The Fallen 4 (18 page)

“Verchiel, stand down,” Aaron ordered, although he expected his words would have little effect on the stubborn angel.

“It’s all right, Aaron,” Mallus said, staring straight into Verchiel’s eyes. “What is it now, Verchiel?”

“Why do you tell us this? You’ve been on the run for centuries. You’ve known of the Architects’ plans for far longer than that. Why share all of this with us now?”

“Until now I didn’t think that the world had any chance of surviving what the Architects had in store,” Mallus said.

“But something changed your mind.” Verchiel had a curious gleam in his eye.

“Yes,” Mallus answered with a nod. “He changed my mind.” He pointed at Cameron. “I’d heard that some Nephilim had survived the Powers’ crusade to exterminate them, but I never gave it any more thought than that… until that one saved my life and I saw the Nephilim’s potential.”

Mallus turned to Aaron again.

“And then I discovered who was leading them, the son of my former commander, the angel for whom I fell from the grace of Heaven—Lucifer Morningstar.”

Aaron immediately felt uncomfortable.

“You have given me the courage to act as I should have acted long ago,” Mallus said. “There have been others fighting this fight, but their victories were few and far between. It all seemed so very pointless.” His shoulders slumped in regret. “It was easier to do nothing and remain invisible than to protect what time humanity had left.”

“But now that you’ve met us, you think there might be a chance to fight back?” Aaron asked, not really sure he believed Mallus. “Have you seen how many of us there actually are? This is it.” He gestured around the room.

Mallus nodded. “Although I believed there was no hope before, now I see a glimmer of possibility. Just a glimmer, mind you, but a glimmer nonetheless.”

“So you’re saying that we haven’t even met the real enemy yet,” Cameron said.

“Exactly,” Mallus replied. “And that’s how they prefer it. The Architects are guiding actions from the shadows to eventually realize their goal.”

“Which is?” Melissa asked, arms folded nervously across her chest.

“That I cannot answer,” the fallen angel said. “But from what I could gather while in their service, it does not bode well for humankind.”

Aaron felt his anger begin to rise. This was all getting to be too much for him. Wasn’t it bad enough that they’d failed to
prevent the earth from being cut off from Heaven, that they were paying the price as daylight steadily diminished and humanity was at the mercy of the monstrous things that had emerged from the shadows to lay claim to the planet? Now there was more?

Aaron just couldn’t take it anymore.

“This is bullshit,” he said, shocking the others with his outburst.

Vilma looked at him, fear in her eyes. “Aaron?”

“I said this is bullshit,” he repeated. “How much more can we do? We Nephilim were supposed to be God’s greatest achievement, but we’ve been hunted down to near extinction, and now we can barely perform the function we were created for.”

Vilma grabbed hold of his arm. Her touch brought him a certain amount of solace, but not enough to silence his rant.

“Now we’re being asked to stop godlike angels that have been crafting their will behind the scenes since before creation?” Aaron continued. “It’s just too damn much, and I’m beginning to believe that your not killing me”—he pointed to Verchiel, who seemed startled by the attention—“was the worst thing that could have happened to me.”

Aaron suddenly stopped, stunned by what had just poured from his mouth, but feeling no regret.

“I need some fresh air,” he said then, leaving the room, and leaving the fate of humanity—the fate of the world—hanging in the balance.

But at that moment he just didn’t have the energy to care.

*   *   *

The Morningstar had never imagined that he would care so much.

As he watched the vision, he was again reminded of the depth of emotion that he’d experienced in the presence of Taylor Corbet.

How was this even possible?
he wondered, observing snippets of the life they had started together. He had once been a self-centered monster who had allowed his feelings of jealously to spread like a cancer through the hierarchy of Heaven. How could he have fallen so deeply in love with a human woman? How could he possibly have been in love with one of the creatures that had stolen away God’s love for his kind?

But perhaps in growing to love her he had learned something that the Almighty had tried to convey. Humanity
was
something special, and to love them was to truly love Him. For the spark of God was in each and every person, although it seemed that Taylor Corbet had more of Him in her than many of the others.

Lucifer could never really say for sure what it was that set her apart from everyone else, but whatever it was, the Morningstar embraced it. And in doing so, he embraced the world. With Taylor Corbet’s love he was able to set aside his anger and see the grave mistake of his actions.

And begin his journey on the long road to redemption.

Other than when he was with the Almighty Himself, Lucifer had never been more happy in the presence of another
being. The life he had with Taylor was simple but whole. He lived not as the Morningstar but as a human, and his admiration of God’s greatest achievement grew.

But the way to atonement was not an easy path. It was filled with great pain, and sacrifice. Lucifer still had a great price to pay.

He had been with Taylor for little more than three years when he had begun to sense that those he had wronged, those who hunted him, were close. And for the safety of the woman he’d grown to love, he’d had to leave. He knew that these Powers would show her no mercy. They would derive great pleasure in taking her from him.

So Lucifer left in the early hours of the morning, without saying good-bye, without telling Taylor how much he loved her.

She had become his universe. She had saved him from himself, and for that he would be forever in her debt. But he never had a chance to tell her that, for his sins were catching up with him, and he’d had to flee.

Lucifer watched, and remembered the sinking feeling of despair he had experienced as he’d left the life he’d made for himself with Taylor. But that despair was even worse now, for he knew that it was not only Taylor Corbet whom he had left that fateful morning.

But his unborn son as well.

*   *   *

Mallus started to follow Aaron out, but the other female stopped him with a firm hand on his arm.

“Maybe you should give him a minute,” Vilma said.

The fallen angel considered this, then withdrew his arm from her grasp.

“I need to speak with him further,” he said, again starting to follow.

A sword of fiery red suddenly blocked his way.

“And I asked you to give him a minute,” she said in a semi-threatening tone.

He liked the spirit of these Nephilim, and the more time he spent with them, the more hope he had. He knew the Architects would have prepared for every contingency, but there was something he admired about these young half-breeds that he couldn’t quite put his finger on.

Something that made him believe in the impossible.

“Please,” he said to Vilma. “I think I might be able to help him.”

“You’ve done an awesome job so far,” she said angrily.

So he waited for her approval, as the others watched. Mallus knew that if he went against her wishes, he would not only have to deal with the female’s wrath but the wrath of all the others—including Verchiel.

Again he briefly wondered how the former leader of the Powers had come to be here amongst those he had once called abominations. But who was Mallus to question, for here he was attempting to save humanity.

“Take it easy on him,” Vilma finally said, and her sword
disappeared in a searing flash. “We’ve been burning the candle at both ends these days, and we’re all a little fragile.”

“Fragile,” Mallus said, sensing their potential for ferocity. “That couldn’t be farther from the truth.”

Then he strode from the room in search of their leader.

Mallus found Aaron perched atop a swing set in an old, decrepit playground. He watched the young man sitting perfectly balanced across the metal bar, staring off into space.

The angel wanted to tell him that the answers were to be found within oneself, in the choices that one made.

He was transported back to the time when it had all changed for him, when Mallus had observed the Morningstar and Taylor Corbet together in the park. How long he had watched them, Mallus could not remember, but it was long enough to have instilled a change in him, although he’d been unable to admit it at the time.

The Architects had wanted Lucifer Morningstar in their ranks, and it had been up to Mallus to approach him with the request.

Aaron interrupted Mallus’s thoughts. “I know you’re there,” he called out.

Mallus pushed the memory aside and approached the Nephilim.

“If you’ve come out here to tell me more stuff that I should be fighting you can forget it,” Aaron said, refusing to look at him. “I’ve got way too much on my plate right now.”

Mallus decided to dive in headfirst. “It was seeing you, and realizing who you were, that gave me the notion that there was still a chance for the world.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Aaron said, jumping down to the ground. He picked up a handful of pebbles at his feet and threw them at the rusted merry-go-round in the center of the play area. “I’m the savior… the Chosen One… yadda, yadda, yadda.”

A pebble hit the old ride with a metallic clatter.

“I wasn’t even sure that you had survived,” Mallus said.

Aaron looked at him, confusion in his gaze. “Survived?” he asked. “What, the Powers’ attacks?”

Mallus stepped closer, shaking his head. “After you were born, I made sure that you were safe by putting you into the system.”

Aaron turned toward him, the weight of Mallus’s words starting to permeate. “You put me into the system?” he asked. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“At that time, your mother was in true danger,” Mallus explained. “She was the one who needed my help to survive.”

“My mother?” Aaron stepped toward him. “My mother died giving birth to me.”

Mallus smiled. “That’s what I wanted everyone to believe.”

“What are you saying?” Aaron demanded. His wings of ebony stretched from his back, and angelic script appeared upon his taut, muscular flesh. Mallus stood in awe, reading the names and remembering those whom he’d fought alongside,
those who had fought for the beliefs of the Morningstar.

Aaron was even more of a spectacle than Mallus had originally believed.

“What do you know about my mother?” Aaron demanded, his voice raging with suppressed angelic might.

“I knew that it was only a matter of time before they came for her, the human woman who had tamed the Morningstar,” Mallus explained. “And then when I found out she was with child—
his child
—I knew what had to be done.”

“You knew my mother?” Aaron asked incredulously.

Mallus laughed softly. “Let’s just say I admired her from afar. I saw a power in her… and the more I saw, the more I was changed as well.”

He had the young man’s rapt attention.

“It was she, your mother, who swayed me from serving the Architects,” he continued. “If the Morningstar could live amongst them, love one of them, then who was I to want them dead?”

“You… you’re saying that she didn’t die?” Aaron asked.

Mallus shook his head. “Not then,” he explained. “Fearing for her safety, Lucifer departed before learning that she was with child. I felt a certain responsibility to my former commander, as well as the woman he had come to love—and besides, I knew how valuable she and her unborn child could be to the Architects.”

Mallus went to sit upon the merry-go-round, and Aaron followed eagerly.

“I watched her through her pregnancy, shielding her from danger, and when it was time, I was with her.”

“What did you do?” Aaron asked, desperation in his tone.

“She did die giving birth to you,” Mallus said.

“But you—”

“My concern at first was for you,” he said. “I knew that at birth you would be just a normal child, and I made sure you were put into the foster system, where you would be cared for.” Mallus looked at him then. “I knew that once you reached maturity, problems would arise. But that was a worry for another time.”

“My mother… she was dead?”

“She was,” Mallus acknowledged. “But not for long. Her body was taken to the hospital morgue, but there was still enough of a spark within her for me to work with. I fanned the flame of her life. I restored her.”

“But if you were afraid that the Architects might—”

“I was afraid, but I also saw the benefit of keeping her alive,” he said. “After all, she was the human woman who’d tamed the Morningstar.”

“Where did she go?” Aaron demanded. “What did you do to her?”

“The Architects had enemies. They still do. I contacted those enemies and told them who she was. They took her away.”

“Somebody took her? Is she still alive?” The boy was growing frantic.

Mallus shrugged. “Truthfully, I do not know. That night was the last I saw of her.”

“Who did you give her to?” Aaron asked, tension in his voice.

“There wasn’t a choice, Aaron,” Mallus said. “The Architects would have used her as a bargaining chip with Lucifer. I did what I thought was best for her… and for you.”

“Yeah,” Aaron said, the names on his exposed flesh starting to fade as his wings receded. “I’ve been doing just awesome, thanks.”

“But you are,” Mallus said. “This world would have spiraled downward far more quickly if it weren’t for you and the others.”

“But we’re still spiraling,” Aaron said. “There doesn’t seem to be any way to stop it.”

“If this were any other night, I might have agreed with you,” Mallus told him.

“What do you mean by that?” the boy asked suspiciously. “What else are you going to spring on me?”

Mallus could feel his hope for humanity actually rise. “I know… things,” he said.