Choosing Soul Wars Trilogy Book One Read online

Malachi

  Malachi Jones was finishing his first year as a graduate student. He had been a business major, but had minored in political science. His graduate study was business management. He had held several part time jobs while attending school, but had not found anything that really held his interest. Making money didn't really intrigue him because he already had money. The truth was Mal would never actually have to work if he didn't want to. He supposed he would eventually find something he liked to do enough to do it, even when he didn't have to do it. But so far anything that interesting had eluded him. He just hoped the trust fund management was able to guess which currency would wind up in the winner's circle.

  Instead of ‘something’ interesting, Mal had found ‘someone’ that was pretty interesting. That someone was a fellow student. Actually, she was just 20, whereas Ma; was 25. Mal had met her at ‘College Days’ the previous fall. As a graduate student, he was drafted to sit in the "business and computer" section and answer questions about that area of study as a major to any potential freshmen who were looking for help in determining a major. Belle had shown up with her sister Amelia. Belle was starting her sophomore year at college. Her sister Amelia had one year of high school to go. Mal considered the five year age difference between himself and Belle as probably acceptable. Belle did seem to have a level of maturity far beyond her years. Regardless, Mal found her quite captivating. She called herself "Miss 'Not To"'. When Mal had asked her, "Why?", she had said because she wasn't "not to anything". It was a family joke she had said. She was not too tall, not to short, not to heavy, not to thin, not to beautiful, not ugly, not to anything. She had said it was really quite comforting.

  But Mal thought she was all too memorable, even delightfully memorable. He name was AnnaBelle Smith, and Mal was beginning to wonder if he was in love. Actually, everyone just called her Belle. Mal didn't know too much about Belle's life. He knew her parents had died tragically in an automobile accident. He younger sister Amelia had been seriously injured, but had recovered as far as Mal could tell, except for a slight limp. He knew Amelia and Belle lived together and that Amelia was finishing high school this year. He had only met her at the college that one day, and then a few more brief visits when he picked up Belle. He knew they were planning to sell the family house as soon as Amelia graduated and buy a condominium or something that was just different. The home where they had lived with their parents had been a comfort at first after the accident. But with the passing of time both Belle and Amelia thought they would be happier in a different place without the memories. And Belle had told him on their first date that she and Amelia would be living under one roof for the remainder of their lives. Having lost their parents they would never lose each other. "Well," Mal had thought, "I guess that means it would need to be a pretty big house to eventually hold two families."

  Resolutely, Mal switched from daydreaming about Belle to thoughts of how he would spend his summer. He had to go home for a few days at least. He really missed his mom. Mal knew his dad didn't really mind him being away from the house. But his mother was another story. He had a strange feeling that something was going on at home anyway. He had been pretty uneasy about something for several days. Mom would never burden him with the problem, whatever it might be. And dad would never think to keep him informed of anything, regardless of what it was.

  And then there was Ann. She was his sister, but she had always seemed somehow unreachable to him. Sometimes he thought she was missing a "connection gene". She never seemed to connect to anyone or anything really.

  "Oh well, I guess I just wasn't born to be close to Ann and dad," Mal thought sadly. Thank goodness I have mom.

  Angels of Darkness.

  At the table sat a number of high ranking officials from among the legions who fell from grace when the cosmic war in heaven had occurred. They were reporting on different aspects of the war on the sons of Adam. Cabiri was a high ranking devil who fully understood that there was a war going on for the souls of individual human beings. He was an experienced deceiver and liar. Cabiri loved ‘Soul Wars’ and wished the war could go on for eternity. Through the ages Cabiri had won many battles influencing many souls to choose darkness rather than light. When he set his sights on a particular soul, it was very hard for that soul to escape his evil influence.

  Currently Cabiri wasn’t positive, but he had the firm impression that he was onto something big. He saw in Ann Jones the potential to join his team in the war, and even become a recruiter for other souls. Cabiri was fairly certain that Ann’s father would become a firm ally as well once he had Ann committed to him. In his opinion Ann’s mother and brother could be problematic. They didn’t seem to easily led. But at the moment, all four family members were separated from God and headed for hell.

  Angels of Light

  Raphael was an angel of God whose business was to guard whomever God assigned to him. His current assignment was one Malachi Jones, known as Mal. Mal was not yet born again, but his restless heart was seeking something more than his privileged life had been able to give him. Raphael knew that there was going to be a major confrontation with the enemy in the war for this man’s soul. He looked forward to the day when the Soul Wars were ended eternally. But that day was not today. Today he was going to fight for the soul of Mal Jones. And he would do whatever he could to win this particular battle.

  Raphael had instructions to assign some additional celestial helpers to Mal. Usually, the helpers Raphael assigned were the "unseen" helpers or other angelic beings. The people being helped had no idea the "unseen" were anywhere around. But this time, in addition to the standard unseen helpers Malachi Jones was going to be encouraged with an earthly helper, someone he already knew - Belle.

  Raphael loved this part of his job. However, in this instance, there was a concern. He knew Cabiri, his arch adversary, was very interested in the Jones family. In fact, Cabiri had set his sights specifically on Malachi's sister Ann. This was quite unusual for his enemy. Cabiri had spent ages working in the area of "government". He had been a prime director for the Caesars of the Roman Empire. He had ruled through the Caesars. Some had realized they were being directed, some thought everything was their own idea, and some knew Cabiri face to face and openly did his bidding.

  But gradually, Cabiri had destroyed his own most cherished treasure, Rome itself, and all the Caesars with Rome. And Cabiri had been trying to make a comeback ever since. His greatest prodigy in modern times had been one known as Adolf Hitler. Cabiri had been a major influence in Hitler's life from a very early age. And that had been with the idea of a revived Roman Empire.

  Now, with the European Union progressing so nicely, Raphael was quite surprised that Cabiri would involve himself with an American, and one of the female gender at that. But time was growing short. The heavenly building project was progressing speedily. Raphael was puzzled by Cabiri's actions. However, he wasted little time considering what Cabiri was up to. Raphael knew that his Boss knew the full score, from start to finish. Raphael didn't have to understand everything. He just had to follow instructions to guard Mal Jones.