Against the Fallen

by Devin Lee Carlson

  The rescue team exited the backside of the mountain hundreds of feet lower than the main entrance. Only the DanJal scientific team knew of this exit. The clan leaders had their own emergency passage if they escaped the gas.

  Ahead of the others, eyes shielded, Sabree scanned the road. His hands shot overhead in a frantic wave when a black jeep screeched to a halt. “Get inside,” he said, pointing at the vehicle. “Let’s go!”

  Brian and Ariane climbed into the backseat. Sabree reached for the passenger door. Before Gibyss misted away, he reminded everyone that he had promised to help Euriel and Jesse. He left the details to the group’s imagination.

  “Easy peasy,” Ariane said. “Guess lady luck is on our side for a change.” Without disturbing her brother, she craned her neck to catch a glimpse of Gibyss’s informant.

  The driver leaned around to greet her passengers. She nodded at Ariane and then winked at Brian. “Where to boys and girl?”

  “Sabree,” Ariane cried. “What’s she doing here?” She squeezed Brian tight to protect him from harm. How could she ever keep track of Sabree’s nemeses—friend or foe? They switched sides as often as she switched frosting flavors.

  Brian coughed on a curse. “You,” he croaked.

  “Serine?” Sabree uttered. “Did you switch sides again?”

  “I’ve always been on your side. I made certain Duncan raised Turian’s children with the utmost care.” Serine glanced in the rearview mirror at Ariane. “However, since then, I discovered you were also the rumored anti-beings. I’m still loyal to you both and promise to never let any harm come to Brian again.”

  Ariane slapped the back of the driver seat to stress her point. “Or my daughter.”

  Serine nodded, her eyes never losing focus on the rearview mirror.

  Funny how another one of the Fallen had leapt from Sabree’s past and into his future. Somewhat advantageous, the more who joined their circle, the merrier. However, Ariane doubted Brian would accept Serine into their small but ever-growing clan.

  “Buckle up, Brian,” Serine said. She pulled the jeep onto the road and sped off.

  23

  BLACK SHEEP OF THE FALLEN

  N ear the village of Vila Franca da Campo, my rescuers spoiled me with material luxuries instead of companionship. Sabree set us up in an extravagant cottage located on a private stretch of beach. One of many homes he owned, he kept their locations a guarded secret. Protected by cliffs and miles of no-man’s-land ensured our privacy while I gained the strength to travel home. A week should be enough time. Not quite an outright lie, my body healed after the second dose of Colton tablets, but my head was still in the works. Nowhere near ready.

  While Ariane and Sabree functioned as nursemaids, Gibyss misted back to Arizona to inform his sister we were safe. He also promised to mist in now and again over the next few days. As for his intentions, Gibyss asked to stay, but only if we would accept him as a member of our clan. He then apologized to everyone for stalling the rescue until the DanJal completed their research.

  Worst of all, Gibyss and Serine’s line of crap that my half-human son was still alive, left behind to face Eric’s wrath, mortified me. Why didn’t they rescue the child the same time they rescued me? Aye, never too late to dust them where they stood for handing me one lame excuse after the other. My gaze hardened. “Don’t you two have something to confess?”

  Standing alongside Serine, Gibyss lowered his gaze and tilted his head. “We arranged the abduction to perform certain tests.” He glanced sideways at Serine. “You and your sister are dangerous beings. We—the Fallen—must understand your true nature if you decide to lead the clans. Anyhow, no permanent harm was done. I also wish to apologize and join your clan.”

  Wrong answer again. I never asked any of the Fallen to submit to my will. Never suggested a hint of my leading any of them. “Just like that? You tortured me to make sure I was one of the good guys, and now you want to join our clan.” I pointed at myself first and then at Ariane and Sabree. Abyss out of the picture, I purposely neglected to include her. “Three souls do not constitute a clan.” Strange bedfellows these Caderen and DanJal. For intelligent beings, they kept missing the point—my son. “Neither of you get to join. Leave now if you wish to live.”

  Sabree chuckled while Ariane gasped. However, my sister found the nerve to speak. “You don’t mean that, Brian. You need rest.”

  My vision blurred, my eyes smoldering with rage. “I do mean it!” I pushed by her and confronted two worried faces. “Neither one of you helped my son. He’s dead because of you.” Rigid fingers grabbed Gibyss by the neck and squeezed until gurgles escaped his throat. My gaze narrowed at Sabree and Ariane, daring them to intervene. “They knew Eric was going to torch the place.” My voice lowered to a snarl. “These two heartless pieces of shit left my son behind to die.” A snap of my wrist sent Gibyss flying into Serine. Both toppled to the floor.

  Hands bracing her skull, Serine cried out. “Wait!” She exhaled a winded breath. “Jesse called me yesterday. All is well. The HFA stepped in before Eric torched the DanJal. They escorted the foul human onto Euriel’s private jet and sent him back to the States. They should have destroyed him, but the HFA sworn never to harm humans no matter their crime. Jesse has your son and is keeping him safe.”

  What a whirlwind confession. One professed just to save her ass. My gaze lifted to the ceiling as I whispered in gratitude. Arms folded over my chest, I glared down at them. Neither one attempted to rise to their feet. “And you’re telling me this now? Bloody hell, I could have dusted you.” I looked to Ariane, my lower lip trembling. “He’s safe. Please tell Jesse that I want to see him. ASAP.”

  “After we return home.” Ariane planted her hands on her hips and whispered, “After I see my mother.”

  Of course, what was I thinking. Or not thinking. Ariane would not let me see my son until she saw her mum. “And you will.” I could not believe she stooped so low. Cruel because she used my son as collateral. But then I had to empathize with her desperation. Ariane wanted more than anything to meet our mother.

  Massaging his throat, Gibyss said, “We have more news. Good news. Euriel took care of Tripper.”

  Sabree rolled his neck. “Some of us get all the luck.”

  The plot thickened and already Sabree wished the task had been his. So, flyboy bested him. “What happened?”

  “Tripper forced Euriel’s hand when the HFA shoved him aboard the jet. The slayer is now a nosophor. The creature Eric abhors the most.” Gibyss’s shoulders broadened.

  The irony of this turnaround had to be the ultimate retaliation. The scenario of Euriel turning Eric into a nosophor played in my mind. True to my version, Eric cried out a girly scream when Euriel’s fangs sank into his neck. I choked on a chuckle. “Guess Eric played with fire when he bargained with the DanJal.” The news sobering, I owed everything to Jesse for apprehending Eric and rescuing my son.

  “Can we join your clan?” Gibyss asked. Serine held onto his shoulder, nodding in agreement.

  Never thought of myself as a clan leader, or our small group as a clan. We didn’t even have a name. For now, desperate times called for desperate measures, which meant joining forces to stand against the Malakhim.

  “You can join,” I finally said, glancing at Sabree to catch his reaction. Oddly enough, a forced smile greeted me. If a person was known by the company he keeps, then I was in serious trouble.

  When Sabree confronted Gibyss, a stoic mask shrouded his face. “I despise dishonesty, my brother, but with no harm done, I have no qualms if you wish to join our band of misfits. As for you, Serine…”

  “Band of misfits?” I asked. More than once, Sabree warned me never to trust Serine because she had an agenda of her own. I swore to myself not to trust either one. Ever! Jesse, not them, saved the day. If not for him and the HFA, my son would be dead. An these two knew it.

  “You won’t regret it.” Serine glared at Sabree and said, “We all have our secrets, do we n
ot?”

  Sabree’s eyes darted from one person to the next. “I have none,” he replied quickly. He snorted when everyone snickered, the new clan members the loudest. On his way out, his gaze landed on Ariane’s baby bump. “As you can all see, Ariane is with child. Mine of course. Let her explain the gory details.”

  Before the curious stares developed into lengthy conversation, I bowed out. “Meeting adjourned.” As though I had flicked off a switch, Gibyss misted back to Arizona, Ariane headed for the veranda, and Serine raced after her. Sabree must have slipped into his room. I ended up alone.

  So, which of the lies did they hope to keep from me? Sabree withheld something personal other than his feelings for Ariane. Gibyss had lied about delaying the rescue to give the DanJal time to run the tests, this secret revealed to everyone.

  All and good, I understood why the clans wanted to unravel the mysteries of Brian Ross Colton, the black sheep of the Fallen. But how much of a monster truly resided within me? Did they fear for their lives? If Gibyss knew what the tests had encompassed, would he have agreed to them? Analyzing my immortality. A long breath, one inhaled minutes ago, escaped my lips.

  Nightmarish torture scenes dipped into reality as my mind healed. The DanJal had run tests, cruel tests. Overdosed on anti-vamp serum and an anesthetizing drug, deprived of nutrition, I excelled every test the techs threw at me. In the same way my heart beat involuntarily, my physiology instinctively seized control. My will took a backseat. No say whatsoever. How my system recharged itself while drugged on the serum, puzzled me still. Were reserved powers stored somewhere within my body?

  One such test still chilled me to the core. A DanJal scientist, his name unknown, conducted each test as if business as usual. My left arm, the one bone-welded to the amulet was stretched out and restrained. A tech held a bone saw over it waiting for the fiend’s nod of approval. I screamed before the saw came close to chewing into my flesh. My cries downgraded to whimpers and then to nervous laughter when the saw passed through my arm. No pain, no blood, no amputated limb. The saw whined when it grazed the metal table. The tech yanked it back and almost sliced the scientist’s tablet in half. Wide eyes stared at the arm left intact, untouched.

  Unlike them, an idea sparked my intellect. Miraculously, my arm had transformed into its energized state similar to when I visited the portal. “How do you like me now?” I had asked between gasps, overwhelmed with unimaginable relief.

  The first test of many, I survived each one: torched by a flamethrower, poisoned by lethal injection, and almost crushed by a compressor. The idiot in charge canceled the beheading, certain the ax would behave as the rest of their tools of destruction. Sabree had undergone a similar experience. An execution. Beheaded by a guillotine. Lucky for him, Cayiel rescued his body and head, put him back together again to heal slowly while in a curative hibernated nap. Three hundred-years’ worth.

  No wonder Sabree never trusted Serine and the DanJal. If not to gain scientific knowledge, then the Fallen sought to understand what they stood against. Still, what if Gibyss knew about those tests? Time would reveal the ugly truth.

  We’d return home tomorrow.

  24

  AREN’T ALL GHOSTS WHITE

  “I want to visit the White Ghost,” Sabree said unexpectedly, out of the blue.

  I shook my head like a child refusing to eat his vegetables. “Not happening, especially not now.” Since our return home, the pressures, the arguments, and self-centered demands had already begun. No rest for the weary. The search for my son top priority, at least to confirm his safety, I looked up from the iPad, my eyes narrowing. “Did I hear right? White Ghost?”

  “You did this. You dusted me. Resurrected me. You owe me.”

  The snarl on his face reminded me of the old Sabree—the snarky pain in the ass. “You’re serious. What’s a white ghost? Aren’t all ghosts white?”

  “It’s an all-knowing, all-seeing celestial being. The Malakhim, along with certain elders of the Fallen, hid it somewhere on Earth.” The ring on Sabree’s middle finger made a complete orbit with the slightest twirl. The revolutions spun faster, increasing along with his anxiety. “The ghost might be able to help me.”

  Be it a hunch or longing, this discussion could lead us to our next adventure. It sparked a bit of life into me, my adrenaline jump-started by the unknown. His motives an open book along with my ability to read it, Sabree sought this elusive ghost for the two weeks lost and forever being stuck in perpetual stealth mode. In the meantime, I’d make sure Ariane asked Jesse about my son. When Jesse hid my sister after Abyss attacked her, he offered to protect my son. To make sure no others found out where he hid him, he refused to reveal the safehouse to either me or Ariane.

  Time linked, I trusted and counted on Sabree, and lately, more than my sister. I felt sorry for him in many ways. Wrangled into fathering a child and maybe marriage were wee annoyances compared to his resurrection from death via time travel. The rescue had played havoc on my confidence. Neither of us could figure out what really happened. Wary of time travel glitches, I planned to hide his ashes in another dimension where only I could find them. Maybe then the emptiness and headaches he experienced would go away.

  A deep sigh preceded my question. “How do you know this ghost is real and not another false hope? You never mentioned it before, not even after your own performance as a pale ghost.”

  Sabree eyed the couch to avoid my intense stare.

  “Who ya gonna call?” I asked. His lip curled in question. “Never mind.”

  “It’s not a real ghost per se. Rumors claim the Malakhim, with the help of an archangel, captured this spiritual being and imprisoned it to censor its insight, its intelligence.”

  “Is this something you can mist in and out of and get her done in a few hours?” I asked. “Besides trying to find my son, you do realize we expect a pending battle any day.” My brow wrinkled as I narrowed my gaze on the spinning ring. I wanted to slap it off his finger.

  “No—yes.” The ring shot off Sabree’s finger anyway and bounced across the carpet. He misted, reappeared, and caught the ring before it rolled under the couch. “You owe me this, Brian,” Sabree said in a gruff voice, unable to squelch his frustration. After a pause, his tone softened. “In my present condition, I’m no good to the clan. Technically, we’re a man down—an important man I might add.”

  “Don’t worry, I’m good.” I rolled my eyes and laughed when Sabree’s gaze darkened. The turquoise hue flashed entry into the danger zone. “Scratch that, I know we’re talking about you. And, I do owe you.” My tongue clicked three times, unable to believe I fell for Sabree’s pity party. “Do you know how to find this ghost?”

  “It’s imprisoned on one of the Screnian clan’s private islands. One elder from each clan knows its location. Cayiel and Serine for example.”

  “How convenient for our side. Do you think Serine will hand over a map? I doubt Cayiel will be forthcoming.”

  “Oui, Serine will tell me, especially if I explain why I must see the White Ghost.”

  “Good luck with that.” I winked as my attention returned to the iPad.

  For hours, Sabree and I spent the evening hacking into the DanJal mainframe. Instead of asking Serine, still untrustworthy in my opinion, we used my computer skills to open a file labeled White Ghost. Too easy as the DanJal were not as tech savvy. I read the opening page to Sabree.

  “The keep is located in the southern Indian Ocean near the Isles Kerguelen, the Desolation Islands. The Screnian island is even more desolate. They buried the creature deep within the center of the inactive volcano, undetectable to all Earthly inhabitants, including the Fallen. Trespassers, whether human or mammalian, shall perish the moment they set foot on the island.”

  I spoke in an ominous voice, lowering my brows. “Busted already. Anything else on your bucket list? Maybe skydiving?”

  Sabree flicked a hand to stifle my interruption. “No, no, read on.”

  “The Fallen who t
raverse the island, even within a mile radius of it, will do so without their gifts.” My eyes raked over Sabree’s worried look. “That means no misting, flying, speeding, nor your stealth mode ability.” I continued to read. “Besides booby traps, rumor states that when the Fallen enter the underground tunnels leading to the cell, they will combust once detected.” Combust sounded gruesome.

  Sabree exhaled a sigh and shot off his chair. “That’s the beauty of this plan. I’m undetectable thanks to the resurrection. Your anti-ness is elusive as well. We will find our way on foot if need be.” He slapped my back. “I must seek its wisdom if I’m ever going to have some semblance of normalcy. I must for the sake of my unborn child.” Sabree recognized my heavy sigh and crooked smile as resignation. His shoulders slouched. “Here’s hoping.”

  3 3 3

  Three hours top, Sabree had promised Brian. JLS to the shore, hike to the middle of the island, and then descend into the underground keep. After their experience as scavengers, this venture should be routine. A least that’s how Sabree hoped Brian would feel about his seek, ask, and leave quest. The thirty-mile hike, questionable descent, and quick retreat via JLS, should take them no more than a few hours, which left plenty of time to prepare for the Malakhim attack. Sabree had earned the time, deserved his friend’s undivided attention. Brian owed him.

  “You won’t regret this,” Sabree said as he tossed Brian his pack. Its heftiness alone left him wondering if Brian loaded the sack with cans of frosting. “Don’t understand why we have to carry the extra weight. We’ll be in and out before we know it.”

  “If you haven’t learned by now, you never will.” Brian hoisted the pack over his shoulders. “Colton tabs, rope, climbing apparatus, headlamps, and snacks are necessary gear. Remember, no misting or speed. We might not be able to use our enhanced gifts either.”

  Sabree clenched his jaw. Helpless in alien terrain, his partner-in-crime was referring to no antigravity and no enhanced recovery or strength. As usual, the Boy Scout poster child had prepared for the unknown. Seeing no need to express his gratitude, Sabree shrugged on his pack that weighed a lot less. “What do we do next?”