“What’s with the appearance, Adriel?” Dylan asked. He clearly didn’t like the fallen angel mimicking his friend who had been stolen from them. “Too damn ugly to show your own face?”
Anna and Colin didn’t know what an angel really looked like, if they looked like anything at all. Demons either wanted to appear human or they wanted to scare them. Adriel’s appearance as Jeremy was most likely another attempt to unsettle them. And Adriel wasn’t interested in Dylan. The demon kept its attention on Colin and Anna.
“Why us?” Anna asked. “Of all the Immortals, you came after us first. Should we be flattered?”
Adriel smiled and his features shifted, blurring briefly before settling back into another human face, a different face, but one Anna knew. It had kept her dizzy and disoriented inside that room, so most of the time, she’d been unable to focus on the man who would occasionally enter her room to ask her questions but once, and only once, she’d somehow calmed the spinning space around her and his face had been burned into her memory.
He was trying to intimidate her now, but she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of letting on how much this face disturbed her.
“You said it yourself, Anna. You’re more blessed than I could ever know.”
“I was referring to Colin, asshole.”
Adriel’s smile never faltered, and he shook his head at her. “How odd that two people, two hunters, would meet and fall in love. What was it again that brought you to London, Colin?”
Anna’s fingers slid down the sleeve of Colin’s jacket until she found his hand. Adriel shouldn’t know this much about them. Their history. She forced her eyes away from the fallen angel to look at the cliff where Jeremy had been but the gray beast had not returned.
“They stole Jeremy’s memories, Anna. We assumed that in Baton Rouge when this bastard showed up in your apartment. Whatever Jeremy knew about us, these demons know now.”
“It’s a mind game. This is what it does. If it can’t physically get inside our heads, then it’ll try to make us question everything: The Angel, our faith, each other.”
Colin took a deep breath trying to suppress the rage still consuming him but decided to answer Adriel. “It was the seventeenth century. What was I going to do in Ireland except farm somebody else’s land? The English and Scots took over Ulster, the Stuarts claimed we were a united kingdom, so why shouldn’t I have moved to London to escape the same fate as my father?”
“And you were there how long before you met Anna?” Adriel asked, his voice as honeyed as before.
He was leading them into something, and Anna didn’t want Colin to answer him. But Colin was afraid if he remained silent, the demon may unleash his fury on all of the hunters and they’d either have to defend themselves with the only power they could and endanger the lives of everyone around them or the Immortals would die. A fallen angel couldn’t be killed by a dagger or knife.
“A couple of months,” Colin answered. He kept his eyes on the man who wasn’t really a man in front of him.
“And how fortunate. You run into this lovely creature on a busy street near a busy marketplace and you are both so instantly mesmerized, so captivated by one another you risk losing your job to see her again. And you,” Adriel turned his attention on Anna, “invite an Irish boy to your father’s home.”
Anna gritted her teeth, but Colin didn’t want her to anger the fallen angel. He was playing a game, but they had no choice. They had to play along.
“My father,” Anna hissed, “never looked down on the Irish. He was a good man. And he liked Colin. So did my mother.”
Adriel’s smile widened, revealing those straight white teeth, and Anna remembered how terrifyingly cold she had been whenever he knelt by her. She shivered but didn’t look away.
“Remarkable coincidence,” Adriel said breezily.
“I’m Irish,” Colin retorted. “I believe in luck.”
“And you believe that we’re the only side to play games.”
“Don’t listen to him, Colin. I’ve shown you the dreams he forced into my mind. How did he know then we were destined to be childless? And yet, that’s what he tormented me with – having you and…”
Anna couldn’t even finish her thought. She wouldn’t relive that memory or dream or whatever it had been.
“One day,” Adriel continued, “you will see the truth. You will understand your entire lives have been manipulated from the moment you were born, because you are special. And you will have to decide: who really is your enemy?”
Anna shook her head but Colin pleaded with her to just let the fallen angel go. Adriel cast one more smile in Anna’s direction before turning to leave, but he stopped after a few steps and glanced back at the O’Conners.
“If you are so confident, then tell your friends about Tel Aviv.” And then Adriel disappeared.
Dylan sighed heavily and rubbed his palms across his face. They were all tired and hungry, but Adriel’s words still hung in the air. “So, what the hell happened in Tel Aviv?”
Colin exhaled wearily. “We don’t know. We were told to leave even though a war was about to break out and that’s why we’d been sent there in the first place.”
“Why would he want you to tell us about Tel Aviv then? Sounds like a pretty boring story,” Andrew said.
Anna rested her head on Colin’s shoulder and closed her eyes. “Because of what he’s implying. Our Angel ordered us to leave. She appeared to us in Tel Aviv and made us leave.”
Luca stood in front of her and crossed his arms defiantly. “Then she had a reason. A good reason. We aren’t letting that bastard do this to us. We won’t question our faith.”
“We met a young hunter there,” Colin responded. “She was smart, talented. And she said she was visited by angels. She had been her whole life.”
“Never mind,” Andrew muttered. “This story just got a lot more interesting.”
Colin nodded but Anna still wanted to leave. She opened her eyes hoping to convey to Luca how much she agreed with him, how they should just forget this ridiculous idea and go back to Boulder and, this time, stop at the Dunkin Donuts because she was starving. But Luca’s eyes were frozen on Colin.
Hunters were never visited by angels unless they were immortal or were being offered the chance to become an Immortal. But Colin hadn’t said she was one of them. More than that, he’d just told them this woman had claimed to be visited by angels her entire life.
Colin took a deep breath and pulled the zipper higher on his jacket. It seemed so much colder out now. “She had no interest in immortality, but she claimed they still visited her. And soon after meeting this young woman, we were ordered to leave.”
“Holy shit,” Andrew and Dylan mumbled.
Luca kept staring and the doubt in his eyes made Anna’s heart leap into her throat. Luca was their rock. Their leader. The center of their small universe; his unending and unquestionable faith had carried Colin and Anna through so many moments of their own doubts and uncertainties. Anna hated this fallen angel with a fierceness that surprised her.
Luca inhaled a long slow breath then moved closer to Colin, his eyes never leaving him. “Then tell me, my old friend. What were these angels saying to this young woman?”
Colin shook his head. “What else? They wanted her to be an Immortal.”
“So…” Dylan said, “sounds like maybe Heaven does play games sometimes?”
Colin finally broke away from Luca’s intense stare and looked at Dylan. “Or maybe, sometimes, what both sides are doing isn’t all that different.”
Andrew kicked a rock on the ground and dug his boot in the red brown dirt. “Do you think it’s possible? Our whole lives, they’ve been leading us around, bringing us to the point where we had no choice but to take on this job for them?”
“I volunteered,” Luca protested. “I wasn’t desperate for help. I was already a hunter and when my angel showed up and offered me the chance to do this as long as I wanted, I took it. I wasn’t manipulated.”
“But the rest of us…” Colin started, but Anna wouldn’t let him finish.
“Are alive because an angel saved us. This is exactly what Adriel wanted. All of us to start questioning God, our faith, our allegiance.”
Colin looked down at Anna and kissed her forehead. “And I wouldn’t change what I did. But that girl in Tel Aviv… Luca, you ended up training her about a year later. She’s now an Immortal.”
Chapter 11
Tel Aviv, 1967. When Colin and Anna checked into their hotel, they were handed a map of evacuation routes and shelters in case of any bombings, and Colin thanked the receptionist, folded the map, and tucked it in a pocket. He and Anna weren’t worried about explosions.
The Angel had predicted war was inevitable here, and really, by now, Colin and Anna didn’t think a person or entity would need supernatural powers to predict that. On their way out of the hotel lobby, they passed a television with an image of Levi Eshkol on it. He was delivering a speech, but they couldn’t speak Hebrew.
Tel Aviv seemed weighed down by the somber mood of yet another war. The last major conflict with their neighbors had ended only eighteen years ago. Colin and Anna had predicted then that peace here would be difficult; there was far too much hatred and prejudice and they had witnessed the effects of hate and intolerance so many times since becoming immortal. This wouldn’t be their last trip to Tel Aviv.
Mostly, though, this was a city of fear now. The war hadn’t started yet, and no one in Israel could have anticipated how quickly it would end. But despite the common fear, there was an optimism here that was unusual, and that made demons’ jobs more difficult. Perhaps, Colin and Anna thought, these people just had faith they would prevail. Or maybe after everything they or their friends or family had survived in the past few decades, having to fight for their survival was becoming normal to them. But whatever the reason, there weren’t many demons prowling the capital of Israel in the final days before the Six Days’ War.
“Do you think we should go to Gaza?” Anna wondered.
“The Palestinians there may be just as hopeful that this war will end in the Arab League’s favor. I guess we just wait for the war to start.”
It was June 2, 1967, and neither of them knew how long they would have to wait. Ultimately, it wouldn’t matter.
They walked the streets of Tel Aviv, trying to at least help homeowners or shop owners board up windows or pile sandbags when they could, but as the sun began to set, most Israelis moved indoors. There were few people on the street now.
“There’s probably a curfew,” Anna realized. “Did the receptionist at the hotel mention one?”
Colin had to admit he hadn’t been paying attention. They didn’t usually bother with curfews anyway since that’s when demons liked to hunt. They had just turned down a different street they hadn’t explored yet when they spotted the honey yellow demon. But it was already wounded, limping along the sidewalk trying to hide in the shadows.
Colin and Anna glanced at each other, both wondering who could have wounded a demon but wouldn’t have finished killing it, then they chased the beast down. Anna’s dagger was poised in the air, ready to stab the demon when a figure stepped out of the shadows and stopped her.
The young woman spoke to her in Hebrew, but Anna couldn’t understand her. She saw the dagger in the woman’s hand and assumed she was a hunter, but she wasn’t going to stand around a deserted street in Tel Aviv and let a wounded demon escape while she argued with the woman about it. Anna thrust her dagger into the demon’s neck and sliced open its back, letting a shrilling hiss of energy escape. The demon collapsed to the ground and Colin stabbed it again, killing it. The woman looked pissed.
“Do you speak English then?” she demanded.
Anna stared back at her. “If you didn’t recognize us as being hunters from here, you probably should have started with a more common language.”
The woman threw her arms up and shouted something at her, but Anna hadn’t learned to speak Hebrew in the last thirty seconds. “Did it look like that demon was about to get away? I had this under control.”
Colin scattered the honey yellow dust that had settled on the sidewalk with his boot and scowled at the irate petite woman. “Is this some sort of game we’re not aware of? Because we’ve been doing this for a really long time, and I’ve never met anyone who was as ungrateful for a little help as you.”
The woman sheathed her dagger and glared back at him. “A long time? Oh… let me guess. You’re Immortals. Their begging wasn’t working, so they sent you here to try to convince me?”
Colin and Anna looked at each other now, more confused than angry, and the woman must have noticed, too.
“You weren’t sent here?” she asked.
“We were,” Anna explained, “but to hunt demons. We have no idea who you are.”
“Don’t really want to know her either. She’s got to be one of the rudest hunters we’ve met in decades,” Colin thought.
Anna agreed but was far too intrigued as to why this woman thought they’d been sent for her. And to convince her of what? The woman stepped over the scattered remnants of dusty honey colored debris and extended her hand.
“I’m Tahel. And, yeah, it’s not a game, it’s just…” She looked down as an evening breeze blew the rest of the demon’s remains away.
“Territorial?” Anna guessed.
Tahel looked up at her and shook her head. “No. I keep hoping if I can prove I’m an excellent hunter as a mortal, they’ll leave me alone.”
Colin and Anna were both startled. “There are Immortals around here who are harassing you?” Colin asked.
They weren’t exactly sure where Luca was right now, but if this young woman was being harassed by Immortals, they’d track him down and he’d come to Tel Aviv himself to put an end to it. But it seemed so uncharacteristic for Immortals. Angels never gifted immortality to humans who possessed those kinds of traits.
But Tahel looked between them and sighed. “Not Immortals. You’re the first two I’ve ever met, actually. I meant angels.”
Colin and Anna couldn’t understand because it didn’t make any sense. Their silence as they stared back at her must have warned Tahel they were either incredulous or dumbstruck. Or maybe both.
“They’ve been coming to me for as long as I can remember. As a child, they told me I could see demons walking the Earth and when I got older, I would be able to fight them. I’m Jewish. As you can imagine, the whole idea of demons coming out of a place I didn’t even believe in didn’t go over well with me until I actually saw a demon for the first time.”
“You thought the angels were lying?” Anna asked.
She hadn’t meant to interrupt her, but she’d never once questioned The Angel. But, then again, nothing The Angel had ever told her had shaken her faith.
But for the first time, Tahel actually smiled at them as she shrugged, “I just thought I was crazy. I guess I could have still been crazy after seeing a demon for the first time, but the smell and the way it terrified me just convinced me this was all real.”
Colin took a deep breath, trying to process what this young woman was telling them, but angels didn’t appear to mortals like this. Maybe she really was crazy. “So you became a hunter because these angels wanted you to.”
Tahel nodded. “Why did you do it?” she asked him.
He glanced at Anna then back at Tahel. This entire evening was turning into one of the most confusing of his long life. “Do what?”
“Agree to this! Why would you ever give up your mortality to fight a war that’s up to each person anyway? You Christians. You think it’s your job to save everyone. We were given free will for a reason. It’s not our responsibility how others use it.”
Colin didn’t even know what part of her tirade to answer first. He figured he’d start with the easiest. “We’re Immortals because Anna’s my wife. She was dying and I prayed for a miracle, and this was the bargain. Five hundred years. And you’ve clearl
y never been out of Israel. We’ve been doing this since 1648 and the demons we fight aren’t preying on people who are in a position to make that kind of a decision. They find people who are desperate and are willing to give up their souls because the world has become a Hell around them.”
Tahel shook her head again. “Then they’re praying to the wrong place.”
“You can say no,” Anna said. “Just stop hunting. You obviously don’t believe in what we’re doing anyway, and you are mortal, so stop wasting your life. The angels will leave you alone when you refuse.”
Tahel laughed and turned her back to them to walk away. “Good luck, Immortals.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Colin wondered.
Anna watched the woman’s figure as it faded into the shadows of the nearby buildings and she grabbed Colin’s hand. “I’m still leaning toward crazy. But if she’s out here patrolling the streets, let’s go back to our room. Tel Aviv’s souls are surely safe in her capable hands.”
Colin smirked but was jetlagged and tired, so he didn’t argue about giving up hunting for the night. They were both yawning by the time they made it back to their hotel. Colin opened the door and Anna entered their room first, feeling along the wall for the light switch, but The Angel’s voice stopped her before she could find it.
“I’ll turn the lights on for you,” The Angel offered.
Anna and Colin jumped. They had been so preoccupied going over what Tahel had just told them they hadn’t realized The Angel was near. The lights flicked on in the hotel room and they saw her sitting on the edge of their bed, smiling at them, but there was something behind her pale gray eyes Colin and Anna didn’t recognize.
“I know you’re tired, so I’m very sorry to have to ask you to do this, but I need you to leave Tel Aviv. Tonight.”
Colin was sure now that he’d never been as confused and bewildered as he had been this entire evening.
“We just got here,” he stammered.
The Angel smiled sympathetically. “I know. But things have changed. I need you somewhere else now. I need you to go to Cincinnati.”
Garden of the Gods (The Immortals Series Book 3) Page 8