That wasn’t in the cards. I wanted the chance to pop into Houston’s head, but I couldn’t while he knew I was nearby. I didn’t have the angels’ ability to temporarily cloud someone’s mind.
“It’s just not possible anytime soon,” I said. “Meeting the governor is a big deal. I’d have to get all dressed up and I haven’t had a haircut in weeks.”
Houston’s frown turned into a scowl. “Best to make yourself available for the governor. Who knows what kind of regulatory impediments you might face in your, um, business here.”
He sneered as he gazed around the tent.
The words, screw you and the goat you rode in on, came to my mind, but I bit my tongue. Angels, even apprentices, needed to behave with better manners, and I wanted to stay in contact with this demon.
“I sincerely apologize if I’ve offended you, sir. That wasn’t my intent.” I swept my arm around the tent now crowded with animals and supplies and both of my volunteers. “I simply have no time to spare, for all the whoop de doo that goes with an official governor’s visit. As I said, I’m happy to talk with you again, for sure, but not Pierce.”
Houston spun on his heels and left.
I was tempted to run after him and merge with his mind, but then my helpers would wonder where I’d run off to. Later, at night, I might be able to track down the chief of staff. Griffin would probably know where Houston was staying.
-o-o-o-
I KEPT WORKING steadily and thanked God that Pierce hadn’t just shown up unannounced. Unfortunately, he wasn’t my only nosy distraction. I spotted Sophie outside the tent’s door trying to keep Scarlet out, but the reporter was pushing hard to get inside.
God in Heaven, I’ve had my fill of aggressive, egotistical people. Milton had told me to keep a low profile, and that definitely meant no TV interviews. So, I kept out of Scarlet’s sight. She probably wasn’t a demon, but I knew so little about their world. Best for me to avoid her completely.
When Sophie finally entered the tent, she was alone. I drew her to a quiet corner so we could talk privately. “I’m worried,” I whispered, “about that lady annoying you. She could ambush us about God only knows what weirdness. I’d really prefer to keep a low profile. I’m not a people-person.”
She whispered back, “I think it’s okay this time. Scarlet needs a good news story to balance the horrors from this fire. She’s very sweet.”
“I hope you’re right. I’d never forgive her for taking advantage of your good nature.”
Sophie smiled and chewed her lower lip. Too sexy and vulnerable. I had to keep my distance. I stepped back and crossed my arms over my chest.
“She just wants to film the animals.”
I frowned. “Nope. We’ve calmed them down, but they’re sure to freak out around a stranger and bright lights.”
She nodded and left. She was sure to deliver the bad news more diplomatically than I could. So, that was another area where I needed to improve. Angels led by example, Milton had said.
I returned to helping our patients and put both women out of my mind.
-o-o-o-
BY EVENING, I’D healed over twenty injured animals, not to mention the critters firefighters brought in because they were starving. The dead, beetle-killed forest around Winter Park was basically a desert.
Our tent was packed with recovering wildlife, and I needed to line up some animal rescue organizations to take in those I saved. I’d filled all my cages by three p.m., and Raj had driven to the nearest pet supply store to buy every kennel he could get his hands on. While he did that, Sophie had driven a first shipment of animals to a rescue group in Summit County. Unfortunately, new patients were arriving faster than I could find homes for the existing ones. And I needed to find Houston again and probe his memories.
Chapter 10
BY EIGHT P.M., I was ready to switch to my night job. My human helpers were hardly able to stand anymore. They settled into sleeping bags in a tent filled with cots for aid workers. I planned to chase down the devil I’d met, unless Milton or Honah grabbed me for a different project.
Harriet dropped by. I wanted to ask her about immortality, but before I could, she said, “Did you hear? Scarlet just reported another scoop. Five researchers from Colorado State who were studying pine bark beetles nearby have been killed. None of them made it out of their tents this morning.”
I woke Sophie and Raj to tell them this terrible news. Then I did my best to turn off my imagination. I couldn’t dwell on what their last moments must’ve been like. With any luck, they’d died of asphyxiation before the flames reached them. The horrors just kept coming back, and I had to focus on more hurt animals.
When new patients stopped arriving, I sent a message to Honah. This would be a good time for me to track down Houston.
A moment later, the old chief responded. No, Griffin tells me he and the governor have left for Denver for a meeting at the Capitol. He will let you know when they return and Houston is alone.
Even if they were gone, other demons might have stayed behind. Are there any other demons in this area I could check out?
After a pause, Honah said, No. Not at the moment. Await further direction.
As usual, he seemed too busy for idle chatting. I was the only angel, actually apprentice, who wasn’t busy.
-o-o-o-
Sunday, June 18th
AFTER ONE A.M., Milton appeared in the main tent. I was adding water to a lynx’s bowl at the time.
“Perhaps I was insufficiently clear when I instructed you to avoid publicity.”
I thought back. The best I could recall, I’d done that.
Before I could say a word, Milton’s voice deepened and sharpened. “Did you not understand the phrase, ‘refrain from exposing your existence’?”
I cringed under his withering gaze. “I understood, and I didn’t expose anything. That reporter just showed up. I hid out, and Sophie—”
Milton held up his hand. “I’ve seen your memories and know exactly what happened. This isn’t an instance where good intentions are sufficient. FIRST AND FOREMOST, YOU MUST REMAIN HIDDEN AT ALL COSTS FROM THE DAMNED.”
My legs quivered like Jell-O. “Yes, sir!”
He paused and seemed to get control of himself. In his normal quiet voice, he said, “The reporter prepared a story about your animal rescue operation. She spoke to several of the firefighters who have met with you.”
“Okay, I haven’t seen her reports. How am I supposed to stop her from talking to whoever she wants? I can only control what I say to her.”
Instead of answering, he said, “I lost one treasured member of our legion a month ago, and I most certainly do not intend to lose another so soon.”
I fought down my annoyance. Trying to control Scarlet was like trying to control a tornado. I was going to say so, but one look at Milton’s scowling face shut me up. The boss obviously wasn’t keen on excuses, no matter how valid. “I’ll do my best to prevent reporters from filming here.”
“Be sure you do. On a related subject, I am delighted to inform you that you can now attend training on self-defense. Make that work your highest priority. Nothing else you do, should you survive a million years, will be more important to your survival as an immortal.”
He’d been promising something for days, and it finally came through. Cleo had said their trainer was as overworked as all the other angels. “Perfect,” I fired back.
That seemingly wasn’t good enough. “Once your existence becomes widely known, you are certain to face unrelenting, determined attacks by dark spirits in their multitudes.”
The old guy seemed to be laying it on awfully thick. Maybe he’d been particularly fond of the angel he’d lost. “I’ll make it my highest priority, sir.”
“I expect no less. Follow the instructions of our Praetor Maximus to the letter.”
He didn’t tell what would happen if I didn’t learn quickly enough, and I sure as hell didn’t want to find out.
-o-o-o-
Tall marble columns surrounded a long building. This place reminded me of old Roman ruins I’d seen on a TV show, but this building was no ruin. A lush garden filled with many statues of soldiers and hunters encircled the building.
On my right, a large open door beckoned me inside.
I entered a rectangular room, and the plaster walls were covered with colorful, life-sized frescos of wild animals. The lions roamed on vast plains with gazelles, and tigers stalked boars in a jungle. These scenes rose twenty feet above me and seemed vivid enough to be real. The ceiling had been painted light blue and looked like opaque glass transmitting sunlight into the room. Polished marble tiles covered the floor. Life-sized golden statues of warriors rested in small alcoves.
This place was fancier than any church I’d visited, and it was much more impressive than Honah’s headquarters. Was he more pragmatic and this person more dramatic?
The room was empty until a tall, stout woman stepped through a door at the opposite end of the building. She wore a white tunic bound at her waist by a belt made from red rope. Her black hair was short and tightly curled. Over her hair, she wore a golden tiara encrusted with jewels.
The woman strode up to me and spoke in a gravelly voice. “You are welcome, Apprentice Townsend. This is my temple, here in Nemi, Italy. I have looked forward to meeting you for several weeks. You may call me Praetor or Diana. I understand we share a love for justice.”
How had she heard about me so long before the first fire? The angels’ vetting process might’ve been more thorough than I’d imagined.
Despite her friendly words, the woman did not smile. Her face was drawn, and her eyes narrow. Did all angels look so serious and sad? Everyone except Cleo seemed to.
Although I hadn’t spoken, she answered, “The wise ones are. Unfortunately, we’ve lost two members of the legion here on Earth this year, and it’s only June.”
She reached out her hand with her fingers sticking up in the air like Griffin and Honah had before. I touched my fingertips against hers and sensed her distress and iron will. She worried about my survival and my lack of fighting experience.
Given that she probably wasn’t the kind of woman who fretted about nothing, I worried, too.
“Who died most recently and how?” I asked.
“Toller was your predecessor. Like you, he’d been blessed with strong healing powers. I was quite fond of him, although I knew him for only a year. Unfortunately, his fighting skills were poor. Milton, Honah, and I all became recklessly complacent with Toller. We allowed him to charm us into ignoring our duty.”
She grimaced. “A month ago, he fell to a demon’s blade in Guadalajara. It was a clear failure of the legion’s leadership.”
She wasn’t sugarcoating her part in that failure. That was good, but she sure wasn’t going to overlook any of my failings either.
Tears welled in her eyes. She blinked them back, and her voice hardened. “I can assure you, I will not make the same mistake twice. Your training will be the most rigorous I have ever overseen.”
She seemed more talkative than Milton, so I asked, “How long have you been an angel?”
She paused as though she hadn’t thought about it in a while. “I have been training shepherds of the light here since before the fall of Troy. This building is half as old. It was constructed in my honor in the Fourth Century B.C.”
So, she was at least three thousand years old.
I kept asking questions while I had the chance. “How many angels work on Earth?”
“Our host is over eleven thousand strong. We keep Milton busy managing so many individuals. The fact that he’s worked with you personally tells you how seriously he takes the duty of indoctrinating a new apprentice to our ways.”
That caught me by surprise. I’d have to thank him the next time I saw him. “A short time ago, I witnessed a fight between Griffin and a demon. Why did all the humans freeze?”
“The immortals entered what some call the space between time. That’s where we are now. It’s an alternative dimension where time moves far more slowly. All battles between angels and dark immortals take place in this alternative dimension.”
Then I asked a question on my mind I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer for. “What are the odds I’ll be killed like Toller?”
She shifted on her feet as though uncomfortable, but I kept my gaze steady on her. Not that I’d give up this job because of the danger, not if I could help Ellen and her daughter-to-be.
Diana put her hands on her hips. “I’m sure you will devote yourself to your training and live for millions of years to come.”
I shook my head. “That wasn’t the question.”
She opened and closed her hands like she was grasping at an answer in the air. “Math has never been my friend. Pythagoras called me an idiot incapable of coherent rational thought. Eleven angels have been annihilated over the last decade.”
“Out of eleven thousand? Those odds don’t seem too bad.”
She nodded her head—a bit too eagerly. “It’s not, of course.”
But then I realized something. “Those were mostly new angels, right?”
She squirmed. “Yes, but as I said, your training will be the most rigorous possible. Your first decade is certainly the most dangerous. That’s when angels are weakest and have the least experience in battle.”
The fact that she wouldn’t answer my question directly told me my odds weren’t good. And I’d be interacting with demons all the time. My tongue tingled from a blast of adrenaline. Then I remembered that cops faced long odds in their jobs, and I hadn’t minded those risks too much.
She blew out a deep breath. “There. You know the worst. Let us begin turning you into a dread foe to those who live in the shadows.”
My stomach churned. My odds of survival weren’t great, but reincarnation was my only option. Not appealing either. “Okay, so what do I need to ensure I’m one of the survivors?”
Diana gave me a crooked smile. “We’ll get to that soon. First, listen carefully. You need to understand the Angelic Legion’s rules of engagement.”
“I’m all ears,” I said.
She gave me a quizzical look as though wondering whether I was a wiseass. “First, you are only allowed to use your sword against demons. All mortal beings are presumed redeemable. Leave them be.”
I committed that point to memory. “All dark immortals are fair game?”
Diana shook her head. “Most are harmless or pose only minor risks. A tiny fraction are satanic, and you are expected to attack and destroy every one you can overcome. No quarter asked or given. As an apprentice, you must exercise caution because you cannot sense their power or intent from afar. Do not attack any dark immortal without the prior approval of another angel.”
“Got it. I’m a detective, not a fighter, anyway. What about really evil people? There are a few humans out there who are as nasty as any devil.”
Diana shook her head. “Do not injure mortals— no exceptions. If you think Milton is annoyed with you now, and he is, it’s nothing compared to the fury he will unleash upon you if you somehow manage to kill any human, no matter how vile.”
I wasn’t sure I understood. “I have to ignore human-on-human crimes? What about child molesters?”
She shook her head again. “You may prevent the crime, but you cannot punish. We are not gods. Our Lord handles human transgressors in His own good time using His own methods.”
The legion’s priorities seemed backward. “We leave humans to screw up other people’s lives as they please?”
She glowered at me. “You are in no position to judge the wisdom of our ways. We ease their physical and mental suffering when we can, but they have to
decide what is in their own long-term interest. Through repeated reincarnations, they advance toward the light.”
I tried to argue more, but she held up her hand. “You have procrastinated enough. Our goal here is to learn how to defend ourselves, not to quibble over philosophy. Socrates and Plato would prattle on about these questions for days on end, never reaching any firm conclusions. Frankly, talking to them gave me headaches.”
That seemed fair enough. She was a doer, not a talker. “I should warn you, I’ve never been much of a fighter. My mom was a gentle woman. She raised me that way.”
“No excuses. We all have disadvantages we must overcome. Your only chance for long-term survival among immortals is to learn the ways of the warrior. Satanic spirits are vermin, and they will make every effort to annihilate you.”
Diana reached behind her head and pulled out a long flaming broadsword. It bowed as she pulled it from its scabbard, but then it straightened, as I’d seen before. She swept it to one side, and the blade made a whooshing sound as it sliced through the air.
I stepped back.
“Quite the pig sticker you got there.”
Her brows narrowed. “This is deadly serious work, Apprentice. And as long as we’re discussing difficult truths, understand something else. Healers tend to be soft, even worse than peacemakers. Most of the angels who were annihilated over the last decade were healers.”
“I’m not a healer,” I said. “I’m a detective.”
“The crucial point is, you are not a warrior—yet. In order to overcome your inherent weakness, you will have to make a maximum effort.”
I had a special gift for annoying people without even trying. But rather than wonder how I’d ever meet her expectations, I kept my mouth shut and listened.
“Your angelic blade will not harm any mortal sentient being or another angel. Stick out your arm.”
I did, knowing this could go terribly wrong. What if I had satanic tendencies she hadn’t noticed? Didn’t everybody have a little of the devil in them?
Before I could pull my arm away, Diana brought down her sword. The blade passed through my arm, but I barely felt anything, only a slight tingle on my skin.
Forged by Fire (Angels at the Edge Book 1) Page 10