“Sorry to disappoint you,” Charlie said with a grin.
JP gritted his teeth, his determination resurfacing. “No disappointment. I’d rather end you myself, anyway,” he said before bum-rushing Charlie.
Charlie effortlessly swept aside each of JP’s strikes and then, for the first time, began to launch an attack of his own.
JP’s defense was no match for the new Charlie, who landed every strike he attempted. JP’s arms, legs, and abdomen all felt the brunt of the blows. But no part of JP took the drubbing harder than his mind. As Antony had pointed out, JP was given what he had, and therefore it could be taken away. JP’s evil enthusiasm was beaten from his body with each successive strike.
Charlie raised his weapon over his head and swung the staff downward with a firm two-hand grip, like a Norse god commanding his hammer.
JP absorbed the blow with his staff as each of his hands held opposite ends; however, in taking the hit, his arms and staff were both knocked to his sides. He was temporarily defenseless, leaving a clean path to his neck and what would be a deadly blow if Charlie took it.
Charlie gave every indication that he would. He quickly spun in the air and swung with all of his power.
JP closed his eyes, accepting what was to come.
And then there was nothing.
Another moment passed. More nothing.
JP reopened his eyes. He slowly glanced to his left, where Charlie’s staff hovered centimeters from his neck. JP turned his attention back to Charlie. Even with Charlie’s glowing face, JP could read his expression like a book. “You can’t do it,” JP scoffed. “You can’t kill me.”
Charlie said nothing.
JP slapped Charlie’s staff away with his hand. “Malika was supposed to make you stronger,” he said. “But when it’s all said and done, you are what you are. You’re as weak as you’ve always been. And there’s only one way this ends: You die!”
JP went to launch another attack, but before he could finish his backswing, Charlie whirled his staff and struck JP on the wrist, disarming him.
“Wrong,” Charlie said, his eyes burning even brighter as he spoke. “I don’t need to kill you.”
JP retrieved another serpent from his pouch and transformed it to staff form. “Yes, you do.” He wielded his new weapon.
Charlie blocked the strike, keeping JP’s staff at bay. “No, I don’t,” he said firmly, and then turned his gaze down below, where shimmers of light were beginning to escape from the forehead of Joseph, the last of the Beasts.
The rays shot into the sky, right toward Charlie and JP. JP whipped his wings to avoid the beam.
“It’s over,” Charlie said.
“No, it’s just getting started,” JP said. “I don’t need them. They clearly weren’t much help to me, anyways. I’ll just take you all on by myself. I’ll—” JP stopped short, his face contorting. He was overcome by an intense pressure building in between his temples. It was as if his head had been placed in a vise that kept screwing tighter. “What did you do to me?” JP screamed in agony.
“Nothing,” Charlie said. “You did this to yourself.” He revealed the secret that Malika had told him, and that he had later told Antony and Eddie. Charlie explained that when JP had signed his deal with Lucifer, Joseph didn’t just become his protector, he also became the executor of their agreement. As executor, he was required to take collateral from JP: a piece of his soul. This meant the two of them would be forever tethered, and if Joseph went, so did JP.
“You’re lying,” JP growled.
“No,” Charlie said, shaking his head. “You should’ve read the fine print.”
JP cocked his staff over his head and readied to attack Charlie, but the pain had become too much for him. His arms fell back to his sides. The staff in his hand returned to snake form and was released from his grasp.
JP’s body began to sway like a helicopter hit by enemy fire and struggling to keep from going down, and then his wings stopped fluttering and he followed his serpent, falling back to the earth.
Charlie dove headfirst after JP. He whipped his wings to boost his acceleration and help him catch up to the free-falling JP. He intercepted JP just before he was about to collide with the pavement. They both landed softly on the asphalt in the train station parking lot.
As soon as they touched down, all of the celestial energy that Charlie had stored escaped through his eyes, shooting back up to the heavens. Once the last ray had faded, his wings neatly folded and disappeared into his back on their own, leaving behind no evidence of their existence except for the rips in the back of his shirt.
◆ ◆ ◆
Antony had already freed Eddie, who had regained his full faculties and was back to his regular self, and they were both finishing untying the still-unconscious Naomi when they spotted Charlie carrying the wounded and wingless JP toward them.
Charlie laid JP down on the platform pavement.
Eddie stormed toward JP, who moaned in agony. “Your pain is only gonna get worse,” Eddie said as he cocked his foot back, preparing to plant his boot in JP’s ribs.
Charlie yanked Eddie’s arm, pulling him back. “No!” Charlie said. “You need to let it go. Let go of your anger. You know that’s what Malika would have wanted. Besides, he’s already in enough pain. And we won.”
Eddie took a deep breath and exhaled. “You’re right.”
JP looked up at Charlie, Eddie, and Antony as they stood over him and scowled. “If you aren’t gonna torture me, why’d you even bother saving me?” he groaned. “Why didn’t you just let me die?”
“No one can really save you,” Charlie said. “You only have a couple minutes left. But I don’t believe that you’re all bad. I think there’s still some good in you.”
“That’s what you think?” JP said with a chuckle that was cut short because of the pain. He moaned some more.
“I do,” Charlie said. “I think you can help us. I think you will help us, by telling us who killed Eddie and Naomi’s parents. So we can find them.”
JP’s moaning morphed into a sick laughter. “Like I would ever tell you that. But even if I did, it wouldn’t matter, anyway,” JP said, gloating even as he was in the grips of death. “You’ll never get a chance to save them.”
“Why?” Eddie said. “Why not?”
“Why?” JP let out a maniacal laugh that sent chills down the others’ spines before divulging something that they found equally chilling. “Because it’s already too late.”
“What do you mean?” Antony said.
JP didn’t respond, he just kept cackling harder and harder. Not even the pain it caused could stop him.
Eddie grabbed JP by the shoulders and shook him, asking again, “What do you mean? What’s too late?”
JP’s fit sputtered to a stop. He let out one last snicker.
Eddie could feel JP’s body go limp in his hands.
JP’s eyes faded to black, like two ovals of onyx. Eddie let go of JP. His head bounced off of the ground. A dark ooze that resembled motor oil poured from the corners of JP’s eye sockets and dripped onto the platform pavement.
The guys jumped out of the way as the sludge beaded and rolled around the ground, as if searching for something. It eventually located cracks in the flooring and disappeared into the earth.
“That was weird,” Charlie said.
“Yeah,” Eddie agreed. “You think he’s gonna go Mount Vesuvius on us?”
Before they could really consider the question, Antony had a realization. “The drive!” he shouted. “He still has it.”
Charlie quickly dropped down on one knee and reached into JP’s pocket. Nothing. He patted the other pocket. “I got it,” Charlie said as he retrieved the drive.
“That was close,” Antony said.
They waited a moment to see if JP would turn to ash.
; “Or not,” Eddie said. “I could be wrong, but it doesn’t look like anything is gonna happen.”
“No, it doesn’t,” Charlie said. “What do you guy think he meant when he said we’re already too late?”
“There’s only one thing I can imagine that it means,” Antony said. “The attack is gonna start soon. Real soon.”
Charlie was about to respond, when a deep cough just behind the guys interrupted him. It was Naomi. She was finally coming to. Charlie and the others rushed to Naomi’s side. “Are you okay?” Charlie asked as he knelt down by her.
Naomi nodded and then quickly averted his gaze, looking down. “I’m so sorry I left you guys. I’m so sorry—”
Charlie gently lifted her head up by the chin. “Don’t worry about it,” he said. “We all make mistakes. We’re just glad you’re all right.”
Naomi looked to Eddie and Antony, who nodded in agreement. She let out a faint smile. “Thanks. I am now.”
The guys helped Naomi to her feet.
“If there’s any truth to what JP said, we should probably get a move on it,” Charlie said.
“Yeah,” Antony agreed. “Even though this area is pretty remote, there’s no way someone didn’t see all that action in the sky. It’s only a matter of time before the cops roll up.”
The orphans hurried to the van and piled inside. Antony took the driver’s seat, Eddie claimed shotgun, and Naomi and Charlie slid in the bucket seats in back.
“Where are we going?” Eddie asked as he retrieved the gas station map from his pocket.
“Well,” Antony said, “since we don’t know how much time we have. And we really only have one guaranteed lead. I think it only makes sense we pay Terry Heins a little house visit.” He fired up the engine, threw the van in gear, and peeled out of the train station parking lot.
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
The orphans headed west, back toward the Bay Area. As ready as they were to do battle with Terry’s men, they still couldn’t help but be somewhat rattled by JP’s final words, which continued to dance in their heads.
“I was thinking about what JP said, and it doesn’t really make any sense,” Charlie said a half hour into their drive, breaking up the silence.
“Why not?” Eddie said.
“There are only two options,” Charlie said. “Either we’re too late to save our parents, or like Antony pointed out, we’re too late to stop the attack on Heaven.”
“But we can’t be too late to save our parents,” Antony said.
“Why?” Naomi said. “Because you already saved yours?”
“No,” Antony said. “Because Malika said that even if they attacked first, it wouldn’t stop us from saving them.”
“That’s right,” Charlie agreed. “She said that we still could, but that it would just be a lot more challenging.”
“So it has to be that we’re too late to stop the attack on Heaven, like Antony said,” Eddie concluded.
“Except that doesn’t make complete sense, either,” Charlie said. “After all of the souls we freed, that should delay the attack at least a little. Not to mention, as far as I can tell, it doesn’t seem like anything is going on just yet.”
“It really doesn’t,” Antony said. “You’d think the skies would open up or something.”
“It can’t be too late if nothing has happened.”
Eddie twisted the radio knobs, but all he got was static. “If only this thing worked, we could check the news.”
“So what do we do?” Naomi said.
“The only thing we can do is keep our eyes peeled and be ready for anything that happens,” Antony said. “Everything else is out of our control.”
The orphans continued down the interstate in silence, their heads on swivels, searching for any signs from the outside world that the attack had begun.
◆ ◆ ◆
After a couple hours and not even the faintest hint of trouble, all of the orphans were starting to feel the effects of their sleepless night. The rising sun gave them temporary boosts of energy, but less than ten minutes after the light first crept up over the mountains behind them, those jolts were all spent.
Antony squinched his eyes a couple times in hopes that ocular exercise would correct his vision, and he would stop seeing double. The results were minimal. “Any chance someone else wants take a turn at the wheel?” Antony asked.
All of the others passed on the invitation. They were in no position to drive, either.
“Maybe we should just pull over,” Charlie said.
“But we’re only a couple hours away,” Eddie said as he fought off a yawn.
Naomi yawned in reaction to Eddie’s yawn. “We could get some food,” she suggested. “That might help wake everyone up.”
Eddie scanned the area around them. They were a couple miles outside of Davis, California. Both sides of the freeway were flat farmlands. “I don’t know that we’re gonna have much luck around here,” he said. “Looks like mostly grains. Nothing we can just pick and eat.”
“I was thinking we’d go to a restaurant,” Naomi said.
“Oh, yeah. I forgot about that was even an option.”
“I can treat,” Charlie said.
“I never turn down a free meal.”
Antony turned off at the next exit. He passed through a couple lights before pulling into the Dixon Diner. The orphans stumbled out of the van and plodded toward the ’50s-style restaurant that looked like a large silver lunchbox.
“What happened to your shirt?” Naomi asked, noticing the tears in the back of Charlie’s shirt.
Charlie ran his finger across on the holes. “I guess my wings must have ripped through,” he said.
“No way!” Eddie said, his eyes practically bugging out of his head. “You did grow wings!”
“Keep it down!” Antony said.
“I thought that was a dream,” Eddie said, still worked up but opting for a more appropriate volume.
“You seriously grew wings?” Naomi asked Charlie. She was clearly as excited as Eddie, but did a much better job containing her emotions.
“Yeah,” Charlie said with a shrug, playing it off.
“You gotta teach us how you did that,” Eddie said.
“I don’t really know how I did it. I just did it.”
“You ‘just did it’? What are you, Nike?”
“No. I mean, that’s just what I did. After I healed myself, I figured that I didn’t have time to run down to the station to save you. So I just believed that I could fly, and before I knew it, I had wings.”
“That’s it?” Eddie said, skeptical.
“Yeah.”
Eddie shook his head. He stopped in the parking lot while the others continued toward the diner. He closed his eyes and worked to focus all of his energy letting out a few grunts.
Antony turned to Eddie. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Eddied said, keeping his eyes shut. “I’m about to grow some dope wings.”
“You might want to reconsider that.”
“Why?”
“Let’s just assume you’re successful. Don’t you think that might draw a little unwanted attention, maybe make some of the nice, small town people around here freak out?”
Eddie finally opened his eyes and scanned the area. A handful of cars passed by; even without wings, the obvious out-of-towners were already drawing attention. “You might be on to something,” he said.
“I think I am.” Antony took off his coat and handed it to Charlie. “That’ll cover the holes in your shirt, too. Might as well try keep any suspicions to a minimum.”
“Thanks,” Charlie said as he threw on the jacket.
They continued toward the restaurant and headed inside.
A hostess in her fifties waited at the stand by the en
trance, watching a small tv that hung in the corner and was playing the news. “Four?” the hostess asked, holding up four fingers as the orphans entered.
“Yeah,” Charlie said with a nod. He glanced at the tv—everything appeared to be normal—and then at the hostess’s nametag. “Any big news today, Gillian?”
“Well, the Cowboys lost last night,” Gillian said.
“Nice,” Eddie said. He could tell by the scowl on Gillian’s face that she didn’t agree with his assessment. “Well, for me, at least. Go ‘Skins!”
“Nothing else, though?” Antony said.
“Just the same old, same old,” Gillian said.
“Nothing wrong with that,” Charlie said. He shared a knowing glance with the others. Whatever JP was talking about hadn’t happened yet.
Gillian led them to a red-and-white faux-leather booth in the back. She handed them menus and silverware, ran down the daily specials, and then went to grab their waters.
“I’m so hungry, I could probably eat everything on this menu,” Naomi said as she opened her menu.
“The old me would have really loved a lot of these options,” Eddies said as he perused the options before him. “But I’ll probably just get the garden omelette.”
“I was thinking the same thing,” Charlie said, putting his menu down. “I’m gonna need some coffee, too. A lot, actually.”
“Totally,” Naomi agreed. “If I don’t get half a pot soon, I’ll probably fall asleep in my food.”
“I can go put that in right now. How do you like your coffee?” Charlie said as he started to get up from his seat. “Cream? Sugar? Anything?”
“Just black.”
“Me, too,” Charlie said. “I usually get a lot of crap for it.”
“So do I,” Naomi said and then smiled at Charlie.
Charlie smiled back.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Eddie said, breaking up their small moment. “Slow down. You guys aren’t gonna do this now. Not with me and Antony right here.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Charlie said.
The Orphans (Orphans Trilogy Book 1) Page 28