Praefatio: A Novel (20 page)

As Cerin exited, Caius and Arcturus entered, bubbling with the excitement of young boys. It reminded me of Remi and his friends. “What’s gotten you two so worked up?” I wondered. Reading the mind of cherubim was a lot harder since they were Warrior Angels. They only opened their minds when absolutely necessary, or to share combat information between soldiers or with their commanding officers.

Caius couldn’t seem to control himself, and I had to check my own emotions as I listened to him. He seemed so innocent at times. “This place is awesome! We each have our own Wii, and there’s an arcade room with
PacMan
and
Space Invaders
and a bowling alley and movie theater, and Tyler says we can hang out in the recording studio any time we want! John Lennon was in there just now. And, Grace.” He paused and waited for my full attention. “
Skyrim
!”

“Well, try not to have too much fun while I’m gone, okay?”

“Oh no, Grace.” Caius’s expression changed. He looked suspiciously behind himself. “If you’re leaving, we’re going with you.
Wii can wait
.”

***

Cerin whisked us quickly through the corridors, down several flights of stairs, past what I recognized as Gavin’s quarters, and through several more darkened hallways, bends, turns, and more stairs and nooks before we finally ended up in the parlor where Tyler was talking with LJ.

“My, you
are
human. It took you long enough,” LJ quipped in my direction with a smirk on her face.

So much for friendship. Flanked by the cherubs and with Cerin exactly three feet behind me to the right, I felt like I could take her if I had to. But Tyler’s disapproving nod was enough to put us both in our respective places.

“But it was certainly worth the wait.” Tyler directed a smile my way. “LJ, why don’t you ready the mares? Grace will be out in a just a minute.” It sounded more like an order than a suggestion. LJ slinked away and out the door, head down in defeat, before he’d even finished his sentence.

I started to leave as well, but Tyler placed his hand on the door handle to stop me from going. “Grace.” Tyler stepped directly in front of me. “I hope you know I want what’s best for Gavin.”

“And?” First LJ, now Tyler. I removed his hand from the door handle and opened the door to let myself out. I walked briskly toward the stables, refusing to be influenced by him. He’d proven his loyalties. He’d held my brother against his will and embarrassed him in front of everyone.

“I apologize for the handling of … the situation with Remi. My charge is Gavin, and I hope you can appreciate that I would give my life to protect him,” he said while he tried to keep up with me. In hindsight, I could see that even that, his pretending to lag behind, was a lie. It was all part of his plan.

“Your charge is Gavin? Who commands you? Who do you answer to? No one. No one! You make your own rules. You protect Gavin because it gives you status.” I hadn’t realized how angry I’d become until I heard the echo of my raised voice. I stopped walking and faced Tyler head on. I was inches from his face, wings outstretched and carrying on like a crazed half-human. It was no wonder they didn’t want me around.

“Please, Grace, I believe in you, as Gavin does. Whatever you may think of me, please consider me a friend. I’ve always thought … fondly of you.” A strange look crossed his face, and then, as if embarrassed, he lowered his head and walked briskly away, wings lit like a firefly in the night.

I waved Arcturus and Caius over. Their presence calmed me. As we walked, delicate, dark red flowers grew between the cracks in the stone. It was beautiful and bizarre all at once.

***

I swear they must have had eye-rolling contests at Kheiron. “What’s her name?” I asked, but LJ rolled her eyes, shook her head and refused to respond. Instead she mounted her horse and took off as if we were racing instead of going for a late night ride.

My nameless horse seemed to feel sorry for me as I nearly gave myself whiplash trying to catch up with LJ, but at least I looked good doing it.

LJ remained in the same outfit she’d worn earlier. Not that it was a contest. She held her dark wings close to her body, and the dim light behind them seemed trapped at her sides. It was like one of those photos of moving cars at night where the cars look like moving lines of light.

Trees blurred past us, seeming to whisper out to me as if they knew my name. The whipping wind on my face reminded me of that time Remi, Jenny, Sean, and I went to the mall and took turns in that stupid hurricane simulation chamber. Jenny’s idea. Well, it was actually a consolation prize, since she had wanted to take a skydiving class but Remi talked her out of it. Said she wouldn’t enjoy flying. I could recall many instances when Remi said something that alluded to who and what he was.

***

Someone cleared his throat loudly from behind the two-way glass.

“How much longer are we going to let this go on?”

“As long as it takes. Until we get what we need.” Sergeant Mullane’s gruff reply quieted the individual whose voice I didn’t recognize.

I was getting tired. More tired. I wanted to sleep. I picked up the cup in front of me and noticed it was full. The water inside was cold, as if recently given to me, but no one had come into the room.

“
Bibe
.” The voice from before whizzed around the back of my neck then landed in my ear. “
Bibe
,
bibe
.” It wanted me to drink. I would have, except the water then changed from clear to pink, to red, then dark red. Then it spilled over the sides of the cup and onto the table.

“Is everything OK in there, Grace?” It was Mom.

The dark, thick liquid seemed determined as it raced toward me, trying to get under my sleeves. I jerked my arms back behind me and stood, the scrape of the metal chair across the concrete floor echoing off the walls. Droplets fell onto the floor in front of me. The liquid drove itself toward my shoes and began to seep in through the fabric. I told the liquid to leave me alone, in Slovenian because it was the only language I could speak in at that moment. “
Pustite me na miru
!”

“Do you need my help?” Mom’s breath was wispy.

“No! I’m, I’m okay. It’s gone now.” My breathing was heavy as I watched the liquid gather and return to the cup, then change back to clear water. I slid down to the floor and remained there.

“Then please continue. You were telling us about the gift from Gavin, the horse?” Officer Bladen chimed in, resulting in a few snickers from the other people who’d gathered to listen to my statement. I sat up, straightened my hair on either side. “Had Mr. Vault given you anything prior to this? A horse is a rather extravagant gift for someone you’ve just met.”

***

Arcturus and Caius were atop the escort horses, who flew in formation. Angels on pegasi in the sky. As long as I live, I will never get used to that.

Maybe I should call you Ambry
, I thought. Ambry shook her head up and down in agreement. Apparently, the horse could read my mind as well.

Only that of my owner
, Ambry replied telepathically.

When I caught up to LJ, she was stopped, crouched down on her horse, low, forward, like a bird of prey.

“Shh,” she ordered.

“What?”

“Shh. You want to live, don’t you? They don’t know that you’re not one of us.”

“What are you talking about? They who?”

“He’ll kill me if I let you get hurt, or worse, killed while the humans are out here hunting for … Fallen, vampires, and witches.”

“You have got to be flipping kidding me.”

“You, me, the cherubs, the horses. They’ll kill us all. Just to be on the safe side. I have no idea how they even make it onto the grounds.”

“What do we do?”

“We fight.” LJ’s eyes were filled with determination and intimidation. I dared not look away. “I need to know you’re not going to kill me yourself.”

“LJ, I would never … ” I couldn’t believe it. I was just getting settled in and now I was going to have to fight for my life, again, here in the place where Gavin assured me that I would be safe, that he would protect me. And since he was nowhere to be found, I was going to have to trust my life to the girl who’d threatened it only a few hours before.

LJ interrupted my thoughts. “I just know how much of a goody two-shoes you are. There are rules about killing humans.”

“Well, if someone’s trying to kill me or my friends, human or otherwise, the rules go out the window.”

That garnered a genuine smile from LJ. But the moment was cut short by the arrow heading straight toward me, piercing the night air like a small aircraft. I ducked and threw up my hand, as a reflex more than a defensive action. I extended my arm and flung the arrow like a hot potato in the direction from which it had come. Someone in the distance yelped.

LJ hopped down from her horse. Caius flew up into a tree before he motioned to Arcturus that he saw, straight ahead and to his right, two attackers waiting in tall bushes.

“Grace, Caius and I will take care of this. Find shelter on the ground; they won’t be expecting that. Take the Fallen with you. She’ll draw them in with her scent. We’ll keep you safe.”

I was all too happy to comply. To my surprise, LJ was two steps ahead of me on her way out of there. She’d had no intention of fighting.

Arcturus and Caius took flight, circling the humans, sweeping them up into a whirlwind of twigs, leaves, and dirt. A rather large fellow cloaked in black broke free.

“I’ll take the big one, Arcturus.” Caius circled the strange man, who wore a cross around his neck and held an open vial of liquid he insisted on shaking in Caius’s direction.

When Caius suddenly dropped down to the ground shrouded in light and fire, the man covered his eyes and raised his cross, screaming, “You devil. I shall not be fooled by your false light. I command you to obey.”

But Caius walked to the man, ripped the cross from him and threw it on the ground beside him. The man fell to his knees in front of the angel. Caius pulled the man upright. “Worship not the trinkets of silver and gold.”

The man beheld Caius. “Brother, please forgive me. I am a servant in the fight against evil.”

Caius grabbed the feeble man by the neck and said, “I am not your brother, and this is not your fight. Go. Leave this place and never return, or I shall rip the very soul you’ve sold from your body!”

I exhaled the air I’d been holding. I’d never seen Caius like that.

Arcturus joined Caius in the clearing, and the man ran away upon seeing the strange angel.

“Did you see the look on that guy’s face?” Arcturus laughed, jabbing Caius in his ribs and demonstrating a kung fu move. “I thought he was gonna pee his pants, as the humans say,” Arcturus joked.

“Oh man, I would have loved to have seen that,” Caius chimed in.

“I gather you took care of the others?”

“Piece of pie!” Arcturus replied.

Please give us a few minutes, maybe exercise the horses,
I directed Arcturus telepathically as he and Caius approached. They immediately busied themselves about thirty feet away with sword fighting. I could have sworn I had seen Jet Li perform some of those same moves in
Fearless
.

“Thanks for your help back there. It means a lot that you would defend one of us.” LJ seemed to choose her words carefully, but one thing seemed clear. She had a “you and us” mentality despite the fact that we are both angels. I watched her as she sat cross-legged in a clearing and sipped what seemed like hot tea. I just stood staring, not sure what else to do.

“You don’t have to be here. You must know that. The fact that you
are
here says a lot.” She paused, I assumed for effect. She seemed to take great pleasure in having a captive audience in me, my cherubs, the horses, and whoever else was within an earshot of our conversation.

She knew full well that if Gavin were home, I would be with him and as far away from her as possible. “I get that you think you’re in love with him,” she continued, rolling her eyes at that last jab she’d heard in my thoughts. “Is it true that you haven’t even read your book yet?” She seemed to be feeling me out, angling even.

I had no idea what or how much she knew about me. Clearly she knew enough. “
Praefatio
? No. I haven’t read the whole thing yet.”

“That’s pretty sad, don’t you think? That you let other people tell you who you are?” She stared at me like I was a freak and sipped. She hadn’t blinked once the entire time. I must have blinked at least three hundred times since we started talking, just to avoid looking at her. She was perfectly gorgeous and completely self-righteous.

I moved to sit directly across from her, doing my best to get on equal footing—at least in theory. Despite my rank, she clearly had an advantage over me.

LJ scooped dirt from the ground, rubbed it in her hands together three times, and threw it back down, and it started a fire. “I don’t want to argue with you, Grace. Just trying to figure out what everyone sees in you, that’s all.” She sipped her tea as if she had no worries whatsoever. And then I remembered her scurrying out the door after Tyler’s chastening. What made her tick?

“I’ve been dragged into this thing, and everyone wants it to mean something to me and to be honest, it really doesn’t. I have no stake other than the feelings I have for Gavin and for my brother. At every turn, someone with their own agenda is trying to influence me, trying to make me see their version. And I have to ask myself exactly why that is. Why is it that everyone who supposedly cares so much about me has never actually sat me down and asked me how I feel or what I want? Why? Because they are too afraid that I will find out what no one really wants me to know. But I will find out, eventually. And when I do, I will do what is best for me. Not Gavin, not Remi, not Michael, but me.” I paused for a second and thought about her original question and decided to answer it. “And you know what? You think I’m dumb for letting others tell me who I am? How dumb is it to read a book to find out who you are? I’d rather live my life and let my choices define me!”
Booyah!