Grim Echoes

Chapter 24 - Will

"So what the fuck do you think happened back there? I saw from a distance and used the opening to take out the angel, but you were right there. What happened?" Will glanced at Ander, who brooded.

Will knew his moody bitch posture. It annoyed the fuck out of him. Sure, there was trouble ahead, no doubt there always was in some form or another, but sulking again? If he lamented every-time something when wrong, well shit, he'd never stop. Besides, he was the one who should be fucking brooding. She was still there.

"I am not," Ander paused. "I'm not sure, to be honest. The angel manifested, used its voice to disable me and,"

"Disabled? Are you handicapped?" Will snickered.

Ander looked at him with a pinched expression. Will felt mostly ok. It was the first time in days his head was clear. It'd been almost two weeks since he'd ended a creature, except for the werewolf. That kill had given him no clarity. As the angel's head rolled away from its body, the satisfying rush burned inside him, followed by the peace and clarity that always followed. It was the only time he felt alive and right. The rest of the time he muddled through and waited for the next monster he'd end, just to feel right again.

"Fine. It used its voice to make my head pound, and I felt like it was going to explode," he replied snippy. "I assumed it wasn't an archangel because it said something about collecting a debt Wyatt owed. I had hoped you would attack while I was down," Ander finished.

"Sounds about right. You distract them, I finish things," Will smirked. After the fucking mess of a mission with the fleabag, this was a miracle, killing an angel - fuck, yeah!

"Anyway, the angel saw Maeve, and I suppose became distracted, at least until I pulled my firearm."

"That much I saw, since I was right up on it by then. What the fuck did she do to knock it over? Angels are a lot tougher than demons," Will asked, genuinely curious. In his life he'd only interacted with a handful of angels, most of which were complete douche bag control freaks with daddy issues. Sure, they were gorgeous, but their looks couldn't make up for their boring, stuck up personality.

Ander shrugged. "I am not really sure. I do not think she is either."

Being Soldiers of Night, it was only a matter of time before he and Ander would have conflicts with the angels. The only angel Will was on a first name basis was Deva. She was beautiful too, but in his opinion more full of herself than any of the others he'd met. Overall, he found her more attractive, less metal in her face. Crazy, pierced, tattooed women had an appeal all to themselves. Angels, they took that shit too far. Especially the piercings. He'd never understood why they were so full of metal. Was it a rite of passage when they got their wings? Did they have all the piercings to reflect the light they used to blind people? Were they masochists?

He'd probably never know since the only conversations he'd with them were tense and specific to whatever the conflict was. Angels sometimes supported the Soldiers of Night, if it served their purpose, but even then they were mostly ass hats and constantly tried to show their superiority and tell the Soldiers of Night what to do. Fuck that. Just because they came from Heaven didn't mean they knew how to run a mission. Maybe in holy warfare but not down here in the shit-hole trenches of earth with the lesser humans.

"Whatever it was, I felt it too. Similar to a wave of power? Different from last time," Ander mused.

"A wave of power?" Will raised his eyebrow.

"Similar to," Ander cleared his throat, "remember when we opened the cursed music box and a wave of power came out? We knew we had made a mistake,"

Will nodded. Talk about fucking something up. They'd been too young and stupid to know better. Took months to fix that mess. He wasn't sure who wanted to kill him and Ander more, his father or Mason.