Death and the Girl Next Door (28 page)

“You’re—”

“I am Azrael,” Jared said, matter-of-fact.

A uniform gasp echoed off the walls as every single face in the room froze. People started inching back, including my grandma’s best friend, Betty Jo, putting as much distance between them and Jared as they possibly could. A few looked panic stricken. And two ran, the Mortons, a young couple who’d only recently moved to Riley’s Switch. And they actually ran. They stumbled over themselves trying to get to the side door. Just as they were about to cross the threshold, every door in the house slammed shut in one thunderous clap. The couple stopped and looked back at Jared, their eyes so wide with fear I felt sorry for them, even as a shiver of fear rushed down my own spine.

The sheriff went for his gun in reflex. He caught himself, left the gun in the holster but kept his hand close.

Grandpa lifted his chin, steeled himself as though accepting his fate. “We ask you, Prince Azrael, to spare us.”

“You’re a prince?” Glitch asked, oblivious of the reaction of the room.

Jared ignored him, inspecting the sheriff for an uncomfortable moment, then answered my grandfather. “If you have to ask, then you know nothing of me.”

“We know that you have as many names as your fallen brother Lucifer,” Grandpa said, “some misconceptions created through superstition and ignorance, but most hard-earned.” He inched closer. “We know that you’ve been absent from Heaven for so long, many of the beings there, the same ones that celebrate your conquests, also fear your return.” Another step. “We know that you are the only celestial being ever created,
ever,
with the autonomy to take human life. None of your brethren, not even the other archangels, have that power. It is why you were created and it is yours alone.” He took another step to emphasize his next statement. “And we know what you’re here to do.”

“We’re not your enemies, Your Grace,” Grandma said, her voice quivering almost as much as her hands. “We’re your servants.”

I hurried to her side and wrapped my arm around her waist, trying to assure her Jared would not hurt them, any of them. She hugged me to her before returning her attention to Jared.

He looked down at us, and I could see for the first time the nobility in his stance, the absolute power in the set of his shoulders. He took stock of me for what seemed like forever before asking Grandpa, “Why does she not know?”

The question surprised Grandpa. I could tell. But it surprised me as well. I raised my brows at my grandfather, growing tired of the riddles and the half truths that seemed to have permeated every corner of my life. Why did I not know what? What was all this about? Why was everyone here, and how did they know about Jared?

“We were going to tell her,” Grandpa said, pinching the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger, “everything, when she turned eighteen. But things have … accelerated.”

“So, you’re a prince?” Glitch repeated. Still oblivious.

“What good would it do, Reaper?” Cameron said, coming to stand dangerously close to Jared. “She doesn’t need to know.” He tilted his head toward Brooklyn. “None of them need to know.”

Jared’s head tilted in curiosity. “They have a right to know what they are.”

“And what are they?” Cameron asked, closing the distance between them.

“Not again,” Brooklyn said, but her parents had wrapped her in their arms and were pulling her out of harm’s way. “Mom, Dad, it’s okay. They do this crap all the time.”

“Casey,” Glitch’s mom said, waving him toward her. She had soft brown hair and startlingly green eyes, her coloring so opposite that of her Native American husband’s who beckoned Casey closer as well. “Casey, come here.”

Glitch shrugged and threaded through the crowd to her. “Is he seriously a prince?” he asked in a hushed tone.

She clutched him to her, then turned back.

Jared answered Cameron, and as usual, his answer didn’t actually answer anything. “They are taken.”

“Calling the kettle black, now?” Cameron asked, his blue eyes glittering with a not-so-subtle warning. “Maybe your new friends need to know what they call you. The shadow prince. The sin-eater. The grim reaper.” He leaned tauntingly close. “The Angel of De—”

In an instant, Jared pushed Cameron so hard, he flew across the room and slammed into the back wall. The house literally shook with the force, and everyone ducked, though they needn’t have. Cameron landed well above their heads, then fell forward to land solidly on his hands and feet. I cringed. His body had left an indentation in our drywall. I wondered if it was just me, or if Jared really was growing stronger with every minute that passed. Not that Cameron cared.

Mr. Lusk had started forward, but a couple of the men held him back as Cameron coughed and fought for air. After a tense moment, he stood, squared his shoulders, then gave Jared a measured look, one that held such hatred, my insides groaned in response.

“Now we’re talking,” he said, thrilled that Jared had given him an excuse for another world war.

Just as both boys started toward each other, I rushed in between them and shouted as loud as I possibly could. “That is it!” I glared from one to the other as my grandmother gasped in horror. “I have absolutely had it!” I turned and poked Cameron in the chest. “Really? This again, really?” Then I gave my full attention to Jared. “And how old are you exactly?”

“Lor, honey,” Grandma said, her voice soft with fear.

“I swear, if either of you lifts another finger toward the other, I will murder you both in your sleep.”

Brooklyn broke free from her parents and marched over to Cameron. “This is going to hurt you a lot more than it hurts me.” She reached up and took him by the ear.

“Ouch, holy crap,” he said, bending to her will. And her razor-sharp nails.

She led him to the now-closed kitchen door, then turned back to Jared. He offered a surrendering nod, relinquishing his hold on the door. She opened it and sat Cameron at the table before sitting on the chair next to him.

Cameron rubbed his ear. “That hurt.”

A few of us followed them into the kitchen. I sat beside Brooke and motioned for Jared to sit next to me while my grandparents, the sheriff, Glitch, and a few others gathered around. More filed in as room allowed, and I realized for the first time the parents of the creature whose name shall not be spoken aloud were there. They were so … blond.

“If we can now have a decent conversation,” I said, issuing a silent warning to the boys, “I would like to find out from my grandparents exactly what is going on. And you,” I added, looking directly at Jared, “aka, the Angel of Death—a blank I filled in days ago when Cameron first mentioned it—will stop trying to kill said Cameron every time he brings up your vast and varied nicknames.” I couldn’t blame Cameron for calling Jared the grim reaper. I’d done some research, and in many cultures the reaper and the Angel of Death were one and the same, interchangeable entities that took the souls of humans for any number of reasons. “And you,” I continued, nailing Cameron with a baleful look, “will stop trying to pick a fight with the freaking Angel of Death. Really?” My brows shot up in disbelief. “The Angel of Death? You can’t find a defensive lineman to pick on?”

Cameron shrugged, clearly ashamed. “They’re all scared of me.”

Well, that certainly fit the story Glitch had told us a few days earlier. But still. This was getting ridiculous. Cameron’s dad tousled his hair, and I would’ve smiled if I weren’t considering ritualistic murder.

“Now, Grandma, Grandpa,” I said, contemplating each in turn, “what is going on? How do you know about Jared?”

“Maybe I should make some coffee,” Grandma said, but Betty Jo beat her to it. As others set out food and drink for the masses—the Sanctuary liked nothing better than gathering and eating—Sheriff Villanueva and Mr. Lusk brought in more chairs.

“Grandpa?” I asked, begging him with my eyes. There were too many secrets. Too many unknowns. I just wanted to find my place in the world. And Jared’s, because I really wanted him to stay. “How do you know what Jared is?”

“Sweetheart,” he began, his mouth a grim line, “this all goes back to way before you were born.”

“I’m listening.”

“When your mother first met your father, she came home with such tales, we honestly thought she’d been brainwashed by some kind of religious cult.”

Jared bowed his head as Grandpa spoke, listening intently. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but after everything he’d told me, how could this be any worse? Or any more bizarre? I’d learned more in the last week than I’d ever known in my life. There really was an Angel of Death? Cameron was a Nephilim? I was supposedly descended from a line of mystical women? Really, how much more surreal could it get? I refocused on Grandpa.

“But they moved back here after they married and we were just thrilled to have them home. That’s when your father introduced us to an ancient society of followers who believed that not only was there a war in the heavens between what we consider good and evil, but that it would spill out one day onto the surface of Earth. That because of the actions of one man, the one we refer to as the Antichrist, the battle would eventually be fought here, angels and mortals would join forces, and a prophet would be born to lead us to victory.”

“It took your father a while to convince us,” Grandma added. “But many things he said would come to fruition actually did. He explained he was the descendant of a powerful prophet by the name of Arabeth, and that before she died, she had predicted these battles. Each generation in the line waited for the next prophet to be born, for the girl made of fire to lead them.”

“So, Mom and Dad knew what I was when I was born?” I asked in disbelief.

“Yes, honey,” Grandma said. “We’ve been studying the teachings of the order for years. Reading ancients texts that predicted the rise of the Antichrist, your birth, the battle. The signs were all there that a prophet would be born, the exact phenomena Arabeth described. And that’s when the archangel Jophiel visited your mother, Cameron.”

Cameron’s jaw tightened as the attention shifted toward him.

“That’s when we knew for certain what was about to happen,” Grandpa added. “She was very honored to have been chosen, and even more honored to have been your mother.”

He offered a curt nod, and I was thrilled. A nod, curt or otherwise, was better than his signature glower. Maybe there was hope for him yet.

“When you were born,” Grandpa said to me, “there was such celebration. Many more believers moved to Riley’s Switch and the Sanctuary, or the Order of Sanctity as it’s traditionally called, grew.”

“And then,” Grandma said, her face growing somber, “the unthinkable happened.”

The parishioners stopped what they were doing to listen, each one sidling closer. To watch. To gauge my reaction.

“You started having visions when you were two,” she continued. “And you saw the most amazing things, but you also saw things that terrified you, things you couldn’t possibly have understood.”

Grandpa took her hand. “When you were six, you kept having this one vision over and over. You said the afternoon sky was ripping open and that night was flooding in.”

I gulped in remembrance. I’d been dreaming that very thing for years, of a tear in the sky and darkness flooding the earth.

“You remember, don’t you?” Grandpa asked.

“Kind of.” I shook my head. “But that wasn’t real.”

As though sensing my distress, or perhaps the distress that was yet to come, Jared covered my hand with his. Both my grandparents watched as I laced our fingers together, but they didn’t say anything. I did notice a few shaken faces in the crowd, but that couldn’t be helped.

“Yes, pix,” Grandpa said, “it was very real. What you saw was literally the gates of Hell being opened.”

I straightened in my chair, and Jared tightened his grip.

“Someone, and we still don’t know who, opened them.”

Brooklyn’s mother spoke then. “And we believe he had the power to summon demons.”

I peeked at Jared, but he refused to meet my eyes, his jaw tight, waiting.

Grandpa nodded. “You saw it. You were six years old, and you saw the gates of Hell being opened. Your mom and dad rushed to where you led them. They tried to stop it, to stop him, but it was too late.”

“We believe that by the time they arrived,” Grandma continued, “hundreds of dark spirits had been unleashed upon the earth.”

I sat stunned as I listened.

“Not demons, mind you,” Grandpa said. “There’s a difference. But whoever had the power to open the gates also had the power to summon a demon. And he did. He summoned the demon Malak-Tuke by name.”

Something quaked inside me at the mention of that name. A name I didn’t even recognize. I shook my head, an all-consuming dread spreading into every corner of my mind. “How can you know that?”

Grandpa frowned. “Because you told us.”

That was impossible. I didn’t remember anything of the sort.

“Why would anyone summon a demon?” Brooklyn asked, the disbelief plain on her face.

After a deep sigh, Grandpa said, “To be taken.”

“Taken?” I glanced at Jared, then back to Grandpa. “What does that mean?”

“When someone is possessed by a demon, and that someone knows how to control it through spells and incantations, that person becomes very, very powerful. We believe he was purposely inviting Malak-Tuke, Lucifer’s second in command, to possess him.”

Brooklyn spoke as though from a dream. “Is that what happened to me?” She focused on Cameron, who clearly knew more than we did. “Jared said I was taken. Was I possessed?”

Brooklyn’s mother scooped her hands into her own. “Not by a demon, honey,” she said, rushing to reassure her. “You were possessed by a dark spirit.”

“It’s why we moved here in the first place,” her father said. “The Sanctuary knew how to help you when we didn’t.”

“Oh, my god, I remember,” she said, thinking back. “I remember being prayed over and”—her shimmering eyes found Grandpa—“and you freeing me.”

A sad smile slid across Grandpa’s face as Brooke’s parents wrapped her in their arms.

“When you couldn’t recall what happened afterwards,” her dad said, “we didn’t feel the need to tell you, to bring all that up again.”