Confronting the Fallen (27 page)

He
couldn't spot anyone with facial tattoos, but he was sure they were
there. Now what do I do?

'Chris?
Can you hear me?' The voice was coming from inside of him.

'Sariel?'
he thought. 'I'm not sure I want to talk to you right now.'

A
sigh echoed through his mind. 'I know you are angry with me, but we
can discuss that later. You have to get away from this creature,
right now.'

'I know that. But where can I go? Talon
must be here somewhere. I can't hide anywhere.'

'You mustn't hide, Chris. Talon won't
attack you in the middle of the day in public, at least not right
away. They will allow Angelica a chance to capture you. Now, get
outside. Walk quickly but do not run. Call the driver and tell him to
pick you up.'

Chris glanced at Angelica. She was
watching him closely and as he caught her eye, hers flashed like red
fire.

“What are you thinking, little
man?” she asked suspiciously.

“I'm was just wondering why you
would turn away from God and side with Satan,” Chris lied. He
slipped a hand into his pocket and felt for his phone. “He's
going to lose, you have to know that.”

She laughed lightly. “Is he
really? And why do you say that?”

Chris rolled his eyes. He tried to
remember the keypad pattern on his phone, turned it on and tapped out
the driver's number. “Um, because it's God we're talking about.
You can't take on the endless legions of Heaven and expect to win.”

Angelica actually looked like she
pitied him. “You have a lot to learn, Chris. The legions aren't
endless. And they have an innate weakness that we fortunately do
not.”

“Really?” Chris nodded down
toward the main floor. “Mind if we head down there? I feel like
having a coffee.”

“Sure. I could use one as well.”

Together they slowly walked toward the
coffee shop kiosk and Angelica kept speaking. “Yes, really.
Angels hesitate to kill, Chris. They are slow to inflict pain. That
is a weakness that we can exploit. Because our troops are used to
pain. They know death intimately and don't fear it. They will not
hold back when battle is joined, whether on Earth or in Heaven.”
She smiled at Chris' look of confusion. “Our troops are damned
human souls, Chris. Led by Fallen like me, they seethe with hatred.
They've been trained. They are ready. And our numbers put Heaven's to
shame.”

The two of them stopped at the counter
and ordered coffee. Chris paid the bill and both of them added cream
and sugar to their cups. Then Chris casually wandered over and stood
near the exit, pretending to watch the crowds as they entered and
left the mall.

'Chris, what are you doing?' Sariel
sounded nervous. 'You have to get away from her. I know who she is
now and you are in extreme danger.'

'I know, Sariel. But Bennett has to
have gotten my call by now and I'm guessing he'll bring the car
around when he doesn't hear me on the phone. It's up the street and
around the corner so I have to pick my moment.' He was barely
listening to Angelica as he spoke silently to Sariel. 'So who is
she?'

'This won't mean anything to you,
Chris, but her name is Lilith. She is the first-born daughter of God.
Immensely powerful and totally evil. She dedicated herself to my
brother when he was cast out and followed him to Hell. We cannot face
her, Chris. Not now. And believe me, if she wants to kill you, she
will attempt it without hesitation.'

Chris felt a thrill of fear but kept
his face still as he returned to listening to Angelica. He sipped his
coffee and felt it immediately soothing his nerves.

“You know, Talon's offer still
stands, Christopher. We would welcome you into our ranks with honor.
You would be showered with riches, your every whim catered to. You
would be a leader to our human followers. Glory, Chris. And in the
coming battles, you could rise even higher, perhaps standing near to
my lord himself. Imagine it.”

Chris watched as Angelica's face lit up
with emotion. So this is what a fanatic looks like, he thought. He
was now very afraid. I have to get out of here.

'What's to stop her from using whatever
demonic powers she has to stop me when I run?' he asked Sariel.

'The Fallen can't use their powers
under the light of God, Chris. She is powerless during the day, but
still extremely dangerous. Now hurry. Talon will move in once you
begin to run.'

Yeah, I know, Chris thought to himself.
This is going to be bad.

“So, say I wanted to join up with
you guys. How do I do that? And what would the judge and his people
do in return?” Chris tried to sound sincere and not let
Angelica know that the idea of joining with her and her Fallen made
his skin crawl.

She smiled widely. “Now you're
making sense, my friend. And it's simplicity itself. You simply call
out to my lord. Use his name and swear to follow him with all your
heart. That will be enough. And don't worry about Ethan,” she
added scornfully. “He'll react the same way he reacted when I
left him; by doing nothing. Another reason that he and his
“organization” will fail. They are too passive, too
reluctant to act. We do not suffer from that weakness.”

“Hmm. Interesting,” Chris
muttered. He looked down at the almost full cup of coffee in his
hand. It was still hot but not boiling. He popped the top off of the
cup and dropped it on to a nearby table. “Okay then. Thanks for
the offer. Here's my counter-offer.”

Chris threw the coffee into Angelica's
face, dropped the cup and ran for the door. From behind him he heard
a shriek of rage and pain. He didn't look back. He simply raced for
the doors, pushed his way through the people streaming out to the
street and got out of the mall.

He turned left and stopped for a
second. The exit where he desperately hoped that Bennett was parked
and waiting for him was a half-block west and then around the corner
to the south. He could see no sign of Talon or anyone else trying to
block his escape. Chris took a deep breath and ran.

He zigged and zagged through
pedestrians, slipped past a woman pushing a stroller and jumped over
a fire hydrant. He was approaching the corner and a feeling of hope
began to well up inside of him. He was going to make it!

And then two men appeared from around
the corner and stood in the middle of the sidewalk, staring at him
with self-satisfied smirks. Both were wearing t-shirts and jeans and
both had the tattoo of a claw on the side of their face. Damn it,
Chris thought. Talon.

He came to a sliding stop and stared
for a moment. Then he turned just in time to see Angelica come out of
the mall, wiping her face with a napkin. She looked around and
spotted Chris. Her expression was ugly; a mixture of rage and
smugness that made him tremble. This was definitely someone who
wanted to hurt him.

Chris looked around frantically. People
were passing him in both directions, completely oblivious to the
drama that was occurring right in front of them. Where can I go, he
thought in a panic. The traffic was steady but the cars weren't
moving very quickly and, as he watched the two Talon members begin to
walk toward him, Chris figured that the only way to stop them from
grabbing him would be to make himself the center of attention. And
drawing attention was something that Talon definitely didn't want. So
he ran out into the middle of the street.

Chris was immediately surrounded by the
sound of car horns and screeching tires. He managed to get to the
dividing line without getting run over, but the car that had slammed
on its breaks to avoid hitting him started up again and the driver
stuck his head out of the window and cursed Chris soundly as he drove
past. Chris just stood there, shaking, and looked at the sidewalk
twenty feet away.

Angelica was standing there with her
two Talon stooges. “Christopher, what are you doing?” she
called out. “You're going to get killed out there. Be
reasonable. Come back and we can talk this out.”

“Screw you, lady,” he
yelled at her, basically figuring that she couldn't get any madder
than she already was. “You can't touch me out here without
seeing yourself on the Internet an hour from now.”

She looked around and sure enough,
there were several people watching Chris with their phones out,
recording every moment. Angelica rolled her eyes in exasperation.

'Chris, get ready to move. Some friends
are coming to help you.' It was Sariel again.

'Friends? What friends?' Chris asked,
completely baffled.

'Friends that you apparently find
irritating. Well, they're about to save your life.'

'What the hell are you talking about?'

A few seconds later, Chris got his
answer.

There was a sudden change in the air
pressure. The atmosphere became heavy and his ears felt like they
wanted to pop, as if he had just taken a fast elevator ride straight
down. He shook his head and looked over at Angelica just in time to
hear her shriek as she and the Talon men were literally covered in
birds.

Pigeons, seagulls, doves, chickadees;
Chris even thought he saw the red feathers of a robin. His mouth
dropped open as he watched the three of them buried beneath hundreds,
no, thousands of screaming birds.

Cars around him were stopping and
people on both sides of the street were yelling and pointing. No one
was even looking at him when a car wove in and out of the stopped
vehicles and pulled up next to him.

“Get in, Mr. Wright!” It
was Bennett. He waved Chris frantically into the car and, without
thinking, Chris tore open the back door and leaped in. The driver
tramped on the gas and took off, still weaving around all the
traffic.

Chris slumped back on to the seat. He
was shaking from head to foot and reached up to wipe the sweat from
his forehead.

“Thanks, Bennett,” he said
sincerely. “But how did you know where I was?”

Keeping his eyes on the road, the man
held up his cell phone. “GPS, sir. When your call came through
and you didn't answer, I parked at the entrance and turned it on.”
Chris saw him smile in the mirror. “Martin mentioned the
trouble I would be in if anything happened to you. It was a very
motivating speech actually. I didn't want to lose you.”

Chris laughed weakly and took a deep
breath. He felt the tension begin to drain away. “Thanks,
Bennett. I owe you one.” He settled more deeply into the soft
seat and began to doze off. “Stupid birds,” he muttered
to himself and drifted off to sleep.

“
Lilith?
You're absolutely sure that he said it was Lilith?”

Chris
sighed with exasperation. “For the tenth time, judge, yes.
Sariel said that Angelica's soul was named Lilith.”

He
was sitting in front of the judge's desk in his office. Martin sat
next to him and was listening carefully to every word. A cart with a
carafe of coffee and a mountain of Chef's amazing chocolate chip
cookies was pulled up next to the desk and Chris was sipping on his
second cup and eating his fifth cookie.

Once
they had returned to the Hawkes Nest, Martin had met Chris at the
front door and hurried him up to the judge's office. Bennett had
called ahead and told Martin what had happened and obviously Judge
Hawkes was eager to hear the story from Chris himself. Chris had been
starving though, so the judge had sent down to the kitchen for some
refreshments.

Chris
had told both men about the entire series of events as they had
happened. Then he told it again while they peppered him with
questions. And then a third time during which the judge and Martin
analyzed everything that Angelica had said and done. Finally Chris
had had enough.

“
I'm
sorry to interrupt, judge,” he said, cutting off a comment that
Martin was making about how he thought Angelica had known of Chris'
trip to Ottawa. “But could you tell me something? Who exactly
is Lilith? Sariel called her the first-born daughter of God. What
does that mean, exactly?”

Martin
stopped speaking and looked first at Chris and then at Judge Hawkes.
Then he sat back quietly and waited for the other man to speak.

The
judge appeared to be considering the question. He folded his hands
and stared at them as he began to speak.

“
Lilith.
Yes. Well, the fact that Angelica is actually the mortal embodiment
of that entity explains why we were never able to discern her true
identity. She's too powerful. As you know by now, Christopher, angels
are androgynous; they have no real male or female characteristics.
But for some reason, they intrinsically choose or feel that they are
either male or female. Lilith was the first angel born who was seen
as female. There are many myths and legends about her that have been
passed down through the ages. She was depicted as the first wife of
Adam, but chose to leave Eden rather than take orders from her
husband.” The judge looked up at Chris and smiled slightly.
“The first recorded feminist. But the more believable stories
call her an angel who fell out of favor with Heaven, went to Hell and
became a demon. I think we've just received confirmation that that
story is closer to the truth.” He sighed heavily. “I'm
not surprised that Sariel did not want to confront her. She is
extremely strong, a true general to Satan. I still cannot believe
that she lived in our midst for such a long time and we never knew. I
blame myself for that. I allowed my feelings to cloud my judgment.”

Martin
spoke up quickly. “We all share the blame, your honor. She
played us perfectly. The fake victim whom we needed to rescue. The
eager student always wanting to learn more. She was like a daughter
or a little sister to everyone in the house.”