“You really think so?” mocked Jack. “What do you think happened with all the lights in there? All the electronics went out with the surge. Why do you think cell service went down just before Veronica was killed? She probably tried to call for help, so the angel did what you just witnessed. It’s messy, and a bit unexplainable to mortals, but it’s not like it’s the first conclusion the police would ever come to. The power these beings possess is unmatchable.”
“What about Talbot's body?” I asked.
“I’ll take care of that later. Right now I’m just concerned with getting patched up,” he said, pointing to his car. “Take the Impala.”
“I can’t just leave my dad’s car out here,” I stated firmly.
“Fine, then you can explain to him why my blood will be all over the backseat.”
“I’ll drive the Cutlass,” said Ian, pulling out the keys. “Where are we going?”
“Just follow Cassie,” said Jack as we loaded him into the Impala.
“So, where to?” I asked, turning the engine over as Ian jumped into the Cutlass.
“My place,” Jack replied.
“And that would be...?”
“Drake Manor, on Royal Terrace.”
“The ritz, eh?”
“What, you wishing you picked differently now?” he chuckled under a low, aching groan. “It’s not too late.”
“I’m not impressed by ostentatious displays,” I confirmed.
I put the Impala into gear as the Cutlass started up. Pulling out of the lot, we turned onto the street and started making our trek to Park Place, the neighborhood where his brazen estate rested.
“I have quite a slew of questions for you, Jackson Matthews.”
“Now’s really not a good time,” he muttered, slumping against the window of the passenger seat.
“Oh, but I disagree. Now is the perfect time. We have a few minutes to kill here, no pun intended, and you’re not going anywhere.”
“Don’t tempt me,” he chuckled, pointing to the handle on the door."
“Stop being a smartass for a few minutes, please."
He merely groaned.
“I can’t believe these words are actually coming out of my mouth, but.... why are both angels and demons so keen on procuring me?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
"Jack, I've already had countless misadventures with two demons so far, and I was now just attacked by an angelic warrior called Death! I believe the laws of sense and rationality were spent back there in the parking lot."
“Alright, but it’s a bit…. complicated.”
“I’m ranked fifth in my class. I’ll do my best to keep up.”
“You know the legend of the Baykok?”
“The local ghost story?”
“Yes, it’s the reason I’m here.”
“Meaning…?”
“Back in the 17th century, there was this rather, um, enthusiastic coven of witches-”
“Enthusiastic?”
“Satanic,” Jack clarified. “They had uncovered a grimoire-”
“A what?”
“It’s a textbook of enchantments.”
“You mean, a book of spells?”
“Yes, anyway…” he groaned, rather irritated.
“Sorry,” I mumbled. “Go on.”
“In this book contained a particular spell, one that could produce something completely unheard of, a solidified form of a demon.”
“The Baykok.”
“Nothing known to man could kill it, so it was left up to the Heavens to decide what would be done. There were angels above that wanted to come to Earth so that they could kill the Baykok, to restore the natural balance of things, but the higher command of angels rejected the notion out of fear of losing the Saxon blades required to kill it. If the blades fell into the wrong hands, it could bring upon a war. Seven angels, each of a different ranking who possessed their own unique set of skills, disobeyed the order and descended upon the earth, taking matters into their own hands. They found that once they took care of the Baykok, they were also banished from returning to Heaven for their treason. These abandoned angels lost their immortality, only being able to return to paradise once they served their life sentence on Earth, but their powers remained. After the angels slew the Baykok, they hunted down the coven. Only one witch managed to flee from the slaughter, to a place a bit further south, in Massachusetts."
"Salem?"
"Of course, when the angels spread the word around about this individual, the townsfolk there obviously got… a bit carried away with their religious extremism, but it got the job done nevertheless. With the last of the coven dead, their grimoire was lost. Burnt in fact. No witch since has ever been able to reenact the ritual to make another Baykok, until several years ago when a mysterious grimoire dating back to the 14th century suddenly resurfaced, containing a spell that not only had the power to solidify a demon, but to resurrect something much stronger. And there was something in particular that they would need to procure in order to perform the ceremony.”
“A Saxon blade?”
He shook his head. “A someone. A descendant, or more specifically, a female descendant of an angel.”
“… I don’t understand.”
“You, Cassie.”
Okay, now I was officially in the twilight zone. “What? But… how? How can I possibly be a descendant of an angel?”
“The seven angels that fell in order to kill the Baykok, they lived amongst the humans and forged relationships, producing a familiar, hybrid offspring.”
“The Nephilim.”
“Only this time, these angels were still pure of heart, and they raised their children properly. Throughout the years though, the knowledge of the angel’s ancestry was lost. Everything in time was reduced to nothing more than mythology, and eventually it became unknown as for who their descendants were. But the Heavens must have known about this possibility, because they assigned groups of angels to protect over this angelic offspring.”
“So what happened? How did the information leak?”
“Angels have been guarding the identities of these people, but the only living fallen angel who had been relinquished from his position wound up divulging the information to us thirteen months ago.”
“All of this out of spite from one angel?”
“No, he asked to be let go from his position. He voluntarily cast himself from Heaven,” declared Jack.
“Why?”
“He fell in love with a mortal, and the guidelines are specific. No active angel is ever allowed to mingle with humans, so he left it all for her. He used to be a protector of this list of people we were after, and with some diligent tracking, a few of my kind were able to procure him. Torture didn’t do much good, but after threatening his family, he released the information to us in exchange that we would not hunt his loved ones.”
“So, an entire pocket of the population is in danger?!”
“No, any one angel is only provided with a small group of people to look over. Twenty people at best.”
“Twenty?! These aren’t candy bars we’re talking about here, Jack. They’re people!”
“Yeah, well, based on calculations for the presently living, the number’s currently closer to six or seven.”
“What?!”
“As soon as the angels found out what we got a hold of, they went to work.”
“By killing the people they were sworn to protect?!”
“By killing the people that could rewrite the apocalypse. Kill a few, save the masses. You have angelic blood in you. Your mother and sister had it too. It's in your bloodline.”
“Which means they were on the list...” I muttered, feeling my stomach drop. "Wait, but how could an angel of death confront us in his attempt to kill me? You just said it yourself that an angel still working under orders can’t directly confront humans. Ian was there just now. What changed?"
“Nothing.”
“What does that
means?”
“It means that nothing’s changed,” he said dolefully. “Usually angels of death try to stage these cases as accidents, but for whatever reason he decided to perform this so much in the open, he still didn’t break any laws.”
I slowed the car to a stop in the middle of the road with only one person in mind. “What are you saying? How does Ian fit into all this? He’s not a witch, is he? Or… a wizard?” I took a moment for pause. “God, again, I can’t believe I actually just said that out loud.”
Jack chuckled weakly. “No, he’s like you.”
“Wait, so, he's a descendant?” Oh, no… Not the whole Star Wars incest thing… “We’re not related in some way, are we?”
“No, he’s what we call an Illusionist. It’s a breed of Watcher angels. They’re the only angels allowed to communicate with humans, but only through forms of what many would consider to be hallucinogenic. You know the story of Moses and whole burning bush thing? Like that."
“And this Wiccan ritual… What roll am I to partake in it?” I asked fearfully. “I highly doubt your new coven of witches needs me there just to videotape their ceremony.”
“That I don’t know.”
“Why you? Why were you brought into all this?”
“I was only told to do two things. Protect and seduce. Nothing else.”
“Why?”
“Again, I don’t know.”
"What do these witches want to conjure up?"
He began to nod off.
"Jack?!"
".... Lucifer," he barely managed to grumble.
"What?!"
Jack's eyelids began to sink, and his skin couldn’t become any more pale.
“Jack?! What’s wrong?” I yelped, praying for a response. “Jack?! Goddamnit, Jack, answer me!”
His body lifelessly slumped against the passenger door, slowly falling forward.
“Jack?! Jack?!”
Divine Vices Page 34