Between (35 page)

Katherine, Elizabeth, Gloria, Margaret, Agnes, Emmanuel, Jonah, Samuel and Philip sat around the round, oak table in the conference room at Island of Eden. After the greeting took place, everyone took their seats.

“
Has anyone contacted Jeremiah?” Jonah asked.

“
He knows about the meeting. Let’s move on,” Gloria stated.

Samuel opened up with a short prayer asking God to give them strength and the courage to do the right thing. Katherine was about to open the meeting when Samuel spoke again. “Shall we wait for Jeremiah?”

Katherine stood up. “I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m not waiting. I’ve called this meeting because the situation has gone too far. We don’t know if Trinity has been working for Aliah…” Before she could finish, voices of concern filled the room. “Let me finish,” she continued, sitting down on the leather chair. “I embraced Trinity into my family because she had the power to heal deathly wounds, but we all know that wounds inflicted from the crystal cannot be healed. The only thing that can heal it is the blue crystals that were given to each of us by the Royal Council. The alkins and the venators were not aware of the healing crystal until recently. One was used on Caleb and we were too late to save Patrick. He is no longer with us.”

“
Yes, I’m truly sorry for your loss,” Elizabeth said.

“
How did Aliah get a hold of the crystals and Aden’s sword?” Samuel asked, redirecting the subject.

“
I suspect there is a traitor among us,” Katherine announced.

The room again filled with voices of confusion and anger. “What do you mean? Who would do such a thing? Surely not one of us in this room. Aden was an exception, but we’ve been loyal for centuries,” Gloria huffed. “This accusation is outrageous!”

“
Then who could have done this? We all have access to Halo City,” Katherine rebutted.

The door flew opened and Jeremiah entered. “I can name a few.”

All eyes were on him, waiting for his answer as he arrogantly sauntered to his seat.

“
You’re late,” Philip scorned.

“
I am, but it couldn’t be helped,” Jeremiah replied without any care. “So…as I was saying.” He looked at Philip. “Michael would be our number one suspect.”

Philip stood up, infuriated. “You have the wrong angel. Michael may have been fallen once, but he is no more. He has proven himself and I do not appreciate your accusation without any proof.”

“
Oh…but I do have proof,” Jeremiah said, smothering a grin. “He has given Claudia a beaded crystal butterfly necklace…did he not?”

“
And this is your proof?” Philip laughed incredulously.

“
You didn’t let me finish,” Jeremiah gritted his teeth in irritation. “If he gave the crystal to Claudia, then who is to say that he didn’t give it to Aliah.”

“
Michael would never do such a thing.” Margaret scowled.

“
And we thought Aden would never betray us. And he was one of us,” Jeremiah stated.

“
Sorry Margaret, I know how much you care for Michael, but I think Jeremiah may be right. I’m not saying that he is, but we have to look at the whole picture. Trinity and Michael had something once and maybe they are rekindling what they had. Perhaps they are both working for Aliah. At this point we need to be cautious,” Gloria said carefully.

“
You are pointing your fingers at the wrong angel and he will prove himself to all of you. I have no doubt. He is not a traitor. The traitor will surface in due time and I hope it won’t be too late,” Philip concluded.

“
Very well,” Jonah said. “We cannot lock him up without any proof. So what is our next plan?”

“
Aliah is still in Between. We do not know where. We know that he is still powerful when he is in Between and he cannot come into our world. We have two of his ex-followers, Michelle and Gracie, searching for demons he has purposely sent to find all females with the name of Claudia Emerson, hoping these demons would lead us to his location. I’ve also sent the watchers as well. We have been unsuccessful,” Katherine explained.

“
Have you tried using Claudia as bait?” Samuel inquired, arching his eyebrows as if she should have known.

“
Yes, of course we did, but…” Katherine replied.

“
You don’t know do you?” Samuel smirked. “Your little angels did not use her as bait, they dressed Holly as Claudia.”

“
Why of course I knew,” Katherine lied. She was not going to be made a fool of. “Holly is about the same height and weight as Claudia so it was a perfect match. And how do you know so much? You are not to intervene in my missions.”

“
Don’t worry. I didn’t. I have my ways of getting information that I feel is important to us all. If you can’t control them, perhaps I can give you a hand,” Samuel suggested.

“
No thank you. I have this perfectly under control.”

“
Thus…Patrick,” Samuel muttered.

“
That’s enough!” Jeremiah said. “After this is over, we need to wipe Claudia’s memories of her past and ever knowing her soul is special . Her skills are extremely valuable and we shall not let that go to waste. I propose that Austin continues to train her. Their primary goals will be to get rid of these filthy demons that will still be lingering from Aden and Aliah’s doing and find and guide more venators. I’m sure there are more out there. We need to search for them.”

“
What do you mean ‘wiping her memory’?” Margaret asked.

“
In order for her to train and become a true venator, she must remove herself from the life she has known. Her memories of her mother, the memories of being in Halo City and the memories of the life she is living now must be erased,” Jeremiah said.

“
This is insane.” Katherine rebutted, thinking of Gamma.

“
We do this all the time. She is no different from anyone else,” Jeremiah expressed.

“
Let’s vote on the proposal and move on. We have more important things to take care of. Margaret, Agnes and Philip, do keep an eye on Michael. We have no proof, but since Samuel has a reason to believe he may be against us, we must follow through,” Elizabeth reasoned.

The voting was divided. All voted to have Claudia’s memory erased except for Margaret, Agnes, and Katherine. Katherine sank down in her chair, thinking about what she could do or say to sway votes, but she knew they were right. Claudia’s powers were valuable. With Patrick gone, Claudia would be a great asset to their team. But she understood what this would do to Michael. She would have no memories of him. But at the end, they were angels even though they were half human. They had their duties to fulfill. It was their destiny whether they wanted it or not.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

I slammed my locker shut. When I turned, Ryan ran smack into me and I dropped my books. My blood pressure shot up so fast from the unexpected sight of him that I thought I was going to faint. I wanted to run, but where would I run to? It was too late. “Uhhh…Claudia. I’m so sorry.” He went down on bended knees, picking up my books.

I continued to stand there, frozen. I hadn’t seen Ryan since the incident in Fashion Wear. He was casual as he always was and didn’t say a word about that night.

“
There you go,” he said, placing my books in my hands. “Sorry… I didn’t see you there. Actually, I wasn’t looking where I was going,” he chuckled.

Motionless, I just continued to stare without saying a word. My heart was beating with anxiety, wondering if he would apologize for the way he’d behaved or if he would just brush it off as if nothing happened.

“
Well, gotta go. I have to walk to the other side of campus.” He gave me an unexpected peck on my cheek. “I haven’t seen you around. It’s good to see you. Bye.” Then he left.

Michael entering his dream really worked
, I thought. I was elated that I didn’t have to feel awkward being at school because of Ryan. As I walked down the hall happily with a new found peace, Valentine’s dance posters were hung everywhere. It was only two weeks away. Since Kristina didn’t have a date, I had set her up with my cousin, Davin. Kristina was thrilled to go with Davin since she thought he was cute. And Davin was overly excited about the news and he couldn’t wait to get all dressed up.

I promised to save a dance for him, but I had to burst his bubble and tell him that cousins don’t slow dance together. After I told him that I would save a special dance for him at home, he smiled again. A feeling of euphoria rushed through my mind, reminiscing about the way Michael had asked me and thoughts of how special Michael made me feel. Then guilt settled in, remembering accidently kissing Austin. I told myself again that it was an accident and promised myself that it would never happen again.

Kristina and I had planned to go shopping together. Since we already had dresses, we decided to shop for shoes at the local mall. After I spoke with my mom on the phone, I drove to Kristina’s house and picked her up. It had been awhile since we had been out together, and I was looking forward to our time together, though I really didn’t need to shop for shoes.

“
I can’t wait to see your dress,” Kristina said with excitement.

“
I have a picture of it on my phone. I’ll show it to you later,” I said, turning into the parking lot. “The mall isn’t closed is it?” I asked hesitantly, scanning the parking lot.

“
It’s only 7 p.m. and the mall closes at 9.” Kristina pointed to several parked cars near the tree. “See those cars? I’m sure it’s open. I have shoe shopping to do. I’ll knock down that door if I have to!” Kristina exclaimed.

I parked the car close to the entry way. The mall was open, as we were able to walk in the double doors. But I suddenly felt cold, the palms of my hands started to tingle and heat flushed through me at the same time. Clenching my fists, I hoped the feeling would disappear. I didn’t think it was a good idea to be there with hardly any people around, but I didn’t have a choice. Breaking a promise with Kristina was not an option, so I just brushed off the nervousness, gazed at my butterfly necklace that was still brilliantly shining and strolled along. Then I remembered the watchers were guarding me so I had nothing to fear
–
I hoped.