by Ivy Sinclair
These were things that I didn’t tell Riley. Not yet, and probably not ever. I was certain that he would hate me enough the way it was now that he knew the truth. Forgiveness wasn’t something that was a natural part of Riley’s nature, not that I expected it in any case. Hopefully, he would give it to me someday, and Gabrielle as well. That would send my soul to its final resting place in peace.
I moved my story along quickly to the part that I knew that they really cared about. It was the question of what changed that forced me to confront the things that I had ignored. What tied me and Joanna together in a bond that would carry into adulthood?
The truth of the matter was that ultimately, it was my own naivety that almost cost me and Joanna our souls. She had convinced me to try playing a Ouija board with her, and we snuck down into my basement so that we could light some candles and make the whole scene that much spookier. I had no idea that doing so would be like sending a homing beacon out to every demon in the vicinity. It wasn’t Joanna’s fault. She had asked to do something that teenagers did all the time. But it was different for me. I didn’t even know what a demon was, but after that day, I never doubted that evil existed in the world.
“What happened?” Paige asked. It was the first time anyone had spoken since I started my story. She maintained her physical contact with Riley’s knee and upper thigh. I had to keep myself from admonishing her about the overtly friendly touch. No matter what I thought about their relationship, it was clear that Riley had chosen his soul’s mate. I didn’t need to see the brand on her collarbone to know it for truth. If it wasn’t there already, I had no doubt that it would be soon. Leave it to my son to pick the most difficult path to love. I had done everything I could to sway him from that path, and it had made no difference.
“A man appeared out of nowhere and saved us,” I said. “When the demons appeared around us, I thought that I was going to die. Joanna still bears the scar of that night.”
Joanna pulled up the sleeve of her shirt. There was thin white scar that ran from her elbow up the back of her left triceps.
“You always said that you escaped out the window and were able to outrun them,” Riley said. He looked accusingly at Joanna. “You said the scar was from the broken glass of the window when you crawled out.”
“It was from a Tiphon demon,” I said. I tried not to sound defensive. “I didn’t know that demon officials train them to snuff out psychics, mediums, and sensitives who use the Ouija to connect with the other world and kidnap them. Then they use them for their own evil whims. Being tethered to a demon official is nasty business.” I couldn’t help my shudder. “Its talons are laced with poison, just like its teeth as you know.”
I saw Paige shudder now. I recalled that Riley said something about Paige being attacked by a Tiphon demon when he met her. If he hadn’t interfered, she would have been dead or worse. I met his father the same way. The irony of that wasn’t lost on me.
“Why make up the elaborate lie and still tell me half the truth?” Riley said. “This was all to hide the fact that you had help getting away from the demons?”
“It was your father that was the one who helped us, which I’m sure you have already surmised,” I said. “As part of his ritual of passage into adulthood, his tribe sent him out into the world to track and kill as many demons as possible. He was to return home in a year’s time and assuming he had achieved the minimum number of kills then he would be ushered into the beginning stages of tribal leadership. His was an ancient bloodline that had stood against demons for centuries. He needed to prove himself worthy.”
Riley wiped his face. “This tribe was the Hopekee Indians. You acted like you didn’t know anything about my tattoo when it appeared. So was that another lie? I know that he was from the same bloodline as Eva’s Protector.”
I couldn’t hide the shocked expression from my face. “What?” My mind raced, and suddenly that remaining piece of the puzzle fell into place. I had never been told anything about Eva or the Protector, and I guessed now that it was by design. For the first time, I felt the stirring of anger. Would it have made any difference in any of my decisions? I had to assume no.
“Let’s just say that I’ve been all over the place and found out all sorts of things since I left here,” Riley said. “But this isn’t about me. At least, not yet. Please, continue.” He had leaned forward now, and I knew that it was because as blasé as he wanted to be about everything, he had always keenly felt the absence of his father in his life. That made two of us.
“His name was Viho. He told me when the time came, and I was old enough to learn how to defend myself against the demons that would come for me, I should visit him and his tribe,” Alice said. “He also made Joanna and me promise that we would never use a Ouija board again. It was from him that I learned the basics of the world on the other side of the veil. We kept in touch over the years, and when I turned eighteen, I knew that I wanted to learn everything I could about this other world. My path began to solidify the day I decided to go to the Hopekee.”
“I went to college,” Joanna said quietly. “I met Frank, who you knew as your father. Alice dove into this scary, surreal place, and while I didn’t begrudge her decision, I knew that wasn’t the life that I wanted. I had tried every day after what happened in her basement to forget about it. I wanted a normal life.”
I looked over at my friend. Friend was an inadequate term. She was my sister. Because I loved her like a sister, I understood that what she had been party to over the course of our friendship was unfair and wrong. It wasn’t her world. It was meant to be mine. So I wished her well when she went out into the normal world to explore it with innocent eyes again. The future held something different for me though.
“I don’t have time to go into everything that happened to me during my time with the Hopekee. I lived with them for eight years, and I think that if fate had not intervened, I would have continued my life there with them and Viho and never thought another thing about it. The elders taught me many things, and I soaked it all up like a sponge. In the meantime, Viho was traveling his own path and was being set-up to soon take over the leadership of the tribe. He was young, but he had a way of bringing people together. He believed in continuing the traditions of the tribe that included bettering the world and making it safe for everyone.”
“But obviously fate did intervene,” Riley said. “Considering you’re now a nun, and I was raised to believe that someone else was my mother.”
“I will tell you the whole story about me and Viho someday if you really want to know,” Alice said. “For as strange and terrifying as the world was around us, Viho and I had a very normal courtship and marriage. We loved each other. We were happy to start a family. Everything was as close to idyllic as it could be. Things changed when I found out that I was pregnant with you.”
“So I changed the course of everything just by being conceived. That’s exactly what somebody wants to hear.” Riley’s tone was sarcastic, but I knew that it hid a deep hurt. Riley had never felt as if he belonged anywhere. He was a man who had straddled two worlds but was part of none long before he was consciously aware of it. Now, he faced being an outcast yet again. My heart ached for him, but I still had hope. He loved, and as long as he was capable of that emotion, there would always be hope for him.
“Viho was like any other man in the world. He wanted a son and an heir to carry on his legacy and his family’s bloodline. He was overjoyed and waited impatiently for your arrival. But then the dreams started.”
“What kind of dreams?” Paige asked. I knew that of everyone in the room, she would be able to understand Viho’s plight better than anyone. She had a goddess haunting her dreams now, but Viho’s visions hadn’t been as cut and dry.
“In them, he would meet with a council of his ancestors, and they told him that his son was destined for darkness. That he had to be prepared for that day and to be ready. They said that his son, our son, would be something that had not been seen on e
arth since the beginning of time.”
“Well, geez, I’m surprised they didn’t tell him to kill me,” Riley said. His words sounded as if they stretched into a tight rope.
“They did,” I said softly. “But I wouldn’t have allowed it even if Viho had seriously considered it. And I want you to know that he never did. Not once. That council convened in his dreams night after night for months. Viho never relented in his affirmation that fate did not dictate someone’s right to live, especially his kin. It was horrible to watch as his health slowly deteriorated. It was as if they intended to wear him down. But he dug in his heels the closer we got to my due date.”
I saw tears glistening in Paige’s eyes. Riley’s face was unreadable. I felt Joanna’s hand touch mine. I squeezed it briefly and then let go. I needed to get it all out. It was as if I were releasing a poison from my veins in being able to finally speak it all out loud.
“Viho couldn’t be certain that the council wasn’t visiting others in the tribe in their dreams as well. I couldn’t tell you even now if it was hysteria brought on by severe sleep deprivation or if there was any truth to his suspicions. But I humored him just in case it was the latter and made plans. We knew that we would need to hide you and Gabrielle both. If someone came for you, she could be hurt in the crossfire, and we couldn’t have that.”
“So you run,” Riley said gruffly. “You don’t give up. You don’t give your family away.”
I took a deep breath. Did he think that I hadn’t gone over that decision with an anguish that took my breath away and made me want to curl up in a little ball each and every day? “Viho convinced me to go away for your birth. We used the excuse of some tribal business to leave as close as we could to my due date, and then we used magic to induce your birth. Joanna came to be with me, and the original plan was that she would watch over the two of you until Viho determined it was safe for you to return.”
“So what happened?” Riley was eager for the end of the story now.
“On the way back to the reservation, we were attacked. Viho was weakened by his lack of sleep and physical deterioration. Still, he was able to distract them to allow me to escape. I couldn’t go back to the reservation. I had no doubt that they waited for me there. But Viho had thought of everything. It was the worst case scenario. He sent me to the Sisters of St. Joseph, and I became Sister Alice.”
“Who attacked you?” Riley’s voice was harsh.
“You think it was demons, don’t you?” I said with a short bark of a laugh. “That would make sense. But it was one of those rare coalitions that occur when angels and demons unite.”
“Angels were in on it too? Why on earth would you become a nun?”
“I had to become someone else, and the church had access and information on all kinds of mysticism and goings on both here and on the other side of the veil. It wasn’t that strange to become interested in that sort of thing here and have access to that information. I was able to keep an ear to the ground so that I’d know if there were any threats to my children. And you were safer with Joanna in the normal world than they were with me. I hid in plain sight.”
“So you knew that this is what I would become.” Riley’s face was dark. I knew that I was losing him. “You’ve known all along, and you’ve never said a word.”
“Joanna brought you to me when you first showed signs of supernatural abilities as I asked her to do. I had no idea that you would become a necromancer. I tried to show you and teach you to the best of my abilities. But your current situation does explain why the angels would have been after us that night too.”
“What is a dark angel?” He had finally gotten around to asking the right question. Everything that I had just explained so far was really nothing but filler for the real question. The one that ultimately mattered.
“There’s only ever been one before like you.”
There was a long pause. Riley’s face twisted in disbelief. “Lucifer.”
“The original dark angel,” I said. “The deep seeded root of darkness led to his betrayal of Heaven and eventual fall from grace” My chest felt tight. I hoped that Viho and I had made the right decision letting our son live. I knew Riley better than I think he knew himself, and he had been a good man. He was often conflicted and confused making questionable moral decisions, but I truly believed that he was ultimately a vessel of light.
Riley stood up. The cup of tea in his lap fell to the floor in his quick movement, and it shattered on the floor. I wasn’t sure that the noise even registered in his consciousness.
“I’m leaving,” he said. “Mom… I mean, Joanna and Gabrielle will be safe here with you. But I never want to see you again, Alice.”
His words pierced my heart. He was upset. But I didn’t think it would be forever. I was terrified to think about what he faced though in the meantime. Without my help and guidance, he could turn to the darkness forever. There would be no saving him. Riley left the room with Paige close on his heels.
CHAPTER ELEVEN – RILEY
Lucifer. I was like Lucifer.
Those two things were on a playback loop in my mind. I couldn’t escape it. Whether I liked it or not, I had wings and a questionable moral code. Was it that crazy to think that there was truth to Alice’s words?
My father’s name was Viho. Not Frank.
There had been premonitions since before my birth that I would give myself over to the darkness that had always been part of me.
“Riley,” Paige’s voice cut through my dark thoughts. “Stop for a minute.”
“I need to leave,” I said. I threw open the door to the front step and moved outside. Immediately I felt better in the cool night air. Inside the convent, it had felt as if I was suffocating. Now I couldn’t help but wonder if that had something more to do with what I was then the topic of conversation.
“Stop,” Paige said. “I need to say something.”
I didn’t even know where I was going, and my feet seemed to know that as they slowed. I stopped, but I didn’t turn. She moved around me, and then she reached up and put her arms around me. I didn’t move. I didn’t want to be comforted. I wanted to hurt something. Break something. Punch somebody. Badly. There had to be a demon or two around close by. I wondered if I got the smiting ability too now that I had the angel wings to go with it. That would be a fun experiment to try.
Paige finally seemed to sense that I wasn’t going to return the embrace. She stepped back, but she scooped my hands into hers. “Riley, I know what it sounded like in there, but you have to remember that you had the Protector symbol. You and I were meant to meet for a reason, and you were…are…the one who keeps me safe. Call yourself a necromancer or a dark angel, or whatever you want. I call you the man that I love.”
I looked down at her then. “I’m not a man anymore, Paige.” I felt like the words were dragged across my lips. I didn’t understand how to cope with all of this. It was too big, and for the first time that I could remember I felt that I wasn’t strong enough to take it. The sadness was in her eyes along with another emotion that caused me to pull my hands away from her. It was pity. “I don’t need you to feel sorry for me. I won’t accept that from you or from anyone.”
As she tried to reach for my face again, I smelled something waft in the air to my nostrils. It was bitter and slightly foul. I grabbed her hand and lifted it to my nose. The smell definitely emanated there, and I realized with a start as I saw the bandage covering her palm what it had to be.
I remembered the angels had said that they were able to smell demons on me and Paige when we arrived in the cemetery. This was what they smelled. Paige’s deal with Proctor had technically been fulfilled though when she handed over the relic. The wound should have closed and ceased to exist anymore. That left only one conclusion for the smell. “You made another deal with Proctor,” I hissed.
All of the color drained from Paige’s face. She snatched her hand away from me. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
; “What was it for? Why would you do something so stupid?” I took a step toward her. She didn’t back away. If anything, she stood up straighter.
“I didn’t do anything,” she said. I searched her face. She had her bottom lip sucked slightly into her mouth. I wondered how hard she was biting it to keep up the pretense of her lie. She was lying, I had no doubt about it. The only question was why. But I didn’t have a chance to continue my line of questioning.
“Riley,” Alice’s voice rang out behind me. “I need to tell you something else.”
“I’ve heard enough, Alice,” I said through gritted teeth.
“You haven’t heard this.” I heard the scrape of her shoes on the cinderblock of the front steps. With Paige blocking my way forward, I couldn’t move, but I refused to look over my shoulder at Alice at all. Otherwise, there was a part of me that was afraid my first attempt at smiting might end up being at her expense.
“I think he needs some time and space right now, Alice,” Paige said. She looked around my shoulder at the other woman. “Can’t we do this later?”
“No,” Alice said. Her voice sounded as if had been pulled taut. “It can’t wait because they’re already here.”
My gaze darted over Paige’s head to the sidewalk on the other side of the gate, and I realized that I saw something there; several somethings, as a matter of fact. The shadows elongated into glowing forms. Paige whirled around, and I heard her gasp. I couldn’t help but wonder if this was what it had looked like when we arrived.
Three familiar faces stood on the other side of the gate. I wasn’t sure if I was surprised or not that Benjamin wasn’t among the archangels there. That was another ass that I was aching to kick as soon as I got my angel bearings straight.