Instruments of the Angels (Hallows & Nephilim: Waters Dark and Deep #1)

by Monica Leonelle

  Clara rolled her eyes. “Welcome to high school.”

  “Are you sure that’s all you want to tell us, Brie?” Cora asked, locking eyes with her.

  Brie looked away. “Yes,” she said. “Yes,” she said more firmly, reigning in her emotions as best as she could. “It’s all just stupid high school drama, trust me.”

  “Great,” Clara said. “Can we go now? I’d love to avoid the ‘high school drama’ part of the evening.”

  “Okay,” Cora said, relief washing across her face. She seemed convinced. “Let’s get you home, then, Brie.”

  Chapter 14 - Pilot

  Milena walked up the steps toward the club with the huge neon sign, Trinitas. She stood in line, waiting for the bouncer to let her through.

  Pilot rubbed his—well, her—two fingers together, feeling the thin piece of material with just a few drops of blood stuck to his finger.

  When he reached the front of the line, he pressed his finger to the pad ever so carefully, making sure that not a drop of his own blood escaped. He wore a thin layer under her finger, pre-filled with the blood of another.

  The bouncer nodded him in.

  He made his way through the club, past the front bar, took the stairs down, walked past another two bars, through another weave of booths, until he reached a second bouncer.

  “I need an audience with a hunter,” his mother’s voice said.

  His mom separated from him, jumping in front of him. She turned around, making eye contact with him. “We need to find Sigh Reh Nah,” she whispered.

  She charged ahead of him, as she did every night.

  “Follow me,” she commanded.

  “I can’t,” he told her. “You’re running too fast.”

  “You have to follow if you wish to lead,” she told him playfully...

  He pushed himself forward, determined to follow her through the winding, dark hallways. Tonight though, the usual force that pushed back against him wasn’t there… he was able to keep up with her, despite her speed. They reached the end of the maze, past where he normally lost her…

  “Almost there,” she said, grinning.

  “Mom,” he said, pushing himself harder to keep up with her. He was so close to understanding, he could feel it.

  She slowed down, inexplicably, and they were almost right back at the beginning, back by the bars with all the men watching her.

  She was beautiful, young, too spirited, a force of nature that the entire room couldn’t seem to ignore.

  She ducked behind a curtain, and he found himself pulled back into her, her perspective.

  A figure covered in a colorful, patterned cloak held out a feminine, petite hand as another placed his on top. The man was both tall and large around, towering over her, dwarfing the small figure—whom he guessed was a woman—in size.

  She looked up and saw him—his mother—and the man next to her was forgotten.

  The woman gestured his mother forward with the same dainty hand that had so easily discarded the man.

  The man disappeared from Pilot’s view, blending into the background, and it was just the woman and him left in the room.

  He stepped forward, watching her. “I need a reading,” he said to her in his mother’s voice.

  He reached into his—his mother’s—back pocket and retrieved a vial of blood, which he handed to the dark-haired woman in front of him.

  “Payment?” she creaked—he couldn’t fully pinpoint what it was about the voice—

  He reached back into his other back pocket and pulled out a small but brilliant stone, possibly a crystal, though he had never seen another rock like it. The clear object glistened and glowed, though it felt cold and dry against his palm.

  He set it on the table with his hand placed over it, keeping the woman from snatching it away.

  And then, she drank the vial of blood, as if it were a shot.

  Maybe it wasn’t blood—it couldn’t have been, could it? Why would she drink—

  She looked up at him, and he instinctively grabbed the hood that covered his head, pulling it down further over his eyes.

  The hood was new. He had never dreamt of his mom wearing a hood; she always had her long blonde hair flowing behind her, sticking out sorely amongst the crowd of miscreants in the club.

  The woman stood up, revealing her own face to get a closer look.

  Those eyes—he recognized those eyes.

  “Kennedy?” he asked, surprised.

  She tilted her head, not appearing to recognize him. She looked confused, unsure of herself.

  And then, pitch black.

  Pilot slowly opened his eyes, feeling oddly awake, though he knew only seconds ago he had been dreaming.

  His fan turned above him, whipping a soft breeze across his hair.

  And then it all hit him, that he had gone farther in the dream than ever before… that it was so vivid, so much more vivid than ever before… that Kennedy was in his dream… that his mother had a vial of blood and Kennedy drank it…

  He grabbed his laptop from his nightstand and started typing furiously, every little thing he could remember about the dream.

  It was real. It was a memory. He could feel it, he couldn’t explain why…

  As he read back over his notes, he could practically hear Justin’s warnings in his head.

  Was he being crazy?

  He took a deep breath. The logical explanation for all of it was that he had his normal recurring dream, and then spun off into his own created memory, complete with a girl he’d met at the party that night.

  But the blood-drinking… his subconscious wouldn’t have dreamt that up, would it have?

  He didn’t know what to believe. The dream felt more real than ever, and he knew Kennedy wasn’t really there with his mom if it were a memory.

  He sighed. He pulled up his browser, looking up Trinitas again. Justin had been right—the club was on the other side of the island, about an hour’s drive.

  It couldn’t hurt to check it out and put the mystery to rest. If he went to the club, and it didn’t look anything from his dreams… maybe he could make them stop once and for all.

  Chapter 15 - Thessa

  Thessa sat at a table outside a hole-in-the wall eatery, down one of the more decrepit alleys of the Barri Gotic. She hadn’t touched the coffee she ordered. She needed a quick place to meet Branson, somewhere not far the city centre, so she picked a place where she knew no Hallows would frequent.

  Twenty minutes passed before Branson hobbled in, unshaven and dressed in worn clothes. He looked barely a day over twenty, but much worse for wear than he should, given the astounding powers he had.

  He grabbed the chair across from her and dragged it out, letting the metal legs scrape against the stone ground.

  He sat down. “What d’ya want to message me like that?”

  This wasn’t going to be an easy conversation.

  “Thank you for coming,” she said. “I know it was a journey for you.”

  “You’re lucky I don’t reach across this table and kill you,” Branson snarled.

  “You already tried to kill me,” Thessa reminded him. “Didn’t work. You can try again, but I can’t promise you’ll live through it this time.”

  Branson glared at her. “What do you want?”

  She glared back at him. Men like Branson only respected power. “Blood.”

  He leaned back. “Wooooo wee,” he whistled. “Thessa Torres needs blood for something, and she called one of the only Hunters left standing.”

  “Hey. You’re alive because of me.”

  “Oh right,” he barked. “Forgot I owed you my damned life. You killed all my friends, you made me look weak, you got me banished from my people, but as the famous rappers say, we might still have sex one day.”

  She made a face—she never did have a stomach for the way Branson spoke. “Your people killed mine too.”

  “Never did figure out how you survived the Silver Smoke to begin with. Can’t deci
de if it’s because you’re a centuries-old hag who’s gotten damned powerful over time, or if you’ve got purer archangel blood than you let on in that dirty cu—”

  “Enough,” she said, tiring quickly of his vulgarity. “Do you want to procure some blood for me or not?”

  “Why the hell would I do anything for you?” he asked. Under his breath, he sputtered plenty, but all she caught was something that rhymed with “lazy witch.”

  “To get something you want,” she replied over his cursing. “Since you brought up your interest in my blood. Again.”

  “You’re shitting me.” He guffawed, drawing attention from the other patrons in the diner.

  She rolled her eyes.

  “Thessa Torres wants to give me her blood,” he continued, letting out a hoot. Suddenly, his eyes locked with hers and his face turned red and purple. “What makes you think I want it?” he growled.

  “Maybe you don’t,” she said, shrugging. “Maybe someone else does, and you can trade her for something you want.”

  He laughed again, though this time it was partially an act. She had caught his attention; she could tell by his eyes.

  “Look, titsies, you may think your blood tastes sweet, but it ain’t as valuable as you think.”

  “It could be very valuable to the right person,” she said. “I’ve heard that your boss experiments with blood from time to time still. This would add—”

  “Bristol isn’t going to take me back,” he snarled. “And she ain’t my boss no more neither. You made sure of that.” He mumbled several curses about her, then added, “shoulda killed me when you had the chance, Thessa. Would be better off dead than in this shit existence.”

  “And this could be a chance to fix things,” Thessa said. “Get your life back on track. Since it isn’t likely to end any time soon.”

  “Fine.” He leaned back. “I’ll play along with you. Let’s say I did think, hey, that Thessa Torres shits flowers and has some magical blood that’s actually worth a damn. You’d need to have a death wish to give your blood willingly to a Hunter. You know what we could do with it.”

  “I know,” Thessa said.

  “That’s a mighty high cost for a little bit of blood. You must need it pretty badly if you’re trading me that.” He turned to the side, his one eyeball popping out toward her as he scrutinized her. “Who’s blood exactly do you need and why can’t you get it your damned self?”

  Thessa sighed. “I need blood of Luci, and I don’t have time to get it. You have connections, knowledge of blood types. It would take me months to even find the right person, months more to convince them to give it to me. I know you could get it faster than me. ”

  His eyebrows jumped up, planting themselves on his upper forehead. She had his full attention now.

  “You want me to get you blood of Luci.” He guffawed again. “Do you know how rare that is?”

  “Do you think I would come to you if it wasn’t?” she asked, grinding her teeth together. She was a little disappointed; a part of her had hoped that he had stores of the blood somewhere, that he had spent the last 60 or so years on something productive. It appeared that he was out of the game, letting his Hunter skills go to waste.

  Still, she didn’t have six months to find what she needed. She probably didn’t even have six weeks before Vega came after them.

  She had no choice.

  “So will you do it or not?” she asked.

  “What do you need it for?”

  “That’s none of your business.”

  “You think some son of Luci ain’t going to ask?”

  “I don’t presume to tell you how to do your job or handle the questions you might receive in your line of work.”

  He snorted. “At least tell me, does it need to be given willingly, then?”

  She hesitated, then nodded.

  “So you’re doing blood magic,” he said.

  “No, of course not,” she said calmly, though her lip quivered under his stare. He had already guessed too much, and still hadn’t agreed to give her what she wanted. Maybe she was taking too big of a risk, coming to him. Maybe the old hatred was still too fresh for him.

  Theos knew it had taken her more than sixty years to get over certain things.

  He was watching her still, trying to glean more info from her facial expression. Luckily, she knew how to wipe her face clean.

  “Do we have a deal?” she asked. “A vial of my blood in exchange for a vial from a son of Luci.”

  “Yeah, fine, I’ll do it.” He chuckled. “Don’t have shit else to do anyway. I have to hand it to you, Thessa, I’ve never met a woman with the nerve.”

  And I’ve never met a more disgusting, vile man, she thought to herself.

  She stood up, wondering if she had made the right choice. “Message me the details of the exchange when you procure the blood. I need it as soon as you can. If it’s too late, you’ll miss your chance for my blood.”

  “Right on, Thessa Torres. Right on.” He laughed to himself, as if he had made his own private joke.

  As she walked out of the diner, she said a prayer to Theos, that she had made the right choice.

  Chapter 16 - Brie

  “Why do you want to research archangels?” Clara asked.

  They sat down at one of the library tables and Brie pulled out her laptop and a sandwich. She opened one and nibbled on the other, ignoring Clara’s question.

  “You’re wasting your time,” Clara continued. “Earthlies never get this stuff right.”

  “She wants independent verification,” Cora said knowingly. “She wants to find evidence in something mundane that she already understands.”

  “I just want to see what’s out there,” Brie said. She still hadn’t told either of them about Sirena or what had happened that weekend; she hadn’t decided if she should or not.

  “There’s nothing out there,” Clara said. “The internet is pointless.”

  “Not everyone has an eidetic memory,” Cora pointed out.

  “It’s a waste of your time,” Clara insisted. “I can tell you anything you need to know about the Archworld.”

  “Not so loud,” Cora whispered.

  Brie ignored both of them and typed into the internet browser. “You know, neither of you need to be here. I think I can be trusted to be at the library during my lunch hour by myself.”

  “We’re your guardians,” Clara said. “It’s part of the job.”

  “Not that you’re just a job to us,” Cora corrected, shooting Clara a look.

  Clara rolled her eyes. “Thessa is supposed to be back in the next few days. Then we can figure out what to do with you, and you won’t have us in your shadow at all times. You’ll learn how to defend yourself—”

  She trailed off. Brie looked up to see why, and found Rykken towering over all three of them, reading her browser over her shoulder.

  “Archangels,” he read out loud. “What’s that for? Research paper?”

  Brie minimized the browser window, but Cora said, “Yep,” without missing a beat. “What are you up to? Want to have a seat?”

  Rykken sat down in the fourth chair across from the Brie, next to Clara.

  Brie pushed the screen of her laptop down. “Hey,” she said, her confidence shaky. She hadn’t forgotten her awkward encounter with Rykken at the party that weekend… nor her uncomfortable conversation with Emily right beforehand.

  “Hey,” he replied with a slight smile. His cheek dimpled as the smile warmed his eyes. “Brie, can I talk to you?” He glanced at Clara and Cora, though he seemed too polite to ask them to leave outright.

  She tried to hold her expression even though her skin was tingling. She could hear her heartbeat speeding up and could feel the twins watching her.

  She finally looked over at Clara, whose faced had scrunched into a mixture of annoyance and amusement.

  “We were actually just leaving,” Cora said smoothly, standing up. “She’s all yours.”

  Clara pressed h
er lips together, her eyebrows raised. Luckily, she stood up as well and followed her twin sister out of the library without any unnecessary commentary. Brie watched them leave, wishing that it was always that easy to get rid of them.

  Then again, now she needed to get rid of Rykken so she could do what she had really come there to do, which was to find some evidence that should could trust Thessa, and Sirena could too.

  She knew she could trust Sirena, or at least she thought she did. Sirena was her blood, and she didn’t think her family would ever try to hurt her. If Sirena was a threat, her mom would have told her. She had to believe that, at least.

  However, Sirena’s plan seemed reckless. If they were both in as much danger as Sirena thought, then she needed to bring Pilot, and really, James too.

  But even if she could convince Sirena to do that, there were still the matters of her family’s fame following them everywhere, and her own lack of training. She agreed with what Clara and Cora were telling her. They wanted her to stay put, to train to use her abilities, and to work out a safer plan for disappearing, given the media attention.

  “Brie,” Rykken said softly, bringing her focus back. Her mind was spinning so fast, she’d almost forgotten he was there.

  “How are you doing?” he asked. “Is this not a good time?”

  “No, sorry. I’m good. Just thinking too much about this research paper.”

  He looked at her, but looked away when she made eye contact with him.

  Around them, people were staring. She didn’t have to look to know; she could feel their eyes on her. She hated that she felt so electrified and energized just through his presence, and that everyone around them could tell. There was tension between them. There was a spark. And neither of them should be having those feelings…

  “Did you have a good weekend?” he asked, staring at his hands resting on the table.

  “Yeah. Did you?”

  “Pretty good. We had games all weekend, so, tired from that.”

  She nodded; her brother had been gone all day Saturday and Sunday too. She sort of thought they lost, though she never kept good track. She didn’t want to bring that up to Rykken though, considering he was captain of the team.