Exodus (Imp Series Book 8) Read Online Free PDF Page A

I’d punish and “reform” the terrorists, but I’d be damned if I was going to get stuck with 495 reports for all the humans killed in this explosion. No fucking way.
     

Chapter 2
     
    I was still fuming over the amount of paperwork this bombing was going to cause when I felt another go off.
    “ Stay down ,” Gregory hissed.
    I wasn’t sure which way was down. I also didn’t realize he meant to stay incorporeal and attached to him, so I recreated my human form. That’s when I saw them. They weren’t like the usual angels, androgynous with blond curls and a distracted expression. These were…fierce. Their forms were shining like a prison spotlight, their eyes glowing white as they searched the debris that had been the conference room.
    And they had swords. Theirs weren’t as impressive as Gregory’s sword, and probably not as capricious as mine. Still, I got the feeling these weapons weren’t the sort you picked up at a fantasy con. The angels turned toward me like something out of a B-grade horror movie and lifted their swords in unison.
    Guess it wasn’t human terrorists after all. Huh.
    “Get down !” I felt Gregory yank me right out of my physical form just as it exploded into a million chunks.
    “ How about ‘get out’? As in we leave right fucking now? ” I replied. What was going on and why were we still here?
    I felt Gregory’s hesitation, and his frustration. “ I can’t leave my brothers to fight on their own, and a group of the rebels will follow us—or you—if you teleport out of here .”
    “ Let them follow me .”
    I felt him grab tighter. “‘ Them’ would be hundreds of angels. You’re the linchpin in all of this, Cockroach. And you’re not lucky enough to escape a mob of hundreds .”
    In the meantime the eldest of the archangels, the Ancient Revered Asshole was doing the angel equivalent of hiding under a desk with me while his brothers were the ones facing off against hundreds of angels. “ Well, get the fuck out there and fight. I’ll be fine .”
    He hesitated. Clearly he knew me well. I wasn’t going to cower under a desk while he fought either. Gregory usually let me be me, knowing that there was no keeping an imp from reckless and often suicidal behavior. The fact that he was protecting me made me realize how serious this fight was—and how volatile things in Aaru had become.
    “ I’ll be careful .” I amended my response and even with the violence around us I felt him laugh.
    “ Since when?”
    I felt him leave, felt a moment of panic where I was incorporeal in a world that demanded physical manifestation. Right as the edges of my spirt-self began to unravel, I burst into physical form—glorious naked physical form because in spite of my many talents I couldn’t seem to be able to create clothing.
    I might be naked but I had one thing more important than clothes—a sword. And not just any sword. I had the sword of the Iblis, lesser in power only to my beloved Asshole Angel’s sword. The weapon could shape itself into just about anything—barrette, purse, knife, sword, or shotgun. I sucked at sword fighting, so I willed it to become the weapon I sucked slightly less at using—the shotgun.
    For once it complied. The Iblis sword was a fitting weapon for an imp, just as likely to manifest as a banana as what I wanted it to be. And sometimes it wouldn’t come at all. It must have felt this a particularly righteous—or interesting—battle because shotgun it was. I didn’t hesitate to begin unloading the unlimited shells toward any angel within range.
    Gregory and his brothers had probably called in cavalry of their own. I was most likely hitting the angels that were on my own side, but I couldn’t tell them apart. Aside from Gregory and his brothers, most angels looked the same to me. I didn’t exactly have time to conduct a personal interview with each opponent, so I just strode through the mess of the demolished hotel and aimed the barrel at anything