At last, he got out of his car, turned his jacket collar up over his ears and walked to the middle of the loading dock. “Come out and face me!” he yelled out into the night.
Something stirred on the rooftop of a warehouse a little further down. Two silhouettes stood erect, looking his way. They watched him for a moment.
“What are you waiting for?!” he shouted to them. Black wings fanned out from their bodies, and they flew across the river.
Noah waited. The ice hitting the pier was the only sound he heard for several minutes. But then he caught a scent in the air, something he recognized from the incident on the bridge. The next sound he heard was the flapping of wings coming quickly toward him. He jerked his head around in time to see Gadriel almost upon him, but the angel stopped short, only a few feet away.
He wasted no time. “Have you made your decision?”
“Fuck you. That’s my decision.”
Gadriel shook his head and smiled. Then he charged.
Noah jumped out of the way and rolled. He rebounded quickly, and so did the angel. Gadriel doubled back, landed on the pier and seized Noah, throwing him against the car. Noah felt the rear passenger window crack against his back, and he groaned.
Gadriel rushed at him, but Noah managed to get his legs up in time, and he pushed into the angel’s gut, forcing him back and knocking him down. Noah jumped on top of him. They rolled back and forth, each trying to overpower the other. Noah was able to pin him for a second and then brought his fist up into the angel’s jaw. Gadriel’s hands encased Noah’s head and began to squeeze.
Noah yelled in agony and rolled off, holding his head.
Gadriel flew up to the rooftop of the nearest warehouse and looked down at Noah and laughed. “You’re as pathetic as your mother!”
This sent Noah into a rage. He jumped up and charged the building, stopping short of hitting the wall. He looked up at Gadriel, wanting him to descend even just a couple of feet and then he could jump and bring him down.
“If you hadn’t removed your wings you’d be able to reach me. Why you insist on being like those humans I’ll never understand it! Maybe you have too much of a connection to their world. Yes, I see it. The strongest connection is your mother.” He grinned. “She can be removed. Or maybe I’ll just use her to make another one of you.”
“You stay away from her!”
Noah ran to the alley between the warehouse and the next one over. He bounded onto the wall and pivoted onto the other wall, pivoted off of that one, and reached the roof of the opposite warehouse.
Gadriel watched in amused interest as Noah took a running start and leaped onto the roof where the angel hovered. Noah charged him, and the angel took flight, leading him across the rooftops of four warehouses until they came to the last one.
Noah forced himself to stop, slipping on the ice-slick roof, almost falling off as Gadriel hovered far enough out of reach.
“I like the way you fight! I think I’ll give you one more chance. But we’ll end it tonight. I have your mother at Saint Louis Cathedral.” He smirked. “Your last chance if you really want her back.” He flew off into the night, disappearing with the shadows and the snow.
***
Noah parked down the block from the cathedral. It was a quarter to 3:00, and the streets were quiet and deserted. The homeless who usually camped out had found other shelter to protect them from the accumulating ice and snow mixture. He scanned the sky but saw nothing except the sleet hitting his face. He crept around to the back and hid from a police car passing by.
When it was out of sight, he scaled the wrought iron fence and landed on the other side, skidding to a stop on the slick grass of St. Anthony Garden.
He saw movement in the corner of his eye and looked up. Gadriel landed with Selena on the back steps of the cathedral, standing in the enormous shadow of the Jesus statue that darkened the doorstep of the church.
Noah bounded up to the steps where the Watcher Angel held his mother captive. “Let her go!” he demanded.
Gadriel smiled wickedly. “Your last chance. Join us, and I’ll let her go.”
Selena’s eyes pleaded with her son to not listen to him.
Noah thought it over, wanting only to get his mother to safety, not caring about what happened to himself. But while his mind raced, more than a few moments went by, and Gadriel had had enough. He shot off the ground with Selena and crashed through the window on the second floor. Noah got a running start and threw all of his weight into the door, breaking it open.
He bounded up the stairs and stopped short when he found himself on the balcony overlooking the main floor of the church. Across the floor, on the opposite balcony, was Gadriel, standing in front of the magnificent organ. Selena was not with him.
“Where is she?!” Noah’s voice echoed throughout the cathedral.
“You should have joined us!”
Noah sprinted around the second floor toward the organ. By the time he made it to the organ, Gadriel had flown toward the altar in the front. He hovered above the it, staring at Noah, who was now in a position to see his mother’s body on the altar, her chest pierced with a crucifix.
“Now,” said Gadriel, “let’s see what you’re made of.”
Rage tore through Noah. He leaped from the balcony and took off toward the altar. He jumped onto a pew and pivoted into the air, latching onto a surprised Gadriel. Noah tried to bring him down, but the angel was too strong. He flew up to the ceiling as Noah clung to his throat.
They struggled for a few moments. Gadriel flew toward the balcony, smashing Noah’s body up against the railing. Noah cried out but did not let go. He wrapped his legs around Gadriel’s and head-butted him, knocking the angel back some and causing him to falter for a moment. Noah took this opportunity to remove his hands from the neck and go for the wings. He reached around and yanked on each wing.
The angel roared with agony, and they both fell toward the floor. Noah was prepared for it and calculated the fall. He rolled off into the aisle as Gadriel crashed onto a pew, his back breaking.
Noah went to the nearest stained glass window, put his fist through it, and pulled out the biggest shard of glass he could. His blood dripped down the sharp edges of his makeshift dagger as he neared the fallen Gadriel. Standing over this immobile creature who happened to be his father, Noah could only look with hatred into its cold gray eyes.
It looked back at him, at first with the shock of being defeated, and then a slight smile crept upon its lips as Noah held the shard of purple glass above him. He plunged the glassy blade as hard as he could into the heart of the winged man whose eyes looked so much like his own.
13
Dreams That Were and Dreams to Come
Seven years later …
Her life poured out of her. Not just her blood, but everything that made her good, every bit of light that encompassed who she was. He felt it slip away from her body. The panic and fear smothered him, rattling him from the inside out. Something was crushing his chest, and he found it too hard to breathe. He took her hand in his and whispered, “No, no, don’t go. Please, baby, don’t go.”
He cradled her body in his arms and laid her down in his car. When he got to Miles’ house, he put her on the big table in the living room.
“Hurry!” he told Miles.
He stood, as distraught as Noah, looking just above her body. “The Guardians have come for her. I’m sorry.”
“No! It’s not too late!”
“It is! I’m sorry, but I can’t do anything for her.”
“What’s going on?” Ruby had just entered the foyer from the kitchen. Her bag was slung over her shoulder, but when she saw the body and all the blood on the table, her shoulders slouched, and the bag fell to the floor. “Oh, my God,” she whispered, and then ran over to them.
“Can you help her?” said Noah, tears running down his cheeks.
“She can’t,” said Miles.
“Ruby, look at me!” said Noah, grabbing he
r shoulders and turning her toward him. Her eyes found his. “Can you help her?!”
“I … I think I can keep her soul from leaving, but only for a little while.”
“No!” said Miles. “I forbid it. If you do that, it’ll damn you forev—”
“It won’t! Not if I control it. But Noah, you’ll have to do exactly what I say. You can save her, but you’ll turn dark.”
“I don’t care! Whatever it takes.”
While Ruby prepared the body, Noah did as instructed. He hunted down the man who shot her. He was in Metairie. Noah peered through the living room window. The guy was packing a suitcase and yelling at a woman.
Noah kicked the door open in one motion. The woman screamed. The man grabbed a shotgun and aimed at him, but Noah was faster. As soon as he had the guy in his bare hands, the instinct for revenge took over. He became a savage animal, ripping him apart while the woman screamed behind him. When he was done, he scooped up some blood in a vial Ruby had given him and then rushed back to Miles’ house.
Ruby stood with her eyes closed, her hands just above the body. There was white and black powder on the forehead, mouth, and chest. White and black candles burned on each corner of the table. Miles was off to the side, nervously pacing back and forth.
“I got it,” said Noah. His voice was thick with grief.
Miles saw the blood all over Noah’s shirt and hands. “Is he still alive?”
Noah paid him no attention. He looked at Ruby. “What do I do?”
Miles stood in front of him and grasped his shoulders. “Is he still alive?!”
“No! I killed him! He deserved it, Miles!” His voice quivered, and tears seeped from his eyes. “You know he did.” He whispered the last part.
Miles let him go and stared at him. Noah registered the disappointment in his eyes, but there was something else. Miles was afraid.
Ruby looked at Miles. “After he does what I tell him, you’ll have to heal her wound when she comes to.” He nodded, and Ruby picked up a dagger from the table and handed it to Noah. “Cut your forearm.”
Noah hesitated only slightly, glancing at Miles who reluctantly nodded for him to go ahead. He took the blade, jabbed it into his arm and cut from the crease, stopping an inch before his wrist. He gritted his teeth and groaned in pain.
“Take your blood, mix it with his blood, and make a cross over her head, her mouth, and her heart.” After he mixed the blood and marked the crosses, she handed him a piece of paper and said, “Say this nine times aloud, then put some blood on your lips and kiss her mouth.”
With a shaking hand, Noah held up the paper. “By the powers that be, I ask for Nadia Ancelet to come back to me. Return her soul by any means necessary. I take full responsibility.” He said it eight more times and then dipped his fingers in the blood mixture.
The bitter metallic taste coated his lips, and he placed them to hers. Nadia’s body arched and her eyes flew open. She gasped for air.
Ruby clasped her hands to her own mouth and tears fell from her eyes.
Miles could only stare, awestruck.
Noah smiled as Nadia’s eyes found his. “Welcome back, Naddie,” he murmured.
***
Present day …
The pain … blood, so much blood … his mother crying for him … crying … dying …
… and then her face, her touch, her eyes, the image of her smoking a cigarette down by the pier, slow dancing with her, laughing together … his constant … “Nadia, nothing about being like them is beautiful.”
Noah awoke with a start, drenched in sweat. He had just had the dream again.
He threw the covers off and got out of bed. Standing for a moment in the dark, the image of Nadia was all he could see in his mind’s eye. He had trained himself to see her when he had nightmares. It always comforted him, but lately the nightmares were intense, and the feelings lingered somewhere in that dark place of his psyche.
He went downstairs, not needing to turn on the light thanks to his gift he inherited from his mother. He opened the refrigerator and stared blankly at the leftovers and juice before realizing he was just anxious, not hungry. He sighed and returned to his bed with the intention of reading and even picked up his paperback of Matheson’s “The Incredible Shrinking Man” that he kept by his night stand, but changed his mind when he glimpsed Nadia’s picture in the corner of his eye.
Putting the bookmark back at the start of chapter twelve, he picked up the frame and stared sadly at her smiling face. He had taken that picture one day when they had gone to City Park, the same park where she was killed by one of his own kind.
Staring at her picture, he felt himself about to break down and sob, but part of him wouldn’t allow it, and instead his desire overtook him, washing over him, turning to lust, and he wanted her so badly right now, wanted to make love to her like he did all those years ago when they were stupid teenagers clinging to each other because they were both orphans, before she made her decision to join the convent, back when desire and love were the only things that mattered.
“Nothing about being like them is beautiful,” he whispered to her silent, smiling face.
He put the frame back on the night stand, bumping his phone with his hand. He picked it up and saw he had a text message from several hours earlier, when he was asleep. It was from Leigh, a reply to the question he had asked.
No, was all it said.
It was a little before 4:00 AM. He showered and stayed up, reading, watching TV, light exercise. Anything to keep his mind busy.
He went to Miles’ house a couple of hours later and found him eating breakfast at the kitchen table.
Miles took one look at him and said, “You look terrible. Everything okay?”
Noah smiled but not with his eyes “Thanks. And you’re not exactly a ball of sunshine yourself .”
“Another rough night?”
Noah nodded, putting some bread in the toaster. “More dreams.”
“They’ve been more frequent lately. So have mine.” After a moment of careful consideration, he said, “I had asked you before what they were about, but you dodged the question. Are they about Nadia?”
Noah glanced at Miles in the corner of his eye before quickly looking at the toaster. “No. Not in the beginning, anyway. Lately it’s been about my mom and things that happened to her before I was born.”
“The night you were conceived?”
Noah clinched his jaw, and he walked over to Miles’s refrigerator and pulled out the orange juice, closing the door a little harder than normally.
“I know you’d rather not talk about this, but it might be important.”
Noah unscrewed the cap and took a big gulp. “How…how can I see what happened that night if I wasn’t there? Am I subconsciously projecting what I only think it was like?”
Miles shrugged.
“Well that’s helpful.”
He smiled. “I’m sorry, my friend. I’m just as confused as you are. But let’s not brush it off as mere dreams. It seems as though there’s been a good bit of this type of thing happening lately.”
“What? Weird dreams?”
“Prophetic dreams and the like.” Seeing Noah’s quizzical look, he added, “Cee Cee told me about a year ago, when Leigh returned to Louisiana after her brother died, she began having dreams that her mother was talking to her, and she also had dreams where her niece was in danger. About that same time, Father Ben told me that Lucas Castille’s son, Jonathan, was having nightmares about Walter Savoy and then about his father being killed here in New Orleans. Ben said he believed that Jonathan’s Down’s syndrome might have crossed with his paladin blood line and given him an extra ability, but now I’m not so sure.”
“Anyone else dreaming stuff like that?”
Miles nodded. “I am. But mine are a little different. I keep getting phone calls in the middle of the night. I hear a voice on the other end of the line. It sounds familiar, but I can’t place it. And then I wake up, and there’s no
evidence to show that I’d received a call.”
“What’s the voice say?”
“That we need to go to Paris.”
“So that’s why you’ve been in such a hurry to go.”
“That and because of those damned masks.”
“You still have them, though, right?”
“Oh yes. They’re in my vault. But we still don’t know who sent them.”
“Leigh said no, by the way.”
“I figured she would. We need to take a trip out there and convince her. In these dreams I have with the voice telling me to go to Paris, it tells me that Leigh’s family is in danger and she needs to come with us to save them.”
“Then I’ll help you get her there.”
Part II
Lyla’s Interlude
1
A Special Gift
She had been hearing gun shots all day. It was hunting season, and their house was on the edge of the woods. Daddy told her she could play outside, but not to wander out of the back yard, especially not to go into the woods. It didn’t happen often, but sometimes hunters would cross the property line if they saw a big buck on the other side. Most of the guys Daddy knew stayed in their deer stands on their own property, but every now and then, some of the trackers would pretend not to see the signs posted.
Today was one of those days.
Two loud shots rang out. She covered her ears after the first shot, but they were close enough that she felt her chest vibrate. Someone had definitely crossed the property line. She was going to go tell Mama, but the sound of rustling leaves from the tree line made her halt, and her curiosity got the best of her.
Nancy K. Duplechain - Dark Trilogy 03 - Dark Legacy Page 8