Fallen Angel of Mine (20 page)

"Do you think it'd come in handy if I
learned some magic spells before all the bad stuff from your
foreseeance happens?" I had visions of driving into the dense
rainforests of Colombia to search for the Overworld version of Yoda
in the quest to save my friends.

She smiled. "It couldn't hurt.
Foreseeances are tricky things. I never place much stock in them
myself."

"But you're the one who foresaw this
crap storm!" My forehead wrinkled with consternation.

She smiled. "As my mentor Beulah used
to tell me, 'Honey, you're having an episode'." She perfectly
mimicked the genteel accent of a southern belle with the last bit,
laughing afterward. "What a character."

"Wait a minute—are you talking about
Beulah T. Atkinson?" Her name was on the list of foreseers
Underborn had given me. Most of them were listed as dead. Beulah
remained one of the few living ones, as far as I knew.

"She came down here to mentor me once I
discovered my sensitivity to future shock."

This woman might have answers. Better
yet, she might have insight into the mysterious sentences Underborn
had given me. It might be worth hanging out a little longer if I
could get more info. But first, I had to call Dad and the others.
Right after the meeting.

I decided to wait before pummeling
Bella with more questions, instead watching her greet the people
piling in, each one giving me curious looks, and some hanging
around behind Bella. Maybe they wanted a chance to speak with me,
or maybe they were just sizing me up. Bella looked around the room
and motioned for me to take a seat next to her. An older man closed
the front door and stood with his back to it.

Bella stood and smiled. "Welcome
council and citizens. We have long guarded El Dorado, the dark city
of shadows, and hidden its terrible truths and secrets. Over
eighteen years ago, I foresaw the coming of a tattered young man
from the dead city. Though my words were mysterious, we now have
hope of discovering the deeper meaning behind this
mystery."

As she continued to speak, I looked
around the room and noticed a smattering of ethnicities. Though the
majority of people looked Hispanic, this place was obviously a hub
for Arcanes from all over the world. It also explained why she
spoke in English.

"Justin," Bella said, turning to me,
"would you enlighten us on this Foreseeance Four-Three-One-One
Alejandro told me about?"

Great. As if explaining it all over
again was going to help. But I forged ahead anyway, going so far as
to pull the papers out of my backpack and reading back the few
mysterious snippets of 4311 Underborn had managed to recover. I
read each one as the audience dutifully took notes, making me feel
like Oprah Winfrey giving diet tips.

After an hour of discussion, the
council was no closer to deciphering the foreseeance than I was.
Though my internal clock was painfully aware of each passing minute
and desperately eager to be on the road, another part of me
realized getting this information out there was exactly what I
needed. There had to be some geeky Arcane with the answer. And the
other side—whoever they were—wouldn't be able to suppress the
information any longer.

"It is a shame this foreseeance was
blockaded by the enemies of truth," Bella told me after she called
for a break so everyone could stretch their legs. "For so many
foreseers to have had a similar vision, the upcoming event must be
catastrophic indeed."

"Didn't you have your foreseeance about
me around the same time as forty-three eleven?"

"If Underborn's dates are correct, it
would appear my foreseeance occurred on almost the same
day."

"When you say 'occurred', do you mean
you can't control this prophecy stuff?"

She smiled. "There are very few who can
activate foresight, and even fewer still who can control it enough
to see farther than a day or two ahead."

"Isn't there a way to re-see the
thing?"

She tapped a finger on her chin. "What
an interesting question. One of the major theories of foresight is
the Ripple Event, which theorizes a major event in the timeline
will cause ripples traveling not only into the future, but into the
past as well, like a stone in a lake. When a ripple washes over our
present, it triggers a foreseeance. For something so far into the
future to trigger a ripple reaching back almost two decades, it
must be the metaphorical equivalent of a boulder in a
lake."

"But if it already happened in the
future, can it be changed?"

"There are entire courses on that very
question. I happen to agree with the corollary, which states such a
ripple is only a potential event as two opposing paths in our
present converge. Others argue there is no such thing as free will
and our destiny is written in stone, much like Oedipus."

"Remind me never to take those
courses," I said, pressing a hand to my forehead to ward off a
headache. "For one thing, your ripple theory doesn't explain how
you knew I'd show up in your town. It's not like I rode in bareback
on a dragon, and nothing exploded when I got here either. So the
boulder in the lake theory doesn't hold water. On the other hand, I
sure hope we do have free will because killing my dad and marrying
my mom doesn't appeal to me in the slightest."

A cute laugh tinkled from her throat.
"Dragon riding and explosions are not the only sorts of major
events, young man. The mere fact you survived and arrived here is
obviously of great import and my physical nearness to the future
event is probably why I alone experienced it."

"Will you stop calling me a young man?
I know you're older than you look, but it's kind of creepy when a
cute girl is talking like an old lady."

Another giggle escaped her lips. "I
know, I know. I suppose living so long will do such things to your
perspective even if the same person stares back at me in the mirror
every day."

I smiled, hoping my comment hadn't come
across as too harsh. "Look, I'm smart enough to realize helping you
guys decipher this stuff will help all of us, so I'm willing to
stay longer. But I absolutely have to call my dad and girlfriend
and let them know I'm okay. Can Alejandro take me outside town so I
can use his cellphone?"

Bella raised an eyebrow. "There's no
need." She reached inside a large, very pink Hello Kitty purse
under her chair and pulled out a phone wrapped in a Hello Kitty
case. I wondered if she wore Hello Kitty underwear like Elyssa. She
pressed the top edge of the phone and an Orange logo appeared
onscreen. With a swipe of her thumb, the virtual orange peeled
naked and the home page of her smartphone appeared. The signal
strength boasted two solid bars.

"How in the world do you get a
signal?"

"Magical signals are stronger out here,
even if we are miles from the powerful ley lines beneath El
Dorado."

"And I can call a nom phone with
this?"

"Of course!" Her eyes sparkled with
amusement. "Arcphones are far more versatile than what the noms
inaccurately refer to as smartphones."

Pulling out my cell phone, I scrolled
through and found Elyssa's number. My memory had gone soft relying
on a contact list. I dialed her number. Less than a second later, a
'service disconnected' message responded. Fear clenched my stomach.
I dialed Dad's cell number. His voice mail answered immediately,
short and to the point: "Leave a message."

I almost hung up, but decided leaving a
message was the smart thing to do. "Dad, I wanted to let you know
I'm fine, but I'm stuck in Colombia in a small town near El Dorado.
Please call me back at this number when you get this message." I
recited Bella's number.

Scrolling through my contacts, I found
Shelton's number and dialed. His returned a 'service disconnected'
and suspicion crept into my mind. Then again, maybe Shelton had
changed numbers after the messes I'd dragged him through. I didn't
have Smith's number because he didn't have one. I called his
sister, Felicia, but reached voice mail. Since she was back with
Maximus, supposedly undercover, I decided leaving a message wasn't
a good idea. Stacey didn't have a cell phone, and I didn't know
Ryland's number. Calling Katie wouldn't help. She might know about
the Overworld now, but drawing her into my affairs would only get
her killed. Both Ash and Nyte, my friends from normal high school,
remained blissfully unaware of the supernatural world, and I wanted
it to stay that way. I was out of options. My last fragile hope
rested on Dad hearing his message.

"Any luck?" Bella asked as I handed the
phone back to her.

I shook my head. "No. I'm really
worried."

She rested a hand on my elbow and gave
me a reassuring smile. "Look, I have a little secret which may help
once we're done here."

"Oh?"

She leaned over and whispered, "I have
a flying rug."

My eyelids sprang wide open. "You mean
a flying carpet?"

"Rug, carpet, beach towel—really,
what's the difference?"

"And you'll take me for a magic carpet
ride?"

"I'll take you all the way to Bogota if
I have to. Well, at least to a place close-by because a flying rug
would give the noms a collective heart attack." She giggled as
though cardiac arrest on a major scale was the funniest thing
ever.

I grinned and hugged her, the fear
melting away, if only a little. "You're my new best
friend."

She kissed my cheeks and tucked away
her phone. "Now, I suppose we should finish the business at
hand."

We went over the
foreseeances and all sorts of other related items, but really only
ended up chasing our tails in an endless circle. I told them my
theory about the ancient masters possibly utilizing the Obsidian
Arches one day, but they'd heard that one before. A good portion
thought it was true, while others figured it didn't make any sense.
Several hours and a whole lot of
empanadas
later, Bella called the
meeting to a close.

Exhaustion weighed me down like a sack
of bricks.

"It's dark," Alejandro said. "We can
leave for the bus in the morning."

I told him about Bella's magic carpet
offer and his eyes lit up. "She never told me she had
one."

"Well, don't go telling anyone then," I
said. "Maybe I shouldn't have spilled the beans."

He laughed. "Her secret is safe with
me."

I said I'd meet him outside in a
minute, but first, the bathroom was screaming my name. Damn all
those beans! I went through a door in the back of the large room,
into a cramped hallway, and toward the tiny unisex bathroom crowded
in the corner near an exit. The door at the end of the hall was
propped open a crack, letting the air-conditioning escape into the
oppressive humidity outside. A dark-tanned man with a bandanna on
his head and a scar across his left eye entered the door and walked
to the bathroom, reaching it about the same time I did. He stank of
cigarette smoke.

"You need to go?" I asked him, pointing
at the bathroom door.

He shook his head and waved me in with
a couple of quick motions. I didn't need another invitation.
Several minutes later after doing my business, I stepped into the
hallway. The man with the bandanna leaned against the wall across
from me, waiting patiently. Something glinted in his hand and a
sharp pain pierced my chest. By reflex, my hand flew to the point
of discomfort where it found something metallic lodged in my skin.
I pulled it away and looked with shock at a large tranquilizer
dart.

My brow furrowed. The other man's brow
crinkled and his eyes widened. I only realized a split second
later, he wasn't confused by the dart. He was probably wondering
why I hadn't passed out yet. Because he fired two more shots. Darts
sprouted from my torso, little metal carrots in the garden of my
chest.

I charged him—or tried to. Instead, my
legs gave way and the last thing I saw was a pair of black tennis
shoes rushing to meet my face.

Elyssa

Elyssa stared groggily at
the stone floor for a moment before wondering
why
she found it so fascinating. A
string of drool hung from her lips, stretching almost all the way
to the floor.

"Huh?" She jerked upright and took in
her surroundings. Tried to get up and move, but diamond fiber
straps held her fast to a chair.

A chair? Diamond fiber
straps?

"What's going on?" she shouted, her
voice fumbling through mushy lips as she tried to recollect
something, anything to explain her current situation. The last
thing she remembered was bagging and tagging a rogue vampire with a
fetish for feeding off unsuspecting teenage girls. Even though he
looked like a hot teenage Romeo with a foofy hairdo and metrosexual
aura, his real age hovered around seventy-five. The dude was
positively geriatric by human standards.

Nasty perv.

She shuddered. It was just plain gross
thinking about vampires who were old enough to be her
great-grandfather trying to date people her age.