Fall From Grace (15 page)

She reached the beach and halted. The once
tall two-story house on the hill lay in a massive heap of rubble.
Her hands shook at the memory of Grace yelling for her to run.
Maybe she thought if Gaby made it out of the house, it would keep
the rest from falling. Last night, she tossed and turned, analyzing
those few precious moments continuously in an attempt to figure out
what she could’ve done different. After hours of mulling it over,
she realized it didn’t matter, the end result was the same, she’d
murdered Grace. Her insides flipped in remorse.

She inhaled the salty air and forced her
legs to move, not wanting to waste a second. It would take all
afternoon to even find Grace’s room. It was on the bottom floor, so
it had to be buried deep.

The smell of damp wood made the pile feel
even more like a distant memory. A once happy, inviting home…now…
she grinded her teeth to keep from screaming and circled to the
back of the mound. Grasping the one support beam that had split in
half she hoisted herself up and crawled over several pieces of
furniture. The boards were rough under her palms. Splinters stuck
into her flesh, and she winced, but continued. Her thumb brushed
something soft, and she pulled it up from the depths and discovered
it was the arm of the parlor sofa. It should be in the front of the
house. Her heart sank with her butt to her heels. “You’re not going
to make this easy, are you?” She glared up at the grey sky, but no
answer came.

She shoved her arm down deeper and grasped
something solid wrapped in a soft cloth or towel. It was a book,
for sure. With a heave she yanked it through two other boards. The
thin white cloth billowed in the air. Grace’s apron, with spots of
blood stuck to a book, but it wasn’t the one she wanted. It was
some Edgar Allen Poe book. She smacked it against the pile beneath
her and clutched Grace’s apron to her chest. Her ribs ached until a
small sigh escaped her lips.

Snap.
Gaby glanced down at the board
she rested on. A crack webbed in front of her knees and the board
below split in half. She grabbed another board to her right, but it
only slipped from her grasp, forcing her to shuffle back to keep
upright. Cracks and moans echoed below.

“Don’t move.” Sammy shouted from behind.

Hands shot under her arms and the ground
below was gone. Wood, then grass rushed by until she rested on the
ground once more.

Sammy stood two feet away, hands on hips,
wings still spread wide. “What were you doing?”

“I—” Should she tell her the truth? Maybe
there was a reason the voice told her and not someone else about
the journal.

Sammy knelt, her pink aura fading as her
wings disappeared behind her back. “What is it?”

The pile loomed nearby, mocking her to fail.
With Sammy’s abilities, the book would be uncovered in minutes. No
voice plagued her mind with warning.

“There is something I need, but I need you
to keep it between us for now.”

“Gaby, we need to work together. You’ve seen
what has happened when we don’t,” Sammy said.

“I know, but I had a vision and a voice told
me to find a journal—”

Sammy rose to her knees and took Gaby’s
hands. “You had a vision? A voice?”

“Yes, but I’m not sure anyone else is
supposed to know. The voice told me to find it. Never did it
mention ‘us’.”

“Anything else?”

What, like, ‘oh, my eyes turned demon
orange.’ Yeah, didn’t think that would be a good idea to share. Not
after killing her mother. They’d probably keep her tied to a bed
somewhere. She’d already done that, not going there again.

“Where did you see the journal?”

“In the far wall panels in Grace’s room,
near her closet.”

“I’ll find the book and we’ll look at it,
but if there is something in there to help us fight this war, I’m
sharing with Boon, Alex, and your father. Got it?”

“Yeah, got it.” What choice did she
have?

Sammy took two steps and her wings shot out.
A gusty wind blew Gaby’s hair around, and she pulled the loose
strands back behind her ears.

Dare she hope that there was something in
that book to explain how to use her powers? Also, an explanation on
how Gaby and Alexander could Soulbond?

Boards flew through the air and landed with
a thud a hundred yards into the driveway headed out to the
highway.

“Did you say far side of the room?” Sammy
yelled down to her.

“Yes.”

A snap in the forest drew her attention, and
she spun to the side. Holding her breath, she waited for some
demonic creature to emerge, but nothing reared its ugly head.

“Found it.”

One more squinted glance at the woods but
there was no sign of an evil claw or menacing eyes, so she turned
back to find Sammy landing by her side.

The book was covered in dirt, and the old
brown binding was damp, probably from the last rain. Gaby snatched
it from Sammy’s hand and dropped to the ground. Shuffling through
the pages she saw drawings and scribbled notes. Dates lined the top
of many pages.

“1918?”

Sammy nodded.

Of course, Grace had lived centuries, but
seeing it written down made it real.

She thumbed through several other decades
until she found the twenty first century. There in front of her
eyes were details of Alexander and Sammy’s fall from Heaven. She
clutched the book to her stomach before Sammy could see.

“I think I know why the voice told me to
find it. Let me look first then we can discuss what to do.”

“Gaby, I—”

“Sammy, trust me.”

Sammy sighed, “I’ll go see what else I can
salvage, but when I return, we’re going to talk.”

“Sure.”

Sammy flew back up, and planks started
raining down again.

Gaby opened the book back to the page she’d
left off and glanced ahead.

Alexander nearly lost himself after rescuing
the girl, Gaby, from the ocean today. I’m afraid he is following
the same path as Forras. My human heart aches to save him, but
ultimately, it will be his choice.

Gaby skimmed a few more pages and
stopped.

Alexander connected to the underworld today
when his eyes turned blood-orange. If he doesn’t control his
emotions, he will be joining the one group he despises before the
summer ends.

Did that mean her eyes glowed orange because
she was falling, too? Wait, that would make her an angel. But she
wasn’t an angel, Grace made that clear.

She skimmed a few more pages and
stopped.

I lost Forras today, but is he gone forever?
A part of me still has hope. Elianna believes even the wicked can
rise again.

Her eyes grew moist with the thought of her
mother. Did her mom really believe that? “Mom, where are you? I
need you.”

She flipped to near the end of the
entries.

I’m being called home, but is it because the
end is near? Is humanity doomed? Perhaps I was mistaken, and Gaby
wasn’t the gift we believed her to be.

Gaby’s hands shook, and she rested the book
in her lap. She didn’t want the powers, but somehow they still gave
her hope. That she had some sort of purpose and all the suffering,
losing her mother, her father’s alcoholism, being separated from
Alexander, branded by Forass, targeted by demons, wouldn’t be in
vain.

She blinked back tears and sucked in a
breath of courage before she lifted the book to read the last few
sentences.

There is a master demon in Kemp, and that
can only mean one of two things. It is here to kill the divine
warrior who is destined to stop the war before it can begin, or she
has come to claim her minion, prophesied to win the heart of an
angel and destroy all of human kind.

****

More groans drove Alexander to glance up.
Two spiral horns ending at a sharp point over large black eyes,
with serpents slithering up and down the creature’s body, held the
hunter ten feet in the air by his throat. The man’s arms and legs
flailed, indicating the demon hadn’t snapped the man’s neck, and
there was still a chance to save him.

Alexander pushed to his knees, his wings
burned with regenerative powers. Boon’s black shadow soared through
the barrier and slammed into the demon’s side. Boon bounced off and
rolled backwards until only a small-framed boy remained with no
clothes. His stark white skin a beacon of light on the dark
ground.

Alexander shook the buzzing from his head.
Fingers, the size of small trees, unwrapped from the man’s neck,
and his purple face slid through the creature’s grasp. The hunter’s
leg crunched against the ground. He rolled holding his ankle.

Alexander waved him over, but the hunter
kept his eyes transfixed on the master demon that slithered through
the fissure in the Earth toward Boon.

Boon’s voice boomed in Alexander’s head.
“Go! Save the hunter.”

“The shield. Can’t get through.”

“East side, there’s a hole between two
trees. It’s where they lure victims in.”

“My powers won’t—”

“It will for a few seconds. You’ll feel the
pull to transform. Fight it. I’ll keep the demon busy, but
hurry.”

Alexander looked down his right wing. Only
the tip was still scored with blackness. He took a deep breath and
fisted his hands by his side. Muscles tense, he shot around the
side and found the two trees only a few feet from the hunter. He
shot through and grabbed the man.

Shadows of death covered his arms and legs.
Pressure in his chest to steal his last breath pulled his wings
into his body. He fought, but knew the power was too strong. He
grabbed the back of the hunter’s shirt. Falling, turning, spinning
to the underworld brought him to his knees. He dug the nails of his
left hand in the ground, clawing forward, while keeping the hunter
in his right hand.
Focus. Just a few feet.

Admit defeat now, and join us. We already
possess the one you love.

“No.” Alexander pushed the spine tingling
voice from his head. A trick. Demons always toyed with emotions.
“Not…true.”

Light sparkled from his one finger that
crossed the barrier. Hissing and crunching sounded behind him, but
he didn’t stop to look. The ground suctioned his soul to it as if
thousands of beings clawed at his body to yank him below
ground.

“Go. Go.” A voice shouted from behind. The
hunter pulled free, and Alexander looked back to see if he’d been
snatched to the underworld by the master demon. But instead, the
man crawled, dragging one leg behind him until he reached the other
side of the trees.

The man sat on the edge, eyes transfixed on
Alexander. Alexander realized he was a hunter to the core. He’d let
Alexander suffer and be pulled to the underworld because he didn’t
belong on Earth.

His knees dug into the dirt and he thrust
forward but didn’t move. Instead his knee only pressed deeper into
the dirt and his right hand disappeared beneath the dark
ground.

Join us.

A chill raced from his palm, up his arm and
down his back to his toes.

The hunter grabbed his left hand and dug his
one good heel into the grass before he tugged on Alexander. His arm
felt like it would pop from his shoulder, but still he didn’t
move.

“Run, it’s no use.” Alexander’s energy
drained from his body. Now in human form, he didn’t stand a chance
at getting out alive.

“I don’t lose to a demon.” The hunter let go
of Alexander’s hand and pulled something from one of his zipper
pockets in his pants and tossed it over his head. A flash of light
blinded him, and his body was drug from the grasp of hell.

Free from the shadows, he blinked several
times trying to find Boon. “Is he?”

“Dead?” the hunter asked. “No, master demon
can’t seem to kill’em and he’s pissed. We best get.”

Alexander didn’t have time to argue. The man
tore a branch from a tree and hobbled ahead.

“Saved you once ’cause you risked your life,
but not doing it again. You’re still an abomination.” A little less
conviction laced his voice. Perhaps there was a chance to win him
over to their side. Hunter’s would be a great ally in the mission
to stop the war. Not to mention the fact it would be one less
predator after them. Still, they’d have to be cautious. If they
thought Gaby was some freak of nature, it would be a blood bath to
save her.

Alexander pushed to his feet and
concentrated on one step at a time. His limbs were like dead
weights shuffling beneath him.

Serpents intermingled in a sea of dark
green. He studied the creatures, waiting for one of the snakes to
lunge through the air and latch on to his neck. His feet moved a
little faster.

Boon crept from behind some bushes yanking
his shirt over his head. The ground shook beneath them, and the
fissure stretched several feet. The creature hurled itself
forward.

Alexander stumbled back. The large horns
smacked the invisible wall.

“Don’t worry. Only way it can crossover is
to take human form. It doesn’t want to do that because we’ll know
his or her true identity.

Alexander took in a lung full of air through
his nose and gagged. The rotten smell of demons coated the hunter’s
clothes.

“You don’t smell so great, either.” The
hunter shot back.

They made their way to the beach. Boon sat
near the surf waiting for them. The hunter staggered over the
sinking sand with his shattered ankle. He managed the several
hundred feet before collapsing next to Boon.

Alexander knelt by the hunter. “Good to see
you made it. Sammy would’ve killed me if you were stuck with the
master demon.”

Boon nodded and chuckled.

“How’d you escape?” Alexander sat up,
brushing the sand from the back of his head.

“Can’t kill me, remember? Well, unless I’m
in human form on hell’s property I guess.” Boon chuckled.” I’m
doomed to walk Earth forever or until the apocalypse or Herak
removes the curse. I think my money is on the first option at this
point.”