by Мишель Роуэн
Val tried to look past him into the darkness of the manager’s office. “Is everything okay? I need to talk to Mr. Barlow. He’s the manager here.”
He nodded. “You must be Valerie Grace?”
“That’s right.” She and Lisa exchanged glances. “How do you know that?”
“You’re mentioned in Mr. Barlow’s papers. We’ve been looking for you.”
She swallowed hard and felt her heart begin to sink. Lisa reached down to grab her hand and squeeze it. “Where is he?”
The officer’s brow lowered for a moment. “I’m sorry to tell you that Mr. Barlow passed away a short time ago. The coroner just took away the body. Looks like natural causes.” He produced a business card. “Here’s where he has been taken. I’m very sorry for your loss.”
Val’s bottom lip trembled. “He can’t be gone. Not yet. I just got back.”
“I’m sorry.” The officer nodded grimly, then headed toward his cruiser.
“Val,” Lisa said. “It’s going to be okay.”
She pushed Lisa out of the way and ran inside the office, past the beaded curtain. Silent.
Empty. Barlow was gone. She had the key but it was too late to help him.
“Sorry,” she said to the empty room, the empty armchair—her heart a heavy, aching thing in her chest. “I’m so sorry. I tried. Really I did.”
Val closed her eyes, and let herself start to sob. What was the point? Of any of it? It was too much. She went through all of that for nothing.
Nothing.
Val felt a hand on her arm and opened her eyes. Lisa looked at her with great concern. “I knew Barlow,” she said. “And I know one very important thing about him.”
Val sniffed. “What?”
“He’d still want you to use the key. To go without him. To save yourself. I know he would.”
Go without him. A breath caught in Val’s throat. She was right. That’s exactly what Barlow would want for her. She could still go. She and Lisa.
She reached down into her top, into her bra, to pull out the object that had caused so much pain, so much stress, so much . . . hope.
The key.
Once she got back to Heaven she could find somebody, talk to somebody. Barlow had only been gone a short time. It might not be too late to still save him. But she had to go now. He’d had faith in her. He believed in her. And she wasn’t going to let him down again.
It was her brand-new plan—she figured she was probably at Plan Z by now—and she clung fiercely to it. Go back to Heaven and do what she could from there.
And she was taking Lisa with her.
“We’re leaving,” Val said. “Fasten your seat belts. This may or may not get bumpy.”
Bette Davis, she thought. Sort of. Reggie would be so proud.
Val held the key close to her face and turned it in the dim lighting while she read the ancient—but strangely readable—words etched into its surface. She felt the power hum through her, the essence of the golden key coursing up her arm and through her entire body.
When she’d finished speaking, she hardly remembered saying anything at all, what the words were or if they made sense. But at that moment power filled her with a feeling of peace and goodness, equal to the light that emanated from Seraphina’s eyes. The power seemed to solidify and grow larger until she felt like a glass of water about to spill over or shatter into a thousand pieces. And when it finally felt too much, the energy streamed out of her in a single line of power, hitting the far wall of Barlow’s living room, in the corner where the rabbit-
eared television sat. It trailed up from the floor, six feet high, then across, then down. The outline of a door. Val watched in awe as the inside of it began to grow opaque, glowing until it was nothing but a rectangle of glimmering light in the dark room.
She let out a long, shaky breath.
Not bad for a first try if I do say so myself, she thought wearily.
“Val,” Lisa said from behind her.
But Val was busy looking at the doorway of light. Only a few steps away. So close and all that had happened to her would become a fading memory.
A tear slipped down her cheek.
“Val,” Lisa said again. “I think we have a bit of a problem.”
“Let’s get a move on,” Val said. “We don’t know how long it’s going to stay open.”
There was a sound then. A jingle, like the bell on the door to the manager’s office. A cold draft of air swept into the room.
Val turned around to look at Lisa and felt her stomach sink down, down, down . . .
Well, hell.
“You were so right, Nathaniel,” Julian purred as he stepped through the beaded curtain. “She is terribly predictable, isn’t she?”
Chapter Twenty-two
Nathaniel entered through the curtain and stood next to the grinning blond demon. He stared at Val with an expression that looked like . . . disappointment? Right, she thought.
Disappointment that she was oh-so-predictable. So naïve. So stupid.
Three out of three.
There was nothing in his expression to indicate he was there to help her. Nothing at all. The behavior modification must have worked after all. The Nathaniel she’d gotten to know over the past few days was gone forever.
She exchanged a worried glance with Lisa and turned back to the glowing doorway. Note to self: Must remember to make sure no demons are present before opening a gateway to
Heaven.
“I command you to close,” she said to the glowing light. She shook the key in its direction.
She knew it wouldn’t work, but figured it was worth a shot.
Julian laughed. “Nice try.”
Val shrugged. “Not really. But thanks for saying so.”
“No, I’m very surprised, fallen one. That you just made it so easy for me. For us.” He glanced at Nathaniel, then back to her. “Looks like your little spell over the halfling here is definitely over, isn’t it? He isn’t exactly riding in on his white horse to save you now.”
Nathaniel just continued to stare at her, expressionless. Blank.
She swallowed. “White horses are overrated.”
Julian’s grin widened. “I truly thought you’d make it more difficult before you did exactly what I would want you to. You see, a little bird told me that only a fallen angel could use the key.”
“A little bird?” Val thought about that, then frowned.
“Yes,” Julian continued. “A little bird that flew away before I had the chance to cage it properly.”
Val glanced at Lisa who shrugged back at her. “I was trying to buy a little time so I could escape. It actually worked.”
Julian scowled at her. “Yeah, well, you turn your back for one moment . . . Plus, I was kind of distracted with the mayor and . . . oh, never mind. You won’t escape again. Now, back to the matter at hand.” He gazed at the doorway of light. “Pretty isn’t it? Though I did organize a little something in case you weren’t willing to open it.”
Val stomach was in knots. “What do you mean?”
To her left there was a sudden flash of fire and Yasmeen appeared, smiling.
“Ow, that’s hot . . . ouch!” a familiar voice yelped.
Behind Yasmeen was Reggie, no longer a rat, but a man as he was before. He was naked, and held two McDonald’s food trays—now slightly melted from the trip there—against his front and back to cover his nakedness. Claire stood next to him clutching his arm and staring around the room with fear as naked as Reggie’s body.
“Reggie!” Val exclaimed.
“Val?” His gaze darted around the room. “This isn’t good, is it?”
“Not even slightly.”
Julian looked them up and down. “Now that you’ve already opened the doorway, I don’t need them, do I? What should I do with them?” He turned. “Nathaniel? Any thoughts?”
Val’s uneasy gaze moved to the other demon and she watched as the corner of his mouth twitched into an unfriendly smile. “I
can think of many things. Reggie, remember how I promised I could put you out of your misery? That offer is still available.”
Reggie blinked. “Uh, gee, thanks for the offer, Nate. But I think I’ll pass.”
Val’s eyes narrowed. “You touch him and you’ll be sorry.”
Nathaniel turned to her with the smile still in place, but he didn’t say anything.
“Now.” Julian took a step toward the doorway of light and rubbed his hands together. “Time to get this party started.”
She stepped in front of him. “Julian, listen to me. You can’t go through there. You’ll shift the balance and it’ll destroy everything. The earthly realm, Heaven, Hell. Everything. You hear me?”
He raised an eyebrow. “How incredibly exciting. Don’t you think so, Nathaniel?”
“Absolutely.”
She shot the other demon a dirty look. Yasmeen had slipped an arm around his waist and stared at him as if he were the greatest thing since sliced bread. Really bad analogy, Val thought. But she was too busy freaking out to come up with something good.
Julian was just about to walk into Heaven and obliterate everything up by his mere presence.
And again . . .
All her fault.
She was sensing a theme. The theme of Valerie Grace. Throwing everything away that she cared about because of her stupid, selfish, predictable behavior.
“Val—” Lisa said shakily. Val glanced over at the girl with her bright eyes and pale skin—a desperate look on her face as she waited for Val’s next move.
Julian smirked at her. “The funniest part of all of this is that you honestly thought you had a chance. Thought you could use my father’s key. Did you ever think about what would happen if you wandered back into Heaven without an official invite? Would they greet you with open arms? What kind of existence would an angel have who wasn’t welcome there? But you’re not an angel, are you? You’re just a sad, frail, predictable woman who would throw it all away when her hormones kicked in. Nathaniel probably didn’t even need the behavior modification at all. Perhaps all the time he was simply playing you for the little tramp you are.” He laughed coldly. “My hat’s off to him, too, because he even had me fooled. Didn’t you, Nathaniel?”
Julian turned around and was greeted with Nathaniel’s slamming fist. He was hit hard enough to be launched across the room, hit the wall and slide down to the floor.
“Yeah, I did have you fooled, didn’t I?” Nathaniel said. Then he crossed the room to grab the stunned Julian and hold him down against the faded beige carpet. “Valerie, go now. There’s no time to waste.”
She closed her now gaping mouth. “What the hell are you doing?”
“No time for explanation. Just consider this your white-horse delivery. Better late than never.
Go back to your home. To Heaven. Go now!”
Lisa was at her side, staring at the doorway, which glowed as bright as it had when it had first appeared.
Julian began to fight against Nathaniel and Yasmeen stared at the two demons as if she didn’t know what to make of this strange turn of events.
Val’s breathing was coming hard and rapid. What was Nathaniel doing? she thought frantically, but then realized it was kind of obvious. He’d just given her the chance she’d been looking for all of this time. Two long months stuck as a human and this is exactly what she’d been hoping for. The only thing that had kept her going when the going got tough.
“Come on,” Lisa said as she moved toward the glowing doorway.
Val grabbed her arm to stop her from going any farther. “Just a moment.”
“What?”
“Valerie, what are you doing?” Nathaniel pressed Julian hard into the floor.
“Let me go, halfling!” Julian’s voice was muffled by the carpet. Val suddenly wondered when the last time was it had gotten a good vacuuming. Not from her, that’s for sure.
“Val, now’s your chance,” Reggie yelled. “What are you waiting for? This is what you’ve wanted all along.”
“The weight of the world is on my shoulders right now and I’m afraid of throwing it all away by mistake,” she remembered saying in the limo ride over there, speaking to whomever it was that Seraphina was channeling.
“Excellent,” they’d said. “I believe the right choice has already been made.”
Was that the boss? she thought. Was that God himself who was speaking through Seraphina helping her to find the answers she sought? And if so, couldn’t he have spelled out the answer for her instead of making her have to guess all the time at what the true meaning was behind the words?
It never worked that way.
“You’re right. All of you,” she said suddenly. “And Nathaniel, about what you said to me in the Underworld—I am selfish. All my good deeds, whether or not I really realized it, I was doing for bonus points. Trying to get back to what I knew. Where it isn’t scary or lonely.
Where I felt wanted and safe and cared for and knew what to expect. I didn’t mean to lie to myself, but that’s just what I did. And my selfishness, all my meaningless lies have led to this very moment. Right here, right now.”
“Valerie,” Nathaniel struggled with Julian. “I don’t know how much longer I can hold him.
You must go while you still have the chance.”
She nodded “The thing is—I just wanted to let you know that you were wrong about one very important thing about me, Nathaniel.”
“Oh?” His gaze locked with hers. “And what’s that, my beautiful angel?”
“I’m not predictable.”
She threw the key at the doorway and it passed through and disappeared to the other side. In the barest of moments, a split second, it closed like a bright blind, a line of light that was there for a moment, then gone the next as if it had never been there in the first place.
She blinked with surprise. She hadn’t been sure it would work, but figured it was worth a shot.
Julian screamed, long and loud and she saw Nathaniel fly away from him as he got to his feet, flames in his eyes, so bright it hurt to look at him. More than normal, anyhow.
“You bitch!” he said, his voice pitchy. “You threw away my key.”
Val took a step back. “I didn’t see your name on it.”
He stormed toward her, hands clenched, but Nathaniel rose up behind him and grabbed him by the back of his jacket and the two of them staggered through the beaded curtain, then crashed through the manager’s office window and out to the courtyard outside. Val was about to run out after them when Yasmeen stepped into her path. She looked angry, upset, and confused. Mostly the confused part.
“You,” she began, her brow lowered enough that Val could tell she was a few hundred years overdue for Botox treatments. “You are human, yes?”
“Looks like.”
A quick glance past the curtain showed that Julian and Nathaniel were going at it outside in demon to demon combat. It actually looked to Val more like a bar fight than what she’d expect from two supernatural beings, but she supposed that fists were a more manly way to deal with conflict than laser beams from one’s eyes. Although, definitely not as cool.
Yasmeen’s eyes narrowed. “And yet he defends you.”
“What’s your point?”
“Nathaniel is mine. He’s always been mine. If it wasn’t for me, he’d be nothing.”
Val crossed her arms. “And again . . . your point?”
Yasmeen’s eyes turned fiery and Val decided right then and there that she was sick and tired of looking at flames in people’s eyes. It just wasn’t right. It made her go all teary and in need of large doses of Visine.
The demon’s expression darkened with pure hatred and her eyes reflected Hell itself. “I am going to destroy you.”
Val gulped. “You mean we can’t be best friends?”
Yasmeen stormed toward Val.
Reggie suddenly leapt forward and grabbed Yasmeen’s arm, succeeding in dropping the tray that covered his butt. “Don’
t touch her, you bitch.”
She raised an eyebrow. “How quaint.” She flicked a finger at him and he flew across the room, his remaining McDonald’s tray and all.
“Excuse me,” Claire said softly.
“What now?” Yasmeen turned to her.
“Nobody beats up my boyfriend except me.” Her eyes narrowed and Val felt a wave of energy jump off her. Yasmeen gasped, stared at Val for a last frozen moment, and . . .
. . . Fizzled out.
Vanquished by the fast-food witch.
Claire collapsed to her knees on the floor. “That shit sure takes it out of me.” She fell to her side, closed her eyes, and immediately started to snore.
Reggie scrambled for the handmade afghan that was draped across the armchair, wrapped it around his waist, and stared down at his girlfriend.
“My beautiful snookums saves the day.” He glanced up at Val. “I really have to make sure not to piss her off anymore. She is one scary woman.”
Val glanced over at Lisa in the corner, then turned to run outside. Julian had Nathaniel pinned to the ground over by the pool, his hands tightly around Nathaniel’s neck.
Nathaniel ground his thumbs into Julian’s eyes who then screamed and let him go. They scowled at each other.
“You are so whipped,” Julian snapped. “It’s sad, really.”
“You’re just jealous.”
“Yeah, I’m so jealous. Not!”
Lisa touched Val’s arm. “Why, Val? Why did you stop me from going through the doorway?”
Val turned to look at her. Poor Lisa who’d gotten a raw deal and regretted being tempted.
Who just wanted a second chance.
She shrugged the girl’s hand away.
“Fallen angels are fallen for a reason,” Val told her. “And sweetie, I’ve learned way too much in the past couple of days about false exteriors. So why don’t you quit the act?”
Her eyes widened. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Val just fixed her with an icy glare. “Drop it. I saw your flamey eyes inside—you must have lost your concentration or something. Had me going, too. I thought you were a fallen angel all this time. I should have believed Nathaniel when he said he didn’t remember tempting you.