Alice's Insurrection (Alice Clark Series) (17 page)

“As if I didn’t know
,” she scolded them. She shut the book and tossed it to the floor. Jake came back in carrying two coffee mugs of coffee and the bottle of whiskey. She smiled at the sight, accepting her mug. “I feel it will be soon that this will all be over. I’m starting to think Rogziel wasn’t trying to kill me.”

“Why just injure you?”

“He knows Briathos is with us and that he is a healer. Maybe he wants me hurt to increase his chances of killing me at the battle.”

“How are we supposed to know when that is
, anyway?”

“I was reading about the seven seals
, and I think when the moon turns red and the sun goes black after the fifth seal is broken, is when the battle will be.”

“Did he tell you that?”

“Yes, in a sense. He said the Fallen would know when and that then is when he will seal our fate.”

“You need to rest.”

“What?”

“You need to rest.
Alice, we feel when each seal is broken. It’s excruciating, and I’m not surprised that is when he wants to fight. Before the seal is opened, while the Lamb examines it and declares His intentions, we can feel a humming throughout, signaling what is to come. I’ve felt that humming for two days now.”

“No.
It’s too soon; I’m not ready.”

“Relax, you have to rest.
I suppose it’s good that we were spared the last time you were injured.”

“I didn’t think
that during the most important moment of my life, I’d actually be injured like this.”

“I’m sure he was counting on that.
Drink. Breathe. I’ll send for everyone and we’ll get a plan in order. Trust me?” He brushed a strand of her hair away from her face.

“With my life.” It was true and they both knew it.

Alice watched from her window
at the Fallen and Nephilim gathering supplies and weapons. It felt like déjà vu to her. The snow was falling mystically over the property line but no one complained of the cold. This very well could have been the last day or days on this earth and be damned or not, they all wanted to enjoy it. Alice watched Briathos pull up in her car looking solemn as he returned from saying his goodbyes to Theresa. She jumped at the knock on the door. “You scared me.”

“Sorry
, Love. How are you feeling?” Cole asked as he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close to him.

“I’m fine.” He raised his eyebrow in response. “Okay I’m at sixty, seventy percent. I’ll be fine
. This isn’t my first rodeo.” she laughed awkwardly.

“We’re all scared
, Alice, even me. I don’t want this to be the last time I hold you.”

She reached up and allowed her lips to find his.
They fell back onto the bed, unable to part their mouths from one another. They both knew they had a million other things to attend to before the Fallen announced the final seal being opened, but their hunger for one another was amplified by their heightened emotions, and they could not breathe without feeling the other as closely as they possibly could. Cole pulled her t-shirt over her head and unbuttoned her jeans. She ripped his shirt off of him and as they hurried to remove the barriers before them, they felt drunk with love. Cole climbed on top of Alice and rocked them hard enough to make the headboard scream. They rolled over and Alice used the wall for leverage to move back and forth on top of him. He slid his hands up her sides, pulling her onto him and closer to him. With a final burst, they released all their emotions, crumbling back onto the bed.

Cole held Alice in his arms tightly
, kissing her gently. “I love you.”

“I love you
, too,” she said with an enormous grin, still slightly out of breath. She stared out the window and though she had just enjoyed a moment of pure joy, she saw the moon begin to pinken. “Cole?”

“I see it.
It’s almost time.”

“We should get dressed and get ready.”
Her nerves were leaking through, and although she had known this day would come, she had hoped it wouldn’t come to pass. She had silently begged God to save them all and not to put them through what was coming. She felt foolish, but even as a child when He never responded, she had still felt compelled to ask for His love and help. Cole grabbed her arm, pulling her back into him.

“We will win this
, Alice. This is our destiny, as shitty as the journey has been at times.”

“It’s been wild
.” She touched his face gently. “I wouldn’t change it for the world.”

“Let’s send this bastard to the abyss where he belongs.
Now we just have to figure out how to get you in to talk to God.”

“Just add it to the list.”
They got dressed and headed downstairs, they hoped not for the last time, knowing it more than likely was. Hope was all they had to cling to.

Alice looked around at her
Fallen family as they fought against the pain building inside of them.

“We should head there now; who knows when they plan on showing their faces,” Paul said.

“She’s not healed enough for this,” Kokabiel added.

“She can hear you
,” Alice retorted.

“She is stronger than anyone has given her credit for.
She will be all right; we just have to protect her,” Briathos said.

“How do we
get God to talk to her?” Cole asked.

“Briathos?” Paul asked.

“All of His children will be there, there’s even the possibility the Lamb Himself will arise as it is prophecy for Him to return. You will have to tap into them, into their connection with Him. That’s how you will get your time to speak with Him.”

“Will it work?” Jake asked.

“I don’t know but it’s all that we have.”

“Let’s go
,” Alice ordered.

They all filed out of the house
, giving orders to the Fallen and Nephilim that had gathered for their cause. The sky was covered with a sea of charcoal clouds, yet the moon shone brightly through a wildly bright crimson. Alice felt it was an omen of the bloodshed that was to come on their battlefield and all around the world. She had not forgotten what the End of Days meant for the kin of her other half, mankind.

Alice was eerily quiet in the car ride to the field that held their mothers
’ souls and the souls of so many others. Now that she knew all those souls had been suffering relentlessly for centuries, she became even more determined to save them all. Rogziel had chosen this place for the sentimental value it held for her and she knew it. He thought it was her weakness but all of the Fallen knew it was yet another strength she held. Rogziel had the ability to rain hell, or heaven, onto her and her loved ones on her property, as real estate meant nothing to an angel of God. She shivered slightly, trying to shake the nerves that crawled across her skin, yet she felt a calmness set in as Cole radiated his gift through her, an echo from their supposed gift from God. She couldn’t believe that after everything they had done and gone through, Rogziel was still this determined to eradicate them all. Many of the Fallen from their last battle there returned to stand by her side one more time. She wondered if God knew that Rogziel was fighting a war in His name. It was her understanding that He wasn’t a fan of bloodshed in His name, not that it was very different from all the wars mankind had fought in His name. Their fathers followed closely behind them in Sariel’s pickup filled with weaponry, mostly swords, as they were old fashioned that way. The thought of her grandfather chilled her to the core, washing sadness all over her, but it was quickly turned into a flame of rage. She might not live to marry her beloved Cole, but she wasn’t going down without a fight. None of them were.

“We’re almost there
,” Cole said.

“We’ve beat them before, we can do it again
,” Jake said.

“I hope so
,” Alice added nervously. She was ready; her entire life had been leading up to this moment. She wasn’t going to let an overzealous angel or a hateful God stand in her way. “I wish Sariel was here,” her voice faltered.

“We all do
, Alice,” Jake said with a reassuring hand on her shoulder. She held his hand for a moment in her hand before letting it go. “All we can do is fight for our right to exist. It’s no longer about going home to a Father who doesn’t love us any longer. On top of that, mankind does not deserve an apocalypse just because one angel wants to end us all.”

“No
, they don’t, and neither do we,” Cole spoke with fury in his voice. She had almost forgotten that he, too had a difficult childhood, a difficult life. Nothing had really made any sense to either of them until they had found each other, until they had found their family. Alice stared out the window to see that broken down liquor store lightly covered in a blanket of snow and knew they had finally arrived. Cole and Alice shared a mutual debate of whether they were ready for what was about to go down. The funereal precession of cars trailed behind them as they pulled over on the side of the road and began exiting their cars.

The air was chilling on her skin but her blood was hot with anger.
Penemue, Kokabiel and Briathos lowered the tailgate of the truck and began passing out swords. Alice took a familiar one that Kokabiel had tucked inside the cab for her.

“Are you ready for this?” Kokabiel asked
, concerned.

“As ready as one could be
,” Alice smiled. She was terrified but something inside her gave her hope that they may survive this in one way or another. She felt the weight of the world on her shoulders, as she was sure they all did. They slowly covered half of the field and waited for the first burst of lightning to warn them of the Angel’s arrival. As the clouds lit up like the fourth of July, tension rose among all that stood proudly, some with hope, some who felt they had nothing left to give, and some with blind faith.

“That seems like an awful lot more of a preshow than last time
,” she whispered.

“Don’t let them spook us.
Stand strong!” Penemue announced.

Lightning zapped across the field
, burning giant holes in the dead grass and causing many to jump and panic. Alice took a deep breath and held it, slowing down the space around them.

“Here they come!”
she yelled after she exhaled quickly. First a dozen angels dove to the ground and began swinging swords made from the same lightning bolts as before, swinging directly at nearby Fallen. Soon hundreds were covering the field and panic began to set in as Alice and her Fallen were greatly outnumbered.

The Four Horsemen emerged on their gloriously enormous ste
eds from the darkened woods beyond the field. Gasps echoed across the field in panic as they took in the beauty of the Book of Revelations in the flesh before them. They were all connected due to one of Alice’s gifts; Alice crumbled to the ground as their panic rose to enormous heights. Cole was crumbling to the ground as he was connected to Alice like no other, and her turmoil was his. She attempted to block the agony from the rest of the Fallen, panicked as if this was Rogziel’s plan all along. “Cole!” she screamed.

You must calm down before you get us all killed before the battle even begins.
Penemue’s calm voice spoke to all the Nephilim that were causing Alice and Cole’s discomfort.
There you go, relax. We will survive but we must all believe it to be so.

Alice stood up
, clutching her father’s hand thankfully. She regained her ability to block what was left of the panic from the Fallen and Cole. “Are you okay?” Cole nodded and she turned to their fathers, Briathos and Jake.
That can’t happen again or we will all die on this field.

I will keep them calm.
You can say Cole and I are similar in our abilities.
Briathos offered.

“Do it
,” Cole said. The lightening continued to zap across the gray sky, bringing their attention back to the Four Horsemen who were moving steadily towards them. Cole, Jake and Alice moved with backs together, ferociously defending each other and themselves.

“I don’t see him!” Alice shouted.

“Who?” Cole asked mesmerized by the Horsemen.

“Rogziel
,” she answered.

“He’s here somewhere
, I can feel it and he’s looking for you,” Jake said sniffing at the air.

An angel came down in between them
, breaking their connection loose. They quickly recovered, jumped to their feet and locked arms. Alice ran up the Angel’s body, kicking him in the face and knocking him back several feet. When he stood up and ran at her, Jake severed his wings and threw him to the ground. Briathos ran up to them, making sure they were all right, taking out more than a few Angels on his way. “Are you all right?” he asked Alice.

“I’m al
l right,” she nodded her head, less convincingly. They were all completely surrounded by the giant force of Angels pushing against them. “Their herding us like cattle!”