Nephilim Rising
Angelic Hosts Series, Book 4, Episode 7, Part 1
A magical revelation…
“It was your father’s letter. It had to have been. Only the next guardian could open it. The seal won’t break for anyone else. The Franciscans imbued it with arcane magic, something they’d never acknowledge that they dabble in.” Hector paced the small area of his kitchen. Antonio leaned against the counter, arms over his chest, eyes narrowed.
“You’ve got to be kidding? Magic? Now you’re telling me there’s real magic?”
Hector shrugged; bushy gray eyebrows raised. “After all I’ve told you in the last twenty-four hours, you’re balking at magic?”
A heavy sigh escaped Antonio followed by an angry snort.
“So now I’m going to be attacked by…whatever the hell that was, and I’m expected to step in as the next guardian over some damned key of which I have no idea what it is or where it is, for that matter. Don’t I get some say in all of this?”
“It was a demon, ‘Tonio.”
“What?” Antonio looked up, confused.
“The thing that attacked you. What you described to me can only be a demon.”
Clarity changed his confusion to astonishment.
“Jesus!” He threw up his hands, and then stopped, pinning his uncle with a glare. “And I guess he’s walking around among us too?”
“Who? Jesus?” Hector chuckled. “Perhaps, although I’ve never met him or come across anything outside of the Bible documenting his existence. I’m a scholar first, son. I deal in facts, and that means evidence. I have evidence of demons. You met one today.” Hector walked back to the kitchen table and sat down, staring at his now cold cup of coffee. He glanced up. “Spiritual matters were more your Pops’ area. He was a true believer.”
“Well, I can’t ask him now,” Antonio mumbled, suddenly deflated.
“As far as the key, I confess I don’t know what or where it is either. Eugenio never told me. He took his duty seriously.”
“Who made him a guardian, Tio? You haven’t explained that.” Antonio pushed off from the counter and joined his uncle at the table, taking a seat.
“That’s another thing I have little information on. All I know is that it happened not long after you came into the world. Guardianship is passed when an old guardian dies.”
“Does it always go to a direct heir?”
Hector pursed his lips, thinking. “No. Obviously you weren’t of your father’s bloodline, only of his heart.” He smiled at Antonio. “There have been many cases where a blood heir was not the next chosen guardian, although it’s rare.”
This last statement gave them both food for thought. They sat in silence, considering all the bits and pieces of information.
Antonio cocked his head. “Is it possible my mother was the previous guardian?”
Hector looked at him. “It is, but without knowing her real name, I have no way of verifying that hypothesis.”
Feeling as if he hit another dead end, Antonio chewed his lip. “What else do you know about the key?”
“The key isn’t the object that demons seek, but rather, what the key can unlock. According to the texts we have on file, the key leads to the magical or alchemical object that can open a portal into Hell. It’s a one-way ticket that will pull all earth-bound demonic entities back to Hell permanently. You can understand why they would want to get their hands on it. For them, destroying the key is the end game. That’s why it must be protected, until such time when it is used to fulfill yet another prophesy. But that’s another story, one that involves the second coming of Christ.”
“No lie?” Antonio’s mouth dropped.
“Verdad.” (Truth). “Also, the key itself is something for which only a guardian will recognize. As I understand it, they are naturally drawn to a key. Guardians are the only ones who can handle them. In the hands of anyone else, chaos ensues, natural disasters occur, and the handler is destroyed.”
There were no words left. Antonio could only shake his head. Finally, he pushed away from the small kitchen table and stood.
“I need to find this key fast. Whatever it is, it needs to be hidden away if it isn’t already.”
Hector got up, following Antonio to the back door. “The key will make itself known, ‘Tonio. Don’t worry about that. You have bigger concerns when the sun goes down tonight.”
Antonio stopped on the back porch. He glanced over his shoulder at his uncle. “I’ll be damned if any psycho wolf demon is going to take me, Hector.” He jumped off the porch and sprinted across the yard to his father’s house.
Hector watched him go.
“Yes, son, you will be damned…if you’re not strong enough to defeat the evil now unleashed inside of you.” A tear escaped his eye, and he reached up beneath the lens of his spectacles to wipe it away.
The breaking of the seal was so much more than a signal that a new guardian had arisen. He knew from Eugenio that the magic imbued into that wax seal had also been an alchemical lock on the door of the curse that coursed through Antonio’s blood from the demon wolf attack that killed his mother. It was a temporary fix, a way of letting Antonio live, and hopefully grow strong enough to one day fight and win the battle of his life.
“I’m not a praying man,” Hector whispered, glancing toward the sky, “but for you, ‘Tonio, I will pray.”
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