Falling (The Soul Collectors Series Book 1) (17 page)

Bayla-19 years old.

Duty: Collector of Souls

Race: Possible Angel

I closed the folder quickly before finishing. What in the Grace did “Possible Angel” even mean? I opened the folder back up to continue reading.

Mission: To save human and fallen angel from earthquake. To earn her wings as a real angel.

I was completely lost now. I was a real angel. I had wings. I hadn’t stretched them since coming here, but I had them. At the thought of my wings, they expanded out behind me. I loved my wings. They were solid white without a speck of any other coloring like most had. The tips were almost iridescent they were so white. They looked delicate too, but they were strong. I don’t know what this folder was, but I decided it was pointless. I didn’t even bother looking through the rest of it. I left it on the bed, and went back to searching for his mission files. He had them in his desk draw, of course, because where else would you keep files. I rolled my eyes at this man and his organization.

The files were not only in the drawers, he’d put them in hanging files, and they were labeled too. Gray, Missions, Earthquake Research, Valley, Humans and How to Kill Demons. I grabbed them all and once again plopped down on his bed. It made me grin a little knowing it would annoy him that I wasn’t using the desk for its purpose, and instead was using his bed. I started with the Gray file, thinking I wouldn’t find much new in this one. He had taken notes on Gray’s personality, his job, looks, mannerism and people important to him. I scanned each of the pages in this file and found nothing new or necessary to the mission. I looked through the Mission’s file next. Again it had the same information from the original reviews we had done together. I looked through each page just in case. The earthquake research didn’t really have anything I hadn’t already learned from Had in it other than a map of all the towns that would be lost with the quake. Approximately half of the state of Kentucky would be gone, and under water after Saturday. Moving on through the files, I found nothing of interest, until I got the Human’s file. There was information on each of them except for Sadie. He had a section with her name and age written, what she looked like, but there was no background information. It was like she didn’t exist before we got here. He even made a note about how it was suspicious that there was nothing on her. Everyone seemed to know her. I knew that this was my mission tomorrow. I had to seek her out and see what all I could uncover.

Any emotion, if it is sincere, is involuntary. ~Mark Twain

The walk into town was made quicker with the knowledge I had a lot to do with only five days left to do it all. I didn’t know where Sadie lived or how to get in touch with her. I knew I could probably get the information from Everett, and I remembered that he said his dad’s shop was in town. I didn’t know exactly where the shop was located, but I figured if I stayed on Main Street I would run across it. My heart hurt a little as I passed by the bookshop and saw the “Closed” sign. I wanted so badly to stop in and talk with Father Paul, to just see the twinkling eyes, even if only to get a sense of comfort. But then I got angry. I had never relied on anyone for missions before. They were making me feel weak. I took a deep breath, straightened my shoulders, and headed down the street in search of Everett. I barely made it another block when I heard my name. I turned to see Everett waving.

“Everett, hi! Just the person I was looking for. How are you today?”

“I’m good. What can I help you with?”

“Do you have a way for me to get in touch with Sadie? I was going to see if she wanted to go shopping with me today? Hannah is hanging out with her parents today.”

“Yeah, she should be here any minute. She said she was going to bring me some breakfast.” He looked down, red creeping up his neck into his cheeks.

“That’s very sweet of her.” I smiled.

“So, no hard feelings then?”

“None.”

He smiled.

“Sadie. Hi!”

“Hi, Bayla.” She looked at me oddly.

“Would you want to go to the store with me? I just need a few groceries and some clothes for camping.”

“Sure.”

She gave Everett the food she brought him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. She looked sideways at me to see if I reacted. I had no interest in Everett, so I didn’t mind that they were dating now. He thanked her, gave me a quick wave, and turned to go back into the shop. Sadie turned back towards me, giving me a grin that I could tell was fake. I had a feeling that this day was going to be fruitful. She looked like someone who would want to brag about herself given the opportunity.

“Shall we go shop until we drop?”

“Of course. Where’s Haddy today?”

“He had to go out of town. My parents needed him to do some things for them before they come to visit. So I’m here alone.” Her eyes lit up. I wasn’t sure if it was the prospect of me being alone, but something I had said was of interest to her.

“That’s too bad. I know he was looking forward to the camping trip next Saturday.”

“That’s right.” I snapped my fingers, pretending to have just remembered. “We need to move the camping trip to this Saturday.” Her nose flared a little, but then she regained her composure. “Declan has to go out of town next weekend, and he’ll be gone for a few weekends, too. You know Alissa will want him to be here for the trip.” Honey was oozing from me.

“Yes, I’m sure she will want to change everything.” She seemed to be spitting venom.

“Everything okay between you two?”

“Yes. Sorry. She’s just obsessed with that boy, and I don’t know why.”

“Have you seen him? I can understand.” I giggled.

She rolled her eyes.

“Looks aren’t everything. That’s why I liked Had.” Her mentioning his name caused a physical ache inside of me. “He was kind and smart, not just handsome. Declan seems to be full of hot air.”

“I won’t argue with that.” I managed between laughs.

The store was fairly empty. I got a basket for the essentials that Hannah and I had decided we would need to have hidden, and headed towards the food area. We figured granola bars, bottles of water, and fruits like apples would be best to have. They would keep fairly well and would have better nutritional value than the junk food we would actually bring to the camp site Friday evening. After getting the few essentials from the grocery section, we headed over so I could get some clothing items I would need for the trip. I probably didn’t need most of what I was getting, but I needed a reason to be there with her.

“Are you starting college here in the fall too?”

“No, I’m going to a university in Tennessee. I actually leave in three weeks to get ready for classes to start. I plan on becoming a doctor. What do you want to do? I heard you moved here to go to college?”

“I’m not sure yet, but that was why we came here. My parents felt the programs here were the best for what we would need, if and when we started doing missionary work with them. Are you from here originally?”

“No, I moved here during my senior year. I am from Tennessee. My dad got a job here working for the parks doing seismology research.” She seemed to be paying close attention to my reactions. I made sure not to let my face give anything away.

“So I guess he’s been really busy here lately with all the activity that’s been going on?”

“Yeah. He’s been having me go out with him. It’s really interesting. I think he’s hoping that I will decide to follow his footsteps instead of being a doctor.” She rolled her eyes, but I could tell she enjoyed hanging out with her dad.

“That sounds really interesting. Has he made any conclusions to why we’ve been having so many?” I tried to make it sound like casual conversation. I needed to know if she knew anything that would help me.

“He thinks we are going to have a big one soon.” She got closer, like she was telling some big secret. “Actually he thinks it’s going to be catastrophic. He plans on monitoring it from the valley we are going camping in. He has it happening in a month or so, which is a good thing since my momma and I will be in Tennessee by then. He thinks the whole town will be gone afterwards.” Her eyes were open wide in fear, or maybe in anticipation even. I couldn’t get a good read on her at all.

“That’s very scary! Is he planning on warning people so they will have time to evacuate?” I knew his timing was off, and that it wouldn’t matter, but as a concerned human, I needed to pretend to be frightened.

“Daddy has sent emails to the council, but they haven’t responded.” She shrugged slightly, as if to say it doesn’t affect me so who cares.

“Well, I think I’ll make sure Haddy and I are away then.” I widened my eyes, and she nodded like she agreed that was a good idea. “I think I have everything I need. Are you ready?” I decided I had no need to worry about her. She was new to the area which is why there was no information on her in the file.

“I am. After this, do you want to go by the café and get coffee or something else to drink? I know it’s too early for lunch, but I thought we could hang out some more. Other than Hannah and Alissa I don’t have any friends.”

“Coffee sounds great. Let’s go pay for these items and head to the café. Maybe we’ll see Gray there, and we can tell him about changing the camping trip dates.”

“So, I bet Haddy is not very happy about having to miss the trip.”

“He wasn’t but, we knew before we came here that it wouldn’t be all fun. We had things we needed to do to help out our parents.”

Gray was at the coffee shop and gave us a wave as we sat at a table near the window. We could watch for Everett from where we sat, which is why Sadie chose the location. She was barely paying attention to me as I prattled on about random things to make it seem Had would just be gone for a few weeks. I wished that the Blues would send someone to at least let me know if he had survived. It was getting harder to pretend everything was ok as the day progressed. The longer I sat at this table making up random nonsense to entertain Sadie, the more anxious I became.

Gray had brought over two coffees for us without asking. “So Hannah said we were moving the camping trip to this weekend. Do you know if that works for the others yet?” he asked as we each doctored our cups appropriately.

“I’m good, and I know Everett is off work this weekend, so he should be good to go, too.” Sadie chimed in.

“I haven’t had a chance to ask Alissa or Declan yet.”

Gray glanced up outside, and my gaze followed. “Looks like we’re about to get the chance. Before they get here, can I talk to you Bayla? Alone?”

I was hesitant but had no good reason not to talk to him. “Sure.” I responded as I got up to follow him over to the counter.

“Hannah told me.”

My heart started pounding. “Told you what?”

“About Had having to leave, and why you need to move the dates up. She said you seemed pretty upset.”

I exhaled, without realizing I had been holding my breath. “Yeah, thank you.”

“If you need anything you make sure you let me or Hannah know, okay?”

“I will.”

He pulled me into a big hug. When I turned around, Declan was glaring, and Alissa and Sadie seemed shocked. Gray didn’t seem to have noticed or was unfazed by the looks if he did. “Listen, before you head back over, I need to let you know that I saw Declan with Alissa all day Sunday. I know you don’t like her and that there may be something going on with you two.”

“There’s nothing going on between us, but thank you.”

“The death glares he is sending us right now beg to differ.” Gray chuckled, and he made his way back to the group.

“So, camping this weekend, guys?”

“Yeah that’s fine with me.” There was little inflection in Declan’s voice.

Alissa glanced at us, then at Declan and just shrugged. I’m pretty sure she didn’t have anything else better to do anyway. Plus wherever Declan was going to be, she was going to make sure to be there too.  The silence between Declan and myself almost seemed palpable. I should probably apologize, but I was finding it easier not having to talk to him. Seeing him reminded me of Hadraniel and what I had lost. I needed to do something, anything to get away from him and my thoughts. I needed to get back to the valley and see if there was something I missed when Had got shot. Maybe I would find some clue as to who or why. I decided I needed to excuse myself so I could sneak away, so I feigned a yawn.

“I’m getting really tired guys. I have all this stuff I bought earlier that I need to get back to the cottage, so I think I’m going to head out.”

“Let me drive you.”

“No thank you, Declan. I think I’ll walk.”

“Oh, I insist.” There was a staring contest occurring with neither of us wanting to give in to the other.

“You should let him, Bay.” Gray, ever the voice of reason, spoke. “That’s a lot of stuff to carry, and if you’re already yawning, you’ll be exhausted by the time you get home.”

Declan gloated. He had won by default only, as I really couldn’t argue with Gray. I had just told them I was tired, so anything I could come up with would negate my previous statement. Gray put his keys out towards Declan, but Declan just declined. He said he had his own keys. I’m sure they were for Alissa’s car, but if they were, she didn’t seem to mind him using them. I said goodbye to the group without acknowledging Declan. I stood outside the café waiting for him to finish saying bye to Alissa.