Alazar was stunned. Was it true? Was he suffering from the sins of the other Predznak? He thought about how afflicted each of his brothers had been in the end. It certainly explained why he was running in fear from his Master. It also explained his anger and lack of decision-making abilities. Holy shit, she was right. He was more messed up than he thought.
He reached out and touched her arms. “I can feel it. I wasn’t strong enough to withstand their influence. Standing here, your power is making all the conflicting voices in my head subside. I swear I will never complain about Solren’s multiple personalities and mood swings again. Nor will I bitch about Tristan fearing everything. Anjali, I don’t know if I’m strong enough to lead the Predznak and serve you. If I was too weak to keep them from getting inside my head, I may not be the angel you need,” Alazar ran his knuckles under her jaw to feel her soft skin. He really was losing his mind.
Anjali knew she had to give him an ultimatum. She couldn’t have a crazed Angel of Death wreaking havoc on the world anymore. “You have to make a choice, Alazar. You vowed to God that you would serve me, but you never made that promise to me. I don’t want an angel who can no longer tempt the mortals as intended. My Predznak have to be ready for the day when an Apocalypse is needed to cleanse the world of evil. I need an angel who can handle the responsibility of being Death, and who can lead the others. I’m sorry for all of the terrible things that have happened to you, things I had no control over, but you have to find a way to get past it. You have to decide for yourself if you want to be with me. I need someone who can fight against the evil and the darkness to do what is needed of him. Can you do what is required of you? Can you trust me enough to believe that I will take care of you? I don’t want to rule over you like Lucifer. I need help Alazar. I don’t know if I can do this. I can’t fight you while trying to sort out my own life. If you don’t think you can do what I’m asking of you, then I will find another to take your place,” tears welled up in her eyes. She needed him to be strong enough to end the world.
“I don’t know if I can do it,” Alazar replied honestly, as he closed his eyes. He had failed in his duties so many times, he didn’t know if he could rise to the occasion. Deep down, he knew she would kill him if he refused her, but he couldn’t lie to her.
“Ignore the doubt in your head and search your heart. I want an answer by midnight this evening. I need to know that the city will be safe from the Grim Reaper tonight,” she said as she tried not to let the tears fall from her eyes.
Looking at Anjali, she appeared weary and defeated. Yet again, this strong woman looked so small and helpless. She was right. He needed to decide once and for all if he could do this. His heart told him yes, but his fear put doubts in his mind.
“I will have an answer by midnight. I’m sorry. I don’t want to fight you. Part of me knows what I’m supposed to do, but the rest of me is filled with pain and doubt. I want to join with you, I do, but there are just too many things to contend with. You’re correct; I made a vow to Father, not to you,” Alazar looked down at the ground, ashamed of his admission.
She threw his dagger into the wooden floor. “Midnight, Alazar,” she replied firmly, issuing him a challenge.
Alazar nodded and bent down to pick up his dagger. He was gone before she could blink. She couldn’t be sure, but it appeared as if he had bowed to her just before he vanished.
She let her tears fall as she sat down on the bed. Sadly, she was right back where she had started, without her angel and without her mortal. She prayed that midnight would come quickly so that she could end this miserable day.
Chapter 12
“How’s our timeframe holding up?” Pete asked, though Derick barely heard him.
“We should be good if we bust our asses tonight,” Derick replied without thinking.
“Look, I know you miss her, but I’m sure she’s still around. I doubt she left town, so let’s focus on tonight. She’ll probably show up at the castle. I see the way she looks at you. She’s not going anywhere without you,” Pete said, trying to cheer up his friend.
Josilyn and Wedge nodded their heads in support as they chewed their sandwiches.
Derick swirled the beer around his glass. It made him sick to think she was probably halfway home by now. The front desk refused to tell him if she was still registered at the inn and there had been no answer at her door. He had no way of finding her. All he knew about her was a name and a state. Maybe he could find her parents when he returned to the states, but he didn’t know what town she lived in.
He had screwed things up so badly; it was no wonder that she was gone. It was obvious that she was afraid last night, having witnessed Pete lose his mind. After everything she had done to help, he had let her walk away because he was confused about her involvement. He was an ass to think she was guilty of wanting to hurt Pete. There had to be a way to find her, even if it was just to apologize. He hadn’t had the chance to tell her how amazing she’d been in the throne room, before the incident with Pete.
Throwing back the rest of his beer, he nearly choked when he saw the girl of his dreams enter the restaurant. She was wearing a Batman T-shirt, and looked like a geek’s fantasy with her long black hair in waves around her face. He practically dropped his mug as he jumped from his seat.
“Annie!” Derick yelled.
“Hi,” she smiled at Derick and shyly waved to the others.
“I thought you were gone, that you’d left Romania,” Derick blurted out.
“I’m still here. I had to run a few errands. Laundry needed to be done, chocolate needed to be purchased,” she lied, hoping it sounded plausible.
“Oh. Okay. We missed you at the shoot this morning. I had hoped to see you. Come sit down with us. There’s so much that I want to tell you. We finished our interviews and we’re almost back on schedule,” Derick babbled quickly. Her dazzling smile caught him off guard and scrambled his mind. Despite all that had happened the night before, she still acted as if she wanted to be around him.
Derick nearly tripped over a chair escorting Annie to their table. He hadn’t stopped thinking about her all night. At least ten times, he had walked into the hallway, determined to knock on Annie’s door and talk to her. Unfortunately, he’d spent most of the night keeping Pete from relapsing. Every time Pete closed his eyes, he freaked out saying that the blue eyes were staring at him. Derick had finally woken Josilyn up and told her everything, which didn’t go well. Once she calmed down and stopped hitting him for not telling her earlier, she agreed to take turns watching Pete.
Derick sat down at the end of the table while Wedge moved to the right to let Annie sit next to Derick. Josilyn sat across from Annie and Pete was next to Josilyn. Josilyn was watching Pete like a hawk, afraid that he would grab a knife and stab himself.
Before he could speak, Derick saw the marks on Annie’s neck and immediately sat forward to put his hand on her arm. “What happened to your neck? None of us saw you leave last night. We were worried that something had happened to you.”
Annie patted his arm to calm him. “Nothing bad happened, but now you know my biggest secret. I am a total failure when it comes to hairdos. I burned myself on the curling iron. I shouldn’t be allowed around styling implements,” she chuckled, hoping to deflect Derick’s penetrating stare.
It was obvious that Derick was excited to see her. He was talking so fast, she had a hard time keeping up with him. She was relieved that the tension from last night had disappeared. After dealing with Alazar, she needed to see a friendly face. With Alazar pondering his fate, she had one last night in Romania with Derick and the Spirit Experts. Once Alazar made his decision, she would have to say goodbye to them. It was going to be harder than she thought, especially since Derick appeared to be overjoyed to see her.
Derick relaxed and let out his breath. He was glad that nothing had attacked her. “Well, your hair looks really nice, but you should be more careful. Of course, you look pretty no matter how you wear your hair,�
�� he blushed when all eyes turned to him. He had finally admitted his biggest secret to everyone. He was hopelessly falling for this woman.
Josilyn chuckled. “Well, thank goodness you’re okay. Can you believe how crazy things got last night?” she shifted closer to Pete.
Pete lowered his head and took a deep breath. He looked uncomfortable. Annie could immediately tell that Josilyn knew the truth about his brush with death.
Annie nodded. “Things were intense last night, but I’m glad to see that you’re all okay. Where are Morgan and Cassie?” she was happy that Alazar hadn’t captured them, though she might have sacrificed Cassie to save Morgan, if it had come down to that.
“Morgan’s searching for a decent electronics store. One of the cameras broke during the interviews. He needs to find a piece to fix it. Cassie was around this morning, but then she took off. She said something about shopping, which pisses me off since she has done nothing but complain about us wasting time,” Josilyn frowned.
Annie chuckled. “It’s good that you’re back on schedule. Cassie made it pretty clear that I was not welcome to film with you anymore. I didn’t want to get any of you in trouble, so I figured it was best to stay away from the shoot. I got my tour of the castle, so I’m good,” Annie shrugged shyly. Looking at each of their faces, she realized that she would miss them. She had started to think of them as friends.
“Forget about Cassie, she may be the producer, but she doesn’t have the right to throw you out of the castle. You’re our friend, not hers,” Josilyn laughed and clanked her glass with Derick.
Wedge looked Annie in the eye for the first time. “She’s right. Cassie doesn’t own us. If we say that you can be with us, then there’s nothing she can do about it. Besides, anyone who owns a Mortal Kombat shirt and a Batman shirt definitely belongs on our team,” he put his hand on Annie’s shoulder to show his support.
Annie laughed at his enthusiasm, wishing that she could stay. She liked being a part of their group.
Pete spoke up for the first time. “Why do you want to be a part of our team? You’ve never really explained why you want to help us. Like you said, you got your tour. I still want to know why you think spirits exist. I know you think I’m being an ass, but this group is really important to me and I want to know that you’re serious and not just interested in Derick. We all had our initiation into this group. We’ve had to share our secrets with each other. If you want to be one of us, then you have to prove it,” Pete said as stared at her.
Derick was embarrassed by Pete’s questions. Everything she had said to Pete last night about Hell should have been proof enough that she was a believer; unfortunately, Pete didn’t seem to remember her speech. “Annie, you don’t have to answer that. Pete, I’ve told you before, she wants to be here for her own reasons, what does it matter?”
Annie felt that she owed them an explanation. Pete was right, they had bonded over their beliefs, and it felt wrong to make them think she was merely using them. Besides, she was qualified hands-down to belong in the group. She would have enjoyed being accepted into their group during her mortal life.
“Derick, it’s okay. I know you guys are close because of your experiences. You’ve seen unexplainable things and Pete wants to know that I’m legit. I can respect that. He doesn’t know me,” she nodded to Pete.
“Annie, I’m grateful for what you did last night, even though I can’t remember much of it. So, don’t get me wrong, I’m happy that you’re here, but we’ve all been through this. I like you, I do, but we’re all passionate about investigating the afterlife. I’d be more than happy to tell Cassie that we want you to be a part of our group, if that’s what you want, but I need to know that you’re serious,” Pete looked hopeful that she would tell them one heck of a story to prove her worth.
All eyes were on her, patiently waiting for her response. She looked at Derick, who smiled encouragingly at her. If they wanted proof, then she would give them proof.
“I’ve always felt different, out of place. I see and hear things that most people don’t. For a long time, I thought I was insane,” she bit her lip, searching for the right words. It was hard to express how isolated she had once felt.
Derick leaned forward and put his hand on hers. “It’s okay. No one here will judge you or think you’re crazy. You’ve heard my story. We all have one. You’re not alone anymore,” the warmth and conviction in his voice made her smile.
She nodded and continued, “I used to suffer from terrifying nightmares every night. I had visions of a burning wasteland where people screamed and begged for mercy. I burned alongside them and endured all that they endured. Each morning, I woke up screaming with phantom pains from the night’s tortures. If that wasn’t bad enough, I saw the spirits that were stuck in this world, who hadn’t moved on. I too wanted answers, but I didn’t know what to do. I lived my whole life believing that something was wrong with me. I’ve finally accepted that I’m different and I’m okay with it. It’s nice to finally find people who believe in the unexplained,” Annie stared at Pete as she spoke. She wasn’t ready to look at Derick to see his reaction. She didn’t want to see fear or disgust on his face.
“You never told anyone?” Josilyn asked quietly.
She smiled at Josilyn. “My best friend knew. He was the only one. My parents didn’t listen to me when I tried to tell them that I saw spirits, so I stopped talking about it. My friend kept a nightmare journal, hoping to write down what I had experienced so that I could get it out of my mind and lock it away in a book,” she chuckled when she thought about the immense effort it took for CJ to deal with her supposed delusions.
“Geez, and here I thought seeing my dead grandmother at her funeral was rough. Granted, I did have a whole conversation with her in the parking lot, but still, it was only that one time. At least you had someone to talk to. I didn’t have anyone until I met these losers,” Josilyn smiled and tipped her head to Pete, Wedge, and Derick.
Everyone snickered at her joke, knowing that she was grateful to have found them.
“Did you see anything last night? You could have told me,” Derick was excited by the idea of finally having proof of the afterlife, but kept his enthusiasm under control.
“I saw a ton of spirits, but I don’t know if they will show up on film. I did my best to catch them on camera, but I don’t know if it worked. I didn’t want to get your hopes up if they didn’t show up on the tape,” Annie shrugged.
“Don’t worry, if you filmed them, we’ll find them,” Wedge said, swallowing the bite of his sandwich. “I thought I was weird for having an imaginary friend who turned out to be the spirit of a little boy who had died in our house. My mother tried to convince me for years that I had an overactive imagination. I can’t imagine seeing spirits everywhere. Do they talk to you?” he asked quietly.
“I try to avoid them. I have enough problems without speaking to dead people,” she shrugged.
Pete looked ashamed. “Annie, I’m sorry, I had no idea it was that bad. When I was a kid, there was a spirit who lived in my house, though he wasn’t exactly friendly. He was cruel and finally drove us out of the house. I’ve been trying to figure things out since then. I’m sorry you had to go through that. I get why you’d want to help us,” Pete said, finally accepting her into the group.
Annie smiled at Pete, but something about his story didn’t feel right. There was no conviction or sincerity in his voice. Derick had been close to tears while telling his tale and Josilyn’s voice broke when she mentioned her grandmother. Wedge’s voice had sounded shaky when he spoke. Pete hadn’t even flinched when he spoke about a cruel spirit in his home, something that should have traumatized him. She immediately knew that Pete was lying, but wasn’t sure why. Derick had told her that Pete’s parents were dead. He had been obsessed with “telling them” and “seeing them one last time”. Pete was lying, but perhaps because the truth was too painful. Regardless, he was a hypocrite expecting her to share her secrets while he kept his saf
ely hidden away, which made her uncomfortable.
Derick cleared this throat. “Where’s your friend now, the one who kept the dream journal?” he asked as he pulled his hand away.
Annie thought it was an odd question until she noticed the change in his demeanor. He was either jealous or preparing for the word “boyfriend” to emerge.
As much as it pained her to talk about CJ, she wanted to be honest with Derick. “I haven’t seen him in a long time. He went to college and I traveled. He was the one who was supposed to come with me to see the world,” she shifted uncomfortably when she thought why he hadn’t come with her. She had chosen Lucifer over her life with CJ.
“You said that your plans had changed. Did he leave you? After everything you confided in him, he left? What, he couldn’t handle it?” Derick’s voice was filled with disgust.
Annie was surprised by his anger. Then it dawned on her that something similar must have happened to him. Perhaps it was the reason that he didn’t date much. He must have confided in someone and she had freaked out and left him. She would hunt the bitch down.
“No. It wasn’t like that. I left him. I thought it would be easier for him if he didn’t have to deal with my craziness,” her confession stunned her. Was it true? Had she left CJ to save him from her delusional outbursts? She stayed away from him to keep him safe, but was that why had she left him? She had always believed that she’d gone to Lucifer, but she had never considered that she’d left CJ. As much as she cared about CJ, it wasn’t enough to keep them together.
The Third Throne: Angel of Death Page 32