by J. E. Taylor
I pressed the familiar number on my phone and put the speaker to my ear.
Alex picked up on the first ring. “Faith?” His question was framed with a rough voice that I didn’t recognize.
“Alex?”
Quiet hung on the line, and I got nothing from the connection beyond silence. “No, it’s Chris.”
“Oh. Is Alex around?”
More silence. “He’s out with Valerie,” he said after a moment.
“You’re not with him?” My heart thundered. I didn’t think the stilted conversation was a result of being half a world away.
“No, I’m with the girls.” This time his tone was reasonable. “I can have him call when they get back.” His offer sounded hollow, almost like he was going through the motions.
“Mr. Ryan?”
“Yes, Faith,” he said.
“Where is he?”
“I told you where he is.” This time his tone was clipped.
A burn started under my skin, accompanied by that low-grade internal alarm of mine. My breath quickened. “Why are you lying to me?” I barely whispered.
“Because you have a job to do,” he said.
Panic bloomed and within a blink, I stood in the Ryans’ kitchen, staring at CJ’s back. He slowly turned, and my heart plummeted. CJ looked like hell. Like he hadn’t slept in at least twenty-four hours. Bridget sat on the couch with her arms around Valerie. The entire room screamed tragedy.
“Where is Alex?” I said through clenched teeth.
He just shook his head as his cheeks reddened. “We don’t know.”
I let go of the connection and sat down hard on the bed on the plane. “What do you mean you don’t know?” My voice went up to a high pitch. I had a hard time swallowing.
“Head between your legs,” CJ said on the other side of the line. “And a panic attack right now won’t help anyone.”
“Where’s April and the girls?” My voice cracked. I folded in half and concentrated on breathing.
“Downstairs watching a movie,” he said.
I could tell the difference between the tone when he was telling the truth and when he was lying. This time he was telling the truth.
“Look, I don’t know if he hopped on a plane to go to you, or if…”
That sentence was definitely delivered for placation. “Don’t coddle me,” I hissed.
“You have to finish what you are doing,” he said. “And then we can look for Alex. If you don’t, the ramifications are bigger than you can comprehend.”
“But if he has Alex…”
Silence and a little of CJ’s devastation flowed through the line. “I know,” he whispered.
I ended the call. I couldn’t listen to CJ’s reasoning, not with my chest hurting under the pressure. If Lucifer had Alex, I was doomed. My nightmare came back, and my stomach clenched. I made it to the bathroom in time for my breakfast to come up hot and fast. Acid lined my throat, and I gagged again.
I leaned against the porcelain as hot tears bathed my face. I didn’t know how long I sat on the floor crying. I couldn’t stop the fountain, and every thought of what I might have to do stabbed into me as sharp as a knife penetrating my skin.
Kylee poked her head in, and her questioning gaze turned to concern. “Are you sick?” Her worry bled into her aura in a sickly yellow arc.
“No.” I wiped my face and forced myself up on shaky legs. I took the time to rinse my mouth and splash my face before I turned to her. “Alex has disappeared.”
Her face paled. “I’m so sorry.”
“CJ said I needed to finish what we are doing before…” I couldn’t finish the sentence. I doubled over and fell to my knees.
Kylee was by my side in a flash, and she wrapped her arms around me. She didn’t say that things would be okay. She didn’t say that everything was all right. She didn’t say anything. Instead, she just held me and rocked me because she knew words wouldn’t heal the hurt.
I finally stopped crying and wiped the snot and tears from my face with tissues she offered me.
“Now, think you can get your head in the game for this?” she asked.
I gawked at her. How. How was I supposed to do this?
“This is what heroes do. We allow only a brief moment to fall apart, and then we move on and do what we need to before we get to do what we want to.”
“I’m not a hero.” I stood, dusting my knees off, and crossed to the bed. I kept repeating that in my head while I made the bed. The linens stretched into a clean spread that was worthy of a bed made by a soldier.
I stared at the perfect corners, still lost in my hurt. But I could breathe.
I concentrated on breathing and glanced up, meeting Kylee’s gaze. “I. Am. Not. A. Hero.”
She chuckled and raised her brow.
Sparks lit off my fingertips, and I grabbed the gloves off the side table and slid them on before my irritation flashed into fire.
The loudspeakers squawked on. “Ladies, we are approaching the airport. Please stow your weapons under the bed in back and make sure you have your passports.”
Kylee disappeared and came back in with her bag.
“I don’t have a passport,” I said, then swallowed hard.
Kylee tossed me something, and I caught it. I stared at my picture and my information. Of course, while my first name was correct, the last name typed in the passport had Paradox instead of Kennedy and an address in San Diego, not Maine.
“Fate,” she said.
“Fate deals in fake passports?”
“She knew we were short on time, and she also didn’t want our friend to track you.” She lifted the bed and picked up the suitcase that sat underneath.
I was about to ask her what she was doing when she pulled the corner of the carpet away from one of the edges and pulled on an eye hook. A compartment opened under the carpet big enough to fit both duffel bags. She closed it and set Josh’s suitcase back in place.
She glanced at me and pushed the bed back down on the compartment. I didn’t question why there was a secret compartment in here. I didn’t want to know. I focused on the passport in my hand as she led me back into the main cabin.
I fanned through the thing. At least it didn’t look new, and it had some stamps already. Mostly Canada and Mexico, along with a couple of the islands in the Caribbean. The expiration date was the following year, too.
“You’re my little sister.” She nodded at the papers in my hand and smiled as we sat down and strapped in for the descent into Christchurch International Airport.
“We just need to be cleared by customs here before we head over to Hokitika which is closer to Mount Cook. I also want to do a flyby so we can see what you are in for. But I’m not sure how close we can get with the weather over that area.”
I didn’t want to see where we were going. I didn’t want to see what type of challenge this was. All I wanted was to know Alex was safe.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket and scrolled through the messages from him. Tears threatened again at the increasingly frantic tone and then the once-again calm after Kylee had called. His last message was to tell me he loved me and that he’d talk to me when I woke up.
I held the phone to my chest and closed my eyes. I missed him, and now that he was missing, I was itching to get this over with. This little stop was necessary in getting to the other side of the island, but the fact we had to stop and not just go to our destination ate at my nerves.
The jerk of the plane on the runway brought me back to our present situation, and I glanced out at the gates as we passed. We rolled to a stop in front of a group of hangars. A truck was waiting, and the minute Josh powered down the plane, the car doors opened, and official customs officers stepped out.
Levi hopped on the seat next to me and curled up, putting his head in my lap. He looked up at me.
I can’t eat them, can I?
I pressed my lips together against a smile and shook my head.
He huffed and I stroked
his head, glad for the interruption and his successful attempt at making me smile.
Josh opened the hatch and let the stairs down. Two customs agents and a large dog came aboard, but the minute the dog saw Levi, he backed up on the stairs whining. They tried to drag him on, but he refused.
“I can put Levi in the back room if you need me to,” I said as Levi chuckled in my head.
I grabbed his collar and led him into the bedroom where he immediately jumped onto the bed and curled up with his tongue lolling out the side.
“Be good,” I said, pointing at him.
When I turned back around, their search dog calmed and came onto the plane, sniffing around, but he wouldn’t go near the back room.
Josh extended his hand, and Kylee put her passport in it. I added mine when he turned to me and he handed all our passports along with papers he’d grabbed from the cockpit to the customs agents.
“You don’t have papers for the dog.” The customs agent with the papers shuffled through them again while the other walked around the room with the dog as it sniffed for contraband.
Josh looked over at Kylee. Concern registered in his gaze.
I got the feeling this needed to be fixed, and fast. “He’s my support dog. I’ve had him since my mother died. He can sense if I’m going to have a seizure and warn me.” I had read a book with a support dog in it, but I had no idea if they would need paperwork relating to that or not.
“We are going to have to put him in quarantine until we get this sorted.”
I huffed a laugh. “I don’t think so,” I said before I had the good sense to shut my mouth.
The agent with the papers narrowed his eyes at me as both Kylee’s and Josh’s mouths popped open in surprise.
“What’s in the back room?” The second agent opened the door to the bedroom, and his dog pulled back on the chain.
“Beg your pardon?” the one with the papers said to me, but my attention was torn between him and the agent in the bedroom.
I heard enough of their thoughts to bite my lower lip. The one at the bedroom door was suspicious of what might be inside Levi, because there had been others who tried to smuggle things into the country inside their pets. Although his dog used to go right for those with smuggled goods, not display this kind of fear. When the custom’s dog slipped his collar, ran out the door, and down the stairs, the agent traded a glance with his partner.
Suspicion painted both their faces red.
“I think we would like you to step off the plane with your dog. He needs to be quarantined, and we need to search this vessel.”
My heart thundered. “I’m sorry, but I’m not comfortable with leaving him in quarantine, especially if we are going to try our hand at mountain climbing. He could be the difference between me making it down the mountain or not.” I shifted my stance, realizing the more I spoke, the more I dug us deeper into trouble.
I closed my eyes, nearly growling my disdain at their darkened thinking. When the one near the bedroom put his hand on his weapon, I sighed, resigned to getting us out of this mess.
“We have the proper paperwork. Everything is in order,” I whispered, hoping I was using Tom’s gift right as I pushed the thoughts outward, targeting the two customs agents.
I opened my eyes, and both guards paled for a second and then blinked.
The one with the paperwork shuffled through it again and smiled. “My mistake, miss. It seems we do have the paperwork here.”
Josh traded a glance at Kylee and then stared at me.
“Everything seems to be in order.” The guard handed a couple of the forms back to Josh. “Don’t forget to send payment before your departure.” He started down the stairs.
The second agent followed and grabbed the scruff of his dog’s neck.
As soon as they were on the ground, Josh closed the door and locked it. He spun on his feet and stared at me. “What the hell did you do to them?”
I tapped my temple, and my lips formed a cocky smile. “Another one of Tom’s gifts.”
He glanced at Kylee and then back at me. “Just which archangel are we talking about?”
My smile faded. “Does it matter?”
“Yes. It matters a great deal.”
“My father does not define me,” I said. “As a matter of fact, when we are done closing these damn breaches, I have to find that bastard and kill him because he wants this world to burn.”
Josh’s face lost all color. “You’re the antichrist?”
“No. She isn’t,” Levi said as he strolled into the room. “As young as she is, she is the one who’s destined to save the world. But even that is not guaranteed.”
“And I should believe an ancient monster?” He waved at Levi. His aura was full of doubt—the awful eggplant color weaved through the calm blues and greens and bright yellows.
“I am not a monster. I’m Death’s faithful companion,” he said and practically pranced over to me. “I’ve been tasked with protecting Faith on this journey.”
“You’re not helping the situation,” I said to Levi. “Look, there are very few of us left because my father gets his kicks out of killing angel descendants to get a little of their grace. It doesn’t matter if they are his offspring or not. They serve a purpose. To either fuel the bastard, or to sire his ungodly army.”
I glanced at Kylee, and she shook her head. In her mind she was begging me to shut up.
“He deserves to know. He’s on this mission, too, whether we like it or not.” I dismissed her and returned my focus to Josh. “CJ Ryan was the first trilogy ever born. He had a mixture of Raphael, Uriel, and Lucifer’s bloodlines. His children have the blood of four archangels, because his wife is of Michael’s bloodline.” I wiped my face. “Tom’s best friend, Damian, was Gabriel’s son, and he married a woman who had Michael and Raphael’s bloodlines, creating the next trilogies born.”
“And you are Lucifer’s daughter,” he said, still coming to terms with that.
“Yeah. That’s not something I’m really keen on advertising. But that is not the end of it. Damian’s daughter did some things to CJ’s son, and now we think Lucifer has him. And when I say ‘has him,’ I mean Lucifer is wearing him.” My chin trembled, and I pressed my lips together trying to blink the hot tears away. Instead, they slipped down my cheeks. “And when this is all over, if I can’t save Alex…” My voice trembled, and I couldn’t finish.
“She may need to kill the vessel to kill Lucifer,” Kylee said for me. “And she is in love with Alex.”
“Alex Ryan?” Josh said, looking between us.
I nodded. “He went missing the night we got back from the island I leveled.” I sniffled and wiped my nose with the back of my hand. “I know you’re freaked out.”
He laughed and ran his hand through his hair, leaving it in disarray. “You can’t even imagine.”
I looked out the window, trying to grapple with all the facts I had at my disposal, and how to frame them so he would understand. “My mother died two weeks ago, and before she got sick, I thought I was the only freak out there.” I took my glove off and let the flame lick my fingers before I doused it and put my glove back on. “She told me who my father was just before she took her last breath. Imagine dealing with that on top of seeing cancer kill your mother.” I offered a sad mile and blinked the sting of tears away. “After her funeral, I was supposed to go into state care, but that’s when Tom Ryan changed the course of my life, and I found out I wasn’t alone. That I wasn’t the only gifted one out there.” I glanced at Kylee. “I didn’t know monsters existed. I didn’t even really believe in the devil two weeks ago, so when I say I know what you’re going through, I do.” I wiped my face. “I still can’t quite comprehend it all. I mean even in my worst nightmares, I couldn’t fathom the things that are out there.” I pointed out the window. “I didn’t ask for this. I didn’t want this, but it looks like I’m the only one who can stop Lucifer.”
The radio squawked, giving us permission to approach th
e runway for departure. Josh took a seat in the cockpit. His hand shook as he picked up his headset and plugged it in.
“Roger,” he said into the microphone and started the engines. Then he turned the chair around and stared at me.
I pushed the urge to jump into his head and filter out his thoughts, and I tried not to listen to them. This was his issue to figure out. His mind kept going back to CJ Ryan and the instructions he gave for this trip. Josh had spoken to him directly. CJ had said to take care of me. He had made it clear, that I had to be on the trip home.
Josh turned back to the controls and started the taxi out. Before he got in the line, he reached back and closed the door.
I could hear a muffled conversation in the cockpit. I felt a jolt of surprise come from Josh, but I restrained from opening the door. I blocked his thoughts from my head. He needed to deal with this in his own way. I wasn’t going to wipe the fear from his aura. Only he could do that.
I looked at Levi. “Really? Death’s companion?”
“He called me a monster.”
“Well, aren’t you?” I crossed my arms, challenging him.
“I am an honorable monster.” He crossed his paws trying to look all regal. It was as humorous as it was sad.
We started our taxi to the runway, and the engines revved. The sudden lurch forward and rush of speed captured my full attention, and I let the adrenaline follow. This high was almost addicting. I could see myself flying a plane. It wasn’t anything I had ever aspired to before, but now, it was a goal.
“You are a strange child,” Levi said, eyeing me.
“Why?”
“You like this death trap?”
I smiled and looked out the window as we lifted off. “Yes. I do.”
Quiet settled on the cabin as I scrolled through Alex’s texts again. The visit to Paradise Cove had been a bust. I was right. The angels couldn’t leave the cove, and it was not recommended that they bring Lucifer there, not with how precarious things were. But on the upside, they did get to see Tom.
