The Tempting

by V J J Dunn

  “Gotta go, Sweetie-tron,” she said with a crooked smile and a wink only he saw. He scowled, but Allie caught the twinkle in his eye.

  Chapter 10

  A LLIE AND NICK took two more days for a honeymoon period, then it was back to practice. Unlike the last time when they’d had downtime, she hadn’t been bored.

  Allie blushed at that thought.

  Thankfully, the team had continued their practicing while their leaders had been otherwise occupied. Robin, who was the only Remnant who had been promoted to a team second so far, had taken on the supervisory role and had diligently continued the training, despite deeply grieving her husband.

  The newlyweds stood side-by-side at the edge of the arena and watched Robin as she patiently demonstrated to Li Wei the art of anticipating the next move.

  “She’s really good,” Allie muttered. “In fact, Ed’s death seems to have made her more… focused.”

  Nick nodded. “I think she has a new reason to want to see as many demons sent back to The Pit as possible.”

  “What do you say about promoting her to, say, third?”

  Nick turned to her. “Third?”

  Allie laughed. “Yeah, you’re second, she can be third.”

  Nick snorted and turned back to the practice. “I’m just glad you haven’t changed my title to ‘Mister of the Remnant Warriors’ now that we’re married.”

  “Actually, I was considering ‘Master’, but that makes it sound like you’re over me, and we both know that isn’t true,” she teased.

  He started to make an inappropriate comment and hissed when Allie elbowed him, giving him a “shut the heck up look.”

  “Don’t be nasty,” she told him haughtily, making him chuckle. “I think your new title should be ‘Mister Mistress’.”

  Understandably, he groaned at that.

  “To answer your question,” he said with a look that said he didn’t appreciate that new title at all, “I think you’re right about promoting her.”

  Allie nodded, then called Robin over. The girl looked so different now, and not just from the grief that was etched into her face. Her blonde curls were gone and in their place was a short, auburn-colored bob that was as straight as Allie’s own hair. She knew that the Healers had the ability to change hair color and texture, but it was extremely rare when anyone did so.

  The vanity of the Old Age had no place in the new.

  She understood that Robin wanted a change, though, and didn’t blame her. She had a new life now that she needed to embrace, even though it had been unwelcomingly thrust upon her. If she wanted to do so looking like someone else, then why not?

  “Love the hair,” she told the girl as she reached out to touch the auburn softness.

  Robin smiled, but it didn’t reach her sad, grass-colored eyes. “Thanks. It was Abba’s idea, actually.”

  Allie was surprised at that, but knew He had His reasons, as always. Allie nodded to Nick.

  “We were just talking, and we want to promote you to a new position, one right below Nick. Like a third.”

  Allie laughed then. “Still don’t know what your title will be though. Nick doesn’t like my suggestion for his title of ‘Mister Mistress’. Maybe you could be ‘Miss Mistress’.”

  Robin laughed at that. “Yeah, I’m with Nick on this one. I’m thinking… not.”

  Allie grinned at her. “Well, we should probably just go with ‘Commander’,” she said as she jerked a thumb at Nick, “and ‘Lieutenant Commander’ for you.”

  Robin shrugged. “Sounds good. Just a name. Don’t really care what we’re called, as long as we get to send evil scum back where it needs to be.”

  On that, they all separated and started working with their teams. Since Zad and Metatron were glued to her side for her protection, and they were also team leaders, Allie had the different teams “fight” each other so that the angels would be close to her.

  After a bit, Allie motioned the angels to the side. “We really need to work with the shooting part of the swords,” she told them. “We got lucky in Kingston when we figured out how to tag team the speed demons, but since they learn our techniques so quickly, we won’t be able to do that again.”

  “There is no such thing a ‘luck’,” Metatron told her. She cocked her eyebrow.

  “Seriously? Out of all that, that’s what you choose to comment on?” She made a rude, dismissive sound and looked at Zad.

  “So, what can we do?”

  The angel looked out across the arena at the practicing “combatants.” He scratched his chin with the sharp end of his sword and Allie watched in fascination as the cuts he was making almost instantly healed, only to be reopened when he would scratch them again.

  “Well, now that your swords work on angels, we need to be careful,” he said.

  “We do not wish to be incapacitated,” Metatron added. Allie gave him one of her looks. Even though just hours before they’d been holding each other and admitting their deepest secrets, they were now back to the normal banter and teasing. Well, her teasing and him snarling.

  She wouldn’t have it any other way.

  “Thank you, Captain Obvious,” she drawled.

  He looked at her in surprise. “What? No ridiculous play on my name?”

  Allie shrugged and crossed her arms over her chest. “Captain Obvious-a-tron was dumb.”

  Metatron snarled at her. “Oh, yes, because all the other names you’ve given me were sooo ingenious,” he snapped.

  “Ooh, the big guy is learning sarcasm!” she teased as she clapped her hands.

  “Children, could we focus on the issue at hand?” Zad said, laughing. “Allie is right, the Remnants do need a lot more practice with their swords, and not just striking. But yes, we need to do so carefully so we’re not wiped out in the process. None of us are immune to the celestial swords’ effects now.”

  “I think we need to break off into very small groups like we did before when you were showing us the other things your swords can do,” Allie suggested. The angels’ swords weren’t limited to just lightning bolts, like the Remnants’. Allie thought it would be nice if they could create storms or earthquakes like Metatron’s did, or compel others like Zad’s could.

  But she also knew that power like that corrupts and figured it was better that the humans didn’t have such abilities.

  “We also need to work on your senses,” Metatron added. Allie nodded, in agreement with the huge angel for once. It was something he continually harped on, at least with her.

  Small groups were assigned, with Zad taking one and Metatron the other. Allie went with Metatron’s group, because he was going to be instructing them on the use of senses and Allie knew she absolutely needed that.

  After a lot of boring lecture from the angel, he finally got down to actually teaching them to sense the enemy. He called Zad over to use his blinding ability on the group and then Metatron started striking at them. Thankfully, he used the flat side of his sword. The Remnants didn’t have the angels’ near instant healing ability.

  It was odd — and spooky — to be completely blinded. Allie couldn’t even imagine what it had been like for those in the Old Age who’d had to spend their whole lives not being able to see things coming at them, or objects that were lying about, ready to trip.

  Even though she couldn’t see what the others were having done to them, she could swear Metatron was targeting her more. He’d tripped her a dozen times, pushed her down, knocked her flying and he seemed to have a love of whacking her on the butt.

  When he smacked his sword against her behind for the tenth or so time, she yelped and spun in a circle, swinging her sword wildly. Unfortunately, the only thing that took a hit was her pride.

  Again.

  “Dude, really?” she snarled as she rubbed her stinging back cheeks with her free hand.

  “You must pay attention if you don’t want to be struck,” Metatron’s voice washed over her, a velvety sound near her ear. Immediately, Allie brought h
er sword up and smacked it back, grinning as she felt it hit.

  “Better,” Metatron growled.

  Like a switch had been flipped, suddenly Allie could sense him knew that he was rubbing his forehead.

  With amazing clarity, like she’d managed to turn on that switch that had a big red arrow pointing to it with a sign saying “SENSE,” she could see her surroundings. Could see the other Remnants, could even see the trees and bleachers in the distance.

  The images in her mind weren’t clear, though, not like her own eyes would see them. It was more like a misty outline of her surroundings. Almost like a negative of a photograph from the Old Age.

  A few times before she’d managed to “open her senses,” as Metatron always directed her to do, but not to the extent that she could actually picture in her mind what was going on around her.

  She was excited over the development and started to tell the angel, but then she clamped her mouth shut. A slow grin spread across her face when she decided to wait until Metatron came back to her and surprise him. She couldn’t wait to whack his angel booty and see how he liked being humiliated like that.

  Payback’s a Medivac, she thought.

  The angel was working with Siobhan at that moment and Allie’s lips pursed when she “saw” that he wasn’t nearly as hard on the girl as he’d been on her. A little voice told her that the angel wanted Allie to be top-notch, ready for anything, and trained as best as she could be… the reason he was so hard on her.

  She ignored that little voice.

  It was difficult not to let on that she could envision her surroundings and she tried to look about surreptitiously, turning her head with just the slightest of movements.

  But when she sighed in boredom and closed her eyes briefly, it dawned on her that she wasn’t seeing with her eyes, but with her mind. She didn’t need to turn her head to see. In fact, she could just close her eyes and make it look like she was taking a nap.

  She thought about doing just that and wondered if she could get away with sitting on the ground without one of the other blind Remnants falling over her, but then she sensed someone new approaching them.

  Allie cocked her head to the side as she tried to focus on the other presence. Whoever was walking their way was large, much larger than a human. It wasn’t Zad, she didn’t think. But the form did seem familiar…

  She could still picture Metatron, who was off to the side, tormenting one of the other Remnants… she sensed it was Ty. Her lips twitched when Metatron swatted him on the rear end too. At least she wasn’t the only one being humiliated.

  She turned her attention back to the new arrival. He was closer, heading right toward her. But he wasn’t just walking like a normal being would. He was prowling, for lack of a better word, like a predator would. Stalking.

  It was kind of creepy, especially since he seemed to be coming towards her.

  Allie wondered if Metatron had put one of the angels up to it, sneaking up on her to teach her a lesson. Maybe he figured while he was busy with someone else, she’d relax her guard and leave herself vulnerable to attack.

  It would be something he would do. Heck, it was something she would do.

  The new presence had managed to creep closer, dodging the others who were focusing on not getting whacked with Metatron’s sword. The angel wasn’t paying any attention to the stalker, so Allie was pretty sure she was right about him being behind this sneak attack.

  The angel — or whatever he was — had drawn almost near enough to touch and Allie pushed at her senses again, trying to draw more information on who it was. Her internal vision was still fuzzy and underdeveloped, but her intuition, the sense that had always helped her before in ferreting out good versus bad, was usually spot on.

  And despite the fact that Metatron was ignoring the being as if he expected him to be there and so wasn’t an enemy, her intuition was telling her exactly the opposite.

  Demon!

  She opened her mouth to yell out a warning, but before she got more than the “de-” out, he was on her, wrapping his arms tightly around her.

  Suddenly, Allie couldn’t speak, couldn’t move… just like when the serial-rapist demon Sherone had gotten a hold on her. Her uniform might be “demon-proof” when it came to attacks, but she knew from that past experience that whatever this paralyzing ability thing was that Sherone had used on her wasn’t affected by the uniform.

  Still, instincts had her struggling against the hold, but she literally couldn’t move a muscle. In her mind, though, she was fighting with everything she had.

  Nick yelled out from across the arena and immediately she sensed his presence. Allie breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that her husband had seen the demon grab her and had transferred to her. If she could have smiled, she would have. Nick was going to save her.

  But his next words made her heartrate shoot up as terror filled her.

  “Where’d she go? Where’s Allie?” he yelled.

  She knew then that Sherone had made her invisible. And obviously, he was too.

  She saw Metatron’s misty outline spin around. “She was just here,” the angel answered, confusion coloring his voice.

  Other Remnants and Zad rushed over by then, their presence shadows and swirls, but Allie could make each one out. She was now surrounded by hundreds of people and not one of them could see or hear her.

  She wondered why the others — and especially Metatron — didn’t use their senses to see her and the demon. It made no sense… unless they were in on the kidnapping.

  Allie shook that thought away. She refused to go down that doubting road again. Zad and Metatron were trustworthy. They weren’t traitors.

  Still… it was strange.

  “I was watching her,” Nick said, his voice frantic. “She was right here and then she was just… gone.” He sounded so anguished that it tore at her.

  “Here’s her sword!” Robin yelled as she picked up the weapon that Abba Himself had given Allie a thousand years ago during a ceremony when He’d given her the duty of Mistress of the Remnant Warriors.

  Her sword was different, more ornate, than all the others. It was the only possession she prized.

  Allie tried again to speak, but the demonic hold on her wouldn’t allow it. Sherone then easily lifted her then and started carrying her away. And somehow, he walked right through people. Not between them, not alongside them, but through them.

  Sherone was far more powerful and had way more abilities than she thought any one demon should have.

  No! she screamed in her mind. Nick! Metatron! Zad! Someone help me! I’m right here, by the bleachers! Hurry!

  Surely, she thought, Metatron, with his “use your senses” mantra will hear me…

  But no help came. No one even glanced in their direction.

  So, with no ability to fight back whatsoever, Allie found herself being carted out of the arena, away from her friends, away from her new husband, off to who knew where.

  Of course, she knew that Lucifer still had that bounty on her head, so she had to assume Sherone was off to collect on it. Which meant she’d soon be in her worst enemy’s grip. Plus, there was the fun fact that Sherone was, again, the serial rapist demon. She doubted she’d make it to Lucifer without being violated first.

  And to top it all off, she was still blind.

  Chapter 11

  I T WASN’T SHERONE who’d kidnapped her, but a lesser demon named Bebarr. Allie was a little stunned over the fact that a lesser demon had so many abilities, yet was still low man on the totem pole.

  But then she assumed the demons had figured out a way to “share” their powers.

  If that was the case, it was probably the worst news ever. That meant that any demon they came across could possibly have speed, invisibility, that paralyzing hold thing, and whatever other powers demons possessed.

  They had traveled for three days before arriving at a place on the edge of the Outer Zone that she’d never been to before. Allie didn’t think that w
as possible; she thought she’d been everywhere in the Zone in her justice dispensing duties as Mistress.

  The place he brought her to was a tiny village and from what she could tell, it was fairly new. She wondered if the demons had built it for themselves after The Releasing, which meant that none of the angels or Remnants would be able to transfer there. If they hadn’t been to a place before, then transferring there was impossible, unless Abba sent them.

  Nick or Zad should have still been able to transfer to her, though, but for whatever reason, they didn’t. And after a full day, Allie wasn’t holding out much hope of rescue. She figured if Abba knew where she was, He would have told someone. And she also knew that He wasn’t monitoring Lucifer and the demons too closely. This was their time and Abba was going to let them have at it. Mostly.

  Allie wouldn’t have been so magnanimous, though. She would have taken out Bebarr, leveled the village and scouted the countryside for more demons. If she could move.

  The paralyzing thing didn’t just work when the demon touched her, unlike when Sherone had gotten his arms around her. Then, the paralysis was released as soon as Metatron knocked the demon away.

  But Bebarr’s paralysis seemed to be like Zad’s blindness ability, where it hung on until it was released. It definitely made kidnapping her easier. And, perversely, it made being kidnapped easier on her.

  While she despised not being able to move, the paralysis kept her from feeling all the injuries the demon had inflicted on her. Once he’d figured out that her uniform protected her, he’d taken it off, then punched, kicked, dropped her countless times, and even slammed her head into a rock.

  Apparently, when Lucifer put the bounty on her head, it was “dead or alive.”

  The paralysis also stopped her need for food and bathroom breaks, thankfully. Considering Bebarr hadn’t so much as offered her a sip of water in the three days he’d had her, she figured that was one of those blessings in disguise.

  It wasn’t until the second day that the demon realized she couldn’t see. Allie was still able to use her newly discovered ability to visualize her surroundings, but she didn’t let the demon know that. She hoped he’d eventually get careless and she’d find a way to escape.