The Complete Book Of Fallen Angels

by Valmore Daniels

  The boy with the bloody nose said, “He needs to be punished.”

  “Yeah,” said the other kid who’d been fighting. “When a dog turns on you, you have to put it down.”

  “What do you say, Jethro?” Jenny asked. “Shall we teach you a lesson, or shall we just put you out of your misery?”

  My jaw dropped at that. Deep down, I knew Jenny wasn’t bluffing. She had the ability to do what she threatened, and I believed she wouldn’t hesitate to follow through. Some of the other Anakim raised clenched hands; others shouted suggestions on how the offender should be dealt with.

  Suddenly, Jethro bolted.

  He only took a single step before the two fighting boys tackled him and knocked him to the ground. He struggled to get back to his feet, and elbowed one of the boys in the chest. Three other Anakim joined in to hold Jethro down.

  “Thomas!” Jenny yelled. “Stun him.”

  “No,” Thomas said. His face was red. “Let him go.”

  Jenny turned on him. “What did you say?”

  “It’s not right. He was just trying to help.”

  “I am in charge of this camp,” Jenny said, flashing her teeth. “Are you going against my orders?”

  “Yes.” He made a sharp cutting gesture with his hand. “We’re not going to kill him for trying to protect the Anakim.”

  Standing slightly behind Thomas, I could feel my face grow hot, and my entire body started to shake. Did I have food poisoning? Was this some kind of flu? I felt weak, and it took everything in me to stay on my feet.

  Jethro was still trying to get out from under the five boys. He was shouting something, but I couldn’t make out the words. I got the impression he was pleading for his life.

  I couldn’t do anything to help. I felt like passing out.

  Jenny’s voice got quiet. “Oh, Thomas, do you really think I want to kill him? I just need to remind him what his place is. You’re not against a little discipline, are you?”

  “You’re not going to kill him?” he said.

  “No. Stun him, and we’ll just make sure he understands what he did wrong. Then we’ll let him go. How does that sound?”

  “Fine.” Thomas pointed at the boys holding Jethro down. “Stand back.”

  They all sprang up and scurried out of the way. Jethro, still frightened out of his mind, jumped up and started to run.

  Thomas sang out, and I could feel the air crackle with what felt like electricity. I couldn’t make out the words of the song, but I could feel the power.

  Jethro stopped running, taking two more lingering steps before coming to a standstill. His shoulders slumped, hands hanging loosely at his sides, and his head lowered. It was as if the song Thomas sang had hypnotized him.

  “All right,” Jenny said, smiling proudly. She pointed to the two boys who’d been fighting. “Bring him back here.”

  They jogged over to Jethro and, one on either side of him, grabbed his arms and led him back to the circle.

  As they did that, Jenny took a step over to the hose, with the water still pouring out.

  To my surprise, she spoke to me. “Serena. It’s time for your first lesson.”

  “What?” I asked. My stomach felt like it was going to burst up through my throat.

  “Control. It’s the most important thing we need to learn.” She held up the hose. “Jethro used water on us. It’s only right that we use water to show him the error of his ways. I want you to direct the stream into his mouth. Perhaps if he feels what it’s like to drown, he’ll think twice about interfering with us again.”

  I started to shake, and not just because of the feeling of illness. I couldn’t believe what Jenny was asking me to do.

  “No,” I said. “I can’t do that.”

  “If you concentrate, I know you can.”

  I shook my head. “No, I mean I won’t.”

  “Serena,” Jenny said. “The quicker you learn that mortals are nothing more than talking animals, the better off you’ll be.”

  Thomas stepped forward. “You didn’t say anything about torturing him. This isn’t right, Jenny. Sam would never allow this.”

  “How dare you tell me what Sam would or wouldn’t do?” Jenny said, her voice rising. “I am going to be his second-in-command. I am the hand of justice. His words were very clear: protect the Anakim at all costs. They need to know I have their back under any circumstances. Jethro clearly assaulted them. He needs to be punished.”

  Thomas pointed at Jethro. “He’s already learned his lesson.”

  Her eyes narrowing at Thomas, Jenny said, “Are you challenging my authority?”

  He stood there for a few moments in defiance. Then, he stepped back and looked at the ground.

  “When everyone knows their place,” Jenny said to the Anakim, “then we will all live in peace and without fear. The morties have no conscience. They rape and kill and sin without any thought about who they hurt. All of us have felt the injustice of their corrupt society. They are the misguided children and must be shown the error of their ways. Sometimes, children need to feel the sting of the whip before they understand what they’ve done wrong.”

  Swinging her head back toward me, she held the hose out in Jethro’s direction. “I told you to direct the water at him. A few minutes should do the trick.”

  “I…”

  The Anakim were watching me, their faces filled with eagerness. Thomas continued staring at the ground.

  Jenny said, “I don’t understand you, Serena. With what you’ve been through the past few weeks, I thought you’d be happy to punish the sinner. You know what the morties are capable of. They killed your mother, your father. They locked you up because you tried to get away from their abuse.”

  A feeling of rage surged through me. In a way, Jenny was right. All I ever wanted was to get away, and I was punished for it. My mother was killed by my abusive stepfather; my father was killed by a sheriff out of control.

  “You don’t have to run anymore,” Jenny said. “Now you have the power to fight back, to set things right.”

  I didn’t know if it was in me to fight; I still just wanted to run away.

  She said, “Don’t you realize that once they know who you truly are, what you are, they will stop at nothing to kill you? They’ll destroy all of us. They’ve already captured more than twenty of us. It’s a war; us against them.”

  When I still didn’t move, her voice took on a tone of reason. “Even though they hate us and want to kill us, our mission is one of love. We’re not going to destroy humanity. We’re simply going to show them how to live without hate and violence.”

  I blurted out before I could stop myself, “By using violence?”

  “Spare the rod, spoil the child,” Jenny said.

  I shook my head. “If we hurt them, we’re no better than them.”

  Jenny’s voice grew hard. “You disgust me, Serena.” Looking at me with flat eyes, she said, “Maybe you’re not ready to be one of us. Maybe Ananiel will be happier in another host, one who is worthy.”

  She dropped the hose and took a step toward me. I knew she was going to use the touch of death on me. If I died, the Grigori inside me would transfer to the nearest person in my bloodline. That could be one of my grandparents, or it could be another relative who I didn’t know.

  I didn’t matter which one happened. I would still be dead.

  The running hose had flooded the back yard, and everyone’s shoes were soaked.

  With a thought, I caused every drop of water to rise up into the air and rush toward Jenny.

  With a cry of surprise, she tried to twist out of the way. The water hit her full force and knocked her ten feet backward.

  I wasn’t going to wait around to see how the others would react. I turned on my heel and ran.

  Gasping and sputtering as she tried to get back up, Jenny pointed in my direction. “Thomas, get her.”

  Thomas didn’t budge.

  In a rage, Jenny screamed at the other Anakim, “Sto
p her!”

  As one, they broke into a run after me.

  “Thomas, stop her or you’re dead,” Jenny yelled.

  Just as I neared the corner of the building, I looked back over my shoulder. I saw Thomas facing in my direction, taking a deep breath.

  He was going to do it. He was going to stun me like he’d stunned Jethro. Once he did that, then Jenny was going to walk over, smug as a queen, and lay the hand of death on me.

  Not watching where I was going, I tripped over a rake and sprawled headlong onto the ground.

  The Anakim were almost on me.

  Thomas sang.

  Everyone came to a standstill. Everyone but me, that is. Even Jenny was looking glassy-eyed, lost in a trance.

  My ribs hurting from the fall, I raised myself up on one arm.

  Thomas came over to me and helped me to my feet. He said, “I can’t keep them like this forever. I won’t hurt them, either.” Thomas pointed past me. “Go. Run. Take the truck.”

  “What about you?” I asked.

  “Don’t worry about me.” He looked at the spellbound form of Jenny. “I’m going to lock them in the basement of the dormitory. I’m sure Jethro will watch over them until Sam gets back. He can deal with them.”

  “Won’t Sam be angry with you?”

  “Probably,” he said, then smiled. “But I don’t plan on being here when he comes back.”

  “Where are you going to go?”

  “It’s best if you don’t know. Just like I don’t want to know where you’re going. If they catch us, they’ll make us tell.”

  I took a deep breath. “Thank you, Thomas.”

  “No, don’t thank me. I should never have let it get this far. We’re not all bad, like Jenny.” A moment later, he spoke in a smaller voice. “Some are, though. Too many. Sam said he’s trying to find a way to make sure the Grigori are matched with better hosts, but I don’t think it’s working. I don’t care. I’m done with them.”

  “What if they come after us?”

  “They will,” Thomas said. “But if they can’t find us, they can’t hurt us.”

  That had been my philosophy all along.

  I smiled at him. “You take care of yourself.”

  “You, too.”

  With a nod, Thomas headed back to the Anakim.

  I hurried to the pickup. I had no idea where I was going or what I would do when I got there, but I was determined to put as much distance between myself and Anak Acres as I could.

  Chapter Thirteen

  I got a few miles outside of Salt Lake City when I ran out of gas. By then my heart had slowed to a normal rate, and I started thinking about my situation.

  The Grigori were organized and had many resources. Unlike the police, laws and regulations didn’t limit them. They could use any means available to hunt me down. I had to be smart about my next move.

  Several scenarios played out in my mind. I could try to disguise myself, but if another Grigori got near me, that internal radar would kick in, and they’d know where I was. I could go to Canada or Mexico, but I didn’t think I’d be able to get across the border; not only did I not have a passport, but there was probably some kind of warrant out for me. I could head into the wilderness, far from civilization, but I didn’t know anything about living off the land. I didn’t even know how to start a fire.

  It seemed like I didn’t have many options. Something that kept playing back in my head was one of the last things Thomas had said: that not all the Grigori hosts were bad. Mr. Ulrich’s main job was to locate and recruit those who had the genetic trait or had already become possessed. It was a good bet that not everyone was ready to join the cause. Perhaps there were others out there, like myself, who wanted nothing to do with the revolution.

  My father was Ananiel’s previous host, and he seemed like a decent person. He’d become a firefighter and only wanted to help people; even though, in the end, he’d died trying to help that redheaded woman.

  My first thought was to go back to Middleton and find out if he’d left any clues there about his powers. Then I remembered that my father had only been in town for a week. That didn’t seem like enough time for him to get settled.

  The fire chief in Denver had mentioned that my father still had an apartment in the city. If he had written down any information on his powers, or anything on any other hosts, it might be there.

  It was possible Mr. Ulrich and the Grigori would look for me in Denver, but it was a risk I needed to take.

  If I could find another host out there, maybe they could help me understand what was happening to me, and help me avoid Jenny and the others like her.

  That still left me with the very real problem of how I was going to get there. Even if I had enough money to fill the truck with fuel, I knew whoever was working at the gas station would suspect I was far too young to have a driver’s license.

  I was something of a late bloomer. A little shorter than most other girls my age, I had barely started to fill out in the chest area. One of the reasons I’d dyed my hair stark colors and worn heavy makeup before I was sent to the Youth Center was to take attention away from my underdeveloped body. Now, I wanted to be as unremarkable as I could, even if that meant looking younger than I really was.

  Deciding to fall back on what I knew best—panhandling and scrounging—I pulled the truck over to the side of the road and got out.

  I didn’t want to risk hitching. Anak Acres wasn’t far enough behind me. If Thomas lost control of the Anakim and Jenny, they would be after me in a heartbeat. They would most likely alert the others in their network, like Mr. Ulrich, and they would be on the lookout for a young girl alone on the highway.

  I needed the anonymity of the crowds in Salt Lake City. It was only a few miles—I could see the tops of the buildings from where I was—so I hiked the rest of the way there.

  * * *

  While I walked, my thoughts turned to that sick feeling I’d had before the confrontation between Jenny and Jethro.

  I’d also experienced something similar at the medical center in Middleton, moments before Mr. Ulrich showed up.

  He’d explained to me that when Grigori were close to one another, they felt an electric tingle, a kind of built-in radar. I had experienced that when we’d arrived at Anak Acres last night.

  The sensations I had felt in Middleton and this morning were quite different. I’d been sick to the point of vomiting. Was that a sign that something bad was going to happen? Was the angel possessing me trying to warn me of danger? Both times I’d been sick, I would have been better off running. If I’d gotten away at the medical center, Mr. Ulrich would never have taken me to Anak Acres. If I hadn’t gone along with Jenny and Thomas, I would never have been involved in the horrible events of the morning.

  How could the Grigori possessing me know what was going to happen? Maybe it didn’t know the exact events, and it was more like a premonition or intuition. Maybe when something awful was going to happen, or was happening just out of my awareness, I would get a bad feeling about it.

  If that were true, then wouldn’t my father have had that kind of feeling before the encounter with the sheriff? Maybe he did have the feeling, and decided to go anyway; after all, he’d chosen a career where he purposely put himself in danger to save others.

  I knew I was jumping to conclusions. I had no way to know for sure, but in the short time I’d spent with him, I knew my father to be a decent person. I suddenly felt a pressure building up behind my eyes, and I sniffed back the tears that threatened to fall. I knew that, if I’d had this kind of intuition before he was killed, I would have done anything to stop his death.

  All my life I’d run from danger, thinking only about saving myself. When I hadn’t run, and stood up for myself and my mother, she had died. That had led me to believe that running was the better choice. Now, however, I wasn’t so sure.

  If I’d had this kind of intuition before, perhaps I would have been better prepared to deal with my stepfather.<
br />
  I decided I was on the right track, taking charge of my future and finding out about other hosts like me. I need to know more about what was happening to me.

  Once I was in control of my new abilities, then I wouldn’t have to run away from people like Jenny. I’d been running too long. It was time to try something different.

  Like Thomas, like my father, I had the power to stand up to bullies like Jenny and my stepfather, and fight for what was right.

  * * *

  By the time I reached the outskirts of the city, I was exhausted. My legs felt like rubber, and though I’d eaten my fill at breakfast, my stomach rumbled now.

  There was a convenience store at the edge of a suburban area, and I dug into my pocket to see how much money I had left over. To my dismay, I only found a couple of bucks, but at least it was enough to get a frozen pizza pocket and a soft drink. I’d worry about tomorrow when it arrived.

  I stood in line waiting to pay, but when the person ahead of me—a gray-haired lady with an oversized purse—got to the till, I quickly lost patience.

  She put her purse on the glass counter and started rambling to the tired-eyed clerk.

  “Oh, let’s see,” she said. “Today, I think I’ll buy one of those scratch tickets. I’m not terribly lucky, but my sister called me this afternoon and said she went to see her doctor. Dreadful news, I’m afraid. She’s developed diabetes, the poor dear. Well, I know you don’t know my sister, but she’s not very well-off, and she doesn’t have any medical insurance. I suppose she won’t be able to get any now. It makes me sick that she can’t afford a prescription.”

  “Ma’am…?” the clerk said, interrupting. He slid the tray of lottery tickets out from under the glass counter, and waited for her to come to a decision.

  “Oh, dear me. I’m so sorry. I guess I’m taking up too much time.” She put her hands together and looked over the selection.

  I groaned, but she apparently didn’t hear me.

  “Oh, there are so many. And they’re so colorful. How will I pick the right one?” She pointed at the clerk. “You pick one for me.”

  “I’m sorry,” he said, his voice weary. “It’s against store policy. You have to point to the one you want.”