Reapers (6 page)

Raphael leaned over Kara and inspected
her more closely.

“
Try harder Kara. It’s
imperative that you remember the events before you got here. You
have to try and remember how you died. Who was with you? Was there
anyone with you?”

Kara reached back unconsciously and
brushed the nape of her neck as though she expected something to be
there. But still she couldn’t remember what it was she was looking
for.

“
What is it? Do you feel
something there?” Raphael lifted Kara’s hair out of the way and
inspected the back of her neck. “I don’t see anything, there’s no
mark of any kind.”

She let Kara’s hair fall back. “Was
this important to you somehow? Were you hit at the back of the head
maybe?”

Kara shrugged and rubbed her temples.
“I—I don’t know. I can’t remember.” She let out a loud sigh. “This
is so frustrating! Why can’t I remember? I’ve always been able to
remember—”

“
Until now.” The
archangel’s soft, delicate face was drawn with distress.

Kara watched Raphael. “That means
something to you…doesn’t it? What? Please tell me. I’m dying
here—so to speak.”

“
I don’t know, maybe,”
said the archangel after a moment’s hesitation. “Clearly, it has
something to do with what’s happened to you. Maybe what’s happened
to your body is also affecting your memories, making them ambiguous
and inaccessible, but I’m just not sure yet. And I don’t want to
say anything to make you more anxious. I can tell you’re already in
a mess.”

Raphael made her way toward the back
of her chamber. She rummaged through a metal box that contained a
variety of medical tools and instruments. Finally, she drew out
what looked like a large needle.

“
Come and sit over here,”
said Raphael as she pulled an empty chair next to her. “Let’s take
a sample of your essence and see what we’ve got.”

She tapped the seat.
“Come.”

Kara didn’t move. Her eyes were glued
to the large needle in the archangel’s hands. A panic erupted in
her, and she couldn’t explain it or control it. She didn’t
move.

“
It won’t hurt, I promise.
You’re in your guardian angel body, not your mortal one. Remember,
physical pain is expressed differently here. Your body, your shell,
is much stronger. You won’t feel a thing.”

Still, Kara wouldn’t move. It was as
though giant invisible hands held her on the spot. There was
something oddly familiar and terrifying about that
needle.

Raphael set her needle
down.

“
Kara, if you want to know
what’s happened to you, I
need
to run some tests. Whatever
this
is…it could be very serious. I
don’t want to take any chances. What’s the matter with
you?”

Suddenly, the door burst open and two
large silverback gorillas hurtled into the room.

Chapter 4

Transparency

A
dark-skinned guardian angel with a squished face like a
bulldog came rushing through behind the gorillas. He pointed
directly at Kara, “That’s the creature!”

“
Get her! Secure her at
once!” said another younger officer importantly.

He reminded Kara of a foolish young
cop on his first day on the job, trying a little too hard to please
his senior officer.

The five-hundred-pound gorillas flexed
their massive muscles and snarled. Their teeth looked like
miniature swords. The smell of wet dog filled Raphael’s impeccable
chamber so that it smelled like a kennel.

Kara shifted uneasily under the wild
stares of the gorillas. She hardly took notice of the officers—they
didn’t have pointy teeth. The gorillas were positioned
strategically in front of the only door. There was no way she could
fight off two gorillas.

Kara forgot her strange ghost-like
appearance and felt anger in the pit of her angel body. It lit her
like a flame and grew hotter and hotter, until it consumed
her.

She glowered at the officers. She
hadn’t done anything wrong. She was being judged and convicted
before all the facts were known. What else could go
wrong?

“
Now wait just a minute!”
exclaimed Raphael.

She moved in front of Kara
defensively, like a mother protecting her child.

“
What is the meaning of
this? You can’t just barge in here without proper authorization.
This is my
private
healing chamber. Under whose authority have you come
here?”

The senior officer stepped forward.
His face was hard but the fear in his eyes betrayed him.

“
I apologize, archangel
Raphael, but we have strict instructions to bring in—” He gestured
to Kara. “—
her,
at once.”

“
From whom? Bring
her
where
exactly?” Raphael’s tone was threatening. She seemed to
expand in height, and suddenly she looked fiercer than the two
gorillas combined. The two officers leaned back.

The senior officer hesitated before
answering. “It was the archangel Metatron. He wishes us to bring
the intruder to him at once.”

“
I’m not an
intruder
,” said Kara
before she could control herself. “I’m a guardian angel just like
you. So what if I’m—if I’m a little
discolored
. I’m still a guardian.
Besides, as far as I know, and I
know
the rules—believe me—I haven’t
done anything wrong. I haven’t broken any rules, have I? So you can
just go tell your Metatron that I’m staying right here with
Raphael.”

The officer seemed taken aback that
Kara had had the nerve to speak to him at all. He glowered at her,
which only made her anger deepen.

“
Metatron,” he said and
raised his chin, “is a highly respectable archangel,
intruder
.”

“
I’m not an intruder!”
Kara’s anger skyrocketed. If the gorillas hadn’t been there, she
would have slapped the scowl off his face.

She glanced at the gorillas. They were
eyeballing her like she was a curious toy, and they were waiting
for their commanders to give them the word to grab her and squeeze
the soul out of her.

“
Metatron
, you say?” said
Raphael.

The look in Raphael’s eye didn’t
comfort Kara. She suspected that Metatron and Raphael didn’t get
along. Raphael was the most gentle, most passive of all the
archangels she had ever met, and so her attitude toward Metatron
was disturbing.

Kara had never heard of the name
Metatron before. He must have been appointed to the council of
archangels while she had been absent. She had a feeling she would
be meeting him very soon.

Raphael stood defiantly with her hands
on her hips and stared down at the two officers.

“
Kara is under
my
care, and right now
she isn’t going anywhere with you. So you can turn around right now
and take your
companions
with you. Get out of my chamber.”

The officers squirmed uncomfortably,
but the senior officer seemed determined to do his job. He cleared
his throat. “I’m sorry, archangel Raphael, but we have strict
orders to bring her in. If you don’t let us take her
then—”

“
You’ll what?” growled
Raphael, and even Kara felt a little frightened.

Raphael was as gentle as a lamb until
you messed with her. Now she was as fierce as a lioness protecting
her cub.

“
I don’t care what
Metatron wants,” continued the archangel. “He has no authority over
me. She stays with me, and that’s final.”

“
But, archangel Raphael,”
began the senior officer, “we were told to bring her in no matter
what. We were told to use force if need be.”

At that the two gorillas growled and
hit their chests with their powerful fists. The floor shook as they
pounded the ground with their feet.

Raphael’s beautiful face darkened. “Is
that so?”

An ominous smile played on her lips,
and light emanated from her. It grew steadily stronger until her
body glowed like a brilliant white star. She made her way toward
the gorillas—

“
Okay, okay, show’s over,
people,” came a familiar voice. Even before she saw him, Kara’s
skin tingled in excitement.

David came strutting through the front
door with a confident smile. He pushed his way between the two
officers, and although they grimaced back in protest, they didn’t
stop him.

He wore black cargo pants tucked into
a pair of shiny black boots and a short-sleeved black shirt that
emphasized his athletic build. His eyes met Kara’s, and for a
second she could see a mixture of surprise and fear. But then his
smile widened, and he winked at her. David was on her
side.

At first she had feared his reaction
to seeing her like this. She remembered how badly he had reacted
when he had seen her mark. But now it was different. She could tell
that David trusted her this time.

David waved his hand to the officers,
dismissing them.

“
I’m here now, you can go
back to whatever lame, boring job you were doing before. Nothing to
see here. Movin’ on. Movin’ on. Let’s go.”

He clapped his hands together. “Chop
chop.”

“
Excuse me,
David McGowan
,” said the
younger officer, “but we have strict instructions from Metatron
to
secure
the
intruder and bring her to him immediately—”

“
Well, that’s just it,”
said David as he circled the officers, inspecting them closely. He
reached out and picked a piece of lint off the younger officer’s
uniform. “Metatron sent me.”

He flicked the lint from his
fingers.

“
Yes, that’s right, you
heard me.
Me-ta-tron
, that big, bad, archangel who looks like a gangster.
Exactly. Well, he told
me—”
he poked himself in the chest and then reached
out and poked the senior officer on the front of his jacket, “to
tell
you
that you
are to dismiss that order and hand the
intruder
—” his eyes went to Kara for
a second, “to moi.”

He beamed.

“
Isn’t that a fish?”
questioned the younger officer.

“
It’s French,” said
David.

“
The fish is
French?”

David lost his smile and
slapped his forehead. “It means
me
, genius. Metatron orders you to
release the intruder to
me
.”

The officers shared a sidelong glance
and then the senior officer spoke.

“
Metatron gave you that
order? You’d better not be lying to us, David McGowan. We know your
reputation for being a ruthless rule breaker.”

David made a face and pressed his hand
on his chest.

“
What? I’m shocked. I’m such a good little soldier. I always
follow the rules. I have no idea what you mean.”

He w
atched the officers’
unconvinced expressions and his face hardened.

“
Look, are you questioning
Metatron’s orders? Do you know what will happen if he finds out
that you—” he poked the officer again, “disobeyed his
orders?”

The officers were silent.

“
They don’t call
him
Metatron the Fierce
for nothing.”

David caught Kara’s eye again, and she
felt a spark of electricity rise in her. She couldn’t help but
smile. David always knew how to make her smile in a tight
situation.

Both officers were quiet. Kara could
see the indecision on their faces. And when she looked over to
Raphael, the archangel’s sudden great luminescence had diminished.
She still looked angry, but she wasn’t nearly so scary. The
officers didn’t pose a threat to her any longer.

David threw up his hands
dramatically.

“
Fine. Have it your way.”
And then he pointed a finger at them.

“
But let me tell you this.
He’ll throw you in Tartarus, that’s what he’ll do.” David observed
the men squirm for a moment. “You wouldn’t want that, trust
me.”

He looked over to Kara, and she
remembered the time when he came to rescue her in his polka dot
boxer shorts. “Once you step into Tartarus—that’s it—you never get
out.”

The officers shared a panicked
glance.

“
You’ll stay there until
the end of time.” And then he added, “Your body and mind will rot
away with the rest of the decrepit souls. You’ll never get
out.
Never
.”

David rubbed his hands together.
“Might as well say your goodbyes now, unless…” He raised his brows.
“Unless you obey the order from Metatron and release the intruder
to me, as he requested. What will it be, boys?”