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“Well, exactly. ” Lailah’s gleaming auburn hair shifted on her shoulders as she chuckled. “And by the way, speaking of hiding, I heard that Thaddeus has been taken care of. I felt the ripple myself, a few nights ago. Good. That’s a relief. ”
Raziel grimaced. The subject of the traitor angels wasn’t his favorite one. “I don’t know what they think they’re doing, trying to protect the humans,” he said tersely. “It’s not as if we have any choice but to feed off the creatures, if we want to survive. ”
Lailah flashed a grin. “I think what troubles them is the fact that some of us enjoy it so much. . . . Hypocrites. How many traitors are left?”
“Still a few, but we’re getting there,” said Raziel. “We came up with quite a tidy solution in the end, you know. Very clever. ”
Lailah started to say something else, then stopped as the cell phone on the desk rang. Stretching forward, Raziel answered it. “Yes?”
“It’s Paschar,” said a voice.
“Ah, Paschar, hello,” said Raziel, dropping back in his chair again. “And how are things in upstate New York? Still enjoying your little empire?” Paschar was the only angel within a hundred-mile radius in the rural neck of the woods he’d settled in. At his local Church of Angels, he was like a fat, contented bull in a meadow full of cows. Though that would probably change once the Second Wave arrived, doubling the angels’ present numbers.
“We’ve got a problem,” said Paschar shortly.
Raziel’s eyebrows rose at the lack of banter. Paschar was another angel who had spent a lot of time in this world; the two of them went back a long way. “What’s going on?” he asked.
“I’ve been feeding off some new humans in a place called Pawtucket,” said Paschar. “It’s a little far afield, but I was bored with the local offerings — and today I sensed that one of the females has been touched by something angelic. Something that wasn’t me. ”
Raziel frowned in confusion. “And? Are you saying that no one else is allowed to feed off your human?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. The energy that had touched her was like our own, but not. It was human . . . but still angelic. ”
Raziel sat up in his seat. “What are you talking about?” Across from him, he saw Lailah cock her head curiously.
“Listen to me. I went to this creature’s house and touched her mind with my own. She looks like a human teenager, but she’s not one. ”
“What is she, then?” asked Raziel blankly.
There was a long pause. Across the miles, he could hear Paschar take a breath before he said, “She’s a half angel. ”
For a moment, Raziel couldn’t speak. Angels didn’t breed; they were beings of energy that had existed since long before any of them could now remember. Though in their human form they functioned as humans do, angels were fundamentally different — conceiving offspring together should be a biological impossibility.
“That can’t be,” he said at last. “You must be mistaken; such a thing can’t happen. ”
“Raziel, I could sense her angelic form as clearly as my own, but it was tainted, intermingled with her human one. She’s an organic mix of the two; there’s no doubt about it. Half human, half angel. ”
“How?”
“How should I know? A fluke, somehow. But given her age, it must be one of us who was coming across to this world even before the Crisis who’s responsible. ”
There could be almost a thousand possible contenders in that case. “Oh, wonderful,” murmured Raziel. He sat rubbing his temples, trying to decide whether they could get away with not telling the Council about this. What some angels did in their human form was already controversial enough, without throwing this new complication into the mix.
“But, Raziel, there’s more,” said Paschar. “Something requiring urgent attention. ”
Raziel stiffened as he heard the dread in the other angel’s voice. “What?”
There was a long pause. “I saw a flash of the future when I touched this . . . creature’s hand. She has it in her to destroy us. ”
Now I know he’s going mad, thought Raziel. But unfortunately, he didn’t believe it. Paschar wasn’t given to exaggeration, and his psychic skills were as strong as any angel’s Raziel had ever known. “Who do you mean by ‘us’ exactly?” he asked.
“Us. All of angelkind. I don’t know how, but it’s a possibility that’s there within her — a strong one. She will have both the ability and the desire to destroy us all. ”
Raziel felt himself go cold; distantly, he saw Lailah staring at him, mouthing, What is it?
“She’ll have to be done away with, then,” he said.
“Immediately,” agreed Paschar. “You’ve got a means for taking care of this sort of thing, don’t you?”
“Yes, I’ll give the order right now. ”
A few minutes later, Raziel clicked off his cell phone and looked down at the details he’d just taken from Paschar. A half angel. Unbelievable. The very thought was obscene. Even if Paschar hadn’t had his vision of catastrophe, they’d have to do away with the thing — such a travesty couldn’t be allowed to exist. Picking up the piece of paper, Raziel rose to his feet.
“What’s wrong?” asked Lailah.
“You won’t believe it,” he said grimly. “I’ll tell you in a minute. ” He went into the outer office and dropped the paper onto Jonah’s desk. As his human assistant looked up, Raziel said, “This . . . thing must be destroyed. See to it. ”
Jonah nodded, his gentle brown eyes worried. “Of course, sir. I’ll take care of it immediately. ”
Raziel gave a curt nod. “See that you do. ” Then he went back into his office and shut the polished wooden door.
On his own, Jonah sat regarding the slip of paper, feeling troubled. It must be another of the traitors.
Serving an angel was an almost unbelievable honor, and one that Jonah gave thanks for every day. But his position meant that he often knew things that disturbed him, and the existence of traitorous angels was one of them. How was it even possible that some of the angels could turn on the others, attempting to put an end to the good works they did for humans? The idea caused his stomach to tighten anxiously. A world without the angels would be . . . unthinkable.
Thankfully, a few months ago, an efficient means of dealing with the problem had presented itself — a solution so subtle that hardly any of the angelic community knew what was going on, much less the human one. Giving a brief prayer of thanks to the angels for allowing him to be of service to them, Jonah took out his cell phone and carefully texted the address on the paper to the contact number. He felt relief as he snapped the phone shut again. There, problem solved. The traitor would be gone in a matter of days; it would never even know what had hit it. How could it?
Their method was so secret that not even the assassin knew the truth.
ENEMY SIGHTED, PAWTUCKET, NY. RESIDENCE: 34 NESBIT ST.
Alex got the text in his Aspen motel room on Thursday night and was packed and checked out in less than twenty minutes. He spent the next day and a half driving. Finally, in the early hours of Saturday morning, he reached Pawtucket, a sleepy-looking town crouched in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains. Heading for the main drag through town, he found a GoodRest Motel — there was always a GoodRest; they were as dependable as clockwork — and checked into a room to get a few hours’ sleep. The temptation, as always, was to go after the angel immediately, but he knew better. When you were this tired, you were likely to mess up and do something stupid.
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