Tears ran unchecked down her face as she placed her hand over the wound. But Travis was already gone. With his death, she was tired of fighting. Fallon screamed her rage as the source of power within her released its vengeance on everyone around her.
CHAPTER 37
“Who’s passing out wings?” Wallace asked of no one in particular.
A quiet had fallen over the church upon Wallace and his brothers’ arrival.
A pretty redhead tapped a handsome older woman beside her, probably her mother, and asked, “Who are they? They are soooo beautiful and look at those muscles.”
Unable to resist the temptation, Wallace beamed a smile in a pretty redhead's direction. The woman promptly fainted and slid to the floor.
Michael narrowed his eyes at him. “Can’t you be serious with anything?”
“Come on,” Wallace whined. “This is the second time we’ve encountered black wings. Wait.” He studied the empty place where the young male’s body lay broken before it disappeared. “Has anybody thought to ask why black, not white as other angels have?” Then he glanced back at Michael, thoughtful. “Now our sister has a pair.”
Before she dropped to lift the stranger’s bloody form into her arms, she with similar wings arched high over her head. The beautiful black spinel feathers with hints of deep purple shimmered in the neon hell she called down. Unable to hold in a grin, he turned to Avedon. “You can’t tell me they wouldn’t be cool. I mean, minus the blood.”
“Can you shut the fuck up for one minute, Wallace? I don’t know how much longer Avedon’s rods will hold. The situation is much worse than we thought.” Michael scrubbed a hand over his mouth.
Silence.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
Lash after lash, bolts of lightning stuck four hastily made copper rods outside. The percussive thunder caused a serious undulation of the earth to rock the building.
A miracle they arrived when they did.
Dark clouds and intense rumbles had guided them to the right place and into a clear landing-zone.
Boy had the cows had been pissed.
The massive animals had charged their chopper, veering at the last second when Michael opened the door saying, “Mooove.”
Freaky.
From there, they had raced over broken and uneven ground just as the sky blazed into a pale predawn glow. Fallon’s scream did not pierce just his ears, but also his heart. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure what was coming next. With one nod, Avedon ran around the side of the building. He studied the layout briefly before he chose a patch of earth to work with. His hands penetrated the soil to create thirteen-foot sturdy copper rods, diverting the deadly bolts into the ground.
Busting through the door, he saw a scene straight out hell.
Fallon and the helpless people she would destroy.
“What the hell are we supposed to do now?”
A keen wail and choked sobs ravaged his sister’s face. Her intense blue eyes, swallowed completely in obsidian, were unreadable, and head tilted heavenward.
She’d blasted a circle around her and the clearly dead man wrapped in her arms. Not everyone present had escaped her pain. Moans from the injured joined hers. At least she’d stopped screaming. Death was preferable to that soul-wrenching misery. Her suffering clawed at his insides.
It looked as if death would be the only way out of this.
The storm outside, and probably inside of Fallon, was only getting worse. Fissures and large seams split the arched, boat-style roof.
Michael’s voice soothed the people as he gathered everyone at the back of the church. He crammed everyone he could into a corner portion of the building where no electrical devices or our outlet could harm them.
Then Michael joined him.
The tenderness with which Fallon held the lifeless body spoke volumes of a day Wallace never believed he’d see.
“I think she just lost the man who’d stolen her heart. I’d hate to be on the receiving end of her vengeance.”
“Wallace. I need your head in this.” Michael’s voice cut through his thoughts with an icy coldness instead of the usual ear-bleeding tone. “Over there.”
Wallace saw what triggered Michael’s immediate cause for alarm. Every lightning strike outside increased in electro-magnet charge. They were sitting ducks as every stray spark looked to feed. Exposed wires spit tiny flickers, and ceiling lights and fans burst into flames.
“Your only focus, no matter what else happens, any fires you see, put the damn things out. But not in a way that’ll get us all electrocuted,” he added.
A two-year-old girl suddenly escaped her mother. She ran down the middle aisle. Straight into danger.
Michael gained the parents’ permission to hold and quiet the young girl with bows, ponytails, and a little blue-and-white-striped sailor dress.
“Shhh. Hush now, little one. All will be well in short order.” Michael’s harmonious cadence set the child’s, and others, minds at ease again. With a tiny thumb stuck in her mouth, her head rested on Michael’s massive shoulder, and two fat teardrops trickled down her rosy cheeks. A poignant quiet fell on everyone gathered around them.
Pop. Pop-crack-pop. Pop.
BOOM! CRACK! BOOM!!!
Whispers, pleas, and prayers swelled.
The complete darkness descended as lightning and thunder knocked out the backup generator.
A rush of wind whistled past Wallace, a message Michael sent too low for humans to hear.
“Avedon, I do not envy your next decision. Continue to ground Fallon’s lightning or keep this structure together, because all these people are dead if this building comes down on their heads.”
“On it.”
The power of Avedon’s gift brushed against Wallace before the deep indentions within the church walls sealed.
Wallace doused three fires, then unplugged every guitar, electric keyboard, microphone,
He couldn’t say he didn’t feel a little nervous due to the power left behind after every lightning strike. Whatever Fallon pulled from the earth sent a rumbling vibration through the ground beneath them, similar to a ten on the Richter scale.
“Can things get any worse?” Wallace asked.
“Yes. If some have their way.” The newcomer’s voice emanated from Heaven’s light, suffusing every dark corner.
“Hey. Could you tone it done a little?” Power and presence had silenced everyone but Wallace over the archangel’s arrival.
Weeping followed.
The faith-based being the humans wouldn’t remember tomorrow emerged. He towered over Wallace’s six and a half feet, and his white wings added another two feet to the seven-foot warrior’s body. Shoulder-length blue-black hair framed his hairless, but chiseled features.
Too bad it was a no-no to touch humans. He’d drop more panties in an hour than Wallace collected in a month.
Wallace scratched his head in confusion. Those obsidian star-filled eyes turned to him, and drawing his attention did not make Wallace feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
An audible swallow bobbed his Adam’s apple as large sandaled feet and unreal sculpted muscles that weren’t covered by a cream with solid gold adorned shoulder clip, toga stalked toward him.
Not one to be intimidated at a time when his sister’s life and human were in danger, he faced the superior being head on when he stopped a mere two feet away.
Ready to die, he asked, “Why the hell are you showing up now?”
Wallace didn’t know whether it was foolishness in taking on an Archangel or the endless grief Fallon suffered, but the Archangel never got the chance to rip him a new one.
A dark and malicious presence smothered the heavenly atmosphere Gabriel’s appearance had created.
“My d
aughter will be powerful in the face of my enemies.” It was Fallon’s mouth moving, but not her voice.
“Help her, dammit!” Wallace shouted over roaring winds that sounded like a freight train. With the windows destroyed and the church doors hanging by the hinges, the wind whipped unfettered through the church. The parishioners weren’t able to defend themselves against its ferocity. This was the most devastating worst-case scenario they could imagine about Fallon's losing control.
Avedon exchanged a meaningful glance with Michael. Wallace never saw such a bleak expression darken either one’s features.
If Fallon survived, she would not forgive herself for hurting these people.
“If you keep standing there doing nothing, the super cell of 2008 will look like child’s play. None of the lightning has reached us yet, but it will only be a matter of time.” Wallace could tell that his insolence did not disturb Gabriel’s blank, obsidian gaze.
Just when despair over the crappy position he found himself settled in, and hating their boss for standing about and watching her, the Guardian walked right into the maelstrom that was his sister, and grabbed her hand. A similar, unfocused pitch-dark blank stare turned to the Archangel like a possessed doll.
Gabriel’s immense hand engulfed the side of Fallon’s face.
The loving gesture seemed out of place to Wallace. The echo of a gentle declaration confused Wallace even more. “This one is lost to you, brother.”
Fallon’s head burrowed further into Gabriel’s palms. “You have betrayed me this day. Mercy won’t be so forgiving next time. The battle for Heaven and Earth has begun.” The male voice faded.
When obsidian receded to blue/violet, Wallace released a long rush of wind in gratitude.
Squatted down like Gabriel, Wallace oddly wondered if his sister could see the Archangel’s dangly bits under the short toga.
His weird line of thinking ended as the Archangel Gabriel asked,
“Do you accept my son?”
Wallace gasped and choked as if something had gone down the wrong windpipe. The dead man. His son. No way.
He struggled to keep up after that incredible revelation. Digging his finger into his ear as if that would help, he focused.
“Be careful with your answer, child, because from this moment on, the two shall become one, and Orion will need to begin his search for the next in line of his children.”
Whoa, that did not sound like the wonderful news one feels at learning their father is . . . a fucking constellation! However, this situation took precedence over daddy issues. One thing for certain, Lilith would have some explaining to do.
Her hair blew across her face as she angled her head to block some of the wind generated by the buildup of energy darkening the clouds outside. The light show that surrounded her forlorn expression reminded him of the little girl in the movie Poltergeist. The soft voice that held a world of pain pulled at his heart and brought tears to his eyes as he listened.
“Guardian, why didn’t you come any of the times I called you?” Fallon pressed.
The way she’d cried over the guy, Wallace had hoped she’d have had said yes.
“Now I can’t stop it. When Travis is with me, I can control my thoughts and power. Now that he . . . he . . . he isn’t here.” Her voice broke with a sob of agony Wallace wished he never had to witness.
“There isn’t much time, my child. This choice must be of free will.”
Everyone present appeared to hold their breath and sighed together as she screamed out in anger, “Yes, dammit.”
After another soul-bearing scream of anguish, Wallace couldn’t comprehend, quiet descended.
Then everything went to shit again.
A blast from a single bolt exploded through the ceiling.
His arm came up to shield his eyes as the searing flash linked her body and the Guardian’s, narrowing down into the guy with a hole through his chest.
Suddenly, he found himself thrown off his feet and hurled against a wall. Wind exploded from his lungs. Gasping for air, he picked himself off the floor.
Damn. That hurt.
Blinded by the infernal glare, he narrowed his eyes.
Then stared in horror.
The trio exploded in a power display that would put a Science Center’s glass ball of electricity to shame. Thin branches of currents weaved and interlocked the trio then lifted and dropped Travis’s body like a rag doll.
Wallace searched the church for his brothers.
Avedon shrugged his shoulders and saluted. Dumbass. Like this was their sendoff.
He found Michael with the people against the back wall. His symphonious voice soothed as he attended to the injured as best he could.
Whistling, Michael glanced his way. “What the hell is happening?” he yelled over the noise. “That doesn’t seem like it is helping the situation. I thought Fallon was scary before but this! This place can’t take much more.”
Glancing in Avedon’s direction, Wallace feared for his brother, who tried once again to steady the earth surrounding the church. Sweat poured from him. “I never thought I’d have to say this. But I can’t hold this one off.”
In a sudden instant, winds calmed as everyone waited and watched the trio for results. Travis’s inert body was not the charred remains Wallace expected. He appeared rested and without a trace of the blood that covered the Guardian or Fallon.
Then for some insane reason, the appearance of a luminescent glow around him had Fallon laughing like a lunatic.
“Since most here seem stunned by these developments and someone’s made statues of everyone but us. That is one cool trick. And you, Travis, I happily welcome you to the family. If you can prevent this from happening again, I would much appreciate it.”
As the couple held each other for dear life, no one but Wallace noticed the Guardian gently picked up the blond-haired woman with wings or the tear that slid down his face before he disappeared.
The Guardian returned moments later as if nothing happened.
After a few precious moments held tight within Travis’s embrace, Fallon eased away. When she gazed at each one of her brothers with questioning frown, they just shrugged.
The Guardian and the question she had for him could be put on hold now that they were family. All of them had walked into this blind, and her instincts said he had all the answers. But for now, she’d settle for one.
“Hey, can someone tell me how these people were frozen?” People in different poses, some with mouths wide-open, mid-blink, staring mannequins.
Travis answered with a goofy grin Fallon hadn’t seen before. “It seems now I have the limited ability to stop time.” Travis slowly turned back to her.
Sitting on the floor with her elbows resting on raised knees, she smiled, despite her bloody hands dangling between her legs.
Inching closer, he stated rather intimately, “Very soon I’m going to thank you properly for saving my life.”
Fallon saw the promise of commitment reflected back at her. Even though she accepted the Guardian’s terms, she was unsure she could fulfill her promise. Moreover, if what the Guardian said was true, she no longer had a say. Their lives were now linked.
She was about to ask the Guardian, who had remained silent the entire time, when Wallace interrupted her.
“Hey, Travis. You look very familiar.” Wallace removed his cell phone from his pocket and began pressing buttons. Suddenly, he stopped flicking his thumb over his cell. His jaw dropped, and he looked up at Travis to his phone.
Wallace’s antic may have amused everyone else, but all she saw in the Guardian’s expression was sorrow.
EPILOGUE
“I’m still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that the archangel Gabriel is your father.” Fallon ducked her head, her knee
brushing over Travis’s rising member. “That explains the glow. I had my suspicions.”
Travis’s Heavenly radiance shined brightest as he climaxed.
Fallon knew her thoughts weren’t right, but every time she tried to imagine the Guardian’s imposing figure, she could see his white wings shimmering with gold, unlike her unadorned black wings, and the sensual way they trailed behind him. Wicked and erotic versions of him getting down and dirty with a female made her shiver. “Brave woman” was all she could come up with. Proudly, well versed in the art of making love herself, she believed she would now see every male in a different manner.
Fallon peeked at Travis under lowered lashes and smiled. When it came to sizing up her man, he was perfect. Arms folded behind his head and her head resting on his naked chest. She ached deliciously.
“Yeah, it’s kind of cool knowing despite the years I felt abandoned and alone, he’d been watching over me ever since I was born.”
His chin lowered. “Any of Anebasi’s similarities went unconfirmed when I asked Gabriel, AKA our Guardian, about her. He refused even to speak on the subject.”
With startling speed, he rolled, taking her with him. With her underneath him now, Fallon recognized the look that entered his eyes as he came over her. Her tongue darted out, and a wicked smile formed on her lips. Drugged by his kiss, she relaxed further into the four-poster, king-size bed she had no plans to leave.
The boisterous sounds of her brothers drifted upstairs. After the day everyone had, she didn’t mind them raiding her video games.
The Guardian explained little about what New Fire meant. It was nothing as devastating as a full-scale apocalypse, but dire enough to change the face of the earth. Only Angels of the First Order understood its importance.
Destiny Strikes Page 20
