Color of Angels' Souls

by Sophie Audouin-Mamikonian

  Great job, guys!

  It would take at least ten years to recover form the worldwide economic and financial crisis, no matter which way you looked at it. How would the Blues be able to recreate any sort of equilibrium in such a small amount of time? It gave him something to think about. Throughout his life—his life on Earth, anyway—he had spent most of his time making plans, calculating, figuring things out. But here in the afterlife, all that had changed. Instead of making things happen, he could only suffer the consequences of what happened. Instead of taking action, he could only respond to the acts of others.

  He was slowly making his way home after listening in on the umpteenth emergency cabinet meeting at the White House when he once again got the creepy feeling that someone was following him. Khan with his mangled tongue and red flashing sword immediately came to mind, making Jeremy slightly uneasy. Without warning, he turned down a dark side street. A few seconds later, he could hear soft footsteps behind him, almost like a fluttering sound. Jeremy mentally prepared himself. He wasn’t armed, but Connor had already taught him so many devious moves (and he had the bruises to prove it) that Jeremy was pretty sure he could take care of whoever was following him.

  He lurched just as the person was about to pass by him, grabbing a wrist and clenching his fist to strike … but then stopped his hand when it was less than an inch from the woman’s long, aristocratic nose.

  Tetisheri.

  She stared at him wide-eyed, gaping in wonder.

  “OK!” Jeremy yelled to hide his own surprise. “Now why don’t you tell me why you’re following me!”

  His own strength was peanuts compared with the power of an Angel over thirty-six hundred years old, and Jeremy quickly released her arm, as if he were letting her off easy.

  “I told them I was no good at tailing people,” sighed the chubby blue woman. “Shit!”

  “Them? Who are you talking about? What do you want from me?”

  “We’re keeping an eye on you, to try to figure out what you’re doing. And why you’re doing it.”

  That was her astonishing reply.

  Jeremy couldn’t believe it.

  “What do you mean, what I’m doing?”

  “That’s just the way it is,” she sighed again. “Listen, if you ever need any help—and I mean you, and only you—then here’s the place you need to go. Don’t keep this card on your person. It could be dangerous.”

  Jeremy took the small card Tetisheri held out to him. Just before they’d left New York, one day when he’d been feeling slightly paranoid and more than slightly bored, he had learned what he could about Tetisheri in the Egyptian department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Tetisheri was the wife of Pharaoh Tao I the Elder. She had been one of the first queens of the Seventeenth Dynasty to conduct military actions to defend Egypt, paving the way for famous monarchs such as Nefertiti and Hatshepsut. So, the chubby little woman standing in front of him, a world-famous strategist and queen … had just admitted that she had been tailing him to find out what he was doing! Good God! For what possible reason? But before he had a chance to ask her, her lips curved slightly into a bitter smile and she flew off into the heavens.

  He memorized the address on the card, then ate it. He had the sneaking suspicion that if he went immediately to the place indicated on the card, no one would open the door. “If you ever need any help—and I mean you, and only you,” she had said. Whoever these people were, they wouldn’t be any help finding Allison. Jeremy suddenly realized that he depended too much on other people, whether it be Lili or these supposed good Samaritans. It was time to take matters into his own hands.

  And he finally had a plan.

  One night, as he was staring out at the city lights from Lili’s balcony, he started to take a closer look at all the furnishings in her apartment. The Angels who had decorated the place had also put a few chairs in her kitchen, even though she obviously didn’t need them because she never set foot in it. He picked one up and carefully studied it, feeling the weight of it. Then he went into one of the guest rooms, took one of the Mist sheets, ripped it into strips of fabric, and made sturdy braids with them. Flint had told him that he could prevent someone from dematerializing and escaping through walls by controlling the Mist’s properties. But Flint, of course, was an old Angel. Would Jeremy be capable of accomplishing the same thing?

  It took him an entire month, but just as he had been capable of using the Mist much faster than all the other Cherubs, he also succeeded, after hundreds of failed attempts, to make four small (very small) bonds made of indestructible Mist. At least, he thought they were. But he couldn’t know for sure until he had tried them out. He decided to test them on Connor. The black colossus looked incredulous when he tried to put a judo hold on Jeremy and realized his hands were tied behind his back with bonds made of Mist. He cursed as he struggled in vain to break the straps, using all the power at the disposal of an old Angel. But he couldn’t.

  “Good God, man!” he growled furiously,.”What are these things?”

  “Flint left them for me in case the killer came looking for me with his sword,” he lied. “He said I should be able to tie him up with those straps until he came back to rescue me.”

  Connor nodded. “It’s a good idea. They should work just fine on a young Red like the one who attacked you. But don’t try them on an old Angel like me. He’ll just absorb the bonds through the pores of his skin to get rid of them. Something you Cherubs don’t know how to do.”

  Jeremy smiled, his heart beating fast: “No, Flint told me that even an old Angel couldn’t get out of them.”

  Connor gave him a skeptical look and tried to dissolve the bonds, and Jeremy’s heart leaped when he saw that even the old Angel couldn’t absorb them. While Jeremy was untying them, Connor had to admit that the bonds that Flint had made for him (or so he thought) were much stronger than they looked.

  For part two of his plan, Jeremy carefully studied the layout of the apartment, and where it was located in Lili’s building.

  One night, Lili came home all aflutter. Jeremy, who had been down in the dumps all day, even despite his daily workout with Connor, perked up immediately, alert for any news.

  “There’s a big party tonight,” she yelled excitedly as she rushed up to him. “A huge party with all the oldest, meanest, and reddest Angels in town. And we’re invited!”

  Jeremy gave her an ironic smile.

  “OK … actually I was invited and you are my date.”

  For about the thousandth time, Jeremy wondered why Lili was always invited everywhere in Washington, even though the Blues and the Reds were sworn enemies. Then he remembered the red and the blue Angels who had been following Clark around. The two of them had seemed to get along just fine. It had been three months since Allison had disappeared, and tonight, he would finally get a chance to take action.

  Lili made him a splendid midnight-blue tuxedo, so dark it almost looked black. She put on a dazzling green dress and a matching pair of gold sandals, then colored her lips in a snap and darkened her eyes with some black Mist. When she walked out the bedroom door, so graceful and radiant, Jeremy marveled once again at how breathtaking she was. The fact that they had been living together for months now had in no way diminished the incredible and irresistible effect that she had on him.

  Jeremy held out his arm gallantly, and she laughed and placed her hand on it. Lili loved life, and was literally bursting with joy. Feeling her body so close to his, Jeremy couldn’t help but feel completely stupid to be so obsessed with Allison, a girl who had rejected him and fled as soon as she’d gotten a chance. It was hardly the first time the thought had crossed his mind, but tonight, it was almost impossible to shake.

  The party wasn’t too far from the apartment, so they decided to walk. Jeremy could feel his heart pounding. For some strange reason, he had the uneasy feeling that tonight would be his last chance. If he didn’t find Allison tonight, then it would all be over.

  They were just
about to enter the brightly lit lobby of the hotel where the party was being held, alongside a gala charity event hosted by Sharon Stone, when a loud “psssst!” suddenly attracted Jeremy’s attention. Someone was waving at them over in the shadows. Intrigued, Jeremy turned Lili toward him and nodded his head in the direction of the sound, beckoning her to follow him. Lili raised an eyebrow in surprise but followed. They soon saw a familiar face, dressed in an oversized tuxedo and wearing flashy sneakers.

  Einstein.

  Jeremy was happier than he might have liked to admit to see the young/old scientist again. He was the best friend he’d made in this new world. He warmly greeted him and asked him what he was doing in Washington.

  “They won’t let me in,” groaned Albert, pointing at the brawny red and fat blue Angels who were acting as bouncers at the door, turning away all the freeloaders. “Can I come in with you? Please?”

  He blinked his sad puppy-dog eyes at Lili, who couldn’t help but laugh.

  “Of course you can, but you have to promise to behave yourself. Keep your mouth shut and don’t even think about asking the Great Ancients millions of questions, OK?”

  He gave her a sheepish grin and made the sign of the cross on his chest.

  “I swear on my own grave … or both graves, if I should ever have a second one!”

  “Have you been in Washington for long?” Jeremy again asked Einstein, who was following so close behind that he nearly treaded on Lili’s high heels.

  “I only got in yesterday. Every six months, we hold a physics convention, like the one we had in New York three months ago,” Einstein told him as he continued to look worriedly about him. “We all get together, both Reds and Blues, to talk things over. We talk about our own research, but mostly about our living protégés and the things we suggest to them, the progress they’re making, things like that. When the Congress of the Great Ancients was postponed we had to meet ahead of schedule because, as you can imagine, some of the oldest Angels are also great mathematicians. And we will also be reversing the cycle: after ten years of Red rule, now it’s the Blues’ turn.”

  He suddenly lowered his voice, as if he were afraid someone might be listening in.

  “And a lot of strange things are going on …”

  “Strange? What do you mean?” Jeremy asked.

  “I’m not sure, but the blue Angels—the Ancients, I mean—are as nervous as a bunch of long-tailed cats in a rocking-chair factory. That’s hardly a good sign. The last time there was a war between the Reds and the Blues, it led to the Second World War. And Hiroshima.”

  Jeremy stopped in his tracks, earning him a reproach from Lili who hadn’t been expecting it.

  “What?”

  Einstein nodded sadly.

  “I wasn’t here, because I only died a number of years later. But that’s what I’ve been told.”

  Jeremy could hardly believe what he had heard.

  “But how can Angels, who can’t even kill one another, at least not in large quantities, wage a war? And even better, how could those same Angels have such an incredible influence on the living that they could create a monster like Hitler?”

  “I don’t know, Jeremy! No one ever tells us young Angels anything,” Einstein sulked.

  Then he pointed at Lili, who was growing more and more impatient with their discussion.

  “But she, on the other hand, knows all about it.”

  Lili stared down at him with contempt.

  “All that I know is that I should have never let you talk me into getting you in here. All you talk about is problems, little Blue.”

  Her tone of voice made Jeremy shiver.

  “The Blues rolled the dice, and they lost. That’s all there is to it. So can we get going now? I want to go into the party, and we have a Flint and an Allison to catch, if I’m not mistaken.”

  The way she talked, you would have thought she were talking about two big fish they were having trouble netting.

  Then suddenly, just after the two heavies at the door had let them in, Jeremy heard a familiar name. He made a sign to Lili and Einstein to go on ahead and he would catch up with them in a second. One of the living who was attending the charity ball was looking at the latest news on his iPad and telling a friend about it. It was the name Ventousi that had caught Jeremy’s ear! The news had just come in: The police had a new lead in the case, and had found a connection between the murders of Ventousi’s colleague, Jeremy, and Allison, after police divers had miraculously found a cell phone in the Hudson River while looking for a weapon from an entirely different case. The last phone number that had been called was the cell phone found on the hit man’s body. On the SIM card inside, the police had found Ventousi’s fingerprints. He had been in such a panic when he’d gotten rid of the phone that he never even thought of erasing his prints, and probably hadn’t thought for an instant that the police would find the phone. The whole story sounded unbelievable, but the researcher had finally been taken into custody for questioning.

  Jeremy was petrified when he heard the news: Allison was making headway, which had to mean that she had received the help she was looking for and had turned red.

  She was out of his reach now.

  He looked up. Lili was waiting for him at the top of the stairs. She was so beautiful that his heart skipped a beat. Jeremy sighed. He knew what he had to do now. It was clear as a mountain stream.

  He climbed the stairs, took her by the hand, and whispered in her ear: “Let’s get out of here.”

  “But what about—”

  “I’m bored already,” he said curtly, and pulled her tightly against him in a passionate embrace.

  There could be little doubt about his intentions. Lili was so surprised her mouth fell open, but in an instant she was back to her old self.

  “I’ll go tell Einstein,” she whispered.

  She walked into the ballroom where all the Angels were gathered. Jeremy followed her but stayed by the entrance. He could see her talking to the young physicist, who looked disappointed, and to Connor, who apparently had been invited as well. Then she skipped back over to him, breathless and delighted. Hand in hand, they walked back to their apartment.

  As soon as he walked in the door, Jeremy gave free rein to his passion. He pinned Lili against the bedroom door and ripped off her Mist dress, then did the same to his own clothes. He had to stop for a moment to contemplate her naked body. How beautiful she was! She had all the charms of an eighteen-year-old, combined with ages-old powers of seduction. He could feel the lump in his throat. Her bronze skin, her long, flaming-red hair that flowed down over her perfectly round breasts … she was both temptation and innocence incarnate. He pounced on her like a hungry lion.

  Making love to Lili was incredible. His whole body was on fire, his blood boiling; he wanted her so badly he was insatiable, like a wild animal.

  His caresses weren’t tender, but ferocious. He did everything he could to arouse her, and she responded magnificently. The two were in perfect harmony, and with each caress, each sigh, the intensity mounted higher and higher until it reached a crescendo. But he didn’t enter her. Not right away, not just yet. He aroused all of her senses as he explored her dreamlike body, and when she was burning with desire, begging him, groaning beneath him, still he held back. When he ignored her feverish pleas, she activated her Angel’s charisma and tried to force him to satisfy her, but still Jeremy resisted. The astonished gleam in her emerald eyes was his reward. She was forced to submit. Jeremy wasn’t another one of her “little pets.” He would never obey her. Not like that.

  Lili was physically much stronger, but never tried to dominate him. And when his fingers and tongue had driven her completely mad with desire, she began crying out his name. After hours had passed, and she had accepted his force and his control, he entered her vigorously, making her groan with pleasure again. He had been toying with her, using his secret technique to take her to new heights. He moved ever so slightly, making her groan with pleasure, and then
slowly began rocking back and forth. She wrapped her long legs around his powerful back and moved beneath him like a clinging vine. He violently kissed her lips, so full and red like a delicious fruit. It was so good he almost lost control, but recollected himself, and held on until she orgasmed, again and again, and then he finally abandoned himself in an enraged outpouring that left her completely drained. She lay next to him panting, drenched with sweat, unable to say a word.

  For several minutes, the only sound in the room was their panting. Then Lili finally stirred and gave her lover an incredulous look.

  “For the love of God,” she purred, “I hurt all over. Where did you learn to make love like that?”

  Jeremy didn’t answer. What he had told Allison was true: He didn’t have much experience with women. But what he hadn’t dared tell her was that his dear and tyrannical grandfather had hired a young call girl with a great deal of experience in the matter when Jeremy was hardly twenty years old. She had pretended that she was in love with him, and had taught him all the different love games she knew during long hours of extremely enjoyable and instructive hands-on training. The day that he asked her to marry him, she told him the truth. It was James’s way of making sure that his grandson would never allow himself to be manipulated or lured into a scandal by a woman’s charms. The business world was merciless, and using sex as a weapon was just another part of it. His little plan had worked perfectly: The girl could have won an Oscar for her performance.

  After that traumatic experience, Jeremy had never trusted another woman. Until he met Allison.