by Abby Knox
Fangs. Red and black scales. Beady eyes. A puncture wound on her leg. No!
“No, no, no, no!” he cried out.
In a blur, Samuel transformed into the giant once again. At her side in an instant, he reached down and picked up the copperhead snake by the back of the jaw, looked it in the eye, and then chucked it over the top of the mountain. He looked back at Ada, and she was already looking woozy.
“No! Stay with me!” he urged, kissing her cheeks hard, inside kicking himself for not physically standing in her way.
He picked her up and swept Ada back to the abbey. The giant was on a mission.
Fuck! He knew he shouldn’t have lagged behind out of respect. He ripped away the seam of her jeans and examined the wound as they flew. It was bad. This was not a normal human reaction to a snake bite. He cursed himself for throwing the snake instead of crushing it. That was not a normal snake.
“Talk to me, little one,” Samuel begged as they approached the abbey.
Already, she felt cold and clammy and her eyes were glassy.
“I love you.” With that, she passed out cold against his chest.
In seconds he had her submerged in the cathedral fountain, having ripped some of Urek’s medicinal herbs out by the roots as they’d flown through the courtyard.
“Ada! Speak to me. Don’t go to sleep, you have to stay with me. Nononono, do not close your eyes, stay with me, gods dammit!”
Samuel lowered Ada’s body into the water and began cleaning the wound with the healing water in the fountain.
He lifted her wounded calf out of the water, crushed the herbs in his hand until their healing juices spilled out, and applied them to the punctures. He watched as the venom began to ooze out along with some blood.
The aroma of her blood tempted him. He could have helped it along, sucked the venom out with his mouth. But no, that wasn’t the way. You’re not going to give in to the taste of blood. You’ve come too far, your kind are not animals and you’re not monsters anymore.
He watched as her face turned pale. The deep pink of her lips turned a much lighter shade, and she was unresponsive. Cursing heaven and every heavenly cell in his body, he lowered into the water and submerged her completely. This was all his fault. He should never have brought her to him. None of this would have happened if he had not become so obsessed with finding out who she was.
“Come on, dear one. Wake up. Wake up, little fox. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. You have to wake up. You must. The world needs you. I need you. We have a great battle ahead of us, and I need you by my side.”
“Making battle plans with human simpletons now, eh?”
Cradling her head in the crook of his massive arm, Samuel jerked his gaze in the direction of his brother Atlas’s voice. The other giant’s white hair shone in the light streaming in through the windows, making his face look all the more like the celestial warrior he made himself out to be.
Atlas drew his flaming sword and said, “It’s past time you tell your brothers what the hell is going on with you and this human woman. The Bacchanal is three days away and yet we all know you’ve had this woman squirreled away in your suite. This is forbidden.”
With hesitation at taking up arms against his brother, Samuel drew his sword from its sheath. Instantly it turned into a weapon of flames
“Step out of the way, Samuel,” Atlas said.
“No.”
“I’m going to kill her and you cannot stop me.”
“There’s no reason to kill her.”
Atlas scoffed. “She’s not even under a mind press right now. She’s been here how long? No human could endure that. You’re not controlling her, so she’s going to return to wherever she came from and tell everyone what she saw up here and that there’s a whole shit load of giants up here.” He feigned a simpering voice, “‘And guess what everyone! They have these cool wings and they might be angels! And oh, by the way, they guard the fountain of youth! Everybody jump in, the water’s great!’ We’ll be so overrun with people that we won’t be able to keep the cloak up around the abbey? Some of them will know what to look for and we’ll be found out. We will be ruined.”
He watched Atlas raise his sword and therefore did not notice that Reus had entered the room. Reus ran at Samuel, obviously aiming to tackle him, but Samuel planted his feet into the marble tile floor.
Reus bounced off of Samuel and skidded across the floor, crashing into a pillar and causing a loud crack that echoed around the chamber. The brothers all stopped to watch the crack in the marble as it splintered slowly, all the way to the top and across half the ceiling.
Samuel was the only one who didn’t care about what it meant. He was only focused on protecting Ada.
“To get to her, you have to kill me. And you won’t kill me. Michael would love it too much if we started killing each other again,” Samuel reminded him.
“Wrong. Your precious Gabriel sowed the discord that turned us against each other over a thousand years ago,” Atlas said. He was always ready with facts about their bloody history.
Samuel’s voice echoed in the fountain chamber. “On The Authority’s orders! And to be honest, it didn’t take much to get us discordant with each other.”
Atlas looked at him warily, slighting waving the point of his sword. “Why are you so quick to defend Gabriel?”
Samuel laughed. “Why are you so hell-bent on destruction? Do you not get it? We’re at an impasse with The Authorities. They won’t destroy me or her because they can’t destroy human life. Not anymore. They have bound themselves to this fact. But they can make us wish to kill each other.”
“They’ll find another way to destroy our way of life. Don’t put it past them,” Reus said.
Samuel could not disagree. “Look, we can love whoever we want to love. If we stand up and take what we want from now on, they will have to listen to us.”
“You are living in a dream world.” Zave had entered the room.
“Oh great, Daddy’s here and he’s gonna turn this car around if you kids don’t settle down,” Samuel snarled.
Zave already had his sword drawn. “Shut your trap and step aside, Samuel.”
“Fuck you!” Samuel screamed.
Everyone had drawn their weapons at Samuel and the whole chamber echoed with the thundering shouts and curses of furious giants about to draw blood. Suddenly, a colossal concussion rattled every window in the room. Six heads turned in the direction of the courtyard.
“The fuck?” Reus blurted out.
Samuel exhaled, grateful for the distraction as his five brothers aimed their weapons in another direction. He turned his face toward Ada and felt for her pulse. The color was coming back to her lips. Her heart rate was slow but steady. His heart leaped and he pressed a rough kiss to her forehead.
He kept his eyes on her; he did not want her waking up without his eyes on her. He stroked her wet hair and ran his fingers over her lips, which were warming up.
Behind him, Yael and Atlas grumbled.
“Seriously, dude?” Atlas grumbled.
“I mean, you don’t have to make a crater in the courtyard every time Michael sends you down here to spank the kids,” Reus said.
Malek the Seraphim’s reedy voice replied, “I know I don’t, but it’s fun.”
“For a full-blooded angel you sure are an enormous asshole,” Atlas said.
“I do my best.”
Zave, who did not appreciate anyone lording authority over him, not even from heaven itself, growled, “What do you want, Malek?”
“No small talk? All right then. I’m here to kill the hussy.”
Samuel felt all eyes on him. He had to work hard to control himself, to keep himself from whipping around and hurling his sword right through the Seraphim’s chest. He turned and said calmly, “No one touches her, least of all one of Michael’s little bitches.”
Malek sighed, sauntering up closer until he was surrounded by the six Nephilim who were present. The giants towered over the
angel, whose golden wings shimmered in the dappled light streaming in. He would be beautiful if he weren’t such an absolute dick, Samuel thought to himself.
“The Cherubim have detected discord in the channels. They’re too busy making music to investigate, so, as always, the dirty work falls to me. So I hopped on the frequency to check on our sad little half breeds—”
Atlas cut him off. “Little, that’s funny. Sounds like the pure-bloods have size envy, as always.”
“…to find out what the half-wit half-breeds were up to,” Malek continued, ignoring the jab. “You Nephilim are always fighting about something, aren’t you? You can’t be happy with everything you’ve been given. Always something you need to get stirred up about. So imagine my surprise when I noticed it wasn’t just discord. But that someone in this room”—he pointed to each one of the giants like he was playing a game of eeny-meeny-miney-moe—“has engaged with a human, a human who can hear the frequencies. Your little slut is a Seer.”
The five heads of his brothers turned back to face Samuel. “What the fuck, man?” Zave roared.
The scene devolved into a chorus of shouting and arguing once again.
“That’s enough!” Once again, Yael, his voice amplified, shouted everyone down.
“We will not let you kill her, Malek,” Yael said.
Finally, someone on their side, Samuel thought with relief.
Malek let go of a heavy sigh and rubbed the meat of his palms against his eyelids. “Do you kids not comprehend that all these events—a creature with angel heritage, forming attachments to a human, and a magically gifted human at that—has sped up the End of Days? Do any of you read the prophecies you so preciously hoard downstairs?”
They all looked at Samuel. “I didn’t choose this. She…her name appeared in the scrolls.”
The Seraphim looked at him sternly. “Did you ever think that a sudden anomaly like that might be from a malevolent source? Someone who’s trying to bring about the end of time?”
“I think about that all the time. I question everything because I don’t trust Heaven or Hell. But no, I don’t believe I was tricked into finding her. Shemyaza chose her for me.”
At the name of their Watcher, all the Nephilim bowed their head.
Malek roared, “The Grigori were fallen! Corrupted! They do not get to choose your destiny for you!”
Samuel looked down at his sweet Ada and felt her pulse again. Still slow, but gaining strength. Pressing his lips to her forehead, he judged her temperature to be returning to normal.
“This is endearing, but the time is coming for you all to choose sides. Your days of living the way you want to live are over.”
Samuel had sensed it to be true for some time. Something was happening and the seams were cracking. Prophecies were being upended. Something was unraveling.
“Listen up, friends,” Malek said with a change of tone. “We’re going to need as many of you on our side as possible, and you don’t want to be on the wrong side of history.”
“You’re nice because we hold the scrolls and we can prove to everyone when the time comes that the narrative about us has been skewed for millennia,” said Reus.
“The scrolls will be useless if they are burned in battle,” Malek reminded him.
“You’re not killing anyone,” Yael reminded the Seraphim. “That’s not the way of angels.”
Malek raised his hands in mock surrender. “Then we’ll have to turn her into a vegetable, which is also fine by Michael. It will keep the humans in their place, so we’re good either way.”
Samuel gritted his teeth. “No.”
“I don’t think you understand what’s at stake. It’s been a few thousand years since something like this has happened, so let me refresh your memory. You will lose everything. Your way of life is over if the existence of angels, Nephilim, supernatural beings is proven real. If our secrets are revealed, if the channel is accessed by a human, then all the secrets of the universe are released and we have to start the game all over again.”
“You’ll have to kill me to get to her,” Samuel said.
Ada’s voice rang out then, cutting across all of them. “Samuel! No. I’ll go with him.”
Samuel swiveled toward her, his heart exploding in relief. She was sitting up, her eyes bright. But she was also talking crazy.
“No,” Samuel said. “You don't know what you’re saying, love.”
Ada rested her small hand on his forearm, looked him in the eye, and nodded. Then she turned her gaze to Malek.
Samuel watched in horror as the words left her mouth. “Just let me stay for the Bacchanal, and then you can put the hit out on me. But it can’t be you. It has to be Michael himself. I want the one behind all of this to look me in the eye when he does it.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Ada
The astonished eyes of giants fell upon her at once. Seven hands that had until a moment ago brandished weapons of destruction were then relaxed at their sides, now that a deal had been struck with Malek. The Nephilim brothers’ assessment seemed to be that she had done something nobody had ever done before.
She mused, “Have none of you ever tried using logic with an enemy?”
Yael spoke first. “What did you say to him?”
Ada’s face softened at the artist. His curiosity vibrated out of him, along with the thrumming of his tender heart. “I can’t tell you that. You wouldn’t approve.”
Zave spoke next. “It’s all over soon, anyway. This house is falling apart, and if it’s because of the prophecies, we might not be alive to rebuild again. So you might as well tell us.”
“I’d like to know what you said to Malek as well,” said Urek.
Ada looked from Urek to Zave, and felt compassion well up inside her. She was fundamentally changing the longer she stayed at the abbey, the more she drank from the fountain. She could see everyone’s heart. She felt for Zave. “I understand that everything you do is about preserving this way of life for everyone and that you’re doing your best. This house is not my concern. My only concern is to protect my own life and not bring any more trouble down on your heads than you already have.”
“How do we know we can trust you?” said Atlas.
Ada smiled at the warrior. “You’ll have to choose to believe that I’ve grown somewhat attached to this odd little community and I don’t want your way of life disturbed by the outside world. Nor do I want any of you, least of all Samuel, to be punished for bringing me here and keeping me here.”
Samuel cleared his throat behind her, mumbling, “came willingly,” but she ignored him.
“So I suppose we should make introductions,” she offered, “since I’m going to be here at least until the end of the Bacchanal.”
Samuel, her studious—what was he, her boyfriend, her lover? Neither of those monikers appealed to her—companion made introductions.
Dev, the rangy one with the tattoos on his face, was the demon hunter.
Atlas was the shortest one, still monstrous in comparison to a human, and dressed in barbarian clothes. He was the fiercest looking one, the warrior/protector of the family.
Urek was the helper, the chef, the gardener, and the keeper of the grounds.
Yael was the bard, the artist, the storyteller, and the singer.
Reus fought with a bow and arrow and could talk to animals. He was also in charge of medicine and was the best at magic.
Finally, Zave, the bossy one with the broadsword, was the biggest of all of them.
Ada had to mentally come up with a spreadsheet in her mind to keep it all straight.
All seven giants stood around Ada and studied her with the curiosity that a scientist might display as she looked at her specimen under a microscope.
While a moment ago she was gravely ill, now she bounced around and spoke animatedly about the upcoming festivities.
“Malek did you guys a favor,” Ada said, staring down at the ten-foot crater in the middle of the courtyard. They h
ad all followed her, watching her with intense curiosity.
“This place is a mess, and I’m sorry but we’re not going to be having any kind of orgy or feasting with guests with the courtyard looking like this.”
When nobody answered, she spun around to meet the gaze of seven concerned faces. “Look, guys. I’m not going to get out of here alive anyway, so I might as well enjoy myself.”
“That’s not true, love. We’ll think of something.” Samuel looked antsy, like he would have loved the chance to strike Malek down then and there. He bent down to her when she angled up to give him a reassuring kiss.
“Fine, you go ahead and hatch an alternative plan. In the meantime, if you’re going to bring humans up here to this little shindig, you’ve gotta clean up your bachelor pad, am I right?”
In the end, Ada learned that Urek had a thumb so green it practically glowed neon. She watched as he planted one single seed in the ground and instantly it sprouted from the earth. Within seconds, a huge flowering bush stood where the seed had been planted.
“It’s like watching time-lapse photography, only for years,” she remarked. Everything went like that as she, Samuel, and Urek planted, repotted, and rearranged things.
In a couple of hours’ work, the courtyard was a more organized space, with a riot of flowering beds, a winding labyrinth, babbling streams, and all sorts of inviting nooks and crannies.
She found that she enjoyed working with Urek, who invited her to help out in the kitchen the next day, to help prepare food for the Feast.
She thought that Samuel would never want to leave her alone with one of his brothers, but she was wrong. In the morning, he accompanied her down to the kitchens, then excused himself, saying he was going to go to the library.
“I’m going to look for a way to get Ada out of this agreement with Malek. There has to be something. In the meantime, guard her with your life,” Samuel warned Urek with a glare.