Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 112287 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112287 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Both of them smiling and enjoying this moment where all six of Jeffrey’s daughters were together as family for the first time.
40
Interlude
Archangel of Disease
Charisemnon watched the large monitor one of his people skilled in such matters had put up for him. The vampire had called this a “live feed” of the room that held Charisemnon’s second crop of subjects, all of whom he’d infected with a slightly different strain of his most promising disease.
He sat alone as he always did here, watching them whimper and crawl and roll into balls. The vampires were interesting . . . but he was far more invested in the angel who sat slumped in a chair in the corner. Five hundred years old and a weak hanger-on of a courtier no one would miss.
He was crying tears of putrid green, his movements weak as he scratched at his arms.
Until a chunk of flesh came away.
Then he began to scream and thrash, falling to the floor in his panic. His wings collapsed under him. Not folding in the normal way. Not even as if he’d broken a wing. As if they’d rotted.
Charisemnon’s heart raced and he leaned closer to the screen.
Had he done it? Created a disease that killed immortals?
He didn’t move all night as the angel thrashed and screamed . . . and got quieter and quieter . . .
41
An hour after they’d sat down, and Eve was groaning and patting at her washboard-flat abdomen while saying, “Surely, I can fit in another piece. My stomach is capable of expansion. Also, we—”
The entire table shook so hard that the remaining cake crashed to the floor, followed by the table. The four of them bolted upright at the same time, but the ground was moving too violently for Elena’s sisters to make it to the safety of a reinforced doorway, and the table that had gone down was a lightweight one that wouldn’t protect them if the trees next to the patio crashed through the roof.
She met Eve’s eyes. “Lawn!” It was the closest area with nothing that could fall on them.
Eve—tiny but muscled—grabbed Amy and began to make her way there, while Elena hauled Beth out from under the roof, then picked her up under the arms. She wasn’t strong enough to do this, and Beth’s feet scraped the ground, but she got her sister to the lawn before coming back to assist Amy.
Eve ran full tilt beside them, and Beth was waiting to grab Amy when Elena all but collapsed onto the earth with her. All four of them went to the ground as one to ride out the waves of rolling earth. Elena opened her wings over her sisters, tucking them close to her.
Elena!
I’m safe, Archangel! But this is going to be bad.
The shaking stopped.
The group lay on the earth for several more seconds, waiting to see if it would start again, but nothing, only an eerie silence.
Even the birds had gone quiet.
Elena got to her feet, with Eve following, then a shaky Amy and Beth. “Everyone okay?” After getting a round of nods, she said, “I have to fly, check on the damage.”
“I can walk the neighborhood,” Eve said, “see if anyone needs help.”
“I’ll join in after I check on the kids.” Amy held up her phone.
Beth, who was already dialing on her own phone, nodded to show she’d do the same.
Leaving her sisters to it, Elena took off. The houses in the neighborhood looked okay at first glance, though she could see people milling around. A couple of children too young to be at school waved up at her, and she dipped her wings to show she’d seen them; hopefully, that would take their mind off what had just happened.
The first sign of major damage came five minutes later, when she overflew the playing field attached to a local high school. The green had been split in two, a literal small canyon now separating the two jagged halves of the field. There were, however, no players on the field, and she could see no emergency vehicles nearby or en route, so it looked like they’d gotten lucky there.
Her stomach tense, she flew on. And kept seeing damage to the landscape . . . while houses and other buildings stood unbroken. A few bore minor cracks, but that was it. Raphael, any buildings down in Manhattan?
No, came the astonishing answer. Countless cracked windows, but that’s the worst of the damage. No casualties found so far. We have lost multiple roads, however—you’ll see the oddness of it when you fly in.
I’ll be there soon.
It was no surprise to find the Hudson rippling with the jewellike tones that made it appear a huge and glorious snake. The sight was so stunning that it had become a tourist attraction, with a local company offering helicopter flights over the area. Since the sight couldn’t be predicted, however, tickets only went on sale when it appeared—and sold out every time.