Ethereal Underground Part 20

He put a hand out to stop Annalise from moving and stood still so he could listen. The screams brought chills down his spine. It was the sounds of death and pain.

"We need to go the other way," Annalise said, she tried to pull on his arm and tug him in the opposite direction of the screams, but Ash shook her grip off his arm.

"Wait." He recognized one of the voices. If it was who he thought it was, there was no way he was going to leave her there to die. He crept slowly to the end of the cave, where the room branched off into three separate directions.

"Come on Anna," he said, walking slowly through one of the openings. He wanted to be as quiet as possible; the last thing he wanted to do was to get caught again. The end of the path brought them into a huge room, it was lit up with candles all along the ceiling. The walls were empty, but stalagmites and stalact.i.tes pointed from every direction. In the middle of the room he saw a group of five or six fallen, but his eyes zeroed in on a girl with fiery red hair.

"Arie," he whispered. She was fighting a dark haired fallen with a gun in one hand and a large sword in the other. She moved swiftly as she kicked a fallen to the ground and shot him in the head with a silver bullet. He couldn't help but feel a bit of pride as she bent down to finish the fallen up. It was then that he noticed another redhead creeping up behind her. It was Endarial. He waited patiently for Arie to turn around and shoot her, but she was too busy trying to saw off the fallen's wings. He started to scream out to her when he saw Endarial spread her wings as she went in to grab Arie by the neck.

"NNNNNN!" A small hand shot over his mouth. It m.u.f.fled the sound of his warning. It pulled him to the ground. Ash closed his eyes, the sound of blood rus.h.i.+ng through his ears. He couldn't hear her scream, but he knew it was out there.

Chapter Twelve.

Annalise "Fin!" Arie exclaimed as Annalise pushed Ash to the hard ground behind the rock. She could see the anger written all over his face, but she knew that they only had one chance to surprise the fallen that were only a few feet away.

"We will help them," Annalise whispered, "You must be quiet." She slowly pulled her hand back from his face, her stance serious. She was trying to focus on getting them all out safely instead of this wave of emotions that was threatening to pull her under again.

Ash lowered his eyebrows but nodded his head, agreeing with her and pulling her closer to the rock so they could better hear.

"You make me sick, she's a mortal," this coming from Loki. Annalise hadn't ever met him before today, but that deep voice would forever be burned into her brain.

"Do I look like I really care?" Finlay asked, still a touch of amus.e.m.e.nt in his voice.

A slapping sound resounded through the tunnel. A fallen's hand against Finlay's face, Annalise was sure. She could hear Arie fighting against the fallen that held her when this happened, meaning the situation must be worse than they had antic.i.p.ated.

"If you don't care, then you wouldn't mind if we slit her throat."

"You wouldn't do that," Finlay said to test the waters.

Loki let out a menacing laugh, "I thought you knew me better than that, Fin, we have spoken several times throughout the years. I know that you are one of those charged with turning us into what we are today."

Annalise couldn't help but throw her hand over her own mouth, surprised that not only had Leon been one of those but also Finlay, and she had never had any idea. She knew that there were many battles with the fallen, but she did not know that both of the seraphs closest to her in her life had contact with them on a regular basis.

"That doesn't matter. I am well aware that you are one to partake in deals, so make me one," the seraph's voice became more serious then.

"There is no deal to make here. I hold the cards, so to speak, I will kill the girl and then I will kill you."

"No, no you won't," Finlay said, trying to convince him otherwise, "She is the daughter of one of the best bounty hunters in the galaxy. If you kill her, Sasha Raines will destroy all of you."

"I don't fear that drunk."

"You shut your mouth," Arie spat, another slapping sound resonating through the s.p.a.ce, followed by the girl's cry.

"Why don't you tell her the reason why you gave her the mission to kill me? Hmm? Had that keeper you paid off tell her to come kill me and give her the weapon to do so?"

Finlay paused, and Annalise reached for Ash's hand, for she had a feeling what was coming next and she feared he would run out to start a fight. She begged him with her eyes to stay with her as the seraph's voice rang out. "Ash was my charge, and it was his time to die. I knew that if Arie went on such a journey, that he would follow. He's a lot like me," he said with a laugh, "He is impulsive and irresponsible, and would jump at the chance to kill a legendary creature."

"Fin, no," Arie said, her voice low and sad, not willing to accept the information that she was hearing.

Ash turned his face to look at Annalise as the anger came over his face. She leaned into him and whispered, "You cannot get mad at him. He was just doing his duty."

"You didn't do your duty when you saved me, that shows me you guys have a choice."

"Finlay takes his job seriously."

Ash smirked, "Yeah sure, just like he takes everything else so seriously."

"He is your friend, do not go back to hating him."

"Anna-"

"This is what I do as a guardian, Arie," Finlay said, causing the two of them to pause and listen, "I don't enjoy sending mortals off to die, but that's part of what I do. When it is their time, sometimes I have to make it happen."

"You should have told me."

"You wouldn't have listened. I'm sorry, Arie, but after I realized that I wanted to be around you more, I took you quickly as my charge so I could keep you safe. I felt remorseful for sending Ash to die, he was my friend. I haven't had any real mortal friends before...and I went back to you afterwards, to make sure you were okay since he had been attacked."

"Oh, how sweet," Loki moaned, "You are so pathetic, she's a worthless human."

"She is not worthless, you spineless snake," Finlay spat.

Annalise moved closer to Ash as she heard the thunder crack, the atmosphere changing around them as Loki began to lose his patience. He had been the first and only seraph to be created with the ability to control storms, and he was both strong and efficient with his powers.

"You can do so much better, Finlay. Since you can't see this, I guess I will have to prove it to you."

"Can I kill her now?" Endarial's voice rang out, unentertained, "I am so very bored."

"Of course, make it nice and slow."

"Wait!" Finlay exclaimed, "Stop, make me a deal."

"There's no deal that you could possibly make to save your friend."

"You can have me. Take me and leave her be."

"No, you aren't going to do that," Arie argued, "I can take care of myself, don't let them take you."

"Don't listen to her, Loki. You know that you want the knowledge I have, how to make a fallen. I will give it to you, whatever you want, just let her go free."

"Is that right?" Loki mused, "And all I have to do is let the mortal girl go?"

"Yes."

"Well I can't quite pa.s.s that up, now can I?" the fallen said and gave instructions to his underlings that Annalise couldn't quite hear. She could hear several individuals moving around, weapons coming from their sheath, and she had to peek around the large rock to see what was happening.

Just as her eyes focused in front of her, Arie let out a scream. Finlay was willingly kneeling in front of Loki, eyes focused on the floor in shame. The fallen stood behind him, forcing his bent body lower to the ground and grabbing the seraph's wings. His large sword was in one hand as he brought it down on the wings and began to saw them off, bringing painful grunts from the lips of Finlay. His eyes were closed as he tried to bite back the pain, and only let some of it escape. Even in this position, Finlay wasn't going to allow Loki to have all of the control, even though he was agreeing for Loki to remove his wings. Arie was several feet away, being held back by Endarial, fear in her eyes.

"We must help him," Annalise whispered, flashbacks to losing Leon fresh in her mind. She could not stand to see the same thing happening to Finlay. If she lost them both, how would she ever return home?

"Not yet," Ash insisted and held her back against him to keep her from running.

"They will kill him."

"They're just weakening him. They need him for information, Anna."

Loki stood up, Finlay's wings in one hand, blue blood flowing from them and onto the ground below. The seraph didn't move, clearly unsure of what to do and humiliated at letting Loki have the upper hand.

The fallen laughed loudly, the same entertained laugh that he had when he had killed Leon, "Alright, kill the girl."

Endarial nodded, pulling her lighter from her pocket and giggling as she flicked it open. Arie struggled against her, throwing kicks the best she could, and the fallen dropped the lighter, cursing as she took hold of Arie's hair, "You'll regret that."

Ash let go of Annalise and left her behind to run forward to the group. His patience had clearly run thin and he couldn't wait anymore. Annalise yelled out for him and jumped to her feet to follow his impulsive behavior. If he was going to run in on the enemy without thinking, she would go with him and try to keep him safe.

At the sight of Ash, Finlay pushed himself off the floor and brought his fist up to ram it into Loki's nose, blood spurted up into the air. Ash wasn't far behind him, throwing himself onto the fallen's back and wrapping his arms around his throat. Loki laughed and flapped his wings to levitate him off the ground, taking Ash with him.

"We meet again, mortal." Loki said. Annalise threw her arm out to the side and focused her water on the fallen lord's mouth, anger fueling her powers. Ash put his hand in the stream and pulled on Annalise's power to force it down the fallen's throat. He began to choke, grabbing Ash's arms and tossing him over his shoulder. Annalise was thankful when Finlay kept him from falling to the floor, using the last of his strength to catch him, both of them hitting the ground with a thud.

Annalise turned from them, her eyes focused on Endarial and Arie. She had faith that Ash and Finlay could take care of Loki if they worked together, hold off the rest of the fallen until she could get the redhead to safety. Annalise was determined not to lose another one of them, so she kept a trickle of water falling from her hand in case Ash needed it. Endarial picked her lighter up off the floor as the seraph cast a ball of water at her. The lighter was knocked to the floor once again just as the fallen caught a simmer of a flame at her fingertips.

Endarial c.o.c.ked an eyebrow, "Close, Blondie." Her hand went up in flames, but Arie pushed the other girl away from her while she had her eyes on Annalise. She dropped to the floor, kicking the legs of the fallen girl and knocking her down to the floor.

Arie stood back up and smiled at Annalise, which surprised her. The two of them had not gotten along very well, but now they worked together to survive. They looked down at an angry fallen, hand still on fire as she directed it at them, but Annalise was ready for it, sending a wave of water onto her which extinguished the flame.

"Close, hot head," Annalise said with a laugh and looked to Arie for confirmation of her humor. She received a slight smile from the bounty hunter.

"Arie, are you okay?" Finlay's voice rang out as the girls turned around. He was walking over to them slowly, trying to hide the pain he was in. Ash was trying to help him but Finlay brushed him off and insisted he would be fine, eyes set on Arie.

Arie let out a sigh of relief and pulled her gun from her clothing. She aimed it down at Endarial and hit her with a bullet to stun her before answering, "I'm a lot better now." She ran forward and put a careful arm around Finlay. "Will your wings grow back?"

"Yeah, it will just take a few days. I will need someone to take care of me though," he said, laughing slightly and holding his side as the pain shot through him.

Annalise watched the two of them in a mixture of awe and confusion. She could see how much they cared for each other, so open and honest, and she wished that she had someone to share the moment with.

Ash let go of Finlay and came to stand in front of Annalise. He ran a finger down her cheek, "You okay?"

"As good as I can be," she whispered and tried to avoid looking into his eyes. Her heart flipped at his voice. "Where did Loki go?" She moved her gaze to the ground where the other fallen had been killed by the duo.

"I don't know, we just turned around and he was gone."

"Do-do you think that I can go home now?"

Ash grew silent, long enough for the seraph to look up at him to see what his attention was set on. It was still her, and he looked so very confused, "That's still what you want to do?"

She wasn't sure anymore, a large part of her wanted to stay with him. She wanted to tell him how she felt and see what he thought. Her hand came up to cup his face and she gave him a smile as she spoke. "Ash I think-" but her words were cut off as something slammed into her back and knocked the breath out of her. Endarial's laughter rang throughout the tunnels as she pulled her fist back and hit her again.

The keeper grabbed the fallen's wrist to keep her from doing it again, "Arie, you used a silver bullet didn't you?"

"That doesn't work so well with those of us who have recently had essence of seraph," she said and jerked herself from his grip.

Annalise felt her anger rise again, angry that every time she wanted tell Ash her feelings that someone would interrupt her, angry that Endarial kept crossing their paths and ruining their lives. A jet of water shot out of the air and hit the fallen in the chest, each drop as sharp as an icicle as they pounded against her. "You shall pay for what you have done."

Endarial couldn't hide the shock on her face as she desperately looked around for something.

"Looking for this?" Arie asked as she pulled the lighter from her pocket and examined it. She let go of it and it hit the ground. Her boot stomped on it several times, "Oops."

"That is fine. I will rip you apart with my bare hands," Endarial exclaimed, "Jaron gave us the alchemy technology we needed to begin experiments to create fallen. He had the keeper alchemist make us these rings too. He gave us intel on both mortals and keepers. Don't think you can fight me and win. Soon, we will be unstoppable." With that, she let out a loud yell and lunged forward to grab Annalise.

But Ash was there, his hand pulled Annalise back against him as they fell to the ground. Her jet stream didn't stop, only became stronger as she cast it at the fallen. She could feel Ash focusing with her, his hands moving along her arms to stretch out as hers did, their emotions mingled strongly once again as he held onto her. The stream became larger as Endarial continued to try to fight against it, struggling as it hit her again and again, each drop stinging her skin as it hit. Another stream of water shot out to the side to create a large funnel of water that swirled around and around, something Annalise had done previously while training with Finlay but was not currently doing. It was Ash who was manipulating her affinity to make it his own and moving it over to engulf the fallen creature. Endarial let out a gargle as her hands went to her throat. Annalise scowled at the girl, all of her hatred towards the fallen, all of the guilt for being part of the reason that Leon had died, all of her hurt and pain for having to leave Ash here in the mortal world and go back home, even though she had been sure at one point that was what she wanted to do.

The redhead's eyes begged for them to stop throwing the water at her, as it was swirling around her, slamming into each part of her body and making her fall to the floor. Once, Annalise would have cared and wanted to make it stop, never being one to see the death of anyone. All she could think about now, as the water flowed into the fallen's mouth, was revenge. She knew some of it was coming from Ash, wanting to make Endarial suffer for killing Jedzia, and she was okay with that. She was glad to know that he was getting his revenge, and they would no longer have to deal with her.

"You will have to remove her wings for this to work," Annalise reminded him.

Endarial's eyes became wild as she coughed, trying to speak but only water coming from her mouth.

Ash pulled himself away from her and the water faltered slightly, but Annalise pushed herself to the limit once again and forced herself to continue to the swirl of water. She saw her friend, sword in hand, move around behind the fallen. Annalise focused on the water to move off of her back to allow him access. He grabbed ahold of the fallen's wings, cutting them off quickly as she screamed, but only gurgling sounds came from her. Annalise forced herself to watch as he dropped the sword and wings to the ground and held his hands up to help slam the water down her throat. It caught the seraph off guard, and his anger made her falter, almost losing concentration just as Endarial fell to the ground.

She shut off her affinity and took a few deep breaths to steady herself. Annalise had never used so much of her power, except for when she brought Ash back to life, and she knew that she would sleep for many days when she got back home. He walked over to her and offered her his hand. She took it and let him pull her to her feet.

"You did great, Anna."

She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and cast her eyes to the ground. All of these intense emotions were starting to get to her, "Thanks, you were fantastic as well."

His hand came up to cup her chin, forcing her to look at him, "I am very proud of you."

"All those things you said back there when we were at the fallen realm," she started, nervous to ask him but wanting so badly to know the answer, "Were you being sincere?"

"Annalise!" Finlay said dramatically which interrupted their conversation.

She turned to him, irritation plastered on her face, "What?"

"We need to go before Loki gets back with reinforcements. You two can cast googly eyes at each other once we reach the Underground."

"Finlay's right," Ash said and cleared his voice as he turned to walk forward.

Annalise tried not to sigh, getting very tired of always being interrupted when she wanted to share how she felt. She followed behind them, eyes moving over to Finlay's back where his wings were missing. It made her sick to see it. A seraph was meant to stand proud and tall with their wings at their back. She knew that he was hurt on the outside and on the inside, but he would not show it. Both of them had lost their dearest friend, and now he had lost his wings, in such a short period of time. She wasn't sure how they would recuperate, how she herself would go back to reaping souls each day. It would be nice to have some distance from the mortals, however; the more she was around Ash, the more she became like him. She had become emotional, and she wasn't sure how to handle it.

Ash The journey back to the eighth layer was worse than the travel down. Ash couldn't sleep, he was afraid Loki would show up at any moment and he wasn't in any condition to fight. Using Anna's affinity had made him weak. Weaker than he cared to admit. Annalise had to carry all of them up from the tenth layer entrance, and after using all of her power she could barely walk. Arie, in better shape than all of them, would take turns holding each of them up and helping them walk. She didn't even complain or try and lecture them. Most of her concern was aimed at Finlay and the fact that losing his wings made him vulnerable to death. They didn't run into anymore fallen, and Ash really hoped it was because they had been scared off. His hands were stained with blue blood, and he was quite sure they would always have a bluish tint. They had washed off at a waterfall they had found in the ninth layer, but both of the mortals were surprised when the blood left a stain on their skin. Arie griped about the blue tint ruining her career, but Ash loved the reminder of the death he had caused. After was.h.i.+ng up, they continued on their way back to the eighth layer. The journey home was tiring. None of them had the energy to fight any creatures they came upon, but they somehow managed. What was worse, none of them knew the way out of the ninth layer to the tunnels under the city. Finlay had taken the lead, torturing creatures for information until they had found their way out. Even in his injured condition, he still fought each one persistently. It had taken all of twenty-four hours to get back home.

"If I ever see that unicorn again; I am going to kill him," Finlay said as they stumbled into Arie's house. The unicorn had taken them around in circles for almost two days, but no one could figure out why.

"Maybe he enjoyed the company," Annalise decided. Ash gave her a look of disbelief. He had known from the moment he laid eyes on the unicorn that there was something wrong with him. He shook his head in frustration. He had to agree with Finlay. Annalise had been so quiet on the walk home, Ash didn't know what to think. There had been so many times when they had connected, and after they had worked together to kill Endarial the connection had only grown stronger. He had a better grip on her affinity and emotions now. He could tell she was changing too. She had started to show more emotions, both the good and the bad, and the annoyance of the flow of emotions had grown considerably less. She hadn't mentioned her plans for the future, but Ash knew he couldn't be without her. Her beauty was just an extension of who she was. Her kindness and caring kept him grounded, kept him from s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g everything up. If she hadn't stopped him from yelling at Arie, he was certain they would all be dead. She made him a better warrior. This was how they were supposed to fight, with their partner at their side. They finally made it back to the eighth layer and decided Arie's home was the safest place to be while they recuperated.