Radek had learned from day one not to stare at Lady Black’s deep cleavage, which was nearly impossible since the dress was low-cut and exposed nearly everything down to her belly button. The worst part about the dress was how high it came up to her thighs in the front. It was only a few inches below parts that Lucifer would kill him for looking at. The only safe places to look were her face, her long draping sleeves, or her black platform patent leather knee-length boots.
Radek dropped back by two paces and took his place behind her, the way he had been taught. She was the boss now and he had her back; otherwise, his Master would skin him alive.
He watched her approach the man as he pushed the little girl toward the car.
“If you know what’s good for you, you will move away from the car,” she yelled as the man rose to his full height and towered over the petite Destroyer.
While Radek wasn’t intimidated, he admitted that the man was scary looking. He wasn’t muscular, but the dead look in his eyes gave away the depravity inside his mind. He knew the man only saw the pretty woman in front of him as a helpless target and focused on Radek as the one who might cause him trouble. If the fool only knew what was in store for him.
“You’re scaring my daughter. Leave,” the man quickly pushed the flailing girl into the car and stood in front of the door, blocking her from view.
“You and I both know that she doesn’t belong to you; neither did the other little ones you snatched away from their parents. Release her,” she held her head high and straightened her back. She stared down the balding man, whose face was no longer pleasant and accommodating. One could clearly see the lack of humanity in his facial features.
“What are you, cops? You don’t look like cops. You’ve mistaken me for someone else,” the man stepped forward, trying to crowd Lady Black and keep her from getting to the car.
“Radek, get the girl and bring her to the security desk. I’ll deal with him. Meet me when you’re done,” she stepped forward and glared at the man.
Harvey’s laughter spilled out. This little girl was going to deal with him? He pulled out his favorite knife and smirked. He was more than willing to dance with the vixen before killing her. She was obviously a crazy Goth kid in her black dress, pretending to be a badass. He would teach her a few things. As he slid his foot forward to reach out to grab her arm, he felt an unseen force take hold of him. He was soaring over the parking lot before he could muster a scream. The rooftop of the building zoomed closer and closer until he crashed into it and rolled a few feet across the rough surface.
He tried to shake off the pain, but his head was throbbing and he was sure that his arm was busted. He would kill the little bitch, as soon as he was able to stand. A black boot came down on his wrist, which still held the knife. He was forced to let it go as his bones snapped under the pressure.
Harvey screamed. The pain shot up his arm and mixed with the other pains in his battered body.
The bitch’s face came into view as she leaned over him and smiled politely.
“You shouldn’t play with knives, someone could get hurt. Didn’t anyone ever tell you that?” she asked in a mocking tone. The knife was ripped away and the boot was removed from his wrist. She flung the knife across the rooftop, too far away to reach.
Before Harvey could think of a comeback his body was wrenched from the ground. Disoriented, he realized that he was hanging upside down over the parking lot, three stories up and no one was holding him. He screamed for help though there was no one around to see him dangling in the air.
“Let’s get past all the lies and accept that you are a murdering lowlife scumbag who preys upon children. You disgust me. Remember my face, because you and I will meet again and you will beg me for mercy. I will hurt you the same way you hurt your victims, and worse. If I were you, I would start doing a whole lot of charity work and spend the rest of my days praying for forgiveness from God. Not that it will keep you out of Hell in this life, but it might help you in the next. People like you will cause the world to end, and I will be the one striking you, and everyone like you, down. I’m going to keep an eye on you. If you harm anyone else, I will personally drag you to Hell and make sure that you spend an eternity suffering,” she watched the man hanging helplessly in the air, struggling against an unseen force.
“Who are you?” the man stuttered. It was clear that this girl wasn’t human.
He was startled to see the man she had been with appear behind her, out of thin air.
“I’m someone who doesn’t want to destroy humanity, but is left with no other alternative because of people such as you. I see the compulsion in your mind, the need to kill. It’s the only thing that brings you peace. It makes the voices recede. Might I suggest crocheting instead? I hear it’s therapeutic. Of course, where you’re going you’ll be making license plates,” she held out her hand to Radek who gave her a roll of silver tape.
Radek smiled as he watched her work. “I have a feeling you wouldn’t choose to be normal, if given a choice. You’re good at what you do, and you enjoy punishing the wicked.”
She pondered Radek’s statement. Perhaps he was right. Embracing her true nature felt better than trying to hide it. It felt normal.
The police quickly surrounded the beat up brown Chevy, guns drawn. They were lucky that the little girl had gotten away from her attacker, ran to the security desk, and told them what had happened. She had described the man and the car perfectly.
The officers were baffled when they approached the front of the car. The suspect was bound and gagged with duct tape to the hood of his car. His shirt was gone and his chest was bleeding. As they moved closer to the car, they could see that someone had carved the word, “murderer” into his chest with a sharp object, like a knife or a piece of metal.
Officer Stillwater pulled the tape off the man’s mouth in the hopes of questioning the suspect, but the man bellowed and cried incoherently. He repeated the same name over and over again, “Lady Black.”
∞
Anjali entered the Hall of Mirrors and was less than thrilled to see Mark, their heavenly liaison standing in front of her throne, waiting for her. Her good mood vanished when she saw the serious look on his face.
Radek bowed to Lady Black and Mark, and left the hall to rejoin his Master in the Throne Room since Lady Black was back within Lucifer’s reach.
She walked to the black marble dais still uncertain about sitting in her new modest Fire and Ice Throne. The larger version had been moved to the Throne Room, once the repairs to the room had been finished. It felt odd sitting on it without Lucifer by her side. He had temporarily taken up residence in the Hall of Mirrors with her after she had accidentally blown up his Throne Room and part of his tower. Now she controlled the Hall of Mirrors by herself and she split her time between Lucifer’s bedroom and her own.
She settled in and glared at Mark. “Is Heaven exploding, or are you here to make more work for me?” she wasn’t sure why she was taking her anger out on Mark. He was the only nice angel that she knew, aside from Gabriel.
While she had relieved some of her outrage over the murderer in the mall, she was still frustrated that things like that happened all the time and that she couldn’t stop all the criminals. That was the primary reason she needed to find the Predznak and get them back on track. According to the Council, without their Master to oversee them, they had taken to pushing innocent mortals past their breaking point and forcing them to commit sins. They were supposed to offer a choice to the undecided mortals and tempt them to take the wrong path, but remind them what was at stake. None of them was offering a choice to the Purgatory-bound souls anymore; instead, they were making the evil souls worse and wreaking havoc with the Heaven-bound souls. They needed to be reminded of their duties.
“No, my lady, I was merely checking in with you to see if there was any news that I should be aware of,” Mark could see that she was mad. He hated to see her upset.
“Sorry Mark. I didn’t mean
to snap at you. I still have no leads on the Predznak and I thought you were here, yet again, with a message from the Council demanding to know the status of my search. Please notify the Council that I’ve decided to seek out Alazar first since he is their leader. He may be able to help me with the others. Forgive my rudeness; I’m not having a good day,” Anjali calmed herself as she looked at the shiny angel and admonished herself for her poor behavior. She didn’t need Mark, the Angel of Understanding, turning on her too, though she didn’t think it was in his nature to do so.
Mark froze. Alazar. She was hunting him down first? All of the Predznak were dangerous, but Alazar was fatal. “Please be careful, my lady. Alazar cannot be trusted. He is not the angel he once was,” he implored her to listen.
“I forgot that you knew the Predznak before they became the Predznak, back when they were Heavenly Angels. What do you remember of Alazar?” Anjali had never thought to ask Mark his opinion of her angels. They were, after all, brothers.
Mark thought about his words carefully. He did not want to frighten her. “I, of course, knew the Predznak in Heaven, but I also knew them in Hell. They have all changed, and not for the better, I am afraid. My brother Alazar always kept to himself. Why Elrick allowed him to become the leader I will never know. He thought himself above us, though he was excellent at his job. You see, he was once the Angel of Determination, the one who counseled the angels who were losing their faith or straying from the path of the righteous. It was not in his nature to give up or lose hope when he was tasked with a mission. He gave rousing speeches to the Celestial Warriors before going into battle. If morale was down after a bloody skirmish, he roused them from their defeatist mentality and awakened the fighting spirit within them. The warriors were unstoppable with Alazar’s motivational and inspirational teachings,” Mark spoke fondly of Alazar.
Anjali could tell that he truly cared for his brother, or did at one time.
“So he was good at the ‘win one for the Gipper’ speeches. You said that he wouldn’t give up on his mission. What would make him change who he was and leave the peace of Heaven?” Anjali asked, trying to understand Alazar’s impulse to become a Predznak.
“He was very loyal to Father, but was not overly fond of the mortals and their free will. Alazar disapproved of those who showed indifference toward God. He thought it was worse than hating God. The apathetic received no punishment; they merely died and went to Purgatory to await their next life. He wanted to punish anyone who could so easily live their lives without a clear path. Why he stepped forward, I cannot say for sure, but he was confident that he could carry out Father’s will and become the embodiment of Death,” Mark hung his head. “I am proud of my brother for making the sacrifice to become a Predznak, but am saddened to think that he may have done it for the wrong reasons.”
“It sounds like he became Death so that he could personally witness the demise of the mortals when they chose the wrong path. If he cared nothing for them, then he would be happy to watch them die. I’m surprised that God let him become Death,” Anjali said. She started to put together a more detailed picture of Alazar.
“Actually, Alazar was not the first one to step forward to take up the mantel of Death. There were others. Father did not necessarily take the first volunteer to step forward. He was careful to choose the angel that He thought would best exemplify the position. When Alazar stepped forward, he was cocky and self-assured, as always. He seemed to think it would be easy. Father knew that death would be the hardest temptation to control and the most important. He believed that the Angel of Determination would endure and never give in to his temptation, or give up,” Mark looked at the ground as he thought back to that day. He regretted that he had not stepped forward to answer Father’s call. He was ashamed. He wanted to step forward, on more than one occasion, but something held him back. He felt that he was not ready for such an important role. When the opportunity came to find a new liaison for Hell, Mark had jumped at the chance. He considered it punishment for failing to answer the calls to become a Celestial Warrior, a Fallen, or a Predznak. He knew that he could very well die by Lucifer’s unforgiving hand, as his predecessor had, but he felt it was time to stand up and make the sacrifice for Father.
“Yet even he has succumbed to his own temptation. He is killing everyone in his path rather than targeting the apathetic mortals,” Anjali leaned back into her throne, pondering what it must have been like for him to give up after so many years of holding strong. The weight of his temptation must be crushing him.
“I am afraid so. He was one of the last to hold out against the darkness growing inside of him. Having lived among the mortals, they were already weakened by the evil that resides in the wicked. Once the Predznak were forced into Hell to await your arrival, matters worsened. They were surrounded by the worst criminals imaginable, without their Master, and they did terrible things, unforgivable things. They were out of control. Serena was the only one able to tame them,” Mark shuddered to think of how brutal his once peaceful brothers had become. They were nearly unrecognizable. Mark looked around and stepped closer to Lady Black. He leaned in and whispered, “Lucifer himself feared them, not some of them, my lady, but all of them. Heed this warning.”
Anjali watched Mark cautiously step back and look over his shoulder to see if the devil was standing watch over him. She knew Lucifer hated them and had suspected that he feared them, but he had never admitted it. Mark wouldn’t lie about such things, or any things, for that matter. If Mark said Lucifer was afraid, then she needed to tread carefully.
Mark’s mention of Serena surprised her. “Do you know what Serena did to them?” Anjali asked quickly. She wondered how Serena’s abominable treatment of the prisoners had been sanctioned by Heaven.
“No, my lady. I never spoke to Serena without Lucifer present, and he never mentioned what she did; only that she knew how to handle my unruly brothers,” Mark replied.
Anjali wondered how many other things Lucifer had kept from Mark.
“Thank you, Mark. I wish I knew my angels better. I might have a clue as to how to find them and help them,” she was angry that she had been kept from them for so long. Regardless if she knew about them or not, they had needed her and she had failed them. It was her fault that they were so evil.
“I believe you know them better than you think. You were created to be their Master. Their power is a part of you. You know what they are capable of better than anyone else does. I have faith that you will find them quickly,” Mark smiled encouragingly.
“If that were the case, I would have found them by now. I’m afraid that I will fail them again, and Michael will find them before I do,” she growled, frustrated that she didn’t know where to start searching.
“Be aware that Lord Michael has been demanding that the Council take action against them since they left Hell. Lord Gabriel has kept him at bay, though barely. Lord Gabriel has maintained that it is not their fault that they have been consumed by darkness. He said that all would be set right once you take possession of them. The two were at an impasse, but now that you have come to power, Lord Michael’s patience will be limited. I expect him to start hunting for your angels soon if you don’t locate them. He has tried to denounce the Predznak and claim that they are Rogues. He wants them condemned to death,” Mark knew he was scaring Lady Black, but she needed to know what was at stake. He knew Lucifer would never tell her the entire truth when it came to the Predznak since he hated them and had called for their destruction on more than one occasion.
“Shit,” she swore, but quickly caught herself and smiled an apology at Mark. She’d never heard him swear, even when dealing with Lucifer.
Footsteps heralded the arrival of Radek. Mark nodded his head slightly to the servant to acknowledge him, even though it wasn’t required. Anjali had come to learn that Mark liked just about everyone, even if they wanted to punch him. Mark was simply a good angel through and through.
Radek walked up to the dais and knelt
on one knee, waiting to be acknowledged.
“Thank you for the warning, Mark. I will take it under advisement,” Anjali said formally, turning her attention to Radek. She knew from his expression that Lucifer was up to no good, as usual.
Mark bowed and turned to leave, understanding that their conversation was at an end. Lucifer often sent his servants to interfere with their meetings in an attempt to limit his time in Hell.
“Forgive the intrusion, my lady, but my Master is requesting that you join him in the Hall of Torment. There is a new prisoner that requires attention,” Radek announced.
“The Hall of Torment? I thought we were meeting in the Hall of Mercy,” Anjali was confused. They were scheduled to interrogate a new non-mortal prisoner headed for the Hall of Shadows. The Hall of Torment was for torturing prisoners, the Fallen, and unruly servants, while the Hall of Mercy was where Lucifer lied and said he would take mercy upon them if they confessed during their interrogation.
“The prisoner is already there, my lady,” Radek hoped that Lady Black would understand the apprehension in his voice.
She knew immediately something was very wrong. “What was he thinking? He knows better than to bring her there,” she muttered to herself and bit her thumbnail.
Mark spoke up just as he was about to disappear, surprised by the implication. “You are not speaking of the Rusalka, are you, my lady? She is the only new Hall of Shadows prisoner that I am aware of.”
Anjali cringed inwardly, knowing that she had just made a terrible mistake. “I’m sure it’s a misunderstanding, nothing more. Lucifer knows that Skylis is not to be harmed. I’m sure it is some other unfortunate soul that will be begging for morphine by the end of the day. Let me go find out what’s happening. Thank you, Mark, you have been most helpful,” Anjali quickly dismissed Mark. She needed to get him out of Hell before they all ended up in trouble.
The Third Throne: Angel of Death Page 5
