03 Before The Devil Knows You're Dead-Speak Of The Devil Page 22

  “Of course you didn’t believe her.” Michael smirked at me. “Otherwise she wouldn’t have moved on to her desperate attempts to convince you to help her.”

  “I am his consort,” Brenda said. “Tell her.”

  “Oh dear, dear girl.” Michael shifted his grip on Hannah so that now instead of cradling her like a baby he had her on his hip, her head resting on his shoulder. I watched her carefully, and was relieved to see her back move. Whatever Michael had done meant that she was surviving without the various life-support machines. Now, all I had to do was find a way to get her out of harm’s way and make sure she stayed alive until we got her back downstairs and into her bed.

  “You dear, stupid girl,” Michael said and he stepped forward, backing Brenda toward the ledge until her knees hit the back of it and her back was to nothing but open space as he pushed her backward into nothing but empty air. She seemed to hang there for a second before she fell.

  “No!” I threw my hand out, reaching for her but Jesus grabbed the back of my shirt and held me still.

  “Now.” Michael beckoned to me with his bare hand, completely unconcerned with the girl he’d killed and dropped from ten floors up. “Bring me the spear, if you please.”

  “Faith.” My brother’s eyes were wary.

  “It’s okay.” I nodded and tried to look in control even though I was trembling. If this went wrong, I was sentencing my entire family—and a whole lot more people—to death and there was a lot of ways this could go wrong. “I promise it’s all going to be okay.”

  “That’s lovely.” Michael rolled his eyes and then curled his fingers again, impatiently this time. “Completely wrong, but lovely anyway.”

  I looked over at Jesus and smiled, before glancing at my brother and my fiancé one last time. J was right. No one took on an archangel to save the world on their own. Not even me. You needed someone else to guard your back after all. Anything else was suicide.

  Michael said, “Bring me the spear, or the child dies. Then I’ll go downstairs and kill every other child in this hospital. Every child in this city if that’s what it takes?”

  “You want the spear?” I stepped forward, keeping my grip tight on it. I moved even closer so that we could almost touch and then stopped.

  “Give it to me.” He started toward me at the same time

  I lunged within arm’s reach and rammed the point into his chest, right over where his heart would have been. “Here you go then.”

  He gasped as the world around us went white and I felt electricity and—oh, thank evil, yes!—dark power raced from the spear, up my arm, and back into my body. My wings burst free from my back and it felt glorious to be me again.

  “You bitch!”

  “I’m a demoness, remember?” I shoved the spear farther into him. “Bitch comes with the territory.”

  I pushed again and his knees hit the ledge a second before he started to topple. Letting go of the spear, I lunged like one of those insane eastern European volleyball players, grabbing for the back of Hannah’s tiny pajama top.

  I felt the cool cotton of her shirt against my fingers and tightened my hand into a fist, letting her and Michael’s combined weight jerk me toward the ledge, refusing to let go as we all three tumbled over the edge.

  Chapter Twenty-six

  I felt a rough jerk as I clung to Hannah’s pajama top. The jolt shifted Michael’s grip and his arms flung out beside him. The millisecond after he let go of Hannah, I stared into his icy-blue eyes, watching him for that brief moment between being there, falling to his death, and then a brilliant explosion of white light that filled the street below me, the blast rattling the windows of the hospital, swallowing him and the spear both.

  There was a loud screech and then, as my vision cleared, I saw Malachi and his legion pouring into the streets, herding the mob in front of him. “Good sign,” Malachi called out and I looked over to see him floating next to me. “Very subtle.”

  “Yeah, you know me.” I smirked, still dangling. “The queen of discretion.”

  “Well at least you’re not delusional enough to consider yourself the queen of portion control,” Jesus said as I pulled Hannah closer, wrapping her in my arms. “Dad help me, you’ve got to lay off the Ho-Hos, Faith.”

  “Oh shut up and heave!”

  “I’m doing my best!” Jesus said again, “but you aren’t exactly made of sunshine and sugar, now are you, lard ass?”

  “Hold on,” Matt yelled and then I heard the scrape of two more people pulling themselves onto the ledge. Two more hands grabbed me and pulled, while another pair took Hannah from my arms.

  “Is she—” I scrambled back onto the hospital’s roof and looked at Tolliver, who was cradling the small girl in his arms. “I didn’t think. I grabbed her and I didn’t mean to hurt—”

  “She’s fine.” He smiled, relief evident in his eyes. Which would have been totally out of place but hey, even demons have a soft spot when it comes to kids. “She’s perfectly fine.”

  “So does that mean I’m not the Angel of Death? I got my powers back and everything so I assumed…”

  “Oh, you’re the Angel of Death, all right.” Jesus touched my shoulder and I felt Matt wrap around me from behind, his arms tight around my waist and his nose burrowed in my hair. “It’s something you can learn to control. What did you tell me before? It’s not what happens to you that turns you into the person you are. It’s what you do afterward? It’s all about intentions. Intentions are everything. They’re what matter.”

  “Until you start killing people with a single touch,” I said. “Then your intentions won’t get you a bucket full of imp shit. So how am I managing to do this?”

  “You’re not,” J said. “I am. One of those super duper special powers that makes me, well me. Before the whole angels on Earth thing I was doing a bit of research and it turns out I can help muzzle your powers for short periods of time. So enjoy it while you can.”

  “Don’t worry, we’ll find some way for you to learn how to control it on your own,” Tolliver said his eyes bright. “Dad and I were talking with Malachi, and your dread demon thinks that the old Angel of Death might be able to help. He owes Mal a favor apparently.”

  “The original Angel of Death owes Mal a favor?” I snorted. “You’re joking, right?”

  “Not even a little,” Tolliver said and then shifted Hannah into a more comfortable position in his arms. “We’re going to find a way to make sure you can handle the job and live your life. After all, you just shot to the top of my babysitter list with that whole ninja-spear move you pulled.”

  “Great. Just what I wanted, diaper duty. But I have one question. Are you crying?”

  “Crying?” Tolliver sniffed. “Please. I’m the Archdemon of Gluttony. I don’t cry, even if my little sister did manage to single handedly save the world.”

  “I had a bit of help.” I smiled at him, and he winked. “Not that you couldn’t have helped a bit sooner or anything because come on, last-minute saves…you totally learned that from those action movies you’re so into.”

  “Shut up, you, and give me back my wife.” His eyes were bright and he was grinning like an idiot.

  “Gladly.” I slipped the necklace off, handing it to him.

  He wrapped his free hand around the stone and the air next to him started to shimmer and bend. There was a quiet pop and Lisa and Hope wavered into a solid shape, sort of fuzzy at the edges but more real than not.

  Tolliver passed Hannah over to J and swiped his hand along the front of their bubble, releasing my sister and my best friend back into the world. “I can’t believe you locked us in a bubble in—” Hope stopped.

  “Faith?” Lisa was staring at me with wide, perceptive eyes. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah.” I smiled at her, my lips tight so that they didn’t shake as we all shifted and stared out over the city from our perch. “I’m fine but it’s been a bit of a long day.”

  “I can see that,” she said quietl
y as she looked out over the city. The demons below had managed to round people up and were somehow glamouring them into complaisance. Everywhere, things had sort of stopped as people looked at each other, shaking their heads.

  A large, angry-looking female demon with black scales and flaming-red wings and hair hovered over the top of the ambulance I’d watched the woman on before and held her hands out, shooing the people away. En masse they began to stumble home and the sirens blared in the distance as rescue workers were finally able to get through to us.

  “This is the way the world ends,” J said. “Not with a bang, but with a whimper.”

  “Not today.” I took his hand, squeezing it. “We made sure of that.”

  “Right,” Hope said, watching the crowds below. “What do we do now? I’m actually sort of hungry. Now that the end isn’t near and all, I could seriously murder a sandwich.”

  “We should get married.” I nudged Matt’s shoulder with my own, leaning against him.

  “What?” His eyes widened and I couldn’t help smiling at the stunned look on his face. “You want to do what now?”

  “We should get married,” I repeated. “Right now. While J is holding onto my super-killing powers.”

  “Now?” He stepped back a little. “Are you sure you want to do it now? Today’s been pretty stressful and I know that you’ve been through a lot. I don’t want you to do something because of the adrenaline and the excitement and—”

  “I love you. I want to spend the rest of eternity with you. No questions asked. No second thoughts. Afterward, we can go for sandwiches or something.”

  “Are you sure? I know you said yes when I proposed but are you really sure?”

  “If this would have truly been the end of the world,” I said and immediately felt stupid for the fact that I was starting to cry, “the only thing I would have regretted was that I wasn’t going to get the chance to wake up tomorrow with you.”

  “Okay but that doesn’t mean—”

  “Matt! Say yes already.”

  “Yes.”

  “Well you better let me get Mom and Dad, at least,” Tolliver said. “After all, Dad missed you stopping an angelic invasion. If he misses your wedding, we’re never going to hear the end of it.”

  “Get Mal while you’re at it,” I said.

  “While you’re down there tell him he better not have gone from kissing Faith’s admin to hitting on my sister again. I mean it. He may be a bad-ass dread demon, but my sister is off-limits,” Matt said.

  “Oh, no worries, your sister and Aurelia are both locked in…” I froze. How did I tell him? Or her? She’s trusted me to watch after her father and instead I’d let him die. “Matt?”

  “Yeah?” He looked down at me and his eyes were dark.

  “Your dad didn’t make it.”

  “I know, he’s considered missing but if he were alive he’d—”

  “No, he made it to the hospital. We had him and I sent Mary Beth and Aurelia behind the fire doors in the PICU so that I could treat him without her being in there with it being her dad and all.”

  “It’s okay.” Matt pulled me close and wrapped his arms around me.

  “He died trying to protect me,” I whispered and even if it wasn’t 100 percent true that he’d been on his feet and fighting, I couldn’t help thinking it was how he’d want to be remembered. “He let Michael destroy him to save me. I’m so sorry.”

  “I know. It’s okay. Let’s not think about Dad right now. He wouldn’t want to ruin our wedding by making everyone cry.”

  “You mean he wouldn’t have tried to sing at our reception?”

  “I didn’t say that,” Matt said, “but he’d have only done it because of how much he loved you.”

  “Us,” I corrected. “How much he loved us.”

  “What is this I hear about a rooftop wedding?” Mal’s voice broke in and I watched as he hovered over the side of the building, a filthy, rumpled Phil Stavlinski clinging to his waist.

  “Hannah?” The man launched himself off Malachi and rushed over to Jesus, his arms outstretched.

  “She’s okay.” J handed her over gently. “She’s going to be perfectly fine. Trust me.”

  “Who are you?” Phil looked at J skeptically.

  “Captain Stavlinski?” I smiled. “Have I introduced you to my cousin?”

  “Don’t tell me. Please, for the sake of my mental sanity, don’t tell me.” The man shook his head.

  “No problem,” J said and then put his hand on Phil’s shoulder and the man’s shoulders slumped into complete relaxation. “Be at peace, Captain Philip Charles Stavlinski. May you always be at peace.”

  “Very subtle, Son.” My Uncle laughed. He was standing with Mom, Dad, and Tolliver next to an open phase portal.

  “Oh great,” Phil said. “Just when I thought my day couldn’t get any weirder.”

  “It’s okay,” I said and dropped my head against Matt’s chest. “Over time you sort of get used to it.”

  “Right.” The Alpha clapped His hands together and focused on me. “What’s this I hear about a wedding?”

  “Hold on,” Harold said and floated up through the roof below us. “Hold on one second! Stop the wedding!”

  “What?” I glared at him.

  “Five minutes.” He held his hands out in front of him. “Give me five minutes.”

  “For what?” Matt asked.

  “No idea.” I shook my head as Harold sunk back into the hospital.

  “All floors,” Harold said over the tinny speaker that had been attached to the roof. He was broadcasting to everyone in the hospital. “This is a Code Green. I repeat we have a code green on all floors.”

  “Code Green?” Matt asked.

  “It’s the all clear sign. Code Green means that everyone can come back out.”

  “Code Green for all floors,” Harold said again. “All available staff should report immediately to the roof. I repeat, all available staff should report immediately to the roof.”

  “Harold,” I said as he popped up next to me.

  “What? You saved all our skins. You can at least let us all wish you well when you get married.”

  “Or we could wait,” Mom said. “Surely there are other places we can do this? I can call Antje and I’m sure she’ll give us a deal. Plus, I need time to get my coven sisters here to help with the blessings. We’ll need weeks at least to prepare.”

  “Mom.” I looked at her and tried my best to put a don’t mess with me right now look on my face.

  “Faith this is a big—”

  “Roisin, darling,” Dad said.

  “What?”

  “Shut up.” Dad smiled and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “The girl did just save a major metropolitan area. I think she can plan her own wedding.”

  “Thanks,” I mouthed and he nodded.

  “No problem.” He tightened his grip on her shoulder, ensuring she couldn’t move.

  I stood there, watching as people started trickling onto the roof, looking stunned and a little shell-shocked from the night they’d lived through.

  “Is it over?” Tanya asked, rubbing a hand over her eyes as she looked out at the destruction below us. “Is it all over?”

  “Yeah.” I smiled at her. “It’s all over.”

  “So why are we on the roof?”

  “Dearly beloved,” the Alpha said, stepping in front of Matt and I with His hands outspread. “We are gathered here at the beginning of a new day. As the darkness of last night fades, and the light returns to us, we have come together to wed this rather insane, but exceptionally brave, young woman and this equally idiotic young man together in holy matrimony.”

  “That’s rather rude,” someone in the back said and I couldn’t help glancing up at Matt and smiling.

  “If anyone has any impending medical emergencies, notices about the continuation of the some form of the Apocalypse, or other objections to why these two should not be married…” The Alpha smiled at me. “Do us
all a favor and keep them to yourselves.

  “Now, do you, Faith Anne Bettincourt, take this man to be your husband as long as you both shall live?”

  “Absolutely.” I smiled at Matt and he beamed at me in return.

  “Do you Matthe—”

  “No questions asked. I’ll love her till the end of the world and beyond.”

  “Well then,” the Alpha said. “By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you man and wife. You may now kiss the bride.”

  As the sun slipped fully into the sky, Matt pressed his lips to mine and, for the first time in my life, I wouldn’t have changed anything.

  Epilogue

  “So when you said the original Angel of Death was willing to help me out…” I looked over at Malachi, sitting on the deck of the house we were staying in, wearing nothing but a pair of black board shorts covered in bright red, scampering devils. “I didn’t think you meant that it was going to be on my honeymoon.”

  “I figured sooner rather than later.” Malachi shrugged and took a drink of his beer.

  “Mal, it’s my honeymoon. No offense, but I really didn’t want to spend it with you.”

  “Well I don’t particularly want to be here, either,” the demon said. “Aurelia and I are in the let’s see who can freak the other one out more with weird sex moves stage of reconciling. And instead of being in Pittsburgh, finding out how flexible all that yoga makes her, I’m here in Los Angeles with you while you learn to control your powers.”

  “Yeah, I’ve got to admit I’m sort of surprised about that part.”

  “He’s a talent agent. Where else is he going to live?”

  “That’s another thing—the archdemon who invented the position of Death is working as a high-end Hollywood agent?”

  “It’s really not that much of a stretch if you think about it.” Malachi took another drink of his beer and smirked.

  “A lot of my former job skills have come in handy,” the demon in question said as he made his way onto the deck, using his foot to close the sliding door behind him. “You’d be surprised. And, the weather is a definite plus. I’ll never understand why your father chose Pittsburgh. All that cold. Why he chose to live somewhere like that just baffles me.