“What happened to ‘he’s a kid! You can’t kill him!’?” Rachael questioned.
“He hurt you and he was going to kill you. I can’t let that happen,” Jesse stated.
“Make up your mind, Angel Boy,” Rachael continued through the battlefield.
“I actually like it when you say it,” he called after her, not really expecting her to hear.
“It wasn’t meant as an endearment,” she informed him.
“Well are you alright?” he ran to catch up to her. The souls had cleared out a huge path in the demons so there was nothing attacking them at the moment.
“I’m fine,” she answered, continuing to walk towards the next group of enemies.
“He bit you!” Jesse insisted.
“I’m ok. You worry too much,” Rachael stated.
“I always worry about the people I love,” he said.
“Really? You’re going to get all sentimental in the middle of the last battle of a war?” she attempted to skirt the issue.
“Yeah, I am.” He grabbed her arm to stop her.
“What the hell is your problem?” she demanded.
“What is my problem? What is your problem? You changed ever since Elizabeth did whatever she did to you. One minute you were yourself and you were calling to me for help and the next you don’t want to talk to me, you don’t care about anyone, and you are killing people for the fun of it.”
“It is a war. We’re all killing people,” she continued to avoid the question.
“Yeah but we aren’t enjoying it,” he corrected.
“Do you think I’m just going to sit here and tell you everything you want to know?” she asked.
“No,” he grabbed her throat with his other hand. A red glow passed from her skin to his and she tore herself away with a sharp cry of pain.
“What are you doing?” she questioned angrily.
“Energy transfer. I don’t think you know how to do that yet,” he held out his hand as the red glow pulsed through his arm and moved towards his heart.
“Why would you do that to me?” she wanted to know.
“So I can do this,” he pulled her against himself and kissed her. The glow was absorbed into his body and pushed back into hers. He released her but there was no angry outburst. “Raphael told me to do that. Now, what would you do for me?”
“Anything you want, Jesse,” she took a step back towards him.
“I want you to tell me what Elizabeth did to you,” he said.
“Are you sure that is what you want?” she hinted.
“Do you love me?”
“Yes,” she answered. “I love you more than anyone or anything else in the world.”
“If you love me, you’ll tell me,” he explained.
“I can’t tell you. I have to show you,” Rachael put her hand against his forehead and an immediate rush of memories flooded his head.
I had been trying to avoid her for days now; that strange woman who always hung around. My mother seemed to like the fact that she unnerved me and made me afraid but I didn’t. I wanted to tell Avery but I couldn’t. The woman had said she would kill him if I did. I was only nine. What could you expect from a nine year old?
We believe everything you tell us. It isn’t our fault. It is yours. I couldn’t avoid her now though. She was back, standing in front of me on my walk home from school. Mom told me it wasn’t safe to walk home through the woods but it was shorter that way and there was less time for the other kids to tease me.
So instead I was met with this woman. I guess mom was right.
“Hello Rachael,” she said.
“I’m not supposed to talk to strangers,” I tried to walk around her but she grabbed my arm. Instant pain shot through me and I pulled away with a jerk.
“I’m not a stranger. I was with your mother when you were born.”
“What do you want?” I asked her, still trying to figure out where the pain had come from.
“I want you,” Well that was enough. If I had doubted she was dangerous, I knew for sure she was now.
“I don’t know who you are and my mom is waiting for me,” I tried to walk around her again but the pain instantly returned so I backed up. What was that?
“My name is Elizabeth and I doubt your mother cares when you get home,” she was right, but I still didn’t want to talk to her. I just wanted to get away. “You are very valuable to me.”
“How? I’m just a kid,” I told her.
“You’re not just a kid, Rachael. You’re going to be a queen someday and that day I will serve you. But until then, you will serve me,” what was she talking about now?
“You really must have the wrong person,” I tried a third time to walk around her but it was still there, whatever it was.
“I have the right person. You just haven’t been trained yet,” I hadn’t tried to go around her and the pain had already returned even worse than before. “I am going to train you to be a queen; one who doesn’t fear pain and does not let love get in the way.”
I was screaming by now as it got worse and worse but no one could hear me. I was alone.
“Rachael! Do you want to go see that new movie with me? I mean it’s not really new but still. My mom got tickets and I thought it would be fun considering it’s valentine’s day and neither of us have a date,” You ran to catch up to me in the hallway. We were in seventh grade which had to be one of the worst grades yet.
At age twelve if you didn’t fit in the previous year, you will be bullied and teased about every possible thing during the next year, which was where you and I were. I wanted so badly to go with you and spend some time not having to worry about what I was hiding from everyone but I knew I didn’t have a choice.
In the three years Elizabeth had been training me I knew that you never showed up late unless you wanted to suffer more agony than you had ever felt in your life.
“I can’t,” I told you. “I have to stay home.”
“Ok,” you said. “That’s cool.” But I could tell you were disappointed. I never went anywhere with you anymore. Elizabeth wouldn’t allow it. She claimed that you were just there to protect me and I didn’t need protection.
“I told you that you didn’t need him!” Elizabeth struck me in the face and I fell onto the ground. I was done fighting her this time. I couldn’t do it anymore. “I told you that he was just for protection and you don’t need that!”
“The only thing they want to protect you from is me and you will not be protected from me!” She kicked me in the stomach and I curled up in the fetal position to protect myself. “I said to stay away and now you’re telling me you love him! You cannot love Jesse! He is nothing! Have I taught you nothing? You will never be with him!”
“You are meant to be a queen and I will not tolerate you being with him! You will be with an angel who is far more powerful and far better. His name is Joshua and he will make you great.”
“I don’t want to be with another angel. I love Jesse,” I never defied her, but this was something I was taking a stand on.
“You will never be with him.”
“What happened to you?” Josh ran to catch up to me. It was my first day in high school and Elizabeth had left a fair share of bruises and cuts all over my face and body.
“Nothing,” I told him. He was Avery’s best friend and I would admit that he was attractive and it was possible I could have a crush on him but I doubted Elizabeth would allow it unless it was for this masquerade where I pretended to be the normal high school kid who knew nothing about angels and demons when in reality she had carved me into a heartless, cold-blooded ruler.
“Hey, do not tell me nothing happened,” he grabbed my arm to stop me. I could have gotten away but no one was supposed to know about how well Elizabeth had trained me to fight. “Someone hurt you. Who was it? I will teach them to mess with you.”
“No one; ok? I was climbing a tree and I fell. It’s not a big deal,” I pulled away from him and kept walking.
<
br /> “Do you really expect me to believe that? I have known you for how long?” he just wouldn’t let it go.
“Nothing happened,” I insisted.
“Rachael, you know that I would do anything for you. If someone did this to you; I will make them pay. I will always keep you safe.”
“I am telling you the truth, Josh. No one did this to me,” I stated.
“I know you aren’t but I will go along with it. Don’t think I’m not going to try to find out,” he started walking away towards his class.
“Good luck with that. There is no one to find,” In truth, there was. But he would never find her.
“You have become perfect,” Elizabeth walked around me. “You feel nothing but anger and hate and lust. You are not swayed by pain or love. You could kill anything that came across your path. You are strong and you will be the perfect ruler.”
“Thank you, mistress,” I told her. I had become everything she needed. Love would not sway me like it had before when I had gotten into a fight because of something someone said about Jesse. It would not break me like it had when Avery and Josh died.
I was done. I could be anything I wanted to be and do anything I wanted to do without regret. She had tortured all of the unwanted emotions and feelings out of me and now I was perfect. Neither of us could know that I would be forced off of a bridge that night and that I would forget everything she had taught me.
We couldn’t know that I would be led by love and hope again. We didn’t know so we couldn’t prevent it. I wouldn’t see my mistress again until I was in the asylum and even then I wouldn’t recognize her, despite eight years of agonizing torture. All of her work had been erased until she restored my power.
With it came my memories. All of them, not just the few I had before. I now remember all of my training and how to use it. I can avoid the emotions I do not want because I have become the person I was before.
Rachael let go of Jesse and fell back a step.
“She tortured you into this?” he asked.
“Yes,” Rachael answered. “It was the best thing that happened to me other than you.” Jesse knew he didn’t have much time left before the angelic trance wore off even with the boost he had put on it. He had a few things he wanted to hear first.
“When did you stop loving me?”
“I never did,” Rachael told him. “I just hid it from her. I always loved you Jesse. Even when I was in love with Josh you were still there in the back of my mind and I couldn’t forget you. When Joshua thought I couldn’t love him because of you he was partially right. I wanted to believe it was because of Josh but it wasn’t.”
“It was because of you. When I couldn’t remember what Elizabeth had done to me and I still led with my heart, I loved you. You mean more to me than anyone else on this Earth or in the afterlife. Even Elizabeth can’t compare to you. You are my entire world.”
“You are going to lose your ability to love in a few seconds. You are going to go back to the person she made you,” he realized.
“I’m sorry. I want to change, but I can’t. I love you Jesse. I love you,” she repeated it several times so he wouldn’t forget. “Never let that leave your mind even when it doesn’t seem like it and even when I’m with Joshua because that’s what Elizabeth wants. It will always be true.”
“I won’t,” he promised. Rachael gave a sudden jerk and stumbled away from him.
“What did you do to me? How could you do that? Just so you could hear what happened? It’s not like it matters,” the trance had worn off and she walked away, but Jesse knew how she really felt and that was all that mattered. He just had to hear it one more time before he would never hear it again.
72
Michael drew first blood, forming a red line across Daniel’s arm. It wasn’t a serious wound but it gave him the upper hand that he needed. Their battle ranged from several inches above the ground to hundreds of feet as they moved across the sky. A strange thing was happening to the clouds.
A small section of them above the facility was thinning. Sunlight could be seen, making a spot light down onto the building. It gave the angels hope as they continued to fight their way through.
“We need to find Job.” Joshua stabbed a demon next to Gabriel. “We can end this if we can get to him.”
“You know how this ends, Joshua. If we find him things do not look good for you,” Gabriel warned.
“Things don’t look good for me either way,” he admitted.
“Scouts have been sent out to find him but I don’t think they have him. We would have known by now if they did,” Gabriel decided.
“You never know,” Joshua stabbed another demon and slit a third one’s throat.
“Are you ready for this?” Gabriel wanted to know.
“We don’t know if that will be her choice.”
“Either way, one of you is going to die,” he told him.
“I don’t think it’s going to be me,” Joshua answered. He wasn’t being arrogant. He was stating the truth.
“In order for the future to go the way it is supposed to it has to be you, but I agree with you. It doesn’t look good for him,” Gabriel decided.
“Well right now it doesn’t look good for any of us,” Joshua killed yet another demon as it ran at him.
“There is a small ray of light above us now. We can win this,” he denied.
“We can only hope.”
73
Rachael stabbed her knife into a fallen angel, twisting it and using her arm to smash his face into her knee. The angel fell and she added one last stab to make sure he was dead. The light had grown as the demons were pushed even farther back. The angels were winning for now but the farther back they forced the demons, the harder it would get.
Part of Joshua’s forces and a group from Michael’s forces had moved to reinforce Gabriel with his swiftly shrinking army. Rachael and Jesse were over in Gabriel’s section as well, although Jesse still continued his refusal to actually kill.
Just when it looked like Sicily would be free, the hellhounds began their march towards the island.
“Joshua!” Rachael moved over to him.
“What?” Joshua finished off a fallen angel and turned to her.
“Job is in that group,” Joshua turned to look at the approaching hellhounds and the fallen angels and demons.
“Are you sure?” He asked.
“Positive. He’s here to finish us off in the grand finale of his war. He let us think we were winning with a small ray of light and now he’s coming in to destroy us,” she explained.
“Alright,” he looked back over at the reinforcements. “Stay close to me and Jesse. He’s after you most of all.”
“I can protect myself,” she insisted.
“No you…” he began.
“Joshua!” she snapped. “I am fine.”
“She’s just fine,” Jesse said sarcastically as he caught up to them.
“Shut it,” Rachael turned briefly to him. “You tricked me.”
“I didn’t trick you. I just know more than you,” he corrected her. She glared at him for a few seconds. “Ok, I tricked you. It was necessary.”
“I’m sure it was,” Rachael dismissed him. “We have bigger issues right now.”
“Yeah, much bigger issues,” Joshua agreed with her.
“Really? Cause I kissed her,” Jesse was irritating him on purpose. He needed to get Joshua’s attention since he wasn’t listening.
“You did what?” Joshua was irritated right away.
“I needed to find out what Elizabeth did to her,” Jesse told him.
“I could have done that!” Joshua angrily decapitated one of the few remaining demons on Sicily before the new wave came in.
“Why don’t you tell him what Elizabeth did to you?” Jesse asked Rachael.
“It is not that big of a deal,” she insisted.
“Actually it is a huge deal. What she did to you wasn’t right and it isn’t allowed. Raphael made it ille
gal and punishable by death,” Jesse told her.
“What did she do to you, Rachael?” Joshua questioned.
“Why in the world would I tell you?” Joshua took a step towards her.
“Because I can get it out of you the same way he did.” Rachael was unfazed.
“As enjoyable as that would be; it’s using me in a way I believe isn’t legal either,” she said.
“Since when do I care about what is legal?” he asked her.
“You aren’t fooling anyone,” she informed him.
“Elizabeth tortured her for eight years until she obeyed every command and was unaffected by pain or love. When her so called mother tried to drown her, she lost all of those memories. She could love again and she was a normal angel,” Jesse began to explain for her, mostly so that Joshua wouldn’t touch her.
“The ECT gave her back only her good and normal memories. Elizabeth, however, gave her back all of them.” Joshua laughed slightly but it was a laugh to cover his anger and it didn’t do a very good job.
“Oh, she is going to pay for this,” he decided.
“Actually, you aren’t going to lay a finger on her. She was only making me a better ruler. In addition to that we have bigger issues like the quickly approaching reinforcements of Hell,” Rachael pushed her way back into the conversation.
“We are going to deal with this later,” Joshua informed her.
“Yay! Just what I always wanted!” she said sarcastically.
“I will be dealing with that later, actually,” Jesse corrected.
“No, I will,” Joshua was even more irritated now.
“I have a feeling that it’s going to be me,” Jesse denied.
“Gabriel thinks it’s going to be me,” Joshua ended the argument.
“Even Gabriel? Well my future looks bright now,” Jesse moved away a few steps.
“What are you two talking about?” Rachael questioned.
“You’ll find out soon enough,” Jesse answered; the overwhelming anxiety returning. If Joshua was so confident he was going to be the one than he had reason to be worried. Rachael simply rolled her eyes and walked away.
The Rift Page 20
