Confronting the Fallen (29 page)

“
My
lord Sariel. It is you, isn't it?” There was a new resonance in
her voice and her black eyes suddenly glinted like faceted pieces of
onyx. Chris knew that her angel was speaking through Natalie. And at
the same time, he heard his own inner voice speaking.

'Chris',
Sariel said from somewhere deep inside of him. 'May I be allowed to
speak?'

At a loss
and not knowing how to respond to Natalie kneeling in front of him,
Chris agreed to let Sariel take over. He stood up, towering more than
two feet higher than his usual height and stared down at Natalie.

“
Do
not kneel to me, Gloriel. I am a simple child of God, as are you.
Rise sister. Rise. We have need of you...whole.”

Sariel
reached down and clasped Natalie's two hands in his. He raised her to
her feet and Chris was surprised to see tears streaming from her
eyes. And then he saw why.

Natalie rose
with a sudden grace and ease that she had not shown a moment before.
Chris realized that she had been healed.

'Why didn't
another angel do that earlier, Sariel?' he asked silently.

'Because
only someone older than the injured angel can heal them, Chris.
Gloriel is almost as old as Lilith, and until I arrived, there was no
one else who could repair the damage done to her.'

Chris
considered the implications of that statement while Sariel spoke
again. “We need you for a journey, Gloriel. Lilith is on the
move. She does not know that I walk the Earth, but I fear that she
will not remain ignorant for much longer. And once she knows, my
brother will learn of it soon after.”

Natalie, or
Gloriel, looked puzzled. “But what of it? You are more than a
match for our evil sister. There is no need to fear her.”

Sariel
motioned for her to be seated. “If I could access my full
power, that would be so. But I cannot. I need a conduit, a bridge to
send the power from my spiritual self to my human self.”

“
Ah,
of course.” Gloriel looked thoughtful. “The only object
that you could use would be...oh my. The sword that you used to
strike down the traitor. It remains on Earth?”

“
Indeed
it does, broken into three pieces.” While Sariel was talking,
Chris realized that he had returned to his normal size. Sariel was
simply using his voice now. He sat down again. He was pleased that
the angel wasn't trying to keep control.

“
There
is a hidden shrine somewhere, the judge knows where, that may give us
a clue to its location, or at least a piece of it. Will you join us
on the hunt for this artifact?”

“
We
would both be honored to join you, Sariel. And Christopher.” It
was Natalie speaking again. She looked more energized than Chris
would have believed possible when she'd first walked into the room.

“
Excellent.
Talk to the judge about the details. I'm afraid that Chris is going
to have to rest in a few moments. My power to heal is hard on his
system and exhaustion is about to set in.”

'It is?'
Chris asked internally. He felt fine.

'I'm afraid
so. I had to heal Natalie, as I think you'd agree was the right thing
to do, but the energy comes from you, Chris. The reaction will set in
momentarily and you'll need to sleep for a while. Thank you for
letting me speak, and act. We'll talk again soon.' And with that,
Sariel was gone.

And then Chris felt a wave of weakness
suddenly engulf him and he slumped back into his chair. His hands
were shaking slightly. He barely noticed Natalie's look of concern.

“Christopher, are you all right?”
The judge's worried voice seemed to come from very far away.

“I'm fine,” Chris tried to
say, but the world around him was slipping away fast, fading to
black.

The next thing he knew, Chris was
waking up with a massive pounding behind his eyes. He moaned as he
rolled upright slowly and realized he was in his own bed. He felt
like someone had hit his head with a sledgehammer.

“Ah, you're awake. Excellent!”

Chris turned his head quickly to
identify the speaker and gasped as a wave of pain made his skull feel
like it was about to split wide open. Jacob was sitting in a chair
next to the bed.

“Oh gees, sorry Chris,” he
said quickly. He looked so concerned that Chris couldn't get angry
with him.

“S'all right, Jake,” he
mumbled as he pushed his hair off of his face gingerly. “It's
just that my head is pounding like you wouldn't believe. Did I fall
down or something?”

Jacob picked up a couple of pills and a
glass of water off of the bedside table and handed them gently to
Chris. He swallowed them gratefully and emptied the glass. He was
very thirsty.

“No, apparently when you healed
Natalie yesterday, it sucked the energy out of your system and the
headache is part of the price you pay for that.” At Chris'
curious expression, Jacob grinned. “The judge told Tyler and me
what happened. He asked us to watch you in shifts in case you woke up
and needed anything. Did you know you snore?”

Embarrassed, Chris just groaned and lay
back on the pillow. “You didn't have to babysit me, Jake. Tyler
either. I'm fine. And yeah, I know I snore. Thanks.”

Jacob just chuckled, went into the
bathroom and returned with another glass of water. “Here,”
he said and handed it to Chris. “Dehydration also happens in
these cases, so the judge said. That healing must have been intense.”

Chris sat up again and sipped the
water. He tried to remember the details of his meeting with Natalie,
but everything was a bit fuzzy.

“Yeah, I guess so. I'm not too
sure what happened. Sariel did it without my permission, again,
although I know it was the right thing to do. We're going to have to
have another little talk about that. I'm not his plaything to use
whenever he wants to. He's in for a wake-up call soon.”

Jacob looked concerned. “He
didn't tell you what would happen? Wow. Janariel's never done that.
But then, he's not an archangel. I'm sure they're a lot more
aggressive than a regular angel.”

“Sariel certainly is. But this is
my body and my life and I am done letting him take over until we lay
down some more ground rules. Like telling me the consequences of his
actions for one.”

“Yeah, I agree.” Jacob sat
quietly for a moment, looking thoughtful. “Can you stop him
from taking over, though? He is ridiculously powerful after all.”

Chris pulled back the covers and stood
up slowly. There was no dizziness and the headache had turned into a
bearable dull throbbing. He grabbed his pants that were lying on the
floor in a heap and put them on.

“Oh, I can stop him, all right.”
He held up his hand and showed the ring to Jacob. “I swear I
will cut this off my hand if I have to before I become his slave. And
I hope he's listening to this so that he knows I mean it.” His
voice was grim.

“You'd actually do that?”
Jacob said, shocked.

“In a cold minute, Jake. I had
enough people trying to make me do things when I was roaming the
streets. It didn't work then, it won't work now.”

Seeing Jacob's incredulous look, Chris
tried to smile. “Don't worry, man. I'm sure it won't come to
that. And if it does, hell, it's only a finger, right?”

Jacob just shook his head silently.
Before he could respond, Chris put on his shirt and grabbed his
shoes.

“Come on, Jake. I'm starving.
Let's hit the kitchen and see what Chef's got cooking.”

As they left Chris' room, Jacob told
him that Natalie and the judge had had a fight after Chris had been
carried to his room. He stared at Jacob.

“A fight? What about?”

“Well, apparently she knew the
name of Angelica's angel for quite some time and never told Judge
Hawkes. I think he was a bit peeved about that.”

Chris snorted. “Yeah, I bet he
was. I wonder if she's hiding any other secrets?”

It was past lunch time when the two
friends got to the kitchen but Chef sat them down and served them
BLTs, diet cola and dutch apple pie. He was very serious and, as
usual, seemed to know all that had been happening.

“So Natalie is going with you on
your journey, young Christopher?” Chef asked as he wiped down
the counters.

“I guess so. I don't much
remember what happened, Chef. But she's healed now, so I suppose
she'll come.” Chris considered the trip. “I have no idea
where we're going, but the judge seems worried that we'll run into
some of the bad guys along the way.”

Chef nodded with a frown. “We
have to assume that will be the case, my friend. The team going with
you is very good, but if you meet any of the Fallen, she will be
needed, I'm sure.”

Jacob swallowed his last bite of pie
and wiped his mouth. “I wish Tyler and I were going along with
you, Chris. Chef, you couldn't, you know, kind of suggest to the
judge that we should go, could you?” He looked at Chef
hopefully.

“And who would remain to watch
over the Nest, Jacob?” Chef asked sternly. “There are
only a handful of you youngsters here now. For this plan to work, you
will all have to patrol, every night, almost constantly. And I've no
doubt that it won't take long before you are all exhausted from this
labor. But we have to keep our enemies focused on this house and away
from Chris. So no, I won't suggest that.” He sounded graver
than Chris had ever heard him sound before. “This isn't some
light-hearted adventure, my young friends. I know that we will need
Sariel's powers at full strength one day soon. So let us hope that
this expedition bears fruit and we find some clue as to the
whereabouts of the pieces of his sword.”

Chris narrowed his eyes and tilted his
head slightly as he looked at Chef. “You really know more about
the activities that go on in this place than anyone other than Judge
Hawkes, Chef. How do you do that?”

Chef's serious expression was replaced
by his usual wide grin. “The judge and I go way back, Chris.
Everyone needs someone to talk to, you know. A confidant. I suppose I
fill that roll for Ethan. So yes, I know most of what is happening in
the Nest. More than you two, I suppose. Now, I have it on good
authority,” he winked at them and they both laughed, “that
Chris and company will be leaving first thing in the morning. So I
suggest you drop by the front desk, Chris, and ask them what you need
to pack for the trip. If they don't know, they'll get in touch with
Martin to find out.” He shooed them out of the kitchen. “Off
you go, and get some more sleep, young man,” he said with mock
sternness to Chris. “We need you alert and ready for any
surprises.”

Chef waved at them and went back to
cleaning the kitchen. Chris headed for the front desk while Jacob
said that he was late for class and they left in opposite directions.

The rest of the day was spent getting
ready for Chris' journey. He got a list of the clothes and basics,
like toothpaste, soap and other toiletries, that he would need and
Martin had a member of the staff drop off a large backpack at Chris'
room. And then he had to figure out how to fold and pack everything
as compactly and efficiently as possible.

Chris found himself becoming more and
more excited as the day went on and even though he was very tired
when he got to bed, it was hard to calm down enough to get to sleep.

The next morning, things became even
more frantic. Chris was woken up at six o'clock and told to meet the
judge and the rest of the team in the dining room in thirty minutes.
He stumbled into the shower, managed to get dressed fairly quickly,
considering he was still half asleep, he even put on matching socks,
and made it down to breakfast just in time.

The travelers were all sitting
together. Someone had pushed two tables together and the whole group
was talking energetically when Chris arrived.

He felt shy at first; most of the
people around the table were strangers, or staff members that he had
seen but never spoken to. But the judge waved him to a seat and
proceeded to introduce everyone right away.

“Just for reference sake,
Christopher, this is George, Beatrice, Stevens, Ramona, Davidson and
Tony.”

It was hard to keep the names
straight, but Chris assumed that he'd get to know everyone as they
were traveling.

The six members of staff were all
wearing casual clothes, jeans and t-shirts mostly. They all looked
tough and competent.

The ninth member of the group was
introduced as Rabbi Eddleson. To Chris' surprise, the rabbi was quite
young, maybe in his mid-thirties. He had a full, somewhat curly beard
and wire-rimmed glasses. His eyes were bright and full of humor as he
reached out to shake Chris' hand.

“A pleasure to meet you, Chris,”
he said with a warm smile. “I've heard we have you to thank for
this chance at adventure? How marvelous. It should be a roaring good
time, don't you think?”

Chris was a bit confused by the rabbi,
who had a very broad British accent. But then he chided himself.
Obviously there were Jewish people in Britain, he thought. The rabbi
looked like he was having a great time and proceeded to tell Chris
and Natalie several jokes that had them almost in tears from
laughing. The judge watched the scene with reserved amusement.

“Very well, Joseph,” Judge
Hawkes finally interjected. “There will be time enough for
joking later. Right now I want to lay out our schedule for the trip.”

The rabbi winked. “We'll talk
more later,” he muttered with a grin and both Chris and Natalie
chuckled.

“So, we'll be leaving the Nest in
about a hour's time,” the judge continued. “We have a
plane waiting to take us to Toronto. From there, we'll take a
commercial flight to Frankfurt. To be on the safe side, our flight
from Frankfurt to Tel Aviv will be by charter. I see no reason to
give our enemies any more chances to spy on us than is absolutely
necessary.”