Ablaze (7 page)

“You can’t be to sure about anything. You never expected your kind to attack us to try to kill Sam either.”

She gave him a look at his words before she nodded. “You’re right of course.”

He instantly felt bad and grabbed her hand. “I didn’t say it to hurt you.”

“The truth hurts nonetheless,” she said softly.

Penn had no clue how she felt because in the years that went by in hell there was nothing but betrayal and lies. Where treachery was like breathing, there was no one to count on but yourself.

Picking each footstep carefully they made it down to the cavern floor. They took a small dirt track that headed east, and no one spoke. A large boulder seemed to block their path, but when Penn navigated a way around it, they found the tree. It was lush, with leaves that were wide and green, and there was no water or even a thin trickling stream that passed close by. Penn watched Hailey reach up to caress the leaves before turning with a huge smile on her face.

“This is the place,” she said and laughed a little.

“You should call the ageless one. I don’t think he would answer a demon,” Penn said to Hailey.

“Boy, you would be surprised who I answer.” The humorous voice came from behind them, and they are turned in surprise.

“I’m certainly not a boy,” Penn said tightly.

The old man laughed. “Fifteen hundred years is a drop in the bucket, boy.”

He said the word again deliberately, and Sam laughed. “You don’t like when people do it to you, Penn.”

“Shut up,” Penn growled.

He studied the old, weathered face of the man who stood in front of them. His face carried the features of an American Indian and Caucasian heritage. His skin looked worn and browned by the sun like old leather. Still his dark eyes sparked with humor, and his movements were not as stiff as one would expect from someone that old. His clothes were more modern, a plaid shirt and faded jeans along with a multicolored blanket poncho over his shoulders. His hair was long and so white it captured the sunlight, and he wore it pulled into a ponytail at his nape.

“You’re the son of Gabriel.” The old man nodded.

“What should we call you, ageless one?” Hailey asked softly.

“Well you’re a sight, angel; you chose the love of a boy over eternity in heaven. There is more honor in your choice than you will ever know. You can call me Ray.” He cast a glance in Penn’s direction. “It seems you love this one as well.”

“She cannot be held responsible for anything; I take all the blame,” Penn said automatically and grabbed her hand. He didn’t know why he said it. All of a sudden the urge to defend her and take all the blame filled him.

“How would I punish her? You don’t have to defend here, Pennemuel,” Ray replied. “I’m a neutral, the same thing you could be if you wanted.”

“Is that your real name?” Sam questioned.

Ray smiled at Sam. “I’ve had many names over the years, but this is my favorite.”

“What do you mean I can become a neutral?” Penn interrupted briskly. One couldn’t let information like that slip away without asking. His future was at stake.

Ray shook his head and waved them forward. “Not here. You are welcome in my home. There I will tell you all things you need to know, and if Sam so chooses mark him from sight.”

“Oh, I chose already,” Sam muttered.

“Don’t be hasty; there is always a price for such things.” Ray threw the comment over his shoulder as they walked.

Another cryptic sentence
, Penn thought irritably. He took Hailey’s hand while they walked with the old man, and the feeling of her soft skin against his gave him comfort. Ray’s home turned out to be a cave in the canyon wall. When they stepped inside there was a stone hearth carved out of the rock with a fire and a large pot hanging over it. His bedding was in one corner on a ledge that jutted out of the rock wall, and the simple furnishing of a small table and chair stood off in a corner. In the center of the rock floor was another hollowed pit with the remnants of charred wood inside it. Ray moved past them and picked up wood from a neat stack and dropped it into the hole. With just a pass of his hands over the pile, the wood caught fire. Sam gasped, and Hailey smiled. Penn reserved his judgment as Ray sat Indian style across from the fire and urged them to sit as well.
Anyone could make fire with a wave of the hand,
Penn thought.

“What price does Sam have to pay to be marked from sight?” Hailey asked. She put her hand over her heart. “I can bear it for him.”

“Your soul is pure regardless of what those angels said when they attacked.” Ray nodded and pulled a pipe from his pocket. After packing it, he struck a match over the tobacco and took a deep pull from the pipe. “One of my few vices, but after so many years I can afford a few. The angels that came after you are not sanctioned.”

“I thought Gabriel sent them because of the nephilim boy,” Hailey murmured.

“No, he did not; there is a war, hidden even from your eyes when you were a heavenly being,” Ray explained. “Sam will unite humans and angels alike. Those who want chaos want him dead.” He turned his attention to Sam. “Your father is one who knows your worth.”

“Then why did he leave me to a cracked-out, whoring mother and alone all these years?” Sam asked defiantly. “If he cares so much, then he should’ve come, explained it all; instead Hailey saved me.”

“He sent Hailey to you,” Ray said gently.

Hailey gasped. “I thought he was just another charge put to my care. Gabriel himself did this?”

“In his own way, he has those who are loyal,” Ray explained. “The boy was placed with you because they know you would sacrifice without question even if it meant your grace. Your purpose is now here on earth. Your destiny always lay here.”

“So you’re telling me they sacrificed her for the greater good that night,” Penn growled angrily. “Great way to use her.”

“You were meant to be in her path, boy,” Ray snapped. “Nothing is done without a reason. Just like her, you were chosen but not by those in your hell. There is power from the heavens even your dark lord cannot control in his world.”

The news left Penn reeling, but he stubbornly refused to believe that this was all one great big otherworldly setup.

“How do we know you speak the truth?” Penn demanded to know. “You live here in isolation; how can you know what is going on in the heavens and hell?”

“Boy, why do you think I’ve been on this world for so long?” Ray snapped. “I may live here, but there are visitors. From both sides who see me as a counselor, an arbitrator so to speak, to solve matters which neither side can fix on their own. The highest of the high from both factions of dark and light seek me out.”

Penn nodded. “If what you say is true, what’s this about me becoming a neutral like you?”

“You can choose to belong to neither and become a dark angel.” Ray sighed. “Ferry souls to the gates but never entering either one.”

“Would I have to leave Hailey?” Penn asked as the fear of losing her clutched his chest. “I refuse to exist without her.”

“She is a fallen now, tied to the boy and to you.” Ray smiled. “You will never have to leave her or visa versa.”

“What about Sam; what does he need to be safe?” Hailey asked. “We love each other, and we promised to take care of him together.”

Penn nodded in agreement. “He needs us until it’s time for whatever it is he is to do.”

“I will mark his bones with the old words.” Ray looked at Sam. “The price is pain; I cannot take you under to do this. It must be while you are awake. It will be unlike anything you can imagine. When your time is upon us, those marks will be broken, and your true power will be revealed. Till then you’ll be a boy in school and all things normal. Your power will grow, but you will not see the full extent until the time is right.”

Hailey gasped. “Is there no way to spare him the pain?”

“I’ve been tortured before; I can take his pain,” Penn announced. “Channel it through me.”

“Like I said, it is his to bear alone,” Ray said. “Noble as you both are, he must face this.”

“Do it,” Sam said stubbornly. “If I’m supposed to become some leader to link mankind and all that shit, I need to bear my own weight and burdens. I can do this. Plus actually getting to go to school and being a normal kid might be kind of cool. I didn’t know I would miss that kind of thing until I didn’t have it anymore.”

Suddenly, Ray looked up, and his eyes became a cloudy of gray mist. “They come for the boy, to end this all.” He shook his head, and his eyes cleared to the dark pupils of before. This time his face showed his worry. “Both sides are here for the boy. You must hold them off until I complete the markings. They will not harm me, but I cannot stop them from taking him.”

Penn stood, and a low angry sound left his throat. “Stay here, Hailey. I’ll fight them alone.”

“No, you won’t; we’re two halves of the same whole. Light and dark, and my love is yours.” Hailey set her lips in a firm stubborn line. “I fight with you.”

“Go then. Go!” Ray shouted. “I must begin.”

An inhuman sound filled the air, and Penn knew what it was instantly. “Hell dogs,” he muttered and then turned to Hailey. He kissed her hard and swiftly tasted her lips for what he thought was the last time. Ray the ageless loner might think they were tied, but he felt that he would die that night. He was willing to accept it as long as she was safe. Ray threw a sword, and Penn caught it and handed it to Hailey in one smooth motion. “If they come at you, stay low to the ground and slice the underbelly. They will do down.”

Together they ran outside, and as they moved, Penn pulled the sword from his back. Dry lightning cut across the sky in jagged swaths as they attacked from both sides. The light and the dark had one intention and that was to take Sam out of the picture. They attacked just as Sam’s first screams pierced the air. Hailey dropped to her knees and clutched her chest over her heart as he screamed and screamed. Penn stood above her fighting like a madman until there was a space in the attack where he could drag her to her feet.

Tears streaked the chocolate skin of her cheeks. “He hurts. Oh, he is in so much pain!”

Penn shook her hard. “Nothing matters if you die or I die and they get through to him. Put it aside or use it. Fight for him. Fight now for all three of us!”

She nodded just as they attacked again. She fought her own kind with agility and power he didn’t know she possessed. He didn’t even get a chance to teach her to fight, yet she did so with grace and skill. He fought for her, and anything that got too close was cut down. Hailey was his light, and he refused to let anyone—demon or angel—extinguish that light. All the while thunder rolled, and the clouds twisted and moved in turmoil. Sam’s screams went on and on until Penn too thought he was being tortured and wanted to go to him. While Hailey fought she cried, and he saw her tears fall as brutally as she brought the sword down for a killing blow.

Somehow in the fight they were pushed apart, and Penn fought through the mayhem to get back to her. It seemed all of hell was purged from below to fight. They wanted the bounty on his hand and on Sam’s. Penn refused to give an inch. Even as his body took cuts and bruises, he fought on until there was nothing left. He looked around for Hailey, and while he did, Sam’s screams abated. A crack of thunder shook the walls of the canyon. The angels that were left looked up in surprise and horror before they disappeared—all except one. Penn recognized him as the one who led the attack in the small apartment in New York. He was relentless as he attacked Hailey, coming at her with two swords, and she was driven to the ground under the onslaught. He was an angel from the warrior cast, and there was no way she could beat him. Penn moved with speed across the rocky ground to save her, yet it felt as if his feet were stuck in quicksand.

“You are not sanctioned!” Hailey cried out as the angel towered above her.

“No!”

He roared the words as the angel smiled and brought his sword down. Everything seemed to move in slow motion.

“Choose!” Penn heard Ray cry out from the entrance of his home in the rock wall of the canyon. He looked over to see him standing there with his hand outstretched. It was him who slowed down the killing blow directed toward Hailey.

“I choose to belong to neither side; I choose to be neutral!”

Penn roared the words as he reached Hailey and covered her with his body. The angel’s sword would come down across his back and cut through him. This was his fate, and he accepted his death. Except the blow never came. He never felt his body being cut by the heavenly blade. He looked up to see the angel frozen with his hand held high to bring the deathblow, but he could not move. Horror was on the angel’s face as Penn pulled Hailey away from danger. They fell on the dusty dry ground and looked on as a flash of lightning hit the sword that the angel held and travel through his body. With a flash of light the only thing left was dust, and his cry was carried away on the wind.

Penn moved his hands over Hailey. “Are you hurt in any way?”

“No, but you’ve changed,” she said gently and touched something at his back.

Penn stood, helped her to her feet, and tried to look over his own shoulder. He caught a glimpse of dark feathers, and when he looked under his arm he saw the ending of his dark wings. He had chosen, and now he was a dark angel.

“Well this is new,” he murmured amazed.

He looked at Hailey as her own wings spread, and now the tips of her feathers were black. Without a word they rushed into each other’s arms, and Penn took her lips in a long, hard kiss. They were alive and together.

“I’m okay too, by the way.” Sam limped forward, and Penn could see he was pale from what he’d been through.

“You look good enough, kid.” Penn chuckled. “We were the ones fighting out here.”

“Well shit, demon, how about you let someone write on your bones and see how you stand up,” Sam replied.

“You did well, boy; you might be worth protecting after all,” Penn teased.

“It is done, no one will come after him any longer,” Ray said with a smile. He hit Penn lightly in the shoulder. “Your biggest challenge is yet to come, boy, matching wits with a surly teen. Teaching him will be a monumental task.”