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“What in the actual fuck, Pops?” Elias shouts, throwing his hands out, staring into the trunk Pops had a hunter roll out. “Are those...wings? Angel-fucking-wings? This is how you’ve been managing to create weapons against Hell? Where did you get them?”
“None of that matters, son. You just have to know that without them, none of us ever stood a chance against Hell. We fight to help people, and who gives a fuck about the wings.” Pops tries to close the space to Elias, but Elias steps out of his reach.
“Old hunter, tell him the truth,” Micah says, speaking up. “Tell him whose wings those are. Have you had them in your possession long?”
Pops flares his nostrils. “It’s not like he wanted them. I saw how he gave up his grace, and you damn well bet I wasn’t going to let them go to waste. So what?”
I blink a few times in shock. Is he implying that the holy relic—the disgustingly shriveled, browning wings he has sitting in the trunk protected by strange symbols—belong to Elias? Holy shit. I don’t believe it.
“Shoot me for all the good I’ve done with them. The Lord has let me hop from one vessel to another for a long time to ensure I could take care of you. It’s how I knew where to find you to train you myself,” Pops continues, trying to touch Elias’s shoulder only to have Elias whack his hand away. “With enough good deeds, I can buy my ticket to the good place. You get it, don’t you? I had to—”
“You destroyed him!” Micah explodes into his ferocious devil form, shaking the room with his hulking footsteps. “You destroyed everything!”
Swinging his giant hoof, Micah punches Pops in the stomach, lifting him off his feet in the process. The old man hugs Micah’s thick arm to stop from flying across the room.
“Demon, we had a deal!” Pops gags and coughs the words out, hanging like a ragdoll.
Kase lifts and drops his shoulders. “Your exact words were, ‘If I give you the holy relic and let Elias leave with you without trouble, you’ll let me be,’ and technically, letting you be doesn’t include a body which doesn’t belong to you. Your time on this plane is up.”
“No!” Pops shouts, thrashing in Micah’s hold.
The strangest noise—words, I think—escape from Micah. Andre tugs me back and tries to shield my eyes, but I reach behind me and cup his junk in my hand, throwing him off. He groans in lustful surprise, shifting his arm until it rests under my breast.
“Raven,” he whispers, his hard body pulsing under my hand.
I ignore him the best I can, keeping my eyes trained on Micah, Dante, and Kase surrounding the old hunter as his skin shudders and moves and an ethereal light radiates from Pop’s chest to spread over his skin as if his veins glow from within.
“What’s happening?” Elias asks, his voice rising over the discordant collection of voices humming through the air.
Gunfire pops, piercing my ears and startling me. A couple of hunters try to intervene to save their leader, but it’s too late. My vision blurs as Micah rips the light free of the old man’s body, and it ignites in flames. Static buzzes over my skin.
“You murdered him!” someone shouts.
“Elias, this is your fault!” a woman yells. “You brought them here.”
Pulling me back, Andre spins and shields me protectively. “Oh, no. I must intervene before the soul takes another.” Andre abandons me outside and expands his wings.
Utter silence falls through the concrete warehouse. Every human stops fighting, and I know without having to ask that Andre reveals himself. Gathering brilliant light in between his palms, he shoots heavenly power at an inky shadowy spot hovering in the air in front of a man. The light engulfs the shadow, sizzling and crackling until a scream pierces my ears and flames burst across the floor.
“It can’t be,” a man whispers.
“Oh, blessed is this sight,” says another. “We’ve been saved from these monstrous demons.”
What the fuck?
I don’t get a chance to tell these bitch-ass hunters that they never needed saving from my devils because Dante closes the distance to me and scoops me into his arms. Carrying the gross severed wings, Kase tightens his jaw. His fingers smoke and smolder, and I rush forward and try to take them from him.
He holds them over his head. “No, angel-girl. If you touch them, they’ll mark you, and you might like what they do to you too much. I’ve had enough goddamn holiness for one day.”
“Our savior,” a few hunters say, drawing my attention back to Andre, stopping me from arguing.
Andre straightens his shoulders. “The Hell-bound cannot be saved. I’m sorry. I know that it sometimes takes a monster to kill one, and the Higher Power appreciates your work. Your sacrifices will not go unnoticed.”
“What?” a hunter asks.
Kase tips his head back and roars a laugh. “Hilarious, right? The beings you bow and pray to don’t even care—”
A loud groan cuts Kase off, and his eyes light with his red power. I shift and look at Micah, cradling Elias in his arms. My heart stalls at the sight of Elias convulsing, his eyes rolling back in his head.
