Michael (The Mark) (The Airel Saga, Book 4: Part 7-8) (6 page)

She
broke in.
“Obviously you triggered something in him, too…”
I couldn’t argue that. Something about me made him a little crazy. Crazy enough to kill his own father, crazy enough to try to kill himself when he thought I was gone. Dead.
As dead as that little boy. Marc.

Then the thought entered my brain that no matter what, at some point I was going to have to face facts. Given what I had discovered about the change I had undergone, and indeed was still experiencing, I was going to outlive my lover by perhaps thousands of years. No matter what, I would lose him eventually. He too would be dead in my arms one day, his glazed-over and lifeless eyes looking up into the heavens.

Just like Marc. And I might hold Michael that same way and weep the way he had done. And I might ask El why, too, just like he had. Ask Him if it would ever be enough. I wondered then:
Do I still want to go through with all of this?

I couldn’t believe my selfishness. It was repellent to me.

I had never known love. I hadn’t, judging by how I was acting, not really. I had never tasted true and abiding love, not once.
No, scratch that.
I knew I had felt it. It was when I was sinking into the deep, when I was dying. I had seen it in his eyes then. It was simple. Love was simply doing whatever it took. No matter what. That was all. And Michael had done it. When it hadn’t been enough, when his best efforts fell short, he had kept on trying, he had persisted, even in spite of the fact that I had died. It was his brave and bold action that had brought me back, and against all possibility. Somehow he had attained something higher. I knew it to be true.

Further, and I knew this to be true as well, I had not. I hadn’t shown him love. Not truly. Not if I was thinking of abandoning him in the time of his greatest need. I could see clearly then, as I looked into my own eyes in the mirror, the eyes that had come about as a result of his influence upon me— for good or evil, it all somehow had to submit to El’s will in the end—that Michael had done everything for me, that he had borne much grief, many sorrows, so much stress, and so much pain and emptiness for me. All for me. It was impossible, really. Unbelievable. Incredible. How could I walk away from him now?

No way.

I set my jaw and glared at myself in the mirror.
Airel, grow up. Be a good girl now. And for God’s sake, stand by your man.
If ever there was a time to do so, it was now.

I had some apologizing to do.

CHAPTER IX

WHEN MICHAEL FINALLY GOT back to his room, it was 7 a.m. He was distracted and angry. The Bloodstone was gone, picked right out of his pocket, and he had a good idea who was responsible.

Ellie stood waiting outside his door, back leaned to the wall. “Come with me,” she said.

They walked down to the park and sat under the bridge. “We need to talk,” she said. “Come up with some kind of coherent strategy.”

He was starting to respect Ellie. She was pretty smart. He thought that thousands of years of experience might do that to someone. He still held back a little, as was his nature. If he had learned anything from the Brotherhood, it was never to trust someone completely. The only person he let himself trust with all his heart was Airel. His heart swelled with love and pride for his Airel when he thought of the implications. He might not get to share all of that with her, but he would take what he could get.

“All right. But before you even get started,” he said, “I know you took it.”

“What of it?” she said.

“That thing is pure evil—very dangerous.”

“Trust me, I know that.”

“Why did you take it? You don’t trust me with it?”

“That’s not it at all, rookie. I’m following orders.”

“From who?”

She just stared at him with a look on her face that said, “You know the answer to that.” Then she said aloud, “I put it back in Kim’s duffel.”

He was stunned. “What?”

“It has already started to bond with her. We both know that. Trying to keep it from her will only make things worse. Some things are not up to us to decide.”

Michael could feel heat in his chest. Part of him wanted to scream at her, take the Bloodstone back for himself. He felt that using Kim, letting her have the stone, was just cruel. “Why give it to anyone at all? Can’t we just get rid of it, destroy it somehow?”

“Doesn’t work that way, mate. It needs a host; it wants to roam the earth. The Seer is not dead. The spirit, the identity that is the Seer—your father—all of it is in that stone.”

Michael searched his memories, thousands of years of them, for some sort of answer. He knew she was right, but the darkness he felt in knowing that Kim had the stone, knowing what it might do to her, made him feel like a traitor all over again. “And it’s
your
place to interfere? Ellie, I had everything under control.”

“Oh, yeah? Okay, when did you find out she was hiding it?”

He had no response.

Ellie’s face softened. She put her hand on his arm and sighed. “It’s not your burden to bear. I don’t care what Stanley Alexander tried to pass on to you, mate. It fell to Kim. It fell to her and she accepted responsibility, whether that was done in ignorance or not. She’s gotta live with the consequences of it now.”

Michael sat back and digested this. How could he allow that to happen? Did El know what
He
was doing? How could He allow Kim’s mind to be cursed? Michael didn’t have a whole lot of personal experience, but he had his training—he knew enough about the role of the Seer in the great scheme of things to know that what Kim would have to undergo would not be good. In truth, he didn’t like any of it. “I give her a few more days. Tops. Before her mind snaps completely,” he said, whispering.

“So be it,” Ellie said with a shrug.

“That’s cold for an angel of God.”

“It’s cold for one of your lot, Demon Boy.”

He winced.

“Sorry,” she said. “But it is what it is; it called, she answered. It is not up to me or you to try to fix it. We must use our heads and turn this terrible thing to the advantage.”

“What do we do, then?” He was genuinely at a loss.

“First, we’ve gotta trust that El knows what
He’s
on about. He sees the whole picture, we don’t.”

“Okay…”

“Second, we keep moving. Stick with the plan you yourself laid out. We take the battle straight to them. Drive right at the heart of the whole operation.”

Michael sat and blinked, thinking. “Yeah, but … if Kim’s got the stone, wouldn’t we be taking it right to the hands of the enemy? It’s like, exactly what they’ll want. They just want the Bloodstone.”

“Yep. And they’ll do anything to get it, including fratricide on a whole new level. They’ll kill anything and everything that stands in their way to be the first to get at it. That thing is a direct link to the Prince of Darkness himself. It means pure power, and they go mad for that sort of rubbish.”

“I’m listening.” He could imagine how things might play out.

“Plus, if we know anything about Kreios’ whereabouts, we know that he’s done the exact same thing, if for different reasons. He’s taken the fight to the enemy citadel in Cape Town. If what I’m sensing is correct, we need to unite our efforts with his, and—this is crucial—we need him to see that Airel is still alive. Or at least get her close.” She sat forward. “We do that, mate … we do
that
, and it won’t be long before the strongest Warring Angel of El, Kreios, reawakens to
his
destiny.”

His arms tingled.
Yes. Yes, there’s something about all that, isn’t there?
He could feel it. What was it? What could he call that feeling?
Truth.
He sat back, soaking it all in.

“So what do you think?” she asked.

“Let me get this straight. We run to the enemy because, one, it’s the opposite of what they expect. Two, Kreios is there. Three, we’re counting on them to basically defeat themselves because they’re so insane for the Bloodstone?”

“They want it more than anything. Why not offer it up to them?”

“That’s a huge roll of the dice, Ellie.”

“You haven’t seen what El can do, have you?”

“Still, it seems like an enormous risk. What if something goes wrong?”

She waved his comment off, irritated. “You only live once.”

“Unless you happen to believe in things like resurrection,” he replied, reflecting on Airel.

“Speaking of which,” Ellie began, but then paused, looking at him.

“What?” He felt like she was withholding something.

“You’ll never guess what else our little Kimmie is hiding from us.”

“What is it? How do you know all this stuff?”

“I’m telling you, I keep the lines of communication open with El.”

“So what is it?”

“Well, I’ll allow that everyone’s got their secrets. Everyone. But she’s got a whopper in her little duffel.”

Michael sat forward in anticipation.

“You know every angel’s got a Book, right?”

Oh, no.
He sat back and sighed.

“Yeah, she managed to get her little grubby mitts on a Book. I can only assume it belongs to Kreios.” She looked at him gravely. “I can’t imagine what she’ll try to do with it.”

“We should take it back.” He was getting angry again.

“I’m afraid, mate, and again, there are rules for this sort of thing. And besides, we’ve gotta be shrewd about it. We can’t just go barging in and swipe the thing. She can’t know it’s gone when we take it. Just like right about now, she doesn’t know that the Bloodstone has mysteriously returned to her. Almost like it never left. But she’ll know soon enough, and when she bonds with it this time, the effects will be obvious.”

“There are rules? What rules?”

“It’s similar to destiny. When those Books change hands, they must accomplish the purpose for which they’ve been sent into the lives of the possessors. If an angel of El loses his Book … especially after having found it himself in the first place … well, life under the sun is about consequence.” She quickly added, “And reward. Of course.”

“Did you ever recover yours?”

“That’s a long story, mate.”

“But you’re a full angel. You have a Book. Right?”

“I’m not prepared to talk about it.”

He looked intently at her.
Yeah, she’s hiding something.
Just what, though, he couldn’t tell. Still, she had been forthcoming enough in this meeting for him to continue to trust her. “Whatever.” He let her off the hook. He changed the subject. “So we have our plan.”

“Yep, and we’re gonna let it ride, hey?”

“Agreed,” he said.

They shook hands. She rose to leave.

“Oh, there’s something else.”

“Yeah?” He looked up at her.

“Do be very careful. This whole thing hangs by a thread.” She then walked off, leaving him alone with his considerable burdens. He rose to his feet more weary than ever. He walked numbly back to his room one last time. He would be glad to leave.

***

KIM ROLLED OUT OF bed, her head and body aching. 7 a.m., the clock said. Not much time to get ready. She had to pee like a racehorse, so she shuffled to the bathroom. Airel was gone. Ellie too had apparently left; her bed was empty as well. Kim stumbled, stubbing her toe on the leg of the desk. She bit her lip and swore loudly, hopping the rest of the way to her black duffel by the closet. She grabbed it violently and limped into the bathroom.

It was muggy, she realized as she turned on the light. Airel and Ellie hadn’t showered long ago at all. They were probably downstairs having coffee.

“Coffee …” she slurred. She had a craving. But if she was honest, she would admit that coffee wasn’t even close to half of it. She craved something else. Badly. Like a drug.

Naked, she reached mindlessly into her bag and rooted around for something to wear. Her finger brushed up against something exquisite, gorgeous, and terrible. Instinct rose up and she clawed at it. That’s when everything came unhinged in her mind, snapping her will like an old dry rubber band.

“I’ve always been here. And I always will be.”

“Yesssssss,” she whispered, drawing the object out from the duffel. The bathroom became red, pulsing with the light of the Bloodstone. Her bladder let go, emptying itself all over the floor, but she didn’t even notice. She only gazed into the redness of the Bloodstone. With every ounce of her will, she wanted to dive into it, curl up inside it, and die there, be unmade, find ultimate satisfaction.

In the meantime, the stone went to work. Patchwork. Remaking the outer shell of the one called Kim into something that might pass for beauty in certain circles. Appearances mattered a great deal. If nothing else, she would appear to be striking and different. In any case, the bruises and scratches were to heal.
NOW.
The kingdom of hell didn’t
suffer
violence. It
was
violence.

CHAPTER X

Arlington, Oregon—Present Day

MICHAEL LAY IN BED staring at the ceiling, the sun piercing through the gap in the curtains, making everything plain and drab. It was nearly a quarter to 8 a.m., but he wasn’t mindful of the time. He was riding in the painful place of existence where time didn’t matter, where everything was meaningless.

He drew his arms up and rubbed the scar on his chest. It throbbed and ached and itched deeply. It was getting worse. He needed help. “But there’s no one,” he said to the empty room. Not his dad, Stanley Alexander, who had been a selfish traitor from day one, leaving him an emotionally bastardized freak, all alone. Not Kreios, who had cursed him with unnatural bizarre demonic patchwork. Not even Airel. She didn’t get it.

Would she ever?

He wanted to be rid of the connection with the Brotherhood forever. He wanted to move on, be done with it, be left in peace. But life wasn’t turning out to be so simple. It was enormously complex and paradoxical.

Life would just be an endless sprint and they would run like animals, fighting to stay alive. There had to be a way to end it, to cut off completely from his past and start over with Airel. To love her, and that alone. That would be more than enough to satisfy him. His greatest fear, though, was that he had made too many decisions already, that those decisions had taken him too far down a path from which there was no return. Certain things, indeed, could not be undone.