The Complete Book Of Fallen Angels

by Valmore Daniels

  I paused before leaving, and looked back at the chamber. There was nothing I could do for Henrietta, and that made my heart hurt more than anything else. In the corner, Charlotte was breathing heavily, but she was still knocked out.

  Pressing my lips together, I raced out of the room.

  * * *

  Not knowing how long Sam and the others would be distracted, I hurried down the hall, checking every open door for an office where there might be a computer.

  The problem was, each one I tried was locked by a password-protected screen saver.

  I kept going, growing more frustrated with each attempt.

  After visiting every available room on the floor, I headed up the nearest flight of stairs to the main level.

  I could hear voices as people shouted orders to each other. They were still disorganized. Whether they were trying to find me, or deciding how to go back to the altar below, I had no way of knowing.

  Time was running out.

  Cautiously, I made my way back to the foyer and looked around. There was no one at the reception desk, and I couldn’t hear anyone nearby.

  My heart was still beating fast, and I knew I was letting the frustration get to me. I made a conscious effort to calm down.

  I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, then I opened my senses to the intuition.

  There was a gentle tickling sensation at the back of my neck when I thought about escaping the building. I couldn’t access any of the computers; the company had strict security protocols. It had been a desperate idea, and it had failed. We would have to fall back on Eugene’s hacking ability. My coming here had been a waste of time; it had almost cost me my life; and it had turned me into a killer.

  It was all too much for me to handle; it was better for me to get out now and think about who I was and what I’d become later.

  Making sure there was no one else coming, I hurried across the foyer to the front door.

  Just as I passed the reception desk, a flickering on the monitor caught my eye.

  Danee’s computer was unlocked. She must have left at the first sound of the commotion and forgotten to sign out.

  The plan could still work.

  Despite the fluttering sensation that suddenly gripped my stomach, I scampered over to the computer, grabbed the mouse, and opened an internet browser.

  I stared at the new screen blankly for a moment before I remembered the address Eugene had given me. When I recalled it, I typed it in and hit the enter button.

  A white page appeared with a single, underlined word in the center: accept?

  Reaching for the mouse, I dragged the cursor over.

  Before I could click on the link, I felt a pinch on the skin at the back of my neck. It felt like a mosquito bite.

  I slapped at it, and felt a tiny metal cylinder. A dart!

  I raised my water armor in a flash, but it was too late. My eyes unfocused and I fell, first crashing against the keyboard and desk, and then onto the floor.

  The last thing I saw was Billy hovering over me, a smug smile on his face.

  Chapter Thirty

  When I woke, the first thing I sensed was that I had no connection to the fallen angel inside me or to the power. What had happened?

  The next thing I realized, as my eyes adjusted to the dim light from a bare bulb hanging from the ceiling by electrical wire, was that I was lying on the floor of a broom closet.

  My neck was sore from where the tranquilizer dart had hit, and I tried to rub the spot, but I couldn’t move my hands.

  I looked down. I was trussed up in a harness. There was some kind of necklace around my neck. A spot in the middle of my forehead itched. Remembering the stories Richard and Kyle told me, I realized someone had bound my fallen angel while I was unconscious.

  I didn’t have the supernatural intuition, but I didn’t need it to tell me I was in a bad situation. There was no way for me to get out, and I couldn’t hope to be rescued, even if Eugene told Darcy what I’d done.

  Then I decided I didn’t want them to come, not because I didn’t think I deserved to be saved, but because if they did storm the building, they’d be outnumbered five to one. It wasn’t fair to expect them to sacrifice themselves because I was stupid and had gotten myself caught.

  I hadn’t even been able to do the one simple thing I needed to. I’d been knocked out before getting access to the network for Eugene. I was a failure at everything.

  What had I been thinking? I wasn’t some kind of super spy. I wasn’t the all-powerful immortal I’d thought I was before Billy had taken me down with a simple dart.

  In the end, I was just a foolish little girl who’d been given more power than she could handle, and I’d misused it.

  I’d killed Jenny. Whether she deserved to die or not didn’t matter; I had become a killer. I’d taken someone’s life, and I felt horrible about it.

  Maybe I was the one who deserved to die.

  Speaking of which, I wondered why Sam hadn’t killed me. With me dead, Ananiel would transfer to the next person in my bloodline. Surely, Sam would think he’d have a better chance bringing someone else to his side than me, even if that person was my grandmother or grandfather.

  What did he want with me? There was no one around to ask.

  I have no idea how long I was in the closet—minutes or hours—but I was instantly alert when I heard a faint scraping sound coming from the other side of the door.

  Tensing, I was helpless to do anything but wait.

  The door opened, and Billy appeared. I expected him to gloat, like bad guys did in the movies, but he was all business. Without ceremony, he pulled me to my feet, and then dragged me out of the closet.

  “What’s going on?” I asked, but he didn’t reply.

  He didn’t need to. We were across the hall from the side door of the theater with the altar.

  I had no idea what they were going to do to me, but I wasn’t going to go willingly. I screamed and dug in my heels.

  Billy yanked me hard enough that, if I hadn’t been bound by the harness, he would have pulled my arm right out of its socket.

  When I still didn’t cooperate, his normally stoney expression turned to one of annoyance. Instead of dragging me farther, he simply picked me up. Though I kicked, he didn’t loosen his grip, and when we got to the altar, he slammed me down on its surface hard enough to knock the wind out of my lungs.

  “Stay,” he said, as if I were a misbehaving dog.

  Before I could recover, he and one of the other mercenaries strapped me to the altar by the feet and by tying a thick cord around a loop in the harness. When I struggled, all I managed to do was wrench my own knee.

  Tears flowed down my cheeks as Billy backed away, satisfied that I wasn’t going anywhere.

  My senses reeling, I became aware that the chamber was filled with the same spectators as earlier, though I couldn’t see Sam in the crowd. Charlotte was there, sitting by herself. She’d obviously recovered from my attack and had gotten control of her power. Someone had removed the bodies of Jenny and the two dead priests.

  I did notice that the velvet cords marking the spirit damper were no longer there.

  Mr. Ulrich appeared and gave me a kind smile.

  “Let me go, Mr. Ulrich,” I pleaded.

  “Don’t worry, Serena. It won’t hurt too much.”

  I paled. “Hurt? What are you going to do to me? Sacrifice me like Henrietta?”

  He shook his head. “No. A blood sacrifice is only necessary for a summoning, for the first joining. We’re going to exorcise Ananiel from you. That’s what you’ve wanted all along, isn’t it?”

  “Then what?”

  “Then…” He shrugged one shoulder. “Sam was very clear that you have turned against us. We can’t let the sinners go unpunished.”

  “You’re going to kill me?”

  “Not me,” he said. “I would never harm one of the Anakim. We’ll leave that part to Billy.”

  “How could you let them kill me
, Mr. Ulrich? I thought you cared what happened to me.”

  “I’m sorry, Serena. You turned from the true path. You will have to suffer the consequences. It’s the only way.”

  “True path? You want truth? Sam’s the one who arranged for you and your homeless friends to get beat up. He tricked you.”

  “It doesn’t matter. It was providence,” Mr. Ulrich said. “It’s part of the great plan.”

  He was delusional. I gritted my teeth. “Then what are you waiting for? Get it over with.”

  “Patience,” he said. “Ah, here he is.”

  Following his gaze, I turned my head back to the spectators. Sam opened the main doors and entered.

  He nodded to Mr. Ulrich. “It’s confirmed. The grandparents are no longer of concern.”

  “Grandparents?” I said in a gasp. “What do you mean?”

  Sam continued down the aisle. He sized up my restraints and nodded, as if satisfied with the job. “You were right, my dear. Neither your grandmother nor grandfather would do for our plans.”

  “What did you do to them?” I barely got the words out. “You killed them.”

  “It’s better that we go with someone who has a similar mindset to ours.”

  I glanced at one spectator in particular. “You mean, like Charlotte, who just about killed everyone?”

  When she heard me say that, Charlotte blushed and turned her head away.

  Sam said, “She was overcome with the power. It’s understandable. Everything is under control now.”

  Remembering the earlier conversation with him, I asked, “You’re talking about my distant cousin from Ireland?”

  Sam showed me his cell phone. “Wilford has expressed his eagerness to join us. He’s booked on the next flight out of Dublin.” Glancing at Mr. Ulrich, he said, “We’re ready when you are.” Then he moved back to the others, took a seat beside Charlotte, and patted her hand reassuringly.

  A feeling of hopelessness crept into my heart. I couldn’t see any way to escape; they were going to rip the fallen angel from me, and then kill me. Beneath the desperation, I was angry at myself. I should have either run when I had the chance, or used all my power to level the building.

  When Mr. Ulrich began the rite of exorcism in the ancient language he’d used before with Henrietta, my cries of frustration turned to screams of pain.

  It felt like thousands of razor blades slicing me from the inside. All my organs were being shredded; my soul was being ripped apart.

  The fallen angel inside me was connected to my soul, and separating it from me was like trying to tear my heart from my chest while it was still beating.

  Billy wouldn’t have to kill me afterward; I was sure I wouldn’t survive the exorcism.

  The process seemed to go on for hours, but some part of me knew it was only a minute or so.

  I was conscious of the exact moment Ananiel’s binding to me was severed. Even when we’d been in the spirit damper earlier, and just now in the harness, there had still been a bond with the immortal spirit possessing me.

  As evil as he was, Ananiel had become a part of me. His essence had mixed with mine to create a new entity. With him leaving me, I was overcome by an emptiness so powerful, it hurt.

  “No,” I screamed in the instant that the last tendril of connection was severed. As much as I hated having the evil in me, it had become me. My body, my soul, needed it.

  I was nothing without the fallen angel.

  The pain ripping through me was so horrendous, my mind misinterpreted the crack of thunder that filled the room. I thought it was the sound of my soul splitting in half, but then I felt a hot liquid splash across my face and a heavy weight fell on me, crushing my ribs.

  Several things happened at once.

  The terrible pain searing through my body stopped.

  I felt Ananiel snap back into me, and that ecstatic rush of complete bliss filled my senses. It was intoxicating.

  At first, I couldn’t understand why, but later I would figure out what had happened.

  The moment Ananiel had left me, the spirit no longer had anything to bind to, and its power had dissolved.

  Mr. Ulrich hadn’t completed the exorcism ritual before he died; he’d been able to expel the spirit from me, but had not blessed me against repossession.

  Left to his own will, Ananiel once again chosen me.

  I opened my eyes and saw Mr. Ulrich’s face less than an inch from mine; it was frozen in a look of shock. There was a large red circle where his left eye used to be; blood and a whitish fluid poured out of it.

  Among the spectators, I saw the woman I’d spared earlier. She was standing, her arm held out in front of her, a trail of smoke rising from the barrel of a small gun in her hand.

  “For my father!” she screamed. It was only then that I figured out why she was so familiar. She must have been the other Serena, Jethro’s daughter.

  A moment later, one of the Grigori unleashed a bolt of electricity at her. She fell to the ground, dead.

  Sam jumped to his feet and pointed at me. “Kill her, quickly, before it’s too late.”

  The fifteen hosts in the room gathered their powers.

  The fury of the fallen angel possessing me swelled; it was so great, I thought I was going to burst.

  Before any of the others could launch any attack…

  …I screamed…

  …and drained them—Sam, Charlotte, Jonathan, and all the mortals—of all their bodily fluids.

  Two dozen piles of dust fell to the floor.

  The building shook as the dozen Grigori, freed from their human hosts, shrieked at me in a kind of psychic rage. In their current state, they were helpless to do anything more, and they flew off in all directions, seeking out their next hosts.

  Alone in the room, I stared at the dozens of piles of dust on the floor. They’d all been humans, both hosts and mortals.

  I’d slaughtered them all. Yes, they were all bad people, most of them were murderers, but I was the one who’d killed them.

  The self-loathing I felt at that moment was more than anything Jonathan could have made me feel when he’d been alive.

  I was a mass murderer.

  Ananiel had wiped out humanity once. Maybe the world had become so corrupt that it needed to be purged. Maybe Ananiel had no choice. It was what he’d been designed—programmed?—to do.

  I was the instrument of that destruction. The fallen angel had been given the opportunity to enter another vessel, one that was more than willing to carry out these horrible acts; still, Ananiel had chosen me.

  Why? Was I, deep down, as evil as he was?

  There was nothing I could do to stop Ananiel. I was completely at his mercy.

  The only option I had left was to refuse to be his puppet.

  Slowly, I walked toward the spot that had been the woman—Jethro’s daughter—who’d killed Mr. Ulrich.

  I bent down and picked up the gun that had fallen from her hand. I remembered the stories Richard and Kyle had told me. Fallen angel hosts were powerful, but we weren’t invincible.

  I raised the gun to my head.

  Epilogue

  Darcy sat at on a chair in the kitchen, one elbow on the table, head resting on her hand. She’d been fighting back tears for a while.

  “It’s not your fault.” Kyle was at the sink, pouring a glass of water. He brought it over to her.

  “I should have known. I was just like her when I was a teenager.” She looked up. “Impulsive, unthinking, full of emotions.”

  “Doesn’t matter,” he said. “It’s not like we could’ve locked her up or anything.”

  “I should have spent more time with her; maybe then she would’ve seen how reckless it was.”

  “I’m so sorry, Darcy.” Eugene stood at the kitchen archway, looking sheepish. “If I’d told you what she was doing sooner…”

  Richard, leaning against the back of the couch in the living room, said, “However foolish it was for her to go there, you have to admi
t, she managed to do in a few short hours what would have taken us years to do. You gotta give her marks for that.”

  Darcy glared at him. “Don’t you get it? Above all things, we need to learn how to control ourselves. Every aspect, every urge, every whim. The moment we drop our guard—even the smallest fraction, even for the best of reasons—we risk letting the beast inside take over. When we use our power, we need to be the ones calling the shots.

  “I would rather it had taken a decade to bring Grigori Ventures down than… Can you imagine if there had been any innocents there?”

  “There weren’t,” Richard said, his voice flat.

  Darcy shook her head. “That’s beside the point. The fallen angels falsely claim to want to save humanity, but it’s up to us to save humanity from them … including saving the world from ourselves.”

  “I know.” Kyle put a hand on her shoulder to console her.

  Shrugging it off, Darcy stood up. “I should have taken more time to explain that to Serena, to teach her why we couldn’t just rush in, guns blazing.”

  “I think I understand it now,” I said from the couch, where I’d been lying unconscious up until a short while ago.

  Slowly, I sat up, as the others rushed over.

  Darcy sat beside me and put her hands on my arms. “Are you all right?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “But why? I thought we couldn’t dodge bullets.”

  “Most of us can’t,” Richard said. “Neither can you. Your hydroarmor must have stopped it.” He gave me a humorless smile. “Still rang your bell, though.”

  “Why did you try to shoot yourself?” Darcy asked. Her worried eyes searched mine.

  The tears sprang from my eyes. “I killed them all,” I said, my voice small and desperate. “I didn’t want to have to kill anyone ever again.”

  She pulled me into her embrace and said, “I know, honey. I’m so sorry.”

  Letting me cry for several minutes, Darcy said, “I want you to know we’re all here for you. We all know what you’re going through. We’ve all done terrible, horrible things we didn’t mean. Maybe, together, we can help one another from now on.”