Warrior of Adonai Read online

  I could hear the banging on the walls as I approached the closed-off eastern section. I crept slowly forward, my hand on the vials about my waist. My mother had made sure I had an ample supply before I left. Her conditions were that I could do a test run tonight, but I had to report to her before and after my mission. I also had a time limit, and it wasn’t sunrise. I only had a few hours before I had to report back to the lab.

  I would make them count.

  She had given me an earbud with a tracker in it. This was a new piece of tech from a different part of the Organization’s labs, the section that developed every piece of tech that we had, including the grappling guns, computers, and hospital equipment. For a civilization fighting with bows and swords as our main weapons, we were incredibly high-tech. We had fluorescent lights, and high scale microscopes. We even had amped up computers, some without screens.

  I even had the capability to have a holo-desk in my room if I wanted. I didn’t. I was a warrior, I didn’t need those things. I’d had Isaac; he was all that I needed. He and I spent so much time in each other’s company that any tech needed for communication had been obsolete. My mother had used us for her enhancement studies, being angel-blessed as we were. The tests had given her enough data on our blood that her endurance and eyesight experiments had worked on the first attempt, and never left us.

  Until now. Now Isaac’s blood had something else in it, entirely.

  The earbud beeped in my ear and I pressed a button on it. I didn’t say anything, and neither did anyone else. I only needed to respond; I did not necessarily have to talk. The pounding picked up pace. I could hear them well enough to know that they smelled me coming. I smiled. The Organization may be tracing me, but it was expected that I would come here first, as Isaac’s Goel Ha-dam. This had been where Isaac was supposed to have died, where else would I be? They could not see what I did, but they could hear everything. I would have to be careful to let Isaac know that if I saw him tonight...if he even recognized me or I him. I pulled a throwing knife from my belt as my eyes cased the wall in front of me, roaming up.

  I was ready to advance into the demons’ nest.

  I shot a line up as soon as I was close enough and the Corrupted exploded into a frenzy on the other side of it as I scaled the wall. I could hear their desperation, but I did not let it affect me. I had to be careful how I came down on the other side. I could not leave a way for them to come up. So I blocked out their noise, concentrating only on the task at hand. I was a warrior, and I was one of the best for a reason. The demons below me wanted a snack, but they could not have one. The only one who would be taking would be me.

  “Zakiya,” came a soft voice from the other side of the earbud, “I know you can’t respond, but please be careful. I agreed to let you go tonight, even knew you would end up where you are, but please do not do anything reckless.” I paused as I listened to my mother, hearing the worry in her voice, even as I knew it was a composed version of what she truly felt. My eyes closed as I pulled myself up to the top of the wall and swung a leg over. I sat there for a moment, basking in my mother’s love.I needed to soak in it a bit before diving into what was sure to be a hell of a fight. I finally glanced down to see more red eyes glowing up at me than I could count, yet fewer than had been there that night that changed my life so drastically.

  Glancing over the safe side of the wall, I jerked the line I had placed. Pressing the small button that would pull the line back in, I caught the hook before it hit the gun and released the button, giving myself some slack. I twirled the hook once and caught it on the edge of the wall. I yanked on it twice, leaning out as far as I dare go, testing the strength of the hook and line. I nodded to no one in particular, satisfied.

  Swinging my leg over the other side of the wall, I let myself sway. Hitting the wall with a grunt and letting the line slide through my fingers as I released it on my gun, I let it pull taught with my weight. I repelled down the wall, slowly lowering my body into the mass of demons clawing the air for a taste of my flesh. I could hear them growling in unison, shoving each other aside for the first opportunity at a snap in my direction. I could even hear the wetness of jaws meeting bodies that did not move in time. I shivered as I paused on the wall, surveying them. I could not see Isaac. Would I know him if I did? I shook the thought from my head, my eyes finding the wall before me as I took a deep breath. “This is Zakiya Harishima of the Warriors of Adonai,” I said, my voice uncharacteristically soft and full of emotions I couldn’t quite suppress. “I am going in,” I finished as I glanced down.

  “It would be an honor to die for you, my friend,” came a voice I recognized as Cofher’s. I smiled, even as the tears began to fall down my cheeks, “good luck, Zakiya.”

  I pulled myself up the line, tensing my body, and drew the sword from my back. With one last glance below me, I released the line from the wall. I swung my sword in a two-handed grip as I fell. I could only assume my face looked to be that of the avenging angel I claimed to be as I dropped onto a demon, my sword piercing its head. I didn’t know if I would know Isaac, but I had to believe that we were still connected. I turned and swung again, blocking a claw aimed for my throat, before I took its nails with a swipe of my sword. Bobbing and weaving around the demon as he reached back for me, I swiped up my bounty, dashing to pocket the nails. Another demon came at my legs as they all tried to ground me at once. I kicked off that demon’s face and swung with my sword in a circle.

  I could feel the resistance of their flesh as I moved, taking them all down at once. They were so close to me that it was easy to hit them all, especially knowing where and how to swing my sword. I moved, sliding between another Corrputed’s legs. The demon reaching for me caught one of his brethren in the stomach instead of slicing through my flesh. I thumbed off a vial on my belt, letting the blood from their injuries drip into it. The demon above me howled in rage and I moved, running as fast as I could to dodge them as they faced off. More Corrupted surrounded me and I fought to get back to the wall. I needed something at my back that I could trust. I was quickly becoming overwhelmed and I knew it. I would have to shoot my line soon, but I had to make space first. I could not risk them following me up and breaking it.

  I could hear myself panting as I dodged another demon’s claw and pounced off another as it leaned in to take a bite of me. I turned as I soared, cutting with my sword through the Corrupted’s jaws as it leaned in. I landed, flicking the gore off my weapon. With my back pressed against the wall, I switched my stance, catching one of its teeth in my free hand and pocketing it. My eyes narrowed as I took in the mess before me. The Corrupted were in a frenzy as they all surged toward me at once. I had officially pissed them off.

  And then there was a body in front of me, almost as if he had dropped from the sky above, landing with grace on the balls of his feet. He growled low in his throat as he took in the Corrupted. They paused as they contemplated this unexpected presence, who smelled so much like their own. He still had the horns, and he was still much taller than he used to be, but he was still very much the Isaac I knew as he stared down the horde in front of him. He stood with a fluid grace, his very presence threatening. I stepped back, switching my stance again, re-gripping my sword with two hands. I said nothing. I couldn’t.

  Isaac turned to me, his body honed in for a fight, and took a deep breath, almost as if he were smelling me. I tensed, my gloves creaking as I tightened my grip. He watched me out of the corner of his eye for a long moment.

  Then the horde charged, and we were fighting, me with my sword and he with only his hands and his strength. I could see his eyes, still very human, yet as red as those around us, while we took down demon after demon. “Z, check in,” came a soft voice in my ear and I pulled my sword out of a Corrupted long enough to tap the earpiece; effectively letting them know I was still alive. “Sounds like a lot of death going on out there. Your mom wants me to remind you that you have a curfew,” Cofher’s voice was soft, but I could hear a sort of lon
ging in it and I smiled. I twirled my sword around my body, snorting my response to him. I heard a chuckle on the other side.

  The Corrupted paused, retreating back as they took in the dead around us. I could tell they were preparing for another wave. I turned to Isaac, who rose from the gore of the demons around him, his eyes watching those who found themselves growing frustrated with us. They raged at him for not letting them through, and at me for smelling good enough to eat.

  I wiped my sword, but when I looked up, Isaac had moved so fast, grabbing my shoulders and pinning me to the wall behind me with a soft thud. My sword clanged to the ground as my hands came up to his wrists. I hissed in pain as he increased the pressure on me. He growled low, leaning in on the side of my head without the earpiece and smelled me again, long and slow, from my shoulder up my neck. I cringed, my eyes closing as I let him, feeling something wet drip onto me. I knew instantly that it was saliva mixed with blood, and that there was enough for me to bottle up later. I wanted to speak to him, to tell him what my plan was, but the earpiece was still on.

  I met his broken gaze as he pulled away, his head tilting to one side in recognition again, before he shook himself. His eyes narrowed, the cracks shifting as he watched me without speaking.

  He pulled me off the wall, then threw me up as far as he could. My arms flailed as I tried to grab the grappling gun off my belt to shoot a line. If I fell this way, I would likely die. My line snagged, and I slammed into the wall with a halt, breathing hard. I glanced down to find Isaac watching me as the Corrupted surged forward once again, reaching for my dangling body. No longer a barrier to me, Isaac was already forgotten by them. I had no doubt he had heard Cofher speaking to me. His eyes held so much weight.

  And then he turned and disappeared back into the horde, leaving me to climb the wall behind me on my own. I breathed a sigh of relief as I relayed back down the other side. “Zakiya checking in,” I said softly, “tell my mother that I have something she is really going to like.”

  7

  “I cannot believe you lost your sword,” was one of the first things Cofher said to me as he met me in the hospital wing. I hadn’t injured myself in any new ways in the eastern section, but my arm and leg were far more tender than when I left.

  I raised an eyebrow at him, “I dropped it, Cofher,” I replied hotly. I couldn’t believe that I had not even thought about it until I was halfway home. How had I let myself leave, or get thrown, without it? My sword was like a piece of me, and now it was missing. I sighed, “I will just have to go back for it in the daylight.” I glanced at my wrist, at the timepiece there; part of the acquisition my mother had given me for this mission, “which gives me some time to sleep.” I had already taken the earpiece out; it sat on the nightstand next to me. It was waiting for someone from my mother’s labs to retrieve it and the saliva I had carefully bottled up along with everything else I had gathered in the fray. I knew I shouldn’t be tired, it was still early for a Warrior of Adonai, but the pressure of everything that had happened was beginning to weigh me down.

  Cofher hopped onto the bed next to me, nudging me with his shoulder, “I am here to talk, if you wish.”

  I nodded, looking down at my hands in my lap, “it was almost as bad as that night. So many Corrupted, Cofher. Where are they all coming from?” I glanced at him to find him studying me, missing nothing, as usual. I shivered, “do not scout me, Zachariah Cofher.”

  Cofher glanced away quickly, “I do not mean to, Harishima. It is just that, as my leader, I worry about you sometimes. You are a great warrior, but even you have limits. Vengeance runs hot in your blood, but will it destroy you before you destroy it?”

  I side-glanced him, considering his words. “Zachariah, you are dismissed,” came my mother’s voice from the doorway and we both started. Cofher glanced at me and I nodded. He stood in a smooth motion, nodding at my mother and saluting me with a fist over his chest.

  “It is an honor,” he said to me as he backed out of the room.

  I smiled, “to die for one’s friends,” I replied softly, then he was gone.

  My mother stopped at the table, surveying all the goods I had gathered for her. She picked up the bottle of saliva with an eyebrow raised, “what is this?”

  “That,” I pointed as I moved to stand beside her, “is a bottle of saliva that I gathered from a Corrupted in the process of changing. He... slobbered on me before I cut him down. I figured this is something you would be interested in?” I glanced at her, reading the piqued interest in her face.

  “Indeed,” she eyed the rest, impressed, “you have done well, gathering plenty of things for us to study.” She turned to me, her eyes changing into a more serious gaze as they met mine, “however, there is the matter of your sword. That is not something easily replaced, Zakiya.”

  I cringed, “yes, of that I am aware. I will be going back for it.” I paused as I read the emotion in her eyes and clarified, “in the daytime, of course. I can fight with my knives, but even I know that would be suicide.”

  My mother turned back to the samples I had gathered, “I am not sure tonight was not suicidal as well. It was very risky to return there, but I cannot blame you either.” She sighed as she sat on the bed wearily, considering, “I think that the rewards of what you have proposed have proven to be greater than the risk, but you will need to be far more careful next time.”

  I nodded, “yes, mother.” I could feel my stance widening, my arms coming behind my back at parade rest. I could not hide the warrior in me, even now. “I will make sure to take greater care with my weapons, as well as myself. All things considered, however, I do believe I came out relatively unscathed.”

  “Minus, of course, letting one get close enough to drool enough saliva on you to fill up a 20-ounce vial,” my mother commented, raising an eyebrow in amusement. I smiled, nodding in ascent.

  “Yes, minus that,” I allowed as she stood and placed a hand on my shoulder.

  “You did well, my daughter, now get some rest. You are still, after all, recovering,” she strode past me, gathering the samples as well as the earpiece and nodding in farewell. I watched her go, my eyes straying to the bottle of Isaac’s saliva in her hand. I could not believe he had come for me, and yet it gave me so much hope for him...even if he had sniffed me like a dog would a piece of meat. He was changing fast. I needed to be faster. I turned, gathering my things.

  I could not get my sword tonight; I would have to do it in the morning, after I rested. Tonight, I had a date with the Organization’s underground library.

  Legends and mythologies, that was all that could be found in my section of the library as I pulled book after book off the shelves and laid them on a desk nearby. This part of the Organization building was the only place that had old wooden desks. They hid between the shelves in little alcoves with lamps and padded chairs that were far comfier than they looked. It still looked clinical in here, as with every room that the Organization had to offer.

  Every shelf, wall, and cart were silver. In fact, the dark brown of the desks and the black of the chair were the only things that weren’t. The books were old, filled to the brim with Zion’s history. I sat, pulling the first one down in front of me, keeping my wet hair out of the way. I had taken a shower before coming down the five levels it took to get as far under the city as I was now. I could almost feel the Corrupted around me, but I knew that this building was one they would never be able to get into. Where the city itself was falling into a rusty decay, this building had been buried in Angelic steel. If all else failed, this would be the last place of sanctuary for our people.

  I tried not to think about that as I flipped through the pages. I knew the stories of the Angels and the Fallen, the war that had supposedly doomed us all. The Angels that rebelled against Adonai were supposed have been the first to have succumbed to the corruption, bringing it down to Adonai’s creation with them when they fell. Through their silver tongues, they had spread their disease, eventually turning man in
to the demons that infested us now. My mother was convinced that the disease was nothing more than a scientific anomaly, and I had seen enough in my twenty-five years of life to agree that if Adonai existed, he did not care about us. I also believed, however, that many legends came from a semblance of fact. I wanted to know if these stories held a key to the cure. Had we missed something skimming over them before? I didn’t know, but I was desperate enough now to find out.

  I pulled my knee up onto the chair, wrapping an arm around it as I read, stroking my long hair over my shoulder in a careless motion as I bit my lip. I turned the page and halted, slamming my hand down as I re-read what I had previously only skimmed. According to this book, the Angels that fell had gone into hiding after the war here on Earth. The Angels that had helped humanity defend against them had ascended back to Adonai, leaving us to deal with the Corrupted in their wake.

  It was said that the Corrupted were a result of our own wickedness, a judgement for our part in the bloodshed of our own people. When the war happened, humanity divided; those who did not change with the Corrupted, but still fought on the Fallen’s side, killing those who fought on the side the Angels of Adonai. Some say that the war still continues or will continue again. No matter which books I read, they kept coming back to this myth specifically. Could the mythology of the Fallen hold the key to the cure?

  I pulled down another book and flipped through the pages, finding the same story. So many things aligned. That there could be a place, Fallen or no, that held the key to our success, was something I would risk my life for in a heartbeat. I wasn’t sure I believed in the Fallen, but all these books had one thing in common. There was a Garden of Eden out there, I was sure of it. The books spoke of a Tree of Life, as well as the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. While each book differed on where the Fallen had gone into hiding, the relative location of the Tree of Life remained.