Anna’s stomach turned again and she shivered even though it wasn’t cold outside. She didn’t want to know how Gadreel planned on extracting information from Andrew. And she was certain he wouldn’t survive.
“He betrayed us, Anna,” Colin reminded her.
“But he’s still human, Colin. And every human is capable of redemption.”
“Wait,” Anna stalled, “don’t you want to know why he betrayed you and Samael?”
Gadreel arched an eyebrow at her and waited but Anna wouldn’t tell him unless he promised not to hurt Andrew first. She had no reason to believe a fallen angel would actually abide by a promise to her, but it was all she could do to try to keep Andrew out of Gadreel’s hands.
Gadreel actually rolled his eyes and sighed, but he relented. “Fine. Tell me everything Adriel told you, and I will leave Andrew alone.”
“You came here to trigger a war with Heaven thinking you’d gotten two other extremely powerful angels to help you. We can only assume your god was supporting you trying to provoke this war. But you’re on your own now, Gadreel. If you still think you can do it, then I guess we’ll end up fighting each other at some point. For now, you might want to think about what I’m going to tell you and decide if you want to change your plans.”
Gadreel’s golden brown eyes studied Anna for a few seconds then he nodded at her. Anna took a deep breath to try to calm her nerves. “Adriel never had any intention of fighting a war against Heaven with either of you. He’s been planning this coup for hundreds of years, probably ever since he left Heaven, because Andrew had been looking for a powerful Immortal woman for Adriel who he could try to coerce into ruling with him. And he hasn’t been looking for just any powerful Immortal, but a woman. I’m sure you know better than I do why he would want his own children, but I’m positive it has something to do with his plans to keep himself in power in Hell. Andrew must have told him the only thing I was devoted to more than Heaven was my husband, and he’s tried to separate us and use my love for Colin over and over, but he’s failed each time. And if he’s still alive, I will find him and make sure he can never do that to us again.”
Gadreel smirked and turned to Armand again. “I suppose, then, we need to find Adriel before she does.”
Armand just nodded at his boss then bowed in Luca’s direction, and Colin’s grip tightened around Luca’s arm.
“Let him go for now,” Colin said quietly.
Colin held onto Luca’s arm until he could no longer see or hear Armand walking through the woods before relaxing his grip. Luca turned around and shook his head at Anna. “Why would you negotiate for Andrew’s life? He’s a traitor. Everything that’s happened to you is because of him.”
“I know,” Anna answered, “and I won’t allow him to change who I am.”
Jeremy put an arm around her and smiled at her. “Anna, still trying to save everyone. It’s a good thing for us you’re so good at it.”
Anna’s eyes drifted back to the rainbow-dusted trees and she hugged Jeremy back. “I didn’t save everyone.”
“Yes, you did, Anna,” Jeremy told her. “Believe me, you still saved them.”
Tahel took a slow, deep breath and slipped her knife back into its sheath. “I think your commitment to all humans is admirable, Anna. But if it’s ok with the rest of you, I’d like to get out of these woods.”
Anna let go of Jeremy and watched Tahel’s trembling fingers as they fumbled with the latch over the sheath.
“Are you alright?” Anna asked her.
Tahel glanced up at her and shook her head. “That man you called Gadreel. That’s the primary angel who used to visit me when I was a child.”
Chapter 19
That evening, all of the hunters were gathered in Luca’s apartment, partly because he had furniture for everyone to sit on, and partly because he also had food for everyone to eat. Luca helped Colin prepare the Saltimbocca he’d never had the chance to make Anna in Boulder, and as they sat around Luca’s apartment eating dinner and sipping on their glasses of red wine, they took turns guessing what these fallen angels would do now. Anna had been assuming there was only one other fallen angel here aside from Adriel since he hadn’t mentioned anyone else, but Adriel could have been withholding information. And why wouldn’t he?
Dylan stabbed a piece of the veal on his plate and brushed off Luca’s insistence that Adriel was a fallen angel so it was in his nature to manipulate and lie. “Adriel thought he’d figured out how to trap Anna permanently. He had no reason to keep tricking her. And he didn’t lie about Gadreel.”
Anna noticed Tahel flinched at the name, but she wasn’t the only one who noticed. Jeremy was sitting next to her and put his hand over hers and whispered something in her ear. Tahel offered him a smile in return.
“This is unbelievably awkward,” Colin told his wife.
Anna just took a bite of her pasta. She thought it was kind of sweet, actually. Aside from the whole one-of-them-is-immortal problem.
“I guess we know what they were doing while you were waiting on me to wake up,” Anna joked.
Colin groaned and the conversation in the room stopped. Luca and Dylan shot the O’Conners you’re-annoying-as-hell-when-you-do-that glares, but Colin ignored them. Anna set her empty wine glass down and was about to offer refills when Luca’s door blew inward, and for the second time, Lilith appeared in the doorway. But this time, she hadn’t come alone. Andrew followed her inside and closed the door behind her.
Again, she fixed her eyes on Anna and addressed her. “You swear to your god that everything you told Gadreel is true? Adriel betrayed my husband?”
Anna set her plate down by her empty wine glass and rose carefully from the couch. “Yes, everything I told Gadreel is true. He’s the one who kept bringing me into these dreams in Stalingrad, the same city where we met Andrew and Armand, and that’s where we found Jeremy in the second dream. And the third time he pulled me into Stalingrad, he told me he wanted me to kill Samael, and then together, he was planning on us killing Gadreel. After that, we were supposed to orchestrate some coup to rule Hell, I guess.”
Anna looked over Lilith’s shoulder at Andrew. He obviously knew Adriel was no longer around to protect him. He was on his own.
“Regretting selling us out yet?” Luca asked him. Anna could tell by the tone of his voice that he was hoping one of these demons or fallen angels would just get tired of a turncoat who had outlived his usefulness.
But Andrew actually smiled at him. “No. I was promised a war with Heaven, and I still think Heaven should have to account for what it does to people like us.”
Colin spun around and grabbed Luca’s arm again, reminding him that as long as Andrew or Armand didn’t try to hurt them, they couldn’t just commit murder. That’s not how servants of Heaven operated.
Lilith sneered at them. “Which is why Heaven has always been so weak.”
“What do you want, Lilith?” Anna asked. “I’ve told you and Gadreel everything I learned from Adriel. And I also told him I don’t even know if Adriel is still alive. We got into a fight in that fake world of his, and I hit him with the same force I used to kill Samael, but his version of Stalingrad disappeared before I could see the outcome.”
“Then he’s alive,” Lilith hissed. “He kicked you out to protect himself. But he’s not in Hell either, which means he’s still here hiding from us all now.”
Anna’s stomach felt heavy from the wine and Saltimbocca, and Colin laced his fingers through hers.
“He can’t hurt you again, my love. You’ve beaten one of them on Earth and you defeated Adriel in his own world. There is only one place they can hide from you now.”
Anna squeezed his hand. “But what about you? What if he comes after you in your sleep? I don’t know how to find you.”
“Oh, right,” Lilith sighed, “you’re the telepathic couple. God, that gets annoying.”
Behind them, Dylan choked on the laugh he tried to hold in.
“I will
make you a deal, Anna,” Lilith offered. “He must be hiding from us because he isn’t in Hell but he doesn’t seem to be here either. But if I find Adriel first and destroy him, I will let you know you are free of him. And if you find him first, you will destroy him then tell me my husband’s death has been avenged. We will leave each other alone after that considering we both want the same thing right now.”
Anna waited for more, but that was it. Lilith’s deal seemed deceptively simple, but she had come here for revenge, not to take part in a war that only her husband had helped orchestrate. “Ok, but how do I know how to find you?”
Lilith motioned to Andrew. “By finding him. You will let him live. He has the same phone number. Call it only if you’ve encountered Adriel.”
Colin grimaced as his eyes darted between Lilith and Andrew. “Oh, God, you don’t think…”
“I don’t want to think about it, Colin. Cut it out.”
To Lilith, Anna told her she accepted her deal then the beautiful woman with raven-black hair and ivory skin swept through Luca’s door again and Andrew followed her out.
As soon as the door closed, Dylan tossed his fork down on his plate. “Anybody else think that was weird?”
Tahel laughed. “Dylan, everything we do is weird.”
“So…” Dylan exaggerated the word and Anna sat down again. He obviously had no intention of being serious about a demoness bursting into Luca’s apartment and demanding they help hunt down her husband’s betrayer. “Andrew is working for Lilith now?”
Luca smirked. “Seems that way.”
“Wonder what she pays,” Jeremy chimed in.
This time, Anna was the one to groan. Even Tahel laughed, and Anna mumbled she needed more wine if they insisted on having this ridiculous conversation. But it was the first time in a long time that Anna and Colin almost felt like they were just hanging out with friends again, despite the frightening intrusion by a vengeful demoness and her new sidekick who just happened to be the Immortal who’d betrayed them all.
That night, Anna and Colin both tried to outwait the other as they lay in bed, neither of them wanting to fall asleep because they knew what could happen now and it was even worse than they’d feared. Anna at least felt somewhat confident she could escape again, but The Angel was gone and had no way of reaching Colin to help him if his mind were to be stolen and hidden.
But Colin had spent much of the previous night awake after Jas appeared in his own dream to warn him about his wife so he eventually succumbed to his body’s demand for sleep first. Anna wasn’t sure how long she watched her husband sleeping, trying not to touch him so she wouldn’t disturb him, but she had been so terrified she would never see him again that lying here beside him still seemed like a beautiful dream rather than reality.
She let her fingers graze his arm gently, just enough to feel his warm skin underneath her fingertips, and she finally closed her eyes. Either seconds or hours passed when she found herself in a familiar room, but this room wasn’t alarming. It didn’t scare her like the room in Stalingrad. And she immediately knew where she was. This was her dead friend’s apartment. She turned around in circles looking for her and when she didn’t see her right away, she called her name. “Jas?”
Jas came out of her bedroom, wearing the red dress Anna had always loved and had once borrowed from her when they went out for drinks. Jas twirled in a circle even though Anna knew the dress well.
Anna smiled at her. “It still looks better on you.”
“Please, girl, you must be blind. Red’s your color anyway.” Jas blinked a few times then couldn’t take it any longer. She crossed her living room and threw her arms around Anna, crying, “I thought you were gone forever and I was never going to see you again.”
Anna held onto her just as tightly. “The Angel…” she sobbed, but she couldn’t finish. But Jas already knew.
“I always told you, Anna, you have no idea how much that angel loved you.”
Anna just nodded against her friend’s shoulder. “He could have killed you, too. Please, Jas, don’t stick around if you feel him come near. Promise me.”
Jas pulled away from her friend and gave her a stern look, and told her she wouldn’t make that promise. Anna knew it was underhanded of her, but she had to try everything she could think of to protect her friend.
“If Adriel destroys your soul, think of how devastated Dylan will be. He’s got five hundred years on Earth, I’m sure he’ll date, but he’ll never love anyone like you, Jas.”
Jas gave Anna a look that told her she knew exactly what she was trying to do. Jas put her hands on her hips and tried to glower at her, but she was still too glad to see Anna alive. Jas glanced down at the form fitting red dress she was wearing.
“It would be a shame to waste this,” she admitted.
Anna played along because Jas wasn’t arguing with her about sacrificing her soul’s existence to try to protect her. “Please. Show up in Dylan’s dream like this and we may never wake him up.”
Jas gave her a sly smile. “The good thing about being a ghost is that in five hundred years, this dress will fit just as well.”
Anna laughed and hugged her friend again and reminded her to wear her black and silver drop pendant necklace with it when she popped into Dylan’s dream. Jas reached up to her chest and lifted a pendant to show Anna. “This one?”
“Man, I hope I can do that in the afterlife,” Anna mumbled. Getting wardrobes and accessories to appear magically definitely had to be one of the perks of being dead.
“Speaking of the afterlife,” Anna said, turning serious, “Max is with Colin, but maybe I should wake up. Check on him. After all, you were with me when Adriel trapped me in Stalingrad.”
Jas pulled Anna onto the sofa with her. “I think Colin’s fine, Anna. Max said he hasn’t felt that evil presence since the Garden of the Gods. Maybe Ahriman was the demon stalking his dreams, too.”
Anna gasped and sank into the cushions on the sofa. “Oh, Jas, you have no idea how much I want to believe that. It just seems too easy after everything we’ve been through.”
Jas looked thoughtful. “But here’s what we know. Adriel wants you. He’s not trying to kill you, but he’ll do whatever he thinks he has to do for you to agree to help him and eventually marry him. Or… whatever he considers that partnership. Gadreel most likely wants revenge against Adriel, but he may still be planning on triggering a war with Heaven. But he has even less help than when he started, which means the Immortals are either a bigger threat than before, or it’s more important than ever to get you all on his side. And Lilith is just pissed off and wants someone to pay for killing Samael.”
Anna sighed and closed her eyes. “I wish Amanda were with us. She could tell me if I still have this evil stalker.”
“I think that poor woman will be glad if she never hears from any of us again.”
Anna laughed and opened her eyes. “True. I suppose I should leave her alone then.”
Jas’s eyes sparkled as she reached for Anna’s hand but her smile quickly faded and her eyes widened. “Oh, God,” she breathed, “not again.”
Anna’s heart jumped into her throat as she looked around the apartment, but she was no longer there. It was dark now and only a perigee moon above her allowed her to see her surroundings. She felt along the rough rotten wood banister of the deck and held her breath as she turned around, but she already knew where she was and what she would see: an abandoned camp nestled deep in the woods near the Amite River.
Chapter 20
The door creaked on its old, rusty hinges and Adriel stood in the doorway, watching her on the deck as she groped the banister behind her, wondering if it would be worth the effort to try to run away from this place. Adriel smiled at her again, that same smile that had unsettled her in Stalingrad, and she could so easily remember the smell of his body when he got close to her, the feel of his lips when he kissed her, his breath in her ear when he leaned in to whisper. She gripped the banister but decid
ed not to run. She would never run from him again.
“You are clever, Anna,” he told her. “But do you really think getting Gadreel and Lilith to try to kill me is going to help you?”
“Can’t hurt,” Anna retorted.
Adriel snickered and stepped out of the doorway. Anna couldn’t back away from him. She was already pressed against the banister.
“Probably won’t hurt you,” Adriel agreed. “But you’re assuming they can kill me in the first place. What makes you think either of them is more powerful than I am?”
Anna shrugged. She didn’t really care who was more powerful as long as all of the fallen angels and demons who were trying to kill her and her friends and trigger a war with Heaven were gone.
“So what? You kill them, and I only have to worry about destroying you. Gadreel seemed to think he was far more powerful than you, and he could easily destroy you. Then I only have to worry about him. Either way, seems like I’ve got nothing to lose by getting Gadreel and Lilith against you.”
Adriel was on the deck with her now and in the pale moonlight, she could see the amusement in his eyes. For some reason, he still seemed to think she was just being coy and would eventually share his passion for revolution and domination. Anna had witnessed enough revolutions in her long lifetime; she wanted no part of instigating one herself.
“You only think you’ve got nothing to lose, Anna. But you’re always so willing to make sacrifices for those you love.”
Anna didn’t know who he was threatening this time, but it didn’t matter. The anger within her shook the camp and trees around her and she brushed the leaves and twigs out of her hair as Adriel’s world began to crumble again. But he didn’t send her away this time. His smile seemed more sinister as he tilted his head at her and warned her, “Careful, Anna. You don’t want to destroy this place and kill her.”
“Her?” Anna hissed. He had pulled Jas in with her? If he had even hurt her, this son of a bitch was going to pay.
“Come on in, Anna. See for yourself.” Adriel waved an arm toward the camp, and Anna knew it had to be a trap, but if Jas was in there, she had to save her. She had to at least try.
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