“I can't leave you,” he said. “If I take my attention off of you for a second, they'll attack.”
Donovan walked down the center aisle with purpose, dodging the falling chunks of ceiling. Claire pulled out her firearm, aiming right at his face. Isaac's attention was distracted, then, and Bex head-butted Isaac, and then threw him against Donovan. They both slid across the floor.
Isaac stood, pulled out his gun, and aimed directly at Ryan.
“No!” Claire said, throwing herself in front of him.
Ryan and Claire were face to face when Isaac's gun discharged. Claire's body jerked twice as it was hit, and Ryan's horrified expression matched hers.
Stunned, Claire looked down, and then turned to Jared. “They went through me.”
Claire and Ryan fell to their knees at the same time, and Jared rushed to his sisters side. He pulled me with him, and I fell to my knees just behind him.
Ryan's head fell back, and he coughed, blood spraying up and spattering across his cheek.
“Oh, God, no!” Jared cried, pulling off his shirt and wadding it up, pressing it against Ryan's wounds.
Isaac's maniacal laugh seemed to be all around us. “I always wanted to see that smug smile wiped off your face, Claire.”
Bex glanced at the bloody scene, and then focused on Isaac, his hands balled into fists at his sides. He lowered his chin, then, and his expression morphed into something one might see from a demon rather than an angel.
Claire looked up at her brother, expressionless. “End this.”
Horrified, I watched Claire tend to Ryan's wounds, but within moments, Jared pulled me to my feet.
He took my hand in one of his, and then pulled out his side arm with the other. He pointed it directly at Isaac, shooting one round after another, walking toward him as he fired, forcing me to follow.
Isaac jerked with each hit, stumbling backward. “You son-of-a-bitch!” Jared screamed, his eyebrows and lips pulled in so tight, the skin around them was white.
“Jared!” Bex cried, but it was too late.
Donovan had his gun to Jared's temple. “I suppose it'll take you a while to heal from this one,” Donovan said.
An abrupt blast resounded in the room, and Donovan fell to his knees, finally falling over, succumbing to the bullet hole I had just shot into his brain.
“Shawn!” Isaac said, struggling to reach his Taleh.
It was too late for both of them. Shawn Donovan's life had already spilled onto the floor.
Isaac fell back, already feeling a weakness in his body.
Jared's eyes were wide as he processed what had just happened. “You killed him,” he said softly, looking to me.
“He was pointing a gun at your head,” I explained.
Jared laughed once, momentarily forgetting that we were still surrounded by the enemy.
A quick wind passed by, and Bex and Shax were suddenly in a ball. The sounds coming from their scuffle were horrific. Distracted, Shax lost his control on the demons clustered on the walls and ceiling, and they began descending from their position, and swarming around us.
“Run to Kim!” Jared said, pushing me in her direction.
The hundred yards down the aisle to where she was protecting the book seemed a mile away, but I took off without hesitation.
Seeing that I was running to her, Kim scrambled to her feet, sprinting down the aisle to meet me. I turned, seeing Jared and Bex attacking Shax, and his minions were quickly crawling to the floor in endless numbers. Adrenaline kicked in, and my feet moved faster, desperate to reach Kim before the demons caught me.
“Run, Nina!” Kim screamed, the horror on her face telling me in moments I would be crushed and torn apart by the Hell so closely pursuing my flesh.
Their screeches were almost on top of me when Kim's long arms reached out, encompassing my body as she brought me to the ground. The wailing of the minions experiencing what Kim was capable of was deafening, but the individual howling resounding farther away was most definitely the sound of Shax losing his fight with Jared and Bex.
And then it was quiet.
Chapter Nineteen
Waiting
I peeked out from under Kim's arms, seeing Jared and Bex slowly making their way down the aisle. Kim helped me to stand, and Jared wasted no time pulling me into his arms. His hands were trembling, and he was uncharacteristically shaken.
“Are you okay?” Jared asked, evaluating every inch of me for any signs of trauma.
“No, I'm fine,” I said, shivering as the adrenaline soaked back into my system.
Bex carried Ryan in his arms, leaping and maneuvering around the ruins of St. Anne's to the entrance.
With the inordinate level of noise from just moments before, the night seemed eerily quiet. The crumbling concrete, wood and sheet rock grated against each other under my feet with every step. Those tiniest sounds echoed, even though the church seemed to be torn open and vulnerable, a contrast to the silence outside.
“We're going,” Claire said, her voice distant and emotionless.