The Vapor

by Nathan Parks

  “Why are you here?”

  “Well, here is where you are, so here is where I am. I do believe you made it clear to Dumah that if I wanted to talk with you without being taken in by your battalion of troops, that I better do it in an area where I was safe. Can’t say the same for you.”

  Michael moved to where he could see all of those present in the room in order to keep a better eye on any chance of another attack. “What do you want, Mantus?”

  “Speaking of my whore of a wife, you visited her recently. After you did, she got a hold of me.”

  “Well, that is great! Look at me: bringing families together. Maybe I should consider marriage counseling!”

  “Possibly, but I think it is frowned upon for you to sleep with someone else’s spouse whom you are counseling.”

  Michael smirked and thought of something to say, but his hand went to his throat and he thought better of it. “If you are really here because I went to see her, then maybe she told you that she refused to talk with me.”

  “She didn’t really say that; but I figured as much, although I do believe you piqued her interest. In fact, you piqued it enough for her to call me; and now my interest is piqued.”

  “It was nothing. I thought I may have figured a way to set things right, set things the way they were supposed to be if we had succeeded at our overthrow; but when she wouldn’t listen, I realized it was futile.”

  Mantus moved around the room, looking at everything he could see. “Why here, Azrael? Whose place is this?”

  “We all have our vices, Mantus; and the mortal female is mine.”

  Mantus picked up a shirt of Zarius’ and threw it at the Council member. “Hmm . . . does her husband know?”

  “What I do here and who knows is no business of yours. Are we done?”

  “No, in fact, we are not. I have a proposal for you.”

  “Oh, do you now?”

  “Sure, I will defend Hecate—more out of spite to you—but we both were used by her. I will never allow you or any of the other Clan leaders to claim Legion, but we also have a common enemy in Hecate.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “I think, even if you have given up on whatever it was you were thinking about doing, that Hecate has decided that now is actually the time that she can prey upon the weakness of the Clans. Unlike her, I do not make promises; but I also believe that if she would rise to any form of power or figure out a way to unleash the power of Legion, then we all will be doomed. I love and despise my son all in one breath.

  “The Clans, on the other hand, are steeped in prophecy and tradition. That could be their downfall. They would follow Legion out of obligation to prophecy instead of thinking on their own.”

  “So, what do you want me to do?”

  “I believe we can call her bluff and reveal to them who she truly is.”

  Michael pondered this. He didn’t really trust Mantus any more than he trusted Hecate, but he felt there was a chance that Mantus may trust him more than the general should.

  The Archangel knew his time was either up or coming close to it. He didn’t know where his brother was now; and without that knowledge, it put him between a rock and a hard spot. If, by chance, Zarius did have the delta and he was able to get it from his brother, there was still the matter of finding the other one. To do that, he was pretty sure he would need help. It would be a gamble; but if he could find one of the deltas without Mantus’ knowing, then just maybe he could use Mantus to find the other one. Why wouldn’t he? One delta is not worth anything, and if the Overlord didn’t think the other one existed anymore, . . .

  “Ok, I am willing to entertain the thought; but at any time I think you are trying to double cross me, I’m out. If at any time I think you are jeopardizing my cover with the Arch Council, I’m out.”

  Mantus laughed. “Ok, although I’m not sure how much cover you have left back home, Azrael. I can’t believe that questions aren’t starting to come up on why you are making the decisions you are making. If it is time for the Houses to come into power, then you will be revealed. If it is time for the Clans to rise, then we also must come together and stop Hecate.”

  “I think that is something on which we both can agree.”

  Mantus smiled, nodded to the group he had brought with him, and they walked out. Michael sat back on the couch, rubbing his neck and sighing a big sigh of relief that he was able to keep Mantus from realizing the goldmine in which he had been standing. If Mantus discovered that Zarius was alive, there would be a lot more questions that would come up; and Michael was sure that he would be smart enough to realize the real reason for Zarius’ maintaining secrecy all these years.

  ◆◆◆

  There was a foul smell as she opened the door to the apartment. Eve couldn’t tell exactly what it was, but it made her stomach turn. She tried the lights and, of course, they did not come on. “Pay your damn light bill!” she muttered.

  She walked into the living room. On her way to the blinds, she had to step over empty liquor bottles and takeout food containers half full of food. Many of them had been knocked over onto the floor, and her boots stuck to the carpet.

  She twisted the blinds to let the light in; and there he was, lying half on and half off the couch. She went over and kicked him, but he just grunted.

  Eve looked around the room at the mess. Among the knocked-over bottles and trash, she saw a cardboard box full of papers, photos, and notes. Sitting on the top was a photo of a husband and wife and their little girl. She went over and picked it up. She just shook her head. “I’m so glad they can’t see you now. Of course, if they were here you may not be like this.”

  She knew the rest of the contents of the box. She didn’t have to look. He had shown her the night it was delivered. She remembered his looking confused and even scared.

  “What does all of this mean? What am I supposed to do with all of this?” he had asked her.

  “I still don’t know,” she whispered. “The old man had a reason for having it delivered to you.” She pushed one of the flaps of the box down and saw Alfonso’s handwriting and the words, “Deliver to Isaiah,” written in beautiful cursive.

  She happened to spot a plastic cup filled with a clear liquid. She picked it up, smelled it, and determined it was water. She walked over to the passed-out Nephelium and emptied the contents on his face.

  He awoke with a yell. He sat up, trying to get the water out of his eyes and off his face. “Are you kidding me, Eve? I was just sleeping!”

  “Now, that one has gotten way too old! At least if you are going to keep lying to me about your quitting drinking and keep passing out on me, you could at least come up with a different lame excuse as to what you are doing!”

  She threw him a shirt that seemed to be the cleanest of several that were lying around and a pair of jeans. “Do me another favor: if you are going to get drunk and pass out, please either do so dressed OR get some boxers. The ‘tighty-whities’ are not flattering.”

  “Can we close the blinds? The sunlight is killing my eyes!”

  “Well, you are in luck! Give it about an hour, and it should be setting. Then once again, you can embrace yourself in your dark cocoon!”

  “You know if you weren’t just about the only friend I had right now, I would kick you out!”

  “Well, you are lucky you even have me as a friend. So many other things I could be doing other than babysitting a drunk preacher.”

  “Former preacher. Now . . . well, I’m a drunk demon.”

  She swung around and slapped him hard across the face.

  “Guess I deserved that.”

  “Yeah, ya did. I warned you if you ever refer to our kind as demons again that it would be coming your way.”

  Isaiah stood up and waited for the room to stop spinning. He pulled on the pair of jeans and the shirt and then fell back down onto the couch.

  Eve didn’t even know where to sit. She really hated him right now. It had been a year after the incident a
t The Vortex and Alfonso’s death when the box had been delivered.

  Isaiah had felt he had lost everything the night he chose to reveal to his friends and the Alliance that he also was a Nephelium. He had lived the lie for so long, trying to blend in; but that night he could not watch the innocent be destroyed any longer. Many had turned their back on him. Then when he received the box from Alfonso, even though Eve had been hurt that Alfonso had not sent it to her, she had hoped it would bring new life back into a former warrior of a man. It had not.

  Since that night at The Vortex, they had begun to understand each other a lot better. Troy had tried to mend his relationship with Isaiah, but he never could get over what he felt was a betrayal.

  After a while, Isaiah had felt more and more eyes on him; and he felt that more of the Alliance were questioning his actions and talking behind his back. Soon he began to understand why the Fallen considered any Nephelium an outcast.

  Eve’s actions that night at The Vortex had been daggers to his heart; but time moved forward, and soon they only had each other. No, he didn’t believe she was any different than her choices that night had made her. Her bloodlust for revenge was more than he could understand. He knew that the darkness of the Fallen danced upon the cellular structure of her being, but she had been able to keep it from consuming her so far.

  That day when the box had arrived, he had asked her to come over. They had sat together in his living room as he opened it. Together they had looked at all the notes, personal writings, journals, et cetera, that lay out in front of them on his floor. For a moment she believed he felt that sense of belonging return. As he read the letter scribed in Alfonso’s handwriting, the full impact of it all hit him like a semi-truck hitting a concrete barrier. The more they dug into it, the more she watched as he closed himself off again. The understanding of what was being asked of him was too much. The letter had expressed that if Isaiah was in possession of this box, that it meant that he had been appointed by a Watcher to succeed him. Alfonso had given clear directions on what he was to do.

  They argued for so long after that night. She was angry because she knew how important it was to Alfonso that what he asked would be carried out. She knew that the belongings within the box were important, but Isaiah refused to even look at them again. He stated that his time had come and gone.

  She tried to go over the things in the box with him. For over a year she studied and went through all the notes that the old Watcher had penned for so many of his years. She was able to finally get Isaiah to at least look at them. They learned of books of prophecy and ancient text that had not been understood by mortals, but the Watchers had ensured that they were not lost. Stories of demonic lineages and evil manipulations . . . re-interpretation of things that mortals had thought so true for generations . . . now had new meaning within their conscience. The deeper they went, the more they began to realize what a thin line of balance they all were walking.

  Much of it was new to Eve, but she could tell that it bothered Isaiah a lot. When she asked him about it, he would shut down and start drinking. One night, when he was wasted, he explained that so much of what he had preached behind the pulpit and to what he devoted himself was all lies.

  There were stories of battles throughout the centuries in which so much of mortal man’s very existence had played out beyond the curtain of reality. Finally, they opened and read what they believed was Alfonso’s last letter or journal entry:

  “Isaiah, when you have studied what I have given you, and you have begun to see the picture emerge, then, and only then, you must go to the church of Saint Vincent. There you will continue your learning under the watchful eye of the Watcher there and become the Guardian of the Vial.”

  – Alfonso

  There were a lot of questions Isaiah still had. He made excuses as to why he would not be able to carry out any of the old Watcher’s request.

  They had learned from Alfonso’s notes that the Brotherhood of the Watchers was far from gone; however, the exact number was not known and, out of respect for the Brotherhood, was never discussed. The most important fact they had learned was that the Watchers had been doing everything they could to hold off a prophecy from being fulfilled: the prophecy of the return of the Dracon . . . or Legion.

  ◆◆◆

  The sun had started to go down, and Isaiah had sobered up some. Eve lit a few candles and heated up water on the gas stove to make some coffee for Isaiah to drink.

  “I’m not cleaning any of this up again.”

  He huffed, “Yeah, I don’t expect you to.”

  “So, what was it this time? Brian said you were raging last night, and by the fresh holes in the wall I must believe him.”

  “I want to, Eve, but I just can’t. I’m scared. I can rush onto the battlefield; I can face demonic hordes; but this, . . .” he said, pointing to the box, “this scares me!”

  “Yup, we have been down this road before. That doesn’t answer my question. What sent you over the edge this time?”

  He looked at her and then grabbed his phone. He activated the screen, did a few swipes, and then handed it to her.

  She took it, puzzled, and then looked down at the screen. She couldn’t believe it! “You bought tickets?”

  “I did. As soon as I did, I regretted it; but now that I did, I guess I’m going to Austria.”

  She normally would not hug him, but this time she did. “You got this!”

  “We got this!”

  “I know. I told you that I have your back. That is why I am here, yet again, in this filthy, dank apartment, waking up your drunk self!”

  “No, I mean . . . I also bought you a ticket!”

  She looked back down at the phone. She hadn’t seen it before; but sure enough, there it was: two tickets purchased.

  “What? No! I’m not going! This is your journey . . . your mission! I have things I have to do here!”

  “Eve, we both know that I can’t do this alone. There is no way. I will land there and find the closest pub and drink myself to death. I will most likely make the news for being some drunk American veteran in a foreign country taking a leak on some ancient landmark.”

  She shook her head. “No.”

  “Why? Because of your revenge mission? Is this what he wanted for you?”

  She glared at him. “Don’t go there, Isaiah!”

  “I will go there; and you can slap me, hit me, kick me! I don’t care! Maybe the reason he gave me the box is that he knew that, if the time came that he was not around, I would understand that I needed to reveal to you who I am. He knew that you had no one else but him; and if he was gone, then you would need someone. We need each other.”

  She could feel her muscles tightening, her fist clenching, and her jaw setting. She hated him right now. She wanted to go off on him, but something deep within her knew that what he was saying was probably right. Alfonso had a way of always being several steps ahead of everyone else, and he had always made sure she was taken care of.

  She didn’t need anyone now, though. He had been the last one she needed. When he was killed, she realized that she was to be alone; and she embraced it.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Isaiah reached over and pulled out an envelope from underneath the pile of stuff scattered across his coffee table. He handed it to Eve. “What you don’t know is that inside the box there was something else. Maybe it was wrong of me to hold on to it, but I did. I don’t know what is in it; but I felt that it may be something directing you to make me go through with all of this, and I didn’t want to have to fight you over it. You are all I have, and I also knew that I wasn’t ready for all of this.”

  She took the envelope. She didn’t know what to say. There was her name written by Alfonso. She was angry and hurt all in one breath. “How dare you! You had no right.”

  “I know. All I can say is that I am sorry. Nothing else, Eve. You have done nothing but right by me; and for me to hold onto this . . . well, it was wrong.”

&n
bsp; She took the envelope and turned it over in her hands. Whatever was inside was from a man she had loved more than any other man or person in her life. She could feel his power and love as if they were coming off the envelope. There were tears starting to brim up in her eyes. She stood up and walked out of the apartment.

  She found herself having a hard time standing. Her chest hurt, and her hands shook. These past five years she had done everything to bottle up the anguish she felt as she had held his bleeding and mangled body in her arms. So much had changed that night for so many; but for her, everything had ended. The Eve that she had seen looking back at her in the mirror for 20-something years was no longer there. She had died within that room of The Vortex.

  She carefully opened the sealed envelope. She didn’t want to just rip into it. He had taken care to seal it just perfectly. Her mind was racing to see what was inside; yet her heart was pleading to slow down, embrace this moment. A small sliver of the old Eve ignited past the dark inkiness of the Nephelium that had taken over.