Rise of the Fallen (10 page)

“It's Lilith,” I shouted through the rain.

Cael looked at me for a moment, transfixed by something, before pulling me back through the pouring rain until we reached the undercover area just metres from the oval stairs. The rain pelted down onto the tin roof in echoing metallic beats. For a moment I thought
it was hail, as the droplets seemed louder and heavier than usual. As we stared out at the storm, Cael wrapped his arms around me and pulled me in closer. I looked up at him and he stared down at me for a while before leaning down to kiss me gently on the lips. It only lasted a second before he pulled back, probably because he was sure I would reject him. He turned his head away and once again looked out at the storm, though his arms around me didn't falter for a second. I knew I didn't feel the same way, and I knew it was wrong to lead him on, but I felt safe in his arms. I leaned forward and rested my head on his shoulder, until a familiar voice interrupted us.

Cael pushed me behind him and glared at the tall figure standing before us. Dorian grinned at me. He shifted his long, dark hair out of his face with a smooth motion that I remembered so well. The one thing that amazed me was that he still managed a timeless grace, regardless of the current century, and regardless of the fact that he had changed human form. He wasn't the same Dorian that I knew years ago. He was slimmer too. It was almost as though he was frozen by time into the figure of a handsome yet powerful young man. Today, though, his eyes were the same steel-grey eyes that he's always had.

“What do you want?” Cael asked. I could feel his heart pounding.

“I just wanted to congratulate Emilie on her brilliant failure. After all, without you,” he said, gesturing to the growing storm around us, “all this would not have happened.” His voice was smooth and alluring, and he was mocking me in every way.

“Why are you really here, Dorian?” I was interested to know what he wanted.

He looked at me and laughed. “I am … representing Soul, in a way. He doesn't handle rejection well at all.” Dorian was visibly amused by the entire situation.

“So you're good friends with Soul then?”, Cael asked in a tense, hard voice.

“Indeed I am,” Dorian replied with a grin before tilting his head slightly to look at me. “You sure can pick them, Emilie dearest.”

I blushed and looked away. The storm was still raging around us with the occasional crash of thunder and the continuous sound of raindrops falling.

“You shouldn't be here, Dorian,” Cael said.

“Yet I am – and I doubt you could make me leave,” Dorian laughed humourlessly.

I walked around Cael and stood in front of Dorian. “So he's been talking about me then?” I enquired.

Behind me I heard Cael whisper for me to come back and let him handle this, but I chose to ignore that.

“Indeed he does, sweetheart. Is that a problem?” Dorian said in that silky smooth voice.

I shook my head. “No, but what exactly did he tell you?”

He smiled slightly. “You, my dear, have been around that commoner for far too long. Your grasp of the English language has diminished so much that it almost all sounds like slang. But you need not worry about what Soul says; at the moment he is just displeased about the way you are behaving.”

I took another step towards him and put my hands on my hips impatiently, causing Dorian to chuckle.

“Always impatient, my dear. All he says is that he regrets losing you. I cannot say that I blame him for that, after all, I regret that too.” I dropped my hands from my hips and frowned in confusion. “What's that supposed to mean, Dorian?”

“Oh, how I do love hearing you say my name, sweetheart,” Dorian smiled.

I rolled my eyes in disgust, or was it embarrassment? He grinned and gestured for me to approach, but with a brief look back at Cael, seeing the expression of pure anger on his face, I didn't move an inch.
Noticing my hesitation, Dorian came over and whispered in my ear.

“I didn't want to say this in front of Cael, but I am truly sorry that I succumbed to Lilith. I should never have let you go.” His voice was gruff and heavy and I almost would have believed him if I hadn't seen the attractive yet mocking grin on his face.

“You tried to kill me, Dorian. Did you honestly think I would believe you now? You're such a liar,” I laughed dryly.

Another loud crash of thunder, combined with a dozen flashes of lightning, made Dorian jump.

“Why so jumpy, Dorian?” Cael asked mockingly, as he pushed past me and stood before him. It would have looked more threatening if Cael wasn't at least a head shorter than Dorian. Dorian looked down at Cael as though he were insignificant.

“Lilith is angry. I can't say I blame her. She is concerned that Soul has ruined her plans. Everyone is scared – at least, everyone who is smart enough to be scared.”

Cael was silent and I looked from Cael to Dorian, “So you're just here to brag about your information?”

Dorian shook his head. “I am actually here to find something that Soul left. Lilith told me that Samael needs it, so I have to find it.”

“Why did you tell us?” Cael asked, clearly as confused as I was.

Dorian shrugged and started to leave.

“Not that this hasn't been fun, but I really must get a move on, I don't wish to fall out with Lilith. After all, I am one of her favourites.” He turned and disappeared down the path. Cael faced me with amusement in his eyes.

“Well that wasn't odd at all,” he said sarcastically.

I looked up at him in concern. “Why did he let us go so easily?”

CHAPTER 9

The storm raged on and I almost didn't hear the school bell ring. Hundreds of students rushed up the stairs, disappearing into various classrooms. I started to walk after them when Cael tapped my arm.

“Do you want to get out of here and meet Holly?” He added quickly, “We can stay here if you want.”

“I'd like to meet her,” I replied.

Cael held out his hand for me to hold. I took it instantly and we both ran back out into the rain and jumped into a large puddle. Without even a splash Cael and I were transported into a rather large and freezing cold swimming pool. I paddled for a moment, stunned by the cold. Cael was laughing as he lifted me to the side of the pool. When we stood up I realised that we were both completely dry. There were no visible signs that we had just been submerged in water, apart from my goose bumps. I looked around and saw a tall, unkempt twostorey house.

“Holly, it's just me.” Cael said pulling me towards the pool fence. He was staring up at one of the windows on the top storey, though the only movement I saw was some white lace curtains falling back into place. We walked along a pathway surrounded by overgrown grass and weeds. Cael nodded towards the stairs and
helped me over the last step. I heard a screen door slam shut but when I looked up I saw nothing. I turned to Cael, then I saw her. She barely reached his shoulder, standing next to him with her beautiful golden- brown hair and stunning green eyes.

“I'm Holly … I suppose you're Emilie?” The girl squeaked in a high-pitched voice. Quite frankly, she sounded like a chipmunk.

“Yeah, I am.”

Holly smiled politely and turned back to Cael. “Are we going yet?

Since your last visit I've started remembering more about my past life … I don't want to stay in this house anymore.”

Cael shook his head apologetically. “We can't go just yet, but it's good that you're remembering. What do you know now?”

“I remember how I died,” Holly said in a melancholy tone.

Cael raised an eyebrow. “And …?”

“I was chased by a wolf or something, then I tripped and fell into a bush and had an allergic reaction to the pollen.”

Cael burst out laughing. “Nature killed an elemental who controls nature? Nice.”

Holly glared at him and turned away.

I felt slightly left out of their conversation, but at the same time I was grateful because I now had the opportunity to laugh at everything that was said. Despite my amusement there was still something bothering me. It was a feeling, similar to déjà vu. Something was going to happen, and soon. I looked around the desolate yard for a moment while Cael continued teasing Holly.

The garden was overgrown, probably a result of Holly's maturing powers. This was her sanctuary, and she still wanted to leave. It would be wrong to move her to a totally different country, but it would be worse to leave her here. If we left her the demons would get to her within a month. They would raise her in the way they needed – they would train her to kill for them.

“Why don't you show Emilie what you can do, Holly?” Cael said, suddenly smiling at me.

Holly sighed and blushed, walking grudgingly past me to stand in the middle of the yard. Long vines of weeds wound their way through the tall grass and wrapped themselves around Holly's arms, lifting her up at least a metre above the ground. Everything seemed to freeze, and for the first time Holly genuinely smiled. Flowers bloomed all along the dark vines in a vibrant rainbow of colours. The most amazing and eye catching were the violet flowers that were the closest to Holly, surrounding her completely. It was possibly the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.

Holly spoke urgently, looking at me with a slight fear in her eyes. “Just don't touch the flowers, Emilie.”

“Why?” I asked, confused.

“The flowers contain a poison that kills in under a minute, it's transmitted through touch.” Cael spoke quietly while walking over to me.

There it was – the drawback to her powers. She was able to create such beauty and magnificence, but she was toxic.

“If they're so deadly, Holly, how can you be so close to them?” I hoped my voice didn't come across as irritable as I thought it did.

“She's immune to her own powers, Emilie,” Cael said in a slightly cold voice.

“I didn't mean anything by that, Cael.” I said quickly in an attempt to defend myself.

Cael shook his head in irritation before returning to the stairs. I looked down at my shoes, disappointed with myself. In all my years of existence I never would have believed that I would feel ashamed of myself or that I would make so many mistakes. Oh, how I had changed. I really must say that I regretted how I'd behaved over the last few centuries. I supposed my life had really gone downhill since
Dorian tried to kill me. Seems like a fairly good reason to act the way I did though.

“It's okay, Emilie. Cael's just a jerk …” Holly said quietly with a sheepish smile.

As I looked around I saw that the yard had gone back to how it was before. The hundreds of flowers that all but covered the lawn in deadly beauty were now gone. The yard was once again dull and lifeless, bringing back the horrors that Holly must have faced.

“Are you two coming? I need to see what the … bodies look like and then we need to get rid of them.” Cael's voice called down to us from the verandah in a low, serious voice.

Holly walked slowly through the grass, her long, golden-brown hair swaying behind her as she walked up the stairs. It was obvious just from looking at her that she was an old soul. Holly handed Cael the house key and he unlocked the door. We stepped in and I looked around the room. It was a dark house and I had barely walked two steps when a shiver ran down my spine. Holly walked past us and sat in a large lounge chair, pulling out a paperback novel.

Cael leaned towards me and whispered. “I have to tell you, when she told me that a possession had happened I didn't believe her. I have only ever heard of a demonic possession once before, never seen one though. I thought demons always used possession as a last resort, it gets messy, or whatever.”

I nodded in agreement and Cael smiled grimly. “All the signs I read about were there though, with the possession I mean.”

“What signs? What do you mean?”

Cael coughed nervously. “The room where I found the bodies … There were reversed pentacles drawn around them, trapping them in. And they definitely weren't drawn by her parents, there had to be other demons there.” Cael's voice had dropped to a new level of low, so low that I could barely hear him.

“Why would they possess her parents if they only wanted to trap them and kill them?” I whispered back.

It seemed a little pointless. When a demon possesses a weak human, they like to play with them. Trapping them and forcing them to kill themselves hardly seemed fun by demonic standards.

“I really don't know. My best guess is that they were planning on taking Holly but failed.” Cael's voice was still very low, as though he didn't want her to be affected by this.

I guessed he'd forgotten that Holly had probably seen everything that had happened to her parents. What really confused me though, was why Cael wanted her to remember how she died in her past life. Past lives did interest me, but I didn't dabble in that sort of thing. Everything happens for a reason, and if you died you were fulfilling your life's purpose. It hardly made sense.

“You, uh …” Cael began but stopped abruptly, looking away from me.

“I what, Cael?” I asked laughing a little.

He smiled and muttered that it was a little too far off topic. I punched him lightly on the shoulder.

“Tell me!” I laughed.

Holly cut in, barely looking up from her book. “Oh
please
, he likes you, obviously. He's been checking you out since you got here. Probably before that too.”

Cael's eyes widened and he blushed ever so slightly. “Holly, have you gone near your parents?” Cael asked quietly.

Holly shook her head and continued reading. The house was quiet and, though it was slightly musty, there were no signs that there were a couple of two-week old corpses locked in a room. I voiced that to Cael as he led me through the narrow hallway.

“I'm fairly sure the pentagrams have stopped decomposition. You'll see soon anyway.”