by Julie Hall
“There are more pressing matters to attend. Enjoy your babysitting while it lasts.”
With a fluid motion, he coiled his body and leapt into the sky, dark wings barely flapping as he shot straight into the air. A strange, faded shadow trailed behind him as if tethering him to the earth. I craned my neck, watching him until he was barely a speck.
I was still sitting on the ground when the archangel turned to me.
“Who was that?” I asked, finally able to find my voice.
“He goes by several names,” he replied wearily.
“Care to try one out on me?”
“He comes as the angel of light he once was, but now he is Abaddon.”
“Huh?”
“Destruction.”
I lifted my eyebrows. Scary, but I’d never heard that name before. “How about if you try out a few more on me?”
Gabriel said them like curses. “Accuser, Adversary, Deceiver, Leviathan, King of Babylon.”
I swallowed. “Those all sound pretty bad. How is he still an angel then?”
“I said that he comes as an angel of light, not that he is one.”
“I’m missing something ridiculously obvious, aren’t I?”
The angel nodded his head.
“I think the name she knows him by is Satan.”
I jerked my body around to see Logan walking briskly up the alley.
“Did you just say what I think you did?”
“Yes.”
“Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!” I started to hyperventilate, “You guys left me alone in an alley with the devil! Are you insane?” I stumble-crawled to my feet. “And what the heck is he doing looking all angelic? Well, except for his crazy wings and missing eyes. Shouldn’t he be all shriveled and black with red pointy horns or something?” I used my hands atop my head to demonstrate the horn and skewed my face into a snarl. I was all over the place.
“Well that’s obviously a misguided stereotype,” Logan answered.
I stared at him incredulously. “You left me alone . . . in an alley . . . with the devil!” I punched his arm for emphasis. He only gave the spot a passing glance, but hurt flashed across his face and I knew it wasn’t from the punch. It was gone when he looked up.
“Yes, and now you’ve lived to tell another tale.”
“You’re making a joke out of this?”
“No.”
I let out a perturbed huff.
“Listen, I know we’re supposed to be getting along better and that I should be following your lead, but I hope you realize the next time you try to leave me alone in a dark alley, or dark warehouse, or—”
“Gabriel was with you in the warehouse,” Logan interrupted.
“Or dark wherever,” I continued, “I’m so not having it!”
Gabriel interrupted our argument as if we hadn’t had it at all.
“Satan is the great deceiver. He can appear in a number of different forms. For whatever reason, that was the form he wanted you to see. Do not be tricked into thinking his true form is anything more beautiful than any other demon. His is the most misshaped and deformed of all. He simply does a better job of covering that up.”
“Have you ever seen him before?” I addressed Logan after the span of a few heartbeats.
A muscle in his jaw moved. “Yes.”
“Is that normal? Do all new hunters get a special visit from him? Like a ‘welcome to the club, lookin’ forward to sending my evil minions after you’ type of thing?” I was more than half-serious.
There was a long pause before Logan continued. “No. Unlike God, he is not omnipresent. Meaning he can only be in one place at a time. He has a lot of ground to cover, which means he’s generally not concerned with a few hunters here and there. He usually leaves us to his demons.”
“So what does it mean that he sought me out?” There was a touch of desperation in my voice.
“Perhaps nothing to be concerned about, but regardless, we’ll have to deal with this particular issue later. You’re going to have to try to put it out of your mind for now. We have a job to do today,” Logan answered.
“Right, like this is going to be an easy thing to forget.”
Logan rolled his eyes. I looked back at the spot the fallen angel had been only moments before and shivered when I considered what might have happened if Gabriel hadn’t appeared. I shared as much.
“He could not have touched you.” Gabriel answered, his voice booming with authority. “He uses words and manipulation to lead people astray. He personally could not have physically harmed you. Not without permission. That is part of his sentence.”
“Permission? Permission from whom?” I asked.
“God.”
Permission from God to hurt me? What?
“What was his interaction with you before I arrived?” Gabriel inquired.
I explained as much of the conversation as I remembered. Already some of the details were muddled. When I finished, the looks on their faces weren’t comforting. To someone who didn’t know him better, Logan’s expression might have passed for indifferent, but there was a hardness in his eyes that scared me. The silence stretched.
“Will somebody please say something?”
Gabriel’s attitude changed immediately. “Let’s get you to the safe house, Little One. Logan’s right, we’ll have to deal with this later.”
Logan’s posture hadn’t changed, and that had me profoundly concerned. He turned his face toward the spot where the dark angel had stood. I took a step closer and laid a hand on his forearm. He looked down at my touch and then up at me. I willed myself not to be intimidated.
“Logan, what is it?” Something very real, very strange, was going on with Logan. As if he was drowning in his own mind. What was happening?
The angel looked on in silence.
I slowly moved my hand down his arm and twined my fingers with his stiff ones, all the while returning his stare, and gave his hand a squeeze, hoping to give him something substantial to grasp, even if it was physical rather than mental. His gloved hand was warm and his pulse pounded rapidly.
“Logan,” I whispered.
A barely discernable shudder ran through Logan’s body, and when it reached our joined hands, it was as if a bolt of electricity burned through me. It was so sudden and sharp that I gasped and jumped back, releasing Logan’s hand. Logan remained rooted in place, but the look on his face confirmed that he’d felt the electricity too. His eyes were wide with surprise.
“Did I hurt you?” He took a step forward, and out of reflex I flinched away, holding my hand protectively against my chest.
“What was that?” I accused.
The steel flooded back into Logan’s schooled features.
“What was what?”
“You’ve got to be kidding me, right?”
“I just squeezed your hand too tight. I’d forgotten you were holding it.” It was a lie—we both knew it.
“We need to leave now.” Gabriel’s commanding voice ended our standoff. Logan’s attention jerked toward the angel. He probably welcomed the interruption.
Did he truly think that would be the end of it? Whatever had happened in that moment was not normal, and in the aftermath, Logan’s unveiled expression had proven he knew that as well. I wasn’t about to pretend nothing had happened. But I did agree with Gabriel: we needed to get going. Being out in the open gave me the willies.
I paused beside Logan. “We will talk about this later,” I said. There were a lot of other things we should have talked about that we’d buried instead. I was finally ready to get my big-girl panties on and dive into everything, no matter how uncomfortable.
I let Gabriel and Logan usher me out of the alley, Gabriel in the lead and Logan protecting my back. We met up with Kevin at the mouth of the alley.
“Man, what was keeping you guys?”
He didn’t look mad, only jumpy—probably anxious to meet up with the other hunters. The only reason he wasn’t already with them was that he’d been sent to find us fir
st. What plans were moving forward without us?
Kevin absorbed the serious looks on our faces but didn’t press for an answer. I didn’t relish the notion of rehashing the past thirty minutes with anyone. Too much had happened. And it would only give people another reason to stare at the strange girl hunter.
We started forward in silence.
21
The Game Plan
Getting to the safe house was taking a lot longer than I expected. Without another option, we set off on foot. Our drop-in point had been on the opposite side of town. Kevin explained that everyone dropped in at different sites around town so we wouldn’t give away the location of the safe house. Hunters were arriving in intervals so as not to be overtly obvious that we were traveling to the same place. We were taking a roundabout way to be extra careful not to be followed.
After meeting the devil, that last point only made me more paranoid. Convinced there were hidden eyes tracking our progress, I twisted my head side to side, sure I would see a shape stalking us from the shadows, only to end up searching the darkness in vain. There was a solid chance it was only nerves, but something felt off.
No one spoke as we walked through mostly deserted streets and alleys. Logan’s shoulders were tense as he carried his sword free of the scabbard. Kevin and Gabriel followed behind Logan and on either side of me. A nervous giggle threatened to bubble up at the thought of having two dead and one celestial bodyguard. This was silly because sometime today we were going to be in a battle. A battle where I was going to be a fighter, not a ward.
While I was busy searching every shadow, I somehow missed the turn we took to the residential part of town. We passed modest but well-kept homes with green lawns and flowerboxes. We passed groups of kids coloring with chalk on driveways or playing in sprinklers on the front lawn, laughing and squealing. Even though leaves were beginning to turn red and gold, people were taking advantage of the warm day.
Something about the neighborhood felt inviting and slowly began to soothe my anxiety. A quick look at my companions showed I was the only one affected by the ambiance. Gabriel, Logan, and Kevin were all still on high alert. Muscles tense, eyes surveying the area with single-minded focus.
Growing more relaxed, I slipped into daydreaming. Popsicles and bike rides . . . the feeling of jumping into cool water on a hot, humid day and warm breezes ruffling my hair. With a start I realized these were memories and tried to hold on to them, but they were elusive. I groaned quietly. Logan cocked his head slightly to address me. “We’re almost there now. The safe house is just up ahead.”
“Oh, that’s not what I . . .”
The explanation died on my lips. The house we were headed toward looked like it was hosting a party and had invited every demon hunter in the region. A two-story white house at the end of a cul-de-sac, it had blue shutters and a plantation-style wraparound porch. The sun, which was high in the sky by now, gleamed off the metallic body armor of the hunters and bronzed bodies of angels.
“Try not to stare,” Kevin whispered. “If anything’s following us, you don’t want it to guess where we’re going.”
“Are you kidding? How could I not?” I hissed back at him. “Besides, they’re just hanging out there in broad daylight.”
“Demons can’t see them. It’s a safe house, remember? Once we walk over the border of the property, we’ll be invisible to them as well.”
“You think we’re being followed?” I scanned the area frantically, my fear renewed.
“No, but we want to be careful.”
“Why is it that they can’t see us when we cross the border?”
Kevin, focused on the territory behind us, barely registered my question. “It’s because the house and its property are cloaked in the prayers of the residents.”
“I’m not following you.”
“Shhhhh.” A sharp command from Logan.
I scowled at his back. We were being quiet. I shot Kevin an apologetic look. He looked slightly dejected and moved far enough away that I couldn’t rope him into another conversation.
Logan wasn’t leading us directly to the house. Instead he guided us to a neighbor’s backyard, and we weaved our way under the cover of the trees. A few houses away, he stopped.
“You think we’re clear?” he asked Gabriel.
Gabriel nodded solemnly. “Okay, you two,” speaking to Kevin and me, “we’re going to take it at a run from here. Try to keep yourselves hidden in the tree cover. Got it?”
He looked at Kevin, who gave a short nod, before turning his blue stare on me. We were so close to the safe house that the high drama for these last few feet seemed seriously overplayed. Logan knew me well enough to interpret the look on my face.
“I’m serious, Audrey. If we are being followed, it’s in this last leg that they’ll attack.”
“If everyone is invisible, then a demon doesn’t know where the last few feet are.” Pleased with my logic, I gave Logan a self-satisfied smile.
“That’s assuming they haven’t already figured out where we are congregating. They could have spotted another group entering and are waiting for the next one.”
“Oh.” I sighed. “I’ll follow your lead.”
Logan pressed his lips together, then turned and took off in a dead run.
Unable to keep a short exclamation from escaping my lips at his sudden departure, I scrambled to follow. Kevin and Gabriel, acting as guards, matched my pace.
The backyard was even more packed than the front. No one seemed particularly concerned about three hunters and an angel sprinting toward them. In a matter of moments we were there. Logan stopped short just past the boundary line. I collided with him.
“Oof!” The wind knocked out of me, and I landed on the soft grass. Logan merely took a step forward to steady himself.
“Oh jeez.” I lay there for a moment while the world came back into focus. “You gotta warn a girl if you’re going to put the brakes on that quickly.”
Logan looked down on me. I spied the amused glint in his eye.
“You need to be more aware of your surroundings. A demon won’t give you the heads-up.”
“Thank you, Obi-Wan Kenobi, for another enlightening Jedi pep talk.”
“You’re comparing me to a Jedi master?” He appeared to like that idea.
I pushed myself to my elbows and then to my feet. “Boys.”
“There you guys are.”
The look on Romona’s face was serious.
“Yeah, sorry,” Logan answered cautiously. “We had a little incident that held us up.”
Romona looked troubled, glancing between the two of us. Logan wasn’t aware that Romona knew about our little bonding issue, so he couldn’t read her face correctly, but I did. I needed to stop her line of questioning. We didn’t need any more spikes in the awkward factor.
“Romona, can we chat for a minute . . . like alone?”
“Sure.” She gave me a puzzled look, then turned toward the guys. “They’re meeting about strategy in the front yard. Once you’re briefed you can fill in Audrey after we, ah, chat.”
We waited for the guys to leave. “So, out with it,” Romona said with her hands planted on her hips. “What was the distraction Logan was talking about?”
“Not what you think it is.”
She raised her eyebrows in interest.
“We kind of got interrupted when we arrived.”
She nodded for me to go on. I worried the truth would freak her out. Besides, how exactly do you tell someone you met the prince of darkness himself and for reasons unknown, he’s taken a personal interest in you? I tried to stop, but the words popped out anyway.
“Logan left me alone in an alley with the devil.” I clapped my hands to my mouth.
As soon as “devil” left my mouth, Romona’s features blanked. I expected gasps or a female overreaction. But nothing. When she spoke, it was as if to herself.
“I suppose I should have expected something like this to happen. I don’t know
why I didn’t. What have I done?” The last question was barely a whisper. Her eyes stared through me. Instead of freaking out, she was freaking me out.
“Romona, what are you talking about?”
“Nothing, I’m sorry, just forget it. Are you okay? What’d he want?” Her face transformed into that of a concerned friend. Why was everyone reacting so peculiarly? First Logan, now Romona.
Before I could answer, someone hollered my name. “Yo, Audrey!”
I turned my head. “Kevin, I’m right here.”
He jogged over to us. “Hey, hate to interrupt, but Logan needs to talk to you.”
I sighed. “Okay then, well I’d better find him.” Before I turned to leave, Romona gently caught me by the arm.
“You will tell me about it later though, right?” There was genuine concern in her eyes.
“Sure. How about after we get this craziness settled?”
She nodded and released my arm.
I shoved my way through the multitude in search of my mentor before spotting him in a corner of the yard by himself. When I reached him, there was a serious intensity to his stare. His casual stance against the tree was at odds with his face. His eyes held strange fire in them. Logan regarded me silently for a few more seconds than necessary. I wondered what was turning through his brain. He shoved away from the tree, eyes never leaving mine.
“What we’re dealing with today is serious.”
I fought the desire to roll my eyes and say, “No duh!”
“A boy has brought a gun into his school. There’s already a battle going on between the angels and demons, but the angels have been unable to get into the school. The angels don’t want any more demons in the school to feed the panic or hysteria, and the demons don’t want any angels around to stop the massacre. We’re going to distract the demons so we can infiltrate the school. The hunters will be able to slip into the school easier than the angels. We don’t have the same power, so the hope is the demons will stay occupied with battling the angels. We’re assigned to find and fight the demon that’s influencing the boy. The hunters stationed outside the school will be acting to divert the demons’ attention so the angels can fight them more effectively. Hopefully a few angels will be able to slip in with us. With their addiction to hunters’ emotions, we’ll be very distracting to the demons.”
