The Fallen (Angelic Redemption) (18 page)

“We need the guys back here. I felt some villains
on our way in.”

“Where?” Gus asked, immediately alarmed.

“Near the main road. I’m thinking at least a half
dozen, but there could be more now.”

“Are they after you?”

“I don’t know. The villains that ambushed us
today weren’t there for us. A demon attack plus the numbers at the rest stop
and the ones outside makes me think something’s riling them up. We need
backup.”

“I’ll call Ethan.”

Roman glanced at Sophie. “Go with Gus and he’ll
get you something to eat.”

“I want to stay with Lila.”

“You can’t help her and you haven’t eaten today. Lila
will want you strong when she gets better.”

Sophie sized up Gus who hovered near the door.
Moving closer to Roman, she leaned down.

“I don’t like him.”

“He’s one of us, Sophie. He’ll watch your back
while I watch Lila’s. Please trust me about this.”

Sophie nodded, unwilling to pitch a fit with a
grieving Roman. Following Gus out of the room, Sophie did peek back at Roman
who continued to whisper to an unresponsive Lila. Once in the main hall, Gus
turned to Sophie and smiled a wide infection grin.

“You don’t know me, but I know you and you’re
going to warm up to me real quick. To save time, how about we just skip the
distrust part and go straight to you thinking I’m a great guy?”

Sophie rolled her eyes, yet couldn’t help giving
him a tiny grin.

“Fine. I like you, so now what?”

“We get you some food and I call the rest of the
pack.”

Sophie followed him into a massive kitchen where
he opened a giant refrigerator.

“Anything you want, eat away.” Gus said, dialing
a phone. “You were a big fan of pickles, if I remember right.”

Sophie grunted at his comment, having no memory
of ever eating pickles in any life. She studied the refrigerator’s contents
while listening to the phone ring on the speaker.

A man picked up and spoke over the loud background
noise. “Hey, what’s up?”

“Ethan, where are you?”

“Near Raytown.”

“Are the brothers with you?”

“Yeah, what’s going on?”

“You’re not going believe it, but Roman just
showed up and he isn’t alone.”

“Roman?” Ethan said and Sophie heard him call
someone over. “About time he came home.”

“He’s got Lila and Sophie with him.”

For nearly a minute, there was only silence from
the other end. Sophie frowned at Gus who shrugged.

“Come again?” Ethan finally said.

“God brought them back and Roman found them. I’m
kinda sketchy on the details, but they’re here at the compound. Oh, and a group
of villains are hanging around nearby. Maybe you boys could come back and give
us a hand?”

Ethan again said nothing, though Sophie heard him
hushing someone.

“What about Anya and the others?”

“Don’t know. Like I said, the details are sketchy.
We’ll figure it out when you get back.”

“We’re on our way.”

Once Ethan hung up, Gus studied Sophie with a
grin.

“You wanna tell me how you and Lila found each
other?”

Holding a pickle jar in her hand, Sophie
shrugged.

“Lila got a vision from God that I needed saving.
She showed up at my apartment three days ago, killed a bunch of villains, and
then told me I had to come with her to kill a rogue hunter. We met up with
Roman in Nevada. That’s it.”

“You weren’t hunting when she caught up with
you?”

“No and she’s only been hunting for a year.”

“Then what have you been doing for the last seven
years?”

“Seven years?” Sophie said, setting the jar down
as she considered all that lost time. “I was living as a human, I guess. Who
are Ivy and Anya?”

“Girls from your pack. Ethan had a thing for Anya,
so I’m sure he’s hoping this resurrection thing goes for the whole pack. Ivy is
the only one from your pack who survived. She ran with us until Roman left.”

“Where is Ivy now?”

“I wish I knew. She loved you girls and being the
only one to make it out alive tormented her. I wish I could tell her about
this, but Ivy didn’t just leave, she went underground. If she’s alive, she’s
done everything possible to stay under the radar.”

Gus studied Sophie a moment then smiled brighter.

“You better eat more than a pickle, if you wanna
be ready for the rough stuff later. I’m going to check the monitors and see if
those villains are ready to make trouble.”

Sophie finally asked the only question on her
mind.

“Do you think Lila can get better?”

Gus pondered this question and Sophie thought he
might not answer.

“You ever see the movie
The Princess Bride
?”
When Sophie nodded, Gus continued, ““You know how Wesley was only near-death
and Miracle Max gave him a magic pill that brought him back? Well Lila is only
near-death and that concoction flowing in her is like the magic pill. Instead
of true love, it’s God’s will keeping her alive. Technically as long as we keep
our heads attached, we can survive pretty much any wound. That’s the theory
anyway. I’ve never heard of a hunter coming back from being essentially dead
for most of the day though.”

“She hasn’t moved since we found her this
morning,” Sophie said, her voice breaking.

Gus again watched Sophie then he smiled.

“Yeah, but Roman says she’s alive and he knew she
was dead seven years ago even before Ivy told us. If he says she’s alive then
he senses her soul hasn’t moved on. In theory, yeah, Lila can get better, no
matter how dead she looks.”

“But do you really think she’ll get better?”
Sophie asked, pushing for someone to tell her the truth.

Gus shrugged, clearly unwilling to be the one to
give her the bad news.

“She’s Micah’s sister and a big dog. So yeah, I
guess she could survive a wound like that. I wouldn’t necessarily bet money on
it, but I wouldn’t count her out either,” Gus said, adding quickly. “You know,
come to think of it, Roman’s pretty aligned with God’s will. If he says she can
come back, maybe I would bet money on it.”

Even unconvinced, Sophie appreciated Gus’s effort
to give her hope.

“You go ahead and eat. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

After making a sandwich, Sophie studied the
compound. Quite stunning and welcoming with his high ceilings and expensive
furnishings, the house’s beauty did little to distract from the fact that Lila was
dead in the next room with a desperate, and maybe delusional, Roman at her
side.

As her mind panicked at a future without Lila
around to tell her what to do, Sophie noticed a woman creep down the hall
towards the kitchen. Standing at the doorway, she stared at Sophie, as if
waiting for something.

Sophie frowned. “Am I supposed to know you too?”

The woman paused, considering her answer. “No,
we’ve never met. I’m Karen and Gus is giving me a place to stay until I figure
things out. I assume he’s doing the same for you.”

“Figure what things out?”

“My pack was killed by a rogue hunter.”

Sophie cocked an eyebrow. “Was it the Reaper?”

Karen didn’t need to answer. The way she flinched
spoke volumes.

“Lila and I are planning to kill the Reaper,”
Sophie said when Karen remained silent.

Obviously relieved by this explanation, Karen
became a bit chattier. “He killed my pack. I was lucky I even survived. The
Reaper’s an animal, an unstoppable killing machine. I’ve never seen anything
like it.”

“That’s why he’s going to die. Where was he last
seen?”

“Can you really kill him? Your friend doesn’t
look so good and the Reaper is the definition of a big dog.”

“Lila will be better soon,” Sophie said with a conviction
to her voice she couldn’t fully embrace in her heart.

Karen nodded, edging away from Sophie.

“I heard Gus say something about villains getting
ready to attack.”

“We should be safe here especially with Roman.
He’s a big dog and I don’t think even a dozen villains would faze him.”

Karen again nodded, slipping farther down the
hall. If Karen had barely escaped the Reaper’s wrath, she had a good reason to
be scared.

“I’m going back to my room, if that’s okay?”
Karen said, already halfway down the hall.

Sophie shrugged. “I’m sure if Gus needs us, he’ll
let us know.”

Karen smiled slightly then hurried down the hall
and disappeared into a bedroom. Sophie was glad to see her go, since it allowed
for some quiet time. Gus would soon return and then Roman’s packmates would
arrive with questions. With villains also lurking in the night, Sophie figured
silence was a blessing.

Taking her sandwich into an adjoining family
room, Sophie turned on the massive flat screen television. Flipping through the
thousands of channels, she noticed news coverage about the violence in Colorado, but chose to watch a
Seinfeld
rerun instead.

Eating while mindlessly watching television,
Sophie began to relax. Every few minutes though, the image of Lila lying in a
pool of blood reminded Sophie how the fraud of her human life was over. Evil
was very real and it had taken Lila.

Sophie dozed off watching television, only to be
awakened by a commotion at the front door. Checking the clock, she realized
almost an hour had passed as she napped on the couch. Leaving behind her half
eaten sandwich, Sophie headed warily towards the noises. She heard voices as
she approached and recognized one of them as Ethan from the phone call.

Peeking around the corner, she saw three men with
Gus. The oldest was handsome in a gruff way and she quickly identified him as
Ethan. The other two were the brothers Gus spoke about - a tall dark haired man
and his slightly shorter blond sibling. The newcomers were agitated and Gus had
to shush them more than once before they settled down.

“How can they be alive?” Ethan asked.

“Roman said the Lord brought them back.”

Ethan rubbed at his dark beard, still riled up.
“Where have they been? What about Anya and the others?”

“All I know is that Sophie was only activated a
few days ago. Lila a year ago. Roman just found them. They came here because
Lila’s been injured.”

“That’s not much to go on, Gus.”

“Hey, it’s Roman,” Gus said, glancing back at the
room where Roman cared for Lila. “He shows up with Lila looking a day past dead,
even though she’s supposed to be seven years past dead. He’s also got a resurrected
Sophie and a story about a demon attack. What am I supposed to do when he asks
for help? Send him away? Drill him with questions? We always said if he ever
came back, we’d give him some slack on the Lila thing. He’s back, so let’s calm
down until he’s ready.”

While the younger men nod in agreement, Ethan
only frowned deeper.

“Where are they now?”

“Roman and Lila are in the first bedroom to the
left. She doesn’t look good. By that, I mean she looks dead. He’s convinced
she’s not and I’m not going to be the one who argues with him about it. Sophie’s
sleeping in the family room. She doesn’t know anything, so don’t go hounding
her.”

“They’ve been gone for seven years. Ivy swore she
saw them die. Swore Micah disappeared. If she lied about one thing, she could
be lying about it all. We can’t just sit around and wait to know these things.”

“You’re right about one thing, man. It has been
seven years, so waiting a few hours, maybe a day or two, isn’t going to kill
us. What might actually kill us is the pack of villains prowling just outside
the perimeter. Maybe they followed Roman here or maybe they were planning to
hit the safe house while you guys were out. Who knows, but they’re here and
Roman’s in no shape to help out if it comes to battle. I don’t see Sophie or
Karen being much help either. It’s just us four to clean the barn here.”

“How did Lila get injured?” the taller brother
asked.

“Roman said it was a demon.”

The blond brother snorted. “Demons rarely show up
and help out villains. Did he actually see the demon or maybe Lila told him
what she thought she saw?”

“It was a demon,” Sophie said, stepping out to
face them. “I saw it on the ground when we found Lila.”

The men stared at her for a long time. If she
knew them before, she felt no connection any longer. They were strangers
staring at her in a completely unpleasant way.

“Unbelievable,” the taller brother said, moving
closer. “She looks exactly the same.”

“She is the same, man,” Gus said as the three men
circled Sophie. “She can also hear you.”

“Does she remember anything?” the blond brother
asked.