by Carla Rehse
I threw my hands up. “Well, can’t you get on the horn and call upstairs to find out why he was driving—and crashing—my daughter’s car? And how about contacting the other angel guarding her?”
Sebastian glared at me. “Are you not listening? Somehow, the earthly body of a Celestial was destroyed in such a manner that he could not recuperate from his injuries. Now, I cannot sense your daughter’s physical whereabouts, just as I cannot sense Heather Russo. And no, I am not able to ‘get on the so-called horn’ and speak to anyone. Crossing Shadows has initiated lockdown procedures.”
“What? Um … sir?” Luna asked.
Good thing she asked ’cause I couldn’t spit the question out. Sadie was missing. My daughter was missing? How in every circle of hades had that happened?
“You promised to keep my daughter safe,” I growled.
“Enough!” Sebastian lobbed his orb thingies at Luna and me.
In another blinding flash of light, Luna and I emerged at the edge of the community center’s parking lot. Luna staggered into me. “I don’t like that.”
“Not fond of angel rides myself,” I responded grimly, forcing my wobbly knees not to give out. At least the stupid siren had stopped squawking.
In the middle of the vehicle-less parking lot, two sets of beings grouped together like at a middle school dance. On the right, twenty humans, mostly elderly, stood in textbook battle positions—meaning each was arms’ length apart and holding some sort of iron sword or long knife. Even Preacher Valencia held a large, iron cross in his hands and glared like he knew how to use it as a weapon.
On the left side of the parking lot, eight demons lounged with amusement etched on their sneering faces. The two Shifters stood close to the demons. Probably with their dual nature they were unsure which side to take.
And sides had been taken. No doubt about that.
Alana gestured wildly for Luna to join her. Luna hurried to her mother, while I followed at a slower pace. My mind kept replaying ‘Sadie is missing,’ which left me little mental power to figure out what was going on.
I tried to focus on the current situation. The humans had arranged subgroups. The Hunters had formed a line between the demons and the rest of the humans. Mama, Mayor Maxwell, and the other two councilmen—I still couldn’t remember their names—were clumped to the side, conversing in low tones. The rest of the humans stood behind the Hunters, staring at the demons. I nodded at Lawson, then headed to Mama. She needed to hear about Sadie before someone else told her.
With another annoying flash of light, the four Seraphs from the Council appeared. Sebastian held up his arms. “Crossing Shadowians, I have several serious announcements. First, the daughter of Everly Popa appears to be missing inside our town, the same as Heather Russo.”
“Hellspawn had nothing to do with it!” Zim yelled.
“Perhaps.” Sebastian raked him with a cold stare. “There is a consensus between my colleagues and myself that, most likely, a spell is responsible for their disappearances.” He waved his hand to quiet the murmuring from the human crowd. “The second problem is a Seraph has been murdered by additional spellwork. This has led Crossing Shadows to close the boundary. None can get in and none can leave.”
“But the kids? My grandkids!” Crisi Yates, the owner of the town’s only full-service restaurant, yelled. “They’re on vacation for two more days!”
“That may be for the best,” Sebastian responded.
I grimaced in sympathy. Several times a year, all the town’s children went on trips outside of our area. Not so much as a treat, but to help them acclimatize to “regular” humans. For various reasons, everyone eventually left town for something and no one wanted their kiddo to be caught bragging about angels and demons while shopping for toilet paper at the local Walmart. It did explain why there were so few humans here. Depending on the trip’s location, occasionally the chaperones outnumbered the children.
One of the lesser demons spouted off a comment I didn’t catch. Her fellow demons snickered, so it must’ve been hilariously inappropriate. Tien, the most junior of the angels, snapped something back.
The otherworlders began yelling at each other in their native tongues. None of it was discernible to human ears as it sounded like helium-huffing cats fighting. My angel translation program didn’t kick in this time, leaving me as bewildered watching the arguing as when I watched one of those non-subtitled K-dramas Sadie adored.
Sadie. Where are you?
Suddenly, the arm waving and middle finger shooting turned into a physical shoving match. Unearthly shrieks filled the air as bright-orange Hellfire flames slammed into brilliant white Celestial orbs in what would’ve been an awesome light show if I hadn’t been so terrified.
A Celestial orb snuck under a spout of Hellfire and hit a demon—Oro, one of the Knight Guardsman. Her arm flew off, sending black ichor spewing through the air.
Though I wasn’t near it, I still ducked. And I wasn’t the only human.
Oro howled, then disappeared.
Zim shouted what sounded like an accusation at Sebastian. He replied by throwing a light orb onto the ground, and all the otherworlders disappeared, except for one Shifter, who’d moved next to Lawson once the fighting broke out.
“What the hell!” I yelled, for what felt like the millionth time in the last twelve hours.
I might’ve been gone for two decades, but I still couldn’t believe what I just witnessed. Demons tended to be asshats ’cause, well, they were demons, but I’d never seen them openly antagonize an angel. And the Seraphs never acted like that, and I mean never. Though I did admire the perfect right hook Nevaeh threw. And yeah, I decided to call her by her chosen name. Anyone who dropped an Elemental Demon like a sack of rotten potatoes deserved that.
The Elementals were complete skeeves—they enjoyed causing wind to blow around your skirt or a sudden rainstorm to soak your t-shirt until Crossing Shadows regained control of the weather. The Celestial Pact might allow a certain number of demons to congregate in boundary towns, but no being liked the Elementals. And my stupid mind just went off on another tangent. Sometimes, I swore I needed to be medicated.
“Is this fighting normal now?” I asked anyone willing to answer.
Lawson slowly shook his head. “Nope.”
Fabulous. Just fabulous.
Mayor Maxwell yelled, “Listen up, folks! I’m not sure what’s going down with Heather and the Archivist’s granddaughter gone missing, but we need to take care of ourselves. Gather your emergency supplies and meet at the shelter ASAP. This isn’t a drill.”
Technically, our Celestial agreement meant the angels supposedly protected us in times of danger. But as humans tended to be suspicious and hardheaded, we’d developed a sheltering system. Though neither foolproof nor secretive, it was the best we could do.
Luna shot me a look, clearly conflicted on what to do, as the others ran around like a kicked anthill. I gave her a shooing gesture. “Take care of your mom.”
Speaking of mothers, I turned to look for mine and ran smack into Nevaeh. Literally. She had to grab my arm to keep me from falling.
“Gatekeeper, you need to come with me.”
I stared at the arm she hadn’t released. “I need to get my mother to safety since y’all have lost your ever-lovin’ minds. Then I need to find my daughter.”
Nevaeh replied by dropping a light orb at my feet and transferring me to the cemetery.
“Not cool!” I yelled as I tripped over a headstone.
Nevaeh pointed to a casket next to a hole in the ground. “There is no time for a traditional service, but we have to bury Jack Russo right now. You must open the portal between the Hell Gate and Heaven.”
“Whoa!” I backed up until I hit another headstone. “Open what portal? I’ve no idea what you’re talking about. Let’s take a raincheck, okay?”
“You do not understand, you insufferable imbecile!” Nevaeh covered her face with her hands and started walking in a circle whi
le muttering in her language. I’d been the Gatekeeper for less than a day and had already broken my training angel. That had to be some sort of messed-up record. “You do not understand. You do not understand!”
She repeated it several more times, then began the circle pacing again. I didn’t know what to do. As a kid, angels seemed to be these perfect, unknowable beings. And I might’ve always been ten pounds of attitude stuffed in a five-pound sack, but I believed in the superiority of the Seraphs. They were God’s perfect creations. Now, I didn’t know what to think.
“Uh … Nevaeh? Are you okay?”
Nevaeh stopped mid-step and shot me a wild look. “The Grace. We are cut off. No more Grace! No more.”
“Oh,” I said quietly.
Which sounded very noncommittal and was meant to not set off the all-powerful angel who could smite me into a pile of ash. What I wanted to say was, “Holy SPITFIRE! You’ve got to be kidding me!”
Among many things, Grace gave the Seraphs their semblance of humanity while on Earth, as they were actually spirit beings. And apparently, Grace also kept the Seraphs from going batshit crazy. I’d thought after surviving a Girl Scout camping trip with Sadie and eight other preteens that I’d be able to handle anything. I was wrong. I just hoped I wasn’t dead wrong.
Nevaeh whispered to her hands, with her head nodding as if in prayer. I wasn’t ashamed to admit I felt rather pee-your-pants nervous. Prayer wasn’t my thing, due to stupid, self-serving reasons I’d freely admit, but I was tempted to join her. At my age, I knew my strengths and weaknesses. Fixing broken angels and stopping rampaging demons wasn’t in my skill set.
A golf-cart-like vehicle crested the hill in front of us. Sebastian, of all things, pulled alongside Nevaeh. “What did I say about conserving your strength?” He had removed his frock coat, and black demon ichor streaked his cream-colored linen shirt.
His stern warning seemed to be the kick in the ass Nevaeh needed. She exhaled slowly. “You are right. I brought the Gatekeeper, but she is refusing to help!”
“Did you explain the situation?” Sebastian asked. He rubbed her arms in a way that seemed far too intimate to a dirty-bird mind like mine.
“No,” I interjected. “I’ve no idea what’s going on or what y’all want from me. Who cares about a funeral when my kid is missing and the town’s locked down? No offense to Old Jack, but I’m sure he’d agree.”
Sebastian kept rubbing Nevaeh’s arms as he looked at me. “Since you are the Gatekeeper and this pertains specifically to you, I will explain the situation. You will be unable to convey this to the other humans.”
Pressure hit me in the face, then disappeared. “What the—”
“You must listen,” Sebastian said, interrupting me. “With Crossing Shadows closed, we cannot reach Grace. Which has unnerving consequences for the Seraphs as we are in a weakened state. The Hellspawn have already attempted to take advantage of our vulnerability. Whoever is casting the spellwork and hiding your daughter will also use this advantage, I’m afraid. But that is the least of our problems at the moment.”
I raised my hand. “Wait, what? You and your angels are on the injury reserve list. The demons are running free like drunk college kids during Spring Break. While all of us are trapped inside the town? With a renegade witch who has kidnapped my kid and Heather? And this is the least problem? Seriously?”
Sebastian stared at the sky, with the light illuminating his wings flashing off and on. It was the most unnerving tic I’d ever seen. “If we cannot communicate, then the current situation inside this town is not known to Heaven. An Archangel and his troop of Guardian Angels will already have us surrounded. If they believe the town has been compromised by demons, they will ensure it is contained. Without any regard to the survival of the beings locked inside.”
I went perfectly still, afraid that if I pitched a hissy fit, I’d never stop. “Are you saying we’re about to get freaking angel nuked?”
The angels and demons trapped inside the town would be fine. They were basically spiritual beings who could return to Earth with a new body. If they had enough power to do so. But for the humans and otherworlders like Shifters? Once we died, it was game over. We didn’t get second chances.
“The funeral,” Nevaeh whispered. “You have to open the portal!”
Sebastian nodded. “If we complete the funeral for the dead Gatekeeper, it should show the town is under proper Seraph control.”
“If the town is locked up so tight y’all can’t beam a message to Scotty, then how can I open a portal between Heaven and Hell?” I might not understand metaphysics, but commonsense was flippin’ commonsense. And yes, I might be justified in dropping F-bombs, but with a middle-aged (perhaps slightly overweight), vastly undertrained, edge-corrupted soul about to get angel nuked, why take the chance?
“It will work,” Sebastian said. “It has to.”
“I don’t even know how to open some stupid portal. Where’s the manual?” This was beyond ridiculous. I needed to be out there searching for Sadie!
“The ability is innate inside you,” Nevaeh said. “You have already proven yourself far, far stronger than we remotely anticipated. Why, you are stronger than Paulo Popa, and he was the strongest Gatekeeper ever.”
“Paulo? You mean the Gatekeeper whose eyeballs popped out and who bled to death during a funeral? That Paulo?” It had happened four hundred years ago, but we still talked about it today.
“Let us concentrate on opening the portal,” Sebastian said in a tone used to calm scared kittens.
I touched my eyes. “Are you saying eyeball popping could be a real thing for me?” I found myself sitting on the grass as gravity had once again let me down. No pun intended. I should’ve stayed in bed this morning. Except I’d never be able to sleep again until I knew Sadie was safe. I took a deep breath to calm myself. On the list of stuff I needed to complete today, falling apart was dead last.
Since gravity and I weren’t besties at the moment, I decided opening a portal while not exploding my eyeballs would be best completed while sitting. I crisscrossed my legs and drew in another deep breath. “Okay, so what do I need to do? I don’t understand what the Gate is, or even where to find the thing.”
Nevaeh shook her head. “It is not a thing but a place. The thinnest layer between this reality and the otherworlds. That is how …” She trailed off, looking in the distance.
Sebastian cleared his throat. “The Hellhound’s bite deposited a nugget of Hellfire inside you while the iron disc in your wrist gives you a kernel of Celestial Grace. The two are growing in your body and are the reason your senses are so intense. I can already detect it in you, as can that demon doing a dismal job hiding over yonder. With the combined power, you will have no problem opening or shutting the Gate.”
“But if I have such small whatevers growing in me, how can I break through to the otherworlds when you can’t?” None of this made sense.
Sebastian grimaced and appeared to be searching for words while Nevaeh continued her death stare. He finally said, “Think of it as you received a dose of extra raw energy to speed your growth, while the Seraphs and the Hellspawn receive a steady drip to power us. Since Crossing Shadows has cut off the drip, we are forced to conserve the power that we have or face our demise.”
“Huh, I see,” I said. “Kinda like y’all are iPhone 4s with terrible, old batteries that you have to keep plugged in to use, while I’m the newest, shiny iPhone with a super-duper long-life battery.”
He shot me a confused look. “Eyes have phones now? Technology is hard to keep up with.”
I waved my hand. “No, not phones for eyes … Forget it. So how do I open the Gate?”
“The power is inside you. Focus, then open the portal.” Nevaeh smiled at me as if she’d just given me the secrets to the universe. Instead, her directions were as clear as self-assembly furniture with a couple of pages missing in the instructions.
I glared at her. “Could you give me clearer directions?”<
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“The Celestial Light burns in your very being and resonates throughout your soul. Touch the Light, guide it through the layers of your immortal anima, and the power will allow you to open the Gate.”
I blinked several times. “Huh?”
Nevaeh dropped to her knees in front of me and growled. “If you do not open the portal, every human in this town will die. Either the Archangel will smite everyone, or the demons will overrun us. And if you do not leech out some of your power very soon, you will explode and die a bloody, horrendously painful death. Plus, if you do not learn to harness said power, we have no other way to track down the witch who has your child. The town’s fate, as well as your daughter’s, rests in your hands. Is that clear enough?”
“Perhaps close your eyes?” Sebastian unhelpfully suggested.
“Fine,” I grumbled.
Butterflies ripped around my stomach, and a stress headache pounded behind my left eye. Twenty-four hours ago, I’d been a middle-aged woman with her life in shambles due to a fire I’d deliberately set. How could everyone’s fate rest on my shoulders? Every cruel and negative thing ever said to me, along with every moment of self-doubt, played through my mind. I tried to push the thoughts away by thinking of Sadie. I had to do this for my baby girl.
I inhaled, completely filling my lungs, then exhaled slowly. Just like I was taught in that yoga class I tried out a couple years ago. If only I could recall how the instructor explained to focus your thoughts. Maybe that would help. Hmm. All that I remembered was my sports bra had felt too tight. Not helpful.
Focusing on a picture of Sadie in my mind, I searched deep within myself for the key to the Gatekeeper’s power. I could do this. I had to do this.
I found nothing.
EIGHT
Problems and disasters and catastrophes—oh my
I cracked open an eye. Nothing looked different except for Sebastian’s expression. Disappointment pinched his face, replacing the cautious hope that had been there moments ago. It wasn’t the first time I received such a negative angelic countenance, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t sting.
