by Alexie Aaron
“Sometimes I think I’m too smart for school. When I get this way, my father takes me to the university and proves I’m wrong. What college did you go to?”
“I didn’t. I gave up after trying to sit through lectures where ghosts were screaming at me while the prof was teaching. I don’t have any support at home with the exception of my godfathers, but they have lives of their own. I do, however, start to study secretly on the computer. No one knows but Jake.”
“Who’s Jake?”
“Oh boy,” Mia said. “The easy answer is to say he’s a ghost that resides in the PEEPs computer system.”
“Is that possible?” Ted questioned.
“It must be because he’s there. He also can manipulate other devices. He’s an asset to the group and one of Burt’s biggest pains in the behind. I’m the first, followed by Jake. Murphy used to be on the shit list, but he’s a kiss up.”
Murphy who had been listening from the shadows wanted to argue, but he didn’t want to be accused of eavesdropping. He was eavesdropping, but he didn’t want to be accused of doing so.
He wasn’t the only one who was listening. Cid sat on the top step of the flight to the third floor. Mike had his door open, and Glenda who was smoking, sitting on her window ledge before the storm hit was awake too.
“I know that you’re science based and you understand dimensions, but there are so many other magical realms that you’ll discover. You take it all in stride. That’s your superpower. Your brain and your acceptance of new ideas make you so valuable to the world.”
“Tell me about them,” Ted asked.
“I’ll start with the creatures I met first, the birdmen. The first birdman I met was called Angelo. At first, I mistook him for an angel. Here was this oversized, handsome Italian man who read minds as easily as we can form a thought. Evidently, when God saw that the angels could not be there for every child on earth - because the population grew so fast - he asked the birdmen to protect the children. Angelo Michaels is able to sprout wings from within his body. He has these beautiful moving tattoos on his back of feathers when the wings aren’t present. I developed them too. That was the first indication that I had wings. I wasn’t very happy, but that’s another story for another time,” Mia said. “The birdmen’s wings are massive. Birdmen can fly in a humanoid form, wings moving on their backs, or transform into birds, or they can jump dimensions. They wrap their wings around themselves and disappear. It’s amazing.”
“Seems like Angelo made quite an impression,” Ted observed.
“Angelo’s driven and will sacrifice humans to get what he wants. And what he wants is to save children. Murphy didn’t like him in the beginning. Murphy is an excellent judge of character. I felt differently in the beginning. You see, Angelo saved my life. He took me to a mountain aerie in the Italian Alps where a group of female birdwomen called Gray Ladies healed me when an aneurism burst in my head. They live longer than we do unless they die in battle. When they die in battle and their souls are released, they can reincarnate. Our son Varden is a reincarnated birdman.”
“Does he have wings?” Ted asked, fascinated.
“He will have wings. Angelo put a charm inside his body that will stay until a birdman recalls it to the surface. It will keep him earthbound until he’s physically ready to fly and has a teacher at hand. I hope to see that day,” Mia said.
Ted, sensing the wave of sadness approaching Mia, changed the subject. “Tell me about demons.”
“There are many types of demons. Just when I think I know them all, I run into a different sort. The ones you see depicted in horror moves are parasitical demons. They live inside a human host until the host weakens or dies, and then they find a new host. They are the lowest caste of demons. Next, there are the subterranean demons. They live as we do, but in the shadows, caves, and crevasses underground. They don’t need a human host. They have a legal structure and obey laws. There are house demons. Cid will run into one when he is working as a finishing carpenter down south. House demons protect the house they consider theirs. They will only interfere with the human occupants if they are harming the house.”
“Is that maybe the weird feeling you get when you walk into an abandoned house?”
“If it’s not haunted, or even it if is, it could be the house demon. They are normally full-grown demons. Demons don’t reach maturity for two hundred years. They don’t die when you banish them. They come back. You can only kill them with one of their blades or with angel steel.”
“But they are bad,” Ted said.
“I’m not sure? You see, from their perspective, we’re bad.”
“But they’re depicted as evil in the Bible.”
“The Bible was written by men,” Mia said. “But again, I’m in no position to judge because I wasn’t there when Lucifer fell. Which brings up the highest caste of demons, the fallen. They are archangels and angels who fell with Lucifer. They carry a scent similar to frankincense. It’s what the angel feathers smelled like as they were burned off when the victims hit the earth’s atmosphere. They fell so hard that they burst through the earth’s crust. If it weren’t for the subterranean demons who took pity on them, the fallen would never have survived. They are powerful and rarely seen. They amass demon armies and fight with the angels still. Sometimes, when the battles bleed into our dimension, humans are killed. I was engineered to kill Abigor the duke of Hades. He controls sixty legions of demons. This is why I’m a freak. But something unexpected happened when I was a baby.”
“What happened?” Ted asked on the edge of his seat.
“According to a witness, Abigor picked me up and held me in his arms to see his assassin for himself. I looked up at him and smiled. We bonded. He chose then not to kill me. He placed a tracker inside me to keep an eye on his assassin, which I carried until I went back in time before the fall where everything canceled. I didn’t kill him. Before this happened to me, he and I were on good terms. Which is why I suspect, if there is another hand in this mess, it’s because my creators consider me a failure, a very dangerous failure.”
“So, they sent you back in order to retrain you?”
“Possibly, or because I’m weak enough to kill. I haven’t come into my wings yet. My telekinesis is nil. The only thing I have is the knowledge my brain holds. They don’t know about Murphy. I’m not the only one who remembers…”
“He’s impressive.”
“He’s my best friend,” Mia said. “Just like Cid is yours.”
“So, we have birdmen, demons, and fallen with us…”
“And angels,” Mia said with a bemused look on her face. “There are angels with us sometimes. There are too many of us for the angels to take care of daily. They lost more than half their number in the fall, and you can’t make an angel. God made the angels. I don’t understand the total hierarchy of angels yet. I’m familiar with the archangels, Sariel, Michael, and Altair. Michael is my boss. I’m his healer in the other time. Angels couldn’t be healed before I came along. They heal humans but can’t heal themselves. When they die in battle, they are gone. I’m closest to Altair who used to be a fallen until I bargained with Michael to get his wings back. Altair is helping me in this time as the fallen Wyatt Wayne.”
“Your life is so fascinating. I’m starting to form the same opinion Mike has; Mia, you can do better than me.”
Mia grabbed Ted’s hands. “No, Ted, you can do better. You went on this same journey with me but from a much harder place. You pick up the pieces. You’re left behind. When I return, your arms are open, and you forgive me for all I’ve done. I would use the excuse that I’m only human, but I’m not just human. In my time, you’re all I want, you’re all I need, you’re my everything. But if my quest fails, I’m not going to lead this trouble back to you. I’m going to move on.”
“Why?” Ted asked.
“Because I’m going to destroy who did this. There’s going to be a bloodbath. I’ve been promised forty legions of demons, and I’m going to c
all in that marker.”
“Mia, this isn’t you.”
“No, Ted, it is. You’re the one who gave me humanity. If it’s the Council of Women who have taken our future children from us, I’m going to destroy them. To do so, I’ll have to disappear until I’m strong enough to take on a cosmic force so strong that Lucifer respects them. I have to stop them from hiding behind the masks of good in order to do what they’ve done to me to someone else.”
“What is this council?”
“They govern the world from another place. They destroy spirits if they are interfering with humans. They have a history of standing with the angels in fights with Lucifer. They sit around their cosmic fires contemplating how to heal the world.”
“Mia, what if it’s not them?”
“Then I’ll wait this out until someone plays his or her card. But I’m hoping none of this will happen. I have all of you here to help me find Burt. You don’t know how much is at stake for this world if I don’t take us all back to where we belong. There have been so many battles fought, so many lives lost in order to keep the world a safer place for humans. Take me out of the equation, then angels die for the human race until they are gone. Take you out of the equation, then Brian and Varden aren’t born. Altair doesn’t get his wings. Abigor is killed, and another duke takes his armies and lets them run across the surface of the earth culling the human herd.”
“And this all started…”
“When you wanted to take a picture of me and Murph together,” Mia said and laughed. “He still has it hanging in the barn.”
“If we can make it to where we were before, then all is going to fine,” Ted said and reached out and caught a tear that fell from Mia’s face.
Mia studied his face. She could see the Ted she knew, minus the worry lines she had placed on the freckled palette of trust. “Promise me, if this all blows up in our faces, that you’ll continue on to create all your marvelous inventions. Do you know you and Cid make a machine that lets a locked-in patient be able to communicate with his son?” Mia’s hand shot to her chest. “Oh my god, Mark! If you and I aren’t there for Mark, he will hunt angels instead of saving them.” Mia’s hands were now clutching her chest in pain. She stopped moving as her eyes held a thousand horrors within their fixed gaze.
“Mia? Mia!” Ted laid her on the ground and listened for her to breathe.
Murphy was there kneeling.
“She’s not breathing,” Ted said.
“Breathe for her,” he said while he reached into her chest with his hand and grasped her small heart and squeezed.
Glenda hovered. Cid and Mike watched in amazement as Mia’s color improved and she coughed.
Mia looked up at Murphy. Her eyes held his for a moment before she said, “Do you mind? Who knows where that hand has been?”
“Bad Mia,” Murph said, removing his hand from her chest.
“Should we get her to a hospital?” Glenda asked.
“No!” Mia and Murphy said in unison.
“Trust me, I’ll be fine. I’m tired. I’m sorry for the excitement,” she said.
Mike squatted down, scooped Mia up, carried her into her room, and laid her in bed. Glenda insisted on putting another cover over her. Murphy stayed in the corner where he could watch over Mia.
Glenda went downstairs under the guise of making a cup of tea, but in actuality, she intended to smoke a pack of cigarettes and drink herself silly.
Mike walked the boys upstairs.
Ted used the bathroom first before he joined Mike and Cid, scratching his head.
“What’s going on in that noggin of yours, genius?” Mike asked.
“She was dead. And then she wasn’t.”
“The ghost brought her back,” Mike said. “A handy guy to have around.”
“If you have a heart problem,” Cid noticed. “I was upstairs listening,” he confessed.
“We were all listening,” Mike said.
“Mia died of fright. I actually saw someone die of fear. She was overwhelmed with it.”
“A lot of pressure for a twelve-year-old,” Mike said. “I know, I know, she’s not twelve in her head, but maybe there is kind of a disconnect between her head and her body.”
“Did you see him bring her back?” Cid asked.
“Yes. I think he’s done it before. She was not surprised to see his hand stuck in her chest,” Ted said.
Mike got up and looked out the window. “I can see Ma’s smoke from here. She thinks she’s hiding it from me. Trying to be a good example. She’s a great lady but a lousy mother.”
“Tomorrow we have to be on our A game,” Ted said. “That means we see and hear everything. If Mia is right, it’s not just finding Burt, it will be keeping her safe so she can convince him to break the candle.”
“No, Mia told me that if she doesn’t make it, she doesn’t have to be involved as long as Burt snaps the candle in two,” Cid said.
“Ted, Mia doesn’t intend on surviving this. She is going to protect us as long as she can. Our mission is to find Burt and have him snap the candle,” Mike confirmed.
“What if he’s dead already?” Ted asked Mike.
“Then it’s already over.”
Chapter Sixteen
Mia bummed a couple of aspirins off Glenda before they left the farmhouse. She asked if she could rest in the back seat of the station wagon. Murphy assured Glenda that he would make sure Mia didn’t roll off the bench seat during one of Mike’s quick stops. That left Glenda driving Cid and Ted in the convertible. She would take the lead, not trusting Mike to keep to the proper speed.
The goal was to make the Smoky Hill River Valley before noon. Glenda insisted they all eat a proper breakfast and would stop along the way for lunch. She had been drying her dishes when the phone rang. She was going to let it ring but thought the better of it.
“Hello?” she answered.
“Mrs. Dupree, this is Nordin. I’m sorry to disturb you.”
“If you’re selling something, you’ve rung the wrong house.”
“Actually, I’m looking to see if you have been visited by Mia Cooper. I’m her guardian’s butler, and he’s looking for some kind of update on Mia.”
“Lordy, I was hoping someone still cared for the girl. Hang on, I’ll get her,” Glenda said. She walked out of the kitchen and called up the stairs, “Mia, phone!”
Mia walked quickly out of her room and down the stairs. “Who?” she asked.
“Somebody named Nordin,” Glenda said, handing her the phone.
“Nordin!” Mia answered, forcing a happiness in her voice that she wasn’t feeling.
“Mr. Wayne would like to speak with you.”
“Thank you,” Mia said and waited for Wyatt to pick up.
“Mia, how are you?”
“I’ve been better physically,” she said honestly. “I died last night. What’s with that?”
Wyatt smiled at her casualness. “Died?”
“My heart stopped, and Murphy had to start it. Seems to me that I remember being a pretty healthy teen.”
“You’re under a lot of pressure. I take it you’ve struck out with the Duprees…”
“Yes, and Ted and Cid. We’re going up to find Burt. I’m sure he’s got the candle. He’s been missing for five days now. Glenda’s got a friend up there that she mined for information. We’ve put together that he may have gone to the abandoned Smoky Hill Home for the Criminally Disturbed to do a solo paranormal investigation. I don’t know why he’d go alone.”
“It may be an overwhelming compulsion. Mia, Nordin and I had visitors last night.”
“Go on.”
“Your grandfather, Nicholai, and Angelo,” Wyatt said and proceeded to enlighten her about all but her possible future engagement to Sticks.
Mia was silent.
“Mia, talk to me. Don’t think too much just talk.”
Mia seemed to snap out of the funk caused by the information Wyatt had shared with her. She sighed before she spo
ke, “Honestly, I’m shocked by my grandmother’s role in all of this. True, there was a hollowness to her hugs, but she seemed to give me good counsel. Even from the grave, I could have sworn she had my best interests at heart. I’m beginning to doubt my own memory of our relationship. Could someone seem so loving but have such bad intentions? No wonder my father doesn’t know how to parent. Maybe he sensed the duplicities of her nature.”
“Even I was shocked about her ordering your extermination,” Wyatt admitted.
“This explains why I’ve been feeling hunted,” Mia said evenly. “My demon senses have been on high alert. So, I’m dealing with Others?”
“Yes.”
“Are they here in Kansas yet?” she asked.
“A matter of time. It’s a good thing you’re leaving the Duprees. I really didn’t want to call. No doubt the call is being traced, but I felt it was important to warn you and to let you know that I’m going to share your location with Orion.”
“No!”
“Yes! He can protect you. Mia, if this goes pear-shaped, I want you to come home to Nordin and I. We will protect you. Orion will want you to go to the aerie. I can’t see you spending your formative years in a nunnery.”
Mia laughed. “Neither can I. But I really must succeed. There is too much at stake.”
“Mia, I sense something else behind those words.”
“Wyatt, I have to make this happen, even if I have to die trying.”
“And if you die…”
“I’m going to Hell to claim my forty legions of demons.”
“Mia…”
“I’m going to go after the council and the Cynosura. There will be balance if I have to kill every last one of the instigators on both sides.”
“Michael will fight you. You’ll start a war with Heaven. You’re not thinking straight. You must survive this and put thoughts of revenge away. I’ve been on this planet since the fall, and the one thing I’ve seen time and time again is that evil doesn’t last. Incensed people using religion as their reason to plunder others, are dealt with harshly. I’m sure not all the members of the council are bad, just like not all of the Cynosura are in on the global domination scenario.”