Gabriel groaned and turned quickly to Anjali. “Which boy is dead?” he demanded.
Anjali was shocked by Gabriel’s question. She was confused, but could see Gabriel’s alarmed expression. “Wedge. Doug Stephens,” she shrugged.
Gabriel breathed out and visibly relaxed.
Narrowing her eyes, she jumped off her throne and approached her father. “What aren’t you telling me? Why do you care which Spirit Expert is dead? How do you know them?” she held her breath waiting for an answer.
“I had no idea that Alazar was in Romania, nor did I know you were there. I had believed there was a vampire in the area, but I didn’t consider that there was actual an actual threat there. I sent a Celestial Warrior on a false lead to keep Michael’s attention away from Hell and your Rusalka problem,” Gabriel said absently.
“So you’re the one who sent Nathanael. Alazar thought he was with me. He thought I was setting a trap for him because Nathanael was lying in wait in the town,” she controlled her anger since Gabriel hadn’t done anything wrong. “That explains Nathanael, but why did you want to know who died?” she tapped her foot, waiting for an answer.
Gabriel had the good the sense to avoid her perturbed look and instead turned to face the mirror closest to him.
“What’s going on? I’ve learned enough to know that you gaze out into the distance when you need divine inspiration because you’re afraid to tell me something. What?” Anjali crossed her arms, waiting for her father’s confession.
“I assume that you have met Derick,” Gabriel stated quietly.
“Uncle Benjamin, I presume,” Anjali whispered. She had no idea why Gabriel was watching over Derick, but she could see from his expression that it was true. “How do you know a random mortal from Tulsa?” she asked quietly, though accusatorily. She hated when her father kept secrets from her.
“I’ve known Derick for a very long time and so have you,” Gabriel whispered so quietly she wasn’t sure she had heard him correctly.
“What? How?” Anjali asked, stunned.
“You know that you have lived countless lives so that you could understand the world from different perspectives, yet, in all that time, you had a finite number of lovers,” Gabriel said matter-of-factly. He finally turned to look at Anjali.
“Finite. Out of thousands of lives, I had a finite number of lovers? How many, Gabriel? And why?” Anjali backed up until she reached her throne and slowly sat down, holding the arms of the chair for support.
Anjali couldn’t wrap her head around the concept of finite. Gabriel had never mentioned this before. In her last life as Michelle Black, she hadn’t known love. She had died a virgin. She had assumed the same of her other lives, though she had hoped she’d met a few nice men.
“It seems that when you fall deeply in love with someone, you leave your mark on them. Even though you appear mortal on the outside, you are an immortal with the light and love of God inside of you. It affects the person you give your heart to. Your power leaves a mark on their soul that can be seen by many types of creatures. Lucifer bears your mark since you gave your love to him, but it isn’t as bright since you have only been with him for a short time and his darkness masks it. The longer you know someone and love them, the brighter the mark becomes,” Gabriel explained. He watched the emotions play across her face.
“How did you keep the number of lovers small?” she braced herself, waiting for the rest of his answer. She knew there would be more.
“The first man you fell in love with died at the same time as you. I took your soul and his from the world at the same time. That’s when I noticed the mark on the boy’s soul. It’s wasn’t terribly obvious, but it was there. I hid him away in Purgatory to keep him safe from those who wished you harm. I did this nine more times, before I started to realize that a handful of these marked men wouldn’t be an issue to hide until they were reborn, but hundreds, thousands would indeed cause someone to notice. I made a decision, a difficult one. I wanted you to learn from everyone and everything in your life, but I decided to limit the number of potential lovers, until you were ready to accept your destiny. Over time, I began to realize that perhaps I wasn’t wrong in my decision. You learned more about love from these men than you could have with thousands of different men,” Gabriel braced himself for the possibility that Anjali would be cross with him for his decision.
“Let me understand, you’re saying that I had a total of ten lovers throughout my near infinite lives?” Anjali needed to sit, no wait she was sitting. She didn’t remember sitting. Sitting was good. It was solid and stable. She needed stable right now. Ten men over thousands of lives? She must have learned to either love them or hate them in all that time.
“Yes. You were destined to know pain and suffering so you typically died young. However, you did know happiness mostly because of these men. Each time you died, I sent another back into the world with you. In the beginning, I would guide them to you, but over time, you sought each other out. It became part of your destiny to find them. Of course, it did bring its own difficulties. You were engaged to a Count once. You went against your mortal father’s wishes to be with one of these men. You were meant to marry a nobleman as a part of a land contract made by the Count. You ran off with the boy, but the Count found you and was cross because you were no longer pure. You were both put to death,” Gabriel was still angry with the Count for ignoring his warnings and condemning the couple to death.
“And here I complained about my mortal father Henry being boring. At least he didn’t try to sell me in a land deal. You must have been mad at the Count,” she wished she could remember her past lives, but thought better of it. Instead, she pictured Derick and the strange connection that they had. “Are they’re my soul mates?” Anjali asked, trying to understand.
“Yes, they are your soul mates. They are unique from each other and bring out different sides of your personality. When Michelle was born, I released them all into the world at different intervals. It was a way of forcing me to fulfill the contract with Lucifer. I figured that I didn’t need to hide them anymore. You would become Anjali and live in Hell. There was no point in keeping them from the Mortal Realm. I wanted to give them a chance to live their lives and perhaps move on without you. As you know, I had changed my mind and was planning on pushing back the date again, but that was after I had released them. I don’t know if I made the right choice in keeping them in your life,” Gabriel sighed, afraid to look at his daughter.
“Derick is one of the ten, isn’t he? That’s why I feel like I know him, even though we just met,” Anjali said.
“Yes, though he isn’t exactly the same person from life to life, he does retain many of the same qualities. He has always been kind to you, a bit wicked, but fiercely protective of you. He actually died once in a duel to protect your honor. He’s a bit impulsive, but sometimes that’s a good quality to have,” Gabriel had always been fond of Derick, more so than some of the others.
“Gabriel, I don’t know what to do about Derick. I love him so much. I can’t stop thinking about him, but I left him so that Lucifer wouldn’t hurt him,” she prayed that her father would give her the advice that she so sorely needed.
“Lucifer doesn’t own you. He only thinks he does, but that can work to your advantage,” Gabriel said matter-of-factly.
“You don’t know him very well if you think that. He hordes me. He will kill Derick without remorse and there is nothing I can do to stop it,” Anjali scrubbed her hand over her face. Things couldn’t get much worse.
“I know my brother better than you think and I know what you are capable of. You will find a way,” Gabriel nodded to his daughter.
“I don’t see a way to keep Derick or Alazar safe,” she shrugged helplessly. She felt defeated.
“Remember that you are Alazar’s rightful Master, whether or not he has bound himself to you. Use that to save him. Regarding Derick, it may take some time, but you will sort things out. I have faith in you, my dear. No
w, I will go to Raphael, and explain what happened with Alazar. The Council will want to speak with you. Brace yourself; it will be an inquisition unlike any other,” Gabriel knew that it would be much harder to convince the Council of Alazar’s innocence than it was to convince them of his guilt.
“Thank you, Gabriel, for helping me. I have no idea where to find Alazar. He could be anywhere,” Anjali grimaced when she thought about their last fight.
“I find it best to start from the beginning. Keep me posted through Mark, if needed. Good luck, my dear, I hope you understand my actions regarding Derick and the others,” Gabriel gave his daughter a half-smile, hoping that she could forgive him.
“You have always done your best to protect me. I know the decisions haven’t always been easy and I admire your courage. I’m not upset, just overwhelmed. Give me some time to reflect on it,” Anjali smiled at Gabriel.
Gabriel nodded and disappeared.
She thought about what Gabriel had said about starting at the beginning. It seemed that she was destined to be in Romania. She thought about the castle and disappeared.
∞
Michael oversaw his warriors while they armed themselves with Celestial Swords and battle armor. He knew that killing Alazar would be difficult, so they needed to strike fast and hard. He didn’t admit it to anyone, but he knew that there would be losses. The Angel of Death was smart and lethal. He knew it was a risk for any of them to stand before Alazar, but it needed to be done.
There was little point in wearing armor since this would not be a battle of weapons, but it calmed his angels and gave them a false sense of security. How he longed for the days when they hunted beasts with claws and fangs. Fighting one of their brothers was never easy, but one that could kill from a distance was disconcerting. He doubted that any of his warriors would succumb to Alazar’s power, but he knew not to be overconfident.
Michael wasn’t sure where to begin the search, so he assigned teams to different parts of the Mortal Realm. The longer it took to find Alazar, the more desperate and dangerous Alazar would become. The Celestial Warriors could be ambushed at any moment and never put out a warning call before Alazar killed them.
He was mad that his second-in-command General Tabbris was missing, yet again. He pulled Tabbris’ trustworthy Major Demyan aside and spoke quietly to him since Lord Commander Marcus and High Commander Orrin were away on important missions. “We must deal with this problem quickly, Major. We understand each other, right?” Michael knew that Demyan would understand the urgency of the hunt.
“Of course, my lord, but where do we begin?” Demyan grimaced. It would be hard enough to capture Death once they knew where he was, but locating a Predznak was nothing short of impossible.
“Lord Michael, I need a word with you,” Nathanael called out breathlessly when he entered the Hall of Warriors. He quickly moved past his fellow brothers to reach Michael.
Michael walked past Nathanael and waved him off. “Commander, I do not have time to discuss the vampire problem in Romania. Alazar has been condemned to death and we have been ordered to capture him. I’m reassigning you to Major Demyan.”
“It wasn’t a vampire, my lord. It was a Fallen, most likely a Rogue. I believe it might have been Alazar,” Nathanael said quickly.
The entire Hall quieted down and all eyes were on Nathanael.
Michael spun to face Nathanael. “Commander, what makes you think it was the Angel of Death causing the problems?”
Nathanael pulled the black feather and black fabric from his pocket and held them high. “Anjali was in the town. I found this feather and a strip of black, beaded fabric, most likely from a dress, in a pile of debris from a battle. I overheard two male voices arguing and then one of the men hanged himself in the Romanian castle two days after I found the feather. Mark said that Anjali was searching for Alazar first, and now you say that the Council has proclaimed him a Rogue. I believe that he was responsible for the high death toll in Romania and possibly for the death of the boy a few hours ago,” Nathanael said quickly, out of breath.
Nathanael’s explanation made Michael smile. He now knew where to focus his efforts.
Michael snatched the fabric and examined it. It most certainly came from Serena’s dress, which the Destroyer was now donning.
“Gear up! We leave for Romania immediately. Commander, you will show me the exact spot where all this happened,” Michael said authoritatively.
“Yes, my lord,” Nathanael exhaled, happy that he had reached Michael in time.
∞
Derick rolled into his bed, grateful that he had made it back to the inn alive. It had been a tough walk but he didn’t want to pass out in the street. He was pissed that Pete hasn’t answered his phone, but at least he didn’t have to explain how the devil had mistaken him for a tackling dummy.
Thankfully, a hot shower and painkillers had loosened and soothed his muscles enough so that he could move again. He had no idea what he was going to do, but he figured that lying down would help him think.
Closing his eyes, he thought about Anjali. He finally understood why she was determined to leave him. Staring down Lucifer had been a life-altering moment. Accepting death was easier that he thought. Irrationally, for a split second, he actually thought that he might see Anjali again, if he were in Hell. Not that he wanted to go there, but as crazy as it sounded, he would do anything to see her again.
He pondered Anjali’s proclamation about being the Bringer of the Apocalypse. He had no idea what that meant, but it stood to reason that she served Lucifer. There was no doubt that Lucifer was evil, but he just couldn’t bring himself to believe that she was too. She had told Pete that if he committed suicide, he would experience all the Realms of Torture, and just when he thought he couldn’t take anymore, Lucifer would tempt him to be his servant. Shit. She must have actually died and become his servant. Fuck. She was his servant, which was why she couldn’t leave him. Everything suddenly made a lot more sense. It was the reason why she felt that she was evil and not entitled to happiness.
He’d heard Radek say that she was sad and lonely, a fact that clearly surprised Lucifer. Lucifer obviously didn’t know her very well if he couldn’t see her loneliness.
Still confused over why Lucifer had let him live, he decided it had been a gift from God. He doubted that many survived an attack by the devil. He remembered Radek saying that “Lady Black would seek vengeance” if Lucifer killed him. He didn’t know who Lady Black was, but Lucifer had been afraid. That was the real reason he was alive.
Something snapped inside his mind. Annie had said on many occasions that she didn’t scare easily. The fierce look on her face when she threatened Cassie and the waitress proved that she could back up her statements. That was why she asked if he thought she was intimidating. She was holding something back.
Holy shit! Lucifer was afraid that Anjali would seek retribution for hurting him. If she could start an Apocalypse, she could definitely kick Lucifer’s ass. He understood why Lucifer would fear her.
He needed to find Annie and tell her that he loved her. He doubted that Lucifer would give her the message. There was no way that he would let Lucifer convince Anjali that she didn’t deserve to be happy and loved.
Derick carefully pulled himself off the bed and rummaged through the box of video cassettes from the shoot. The police had taken the ones from last night, but they hadn’t asked for the other tapes. He found the one marked “Throne Room” and shuffled over to the monitor that Pete had set up earlier. He popped the tape into the VCR and waited for the images to flicker to life. He fast-forwarded to the part where Annie was sitting on the throne and paused the tape.
The majestic woman staring back at him was the real Anjali, the one searching for her Angel of Death. He saw the power in her eyes, but he also saw her misery. He knew that she didn’t enjoy being this person. She had talked about how complicated her life was. It was obvious that she needed help.
Derick hit the play button a
nd watched Annie relax into the chair and smile at him. This was the girl that he knew. It was hard to combine both of the images into a complete description of Anjali. She was stern when she was mad and protective of him, yet she was also insecure and sweet. How could someone like that live in Hell with a crazed madman? It was obvious that she put on a facade to deal with the harsh realities of her world while she tucked away the innocent girl that made him laugh.
He had no idea how to find her, aside from dying and going to Hell.
Movement on the screen caught his eye. The camera was facing out into the Throne Room and taping the empty room. He had put it there while he had gone down on Annie, but it appeared that the room wasn’t completely empty. There was a face peering around the corner. The image was dark and out of focus, but it looked like a woman. He doubted that it was a spirit since she wasn’t transparent or eerie-looking.
Derick remembered Annie saying that she saw someone that night. She was right. Someone was watching them and he had a feeling he knew who it was.
He stood up from the table and walked over to the door. It was time to speak to Cassie about their ill-fated trip to Romania. He had a sinking feeling that the ringmaster of their excursion knew more than she was letting on.
“Going somewhere, Derick?” a female voice called out from behind him when he reached for the doorknob.
It was Cassie.
“I want answers,” he said, keeping his back to her.
“Do you now? It took you longer than I expected to put all the pieces together. I thought you might have figured it out after Douglas’ untimely death, but you were too busy being consoled by Anjali,” Cassie gritted out the bitch’s name.
Derick stopped breathing when he realized that she knew a lot more than she should.
He turned slowly and saw Cassie standing in the middle of his room, admiring herself on the monitor.
The Third Throne: Angel of Death Page 43
