Marked for Vengeance (Book One: The Alyx Rayer Chronicles)

by Pierce, SJ

  As the others in the gathering place followed suit, the Protectors straightened their backs and nodded appreciatively. Thankfully, Alyx’s cloak hid most of what was left of her lashes, but she still turned her head away to hide the ones on her face. She was the only Protector who didn’t perform ‘superbly’.

  When the clapping ceased, Cindra grasped Alyx’s hand in support.

  Oman lowered his cane to his side. “The Protectors report to the Elders, of course, who report to the Arch Angel of Protection, Rielle. There are three Arch Angels over every galaxy with a life-inhabiting planet – the Arch of Protection, the Arch of War, and the Arch of Life and Death. They also report to the Creator, but you will never see their presence here. They are ever watchful, however.

  The arrogant man with the shaved head raised his hand.

  “Yes, Jeremiah?”

  “The other Arch Angels… the one of War, and Life and Death. Do they have Angels under them too?”

  “The Arch Angel of War does. His name is Lucius and the Elder that reports to him is Tidus. He and his Warrior Angels will be here tomorrow.

  With the mention of the Warriors, Alyx’s stomach fluttered like a tiny frightened bird. The Elders had already prepared them for their arrival, but she couldn’t help her anxiety over it. They also said that their draws to their Marked were no longer and would now be connected to their Warriors. For Alyx, this wasn’t the case. She still felt every fiber of her soul connected to Isaac’s, if not stronger than before.

  “However, The Arch Angels of Life and Death in every galaxy have no name and have no Elders under them. The only one who has the privilege of laying eyes on them is our Creator. Not even I have seen them. They’re solely responsible for overseeing each human’s transition from life into the afterlife – no matter where it’s spent. Regardless of the grave circumstances we are under, they do not and will not interfere with anything else. It is their position that the cards fall where they may.

  Prolificent rolled his eyes, and Diamort dropped his gaze to his feet with a shake of his head. Apparently this was not a popular notion. And why would it be? How could these particular Arch Angels not step in as the others had done, to try and avenge what these beings did to the human race?

  “Now that I’ve covered the leadership here,” Oman said, pointing the tip of his staff toward the cluster of humans near the front, “the first gifted human introduced will be Atticus. Please stand up, my child, and make your way to the pulpit.”

  The peculiar man with stringy hair rose from the bench and proceeded to the stage with his right hand still shoved inside his pocket. He stopped by Oman’s side and continued to stare at the floor. Oman’s long arm reached around the back of him for a welcoming embrace. Atticus shrugged, indicting his discomfort, but didn’t struggle against it.

  “Gifts aren’t necessarily an ability you’re born with or that manifests itself later in life,” Oman continued, “they can be anything you have to offer that is useful to our cause. Atticus’ happens to be in the form of inside information about the beasts’ plans and what they hope to accomplish here. I’m sure you can all conclude how this is beneficial to us all. I’ll let Atticus take over from here.”

  Atticus peered up at Oman who gave a quick nod of encouragement, backing away. His haunting blue eyes scanned over the crowd, and his hand moved nervously inside his pocket. “Hello,” he croaked, his voice tinged with apprehension, and cleared his throat. He shifted on his feet and glanced back to Oman, seeking reassurance.

  Oman gestured for him to continue with a grin.

  Atticus faced the crowd with pressed eyelids. Beads of sweat had formed on his forehead and gleamed from the light of the torches.

  Alyx bounced her leg on the ground as she watched the strange man struggle. As odd as he seemed to her, she felt the urge to run to his side and hold his hand.

  “Oman is right,” he said and reopened his eyes, his other hand clenching the side of his purple robe as though it might float away, “I do have inside knowledge.

  His gaze lifted above their heads, unable to make eye contact for too long. “These beings are not from our world, or even our galaxy. From what I understand, they are a lot like demonic entities. They have the ability to posses living creatures, human and beast, as well as appear and disappear whenever they wish. They operate on a completely different dimension, presumably the same one any other paranormal entity would.”

  Jeremiah raised his hand.

  He sure has a lot of questions.

  Atticus nodded for him to proceed.

  “How long have these beasts been around?”

  He shook his head, his black hair swooshing around his shoulders. “I don’t know.”

  Prolificent’s voice reached out from the back of the stage. “These beings have been around for some time. As a matter of fact, this isn’t the first galaxy they’ve invaded. There were two others before this, and both sets of their Archs were unsuccessful at preventing the hostile take-overs. The reason this time is so significant is because this is the last human-inhabited galaxy in the universe. There were only three. This is our last chance for justice.”

  “Yes,” Oman agreed. “We were unsuccessful during our other efforts to save those human souls or to reclaim them. These beasts were created by someone else, someone dark and wicked. Therefore, it was impossible for us, including our Creator, to see them or even to cast them out. Neither the utterance of man through exorcism nor a single divine ability of our gracious Creator can make these beings flee.

  Alyx’s stomach dropped. She now understood how truly disadvantaged they were. Even God can’t see them.

  Jeremiah cocked his head with confusion. “Then how come the Protectors could see them?”

  “In regard to your Protectors, this is the first time that Angels were created in human vessels, and when they changed form we hoped their improved vision might be able to detect the beasts’ movement as they operated in another dimension, which proved right. This was the first time we created celestial beings with that in mind, although, even their eyesight is limited to translucent shapes. There is only one non-spiritual entity – a human here among us – that has the gift of spiritual eyesight. We will introduce him later.

  “For the rest of us – Spirit Guides, Archs, Elders – none of us have that ability with our eyesight either. When we were created long ago, the Creator did not know any of this would happen. These beasts’ wickedness is so infinite, the Creator couldn’t even see any of this in the future. His foresight is also completely blocked.

  Oman stepped to Atticus’ side, who tucked his chin into his chest, welcoming the break for the spotlight to be on someone else. “To clarify who this ‘someone’ is that created these beasts in the first place, his name is Serpious and was the Arch Angel of War in one of the other two galaxies. He realized the value in the energy that the human soul possesses and wanted to harness it for himself out of greed for his own power. When the Creator acquired knowledge of this, he banished Serpious into the darkness at the outer rim of the universe, away from access to any other galaxies to live lonely and shamed for eternity. His disobedience from the Creator turned him into something evil and, like I said before, the Holy Creator couldn’t see him or his intentions any longer. We believe that the beasts who travel with him to do his bidding were once human spirits, but were altered by Serpious who had already obtained them before the Creator banished him, and-

  “But wait a minute,” Dr. Wu interrupted.

  “Dr. Wu!” Prolificent barked, and everyone in the gathering place flinched. “Please raise your hand to speak.”

  Dr. Wu’s head jerked back. “We were not instructed to do that,” he argued.

  “Irrelevant.”

  Oman closed his eyes and drew in a deep, calming breath. “Please, continue with your question, Doctor.”

  “This sounds a lot like Lucifer,” Dr. Wu continued. “Wasn’t he cast down from heaven for disobedience? God can see Lucifer, why is this S
erpious guy any different?”

  “Excellent observation. Lucifer was cast out of heaven but remained in our galaxy. He roams the Earth to entice living souls, not steal them for his own as Serpious has done. Up until today, man on Earth had his own freedom intact to choose which afterlife he spends eternity in. However, now Serpious and his legion has invaded our planet and taken the souls from the living against their free will.

  “But I still don’t understand. Lucifer is evil too,” he said.

  Oman grinned with amusement. “I’m getting to that, Doctor. Serpious and his beings had light years to churn in anger and malice, burning and contorting into entities our minds could never conceive of. If you could even imagine, they are beings more evil than Lucifer and his minions. They grew to be the Creator’s sinister parallel and have since been traveling through the universe, invading galaxies and pillaging souls to add to their collection. They grow stronger every time. How they are able to travel, nobody knows. We theorize that the energy their rage produces allows them to. But either way, they’re here, and threaten every human soul we’ve all grown to know, love, and protect – except, of course, the ones who have already passed on and remain under our protection in heaven.”

  Oman turned to Atticus. “You may continue,” he said and bowed.

  Atticus nodded and wiped a bead of sweat that traveled along his temple. “The way Serpious’ invasion works, is that he and his army invade a planet with living souls, like Earth, except nobody knows when this happens, because how would we? As we’ve said, nobody can see them. From what I gather, they’ve lurked here patiently for centuries, waiting for the right time to strike.

  Dr. Wu flicked his hand into the air with a raised finger. “Why centuries? That seems excessive.”

  “I’m not sure of that either,” he replied and looked to Oman.

  “I have pondered over this many times,” Oman said. “And I think it would be safe to presume that these beings view time the way we spiritual entities do – as an infinite loop with no beginning or end. Because they are comprised of a fallen Arch Angel and his acquired souls, they are also eternal entities. Centuries to them would be but a small dot on a timeline.”

  Everyone nodded, his explanation making sense.

  “Thank you, Oman,” Atticus said. “They spend the majority of that time seeking out humans who can aide them, but waited until they felt the world had accumulated enough defiant, wayward souls. They must have felt the time was now.

  Alyx knew it was safe to agree with that. Throughout her lifetimes on Earth, she noticed how the condition of the human morale deteriorated. It was even more evident in this third and final lifetime because the morning and evening news would plaster horrifying stories across the screen every ten minutes. Someone killed this person in cold blood, or a serial murderer was on the loose, a child was stolen, or an animal was mutilated. She felt certain that Serpious didn’t have to look too far for the help he needed.

  “They also spent that time scouting out the ones that could be used against them, such as most of you gifted humans, and waited until their time to strike to dispose of them.

  Alyx clamped her eyes shut, thinking of Isaac. The beasts had most certainly tried their best to ‘dispose’ of him. Hopefully they won’t succeed, she lamented, and memories flashed through her mind of the man in the black suit, the way he made her scar tingle as the beasts did. Atticus’s last statement echoed through her mind. They also spend that time scouting out the ones that could be used against them.

  Of course, the man in the black suit was a Scout, she thought and gulped. And I led him straight to Isaac’s doorstep.

  “Luckily we were one step ahead of them,” Prolificent crowed, his chest puffing out, “once we were aware that these beings had arrived centuries ago and were targeting our spiritually gifted, we came up with a plan. We created the Protectors to make sure they stayed safe as soon as their gifts fully matured.

  As soon as their gifts fully matured, Alyx mused. That’s why they sent us at certain times during our Markeds’ lives. Isaac’s gift must have matured three years ago.

  Willow’s hand lifted, and everyone’s eyes snapped to her. “If you don’t mind, please tell us what happened when you realized they had arrived, and that they targeted the gifted humans,” she said in her colorful Spanish accent.

  “Sure, my child,” he replied and turned to Oman, his lips twisting into a wry sneer, “would you like to take this one?”

  Alyx’s eyes cut to Oman. Her Elder’s tone toward him had surprised her. It was quite disrespectful. She expected the old man to shoot him a look or a displeased scowl, but he replied to Willow without skipping beat, maintaining his composure.

  “Yes, my dear,” Oman said with a smile. “After Serpious and his demons invaded the second planet, wiping out the human souls there completely, the Creator blessed humans on Earth to aide us if they decided to invade it – his last planet with humans. His reason in doing this was in hopes that humans could do what he was unable – see what they were capable of, and hopefully, what their plans were. He placed within them a divine ability to protect their very existence.

  “I have been in touch with several of these gifted humans over the years but primarily prophets. Their abilities are particularly useful to us because they can help us achieve the optimal outcome of defeat. What we didn’t know, is Serpious also had the ability to find these gifted humans and kept a close eye on them to make sure they weren’t doing anything detrimental to their plan for a final take-over.

  Oman looked over the horizon in thought, and his voice lowered. “I worked with a man whose abilities had reached full potential three hundred years ago. He wrote his premonitions in a journal I had given him, and it was taken after his violent, untimely murder. His home had been ransacked, and the only thing that remained for us to use was a letter that had already been sent to his brother, warning him of the world’s certain plight and pleading for him to get right with God. I never set eyes on that journal, so I have no idea what it read. We could only conclude by the horrific nature of his death, and the missing journal, that Serpious and his army were the ones responsible for it, either directly or through a human accomplice. More than likely, Serpious didn’t like what he wrote, either because it predicted his defeat, or because the key to his defeat lied within it. From that moment on, as Prolificent mentioned, Protectors were assigned to make sure that never happened again.”

  As the crowd took in this last bit of information, Alyx still couldn’t get over the manner in which her Elder spoke to him. Did he hold him responsible for what had happened to the only prophet to have conjured a prophecy?

  Prolificent nodded in agreement of Oman’s last sentiments. “Yes, as you might have seen, the Protectors’ symbols on their backs have three peaks. Each peak represents the three purposes of their existence, which all fit into their larger purpose – to protect. The first, to sense when their Marked were in danger before we summoned. The second, to get their Marked to the gateway safely if we summoned. And the last, to aide the Warriors in battle and keep their shields around them as they fight. But since the day that the prophet was murdered, not one of our gifted humans had been attacked like that again, which might be because, despite our best efforts, we have been unsuccessful at accumulating another prophecy from anyone else.”

  “Which we hope to change,” Malachai said. “Beginning with the ones we brought here.”

  Alyx agreed with their conclusion about who killed the ancient prophet. “Horrific” was the exact word she would use to describe Benjamin’s death, and they had also ransacked his home. Were they looking for something? And why?

  CHAPTER 2:

  Miracles Happen

  During the banter, Atticus stood patiently at the front of the stage, listening and waiting for his instructions to continue. When the voices rumbled into silence, everyone’s eyes locked on him. “Additionally, their plan for the ‘take-over’ was incredibly well structured,” he continued, ea
ger to finish. “From what I gather, they’ve had eons to perfect their tactics. My apologies if what I’m about to say becomes too disturbing, but I feel I need to tell it the way it was explained to me. At Serpious’ command, the Grobes were to possess as many souls as they could.

  “And if I may add,” Diamort said. “When we became aware of this first move, this is when we summoned our Protectors.”

  Prolificent nodded.

  “My apologies, Atticus. Please continue.”

  “Grobes are simplistic, demonic entities, only capable of possession and torture. Serpious considers them his most valuable resource since they’re the largest part of his army. These are also the same beasts that Serpious ordered to attack the gifted humans during their transport to the gateway. He ordered for all of them to be destroyed.”

  Serena raised her willowy arm. “Excuse me, but how did they know of our plan?”

  “I asked this same question to Oman just before the gathering. While the Grobes’ jobs are to possess all humans regardless, Serpious was aware of our plan. Our leadership here theorizes that it might be because it was in the prophet’s journal that they stole.”

  The Elders and the Spirit Guides nodded in unison.

  “Oh yes, of course,” she said.

  Alyx’s stomach dropped even further. Not only could the Creator not see them, but the enemy had their hands on the only prophecy. Serpious and his beasts probably knew their moves before they even made them. How will any of this end well? she wondered. Maybe it wouldn’t. The only one that could tell them was Isaac.

  “And like I mentioned before, they had enlisted the help of some misguided humans, including me at the time, to help herd the possessed to one location. All of us that Serpious enlisted were given a glass orb containing a portion of the leader’s soul that would call to them. Mine was tied around my neck until I went through the gateway, but of course it was unable to travel with me. Serpious ordered us to then walk through the town, city, or wherever we lived and lead the possessed to a pre-determined meeting place. Once there, we were to make sure everything was sealed tight and wait for the next phase to begin.