Chapter Fourteen
Hunger kicked Tyler out of sleep like a quarterback in the playoffs. Man, he'd never been so hungry before. He started to stretch but his right arm and shoulder wouldn't move, weighed down by something. Crap! Was he tied up again?
The thought took him straight back to that nasty dark place where he'd been so scared and hungry. And he'd been the lucky one. Those creeps hadn't used him like they did Kassie. He opened his eyes, needing to make sure he really wasn't there anymore.
His right eye immediately started itching and watering, but he could see enough from his left to know he was alone in the big room with the table and chairs and all the TV screens and stuff. He turned a little and reached for the weight on his shoulder, a little worried about what he might find.
His fingers sank deep into soft fur and a small warm body began to vibrate with a low rumbling sound. The little cat arched into a long stretch and yawn then hopped to the floor with a chirpy meow that reminded Tyler of a bird. A flick of the fluffy tail invited him to follow and Tyler wasted no time doing exactly that. Maybe the cat knew where to find something to eat.
The cat trotted away, pausing before a door that whooshed open automatically, then closed after Tyler passed through. A humongous rock passage stretched in both directions like something out of a castle. Every little bit, a window or door opened off the hallway and light came from actual burning torches in holders on the wall.
Tyler managed to breathe through the excitement. Every boy he knew dreamed about this kind of chance their whole life—to explore a real castle. Too bad it wouldn't have knights and horses and a moat and everything. That would be totally cool. Of course, since the totally cool options were off the table, he could be happy with just checking out the buildings and grounds.
After he ate.
The cat must have been as amazed as Tyler, since it looked around too, instead of taking off. But when Tyler moved, it started jogging to the right like it knew exactly where to go. For all he knew, it did, so he shrugged and headed after it.
A ways down the hall, he came to a window set high in the wall. Standing on tip-toe, he was tall enough to see out just a bit, enough to really annoy him. The tops of some trees, majorly gigantic rocks and fog weren't enough to give him a clue what else was out there. If he hadn't been starving, he'd have climbed up for a better look. The cat had waited and took off again as soon as Tyler turned from the window.
He didn't stop at the next window and soon after it a wooden door big enough for a knight in armor to ride his horse through stood open. Tyler stuck his head in to check for signs there might be something to eat in that direction. The big-as-a-barn room held floor-to-ceiling shelves filled with tons of books. No librarian would allow food or liquids near books, so he kept on searching.
Tyler and the cat went on a little faster. The next door, as big as the last, whooshed open as they approached. Tempting odors drew Tyler right through and into another wicked large room. A big black couch sat opposite a castle-sized flat screen where someone with a red cap was currently kicking major butt in what looked like the new Halo.
Tyler stood fascinated with the realistic graphics, forgetting his hunger as he watched the person take out an army of the Covenant. The room sat in silence except for the violent clatter of a controller in serious use.
"Squid face, three o-clock!" Tyler yelled, just as the ugly elite alien filled the screen. The gamer threw a sticky grenade at the thing's head. The awesome beeeeyump sounded before the ugly creature's four jaws went kaboom. "Ohhhh," Tyler yelled in triumph.
The smell of pizza interrupted Tyler's gaming hunger and he turned his attention to the table by the couch. A ginormous cheese pizza, still steaming, made his mouth water and his stomach growl. And right beside it, a six pack of grape soda sat with the exact right amount of sweat on the cans. Drool flooded his mouth and threatened to run over before he could move toward that pizza.
At the table, he hesitated a second. He really should ask, but gamers tended to get annoyed when someone interrupted them for anything at all, especially right in the middle of a mass war.
"Help yourself kid. When you're done, I'll show you around the joint."
Tyler nearly jumped out of his skin and the cat arched its back and hissed.
The gamer, a guy close to Tyler's size, paused the game then turned with a grin. "Go 'head. It's all yours."
Tyler shrugged and grabbed a slice and cracked open a soda, then dropped to sit on the couch. He stuffed himself past sick while the other dude went back to playing. The instant he decided he should stop before he actually got sick, his companion saved his game and started shutting the system down.
"I'm Francis. You're Tyler, right?"
"Yeah." Tyler paid attention to the other boy's looks for the first time.
Francis was skinny but his sleeveless concert T-shirt revealed a very impressive set of biceps that even an older kid would be glad to have. The odd shade of his skin reminded Tyler of someone with a really dark tan and a deep sunburn over it. Almost brick red hair hung in layers to shoulders a little too wide for a kid. Maybe he was older than Tyler first thought.
"What is this place? I mean, why are we here?" Tyler asked the questions his curiosity demanded ever since he woke up. None of the explanations he'd come up with made sense.
Francis looked at him over the rim of the can of grape soda he'd just opened. "They didn't tell you?" The color of his eyes, deep clear red like the red part of the big crystal vase Tyler's grandmother took such care with, seemed entirely out of place.
Tyler shook his head, trying to remember if he'd ever seen anyone with eyes that color. "Just that I'd be safe here and the weird monsters that shouldn't exist that came to Miya's house would never find us here."
Francis nodded like he didn't hear the monster bits. "Come on. I'll tell you about it while I show you around." He stood and swept his arm around to include the whole room. "This is the rec room, obviously. There's video games, TV, music, board games, a pool table, and they'll add anything else we need." He pointed to each item on his list.
Not waiting, Francis headed out the door. Pointing back the way Tyler had come, he explained. "You saw the library back there, and the place where you started was the Conference Room. They all gather there to discuss whatever plans they happen to be working on at the moment." He turned and started the other direction, walking fast.
"What kind of plans?" Tyler had to rush to keep up.
Francis shrugged. "All sorts of things. They'll be going after the people who kidnapped you and Kassie soon."
Tyler thought about that, but only a little, because of the awesomeness of the place. "How 'bout you? What did they rescue you from? Was it bad?"
"I've always been here." Francis shook his head a little. "Well, since we came here, anyway. My dad is Kassern. The Ruby Archangel?"
Tyler stopped in his tracks.
The definitely older boy paused and turned a perfect grin at him. "What? Did you meet him?" Francis slid a hand in his front pocket. "He's really cool."
"An archangel is your dad?" Tyler's eyes couldn't get any wider.
Francis chuckled, his skinny red brows drawing together. "Is that…strange to you?" He swung slowly around and resumed the tour.
"Strange?" Tyler guffawed an incredulous laugh and trotted a couple steps to catch up. "Dude, that is…crazy cool!"
Francis smiled as though relieved.
Tyler couldn't believe the place. It really was like a castle for a king and all his royal family. Except secret. They'd made the outside look like a giant hunk of mountainous rock, which made it the coolest hideout ever.
They continued through the stone corridor, past the different sections that branched off every so often, until they came to a door ten times as big as the one into the library. If a knight could ride a horse through that one, he could drive a tank through this one. The door whooshed open and Francis led the way through.
"What's that?" Tyler look
ed down from a sort of ledge hanging thirty or so feet, about the same distance his Gramps had him stand from the target with his handgun, off the ground. "Looks like a game field or something."
Francis gave a soft laugh. "Yeah, a game field. Actually, training."
"For what?"
"Fighting demons." Tyler's heart lurched and Francis flashed an easy smile. "Which angel do you belong to, anyway?"
Tyler swallowed. "None. Th-that I know of. Am I…supposed to belong to one?" His heart raced with hope but Francis only shrugged.
"Not sure, really. My dad has a wife and a couple to train. You came with Lyght?"
Tyler nodded, eager. "Is that why he rescued us? Because he needed us?" It'd be wicked cool to fight at an angel's side, even against monsters like the one back at Miya's house. "I can fight. I'm really good with a hatchet. And a sling shot, but I'm best with a bow and arrow. And my Gramps was teaching me to shoot. I can trap stuff too. And I'm a rank fifty in Halo after only playing for two weeks. I'm a real fast learner."
Francis laughed a little, as if glad to hear it. "I'm sure you are. But for now, the training is for the ones in the Quads."
"Quads?"
"A married couple and the angels' wives, who are bonded to the angels and inherit some of their powers."
Dang. Tyler was none of those. He gazed down at the square field, probably two football field-lengths to each side. Above the square, the air shimmered in a sort of multi-colored haze to form an extra tall pyramid. It almost looked like one of the prisms from math class had been hit with a magnifier or something. He could imagine training to fight demons within that amazing space. Only he didn't have angel powers or any idea how to get them.
Francis chucked him lightly on the shoulder. "Don't worry about it. We'll find a place for you in this operation."
Tyler's excitement returned. "Like I said, I'm a real fast learner."
"Hey," Francis whispered, "You wanna see something I'm working on?"
"Sure!" Tyler tried hard not to act too excited. "I mean, yeah. Whenever."
"Hold on to my arm." Francis held out his sunburned looking forearm.
Tyler hesitated, not sure what to expect. Surely Francis wouldn't do whatever Lyght had done to bring them there? Where would they go?
Francis grinned a little. "It's cool, trust me."
Tyler had a feeling he'd better hold tight, even if the idea seemed silly.
Francis put a casual arm around his shoulder and the world blurred.
"Sorry." Francis dropped onto a red leather chair next to a black desk. "My room is a hundred miles from where we were. It'd have taken us days to get here."
"Whoa." Tyler couldn't hide his awe. "This place must be huge!"
Francis gave him a confused and maybe guilty look. "I was…exaggerating?"
Tyler's cheeks heated with shame and he covered it quickly. "I figured that. So what you wanna show me?"
Francis turned to the laptop and typed, his fingers moving faster than Tyler could follow. Wow. Did he actually just make friends with the son of an Archangel? Talk about a step up from his old social status. Which was level zero before those guys kidnapped him. Making friends and staying cool weren't exactly simple when you didn't ever see any other kids. Maybe once he got to know Francis, he could confide in him.
"See them?" Francis pointed to a group on the screen after zeroing in. "You ever heard of MS13?"
"I think they're like this super-bad Mexican gang, right? My Gramps said they were in control of a big part of the drug smuggling and dealing and they crush the competition." Tyler couldn't contain his shudder when he thought too hard about the kinds of things the gang was known for. "I heard they cover their bullets in human crap, so if the bullet doesn't kill, the infection will."
Francis nodded and went on. "That's all true. Now, these guys are known as the Kings of the Bottoms. They control all the drugs, prostitutes, and other crimes in most of Columbus. They're also affiliated with MS13, meaning they can use MS13 soldiers whenever another gang or the law interferes with them. Their youngest members are seven and eight years old with the oldest in their fifties. They're all male, but there's a female gang associated with them, and just as brutal. They mainly recruit kids about nine to thirteen, and they force them in with threats and violence." Francis pointed to one very young teen on the screen. "That one right there is the next one they want to bring fully into the gang, but I'm going to get him first."
"What you mean, you'll get him?" The only thing Tyler really knew about gangs was that they were seriously bad news. And he had no desire to learn more. He'd seen a few things during his grandfather's street life lessons, enough for him to be absolutely certain he wanted nothing to do with gangs.
He looked up at Tyler. "For our mission." Francis leaned back in his chair and tossed his head, moving the red bangs away from his right eye. "I've been thinking. My dad and Dorn and Toren plan to do exactly as the enemy is doing, only for good, but they haven't really figured out how to do it effectively with gangs and the kids susceptible to them. I have. The demons take young kids and use them for their perversions. We're going to take them and use them for good." Francis pointed at the screen. "And this one is not only ripe for picking, but he's going to help me get valuable information we need."
"How you figure?"
"That one's secretly under the protection of the leader of the female gang. That's the kind of leverage we can use, maybe even get his protector on our side. She's rough but she's individualistic." He sat back with his hands clasped behind his head, staring at the screen. "I've been following their activity for a few weeks and have some pretty solid links into major demonic activity. If we hit their gang, we handicap a demonic cell. It may not be much, but it buys us time until all the Brotherhood of War come to put a final end to their scheme."
This was all news to Tyler and he didn't know which question to get out first. "Brotherhood of War?"
Francis turned his chair to face Tyler completely, his eyes lit with reverent excitement. "Those are the twelve Archangel Warriors in the Brotherhood of War. And trust me when I say they put the bad in badass. They are entering Earth one at a time and forming special warriors that can legally fight the demon hierarchy without causing more of a mess. But they can't engage in actual war against them until all twelve warriors are formed and united as one. Meanwhile," Francis gestured with a thumb to the screen, "we disrupt their disruptions."
Tyler shook his head in sheer awe. "And your dad is one of these dudes?"
Francis didn't hide his pride. "I know, right? He is one bad-ass mother." Francis mouthed the last words, his face flush with awe.
"Wow, that's frickn awesome dude." Tyler pulled the stool near the desk and sat. "What did you mean by disrupt their disruptions?"
"The bad guys are trying to destroy humankind before it's time."
"How?"
Francis turned to his computer, brought up a world map and pointed to it. "See all the dots?" He looked at Tyler. "Every color stands for something. Red for murder, blue for prostitution, green for pedophilia, yellow is for drugs."
Tyler wowed silently at the map with its heavy patches of solid black covering vast areas. "What's the black for?"
"False religion. It's black because it's the most dangerous."
"Whoa. Guess that's a good color for it. You know I'm…I'm Christian, right?" It seemed a little lame after he said it, but he had to make sure they knew.
Francis gave him a one sided smile. "I did know."
Tyler eyed him. "Does it…does it show? I mean how can you tell?"
"You glow."
Tyler's eyes widened. "I glow?" Great. Just what he always wanted to do.
Francis chuckled. "All that belong to the Redeemer of Man glow with his spirit."
"Wow," Tyler whispered. That made sense. "What color?"
"White."
Tyler laughed a little, still awed. "Should have known." He shrugged and turned his attention to the screen. "What's the
plan? Have you worked out how to get those guys?"
"Well…" Francis crossed his slender arms over his chest. "I haven't figured that out yet.
Chapter Fifteen
"Figured what out?"
Tyler jerked to the deep voice and yelped. A huge blue dragon stood there, high as the ceiling. The thing's icy pale blue eyes squinted at Francis. "Maybe you should figure out when to tell us you learned how to take on human qualities?"
Francis sighed and Tyler turned to see why and jumped in surprise. Francis was red. Not just red, but a sort of clear, almost glowing red. Like a ruby. "Wow."
"This is my true form." Francis shrugged like he'd been caught doing something illegal that he didn't consider wrong.
"You called?"
Tyler wheeled toward the new voice. A slender woman stood in the door. She looked like liquid metal in a human-shaped container. The silvery metal swirled and flowed but also held solid form, sort of resembling a female Silver Surfer.
"I called you," the dragon grumbled. "I knew Francis was up to something. Just look at him."
"Look at what?"
"Show her Francis." The dragon's command left no room for argument.
Francis sighed again and suddenly appeared as the boy Tyler had first met.
The metal lady gasped. "How did you do that?"
He shrugged. "When I think of being human, it just happens. Have you tried it?"
The dragon snorted. "Of course we haven't tried it! Why in the Universes would we consider—"
The metal woman's burst of laughter interrupted him and drew their attention again. She stood there as a blonde haired beautiful teenage girl. In a soft yellow dress that fit her perfectly. "Oh my heaven!" She turned clear blue eyes to Tyler and Francis.
Summon Lyght (Archangels Creed) Page 12
