Death In Her Eyes (Children of the Fallen Book 1)

by ERIN BEDFORD

  “Are you alright?” my dad asked, rubbing my shoulders in what I guessed he thought was a soothing manner. “Are you getting sick?”

  “I’m fine." I swallowed thickly. He’d never even bothered to keep from touching me. Did he think that I couldn’t get visions of his death? Or did he just not care? Either way, I wasn’t about to share with him what I’d just seen. “My phone?”

  “You won’t be needing it.” He dropped his hands from my shoulders and adjusted his suit jacket. “I’ve taken care of your friend problem. You don’t have to worry about her freaking out as you say.” He gave me a small smile, obviously pleased with himself.

  My heart fell to my stomach, and my hands shook as I barely got out, “What do you mean, she’s been dealt with? What did you do?”

  “Now, Eleanor...” My dad held a hand up and tried to explain, or rather, lie to me.

  “What. Did. You. Do?” I practically shouted in his face, no longer playing the dutiful daughter.

  Sighing with annoyance, he dropped his good father act, and my dad locked eyes with me. “I removed you from her memory. She won’t come looking for you, and neither will the rest of your mother’s family. So, you can stop worrying about them and focus on your studies. Here. Where you are safe.”

  I stared at him for a long moment, not believing what I had just heard. Then a maniacal laugh spilled forth from my lips, and I clutched my stomach, unable to stop it.

  “Eleanor?” My dad frowned and reached for me. “Elle?”

  I slapped his hand away from me and swiped at my eyes, which had begun to tear up. “You don’t care about me at all, do you?” I swung around to glare at Azazel and him. “All you care about is keeping me on your side of this stupid war.”

  “What are you blathering on about?” My dad huffed and crossed his arms in annoyance. “You’re my daughter. Of course, I care about you.”

  “Then why? Why?" I screamed at my dad, anger swelling inside of me. "Why did she have to die? Why is any of this happening to me? I'm just an ordinary girl. I never asked for this power.” I backed away from him and toward them door. “If you and the angels want my powers so badly, then you can just have it and leave me out of it.”

  "It doesn't work that way, Elle. We can't control the future, as you know," my dad said, as he tried to soothe my rage.

  "Don't touch me.” I swung my fist at him. “You're just like the rest of them. Angels. Fallen angels.” I shook my head. “Nephilim. You're all alike." I felt power build up inside of me as my insides burned. "Mark my words. You'll regret the day you ever created me."

  I ran from the room before he could stop me, my eyes burning with unshed tears.

  He didn’t care. Not at all. I’d hoped that talking to him would help. That I could somehow understand what he was doing. Why he had lied to me.

  In a perfect world, he would have hugged me close, told me it was all for my own good, and that he loved me and my mom more than anything in this world.

  Except he hadn’t.

  There was no use pretending that he would be anything other than what he had always been.

  The hallway blurred by as I ran, my feet pounding on the stone floors beneath my feet. Tears streamed down my face as my heart pumped harder. I had to get out of the school. I had to get away from this place. I could feel that burning inside that had come before with Dex.

  If my one experience with this feeling told me anything, it was that something was going to get blown up in the next few moments. Except this time, I didn’t have Dex to help me control it.

  So, I did the only thing I knew to do. I headed for the courtyard. It was large enough that I wouldn’t hurt anyone other than the statues and foliage, and let’s be honest, no one was going to miss them.

  A voice called my name on the way out the door, but I didn’t stop. I had to get out. I had to be able to finally...

  I reached the middle of the courtyard.

  ...let go.

  A scream ripped from my throat as I threw my arms out to both sides. Every inch of me burned as the world around me turned to molten flames. The grass and bushes turned to ash. The statues melted on their posts. Even the stone beneath my feet scorched from the power that unleashed from inside of me.

  “Elle!”

  Dex’s voice broke through my rage, and I turned to face him, the flames around me licking the edges of him. He didn’t flinch away.

  “What happened?” Dex took a step closer and then winced. It seemed my fire could hurt him.

  I shook my head, unable and not wanting to talk about it. “I can’t. I just can’t.” I shifted around so I didn’t have to face him.

  He let out a pained sound, making me jerk back around. He was trying to get past my fire.

  “Stop it. You’re hurting yourself,” I growled at him, and then as suddenly as the fire had appeared around me, it dispersed. Frowning at how easily I had extinguished it, I rushed to Dex’s side.

  He clutched his arm close to himself. “It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”

  I grabbed his arm and saw the melted flesh. “No, you’re not. Why would you do that?”

  Dex’s lip ticked up on one side. “I can’t stand by and let one of my students destroy the whole school, now can I?”

  I stared up at him in disbelief as his other hand stroked my hair, much closer than he’d ever let himself get. “But I thought you weren’t going to let the vision come true.” I mimicked his words back to him, using my best Dex voice.

  His brows furrowed together as he frowned thoughtfully. “I’ve fought fate my entire life, I’m tired of fighting.” He cupped my chin and stared deep into my eyes. “And you, Elle Richmond... I think fate has a helluva lot more instore for both of us.”

  I swallowed hard, not sure how to respond to his proclamation. No one had ever said anything like that to me before. Sure, guys had been happy to jump in the sack with the weirdo girl, but none of them had ever walked through fire for me.

  Too stumped by what he’d said, I allowed him to press his lips to mine. Before either of us could deepen the kiss, he pulled back.

  “We can’t. Not here.” He took my hand and led me toward the school. “Let’s go to—”

  An explosion shook the ground and the remnants of the courtyard. Dex clasped me tight while we tried to keep on our feet.

  “What was that?” I asked after the rumbling stopped.

  Before Dex could answer, an alarm sounded over the academy. Worry crossed over Dex’s face, and he pushed me toward the door.

  “You need to get inside. Go, hide. And don’t come out until I come find you.”

  Except I wasn’t about to have anything decided for me anymore. Not now, not ever.

  “Not until you tell me what’s going on.”

  Dex looked like he was going to argue, but then saw my face and sighed. “The angels. They’re here.”

  SCREAMS FROM BACK inside the school pulled my attention, and I hurried through the doors. The academy shook again, causing dust and bits of ceiling to fall down around me.

  Dex hadn’t followed me inside. I assumed they had some kind of plan in place for if angels attacked, and he was doing his duties.

  I had to worry about me.

  Rushing through the hallways, I found Ayden and the others coming out of the dining room.

  “Elle!” Ayden raced over to me. “What’s going on?”

  “Angels,” I told her, my lips pressed tight together, and then I looked to the others. “Is there somewhere we’re supposed to go if this happens?”

  Joash stepped up with an arm wrapped around Coral. “Yeah, we’re all to go to the library. There’s a secret entrance into some underground tunnels there.”

  “Well then, let’s go!” I swung an arm for them to follow me. Why I thought I was the leader now, I didn’t know, but something in me said I had to get them to safety before anything else.

  The hallways were crowded as we worked our way from the dining hall to the library. Everyone el
se apparently knew the drill. It made me wonder if they had normal fire drills like this—but for angels.

  Everyone was so close that it was impossible not to brush up against anyone. My jaw clenched and my nails bit into my hands as I was assaulted with vision after vision. One of them hit me so hard that it knocked me off my feet and into someone nearby.

  “What the hell, freak? Get off!”

  Hands shoved at me as I blinked my vision clear. It was Dharma. Of course I would run into her now. Not having time for her high school drama, I held my hands up and steadied myself. “Sorry.”

  “You better be.” She sniffed and then scowled. “What are you doing here anyway? This passage is for students. Not freaks like you.”

  “Knock it off, Dharma.” Zephyr stepped between us with a glare. “This isn’t the time for games. The angels are coming and—”

  “And who do you think they are coming for?” Dharma interrupted him, stepping into his personal space. “Her.” She pointed a finger at me. “They’re attacking us and our home because of her. Everything bad that has happened lately has all been because of her,” she snarled and tried to push past Zephyr to get in my face, but he kept her away. “Why don’t you just go to them and leave us in peace? Things were better before you got here.”

  “Dharma,” Zephyr growled, and this time, his brother stepped up with him. “Just go.”

  With a harrumph, Dharma spun on her heel and marched into the library.

  I stood silent as I watched her go. I wished I could say she was wrong. That all the badness wasn’t my fault, but I knew it was. It always was. It was part of my life. I’d never known anything other than pain, death, and despair. Why should now be any different?

  “Don’t let her bother you.” Zephyr moved over to me, giving me a small encouraging smile. “She’s just pissed that Dex is finally noticing a student and it’s not her.”

  I opened my mouth to argue we weren’t doing anything, but then closed it and shook my head. “Don’t worry about it. She doesn’t bother me. Come on.” I jerked my head toward the library. “Let’s get everyone to safety.”

  “You too, right?” Ayden touched my arm, concern on her face. When I didn’t answer immediately, she dropped her hand, her face falling with understanding. “I see. That’s what that hug was all about before.”

  “No, I—” I began, but then stopped. “I have to find out what’s going on. If it’s really about me, it wouldn’t be right for me to run away.”

  “I understand.” Ayden’s eyes teared up, and she threw herself around me. “Be careful, okay?”

  I patted her on the head. “I’ll do my best.”

  Pulling away, she wiped her nose with her sleeve. “You better do more than that.”

  I smiled sadly.

  Bayu pulled her away from me and into his arms. “We’ll take care of her, don’t worry.” I pushed my lips into some semblance of grateful before watching him walk her away.

  Coral reached for me but kept herself from touching me. “It was nice meeting you, Elle.”

  “This isn’t goodbye,” I told her, causing her to bawl into Joash’s chest. He gave me one of those little guy acknowledgments when they were too cool to have feelings.

  I laughed and waved.

  That only left Zephyr.

  “Walk me to the tunnel?” he asked, though I knew it was a façade, but I agreed anyway.

  While the building still shook around us and the alarm blared its lungs off, the students had mostly gotten out and into the tunnels already, leaving the library deserted.

  We stopped by a bookshelf that had been opened some secret way, leading up into a dark stairway.

  Staring into the dark abyss of the hidden passageway, I had a sinking feeling. “Where do the tunnels go?”

  Zephyr shrugged. “I don’t know for sure. We’ve never had to use them. Somewhere near town probably.” We went quiet for a moment, and then he asked, “Are you going to be okay?”

  I smirked, but it was forced. “Aren’t I always?”

  He huffed a laugh. “That’s the thing with you. Always hiding how much you need others behind your badassery. One of these days, you’re going to find yourself very much alone and no one to help you.”

  My expression fell. “Yeah. Well, that day isn’t today.”

  “No,” Zephyr agreed, patting me on the back. “It’s not today. Watch your back out there, alright?”

  I bobbed my head and stepped back from the tunnels. “You too. I’ll see you again.”

  Zephyr winked. “Count on it.”

  Waiting until he disappeared into the darkness, I let myself have a moment before twisting on my heel and heading back out of the library.

  The academy was holding up pretty well, all things considered. They must have put up a pretty strong barrier if all that banging around hadn’t destroyed the building around us.

  Still, I had to watch my step as I jogged through the hallways and back toward the front of the academy. The initial blast had sounded like it had come from there, so that’s where all the action would be.

  There were teachers hiding near the front door, but none of them paid me any mind as I went past. One door was off its hinges and lying on the ground. The other one stood ajar.

  I was temporarily blinded as I stepped outside. Standing still as I waited for my eyes to adjust, I used my other senses to figure out what was going on.

  Familiar voices shouted and commands were given.

  “Fire workers, over there,” Azazel ordered from the left.

  On my other side, my dad’s voice called out, “Wind workers, bring them down to your level.”

  A fire ball hurled through the air and through the barrier as if it didn’t exist. The angels, all dressed in some form of armor, dodged and parried them like they weren’t even breaking a sweat. Which was unfortunate for the Nephilim on the ground, who looked like they were about to collapse from their efforts.

  Dex was among them.

  My feet immediately started for him, but a sound in the distance caught my attention.

  The rumbling roar of an engine filled my ears moments before Cass pulled up to the front gate. The visual of him there was quite something to behold.

  He sat there on his motorcycle with the gleam of his wings barely visible to the naked eye. He was like a warrior on a chariot of fire, waiting to whisk me away from it all.

  As if reading my mind, the barrier around us fell.

  He didn’t call out to me, he just waited there for me to make my decision.

  This was my chance. This was what I wanted all along. I had the chance to get away from this school, away from my dad, and a chance to decide for myself.

  My gaze darted to Dex and my dad for a brief second. Only Dex realized what was going on, his eyes locking with mine through the rubble of the front courtyard around us. He forced himself up and ran toward me.

  Before my mind could tell my body it had made a decision, I darted across the courtyard.

  I jumped over destroyed statues and dodged angel blasts. They apparently didn’t care who they hit, as long as they did some damage. I tucked that away for later as I raced toward my freedom.

  Cass waited on the back of his motorcycle. It roared as he revved the engine. “Come on, ‘lil Watcher.” He smirked at me as I climbed onto the back of his bike.

  “Elle, no!” Dex shouted as he chased after me, but he was too late.

  “Go, go!” I wrapped my arms around Cass’s waist and then was almost knocked out of my seat by the vision that hit me square in the chest.

  Cass held me close, his wings wrapped around our naked bodies as we moved together as one. It sent a burning rush of heat to my core and a blush to my face.

  “You’re not a mind reader, are you?” I shouted over the wind as he roared away from the school, the sound of the battle fading into the distance.

  “No, why?” he called over his shoulder.

  I held him tighter and muttered, “No reason. Just ge
t me out of here.”

  Find what kind of trouble Elle gets herself into in Fire In Her Blood!

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  I never dreamed I’d be selected. They tell me it’s a privilege. I should be honored. But the fear in their eyes doesn’t lie.