Fallen (Guardian Trilogy Book 1) Page 23

  “Don’t you have something more important to do than ask questions, Abaddon?” I said, reminding him of why we were here.

  Just as important, I wanted to avoid admitting I had been reborn which would also inform them that I had no abilities, no defenses as they had assumed I did. If they did learn this, I had no doubt they would drag out my death.

  It was Achan who figured it out.

  He moved toward us with a curious grin. “She didn’t fall, Abaddon,” he said in a low voice, never breaking his glare from me. “I think she chose to be reborn. She hasn’t had a clue who I was all along nor Sarai or Elam…”

  Abaddon drew in an eager, shuttering breath and his eyes widened with excitement. His elation with hearing that news was unmistakable.

  “Reborn…” he sighed. “Right you are Achan…”

  For the first time, Abaddon stepped forward breaching the space where I could reach for him.

  “You know what this means, Magdalene…” he stepped even closer, drawn to me without hesitation. “You gave up the last defense you have…the secret that you have no defenses at all.” He stared at me, inquisitively. “You realize now this won’t be sudden.” His tone desperate, containing pity.

  He was referring to my impending death.

  “Yes,” I seethed.

  “Ah, careful.” He held up a finger as one does for the benefit of an overanxious child.

  “We wouldn’t want Eran coming and spoiling our fun now would we? At least not until the end…” He grinned mockingly. “It’ll be so similar to last time. A grand trip down memory lane.”

  “Last time?” I whispered, immediately shoving aside all feelings, surprising myself at how capable I was at relaxing, especially during a time like this. Whatever Abaddon was referring to involved Eran, and I wanted to avoid the potential of causing him any pain.

  “I know you won’t remember, you being newly reborn,” said Abaddon, conversationally. “That’s much too bad.” He raised his finger to wag it at me. “I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll remind you. That way, you can relive it just as we will.”

  He was playing with me, teasing me, and if I let myself go I would have been infuriated by this point. I refused to allow I, though.

  “Why don’t you just get on with it?” I asked, carefully keeping my emotions in check.

  He pondered this, tilting his head to the side. “No, I think telling you will be far more enjoyable.”

  I heard laughter behind him, the other Fallen Ones clearly enjoying the direction Abaddon had decided on.

  “It was a work of genius, Maggie.” He inhaled dramatically at this memory. “Making you first think that he was going to die at our hands and then making him think the same. And before we knew it, there you both were, surrounded by us – your nemeses - ready to die to save each other. Oh, and you did die, Maggie. So dramatically.” He said these last words passionately, savoring the memory. “Poor Eran, he had to experience it all…”

  “Stop,” I whispered, closing my eyes as if that would erase the sound of his voice.

  “Careful now, Maggie. Careful with your emotions,” Abaddon warned.

  I had been cognizant of them all along, not needing any reminder.

  “You see, what I don’t understand is why you would ever decide to return. You know we’re here. You know what we are capable of doing. You know our history together; well, at least you do when you’re memory returns. Why it’s…it’s just illogical.”

  He drew in another scornful breath, playing with me. Very slowly, he removed one glove, never taking his eyes off me.

  “Oh, but I’m so glad you did.” His hand rose and reached for my face, I turned away but he caught my chin and held it.

  His eyes widened even more.

  His followers behind him gasped the moment our skins touched, shifting their positions for a better view.

  “I’ve always wondered what your skin would feel like. Warm like a human’s or hot like the others?”

  It finally occurred to me why Gershom never touched me. He avoided shaking my hand on the first day of school and was always conscious of avoiding skin contact whenever there was a potential for it. Now I understood why. My skin harmed them somehow.

  “The others’?” I asked without realizing I had spoken at all. My attention was drawn to the fact that he still had his cold fingers gripping my face.

  He balked at me and finally released my chin. “The other messengers, of course. You really have no memory, do you?”

  My breath caught in my throat. Other messengers? My head went dizzy. What other messengers?

  Abaddon released my chin and tilted his head back for another raspy laugh. “She has no idea…” he called back to the others.

  “There are other messengers?” I demanded.

  His face dipped down like a shy boy and he grinned up at me through his lashes. “Were…there were other messengers. We got to them before they got to us.”

  “That’s enough, Abaddon,” someone called out from the opening of the alleyway. I instantly recognized the voice, the same one who I’d listened to each lunch break for the past several months, who I’d held deep conversations with, who had warned me against this very situation I was now in.

  Gershom stepped through the shadows and into the filtered light of the street lamp. The glow from above distorted his face, but I could see the determination even from my place several feet away.

  Abaddon didn’t bother to turn around. He knew the voice too. “Still have your old traits, do you?” he asked, frowning.

  “Yes, Abaddon, I can still feel fallen souls no matter where they are…most of all yours.”

  Abaddon’s face twisted into annoyed determination.

  “You should be proud, Gershom,” he said, still facing me, still focusing his eyes downward. “You put forth a good effort…attempting to redeem yourself, protecting her. But you’ve lost. We have her now.”

  “Let her go,” Gershom spouted furiously.

  Abaddon ignored his demand. “Be mindful, Gershom. Have your efforts worked? No…you still exist on this plane. You always will. You will live out your punishment among us, Gershom. You have no choice. Come back to us, boy. You have so much to learn.”

  “Leave him alone,” I said, unable to bear the pain on Gershom’s face. “He’s done nothing to you.”

  Abaddon glanced up, his expression softening. “Oh, but he’s done quite enough to you,” he replied, teasingly.

  “Just leave him alone, Abaddon,” I repeated, cringing at how my voice came out as a helpless whimper.

  “No, my dear Magdalene,” he replied, the mock sympathy in his voice making my skin crawl. “I don’t think you quite understand. Allow me to explain…” He paused and a flicker of pleasure passed across his hideous face as if he were about to enjoy something. He spoke slowly, allowing the words to fully sink in. “On that dark, vacant road so long ago, it was Gershom who took your parent’s lives. It was Gershom who drove the truck into the side of your parent’s vehicle, projecting it across the frozen fields.”

  I didn’t comprehend him at first, but for some reason I was slightly conscious of my insides knotting up. My parents, I thought. How could Gershom even know my parents?

  “You look confused,” said Abaddon, clearly enjoying himself. “Shall I continue?”

  “No,” I told him firmly and he laughed. I froze against the repugnant breath, as it brushed by my face.

  Gershom stepped forward, the timid boy I knew from school now replaced with a virulent man resigned to admit his actions. “This is my burden to bear…I will tell her,” said Gershom and turned to focus on me. “Your parents were the last messengers, Maggie. Abaddon sent me to take them…to take their lives…to erase their existence…and I did, destroying everything. Including the documents, Maggie.” These last words made his voice collapse, the weight of guilt too much for him to carry.

  I instantly recalled our conversation the first week of school, when he had seemed so inno
cent asking about my parents.

  “You?” I said my chest heavy, as if someone were pressing on it.

  “I was young, I was new to this, I had no idea what…” he paused, straining. “If I could just take it back…” His words fell away as his head sank to his chest in shame. “I’m so sorry.”

  It was Abaddon who was happy to fill in. “Why do you think he’s been here all along? Guiding you, watching over you. He’s been protecting you, trying to repay you for taking the lives of your parents here on earth so many years ago…True too, he’s going to do his best to keep your new earthly family from being killed. Sent them off in the wrong direction, did you?” Abaddon called back to Gershom and turned to me, again with mock pity. “Fortunate for us, he’s going to fail in this endeavor, too.”

  Understanding his insinuated threat at my roommate’s lives, rage unlike anything I’d ever felt before surged within me. I was blinded by it. Instantly, I was reaching for him, clawing for him, hitting at him, desperate to make contact. When I realized he was laughing and standing a few feet back, watching, I paused. A scream boiled up from the depths inside me. “You stay away from my family!”

  His eyebrows creased in confusion but it wasn’t until he spoke again did I understand why. “Well, that won’t be necessary. They’re already here.”

  It was Ezra’s voice that boomed down the alleyway, confirming Abaddon’s announcement. “Let. Her. Go.”

  Abaddon smiled gingerly and slowly turned around, reminding me of a hunter who just heard its prey caught in a trap.

  From where I am standing, I could see Ezra in the middle of the alley with Rufus and Felix on both sides of her. Gershom stood a few feet away, closer to me and much closer to the Fallen Ones now.

  A moment of silence, an impasse, followed.

  “Go away,” I called out, but my voice cracked. I cleared my throat and repeated it with more force. “This isn’t your fight.”

  “Ta hell it ain’t,” Rufus roared, offended.

  His intensity made me shake.

  Abaddon chuckled to himself, overtly confident with his abilities. He had no fear.

  But it was Sarai’s reaction that alarmed me.

  She was so sly about it that no one but me seemed to notice as she sauntered around the group, moving closer to Rufus.

  “Rufus!” I called out, but he cut me off.

  “We ain’t leavin’!” he charged back.

  And then came Sarai’s soft, sweet voice. “Now, now…”

  That was all that was needed to bring Rufus to his knees, like a mountain crumbling to the valley below. He ended up with his hands on the ground, heaving and weeping.

  The Fallen Ones watched in anticipation, the rest of us in horror, as Rufus reached a hand up, grasping for the hem of Sarai’s trench coat. When she casually stepped away, he collapsed to the ground, sobbing.

  In the blink of an eye, the Fallen Ones moved in unison, each one coming to stand beside or in front of the rest of us, as if they already knew exactly where we would be positioned and planned who each of them would guard.

  Achan ended up in front of Ezra with Sharar to his left, guarding Felix, and Sarai to his right guarding Rufus. Elam didn’t need to go far because Gershom had been standing next to Elam the entire time, already guarding him in return.

  Abaddon still stood in front of me. He’d left me hovering though I was trying with every inch of my body to fight against it, reaching for anything that might pull me to the ground.

  “Stop struggling,” Abaddon said, drawing out his voice with a yawn. “This will all be over soon enough.”

  I did stop, just long enough to think through our options.

  My plan at self-sacrifice had failed. Now my friends, my loved ones had been pulled into a fight that’s lasted centuries, one in which our opponents greatly outnumbered us and were far more powerful.

  My greatest fear had become reality. Those who I loved had been drawn into my troubles and were now going to pay the ultimate price. The Fallen Ones had no soul, no empathy. They understood destruction, contention, and enemies. There would be no negotiating and no bartering, only bloodshed. Our blood.

  Only a few seconds passed since the Fallen Ones had taken their attack positions, but it seemed much longer. Everything was moving in slow motion now. I watched, unable to help as Achan’s hand closed around Ezra’s head, grabbing the back of it and pulling her to him. Her hand came out from behind her back and a blade glinted in the streetlight as she was swept forward, against Achan. She tried to bring the blade up in defense but Achan’s strength was too much for her, catching her hand and twisting it until the blade dropped. His movement appeared effortless, as if he were simply reaching to take a treat from a child.

  At the same time, Sharar bent down and swept Felix’s legs out from beneath him, a blade slipping from Felix’s hand and sliding across the pavement. Felix landed sprawled on the ground with Sharar on top of him, pinning him down.

  With Rufus still cowering at Sarai’s feet, there was only Gershom left to defend us. He and Elam circled each other, hands up and bodies crouched, as if each were ready to spring toward one another. As Elam passed by the blade Felix had dropped, he stooped to pick it up, smirking as Gershom’s shoulders rose with heightened tension.

  “Please, let them go,” I heard myself pleading with Abaddon, who only turned and grinned.

  “Don’t cry, Magdalene.” He clucked his tongue at me. “You’ll get your turn, too. Oh, yes, you’ll get your turn.”

  Abaddon winked at me, feeling very confident and it dawned on me, he had ever reason to be. He’d gotten the best deal of the century. Four for one, a Fallen One included.

  Then Abaddon’s face fell. In an instant, I watched as it turned from arrogant pleasure to shocked fury.

  I didn’t see why at first, my attention concentrated on the assault happening behind him.

  All of sudden, there they were; countless bright, white lights swooping down into the alley like falling stars. They stopped in pairs, flanking the Fallen Ones.

  The Fallen Ones noticed, just as Abaddon had, sensing their arrival and releasing their holds on Ezra and Felix. Rufus remained curled into a ball at Sarai’s feet.

  The white lights illuminated the Fallen Ones, and I recognized fear in each of them as they faced their new attackers with uncertainty.

  Ezra and Felix, now free, attempted to pull Rufus to the edge of the alley but he fought them, making his best effort to stay beside Sarai, who only watched them with mild amusement.

  A voice spoke then, echoing down the alleyway, its tone calm and confident. I instantly recognized the voice, and my heart stopped briefly.

  “I apologize for the delay, Abaddon.”

  I turned my head to find Eran standing beside me, no more than a few inches away.

  Excitement swelled inside me, so powerful I couldn’t have contained it if I’d wanted to. The nervousness now displayed on Abaddon’s face gave me even stronger encouragement.

  I wanted so desperately to reach out and wrap my arms around Eran, wanted it more than anything in the world. My desperate yearning was only being held back because I still couldn’t move.

  I’m not sure Eran would have allowed it anyways. He was a warrior, and he was now engaged in battle. Besides, I was nothing more to him than someone to save.

  Eran didn’t look my way but kept his focus on Abaddon, who stepped back a few paces, his confidence faltering.

  It was Sarai who strolled forward, self-assured, placing herself in the middle.

  As she strolled by Abaddon, she mused, “Don’t worry, I believe I can handle this one.” Her face curled up into a hideous grin as she continued her approach.

  I knew then what she planned…but it was too late.

  “Eran, so good to see you again…” she whispered in a low drawl.

  “No!” I screamed enraged, waiting for Eran to fall to the ground, whimpering with desperation as Rufus had done.

  Eran remained standin
g.

  A moment passed and Sarai’s face contorted, confusion setting in. Her state of shock became more defined, deepening further when he finally replied.

  “You don’t work on me, Sarai…” I watched in disbelief as his gorgeous smirk, the one I missed so deeply, rose up. Eran turned and his stunning eyes settled on me, concentrating so intently I could not have mistaken his message. “I’m already in love.”

  The world changed for me at that moment. As Eran’s confession hung in the air, I felt the passion and the power in me swell. Nothing was impossible now.

  Sarai’s mouth fell open, a shaken sigh escaping. She then looked at me, her eyes narrowing in fury as Eran’s words sunk in.

  Eran flippantly disregarded her, turning to address Abaddon. “You are outnumbered. You are overpowered. You have allowed yourself to be cornered. Shoddy work, Abaddon.”

  As I watched their interaction, it dawned on me that Eran was enjoying this moment and that it appeared to have been long overdue. I felt a smile on my lips, nearly causing me to giggle.

  It was then Abaddon released me. I fell to the ground, hitting it hard but overwhelmed with relief. I glanced up, wondering what power Eran had over Abaddon to give up his hold on me.

  In an instant, I realized what had happened.

  Abaddon had let me go willingly. He needed his energy – all of it – for another reason…

  Leaning forward, Abaddon’s arms extended, his feet sweeping up from the ground, as he lunged for Eran.

  The two of them met, twisting, spinning, and flipping over and under one another.

  I had never felt horror before, but it now washed over me like a tidal wave. Desperately, I watched, feeble and unable to help Eran.

  As if a trigger had been snared, the alley became a battleground. White lights darted from building to building, swooping down, picking up Fallen Ones, limbs and white lights weaving between one another. Grunts and shrieks filled the air.