Eli Fletcher: Mark of the King: Book 1
The Custodes Avis

After a restless night of nightmares about my long lost family members, I wake up with a strange feeling in my gut. It’s the same feeling I had when I was in that coffee shop with Tentatio. My heart is racing, my eyesight sharpens in the darkness as if a light suddenly lights up, I can hear the rhythmic breathing of each person in the room individually. My attention is pulled to a spot in the ceiling, so I focus on that particular spot and listen carefully…footsteps; someone is in the building. I check my watch and see that it’s only 2a.m.; it’s way too late for the janitor to be here still.

I drop down from my top bunk light as a feather, pull out one of the new T-shirts my aunt and uncle bought me and pull it on over my head and then, stepping into my shoes, I head for the door. No one stirs as I cross the room, so I exit quietly and begin to search for the intruder. The presence is moving further away; they must be going down the stairs.

Abby!

I run for the stairs, rush down them, nearly stumbling a couple times along the way. I burst through the door, rush across to the main building as the door shuts; who else could be heading into the building?

As soon as I enter the hallway, I edge along the wall quietly to check on the younger kids but I’m suddenly distracted by hushed voices coming from down the hall.

Sticking close to the wall, I creep to the end of the hall to Miss O’s office. When I reach the end, a strange glow is spilling out of the classroom across from her office and the voices are louder and clearer.

“No way he knows the plan. We’ve stayed away from the orphanage like Tentatio ordered,” one voice says.

“They aren’t called orphanages anymore; they’re group homes,” the second voice says.

“Whatever, it’s practically the same thing,” the first voice argues.

“Isn’t that Eli coming down the hall towards us?” the other asks.

I shrink back down the hall a few steps and hold my breath.

“I don’t see anything,” the first voice says.

“Must have been something else,” the second voice says.

“Does this one scare you or something?”

“If he’s the one the others are talking about, we’re all in big trouble.”

The other replies with laughter. “Don’t tell me you place stock in rumors now,” the demon scoffs. “There never has been and there never will be a High Phoenix; their own rules prevent this from being a possibility.”

“And you think their God plays by their rules? No! As much as I hate him, he always has a plan that somehow defeats ours. Sometimes I wonder if we chose the right side all those millennia ago,” the second voice confesses.

“If he didn’t restrict our power so much, we could easily defeat him. He’s isn’t any more powerful than Lucifer than Tentatio is.”

“Don’t say that with him so close by!” the second demon squeals. “If Tentatio hears you, he’ll throw you into the pool!”

The first one scoffs again. “Let him try,” he says confidently. “Tentatio isn’t as powerful as he’d like us to believe, trust me. Lucifer, though they’re both archangels-”

“Former.”

“-is much stronger. He was one of the big three! The only ones to rival him in power and strength are Michael and Gabrielle.”

“Still, if Eli Fletcher is the prophesied High Phoenix, we’re all doomed. He’ll close the hell mount forever and destroy the black pool. Tentatio will be locked up until Armageddon!”

“No skin off my back,” the first one grumbles. “Come on,” he says after a long pause, “we’ve distracted him long enough.”

I recoil in confusion. Distracted who?

“You, Eli,” the demon replies to my thought as they both appear in front of me. “You should have continued on upstairs,” he adds with a deep, low chuckle that sounds a lot like marbles grinding against each other. Children begin to scream.

I lunge for the stairs but they both grab me by the arms, their hands burning into my skin like hot pads.

“NO!” I shout before they throw me to the ground.

My blood boils in me as I feel a rage like I’ve never felt before grow in my chest. My lungs fill and deflate with air quickly as I try to fight back my anger.

Get up, Eli, a voice speaks to my mind. Don’t hold back against them.

Pushing myself off the floor, I stand and tackle one of the demons and grip his throat with both hands. My grip grows tighter and tighter as my fury continues to grow. I hear the grind of metal on metal as a sword is pulled from a sheath by the other demon. I grip the demon’s throat even tighter and then suddenly the demon explodes in my hands like a giant water balloon, splattering black tar everywhere. I roll away as the second demon swings his sword down towards me, lodging the blade into the cold, hard floor. As he struggles to free his black, curved sword, I jump on his back, hold his head in my hands, one under his chin and the other on the back of his head and then twist as hard as I can, popping his head off like a giant bottle cap. Immediately after, he explodes, covering me in the same black tar as the other one; I land on my backside on the floor.

Covered in demon blood, I run up the stairs, leaving black shoeprints on each step as I go. When I reach the bunk room, I find them all huddled in a corner together, crying and screaming in fear. When they see me, they scream more and I realize it’s because I’m covered in black goo.

“Michael, I could use some help,” I mutter under my breath.

Coquo appears in front of me, glowing brightly in the dark room. Some of the children scream again, but others stare in awe. Coquo waves his enormous sword over me, pulling the tar off of my body until I’m completely cleared of all the demon blood. When the light dies, Coquo is gone and then Michael, Fiona and Miss O run through the door together; Billy, Marco and Allaryce close behind. Judging by the thunderous footsteps behind them, the rest of the kids from the dorms are coming to see what happened.

“Eli, what’s going on?” Miss O asks.

“Hunter, Hunter,” I hear Abby crying over and over in the same corner as the rest of the children.

I push past Miss O and then kneel down in front of Abby; she looks up at me finally and bursts into tears, jumping up and throwing her arms around my neck.

“He took Hunter!” she cries into the crook of my neck, her body shaking with sobs.

“Who took Hunter?” I ask in a whisper in her ear.

“A bad man in fancy clothes,” she says.

I stand up and turn towards Miss O. “Tentatio,” is all I say and she nods. With Abby still in my arms, I walk around the room until I come to a spot full of energy I can’t explain.

“Was this where it happened, Abby?” I ask her and she lifts her head to look around. She nods and then squeezes my neck tighter.

“Come here, Abby,” Miss O whispers gently but Abby tightens her grip on me.

“It’s okay, Abby, you can go with Miss O. I need to try and find where the bad man took Hunter.”

“He disappeared with her,” she says. “Right here,” she adds.

“Okay, okay,” I repeat over and over as she begins to sob more; I can feel my shoulder growing wetter by the second as her tears soak into my shirt.

“How do we get the kids back to sleep?” I ask, realizing it’s still really early in the morning.

“Let’s go to the preschool room,” Miss O suggests. “Fiona, will you, Billy and the others go get the sleeping bags for the younger kids from the storage closet?” she asks, handing her a set of keys. “Eli and I will get take the kids there to sleep tonight. Anybody else who would like to join us is welcome,” she adds, nodding to the older kids gathered in the hall.

Fiona takes the keys and Billy and the others follow after her. At least when it comes to the young kids, even those three are helpful.

“Allison, what’s going on?” Mrs. Katz says, pushing her way into the room.

“Another child has been taken,” Miss O says pointedly. “The children are scared, so we’re setting them up for a sleepover with the older children in the preschool room,” Miss O quickly says to keep Mrs. Katz from exploding on us. She looks around the room at the children and then sighs.

“Of course,” she says. “Come on, children, to the preschool room. Grab whatever you need,” she says and then quickly herds the children downstairs. “Abby, come with me,” she says before leaving the room but she clings to me tighter.

“It’s okay,” Miss O says. “We’ll bring her down.”

Mrs. Katz grunts curtly and then directs the children down the hall to the stairs.

“What happened?” Miss O asks as soon as everybody else is out of earshot.

I turn to Miss O and look at her confused. “I’m not saying anything with Abby here; I don’t want to scare her more than she already is.”

Miss O sighs and then smiles. “Okay, then let’s get her settled with the others.”

It takes a good half hour, many bribes of ice cream later in the day and an extra-long tea party with me and Fiona to break away from Abby. Once she’s calm, though, I’m finally able to go to Miss O’s office with Fiona and Michael to explain what happened.

“I don’t know about any prophecy made,” Miss O says. “Especially about the Sicarius. God usually saves revealing prophecies about His greater plans for Gabrielle, and those have already been given to us.”

“That is true,” Michael interjects, “but information is shared amongst those He chooses to know. I will investigate how information like this became known to them,” he says and then he shines bright and vanishes from the room.

“So, if this prophecy is true, how do I become the Phoenix? What is the Phoenix?”

“To explain that, I have to tell you about the Custodes Avis.”

“Okay,” I say with a shrug.

Miss O shrugs and continues. “Custodes Avis means bird protectors; you’re the bird, technically, although we’re the ones with bird codenames.”

I stare at her dumbfounded. “Seriously?” I ask. “It was always something in the back of my mind, but I never thought it was true. All of my Watchers have been named after birds, it was always just something I found weird and ironic, but to find out it’s not just a strange coincidence…”

“It’s not; Mr. Byrd was our lead field agent; that’s why he didn’t have a specific bird as a codename. With that said, the head of the Custodes Avis is called The Phoenix. Currently there isn’t a residing Phoenix over us; he vanished over a decade ago and we haven’t been able to find him or his wife.”

I stare at her for a moment as I realize who it must be. “My dad?”

Miss O nods. “Yes, your father is the current Phoenix.”

“He’d have to be alive to still be the Phoenix, though, right?” I ask.

Miss O stares at the top of her desk.

“You think he’s still alive?” I ask.

She shakes her head in frustration, or desperation, which one I’m not sure. “All we know is that we haven’t seen any proof about him otherwise.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means,” she starts and then lets out a heavy breath. “It means, Eli, that we don’t know what they’ve done with your parents. They haven’t provided any shred of proof of life or death.”

“A body,” I say quietly.

Miss O nods slowly.

“So,” I say, forcing myself to think positively, “they could still be alive.”

“Eli,” Miss O starts.

“I know,” I interrupt her. “I know they might not be, but I don’t want to give up hope that they could be alive.”

Miss O takes a deep breath to keep her from saying anything else.

“Do my aunt and uncle know about the Custodes Avis?”

Miss O nods. “Yes, and aside from being family, it’s a big reason why we would love to see your adoption with them happen.”

“By ‘we’ do you mean the group home or your secret society?”

Miss O stares at me for a moment, a look I’ve never seen before: anger.

I don’t back down from her, though. Too many secrets have been kept from me for too long. Do they really think I couldn’t have handled the truth sooner? I witnessed several Watchers die protecting me; I should have at least understood why they were protecting me and from what.

“Both,” she finally answers. “Obviously for different reasons.”

In a flash of bright light, Coquo returns, remaining in angel form this time. “One of Gabrielle’s angels has gone missing and has likely turned to join Lucifer; they had information about the Sicarius and it has been spread among the demons that Eli could become the one and only High Phoenix.”

“Do you know if my parents are alive?” I demand quickly.

Coquo looks from me to Miss O. “You haven’t told him?”

“Told me what?” I demand, standing to my feet.

Coquo dims down to his teenaged, human form and then directs me back to my seat. “Your parents were taken from your home when you were less than a year old. They have been held hostage by Tentatio’s demons as a bargaining chip to gain your trust. You must not give into Tentatio’s temptations to reunite them to you. He will, but it will be by taking you hostage as well, and once he does that, he will likely begin to use you for your powers to fight against the rest of the Sicariorum.”

I finally take my seat, allowing his words to weigh me down. Maybe it was too much for me to handle.

“Eli, you’re dangerous,” he continues, sitting on the edge of his seat. “You’re dangerous to the demons and you’re dangerous to us. If you turned against us with the full strength of your powers, you would be difficult to defeat and Tentatio knows this.”

“Couldn’t God just strip me of my powers?” I ask.

Coquo nods. “Yes, but He doesn’t always work that way. He knows all things and if He knows your future is to turn against us, it’s not likely He would choose you.”

“So, because God chose me, I won’t turn?”

Coquo shakes his head. “No, He chose you because He knows you won’t.”

I lean forward, resting my elbows on my knees.

“I know it’s a lot to take in,” Miss O says gently. “This is why we were hesitant to tell you everything,” she explains.

“If you’d told him sooner, he wouldn’t have so much to take in right now,” Coquo corrects her.

“But we may have pushed him to Tentatio’s side if we’d told him something sooner.”

Coquo shakes his head. “No, he wouldn’t have.”

“Stop talking about me like I’m not here,” I say quietly.

Both Miss O and Coquo stare at me apologetically. “Would you like to take a break?”

“Is there really any more to tell me?” I ask.

Miss O and Coquo shake their heads. “No, the rest you have to learn has nothing to do with your past,” Coquo says. “I will be gone for a little while, helping the investigation of Gabrielle’s fallen angel; we’ll begin your training as soon as I return,” he says and after I give him a nod, he vanishes in a bright light again.

After a long, awkward silence, I stand up. “Do you have my uncle’s number? I can’t find the paper they gave it to me on.”

Miss O opens her desk drawer and pulls out a slip of paper with both, Uncle James and Aunt Juliette’s cell phone numbers on it.

“Thanks,” I say and begin to leave.

“You can use my phone if you want,” Miss O offers, standing up and moving away from her desk. “I have some things to work on somewhere else,” she adds before leaving the room.

Once she shuts the door, I sit behind her desk and lift the receiver to my ear and then punch in the numbers on the number pad of her desk phone. After a couple rings, Uncle James picks up.

“Hello?” he answers.

“Hi, Uncle James?” I say, my voice a lot higher than I expect.

“Eli? Is that you?” he asks confused, although I hear a pleased tone in his voice.

“Yeah it is; I hope it’s okay that I called.”

“Of course it is; is everything okay?”

I nod and then say, “Yeah, I just had a lot dropped on me at once. A lot about my parents,” I say and wait for his response.

“Can I come to you, Eli? I feel like there’s a lot even Allison doesn’t know; things only Coquo knows but can’t tell you. And I’d rather tell you in person if that’s alright?”

I knit my eyebrows together in confusion. “Yeah, of course. When will you be here?”

“How about in a half an hour? I’m in the middle of something with David right now, but as soon as we’re done, I’ll be on my way, okay?”

“Okay.”

“See you then!”

“Bye,” I say in a confused state of happiness.

I have family that wants to take care of me; someone who cares enough about me to want to spend time with me and talk about my parents. I’m not exactly sure how to handle this, but I know I’m happier than I’ve been since first becoming friends with Fiona.

Leaving Miss O’s office, I accidentally hit someone with her door. It’s Fiona!

“I’m sorry, are you okay?” I ask her, helping her off the floor.

Fiona giggles. “I’m fine, thanks,” she says as I lift her off the floor and help her stand again. “Why do you look so happy?”

“My uncle’s on his way here to see me,” I tell her.

“That’s nice,” she says. “Do you like them?”

I nod as we head towards the playground out back where most of the other kids are already playing. Fridays tend to be a free day to do what we want. Some of us play outside on the playground, or on the grass field; others stay in and do some kind of art project; and then some just hang out in the bunk rooms and read a book or nap or something. Since boys and girls aren’t allowed in the rooms of the opposite sex, Fiona and I go outside.

“They’re really nice; you’d like them too,” I tell her and then go on and on about my birthday celebration yesterday. She smiles the entire time as she listens. After a couple minutes, I stop and laugh. “Sorry, I’m rambling, huh?”

She shrugs with a giggle herself. “I liked it; it’s nice to see you happy. Ever since learning about what you are, you’ve been kinda moody.”

“I’m so sorry,” I sarcastically apologize.

We spend the rest of the afternoon just talking on the bleachers of the kickball field. It’s not until Miss O calls us in for dinner that I realize my uncle never showed up. As we enter the building I ask Miss O if she saw my uncle show up at all.

“No, I never saw him, was he supposed to come here today?” she asks.

“Yeah, I told him about what you said about my parents and he said he was going to come here and talk to me about things you don’t know,” I tell her.

Her forehead wrinkles in concern. “I’ll make a couple calls and see if we can’t find him, okay?”

I nod. “Thanks,” I say and then Fiona and I rejoin the rest of the kids inside and line up for dinner.

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