Chapter 12
The roaring sound continued in Phoebe's ears. A swirling sensation inside and outside had her reeling. She landed hard on a polished concrete floor on her hands and knees. Glancing up momentarily, she saw she was in Rachael's apartment and she wasn't alone. Her head swam. Her stomach heaved as she dry-retched, fighting not to eject the little that she'd eaten that night onto Rachael's living room floor.
She flopped onto her stomach and groaned, but she still had the wherewithal to slide her one remaining dagger back into its wrist guard. Sweat broke out on her face and body with the effort that it took to concentrate. "How the hell did I get here?"
A sweet scent came to her nostrils along with the slight hint of decay.
"The first time you dematerialize and rematerialize is the hardest. You feel as if the pieces of you will never come back together. Rest assured, the unpleasantness doesn't last long."
That voice. She knew it. On looking up, she saw Galaden coming toward her, but he wasn't the pristine angel she remembered from her encounter with him in her studio. Instead his face was stern and bruised, his body battered. One of his wings was bent at an awkward angle, its formerly spotless feathers stained with blood oozing from the wound and the ends of the wing dragged along the floor as he stopped in front of her.
A deep groan sounded behind her. She rolled onto her side and the world swam but even so, when she saw Envy, his clod-like hand gripping his side where she'd embedded the dagger, she exulted.
"Go!" the angel ordered.
The demon staggered through Rachael's living room door.
Galaden raised his hand and the door shut behind the demon.
A seal appeared covering the door and windows so that she could no longer see them. There was no escape. She would have to fight for her freedom. She had one more dagger in her possession and she intended to use it.
"Where is Rachael?" Galaden asked her, his voice demanding.
"How the hell should I know?" She pushed herself to a sitting position. The living room swam and she thought she was going to vomit again. For a brief moment, she closed her eyes, trying to settle her stomach. She should have been frightened. Terrified. But she wasn't. Instead, goddess energy surged within her and she felt it mingling with her own, pumping her blood around her body, flooding it with much needed strength. She wanted to fight.
Worse.
She wanted to kill.
Lives were at stake. Agrat needed her. She forced her mind to flick from the hideous image of him suspended in midair surrounded by demons wanting to rip him apart. Focusing on that would distress and distract her from her immediate goal of taking the angel down.
Galaden's crystal blue eyes darkened. He held up his hand. White energy left it and streamed toward her.
An energy slap across Phoebe's face left her gasping.
"There is no time to waste. Tell me where Rachael is. The demon prince has shielded her energy." His proud face was drawn with desperation.
Phoebe struggled to her feet, sucking in a gasp of air as she did so. "You drained her dry. Maybe you killed her." She muttered a prayer hoping it wasn't so. If she could break free of Galaden she'd be searching every hospital to find Rachael.
"No. I would know if she were dead. I know what it is to lose her." Misery flickered across his face. His glow had dimmed to a dismal glimmer.
Fury built up inside of her. "Don't act like you care. You took what you wanted from my friend. You're nothing but a leech. A filthy sucking energy masked as an angel. What did Rachael ever do to you? You go near her and something bad happens." Her heart contracted with worry at the thought of her best friend languishing in one of the city hospitals. It would only be a matter of persistence and phone calls before she found where Rachael was and she hoped that the angel couldn't tap into her mind and work that out.
