The Rephaim: Burn Part 33

Gabriel's expression eases to a smile that reaches his eyes and completely transforms his face into something luminous. 'You wished to know what happens next, Rafael? This is it.'

'What is?'

'The Fallen and their children finding a way to live with each other.'

FREE WILL IS OVERRATED.

'Not a chance,' Rafa says. 'We won't be living together.'

Gabriel raises his eyebrows. 'The Fallen are free, Rafael. That leaves only two choices: I return them to h.e.l.l or I consign them to live in this world. If they remain here, you will need to find a way to coexist.'

Rafa looks to me. 'What sort of choice is that?'

'I don't know,' I say. 'But why don't you come back up here and stop tormenting your father. You can antagonise each other later.' I hold Rafa's gaze, testing whether my advice counts when he's this riled up. He cracks another knuckle, holds his ground a few seconds longer, and then climbs back up the dune.

G.o.d, this is exhausting. I sit on the sand, pull Rafa down beside me.

A few other Rephaim join us-Ez, Zak, Jones, Taya and Micah. The Fallen stay on the beach. Dani squeezes between Rafa and me. She tightens her grip on my knee until I look down at her.

'We're going to be okay,' she whispers.

'Have you seen something?'

She shakes her head. 'I just know.'

I nod and try to smile, but something a little more concrete would be comforting about now.

Jude stays on his feet. His jeans are low on his hips, his chest grazed and caked with sweat and sand. Next to him, Daisy uses the hem of her t-s.h.i.+rt to wipe her blades clean.

'So how do you see this working?' my brother asks, gesturing to the Fallen and then to us.

Gabriel turns and takes in the carnage on the beach. 'Today's battle was a skirmish compared to what is coming when the gates of h.e.l.l break open and the final war begins. We do not know the hour or the day, but it will come.' He nods to Semyaza. 'You and your brothers will remain here and prepare for that war.'

Semyaza gives no reaction to the news.

'And us?' Jude asks. 'Are we expected to fight too?'

I think of the horror of the past few hours. How much worse an actual war would be. And not against bottom dwellers, but higher-order demons. Quicker, more brutal demons. Being conscripted into the Garrison army would hardly be a reward.

'Patience Judah.' Gabriel says. He crosses the dune to Nathaniel and Semyaza. Nathaniel keeps his face pressed to the sand; Semyaza watches him approach, impa.s.sive. The two angels face off, silently. The sky grumbles, the storm well away from the town now. Gabriel folds his wings and kneels beside Nathaniel, places a hand on the fallen angel's blood-matted hair.

'Look at me, brother.'

Nathaniel doesn't raise his head. His ribs expand and contract with an anxious breath.

'Nathaniel. I have a commission for you.'

A beat. Then slowly, painfully, Nathaniel struggles to a sitting position. n.o.body moves to help him. G.o.d, his face is a mess.

'You will help your brothers a.s.similate to this world. You will give them a place to live and to train. When our war finally comes, and only then, you will know if you have earnt your place on the battlefield with your brothers.'

Nathaniel closes his eyes, nods. I don't know if Gabriel's given him a lifeline or a sentence. I don't think Nathaniel's sure either.

Now Gabriel stands, faces Semyaza. 'It is time to heal your brother.'

Semyaza laughs, ignores him.

'You will do this thing, and then you shall swear allegiance to each other. All of you.'

Allegiance.

Fealty.

The reminder of Jude's bargain drags all the air from me. I glance at my brother, see the pulse jump in his throat.

'And if I do not?' Semyaza says.

There's a flash of searing light. Beside me, Dani gasps and I panic, throw myself over her. But she's already trying to wriggle out from under me, keen to see Gabriel's wings. His glory is gone as quickly as it came-with no more effect on Dani than Nathaniel's-but the archangel keeps his wings extended. His first show of authority.

'Semyaza, if you are to remain here you must reconcile with your brother. If you do not, I will return you and your cohort forthwith to the abyss, where I have no doubt Leon is already grovelling for the right to succeed Zarael. There are no more second chances for you and the Two Hundred.'

Semyaza's eyes cut to Jude and me. He grunts and sheathes his sword, and then reaches down and grabs Nathaniel without care or concern. They disappear. I blow out my breath and pull Dani onto my lap. She still smells of pears, even here. She links her arms around me, rests her head against my shoulder. She's as exhausted as the rest of us.

'So the Gatekeepers are back in h.e.l.l?' It's not the question I need answered the most, but it's easier than asking what happened in the forest in Idaho last year.

'They are in chaos without Zarael,' Gabriel says. 'It will be some time before they venture back through the veil.'

'What about us?'

He looks at me-into me. 'That discussion we shall have soon enough.' Gabriel glances at the sky. 'Right now, you need to clear this beach of death.'

THE MORNING AFTER.

I wake with Rafa's arm draped along my hip, his fingertips resting on my bare thigh.

I'm lying in a patch of sunlight, eyes half-closed against the glare. Rafa's chest rises and falls against my back in a slow, steady rhythm. His breath tickles my shoulder. I can hear the surf down the hill, m.u.f.fled, and magpies fuss on the fence outside. The power's back on: my alarm clock blinks at me. Dust motes float in the light, settle on the windowsill.

It took us three hours to clear the beach yesterday, even with two hundred extra pairs of hands. We s.h.i.+fted every dead Immundi-every dismembered limb-far out to sea and dumped the remains as shark bait. It was beyond revolting. I don't intend doing that again. Ever.

By the time we'd finished, the sky had darkened from oranges and pinks to a thousand shades of blue, and then the rain came. No thunder, no lightning and no wind, just torrential rain that drove us under cover. I don't know where the Fallen took shelter, but we-the Rephaim-gathered under the awnings along the esplanade to watch the downpour. It was deafening on the corrugated iron. The tide rushed in, faster than it should have, and when it was sucked back out, the beach was washed clean. Like that, all traces of our battle gone-from the sand, at least. We'll wear our scars a little longer.

I breathe out, lace my fingers through Rafa's and draw his arm around me. He mumbles something into my hair, doesn't wake. I should get up but I'm not ready to face the mess yet in the kitchen. Last night, when the rain eased to a drizzle, Jude and I took two cartons of beer from Rick's, left a scribbled note under the till, and came back to the bungalow. About a dozen of us crammed into our kitchen: around the table, on the bench, stretched out on the floor.

Jason went straight to the resort to get Maria-Gabriel had left her unconscious when he ripped Dani and the Rephaim from the room, and she was beyond frantic when she woke. Then Jason took Maggie to check on Bryce and Simon at the evac centre.

The power was out, so we lit candles, drank half-chilled beer and took turns under a cold shower. Maggie and Jason joined us just as the beer ran out. Maggie found pillows and sheets, and opened the cheap bottles of red we keep in the top of the pantry for emergencies. We were all exhausted, but we managed to keep talking, trying to fit together the pieces of the past twelve hours. Comparing stories about the moments when, amid the carnage and the clean-up, awkward introductions were made.

n.o.body has a clue how to feel about the Fallen.

Not even Mya. Hadrial worked by her side during the clean-up, making an effort even though she ignored him. However she feels about him, she didn't share it with us last night. By the time she was slumped at my table, bottle in hand, she was too worn out even to insult the state of my house.

Sometime around ten, Jones and Daisy s.h.i.+fted to pick up noodle boxes and laksas from their favourite hole-in-the-wall in Chiang Mai. By midnight, Dani was asleep in Zak's lap. He and Ez took her and Maria back to the resort so Jason could stay a while longer with Maggie. Daisy claimed the couch and n.o.body had the energy to argue. When Rafa and I finally fell into bed, Jude was crashed on a mattress under the lounge-room window and Jones and Micah were sprawled on blankets on the floor either side of him. Everyone else found a room at the resort; it might have been deserted and without power, but there were plenty of empty beds.

I trace a crease in the sun-warmed sheet near my pillow, hear movement at the other end of the house. The coffee machine grumbles to life. Jude must be up. Way too early for Mags.

'Morning.' Rafa's voice is thick with sleep. He brushes his lips across my shoulder and I nestle against him.

'Get any rest?' I ask.

'Yeah, until the trucks rolled in.'

The first vehicles made it into town around dawn, gears crunching as they rounded the bend a few blocks over. It must have taken all night to clear the road from the highway. The Butlers weren't exaggerating about their prowess with explosives. It's going to take a bit longer to get the esplanade back in shape.

I yawn and Rafa makes room so I can roll over and face him. There are shadows under his eyes and his jaw is still discoloured, but he looks better than he did last night.

'What's the time?' I ask.

'No idea. My phone's still fried.'

'You think we're late?'

Rafa squints at the sun through the window. 'We've got at least an hour or so.'

Gabriel ordered the Fallen to the Sanctuary as soon as the beach was cleared. He gave the rest of us twelve hours. I don't want to be half-dressed if he gets impatient and summons us. My pulse kickstarts at the thought of the Fallen being at the Sanctuary. I sit up and stretch out my arms. I'm stiff and sore, my skin marked with fresh cuts and fading bruises, but I'm in one piece. We all are. Rafa's fingers slide under my singlet and climb my back.

'You that keen to see Semyaza again?' He runs his thumb down my spine.

I look over my shoulder at him. 'Not particularly.' But that's not entirely the truth. I'm curious, fascinated. Nervous.

'I don't think he likes me,' Rafa says, deadpan.

I laugh. 'I'm not convinced he likes me.'

I pull on clean jeans and a faded red t-s.h.i.+rt and wander out to the kitchen barefoot, dragging my hair back into a ponytail. Jude is bent over the bench, s.h.i.+rtless, his weight on his elbows. Daisy is checking the wound on his back. Her head comes up when she hears me.

'Come and look at this,' she says.

'Settle down,' Jude says. He starts to straighten but Daisy puts a hand on his neck to keep him in place.

'Stay there and let your sister see what a mess you've made of yourself.'

'If memory serves me correctly I didn't do this to myself, Daisy.'

'But you could've had it st.i.tched up before you threw yourself back in harm's way.'

He sighs at me as I round the bench.

'Give it up, Jude,' I say. 'You know you're not going to win-'

I falter. His back is a mess. The gash across his shoulders healed while it was still open and the wound looks like an angry mountain range bursting out of his tanned skin. I feel queasy. 'b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l, Jude, have you seen this? Does it hurt?'

He shrugs. 'A few more s.h.i.+fts and it'll settle down.'

Rafa joins us, poking his head through a threadbare t-s.h.i.+rt. 's.h.i.+t, buddy, you'll need to go under the knife if you're still keen on scoring at the beach.' He winks at Daisy.

She glowers at him and her fingers drop from Jude's neck. 'I'm going home.'

'What about breakfast?' Jude asks, straightening.

She shakes her head, not looking at him. 'I'll find something at the Sanctuary.'

'The commissary's a smoking ruin.'

She ignores him, catching my eye as she reaches for her weapons on the bench. 'See you when you get there.' And then she's gone. I give Rafa a dirty look. I forgot how much he enjoys winding her up.

The kitchen smells of Thai food and stale beer. I open the window over the sink, careful not to b.u.mp the empty bottles lined up behind the tap. I half expect to catch a hint of blood or sulfur or ozone on the breeze, but all I get is sea air and eucalypt. I breathe out.

'Where's everyone else?'

Jude's mattress is stood up against the wall out of the way, a stack of pillows and folded blankets and sheets on the floorboards next to it.

'The guys left for the Sanctuary about half an hour ago. Maggie and Jason have gone to get breakfast.'

'Jason was here all night?' I take the stool next to my brother. He shrugs into a lightweight hoodie and pushes up the sleeves.

'Yeah. Ez and Zak stayed with the girls.'

Rafa stretches in front of the open kitchen window, his back to us. He locks his hands over his head and twists until his shoulder pops. I want to ask him how he feels about seeing his father today, but my stomach dips and Maggie and Jason appear in the doorway.

'You're up,' Maggie says. Her steps wobble and she's pale, but she's more comfortable with s.h.i.+fting now. She's had enough practice the past few days.

'Morning, Margaret,' Rafa says. 'Goldilocks.'

Jason puts two paper bags on the bench and starts pulling out bacon and egg rolls and boxes of hash browns. Salty, greasy goodness. My stomach rumbles and Maggie smiles.

'Now the world feels normal again.'

'Your mum okay?' I ask, reaching for a roll.

She nods. 'She's shaken up, like everyone else.'

'What did you tell her?'

Maggie screws up one eye like she expects to get into trouble. 'That I'd explain everything today when she gets home. Is that okay? She's with Simon and I don't think he's said anything yet, but he might if I don't tell her something. And I don't want to keep lying to her.'

I look to Jude.

'As long as you think she can handle it,' he says.