Fire Prophet (Son of Angels) (5 page)
Jonah was thinking the same thing Eliza was. New York was where they had entered the hidden realm for the first time, where the battle between good and evil takes place. Where Abaddon was gathering all of his awful strength to fight Elohim. Jonah remembered all the creatures they had faced and almost lost their lives to. How could that place possibly be better than the place they were leaving?
Eleanor looked out her window as she spoke. “We have to trust Elohim,” she said simply. “And that these friends of ours out there know what they’re doing.”
Jonah looked out the window and up. He saw the power lines and clouds zooming by, but he also saw a band of angels flying above them, encircling the car. He was comforted by the fact that they were riding with more protection than a presidential secret service escort. Warrior angels from the Second Battalion of the Angelic Forces of the West were their front and rear guard.
Henry was part of the circle, flying right above him. Jonah
caught his eye and waved. His former guardian angel saw him and smiled slightly, then returned his focus to his task.
“He looks good up there in his battle gear, don’t you think?” Eliza said, leaning over Jonah to take a look.
Jonah looked at her and snorted. Eliza turned a dark shade of pink and hit him in the stomach. “You know what I mean. He looks like he . . . belongs up there, with them.”
He was about to hit her back when he saw Henry turn his head sharply backward and focus on something behind the car. Jonah looked through the rear window but saw nothing.
Eliza noticed Henry’s concerned gaze too. “The hidden realm?” she suggested.
Jonah nodded. They both closed their eyes and in an instant had entered the spiritual world.
Before Jonah could even turn around, he heard the roar of an engine behind them.
Turning now, he quickly realized that it wasn’t just the sound of
one
engine. Jonah counted at least six motorcycles on the horizon. They were spread out across two lanes, side by side, and they were closing in on them fast.
Jonah saw his dad’s face in the rearview mirror, continuing to focus on the road ahead, unaware of the bikers behind them.
Jonah popped back out of the hidden realm. Eliza had stayed in and was now invisible. “Do you guys see them?”
“You guys just went . . . ?” questioned Jeremiah.
“Into the hidden realm, yes,” Jonah said impatiently. “There’s an entire motorcycle gang on our tails.”
Eleanor glanced back. Jonah saw lines of worry crease her forehead. “Maybe they’re just . . . out for a nice ride,” she said faintly.
“What are you talking about?” said Benjamin, cutting his eyes up at the rearview mirror. “It’s as clear as day back there. I don’t see a thing.”
“They’re in the hidden realm,” Jonah muttered. “I’ll be back.” And with that, he reemerged into the hidden realm with Eliza.
The motorcycles had grown closer, until they were no more than a car length behind. Jonah could see the six riders clearly now, wearing black helmets and dark glasses. A few had leather vests on, while others rode shirtless. Golden bands glistened around each arm and wrist. Every rider had an identical long, thin beard. On their helmets were markings that Jonah faintly recognized.
“Look at their helmets,” Eliza said. “Hieroglyphs.”
“They’re Egyptians?” Jonah said.
Benjamin was clearly getting frustrated, looking back at the two empty seats behind him. “I still don’t see anything, guys! Are you sure? Are you even still there?”
“You’d better step on it, dear,” answered Eleanor. “Just in case.”
In the hidden realm, the Egyptian bikers quickly maneuvered alongside the car until they had it surrounded. The guy on Jonah’s side was huge and muscular. He took his index finger, pointed it menacingly at Jonah, and motioned forcefully toward the side of the road.
“It looks like he wants us to pull over,” Jonah said.
“Well, that’s not going to happen.” Eliza scowled as she leaned over to get a better look at the biker. Then she bowed her head and quickly popped back into view of her parents and Jeremiah.
“Go faster, Dad!” she urged their father. “They’re completely surrounding us!”
“Hang on, everyone!” Benjamin said, finally convinced that what Jonah and Eliza were seeing was real. He pushed the gas
pedal to the floor. They felt the old wagon hesitate and then lurch forward.
Jonah had both hands on the door, turning to watch as they sped past the bikers.
“Nice, Dad!” he shouted, forgetting he was in the hidden realm and Benjamin couldn’t hear him. “Keep going!”
“I’m not sure how long this piece of junk can keep going!” said Benjamin. “Where are the angels, for goodness’ sake?”
“I’ll be back in a minute, guys,” Eliza said, then quickly disappeared again.
The bikers had momentarily fallen behind, but with a rev of their engines, they moved back beside them, even closer than before. Benjamin seemed to sense this and punched the gas again, but the car sputtered and didn’t move any faster. The speedometer hovered at ninety miles per hour.
“Keep going, Benjamin!” shouted Eleanor. “I think we need to move faster!”
“Come on, car, come on!” Benjamin said, slamming his hand against the steering wheel. “We’re going as fast as we can! Where’s Henry? Why aren’t the angels helping?”
The same biker pulled up beside Jonah again. He motioned to the side of the road once more. This time he pulled back his leather vest. A short golden sword was attached to his side. The biker grinned, exposing a mouthful of golden teeth. He yelled something to Jonah in a foreign language and pointed to the side again.
“No way!” Jonah yelled, and reached back over his head, pulling out a flaming arrow. The bow automatically appeared in his other hand.
Before he could aim it, though, Benjamin slung the car to the
left, and then back to the right. The Egyptian bikers moved away, out of the reach of the old wagon.
“I think that’s making them angry!” fretted Eliza.
Now, though, the biker closest to Jonah drew his sword. The others did the same. Jonah had no idea what the sword in the hidden realm could do to their car, but they were about to find out unless he could get a straight shot off with his arrow.
Jonah fired as quickly as he could. The biker closest to him leaned backward, the arrow barely missing his chest. The Egyptian grinned and moved in with the weapon.
The metallic ring of a blade echoed through the car, but the biker slumped, turning his front wheel wildly, and fell off the motorcycle.
An angel holding a sword hovered where the biker had been a moment before, looking back as a cloud of black dust flew away on the wind.
“Nice one, guys!” Jonah called up to the angels overhead.
More angels descended to join the sword fight, trying to position themselves between the bikers and the Stones’ station wagon, but the Egyptians were tough and giving the angels all they could handle.
“Benjamin!”
Jonah looked ahead of the car. It was Henry, now flying directly in front of them.
“Henry!” called Benjamin. “I see you! What’s going on?”
“Follow me, Benjamin!” he called out, pointing ahead. “You’re going to have to trust me, okay?”
Benjamin gave him a firm nod, gripping both hands tightly on the wheel and keeping the gas pedal pressed against the floor of the car.
Suddenly, Henry veered off to the right. Benjamin turned the car sharply, leaving the pavement for a bumpy gravel road. The car bounced so hard that their heads crashed into the ceiling.
“Sorry, guys! Hang on!” said their wild-eyed father, intent on following the angel. “Henry told me to stay with him!”
Jonah thought the sign they passed said Peacefield City Dump, but he wasn’t sure. He was trying to get another shot off with an arrow, but there was such a battle going on between the angels and the Egyptians that he couldn’t get a clean shot. His dad’s quick turn had thrown their enemies off, though, and now they were a few feet behind the old wagon.
When he heard his mother scream, his attention was drawn forward again.
They were definitely at the city dump. Massive piles of garbage were visible now directly ahead of them.
But Henry was waving his dad forward. And Benjamin wasn’t slowing down.
“Benjamin!” said Eleanor. “We’re heading straight for—”
“I know, Eleanor!” But he still didn’t slow down or turn.
Then Jonah saw why she was screaming. An enormous mound of smashed metal cars, rusted red, loomed directly in front of them.
Henry seemed to be leading them right toward it.
Jonah and Eliza came back out of the hidden realm now, while Jeremiah was frozen in the seat next to them. Benjamin continued at top speed.
Everything was happening so fast.
Henry looked back at the angels this time, nodding once. Acting as one, they sheathed their swords and sped forward beside him.
Sweat poured down Benjamin’s face, but he kept his focus straight ahead.
“This is it, guys!” he said. “This is it!”
Jonah braced himself for a crash. But instead, working so fast they were just a blur, the angels began pushing the cars aside for them. Jonah watched in total amazement as the mountain divided, right in two, and they drove down the middle, barely missing the cars in front of them. The angels held them back and, as soon as their wagon passed, let them go again.
Right on top of the Egyptians.
The clear path for the Stones’ car was there for only a flash. Behind them, the cars crashed back down on the ground.
“Woo-hoo!” cried Benjamin.
Jeremiah joined him with a fist pump. “Yes!”
A few more seconds, and they were through the giant mountain of cars, the last one crashing down just behind them as an angel let it go.
Finally, Benjamin took a cue from Henry and slowed the car down, and then stopped. Jonah went into the hidden realm once more but quickly returned.
“They’re all gone,” he said, eyebrows raised. “Every one of them. Crushed in that mountain of cars. They must have been crushed and disintegrated.”
“Just like . . . the Egyptians and the Red Sea,” Benjamin said, raising an eyebrow toward Eleanor.
The angels stood in front of the car, giving the Stones a moment to catch their breath.
Jonah breathed out heavily.
Was this going to be their new life? On the run? Just like those
ancient Israelites? Were they going to be on Abaddon’s hit list for the rest of their lives?
The thought made him shiver. Benjamin must have had the same idea because he turned the car back toward the main road, away from the city dump.
“Keep going fast, Dad,” Jonah said. “You never know what else we’re going to run into on the way to New York.”
W
e’re here.”
Marcus stopped in front of a collection of older buildings on a quiet side street in central Manhattan. The Stone family set down their bags and looked up at the darkened stone walls and filmy windows. Eliza peered up at the tiled rooftops, shielding her eyes from the sunlight with her hand.
“Looks like we’re not the only ones,” she said, pointing.
Across the top of each building were dozens of angels, standing guard.
“Wow,” said Jonah. He turned to look at the buildings on the other side of the street. They were there too.
“What are those angels doing?” Jeremiah said, wonder in his voice.
Taryn touched the back of his head, smiling. “Standing watch, young friend.”
Their eyes returned to the building in front of them. It was
dusty and looked old, with a set of heavy wooden doors beneath a large archway.
Across the top of the arch were the words:
C
ONVENT OF
S
AINT
J
OHN OF THE
E
MPTY
T
OM
“Convent of Saint John of the Empty . . .
Tom
?” said Jonah. “Who’s Tom?”
“It’s
tomb
, genius,” Eliza answered, rolling her eyes. “Look closely. The
b
is missing.”
Jonah squinted. She was right. It was supposed to say
empty tomb
.
“What’s a convent?” asked Jeremiah.
Benjamin straightened his glasses. “It’s a place where nuns live.”
The five of them stood for a minute, staring at the building, angels behind them.
“So,” Jonah said, “the safest place for us in New York is in a convent with a bunch of nuns?”
His dad cleared his throat. “It . . . uh . . . appears that way, son.”
Marcus walked down the four steps from the street to the entrance.
“The nuns in the Convent of Saint John of the Empty Tomb have graciously offered their help to us. They have always aligned themselves closely with the will and voice of Elohim. You will find no stronger, more faithful women of prayer than these.”