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Jonah turned on the next one with a snarl. It attempted to scrabble away but he caught it, twisted its neck, heard the snap and ran it into a jutting tree limb, impaling it before he, too, muttered the words and watched it sear to ash without burning the tree further.
There'd been seven, and he'd taken out four on his own. With fierce satisfaction, he saw David execute a flawless upside-down twist in the air, dodging a pike, and cleave the creature wielding it in half. The young angel fired his blades with blue flame so they incinerated on the way through, a flood of heated topaz consuming and evaporating the Dark One.
Lucifer used a dagger in combination with the crescent swing of his deadly scythe. He'd hooked one with it, slung it out of the tree, half severing its head with just that maneuver before meeting the creature chest to chest, one of the few angels who could fight hand to hand with the Dark Ones, able to shield himself from the poison that slicked their skin. Jonah had the ability, but since he'd fallen victim to it when he was laid open by the axe, he couldn't claim the same shielding. Right now, at least.
A last whistling hiss, like a fire roaring away, and the forest was silent.
Jonah erupted from the branches, nearly taking a tumble to the ground when his wing didn't initially support him as he expected, and in too much of a hurry to care. Blood ran down his back, telling him the juncture point was torn again. The wing had taken a beating, both from how he had pushed it and the fact the Dark Ones had seemed to know to target it specifically. It didn't matter. Only one thing mattered.
"Anna." He called out her name even before he landed, filled with a sudden cold desperation. "Anna."
"I'm here, my lord." She emerged from the foliage, human once again and working the skirt of the light dress down around her bare hips. "I'm here." She came right to him, her vibrant eyes seeking his face, trying to see if he was hurt. Whereas all he could focus on was the trickle of blood at her temple where she'd come too close to the Dark One's blade in her game of cat and mouse that had been anything but a game.
She put her hands in his before he even realized he'd reached out, and gave him a quiet smile. "Angels are not dull traveling companions, my lord. I will say that."
There was a tremor in her fingers, and her face was pale, but serene. She was calm. Whereas he felt as if he needed to rip open more Dark Ones. Or throw up.
"What in the name of all Heaven and Hell were you doing?" he demanded. "I told you to take cover. I did not mean on my person."
"You needed my help." Her lips firmed. "I wasn't going to cower in the bushes while you fought alone."
"You will do what I tell you to do," he snarled.
"She acquitted herself well, even as a firefly," David commented, landing next to Jonah and giving her a bow. "David. At your service."
"Anna." She was going to extend her hand in greeting, but since they were still held by one ominous-looking angel, she settled for a shy nod.
Quirking a brow at Jonah, David gave a semblance of a teasing smile that seemed to Anna a bit out of place on his serious features. "I can see why you've been out of touch."
Jonah's gaze shot to him. "You're not him," he said flatly. "Don't try."
A flash of hurt crossed David's face, but another voice cut across his response, impatient. "What we need to talk about is what you're doing here and why you haven't summoned us. Now that we've found you, we can take you back up to the clouds, get you a proper healer."
Anna turned as the dark-winged angel landed a few feet away. From the respectful way David turned to him and Jonah's stiffening, she had to concede this angel might be even more highly ranked than her powerful angel. Michael, perhaps? But he wasn't what she'd imagined Michael looking like.
The dark silk of his feathers swept out in an impressive mantle on either side of him, giving him the look of a landing hawk with his aquiline features and dark, expressionless eyes unexpectedly tinged with red. Power vibrated so strongly from him it made her dizzy, after all the stress of the past few moments. She swayed.
"Tone it down, Luc," Jonah said shortly. "She's been through enough."
Luc . . . Lucifer? Anna wasn't sure if knowing his identity wasn't as overpowering as the energy emanating from him, but she struggled to steady herself, sensing she was going to need all her wits about her.
"Indeed." Whatever he did, the heated weight of the air lifted considerably, and she was able to draw a clean if a bit unsteady breath. "You didn't answer my question. You're lucky your young friend has an ally. David got a summons from the Dark Spawn that you were in danger."
"Mina." Anna's gaze darted to David. "She is well?"
"Except for a nearly terminal case of bad temperament, yes." This time a glint of true humor passed through David's somber eyes.
"Jonah." Luc's tone indicated he would not tolerate being evaded much longer. "Why haven't you called us?"
"Do I appear lost to you?"
Luc gave him an even look. "Do you truly seek an answer to that question?"
Jonah had the grace to flush, but his face otherwise remained hard, resolute. "I'm where I wish to be, for the moment."
"You're where you wish to be," Lucifer repeated. "Where the Dark Ones are tracking you like hounds after a fugitive, and if they capture you, you can serve their purpose?"
"And how is that different from what I was doing?"
David
drew in a breath. Luc seemed to go so still that everything about him was caught in frozen reaction. Anna's gaze shifted between the two angels, cold fear rising in her. Something was wrong here. She'd know it from the hair rising on her nape even if the dark angel's silence wasn't a warning to any creature with a trace of survival instinct. Jonah's face had shuttered closed, except for a simmering energy in his eyes that did not bode well.
"Our enemies are gathering. They're bolstered by your absence and the possibility of your capture. They'll be launching a strong attack soon. We feel it. Even if you are injured, you can help plan, organize, strategize. You are our Commander. We need you--"
"For what?" Jonah snarled. Despite herself, Anna flinched, and even David retreated a step. Lucifer took a step forward. Jonah's anger flashed through the glade, ratcheting up the residual heat lingering from their battle. Anna's gaze shifted to the sky at an ominous rumble. "There is no final victory, because they're not going to stop coming. Not until they get what they want."
The darkness she'd sensed in him was perilously close to the surface now, almost crawling over his skin. David had gripped his daggers unconsciously.
Lucifer's gaze narrowed. "Jonah, don't."
"I've been buried in their blood, in ours, for nearly a millennium." Jonah's voice was all sibilant menace, his eyes gone flat and cold, chillingly like her dream. "When I fight them, I don't know where I begin or end, or if there's even a difference anymore. What does it matter whose blood bathes my blade? It's all death. We fight and we fight, Luc. Because we're supposed to. Because we can't tolerate the presence of Dark Ones near us. As if it's in our very cells, making us do exactly what She created us to do."
"You're being a naive child, wishing the world could be different. You're too old for petulance or running away."
