The story of the FALLEN

2. Oxford

“The priest got murdered? Ha, ha, ha!” Nakir laughs at breakfast. “This calls for a celebration, but I have a class to teach.”

“I still don’t understand your sense of humor.” Zack looks over the table at Nakir. At least Tammy refrained from snarky remarks. She seems to be lost in her thoughts.

“What’s there to understand? A useless priest is dead.” Nakir shrugs. “But come on. What did you expect? They die sooner or later.”

“I expected to get a book. I gave up on humans being anything other than errand boys. We protect them and that’s it.” Zack sighs. There was a time he held humankind in high regard. His fascination with them died at the end of the last crusade. They still fight wars in the name of God who just doesn’t care. When will they realize that they can’t win? 

“Get out of your head. Thinking like that will only make you miserable.” Layla nudges him under the table.

“Stop listening to my thoughts.” He growls at her.

“Gowling? Seriously? You need to get laid.” She responds and flicks him off. “My class starts in five minutes. Would love to stay and chat, but the guys are so cute when they try to beat me.”

“Wait for me!” Nakir shouts and runs after her. Those two would make a perfect couple, but they see each other as siblings. It would erase all of Zack’s problems with finding Nakir in the dubious joints all over London. He wouldn’t have to go far to find him.

“You know that’s not going to happen?” Tammy asks him.

“What?” He looks at her. Can he make his mind blank? What is with his crew today? Are all of them up in his head?

“You are so obvious, I don’t even have to read your mind. Don’t you think we all know that? Those two would be perfect, if they could get over the fact they are not related in any way.” Tammy chuckles.

“Yeah. You can go look for Nakir next time, I think my ears are still ringing.” He sighs.

“The Blue Lagoon? I hate techno.” She shakes her head.

The ride to Oxford cheers him up a bit. The wind is blowing through his hair and the freedom he feels while riding a motorcycle is elevating. It’s the closest to flying humans can get. He understands the fascination of bikes perfectly. They all share this passion. Between the four of them, they own ten different bikes. The Harley he chose today is his favourite, but the Honda Tammy is riding is close second. They have come a long way since horses.

“Where are we going?” Tammy asks him over the bluetooth that connects their phones and wireless earpiece.

“The Jesuit house is just outside of the University complex. They are mostly teachers now. Some researchers, too. That’s who we’re here to see. Father Simon is a research historian.” Zack answers.

“This should be interesting. How did you hear about the guy?” Tammy drawls.

“Last time I spoke to Romano, Simon came up in our conversation. I’m just following a hunch, so hope for the best.” He tells her.

They park their bikes out front with the row of black VW sedans. Guess the Jesuits have a car code, since they never had to observe a dress code like the other orders of monks. Or maybe they just got them cheap? Who knows? Zack shrugs the thought away and walks up the stairs to ring the bell. Direct approach is best for this. He is not in the mood to play hide and seek.

“Em? Are you lost?” The young priest asks them when he opens the door.

“No. We are here to see Father Simon, research historian?” Zack answers. “Could you be kind enough to point us in the right direction?”

“Sure. You can find him at the main library, history section. He’s about yay tall, blond and wears glasses.” The priest answers and indicates a hight slightly smaller than himself. “He’ll probably be surrounded by books.”

“Thank you so much.” Zack smiles. “Which of the buildings is the library?”

“You are looking for the Bodleian Library. It’s a huge round building with a dome on top.” The young guy smiles. “Give me a second, I’ll get you a campus map.”

Map in hand and Tammy on his tail, he sets out to find this elusive father Simon. The campus is alive with students of all ages. Navigating the map seems easy enough, but he soon finds out the campus could rival a large city. He suddenly has no idea where they are. Should they turn left or go straight ahead? Maybe he should just ask?

“Hey! Sorry. We need help finding the Bodleian Library.” Zack stops one of the students.

“Straight ahead, turn left on the second passing and you’ll bump into it. Only the main door is unlocked, so you’ll have to walk around.” The guy smiles and runs off.

“That was helpful.” Tammy shrugs. “I still don’t see a reason we’re walking.”

“Too many people around. Someone might be observant of what’s flying overhead.” He answers her.

“Good point. I tend to forget they do look up on occasion.” She laughs.

The library is impressive. They both stand in front of it, gapping for a second. It can rival the buildings of old Alexandria. Too bad that extensive knowledge was lost when it burned down. It was a delight to walk the long rows of shelves and look through scrolls in search of ancient texts. 

“Alexandria.” They whisper in unison and chuckle.

“Let’s go find this priest of yours, before I grow roots here.” Tammy grabs his hand and drags him up the stairs. The lobby or reading/ sitting area is equally impressive. She marches over to a lady that wears a name tag and whispers to her: “We are looking for Father Simon, historian. We were told he’s here somewhere.”

“Top floor. You should find him there.” The lady whispers back.

The stairs to the top are equally impressive. This whole place is, really. Maybe he can come here more often and just browse the shelves? That is a thought for another day. Zack thinks he sees the right man on the end of the corridor. The man stands next to a trolley full of books and he seems deep in thought. He is blond, wears glasses and is the right height. Hopefully, he is the right man. He has some explaining to do.

“Are you Father Simon?” Tammy beats him to it.

“Yes?” The man draws out the word into a question.

“Great.” Zack smiles. He glances around to see that they’re alone up here. “My name is Zachariel, this is Tamiel.”

“Oh Lord!” Father Simon exclaims and promptly clamps a hand over his mouth. “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for yelling in the library?” Tammy whispers.

“We can’t talk here.” Father Simon tells them and touches Zack’s chest. “Oh. You’re real.”

“What did you think I was? A ghost?” Zack inquires. He is perplexed by the priest's behaviour. What is going on? What does the guy know? 

“Nothing, nothing.” Father Simon whispers. “We have to go back to the Jesuit house, It’s safer there.”

“Safer for whom?” Zack inquires. The man is acting strange and he doesn’t like it.

“For me. Holy ground and all.” Father Simon whispers as he leads them out of the library at a fast pace.

“I think you have some explaining to do, Father. We’re not vampires, holy ground does not affect us.” Tammy drawls.

“Oh, hush, Tammy. Don’t you see he’s scared witless?” Zack chuckles. The priest is hurrying along like the devil is chasing him and not two angels. Makes Zack wonder what is really going on.

“Come in.” Father Simon beckons them inside the Jesuit house. “Let me just get something from my room.”

“Sure.” Zack nods. They are left waiting in the hall while Father Simon vanishes into the third room on the left. The house is not adorned in any way, the blank walls are a bit weird to him, but hey, to each his own. He just doesn’t like blank walls.

“We can talk downstairs. It’s secured. No windows.” Father Simon tells them and opens another door that hides the stairs to the basement.

“What are you not telling us?” Zack inquires. He trapped the priest in between Tammy and himself. No funny business here, he always has her back.

“Oh, nice! A private gym that no one is using.” Tammy exclaims as she flicks on the light switch at the end of the stairs. The large room that comes into light has a wooden floor and old unused gym equipment stacked in one corner.

“I’m so sorry.” Father Simon repeats. “I thought Father Romano was messing with me, and then he died.”

“Huh?” Tammy looks the priest over. “I have known Father Romano for a long time. He was not a joking kind.”

“Well…how would you take this then?” Father Simon shows them a letter and a few old photographs. 

“So, he wrote to you? Did he appoint you as our next liaison and you did nothing?” Zack growls at the priest.

“Zack! Chill!” Tammy pushes him back. “He’s not the enemy. He’s just confused.”  

“Liaison to angels, who battle demons and witches? This thing reads like a fantasy novel. I admit I didn’t take it seriously.” Father Simon says.

“Do you want proof? I can show you.” Tammy smiles at the priest. Oh, Lord! This is so not going well, but at least there are no windows.

“You’ll show me a demon?” Father Simon whispers. The man is scared out of his mind, it seems. Well, he’s clearly not thinking.

“No. She’ll show you her angel wings!” Zack shakes his head. “And you claim to be a scholar with how many PhD’s? Where would we even get a demon in broad daylight?”

Tamiel laughs and snickers, but she steps back from the priest and lets her wings unfold. The magic behind them lets the wings through clothes without ripping anything apart. Her midnight black wings shine almost blue in the fluorescent light of the naked light bulbs. She is formidable, even without her armour. Just her wings and bow could make a man quake in fear. Zack glances at the priest, because it’s his reaction that matters. Zack has seen Tammy’s wings way too often in the line of their long life together.

“Oh...My…God.” Father Simon whispers. He is shaking and it looks like he will collapse at any moment. The man is staring at Tammy like she is the single most important thing in life. Objectively, she’s beautiful, but Zack is not impressed anymore by her black wings.

“Nah.” Tammy laughs. “Just an angel. A low ranking one, even. Zachariel is more impressive, but getting him to do anything he doesn’t like is close to impossible.”

“Zachariel is the name of an archangel.” Father Simon whispers. He stopped shaking, but he is yet to find his voice. Or the courage to look away from Tammy.

“That's grumpy over there. All proper manners and stuff.” Tammy smirks.

“Enough!” Zack orders. She does as she wishes most of the time, but this time she actually shuts up. “If you ever see my wings, you better be on death bed or very close to getting murdered. That’s the only exception.”

“I understand.” Father Simon nods. “What am I supposed to do? As your liaison?”

“You find things for us. Books, mostly. If you hear of unusual activity, you call us. If there is something hard to explain about a dead person, you call us.” Zack tells him. “You are basically our secretary and researcher.”

“Oh. I can do that.” Father Simon says. The colour is back in his cheeks and it seems as if they will have a cooperation after all. Opus Dei was a waste of time, the Jesuit’s are much more pragmatic when it comes to weird tasks.

“Good.” Zack nods. “Any old books on demons around here? We have a new breed, which is odd in itself. I want to know if it’s new or just hasn’t been seen in a long time.”