Falling For Rome 2

by Edwina Fort

  The Sarge’s stunned gaze fell on us before it took in the hooded beings. “What the f***!?”

  “If you’re wondering why we’re surrounded by witches…the answer is quite simple. It’s to protect me from you.” The man in the suit finally spoke and I squeezed Rome’s hand tighter. There was something wrong with this man. He was not good…He was evil.

  Jo frowned. “That’s ridiculous. Who are you?”

  The man chuckled and for a moment, his eyes looked ancient. He touched his perfect tie straightening it because it was a habit, not because it was needed.

  His gaze fell on me and Rome tightened his arm around me. “You are right, I am not a good man.”

  Nossa! How—

  He shook his head. “And unfortunately, we don’t have time for the hows…But I can tell you why.” He paused for just a moment as his eyes rose to look at each of us.

  “I am not a man whose expectation is in the Kingdom of the Ancient of Days…The four of you don’t know it yet, but this makes me your natural born enemy.” He chuckled.

  “Every time I meet with your brother, I fear that it will be my last time before he kills me.”

  “Why do you do it then?” Jo asked dryly.

  The man’s head came up higher on his shoulder. “It’s because I love my country. I am a patriot! I will do what needs to be done to protect it, even if it means putting my life at risk. And also because I understand this time here on earth is all that I have left. I don't have an expectation for anything else afterward except the suffering for the choices I’ve made.”

  “The Ancient of Day’s wrath on the kingdoms before this great nation has been complete and utter destruction. There are many like me, who in their vanity, have gotten it in their heads to try and fight it.” A look of sadness came into his eyes as he shook his head.

  “Fools, the lot of them. They are doing nothing but bringing his wrath down on us sooner. However, there are a few of us…that are doing what we can to hold it off for as long as we can. Granted, none of them are foolish enough to work directly with a group of Slayers like me, but they are trying to do something. Maybe it’s my vanity speaking, but I’d like to believe it’s through our efforts that the brunt of his wrath hasn’t fallen on us yet.”

  He shrugged. “And then there are others like us who say we are the fools because prophecy cannot be prevented. It was written that the young woman’s stench shall reach His nose because the blood of his saints run in her streets. And when it does…when the stench of it reaches his nose, she shall fall.”

  “You keep saying us. Who are the us you speak of?” Rome asked.

  The man’s ancient gaze settled on him. “I’m surprised you don’t already know. You meet with one of my brothers every week.”

  He’s an angel… Now it all makes sense. But if he’s an angel, why does he need witches to protect him?

  He chuckled again. “I—used to be a melek. Now I am called the Fallen, biding my time before I have to pay for believing a lie. When the time comes, I will die the death of a man.”

  “Why have y’all brought us here and shown us that sick sh*t?” The Oldman hissed.

  “Albert…” The man said turning to face him. “It’s so good to see you again.”

  Al shook his head. “Man, I don’t know you.”

  “Sure you do…but that clever little doctor erased your memories. Before Judah here came to me…You and his father did a good amount of work for me. However… Doctor Baxter did do a number on you.”

  His gaze fell on Jo. “It took us a while to realize it, but he’s been working with Balaam. It was the wizard who showed him how to separate you from your Power and splinter you and your siblings like he’s done.”

  He shook his head. “I cannot undo the spell he’s cast on you, only the Ancient of Days can undo it…or Balaam himself, but I doubt if you’ll get that old wizard to do anything for you…he hates your bloodline.”

  “My bloodline?” Albert asked putting his hand on his chest.

  “Actually, all of your bloodline…believe it or not, you all have a few ancestors in common. But at last, I don’t want to go further in that detail, it does not benefit me. I suspect it won’t be long before the genius figures it out…just like he’s discovered the difference between computer code and spells. Hell…thanks to the world wide web, wizards like Balaam can operate more freely. Isn’t that right, kid?”

  Rome shook his head. “The only Balaam I’d ever heard of is the one in the Bible…in the book of Numbers, chapter 22 through 24. And since you can’t be talking about him…then I have no idea who he is…however, yeah…I have discovered a lot of spells hidden in computer coding.”

  With a greedy smile on his face, the man nodded. “Oh…that brain of yours, so much like your forefather you are. However…the Balaam that you read about in the Scrolls and the Balaam that walks the earth today…is one and the same, sweet boy. A spirit like that shall never rest until it meets its fate right along with the rest of us.”

  “So, if you’re not an angel and you’re not human…what are you?” I asked. I needed to know who he and the us he kept referring to was.

  “Dear girl…” He opened his arms. “We are the gods of the planet earth.”

  Jo grunted as if he wasn’t impressed. “If you a god, what do you need with us?”

  The man’s face lit in a smile. “And that is the question of the hour. Follow me, please…” He turned and walked farther into the cave.

  Jo’s gaze came to mine, mine shot to Rome’s and Rome’s settled on the Oldman. We all turned to look at Judah. He chuckled.

  “It’s cool, he is windy, but he’ll eventually get to the point…follow him.”

  As soon as we started walking, the cave dissolved around us and a state-of-the-art board room appeared. It was so lifelike that even the smell changed from the musty mildew smell of the cave to that new office smell. I could even smell the leather of the chairs; I kid you not.

  “Please take a seat…” the man in the suit called as he walked to the head of the table.

  “Damn, what the hell is this? I can’t wrap my mind around it.” The Oldman muttered.

  I looked at Judah… “What is this place?”

  “This is neutral territory…this room rests on a ley line that can be openly used by any witch.”

  “What is a ley line?”

  It was Rome that answered my question. “A crack in dimensions. A place where the spiritual and the physical co-exist.”

  I nodded, although I still was completely clueless as to what they were talking about. I would just have to ask Rome to explain it to me in layman’s terms later.

  You could tell we were all freaking out because the four of us slid down into chairs right next to each other, subconsciously scooting them closer. Judah sat at the other end of the table. None of this seemed to be bothering him at all.

  He’d set all of this up. We thought we were coming to strike back at the ones who’d blown up my barn and killed Carlos and Freedom and he’d known the whole time that we weren’t. I think Rome was right, Judah was not to be trusted.

  “Would you guys care for anything to drink?” The man in the suit asked.

  As if on cue, one of the cape figures came through the door carrying a tray with some kind of red liquid in rocks glasses.

  Oh! Hell no!

  All four of us shook our heads instantly. “Naw, we good, just had a few smoothies before we came," Rome told him. The being went to Judah and offered him a glass.

  Judah’s angry gaze shot up to it and it actually flinched before fleeing out the room.

  “Play nice…” the man in the suit told Judah.

  “Let’s get this over with…” Judah growled.

  The man stared at him for a little bit. “I won’t have you much longer, will I?”

  “That’s where you’re wrong, Patriot. You never had me to begin with.”

  So, his name was Patrio
t…

  He inhaled before he nodded slightly, for a moment, there was sorrow in his eyes. “True…true indeed, for we all know there is only one who can tame the Lion of Judah…” When he blinked his eyes, his sorrow was gone and his gaze fell on Jo.

  “Now to answer your question, I need you to do what you were created to do…slay demons.”

  Jo chuckled. “What?”

  The man nodded. “It’s true…I am so surprised the young prince has not told you. Surely his mentor talked to him about it.”

  We all looked at Rome. “Yeah… about that. I was going to tell you guys when the time was right.”

  “The time is right," I told him.

  He took my hand bringing it to his lips. “Baby…You, Albert, Jo and his siblings…well, baby, y’all demon slayers.”

  I snatched my hand from his. “What?”

  “It’s true, Wild One…” Patriot said gaining our attention. “The Ancient of Day’s created you to slay demons.”

  Jo frowned. “Demons? What? Like ghosts?” He looked at Albert and chuckled. “He wants us to search out and destroy the Bogeyman.”

  They both shared a good laugh at that.

  “Naw, little brotha, not like ghosts.” Judah’s deep voice brought their laughter to a halt. “Before they became what we know as demons, they were the beloved children of him…”

  His gaze went to the Patriot. “And those like him. They are called the Nephilim. It’s the reason they fell…They lay with human women and bore children. But because that union was strictly forbidden...they bore giant monsters, monsters who hungered for human flesh and blood.”

  As he talked, he killed the rumor about him not being able to feel emotion. He was angry—No… I take that back, he was barely suppressing his rage.

  “Because the Nephilim beings are so disgusting and foul, the Ancient of Days will not accept their souls after they die. So, their souls are stuck here to wander the earth looking for a host. It’s their souls that are now called demons. All hate, all filth…all abhorrence can be attributed to them.” His gaze centered on Jo.

  “They are very real, little brother, the monsters that still walk this earth in the flesh…and the billions that prowl it in the spirit. Never doubt it.”

  “Although his words are a bit emphatic, they are true. The children of angels are allowed to walk in the flesh for five-hundred years before they die and become a demon. In the spirit form, they cannot touch or taste…they can’t eat or drink. The only way they can experience these things is by taking over a body, whether human or cloned.”

  He held up one of his hands and the overhead lights dimmed before a bright light shone from the center of the table.

  I gasped when a hologram image of a warehouse that looked like the one we’d just seen showed up in the light. There were racks with human bodies hanging from them and more of those ugly giant men standing around them.

  “That’s a real place?” I asked nobody in particular.

  “Yeah, it’s real. It’s how they feed their children. It’s a f***ing meat market for Nephilim!” Judah spat.

  “There are thousands of these located all over the world.” The Patriot said. “The problem is, eighty years ago, there used to be only three of them. Fifty years ago, twenty-four, which means the numbers are growing at a dangerous pace.”

  He stared off toward the corner of the office. “I have forty-two children that I love dearly. My children are monsters. When they walked the earth in their own flesh, they grew to a substantial size and had insatiable appetites for nearly everything. We found a way to grow food big enough to sustain them…” he shook his head.

  “But they wanted meat. So, we allowed our servants to hunt animals for them. In a very short time, they’d depleted the livestock. It wasn’t long before they started eating our servants. Daily sacrifices were made by the children of men to my children, but it wasn’t enough. Soon, they began to consume mankind at an alarming rate. That’s when we started cloning men, in hopes that the clones would appease them…”

  "They didn't like the taste of the cloned flesh and continued to consume mankind. I and my brothers realized we’d made a mistake and we begged the Ancient of Days for forgiveness…But he told us that forgiveness was for man. And that we should have known better…and for our sins, we must pay. I watched all forty-two of my beloved children die in Noach’s flood.”

  “So, if all of the Nephilim died in the flood, why are there meat shops popping up all over the place?” Rome asked.

  The Patriot chuckled. “You would have thought we’d learned our lesson.” He shook his head. “The children of men and the sons of Alohim are still having children to this very day. Through gene manipulation, most of the Nephilim are not grown to be giants anymore and can now blend in for the most part. The ones that can’t are kept hidden underground.” He pointed to the ugly giants that were working in the human meat market.

  "However, the ones that can are so beautiful and so brilliant that mankind worships them, just like they did in days of old. But although they've managed to get them to appear more human-like, their appetites are still the same…and growing rapidly every day."

  “So, what do you want us to do about it?” Albert asked with an unenthused frown on his face.

  "I want you to allow Judah to train you to be able to kill the Nephilim and then I want you to search out and destroy as many as you can. For the most part, they stick very closely to their food supply. However, these meat markets are more than just a place where they obtain food, everything they need to function as a unit is there. They have scientists, and doctors, chefs…teachers to teach their young, trainers to train them in whatever field they’re going to conquer… All located in the same spot. It’s more like a nest. To bring down the nest is to bring down the hornets in the nest.”

  Jo shrugged. “How hard can they be to find? Can’t be that easy to hide an underground city.”

  “I don’t know, you tell me, Rome, how easy was it for you to find our mock factory?”

  Rome shook his head. “I didn’t see it at all until Nak actually walked inside.”

  “The spell that was cast over this room was a light one because I wanted you to find it. The Nephilim and their fathers will use all the weapons they have in their arsenal to keep you from finding their nest, including having it covered in some pretty nasty spells. These families have powerful human slaves, who are trained from birth to serve them. In most cases, they are being served by the same family that has attended to them for thousands of years. These slaves will stop at nothing to protect their masters.”

  Judah grunted. “Their slaves are some of the most powerful men in the world, whose masters keep them filthy rich in exchange for their unyielding loyalty.”

  Jo nodded… “Now I see…”

  “You guys are not alone in fighting this evil… there are others in the field.” The Patriot said before the hologram image changed in the center of the table. “Many of you may have seen this man before…”

  A holograph image of the Preacher squatting down on a branch high up in a very tall tree appeared in front of us. His long black duster billowed around him making it look as if he had a pair of black wings.

  “Rome, you speak of our spells that make your job as a hacker difficult. Well, our little spells have nothing on the Ancient of Days…his codes are unreadable by those whose eyes were not meant to see. You know what I speak is true, you’ve decided to decode your DNA and that of the others’ in this room.” He smiled as if to tell him…yeah, good luck with that.

  “Anyhow, I can’t tell you much about this man because he is made up of the Most High’s most intricate coding and trying to solve it is impossible. The wisest of our kind have been trying for eons. But what I can tell you is that he is human…However, he is a human that has walked the earth for so long he can manipulate matter and time and space just like us.”

  “This is also one of the ancestors you all
share in common.” When our surprised gaze shot to his, he nodded. "Yes, he's so old that he can be the ancestor of all of you. He's also a Qoheleth, which makes him my enemy. I and those like me are trying to prevent the coming of the Ancient of Day's wrath…he is preparing for it. As far as we know, he is putting together an army. With any great army, there are rankings. I’ll start at the top.”

  The hologram image changed to show a young man that for a moment, I thought could have been a younger version of Judah…But his long locs were a lighter brown as well as his skin…in fact, his eyes, hair, and skin were all the same color brown. It looked as if he'd just began to grow a beard and mustache…the kid was quite handsome.

  “Young Dawid…the Lyon’s Cub. From what we know, the Qoheleth is putting him and the wolf pup…” The hologram image changed to show another boy whose hair was pure white. I could tell right off that the boy was Hispanic or an islander.

  Where the other kid was just handsome, this boy with his otherworldly looks was pure art. He was so beautiful that it was almost painful to look at him. The image changed again, it was a closer shot of his face and we were all able to see that there were white rings around each of his pupils… He too had started to grow a beard and mustache, but they grew in black unlike the hair on his head.

  “Monroe…there is a wager going on, on whether or not this one will make it. There’s a darkness in him that is showing promise. Nonetheless, we believe the Ooheleth is setting these two up to be the leaders of the army he is gathering together. However, they are still quite young and being trained by two of the deadliest men in the world…their fathers, Lyon and Gideon.”

  The hologram image changed to show two men that made Judah pale in comparison and that was saying a lot. He said they were the two deadliest men in the world…and I believed him. I could already tell who Dawid’s father was because he looked like a miniature version of him. The image changed to show a huge lion standing next to Lyon. Like his son, his long locs, skin and eyes were all the same color…Hell…he resembled the lion standing next to him.