The last thing she saw was Erik’s terrified expression as her body burst into brilliant white light, and everything around her disappeared.
CHAPTER 25
ALEXA SAT ON A HARD bench outside what she believed was the archangel Metatron’s interrogation room. She knew that the massive double doors were designed to intimidate. She was somewhere between level six and seven. The level hadn’t shown on the elevator, and she knew that its location must have been kept secret for a reason, a bad one.
She would normally have ridden the elevator to the Council of Ministers, the governing body in Horizon, on level six, but she hadn’t been given the choice.
She’d always wanted to see the massive city that floated in the clouds and open sky. She knew that level six was also the location of the angel prison, Tartarus. She had never been past the Department of Defense on level five. Level six was just one level below the highest level in Horizon. The Chief, or God, or whatever you wanted to call him, lived on level seven. She’d never been there either. Only archangels were allowed to set foot on level seven. But she had heard rumors that a mixed essence angel had been there once.
While she’d never seen the angel prison, she’d seen pictures of it. It looked like a giant windowless cube of black concrete, and it floated in the air above a blanket of clouds. It was either luck or something more sinister that had kept her out of the prison now. She knew angels were always imprisoned while they waited for their cases to be heard.
Did she even have a case? Why was she even here?
Alexa had spent an entire day in the Healing-Xpress when she had first returned to Horizon. Her angel body had been restored, and none of the poison from the death blade remained. She was happy that her wound was gone. But her cheerful demeanor quickly changed. Two of the most unusual angels she had ever seen were waiting for her.
They were dressed in identical skin-tight black dresses, and they wore red high heels, sunglasses, and bright red lipstick. They were absolutely beautiful women, with bodies like goddesses, perfect skin, and delicate features. If it weren’t for the soul blades in their hands and the commanding tone in their voices, they would have looked like they were about to perform in a music video from the nineties.
“Alexa Dawson, W-1 Squad, Class order 4321?”
Alexa managed to find her voice. “Yes.” Were they here to escort her to Tartarus?
There was something very disturbing about not being able to see their eyes.
“The rogue angel?” The woman smiled at the look of panic on Alexa’s face. “We’re Metatron’s personal guards. We’re here to take you to him.”
Metatron the fierce. So Ryan had been telling the truth. This was the worst possible outcome for her. Metatron was ruthless. His methods were unsound and barbaric. She would rather have taken her chances with the council than deal with Metatron. At least she’d have some options with the council. There would be a trial and then a punishment. But Metatron used torture, and his victims usually died.
Alexa fought the urge to panic. “I wasn’t going rogue, I swear. I was trying to do my job. It just took longer than expected, that’s all. It was going to work, but…” But you killed my chances, Alexa wanted to say.
The two women glanced at each other, and then the darker haired one said, “Sure. All rogue angels have the same sappy story about how they felt it was necessary to stay longer, for the good of the mortal. It’s always the same when they’re caught.” She flicked her soul blade at Alexa. “Hurry up. You don’t want to keep him waiting.”
It was like she was drowning all over again as she fought to get air but couldn’t. “Wait a minute. Don’t I get a trial or something? I thought I was supposed to get a trial? Isn’t that the Legion’s protocol? Every angel deserves a fair trial?”
“You lost that privilege when you went rogue,” said the dark haired guard. “It’s the worst offence you could have committed. You jeopardized the Legion and your fellow guardian angels. You don’t deserve a trial. You deserve what Metatron says you deserve.”
Fear washed through Alexa in a dizzying rush. “I need to speak to the archangel Ariel. Does she even know about this? I’m sure she’ll want to see me first. She’d never agree to this.”
Ariel had seen Alexa’s potential and had elevated her to her team. Ariel had faith in her and in her abilities as a guardian. If anyone could get her out of this mess, it was Ariel.
“She already has,” said the light haired guard, and Alexa’s face fell. The guard continued, “She agreed to have the retrieval team go to fetch you. But in the end, it will be Metatron’s decision what to do with you. He’s the overall commander, and he’s Ariel’s boss. She’ll do what he says.”
Flushed with rushing panic, Alexa felt she was in a waking nightmare. There was nothing to fight them with and nowhere to run.
The two beautiful guards seemed to know exactly what she was thinking. “There’s nowhere to run, little girl. You can’t hide from him. Put your boots on and let’s go.”
Alexa followed the angels back to the elevators and up to Metatron’s mysterious level. The women escorted her down corridors that became lost in shadows. They held their soul blades at the ready, as though they expected Alexa to bolt. They didn’t look like they’d be afraid to use them.
They passed at least five alcoves with burning fireplaces and lavish tapestries. Alexa’s confidence began to fail even more when she saw life-size paintings of women feeding grapes to Metatron. In the paintings he wore only a leaf and reclined on a series of different chaise lounges.
Now she sat waiting for her fate. Her guards stood in the shadows and secured the exits in case she’d felt like bolting. Alexa stiffened at the sound of voices from behind the doors. Was the infamous Metatron torturing an angel in there?
She didn’t understand how the Legion could elect such a monster as their commander. It didn’t make any sense. Apart from her lingering dread, Alexa felt as good as new. She wasn’t in any sort of pain, and she felt fresh and rejuvenated. Everything was where it should be.
Except Erik.
She had thought that maybe she wouldn’t remember him, that somehow the ride back and her time at the Healing-Xpress would obliterate her memories. But her mortal feelings remained. She felt and remembered everything—the dead girls, Hallow Hall, the kiss…
Even now, a strange tingling rushed to her face, and she couldn’t explain why she still had mortal feelings. Whatever had occurred between her and Erik was over, and she would never have the chance to explore it. Erik was a warm-blooded mortal, and she was a cold stiff. Their relationship could never develop. It should never have happened at all. What was wrong with her?
She’d had boyfriends before and felt the butterflies in her stomach. She had experienced all the highs and lows of first dates, first kisses, and the rest. But somehow, Erik made her feel different, made her feel a fire that seemed to rise from her soul.
Alexa let out a frustrated sigh. She barely knew him. She had to stop this. It was only making her miserable.
Moreover, the killings hadn’t been solved. She had not been able to prove that Michael was behind everything. She was annoyed that she hadn’t even been given the chance to explain herself. She needed to tell the Legion that the killer was still out there, and that somehow the Hellgate was connected. But now she didn’t know how to tell her story, or who would even listen.
She heard the sound of claws on stone, and Lance came trotting up to her, tail wagging.
“Lance?” Alexa jumped to her feet. “How did you find me? And how did you get here?”
Alexa’s escorts drew their blades and rushed over. They may have been in high heels, but they were fast.
“I don’t know how you got here, Scout,” said the dark haired one, brandishing her blade dangerously close to Lance’s ears. “But I suggest you leave now, before I make doggie biscuits out of you.”
Lance moved next to Alexa, his ears perked and alert. “At ease, ladies. I’m just here t
o speak to the prisoner. There are no laws against that. I checked.” He sat next to the bench. “I’m just going to sit here. If I move, you can slice me up and fry me like bacon. Are we agreed?”
The two women exchanged a glance and slowly went back to their posts, inscrutable behind their dark glasses.
“So, how did you find me? This level’s not even on the panel, and I’ve never heard of it,” asked Alexa. She didn’t bother asking him why he still looked like a white German Shepherd.
“You forget that I’ve been a guardian a lot longer than you,” said Lance. He scratched behind his ear with his hind leg. “I’m a Scout. It’s my job to know things. I’ve known about this place for years.”
“So, what’s your story,” asked Alexa, wondering what he looked like when he wasn’t a dog. “I need to keep my mind off whatever is going on behind those doors. Tell me something. Anything.”
“Which story do you want?” answered Lance. “I’ve got lots.”
“When…how did you become an angel or a Scout?”
“I died in France in the second World War,” said the dog. He stretched out on his belly and folded his front paws. “I was on a mission, and I never saw what hit me. I had been trained as a spy, and I was really good at it. So naturally, when I died, the Legion and I both thought I’d do best as a Scout. Never looked back once since then.”
“Did you have a wife or a girlfriend?” Alexa realized that she was prying, but it was too late to take her question back.
“I had a wife,” said Lance. “No kids. We’d just gotten married before I enlisted. Betsy Teagarden. Boy, she could light up a room with her smile. She was the prettiest girl in our town.”
Alexa felt worse. “I’m sorry, Lance. I don’t know why I asked.”
“Don’t be. Three years after I’d been killed I went to look for her on one of my assignments. She was married again, with two kids. And she was happy. That’s all that mattered to me. My Betsy was a good and decent girl. She deserved to find love again and to be happy.”
A sudden wave of sadness washed over Alexa. She would never have that, that love, that happiness. For a moment she closed her eyes and remembered the taste of Erik’s lips, his scent, and the crush of his warm body. She ached to have him hold her right now, and it hurt all the more because she knew it would never happen again.
Alexa leaned back against the hard wall. “So, what’s going to happen to me?” She felt a rush of anger.
Lance was quiet for a while. “I don’t know.”
“He’s going to kill me, isn’t he?”
Lance looked up at her. “Metatron is many things, but he’s not unjust. Tell him everything. Don’t keep any secrets and don’t lie. He’ll know if you lie. Trust me.”
“I don’t know how long this is going to take,” began Alexa. She knew that Lance was perfect for what she was about to ask, “but if you’re as good at your job as you say you are—I need you to find something for me.”
Lance sat up. “Sure, anything.”
“Two things, actually,” said Alexa. “I need you to find out exactly what happened to Erik’s parents, and then I need you to find out everything there is to know about a Hellgate.”
“A Hellgate?” Lance cocked his head to the side. “Never heard of it. But if there’s anything in Horizon about it, I’ll find it for you.”
“Thanks.” Alexa suspected it would be pointless. She’d never be a guardian again, and what was worse, she’d probably never see Erik again either. But she couldn’t let it drop. “Can you do me another favor?” Her voiced sounded too loud, and she looked nervously at the guards.
“Sure.”
“If…if I don’t make it out…”
“You’re going to make it out.”
“But if I don’t,” Alexa whispered, keeping her eyes on the floor. “If this is the end of the road for me, can you look after Erik? Just make sure he’s okay.”
She knew this sounded foolish. She saw the two angels watching her. She knew how stupid and foolish they thought she had been to fall for a mortal. But her feelings were just that, her own feelings, and she wouldn’t deny them.
“I will. Promise.”
Just as Alexa was about to thank him, the doors swung open and the archangel Ariel came out. She was as statuesque as a Greek Goddess. Tall and slim, her black cargo pants and black shirt blended beautifully with her mocha colored skin.
She studied Alexa for a moment and frowned when she looked at Lance. “I’m sorry this is happening to you, Alexa,” said the archangel Ariel. She was as stunning as Alexa remembered, and her voice was just as smooth and rich. But there was an urgency in her tone now. “But there is nothing I can do to stop it.”
Alexa started to fear the worst, but she raised her head and looked Ariel straight in the face. She was tired of being afraid. She would face this thing head on.
Ariel looked at her sadly.
“Stop what?” Alexa asked.
“Me,” said a male voice behind Ariel.
CHAPTER 26
ARIEL TOWERED OVER THE MAN who stepped out from behind her. Alexa hadn’t seen him at all. He looked too small to be an archangel, and if archangels were known to be beautiful, it appeared this one had missed the memo.
He looked like an overweight greasy middle-aged car salesman. He wore a charcoal-gray suit and shiny black shoes, and his thinning, straw-colored hair was drawn back from his receding hairline. He examined Alexa through sunglasses that hid his eyes, but his predatory gaze made her shiver.
He took a long drag of his cigar and blew out a cloud of smoke that looked a lot like the shape of a noose.
“Let’s go, kid.” The archangel Metatron tapped the ashes loose from his cigar.
Alexa straightened up and walked across the threshold. She didn’t dare to look at Ariel or Lance, for fear she might lose it. She still had her pride, and she wouldn’t show this greasy archangel any fear.
Alexa moved cautiously over the gray marble floors of Metatron’s lair. She had half expected to see explosives and contraptions for torture. Instead, every inch of wall was covered with flat screen televisions. It looked like a television broadcast station.
A raised platform in the middle of the room was furnished with a black leather sofa, chairs, and a coffee table littered with hundreds of remotes. Below the raised platform was an open compartment that looked like the cage where the accused would await their sentence at a courthouse. It was positioned strategically, below the platform, so that those on the platform could look down on those inside.
The noise from the TVs was very distracting, but Metatron snapped his fingers to get her attention and then pointed to the iron cage. “Get in, kid.”
Alexa opened her mouth to object, to tell him to go screw himself and that she wasn’t a kid. But the cold and calculating look on his face was enough to cause her to reconsider. Reluctantly, she made her way toward the iron box and closed the gate behind her. She was trapped. She wiped her palms on her pants. It was a very mortal gesture, and even though angels didn’t sweat, it reminded her how habituated she had become to mortal behavior.
Metatron stepped up onto the platform and reclined on his black couch. With his cigar in his mouth and his fat fleshy stomach protruding beneath his shirt, he propped his feet up on the coffee table and leaned back lazily. The two angels sat beside him. Alexa had completely forgotten about them. Their tight clothes and heavy makeup seemed out of place and unnatural. She wanted to run up there and slap their smiling faces.
Alexa watched the archangel’s stony face. But she couldn’t read what he was thinking because his sunglasses hid his eyes.
“Rogue angels are like a festering wound,” began the archangel. “They infect the Legion because they spread the idea that angels can stay in the mortal realm. The delusion that you can be born again as a mortal is the kind of thinking that causes havoc in the mortal world. The Legion can’t afford to draw attention to itself in this way. Mortals cannot know of our existence. I
t’s one of the very first decrees in the angel code. While rogue angels are dangerous to themselves, they are even more dangerous to the Legion. The punishment for those who defy the angel code is true death.”
Alexa straightened and kept her face free from emotions. She wouldn’t show the fear that coursed inside her.
“So tell me,” asked Metatron coldly and methodically, “when was it you decided to go rogue? Before or after you met this mortal…Erik? It’s Erik, isn’t it?”
Alexa stilled. “Yes.”
“Yes, before. Or yes, after?”
Alexa shook her head. “I mean yes, his name is Erik, but I didn’t go rogue. That is a misunderstanding. Erik had nothing to do with this.”
“Really,” said Metatron, taking another puff. “That’s not what Ryan tells me.”
“Ryan’s a liar and a bastard.” Alexa reached out and gripped the metal bar. “He never liked me, and this is just another example of the twisted way he bullies me and tries to prove his superiority. Ask Ariel. She’ll tell you some of the things he did to me here before I even set foot in the mortal world.”
“So you don’t have feelings for this Erik?”
Alexa stared at Metatron incredulously. She remembered that Lance had told her to keep her cool and tell the truth. She decided to trust him.
“Yes.” She felt ashamed and angry. She was going to kill Ryan. This was all his fault. “Yes,” she repeated. “I have feelings for him.” She wanted to say, I couldn’t help it.
A half smile played on his lips. “And you’ve had sex with this mortal?”
Alexa choked. “What? Are you kidding me? That’s none of your business.”
Metatron’s face hardened, and she knew she’d stepped out of line. “Oh, but it is my business, kid.” He raised his arms. “Everything around here is my business.”
When Alexa looked away, she noticed something odd on the screens.
On one screen she could see the archangel Ariel sitting at the table in the Counter Demon Division with Ryan, James, Will, and four more angels she didn’t know. On the screen next to it, she could see the archangel Gabriel staring intently at a monitor. He looked up, and when their eyes met she cringed. But then she realized Gabriel couldn’t see her.
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