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My scream shattered the darkness but they just kept coming and coming, brutally taking me despite my screams while Lucifer laughed and Damian roared. Hands gripped my shoulders holding me in place and I broke free from the chains and swung.
“Naomi!” Michael’s aggravated voice pierced my dream and my eyes snapped open to the dim light of the bedroom and Michael’s strong grip on my wrist.
He stared at me for a moment. “You read the emails,” he said when my breathing evened out and my heart beat no longer caused pain.
I dropped my gaze to the covers and then glanced at the clock. It took a moment to register and then every muscle jumped into action.
“It’s after ten at night?” I snarled at Michael and he nodded.
My body needed relief and I took two minutes to empty my bladder. I stormed back into the bedroom and pointed at the clock, my nerve endings screaming at me to get moving. “It’s been over twenty-four hours. Do you know what that means?”
A dull pounding pressed on the back of my eye sockets and I didn’t know if the headache was due to over-sleeping, lack of food or the raging anger wracking my body.
“Damian would want me to protect you,” Michael said and stood, putting himself between me and the door.
“Damian will die at sunrise!” I screamed.
Michael’s face pinched in pain and he pressed his lips together. His jaw muscles jumped and his eyes sprouted a glaze of tears.
“You don’t think I know that?”
“You can save him,” I said, grasping at straws. “We can save him, please...” hot tears choked my voice. “There has to be a way,” I begged and a light passed over Michael’s irises but he shook it away.
I wiped the tears from my face and stared him down. “No matter how dangerous or insane, there has to be something we can do,” I said, forcing my voice not to shake. “I’d rather make the attempt, even if it means we both die, please.”
He slowly shook his head.
Fury blasted through me and I glared at him. “You can’t keep me locked up forever,” I growled. “And when I escape this jail, I’m going to let Lucifer do whatever the hell he wants to me. Even if that includes building an army.”
The rash remark had the desired effect. Michael’s face bloomed red with anger and his hand shot out. I wasn’t sure whether it was in retribution or for comfort and I didn’t wait to find out. I caught his wrist in powerful tiger jaws.
He was stronger than the demon and he tossed me across the room. I twisted and landed on four paws, my teeth bared in derision.
“Don’t you ever threaten me with that,” he snarled, pointing a shaking finger in my direction. “I don’t give a damn how angry you are with me, dangling the end of the world as a method of blackmail is wrong.”
“Letting Damian die is wrong,” I said and stood on my human feet, the transition from fur to human flesh as quick as a blink. It calmed the raging beast in my blood, but I was still hell bent on saving Damian. “I know you had an idea of how to save him. I saw it in your eyes, so give up the ghost.”
He laughed and his hands found his hips as he studied me. When his laughter wound down, he inhaled and blew out a stream of air. Michael closed his eyes and recited an ancient verse. Light filled the room and wings fluttered as he transformed into his true celestial form.
I took an involuntary step backwards and he cocked his head, silently questioning my actions.
“I’m not going to smite you.” His sigh rustled the fabric covering the bed and I wondered if Lucifer was as intimidating in angel form.
Michael’s lips twitched into a smile. “I’m a pussy cat compared to my brother.”
“Well that just makes me feel so much better.” I couldn’t stop the sarcasm, after all it was my default defense mechanism and right now I had no idea whether Michael took the form to help me or to stop me.
“Sit,” he ordered and pointed at the side of the bed.
My feet obeyed and I crossed, taking a seat facing him.
“What came to mind is highly unorthodox and extremely dangerous,” he started and crossed the room, taking my hands in his. “If we fail, the worst case is both Damian and I die and you fulfill the dark prophecy.”
I shivered with revulsion and the flash of nightmares I had was nothing in comparison to the stark fear that drained the blood from my face.
“Another more likely scenario is we all die.” He paused, keeping eye contact. “But if this works, there is a slim chance of saving Damian.”
“What about you?”
His exhale told me more than I wanted to know.
“It’s been a very long time since Lucifer and I stood face to face. It’s apt to get very bloody for both of us. He was a formidable sparring partner before he was cast out of heaven and with so many years of resentment built up in him, I’m not sure I’ll be in a condition to last for long, but I will do damage. Perhaps as much as you did.” He smiled and placed his finger under my chin.
“What do you need me to do?” I asked and bit my lower lip, quelling the dread building in my stomach and tightening the muscles in my throat and chest.
“You have to get me into the house.”
“What if I can’t find the markings?”
His sad smile made me recoil. “That’s not what I’m suggesting.”
“Then how,” my mouth asked while my brain screamed to run, to shut up, to let all this go because whatever it was promised pain and anguish for all of us.
“Do you remember what I said to transform?”
I shook my head. “It sounded like Latin.”
“Meque his exsolvite humanae gloriae caelestis exercitus ad vincula,” he whispered and placed his hands on my head. The words echoed through my brain, forming a Braille pattern on my tongue as I spoke them over and over with him.
My cranium hurt when he released his hands and he tilted my chin so our eyes met.
“I need to ride you into that house.”
A vision of the tiger with Michael clinging to my back flashed before my eyes and Michael chuckled.
“No, I need to ride in your bloodstream.”
“What?”
“And you can’t transition to the tiger because you can’t recite the incantation to bring my form into that room with you.”
I stared at him, blinking and still not understanding how that was possible.
“You can’t call me until the moment the sun hits the horizon.”
Shock filtered through me like a jolt of electricity. “But if I wait until sunrise, how will that help Damian?”
“He has to bite you and drink your blood before the sun rises.”
“But that will kill him,” I gasped and recoiled.
“This is where we have to have some blind faith. Yes, it could kill him like it did that vampire who attacked you at the rest station, but he’s got angel blood in him, trinity blood at that because of your infusions into him, so I think there’s a slight chance you could be his cure.”
“If I’m not the cure, he will suffer and if I am the cure, he’ll die of old age.”
“If you aren’t the cure, the sun will turn him to dust,” Michael said. “It’s a gamble, Naomi, but either way, his death will be on your terms not Lucifer’s. If by some miracle he doesn’t die, you need to get him out of there. You’ll have to release me first, otherwise this will be in vain.”
I nodded slowly. A slim chance was still a chance and I had to take it.
He drew in a deep breath. “One more thing, if my human form is rendered useless, all bets are off.”
“What do you mean by useless?”
“If my human heart no longer beats, then I can’t regain my celestial form. When you release me, I’ll ascend into heaven.”
“You mean you’ll die?”
“Yes. If that happens and you can’t escape, you know what you have to do.”
I remembered the conversation in the car and nodded. “I have to die,” I whispered.
When Michael nodded, I hung my head, preparing myself for battle.
* * * *
I PULLED THE CAR OVER a half mile away from the end of Misty Brook Lane in New Fairfield and glanced at Michael before killing the engine.
“Now what?” I asked as we stepped out of the car.
“We need to find a place where you can hide me. I don’t physically have to be in the house when you recite the incantation,” he said and I glanced at my watch and then the plumes of air escaping from my mouth and nodded, praying an unconscious human body wouldn’t freeze over the course of an hour.
“I won’t freeze. Just cover me with leaves and pine limbs and then head to the house,” he said to my thought process.
We tromped through the woods in the direction of the house and when we’d covered half the distance, he stopped in the center of a small thicket.
“This will do,” he said and pulled a knife from his pocket along with two oversized Band-Aids. He handed the bandages to me and said, “You’re left arm.” I held it to him and he pushed the jacket up, revealing the soft flesh of my wrist. “This isn’t going to be pleasant for either of us. Just try not to make a sound.”
I nodded and clenched both my teeth and lips together, bracing myself for pain. He sliced my wrist and then his in quick succession. The pain was bearable, after all, I had had worse in my lifetime, but when he pressed his open wrist to mine, my breath sucked in and out of my lungs with the burn. It was more debilitating than the agony of the vampire virus. The air shimmered and then his wings disappeared and his eyes rolled up into his head. I caught his slack body at the same time his power merged with my cells, making me dizzy and nauseous.
I quickly put a bandage over his wrist and then mine, the flow of blood already slowed as he had told me, the itch of healing taking hold. Before I covered him, I leaned my ear against his chest just to make sure. The steady thrum of his heart calmed my vertigo and I took a deep breath, praying that this would work, otherwise it was the end of my world.