Sons of Angels (15 page)

Harold punched him on the arm. “I’ve asked you time and again not to call her that. Her name is Gillian and she’s the woman I love.”

Jasfoup winked at Felicia. “Right. Noted. All leeches are bloodsuckers, but not all bloodsuckers are leeches.”

They waited while the waterfall thundered to their left, Felicia itching to move. She murmured to Wrack. “Are you certain my sister is up there?”

The imp nodded “I was there with her. She was unharmed when I left. Of course, I could have got there a lot quicker if I’d been on my own and not having to wait for you lot.”

“And she still wouldn’t be rescued.” Jasfoup picked up a leaf and twirled it. “Who’s holding her?”

“An angel. A fallen one, anyway. Not a demon, though. The earthbound kind.”

“What?” Felicia stood up. “Why didn’t you tell us that earlier?” She began to run up the rest of the slope.

“Felicia! Wait!” Harold called after her.

Felicia burst into the clearing at the top of the hill and stopped. The circle of trees was empty but for one huge stone in the center. “Julie?”

“She’s not here.” Gillian jumped from the top of the stone. “There’s no one here. It’s a wild goose chase.”

The imps arrived, closely followed by Harold and Jasfoup. The demon dropped into a defensive crouch. “I smell an angel.”

“That will be Taliel.” Felicia looked up. “Taliel! I’ve come for my sister.”

One of the trees shifted form, its branches shrinking as the angel took on human appearance again. He bowed. “Grand-daughter, I’ve been waiting for you.”

“Where is my sister, Taliel? I’ve been worried sick about her.”

“She’s safe.” The earthbound angel waved a hand and another tree changed form.

Julie stumbled as she developed feet for the first time in more than a day. “Felicia? I can hear your voice.”

Felicia wrapped her in her arms “I was so worried. I thought you’d been taken by the angel.”

“She would have been, had I not intervened.” Taliel stepped forward. “Raphael hunts you all, though I do not yet know why.”

Jasfoup stood over the two women. “It’s your legacy. Heaven has always hated nephilim. Why now, though? Why has a seraph suddenly decided to hunt now?”

Taliel shrugged. “I don’t know. There are many nephilim in the world, each part of their clan, each separate from the other.”

“Clans?” Felicia helped her sister up. “What clans?”

Taliel frowned. “The six tribes of nephilim. Surely you know of them?”

Jasfoup shook his head. “That’s an old tale. Nobody believes in that now.”

“Why not? It was written in the Book of Cain.”

“Book of Cain?” Harold stepped forward. “I’ve never heard of it.”

“It no longer exists.” Jasfoup caught his friend’s arm. “The last remaining copy of it was destroyed during the sack of Byzantium in twelve-oh-four.”

Harold looked crushed.

Julie stepped forward. “Why does an angel want to kill me?”

Harold waved a hand in dismissal. “I wish I knew. This Raphael will come after me one of these days.”

Gillian stepped forward. “Much as I think this reunion touching, I have to point out we’re wasting time. We’re too out in the open to stand about and chat.”

“The leech is right.” Jasfoup earned a glare from Harold. “Let’s go back to the house.”

They began walking back, Julie and Taliel with them. Gillian nudged Felicia as they approached the manor. “I don’t know about you but I was itching for a fight all the way up. It was a bit of an anticlimax.”

Felicia laughed. “I suppose you’re right. I’m still full of energy. I’m just glad we found my sister.”

“As am I.” Gillian pulled her toward the stable yard. “Let’s work off some of our aggression.”

* * * *

Gillian let out her breath and slammed her fist into the werewolf, tilting her pelvis to add extra power and sending Felicia flying twenty feet into a brick wall. She didn’t know if the crack she heard came from the wall or the werewolf’s bones and, frankly, she didn’t care.

Felicia growled and struggled upright, holding her right paw up. Gillian smiled, thankful that she wouldn’t have to re-point the wall. “It’s all a matter of respect.” She dropped one hand to the ground to deliver a double kick to the wolf’s snout. “You need to realize you can’t beat me no matter what you try.”

The wolf snarled and leaped, catching Gillian’s wrist in its jaw as she moved to block it. Bright blood made an arc in the moonlight. The vampire dropped to one knee, sandwiching the snout between an iron hard fist and the concrete. Felicia yelped and let go.

Gillian dropped into a crouch and waited for the next attack. “You might think I’m being hard on you but there’s no point in pussyfooting around. I don’t want you if you’re going to stay soft.” She ducked under the next leap, rising in time to catch the wolf’s back leg and snap the bone.

“Heal.” She stood over the wolf and nudged the broken leg with the toe of her boot. “You’re doing too much thinking. Act, don’t react. Forget your wounds and let them take care of themselves.” She drew her saber and cut a foot-long gash in the wolf’s side. “You might have graduated from the school of life but this is the dojo of the undead.”

Chapter 16

Gillian was enjoying the constant look of awe on Felicia’s face as she was given a guided tour around the manor. She took particular delight in her astonishment at the art. Though Gillian had done none of the sourcing or purchasing, she could still take pride in Harold’s collection.

“Do you really live here?” Felicia stared up at the classical edifice.

“Yes.” Gillian led her around the house to the kitchen door. “It’s been in Harold’s family for generations.”

“Your fuel bill must be bigger than my mortgage. I’ve never seen a house this size that’s actually the private residence of someone without armed guards.”

Gillian paused as she opened the door. “Actually, we don’t pay fuel bills. Harold has an arrangement with the power company.”

“What sort of arrangement? The ‘they give you power and you don’t send your friends to drop pennies in the reactor chamber’ sort of arrangement?”

Gillian laughed. “I doubt he thought of that. Do you see those barley fields over there?”

“Sure.”

“There’s enough land there for thirty wind-powered generators, enough to supply the whole of Laverstone with virtually free, unlimited power.”

“Why don’t you build them then?”

“This is the clever bit. If we built them, the power company would lose thirty grand of revenue a year, so they provide us with free power as long as we don’t build the windmills.”

“Clever. But windmills cost a lot of money to build and maintain. How are they so certain you’d really build them?”

“We’ve built one already, over on the other side of the house,” Gillian explained. “It runs all the stables and greenhouses, and still sends enough electricity back to the national grid for Harold to receive a quarterly rebate.”

She stepped into the hall and Felicia followed, still talking. “If you could do that, you could build them all over the place and solve the world energy crisis.”

Gillian shrugged. “Then thousands of people would lose their jobs and thousands more would stop being so poor. It would provoke an energy crisis.”

She led the way into the east wing, Felicia trying to keep up and look at the antiques and paintings at the same time. She seemed impressed by the portraits on the east corridor, where the windows overlooked the gardens and greenhouses.

“Are all these real? They should be in a museum.” She indicated the Vermeers and Rembrandts with a sweep of her hand.

“Of course they’re real.” Harold appeared behind Gillian and gave her a peck on the cheek. “But why would I give them away? If you paid a photographer to take your photograph, would you offer it to a museum afterward?”

Felicia shook her head. “I suppose not.”

“Of course you wouldn’t, you’d keep it.” Harold indicated the works of art. “All these paintings were commissions by members of my family. It’s a family album, if you like, just without the tedious naked baby on a sheepskin rug.”

Jasfoup stepped out from the shadows. “Your mum’s still got that one, hasn’t she? She showed it to me when she thought I was your boyfriend.”

“Talking of which.” Harold led the way to the kitchens. “You still haven’t shown me that one Fuseli did of you as an incubus.”

“I won’t, either. It’s a painting of me with a foot-long penis. I’ve never been so embarrassed.”

Felicia laughed. “Most men would be proud of that.”

Jasfoup huffed. “I was a laughing stock for years. I kept telling them that the studio was cold, but they were having none of it.”

When they go to the kitchen, Harold gave a low whistle. “Those are some serious bruises, Felicia.”

“She’ll heal.” Gillian sat on the sofa, petting the dog curled up there. Felicia was surprised when her hand went partially through it.

“Ghost dog.” Harold nodded at the animal. “His name’s Jester. Doesn’t eat or shed fur. Don’t let him wee up your leg unless you want ectoplasm stains.” He put a hand to Felicia’s head, turning her cheek to one side. “What happened? Was Gillian a bit rough?”

Felicia ducked out from under his hand. “Nothing I can’t handle.”

“Are you sure?” Jasfoup handed her a coffee. “You look a bit dog-eared to me.”

Jester raised his head and regarded her for a long moment before tucking his snout back between his paws. Felicia sat on one of the other seats. “I’m fine. Honestly. Can we just get on with it so I can go home?”

“Yes.” Gillian looked at the angel. “Get on with your story before the sun sends me to limbo.”

Taliel looked confused. “What story? I have no story to tell.”

“You mentioned the Book of Cain.” Harold pulled out a chair. “What can you tell us about that?”

“And nephilim clans,” added Felicia. “What, or who, are these six tribes?”

Taliel shrugged. “They are hidden. Hidden away from the eye of God and cursed as Cain was cursed,”

“Wait a minute.” Felicia frowned. “I don’t know that bit. How was Cain cursed? This is the biblical Cain, isn’t it? The one who killed his brother?”

“That’s right.” Harold sat. “God cast him out into the wilderness with a mark upon him. The texts never explained what the mark was.”

Taliel nodded slowly. “The symbol of the cursed. A snake, representing Samael, pierced by two spears, though its meaning has long been forgotten. Cain was the son of Lucifer and Eve. When he was cast out, he went to the land of Nod and took three wives.”

“He really was cursed.” Harold whistled. “Poor chap!”

Taliel glared. “With Lilith he begat Chemhaza, the mother of the breed. Your mother was descended from that line, Julie. With Shephaza he begat Shemhaza, the mother of seers, and from Hapeth, he begat the mother of mages, Azel.”

“You said there were six clans. What of the other three?”

“Cain himself became the elder of the vampire clan when Lilith fed him from her own blood, tainted by the fruit of the Tree of Life. The clan of the wolf was the product of the union between the seraph Gabriel and the women of a tribe destroyed by Moses. They were to be the enemy of the vampire, designed to destroy the people of the moon who were too powerful for the Israelites to defeat.”

Felicia looked across at Gillian, who winked and said, “You’re supposed to eat me.”

“What of the sixth tribe?” Harold asked.

Taliel frowned. “The sixth clan were the giants. They were wiped from the earth.”

“How?” Felicia asked. “How do you wipe giants from the world?”

“With a flood.” Jasfoup moved around the room. “Much as I’m enjoying the chat, we still need to find out if Carol Goodwin and her son were nephilim and, if so, are there any more. I want to get the drop on this destroying angel before he comes after Harold.”

“And us.” Felicia looked at her sister.

Julie spoke, her empty eyes fixed on a point just to the left of Felicia. “I don’t understand why he wants to kill us. We’re not giants.”