“Vin, be careful! We–”
Vin unleashed a roar, a real roar, a roar she hadn’t heard from him yet. She went deaf. Noises stopped ringing in her ear, and instead vibrated through her body. Was the angel in front of them saying anything? It was one of the angels with the big shields she’d seen on the steps to Heaven, and the helmet covered their face completely.
The angel stood his ground and braced his entire body behind the shield with spear pointed in front of him toward the demon. With a jagged mountain on each side of him, the angel was the wall Vin wanted to break through. If he ran up on the sides of the wall, he’d leave himself exposed to getting stabbed by a spear, so in typical man fashion, his brain settled on one conclusion: going through the problem.
Mia couldn’t see any other option, either. The angels had attacked first, full intent to kill, so it wasn’t like she could talk to them and use her amazing people skills to save their butts.
The giant shield ahead of them glowed gold, and the ravine trembled. Vinicius did not slow down. The angel, almost eight feet tall in their armor, was nothing but a child compared to the enormous demon charging straight at him, but the angel did not move, with massive white wings spread white and glowing. Their armor was beautiful, gold and silver, and the t-slit opening of their helmet showed only a tiny sliver of their face.
There were eyes in there, angel eyes, lit by the glowing of the shield.
“Move! Please!” Mia screamed.
The angel disappeared into the shadow of Vinicius, but the shield erupted in a larger glow that shot upward until it nearly matched Vin’s height. A wall of light. And Vin crashed into it full on with every bit of his weight.
Mia’s weight slammed forward, too, but Vin was upright enough most of it squashed against his back, and she kept a hard grip on his spikes so she didn’t flip forward. Vin hadn’t just hit it with four fists, but his giant horns as well, and the impact shook Mia hard enough her brain rattled in her skull.
For a moment, the world froze, until the familiar sound of glass breaking filled the void as her hearing came back. A giant crack erupted through the gold barrier, from top to bottom, and flakes of gold fell from the semi-transparent wall. Little by little, pieces crumbled away, and the angel beneath them bunkered underneath his huge shield as the gold wall finally shattered.
Vin didn’t run past him. He could have. The angel was brought to a knee, far as Mia could see over Vin’s shoulder, but Vin roared down at the angel and punched down straight at the shield.
Mia half squeaked, half screamed as the angel’s spear stabbed through one of Vin’s fists and out through the back of his hand. Blood splattered, and Vin unleashed another roar that had Mia’s ears ringing, but he didn’t stop. He yanked the hand away, and the spear with it, as he spun around and slammed his tail into the side of the angel.
The huge man crashed into the mountain wall, wings spread, and fell to his knees. Giant, rectangular shield still on his arm, he held out his empty hand, and a small puff of gold filled his armored palm. The spear lodged in Vinicius’s hand disappeared in a tiny flash, and a new spear formed in the angel’s hand.
“Vin!” she yelled, straight into his ear. “There’s going to be more! We have to leave!”
Vin didn’t listen. He charged the recovering angel and slashed down at them with his bleeding hand. The angel blocked it, but Vin grabbed the shield with the same hand and yanked hard, sending the angel toward the opposite wall of the ravine. Only the flap of their wings kept them from crashing into it, and they brought up their spear in time to stop Vin from charging straight into them again. At least Vin had enough presence of mind to stop, this time.
Another pair of white wings cut across the fire sky.
“Vin! Up!”
He listened enough for that, at least. The first angel with the sword and smaller shield still hovered in the sky, probably recovering, but a third angel swooped in almost straight down. Their sword glowed, and they held it to their side with their shield directly in front of them.
Vinicius dodged.
The world exploded with light.
Motion sickness hit Mia hard as the giant underneath her moved fast, and her body swung hard and into the sides of his spikes. She clung tight and bit down another scream as her legs swung out from under her as Vin bounced off the ravine wall and literally spun around as he jumped off it and landed back in the ravine. Two sets of gash marks ran along the ground underneath where Vinicius’s dug his talons in to bring himself to a stop.
The gash marks were tiny compared to the black scorch mark left in the ground where they’d been a second before.
“Child of Belial,” the angel with the sword said. A woman. “Leave the unmarked and you may live.” Slowly, she got up from her knee — she’d superhero landed for the sword slash — and turned to face them. The sword continued to glow with gold energy, but eventually faded as she pointed the weapon at Vin, exposing the mirror sword blade and its gold and silver hilt and guard.
Vinicius rumbled, heavy enough the angels probably felt it, and he tilted his head up enough to look at the angel still above them. Above them no longer. The man who’d tried to laser them descended into the ravine and landed behind them, maybe fifty feet away.
“Vinicius,” the man said.
Every muscle in the giant demon’s back tensed, going from wood to steel under Mia’s skin, as he turned his head enough to get the male angel in view of one eye.
“Noah,” Vin said, whole body vibrating with enough deep bass Mia’s teeth buzzed in her jaw. “You took my advice.”
Noah? Advice? Oh god, they knew each other. Everyone in Hell was perfectly happy trying to kill Vin, apparently.