CHAPTER TWENTY NINE
The Sound of Snow
Nothing in my miserable past life could have prepared me for any of this.
I leaned against the wall, watching Sarah and Father Brennan as she sat and explained the Codex and the System. All of it felt surreal. We had spent the rest of the evening pulling supplies from my storeroom and making ammunition. Marcus proved to be a quick study, and both Sarah and I insisted that, like her, he learn and utilize the Barrier Ward.
It was not just about having another set of hands to carve wards into bullets. It was about survival. That ward could be used to secure a building or could be used offensively. While he practiced, Marcus had told us about his time in the secret organization known as the Keepers. The group had safeguarded relics older than time, all over the world, across centuries. His natural affinity for scribing wards came from years of research and a deep, relentless curiosity about the very relics he had sworn to protect.
Sarah looked different now. Even while she smiled and spoke, she could not help but glance in my direction more than once. How could this be the girl who killed me?
I had stared into those beautiful eyes countless times when she pulled that trigger. Even thinking about it now, while looking at her, I could feel my heart begin to race.
I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and tried to steady myself. I could hear the click of that trigger, the flash, those eyes. And when the sound echoed again in my head—
My thoughts were interrupted all at once by a dickhead winged gremlin.
“Earth to mud. Wakey, wakey. Things to do.”
The little shit hovered right in front of my face, snapping his fingers back and forth. I swatted him aside and walked over to the table as Marcus handed me the last two magazines for my Colts. The exhaustion on his face was plain to see.
“Thank you, Father. Don’t overdo it, okay?”
“Marcus, please, call me Marcus. I think at this point, in a private setting, I would prefer things to be a lot less formal. And I do not believe I will be putting my vestments back on after we leave this place.”
“Neither am I. Well, not vestments, but you get a… I think you understand what I’m trying to say,” Sarah said sheepishly.
“Well, Marcus, then please call me Jay, okay? I know it’s late, but I don’t think we should waste any more time. We have everything we need to ward the cathedral, and I think we should get over there sooner rather than later.”
We gathered what remained of our things and slipped our coats on. I turned and looked at the desk in my office.
“You know what, you guys? I didn’t have this place for very long, but I’m going to miss it.”
“Well, Jay,” Marcus said, the name sounding like he was testing it, “presenting yourself as a private investigator was actually quite clever. And if we find ourselves in a situation like this again, we can certainly lean on that strategy in the future. I mean, after all, we are in a… What did that little message say? Ah, yes. A party.”
I caught Sarah’s hand slipping into the deep pocket at the front of her jacket, and I couldn’t help but smile, knowing she had a firm grip on that 38.
“All right, everybody, we need to move quickly. I want you to stay behind me.”
I opened the door for Sarah and gestured for Marcus to step through. Then I turned, flipped the old light switch off in my office for the last time, and stepped out into the cold Minnesota night.
We walked for a few minutes. The air bit at the back of my neck, sharp and teasing. There was a taste and smell of ozone and starch like every breath had a texture. Streetlights cast a soft, warm glow across the ice- and snow-covered streets, and I kept my attention on my footing, careful not to slip on the sidewalk.
I came to a stop and lifted a hand slightly, signaling for the others to halt behind me.
“Something’s not right. I know it’s late, but it’s way too quiet.”
I had learned in my previous life was that places always seemed to have a pulse. Sound was like breathing for a place. A passing car, distant voices, anything. But in that moment, it was so quiet I could hear the faint hiss of snow as it touched the ground, and the short, steady breaths of Marcus and Sarah behind me.
“What is it, Jay?” Sarah said, almost in a whisper.
Azazel appeared beside me, hovering as he scanned the street ahead. “We’re being watched,” he said, his voice short and predatory.
“Stay close to me,” I said, picking up my pace toward the cathedral. I slid my hand under my jacket and rested my palm against the familiar checkered grip of my 1911 in the shoulder holster.
“Is it demons?” I asked, feeling my breath shorten as we moved through the cold.
Remiel appeared on my other side. “No,” he said, his voice just as short.
I stopped all at once, my eyes locked on the front of the diner. The front door hung open, It was kicked in, and even in the dim light I could see what looked like blood smeared across the floor just inside.
“No,” I growled, just as I felt Sarah’s hand clamp onto my shoulder.
“Jay, you dumbass, it’s obviously a trap.” Az said.
I glanced up the street. The cathedral stood no more than two and a half blocks away.
I reached up, placed my hand over hers, and held it as I turned to face her. “Sarah, take Father Brennan and go to the cathedral. Start preparing the ward.”
“Jay, I’m not leaving you. You can’t go in there by yourself.”
A muffled scream came from inside the building, followed by the sharp crash of breaking glass.
I turned back toward the darkened entrance, then looked at Sarah again. “Go.”
Marcus stepped in, gripping Sarah’s arm and easing her away from me. “Come on, Sarah. He’ll be okay.”
When I turned back to the doorway, I saw them. Glowing yellow eyes staring out from the darkness.
I drew both Colts and told them to run without looking back. They bolted for the cathedral as I moved toward the figure watching me from inside.
I activated LumenSight and felt the immediate pull on my grace. Rage followed, boiling up from somewhere deep as I watched the angel drop Mabel’s lifeless body at it’s feet.
“I have been looking for you, Nephilim,” it said, it’s voice low and gravelly. “This one didn’t want to tell me where to find you. Not even after I started removing her fingers.”
“Shoot this sick feathered motherfucker!” Az screamed.
I was already pulling the triggers, advancing as I fired.
The angel rushed me as I crossed the threshold. Both 1911s ran dry, and I dropped them without hesitation, summoning the pump-action shotgun into my hands from my inventory. I got off a single shot, nearly point-blank, under the bastard’s chin.
It’s foot slammed into my chest, launching me backward through the doorway. I hit the sidewalk hard.
I was back on my feet in an instant.
The shotgun lay on the floor near Mabel’s body. The angel wasted no time, it’s celestial blade forming into a long, two-handed sword. I drew the Trinity Blade, and it shifted instantly into it’s familiar sword form. I brought it up just in time to catch the strike inches from my head.
I drove forward, shoulder slamming into it’s chest with everything I had, forcing the son of a bitch back into the diner and over the lunch counter.
The angel rolled and pushed itself upright, reaching up to wrench it’s jaw back into place where the blast had shattered it.
“Your very existence is blasphemy. I will smite your soul and scrub you from creation,” He said, literally using his hand to help move his jaw while he spoke.
I dropped to a knee, scooping up my pistols. I ejected the empty magazines and slammed fresh ones into place, one after the other. Hooking the rear sights on my belt loop, I racked both slides down in quick succession.
“You fool. All you are doing is prolonging the inevitable. Do you not know who I am?” The angel said, it’s tone dripping with arrogance as it’s body began to glow, a shimmering halo of power building around it.
“I know exactly who you are.”
I raised one pistol and shot the arrogant fuck in the face.
It reeled, shock flashing across it’s features as the warded round slammed into it. For a split second, I saw the aura distort, peeling away from the body it was riding.
“You’re the son of a bitch I’m going to empty these guns into before I take my blade and shove it through that pompous fucking mouth,” I said, as I pulled the trigger on every hard syllable.
The angel roared.
I dismissed the pistols back into my inventory and brought my blade up, ready to charge and make good on that promise.
But when I looked up after drawing the blade he wasn’t there..
“He’s gone, Jay,” Remiel said, appearing on the other side of the counter.
“Mud, you need to put that blade away right now,” Az said, staring out the window.
I looked down at my hand, and for the first time, with Lumen-Sight still active, I saw the vibration and aura pulsing off the Arcane-Blade. I pulled it into my inventory, and reached down, to picked up the shotgun, racking it once to chamber the next shell.
“I’m not going to leave her here in a puddle of her own blood,” I said, kneeling beside Mabel.
“I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry this happened to you.”
My hands trembled as I brushed them across her face, closing her eyes.
“Mud, we have to go right now,” Az said.
I slid my hands beneath Mabel’s back and pulled her into my inventory as I lifted her from the ground. I turned just in time to see two familiar faces staring at me through the open doorway.
It was the two goons from Breen, the ones who had been with Vincent Torino.
One of them raised his hand, the gleam of a snub-nosed revolver catching the light as the other reached inside his jacket.
I didn’t hesitate.
I pulled the trigger, slamming a salt shell into the first demon as I charged them. I pumped the slide just in time to fire again, catching the second in the chest.
I drew the celestial blade as I pushed between them, dragging it cleanly through the neck of the demon on the right. In a smooth arc, I turned and swung at the other, barely missing as he ducked.
I brought the shotgun around with my left hand, smashing the barrel into his face just as he fired. The shot slammed into my chest, searing heat and pain tearing across my collar.
Before he could fire again, I dropped the shotgun and seized his wrist, forcing it upward as the second and third shots cracked into the night. I wrapped my right hand around his throat and pulled, hard, channeling Blood-Tithe.
I felt it tear at my stamina as I ripped the life from him. His eyes widened in horror.
I dropped him, and he crumpled to his knees, fumbling in the snow for the handgun. He found it, lifting it toward me, but before he could aim, I drove my arcane blade down through the top of his skull and into his spine.
His eyes flared as I ripped the blade free. There was no scream, only a flash of searing light as what remained of both demon and man collapsed onto the sidewalk.
“Holy fuck, Mud! You just killed that guy! Not just a guy, the demon too..”
“Like, you killed him, killed him!” Az said, his voice sharp with shock.
“Yeah, well, we’re kind of in a hurry, and the son of a bitch fucked up my new shirt,” I said, retrieving the shotgun and pulling it back into my inventory.
I placed a hand on the dead demon’s chest and pulled him into my inventory as well, along with the other.
I had done some sketchy things in my life, but I had to admit, I felt a twist in my gut as I reached down, searching for the severed head to bring it in too.
“Shit. It’s not letting me pull it into my inventory.”
“That’s because your inventory’s probably full, dumbass.” Az said.
Not wanting to leave the head on the sidewalk, I grabbed it by the hair, scooped up the fallen hat, and tossed both back into what remained of Mabel’s restaurant.
I turned and looked up toward the cathedral. We have to get back to Sarah.
Author notes: the normal release for the next chapter will be postponed as we approach the final five chapters of Trinity Divide – The First Relic. I will be posting these chapters starting Monday, once every day all the way through to the finale on Friday! Fear not for those that have loyally been reading the series there are a total of three books planned, with the second book already halfway completed. Thank you so much for reading!
