“Ohio?” Anna asked, her voice squeaky and disbelieving, but why the hell would The Angel appear to them to ask them to go to Ohio?
The Angel nodded and handed her two plane tickets. Their plane was leaving Tel Aviv in two hours.
“But… there’s a war about to start here,” Colin protested.
“Yes. I do hope you’ll be able to sleep on the plane. I am sorry,” The Angel insisted.
Anna looked down at the tickets in her hand, still convinced she must have already fallen asleep because this had to be a dream. “I don’t understand. You wanted us here. What could be so important in Ohio?”
“I need you to stay there a few weeks. I may be wrong, but I think it could get violent there. Just pay attention to the news. You always know what to do.”
The Angel stood up as if she were actually going to walk out of the hotel room. She was an angel. Didn’t she just… poof?
Colin and Anna stared at her, but they wouldn’t argue with The Angel. “Won’t you at least tell us why we have to leave Tel Aviv in the middle of the night? Why this can’t wait until the morning?”
The Angel placed one of her thin, delicate hands on his shoulder and offered him one last apologetic smile. “Get some sleep on the plane, Colin. Look. They’re first class.”
Colin looked down at the plane tickets in Anna’s hand but when he glanced back up toward The Angel, she was gone.
Chapter 12
The Immortals had gathered in Colin and Anna’s apartment again, turning over Adriel’s accusations, Tahel’s story from Tel Aviv, and what it meant about their own immortality, their relationship with Heaven. Their entire existence. Andrew fidgeted with the label on the beer bottle he was holding, but like last time, he didn’t drink much of it. Dylan finished his beer and asked Anna if they had any more.
“Did anything happen in Cincinnati?” Andrew asked, finally lifting his eyes from the label he’d been peeling for the past fifteen minutes.
Anna nodded. “There was a riot that began about a week after we got there.”
But Colin shook his head, unconvinced. “No way the riot in Cincinnati called up more demons than a war that claimed tens of thousands of lives. Even if she didn’t want us in Tel Aviv, we could have gone to another city. And after the war, there was all that violence and Jews were expelled from every Arab country around Israel. We were right there and we were sent away.”
“And how many Palestinians fled the West Bank when Israel seized it?” Luca pointed out.
Colin nodded. “That war created a huge refugee crisis, and we always see more demons then. It made no sense to send us to the U.S. And this isn’t just hindsight. Everyone knew the war wouldn’t solve anything and would only make things worse in the end.”
“And what about Tahel?” Andrew asked Luca. “Did she ever tell you why she became an Immortal after all?”
Luca nodded. “She went to Gaza during the war since there were so many demons there, and ended up getting badly injured in a mortar attack. She was dating another hunter at the time, and when an angel appeared and offered him the same deal as the rest of you, he accepted to save her life.”
“Typical,” Colin muttered.
Anna slammed her beer bottle down on the coffee table, which startled the other hunters in the room. “This is exactly what Adriel wanted! He’s just playing mind games, and you’re letting him!”
Anna’s hands were shaking, not so much because of the conversation that was taking place in her living room, but she knew what Colin was thinking. She knew his doubts. His reticence. She knew he was starting to believe they had been tricked.
Anna faced him and forced him to look at her. “Colin, this is what he does. He gets in our heads and makes us question ourselves and everything we believe.”
But Colin shook his head sadly. “No, when he tried to make you question yourself, your faith never wavered. It had no reason to. Maybe he’s actually on to something now. Maybe we have been lied to and manipulated our whole lives. Think about it, Anna. What are the chances of the few people in this world who can do what we can, we would have even met? God, Anna, what if even your scarlet fever was all part of their plan to make sure you wouldn’t…”
“Colin, STOP!” Anna yelled.
The other hunters watched the O’Conners warily for a few seconds then Dylan stood up. “I’m actually pretty tired. I’m going to call it a night. Why don’t we all just let this air out some, and we’ll talk about it tomorrow.”
Luca and Andrew agreed and followed Dylan out of the apartment, but Anna heard Colin’s thoughts. She knew he had already convinced himself their entire existence had been a lie.
“Anna,” he tried again, but Anna wouldn’t listen to him. She didn’t want to hear it out loud. His suspicions about The Angel, their God, their faith and their lives were suffocating her.
“Go get some sleep, Colin. You need some rest.”
Colin understood that was Anna’s way of telling him he needed to give her some time alone. At least, as alone as she ever was considering his thoughts would still fill her mind. But Colin had no intention of stopping his thoughts tonight. He wasn’t trying to upset Anna, he just needed her to realize she couldn’t continue blindly accepting everything The Angel had ever told them simply because they wanted to believe Heaven was always right. He kissed her forehead and disappeared into the bedroom anyway though, but Anna would have to put up with his feelings of betrayal and anger.
Anna turned the television on and tried to find something that would hold her interest long enough to distract her from Colin’s misgivings, but he was too loud in her head. He was driving her crazy. She turned the volume louder and lay down on the sofa, and as she closed her eyes, she prayed The Angel would come to them and reassure Colin that he was wrong; this was all part of Adriel’s trick and everyone was falling for it except Anna. But The Angel never came.
In the morning, Anna awoke to Colin sitting lightly near her feet at the end of the sofa. He watched her carefully as her brain shifted from the hazy dream world she’d spent the night in to the real world around her. He was waiting to hear her thoughts, to see if she was still mad at him. And she immediately sensed that he hadn’t changed his mind.
“Colin,” she sighed.
“I’m done,” he interrupted.
Anna threw the blanket off her and sat up. She knew what he meant, but he couldn’t be serious. What the hell had happened in the Garden of the Gods? She moved closer to him, studying him, wondering if it were possible for him to be possessed now.
“Colin, you can’t quit.”
Colin shrugged. “Why not? They can’t force me to kill demons. I’ll always protect you, Anna, but I won’t work for them. Not anymore.”
Anna grabbed his shoulders and shook him. She actually shook him, but she didn’t know what else to do.
“God, Colin, listen to yourself! Have you lost your mind?”
Colin reached up to his shoulders and grabbed her hands and gently moved them away, but he held onto her.
“No. Quite the opposite. For the first time, I see we’ve been used just like everyone else and it’s all part of this goddamned game they’re playing and they’re using our lives to do it. I know I won’t change your mind, but you won’t change mine either.”
“But we’re hunters…” Anna stammered.
What would The Angel do when they defied her? Anna didn’t believe Heaven was in the business of retribution. She wasn’t worried about punishment, but the look of hurt and disloyalty and the knowledge that Colin had lost his faith would all be so evident in her eyes and Anna would have to see it. And she was sure that would hurt worse than any punishment Heaven could deliver anyway.
“You care too much about that angel,” Colin told her.
Anna yanked her hands free and glared at him. “I love her and you do, too. She saved my life, Colin. You prayed for a miracle and she came to you.”
Colin just shook his head. “A miracle would have allowed
you to survive. We would have grown old together and stayed with your family in London and died together like we were supposed to. And where was she when you were attacked and I ended up killing Lacey and Max and almost killed Dylan? She acknowledged herself Dylan was special and gave him gifts to help me find you. Don’t you think it’s odd he’s the only one who survived but just barely? Just enough so that you could seal his servitude as well?”
Anna’s eyes had filled with tears, and she couldn’t look at her husband anymore. She turned away from him and stood up, vacillating between wanting to insist he was wrong and wanting to leave, to escape the sacrilegious thoughts still flooding through his mind. He tried to stop her again because he knew she was thinking about leaving their apartment, and that’s when Anna decided she had to get away from him.
She didn’t bother looking for her shoes. She slammed their door behind her and hurried to Dylan’s apartment. She knocked so forcefully on the door she almost felt ashamed of herself for causing so much noise, but her world was collapsing all around her and she thought it may pull her along with it.
Dylan opened the door and quickly looked her over. “Colin being as big a pain in the ass as Andrew?”
Anna’s tears erupted into sobs. Dylan put his arms around her and pulled her into his apartment. Andrew was sitting on one of the stools near the kitchen counter, but Dylan told him to go to Luca’s apartment. Or to go make sure Colin didn’t come here. He and Anna needed some time alone. Andrew seemed reluctant but got up and left anyway.
“Here,” Dylan offered. He pulled a stool away from the counter for Anna to sit on. “I’ll make you some coffee.”
Anna buried her face in her hands and kept crying. “So Andrew wants to quit hunting, too?”
Dylan sighed. “Yeah, he thinks Heaven must be conning us after all. Granted, I’ve only met this angel a couple of times, but she never struck me as a con artist.”
Anna looked up at him and tried to wipe the tears from her eyes. His entire apartment was blurry and she wanted to be able to focus on his face, to see his expressions when she asked him why he wasn’t questioning his faith.
Dylan’s eyebrows knit together in confusion. “Why should I?”
“Why is my husband?” Anna demanded. She knew it was unfair of her to ask Dylan that as soon as it came out, but how could Colin turn his back on Heaven? It had been his faith that had saved her in the first place.
“It’s not just Colin…” Dylan said cautiously.
He set a cup of coffee in front of her and pushed the sweetener and creamer toward her.
“I know,” Anna acknowledged grumpily, “Andrew’s gone crazy, too.”
Dylan shook his head. “No, I mean, he has, but it’s not just Colin and Andrew. Luca came over last night after we all left your apartment and I spent half the night listening to those two go back and forth with every single example they could think of that would fit this theory they’ve been played. I think Luca’s done, too.”
Anna’s head jerked up from her coffee. That couldn’t be right. Nobody’s faith was stronger than Luca’s. He may have been upset last night, but Dylan had to have misunderstood.
“He can’t be,” Anna insisted. “If Luca quits… there’s no time tacked on to his immortality. If he quits, he dies.”
“Oh, he knows. And he said he wasn’t going to abandon you right now. But I think he’s hoping you’ll come around and quit with them and then I don’t know what the hell he expects to happen.”
Anna gasped because Luca had apparently already forgotten his promise to her. Or maybe he just didn’t care anymore.
“But he promised me he wouldn’t abandon you! I asked The Angel to save you because he said he’d be here and you wouldn’t be alone!”
“Well, if this is the kind of help I’m going to get, I may as well be alone,” Dylan muttered.
Anna shook her head again and more dark ringlets fell around her face. Her jaw was clenched so tightly her mouth was starting to hurt but she couldn’t seem to relax those muscles and when she spoke, it came out through gritted teeth.
“You won’t be alone. I’ll be here. Even if I have to do it without Colin.”
Dylan opened his mouth, either to argue with her or thank her, but a knocking at his door prevented him from telling her whatever he’d wanted to say.
Anna closed her eyes and exhaled slowly. “It’s Colin.”
“You want me to let him in?”
Anna wasn’t even sure. But it was Colin. She couldn’t ignore him, so she nodded. Colin stood near the door and wanted Anna to turn around to look at him, but she wouldn’t.
“Anna, please. You’re so angry at me, but how can you not see the truth? Everyone else has except Dylan, and he’s just too new at this. In time, he’ll realize…”
“Shut up, Colin.”
Anna had never told him to shut up before. She put her head back in her hands and tried not to dissolve into those aching sobs again.
“We have to be able to talk about this, Anna.”
“No, Colin. We don’t. We’re not quitting and there’s nothing to discuss.”
Colin exhaled angrily. “If I wanted Dylan to hear this conversation, I would have been speaking aloud the whole time.”
Anna lifted her head and finally turned to face her husband. She wasn’t sure if she was hurt or furious or heartbroken or maybe all of it.
“You said you quit. We only have telepathy because we’re Immortals. If you’re so damn sure you want to quit, then you won’t speak to me in my mind again. And if you try, I’ll ignore you.”
“Anna, you can’t be serious. After everything we’ve done for them, they owe us anyway.” Colin still hadn’t moved away from the door.
“You got your reward the night I didn’t die. I don’t ever want to hear about this again.”
Anna stood up, wanting to leave again, but where could she go? There were still three fallen angels who wanted her either dead or in their service; if she went home, Colin would just follow her; and she couldn’t go to Luca’s because he was apparently just as insane as her husband. She looked helplessly at Dylan, but even Dylan seemed unsure of himself.
“Isn’t this what you always wanted?” Colin asked. “You never asked to be a hunter. You did it because I made the bargain. So we disappear, try to live as normal a life as possible. I’d think that would make you happy.”
Anna slowly unclenched her fists and took a deep breath, reminding herself this was still her husband. This was still Colin. This was still the man she had loved for nearly four centuries.
“Go home, Colin. I don’t want to talk to you right now. Dylan and I have work to do.”
Colin studied her for a while, but even if Anna wouldn’t speak to him telepathically anymore, their minds were still inextricably linked. He knew she wasn’t bluffing. So Colin opened the door and left Dylan’s apartment, but he didn’t return home. And Anna had no idea where he was going.
Chapter 13
Dylan parked his car at the Visitor Center at the Garden of the Gods and turned off the ignition. He looked over at Anna and asked her again if she was sure she wanted to be out here with only him. The past two times they’d come out here hadn’t exactly gone well.
Anna’s eyes were fixed on the cliff where she’d spotted Jeremy before. She couldn’t see what was on top from this far away.
“We’re not going out there. We’ll stay here. I’m hoping Adriel won’t decide to kill two hunters right in front of a busy Visitor’s Center.”
Dylan still didn’t think this was a good plan. “He could get in your head again though and people will think you’re just losing it. Without Colin here…”
He bit his lip as he stopped himself from finishing his sentence, but it’s not like Anna didn’t realize her husband wasn’t with her.
Anna blinked back the tears that were forming and opened her car door. She was certain Adriel had done something to her husband and friends, and she wanted answers. Not that she expected
a fallen angel to play fair. But she was desperate.
She and Colin had always known there was no life for them without the other. Adriel had tried to separate their bond and when he failed, he’d somehow figured out how to threaten to tear them apart anyway.
Anna dug her fists into her jacket pockets and sat on one of the benches near the railing overlooking the Garden of the Gods. Dylan sat beside her.
“I was thinking on the way down here,” he said, “these bastards aren’t stupid. ‘Cause you know what else this is doing? None of us have been able to focus on Jeremy with everyone turning on Heaven like this.”
Anna kept her eyes on the rocks jutting from the earth in front of her but nodded. These bastards definitely weren’t stupid.
“I hate to say this, but right now, I don’t even care about Jeremy. And maybe that’s part of their plan, too.”
Dylan sighed and studied his hands. They sat in silence for a long time before he asked her, “You still can’t feel him? How is that even possible?”
“He’s too far away.”
Anna didn’t want to talk about Colin. Not right now. Not unless Adriel decided to show up. Of course, she’d settle for The Angel showing up, too, but that hadn’t happened yet, either. Apparently, both Heaven and Hell were ignoring her.
“Colin wouldn’t leave you,” Dylan insisted.
He knew their car was gone, and Colin must have driven somewhere, but Dylan had been with Colin from the moment Anna was abducted to when he found her. He couldn’t believe Colin would leave.
“I don’t know where he’s going,” Anna replied.
She’d already told him this, too. She knew he’d planned on going somewhere when he left, but he hadn’t been thinking of anyplace in particular. Anna had just assumed he was going to drive around and calm down. When he still hadn’t come home hours later, she’d tried calling his phone, but he didn’t answer. She found his phone in their bedroom, the volume still turned off from the night before.
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