The Rise of the Fallen (The Angelic Wars Book 2) (43 page)

Chris' eyes popped open
and he sat up quickly, a stab of pain running up his back from
sleeping on a root that he hadn't even noticed.

“
Wha..? What is it?
What's happening?”

He blinked the sleep from
his eyes and looked around in alarm. But it was just Patrick
squatting next to him, grinning widely.

“
Get up. We slept
for hours.” He grimaced and rubbed the back of his head. “Must
have slept on a rock. My head's that sore.”

“
Ugh. Tell me about
it.” Chris stood up slowly, his back creaking like an old man's
and stretched carefully.

“
What time is it?”

“
Quarter of six.
Almost time for dinner.” Patrick looked up at the sky. “Looks
like we woke up just in time. There's some rain coming, I think.”

Chris looked overhead and
saw that the clouds were now one solid mass of black and purple. The
sun was a distant memory.

“
Rain? Looks more
like a storm to me. Let's head in before it hits.”

The two boys hurried back
through the garden. Chris' soreness had faded by the time they
reached the front door. Several large, icy-cold drops of water
splattered on his head and shoulders just before they got inside and
he shivered.

There was a distant rumble
of thunder that was cut off as they closed the door behind them and
made for the dining room.

“
Like I said, just
in time,” Patrick told Chris smugly. Chris just rolled his
eyes.

“
Yeah, yeah. Maybe
you'll get a job as a weatherman when you grow up.” Then he
grinned, “If you ever grow up, which I doubt.”

Patrick laughed. “Who
wants to grow up? Having to work all day? Pay bills? Raise kids?
Yuck. No thank you. I like things just the way they are now.”

“
Yeah? Well, good
luck staying a kid, Peter Pan.”

They shared a laugh and
kept walking. Chris realized that he was starving.

The entire group of
Angelics was sitting together when Chris and Patrick entered the
dining room. They had pushed two of the rectangular tables together
and made one long one. Happily, they had left two seats for the pair
and the boys sat down and greeted their friends.

“
And where have you
two been all afternoon?” Alysa asked archly as she sipped some
tea.

Chris looked at her with a
little confusion, while Patrick reddened slightly. It made the
freckles across his nose stand out even more.

“
In the garden if
you must know,” he answered her. “Why? Are you keeping
track of everyone's comings and goings?”

Alysa seemed taken aback
by his aggressive tone and just shrugged.

“
Only asking a
question, Patty. No need to jump down my throat.”

“
Yeah, well...”
Patrick grumbled and subsided. He grabbed his plate and stood up to
head over to the buffet. “Coming?” he asked Chris.

“
Right behind you,”
Chris answered with a grin and his friend's mood instantly changed
back to his usual cheerful demeanor.

They walked over to the
buffet table that was groaning under the weight of two roasts of
beef, bowls of different vegetables, a pile of home-fries and a
tureen of gravy. They loaded their plates to overflowing.

“
So what's with
snapping at Alysa?” Chris asked under his breath.

Patrick frowned and shook
his head.

“
Nothing. It's just
that she's so nosy. I hope one of the new guys that's coming will get
her attention. She's much more bearable when she's distracted.”

“
Oh she's not that
bad,” Chris muttered as they walked back to their seats. “I
find her funny most of the time. And when I don't, I just tune her
out.”

“
Yeah? I'll have to
try that,” Patrick responded and flicked a quick glance at
Alysa. She was talking animatedly with Anabelle who was sitting next
to her and eating her dinner with dogged determination.

“
Poor Ana,” he
said and chuckled. “She's definitely the most patient person I
know.”

Chris began to eat as he
watched the two girls. He had to smile at Anabelle's obvious effort
to pretend to listen to Alysa while trying to enjoy her dinner.

“
Yeah, I think
you're right,” he said and got down to the serious business of
eating.

Once he had cleared his
plate, Chris waited a few minutes before getting up to get some
dessert. Patrick was already at the dessert table, intently looking
at his choices and making what were obviously some very hard
decisions.

Natalie was sitting at the
head of the table, chatting with Tyler, who sat on one side of her
and Jacob on the other. All three had smiled at him several times
during the meal, but unless he wanted to yell, Chris couldn't have
spoken to any of them.

Francis was sitting on
Chris' left but except for a quick hello, had been speaking nonstop
to Sebastien and Chase, who sat beside him. They were talking quietly
and Chris could only pick up a few words over the general buzz of
conversation and had no idea what they looked so serious about.

Simone was seated next to
Alysa and several times Chris saw her cover her mouth as if to stifle
a laugh as she listened to the other girl's chattering.

He scanned the room idly
and realized that, except for the teens, the room was practically
empty.

George, Beatrice, Ramona
and Tony shared a table and, halfway through dinner, Alexander came
in and grabbed a seat to sit with them. From their greetings, Chris
could tell that they now considered the large man one of their group.

I wonder where the other
staff members are, Chris thought with some curiosity. He assumed that
they might be on a different schedule, considering that the judge had
doubled up the outside patrols.

Yeah, that has to be it.
Still, their absence made him vaguely uneasy.

Patrick returned at that
moment with a plate piled high with cakes, a piece of apple pie and
what looked like two lemon tarts.

“
Gees, man. Where
are you going to put all that?” Chris asked in disbelief.

“
Right here, mate,”
Patrick answered and patted his stomach.

Chris laughed. “You're
going to get fat, you know.”

“
Mmf. I doubt that,”
his friend said around a mouthful of chocolate cake. “High
metabolism. Everything I eat just burns right through me.” He
swallowed loudly and then looked at Chris with a worried expression.
“Why? Do you think I'm fat?”

Chris couldn't even answer
over the guffaw of laughter that question drew out of him. When he
caught his breath and saw that Patrick was serious, he shook his
head.

“
Of course not.
You're just right. Now, in twenty years or so if you keep forking in
food like that, you might gain weight. But right now? Not a chance.”

Patrick looked relieved.

“
Good,” he
said as he started in on the apple pie. “I'll worry about it
then.”

Still shaking his head,
Chris got up and went over to the dessert table. While he was
deciding, Natalie joined him.

“
Hey you,” she
said with a smile. “What got you laughing so hard over there?”

“
Oh, it was just
Patrick. He actually asked me if I thought he was fat.” He
grinned as he took a plate and put a slice of apple pie on it. “Isn't
that a weird question?”

“
I suppose so,”
she answered as she took a plate as well and looked at all the
choices.

“
He likes you a lot,
you know,” Natalie added as she picked up a butter tart and put
it on her plate.

“
Who? Patrick? Well,
good. I like him too. He's got a good personality. Sort of balances
out mine, you know?”

Chris picked up a large
spoon and dropped two scoops of vanilla ice cream on top of his pie.
Natalie picked up a lemon tart to add to her plate.

“
Good. I'm glad you
do.” She turned and looked at him gravely. “Just, be nice
to him, okay? He talks a lot and jokes around but I have a feeling
he's a little more fragile than he lets on.”

Chris returned her look
with one of confusion.

“
Fragile? Patrick?
Huh. I don't see that in him at all.”

Chris decided that he had
enough dessert, but before he returned to his seat, he caught
Natalie's eye again.

“
Of course I'll be
nice to him. You know me well enough by now that you shouldn't even
have to say that.”

“
Yes, I do.”
She turned and began to walk back with him. “But sometimes,
some things bear repeating. Enjoy your dessert,” she said
before sitting down again. “And try not to get fat,” she
added with a wink. Chris grinned and returned to his seat.

After dinner, Chris and
Patrick headed off to play video games. They were evenly matched in
most games and very competitive. However, most of the time they ended
up laughing so hard, especially during the racing games where they
attempted to knock each other off of the tracks, that the games ended
without any hard feelings.

While they were playing,
the windows in the small sitting room would light up and shake with
the thunder that rolled overhead. The storm had finally arrived with
a fury and seemed like it wanted to settle down and stay for a while.
The rain poured down in sheets, obscuring the outside world with
cascades of water.

Chris jumped as one
tremendous clap of thunder was followed immediately by a blinding
blue-white flash that turned the room monochromatic.

“
Holy crap,”
he said nervously. Patrick looked at him curiously.

“
Don't like storms?”
he asked.

“
I don't mind them
usually,” Chris answered shakily. “But this is one of the
worst I've been in for a long time. It's like it's hovering over
Valiant and shooting lightning bolts at us.”

Patrick looked
unconcerned. “It's only a storm, mate. You've seen one, you've
seen 'em all.”

“
Yeah, I guess.”
Chris turned back to the screen and tried to concentrate on the game
while ignoring the elements going crazy outside of the window. He at
least partially succeeded and managed to win a few games.

As the evening wore on,
the storm finally wore itself out and moved on. Chris was so
engrossed in playing that he didn't notice until Patrick had beaten
him yet again and he sat back to take a break. He glanced out of the
window into the darkness and saw nothing but a few remaining drops of
water on the glass, and one of the lights that lit up the yard.

“
Well, look at that.
Storm's gone.”

“
Told you,”
Patrick said. Then he sat back and rested against the sofa behind
him. He and Chris were sitting on the floor. “I think I'm done,
Chris.” He dug out his phone and whistled sharply.

“
Eleven-thirty? How
did that happen?”

Chris glanced at the phone
in surprise.

“
Really? Yikes. The
judge hates anyone wandering the halls after eleven. We'd better get
going and hope we don't run into the guys patrolling the corridors.”

They turned off the video
console and the TV and left the sitting room.

“
Where is your room
anyway?” Chris asked his friend as they walked toward the main
lobby.

“
Corridor next to
yours. Just around the corner from you, actually. We have to pass it
before we reach your room, so you'll see for yourself.”

“
Cool,” Chris
replied and then began to keep a watchful eye out for any of the
adults that did the nightly patrol of Valiant.

As they entered the lobby
and headed for the stairs, Chris looked a bit guiltily at the main
desk, expecting to get some flack from whoever was on duty.

But the desk was deserted.
The computer screen was dark, and the lobby echoed with their
footsteps.

“
Isn't someone
supposed to man the desk twenty-four seven?” Patrick wondered
aloud.

“
Supposedly,”
Chris said as they stopped by the desk and looked around.

“
Well, I guess that
whoever they are probably went to use the loo,” Patrick said
uneasily, sounding unconvinced.

“
Yeah, maybe. But
why turn off the computer? That's a bit strange.”

Chris looked around the
room again, but there was no sign of anyone and no sound except for
the two teens.

“
Bit creepy,
really,” Patrick said, his voice lowered. “Should we call
someone?”

“
Call who? I'm sure
the adults have their own reasons for doing what they do.”
Chris wasn't sure if he was reassuring Patrick or himself. “After
all, they are running double patrols right now. Maybe whoever is
supposed to be at the desk got called out for that. Could be
someone's sick or something.”

Patrick's expression
turned to one of relief.

“
Sure. Sure, that
has to be it. Valiant is locked up tight, after all.” He smiled
a little uneasily at Chris. “We're becoming a little paranoid
in our old age, mate.”