Wesley Snipes - Talon of God

The medical professional in her was tempted to chalk this up to some kind of grandiose delusion brought on by extreme fear. But the rest of Lauryn—the one who’d jumped to her death and then come right back again—felt only a bone-deep satisfaction as the whole convoy rolled to a stop at the cement barrier separating the highway from the dark lakefront.

“This is it!” she cried, hopping out. “Everyone, get in the water!”

This command was met with hesitation, not that Lauryn blamed them. It hadn’t yet gotten cold enough this winter for the lake to actually freeze, but it couldn’t have been more than a few degrees above ice. To make things even worse, it was choppy, the black water driven up in large, terrifying waves. Under any normal circumstances, going into that kind of environment without a proper wetsuit would kill you, but these were hardly normal circumstances, so Lauryn led the way, charging into the freezing water up to her thighs.

Sweet merciful Lord…

And he was. It was definitely cold, but not nearly as cold as it should have been. In fact, once the initial shock had worn off, the water actually felt warmer than the air, which was a miracle if Lauryn had ever seen one. Even so, she gave it a full minute while everyone unloaded, going into the water up to her chest. Only then, when she was certain she wasn’t sending these people to their hypothermically induced death, did she raise her arms and wave the others in.

“Come on!” she yelled. “Before they get here!”

“What makes you think they’re coming?” Robbie yelled back, looking at the water like it might bite him. “It’s not like we can send them an invitation.”

This was enough to make the crowd look doubtful, but before Lauryn could respond, Talon hopped out of the last of the cars, his sword still glowing like fire. “They’ll come,” he said, his deep voice ringing over the wind. “Wolves will always hunt the sheep. Look.”

He pointed at the streets behind them, and several people in the crowd gasped. Down in the water, Lauryn couldn’t see why at first, but she could smell it. There was a foul odor of sulfur on the wind. It drifted down to the lake from the dark city like a warning, stirring up the vultures roosting in the trees that lined the shore.

That was enough to overcome the crowd’s reluctance. They charged down the beach into the lake, wading into the dark water with only a moment’s hesitation, and just in time. By the time the last of their group was in up to their knees, the first demons had appeared on the highway above, looking down at the people in the water with their glistening eyes like a pack of coyotes eyeing a coop of chickens. But just as Lauryn was about to start taunting them down, the situation changed.

It happened like a shift in the wind. There was no buildup, no warning. One moment, everything was as it had been all night. The next, a great sound rang out across the city, a horrifying, skin-crawling mix of hunting horn and the ripping of something that should never be torn. It echoed in the night, vibrating through the air like knives. Then, with a final sickening lurch, the castle in the sky tore its way into the world, and the winged demons Lauryn had seen on death’s threshold poured through like a waterfall.

Even as it was happening, Lauryn couldn’t describe what she was seeing. Watching the… the things pouring from that hole was like trying to focus on an optical illusion, probably because no human eye was ever meant to see a creature of hell in the flesh. All she could tell was that they were horrible and enormous, easily dwarfing the cars they’d left abandoned on the road. Already, the night sky was blacker than black with the shadow of their wings, and they were still coming, tearing and clawing and ripping the hole wider as they wiggled through the gaps between the castle and the hole it had ripped in the sky.

“What do we do now?” she whispered at last, turning to Talon, who was standing in the freezing water next to her. “This whole plan was to stop the castle from ripping through—how can we do that if it’s already happened!?” There was no way. She’d failed. “I was too slow,” she whispered. “We have to scrap this, turn back.”

Talon shook his head. “There’s no turning back from this.”

“But it’s not what we’re here for!” she cried. “I brought these people out to cleanse possessions, not fight actual demons.” She flung her hand up at the nightmare in the sky. “We can’t fight that. ”

“We can’t,” he agreed quietly. “We are still only human.”

“Then what hope do we have?”

“The same we always had,” he said, clutching his sword as he lifted his eyes heavenward. “Faith.”

She knew he was right. It was the same lesson she’d been learning all night, but it was still hard to believe when an unspeakable, unknowable death was sweeping down on you from the sky, its claws already uncurling to pluck the people— her people, the ones who’d answered her call—out of the water like eagles snatching fish. She could already see death coming as the demons swung down, and she shot back to her feet, raising her hands to be first since this was her idea and therefore her responsibility. But just as the first of the fiends swept in low to pluck her out of the water, a second, vastly different call rang out.

This time, it did not bring fear. This call was bright as a trumpet and sweeter than the first morning light. As it broke across the city, a new rupture blossomed in the sky, unfolding like a flower, and when it opened at last, light poured out, and everything changed.

Again, they were winged creatures, and again, they were impossible to look at directly, though not for the same reasons. This time, it was blinding light that forced Lauryn to lower her eyes as flights of angels with wings like fire and swords that matched hers and Talon’s spilled forth into the world and crashed straight into the enemy.

“Soldiers of El Elyon!”

The deep command made her jump, and Lauryn looked up just in time to see Akarra swoop down to join them in the water, his feet resting on the waves like they were dry land. Just like on the threshold of death, the stern dark-skinned angel was huge and beautiful and terrifying to behold, but Lauryn felt no fear. It was simply impossible to be anything but awestruck in the face of so much glory, and all she could do was fall to her knees, lowering her face to the icy water.

“Rise,” Akarra commanded. “Your fight is not over.”

Lauryn scrambled to her feet, stumbling in the sand before Talon caught her and dragged her the rest of the way up. When she was standing again, Akarra turned and pointed to the fortress in the sky. “They have breached the sacred barrier,” he said, his voice rumbling with fury. “They tread where no creature of their sort should dare, and they will suffer for it.” He bared his teeth savagely before turning back to the humans. “In the meanwhile—” he smiled at Lauryn “—you’ve done well, little doctor. You used your head and solved the riddle, as we knew you would. Keep up your good work, and together we will push back the tide.”

“But how?” Lauryn asked, looking up at the horrible shape of the hell fortress. “My entire plan was to stop that thing. How can I do that if it’s already here?”

Akarra smiled. “Just because they have made it through doesn’t mean they can stay.” He glared up at the highway where the transformed demons were still watching. “Remove the hooks they have placed in the people, and that fortress shall fall right back down into the pit. All will be well, young warrior, if you but keep the faith. We shall watch over you and guard your heads, and I swear now that no harm shall come to you from the sky. But you need to focus and do God’s work on the earth.”