Genesis of a Hero (2 page)

“How many were there?” she asked and John was sure he caught a quiver of worry in her voice.

“Only six.”

“Six!” her voice split the air. “You’re lucky to be alive. You remember… well, maybe you don’t, but I know how dangerous selvo demons can be.”

“
I remember what happened to you. But they didn’t stand a chance,” John laughed. “Not when I have God on my side.”

A heavy sigh came from the scepter. It seemed to last for an hour as it carried with the light breeze in the valley.
“Amen,” she finally said. “Still, you shouldn’t go looking for trouble so much.”

“It just kind of
finds me,” John offered with a short chuckle and a shrug of his massive shoulders.

“Are you talking to Decker?” a gruff voice barged into the conversation
through the scepter. “Tell him to get back here by 5:00. We need to talk.”

John snorted and made a face at his scepter that no one but God could see. “I heard him,” he informed before Denise could convey the message. “See you in a bit.”

“Stay safe,” Denise said. “For God, we fight.”

“For God, we fight,” John echoed the
age-old command. He slid the scepter under his shirt, into the pouch strapped to his chest. A long breath drifted from his lungs as he thought of Aaron Russell. One of the strongest angels in the entire world… but also one of the bossiest. Young – at twenty five years old – to be the leader of a whole division of angels in California, but definitely qualified enough with the Spirit. John shook his head again and leapt into the air.

Chapter 2: Storm of Words

“About time,” Denise said as John walked through the doors of the angel camp buried in the redwood tress of California. The tall, holy building rose only a fraction as high as the giant trees. But the splendor outshined even these mammoth wonders of God’s creation. Arched windows opened to the warm air of the mountains. Tawny deer grazed in a long meadow down the green valley. The rich wood of the structure brought a sweet, wonderful smell. The slanted roof gave it a uniquely “A” appearance, but four bell towers rose at the corners making it look like a castle from a long forgotten, fairy tale.

Behind
Denise, a polished wooden statue of Paul of Tarsus preached on the everlasting love of Jesus. A bandage covered his eyes, but he stared everyone down as they passed. His feet remained stationary on his base but his hands and torso twisted and swayed in rhythm with his preaching.

“Your sins have been forgiven,” Paul bellowed sweeping his arms wide. Every inch of the wood had been smoothed to a high sheen. The robes covering his body swirled in tune with his movements
, and the glow of the Spirit shined from his enthralled face. “Trust in Jesus for he is our Lord and Savior. Though demons may come to our world, none may stand before the might of God the Father Almighty.”

John turned from the statue and looked at Denise. Long, brown hair fell halfway down her back. Her perfectly angular face threatened to make his knees quiver, but right now – and in many cases really –
a perpetual frown marred her beauty.

“I know,” John said holding up his hands innocently.

“You don’t know anything,” she snapped and tapped her index finger into his chest. The image would have been comical since the top of her head didn’t come to his chin; but John knew better than to cross her when she was in a venting mood. “Aaron has been badgering me for the last hour about you. No matter how many times I tell him that I’m not responsible for your actions, I’m the one who gets yelled at.”

“Take that up with him,” John
said trying his best to calm her. His eyes involuntarily searched her pretty face. Angel markings of bright orange raced in a purely straight line from her temples to her jawline. Most people would probably think them distracting in their unbending course, but for John, they matched Denise’s personality so perfectly; it always made him want to chuckle.

He made sure to choke back any semblance of humor at the moment though.

“It doesn’t matter if I take it up with him,” she blared crazily and turned towards the long hallway leading deep into the angel training academy. John and Denise had both attended summer camps here before they’d become fully fledged angels. The memories echoed off the high, wood ceiling in a wonderful and peaceful reminder of his days of youth. “For some reason, I end up being held accountable for everything you do wrong – just because we’ve known each other for a long time.”

“Maybe because you tend to agr
ee with my decisions?” John suggested raising his eyebrows hopefully.

She only answered with shake of her head which made her casca
ding hair sway in a hypnotic fashion. They passed a class of teenagers getting lectured on the virtues of sacrifice by a short, marble statue of Sarah.

“…
so many years I prayed to God,” Sarah intoned. “Prayed for a son. Abraham wanted a son. He’d been told that he would have a great sea of sons to spread across the world. When Isaac was finally born-”

“There you are,” a rough voice drew John away from the angel lesson. Aaron Russell was marching down
the corridor straight at them. A painting of God’s furious destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, on the auburn wall, matched the serious cast of the angel’s face. “Follow me.” He stomped around them and burst into an empty classroom.

“They’re not having any Michael lessons right now?” John asked
nonchalantly as he gazed around the circular arena. He’d spent countless hours in the room swinging swords or banging fellow students with shields. “Ol’ Mr. Lewis knew how to make us work. Is he still teaching?”

“That’s the third time, you’ve disobeyed a direct order,” Aaron growled ignoring John’s question about the
archangel Michael’s class. Three of his fingers were shaking in the air in front of John’s face. “Just because you’re a Justice Minister now, doesn’t give you the right to do whatever you want. You’re still assigned to my team so I expect you to follow orders.” His sandy hair was vibrating in the wake of the shouted words. He was a fairly tall man – though still a couple inches shorter than John. Thin arms extended from his shirt. Haphazard angel markings of dull brown swam on the edge of his forehead before tucking over his ears near long sideburns.

“Like I told Denise,” John cleared his throat
, holding up his hands to portray his innocence. “I wasn’t going to sit back and watch a bus full of kids get slaughtered by a pack of selvo demons.”

“Our mission
was to protect unbelievers!” Aaron bellowed. “When you took off, the bigger pack of selvo and a horde of reidlos nearly made it to Berkeley. We barely managed to destroy them. Olivia and Albert were both hurt because of you. Can you imagine how many people, without faith, Lucifer could have harvested if they’d gotten there? The demons going after the bus were a diversion. They weren’t going to kill the kids. They want them to lose their faith first. They just wanted to split us up.”

“
Tell the kids that,” John countered. “One of the selvo did manage to attack the bus before I got to it. The driver would have been killed for sure – at the very least. And whatever you want to say about demons doing what they’re told, I’ve seen them enough to know they kill whatever comes across their path. Those kids deserve better than to have us turn our backs on them.  I follow God’s direction… and that’s where He led me.”

Even though Aaron was a few inches shorter than him and
had to weight fifty pounds less, John wasn’t sure what the outcome would be if a fight occurred. The Spirit brewed in the subtle blue of Aaron’s eyes. Righteous anger looked at any second to spew forth and explode in a raging battle. “Well, God directed me to lead a small group of angels through the War for Sins,” Aaron said with his teeth grinding on each word. “And I’ve designated our primary purpose to save lost souls and not let them get killed so Lucifer doesn’t gain more power… so either follow that plan, or find somewhere else to live.”

Before John could reply, the door opened behind him. Into the room walked Harold
Stephens and Xavier Wells. Harold halted for a brief second as his brown eyes fell on John. Uncertainty clouded his ebony face when he looked at Aaron, but after a heartbeat he gave John a reassuring nod. He ambled forward quickly and took a spot beside Denise. She barely acknowledged his presence and instead looked to Xavier.

“Finally here Decker?”
Xavier purred with a gigantic smile.

John bit back the retort that had instantly wanted to fly. Xavier had long been somewhat of a nemesis. He’d attended angel camp at Granite Ridge in Atlanta the same time John was attending Whispering Trees. Their rivalry at the annual angel tournaments had born legends that were still whispered about.

“I heard you haven’t learned how to follow orders and directions yet,” Xavier continued and walked behind Aaron. Styled, wavy hair adorned his head like a living crown. A rather large nose was offset by high cheeks and a wide jaw. He looked like God had created him more for dictating law rather than fighting demons. But John had seen him fight in the student games and in real world battles; so he knew Xavier could wield the Spirit as strong as any of them.

“Just doing my best to stop Charles and his Nightwalkers from helping Lucifer,” John said carefully.
“If you haven’t noticed, they’re gaining power. The war is raging in some parts of the world. We don’t want that happening here.”

A soft,
unhumorous chuckle left Xavier’s thin mouth. Aaron exchanged a look with him. “Charles again, huh?” Xavier quipped. “And have you given us any more proof that Charles and the Nightwalkers are anything but a handful of fallen angels? I don’t think they’re really as much of a threat as you make them out to be, are they?”

“All I have
to do is fly around outside and look for all the demons they’ve raised from hell,” John spat. “While all of you do nothing. That’s why I joined the Justice Ministers-”

“And they assigned you to me,” Aaron responded.

John shrugged. “I do my best to listen,” he said. “But sometimes I see a better way of tackling a situation.”

“How many people saw your fight with the selvo?” Xavier questioned stepping in front of Aaron.

“Twenty or so kids on the bus,” John informed and rolled his eyes before openly grinding his teeth. “And the guy driving. One adult… and twenty kids who would be dead right now if I hadn’t done what I did.”

“You don’t know that,” Xavier hissed. “And it’s not the point… you know God’s rules. We can’t let people find out about us. He wants them to find their faith on their own. We do our jobs in secret and stay hidden.”

“None of them will remember anything about it,” John said knowing it might not be the total truth as he remembered the understanding eyes of the pretty, black girl. “The only person to actually see the selvo was the driver and he only caught a glimpse. I asked him about it and searched his mind using Gabriel’s auditome ability. None of it registered with him. They’re probably all singing around a campfire right now. In my books, that’s better than getting torn to pieces by Charles’ demons.”

“How do you know Charles raised them?” Xavier asked pointedly.

“Who else?” John chortled. “They don’t claw their way out of the abyss all by themselves. A fallen angel has to do it.”

“They could have bred from a pack a long time ago,” Xavier griped with an unconcerned wave of his hands. “Your obsession with the Nightwalkers is getting old.”

“It’s not only his
obsession
,” Harold jumped in. The black skin on his arms was flexing in agitation. He looked as mad as John had ever seen him; and that was saying something because they’d been best friends since they were ten years old. “A lot of us have seen signs that Charles and his fallen angels are getting stronger. I’m worried they might have spies here or at one of the Cathedrals in San Francisco.”

“What?” Aaron sputtered. “You can’t be serious.” He looked at each of them in turn, but stopped on Denise. The air in the large room was vibrating from Harold’s pronouncement. John wished he could go back to the innocent days of trying to beat other angels senseless in training
at the camp. This place where he’d spent thousands of hours. He remembered all the laughing and joking in the boys dormitory. Classes, which at the time had seemed endless and boring, but now made him smile as he thought of the teachers’ constant sermons. Back before the demons had surged; and Charles had fallen and formed the Nightwalkers. A time when monsters weren’t rampaging and wreaking havoc. As much as John enjoyed a fight, other things were more important. He followed Aaron’s gaze to Denise.

“Have you heard anything like that Denise?” Aaron continued.

“Not really,” she said and peeked at John then Harold. “But I do think Charles is getting stronger. There are too many demons for it only to be them breeding. We’ve destroyed five packs of selvo, at least a hundred reidlos, and swarms of nylla in the last couple of weeks. It hasn’t been this bad in a long time.”

“All rumors or coincidence,” Xavier snorted. “Why some of you want there to be pain and suffering in the world is
beyond me. It’s like you want Lucifer to gain enough power to rise up so you can fight him yourself.”

John wanted to ball his fist and punch the arrogant angel. He’d heard the same nonsense
for too long. “Everything I do is meant to keep Lucifer from getting more souls,” he said doing his best to keep his voice calm. “Saving innocent people from a terrible death is part of that. I don’t relish fighting demons, but it’s part of the job.”

“But should still be the smaller part,” Aaron said putting a hand on Xavier’s shoulder to stop a rebuttal. “Saving souls and bringing faith to the faithless is God’s primary purpose
for putting angels on Earth. If we don’t concentrate on that, we’ll lose the war in the end.”

“I
have faith… that we’ll never lose the war,” John said holding his head high. “I’ll never forget… For God, we fight.”

Aaron watched him for several
long and silent seconds. Finally, he sighed and stomped around John and Harold. “We have a meeting in an hour in the dining hall by the gate to heaven,” he said. “Don’t miss it.”

He left without another word. Xavier lingered until the door closed behind Aaron. “
Why don’t you go fight with the other Justice Ministers,” he sneered. “The rest of us will clean up the mess behind you.”

“You used to like a fight,” John said slowly. “Back when you were at Granite Ridge, we had some good games between us. Where did that fire and passion go?”

“I learned what’s important,” Xavier called over his shoulder as he opened the door and walked out.