Dark Calling (61 page)

Elijah smiles at her.  “Those are poetic
words.  Now, which of these fine boys do you see this lovely future with?”

Keely bites her lip and stares down at her feet.  “I don’t know.  I don’t suppose you’ve seen that in one of your prophecies?”

He laughs.  “Sorry, no.  Free will and all.”

“Sometimes that kind of sucks.”

“Often it’s a beautiful thing.  There have been worse decisions to make, trust me.”

“I thought there was su
pposed to be signs or something,” Keely says.
 
“
Little clues that point you in the right direction?”

He smirks at her.  “You have to be looking.”

Keely is about to ask him what he means, but he walks away, leaving her staring after him. 
She takes a deep breath and looks over at Bryon and Nick.  As if sensing her watching him, Nick looks up and smiles
, his love for her clear in his hazel eyes
.  “You o.k.?” he calls
and stands up quickly
.

She holds up her hand. 
“
It’s o.k.
, I’m fine.”  She looks down the hallway i
n the direction Elijah had gone and
then back to Nick.  “I’ll be right back.”  Keely hurries toward the ki
tchen and collides with Asmoday as he turns the corner.  She falls back, landing clumsily on her behind.

“Are you all right?” he asks, offering her his hand.

“When did you get back?”  He stands her up, keeping her hand in his.

“Just now,” he says.
 
“
Elijah told me the King has your mother.”

She nods as she says,
“The cord didn’t break.  I never felt a thing.”

“I never left.  I called his phone and asked for a meeting.
  He was more than willing to come.
  I chose not to explain all this.  I left that up to the Angels.”

Keely sighs, relieved he’s back.  Grateful she didn’t have to go through the pain of severing the tie again.

“Oh, Keely,
” her dad says.  “C
an y
ou give this to Bryon?”  He
tosses her a tee shirt fresh from the dryer.
  “His had blood on it.”
 

“Right here,” Bryon
says behind her.  She hands him the shirt and as he slips it on, her breath catches. 
It’s her dad’
s old band tee shirt.  Light blue with
a smiling skull and
cracked white letters arced across the chest
t
hat read
,
Vital Signs
.

Bryon looks down at the shirt.  Runs his hand over his stomach, smoothing it.  “I like this.  Tell your dad I might just keep it
for my collection
.”

She smiles and tries to remember how to breathe.

Forty
:

Now is not the time for this.  Keely’s love life is the least of her problems. 
Now that Asmoday is back
,
t
hey can go after her mom.
  She clears her throat twice searching for her voice as she turns back to Asmoday.  “Do you think you can find my mom?”

“I know where she is.” Apophis says
from behind Asmoday
.  Kee
ly glares at him, unable to stop
herself.  He doesn’t seem to notice as he goes on.  “He’d only take her where he wants you to follow.”

“The
Cimmerian Stairway,” Bryon says.  Apop
his nods once already
bored with the conversation.
  Keely brushes past them into the kitchen.  El
ijah is standing close to Ramuell
speaking quietly.

“Where is the Cimmerian Stairway?”

They look up at her, but neither answers.  Keely raises her eyebrows, her neck grows warm with anger or fear, she isn’t sure which.  She feels Asmoday come up behind her, when she turns her
head
she sees they’re all there.  Nick and Bryon stand to the right of Asmoday, Lila to the left.  Her team.

Ambriel and Michael trail off from their conversation.  “We’re coming too,” Michael says.
  Ramuell
and Elijah exchange a glance. 

“It isn’t time,”
Ramuell
finally says.

“Bull shit,” Keely utters.  “I need to get my mom before that psycho hurts her.”

Elijah sighs.  “He won’t hurt her.  He needs her as bait to lure you there.”

Keely looks at him stupefied.  “Then let’s go.  You’re the ones that wanted me to do this in the first place.”

Micah steps forward with an apologetic smile.  “It isn’t time.  We didn’t even recognize her,” he says pointing to Lila.  “In the prophecy, her hair is
much
short
er.  And you aren’t in it,” he adds looking over at Michael. 
“
It just isn’t time.”

“How short?” Lila asks.
  “My hair,” she adds.
  Micah thinks for a moment and raises his
slender
hand to his chin.  Lila turns to Keely and holds out her hand.  “Scissors?”  Kevin places them in her hand before the word has finished leaving her mouth.  She looks at him with sur
prise and he shrugs.  Lila glances
around the room deciding who she trusts with this task.  Ambriel pulls the scissors out of her hand and makes the first cut.  Lila’s hair drops slowly to the floor and a small
squeak leaves her lips.  N
ever in her life
has she
had short hair.  Ambriel continues until Lila’s
pink
blond locks curl around her chin.

Kee
ly smiles at her.  For a minute-
long hair cut with sewing sheers, it looks pretty go
od.  “Thank
you,” she mouths. 

Lila
runs her fingers through her hair.  Brushes off the loose strands sticking to her clothes.  “All right, can we go now?”

Micah flashes a smile at her full of respect.  “Looks right to me.”

Elijah laughs loudly.  “I love these people.”

“Can we take cars this time?” Keely asks.

Ramuell
and Elijah exchange another look.  “We need to travel another way,”
Ramuell
explains looking at Asmoday.  “We ne
ed you to take us to Israel
.”

“
Israel
?” Keely echoes.

Ramuell
nods his head.  “To Mount Zion in the City of David.”

***

Keely looks up at Asmoday
,
feeling dizzy
from the trip
.  He keeps is hands on her arms until the disorientation is gone.  She looks around and watches the others appear.  It’s almost
mesmerizing
as the air
shifts subtly and wavers as
someone who wasn’t there a second before su
ddenly is.  One after the other
they all appear. 

“That just doesn’t get old,” Bryon sighs as he looks around in awe.  “We just
traveled thousands of miles in the
blink of an eye.”

Micah reaches out to steady Lila as she sways and nearly tips over.  She smiles up at him.  “Thanks.”

He arches a brow
.  “Any time.”

“Humans are so easily amused,” Apophis says flatly.  Keely isn’t sure if he is referring to Bryon’s comment or to the goo-goo eyes Lila is making at Micah.  Either way, she mutters, “Shut up, Apophis,” before turning to Ramuell. 

“So what’s the plan?”

Ramuell shrugs his shoulders. 
The gesture looks all wrong on
him.  “I expected something…more.  In t
he prophecy, we fight
.”
  He looks around them as if searching for something.  “There’s no one here.”

“It’s mid afternoo
n.  We fight in the setting sun,
” Micah says slowly.  “I remember thinking how beautiful the sun was as it sank behind the
golden temple mount the first time I read the prophecy.”

Bryon says, “So we’re like seven hours early?  That sucks.”

“We could use the time to rest,” Israfil offers.  He points over to Keely and Asmoday.  “They need it.”

“I can’t sleep while my mom is still missing,” Keely says.

“There’s nothing we can do now.  We’re too early.  It’s better this way.  It gives us time to prepare,” Ramuell states.
  “It offers better odds if we’
re fed and rested,” he adds as Keely opens her mouth to protest.

“Why can’t we find him?  Sneak up on him when he isn’t expecting us?”

“You have an argument for everything, don’t you?”
Elijah asks Keely
with a
wily
smile.  “What if I said the sky is blue?  What would you say to that?”

“I have something to say right now, but I don’t think you want to hear it,” she simmers.

Elijah laughs.  “I probabl
y
d
o
n’t
, but I bet it’s very colorful.”

“Oh, it is
,
” she says flashing an annoyed smile.  He chuckles
,
unaffected. 

“
We do as the prophecy reads,” Ramuell states with finality.  “
We need a hotel,”
he tells Asmoday who nods.  A second later t
hey are all absorbed
in
darkness as they make the next leap.

***

“I just don’t understand why nobody will help me get my mom,” Keely says as she plops down on the lavish sofa in the
pricey
hotel room.  “I’m doing everything you want.  Why shouldn’t I get what I want in return?”

Micah sits beside her.  “Keely, I know this isn’t easy for you, but if we don’t do it exactly as we saw it, who knows what will happen?”

“That’s just stupid.  None of this was in the prophecy I read.”

“Exactly,” Elijah says.

“We have to do this right.  We only get one chance.  If we mess up, you could fulfill the wrong prophecy,” Ramuell adds.

Keely crosses her arms.  She knows what they’re saying makes sense, but her heart aches to find her mom.  “We still could have gone in and, I don’t know…like
,
hid so we could surprise him.  Have the upper hand for once.”

“You and Asmoday are the only o
nes who enter
and we don’t know what awaits you there.  We do
this how it is written.  There’
s no point in arguing.  I have made too many mistakes in my lifetime.  I cannot afford anymore.  Not when it comes to something so importan
t,” Ramuell states firmly
.  He turns toward one of the doors off the living room area.  “There are two bedrooms with two beds in each.  Angels in this one.”  He points across the room to the other door.  “Humans in that one. 
I’
ll wake you in a few hours.  Try to rest.”

“What about Demons?”
Nick asks.

“A
smoday can stay with Keely.”  Ramuell
reads the uncomfortable expression on her face and amends.  “Because
of his bond to her, I feel it’
ll b
e more comforting for them both
and therefore easier for them to sleep.  As for Apophis, well, I have a special place in mind for him.”

“I’ll just go back to my realm.
  You can send Asmoday when it’
s time,” Apophis says dryly.

Ramuell moves quickly in front of Apophis and slides a necklace over his head.  “I don’t think so.”  He steadies Apophis
as he staggers.
Lowers
him to the floor.  Apophis swings his arm attempting to fight off Ramuell, but the talisman lea
ves his muscles worthless.  “I’
m sorry, but I can’t have
you disappearing on me now.  Not when we’re this close.  Just sleep.”

Ramuell gestures for Elijah to help him and they carry Apophis through the door to the Angels room.

“O.k.  Well, on tha
t note, I think I’m going
to bed,” Lila says.  She pushes back the door to their room and whistles.  “Nice.”

“Money is not an issue for us,” Micah says from behind her.

“I see.  I may not want to go back home when this is over.”  Lila puts her hand over her
mouth and stifles a gasp.  She
w
h
irls around and stares at Micah.  “I do go home, right?  We all do?”

Micah looks over his s
houlder at Israfil
who
looks away quickly.