Good Side of Sin (13 page)

“Wait,” Thoros choked out, and gripped Baddon’s wrist. “I’ll do it. I’m sh-orry. I yam show sh-orry, Ar-ri-es.”

Baddon dropped him to his hands and knees as Lameria walked into the room. Her long legs stepped over him, and then she knelt down and smiled. “Hurts like hell, doesn’t it? You’re looking much better, by the way. Did the angel put out?”

Swallowing hard, Aries’ eyes fixed on the newcomer and moved until she was standing behind Troy. “Her aura is dark,” she whispered. “She is troubled and I can’t get past her magic to see her intentions. That makes me nervous. She feels like a ticking time-bomb to me. I fear for anyone she comes in contact with.”

“You and me both, but are you sure you’re not getting her aura confused with Thoros’ aura?” Fallis asked, and then chuckled lightly. “He’s the one eating the souls of mortals.”

Ignoring the remarks of Lameria and Fallis, Thoros glanced up to Troy, and then got to his feet, rubbing his throat. He walked toward them, but Troy had his eyes glued on the smirking Lameria, doing his duty in protecting the mortal at all costs.

Thoros dropped to one knee in front of Aries and bowed his head. “Please accept my sincere and heartfelt apologies. I’m sorry for offending you. On the half soul I still possess, I can promise you that it will never happen again. I would like you to stay and help us in any way you can.”

Aries nodded, but kept her eyes fixed on Lameria. “Thank you,” she said in a quiet voice. “I will stay… as long as she goes.”

“Done,” Thoros said as he got to his feet, and then flipped his fingers through the air at the wide-eyed ex-Princess of Greed. “Go to your room, Lameria. You are not to come out until Aries has gone.”

“What did I do?” she exclaimed, walking farther into the room, but Baddon put his arm out in front of her, stopping her quickly in her tracks.

“Go!” Thoros boomed, and then threw a gust of power from his palms, knocking her into the wall behind her, where she left a body-sized imprint in the sheetrock.

As soon as she recovered, she retaliated, throwing her own magic into the room. The walls rippled and vases shattered as her unnatural forces touched on everything, including the living, breathing immortals and mortal in the room.

Aries grabbed her head and screamed in pain.

“Cover her!” Thoros shouted to Troy who was struggling through what appeared to be his own headful of demons.

Troy growled, but threw himself over the girl, cloaking her body with an invisible shield to protect her from harm until someone got the demon princess out of the room.

Thoros could feel Lameria’s dark magic flowing freely through his brain, but she could only prey on the greed that was already within the mind. He wasn’t a greedy person by nature. Actually, the one and only thing he wanted out of life, Lameria wouldn’t be able to trick him and make him think he had again: Josselyn. He knew she wasn’t here—she was probably playing with the souls she had taken from him while he sorted his own mess out; he couldn’t honestly say that he blamed her.

As he glanced across the room, he spotted Baddon on his knees with his head tilted up to the ceiling. Vertical wet lines graced his cheeks where tears had fallen from his eyes; the guy was desperately trying to fight an internal battle of his own. Thoros rushed and grabbed his friend’s face between his palms. “Baddon, look at me…”

Baddon’s eyelashes fluttered open and then he looked around frantically. “Where did he go? He was just here—”

Thoros took him by the shoulders and shook him hard, but it didn’t seem to faze him. “It’s not real! Lameria is playing with your mind. Snap out of it! I need you to take her out while I distract her.”

“He said he was going to take me. Father said I could go with him this time. Has he left me here?”

Thoros stared at him another moment, and then shook his head, growling as he stood. He immediately jerked back and winced; a scream tore up his throat before he even knew the cause. It took him a moment to realize twelve inches of an arrow were sticking out of his chest.

He touched it with shaky fingers, and then just left it alone, as the pain was too fierce to attempt to pull the arrow out without drinking at least two bottles of liquid courage first.

Glancing up from under his brow, he noticed Damien had another arrow in his bow, the string taut and ready for release. Thoros put his hand out to stop him, but didn’t have a chance to speak before the second arrow left its cradle.

Everything seemed to slow down after that. The sun through the window glinted off the metal tip of the arrow as it spiraled through the air at him. It wouldn’t kill him, but it would sure slow him down for a while. And, just like the other one, it would hurt like a son of a bitch!

It was obvious: Lameria had won this round.

He felt a hard blow to his right shoulder, but knew it wasn’t the pain of an arrow hitting home. He’d been knocked out of the way, and a writhing Phoebe, gripping the feathers of the arrow sticking out of her shoulder, let him know she had taken the shot for him.

He would thank her and personally tend to her wound later, but at the moment Damien was advancing on them both and reaching over his shoulder for another arrow.

“Damien, no! Lameria has control over you. You have to fight her!” Thoros threw himself over Phoebe and waited for the piercing impact he knew would soon follow.

It never came.

There was a bone-cracking sound and Thoros looked up to see Marcus with his hands still on each side of Lameria’s head. They made eye contact and then he let her broken body fall to the floor.

“Put…
that
…” a breathless and very Scottish accent came from behind him, and Thoros turned to see the extremely tall and broad shouldered angel stumbling up to Marcus and pointing at Lameria, “…somewhere far away fae me. The female is dangerous.”

Baddon got to his feet with a groan. “I’ll take her. Aries is going to need a pair of healing hands over there. I think she sprained her ankle when she fell to the floor. Lucifer made sure mine were only good for destroying things. A lot of good it does me; I couldn’t even take Lameria down.”

“Marcus must be immune,” Thoros said as he helped Phoebe sit up and then looked over at the angel with a smile. “You’re one lucky bastard to be able to deflect Lameria’s tricks.”

Thoros sighed, and then looked over as one of the other angels helped Phoebe to her feet, miraculously healed and ready to face the world. “Thanks, Phoebe.”

She smiled down at him. “Hey, no worries. You saved me, too, so… we’re even, right?”

Thoros snickered. “Yeah—yeah, I guess we are.”

He had a lot of apologies and thank yous to make in the immediate future, but the one person he wanted to forgive him—loved another.

There was only one way to make it up to her for all he’d put her through: help her find her happiness.

Hot tears stung his eyes and he blew a big breath out of his lungs as the realization that she would never love him hit home. He swallowed the lump in his throat and massaged the ache in the center of his chest, before going over to make sure the rest of the people affected by Lameria’s gift were all right.

The last time I was in front of the Council had been over three months ago. It hadn’t been a good visit then, and I didn’t expect this one to go in my favor, either; things had just not gone the way I planned, of late.

“You can’t talk to the head guardians about this, Josselyn,” Isaiah said.

I didn’t bother glancing over my shoulder at him as I responded to his rather ridiculous statement. “Watch me.”

“Their minds are already made up—”

“Well, then I will just have to change their minds.”

“Preposterous,” he grumbled. “You are a very stubborn young lady. Are you aware of that fact?”

“Yes, I am. Being stubborn turns a lot of noes into yeses.” I glanced over my shoulder then. “You’re stubborn, too. I figured you would have known that already.”

He frowned. “Very funny,” he said, and then turned his expression to pleading. “Please, at least just tell me you have a plan. You can’t walk in there unprepared. They will eat you alive!”

I stopped and turned on him, giving him my undivided attention. “When did you become spineless, Isaiah? I thought you were one of them, one of the sixteen great and all-powerful archangels.”

He dropped his chin and just stared at his feet, obviously choked up and not sure of how to phrase his words. “I suppose losing my soul has made me a bit insecure. I just fear you barging in there without thought as of what you will say to them will cause their decision to be even more final. You are very reckless, child, but I trust your judgment for some reason. I pray we are not both wrong.”

I took his hands in mine as I sighed. “I’m sorry for jumping to conclusions when it’s possible you could have another plan to fix this. What is your plan, Isaiah?”

His forehead wrinkled in frustration as he scowled at me, and then he finally reached for the handle of the Council room door with his left hand, jerked the door open and motioned for me to walk ahead of him. “After you, my dear.”

I rose up on my toes to kiss his cheek. He grinned and a blush colored his cheeks. “They may not change their minds, but if we do or say nothing, then we are only waiting for the inevitable to happen. I know you would have my back if I was in your shoes, so please don’t deny me the right to have yours. You don’t deserve the fate they are sentencing you to, and I will argue that point until the moment of condemnation.”

With tears in his eyes, Isaiah smiled as he threw his arms around me. “Bless you, child. I already feel saved.”

I hugged him back, realizing I needed the comfort just as much as he obviously did.

The clearing of a throat robbed me of my happy time, and I looked over—then down—to see the snot-nosed little brat that had interrupted my hug with Troy the day I was told by the Council that Malcolm had dropped his soul and left Heaven, willingly.

The kid’s hair was longish and fell in front of his narrowed, baby-blue eyes. He gave a jerk of his head to fling it out of his way, to undoubtedly make sure I felt the full intensity of his stare. This kid was beginning to rub me, and not in a good way.

Being as his soul was probably centuries older than mine, as he was evidently the beck-and-call boy for the archangels, a task that was even more important—according to them—than my position on the Line of Defense team, being anything but courteous would be really stupid on my part.

I smiled extra sweetly and bent to his level. “Hey there, little fella! Will you please let the Council know that I request a meeting with them? Thank you so much.”

His cheeks immediately flamed red and I was afraid he might kick me in the shin, but he didn’t. He just turned and stomped his way up the aisle toward the Council members’ empty chairs.

“Was that really necessary?” Isaiah whispered by my ear. “Your sarcasm was so thick I could have smothered you with it. I’m sure Samuel did not mean to—”

“It was absolutely necessary. It was either that or bend him over my knee and give
Sammy
a good spanking for ruining my hug. I figured the one I chose would get me better results, although I’m positive it was less satisfying. Let’s go save your soul.”

“God help me,” Isaiah prayed, and I giggled as we walked to the podium at the front of the large room.

***

Either Sammy was paying me back for my little remark or the head guardians were taking their slow, sweet, precious time accepting my meeting with them.

After a solid thirty minutes, only two of the remaining fifteen had shown up to take their thrones: Aberney and Gabriella. Both of them seemed uninterested and quite bothered by even having been summoned to speak with a nobody angel, such as myself.

Whatever. They are damn well going to listen to what I have to say!

“Close the zipper on your inner monologue, Josselyn!”
Isaiah whisper-shouted through my mind, and I stiffened in my chair.

I had totally forgotten that the archangels could hear my thoughts without even trying.

I cleared my throat and glanced down at my lap. “Sorry,” I whispered, but I knew that my apology had been heard by more than my guardian angel. I would find out soon enough if it had been accepted by the others.

My head shot up in alarm when I heard the door of the head guardian’s counseling chambers quietly open. We stood for the third time since we had arrived in the large room. After counting the heads of seven more archangels, Isaiah and I were encouraged to approach the podium.

“There are only nine here, Isaiah.”

“I fear the others have denied your request for a meeting. Don’t lose hope, my dear. The decision doesn’t have to be unanimous and my vote still counts. The majority rules.”

“The majority rules? So, since the other six Archangels aren’t here, does that mean their vote is a no without even hearing what I have to say?”

“It is complicated—”

“It’s not complicated! It is a yes or no question, and I would like a direct answer, Isaiah! Does their vote count against me because they are not present? Yes or no? Six are already missing, so does that mean if more than two of the nine here say no, then we are screwed? Yes… or… no?”

Isaiah sighed out loud, but before he could speak Geoffrey slammed the gavel down on the sound block, and then looked down his nose at me with a warning in his black, beady eyes. I had often questioned to myself the reasoning behind him being an archangel; he was so creepy-looking to me, but I tried very hard not to think about him in any negative way while standing before him in the Council Room. That would be a sure fire way to lose his vote.

Geoffrey gently laid the gavel down, but didn’t smile in a welcome greeting sort of way. Actually, the grimace on his face was closer to a frown than a smile. Come to think of it, I had never seen him smile. I swallowed hard and reminded myself that I only needed seven of the nine to be on my side. That would tie the count. I would worry about who would break the tie later, if I actually made it that far.