Reapers (9 page)

“
But…why? Have you no
shame?”

“
I don’t.” Metatron took a
drag of his cigar.

“
Listen kid, I like to
have eyes and ears everywhere. It’s how I do business. It’s how I
know what’s going on before anyone else does. I want to know who’s
coming and going. I want to know how many demons we’ve killed this
month. I want to know how many new rookies we have, and how many
we’ve lost. I want to know everything that goes on in
Horizon.”

“
Do they know you’re
spying on them?” asked Kara.

She had forgotten her own
fears as her curiosity had taken over.

She watched the
archangel’s stone-like face. His eyes were always hidden by his
glasses, and she couldn’t read what he was thinking.

“
I’m going to guess that
they don’t. What are you, Metatron? The spy master?”

Metatron laughed hard. He
turned to the women beside him and said, “Metatron the Spy Master!
Has a nice ring to it, don’t you think, Claire?”

The woman named Claire
smiled from behind her sunglasses, and he continued, “I like her.
Do you hear the hatred she has for me in her voice? It’s so pure.
There’s so much energy and emotion in it. She hates truly and
fiercely.”

Kara’s anger rose. “What
do you want from us?”

He blew a sword-like shape of
smoke.

“
I’m the man in charge now, and I like knowing what’s going on
in my domain. I don’t like operations sneaking behind my
back.”

“
Who said anything about
sneaking?” David raised his voice above the cacophony of television
speakers. “Listen, Metatron. I’m telling you that we weren’t
sneaking. Ariel requested us. We were just following orders, like
good little soldiers. And that’s exactly what we were
doing.”

Metatron smiled as he
observed David, like he was thrilled to be having a conversation
with him. He leaned forward and laughed softly.

“
I like you
Davy—”

“
It’s David.”

“
You remind me of me in my
younger days with the legion, but I was much more handsome,” said
Metatron.

The women next to him
giggled.

His face toughened, and he
tapped his cigar. “You think I don’t know…you think I can’t
see
what you’re up
to?”

David laughed casually.
“Dude, we’re not up to anything. It’s like I said. We were just
following orders.”

Metatron chewed on his
cigar and clapped as though David had just given a superb
theatrical performance. All the women on the couch followed his
example and clapped. He stopped clapping, and so did
they.

He leaned forward, shaking
his head disapprovingly, a sly smile on his face.

“
I applaud your efforts,
Davy, but the fact remains—you can’t con a con, kid.”

Kara shot David a nervous
look, but his attention was fixed on the big man on the
couch.

“
Both of you went against my orders,”
said Metatron, his face clear of any smiles. “
You were trying to escape from me. You managed to con those
two simpletons I sent to apprehend you, I give you that, but your
little scam won’t work on me. See, I’m charged with protecting the
legion, protecting Horizon, by any means I choose.”

He leaned back and blew
cigar smoke in the shape of a skull.

“
I’ll do
anything to protect us. Anything. If I say you’re traitors,
then
you’re
traitors
.”

“
We’re not traitors,” said
Kara defiantly.

She tried to gauge the
anger in the bend of his neck and the hardness of his shoulders.
Would he really kill them? She had a feeling that he might— to
prove a point—just to show off in front of his lady
friends.

Kara felt trapped. She
feared this archangel more than any she had ever encountered. He
was ruthless, dangerous, and he had an obvious lust for power. He
seemed to get pleasure from seeing them squirm under his authority.
How could the high council appoint such a heartless archangel to be
the overall legion commander? It made no sense.

Metatron was silent for a
moment.

“
It is in my power to
decide your fate and your future with the legion. I can kill you—”
he snapped his fingers, “just as easy as that. And I’ll feel no
remorse, no guilt, in killing you both. I’ve killed many guardian
angels over the past millenniums, and I’ve never regretted my
decisions. I do what’s best for the legion—no matter the
stakes.”

The guardian, Claire,
leaned over and whispered in Metatron’s ear. Her red lips brushed
against his earlobe playfully, and to Kara’s surprise she handed
him a pair of gold-colored gloves. Metatron took the gloves and
then kissed her cheek affectionately.

“
Thank you, darling,” he
said. “I do believe it’s time. And now, here comes my favorite
part,” he said as he looked at Kara.

After a big drag on his
cigar, he pulled on his golden gloves and rubbed his hands
excitedly together like a psychopath anticipating his next
kill.

He stood up and moved to
the right side of the couch to a great wooden chest with stars
carved on the sides. He raised the lid and drew a thick, black
metal chain from the contents of the chest.

“
Let the tortures
begin!”

He jumped down from the
platform in a single bound, and the ladies on the couch applauded
and crossed their opposite legs in unison.

David squeezed Kara’s hand
hard. She could feel him trembling.

As Metatron neared their
cage, the mass of television screens reflected off his glasses and
made him look like he had two enormous bug eyes. It made him all
the more creepy, and it made the situation seem more like a bad
dream.

He held up his black
chain, wiggling it in front of their eyes. Toxic black vapors
coiled up from the knotted metal.

Kara had the feeling that
she had seen this chain before, but she was terrified and couldn’t
think straight.

“
This,” he said, and he
pulled the chain taut, “this chain has provided me with many, many
answers. It is a remarkable tool for the truth…and the truth I will
have.”

It was Kara’s turn to
squeeze David’s hand.

“
This, here, is made from
the same metal the demons use for their death blades. I can see
from the fear in your eyes that you’ve seen it before. You have
reason to be fearful. It is the same metal that can cut through the
skin of an angel like butter and poison their essence with a
terrible burning darkness.”

He paused theatrically and
then raised the chain above his head.

“
Forged in the Black Wastes in the Netherworld—I give
you,
Truth Chain
.”

Metatron’s entourage clapped,
including the six women who guarded Kara and David’s cage. They
were like his groupies, clinging to his every word like he was some
god. It was pathetic.

“
You’re mad,” hissed Kara.
“You can’t do this. The legion would never allow
torture.”

“
Wouldn’t they?” laughed
Metatron. “And how would you know, little bird?”

There was something
strange about the way he said that, like somehow the legion
did
permit him to
torture angels, like he was given a free pass to torture whomever
he pleased. Kara shuddered.

No one knew she and David
were here. And no one was coming to rescue them. They were on their
own.

“
You’re sick,” she hissed.
“I don’t care what you say, but the legion was wrong. They should
never have made you the overall commander. They must have been
mad.”

Metatron smiled as if she
had just paid him a giant compliment.

“
Kara Nightingale, are you
a traitor?”

He raised the chain higher, taunting
her with it.

Kara set jaw. “No, of
course not. I’m
not
a traitor. Never was…never will be.”

“
How do
you explain your ghost-like appearance? Who do you
really
work
for?”

At first Kara was stunned
by the comment, but she recovered quickly and said, “I work for the
legion. What are you implying, exactly?”

She eyed the black chain
in his big hands apprehensively like a poisonous snake that was
about to strike her.

Metatron measured her for
a moment. “Not good enough, I’m afraid.”

“
But
I’m
not
a
traitor—”

In an instant he wrapped
the black chain around David’s neck.

David cried out in agony
and fell to his knees. Black mist curled around his head as the
chain burned deep into his neck and chest. He tried desperately to
pull it off, but the chain melted the skin from his fingers. They
fell apart like a pair of old rubber gloves. He shivered and cried
out again and again as the black chain burned his body. The black
poison made its way through him like a virus. Kara knew that it
would eat away at his soul until it consumed him
entirely.

White-hot fury blazed
inside Kara as she fell to her knees next to David.

His face was pale, his
skin translucent and paper-thin. He trembled as the poison from the
chain paralyzed him. He was suffering needlessly. He was suffering
because of her. She wanted to kill Metatron.

“
Now
that I have your attention, and cooperation,” Metatron pressed,
“again, tell me, why are you transparent? And don’t even try to
lie, because I can always tell when angels lie. As a
master liar
myself, I
can always tell when an angel is lying to me. It is one of my
special gifts.”

Kara’s lips trembled. “I—I
don’t know. I don’t know,” she said.

Her anger surged and she
screamed in a rage. “I don’t remember, and that’s the honest truth!
I don’t remember what happened to me. Raphael tried to get me to
remember, but I just can’t! I’m telling you the truth. I’m not a
traitor. I don’t know what’s happening to me! Please, I’m telling
you the truth!”

Metatron raised his brows
and leaned forward more closely, his big, ugly grinning face inches
from Kara’s.

“
I believe you are telling
me the truth,” said Metatron after a moment. His breath was
surprisingly sweet, like peppermint, and not sour as Kara would
have thought.

“
Thank God! So will you
let David go?” Kara felt a surge of relief and hope.

Metatron shrugged. “I
haven’t decided yet.”

Kara wanted to scream at
the top of her lungs. She wanted to grab a soul blade from one of
the women and gouge out the hateful eyes that hid behind those
stupid sunglasses. The only person in all the worlds that she loved
more than herself was withering away before her eyes. And Metatron
was
deciding
.

Kara stood up. And in a
moment of desperation, she jumped up and waved frantically at
Raphael on the screen, in an attempt to get her attention. But she
realized foolishly that she couldn’t see her. No one
could.

“
I could let Davy here
wither away into nothingness,” began Metatron, and he took a long
drag from his cigar “Or, you and I can make a deal.”

The word
deal
rang in Kara’s
head. David had specifically said not to make a deal with him, but
right now what other choice did she have? She could feel her
resolve weaken.

Her voice faltered as she
said, “Just, please stop. I’ll do anything you ask. Just don’t kill
him.”

Kara felt a sudden tug on
her pants. David stared up at her, his face drawn as the poison
moved though his body.

“
No…” he breathed,
“Kara…don’t…”

“
I have to.” She answered
in a whisper.

She didn’t care about
herself. She only wanted to save him.

Kara glared at Metatron.
“What will it be then? What do you want from me?”

For a moment Metatron
considered Kara with great interest.

Then he said, “A deal is a
deal. Once you agree—the deal is sealed with your word, and it can
never be broken.”

His voice was eager, like
a threatening whisper.

Kara could feel him
ensnaring her.

“
I understand,” she
replied.

“
No—Kara—don’t,” said
David, his voice cracked like he was suffering from a
cold.

But it was too late. She
had already agreed, even before knowing what she had traded. “What
is it then?”

To her horror, Metatron
reached forward and grasped a handful of her hair. He twisted it in
his gloved hand, moved closer to her, leaned forward, and whispered
in her ear.

Kara flinched, but she willed herself
not to step back.