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

Apocalypse's Horsemen [23]

Chapter 23

It took weeks for the horsemen to show themselves again. I felt like I was going stir crazy by the time that they let loose their latest round of destruction.  No matter how much planning and preparation we put in it never felt like we were doing enough to ready ourselves for this fight. Nothing ever went to plan and problems were turning up everywhere.

Lucius and I had returned top side after only a day in the relative safety of hell. We had rested albeit briefly before deciding there was nothing more we could do in the underworld

Castiel’s body was almost completely mended but the fallen angel was effectively trapped in his mind. He had been brought back to the palace so that Hades could ensure that he was protected at all times. Unrest was moving through the Underverse as they sensed the tension that was brewing. The sudden arrival of over a dozen angels was never a good omen in hell. Small riots had broken out in various parts of the city as the demons became panicked and fought among themselves. Each day had brought another letter from Hades with tails of further outbreaks of fighting.

Lucius scrunched up the latest missive within his fist before pressing his head against the glass window that overlooked the city. From the look on his face I could tell that it was more bad news. There was never good news these days. There had been no sign of Danny, no sign of Calantha and no sign of the horsemen. They had gone to ground and the absence of anything was more troubling than if there had been a deadly plague sweeping through the country. My nerves were frayed, my nails were bitten down to the quick and I was almost certain that my hair had started to fall out.

I shivered and moved away from the window. The building was almost completely empty. For the first time in his life, the CEO of Satani Media was grateful that it was a Sunday and that most of his staff were absent. There was only a skeleton crew of employees and most had been told to work within the more secure parts of the building due to renovations. There were no renovations but a bit of plastic sheeting and construction tape was enough to keep them confined to the more heavily protected parts of the building. We were taking no chances.

Trouble arrived with a bang. The floor trembled beneath my feet. I lifted my head and watched a flash of light shot past the window in a burning ball of destruction before crashing into the building opposite us. Windows blew out, building shivering as a fireball burst out of the other side of the building to send a plume of smoke and sparks swirling up into the air. There was a whistle, another flash and another bang.

More and more burning objects fell from the sky and smashed into the battered city in a deathly air strike.

A flash of light came hurtling towards us in that moment. I backed up a step, glanced at Lucius who did not appear to see the danger and instead was peering through the glass at the city quickly falling into ruins.

“Lucius, look out!”

The words were barely out of my mouth before the world exploded around me. Glass came hurtling at me as the projectile hit the building a floor below us. The ground trembled ominously even as I was blown backwards by the sheer force of energy, smacking in to the wall with so hard that a loud crack could be heard. I couldn’t tell if it was me or the wall that had suffered the damage as I was too disorientated. My head spun and my ears were ringing as I pushed myself on to my feet, my wings sprouting from my back.

The air was murky, filled with dust and fumes from the fires burning on the floor below us, I could see that the floor beneath my feet had become compromised. There were large lines throughout the floor and it all shifted ominously with each step I took.  I could feel the heat of the fires roaring below.  If people had been working down there, none would have survived the blast. I thanked God for weekends.