Archangel of the Fallen

by Devin Lee Carlson

  Well, that went according to plan as long as I offered proof. The journal? Let her read my mind? JLS Eric to Edinburgh so he could confess all? The poor guy would pop a cork. What about a testimony from Sabree? Aye, now you’re thinking lad. Not.

  Alone in my room, the all-to-familiar outfit hung in front of the closet. Not a Halloween costume per say, the getup had caught my eye in the store. More like it sparked a familiar sensation, reminded me of someone from the future past—Tim E. Traveler. Am I him now? My mind wandered into fantasyland. With Spitfire in hand, dressed in the Scottish warrior outfit, I stood over Athorsis’s decomposed body. Fat chance. I brushed the wishful vision aside.

  The warrior knee-length kilt boasted the Scot red modern tartan, its red, green, and white-lined plaid, came with a matching shoulder sash, which wrapped around the leather body armor. Three layers of dark leather protected the shoulders while fitted leather elbow protectors along with eight-inch wrist cuffs shielded the arms. Accessories included a bronze circular broach for the sash and a leather sporran attached to a belt. The visual of Tim polishing the broach came to mind.

  No other answer eased my curiosity. I am Tim. Tim was me. Tense fingers mussed my hair first. Then I smudged black powder under both eyes and across my nose to complete the savage look. A practice run to elaborate the Scot’s costume before the big night. Too bad Azrian requested the Deadpool getup before I did. The cheaper costume hid the wearer’s identity better than this warrior gear. But unlike Azrian, I wanted the enemy, all of them, to see my true self. A fearless warrior geared up for the do-over battle.

  A knock on the door startled me. So much for the fearless warrior. “Come in.”

  “Hey, Pop.” Azrian stopped to stare at the closet. “Wow, is that what you’re wearing? Too cool.”

  “Kind of over the top, huh?”

  “Yea, but cool. Especially the dark eyes. And, uh, thanks for the Deadpool costume. Mom won’t recognize me in it.”

  Bursts of laughter made me buckle over. When I finally caught my breath, I said, “How can she recognize someone she’s never met? You were never born.” My eyes narrowed when he turned and left in a huff. “Wait.” Damn it, not thinking as usual, the subject sensitive when it came to my son.

  Alone again, my mind raced. Last time around, later tonight, Sabree stalked me before he met with Chambers and Wayde. The damage done to him this morning might sway him from the tactics he had planned. Maybe I should haunt him instead.

  At first, I concentrated on his whereabouts but couldn’t sense him in any one spot, probably misting, until he materialized outside of Wayde’s estate where he bit Hoffstot to gain control over him. Should I interfere or wait until tonight? The evening would not come soon enough. Off to Arizona instead.

  6

  Damage Control

  T he rest of the afternoon into the evening gave me more than enough time to work on damage control. I’d ask Jesse to call Ariane, tell her he was moving to Edinburgh to help start her business here. Let him oversee the move. Give her the proof she needed.

  Next, I’d fire Eric, get rid of the nosophors in White Sands and Cueva Oscura, and then sneak into the Caderen lab to toss the implosive devices, neutralizers, and anything that looked like weapons into the portal. Let the crap float adrift until a Dark One swallowed the whole shebang. Gone forever.

  Before I activated JLS speed, I chewed on two Colton tabs and pocketed a dozen more in a new waterproof pouch. In a flash, I disappeared and reappeared outside Jesse’s condo in Scottsdale. Google Map’s street level tour offered a visual of the outside of his building. If I tried to JLS inside, my body might merge with Jesse’s stove or any appliance, wall, or piece of furniture for that matter. I had never seen the place. No idea what the interior looked like.

  Ninety-degree weather warmed my bones, a sharp contrast to Scotland’s late fall. The sun sat low because of the eight hours difference, it being only nine in the morning in Arizona. My eyes scanned the list of names next to the buzzer until they stopped on unit 16, on the fourth story, the top. I hit the buzzer next to the name etched, Jesse Rivers.

  “Hello?”

  “Gray Wolf lives.” I waited for the safe word to sink in. Had five minutes ticked by? Sure felt like it. Each second pounded my skull like a hammering drumbeat before he responded, his voice hoarse.

  “Oh my God,” Jesse uttered.

  The buzzer screeched. I opened the door and dashed up the stairs instead of taking the elevator. Out of four doors to choose from, one was left ajar at the end of the hall. Odd. Why didn’t he come out to greet me? I approached with caution, pushing the door open to peer inside.

  “Get in here, you fool.” Jesse grabbed my arm and pulled me into a hug. Behind me, he kicked the door shut. The bolts automatically locked and engaged the security alarm for stay. “Gray Wolf lives, huh?”

  “That’s the safe word we agreed on. The thirty-third trial was the charm. I got rid of the first implosive device before it blew and went back in time after number two imploded. So, this is it, the grand do-over. Has Athorsis shown his ugly face yet?”

  Jesse shook his head. “Nope. This is unbelievable. It finally worked.” He leaned over the counter to swing open the wine cooler and pulled out a bottle of Dom Perignon Brut Rose champagne. “Been waiting a long time to pop this sucker’s cork.”

  “No problem for me, because I just flew in from Scotland. Three in the afternoon there. But in your case, don’t you think it’s a wee bit early for alcohol. Anyway, not sure I should drink seeing as I’m on damage control.” If not for the A-factor and Colton tabs, and the ability to absorb sugar, the day’s excessive drinking would have landed me in detox.

  POP!

  “Mimosas then?” Jesse fetched orange juice from the fridge.

  “Well, maybe one glass won’t hurt, but ixnay on the OJ for me.” I accepted the flute filled to the brim and held it out to toast. “To success, to undoing the wrongs, and above all, to besting Athorsis.”

  “Hear, hear. Good luck on the besting part.” Jesse took a sip as his narrowed gaze studied me. “Wow, what a difference. You look super compared to the day I dropped you off at the airport. Your persona sure feels new and improved. Like night and day.” Jesse swigged another swallow. His body shuddered.

  “This is serious, Jesse. Need to be on my A game. Too many details to keep track of. Too many that can go wrong.” I emptied the glass. If only for a moment, I welcomed the slight numbness that warmed my overwound nerves. “Weird, how you remembered the safe word or anything else for that matter.”

  “Athorsis made sure I forgot most of the details of all thirty-three resets. But from what little I do recall, I’m here for you. What do you need?”

  “Do you remember Tim E. Traveler?”

  “Who?”

  “Never mind,” I said. Tim was the one detail Athorsis had no clue of. The magic potion. “Let’s start by moving our stuff, minus the appliances and furniture, to Edinburgh and put the ranch up for sale.” I handed Jesse a charge card. “The account includes your name. Also gave you power of attorney to sign for the move and sale.” I strolled over to the corner picture window to admire the view of the Phoenix Mountain Reserve. “I’d keep this place if I were you.”

  “Don’t worry, I plan to. What’s next on your damage control list?”

  “Fire Eric Tripper. Toss him out of our lives. Away from my sister’s heart.” I turned to him and cocked my head. “How come you and Ariane never shared any love interest?”

  “If memory serves, I tried to woo her somewhere around the thirteenth try. Failed miserably. The Fates insisted she and Sabree get together. So, lesson learned, don’t bother changing what should be.”

  “Que sera sera.” The grimace must have revealed my true feelings.

  “Did you speak to him yet?”

  “Nope. Taunted him. We’re supposed to meet tomorrow night. Of all the items on my do-over list to make right, confronting him for the first time scares me to death. No
t sure why.”

  “Sabree’s a touchy devil, but worth the effort. You’ll do fine.”

  “Guess so. While I’m here, I plan to pay the Caderen a visit.”

  “Destroy their weapons?”

  “Toss them inside the portal. Every last one.” I handed Jesse a cell phone. “This will work for you worldwide. Our contacts are already listed. Can you call Ariane? Tell her you are on your way. Convince her that it’s too dangerous to stay in Arizona.”

  “It’s early, so I will get right on it and fly out tonight. See you on Halloween day. I’ll be the cool dude dressed as a Navajo.”

  “Jesse, the idea of Halloween is to dress up as something you’re not.” The Scots warrior came to mind. I chuckled when his lip turned up in question. “Scratch that. Call if you need me.”

  Before he could reply, my body vanished from his condo and sped JLS style to the abandoned Fallen underground lab in White Sands. Damage Control number two on the list was to fire Eric, but this task took precedence: destroy the trapped nosophors before they found a way out.

  Materializing inside the lab with the glass-lined quarantine unit, I kicked a few notebooks aside to expose the stainless rod used to stake the nosophor who attacked us that day. The weapon would serve as back up in case my mind failed to destroy them in the same way it dusted the Malakhim and Fallen. I could’ve used the titanium rod stolen from Sabree, the stone specifically designed to destroy nosophors, but this weapon was already in hand. I smacked the rod on the edge of the countertop. Twice for effect.

  Thunk, thunk.

  According to my son, the wannabe expert on the undead and zombies, noise also caught the nosophors’ attention. The nearest creepy-crawler set off the alarm in my head. When we searched down here originally, my untrained mind detected static that buzzed like a swarm of insects. Again, I struck the counter, this time smashing the stainless trays aligned along its edge.

  Clang!

  A low growl rumbled. Slathering gasps screeched louder as it approached. Behind me, the over-sized pickle jars thumped against each other, the monsters inside equally agitated. Destiny, particularly my own, went out of its way to screw me. Mess with my mind. I never expected to face this creature again. Clenched fingers tightened around the rod, smacking it again. The hairs on the back of my neck bristled as the alarm in my mind rang louder, recognizing the stir of nosophors nearby. The entire complex teemed with them.

  As soon as the emancipated creature slithered through the door, I shouted a battle cry that should have sent any man or beast running. The monstrosity crawled toward me, its emancipated spine cracking with every step it took. Snot-green ooze drooled from its jowls. My eyes squeezed shut to conjure a boulder-sized telepathic bullet. The pressure throbbed against my skull as the one lethal bullet cloned into hundreds. In anticipation, my breath held, the cerebral bullets discharged in every direction. Each one charged outward with enough venom to kill hundreds worth. Those nearest me, cried faint squeals followed by explosive cracks. Dust and rancid air blew into my face. The glass containers inside the quarantine unit blew apart. Slimy liquid splattered the glass walls.

  Success! I dusted the nosophors. Hundreds of them.

  The dust settled as I dashed around the entire underground complex to confirm every nosophor had been destroyed. Numerous anthill-sized mounds of dust, too many too count, littered one room used as a holding pen. After pocketing the flash drive, I deposited several sticks of dynamite in the epicenter of the complex and under the base of the elevator shaft. Striking a match, the first stack lit, I sped to the sticks propped at the base of the elevator shaft and lit it before the match burned out. Within the first nanosecond of the explosion, a visual of the Caderen science lab flashed before me. JLS lifted me out of the blast zone without mussing a strand of hair. That’s when things started to unravel.

  A whoosh preceded my materialization in front of a row of computer consoles. On either side stood two Caderen scientists, Serine and Sarieff, the lab tech who gave Ariane and me a tour of the science facility. Both yelped and jumped away. Faster on her feet, Serine zapped me with a Fallen version of a taser. Not a stone taser or it would have leapt into my hand. Radiant electricity shot through me. Dazed, I fought off the vertigo and numbness that seeped into my limbs. Damn these celestial weapons.

  “You! How’d you get in here?” Serine asked, firing again.

  My knees buckled. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me,” I answered telepathically. Unbridled rage fed the adrenaline that surged through my veins, enabling me to heal quicker after the second zap. When she aimed the taser a third time, Spitfire flew into my hand and with a mind of its own, it swung an uppercut meant to swipe the weapon from her grasp. Instead, the blade sliced through her elbow. The limb hit the floor with a dull thump followed by screams that stung my eardrums.

  Sarieff retaliated too late. My mind disabled him with a partial mind tap until his trembling body crumpled to the floor. Serine squeezed her upper arm against her torso, trying to stop the gushing bleed. The blood pooling at her feet turned to dust. Spitfire battle ready, I rushed to her aid and used the fiery blade to cauterize the wound.

  Her unfocused gaze, redder than ever, fell to the floor as she collapsed to her knees. As much as I owed Serine for the torture inflicted on me, twenty-some odd times, I never meant to amputate her arm. Caught off guard, I reacted instinctively. Spitfire too.

  “Still two-timing between clans?” Her sneer egged me on. “Here’s something to remember me by. See you around.” Without giving her a chance to warn the clan, my mind discharged a wee nudge of malice until she lost consciousness. The bleeding stopped, her life out of danger, I abandoned them where they lay to finish the job.

  On command, the portal opened as I hacked into the computer. A few keystrokes unlocked each unit that housed a weapon or unknown gadget. When the first unit slid open, I pulled out the lethal device and tossed it into the portal. Every time a weapon slipped from one dimension to the other, static shot in my direction through the opening. I repeated the steps for each unit until only one device remained. The neutralizer.

  Before Farian modified it, this prototype was the weapon we pilfered to implode the portal wormhole leading to Earth. Those days, both good and bad, reminded me of what would never come to be in this do-over. Enough. Without regret, I stepped over Serine’s crumpled form, gave her an apologetic shrug, and threw the neutralizers inside the portal. My telepathic command instructed the opening to close before the last spittle of static sprayed me.

  Task one completed, I leaned over the computer console and keyed in Sabree’s username and password to break into the Fallen scientific libraries. The flash drive downloaded a virus designed to infiltrate any folder that stored weapon records, whether instructional, constructional, or formulated data. The virus erased everything. Nothing left for Farian to rebuild. If for no other reason, this should stall him until we find out where he was hiding for three-thousand years.

  My brain faltered on a possible setback. What about the Malakhim? Did they know I traveled back in time to save Earth? Did Athorsis or another Lighted One warn them? If so, would Loree retaliate? I’d be ready no matter what came my way.

  The alarm inside my head trilled. A small army of Caderen was headed this way. Fist over fist, I smashed the computer into metallic mush. The electronics sizzled until only a few sprays of static hissed.

  “Trespasser, surrender!”

  7

  Son Shall Best the Father

  T he Caderen guards grasped nothing but the JLS breeze left in their wake as my mind visualized a safe haven—my office in Cave Creek, Arizona. This should be fun. Easier too, I hoped. Thanks to JLS landing me on-target, I materialized in front of my desk. Also caught in the JLS wake, a Caderen net sailed past me and smacked the wall. A yelp echoed when I landed on someone’s lap instead of the computer chair. “Bloody hell!”

  Like the others, my abrupt appearance surprised the lap’s owner too. Followed by a
girlie-cry, Eric shoved me aside, leapt from the chair, and braced himself against the wall. If his eyes grew any wider, they’d bulge out of his head.

  “Holy shit!” he yelled. His bulging eyes continued to rake over me. His entire body shook. “Where’d you come from?” Eric glanced around until he pulled a driver out of the golf bag that forever sat next to the window.

  Did he expect to use the golf club as a weapon against me. Spitfire came to mind. Easy, I’m good. My attention returned to Eric. “Guess you missed seeing me come in.”

  “You appeared out of nowhere. One second you weren’t here, the next you were. In my lap!”

  “Wait…” Something didn’t sit well. Ariane had assigned him to watch the fort until we returned home. It seemed he watched things a bit too closely. “Why are you in my office? Using my computer?” My gaze narrowed on the screen. A folder labeled Duncan Colton was left open, the cursor hovering over Ariane’s file. “You were going to click on Ariane’s name. Why?”

  “Duncan was right. You two aren’t human. Never were.”

  Julia Ross, our mum, was one-hundred percent human, but no need to tell Eric that wee fact. Duncan never knew about our mum either. The less this wannabe vampire hunter knew, the better, especially now. “Aye, about that.” I paced in front of him like a panther ready to spring at its prey. “You’re fired. I want you off this property in one hour. Pack your stuff and get lost.”

  “What about Ariane? Her business?”

  “COLT or Ariane are no longer any concern of yours. I will toss you into the portal if you come near either of us. A one-way trip.” The poor fool had no idea what a portal was never mind how deadly the visit. My eyes darkened, the buildup of heat and pressure behind them, dead giveaways. “I have a planet lined up—the Blood Sea World.”

  “Why? What did I do?”

  “Besides working undercover for Duncan as a spy, he hired you to stay close to Ariane. I doubt that included becoming her lover.” I ignored the head shaking. “Doesn’t matter, it’s what you will do in the future that has me worried.” My arm waved in a wide arc. In the wake of the theatrical gesture, the portal opened along with a thunderous rumble and static electricity. Papers flew off the desk and fluttered around the room. Hair whipped in my eyes. My index finger curled to lure him over. “After you.”