Garden of the Gods (The Immortals Series Book 3)

by S. M. Schmitz

  “If I ever did something like that to you, I don’t know how I could exist anymore, either. God, my love, I’m so sorry.”

  Anna lifted her head and looked into his eyes, brushing the tears away as they leaked down his cheeks. “He was trying to do it, you know. Make you cheat on me. He knew it would destroy us. And she was so persistent. Do you think she was even human?”

  Colin inhaled sharply. They knew these fallen angels could mask the presence of demons, but it had never occurred to him that Olivia had been sent to destroy him through a temptation that these demons only thought would actually tempt him.

  Even their failed attempts to control his mind couldn’t break his loyalty to his wife. But demons were always underestimating what a powerful force love was, because it was a force they’d never understood to begin with. No angel that had experienced love – whether it was for God or Heaven or humans – could ever fall.

  Colin blinked and his brow creased in confusion again, and Anna felt him wrestling with those demons inside; he knew the truth of this thought that had occurred to him about angels and love, but why wasn’t it making any sense to him? Anna smiled up at him and kissed him.

  “But you know the truth, Colin. A few days ago, you couldn’t recognize it. You will see. Our love will save you. They can’t defeat us.”

  Colin smiled back at her and was about to kiss her again when they felt her. Anna spun around and looked for her, but wherever she was, she was hidden to them still. Colin’s hand slid down her arm and found her fingers, as he wrestled with an entirely new problem: the excitement he always had when The Angel appeared, but this time, it was mixed with apprehension and fear.

  The Angel appeared at the table, sitting in front of the stack of papers Dylan had reorganized. She began sifting through them, and Anna immediately tried to move to the table, but Colin didn’t budge. He didn’t want to get any closer to The Angel. She lifted her pale gray eyes and studied Colin closely.

  “Don’t worry, Anna. You and Amanda were able to find him in time. He’ll come back to you.”

  Anna clapped a hand over her mouth and stifled the sob that erupted. She didn’t know when or how Colin would be freed from this prison, but her faith in The Angel was complete. If she promised Anna that Colin would be saved, would be released from this Hell somehow, then she believed her. The Angel reached for Anna’s hand and Anna reluctantly let go of Colin’s to join The Angel at the table.

  “You’re both right, my Anna. They failed because they don’t understand what a powerful force love is. If you hadn’t gone after him or if you hadn’t been able to find him, maybe he would have lost himself over time, but your love is one of the most powerful tools you have in this fight against them. I will always believe that Hell will fail when it’s confronted with people like you.”

  Anna resisted the urge to fall to the ground in front of The Angel and bury her face in her lap and cry, begging for her comfort like a child to her mother. The Angel clasped her hand and pulled her closer to her then kissed her forehead.

  “You are so brave, my Anna. One day, I will give you whatever you ask for if I can. But now, I can’t stay long. This,” she pointed to the stack of notes Dylan had collected, “is what I need to talk to you about and it couldn’t wait to come through Jas.”

  Anna’s stomach flipped and she took a deep breath.

  “Ok,” she said nervously.

  The Angel still held her hand and Anna sensed she had no intention of letting go until she had to leave. Colin kept a safe distance from The Angel, sharing Anna’s adoration and devotion and wanting to fall at her feet and let her comfort him like the hurting child he felt like as well, but it was muddled with this fear and hatred that he knew didn’t belong to him. Because as he stared at the beautiful woman sitting at Dylan’s table with his wife, he knew his own feelings. He loved this creature. He adored her. He owed his life to her.

  Anna tried to keep her focus on The Angel but she was aware of Colin’s feelings, and they excited her, because Colin was recognizing what he was feeling and what this demon inside of him was trying to make him feel. The Angel was right, as usual. This demon wouldn’t defeat him. Colin’s love for her, and even for The Angel, was far too strong.

  The Angel’s pale gray eyes had never left Anna but she heard all of these thoughts, too, and she smiled at her and squeezed her hand to reassure her. She tapped the stack of papers again.

  “Dylan did well. Luca’s angel and I have been discussing this, and we agree with him and this professor. But I need to warn you: Samael is an extremely powerful angel, Anna. He was the archangel of death and ruled over the Fifth Heaven.”

  “That’s why he’s in Revelations as the fifth trumpeter? Then why is he named as Abaddon?” Anna asked.

  The Angel shrugged. “Whoever wrote Revelations got a lot of things wrong. Do you really think God would bring that sort of punishment on humans? No matter what they were doing?”

  “No, but…” Anna looked at the stack of papers in front of The Angel. One of them included Luca’s sketches of the markings on the demons’ backs. “Is Samael using the descriptions from the Bible or were they right about those describing him?”

  The Angel glanced at the sketches but didn’t seem overly concerned by them. “Men make up most of these things, Anna. Including these. Samael may have chosen them to try to make hunters and even Heaven think it was Abaddon responsible for wreaking havoc on Earth.”

  “So Abaddon is a fallen angel, too?” Anna asked.

  The Angel nodded. “Yes, but I don’t know if he’s still in Hell like he should be. Unless he’s nearby, I have no idea who they are, unfortunately.”

  Anna glanced at her husband then back at The Angel hopefully. She wanted to know what demon had infiltrated his mind, because that bastard was going to wish he’d never left Hell.

  The Angel pressed her lips together to try to suppress the laugh that wanted to escape. “He goes by many names, but you may know him as Ahriman.”

  Anna nodded. And that son of a bitch was going to pay for what it had done to her husband. If she could figure out how to get it outside of Colin’s head. The Angel’s eyes sparkled as she studied her.

  “I hear you have your own fan club, Anna. I’ve never sensed this demon stalking you because it must run whenever I show up.”

  “Why doesn’t Ahriman run then?”

  “Because he’s actually tied himself to Colin in order to try to control his thoughts, unlike this demon that’s just following you around. We’ve suspected the same thing must have happened to you in those woods when you were abducted, particularly since you were under so many false illusions, but whatever Colin did inside that camp must have freed you.”

  Anna’s eyes widened hopefully, and this time, The Angel did laugh. “Don’t get carried away, Anna. Colin will be ok for now. What you can do is so much more powerful than Colin or Andrew. Focus on finding Samael and destroying him. I am hoping Jas is right about Jeremy, too. If she’s not…”

  The Angel leaned over and kissed Anna’s forehead again. “You need to set him free, Anna. I will be there for him myself. I promise.”

  Anna didn’t want to meet The Angel’s eyes, but she nodded and promised her she would.

  “Go soon, Anna. And let Dylan go with you. Have faith in yourself. If you had half the faith I have in you, these doubts wouldn’t be disturbing you so much.” The Angel kissed her one last time then was gone.

  Colin exhaled slowly as her presence left the apartment, and she turned around to face her husband whose eyes were still fixed on the chair where The Angel had sat.

  “I’m going to get Dylan,” Anna said. “It’s time for us to go back to the Garden of the Gods.”

  Chapter 20

  Dylan parked at the Garden of the Gods’ Visitor Center once again. He turned the ignition off and turned to face the O’Conners who were sitting in the backseat.

  “If this ends badly, I just want you to know I’ve always admired the hell
out of you two.” Colin was about to respond but Dylan apparently wasn’t finished. “Now let’s go find some asshole fallen angel, who admittedly has a pretty damn good beer, and kill this son of a bitch.”

  Anna smiled at him and opened her car door. She still had no clue how she was going to channel this gift if they were even able to find Samael, but The Angel had faith in her. Colin had faith in her. And that was good enough for Anna.

  Dylan nodded toward the tall cliff jutting from the orange-red earth of the Colorado landscape. “That’s where Jeremy’s been spotted both times. We’ve never gotten that close to it because Adriel has always stopped us. I think we need to get to that cliff.”

  Anna agreed with him and cast a quick glance in his direction before heading into the Gardens. “If Adriel shows up again, I’m going to try to kill him, too. Drop to the ground as soon as you see him.”

  She felt the now familiar barrier Colin was somehow able to pull around her as they left the platform of the Visitor’s Center and walked into the park.

  “Stay right by me,” she cautioned Colin.

  If he was using his power to defend her, then she would have to protect him.

  Colin followed her closely enough that he could reach her fingers if she got nervous about his safety. But as they walked farther into the park, she tuned into the ramblings in his mind more, because Ahriman was getting nervous. Anna glanced behind her as she kept walking, but Colin’s face only betrayed his concentration on trying to keep the demon away from his own thoughts and behavior.

  “Why is Ahriman freaking out?” she asked.

  Colin’s eyes flickered to her then back to the cliff where they were heading. “No clue. You can probably guess better than I can, considering he doesn’t let me think completely rationally anyway.”

  Anna focused her gaze on the cliff in front of them, searching for a gray beast with goldenrod eyes and bony nodules along its face, but her mind was probing Colin’s. She slowed down as a thought hit her and Colin walked into her. That seemed to be happening to her a lot lately. He looked down at her and smiled. Dylan had walked several more steps before realizing his friends weren’t with him.

  “What now?” he sighed.

  “Sorry,” Anna mumbled. “It’s ok, let’s keep going.”

  Anna grabbed Colin’s fingers this time as they resumed their trek toward Jeremy’s cliff.

  “He failed, Colin. He had a mission to drive us apart, to drive you away from me and he failed. He’s scared about the retribution he’s going to face.”

  Colin smiled again at the thought of this demon being scared of Samael’s retribution; it had all of its priorities so completely wrong. Samael wasn’t the one it needed to be worried about, and Ahriman would find that out soon enough.

  Anna expected Adriel to try to stop them, but no one slowed their progress toward the cliff where they’d spotted Jeremy twice before. She had the horrifying premonition it was because they were no longer here.

  Dylan’s eyes lifted to the top of the cliff that was drawing nearer.

  “Or maybe Adriel hasn’t stopped us because there’s only so many demon-stalkers to go around. If this Ahriman bastard is stalking Colin, then maybe Adriel got assigned to Luca or Andrew,” Dylan observed.

  “No, I’m almost positive Adriel is my stalker. But he took off when The Angel showed up in our apartment. He knows I’d defend her if he tried to hurt her.”

  “Ah. So we’ve got Adriel and at least two other asshole demon stalkers then. We should call up Avery Brewing and find out who The Beast is modeled after. I’d put money on it being one of our stalkers,” Dylan said.

  Colin couldn’t answer him even though he wanted to, but Anna could say it for him.

  “Your idea just made Ahriman squirm. I think you’re on to something, Dylan. But still that leaves another mystery demon. Mephistopheles, perhaps?”

  Anna and Dylan were only joking, of course. All of the hunters suspected it was just one hell of a coincidence. Dylan snickered and played along though.

  “Isn’t that just a German name for the Devil? Surely if that asshole were stalking people, Heaven would be turning rivers to blood and shit.”

  Colin found himself able to answer, which told them all they were most likely not dealing with Mephistopheles. “In German folklore, it was a representative of the Devil. It’s from the Faust legend in which a scholar sells his soul in exchange for unlimited knowledge, but Mephistopheles is the one that shows up to make the deal.”

  “Huh,” Dylan mused, “I should read that one day.”

  Anna nodded sagely. “You’ve got five hundred years to do plenty of reading, my friend. The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus seems like a good place to start.”

  “Or Goethe’s Faust. It’s better known and quite good,” Colin added.

  “Especially in its original German.”

  Dylan rolled his eyes and shook his head at her. “I can’t read German, Anna. You know that.”

  Anna just smiled and kept walking. “You’ll learn. Believe me, you have plenty of time. What else are you going to do?”

  They neared the base of the cliff and the hunters stopped to survey the massive formation in front of them. Anna turned around to face Colin again.

  “Remember when I asked you if you wanted to go rock climbing?”

  Colin’s eyes scaled the tall cliff and he smiled but shook his head.

  “We don’t have the equipment. And I still think falling from that height would hurt like hell.”

  “Then don’t fall,” Dylan quipped.

  Anna snickered, but Colin was right. They didn’t have any rock climbing equipment, and it’s not like they would have known how to use it anyway. Anna and Colin had never been rock climbing, and Dylan was from Baton Rouge. The closest thing to a cliff he had back home was Tiger Stadium.

  “Think our angel will show up and gift us flight?” Dylan asked, still peering toward the top of the cliff.

  Colin and Anna thought flight would be a pretty cool gift, actually. But they weren’t counting on it.

  “Let’s walk around it,” Anna suggested. “Maybe we can find a trail or something that leads at least partway up this thing.”

  They circled around the base of the massive cliff and slowly started climbing some of the broader embankments.

  Dylan was trailing just behind Anna and Colin when he told them, “Did you know this particular formation has a name?”

  Anna looked over her shoulder at him and shook her head. She probably should have at least picked up a brochure considering how many times they’d come out here.

  Dylan nodded and motioned to an archway in the rocks at the top of the formation. “It’s called Kissing Camels. I guess the hole in that arch makes it look like two bumpy animals are kissing.”

  Anna felt a shudder run through Colin and she watched him carefully. Ahriman wanted them far away from here, but it clearly couldn’t control Colin anymore. Not entirely anyway.

  Colin still found himself unable to speak when he sensed there was something Ahriman didn’t want them to know, but he couldn’t control Anna, too. And Anna heard everything Colin couldn’t say. She stopped walking for a second time and both Dylan and Colin bumped into her this time.

  “We’re missing something,” she announced. “Jeremy’s here, I know it, but he’s able to hide from us. He can’t disappear like a normal demon, because he’s not a normal demon, which means there must be some secret place he can hide. Or at least some well hidden place.”

  Dylan steadied himself after bumping into Anna as he’d been slipping on the rocks as they’d climbed up one of the broader paths of Kissing Camels. “This is a huge national park. And I read every single brochure inside that Visitor Center. I don’t think there are any secrets here. How many visitors come here every single day anyway?”

  Talking about a secret hiding place was making Ahriman even more nervous. Anna smiled at Dylan and raised an eyebrow. “It’s a secret, Dylan. Why would they put
a place they don’t want tourists messing with in their brochures?”

  Dylan exhaled slowly and looked around them. “Well, do you think it’s here or anywhere in the park? Because this could take a while if we have to search the whole damn park.”

  “It’s here,” Anna decided.

  Ahriman’s nervousness had turned to panic and she smiled at Colin now, except she wasn’t really smiling at her husband. She leaned closer to him, peering into those beautiful emerald eyes again, and breathed, “If I were you, Ahriman, I’d get the hell out of here while I could. Because all you’re doing now is leading me right to your boss. And there’s not a goddamn thing you can do about it.”

  Colin tried to back away, but Anna held onto him. She wasn’t letting go of him again. She wouldn’t let him look away either. She reached up to him and put her hand on his cheek and reminded him they did nothing alone. There was nothing in Heaven or Hell that could separate them; their souls belonged to one another before anything else. Whatever this world could offer them, whatever the next world promised, all paled to the love they had for each other.

  Colin stepped closer to his wife again and finally smiled at her and brushed his lips against hers.

  “I swear to you, I’ll never let anything make me forget again. And I’m not letting this bastard go. He’s going to lead us to Jeremy and Samael.”

  Anna gasped as she realized what Colin was telling her. He’d fought back against this demon and won; Ahriman was Colin’s prisoner now.

  Dylan was shuffling his weight impatiently; he was getting used to these private conversations, but they were trying to hunt down a demon who used to be their friend and his powerful fallen angel boss. He was eager to hear what they were talking about. Anna smiled back at Colin.

  “Alright, Mr. O’Conner. Lead us to Samael, then.”

  Colin gripped her hand and led her back down the side of the Kissing Camels to the ground.

  Dylan looked up at the wide formation suspiciously. “Dude, are you sure we’re not supposed to be going up this thing?”