“Unrelated question,” Vance said, following her as she stepped off the porch and toward his little truck. “Why do girls redo their ponytails so much?”
Aisi shot him a withering look. “Really? Everything you’ve seen tonight and the most pressing question in your guy brain is about my ponytail?”
He looked embarrassed as he ran to her side of the car and opened her door. As he climbed into the driver’s side and the truck roared to life with a quick turn of his key, he shrugged. “I don’t hang out with girls that often. I have two brothers so I don’t get it, that’s all.”
Aisi leaned her head against the cold window as he backed up and turned onto the wet, narrow highway. It was pitch black beyond the headlights, the dark shadows of the forest lining the road under a midnight sky. “Headaches,” she replied.
“Really?”
She almost laughed. “Yes. Really. When your hair is long and thick, it gets heavy. All day ponytails mean all day headaches, something a guy who cuts his hair all the time would never know. Anything else you want to know about female hair, Captain Random? You know, while we’re discussing important things.”
Vance wisely said nothing.
It was quiet in the truck as he drove. Aisi’s mind wandered like the dark, wet road back to town, still trying to figure out why Monica’s accidental involvement in her family’s past mattered. They found themselves back at the diner, now dark and deserted, but the lights in the apartment above it where her father lived glowed brightly. Through drawn shades she could see her dad and Leo rough housing. Leo’s small form flew high in the air as his father tossed him, and then caught the boy and hugged him before chasing him away from the window. She couldn’t help but smile.
“The Watchers,” Vance said, suddenly excited. “Your dad shouldn’t be here because the Watchers were banished.”
Aisi turned to him, confused. “Why not? Wait…how many were there? Were there more than my dad and his brothers…or whatever they were?”
“They were sent to guard the people of the earth, sort of like guardian angels, but they became corrupt, right?” Vance looked ready to happy dance. “Every continent had legions of them, but they all became corrupt.”
“All of them?”
“Pretty much,” he confirmed. “They had a divine calling and abused that power. They went around terrorizing all the humans and destroying lives.”
Aisi closed her eyes and nodded grimly as the first vision she saw that night tried to force its way back into the front of her mind. She’d seen that much for herself. “I know,” she answered quietly.
“The stories in the Apocrypha say the flood which killed most of mankind was sent to wipe them off the earth. Their offspring were exterminated and humans could live on, but the Watchers were banished. They were sent to dwell in the valleys and the dark places. They live on underground, angry, finding ways to escape, hoping to rebuild their reign of terror with their armies’ nephilim. This Malus guy is strong enough now to rebuild his army, right?”
Aisi ignored his question. “Is that the word for what I am, then? Nephilim?”
Vance stammered, “I…don’t know. They were supposed to be giants…”
“Like Goliath?”
Vance looked impressed. “You know your history.”
“You forget I have a mother whose hobby is religion hopping.”
He laughed. “That’s right. How could I forget? Religion hopping and con artist fortune telling. I bet your family parties are nuts.”
Aisi snorted. “Family parties? Please. Our family parties are Leo and me helping my dad with the dishes after the diner closes. Sometimes my mom whips out the tarot cards but Leo just uses them to play Old Maid and she gets a little miffed.” She laughed and shook her head.
They still sat in the truck as the air grew heavy with silence and the weight of what seemed like unanswerable questions. Aisi couldn’t even begin to wrap her head around them. She looked up at the apartment window again, thinking of her dad and brother. The lights flipped off, which meant Leo had just been tucked in and Big Billy was whispering to him in the dark, whispering stories of thatch-roofed villages and wild animals roaming the red dusted savannahs of his home.
“So…Watchers. Nephilim,” she said, turning to Vance. “Does that mean I am going to hit a growth spurt that will make me be about eight feet tall? My cross country coach might like the long legs that come with that kind of height.”
Vance took her hand in his. The warmth she felt as it closed over hers sent a shiver up her spine, but she tried not to shudder. “Aisi, I don’t think you being descended from a Watcher is really the problem here. All I know is you took Father J’s hand, zoned out for like a split second, and then puked everywhere. What did you see?”
Aisi shook her head. She didn’t want to relive it. “A split second? Is that all? It felt like hours.”
His raised eyebrows indicated she wasn’t going to get out of the question. Her palm suddenly felt clammy and sweaty in his warm hand, and she squeezed his hard to calm the shaking that threatened to overwhelm her. “I saw some of the terrible things my father did after he fell,” she murmured. “All the terrible things you hear about African history? He and his brothers were there. They encouraged war lords to kill and set fire to innocent people. They enslaved people for kicks. They cut off the hands of people who tried to vote.” Vomit raced up her throat as her anger grew with each word, but she swallowed the urge and continued breathlessly. “I mean, what kind of sick freak likes seeing that, let alone
doing
it? Who enjoys being responsible for carnage like that?”
“Aisi,” Vance said quietly, “let’s get out and walk, calm down, figure things out. If you get mad, they only get stronger.”
She sighed, knowing he was right. Malus fed on every angry word and unhappy emotion. She didn’t want to make it easy for him. This demon would have to build his army without any help from her.
Chapter 16 Don’t Trust Your Eyes
Vance jumped out of the truck and ran around to open her door again. Aisi’s heart fluttered a little as he did. She hadn’t even considered that guys like this still existed. She assumed all guys were boneheads like Kalen.
As they walked down the street under the glow of the street lights, the rain let up but a chilly gray mist took its place. Their footsteps echoed on the cold, dark path, a swirling haze of light fog dancing in the light above them. Aisi’s flip flops made a slight squishing noise as they stepped between circles of light and murky shadow on Main Street. She tried not to slip on wet layers of dead leaves and slushy gravel now exposed after the winter thaw.
“This is all I know,” Aisi said carefully as she pulled her hands inside the sleeves of her hoodie and folded her arms tightly across her chest, shivering. “My dad and his brothers were supposed to protect the people, but they didn’t. They went about as bad as they could go, but then, after probably thousands of years of being jackwagons, my dad and one of his brothers fell in love.
“When this happened, they didn’t want to…I don’t know, plunder and pillage or whatever, and they had a fight. My dad killed the other two, and…oh!” Her breath caught in her throat as she remembered someone else from the vision. “Father J was there. He ran an African orphanage, and my mom was a volunteer. That’s how she met my dad. So after my dad killed the two, Father J showed up and told them they had to protect the portals where the others could get out so…yeah.”
She shrugged. Having all the pieces of the puzzle didn’t mean she could make them fit together yet. “I don’t know.” A look of desperate frustration crossed her face. She looked down and shuddered slightly.
Vance looked confused. “But…they’re immortal. They can’t kill each other.” He kept shaking his head
Aisi shrugged. “That’s what I saw,” she answered, trying not to be confused herself. The headache she had at the moment wouldn’t allow for any more jumbled thoughts without something in her mind spontaneously combusting.
Vance’s nose crinkled and he seemed to be thinking hard. “Not possible. At least, it shouldn’t be. The Watchers were guardian angels. You’re sure they had real bodies?”
“Wouldn’t they have to…you know? To party with the ladies?” Aisi looked at him as if this made total sense, but clearly she had just blown his mind. She’d never seen someone look so perplexed.
“Maybe they became fully human when they fell…but then…how could…?” Vance’s voice trailed off, and he spoke more to himself than to her.
She grinned at him as she turned around and looked down the street, where she saw a small figure looking lost, walking in circles in front of the diner. She squinted in the dark. “Is that a little kid down there?”
At her words, the small figure turned to her and screamed, “Aaaiiissseeeee!!! Help me! The night terrors are back!”
“Leo!” Aisi yelled. She bolted down the street toward her frantic brother, but Vance grabbed her around the waist before she could go more than a few steps. She pounded at his arm. “Let me go!” He set her down but held her tightly to him. She jerked around in his grasp to pound furiously at his chest, but he kept his arms around her. “Leo needs me!”
“No, he doesn’t,” Vance whispered calmly in her ear. “Remember what Father J said about not trusting our eyes?”
Aisi spun furiously back around, still clawing at his arms, trying to break free. She could hear her brother’s voice wailing for her help, screaming fearfully about the night terrors. Angry tears broke free as she finally stopped fighting and listened. She strained her ears, and his cries began to sound hollow. Cries which should have echoed through the empty street faded and died away as the boy she saw fell to the ground. She pulled away from Vance, who still kept a firm grip on her. She stared intently at the skinny form huddled on the street in the chill mist of night.
“Leo?” she croaked. The small form looked pathetically up at her with red eyes before it dissolved into a black shadow and sank into the nearby shadows with a growl.
She dropped to the ground as well, too weak to stand. Malus could now use her visions against her. She gasped and looked up at Vance. “How did you know?”
He knelt down next to her and pulled her up, clasping her cold hands in his. He searched her face, and then he pulled her into a hug. They rocked back and forth together in the dark as he stroked her hair reassuringly.
“How did you know?” she repeated, not wanting ever to lift her head from his chest.
“I didn’t see anything and I didn’t hear anything,” Vance replied. “I just saw you running and screaming about Leo.”
The muffled sound of gloved hands clapping behind them made them jump and turn around.
“Brilliant, boy, simply brilliant.” Malus stood close to them, applauding, with his silver-tipped cane tucked under one arm. His malevolent eyes glowed a vicious red just under the brim of his fedora. His form looked much weaker than the last time she saw him. He appeared fuzzy around the edges and a little transparent, but he still sent a chill down Aisi’s spine. Vance shuddered next to her and she knew he felt it, too—that wretched sensation of raw evil washing over prickling flesh.
“My gracious, this one is just yummy, Aisi,” Malus continued, momentarily baring sharp teeth as he licked his lips and checked Vance out. “Brains as well as a beautiful backside. His booty is almost as delicious as yours, in fact. You should keep him. I know if I get the chance at him again, I certainly will.”
“Was that you pretending to be my brother just now?” Aisi asked. Anger flared inside her and she tried to stop it, knowing he fed off it like a blood sucking leech. His shadowy form darkened and solidified, losing enough of his transparency that she struggled to regain control of her emotions.
Don’t feed the troll
, she told herself.
Don’t feed the troll
. “Nice try, but so cliché. Using Leo against me? That’s lame sauce. Is that really all you got?”
Malus’s eyes narrowed to a slit of crimson. “Perhaps I underestimated you, Sunshine.”
“Yeah, you did. And don’t call me that,” she snapped.
“I understand you had quite a lovely visit with Father J,” Malus said, circling them slowly. “I dropped by to say hello to my old friend, but I was so rudely shown the door even though I was
invited
in.” He laughed in a soft hiss, turning his attention to Vance again. “Yes, your yummy little boyfriend seemed quite excited when he saw me. Started taking all kinds of pictures. He made me feel like a rock star. He worshipped me as I should be worshipped.”
“Worship?” she snorted. “You’re worthless and you know it.”
“Worthless?” Now Malus was the angry one. “I’m a god, and this earth is my kingdom.”
“Pretty sure you’re the only one who feels that way,” she said, folding her arms, her neck cocked to the side. She returned his fearsome gaze with a look of unbridled disgust. Vance’s jaw dropped.
Malus clucked his tongue in mock sympathy. “You’re scaring your boy toy, Sunshine. Even this ridiculous specimen of male teen has sense enough in his thick skull to recognize me, Malus Indolus, as the greatest being ever to walk this planet.”
“Yeah, about your name, Mr. Scary Evil Genius,” Aisi said, arms still folded. She held all emotions but disdain in check. “You must have had plenty of time last time my dad vanquished your hairy demon butt to think up that stupid name. Why don’t you just use your real name?”
“Don’t say it.”
“Don’t say the name the
real
god made for you? Why not?”
“
Do not say it
,” Malus warned, eyes glowing a deeper, livid red.
“Armaros.”
A deep, throaty growl erupted as the man in the fedora and long leather jacket writhed and howled. The fedora vanished as horns sprouted on the side of his head. His red-slitted eyes locked on Aisi, who stood her ground as Vance ran to cower behind a nearby bush. She folded her arms and cocked her knee to one side, hoping she looked totally unimpressed. She shifted her weight to one leg and looked up as the beast grew and a ram’s head erupted from where the fedora once rested. It towered over her.