Zayne turned, and I swore to God, if he was able to see it I may lose my mind. Luckily for him, I didn’t think he did, because when he turned back, he was frowning.
“Why were you looking for us? You said you were going to come to us before Sulien showed up.” I tried to get him back on track. “If you know something that could help us stop the Harbinger—”
“It won’t undo all that I’ve done. It won’t make things right.”
“No,” I said softly. “I don’t think it will, but this is bigger than you—it’s bigger than all of us. What the Harbinger plans will destroy this world and parts of Heaven. It will be the end of everything. We need to stop that.”
“They’re together.” Senator Fisher’s form scrambled. “The Harbinger and Bael. I lied when I said I didn’t know where that was. I was afraid. A coward. I can’t be afraid anymore.”
I think Zayne and I stopped breathing.
“He’s been staying at a farm in Gaithersburg.” He rattled off an unfamiliar address. “That’s where you should find them.” He shuddered again, this time becoming more solid. “I’m sorry for all that I’ve done and it’s time I reap what I sowed.”
Senator Fisher took one more step forward and vanished before I could even say thank you.
“He’s gone.” Zayne turned in a slow circle. “Did he...?”
“He went into the light.” Throat thick, I swallowed. “He went to judgment.”
* * *
We were on the strangest damn conference call known to man. Roth, Layla and Lucifer on one end and Nicolai and several other Wardens on the other.
I was counting all my blessings that it wasn’t a video call.
“It’s about an hour from here, depending on the traffic,” Zayne said, having looked up the address on his phone the moment after Senator Fisher had gone into the light. Now he had his laptop open and resting in his lap as we sat on the couch. We figured it was best to call both at the same time. So far, everyone had been playing nice.
Probably because Lucifer was apparently watching Supernatural.
Shocker.
“Turns out, the house was recently up for sale,” Zayne said. “The listing is still on one of those realty websites.”
“I don’t think anyone is looking to buy right now,” Roth tossed out there.
“Damn, here I thought you were looking for an upgrade,” Zayne retorted, and I grinned as I pushed my glasses up my nose. “The reason why I’m bringing that up is because under property details it lists state-of-the-art video surveillance. Getting onto the property is going to be hard enough without Gabriel being aware, but it should be noted there are apparently cameras everywhere, including the barn.”
“And how confident are we that Gabriel is there?” Nicolai asked.
“As confident as we can be,” I spoke up. “I believe Senator Fisher was telling the truth. It’s the best lead we got.”
There were murmurings from the phone from the Warden side, and then I heard Nicolai ask, “So what’s the game plan, then?”
Zayne looked over at me.
What? I mouthed.
He raised his brows as his jerked his chin toward the phone, telling me this was my show basically.
Which I appreciated.
But I squirmed a little, unused to, well, to being in control of anything so major. “I think we...” I cleared my throat as I focused on the phone. “We need to move on him fast. Get as much of the element of surprise as we can, especially since he has to be aware of what’s happened with Zayne and that Lucifer is topside. The longer we wait, the more time it gives him to gather forces and prepare.”
Zayne’s gaze met mine when I looked up. He nodded as he said, “Agreed. We need to go at him fast and hard.”
“That sounds dirty, Stony,” Roth purred.
I shook my head at the phone.
“So, you’re thinking...what? We do this tomorrow?” Nicolai asked.
My stomach tumbled a little. Tomorrow. Less than twenty-four hours, and that seemed like nowhere near enough time to prepare myself for coming face-to-face with Gabriel again.
But truth was, I’d been preparing for this all my life.
My thoughts settled, along with my stomach. “Tomorrow,” I said, nodding. “Probably close to dusk. It will make it easier for us to get closer to the property instead of broad daylight. There’s a lot of trees surrounding it, based on the pictures Zayne found, so that should help.”
“Up to a certain point,” Zayne tacked on. “I’m sure he has eyes on the area, but based on the listing, it looks like the property is off a private access road in a fairly wooded area.”
“Which makes me think we should meet up at the closest but safest point,” I said.
“Agreed,” Nicolai said. “You have the entire clan backing you up on this.”
“And we have all the demons that have come here,” Roth said. “Is that going to be a problem? Wardens and demons working together?”