Bad Grace (Watcher Chronicles Book 1) (7 page)

Frank thought for a minute. “I’ll go back to this Lucas guy, ask him if he knows anything. In the meantime, keep researching, see what you can find. Maybe tonight we hit the Southside, stake the bar out for a while.”

“Sounds good,” Eva said smiling.

“You’re enjoying this.”

“It’s been a while since I’ve worked a real case. Haven’t much felt like it since Rachel died.”

The mention of her decimated Frank’s relaxed state. His stomach tensed up and his knuckles turned white as he gripped the coffee cup. The familiar guilt started to fill up in him again.

Eva said, “You know you haven’t even mentioned her name once since you came here last night.”

“Nothing to say,” he said, staring into his coffee cup, wishing now that it was whiskey in the cup.

“Of course there is, Frank. Have you even spoke to anyone about this?”

“What the fuck is there to say, Eva?” he snapped. “She’s dead. She sold her fucking soul to bring me back from the dead. Now she’s in Hell.” He slammed a fist down on the table. “Why didn’t she just leave me dead?”

“Because she loved you.”

Frank winced at that. “If she loved me so fucking much, why’d she marry my damn brother?”

“She was afraid, Frank.” Eva looked away for a second. “She was afraid of self destructing along with you, so she chose a more stable relationship with Dean. I think she was trying to save you both.”

Frank laughed bitterly. “She did a great fucking job of it, didn’t she?”

Eva sighed and looked away from him. “Regardless, she made her own choices. You can’t go around blaming yourself for everything that happened.”

He stood up. “I’ll see you later, Eva.”

CHAPTER 11

Rosemount primary School was situated not far from the old steel mill that was currently undergoing demolition to make way for local housing for the less well off in the neighborhood. It was a small school, full up with kids whose parents were on welfare or worked low income jobs. The more well off families sent their kids to Clair Hill Primary across the city where classes weren’t as full and facilities were a lot better.

Frank sat across the street in his black Chevy, looking towards the school yard. Any minute now it would be morning break time and the kids would come spilling out of the school so they could play in the yard. When the doors opened and the kids came out, Frank searched until he found the two kids he was looking for. They always stood apart from the rest, looking scruffy and glum while all the other kids ran around, playing games, teasing each other, doing what kids do when allowed to run free.

The two kids Frank had his eye on—a girl and boy, eight years old—looked like outsiders the way they stood. They looked like they were guarding each other, like they expected trouble to come along any minute. This was their second school in a year.

Rachel’s kids, Leia and Josh.

Frank started keeping tabs on them a few months after their parents died. They were on their third foster home already. The girl, she looked so much like Rachel. The same long dark brown hair and dark brown eyes.

My kids, Frank. I miss them so much.

The kids didn’t know Frank at all. They were born just before their father told Frank he never wanted to see him again.

I know why you keep watching them, Frank
.

Adopting the two kids after Rachel’s death was out of the question for Frank. They’d be better off in foster care than with him. With him, they would end up dead or worse. He was certain of that.

She reminds you of me, doesn’t she, Frank?

He watched the kids until they had to go back inside again, then he drove off.

Despite it being before noon, the Demon Ecstasy club was open for business. Naked girls danced on the stages. Guys sat and watched while drinking. There was no time in these clubs, just an endless twilight.

Lucas was upstairs in his office. He waved down through the big window that overlooked the club, signaled to the bouncer to let Frank up the stairs.

“I went to check out your demon gang on the Southside last night,” Frank said, helping himself to a glass of Lucas’s expensive whiskey before sitting on the couch.

Lucas looked put out by Frank making himself at home, but he didn’t comment on it. He was dressed in a different suit from the one he wore the night before. The suit he wore now was light gray and perfectly contrasted with the brown skin of his meat suit. “Did you now?” he said.

“Yeah. I met Krakus. Nice guy. Into getting high on human blood and throwing mass demon orgies, not to mention dabbling in torture.”

Lucas sat back in his chair, made a steeple with his fingers. “Rough night, I take it?”

Frank nodded. “You could say that.”

“I hope it wasn’t for nothing.”

“I found out some stuff. First though, tell me your involvement in all this.”

Lucas looked confused. “I told you, I’m not involved in any way.”

“Feathers.”

“What?”

“Feathers. More specifically, angel feathers.”

“Angel feathers?”

“Archangel feathers.”

Lucas shook his head. “What the hell are you talking about? Are you drunk?”

“Not yet, no.” Frank took a drink from his glass. Swallowed. “What would a feather like that be worth to you, Lucas?”

“I’m not sure I follow.”

“You’re aware of the power in a single feather, right? I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you how useful an item like that could be to a demon such as yourself. I mean, in the right hands, the possibilities could be endless, right? But only in the right hands. You’d have to know how to harness that power, wouldn’t you?”

Lucas listened patiently while Frank spoke, then he said, “How would you know about the feather?”

“I did my research, or rather a friend of mine did some research. It’s what we do. Anyway, she found out that in order to pull of this ritual to steal souls, you needed an archangel feather, but you already knew that, didn’t you, Lucas?”

Lucas smiled as he stared back at Frank. “I may have known about the feather, yes, but my first priority is getting this gang stopped.”

“I’d like to believe you, but I don’t.”

“Believe what you want. I want this gang stopped before they cause too much disruption. The feather would just be a nice bonus.”

Frank got up, refilled his glass. Sat back down. “What’s your interest in the feather? What do you need it for? You seem to be getting along just fine without it.”

“I want the feather for personal reasons,” Lucas said. “Not for any nefarious scheme that you might be thinking of.”

Frank snorted. “What am I supposed to think? You’re a demon.”

“We don’t all want world domination, Frank. Some of us are happy living in peace.”

“Whatever the reason, I’m not your fetcher. If I find the feather, it’s going to the Council.”

It was Lucas’s turn to snort. “The Watcher High Council?”

“Well, not the damn city council. Of course the Watcher Council. We have to hand in all artifacts.”

Lucas was shaking his bald head. “You ever wonder why the Council demands that you hand everything like that in?”

“They lock the shit up,” Frank said. “So demons like you don’t get their hands on it.”

“And what right do they have to do that?”

“Hey, it’s the Council. I don’t make the rules. It’s how it’s always been.”

Lucas leaned forward in his seat. “Then ask yourself this, Frank. Where did the feather come from in the first place? Who would most likely be in possession of such a rare item?”

Frank thought for a second. “Shit,” he said.

As Frank was leaving the club he got a call on his cell phone from Eva. “Have you seen the news yet?” she asked.

“I don’t watch the news,” Frank said as he got into the Chevy. “Besides that I’ve just left that Lucas’s place. It seems he’s after the feather. Wouldn’t tell me why.”

“Okay. Well, three more people have just gone nuts in the city. Two of them were armed to the teeth with guns. Dozens of people are dead, Frank.”

Frank fell silent for a moment, then he said, “We need to stop this gang, before they turn anyone else into mindless killing machines.”

“Agreed, but we can’t do it alone. We don’t even know how big the gang is.”

“So what do you suggest?”

“We should inform the Council about what we know.”

Frank had to stop himself from laughing. “I think the Council already knows everything.”

“What do you mean?”

“Think about it,” Frank said while he took a pack of cigarettes out of the glove box. “Who else but the Council would be in possession of an archangel feather? That demon Krakus and his gang certainly didn’t waltz into the Council building and steal the feather.”

“Someone on the Council gave it to them.”

“Exactly.” Frank lit his cigarette. “We can’t trust the Council.”

There was a silence on the line, then Eva said, “I don’t understand. Why would the Council want all this death and destruction to happen? Why would they be helping demons?”

“We don’t know it’s the whole Council involved yet, though it really wouldn’t surprise me if it was. Bunch of damn angel huggers the lot of them.” Frank wound the window down to let the smoke out.

“I don’t think we have a choice, Frank,” Eva said. “We have to go and see the Council, find out what they know, see if they are hiding anything.”

“What about the demon gang? They are still stealing souls. God knows how many they’ve stolen so far or how many more people are out there getting ready to go on a murder spree.”

“What do you suggest?”

Frank took a last drag from his cigarette and tossed the butt out the window. “We get some help and we take down the gang before they steal any more souls.”

“Okay,” Eva said. “I’ll make some calls.”

CHAPTER 12

Back before the time of the Great Flood—when God had had enough of the world he created and the people in it, so he flooded the place and drowned every living soul bar a few—there existed great giants of men. Standing at around thirty feet tall, these men were the product of interbreeding between angels and human women. The offspring of this sinful act was the Nephilim, beings who came to dominate the earth and protect the human’s on the planet from the constant threat of evil. The Nephilim were warriors, fighting against the hordes of Hell, preventing the spread of evil across the world. The Nephilim, being half human however, got a little carried away with themselves and started thinking they owned the earth and everything in it. They came to believe themselves to be more powerful than God. There antics were shameless, indulging in every depravity known to man or angel. Eventually they became a bigger threat to the world than the evil they were supposed to fight. They even got to the stage where they tried to join forces with evil. Before this earth shattering alliance could be realized however, God ordered every single Nephilim to be wiped out. An army of angels destroyed every last one of the giants, after which God flushed away the filth they’d left behind by flooding the entire earth.

After the flood, the world was restarted, without the Nephilim in it. Evil had not been washed away, however. It still existed and still remained a threat to the existence of man. It went to work immediately on corrupting man again, with nothing to stop it this time but the will of man alone, which God thought would be enough.

Others disagreed however, namely the archangel Samuel, who took it upon himself to give man a new army of protectors. He created the second generation of Nephilim using his own grace to do so. He impregnated women all over the world, appearing to them first in visions, telling the women what they had to do. When the child was born, they would raise them normally. When the child reached adulthood, their innate powers would activate, a product of their angel DNA. Their powers would not activate before that, less they be too immature to handle the responsibility. Samuel had learned the lessons from the first Nephilim.

After the young adults had their power activated—powers that included the ability to see the true face of demons, innate fighting abilities, the power to heal, the ability to wield grace as a weapon, plus other abilities that would manifest depending on the DNA of the individual—Samuel decreed that they should be trained to fight against evil, to police the world behind the world. Samuel himself did this duty, training up the first generation of Nephilim. After that, he left them to it, to carry on the bloodline and pass on the knowledge that would enable future generations of Nephilim to fight against evil. Then he was never heard from again. Some say he just disappeared when his work was done, but was always watching from the sidelines. Others say God imprisoned the archangel for disobeying him and even now sits in a prison cell somewhere in Heaven.

For whatever reason, God allowed the Nephilim to live and to carry on the bloodline Samuel had started. But God also insisted the Nephilim answer to a council of angels and be governed on earth by themselves via a High Council. The angels gave orders to the Council on earth and the Council reigned over the Watcher’s. It had been that way forever.

Frank was never really one for following rules, especially when those rules came from angels and the High Council. One of those rules was that he make an appointment before going to the Council Building to see an official. He didn’t care much about that particular rule as he drove to the Council HQ which was located smack bang in the middle of the city, underneath the Masonic Temple. Not that anyone but Watcher’s knew that. The supernatural element in the city knew it also but most of them, demons especially, couldn’t get to within ten feet of the cathedral itself thanks to the warding spell that constantly surrounded it.

The Temple itself was huge and impressive in its own right, masterfully built by the stone masons (who also knew a thing or two about the supernatural) over a century ago, the building all ornate spires and stained glass windows, with gargoyles looking fiercely down from the top.