Confronting the Fallen (21 page)

“
Guys,”
Chris hissed between his teeth. “Back away from the table. Get
out of the room. Quickly, quickly.”

His
friends looked perplexed. “What's going on, Chris?” Tyler
asked in obvious confusion. Jacob stared at Chris, speechless.

“
He's...coming.
I can't stop him.” Chris grabbed his head. His temples were
suddenly throbbing with a massive headache. “Sariel. He's
responding to my pain, I think and he's, he's enraged.” He
glared at the others. “Please! I don't want you to get hurt.
Get away, now!”

Tyler
and Jacob jumped to their feet. “Close the door, Jake. We can't
let any of the others into the room.'

Jacob
ran and slammed and locked the door to the dining hall. Chris saw
this all vaguely through a red-tinged haze.

“
What
are you doing?” he said, forcing out the words. “You
can't stay here.”

Tyler
ignored him. He looked at Jacob. “Are you ready?”

“
Yeah,
of course.” Jacob seemed suddenly calm and unafraid. He looked
at Chris. “We have to hold him.”

As
a wave of pain threatened to blind him, Chris saw both of his friends
put their right hands on their chest.

“
Astriel,
come forth,” Tyler said quietly.

“
Janariel,
I need you,” Jacob murmured.

There
was a flash of silver light, cold and brilliant, and where his
friends had been standing were two beings who gazed at Chris with
cool affection.

They
were perhaps a foot taller than Tyler and Jacob, with their hair
cascading down past their shoulders; Tyler's dirty blond now a mane
of alabaster and Jacob's brown now streaked with gold. The faces were
the same but they glowed with an inner light that made a halo of
illumination around their heads. Breastplates of silver covered white
robes, but it was the wings that reached up and back behind them that
took Chris' breath away.

Pearly
white, each feather perfectly formed, the wings spread out and
towered over both of them. For a moment, the shock of their
transformation had diverted Chris' attention, but he could feel
Sariel's approach in his head, which was pounding hard enough for him
to see flashes of red as he watched the two angels.

“
Christopher,
you have to take control,” Astriel said urgently. “You
are master of your own body, not him. Stop him now, or you will end
up his subordinate.”

“
How
do I do that?” Chris asked, forcing the words out through the
pain.

“
Impose
your will on him,” Janariel said. He stepped up to Chris and
then knelt down on one knee in front of him. He reached out and held
on to Chris' shoulders. His touch felt cool and Chris' skin tingled
at the contact. Seen up close, Janariel's face was larger than
Jacob's and his green eyes looked like faceted emeralds, glowing from
within. “Tell him what you would have him do. He can only
control you if you let him.”

Chris
shook his head violently. “He's too strong. My head's going to
explode if I don't let him out!”

“
Reach
inside, Christopher. Tell him what you want. That is truly all you
need do.”

“
Fine,”
Chris said through his teeth. “I'll try.”

He
closed his eyes and tried to reach out to Sariel. He was surprised at
how easy it was.

'What
the hell are you doing?' he said silently.

'You
are in pain, Christopher,' Sariel's voice echoed through his mind,
deep and sorrowful. 'It matches my own. It ignites my rage. I cannot
hold it back.'

Chris
was shocked. Sariel wasn't trying to take over. He had literally lost
control! Well, one thing I've learned in the last three years is how
to control my emotions, he thought.

He
tried to envision a calm place in his mind. Chris always used a field
in the country that his parents had taken him to when he was little.
There had been tall grass and apple trees and a sweet breeze blowing,
sending ripples across the grassy expanse. He felt calmer even now as
he thought about it.

'Sariel,
can you see what I'm seeing?'

'I,
yes, I see it. Where is this place?'

'It's
just a memory. But try to go there, embrace it. It calms me when
nothing else will. It's my safe place, I guess. It can be yours too.'

Sariel
didn't reply, but Chris thought he heard him sigh with relief. Then
Chris felt the pulses of hate and rage slowly begin to subside. The
pain in his head began to lessen and he breathed a ragged sigh of
relief.

He
opened his eyes. Instead of Janariel and Astriel, Jacob and Tyler
were standing next to him, watching him closely.

“
Better,
Chris?” Tyler asked gently.

“
Whew.
Yeah, much better. Um, what happened to...you know?”

Jacob
laughed lightly. “They felt Sariel calming down and headed back
in. They don't like to be exposed unless it's absolutely necessary.
I'm glad they were able to help.”

“
Me
too,” Chris said. “I gave him a quiet place to drain away
his anger. It seems to have helped.”

“
Obviously.
And you also showed him that you're in charge, Chris.” Tyler
walked over and unlocked the door as he spoke. Chris was relieved to
see that there was no one waiting to enter the dining hall. “That's
the most important thing. One day, if you need to call on his
strength, you'll be the one calling the shots. And that's as it
should be. These are our bodies and this is our world. We have to
fight the bad guys directly. With the angel's help, of course.”

Chris
went and filled his coffee cup. He was still a bit shaky and decided
he needed more caffeine to settle his nerves. Tyler and Jacob did the
same.

“
You
know, if you guys have class or whatever, you can go ahead. I'll be
fine.”

“
No,
don't worry about it, man,” Tyler said with a smile. “This
is more important that class right now. Besides, I'm not really in
the mood for Algebra.” Jacob grinned and agreed with Tyler.

“
Okay.
Then if you don't mind me asking, have either of you been in a fight
yet where the angels had to help?”

Tyler
and Jacob exchanged looks. Tyler took a long sip of his coffee. “I
have,” he said soberly. “A couple of months ago. It was
kind of crazy actually.”

“
I
haven't,” Jacob answered quietly. “But Janariel says he's
ready and he tells me I am too, so we'll see.”

“
What
happened, Ty?” Chris asked. He wanted to know what to expect,
if he ever had to get involved in a fight with Talon or some other
enemy.

Tyler
got a faraway look on his face. “I was with Stevenson.”
He looked at Chris. “Have you heard of him yet?” Chris
shook his head. “Yeah, well, anyway. He was the head of
European operations for the organization. We were in Prague, looking
for a girl that informants thought might have 'strange powers'.
That's usually a good indication that a person might be one of us.
Anyway...”

“
Wait,”
Chris said. “You were in Prague? In the Czech Republic?”

Tyler
looked a bit perplexed. “Yeah. Why?”

“
I
dunno. I'm just surprised. I would have thought that someone there
could do that sort of job.”

“
They
probably could,” Tyler said, grinning. “But the few kids
that are in the safe house in Europe aren't trained yet. I'd been
with the organization for about six months, so they asked me to fly
over and help them out. I jumped at the chance. Sounded exciting.”
His voice changed and he stared across the room with a frown.
“Exciting. Huh. Well, it certainly ended up being that.”

“
What
happened?” Chris asked anxiously. He watched Jacob reach over
and give his friend's shoulder a little shake. Tyler smiled slightly.

“
We
were out looking around the neighborhood where she'd been spotted. We
had a description, but we hadn't seen anything for a few hours and by
the time Stevenson decided to call it a day, it was getting dark.”
Jacob shook his head. “Yeah, I know, Jake. I don't blame him,
really, but Stevenson should have known better. I was still too green
to understand the significance of it.”

Chris
was confused. “Significance of what?”

Tyler
looked at Chris grimly. “Demons, or fallen angels if you want
to call them that, can only use their powers in darkness, Chris. The
sun is the light of God and they can't face that and use their
powers. I didn't know that then. Stevenson did, but maybe he was
distracted or was too involved in the search to pay attention. We'll
never know,” he added sadly.

Tyler
finished his coffee and Jacob took his cup and went over and refilled
it. He returned and set it on the table. Tyler smiled his thanks and
took a sip.

“
We
were cutting down an alley when they jumped us. Half a dozen
thugs...and one of the Fallen.” He shook his head in awe.
“Stevenson was amazing. He was able to take on the low-lives,
no problem. And that left me to deal with the demon. Well, Astriel
had to deal with it actually.” He drank some more coffee and
Chris saw that Tyler's hand was shaking.

“
He
was amazing,” Tyler continued as he set down his cup. “But
the demon...I'd never imagined something so gross. The stench alone
was so foul that I wanted to vomit. And the slime...ugh.”

“
What
was it like, Ty?”

“
You
wouldn't know this yet, Chris, but demons aren't like us. They aren't
born into mortals. God would not permit that. Instead, they have to
inhabit the bodies of the dead. And that's as horrible as it sounds.”

Chris
gasped. “Corpses? You're saying they use corpses?”

“
Exactly.
They take the body and warp it into a form they want to use. This
demon had warped its body into a slime-covered horror. No head, just
massive arms with claws and spikes growing all over its body. I don't
want to go into details, it's just too sickening. But Astriel managed
to destroy it. Unfortunately, during the fight the creature took a
swipe at Stevenson. He was killed instantly.” Tyler sighed and
shook his head. “Turns out, the story of the teen-aged girl was
a lure, planted to get one of us out into the open. It worked, but we
learned our lesson. None of us with angelic souls goes out on a
mission like that any more unless the story is confirmed to be true.”

At
that moment, Martin walked into the room and smiled at the three
friends.

“
Telling
war stories, Tyler?” he asked. Chris wondered how he knew and
glanced around, looking for cameras. He didn't see any but that
didn't mean that there weren't any around. He hadn't spotted them in
the judge's office either.

“
Just
passing along some information, Martin,” Tyler answered. He
didn't smile.

“
Ah.
Of course. In any case. I just wanted to drop by and tell Jacob that
he has duty tonight. Thomas has a migraine again and has to spend
some time in his room, staying calm and still.”

“
Again?”
Jacob looked concerned. “I don't mind taking his shift, Martin,
but that's the third migraine in the last month. Shouldn't he get
checked or something?”

Martin
raised an eyebrow. “The judge had Thomas taken into Ottawa a
few days ago, to be examined by a specialist. We're still waiting for
the test results.”

“
Oh.
Well, okay then. That's good.” Jacob said awkwardly.

“
Yes.
So, we'll expect you out in the yard at eight o'clock sharp? Good.
Have a good day, gentlemen.” Martin nodded at them and left.

Jacob
looked at Tyler. “He shouldn't be getting migraines, should he?
Aren't we pretty much immune to diseases and things?”

“
Supposedly,
Jake. But Tom told me he's been getting them for a long time now. And
stress brings on attacks more often. I'm worried too. Besides his
health, what good will he be in the middle of a battle if he suddenly
blacks out with a migraine?”

“
Hmm.
Yeah, good point.” Jacob drained his cup and made a face.
“Yuck. Cold coffee. Well, I suppose I'd better try to get a nap
in if I'm going to be walking the perimeter all night. See you guys
later.”

Jacob
headed for the door.

“
Wait
up, Jake. I'll walk you up,” Tyler said and hurried after his
friend. He gave Chris a brief wave before leaving the room.

Chris
was left alone to digest what he'd learned. Animated corpses? Gross.
What was he getting himself into? He stood up and then hesitated,
wondering where he should go now. Then he heard a door open across
the room and turned to see Chef wheeling a large cart into the dining
hall. The big man spotted Chris and grinned.