The Black Rider - J.B. Trepagnier Page 0,5
it a lot smarter than those who came before him,” Aeron said. “We had no idea he had captured an angel or had a daughter. Leif and I both got called at the same time, so we thought he was planning some sort of virus again like those who came before him did. We don’t just get called knowing who the Antichrist is either. We had to figure out who we were looking for.”
“We knew death and disease were coming, or we wouldn’t be here. By the time we narrowed it down to Isaiah, he had built an entire empire. He had labs all over the world, and some were under shell corporations and took time to locate. Hunting Antichrists in the modern world is a lot more challenging than when there’s no internet and international banks to hide your business.
“We hacked every lab we could find, even the research he wouldn’t want to be found. You have to understand, one way the Antichrist takes over the world is with disciples. A lot of his labs created products with a cult following with carefully branded social media to make it go viral. Instant followers. We couldn’t find anything associated with a virus because he hid you and that lab very well,” Leif said.
“Kidnapping an angel and creating you was an enormous risk. He knew if we found out, we’d risk everything to get you away from him. That’s why when you ran, he didn’t expose himself searching for you. He most likely knew where you were the entire time and made his move to get you back right when he was about to make his move releasing the tainted supplement. At the time, we had looked into it, and it seemed harmless because we hadn’t found all the research yet,” Aeron said.
This was still all my fault. Why couldn’t they see that? This all came down to me and the fact that I flirted with them in that fucking chat room.
“If you had stopped looking for me, maybe you could have stopped this.”
Aeron grabbed my face and looked deep into my eyes. His silver eyes did that glowing thing again, but now I knew why.
“Listen to me, Ariel. We both knew he took you because you were important. When we finally found the research that he used your blood in the supplement, Leif knew you could also be the cure. We couldn’t do a damned thing to stop the Rage Mutation without you.”
“When Dice showed up, we knew war was coming, so we tried to prepare. We had less time to look for you, but we still looked. I set up fortifications around this lab because I knew I would need it. Dice went around helping humanity that seemed worth saving win. That’s why you have places like California, Gabriel’s Haven, and San Quintin. I went around ending some battles prematurely by killing entire squads. I can’t be in two places at once, so I was unable to stop some bombs that dropped,” Aeron said.
“We knew things were about to get ugly when people like Isaiah and those like him started calling for peace. That was when Asher got called. Lines started getting redrawn, and countries and cities started disappearing as other countries and cities claimed them. Asher’s hands were tied. If he killed all these would-be dictators, the world would just go to war again. We had to wait, and we had to find you. You’re the key, Ariel. You can end this.”
“Why is my blood different from any other Nephilim on the planet? If Miss Mabel is also a Nephilim, couldn’t you use her blood?”
“The other Nephilim out there are the children of an angel and a human. The only thing we can think of is that you are the product of a Nephilim and a pure angel. You have more angelic blood than they do, but you also have the human elements that make it compatible with other humans.”
“But you don’t know my blood can end all this. It’s just a guess. They terrorized me in that lab when I was a child.”
Leif just grinned at me.
“Angel blood reacts when it’s scared. That’s why they were trying so hard. It also reacts when it’s content. I think if I can spoil you rotten and take a few samples, I can wipe out all the Rage Heads. It doesn’t hurt to try, and I have no intention of terrorizing you.”
“Aeron, you said we were on a time frame.