The Daughter of Zion

by Elicia Hyder

  “John, I’m here now. Can we please talk about this?”

  “What’s there to talk about?”

  “Uncle John.” Iliana stood, and all eyes in the room turned toward her. She walked slowly toward him, holding her hands up in surrender. “We all understand why you’re angry, and no one faults you for it, but for years, you wanted to know what happened to Fury. Prayed to know, even. I remember.”

  John looked caught.

  “Now, here she is. Are you really just going to turn her away without getting any answers? Without finally getting some closure on whatever this is?” Iliana gestured between John and Fury.

  John’s whole body visibly relaxed. For a moment, I wondered if Iliana might be using her powers on him. Whatever was happening, John had clearly been disarmed.

  The anger in his eyes faded to bewilderment…and something that looked a whole lot like sorrow. His Adam’s apple bobbed with a hard swallow.

  Fury took a step closer to him, taking advantage of the crack in his resolve. “Thank you,” she said, looking him dead in the eye.

  He blinked and fell back a step. It was clear that of all the things that needed to be said, he hadn’t expected her gratitude.

  “I never deserved your help or your support, or even your kindness. I deserved for you to walk out on me and Jett and never look back, but you didn’t. You were the parent Jett deserved to have.” Her eyes turned upward. “Apparently, someone somewhere knew that. So thank you.”

  John shifted uncomfortably on his feet. “It wasn’t his fault you and I screwed things up. I couldn’t leave him alone.”

  She closed the space between them, took his hand, and lowered her head. “I was wrong for the way I treated you. I should have told you the truth, and I’m truly sorry I didn’t.”

  My eyes widened so much they ached. It was the most brazen act of humility I had ever seen Fury demonstrate.

  John looked baffled too. He recoiled. “It’s done now. No need to dredge up the past.”

  He turned and walked to the kitchen out of our view, but my sensitive ears heard him let out a sigh of relief? frustration? hatred? Whatever it was, the old frogman was shaken.

  I joined Iliana and Fury in the center of the living room, and I squeezed the back of Fury’s neck. “You okay?” I asked quietly.

  She gave a silent nod.

  John returned with the distinct pop and phshh of an opening can top accompanying the sound of his footsteps. He tilted the beer up to his lips, sucking down a few gulps before lowering it.

  He didn’t offer anyone else a drink. Not that I could blame him. Jett and Iliana were technically underage. Fury rarely drank, and I was still me.

  John plopped into his recliner. An improvement since he’d done so without yelling. Iliana returned to her seat, and Fury and I stood by the wood-burning fireplace.

  “So you closed the bar?” Fury asked, lightening the conversation while there was still a break in the tension.

  “Yep.” John balanced his beer can on the armrest. “When all hell broke loose with that virus, folks either died or got the heck out of Dodge. Nobody was hanging out in bars anymore, so I closed up shop and moved out here.”

  John finally looked at me. “Jett says your old man, Azrael, is behind that virus. Is it true?”

  I was surprised. Partly because John was finally acknowledging me and partly because of how much he knew—and accepted as truth—about our situation. The last time I’d seen John, he still believed Azrael was my brother, Damon. “I doubt he knows about it, and if he does, he’s not doing it willingly.”

  “If he spreads that compound any farther east, he’s going to swallow up this property,” he said, almost to himself.

  “Will you sell to him?” Iliana asked.

  He sipped his beer. “Doesn’t sound to me like he does as much asking as he does forcing.”

  “Are you aware that Azrael’s other son is the one running the show at Claymore?” Fury asked.

  John took another long drink. “Yeah. I hear he’s an angel who can control people, like Iliana.” He slid a sideways glance at her. “Don’t think I don’t know you hoodoo’d this whole situation just now.”

  Iliana tucked her hands beneath her thighs and stifled a grin. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Uncle John.”

  “Mmm-hmm.” John rolled his eyes back toward me and Fury. “Jett’s told me a lot.”

  “Obviously,” I said.

  “John, you may not be safe here in Claymore’s backyard when this comes to war,” Fury said. “The Morning Star will probably come after everyone he might be able to use against us.”

  “Jett told me that too, and I’ll tell you the same thing I told him. I can take care of myself.”

  “They might even track us here,” I admitted.

  “He’s right. You should come with us to Asheville,” Jett said, leaning forward and balancing his elbows on his knees.

  John chuckled and lifted his beer again. “Sure. One big fucked-up family. That’ll be the day.” John wiggled his fingers in Iliana’s direction. “And don’t try using your superpowers to change my mind.”

  She rolled her eyes. “If I thought it was that easy, I would’ve done it years ago.”

  “I’ll take my chances.” John stood and put his beer down on the coffee table. “But on that note, you’ll forgive me if I don’t want y’all hanging around here, drawing attention.”

  “Of course,” Iliana said as she and Jett stood.

  “You should blend in fairly well in the RV. They’re commonly lived in now.” He looked at me. “As long as all the fairies stay hidden inside.”

  I groaned, but I couldn’t help but smile. It was the most normal conversation the two of us had ever had.

  Fury was clutching the stack of fresh bills and the key ring. “We really appreciate you helping us get back.”

  John’s head tipped slightly forward, but he didn’t comment. After a second, he let out a deep breath. “Ah, damn it. Come here.” He pulled Fury into his arms. “I’m glad you’re OK.”

  Iliana took the money and the keys so Fury could hug him back. Fury locked her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shoulder. “Thank you, John.”

  He sniffed and kissed the side of her head. “It wasn’t all bad.” He flashed a grin at Jett. “For being an angel, he makes a pretty good hunting buddy.”

  She laughed as he pulled away.

  “Hold on. I’ve got something else for you.” John walked past us down a narrow hallway, then disappeared through a side door. He returned a moment later with seemingly empty hands. “Here.” He turned his hand over and uncurled his fingers. In his palm was a small USB flash drive. “I’m not sure if you can find any computer able to read it, but I’m old school, and this is high tech for me.”

  Fury picked it up. “What is it?”

  “Pictures. Memories.” John tilted his silver head toward Jett. “He was a cute kid.”

  A quiet sob erupted from Fury’s throat as she clutched it. “Thank you, John.” She hugged him again. “For everything.”

  He gave her back a patronizing pat. “I know. I know.”

  “We will pay you back,” I said, touching the small of Fury’s back as she stepped away from him.

  Iliana came over beside me and handed me the cash with a grin. “For this, or the seventeen years of back child support?”

  John pointed at her. “Kid’s got a point.”

  We all laughed.

  “Are you sure you won’t change your mind and come with us?” Jett asked, offering his hand to his father.

  “I’m sure.” John pulled him into a one-armed hug. “Try to keep that battle away from here.”

  “I’ll do my best.”

  John kept a hand on his shoulder. “Call me if you need me, son.”

  “Thank you,” Jett said.

  I looked down at Fury. She was smiling. I touched her waist. “You ready to go?”

  She was holding the flash drive. “
Yeah, I’m ready.”

  Iliana inhaled deep, her eyes wild with excitement. “Let’s go home.”

  Chapter Twelve

  It should have been a four-and-a-half-hour drive back to Asheville, but John’s motorhome was a throwback to the days when Fury and I had first left Earth.

  It burned through gasoline like there was an infinite supply of it on the planet, which there was not, and gas was almost ten dollars per gallon. It sputtered down the interstate, nearly dying about every hundred miles, as electric cars whizzed by.

  Electric cars had already begun to rule the West Coast by the time we left, but the cars we saw on the drive home were another level entirely. They looked like something out of a sci-fi movie. Sleek lines, massive windows, and reflective paint jobs. Cassiel explained that nanoparticles in the paint actually charged the car. A detail my pea brain couldn’t even comprehend.

  I drove the last leg of the trip, well into the early hours of the morning. All the humans and Reuel were asleep when we took the Highway 280 exit toward the Asheville airport. Cassiel sat up front with me while Jett sat far in the back, keeping watch out the rear and side windows.

  Static crackled in my ears. “Warren?”

  It was Lachlan. “Yeah?”

  “Welcome back.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Where are you guys?”

  “Almost back to the Wolf Gap property. You?”

  “I’m here now, circling. Just a heads-up, there’s a Claymore unit sitting on the drive up to the building.”

  “Damn it.”

  “What do you want me to do?”

  I thought for a second. “Stay close, but don’t engage. We’ll handle it when we get there.”

  “What’s the matter?” Cassiel asked.

  “Soldiers are waiting for us.”

  “Not surprising. Claymore set up an installation not far from the property, between Wolf Gap and the airport. It wouldn’t have taken long for them to find out we escaped.”

  “What do you think we should do?” I asked her.

  “Try not to kill them if they’re human.”

  “Getting through them won’t be a problem, but we both know reinforcements will be sent. What then?”

  “Underground, we’ll be protected, but they could trap us. Starve us out, or cut off the oxygen supply.”

  I’d already thought about that.

  “We sealed our fate by breaking out of that prison,” Jett said from the back of the motorhome. “The Morning Star will retaliate, even if only to save face. Peacetime is over.”

  I looked in the rearview mirror and noticed Iliana’s head on his lap.

  “Warren!” Cassiel’s voice ripped my eyes back to the road. I jerked the wheel to pull us back into our lane.

  “Do you need me to drive?”

  “No.” I gripped the wheel with both hands.

  She turned to look at what I’d been gawking at. Then, shaking her head, she sat back in her seat. “Humans.”

  “I don’t like it,” I whispered quietly enough so that Jett couldn’t hear me.

  “My experience with teenage girls is limited, but if you push her about him, she’s not going to respond in the way you hope.”

  I turned my palms up on the steering wheel. “So I just keep my mouth shut? She’s a child, and he’s a few billion years older than she is.”

  Cassiel’s head tilted to the side. “I don’t remember you having much of a problem with me being billions of years older than you.”

  “That was different.”

  “Is it? Would you rather her fall in love with a human boy who will be dead in sixty years?”

  “Yes. Dead boyfriends are the best boyfriends.”

  “You’re being ridiculous.”

  “No, I’m not.”

  “Malak has been protecting mankind since before even you were born. He might be the best thing to happen to Iliana. Have you thought about it that way?”

  “No,” I grumbled.

  “I don’t think Malak has ever cared for anyone besides Rogan. Angels falling in love is very rare.”

  I didn’t miss the wistful tone of her statement. I let it linger between us for a mile or two. “Cassiel, I’m sorry for how you and I left things. I meant what I said, but I don’t want tension between us.”

  She stared ahead. “It never would’ve worked with us anyway. We are too different. If nothing else, you finding it unforgivable that I would seek out the truth proves that much.”

  “I want the truth as well, but I’m not willing to sacrifice my integrity to get it.”

  “You call it integrity. I call it necessity. You didn’t even know what to look for in the blood stone.”

  “Perhaps not, but you should have asked me.”

  “Maybe, but let’s not fight about it anymore.”

  “I like the sound of that.”

  She tapped her window. “You missed your turn.”

  “Damn it.”

  She chuckled.

  I turned onto the next road.

  “Are we there yet?” Anya asked, half-asleep on the pull-out sofa behind me.

  “Almost,” I answered in the middle of a seventy-three-point turn on the narrow road. I raised my voice. “We need everyone awake.”

  Fury’s head appeared in my mirror. “Where are we?”

  “Not where we’re supposed to be,” Cassiel said, biting back a laugh.

  “You wanna walk?” I asked.

  She laughed again.

  Three full minutes later, we were back on the highway, and Cassiel had filled everyone in on the situation awaiting us. I took the next left turn onto what used to be an unmarked road. “It has a road sign now. That’s why I passed it.”

  “OK,” Cassiel said with a smirk.

  I turned onto Dead End Lane and slowed as we passed the sign. “Dad named it,” Iliana volunteered before I could ask. “He thought it would deter visitors.”

  I grinned. “Sounds like Nate.”

  “Did it work?” Cassiel asked.

  “No. A lot of teenagers get busted smoking pot and making out just past the Echo-5 turnoff now.”

  I switched on my high beams as I drove up the mountain. The road and the scenery were mostly unchanged, except for the old and crumbling pavement shifting beneath the tires of the motorhome. The road had been dirt the last time I’d been here. After a while, I took a left turn toward Echo-5 and rolled past the guard shack, which had fallen into disrepair.

  It had been empty for quite some time.

  I looked at Kane in the rearview mirror. “No more guard?”

  He shrugged. “Not enough manpower.”

  “Or cash flow,” Cruz added.

  “The cameras are functional, however.” Iliana waved through the side window as we passed it.

  Cassiel looked over at me. “With a direct feed back to Claymore, I would assume.”

  Dread swelled inside me as we crested the hill toward the building. Two armored Humvees flanked the road, and weapons were raised in our direction.

  “Great. More guns,” Cassiel said, dropping her hands into her lap with a frustrated sigh.

  Kane leaned forward. “That’s definitely not our guys.”

  High-powered flashlights blinded us.

  I shielded my eyes with my hands. “I’m not sensing any angels out there. Cassiel?”

  Her hands were in front of her face too. “Only humans.”

  “Step out of the vehicle with your hands where we can see them!” a man called over a loudspeaker.

  I turned to look in the back of the RV. Everyone was squinting from the lights. “No lethal force. We are not killing humans.”

  “We have secure holding cells in the bunker,” Kane said.

  Of course they did. That would’ve been one of Azrael’s top priorities.

  “Angels, stay in front of the humans in case they open fire.” I looked at Fury. “Don’t be a hero. You’re unarmed.”

  Behind her hand, she rolled her eyes. It made me
smile.

  My smile quickly faded as I put the RV in park and killed the engine. Then I pushed open my door and raised my hands over my head. Cassiel did the same, and Kane opened the back door.

  “We don’t want any trouble!” I called out to whoever was beyond the high beams.

  “Turn around and place your hands behind your back!”

  “I’m not going to do that.” I walked slowly forward, carefully placing one boot in front of the other. “We can talk about this peacefully, or I can end this standoff right here.”

  I heard whispers among the humans.

  “You know what I am, and you know what I’m capable of.” I let my energy sizzle to life in my hands, inciting a few quiet gasps from the other side. “Don’t make me do this.”

  There was painfully long silence as I inched forward until…

  “Fire.”

  A single bullet ruptured from a chamber before I blasted my power forward, extinguishing the lights and shattering the bulletproof glass on the Humvees. Bullets sprayed wildly through the air as the humans, now visible in the moonlight, were knocked off their feet.

  The soldier quite obviously in charge had been shot by one of his men in the back. It had blown open a hole in his chest. He was bleeding profusely and writhing next to the Humvee on the left. I grabbed his rifle, unloaded it, and tossed it to Kane. “Disarm them.”

  Another soldier rolled and began firing at us again. Reuel knocked him sideways, but not before Cassiel cried out in pain.

  Shit.

  Before he could shoot again, Kane took the man’s rifle and handed it to Cruz. The two of them swept the area of guns while Reuel and Jett used their power to restrain everyone.

  I went to Cassiel.

  She was hunched over and holding her stomach. I looked down and saw the blood seeping through her fingers.

  “Every damn time I’m with you, I wind up downrange from a machine gun.”

  “Technically, those are rifles. Not machine guns.”

  “Oh, shut up!” She twisted in pain as I tried not to laugh.

  I looked around for Iliana. “We need your help.”

  Cassiel grabbed my arm. “No, no. I’m fine. But that guy needs help.” She pointed a bloody finger at the soldier who’d been shot.