at strategy, and people want Asher because he’s the fucking Horseman of Conquest, but they don’t want to play. The game is actually fun, but I can admit I’m horrible at it. Aeron would give his left nut to be allowed to play again, but he gets a little ridiculous when it comes to winning.”
“Then why is he okay with this group thing we have going on? Why are both of you?”
“Angels aren’t perfect, Ariel. Sometimes, we rebel and fall. Some of us are too serious about our jobs. When we are created, it’s to do one thing, and that’s our sole purpose. The first time an angel fell in love with a human, he taught humans all sorts of secrets they weren’t supposed to have. He knew he would get in trouble. Instead of taking his punishment, he convinced two hundred other Grigori to do the same thing.
“If he had just accepted his punishment, two hundred Grigori wouldn’t have been cast into Hell and all their Nephilim children slaughtered. Things have lightened up since then because Heaven doesn’twantangels to disobey and fall. We’re allowed to love now as long as we ask permission if we want to stay.
“Aeron and I have our issues. We know we aren’t perfect. We were also created together for different sides of one cube. We’ve fought side by side since we were created. Aeron has stood up for me more times than I can count. We knew we were developing feelings for you. We also knew we would never meet anyone like you again. I’d never ask him to give up love, and he’d never ask me. You seemed to like both of us. Our choice was to give it up together or share you. It was no choice really, and we are both fine with it because it means you are in our life.”
I don’t think anyone had ever said anything like that to me before. One thing was for sure, no one had made me feel like Aeron and Leif did. Now that I knew for sure they were both okay with it, and no one was silently unhappy about it, I felt this peace settle over me. They weremine.We would end this together.
I kissed his knuckles.
“You’re both perfect for me. What do we need to do with your zombie killing weapon?”
“Can you hand me a vial of Jose’s blood? It should be labeled.”
He had an entire tray full of blood samples. Some were mine, some were Jose’s, some were his, and some were names I didn’t recognize. I wasn’t weirded out at all like that guy I dated who wanted to wear a vial of my blood around his neck. Leif was a scientist, not some poseur trying too hard to be hardcore by asking for people’s blood, but listened to pop-country music when he thought no one was around.
I handed Leif the vial and had no idea what would happen next. He lifted the top from a centrifuge and pulled another vial out. I didn’t have to ask to know it held a combination of his blood and mine. It was red with swirling gold in it.
“Is there mistletoe in that?”
“Several strains lethal to demons, but not humans. Only parts of your DNA were used to make the Rage Mutation. If we hit a Rage Head with all your DNA and all of mine, the angelic properties will attack the demonic portions of the mutation. That alone should kill them, but it would introduce the Rage Mutation into the soil because they would bleed out from every orifice. That’s where the mistletoe comes in.”
“I read a lot of paranormal shit and nowhere have I read that mistletoe kills demons.”
Leif dumped Jose’s black blood into a flask. Even the blood smelled terrible.
“It used to be common knowledge, but people forget over time. Watch this.”
Leif dumped the red-gold blood into the flask. It started bubbling and smoking. The smoke smelled bad enough that my eyes were watering, and I started coughing. I wanted to move away, but Leif clamped his arms around my waist and held me firmly in his lap. He didn’t tell me he was starting a fire.
“Watch,” he urged. “It’s just smoke.”
The black blood boiled, and it was like watching Miss Mabel reduce a much more appetizing sauce that wasn’t mutated blood. It boiled down to nothing until there were just black flecks left in the flask. The room still reeked of that smoke.
“What just happened here, Leif?”
“This is what happens when you use science when someone has weaponized demon blood. Mistletoe is normally used to banish demons when you are worried about saving the host. Since Rage Heads are already dead, we needed something extra to kill them for good.”
“You’re brilliant. You know that?”
“Not quite, Ariel. I still have to synthesize this and the vaccine, so I’m not draining you of all your blood. You don’t have enough to rid the world of Rage Heads, and we need to kill them all at once.”
I whirled around and kissed him as hard as I could.
“Iknowyou can do this, Leif.”
And I did. We were really doing this. My father’s days were numbered.
Chapter 28
I
was about ready to have celebratorywe made zombie killer potionsex with Leif right there in his lab when Aeron burst in with a Rage Head at the end of one of those poles they use for aggressive animals. Aeron had ripped her jaw off and cut off her arms. She was dripping black blood all over the sterile floors.
