Apocalypse's Horsemen (Devil's Assistant Series - Book 3)

Apocalypse's Horsemen [16]

Chapter 16

The return to Cardiff was just as eerie as our first trip.

Thick black clouds hung heavy in the air despite the fact that the weather was forecasted to be bright and sunny. There were too many places burning for the sun to ever have a chance at shining through. It would take days, maybe weeks, before the damage was brought under control but it was already too late. The place was in ruins and there was nothing left to be salvaged. It was a painful reminder of what we were fighting for.

It was what we were fighting to prevent.

Cardiff was one city - a city that had been thriving and alive only a few weeks ago. Now there was nothing left but a scorch mark where it should have been. And all of the people, they were gone. They were either dead or injured. It didn’t matter because they were gone and it was unlikely that they would return.

The hotel wasn’t difficult to find. It was one of the few structures that remained untouched by the violence happening on either side. It was just standing there, tall and proud while the world came crashing down around it. The building was old and required a bit of TLC but it was still standing strong.

And yet, as I stared up at the building from the smoggy streets, I could sense that there was something off with the building.  

I rubbed a hand up and down my arm to soothe away the gooseflesh that had formed. It was exuding wrongness. My stomach roiled and I had to clamp my jaw closed to stop my breakfast from making an appearance.  I dragged my gaze away and almost instantly the nausea lessened to a mild discomfort.

Glancing over my shoulder, I would have rolled my eyes at the two men if the situation wasn’t so serious. Both were trying to be covert in the human sense of the word but were having great trouble. The crumbling piece of wall they were hiding behind was far too small to hide one of them. As a result I could see odds and ends sticking out from either side of the unstable brickwork.

“Get over here you two and stop trying to hide, you’re terrible at it.” I waved at them.

The angels stood up and wiped of the debris from their clothes. Then, they closed the distance between us as if they had not a care in the world. I growled under my breath.

“You two are ridiculous. We are at the enemy’s door and you are walking around as if you actually enjoy the ambience. Get serious now.” My harsh whisper cut through the air but neither Lucius nor Castiel were affected by my words.

“We were angels. We didn’t do covert. When we arrived at battle, the heralds called out before us to strike fear in the waiting armies.” Lucius shrugged his shoulders and wiped a smudge from his trousers. “There was none of this … playing.”

I turned my back on him and bit my tongue. It was best not to speak. Now was not the time to argue.

“Well, right now I get the feeling we will need your Devil mojo not your angelic heralds.”

If I wasn’t looking at the man, I would have missed the way that he folded his arms across his chest and his lips formed into a childish pout. I felt my heart warm at the gesture. Since things had become so tense in the world, with one near apocalyptic disaster after another, Lucius had rarely let his childish side shine through. But here it was, in the middle of a disaster zone.

“Fine.” He huffed after an indeterminable amount of time. Lucius opened his hand to accept the weight of his own angel blade as it materialised. “I will bring my A game for you but I’m telling you, the herald thing works.”

“It may have worked in 100 BC, old man.” I met his gaze and allowed my lips to tilt up into a smile to take some of the bite out of my words. “But this is a new world and this threat is something you have never seen before. They will not be intimidated by a little fanfare. They are horsemen of the apocalypse and we need to start treating them like it.”