Angel of Fire - Requiem of Lost Souls - Book Two

Blood Moon From Hell

Chapter 36

The slow darkening of the face of the moon as the sun's light filtered through Earth's atmosphere turned the silvery moon an eerie hue of blood-red. Lightning like incandescent skeletal fingers streaked across the sky, momentarily illuminating a low hanging wall cloud with a trailing tail that seemed to hover directly above The Plaza.

Another flash of lightning followed by a rumble of thunder confirmed one of my worst fears. The wall cloud had joined forces with low-level scud clouds and they were beginning to rotate right above my head, faster and faster until I could see the mouth of a massive tornado hovering in the sky.

Soon, the full lunar eclipse as the Earth passed between the moon and the sun would plunge us into pure darkness, while at the same time giving Serenity all the power she needed to unleash global violence, carnage, and bloodshed without the help of her evil coven of witches.

I had only one chance to throw myself on her mercy.

"There's still time to stop this madness," I yelled over the howls of swirling winds that acted like a giant vacuum. For once it wasn't getting swept up in the throws of heated passion, or the result of sizzling rage that forcefully lifted my hair high into the air, sending it sailing out in all directions at once. "You can become immortal without destroying the world, Serenity. Have some compassion."

"Don't talk to me about compassion," she countered, growing impatient. "Unless you've watched your mom wither away right before your very eyes, you have no idea what it's like to die. I'm not about to let that happen to me. Now, I'm only going to ask you this one more time. Give. Me. Your. Wings."

Oh well, can't say I didn't try.

Emerald eyes blazing with fury, I unfurled my wings with a plumage of fire and briskly fanned them back and forth tauntingly. "If you want them, you'll have to come and get them."

Sebastian moved forward to accept my offer first. Not that his unflinching loyalty surprised me, of course. I got the impression that he would do pretty much just about anything for his dear sister. "Do you want to know how we managed to stay one step ahead of you this whole time?"

I nodded, shifting my focus back and forth between him and Serenity while also guarding my friends in case I decided to do anything stupid.

"From the moment we first met," Sebastian began in that seductive tone of his I'd come to hate. "I've shared a connection with you that only became stronger the more time we spent together. The connection was lost temporarily when you died, only to resurface again when you became immortal. I've been with you every step of the way on your journey when you went to find Luna. I even heard your thoughts when the two of you concocted your plans for revenge."

"No," I said, shaking my head violently back and forth. "It's not true. It can't be."

"I'm afraid it is," he insisted. "How else do you think we managed to escape the wrath of Chaos?"

I didn't want to believe him, but the truth was written all over his gorgeously smug face. Sebastian emerged basically unscathed after the attack, well...except for one tiny scratch above his left eye. I glanced over at Serenity. There wasn't a single mark to flaw her breathtaking beauty, while the crows had gone Hitchcock on everyone else.

My mind began to swim.  If Sebastian still shared that same strange connection with me, then I couldn't possibly be sensing Thomas.

Blinking back tears, I failed to keep my voice from sounding shaky. "Where is he?"

Sebastian gave a shrug. "Would you believe me if I said I don't know?"

"Try me."

"No, Chaos," he groaned, eyes turning fire engine red from the reflection of my wings. "I don't know where he is."

"I believe you." One order of stupid coming right up. Raising an arm I shot him high into the air, holding him in place with the power behind my eyes. "Still don't know where he's at?"

"What are you doing?" Sebastian screamed, body bucking back and forth against the invisible bonds.

I rolled my eyes. "What does it look like I'm doing? I'm forming an exit strategy, of course."

"Put him down this instant," Serenity warned. "Unless you want to get Luna back in pieces."

I glanced over at Serenity, only to find her holding an athame with a double-edged blade against Luna's throat. If Thomas really had been here, I knew he'd be the one with a witches ceremonial dagger pressed up against his neck.

She wouldn't dare pass up a chance to hurt me like that.

Her raspy voice held a glimmer of a challenge. Almost as if she didn't believe I would dare hurt her brother. "I can't tell if you're really brave, really stupid, or if you're just crazy."

Blinded by fury, her taunt pushed me over the edge. "I got your crazy!" Lowering my arm rapidly with such force, Sebastian didn't just fall out of the air, he fell with great intensity causing his body to burst upon impact.

Serenity screamed and rushed to his side...uh, scratch that...what used to be his side. Now Sebastian was all just one great big mixture of skin, crushed bones, blood, and body parts.

Lots and lots of body parts.

That move just took over-kill to a whole new level.

Satisfied, I met Serenity's watery glare as the trapped souls floated to freedom. "Now that's what I call poetic justice."

Slowly unfolding herself and now standing fully upright again, she retaliated – her anger not directed at me so much like I first expected, but at my friends instead.

"No!" I screamed, sending a burst of power aimed directly at the cauldrons, detonating them like individual bombs one right after the other in an absurd chain of explosions.

The Plaza shook as if from an earthquake, the resulting blast so intense it knocked me off my feet as debris rained down upon the stage.

Something landed on my back with a heavy thud. At first I thought it was a piece of the roof.

"If she moves, rip her head off," Serenity ordered.

When the dust settled I craned my neck to find Carmen and the guys standing over me, their clothes hanging off them in shreds. Not that they were very recognizable in their current condition; complete with pointy fangs, sharp claws, and sickly green zombie-like skin.

I swallowed hard.Things just got real.

A flash of lightening lit up their horribly rotted faces, but did little to hide the hunger I saw burning in their eyes. A continuous roll of thunder echoing off the curved walls added sickening sound effects to the empty stomachs of the newly dead that growled with the need to feed.

Unable to escape, I scrunched my eyes closed against the inevitable. I wasn't about to watch myself get munched by my own friends. Steeling myself against what would come next, instead the impossible happened. In a single movement that was as horribly painful as it was unexpected, Serenity used the athame to sever both of my wings.

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