The Soulkeepers

by G. P. Ching

  Chapter 43

  Showdown

  Jacob tried to run in the dark behind Gideon, but the narrow path was bordered with thorn bushes. In the blinding darkness, the barbs tore his skin and more than once the front of his foot stepped on the back of Gideon’s. He could hear the brushing of wings and the stomping of feet in the distance behind them. Malini’s hand was cold and clammy in his.

  “Gideon, we won’t make it to the garden. We need a place to do battle,” Dr. Silva whispered, panic evident in her voice. The cat jerked to the left and Jacob followed, pulling Malini along with him. Abruptly, Gideon stopped, causing his feet to plow into the cat and Malini to slam into his back.

  “Jacob, reach in front of you at waist level and push,” Dr. Silva said from behind him.

  Jacob did what she asked, finding a doorknob. The door was extremely heavy and he had to throw his shoulder into it to get it open. Once he did, Gideon pulled them inside.

  Dr. Silva set Lilly down and rummaged through her backpack. The hiss and dim light of an igniting match broke the darkness. She lowered the flame down to a candle. He could see the wick catch and then a pale light washed over them.

  “Hold this.” She handed the candle to Jacob and returned to digging in her bag.

  They were in some kind of a church. At least, it was shaped like a church with pews, stained glass, and an altar, but the similarities ended there. Unlike the one the Laudners attended, no crosses or statues of saints filled this church. The pictures in the stained glass were of Watchers. Instead of a crucifix, a statue of a Watcher stretched its wings above the altar. A day ago, none of this would have meant anything to him. But after experiencing Nod, Mordechai, and the zoo, Jacob realized the evil of this place. This was not like a human church, where people came to think about how they could be better people, tried to live up to a higher standard or help each other. In this place, the Watchers worshiped themselves. It was, sadly, a testament to their egos. This was a world where the only priority was the desire of each individual at any particular moment. There was no law, no rules, and absolutely no guilt about anything because the only thing that mattered was obtaining more of what each Watcher desired.

  “Ah, here it is. Malini, you and Jacob push all of these pews to the side. Quickly! Clear as large a space in the middle of the room as possible,” Dr. Silva said. She held a container of salt in one hand and pushed pews aside with the other. Jacob continued to hold the candle but pushed with his hip and free hand as well.

  Lilly sat on a pew near the front, still motionless but looking more awake than before. There was a hint of awareness in her eyes.

  When they’d cleared a large circle in the middle of the building, Dr. Silva set to work drawing lines of salt on the altar, a giant triangle, and then another inverted atop the first. When she was done she had formed a large six-pointed star inside of a giant circle.

  “The star of David,” Malini whispered next to him.

  “Gideon, I’m going to need your help, darling,” Dr. Silva said to her cat.

  In response, Gideon moved into the space at the center of the room. Front feet forward, he stretched his hindquarters into the air. His waist grew longer and his red fur tightened on his body. A pillar of flesh erupted from the cat’s mouth toward the floor. The flesh split into a pair of legs and the cat turned itself inside out, fur moving up the legs and then the body of a man. When the process was finished, nothing was left of the cat but green eyes and wild auburn hair.

  Gideon was easily seven feet tall, with long, lean muscles and a twenty-foot wingspan. The pearly white wings were similar to Dr. Silva’s, but Jacob couldn’t say he was a Watcher. What set him apart from everyone in the room was not his height, or his frame, or his wings, but his glow. Looking directly at Gideon was like looking into the sun. It filled the room. In fact, with Gideon’s light flooding over them, he wondered if he should blow out the candle.

  “He’s an angel—a real one,” Malini said into Jacob’s ear. “He has to be.”

  Jacob opened his mouth but nothing came out. He was awestruck.

  “It really is you,” Lilly said. She was not looking at Gideon but at Jacob. It was like the light from the angel had opened her eyes for the first time since he’d rescued her. “Jacob, how did you…? You shouldn’t have come here.”

  He ran to her and threw his arms around her neck. She hugged him back.

  “Mom, whatever happened, however you got here, I forgive you. Please stay with us. We need your help.”

  She looked around the building, at Gideon, and then at Dr. Silva. Jacob thought he would have to explain, but before he had a chance she was on her feet, more determined than he’d ever seen her.

  “How long?” she demanded of Gideon.

  “Minutes.” Gideon’s voice reverberated off the walls. It was deep and hollow, like a cross between a harp and a baritone.

  “I need weapons.” She looked at Dr. Silva, Gideon, and then Jacob.

  “What?” Jacob asked.

  She spoke directly to Gideon. “My name is Lillian Lau. I am a Horseman,” she said. “I was captured in battle.” She stood to her full height. “My gift is weapons. Help me find something to use before it’s too late.”

  “Mom. How long have you known?” he asked.

  “I’ll explain everything later, Jacob. This must be very confusing for you but trust me.”

  With two beats of his wings, Gideon flew up to the rafters and stripped a steel girder from its place. He rolled it in his palms, which must have been hot because the metal took on a bright red glow. Throwing it down, he stomped on the last foot of metal with his heel, flattening it pancake thin. Then he jumped on the other end in the same way. When he was finished, he tossed Lillian a bladed staff. She caught it and twirled it around her body, as if she’d been born with it in her hands.

  “The candle,” Dr. Silva said to Jacob. The thick white wax in his hands had a name and date carved into the side in gold. He moved to hand it to her but she shook her head. “It’s my baptism candle. When you step inside the star and place this candle within it, I must warn you not to be afraid of what you see. The star will reveal truth within itself. It dispels illusions. You may see things that you find disturbing. I beg you, stay within the circle. Your skills are not ready for battle.” She handed him three bottles of water from her pack. “Just in case.”

  “Just in case? Who are you? How do you know my son?” Lillian crouched in fighting stance, looking suspiciously at Dr. Silva.

  “Lillian, water is Jacob’s gift. I’m his Helper,” she said, as if she were talking to a two-year-old.

  “Oh. Wow. Jacob! I didn’t know.” His mom beamed.

  “He’s not ready,” Dr. Silva repeated.

  The sound of flapping wings outside of the church made everyone’s head turn toward the door.

  “They’re coming! Jacob, Malini, into the circle!”

  Dr. Silva, Gideon, and Lilly positioned themselves at the center of the clearing. Jacob grabbed Malini’s wrist and pulled her into the star. Placing the candle inside the triangle at the front, the salt around the outside of the circle ignited and the star burned an eerie, purple flame.

  Gideon and his mom looked exactly the same through the purple glow, but Dr. Silva changed. Her already tall frame extended another foot and her muscles pulled against her clothes. Her skin became scaly black like a serpent and her wings, leathery like a bat. Her blue eyes turned yellow with cat-like vertical slits. Jacob understood now why the devil was often portrayed as a snake. Watchers, in their natural form, looked like serpents.

  With a deafening crash, the window shattered above them and Jacob pulled Malini into his chest. He turned his back toward the storm of falling glass but nothing reached them. The purple flames licked upward and swallowed the shards as they fell.

  Auriel stood in the broken frame of the window. From within the star, she looked like a snake, although slightly smaller than Dr. Silva. But Jacob could tell who she was from the mur
derous expression on her face, the same one she’d had when she attacked Dane. He fought back the memory of maggots on his tongue.

  “Mordechai, they are here!” she yelled and then turned, seething, toward Dr. Silva. “You have something of mine, Abigail.” Her eyes darted toward Jacob.

  “He’s not yours, Auriel. He’s just a boy. He did not choose this place.”

  “He’s a sinner, a cheat, and a liar. He has plenty of anger, too. I had every right to take him.”

  “He did not come willingly. You will not have him!”

  Just then, the heavy door swung open. Mordechai stood in the doorway along with another Watcher. Through the purple flames, they looked nothing like their borrowed images, but Jacob would know Mordechai anywhere. He was easily the biggest Watcher he’d seen in Nod and the blackness of his eyes was unmistakable. That hadn’t been an illusion. His friend was only slightly smaller but equally terrifying. Male Watchers, it seemed, had horns that grew from their forehead, giving them a more demonic look than Dr. Silva or Auriel.

  When he spotted Jacob sitting in the center of the purple circle, Mordechai smiled a wry grin and rapped his taloned fingers against each other. He cocked his head to the side and laughed toward Dr. Silva.

  “Abigail! To what do I owe the pleasure of a visit from my sister?”

  Malini’s sharp intake of breath was Jacob’s cue to take her hand.

  “I am yours no longer,” Dr. Silva hissed.

  “You’ve met my friend, Turel?” He motioned toward the Watcher who stood next to him.

  Dr. Silva flinched and Jacob wondered how she knew Turel.

  Mordechai swaggered toward the Horseman, the Helper, and the angel who crouched ready for the attack. “Hand over my prisoners and you may leave,” he said to Dr. Silva.

  She did not answer.

  “Suit yourself,” he said through clenched teeth. “But you do realize that I have no intention of losing two of my prized specimens.” He glared at Lilly and then at Jacob, rubbing a pale scar on the scaly skin of his chest.

  Jacob remembered! It was Mordechai in the center of the road. It was Mordechai he hit with the car, and it was Mordechai who’d taken his mom. The scar was the place his mom’s knife had dug in. All this time he’d thought the memory was a hallucination. Now, he realized, it was painfully real.

  “And you,” Mordechai said, nodding at Gideon, “know very well that He won’t help you here. You’ll make the finest specimen of them all.”

  Gideon flexed his wings in response.

  “Have it your way,” Mordechai spat.

  Jacob pulled Malini tighter against him as the dark angel raised his taloned hands.