The Morningstar Brigade

Chapter 36

XXXVI

URIEL

Day Five. Eight Days Remain.

Chapel Roof, Haven

Shock bolted through Uriel's veins as he leapt to his feet. "You!" Uriel cursed through gritted teeth. He grabbed Faust by the collar of his suit with one hand and threw a punch at his face with the other.

"I come all this way just to visit, and that's how you greet me?" Faust said, vanishing out of Uriel's grasp in a flare of black flames just before the punch landed and reappearing behind him. "The Fisher didn't teach you very good manners, I see."

Uriel whirled around and tackled Faust to the ground, raising his fist again. "What have you done with him? What have you done to my dad?" he demanded.

Faust rolled his eyes. "Try not to be so dramatic. You'll get more done if you don't lose your head like this," he said, once again disappearing into a plume of black fire. His sudden vanishing act caused Uriel to fall face first on the shingles. "I haven't killed him if that's what you're asking," he answered with a laugh as he reappeared with his foot pressing down on the back of Uriel's head. "Though your time is quickly running out. Consider this a... well, a check-up of sorts."

"I'm going to stop you," Uriel growled as he struggled to get up, his face pressed against the roof.

"Oh, let me guess your little plan," Faust said, shaking his head as he ground his foot harder against Uriel's head. "You think now that you're part of the Brigade, you're a match for me? That you can 'save' Eli?" He picked Uriel up by his neck and held him over the edge of the house. He punched Uriel across the face. "All that effort? All that training?" he said with a sorry look as he struck Uriel again. "Worthless."

Uriel grabbed at the hands around his neck, fighting to break free of Faust's icy grasp. "I can... get stronger..." he choked out, his legs kicking furiously in the air.

Faust turned around and threw Uriel back down onto the slats. He held out his hand as it began to glow with dark embers. "I will always be stronger than you," he said with a scowl as bonds made of black fire wrapped around Uriel's wrists and ankles, pinning the Shepherd to the ground. Faust walked over and couched down next to Uriel, his empty eyes boring into his enemy's. "And do you know why that is?" he asked, holding a flaming hand inches from Uriel's cheek. "Because I have a purpose. Something more than knowledge. Than training. Than wisdom, than tradition, than law." He stood and turned to the sky. "I am an agent of justice," he said, throwing back his head and spreading his arms wide, embracing the evening air.

Uriel burst out in contemptuous laughter. "You're a joke," he said.

Faust spun around, the black flames around Uriel's limbs growing larger. "And what is so funny?" he hissed.

"You think this is justice?" Uriel asked with another laugh. "Kidnapping Eli? Beating me up? Threatening to destroy Eden? Playing this sick game?" Uriel looked at Faust with disgust. "You aren't even an enemy. You're nothing but an angry bully." He narrowed his gaze. "And I don't like bullies."

Faust's face became twisted with hatred for a moment as black fire raged around him, but then the flames slowly began to settle as he regained his composure. "You've grown up quite a bit, haven't you? I don't fully understand it, but you've somehow grown years even in these past few days. Good," he commented with a smile. "But I don't expect you to grasp what I'm trying to tell you," he said with a kind of pity. "All you know are these rules. Right and wrong, crime and punishment. The moral equations we think will protect us. That we pretend will protect us." Faust clenched his fists. "You think revenge is just anger. But it isn't. It's anger that's been beaten and forged to serve a kind of justice we don't understand until we need it. A different justice." Faust gazed down at the dark flames. "A new order."