Fallen: The Demontouched Saga (Book 2) (2 page)

“We do it because we believe that there are still plenty of good ones left. They just need a little guidance.”

“Where was your guidance when my wife was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer? Where was it when she couldn’t walk more than two steps without coughing blood all over the place? Where was it when our son sat in his bed crying for days knowing that he could lose his mother at any moment?” I clench the steering wheel tight, trying to hold back the tears. “Where were you when I traded a part of my soul to remove the cancer from her body?” I punch the dashboard and look over at him. “And why didn’t you assholes bother to tell me that I was just going to lose her anyway?” My head collapses into the steering wheel.

“Mitch, I’m sorry.” He places his hand on my back. “We don’t get to call the shots. We have to roll with the punches just like you do.”

I don’t regret my deal. It did give us two extra years with her. What I feel is more like buyers remorse. I knew the deal was bad the moment I made it, but I would make that same decision if it was put in front of me again.

“Let me drive.” Zeke says. “Take a few to clear your head.”

I spend the rest of the trip looking out of the window. Part of me wants to just deck Zeke right here. The other part wants me to take my knife out and just end it all here. I don’t want to be a pawn. I didn’t sign up for this bullshit. Sometimes you don’t realize the value of the blue pill until you have taken the red one.

A few minutes later, we pull up to the gate of the senior center. I was expecting a single building that was part hospital and part nursing home, instead we are sitting in front of a large gated community. On each side of the gate there is a man holding a rifle.

A large man wearing a black suit motions Zeke to roll down his window and shines a flashlight in the cab. “What business do you have here?”

“Lot of security for a senior center, don’t you think?” I lean over towards the man. “We have your missing shit in the back. Unless you don’t want it anymore.”

“My name is Ezekiel. Tell Uriel that Mitch and I are back with the supplies.”

“Wait here.” He walks a few feet away and pulls out a phone. Within moments he is signaling the guards at the gate and we are being waved in. The sight inside is more amazing than the one outside. There are a few dozen armed Hummers sitting in a parking lot right outside of the gate. All around there are dozens of armed men wearing varied outfits, though many wearing military apparel.

“Tell me how the hell that asshole got out of here with a truck load of supplies.”

“He was stationed here. He was suppose to be taking a truck out on a run for supplies, but he never came back.”

“That makes more sense than him getting a truck of shit out of here unless he had help.”

“He definitely had help. We lost about a dozen men to that.”

“Well, if it makes you feel better, I only killed seven of them. Eight if you count the thief.”

“Wish it did.” We come up to one of the larger duplexes and Zeke pulls into a driveway.

Out front there are a few dozen more soldiers with their guns trained on my car. Zeke steps out and the men relax a bit.

“This Uriel’s house?”

Zeke walks ahead and opens the door. “One of the many.”

The interior is decorated the way you would expect in a senior center, which is to say it is nothing like I expected Uriel to keep it. I pull down one of the teddy bear figurines. “I would have expected angels.”

“They don’t make a figurine that looks anything close to one of us. Their hearts were in the right place, but that doesn’t make us like them any more.”

I stifle a laugh, take a seat on the couch, and close my eyes. Its been a while since I had a chance to just relax. Within moments sleep takes me and the nightmares begin.

I open my eyes and scan the room. I immediately notice Uriel sitting in a chair across the room. She smiles at me as I sit up on the couch.

“I been out long?”

“Oh, about twelve hours. You looked like you could use some rest.”

She was right about that. I haven’t had much time to think, let alone get some sleep, the last few days. “Have anything to drink?”

Zeke walks into the room and hands me a cup of coffee. “Figured that was coming.” He sits down next to me.

“Ezekiel tells me that someone else killed our deserter. He said something about his eyeballs being melted.”

I fill her in with all the details of my raid and give her my best description of the guy who did it.

“I agree with Ezekiel. The thing you saw was an angel. But why would he kill the deserter, yet leave you alone?”

“Maybe he was as pissed about the supplies as you were.”

“If that was true, why would he just lurk in the shadows?” Zeke says.

“I will have a few of the men patrol the area. See if they come up with anything.”

It sounds like a good idea, but I don’t think they will find anything. If I was causing some shit from the shadows I would do my best to stay in the shadows.

“Anything new on the orb?”

“We know the orb can collect the soul from anyone who dies in the area. We believe that Duncan planned on killing the people in the warehouse to collect the souls from the people. We still don’t know why he wanted the souls, though.”

“What happened to the demons that I managed to trap in the orb before it shattered?”

“They are still in there, as far as we can tell.”

I stand up and walk to the window. “So, tell me what this place really is.”

“Nothing gets past you.” Uriel opens up the front door and waves me out. “This is our base of operations here on earth. We needed to find a place to hole up when we got sent down and managed to find this place. There are a few hundred condos in this complex with a ten foot brick wall surrounding the entire complex. We have three exits, all gated with protected guard shacks. The best part is that we are away from the city, which helps us keep under the radar.”

“You have all of this. All of these people. And you call me to handle your problems.”

“We call you because we can’t afford to throw away lives.” She looks me in the eyes. “You are capable of some amazing things. I really wish we had a hundred more like you. We might actually stand a chance.”

“You don’t think we can win this?”

“I’ll say that the odds are stacked against us. We knew we were going to have an uphill battle before this all began. I just wish we had a little more time to plan and prepare.”

No matter how often I hear that, I find it hard to believe only one being in existence knew when this would all start. I can understand humanity ignoring the warnings. Our lives are way too short to give a shit about something that, odds say, will never happen in our lifetime. Angels, however, don’t die naturally. You would think they would have spent some time at least considering what they would do when the time came.

“So, what is next?”

“For you? We need you to find a way to control Einuir. Ideally, we need to find a way to expel him from your body without killing you.”

As much as that tempts me, my odds of survival are low enough with my abilities. I wouldn’t last a week if I had to do this on my own.

Suddenly an alarm sounds throughout the camp. I look around and notice the soldiers taking defensive positions around the wall. I look over at Uriel. “What the hell is going on?”

“We are under attack.”

-3-

We run up towards the gates and notice the soldiers have taken up defensive positions behind whatever cover they can find. I take the hint and work my way to the gate while trying to remain behind what cover I can find.

“What’s going on here, soldier?” I ask, ducking behind a car next to a soldier.

“One of our scouts noticed three car loads of people heading this way. We sound an alarm any time we don’t recognize a vehicle heading our way.”

“Seems a bit excessive, don’t you think?”

“Rather play it safe. It is hard to tell the friendlies from the enemies these days.”

Within moments the cars pull up, stopping about fifty yards from the gates.

“Slowly open your doors and walk out with your hands up.”

I look out at the cars, trying to see if there is any movement coming from them. It’s hard to see from this distance, but it almost looks like the cars are empty.

“Last chance. Open up your doors slowly and exit the vehicles with your hands up.”

The lull in the action doesn’t last long.

“Unload on these assholes.” A soldier yells on the other side of the gate. Within seconds, gunshots fill the air. I lean back against the car and hold my hands over my ears. If I had one main reason for hating guns, its the noise.

For nearly a minute the soldiers fire at the cars. If there is anyone left inside of them, there is no way they are alive.

“Hold your fire.” The soldiers echo as the firing comes to an end.

“Suarez. Williams. Go make sure our friends are no longer with us.”

I watch as the two men move towards the cars. I look around, noticing the other guys with their guns held at the ready. They stop a few feet away when the shorter man jumps on the hood, aiming his weapon into the car. He looks back and shakes his head.

The men start to relax their weapons when I hear a blood curdling scream coming from the air.

“Holy shit. Suarez!”

The gunfire erupts once again. Three men exit the car, one pushing his hand forward, which causes Williams to fly back towards the gate. They all move quickly into the wooded area outside of the complex.

“Pull your men back!” I tell the nearest officer. “You aren’t prepared to deal with demons. Send someone for Uriel and Zeke.” I pull my knife out and head towards the gate. “And open this damn gate.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to save your asses.”

The gates open and I run off into the woods looking for the men. I don’t bother with the other two cars, but I assume they are both demon filled too. Running off after three was a death sentence enough. Hopefully the angels can come out and handle the others.

I come around a tree and notice the three demons huddled down next to a creek. I throw my knife and reach out, guiding it into the neck of one of the demons. I start running towards the trio as I pull the knife back to my hand.

The two others stand up and charge at me. I’m not really sure what I expected to happen, but I duck the lead asshole’s clothesline just to take a boot to the face from the second one which knocks me to the ground.

“Not fast enough, pathetic human.” He lifts up his leg to stop my head.

I roll out of the way of his stomp, but into the other demon who grabs me from behind. I feel the darkness start to settle in my veins. I take a shot to the gut as my vision starts to go cloudy. I reach down and pull my knife back to my hand. I reach in for the kill only to have the knife knocked free and take a shot to the jaw.

Eunie has had enough. I try to hold on, but the darkness takes me anyways.

I pulled up to her house fifteen minutes too early. I had a thing about punctuality already, but I couldn’t stand the wait. I knocked on the door and a hundred thoughts enter my head. Part of me wants to tuck my tail between my legs and run. I know it hasn’t been that long since Carla, but something about this one is special. I can’t seem to place it, but I’ve never been the one to subscribe to infatuation.

Within moments she answered the door wearing a beautiful blue dress that flowed down to her calves. Her hair was pulled back in a pony tail which exposed a pair of dangling purple earrings and a silver cross on a thin chain.

“So, where are you taking me?” She reaches out and takes my hand.

“I’m sworn to secrecy.” I smile at her. “You will like it.”

We got in the car and drove down to the riverfront. Our first stop for the evening was at the esteemed Glassini Restaurant.

“Wow. You went all out.” She flashes a smile.

“You haven’t seen anything yet.”

We walk inside to a table I have reserved at the back of the restaurant. Instead of sitting at a standard table, ours is back in the kitchen with the chefs. The chef greeted us as we walked into back as we took our seats.

“Wow. I didn’t know they did this here.”

“Its not something they advertise out front. The table is usually booked months in advance.”

“How did you manage to get it on short notice then?”

“I’m a freelance accountant. I happen to do the bookkeeping for the place. I wanted to do something special so I called in a favor.”

“Are we allowed to walk around?”

“Yes, madam. I’d love to show you around.”

Chef Baurdine gave us the grand tour, complete with a chance to help prepare our meal on the line.

When the meal is near completion the chef has us return to the table so he can finish it up and bring it over.

“What is it you do?” I ask her as I cut into my salmon.

“I’m a photographer. I do some work for the paper, but I mainly do weddings.”

“How did you get into that?”

“My father did it as a hobby. He would take me out with him every weekend. We would visit the most beautiful places and take some amazing pictures. We would be gone all weekend sometimes. Mom almost filed a missing persons report one year.” She started to laugh.

“I take it your mother is supportive of it?”

“She wasn’t around much either. She was a nurse at a local hospital, so she worked some very long hours. She usually had to work the weekends so that was my dad’s time with us.”

“Divorced?”

“No. But, it was hard to tell sometimes.” She took a sip from her wineglass. “What about your parents?”

“Died in a car accident when I was a teenager. I ended up spending my high school years living with my aunt.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. My aunt treated me like I was one of her own, maybe even better sometimes.”

We finish our dinner and take a walk out on the riverfront. I half chose the restaurant because of my relationship with the owners, and half because of what I had planned for the second half of the date.