“And just what is so funny?” Amy turned her anger on me. I attempted to hold a straight face, but the more I tried, the harder I laughed.
“Fine. I guess you don’t want to hear what she had to say before she passed out,” Amy said as she walked toward the van. Her comment knocked the wind and laughter right out of me.
“Wait. What did she say?”
“Oh, now you want to talk? I don’t think so. I’m going to Culpepper Regional Hospital. When you two are ready to be honest, you can find me there.”
“Amy!” Gabriel ran after the van as she pulled away.
“C’mon. We need to find John.” As I walked toward my car, something hit me in the back, followed by a series of pelts.
“You couldn’t give her one night?” Gabriel yelled while throwing a handful of pebbles at me.
“What is your problem?” I asked as I pulled my jacket over my face to block the rocks.
“This wouldn’t have happened if you weren’t so selfish!” he exclaimed as he hurled another handful my way.
“Selfish? Everything I’ve done has been to prevent this!”
“You did nothing but throw her into the fire, so screw you and your self-righteous bull.” Gabriel bent over, reaching for another handful of gravel. Peeking over my collar, I saw an opportunity to end his attack. I intended to tackle him, but the soil beneath my feet gave way and I took us both to the ground.
Delivering quick, short punches to each other, we rolled back and forth over the terrain. Gabriel punched me in my chest, knocking the wind out of me. Taking advantage, he rolled over me. As I gasped for air, something moist splattered on my chin. Looking at my brother as he pummeled the side of my ribs, I noticed the droplet had come from him. He had been crying.
“This has nothing to do with me, does it?” With a right hook, I knocked him off of me and rolled on top of him, shoving my forearm against his throat with enough pressure to stop his impending fist. He knew this move all too well. Had he been an enemy, I might have easily crushed his trachea. But I didn’t want to injure my brother. I wanted to find out why he had snapped.
“Talk to me. Tell me why you’re so upset, Gabriel.”
His body relaxed as he tried to hide his tears. Just as he had knocked the wind out of me, it seemed I knocked the fight out of him. Releasing my arm, I sat next to him in the dirt.
“I want to go home. I wasn’t meant for this.” He sobbed as he sat up.
“For what? We’re just getting to the part you live for—a fight.”
“I’m always ready for a fight, but I’m not for all of this.”
“All of what, Gabriel?”
“What I’m feeling. I’m scared, Rahovart. I’m scared for you, for Etta, for John, but mostly I’m scared for Amy. She’s so close to it all. What if she gets hurt? Or worse? It may have been her with Etta tonight had she answered the phone.”
“Ah. I understand now. You love her.”
“It’s more than that. Love is just a heavy word people throw around. What I feel is beyond a word. It’s like she’s in my veins. I feel her coursing through me.”
“Going home won’t fix that, Brother. It makes it much worse. Trust me on that.”
“I can’t protect her like this!” Gabriel motioned to his body with disgust. “What can this do against a Demon? Nothing. Why would you choose this over what we were?”
“It is not the vessel in which our souls travel, but what our souls carry with them that gives us strength. We can and will accomplish our mission. Neither Etta, John, or Amy will fall in battle. That I promise you.”
In silence, we sat and stared off in the distance for a few moments. I knew all too well of his fears for Amy. It has been something I’ve lived with every day for over a year. Tonight’s event had increased that fear a hundred fold.
“We should get going to the hospital,” Gabriel said as he stood, dusting off the dirt from his jeans.
“No. First we find John and find out how this happened.”
“But don’t you want to see how Etta’s doing?”
“There’s nothing we can do for her right now.”
“Maybe John is on his way to the hospital now.”
“I doubt it. For him to call us and not be here to protect her tells me something isn’t right with all of this.”
“I’ll try calling him.” Gabriel pulled out his cell phone and dialed his number as we got into my car.
“No answer, but I checked my call log. He called me from the house number.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. Look.” Gabriel showed me the screen on his cell. John had indeed called from his home phone. Alarms sounded in my head. On the phone, he seemed to be fighting for a breath and barely able to speak. The second the thought fluttered in my head, I smashed the gas pedal into the floorboard.
We raced into the dark Divad home. Gabriel turned on the lights, checking for any sign of John while I rushed up the stairs calling his name. I started searching his room, even going as far as looking under his bed when a muffled noise came from above.
“Gabriel! The attic!” I yelled as I barreled into Etta’s closet. Adrenaline burst through me when the muffled moan increased in volume. Lying against dust covered sheets draping over what appeared to be a stack of boxes we found a semi-conscious John with sword and shield in hand.
“Et…et….”
“She’s fine, John.” Gabriel’s eyebrow shot up at my lie, but he didn’t correct me. “Where are you injured?” Scanning over his body, I didn’t notice any wounds.
“Wi-wing,” he muttered.
As I pulled him forward to check his back, John released a loud cry of pain and then passed out. Gabriel quickly knelt behind him, lifting his shirt to examine John’s wings.
“It’s gone.” Gabriel’s face had drained of all color.
“What’s gone?” I asked in disbelief.
“His wing. The whole thing is gone. It looks as if it’s been cut out.”
“Hold him.” Gabriel and I switched positions. I believed Gabriel’s diagnosis, but I had to see for myself. Where his right wing should have folded into his skin, a large section of flesh was missing, leaving a hole where the frame attached to the shoulder blade. Bruises on his upper and lower body told me he had been held down. The cuts were jagged and varied in depth. The weapon used for the hack surgery left an impression on John’s exposed muscle tissue. The animals cut out his wing with his own Ka-bar. They used a hacksaw where a scalpel should have been used.
“Why only the one? Why not kill him?” Gabriel asked.
“The Demons responsible wanted him to suffer, not die. My best guess is that they knew killing him would draw attention of the other High Templars. However, they still need him out of the way. What better way than to clip him? Without both wings, he can’t flash.”
“We need to get him to the hospital.”
“And say what?”
“And say he needs medical attention.”
“How are we going to explain a panel of flesh missing from his back, not to mention the crater in his shoulder? No. We need to help him.”
“How are we going to fix him? I don’t know a damn thing about these stupid bodies. Do you?”
“No, but I know someone who does,” I said, raising my eyebrow. Gabriel seemed confused for a moment before it dawned on him.
“No. No way. She’s already too close to this. I’m not going to let you drag Amy right into the middle of it.”
“She’s our only option.”
“And what do you intend to tell her about John’s injuries?”
“She wants the truth from us. That’s what we’ll give her.”
“But you heard Father. We can’t—”
“Father said we can’t say a word to Etta. He never specified that we weren’t allowed to tell someone else. Now call her.”
“It’s that loophole type of thinking that always gets you in trouble, Rahovart.”
“And the type of thinking t
hat gets us out of it as well, Brother. Call her.”
Chapter Fourteen
Gabriel seemed hesitant, but gave in and called her. I sensed his nervousness as he started the conversation by asking about Etta. “That’s great news,” he said. Relief swept over me when a small smile cracked on his face.
“What did she say?” I wanted every detail right that second, but he only lifted a finger motioning me to wait, then turned his back and walked over to the opposite end of the attic. John released another moan, directing my attention away from Gabriel. John attempted to push himself upright, and I rushed to his side. His lids flickered as he became conscious. I tried to stop him, but unaware of his condition, he pushed me away and leaned back against the wall.
“Mother fu-ahh!” he screamed.
Having my own wings stripped once, I knew all too well the pain he felt, although I couldn’t imagine how it must feel to have one actually dug out. As if a blistering cold blew over him, his body shook. His fingertips and lips faded into a bluish hue. Fearing a drop in body heat due to blood loss, I ripped the sheet from the stack of items and draped it around him.
“Thank….”
“Shh. Don’t talk.” I crouched down in front of him.
“He’s awake?” Gabriel asked as he came up to my right.
“Partially. So, is she coming?”
“Yes. She’ll be here shortly.”
“And what of Etta?”
“They have her in surgery to remove the glass. The doctors say she’ll need quite a few stitches, but should make a full recovery in no time.”
As I released a sigh of relief to the good news, I silently thanked Father.
“What hap…happened to her?” John interjected.
“She’s safe, John. Don’t worry about her right….” I trailed off as I noticed an overfilled box next to Gabriel, a picture of Lucifer sticking out. I stole the picture from some cult members during my days as a Demon. Digging through the box, I found most of my belongings I had thrown in the garbage the day I left Etta to return home to Heaven. Only two things were missing…the note Etta had left for me before she had been taken to Hell and the note I’d written inside the sleeve of a CD.
“No. Tell me she didn’t find them.” Certain they had to be in the box, I dumped the contents on the floor and searched frantically.
“What are you doing?” Gabriel asked as he knelt beside me.
“Look for a piece of lined paper and the sleeve to this.” I showed him the CD case.
“Why?”
“It’s not the feathers. It’s the notes and this crap.”
“You’re not making any sense, Rahovart.”
“When I went back to Hell, Etta left me a note here in the attic. Before leaving I put it in my sword’s sheath and left her a note and a feather as well. Hers must have fallen out before I took off. I never meant for her to find my note or this box.”
“Are you kidding me? Why would you be so stupid?”
“I needed to leave a piece of me behind with her. I couldn’t just leave her.”
“This is what I’m talking about…your selfishness. It’s always been about what you want. Will you never learn?”
“I don’t need a lesson from you right now. I need you to help me find and destroy them!”
Gabriel sifted through the items on the floor. Picking up the mock rendering of Lucifer, he examined it.
“Is this what they think he looks like?”
“You wouldn’t guess half the stuff they believe.” I grabbed the picture and threw it in the box.
“And what about this? Oh my!” He flipped through a graphic pornographic magazine from under a pile of knick knacks.
“Just look for the notes,” I said, snatching the magazine from his hands.
“People really do that stuff?”
“Among other things.” I found his naïveté regarding human species amusing.
“Man, no wonder Amy wants to wait. She’s probably terrified I may want to do that to her.”
“You’ve talked about that with her?”
“It came up.” Gabriel’s cheeks turned a bright red.
“Oh yeah? How did that come about?”
“The human body does strange things with no warning during certain activities.”
“Ah, you were getting it on, and Mr. Happy popped up.”
“Do you have to be so crass? It wasn’t like that. I simply kissed her, and she kissed me back. Next thing I know, my hand traveled where it shouldn’t have. Being the sweet innocent girl she is, she stopped it, and we discussed her strong beliefs in virtue and waiting for marriage, which I agree with whole heartedly.” Gabriel pulled a small black velvet box from his pocket.
“I planned on asking her tonight, but every time I worked up the nerve, one of our phones would interrupt us. Do you think she’ll like it? It’s not much, but for what I have from student loans, it’s all I’m able to afford.” Gabriel opened the box, revealing a thin silver engagement band.
“Maybe, if I knew who’s offering it?” Amy poked her head through the attic access. Startled, Gabriel jumped up, shoving the box in back into his pocket and rushed to help her up.
“That’s one way to pop the question.” John let out a stifled chuckle. I had forgotten about him once I saw my discarded trophies. Hopefully he hadn’t seen the magazine Gabriel found. I already had a hard enough time getting him to be okay with me in Etta’s life. Though I no longer took pleasure in it, if he’d seen what I used to enjoy viewing, he would never allow me near her.
“Amy…I…I….”
“We’ll talk later. Let me look at him first.” Amy knelt down, examining John’s back. “We need to get him downstairs where I can get a better look.”
“I can move,” John said as he attempted to steady his elbow on a box. The box gave way, dropping John to the plywood flooring. We raced to hold him up, but our grasps only sent John screaming.
“We can’t move him without further injuring him,” I said.
“I can’t treat him here. It’s too dark and not very sanitary.”
“Just move me and get it over with. I can handle it,” John commanded.
I shared a look of concern with Gabriel as he lifted John by the waist. I jumped down into the closet. John groaned as Gabriel carried him to the access. I assumed my grasp around him had been firm enough to hold on as Gabriel gingerly lowered him to me, but my grip slipped. John slid through my arms, scraping his wound against my chest. The agony proved too much for him, and John passed out in my arms as I dragged him toward the bed in his room. Lifting him by the ankles and wrists, Gabriel and I set him softly down onto his stomach on the mattress.
“Out of my way,” Amy demanded as she pushed between us. Stepping back, we watched as she removed John’s shirt to further inspect his injuries.
“What can we do to help?” Gabriel anxiously asked.
“I need hot water, clean towels, and the alcohol and cotton balls. They’re under the sink in the bathroom.”
Gabriel ran into the bathroom as I ran downstairs to the kitchen sink and turned on the hot water. As I waited it to heat up, I ransacked the cupboards for a pot. All I seemed to find were dishes and canned foods.
“Amy, where are the pots?” I yelled, hoping she’d hear me. Gabriel entered the kitchen and pulled a copper pot down from a rack above my head.
“She said it needs to boil for a few minutes.”
After filling the pot, we stood waiting. My mind drifted off to the first time I saw Etta’s radiant smile, the night we spent playing sleepover. As she painted my fingernails, her sweet laugh echoed in my ears while I did my impression of the neighbor gossip at the hair salon. I hadn’t seen her smile like that since that night. What reason would she have to smile though? I’d been nothing but a jerk. Deal or no deal, that would have to change. First, I’d have to find and kill the person responsible for hurting her.
“So what did you tell Amy happened?” I asked, breaking the silence.
Like a dummy, I grabbed the handles, burning my palms and nearly dumping the boiling hot water all over myself. After slamming it back onto the stove, I jumped back, flapping my hands in an attempt to cool the burn.
“You should try using pot holders. They hurt less.” Gabriel carried the pot out with pot holders.
“How is it I’m always the one getting hit or hurt?” I complained as I followed Gabriel gingerly up the stairs.
“Because you act first and think later, Brother.”
“Anything else we can do to help?”
“Yeah, you can get him to the hospital,” Amy retorted.
“You are our hospital. That’s not debatable. Can we do anything else to help?”
“Since you’re leaving me no choice, it’s best you just stay out of my way,” Amy said, pushing us out of the room.
“What now?” Gabriel squatted down, leaning against the wall.
“Now we go through every box in that attic, every drawer in Etta’s room, any little hiding spot we can think of and we burn whatever we find.”
After what seemed to be hours tearing apart the house, Gabriel had found Etta’s Angel and Demon books hidden under her bed. In the backyard, I had started a fire using gasoline from the shed, crumpled up pages of the adult magazine and a couple of chairs from the dining room. One by one, Gabriel and I threw each item into the fire, until I came across a book I didn’t recognize.
Compared to the glossy covers of the newer books, its worn and tattered leather wrapping appeared antiquated. The wooden straps across the spine had lost all the sheen and luster. The gold text had faded, making the title illegible. I hadn’t seen a text bound in such a way in centuries. The edges of the parchment pages had yellowed and browned through the years.
The Human Side (The Demon Side Series) Page 9
