Page 3 of Fallen

Nausea pitched in Alex’s stomach. In his mind’s eye, he was six years old again, stained with their blood, his throat sore from screaming. He tried to take a breath, but his chest felt too tight.

It was the same. It was exactly the same as he remembered it all those years ago.

Cold black eyes and a Cheshire cat smile full of sharp teeth, too wide and flat for a human face.

“Come closer, little boy, it’ll only hurt for a moment.”

Alex doubled over and vomited all over the smooth wood floor.

Nathan sighed. “Hendricks, you’re on clean-up duty. No traces of us can be left behind. Bleach the spot when you’re done.”

“What?” William asked indignantly.

Nathan gently guided Alex back outside as his stomach threatened to revolt again. “I told you to wait outside,” he said kindly.

“I’m not a—child,” he said, struggling not to hurl again. He doubled over, breathing deep.

It was exactly how his family had been killed sixteen years ago.

“We have to find the thing that did it,” Alex rasped, his body trembling. “Nate, tell me we’ll find the thing that did it.”

“We’ll find the thing that did it,” Nathan said dutifully, pushing him down to sit on the back steps. “Take some deep breaths and tell me some constellations that you see.”

Alex tipped his head back obediently, blowing out a breath. His mouth tasted sour. “Orion. The Big Dipper.”

When he didn’t keep going, Nathan asked, “Are those the only two you know?”

Alex huffed out a weak laugh. “Yeah. Well, I know the Little Dipper, but I can’t see it from here.”

Nathan smiled, a weak thing that barely touched his eyes. “Are you good here for a minute? I need to go back inside and make sure William’s doing what I told him to do.”

He nodded mechanically. “Sorry I threw up.”

“Ah, it’s fine. Serves him right for mouthing off.”

Nathan patted him on the shoulder and retreated back into the house, leaving Alex alone in the darkness. The air was cool, the neighborhood quiet. He carded his fingers through his sweat-damp hair and scrubbed the heels of his hands against his eyelids until he saw spots. There would be no erasing what he’d seen tonight. It would be carved into his nightmares right alongside the memory of his family.

He waited outside while the rest of his squad finished up. They left everything exactly as they found it. Someone would leave an anonymous tip for the police when they were well away from the crime scene. Now, they would return to HQ with the evidence they’d gathered and let their commander decide the next step.

Alex hoped the next step involved hunting down the monster who did this. He’d waited far too long already.

When they got back to the SUVs, Alex climbed into the passenger seat, resting his head on the window as Nathan got in and started the engine. The low hum of the engine was soothing, and he sank more comfortably into the seat. He was exhausted, and he’d barely done anything. His body still trembled finely, no matter how tightly he crossed his arms.

“How’re you doing, Alex?”

“Just fine, Captain Accardi,” he said blankly. He saw Nathan’s unamused look in his peripheral vision.

“Not filling me with confidence.”

Alex sighed. “I’m just… processing.”

“Maybe he’s not ready to be in the field yet, Captain,” William said from the backseat. As the oldest in their squad—older even than Nathan—he liked to use that against the younger paladins, like Alex and Aidan. William cracked the window beside him to alleviate the smell of bleach. Served him right.

“Hendricks, if you don’tshut up, I’ll put you on latrine duty for a month,” Nathan warned.

“So he’s got trauma, big deal,” William went on. “In this line of work, we’ve all got trauma. You don’t see the rest of us vomiting all over fresh crime scenes about it.”

“I hope you like scrubbing toilets, Hendricks. Not another word.”

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