Angelic Avenger (34 page)

“We had words. I started flinging accusations and he snapped back at me. The bottom line was I told him that if he wasn’t going to support my career, he needed to get out. He froze and stood there, staring at me. For some reason, it only made me madder, so I stepped over that fragile line. I told him I didn’t need him and he needed to go home and lick his ego where someone would give a damn because I was done catering to it.”

Ouch. I began to understand that one-way ticket to Texas. Unfortunately, it gave me a good idea as to why he felt the way he felt about my relationship with his brother. Honora had ripped his heart out and told him his love was a lie to bolster his ego. The one thing I had learned about Devereau men was that they could be led by their hearts far easier than their stomachs. My mother was so wrong about that point.

“Yep, that’d do it.” I let myself look at her, really look at her. Tony was far easier to read because he shielded his magic from me, so he looked pretty much human. Honora was harder, but now that she’d laid her soul bare, it was easy to see he wasn’t the only one caught up in this quagmire. The question was how to get them beyond all that pain?

“So how do I fix it?”

Her question surprised me. She was asking advice from
me
? I was the least qualified to give it, but I’d help, if I could.

“Simple. He still loves you or he would never have approached you at the house. What did he say?”

“He asked me to dinner.”

“That was all? All that shouting because he wanted to take you to dinner?”

Call me dense, but I simply didn’t see the logistics of that, even with the baggage between them. Honora blushed and looked away.

“Well, I’ll admit I might have overreacted a touch.”

Understatement seemed to be her forte, but it gave me an idea. I began to smile that evil, ‘I’m so up to something’ smile that made the men in my life take a step back.

“Give me a restaurant Tony won’t associate with you.”

Honora blinked at me with a frown. “Why?”

“Do you love him?” I demanded in exasperation. When she nodded, I waved my cell phone at her with a mock frown. “Then don’t argue and let the master work.”

“Giorgio’s.”

“Expensive taste. I like it.” We shared a co-conspirators giggle as I flipped open my phone and hit two on the speed dial. One was my voicemail. Gray’s house had managed to work its way to number two. Since Gray was at work and Lizzy was with me, there was only one person there to answer it.

“Hey Tony. I just got off the phone with Gray. Yeah, I know, he had a break in court and gave me a call before he had to go back in. He’s going to be working a bit late getting ready for tomorrow, so thought we’d like a dinner out, just us adults. I think he wants to relax a bit before going home. He’s had a hard day. What do you say to Giorgio’s around seven-ish? I know it’s early, but he sounded like he could really use the break from the routine. Uhm hum… Don’t worry about calling him. I’ve got it. Meet us there. I’ll make the reservations in his name. He always manages to get the best tables.”

Flipping my phone shut, I grinned at her impishly. Her eyes were wide. My plan was pretty obvious, but she seemed to be at a loss about what to do about it. A quick call to Gray’s cell phone since he was really in court all day told him to play along if he talked to Tony, and not to blow my plan on threat of bodily harm. Turning back to Honora, I smiled.

“So, do we need to get you home and dressed up?”

“Bella, I’m not sure about this. What if he comes in, sees me, and walks right back out.”

“Simple. You can take my car and if it goes to hell and one of you needs to walk away, you’ll have a ride home. We’ll spend the night at my apartment downtown so we can pick up the car in the morning if it all goes well and you two leave together. I’ve been missing my place anyway.”

Before she could object, I flipped my phone and left the second message on Gray’s phone so he’d know where to go after work.

“I’m just…”

“Going to dinner with the man you love. If it goes badly and you don’t want to be alone, come to the apartment. I think by meeting him halfway, you’re taking that step to patching up at least a bearable friendship, if not your relationship as you knew it.”

She opened her mouth but swallowed her objections with a small smile. “Do we have time to go shopping for one of those drop-dead dresses that’ll make me irresistible?”

“Do I get to pick it out?” Lizzy’s sleepy voice made us both laugh.

“Of course you do, honey. I want to look smashing for Mr. Tony. Do you think we can work that out?”

“You always look smashing to Mr. Tony, Ms. Honora. He looks at you like Ms. Bella looks at chocolate.”

I burst out laughing. That was a pretty accurate observation from a five-year-old. We gathered her up and paid a visit to Neiman Marcus and spent the next two hours picking out a red dress that screamed sex, and then getting her manicured and her hair done. Gray had called halfway through to make sure he had a clue, but approved the plan. Like me, he wanted to see his brother happy again.

Finally, we parked the car in the garage beside Giorgio’s and handed her the keys.

“The rest is on you, honey. Good luck and remember we love you. If he’s an ass, walk away. We’ll try another plan on another day, but we’re not letting this go.”

Her eyes glistened with tears as she hugged both Lizzy and me before putting the keys in the new purse that matched her shoes. Her old clothes were in the trunk, so if she happened to need another outfit come morning, she was covered.

Okay, so I had overly optimistic hopes. Sue me. They were made for each other and if something didn’t happen soon, I was going to ship his grumpy self right back to Texas.

“Can we walk home, Ms. Bella? I like the city at night.”

Looking down at that shining face, I couldn’t say no. “Sure thing, Sunshine.”

Taking her hand, we walked to the stairwell that led to street level. Honora took the elevator because of her heels. I figured she needed the chance to regroup before she saw Tony, anyway.

“Mr. Tony is going to be so excited to see Ms. Honora all fancied up, don’t you think, Ms. Bella?”

“Sure is, Lizzy. You did a great job making her all pretty.”

We started down the first landing and her excited voice echoed down the enclosed stairwell. I don’t know what tipped me off, but as we hit the landing halfway between the levels, I glanced in the corner.

The world closed to slow motion. Turel was there, reaching…and the world went black.

Chapter Thirty-Two

I stood staring at the judgment chamber with Lucifer, Peter, and Zachiel standing before me. How did I get here? I blinked and shook my head, trying to shake the disorientation off but not having much success. I started to make a smart comment, but several things crashed down on me at once.

None of the angels standing there wore an expression. When I say no expression, I mean totally and carefully neutral faces. Peter usually wore that long-suffering look of fathers and husbands everywhere when dealing with a petulant child or spouse. He stood there, not fidgeting, his hand empty of the usual pen and his great book closed. I had his complete and total attention along with Lucifer’s, though I didn’t know him well enough to know if it was his normal business face or not. Somehow, with the other two angels being so out of character, I was betting on the fact it wasn’t. Not even Zachiel’s face showed anything and his eyes normally shone with hidden amusement as if he knew something you didn’t. The fact he knew many things that we didn’t only served to make the look more endearing.

Concentrating on Zachiel made me realize that he’d never been present when I arrived before. Always in the past, he’d come when the scales found the soul I carried worthy of his care. Why was he there, now? Something should have made sense, but it eluded my scrambled brain.

I blinked at them and my eyes fell down to the judgment scale and my world shattered like china falling on flagstones. The soul hovering there, equally as disoriented at I was, was mine.

Granted, she was me as I was when I died, but the differences weren’t so great. My hair was longer now, but the body was the same. The brown eyes looking around with that frantic “Where the hell am I?” expression were the same ones that stared back at me in the mirror every morning. I even recognized the look.

I looked up and cocked my head as I stared at the three angels even as I became aware the chamber was full of the presence of other angels. The judgment of souls was generally a private issue, but even if it wasn’t, one soul didn’t warrant much attention for the world at large. Why, then, were they there for me? Wait a minute, why were any of us here. I’ve got a one-way ticket to Hell.

“I don’t understand.”

My words were low and the rustle of angel wings around me sent a shiver up my spine. I wanted to glance around but didn’t dare take my stare off the judges. Why were they all here? What was going on that I didn’t know? I hated it when I didn’t know things.

“The answer—” Zachiel’s voice echoed through the chamber, for once without his normal teasing manner, “—is simple, Arabella. You have redeemed your soul. Come forward and enter my home to begin the preparation for your journey into your rebirth.”

I stared at the hand he offered, but that’s it. Just stared at it, uncertain as to what I could do. Ordinarily, one like me should be rejoicing and flinging themselves at the angel and I blinked again as I realized all three of the judges wore the circlets of their status on their heads as well as the full-feathered effect. Boy, was I slow on the uptake. They were all three Archangels. My failure to jump at Zachiel’s offer made his feathers twitch, showing that all ceremony was being enforced as the gilt edges of his feathers flashed in the light. The temptation to look around was too much to grasp as I wondered if everyone else was equally as decked out.

I was staggered as I turned my head. Gavreel and Gabriel stood a pace behind me, but ranging behind them were scores of angels, all wearing their ceremonial best. The golden edged feathers of the archangels in their midst brushed the various shades of black, white, and gray feathers of the denizens of the other layers of Heaven, Hell, and Earth. I’d once asked why Gavreel’s wings were gray instead of white and he’d smiled and said it was impossible for an angel to hide the stains on his soul. There were even flashes of the red edged feathers of those that were totally neutral like Zachiel, though his were the only gilt edged red in the room that I could see.

Some of the faces staring back at me as angels arrayed every which way from armor to robes to everything in between made a sea of bodies. Some I recognized, but most I didn’t. Apparently, a Reaper being granted a status change was news enough to garner the curious as well as those called to witness.

I still didn’t understand.

“I don’t understand,” I repeated as I continued to stare around the room, “I have a one-way ticket to Hell, don’t I?”

I turned back to Lucifer when I said it and watched a ghost of a smile, crack the beautiful serenity.

“I won’t pretend we didn’t have plans for you,” he replied while that ghost of amusement faded as quickly as it had come, “but Zachiel is right. You have saved the life of one of our own at her most vulnerable. You have earned the right for your mulligan.”

The archangel had a sense of humor, after all. It was a little late to realize, when I was on the verge of not being able to torment him about it. I took a step forward, but I felt Gavreel tense. The only way I noticed was because of the connection that I had to him, but the thread of tension was enough for me to rethink it. I sent out a private question along the line and knew that Gabriel felt it, but he made no move to cut the connection.

Technically, it was illegal for any of the witnesses to influence me. It was common sense. I usually got away with it on souls on the fence because I wasn’t one of them. For Gavreel to take that chance made me rethink the whole scenario.

His answer to my question was the one thing that would set me on my heels: Gray’s face.

“Everyone I know and love will be gone by the time…?”

Suddenly, the light flashed on. I was being offered the ultimate question. Was the love of a man enough to counter the ultimate redemption of my soul? The sudden stillness in the room made me think of another way to ask the question when no one made an effort to clarify it. Then again, it was sort of a rhetorical question.

“I’m not ready to leave my life, yet.”

Zachiel sighed and met my stare.

“Arabella, my beautiful Bella,” the depth of sadness in his voice should have warned me, “I’m afraid your life as you knew it is over.”

He stepped forward and around my soul without even acknowledging it hovered in front of him. His eyes were on me as he crossed the floor. He never hesitated as he reached up to cup my cheek and my scream echoed in the chamber. My death crashed over me.

We were in the stairwell, the angel staring down at us with madness in his eyes as he reached for Elizabeth’s tiny arm. With a cry, I threw myself between them and his hand cut across my chest. I mean, cut across it like claws. I had a moment to realize his hand wasn’t truly a hand, but the fingers were elongated and the nails were like claws, which were now dripping with my blood. I looked down as he struck again, watched those fingers reach into my chest as if the bones were nothing more than paper and felt them slice through my heart. I didn’t think. I reacted even as Elizabeth’s scream echoed in my ears. I reached out and wrapped my left hand around his arm and harvested his soul. My last moment was the agony of his soul spilling into me.

Reapers aren’t allowed to harvest angels. Their souls are too much for our frail shells to handle. Once the soul is removed from the body, it can’t be put back. Since I’d died a true death before delivering him, his soul was now doomed to roam incorporeal along the mortal plane.

I looked down and shook my head. “This isn’t my body, is it?”

“No,” Suriel answered from behind me, “It isn’t. Your body was destroyed by the soul of Turel. It was too fragile to maintain him in his madness.”