On the outside the shack looked as though it could afford only a cramped single room. Inside, Raphael’s house was as spacious as any other. Alan did a double-take as he looked inside and was greeted by a large room opening up further with rooms to both his right and left.
Alan’s mind struggled to make sense of the conundrum, “How is it so big on the inside?” he asked stepping into the house and closing the door behind him.
Raphael shrugged as he moved deeper into his home. “You accept that angels and demons are in eternal conflict but you struggle with the idea that a structure could be larger on the inside than it appears on the outside?”
Alan conceded the point. His eyes traveled around Raphael’s home. The place was any sea lover’s dream. Smooth pink and white shells mixed into the sand that acted as a floor. Nets and pictures of the sea lined the walls along with shelves holding large conches and sections of exotic coral.
Alan wished he had more time to look around but his head was beginning to ache with the need for food. On one side of the massive open room, an unlit fireplace held a large, stone pot. “Hey, Raphael,” Alan said towards the right side of the house where he had seen the Archangel disappear once they entered. “I’m going to sample whatever is in this pot, if that’s okay with you …”
When there was no answer, Alan decided he had no choice. If Raphael became upset with him, then he would find a way to repay the Archangel. Alan practically ran to the pot hanging over the remains of a long dead fire. Taking off the stone lid brought the aroma of some kind of seafood stew to Alan’s nostrils. A ladle was placed inside and Alan wasted no time in attacking the food.
Seconds, minutes, Alan wasn’t sure how much time passed as he ladled spoonful after spoonful of the goodness into his mouth. The soup was cooked to perfection with just the right amount of salt and spice. Alan only paused to breath when he heard movement behind him.
It was Raphael. Before Alan could guess how his behavior would be received or if he owed the Archangel an apology, Raphael extended a hand. A loaf of bread the size of a football was clenched in his grip. “Eat,” Raphael said with no hint of ill will in his voice. “There is plenty and you need it more than I do.”
Alan continued to devour the food until only a few spoonfuls remained. His stomach felt as though it might pop the button on his jeans. With a sigh, Alan put the pot down and turned to his host. Raphael sat quietly in a large, wooden chair stationed in one of the corners of the room. Head lowered, he was consumed in repairing a net that looked as though it could be as old as the Archangel. His deft fingers traveled in and out of the worn mesh like a skilled professional. Alan thought it would be a good time to question his reluctant host further. The last thing he wanted to do was push Raphael away but still, he needed to start somewhere. “You’ve lived in this place on the supernatural plane all these years? Hidden away from human eyes and left to yourself by both angels and demons?”
Raphael’s fingers continued to weave back and forth over the net but his grey eyes rose from his work, “That’s right.”
Alan licked his lips strategizing on the fly, “After you came down with Michael to quell the demons who were setting themselves as gods among the Greeks, you decided to leave your responsibilities behind?”
Raphael pursed his lips, which Alan could hardly see among the man’s beard. His response came in the form of motion instead of words. Raphael’s right hand began to tremble ever so slightly. With a sigh he placed the net on his lap and stretched the fingers on his shaking hand. “I can see now why you decided to follow me when I left the Statue.”
Alan’s eyebrows rose in mock surprise, “Hey, I’m not trying to convince you to join us. You made your decision clear. I’m just trying to get a better idea of what happened.”
Raphael studied Alan wearing a mask of indifference. “Alright, Horseman. Although, do not think me ignorant. I know you have not given up hope.” Raphael cleared his throat and clenched his trembling hand into a fist. “After the war in heaven, I was never the same again. How could I be? I spent centuries trying to forget what I had done but it would have been easier to forget my own name. When the demons on earth began calling themselves gods, Michael and I, along with a handful of our greatest warriors, came down to stop them. I know now that the demon calling himself Hades was actually Gabriel. At the time, Hades was only a whisper, while we dealt with the other demons who confronted us directly.”
“You never actually met Hades during that time?” Alan mused connecting the dots as to how the Fallen Archangel could have hidden his identity on earth so long.
“That’s correct,” Raphael answered. “When we quelled the rebellion the demon known as Hades disappeared. We searched for him but to know avail. It was after that encounter that I decided it was time to step away from the bloodshed and death. I relinquished my power and have led a quiet life ever since.”
Something Raphael said sparked a thought deep inside Alan. “What do you mean when you said you ‘relinquished’ your power?”
Raphael took a deep breath in through his noise and released it slowly through his mouth. His chest rose and fell in time with the action. If it was possible, the Archangel looked even wearier than earlier that same day. “It is not within my ability to remove my immortality or I would have long ago. However, I can choose to abandon my powers. I did so and I have not regretted the action since.”
In a second, the dots connected and Alan placed each piece of the puzzle together at once. “You abandoned your powers at the Statue of Zeus, didn’t you? You were there today because you knew the Statue had been resurrected.” Alan couldn’t believe the thoughts running through his mind. Raphael had been lying to him this entire time. “You were at the Statue because you were checking whether or not you could get your powers back!”
Raphael shrugged, “What does it matter now? The power I abandoned there long ago is gone.”
“And that is why Gabriel is so powerful now,” Alan said in a whisper as he spoke aloud his current train of thought. “He found the power you left and took it as his own.”
“Like I said, it doesn’t matter now. I returned to the Statue to see if it was already taken. When I learned Gabriel was still alive, I knew he would try to consume the power I left. But it seems I was much too late. Gabriel took the power when the Statue was first destroyed in the fire centuries ago. A fire we can now assume he started. After seizing the power, he has been content to wait and hide. It was foolish to hope I could stop him from getting what he wanted.”
“And now that’s it?” Alan said not believing the level of defeat in Raphael’s words. “Gabriel is twice as strong as any angel because he found the power you left and you’re not going to do anything about it?”
Raphael rose from his chair and walked across the room as if he was in a daze. He left Alan in the echo of his own unanswered question.
---
Alan was reeling in the aftermath of what he just learned. He couldn’t help himself from pacing across the large room, his feet leaving scattered tracks back and forth on the sand floor. Not only did Raphael practically give his power to Gabriel, but also he was unwilling to do anything about it. Alan wasn’t ready to give up on the Archangel yet but he needed to reach Michael and tell him how Gabriel had become so strong. Perhaps there was a way to alter the effect.
Alan glanced out one of the windows to see a dark sky covered in shimmering stars. He knew he needed to get word to Michael but where Michael was now could be anyone’s guess. Tracking Triana and Kyle to Gabriel’s doorstep could have taken Michael and Seraphim anywhere.
Seraphim. Images of the Death Angel brought a feeling inside Alan he wasn’t ready to even try to understand. Instead of being honest with himself, he shoved the thought of the Death Angel back down. This wasn’t the time to daydream; he had a critical problem. The best plan he could formulate was to return to the Temple of Artemis in the morning. He hated the idea of leaving Raphael but he would be back. Alan was far fro
m willing to give up on him now.
Mentally preparing himself to depart from Raphael’s hut in the morning, Alan found a comfortable nest in a pile of nets near the front entrance. Little did he know, his plans would never come to fruition, not with the dream waiting to ambush him while he slept.
---
Alan was back in front of the temple housing the Statue of Zeus. Right away he knew he was dreaming. He was looking down on the area as though flying. The sun only just beginning to bring light into the world bathing the landscape in grey shadows of the departing darkness.
A woman, perhaps in her late teen years or early twenties, was running down the path towards the temple. She gasped for air as beads of sweat fell down her forehead and back. The sheer terror in her eyes made Alan want to reach out and save her from the evil causing her to run with such fervor.
Shouts from someone chasing her focused Alan’s attention to the figure of a scarred man howling with glee as he chased his prey. The man’s eyes were completely black. Two ebony orbs were placed above a crooked nose and a tongue that flicked in and out of his lips like a viper. “Come back,” the man hissed. “I just want to torment you for a bit.”
Alan tried to wake himself from the nightmare but the claws of sleep drew him in deeper. The events unfolding below Alan were so real; he wondered whether this was a dream at all or some kind of vision into events currently unfolding.
What Alan assumed was a demon continued to chase the girl. All while yelling promises of torture. The girl ran on, her hair flying wildly behind her like a flag flapping in a strong storm. Alan felt his heart drop to his stomach as he realized where she was running.
The temple was only a mile away but just inside its pillars another figure waited, hunched in the shadows. A woman with dark eyes watched the unsuspecting young girl run towards her. At once Alan realized this wasn’t a simple chase; it was a trap. The girl below him had no hope of escaping her captors.
Alan tried to scream a warning however nothing happened. He cried to her to stop. To change directions, that she was running right where they wanted her, nothing came out of his mouth. Alan could think and see as if he were awake but moving or speaking were beyond his ability.
Alan’s eyes snapped open as he caught the backend of his warning, “Stop!”
Raphael hunched over him, for one of the few times something other than remorse in his eyes. “Alan, are you all right? You were screaming in your sleep.”
Alan took a moment to reorient himself. The nightmare had seemed so real. Alan swallowed hard as he looked out the window. The same hint of sun whispering back the night, the very same shade of the sky that was in his dream greeted his eyes. Alan knew his dream couldn’t have been real, although if there was even the slightest possibility…
Alan jumped to his feet and headed for the door. “Where are you going?” Raphael asked.
Alan called on his wings that shot out from either side of his back in a brilliant blue hum of pent up energy. “I’m going to the Statue. I think someone there needs me.”
Raphael said more but his words were lost in the rush of Alan’s wings. While traveling to Raphael’s home Alan was forced to walk. Now free to test his speed, Alan darted through the sky faster than ever before.
Within seconds he was back at the temple housing the Statue. To his horror, his nightmare wasn’t a dream at all. It was a look into the events happening that precise moment.
Alan had only an instant to take in the events below. The young girl, who had been running in his dream, was being held down by the woman who waited for her in the shadows. The man with the dark eyes and snake-like tongue was just catching up to the two women wrestling on the dirt ground.
Alan drew his wings straight back behind him and hurtled to the ground like a falling star. The impact he made when he reached the road sent a shockwave out in every direction. The two women were separated as they were buffeted by the impact, the dark-eyed man was thrown back completely.
Alan wasted no time in rushing to the girl’s side. He offered his left hand to her as he got his first up-close look. Sunken eyes looked back at him through a terrified glance. Dark makeup covered her face and a row of piercings ran up her left ear. She didn’t move to take Alan’s hand and instead rolled over to her side and vomited on the dirt ground.
“Hey, she was ours first,” a soft male voice oozed behind him. Alan turned to see both the man and woman back on their feet.
“She doesn’t belong to anyone,” Alan said. He took a stand in front of the girl blocking her from her assailants.
“Yes, she does,” the man said taking a step forward. “We saw her first.”
Alan raised his hand, palm facing the advancing maniac. “Take another step and I guarantee you’ll regret it.”
The man snickered and looked as though he was going to continue to advance if it weren’t for his female companion who reached out and put a clawed hand on his shoulder. “Wait, Trubic, don’t you see the blue wings. He’s not an angel. He’s a Horseman.”
Alan couldn’t tell if the man was looking him up and down or not due to his pitch-black eyes but he figured he was being measured. Trubic’s tongue ran across his cracked lips as he weighed his odds. “He’s one Horseman, Sata. One. We can take him.”
Sata looked at her companion as if he were mad.
“Please,” Alan turned just enough to see the girl behind him while still keeping a wary eye on the two demons in front of him. The girl wiped her mouth with her sleeve. “Please don’t let them take me.”
“No one is taking you,” Alan said. He wished he could do more for her in that moment but all instincts told him that the demon named Trubic would not leave without a physical prompt.
“Last chance,” the male demon said, “Hand her over and go about your way.”
Alan squared his shoulders and faced the demon again. His blue wings splayed out on either side of him humming with the anticipation of battle. Heat ran through Alan’s body as a primal instinct welcomed physical conflict with open arms. Deep down Alan knew he should push further for a peaceful resolution but instead of words of ease, excited fury broke from his lips. “If you want her, then come and get her.”
Trubic took in a large breath and advanced. Something lime green spewed from the demon’s mouth. Before Alan could tell what the projectile was, he shielded himself with his left wing. Hissing like the sound of acid eating through metal made its way to Alan’s ears yet there was no pain.
Alan lowered his wing. The energy crackling over his wings evaporated the strange venom Trubic spewed at him before it could even make contact with his wing. Trubic looked at Alan with wide ebony eyes. Alan grinned, “My turn.”
Speed was clearly not one of the demon’s abilities. Before the member of the Fallen race could react, Alan sent a right fist that made a loud cracking sound when it made contact with the demon’s jaw. Trubic stumbled back however Alan wasn’t done with him yet. Alan rushed forward grabbing Trubic’s head with both his hands. In one violent motion he pulled down while sending his right knee crashing into Trubic’s skull. The demon fell.
It felt intoxicating. The feeling of battle consumed Alan forcing him on when he knew he should have stopped. Alan jumped on Trubic’s limp form. Alan’s right hand grabbed Trubic’s head and sent it slamming again and again into the hard ground below.
“Stop! Please stop, he’s had enough,” Trubic’s companion Sata pleaded.
Alan looked up through eyes veiled with anger. He left the unconscious form below him and advanced on the standing demon.
“No,” she cowered, taking a step back and raising both hands in an attempt to placate her assailant. “No, I’m sorry. I surrender.”
Her words were lost as the Horseman of War yearned to fulfill the reason he was created. Alan ignored the woman’s screams. Something else was controlling his body. An addiction for violence he had never known spurred him on. In seconds Alan wrapped his hands around Sata’s throat and lifted her of
f the ground. She screamed and struggled, trying to choke out words Alan had no interest in hearing.
Alan held her there suspended above the ground watching her wide eyes tear with pain and fear.
“Enough,” a familiar voice said behind him. A friendly but firm hand rested on his right shoulder. “You’ve won. Let it go.”
The voice was so powerful it broke Alan’s trance-like state. Alan dropped the woman to the floor where she gasped for breath. Alan turned to see Raphael standing behind him. The old Archangel looked at him through worried eyes. “Are you with me, Alan?”
For the length of a heartbeat Alan wanted to strike Raphael. War’s rage still pumped through his veins like water on full blast through a hose. The moment passed and Alan released a breath he didn’t know he was holding. “Yes, I’m with you.”
Raphael nodded and it wasn’t until then that he released his hold on Alan’s shoulder. “When you woke from your dream,” Raphael said, “I knew where you must be going. I knew what the dream meant.”
Alan blinked still feeling the aftereffects of his high. His eyes traveled past Trubic’s unmoving body to the young woman shuddering on the ground. She finished vomiting and now sat with her knees pulled into her chest. Two thin tattooed arms wrapped around her body as she trembled. Fear filled her eyes as she stared at them.
“What did the dream mean?” Alan asked Raphael, still not lifting his eyes from the girl.
“You share a link with the other Horsemen. You won’t always be able to feel them but when their need is the greatest, they call out to one another,” Raphael said.
It took a moment to realize what Alan was hearing. He broke his gaze from the girl and looked at Raphael. “You can’t be serious. You mean …”
“Yes,” Raphael’s voice filled in the silence as both men stared at the girl. “Another Horseman has been chosen.”
Chapter 4
The land they traveled was uninhabited due to Gabriel’s separation of the human and supernatural realms. No other demon or angel crossed their path. Soon Michael found himself welcoming the sights of animals. Birds or small mammals scampering across their road were the only break from the quiet that spread out in every direction.
Alan Price and the Statue of Zeus (The Nephilim Chronicles Book 3) Page 3
