The Rise of the Fallen (The Angelic Wars Book 2) (2 page)

There had been several portraits of the judge's
ancestors hanging in the main room. Chris remembered seeing them the
first time he had entered the Nest. All of them were now strewn
around the room; torn apart or burnt. But one was still hanging,
lopsided and precariously on one nail, near the hallway they were
walking toward.

Across the face and chest of the man in the
portrait, who looked so much like Judge Hawkes, were four diagonal
slashes that disfigured the man's features and made him appear to
have been savaged by some sort of beast.

“Oh my God,” Natalie murmured in
shock. “What did that?”

The judge approached the painting and reached out
to touch the tears with his fingertips. Chris noticed that his hand
trembled slightly.

“I have no idea,” he whispered. “It's
the mark of a monster.”

He turned away abruptly and made his way to the
entrance to the hall. Here, the wreckage was scarce and walking
became easier. Chris reluctantly tore his eyes from those slash marks
and followed the judge and Natalie. But he shivered as he glanced one
last time at the portrait. What the hell had attacked the Nest?

A short walk down the hall and the trio found
themselves in front of an arch with stairs leading downward.

“The vault is this way,” Judge Hawkes
said and led them down the steps.

There were no signs of fire or damage on the way
down, but there was a smell, different than the smell from the fire,
that began to clog Chris' nostrils. What was it, he wondered. It was
sickly sweet, but nauseating at the same time. And it was vaguely
familiar. A twinge of fear was set off deep in his subconscious, but
Chris had no idea why. Danger. That was all he could think of.

At the bottom of the stairs another hallway, this
one quite wide with cement walls and floor both painted light blue,
led straight to a massive steel door that hung half-open from heavy
hinges. It was reminiscent of a bank vault except that it was square
instead of round and there was no large wheel set in the middle to
open it with.

“The vault,” Judge Hawkes said,
stating the obvious. “Our last refuge, in case the Nest was
ever breached.” He sighed loudly. “Much good did it do
anyone.”

They approached the gun-metal gray door and the
judge stopped and pointed silently. On the outside of the door, more
slashes had cut through the thick metal as if it had been made of
paper. The heavy handle had been ripped right off and the edges were
actually bent where some powerful force had pried the door open.

Natalie's gasp mirrored Chris' reaction. They both
stared wide-eyed at the damage and Chris, at least, couldn't believe
that any force other than explosives could have gotten through the
vault door.

“What could do...that?” Natalie asked
the judge as she pointed at the claw marks, because that was what
they had to be.

“Nothing that I know of,” the man
replied. “Nothing human could have made it through a foot of
high-tensile steel. And until now, I would have said that nothing
hell-bound could have either.”

He patted the door and looked back at Chris and
Natalie.

“Powerful relics were embedded in the metal
when it was forged. None of the Fallen could have touched it without
great agony.” He hesitated. “I think we have a new enemy
to deal with.”

“
A new enemy? What
do you mean, sir?” Natalie asked in obvious confusion. She
wasn't alone. Chris couldn't understand what the judge meant. They
were fighting fallen angels, weren't they? How could anything be new
about that? Or tougher?

Judge Hawkes noted their
expressions and explained.

“
I don't mean new in
the sense that we aren't dealing with the Fallen. Of course we are.
But who among them could do this,” he nodded at the mangled
door, “is a mystery. The sheer physical strength it took to get
this door open is chilling.”

He waited a moment and
then stepped through the door into the chamber beyond, with Chris and
Natalie on his heels.

“
Oh dear,” he
said with a catch in his throat.

Natalie stared for a long
moment and then turned away, putting a hand over her mouth. Her eyes
filled with tears. Chris patted her on the shoulder in sympathy. He
was trying hard not to break down as well.

The large area inside the
vault had been emptied of whatever remains had been found by the
authorities, but Chris wasn't surprised that they had had to use
dental records to find out who had been trapped in there.

The place had been gutted
by fire. There might have been furniture in the vault before the
attack; supplies, other things kept there for security's sake. But
there was no evidence of it now.

The walls and ceiling, all
made of metal, were black with the residue of intense flames. The
cement floor had actually been cracked in several places by the fire.
Footprints made by the firefighters, Chris assumed, ran all over the
ground, but there was literally nothing remaining except mounds of
ashes and a few pieces of melted slag. He could only imagine the hell
that this room must have become when whoever had been attacking had
gotten through the door.

“
Martin,” was
all that the judge said with despair. He stood silently for a long
moment and then turned on his heels and left the room quickly.
Natalie and Chris hurried to catch up with him.

The three of them walked
silently back to the stairs, each lost in their own thoughts. Once
they were standing at the bottom step, Chris looked at Judge Hawkes
and asked the obvious question.

“
What now, sir?”

The judge shook his head
silently, apparently lost in thought. Then he slowly collected
himself and looked at Chris.

“
We have to regroup,
Christopher. We can't stay here, obviously. We have to retreat,
rethink our strategy. But in some place safe from the Fallen.”
He straightened his shoulders and a look of determination chased the
dazed expression from his face.

“
Is there such a
place, sir? I thought the Nest was your main headquarters.”

“
Our main one, yes.
But we have other strongholds in the world. I just have to decide
which one is the most secure at the moment.” His voice became
steely. “The Nest will be rebuilt, stronger than ever. We'll be
back and then...”

Natalie had been standing
silently while the judge and Chris were speaking. Chris thought that
she was still in shock. Her eyes were wide and unseeing and he
wondered if she was remembering the others who had been lost.
Murdered, he corrected himself. But suddenly, Natalie cut the judge
off in mid-sentence.

“
We have to go,
judge,” she said, her voice edged with urgency. “We have
to go right now!”

He looked at her in
surprise. “We are leaving, Natalie. But we need to have a plan.
I have to determine which location is...”

“
No, you don't
understand. Something is coming for us. It's on its way now.”

She sounded panicked, a
tone of voice that Chris hadn't heard from her before. Natalie
panicked? What the hell was coming?

She actually grabbed the
judge's arm and was pulling him up the stairs. Judge Hawkes pulled
his arm away gently and took her shoulders in a firm grip.

“
Is it Gloriel? Is
she speaking to you?”

Natalie shook her head.
“Not speaking to me; screaming at me! Get out, get away. She's
terrified for us. Whatever is coming is beyond anything she's ever
felt before.”

After a long searching
stare, the judge nodded abruptly.

“
I would be a fool
to ignore the word of an angel.” He looked at Chris. “Let's
move, We have to get away from here before whatever did that,”
and he nodded at the vault, “comes back to finish the job.”

“
Yes sir,”
Chris replied. He followed the man and Natalie as they almost ran up
the stairs and back on to the main level.

The three of them dodged
around debris as they raced toward the main entrance. No one spoke;
they saved their breath for running.

As they burst through the
front door, the group of staff members who had been standing together
and talking turned to look at the judge in surprise.

“
Everyone, back in
the cars. Right now!” Judge Hawkes called urgently.

Confused or not, the staff
was disciplined. No one questioned him. Everyone just turned and ran
for the vehicles parked out in the middle of the lawn.

They piled into the cars
and the driver of the vehicle that the judge, Natalie and Chris had
jumped into turned and breathlessly asked where they were going.

“
The airport. Move
smartly, now. I'll tell the others.” And the judge pulled out
his phone and called the other two vehicles, telling them their
destination.

“
Follow us closely,”
he said to them. “We won't speed and attract attention, but we
aren't going to dawdle either.”

Natalie and Chris watched
the man make the calls, both of them trying to catch their breath.
While the judge called the airport, Chris leaned over and spoke to
Natalie quietly.

“
Are you okay?”
he asked her, concerned. Her face was the color of milk and her
expression was frighteningly blank.

She didn't answer for a
long moment, and then her eyes slowly tracked back to Chris' face and
she took a shuddering breath. She shook her head.

“
No, I don't think
so.” She sat back slowly in her seat and closed her eyes,
pressing her fingertips against her eyelids. “I have never
heard Gloriel afraid before. I mean, I've been scared many times, but
an angel? They aren't supposed to be afraid, you know?”

Chris nodded even though
she still had her eyes closed. “Yeah. I'm still new at this
angel stuff, but I can't imagine Sariel afraid of, well, anything
really.”

“
Exactly.” She
opened her eyes and looked at Chris curiously. “Speaking of
which, any word from on high?”

“
On high? Oh, you
mean Sariel? Nope. Nothing. He's in Purgatory dealing with Lilith, I
guess. As for when he's coming back? That's anyone's guess.”

“
Damn it,” she
whispered with a quick glance toward the front seat where the judge
was still on the phone. “We could use him now. Maybe he could
tell us what attacked the Nest. Or at least what's coming for us.”
She sighed and closed her eyes again. “Maybe we got out in
time. These Fallen aren't all powerful. I doubt that, whatever it is,
can track us. It will depend on its human agents to do that.”

Chris thought about that
for a moment as he watched the trees fly by the car window. They
hadn't reached the highway yet and were moving dangerously fast on
the gravel road that cut through the forest. Both he and Natalie
bounced and slid on their seats a bit. He looked at her as she sat
quietly.

“
So what if Talon is
at the airport when we get there? They'll report us and where we're
going, won't they?”

Before she could answer,
Judge Hawkes spoke up.

“
I'm sure that they
will be there. They always have someone at the airport to note the
comings and goings of others, not just our people. But they won't be
able to report on our destination,” he added with satisfaction.

“
Why not?”
Chris asked. He assumed that anyone could follow them to their
departure gate and see where they were going.

“
I've chartered a
plane. We can't waste time waiting for an available scheduled flight,
so we'll be able to leave as soon as we arrive at the airport.”

If Chris had ever doubted
the wealth of the judge and his organization, this statement cleared
up those doubts.

“
Excellent idea,
sir,” he said with pleasure.

“
Thank you,”
the judge replied dryly. “Are you going to be all right?”
he asked Natalie with a look of concern.

She took a moment to
answer. Finally though, she rubbed her temples and nodded once.

“
I'll live,”
she said and then chuckled grimly. “At least until we're
caught. Thanks for listening to me back there, your honor.”

Judge Hawkes waved away
her thanks. “What would be the point of saving angelic souls if
I wasn't willing to trust their judgment? That would be foolish. I've
been called many things,” his lips twitched in an almost smile,
“many of which I cannot repeat, but foolish isn't usually one
of them.”

He looked at Chris. “When
you feel Sariel's presence again, let me know, would you? I think we
need his input as soon as it's available.”

“
You bet, judge. I'd
like to know what's happening as well. I'm sure he knows more about
this than we do.”

Chris was interrupted by
the chime from the judge's phone. The man smiled apologetically and
fished the cell from his pocket. Chris went back to watching the
trees go by, while Natalie closed her eyes again.

“
Judge Hawkes here,”
the judge said into his phone. There was a long moment of silence and
Chris glanced idly at the man in curiosity. What he saw made him sit
up and tap Natalie's knee.

The judge was listening to
the phone in obvious disbelief. Then his face split into a grin and
Natalie and Chris exchanged a surprised look.