Protect Her: Part 10 (8 page)

“Adam,” Benjamin said. “His name is Adam.”

“Adam and Eva. For Pete’s sake, is that who I think it is?”

“The biblical stories of Adam and Eve are based on the first two humans ever created. Those origin stories are true. This goes back further than that. I’m talking about the origins of the angels and our beginning in God’s plan. Adam and Eva are the only two remaining angels of the first generation of angels that God created. He learned from his mistakes when he created the rest of us.”

“What kind of mistakes? He’s God,” I asked, aware that I was trying to sound like I was an expert in God’s rationale and decision-making process.

“God is not infallible to mistakes,” Benjamin said. “There was something different about Adam. He didn’t want to share God’s love and attention with his brethren. So one day he decided to take care of that problem.”

Well, that didn’t sound good at all. It seemed the more I learned about angel lore, the more I wanted to forget angels existed at all.

CHAPTER NINE –
RILEY

Eva’s laughter rattled the walls of the bar. I winced at the shrillness of it, and I heard Viho and Klein’s hisses of pain. I withstood it with only mild discomfort, likely because I wasn’t human anymore. I sent a wave of energy in their direction to deflect the majority of the maniacal noise. I needed to stay focused, but I wasn’t going to let them fall into the path of whatever was about to happen either.

Finally, the laughter reached a level where it was nothing more than a low chortle. Eva seemed to be laughed out. “A gift? You gave me a gift? Forgive me, brother, but I believe you have been gone from the world so long that you misunderstand the meaning of the word.”

I watched her as she began a slow sidestep in a wide semi-circle facing Adam. He moved to match her pace in a counterclockwise fashion. As they arrived in a position where they directly faced each other without anything between them, it was if they anchored their feet to the floor.

From where I stood, I was the six o’clock to their nine and three positions on a clock face. I tried to wave behind my back to Viho and Klein for them to leave the bar. We were on the other side of the veil, but I figured between the two of them they had enough knowledge to fill a library about the parallel worlds where we existed. They could find a way back to the other side on their own. So I was surprised when I felt each of them step to either side of my shoulder.

“I think all hell’s about to break loose. Get out now,” I said under my breath hoping they could hear me. It was eerie the way that Adam and Eva stood there studying each other across the room. It was as if they had forgotten the rest of us were even there.

“This is something I never expected to see in my lifetime, or anyone’s lifetime for that matter,” Viho said. “Original angels together once again.”

I cursed myself again for not paying attention during Alice’s history lessons on the angels. This wasn’t the time to ask questions either.

“I want to help Paige too,” Klein said softly. “Besides, every time you hire me back after firing me, you give me a fat raise. I’m expecting that to be the case this time too by the way.”

I would have laughed if the situation were even remotely humorous, but it wasn’t. Paige was trapped inside her body by an awakened goddess. If my necromancy couldn’t extract her, I wasn’t sure what could, and that idea scared the hell out of me. In the meantime, I couldn’t let Adam kill Eva or else she’d take Paige down with her.

But after everything I’d heard so far, I wasn’t sure if Adam planned on killing Eva or recruiting her. I wondered if they were talking to each other psychically and that’s why they were just standing there looking at each other.

“I thought of all our siblings, you were the one who could understand me,” Adam said. “You didn’t quake in fear when I came for you. You didn’t weep and beg me for mercy. In fact, I wasn’t even certain you feared me at all despite knowing what I had already done to our siblings. That was disconcerting. It gave me pause in raising my hand to eliminate you. You carried something inside of you the others did not, and it intrigued me.”

“I saw someone who had been given everything, but found no joy in it. You were always searching for something else to complete you. You never turned that obsession inward to see what was missing inside yourself. No, Adam. I never feared you. I pitied you,” Eva said.

Adam’s hand shot into the air, and Eva grabbed at her neck as if she was trying to pull something away. Her body contorted as she fought the forward momentum that began to drag her across the floor toward Adam’s outstretched fingers.

“Wish me luck. I’m going in,” I said grimly. I launched myself at Eva even as I let loose a bolt of energy in Adam’s direction. It didn’t matter to me if it hit him or not; as long as he was distracted, I figured his magical hold on Eva would loosen.

Instead, I hit a space a few inches from Eva full force and seemed to bounce off an invisible shield. Flung backward up into the air, I landed hard enough on my back that my body went through the floorboards denting the floor.

“That stung a little bit,” I said as I moved to get up. Eva was already halfway across the room now. I didn’t understand why she wasn’t able to break free. She and Adam should have been fairly matched when it came to magic.

Then it hit me. Eva was at a disadvantage because she didn’t have her full life force intact. I looked up just as I saw a glimmer in the palm of Viho’s hand. I knew the level of anxiety the old man must have been experiencing just holding the relic. It had caused others to go stark raving mad almost immediately after contact.

I held up my hand. Viho pitched the relic in my direction. I caught it effortlessly. I couldn’t say how or why, but my defenses were down. The moment I felt the relic hit my skin, I experienced a bout of pure rage.

I couldn’t pinpoint exactly what the cause was of this anger, other than it emanated with my feelings about the angels who were about to duke it out in front of me. It seemed as if the cause for all of the things that Paige and I had experienced had been because of some elaborate game being played by these two deities. I was sick and tired of being used as a pawn on someone else’s chessboard.

It was time to take back the world from the kind of garbage that simply wanted to ruin it. If I wouldn’t step in, then who would? The archangels were too busy with their political inner circle squabbles to pay attention to what was happening in the world. They’d probably sit back and let Adam and Eva do their worst. Then, because they were cowards, they’d probably join them.

All of these thoughts spun through my mind. It was all so unfair. Everything in my life was unfair. I tried to fight against it, but it always came back to this. It was sick and twisted. I was sick and twisted. Even as I thought these things, I watched in an amazed sort of fascination as black tendrils sprouted from the relic and began to twirl down my forearm.

“Riley! Give it to Eva!” Viho called out, but I was barely listening.

“I don’t think so, Pops,” I said faintly. I caught the smell of her hair tickling my nostrils before her arms curled around my neck.

“Give it to me,” Eva hissed in my ear. I wasn’t sure how she had broken free from Adam’s grasp, but it didn’t matter.

“Finders keepers,” I said. Then I crushed the relic into dust. Eva screamed, but it was too late. Everything that had been trapped in the gemstone nestled inside the relic was free, and it had found a new home.

I smiled as I watched the ripple of new tattoos begin to take shape over my skin. My wings expanded behind me as I stood and let my arms reach up to the sky. I felt the flood of power coursing through me. Finally, I was complete. I was who I was always meant to be. This kind of power could only mean one thing.

I was meant to rule everyone. Not God. Where was God in all of this chaos anyway? If he dared to show his face, I’d deal with him. In the meantime, I had others who required my attention.

As my face turned toward Adam and Eva, I found they stood together. Their expressions were priceless. Shock. Perhaps even a little awe. That was good.

“I require that you give me back something of mine,” I said, pointing at Eva.

Adam wrapped his arm around Eva’s waist. “You’ve interfered in my plans one too many times. You just did something very stupid. Very well. This is how it works. You take from me, and I’ll take from you. Seems fair enough to me.” Then Adam slid a knife across Eva’s throat. As her body slid to the ground, Adam disappeared.

A cry escaped my lips. I caught her body just before she hit the floor. Dull, sightless eyes stared back at me. Eva was gone.

“Riley!” I whipped my head in Viho’s direction. He took several steps backward. I wasn’t sure exactly what he saw in me now, but it was obvious it scared him shitless.

“He killed her,” I whispered. It couldn’t be possible. The words felt as if they were ripped out of my chest. I hadn’t been able to save her. I failed her. “She’s gone.”

“You have to cleanse yourself of the curse,” Viho said.

“No, I’m going to kill that sack of shit,” I growled. “I have to go now.” I closed my eyes casting my energy outward looking for any clue as to where he had gone. Adam was going to pay for what he had done.

“If you leave before cleansing yourself, there is a good chance you will forget everything all together. You’ll forget about Paige too. The song of that dark power will seduce you. You won’t be able to see what is right and what is wrong anymore.”

“I am in complete control,” I said. “I will have my revenge.” With that, I opened a door to the other side of the veil. I had an original angel on the loose, and I was going to find him. That’s what I did after all. Find things that tried to hide in the shadows.

There was a bounce in my step as I eased through the portal. I had purpose again. It felt good to be back on the job.

CHAPTER TEN –
PAIGE

“He killed them all,” Benjamin said, continuing his tale of doom and gloom. “All of them except Eva. It is said he couldn’t kill her because she was his favorite sibling. Personally, I think it was because in his haste to level the playing field for God’s affections, he discovered what all of us eventually come to understand.”

“What’s that?” I couldn’t help but continue to question how this had become my life. It was like one perpetual nightmare.

“God is a finicky master. He always yearns for the next best thing to lavish his love on. He was already thinking of creating humans even back then. By the time he discovered Adam’s treachery, it was too late. God took drastic measures. Adam was obliterated, or so we thought. Eva remained as the final remnant of the first generation. Ironically then, she achieved what Adam had always wanted. She was the one favored by God among us. She was given latitude where we were not. It was as if she could do no wrong.”

“That explains so much,” I said. “The jealousy of the angels and then the ultimate betrayal when you all came together and turned on her.”

“By that time, she had done horrible misdeeds,” Benjamin said. “Don’t doubt for a second that Eva didn’t deserve her punishment. Adam’s curse on her life force twisted her goodness into pure evil; now, she’s free. She will come for me and my brothers. Then she will go after the humans because her mind has been tainted to hate them and everything they represent. That is what the curse does to the one it infects.”

“And this was a curse put on her by her supposedly dead brother,” I said.

“That’s right.”

“I don’t know how you guys keep all this crap straight,” I said. I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter. I need to find Riley and tell him that I’m alive. He is my priority. If I don’t go to him, he will think his spell didn’t work.”

“That’s not going to be possible,” Benjamin said. “I brought you here to keep you out of harm’s way from whatever will happen between Adam and Eva now that she is back. I imagine their family reunion will keep them busy for some time.”

“Put me back in my body, and I’ll kick her ass out,” I said. “I don’t agree any more. I feel like I’m finally starting to see clearly. Everyone in my life is flawed and screwed up, big-time. Hell, I can see why. Angels have been playing the ultimate mindfuck on us for as long as we’ve existed. Then the demons came along following the orders of the angels cast out of Heaven, who made them to wreak havoc for everyone. We’ve got a bunch of mini-Gods running around all trying to be God. Nobody is ever safe.”

“Even if I could put you back in your body, Paige, I wouldn’t do it. If you chose to do so, you have the ability to move on now that your essence has been separated from your physical form. You can travel to heaven. I’ll take you there. Perhaps, in time, you could even return in a reincarnated form. I’m offering you a gift.”

“There are no such things as free gifts in this world,” I said. “Proctor had his blood pacts. Angels give gifts with strings attached. I’m not that naïve young woman you took into your home. You can keep your gift. I don’t want it. The only thing I want is to find Riley and tell him I was wrong about everything.”

“Riley attempts to hide from me on the other side of the veil. It is useless, of course. I know exactly where he is, and it was only a matter of time until I had the strength of force required to take care of his threat. ”

That was something I didn’t know. “If you have what you need, why haven’t you attacked him yet? What are you waiting for?”

The air around my feet began to swirl. I watched in awe as it moved up my body. Benjamin leapt out of his chair and approached me, but he stopped a full foot away from me.

“What’s happening?” I didn’t feel any pain or discomfort, but the air whipped around me in greater intensity. It blurred my vision for a few moments as it reached my head and covered me completely. Then it disappeared as quickly as it started. I felt a small bounce in my legs as my feet landed on the ground.

Stunned, I examined my body. I couldn’t see through my hand anymore, and I could feel the touch of my warm skin as I patted my face and down the sides of my body. “I’m real again.” I couldn’t think of another way to explain it.

Benjamin sat silent looking at me for what seemed like hours. Then he turned away from me with a shake of his head. “You asked me why I have been waiting for my attack. I know that a few of my brothers have offered to stand with Riley. Believe it or not, Paige, waging an angel war on earth is the last thing I would ever want to do because I know the consequences to all of us would be devastating. It isn’t a decision to be made lightly. I was waiting for a sign that it was the right thing to do. Now I believe I have it.”

I felt my insides wrench at his words, because I knew what it must mean even though I didn’t understand why or how. My angel had given over to his dark side, and it was all my fault.

To be continued…

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