Fallen Giant

by Monica Owens

  Where was the man’s face?

  Olivier smiled, the smile becoming grotesque and elongated, like a clown.

  “Oh dear God,” Grande whimpered.

  Olivier laughed and opened his mouth, a swarm of wasps gathering and torpedoing the screaming sheriff.

  The shrieks could be heard for miles.

  Chapter Sixteen

  After sending his texts, his emails, and talking to Curse back in Vegas, Levi headed outside. The Hell Hound still sat at attention, staring at Colton in the tree. Levi tapped the dog on the head as he walked by and the dog immediately eased. He still got up and padded after Levi as the latter crossed the scrub grass to the tree Colton had been sitting in for what seemed like hours.

  Levi got there and leaned against the tree, gazing out along the horizon, never looking in Colton’s direction.

  “Been out here a while,” Levi observed.

  Colton inspected his skinned knee.

  Levi watched the little boy from the corner of his eye but Colton wouldn’t lift his head.

  “Talked to my friend back in Vegas.”

  Colton glanced at Levi, then back out over the desert. “You live in Vegas?”

  “Yep.”

  Colton sucked his cheeks in. “I’ve never been there.”

  “Cool place.”

  “Yeah.” Colton looked down again, picking at his fingernails. “I mean, I’ve heard.”

  Levi squelched a smile. “Maybe I didn’t introduce this to you the right way. But I did talk to your mom. She’s real troubled right now, Colton.”

  The little boy bit his top lip.

  “She loves you, though. She said you moved back here to be with her parents.”

  Colton nodded. His fingernails must have been really interesting because he wouldn’t look at Levi.

  “Your mom said your grandpa was pretty sick.”

  Colton pulled at the bark on the tree. “Yeah.”

  “You wanna tell me about that?”

  “My grandpa?”

  “Yeah.”

  Colton’s eyes drifted down. “Where’d the dog come from?”

  “He followed me home.”

  The kid nodded. And to an eleven year old, it made perfect sense. “You keeping him?”

  “Probably,” Levi said with a shrug.

  “Cool.”

  Levi nodded and waited Colton out.

  “My grandpa and the mayor weren’t friends.”

  “Oh, yeah?”

  “Yeah.” Colton tore more bark off the tree and flung it to the wind. “They had a fight, then grandpa got sick and died.”

  “What do you mean he got sick?”

  Colton shrugged. “It was something bad that he ate. He threw up a lot. My mom and grandma were upset.”

  When nothing else was forthcoming, Levi turned to look at the little boy. “What happened to your grandma?”

  Colton shrugged again.

  “When did your mom start the drugs?”

  Now the boy turned his head to meet Levi’s gaze. “I saw him.”

  Levi furrowed his brow. “What do you mean?”

  “I saw the mayor give my mom a plastic bag. Grandma and Mom were fighting over the store. Mom wanted to give it to the mayor and Grandma didn’t. My mom was already on drugs. But they had a big fight and then Grandma died. Mom got the store.”

  Levi thought about the story. Colton was a smart kid and he knew how to keep quiet when the adults were around. He’d learned to do it because of his mother and probably the other adults in this town.

  “So after your grandpa died, your mom wanted to sell the store?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And your grandma didn’t.”

  “Yeah.”

  Levi could fill the blanks in himself. By the time Kelly’s father had died, she’d been hooked on drugs. She urged her mother to sell the store to the mayor. Her mother didn’t want to. They fought. The mother dies.

  He’d have to ask Trish what the autopsy showed, but he’d be willing to bet that Kelly’s mother had died of an overdose. Possibly administered by Kelly.

  No wonder she was on drugs. Who could deal with this cluster?

  “So you’re keeping the dog?”

  Levi pursed his lips and shot Colton a sidelong glance. “Probably.”

  “You’re gonna take him to Vegas?”

  “Mm-hmm.”

  Colton tapped his chin. “You know, it’s not good for a dog to not have a friend.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  “Yeah. I read it online.”

  “Huh. I’ll have to get him a friend then.”

  Colton fairly vibrated with excitement. “I have an idea.”

  Levi leaned an elbow on the tree. “Let’s hear it.”

  “I could be his friend.”

  “Do you think so?”

  “Yeah, I’m a great kid.”

  Levi hid a smile. “Well, if you’d be his friend, I’d be mighty grateful. But, uh, I have a favor to ask you.”

  “Do you need me to name him?”

  “I guess I just took that for granted. No, my favor is for you to help me with Trish.”

  “Miss Trish? Did you make her mad?”

  “I did.”

  Colton nodded sagely. “Yes, I’ve read stories about how adults fight.”

  Levi grinned outright. “So you think you’d be willing to help me get back in her good graces?”

  “She loves me,” Colton declared. He jumped down from the tree and turned to face Levi. “We can get you back to being friends.”

  “I’d certainly appreciate it.”

  Colton tipped his head to the side. “Is she really leaving?”

  “Yeah. I’d like her to come with us back to Vegas.”

  Colton raised his eyebrows. “All four of us?”

  It took a second to realize Colton had included the dog. “Yeah. All four of us.”

  The kid shook his head. “I think I can help you with getting her to like you again, but I don’t know about the dog. We’ll just have to convince her that I’m totally attached to him. So first things first, he needs a name.” Colton moved closer to the dog with his hand out, palm up. “I saw this on TV.”

  The dog glanced at Levi, who nodded, and he reached out to smell Colton’s hand. Colton beamed with happiness. He got closer and threw his arm around the Rottweiler.

  “Yeah. We’re friends now. What name do you want to give him?”

  “What are your ideas?”

  Colton ruffled the dog’s head and looked deep in his eyes. “I think his name is Henry.”

  “How about that, Henry?” Levi asked the dog.

  The Rottweiler leaned into Colton.

  “See? He’s a Henry!”

  Levi smiled. “All right, let’s head inside and get some grub.”

  They walked back to the house, Colton chattering the whole way. Levi paid attention, but his mind was on the fact that his phone had pinged several times signaling answers to his sent messages.

  Someone knew something.

  *****

  Kelly was in the passenger’s seat of a tractor trailer, floating along her own self-medicated bliss. Her shift had been cut short when the manager caught her shooting up in the back room with a bouncer. Or had it been a customer? Kelly couldn’t remember. It didn’t really matter. All she knew was that she had good stuff flowing through her veins right now and all was right with the world.

  She might’ve wandered the parking lot looking for her car. Then she remembered she didn’t have one anymore. By that time she was weaving between the tractor trailers, the vehicles of the long haul truckers. She’d caught someone’s eye, she supposed, otherwise she wouldn’t have been hauled up into this rig.

  This guy seemed drunk and Kelly wasn’t sure if they were veering all over the road or if it was her high not letting her see straight. No matter which, the headlights careened all over the road but Kelly didn’t much care.

  “I told you where I lived, right?” she slurre
d.

  “Oh, yeah, baby, I’ll drop you off.”

  Kelly nodded and leaned back against the leather seat. Such a nice guy to take her home…

  She felt the truck’s tires turn and then heard them hit the dirt before coming back onto the asphalt. Her eyes popped open and looked out over the front hood of the behemoth rig.

  “We okay?”

  “Had a little to drink,” the trucker told her. He grinned at her, his two front teeth missing. “Not bad. I’ll bunk at your place, baby.”

  Kelly grinned back. Very nice of him to take her home. She’d have to make it up to him in some way.

  They straddled the double yellow lines going down the middle of the road. As the only vehicle out here on such a dark, black night, veering and speeding weren’t going to do much damage, Kelly figured. They’d just head on into Magnolia, she’d direct the guy to her parking lot, get him upstairs, have a few beers, maybe see if he had some cash…

  “Holy shit,” the trucker swore.

  He hit the brakes suddenly and the rubber squealed across the road. Kelly flew off the passenger seat and hit the dashboard. She grabbed the door handle to keep from falling down completely.

  “What the hell?”

  The trucker wasn’t looking at her. He was attempting to stop the huge truck as it screeched across the asphalt. Metal shrieked and moaned and Kelly heard a huge snap. The truck gained speed.

  “Fuck!” The truck driver yelled. He frantically tried to turn the wheel, frantically jammed his feet on the brake, but Kelly felt them go faster.

  She scrambled back into her seat and yanked her seat belt on, nervously wedging the male part into the female part. The belt snapped back and out of her hand and she tried again. On the third time she realized the belt was broken, but there were bigger problems than that.

  Her gaze riveted out the window, adrenaline chugged through her veins faster and faster until she sure as hell didn’t feel high anymore. Off to the right a vehicle was on fire. A fire soaked individual ran back and forth by the vehicle, then sharply veered toward the road.

  “Good Goddamn, no!” the trucker shouted. He wrenched the wheel hard to the left, but the trailer had jackknifed. Kelly could see the gray metal of the trailer in the driver’s window.

  In horror, she returned her gaze out the windshield, transfixed and terrified, as the man on fire went running into the road.

  Stopped.

  Kelly screamed.

  The truck hit the man at fifty miles an hour.

  When the truck screeched to a halt, Kelly hit the dashboard again, this time with her forehead. She woozily climbed back onto the seat, her head bleeding, and looked in the rear view mirror. The man was still underneath the tires. The tires caught fire. Despite being nauseous and bloody, she grappled for the door handle, ignoring the screams of the driver. She had to get out, get out, get out…

  A figure appeared on the other side of the door.

  A figure with no face.

  Kelly let loose a horrified scream.

  *****

  He and Colton had ice cream before they had dinner. He told Colton all about the pawn shop and about the school he’d be going to. He even informed him of the plans already in motion to buy a house, with a yard, for Colton and Henry to run around in.

  The kid fell asleep watching cartoons, his legs kicked out over the side of the couch. Levi dug his phone out and immediately checked his email. He’d sent a picture of the beetle to each of the other Seraphim he kept in contact with. There were answers in his mail box. He felt it.

  First were all the responses from each of the Seraphim. Astaroth said he’d never seen anything like it before. Asmodeus said the beetle was ugly, but unfamiliar. Lucifer simply sent back a message to keep him updated. Abaddon told him to talk to Samael. And Sam?

  Sam had responded by forwarding the message to Orus, with Levi copied.

  Then the email from Orrie.

  It contained another picture, this one of a glass tube holding a very similarly looking beetle. Orrie had put the photos side by side and the only major difference was that Orrie’s beetle seemed larger. But they had the same mandibles, the same beady stare. Orrie left a phone number and that was it.

  Levi checked to make sure Colton was sleeping, then got to his feet. Henry stayed by the boy, now totally eating out of Colton’s hand, but he lifted his head to look at Levi. The fallen angel held up a hand for Henry to stay, then went out onto the landing to dial Orrie’s number.

  He answered on the first ring.

  “Seems you got a problem,” Orrie stated.

  Levi balled his fist and smashed it onto the wooden banister. The wood cracked under the pressure.

  “Fuck.”

  *****

  Trish was in early. Jeannie came in about eight, glared at Trish, then made the coffee. The deputies on duty gave her quick waves, but mostly everyone ignored her. The sheriff was not around.

  Trish began working, trying to piece together the three bodies and three murders that she had on her hands. With one body identified, Trish was trying to fill in the days before the boy’s murder. Who he talked to, who he was friends with, how he got to Magnolia. The biggest piece of the puzzle was why the kid had even been close to here from his house. Magnolia was not a place for people to just come visit. The more Trish thought about it, the more she realized just how wrong this town was.

  The one glaring fact of this place was the two distinct social classes at work. There were the rich, original families, including the mayor’s, Mrs. Feeney, and the Thompsons. Colton was even descended from one of the original families. But then there were the near vagrants who lived in what the mayor called the “blight” on their town, the apartment buildings.

  Lots of drug deals there.

  Trish was researching the amount of drug activity there when she saw something move out of the corner of her eye. She glanced to her right and saw Colton with a huge black dog and Levi striding toward the board room.

  He didn’t knock.

  “I need to talk to you,” he said as he walked in.

  “Why is Colton here? And whose dog is that?” she asked instead.

  “All in good time, baby.”

  She closed her eyes and held up a hand. “No. Don’t call me that.”

  “Knock it off.”

  Her eyes snapped open. “What?”

  “I said knock it off,” Levi repeated.

  “How dare you—”

  “Yeah, how dare I? How dare I try to save you from yourself, not to mention save you from this fucking town?”

  Trish glanced out to where Colton was sitting, the dog next to him. Jeannie craned her neck to see what was happening in the board room. One of the deputies got to his feet, one hand on his gun.

  She turned slowly to face Levi. “You need to leave.”

  The board room had floor to ceiling glass windows facing the rest of the office. The windows to the outside went from the ceiling halfway down the wall. All the windows had vertical blinds, and all were open. Whatever danger Levi posed, he would be showing off in front of all the office and whoever happened to be walking by in the parking lot. Except…

  Levi set his jaw. He took a look around the room and narrowed his eyes at Trish.

  “Stay out there with Henry, Colton,” he yelled.

  “Okay, Levi,” the little boy answered.

  Then Levi did…whatever Levi did.

  The board room door slammed shut by itself and Trish heard the lock snick. Levi stepped up onto the board room table. That’s it, just stepped up, straight from the floor. Trish sucked in a breath and squeezed the arms of her chair.

  Levi strode toward her, his arms out. The vertical blinds snapped shut as he walked. He ignored the papers, the folders, the photos, just advanced forward with an intensity Trish couldn’t even begin to describe. He paused when he made it to her end of the table. The blinds swung crazily before Levi lowered his arms and stared down at her.

  “We’ve got
a problem, Trish,” he said huskily.

  “W-we do?” she stammered.

  He lowered to his haunches and looked in her eyes. “Yeah. We do.”

  “Is it you barging in here and locking us in?” Trish asked, her voice shaking. Damn that tremor. She wanted to sound tough.

  His mouth kicked up in a smile. “No, that is not our problem.”

  Trish scooted back in her chair as Levi took that one huge step down off the table. He moved toward her and she kept wheeling backward until she hit the wall. His eyes glimmered as he moved quickly, grabbing the armrests of the chair and caging her in.

  “You’re scaring me,” she whispered.

  He leaned down so they were eye to eye. Then he moved closer and ran his lips down her jaw line. He nuzzled her ear, then kissed the shell softly.

  “Don’t be scared of me,” he murmured.

  Trish’s heart began to throb. This man drove her insane. He was handsome, gorgeous really, willing to help her, scary as a horror movie, and he could kiss unlike any man she’d ever met.

  Oh, not to mention the weird slamming-the-door-closing-the-blinds-without-touching-any-of-it stuff.

  “How can I not be?” she asked, her voice barely there, her hands shaking.

  He angled his head and took her lips. Just took them. Didn’t ask, didn’t care. Kissed her. Trish felt her body turn to goo even though she didn’t want it to. Because even the hint of his lips reminded her of how good he’d made her feel.

  Levi’s hands closed over her upper arms and he dragged her up and into his embrace. “Damn it, Trish,” he murmured against her lips.

  When his tongue trailed down her neck, Trish swallowed at the sensation. “What do you mean?” she asked.

  “We should be getting out of here,” he rasped. He pulled back and stared down at her. “This place is going to kill us and all I can think about is bending you over this table.”

  She tried to remember why he shouldn’t do that. Oh, yeah. He was crazy. Thought he was a fallen angel. But he could do things…Things no one else could do. Hadn’t he just shown her that? What if he was right and she was wrong…? No, no that couldn’t happen. She shook her head.