Redeemed In Shadows

by Tigris Eden

  “I think that when my brother talks you should listen Feral.”

  Royce turned his attention to the Angel at the back of the room and winked.

  “I think Uriel, you suck way too much dick, but then again that’s my own personal opinion.”

  There was entirely too much testosterone being thrown around the room and Xee couldn’t help but secretly enjoy the show. The one Royce called Uriel didn’t say a word, but her hand did move to her belt and Xee noticed the sword on the woman’s hip. A freaking sword! What century was she stuck in? No one used swords anymore, did they?

  “Never did care for Ferals.” Another Angel commented. This one had brown hair with reddish and black highlights. His eyes were a vivid blue that was lighter around the edges.

  The silver-eyed Feral growled and pushed his chair back to stand.

  “Stand down,” Dravaggio said over the noise of the twins and the Seraph’s who were all gearing up to throw down. Ronin snarled displaying his large canines. His grey shirt stretching further to accommodate his hulkness.

  “What it all boils down to is we’re running out of time.” This was said by the Asian that was sitting at the far end of the table chewing gum. Ink black hair and black eyes that seemed to glaze over with a gold shimmer eyed everyone in the room, her included.

  “Water dragon and something else.”

  “No shit, Sherlock. I can see.”

  Iridescent blue, red, and green scales covered only his eye lids; the rest of his skin was flawlessly pale.”

  “Hawke’s right. Xee and I will work out the logistics while you send in Draven and his team.” Angel boy stated.

  “I won’t leave Jesminda and the baby, send someone else.”

  “There is no one else.” The Captain commented as he paced the length of the room. Belinda had imparted tons of information during the brief tour of the building. One of them was that Dravaggio was undergoing anger management classes and if he was pacing, shit was about to hit the fan. Literally.

  “Baby, we’ll be fine. This is important.”

  For the first time the Seraph’s standing in the room looked in the direction of Draven and his mate. Xee couldn’t get a bead on Jes, but she definitely wasn’t human.

  “How did she come to be here and with child?” Isaiah asked.

  “Why do you care?” Draven stood blocking their view to his mate. His hands fisting at his sides.

  “Because Lycan, she’s an Elder Angel,” Isaiah looked to another man in the room that was off to the right of Dravaggio. “Does the council know about her, Cyrian?”

  All eyes went to the man Isaiah was addressing. His wings were black and unhealthy. The skeins of his feathers were in an unnatural state of disarray and confusion. It was as if the wings themselves didn’t know their purpose.

  “Odessa is aware and I’ve been charged with standing watch until a decision has been made.”

  “Justice is called for in regards to her infraction. The Elite will step in if no one else does.”

  “Never a dull moment with this new job of ours. We should have brought popcorn.” Micah said sarcastically. Xee couldn’t agree more. There was just too much drama.

  “Seriously, I’m in the fucking room.” Jes said grabbing onto Draven’s arm and making him sit down beside her. He obliged her, but barely. It seemed him and Isaiah were locked in a manly stare-off.

  “If only they would just piss in the corner and mark their ground so we can get on with this meeting!” Xee thought.

  “Draven, you will lead the ground team. Gabe and Xee logistics. Dietrich, I need you here along with Adam. The rest of you put your ear to the ground and follow the smallest of leads. I don’t give a shit if you end up gathering intel from a fucking roach. I want the Sahidic found.” Dravaggio locked eyes with each of his team members before turning them on Isaiah.

  “Thank you for what little help you offered. Next time you come to my house, fucking knock.”

  Isaiah nodded in the Captain’s direction and disappeared. Each Seraph following suit until only the one called Grey was left.

  “Clocks ticking. Death waits for no one, even you.” He was looking straight at Xee when he said it before he disappeared.

  Okay.

  The room was quiet for long moments. Royce was the first one to say something.

  “Good thing, Death is on our side. Really, he just said, ‘Gabe waits for no one,’ this of course is true as we all know our friend Gabe is very punctual.”

  Everyone in the room burst into laughter, except Xee. Grey didn’t say Gabe, he said Death. Two seconds later, she put two and two together. That’s why Micah didn’t like him. Gabe had the ability to collect his soul.

  Holy shit!

  Holy… Shit!

  Gabe was the Angel of Death.

  Xee took in his broad shoulders, the roped muscles that lined his arms, legs, and torso. His strength couldn’t be contained behind the clothes he wore, and his demeanor was striking. The arrogant slash of his brows, the strong cut of his jaw and champagne eyes all spoke to a man that was well equipped at killing. Death had a name, and his name was Gabriel.

  “Don’t romanticize him. He’s the same dipshit who took our coffee cake. Remember?” Micah said cutting into her thoughts.

  True, he was the same guy, but now he was also something more. Thinking on this only made her head hurt. She tried to get the thought of Gabe being the Angel of Death out of her mind, when an altogether new terror assaulted her brain and completely mortified her! She’d watched Death give himself a hand job! Her hand automatically went to her face, as it flamed red.

  “My my my.” Royce said smoothly, alerting everyone to her own personal embarrassment.

  Fuck! He was a mind reader.

  “Yup, pegged it.” The Feral said as he smiled wide. “You want to share with the rest of the group?”

  Hell no! She didn’t want to share.

  “Shut up.” Xee gritted between her teeth. If he so much as said anything remotely close to hand or job in the same sentence, she was going to carve out some time in her life to personally cause Royce all kinds of misery.

  “What seems to be the problem?” Dietrich asked from beside her.

  “Oh, nothing. Seems the new girl is a peeping tom.”

  “I am not!” Xee screeched.

  Dravaggio roared. Actually roared before yelling. “Let’s stay on fucking topic.”

  That definitely got everyone’s attention.

  The meeting ended soon after and Xee made her way back to her room. When her head hit the pillow, she was out for what only seemed a few minutes when she was woken up by her alarm. According to her clock, she slept three hours.

  Shit, she was tired.

  She quickly got up, showered, and dressed in a pair of low rise, Sharkbite denim cutoff shorts, and a tank top that said bitch in bold black lettering, courtesy of Dietrich. At least he didn’t buy her girly shit. She stuck her feet into some flip-flops that showed off the two huge flower tattoos on the tops of her feet and piled her hair on top of her head in a messy bun. “You should really think about cutting your hair Xee.” Micah complained. He didn’t like that she kept her hair long, and the sides shaved almost bald. It was her damn head and she was going to do what she wanted with it. She checked herself in the mirror one last time before heading out the door.

  Making her way to the cafeteria, she decided on coffee and a country breakfast. The chef was all too eager to please.

  “So glad I can cook something that actually makes sense,” the cook commented. He wasn’t human either, but one of those Gnome demons. Small but not so small he couldn’t stand behind the counter and take her order. She got the grits, scrambled eggs, and biscuits with bacon and sausage on the side. There was hardly anyone around. She figured everyone else got to sleep in, or at the very least had decent working hours. There were a few Lycans that sat at a nearby table not paying her any sort of attention. Taking h
er plate from the smiling Gnome demon, she sat, eating in silence, taking everything in. A memory of her reading back when she was institutionalized popped into her head. She’d seen her first true bad demon, walking among the stacks of old books in what the hospital called a state of the art library. It wasn’t, but it did have some interesting books on demonology and possession. She’d looked up from her book and saw what could only be described as the devil. But later found it wasn’t the devil at all. It had red scaly skin, forked tongue, and one of those long tails that looked like a spike. But when she became the expert on demonology, (well expert in her opinion) she found that the demon she saw in the institutions library was actually a Spawn demon. They were creatures that could take on the form that would torment whoever was near. If a Spawn demon was in a crowd, to anyone who was looking, it would portray their greatest fear. Those were moments she referred to as snippets. When a person walked and thought, they saw something that wasn’t there, then looked again but the object was gone. Snippets. So when the devil-like creature had passed she’d been scared. It was her mother who used to tell her when she was a child that she was the spawn of the devil.

  Xee stood and dumped her plate, quickly making her way up to her floor where she would meet Gabe to begin her first day. She still couldn’t get the fact out of her head that he was the Angle of Death. Normally, this would excite her but because he took her coffee cake, she was holding it against him. The douche.

  He was thumbing through channels when she made it to the game room. His eyes not really focusing on the screen, but something past that, off into the distance that only he could see.

  “Ready when you are Angel boy.” Gabe locked eyes on her, his frown evident as the slash of his brow dipped to shadow his eyes.

  “You always this rude?” he asked.

  “Only at four in the morning.”

  In one smooth motion he stood. His tall muscular frame unfolding to stand above her at almost seven feet. He eyed her from head to toe, did what could only be described as a double take as he zeroed in on first her legs and slowly made his way up to her face, where his eyes focused on her lips. Unconsciously, she pulled her lower lip between her teeth and waited. “Way to reel him in.”

  Reel him in?

  She wasn’t doing anything of the sort. His shoulders rose and fell drastically with the breath he pulled through his nose. It made his wings expand, the tips brushing the beams on the ceiling. Xee looked down just as he released another breath and watched as his shirt rested against his abdomen showing glimpses of bronzed skin. His jeans rested low on his hips and if she looked hard enough,--which she was--she could see the carved indention of the sexy V women swooned over.

  “Now you’re attracted to a dude?” Micah asked with disbelief.

  “No, shut up. I was admiring his strength, that’s all.”

  “Right and I’m not a Para-housed living inside your body.”

  Xee ignored Micah and turned towards the elevator.

  “Wrong way Blossom.”

  She froze. The only person to ever call her Blossom was her grandmother and she was dead.

  “What did you call me?” Xee whispered.

  Gabe turned and hunched his shoulders making his wings flare out at his sides.

  “You call me Angel Boy, I’ll call you Blossom.”

  Idiot.

  Only her Tutu could call her that and since she was dead… It was a term she didn’t want to hear again. Ever.

  “Don’t call me that.”

  “Don’t call me Angel Boy then. My name is Gabe. You don’t like calling me by my name; I’ll answer to Sir, or even Gabriel, not Angel Boy. Don’t let the wings fool you little girl.”

  She watched as he walked in the opposite direction and quietly followed. She wasn’t a little girl, but she wasn’t trying to go head first into a fight with Death either.

  “I’m not a little girl.”

  “Then stop acting like one.”

  Shit!

  She’d said that out loud and she’d used her pouty voice. She heard him chuckle under his breath and she almost kicked him but thought better of it. Gabe led her down a series of never ending stairs.

  “Had I known I was going to walk this much, I would have invested in a Fit Bit. Ever head of an elevator Angel Boy?”

  She was goading him again, but couldn’t seem to help herself. Hurrying to keep up she bumped into his feathers when he stopped abruptly and grunted. They looked soft, but were anything but. They were sharp and rigid at the tips. A very deceptive trick. She’d always thought the wings would be soft. She didn’t know that about Angels. Or maybe it was just him. The other thing she noticed was the smell. Enticing with a spicy aroma that invaded her senses. She pulled a lung full into her chest and physically melted.

  “Are you sniffing me,” Angel Boy turned in her direction, head bent low so that they were face to face. His champagne eyes assessing her with cruelty as they narrowed. They stood toe to toe, neither one of them moving. The intensity of his stare was alluring. She was a fish dazzled by the end of a lure as it beckoned her closer for a taste.

  “Stop! Xee snap out of it, it’s Angel dust.”

  “Angel dust?” She asked Micah in confusion.

  “It’s like faery dust, only it doesn’t put you to sleep. It’s meant to ensnare, lure you in.”

  Why the heck was he trying to lure her in?

  A fish out of water. He was trying to trick her.

  His response was to click his tongue and turn back, continuing his descent down the stairs.

  “The reason we can’t take the elevators,” he said by way of not answering her question. “Is because once we hit the sub level, the electro-magnetic field throws off the electricity.

  “Couldn’t we have taken the elevators to the cafeteria level?”

  “You lazy or something?”

  Or something.

  “No.” Her voice rose.

  “I like the exercise.”

  Xee mimicked his words behind his back, snickering as she did.

  Chapter 5

  “No fraternizing with the enemy Xee. We’re here to do a job and that’s it.”

  “I’m here to work and get paid. I won’t be doing any such thing with him or anyone else. Same goes for you. You’re just here taking up residence in my body and keep your un-helpful tidbits to yourself.”

  “I’m the only one here who cares about your wellbeing. Best remember that.”

  Micah had always been there for her. From the beginning when she would have fallen into complete darkness, he’d been there to reach in and give her a helping hand. She’d felt hopeless and afraid. She’d been sixteen when she tried to end her torment. He’d been the one to stop her. She’d been numb, and non-responsive to the pain she was constantly subjected to. Being locked away in a dark place where there was no light for more than twenty hours a day was no way for a sixteen year old to live. In the dark there was always light. Always a way, but at sixteen, lying on a cold harsh metal table, barely clothed and being treated to what her doctor had deemed necessary rehabilitation, she only saw her unending doom. The limitless torture that was her life if she didn’t free herself.

  She’d struggled with the knowledge while she lay there on the cold slab of metal knowing her time was coming to an end when a voice whispered in her head.

  Slow your breathing to match mine. Low, deep the voice soothing had spoken to her in the dark. It didn’t scare her. She heard voices all the time. It was why she’d been institutionalized in the first place.

  That’s right, now when he approaches the table. I want you to let me take over. Let me drive. Let me in.

  Xee hadn’t said a word, but she did retreat inside herself. She’d drawn so deep inside herself that when she’d come to, her memory was skewed. The good doctor was gone. The walls, the ceiling, and even the crack underneath the door was covered in blood, and the only thing that was discernable about her tormento
r was his gray hair that was soaked in his blood, turning it a burnished brown. She was the only thing in the filthy room that remained untouched by the carnage that lay before her. “Snap back to reality, we’re here.”

  So Micah wasn’t asleep.

  Gabe stopped in front of a large bronze door that was carved with detailed imaging that looked just like Aguste Rodin’s, The Gates of Hell.

  “Is this some sick joke?”

  He turned again looking down at her with a quizzical stare. The door depicted ones journey into the fiery pit. Supposedly, it depicted a scene from The Inferno. The first section of Dante’s Alighieri’s the Divine Comedy. There were slight differences between this door and the ones she’d seen in books. The Thinker was no thinker at all, but a man tormented, he had wings on his back that were draped over his sitting frame as if they were a cloak of protection. She also noticed the famed Kiss was a male Angel with wings that looked broken as he intimately embraced and kissed a woman who was lying half her upper body across the Angels legs.

  “This is the original of twelve. There are twelve gates scattered around the world, guarded by those who have been deemed Watchers, they are not at all like Dietrich’s people. Each gate represents an hour of the night.”

  “I thought there were thirteen hours in the night.” Xee remarked.

  “Smart. There are, but the thirteenth gate takes you to a whole new level of gates. Think otherworld planets. Planes of existence, hell, realms if it makes it easier for you to grasp.”

  Like she was some novice historian with no experience at all.

  “The H.I.V.E houses the eleventh hour. I’ll introduce you to the keeper another time. He tends to be grumpy.”

  The door smoothly slid open and they passed through without incident. The air was moist and a fine mist coated her skin as they descended a set of stone stairs. Darkness surrounded her on all sides. Xee could see nothing as she tried to navigate the void. She didn’t want to ask the Angel for help. There was a time she had to sleep with the lights on, but now she battled back the fear, kicked it to the curb, and fought for her calm as they made their way in the dark.