"How are you feeling?" he asked, bending down to place a kiss upon her brow. He regretted the stupid question as soon as it left his lips.

"Been better," she said, closing her eyes with an exhausted sigh.

The wind moaned outside, throwing the rain violently against the window.

"Listen to that," she said. "Still pretty bad out?"

"Yeah," he said. "No sign of letting up either."

"It'll make the flowers grow," she said, smiling with her eyes closed, forever the optimist.

He squeezed her hand in response. She loved the springtime, the flowers in bloom. It was like a knife to his heart to think that she had seen her last.

"Always liked nights like this," she said, turning her head to look up at him. "Sitting on the couch, curled up under a blanket, watching something… anything on TV, no matter how good or bad. It was good…just being there with you."

The pain was excruciating, like nothing he'd ever felt before. He'd thought about this pain, what it would be like, and never imagined the full fury of its strength.

He would have taken the burning pain of his true form asserting itself repeatedly over the next seven years instead of having to endure this now.

"You look awful," she said, weakly squeezing his fingers in return. "At least I have an excuse."

He didn't know how much to say, how much to tell her.

"It's obvious that you haven't found him yet," Madeline said. "Because I'm still here."

Remy didn't get sick; it wasn't possible for him, but he certainly felt sick then, everything about him breaking down. He felt as though he were dying.

Dying along with her.

"I'm close," he said. "I… I think it might be done today."

Something broke loose within his chest, something jagged and sharp, spinning around inside, ripping him to bloody bits.

"That's a good thing," she said.

He stared at her with panicked eyes. Everything he had feared was coming true, as if he were being punished.

Penance for my sins.

"It is," she said to him firmly. "I'm tired, Remy, tired of fighting to keep this poor old body afloat. I'm done now. I've had my life… my greatest love. I can leave satisfied."

His eyes burned like pieces of the sun jammed into the fleshy sockets, but he did not cry. He never could cry.

It was the only human aspect he could not surrender to. It would have hurt far too much to be that human, and he was unsure if he was that strong.

"Do this for me, Remy Chandler," she said. "One last thing to show how much you love me."

He brought her hand… her poor, cold hand that had once pulsed with so much love, to his mouth and laid his lips upon it. "Anything for you," he said, eyes afire.

"Find him," Madeline said, her voice growing progressively weaker. "Put things back the way they're supposed to be."

Her face twisted up slightly, and he knew that she was in pain. And it killed him to know that there was nothing that he could do to take it away.

Except.

He reached down to her, gently taking her frail form into his arms, and he saw his life with her flash before the theater of his mind. Such a short, wonderful life they had shared, and he wouldn't have traded it for anything.

"I have to go now," he said to her.

Madeline swallowed, a dry click in her throat. Her eyes had closed, but she forced them open. "Tell the baby that I love him very much… but that I have to go, and that I'll miss him. Will you do that for me?"

He nodded, his body feeling as though it would simply dissolve, everything that he was disintegrating to dust and blowing away on the wind.

"I will," he said.

"Try to make him understand, I… I don't want him to be mad."

"He won't be mad," Remy told her. "He'll miss you very much… I'll…»

His voice wouldn't work; it had rotted away, silencing him.

"You have to go," she said, and she pulled her hand feebly away. Madeline closed her eyes, turning her face so as not to look at him. "I'm ready, and so are you."

He leaned forward again, placing his lips upon her head.

"I love you, Madeline Chandler," he said, finding his voice again.

"And I you, Remy Chandler," his wife said, turning her face so that their lips could touch again. "My love… myangel."

And he knew at that moment, if Madeline were able, she would have left the world right then, surrendering what little life remained in her fragile form, ascending to become part of the stuff that composed the universe.

But she couldn't.

She was asleep again as he stepped back from her bed, remembering this last sad sight of her, before turning toward the door.

Francis stood respectfully in the entry, hands folded, bald head bowed.

He slowly lifted his face to look at Remy. "Are we ready?" the former Guardian angel asked.

"Yeah," Remy said, the plaintive cries of imprisoned souls urging him on to the last leg of his journey.

"We all are."

Chapter sixteen

They took Francis' car, the black Land Rover barreling down Route 3 on the way to the Cape.

It was sort of eerie, Remy thought, looking out the windows; the roads were nearly empty, despite the time of morning. It was rush hour, and traffic should have been at the max, especially on the other side, leading toward Boston.

"It's almost as if they can sense something's going to happen," Francis suddenly said, picking up on his vibe. The Guardian looked across at him. "Like they're just waiting for the other shoe to drop."

They'd had the radio on when they first hit the road, turning it off less than ten minutes into the journey. They didn't need to know how close the world was to the end.

It was pressure that they could live without.

"There're some CD's in the glove compartment," the fallen angel said to him. "Take your pick."

Remy pushed the button and opened the compartment.

To say that Francis' taste in music was eclectic was an understatement. Remy found examples of rock, pop, soul, hip-hop, and even some country, each new CD case uncovered providing him with another surprise.

"Barry Manilow?" Remy said, holding it up.

The fallen angel shrugged. "He writes the songs that make the whole world sing."

Remy decided that some Sinatra would be just the thing to calm his nerves. He placed the disc into the car's player, the Rover's high-end stereo system immersing them in the songs of Old Blue Eyes, as they drove on to inevitable conflict.

They continued on Route 3, and the closer they got to the Cape, the harder it seemed to rain. It wasn't long before they were the only vehicle on the road.

"I know how you feel about guns," Francis suddenly said, interrupting Remy's rumination on the words to "I've Got You Under My Skin." "But I stopped off at my storage bin and picked up some items that might come in handy."

"What kind of items?" Remy asked.

Francis reached out and turned the volume down. "Items that will be beneficial in dealing with the Black Choir, not to mention the Seraphim."

Remy didn't like the idea of weapons, or violence, for that matter, but he knew that there wasn't likely to be any choice. Whoever was responsible for what was going on wasn't about to allow them to waltz in and break up their plans.

Violence was inevitable.

Gazing out through the rain-spattered windshield, Remy again saw another sign of the impending Apocalypse. The Sagamore Bridge was empty of traffic, and they passed over the Cape Cod Canal without ever slowing down.

"That doesn't happen too often," Francis said, in- creasing the speed of his wiper blades to keep up with the watery onslaught.

Remy recalled the hours sitting in the summer traffic leading up to the bridge; how Madeline swore, year after year, that it was the last time that they would do it. But every year they had returned, seduced by the beauty of the Cape.