One Apocalypse

Chapter 1

PACA

My body feels pulled in five different directions as I fight to keep myself in one piece, screaming with the effort it takes. A harsh grunt comes out, belittling the powerful, blindingly painful phantom hit that strikes me across my middle.

Forced to flip head over heels, I curse over the small, pathetic cry that is forced through my lips the second I crash through the mound of boulders.

Debris flies up and little pebbles rain down on me, as I painfully clap the ground. Dizzied and bleeding, I push up to my knees. I crack my neck to the side…and then I reach over to pop my shoulder back into place for the fifth time today.

The blood sizzles against the ground when I spit out a generous mouthful, and I step over the slick, acidic stain, as I feel my body healing.

Jude is stalking toward me, but his eyes are leveling Rafael, as the angel paces back and forth, slapping his head and talking to himself.

Jude’s eyes snap to mine, just as Azrael appears in front of Rafael.

“When the hell are you going to start fighting back?” Jude barks, just as Ezekiel appears in front of me, looking every bit as murderous as the other two, who also pop in next to me.

“It’s been three weeks and you haven’t thrown a single punch,” Ezekiel adds on a growl.

I reach back and slap Ezekiel’s ass, earning an annoyed look. “I’ll know when I’ve had enough, Cupcake,” I chirp, spitting out more blood.

“Just why?” Kai shouts.

My eyes cut to his. “I’m a badass,” I say with a sly grin.

No one is in a joking mood. It’s not like it’s them getting their asses kicked.

“I can kick anyone’s ass in hell. Apparently my powers topside also include the ocean and the storms it provides, but I won’t have those at my disposal in Purgatory,” I go on. “This thing has been growing impossibly strong in Purgatory. It took me a month to heal from an echo of a death or whatever. It took me five-hundred years to come back from a true death that I allowed. It took me seeing one of you die to pull out the true fire inside me and level some shit when under pressure from an archangel.”

They continue to stare blankly at me.

“You saw what we’re up against. I need to be able to take a beating. And I need to be as strong as possible in any way. I’m The Apocalypse. I’m not used to getting my ass kicked, but an archangel handed mine to me. An archangel who personally had a hand in training a Champion far stronger than him. And we watched most of the very brutal death of said Champion.”

Gage exhales harshly.

“You’re facing your nightmares daily by being in Hell’s Black Heart to grow stronger. Let me do my part,” I add.

They don’t stop me this time when I move in front of Rafael, standing less than fifty yards away.

“Again!” I shout.

He’s still slapping his head and pacing back and forth, when the next invisible hit slaps me across my chest. I bite out a curse as I strain against it, feeling the pressure trying to crush my bones.

My foot slips, and I flip head-over-heels into Azrael, tackling the Angel of Death to the ground by mistake.

My knee also accidentally slams into his groin when I fumble my way off him. He makes a startled yelp that does happy things to my evil heart.

“Total accident,” I assure him, blinking innocently.

He grunts and squeezes his eyes shut, a pained expression still on his face, as he resists the urge to cup his balls like a weaker male.

“You truly are terrible at deception,” he says through strain.

The Twins give me a slow clap, as I brush myself off.

“I can’t believe she’s allowing us to watch her get her ass handed to her day-after-day. Is it just me, or is it getting predictably boring?” Hera drawls, pursing her lips. “Never thought that could even happen. But it’s like it’s just not special anymore.”

Little prickles of annoyance slither up my spine.

“Why are you doing this?” Azrael finally says on a groan, shoving up to his feet with a noticeable, somewhat satisfying limp.

“I told you…total accident.”

He gives me a dry look when I mime crossing my heart.

The Twins start playing their phantom drums like they’re dueling to see who is better. They even twirl their imaginary drumsticks.

The sinful manifestation of lust hisses at Lilith—literally—when she moves too close to Hera’s crown.

“Little mood music?” I shout to the twins.

“This is nothing but a waste of time,” Peter-the-Angel says from the sidelines, giving a horrified look over to the Twins, as This Means War blares through the air.

“No, that’s motivation,” one of them corrects.

“It’s absurd. All of this is absurd. And Rafael is becoming unhinged every time he attacks her without her retaliating!” Peter argues.

“Don’t be such a…Peter,” one of the twins says, grinning like he’s the funniest person in the world.

The other twin fist bumps him.

“That’s punny,” I chirp, getting groans from them.

Do they not get the joke?

Clearly my humor is just too smart for them, despite the fact they’re supposed to be brilliant.

I really do need to learn their individual names…

“You lied when you said this would restore Rafael’s balance, and you can’t be deceptive,” Azrael drones on.

“Again!” I shout at Rafael.

He’s back to slapping his own head, so he doesn’t immediately react.

“No! Enough! He can’t take anymore!” Peter shouts over the music that grows increasingly loud, likely to drown out his protests.

“What? Can’t hear you!” Hera shouts, cupping her ear like she’s trying to hear, but grinning like she’s as evil as the majority vote out here.

“Just give me one good reason why you’re torturing him like this if you’re really trying to restore his balance!” Azrael continues, getting real damn close to my ear. “The deal was that he’d train you if you restored his balance!”

I whirl around, facing him, catching sight of my four guys just staring and observing, taking everything in.

My eyes move back to Azrael’s, and I point a finger at him.

“In case you’ve forgotten, he killed me,” I point out dryly.

“You confess you must have allowed it, or is that just your vanity talking?” he asks, seeming genuinely confused.

“Doesn’t matter. He didn’t know I allowed it. And he killed me.”

“That’s not a good enough reason.”

“Really? You need a better reason for me to torture him?” I ask, mocking a frown.

He gives me a serious nod.

“I have an unapologetic, evil vagina,” I say with an obnoxious volume. “Is that reason enough for you?”

I turn away before he can argue, and shout at Rafael.

“I said again! Everyone stop questioning me now, damn it—”

My words end on a pained grunt when Rafael hits me much harder than last time, and I barely stop my foot from slipping this time.

Azrael stumbles away from me when a wild-eyed Rafael stares at me like a man lost in an endless stream of madness.

“Now you know what it feels like to have no control,” I snap, crying out a little when a trickle of power rolls through my stomach, trying to pry me open and split me in two.

“And now it’s my turn,” I bite out.

There’s a crackle in the sky that resembles metallic thunder, as it rattles like a drum through the air.

In the next instant, the dirt sprays up with a line of fire that shoots across the land, pummeling Rafael in the chest so hard he’s launched backwards until…

One twin stands and shields his eyes from the nonexistent sun, as he says, “He’s going…going—”

“Gone!” the other twin shouts in closing.

Rafael is indeed gone. I’m not sure how far I just knocked him. “If my instincts are right, I just helped him get some of his balance right,” I chirp over my shoulder to Azrael, holding back the wince of pain I feel from all the exertion it took to pack a punch that size.

Still, I’m getting stronger. There’s been progress.

The angels just stare at me with zero expressions on their quiet mouths. In the next instant, they’re all gone.

“I guess that means we’re done for the day,” I say with a roll of my eyes. “No work ethic.”

Kai’s arm drops around my shoulders, and he starts steering me away, as I feel the tug of him siphoning us out. We land in my purple room, and I glance around at some of the new things hanging up on the walls.

He shoves me to a chair, as Gage shoves a drink in my hand. I quirk an eyebrow at them, as Jude and Ezekiel join us in the room.

“Is this as close as I get to having you guys take care of me?” I ask as I take a long sip out of the jar.

Kai gives me a narrowed glare like I’ve done something wrong, and I roll my eyes as I lift one of my journals and turn it to a dirty past-life story.

“I don’t like this,” Gage says as he sits down next to me. “It’s stupid for you to take those punches and deliver only one in return. It’s not just torture for you and him.”

I look up at him with wide, hopeful eyes as I blink a few times, staring into his semi-creepy-but-very-appealing new cosmic blues.