Devin reached across the table and put his hand over mine. “When I met you, everything changed. I hadn’t seen the light in a long time. Like I said, I thought I was damned to eternal darkness. But when I met you, I started to see the light again. And I realized maybe I’m not damned after all.”
“That still doesn’t explain why you think I’m in danger, Devin.”
“I wasn’t finished,” he frowned. He turned my hand over and began lightly tracing the scar on my finger with his fingertips. “Nicole, you’re special. When I look into your eyes I see my salvation.”
I rolled my eyes and he laughed.
“Where did you get this?” he asked as he motioned to the scar.
“I have no idea,” I answered. “I think I was born with it. Besides, what the hell does my scar have to do with anything?”
I pulled my hand toward me to take a closer look at the scar on my finger. In reality it wasn’t a scar at all. It was something I was born with. It was shaped like the letter Y and it was white and sort of raised from the skin. I had asked my mother about it when I was young, but she had no explanation.
“Actually it has a lot to do with everything.” He looked directly into my eyes and smiled as he spoke just above a whisper. “Nicole, you’re an angel.”
“Oh please,” I said as I started to get up.
Devin grabbed my arm and held me there. “I’m serious. You’re an angel. That’s what the mark on your finger symbolizes.”
I pulled my hand away from him and studied my scar again. Then I remembered how it had appeared to be glowing the night of the storm with all the butterflies and the golden arc and the cross-shaped flames. Then another memory came back to me.
My mother liked to read a lot and she was fascinated with angels. Once, when I was like sixteen, she came running to me with a book in her hand. Unable to contain her excitement, she sat me down and showed me the book she was reading. It was about angels. And in the back of the book it had different symbols that were symbolic of different angels. Her excitement bubbled over when she pointed to one of the symbols, which exactly matched the mark on my finger. ‘So what does that mean?’ I had asked. She went on to tell me that I must be some sort of Earth angel. It was a cool thought and all, but I didn’t believe it could be true at the time. I still didn’t believe it. As I absentmindedly traced the mark on my finger, Devin’s voice brought me out of my private thoughts.
“Damien knows what you are and they want you.”
“They want me?” I asked sarcastically. “And who are ‘they’?”
“Kya, Damien, and the whole dark army.”
“Why do they want me?”
“Kya and Damien want you to become what we are. They see it as the ultimate slap in the face to God – to steal one of heaven’s own. I was given until tonight to either kill you or change you into one of us or Damien said he would go and get you himself.”
“Because I’m an angel? And that’s why you had to bring me here?”
“Yes,” Devin whispered.
“Right,” I said as I kept my eyes on him and slowly stood up. “They have doctors for people like you.” I started walking toward the door.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Devin asked.
“If you think I’m buying into this load of crap… well then you are crazier than I thought. I’m out of here!”
Suddenly Devin was standing in front of the door blocking my exit. I ignored the fact that he seemed to have flown there. “Move,” I said as I held the gun on him.
He smacked the gun out of my hand and we both dove to retrieve it. Devin reached it before I did. Both of us still on the floor, I jumped on his back and grabbed a hold of his hair and pulled as hard as I could. He spun his body around, pinning me down in the process. “Are you done?” he asked.
“Fuck you! Get off of me!” I yelled.
He grinned and suddenly his lips were on mine. I pushed against his chest and brought my knee up and into his middle. He pulled back and jumped to his feet, bringing me along with him. He tore strips of fabric from the couch, pinned me against the wall, and tied my hands behind my back. “So this is how it’s gonna be?”
I ignored him.
He spun me around to face him, then grabbed hold of my arm and forced me outside with him. “If I was human, could I do this?” he asked as he pushed an old tree down to the ground, snapping it in the process.
“Oh please, that tree is dead. Anyone could probably do that.”
“Okay, pick a tree.”
I looked around and found the biggest, fattest tree I could see. “That one,” I said as I pointed to it with my finger and grinned mockingly.
Devin grinned back confidently, walked over to it, and pushed it over like it was nothing. “Can anyone do that?” he asked sarcastically. My eyes widened and I stood there in stunned silence. He walked up to me and grabbed my arm again. “Need more convincing?” he asked menacingly as he swiftly walked me further into the woods.
Along the way, he stopped several times to crush big rocks with his bare hands. Then he took me to the edge of a large canyon. He turned to look at me, his eyes wild. Oh God, no! I thought as he threw me over his shoulders, held onto my back with one arm and jumped. It was a long way down and I screamed the whole way. We hit the ground softly. “Can a human do that?”
I looked up at him. “Okay, okay, I’m sorry I didn’t believe you. Now please stop all this. You’re scaring me.”
Devin put his hands on my arms and spun me around so that my back was to him. He undid the cloth ties around my wrists. Then he spun me back around. “Are you going to behave now?”
I nodded silently.
“Scared?” he murmured, his voice too knowing.
“I’m not scared!” But I was, and we both knew it. I was uncomfortable with this new knowledge and I couldn’t quite process everything I had just seen. Should I trust him? Should I not trust him? Should I try to run? What if there really was an ‘army’ after me?
As if reading my thoughts, Devin pulled me to his chest and held me. “Everything is gonna be okay. They won’t find us out here.” He pulled back, kissed my forehead, and threw me back on his back. “You might wanna close your eyes for this one,” he warned before he took off to scale the canyon wall. I did as he suggested and held on tight. I didn’t open my eyes, didn’t even take a breath, until my feet were planted firmly on the ground again. Devin grabbed my hand and walked me back to the cottage.
“So now what?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Devin replied as he shook his head and frowned. “I haven’t figured it out yet. But I think we’re safe for now.”
Devin brought me a sandwich he had bought at the market as I sat on the sofa and turned on the TV. He had to move around the little rabbit ears atop the set, but finally we were able to get a local channel to come in, although it was fuzzy at best. I ate the sandwich, yawned, stretched, and leaned my head against his shoulder.
“We should probably try to get some sleep,” Devin suggested as he rose from the sofa and grabbed my hand. “We’ll need energy for whatever lies ahead.”
I followed him into the bedroom and we laid down together and cuddled. “Devin,” I whispered.
“Yeah?”
“I want to call my mom and let her know that I’m okay.”
“It’s not safe to call her. I’m sorry.”
“But it would just be for a second. Can’t I just borrow your cell phone for a minute?”
“I dumped my cell phone in the river before I picked you up tonight.”
“Why’d you do that?”
“So we’re not tracked.”
Tracked? Oh my God! Was it possible that the “dark army” would track us down here?
I closed my eyes and nestled my head against Devin’s chest. When I finally fell asleep, I was overcome with a series of frightening nightmares.
/> Chapter 15
Tommy awoke to someone shaking him. “Tommy! Tommy, wake up!” It was his mother’s voice. He opened his eyes and turned to meet her gaze. “Tommy, Nicole hasn’t made it home yet.”
“What time is it?” Tommy asked as he rubbed his eyes.
“It’s almost 4am.”
Tommy jumped out of bed. “Nicole’s not home yet? Are you kidding me?” He struggled to be heard over the sound of Nevaeh howling. “What’s with the dog?”
“She’s been doing that all night,” she replied as she wiped at her eyes. “I’ve got a really bad feeling.”
He looked at his mother again. Her face was filled with panic and she was holding Kelly, whom was crying into her shoulder. “Did you try calling her cell phone?”
“It’s lying on her nightstand. I saw it when I went into her room to look for her. She must’ve forgotten to take it with her when she went to work.”
“Well, did you call the sheriff’s office?”
“I was about to, but Kelly won’t let me put her down.”
Tommy put his hand out to stroke Kelly’s hair. “I’ll call.”
My mother followed Tommy downstairs and listened in as he called the county sheriff’s office.
“What do you mean you can’t do anything? Yeah, well thanks for nothing you worthless piece of shit!” Tommy yelled as he slammed down the phone. He turned to face his mother. “They said they can’t do anything until she has been missing for 48 hours because she’s over eighteen.” Tommy paced the kitchen floor. “This is bullshit! I’m gonna go look for her.” He ran upstairs, got dressed, grabbed his keys, and was out the door.
Tommy decided to take the same route he knew I always took to work. Dawn was just breaking when he found my car in the ditch. He pulled his car over to the side of the road and ran across to where my car was. “Nicole!” he screamed as he approached the car, only to find it empty and the window smashed out of it. He looked around the field, but I was nowhere in sight.
Tommy ran back to his own car and grabbed his cell phone off the seat. He dialed the sheriff’s number for the second time. “Yeah, I need to report a missing person and I think I just found the crime scene.” He gave his name and location and was told that an officer would meet him there. He hung up and quickly called his mother. “Mom, I found Nicole’s car.”
“Where the fuck is he?” Kya demanded as she glared at Damien.
Damien had been growing more nervous by the minute. Now the sun was up and it was unlikely that Devin would be returning with the girl. “I don’t know,” Damien muttered.
“I should’ve known I couldn’t trust you with this.”
“Kya, I’m sorry… I thought he would come back with her. I didn’t think…”
“That’s right – you didn’t think at all,” Kya interrupted as she walked up to Damien and punched him square in the jaw. He stumbled backward and caught his balance.
“I’ll bring you the girl myself,” Damien offered as he rubbed his jaw.
“And how are you going to do that? For all we know, they’re out of the country by now.”
Damien was silent for a few moments as he thought it over. Then a huge grin spread across his face. “I’ve got a plan. I think I know how we can draw her out and make her come to us.”
“There’s more,” Kya went on as she stared at Damien. “There are other Arc’s among us. I can sense them.”
“So what does that mean?” Damien asked.
“It means we’re gonna need a bigger army.”
“I’ll take the ones we have left and get started right away.”
“Don’t disappoint me again,” Kya warned before she turned and started to walk away, only to turn back around. “Oh, and bring plenty back for us to drink. We’ll need our strength.”
Michael entered the large farmhouse to find Raphael and Melanie eagerly waiting on the sofa. “Well?” Raphael asked.
Michael kept walking. “She’s gone,” he yelled back over his shoulder.
“Oh my God,” Melanie muttered as she put her head in her hands.
Raphael rose from the sofa and went after Michael. “What do you mean gone? Gone as in missing? Gone as in dead?”
Michael turned around to face him and frowned. “Gone as in she didn’t make it home last night. I stuck around near her house as I usually do, but she didn’t come back. Just passed her brother on my way back here. He was standing in the field looking at her car.”
“So what’s that mean? Where is she?”
Michael ran his hand over the back of his neck and looked up at Raphael. “I don’t know.” Then he brushed past him, back outside.
Raphael followed him. “What do you mean you don’t know?”
Michael kept walking toward the back of the house. “Michael? What do you mean you don’t know? Have you forgotten your mission?”
Michael turned around, walked directly up to Raphael and grabbed him by the collar, pulling him close. “No, I haven’t forgotten my mission. This wasn’t supposed to happen.” He released Raphael’s shirt collar and smoothed a hand over it. “She’s getting too far away. I can hardly sense her presence anymore. We need to do something.”
Michael turned and walked to the cellar. Raphael followed him as he descended the stairs and entered the small armory below.
It seemed like an eternity while Tommy paced back and forth waiting for the cavalry to arrive. Adrenaline coursed through his body and he felt as if he would vomit. The recent news stories kept replaying in his head and he felt uneasy. Memories of our childhood soon entered his mind. He saw me as a little girl again. I was tiptoeing into his room in my long white nightgown and then I was hiding under the blanket fort with him, twisting my hands in front of me, my long blond hair cascading down my back.
Tommy wiped at the corners of his eyes. Then he dropped to his knees and tipped his head back to look up at the sky. God, please don’t let her be dead. Then his sorrow quickly turned to rage. If anyone has hurt her, so help me God, I will hunt them down like a dog and kill them.
Finally two squad cars pulled up and parked in front of Tommy’s car. One of the officer’s talked with him briefly as three other officers investigated the scene. A third car, this one unmarked, pulled up. The man identified himself as Detective Ramos. He began taking pictures from various different angles then returned to speak with Tommy.
Tommy went through the timeline with him. He let him know the diner where I worked, what time I started, and what time I should’ve been home. He also let him know that I had left my cell phone behind.
“Well,” Detective Ramos said as he scratched his chin, “you’ve given us a starting point. If you think of anything else, please give me a call.” He handed Tommy a business card.
“So now what?” Tommy asked.
“Well, I think I’ve got everything I need here. Now, why don’t I follow you back to your house so I can interview the rest of your family members and possibly get a recent photo of your sister to keep for our files and for the media of course.”
“Of course,” Tommy agreed. “Well, lets go.”
Tommy entered the front door with the detective behind him. “Mom, this is Detective Ramos. He’s working on Nicole’s case.”
Detective Ramos offered his hand and my mother accepted it. “Yes, thank you. Please sit down. Can I offer you something to drink?”
“No, thank you, ma’am.”
My mother gave Detective Ramos a detailed account on what I did on a day-to-day basis, the friends I hung out with, and the places I went. She even took him to my room and gave him a recent photo of me. The detective thanked her and promised to have the story on the news as soon as possible.
An hour later, Detective Ramos called. “Mrs. Lambert, we’ve found something on the security tape from the parking lot at the diner where your daughter works. Is it possible for you to meet me at the station as soon
as possible to view the tape?”
“Yes, of course. I’ll be right there,” my mother agreed. She hung up the phone and hurriedly gathered Tommy and Kelly to go with her to the police station.
Thirty minutes later my mother, Tommy, and Kelly arrived at the police station. A young female officer took Kelly to a small waiting area that had a few toys and coloring books, while Detective Ramos escorted my mother and Tommy to one of the interview rooms.
My mother and Tommy watched in horror the fight that took place between Devin and I in the parking lot. “Oh my God,” my mother whimpered. At the end of the tape, Detective Ramos stood up and hit pause on the VCR, leaving Devin’s image on the screen. “Do you know who this man is?”
My mother shook her head no.
“That’s Devin,” Tommy answered. “I knew there was something creepy about him,” he muttered as he shook his head.
“Who is this Devin character?”
“Just some guy my sister has been hanging around with. I only met him once. She brought him to the house about a week or so ago and her dog had tried to attack him and he left.”
“Where does he live?”
Tommy shrugged his shoulders.
“That’s okay. What’s his last name?”
Again Tommy shrugged his shoulders. “I’m sorry, I don’t really know anything about him.”
The detective frowned in disappointment and turned to my mother. “Mrs. Lambert, this video along with your daughter’s picture will be played on the news shortly. I just wanted you to see it first before it was released to the media.”
My mother shook her head. “So you’ll find her?”
“We’ll do our best. The first 48 hours are usually the most critical in cases like these.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that if they don’t find her within 48 hours, she’s probably dead,” Tommy interrupted.
My mother began to cry.
Chapter 16
I awoke in the morning to the thin rays of a weak sun rapping at the windows, illuminating everything in misty shades of gray. I could smell the distinct aroma of bacon and eggs cooking and for a moment I forgot where I was. I wiped the sleep from my eyes and stretched. Then I looked around the unfamiliar room and I remembered. I remembered all the hideousness that had become my life.