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She screamed as she forced the blood into herself, a rape of her circulatory system. The scream was part rage, part pain, part need, but as David had said, she had an indomitable will. She held on to that thought. She would not fail. She couldn't fail.
The remaining Dark One blood was rushing into her now, her threat of annihilation speeding its travels. But she would not relinquish her hold as she sent a command to Jonah.
Charge one of his daggers and drive it into his lower back. Now.
Her imperious command was obeyed, no room for doubt, thank Goddess, for if Jonah had hesitated, she would have lost the connection or the courage. David cried out again and the Dark Ones' blood within her screamed as well. The noise alone was going to overwhelm her.
Releasing their host, the last of them fled the blue fire rushing through his system, taking the portal she offered to escape sure destruction.
As she opened her eyes, she saw the room they were in had gone dark, perhaps a reflection of the sky outside, the ominous rumbling around the crown of the Citadel. Distantly, she sensed a gathering of angels, for Jonah had likely been unable to spare attention to let them know what was happening.
Then, before she had another coherent thought, fire was scalding her. Her face, her body on fire. It was as if the sea creatures were tearing at her flesh again, making her relive the terror of it, unable to move.
But she wasn't there, wasn't in the Abyss. She was here, in the Citadel, and David still needed her. She fought through it.
"Heal him," she rasped, fixing her burning eyes on Raphael, bent anxiously over David's body, slumped in Jonah's arms. "Blood. You. Heal him now, quickly. Or he's dead. Life force, will... slip away."
"He is dead."
"No. Not. Life spark there. Do it."
Her voice thundered through the structure like the shock wave from an explosive blast. Then she convulsed again, falling with a thud to the floor, an animal snarl coming from her lips.
"Do it!" She spat out once more before she began to seize, thrashing across the stone tile as if a Dark One had possessed her. Gods, her skin had to be on fire. Things were breaking down and building at once.
Raphael forced himself to turn away and laid his hands on David, charging his palms with power. Probing deeply, he was amazed to find she was right. A single spark, so tiny he was almost afraid to reach for it, coax it back to life.
Jonah, we will need many of us.
Jonah nodded. Reaching out to the seven levels of the Citadel, he called on the other angels. Marcellus consolidated the energy of his battalion, as did the acting lieutenant of David's platoon. Ezekial, Bazrak, all of the captains. Even the Thrones in Zebul, and Lucifer, down in Hades. The call went out to all, a flood of energy returning that ignited the room with white light, covering them.
Raphael, the witch. She can't—
She is taking care of herself. She is shielded. I will channel this away from her as well. Do not fear for her.
Satisfied, Jonah returned his concentration to the charge in his arms. As he helped steady the healer, Raphael took the white light and worked that energy into David. The wounds began to close, the hair to grow back along his skull, the fingers and other ruined and mangled parts to sculpt back into the body of a powerful and graceful young male angel. Jonah swallowed, moved by the act of re-Creation that, of all the healer angels, only Raphael could do.
David's ruined wings ignited, burning away in a wave of heat and wind. The ash drifted across the bed, mingling with the blood and infection, all of which was abruptly seared away as if it had never been. White light surged through the healing centers of David's body then, jerking him. His head fell back lifelessly on Jonah's shoulders. The commander held him close, steady. Raphael kept his hands on him, his lips firming with determination. As the white light intensified, Jonah, who could look at the sun, had to shut his eyes.
Come on, damn you. You can't go. I won't permit it. And she needs you. Don't give up.
MINA caught only glimpses of what was happening on the bed. In the fight for her own life, she could no longer offer anything to David, could only hope she'd done enough.
Her body was working fiercely to accommodate what David had been able to do for it before his energy ran out, as well as handling the new Dark One blood she'd just acquired. They warred for the same space, her Dark One blood leaping on the other and trying to destroy it. She wanted to retch, but she kept it down, helping her Dark One blood sear out of existence what she'd pulled from David.
The pain took her deeper, until she was nothing but the pain, her mind shutting into that simple survival mode she knew well. Just one moment to the next. Or no passage of time at all. It simply was. Fire on every part of her skin, a fierce aching in her bones as intense as a break. It got so excruciating it crossed her mind to just give up, let oblivion take her, but she hadn't earned that. And if there was a chance she'd succeeded and could see David's face once more...
Trust me for one moment. Just one more moment.
A long time later, voices came through that red haze. "I don't think we should touch her. Just wait. Watch over her. Watch over them both."
"I'll watch over her." A quiet voice, one that couldn't be Marcellus, for it had too much compassion, but it sounded like him.
"Clean bed," she rasped. "Make sure he has clean bed. Hates being dirty. Don't leave him like that."
Then later, maybe much later? Another voice. The voice she needed to hear to penetrate the fog of her own dull, mindless pain. "Give her to me."
She was lifted, the sense of feathers brushing her, and then she was on a soft bed. Clean. Smelling of clouds and sunshine. David's arms around her. Lying on David's chest. His heartbeat strong and steady.
It seemed the hardest thing she'd ever done, but she managed to tilt her head back the inch or two needed, crack her eyes enough to see his looking down at her. Brown, warm and steady.
A sigh slipped through her lips. She slept.
SUNSHINE. Her shields had held, amazingly, but too much time had passed, for they were thin. Thin enough that the presence of angels all about was enough to give her an oppressive, closed-in feel. But she opened her eyes and found she was in David's arms still, and that made it bearable for the time being. As she rose on one arm, she gazed down at him.
He had some faint scarring on his body, like Marcellus, that would fade in time. But he had all his fingers back, his rich mane of brown hair to his shoulders, though there was an interesting tawny streak now that she brushed with her fingertips. Then she couldn't help touching his mouth, the bridge of his nose. His throat, tracing the breadth of his shoulders. Her throat thickened as she saw one scar that had not altered. The handprint burned into his chest remained.
A polite cough, and she looked over to see Jonah on the window ledge. Watching over them again. David slept on, even though his arms stayed curled low on her hips, reluctant to release her even in sleep.
As she turned to look at him, Jonah straightened, staring at her. Raphael and Marcellus had entered as if he'd summoned them, now that she was awake. They stopped as well, just as they stepped over the threshold.
"Holy Goddess," Marcellus muttered.
She swallowed, trying not to panic, and turned her focus back to David. His wounds were gone, the health returned to his face, his body clean, yes. But he was wingless. Since he was half turned toward her, probably an old habit of not sleeping on his back, she peered over his shoulder to see a broad, unmarked expanse of skin and muscle. She ran her palm over it.
"We're not sure what happened." Raphael cleared his throat. When she glanced back at him, he kept his gaze fixed on David. "He appears to have all other elements of being an angel. Speed, quickness, strength. Immortality."
"You have a theory," she said. "You just don't want to tell me."
"It's possible the wings were too corrupted by the blood, and in the healing, the best thing to do was to just get rid of them."
Mina looked toward Jonah, her exp
