The Tempting

by V J J Dunn

  Allie’s eyes widened; he wasn’t a traitor after all. Thank Abba.

  Serariel snapped the cuff around her other wrist and leaned back. Almost immediately, her arms were jerked up, until her body formed a “t,” just as Lucifer’s had when she’d mercilessly teased him.

  And the Lord’s, during His great sacrifice.

  She was immensely thankful then for being paralyzed as her shoulders made a popping sound and she knew the pain from the dislocation would have been unbearable.

  No, not unbearable, she thought. I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me. In that moment, the Scripture she’d known for much of her life had never had more meaning.

  Abba, strengthen me, she whispered in her mind.

  “Be strong little warrior,” Serariel whispered and she sensed him touching her face, although she still couldn’t feel it. But suddenly, she could see again. Well, as much as she could in the blackness. She could make out the angel’s face at least. He looked… torn.

  “Hurry up,” a voice came from behind them, startling her. Allie assumed it was a demon. “The master is waiting.”

  Allie had no idea that there were others with them. All that time, she’d thought Serariel was on Lucifer’s side. It also explained why he’d run to The Pit, rather than flew, since demons didn’t have wings.

  When he sighed quietly and moved away, Allie knew it was with reluctance. That, too, helped her in strengthening her. She would persevere and hold on to her sanity. Someone was on her side, someone who knew where she was.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Serariel said to the unknown accomplice. “This place gives me a creepy feeling.”

  The demon, or whoever it was waiting for him, chuckled. “You should have been here for the last millennium.”

  Allie heard the rustling of people — or whatever — leaving, and she felt despair fill her. She was alone again.

  Chapter 13

  S HE HAD NO idea how long she hung there in the bleakness. It could have been hours, it could have been days. There was just no way of knowing.

  But it felt like an eternity.

  There were no sounds in the center of the earth. No signs of life. No nothing. Allie would have welcomed the bugs just for the company. And she wouldn’t have even cared if crawled all over her.

  She spent a lot of time contemplating her past, the mistakes she’d made, and all the time she’d wasted in the new millennium. Especially every second she’d spent feeling sorry for herself for whatever stupid reason her mind could come up with.

  After this, she’d never cry herself to sleep again just because she felt inadequate to be Mistress.

  After this, she’d never worry that she wasn’t good enough, strong enough, smart enough.

  After this, she was going to spend every waking second figuring out how to kick the ever loving crap out of demons.

  Once she was done contemplating the past, she focused on the future. The immediate future anyway. Eternity in her new spiritual body was unfathomable, but oh so desired.

  Her immediate future was now focused on annihilating Lucifer’s threat to the good guys.

  Demons were strong, as strong as angels. They were fast, especially those with the speed ability. And since they seem to have figured out how to share abilities, there was the possibility that they were all fast now.

  They were also smart, changing their tactics to meet the challenges the Remnants presented them with. It had become nearly impossible to fight them.

  Nearly, but not completely. Allie knew that her team was going to have to really step it up. But in order to have any success at all, they were going to need more angels fighting at their side.

  She thought back to the fight in Kingston. Abba hadn’t sent the angels and Ed had died. He never said why He hadn’t sent them either. While she knew He had His reasons, of course, it would be nice to understand why He did some of the things He did.

  Or why He didn’t do some others.

  But if… no, when… she got out of the current situation she was in, she was going to demand some answers. Well, she was going to ask nicely. As irreverent as she could be in her teasing and joking, even she knew better than to make demands of The Creator.

  He’d literally brought her into this world and He could just as literally take her out.

  To fend off the insanity that was threatening to consume her, Allie went over every single fight the Remnants had had so far with the demons and fallen angels. She relived every sword swipe and thrust, every position she’d placed her feet, every dodge and duck.

  She remembered, too, every swipe the demons had made with their claws, how they would stab upward, trying to take out a throat, or stab forward, hoping to disembowel.

  And then there were the fallen angels. The fights with them had been far more difficult. They were celestial beings, after all, and had been around humans since the very beginning, so they were well-versed in just how a human would react.

  It occurred to her then that the warrior angels had been teaching them the moves they needed to know to fight, for both offense and defense, but they hadn’t taught them how to think. How to respond. They’d been fighting like angels, but they’d been thinking like humans.

  And they would never be able to defeat the fallen until they relearned their thinking. If they didn’t, Ed wouldn’t be the only one sleeping until the Judgement.

  She then went through every movement the fallen had made, every muscle jerk, every eyebrow quiver, every lip twitch. It occurred to her that they all fought the same, made the same movements, used the same strategy.

  Allie wondered why that was. It was like they’d all been trained by the same person and that person hadn’t taught them to think for themselves.

  But Zad and Metatron weren’t like that — they were very quick strategists. It was impossible to beat them. Allie had always assumed that was because they were, well, angels. Now, she wasn’t so sure. But one thing was clear about the pair; they never did the same thing twice. Never made the same moves, at least not in the same sequence.

  And then it dawned on her the reason why — Zad and Metatron were warrior angels, but none of the fallen were… so far, at least. The fallen were the guardians and powers, dominions and authorities, and others — but no archangels or warriors.

  Which meant they might be easier to defeat.

  After her musings of offensive and defensive strategies, Allie started thinking about the places where the Remnants had been called to quell riots. São Paulo, Puebla, Chengdu… and, while it wasn’t technically a riot, Kingston. There were a few others in between, but those were the worst, the real hotspots.

  In her mind, she drew a line from the towns, but there wasn’t any real connection. Then she calculated distances between the cities, but again, no obvious link. But then she thought about the distance from The City to those towns and it clicked.

  They were in a near circle, with The City in the center.

  She knew that just before The Judgement, Lucifer was going to assemble an army to attack The City. It seemed that he had been moving from town to town — even before The Releasing, when he must have sent his minions — in a planned pattern. The evil would arrive in a town, havoc and chaos would ensue, and then he’d move on to the next town, slowly connecting the circle that would surround Abba’s City.

  A sound caught her attention then. It was just a whisper in the vast darkness, such a soft sound that if she hadn’t had the enhanced hearing, she never would have caught it. It was such a tiny and insignificant noise, one that would never have drawn any attention outside of the dark prison in which she hung. But in here, in the sightless and soundless dungeon, Allie heard it.

  She wondered if the little bugs had found her once again. Or if some other creature had made its way this far down into the earth. That was doubtful. The creatures were too smart. There was nothing but despair to be found so deep in the earth.

  The sound got louder; still just a slight noise, but mo
re of a brush against the ground than a whisper. Something was coming.

  It could have been the demons and Allie would have been glad, if just for the company. Heck, at this point, she might even welcome Lucifer himself.

  Whatever was coming her way was doing so with a purpose, that much was obvious. It wasn’t meandering or investigating its surroundings as it moved; it was purposefully making its way to The Pit.

  As it drew closer, Allie could make out the sounds of trotting. There were two sets of footsteps, as far as she could tell. She still couldn’t turn her head, so she couldn’t watch the entrance to see what was coming her way. Of course, it didn’t matter who or what it was — she was still totally at the mercy of anyone who showed up.

  It was closer now, almost to The Pit. Allie waited, wondering what was coming next. Regardless, she’d be glad for the company, evil or not.

  The trotting grew much louder once they breached the entrance to the cavern. Allie frowned — well, internally at least — because the footsteps were so in sync that it was like soldiers marching. She knew the demons didn’t have that type of military precision; neither did the Remnants.

  Puzzled over who was heading her way, Allie struggled to see, but the unknown entities were just out of her line of sight. But then she realized it wasn’t two beings… just one four-legged creature.

  “Meee-rawwwrrr.”

  Allie would have laughed if she could have. Her bobcat friend had found her. Her teammates didn’t, the angels didn’t, heck, even Abba didn’t. But Charo did.

  Whiskers touched her face and warm breath blew across her cheeks. The cat then wound around her body, investigating, sniffing. Allie wondered if she was trying to figure out how to unchain her.

  She wished more than anything that she could speak, because she would tell Charo that, while she was happy for the company, it wasn’t safe for her to be here. The demons could come back at any time. They were supposed to be doing an “exchange” of some sort, which Allie assumed meant exchanging her for Lucifer’s bounty.

  If it were possible to speak, though, she might ask Charo to run her body under her hand, let her get her hand on the cat’s shoulder, just to see if she could transfer them out of there. But Allie also knew that was extremely unlikely; the chains that bound Lucifer, the same that were now holding her, were most likely enforced to prevent escape.

  Abba wouldn’t have taken the chance of having Lucifer escape before his time, even though He allowed the demons to.

  Charo “meowed” louder, as if in protest. Allie wanted to tell her, “Yeah, I know. I hate this too.” The cat was behind her and Allie heard, rather than felt, the chains rattling. She wondered if she was trying to chew through them.

  Fat chance, kitty.

  Allie wondered how the cat found her, but it gave her hope. If a bobcat could find her, surely her friends could. It seemed Serariel had forgotten her.

  The chains rattled for quite a bit before Charo gave up. Allie hoped she hadn’t hurt her mouth on the senseless effort. The cat wound herself around Allie’s body again and then put her paws on her shoulders again and got close.

  With her enhanced vision, Allie could make out Charo’s features, the long ears with tufts of black fur on the tips, the white outline around her eyes and up her forehead, the dark slashes on her lips where her whiskers jutted out. And, of course, her shining yellow eyes.

  The cat stared back and Allie assumed she could see her as well as she could. She wasn’t completely sure if the animals in the new age had received the enhanced hearing and sight like some of the humans had, but even in the Old Age, most animals could see much better in the dark.

  It seemed as if Charo was trying to tell her something, trying to convey her thoughts. Allie wished Abba had seen fit to give them mental telepathy, but sadly, no. There was no mind reading going on. But then she considered some of the thoughts she had on a regular basis and realized it was much better that they didn’t have ESP.

  CHaro then leaned forward, sliding her big paws around Allie’s neck as she rubbed her cheek against hers and gently licked her ear.

  Allie’s eyes filled with tears; the cat was trying to comfort her in whatever way she could. After a few moments, she dropped back down to all fours and stepped back so that Allie could see her. She knew then that the cat realized she was paralyzed.

  With a forlorn look and a final mournful “meow,” Charo turned and ran out of the cavern.

  Allie wanted to scream, “No! Don’t leave me!” The idea of being left alone in the dark again was horrifying.

  She knew that this time, she truly was going to lose her mind.

  Chapter 14

  A LLIE HUNG for another eternity in The Pit. Rather than contemplating the past and reliving all the Remnants’ fights with the enemy, coming up with new strategies to fight demons, she just simply hung there in the darkness.

  She had given up.

  Mostly, she slept. When her dreams became nightmares, she woke herself while keeping her eyes closed, her hearing blocked, her senses muted. There was simply no reason to put out the effort. And no desire to.

  Sometime around the fifth century of hanging there — give or take a few decades — Allie was awakened by another noise. Or noises, rather. Shuffling and murmuring.

  It was then she knew her mind had finally snapped. After all this time, it was obvious no one was ever going to come for her.

  “Allie,” a voice whispered. “Allie, wake up.”

  She might have moaned then, or maybe it was a groan. She couldn’t be sure. It was a throaty, guttural sound, regardless. But then her eyes flew open.

  I made a sound?

  Just to be sure, she tried again, this time focusing on the sound. She made a long moaning sound that was filled with pain.

  And for good reason, she realized, when suddenly every stinking cell in her body was screaming. She felt the chains coming off her wrists and she fell forward with a surprised yelp… right into Metatron’s arms.

  The idea of being able to move again had filled her for so long that now that she could, she regretted ever having that thought. She felt battered. Broken.

  She found herself lifted up into the huge angel’s arms. “No talking, little one,” he whispered. “Demons are near.”

  With that warning, he turned and started running toward the long passageway the led to The Pit. It reminded her of when Serariel had carried her to The Pit so long ago, but this time she felt every jar, every movement of his muscles, every huff of breath against her tender skin.

  She almost begged him to take her back.

  It seemed like just moments when they saw light. She knew it was a great distance away, but the knowledge that the tiniest bit of light canceled out all darkness filled her mind. Just like Abba and His goodness, His light, canceling out all the dark evil.

  The air was fresher and cleaner the farther up they ran. Allie sucked in a great lungful, now that she could. But the effort made her gasp in pain. Her ribs were obviously broken.

  She frowned then, wondering why her body hadn’t healed in all the centuries she’d hung by those unbreakable chains. It must have had something to do with the paralysis power, keeping her immobile, even to the point of her cellular structure not being able to mend.

  Her arm was broken, too, she realized, the one that was pinned against Metatron’s body. She struggled a bit and made a mewling sound, which he apparently understood, as he loosened his tight hold on her to let her maneuver her useless arm up on top of her body.

  Since she could do nothing else, she took stock of her other injuries. One leg was throbbing, most likely broken too. The one arm was broken, and she was pretty sure the wrist on the other side was shattered. Her jaw ached, which meant it was either broken or dislocated. Both shoulders were dislocated. Judging by the pounding in her head, she was likely concussed.

  She’d had all the same injuries before; when the Remnants practiced, they didn’t go easy on one another. She’d just never had
them all at once.

  Allie knew then why Serariel hadn’t released the paralysis. It had definitely been a kindness. She almost asked Metatron to re-paralyze her.

  Before much longer, they exited the passageway. The moon lit their path as the angel headed for a small grouping of trees, one of only a few in the Outer Zone. Once they were under the canopy of leaves, he carefully set her down.

  As soon as she was placed on the ground, Charo rubbed her face against hers. Allie was surprised to see the cat; she hadn’t been aware of her being with Metatron, and she’d frankly assumed she’d be dead now after so long. The animals in the new age didn’t have the same longevity that most of the humans had.

  Charo seemed to understand that Allie could feel all her injuries now, so she was being very careful not to brush against any injury — which pretty much just left her with the right cheek.

  Metatron was laying her out carefully, straightening her body as gently as he could, but it was still agonizing. Allie couldn’t even find it within her to be embarrassed by her nudity.

  He then leaned close to her ear. “I’m transferring you directly to Serene. Try to hold on, little one.”

  With those whispered words, Allie realized she was worse off than she thought.

  “What’s taking so long for The Judgement?” Allie asked Serene after she’d used the “magic wand,” as Allie called it, to heal most of her injuries. All except her ribs, which would take longer because of the cartilage. Still, within a day or two, she’d be back to normal.

  Serene cocked her head at Allie, her short, black bob haircut sliding to the side as she did. “So long? It’s only been a month since The Releasing.”

  Allie’s eyes widened at that bit of news. She could have sworn she’d hung in The Pit for several hundred years. It had felt at least that long, maybe more.

  “How long was I… gone?” she asked the Healer.

  Serene scrunched up her red lips as she looked to the ceiling. “Let’s see… ten days, I think.”