Gates of Death - Rae Foxx Page 0,40

the blood and the incantation that would do the trick. "Thank you," I said. Taking out my phone, which was damn close to dying, I snapped a photo and emailed it to myself so I could get to it if the phone died. "I hope the knowledge I gave you is a comfort to you."

"Quite the opposite," she said in her whimsical accent. "But I appreciate the truth either way."

"Don't be disheartened," I said. "The offspring of the Fallen and the offspring of the Archangels are genetically the same. God didn't change our basic DNA or our magic. Only Lucifer changed, and he got more power somehow. I'm still not sure how that worked."

She inclined her head. "Thank you for your attempt."

With a wave, I disappeared and went back to the barn. Michael and Gabriel appeared just as I did. "Where's Luc?" I asked.

They looked around. "He's supposed to be with you."

I shook my head and studied my men. They looked tired but unhurt. "Uriel?"

"He got away," Gabe said. "Joel is tracking him now, but we need to go help. We just wanted to check in, make sure you were okay. Did you get either of your targets?"

I pointed to Genevra on the wall. They looked up but then looked at me blankly. "What?" Michael asked.

"Oh, sorry." My magic must've concealed her from everyone but me. I prodded it and she came into view, slumped against the magical restraints. "I'm working on Ezekiel, though. Let me pop to the house and try to find Luc."

He wasn't there. I returned to Gabriel and Michael to find Michael gone.

"Where'd he go?" I asked.

"To help Joel. I waited to see if you found Lucifer."

Fear filled my gut. "No, he wasn't there."

Gabe closed his eyes for a moment. "I can't sense him."

Damn it. He wouldn't have left on his own. "I have to find him. Let Michael and Joel track Uriel. Here." I pulled out my phone, which beeped when it went down to one percent and forwarded him the picture. "Can you gather those ingredients?" Pointing to Genevra, I continued. "This one is pregnant so the unborn blood will be easy and more powerful being an angelic baby."

Gabe nodded. "I'll leave the ingredients here, then go to Michael. Check in when you can."

He pulled me into his arms and pressed a kiss to my lips. "Be careful, my love," he whispered. "You're the heart of us, you know."

"I love you," I said, then he disappeared.

Now to find Luc.

12

The only way I knew to find Luc was to blanket the Earth realm in magic again. It worried me to do it so soon after I already had, but without Luc in his normal body, I couldn't sense him.

Sitting on a clean bit of hay, I let my magic spread out again, sending the same call for demons to return to Abaddon. I sensed a few still in the Earth realm, probably some that had escaped Abaddon just since we returned the first wave. Damn, they were slipping out fast, even with all the ones we'd tasked with hiding the holes and cracks in the walls.

Lucifer's energy pulsed halfway across the United States, in Georgia. I sighed and hid Genevra again. Luc hadn't ported himself hundreds of miles away on his own. Someone had taken him, and if they'd been here, my magic had done its job, because Genevra was still there, untouched. Whoever took Luc hadn't known she was on the wall. That was encouraging, at least.

Appearing in the yard outside a small house as the sun slipped behind the trees, I sighed and walked forward. At least this one didn't have a damn ward over it.

Luc was inside, but something was wrong with him. Even though I couldn't sense his magic because of the spell on him, I could tell he was nearly passed out. What the hell?

I knocked on the door and jumped back when someone appeared to my right.

A low-level angel lunged at me, but I ducked and whirled, grabbing his arm and twisting it behind him. He jerked out of my grasp and disappeared. Not at all deterred, I ran into the house. I hadn't even begun to fight.

The Throne followed me, but once I was inside, he stopped trying to fight me. Closing the door, he leaned against it and I got a good look at him. He was tall and lanky, with long, greasy hair.

Within seconds, I knew why he'd stopped trying to fight. The house was under