Revelations: The Black Chalice (Revelations Series Book 1)

by Lauretta Hignett

Moira and Arnold both froze.

  Mickey actually gasped. He was a lovely guy; the thought of threatening a couple of senior citizens was probably the last thing on his mind.

  But I knew something that no one else did. Their souls were in jeopardy.

  Moira glared at me. “Arrested?” She scoffed. “I hardly think so.”

  “Of course you would be,” I said breezily. “We live in a new age now. Domestic violence is not tolerated at all.”

  “I’m not doing domestic violence,” Arnold sneered. “I’m just trying to slap some sense into this old biddy!” He reached out and took another swipe at his wife, but wobbled too much to connect.

  “Stop that right now,” I snapped. Behind me, I heard Mickey scuttling out. “You heard me. I’ll call the police, and they’ll arrest both of you. I take it that neither of you know what jail is like?”

  I definitely had their attention now. They were both glaring at me.

  “The law doesn’t care how old you are. The police are duty-bound to treat you exactly the same way as they would treat someone who is beating their partner. You’ll have to surrender your possessions, you’ll be fingerprinted, photographed, and shunted into a cell with other prisoners. Bad ones.”

  “That would never happen,” Moira hissed, but she looked uncertain. I doubted anyone else had ever spoken to her like this before.

  “Of course it would,” I replied, arching a brow. “Like I said, we live in a different time now. Everyone here has heard you two trying to kill each other. The police take domestic violence very seriously. They’ll take statements from everyone here, and regardless of how accommodating the Revelations staff are, they can’t lie to the police. They’ll have proof that you are both violent. They won’t treat you any different from any other abuser.”

  “Abuser?” Arnold squeaked.

  “That’s what you two are doing. You are abusing each other.” I took a step closer and fixed them with a glare. “Listen to me. If you hate each other, you don’t have to stay together! You can divorce. Why would you want to spend the rest of your days in anger? Feeling hateful and resentful? Why are you doing it?”

  Arnold and Moira both blinked at me.

  “It doesn't have to be like this,” I said softly. “Just… leave each other, and go your separate ways! Divorce! And forgive each other. You guys have lived a whole lifetime together. I’m guessing you have done some terrible things to each other. The hate you are holding onto is only hurting yourselves.”

  I paused and let them glance at each other for a second in the silence.

  “Just decide, now,” I barked, forcing their eyes back to me. “Decide to leave each other. Decide to forgive.”

  There was a deathly silence in the room for a moment, then Moira turned back to Arnold. “You have been such a bastard,” she said in a quavering voice.

  “And you’ve been a bitch,” he grumbled. “But this young girlie might have a point.”

  Moira nodded at her husband, her eyes watery.

  “You’ve got to forgive yourselves, too,” I said softly, stepping closer. “Before it’s too late. You’ll be dead soon, and all you’ll be is a whirling mass of pain.”

  They might have been able to see the truth in my words because they both nodded silently and sadly.

  “Now, I’ve got you some bagels and jelly,” I said, picking up the tray and placing it on the coffee table behind them. “Eat, then call separate divorce lawyers. Talk to each other and let go of the hatred.” I moved toward the door.

  Arnold gave a short, choking laugh. “You are rude, young lady, but it’s as refreshing as a bucket of cold water on a hot day. Even my children and grandchildren won’t say a harsh word to me; they’re too scared of getting their inheritance cut off. I had no idea this establishment employed such forthright staff,” he harrumphed. “Most of you just bow and scrape like idiots.”

  “Oh, I’m not on staff here,” I said, smiling brightly. The apocalypse might be imminent, but I wanted to keep my job while the world was still turning. “I don’t exist,” I said, waving my hands around. “I’m a ghost of your past, and I’m here to set things right. I want to make sure that you forgive, so you can and go to heaven when you die.”

  For effect, I clapped my hands and the lights switched on and off. Moira gasped. While their heads were upturned, I slipped out the door.

  Hopefully that would do the trick. I’d just have to hide behind the desk when they checked out.

  I stepped down the bungalow path to the main track, whistling to myself. I was pretty sure I’d gotten through to the old couple. Hopefully, they’d face the lives that they’d led, and maybe process some of that pain and anger now, while they were still alive. Hopefully their time in hell would be short. I could be good at this—trying to make people face their sins before they die.

  My bad mood returned with the thought of Alex, and I scowled. My mind’s eye played back the scene of Hannah leading him away, and of Alex going with her without so much as a protest on his lips. I gritted my teeth as I walked up the main path, back toward reception. I stomped my feet as I walked, trying to shake away the vision in my head.

  I was so engrossed that I didn't see the man step onto the path until it was too late.

  I hit his body with a dull thud; his smell struck me immediately, the combination of musty incense and harsh, caustic soap. I was repelled but also embarrassed to run headfirst into a guest. I reeled back, an apology on my lips.

  But the seconds in between when I’d walked into him and when I tried to move back, a suffocating fear flooded through me. My ears started ringing.

  He had stepped out of the bushes on purpose. He’d done it so I would walk into him, and he was most definitely not a guest. He was wearing all black—the rough, woollen cloak of a monk—and he had felt bony beneath it. As I registered these details, he reached out with a claw-like hand and grabbed my shirt roughly, and I sensed his intention was to pull me back toward him. My eyes flew wide and traveled up to his face…

  Then he was gone.

  I blinked. The path was empty.

  I glanced around. The huge fronds of the palm tree beside me were still bobbing up and down as if they’d just been moved aside. Craning my neck, I looked farther into the jungle and saw a few branches waving softly before they settled back down to motionlessness.

  It wasn’t my imagination. I clapped my hand over my mouth to stifle my breath, which came in pants as the adrenaline flooded through me. There had been danger. But now, the path was silent. I was alone.

  Before I completely dissolved into hysteria, I heard a soft voice call out. “It’s okay, Eve. You’re safe now.”

  Nate stepped out of the path in front of me, moving slowly and deliberately. He stretched out his arms wide, like a man trying to show that he was unarmed. His light-blue, sleeveless shirt and chinos were perfectly pressed and spotless, his hair groomed to perfection. He looked like innocence personified.

  “What…. Who…” I stammered. My whole body was shaking; my knees were weak. It took every ounce of my focus to stay upright.

  “It’s okay,” Nate whispered. “He’s gone.”

  I swallowed roughly. “You saw that, right?” I pointed toward the bushes, where the man had disappeared. “That guy… that guy was going to hurt me.” I stared hard at Nate. “He was, wasn’t he?”

  “Yes, I think he was.”

  “So I’m not crazy,” I mumbled, looking down at the ground. “It’s not just a coincidence; it’s not just random occurrences. I’m not cursed.”

  I looked up. Nate was staring at me with pity in his eyes.

  “Someone,” I said, my voice shaking. “Or something, is out to get me.”

  “It definitely seems like that, I’ll admit.”

  “Who was he?”

  Nate frowned. “I don’t know.”

  “Where did he go?”

  “I took him… somewhere else.” A little crease appeared between Nate’s thick, straight, black e
yebrows. The beautiful, clean-shaven lines of his face seemed suddenly tense and uncomfortable. I studied him carefully.

  “Somewhere else?” I echoed.

  The crease deepened, and Nate frowned. “I killed him,” he said in a low voice. “It was an accident, though. I didn’t mean to.”

  A bubble of laughter burst out of my lips, and I stifled it. “You didn’t mean to?”

  Nate shook his head. “No, of course not.”

  “Because killing is a sin, right? And even though that guy clearly meant me harm, you didn’t want to kill him?”

  He stared at me like I was mad. “No, because I wanted to question him.”

  “Oh.”

  There was an awkward silence. I shut my eyes for a moment, embarrassed. “Sorry. I thought you were in self-flagellation mode.”

  Nate gave me a dazzling smile. “I’m only half angel, Eve. My human side has a lot more sway over my decisions than you would expect.”

  I smiled timidly back. Alex had been so dismissive of the angelic ranks in heaven, and I got the impression that they were, at best, do-gooders and, at worst, sanctimonious smiters of sinful humans. But Alex was also best friends with Nate, so Nate couldn’t be all that bad.

  “So… so who…” A wave of dizziness swooped over me, and I stumbled on my feet. Despite being six feet away, Nate caught me and steadied me. “Come on,” he said. “Come to our suite and just rest for a minute.”

  “No, I’ve got to get back to the desk. Clover will be worried.”

  “She knows where you have gone. Mickey told her.”

  “Oh. Well, I should still head back.” I teetered on my feet for a second—the ebb of adrenaline leaving my bloodstream was making me lightheaded. I let Nate take my arm. He felt steady as a rock. He was leaner and less muscular than Alex, but he seemed just as strong.

  “I’ll walk you back. We’ll go slow so you can get your head straight by the time we get back to reception.” Nate chuckled lightly. “Although you should probably listen to me and Alex, quit your job, and submit to being guarded full-time.”

  I scowled. “That’s not funny. For all I know, these killers are here because of you, not me.”

  Nate was silent for a second, and I looked up to see his face set in grim lines. “We are a little worried about that, I’ll admit.”

  I had only been joking. But his response had me intrigued. “What do you mean?”

  “Well, my and Alex’s friendship is a little unusual. Unique, in fact. No other beings from the demonic or angelic ranks exactly hang out together.”

  I nodded.

  “There have been factions on both sides that have seen our friendship as heresy. And some individuals will take it upon themselves to try and destroy us. Over the years, we’ve had a few creatures try to kill us, or… I don’t know… break up our friendship.”

  “Your bromance.”

  “Yes.” Nate smiled, completely unembarrassed. “And you had a dream-vision of the both of us, so you clearly have a special ability, or some sort of supernormal energy about you. And someone knows that you are under our protection. Maybe some crazy faction has decided that you are precious to us, and that by killing you, it would hurt us.”

  “How did you know that… that monk dude was going to be here?”

  “Alex asked me to keep an eye on you.”

  “Of course he did. Because he’s so busy doing such important things.” I smiled sweetly, gritting my teeth at the same time.

  Nate’s eyebrows rose as he caught the sarcasm. But he chose to ignore it. “I’ve been following you,” he said. “Well, for the last couple of hours I’ve been following you. I got worried because I saw a Katadonis milling around reception, and I thought it might be watching you.”

  “A Kat-ah-what?”

  “Katadonis. One of ours,” Nate said grimly.

  “By ours, you mean he’s on the white-wing side?”

  He looked at the ground for a moment, eyebrows furrowed. “In a manner of speaking. The Katadonis are like messengers for the angels. They’re similar to the Nuntius that way.”

  “The Imps? They were kind of cute.”

  “The Katadonis are the same, but different. They’re little, intelligent primates that absorbed the essence of the hosts of angels that came down to earth after Lucifer fell.” He frowned again. “It’s complicated.”

  “Well, we’ve got about twenty more yards until we reach the reception desk, so you better talk quickly.”

  Nate sighed, and squared his shoulders. “I’ll give you the Cliff’s Notes version. A lower host of angels came to heaven to try and help humans, so they could help God with His plan.”

  “Her plan.”

  Nate cocked an eyebrow at me. I stared at him steadily, giving every indication that I wasn’t interested in a debate.

  “Okay,” he said finally. “Her plan. But instead of trying to encourage them to be good, they were more about the focus on sin and the punishments of hell. They were trying to scare humans into being better. They caused some humans to have visions of hell. Goya and Bosch weren’t exactly making stuff up.” He shook his head in disgust. “Their visions were real, but the angels didn’t let it be known that the hell was of their own making. The angels’ focus on the negative just brought more sin and misery. I think that they did far more harm than good.”

  “They sound like real charmers.”

  “Anyway, the Katadonis watched the angels on earth, and they worshiped them. They became their messengers. They plucked out all their hair in penance for their sins, and formed little wings to try and emulate their idols. They look like little cherubs.”

  I stopped in my tracks. “Little cherubs? Around a foot tall, a little chubby? Tiny wings and a face like a smacked butt?”

  “That’s them,” Nate said, and tilted his head down to look at me with his fathomless dark eyes. “You’ve seen one?”

  I nodded.

  “Humans aren’t supposed to see them,” he muttered, almost to himself. Out loud, he said, “When?”

  “The night I almost got my throat slit on the reception desk. I was pretty tipsy. I thought I was hallucinating.”

  Nate was thoughtful for a moment. “Well, that confirms it. You are something. You’re not supposed to be able to see them.”

  “What do they do?”

  “They snitch.”

  “Snitch?”

  “They spy on humans, then they tell the Percutiat. They’re drawn to—”

  “The who?”

  “The lower host of angels. The ones that came to Earth. They're called the Percutiat.”

  “Alex mentioned them. They sound like bad news.”

  Nate shook his head sadly. “That description is, unfortunately, quite accurate.”

  We came to the glass reception doors and stopped. I glanced in and saw Clover behind the desk. She spotted me and gave an exaggerated sigh of relief. Once she was finished sighing, she swung her eyes to Nate, then back to me, and gave me a big, dirty wink.

  I rolled my eyes at her. “So,” I said, turning back to Nate. “Just to sum this up before I head back indoors. We’ve got archangels, who hang out in heaven and try and suck up to God and don’t do very much else.”

  “Well, they actually do a fair bit in the way of training the Ascended—”

  “Then the Percuitait, who hang out on Earth and try and scare people into being good,” I interrupted. I’d already tried to absorb too much. “And we’ve got the Katadonis, who are the little cherubs who spy on us and tell the Percuitait when we’re sinning.”

  “That’s right so far.”

  “And on the other side, we’ve got the greater demons like Nimue who look after the tortured souls and want God to stop humanity from suffering so much. Then, I think Alex mentioned rogue demons who’ve gone mad, and want the world to blow up to spite God—”

  “The Caligo,” Nate nodded.

  “Yeah, again, I’m not going to remember that. So they’re rogue demons. And all in this
mix, are you two. Cambion and Nephilim.”

  Nate nodded. “I know it’s a lot to take in.”

  “I just have one question at this stage.”

  “Shoot.”

  “Which one of these assholes is trying to kill me?”

  Nate looked pained. “I don’t know. There was a Katadonis hanging around, but I didn’t sense any Percuitait anywhere. They usually go hand in hand. That guy tonight—he wasn’t wearing anything identifiable. He was very human. And I was in such a rush to get rid of his body and get back to make sure you were okay, I threw him in the Devil’s Drop, so we’re not going to get any clues from that.”

  I groaned. “Why do you guys keep killing our leads?”

  Nate gave me a crooked smile. “Eve, I’m sorry this is happening to you. All of it,” he clarified.

  “I’m sorry I have to fill my head with new lists of things that I can’t share with anyone else, in case they decide to lock me up in the crazy bin forever,” I muttered. “Look, I’ve gotta go. Let me know if you spot a Katadonis anywhere.” I turned and pulled open the big glass doors.

  “I’ll be close by,” Nate said softly as the doors closed.

  I stomped toward reception as Clover hung up on her call. “Everything ok, hon?”

  “Fine,” I said airily, swinging to to my stool, but my head was buzzing.

  Everything was fine, for now. Until the next whackjob came along.

  I clattered away on my keyboard, hitting the keys harder than was necessary.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  We got off before dawn and headed toward the staff bar. I figured I needed a drink. Clover and Dale linked arms with me, surrounding me on all sides. I hadn’t told either of them about the mysterious man who had tried to grab me earlier, and considering how protective they’d become already, there was no chance I’d be telling them anytime soon.

  They would probably lock me in my room and throw away the key.

  Dale had a spring in his step. “Did you hear what happened to that old couple out at Kirra bungalow?”

  I smiled to myself. “No. What happened?”

  “They both rang to be moved to separate suites. We’re reshuffling the bookings to try and accommodate them,” he said brightly. “They had me ring their family lawyer, and get him to arrange two separate divorce lawyers to come and see them. He had an absolute heart attack when I rang him to pass on the message,” Dale confided. “Their estate is worth billions. And they’ve just suddenly decided to separate.”