Celestial Beginnings (Nephilim Series) (19 page)

Everything went fine, except now the kids are yelling that they can’t find someone.

Terah sounded confused, but he didn’t feel too concerned.

Just keep looking, the kid’s there somewhere.

Malachi, they say the last time they saw her was when they were in the building.

“Shit.
Okay, we’ll look.” Just when you think everything is going smoothly.

While Gideon directed the civilians to the stairwell to start descending, Malachi radioed down to the police to let them know the situation was contained and they could make their way up.
He was really looking forward to all the annoying questioning that went along with a mission such as this, he thought sarcastically. Luckily, he only answered to his superiors and they got the job of filling in the blanks for the local PD.

Both Gideon and he were so busy discussing the numbers on how many men and demons were killed that they didn’t notice the woman walking up to one of the corrupts until she was leaning over him.

“Hey! Get away from him! What are you brain-dead? That’s a bomb on him.” Gideon never sugar coated anything.

When she reached down to him, Malachi got anxious and started to walk over to her.
“Ma’am? You need to step away from him, now!”

When she stood back up, she had the same object in her hand that the man had in his when he died.
She looked over at the two of them and smiled. It was then Malachi saw how distorted her face was. He knew two things at that moment. They missed a demon in the initial attack, and it was about to detonate the bomb.

“Fuck!
Get down!” Malachi yelled as he dove toward the stairwell. Granted, nephilims were hard to kill and could live forever if they were careful. One’s heart needed to be destroyed to finally die. They could lose body parts, drown, anything as long as the heart survived. Their ribcages were almost impenetrable, but fire can always work its way to their heart. Meaning, a bomb could do them in.

The bomb only took out a chunk of the floor, but it managed to make the building incredibly unstable.
He knew they had to work three times as fast to get everyone out before the building collapsed.

Moving as quickly as they could down the stairwell, the two of them were trying to get the screaming people out faster.

Malachi, you guys alright?

Gemariah sounded panicked.

Yeah, we’re about to pass the second floor.
Just trying to get everyone out.

About to round to the next section of stairs, Malachi remembered that the daycare was on the second floor.

Terah, please tell me you found the kid!

No mal!
She’s nowhere.

“Shit!
Gideon, I have to stop here.” Malachi was yelling over all the noise.

“What the hell for?”
Gideon obviously didn’t like that idea.

“There’s a kid missing, I want to make sure no one was left.”
As he was speaking, he nodded toward the second floor door.

Gideon stood in front of him.
“Forget the kid, man! If that fire reaches you, you’re a goner. Or worse, the building collapses, you walk away unharmed, and risk exposure.” Gideon jabbed his finger down the stairs. “Now move!”

“Gideon, move out of my way and get the rest of the people out the building.”
When Gideon didn’t budge, Malachi said the one thing he knew would piss Gideon off but would make him start to move. “That’s an order!”

Gideon’s face transformed into a deep scowl.
“Fine! Get yourself killed, see if I care, but don’t bring us down with you when people want to know how you got out unscathed!” With that parting remark, he marched down the stairs and Malachi could hear him screaming at the people to move their asses.

It was amazing that Malachi could find humor in a situation like this, but he found himself smiling and shaking his head.
Being almost 400 years old, he didn’t see Gideon changing anytime soon.

Malachi grabbed the handle and swung the door open.
Immediately he felt the heat and knew there was a fire blazing somewhere close.

“Hello!
Anybody in here?” He was yelling and hoping if there was someone there, that they could hear him over all the noise.

Terah, what’s this girl’s name?

After a short pause, he had his answer.

Emily.
She’s six.

“Emily! Everyone’s looking for you.
Are you here?” He was working his way down the hallway while yelling for the little girl.

He finally reached the door to the daycare and found the bodies of the two corrupts that had been in charge of the children.
Walking inside, he yelled for Emily again.

There was no answer, but he felt a surge of emotion.
Someone was here.

“Emily, don’t worry.
I won’t hurt you, but we need to leave right now.”

He felt a mixture of emotion, a lot of fear mixed with a little bit of…hope.
He now had no doubt that it was Emily’s emotions he was channeling.

“Come on Em.
We need to go.”

Right after he spoke, a small head poked around the corner.
“You called me Em. My mommy calls me that.”

Even though there was a sense of urgency, Malachi walked slowly over to her so not to frighten her by his size.
When he got closer he held out his hand. “Come on. Let’s go and you can tell me all about it.” He really didn’t know what “it” was, but anything would be good as long as they were moving.

She placed her tiny hand in his and he picked her up.
Malachi started to head toward the stairwell but felt the building sway. It was about to come down, and he had to figure out the best way to keep this little girl alive.

He went to the window to check out the drop.
It wasn’t far but the ground would not make the drop any easier. It was nothing but asphalt and cars, nothing there to get a soft landing. A jump from the window wouldn’t kill him. He might even be able to walk away, but he didn’t know if he should take the chance while holding Em.

“What are you?”

The question brought his train of thought to a stop.
He looked at Emily who was staring intently at him. “Why would you ask that?”

“I saw what those other men looked like.
You look different too, but not like them.” Emily was examining his face.

“What did they look like?”

“Ugly and scary; their skin had black wavy lines all over it and their eyes were black too.” She let out a tiny shiver.

Malachi stopped what he was doing and he whispered back to her.
“What do I look like?” Part of him was afraid to hear the answer, not wanting to hear that she could see the evil in him.

“You’re different.
You have a red fog moving around you. It goes around you and through you. It makes me think of Christmas!”

Malachi knew exactly what she was.
She was a champion. Someone put on this earth to only do good up until the time of their main purpose. More times than not, they will die protecting the person they were put on this earth to defend. They couldn’t be corrupted or commanded, and no powers, good or evil, worked on them.

He had only come across one in his lifetime before this, even though he suspected Hugh, the boy from Trinity’s class to be one as well.
They were an important part in the great fight and this little girl just became increasingly more important to keep alive.

Every champion had a special way of seeing the true side to people.
Seeing colors must be Emily’s way of doing that.

“What are you?”

There was that question again. His existence was a secret to all, how could he answer this.

“Think of me as a guardian angel.”

She must have liked that answer because her grip on him became more stable before Malachi walked back up to the window.

“That makes sense.”

Malachi was so engrossed in thinking about the jump that it took him a minute to remember what he had said.
 

“Why is that?”
He asked offhandedly with his mind still on getting out of there.

“Your color makes me feel safe.
I know you’re good.” She gave him a smile when his gaze landed on her. She was so sure of what she said.

All the action from the day must have muddled her instincts.
He could play nice for as long as he liked, but he wasn’t kidding himself. Someone with a family history such as his could not come close to actually being good.

All of the sudden, the building let out a loud groan and started to shift.
He could hear the roaring sound of glass breaking plus beams buckling and knew the building was collapsing onto itself. He had no choice now, he had to jump and do his best to shield the girl.

Moving fast, he gripped her to his chest and yelled as he backed up.
“You hold onto me and don’t let go!” He gave himself a running start and while charging toward the open window asked God for a little help on this one.

He leaped as far as he could and cleared a good distance.
When he was in the air he heard the building crashing down behind him. If he would have waited even a second longer, he would have been tangled in the rubble.

When the ground was getting near he flipped them around so he would land on his back with her on top of him.
The impact was harsh and stunned the both of them. For that moment, Malachi thought of Trinity; her smile, her laugh, her touch, and how, more than anything, he wanted to be with her right then.

Reality quickly set in and he spun them once again to cradle his body over hers, using his as a shield from falling debris.
There were a couple pieces that painfully struck and he was grateful that his head got back in the game in time to cover the girl.

Malachi looked down at Emily.
When he saw that she was crying he got concerned. “What is it? Are you hurt?”

All she did was continue to cry, so Malachi calmed his voice to try and sooth her.
“Sweetie, I need to know if you’re hurt so we can fix it.”

She shook her head.
“No. I just want my mommy.”

Malachi could understand this.
“Just give it a little bit longer and we will go try and find her. Was she working in the building?”

“No” The answer was said as a sob.

“Don’t worry. We’ll find her. She’s probably out there right now waiting for you.” She started to calm down some. “Won’t you have a story to tell people, huh?”

They ended up waiting there for another fifteen minutes, until debris stopped falling around them.
When they got up, he picked her up to carry her over large parts of the building. Nearing the police cars, a commotion started when they were spotted. The murmurs started and soon turned to clapping, then to cheering.

“Why are they so happy?”
Emily asked in confusion.

“Because everyone was worried about you and now they know you’re safe.”

When they cleared the rubble, Malachi noticed the media cameras and ducked his head down.
This was not staying out of the spotlight, but if given the choice to do it over again, he would.

“Emily!”
He heard the little girl’s name being screamed from a group of civilians. “Emily!”

The second time got Emily’s attention.
Swinging her head toward the commotion, she let out a scream loud enough to make him flinch. “Mommy!!”

She started crying again, and Malachi was glad that her mother was here this time to help.
When they all reached each other, Malachi held out his arms slightly to hand back her daughter. Instead of taking her, the mom surprised him by wrapping her arms around them both.

Malachi’s body immediately stiffened.
He was not used to this…this affection from strangers. She immediately started crying. Malachi took a deep breath. He did not do tears well, and at the moment he had two female’s crying on him.

“Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you.” The mother was repeating herself over and over.

“It was no problem.”
He pressed Emily more firmly into her mother, hoping to discreetly dislodge her. When it worked and she now was cradling Emily in her arms, he spoke again. “She’s a special one. Take real good care of her.”

All the mother could do was nod and Malachi started walking away.
After a few steps and being followed by the camera crew, he cringed at the thought of drawing attention to himself.

Malachi had his team in his sights but couldn’t make it to them quickly enough.
All of the sudden one leg gave out, and then the next and he was falling to the pavement. He caught himself with his hands but immediately rolled to his back, breathing heavy and gripping his chest. Someone was at his side by the time he let out a hoarse groan asking him where it hurt.