Abigail

Abigail panted, but at the present little could wipe off the silly grin on her face. She had done it, actually used her powers and it had worked exactly as she had planned it. She hadn't even hit Elias, which had been her worry above all. She saved her brother's life.

Even from up in the balcony she could tell Elias wasn't happy with Ramiel's condition. It was a long way down though and she wasn't about to replicate the path Elias had taken. He had been lucky not to break anything. Could nephilim use their powers to levitate themselves? Abigail decided that was beyond the scope of her current abilities, so she would have to find the actual stairs down.

Thuds resounded through the theatre.

A moment later, the wall left of the stage tore open, sending dust and chunks of broken plaster in every direction. A winged creature tumbled through the hole, quickly followed by four more. It was only when the dust settled that Abigail realised that the curled form on the theatre floor was Lucifer. She pressed her hands over her mouth as the others surrounded him. Shamkarish, Ashoga, Najran. She didn't recognise the fourth figure, but by the way he moved, she was fairly certain he was another demon.

These are terrible odds.

Lucifer wasn't giving up, however. He climbed back on his feet and brought up his arms, revealing a sword in each hand. Abigail was sure she had seen one of these weapons in Shamkarish's hands earlier. Indeed, Shamkarish was now unarmed.

He gestured to the demon Abigail didn't recognise. "Your sword."

"My lord, I —"

"Now, Themis!" Shamkarish shouted.

Themis bowed his head and offered his sword to Shamkarish, then, tripping over his own feet, hurried out of the way as Shamkarish launched himself at Lucifer.

The seraph was faster. He sprung into the air, whipping out his wings to full span. Najran came after him. Lucifer didn't allow the reaper to even get close. He twisted and dived. The reaper, with his wings half the size of Lucifer's was too slow to keep up. Najran looked like a seagull trying to catch an eagle.

Then, a dark creature joined the fray. Shamkarish? Abigail ducked down as Najran flew over the top of her. The moment they were on the other side of the hall again, Abigail popped her head up. Yes, it had to be Shamkarish, but while both Abigail and Lucifer had focused on Najran, he had transformed himself. Shamkarish's wings were a colourless muddle of feathers, but they ended in claws. What she could catch of his face amid the chaos looked more bearlike than human.

Lucifer slammed into the balcony railing at the back of the hall, making the entire balcony shake. Without so much as a momentary pause, he flung himself at Shamkarish's back and they spun off in a twisting mess of wings, limbs and swords.

"Abby!" Elias screamed.

It took a moment to find him. Elias and Harold had dragged Ramiel over to the edge of the stage. They were out of the way of the fight happening above them, but not every demon was eager to try their measure against Lucifer. Ashoga and Themis had chosen an easier target — Elias didn't even have a sword to defend himself anymore.

Abigail ducked again as the edge of Shamkarish's wing swung past her head and took stock. She needed to help Elias, but she had already ripped out all the seats in her immediate vicinity to take down Jala. Could she manage the ones from further away? And Elias was further away this time too.

Ashoga grabbed Elias and pulled him towards her.

Abigail flung out her hand towards the other side of the balcony and pulled the seating there off the mounts. Three rows of seats lifted up. She directed them toward Ashoga.

Wait. No.

I'll kill Eli too.

She caught herself halfway, but the seats would never have made it to Ashoga anyway. Lucifer spun Shamkarish around and the upper half of the demon's body slammed right into them. Before he could recover, Lucifer brought down half the balcony on him.

Abigail heard Lucifer call out to Najran, but she didn't pay attention to the words. She was focused on Elias and on Ashoga's hand crushing his throat. Abigail sprinted over to the same rigging Elias had used to get down. She would be too late, she knew that, but she had to try.

As she struggled to find a way down, the balcony groaned. The section Lucifer hadn't ripped out was beginning to collapse. She jumped down, landing on the side of her thigh and on her left wrist. Vision blacking momentarily, she sucked in a breath.

Hissing in pain, she rolled to the side and awkwardly crawled over to the relative safety of the stage. Abigail struggled up onto her feet. She didn't dare to look at her left hand. It burned as if a hundred red-hot needles were stuck into her skin.

Someone screamed.

Cradling her hand, Abigail climbed the steps up to the stage. The screaming cut out as sharply as it had begun. But it hadn't been Elias' voice, he was now on the floor, gasping for breath. Ashoga had turned her attention to Ramiel.

The seraph stood with Themis' limp body in his hands and blood dripping from his mouth. But the obvious violence of Themis' death didn't alarm Abigail half as much as Ramiel himself did. Despite the rigidity with which he carried himself, Ramiel's face had always been expressive. Not now. Ramiel might as well have been a faceless mannequin.

He tossed Themis' body away and reached for Harold. The old man tried to escape, but it was no use. Ramiel caught his leg, pulled him towards him, then bit into Harold's neck. Blood spurted out.

Abigail gagged and she turned away from Harold's last desperate attempts to escape. She tried to pull Elias away. He didn't seem to realise what was happening. Elias' lips were blue and each breath was a pained choke. Abigail hissed an apology as she dragged him down the steps and off the stage.

"Elias?" she said. "Hey, it's gonna be ok. Don't panic."

His lips twitched, but that didn't translate into anything resembling a word. Abigail shook her head and pulled him over to the corner of the room. She didn't have the strength to move him further right now.

Let him be fine, please. Let him be ok.

Ashoga put up more of a fight and Shamkarish, who must have dug himself out of the rubble, came to her aid. Ashoga's sword had little effect though. She caught Ramiel's shoulder, but he continued moving like nothing had happened. He caught Shamkarish's wing and ripped it off.

Abigail's stomach was threatening to flip itself inside out. She wanted to crawl as far into the corner as she could and not see, but Ashoga had backed off the stage and Ramiel followed her. They were now almost in the centre of the hall and thus visible from every corner. Even if Abigail were to turn away, she couldn't drown out the Shamkarish's screaming or the ominous beating of Lucifer's wings as he now hunted Najran.

Ramiel twisted Ashoga's arm and her sword slid out of her hand.

"Please! Whoever you are, stop!" she screamed.

In lieu of a reply, Ramiel flung her to the ground. He crouched down, pressing one knee into her stomach to keep her from escaping and tore into her neck. Shamkarish staggered over to help Ashoga, but Lucifer chose this as his moment to strike. He dove down, caught Shamkarish from behind and sunk Shamkarish' own sabre deep into the demon's side.

"Ramiel, are you still with us?" Lucifer asked and Abigail thought that in that moment he looked more alarmed than he had throughout the entire battle he had just fought. "You recognise me, do you not?"

When Ashoga's body stilled, Ramiel rose up and turned to Lucifer. Blood dripped from his chin and his hair. His torso was soaked in crimson, yet he didn't so much as wipe away the bits of flesh caught in the corner of his lips.

Lucifer twisted the sabre still lodged in Shamkarish's side. "Let me have a guess. Sariel?"

"Why guess? All angels heard my voice," Ramiel said, his voice stripped of all emotion. "Yet Ramiel alone answered my plea."

Abigail blanched. This thing controlling him, that's supposed to be Sariel?

"I had a couple of things on my to-do list to tick off first." Frowning, Lucifer held up Shamkarish's quivering figure as he spoke. "But come now, Sariel, don't be moody. I have a fat, juicy demon for you here. Won't you have a taste?"

Ramiel stepped over Ashoga's body. Shamkarish tried to pull out of Lucifer's grip, but there was no escaping the angel. As Ramiel brought up his hand, grabbed a fistful of hair in the back of Shamkarish's head and pulled the demon's head back so as to expose more of his neck, Shamkarish froze. Ramiel dug into his throat and the demon didn't so much as whimper.

Abigail glanced over to Elias. This wasn't at all like she had expected things to go. If this was Sariel, the great protector of humanity, they needed to get out of here. Lucifer could very well offer them up as food next. But Elias' breathing sounded no better and Abigail only had one hand to work with. She propped up Elias against the wall in the hope that would at least help him breathe.

It took no more than thirty seconds for Shamkarish to die. Ramiel lifted the demon's body out of Lucifer's arms and tossed it aside. He took a step towards Lucifer, who immediately pulled back.

"It is not enough," Ramiel said.

Lucifer scoffed. "Three demons aren't enough for you? You look like a vampire on a binge."

"Demons are a poor source."

"You're not having seraph," Lucifer said, then switched to Enochian.

At the third word, Ramiel's shoulders jerked. Lucifer continued without pause, even as Ramiel's eyes sunk and his body began to list. He steadied Ramiel and concluded his chant with a dissatisfied sniffle.

.

For a long moment, only Elias and Najran's haggard breathing disturbed the silence in the theatre.

"Anyone there?" Lucifer said.

"Yeah... Yes," came Ramiel's half-mumbled reply. He threw his head back and wiped his chin with the back of his hand. "Arkhangelsk. Of all the places, they had to return here?"

"Four thousand years and that's your opener?"

Ramiel grinned and when he spoke again, his voice sounded less strangled. "It felt like four hundred thousand."

"That's better," Lucifer chuckled.

Abigail shifted her feet, uncertain about what to do. Her arm throbbed in time with the mad drumming of her heart and she was suddenly the third wheel in a reunion between angelic lovers. Meanwhile, Elias rasped, his lips turning blue.

He's really not looking good.

"Hey," she said, "sorry to interrupt. Is there anything either of you can do for Elias?"

Ramiel turned so sharply, it was obvious he hadn't realised Abigail was there until she had spoken. Ignoring Lucifer's indignant huff, he made his way over to Elias and Abigail.

"Were you and Elias the ones who alerted Lucifer to my plight?" he said, as he pushed aside the collar of Elias' jacket to fully expose the bruising Ashoga's hand had left behind.

"We did," Abigail replied and before she could stop herself, added, "Why didn't you tell us you about you and Lucifer? Or about how you changed sides? Twice?"

"All that happened millennia ago, it did not seem relevant. But I thank you for coming. Most would not have once they found out my history." Ramiel turned to Lucifer. "Can you do this? I do not want to expend energy Sariel will need."

"Will need? I'm not letting you become Sariel's personal battery," Lucifer replied. "What were you thinking in the first place?"

Ramiel sighed. "Sariel is burning out. Since the chance of rescue seemed slim, I decided to be useful in what way I still could. He persuaded Gabriel and Raphael to release me, it seemed an appropriate time to return the favour I owed him. And once he and I realised I was no longer bound, there was no reason to pass up the opportunity and use Shamkarish and his cronies to secure some additional time for Sariel." He waved towards Elias. "Lucifer, the nephilim?"

"And you're not done, are you?" Lucifer replied curtly, as he shifted over to Elias. He rolled his thumb over the bruises on Elias' neck, leaving Elias whimpering. But one by one Ashoga's fingerprints faded and soon Elias was pulling away from the angel. Lucifer caught Elias by the edge of his shirt collar. "Hold on there, I'm not finished with you."

Abigail wasn't sure what exactly Lucifer was doing, he seemed to be just holding his hand over Elias' Adam's apple. It was working though. Elias' breathing improved and colour began to return to his cheeks.

"Thanks," he muttered in a raspy voice and closing his eyes, rested his head against the wall.

Relieved that her brother was no longer looked like he was about to suffocate, Abigail ignored the continued throbbing in her arm and turned her thoughts to the wider problem.

"So Sariel is dying?" she said. "And, I'm assuming, the shield will fall with him?"

"Yes," Ramiel answered.

Lucifer huffed. "That's Heaven's problem."

"Then it is also my problem."

Although Ramiel's tone had been placid, Lucifer flinched as if Ramiel had backhanded him. He was about to respond, but Ramiel gestured for him to wait.

"He was acting on instinct once the third anchor was destroyed." Ramiel explained. "Now Sariel does not have the control to modify the makeshift shield enough to permit anyone from Heaven to come down here. Not without bringing down the entire construct."

Lucifer shook his head. "With a bit of work, we can patch up alternative anchor points. Something more palatable than hacked off angel wings."

Something in Abigail's movement must have caught Ramiel's attention. He narrowed his gaze, then motioned for Abigail to show him her arm.

"It can wait until later," she said.

"Please let me see," Ramiel replied, then shifted his attention to Lucifer. "You trivialise the matter, you always do. It took Sariel decades to create this shield."

"He always took forever to get anything finished. I can get it done in ten days, and a team of angels could figure it out in half a dozen years or so."

Abigail winced as she extended her arm. The pain was better when Lucifer and Ramiel were talking — the fate of the world was a good distraction. Unfortunately, both angels had fallen silent. Ramiel shifted forward and rested Abigail's injured limb on his thigh. He tried to pull back the sleeve, but the sleeves of this jacket had always been tight and with Abigail's arm swelling up, the tiniest movement of the fabric was agony.

Lucifer took out a small knife and cut through the fabric of the jacket and the long-sleeved shirt below until he exposed the injury. Abigail had to look away. The sight of bone pointing in the wrong direction was a recipe for instant nausea. Of course, looking at Ramiel's blood-soaked skin was little better.

"Can't we use a different angel to keep the shield going?" she asked, trying to focus on something other than her injury. "Did Elias kill Jala?"

"I put a flaming sword through her chest," Elias replied without opening his eyes.

Lucifer snickered. "That'd do it."

Abigail screamed as Lucifer shifted the bone back into place. The pain soon faded, but the crawling sensation of her bone, tendons and muscles knitting themselves back together was just as discomforting.

"Not pleasant I take it," said Lucifer as he withdrew his hand.

As the crawling stilled, Abigail dared to take a look and was stunned. Her forearm now looked as if the break had never happened.

"No, but considering it's a month of healing done in a minute." She attempted a smile. "I'll take that any day. Thanks."

Lucifer flicked his hand and the blood that had covered Ramiel vanished. "Well, keeping humans from extinction is our responsibility, is it not?"

"I thought you said we weren't human," Elias said.

"Close enough," Lucifer replied.

"Where is Najran?" asked Ramiel. "Here was here, I am not misremembering?"

"I left him bleeding out in the rubble back there." Lucifer pointed to the remnants of the collapsed balcony. "The bastard deserves it. I had Shamkarish, then he turned up with two demons in tow and spoiled everything. He must have just taken them hunting too, they were pumped up on souls and itching for a fight."

Abigail winced, thinking about what hunting for human souls would entail. Lucifer was right, Najran deserved this. Jala too, but Elias had done a thorough a job there already.

"Is a reaper good enough until something more permanent can be found?" she asked.

Ramiel considered the suggestion for a moment, before replying. "Worth a try. I saw Sariel when I opened myself up to him. He sequestered himself on an island in the North Pacific; I will show you where we need to go, Lucifer."

"Very well," Lucifer sighed. "I suppose you won't leave the nephilim behind either. You take them; I'll drag Najran's sorry arse with me."