The Belial Origins (17 page)

CHAPTER 50

L
aney didn’t think she could have been more surprised if her uncle had said Jackson County, Mississippi. “Gobekli Tepe?”

The archaeological site of Gobekli Tepe was where all of this had begun. Her friend Drew had sent her a paper about his work on Gobekli Tepe. It was that paper which had led to Azazyel tracking her down—and so had kicked off the series of events that had brought her to her current life.

But even with all the negative events surrounding her experience with Gobekli Tepe, she understood people’s fascination with the ancient site. There were so many aspects of Gobekli Tepe that simply boggled the mind. For instance, objects at the site had been carbon-dated to an astounding twelve thousand years BCE. And yet the artistry of those objects was simply unheard of for that time period.

Forty-five T-shaped obelisks had been unearthed at Gobekli Tepe, and it was believed that hundreds more were still waiting under the earth to see the light of day. The ones that had been uncovered depicted not only humans but ancient animals, many of which were not indigenous to the area. These pillars were arranged in concentric circles, like at Stonehenge, but the ones at Gobekli Tepe covered an astounding eighteen thousand square miles.

Some scholars even suggested that the location was a stone version of Noah’s ark. But Laney had never heard of it being linked to the Garden of Eden.

Patrick nodded. “Some have argued that the location is actually a temple to the Garden of Eden.”

“Why would they suggest that?”

“The images on the obelisks reveal the fall of man—from living in paradise to toiling in the soil. And they even go so far as to show the physical changes in man. We were depicted as more robust initially, and eventually we were skinnier, with less muscle.”

Laney knew that that was an accurate portrayal of how humans would have changed as they shifted from a more nomadic lifestyle to a more settled lifestyle. With civilization came the difficulties of providing enough protein to maintain muscle mass.

“I can’t be certain, but I believe the Garden of Eden was nearby,” Patrick said. “The Persian Gulf is simply the most reasonable location for it.”

Laney stood. “So you think Gobekli Tepe is close to the original garden of Eden?”

Patrick nodded. “Yes.”

“Good. I’m going to have Henry and Jake prep and head there.”

An electrical shock rolled through Laney and she gripped the island. Gritting her teeth, she looked over at the doorway.

“Unfortunately, it’s not going to be that easy,” Ralph said, entering.

Frustration washed over Laney. “Why not?”

“Because when humans were expelled from the Garden, the tree was moved.”

“The tree was moved? Are you kidding me?” Laney asked.

“I’m afraid not,” Ralph said. He nodded at Patrick. “And it’s time to go.”

Laney looked back at Patrick. “Is he right?”

Patrick shrugged. “The last mention of the Garden is after humans are expelled. An archangel is said to have been put in place to guard the entry to it.”

“That’s correct,” Ralph said. “But from time to time, humans have gotten close. So the Garden and its contents had to be moved.”

“Moved where?”

“Only two archangels have that information.”

“Which means your friend in Vegas,” Laney said.

“Yes. He is the only one who knows where it is.”

“Do you think he’ll tell us?” Laney asked.

Ralph looked at Patrick before his gaze met Laney’s. “No.”

CHAPTER 51

V
ictoria rubbed Max’s back as he slept next to her. He whimpered a little in his sleep, and the sounds tore at Victoria’s heart.

The landing gear was deployed and the jet gave a shudder. Max’s eyes sprang wide open.

“Shh, shh, it’s okay. We’re just landing, that’s all,” Victoria said.

Max scooted into a sitting position and tucked himself into Victoria’s side. “You stayed.”

She smiled. “I wouldn’t leave you behind.”

“I couldn’t see if you would or not.”

Victoria sighed, pulling him into her side. “It’s got to be difficult seeing what’s going to happen.”

Max shrugged but said nothing.

“Are you hungry?”

Max nodded.

Victoria pulled over the bag of chips she had been offered while Max slept. She’d known he’d need something, and this was apparently as good as it got right now. She opened the bag and Max dug in. Victoria opened a water for him and handed it over. He took a long swallow before handing it back to her.

“Better?” Victoria asked.

“Yes, thank you.” Max looked around. “Where is she?”

Victoria nodded toward the back of the plane. “Back there. She probably won’t be out until we land.” Victoria hesitated. “She wants you to tell her where the tree is.”

“We can’t go there yet. It’s not time.”

Victoria glanced around to make sure no one else could hear them. “Max, if you know where it is, you need to tell them. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“I know. But there’s somewhere we need to go first.”

“Where?”

He looked up at her with his little boy face, but his words were from a much older soul. “Back to where it all began.”

CHAPTER 52

L
aney stretched her back as she stood in the doorway of the Chandler jet at McCarran airport. She had slept a little on the plane. Vegas was three hours behind Baltimore, so it was actually early evening.

A town car pulled up only a little away from the stairs, and Ralph headed down toward it. To her right, Laney could see the Strip in the distance.
Back in Vegas.
Before this all began, she’d never been to Vegas. Now she’d been here more times than she liked to think about.

She peered in the distance to the north. The sister site to Gobekli Tepe was somewhere out there, in Montana.
Gobekli Tepe.
Everything began with Gobekli Tepe, and now it seemed as though she was coming full circle.

A chill ran through her.
Almost like everything’s ending
. She shoved the morbid thought aside. No. This was just one more situation they needed to overcome. That was all. But the sense of doom still lingered in the back of her mind, just as it had ever since her uncle had mentioned the ancient site.

Patrick stepped up beside her. They had decided it might be helpful to have Patrick nearby if they needed any more archaeological or religious help. He hugged her tight. “Be careful.”

“I will.” She headed down the stairs. She stopped at the bottom and looked back up. “If you see any trace of the Fallen…”

“I will make sure we take off as fast as humanly possible.”

Humanly possible
. She winced at his choice of words. She hoped humanly fast would be fast enough.

“Go, Laney. You can’t protect everyone at the same time. There are things you need to do.”

She nodded, knowing he was right and wishing he wasn’t. She slid into the back seat of the car next to Ralph and closed the door.

“So, where exactly are we going?”

“To the Illustra,” Ralph said, naming one of the newer hotels on the Strip.

“Your friend’s there?”

Ralph grimaced. “I wouldn’t exactly call him a ‘friend,’ but yes—he’s there.”

Laney watched as the Strip loomed closer. Even from here she could see the ads for a handful of shows. Entertainers’ pictures were plastered across buildings, ten stories high.

One of the posters was of David Copperfield; Laney remembered his TV specials she’d seen as a kid. In one he’d made the Statute of Liberty disappear. She looked up at his face. Either they had airbrushed the heck out of the poster, or the man hadn’t changed in years.

They took one of the roads that paralleled the Strip to avoid the bumper-to-bumper traffic. Laney looked out her window and shook her head.

“What is it?” Ralph asked. “You don’t approve?”

“No, it’s not that. It’s just, I’ve been here for almost every Fallen-related situation I’ve been involved in. I can’t figure out why.”

Ralph was quiet for a moment. “There are different places in the world that have an aura, a feeling to them that draws people in. Some are incredibly beautiful spots, like the Grand Canyon and the national parks near here. They draw people in just to be mesmerized and filled with peace. Others sites attract a baser nature.”

Laney thought about what they had learned about Mount Hermon a few months ago. Alleged to hide the gates to hell, it had attracted humans interested less in the wellbeing of their fellow man and more in the satisfaction of their own individual interests.

Laney surveyed the overly developed buildings that made up Las Vegas’s superhotels. The city itself had begun as a place where couples could get quickie divorces in the early 1900s. Casinos followed, and then Las Vegas was born.

Laney looked toward the west. Back in 1945, you would have even been able to have seen the test of the first atomic bomb.

Was Ralph right? Did this place draw evil in? Or was it simply a tourist destination where people could relax for a little while?

Of course, either way the hedonism would appeal to the Fallen.

A vision of Lou wafted through Laney’s brain. But what about the
good
Fallen? It wasn’t black and white. Just as with humans, there were bad Fallen and there were good Fallen, and everything in between.

“So what’s the plan when we hit the hotel?” Laney asked.

“I though we’d take in a show.”

Laney’s gaze flew to Ralph. “What?”

CHAPTER 53

T
hirty minutes later, Laney walked into the Illustra Theatre tugging at the skirt of her dress. Her go-bag did not include an outfit for a night on the town—it ran more to T-shirts, jeans, and Kevlar—so Ralph had picked her up a dress while she’d found shoes at the mall attached to the Illustra.

“I can’t believe I let you talk me into wearing this,” she grumbled.

“Sorry, that’s all they had in your size.”

Yeah, not sure this is my size
, Laney thought. The dress probably should have been put in the toddler section. She sighed.
Well, too late now
.

Laney took her seat in the balcony next to Ralph. The theatre was packed. Laney wasn’t sure how Ralph had managed to get them tickets.

The stage was lit with two bright spotlights, which focused on the enormous, fifty-foot-tall pictures of the show’s star—Drake Diablo—that flanked the sides of the stage. His legs were encased in tight-fitting leather pants. His black shirt had only one button buttoned, showing off a muscular chest and six-pack abs. Laney had heard of him, but had never been all that interested in seeing his show. He was a little too showy and impressed with himself for her taste.

He’d been Vegas’s entertainer of the year for the last fifteen years. And somehow, like almost every other Vegas entertainer, he had not aged a bit. Laney squinted. He must be at least nearing fifty, but he looked like he was in his late twenties—early thirties at the most.

The lights dimmed, and Laney glanced over at Ralph. He sat with his arms crossed, a frown on his face. Ralph had chosen the show, but he really didn’t look like a fan. She’d tried to pressure him into going directly to see the archangel, but Ralph had explained that the archangel wouldn’t be available until later.

Trying to tamp down the urgency that was welling up inside of her, Laney counted to ten. Sitting here was a waste of time. Of course, not doing anything until they met the archangel would probably drive her even more nuts.

The lights dimmed and went black. Music with a heavy bass began to play, drowning out any chance for conversation.               Shaking her head at the missed opportunity, Laney turned her attention to the stage as Drake stepped out. He was as good-looking as his posters; light brown hair framed a well-tanned, perfectly symmetrical face with piercing blue eyes. With a sigh, Laney did her best to enjoy the show.

Over an hour later, Laney was leaning forward, holding her breath. The show had been incredible. Even with all the loud music and flash, it was hard not to be enthralled.

Laney glanced over at Ralph.

He sat with his arms crossed, a frown on his face. “Time for the big finale.”

“You’ve seen this before?”

Ralph nodded, and Laney stared at him in shock. Ralph had taken in a Vegas show before? When?

Drake’s assistants pushed a giant tank of water onto the stage. Drake smiled as he climbed the ladder next to it, wrapped in chains. With a grin at the audience, he jumped into the tank. The chains dragged him to the bottom. He turned from side to side, trying to undo them.

The giant clock next to the tank counted down.

Laney watched as Drake struggled in the tank. The assistants began to look nervous. Laney leaned forward with a frown. Was this part of the show?

A glance at the clock showed that a minute had passed.

In the tank, Drake went still—his eyes wide. One of the assistants screamed. People in the audience stood up.

“Get him out!” someone shouted.

A man from the wings ran out with a sledgehammer. He took a swing, but the glass didn’t break. Another two swings and the glass began to fracture.

Laney looked back and forth between the clock and Drake’s body, which floated, unmoving. Her hand covered her mouth. “Oh my God.”

Paramedics rushed the stage as the stagehand swung again. At last the glass broke, and water gushed out, along with Drake’s body.

The audience collectively gasped. A few people screamed.

The paramedics rolled the body onto its back and pushed against his stomach.

And then the body disappeared.

Everyone in the room went still.

Laney looked over at Ralph, who looked completely unimpressed.

“Looking for me?” a voice called out.

Sitting on a swing suspended thirty feet from the stage, Drake grinned down at the audience.

The crowd erupted in cheers.

“Holy cow.” Laney felt a little faint. “How did he do that?”

Drake stood on the swing and performed a deep bow before diving from the swing, tucking and rolling as he hit the stage. He leapt to his feet, his arms outstretched. Applause thundered back at him.

Ralph grunted. Laney looked at him in disbelief. “How could you not like that?”

“Laney, put on your ring.”

She looked at him curiously, then removed the chain from around her neck. As she slid the ring on her finger, she tensed in anticipation of the jolt from Ralph’s presence.

The jolt ripped through her, but she was all right with that. She had prepared for it. It was the
second
jolt she hadn’t been prepared for.

She gasped, staring at Ralph. “
He’s
the archangel?”