Angel's Alley: The Immortals Series, #4

By S. M. Schmitz

In the final book of The Immortals series, Colin and Anna return to Baton Rouge to confront the demons who are preparing to wage war against Heaven. But they soon learn war isn't the only thing Hell has planned, and what Colin and Anna stand to lose is far worse than anything they could have imagined.

• Language: English
• Publisher: S. M. Schmitz
• Release date: Oct 7, 2016
• ISBN: 9781536501919

Book preview

Chapter 1

Barcelona, 1938 . Colin and Anna followed the line of tightly packed bodies out of the bomb shelter. The Nationalists had recently begun bombing the city and even though Anna and Colin were immortal, the bombings were so heavy and intense, there was no point in staying above ground. They’d found they were more useful helping to get the sick or elderly somewhere safe anyway, so they’d spent much of the past couple of days shuffling in and out of shelters throughout the city.

On the third evening of the Nationalists’ aerial campaign against Barcelona, Colin and Anna found themselves hunting through the ruins of the city. As always, demons had flocked to Barcelona in the wake of the misery and suffering humans had created here, and they couldn’t keep up with the influx of Hell’s minions that were prowling the streets looking for victims who had given up hope or who were desperate enough for a diabolical miracle. Sometime around two in the morning, they lost count of how many demons they’d already chased down and killed.

"What do you think? A dozen?" Anna asked.

Colin looked at the shell of a building across the street from them, trying to decide if they should pursue the huge bat or the slightly off-shape jackal. "At least a dozen. I’m thinking the jackal. That bat may actually be able to fly."

"God, I am not in the mood to chase anything that can fly. Let’s go for the bad impersonator. Although maybe it’s a dog of some sort and not a jackal."

Colin shrugged. He was too tired to care what kind of animal this demon thought it looked like. They were about to cross the street when someone touched Colin’s jacket sleeve and stopped him. It was human, and they both knew that, but there was a vicious civil war being waged, so Colin spun around ready to fight the person who’d just gotten his attention. But the young man held his hands up indicating he had no intention of fighting him and nodded toward the demons across the street.

Need my help? he whispered to Colin and Anna in Spanish.

Colin exhaled in relief and backed into the shadows with the young man. Anna followed him and resisted the temptation to tell the young hunter he could have the entire city. They were going to get some sleep.

Yeah, Colin sighed. We’ve been out here all night. We’re exhausted.

The young man extended his hand and offered them a smile. At least, the O’Conners thought he was smiling. Now that they were out of the reflection of the moon, it was really too dark to tell. I’m Andrzej, he offered.

Colin and Anna introduced themselves as well, and Andrew stepped closer to them. "Colin and Anna O’Conner?" he asked incredulously, switching to English now that he recognized who these hunters were.

Yes, Colin said slowly, also speaking English now as his tired brain tried to piece together how Andrew had known their last name.

Anna caught on before Colin did. "He must be an Immortal. Who else would know about us?"

Ah, Colin said aloud. He was pretty sure Andrew was smiling now. Immortal?

Yes, and I’ve been out here all night, too. I could use some help as well, especially from the legendary O’Conners.

Anna snickered because she hardly thought they were legendary, then glanced across the street again. They were going to have to go after those demons soon or one would run away and the other might actually fly away. Don’t guess you’re traveling with a posse of Immortals, are you, Andrew? she asked.

Andrew stepped out of the shadows again and pulled his dagger from the sheath tucked inside his coat. As far as I know, you’re the only two who ever get to travel with someone else. Are you ready?

Colin and Anna gripped their daggers in their hands and followed Andrew across the street. Andrew headed toward the unnaturally enormous bat. Colin and Anna decided to chase after the jackal. Or dog. Or whatever canine it thought it was impersonating. The jackal-beast leaped over the rubble it had been picking through and Anna tried to force herself to focus on the running demon; she shouldn’t slow down now to see what it had been trying to uncover beneath the ruins of this building, but if a demon were trying to get to something, it was most likely a person and that person was probably still alive.

"Go, Colin. I have to see if someone’s buried there," she told him. Colin kept chasing the demon while Anna doubled back to where the jackal had been prowling. She sheathed her dagger and moved heavy blocks of bricks and mortar aside, breathing so quickly as she prayed silently for a miracle of an entirely different sort than these demons were going around offering. She could hear the sounds of both Andrew and Colin fighting these demons now, but she was concentrating on listening for any other sounds that someone might be alive beneath this avalanche of cement.

Her fingers finally brushed against something soft and she pulled the last few pieces of rubble away from the face of the person entombed in this concrete coffin. Colin killed the jackal and ran back to her side, and he hurriedly helped her uncover the woman whose ragged breaths forewarned them she was badly injured. Behind her, Anna heard Andrew approaching, and he knelt beside her and felt the woman’s pulse.

We should be careful about moving her, he cautioned.

Well, we can’t leave her here, Anna snapped.

"Careful, Anna. He just meant moving her might kill her."

Anna took a deep breath and closed her eyes briefly. When she reopened them, Andrew was still watching her. We won’t abandon her, Anna. Listen to her breathing though. I think she has a punctured lung.

Anna bent down closer to the woman’s face so she could hear her breathing better, and Andrew was right: her rapid shallow breathing suggested only one of her lungs may be working. Anna sat back against the pile of bricks she’d thrown behind her and looked between her husband and this young hunter they’d just met. Now what? she asked.

Colin watched the injured woman for a few seconds, trying to determine if she was going to die regardless of whatever they tried to do. Let’s at least try to get her inside the building across the street. Maybe Andrew can go look for a doctor?

Andrew nodded and helped them lift the woman from the ground then ran down the black street to try to find help for this broken woman. Colin and Anna carried her as carefully as they could to the nearby building and found a table to lay her on. At least we didn’t kill her, Colin said as he stepped back from the woman who was still breathing those shallow ragged breaths.

Anna glanced up at her husband and sighed. Even if Andrew finds a doctor, what kind of help will he be? Every hospital still operating in the city is overflowing right now, and she needs more than a doctor.

Colin nodded. She needs a miracle.

Anna touched the woman’s forehead gently, but the woman didn’t seem to be aware of her presence. Maybe she was already mostly dead. Colin had told her before that she hadn’t known he was by her bedside for days as she lay dying in their London flat. It’s still better this way, Anna decided. No one should have to die alone.

True, Andrew agreed. Anna startled and turned to look at him in the doorway. He was alone.

No doctor? she asked.

Andrew shook his head and handed her the oil lamp he’d brought back with him. I found one, but he had twenty other patients he was trying to keep alive. He wanted to know if we could bring her to him. I guess if we carried the table…

Colin didn’t think it would help her, and for all they knew, she could still feel pain and that much movement would only make her final hours on Earth that much more miserable.

Andrew collapsed against one of the walls and slid down onto the floor. So we can do nothing? he asked.

Even Anna had to admit some causes simply couldn’t be fought. We can stay with her. And we can pray for her.

With the lamp Andrew had found for them, Anna was able to study the young hunter for the first time. His ash blonde hair and pale blue eyes combined with his youthful, boyish good looks gave him an air of such innocence and naivety. But Anna had spent almost three centuries fighting demons: she knew how deceiving looks could be. She smiled at Andrew and sat across from him. How old are you, Andrew?

Andrew snorted and told her, Twenty.

And how long have you been twenty?

Andrew smiled back at her and closed his eyes. I’m not exactly sure. I was illiterate when I became an Immortal and from a very small Polish village. I think it was sometime in the 1680s.

We’ve only got forty years on you then, Colin said, sliding down onto the floor next to Anna. He’d taken off his jacket to drape over the woman as a blanket and when Andrew opened his eyes, he noticed what Colin had done and took his own coat off to help keep the dying woman warm.

When Andrew sat back down, he glanced at the O’Conners and grinned at them again. So rumor has it you two are telepathic. Can you turn it off when you want to?

No, but why would we want to? Colin asked. Anna tried not to laugh at her husband because he was so genuinely perplexed by Andrew’s question. For the O’Conners, their mental connection had been the second greatest blessing The Angel had given them, second only to saving Anna’s life. They often forgot most people wouldn’t want someone else in their head all the time.

Andrew just laughed and told him he didn’t think he could handle anyone hearing all of his thoughts, or maybe it was the other way around; maybe that person wouldn’t be able to deal with having to hear all of his thoughts.

The dying woman on the table moaned but didn’t move or speak. Anna got up to check on her, and Andrew stood on the other side of the table, checking her pulse again and placing a hand gently on her chest to feel the movement of her breaths.

Andrew shook his head sadly. It won’t be long now.

We should pray for her, Anna said quietly.

Colin joined his wife and held her hand. We’ll pray to St. Joseph. He’ll help take care of her in the next world.

So the Immortals prayed together over the dying woman in Barcelona, whose life they couldn’t possibly save. When she passed, Andrew helped them to bury her body then left them to continue his hunting for the demons that were flooding Spain during a civil war that was only a precursor to far worse things to come.

Chapter 2

The Immortals had just returned to Baton Rouge and found vacancies in an apartment complex off of Sherwood Forest Boulevard. Anna and Colin had told Luca what Jeremy warned them about in Devil’s Thumb, and they found themselves having to restrain Luca from trying to kill Andrew before leaving Boulder. They weren’t even sure an Immortal could kill another Immortal. Nothing like this had ever happened, obviously, and Anna convinced Luca that the adage to keep their friends close but their enemies closer might be their best hope in determining how to end this threat on all of their lives now.

Luca eventually, and reluctantly, agreed to play along with their feigning ignorance about Andrew’s betrayal, but he refused to share an apartment with him, and really, no one could blame him. But Andrew didn’t seem at all suspicious when they suggested each of the single hunters get their own place, except Dylan decided to get a bigger apartment so Jeremy could stay with him. He wasn’t about to let some asshole fallen angel take over his friend’s body again. Luca’s desire for privacy wasn’t exactly surprising, though, so in those weeks following Jeremy’s recovery as they packed up their belongings in Colorado to return to Baton Rouge, each of the hunters tried to ignore the horrifying truth of what Andrew had done to them.

Anna even still wore the St. Casimir medallion around her neck. After all, it wasn’t St. Casimir’s fault Andrew had turned his back on Heaven and his fellow Immortals, his fellow humans. At some point, he must have been good and compassionate and loving – all of those qualities angels look for when gifting immortality because he had become an Immortal. So she would continue to wear the medallion of his patron saint as a reminder that no one was immune to temptation, and even Heaven could be tricked. Neither The Angel nor Luca’s angel had known about Andrew’s deception.

Anna opened the last box of their belongings and handed Colin the stack of neatly folded shirts for him to stuff into the new, and entirely too small, dresser they’d just purchased from Costco. They didn’t know how long they’d be here this time, and after blowing up their last apartment in Baton Rouge, they didn’t want to waste money on expensive furniture. Besides, Colin still wanted his Porsche; that was a hell of a lot more important than a nice bedroom set.

Anna rolled her eyes and handed him another pile of clothes. Colin just grinned at her. "Don’t worry, my love. We’ll go to Ireland first, then I’ll go get my Cayman. There’s a refugee crisis in Europe right now. Surely when we’re done here, we’ll be sent somewhere near there where I can get my car and you can have a photo album full of pictures of our trip to Ireland."

Anna stopped packing long enough to look up at her husband and smiled slyly back at him. Colin, who has photo albums anymore? Have you forgotten what century this is again?

Colin just shrugged and crammed the clothes into the already full drawer. "I don’t know what you do with all of your pictures now. This drawer is full. Why do you have so much clothes?"

For the same reason you think you need a sports car.

Colin had multiple reasons for believing a Porsche was a better investment than piles of women’s clothing, but a knock on their apartment door prevented him from delivering any of those reasons. The rapid knock came again, and they knew it must be Luca.

I’ll let him in, Colin sighed.

Anna threw the rest of their clothes on top of the dresser and followed Colin into the living room of their new apartment. Luca strolled in, but ever since finding out about Andrew’s betrayal of the Immortals, he had lost much of the swagger and confidence he usually carried with him. It pained Anna to see him like this.

Good morning, my sweet Anna, Luca said and kissed her cheek. Anna motioned toward the kitchen and told him there was coffee left.

Where are the others? Colin asked.

Luca shook his