Page 8 of House of Kallan
I swallowed around the lump in my throat. That would be really bad.
“Think about it,” Ellis said enthusiastically, liking that we accepted his idea. “We know from what Ady and Cobalt said that it wasn’t just experiments to gauge their strength that were performed on them. They were trying to control them. They kept Ady for more than a decade and Cobalt almost as long. Think of all the monsters we freed when we stormed the place that had them locked up! They were probably trying to find a way to control them all.”
“This is chilling,” Calix muttered, shaking his head.
The door to the building opened, and wails of pain met my ears. Tyrus had already had some fun. He smiled, almost absently, as we moved past him and inside.
There were bodies on the ground. Broken. Disfigured. Bloody, half-shifted, and almost unidentifiable.
“I promised to keep some alive and unharmed,” Tyrus said, as he looked at the bodies around him almost hungrily. “But not these. They wanted to run instead of fighting. They’re cowards, so they just needed to die.”
“Fine,” Hadrian said and turned to me. “Stairs?”
I moved through the house as if I’d been inside a dozen times. As if I knew what to expect. That wasn’t my talent, though. I followed the heat and the heat seeped through doors. Besides that, I’d just stripped it apart to find the souls inside.
The stairs were silent as we descended, keeping as quiet as possible. I thought Raiden was probably absorbing the vibration. A quake could do that, right?
The first room we came to was still empty, just as I predicted.
“Who wants to go first?” Ellis asked, bouncing on his feet.
“Go ahead,” Calix said, as if he were humoring a child. “Be careful. Bastian will have all our heads if you come out of there with so much as a missing strand of hair.”
Ellis grinned broadly. “Don’t worry. I’m very angry right now. It makes me strongest.”
Before our eyes, the bouncy, happy man grew into an enormous white and gold demon that you wouldn’t want to meet, even in your nightmares. He looked at Calix, who nodded in permission, and Ellis barreled through the door with a roar that shook the building.
There was chaos, but we weren’t new to that. Beyond the fight that was happening in the room, the screams of the terrified woman in pain met my ears over the din of battle. I slipped through the fight and toward the door, behind which I found an entire room that looked like an old-time medical ward from World War II. Beds lined up with pregnant women.
One, close to the entrance, was in labor. Or… she had been. Now she was screaming in agony and horror at the monstrous baby laying between her legs. There was blood everywhere. So much blood. Her screams were getting weak as she lost blood and her life force faded.
Ignoring what was happening around me, I moved through the room to her. She looked at me with terror on her face, so I stopped short. “I’m sorry, I don’t have time to gain your trust, lady,” I told her as I bent down to scoop her up. “You’re just going to have to trust that I’m the good guy and if I don’t get you to someone who can help you soon, you’re going to die. Okay?”
Her screams were now weak sobs as her head lolled onto my shoulder. She nodded, but she was almost completely extinguished. I could feel her soul breaking free of her body.
Stay there,I commanded it and turned to head for the door.
There was still fighting going on, but it was isolated to the far side of the room and I was pretty sure Tyrus was just toying with his dinner at this point. Moving quickly, I left the building and moved to the van we had at the corner of the street, where we’d set up a temporary transportation portal.
Honestly, this was one of the best ideas anyone ever had. I was sure that because of it, we’d saved more lives than we otherwise would have. It was a little awkward to crawl through holding a person, but I came out the other side easily enough.
I raced through with the woman in my arms. It wasn’t difficult to see those around us scampering about in barely concealed chaos as we were. There were still dozens more to bring in, but this one needed immediate attention.
It didn’t take me long to feel the energy of a divine soul, and I knew that’s where this woman needed to be. So I practically closed my eyes and followed the holy signature of another angel. No, wait. I tilted my head. Archangel. Yep, that felt right.
Not a Nephilim or a seraphim. I knew what they felt like. In every single way. A smirk touched my lips, even at this inappropriate time. But still. I was more than positive the light and heat I felt were from an archangel.
I didn’t fully open my eyes until I was standing in front ofher. “Oh my gods,” she said and immediately, her voice pierced me.
I sucked in a breath and looked up into her face. The most breathtaking, most divine of all creatures stood before me. Every single glowing piece in my body screamed,that’s her!That’s our wife.
But she didn’t look up at me as she hurried away with the dying woman I’d brought her. I tried to watch her through the crowd, but I soon lost her among the bodies.
“Come on, man,” Ellis said, placing a big hand on my shoulder and steering me back out the door. “We have more.” His voice was sad, but now that we were standing so close, I was consumed with endless rage. Such was the effect of being close to a fury.
As I brought in more victims, one at a time, I continued to search for this angel among monsters. But I didn’t see her again.
Tatum
