Angelic Anarchy (Heaven on Earth Book 1) (13 page)

W
e were
all convened in my living room, and after repeated failed attempts to contact Anselma, we agreed she must have been taken too. We would have to tell Theodore who we really were and who he was without Anselma.

“Okay, kid,” I said. “There is no easy way to say this. We are angels—warriors of God, to be precise. We were sent on a mission by the archangel Anselma to retrieve you. She received word that demons were after you, so she sent us to find you first and bring you to her at once. Of course, now she along with my most trusted and longest friend are missing.”

I paused, and Colton gave me a look that said
just get it over with
. “Oh, right, and you are the half-angel son of Anselma. Your father was a demon. Which, until now, was impossible. Angels and demons cannot have children, unless they mate with a human. The demon that fathered you tricked Anselma and many angels. He had a witch create a spell using dark magic to allow him to mate with Anselma. To what end, we have no idea. All we know is that before he died, he put an irresistible bounty on your head to whoever could find you and bring you in alive.”

“You’re a . . . I’m a . . .” Theodore started.

“Yes, that’s right, an angel,” Colton finished for him.

“Well that’s . . .”

Whatever it was Theodore was about to say, we never got to find out.

My condo was in sudden chaos. It was an ambush. We were surrounded, and the fighting began instantaneously. The battle was vicious as we fought to keep Theodore within our circle and our grasp. I felt sick.
We were betrayed,
and I had no idea who was behind it. Aside from archangels and Angels of Decision, demons and angels cannot enter my home without invitation. My home is protected by one of the few witches I trust. The protection had never failed me before. I had a spell cast that allowed angels and demons to enter or emerge by invitation only. The disadvantage to the spell, and there is always a disadvantage when it comes to magical spells, was that anyone invited into my home would then have the authority to invite others. Any strength magic is used to enhance must be balanced by some form of weakness. This had never been an issue for me before because it was always only Colton, Evangelina, Nicholai, and Lorileigh.

Someone that had been sitting in my home had deceived us all. I just couldn’t wrap my head around it. Fighting was so automatic for me that my body took care of it while my mind wandered. I looked around at my fellow warriors. One by one, I let my suspicions lead to doubt. I looked first to Colton, since I was suspicious of him the moment he popped into my home. He looked hurt but understanding that I thought first of him. He shook his head and mouthed, “I would never.” And I knew his words to be true—I felt guilty for even considering it.

I looked next to Liam and then Olivia, but I moved on from them quickly. I turned to Talon, his expression menacing as he drove his sword through the heart of his opponent. “Never!” And he really would never; if loyalty had a name, it was Talon.

I turned to Nicholai. His mouth dropped in surprise that I would even consider him. He leapt gracefully, holding two daggers as he toyed with the two demons attempting to take him down. He said with a smirk and a playful roll of the eyes, “Really, Beauty?”

Looking around, I shook my head. I trusted these warriors implicitly—even Colton now that he had opened himself up to me emotionally again. None of us would betray each other. We had been through so much together. My mind wandered.

Talon and I stood alone against an entire clan of demons that wielded poisonous demonic relics. He was hit four times in the heart. He yelled at me to vanish and leave him there. That was never going to happen. I would never leave a man behind. I fought my way to his side, taking two hits to my back by the time I reached him. He was in bad shape and fading fast. I threw his arm around my shoulders and slung my arm around his back. He was in no shape to run, and we were not getting anywhere fast. Neither of us could emerge because of the poison from the relics, but I could not stop. I would not give up. I fought one-armed while holding the barely conscious Talon up. I could feel my strength waning quickly. He was nearly three or four times bigger than me. I had to get us out of there, but I could not call on help to come until we were in a safer position. I would not risk the life of another for my own.

I could see our way out and I was determined to reach it. To this day, I do not know where the strength came from. I managed to pick up Talon and toss him over my shoulder. I took off, running for the opening, my legs beginning to weaken at the knees, but still I refused to give up.

I reached the exit. We made it out. I fell to my knees, still weighed down by the sheer size of Talon. My energy was fading quickly, and I knew I was about to pass out from the poison. I called out for Evangelina to send help.
When Talon and I awoke, we were safe and surrounded by Evangelina, Colton, Nicholai, and Lorileigh
.

My memories told me everything I needed to know. The traitor was either Anna or Theodore . . . or both.

M
y team stood near me
, fighting their individual battles in attempt to keep safe the two people I suspected of betrayal. They were each stealing glances at me, and I knew we had all reached the same conclusion regarding Anna and Theodore right around the same time. Surprisingly enough, finding out whoever betrayed us and led the demons to my home was not at the top of my list at the moment. It could wait . . . for now.

Our number one priority right now was keeping Teddy out of the reach of the demons. We were holding our own just fine, despite the fact we were very outnumbered.

Then I heard Anna speak in a whisper to Teddy. She obviously didn’t realize how keen our sense of hearing is.

“Come on, Teddy. How do we even know if we can trust these supposed warriors? We’ll hide, I can keep us safe.”

“I don’t know, Anna, I think we can . . .” Theodore started but suddenly he recoiled from her slightly. “Anna, what’s happening? You look dark somehow, like the ones that kept us locked up.”

I looked at her face—he was right. A horrible thought began to percolate in my mind.

“It must be some sort of trick, to make you think you can’t trust me.” Anna mumbled some words under her breath and her face lightened again. “There, now you can see my true color. Come on, Teddy, give me your hand, and I’ll get you out of here.”

“No,” I screamed, realizing at last what was going on. “Theodore, don’t trust her. I will keep you safe.”

He looked confused. I was relieved, and I made to stretch my hand out to him so he could take it. But at the same time, Anna extended her hand. Theodore looked between me and Anna. I opened my mouth again to plead with him, but it was too late. He took her hand.

Anna smiled triumphantly. For a moment, I didn’t understand. They had already kidnapped him—why the need for the ruse? And then it hit me. Theodore had to make the decision himself.
He had to choose
. For whatever reason, taking him against his will hadn’t been enough. He had to go of his own free will and make a conscious decision to join, and he had just done that. Anna winked at me and suddenly the two of them were gone in a haze of colored smoke, her laughter trailing behind them. The surviving demons vanished as soon as Anna and Theodore disappeared

“Dammit!” I roared as I hurled a dagger, which pierced the wall directly behind the spot where Anna’s head was before she disappeared.

“Fucking bitch.” Colton spat blood. “Did you hear that cackle? It was Sloan. How did we not see it? Even through that disguise.”

“She played her part well,” Nicholai murmured as he sheathed his weapons. His eyes were distant and I knew his head was in the past. He would kill Sloan one day and I would help him. As would Colton, I was certain. I could never forgive her for her part in the death of Lorileigh. I’d lost my best friend because of Sloan. I didn’t know for certain if I’d ever see Lori again, but I had faith I would one day.

“If she’s roaming free, that must mean . . .” I trailed off, not wanting to finish the sentence. If Sloan was free, that meant the most powerful witch I’d ever known was dead.

“Who is Sloan?” Olivia asked.

“She is a witch,” Nicholai answered in a low voice. “And she is very skilled in the dark arts.” He paused before speaking again. “She is a dead witch walking, and she is mine.”

His tone was quiet and full of the promise of a painful death. I had never heard him sound so hostile. It frightened me—not because I was scared of Nicholai, but because I was sad for my friend. All of us warriors started with some innocence, but with each creature battled or demon fought, a piece of our innocence is lost until all that is left is someone like me.
I have no innocence
. There is only a job. It does not faze me to kill my former brethren. Aside from Colton and Nich should one of the very people I trust in this room turn, I would not hesitate to put out the light in their eyes. I wouldn’t like having to do it but I could and would do it without second glance. That is the only thought that saddens me. The fact that I truly
am
the cold-hearted killing machine that I am feared to be.

Somehow, Nicholai managed to preserve his innocence—or so I had thought. I could see now, as I looked at my old friend, that I was wrong. I had missed it, and I was angry that the case had kept me from realizing that a piece of Nicholai had broken as well. I hated that for him, and I would make those who stole his innocence pay for it.

I felt my eyes darken and vowed to bring all those who had hurt Nicholai to a level of pain they had never imagined. I looked to Colton and then to Talon. They both saw what I saw in Nicholai. They heard the darkness in his voice. We could not make things right—once lost, innocence cannot be retrieved—but we would seek out vengeance in his name.

“And you shall have her, old friend,” Talon said in his deep voice as he placed a hand on Nicholai’s shoulder.

“Yes,” Colton said, also placing a hand on Nicholai.

“Yes, you shall have her.” I placed my hand on top of Colton’s.

He looked to all of us and then met my eyes. He nodded. There was no light in his eyes. There was no hint of doubt, no gleam of laughter. There was no innocence left.

Liam and Olivia did not know of our past with Sloan, but they knew there
was
one, and they could see the pain in Nicholai’s eyes. They did not ask again what happened or who she was. They simply walked to us, and each placed a hand next to mine as they vowed in unison, “So it shall be.”

Nicholai nodded, briefly touching our hands before removing himself from our grasp and walking away. The rest of us averted our eyes, but not before seeing the confirmation of a pact formed. We finally saw the loss in the hooded eyes of our fellow warrior, and we would not stop until we helped him seek his vengeance. We could never undo the loss, we could never ease the pain, and we could never bring back Lorileigh. But what we
could
do was hunt down every single soul involved in the death of our beloved warrior.

As our eye contact broke from the unspoken promise we had just made, our minds drifted. Sloan’s laughter brought back those dreadful memories. Lorileigh did not just die or get killed in combat. It was a brutal attack and betrayal by trusted allies. Suddenly, I was back to that day.
That awful day.

“
Where’s Lori?” I had asked Nicholai as I walked into the kitchen of their apartment. I opened the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of water. The four of us were working on a case. Nothing too crazy, nothing out of the ordinary. Someone was hunting angels and we were hunting them. The problem was, we didn’t know
how
they were finding the angels. The angels being hunted were not just random angels that had been spotted. They were Angels of Destiny hidden in plain sight—undercover, if you will—because they were helping lost souls.

We had just followed a lead from a witch we were working with. The lead was solid and led us right to the guilty party. He tried to fight his way through us, but we captured him, questioned him, and were ready to kill him after he proudly admitted his guilt. Without speaking or even making contact, we all agreed that this was too easy. Back then, the four of us were connected to each other the same way Colton and I are once again connected. To my knowledge, there has never been a group of warriors that worked together and were completely connected the way we were. Warriors generally worked in pairs. I was unaware of any other group like ours. We were special.
We were our own little family.

The demon refused to give us any information, knowing that he was dead no matter what. We did not make deals with the bad guys. It was simply a matter of choosing between a swift death and a painful death. The demon opted for the latter, and we did not disappoint. There was no reason for all of us to participate, so Nicholai and I left, leaving Colton and Lorileigh to handle things there while we sought out other leads. We were all to meet at Nich and Lori’s place two hours later.

Our search turned up another dead end. So I went back to the condo Colton and I shared to shower before rendezvousing at the apartment as planned. Neither Nich nor I were worried that our lovers were late. But as time went by, we could not help but to become slightly concerned. They were over two hours late at that point. Colton and Lorileigh had both turned off their emotions to us. I absolutely hated that, but understood that it was sometimes necessary. It is similar to when a human turns off their cell phone when their boss comes into their office, and the spouse panics thinking of all the terrible things that could have happened. When we have a rapid change in our emotions, it can alert those connected to us. So when we are close to solving a case, we often shut down the connection so no one shows up to rescue us and jeopardizes the mission.

Before I knew it, four hours had gone by since the time we were supposed to meet, and we had heard nothing from Colton and Lorileigh. Usually we don’t panic in the way that humans do, but I was stressing. The lack of any bad feeling in my gut gave me a bad feeling. I could not sit still, but we had no clue where they could be. I had already emerged at the spot we had left them, and there was no sign of them whatsoever. Nicholai told me to relax—that maybe they
did
end up getting a lead from the demon, but though his words were meant to be reassuring, I could see the uneasiness in his eyes. Not to mention he was stressed to the point that he had not been able to shut down the connection between us completely. I was still getting an echo of his feelings.

W
e had
no reason to panic. This wasn’t the first time one of us had been hours late. There was no logical reason to assume anything bad happened when we hadn’t had any bad vibes but Nicholai felt something was off. That was enough for me. I trusted Nicholai. He was my partner. We were not lovers, but we were all partners. The four of us trusted each other completely. It is a concept that no human could ever grasp. No human trusts another human completely, fully, and undoubtedly. No matter how much love humans feel for one another, they never trust through and through. That is not to say they do not love greatly—they absolutely do. Some even love unconditionally, but there is always the existence of some type of doubt. Doubt of faithfulness, doubt that their loved one will always be there for them, doubt that a child will still love the parent after meeting their soulmate, doubt that the child will return the care of the parent when the time comes. There is always some sort of doubt, no matter how much the humans try to hide it.

With the four us, there was no doubt. We truly trusted one another. We knew each other both in and out. We knew what each other was feeling, sometimes even before we knew what we were feeling ourselves. So when Nicholai felt it was a bad idea to inform the archangel about Colton and Lorileigh, I trusted his feelings and kept my mouth shut. It was a choice that would forever haunt us.

We tried to be patient but our lovers were five hours late. Nicholai and I suited up, weapons from head to toe. Unable to sit still and wait any longer, we went back to the place we left them. We knew it would be useless. There was nothing there but we had no idea where else to start. This time, we
did
get a clue. There was no sign of Colton, Lori, or the demon, but there was still evidence of his torture. The scene was still not cleaned. Before they left, Colton and Lorileigh would have called for cleaners. They would have come and gone hours ago. That meant something got in their way before they were able to call it in. I looked for footprints in the blood, as I had done when I came back earlier, but there was no sign of anyone else besides Colton and Lori. Although, that didn’t really mean anything when it came to angels and demons.

Nicholai and I searched in silence. I was ready to give up the search when all of a sudden, I heard something that sounded like the soft whistle of wind blowing. Nicholai caught my eye and I knew he heard it too. We were in an old abandoned building in a bad part of town. No one came out in this neighborhood after dark except criminals, so it was eerily quiet. Though it was an old building, all of the windows were in place; there should have been no breeze. I followed the source of the breeze, which led to the brick wall in the back of the building.

I started running toward the wall with Nicholai right behind me when suddenly we heard the screaming voice of a woman crying for help. It was difficult to decipher what she was saying through her rambling hysterical sobs, but it sounded something along the lines of “got lost and mugged by a bloody man.” Nicholai and I would have just ignored her and went about our search if the woman had not mentioned a man covered in blood. We weren’t heartless, but it was not our place to intervene every time a person screamed help. For one, we would never get our jobs done, but mainly we are supposed to let the humans go through life uninterrupted unless otherwise directed.

Unfortunately, that means often allowing the humans to meet dreadful fates. Sadly, my heart was hardened enough that it usually did not faze me anymore, unless there were children involved. I still had hard time sitting by when children were in need of help. I had been on the wrong side of the Angels of Decision a few times for intervening, but I had no regrets.

We changed our direction mid-run and headed for the woman in trouble. The bloody man could be just a human, or it could have had something to do with our partners. When we reached the woman, she said something like “Help, he went that way!” and pointed down the street. I took off, leaving Nicholai with the girl. I went in stealth so I could use my ability, but I came up empty-handed. There was no sound, no movement, and no evidence that anyone had recently been down this street. It wasn’t adding up. I turned around when suddenly I felt like someone drove a hot poker into my chest. I fell to my knees against the pavement. I looked down automatically, but there was no wound. I was unharmed.

Then it hit me.
Colton was hurt—badly hurt—and I was feeling his pain. I knew immediately that the girl was a decoy, but she was not a demon otherwise we would have known. I ran as fast as my ability would allow me to get back to Nicholai. I forgot I was in stealth and that Nicholai could not see me until we collided. He was hunched over and clutching his heart, and I knew he was feeling the same thing I felt moments before.