by Anne Schlea
A bedroom with a twin bed is to the right of the bathroom. The blue carpet continues into this bedroom. A small closet is dug out of the wall. Marissa’s clothing is unpacked and hidden behind the curtain doorway. A desk meant for study is pushed against one wall. It has a lamp on it and an alarm clock.
The second bedroom is larger. The carpet in here is tan and the main object in the room is a double bed. It’s covered in a light brown duvet and has four large, overstuffed feather pillows. Anna looks at the bed longingly and wonders how she can still be tired after sleeping away the better part twenty-four hours. Riley drops her duffle bag on top of the bed to wait for her to unpack it and put her things away in her own closet carved out of the wall. There’s a small bedside table on each side of the bed with lamps. Anna’s bow is hung on the wall opposite the bed. There are several other hooks waiting to be filled by the armory.
“Riley, this is too much.” She turns to look at him. The cost of the furniture alone must have been astronomical on a soldier’s pay, even a General’s. “I can’t expect you to pay for all this. You didn’t even know about Marissa when you came to get me – I can’t imagine what you must have spent to do this so quickly.”
“Consider it an advance on your pay.” He leads her back into the common room. “You needed a place to live and you needed furniture to live on. The Committee would have put basics in here, but I thought you should have carpet and a few comforts. It will make the transition easier for Marissa.”
Anna can’t argue with that. While she slept on the hard ground when she trained and went on patrols on the mountain, Marissa has not. She’s just a teenage girl and Fallen teenagers aren’t that much different from their human counterparts.
“Where is Marissa?” Anna looks around when as she realizes her daughter isn’t home.
“She must have gone exploring with Mia.” He holds up a note that had been left on the table. Anna grasps she must look panicked because he immediately holds up his hands. “Mia is more than capable of watching over a teenager. She’ll be fine. This is good. Marissa seems to be taking all of this in stride. I can’t imagine what I’d think if I’d been raised as a human and then one day was dropped into the middle of all this.”
“Is that a comment on my parenting skills?” Anna raises an eyebrow at Riley.
He takes a defensive step back. “Not at all. It’s more of an observation about the amazing daughter you’ve raised.”
“Good.” She reaches her hands over her head and hears several joints crack. They feel good. She’s been gaining more mobility and motion back every minute she’s at home. “How did you find me, anyway?”
“The Committee is able to track Forsaken anywhere in the world.” He tells her. “They initially send a tracker to follow your energy. Once you settle, they watch real estate records and keep tabs on you that way. You were just really lucky you didn’t give away Marissa’s presence in the first year. After that no one would have noticed her because she wasn’t old enough to sign for your apartment.”
“You’ve known where I was all this time?” It’s a little disappointing. She frequently hoped he’d come for her one day and only gave up the fantasy after the first five years passed by.
“The Committee knew but didn’t tell me until a few weeks ago.” He crosses his arms and leans back against the wall. “I was pretty angry at the time. I would have come for you long before this if I had any idea where you were.”
Well, that’s much more comforting. “Even against the laws of the Committee?”
“Probably.” Riley meets her eyes firmly with his own and doesn’t look away.
Anna isn’t sure if probably meant he was so angry with her he wanted to find her and argue some sense into her. Or if probably meant you’re closer to me than my own sibling and I can’t survive without you. What she does know is that the air in the room is suddenly very thick and heavy and she can’t think of anything to say.
The door opens with perfect timing for Marissa to get home.
“Mom!”
Anna finds herself wrapped up in the arms of her daughter and she holds on tight. She’s happy to know Marissa is safe, but it’s also a good distraction from the direction her mind is taking her. Never in her whole life had she seriously thought about Riley as more than a partner and a best friend and now really isn’t the time to start down that path. For a lot of reasons.
“You look better.” Mia stands close behind Marissa as she looks Anna over. “You don’t look like you’re going to drop dead at any minute anymore.”
Mia’s smirk only adds to the heavy weight of the room. She obviously realizes Riley didn’t take Anna down to the Floor of Healing where the nurses and medics worked. This, of course, means Riley shared his own body’s energy to help heal Anna and that could be misconstrued in a number of different ways. Even though the Fallen are of heavenly origin they still live, love, and reproduce the same way humans do.
Thankfully Marissa is oblivious to the underlying current. “Mia’s right, Mom, you look great. You’re almost glowing.”
Mia snorts. “I’m heading down to the training levels. I’m sure I’ll see you later Anna. Riley.”
Mia’s use of Riley’s first name catches Anna’s attention and she turns to look at the woman leaving her home. She has the same tall, strong build of all warriors, but her hair is a bright red. Her body is made of tightly defined muscles stretched over a bone structure strong enough to hold it. Like all female soldiers she looks strong, but still beautiful. Long, dark eyelashes frame her deep green eyes.
It’s the eyes that stir Anna’s memory.
The door shuts behind Mia and Anna turns to Riley. “She’s you sister!”
“Of course she’s my sister.” He laughs. “Didn’t you realize?”
“Well, no.” Anna wracks her brain for the last time she saw Mia. The child couldn’t have been more than ten at the time. “She was a little girl the last time I saw her and was really into books. I never would have imagined she’d go into the military.”
“She was nine.” They have the same eyes, Riley and Mia. Anna can’t believe she didn’t notice before. “Now she’s nineteen. She’s grown up.”
“She’s only four years older than I am.” Marissa looks from Riley to Anna. “She’s cool.”
Anna can see where this is going to go. The first Fallen Marissa gets attached to is a solider. Perfect.
“I’m going to go and let you get settled.” Riley grins at Anna because he can see it, too. Anna narrows her eyes at Riley. He’d sent Mia to get Marissa settled on purpose. The girls are close enough to the same age it will give Marissa a friend and with a gift like Marissa has, there’s little chance she’ll end up anywhere except the military.
“Come back for dinner if you’d like.” Anna walks him the five steps to the front door. Then she makes a face. “Maybe not. I don’t know that I’m going to figure out what I can still fix here by the time you get back.”
“I’ll bring you and Marissa up something from the main dining room.” He turns around to look her in the eyes. “I really am happy you’re home.”
“I am, too.” She drops her gaze down so he can kiss her on the top of the head like he used to when they were younger. His lips linger a little longer than necessary and then he’s gone.
“Wow.” Marissa drops to the love seat and sprawls out. “He treats you like you’re more important than anything else in this world.”
“He does not.” Anna brushes the comment aside even as she blushes. She actually blushes. Isn’t she too old to blush?
“Yes, he does.” Her daughter looks at her with eyes that see far too much. Then she looks around the room. “He did a good job decorating. All you need now is a picture of the beach above the love seat and this place will look just like you. How did he do that anyway? I mean, he hasn’t seen you in ten years. What if your tastes changed?”
“That’s the thing about us,” Anna pushes Marissa’s feet out of the way and sits down
beside her. “Riley was my partner and my closest friend. That bond never dies. Even when we live so far away.”
“I’m starting to get that you’re a pretty intense people.” Marissa twists a dark curl around her finger. Her face suddenly pales. “We are. It’s we, isn’t it?”
“It’s we.” Anna drapes an arm around her. The warmth from her daughter’s body floods through her and she realizes for the first time how full of life Marissa is. It’s a miracle considering how easy it would have been for Marissa to be weak and sickly given Anna’s terrible attempt at parenthood. “I did not read your mother’s letter yet. Do you have any questions?”
“No. Mia answered a lot of things for me already.” Marissa pulls her knees up to her chest. “Someone killed my dad and my mom went after him. Since I’m reading the letter she obviously didn’t survive. The Fallen are here to stop the demons that escaped Pandora’s Box so that they can go home. The end.”
“You’ve more or less got it.” Anna pushes up from the sofa. “Let’s unpack our things and then walk down to the school. I need to get you registered to start class.”
“Can’t that wait until tomorrow?” Marissa whines. It’s a good reminder that she’s still a teenager despite the way the last two days have gone.
“No.” Anna makes her voice firm. “You’re already demonstrating abilities that need a teacher. I can’t teach you – it’s against the rules to teach our own children. We don’t have enough discipline.”
“I’m technically not your child,” she points out with a sly grin.
“Only because it’s convenient right now.” Anna waves her hand in the direction of Marissa’s bedroom. “Start getting yourself settled. I need to take a bath and get cleaned up. Then we’ll find your new school.”
Chapter Six
There are clothes waiting for Anna in her closet when she starts to unpack: two sets of soft, cotton training clothes and two sets of battle gear. Into the back of the closet they go while Anna gets her house settled and in order. They stay there when she walks with Marissa down to the school and has her enrolled in classes.
But Anna runs out of reasons to avoid them when Marissa leaves for school the next morning. If she really is going to work her way back into her old job, she needs to spend some quality time in the training room.
Her bow is gripped firmly in her left hand when Anna uses her key to open the weapons room door. The room is dark but a series of bright lights come on as soon as Anna steps over the threshold. She lets the door close behind her and looks around. It’s changed a lot since she’d last seen it. The dim gaslights are gone along with wooden benches and cases that look like they were brought over from England in the Middles Ages. They’re replaced by clean, white tile floors and bright florescent lights. Sturdy metal cabinets hold weapons of all sorts and sizes. Heavy benches are spread throughout the room to help soldiers strap on holsters, sabers, and quivers.
The first sets of cases are a surprise to Anna. They hold an assortment of small handguns and revolvers – tools not traditionally used by the Fallen. Guns, for all their usefulness against ordinary humans, don’t help much against most demons. You can’t cut off a head, stake through the heart, or poison the bloodstream using silver with a gun because the truth is, silver bullets really aren’t all they’re made out to be by fantasy novels. Silver’s too soft to use in any kind of pistol but she guesses guns can have their usefulness.
Next comes cabinet after cabinet filled with daggers and throwing stars – all items kept close to the body and hidden under clothing or in jacket pockets. These are useful in close combat with many of the lesser demons. A good arm and eyes allow many Fallen to take out their prey from quite a distance. It minimizes the need for hand to hand with dangerous creatures that have poison in their bite or sting. The daggers are helpful in the event things go south and you end up in hand to hand with some of the larger demons. You can’t shoot an arrow at your adversary if you’re too close, just like the Kappa demon Anna fought on the roof in the city.
Beyond the daggers are long swords, broad swords, Katana, and any other kind of long blade imaginable. Anna hesitates here because she lost her blade when she ran with Marissa. Now isn’t the time to try and select a new long blade. She’ll need Riley’s help in that selection. Besides, her bow demands her attention now so she continues past the other weapons cabinets until she finds a drum filled with arrows.
Anna fishes through the drum to find the ones she likes the best and fills her quiver. She knows she’ll need to take the time later to prepare her own – ones that have perfect balance and weighting for her arm. For now, these will do.
The quiver is slung over Anna’s arm and her arm guard is adjusted and in place. Finally she steps out of the weapons room and into the training facilities.
There was a time when this room would have been filled with dozens of soldiers working out every hour of the day or night. They work and train in shifts, part of an elite warrior class of Fallen.
Today, it’s nearly deserted.
Anna can see two men sparring in a ring and a woman up high on balance beams. She watches for a moment as the woman flips from one beam to another, careless of the long fall to the ground below.
She lands with total grace and control. Then she flips backward and catches the beam with one hand where she uses the weight of her body to twist in mid-air and launch herself back at another beam six feet away. This beam is caught by the back of her legs. One more swing of her lithe body and she’s upright again on the original beam.
Anna tears her eyes away from the aerial beauty of the woman above the training facility and opens the door to the archery range.
Cool air that smells of leather and steel rushes out the door and past Anna. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. The scent is familiar and comforting; it settles her mind of any chaos and relaxes the muscles of her body she didn’t realized were tight. This is home.
The lights come on as she enters the room and she allows the door close behind her, a hiss sounding as it seals. Targets are set up at varying distances throughout the range, separated by walls. There are movable obstacles to replicate shots made in battle. But none of this is what Anna is there for today. It’s been too long since she’s worked her arms and they need to build muscle and power before she can do too much. Even though she’d been successful against the Legion, she knows that is as much a fluke of spiked adrenaline as anything else. She can’t expect those results every time she touches her bow.
Anna sets her bow and quiver down on a bench along the wall before she reaches her hands over her head and starts to stretch. Her muscles protest at first but as she works her way through the ritual of relaxing her body and warming up her muscles they begin to respond. The movements come back as easily as riding a bike. She doesn’t have to think; one stretch flows into another in a seamless dance that leaves her body humming and warm.
When she’s ready, she picks up her bow and sets it with a bolt from her quiver. She picks a target half way down the range and takes a deep breath. After one more moment’s introspection she lets it fly and watches as it hits the target near the center. It isn’t a perfect bull’s eye, but it’s close enough to make her happy. After all, she can’t expect perfection in the first attempt.
Anna reaches down and takes another bolt.
∞∞∞
Riley isn’t concerned when he finds Anna isn’t at home. He goes down to the school to check on Marissa and sees she’d settled into her classes nicely. The classes are small after so many deaths. Through the window he can see her with a dozen other kids her age studying Shakespeare in literature class. She turns and laughs with the rest of the class at something a red haired boy is saying. Even the teacher can’t hide her smile at the undoubtedly irreverent comment.
He smiles, it reminds him of himself at that age.
“She’s very smart.”
The voice from behind makes Riley turn and he sees the school’s Headmistress appro
aching. Her hair is gray now and lines are prominent around her steel grey eyes. He’s very familiar with cowering under the gaze of those eyes – she was the Headmistress when he was in school. A respectful dip of the head seems appropriate so Riley complies. “Hello, Headmistress.”
“Riley Wares, I was wondering when I’d see you again.” She reaches out a hand for him to grasp firmly before she takes a position beside him at the door, back enough in the shadows that the students will not notice them. “I was told you had brought Anna and Marissa home.”
“I’m grateful I was able to do it. That young lady is quite gifted.” He nods to Marissa through the window. It seems safest to keep his thoughts around the teenage girl. The Headmistress is very quick and her ability to read your innermost thoughts went beyond natural. Riley wonders exactly how much she’s seen through the years.
“I’m sure your desire to bring Anna home had nothing to do with your drive to shape the Committee to your wishes, either.” The knowing look she gives him warns him she knows more about his feelings than he does himself. It also warns him the pressure he’s put on the Committee to allow the return of the Forsaken isn’t as much secret as he’d hoped.
“You are very observant, Headmistress.” Riley can’t help it. He looks at his shoes like a little boy caught stealing cookies from the cookie jar.
“Please, I haven’t been your Headmistress in many, many years, Riley.” When she smiles this time the humor goes all the way to her eyes. “Call me Frances.”
Riley hesitates. It feels like a test. Does anyone really call their teacher by the first name? Even if he’s been out of school as long as he has? He looks up and sees the way she’s looking at him and laughs. “I’ll try.”
Frances smiles and looks back through the window. “She looks very much like her mother.”
“She does.” Marissa’s reading one of the parts from the play aloud now. One arm moves in animated gestures while she reads, acting out a pantomime dance of the play. “She has her aunt’s tenacity and attitude. You might need to keep an eye on her.”
