“Several years had passed since we’d become Immortals, and it was time for us to leave London. Both of us should have been approaching thirty, but we weren’t changing. We told your parents I’d been offered a job in Montpellier, and I’d accepted because we thought the warmer weather would be good for your health. Your mother made the most elaborate meal I’ve ever seen except from that Scottish laird, and she could have given that guy a run for his money.”
Colin paused to kiss Anna’s fingers again. She never stirred. Colin took a shallow breath. “Their flat was filled with our friends and your parent’s friends, and even the priest who married us, but you had trouble looking him in the eye because you were lying to a priest, and at the time, you were still convinced that was a damnable offense. We ate and drank until far past midnight, and your mother started to worry about you overdoing it, but you were having so much fun, I made up an excuse not to leave. I promised her I would make sure you stayed in bed the whole day to recuperate. A week later, we were on a ship to south France. Taking you away from London was one of the hardest days of my life.”
Colin closed his eyes and wrapped both of his hands around Anna’s, but she didn’t know he was near or talking to her. It was like talking to her as she lay dying in their bed in 1647.
Shortly before sunrise, he heard the sounds of the coffeemaker brewing in the kitchen and he leaned closer to Anna’s face and kissed her forehead and asked her, “Can you hear that, my love? Someone’s making coffee, and it’s not me. It’ll be drinkable.”
Colin choked on his words as he began crying again, knowing exactly how Anna would tease him about his odd inability to master coffee brewing. He buried his face on her pillow next to her. He couldn’t even pray for death, because Anna would not be waiting for him or joining him. And without her, there was no afterlife. There was no life. There was simply nothing.
“Oh, Colin.” The Angel rested a hand on the back of his head, but for once, Colin didn’t jump from her sudden presence or even look up. “You must help your friends. I will stay with Anna myself.”
Colin finally lifted his head and looked back at The Angel, awe struck and grateful, but still not willing to allow The Angel to sacrifice her existence for them. “You can’t,” Colin whispered. “If they find out you’re here…”
“Anna is here, and she needs us. I can’t help you find Adriel. So I will do what I can, and that’s staying here with her until you’re able to set her free.”
The Angel knew Colin’s thoughts, so she knew he was only switching tactics to try to convince her she couldn’t stay on Earth indefinitely, but he had to try anyway. “If you’re killed, then it won’t do either of us any good. We work for you. You help us.”
The Angel had obviously been prepared for what Colin was about to say and she tried to smile at him, but her heart was breaking, too. “If anything happens to me, Jegudiel will come to you, Colin. You and Anna will never be abandoned.”
Colin shook his head at her. “It’s not the same. I like Jegudiel, but it’s not the same. We can’t just replace you.”
“I know, Colin. Like I can’t just replace you or Anna. You would come to love Jegudiel, but it would never be the same. The bonds we form with our Immortals are largely because our spirits are so much alike.”
The Angel’s sad pale gray eyes left Colin and turned to Anna’s sleeping body, and she touched Anna’s cheek and closed her eyes. If Colin didn’t know any better, he would have sworn The Angel was trying not to cry.
“I’ve always thought,” The Angel said in such a small, aching voice, “that if I were human, I’d be very much like Anna.”
Colin sobbed again but nodded. The Angel already knew he’d always been convinced his wife was part divine. Colin wouldn’t completely let go of Anna’s hand, so he freed one hand to wipe the tears from his face and forced himself upright again. The Angel was doing what she always did when they needed her – somehow sharing the confidence and faith she had in them, and Colin couldn’t help borrowing some of her hope that he and Anna would someday be reunited.
“You know then,” he asked The Angel, “what Jas thinks? What Adriel has been planning all along? Some of these fallen angels are trying to provoke a war, and he’s going to use it as a distraction to usurp power in Hell. And he wants Anna’s help to do it.”
The Angel was still stroking the side of Anna’s face and she never took her eyes off of her. “None of this surprises me about Adriel, but Anna’s gift is new. He targeted her long before she had the power to destroy other fallen angels. He somehow must have known what she was capable of and was going to give her this weapon himself.”
Colin gasped and looked between his sleeping wife and The Angel. “He can do that?”
The Angel finally lifted her eyes, and Colin noticed they were rimmed in tears. He’d never known angels could cry. “Fallen angels are powerful, yes. But their power is kept in check by the most powerful among them who rules over them. Some may be capable of giving humans the same kind of gifts we give you. Or transforming them into demons against their will.”
“But,” Colin stammered, his mind entirely too quiet to think clearly, “these gifts you give us. They come through you, but they’re from God. Right?”
The Angel put her hand over his and tried again to offer him a smile, but she was still far too heartbroken. “Yes, we have our own leader, Colin. The embodiment of everything that is good in humans and makes us want to continue fighting for them. And it is far more powerful than any of us angels.”
“Then doesn’t that mean Adriel would need some leader of his own? Where is all of his power coming from?”
The Angel shrugged and Colin thought now wasn’t a good time to start playing the universe-is-mysterious-even-to-Heaven card. The Angel sighed and tried again. “I’ve spent millennia in Heaven with only short bursts here on Earth. There’s only one way to find out what is actually in Hell so I have no intention of finding out.”
Colin looked helplessly at his sleeping wife again. “And our God. He can’t help us now? He can’t find Anna or Adriel and tell me how to save her?”
The Angel shook her head again. “God has no gender, Colin. But if you’d like for me to call it a he, then I will. And I’m here, aren’t I?”
“You know what I meant. If he, or it, is so much more powerful than Satan or whatever is ruling over Hell, than why not just end this now? Why let those of us who have been fighting for Heaven end up like this?” Colin looked longingly at his wife, feeling only somewhat guilty for blaming God for not doing more to help them. Anna was gone. Didn’t His promises, His love for them, mean anything now?
“But Colin,” The Angel said gently, turning his head to get him to look at her and not Anna, “you’ve misunderstood me. Satan is only an angel himself. He is one of the most powerful of the fallen angels, but he is still only an angel.”
Colin inhaled a weak and shaky breath, and for the first time, realized how quiet the hunters in the living room had become. They were all listening to this conversation with The Angel, too.
“I don’t understand. What’s…” But Colin did understand. He just didn’t want to.
He looked up and saw Luca standing in the doorway, his dark eyes wide and anxious and fixed on The Angel, because he understood what she was saying, too. “Our God,” Luca said breathlessly, “isn’t the only god.”
The Angel turned to their oldest Immortal, their oldest ally in this never-ending battle and inhaled her own weak and shaky breath. “Whatever you choose to call it, it is the embodiment of everything you’ve dedicated your long life to fighting, everything that makes humans capable of inflicting so much misery on this Earth. And it is the reason we’ve abided by these rules for millennia. But I know little else about it. Like I said, I have no intention of finding out more.”
Colin stroked Anna’s forehead again and kissed her hand then closed his eyes. “But it’s allowing its angels to break those rules, knowing what will happen. It wants to t
rigger this war with our God.”
The Angel didn’t answer him, but she didn’t need to. Everyone understood now what was at stake. They weren’t just fighting to defend the living, but the entire future of humankind.
Chapter 10
Anna awoke some time later, but she wasn’t sure how much time had actually passed. The murky windows made it difficult to tell if the sun was still in the sky or if night had fallen, or maybe it didn’t matter. This was only a fictional world, after all. Maybe the sun never set here or maybe it was never in the sky to begin with. She rubbed a hand across her eyes and noticed her coat sleeves were no longer on her arms. She sat up and saw it draped across her like a blanket and she clutched it to her chest, wondering how it had been removed without her noticing, and what the hell else she hadn’t noticed while she was sleeping.
She heard Adriel’s laugh echoing off the walls of the mostly empty building as he descended the spiral staircase. “Relax, Anna. I only took off your coat. I told you it was too warm in here for it.”
“That’s not funny,” she chastised him.
“Your body is still in a bedroom in Baton Rouge. I think you’re safe.” He was still smiling at her though and Anna kept her coat pulled around her like a security blanket. She relaxed her fingers slightly because he didn’t come near her but sat at the foot of the stairs again.
“You actually let me sleep this time. When can I expect you to torture me with those nightmares again?”
Adriel shrugged a shoulder at her. “No need. I’ll just show you Colin. The real Colin. But you’ve already suspected that.”
Anna dared to glance away from him briefly to look around her; the room wasn’t swirling anymore, but it hadn’t changed. “How long do you really think you have, Adriel? You want to start your own revolution, but these fallen angels aren’t going to wait around forever if you’re trying to stall them while waiting on me.”
Adriel tilted his head and studied her and Anna’s fingers tightened on her coat again. “Why would you think I need to stall them? Let them start Armageddon. With you here, I’m not worried about getting killed.”
Anna realized they didn’t know about Luca yet, and she no longer wanted to have this conversation with him. She had no idea how easily he could reach inside her thoughts, but he had to be able to do it. How else would he have known all of those memories to send to her as dreams in that camp? Of her desire to have children, and that particular dream with Colin that had been far worse than any other he’d forced inside her mind?
His pale blue eyes still studied her and she shivered as she wondered if it was too late, if she had unwittingly betrayed one of her closest friends, her adopted brother. Adriel smiled at her again. “In the end, it won’t matter, Anna.”
Anna closed her eyes and fell back onto the bed. He was in her head already. None of her thoughts were safe. “If we’re stuck here, then at least tell me who my husband and friends are going to be fighting.”
She didn’t open her eyes to look at him.
“Why?” Adriel asked, and he sounded genuinely perplexed.
“I want to know.”
“Knowing where to find Samael helped you, but how did knowing who he was help you in any way?” Adriel still sounded bewildered by Anna’s question.
Anna sighed and opened her eyes, staring at the ceiling above her. At least it wasn’t swirling in colorless patterns. “Human curiosity, then, I suppose, because knowing who you are hasn’t helped me kill you.”
Adriel snickered and agreed with her, but he got so quiet Anna had to look away from the ceiling to see if he was still at the foot of the stairs. He hadn’t moved and his eyes hadn’t left her. “His name is Gadreel,” Adriel finally told her.
Anna tried to swallow, but her mouth felt dry. She propped herself up on her elbows and stared back at the fallen angel. “The Nephilim,” she breathed.
Adriel just shrugged again. Anna shook her head. If he was going to hold her captive here, the least he could do was answer her goddamned questions. “Is it true or not?” she shouted at him. “Gadreel was one of the leaders who led the fallen grigori into marriages with human women?”
The corners of Adriel’s lips turned up in a sly smile, and Anna reminded herself not to yell at him again. He was a fallen angel, after all. It probably just turned him on. “Believe what you want, Anna. I’ve already promised you children. You know it’s possible.”
“How?” but she immediately regretted asking. She wasn’t that curious.
Adriel answered her anyway. “Don’t I look like a man?”
“But you’re not!” she insisted. A flashback to her absurd argument with Luca in the car… how long ago was that?… passed quickly through her mind, but Adriel didn’t let her fixate on it long.
“I’m not human. There’s a difference.”
Anna pulled her coat back on and glared at him, and this seemed to amuse him, too. “I will never be yours willingly,” she hissed at him.
Adriel was unfazed. “Forever is a long time, Anna. And I’m a patient man. Look at how long I waited for someone like you to come along.”
Anna wanted to argue with him again that he wasn’t a man, but she kept her mouth shut, afraid she might tempt him into proving it to her.
“Gadreel taught men how to fight. He’s the one who’s responsible for warfare here,” she said instead. All of the fallen grigori, according to the Book of Enoch, anyway, had taught men something that had led to nothing but disaster for humans since.
Adriel arched an eyebrow at her and finally stood up from the bottom of the staircase. He grabbed a chair, perhaps the same one Anna could now remember trying to break a window with in this room, and placed it in front of her. “You didn’t listen to me in the Garden of the Gods. You are so convinced you have all the answers, and the god you worship created all of our worlds and us.”
“You’re not doing this to me. You only got Colin and Luca to question their faith because you had their minds possessed by demons, but I won’t question mine, Adriel.”
“Not yet, you won’t. Andrew didn’t want to believe it at first either.”
Anna inhaled sharply, and concentrated on reminding herself this man was not a man, and she was his prisoner. She could not fight him. There was no way for her to win. “You turned Andrew against us. You’re his angel, the one who’s been protecting him.”
Adriel flipped his hands over, his palms facing the ceiling as if to say, “What did you expect?” and Anna had to close her eyes and turn away from him again.
“How long ago?” she asked.
“Almost two hundred years,” Adriel answered her, and he sounded like he was getting bored with this conversation. He had little interest in Andrew anymore; Adriel had gotten what he’d always wanted.
Anna opened her eyes and shot him an indignant glare. “Even in Barcelona? But he helped us! He even helped us try to save that woman’s life!”
“And Andrew is human. Like all of you, there is good mixed with the bad.”
“How soon after meeting us did he sell us out to you?” Anna heard her voice dripping with bitterness and hostility and she tried to control it; the last thing she wanted was to appear more attractive to this fallen angel.
Adriel must have heard that thought, too, because he laughed and those pale blue eyes danced as he continued to watch her, but he answered her question anyway. “Right after leaving Barcelona, because he knew I was looking for a powerful immortal woman, and he rightly suspected you were the woman I would need.”
“Want,” Anna corrected. “You could find a male immortal willing to sell his soul to you and help you topple your boss.”
“I have no interest in your soul or anybody else’s, Anna.”
Talking to Adriel was exasperating. She knew he wasn’t a demon and what was true for demons obviously wasn’t true for fallen angels, but how else would he command a legion of his own without capturing souls? Perhaps he just meant it was beneath him to go scavenging for souls
to turn them into lesser demons to fight for Hell.
Adriel didn’t move or speak, but waited to see if she was going to verbalize any of those thoughts tumbling through her mind. When Anna refused to acknowledge them, he simply reminded her, “You didn’t want to hear the truth. When you’re willing to listen, I’ll explain it to you.”
He stood up and pushed the chair back against a wall and Anna watched him ascend the staircase again.
“You sure you don’t have the rest of the hunters trapped up there?” she called out to him.
Adriel paused, grinned down at her and shook his head. “That still wasn’t my doing and I have no reason to lead you anywhere now. Remember: I didn’t take Jeremy either. You want to save your fellow hunters so badly, then I will help you by destroying those who did.”
Then he finished climbing the stairs and Anna was left alone in the soundless room in Adriel’s version of Stalingrad.
Chapter 11
It had taken quite a bit of coaxing from The Angel to convince Colin to leave Anna’s side; he simply couldn’t bring himself to leave both The Angel and Anna unprotected. In the end, Dylan and Jeremy both offered to stay behind, even though neither of them had the only gift that could possibly protect them. The Angel assured Colin if it came to that, she would make sure Dylan had the same power as Colin and Luca, which led to another round of protests from Colin since he knew how difficult it would be for Dylan to control. At the very least, he could end up killing Jeremy.
Jeremy had finally gotten tired of listening to him argue about his own fate. “Colin, if he kills me, then it’s not the worst thing that’s ever happened to me. Now go. You’re not helping Anna by standing here arguing with an angel.”
The Angel actually shot Colin an I-told-you-so-look and pushed him toward the door. Colin tried to shoot her a what-the-actual-hell? glare, but she was still his Angel, so he relented and followed Luca out of the apartment. Luca held his car keys in his hand and waited for him at the foot of the stairs. “We don’t have an angelic GPS this time. How do you propose we find these bastards?”
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