is a trap.” He sighed. “But we prepare for anything and everything.” His soul screamed in dismay at the thought of being drawn into another fight with the Brethren. Of more blood being spilled and more lives being lost. It went against everything Gabriel’s pacifist heart believed in. “But we get Diel back,” he whispered. “Above anything, we get our brother back.”
The wind whipped around the dark graveyard, and the moon was full and high in the dark sky when Gabriel, Maria and his brothers got out of the van and stepped onto the cold grass that surrounded the sea of aged, wind-battered gravestones. The gravestones belonged to Gabriel and Michael’s ancestors … and some of the victims of their serial-killer grandfather that had never been discovered. Bare-branched trees cradled the graveyard’s outer edges. Gabriel, Maria and his brothers gathered near the ornate mausoleum that held his grandfather’s body, and they waited.
Gabriel exhaled in preparation for whatever was about to transpire. Minutes later, he heard the sound of tires on the gravel road leading to the isolated graveyard.
“Get ready,” he said quietly to his brothers. Raphael pushed Maria behind him, his golden eyes fixing on the shadow of the dark van that turned onto the long driveway to the cemetery.
Gabriel’s brothers were silent behind him, thanks to the years of training to be stealthy, to blend into the night and become living, breathing shadows. Each of them held weapons, concealed from sight, and he could feel the pulsing air whipping around them, his brothers itching for a fight, excited for the chance of killing.
Gabriel briefly closed his eyes, a silent prayer sailing from his mind into the sky. Please let this not be a Brethren trap. Please let Diel be safe, and save my brothers from shedding even more blood.
The lights of the black van were off as it came to a halt several feet before where Gabriel stood. He wore a long black jacket over his priest’s uniform, but nothing hiding his face. His blond curls shone like sunbeams in the gloomy, gray cemetery. He didn’t want to scare away whoever was in that van; he wanted them to see his face and understand that he meant them no harm.
The door to the van opened, and he felt his brothers readying for an attack. Gabriel squinted in the darkness as someone, dressed in all black, got out of the passenger side door. They wore a hood that covered their head and some kind of scarf that covered all of their face but their eyes. They approached, and a few others followed behind, dressed in exactly the same way.
“Diel was right,” Bara said for only his brothers and Maria to hear. “This is something to see.”
Gabriel stepped forward, his hands up so they could see that he held no weapon. “Welcome.” His voice carried like thunder around the empty graveyard, joining the midnight call of the resident owls.
A final hooded person stepped out of the van— in total, there were six of them. As his eyes focused on them, he could see that they were shorter and slimmer than him and his brothers.
Women, he realized. They were all women.
Confusion wrapped around him. Who could they be? The one at the front, who he assumed to be Dinah, studied Gabriel and his brothers. Her dark eyes landed on Maria behind Raphael, and her eyebrows pulled down.
“Dinah?” Gabriel stepped forward away from his brothers. The women immediately stood ready for an attack. Gabriel held up his hands higher. “No one will hurt you here,” he said, and she stepped closer.
When she stopped, she stood only feet from Gabriel. “Your collared man attacked us while we were rescuing a child from a Brethren priest’s basement.” Gabriel blanched. The blunt statement hit him as efficiently as any bullet to the gut ever could.
Gabriel felt the tension from his brothers behind him. He heard the sound of agitated feet moving on the ground.
“The Brethren?” Gabriel said.
Dinah rolled her eyes. “Let’s cut the shit. Your man told us who you were. The Fallen. Brethren-branded sinners who were taken away as kids and exorcised for years under the Brethren’s fucked-up hands. Ring any bells?”
“And what do you know of the Brethren?” Gabriel said calmly.
“About as much as you, I’m guessing.” Dinah shrugged. “Maybe a little bit more.”
Gabriel studied her. “The child?” he asked, his mind sticking on that one piece of information. “You freed him? Where is he now? Is he safe?”
Dinah was silent for a few