Jegudiel (Deadly Virtues 2)

Noa brought their gloved hands to her mouth and kissed each of his fingers. She held them to her chest and said, “We make these fuckers scream. We make them pay for what they’ve done.” The sorrow on Diel’s handsome face gave way to sadistic excitement. It didn’t stop Noa’s heart from shattering. She was a loyal person. When she loved someone, she would do anything for them. And she wouldn’t stop until whatever plagued them was rectified.

Noa had to find Cara. And if she couldn’t, she would make those responsible pay—slowly, painfully. A red mist descended over her eyes.

She had never been so excited to kill in all her life.

Noa could still hear Diel’s broken voice in her head, the voice of the man watching his life play out like a movie in his mind. And it was a tragedy. No part of it was light or hopeful in any way.

“When the priests have been … apprehended,” Gabriel said, his voice tightening on the last word, “we get back to the van as quickly as possible. We don’t want any mistakes that will get one or more of us caught.”

Everybody nodded their heads.

The rest of the journey passed by in heavy silence. Even Bara stayed quiet, the prospect of killing clearly keeping his sarcasm in check. The van stopped, and Gabriel’s driver tapped on the partition to let them know the coast was clear.

They were to enter through the secret tunnel system that the Coven knew all too well. Years of living underground, staying out of sight, had made the Coven privy to what many would never know—that a large percentage of Massachusetts boasted a labyrinth of tunnel systems created by War of Independence spies.

The Brethren meeting was being held at an abandoned barn deep in the fields of an old Catholic priests’ retirement home. It was a surrounded by cluster of trees, boulders of rock, and scrubland. It was a perfectly blended mixture of rolling green pastures and rough terrain. And below ground, those very tunnels that the Coven had used exclusively as their own secret refuge over the years.

The van would remain in the cover of a small copse of trees that Dinah, Candace, Jo and Noa had discovered on one of the many covert visits they had made over the past several weeks to scout the location. Just a few yards away was a natural spring, and behind it a small cave leading to the tunnels that would take them directly into the vipers’ nest.

Dinah placed her scarf over her nose and mouth and opened the van doors. With her nod as a silent command, the rest of the Coven and the Fallen covered their faces, becoming ghosts, and followed her into the trees, their dark leather clothes aiding them in melding into the night.

“We follow the line of trees to the spring,” Dinah said. “Then we travel through those tunnels directly underneath the barn.” She took in a deep breath. “Then we attack.”

Dinah led the way, Gabriel taking up the rear. Noa released Diel’s hand, but he was a shadow at her back. Someone being so protective of her would have irked her once. But Diel was a wall of comforting light behind her. And she was a shield of protection in front of him.

The sound of a trickling stream guided them to the cave. They ducked underneath the spring. The water ran in heavy rivulets off their leather hoods. Once they reached the network of tunnels, Dinah shined a dim flashlight. No one spoke. The sounds of breathing and footsteps on the hard ground were the only things Noa could hear.

Dinah navigated the twists and turns with ease, the days of scouting this location paying off in droves as she weaved and ducked past low rocks and slippery walls until she came to a sudden halt.

When everyone was gathered at a wide swell of the tunnel, Dinah pointed to the roof above them. Noa could see a circular hatch, one that would lead them into a feed store in the barn. From that door, they would enter the main body of the barn, which the Brethren had fashioned into a meeting room. The barn looked worn and unused from the outside. Inside, it boasted the usual opulence of the church.

Dinah cut the flashlight, plunging them all into darkness. Noa closed her eyes and let that inky darkness spread throughout her body. She let her tongue remember the taste of death—sweet, sweet death of the priests who had hurt her, her family, her sisters, and Diel.

Someone pressed against her arm, and she knew that scent. Diel. She relaxed for a second into his muscular arm. Uriel lifted Dinah up, she opened the hatch, then light flooded the tunnel and Dinah slipped though the opening. The Coven followed first, then the Fallen. Dinah closed the hatch, and the door became invisible among the barn’s wooden floorboards.