by Tamsin Baker
Fallen-
Part 3.
By Tamsin Baker.
Dedication:
To Nicole Morgan.
My friend.
Leader.
And inspiration.
Copyright © 2018 by Tamsin Baker
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED:
This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission. All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
Cover by: Winter Bayne
Edited by: Charmaine Ross
Contents Page:
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Prologue…. Last few pages of Fallen part 2.
All I could do was hold her tight and cling to the hope that the woman I knew was strong enough to claw her way back to us.
“More,” Margaret said.
Simone threw more of the water into Kadie’s mouth until the mug was empty and the room was filled with a pond like stench.
Kadie’s screams began to slow and then she was no longer fighting us.
Simone took a step back, but continued to watch Kadie with expectant eyes.
“Tabitha? Gabriel? What’s going on here?” Kadie’s eyes were now clear and she looked at me with utter confusion.
“Oh, thank you, God,” I declared to the sky and let go of Kadie’s arms.
Tabitha came forward with a towel and offered it to Kadie. She sat up and wiped at her mouth, pulling at the blanket to keep it up over her nakedness.
Bit late to be modest, but she didn’t know that.
I came around the table and pulled her into my arms, holding on as tight as I dared. I knew that all my prayers had been answered and now I would have to pay the piper for bringing home my girl.
“You came back,” I whispered, my heart knitting together stronger and brighter than before.
Kadie softened in my arms and pulled away so she could look up at me.
“Where’s my baby?”
I smiled down at her and touched her face with my fingertips for a moment in reverent prayer before I bent down to scoop up the helpless infant.
“Here he is.”
I gave him to his mother and he began to cry louder.
“He’s still hungry,” I said at her confused smile and she dropped the blanket to offer the baby her breast.
“Here you go,” Tabitha said, arranging a pile of pillows behind Kadie so she could rest back a bit.
The baby attached hungrily once again and Kadie gasped at the pressure.
“What happened?” Kadie asked, absently stroking our sons head. “And what on earth is that smell?”
I looked towards Simone and Margaret who stepped forward. They were looking at Kadie with a strange awe like wonder, which I wasn’t sure I entirely understood.
“I’m Margaret, and this is my niece Simone,” Margaret said. “Gabriel found us and asked us to come here and help you pull through.”
“Was I badly hurt?” Kadie asked, her gaze shifting to me, a lack of understanding clear in her gaze.
“Your wounds healed well,” I told her. “It was more the poison they’d fed into you via a drip.”
Kadie gasped and turned back to the women.
“You’re both Witches?” She asked.
“Yes,” Margaret said. “Simone is a new, untrained Witch like you. Yet, she has great power and a true innate ability for potions. She brewed the remedy that you can smell, and probably still taste.”
Kadie chuckled. “I thought there was something strange going on with my stomach, but as I am intensely grateful to be alive, I wasn’t going to ask about the flavour in my mouth.”
Tabitha handed her a cup of tea. “This will be really sweet, but your body needs the sugar. Drink up.”
“Thank you, Tabitha,” Kadie said, taking the mug and lifting the baby gently away from the heat of the water.
“Can I take him?” Tabitha asked, then proceeded to pick up the sleeping baby and rock him.
“So, what have I missed?” Kadie asked, hugging the blankets to herself and gripping the sugary tea like she needed it for an anchor.
I stepped up and explained what had happened at the castle that night, and everything since. Including the premonition from Jasmine.
“So, our son is two days old and people are already seeing visions of him saving the world?” She shook her head and laughed. “I know some parents have unrealistic expectations, but that’s a bit much.”
Tabitha brought our son closer again and spoke to Kadie softly.
“Your son’s conception and birth is a true miracle, Kadie. One that we have foretold for centuries. He will be immortal, like his father, like me. I am also a Fallen Angel, Witch conception. But I was not the saviour they had all predicted.”
Tabitha swallowed hard and for the first time I sensed the pain inside of her. The disappointment at being born the wrong sex. At the wrong time.
I reached out for Tabitha and lay a hand on her shoulder.
“You have been my saviour for five centuries Tabitha. You are perfect, just as you are.”
My Angel Agent. One of the smartest and kindest women I have ever known.
“Thank you, Gabriel, but we are going to lose this war if we aren’t careful.”
“What war?” Simone asked.
I sighed. This was not a discussion for humans.
“There has always been a war between good and evil,” Tabitha said, giving them a modified truth. “The Demons fight on the side of evil, and with their growth of power, comes a blow to our side. We can’t let them win the war, because we have no idea what they’ll do if they succeed in overcoming us all.”
Kadie pulled herself to sit up.
“Not to be selfish, in any way. But, what about me? With the whole immortality thing? Am I to die like a normal human?”
Kadie looked to me and I looked to Tabitha for the answer.
Tabitha pulled herself up straighter and I knew the answer wouldn’t be good. “My mother died at a normal age for a human of her era.”
“Which was when exactly?” I asked.
“1310,” Tabitha replied, a slight twitch at her shoulder belying the pain she’d gone through in seeing her mother die so soon.
Kadie slumped in her chair, pain rippling over her face. “And your father?” She asked.
Tabitha’s gaze darted away. “Died. At the hands of a Demon. Very soon after my mother died.”
A shiver coursed up my spine at the images those words invoked in me.
We rarely lost a Fallen Angel to a Demon. Unless there was a group attack, or the Angel was compromised in some way. Heart-sick perhaps?
“Tabitha?” I managed to say, though the question I wanted to know couldn’t be said.
She stared straight at me for long moments. “You know that Angels love with all their hearts Gabriel.”
Tears threatened my eyes as I looked away.
I did know that, and I’d once thought my love for Teramea would be my undoing. But as I looked at my son in Tabitha’s arms and Kadie resting, alive and smiling, I now knew what true love was.
Kadie caught my eye and she pulled herself up. “I need a shower and some food, and we need a plan. Because I don’t know about you, but I’m not really interested in sending my new born son off to war without me.”
Fire burned in my gut as my blood began to pump around my body with renewed heat.
The fight was on, and together we would stand.
Chapter 1.
Our son, Nathaniel, grew every minute o
f every day. His smile was as infectious as his laugh, and everyone who saw him fell in love with him. Instantly.
The pride being his father grew as fast as he did. But there was a black cloud on the horizon and despite our joy with Nathaniel, it was getting darker.
The worry in Kadie’s eyes grew larger every day.
It had been a month since Nathaniel’s birth and he was the size of a nine-month-old. Laughing and crawling and a generally happy child.
But how long would that continue? Tabitha said she didn’t remember how long it took her to become fully grown, or she was lying because she didn’t want to tell us. At the rate he was currently growing, within two years we’d have ourselves an adult son.
That was only if we could keep him alive until then.
The attacks on Witches had increased. There were now dozens. Nightly. And neither the Witches, nor Tabitha could work out why they were continuing.
To me, it was obvious. They still hadn’t got what they wanted.
Every night I left Kadie and my son in Tabitha’s realm and went back to Manhattan hunting and killing Demons, while Margaret and the elders of the covens tried to unravel the mystery of what the Hell creatures wanted.
Myself, I had so many questions. What was the poison that Kadie had been injected with? And if they took something from her during her torture that they could use, what could it mean for all of us?
Jasmine had moved back home with her husband and daughter. She hadn’t seen a Demon since she’d stopped nursing my son. Of which I was glad.
The day before Jasmine had returned to her home, I’d asked Margaret to cleanse the house and put a protection spell over the building.
Whether it worked or would continue to do so I didn’t know, but Jasmine had been very happy with the gift. For me, I was still trying to assuage some of the guilt I felt putting her in such a dangerous situation.
At a loss for what else to do, I was thinking that perhaps it was time to go back to the castle once more. Maybe I’d missed something that last time?
“Do you think I should come with you?” Kadie asked from the door way, reading my thoughts accurately.
I turned to greet her as she walked towards me with Nathaniel in her arms.
“How’d he sleep?” I asked, putting my arms up for my child. He giggled and practically jumped off his mother to come to me.
“Like an angel,” Kadie answered with a huge grin on her face.
I bounced my beautiful chubby boy on my knee as he grabbed hold of my hands and pulled himself up to a stand.
“So strong already,” I said, admiring the determination in his face and the look of sheer joy once he’d succeeded in his task.
“He is,” Kadie sighed and I could hear the pain behind her proud words.
She was still terrified that Nathaniel would outlive her by centuries. According to Tabitha, it was the natural course of things, but I wasn’t having it. My son did not need to be an orphan before he’d even gotten to know his parents. I didn’t know how I was going to change Kadie’s mortality, but I would speak to the Witches after this was all done and work on a plan to fix it somehow.
First, we needed to save the world from the invasion coming.
“Do you think that would be wise?” I asked, addressing her original question about coming with me. “You might have flash backs that would upset you.”
And after everything she’d already been through, the last thing I wanted Kadie to feel, was more pain.
“That’s exactly why I should go,” she argued. “I might remember something that’s useful. Because, you know… nothing else is working at the moment. The Demons are getting more and more numerous, and the Witches are doing nothing helpful. At this rate, they’ll be lucky to have any Witches left in New York.”
That was true. There had been more and more young Witches taken, some of them even killed in the process of the kidnapping.
An idea lit up my mind. One That had never occurred to be before now. “Maybe they’re not really kidnapping them for a purpose. Maybe they want to remove them from the fight before it begins. If they take away all the powerful Witches from the state, they can bring forth their armies with no resistance. The humans can’t fight them, after all.”
Kadie bit her lip and chewed on it for a moment in thought. “Yes, but why bother? It’s not like the New York Witches are a united force. Or are well trained in the art of killing Demons. No… I think it’s more subtle and insidious than that. They have a larger goal.”
I sighed, deflated. “I think you may be right.”
But what was their real plan? “Did they take anything from you when you were there? Blood? Energy? Magic?”
She looked at me strangely and then began to grin. “You’re seriously asking me that? I have no idea what they took from me. Especially in terms of magic. I can’t even boil water, or summon anything to eat.”
Tabitha had been working with Kadie since she’d healed from her poisoning, and Kadie’s skills were not coming on as everyone had expected. In fact, she had barely any magic at all. If Margaret and Tabitha were to be believed.
Which of course, I did not. I had a lot more faith in her than that.
“I’m not sure about that, Kadie. I’ve seen you do some pretty incredible things.”
Even when half dead and nine months pregnant, she had fought off Demons with nothing more than the power that shot out from her palms. Had could that possibly be someone who had no magic?
Kadie lifted her arms and stared down at her hands in disappointment.
“Maybe I gave it all to Nathaniel and when he grows up he’ll be super powerful. Or maybe it’s all gone, not that I had any control over it in the first place.”
I pulled her onto my lap and her arms went around my neck. She shouldn’t be feeling so defeated when I was so grateful just to have her back alive.
She sighed heavily, dropping her head onto my shoulder. What could I say to make her feel better?
“Kadie, I know that when it comes time to fight, you’ll be right there by my side protecting the world and our child from whatever evil things come our way. They wanted you gone from this world so you wouldn’t have Nathaniel. And once you’d conceived him, they wanted to do… God knows what to you. To him.”
I still shuddered to think what they would have done with my two loves if Kadie had given birth in the castle.
She popped her head up. “Why are you so certain that I’ll be there by your side? Why do you have so much faith in me?”
Oh, that was easy. “Because I know you. Your heart is pure and your soul has the strength of a warrior. I told you what Jasmine said to me about you being there?”
She nodded.
“Well I wasn’t surprised she said it, not at all. I knew, that if you pulled through from the poisoning that you’d be back, fighting with me. I have every faith in you, and I know that together, we can work this out, and we can fight whatever’s coming.”
Her eyes lit up with a joy I hadn’t seen in months, and behind it was her grim determination.
“Then you need to take me back to the castle, Gabriel. Let’s ask Tabitha if she’ll watch Nathaniel and we’ll go.”
My Angel Agent walked in the room at that moment and scooped our son off the ground where he was sitting and playing.
“Of course, I’ll watch our beautiful boy,” Tabitha cooed, holding Nathaniel tightly and kissing him on his chubby cheek.
She’d practically adopted him the moment he was born.
“We’re going back to the castle,” Kadie announced, jumping up off my lap.
Tabitha’s gaze slid over to mine, a warning clear in the blue depths. “Be careful, both of you. Please. That place is the centre of evil.”
She wasn’t wrong. The evil had pervaded my soul every time I’d gone there. If we didn’t have to go back, it was one place I could happily avoid for the rest of my existence.
“I know, and that’s why we need to go back there,” Kadie count
ered, grabbing her jumper that was laying on the back of the chair. “We only have a few hours until sundown, Gabriel, so let’s go. Please.”
I weighed up my options and came to the same conclusion. Kadie may be the only one who would recognise something I couldn’t because she’d been there as an unwilling captive and would know if something was important, or out of place.
“All right. But we’re going to need some powerful fog lights to take with us. The main room you were kept in has no lighting and the castle is dark and dingy.”
Not to mention the fact that it appeared to be a portal of evil to the underworld with a magical darkness that allowed Demons to exist in the daylight.
“Right. I have something like that” Tabitha said and disappeared with the baby.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” I asked Kadie one more time’.
She rolled her eyes. “Of course, I do. You’re the one dragging your feet.”
She raised a single eyebrow at me and I couldn’t help but laugh at her confidence. We could both die and she was making jokes. Of course, she was.
“We should wait for the Witches” I argued one more time.
Kadie snorted. “Not a chance.”
I tried not to laugh, but I shared her feelings. The Witches had been little to no help since Kadie had awoken’, but I still owed them big time for bringing her back to me.
Tabitha entered the room once again and handed me two huge torches while still juggling Nathaniel on her hip. She didn’t put him down unless we made her, which wasn’t often.
“We’ll be back in a few hours.,” I told my Agent and she nodded.
“Just be careful.”
I picked up Kadie and walked outside into the warm air. I loved the feel of her in my arms. It seemed right, and perfect. Like she was meant to be there. Always.
I grimaced at my failed attempt to switch my mind into warrior mode.
I had moments of regret sometimes, for the softness Kadie had caused inside me. I no longer wanted to ravage the planet and fight every war. I craved her closeness, the love of my son. Peace.
And they were not feelings I was comfortable with, not those that I needed in this moment. This truly was the calm before the storm.
