The Belial Stone (The Belial Series #1)(44)

The room descended into silence when Dom finished speaking. Laney stared at each of them in turn. Were they really considering this? Henry and Patrick looked thoughtful. Danny’s face was a mask of concentration. He was undeniably running a myriad of permutations with the information that none of them would ever understand. Her eyes fell on Jake. Disbelief was stamped across his face.

She thought back to all that they had been through, all they had seen. How else to explain Paul’s abilities? And the medical examiner’s results? Was this explanation really so crazy compared with any other possibility? The only other options were super-soldier or alien. They knew he was not a normal human. But still . . .

“Okay,” Laney said, drawing out the word. “So, let’s say for arguments sake, fallen angels did exist. Weren’t they all banished?”

Patrick shook his head. “Not exactly. According to scripture, the fallen angels were a plague on humanity. They introduced greed, vice, and encouraged all sorts of base desires. The world became a cruel and vicious place as a result of their intervention. Humanity cried out to God for help and he sent his archangels to punish the fallen angels. They were exiled to a pit in the desert for seventy generations, which is when God said the world would end.”

Jake grunted. “Right, so all the bad angels got locked up. Can we now move back to reality?”

Henry shook his head. “That may not be entirely true. There was a loophole. According to Enoch, God banished the fallen for seventy generations and until the end of the world. And, according to the Bible, God did attempt to destroy the world by a flood, to rid it of the corruption created by the fallen angels and their offspring.”

“But the world didn’t end.” Laney said.

Patrick nodded. “But the world didn’t end. And God vowed to never try and destroy the world again. Because of that compassion, Azazyel and some of the other angels were allegedly able to escape after the seventy generations passed.”

Dom bounced out of his chair and fetched a bag of cookies from the cabinet behind him. He plopped back in his chair, offering cookies to those around the table. “As a result, Azazyel and the others have lived and died thousands of times. And they have the knowledge of all those incarnations to bring with them. As well as the fighting skills they’ve honed over the millennia.”

“Well, I suppose that could explain the abilities we saw,” Laney said.

“Oh, sure.” Dom took a bite of his cookie. He looked at Laney. “And as you well know, when they're here, they’re, for all intents and purposes, mortal. They can be killed.”

No one seemed to know what to say, so they just stared at Dom in silence. Dom seemed not to notice as he rummaged in the bag for another cookie. Finally finding an acceptable one, he looked back at the group and smiled. “Hey, I’ve got some pictures of the angels in their present incarnations if you want to see them.”

Laney was about to ask to do just that, when Jake stormed away from the table.





CHAPTER 33



Although getting into Dom's lab required Henry’s presence and security codes, getting out just required some muscle to pull open the blast doors. With the anger dogging Jake’s steps, he had more than enough to accomplish the task.

“Angels, Atlantis, psychics, and ancient hippies,” he growled as he stalked up the tunnel.

He’d reached the second blast door before he realized he wasn’t alone. He held it open for Laney to slip through before he followed her out.

She reached the front door and pushed it open. “You okay?”

Jake noted the concern in her eyes and his anger ebbed a bit. “I don't know, Laney. What exactly am I supposed to make of all that?”

Laney didn’t say anything, just followed behind him as he began to push through the overgrown path. When the path was clear, she stepped up next to him. “Jake, I know you’re frustrated and you want to do something. But I think this actually does help.”

Jake stopped short and glared down at her. “Help? How the hell does any of this crazy help?”

She flinched at his tone, but held her ground. “It helps more than you getting angry and storming off.”

“Look, I’m not angry. I’m just…” He ran his hands through his hair. “Hell, I don’t know what I am. This just all seems too crazy. I know what I saw in Afghanistan. I know what happened yesterday. I know what the M.E. says. But fallen angels?”

“I know it seems unreal, but we have to look at the facts. These men are unreal. Their fighting skills, their healing abilities. None of them are normal.”

Jake looked past Laney. He let out a breath. She was right. They weren’t normal. Which meant there wasn’t going to be a nice, easy explanation. “I know. It's just… When I heard Tom had gone missing, I thought it would take me a couple of days to track him down. I figured he’d run off. I’d talk him down, help him get settled. But this? I don't want him in the middle of this.”

She reached out and squeezed his hand. “I know. But we don’t always get what we want.”

He looked at her upturned face and saw the sadness there. “I don’t want you in the middle of this, either.”

She smiled, the sadness still there. “Like I said, we don’t always get what we want.”