Demon Evolution (18 page)

“I’m surprised he went with you, didn’t he
have any plans for New Year’s Eve?” Taylor asked.

“Yeah, I think so, but he cancelled them when
I suggested the trip.” Eddie spoke with pride in his voice. He was
happy his son still had time for him.

“I’m sorry I didn’t stay home for the
holidays, Dad.”

“It’s really no big deal, honey. You
accomplished a lot this year and I’m very proud of you. I wanted
you to have this trip.”

Taylor felt sick to her stomach. Here she
was, completely lying to her dad, putting his life in danger, and
he was being so sweet to her. She tried to speak, but her mouth
felt dry, her lips parched. The words caught in her throat. There
was so much she wanted to say to him, to thank him for. Her worst
fears crumbled through her mind, like collapsing buildings. What if
this is the last time she ever spoke to him? What if she never saw
him again? What if James is there and they take him, too?

“Taylor? Are you there?”

Snapping out of her temporary depression,
Taylor managed to croak, “I really love you, Dad.”

“I know, Taylor. I love you, too. I’ll see
you in a week.”

She hoped he was right. “Sure, Dad. See you
soon. Bye.”

Ending the call, she lay on her bed in the
fetal position for what seemed like hours, but turned out to only
be ten minutes. When she finally sat up, there was a determination
in her eyes that had been absent since the meeting that morning. A
steely resolve set in as she recited to herself, “Everything will
be fine. Good will triumph over evil. Chris and Sampson will
protect him.”

Her mind wandered to Gabriel. Should she let
him go with them? He would surely be an asset to the mission, and
having him there may decrease the chances of her father being
captured. But the selfish part of her wanted him to stay with her,
to hold her and tell her that everything would be alright. Her
mental debate was in full-swing when there was a knock on her
door.

It was Gabriel.

“Can I come in?”

Wordlessly, Taylor opened the door wider and
let him follow her over to a couch. When they had both sat down,
Taylor said, “Look, I’m sorry I told Clifford you couldn’t go on
the mission.”

Shaking his head, Gabriel replied, “I’ve been
thinking…”

“That’s dangerous,” Taylor interjected.

Gabriel cracked a smile, and took the
opportunity to put his hand on Taylor’s leg, stroking it gently.
Thankfully, her joke had sliced through the tension like a knife
through butter. She even allowed him to touch her. Taking a deep
breath, he continued, “I love you, Taylor, and I am willing to be
whatever you need me to be. I would love to stay here with you, if
that’s what you want.”

“I’m not sure it is, Gabriel. Dammit, I’m
just so confused. I want you here with me, but if that means less
protection for my dad, then I’m just being selfish. I don’t want to
be selfish.”

His arm moved to her shoulder and then
casually curled behind her neck, pulling her head into his chest.
He kissed the top of her head, which made her wince, but she didn’t
pull away. “You have already proven you are not selfish, Taylor.
You’ve risked your life to save the lives of others. Angels and
demons who you don’t even know. But you are only human…”

Now it was Taylor’s turn to crack a smile.
“Is it that obvious?” she joked.

“Sometimes it isn’t, but you need support,
too. You can’t always be brave—you shouldn’t always be. I am asking
your permission to sit this one out and stay with you. I need a
break in the action, too. And I trust Chris, Sampson, and the rest
to protect your father. In fact, I know they will. In my mind, the
absolute worst-case scenario is that they are forced to teleport
him to the Lair to save him. In which case, we will just have to
tell him the truth. I know I’ve learned that the truth is never a
bad thing.”

Taylor thought about it for a minute. The
idea of telling her dad everything started to sound better and
better. Gabriel was right—there was no way that Chris would allow
the angels to kidnap her dad if he had the chance to teleport him
away. “I guess that makes sense. Okay, I agree. You can stay.”

“Now on to other matters, or have you
forgotten?”

Taylor leaned her head back against Gabriel’s
chest to look into his eyes. Her face crinkled in confusion.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have brought it up, your
memory is terrible, Tay. How does your chest feel?”

“My chest? What is that, some kind of an
awful pick up line? It’s fine,” she said, subconsciously massaging
her chest with her hand. “Oww, crap, it’s really sore.” Then she
remembered. In all the emotional trauma of learning that there was
a threat to her father, she had completely forgotten about what had
happened the previous night. “Oh, yeah,” she snorted.

“I guess that means I’m not off the hook?”
Gabriel asked.

“You abused your girlfriend. I might have to
press charges.”

“I’ll claim temporary insanity,” he joked
back. “But seriously, I’m really, really—”

Taylor cut him off. “Stop, Gabriel. Do you
know that you acted like an idiot?”

“Yes, but—”

“Good, and do you know that what you did was
reckless and childish?”

“Yes, but, Tay—”

“Good, and do you promise not to do anything
so stupid again?”

“Of course, Tay—”

“Then you’re forgiven, end of story,” Taylor
finished, raising a finger to Gabriel’s lips to shush him. She
quickly replaced her finger with her lips, kissing him
tenderly.

When she pulled away, Gabriel was still not
ready to let the whole thing go. “I do
not
accept your
forgiveness,” he declared. Taylor looked at him like he was crazy.
“Last night, I thought long and hard about what I did and decided
that an apology and ‘I won’t do it again’ is not sufficient to
obtain forgiveness. I will not accept your clemency until I have
played my role in defeating Dionysus.”

Taylor smirked. “Whatever you say,
angel-boy.”

D
ionysus admired
himself in the mirror. Attractive, powerful, clever: he had it all.
Clever, oh so clever. His latest plan was pure genius. It would
throw the demons into a panic, scare the hell out of the girl, and
create a diversion, which would allow Lucas to easily accomplish
his mission—the real mission. And the cherry on the top: He would
be able to determine whether there was still a spy in their
midst.

He had been too careless, too trusting. But
he had learned from his mistakes and would not make them again.
After discovering the extent of the treachery, Dionysus had spent
hours poring over old mission logs and battle reports. Searching,
searching—and eventually finding. After two days of extensive
research, he had discovered at least twelve potential occurrences
of leaked information. Leaked plans, leaked strategies, leaked
decisions. And this treachery was not at the lower ranks; it was at
the highest levels, within the group of generals, or even the
Archangel Council itself.

He had trusted his chosen angels implicitly.
Trusted in their belief in him, trusted in their support of The
Plan, and most importantly, trusted in their hatred of the demons.
But he had been wrong in trusting so freely.

And so, by devising a plan that would be
known only to him and his new apprentice, Lucas, he could narrow
down the search. Only the Council knew the full details of the
feigned abduction of the girl’s father. The generals and Commander
Lewis were kept in the dark. If the demons were already there,
protecting her father, then Dionysus would know that he had a mole
in his most trusted group of advisors. He suspected as much. And he
had a guess or two as to who it might be. Johanna never seemed to
be on the same page as him. Or Sarah for that matter. There was
something about her that he just didn’t like.

He never should have allowed women on the
Council. The men were solid, though. Michael was practically his
brother, and he and Andrew went back many years—it couldn’t be one
of them. He would find out soon enough. And then there would be
hell to pay.

U
nfortunately, the
hours had passed by swiftly and it was time for the slow, torturous
waiting to begin. Chris, Kiren, and a dozen others, including
Sampson, had armed themselves and were about to march to the
teleportal.

“Be careful, babe,” Sam said, giving her
boyfriend a big hug.

“I will, don’t worry,” he replied.

“Give ‘em hell,” Gabriel said to Sampson.

“You know me.”

“That’s what worries me,” Gabriel joked.

The two angels embraced and Taylor could see
that this was a very difficult moment for Gabriel. He wanted to be
with his friend, doing something to help. But she dared not suggest
that he go, for fear that he might actually listen to her for
once.

It was time for them to go.

Taylor, Gabriel, and Sam stood with their
arms around each other, as they watched their friends depart down
the tunnel.

“You should start practicing,” Gabriel said
cryptically.

“For what?” Taylor asked.

“For the speech you are going to have to give
your dad when they bring him back here. That is going to be one
tough conversation.”

Sam said, “Your dad likes me. Just let me do
the talking.”

“You always do,” Taylor joked.

It helped to laugh. The next few hours were
going to be difficult, but it would help if Sam and Gabriel were at
their funniest.

“Let’s shoot some pool,” Sam suggested.

C
hris counted them
down: “Five, four, three, two, one, go!”

The second defense unit teleported
harmoniously to the drop spot. Kiren had held Sampson’s hand,
bringing him along with her. There were four other angels included
as well—from the rescued group of spies. They had fully recovered
and eagerly volunteered for the mission, ready to get their
wings—or at least the prosthetic titanium wings—dirty again.

The landing spot was the Kingston’s attic.
Taylor had informed them that it was used only for storage and that
no one ever went up there. Using the highest point in the house,
they could set up the mission from a good vantage point on the
inside. The attic was particularly effective because it provided a
360-degree view of the area around the house. It had windows on all
four sides that were built into the slanted rooftop.

The first goal was to identify the twelve
demons that were part of the lead squad and ensure they were
positioned appropriately. Chris made swift work of the task using a
thermal detector and his radio. “Blue squad leader, do you read
me?”

“Yessir,” a female voice replied.

“I am picking up sixteen thermal images in
the vicinity, not including
the Cheese
, who appears to be
the only one in the house. Can you account for the additional four
heat sources?”
The Cheese
was code talk for Mr. Kingston,
the one they were protecting.

“Yessir. The two small blips to the east are
a couple of squirrels that live in the large oak tree. The third
spot, in the backyard, is a stainless steel grill that the Cheese
used to cook a couple of steaks thirty minutes ago—it is still
warm. The final hit you are getting is a backup generator for the
house, which kicked on ten minutes ago when the power went out. It
seems that the Cheese is well prepared for emergencies.”

“Why is the power out?” Chris looked out the
window. It was a clear night, it couldn’t be weather related.

“We don’t know, but we are guessing it was
the work of the angels as part of their strategy. I don’t think
they anticipated the house having backup power though. The Cheese
has been on the phone with the power company twice now and they
have confirmed that the power grid is fully functional and that it
must be specific to his house. They said they would send someone
out in the morning and he agreed. His generator will provide up to
twenty-four hours of power and he can turn it off before he goes to
sleep. He doesn’t seem too worried.”

“Good. Thank you, blue leader. Stay in
position and wait for my orders.”

“Roger that.”

Next, Chris re-briefed his team on their
positions. Their approach was highly aggressive and they had been
authorized to use any methods available to protect Mr. Kingston,
including teleporting him back to the Lair if necessary.

They would essentially litter themselves in
and around the house, in various spots, getting as near to Taylor’s
dad as possible. If he got close to seeing any of them, they would
simply teleport back to the attic. Sampson and the other angels,
however, would position themselves on the roof, as lookouts, to
make the best use of their wings if the attack came from the sky,
which was considered very likely.

“Okay, move out,” Chris said.