Confronting the Fallen (38 page)

Lilith reared up, squinting into the light and
fire burst out around her. “Sariel!” she exclaimed with
loathing. “You cannot be here. You are banished and accursed,
traitorous dog.”

“Traitorous? Aye, perhaps,” he snapped
back. “But I have a chance for salvation, sister. Something
that you will never have.”

From the corner of his eye, Chris saw the team
gathering up Natalie and their things and running for the stairs. He
felt a wave of relief. At least they're out of harm's way, he
thought.

“Salvation?” She cackled insanely.
“From whom? Your Father? When we breech the gates of Heaven,
all of the hosts of angels will be begging my master for his
salvation, not your pathetic Father's. Strike me down if you can. I
am eager to tell your brother that the one who dared defy him walks
the Earth once more. He will turn this world into a glowing cinder,
and reap souls by the billions.” And in a swirl of flame and
ash, she attacked.

Sariel barely had time to bring up his pale blade
to counter Lilith's lightning-swift strike. Sparks of red and silver
burst around the weapons as they met and both of them were flung back
from the impact.

The demon snarled as her surprise attack failed.
She backed away, keeping her blade up, and gestured with her left
hand. The floor rumbled and Sariel stared downward as cracks appeared
in the ground. Wisps of smoke rose out of the openings, flickers of
flame and clouds of soot erupted from them. Lilith chuckled with
satisfaction as something crawled up through the fire.

“Did you think you faced a lesser angel,
Sariel? I am one of the most powerful of the Fallen. If you seek to
defeat me, you must defeat my minions first.” And out of the
smoke appeared a nightmare.

Leather-like wings, talons and teeth; the creature
Lilith had summoned looked like a miniature version of herself. It
giggled and slavered as it stood there, ready to attack.

“An imp, Lilith?” Sariel sounded
unimpressed. “Do you see to frighten me with this...irritant?”

The demon laughed again. “One imp is an
irritant, perhaps. But a dozen or more are something else.” And
Chris saw that she wasn't lying. More of the little nightmares were
crawling out of the earth. Soon, an entire group of them were ranged
beside the demon, half her size, burning with fire and eager to
attack.

“Counter this if you can, Sariel. They will
devour even you in your mortal form.”

“Perhaps, sister. But you too seem to have
forgotten whom you face. Have I not been called the Angel of Death?
There is a reason for that.”

Angel of Death? Chris filed that away for later
discussion.

Sariel made no gestures, and Chris heard no
thoughts from him, but the air around them was suddenly filled with
music. It was not beautiful though, or heavenly. It was a funeral
dirge, dark and brooding, and bursting from the air around Sariel
came troops of his own.

Wispy, filmy creatures floated on the air, like
someone's idea of what ghosts should look like. But they weren't
ghosts. Each one had a face with a gaping maw for a mouth, and they
began a mournful wailing that somehow blended into a scream promising
death. And each one carried a silver scythe in bony hands; scythes
that seemed eager to kill.

Lilith gasped and stepped back. “Seraphim!
But how?”

“I have my followers, as does my brother.
Surely you knew that?” He looked at the floating creatures and
pointed at the howling imps. “Destroy them, in Heaven's name,”
he commanded and the seraphim swooped in to attack.

The imps met them, screeching and tearing at them
with their talons. But the scythes flashed and the seraphim
wailed...and the imps died. All of them.

As the last of the demons fell, the seraphim
vanished, leaving black blood and little piles of embers in their
wake. Lilith snarled in frustration.

“Enough of this, then,” she cried. “I
will deal with you myself.” And she aimed her sword at Sariel,
releasing a blast of fire that burned white-hot with immense power.

Sariel fell back, his one good wing coming forward
to shield his body. Chris smelled burnt feathers and Sariel cried out
in pain as the fire struck him. He rallied and swept his wing toward
Lilith, flinging the fire back at her.

She screamed and side-stepped her own flames and
Sariel rushed forward, sweeping his phantom blade across his body
just as the demon brought up her own. But Sariel had only feinted and
instead of slamming into Lilith's blade, his sword swept lower and
sliced off her hand. She screamed with agony as the twisted sword and
the hand holding it fell to the ground, and then Lilith dropped to
her knees.

She grasped her wrist with her remaining hand and
looked up into Sariel's blazing blue eyes. “You have me beaten,
brother,” she hissed while her face was distorted with pain.
“Kill me then. Send me back to my master so that I may give him
the good news; that he may have his revenge on his accursed brother.
And I will be at his side to see you fall.” And she spat on the
ground in front of him.

Sariel reached down, grabbed Lilith by the throat
with his left hand and lifted her, writhing and gasping so that he
was staring at her, face to face.

“There will be no returning from where you
are going, sister. Killing you would be a reward that you do not
deserve. I could send you into oblivion for your unspeakable crimes,
but Natalie still loves you and such a fate would wound her deeply.”
Lilith's self-satisfied smirk was purely evil. “And so I will
send you elsewhere. And one day, when you stand before God, you will
face His judgment. May He be more merciful than I would be in His
place.” He dropped her and she collapsed in a heap.

“But where are you sending me?” she
gasped, sounding terrified for the first time.

“I will bury you up to your neck beneath the
ice of the Frozen Sea. And if the forces of Hell ever storm
Purgatory, racing across the frozen waters, yours will be the first
face they see. May they have joy in the sight, for your master will
not. He will be wild with rage at your punishment, and that is when I
will strike.”

“No! You cannot do this!” She tried to
stand, but her stump was gushing black blood and she was too weak to
rise. She began to crawl away from him.

“It is done,” was all that Sariel said
and Lilith's demonic form was engulfed in a blinding silver light.
There was a last tortured scream...and she was gone.

And Chris was back in control of his own body
again. He staggered at the sudden change in height and barely managed
to stay upright. A slow throbbing at his temples warned of the
headache to come but he ignored it.

'Is it over?' he asked.

'This battle is over, Chris. The war goes on. Go.
Your friends are waiting outside. You need to get some place safe so
that you can eat and rest. I have a prisoner to make arrangements for
at home. We'll talk again soon.'

And with that, Sariel's presence was gone from
Chris' mind. He sighed, suddenly exhausted. Then he picked up his
flashlight from where it had fallen near the altar, stuck the hilt in
his pocket and slowly made his way toward the staircase.

Halfway up the steep stairs, Chris was met by
Beatrice and George. They both grinned and welcomed him.

“The judge told us to wait here, in case you
needed a hand,” George said.

“Thanks, folks,” Chris replied. “I'm
okay. Just a bit tired.”

They let Chris go by them and followed him up
toward the top.

By the time he'd made his way up the remaining
steps to the surface, Chris was staggering with fatigue. He stepped
out into a bright sunrise. Nothing had ever felt so good. Even the
building heat was a relief after the bone-chilling cold of the
shrine. He almost fell but, immediately, several hands were helping
him to sit and he looked up to see Judge Hawkes, George and the rest
of the team staring down at him. Everyone seemed to be smiling with
relief.

“Christopher! You made it,” the judge
said. He sounded both relieved and pleased.

“I did, sir,” Chris answered him
faintly. He looked around. Natalie lay on a blanket nearby. Someone
had erected a tarp to keep the sun off of her. “How's she
doing?” he asked as he gratefully took a canteen from the
judge. Water never tasted so good.

“She's doing much better than we expected.
She's actually just sleeping at the moment. I'm sure, once we get her
to a hospital, that she'll make a full recovery.”

They had been speaking quietly, but Chris saw
Natalie turn her head and stare at him. He struggled to his feet and
walked over to her. With a smile, he knelt down beside her. She
returned the smile weakly.

“Hey Chris. How ya doing?” she asked
weakly. Chris offered her a drink but she shook her head slightly.

“I'm good, Nat. Don't worry. Everything's
okay. Judge Hawkes says you'll be fine once we get you patched up.”

Her shoulders twitched as she brushed that off.
“What happened to Angie?” She watched him anxiously.

Chris noticed the others listening intently and
spoke a little louder so that they could all hear. They deserved to
know the truth. He noted that Rabbi Eddleson was up and looking fine,
although he seemed a little fragile.

“He didn't kill her, Natalie. Sariel, I
mean. He couldn't let her go back to...you-know-who, and report that
his brother was on Earth and he didn't want to destroy her, so he
imprisoned her instead.”

“Imprisoned?” Natalie sounded
confused. “What prison could even hold a being that powerful?”

Chris sighed. “Purgatory, Nat. Purgatory.
Sariel and his followers will keep her there, safe and sound and away
from Hell, until all of this is over. And then, God will make His own
judgment on her fate.”

Natalie held his gaze for a long moment and then
seemed to wilt. She closed her eyes and nodded once. “It's
better than she deserves, I know, but I'm glad. Somewhere inside of
that monster was a girl who I loved once. Maybe...maybe one day she
can be redeemed. I hope so anyway.”

Chris sincerely doubted that, but he said nothing.
“You can rest now, Nat. I'm sure help will be here soon.”
He turned to the judge. “Speaking of help, how do we get out of
here?”

Judge Hawkes smiled and walked over to a backpack.
“The local group that helped us should be at the rendezvous
location in an hour or so. Happily, I knew there was no cell coverage
out here, so I had one of my new toys packed before we left. Just in
case.”

He rummaged around in the pack for a moment,
pulled out a metallic object about the size of a shoe-box and carried
it over. He knelt down next to Chris and Natalie and both of them
watched him curiously as he pressed a few buttons on top of the
object and extended an antenna up about two feet.

“A direct satellite telephone,” he
announced proudly. “It will use any satellite in the network to
relay our signal to whomever we wish to speak to.” He winked at
them. “Strictly hush-hush tech, they tell me. Ah, it's good to
have friends who like to tinker.”

They watched closely as the judge flipped a switch
and tapped out a code on the keyboard on top of the phone. The device
immediately started to beep loudly and the judge frowned.

“What's wrong, sir?” Chris asked. He
was afraid that they might have to hike back to the road after all
and that trip would be very hard on Natalie. He wished that Sariel
had hung around long enough to heal her, but somehow he knew that the
angel would be out of touch for some time.

“Hmm? Oh, nothing, Christopher. I have a
message waiting. Strange. Very few people know this number.” He
tapped a few keys and suddenly they heard the sound of static from
the device. Then someone began speaking. Chris recognized Martin's
voice.

“Judge Hawkes, it's me. This is the third
time I've tried to contact you without success, so I'm leaving this
message. I pray that you and the others are all right. I don't have
any time left. They are almost through the door of the vault, so I'll
be brief.”

There was a brief moment of silence and Chris
muttered “The vault?”

“It's a safe room under the Nest, Chris,”
Natalie whispered and then Martin began to speak again.

“They must have known you had left, your
honor. They came in force last night. I've never seen so many of the
Fallen. There were dozens of the damned and at least four Fallen
angels. There were wights and something I've never seen before.
Shape-shifters, I guess you could call them. Werewolves. They rolled
over the security guards like they weren't even there. We had no
warning. Tyler and Jacob were on patrol. Judge, they're gone.”
Chris gasped and Natalie cried out. The judge's face went white.

“I don't know if they are dead or captured,
but they disappeared under the claws of those...creatures and I
didn't see them again. Eliza and her pack slowed them down enough for
us to seal the Nest, but they were overcome.”

Chris felt tears start in his eyes. The dogs were
gone? His friends.

“The staff held the doors while I got the
rest of the children down to the vault. They are slamming and clawing
at the door now and I can only assume that the staff has fallen as
well. It's just me now. We'll fight to the last, you know that. But
if you are still alive and hearing this, I'm afraid we are done.”
There was another pause and then, “Ethan, it's been an honor
serving you. I'll see you on the other side. And please, forgive me
for failing you. Good-bye.”

There was another short burst of static and then a
click followed by silence.

Everyone looked at each other in horror. Natalie
was weeping silently. Chris knew tears were streaking down his grimy
face but he didn't care. He was focused on Judge Hawkes' face. His
expression was one that Chris had never seen on the man before. Grief
and despair. He looked like a broken man.