Angels of the Knights (11 page)

“Kade! My Aventi!”

“Where?” He sounded panicked.

“In my bag.”

The second Kjin came at her, and she pummeled him with three quick jabs to the jaw and then landed a punch to the abdomen. He doubled over in pain.

“Here!” Kade screamed out and she turned to catch the Aventi he threw her way. Immediately, she banged it against the Kur on her arm and it flared to life.

The second Kjin cursed and ran down the beach still holding his stomach.

“Stay here!” she screamed at Kade. “When I release the shade with the Aventi, it will try to seek out another body. I don’t want you anywhere near it!”

She took off at a run and was upon the fleeing Kjin in just a few seconds. She kicked him in the back and sent him sprawling in the sand. She stabbed him with one quick thrust of the sword and the demon wraith exploded out of the body, hissing in anger. Thinking only of her need to protect Kade, she pierced it a second time, and it disintegrated into black ash and drifted down onto the beach.

She rushed back to the first Kjin with the broken nose and grabbed his hair, the Aventi at his throat.

“What are you doing here?” she snarled.

“Oh, out for a moonlight stroll, darlin’,” he said sarcastically, his voice already altered by the swelling on his face.

“I don’t get it,” Fallon said. “Why are you working together with another Kjin?”

“I do as I’m told,” he drawled.

“So, you’re taking orders from someone else. Who?”

“The blackcoat boss, darlin’.” He turned his head toward Kade and lifted his lips in a bloody smile. “But, it’s him that I’m interested in now. Come here, boy. You look like you have a strong body, and I’ll be needin’ one momentarily.”

“Kade, go.”

“Fallon…”

She never took her eyes off the Kjin. “Go!”

“I’ll be waiting by the fire,” he said reluctantly and walked away.

The Kjin tried to catch her off guard and lunge at her, but her Aventi slipped into his neck with ease. As soon as the dark specter rose into the night, she slashed it in two.

“That body is off limits to you, Kjin,” she said softly into the night. “It’s all mine.”

C
HAPTER
12

All in a Knight’s Work

They drove home in silence. Her brooding centered on trying to figure out why the Kjin seemed to be gathering in Alden. There was Marc Ellis, of course, the man she killed when she first came to town, the Kjin who took possession of Kade’s friend, Ethan, and now these two tonight. She could no longer deny that something was going on. The Kjin admitted as much when he said he was summoned by the blackcoat, whatever that meant. She decided to a council with the other Knights in the area to see if together they could figure this out.

But, what was Kade brooding about? Was he upset from watching the violence of her actions tonight?

He pulled the Jeep up in front of her house, and she looked at his profile in the darkness. “What’s the matter?” she asked him.

He grunted. “I’m a guy’s guy, Fallon, and I think it’s just going to take me some time to accept the fact that my girlfriend is stronger than I am.”

She winced. “That ego again?”

“Yeah. It pretty much defines me.”

“Ouch. Sorry.”

He turned to look at her. “Don’t be. It’s who you are and I accept that. It just might take me a little time here.”

“Do you want to come in?” She really should not even ask, because she needed to get to the university tonight, but she did not want to leave like this with his feelings so obviously conflicted about her. It felt unresolved.

“Can’t. I have to get some sleep. Test in the morning.”

“Okay, see you tomorrow.” She reached over and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

“Good night,” he whispered.

Why did it feel like he was really saying
goodbye
?

She stepped of the car and, ever the gentleman, he waited until she went into the house and shut the door before backing up and pulling into his own driveway next door.

Hurrying up the stairs, Fallon stripped off her clothes and damp bathing suit. She chose black jeans and a black shirt and then retrieved her Aventi from her bag. Quickly tying her hair in a ponytail while she moved, she ran down the stairs and back out into the night.

The streets were quiet, and as she walked the four blocks to AU, her thoughts drifted to the events of this evening. For the first time since admitting to Kade that she was an angel, she was having second thoughts. It was too much too soon, and he freaked out. How could she expect a normal guy to accept and understand the paranormal? The thought that she may lose Kade brought a stinging burn to her throat, but she refused to allow any tears to fall. Tonight she had a job to do. The tears would have to wait.

She found the bricked, four-story Bartlett Hall in the administrative section of the campus. She knew the doors would be locked at this hour, so she slipped around the west side of the building, which was furthest from the road.

Stepping back to examine the exterior wall, she noticed one window on the third floor slightly ajar. That was all she needed. There would be enough handholds in the brick and mortar to make it to the window. Enough for her anyway. With one quick glance around to make sure no one was around, she leapt at the building and began to scale the wall, shimmying effortlessly over the surface.

When she reached the window, she used her strength to pry open the window all the way and slipped inside. Soundlessly, she dropped to the floor.

The room was empty. It was a conference room of some sort and she hurried through it and out into the hallway. The clerk she spoke to on Monday told her that Marc Ellis’ office was on the second floor, so she found the stairs at the end of the corridor and started down.

The faint sound of a running vacuum cleaner from somewhere deeper in the building drifted to her, but it was too far away to give her serious concern.

Jogging down the hall, she looked at both sides of the corridor for nameplates or signs. Some doors had no labels, but she ran past them, deciding to come back only if she could not find the professor’s office. But, she did find it. On a thick oak door at the end of the hall was the name Marc Ellis, President and Professor of Anthropology.

As she suspected, it was locked.

She slammed the heel of her hand into the knob, and the splinter of wood echoed in the hallway as it popped free of its casing. She pushed inside and closed the door behind her.

Moonlight streamed in the south wall made up almost entirely of glass. She moved to the enormous desk in the center of the room and began opening drawers.

They were empty! How could they be empty? Finally, she opened the narrow center drawer. There was a single piece of paper inside.

She took it out and unfolded it. It read,
Good evening, Miss Angell. I hope you will not be too disappointed that your search has turned up nothing. Thank you, my dear, for making my job easy. Goodbye, Fallon.

Her blood ran cold.

Marc Ellis knew who and what she was.

As soon as she slammed the drawer shut, she heard a metallic click and every instinct in her body warned her that she set off a trip wire of some sort. She started to sprint to the door, but a blinding light stopped her in her tracks an instant before a thunderous explosion sent her sailing backwards out of the glass wall and into the night beyond.

Fallon knew immediately that her back and legs were broken. Fighting through the pain, she used the strength in her forearms to drag her battered body into the sculpted hedges that ringed Alden University. As loud sirens pierced the night and emergency personnel converged on the scene, she covered herself as best she could with leaves and branches from the ground. It would take some time for her injuries to heal, and she just hoped to remain hidden until then.

She did not have the energy to think about Marc Ellis or question how he could have known that she was a Knight. She would unravel the pieces later, when she was restored to health.

For hours, she laid there and listened to the firemen fight the blaze as her body healed itself, realigning bones and knitting sinew back together. She felt every wrench as her fractured vertebrae fused back together.

Sweat dripped from her brow and it took every bit of willpower she possessed not to cry out as she silently endured the agony caused by the healing and from being immobile on the cold ground for so long.

She had never been this hurt before and passed out twice during the night from the extent of effort needed to repair her injuries.

Several times, men drifted close to her place of concealment in their search for evidence, but passed by without discovering her.

Only when the faint blushes of pink from the rising sun made their appearance, did she finally feel whole again. Tentatively, she tested the movement in her limbs and discovered that she was able to do so without pain.

Relived, she lifted herself into a squat and peered through the bushes. People were still mingling around the scene—mostly officers from the Alden CSI Team. Brushing the grassy debris from her hair and body, she exited the back of the hedge row and made the short walk back to her house unseen.

Without showering, she fell into her bed and drifted off to sleep with the knowledge that there would be no classes at AU today. Not that she would have attended anyway. That ruse was now over.

When she awoke again at nine o’clock, she felt better but was famished from the healing process. She went downstairs to make herself a breakfast of eggs and toast and after she ate, went back upstairs to take that much needed hot shower. As the water poured over her body, her mind focused on Marc Ellis.

He tried to kill her.

The note he left for her clearly indicated that the bomb was meant for her. How did he know she was a Knight? The more she thought about it, the more she realized that there was only one possible way.

Kade must have told him.

She shook her head in denial. It was impossible for her to believe. She trusted Kade. She trusted him with her life and no matter what the circumstantial evidence, she refused to believe he would betray her.

But, where was he?

He must have heard about the explosion last night. Surely, he would have wanted to check to make sure she was all right. Or, did he decide after seeing her destroy the two Kjin at the lake that he could not accept her for what she was? Was that what made him run to his uncle and tell him all he knew?

Earlier she had fell victim to Father Tomas’ romantic notion that love was an option for her, but she had been a fool. That much was clear now.

Frustrated with herself, she turned off the shower and stomped out of the bathroom, dripping water over the floors. As she dressed, she ignored the pain in her chest and decided on her next course of action.

She still needed to get to Marc Ellis. To do that, she needed his home address if only to track his movements. Now that Kade was gone, that left Father Tomas’ altar boy, Anthony. She would go to see him this morning.

Thinking of Anthony, she picked up her backpack and opened it. Inside was the paper the boy dropped yesterday. She took it out. It was a copy of an old newspaper clipping. Curious, she read through it carefully and grew more stunned with every word.

Father Tomas was arrested fifteen years ago for murdering a child? Why did he not tell her? He brought her to town to investigate the disappearance of two children in Alden without ever disclosing the fact that he himself had been suspected of killing one? Was this why Anthony had been so nervous? Was the boy afraid of Father Tomas?

Crumpling the article in her hand, she realized that she needed answers. Deciding to try the local library first, she grabbed her backpack and headed outside. Once out on the front steps, she could not help herself and glanced over at Kade’s house, but everything was quiet and nobody appeared to be awake yet.

Oh, Kade, I am so sorry I cannot be the girl you need, because in truth, you are everything that I need.