“Ah, stereotyping. Where did you get that idea? From a movie, I presume?” I didn’t answer because yeah, I did get it from movies. Not too many of my books talked about demons. Fairies- yes. Vampires- absolutely. Werewolves- here and there. Demons- not a one. He went on without addressing my silent confirmation. “Those are mostly spiritual and not physical beings. They were weaker angels in the world that you cannot see. I was one step below the archangels, one step away from those with so much power, power that you cannot begin to fathom.” He seemed very proud of himself, I noted. “Where was I before the interruption? Oh, yes. The offspring that were born were half-breeds.” His voice was filled with disdain. “And the company you keep is some of those very abominations. Even your little boyfriend here.” Amir’s chin jutted out in the direction of Uriel.
I inhaled a shuttered breath. I was trying to comprehend what he really meant. Disbelief must have shown on my face because Amir asked me, “Have you never noticed any of those around you acting strangely? Doing something they shouldn’t have been able to?”
Maybe a few times, I considered his questions. But still… “No,” I denied.
“Then they’ve been very careful around you,” he scoffed.
What was he saying? That my friends and Uriel were not human? “And what are you?”
Amir smiled that wicked grin once more. “I’m one of the sons of God who were banished to this hell that is your homeland.”
“So what are sons of God?” I looked for clarification.
“Take a wild guess.” He was getting exasperated with me.
“Angels?” I ventured.
He nodded slowly. “She can be taught!” he exclaimed.
Ignoring his insult, I somehow knew, deep down, that he was speaking the truth, or at least part of it. Somehow, that feeling that there was a secret I was never allowed to know about Uriel was subsiding and being replaced by clarity. Not that any of this was actually comprehensible to me. Demons? Angels? Then a thought occurred to me. “Why is Elly with you then?”
“Ah, my plaything- my special find.” His smile grew wider. “I hit the jackpot when I found her- as you mortals would say. She’s very powerful, considering she is only half of what it truly forcible. Elizabeth is an abomination, much like your new little friends, but she is a newborn Nephilim so I intended to sway her to join my collection of half-breeds, and I’ve succeeded.” That cocky glint reentered his eyes. “She cannot refuse me now.”
“Is that really why you were there when Elly and I were having dinner that night in the summer?” I asked and something clicked. He was using Elly. She was completely and totally head-over-heels for this creep, and the whole time she had had no idea. “You were purposefully there when we were? You were scoping Elly out?”
“You’re perceptive for a mortal. That was months ago, which is a long time for your kind’s weak memories to recall in detail.”
I felt my eyes narrow at him. “How could I forget your glower?”
“Yes, well, you caught me off guard, and I’m not accustomed to that. I was there to find the new Nephilim, and I did of course.” Cocky. “Ever since then, I’ve been persuading her gradually to trust me.” He paused and attained a mocking air in a split second. “You really didn’t think it odd that Elizabeth’s leg healed so quickly? What mortal’s body could repair like that?” I had nothing to say in my defense, but it didn’t matter because he immediately went on hatefully, “But you were there with her that first night, and how could I, having been uncharacteristically caught unaware, keep the contempt from my expression with all of your inner goodness emanating throughout the room? You have an unnatural amount of candid good for a mortal your age, and I can’t stand the honorable. I didn’t appreciate you influencing Elizabeth in a positive way.”
Uriel smiled, and Amir’s attention was immediately misdirected from me. “What are you smiling at, half-breed? The mortal’s righteousness should have been enough to keep you away from her,” he spat. “I am both surprised and pleased that your selfishness won over your code of honor, and you chose to associate with one so pure. With any luck some of your original nature will rub off on her.”
Uriel’s expression was murderous as he took one step closer to Amir.
Just then, another person emerged in the distance. I couldn’t see him; he was too far away. But Uriel and the others seemed to know who the man was, and they didn’t appear to take comfort in his presence. I barely heard Azra identify, “Arien.” I couldn’t tell if the figure was male or female- how could he see the person clearly enough to know who the being was? Amir’s voice broke through my thoughts. “That’s my ride. I would say some other time, but honestly, I hope that isn’t the case. Keira,” he said to me, “do yourself some good and stay away from this bunch.” He winked at me and a shiver ran down my spine again. He smiled, turned, and walked away. No one moved until long after both men had disappeared.
“Uriel-” I broke the silence.
“He’s right,” Uriel cut off my question without looking at me. “You shouldn’t be in my company. It’s best if we don’t see each other any more Keira. This has been coming for some time now, and it should have happened long ago. I apologize for the suddenness but this is how it must be.” His voice sounded mechanical, completely empty of any emotion. I’d never heard him talk like that. Where was the Uriel who knew about everything and spoke about things with the passion that had lit up my world? “Goodbye.” He began walking away, back to his car.
Goodbye? I was speechless as he opened the car door and unhesitatingly got inside. Did he really mean to leave like that? To end us like that? I wanted to ask him, to demand to be told the reason for his strange behavior and tone, but what could I say while my heart was breaking?
Azra, Odeda, Zev, and Dagan followed him without looking me in the eye, and soon I was standing in the middle of the parking lot by myself. But I couldn’t stay standing for very long. My legs buckled, and I helplessly sat there- seeing, thinking, feeling nothing.
Grace
Chapter 14
Keira
Eventually, I had to go home. I knew this, but for the longest time, I couldn’t seem to function correctly. Other than what Uriel had said, which I couldn’t even comprehend, my mind was going through information overload with all the things Michael/Amir had sprung on me. Instead of sifting through the info, my brain seemed to shut down. I half expected to hear a whrrr-ing noise but didn’t. So I remained slumped in the middle of the school’s parking lot without noticing the time that passed. The gravel digging into my knees was what brought me back to reality. I slowly registered the small pain and found the strength to get up and into my car. The climb into my Wrangler seemed like a mountainous effort. I have no idea how I drove home without hitting anything or getting lost. The only thought I could manage was of my bed. For some reason, I clung to the image of my plush king-sized, specially-made bed like it was a life-preserver and I was drowning in my own dangerous ocean of thoughts and doubts. I whole-heartedly believed that once I was lost in my comforter and pillows I could wake up and everything would be okay somehow.
I parked in the side driveway, not recalling how to open the garage, drug myself to the front door, and slipped, undetected, inside and upstairs to my room where I was blessedly met by my life-preserver.
I fell into my safe haven, and waited… But the relief of unconsciousness I had numbly trekked across the city for refused to take me. So, I lay there with my door closed and curtains drawn for hours. My room became my personal black-out.
♂ ♂ ♂ ♂ ♂
Sunday morning I woke from the worst dream of my life. I reached over to my bedside table for my phone so I could call Uriel and tell him about it because I felt oddly shaken by the night’s false events. When I didn’t feel my cell in its usual dumping place, I turned on my lamp and winced at the sudden brightness. Once my pupils grew back to their normal size, I saw that my phone wasn’t on the granite table I always deposited it on before goi
ng to bed. I quickly took in the rest of my room and spotted my purse on the floor at my feet. Oh. It’s in there.
I reached for the bag and saw my arm for the first time that morning.
That’s not my usual sleepwear.
I pulled back the covers and looked downward.
Jeans?
And then it hit me- fresh pain. The pain that had been too much to bear the day before. No. My nightmares came back to me with vivid, cruel clarity. No. Uriel. Elly. The family that I had come to love. That creep, Amir. No. How could any of it have really happened? But when I bent my knees, I could feel where the gravel had dug through my pants and had, no doubt, created lovely bruises beneath my skin.
It had all been real.
Once I accepted that fact, as unacceptable as it was, all of the unanswered questions I had been mercifully numbed to the day before pored into my mind. With the dam broken, I could no longer consider the idea of turning off the light, sinking back into my sheets, and pretending like nothing ever happened in an attempt to block the damned dam, because I knew that that would never work now. So I achingly stumbled to my window seat and opened the curtains a fraction. It was raining, and I felt a guilty pleasure that the weather would mirror my mood so nicely, for it wasn’t a refreshing, soft rain but a hurricane tycoon kind of rain. A depressing, stay inside and don’t come out or I’ll beat you to death kind of rain.
First things first, I told myself. Uriel said…… Nope. Not tolerable.
Moving on.
Michael/Amir… I waited for some telling, physical sign to let me know if I could handle this matter. When nothing happened, Okay, that one doesn’t make me want to crawl in a hole and die so I’ll deal with him.
I thought of the things he had said once Elly had left, assuming that anything said in her presence had been a lie. Amir said Nephilim, and since I didn’t know to trust him on his own definition, I decided to look for my own. I reluctantly got up from my cushioned window seat and walked over to my desk. The laptop I had received as a Christmas present that year was already unplugged so all I had to do was carry it back to my previous seat to begin my Google search while still being able to glance outside at the downpour. While I waited for the thing to boot up, I pressed my forehead to the cool glass, closed my eyes, and listened to the soothing tapping of nature’s renewal.
The computer’s overexcited chime signaling it was ready to be used sounded, and I was brought out of my momentary rest.
I clicked on the internet and then the Google bar and typed in N-E-P-H-I-L-I-M. Cool, I spelled it right the first time.
Wikipedia wasn’t much help, but after a while of searching on my own, I basically concluded that Nephilim are super beings, half human and half… something else. So Amir had been truthful about that. Surprising. But what exactly was the other half?... Sons of God. What the hell is that?
Reading Genesis 6:4 on the majority of the websites had made me realize this term had something to do with Christianity or Judaism. Since my religion class had just recently finished educating us on the former belief system, I decided to draw on that knowledge. Sonssssss of God. While I might not have given my undivided attention to the teacher every other morning, I did retain the fact that Christianity was a monotheistic religion- somehow, while still having the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost all wrapped up in one. The Son. Singular. Only one.
My question still remained: Who were the sons of God?
A little more attention to detail made me see that most of the websites I had pulled up had their own theories about that. Some said righteous men, others said a different race of humans, but I kept getting stuck on the ones that said angels. That’s what Amir had claimed. Fallen angles?
I typed in fallen angels, and the fifth heading from the top said Fallen Angels and Demons. Great. Demons again. That’s what Amir had claimed to be; he’d said yes to angel and demon. I hadn’t seen anything special about him other than his PMS mood swings. One minute he’s apologizing; the next he’s insulting everyone around him, including me and my intelligence; still the next minute, he’s warning me to keep my distance from the curly blond haired boy whose name I couldn’t even think about without my hands shaking and my stomach twisting into a knot.
I clicked on the website and read the titles of ancient texts called Book of Enoch and Book of Jubilees. So that’s what Mr. Pollard had been talking about during his second class. I never thought I’d have to use his subject’s information. Had I known, I would have listened more often… I hadn’t paid attention to half of the things Mr. Pollard had talked about in Religion. I only passed the class because my parents forced me to go to church every Sunday. I smiled to myself. Their tyranny came in handy for once.
As if my thoughts had summoned her, my mother’s harsh knock on my bedroom door reverberated throughout my room- and probably the whole house. Without waiting for permission, Mother opened my door and called in, “We’re skipping church today because of the rain. I’m not going to get ready just so that I can look like a wet dog after walking in this weather from the car to the sanctuary.” I imagined my mother soaked to the bone and pissed off while putting on a fake smile and walking up to her fellow snotty church friends. I held in my laughter until she had closed the door again. It felt weird to laugh in the midst of my doom and gloom.
Turning back to my laptop, I typed in demon and read from Wikipedia:
In religion, folklore, and mythology a demon is a supernatural being that is generally described as a malevolent spirit. In Christian terms demons are generally understood as fallen angels, formerly of God. A demon is frequently depicted as a force that may be conjured and insecurely controlled. The “good” demon in recent use is largely a literary device, though references to good demons can be found in Hesiod and Shakespeare. In common language, to “demonize” a person means to characterize or portray them as evil, or as the source of evil.
The picture to the right of the definition was exactly what Amir had dismissed as stereotyping—winged, creepy looking monsters. As for demons being insecurely controlled, I couldn’t imagine Amir being controlled at all, even if it was insecurely. That is, if he were actually a demon, which, come on, wasn’t likely. I mean, I love reading about fairytales and fantasy and all, but they were just books and stories.
But when I looked to… for some refutation, he couldn’t even meet my eyes.
I was feeling sick all of a sudden. I left my laptop on the window seat while I stumbled to my bathroom and barely made it to the toilet in time.
Five minutes and some mouthwash later, I returned to the cool glass that separated me from the rain. Once again, I let my forehead rest on it and simply sat there trying not to think. I took a few deep, calming breaths.
Okay… Assume everything was true. That answered most of my questions- believe Amir. But what about Elly? He’d said that she was a Nephilim. A little deductive reasoning and I figured that that meant Elly’s biological father had to have been an angel.
Yeeaaahhhhh…
Then on second thought, Elly didn’t know who her real dad was. Her step-father had married her mom when Elly was six, so she considered him her dad for all intents and purposes. But it had always sort of bugged Elly- not knowing who she had come from or where. It would be unspeakably dastardly if Amir was using that to make her buy into all of his bullshit. If he had, I don’t care what kind of being he claims he is, I’ll hurt him.
So, recap: evil angels came to earth and had sex with earth’s women who produced little half angels, half humans called Nephilim; five of these are Zev, Odeda, Dagan, Azra, and Unthinkable; Elly is another but not nearly as old; her boyfriend is a self-proclaimed, uber-powerful evil demon/angel person who has taken it upon himself to corrupt Elly; and I am so lost…
As for Unthinkable… I just didn’t know what to do with him. What had he said? You shouldn’t be in my company. It’s best if we don’t see each other any more Keira. This has been coming for some time now, and it should have happe
ned long ago. And then, goodbye.
For the briefest moment, I was caught on the first sentence. Why would he say that? Then I thought of Elly and Amir. My friend hadn’t realized what her guy was and according to the creeper, neither had I. But Amir’s evil. Elly hadn’t realized that part either. What if Uriel…? No, Uriel had been against the creep the whole time. Uriel’s family was the best group of people I had ever met. There was no way that any of them could be anything less than perfect. Uriel wasn’t evil. Not an inch of him.
There wasn’t anything wrong with him. So what was wrong with me? Why couldn’t we be together?
Any sadness I would have expected never came. In its place, I felt anger well up in me. Who the hell did he think he was? There was no way I would let him off that easily. If Uriel wanted to break up with me, he was going to have to do better than that. I wanted an explanation. You don’t just throw away three months like they were nothing. The last three months had been everything to me. If there was really something wrong, I wanted to be told flat out.
A knock on my door ended my mental fuming. It couldn’t be my mother again- she would have strolled on inside not bothering to announce herself. “Come in,” I called.
It was Maria. “Are you coming down for lunch honey?”
“Lunch?” I glanced at the computer’s time; it was one o’clock. Twenty-four hours had passed since the most bizarre happening of my life. My stomach growled, and I was reminded that I hadn’t eaten anything since the morning before. After feeling so lost and vacant after Uriel- my temper briefly flared again- had said those things, I hadn’t thought about food. As I looked up at my loving Maria dressed in her grandmotherly, boring clothes, I felt comforted by her presence and the sweet and concerned way she looked at me. “Lunch would be perfect.”
I followed her down the stairs to the first floor and into the kitchen where Jerry was slicing up some strawberries. “Hey Keira,” he greeted me with a one hundred percent genuine Jerry-smile. “You want some?” He gestured toward the bowl of bite-sized strawberries he had almost filled.
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