The Fallen (Angelic Redemption) (29 page)

“Poor Roman. I almost wished he’d die too, so I
wouldn’t feel so guilty for doing this to him again.”

“Glass half full, remember?” Sophie said with a
tight smile.

Lila forced herself to sit up. “You need to rush
those monsters and get a weapon.”

Nodding, Sophie stood. “It’s just crazy enough to
work.”

“No, it’s suicide,” Joaquin said, grabbing for
her arm.

“So is sitting here waiting for them to pick us
off. I’m going for it.”

When Joaquin pulled her to him, she looked ready
to put up a fight. Instead, she held still while he kissed her.

“You said it was good luck,” he whispered. “It
was until you died.”

“Good to know,” Sophie said, caressing his cheek.

“Tootsie Pop, Sophie. Nothing but hard shell.”

Sophie smiled confidently, glancing up as if to
get one last reassurance from God before taking the leap of faith. “I’ll be
right back.”

Joaquin could only watch her move towards the
doorway with the knowledge that God had brought her back to him once. Easing
down to the floor across from Lila, Joaquin ached at the image of Maximo alone.

Sophie bolted into the doorway, found her target,
and barreled towards it. A gust of wind burst through the windows, shattering
them. Sophie stood stunned only a foot from the also bewildered villains.

A second gust erupted from somewhere inside the
room, blowing Sophie’s hair into her eyes. The ground shook furiously under her
feet and a few of the villains took off running. The one closest to Sophie
shrugged.

“How about we call it even?” it asked.

Frowning at the absurdity of the offer, Sophie
rushed the villain. The other villains turned towards the struggle and aimed
their weapons, willing to kill one of their own to terminate a hunter.

Before their weapons fired, a villain cried out as
its head separated from its body. The other villains faced the roar of wind and
their fallen comrade. Another villain screamed, grasping at its throat while an
unseen force tore through its flesh. Nearby, two more villains split apart from
the invisible adversary. When a third ran for the door, a sword appeared from
thin air and lopped off its head.

Peeking out from the doorway, Joaquin and Lila watched
the chaos. Sophie continued struggling with the villain, firing its weapon
without managing a kill shot. Pushing each other away, Sophie jumped for a
sword while the villain crawled towards the exit. Other villains also headed
for safety, only to be torn in half.

Glancing at Lila, Joaquin whispered, “What is out
there?”

“I’m hoping it’s my husband Roman,” Lila said,
her eyes bright with excitement and maybe fear. “If not, we might have a
problem.”

The hidden force picked up the crawling villain
and dropped it in front of Sophie who killed it. Standing calmly as the winds
died down and the roaring lessoned, Sophie held the blade to her side
passively. The air grew still and the room silent as Roman’s presence came into
focus.

“Thank goodness, it’s you,” Sophie said with a
casual smile. “I about peed myself for a minute. Lila’s in there.”

Roman nodded with a gloomy frown. “We need to
leave. Take your husband to his car and find your boy.”

Sophie moved into the doorway where Lila and
Joaquin both tried to get to their feet. Taking him under the arm, Sophie
helped Joaquin steady himself.

“We need to get to Maximo.”

Roman nodded at Joaquin then moved towards Lila.
Joaquin watched the man pick up his wife who sighed with irritation at being
babied, even if walking was out of the question.

“Are we being hunted?” Joaquin asked Roman.

“It’s more complicated than that.” Glancing down
at Lila with a look of sorrow and guilt Joaquin was familiar with, Roman added,
“Sophie, get things in order then meet us at the rendezvous site tomorrow.”

Studying this big dog, Joaquin felt something
more than guilt and sorrow radiating from Roman. A sense of doom maybe?
Unsettled by Roman’s demeanor, Joaquin followed the group outside into the now
quiet day. Wanting to believe she was his wife, Joaquin glanced at Sophie. Yet
her expression was unlike anything he had witnessed on Heidi. The coldness in
her eyes bothered Joaquin, giving him more reason to doubt her identity.

Roman called to Sophie over his shoulder. “The
villains took out the brothers’ SUV. We only have the one vehicle, so you’ll
need to take Joaquin’s car.”

“It’s not far,” Joaquin said as they moved
through the litter of headless corpses.

“Do you want me to get it and come back for you?”

“No, I’m fine.”

But Joaquin wasn’t fine and his wounds were the
least of it. He didn’t trust this woman, this situation, that Karen was indeed
dead. Too many thoughts rushed through his mind as he limped towards his car.
The woman who looked and sounded like Heidi, but called herself Sophie took his
keys and helped him inside. Driving to the hotel, Sophie touched his cheek at
every red light, her soft embrace deceiving his logic.

“You’re still bleeding a lot,” she said more than
once, each time her voice less confident. Forcing a smile, she said, “Tell me
about our son.”

Joaquin shivered, hating her interest, hating
that he would trust a stranger with Maximo. Hiding his suspicion, he answered
her question.

“The Lord shows Maximo things. About the past and
future, but not always,” Joaquin said, remembering the day they lost Heidi.
“His biological parents were murdered by villains. Heidi and I found him in Mexico three years ago.”

Sophie frowned, crinkling her freckled nose in
that familiar way Joaquin once loved.

“It’s weird. I remember being me three years ago,
but the memories are faded, devoid of feeling, just pictures in my head. I
guess that’s because they aren’t real. When I met you in Mexico, my memories weren’t real then either. I mean, I thought I was Heidi, but I wasn’t
her. I was someone else before.”

Sophie stopped at a light and again checked over
his wounds.

“I guess I’m the same person throughout all these
lifetimes. Do I seem the same?”

Joaquin nodded, still unsure if Sophie could
truly be the woman he buried deep in the Mexican desert. He hoped Maximo could
see the truth that hovered just out of Joaquin’s reach.

Studying him as they sat at the red light, Sophie
did share the gaze of his dead wife. The unflinching stare of someone who expected
more from him than he did from himself.

As they neared the hotel, Joaquin finally spoke
his mind.

“I do not understand how you can be alive?”

“I know it must seem weird.”

“I buried her. I know she died.”

Sophie shrugged. “The first time I died, nothing
was left to bury. I don’t think it really matters though. God doesn’t bring us
back as much as recreate us in a new life.”

“Why?”

“Why do we come back?”

“No, why does He put you in a new life without
any memory of your old one?”

Sophie shrugged again. “Maybe each time we get a
chance to walk away from our purpose and ignore why we exist?”

Joaquin nodded, finally embracing that this was a
demon’s trick. Sophie’s wounds had also healed surprisingly quickly. Besides
the dry blood, she looked healthy and powerful. Joaquin braced himself for the
truth as they arrived at the hotel.

“Our room is upstairs,” he said, fumbling with
the door.

“Let me help you.”

Rushing around the side of the car, Sophie opened
his door and helped him stand. Pulling away from her, Joaquin leaned against
the car and steadied himself.

“Can you make it up the stairs?” she asked,
wiping sweat from his forehead. “Should I go up to him?”

“No, I can walk,” Joaquin said, even though his
legs barely held him upright. “He will not understand if you go alone.”

Sophie frowned, maybe sensing the lie. Standing
patiently next to him, she waited for his legs to cooperate or for him to admit
that they wouldn’t.

“Mama!” Maximo shouted from upstairs.

Sophie gazed upward, shielding her eyes from the
sun. Joaquin glanced up too, startled by the boy’s voice. His son waved wildly
down at them and ran for the stairway. When Sophie moved towards Maximo, Joaquin
took her by the arm.

“You should wait,” he said, still uncertain if
the boy’s reaction stemmed from this woman’s physical resemblance to his mother
or some otherworldly knowledge.

“You don’t believe I’m her, do you?”

Joaquin’s dark eyes scrutinized Sophie. “Like I
said, I buried Heidi. I know she died. You look like her, but how can that be?”

Frowning, Sophie pulled away. “It’s called
faith.”

Bounding towards them and embracing Sophie, the
boy ignored Joaquin’s signal to stay back.

“God gave you back,” he said, his face against
her. “I’m sorry I didn’t see. I should have seen, but I didn’t and you died.”

Sophie consoled Maximo, holding him and playing
with the curls in his hair. Joaquin still wished to separate them and keep this
imposter - for now he was certain she was one - from the innocent boy.

This woman could not be Heidi. His mind would not
allow him to embrace the fantasy. He remembered what she looked like when they
found her caught in the brush. He recalled the emptiness inside her body as he
carried Heidi to the place where he would bury her. Not as he dug her grave or
for the years that passed afterward, did he ever think to beg God to return
Heidi to him. His wife was gone and never coming back. He accepted this fact
the moment he found Maximo crying over his dead mother.

No matter what this woman looked like or sounded
like or pretended to be, she was not Heidi. Joaquin refused to be fooled.

“Do you speak Spanish?” he asked. When Sophie
shook her head, he touched Maximo’s shoulder and spoke in their native tongue.
“She is not real.”

“Yes, she is. She is Mama. She is Heidi. Can’t
you feel it? Can’t you see?”

“Heidi is dead. You know that, Maximo. Don’t be
fooled by the monster’s tricks.”

Maximo ignored Joaquin, a common trait of the
boy’s when told something unpleasant. Instead of rejecting her, Maximo pulled
Sophie closer, cuddling in her embrace. Frustrated, yet too weak to fight this
woman, Joaquin could only conjured up plans to rid them of this problem.

Sophie just stared at him with the look of
disappointment Joaquin knew well.

“Karen told us the Reaper went rogue because he
watched his family die and was angry at God for failing them. This explanation
made sense before I met you. Now, I see how you don’t think God failed me. You
believe it was you who failed. Maximo thinks it was him who failed. Maybe
somewhere deep inside, you have both thought it was me who failed.

“I don’t think anyone failed. Us meeting and
finding Maximo, Karen killing me, all those things had to happen, were always
going to happen in some form or another. I was never meant to be Heidi forever.
I am Sophie. It was my name before and my name now and it’s who I am. For that
brief time, I was Heidi and I found you and Maximo and we helped each other. It
was never meant to last. No one failed.”

“I sent you with Karen. I told you to go with
her,” Joaquin whispered, admitting his guilt.

“And if you hadn’t, I would have died some other
way. Deep inside you always knew I would die. You worry I’ll die again. That
you’ll fail again. Things are different this time though. I’m not lost. You’re
not lost. We have a path and God has brought us back together with a plan.
That’s how I knew Karen wouldn’t win today. We have a mission and God doesn’t
lose. Why can’t you accept that?”

Joaquin’s mind could accept it, but the guilt and
sorrow were a part of him now. He could no more let go of them than stop loving
the woman who gave him purpose. He knew she was standing two feet from him with
that look of disappointment. Joaquin knew she was Heidi, but he still couldn’t
embrace this new day. He couldn’t accept this new mission, knowing it would
lead them to the same fate as their last mission. Joaquin felt the same
weakness in Roman. No matter how hard they tried or how faithful they were,
their kind was doomed.

“Watching you die made me weak. I gave up hope
that day in the desert. For three years, I cared for Maximo, killed the
monsters, and hunted for Karen. It’s all I know how to do. I don’t think I’m up
for a new mission.”

Sophie gazed down at Maximo. “Are you hungry?”

Maximo nodded wildly.

“He’s always hungry,” Joaquin said, wishing he
could embrace Sophie as easily as Maximo did.

“Then we’ll go find food and bring it back to the
room,” she said, glancing at Joaquin. “You should rest. We’ll be back soon.”

“No,” Joaquin said, reaching for the boy.

“Ignore him,” she told Maximo who took her hand.
“He needs to rest and then things will be clearer.”