Rage and Ruin (The Harbinger 2)

“None of the people on the streets saw what happened.” I chimed in with useful information instead of being about as helpful as a houseplant. “I asked a few who were standing around, and they said he appeared on the church in the blink of an eye.”

Gideon was staring at me curiously, probably wondering why I’d been out there on the streets alongside Zayne. Since he had no idea what I was, I wasn’t surprised by his interest.

“No demon is that fast,” Nicolai said. “Not even the most powerful Upper Level demons. Not even Roth.”

At the mention of the Crown Prince of Hell, I stiffened. God, for the last hour or so, I had actually forgotten about what Roth and I had done. Man, that now felt like a week ago, but how terrible did that make me? Weight settled on my shoulders.

“We’ve pretty much come to the conclusion that whatever this Harbinger is, it isn’t a demon.” Zayne glanced toward me. “We have no idea what could be behind this.”

“Meaning we have no idea what we’re hunting for,” I added, inching out of my corner. “Greene was...left in an area where we’d just been, and the same tonight. I think the locations were chosen on purpose.”

“What do you think?” Nicolai asked of Zayne while Gideon frowned.

“I think the same as Trinity.” Zayne crossed his arms. “It’s like it’s taunting us.”

“And neither of you saw anything?” Nicolai asked.

“We were having dinner at the restaurant across from the church, and then we were patrolling. We’d made it one block when we heard the screams.”

Nicolai frowned. “Dinner?”

“That’s what I said,” replied Zayne.

Nicolai’s jaw worked. “Was there anything either of you noticed that was abnormal?”

Zayne shook his head, but I thought about the sensation I’d felt and the ghost I’d seen. I had no idea if it was related to the Harbinger, but it was something.

I glanced at Gideon, unsure what I could say in front of him, and decided to go with the least amount of information as possible. “Well, I did see a ghost.”

Gideon’s head whipped toward me. “A ghost?”

Nodding, I found myself staring at Zayne. “It probably has nothing to do with the Harbinger, but the ghost was behaving weirdly.”

“You see ghosts?” Gideon asked, speaking slowly.

“And spirits,” Zayne answered, his arms unfolding as he angled his body toward me. “You didn’t say anything about this earlier.”

The tone of his voice pricked at my skin. “Well, we were kind of busy with getting back to the compound because there was a dead Warden to deal with.”

“Hold up.” Gideon stared at me. “You can see ghosts and spirits?”

“Yeah, it’s not a big deal—”

“Not a big deal?” Gideon huffed out a dry laugh. “You do realize that means you have an angel perched on a limb of your family tree somewhere.”

Yeah, there was one perched right on top of my family tree. He was an archangel, and his name was Michael, as in the Michael.

Somehow I managed to keep my face blank. It took an impressive effort, because usually my face didn’t know how to not show what I was thinking. “So I’ve heard.”

“Wow.” Gideon looked at Nicolai, who appeared to be smiling...or grimacing. “I’ve never actually met someone who could see the dead. Man, you would’ve come in handy a few months back when we had a wraith running around in here. Would’ve saved all of us a world of trouble and...” He trailed off with a little shake of his head. “Definitely would’ve been helpful.”

“How was the ghost acting?” Zayne cut in before I could question any of that.

“It didn’t know I was there, which is weird. It was focused on something, but before I could figure out what, the ghost sort of jerked and then disappeared.”

“Perhaps this ghost could sense the Harbinger,” Nicolai surmised as he leaned against the side of his desk.

“It’s possible,” I said, mainly because anything was possible at this point. “Ghosts and spirits both have a habit of randomly disappearing, so it could be nothing, but...” But I wasn’t sure if I could say what I’d also felt without having to explain it to Gideon.

Luckily Gideon was moving on. “By the way, still haven’t found anything on where this school the senator plans to build is located, and I delved deep—deep-state-level deep. I’m still combing, but I’m wondering if land was purchased under a different name or company.”

“And the senator hasn’t been in the city since before the fire, when he was spotted with Bael,” Nicolai reminded us. “His aides have been handling everything while he’s dealing with an unexpected family emergency in his home state.”

I snorted. “More like an unexpected demonic emergency.”

Nicolai smiled. “Got some of us wondering if the senator is even still alive.”

“Based on previous experience with demons like Bael, if the senator is no longer useful, then you can bet we’ll hear about an untimely accident resulting in death,” Zayne commented.

“I hope not.” The three of them looked at me. “Well, he’d be a dead end then. Literally.”

“Good point.” Gideon carefully wrapped up the spikes. “I’ll tap into the street cameras and ones from nearby stores to see if they caught anything tonight. Hopefully they’ll show us something. What might not have been visible to the human eye could’ve been captured on film.”

“Like with ghosts?” I suggested.

Gideon nodded.

I grinned, thinking of how often people dismissed ghostly images on film as being a weird trick of the camera. I was willing to bet a case of root beer that people caught evidence of ghosts more often than they’d want to know.

“Let me know what you find,” Zayne said. “Even if it’s nothing.”

Looking down at the bundle he held, Gideon nodded. “The one thing I can tell you is that these spikes weren’t created by humans, and they’re not something I’ve ever seen a demon use.” He looked up. “Makes you wonder where they came from, doesn’t it?”

21

The moment the door closed behind Gideon, I faced Nicolai and Zayne. “If humans didn’t create those spikes and neither did demons, that doesn’t leave a lot of options.”

“Exactly,” Zayne agreed, watching me.

Chest feeling strangely tight, I crossed my arms. There was one potential source I could think of—one that made no sense. “I’ve never seen angelic weapons before.”

“I have. Both of us have,” Zayne answered, glancing at Nicolai. “The Alphas carry swords. Not like yours. Yours is special.”

Mine was super special.

“Alphas’ swords appear to be some strange mixture of iron and gold,” Nicolai explained. “At least, from what we’ve been able to see. None of us have actually held one.”

“You know what’s messed up?” I shifted my weight from foot to foot. “I’m part angel, and the only angel I’ve ever seen is my father, but you see the Alphas all the time.”

“Yeah, well, none of us have seen an archangel,” Nicolai replied.

“Except for me,” Zayne reminded him.

“And doesn’t that make you unique.” Nicolai brushed a strand of shoulder-length brown hair back from his face as Zayne smirked. “I’ve never seen an angel carry anything like that, and besides, why would this Harbinger have something that was forged in Heaven?”

That was a good question. “Maybe it was stolen from an angel,” I offered with a shrug. “I mean, if it’s not of human or demon creation, then what does that leave? Aliens?”

Zayne’s brows lifted. “Aliens are the next reasonable conclusion.”

“Do you know of a race or species I’m not aware of but everyone else is?” I asked.

“Yes, everyone knows there’s a whole other species out there and only you don’t know.” Amusement trickled through the bond, annoying me. Zayne’s grin kicked up a notch. “It’s more likely that it’s an angelic weapon we’ve never seen before. And yes, I always have value to add.”

Ugh.

What he said was more likely.

But...

My stomach dropped a little. “But that would mean that this Harbinger took it, and that would mean—”

“Aliens?” Zayne asked.

“I’m going to punch you. Hard,” I said. “As I was saying, that would mean it was able to take out an angel. And what can do that?”

“Well, Roth’s familiar ate an Alpha once, so killing angels isn’t unheard of,” Zayne mused. “And yes, witnessing that was as disturbing as you might think.”

The image of the snake that made anacondas look wimpy formed in my thoughts. Bambi was terrifying, but I remembered how happy she had been to see Roth. Like a very eager puppy, and she had...smiled at me.

For killing Faye.

“And it burned the other Alpha to death,” Zayne went on. “Thumper turned that angel to nothing but ash in, like, a nanosecond.”

I stared at Zayne. “You’re not talking about Bambi, right?”

A ghost of a smile appeared. “Roth has several familiars. One of them is a dragon,” he explained, and I remembered seeing the vibrant blue-and-gold tattoo on Roth. “Long story, but yeah, Thumper got a good meal that day.”

“Wow,” I whispered, wondering how Roth was still alive after that. “And you don’t seem concerned about the fact that Roth’s familiar killed two angels?”

Looking up, Zayne met my stare. “The Alphas were there to kill Layla.”

“Oh.” I averted my gaze. His lack of concern made sense, because that would probably be the only circumstance in which Zayne wouldn’t care if angels were killed.