Grace of Day - BK 4 of the Grace Series

by S. L. Naeole

  One-by-one, the people filed past us, inspecting, cleaning, moving like machines. Even though I couldn’t imagine where to begin or how, they did it wordlessly. They knew exactly what to do, and they did it with military precision. They’d prepared for this.

  That’s what EPs of the dark ones are supposed to do. It’s because of them that humanity remains virtually ignorant of the dark side of our world.

  “Well, they do it pretty damn well,” I remarked at Robert’s thoughts.

  Sometimes too well.

  We only watched for a few minutes the movements of the electus patronus before Robert notified us that we had to go; this battle was over, but the real fight hadn’t even begun.

  “Before you leave, I have to tell you-” Jessica took a hold of my arm, her fingers wrapped tightly around my elbow “-your father does not know what you are going to do, but we do.”

  “What do you mean you know what I’m going to do? I don’t even know what I’m going to do.”

  Jessica’s eyes flicked over to Robert’s, who hissed at the thoughts that filled her mind. “There is nothing wrong with being selfish; nothing. Embrace what you are.”

  “Why…why do you suddenly care about what happens to me?”

  “We’ve always cared. You just never needed our help until now.”

  “I never needed your help? Are you kidding me? What about all those times I almost died?”

  Jessica snickered. “Is that all? Despite what you may think, you were never in any danger.”

  “What?” I asked, incredulously.

  Her smile faded and her voice lowered as she repeated, “You were never in any danger; not until you and Robert finally met, that is.”

  BLACK HALO

  Robert was quiet on the short flight to the field. Shawn’s body was draped over his back, still unconscious; still grotesque.

  I held on to Lark’s neck, feeling my weight, knowing that she felt it, too. She was silent, her thoughts closed off to me.

  How strange to be able to read minds and yet not hear a single word. The quiet only made what was coming that much more dreadful. Jessica’s last words to me before we’d left her to clean up after us weren’t enough to keep me from feeling alone.

  “Your mother was right.”

  Four little words have never seemed so painless and yet so painful at the same time. She wasn’t right. No one who could put their daughter through so much pain could ever be right.

  Hold on!

  The shattering of one’s thoughts by a command so harsh and demanding literally felt like being glass. A jolt ran through me, straight from Lark’s body, as we tumbled from the sky to the ground. Lark landed first, using her body to shield me from the impact of the fall, the grass turning into walls of dirt as we sank into the ground, not by inches, but by feet.

  I felt like I’d been sucker-punched and a part of me thought for a second that Erica was still alive and here, but there was no time to dwell on that or even to catch my breath; Lark pushed me up out of the hole we were in and immediately put me against her back.

  Stay by my side. Her wings were out and she tucked me between them, blocking my view of what was around us with white fluff.

  What’s going on?

  He is here, my grandfather. So are the others.

  I couldn’t see anything; only trust her thoughts as we moved swiftly over the ground, the sound of fighting slashing through the visions that burst through like explosive slideshows, bloody scenes that made my skin turn clammy and my heart race to catch up.

  A shadow appeared overhead and I looked up. A face broke through the gap in the wings and a mischievous grin filled a face that was unfamiliar to me.

  “’Allo, little witch. Let’s have a little fun w’ya!”

  A small hand appeared and grabbed at my hair. I struggled but the strength that was attached to that hand was unlike anything I’d ever felt before. Lark’s wings tried desperately to clamp onto me, but there was no fighting this creature’s need.

  “Lark!” I screamed, but she was unable to do anything but watch, horrified. Her arms and her legs were held immobile by matching imps, their bodies small but their strength immeasurable. Even her wings were being forced closed.

  “Stop fussing and stay still,” the small creature said as it dragged me across the ground towards a slight clearing in the chaos. “It’ll be over soon. Raphael’s quick when he wants to be.”

  I wasn’t about to listen; not to him.

  My hands reached down and grabbed one of the spindly little legs that pushed his tiny body along. I closed my eyes and braced myself, saying a quiet apology before I twisted, the sound of snapping and the sharp cry of pain followed. Immediately the pressure against my head eased and I stopped moving.

  I jumped up and began to run in the opposite direction, back towards Lark, who seemed swallowed up now by replicas of the creature that had taken a hold of me. All around me fights took place between winged angels and creatures that looked like they’d fallen out of some kind of fairy tale book.

  There were faces I didn’t recognize, and then faces of those I did. Some of the guests that had been at Hannah’s wedding were here, fighting. Strange winged creatures were appearing and disappearing in puffs of smoke as they avoided blows by what looked like giants with arms the size of tree trunks.

  I saw Graham run between two wolf-like figures, his arm crooked against his chest, an invisible football in his hand. I wanted to cheer him on at the same time I wanted to tell him to find somewhere safe to hide. But even as he dodged snarling, jaw-snapping creatures who were trying to kill him, I could see others who were helping him, taking advantage of his actions and picking off his attackers one-by-one.

  There was death and dying happening all around me, the bodies of those that could die littering the ground with their blood and their filth, while the bodies of those who had already been dead and were just existing in pieces shook and shivered on the ground, nothing now but nerves and hatred.

  But what horrified me wasn’t that. It was seeing angel against angel, over and over again all around me. Wings were wrapped around bodies like shields, while others were held high, swinging back and forth like giant blades that made slicing sounds with each arc in the air.

  Those that I knew were fighting to keep me alive were outnumbered by those who wished me dead, and the outcome seemed plain to me.

  The ground began to rumble, the sky crackling with angry white lines as storm clouds that had no purpose other than to disguise the hell being created right here in the middle of Heath crept in. It seemed like the thunder that boomed out went directly through me, my body shaking, my feet wobbling despite my boots.

  I looked ahead, charging towards Lark even as she disappeared beneath a mountain of imps. And then the ground erupted, the red-fleshed creatures being tossed into the air like lava spewed from a fiery volcano, while Lark rose up, her white wings acting like a cap of snow as the peak rose up with her.

  “Are you kidding me?” I shouted when she stood up, her face showing nothing but smug satisfaction.

  “Vanessa came through!” she called back before leaping down, her wings fluttering open behind her.

  The small mountain that had formed beneath her now burst open, a writhing mass of roots and vines emerging from the top. The ends twitched and twirled, grabbing outward—no, not grabbing, opening—and from its center emerged a silhouette of a woman who was as beautiful as she was terrifying.

  She looked like Bala, with jet black eyes and skin the color of new leaves, but her hair wasn’t made of the same moss that Bala’s hair was. Instead, thin replicas of the vines that swirled around her curled and wiggled like tiny snakes. They stretched to accommodate her nude body, covering as much as they were revealing.

  “Who is that?” I asked as Lark reached my side, her wings moving to shroud me.

  “That’s Ampy. She’s kind of like a hormonal version of Bala.”

  “A hormonal-”

  I stopped
speaking as Ampy moved, her body carried by the dozens of vines that slithered beneath her. Her hands, attached to long, lithe arms pointed out gracefully at the red little demons that charged towards her, angry that their attack had been thwarted. From her fingertips, tiny wisps of green shot out, floating in the air and growing, increasing in length and width until they resembled faceless snakes.

  One by one, those vines found a target, coiling around each one tighter and tighter until tiny pops could be heard. I cringed and looked away, my eyes widening as a strange scene took place just feet in front of me.

  A monster with a horse-like face—an exact replica of the erlking that had tried to kill me in the woods the night of Janice and Dad’s wedding—was fighting hand-to-hand with what looked like its twin. Their hands were covered in long, course-looking hair, and each swipe at each other was oddly beautiful to see, the flowing waves of alternating colors contrasting greatly with the ugliness of their overly long jaws, and the blood targets that red-rimmed eyes reminded me of.

  But even though they looked so similar, one was smaller than the other. The larger one seemed more comfortable with its body, much more attuned to what it was. It moved quickly, its body changing to fit the need—a sharp-clawed paw, a long, thick tail, a sharper-toothed jaw—and when it attacked it did so with excellence.

  But the smaller one was faster, sharper. Its reactions were so precise that I almost didn’t care what side it was fighting for—I wanted it to win just so see how it would do it.

  The larger erlking crouched, its large ears twitching at every sound around it. Its eyes were unblinking, staring purposefully at its smaller opponent with such deep concentration that even when dirt from a battle taking place just half a foot away flew into its face, it didn’t flinch. And then, without any warning it sprung, the motion chock full with such energy, I felt the ground vibrate with it. But the smaller one had anticipated that, anticipated such a charged and forceful attack and merely stepped aside, appearing almost bored by the maneuver.

  My jaw fell open.

  “That’s Stacy!” I shouted.

  Lark didn’t respond. She simply leapt into action, her body so quick that I didn’t know where she ended up until I heard the sickening thud of the larger erlking’s body falling dead beside me.

  She stood beside Stacy, her shoulders held back with pride as she looked at Stacy, whose hands held in them things I didn’t want to recognize. Lark’s eyes found mine and dilated to near black.

  Look out!

  I didn’t have time to react. All I heard was the air giving up its place in my lungs.

  The ground and I became intimate, the feel of dirt and grass in my face a sort of baptism. Immediately I was turned over, the darkening sky enhancing the red glow that surrounded the face that looked down at me with a strange glee.

  “I didn’t think it would happen this easily,” the voice said with malice tinged joy.

  “What would happen; that you’d end up in the mud where you belonged?” I cracked.

  Raphael grinned. “The coming of your end. Your very existence in this life and the next will be wiped clean; despite what you see, you are a nobody to these pathetic creatures. They are not fighting for you; they are fighting for themselves. They don’t care about you; to them, you are nothing; to the world, you will soon be nothing.”

  His hands dug into my shoulder and he lifted me up, holding me high so that I could see the destruction going on around me, but it wasn’t what I feared. We were winning. Mrs. Mayhew was standing in a clear circle, a clipboard in her hand, a pen ticking off names left and right, a smile going up with one tick, a sad little frown with another.

  Dozens of holes had been dug into the ground, with roots and vines strategically pulling creatures into them, the sounds of muffled terror erupting from the darkness. I didn’t want to, but against my will I could see and hear the thoughts of each one of them before their minds turned black with death.

  Raphael sneered. “You see? Despite what you have been told, you can do nothing for them. You cannot bring them peace—you are not your mother’s child. You are weak in every way imaginable: weak in the mind, weak in the heart, and weak in the spirit. It is as though Avi took every flaw that existed in her creation and magnified it in you.”

  He threw me down. I was unprepared for this and landed awkwardly, my leg bending in a way it was never meant to and the resulting snap seemed to signal a blanketing quiet over the field of death and destruction.

  From that silence I heard the cries and the thoughts of those that mattered most as they moved to reach us, though every word, every thought, every action made sounded like it was being played at one-tenth the normal speed. In the time it took for Raphael to take me down, lift me, and then drop me, less than a few seconds had passed. His words, what I had seen, time seemed to have slowed down just for that moment, and I saw his smile at my recognition.

  Beside him appeared the other three: Michael, Uriel, and finally, Gabriel.

  “Time passes so quickly for most creatures,” Uriel said in a bored tone. “Humans, animals, even angels fail to appreciate just how malleable it is.”

  Raphael nodded. “For us, for the four who existed before even man, time refuses to obey its own principles. You merely experience it because we allow you to; the others experience time as it should be and know no difference. It is why I will be able to kill you before they even hear my thoughts.”

  “Why are you letting him do this?” I cried out to the stoic faces that flanked Raphael. “Why aren’t you stopping him? Michael—Robert called you his friend; why aren’t you stopped Raphael? Why would you do this to us?”

  Michael and Uriel said nothing, but Gabriel broke his silence.

  “Why would we stop him?”

  “Because you’re angels! Because you’re supposed to care about humans! Because you’re supposed to care, period! Because you cared about my mom!”

  Gabriel’s voice thickened as he sneered. “Your mother betrayed us…for humans. She was born into our fold, given everything she could ever desire, and she left it to marry a human and give birth to you. She broke the circle—she broke us. It is because I care for her that I do this.”

  “Did you honestly think that you’d be able to stop us?” Raphael laughed. “Did you honestly believe that your love and your friends would somehow give you the advantage over tens of thousands of years of knowledge and power? Your mother was a traitor and it is time that those she betrayed us for suffer the consequences.”

  I stood up on my good leg and hobbled towards them, my eyes darting from one to the other, trying to understand. “Why do you want to destroy the world so much? Why do you hate us?”

  “Destroy it? We don’t want to destroy it. Why destroy what you want to control?”

  I snorted. “You want to control the world? And how are you supposed to do that? The world isn’t yours to control. The world belongs to humans, not to angels. Humans are the ones whom the animals see and respect. Humans are the ones that were given the choice to choose their own destinies and not suffer the complete rejection of their own kind for it.”

  He was beside me in a heartbeat, his head level with mine as he stooped to look me in the eyes, the last remaining light glimmering in the hatred that turned his pupils an impossible black. “And that has been the problem from the very beginning. Humanity is a virus. For tens of thousands of years we have watched mankind eat each other alive. They were given freedom and they used it to hate and create suffering like nothing ever known.”

  “That’s funny, because I seem to recall a story about how angels were the reason for the single most destructive act this world has ever known,” I pointed out smugly.

  Uriel snarled. “Humans caused that. If not for humans and their incessant breeding, there would have never been a need for the Grigori. Without humans, the there would have been no Nephilim, or the desire to create them, and with no Nephilim, the flood would have never been deemed necessary.

  �
�Do you think that it was easy to warn the humans but not my own kind? To allow those wretches to live while my brothers and sisters, my own child died beneath the waters?”

  “You said that humanity was worth saving, remember?” I reminded him.

  “Yes. And it was; for us to control. Who do you think created your history? Who do you think gave you stories to tell? We created the dreams, the heroes, the nymphs-”

  “Nymphs? That was you? You did that to Bala? To the others?” I exclaimed in shock.

  “Of course it was! Do you think anyone else capable of creating something so fantastical? Humans have no sense of creativity or imagination. Everything you’ve ever dreamed of came from us, and then you demand us fulfill them!”

  Raphael’s voice rose above Uriel’s. “We have long been at the beck and call of humanity but no more! Angels will return to the top of the hierarchy of this world; the first circle will once again be the leaders of man and man will return to being the lesser creatures they were meant to be.”

  I looked behind me and saw the fear in Robert’s face despite the slowness of his movement. “You’re not doing this for angels. None of you are! You’re doing this for yourself! Look at what you’re doing to your own kind; look at what you’re doing to your own grandson!”

  “My grandson?” Raphael laughed. “He is no more my grandson than you are your father’s daughter. His life is no more valuable to me than yours. He is a cancer, a plague that has been unjustly awarded the most coveted of roles. But…that will change. Time, as I have said, is ours to control.”

  My face pinched with confusion at his words. “What do you mean by that?”

  My eyes were still locked on Robert’s face, but even as he seemed frozen in place, his features were changing as quickly as a breath is taken. His eyes turned from a deep silver to black in an instant; dark orbs that stared determinedly at me. His skin darkened to a brilliant onyx, his suddenly blue glow reflecting off of it like a kind of ethereal bruise.

  He had looked this way once before, and my heart convulsed when I remember what had happened as a result. But this time, things were different. His wings began to creep out of him slowly, but not like the wings I was used to. Instead, they emerged like blackened claws from his back; sharp, pointed, and eerily beautiful.