Death Angel (Death Angel Series Book 1)

Death Angel

By Raquel Dove

Copyright © 2015

Chapter One

Gabrielle never thought in a million years that she would be facing down the barrel of a gun, but that was exactly the situation she found herself in at this very moment. In all her eighteen years of life, she had done her best to steer clear of trouble. She tried to be a good person, never broke the rules, never even skipped a single class in school. And now, on the day of her high school graduation she was faced with the unavoidable fact that trouble had found her. Her fright filled eyes bounced from the shaking hand of the gunman, up to his equally frightened eyes. He was nervous. This was good, she thought. Maybe she could talk him down. The wet coldness of the orange juice bottle in her hand suddenly registered in her mind. If only she hadn’t stopped to buy it, if only she hadn’t stopped at this particular corner store to buy it, she wouldn’t be in this mess right now. She wanted to open her mouth to speak, to try and convince the would-be robber that it wasn’t worth it, ask him nicely to put the gun down, but her tongue wouldn’t move. Only a few seconds had passed since he ran into the store with a crazed expression on his face, brandishing the gun that was now pointed at her face, but those seconds had passed by like hours to Gabrielle.

Finally, she felt her courage coming back to her. Time began to speed up. The moments were flashing by, and she had an idea. There was no time for her to think about it, so she simply reacted, throwing her bottle of unpurchased orange juice in the gunman’s face and simultaneously reaching for the gun. The last thing to go through Gabrielle’s mind was the sound of the gun going off. The next few moments were filled with blackness. A thick, inky blackness that stuck to her flesh and clouded out all her senses. Then, just as suddenly as the blackness had surrounded her, she was overcome with light.

“Gabrielle,” a woman’s voice sounded in her ears. “Gabrielle, I need you to get up now. I have a busy day and I can’t wait for you to come around on your own.”

Gabrielle felt all her memories washing away. The gunman she had just faced down blew away from her mind like a dandelion in the breeze. Memories of her mother and father and younger brother slipped away, though she tried dearly to hold on to them. Before long, the only thing she could remember was her name and a few other random facts about herself.

She sat up and looked around. Her body was covered in a simple gray uniform that resembled a pair of medical scrubs. The room she was in didn’t have much, except for a bed and a small table beside it. The woman she had heard speaking to her glared down at her with stern eyes.

“Well, come on then,” she said, motioning for Gabrielle to get out of the bed. “You’re dead. No use dwelling on it, happens to us all. I’m going to run through your initiation quickly, because as I’ve said—“

“Dead,” Gabrielle gasped, interrupting the woman. “Did you say I was dead?”

The woman adjusted the black-rimmed glasses that framed her cold blue eyes as she sighed heavily.

“Yes,” the woman said very unceremoniously. She waved her hand around the room sarcastically. “Welcome to the afterlife. If you’ll follow me, I have a very busy day, as I’ve already said.”

“But, how did I die?” Gabrielle asked, looking down at herself in shock. She looked perfectly healthy. “Why can’t I remember anything?”

“That’s the way it works,” the woman said, her words clipped. “No one remembers anything from any of their lives. If you want to try and find out, you’ll have to file a petition with the head office. I wouldn’t even bother, no one ever gets their petition passed. Now—“

“Wait, did you say any lives? How many lives did I have?” Gabrielle was shocked as she continued to look down at herself, trying to remember any detail of the life she had apparently left behind. The woman sighed heavily again as she rolled her eyes to the ceiling.

“This is why I hate doing new initiations. Too many questions,” she muttered to herself. She looked back down at Gabrielle. “We all get three chances. Three lives to determine where we end up. Some don’t need them all, some do. A small fraction of the souls that pass on end up here. So congratulations, you’re one of the few privileged. Now, get out of bed and come with me.”

The woman turned around and walked briskly out of the room, not giving Gabrielle any time to ask any more questions.

“Excuse me,” Gabrielle said, hopping out of the bed and catching up to the woman, “excuse me. Where exactly is ‘here’?”

The woman slowed for just a brief moment to look behind her at Gabrielle in a most condescending way.

“Here,” she said, motioning to the bustling of people around them, “is the Realm of the Death Angels.”

Chapter Two

Gabrielle followed behind the woman, trying to catch up as she took in the sights around her. The first thing she noticed was that the people were either dressed entirely in black, or entirely in white. There wasn’t a thread of color among them.

“Try to keep up,” the woman she was following looked over her shoulder for a moment to snap at her. Gabrielle picked up her pace so that she was just behind her. The woman was dressed in all black with her brown hair pulled into a tidy bun with a pencil sticking out of it.

“What’s your name?” Gabrielle asked her. She was full of questions for the woman, but based on her earlier responses, she decided to start off with something that would be less likely to cause an annoyance to the woman. She looked quickly over her shoulder at Gabrielle.

“You can call me Ms. Blankenship,” the woman said curtly. “Though I doubt you’ll ever see me again. At least not for quite some time. New arrivals such as yourself are sent to the assessment quarters. You’ll live there for a few years while we assess your skills and usefulness. Then you’ll be placed. Maybe.”

“Placed where? What’s the assessment quarters?” Gabrielle asked. Ms. Blankenship ignored her questions but stopped as another woman in black walked up to her and handed off a piece of paper. She looked down at the paper, then back up at the other woman with a frown on her face.

“You have to be kidding me,” Ms. Blankenship said with her brows pulled heavily over her face. “This is the third one this week.”

“I’m sorry ma’am,” the woman responded nervously. Gabrielle could see fright in the other woman’s eyes and she wondered what could be the cause of it. Ms. Blankenship wasn’t the friendliest person, but she couldn’t see her being frightening either.

“I can’t deal with this right now,” Ms. Blankenship snapped, handing the paper back to the woman. “I’m having to take over Lydia’s responsibilities, as well as my own. I’m inducting a new arrival for crying out loud.”

“I’m sorry ma’am, but Mr. Black told me to find you and instruct you to see him immediately,” the woman said, her voice cracking as she spoke up again to Ms. Blankenship.

“Fine,” she said, irritation permeating her words as she turned to look at Gabrielle. “It can’t be helped I suppose. You’ll have to come with me.”

The woman turned on her heels and began briskly walking in the direction that she had just come from. Her steps had picked up in pace and Gabrielle was finding it hard to keep up.

“Where are we going?” she asked, hoping that she would get an answer to her question this time.

“Just stay quiet,” Ms. Blankenship said, speaking over her shoulder as she continued to walk. “Try to blend into the walls if you can. And whatever you do, don’t address Mr. Black.”

That’s all she said and Gabrielle found it more than a little disheartening. First, she found out that she was dead. Then, she was basically told she wasn’t going to heaven, whether she deserved to or not. Now, she was following a women to God knows where, and getting very tired of trying to walk so fast. Ms. Blankenship came to a door that was labeled with ‘General Sebastian Black’. She couldn’t explain why, but Gabrielle had an intense foreboding sensation wash over her. Ms. Blankenship flung the door open and stomped quickly into the room. There were two other girls behind the door, each one of them dressed entirely in black and sitting behind a small desk with a computer. There was a third desk in the room that sat empty, and next to it was a row of five filing cabinets that were as tall as Gabrielle. Beyond the three desks, there was another door.

“Who’s she?” one of the girls asked Ms. Blankenship as she looked up from her desk. She had shortly cropped dark hair that sat at her narrow chin. Black eyes focused hard on Gabrielle and appraised her with what could only be described as disdain. “Is she the new hire?”

“She’s still in her arrival uniform,” the other girl said, quickly looking over Gabrielle. She had blonde hair that wove its way down her back to a narrow waist. She wasn’t particularly pretty, but she had deep blue eyes that made her stand out.

“Get back to work,” Ms. Blankenship snapped at them. “Mr. Black expects all the mission papers to be filed by the end of the day. No excuses.”

The girls groaned loudly and looked back at their computer screens, getting back to work while simultaneously keeping an eye on Gabrielle.

“Why is there a new arrival in my office?” a booming male voice said from behind Gabrielle. She whipped her head around and came face to face with a very broad and muscular chest that was covered in a black dress shirt, black tie, and black business jacket. There was even a black handkerchief folded perfectly and tucked neatly into the jacket pocket. Gabrielle couldn’t stop her eyes from roaming upwards, catching a chiseled square jaw line and a thinly pulled lip above it. Dark gray eyes burned down at her and narrowed as they made contact with hers. The breath caught in her throat at the black haired demon God that stood before her. She had never felt so intimidated in all her short, well…afterlife. She took a step back from him, needing to put some distance between them. As she did, she noticed his eyes shift in a strange way as he looked at her, almost as if he was remembering her face. In her attempt to get away, her foot caught on Ms. Blankenship’s and she stumbled.

“Goodness, girl,” Ms. Blankenship snapped at her. “Watch yourself.” She looked back at the man. “Mr. Black, I apologize. I’ve been taking over Lydia’s duties since she’s been struck with the sickness. I got the order to fill the position and—“

“It is all right,” Mr. Black spoke, waving a hand in the air, his charcoal eyes still focused on Gabrielle. “This girl will do fine.”

“Sir…,” Ms. Blankenship looked from Mr. Black to Gabrielle, her eyes wide in disbelief. “But she’s a new arrival—“

“I can see that,” Mr. Black snapped, his baritone voice harsh. His eyes finally shifted onto Ms. Blankenship, cold and unforgiving.

“Sir, excuse me,” Ms. Blankenship said. Her eyes fell to the floor. Gabrielle could see nervousness in the stern woman. “I don’t think you understand. She just arrived a moment ago. I haven’t even—“

“I said, she will do,” Mr. Black said, his voice dipping to an even colder level than before. Gabrielle shivered at the scalding look he gave Ms. Blankenship. “I am a General. It is my prerogative to hire whomever I wish. I don’t have time to go through the interview process.”

“Yes, sir,” Ms. Blankenship said sheepishly, refusing to look back up at him. His eyes slid back onto Gabrielle.

“This can be a good lesson for her,” he said, his voice taking on a softer tone. “Don’t question my orders.”

Chapter Three

Gabrielle’s head was spinning. Mr. Black’s eyes were so intense as they stared down at her. She could feel her face getting hot and her knees threatening to buckle. Finally his eyes slid away from hers, casual and unconcerned as if he was entirely unaware of the effect he seemed to have on her. She watched him with a mix of awe and terror as he turned away and walked through the office and to the door behind the desks, closing it behind him. Gabrielle felt her heart suddenly pounding against her ribcage and she realized she had been holding her breath.

“You’ve got to be kidding,” the black haired girl spoke up in a loud whisper, snapping Gabrielle out of her thoughts. “Ms. Blankenship, this can’t be ok. She’s a new arrival, she doesn’t know anything—“

“Be quiet Kaia,” Ms. Blankenship said sharply. “Mr. Black gave his order. It’s not our place to question him.”

Gabrielle could hear an even colder turn in the woman’s voice. Her cold blue eyes snapped to her.

“Follow me,” she said, turning on her heels and walking out of the office.

“Don’t expect me to teach her anything,” Gabrielle heard a voice following after them as they left.

Ms. Blankenship began leading her through a series of hallways, most of them bustling with people, all of whom were staring curiously at her. The walls were all white washed and stark, devoid of any decorations or anything to indicate where exactly they were. Gabrielle was lost after only one or two turns and she wondered how the women knew where she was going.

They were halfway down another all white hallway when a screeching alarm rang out around them. Ms. Blankenship stopped in her spot and looked around her with a momentarily confused look on her brow.

“Damn it,” she muttered under her breath as she turned to look at Gabrielle. “Now of all time. This has to happen now.”

She wasn’t talking to Gabrielle, she could tell. She was muttering under her breath. Gabrielle could see her irritation rising visibly.

“Is…is everything ok?” she asked, trying to speak over the blare of the alarm echoing around them.

“No,” she said simply, not giving any further explanation. She looked around with a huff and Gabrielle could see her thinking through the situation.

“You’re going to be on your own now,” she said finally. “It’s not an ideal situation, but it’s necessary.”

Ms. Blankenship pulled the pencil out of her hair, tore off a piece of paper from the stack she held in her hand and scribbled something on it. She shoved the paper roughly at Gabrielle before she began stomping back down the hallway in the direction she had come.

“Find the room with that number,” she said over her shoulder as she left Gabrielle behind. “Those are your quarters. Report to the office before the bell rings in the morning.”

With those few words, the woman disappeared around a turn and Gabrielle was on her own. She looked down at the paper in her hand.
386
. Her head swiveled around her, looking for any numbers or markings of any kind that could direct her, but there was nothing. She began to slowly walk down the hall in the direction that the woman had been leading her. Thoughts raced through her mind. It had scarcely been half a day since she arrived here in this strange place. She still couldn’t seem to reconcile the fact that she was dead. She didn’t feel dead. In fact, she felt very much alive, and yet she knew it was true. She could feel the numbness in her brain that housed the memories of her life. She wanted so badly to access those memories. She knew her name. She knew her age. She knew a few other facts about herself. She knew that she had never loved a man, never had a boyfriend. She could type faster than anyone else she knew, and she loved the color green. Beyond that, her mind grew fuzzy. People that she had once known, the way she died, and even her last name was lost to her. She pushed it, trying to recall anything from her life. A flash of a memory ran through her mind, something metal and cold and terribly painful, but it was gone as soon as it came and she knew nothing of what it could mean.

Gabrielle was snapped out of her internal struggle for memories when she came to a fork in the hallway. There were no people around, no signs, no way for her to know where to go. She just stood there looking down at the piece of paper in her hand. She looked down to the left, then to the right. They appeared almost identical, with one exception. The two hallways were lined with doors, each with a little plaque on the front. She couldn’t see what was written on them but she assumed they were numbers. One side had little white plaques. The other had little black plaques. She made a reasonable guess that the place she was heading would have a little black plaque, based on the fact that her new boss seemed to favor the color. She turned to the right, the side with the black plaques on the door and began to trek down the unbelievably long hallway. But when she got to the first door, and then the second and third a little way down, she became confused and discouraged. The numbers were not in order. In fact, they jumped wildly from number 1052, to 4506, to 2033. Gabrielle tossed her hands in the air in desperation. It looked like she would just have to trek down the hall, checking every door to find the one that was hers.

###

“She slept her way into this position,” Kaia said, filing away at one of her fingernails.

“She’s been here one day,” Nettie said, sitting at her desk as she picked at her lunch.

“It doesn’t even take that long,” Kaia shot back, looking up from her nails for a moment. “At least for some of the men around here.”

“I suppose you’d know,” Nettie mumbled under her breath. Kaia shot her an icy look that went unnoticed as she continued to pick through the things she had packed for lunch.

“It’s unheard of is all I’m saying,” Kaia said, going back to her nails. “It took me nearly fifty years to work myself into the central bureau, even longer to get into this office. It’s an honor to work so close to a General. This new girl doesn’t even understand the importance of her place. It’s just not fair.”

“Fair or not,” Nettie said, “Mr. Black hired her. I’m not going to be caught questioning him.”

“Well, I still say she did something to get here,” Kaia said, shrugging her shoulders. “The fact that it was Mr. Black that hired her proves that. You know how he is.”

“I do,” Nettie said, taking a bite from her sandwich. “He’s the most powerful Black General in the Death Angel Society. I’m sure he has his reasons.”

“Maybe he owed someone a favor,” Kaia said, more to herself than to anyone else. Nettie chuckled with a mouth full of food.

“I can’t imagine him owing anyone anything. In fact, he’d probably fire you if he heard you say such a thing,” Nettie said.

“I don’t like her,” Kaia said, narrowing her eyes into the empty space above her. “She’s too…green. Too goody
-
goody looking. She has no business working under a Black General.”

“That’s not for you to decide,” a male voice cut into the women’s conversation and sent a chill through them all. Kaia stood from her chair, dropping her nail file to the ground. “Nor to discuss in such a casual manner.”

“I..I’m sorry Mr. Black,” she said, stumbling over her words as she tried to explain herself. “I just…I didn’t think you’d be back from lunch so quickly…I…”

“Get back to work,” he said, his voice devoid of any emotion. Kaia found his stoicism even more blood chilling than if he had had anger brimming in his words. At least then she would know what he was thinking. She knew that he could fire her for the things she had just said. Hell he could have her sentenced to the Eternal Death if he wanted to, just because he wanted it. He was a General. His word was law, coming second only to those that ran the Central Bureau.

“I’m sorry Mr. Black,” Kaia said again, her voice cracking with fright as she tried to make amends for her stupid mistake. He said nothing in response to her. His eyes slowly slid away from her and he walked silently into his private office. Just before he closed the door, his looked over his shoulder at the women that worked under him.

“A Darkling has escaped from a holding cell,” he said, his words too calm for the terror which they inherently held. “Send out an order immediately. Have a crew meet me as soon as they’ve assembled.”

###

Gabrielle had been walking for what felt like hours. In that time, she hadn’t come across a single other individual. She had passed hundreds of doors, all with little black numbered plaques on the front. Each one with a number that wasn’t the one she had been looking for. She didn’t know how much longer she could keep this up. Her legs were getting weak and her stomach growled angrily at her. She felt hungry, but the thought was a strange one to her. She hadn’t imagined that a person would need to eat when they were dead.

The air in the hallway turned suddenly cold. There was an oppressive feeling that hung in the space around her that wasn’t there before. Gabrielle looked around, trying to find the source of this sudden dreadful feeling, but she was utterly alone. Something wasn’t right. The hallway darkened and filled with a strange solid smoke. A wretched smell filled her nose that made her recoil. She covered her nose with her hand to try and keep the stench out. A form materialized from the smoke and Gabrielle’s heart leapt into her throat at the sight of the creature that stood down the hall, glaring at her with angry red eyes. It was a large creature that took up most of the hallway and had to hunch down to fit between the floor and ceiling. Its arms were covered in hair and hung down to the floor. Massive teeth jutted from his large bulbous lips and dripped an oozing yellow drool into a small puddle on the floor. It looked like a mixture between an ogre and a troll, and Gabrielle could see in his eyes that he was about to come after her.

Before she had time to react, to turn and run, or to protect herself in anyway, the creature lunged after her, tearing his way through the hallway and destroying parts of the walls on his way. Gabrielle turned to run as he got uncomfortably close, lashing out at her with his unnaturally long arms. She was sure that he was going to catch her, and by the looks of him, probably eat her. For a moment, her mind questioned if she had actually been sent to hell. This place had been unpleasant and mildly frightening from the very beginning. Now this creature that looked straight out of hell was chasing her down an endless hallway that she had been sentenced to walk down, looking for a number that likely didn’t exist. Yep, this had to be some form of hell. She must have been an awful person in her life to be sent to a place like this. Just as the thought ran through her mind, her face smacked into something hard that hadn’t been there just a moment before. She fell back onto her butt and looked up to see what she had hit. She immediately recognized the dark eyes that were staring down at her. It was her new boss. His face was an empty mask and his eyes were cold and uncaring as they looked back at the terrifying monster rampaging down the hallway.

“You should be in your quarters,” he said, his voice flat. He was talking to her, but he didn’t take his eyes off the monster. Gabrielle grew anxious. She wanted to get up and start running again, but this man was in her way acting as if nothing was wrong.

“I…I was trying—“

“It doesn’t matter now,” he said. He held his arm out, his fingers extended as if he was waiting for someone to hand him something. To her surprise, something began to materialize in his grasp. It wasn’t long before she could see that it was a sword. A very large sword that looked bigger than he was. It shone with a light that was near blinding as he easily raised the weapon above his head and in a single fluid motion brought it slashing down. Gabrielle felt a wind rushing past her and for a moment worried that the weapon had somehow struck her. She looked behind her to see the perfectly aimed slice cut down the monster from the distance. She didn’t know how he could cut without the blade actually making contact, but that wasn’t the strangest thing that had happened to her today. In a burst of light that cleared the hallway, the dark monster was gone and the horrible stench with it, left behind was only a destroyed hallway and an oddly sweet floral smell. She heard footsteps and turned back around to look at the man that had just saved her. Several other men in black suits came running up and stopped just behind him, kneeling for a moment.

“Sir, we apologize for not keeping up with you,” one of the men spoke up. “I see you have dispatched the Darkling.”

“Something that could have easily been done by a lower level fighter, for sure,” Mr. Black said, his eyes locked oddly on Gabrielle. His words were almost condescending, but that’s not how she took it. There was something else behind his eyes that she couldn’t quite place. Something that was almost a glimmer of an emotion, but the blankness in his face and demeanor hid it too well for her to put a name on it.

“Joken,” he said, his eyes still locked on her. “Escort Miss Gabrielle to her quarters.”

“Yes sir,” one of the men spoke up and quickly stood, rushing over to her, eager to carry out his order. Gabrielle hesitated for just a moment.

“Thank you,” she said, feeling like it was entirely inadequate for what had just happened. “Thank you for saving me.”

His eyes remained on her with just a glimmer of something behind them. It was an awkward moment where Gabrielle could have sworn that he hadn’t heard her before he began to speak.