The clash outside between Heaven and Hel was audible, like nothing I’d ever heard before, and then at once, it was silent, crossing planes.
Jared grabbed each side of my face with a broad smile. “We did it, Nina! Heaven wil protect her!”
I sighed with relief and hugged my daughter to my chest. The quiet we shared was frozen in time. The end of the war around us was instantaneous. Bex, Ryan, Claire and Jared all looked in wonder at my little girl. She lay stil , peering around with her big, round, cloudy eyes, blinking at the bright light.
Jared kneeled before me, stil breathing hard, his face red and marked with shades of blood and dirt from his fight to reach us. Ryan and Claire crowded around us, their worried expressions softened by the sight of the child wrapped in my arms.
“You’re amazing,” Jared said. His voice cracked an infinitesimal amount as he spoke, but I couldn’t look away to see his expression. The little girl in my arms was breathtaking.
Claire took a few silent steps until she was next to me. She rubbed her palm on her jeans and then reached out her smal hand, extending her index finger to touch the baby’s pinky. “She’s…here,” she whispered, in awe.
“You did it,” Ryan said with a half-smile.
Jared crawled to the opposite side of Claire, tenderly putting one arm behind my neck, the other touching his daughter’s cheek with his thumb.
He kissed my hair and leaned in to whisper in my ear. “I didn’t think I could love you more than I already did.”
I looked into his eyes and smiled. “You did it, Jared. You saved us.”
Jared’s blue-grey eyes glossed over, and he pul ed me closer, the three of us in a tender embrace.
After a few quiet moments, Jared’s arms tensed, and he looked to the doorway. Claire flipped around, her hands bal ed into fists at her side. Bex stood in front of my makeshift bed, crouched in a defensive stance.
Ryan quickly cocked his gun and aimed at the door, ready for whatever the Hybrids were bracing for. “What now?” he said, his eyes focused at the same point as the others.
Claire shoved Ryan against the wal and then pointed at him. “Stay there,” she said firmly. “Don’t. Move.”
Ryan lowered his weapon, and waited.
The door opened slowly, and a man in a white suit walked, slow and lithe, through the threshold. His hair was shiny and black, his eyes deep-set and calm. He was beautiful and grotesque at the same time; a baby-faced supermodel with eons of hate and bitterness flowing through his veins.
Bex took a step, but Claire held out her hand and flattened it against his chest, restraining him. “Stand next to Ryan.”
“But…” Bex protested.
“Do it!” she growled. I’d never heard her take that tone with her little brother.
The man’s eyes darted to the youngest Ryel, his head unmoving. It was unnatural, frightening. Bex slowly walked to the wal , wary of the pair of eyes that studied his every move.
I pul ed my infant daughter closer to me, turning slightly so that my shoulder was in a position to protect her. I didn’t notice the movement until I realized it had drawn the man’s attention back to us.
“Desecration,” the man breathed. His was more of a hiss than a voice. “Even more than your father.”
“Do not speak to her,” Jared said, his tone low and terrifying.
Ryan looked to Claire. He was confused and worried, but he didn’t move.
The man took another step.
Jared stood, and lifted his hand, pointing at the black-haired man. “She belongs to Him. You can’t touch her. You may kill us all , but He’s commanded that she live.”
The man took in a deep breath through his nose, his eyes rol ing back into his head. His lids shuttered, and then popped open, focusing on the baby. When he spoke, his voice was many; distant and loud simultaneously. “If you’ve noticed, I quite enjoy doing things He forbids.”
“Should I shoot?” Ryan whispered out of the corner of his mouth.
“No,” Claire said, her voice strained. “Don’t move.”
Ryan frowned, clearly unsettled. “What is it?”
“The Devil,” Bex said.
The man’s pupils bled into the whites of his eyes, the darkness inside them glistening from the light of the fire outside. He took another step.
A large vein bulged from his pasty forehead as his calculating eyes targeted my daughter.
Jared didn’t wait for him to take another step. He charged, stopping abruptly when the Devil grabbed him by the throat. Claire immediately reacted, attacking him with astounding speed. Her smal body flew against the wal , and Ryan reacted.
She held up hand. “Don’t,” she said, standing.
Jared managed to pul free, and then he attacked him again with a series of punches. They traded blows, and suddenly Jared was struck to the ground. Claire rushed Satan again, but she was blown back, this time held by an unseen force high against the wal . She screamed in agony as dozens of deep, bloody gashes formed across her face, neck and body. Blood oozed from her wounds and down the front of her clothes, dripping from her shoes onto the floor beneath her.
“No!” Ryan yel ed, raising his weapon.
Bex reluctantly stopped him.
Ryan grabbed Bex’s col ar. “Help her!”
Jared crawled to all fours, and then attacked the King of Hel again. He groaned and grunted with each heavy blow Satan dealt him, and soon he was overpowered, and thrown to the floor. The man in white jerked his hand, commanding Jared’s body against the wal under Claire. Her blood flowed from her wounds and dripped in a steady stream onto her brother’s shoulder.
Claire closed her eyes, her lids fluttering. “Help us,” she whispered. “Don’t you see? Help us,” she begged.
The Devil took another step. He was just a few feet from my makeshift bed. I held my daughter’s tiny head in the crook of my neck and touched my lips to her white, wispy hair. She smel ed like her father, but softer; more pure. I looked up at her assassin from under my brow, terrified and hopeless; cowering in his presence.
Jared took off once again, his form obscured by the speed. They crashed together, and with barely visible movements, they blurred from one space in the room to the other, stopping momentarily, and then moving again. Soon they were back where they started, and Jared was on the floor, his blood spil ing from his wounds.
Satan leaned in slowly, relishing my terror.
“Help her,” Claire begged in a tiny whisper.
Ryan moved toward me with desperation on his face, but Bex grabbed his shoulder. “Let me go!” he said, struggling. Bex wrapped both of his arms around my friend, forbidding him to step in.
Bex and Ryan were going to watch us all die. If Bex could somehow escape with Ryan, Claire could be saved, but that would leave my child vulnerable. A mil ion thoughts ran through my head, hopes that even if I were kill ed, Jared would survive long enough to get our baby to safety.
In that moment, anger replaced my fear. I remembered Eli’s words, and courage I never knew I owned swel ed inside of me. “You can’t have her,”
I seethed, lifting my chin in defiance. “I am not afraid of you.” My eyes fil ed with angry tears.
He smiled. “And what wil you do?” he said, looking over to Kim’s lifeless body. In one blurry moment she was in his arms. He cradled her, looking almost paternal as he brushed her cheek with his blackened fingers. He scanned her face with a somber expression, and then leaned down to smel her hair. “She had a heartbeat not an hour ago. Dreams. Aspirations. And now,” he said, tossing her limp body across the room with one hand, “nothing.”