Your Soul to Take (Rise of the Fallen)

by Hayden, Sean

  My sister harrumphed, crossed her arms and refused to even pick at her food anymore. I looked over at Clarisse to see how she was handling the situation. She was just staring in awe at the cattiness of my sister.

  “Sister, dearest, may I speak to you outside for a moment?” I left little room for her to disagree.

  “Fine,” she said and rose from the table, bolting for the front of the restaurant before I even got up.

  “Brat. Excuse me. We’ll be right back.”

  “Connor,” Clarisse said. “Go easy on her. We did screw up.”

  “I will,” I said and gave her a brief smile.

  “I don’t blame you for kissing him,” I heard Elizabeth mumble to Clarisse. Apparently she forgot my hearing was better than hers. So with blushing cheeks, I walked past the hostess stand and out the front door to talk to Cae. I had no idea what I was going to say, but it would have been good. If she had been there.

  I looked around and saw no trace of her anywhere. “Little shit,” I said pulled out my cell. I dialed her and held it to my ear, but it went straight to voicemail. “She shut off her damn phone.”

  I turned around and went inside. Clarisse saw me and frowned. “What happened?”

  “Little shit took off.” Just then the waitress finally brought my breakfast.

  “What do you want to do?”

  I looked at Clarisse and then at my pancakes. “Let’s finish eating. If she wants to be a brat and run away, let her.”

  I sat down and dumped syrup on my pancakes and ignored the worried look that Elizabeth shot between Clarisse and me.

  “What?”

  “Bad guys ripping souls out of people like your sister and me?”

  Shiiit. I sighed heavily and stabbed my fork into my pound of delicious pancakes. “You’re right. Let’s go find her.”

  I watched Clarisse toss a couple of twenties down on the table and waited for me to slide out of the booth. “Let’s go.”

  “You take the SUV, swing by your house to see if she’s there. If not, go to my house. It’s the only two places she would go. Claire, you take to the air and follow Elizabeth, see if you can spot Cae. She may be fast but she’s not as fast as Elizabeth driving. I’m heading straight home to look for her there.”

  “Okay,” they both said in unison.

  I walked away from the entrance and without giving a shit, called my wings and leapt into the cold night air. I could have flown straight home, but I followed the roadways, looking for my sister the entire way. Without any sign of her, I landed in my front yard, banished my wings, and entered the house.

  The lights were off, my parents were asleep, and my sister wasn’t in her room. Nor had she been there. She had to have gone to Elizabeth’s to sulk. I walked outside to wait for Clarisse and her to show up, hopefully with my sister in tow.

  When the SUV pulled up I knew something was wrong. She wasn’t with them. I could tell by the look on their faces. When they saw me sitting on the front porch, they knew she wasn’t home either.

  Elizabeth got out first and looked very worried. “She’s not here?”

  “No. Not at your house either?”

  “Obviously not. What do we do?”

  “Well, she couldn’t have gone far,” I said.

  Claire opened the SUV door. “What if she didn’t run away?”

  “What?”

  “What if she was taken?”

  I didn’t know what to do, so I ran. I ran and jumped into the air and flew all the way back to Denny’s. I landed in the middle of the parking lot, turned back into a human, and scoured the front, looking for anything to tell me where my sister had gone.

  There was nothing.

  A few minutes later, Clarisse and Elizabeth pulled up. Something that Cae said gave me an idea. “Cae said she could always feel where you were because she fed from you… Does that work both ways? Can you tell where she is?”

  Elizabeth looked confused. “She didn’t tell me that. I don’t know.”

  “Try?”

  She closed her eyes and turned in slow circles. “Apparently not?”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Pretty friggin’ sure I have no friggin’ clue where your sister is. I’m sorry. It would have been awesome, but I can’t.”

  “Sorry. I know. Clarisse? Do you have any ideas?”

  “I don’t know. I’m sorry, Connor.”

  “Well, we’re not going to solve anything sitting here. Let’s go to the house and come up with a game plan.”

  The three of us drove back in Elizabeth’s SUV. We were all quiet and understandably worried about my sister. When we pulled up into the driveway and saw her sitting on the front step, Clarisse and I jumped out before Elizabeth had it in park.

  “Where the hell did you go?” I’ll admit. I probably could have started the conversation a little more calmly.

  “Home.”

  “We were here, you weren’t. We’ve been looking everywhere for you!”

  “I walked slowly? What’s the big deal?”

  I fell to my knees and sucked in a great big breath of air. Relief that my sister was okay flooded my body. I felt like passing out.

  “You scared the hell out of us, Cae,” Clarisse said from behind me. “We thought you were taken.”

  “Why didn’t you answer your cell?” I chimed in, too.

  “It’s dead. And shit, I’m sorry. I didn’t think of that. I just got really pissed off and wanted some time alone.”

  “Alone is fine, just make sure you’re with us,” I said and stood. I know she hated it, but I walked over to her and gave her a hug. “Don’t scare me like that again. Please. I lost you once and I don’t want to do it again.”

  “I won’t. Promise,” she said and actually returned the hug.

  “Can we go to sleep now? We do have school in the morning,” Elizabeth said from her SUV.

  Chapter 25

  I groaned as I passed through the doors of school. I moaned as I walked to my locker. Luckily, Jessie was standing there or I might have collapsed in utter dismay.

  “Hey, handsome,” she said with her usual early morning chipper smile. It was one of the few things I couldn’t stand about her. Mornings were meant to be slept through, damn it.

  “Hi, beautiful. I don’t suppose you have a cup of coffee in your pocket for me?”

  “Um, no. I did have one, but it spilled. Good thing I was wearing Khaki pants.”

  I laughed and gave her a good morning kiss after searching the hallways for lurking teachers. “It’s the thought that counts. Thank you.”

  “Will you two stop sweetening up the hallways? It’s gross,” my sister said as she passed us, making gagging noises.

  “Stop looking!”

  “Come on, we’re gonna be late,” Jess said and pulled on my jacket sleeve.

  We settled into homeroom just as the bell rang. The class quieted down with assistive shouts from our teacher. Mrs. Jacoby took her place at the podium and looked out over the small sea of faces sitting before her. Something in the back caught her eye and she gave a brief nod.

  “Class, we’re getting a new student today. Charles, come up here and introduce yourself.”

  He swished as he walked up the aisle. I caught a flash of corduroy out of the corner of my eye and looked up to see a very tall blond kid walk by. Without any hesitation, he took the offered podium and smiled out at each of us, catching as many eyes as he could, until his eyes met Jessica’s. The smile that crept onto his face turned my curiosity into instant dislike.

  “Hi, I’m Charles. Willoughby. My family and I just moved here from Los Angeles. Don’t ask me why, I’m still not quite sure. Not that Cedar Hills isn’t lovely, it’s just not LA. It’s nice to meet you all,” he finished, flashed one more smile at my girlfriend, and walked back to his seat in the back.

  I looked over at Jess, who had turned to follow his movements. She had a curious look on her face until he sat down. She gave him a small smile and turned to look
at me.

  “Love you,” she whispered and turned her attention back on Mrs. Jacoby.

  Veins started popping out on my forehead, my vision darkened, and I screamed as I ripped the desk in front of me neatly in half. Okay, none of that happened, but my eye twitched as I fought down the jealous monster welling up from inside me.

  Thankfully, the bell for first period rang. I stood, as close to Jess as inhumanly possible, and waited for her to pack up her things. For the first time in my life, I was actually looking forward to algebra.

  “You okay?”

  I turned and looked at a bemused Jessica walking alongside me, with the barest of smiles on her lips. “Of course. Why would you ask?”

  “Well. That was the first time I’ve ever seen you jealous before. And all over a pretty blond head, smiling at little ole me.”

  “I wasn’t jealous.”

  “Liar.”

  “Maybe a little.”

  “It was hot.”

  “Okay, I was very jealous and I thought about ripping his face off.”

  “And now you know how I feel ninety percent of my day.” She patted me on the head, and walked ahead of me to class.

  “Well, damn,” I whispered and caught up.

  We settled into class and fell into an easy silence. Until Charles came in right as the bell rang. I tried to be good, I honestly did, but I looked around the nearly full room and noticed the only empty seat was on the other side of Jess. I growled.

  People from three seats away turned to look at me. Jess covered her mouth and suppressed a giggle fit. She was enjoying this. Too much. Way too much.

  “Class, this is Charles. He’ll be joining our class for the remainder of the year. Please give him a warm welcome,” Mr. Thompson called out to the class. “Take the empty seat over there.”

  Chuck wandered through the aisle and smiled yet once again when he saw who he would be sitting next to. “Hi,” he said softly as he slid into his new seat.

  “Hi. Charles, this is Connor, my boyfriend,” she said and leaned back to introduce me.

  I plastered on a fake smile and curled my hand into a fist to avoid flipping him the bird as I nodded in his general direction. His smile evaporated as he got a good look at me. Then he glanced at Jess, back at me, and repeated it several times before clenching his jaw and staring straight ahead.

  “Wow,” I whispered and lifted my eyebrows.

  Jess just looked confused. With a shrug, she opened her book and paid attention to Thompson.

  Halfway through class, I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye. Chuck reached over and dropped a folded piece of paper onto Jess’ desk. It took him all of twenty minutes to pass her a note. A note! Who even does that anymore?

  Jess covered it with her hand.

  I gripped the edge of my desk and pretended not to notice. The creaking of shearing metal could be heard, if one had super-hearing, as I strained not to rip the bolts holding the desktop down. Jess unfolded the note, took one glance at it, folded it back up and handed it back to him.

  Whew.

  I took a chance and looked over at him. He looked even less happy than before.

  The rest of the class passed rather quickly, but not quick enough for me. I kept glancing up at the clock, watching the minute hand tick by, wanting nothing more than to get away from the jerk-wad who seemed to have a thing for Jess.

  Finally, the bell rang. I gathered my things slowly, not wanting to seem anxious. Jess actually finished before I did and waited for me. I looked up at her as I stood. Her face almost caused me to fall back into my chair. “What?”

  “Let’s go,” she whispered, her face as white as new snow.

  I nodded, slipped my arm through hers, and led her out into the hallway. “What’s wrong?”

  “He’s one of them.”

  “Who?”

  “Us. Chosen. The Council found out I’m not human anymore. They sent him to observe me.”

  “Is that bad?”

  “It wasn’t until I introduced him to my Fallen boyfriend…”

  “Oh.”

  “Yeah.”

  “So what did he say?”

  “He mentioned something about your lineage and that I am to accompany him to my father at the end of the school day.”

  “Are you?”

  “Am I what?”

  “Going with him?” Jealousy was replaced with anger and subtle hatred.

  “I think I have to? I don’t know. I’ll call Daddy at lunch. See what he says. I’m a little pissed off at him, too. He didn’t mention that we might be getting a representative from the council snooping around.”

  “Maybe he didn’t know. I’m sure he would have if he did.”

  She nodded but didn’t seem entirely convinced. “It figures.”

  “What does?”

  “We’re off for two weeks. He had to show up today.”

  * * *

  Jess sat next to me at our usual lunch table, but instead of tearing into her salad like she normally did, she whipped out her phone and her fingers flew across the keyboard.

  “Whatcha doin’?”

  “Texting my father,” she replied without looking up or stopping.

  “Tell him I said hi.”

  She shot me an exasperated look. I had been shooting for making her smile. I failed miserably. She looked truly worried. “Why don’t you call him?”

  “I tried on the way down to lunch. He didn’t answer.”

  She hit the send button and finally set the phone down and picked up her plastic fork. I was halfway through my second hamburger when I noticed she was just pushing the lettuce around her Styrofoam bowl.

  “You should try actually eating it. I’ve heard that stuff is pretty good for you. Makes your wing feathers lustrous.”

  “Connor, I love you, but I’m not in the best of moods.”

  “I noticed. Just trying to make you smile.”

  She set down her fork with an exasperated sigh and closed her eyes. She started breathing in and out and finally put a smile on her face before turning to face me. “Thanks. And sorry.”

  “Don’t be. You have every right to be upset. It’s just my job to make you smile. That and it makes me happy.”

  “Shush. You’re going to make me blush.”

  “I’m surprised you can stomach being around his filth.”

  We both turned to find Chuck standing behind us, tray of food in his manicured hands. “Well, if it isn’t Percy Perfectpants. The asshole table is two down. I’m sure they saved you a seat.”

  Jess elbowed me in the ribs. “Not helping,” she whispered.

  “Apparently, Lady Jessica still has some human tendencies for bad boys. No worries. We’ll straighten her out. Show her the proper path. Quell her urge for junk food.”

  “Well. Hiya, Cabriel. Long time no see,” Clarisse said as she slid into the open seat across from Jess and me. “How long has it been? At least a century. I believe the last time I saw you, you were stuck on the end of my blade. Wasn’t it during the California Gold Rush?” Disinterestedly, she picked up her burger and took a large bite out of it, looking up and giving him a big smile, showing a mouth full of food.

  “Animals. Jessica, please accompany me elsewhere. I cannot stand to be in their presence any longer and I don’t wish them to tarnish you further.”

  “Um… No? I have called my Dad. I’m waiting to talk to him about you. I highly suggest you leave me alone until I hear from him.”

  He seemed utterly confused, but turned around and walked away anyway. I resisted the urge to throw the rest of my burger at him.

  As soon as he was gone, Clarisse put down her food and looked at us in all seriousness. “When did he show up?”

  “This morning,” we replied in unison.

  “Great,” she said drawing out the word.

  “You know him?”

  “Yeah. He’s the Chosen Council’s do-boy. What did he say?”

  “That I am to ‘accompany h
im after we leave this place of learning’ and that he doesn’t like my boyfriend.”

  “Yeah. He could probably smell Connor a mile away. I told him to shower more often.”

  Jess giggled. I gave Clarisse the bird. “What does he want?”

  “Probably to indoctrinate Jess into the mindless drivel that is the teachings of the Chosen. Perfect world, blah blah blah.”

  “Are they all that bad?”

  “Take one look at Shannon and ask me again.”

  “Good point,” Jess replied. “What does that mean for me? I know my dad was someone big, but he won’t go into detail about it. Now he has hardly anything to do with them.”

  “You don’t know?” Clarisse looked at Jess who shook her head. She looked at me and I shrugged. I didn’t have a clue either.

  “Okay, you know Lucifer was the head of the rebellion?”

  We both nodded. “Yeah, but everyone calls him the Usurper.”

  “Yes. Because he tried to usurp your father’s role as the leader of all. We lost. The Chosen won, but eons later, he abdicated the throne. When he fell in love with a human…”

  “Oh,” Jess said simply.

  Things started clicking in my brain. “That’s why they call her Lady Jessica.”

  “Not as dumb as you look, worm. Good job.”

  “I thought the Archangel Gabriel was the ruler of the angels? I mean I never really went to church, but every book I have ever read, paints him as the head honcho?”

  Clarisse looked at Jess, a little surprised. She started nodding slowly. “What’s your father’s name?”

  “Gabriel James… You’ve got to be kidding me. I mean come on. My father is that Gabriel?” She didn’t look convinced.

  I felt a knot in my chest. Of all the people to end up with as a potential father-in-law…

  “Yup. You’re sorta royalish,” Clarisse said with a grin, giving Jessie her best star-struck look.

  “No. Daddy would have told–” She was silenced by the ringing of her phone. “Hello,” she said as she picked up. Clarisse and I sat and waited patiently while Jess had a muted conversation with her father explaining the situation and flinging questions and accusations at him faster than I had ever heard her speak. Of course we could hear the whole conversation, but we pretended not to. Finally, she angrily hit the end button and slammed her phone down on the table, shattering the screen. The entire lunchroom turned and looked at her.