Good Side of Sin (19 page)

“Do not give up on her. Your time will come, son.”

He turned around and looked to the top of the stairs at Isaiah, blinking the angel into focus. “And what if it never does?” he whispered around the lump in his throat.

“You will know you tried and will never have any regrets where she is concerned.”

“I already have regrets where Josselyn is concerned. I regret ever having met her.”

Thoros turned and stumbled down the remaining steps, and then crossed the foyer and opened the front door.

“It’s for the best.”

Isaiah didn’t respond to his thought, so he took a step over the threshold and closed the door gently behind him.

“Okay, I know some of you are in the dark about what’s—” I started, but tripped over my words when Isaiah walked quietly into the room, and then closed the door and took a seat beside Paul. I suppose it escaped my attention that he was missing from the people in the room until now. There was also someone else missing, but I had known that from the moment I walked into the room. Thoros, for some reason, had been the first person I looked for. That irritated me. Severely. I cleared my throat and continued, “—about what’s going on in Heaven. It was only a few hours ago that I found out.”

“Does this have anything to do with why I have a heartbeat again?” Marcus asked.

I didn’t know how much to tell them, but I knew if I was in their position, I would want to know everything the person leading me into a battle between good and evil knew. And that’s exactly what I was going to ask them to do. I knew the angels would be behind me one hundred percent—that’s what they were trained to do—but the half-souled didn’t owe me anything. They would only lose whatever they had gained. Several of them had been in Hell for centuries. If I was in their shoes, would I follow someone I didn’t know into battle, possibly against the one person who gave me the pass out of Hell? I wasn’t so sure what my answer to that question would be if I was forced to answer it now.

I eventually nodded. “Yes.” I released a big breath, sat on the arm of the chair Baddon was sitting in, and then told them everything that had happened with the portal and Malcolm and Rhyan, and then the issue with Isaiah and Malcolm being banished for good if
I
didn’t stop and reverse the damage in time.

The room was quiet for a long time, and then the seer spoke up and everyone looked at her. “I’ve been having dreams and visions of everyone in this house for months. There was always a darkness surrounding everyone, and I think we met her a bit earlier outside Agent Cross’ apartment—”

“Yeah, what do the humans have to do with any of this?” Damien asked as he crossed the room, and then picked up an old fashioned glass and filled it with a generous amount of what appeared to be scotch.

“I think I know of a way—”

I sighed as I let my head fall and then interrupted the seer. “I honestly don’t know, but it was pretty plain tonight that there is something special about Ethan. I think the demon wants his soul, but can’t physically take it from him, because
it
doesn’t have a soul. So it possessed…” The image of Thoros lying beside me on his bed—
so physically close
—holding me tight against his body, whispering in my ear that I was his soulmate—
his soulmate
—had me losing my balance, and I slipped from the arm of the chair in front of the whole room full of people staring at me.

It wasn’t as bad as I thought. Before I fell to the floor, Baddon reached out and casually placed his arm against my shoulder, pushing me back into a sitting position on the chair arm. Baddon cleared his throat quietly and whispered, “Would I be right to assume that your distraction stems from my good friend Thoros, Miss Josselyn? Don’t tell me he’s losing his ability to satisfy women. It’s never been a problem before.”

My jaw locked and I turned my head swiftly to glare at him. He chuckled lightly behind his coffee mug as he turned it up and downed what remained in the china. I wanted to shove the cup into his face and break it, but Phoebe was there to take the dish from him as soon as he finished. He handed it to her as if that was the norm, as if maybe he expected her to be there to wait on him, like a maid.

My brow furrowed and I forgot all about scolding him for his tacky comment. “Where was I?” I muttered aloud as I turned back to address the people in the room, all of them patiently waiting and staring at me, blinking in earnest. It was obvious they hadn’t missed the private conversation between Baddon and me. I felt a flush creep up my neck, but thankfully the seer answered my question.

“I believe you were trying to figure out what the humans had to do with all this. I would be happy to tell you,” Aries said as she stood from her chair, without waiting for a reply, with a small bag in her left hand. After reaching her other hand in, she quickly withdrew a two-toned brown stone, small in size, about the size of a large marble and just as smooth. I sat up a little straighter as she made her rounds around the room and handed one of the stones to everyone present.

I was last getting mine and I examined it with one eyebrow raised. Was this chick a nut case or what? I looked up to Isaiah and he was shaking his head at me, letting me know that, even though I was still blocking him from my thoughts, he knew what I was thinking and I needed to keep my trap shut.

I blew a heavy breath through my lips and went to sit in the empty chair on the other side of him, happy to let someone else take the reins and figure this whole thing out; I was getting a damn headache from all the pressure.

He didn’t look at me as I took my seat beside him, but spoke lowly so only I could hear, “Are you intentionally blocking me from your mind or have you just gotten that good?”

“Depends. Am I in trouble if I’m able to do it on purpose?”

I caught sight of his head shaking out of the corner of my eye. “No, but I have information you may be interested in knowing.”

“If it’s about Thoros, then I can promise you it’s of no interest to me.”

“Even if I told you he has left the premises?” Isaiah prompted.

A stab of pain shot through my chest and I clutched it instinctively, but recovered swiftly and answered the archangel, “Yes, well, that would be a problem, now wouldn’t it? You know, since I am the one that is supposed to cure him of this curse and all. I’m sorry, Isaiah. I know you are trying to play matchmaker, but saving Heaven seems a hell of a lot more important than my love life at the moment. I am the one who has promised to set all of this right and save Heaven, as well as your soul and position. Would you rather me take some time out from that and play house with the Prince of Lust?”

“You may want to lower your voice a fraction, Josselyn,” he said, and I realized that, not only had I been near shouting at the head guardian, but I was standing and looking down on him, too. The whole room had turned to stare at me again. Jeez!

I sat quickly and buried my burning face in my hands. I easily unlocked the door of my thoughts to him.
“I’m so sorry.”

“Worry not about apologies now. There will be a time and a place for them later. We may need to get you a Blackberry so you can start making a list. I have a feeling there will be a lot of feelings hurt before all this blows over. You just remember one thing, Josselyn,”
he said calmly and turned to look me in the eyes then,
“without love, you have nothing, child. Maybe we need to let you take time out for a game of house with the young prince. I know he certainly needs to be reminded of how it feels for someone to love him. If I’m correct, he’s never known the feeling.”

“You’re siding with him on this?” I whispered, my voice going up in pitch on the last word.

“Thoros isn’t as bad a person as you are trying to label him. He did get you out of Hell. You could give the boy a little credit.”

My eyes popped wide. Could it really be true that Thoros hadn’t lied about anything?

Isaiah’s only response was to lean back in his chair and look up at the seer when she addressed the room. He pointed toward her and smiled when I only gawked at him. “You should listen to her. She has a very old soul, Josselyn. It’s possibly even older than mine.”

I glanced back up to the seer, who smiled shyly at all the attention, and shook my head as I muttered, “That’s not possible.”

“Anything is possible. You just have to let yourself believe it.” Shockingly, this bit of information did not come from Isaiah on my right; it came from my left, and I turned in my seat to look straight into the green eyes of Thoros.

“Holy crap!”
I thought
.

“Indeed,”
Isaiah replied, and I could hear the smile in his thoughts.

I could feel Thoros’ eyes on me as I listened intently to the bull hockey the seer spoke, and I ignored the warm feeling in the pit of my stomach and, the best I could, the way his closeness was affecting every inch of my body. Why did
he
have to be the one? Why couldn’t it have been Malcolm?
Malcolm!
I thought, and let out a low, agonizing groan. I needed to get to him, but something always stood in my way. I realized that
someone
had always been Thoros—and Isaiah, but the archangel’s influence was a result of Thoros, so I would give the half-souled scoundrel the entire blame.

I put away decisions I didn’t have to make now and interrupted Aries. “Let me get this straight. You are telling us that the mortal male is not human, but instead a rare, chosen mortal with infinite power that can do anything he wants just by thinking it?” I let the question hang in the air for a moment as I puckered my lips in thought. After a few seconds I shook my head. “I’m not buying it.” I stood and looked down at Isaiah. “C’mon, we need to find a way into Limbo. This nut—”

A flash of a smile spread across Isaiah’s face and I found it impossible to finish my sentence.

Damn Archangels and their clever tricks!

“It’s not unheard of, Josselyn. Perhaps you should listen to the lady,” Isaiah said, his smile growing broader, lighting up his eyes with false humor. He was irritated. Oops.

Finding my voice again, only because Isaiah allowed me to speak, I proceeded to argue with the archangel. Not smart, I know, but I’ve never done anything by the book, and it has gotten me a lot farther than sitting back and staying idle. “Not unheard of? She’s saying the mortal has an infinite amount of magic and skill, more than even we can wrap our minds around, and you just believe it? I guess insanity is another side effect Heaven is suffering from. Holy sh—”

“Josselyn!” he shouted, and I cowered under his bold stare. Even though he was still sitting casually in his seat and I was standing before him, I felt authority and power radiating from of him to the point that it physically hurt. I knew I had overstepped boundaries. “There are things on this planet that even you are not aware of. Some of them are good and some of them are evil, but all of them have a purpose: to defeat the other. I assume, since Ethan is being tracked by the demon and we have no clue as to the reason why, that he is exactly as Aries suggests, but he hasn’t been taught
what
he is yet so he hasn’t discovered his power! The boy is an alflight, a very pure and extremely magical creature that has the power to save or end humanity with only a flick of their wrist. Only a handful of them are thrown out by the hand of God each century; most never even discover their true selves before they die of old age; they think the unusual things that happen around them are just freaks of nature and blow it off as nothing more. But they are here because Lucifer has cheated in some way and we are allowed to use the resources and up the ante, so to speak. It’s all a game: Good vs. Evil. Lucifer has been trying to sink his claws into an alflight since God created man. So, if this is what the seer suspects the mortal male to be, then I suggest you listen to her. You do not want Lucifer to be able to control an alflight. I’m sure your imagination can dream up what a catastrophe that would be if he could.”

I swallowed, and then eventually smirked nervously. “Witches with superhero strength and power? What else is on Earth that I don’t know about? Vampires and werewolves and fairies?” I finished on a chuckle, but Isaiah didn’t laugh, so I stopped when my snickering was the only sound in the room. My face was the epitome of somber. I looked around at every face. Some were clueless, but others avoided my gaze as if this wasn’t a joke. It had to be, and I just wasn’t getting it. “Vampires and were-animals and Tinkerbell do not exist, Isaiah! You can’t expect me to believe that.”

Isaiah raised his eyebrows and looked away from me as he huffed. “I think we should leave this discussion for another day.” Without looking at me again, he glanced toward Aries and motioned with his hand for her to proceed. “I apologize on behalf of my charge’s rude behavior. Please carry on.”

That was a dismissal. I knew the tone of his voice a few moments before had been my one and only warning. I was not in control of this mission; Isaiah was. That was clear now. He was just letting me drive until he found the road to be too hazardous for a mere angel such as myself to travel, and then he would take the wheel from me. If I made a wrong turn, he would take control of the whole damn course. He could—and would—take my position away.

I suddenly felt angry. But why? Because now my ass was on the line, too? Possibly. Had it always been? Probably. Could I fix this all alone? I didn’t have to be a seer or even a smart person to answer that one. The answer was no. And I wasn’t too proud to admit it.

I felt fingers close around my hand and, by the current that flowed between our fingers, I knew exactly whose hand held mine. I let Thoros pull me back to my seat and didn’t fight him when he chose to keep my hand in his. It felt good. I felt safe. I didn’t know why he had come back, or even if he had left at all, but I knew at that moment that I was glad he was here with me now.

I gave his hand a gentle squeeze and felt an instant response as his fingers tightened around mine.

Throughout the rest of the meeting Aries explained that the stones she had given us were called tiger’s-eyes, and that they helped ward off evil and kept anything dangerous or harmful from being able to get into our thoughts to control our minds. She instructed us to keep one on our person at all times. Blah, blah, blah…