“If this is a sign of evolution,” Raphael said, “it’s not one I can sense, as I sensed my ascension from angel to archangel.” Angling his wings, he swept down to the water.
Elena followed as close as she could get, close enough to see him run his fingers through it. The water, he said, tastes of the same power that attempted to push its way into me.
Get away from it, she ordered, her heart stuttering at the sensory memory of the terrible cold that had come with the bloody rain.
There is no chill beyond that of a winter river today, he said, but flicked off the water and rose to her side.
The color began to retreat at almost the same instant.
“Regardless of what this portends,” he said, expression brutally pragmatic, “we can’t permit it to distract us, not when Lijuan’s winged fleet has been spotted less than two days’ flight from making landfall.” His hand closed over hers. “Omens and signs are worthless when we’re about to go into battle against a flesh-and-blood army.”
Some mysteries, Elena thought, as the masculine heat of him reassured her the water had had no ill effects, would have to remain unsolved. The lives of millions were at stake. Because if Lijuan defeated Raphael in battle, it’d mean the death of the only being in the world with a proven ability to cause the Archangel of China any significant harm. Left unchecked, Elena had no doubt Lijuan would soon turn the planet into a festering graveyard peopled by her reborn.
A court of rotting corpses to worship at the feet of the Goddess of Death.
39
The Tower’s satellites got clear eyes on Lijuan’s forces the next day, the heavy clouds that had been blocking their view dissipating under piercing sunlight.
“Impossible,” Jason said at the sight of the incredible mass. “That army is at least three times the size of the one that left her region. Even if she brought all her winged fighters, leaving only her vampire troops to defend her territory, she has too many squadrons.”
Raphael had always known they were going into this war at a disadvantage, but if all those men and women were experienced fighters, the scales had tipped so severely in Lijuan’s favor that every one of their plans would have to be reevaluated. “We need to know exactly what we face.” He turned to the fastest flyer in his squadrons, some said the fastest flyer in all of angelkind. “Go.”
Illium left at once, taking a small recording device with him.
It was a bare hour after that that their battle plans suffered another blow.
“We are overrun with reborn,” Elijah told him, his cheekbones cutting sharply against his skin. “I don’t know how Lijuan got them in, or even if she did it with more than a single creature—we both know it would’ve taken only one to start the process.” An indictment of the creatures’ sheer infectiousness. “It appears to have been a plan put in place over months, the infected seeded throughout my territory and kept chained up behind locked gates. Evidently, she predicted we’d ally and stand against her, for those gates have now been opened.”
The Archangel of South America shoved a hand through the gold of his hair, his eyes backlit by a furious amber glow. “I’m shamed to break my promise of aid,” he said, the words clearly hard for him to shape, “but I need to use every weapon at my command to hit hard and fast before the reborn riddle every part of my territory. Already, they’ve killed or infected thousands, savaging entire villages and townships.”
“The risk is ours,” Raphael said, reminding Elijah they shared a land border. “No shame comes of your decision. Should you contain them, you more than uphold your part of our pact.” He considered who he had near that border, if they could provide any assistance.
“My strongest people are here, others on watch in areas where we had small reborn infestations of our own, but I’ll order every able individual near the border, mortal and immortal, to mobilize with flamethrowers and fuel to set up fire lines. They can at least clean up any reborn that attempt to escape your forces.” The reborn couldn’t survive fire as they couldn’t survive beheadings. “I wish you luck, Eli.”
“And I, you, Raphael.”
When Illium returned in the twilight hours beyond midnight, Lijuan’s forces still at least twelve hours away, for they had to move at the speed of their slowest member, he brought worse news than anyone could’ve imagined.
“Your people didn’t fail,” Raphael said to a quietly infuriated Jason, pointing out a commander to Lijuan’s left. “She was part of Uram’s troops.”
Dmitri pinpointed three more of the dead archangel’s people, all commander level, just in the first row. “Uram’s territory was parceled out after his execution,” the vampire said, “his troops divided. If all the extra fighters prove to be Uram’s, she has over half his squadrons. She shouldn’t.”
Aodhan was the one who answered, voice quiet but words potent. “If Raphael were to perish, the Seven divided, would we not come together should we have a chance to avenge his death?”
“I didn’t think the guy inspired that kind of loyalty,” Elena said, staring at the photographs of the massive force that would soon hit Manhattan. “I mean, he murdered hundreds of his own people.”
“He was a good archangel once.” An archangel Raphael had called friend an eon past. “That is who his loyal soldiers remember, who they seek to avenge.”
“Sire,” Galen said from the screen on the wall, where he and Venom had joined in the discussion, “the enemy outnumbers us five to one. We need to pull our forces inward and compel the enemy to mount a siege. So long as the Tower does not fall, Lijuan doesn’t win.”
Raphael knew what it must’ve cost his weapons-master to make that recommendation, for Galen was a warrior who lived by the blade. And though he knew the other man’s counsel was sound, the idea of abandoning any part of his city made his blood rage.
It was Elena who gave him perspective. “With the entire area evacuated,” she said, “we’d only be protecting buildings anyway. Buildings can be rebuilt.” Bleak acceptance in the silver-gray, his hunter who loved every tiny pocket and corner of her city.
“Go,” he said to Dmitri. “Do what needs to be done, commandeer the people you need.” All the anti-wing guns would have to be moved, for a start. “I’ll rework the troop placements.”
Dmitri left with a curt nod, taking Jason with him and ordering Illium to rest after his long flight. Aodhan went in a separate direction, having assumed the task of ensuring there’d be enough food stock inside the Tower for the hunters and the wounded, should the siege continue beyond a few days. Water, at least, was no problem, the Tower having a secret independent line that had been put in place at the time of its construction.
Raphael turned to the last member of his Seven who remained, Galen and Venom having signed off to return to their task of holding the Refuge stronghold secure. “How many more do you need in your team?” he asked Naasir. The vampire had arrived forty-eight hours before, fed well, and was at full strength.
“The team is complete,” was the response, Naasir’s silver eyes intelligent as only a predator’s could be. “Janvier and his hunter.”