Chapter 13
When we pulled to a stop a few hours later, all I could think was wow. It made my new house in Chelsea look like a crack den in the slums and to be frank, my new house was far from it. Well, that is unless you called a house that was worth just shy of the million pound mark a crack den. Before me was an honest to god castle and it looked authentic. It was not a gaudy reproduction some billionaire with a penchant for dungeons and dragons had tried to recreate. No, it was truly incredible. It was a real medieval castle, except instead of ruins or a tourist attraction, this one was breathing light. Each of the windows shone with a light from within. It looked intimidating in the darkness with its high stone walls looming over me but it only made it that much more magnificent. I turned my head just as Lucius pulled Danny from the car and cradled him to his chest.
"Are you messing with me?" I questioned as Zeke helped me towards the large wooden doors.
They were set like a gaping mouth in the face of this great beast that Lucius called home. I was wide eyed and awed but at the same time all I could think was that he was messing with me. There was no way that he could live in a national heritage site like this but he never ceased to prove me wrong because the doors creaked open and light spilled out bathing us all in the yellow glow. And there she was, the blonde goddess who I had seen a few weeks before stood there waiting patiently. One hand was placed on her hip as she stared out at us with a look between disgust and amour, the latter directed solely at Lucius and the disgust was directed at the rest of our little party which included Danny, much to her misfortune because I was going to make her pay for that look.
"What is she doing here?" The blonde said, her voice not even covering the accusation in her tone as she set her glare upon me. Is she his girlfriend or something? Because she's totally acting like a jealous cow right now, when really, there is no need for it. I just want a bed so that I can sleep and preferably a TV with lots of DVD's to watch for the hours when I'm on bed rest. Maybe I could just watch Zeke and Lucius trying to babysit, which would be ten times better than any comedy show.
"She is my guest." Lucius' voice left no room for arguments as he strode past her into the medieval castle. Ezekiel and I followed after him, only for me to pause on the threshold as I saw into the brightly lit interior. The inside couldn't be more different to the outside. Outside was old fashioned and medieval whilst the inside looked like it was from some modern interior design magazine. Even the tapestries that I could see on the walls fit in with the way that the 'house' was decorated.
"Oh my-" I paused not knowing what else to say. Zeke however, not wanting to linger in the doorway, tugged me further into the house so that the blonde goddess could shut the door behind us. She chose to slam it just to prove how much she disliked out company which earned an eye roll from all of us. I hope she's not going to be here the entire time that I am because she just might end up on the end of my fist, even if she is a bit scary with her perfection and ability to glow.
The floor under my feet was cushioned by a long thick rug that extended down the centre of the hallway for about thirty feet before the hallway turned to the right and disappeared from sight. I was expecting a building of stone to be cold but the place seemed warm and comfortable. It felt like a home.
Lucius padded along ahead of us and about halfway down the long corridor, he pushed open on the heavy wooden doors to reveal a suite. It was a bedroom on one half with one of those screen dividers that separated it from the lounge part of the room. He slumped down onto the sofa, his body sinking back into the squishy cushions. Danny was now awake and was having fun chewing on the collar of Lucius shirt whilst he tried to fit his hands in his mouth at the same time. I smiled as Zeke lowered me down into the large plush armchair that was sat next to a large open fireplace. I knew I should be afraid to be this close to the flames considering that I had been burnt in the fire and yet I couldn't find the fear in me. I suppose not remembering the being burnt part is probably why.
The sound of the opening bars to the Fray's 'How to save a life' filled the room and Zeke immediately started patting down his pockets before he pulled out an ice white phone from the breast pocket in his coat. He shot us all an apologetic smile before wandering to the other side of the room and answering the phone. I raised my brows at Lucius but he was too busy cooing at Danny to care. I shook my head at them before turning my gaze to the flames. I felt strangely entranced by the fire like it was calling to me. At one point I almost swore that I could see a face within the flames.
The sound of a cuss coming from Zeke's lips made me snap my head around and I caught sight of him just as he slid the phone into his pocket. He smiled at me but the hard lines on his face showed that he wasn't happy at all. I frowned at him in response but he ignored my look as he walked over to Lucius and whispered in his ear. Lucius paused what he was doing for a moment before he looked back at Zeke and whispered something back at him. Zeke nodded in confirmation and it was quite amusing the way that Lucius seemed to slump in defeat looking none too pleased with whatever had passed between the two of them.
With a sigh he looked up at me and gave me a small smile which I tried to return but it slipped off as I peered at him in concern. I raised my brows in question and after sharing a quick glance with Zeke, he brought his hand that wasn't holding onto Danny to his face. He kneaded the bridge of his nose before looking back at me.
"Gabriel is coming. He has something important to say to you. Something that can't be said over the phone." The last part was said with a hint of sarcasm before he returned his attentions to the little baby in his arms. I frowned. I've only met this Gabriel once and he wants to say something to me? This is ridiculous.
"What would he want to do with me? I've only met him once and the only significant thing I can think of is that everyone he was with kept looking at me strange and calling me the Protected One." I shrugged my shoulders when in reality that term, the Protected One; it bugged me to no end. I knew it was important but no one was letting me in on why. This was proven by Lucius and Zeke who both tensed up at my casual use of the term.
"Did you happen to hear anything else?" Zeke asked, trying to be casual but I could tell that he was just trying to be cautious. I pretended to think about it, my fingers tapping the arm of the chair over and over until he cleared his throat showing his obvious impatience. Smiling at the small victory, I shuffled in the chair before levelling my gaze with his.
"Not really, I heard some blonde say you were a good lay and that I wasn't what people expected me to be but apart from that nothing." Whilst speaking ,I had brought my hand up so that I could examine my fingernails casually but I didn't miss the choking sound coming from both men at the first part of my sentence.
"Zeke here a good lay? But I always assumed you were celibate cousin." Lucius chortled which earned a giggle from Danny and strangely enough made the flames in the fire flicker out of the corner of my eye. Looking at Lucius incredulously, I waited for Zeke to give a snappy retort to him but all he did was roll his eyes.
"You know nothing Lucius." His response was so soft that I almost missed it and when I glanced up to meet his gaze I saw that he was staring at me and he looked - emotional. It was so different to normal but his eyes had softened and a smile had formed on his lips making him look younger than normal.
I opened my mouth to speak but there was a pounding that echoed throughout the castle and a minute later the dark haired man from the meeting waltzed into the room. If anything he looked more polished and formal than last time, and there was this quality about him that seemed different too but I couldn't put my finger on it. He smiled formally at us all before he walked several steps across the room until he was stood before me. I was shocked when he lowered his head slightly in the form of a bow, one hand across the waist of his neatly tailored suit that looked designer but one that was a million times more skilled than the like of Armani.
"Miss Savannah Holmes, mother of Daniel Holmes and the Protected One, I come here to give you a message from Him, our lord and master." He lifted his head and met my astonished and overly confused gaze. What the hell was he doing bowing to me? "But first, I must inform you of who and what we are." He glanced over his shoulder at Lucius for help but he got none as he was too engrossed in a gurgling Danny. He shook his head before returning his gaze to mine and making sure that I had eye contact with him before he continued. "I am Gabriel, the Arch Angel. And Lucius is the fallen brother Lucifer or as you modern mortals would call him, the Devil or Satan. I personally prefer Satan but that's because it seems to suit him so much more." Gabriel almost looked amused at his remark, almost.
I sat there staring at him for at least two minutes trying to process what he had said before I couldn't hold it in and I started laughing hysterically. "You're an angel and he's the devil?" I chortled and then pointed my finger Gabriel. "If you were an angel you would have wings." I then moved my finger to point at Lucius "and if you're the devil you would have horns and maybe even the tail, though, quite frankly I never pictured the devil with a tail."
I shook my head to keep my thoughts from wandering and glanced back at Gabriel in time to see him exhale in annoyance before there was the sound of tearing fabric and the sound of beating wings. And then there they were. Sticking out of his back were two white gossamer wings. They looked silky and glinted in the firelight so that it looked like strings of gold had been weaved into the feathery appendages. I gaped at him with wide eyed awe before I turned my gaze to Lucius, just waiting to be proven wrong.
He pouted at me. "Aww, do I have to? I only wore the horns once at a party but some bible enthusiast decided that is how I should look, and please no tail, that was never my idea, that was just a joke gone wrong." When Gabriel gave him a glare, he relented and two large red horns erupted from his head, curling back into little spirals. They were so large that they could give Hellboy a run for his money. Danny was completely entranced by the horns and reached up to touch them but with a wink at me, they disappeared.
Before I could question why he put them away, he smiled at me with mischief and there was the sound of ripping fabric once more. Out of the corner of my eye I caught another flash of white coming from Zeke's direction but my eyes were enraptured by the wings now protruding from Lucius' back. They were black as night with threads of read and dull gold interwoven with the feathers making him look like Hell's angel and suppose if what Gabriel had said was true, then he really was.
"Y-you're angels and the devil. Great, as if my life wasn't complicated enough." I tilted my head back and stared up at the ceiling as I tried to process the new revelations. I suppose after everything that had happened it wasn't completely ridiculous. If I wasn't dreaming about the men forming out of fog then they were what? Demons. "What about those men that came into the office building on my first day with the crossbows? What were they?" I was curious but at the same time frightened by the answer, was there more out there than just humans, angels and demons?
"They were hunters, but there was nothing supernatural about them. They were merely humans who knew how to dispatch of us like cattle to the slaughter, or so they thought. We aren't stupid enough to allow humans to have our secrets. Only He can give those details out." Gabriel muttered the last part to himself but I still heard. Sighing, I brought my uninjured arm up and combed my fingers through my hair only to cringe at the greasy mop. I didn't even want to think what I looked like.
I nodded numbly whilst Gabriel riffled through his pocket pulling out several large items before he removed a large glowing gold scroll. I was amazed that his pocket could fit all of those items before balking at the fact that he now held the glowing scroll out to me. Tentative fingers stretched out in front of me and I couldn't stop the gasp from escaping my lips as my fingers curled around the scroll and it started to shine brighter than before. I stared at it for a moment and then after taking a deep breath, I peeled off the seal at the back but stopped, unwilling to read what was inside.
"It's from Him. None of us can read it but I was informed that it was of the utmost importance that you read it." Gabriel's voice was informative but held not one inflection of emotion as he spoke. I wanted to throw the scroll away but it was Zeke who kept me from running away from my destiny.
"Open it Savannah, people's lives depend on it." My eyes moved to him of their own accord and I was entranced. He had a presence about him that was so familiar with those wings sticking out of his back and there was something about them that made me think I had seen them before but at the same time, his face seemed so much like a stranger. I knew him but at the same time I didn't. The emotions he always made me feel confused me to no end.
Breaking from the thoughts, I examined the scroll in my hands. Now that I was closer, I noticed that it wasn't paper at all, it was actually beads of light threaded together to make the soft pliable material within my fingers. I unrolled the scroll only to see a blank reflective surface. Just as I was about to inform them that nothing was on it, a neat and perfectly scripted scrawl burst into existence before my eyes. I almost dropped the scroll from shock my eyes trying to keep up with the words as they appeared on the page but I kept stopping and reading words just to make sure that I had read them right.
"It says...oh god." I paused unwilling to say out loud the fates of all of our lives depicted in the unrelenting script that continued to write line after line how important my role was in the upcoming events. "He says that, if I don't stop them," A single tear dripped from the corner of my eye and rolled down my cheek. "If I don't stop them, we are all going to die."