The Belial Origins (16 page)

CHAPTER 45

V
ictoria strode down the aisle, stumbling a bit as the plane moved. Max screamed at Gerard, who held him.

Victoria’s heart clenched at the sound. She grabbed Gerard’s arm. “Let him go.”

Gerard glared, then shoved Max into her. Stumbling under the boy’s weight, Victoria leaned heavily against one of the seats but managed to stay upright.

Max clung to her, his shoulders shaking. Victoria moved past Gerard and fell into a seat as the plane picked up speed. She hugged Max to her, her heart breaking again at his terror. And her anger rose.
He’s too young for this. He shouldn’t be part of this.

She ran her hand over Max’s back, trying to calm him down. “It’ll be all right, Max. It’ll be all right.” Victoria repeated the same words over and over until Max’s shaking calmed.

After fifteen minutes, she saw with relief that he had fallen asleep. She shifted him so he lay curled in her lap, then pulled a blanket from the chair next to her and spread it over him. She placed a kiss on his forehead. “I wish you didn’t need to be a part of this,” she whispered.

She rested her head on the back of the seat and closed her own eyes. She was exhausted. The security feed from the airfield had no doubt already made it to Henry and Laney. And those were their own operatives that she’d run away from. She let out a shuddering breath. Would they have seen that she’d had a moment to escape and that she had chosen not to?

Her chest feeling heavy, she stared out the window at the clouds.
Please, God, help them understand why I’ve done the things I’ve done.

“Not sleeping?” Elisabeta said, taking a seat across from her.

Victoria composed her face, wiping all trace of emotion from it. “What do you need?”

Elisabeta smiled, tracing a well-manicured finger over the armrest. “Why, nothing. I just wanted to compliment you on turning your back on your children. Not every mother would be able to do that.”

Millennia of practice was the only thing that kept Victoria from launching herself at Elisabeta’s smug face. Instead she pinned Elisabeta in place with her gaze.

Elisabeta blinked and narrowed her eyes. “Careful. You don’t want to ruin my beneficence.”

Victoria held her tongue and gripped the side of the chair, trying to keep her anger in check. Elisabeta had incredible power as well as incredible abilities and wealth. And yet it still wasn’t enough. She wanted more. Even if that meant traumatizing a small child to get what she wanted.

Oblivious to Victoria’s anger, Elisabeta leaned forward and pulled the blanket a little tighter around Max. “Such a beautiful child.”

Victoria said nothing but gripped Max closer.

“You can let him sleep for now. I have a few things to arrange. But then I expect him to tell us where the tree is. And you would be advised to convince him to tell me. If not, one of my men will do the convincing.”

Elisabeta’s words left Victoria terrified. She had no doubt that Elisabeta would follow through on her threat.

Elisabeta stood. “Remember, it is only by my good graces that this little boy gets to live. My good graces and, of course, his cooperation. You do what I say, and that little boy gets to live a long life. You disobey me, and as soon as I’m done with him… well, then I’m done with him.” Elisabeta smiled and sauntered back to the bedroom at the back of the plane, closing the door behind her.

Victoria let out a trembling breath and held Max closer to her. “I won’t let them hurt you, Max. I promise.”

CHAPTER 46

Baltimore, Maryland

L
aney looked at Ralph but pointed at the screen. “What was that?” she demanded. “Why didn’t Victoria run? Why would she go with them?”

Ralph shook his head. “I don’t know. But there must be a good reason.”

“A good reason? What reason, Ralph? Who is she? Is she working with us or—”

Jake took Laney’s hand. “She was protecting Max.”

Laney stopped in mid-rant. “What?”

“Max,” Jake said, his gaze capturing hers. “Think about it: would you have left Max in their hands to save your own skin?”

Relief washed over Laney. Relief and guilt. She’d been ready to blame Victoria based on one action—one misinterpreted action. She ran her hand through her hair. “Of course. I should have thought of that.”

She looked over at Henry. “I’m sorry, Henry. I shouldn’t have…”

“She makes it a little hard to trust her at times,” Henry said. “But she
is
a good person, Laney. I hope someday you can believe that.”

Laney nodded, feeling horrible.

Jake pulled her to him. “Well, you can’t think of everything.”

She turned to Ralph. “Where’s this tree that they’re after?”

“Tree? What tree?” Jake asked.

“The tree of life,” Laney answered.

“I don’t know,” Ralph said.

“Don’t know, or won’t say?” Henry asked.

Ralph shook his head. “Don’t know. Only two archangels know the location of the tree.”

“Okay, who are they?” Jake asked.

“The one who guards the tree and the one who guarded the tree before.”

“Great. Well, let’s just go chat with one of them,” Jake said.

Ralph looked uneasy. “The only one we would be able to speak with is the prior guard. But he can be difficult.”

Laney stood. “Well, we’ll be sure to be very convincing.”

Ralph looked at each of them. “I think it would be better if just Laney and I went.”

“Why?” Jake demanded. “Is he scared of the triad?”

Ralph shook his head with a sigh. “No. He just has a thing for good-looking women.”

CHAPTER 47

J
orgen narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean there was gunfight involving Victoria?”

Sean stood at attention in front of Jorgen. “The Fallen have both Victoria and the child as planned. And Chandler did learn of their location.”

“So they now have Victoria?”

“No, sir. They did not reacquire Ms. Chandler.”

“You’re telling me Henry Chandler, Jake Rogan, and Laney McPhearson failed?”

“No, sir. I’m telling you they were not at the airport.”

They sent the B team.
Jorgen shook his head. He supposed it was too much to hope they’d be able to reach her in time.

How much more of a trail can I leave for the idiots?
“Victoria was not harmed?”

“No, sir.”

“Good. Has our friend told us where Elisabeta is headed?”

“Yes, sir. To Pennsylvania to change jets, and then they’re waiting for Max Simmons to give them a location.”

Jorgen drummed his hands on the table. What a waste of fuel, trailing them all over the place. “And what about the Chandler group? Where are they?”

“Apparently one of the Chandler jets is being fueled up in Baltimore, although I don’t have a destination.”

Probably going to find an archangel. It’s really their only chance.

“Very well. Let’s head to Pennsylvania. Stay close enough that we can be in the air as soon as we receive word.”

Sean gave Jorgen an abrupt nod. “Yes, sir.”

             
CHAPTER 48             

L
aney jogged the path from the main house to her cottage on Sharecropper Lane. She and Ralph would leave immediately for Vegas, where the archangel was located. It had taken Laney a moment to wrap her head around that idea.
An archangel in Vegas.

Jake had wanted to come too, but Ralph had insisted that they would get further with just him and Laney. And even then he wasn’t entirely optimistic that they would be successful.

So Henry and Jake had had to settle for following closely behind with supplies and men. It was a gamble. But Laney was hoping that the second archangel would be close to the first. Which meant, they’d get their quicker from Vegas.

But honestly, it was all just a big guess. By moving everyone across the country, they could be going in the completely wrong direction. So as a hedge, they were leaving Jordan and Jen in charge of the second group on the east coast.

Laney glanced at her watch. She had twenty minutes before they were leaving. She needed to grab her go-bag from her cottage, but she also really needed answers to her questions. Because she was really hoping they could forgo meeting with a difficult archangel and just head straight to the Garden of Eden.

Laney cut along the back of the cottages and pushed open the gate to her little yard. Normally the site of hydrangeas, roses, daisies, and another dozen flowers in the back of her yard filled her with joy. Today, she barely spared them a glance.

She looked up and said a quick thank-you that her uncle had gotten her message.

He stood up from the chair on the back porch. “Laney? What’s going on?”

Laney hurried past him, opened the door, and made her way to the hall closet. Patrick followed. She pulled her bag from the top shelf and turned to him. “I need some information.”

“About?”

“The tree of life.”

His eyebrows shot up, and Laney quickly explained that they believed the Fallen were looking for the tree of life in order to achieve immortality.

Patrick sat down on one of the chairs at Laney’s kitchen table, a thoughtful expression on his face.

Laney took a seat across from him. “Uncle Patrick, I know you probably want time to mull things over and come up with a cohesive argument. But I don’t have time for that. I need to know what you know about the tree of life.” She glanced at her watch. “And I need to know in the next ten minutes.”

Patrick’s gaze returned to Laney. “The tree of life. It was in the Garden of Eden.”

“Right. In Genesis, it’s the tree of life that Adam and Eve eat from that results in them being banished from Eden. “

“Actually, that’s not entirely correct.”

“What?”

“It was the other tree.” Patrick smiled. “There wasn’t one tree in the Garden. There were two.”

CHAPTER 49

“T
wo trees? I don’t remember that.”

Patrick nodded. “Most people focus on the one Bible verse.
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.’
”

“That’s right. I forgot. All those pictures of Adam and Eve—they include just one tree.”

“And a serpent.”

Laney nodded. “But it was the tree of life they were able to eat freely from. And that's what made them immortal."

“So it would seem. But they disobeyed and ate from the tree of knowledge. As a result of eating from that tree, their eyes were opened and they realized their sins.”

Laney was intrigued by the idea of a tree of knowledge, but right now wasn’t the time to go into that. “Okay. Let’s focus on the tree of life. It was in the Garden of Eden, and I know there have been archaeological efforts aimed at uncovering it. Do you have any thoughts on where the Garden of Eden might be located?”

“Well, that’s the problem. No one really knows. According to Genesis, it was located near four rivers: Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, and Euphrates. But no one knows when it was alleged to exist. And topography has changed dramatically over thousands of years.”

“Yeah, but the Tigris and Euphrates are still around.”

“True, but that hasn’t stopped people from throwing around all kinds of possible locations—Iran, Africa… even Jackson County, Missouri.”

“Jackson County, Missouri? Seriously?”

“According to Mormon founder Joseph Smith, that’s where it was.”

“Why on earth would he think that?

Patrick shrugged. “I don’t know. But most scholars agree the Garden was most likely originally located somewhere in the Persian Gulf. Although the river of Pishon was supposed to extend into the land of Cush, meaning Africa, which also makes that a possibility.”

“If most agree it’s in the Persian Gulf, would you say that’s where we should start?”

“Well, some of those suggest that it’s
in
the Persian Gulf, and others suggest that it’s
under
it.”

Laney closed her eyes and groaned.
Oh, come on.

Patrick sat back, his hand on his chin. “And didn’t Cayce suggest there was more than one Eden?”

Laney groaned again. “I’d forgotten about that.”

Edgar Cayce had said that humanity had sprung up in five places at once. Although if she remembered correctly, he seemed to think the actual Biblical Garden of Eden was in Persia and the Carpathian Mountains.

She had hoped speaking with her uncle would help her zero in on a location, or at least a part of the world. That way she could send Henry and Jake ahead. But this conversation was just making her head hurt. She was beginning to feel like the whole situation was hopeless.

“Okay. Let’s ignore Cayce for the moment, and all the other noise. Where do
you
think the most likely location for Eden is?”

Patrick sat back, and Laney could practically see the gears shifting in his head. She tried not to glance at her watch, but she was very aware of time passing.

“Actually, some recent archaeological finds have suggested a new location that may be much more promising.”

“Okay. Where?”

He gave her a small smile. “Gobekli Tepe.”