Alice's Insurrection (Alice Clark Series) (8 page)

It had been weeks since
another wave of chaos came crashing down on Alice’s head. As always she overcame her challenges and her own fears. She spent a lot of time at school working on dozens of paintings. She wasn’t sure if she was there to paint or play matchmaker with Briathos and Theresa but it didn’t matter to her what her reasons were. Some of her work was a snapshot in her brain of the two of them flirting like school children. She found a lightness about her work that felt refreshing, as her initial return had presented ominous pieces, staying true to her signature work. Though those pieces lingered in her mind, warning that they too could come to pass as so many of her earlier works had, she refused to live in fear of what was to come. She had faith, in a sense, that maybe not all things, but some of those lingering would work out in the end. She just hoped it wouldn’t trigger the End of Days. She was human after all, and as cruel as some humans had been to her, she found the good in people as well, and she was incapable of damning them in their entirety based on a small few. If she had thought that way, she would never have trusted any of the Fallen after she found out who the bounty hunters were.

“Alice? I wanted to apologize for not telling you about
myself sooner.” Alice looked up to find James staring down at her. The sunlight from the window bounced off of his silhouette. Alice burst into laughter, causing the entire room to jump, startled.

“I’m so sorry. I’m not laughing at what you said. You have this ridiculous glow from the sunlight, you look angelic.” She tried to stifle her laugh but to no avail.
Briathos smirked under his hand showing a blip of human emotion yet again. He had grown extremely attached to Theresa, even to the point of calling the Fallen his “brothers.”

“You are something else
, girl.”

“I am that, yes.”

“Coffee?”

“Lead the way my friend”
she said, following him shamelessly.

OLD GRAY/SARIEL

Old Gray sipped on his
drink at the far end of the bar at Max’s. He knew something was off, something in the air told him so. The new bartender was a middle-aged man; he assumed he had better availability than his granddaughter. Of course, often her absence was due to some form of assault she endured and those seemed to grow rapidly as days went by. Closing time crept up slowly and methodically as he finished off yet another glass of whiskey. He nodded to the bartender on his exit in a silent goodbye until next time. He walked slowly as if time had been harsh to him and in a sense, he supposed it had. The air felt cold against his bare skin. He glanced around the mostly empty parking lot intensely. Something was off, someone’s eyes were on him and they burned straight through him. Someone was making a move or at least making their presence known and as small a blip as it was, it was enough for a Fallen to notice. “Come out of the shadows, you coward.”

“No need. I’m only waiting.”

“Waiting for what?” Sariel bellowed.

“For an opportunity to make a point.
Your Nephilim will surrender to me or God’s wrath may strike you down.”

“I’ll take that as a threat, Rogziel.
Funny you seem to be the only angel carrying out such a burdensome job.”

“The only one strong enough to do so.
Scamper home, Fallen. I’ll be back soon enough.” Rogziel stood hidden against a tree in the shadows but Sariel knew where he stood, where his breath caught the tree. He turned his back toward him fearlessly as he climbed into his truck and headed home.

Almost home
, he contacted Paul,
Penemue, we have a problem; meet me at Kokabiel’s place and tell him and the others we are on our way. This is a Fallen only meeting.

I will be there shortly.
Paul’s voice rang out, concerned, in his mind. Sariel had been considered an elder when he was still carrying out God’s orders. His silver-like hair shone in the moonlight as he barreled down the road to his home. He had hoped they would have more time before Rogziel attacked or threatened to attack again. He grew solemn while lost in his thoughts. He had at one time believed Alice could save them all, that she was some sort of salvation for his kind, but Rogziel’s relentlessness was poisonous to their hopes and faith. When he pulled up to the building, he found Jake, Kokabiel, Penemue and Briathos impatiently waiting outside. He could feel their angst closing their throats in protest of what he had to share. The panic was nearly suffocating them as they waited.

“What’s wrong
, Sariel?” Penemue asked quickly, barely letting him crawl out of his truck.

“I was paid a visit from Rogziel.”

Jake growled in response, “What did he want?”

“He wants Alice.
I’m pretty sure he was threatening me in order to get her. He knows that she feels for us and he plans to use that against her and against us all.”

“The last time Alice gave herself up she was almost killed
,” Kokabiel added.

“I’m not suggesting we do that, or tell her for that matter. I just want everyone to be on board with our decision
, whatever it may be. If he gets anyone alone or off guard, he does have the power to send us to the abyss. I don’t know if Alice would recover from losing any one of us.” Sariel knew what he was saying, but a part of him was warning, warning that it was him who was running out of time.

“Thank you for including me
, brother. I will stand by your decision, though I feel we should not keep such things from her. Please let me know your decision, but I must go,” Briathos said.

“Enjoy you’re date
, brother,” Kokabiel said teasingly.

“She is strong willed but her empathy is
also strong. We’ll have to be much more careful to protect her and ourselves,” Penemue said. It seemed there was truth to the statement “no rest for the wicked.” For as good as they were at heart, they couldn’t change what they’d done in the past, and your past is a part of who you are whether you like it or not.

ALICE

Alice brought home a canvas
to work on in her living room while the boys were off being boys. Briathos had finally gotten the nerve to ask Theresa out.
So awkward.
She laughed at the memory. She turned up her IPod dock, allowing the vibration of the music to suck her in fully so she could draw in absence of herself.

What felt like hours later
, when she felt as though she could no longer work on the piece for another moment, she turned the music off and cleaned up her supplies. When she looked back at the image, to take it all in, the charcoal in her hand fell and crashed to the floor, “Cole!”

Cole rushed into the room
, sliding on his socks across the floor. “What’s wrong?” he panicked. She pointed at the drawing, speechless. It was a circle of angels, both Fallen and not, around a Fallen angel laying in the center, bleeding near his heart, wings crumbled behind him. Alice knew from experience that often her images had already happened, or worse, were about to. It was as if the image called to her, laced with emotion and a sense that it was more than just another piece of art. They could all sense that about some of her work, as if something or someone was warning her and them all.

“It’s just a drawing
, Alice,” Cole reassured her while holding her shoulders. “Okay?” He sounded reassuring but it worried him too.

“But so many of them have happened.
We should call the family. It could be any of us.” Cole nodded and called his father who happened to be with the others at that moment, and passed the news. “They said they’ll come to see it tomorrow. For now, let’s get something to eat and maybe rent a movie. For one night, let’s act as if we were just ordinary humans. Okay?”

She wanted to argue but he was right, if this image did come to pass
, there was no stopping it and that scared her more than anything. She took his hand and left the room, feeling slightly hopeless. His smile warmed her to her core and some days that’s all she needed. “What would I do without you?”

“You’ll never have to know that, I will be here with you always and forever
, eternally.” He kissed her forehead gently, “You pick the movie and I’ll order us some food. I think it’s about time we got lost in ourselves.”

“Did Jake and Briathos leave?”

“Yeah, about an hour or so ago. I didn’t want to disturb you while you were working.”

“I sort of wish you had
,” she frowned slightly.

“Don’t do that, you are an amazing artist and even if the image does come to pass, or tries to
, we have a shot this way to change the future. Every choice we make counts, Alice. We both know that more than anyone.”

“Ain’t that the truth?
” she laughed awkwardly, but heartfelt.

“We’re going to be okay.” She had heard that sentence so many times before and though Cole said it with all the love he possessed
, she knew better. Nothing was ever okay. Something was always lurking about, waiting for her to get comfortable so it could strike terror in her life and in her heart.

Cole had ordered sushi, as
he knew it was one of her favorites. They laid on the couch, legs entwined, feeding each other sushi and laughing loudly. Alice put in a romantic comedy, mostly to torment Cole; she would have gladly watched an action or drama flick. In that moment they just existed together, enjoying each other’s company, fully in love, lost from the hatred in the world that wanted to condemn them.