I can’t go to the concert, either.”
“What the hell do you mean you can’t come home? You have to come home.”
“I can’t. We’re all in danger okay. You’ll thank me later. Just go to the concert. Tell Mom and Dad I’m okay and tell Trevor...to go to Hell.”
“What the hell, Lizzie—”
“I have to go now—”
“No don’t hang up—”
“Bye Millie.” I shut the phone and let it fall to the floor. I felt a lump form in my throat. I can’t believe I just did that.
My stomach was hurting so bad. I couldn’t keep doing this to my family. What did Darrton expect me to do?
I picked up my phone and tried to call Darrton. It rang and rang. He didn’t have a voicemail so I couldn’t leave him one. I sent him a text.
“Where are you? Please call me.”
He never texted back.
Ass.
CHAPTER 11
Darrton
The address took me to downtown Vancouver. It was rather late in the afternoon and the town reminded me of a ghost town. I parked my bike on the curb of a closed warehouse that had boards nailed up over its windows.
There was a creepy feeling washing over me. I could feel another fallen. Ian had to be here.
The alley to the left reeked of crime. It was the dark and gloomy nightlife that criminals looked for. A man down at the end of the alley was curled up in a box, singing an old western song. He was three sheets to the wind and didn’t even know I was only a few feet away from him. I stopped in front of the door. It had three bullet holes. I knocked three times.
It opened. A man poked his head out and gave me the once over. He then unlocked the door all the way, giving me just enough space to walk in. I slid in and was hit in the face with smoke, I could smell the alcohol. It burned my nose. The man who let me in sized me up then gestured for me to follow him. His arms were covered in markings and his head was almost shaved. We walked past a few people who were playing pool, with girls hanging on their right arms. They weren’t fallen but I had a gut feeling that they knew something about us.
The area was a tight fit but there were a number of rooms off to the side. We walked toward the back. He stopped at a door and knocked three times.
“Come in,” someone called.
The man gestured for me to go in. The room was completely different than what I had expected. It was light, modern, and had a huge desk in the middle. Ian was sitting behind it.
“My brother!” he said, rising up and coming to greet me. I noticed he hadn’t lost his deep southern twang. He’d had it ever since he died.
“It’s been a long time, Brother.”
He grabbed me in a hug and squeezed. “It’s been way too long, Darrton.” He studied me. “You look great. Besides being here on Earth and everything. But of course I would never point fingers.”
I took him in. He looked...so human. His hair had been cut. He was wearing khaki pants, a button-down shirt, and sandals. “As do you. You look rather human, but good.”
He winked. “Being down here for over eighty years, it starts to wear on you after a while.”
“Has that much time gone by?”
He nodded and gestured for me to sit down. “Have a seat, son. I guess we got some business to take care of?” He rummaged around in his cabinet, brought out two shot glasses, and poured bourbon into both. He threw his shot back and sighed. “I’m actually surprised to see ya’ here at all. I’m guessin’ something has happened. Am I correct?” He poured himself another drink.
“We were damned.”
He looked over his drink at me, placed his shot down, and sighed. He was rarely serious, always laughing, but now his eyebrows drew down in the middle. “Darrton, what in the hell did you do?”
“We tried to take over. We knew—”
He laughed but it was without humor. “Did you not learn from me? The punishment is so great. I will never see Emily ever again. I have to live every day without her. For what? Forty years with her and forever without her?” Ian looked me dead in the eye. “The Apocalypse is beginnin’ and it’s without His permission. You’ve sinned greatly ’gainst God.”
I nodded. “I did not come here to be patronized,