Extinction (The Divine Book 7) Read Free

"Yes."
    "Back in the airport, you asked me to set aside my instincts to help you. I've tried to do that. I've tried to be good when all I have ever come from or known is evil, and I've done that for you." She stood up and walked over to me, putting her face close to mine. "I can do this for you, also. I will not push or entice or tease. When you are ready, you can come to me. I will always be willing."
    Then she kissed me. Not on the lips. She seemed to know what that would do to me. Her mouth brushed my cheek.  
    "Now, let us find your sister."

Four

    We didn't head straight to Obi. I figured he would find me if or when he found something, and there wasn't that much I could do in the meantime. Adam and Sarah were on the lam, and they wouldn't pop up again until they were ready to cause trouble. Maybe Dante could get me some useful information, but that required that he knew I was looking for him. However Alichino planned to contact him, I hoped the response would be quick.
    In the meantime, Alyx and I set about cleaning up the mess. I won't lie and say it was an easy job. It wasn't. Every one of the victims had a family once, before the Beast's power had infected them and turned them into a sort of false Divine. Every one of them had come here looking for a new life with people who were going through the same thing as they were. Outcast from society. Lost and alone.  
    Sarah had been doing something similar the first time I had met her. Caring for the Awake, the people who could see the Divine. That community had crumbled in almost the same fashion as this one, though the fault that time was squarely Gervais'. I could imagine how Sarah might feel to repeat the history. It would only lend to her belief that the death and destruction were destiny and not the work of evil.  
    And Adam was evil. There was no question to that. He hadn't fallen because of me. He had fallen because his soul was turning dark. Everything else was a coincidence. Did God or Archangel Michael know what he and the other archangel had been doing together? I doubted that was allowed in the Kingdom of Heaven. In any case, his true color had shown through.  
    Black.  
    Alyx was a tremendous help in removing the bodies. She wasn't at all squeamish around blood and gore, and she set about picking up the corpses with a workmanlike attitude, shifting to her Great Were form and lifting three or four at a time. Their blood spilled onto her, matting her fur and leaving her looking as if she was coming in from a battlefield. She didn't comment on it, only taking a few minutes to vanish to Sarah's shower once her part of the work was done.  
    In the past, she might have paraded herself naked in front of me after, on her way to grab some new clothes. She did nothing of the sort, dressing in private in a pair of Sarah's jeans and a thick sweater. It was conservative to the point that it was still sexy.
    At least she was trying.
    I used my power to pull the blood together, cleaning it all from the floors and walls and compacting it into a small blob. Then I pushed it out the window and into the woods at the edge of the mansion's grounds, next to where Alyx had placed the bodies. We stood over them for a few minutes in silent reverence before returning inside.
    Obi was waiting at the front door as we entered. He had his laptop in his hand, holding it open a crack, so the screen stayed on.
    "That was a nice thing you did," he said.
    "What was?" I asked.
    "Praying for them."
    "I didn't say a prayer," I said.  
    "You paid your respects. You don't need to say anything. It's still a prayer."
    "I said a prayer," Alyx said, surprising me. "Not out loud."
    Obi smiled. "See. I'm glad you found someone smarter than you. Not that it's much of an achievement."
    Alyx giggled. Even I cracked a smile. I had missed Obi.
    "Did you find anything?" I asked.
    He nodded. "It might be nothing, but considering we're already at nothing, it can't hurt to check it out. It's a couple of