Fall From Grace (11 page)

Panic shredded her nerves. She screamed and
fought against the invisible force restraining her until her
muscles burned.

The main demon grew to ten feet and towered
over Boon’s muscular frame. Crimson smoke blew from his huge
nostrils before his horns expanded into two-foot long spears. “You
betrayed your brothers. Hell will see you pay for your treachery.”
The deep, ominous voice echoed through the forest. Its dark breath
choked Gaby with its sulfuric odor.

All of the demons approached at once. Boon
shuffled in a circle pausing to face each of them.

Bright light shimmied and blurred her
vision. A sharp pain pierced her skull, and she doubled over. The
blinding white apparition faded and she shook off enough pain to
open her eyes and see Boon on the ground in his human form, beaten
and left for dead.

Gaby shot up in bed panting, drenched in
sweat. She coughed and choked with the lingering demonic scent. She
lunged out of bed to her desk and grabbed her charcoal pencils and
paper. Within seconds her hand danced across the page recreating
the last image of her nightmare. Dark charcoal dust covered her
white nightgown by the time she was done.

The first ray of light peaked through her
white linen curtains. She stood and stretched. The muscles in her
neck ached from tension. Shoving her leg into a pair of cutoff
shorts, she hobbled over to her closet. She clutched the molding
for balance and yanked a shirt off the hanger. She glanced at her
cell phone and thought about texting Sammy, but this was something
she needed to show her. After she finished dressing, she grabbed
the picture and raced down the stairs, out the door, and ran all
the way to Grace’s house. Gaby’s heart sped up at the sight of
Alexander’s bedroom window. She wouldn’t be strong enough to see
him now. Not after last night.

She wanted to roll over and die on the spot
when he told her they were going to lose each other someday. Her
heart couldn’t take another word. How could she keep him close,
knowing their inevitable future?

She slipped her cell phone out and texted,
Meet me on the beach, now.

Navy curtains rustled in Alexander’s bedroom
window, and she wondered if he knew she was there. She glanced at
the flawless, tan skin of her arm and remembered him healing her.
What she wouldn’t do to feel his energy caressing each nerve under
her skin.

“Gaby, what is it?” Sammy spoke over the
crashing waves and building wind.

“I had to talk to you.” Gaby’s arms erupted
in goose bumps from the cold, damp air. The dream had distracted
her enough that she’d forgotten about the temperature dropping. It
would be eighty degrees by the afternoon, though.

“Come on, let’s go inside. You’re cold.”
Sammy offered her hand, but Gaby stood firm.

“No, I can’t.”

Sammy narrowed her eyes at her. “What
happened between you and Alex last night? He was so depressed I
thought he’d lose his ability to fly again.”

She longed to see him; maybe she’d been too
hasty at sending him away, but she couldn’t listen to any more
about their fates taking different paths. “It doesn’t matter right
now.”

It did matter. Heaven wouldn’t be that
cruel. When they found Boon safe, she’d go talk to Grace and find a
way for them to Soulbond.

“Gaby—”

“Boon’s in danger. Real danger. Look.” Gaby
shoved the picture at Sammy and watched her eyes shoot wide at the
image.

“This can’t be true. Boon can’t be hurt, not
like this.” Sammy studied the picture, her face paling.

“That’s why I didn’t call you. I knew that
you’d have to see the picture to understand. Sammy, it was from a
vision.”

Sammy didn’t say anything she stood there
swaying with a tight grip on the paper. “Gaby, we’ve misinterpreted
these pictures before. There must be another explanation.”

“I saw three demons in my vision. Not just
any old kind of minion from hell, but the largest I’ve ever
imagined. Evil oozed from them. The main one grew in front of my
eyes to over ten feet tall. Boon looked like a child next to him.”
Her heart sped at the memory of those monsters.

“Then what happened?” Sammy clutched the arm
she’d been shot in the night before, but only a slight pain
remained after Alexander healed her.

“Everything blurred then I saw Boon on the
ground like he is in the picture.”

“Oh, God.” Sammy cupped her mouth.

“Where is Boon now?” Gaby clutched her
friend’s hand. Her usual fun and light expression replaced by a
grief stricken pull of her lips. “We need to warn him.”

“I don’t know. He didn’t come home last
night. The demons…he went to check out their coven, but he hasn’t
returned.”

Gaby remembered Alexander rushing out the
door to find Sammy and Grace when the hunters attacked a demon.
She’d been so distraught about learning her fate with Alexander
that she never followed up with them. Alexander had texted that all
was fine, but she never even replied. Instead she’d turned off her
phone. “Sammy, what happened with the hunter’s last night?”

“They caught a demon then headed out of
town. Boon stayed out there to keep watch and find the rest of the
coven.”

“Go find Grace.” Gaby forced the uncertainty
from her voice. Sammy needed her to be strong. “I’ll get my father,
and we’ll all search for him. Don’t worry Sammy. He’ll be
fine.”

“He has to be. I can’t be separated from him
again.” Sammy whimpered. “The minute we find him we are going to
Soulbond. No more taking chances.”

Gaby wanted to fall on her knees and cry,
curse the heavens for their cruelty, but somehow she needed to find
the strength to help Sammy find Boon. After everything she’d done,
Gaby couldn’t let Sammy down. But once they found him, Gaby would
demand to find a way to Soulbond with Alexander, or die trying.

****

Alexander sat watching the clouds roll in
from the front porch. It was cool and peaceful out there. He tried
to make out what the girls were saying on the beach, but even with
his angelic hearing, the waves were too loud.

The screen door opened, and Grace came out
with two mugs in her hand. “I thought you might like some
coffee.”

“Great, thanks. It was a rough night.”
Alexander grasped the warm mug and sniffed the strong brew.

“Alex, I wish I could give you more hope but
Gaby has a divine purpose here, a destiny beyond any one of us. We
may not understand the path we are given, but we have to trust it
is for the greater good and we’ll all be together again someday in
Heaven.”

Alexander clutched the handle of the mug.
“What if I never make it back to Heaven?”

They both knew the history of fallen angels.
Only one, Gaby’s mother, had resurrected. The odds were stacked
against him. She didn’t offer empty words only a warm hand clasped
over his. “We must continue to keep faith. It is all we have during
these times of great trials.”

Sammy trudged up the sand dune and Alexander
held his breath, hoping that Gaby would follow her but she didn’t.
Gaby raced to the woods, probably back to her home. She didn’t want
to see him again; she’d made that plain when she didn’t come sit
next to him.

“Grace, Alexander.” Sammy huffed up the
steps. “We have to find Boon, now.”

Sammy’s eye twitched, and she thrust a piece
of paper at them.

“This isn’t possible.” Grace traced the ruby
droplets flowing from Boon’s small, pale frame.

“I know, but Gaby’s track record is solid.
We need to check this out.” Sammy held the front porch post to
steady herself. “Please, we need to find him.”

Alexander stood. “I’ll go with you. We’ll
head to the railroad tracks near the county line where the hunters
found the demon last night.” His body tensed at the memory of the
Hunter’s ruthless capture. For a moment, Alexander had felt sorry
for the demon being brutally beaten and collared like a dog. He
knew they’d take the creature to torture him for information. Of
course, they never would have caught a head demon that easily which
meant that creature would be tortured for nothing. “I’m sure we’ll
find him. This picture is probably something completely different
than it looks. You know Gaby has misinterpreted these before. The
visions are cryptic and misleading.”

“I won’t tell her you said that.” Sammy gave
a half-smile.

“Thanks, she’s a little sensitive about her
abilities right now.” Alexander placed his mug on the side table.
“I told her about not being able to bond because she isn’t an
angel.”

Sammy put a reassuring hand on his upper
arm. “How did she take it?”

Alexander sighed, “Let’s just say I feel
like I was captured by the hunters and tortured to the brink of
madness.”

Grace stood, her gaze transfixed on
something in the distance. “We must go.” She dropped the paper on
the seat behind her, and took two labored steps before her wings
shot out and she bolted into the sky.

Alexander and Sammy remained on the porch
for a second, stunned at Grace’s agility. Sammy shook her head then
quickly followed Grace and he took off a second later. They soared
along the canopy and dove into a clearing near the railroad
tracks.

Grace hunched over, hand on her heart, face
ashen. “Something terrible happened here.”

Sammy’s brows furrowed with concern, and she
scanned the area.

A hint of something dark poked at his
consciousness.

They glided to their feet and walked along
the tracks and the feeling intensified. A sharp electric current
shot through Alexander’s body, and his wings rustled with fear. He
shot from the ground and landed in front of Grace and Sammy, then
held up his hand for them to stop. A foul odor of rotting fruit
attacked his nose. Nothing sounded around them. No birds, mole
crickets, or bees. Only death and darkness.

“There!” Sammy took flight and landed a few
hundred yards ahead. Alexander and Grace were at her side within a
second. A wad of hair and dried blood stuck on a rock. Sammy gasped
and covered her mouth.

Alexander placed a hand on her shoulder to
steady her. Grace moved ahead of them and searched the woods. She
turned, mouth hung in a frown with deep lines of sadness covering
her face.

Sammy pushed from Alexander and knocked a
tree down with a thunderous boom before she stopped. There on the
ground, Boon’s unconscious body lay contorted, beaten, and cut
up.

“No!” Sammy fell to her knees, folding her
body and wings around him. Soft muffled cries seeped through her
canopy. “Please, no. I can’t lose you now.”

Her wings fluttered then rose. Sammy’s
bottom lip trembled, and her face pleaded with him before her mouth
could form the words. “Alexander, please. Help him.”

“Sammy.” Grace kneeled by her side. “Heaven
may be calling him home.”

“No!” Sammy maneuvered so Boon’s bloodied
head rested in her lap. She stroked his matted hair. Through
staggered breaths she mumbled, “Then Soulbond us, now.”

Grace looked to Alexander for help. “Sammy,
it might be—”

“No, it isn’t. He has a pulse.” Sammy
shouted at him. “Do this, for me.”

Sammy had never asked Alexander for
anything. When they fell from Heaven, she never blamed him. How
could he not try?

“Grace, it won’t hurt for me to try to heal
him.” It was more of a question than a statement, but she nodded
confirmation, and he knelt between them, pressing his palms to the
back of Boon’s head.

He focused on the wound on his scalp and
surged energy deep within to mend his human brain and skull.
Blackness grabbed onto his gift and twisted it to form another
purpose. Alexander cried out and tried to release Boon’s head but
the evil wouldn’t let go. Instead, it crawled up his aura to his
body. Whispers of death and destruction warned him to leave Kemp.
His head burned with an image of a master demon capturing Gaby. A
ceremony, Gaby to be sacrificed…no…turned to one of hell’s minions.
The weapon designed for divine purpose manipulated for demonic
terror.

Hands grasped his arms, and he was flung
backward, whacking his head on the ground. He looked up to find
Bruce standing over him.

“We have to leave this place now. It’s land
designated by Hell for ritual sacrifice. I’ve seen these areas turn
the purest of creatures into Satan’s minions.”

His insides quivered with the remnants of
the darkness, but he ignored the horror and scooped Boon into his
arms. He followed Bruce to his car, and they all climbed in. Gaby
sat in the front watching his every move. Sammy sat sobbing with
Boon resting against her. “I can’t lose him.”

“What was that place? I thought my soul was
being ripped from my body and used for evil.”

“It was.” Bruce glanced back but continued
to barrel down the dirt road until he reached Old Highway Nine. He
turned right and headed back toward their home. Grace sat squeezed
between Bruce and Gaby.

“What do you mean?” His skin burned with
fear. He hadn’t felt that much darkness since the day he fell.

“The ground is consecrated for evil. Anyone
or anything that trespasses is doomed to a life of servitude to
Hell once the demons touch your soul. Another few seconds and I
have a feeling you’d be fighting for the other team.”

Gaby gasped and dug her nails into the back
of her seat as if she would claw her way to him if she had to. He
caught her gaze and pleaded for her to give in and be with him
again, but she blinked and retreated back into her seat.

“It nearly touched my soul. A darkness
wrapped around my healing aura, and it climbed up into my body and
dug its way deep inside. If you hadn’t jerked me from Boon, I
would’ve lost my soul.”

The car bounced under him when they turned
down their driveway. Alexander reluctantly touched Boon’s head
again, but nothing sparked a warning so he pressed deep and
concentrated on the gash that pierced from his skin to his brain.
Each delicate surge of healing had to be precise or Boon would
suffer permanent brain damage.