Rise of the Fallen (17 page)

“Oh … I'm sorry for asking,” I all but whispered, looking across at Soul who shrugged dismissively.

“Don't be sorry, sweet, everything happens for a reason. Besides, if that hadn't happened we wouldn't be in this position now,” Markos smiled and directed his gaze to Soul.

“So, the plan?” Soul returned, smiling a little as I looked across at him.

“If I'm permitted to speak,” Savine spoke up. “I would like to suggest a vampyre army.”

Markos sighed loudly in irritation, “After what I just said, I would have hoped you would come up with a more intelligent response. Lilith annihilated our coven last time. Besides, fledgling vampyres are the worst! They're so weak; it'll do nothing but wipe out our kind.”

Savine hit the table, making a slight dent, “Fine then!”

Soul raised an eyebrow. “This is very productive.”

“Can I suggest something?” All eyes turned to me.

“Make sure it's intelligent,” Savine's eyes flashed with amusement.

Soul scowled at her. “Floor's yours,” he said.

“What about we aim at the upper-level demons first. I mean, there can't be that many, right? So kill them off, and Lilith and Samael will have to fight this themselves.” As I said it, I realised it wouldn't be that simple.

Savine smiled suddenly, and genuinely. “That is actually good, it's possible too. I mean, we took out Vashel easily enough.”

“It shouldn't be that difficult, especially with Savine and me helping,” Markos added.

Soul leaned forward in his chair and rested his arms on the table. “But where should this happen? It should be in one place, at one time or the others will start to get suspicious.”

“What about at Impasse Cemetery? It's been abandoned for years and I doubt anyone else knows it's there.” I suggested.

Cael and I used to go there to think, it was silent – one of the best things about cemeteries. All three raised their eyebrows at me. “What?” I asked in confusion.

“You are …” Savine started to speak but couldn't find the words.

“Diabolical,” Soul and Markos chorused.

I still didn't understand. “What? What's so bad about that?” They laughed. “Nothing,” Soul supplied. “It's a good plan, in two days we'll do it.”

Markos agreed, leaning forward. “From the moment I met you, you haven't ceased to shock me.”

“And you're shocked why? You met her like three hours ago,” Savine retorted, casting me an apologetic glance.

“Be nice,” Markos warned, turning to Soul. “So have you talked to Emilie about …?” he trailed off suggestively.

Soul sat up straight, “Partially, not in detail though.”

The loud ringing of his phone interrupted. Soul didn't respond. After a few more rings he answered, “Dorian, what can I do for you?”

We all watched curiously while Soul held his phone to his ear listening to Dorian.

“We'll be back in an hour, I'll see you then.” His voice was quiet as he hung up.

“What did
he
want?” I asked in obvious distaste.

“He wanted to know when we'd be back … and to let me know he is Lilith's new lover. All of which means I can't trust him anymore.”

“Well, we never trusted him in the first place,” Markos said.

“I agree entirely Markos, but I think it's time Emilie and I left. We don't want to cause more suspicion.” Soul stood and pushed his chair in.

Markos and Savine rose silently and I followed suit. It felt strange leaving so suddenly, though we had been there for a few hours; no wonder Dorian was curious as to why we had taken so long.

Soul reversed quickly out of the driveway. With every second the house grew smaller. Soon we lost sight of it completely, and the trees surrounded us, though they were barely visible in the darkness of the night. There was no silver light that usually shone down from the moon; instead it was darkness, broken only by the headlights. Soul drove quicker than he had on the way there, as though he was trying to reach the bright lights of the streets, as though he were afraid of the darkness. My curiosity deepened when I heard the click of the door locks. This must be serious.

“What's wrong?” he asked, now keeping his attention on the road.

“Hey, Soul, are you scared or something?” I laughed. “What happened to you?”

His eyes flashed to me and he laughed somewhat nervously, “Of course I'm not scared! I just want to get back.”

“Sure.”

He laughed again. “So … Markos, eh? …”

I blushed and looked at him in embarrassment, “Don't.”

“You teased me, so now it's my turn,” he grinned. “So why didn't you do it?”

“I have no idea. Not that it's any of your business.”

Soul steered skilfully along the dirt track. “It is my business. After all I'm still trying to get back with you.”

I rolled my eyes and shook my head, “You know how Savine mentioned Vashel? Why did you kill her?”

Soul's smile fell slightly, but I knew he would answer me anyway.

“Vashel heard me talking to you about Lilith. She was going to ruin everything. Besides, killing her got me a few new powers that will definitely be useful in getting rid of the others,” Soul said.

“You can absorb the powers of others?”

I had never heard of any demon capable of that. Soul ignored me so I took it as confirmation.

“But no one else knows about me and your plan?” I asked.

I was new to this but I was sure a revolt would fail if someone knew, someone who couldn't be trusted.

“Bato does … He won't be trouble, he pretty much works for me anyway,” Soul said with a laugh.

“Bato is an idiot!”

“Relax, kid. It's fine,” Soul said, glancing out his side window.

“Don't call me kid …”

“Sorry, won't happen again.”

It was then I saw a bright green light glowing in the distance.

“Oh my God,” I whispered, leaning away from the window slightly.

Soul looked past me and stopped laughing, “Not good. I think it's time to ditch the car.”

“What do you mean? Why?”

“That Emriahl,” he gestured to the green light that was approaching fast, “is collecting something you don't need to know about.”

He reached over and grabbed my arm, I closed my eyes and before I knew it we were out of the car. When I opened my eyes we were standing in the middle of the road outside Dorian's house. Soul pulled me along, almost running me to the house. There was no one around, though inside the house was quite loud. There was rushed chatter coming from upstairs where I had first seen Bato, and there was similar noise coming from the kitchen area. Soul straightened his clothes and calmly walked towards the staircase, reaching out for my hand again. I took it and followed him slowly up the stairs.

“Who was it collecting, Soul?” I asked quietly.

Soul turned to me and shook his head. “I told you, you don't need to know.”

I didn't appreciate his tone, or the fact that he wouldn't tell me. I had a feeling it had something to do with Markos, but I knew better than to say anything more.

He knocked and opened the door. Sitting with Bato were Dorian, Andre and several others I had never seen before. On the left-hand side of the table, however, was one woman who looked up at me with shining blue eyes. Soul grabbed a chair from the corner of the room and gestured for me to sit, while he took another.

“So this is the girl, then?” the woman said, flicking her short, mousy-brown hair from her face.

Soul nodded, “Yeah.”

She came over to me, pulling her chair behind her as she walked. Though her frame was petite and her personality appeared to be meek, I could tell from my time in the demonic realm that this blueeyed woman was probably the deadliest of them all. She sat down across from me, put the deck of tarot cards in her lap and reached her hand out to shake mine.

“My name's Phebe, nice to meet you,” she grinned, waiting for me to shake her hand.

Everyone in the room was staring, but not at me. Their eyes were fixed on Phebe, waiting to see what she was going to say or do next. It has been my experience that the ones who are unpredictable can be the most dangerous. Regardless, I reached out and shook her hand. She picked up the deck, shuffling the cards quickly and fanning them out in her hands.

“Pick one,” Phebe said simply, staring down at the cards.

I obliged and picked the card smack dab in the middle. She smiled again, removed the card and threw the remainder of the deck back to the table. The cards flew out across the table and Bato went to work, putting them back into order. Phebe flipped over the card I had picked and looked at it briefly before showing me.

“Death is a good card, it means new beginnings,” she smiled, tossing the card at Bato.

“What took so long with Markos?” Andre said quietly to Soul, obviously keeping me out of the conversation.

Phebe looked over her shoulder at them, then back to me. “Men are puppies, they like to think they're in charge but we know they wouldn't know what to do if we weren't around.”

I laughed. It was so very true. Dorian glared indignantly at her, then his gaze changed to meet mine. He waved at me with a small, barely noticeable movement of his hand. Pathetic.

“I had to go take care of some things … So I had to leave Emilie with him,” Soul said, shooting a look at Dorian.

“Oh my, Emilie, you are naughty,” Dorian said with a smirk, leaning back in his chair.

I looked away from them and focused on Phebe, who was glaring at them in a way that assured me that, if given the chance, she would kill them in an instant. I liked that. They continued talking but I didn't listen, I had no interest in their conversation. My mind was preoccupied with thoughts of Soul killing Lilith. Usually my mind was
a calm place, but right now it was filled with images of how he would do it and when. I hoped it would be soon, I'd rather get this over and done with quickly. Lilith was the biggest threat to everything, and I wanted her gone.

“Wake up, Emilie! You kind of spaced out there.” Phebe's quiet voice broke through my thoughts.

I wondered if she would be one who would have to die, like Holly, for this plan to work. I hoped she wouldn't, because I saw her as someone I could be friends with. Once Lilith was out of the picture, of course.

I could feel her eyes on me, watching me with curiosity. The phrase ‘curiosity killed the cat' ran through my mind at that instant for some reason.

“Emilie, maybe you and I should go into another room to talk … alone,” Soul said, rising from his chair and returning it to the corner of the room.

“Just to talk? I've heard that before,” Dorian said with a laugh.

We walked out of the room and Soul closed the door behind us.

He led the way to the room that I had woken up in this morning. He gestured for me to sit on the single bed and pushed the door to close it – but a hand appeared and held it open.

“Phebe, did you not hear me say ‘alone'?” Soul spoke in clear annoyance.

I looked at him, then at her. The room was tense, but Phebe smiled.

“I heard you, but I want to talk to you about this little plan of yours.” Phebe stepped forward and sat beside me on the bed.

Soul slammed the door shut and turned around to stare her in the eye. The look on his face was panicked and murderous. For good reason.

“Relax, honey, I'm not going to tell them. I personally hate Lilith.
She doesn't let me have any fun anymore,” Phebe smirked, full of curiosity.

“If you're lying, I'll kill you, Phebe,” Soul said roughly.

“If I was lying and I really
did
want to tell the others, you would both be dead right now,” she hissed, standing up and walking towards Soul.

“No, if you were going to tell anyone you would wait until we were completely unsuspecting – then you'd get us killed.”

“You have such a low opinion of me Soul. I can't imagine why. I've done nothing to you,” Phebe replied, looking around the room.

“I know you,” Soul said bluntly.

“This room is absolutely foul.” Phebe turned to me, “You'd think a bunch of immortal demons would at least be able to afford to fix up this place up.”

I blinked. That seemed random, but she did have a point. A group of immortals would have had centuries to save money, so it was strange they would pick a house that looked abandoned and about to fall apart. From the look on Soul's face, Phebe wasn't making this any better.

“Please go away, Phebe,” he sighed.

She walked over to the window; the sill was covered in a thick layer of dust. She ran her finger across it and turned to Soul and showed him the dirt on her finger.

“I'm not going anywhere, honey.” She wiped her hands on some equally filthy curtains that hung limply beside the window before sitting down on the bed beside me.

“Emilie, do me a favour: kill her.” Soul said abruptly.

I shook my head, “No thanks.”

Phebe giggled loudly beside me.

“I like this girl,” she chirped.

Soul glared at her. “She didn't say you were best friends, just that she didn't want to kill you. Don't read more into it than there is.”

Phebe grinned and turned to me, “Did he act this weird when he found out you
almost
slept with Markos?”

I blushed and averted my eyes from Soul's gaze. “Nope.”

Phebe grinned, “Well I feel special now, thanks Soul.”

“I did act this way, you just didn't notice,” Soul said, staring firmly at me.

I shrugged and stood up. Both Soul and Phebe looked at me in confusion.

Soul's eyes searched mine to see if I was alright. Soul asked, “You good?”

“I'm fine,” I replied.

Phebe cleared her throat and stood up. “Uh … well this isn't awkward at all …”