The Fallen Ones (The Fallen Angels Series Book 1) (2 page)

Ilyana:

Awhile later,
after all the small talk and evasion I can handle I decide I am not going to
get any answers from Alya, I can feel my anxiety building alongside my
exhaustion. Fortunately for now, exhaustion wins out. I head back down to the
cabin and almost immediately fall, the boat is too small for the waves and I
still haven’t gotten my sea legs. I get up only to realize I am at Ephraim’s
feet. “Of course, of course I would fall down right at your feet, because you
know, walking, and keeping it together for more than 5 seconds when you are
around is an impossible task for an incompetent half-breed such as myself.” He
smiles and offers me his hand which I refuse. I have no clue why I am being so
completely unreasonable, I am out to prove that I can be calm and mature but
all I seem to be convincing anyone of is my own insanity. His eyes follow me
across the room, he is no longer looking at me with humor - he is looking at me
as though I am a time-bomb. “You know, you could find somewhere else to go, or
something else to look at. Unless of course you like seeing me vulnerable and
vomiting because in case you weren’t aware, that is what comes next in this
little routine of mine. The good news is I generally pass out next though and
you should have hours to yourself to shamelessly stare at me like I am a freak
while I sleep.”
Why won’t he answer me? I know I seem crazy, but he has to acknowledge me at
some point or else this verbal diarrhea of mine will go on indefinitely!

I look at him
and roll my eyes.
This can’t be my life
. I walk towards the bathroom,
the sea-sickness and exhaustion mixed with the anxiety is getting to be too
much. He quickly gets to his feet, I notice he is holding a book, no, not a
book, a diary, what is with him? “You know, Ilyana. You are getting to be a
handful. Come here, I have a shot I can give you, it will help with the
sickness and you can sleep.”

He suddenly
seems so gentle again he reaches to a small medicine cabinet in the bathroom
and pulls out a small blue vial of medicine, I reach out to take it and he nods
his head no. He heads back into the main cabin and removes a suitcase from the
cargo-hold above his bed, he clicks it open and there are pre-packaged needles.
I can feel my anxiety rise even further, “No way. Not even if Hell freezes over
will I allow you to stick me with that needle.” He looks at me for a moment and
hands me the loaded needle. I have no idea how I get myself into these
situations, I can’t inject myself with a needle!
Come on Ilyana, you can’t give up just when you get your way!
He nods his
head in the direction of my arm, without thinking about it a moment longer I push
the needle into my arm, I try not to wince or think about it – I hate needles,
but somehow my fear of needles seems like nothing compared to the monsters I
have faced over the last few days. After injecting myself with the medicine I
look up at him and find him smirking, he nods with approval “You might be
alright after all, Ilyana.” I smile, quite pleased with myself and hand the
needle back to him to be disposed of.

“I am exhausted,
where can I sleep?” he gestures to the bed next to his own. I nod my head and
begin making myself comfortable. I run my fingers through my hair, it is still
a tangled mess and I have never felt so vulnerable in my life. I remember in
Highschool at the prom there were more guys than girls, everyone was asked to
dance, the girl who picked her nose, the girl who did steroids and joined the
boys wrestling team, even the girls who liked girls. But the whole night I
stood on the sideline, feeling like a freak. No one even spoke to me the entire
night. I thought I could never feel lower than that, now I know that was
nothing…

I catch Ephraim
looking my way. “You know, it is rude to stare.” He nods in agreement, “I know.
So what questions do you have? I understand I am a jerk and only give cryptic
answers to your questions, but it is going to be a long ride if you decide to
punish and nag me the entire way there.”, I give him an indignant look and
notice the smile on his face – obviously the terrible sense of humor is
genetic. I sigh with resignation and begin to ponder my questions “It is
difficult to know what to ask… I know nothing, literally nothing. So why don’t
you just start by telling me what you know about me.” He gives me a quick
glance and then looks away “You are Nephilim.” I groan “You know. I actually
have that part figured out. But what does that mean for me, how does that make
me different. I mean, I know it is weird, but chances are, I am not the only
one.” He looks lost for a minute as he runs his hands through his freshly
washed hair “You really don’t know anything, do you? Your host family should
have told you all you needed to know.” I shake my head “If by host family you
mean parents, my parents are obviously very dead right now, they never told me
anything, if they did, I wouldn’t be on a piece of dirt boat in the middle of
the ocean asking two evasive strangers questions about my identity.” I feel my
lips beginning to shake as I realize the gravity of the situation, I can’t
allow myself to lose it now. He catches it and I can tell he is sizing me up,
deciding what he can tell me.

“Very well, I
will start at the beginning. You are not the only Nephilim, but you are the
only Nephilim to come of age in thousands of years. During biblical times, it
was widely believed that all Nephilim had been destroyed. When all that
actually happened is they all went into hiding. The island is our headquarters,
there are less than a thousand Nephilim today, they used to be a massive race,
but over the centuries they have broken off and died or killed themselves. You
are very… powerful, Ilyana. You may not think so now, but you are. You are a
danger to yourself right now since you know so little. I am sure your family
believed they were protecting you, but that is not the case. So please just
work with me. I am taking you to the coven where I will train you and answer
every question, even the ones you don’t know to ask yet, but in the meantime, I
need for you to stay calm and realize that I am doing everything I can for
you.” His eyes are begging me to understand.

I never expected
to find compassion in his eyes, but I realize now, that is exactly what I am
looking at. I am still not sure how to feel about him, but for now - Ephraim
and Alya are all that I have so I choose to trust he is not lying to me right
now. “Ok. I will concede for now. But I still have more questions.” He laughs
at me “You know, you aren’t really that great at bartering? I am sure you have
more questions, I will answer them as I can, but I need you to understand that
even I don’t know everything. I am young compared to our people.” People,
there’s that word again “Our people? So you are like me? Alya said you are not
human, are you human? How old are you?” he smiles “I already told you I am not
like you. You called yourself a half breed earlier which is ironic, because
that is actually what I am. I am not completely Nephilim or at all a human. Let
that be enough for now. It is too much to explain and I really don’t like to.
How old? Well, we all begin maturing at 18 and stop at 25 years old, so I am 25
years old, and I have been for a while, again, we will just leave it at that
for now.”

I am finding
myself slightly shocked, but I don’t know what to do or say so I just nod my
head. “Okay, so what are those Alien things that are chasing me?” he laughs at
the question “There are no such thing as Aliens Ilyana, I would think that you
would know that by now. They are a species of demons they came to earth and
decided to pursue their own thirst for life and death and knowledge… They are
vile creatures, incapable of feeling, they were designed only to act, never to
think or feel, but their pursuits stirred something in them, they are strong
and impulsive and completely dangerous, but not to you Ilyana, they can never
hurt you, you are far more powerful than they are, even though you don’t have a
clue now.” I have a hard time digesting all this new information, life used to
be so clear and simple and now while I am feeling my weakest, I find out I am
an even bigger bad than the demons. I look into his eyes and abruptly look away
“I need to sleep now. Goodnight.” I call Sasha over and roll onto my bed she is
the closest thing I have to home right now and I am just not ready to lose the
person I thought I was. I refuse to cry, so I bite my lip until it bleeds and fall
to sleep petting Sasha. That night I sleep like the dead. I have no dreams and
no nightmares and for the first time in days, on a boat headed to god only
knows where, I find rest.

Ilyana:

I wake up to the
feel of Sasha licking my forehead. I look around for a clock and realize there isn’t
one. I feel disoriented and hungry. How long did I sleep? I emerge from the
cabin to find we have reached land.
He
is nowhere in sight. I zero in on
Alya.

“Good Morning,
sleepyhead! - Or should I say evening? You must have been exhausted, I have
never known anyone to sleep for 14 hours straight and on a boat no less!” she
says with a smile that is too chipper for my liking, I have never been a big
fan of waking up, I groan “Where are we?” she laughs “We are here, welcome to
your new home!” my jaw drops, “How could we possible already be here?” she
sighs “It is one of my gifts.” I am not quite sure how to respond to that
“Okay, I am new to this, can you please do me a favor and explain what is
happening in specifics, these vague terms are only leaving me with more
questions.”

“I knew I would
like you! You are just like I was when I was new. You have to learn to be
patient though Ilyana, you will be around for a very long time and it would be
a shame to live your life in a rush. Gifts: We all have our own gifts, just
like humans each have their own special talents, we have ours. Some of us have
affinities for beauty, some of us art, some of us fighting… The list goes on
really. I have never encountered two Nephilim that were exactly the same.” As
she says the words I catch something, “You are Nephilim? I thought I am the
first Nephilim to come of age in thousands of years?”

She waves off
the question as though I asked her if the sky is blue “Oh, Ephraim. He is so
dramatic, I don’t know that I would say ‘thousands’ of years, approximately
2,300 years, give or take.” My head begins to spin “How old are you exactly,
Alya?” she tilts her head to the side as though she has to consider the
question for a moment before she responds “You know, I don’t exactly know.
After a while we stop measuring time in years. We measure it by events that we
live in our life. Someone can live a lot of years and not experience a lot of
life, it used to happen to us all the time. We would get trapped in our
routines, without attachments to humans we never experienced much loss or felt
the need to rush though life. I would guess it has been around 4,000 years
since I came of age – give or take a hundred.”

I was finally
beginning to accept that I was different, but I had no idea how different. I
start laughing uncontrollably – mostly to keep from crying. One answer equals a
thousand new questions at the tip of my tongue. She walks over to me and starts
running her hands through my hair in a comforting way I have only ever
experienced with my Mother. “Come now, Ilyana. It is not so bad. It is all new
right now, but when you fully come of age, I promise: you won’t be able to
imagine life differently. There are so many things I never would have experienced
in life if I was limited to mortality, so many people I never could have
helped. Being a Nephilim is a gift, not just to you, but to the world around
you. You are powerful, more powerful than you know. But Ephraim will teach you
to control and direct your powers, and new powers will even emerge. You will
make the world around you a better place as you come to accept who you are
beneath the surface. I for one cannot wait to see who you become.” She smiles
lightly as she stops brushing my hair “One ability that all of us have is the
ability to sense the power in others. When I am around most Angels or Nephilim,
I usually sense it as a quiet, static hum, with you it is a full buzz, when you
move I feel vibrations of power unlike anything I have ever felt, it is
fascinating!”

I look at her as
I allow her words to settle in “Can I do that? Can I sense power?”

“You can, you
just may not be sure how yet. We all sense it differently. Some of us feel it
physically, some of us see it - some of us even smell it. Your senses have been
on edge the past few days so you might not have even noticed it yet. But when
we arrive at the Enclave, you will probably be overwhelmed by it and begin to
recognize it almost immediately.”

“Ahem…” Ephraim.
Even the way he clears his throat is beautiful somehow. “Speaking of the
Enclave, we need to start moving soon. Are you ready?” He looks expectantly
from Alya  to me. I attempt to run my fingers through my hair and they get
stuck in my tangles and then I look down to find my sweatpants and tanktop, too
big for me. Alya catches me looking. “Ephraim, you can’t be serious. We need to
take care of Ilyana. She has had a rough time lately, we can’t take her to the
Enclave feeling so tattered. We need to go get her clothes that fit and a fresh
shower. Let’s take her to Levi’s cabin. She can have a proper shower and I am
sure we can dig up some clothes that fit her more comfortably.” Ephraim
immediately resigns himself to Alya’s request, he doesn’t even seem to mind, he
just nods his head as if he knows this is a fight that he will not win and
responds “Well then, if you are ready, I have the ATV’s waiting, we can get a
move on it so we can make progress before it goes dark outside, we really need
to get her somewhere safe.” Alya nods her head in agreement.

I look from Alya
to Ephraim. They are talking about me like I am not there and I don’t like it.
“Excuse me, but I thought you said the demons can’t harm me last night, what is
it that you have to keep me safe from?” I think of the monsters and shudder, if
I am more powerful than them, what vile creature should I fear for my safety?
He won’t look me in the eyes “The time for questions was last night, Ilyana.
You should fear nothing, you just have a lot of… power. It needs to be controlled
and I don’t have the proper space or tools to teach you outside of the
Enclave.” I feel like there is something he is not telling me. But for now I am
satisfied with his answer.
We hop on the ATV’s and with Sasha at my side, I do something I haven’t done in
a while, I smile.