by Mary May
“Do have any idea what they mean?” she asked.
Nodding his head, he knelt to get a closer look then told her what he knew. “It’s a satanic group. They originally came from Africa but have been spreading rapidly up into Central America and now the U.S. They use blood sacrifices to summon up evil spirits. At least that’s what’s these symbols here are for. The ones on the walls I’m not sure about.”
Jaxon felt a chill slither down her spine. “Does it work? Do they actually summon up bad spirits?”
“Don’t ask questions that you really don’t want to know the answer to, Jaxon. Some things are best left alone.”
“Don’t treat me like a child, Sloan. If I ask a question, it’s because I want to know the answer regardless of how unpleasant.”
Sloan rose back up to his full height and pushed his glasses up onto his forehead. Those freaky eyes of his were almost swirling as he held her gaze. “Yes, and yes.”
His answer left Jaxon waiting for more. When he didn’t continue, she arched her brow at him. “Well? Then what? What happens after they summon them? What kinds of things do they tell them to do?”
Sloan’s entire body went still. Like she wasn’t even sure if he was breathing, kind of still. He seemed to be listening to something that she couldn’t hear. Finally, he looked down at her as if measuring her up somehow; he blew out a deep breath before speaking.
“Jaxon, you are asking about things that will most likely give you nightmares. Right now, you have a choice.”
“A choice about what?” she asked, getting more aggravated the longer he stalled.
“Right now, you can tell yourself that the boogieman isn’t real. That evil comes only from the minds and hearts of crazy people. That Satan is a Saturday morning cartoon character in a red suit with horns and a pitchfork. Right now, you can keep your cookies and cartoons and the reality that you know. But once you open this door, you can never go back. You need to ask yourself if you are truly ready to know what lies behind it.”
Jaxon looked around the room with the strange symbols and the blood then asked one more question. “When we test that blood, will it come back as animal?” When Sloan slowly shook his head no, Jaxon felt like she was just shoved through that forbidden door he had talked about…
CHAPTER 5
A few hours later Jaxon followed Sloan outside for some fresh air. He still hadn’t told her everything that he said he would, but in his defense, there hadn’t been an opportunity. Once word had gotten out about the room, the place was crawling with people. Rawlings was everywhere asking questions about everything they bagged up, instructing that everything was to be loaded into his car, stating he wasn’t taking any chances on even one piece of evidence being misplaced.
Looking up into the early morning blue sky filled with puffy white clouds, Jaxon had a hard time believing in the possibility of an actual being called Satan. But all she had to do was walk back into that room and feel the taint of evil in the air to know that something very wicked was at work in there.
“Sloan, I went to your apartment,” she confessed suddenly. She didn’t know why, but the words had been burning on her lips and she was glad she had finally said them.
“I know,” he replied with no accusation in his voice.
Thinking maybe he didn’t understand the full scope of what she did, she put all her sins on the table.
“I picked the lock on your door and went inside and I snooped… a lot.”
This time a slight hint of a smile teased the corners of his mouth. “I know that, too.”
“Why isn’t there any…” His finger on her lips stopped the flow of questions.
“Now isn’t the time or the place for this conversation. But I promise you we will have it.”
Nodding her head, Jaxon wondered if she was ready for that conversation.
“Can I get you something to drink?” the waitress asked Jaxon, but she only had eyes for Sloan. They were seated in a back booth at the local Denny’s, and it was all Jaxon could do to keep from waving her arms at the woman to get her to pry her eyes off her partner. Sloan paid her no mind as he read the menu. Finally, he ordered a large water and then looked to Jaxon to place her order.
“That’s it? We have been working since before five this morning and you’re not hungry?” she asked in disbelief.
“No, I get by on very little,” he said as he handed the waitress the menu.
Shaking her head, Jaxon ordered a large grilled chicken salad then splurged and added a blooming onion appetizer as well. Sloan might be able to get by on very little, but she was about to fall out with hunger. The last thing she needed was to have a “hangry” episode.
Once the waitress left, Jaxon knew she couldn’t wait any longer for the “conversation” Sloan had been promising her.
“Ok, so let’s hear it,” she ordered.
“No, we need to be somewhere private,” he replied, shaking his head.
Jaxon looked around at the dimly-lit diner. The closest patrons were well out of earshot. “Umm…this is pretty private, Sloan.”
“Not private enough,” Sloan insisted.
Propping her chin in her hand, Jaxon eyeballed him. “Well, for the sake of conversation, exactly how private is private enough?”
Sloan leaned in close… his nose nearly touching hers. “How about I show you?” He snapped his fingers and all went dark…
“Sloan? Sloan! Where are you? What happened?” Jaxon’s voiced echoed loudly around her as she spun in circles where she stood. She was terrified to move too much, because she couldn’t see the floor, or walls or a ceiling… all she could see was white.
She heard footsteps and saw a figure walking toward her. It was Sloan. At least she thought it was Sloan. This guy looked like her partner with a few key exceptions, and two of those exceptions seemed to grow right from his back.
When Sloan reached her side, he stopped allowing her time to look him over; then he reached out and gently closed her mouth that was hanging open.
Jaxon hugged her arms around her middle as she gazed up at him. The fear and confusion in her blue eyes were more than he could stand.
“Hey, Jaxon, it’s still me. Please don’t look at me like that. I promise you have nothing to be afraid of.”
Keeping her arms wrapped tightly around herself, Jaxon nodded at the huge snowy white wings that framed his broad shoulders. “Umm…are those…I mean they look like…”
Sloan nodded his head, allowing her to look him over without comment.
Swallowing hard, she took in his full appearance of black tunic over black pants, chest armor and sword tucked into a scabbard. “Oh. Well, if those are what I think they are, then I’m guessing you are a… a… ummm.”
Again, Sloan nodded as she stammered through her question. “An angel…I’m guessing that’s the word you were looking for?”
Jaxon laughed slightly then coughed to cover it up. She was pretty sure she took a left hand turn straight into crazyville. Spinning slowly in a circle, she looked all around her once more. “Is this heaven? Am I dead?” she whispered. Looking just a little pale, she swayed slightly.
Sloan quickly reached out a steadying hand. “No, you are still very much alive.” Snapping his fingers once more, a folding chair appeared behind her. “Here, sit down. The lack of a visual horizon can make you lose your balance.”
Once seated and assured that she wasn’t living-impaired, Jaxon felt her equilibrium start to function as she took a deep breath. “So, if I’m not dead then where am I right now, and how did I get here?”
Cocking his head to one side he thought about how to answer her. Finally, he shrugged. “It’s kind of a plane between planes.”
Jaxon nodded as she looked at him blankly. “A plane between planes?”
Sloan smiled. “Let me try again. You are currently somewhere between heaven and earth. It’s a blank space between the two. It acts as a buffer to keep the two worlds from intersecting with one another. Nothi
ng exists here, but spirit beings pass through it as they travel from one plane to another. The only reason you can be here now is because you are with me. But I mustn’t keep you here too long.”
“Why? What would happen? How long is too long? How long have I been here already?” she asked, sounding panicked.
“Jaxon, calm down. I assure you that I will get you back to your plane long before anything starts to happen. I needed to bring you here to show you what I couldn’t tell you. That’s why I needed the utmost privacy. Do you now understand?”
Sweeping her eyes from the tips of his wings to his feet, she gave a short bark of laughter. “Yeah, if you had busted all of that out,” she waved her hand around in the air, “at Denny’s it wouldn’t have been good.” Pausing to look him over once more, she smiled slightly. “Actually, this makes sense. I knew there was something very different about you. Though to be honest I was leaning more toward an X-Files explanation. Those are some impressive wings. How did you hide all of that under your clothes?”
Grinning, Sloan shook his head. “When I’m on your plane, I don’t appear as an angel unless I need to. You really thought I was an alien?”
Jaxon shrugged. “What is an alien but a creature that is not of earth? In my mind the description still fits.”
Sloan nodded his head as he thought about her words. “I see your point. So, any more questions?”
“Yes, why a sword? If the idea is to blend in, not that you ever could because you are… well, you, why not carry a gun? That would raise fewer eyebrows, don’t you think?” she questioned.
“Yes, but again the sword like my wings is not seen by human eyes unless the occasion calls for it, and what I’m hunting can’t be destroyed by a gun.”
Pushing the heels of her hands hard into her eyes, Jaxon groaned. “I know… I absolutely know I will regret asking this… but why can it not be killed by a gun?”
“Because I hunt demons,” he answered as if she should have known.
Slumping back in her chair, Jaxon’s arms dropped straight down beside her as she stared at him. “I knew it. I have got to learn to stop asking questions I know will have bad answers.” Leaning forward, she propped her elbows on her knees as she looked up. “Demons, you say? You hunt demons and kill them with that?” pointing at the sword at Sloan’s side.
“I do. I’m a Hunter and I don’t kill them exactly since they are already in spirit form. All I can do is send them back from whence they came,” he explained.
Jaxon’s eyebrows shot straight up in the air. “From whence they came? Pray tell, good sir, where might that be? Sherwood Forest?”
Sloan laughed out loud at Jaxon’s comment. “I’m glad you are feeling back to your usual delightful self. I will explain more, but I need to get you back. I think I have your attention now.” With another snap of his fingers Jaxon’s world once more grew dark…
The next time Jaxon opened her eyes she was at home sitting on her couch with Sloan staring at her. Grabbing the couch cushion with both hands, she waited for the wave of dizziness to pass before shooting daggers at the guy sitting across from her.
“You know, one would assume that heaven would be pretty big on manners. What did you do, flunk out of Angel Etiquette class?”
The big angel slouched in her chair seemed unaffected by her scathing comment. “Nope, I never took it.”
“Gee, there’s a shocker. Let me give you a tip. Before doing the snappy-finger- make-my-whole-world-disappear-then-reappear thing, warn me. We mere mortals need a little heads up, comprende?” When he opened his mouth to speak, Jaxon held up her hand palm out.
“I need ten minutes. Ten minutes of not finding out anything new or earth-shattering. Just sit there and… and… do whatever you guys do whenever you’re not vanquishing demons or playing harps or whatever.” When his lips twitched, she held a finger to her own. “Shhh! Ten minutes!” After Sloan ran a finger across his lips and made a locking motion, she gave him a stern look then got up and hurried into the bathroom.
Once inside the privacy of her bathroom, she turned on all the faucets, sat on the toilet and gave in to the mental breakdown she had been fighting.
“An angel…. Sloan is a freaking angel!” she whispered, trying so hard to wrap her mind around it. After a few minutes, she grabbed a towel, buried her face in its fluffy folds and screamed. This opened so many doors that she didn’t want to walk through. Everything her grandmother had said about God and heaven and the devil and hell was true! “I’m going to hell… I am so going to hell!” she agonized. No way God would let her into his perfect heaven after all that she had done. She cursed, she drank… she wasn’t even a virgin! “I don’t know how to be perfect,” she cried quietly.
“It’s not about being perfect, Jaxon.” Sloan’s deep voice on the other side of the bathroom didn’t even make her jump. Somehow, she knew that he wouldn’t stay on the couch where she left him. “And before you yell at me, it’s been twelve minutes.” Realizing her sanctuary had been compromised, she splashed water on her face then used the towel once more before opening the door. The concern that filled Sloan’s unusual eyes had her own burning again.
“Are you ok?” he asked softly.
Unable to voice a reply, Jaxon shook her head as she walked back to her couch and sat down, pulling a pillow into her middle, holding it tightly. Sloan took his place once more in the chair across from her watching her closely. After a minute, Jaxon spoke.
“Why are you here?”
“Why am I here? I told you I hunt demons,” he answered.
Jaxon shook her head. “No, why are you here with me? There are thousands and thousands of people in this city. I have a hard time believing that I was chosen at random. So why are you here with me?”
Sloan nodded, as he understood exactly what she was asking. “I’m here for three reasons. The suicide killer isn’t human, the drug that you call Hell Hash isn’t created by humans and, three, I’m here for your soul.”
CHAPTER 6
Sloan’s last words had her heart thumping so hard she thought it was going to fly from her chest. Placing her hand over it, she stared at him and for the first time, she was afraid of him. There were very few things that caused that reaction in her. Most of the time she had more courage than sense and felt that between her martial arts training and her trusty pistol, she could protect herself from whatever life threw at her. But life clearly didn’t play by the rules because it just threw something at her tonight she didn’t even know existed, much less how to defend herself against it.
Sloan frowned at her. “Jaxon, stop looking at me like I’m the Angel of Death. I told you that you have no reason to fear me.”
“But…ummm… you said you were here for my soul. That kind of implies something bad, doesn’t it?” she pointed out.
Rolling his eyes Sloan, shook his head. “I’m here for your soul as in its well-being, not FOR your soul as in the Grim Reaper.”
When Jaxon’s frown remained in place, Sloan pinched the bridge of his nose as he sighed. “All right, why are you looking like that now? Do you not believe me? Just FYI, angels cannot lie, so if I say it then you can believe it.”
Jaxon seemed to absorb that little tidbit of information and filed it away for later use. Then she rubbed the area over her heart. “What did you mean by the well-being of my soul? Is something wrong with it? Do I have a bad soul?”
“No, not exactly. Your grandma did some damage with her less than accurate depiction of God and the Bible. He isn’t a tyrant sitting in judgment just waiting to toss people into hell. He loves you, Jaxon; right now right where you are with every fault and flaw he adores you. He feels that way about every single person on the planet. Unfortunately, so many never realize that. They either live their lives in fear or, even worse, in total denial of his existence.”
“But the Bible does say that he is a God who will judge. I’ve read that myself,” Jaxon argued.
“He does judge, but not how you think. T
here will come a time when everyone will stand before him and be judged for their lives on earth. The ones that never knew him, that denied him or simply ignored his voice will be judged and sentenced. But those who heard his call and opened their hearts and lives to him will be spared.”
Jaxon held up her hand and gave him a time-out signal. Sloan nodded then got up and went into her kitchen. A few minutes later she could smell the scent of fresh- brewed coffee. When he came back, he had one of her biggest coffee mugs in his hand. He set it on the table in front of her. Jaxon reached for it gratefully, bringing the steaming cup to her lips while trying not to let it slip from her shaking hands. When she looked up at Sloan, he gave her a small smile.
“Listen, I know this is a lot to take in, so I’m going to leave now and let you think over everything, and if you need me just call my name. I will hear you.” And with that he walked out, closing the door behind him.
Jaxon had no idea how long she sat in a stupefied state seemingly staring into space, her mind desperately trying to make sense out of the last few hours. The fact that Sloan was a supernatural being didn’t surprise her too much. He might call himself blending in, but the guy stuck out like a sore thumb. Undercover angel needed to work on the undercover part. The rest of what Sloan told her she simply wasn’t ready to deal with. The God loving her part made her stomach cramp. She knew who and what she was, so of course God did, too. Why he would want to have anything to do with her? She wasn’t proper or religious by any means. Did he think that Sloan could make her change into something she wasn’t? Unable to deal with anymore, she got ready for bed after swallowing two Tylenol PM’s, to ensure that she would sleep.
