Reapers (10 page)

He had spoken the terms.

Metatron leaned back. “Do
you agree to these terms?”

The words rang in her
ears. She dreaded them. They were like the poison from the death
blades, eating slowly away at her soul, but she still
nodded.

“
Yes.”

“
Done.” Metatron
laughed.

He reached inside the cage
and removed the chain from David’s neck. “Nothing personal,
Davy.”

Immediately, David
collapsed to the ground. His face was sunken, and the flesh around
his neck was raw. Kara could see his angel essence spilling out and
over his chest. He moaned in agony.

“
Kara!” David muttered,
his voice hoarse. “What did you do? What did you do?”

The conditions of the deal
rang loud in Kara’s mind, but she could not speak the words to
David.

Metatron turned and made
his way back up onto the platform.

He turned to Kara with a
superior smile and said, “
Give my best to
the ravishing Ariel.”

And then he added, “I’ll see you soon,
little bird.”

Chapter 6

Leap of Faith

A
fter a quick stop back to level three, so that David could
heal his wounds in the Healing-Xpress, they made their way to level
five. Kara’s ears still rang with Metatron’s deal. It was an
irritating tune that played over and over, and wouldn’t go
away.

“
Kara, tell me what the
deal was! What was the agreement?” David questioned her again and
again. But she pressed her lips firmly together and shook her head,
infuriating David all the more.

David continued to watch her
nervously, but she still couldn’t bring herself to tell him what
she had traded their lives for…not yet.

Finally, the elevator stopped. David
retrieved his golden key card from the large, molasses-colored
primate with a tail like a cat who had kept his eyes on the control
panel the entire journey. The two of them stepped into level five,
the Department of Defense.

The Counter Demon Division looked just
as she remembered. It was a giant circular room the size of a
baseball field, with second and third-floor offices separated by
glass walls. Hundreds of guardian angels walked up and down the
stairs or sat at desks and busied their fingers with
keyboards.

At first the room was loud with the
sound of voices, but within a few seconds of their arrival, the
room went still. Kara did her best not to make eye contact with
anyone as they moved past holographic screens that looked like
moving wallpaper. She angled her body strategically so she could
hide behind David. But it was no use. Everyone was watching
her.

Instead of moving toward the large
round desk in the middle of the chamber, where the guardians
usually held their meetings, David led her toward four cubicles of
green-colored water. The vega tanks shimmered like giant emeralds
from the light from the ceiling.

A group of angels stood nervously
around the tanks, as though they were preparing themselves for the
jump. Kara could see Ashley and her cronies, Sasha, Raymond, and
Ling. Ashley’s hazel eyes shot daggers at her. She was a few years
older than Kara and wore her long blonde hair pulled back into a
braid. It was a style that caused her sharp, plain features to
stand out. Sasha was a mousy, skinny girl with shoulder-length
straw-colored hair and big dull eyes. Raymond stood on the other
side of Ashley. He was a red-haired brute with a face like a
bloodsucker. And Ling hid in the shadows behind Ashley. Ling always
made Kara uneasy. He reminded her of a leech with his thin face,
black greasy hair, and empty black eyes.

Their hostility was like a sudden
frost around the vega tanks, and Kara suppressed a
shiver.

A petite teenage girl around the same
age as Kara, with a pixie cut of purple hair, squealed at the sight
of Kara and rushed over to her.

“
Wow, you look like a
hologram,” said Jenny.

A giant smile spread across her sharp,
pointed features. She looked like a typical teenager, except for
her polished purple combat boots and purple bomber-like jacket. She
wore a silver quiver with a bow and a multitude of silver arrows
strapped to her back.

“
This is
so
totally weird to look
at you like this. I can see right through you, like I’m staring
through a fog or a cloud. Does it hurt?”

She moved her fingers delicately
through Kara’s long ponytail. Her large, green eyes stood out
against the black kohl and purple of her eye shadow.

“
No,” said Kara. “I don’t
feel any different either. I just
look
different.”

Jenny jumped into Kara’s arms and
hugged her tightly. “Who cares? I missed ya.”

Kara relaxed a little and smiled.
“Missed you too, you crazy girl.”

As Jenny released Kara from her bear
hug, a scrawny teenage boy with glasses, a mousy face, and wearing
a combat uniform two sizes too big extended his hand.

“
Glad you’re back, Kara,”
smiled Peter. “We could really use your help with this.”

Kara shook Peter’s hand. Her eyes went
to David. “Yeah, David said something about a situation. What
situation? What have I missed?”

“
Something the legion
hoped we would never have to face,” said a voice.

Kara looked over Peter’s
shoulder. A stunning tall woman made her way toward them. Her
mocha-colored skin blended beautifully with her black CDD uniform.
She studied every inch of Kara’s mysterious semi-transparent body,
and Kara felt even more self-conscious. Kara could tell that the
archangel Ariel had never seen a ghost-like guardian before. She
hadn’t expected Kara to look quite like
that
.

No one knew what was wrong with her,
and it made her feel worse.

“
It’s nice to see you
again, Kara,” said archangel Ariel. Kara thought that Ariel looked
tired.

“
Are you up for a mission?
I could really use your help and skill with our present
situation.”

There was a sense of urgency to her
voice. “We don’t have enough trained field agents at the moment.
Those who are in training, well, they’re not quite ready just yet,
not for a perilous mission like this one.”

She hesitated, measuring Kara’s body
again.

“
Can you work like this?
Do you think you can make another vega leap? I do need you on the
team, but I wouldn’t want to add more…more
harm
to your affliction, whatever it
is.”

Despite the strangeness of the
situation, Kara was excited. She smiled.

“
Raphael seems to think
that I can. But she advised me not to overdo it, just in case. I
feel fine though.”

It was unusual to be back
so soon. And even more so with another tainted form, but there was
nothing in the world that Kara wanted more than to be a guardian
again. At that moment, she realized that
this
, being a guardian angel, was
what she was meant to be in
this
ethereal life. It explained the empty feeling she
had experienced as a mortal. It was what she had tried very
inarticulately to explain to Mr. Patterson. She was meant to be a
guardian angel. She was meant to save lives.

Kara raised her chin, and
then she added more confidently. “I
can
do this. I’m ready.”

“
Good,” said Ariel. “You
don’t have time to change, so those
clothes
will have to do for now. Not
sure how
effective
they will be on your mission though. I’m sure you’ll make
them work.”

Kara looked down at herself. She’d
never imagined her blue jeans, white cami, and gray cardigan would
be effective for anything. They were just comfortable. Although
they weren’t demon-fighting clothes, she could still maneuver
easily in them.

“
Kara,” said Ariel,
“you’ll be on Jenny’s team with Peter and David. Ashley already has
her team ready—”

“
She
shouldn’t
be on any team,” said
Ashley suddenly.

Her tone was cold and
filled with hatred. “I mean,
look
at her. All she’ll do is attract attention to us.
She’ll put us all in danger.”

All eyes were on Kara once again, but
she stood her ground defiantly.

“
Shut up, Ashley,” David
growled.

“
Yeah, Ashley,” agreed
Jenny. “Nobody asked for
your
opinion.”

“
My
opinion
matters just as much as
yours does, Jenny. I’m a team leader.”

Ashley continued in a superior tone
and drew herself higher. “She hasn’t told us why she looks the way
she looks, has she? Do we really know what her motives are? It’s
not like we read minds. How do we know what side she truly is on?
We can’t tell, can we? All we know for sure is that she was once
marked by demons, and now it looks to me like she’s been marked all
over again—”

David made a move toward Ashley, but
Kara grabbed him back, shaking her head. The last thing she wanted
was for David to get suspended because of her.

“
I swear to God I’m going
to shut you up if you don’t stop.” David turned away
angrily.

Ashley studied the faces of her
cronies, and then she smiled confidently.

“
You know I’m right. Every
one of you knows that I’m speaking the truth. You just don’t have
the guts to say it, but I do.”

She looked at Kara and
sneered.

Kara felt deflated. She searched her
friends’ faces and wondered if Ashley’s words had any real truth to
them. Were they really afraid she might get them hurt?

“
Speak for yourself,”
Peter frowned. “I want Kara on my team. She’s an excellent
guardian, and I couldn’t ask for a better teammate.”

Kara relaxed her shoulders and felt a
little better. At least Peter didn’t believe the words that spilled
from Ashley’s insufferable mouth.

Ashley turned on Peter but pointed at
Kara.

“
She looks foul. She is
foul, and I
don’t
trust her. For all we know she could be leading us into a
trap, an ambush. Until we know for sure, she should stay back with
archangel Raphael so that she can keep an eye on her.” She shook
her head. “She shouldn’t be with us. She poses a threat to our
mission. We’ll never be safe with her around.”

She glared at Kara, her face twisted
as though she wanted to slap her.

“
You know,” said Jenny,
wandering forward. “All kinds of accidents can happen on the
job.”

She smiled wickedly at her. “I might
mistake you for a demon—”

“
Enough,” said Ariel. “We
don’t have time for this.”

Kara didn’t hear the archangel. She
could fight her own battles.

Before she knew what she was doing,
she stepped in front of Ashley and thrust her face into
Ashley’s.

“
I’m right here. You’ve
got something to say to me? Then say it to my face.”

Ashley drew herself up and met Kara’s
challenging glare. “I don’t trust you. You’re tainted. We both know
you don’t belong here. It’s just a matter of time before the rest
of the legion realizes their mistake.”

“
I have a right to be here
just as much as you do,” spat Kara.

Ashley laughed a spiteful laugh. “But
you don’t. You just don’t know it yet.”

Kara made fists with her hands.
“You’re going to wish you never said that.”

“
What?” mocked Ashley,
“That you’re fouled?”

Her cronies laughed.

Kara raised her fists. “You’re the one
who’s going to be fouled when I’m finished with you.”

“
Is that a threat?” laughed Ashley again.

She narrowed her eyes. “I doubt you can even throw a decent
punch, the way you look. Look at you: pathetic, weak. You’re not
even
real
. You’re a ghost, a figment of what you used to be. You’re
nothing. They should have locked you up in Tartarus.”

Kara pulled herself together and stood stone-faced. Ashley
would nev
er
know how much her words hurt.

“
Well, they probably will throw me in Tartarus, after I’m
done with you.” Kara leaned forward. “And I think I’ll start with
your face, seeing as it’s the closest thing to me—”

“
Stop this at
once!”

Ariel pushed the girls
apart, scowling. “Have you all gone mad? Have you forgotten the
camaraderie that is the first rule of the legion—we are an extended
family, a fellowship. How can you treat your family like this? It’s
ridiculous. You are
all
on the
same
team—each and every one of you—the same team. You
are equals.”