Fallen
Book 3: Missing Girls and Mystery Monsters
Chapter 4
- The Hunters and The Hunted -
When the sun began to rise in New York, Ava returned her consciousness to her body, and spent a few minutes stretching her limbs, warming up the muscles of her vessel. Luck had not been with her during her search; the witches seemed to be warded against being spied upon, and though she thought she had detected some sign of Kyle Dunn in his home city, the others had evaded her notice. Either they had figured out that Dylan was dead, and had been made suspicious because of it, or the demon they had summoned had taught them how to evade detection. Possibly both were true.
At least she did have a starting point. Henderson, Nevada, was where Kyle Dunn lived, and though she hadn't been able to detect him at the home of his family, there was a feeling of... something... in the city that she just couldn't define. The first thing she would do today, she decided, would be to visit Henderson and observe what was happening there herself. She could then visit Kyle's family and see if he was with them.
She stood up from the bed, took a moment to stretch her legs, and then left the bedroom. The smell of fresh coffee was in the air, and she found Wayne in the kitchen, brewing a fresh batch from beans. His hair was messy and ruffled; he probably hadn't slept too well on the sofa. Ava felt a little guilty for that, and a little guilty for allowing him to believe that she truly was Amber, but it was a necessary deception.
"Morning," he said. "Can I interest you in coffee?"
She wrinkled her nose in disgust. "No thanks, I can't stand the stuff."
"Personally, I can't function unless I've had at least three cups in the morning, but to each his - or her - own."
"I think it's time I headed back to my motel room," she said. "I've got some packing to do."
"Ah yeah," he replied, looking a little disappointed. "Your album thing. Any idea where you're off to next?"
"No, not yet," she lied. The last thing she wanted was Wayne calling anybody ahead, to warn them that she might be visiting. "I'll have a look at bus and train times once I've packed, and make my mind up then."
"Here," he said, handing her a blue folder. "I put the info and the pictures in there for you. Should keep them a little safer."
"I appreciate it. And thank you for your help, Wayne. It's comforting to know that my brother had such good friends."
"No problemo. I ah... I put my phone number on the bottom of that list, too," he admitted with a guilty smile. "Just give me a call if you need anything else, or if you're ever in New York again."
"I will, thanks."
"Right. Well. Let's get you on your way, then."
He escorted her to the door of the apartment, and she stepped through it. Despite the fact that she disliked goodbyes, she sensed that Wayne wanted one. Needed one, even. And suddenly, she understood. Humans said goodbye because their lives were so short and frail, that they never knew if this was the last time they were going to see each other. The real Amber might never actually see Wayne, and the night would be nothing but a memory to him. Saying goodbye was a way of ending a chapter... and yet, most humans never actually said goodbye. They said, "see you later" and "see you soon", they expressed a desire to see each other again, all the while avoiding the grim finality of the word itself. What strange, contradictory creatures they were.
"It's been a pleasure meeting you, Amber, and I hope I see you again some day," Wayne said, offering her his hand, which she shook.
"And likewise. Goodbye, Wayne."
She heard the door close behind her as she turned and walked down the hallway to the entrance of the building, but she did not actually leave it. Instead, she ducked beneath the stairwell, where she could not be seen. This was probably the quietest place she would find to teleport.
Just as she was on the verge of dematerialising, words echoed around her head, bouncing off the walls of her skull. It was her name, repeated several times, along with a request for her to appear. But most surprising of all, was that the request did not come from Bobby, or Gabriel, or the Winchesters... it came from Daniel Carver! What in her Father's name could Danny be praying to her for? She closed her eyes, and focused more closely on the prayer. It sounded quite desperate, and she knew he wouldn't be praying to her without good cause. Perhaps it would be pertinent to put her trip to Henderson on hold, at least until she had visited Danny.
She teleported immediately to his side, manifesting fully before him. He was standing outside the RV, which was parked in a large, mostly empty car park just outside a forested parkland, at the forefront of which was a children's playground and a large area set aside for what appeared to be track and field events. His eyes were closed and his hands were clasped in front of him, his eyebrows deeply furrowed as he repeated his prayer, pleading with her to appear.
"What do you require?" she asked, and his eyes flew open as he jumped in surprise.
"You're here! Thank God!" he said. "I wasn't sure it would work... I know people pray to God all the time, but I had to ask google how to get an angel to appear, and I found this wacky site that claimed angels could hear prayers addressed directly to them, and if they were feeling benevolent, they might respond, but I thought it was a long shot at best."
"I heard your prayer," she assured him. Then, she looked at him more closely. His skin was pale, his blue-grey eyes wide and showing concern. His aura had changed; usually blue and quite calm, it was now spiking yellow and green, alternating randomly between panic and fear. What could have driven him to this? "What is wrong, Danny?"
"It's Merry and Pippin," he said, biting his lower lip. "They're missing."
"I thought it wasn't unusual for them to leave you alone whilst they hunt?"
"It isn't, but this is different. Something is very, very wrong, Ava, and I don't know what to do."
"Calm down," she instructed. "Nothing will be achieved by panicking. Take a deep breath." She waited for him to obey, and then nodded encouragingly when he did. "Now, start at the beginning, please."
"Yes, the beginning," he agreed. He turned and opened the RV door. "Come inside, I'll explain it all."
She followed him into the RV and took a seat on a locked trunk as he picked up several newspaper clippings from the bed. He handed them to her and she briefly glanced over them. They were much the same; three bodies had been found mutilated and in parts. Wild animals had been blamed for the attacks... coyotes, the papers suggested.
"You were working this case?" she asked.
"Yeah. I picked up on it after Michigan, and since we weren't all that far away, we decided to check it out. Werewolf was our first guess... the lunar cycles matched up perfectly. My sisters went to examine the bodies and check out the crime scenes whilst I tried to put together a portfolio of attack locations and victims, trying to find a link."
"Did you find the werewolf?"
He shook his head, then brushed his shaggy brown hair out of his eyes. "It's not a werewolf. The hearts were all accounted for. Whatever killed the vics, it just snacked on them, chomped some of the limbs and internal organs but left the heart behind. A werewolf wouldn't do that."
"I agree with your assessment," she said, putting the clippings down. "Do you think what killed these people has harmed your sisters?"
"I don't know," he said. "Merry and Pippin were acting... strange. We heard a report on the police scanner that another body had been found, one that had been rotting in a house for a few days. My sisters thought they could get there before the police, and get a proper look at the crime scene before it was ruined by the pigs."
"Pigs?" she asked, confused.
"Sorry. British slang for police. Anyway, I don't know what Merry and Pippin found there, but they got back here pretty fast and said we had to leave town immediately. Told me to pack up the RV whilst they went to take care of some business. They didn't tell me what that business was, but they said they'd only be gone for an hour or two. That was yesterday, at three o'clock in the afternoon, and I haven't seen them since."
"Did you try calling their phones?"
"Of course. I get automated messages telling me their phones are switched off. I also went looking for them, asked around in case anybody had seen them, even went back to the morgue in case they'd gone back to speak to the coroner. It's as if they've just disappeared from the face of the Earth. I'm worried, Ava. I've never seen anything spook my sisters before, but something must have done that, because they would never leave town in the middle of a job."
"Would you like me to see if I could locate them?"
"If you don't mind, I would really appreciate that."
"Alright. Where are we, by the way?"
"Fremont, Ohio."
"Are there any local monsters you're aware of, which could have ambushed your sisters?"
"None that I know of."
"Very well. Give me a minute."
She activated her Watcher vision and looked for the twins. Because she had Watched them before, there should have been an immediate link to them, a thread running from the sisters to her, just as there was a thread which ran between her and Bobby, or Castiel. But when she followed the link she found... nothing. It was concerning, because even if the sisters were dead, she would have been able to find their bodies this way. Wherever they were, they were well-hidden.
"I think somebody... or something... has taken them," she said, allowing her eyes to turn blue again as she switched back to her normal vision. "I should be able to see them, but I can't."
"Why not? Can't you see... y'know... everything?"
"No. There are certain creatures which cannot be seen by angels. The Yuan-Ti, for example. I've never seen those before, and I was only able to detect them using visible wavelengths of light, not by using my celestial vision. As well, there are ways of warding against angels via the use of certain Enochian sigils."
"If even you can't see them, how am I going to find them?" he despaired.
"For a start, you won't do it alone. I will help," she told him. "Can you put this somewhere safe for me?" she asked, handing over the blue folder she had brought from Wayne's apartment.
"Sure. What's in it."
"The fruits of my investigation into the witches."
"I'll keep it with my stuff," he said, and put the folder inside a larger storage box that had all manner of paperwork inside it. "So," he said, turning to face her, "where do we start?"
"I suppose," she replied, trying her best to keep the uncertainty from her voice, "that we must first try to deduce what we are dealing with. We're just assuming that whatever killed those people has taken your sisters. Is this the only case you were working on?"
"At the moment, yeah. We tend to do things once job at a time."
"Has there been any indication that any of our previous adversaries... the witches of Dylan's coven, or the Yuan-Ti creatures... could have caught up with you?"
"No, the Yuan-Ti trail went cold," he said. "We weren't able to turn up anything on the urn, and that Kayleigh girl was released home the day before we left Saginaw. As for the witches... apart from digging up information for you, we haven't done anything about them. I doubt they even know we exist."
"How well did your sisters dispose of Dylan's body?"
"They burnt him to char and then buried what was left as deep as they could. It's very possible that nobody even knows he's dead."
"Then if we want to discover what we are dealing with, and find your sisters, we must retrace their steps. We must go to the places they have been, speak to the people they have spoken to, and hope to find clues of their whereabouts. Did they tell you nothing of what they thought was killing people here?"
"No. And, unfortunately, the list of monsters known to eat people is as long as my arm. All I've been able to determine is that it's not a werewolf, which doesn't really help us, does it?"
"Actually, it does. If we can eliminate what we're not dealing with, then whatever we are dealing with must be whatever is left."
He sighed, but did not look quite as worried as when Ava had first arrived, and his aura was spiking less violently, now. Having somebody to discuss his concerns with, and having plans to make, seemed to have a cathartic effect on him.
"I guess we could go and talk to the coroner," he said at last. "Maybe he can tell us the last time he saw my sisters. They were posing as medical students, so God knows what cover we can use."
"Let's not worry about that just yet. First of all, we need to establish a place of safety for ourselves," she said, looking around at the RV. "This van is too small, too exposed, and whoever took your sisters may be able to follow their trail back here."
"What? We can't sit around worrying about that, we have to find Merry and Pippin!"
"And we will," she assured him calmly. "But we must be sensible about it. We won't be able to help anyone if we meet the same fate as your sisters. Do you trust me, Danny?"
He looked at the floor of the van for a moment. "Yeah, I guess so."
"Good. Now, we need to find somewhere that is safe, quiet, and out of the way, where we can make plans. Are you able to drive the RV?"
"I could try," he said hesitantly. "But I don't have a license. I can drive cars in the UK... not legally of course... but everything's different over here. It's all on the wrong side."
"Hmm." She eyed up the driver's seat of the vehicle. Katie could not drive, either, so she dismissed her idea of moving the van somewhere less exposed. "I don't suppose you know of any abandoned houses?"
"Sure, tons," he said, and pulled a pile of papers from one of the cupboards on the wall. "These are all abandoned houses, derelict for various reasons; some condemned due to structural problems, some abandoned when their owners died and nobody was left in the will to claim them, some haunted... some said to be haunted but not really haunted. And these are just a few examples."
"What's this one?" she asked, holding up a picture of a modern two-storey log cabin surrounded by dense forest.
"The former home of self-made millionaire Francis Arrowsmith. He sold his manufacturing company six years ago, and he and his wife retired to that house, which Arrowsmith designed himself. A year later they were found dead and rotting by a ranger who'd gone to check up on them, after people in the nearest town - three miles away - expressed concerns that they hadn't seen the Arrowsmiths in a while. Coroner ruled a murder-suicide as the cause of death, apparently Arrowsmith killed his wife and then himself. A family bought the house a few months later but they only lasted a month. They claimed the ghosts of the Arrowsmiths were haunting the building and they sold up. Since then it's had no buyers, and the estate agent has given up trying to keep the forest from taking over it."
"This will do nicely. It will be our base of operations," she said, pleased to have found such a well-maintained building that suited her needs perfectly.
"But... uh... it's in Pierce County, Washington. On the other side of the country. And it's haunted."
"Neither of those are a problem for angels and hunters. Pack up anything you think may be of importance, we leave for our base in fifteen minutes."
Danny spent the next fifteen minutes packing two large carryalls with guns and ammo, knives of different materials, books about monsters, his files on the current killings, wooden stakes, holy water, rosary beads, a bag of salt and a two-litre bottle of gas.
"Bring chalk and paint, as well," she said, and he added those items to one of the bags.
"I think I'm just about done," he said at last.
"Good. Let's step outside so you can lock the van up."
"What does teleportation feel like?" he asked, as he went around all the doors, locking them with his key.
"Like simply being in another place. You can't feel it at all, though you might experience some momentary vertigo as your mind tries to process that you're in a completely different location."
He took a deep breath and picked up both bags from the ground. "I'm ready," he said with a nod.
She touched his shoulder and teleported both of them to the house in Washington. The sky immediately darkened, because of the difference in time zones, and the fact that it was grey and overcast. When she let go of Danny's shoulder he looked around, his mouth open in amazement as he took in the sight of the forest and the house.
"That was incredible," he said. "Instantaneous travel between two points with no jet-lag whatsoever. How do you do it?"
"I can't explain it in terms other than pure maths, at a level which humans aren't currently capable of comprehending," she replied absently. Her attention was focused on the house as she expanded her senses towards it, checking for EMF. There was none, but that didn't necessarily mean that ghosts weren't present, just that they weren't active. "Well, should we go on in?"
"I've never faced a ghost before," he admitted. "I've never really faced anything before. What if... what if I can't do this?"
"You told me that your family have been hunters for generations, and I know for a fact that you have a great amount of knowledge regarding the paranormal. You don't need to worry, Danny. Being a hunter is in your blood."
"I guess you're right," he admitted. "Y'know, all I can think is that I'm about to face my very first ghost, and I wish my sisters were here to see it."
"You should arm yourself with salt," she advised him. "Just in case."
"Right." He put one of the bags on the damp, mossy ground and opened it up. After a moment of rooting around he came out with a shot-gun, and loaded salt rounds into it. "Do you want a gun too?" he offered.
"No, I'm not familiar with them. Besides, ghosts cannot hurt me."
"Do you have some sort of super-power which can kill them?"
She gave him a wry smile. "I wish I did. As far as I know, no angel has power over a ghost like that. They need to be put to rest or have their remains burnt."
"Or the object their spirit is attached to," he added. "Sometimes an important object can tether a spirit to the world."
"Very true. See? Like I said, you're a natural."
Together they walked to the house, and Ava tried the front door. It was locked, but because she didn't want to damage it she allowed Danny to unlock it using professional picks - a skill that every hunter was taught from an early age, he informed her. And when the door finally opened she glanced inside, checking for any sign of ghosts. There was none, so she gestured for Danny to follow her into the building.
What furniture was present had been covered by white dust sheets by the estate agent, and they both spent a few minutes uncovering everything and examining it for damage. There was none at all; the sofa and chairs were of good quality and looked quite new, as did the table and six dining chairs around it. In the kitchen the cupboards held a full set of crockery and cutlery. There was a toaster, a kettle, a sandwich maker, and when Danny tried one of the taps, it ran clear.
"I guess the estate agent was really hoping to get someone in here," he said. "I can't believe they just left all this stuff in an empty house. Do you think it belonged to the Arrowsmiths?"
"Probably," she replied. "Why pay to keep it in storage if you can just put it back in the house where it belongs?"
"Does the kettle work?" he asked. She flipped its 'on' switch, but nothing happened. "Hmm. There should be a jenny out back. I'll go and see if I can get it running."
"Jenny?"
"Generator," he elaborated. "This place isn't exactly on the grid. I doubt I can even get a wifi signal here. I'll be back in a moment."
"Be careful," she told him. He merely waved his gun at her and left through the back door.
Alone in the house, she wandered through the rooms, trying to get a feel for the people who had once lived here. This building must have meant something to Francis Arrowsmith, since he'd designed it himself, so why would he kill himself in it? And why kill his wife? And why haunt it afterwards? Humans were such difficult beings to understand, sometimes, and apparently that didn't end with death. It was a pity they didn't all know that remaining behind, as a ghost, meant becoming violent and twisted. Had all humans known it, none would choose such a fate for themselves.
To give herself something to do and make her feel a little more useful, she began unpacking Danny's bags, placing their contents on the dining room table. It would be useful to familiarise herself with these items, she decided. If she was going to become a hunter - and all indications at this point suggested that hunting monsters was going to be a part of her life on Earth whether she wanted it or not - then she would need to be able to use all weapons available. The Sword of Damocles was powerful, but she doubted it could harm ghosts, and it probably wouldn't be that useful against lowly monsters such as ghouls and zombies.
"Done," Danny said, returning to the room. He picked up his laptop and switched it on. Judging by the frowning expression on his face, she surmised he wasn't pleased about something.
"Do you have wifi signal now?" she asked.
"Do you even know what that means?"
"I have no idea, but it sounds important."
"I don't have wifi, but I can connect through the GPRS on my phone. A high gain aerial wouldn't go amiss, though. The signal's rubbish out here."
"Alright," she said, determined to help her new ally. "Where can I get you one of those?"
"Well, any decent electrical shop should sell them. There's one I've used a couple of times on Westhill Drive, in Maine-"
She nodded in understanding. "I'll be back with an aerial."
"Wait!" he said, before she could teleport. "You can't just take an aerial from a shop. That's technically stealing."
"I wasn't going to steal, Danny," she said levelly. "I have money. Look." She reached into the inside pocket of her coat and pulled out a wad of fifty-dollar bills. Danny stared at it for a moment.
"You didn't rob a bank, did you?" he accused.
"Of course not. I short-circuited an ATM machine."
"Riiight..."
"How do you and your sisters get money?"
"From The Trust. They provide financial backing for hunters who are working directly for them. And since we were the only ones nuts enough to leave England and come here to see what's been happening with the omens, that means we have The Trust's full support."
"You are fortunate," she said. The Winchesters, she knew, resorted to credit card fraud and fixing poker and pool games, to get most of their money. A thought suddenly struck her. "Whilst I am out, I will buy food," she said. "You need sustenance. What would you like?"
"I dunno. I'm not really hungry."
"I understand that worry about your sisters has dulled your appetite, but you have to eat to keep up your blood sugar levels, otherwise you might go light-headed and faint."
He grinned and shook his head. "You know, you say the weirdest things at times. But if you insist, I'll just have a pizza. I don't care what's on it."
"Alright. Whilst I'm gone, could you do something for me?"
"Of course."
"Do you know how to make a devil's trap?"
"A standard trap, or a full key of solomon?"
"Either."
"Yes, I can do both."
"Good. We're going to need a trap at every entry point to this house. Paint them on the ceiling, if you can, it makes them harder to spot. And I'd like salt-lines at every window."
"Are you expecting trouble?"
"No, but it doesn't hurt to be careful." She looked around the room, and realised she hadn't exactly picked the most easily defensible location to be her base of operations. The windows were too large and too numerous. "I'll add some wardings of my own, later. I want this place to be safe from anything and everything."
"Alright, I'll get started right away."
"Good. I'll be back soon. If any ghosts show up, shoot them."
"Yeah, thanks."
She teleported herself to the street in Maine that Danny had mentioned, manifesting in the alley down the side of the building. When she entered the store she saw a couple of customers perusing the electrical goods, and a shop assistant talking with one man who didn't seem to know what kind of adapter to buy for his travels. The counter area was empty, so she approached the store-man who was standing behind it. He wore a blue shirt, and had a badge which read 'My name is Steve, I'm happy to help'. He did not look particularly happy to help. In fact, he looked bored.
"What can I do for you?" he asked.
"I'd like to purchase a high gain aerial," she said.
"What kind?"
His question threw her. Danny hadn't mentioned there would be kinds of aerials. "I... don't know. Whatever is the highest, I suppose."
"Yeah, but what are you using it for? Analogue, digital, freeview, radio..."
"GPRS," she said. "To make a laptop connect through a phone. Wifi may or may not be involved."
"It's probably not involved. Not if you're trying to connect through GPRS. We've got a few different types in stock. What price range are you looking at?"
"Price is irrelevant. I'd like your best high gain aerial. Which ever gives the highest signal."
"It's not cheap," he warned.
"That's not a problem, I have money."
"Alright. I think I've got one in the store room, let me just go grab it."
She waited patiently by the counter whilst Steve disappeared through a door into another room, and several minutes later he reappeared with a cardboard box in his hands, which he put down on the counter.
"There you go, one high gain aerial, a hundred and twenty dollars. Would you like the extended warranty with that? It's an extra thirty."
"No thank you." She handed over three of the fifty-dollar bills, and accepted the change he gave her.
"Do you want a bag for that," he asked, indicating the box.
"No, I don't have far to go. Could you tell me, is there anywhere near here that sells takeaway pizza?"
"Uh... yeah. There's Express Pizza, a couple of blocks down the road. It's got a red and white awning above the door, you can't miss it."
"Thank you Steve, you've been very helpful," she said.
She left the store, aerial box beneath her arm, and walked down the street, alert for a red and white awning. When she finally saw it she made a beeline for the door and stepped inside the takeaway. Unsurprisingly, it smelt very strongly of cooking food, despite the fact that it wasn't even lunch time yet.
"What'll it be?" asked a man behind the till. He was wearing a dirty apron and a net cap over his hair.
"One pizza with cheese, ham and pineapple, and one garlic bread."
"What sizes would you like?"
"The biggest."
"It'll be ten minutes."
"That's fine, I can wait," she told him.
She entertained herself by reading the instruction manual inside the aerial box. It didn't really make any sense to her, because it was full of silly human abbreviations and technical terms she wasn't familiar with. No doubt Danny would know what to do with it; he reminded her more and more of Sam Winchester every time she saw him. Perhaps it was just because they were both younger brothers, but they both seemed to be quiet, and a little more sensitive than their older siblings.
Once the pizzas were cooked and boxed up, Ava paid the man and left the takeaway, balancing the aerial box on top of the pizza boxes. Fortunately there was quiet alley conveniently close by, and she walked halfway down it before teleporting back to the house. Danny looked over at her arrival, halfway through painting a devil's trap on the ceiling above the front door. He was doing surprisingly well with it, considering he was painting it upside down.
"Looking good," she said, putting the boxes down on the table. "Come and have a break. I bet you haven't eaten since yesterday, have you?"
He rolled his eyes and put down his paintbrush on the lid of the tin. "You're almost as bad as my sisters for nagging. Almost."
"I don't want to give them any reason for berating me once we rescue them," she said. "And I'm sure allowing their brother to starve is something they would berate me for."
"Yeah. Probably." He opened the pizza box and took out a slice, nibbling on it for a moment with no true appetite. Ava, meanwhile, tucked into her garlic bread. "I thought you didn't need to eat," he observed.
"I don't need to, but there are certain things I like to indulge in." She held the box out to him. "Would you like a slice?"
"No thanks, I'm fine with pizza. You do realise that pretty much anything and everything is going to smell you coming a mile away, right?"
"I can be stealthy, if needed," she said with confidence. They wouldn't be able to smell her if she teleported.
"Ava..." Danny said. He hesitated for a moment before ploughing on. "What if we can't find Merry and Pippin?"
"We'll find them."
"But what if we don't?"
She looked at him, and wished she knew the right thing to say. She was certain that Dean would insist very firmly that the twins would be found, and to entertain any other notion was just foolish. And Sam... Sam would say something quietly comforting, to bolster the boy's spirit. Even Bobby would be able to cheer Danny up, even if he had to tell him to stop being an idjit and quit whining. Ava got the impression that none of the words would sound the same, coming from her. She didn't have Dean's hard-headed confidence, nor Sam's natural skills in empathy, nor Bobby's ability to shame anybody into thinking more positively.
"I don't know," she admitted. "I guess we'll just keep looking for as long as it takes."
"I feel so useless," he admitted. "I've been begging them to let me come along on a job for ages. And now I finally have a job... the most important job at all... and I just fell to pieces. I ran out of ideas and I called you. My sisters were right. I can barely take care of myself... how am I going to take care of others?"
"I think your sisters are wrong," she said, taking in his unhappy expression and trying to fix it. "You did all that you could with the knowledge you had at the time, and when you ran out of ideas, you called for back-up. That's nothing to be ashamed of. All hunters do it. Do you think this is hard for you because you're looking for two people? You more than pulled your weight when you were looking for Kayleigh Sumner. But this time, it's your family. It's personal. And we all tend to be more vulnerable where our family is concerned."
"Yeah, I guess you're right," he said reluctantly.
"Of course I'm right. I'm an angel." She gave him a smile, which he briefly returned. "Eat as much of the pizza as you can manage. I'll take over the devil's trap."
"No. I'd prefer if you didn't." She waited for him to elaborate, which he did. "I'd like to do it myself. It'll give me something to do, and it helps take my mind off... things."
"Alright," she agreed. "You can finish the traps. Once we're safe here, we'll get everything set up and have a look at all we know so far."
He took a deep breath and sat a little taller in his chair. "That sounds like a good plan."
With a slice of pizza in hand, he returned to the devil's trap and began painting again. Ava watched him, and a feeling of unease settled in the pit of her stomach. She wasn't sure that she would be able to find the twins, even with Danny's help. Every moment Merry and Pippin were missing was a moment they were potentially in danger and suffering. She knew why Danny wanted to keep his mind busy; he didn't want to think about what terrible things his sisters might be enduring.
Picking up a second paint brush, she began to mark protective signs on the inside of the house, because she too had no desire to imagine what might have befallen the Carver twins.
o - o - o - o - o
Night fell. The lights came on, powered by the generator at the back of the house, illuminating several pieces of paper relating to the killings in Fremont, which had been taped to one of the walls behind the dining room table. At the table itself Ava was watching as Danny set up the new aerial, and Danny kept glancing at the sigils Ava had painted on the windows.
"And they'll really work against angels?" he asked, for the second time in ten minutes.
"Yes. They will stop angels from seeing inside this house, and listening to anything inside this house. But not from entering, because then I would be unable to enter too."
"Why do you think we'll need protection against angels?"
"It's just a precaution," she told him. "There is also an angel-banishing sigil that I can teach you, though it has to be drawn in blood."
"Nice," he winced. "Will you show it to me anyway?"
She nodded, and picked up a pencil and a piece of blank paper. On it she drew a circle, with one large sigil inside it, and several smaller sigils around the edges. "Here," she said, passing the paper to him. "You draw this on a flat surface... a wall or a door or a window, doesn't matter what... and then you press your hand against the sigil in the centre. Any angel within relatively close proximity will be banished."
"Banished where?"
"Usually somewhere else on Earth. An angel banished from an area can't return there immediately. It takes a few minutes for the angel to rematerialise somewhere, and then a few more minutes to recover from the banishing and be able to return."
"So... it's sorta like a demon exorcism, only it doesn't force the angel out of the host?"
"Vessel," she corrected. "And yes, it's a little like that. Less powerful, obviously, but it will buy you a few minutes of protection. And as of this moment, you're one of perhaps only four or five people on Earth who know about the banishing sigil, so I'd appreciate it if you didn't spread it around."
"Of course not, I promise I won't show it to another soul," he said in earnest.
"How's the aerial going?" she asked. He'd installed the thing beside a window, and had spent the last half hour reconfiguring various different things which she couldn't understand. All she knew was that something was happening between the aerial and the laptop, but the data being transferred was meaningless noise to her.
"Pretty good, actually. I'm just about ready to connect to the net. I just hope we haven't wasted a day that we could have used to search for Mer and Pip."
"We haven't wasted time," she told him. "Think about it; when we find them, we might need to take them somewhere safe. And right now, there are very few places safer than here. Of course, I would have preferred a church, but we were working to a schedule."
"Right. Well, I'm back online. Our secret headquarters now has communication with civilisation," he said with some degree of satisfaction. Ava merely snorted in amusement. His definition of 'civilisation' was wildly different to hers. "First thing I'm doing is pulling up a list of all monsters who have 'eating people' as their M.O."
"It might also help to know which jobs you and your sisters were on before meeting me in Knott."
"Why?" he frowned.
"In case this is a matter of some monster you have crossed previously taking revenge."
"Good point, I hadn't even thought of that."
They fell into silence as he worked, and Ava allowed herself to pick up the information as it was streamed to the computer. The list of monsters which were capable of, or survived by, eating humans, was almost depressingly long. What made matters worse, was that Merry and Pippin must have had some idea about what they were facing when they decided to leave town. And whatever it was, it was bad enough to scare away two knowledgeable and largely unshakeable hunters. Earlier she had tried dream-walking the twins, but to no avail. Wherever they were, they weren't sleeping.
"So... have you got a family, up in Heaven?" Danny asked on a whim.
"All angels are my brothers and sisters," she replied automatically.
"Yeah, but I mean actual family. You know, a husband, kids, that sort of thing."
"No, angels do not have relationships like humans do, and we are incapable of producing children."
"Then how do you make more angels?"
"We don't," she said, looking into his blue-grey eyes. She detected a faint blush on his face, and wondered whether the subject of sex was uncomfortable for him. Some humans, she had observed - especially very religious ones - seemed to treat sex as something to be avoided unless necessary and never, ever talked about. "We have only the amount of angels that God created."
"Oh. That sucks. Have you... y'know... tried to make more?"
"Danny," she said patiently, gesturing at her body, "this is merely a vessel. In Heaven, angels have no physical bodies. Not bodies like these, at least. Sexual intercourse, for the purposes of recreation or reproduction, are impossible. And even when angels take vessels, any copulation that takes place does not result in new angels, merely in unholy abominations called 'Nephilim'."
"So you don't have anything like love, in Heaven? I mean, the feeling of love, not the act of it," he clarified.
She gave it a moment of consideration. Sometimes, humans seemed to consider the feeling and the act two separate things, and at other times, they combined them. It was all very confusing. Verbal communication was so... clumsy, at times.
"Not exactly," she said at last. "As angels, we were created to love our father, and most angels love their brothers and sisters, to varying extents. Then, God asked us to love humanity, which some of us do. In this sense we feel love, but it is not the chemical-induced cocktail of emotions that humans experience, and although we can appreciate something of beauty, we do not experience physical attraction as humans do."
"That's a little sad," he replied. "I mean, you're powerful beings, capable of working what humans perceive to be miracles, and yet you can't even experience physical attraction or romantic love. Do you ever feel like you're missing out?"
"You cannot miss what you do no know," she countered. "In short, the answer is 'no'. I care for my brothers and sisters, and for humanity. There are things I enjoy, such as watching sunsets and eating garlic bread and drinking root beer, and there are things I dislike, such as suffering and chaos and Lucifer. I feel very... fulfilled right now. Why would I want to experience feelings of romance? What would be the point? If I felt them for a human, it would be ephemeral, because your kind have such short life-spans. And if I felt them for one of my brothers, the feelings would only ever be unrequited, because angels cannot love as humans can. Down these two paths I can see only misery, so why even contemplate subjecting myself to them?"
"Alfred, Lord Tennyson, said:
I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all."
"Alfred, Lord Tennyson, was not an angel, nor speaking of angels," Ava pointed out. "He was just a man, speaking of the affairs of men. At any rate, this conversation is largely pointless. As an angel, I simply cannot experience some of the things humans can. Even fear is something of an unknown to me, and I do believe fear is a much healthier emotion than love."
"What do you mean?"
"From what I have observed, the former helps to keep you alive, whilst the latter mostly blinds you and makes you do foolish things. In Heaven, I witnessed people, time and time again, ruining their lives for love. Lying for it. Fighting for it. Killing for it. Damning their souls to Hell for it. How could something vouched by so many to be wonderful, be the cause of so much pain and suffering? Such strange emotions, you humans feel."
"Are you sure it's entirely a human thing?"
"Of course. No other species suffers such self-induced anguish."
"Not even angels?"
"That's right."
"Do you love God?" he asked, resting his chin on his hand to look over the top of his computer at her.
"That goes without saying."
"And if God asked you to kill all the humans on Earth to prove your love, would you do it?"
"That would never happen. Humans are my Father's favoured creations."
"Yeah, but this is a hypothetical situation. A thought-exercise. The practicality of it is irrelevant. So... would you?"
Kill all the humans? she thought. But... God had commanded the angels to bow down before humans. How could he ask her to kill them, just to prove her love for him? Or perhaps asking angels to bow down before humans was a way of proving their love for him. But still, to kill all the humans, to prove her love for her Father... kill humans? No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't work her way past the concept. Why would he want her to kill humans? Why would he do it? He had no need to test angels like that; he had made them to be perfect, and to love and obey him. He would already know of her love for him.
She knew what she would say if this situation was different, and she was advising a human about the subject. She would advise that anybody who asked you to prove your love in such a way, was not worthy of the love you had to give. That the price of your soul was worth far more than any man or woman, whether you felt romantic love for them, or the love of a child for their parent. But somehow, that idea just fell apart when she thought about her own Father.
God would never ask her for such proof, would he? No, of course not. He had tested humans like that before, but that was because humans had souls. Angels did not have souls, so they didn't need to be tested. God knew that his children loved him. They couldn't not love him, because he had made them to love and obey him. Her reasoning came around full circle.
"Hey, are you okay?" Danny asked, waving a hand in front of her face.
"Yes. Why?"
"You've been sitting there in silence for fifteen minutes staring into space. I guess that hypothetical question really got you to thinking."
"Indeed. But I'm afraid I can't give you an answer. No matter how hard I try, I can't think past the idea of God asking me to kill humans. It just... it doesn't compute, as you would say."
"Heh. Sorry, I didn't mean to break your head. Anyway, I've got the list of monsters which like to eat people, and also which jobs we've done recently."
"Are there any monsters which appear on both lists?"
"A couple," he said, shuffling his chair closer to her and turning his laptop around so they could both see the screen. "Werewolves... we killed one a couple of weeks before meeting you, but we've already established that it's not wolves. Second job we did in the US was a wendigo, but that was months ago, miles away from Ohio, and I doubt a wendigo's coming anywhere near somewhere as populated as Fremont."
"I agree. What else is there?"
"Let's see. There's ghouls... we killed one not long after the wendigo, but of course, they feed preferentially on the flesh of the dead rather than the living. I suppose if one was desperate enough, that could be our mystery monster."
"Maybe. What else?"
"From both lists? Nothing. But if you want random speculation from the mile-long list of potentials, we could go for a rakshasa, or any number of pagan gods or spirits, or an over-active tulpa, or a rugaru, or—"
"Danny, stop. I understand you're frustrated, but we have to look at this logically, from all available angles."
"I can't look at it logically anymore! My sisters are out there, being held by only God knows what, and I can't do a thing about it. I feel so helpless and I hate it."
"I know how you feel-"
"No, you don't!" he said, slamming his laptop closed. His aura was red, now, his anger clear to her celestial vision. "You're an angel. You don't feel fear, or love, and I'm guessing you probably don't know worry or hate or any of the other things humans have to put up with on a daily basis. So don't tell me you understand what it's like. Merry and Pippin are the only family I have left. You might have hundreds of brothers and sisters in Heaven, but I don't. Without my sisters, I'm alone. Completely alone."
She sat in silence for a moment, merely looking at him. Dark circles of fatigue ringed his eyes, his aura was now spiking all over the place, and his breathing was rapid and shallow. He was, she guessed, exhausted by worry and almost sick with fear. Though she did not approve of his tone - it was no proper way to speak to an angel - she could understand why he spoke as he did.
"You're right," she told him. "I don't know what it's like, to know that the only family I have may be lost to me forever. And it's true that angels don't feel things as easily as humans. But that doesn't mean that we don't feel at all. I have known doubt and worry, and possibly the closest thing to true fear an angel can experience. I might not have been through what you are experiencing right now, but I can understand how it makes you feel." She leaned forward slightly, impressing upon him the seriousness of her words. "Most of my brothers would probably punish you for speaking to an angel with such disrespect. At the very least, they would not hesitate leave you alone, to your own devices. Lucky for you that I am not like most of my brothers, and that I am willing to look past a disrespectful tone because I can sympathise with what you are going through. But remember this; you are the one who summoned me for aid. Your sisters have made it quite clear, on several occasions, that they want little to do with me, and not one of you has done anything to earn my loyalty. I don't expect gratitude, for I've seen that humans are rarely capable of expressing it properly, but I would like you to keep in mind that I am not just some resource that you can call upon whenever the whim strikes you; I am an angel of the Lord. I have countless people to save, and an apocalypse to stop. If my presence offends or angers you, I can resume looking at the bigger picture at any time."
Throughout her speech he seemed to shrink smaller and smaller, until he was all but pressing himself into his chair to try and lean away from her gaze. His aura calmed down, no longer as angry, but peppered with green and yellow of guilt and fear.
"I'm sorry," he said, once he was sure her tirade was over. "I didn't mean to make you angry. I just... sometimes I forget about what you really are. I mean, you're so easy to get along with, and talk to, and your vessel is so young and innocent-looking, I forget that she's not really you, and you're not really her. And I really do appreciate your help. If you can help me find Merry and Pippin and get them back safe and sound, I'll do anything you ask of me."
"You shouldn't say things like that, not even to angels," she warned.
"Why not? It's true."
"Really? Would you kill a child to save your sisters?"
He shifted uncomfortably on his chair. "I don't see how that's relevant to-"
"It's a hypothetical question," she interjected, throwing his own argument back at him. "The practicality of it is irrelevant." When he said nothing, she continued. "One thing I have learned, from my time on Earth, is that your actions always have consequences. Everything you do affects somebody, somewhere. If you're going to take an action, you have to be prepared to accept responsibility for its effects. For example, if you were willing to kill a child to save your sisters, you would have to live not only with the knowledge that you have murdered and taken an innocent life, but you will have to live with the knowledge that the child's family will suffer anguish because what you have done. And you must consider what your sisters would think, if they knew you had committed such a terrible crime. There is more to being a hunter, and more to life in general, than just killing monsters, Danny. You need to know yourself, and you need to know your own limits. You need to set standards and ensure you do not compromise them, because once you betray your morals you are betraying yourself, and that, I believe, is a long, slippery slope." Her own words reminded her of Sam Winchester, and how he had, under the self-deluded belief that he was doing good, allowed himself to be manipulated and controlled by Ruby. He had done terrible, terrible things, which even now racked him with guilt.
"I never thought of it like that before," he admitted.
"Well, you should think about things like this, because one day, you might have to face such a decision."
"Sounds like you're speaking from experience."
She nodded, and smiled to herself. "I've had to do a lot of soul-searching, since I came to Earth. Which is ironic, because angels don't possess souls. But I believe I've come up with some morals and standards for myself, and I intend to adhere to them as much as possible. For example, I believe that if you have to sacrifice an innocent to succeed, then your success is little more than a failure dressed up to deceive you into believing you have won."
"Heavy stuff," he sighed. Then he looked blearily at his laptop, and opened it up again, squinting against the glare of the screen. "So. I'm thinking maybe a pagan god?"
"You should get some sleep," she told him. "You need to rest, and look at this with fresh eyes in the morning."
"What about the ghosts? They might come whilst I'm asleep."
"I will watch over you," she promised him. "Whilst I'm here, nothing will harm you."
"I suppose I could use a few hours sleep," he admitted. "And this house does have two bedrooms, I might as well put one of them to good use. If I'm not awake at six o'clock, will you wake me?"
"Of course."
"Thanks, Ava. And thank you for coming, and answering my prayer. I know you didn't have to. I know none of this is important to the apocalypse."
"Thank me once we've found your sisters," she told him.
He nodded and shut down his computer, then headed towards the stairs to the upper floor. Ava watched him go, feeling his own worries weighing heavily on her. She had a very small niggling fear that somehow, the disappearance of the twins might be her fault. It couldn't be a coincidence that this had happened not long after meeting her... could it? Perhaps Zachariah had taken Merry and Pippin to keep Ava occupied, to keep her from trying to stop the apocalypse. The angels would think nothing of kidnapping a couple of humans this way, and it would certainly explain how the girls were being kept hidden.
She could not speak her fears aloud to Danny, though. She did not want to witness the pain on his face if he found out she might be the reason for his sisters' disappearance. She didn't want to have to tell him that he was being punished for her actions. When she had rebelled, and taken a human vessel, she hadn't considered that perhaps the angels would use against her anybody she came into contact with. It was one of the many things she had not foreseen, and she swore that when they got Merry and Pippin back... if they got Merry and Pippin back... she wouldn't stay around humans anymore. It wasn't safe for them. She should have known that a lonely and friendless existence on Earth would be her punishment for rebelling against Heaven.
- o -