All That Falls

by Kimberly Frost

  “It’s important that I speak to her. I’ll have ES contact her security detail with a message. It’ll be easier to reach her that way. What’s the aspirant’s name by the way?”

  “Listen I’ve got a lot to do tonight. I was just about to lock up. Why don’t you take your strange friend and go?”

  “Sure, of course.”

  Troy’s shoulders dropped, relaxing.

  “Before we go, I wonder if you and I could talk for a couple of minutes about the night that Griffin died.”

  Troy stiffened again. “Another time would be better for me. I’ve got some conference calls set up with the West Coast.”

  “Yeah, I’m not sure another night will work for me.” She glanced at the clock. “How long until your conference calls? It’s quarter after seven. We’ve got at least fifteen minutes?” she speculated. “Or forty-five?”

  Troy’s face hardened, but he nodded. “Listen, I don’t like that guy, Cerise. I want him out of Ileana’s house,” he said in a low voice. “Ask him to wait outside and I’ll be happy to sit down and have a conversation with you. I’ll be in the kitchen brewing some coffee. Meet me there when you’ve dealt with him.”

  Troy stalked out of the room. Cerise crossed the living room to join Lysander, who was sifting through a bowl of spicy-scented potpourri.

  “Smell any demon ash?” she whispered.

  “Not so far. He didn’t give you the name of the man the other muse is spending time with,” he pointed out.

  “I know. You’re a distraction. Why don’t you go upstairs and look around? I’ll make Troy think you’re gone, then I’ll use a little muse magic to persuade him to tell me the truth about Ileana’s aspirant.”

  Lysander nodded, strolling to the stairs and padding up them silently.

  She walked into the kitchen and found it unoccupied. She looked around, eyes narrowing, and strode to the door. She opened it and glanced into the small television room off the kitchen. Had Troy stepped out of the room? Or out of the house?

  Cerise went to the back door and pulled it open. The lit walkway was empty, but hearing a car engine, she jogged outside and around the house in time to see Ileana’s town car speed away.

  “Oh, Troy, what the hell have you done?”

  She yanked her phone out and powered it on. As soon as she had a signal, she called Troy’s cell. He didn’t pick up. She hadn’t expected him to.

  When the call went to voice mail she said, “Hey, Troy. Not sure what’s up with you. Why don’t you call me back when you get wherever you’re bolting to? We have things to discuss, like the bad company you and Ileana may be keeping. And like what you were doing with Alissa when she and I were teenagers. Yeah, call me back. Or very soon I may not be the only one asking you questions.”

  She hung up, tucked the phone in her pocket, and hurried back into the house. Ascending the stairs, she called out for Lysander.

  “Here, Cerise,” he said.

  Inside the enormous master bedroom, Lysander cut open a custom couch cushion. Stuffing erupted from the gaping slice as he tossed it aside and looked through the contents of a plastic packet he’d pulled from it. He dropped photographs and folded paper onto the carpet until he came to something that interested him. She moved next to him for a better look. He unfolded a sketch and raised it to his nose, inhaling, then frowned. Lowering the paper, he studied what appeared to be a charcoal sketch of a blackbird.

  He ran a thumb tentatively over the sooty wings. “The dark smudges of the bird’s eyes were done with demon ash. And the signature on the piece.” He held it out to her.

  She glanced at the letters in the corner, which were oddly geometric. She cocked her head, deciphering the name.

  “John…Leizer. I don’t know—”

  “Leizer,” he said. “Reziel spelled backward.”

  Frowning, she paused a moment, then murmured, “Oh Ileana.” She had hidden the sketch. Did that mean she knew whom she was involved with? Cerise’s mind rebelled against the thought. Surely not.

  Cerise’s eyes darted around the room and down to the pictures and papers scattered over the carpet. They could be clues to where Ileana had gone and who she was with.

  Cerise crouched to gather them, but her phone rang. She pulled it out and looked at the display.

  “Troy, the lying brother,” she announced before she answered the call on speaker. “Hi, Troy.”

  “I can’t believe you brought a member of the fallen into Ileana’s house.”

  “I’d say a member of the fallen is the least of your worries. Ileana’s had contact with much worse lately.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Is her new aspirant named John Leizer?”

  “I don’t know. She kept his last name a secret even from me.”

  “She’s in trouble, Troy. Really serious trouble. Where are they?”

  “Ileana’s fine. She has ES with her twenty-four-seven. And so will you soon enough. You can tell that fallen angel you’re with that he’d better fly away while he’s got the chance. On my way down the driveway I called the new ES director and warned him who you’ve got with you. Officers should be arriving any minute.”

  Cerise bolted to her feet. “You asshole.”

  “And as for that lying bitch Alissa, she’s about as reliable as the fiction she inspires. Who do you think people are going to believe these days?”

  “Tell me a couple of things, Troy: Did you slip something into my drink on the night Griffin died?”

  “What? Of course not!”

  “Did you introduce us to a demon?”

  “Have you lost your mind?”

  “Answer the question.”

  “Good-bye, Cerise.”

  “One more, did you seduce my little sister?”

  His end of the line went silent.

  “Troy?” When there was no answer, she nodded grimly and turned off her phone. “Yeah, you better run if you did those things, you bastard. If you did them, Merrick will have to get in line to kill you.”

  Lysander watched as she shoved the papers and photos into her purse.

  “Ready to go?” she asked, hurrying from the room.

  “Cerise, did you mention to him that I’m a fallen angel?”

  “Of course not. He guessed.”

  Lysander nodded. “So then he’s been knowingly affiliated with Reziel—either as his follower or as a contact of Reziel’s representative here.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because he knew me for an angel,” he said as they descended the stairs. “Most men couldn’t reach that conclusion without me revealing it.”

  “Troy has his ear to the ground. He might have heard rumors that Merrick has a fallen angel friend named Lysander. I’m not saying he’s not directly involved, but we can’t jump to that conclusion yet.”

  “Let’s go to his house. I liked your plan to use your magic to persuade him to tell us what he knows,” he said as they crossed the kitchen.

  “He won’t go directly home,” she said. “He’ll avoid the places I’d expect him to go until he knows you’re out of the Etherlin or that ES has you in custody. We need a place to wait things out,” she said, striding out the back door. “Alissa and Richard’s is only a block away.” If they could reach it and kept the lights off once they were inside, they might be able to escape notice for a little longer…long enough for her to come up with some sort of plan that didn’t involve a showdown between Lysander and ES.

  She headed toward the lake where the woods would offer some sporadic cover, but suddenly flashlights were trained on them.

  So much for avoiding a confrontation.

  “Lysander,” she said softly. “I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t kill anyone.”

  He reached down for his knife.

  She grabbed his arm. “Don’t draw it yet. Just stay close to me. We’re trying to avoid a confrontation.”

  He fingered the dagger’s hilt. “I won’t use it without cause.”


  That’s what I’m afraid of.

  A pair of ES officers—Pinter, who was young and solid with a mop of brown curls barely subdued with gel, and Rawlins, who was just over forty with hard edges and ruthless eyes—appeared on the path with their weapons drawn.

  Cerise attempted to move in front of Lysander, but he said, “Absolutely not,” and blocked her with his arm.

  “Can you see me well enough to tell who I am?” she asked the officers.

  “Step away from him, Ms. Xenakis,” Rawlins said.

  “No, you lower your weapons,” Cerise said. “He’s with me.”

  “We can’t let him roam the Etherlin without clearance,” Pinter said.

  “I’m taking him to meet my father. Dimitri will arrange for his clearance,” she said, though of course that was pretty unlikely.

  “The director can contact EC President Xenakis and ask him to meet us at headquarters. I’m sure we can sort this out there,” Pinter said, taking his handcuffs from his belt.

  Cerise frowned. Going to headquarters would require Lysander to allow himself to be taken into custody.

  “You know, maybe it’s a better idea for Lysander and I to leave the Etherlin. I’ll arrange for clearance before he comes inside again.”

  “We’re on lockdown. It’s not safe for you to leave right now,” Rawlins said.

  “Since I’m not a prisoner, I’ll decide what’s safest for me.”

  “Let’s speak to your father and ask him to help sort the situation out,” Rawlins said calmly. She was glad at least that the ES officers didn’t seem trigger-happy or likely to lose their cool. She glanced at Lysander. His stance was casual, but lurking in his eyes was an unmistakable danger.

  She turned on her phone. A series of message alerts sounded. She ignored them and called her home phone number.

  Her father answered immediately.

  “Hey, it’s me. I’m outside Ileana’s house with a friend, and ES won’t let us pass. I’d like to bring my friend to meet you. Can you call the director, and have him call off his officers?”

  “Who’s with you?” Dimitri asked sharply.

  “A new guy I’m involved with. See for yourself. Let me bring him to the house to meet you.”

  “Stay where you are. I’ll be right there.” The connection died.

  “Sublime,” she murmured sarcastically. She glanced at the officers and added, “My father’s on his way.”

  Several minutes passed, and she had to give the guys credit. All men of action, they managed to remain still and unruffled. She’d almost begun to relax as she scrolled through her text messages until she opened the one from Jersey.

  Can u call me? Am worried about Hayden.

  Cerise’s brows crowded each other. “Jersey’s brother Hayden is still gone,” she murmured to Lysander. “I need to call her back and find out if she knows where he went.” She sighed. “Why the hell did he have to go out in the middle of all this?”

  “I could ask you the same question.” Her father’s voice was gruff, like the rest of him despite the polish of his expensive suits. Thick black brows brooded over his eyes, and his stocky body looked like even a hurricane wouldn’t stand a chance of toppling it.

  Lysander, towering tall and golden, seemed the opposite of Dimitri at first glance, but the dangerous glint in his eyes and his broad build echoed her dad’s.

  With a small hand gesture, Dimitri indicated that the ES officers should lower their weapons, and they did.

  “Hello,” Lysander said. He stepped forward and extended a hand. “I’m Lysander. I’ll welcome your hospitality if you extend it.”

  “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Who are you? And how did you get into the Etherlin?”

  Lapsing into Etruscan, Lysander asked, “How much do you want me to reveal, Cerise?”

  She thought her tongue would tangle on Etruscan, so she answered him in German. “We’re in uncharted territory. Just follow your instincts,” she murmured. She glanced around at the other ES officers who were sprouting like weeds and spotted Dorie, who’d crept up and was hovering a few feet behind her dad.

  “I fell into the Etherlin,” Lysander said.

  “Do you make a habit of that? Of falling?” Dimitri’s dark eyes bored into him.

  “Not a habit, but it has been known to happen.”

  Dorie approached with mincing steps and stood at their father’s right side. She whispered something to him.

  “I told you to stay at the house,” he said brusquely.

  Dorie frowned and continued to whisper to him.

  “I have reason to believe that Ileana’s in trouble,” Cerise said. “Lysander and I came to talk to her and discovered some troubling things. We should talk to you about them privately.”

  “Maybe Lysander knows there’s a problem because he caused it,” Dorie said, folding her arms across her chest. She stared at Lysander, who didn’t acknowledge her accusation or her presence.

  “What kind of trouble?” Dimitri asked.

  “We think she’s with someone who’s colluding with a demon,” Cerise said, covering Lysander’s silence.

  Dimitri scowled. “There hasn’t been a demon near the Etherlin in years, and the ones that have been raised are little more than horrific monsters. They’re not capable of conspiring.”

  “Those lesser demons are driven by hunger and rage and enter the world in a frenzy of bloodlust, but just as legend tells us, the higher demons in hell are cunning. They’re capable of complex trickery.” She glanced at Lysander, who nodded his agreement. “I suggest that you use all the Etherlin’s available resources to find Ileana. I’m helping Lysander conduct his own investigation, and of course we’ll share any information that could lead to Ileana’s safe recovery—” Cerise broke off as Lysander gave her a small push away from him. His head was turned toward an ES officer who was slowly approaching them from behind.

  “Don’t do that, Collins,” Cerise said, her eyes narrowing. “Back up.”

  Collins, a middle-aged man who usually had a cheerful expression on his face, was all business now.

  “Stand with your father,” Lysander said in German, giving her a gentle shove. “When it begins, you mustn’t get in the way of their bullets.”

  “He’s getting ready to fight,” Dorie said. “He wants Cerise out of the way so he can attack.”

  “That’s not what he said,” Cerise snapped and ground her teeth together. She stepped closer to Lysander and put a hand on his back, locking eyes with her father. “If they attack him, he’ll defend himself and it won’t end well. I’m asking you to make them back off.”

  “No one wants to hurt him,” Dimitri said. “Lysander, take out your knife and lay it on the ground. Security will escort us to ES headquarters where we can talk.”

  “We can talk here,” Lysander said, his gaze slicing through the darkness, keeping track of the positions of all the men.

  “Dad, don’t make me regret calling you. This is me trying to reach out.”

  “He’s a member of the fallen, Cerise. How do you not see what a massive mistake it is to harbor him?” Dimitri asked, his voice low and harsh.

  “All the fallen are not the same. You claim the ventala aren’t capable of control around muses, but Merrick has saved Alissa’s life more than once. Draining muses dry of their blood seems to be the last thing on Merrick’s mind.”

  Dimitri’s shock registered instantly. “What do you know of Alissa’s present situation?”

  “I know she accused the former ES director of kidnapping and attempted murder.”

  “There’s no evidence of that. The former director’s missing and presumed dead. He makes an easy target since he can’t defend himself.”

  “All I know is that Alissa’s been with Merrick for six weeks and she’s still alive. In fact, she’s the happiest I’ve seen her look since her mom died.”

  “The happiest she’s looked? When did you see her?”

  “I visited her.”
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br />   “In the Varden?” Dimitri asked, horrified.

  “And I’m still alive to tell the tale,” Cerise said.

  “You’re crazy! You’re out of control and crazy,” Dorie cried. “Dad’s right. We should all have twenty-four-hour guards on us. I’m willing to deal with it if it’ll keep the rest of you out of trouble.”

  “They’re not going to use V3 ammunition on Lysander, Cerise. They’ll just tranquilize him,” Dimitri said. “Move away from him.”

  “Don’t do this,” Cerise snapped. “Lysander’s an archangel. No one’s better trained than ES, but they’re only human. The cost of trying to take him into custody will be too high. Open the gate and let him out. No one has to get hurt.”

  “If he wants to leave no one will stop him.”

  Cerise slid her hand along Lysander’s side, looping their arms together and gripping his forearm. “Let’s go.”

  “Not with you!” Dorie said.

  “No,” Dimitri agreed. “He can leave alone.”

  “I’m not a prisoner! I’ll leave if I want to.”

  “No.” The finality in her father’s voice made her heart clench. She knew he was worried about her, so worried that he wouldn’t listen to reason.

  “What the hell is your deal?” Dorie demanded, stalking forward.

  “Don’t,” Cerise said, trying to shove Dorie away. Dorie grabbed Cerise’s arm with both of her hands and yanked with all her might. Cerise jerked forward a step, then pulled back, widened her stance, and planted her feet.

  They struggled. “Let go of him,” Dorie yelled, red-faced and furious. Cerise yanked her arm out of Dorie’s grasp and used it to push her away. Dorie charged forward.

  “Get the girls out of the way,” Dimitri ordered, and the officers surged toward them.

  Time seemed to slow and in a frozen moment, Lysander whispered in Etruscan, “Before battle, Merrick takes a kiss from his muse. A ritual I think I’d relish.”

  Her eyes widened as Lysander turned, dipped his head, and brushed his lips over hers. Then she and Dorie fell because Lysander’s leg swept theirs out from under them.

  “Stay down,” Lysander said as a dart whizzed through the air. He caught it by the shaft and then he was in motion, and it was like nothing she’d ever seen.