Eden's Creatures (23 page)

It is time.

The knowledge sent a tingling thrill racing through this body.

The Faedin warriors poured into the area around the pit. A dozen, if Bannon had counted right. It surprised him to see Abram leading instead of Gilad. He had hoped to dispose of his biggest threat first.

Bannon stood with arms out to his sides. “My dear friends! I thought you might be visiting soon, so I’ve come to welcome you.”

“Quiet, traitor!” Abram snarled at him.

“Strong words from a new warrior,” Bannon observed dryly.

“How could you betray us, Bannon? We all trusted you!”

“Trust gets you nowhere in the world, Abram. Lessons the Faedin are too stagnant to realize, stuck away here in a corner of the world, guarding… a tree.”

“We do more than that, traitor! We keep the devil at bay.”

Bannon turned toward the pit with a laugh. “Did you hear that, Gai’tan? You are officially at bay!”

“You will come with us,” Abram demanded. He gestured and two warriors started forward. “Julius will want to be the one to end your pathetic existence personally.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that.” The two warriors hesitated as they realized he would not go easily into their arms. “You see, my
new
friends might have something to say about that.”

“What are you—”

Wailing and mindless shrieks rent the air as a hundred Fallen thundered forward out of the trees.

“Retreat!” Abram shouted, but it was too late. It had been too late as soon as the warriors arrived.

The Fallen horde crashed into the Faedin and took them to the ground in a snarling mass, pummeling, biting and kicking. The Fallen didn’t fight with weapons, but soon they would. Cal Taylor had given him the idea of united and armed soldiers, so Bannon had been stockpiling stolen weapons. Before long, the Fallen would be equipped to destroy any Faedin who blocked his way out through the veil.

“Sire!”

Bannon spun around. “Ah, there you are.”

Rebeka stood with a male human, his eyes as wide as saucers at the violence taking place before him. With a frightened yelp, he turned and sprinted back through the woods.

“Secure the human!” Bannon shouted to one of the Fallen and he took off, crying, after the man.

Bannon beckoned his daughter close. “You have done well, daughter. Very well. Come close. Let me give you your reward of the Wonder.”

His weeping daughter did not hesitate as she flung herself into his arms.

Neither did Bannon hesitate as he broke her neck in two.

Stassi paced back and forth, her wings quivering with nervous energy. The entire village had gathered together in groups, anxiously awaiting orders from Julius. She wanted to scream at the waiting. She needed to be doing something. Anything. As long as it entailed killing Fallen.

She glanced over at Cal. He walked along the row of bows, examining each one carefully before selecting one that suited his height and strength. She wondered why he felt the need to arm himself. Surely, Abram and the warriors would quickly find Rebeka and put an end to the threat.

She had to admit that his presence comforted her, stilling the pain of her heartbreak. She thought back to all of his daily visits and realized she had learned more about her mate after he had been banned than before. If possible, she loved him even more now. Against all hope, he had returned, and somehow she would find a way to make the Faedin see in him what she saw.

Julius strode out of the pavilion with a trail of warriors following behind.

“Where is Gilad? Has he returned with Bannon?” he asked aloud to no one in particular.

“No, he has not returned,” Stassi answered.

“Abram?”

“No.”

He slammed a fist into his hand and turned to the leaders at his side. “I need answers! Now! Send another party out to—”

“Wait!” Stassi called out. “There he is!”

Gilad appeared through the trees to the north, ragged and winded. It was obvious that he had been running for a long time.

“Well?” Julius demanded as he drew near.

Gilad shook his head. “Nothing. No sign of Bannon.”

Julius took a deep breath. “This is very worrying. As a precaution, I am ordering all villagers to their nests. I want only warriors on the ground until this situation is controlled. Also, see to it that scouts are positioned in the trees all around the perimeter of the village to send advance notice of any Fallen on the move.”

Two of the warriors ran off to see to Julius’s orders.

“Warriors! Gather around!” Julius went up the steps of the pavilion and turned to address the growing gathering. “On this day, my brothers and sisters, we will put your fighting skills to the test.”

Coarse yells filled the air, followed by fists banged to chests.

“The Fallen are no longer harmless annoyances, and it is time to deal with them once and for all. As chieftain of the Faedin, I command you to seek out our enemy and pound them to dust! Let them hear the thunder of our feet! Let them cower beneath our aggression until one by one they are wiped from the world!”

Feral cheers rang out and Stassi felt her own burst forth.

“Julius! Over here! Julius!”

Stassi turned at the shout. A young warrior that had been with Abram’s party sprinted toward the pavilion and skidded to a stop.

“Where is Abram? And the warriors?” Julius demanded.

“They’re dead. All of them. Cursed by the Fallen.”

The village grew deathly quiet. Julius clenched his jaw so tight, Cal thought his teeth might shatter to pieces. “Explain.”

The warrior did so, speaking of the surprise attack and Bannon’s duplicity. “He is the one leading the coordinated attacks of the Fallen.”

Julius looked like he had aged twenty years at the news. His face was pale and the flesh around his eyes sunken in. “We thought we had dealt with the threat with the death of Zakiel, but it appears Bannon is the true mastermind behind this new uprising.”

Stassi asked the question foremost in Cal’s mind. “Any sign of Rebeka?”

The young warrior shook his head. “I didn’t see her. Abram left me to wait at the edge of the woods to send back word should there be a need.”

“So the tree is unguarded?”

“Yes.”

Cries and curses lit the air.

Gilad pointed to a group of warriors standing to the left of him. “You six come with me! We will stand guard, Julius. I promise you Gai’tan will not see the light of day!”

“Yes, yes. Go, Gilad. Let us pray that you are in time. The Maker be with you.”

Gilad took off at a sprint, the warriors following close behind.

One of the remaining warriors cleared his throat. “Julius, if… if Gai’tan gets free—”

“It is a prospect we must prevent at all costs,” Julius finished. “Spread the word! Call in every warrior we have! If the Fallen want a fight, we will take it to them.”

As the crowd erupted for a third time, Stassi touched Cal’s arm and led him away from the group. Her face was as pale as Julius’s had been. Cal wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around her, but wasn’t sure how she would react so he kept his distance.

She stopped and wrapped her own arms across her chest. “For the first time in my life, Cal, I am afraid. The thought of Gai’tan slithering out of that hole is just too horrible to imagine.”

“Is he really a… a snake?”

“I think so, but all we have are the translations from our ancestors.”

Screw it!
He reached out and pulled her close. To his surprise, she clung to him and nothing had ever felt so good to him in his life. Whatever else happened, he would protect Stassi — with his last breath if need be.

He thought back to the Elder’s words that he needed to unite the Faedin. “We can do this, Stassi,” he whispered, trying very hard to forget the second thing the Elder said.
The time of the Faedin is over.
“We can do this together.”

She pulled back to look at him. “I’m glad you are here with me, Cal. I don’t think I—”

A sudden shout pulled them apart.

Gilad and the warriors were returning at a much faster pace than the one in which they had left. “They’re coming!”

As one, the warriors clenched in alert.

Julius flew off the pavilion. “The Fallen?”

“Yes,” Gilad whispered breathlessly.

“How many?”

“All of them.”

B
annon wiped the sweat from his brow as he plodded miserably through the forest with two Fallen by his side. The human had proved a lot faster than Bannon thought he would be, and it was taking longer to find him than he had time for. The Fallen army would be attacking the Faedin any moment now which meant he needed to be there and not tramping through these blasted woods. For all the Fallen’s single-minded ability to follow through on a direct order, he had learned over the past few weeks just how much reinforcement was still required to get them to act together. Any slight release of the reins and they would be scattering like spooked chickens.

A slight moment of hesitation slowed his steps as he briefly considered using the human, once he was found, to disappear through the veil without freeing Gai’tan.

Could it work?

He shook his head, quickly dismissing the idea. No, he would never make it. The Fallen, compelled and cursed by the devil, would tear him to pieces before he could ever make it. Especially now that they were already on the scent. Best to just see this thing through as planned. Zakiel promised him the veil would be destroyed when Gai’tan was reborn, and Bannon would be able to walk out at his leisure. He would wait for his opportunity.

The creak of wood above his head stopped him. He slowly glanced up. There, perched precariously on a limb was the human, soaked through with sweat.

“Get him down,” he ordered the two Fallen and they scrambled up into the tree with all of the agility of a Faedin still.

The human tried to climb higher, but never made it. One of the Fallen grabbed his shirt and tossed him down to the ground, a good twenty-foot drop.

Bannon hauled the man to his feet by the collar.

“Let go of me!”

“My apologies, son of Adam, but I am unable to do that.”

“What do you want with me you… you monster!”

Bannon showed the human his teeth. “Oh, you have no idea.”