Raphael (Deadly Virtues #1)(81)

“I’m in too,” Diel said, and looked at Gabriel. “Collar off.” His eyes shone. “I’m about due for some uncontrolled fun.”

One by one Raphael’s brothers stood beside him, creating an army of killers. Finally, Michael came to stand by his right side, his arm brushing against Raphael’s.

Raphael’s chin lifted as he looked at Gabriel. “We’re going in.”

Gabriel inhaled a deep breath, then slowly came to stand beside his brothers. Raphael tracked his every move. When Gabriel was standing beside Uriel, he looked at Miller. “Get transport ready. Extra cars too. If they have kids in there, we need to get them out and take them somewhere safe.”

“You’re going too?” Miller asked him.

Gabriel met Raphael’s eyes. “We are the Fallen. A brotherhood. Where one goes, we all go.”

Raphael felt that unfamiliar tightness in his chest again as he looked at his brothers beside him. They’d been with him in Purgatory. They’d lived side by side in hell. Now they were following him back into the dark.

Gabriel turned to them. “Get whatever weapons you want. And get plenty. We have no idea what we’re walking into.”

Bara rubbed his hands together. “This day just got a whole lot more fucking exciting!”

Before they went to the arsenal in the basement, Gabriel said, “You know there’s a chance we won’t all come back.”

“We will,” Uriel said with a knowing smirk. “Your God surely wouldn’t deny us the right to fuck these assholes up once and for all. Not after everything they’ve done. He can be wrathful too. Maybe he needs a bit more violence in His life. All that holier-than-thou shit is just boring.”

“Don’t worry, Angel,” Bara said, smiling. “I’ll have your back if it gets messy.”

They raced down to the arsenal. As Raphael strapped knives and guns to his body, he kept Maria’s face in his mind. He’d get his little rose. He’d get her and bring her back to their home. And maybe the tightness in his chest would disappear. He didn’t like it. He didn’t understand it. All he knew was that he wanted her back. Needed her back. Had to have her back so he could once again fucking breathe.

Then he’d kill her. And he’d keep her in his room forever in the coffin that made her look so, so beautiful . . .

Then she would never ever leave him again.

*****

The Fallen waited in the shadows until night was at its darkest. From the cover of the trees, Raphael watched the entrance of Purgatory. There was a strange buzz in his blood. A heady tension in his veins. He felt someone watching him. Turning to his right, he saw it was Gabriel.

Raphael didn’t understand the strange feelings that were dominating his body. Every time he thought of Maria being with Father Murray, him hurting her and fuck knew what else, the tightness and breathlessness consumed him until he didn’t think he could stand it. Raphael closed his eyes. When he opened them again, just needing to get the fuck going, to storm through the metal door that they’d left through so many years ago, he felt Gabriel still watching him.

“You good?” Gabriel whispered to Raphael.

When they’d first left Purgatory, Gabriel had told them that Raphael, Bara, Uriel, Michael, Sela, and Diel didn’t see the world the way everyone else did. The six of them felt things differently—or, most of the time, not at all.

But Raphael was feeling things now. When he thought of Maria’s smile, of her touching him, warmth spread in his chest. And when he thought of her being hurt, a wave of such evil came over him he felt like the devil himself.

Raphael nodded at Gabriel. Gabriel sighed, then said to his brothers, “We won’t know how many are in there until we get inside.” Gabriel was dressed in black. They all were. But Raphael found it strange not to see his older brother in his usual dog collar and slacks. “From what I remember, there could be up to thirty, thirty-five members in the different rooms.” Raphael’s mind took him back to the candle room. The one where they were lined up and forced to suck Brethren cock, where they were pinned down and raped over and over until it became part of their everyday life. His lip curled in disgust, and the thick black tar of revenge clogged his every cell.

“I’ll go for the dorms,” Gabriel said. “If there are any boys in there, we need to get them out. Miller will have men waiting for them at the entrance once we’re inside. We’ll need to get them far away from this place.” The Fallen all nodded. Gabriel’s stare was steel as he met each of his brothers’ eyes. “No one goes anywhere alone. We don’t know what we’ll face, and we’ll need numbers. Understand? We’re not losing anyone tonight. Yeah?”

“Yeah,” the brothers answered.

One of Miller’s contacts moved across the lawn and to the door of Purgatory. Raphael’s muscles twitched as the ex-military guy Gabriel had paid off silently opened the door. The Brethren wouldn’t even see them coming. Tonight, the Fallen would become the demons they had accused them of being.

“I’ve been waiting for this for years.” Bara got to his feet. He arranged his gun and flame thrower over his chest and shoulder. One by one the Fallen got to their feet, following suit.

Diel cricked his neck slowly from side to side. He turned to Gabriel. “Turn the collar off.” Gabriel hesitated, but he reached into his pocket and switched the power down to zero. Diel closed his eyes and took a deep breath at the sudden freedom. “Don’t turn it back on until it’s finished.” Diel smirked, and his eyes opened, lit with uncontained excitement for the kills he was about to make. He hissed in ecstasy as he shed his control. “Mmm . . . that feels fucking good.”