by K. T. Tomb
“That is,” she said, “as deadly as anything, save for Cherubim.” She cocked an eyebrow at him appraisingly. “And maybe you.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“Good,” she said, “because I don’t give many, especially to mortals.”
“You know, if we weren’t faced with a stinkin’ band of Cherubim drop-outs, I’d think you were flirting with me.”
“They also move in herds. Kill their leader and they will disband. That is why we haven’t seen them yet. They will only attack a Cherubim together, never alone.”
“How do you know who the leader is?”
“That’s one of the problems,” she said. “But if we find him, or her, the others will lose their nerve. As individuals, they have lost their humanity and cannot think and react on their own.”
She had watched Knight turn off the house alarm earlier, after they had made their way up from the studio. She was glad, because things were about to get ugly and there was no explaining the Fallen to the police. His home was secluded enough on the coast that any disturbance would not be immediately reported. Indeed, they were alone with the Fallen. With Knight’s able help, this battle situation was as she preferred it to be.
He joined her in the center of the living room. “Is this where we make our stand?”
“We have nowhere to run. The house is surrounded. I can smell them everywhere.”
The sliding glass door and front door burst open simultaneously, spraying the beach home with shards of glass and splinters of wood.
Chapter Five
Standing in his front doorway, silhouetted by the outdoor lighting, was a very tall woman dressed in a black leather trench coat. To Knight, as far as he could tell she was an utter knockout. Much of her face was still in shadow. A strong breeze that now made its way through his home, traveling through the two gaping doors, blew her blonde hair back from her face. He could see high cheekbones and a fine jaw.
“They certainly know how to make an entrance,” said Knight.
“With you being a mortal, they were hoping to scare you,” said Jess evenly. Her head didn’t move from the front doorway. “So, are you scared?”
“Trembling in my boots.”
“They will not attack just yet. First, they will seek information.”
“What type of information?”
“Why I have traveled from the highland wilderness of Iran to meet with a mortal, especially after having recently lost a Daughter Cherubim.”
“Maybe ‘cause I’m cute as hell.”
“Maybe.”
Knight was suddenly struck by a need to vomit, as if the food he had eaten after his lecture was not settling well and it wasn’t because of his banter with Jess. There seemed to be something in the air. Something was not right, as if the carcass of a whale had washed up and he was just detecting a hint of it on the wind. But more than anything, the room was quickly filling up with the smell of cologne and perfume.
“I think someone went a little heavy on the aftershave,” he said to Jess.
She had not taken her eyes off the blonde woman. Knight couldn’t be sure, but she seemed to be fighting the need to vomit as well. “It is the Fallen. They know their stench can often times be detected by mortals and they seek to hide it.”
“I would, too,” he said.
Behind the blonde woman were others. Knight turned and looked toward his patio deck. He counted five men and women, all wearing long coats, as if to hide something. From what he could see, between the front and sliding glass doors, there were over ten unwanted guests.
The blonde woman stepped forward into the room. To Knight, she appeared to be the leader, but then again, his knowledge of the Fallen was seriously lacking.
“We meet again, Daughter Jess,” said the woman. Now, in the dim light of his home, Knight could see that she was quite beautiful in a deathly pale sort of way, as if she had been sick for some time. Her body looked powerful within the folds of her overcoat. She moved easily, stepping over the remains of a front door he had paid top dollar for.
Serves me right, he thought. It was just a door.
“You are looking well, Morina,” said Jess, “for someone who feeds on dead rodents.”
“Not tonight,” said Morina. “Tonight, we found a jogger on the beach. A very fit young man who could not run, try as he might.”
“Is she the leader?” asked Knight behind her, as they had shifted back to back and watched as four women and one man crunched over the glass of his shattered sliding glass door. He saw now that someone had thrown a deck chair into the window. Normally, that would have set off the alarms. He wasn’t so sure that had been a good idea, but now the house was quiet.
“Ah,” said Morina from behind Knight. “You told the mortal of our nature. I shall answer for Jessima IL Eve. I am not the leader.”
“But you are certainly the spokesperson,” he said from over his shoulder.
He heard laughter from the woman, but did not see her. “You picked a good one, Jessima. But can he fight?”
“You shall see,” said Jess.
Knight saw movement from the corner of his eye and he turned his head slightly to see Morina and three other Fallen making their way into his foyer. Morina was studying him closely. He saw now that blood coated her lips and what appeared to be shreds of skin under her long, pale fingernails. The skin was probably human. There had been a murder below on his beach. Morina stared at him with her amber cat-like eyes that seemed to capture what little light there was in his living room and reflect it back even brighter. Her face looked flushed, perhaps from the recent kill. Her blank stare was so blatantly open and hostile that he unconsciously turned away, preferring instead to keep his eyes on those who were near his kitchen. Near where what had been his sliding glass door.
He was most startled to witness the Fallen’s movements. They moved in a very coordinated way, as if they had planned their movements within his home. It was as if they had a collective mind.
“Kill the leader,” Jess said. Perhaps it was this leader who was controlling them now. Each looked confident and cocky, looking upon Jess and Knight as if they were less than human, or even less than mortal in her case. As if, quite frankly, they were nothing more than food.
“This one has nerve,” said Morina. “I wonder why you are here, Jessima. I wonder why you chose this one to open up to. What makes him so special?”
“It’s my sense of humor,” said Knight. “She’s come all the way down from her mountain for a few laughs.”
Morina ignored him. “I find it curious that one of the Daughters is away from the fold, even as another one has perished, by our hands, no less.”
Beside him, Jess tensed.
Morina continued, “I find it curious that a Daughter has been sent away, even as we are in the process of planning a full attack on the Mountain of God.”
“What do you mean, Morina?” asked Jess.
“The right man with the right amount of money and the right amount of resources will soon be taking up our cause. He was with Rama when she died. He heard her story, but more importantly, he believes it and has seen the power of the oil. The very oil that he withheld from her as she laid dying and begging for it. Soon, we will join him, but first, we need to know why you are here.” She looked disdainfully at Knight. “We need to know why you seek this mortal.”
Knight’s desire to vomit was stronger now and he was definitely detecting the scent of something wrong, as if someone had just offered him some spoiled milk. He reminded himself it was just a gag reflex. He wasn’t really sick.
And if you hurl, he thought. Do it in their direction.
He turned his head once and counted quickly. There were six of them at the front door and six at the rear door. He didn’t like the odds, but had faced worse than this on a few different occasions, one of which had been along Sunset Street after dark, not too long ago.
Except those assailants had been street punks with bats. They
didn’t have hundreds of years of fighting and killing experience.
Those who were known as the Fallen were a curious lot. It was a disarming experience to watch grown men and women shuffle together in perfect synchronicity, all the while, watching him. They were spreading cautiously throughout the first floor of his house, as if their legs moved independently of their hips.
To Knight, one man stood out. He was a particularly short man who was even now crunching over the glass, taking up the rear and following the others. However, he was not looking at Knight or Jess. Instead, he was looking at the other Fallen, taking them in slowly, as if approving their movements or positioning. The man wore a black leather jacket and jeans and was going slightly bald. His hands were covered in blood, which he seemed to have attempted to wipe on his pants.
I will watch this one, thought Knight.
Then Morina spied one of Knight’s paintings, propped up against the loveseat where Jess had brought it up from the studio. It was a smaller painting, depicting a close-up of the Tree of Life. The Tree had massive branches that seemed to stretch out forever. Vines hung down from within the Tree and swayed as if they were being windblown. In the distance, above the tree was a bright spot of light shining down.
Morina moved toward the painting so quickly that Knight wasn’t entirely sure he had seen what he had seen. Her movements were not human. She lunged forward and snatched the painting and whirled it around. The pupils in her amber eyes dilated considerably as she looked at it.
“What’s this?” she asked.
Neither Knight nor Jess said anything.
Morina went on, “It appears to be a child-like impression of the Tree of Life.”
Knight stepped forward and snatched it out of her hand. The female Fallen looked at him in mild shock. Knight said, “Now, that’s just mean. I worked hard on that. I’ve taken some art classes, you know. I’ve been told that I show promise.”
“You are mortal. I can smell it on you,” said Morina. She then turned to Jess. “How would a mortal know the image of the Tree of Life?”
“You know, there’s more to me than being mortal. In fact, I prefer to be called Doctor—”
Morina continued, cutting him off with a wave of her hand and raising her voice. “You seek a mortal alone? The Cherubim have recently lost one of their Daughters! As we speak, an army is approaching the mountain fortress and Sulina herself will be approaching the leader of this militia!” She smiled. “To offer whatever assistance she can.”
“Of course,” said Jess.
“Now, thanks to the mad rantings of our dear sister, Rama, a mortal with the necessary means has set out to conquer Eden. He brings with him money and weapons and a formidable army.” Morina stepped away and circled the leather couch, casually dragging her fingertips over the surface. “So, we have decided on a different tactic. Why not use a mortal to aid us in our cause? He’s got what we need and the will. He’s seen the oil in action and is preparing to set out for Eden.”
“How do you know all of this?” asked Jess.
“Because one of his advisers sought out an expert on Eden last week, someone who could aid him in his quest.”
“Let me guess,” said Jess. “He found Sulina.”
“She’s currently heading a chair in Israel. She’s known for her knowledge of Eden.” Morina cocked a finger at Knight.
Knight said, “Sulna Obvesky, the author and historian and a woman I have met at several emporiums is Sulina the Fallen?”
“Yes, Evan,” said Jess. “One and the same.”
“She is with the Russian now, the man known as Alexey.”
“Alexey Konstantin?” asked Knight.
“Why, yes.”
“His rep called me last week, asking me to set out for some consulting work.”
“Well, it’s a good thing you didn’t take the job,” said Morina.
Knight had indeed received a call from a man, named Milek if he recalled, asking him to go to Iran, all expenses paid, including a considerable consulting fee. Knight had no idea what he had been talking about and was not interested. Besides, he had end of the year finals to oversee.
Morina flicked her gaze at Jess. “Alexey is the man, Daughter Jess, whose army shall overcome your considerable defenses. Or did you not know any of this?”
Jess didn’t say anything. Her silence either indicated she had no clue what was happening in the Middle East, or she didn’t think she needed to dignify the question with a response.
“Yet now, the Daughters are two short and you have sought a man who has devoted his life to finding and studying the Garden of Eden and who is in possession of these simple paintings of the Garden.” Morina paused and turned to the rest of the Fallen who had now congregated completely in Knight’s living room. “Brothers and sisters, think how proud Sulina will be when she discovers that we have killed the Chosen One on this night.”
Knight had had enough. The gun was in his hand and he was pointing it at Morina’s face. No one reacted, which surprised him. “If anyone moves, I will blow her head off.”
Morina smiled at him and then looked around the room at the others. Most of the Fallen were in doorways, or set in comfortable poses. “You heard the man,” said Morina. “No one move or he’ll blow my head off.”
“Easy, Evan,” whispered Jess, turning her head toward him. “She’s not the one we want.”
“I know.”
“Do you have your suspicions?”
“I think I do.”
“Choose wisely,” she said.
From his peripheral vision, Knight saw the little bald man in the back nod his head slightly. As he did so, Morina grinned, as did the others. Morina reached inside her coat and Knight saw the butt of a pistol. The others were doing the same. All appeared armed, whether or not with guns or knives he didn’t know and didn’t care at the moment.
Instead, Knight swung his arm around and pulled the trigger rapidly three times. All three bullets hit the little man in the center of his chest, puncturing the leather jacket, throwing the man back against Knight’s Italian tiled breakfast bar.
What can I say? thought Knight grimly. The man moved.
It was the first time in his life that he had shot a man.
He was not a man, he was a Fallen. Something foul and not natural that came here to kill him and Jess. He reminded himself of this as he swung his arm back to Morina, who was staring down at her fallen comrade, her eyes wide and horrified.
* * *
Son of a bitch, thought Jess. He chose wisely.
She glanced at Knight who was still holding his weapon steadily, alternating pointing it from one Fallen to another. She was not surprised that Knight had brandished the handgun. After all, he was obviously a man of action.
She was surprised however, when he had fired rapidly, the gunshots echoing painfully loud in her ear. She turned immediately and saw the most unassuming of the Fallen slam onto the tiled counter. A man who held himself up briefly with his hands flat on the blue tile. Blood pooled and ran along the grout, moving swiftly like mice in a labyrinth. He coughed once, spat up more blood and then crumpled in a heap.
Morina shrieked and dashed to the man’s side and was so quick to almost be there in time to catch him from falling. She picked up his head and cradled it in her lap and rocked with him gently, but the man was dead.
The Fallen can die from mortal wounds, Jess knew. They did not have the benefit of the healing oil.
No one breathed and no one moved.
Jess saw the look on the Fallen’s faces. Most looked dumbstruck, looking down at the limp form of the little bald man, whose blood was pooling under him. Their weapons were forgotten, their direction lost.
Morina’s face streaked with tears and looked up at them from the kitchen tiles. Her knees were soaked in blood. To Jess, the stench of decay was ever stronger, as if the stench were contained in the blood of the Fallen. Perhaps it was. “Take the oil she wears around her neck,” hissed Morina in a
controlled whisper. “Take it so that Gandil can live again.”
The other Fallen seemed to wake from their trance, given a purpose again. They turned back to Jess and Knight. The other woman, as big as Jess, was a stranger to her, although she was obviously of Cherubim stock. Before the Fallen.
Knight, who swung his weapon rapidly from one Fallen to another said, “What do we do, Jess?”
“We fight.”
“I was hoping you’d say that.”
* * *
They attacked as one, which didn’t surprise Knight. They seemed fairly mindless. He suspected that once they became Fallen, they lost much of what they had been.
Then again, that was only his opinion.
As they drew their weapons, a smattering of pistols and knives, Knight pinpointed first those who were removing pistols from inside their jackets. There seemed to be two and both were similar-looking males in trench coats. Both were coming from his left.
Without hesitation or conscience, he turned and fired first at the closest one and then, at the man behind. It had to be done. He had to eliminate these men and remove their weapons from the fight. Or Knight and Jess would have been eliminated themselves. The thundering explosion of his pistol rattled his teeth, as the gun bucked in his hand. He held it steady, squeezing the trigger, emptying the gun into the men until both had fallen to their knees, finally pitching forward.
The trigger clicked rapidly as he tossed it aside.
Morina was still cradling the head of their leader, weeping. Knight’s heart would have gone out to her if she hadn’t been about to kill them both.
The remaining attackers fanned out. Most were brandishing Bowie-style knives.
Knight tossed the gun aside and unsheathed his Tai Chi Sword. Beside him, Jess had her own short sword free. They were back to back, circling the blue-tiled area of his central foyer, in a place he had called home just hours earlier. He and his dream girl were currently being swarmed by a stinkin’ pack of undead.
Not exactly how he’d planned his night.
As Jess pressed up against him, her backside pressed against his hip as they slowly rotated, he couldn’t help but think that the night hadn’t turned out entirely bad, either.
