He heard Jacqui screaming. Maybe she was concerned for him. That’d be nice. Eva’s mom was cool, and she’d said she liked his tattoos, and no one said that. Most people gawked at him with judgment written all over their faces, not that he cared. Actually, he liked making people uncomfortable. It was one of his greatest pleasures in life.
He thought all these admittedly pointless thoughts in that little pause of slowed time, and then his respite was over, and the world went full speed ahead once more.
Meph hit the ground, blood all over him. Jacqui was still screaming. Raum landed at his side and tried to yank the knife out, except it seared his hand when he touched it.
And... Belial went off.
Meph wanted to tell him it was all good and not to bother losing his shit over him, but he’d already tried speaking and it hadn’t worked out so well. Plus, it wasn’t like Bel would listen.
Nope, his brother totally lost it. He really blew.
First, he grew. Had to be thirteen feet tall, the size of a freakin’ Mack truck. He had to stoop way down to fit under the doorframe, and Raum had to drag Meph out of the way by the armpits so the two of them didn’t get crushed.
Belial stretched his palms forward and pressed, putting all his strength into breaking the ward, which flashed with white light and flexed outward as he tested its power. Anyone else would have been blasted back twenty feet by magic that powerful, but not Bel.
It was a good thing he hadn’t had time to cut his hair, because it would have grown back right then. The white-blond locks blew all around his head in a phantom wind. The sky darkened. Lightning crashed around them for added effect. Huge, white-feathered wings burst from Belial’s back, tearing his too-tight shirt right off his body, and he levitated off the ground a few inches, pushing harder against the magic keeping him trapped.
And, of course, he burst into flames.
Raum dragged Meph further inside amidst Jacqui’s continued screaming. She was probably screaming more about Belial now than Meph and the whole knife-in-his-chest thing. Especially because Belial started launching fireballs through the ward at Dan, forcing him to duck and weave all over the place with Jacqui along for the ride. Poor lady.
Raum hunched over Meph, trying to pull out the blade in his chest, but the consecrated weapon was burning his brother’s palms up good. Every time Raum got a good grip on it, his hands would start to smoke and flame until he had to yank them away.
He ripped his shirt over his head and wrapped his fist in it, but consecrated weapons were no joke. It gave him a couple seconds of extra yank time—that blade was in Meph’s sternum good—but then Raum’s shirt burst into white fire and became more of a hindrance than a help.
The world was kind of going black now, which sucked because Meph actually could die from this wound. He’d been looking forward to tearing shit up with his trusty bros, but instead he was going to die in a pool of his own blood because he’d tried negotiating with an angel. Stupid. Lesson learned on that front.
“Help me!” Raum was yelling. “Fucking help me, Bel!”
Aw.A tiny tear actually gathered in Meph’s eye. Raum was the quiet one, always calm and collected, and he didn’t like the desperate tone of his voice, especially because he knew Bel wasn’t going to help. When Bel was this far gone, he lost all reason and rationale and existed purely as a force of destruction with a burning desire to kill everything.
Distantly, Meph remarked that the building was now on fire as Bel continued his Satanic tantrum, spewing hellfire at the Grigori and roaring so loudly it obliterated all else. The ward was flexing outward so far now, Bel was standing all the way outside. It looked like he might actually be able to break it, which was badass.
For once, the fire wasn’t an unwelcome sight. The outside of the building may have been rendered indestructible, but the inside wasn’t, and if Bel destroyed it enough, it could collapse internally and free them.
Meph hoped his cool vulture statue would survive though. Good thing it was made of metal.
His last thought was that he wished Jacqui hadn’t had to see her husband murder him because that shit was bound to be traumatizing. And then the world faded to black.
25
Free Fall
Ash stared across the living room at the woman chained to the staircase, yanking furiously at the metal handcuff at her wrist, and the truth hit him like a ton of bricks.
“He’s your father?”
“Yes, and I’ll kill him!” Eva was yanking at her cuffed wrist hard enough to bloody herself. “I can’t believe he handcuffed me to the freaking stairs!”
“Your father...”
“Yes, him!” Eva screeched. “My idiotic, stubborn, pigheaded father!”
“... is a Grigori.”
Oh, hell no, this could not be happening.
“You’re a Nephilim,” he said aloud just to help the horror sink in a little. “That’s why you have the Sight. That’s why you could see through my curse. Because you have angel blood in your veins.”
