Seals (2 page)

“We’re all ordered to report back to Horizon
for further instruction,” said Ashley. She looked uneasily at
David.

“I don’t know about you guys, but this whole
thing feels really rotten. I have to trust that the legion knows
what they’re doing. But I just don’t know. I heard Ariel mention
something to Metatron about teaming up with demons, but maybe I’m
wrong.”

Ashley shook her head, not wanting to
believe that what she had heard might be true.

Kara glanced over at the barn uneasily.

“No, I’m sure you’re right about what you
heard. I wouldn’t put anything passed Metatron, however disturbing
it might sound.”

She shuddered inwardly at her own mention of
Metatron and turned her attention back to Ashley. “Has everyone
left?”

Ashley nodded. “Yes. We’re the last.”

Kara looked up into the deep, navy sky. The
memory of the archfiends soaring into the sky was still fresh in
her mind, and she felt the panic that they brought with them
again.

A war was brewing. It was inevitable. The
threat was as real and as tangible as she was. She felt in it her
soul. Could the legion defeat their archenemies? She didn’t want to
admit it to herself, but she was frightened at the hopelessness of
their situation, frightened that they would lose this battle. She
had never felt like this before. It was terrifying. She was losing
hope.

“Things are going to be different now, with
this new
arrangement
.”

Kara did her best to try and hide her
anxiety. “We have to prepare ourselves.”

“I know,” said Ashley. “It’s not going to be
easy. But what choice do we have?”

“We always have a choice,” said Kara.

Ashley shook her head. “Not this time. Come
on. Ariel’s waiting for us. Let’s get out of here and go home.”

She made her way toward the small creek
behind the barn.

Home
. Kara felt disconnected. Even
though she was still horribly angry with the legion, Horizon was
still
her home. She had to protect it from the archfiends.
It was time to go back. She needed to check on her friends.

Jenny and Peter were still healing. The last
time she had seen them, they were both in critical condition. She
had saved them, but just barely. Now she missed their smiling
faces. She missed the usual demon-killing routine. She needed
normalcy.

Before Kara turned to follow Ashley, she
reached out to David.

“David, I’m sorry—”

He brushed past her with his eyes on the
ground and didn’t even look at her.

Kara stood there for a moment, gathering
herself, as she watched him walk away. What had she done that was
so terrible? But even as she asked herself, she knew. She had hurt
David more than she had realized when she had dismissed his
affections in front of Ashley.

She watched the back of his head, the sway
in his shoulders as he walked away, and still she couldn’t move. It
was like someone had punched her in the gut.

David arrived at the creek just behind
Ashley. He didn’t turn around. He just jumped into the creek and
disappeared.

As Kara stood in her desolation, she felt a
presence behind her, something foul, something
dead
.

She spun around and held her soul blade to
the throat of a sneering higher demon.

The demon’s grin widened so much that he
looked like a ventriloquist’s puppet.

“Aren’t we a little bit jumpy,
fiend
-angel
? We’re supposed to be on the same team now.
Remember? Why don’t you put that blade away so we can have a nice
little chat?”

Kara narrowed her eyes and pushed the blade
harder into the demon’s neck.

“I’ll never be on
your
team, demon. I
don’t care what the legion says. I’ve always been a bit of a rebel,
and I usually do things
my
way. Besides, I don’t think
killing just one demon will ruin the legion’s plans. It’s not like
you’ll be missed. Give me a reason why I shouldn’t kill you
now?”

“Because you’d be breaking the new treaty we
have with the legion, and you’d be in a lot of trouble, little
angel,” laughed the higher demon.

“If you want to beat the archfiends…” the
higher demon paused, licked its lips with a gray tongue and then
added, “you
need
us. The archfiends will destroy all of us
if they can, but
together
we stand a fighting chance. We can
beat them.”

Kara couldn’t bring herself to admit the
demon might be right. “I know you’re up to something with this deal
with Horizon, and I’m going to find out what it is.”

“You’re wrong…but then again you’re the one
with the blade.”

Kara had never been so close to a higher
demon for so long without killing it. The demon smelled of bile and
rotten flesh, and it took an enormous amount of will power not to
send it back to the Netherworld. She gritted her teeth.

“Why were you were sneaking behind me,
demon
?”

“I was not.”

“Liar,” spat Kara. A trickle of black blood
seeped down the tip of her blade.

“All you demons are liars. It’s part of what
you are—deceivers and tricksters. There’s nothing honest about
demons. You might have fooled Ariel and the other archangels, but
I’m not buying this sham. This treaty’s a joke.
You
know it,
and
I
know it.”

A rasping laugh erupted from the demon’s
throat. “You angels are so suspicious, you especially. I meant no
offense. I was just
curious
about you, that is all.”

There was something odd with the way the
demon said
curious
, almost as though it hinted that it knew
something about her, about what was happening to her … about her
wings. But how could that be?

“We wanted a closer look at your new
wings
,” said a second voice from behind her, as though it
had been reading her mind.

Kara turned quickly and saw two more higher
demons.

Between them was a man. He looked like a
regular thirty-year-old businessman in an expensive black suit. He
had neatly trimmed dark hair and a sly smile on his handsome face.
He looked like he was ready to charm his way into some sort of
cunning deal. But his black eyes and pale skin gave him away.
Although he looked like a model, he still smelled like the dead. He
was a demon. He carried himself like a proud peacock, and Kara
suspected she was looking at a demon lord or some kind of boss from
the Netherworld. Typical. She narrowed her eyes. She wanted to kill
him too.

“They are…”

The man-demon paused as he took a moment to
inspect her wings thoroughly, moving his black eyes over every inch
of her, “…remarkable.”

“I know.”

Kara shoved her captive
higher demon to the ground and resisted the urge to kick it. The
demon smiled at her viciously and then stood amongst its brethren.
Their hollow black eyes and their identical faces were warped and
twisted into unnaturally large sneers. These higher demons, clones
from the abyss, always freaked her out.

She sensed that they were
hiding something, like they knew some sort of secret about her that
they weren’t about to share. She was really starting to get
annoyed.

“If you don’t stop staring
at me like that, I’m going to start chopping off heads.”

“So you’re the infamous
Kara Nightingale,” said the man. He stood too close, and his black
eyes rolled over her body once more.

“My, my. You’re not at all
what I expected.”

Kara grimaced at his foul
breath and shuddered at his nearness, but she wouldn’t move.
Showing this demon any kind of weakness by stepping back would be a
victory for him. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. So
instead, she squared her shoulders and raised her chin. “Yeah? And
why’s that?”

He raised his brows. “I
imagined you…taller. But, you’re still very…exquisite.”

The frown on Kara’s face
deepened. “And you are?”

“Salthazar,” said the
demon pompously. His voice was oily and treacherous. It was the
voice of a madman.

Kara twirled her blade in
her hand, inches from Salthazar’s suit.

“You say that like it’s
supposed to mean something to me.” She forced a laugh. “Never heard
of you.”

Salthazar lost his smile
for a second, but when it returned, and to Kara’s surprise, his
teeth were sparkling white.

“No matter, you will hear
of me soon enough. But to help enlighten you—I’m your late father’s
successor.”

Kara flinched as though
Salthazar had slapped her across the face. With all that was
happening to her, and with the archfiends’ escape, the last thing
on her mind was her father, the demon lord that
she
had
killed.

“Yes,” continued
Salthazar.

He clearly enjoyed the
distress on Kara’s face.

“We all know what you did
to your own precious daddy. You were the talk of the Netherworld
for a long time, the angel that destroyed the powerful Asmodeus. He
was the strongest and greatest of our kind, and yet
you
…” his black
eyes sparkled, “…destroyed him. How did you do it?”

A smile tugged at the
corners of her lips. “It just happened.”

“Nothing ever
just
happens.
There is always an explanation. Was it cleverness? Wit? Strength?
Or just dumb luck? I guess we’ll never really know how you managed
to vanquish the most powerful demon lord of our time.”

Kara let out a growl of
annoyance. “Guess not.”

Salthazar watched her for
a moment. “Rumors spread of your elemental power. Yes. I know of
it. It sparked lots of interest amongst our kind—to be able to
control such wild and fierce energy. It is a power that demons have
long desired to manipulate ourselves. But we never succeeded. Your
father tried and failed. It must take a great deal of self-control,
not to let it control you. But I guess things have changed now. I
know that you don’t possess it anymore.”

Kara did her best to hide
her annoyance and bitterness. Her elemental power was gone, and she
felt miserable. It had left a hole in her, and she wanted it
back.

The demon lord shook his
head. “You lost an incredible gift, there’s no denying that…only to
be replaced by wings? Don’t you think it’s strange that these
things keep happening to you, Kara Nightingale of the legion of
angels? Yes…tell me, why is that?”

“It’s a
mystery.”

Kara gripped the handle of
her dagger. Her nails cut into her palm. She tried to ignore the
surge and crash of bitter emotions that had awoken within her.
Truth be told, she wished she knew the answer, too. But she didn’t.
She didn’t know why these horrible things kept happening to her,
the elemental power…the wings…it was like a dark force kept
throwing obstacles at her, challenging her, keeping her from
becoming the guardian she was supposed to become, keeping her from
attaining her full potential.

Salthazar let out a cold
laugh. “Well, whatever. I think I should be thanking you, really.
Without you, without what you did, I wouldn’t be here. So thank you
for clearing a path for me.”

He paused. “I’ve always
wondered why
you
didn’t take his place.”

Kara frowned, but she
couldn’t find her voice.

“You could have, you
know,” continued the demon. “It was rightfully yours. You could
have taken your father’s place in the Netherworld. To rule the
demons as their queen.”

“My job is to
kill
demons,”
said Kara. She trembled with rage and squeezed her soul blade.
“That’s what guardian angels do. We rid the earth of scum like you,
and we protect the mortals. I would
never
side with you, with
demons. I would rather die a thousand true deaths than join the
Netherworld.”

Salthazar laughed harder.
“So very dramatic, but then again all you angels are such
dramatic
creatures. But you…” he faltered, “but you’re
different
, aren’t
you, Kara? You’ve never been just a
regular
angel. You’re different.
You always have been, and never more so than now.”

His eyes moved to her
wings, and Kara squeezed them together in an unsuccessful attempt
to hide them behind her back.

The demon raised his
eyebrows and waved his hands in a dismissal.

“Never mind. Well then,
that’s settled.”

He raised his voice. “I’m
Lord Salthazar, ruler of the Netherworld. I’m taking over where
Asmodeus left off.”

“What do you want?”
growled Kara, unable to control the hatred and anger that boiled
inside her. She wanted to cut that pretty smile off Salthazar’s
face.

The demon lord smiled at Kara’s sudden rage.
He was enjoying seeing her struggle internally. He wanted to push
her buttons. He was testing her.

He regarded her silently for a moment and
then said, “Just wanted a look. I wanted to see who this famous
Kara Nightingale was, the little girl who killed the powerful
Asmodeus, the one who’s been brewing up such trouble in my world. I
wanted to see what the fuss was all about.”

His black eyes widened. “But most of all, I
wanted to see your wings. I wanted to see them in all their
glory
myself.”