To Fall (The To Fall Trilogy Book 1) (2 page)

2

Xander

I should have gone with broken wings rather than go to the damn hospital today. For twenty years, I had avoided the girl. For twenty years, I had overheard my siblings’ mumblings that she was sick and escaped the house before they could suck me into protection detail. I’d made up hunting duties with Caleb, lied about humans I had promised to help, and found odd jobs around the house that needed fixing. The water heater wasn’t broken before I touched it. I wasn’t proud of it, but they believed my story of tripping over the toolbox and smashing the tank—just one of the many lies I had told.

Opening the front door, I stumbled back to see Hannah on the other side with hands on her hips. My stomach dropped. “I’m hunting today,” I explained and barreled forward.

Emerald eyes narrowed at me and her hand shot to my chest. “Alexander, you need to relieve Caleb.”

“I have a lead on a duke that’s running a meth ring downtown.” I didn’t, but who could say no to that?

“What’s the demon’s name,” Calista demanded in my ear and I jerked back.
Damn it.

My feet shifted. “It’s…uh…”

“She’s at Desert Springs Hospital,” Hannah stated, “third floor, suite twenty-two.”

One shoulder shrugged. “No, you girls are better at this kind of thing.”

Calista scoffed. “That’s because you’ve never done it before.”
And I’m not doing it today.

Darting to the side, I yanked my shirt off and unfurled my wings. An incredible force smashed into my back and my cheek hit the rocky driveway. Fingers sunk in around my wing bones. “I will snap them, wait for them to heal, and snap them again until you agree to go,” Hannah snarled.

Golden curls pooled in front of me. “You know she will. Just go,” Calista pleaded.

It wasn’t right that I had evaded my duties, but if they knew what visions tormented me, the thoughts that kept me awake at night, and the change I’d gone through… Twenty years wasn’t enough and they were forcing me to face it all over again. Face
her
again.

Hannah’s fingers cinched tighter. This would be the first of endless confrontations until I yielded. “Fine,” I growled.

Hannah warned me that Margaret would be there and I should disguise myself. If Margaret recognized me, she would freak out and rightfully so.

Arriving at suite twenty-two, I caught sight of my brother’s blond faux hawk in the corner. Caleb wore a janitor uniform, fixing a bed rail that probably didn’t need it. Sensing me, his smirk widened to annoying levels and I kept my focus on him instead of that hospital bed.

“Here.” He held up a cap and mask, nodding to the other side. “She’s been asleep for a while and Margaret just stepped into the bathroom. Her parents are in the waiting room, snoring and drooling on each other.”

I grabbed the cap and mask from him. “Thanks,” I grumbled.

Caleb’s eyes brightened like aquamarine stones. “I gotta know. Did Hannah kick your ass?”

“Shut up.”

Laughing, he left and I remained with my back to her. I heard the
whoosh
of the toilet and slapped the mask on first. As the door opened, the cap went on, and I adjusted the fake identity badge over my scrubs. Margaret yawned and rubbed her eyes before sitting back down beside Abigail’s bed.

Dr. Joseph Fredrickson entered the room and placed his laptop on the table. “Hey, Margaret. How is she doing?”

“She’s cranky. Fought me the entire ambulance ride, but the pneumonia silenced her.”

Joseph chuckled. Leaning over the bed, he shook Abigail’s shoulder and I still couldn’t bring myself to see her face. “You’re not here to sleep, lazybones, we have things to do.”

The worn white sheets rustled and Abigail rasped, “You think I want to be here?” Her voice caught my attention, and though she was hoarse from illness, underlying there was a sweetness to her tone that was pleasing.

My heart increased its pace and I lifted my gaze to see her. My breath stalled.

“Come on, Abby Gabby.” Joe motioned to her ears. “Take the plugs out.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Abigail tugged the earbuds out, frowning. “Instead of bugging me, why don’t you go get new glasses? You’ve had those things for too long. They make you look old.”

His thin fingers ruffled salt and pepper hairs. “Here’s a shocker, I am old.”

“You don’t have to look it. Gold-rimmed aviators were best left in the nineties.” She tapped his wedding ring. “Maybe it’s time I met Charlie.”

Joseph groaned. “It’s bad enough he’s always on my case, I wouldn’t stand a chance against both of you in the same room.” He crossed his arms in admonishment. “Speaking of, why does it take you so long to come to the hospital every time? Why did the paramedics have to haul you down here?”

“Prepare yourself, Doc. I’ve been seeing another hospital on the side, didn’t want to hurt your feelings.” Full lips quirked up, fighting a smile, and I found my lips mirroring hers.

Grinning, Joseph pulled a stethoscope from his front pocket. “All right, let’s get this over with. Evidently, I have an optometrist and a stylist to go see.”

A sound came from her that caused me to pause. She laughed. Not at all what I expected. Her laugh was more of a giggle from a child, an innocent and pure song. A laugh that I wouldn’t mind hearing again.

Margaret excused herself to the cafeteria. While Abigail shifted up in bed, Joseph acknowledged me with a nod. He continued his exam and I remained busy organizing drawers that were in perfect order.

We had known Dr. Fredrickson since he came to Phoenix for his internship in cardiology. Abigail needed a doctor and he could be trusted with our secret. If possible, Abigail’s story had touched him as much as it had us.

Joseph pulled down Abigail’s gown to examine her. I should have looked away. It was inappropriate for me to see her exposed like this, but I was curious. The first thing I saw was the top half of the pink scar running down the middle of her chest. Odd that it still appeared so fresh, even after all this time. Her skin was delicate, smooth with an olive tone, only blemished by her scar. As she breathed in one harsh breath after another for him, my eyes drifted up to the curvature of her neck, soft contours of her face, and over her petite frame lost to the hospital gown.

Deep coughing snapped me out of my stare and Abigail struggled to take a breath. Joseph slipped the oxygen mask back on her, patted her on the head, and gave her a smile.

Once he cleared the door, she yanked the mask off with a grimace, put her earbuds back in, and mouthed lyrics. I wondered what she was listening to, what had the power to bring her comfort, made her eyes close, and allow a peaceful veil to fall over her features.

Watching her sleep, the ache that had been growing since I agreed to come here had taken up my entire chest. Abigail Miller.
She looked just like Anne.
Abigail would never know her mother.
If only
…

My mind wandered back to that night. The first night we were too late.

Almost twenty-one years ago…

Flying over our jurisdiction in downtown Phoenix, Calista spotted a car in the middle of an abandoned lot. Everything was wrong about that black Mercedes. It was too nice for the area and the lights inside were on. When the car rocked on its wheels, the four of us pinned our wings back and sliced through the air. Nearing it, the familiar tingling crept into my spine and down my wing bones, knowing my siblings sensed it, too. A demon was inside, defiling the human it possessed.

Reaching the car first, the sight inside had blood roaring in my ears. I tore the door off and the metal slammed down behind me. Black eyes snapped up and squinted at my angelic light, gritting his teeth at the pain it caused him. Before the demon’s soul could disjoin from the human’s, my hand cinched around his neck and trapped him inside.

Yanking him out, his shirt was torn and his pants were undone, his lower half exposed. Dangling before me, he threw his head back, laughing, knowing I would not hurt the human he possessed. His eye line collided with mine and spit in my face.

Unflinching, I scowled at him, letting my wings unfurl, brightening my light to inflict more pain on his tainted soul. His laugh came louder and I clenched my free fist, reigning in my revulsion for him, for what he had become. I let the knowledge of his soul fill me; Cresil’s sins were vast and vile, a lord in Prince Astaroth’s realm. A rapist. A killer.

My siblings rushed past me to pull out the woman’s limp body from the backseat and knelt beside her to begin their healing.

“Go ahead,” Cresil hissed. “I’m done with her, rat. Why don’t you have a taste? You know you want to.”

My lips curled back over my teeth. “You foul demon!”

He whispered, “You’re a few minutes too late, by the way. She
was
a virgin. You may want to consider that while you’re healing her, rat. Put her back the way she was.” He cackled louder into the desolate night.

Caleb called, “Alexander, he will just taunt you!”

“Yeah, Alexander,” Cresil sneered, “you should listen to your fellow rat over there and get this over with.”

“With pleasure, filth.” His smile faltered at my promise.

With my next words, the light exploded out of me and the demon howled and writhed. “Demon Cresil, with the Light of God, I cast you back to Hell!” I sensed the demon’s soul had departed to Hell and laid the man on the ground.

Reaching into the cab, the woman’s clothes were in shreds, but the man’s folded jacket and tie sat on the console. My stomach churned for what he had done to her. I covered her bare body with the coat, seeing the blood between her legs and the clump of dark brown curls sticking to her temple.

Then, I detected it and my head spun to find the other human I sensed. We would need to find them, wipe their memory if they saw us, but the soul was close, very close. I would have seen it. It was only the woman and us.

Two human souls in one body.
That could not be.

Calista was the first one of us to gasp. “She is to have a child!”

“Impossible.” Caleb shook his head. “You heard Cresil. He said she was a virgin.”

Calista’s eyes became slits of sapphire. “I have not suddenly lost the ability to sense souls, Brother!”

Hannah’s hands went to the woman’s temples to read her mind and wrenched away. “She was. How can this be? The laws of Heaven forbid Lucifer or his demons to call a soul to Earth.”

“What do we do?” Calista asked.

“We finish healing her and take her home.” Caleb’s voice sounded distant and unsure. “We will guard her until we can consult the Archangels. For a child to be born from this was an act of God. There is no other explanation.”

I looked down at the man lying on the cracked asphalt. “And him?”

Hannah offered, “Wipe him and her. Let her remember…enough.”

The silence seemed eternal, waiting for another option, but we knew there was not one. For us to stay hidden, it had to be this way, as cruel as it was to allow the woman, Anne, to remember this night.

Lord Cresil was with her long enough to sense the child’s soul and he would know how important it was to God’s Design. He must kill Anne to return the soul to Heaven. A new course of events would be constructed for the soul to be sent to Earth again, which could take decades, if not centuries.

Had Cresil succeeded tonight, Hell would have revered him as the demon to claim victory over Heaven. Lucifer would have granted Cresil the title of prince and gifted him with greater dominion and subjects. But Cresil failed tonight, and he must keep this secret from Lucifer or he would meet his death rather than receive a crown.

Without question, Cresil would return to claim the child’s life.

We called upon the Second Choir, but the Archangels never answered us and the child’s purpose remained unknown. Without the guidance of Heaven, the four of us did what we believed He would ask of us and became Anne and her unborn baby’s Guardians.

Nine months into our self-imposed detail, Hannah sensed a cluster of demons a mile from Anne’s home. We split up and hunted them. I caught my first demon and realized it was a drone from Cresil’s province. It could not be a coincidence. Ice flowed through my veins at what this meant. Cresil would never trust a drone to do anything other than wreak havoc. Drones were new demons and careless; they made too many mistakes and defied their masters. They were a diversion. Cresil’s attack would be tonight.