Dark Calling (59 page)

“How is it right to leave him?”  Her voice is barely audible as she chokes out the words.

“Because I want you to do it,” Asmoday says.  “It will ensure your safety.”

“I won’t do it.”

“You will.  You have to.  It’s what I want.  Does that not matter to you?”

Keely swallows hard.  “It doesn’t matter right now.  We don’t even know what’s down there.  You could die.”

“Or I could be fine.  You do not
know.  Besides, one life, to save so many others, to save you.  It is worth the cost.”

“Not to me!” Keely screams.
  She buries her head in her hands and begins to cry.  A slow steady stream of angry tears.  “Not to me,” she sobs.  “Not to me.”

***

The rest of the ride is silent except for the rhythmic pounding of hooves. 
Keely is aware of
Asmoday’s feelings as if they are a knife stabbing her.  His sorrow, his determination, his pride, but most of all his love for her. 

She ignores hi
m as best she can as she struggles with her own state of mind, knowing he is just as aware of her as she is of him.  She wasted too much time pushing him away.  Too much time fight
ing her feelings for him.  S
oon she will have to leave him behind.  Possibly forever.

“This is Nick Wallace’s home,” Asmoday says.  Keely pulls herself out of her thoughts and looks around.  “This is the Warrior?”

Israfil nods, confirming his assumption.

Elijah slides from
Ephesus and reaches for Keely.  She jumps off the other side before he has a chance
to help her
.  Just because they’re Angels
doesn’t mean she needs to like them right now.  Not when they are making her do something so terrible. 

Elijah stares at her and chuckles.  “I really do like her.”

Keely ignores him and
heads for the door
that leads to the steps.  She bou
nds down them and knocks as
Elijah and Micah catch up.  A moment passes and she knocks again.  “He might be at the hospital with Bryon,” Keely suggests.

“He’s here,” Micah says confidently.

“How do you know?”

Before he can answer, the door opens and Nick stares at Keely with red rimmed eyes that go big with surprise.  Nick grabs Keely’s shirt and tugs her toward him, wrapping his arms around her so tightly she can barely breathe.  “I thought you were gone.  You’re all right.  You’re all right.”  He pulls back and cups her face in his palms.  Looks at her face.  “You’re all right,” he
says again and Keely thinks he’
s talking more to himself than to her.

“I’m fine, Nick,” she says quietly.

“Ambriel called me.  She said they took you…”  He looks past her now and his words trail off. 

“You need to come with us,” Elijah says.  “Now,” he adds when Nick just stares.

“Yeah, o.k.”  He pulls the door shut and takes Keely’s hand tightly in his.

***

Nick perches behind Micah
,
more in awe
d silence
than
discomfort as they stop outside of the hospital.

“Who here?” Keely asks urgently.

Before Keely can ignore his help, Elijah grips h
er waist and lowers her.  Dismounting, h
e smirks at her as she crosses her arm
s
in front of her.  “The Prophet,
”
he says.

“Who’
s the prophet?” Nick asks.  He slides off the horse and immediately takes Keely’s hand.  She feels Asmoday’s eyes on her, but keeps her gaze fixed on Elijah.

“The Watcher.”

Keely freezes.  “Which one?
  There are two here.”

Elijah looks at Israfil.  “What’s the boy’s name again?”

He pulls a scroll from his belt and un
rolls it several inches.  “Hill
, Bryon Nathaniel.”

Relief washes over Keely instantly, grateful it isn’t Dustin.  “But he’s hurt.  He needs to stay in the hospital.
”  Then something else occurs to her.  “Bryon’s not a Prophet.  Is he?”

“He is,” Israfil states, “according to this.”  He rolls the scroll closed and reattaches it to his belt.

“A Prophet?  Bryon?”  Nick can’t believe it.  He and Keely sh
are a look of mutual surprise.  Nick shrugs.  “All right.”

At this point, Keely nearly shrugs too.  Nothing should surprise her anymore.  “Well, he probably shouldn’t leave the hospital.”

“We’ll ask him,” Micah says as he strolls past her.

“I’m pretty sure we all know how that will go,” Keely sighs.

Elijah raises his eyebrows.  “Exactly.”

“You know, for Angels, you guys just don’t seem very angelic,” Keely murmurs as she follows after Elijah and Micah. 

Elijah laughs.  “We’re not Angels right now, remember?”  He wriggles his brows. 

“Hey, Micah, you want to take the armor off
before you go in there?” Ramuell
calls.

M
icah looks down at himself, his
eyes crinkle with amusement.  “Guess I should.  Don’t want to frighten the humans.”

“I don’t know why you wear that stuff anyway,” Israfil says with a grin.  “It’s not like you ever need it.  I haven’t seen you engage in battle in over a hundred years.”

“I’
m over
due, don’t you think?”  He flashes a brilliant smile as he slips the breast plate over his head.
  Beneath, he wears a plain black tee shirt and Keely is struck by how normal he looks.  How normal
they all look.  If she had
passed them on the street, she wouldn’t have given them a second glance.  O.k., she might have.  They are all amazing looking, but she would never have guessed Angel
s
.  Not like this.  Just normal guys joking and talking outside of a hospital.

Bryon smiles as Keely comes into the room.  He’s sitting up watching T.V. and sipping Mountain Dew from a straw.  “Kiem, you finally came to see me?”

She smiles back, glad to see him look so good.  Nick comes in behind her, followed by Elijah.  “How are you doing?”

“Better.  Who’
s this?”  He scrutinizes Elijah carefully.

“He’s an Angel.  Like
,
a real Angel,” Keely whispers.

Bryon grins, sure she’
s joking with him.  The smile fades slowly as he reads the serious expression on her face.  His eyes dart to Elijah, then to Keely.  Over to Nick who nods.  “Why?”

Elijah laughs loudly.  “He is definitely your friend,” he says to Keely.  “You are a part of our prophecy.  We need your help,” he adds turning to Bryon.

Without a word, Bry
on plucks off the plastic rectangle
clipped to his finger and tosses it on the bed.  Pulls the blanket back and pushes himself gingerly off the bed.  He pulls at the one string tying his hospital gown together and it falls to the floor leaving him standing in his white boxer briefs.  Keely’s eyes are momentarily glued to the bandage on his chest.  As her eyes begin to trail down his stomach, she turns around quickly.

“Shouldn’t you stay in bed?” she asks in what was meant to be a scolding voice, but comes out more like a sigh.

“I don’t have a shirt.  They cut it off of me,” he says ignoring Keely.  She hears the zip of his
pants and turns back to scowl at
him.  He rolls his eyes.  “Keel, I am not going to miss this,” he says firmly.

Elijah pulls his tee shirt over his head revealing a white tank top.  The kind she always refers to as wife beaters.
  He hands the shirt to Bryon. 

“I’m sorry miss, you can’t go in there,” Micah says from the hallway.

“The hell I can’t.  Who are you?  Where’s Bryon?” Lila’s voice rises to near hysterics.  Nick and Elijah run toward th
e door as something hits it with great force
.

“She hit me.  Hard,” Micah says rubbing his cheek with a bemused expression.  “It kind of hurt.”  He smirks at Lila as she pushes past him into the room.

“What the hell is going on?  Why are you out of bed?”

“Calm down, Lila.”

“What did you just say to me Nicholas Wallace?”

“Lila?  Lila Wallace?” Elijah asks suddenly.  He looks to Micah who nods.  “You need to come with us too.”

Lila looks him up and down, he
r
chin
dipped toward her chest
,
hands on hips
.  “And who are you?”

“I’m Elijah.”

“
They’re
Angels,” Bryon says.  Keely hears the excitement in his voice.  Lila looks at Nick.  He nods.

She
bites her lip and
shrugs.  “Where we going?”

“Really?  Not one of you is freaked out?
”
Keely bursts out throwing her hands in the air
.
“
Nobody questions the fact that they are actual Ang
els?  Really?”

“Are you kidding?”  Bryon looks around at the others in the room.  “Is she serious?”  He grunts as he lifts the shirt over his head.  “I waited my whole life for this.”

Thirty-Nine
:

Elijah pushes Bryon into the saddle and offers Keely his hand.  “What about you?” she asks.

“I’ll walk,” he tells her and lifts her onto the horse.

“You can ride with me,” Micah says to Lila with a flirtatious grin.  She smiles back and he helps her onto his mahogany colored horse.

“So, if Nick is the Warrior, Bryon is the Prophet, then who is Lila again?” Keely says as she wraps her arms loosely around Bryon’s waist.

“I’m a what?” Bryon asks.

“You’re the Prophet.  She is the Perceiver,” Israfil explains.

“I’m not a Prophet,” Bryon says.

“What’s a Perceiver?” Lila asks.

“You are a Prophet, or you will be,” Elijah tells Bryon.  “And a Perceiv
er is someone
who has a sixth sense.  If you were an Angel, you would be a guide
, like Micah
.”

Lila purses her lips.  “I see that.”

Keely looks at Ramuell
.  “And you called Asmoday the Scion.  What does that mean?
  The Scion of whom?
”

“
Of me,” Ramuell
says.

They all fall silent. 
Eyes darting between Asmoday and the Angel. 
“You’
re my grandfa
ther,” Asmoday whispers.  Ramuell
looks at him proudly and nods his head.

“Whoa.  Wait a minute.  Am I the only one confused?”  Lila puts her hand
s
out, palms up. 
“You look about what?  Twenty-four, twenty-five?  How can you possibly be a grandfather?”

“Angels, Lila,” Nick groans.

“I only age in my human form.”

“But his daddy’s a D
emon, right?”

“My son was an abomination.  He was an original Demon, born without a soul.  I grieve for him every single day.”

“So Demons really don’t have souls?” Keely asks.

Ramuell
nods.  “Most do not
because they were never meant to exist.  What we did when we fell, we went against our Father.  He didn’t have life planned for the child
ren we created.  That much supremacy
without a soul, it made them insane.  Mad with power.  Their bodies grew larger and stronger each day, and as their hunger grew, so did their rage.  There was nothing inside of them to point them in the right direction.  No inner voice telling them to stop, tell
ing them they were wrong.  T
hey couldn’t hear us when we tried to teach them.  All they wanted
was to placate their desires, b
ut it was never enough.  Their hunger was never satisfied.  Their thirsts never quenched.  Their passion
s
never sated.  Some of the fallen tried to kill them, but they wouldn’t die.  No soul to leave their bodies.  We begged our Father for forgiveness.  Repented and pleaded for his help.  He opened
the gates to us once more.  T
he flood came a fortnight later.”

“Asmoday has a soul,”
Keely says with
absolute
confidence.

Ramuell
looks at his profile.  “Yes, he does.  Our Father had a plan for him.”  He squeezes Asmoday’s shoulder. 

“So, if Asmoday’s the Scion, then who is the Demon?”  Keely begins to shiver as she waits for somebody to answer.  Asmoday holds her gaze.

“Keely, are you
cold?”
Bryon
asks
,
feeling her tremble.