Mystery's Choice (Vengeance Of The Fallen Book 1) (18 page)

“No!”  He hugged her tightly, “No!  I won’t let you go!”

13

Ryan believed wholeheartedly before they left the first floor. The looks on Mystery and Seth’s faces, the burned spots on the rug, the blown-out windows, the chairs standing at impossible angles all through the living room, dining room, and kitchen. There was a sense of malignancy still hanging in the air. No human could have created this havoc. God!  This was real!

Ryan helped Mystery begin to clean up the mess her spat with her Father had made. Seth made a call to a window repair shop and made arrangements to have the shell of Mystery’s car towed away. He called in to the hospital; the others could hear Dr. Francisco yelling over the phone.

“Is this the last straw?  Will you have to start your residency over?”  Mystery looked up at Seth with tears in her eyes.

“I have to meet with her tomorrow, so we can talk about my dedication to being a doctor.”  Seth went to the table and sat the chairs upright.

“I’m sorry, Seth. I wish none of this was happening, but most of all, I wish it wasn’t ruining your life, too.”  Mystery stumbled out of the dining room she stopped at the door. “You could move out and you wouldn’t have your focus split between this war zone and work.”

Seth stopped her, turning her to face him. “I am not going anywhere. We talked about this; I love you and our son. I am not leaving without both of you.”  He smoothed her hair behind her ear. “And if you left, the weirdoes would just follow us.

“You’re right. Do you already want to leave, Ryan?”

“No. My brother and sister-in-law need me. I’m sticking.”

“I’ll call a rental car place. We will definitely need another car. This weekend we’ll go looking for a replacement.”  Seth headed back into the living room.

“I’ll see about finding something to cook for dinner.”  Mystery stepped into the kitchen and looked at the mess. There was food all over the counters and floor from the cabinet doors exploding open during her fight with her temper. The refrigerator sat crookedly in its niche; the door open and most of the jars inside had exploded. She walked back into the dining room and rambled through the papers on the floors, and finding coupons she handed them to Seth. “Order a pizza, we have no food.”

The three of them sat at the dining room table and ate pizza with the works, while Mystery worked on a list of things they needed to replace tomorrow. As she looked at the list, she was glad she had extra money in the bank due to her father’s life insurance. However, she would still rather have him back. She glanced over at Ryan; he was sitting there calmly eating his pizza, like he ate in houses where devils fought over children every day. She smiled, that if nothing else made her like him. She had heard about him, even talked to him over the phone, but this was the first time they had ever met. He graciously helped clean up the mess. He wasn’t avoiding her or sitting as far away as he could. He had taken the seat right next to hers and he was helping with the list. He caught her looking at him and smiled.

Ryan awoke from a sound sleep, to demonic laughter and Mystery’s high-pitched screams. Throwing on a robe, he ran down the hall to the master bedroom.

“Mystery!  Seth!”  He screamed. The door wouldn’t open.

Ryan pounded frantically as Seth’s screams were added to the cacophony. The door would not budge. Ryan allowed his mind to go blank, and began to pray. He felt warm all over, Ryan raised his hand and the door sprang open. Ryan forgot to be shocked, because Seth was fighting to remove horned flying creatures from his back and chest. He cried out each time one bit him. Mystery was being held down and something was forcing her legs apart, but he couldn’t actually see anyone or anything there.

Ryan ran to her and was thrown back by unseen hands. He forced himself to his feet and tried to help Seth only to be flung away. As he grew angrier, his body began to get warmer. The bedroom began to pulse with energy and Ryan began to glow. The laughter stopped. Ryan raised both hands and thrust them forward. Unearthly screams pierced the air. When Ryan opened his eyes, the creatures were gone.

He rushed to Seth and helped him up. Together they went to Mystery, who had curled into a little ball on the bed. Seth touched her shoulders and she went into his arms.

“How?”  She wiped tears away, “How did you do that?”

“I don’t know.”  Ryan ran his hands through his dark blond hair. I thought about them being gone, raised my hands, and made them go away.”  He sank down onto the bed.

“Thank you.”  She leaned over to hug him.

He hugged her back, and looked up at his brother. “Will they be back?”

“Not tonight.”  Seth said as he righted the bedside lamp.

The next morning they dressed and went out to a pancake house for breakfast. Nobody mentioned what had happened the night before; they tried to find other things to talk about. Ryan amused Mystery with stories of Seth as a little boy. Mystery told Ryan about how it had taken Seth a year to get her to go out with him. They did their best to be a normal family having breakfast.

They went to pick up the rental car and Seth left them to go to the hospital. Mystery and Ryan went to start replacing everything, which had been demolished in the fight.

“I think we should start with the appliance store so they will have enough time to get it delivered today.”  Mystery pulled into traffic.

“So, how many refrigerators is this?”  Ryan looked away as Mystery barely missed the car in the other lane when she changed lanes.

“Three. We are on the second stove, but it survived yesterday, so, I don’t have to replace it. But the dishwasher got fried in all the electrical discharge flying around the house.”  Mystery flipped on her turning signal and squealed around the corner, Ryan winced as the car behind her honked. He breathed a sigh of relief when she pulled into a parking place and stopped. They got out of the car and went into the store.

“Hello, Ms. Williams. What can we do for you today?”  The young salesman positively glowed as he thought of the commission to come.

“Hi, Mario. I’m going to need a refrigerator and a dishwasher. Rush delivery like last time.”  Mystery ignored Ryan’s muffled laughter as Mario led her to the refrigerator section of the store.

She selected a middle grade refrigerator and a top of the line dishwasher. She absolutely hated washing dishes and the machine promised you didn’t have to rinse the dishes first. Ryan walked beside her trying not to laugh out loud.

“Thank you for your business, Ms. Williams. I will see to it personally your purchases will be there before three this afternoon.”  He said as he held the door open for them.

“Thanks again, Mario.”  Mystery gave him a twenty-dollar bill.

“It is always a pleasure doing business with you, Ms. Williams.”

As soon as they were out the door, Ryan burst into laughter. Mystery smirked at him and unlocked the car.

“Um… Can I drive?”

“Yes. I don’t know why you and Seth won’t ride in a car with me driving.”  She gave Ryan her keys.

As he pulled into traffic he asked her where they were headed next.

“K-Mart. I need new shampoo, deodorant, etc. They all exploded.”

“You know I think you are handling this better than most people would.”

Mystery told him where to turn. “I wasn’t at first. I checked out. I just couldn’t believe I was a devil. I was raised Christian, and all I could think about was how being a devil meant I was evil and I was damned.”  She told him to turn right. “I finally realized I was only evil if I did evil, as long as I continue to follow God and obey his teachings, I’m okay.”

“You keep saying devil, not demon. There is only one devil, right?” Ryan studied her profile when they stopped at a light. “Why do you keep saying devil?” The light turned and someone honked at him. Starting, he drove forward.

“Unh Uh. The things in our room that you could see they were demons, lesser beings, created by Satan after the fall. Those angels that followed him and fell with him became known as devils. Their descendants, which I am one of, are also devils. Cain as a child of Satan is a devil.” She looked to see if he was shrinking away from her. He was just listening and driving. “I am apparently only half, because my mother is a very powerful witch, but for the most part human. All of the Roodmasi leaders through time, have been of Cain’s line, so she has some devil in her, though it is diluted.” She closed her eyes, sometimes this was all to much for even her to take in. “Felicity told me the cult is called the Roodmasi, because they had such reason to celebrate Christ’s death, that they named themselves after the day. My mother said in the vision that I am the culmination of evil’s union with evil. That said to me Cain has been coming back or Satan has and knocking up someone or a couple of someones in line to lead the Roodmasi. Making sure the bloodline stay diluted enough for them to lose their humanity and therefore, their usefulness, but enough to keep them strong and powerful.”

“Just keep remembering you are one of the good guys. Remind yourself every time they try to use your son to get you to turn. Remind yourself when you are sick of buying new refrigerators and dishwashers. Remind yourself when demons attack in the middle of the night. Just keep reminding yourself you are God’s child and you’ll be just fine.”

He parked the car and they went inside. “I will.”  She looked over at him. “I’m glad you are here, Ryan.”

“And I will be as long as you need. I was thinking of going to get more of my stuff tomorrow morning, I could be back before night fall.”

“Okay. Except for the one time they have only bothered us at night lately. At first, it was whenever I was alone in the house. Now they need the power of the night to get past my protective charms.”

“Who did the charms?”

“A friend of mine who is a cop. She is also a witch. She got called out to the house after the first attack.”  Mystery put lotion in the basket.

“Is she safe?’  He handed Mystery the type of toothpaste Seth had used since he was a teenager.

Mystery smiled as she put in the basket. “Not much for variety is he?”

“Nope.”

“Felicity says she is perfectly safe, this group has been after her before, she imagines they will come after her again. She says she is ready for them.”  She put perfume and bath wash in the basket. They both laughed as Ryan handed her the kind Seth used. “She is a pretty powerful witch. I don’t doubt whatever personal protection she has over herself and her home will keep her safe. I don’t think Cain will go after her himself, he’s too busy with me.”  They headed up to the checkout stands.

On the way to the car Ryan stopped. “Did she put protection spells on you and Seth individually?”

“Yes.”  Mystery loaded the bags into the trunk. “She is very thorough. No one was prepared for Cain to be Cain. He is the antichrist; there isn’t a charm that can keep him out of anywhere he wants to go. All I’ve been able to do is piss him off, and I am his child. I don’t know what all my powers are, but I do know if he had wanted me dead yesterday, I would be dead. I couldn’t stop him.”

“There’s still a part of my brain which wants to reject all of this.”  Ryan pulled back into traffic and listened to Mystery’s soft-spoken directions. When they pulled into the driveway, the delivery truck pulled in behind them.

“If it’s too much for you, Ryan, go. Go now while you still can, while you aren’t on their radar.”  Mystery said softly and moved to get out of the car.

Ryan stopped her. “It’s not too much for me. And I am already on their radar. Even if I wasn’t because of last night; I am because of the woman Cain or someone sent to kill me before I could help you.”

“What?”

“About a month ago, I was attacked when I was at home making cocoa. An escaped mental patient tried to slice me into little bits.” He opened his door and got out, Mystery sat there turned away from him. Ryan walked around the car. “I kabonged her in the head with a serving tray and the police took her away.”  He pulled her up out of the seat. “I will not let you take on any more guilt for this, you are not the bad guy, they are.”