Abaddon’s arms are crossed tightly over his chest by the time Layden pushes several more buttons—the communication panellights changing from green to red—and then stands up, turning toward us.
“Shouldn’t you be flying?” Kharon demands from where he’s finally settled back onto a seat, though his eyes never stop scanning for threats.
“It’s on autopilot,” Layden says simply.
“Explain yourself,” Abaddon barks, his voice carrying that tone of command that probably moved armies. “Who were you speaking to? Why the hell do you think going to a nest of vampires is a good idea? And what is this thing you anticipated that is finally happening?”
“Autopilot is?—”
“Not that,” Abaddon growls impatiently, waving a clawed hand. “Don’t be obtuse.”
“I’ve been seeing some weird stuff online,” Layden sighs, running a hand through his disheveled hair. “Not just me. Some of my hacker friends have noticed it too. It’s why I don’t think it will be just Russia after us.”
At his brothers’ blank stares, Layden lets out a frustrated breath.
It’s calming somehow to just observe the brothers talk through what I absently realize is probably shock. My mind feels distant, disconnected. Like I’m watching this conversation through a foggy window.
“On my computers,” Layden continues. “There’s weird shit going on in the code. I only got a glimpse of it in the Russian government security site I was hacking before I realized they were coming after us?—”
Abaddon waves a hand impatiently. “What do we care about the humans’ little technologies?”
“We care,” Layden says emphatically, leaning forward, “because I saw angelic runes embedded in the code.”
This has everyone shutting up immediately.
The silence is sudden and heavy. Even baby Raven stops fussing.
“What does that mean?” I ask, finding my voice finally. It still sounds shaky to my own ears.
Layden shakes his head, blue eyes troubled. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like it before. I mean, I’ve been tempted to use runework with my algorithms before but never dared.”
“Why?” This from Hannah, who’s holding Raven close and stroking her feathers soothingly.
Layden laughs—but it’s not a happy sound. It’s bitter. “Are you kidding? Human AI already has enough dangerous capability to outlearn the humans who engineered it. How fast would the singularity happen if the technology could learn from and feed off of angel tech?”
“Our runes are not tech,” Kharon says firmly, his voice carrying that ancient authority.
Layden rolls his eyes. “Sure they are. Runes are an advanced form of energy manipulation and mathematical code far beyond the understanding of this plane of existence. But if humans could learn it, or their machines could...”
He trails off, letting the implications hang in the air.
“So wait,” Hannah says slowly, working through it. She’s obviously been around all this craziness longer than me because she’s taking it much more in stride. “You’re saying that some other angel did what you didn’t dare—fed runes into the AI—and now we’ve got an angelic AI about to take over the world?”
“Oh no,” Layden laughs again, that same bitter sound. “I doubt we’ve gotten that far yet. That’s just the worst possible scenario.”
“Then what the hell are you even talking about?” Abaddon explodes, his patience clearly exhausted. “And remind me again why we are heading to the vampires?”
“Because there are angel runes in some of the code,” Layden says slowly, like he’s explaining to a child. “Mostly government code so far. And not just the Russians, either. I didn’t have much time to look, but it’s out there—spreading. I don’t think it’s the AI acting on its own yet. I’m telling you, there’s an angel out there trying to fuck with us specifically.”
He pauses, meeting Abaddon’s eyes.
“And it’s savvy. Using every available modern warfare method to find and track us. It’s not all cannons and swords anymore, big brother. Welcome to the twenty-first century.”
Abaddon rocks back on his heels, looking genuinely dumbfounded for the first time since I’ve met him.
Sitting beside me, I can’t help but notice Remus’s eyes glittering—almost sparkling with barely contained excitement. His grin is getting wider by the second.
Is he... excited by these developments?
