The Belial Origins (5 page)

CHAPTER 12

L
aney grabbed Jake from the agent, and they met Henry in Victoria’s study. They closed the door, keeping anyone else out for now. They needed to see the recording before anyone else.

Laney looked around the room. Nothing had been disturbed in here either. Everything looked just as it had the last time she’d been here. The two couches flanked the fireplace on the right, Victoria’s chaise lounge was positioned in front of the window, and her desk was on the left.

Laney shuddered as an image of the kitchen flashed through her mind.
All the violence was saved for in there.

Laney stood in front of the desk. Jake stood next to her, his hand wrapped protectively around hers, and Henry stood on her other side. Henry linked the memory card to the monitor on Victoria’s desk. His face was a mask, showing nothing, but Laney knew he must be terrified.

The recording started that morning when Victoria and Ralph got up. Ralph left his bedroom and headed to the kitchen to make breakfast. Victoria joined him a few minutes later and set the table. Then the two sat down and ate while reading the newspaper. The normalcy of the scene was jarring when compared with the now blood-soaked room. Laney wanted to yell a warning at them.
Run!

“They didn’t suspect a thing,” Jake murmured.

A few minutes later, Ralph’s head whipped up like it was on a string. Two canisters came flying through the back windows. They sparked.

“Flash bangs,” Jake murmured. Victoria dropped to the ground, her hands over her ears.

Ralph paused only for a second; he seemed to barely be affected by the concussion weapons. He pulled Victoria to her feet as men poured into the room.

Laney put her hand to her mouth. “Oh my God.”

Ralph and Victoria stood in the middle of the intruders.

And then all hell broke loose.

Ralph moved so fast Laney couldn’t even see him. He blurred through the room, taking out man after man. It was a bloodbath.

Victoria moved back against the wall, keeping out of reach. But then one of the gunmen grabbed her and put a gun to her head. He yelled.

Ralph stopped moving.

Victoria shook her head, yelling at Ralph. The recording had no sound, but Laney could make out the words clearly:
No, Ralph. Run
.

On the screen, two men manhandled Ralph to the ground. One of the gunmen walked forward and shot Ralph point blank in the forehead. Ralph’s head snapped back.

Laney gasped, and Jake tightened his grip on her hand.

Victoria slammed her fist into the groin of the man who held her; he dropped. She ran for Ralph, but another man grabbed her around the waist.

The gunman who’d shot Ralph in the head wasn’t done. He pulled the trigger over and over again, emptying his magazine into Ralph’s heart.

In the corner of the screen, Victoria struggled against the man who held her. Her arms reached for Ralph, her face contorted in pain and grief.

Laney stumbled back, her hand to her mouth. Jake slipped his arms around her, keeping her upright. Henry sat heavily on the desk. But none of them spoke.

Ralph’s body jerked as each bullet landed. Then it stopped and went still. On screen, Victoria, too, stopped fighting, all but collapsing. The men picked her up and carried her out.

Another man walked into the kitchen then, and Laney felt a jolt of recognition.
Jorgen Fuld
. He walked over to Ralph and emptied his magazine into Ralph’s heart.

“Son of a bitch,” Jake growled.

Laney stared. Her body began to shake, and her mouth felt unable to form words. She looked over at Henry, whose face was frozen in anguish. All of Henry’s childhood memories involved Ralph. Laney’s heart broke for him.

Numbly, they continued to watch the video. The men gathered up their injured and dead. Finally, the men left, and there was only Ralph left on the floor.

The tape continued to roll.

And then a few minutes later, Henry entered. He went still at the doorway before running to Ralph and kneeling at his side.

Laney’s heart broke again at the sight of the agony on Henry’s face. Seconds later though, Henry sprinted for the door. Laney knew how hard it must have been for Henry to leave Ralph behind.

Laney felt empty as she stared at Ralph. She remembered him sharing with her the photo album Victoria had kept of Laney through the years.

All three of them stared at the tape, but nothing changed. Jake began to fast forward.

“Guys, look.” Jake pointed at the monitor.

On screen, Ralph’s hand twitched. Then it rolled into a fist. Ralph sat up—slowly, wincing. He got to his knees and stayed there for a moment before standing. Then he stumbled out of the room.

Jake switched to another camera view: the front hall. There was Ralph again, continuing doggedly onward, his posture straightening with each step. Before long, he sprinted out the door and out of the camera’s view.

Laney stepped back and fell into the chaise lounge, stunned. She stared at the clock on the right hand side of one of the screens. “He was down for almost thirty minutes. How could he come back after thirty minutes?”

Henry’s eyes were wide. “I don’t know. It… it’s not possible. It just isn’t.”

“Apparently it is,” Jake said. “So now the bigger question is: How?”

Laney looked at the bloodstain where Ralph had lain. It was large. She knew nephilim and Fallen could regenerate, but not from wounds that serious. All that blood loss. And all those chest shots. Ralph’s heart should have been destroyed.

Jake placed his hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him.

He nodded at the ring on the chain around Laney’s neck. “Have you ever felt anything around Ralph?”

“No, nothing. I—” She stopped short. “Actually, I haven’t worn the ring around him.”

“But in Saqqara,” Henry said.

Laney shook her head. “No. I’ve never worn it around him. He’s been to the school with Victoria, but you guys know I don’t wear it unless it might be necessary. And it’s never been necessary when he’s been around.” She looked at Henry. “You haven’t felt anything around him?”

“No, but if he’s a Fallen, I wouldn’t feel anything.”

Laney looked from Jake to Henry. “But some of the kids at the school are Fallen. Lou is. She would have mentioned something.”

Jake squeezed her arm. “I’m going to speak with the SIA. Tell them to put out an APB on Ralph.”

Laney nodded numbly, still staring at the screen. Then she looked up into Henry’s tortured face. And although neither of them said a word, the same question hung in the hair between them.

What exactly
was
Ralph?

CHAPTER 13

T
hirty minutes later, Laney stepped out the back door of Victoria’s home and took a deep breath. The house felt stifling even though she knew it was no warmer than usual, but at the same time a chill that seemed to have settled over her. Jake had gone to speak with Jordan to see what he could find out about Ralph.

Laney glanced back toward the house. Henry had headed out the front door earlier. For a moment she thought about going to find him, but she quickly discarded the idea. He needed some time alone. And truth be told, so did she.

Through the window, she could see people walking around Victoria’s kitchen. Victoria, a woman whose entire life had been a deeply held secret, was now having that life flayed wide open.

Turning back to the yard, Laney remembered Victoria’s garden when she had first seen it. It had been a riot of color: roses, pom-poms, daisies, and dozens more. Now those colors had all been bleached as the cool weather had moved in.

Laney walked through the path that cut through the middle of the garden, her eyes flicking from side to side. Even with the cool weather, she saw signs of life. The mums had broken through the earth, signaling the advent of new, darker colors.

About a hundred yards from the house, she turned onto a path on her left. At the top of the rise she paused and looked at the white tombstone surrounded by its own little garden. A wrought iron bench sat nearby, under a rose of Sharon tree.

Laney walked to the grave. “Hey, sis.” She knelt down and ran her hands over the engraving.

Sarah

She never had a chance to live,

but by her death helped save another.

Last year, when Laney learned that she was the biological daughter of Victoria, she also learned that her parents’ own biological daughter had passed away at birth. Victoria had had the child buried and had tended to her gravesite all those years. Laney had struggled with what to think about Victoria and this other child. But then she’d realized that, at heart, she and Sarah were sisters.

Laney spoke to the tombstone. “I thought you should know: someone took Mom. But we’ll get her back. I promise.” She grabbed some leaves that had fallen onto the grave and tossed them to the side. She stood and turned.

Taking a seat on the bench, she watched a flock of geese fly overhead. She closed her eyes. She knew she should go inside and help. But she needed a moment to take in everything that had happened. Jorgen Fuld had Victoria. She pictured him at the airfield; the image of him with his glasses knocked off was in the front of her mind. His eyes had looked black—completely black.

But that wasn’t possible. No one had completely black eyes. Even the Fallen looked human.
It had to have been a trick of the light, right?

Why had he taken Victoria? To get to Laney and Henry? But why make it so obvious? He’d been off the radar. They’d had no signs of him. All his homes had been shuttered. So why stick his head out now?

Did
he
somehow know who Victoria was? His men had been prepared for Ralph. Even Laney and Henry hadn’t had a clue as to Ralph’s nature—and to be honest, they still didn’t. So how did Jorgen’s men know to take him down? And who—or rather
what
—was Ralph?

She clenched her fists, her annoyance at Victoria flaring up. If Victoria had told them who she was, maybe all of this could have been avoided. Maybe…

Laney cut herself off in mid-thought. That was a useless line of reasoning. What was done was done. She needed to focus on the here and now. Not what she wished had happened.

After all, there was already plenty to keep her thoughts occupied. She pictured the Fallen shooting at Fuld’s men. What had that been all about?

They must have been under Samyaza’s direction, but why were they fighting Jorgen? And why were they trying to rescue Victoria? Laney put her head in her hands. It didn’t make any sense.

Unless Victoria is working with them,
a voice whispered in the back of her mind. Laney didn’t want to go there, but she wasn’t sure she was going to be able to avoid that voice for long.

“Hey there.”

Laney’s head popped up as Jake walked over and took a seat next to her.

She wrapped her hand in his. “Hey.”

“You doing okay?”

She shook her head before leaning it on Jake’s shoulder. “I don’t know.”

He kissed her forehead. “We’ll find her.”

“I hope so.”

They sat together in silence for a few minutes.

Laney finally lifted her head and looked at Jake. Frown lines had formed between his eyes. “What’s wrong?”

“What? Oh, nothing—just worried about Victoria and Ralph,” he said, trying to cover the frown.

Laney narrowed her eyes. “That’s not it. What’s going on?”

Jake looked at her for a moment. “Back at the airfield…” He paused.

“Yes?”

“When you called up that lightning. It was pretty powerful stuff.”

“I guess.”

“No. Not ‘I guess.’ Laney, you were practically glowing. Your hair was flying around. I could feel the power radiating off of you.”

Laney sat back. She hadn’t realized that. She paused, unsure whether she wanted to hear the answer to the question she needed to ask. “Do my powers… scare you?”

“Sometimes.”

Laney jolted and pulled her hand away.

He reached out and grabbed her hand. “No, don’t back away from me. It’s not what you think. I trust you—with my very life. But you have weapons at your disposal that are new to you. It’s like handing a loaded gun to someone who’s never shot before. I’d feel better if they had a few lessons.”

“Well, the only person I know who can control the weather is Storm from
X-Men
. Should I call Stan Lee, see if he has any pointers? Or maybe see if the Dog Whisperer has some free time?”

Jake laughed. “No. I don’t think that will be necessary. But how about if we train a little bit with your powers? I’ll set up some targets, and you’ll take them down with different abilities.”

Laney liked the idea. Anything that helped her get a better handle on her powers was more than okay with her. And the fact that Jake wanted to help her meant a lot. “Thank you.”

He tilted her chin up. “You are the most important person in the world to me. Anything I can do to make this destiny of yours easier, I’ll do.”

“I love you, Jake.”

“I love you, too.”

Laney sat nestled in Jake’s arms, letting herself take the comfort he offered. But her questions wouldn’t stay still for long. Dozens of them whirled through her mind. And one question kept repeating over and over again.

Who is Victoria?