Chapter 31

Turning my head, I found that none of the angels were anywhere close. My head turned from side to side but I was only met with the faces of strangers. I bit my lip and eyed the metal. My eyes lifted to the bouncers. This was going to hurt.

Further down the line, an over eager spectator hopped over the barrier, the bouncers converged on the screaming boy as he stared at the stage in rapture, his arms stretched up towards his idol. Taking advantage, my placed both hands on the barrier and pushed my body up.

The barrier trembled as I forced myself up so that I was standing tall, balancing on the metal that was narrower than my foot. With my arms held out to my sides I searched the crowd. It was so hard to tell one face from another in the flashing stage lights but I finally picked out Clementine who had taken up point on Zeke’s shoulders. I waved to get her attention.

She waved back before turn leaning down to speak to Zeke. His hands released Clem’s leg long enough to wave.

I pointed my hand up to the stage, nodded my head at the bubbly red head as she enthralled the audience. Clem’s lips pressed into a thin line as she followed my gaze, lifting her hand she whirled it above several times before pointing towards the stage. Most ignored her but the other angels took the signal and started to move.

My attention was so focused on them that I didn’t notice the sudden arrival of the security staff until there was a tap on my leg.

“Miss, you need to get down from there.” One placed his hand on his waistband, to the spot where his gun was strapped to his belt.

I raised my hands in a placating gesture. And then the fence wobbled. The bouncers held out their hands as if to catch me but I was already in motion, I pushed off with both feet. I somersaulted through the air, my knees tucked in tight to my body as I rotated. I landed on the balls of my feet, arms out to my sides. Lifting my head, I smirked at the bouncers who were too busy gaping at me to realise that I was now on the other side of the barrier.

Placing one foot back and then another, I backed away from the group of the burley men and then I ran. My feet pounded against the floor. I could barely hear their shouts over the music that was now pounding out of the speakers but I knew that they were in pursuit. Some men appeared before me so I dropped to the floor quickly. My momentum allowed me to slip through their legs, skidding along the floor before I forced myself back onto my feet and kept on going. Objects littered my path but I jumped over them all with ease.

Up ahead I could see the stairs to the stage. I pushed myself harder but when I was mere feet away someone dove at me from behind and wrapped their arm around my leg. I teetered and fell forwards. Throwing my arms out in front of me, I stopped my face from smashing into the floor but the rest of my body felt the impact. Weight quickly settled on my back and someone wrenched at my arms pulling them behind me.

Growling, I closed my eyes and tried to think. It was hard with cacophony battering at me from all sides and the man on my back. There was a way to get him off with ease but it would kind of mean that the entire world would get proof that Angels really do exist.

Cable ties were attached around my wrists before I was yanked up sharply by the security team. It lifted my head and tried not to giggle at the men who were all breathless, staring down at me. Their mouths were moving but I could not hear a word that they were saying.

I breathed deeply, doing my best to keep centred and calm. Over their shoulders, I watched as several people leapt over the metal barrier. Gabriel turned and lifted Binah over, setting her gently on her feet before taking off for the opposite side of the stage. I smiled and met the gaze of the bouncers. They frowned, looking from one another. They had a right to be confused, they had me caught and yet I was smiling.

Several of the crowd were now watching us rather than the stage. They were irrelevant. I went limp suddenly. I slipped from the grasp of the man holding my arms and dropped to the floor, I rolled along the floor with my arms still bound behind my back and then used the momentum to gain my feet once more. I didn’t know where the other angels were but I knew that trouble had well and truly arrived when screams suddenly rent the air.

Up on stage the horseman continued to play her role as the smiling host while her audience because gripped with fear. The bouncers stopped and so did i. My head turned from side to side as I searched for the origin of the screams. It was useless. I could see nothing past the first few rows of the audience.

Closing my eyes, I called upon my angel blade imagining it smaller so that it was nothing more than a small dagger. Once fully formed, I turned the blade upwards and sawed away at the restraints even as unrest swept through the crowds.

My hands came free and then I was once again scaling the metal fence. I stood on the unstable barrier but even from there I could not find the source of the screams. Turning my head, I stared up at the red head on the stage but she just laughed and gave me a wing. There was nothing I wanted to do than know that stupid smile off of her face.

The crowd had grown oddly quiet while all this was happening. Apart from the off whimper or cry the sea of people was quiet. It was a remarkable feat. It was not often that this many people could be congregated together and not a sound would be uttered. Even the music had cut off mid-song, the band members walking to the edge of the stage to stare out at the crowd.

And then I heard it

A lone howl started up. It sent shivers up my spine as I turned my head towards the source. People were scattering out of the way as the hellhound rammed through the crowd. The humans, unable to see the best, moved out of the way. But I could see it, see the hound in all of its glory.

Another howl rent through the air on the other side of the square. I ran a hand through my hair and swore loudly. It just had to be hellhounds.

The beast sniffed the air and levelled and turned its eyes on a small family huddled together in the middle of the crowd.

I could hear War’s tinkling laugh over the speaker system as allowed my dagger to grow until I was holding a full length sword. The people immediately in front of me yelped and moved out of the way just as I leapt forwards. The bodies parted before me like the red sea giving me a clear path. The Hellhound was taking its time with the kill, circling around the family and sending warning growls out.

I burst into the circle the hellhound had created and put myself between the hostile beast and the family. They were more than confused, the mother’s head moving from side to side. She knew that something was there but her eyes were unable to see the beasts form.

“It’s okay.” I spoke softly as I mimicked the beasts circling, my eyes never leaving his for a moment as we continued our dance.

This hellhound was different to any I had seen before. It’s was like it was rabid. The mouth had block foam around it and those eyes. I shivered.

“What’s going on?” The mother asked.

I opened my mouth to answer but it was the little girl that spoke.

“There’s a monster mommy. He looks like he wants to eat us.”

“Don’t worry sweetheart. I’ll protect you.”

The words were just spilling from my lips when the beast charged. The little girl screamed in terror. I just grit my teeth and pounced to meet him mid leap. Our bodies collided in the air. The beast fell one way while I went the other. Rolling to my feet, I held my blade up ready for the next strike but it didn’t come.

Unlike the last time I fought a hellhound this one disregarded me. It pushed to its feet swiftly, shaking its head and snorting a few times.  It paid no attention to me and instead continued towards the little family.

Wrapping both of my hands around the hilt of my sword, I breathed in deep and then pulled them apart. My sword split in two creating two identical blades. They were thin and gleaming – almost like giant needles. Only a second had passed but the Hellhound was tensing as it prepared to attack.

I charged the beast and jumped upon its back. It bucked around, its feet lifting from the floor as it frantically tried to dislodge me from its back. With it’s next buck, I angled the blades and used the momentum and my body weight to force the blade through the thick scaly skin of the Hellhound on the back of its neck. It howled and yelped as its blood seeped from the wound but I did the release the beast.

I glanced up at the family, met the eyes of the terrified mother and father and then wrenched the two blades apart. The little girl still had her face buried in her mother’s side but she turned her head at the thud.

“Don’t look sweetheart,” I murmured as the body of the beast crashed to the floor seconds later taking me with it.

I lifted my blade in the air and focused my energy on cleansing the metal even as I felt the blood of the hound burning into my skin. The swords shone brightly for a second before the blood burned off leaving behind nothing but a clean sword.

Panting slightly I lifted my head. And found the world staring back at me.

“What was that?” A man asked, his gloved hand pointing beside me.

I turned to look and noted that the floor where the hellhounds body was laid deteriorating fast. The concrete was falling away under the onslaught of the hellhound blood. It burnt through the hardened surface rapidly so that the outline of where the beasts head and body lay was visible to all.

I smiled grimly.

“You really don’t want to know.”

“We do.”

I met his stare head on then kicked at the carcass.

“Hellhound.”

The man spluttered and blustered but I was already moving. I allowed my swords to face and crouched down before the little girl. One look into her eyes and I knew why she was a target. There was something special about her - something not human.

“Halfling.” I murmured, glancing up at the mother for second before resting my eyes on the little girl.

I stroked the tear off of her cocoa coloured cheek and let a genuine smile form on my lips.

“There now, sweetheart. No more tears.” The little girl sniffled and met my gaze. “I need you to go with your family and get on home. Okay poppet.” 

I glanced up at the parents here and received a mute node from both.

“Well done Miss Holmes.” War spoke through the microphone. 

I sighed and lifted my head. The Horseman’s human façade melted away to show the evil that lurked beneath. “Did you like my little creations? Just one taste of my blood and they were mine to command.”

She waved her hand, laughing when she caught the bewildered looks upon the faces of the humans.

“I can see your little friends have finished off the other one. No matter.” She shrugged her shoulder as she sat on the edge of the stage and dangled her legs over the side.  “Let’s see what you make of this.”

Gunfire rang through the air then.

The father of the little Halfling, a man no more than thirty, groaned a moment later and clapped his hand over his shoulder. The crowd screamed and ducked but no one moved. Where could they go?.

My wings sprouted from my back on instinct. I whirled through the air, curling the large pieces of me protectively around the small family even as my eyes were scanning the crowds in pursuit of the shooter. He stood just a few feet away. He was a boy. His hand shook on the gun, his eyes wide as he stared between it and me. He blinked and then really stared at me.

I shook my head.

The boy yelped and dropped the gun on to the ground and held his hands up in the air as he continued balk at me. One of the people crouched closest to him knocked the gun out of reach.

Another gunshot and the boy’s legs gave out beneath him even as a hole formed in the middle of his forehead.

I bit my lip to keep from crying out.

“Stop this. It doesn’t have to be this way.” I shouted, my body trembling with rage like nothing I had ever felt before.

“Oh but it does. I was locked away for far too long and now you have my family.” War flicked back her red hair and smiled wickedly. “I’m only just getting started.”