The Fall (17 page)

Addison woke up slowly, still feeling drowsy, her head spinning. Where was she? She had been walking with James and …
James
.
That son of a bitch!
she thought. She looked around her room and was surprised at just how nice it was. She was lying on a huge four-poster bed that was draped with red silk sheets. She was wondering how James could afford this place when the door opened and in walked Malachi.
Shit.
Obviously James was in way over his head. Malachi was flanked by two other Nephilim. Well, she thought they were Nephilim. She just assumed any extremely tall, good-looking male was Nephilim nowadays.

Malachi eyed her with malice. “You, Miss O’Donnell,” he said, his face impassive. “You have been particularly elusive. You have wasted precious time. Still, you have been found, and your virtue is still intact. Shocking. Now, your blood will be used. If you survive the ritual, you can be a gift for our new resident demon lord.” The dark-haired guard shifted at Malachi’s words.

Demon lord? Addison’s brows drew together. Great, just great. Archer forgot to give an introduction to supernatural beings lesson. She hoped they had a Dummies book on it.

“Wait a minute, how do you know I’m a virgin?” She couldn’t help but feel violated, but her clothes were on, and she didn’t feel like someone had tried to, well, ‘check’.

Malachi looked at her, and then walked out, not bothering to answer her question.

“Guard her,” he ordered the other two men.

Addison looked at her new bodyguards. The size of them gave her the impression that even without superhuman strength, they’d be able to break her bones with ease. Their demeanour was serious, lacking any of the joviality that seemed to spill from Jake in bucket loads.
Oh shit
, she thought.
Jake
. She felt awful for leaving him. She knew Archer was going to blame him. She put that thought to the side. She had more pressing concerns that involved potential imminent death.

Both guards were about six foot five, but that was where their similarities ended. The one who had squirmed had various piercings. From what she could see, he had one in his eyebrow, judging by the glint that caught the light when he moved, and two in his lip. He had long, black hair that fell across his face, hiding it. His whole look gave off that
fuck you
vibe. Black jeans, a tank top, and a leather jacket completed his bad-boy image. He licked his lips so as to show off his tongue ring.
Ah Hell, that ring looks kind of sexy
. Addison would have to tell Archer. She almost laughed at the thought of classy, gentlemanly, control-freak Archer with a tongue ring.

Guard number two had curly blond hair, and extremely pale skin, but dark eyes that were almost black. He wore black slacks and a black blazer, as if he were about to go to a board meeting. Nevertheless, he looked too menacing to be mistaken as a businessman. Addison personally thought he was irrationally dressed up for hostage duty. Then again, a mercenary who dressed up as though he was going for an interview seemed more dangerous, more unsuspecting.

Curly-haired guy left the room.
Probably to guard the other side of the door
, Addison thought.

Addison’s mind started turning.
Use that giant cranium of yours
, she thought. She needed to get this guard talking while they were alone.
Information.
That was what she needed.

“So,” she started nervously. “Do you keep all your sacrifices in nice accommodations like this?”

Hot tongue ring guy smiled with just a touch of menace. His demeanour suggested he was bored, but intelligence radiated from him.

“You are the only sacrifice needed Princess, but perhaps we will keep this room vacant in case. You never know when you need housing to accommodate kidnapped women.”
Riiiggghhht.

“What is your name?” she asked, trying to keep him talking while she thought up some kind of plan.

He bit his lip, as if considering what the possible repercussions of answering could be, before seemingly deciding it couldn’t do any harm. “Call me Ace.”

Addison was confident he’d talk to her freely, only because he was sure she would not live through the night.

“Ace,” She used her most beguiling smile. “I like your piercings. You’re the first Nephilim I’ve seen that has any.” Her poor attempt at flirting seemed to work. Ace’s lips twitched beneath his hair.
Typical male
,
she thought.
All he needs is some ego stroking.

“What do you get out of this, Ace? Killing an innocent woman? Gaining Archer’s wrath?”

Ace stared at her, snapping to attention. Then he put his palms up, the barely visible line of some kind of force-field enclosing the entire room.

“Archer, son of Samyaza?” he asked carefully. Addison nodded.

“Yes, Archer is my boyfriend. And I assure you, he will not be happy right about now. Oh, and Jake. And probably the twins, bless their hearts.”

Addison noticed Ace’s body grew tense. If his hair hadn’t been covering most of his face, Addison might have had a better chance of reading him.

“Malachi recruited me from several territories over. He said he wanted to release our fathers, but he said nothing about stealing the mate of Archer,” he said.

Addison frowned. Was he that afraid of Archer? I mean, if the Grigori were released, would they protect Malachi and his followers from Archer and his brothers? Addison dug her fingers into her palms, screaming, “I hate angel politics!” in her head. She figured she’d try pleading with him. She had nothing to lose.

“Ace, you don’t have to do this. Help me escape; take me back to Archer. And what the hell was that weird power through the room?” she asked.

“It is a sort of force-field; it keeps what is said between us private. Otherwise, Landon would hear everything from the other side of the door and report back.”
So that is Blondie’s name
, Addison noted.

“Oh, right. Archer can do the same thing,” she said absently before regaining focus. “Ace, I don’t want to die.”

Ace glanced at her and then continued pacing. “What you want doesn’t matter, Princess. You’re just a sacrifice. Our fathers shall be released. The best you can do is make it easy on yourself and do what you’re told.”

Addison sighed. “Great, a poor innocent girl is gonna die because a bunch of huge, sexy immortals have daddy issues.” Surprisingly, Ace grinned. Addy heard footsteps approaching, and Ace quickly dispersed the force-field. He resumed his serious bodyguard mode, showing no signs of emotion. It was so good, in fact, that for a moment Addy thought she had possibly imagined the whole conversation.

The Nephilim she now knew to be named Landon opened the door, nodded at Ace, scanned around the room then shut it again.

“Are you hungry?” Ace asked impassively. Addison shook her head and then frowned. Her, not hungry? Well, there was a first time for everything. Addison was sure Ace would help her escape, but he didn’t look like he was going to initiate it. There was no way out of this room, that was for sure; she would have to wait until she was escorted to wherever Malachi was going to take her. She wasn’t going to go down without a fight. Still, she sure hoped Archer arrived soon.

***

Chapter 20

Archer was trying to remain calm, trying to stay logical and collected. It wasn’t working. He was torn between wanting to scream and wanting to beat the shit out of the first person he could get his hands on.

He and his brethren had been trying to locate Malachi’s hideout for hours, all to no avail. Most Nephilim didn’t even know who he was. The others knew, some were on his side and some weren’t, but none of them could tell him where he stayed. He almost prayed for Addison, before catching himself and letting out a snort of laughter. As if God would ever help him. An abomination.

Archer pushed that thought aside and focused on what was important. There was only six hours until Samhain, when the ceremony would take place. Archer was counting on Malachi not killing anyone until then. The thought of him laying one finger on Addy made him punch the wall, leaving a huge hole in it.

“That probably won’t help,” Jake said, walking into Archer’s room. “Sin and Crux said that they hadn’t learnt anything but are on standby, and that if we need them they will assist us. I don’t know if I trust them, but they seemed truthful.”

Archer nodded, but said nothing.

“Archius, we will find her. There is no doubt in my mind,” Jake said, standing up and laying a hand on Archer’s shoulder.

“What if I am too late?” Archer asked. “What then? I love her, Jake. I love her so fucking much. The idea that Malachi could be hurting her right now … I can’t fucking stand it!” He punched the wall again when he finished the last sentence.

“Well then, let’s make sure we find her quickly,” he said. “What should we do next?”

***

It’s a good thing the dining table is so big
, Archer thought. He sat down, surrounded by Jake, Jeremiah, Levi, Chance, and Quinn. Archer wasn’t surprised that Lazarus didn’t show; he hadn’t expected him to. Time to get down to business.

“Has anyone found out anything about Malachi?” Archer asked, skipping any pleasantries.

“Not many Nephilim have heard of him. He has kept himself discreet, Archer,” Chance answered.

“We found a few of his supporters, but none of them knew where he was staying,” Quinn said, before adding, “even after I tried to persuade them to learn.”

Archer knew what some of Quinn’s “persuasive” methods were. They would make anyone sell out their own mother.

“Has a search on him turned up any info?” Archer asked, looking at Jeremiah, who was the resident tech-head.

“No,” he said softly. “Nothing.”

Great.
Archer took a deep breath. He thought of everything he knew about Malachi.

“Have you checked his aliases? Jay, can you run a full search on Kai Gregory and Matthew White? Property, hotels, car rentals … everything you could find.”

Jeremiah jolted into a frenzy of typing activity on the laptop in front of him.

“Rented a Benz about six weeks ago. He had a room at the Regal for two weeks a month back. Nothing on where he is now, though.”

“For fuck’s sake,” Archer cursed. “We have to find her.”

***

Lazarus couldn’t help feeling guilty. If he had helped Archer earlier, his woman wouldn’t have been kidnapped. He sighed. He had always been obsessed with genealogy. Since before he could remember he had been researching the Grigori family lines, seeing who got what special talents from who. When you deny your baser needs, there was a lot of free time available.

When Archer rang frantic about his human, Lazarus had simply gone through his research. Apparently some of the Nephilim from the line of Ananiel were echo locators: they had the ability to determine location of objects. Those powerful enough could locate any being on earth with just their mind. Lazarus had found the contact details of a Nephilim named Amos and asked for his help. Lazarus now owed him an Orceph, which was Enochian for a favour, boon, or promise, to be repaid at his time of choosing. Lazarus cursed and thought,
How the fuck do I get myself into this shit?
But Addison was Kitty’s best friend, and for some reason he found himself caring for the strange, brazen human. He would do what he could to help. He picked up the phone, ready to tell Archer what he knew.

***

Archer sat in his lounge room with Jake, Jeremiah and Quinn. Quinn had brought enough weapons for an army. Everyone was now fully armed and waiting for directions like good little soldiers. Chance and Levi were out doing the same, but instead of sitting at home talking to contacts, they were out looking for someone to beat to a pulp for information. Archer had wanted to go with them, because he sure as fuck needed a fight right now.

After he’d punched several holes in their apartment walls, Jake had restrained him, and attempted to keep him calm. He told Archer to stay at the apartment until news of Addison’s whereabouts surfaced. As soon as the location was revealed Archer was going to go and kill anyone who had even thought about hurting his woman.
Fuck
.

Archer was wearing a trail into the carpet. Jake’s phone rang and the ensuing conversation was quick. Jake put the phone down and rushed over to Archer.

“We got it, let’s go.” Archer was already out the door before Jake finished the sentence. He only hoped he wasn’t too late.

Archer was speeding, cursing himself for not being able to teleport. He looked over at Jake who was on the phone, giving directions to Chance and Levi. Who would have thought Lazarus would have been the one to come through and find Malachi’s lair? He owed him, big time.

Jeremiah and Quinn were in another car following Archer; Chance and Levi on their way. He hoped he had enough men to fight whatever army Malachi had accumulated.

***

Addison had to admit, her kidnappers certainly weren’t leaving her to waste away. She kind of felt like a cow being fattened up and prepared for a meal.

Ace remained in the corner of the room, watching her eat with no small amount of astonishment on his face. Addison chose not to respond to that and started on the cheesecake after she finished her third helping of pasta. She had a lot of time, and she figured she should keep her strength up. None of that starving in protest for her.

“Where does it all go?” Ace asked admiringly, breaking the silence.

Addison swallowed before answering, “I don’t eat that much.”

“Um, I am quite certain that you have just eaten your entire body weight in food,” he refuted.

“Yeah, well maybe if I had something to do, I wouldn’t have to,” she scorned. “What does a girl have to do to get a PlayStation around here?”

Ace grinned. “You play?”

“Ah, yeah I do. But I don’t think this is appropriate kidnapper talk. Shouldn’t you be discussing your torture methods in detail and threatening my loved ones?” Addison wanted to kick herself for even suggesting that, but it had to be said. She was scared and worried so sarcasm was her natural defensive mechanism. Still, she had the feeling she had nothing to fear from Ace.