Fallen

Chapter 14

I don't know why I hadn't punched Nathan's face in. Looking back, it was definitely a fist meet face type of moment, but enough whining about missed lap dances, it was time to get back to work. Eliza was going to be out cold for a while after that outburst, and even though we knew the name of our mysterious enemy, we knew nothing else about them in the modern sense, and that included their goal in current events. I already knew that there was no way in hell that they were about to bring up a Prince, but they had spoken with one. Then there was the power that had assaulted the barriers surrounding the church, which had vanished as quickly as it had risen after I'd lent my strength to Nathan's barriers. It had been faint, but there had been something demonic about that energy. The run of the mill demons that we'd dealt with as part of life in the city avoided the church like the plague, its barriers far too powerful for them to even withstand touching, let alone fighting, them. Whatever being had brought its strength down on the church had been far stronger than that. Puzzling, and what do I do when I'm puzzled? I eat. It was time for another visit to Sam's Shack, and this one was not going to be interrupted!

I flew to the tiny sandwich stall as fast as I could, and that was a considerable speed if I do say so myself. It was well past lunch and just before dinner, so the rush was over and hadn't begun at the same time. The few passerby just ignored the gust of wind that arrived with me as they almost always did. Sam was reading a newspaper, and didn't bother looking up even as the pages were ruffled when I landed in my usual spot. Still without looking up, my favorite sandwich maker greeted me. "Gavin. Usual?"

"Yep, and maybe I'll actually get to enjoy it this time," I said with a hint of distaste. Sam nodded, read a few more lines, folded up his paper and set to work. As always, I scanned the lines of Enochian that had been painstakingly carved into the stall and maintained over the years for any sign of marring or defects. There were a few places where the aged etchings were becoming blurred, but I fixed them up as soon as I saw them, making sure that Sam and his place of business remained a sanctified area, a place where no supernatural force could do battle or cause harm without everything they did backfiring on them several times over. If it had been possible, I would have gone around carving this kind of protection into each and every building in the city, but, sadly, the larger the structure, the thinner the protection, and with the size of apartment buildings and office complexes growing ever so larger, the protection this method could offer would eventually become next to nothing. Still, at least Sam was safe. Who else was going to make me lunch?

"Is everything alright?" Sam asked, breaking my thoughtful daydream. I looked up and saw that the man hadn't even turned around. Sometimes I wondered if he was truly only an Enlightened.

"Not sure," I replied, turning and looking at the fast moving traffic. "Something smelly is going on around here, but I couldn't tell you if it was something that died in the vents or just old fashioned garbage. Either way, somebody's going to have to find out and clean it up before everyone's noses burn off."

"And that's you," Sam answered simply, leaving the meat and vegetables on the grill to simmer for a moment to slide me a beer. I spun the top off and drank deeply, wishing for the only God knows time that I could get drunk.

"Yep, as usual," I said with a sigh, clenching my fist. "I just wish I could punch something right now."

"You break it you buy it," Sam reminded me. I chuckled, taking another drink.

"If I didn't know better, I would think that was a joke," I said as Sam dropped my sandwich in front of me. "Thanks.."

"You paid for it," Sam said, unfolding his paper and sitting on his stool. "How bad is it going to get?"