Angels of the Knights

by Valerie Zambito

  “Whatever you say,” the Kjin commented non-emotionally. His name was George Manson, a lawyer in a nearby county. He came when summoned like the good soldier he was, but Marc knew him to be ambitious. That he wanted Marc’s position in the organization was assured.

  Over my dead body, Manson.

  Marc turned from the Kjin and glanced out of the picture window at Lake Rushden glistening in the early morning sunrise. This lake house was the perfect meeting place. His wife, Ellie, knew not to come here. He forbade her from ever stepping foot in this house without his knowledge and, after all these years, she knew better than to cross him. “How many are here?”

  “Including me and you, nine. Brent Calloway is coming in from New York City tonight, but he needs another body. Cancer.”

  Marc waved his hand in the air. “He can have my liaison at the church.”

  George’s eyebrows rose. “He’s human?”

  “Yes, but not for long,” Marc sneered.

  George chuckled. “Does he know that?”

  “Of course not.” He shrugged. “Not that it would matter much. For a human, he is quite wicked. Soulless, in fact. I don’t think the transition to Kjin is going to be very hard for that one.”

  “What has he done?”

  Marc laughed and pointed with his chin. “Have a peek inside that room on the left over there.”

  George looked where he indicated and made his way down the short hallway to the door.

  Marc followed behind him. “Go ahead, open it.”

  George reached out and turned the knob, and as soon as he did, frightened squeals pierced the quiet. The door swung open and revealed two dirty, terrified children huddled in the corner.

  Fallon prowled around her bedroom impatiently. What was keeping Kade? After going to St. Mary’s Cathedral first thing this morning and finding it empty, she immediately returned home expecting to find him here or at his house, but there was no sign of him. And, that was hours ago.

  What could be keeping him?

  She thought about Julian’s warning again that the Kjin were gathering specifically for her. But, even more distressing was the fact that they were structured now. Just here in the northeast or all over the world? How far up the chain was Marc Ellis? Was he singularly ambitious or did even he report to someone higher in the organization?

  Then, there was Father Tomas. Where did he fit in? He was not a Kjin, but why would a devoted Emissier side with evil? And, if he was that evil, why had he not changed into a Kjin yet? Suddenly, it hit her. He did not turn so he could have access to what was happening in Emperica. How much information had he already shared with his covetous rabble?

  So many questions, but it was the answers that she would need to protect the people of Alden.

  A knock sounded on the door downstairs, and Fallon cautiously made her way down the steps. Through the side panels of the door, she saw that it was Kade and breathed a sigh of relief that he was okay. She jumped down the remaining stairs and opened the door. “What took you so long?” she asked as she threw her arms around his neck.

  He lifted her off her feet and entered the house, slamming the door shut with his foot. “It was not easy to convince my family to leave town.”

  She untangled herself from him and could see that he was upset. “What happened?”

  “I can’t really blame them I guess, but they immediately jumped to the conclusion that the danger I told them they were in was from drug dealers I was associated with. They were even talking about an intervention for me.”

  “Drug dealers? But, your parents know you were innocent of those charges, don’t they?”

  “They did, but it was the first thing they thought of and, in order for them to go, I had to let them think that’s what it was. What else could I tell them? That evil demons may be stopping by to steal their bodies? It was much easier for them to believe the story about drug dealers.”

  “I’m sorry, Kade.”

  “Don’t be. We will get it straightened out later. Right now, their safety is the most important thing to me.” He looked around the foyer nervously. “Come on, let’s go up to your room. I feel like we’re too exposed down here with all of the windows.”

  “Is that the cop talking?”

  “No, the obsessed boyfriend. Now go.” He pushed her ahead of him and she climbed the stairs. “What happened with Father Tomas?”

  She opened the door to her bedroom and went in. “He wasn’t there. Nobody was.” She turned to him. “I have to get to your uncle, Kade. He tried to kill me, and he is going to be furious when he finds his family gone. He is too dangerous to leave alive.”

  Kade nodded. “I think I know where he may be.”

  She was instantly alert. “Where?”

  “His lake house on Rushden.”

  “Why do you think he would be there?”

  He raised his eyebrows. “Because I’ve been racking my brain about peculiar habits of his and just realized that we have never been invited there.”

  She was about to ask him another question, but froze when all of the lights in the house went out. She put a hand over Kade’s mouth to silence him, but he shrugged her away. He was a cop, she realized. He would know not to make any noise.

  She pulled her Aventi out and activated it against her arm to give them light.

  The sound of glass breaking shattered the quiet. Kade gripped her arm and stepped in front of her.

  Really, my dear, brave Kade?

  She shook her head, but let him take the lead. He did have his conditions, after all.

  Slowly, they made their way down the stairs. When they reached the bottom, Kade nodded with his head toward the kitchen and she followed behind him. As soon as Kade crossed beneath the door frame of the kitchen, he made a choking sound and slumped to the floor.

  The Kur on Fallon’s arm burned as she leapt over Kade’s prone body and swung her Aventi at the dark figure standing over him.

  Expecting only one person to be in the house, the Kjin opened his eyes wide in surprise and had no time to defend against her strike. He screamed out and fell to the ground when the Aventi penetrated his chest. The deadly black wraith burst out of the body as a roaring, angry shadow.

  Kade was stirring.

  She ran back to him and straddled his body, standing over him protectively with her sword of light raised in the air. “Stay down!”

  Another Kjin burst through the front door. Kade ignored her warning and crawled out from beneath her shielding stance. “I’ll get this one,” he said, standing and running from the kitchen.

  The shade in front of her tried to pursue Kade, but she held him back with the Aventi. “Not happening, Kjin. The only place you’re going today is back to Mordeaux.”

  The demon wraith let out a frustrated, ear-splitting shriek as it zoomed around the tiny space. It only had seconds to secure a new body, and when that did not happen, it exploded apart and fell to the ground in a pile of dust.

  Turning, Fallon ran out of the kitchen to help Kade, but he did not need it. She got there just in time to see his last punch knock the Kjin out cold.

  “Nice,” she murmured, and stabbed the evil demon with probably more force than was necessary, and this Kjin, too, burst into cinders when she thrust her Aventi at it a second d time.

  “Are there any more?” Kade asked, his body bladed for a fight.

  She shook her head. Her Kur had gone cold. “No.”

  She sat on the bottom step of the staircase to catch her breath. “You know, your uncle is not going to stop until I’m dead.”

  He sat beside her. “I would have to be dead first for that to happen,” he whispered under his breath.

  She reached over to touch his cheek. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine. The first guy karate-chopped me in the throat.”

  “Kade, I know you want to protect me, and I love you for that, but can I talk you into letting me do this alone?”

  “No.”

  “Thi
s is not like anything you have ever done as a cop.”

  “No.”

  “But…”

  “No.”

  Fallon let out a frustrated scream. “Are you always this stubborn?”

  “Only where you’re concerned.”

  “It’s going to be dangerous.”

  “Then, why are we still sitting here talking about it?”

  She took his measure for several long seconds and liked what she saw. “We leave at dark.”

  Kade turned the Jeep down a dead end street that ended at a wooden fence protecting the sandy beach of Lake Rushden. He turned off the ignition, and Fallon studied the contour of his face in the moonlight. He was so handsome. Even without a smile, his dimples were visible as he clenched his jaw in thought “I don’t like this,” he muttered.

  “What?”

  “It feels like a trap.”

  “It is a trap.”

  He turned toward her. “Then why are we going in?”

  I’m going in because I have no choice. I have to eliminate Marc Ellis and the threat he poses to Alden. You’re going in because of your conditions.”

  “About that. I decided I may have been a bit hasty with those demands.”

  She scrunched her face at him. “Oh, really?”

  “From here on out, my only condition is the one about me helping you. I changed my mind about the bikini. You can fight in that any time.”

  “Kade, this is serious.”

  He smiled at her in the dark. “I know, Fallon. Your fellow Knight, Gabe, and I used to use humor to cover our fear all the time.”

  That surprised her. “Are you scared now?”

  “I would be an idiot not to be. Aren’t you?”

  “Only for you.”

  He was silent for a moment. “So, Emperica really is beautiful?”

  “Indescribably so. Why are you asking?”

  “Because it means that no matter what happens tonight, we win. Either we are successful in eliminating my uncle or he kills us and we go to Emperica together.”

  She sighed and let her head fall back on the seat. “Kade, I am looking forward to returning to Emperica. More than anything. But, not until every Kjin on earth is destroyed. The people here need me, and I have sworn to protect them.”

  He nodded and turned back to gaze out of the windshield. “If I die tonight, I’m going to train to become a Knight and come back and find you.”

  Her heart clenched at the thought of him dying. “I will be a middle aged woman by then.”

  “It takes that long to become a Knight?”

  “Thirty years. Sometimes more.” She thought about Blane still in Emperica.

  “That settles it then. Neither one of us is going to die tonight. I just found you and I am not going to lose you.”

  She ran her fingers down his cheek. “My brave, Kade.”

  Leaning over, he cupped her head and kissed her deeply. After several moments that left her breathless, he let go of her and opened the door. “Come on, let’s get this done.”

  It took her a moment to pull herself together. With shaking fingers, she opened the car door and got out.

  He pointed to a large cottage built on a promontory that jutted out into the lake. “That’s my uncle’s house. On the main drag, it’s four streets over from here, but we’re going to get there by the beach. Follow me.”

  Kade started off at a jog and she fell into step behind him. The lake was deserted at this late hour with only the moonlight and sporadic house lights to guide their way. Kade ran quickly, but she easily kept pace. As they neared the white cottage, Kade ducked behind a sandy berm that concealed their passage the rest of the way. Just under the outcrop where the house was built, Kade put his hand up and they stopped.

  Fallon looked up. The cottage was completely dark. All of the coiled up adrenaline in her body fled from her in a frustrated exhaled breath. She thought for sure, he would be here, and she just wanted to end this. Now.

  Kade turned to her. “It doesn’t look like anybody is here. Should we come back?”

  She thought about it for a moment. Should they try and track Marc Ellis at his house in Alden? Try to find Father Tomas again? “Let’s go in,” she finally decided. “Maybe he left behind some clues.”

  “As long as it isn’t a bomb,” Kade muttered, and together they ran up the wooden stairs that led from the beach to the wide covered porch of the house. Silently, Kade walked across the deck and tried the door. It was unlocked.

  Kade gave her a suspicious glance and went inside at a crouch, keeping his silhouette as small as possible. Fallon followed suit, wishing she had more light, but not daring to light the Aventi that would just put a target on their backs if anybody was in the house.

  The place was completely silent.

  “You go upstairs,” she suggested. “I’ll look down here.”

  While Kade climbed to the second level, Fallon searched through the rooms. It was a very luxurious home with the best of everything, but she did notice that it did not have the touch of a woman here. There were no prints or flowers or toys or family photos. This was a place for Marc Ellis alone and not his family.

  What are you hiding here, Mr. Ellis?

  Fallon made her way down a hallway off the kitchen. There were two doors off the corridor and both were closed. She walked to the one on the right first and opened the door a few inches. Reaching inside, she felt along the wall and flicked on the light.

  It was a laundry room. And, empty.

  Closing the door, she went to the room on the left.

  She opened this door cautiously as well, and found the switch easily, sending light flooding through the room. It was a small bedroom, and it, too, was empty.

  She started to close the door, but stopped when she heard a very faint rustling noise.

  Somebody was in there.

  Marc Ellis? Another Kjin? No, her Kur had not given warning.

  She opened the door wide and stepped inside, pulling her Aventi from her back pocket. There was no closet where a man could be hiding, so she dropped to the ground to look under the bed.

  Nobody was there.

  Standing, she noticed a wide wardrobe in the corner, and made her way toward it. She heard the noise again. There was something in the wardrobe. Shrugging her left arm out of her hoodie, she lifted the Aventi and made contact with the Kur, igniting the weapon.

  Without hesitation, she threw open the cabinet doors.

  “Oh, crap,” she murmured at the sight of two children with duck tape over their mouths and wrists.

  A boy and a girl. The two missing children.

  She leaned down toward them, and they shrank back from her in fright.

  “It’s okay,” she reassured them. “I’m here to help. I promise.”

  She reached out and peeled the tape from the boy first and then the girl.

  “Are you hurt?” she asked them.

  Both children shook their heads.

  “I just want my Mommy,” the girl cried.

  Fallon pulled the little girl from the wardrobe and held her tight. “I will take you to your Mommy. Can you walk?”

  She nodded, so Fallon put her down and helped the boy out.

  “Is the mean man gone?” the boy asked.

  “I think so, but we better get out of here. I have a friend upstairs and he will help us.”

  Fallon ushered the children toward the door. “Quickly now, go into the kitchen.”

  The children ran out of the room and, too late, Fallon felt the burn on her arm. Just as she stepped out of the room, an arm snaked out of the hallway and covered her mouth.

  “Listen up! I know you can kill me, but if you want those children and your little boyfriend to survive the night, send them away. Now!”

  Fallon elbowed the Kjin in the face and broke his nose. Spinning, she grabbed him under the throat and slammed him against the wall.

  “Last warning, Knight! The place is surrounded. If you kill me now, your boyfriend
and the children will die!”

  CHAPTER 15

  An Unlikely Hero

  Fallon let the Kjin fall to the floor. “You better hide, then. If my little boyfriend sees you, I will never be able to convince him to leave.”

  The Kjin scrambled to his feet. “And, tell him not to bring up Marc Ellis’ name to the police,” he warned her before disappearing into the bedroom.

  She took a deep breath and walked into the kitchen. The children were huddled together, but broke apart and ran to her when they saw Kade coming down the stairs with a look of utter disbelief on his face.

  Fallon bent down to them and began to remove the duck tape around their wrists. “Don’t be afraid. This is my friend, Kade, and he is going to take you to the police station, okay?”

  “No! We want you to take us!”

  She shook her head. “I can’t, but I promise that Kade is a very good guy, and he is going to take you to your parents. Okay?”

  Reluctantly, they nodded.

  “You’re coming, too,” Kade said, his tone determined.

  “Kade, just take them for me, please. I still have to track your uncle.”

  “We’ll drop them off together and then go to my uncle’s house. I can show you where he lives.”

  “Just give me the address. There’s no need for both of us to go to the police station.”

  He narrowed his eyes at her.

  “Please, Kade. They are so defenseless. They have been through too much already. Just take them to the police, and I will call you and let you know where I am.”

  “Did you find some kind of lead?” he asked, suspiciously.

  She nodded. She did find a lead. It was a big, evil Kjin, and she had no doubt that he would lead her directly to Professor Marc Ellis.

  Kade grasped her shoulders hard enough to make her wince. He knew something was not quite right. “I don’t want to leave you.”

  “I know, but you have to.”

  He looked over at the children and then back at her as if searching for an argument. In the end, he could not find one. “Call me within fifteen minutes and let me know exactly where you are. I’ll meet you.” He went into the kitchen and found a pad of paper and pen.