by J F Cain
“Death isn’t the end,” he muttered softly as if in prayer.
As his sword became enveloped in flames, the theurgist warrior leaped onto the werewolf and stabbed him with force. The creature leapt back with a cry and as he tumbled off the car he reached out and grabbed his executioner by the neck, dragging him to his death.
Fares kicked out what was left of the windshield so that the driver could see better.
“Now they know which car you are in,” he called loudly to be heard over the noise of the jeeps racing up the dirt road.
Suddenly a werewolf shot out of the forest and leaped onto the vehicle that had Aranes in it. While the creature was still in the air, Abaddon appeared in front of it in his angel form and his swords crossed in front of his chest. The werewolf had no time to react; the Dark Angel swung his arms out and his flaming swords cut off the head of the creature, whose eyes had bulged with astonishment at the sudden appearance. However, at the same time as the creature had leaped out of the forest, another werewolf had jumped onto the hood of the last jeep. From the impact and his weight, the back of the car lifted in the air and the car overturned as the werewolf jumped onto the roof of the vehicle ahead of it. With another two leaps he reached Abaddon and grabbed him from behind, trapping his arms. With his supernatural strength, the creature knocked the Dark Angel down and they crashed into the forest, snapping pine branches with their violent passage.
“Stop the car,” Aranes ordered, her eyes searching for her partner in the dark forest.
The four remaining jeeps braked abruptly and Aranes got out. The Guardians rushed to her side and formed a protective circle around her. With their swords in their hands, they scanned the area, constantly on guard. The cries of werewolves were heard coming from the forest, followed by silence. A creature’s head suddenly flew out from among the trees and tumbled to Aranes’ feet. She lifted her gaze and saw Abaddon coming out of the forest.
“That was the last one,” said the Dark Angel as he vanished his swords.
He then flashed to Aranes’ side, resumed his human form, and helped her climb into the car. The jeeps drove away, leaving behind them Brian’s bloodied head lying in the dirt road with its wide-open eyes reflecting the terror of looming death.
The convoy continued up the mountain. The hefty vehicles traversed the forest like black shadows with luminous eyes flitting among the tree trunks. After a few miles they reached a tall barbed wire fence. On it was a sign that said “Private property. No entry.” As they approached, Abaddon dematerialized the part of the fence that blocked their way, restoring it as soon as the jeeps had passed through. From there on the dirt road vanished. Rotting leaves and moss covered the earth and only the gap between the trees, like a natural corridor, indicated that there once was a road there. No one had taken it for centuries, and some curious souls who had tried to see what lay inside the private property had run away, panicked by the hostile shadows lurking in the forest. Therefore, no human had ever set eyes on the Exorcists’ fortress, even from afar, since the energy field protecting them from demonic attacks also made it invisible to human eyes.
The vehicles followed the old road until they reached a point where the forest ended, opening up into a large plateau that led to a cliff. There, with its back looming over a canyon, stood the Exorcists’ fortress. Behind the tall walls with the arrow slits stood three big towers with conical roofs. The granite boulders had witnessed hundreds of years that had darkened their initial color and now, as the first darkness fell, looked even grayer than before. Most of the arched windows in the towers were dark, except for those in the round stair turrets and on the last floor of the keep, where the lofty guest and her escort would be staying. However, a flickering light coming from large fires could be seen from the inner bailey hidden behind the walls. Covered by a transparent energy dome, the imposing fortress stood at the edge of the clearing, exuding an air of surreal mystery that made it appear not to belong to any particular time.
Abaddon’s heart clenched when he saw the dome.
“So we’re here,” he said sadly.
Aranes didn’t say a word; she simply nodded.
The moment we were both trying to avoid has arrived. And it’s only the beginning, she thought, hurting because of a fate that had been decided without them in a very distant past.
The four Land Rovers stopped a distance from the fortress’s gateway, where the protective dome began. Abaddon exited the car, helped Aranes down, and the two of them moved a few feet away so that the Guardians couldn’t hear them. He removed a cell phone from his jacket pocket.
“Keep it with you at all times. If you need anything or something happens that I don’t sense, let me know at once,” he said as he handed it to her.
A look of dismay crossed Aranes’ face.
“I don’t know if we’ll be able to communicate with the cell. The dome might block the signal.”
Abaddon saw his hopes of communication scatter in the wind.
“We’ll soon find out,” he said, controlling his irritation.
“If something happens to me and you don’t sense it for some reason, I’ll send an Exorcist to tell you,” she reassured him.
“Alright,” Abaddon replied with a sigh.
Aranes rested her hand on his chest.
“Take care,” she said, her voice filled with worried tenderness.
“And you take care of yourself and our child. These old towers conceal traps and have lots of steps. I hope the Exorcists prepared a suitable room for you.”
“I’m sure they did their best,” Aranes replied with a forced smile.
Abaddon looked around him. The Guardians in the cars and the Exorcists guarding the fortress from the turrets were looking everywhere else but at them. But that wasn’t enough for him. He conjured his large wings, covered Aranes and himself and wrapped her in his arms.
“Remember that no matter what happens, I’ll never stop loving you,” he said, resting his cheek on her hair.
Aranes pressed against him and tucked her face into the warmth of his neck.
“I will remember. But you must keep that thought in your mind too.”
Abaddon pulled back his head and looked at her intensely, as if wanting to imprint his words in her mind.
“And I will always be looking for a way for us to be together,” he declared.
Aranes regarded him, bewildered by his insistence on repeating the same promise.
“I’m sure you’ll find it,” she said sincerely. She lifted her hand from his chest and caressed his cheek. “And I will do everything in my power to keep your soul close to me,” she promised, repeating her wedding vow.
“I know, my love. I know,” he replied, caressing her hair reassuringly.
But beneath his feigned calm, his heart was drowning in despair. Aranes had riveted her sorrowful gaze on his. There was nothing she could do to at least soothe his pain, and she knew that no matter what she said, it wouldn’t comfort him. So she kept silent, like him. They stood there with their arms around each other, gazing at each other for an endless moment; two magnificent Angels overcome with love, wrapped in an eloquent silence. Abaddon couldn’t pretend to be calm any longer. He hugged her tightly and kissed her as if he wanted to absorb her entire being, take her inside him and carry her with him wherever he went, and never let her go.
The silence on the plateau was broken by the sound of metal. The gate’s two iron leaves squealed as they swung open on their massive hinges. Behind it, with the wide cobbled bailey and the looming keep as a backdrop, a host of black- and white-clad figures stood at attention in long lines. In front of them stood Kadu, the head of the Exorcists. They all waited, not looking at the couple hidden beneath the large gray wings.
With superhuman effort, Abaddon stopped kissing Aranes and for a brief moment stood there with his forehead touching hers, breathing her breath. He had to summon all his self-control to let her go.
“It’s time,” he said with a clouded
expression.
He lowered his hands and slipped them into his pants pockets to stop himself from taking her into his arms again. Aranes, who knew what future the Source had in store for them, tightened her arms around him one last time, as if wanting to imprint the feel of him on her body and mind.
Abaddon shut his eyes and exhaled loudly, the pained expression on his face reflecting the battle he was waging within.
“My love, please, go. I’m barely keeping myself from taking you back with me,” he said, gritting his teeth not to give in to the urge.
Aranes withdrew her arms and bent her head to hide her brimming eyes. She had always had total control over her emotions, but in that moment she wasn’t able to hold them in check. Leaving him seemed like the most difficult feat of her eternal life. She felt, more than at any other time since her incarnation, that her earthly nature was dominating her celestial one. Abaddon brought his bent finger under her chin and tilted her head up to see her beloved face one more time before they had to part. His heart bled when he saw the two tears escape her closed lids and roll down her cheeks. Despite all the dramatic events they had lived through in the months they had been together, he had never seen her upset, let alone cry. This proof of her love moved him deeply, but pained him just as much.
“They mustn’t see you like this. No matter what, you are the highest-ranking Angel,” he said, wiping the tears from her cheeks.
Aranes nodded and took a deep breath.
“I’m alright now,” she replied, forcing herself to smile.
Abaddon’s sorrowful gaze roamed over her face for a moment. Then he gathered his wings, absorbed them into his back, and took a step away from her. Aranes looked at him one more time with eyes filled with love and then turned toward the cars. The two of them headed silently toward the convoy. When they reached the jeep they had been riding in, he opened the door and helped her inside. Without taking his eyes off her for a moment, he closed the door and, as the convoy made its way to the fortress, he followed her with his gaze, until the heavy gate slowly closed behind her.
At that moment, he felt as if his life had ended. He thought he had prepared himself adequately for that moment, but he had been wrong. He stood motionless outside the dome that doomed him to loneliness, frozen by the torturous separation.
A mist crept out of the forest and covered the plateau, as if nature had pitied him and wanted to hide his unhappiness. A cold gust of wind hit him in the face, breaking through the sluggishness that had overcome him. He looked around him, as if just coming out of a time vacuum. The plateau was enveloped in a silent haze. Through the swirling veils of mist, the Exorcists guarding the walls watched him expressionlessly with their eerie eyes. He was overcome by a feeling of desolation. He stood there on his own, as if he were a pariah, unwanted in the higher planes, an Angel who had forgotten the way to heaven. The only one who could have led him there was Aranes, but the Source had forced her to leave him.
That thought was more than he could handle; it destroyed him. He clenched his fists to keep from screaming. He didn’t control himself to deprive Lucifer of the satisfaction—he had realized some time ago it would benefit him to show his human weaknesses. He did it so that he wouldn’t upset Aranes. He realized that, for the same reason, he had to leave the fortress at once. The mist didn’t hide him from the piercing gazes of the Exorcists, who could see the bad state he was in. And she might ask them what he had done after she had gone into the castle.
He left not only the plateau, but the entire planet, and entered dark, silent space. There, he hovered in emptiness with his arms spread wide, as if surrendering himself as a sacrifice to the god of pain. His mind, his heart, his soul—it all hurt. His head was swarming with thoughts and tortured questions as he tried to comprehend the fate that held sway over it all.
Aranes’ sad voice repeating her wedding vow intruded into his thoughts and opened his wound wider. He was overcome by the anxiety to find a way to get his partner and child back. But deep inside, he knew there was no point. The Source would decide if he would ever be with them again. With his eyes shut so that no tears would escape, he stayed there, suspended in cold dark space, battling with his human nature, which couldn’t bear his partner’s absence, desperate and alone.
In the bailey of the Exorcists’ fortress, time seemed to have stopped on a setting where past and present clashed. The fires burning in the iron braziers cast their trembling light on the stone walls and large gate, creations of a bygone era that came into stark contrast with the technologically advanced vehicles parked nearby. In front of the jeeps stood Aranes and behind her Eiael with her remaining Guardian escort, all in modern-day clothes. Across from the incarnated Celestial—with heads bowed and down on one knee—Kadu and his three hundred Exorcists were clad in garments of another era, and behind them knelt three thousand Guardians in white cloaks. The warriors of Light were lined up along the left and right sides of the bailey, having left open a wide passage leading to the keep’s wide-open entrance, which had been lit up with blazing torches.
A shiver of emotion vibrated the air. An awed shudder washed over the warriors of Light that unique, sacred moment when they had the honor of standing beside the supreme Angel.
Kadu stood up and approached Aranes.
“Welcome, Superior! You honor us with your presence here,” he said, bowing his head respectfully.
Aranes gave him a polite smile that didn’t manage to erase the sadness in her gaze.
“Thank you, Kadu. I am sorry you are having to do this.”
“We live to serve,” the Exorcist leader answered humbly.
Aranes’ gaze traveled over the kneeling Guardians. They all belonged to orders in North and South America. The rest, men and women who would be traveling from all corners of the Earth, would arrive in the coming days. She wondered sorrowfully how many of these warriors would survive the difficult attempt to protect her.
Eiael’s voice coming from beside her pulled her out of her thoughts.
“It was a tiring journey for you. You should rest,” she suggested, regarding her tenderly.
Aranes nodded.
“I will show you your apartment. Please follow me,” Kadu said, gesturing with his hand toward the keep’s entrance.
As soon as Aranes began to walk, a commanding voice began to issue orders. Exorcists and Guardians stood up with perfect synchronization and turned to face the passage they had formed between them. Aranes, with Eiael walking beside her and her escort following them, passed between the warriors of Light, climbed the wide steps and entered the keep.
The Guardians tilted their heads back and gazed at the stone hall that was lit up by torches in their iron wall sconces. It was much bigger than their castle’s entrance hall, but that wasn’t the only difference. The theurgists’ sensitive senses picked up a strange charge in the atmosphere. The vibrations were neutral, since the eerie beings that resided there had no emotions. They felt no love, fear, or hate—just a sense of duty to fulfil their mission. Even so, because of their unique nature and the energy dome surrounding the fortress, a deep sense of peace prevailed that became all the more stronger owing to an imperceptible difference in the density of matter. The keep stood in its own dimension, where two different cosmic planes overlapped, creating the mystical atmosphere of the invisible world.
With Kadu at the head, Aranes and her escort followed a vaulted corridor, reached the stair tower on the left side of the building and began to climb the winding stone staircase. Once they reached the second floor, their ascending journey ended temporarily and they entered a wide corridor that led to the middle of the keep. Kadu paused in front of a massive door and opened it to reveal a huge hall. Seventy-five by sixty-two feet in area and thirty-three feet high, it took up a significant portion of the keep. Its stone arches that cast their curved shadows on the walls supported balconies where the hunters of Demons gathered to listen to their leader when he addressed them. But of the thousand Exorcists that had on
ce existed, only a third or so remained, a void that was now only filled by the shadows in the hall.
With the small procession at his heel, Kadu passed by the dais from where he spoke to the Exorcists, opened the door at the hall’s other end and stepped out into a high-ceilinged gallery with stone arches that melded into the dark. From there, he continued on his way, leading them through a maze of dim corridors and winding staircases that seemed to have been built for the sole purpose of preventing uninvited guests from reaching the building’s highest point. When they reached the top floor, they passed by closed doors until they reached the end of the corridor.
Kadu stopped in front of a large wooden door with iron bolts and, after opening it, turned to Aranes.
“I hope I did not tire you,” he said with the civility typical of a creature of duty. “I felt that this was the safest place in the keep.” There was no point mentioning that if the big distances were a problem in her condition, there was always teleportation. She had obviously ruled it out as a means of getting from one place to another.
“No, Kadu, I will be fine,” Aranes answered.
She walked through the door and glanced around at the high-ceilinged room with its stone walls. The sparse furnishings, although bulky, made it seem even bigger than it was. There was only a double bed with a side table, a long table with some chairs, and a wardrobe, all wooden and built some centuries ago. The arched, fifth-floor windows on the left and opposite walls looked out onto the dark mountains. The austere environment was softened by the fire burning in the fireplace with an eerie reddish light—evidently not natural, since it had managed to warm up the big room that was exposed to the mountain range’s icy winds.
“I hope you will be comfortable,” said Kadu. “If you need anything, please let me know.”
