Serena knew she would never forget her first sight of the two warrior angels engaged in battle for as long as she lived.
They swooped through the cave like wrath itself, their attacks so blindingly swift the faint echoes of supersonic booms accompanied their movements. Their holy blades carved effortlessly through the swarms of demons, the creatures’ bodies bursting into fireballs and clouds of ash in their path, their shrieks fading into nothingness.
They were Yin and Yang. Darkness and Light. Power and Glory.
And on the stage, their life forces reinvigorated by the incredible beings that now shared the same air as them, the two beasts roared and renewed their defense of the arch.
The end came within minutes.
Drake watched as Artemus landed on the stage and took care of the last wave of demons with Smokey. Callie turned, stepped up to the bottom of the arch, and slammed the golden scepter in her hands down at the base of the pulsing, red line in the living darkness that throbbed in the center of the looming stone columns.
An unholy sound split the air, as if a thousand demons had screamed at once. The crimson line wavered and dimmed. It flashed out of existence a second later.
The scepter shrank until it was an ivory cane once more, the runes on its pale shaft glowing gold before they vanished. Callie’s Chimera shape receded.
Drake found his gaze drawn to a crimson rift at the rear of the cave. It was the last one still shimmering in the air. He headed toward it, his dark wings beating the air powerfully.
Something was watching him from the other side of the crack in space. A pair of outraged red eyes. Eyes that Drake sensed he knew, deep in the marrow of his soul. He placed the tip of his flaming black sword at the bottom of the rift and moved it up, the end of the metal sealing the flickering edges of the gap shut.
“Not today, asshole,” he growled at the demon gazing at him in fury.
A howl of rage escaped the creature a second before the rift closed. Drake’s lips twisted in a grim smile. He turned and moved toward the stage. His wings and armor disappeared as he landed lightly on the stone floor. His sword and shield assumed their normal, benign appearances in the next moment.
Tom sat up with a choked cry where he’d lain buried under a thick layer of ash next to the stone pedestal to Drake’s right.
“Whaza-huh?” the super soldier said in gargled voice. “What happened?” He twisted around wildly, his gaze sweeping the cave. He paused. “What the hell is in my mouth?” He grimaced and spat out a mouthful of cold cinders. “And where is that demon, the one with the wings?”
Lou sighed and limped over to him. “He is here, there, and, well, everywhere.”
He pointed out the mounds of black ash filling the cave as he pulled the fallen super soldier to his feet.
Artemus, Callie, and Smokey closed the distance to Drake. Artemus’s wings and armor had also disappeared and his sword was back to being a switchblade. His skin, Drake was relieved to see, was no longer silver. The four of them exchanged silent looks, the knowledge of what had been revealed to them all resonating strongly between them.
Serena and Nate joined their side a moment later.
“Hey,” Serena said awkwardly. “That was—”
“Awesome,” Nate said with deep-seated reverence.
“Yeah,” another super soldier murmured, eyes blazing with admiration. “The wings, the flaming swords, the glowing skin and eyes. That was sick, man!”
Tom turned to Lou. “What wings and flaming swords?”
“I’ll tell you later,” Lou replied, his expression wary as he glanced at Drake and Artemus.
Callie’s face fell. “Oh.”
Drake followed her gaze. Artemus moved past him and headed swiftly for the group standing over the motionless body some twenty feet away.
“Isabelle,” Elton murmured. “I’m so sorry.”
Shamus laid a heavy hand on Isabelle’s shoulder as they stared at Mark. There was an ugly hole in the dead man’s chest where a demon had torn into him.
Isabelle dropped down on her haunches, a muscle working in her cheek. She closed her eyes and rubbed a hand tiredly down her face.
“Ten years,” she muttered with a sigh. “Ten bloody years we’ve managed to keep this a secret and you have to go and die in plain sight of everyone.”
She prodded Mark’s body irritably with the barrel of her gun.
“Hey,” Artemus mumbled. “There’s no need to—”
Mark gasped and opened his eyes. “Shit!” He sat up, clutched the wound on his chest, and looked around wildly. “What happened?!”
Isabelle grimaced. “What happened is that you just blew our cover, dumbass.”
What little color had returned to Mark’s face drained away when he registered the sea of shocked stares leveled at him.
“Oh,” he mumbled in a somewhat embarrassed tone.
Lou looked at Serena accusingly. “Did you know?”
Serena hesitated before dipping her chin. “I found out this morning.”
Disgruntled murmurs broke out among some of the super soldiers.
Tom stared at Isabelle and Mark as if they had grown horns and talons.
“Goddamned Immortals!” he stated in a tone filled with disgust.