Finding Alice (Alice Clark Series) (17 page)

The pain rushed back, ripping through me. I felt everything around me pick up speed as my feet began to lift off of the ground. A whirlwind of chaos tore through my body. I felt everyone’s eyes on me. No amount of screaming dented the torture coursing through me. My soul beamed with a radiant burst of blinding light, seeping out of me in all directions. My flesh peeled away from me and my bones cracked out through the wounds as my wings unfurled in beautiful darkness. I opened my eyes and saw myself hovering about the battlefield. I looked to my side as blackness filled around me. The blackness came into focus and my tears dissipated and I could see the blackness was a wingspan of over fifteen feet. I looked to my other side and watched the feathers flex. I could feel every feather just as you would feel down to the tips of your toes. The pain subsided as did the glow from my soul as I gracefully descended to the ground. Something that should not have been possible had in fact happened to me. I stood as an angel with a human soul, human emotion and angel strength. I tucked my wings in tightly to see Cole. His face was full of surprise and love.
You’re beautiful
, he said. I felt his blanket wrap around me, protecting me and strangely still making me feel even stronger.

I smiled at Rogziel, inviting him to attack me. I felt his hesitation and let out a laugh that echoed through the emptiness around us. I lifted up my sword waiting for him to attack me, knowing he had to. The Fallen and angels around us had resumed the battle more fiercely in a final attempt to win. What were any of us really winning here? Cole stood behind me, protecting the blind spot my wings created but allowing me to fight this one alone without argument. Our fathers roamed the field, attempting to take out the last of the angels. Rogziel lifted his lightning bolt and thrashed toward me. I extended my wings out with a force that knocked him back a few feet. He struck again and I blocked it, knocking his sword from his hands. He swung his fist toward my face; I used my right wing to swat him away.

I felt Cole struggling behind me and turned to an angel practically on his shoulders who was trying to rip off his wings. I grabbed the angel’s left wing and saw Jake on his right wing; we practically tore the angel in two, dropping his body at Cole’s feet. “Alice, look out!” Cole screamed.

I turned to find Rogziel flying inches above the ground at me with his sword pointed straight at my very human heart. I inhaled quickly and only enough to freeze everything one last time. I held my breath with his sword inches from my chest. I reached out and placed my hands on either side of his blade. I exhaled as I swung my wings into his side as hard as I could. His blade snapped in two as he crashed to the ground.

“This isn’t possible,” Rogziel choked out.

“Unfortunately for you, it is,” I said as I reached behind him and ripped the wings off of his body. His scream was piercing at first with his mouth so close to my face, until it died down to nothing more than a whisper. Part of me knew I had only killed his body and he could return for me someday.

I stepped and looked around me, finding the last of the angels one by one turning into nothing more than corpses scattered around us. I walked across them to one Kokabiel had pinned beneath him.

“Don’t kill him,” I demanded. I bent down and grabbed a hold of his left wing as the Fallen watched me, waiting for me to viciously tear it off. “What is your name?”

“Briathos,” he spat at me.

“I’m going to let you live. I need you to relay a message for me. Can you handle that?” His anger spilled out of him but he nodded. I heard whispers behind me disagreeing with my decision to allow him to report back about what happened here on this land. Honestly, we all knew God knew already, maybe even before it happened. “I want you to tell God this message. Repeat exactly as I say it. ‘You allowed your angels to fall from grace and so they did. You allowed us to exist and so we do. You alone set this all into motion. You will have to get through me to kill all those you named nephilim. I do believe in you. I just know you were wrong and too much of a coward to admit it.’”

I could have begged but it was never my style, and it didn’t work for the Fallen all those years ago. I let go of his wing and helped him to his feet. The Fallen and nephilim surrounded him as he tried to steady himself. He crouched down and then launched himself into the sky, disappearing into the clouds.

On this day, I found myself, my destiny, my purpose.

The thunder banged through the sky and the heavens began to cry. We knew they would be back until every last one of us was destroyed. There was no mercy for us. But for now, the nephilim rejoiced in their freedom. Even the Fallen relaxed at a battle won. We had spared ourselves for now to live a life we were never meant to live. Cole stood by my side and all those who survived the fight. We watched as the angels’ bodies burst into a glow of light and floated into the air like a golden dust until they disappeared into the sky, beautifully.

Our fathers, Jake, Old Gray, Cole, all of the Fallen and I bowed our heads and retracted our wings with a painful, unified thud. There was nothing left but thousands of feathers to show any sort of sign of what went on here. Cole wrapped his fingers through mine, pulling me into him. My lips crashed into his and I tasted the sweet ocean on his tongue. I jumped into Cole’s arms, breathing it in. “We made it, love,” he said, brushing my hair from my face.

“We did.” I smiled, taking a still moment to search through his eyes into his soul and allowing his soul to reach into mine. “Let’s go home.”

He started to carry me back to where all of our cars were lined up like a funeral procession in the distance. He turned back to our family. “Dad?”

“Yes?” Kokabiel said, barely containing the joy the word brought him.

“You coming home?”

“All of you,” I added.

He set me down gently, arm draped across me, waving them to join us. We headed toward the cars to go home. I knew they all were smiling following behind us without having to look back at them. One of my many talents. It’s not what one might call a conventional family by any means. Somewhere through this crazy ordeal, those who were bound by blood chose to love one another, chose each other as family. I rested my head onto Cole’s shoulder. He wrapped his arm around me as he started his car. I heard the roar of the engine as he peeled away from this place with tires smoking even on this dirt road.

We all knew at some point they would be back to carry out God’s order to destroy us, but they would have to get through me first. Good luck with that.

I never knew love, not in any form. Not until then.

THE END

Available 2013

Andrea was born and raised in Michigan, and it is where she and her son currently reside. Andrea has always been a writer at heart. Over the last decade she has written, starred and directed in many screenplays. She recently decided to venture back to writing novels and is thrilled to share them with the world.