Fallen Angels Read online

  “Looks like I’m finally gonna beat your Pac-Man high score, Matty-Boy.”

  We ran toward the video game spot that was easily recognizable by the huge sign, Joe’s Pizza Emporium and Arcade, above it.

  George ran up the wooden stairs but stopped short enough that I almost ran into him.

  “What the hell, George?” I began to ask but was cut off by the sight of a heated exchange between a male and female.

  “What’s that about?” George pointed at the boy with long, black hair wearing bulky Doc Martens, blue jeans, and a black tank top. What was even more interesting was that the boy’s hand was gripped firmly around Kayla’s wrist.

  I could hear him from where I stood. “Now, baby. I didn’t say I liked your sister. I just said make sure she’s at the party tomorrow, right?” We moved toward them like a jerk-seeking missile.

  “Kayla?” I called out. “This guy bothering you?” The girl swirled around and I realized that it wasn’t Kayla at all. They looked exactly alike except this girl’s hair was hair sprayed into a towering wave above her head with large, bright earrings dangling from each ear. Her right arm was covered in dark tattoos of dragons and Japanese style fishes that were so life-like I swore I saw the dragons blink. I’d never seen tattoos on a girl before and was amazed at how they wound from the top of her shoulder all the way down to her wrists. Bright pink hair flowed from the right side of her scalp and her blue eyes were jaded and worldly: entirely different and much more arrogant than the girl I knew. She looked like something out of a magazine or something.

  “Who the hell are you?” asked the black-haired boy, glaring venom. George’s attention was centered on the hand that was squeezing the girl’s wrist.

  “You okay, miss?” George asked, but suddenly it was like someone hit the start button of a blender without the lid on. The Kayla look-alike spun to action, yanking her arm back and twisting her wrist expertly toward the boy’s thumb, breaking his grip instantly. She stepped close to him, widening her stance, giving her the leverage she needed to shove him violently over her hip and down to the ground.

  Her move was blindingly fast and the guy was flat on his back before he even knew what was going on.

  “Ricco! You ever grab me like that again and I will personally see to it that your testicles are put in a bottle and sent to your father as a keepsake,” she said, waggling her finger at his prostate figure.

  Ricco was quick to his feet. “Why you little…” he began but George stepped forward, cutting him off.

  “Hey, prick. You couldn’t cut it against a girl. Let’s see how you do against me.”

  Ricco stopped short, his face contorted in rage before reverting to calculating deliberation, like a coiling snake that was about to strangle a baby chick only after making sure the mother hen was not in the nest.

  Then he laughed, long and loud, as if the whole thing had just been some kind of joke.

  “Maya, baby. C’mon,” Ricco said, putting his hand on her arm, ignoring George completely. She shrugged him off. “You know I get uptight when my father’s around. I didn’t mean that. I’ll make it up to you. How about I buy you something nice?”

  She scowled and moved away. He tried to grab her arm but faster than lightning, George grasped his hand, twisting it backward, forcing it against his bicep. George shifted his grip higher and the boy gasped in pain, as his fingers were forced far enough backward to almost touch his forearm.

  George cleared his throat. “I don’t think she wants you talking to her anymore,” George said, dropping Ricco’s hand.

  “Who the hell are you?” Ricco flexed his fingers. The way George had twisted them; I was hoping they were broken. But no such luck.

  “This can either go very badly or it can go very easily. It’s up to you,” George said. For the first time, I saw a side of George I’d never seen before. A warrior who was ready and willing to do whatever it took to protect what was his to protect. My assumption was that the girl had not only made the list, but was now very high up on it.

  “Do you have any idea who I am?” Ricco said as he tried to shake some life back into his mangled hand.

  “Don’t care.” The light bulbs above George sparkled to life and the air crackled with power. The Arcade games dimmed and the fluorescent signs flickered off. Ricco glanced at the flashing light fixtures and licked his lips, stepping away from George, then me.

  “You screwed up, man. Don’t know who you are.” He glared at George, making sure that he was out of the reach of my now-scary friend. “But you’re a dead man.” He flexed his fingers and stalked off.

  “You guys better go. Once he finds his gang, you both will be in trouble,” Maya said.

  “You okay?” George asked.

  She studied him for a moment before answering. “Yeah, I had it handled. That guy is just all hot air.” I noticed then that she had the same accent as Kayla. Who was this girl?

  “Looked like you know how to handle yourself,” George said, interrupting my train of thought. “But you never know. Better not to hang around guys like that.” There was the look of silent admiration in his eyes.

  “Well, that’s the problem. He’s my boyfriend,” she said as she patted the pockets of her very short shorts. “Aww, damn, damn, damn!” she said as she grabbed her bag. “And he has the keys to my car. I have to go.” Maya ran, looking for the black-haired boy. George stared after her as she rounded the corner.

  “What the hell makes a girl like that hang around with assholes?” George asked.

  “Don’t know.” I said. “She looks just like Kayla.”

  “I was thinking exactly the same thing. Think they’re related.”

  “Must be. Damn, but you were scary, dude. That was like something out of the Knights of the Roundtable,” I said.

  He laughed. “It’s part of the Malakhim code. Saving the damsel in distress and all that. Actually, you know that whole chivalrous, Arthurian stuff you read about. That was our people.”

  “What? You’re kidding. King Arthur was Malakhim?”

  “Yeah. He was.”

  I was just about to ask a lot more questions when the loud roar of an oversized motor announced the arrival of a black Humvee accelerating onto the pavement. I dove to the right just as the SUV was about to mash me against the sidewalk. I spun to my feet and began to pound on the hood of the black SUV. My pendant flashed and the power of the Earth filled me, the energy making me a lot stronger than I’d ever been before. Round dents appeared in the thick metal hood with each of my blows.

  The four doors of the Humvee opened and the small park was suddenly filled with a number of very-serious-looking thugs. They wore white wife-beater tank tops and loose-fitting jeans tucked into black boots.

  “Aw, damn,” George said.

  “What?”

  “You see that tattoo?” He motioned at their necks. I did. It looked like an upside down triangle with arms that twirled around a V. It was exactly the same tattoo I saw on Tuli’s neck the other morning.

  “Yeah.”

  “That’s the mark of the Shed’im.”

  “Ok, so what does that mean?”

  “It means we’re about to have a very bad day.” George glanced around. There were several people walking down the main street, going into and out of the shops. It was almost lunch and people were everywhere “Damn, I can’t use my Kindjals; too many Earthbound around,” George said as Ricco got out of the driver’s door.

  “Hey, asshole! You could have killed us!” I lunged at him but two of the wife-beater shirts blocked my way. One of them sniffed like a dog at its bowl. Wide eyes looked back at Ricco.

  “Malakhim?” Ricco asked. Mr. Sniffer nodded. “I thought as much.”

  The goon whispered into Ricco’s ear again, this time with a look of disgust.

  “You sure?” He was answered by another nod. Ricco then took a long, hard look at me. His eyes reassessed me like that coiled snake I’d compared him to earlier.

  “So yo
u’re the one,” he said and then smiled. “Don’t look like much, now does he?”

  “Why don’t you come over here and tell me that?”

  “I’ve been told to leave you alone, for now. But nobody told the boys here anything.” He hopped back into the Humvee.

  “Where you going? We’re not done yet.” I shoved, trying to break through the wall of thugs as the Humvee backed out of the stall.

  A tinted window wound down. “Don’t start crying the way you did at that school. He was such a tiny little thing, was he your boyfriend?”

  “What did you say?”

  “Don’t kill them. Well, at least not intentionally,” Ricco told the thugs just before speeding away. I launched myself at the departing truck but it was long gone before I could get there. George reached for his Kindjals but glanced over at the elderly lady he had called a Watcher. She was now sitting at one of the park benches staring at us. George pushed the blades back in their sheaths.

  I looked at his Kindjals significantly. He shook his head.

  “Nope, can’t do it. Watcher.”

  “What the hell then?” I asked as the five giant Shed’im lined up against us.

  “I guess we do this au natural,” George said and smiled. Five of them against two of us; part of my brain did the math and I arrived at the conclusion that we were just about to get our asses handed to us. But I could tell that George was looking forward to the challenge, the big jerk.

  They came at us then, and all I could remember for the next minute or two was my fist flying and legs wailing. I thought I remembered biting a few times but won’t admit that. Oh, and pain. I remember the pain. Call them what you will, but those bastards could hit like trucks. I was exhausted and a few punches to the head had me dazed.

  Without warning, a force like a tidal wave threw me across the promenade and away from the Shed’im. I regained my senses enough to realize that the sun had darkened in the sky and a shimmering field surrounded us. I couldn’t move and from the looks of it, neither could the Shed’im.

  Aunt Emily glared at us through her rectangular glasses. There was a coronal glow behind her, like the sun through clouds on the horizon. Angry was not even close to describing what she looked like. An avenging angel, ready to take the first-born of the children of Egypt was closer. Still not quite as pissed off as Aunt Emily, but closer.

  “Matthew Rising, did you start this mess?” Aunt Emily demanded as I regained the ability to move. The elderly Watcher was right beside her.

  “No, ma’am,” I answered. “They tried to run us over.”

  The elderly Watcher whispered in my Aunt’s ear. I felt like the dunce of the class being tattled on, but I dusted myself off and stood up, ready to take whatever came at me.

  “Is that so?” Aunt Emily said as the old woman nodded.

  The old woman whispered again.

  “Thank you, Ms. Treacle.” Aunt Emily nodded. “Well, thank goodness Ms. Treacle was here and witnessed the event. It seems there was an altercation?” Aunt Emily asked the older woman, who nodded again. “The other threatened him with imminent danger?” There was another, almost imperceptible nod this time.

  “So it seems as there are two affronting parties. Would anyone like to file a complaint?” Aunt Emily asked the group of Shed’im muscle, who didn’t seem at all willing to cross my aunt. They shook their heads.

  “Well, now. It seems that settles that. Would you agree, dear?” Aunt Emily asked the Watcher, who gave another nod. “Thank you so much for your assistance, Ms. Treacle.” The old lady smiled and went on her way. Aunt Emily looked at the other five brawny Shed’im. “You may go also.” They left as quickly as they could.

  “Matthew!” Aunt Emily turned to me, her eyebrows sharp talons over blazing coals. “Thank goodness Mrs. Treacle was here to witness everything.”

  “Aunt Emily,” I called out. She turned to me. Her eyes, although still fuming, had begun to soften. I hoped that meant she wouldn’t be mad at me for long, even though it was my first time in town and I had acted like a real ass. “I’ll do better, ma’am.”

  “You see that you do, Matthew. And Mr. Koa, I expect a lot more of you. I still have business to deal with. I will see you back at the house.” With that, she turned toward a grey-brick building and disappeared up its front stairwell.

  “George, that guy knew about what happened at the school,” I said.

  “Yeah, it made the news. It was a really big deal.”

  “No, I don’t know how, but he knew about Dominick. Only someone there could have known about that.”

  “So what?”

  “So what? We gotta find out who that was. He may know who was behind the shooting at the school,” I said. “I owe that to Dominick.” George squinted at me but before he could say anything, a horn beeped behind us. Ms. Maggie sat behind the wheel of an old Ford truck.

  “Get in, boys. I’ll take you home.” We grabbed the bikes and threw them into the truck bed.

  “So much for a fresh, new start,” I said.

  “That’s alright, Matty-Boy. Set the expectation low. Then you don’t have anything to live up to. That’s my motto!” I wondered if that was exactly what I’d done.

  When we got back to the house, Ms. Maggie shook her head. “You boys go and get a spot in the nook. I’ll get lunch ready for you two.” Rene was waiting for us in the kitchen.

  I didn’t expect him to be back already. He said he wasn’t going to be back until Monday and didn’t seem like the type to say things flippantly so it must have been important. But here he was, standing there; his fingers tapping the counter top like a syncopated jackhammer stuck on high. I realized I was in a lot more trouble than I originally thought.

  “I heard what happened,” Rene said, his voice deep: low and guttural.

  “Yeah, it got a little heated over in town.”

  “Mr. Rising!” He slammed his hand on the kitchen counter. “What part of you are in danger don’t you understand?” he shouted. “Did I not tell you that this valley is dangerous?”

  “It’s not his fault,” George interrupted.

  “So whose fault is it if he dies? Yours?” George, who was usually so defiant, dropped his stare and said nothing.

  “Thanks to your little stunt today, they know you’re here. Everyone knows you’re here.” Rene glared at us. “If you had stayed on the property like you were told, you would be safe. Now, I don’t know.”

  “What do we do?” I asked.

  “I will contact your father. He will take you somewhere you cannot be found, as he did before. You will be safe for a time,” Rene said, staring out the window.

  I thought about the fight earlier today and standing up for what was right. I thought about little Dominick’s body lying on the ground and about Tuli. I could help against that. I could do something worthwhile. I could, and I would.

  “No,” I told the old man

  “No?” he asked, raising a curious eyebrow.

  “I will take the test.”

  George looked up, his lips firmed, his fist pumped.

  “Matthew, do not take this lightly. After what happened today, if you do this, you will be exposed to very dangerous creatures. Are you sure?”

  “Yes, I will take the test of the Malakhim. If that’s all right with you?” I asked George.

  My best friend beamed. “Well, yeah. But if you make it through, not saying you will, but if you do, I’ll still be better looking.” It was funny, and I laughed.

  “Then I will make the arrangements,” Rene said simply, “and I’ll see you tomorrow morning.” I caught the small smile that played on his lips.

  “Hey, where are you going?” I asked as George followed Rene out of the kitchen.

  “I gotta call the ‘rental units, bro. Looks like I’m sticking around for a bit longer. They have to cancel my flight.” I smiled. “Hey, after everything I’ve seen, you can’t cross the street without someone to wipe your nose.” He disappeared around the corner.
r />   “Lunch be ready in about ten,” Ms. Maggie said.

  For the first time for as long as I could remember, I was content with a decision I had made. It wasn’t something decided for me by my father or forced on me by circumstance. It was a conscious decision, thought out and made by me. No matter what came, I would live and die by that decision. Tomorrow promised to be full of all kinds of surprises.

  Chapter 18 – The Test of the Malakhim

  We must hurry. The Adversary approaches and the Project is not ready.

  Yes, I know. He is being tested today.

  So soon?

  Of course.

  But what if he fails? The Test of the Malakhim is not for the faint of heart.

  We have to see, he needs to be tried. There is no other way.

  But what if he fails.

  Then he fails and they are lost.

  

  The next morning I realized it was my sixteenth birthday.

  “Happy birthday, to me,” I muttered to myself as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and touched my Loci, it’s ruby warm from my body heat. I thought about everything I’d been through these last few days and wondered where my dad was.

  Did he know everything that had happened to me? Probably, but I still didn’t forgive him completely. He should have told me.

  I jumped from the bed and saw a brightly wrapped present on the dresser. A bright yellow card was taped to the wrapping with Matthew written in an elegant script. I opened the letter and saw a handwritten note.

  Happy Birthday Dearest Matthew,

  May today be filled with your most heartfelt wishes. I only pray we could have enjoyed your birthday in less burdensome times. But always know we will be here for you in all ways.

  Love to you always

  There was no name but who else could it be but from my Aunt Emily. I quickly tore off the wrapping revealing an ornate cherry-wood box. Within the box was a small, platinum looking ring with eight gemstones that looked like diamonds. I took it out of the box and my pendant burst into bright fire like light. Realizing that the ring and the pendant were almost a perfect match for each other, I placed the round ruby in the metal ring and it clicked perfectly into place.