The Angel of Death (The Soul Summoner Book 3) (22 page)

My shoulders sagged. Had different choices been made for me, I could have ended up on someone’s couch, clinging to life or standing half-naked in the middle of the road in the dead of winter.
 

Nathan stretched out her other arm. “Azrael, what does this mean?
Kotailis
.”

“The kotailis is the time the earth is most inclined toward the sun. Light is greater than darkness on that day,” he explained.

I frowned. “Are you speaking literally or figuratively?”

He pointed out the window. “Right now it is dark. In the morning, it will be light.”

I relaxed again.
 

“In America we call it the first day of summer,” Nathan said.

“What does that have to do with anything?” I asked.

Azrael simply turned his palms up in question.

“What do we do with her?” I asked.

Nathan pulled out his cell phone. “I’ll have a car come pick her up and take her to the station.”

I grabbed the phone out of his hand. “No! You can’t do that.”

His eyes widened. “Why not?”

Gripping the phone with both hands, I shook my head. “Because if she’s like me…Nathan, you can’t lock her up in jail. I would rather you shoot me between the eyes. Nobody deserves that.”

He put his hands on his hips. “Well, what else can we do?”

I gave him his phone back. “We’ll have to keep her here.”

Nathan swore. “Are you kidding me?”

Azrael folded his arms over his massive chest. “This woman is completely unpredictable, Sloan. We don’t know why she’s here or what she wants with you.”

“Look at her,” I said. “I could kill her with a fly swatter.”

Nathan paced the room. “She’s been court ordered to be in that facility. They’ll keep looking for her.”

I pulled the blanket off the back of the couch and gently draped it over her. “I’m not sending her away so she can wind up in jail again. Besides, I want to talk to her and find out why she’s here and why the heck my name is engraved on her skin.”

“She doesn’t speak English, remember?” Nathan asked.

“Yeah.” I pointed at Azrael. “But I’ll bet he can translate.”

From the expression on Nathan’s face, it was clear he was surprised he hadn’t thought of that. He looked at Azrael. “What language do you speak?”

“En makkai est molingui ine tempronera.
It is called
Katavukai.”

Suddenly, the woman on the couch convulsed like she’d been electrocuted. She jumped upright and scrambled into the corner of the couch, facing away from us. I ducked behind Azrael.

Nathan crossed his arms. “Looks like you said the magic words, Az.”

The woman’s head turned slightly, just enough for one glassy eye to peek back over her shoulder. Then she jumped over the arm of the couch, sending the side table lamp crashing to the floor as she scurried toward the corner. She was terrified, shielding her face with her arms, crouched like a wild animal against the wall.

“Azrael, say something to her,” I said, grabbing his sleeve and pushing him forward.

“Nankal taracebit amaityano.”
He cautiously moved toward her with his hands raised.
“Amaityano. Nakal uteves auxil.”

She was peeping through the crack made by her arms. I’d never seen anyone look so afraid…except Kayleigh Neeland after she’d been kidnapped, beaten, and left to die in a dark attic. My eyes teared up imagining what this poor creature had endured.

Azrael’s voice was barely above a whisper. “
Nakal uteves auxil.”

She slowly unveiled her face.

“
Quid peyar
?” Azrael asked.

“Taiya.”
If mice could speak, that’s what she’d sound like.

Azrael looked over at us. “Her name is Taiya.”

“Ty-ah,” Nathan said slowly.

The woman stretched out her arm and burst into tears. She pointed to my name.

Taking that as my cue, I slowly walked over to her and knelt down. She grabbed my hand, still sobbing. Puzzled, I looked at Azrael. “Ask her how I can help her.”

“Taiya, auxi uta Sloan,”
he said.

“Nadas auxi,”
she replied.

“She cannot help me,” he translated.

“Nadas auxi,”
she said again.
“Praea morteirakka.”

I gulped. “She just said I’m going to die.”

Azrael’s face snapped toward me.

Nathan walked over. “How do you know that?”

“Praea is the name Kasyade gave me, and I know enough Latin to know
morte
-anything is probably bad news.” I looked at Azrael. “Am I right?”

He nodded.

The woman babbled to Azrael, her words coming out so fast Azrael squinted like it was difficult to keep up. I heard a few words I recognized.
Kasyade
was one of them.
Ysha
was another. My name was said a lot.

“What’s she saying?” Nathan asked.

Azrael held up his hand to silence him. He said something to the woman instead that sounded like a question.
 

Then the woman looked at me. “
Morteira kotailis.”

* * *

By some miracle, I made it out the back door and over the porch railing before dispelling the contents of my stomach onto the frozen ground. It wasn’t exactly new information. I’d known for a while I was a target. But now I knew the demons had a timetable; they were planning to kill me on the first day of summer.

A hand rested on my back. “You know I’ve seen you puke more times than I’ve seen all my other friends and family puke combined.” Nathan’s tone was light. I knew it was to calm my nerves. It didn’t help. “It was very considerate of them,” he continued, “to give you the date of your demise.”

I spat on the ground. “Indeed. It was very thoughtful.”

He tugged on the hem of my shirt. “Come here.”

I turned and stepped into his arms.

“This doesn’t change anything,” he said quietly. “We still won’t let anything happen to you, and actually knowing this will help us do that.”

That did help me feel a little better.

He pulled back. “Let’s go in before we freeze to death and the demons aren’t a problem anymore.”

Back inside, Azrael had coaxed Taiya into the kitchen. She was drinking a glass of water, and he appeared to be making her something to eat. As we passed my couch where she’d been lying, I sighed. The white fabric was defiled with blood and grime.

Nathan guided me to the loveseat. “Sit. I’ll get you some water.”

In the kitchen, I watched Azrael put a plate down in front of Taiya before walking over and sitting on the arm of the couch across from me.

“What else did she tell you?” Nathan asked as he returned with a bottle of water. Without sitting down, he handed it to me.

Azrael hesitated, looking down at me.

“It’s OK,” I said, unscrewing the cap. “I want to know.”

He drew in a deep breath. “As I assumed, she was raised by Ysha, but she was left in the house in Chicago about two months ago. She was taken into custody with the other girls.”

In the kitchen, I watched Taiya nibbling on a Pop-Tart. “Why can’t I see her soul?”

“Excuse me?” Azrael asked.

I looked at him. “I couldn’t see Warren’s soul till I was pregnant. I still can’t see hers though.”

“Taiya’s human spirit is very weak,” he said. “It’s part of the consequence of her upbringing.”

A question was bothering me; I was almost afraid to ask it.

Azrael must have noticed. “What’s the matter?”

I put my hand on my stomach. “Will I have to give her up?” I asked. “So she doesn’t turn out like Taiya?”

He shook his head, offering me a gentle smile. “Your humanity tempers the effect you’ll have on her, so you’ll be fine to raise her as your own.”

“How did she get here?” Nathan asked.

Azrael shrugged. “She escaped the facility where they took all the girls, but she doesn’t know how she got here.”

I looked again at the woman hunched over the dinette table. I would have been surprised if she could find her way across town, let alone the country.
 

“She’s kinda got a Houdini thing going on. How does she keep escaping these places?” Nathan asked.

Azrael’s brow rose. “Don’t underestimate her. She’s been around angels her whole life. She’s more powerful than you think.”

Nathan looked over at her. “Is she dangerous?”

Azrael took a deep breath. “I do not yet know.”

After I made up a bed for Taiya on the couch, Nathan followed me upstairs. He stopped in the doorway to my bedroom, and I turned back toward him after switching on my bedside lamp. “You never come in here anymore,” I observed out loud.

He braced his arms against the doorframe and tapped his fingers against the wood. “It doesn’t feel right now,” he said.

I smiled. “You’re such a good guy.”

He laughed. “I promise, I’m really not.”

I took a few steps toward him. “Crazy day, huh?”

“I expect no less.” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder toward the hall downstairs. “You OK? That was a lot.”

I nodded. “I will be. You’re right. What she said doesn’t change anything. I know I’m safe.”
For now
, I added silently.

His face was serious. “You are safe.”

I nodded again.

“I’ll be in my room if you need me,” he said.

“Goodnight,” I replied.

When he backed out into the hallway, I gently closed the door. Then I turned the knob lock before shutting off the light.

* * *

It was still dark in my room when I opened my eyes. The clock on the nightstand said it was just after three. Sleeping through the night was becoming rarer as bathroom trips became more and more frequent. I had assumed bladder control would be one of the final hurrahs of pregnancy. I was wrong.

I also didn’t have to pee.

There was a strange noise so soft it was curious rather than terrifying as most noises are in the middle of the night. Maybe a slip of paper had fallen into the air vent. Or maybe a leaf was trapped in the windowsill outside. No. It was more subtle than that, and it was closer than the window. It was a tearing sound.

My heart quickened in my chest, and I sat up in the middle of the bed. Straining my eyes in the dim light of the moon, I searched.

Between my nightstand and the wall, a pair of wild eyes blinked in the corner.

I screamed and scrambled across the bed in the opposite direction, thankfully toward the door. But my legs were tangled in the sheet, and I tumbled off the side of the bed onto the hardwood floor. I half-crawled, half-ran to the door and twisted the handle but it wouldn’t budge.
 

Screaming for help, I yanked as hard as I could, rattling the door against the casing.
 

There was commotion on the other side. Someone had heard me. Perhaps all of Bradley Avenue.

“Sloan?” It was Nathan’s voice.

“Nathan!”

“Sloan, open the door!”

“I can’t! It won’t open!”

Whatever was in my room, was standing right behind me. I had to get out.
 

There was a click, and the door swung toward me.
 

Then I was through it and into Azrael’s arms on the other side.
 

Nathan was cursing behind him. “What the…?”

I didn’t want to look, but I did.

Taiya was standing a few feet behind me in the long white night gown I’d given her to wear. Her empty eyes were glassy and slightly crossed. At her sides, her bony hands were covered in tangles of her long orange hair. I buried my face in Azrael’s chest again.

He spoke to her in their language.
 

“Taiya,” he said louder. “Taiya!
Auyuketkai
!”

Azrael pushed me behind him.
 

Nathan grabbed the sides of my face. “Did she hurt you?”

I was still shaking so much I could hardly move my head from side to side.
 

He pulled me backwards across the hall into his room and closed the door behind us. “What happened?” he asked, looking me over for injuries. “Your knee.” He nudged me toward the bed where I sat down and he knelt beside me.

My knee was flushed bright red and split open straight down the middle. Blood was trickling out. “I…I f…fell off the b…bed.”

He stood. “I have a first aid kit out in my trunk—”

“No!” I grasped the tail of his white t-shirt.
 

“Shh.” He sat and pulled me into his arms. “It’s over.”

I sobbed against his shoulder until the door creaked open. It was Azrael.
 

“Are you OK?” he asked, stepping into the room. He was fully dressed, of course.

I straightened and swiped my fingers under my eyes. “She was in my room! She was ripping her hair out, watching me sleep!”

“What was she doing in there?” Nathan asked, tightening his arm protectively around my shoulders.

Azrael crossed his arms. “Something like sleepwalking. I don’t believe she was conscious.”

“Where is she now?” Nathan asked.

“Back asleep on the couch,” Azrael answered.

I raked both hands back through my hair, still heaving for oxygen. “I can’t do this!”

Nathan shook his head. “I’m calling dispatch to have her taken in.”

Azrael held up his hand. “Let’s wait. I’ll sit and watch her till morning and we can—”

“You were supposed to be watching her tonight!” Nathan shouted, cutting him off.

“She went to the bathroom,” Azrael said.

“She moved through a locked door!” I cried.

Azrael dropped his gaze to me. “It’s not that hard to do.”

“Thanks, that makes me feel a lot better!”

The angel wasn’t moved by my hysteria. “Let’s wait until morning to decide her fate. If she was going to harm you, she would have.”

I buried my face in my hands. “Just go watch her and make sure she doesn’t budge off that sofa.”

Without a word, he walked out of the room.

When he was gone, Nathan turned to me. “Forget about what he said. What do you want me to do? I can get her out of here tonight.”

Pressing my eyes closed, I sucked in a deep breath. “Right now, help me clean up my leg.”

When I looked at him again, he was nodding. “Can I get a washcloth from the bathroom?”