Death Angel (Death Angel Series Book 1) (8 page)

Chapter Fourteen

Gabrielle was beside herself with excitement. It was her first date. She had barely been able to think about anything other than Matthew for the last three days. After Mr. Black had changed his mind and given her the day off, she sent Matthew a message. There was a unique messaging system in the Death Angel Society that was very simple and centered on the numbers that were assigned to each individual. There was a computer in her home that linked in to the Central Bureau’s system and through it she could contact anyone in the Society, all she needed was their number. Matthew had told her that his number was four hundred twenty one.

She heard a knock on her door and she immediately felt the butterflies in her stomach begin to flutter. She gave herself a once over in the full-length mirror that was in her walk in closet. She wished more than anything that she could wear something other than black. It wasn’t a color that she particularly liked, but she was starting to get used to it. She straightened the hem of the body hugging dress she had decided on and went to open the door.

Matthew was even more handsome than she remembered him. His blonde hair was neatly combed to frame his slender face. Charming brown eyes sparkled as he looked her over.

“Hello,” he said, his extremely kissable lips cracking into a smile as he held his arm out to her. “You look absolutely beautiful. Ready to go?”

“Yep,” Gabrielle said, reaching behind her to turn the lights off in her place. She grabbed his arm, surprised at the strength she found behind the white sleeve of his dress shirt, and let him lead her through the stark, whitewashed hallways of the Death Angel Society.

“I’m really excited,” she said, unable to stand the silence any longer and not able to think of anything else to say.

“Me too,” he said, looking back at her with his gentle smile. Every time she looked over at him she felt her stomach turning with excitement. “I hope you’ll enjoy what I have planned. I wasn’t sure, cause I don’t know what you like to do.”

“I don’t even know what there is to do around here for fun,” she said. “Honestly, all I’ve done is work.”

“Yeah, I hear Mr. Black is a bit of a hard ass,” he said with a chuckle. He pulled her a little closer to him as he continued to lead her.

“He’s really not so bad,” she said, shaking her head. She felt compelled to defend him. “He’s kinda nice sometimes actually.”

“Nice…that’s a word I’ve never heard used to describe him before,” he said with a laugh. Gabrielle brushed off the guilty feeling in the pit of her stomach and smiled with him. She knew that her boss had a not so nice reputation after all. Perhaps everyone else knew something about him that she didn’t. It was entirely possible, seeing as everyone seemed to know way more about everything than she did. She was still new here after all. But she just couldn’t see him being anything less than the kind man that he had been to her.

“So where are you taking me?” Gabrielle asked, giving him a sidelong glance.

“Would you be terribly disappointed if I planned a rather generic date for us?” he asked with his kind smile as he looked down at her. There was confidence in his voice that Gabrielle found she liked very much and kept his kind nature from seeming weak.

“I really just wanted to spend time with you,” she said, smiling back at him. “A mundane, normal date sounds perfect to me.”

“Well I hope you won’t think it to be mundane. That doesn’t sound good,” he said with a laugh that came up from his belly and vibrated through Gabrielle. She couldn’t stop herself from giggling as he pulled her even closer to him.

The smell of him floated around her and she felt herself relaxing into his presence. Gabrielle knew that she had never been on a date before, had never loved a man before. But that was the extent of her memories on the subject. She didn’t know if she had ever had a crush on someone. She didn’t know if she had ever been asked to go on a date before. She had no idea what kind of a person she was before she died and the thought ate at her constantly. She tried not to think about it, but it was like a dark cloud hanging over her head. She had planned on petitioning the Central Bureau at the first chance she got, but she’d been so busy with working and getting accustomed to the Death Angel Society that she just hadn’t had time yet.

“Is everything alright,” his voice drew her out of her thoughts and she realized she was scowling. “I can think of something a bit more exciting if you’d prefer?”

She heard the first hint of uncertainty in his voice, and instead of being a turn off, she found that it made her realize how much he wanted her to enjoy herself. It helped to calm her nerves and her stomach settled a bit.

“No, really,” she said, squeezing his arm lightly with her hand. “It’s fine. It’s not that. I just…well, I just don’t know anything about myself. It’s kinda hard to digest.”

“I see,” he said, his posture relaxing a bit as the confidence came back to his voice. “It will take some time, but you’ll find a new life here, and all that won’t matter so much.”

“I know,” she said, “Or I’d hope…but still. I’d like to know at least how I died.”

“Trust me, Gabrielle,” he said, his voice turning oddly inflective, “those sort of things are best left unknown.”

Gabrielle looked up at him. He refused to look back down at her. There was an odd authority in his voice that she had heard before when they were talking. His certainty told her that he knew what he was talking about, but Gabrielle had to know how he knew. This was just something she couldn’t let go.

“How do you know that?” she asked, and she could feel him stiffen just a bit. He suddenly relaxed and looked back down at her with his gentle smile that made every concern she had disappear.

“I sometimes forget that you’re so new here,” he said.

“I know,” she said, pulling away from his grip. She stopped walking and turned to face him. “I’m new, and everyone around me keeps talking like I should know what they are talking about but I don’t. I have no clue what is going on around me half the time and no one wants to explain anything to me. I know it’s annoying, OK, but you should feel how annoying it is to be the clueless one.”

By the time Gabrielle finished talking she realized how upset she had become. They were alone in one of the infinite number of hallways that made up this afterlife she had been sucked into and her voice had risen so loud that it almost echoed off the stark walls.

“I apologize if I’ve upset you,” he said, his voice and eyes full of sincerity. “I intended to explain further. I’ll explain anything you’d like, if that will make you happy.”

Gabrielle sighed. This wasn’t at all how she envisioned her first date going. She had just nearly yelled at the man that was kind enough to take her out and show her around this place and took out all her recent frustrations on him.

“I’m sorry,” she said, shaking her head, “I didn’t mean to—“

“Don’t apologize,” he said, with a sweet smile. “I enjoy seeing you get so passionate. It’s very endearing. Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot of that around here sometimes.”

Gabrielle was instantly relieved and calmed by the smile on his handsome lips. He held out his arm to her and she hooked hers through it again. He continued to lead her through the hallway, towards whatever he had planned for them. It didn’t really matter where he took her. She was just happy to be around him. For the first time since she had come here, she felt peaceful, content. All the other problems she had seemed to melt away in his presence. He even seemed to like the fact that she was new.

“Since you are new,” he said, looking down at her for a moment, “I’ll explain the difference between a Dark General and a Light General. You haven’t heard this yet?”

“No,” Gabrielle said, shaking her head, “well, not really. Aracella explained some, but I still don’t fully understand it all. I know that people who wear black deal with fighting the Darklings, and people that wear white deal with all the research and paperwork of finding the Darklings.”

“Well, that is a bit of a simplistic explanation, but yes,” he said, talking with an easy authority that Gabrielle enjoyed watching, “There are other differences as well. For example, Dark Generals mostly deal with souls once they’ve past from the mortal world.”

“Does that mean Light generals deal with them before they pass?” Gabrielle asked.

“We do monitor the souls for any irregularities,” he said. “But that gets a bit more complicated to explain, especially if you aren’t in the Light Ranks.”

“Tell me more about the Darklings,” Gabrielle said, her voice bubbling over with her excitement of finally finding someone willing to give her patient answers to her questions.

“A darkling,” he started, his voice once again turning authoritative and oddly serious, “is a soul that refuses to pass on. Often, as our research has shown, they are attached to a traumatic death or after death experience. The souls linger around the scene of death until they become angry. Soon that anger and remorse overcomes them and they are morphed into the hideous creatures that we call Darklings. They attack other souls, both living and dead, and try to satiate their anger. It is the primary job of Dark Generals to capture, contain, and ultimately kill these creatures. It is the primary job of Light Generals to identify and locate them. But Light Generals also try to find these souls before they reach the turning point. Before they turn into Darklings. If we can do that, then a Dark Fighter can assist it to pass on without the need to kill it. Unfortunately, most of the souls change over too quickly and we don’t have time to locate and assist them.”

“I see,” Gabrielle said, looking up at him with a smile. “I guess all that makes sense.”

Finally she had some answers. It all made a little more sense to her, or at least now she could understand a bit better what exactly it was that she had been working on since she got here. It gave her an odd sense of pride and happiness knowing that by working here she was actually helping people, helping souls.

“We’re here,” he said, stopping abruptly. Gabrielle had to catch herself before she walked past him. She looked up at the sign above the door that he was looking at. It was the first sign that she had seen actually hanging above a door and not on it. It was a name. Franchesco’s. It sounded fancy, and it sounded expensive, and it sounded like it would be full of things with long names that were difficult to eat.

“I know,” he said, seeming to read her mind. “But trust me, it tastes a lot better than it sounds.”

“I’ll trust you,” Gabrielle said, as he opened the door for her to enter before him. She could tell immediately that she wouldn’t be disappointed once they walked through the doors. The most incredibly delicious smells hit her nose and made her salivate with anticipation. She glanced around the restaurant and could immediately tell that it was entirely too expensive. She looked up at Matthew. There was no way he could afford this place. She knew he couldn’t. Technically, his ranking was lower than hers and she didn’t make a large salary, though she knew it was enough for a comfortable living. But this place screamed expensive and she knew he was just trying to impress her. It wasn’t necessary, because she was already impressed by him.

“Matthew,” she said, shaking her head as she looked into his kind, hopeful eyes. “This place is just—“

“It’s one of my favorite places,” he said, his words coming out eagerly, “I really hope you’ll like it.”

“I...,” Gabrielle thought about his words. One of his favorite places. A red flag went up in her head and she had to inquire further. “How can you afford this place?”

For a moment, a look of concern came over his face. She had said something wrong. She should have just kept her mouth shut and enjoyed the date. Instead she practically called him out on his financial inadequacies. How incredibly stupid of her. She wanted to punch herself in the face for being stupid. The butterflies returned to flutter gently in her stomach. She felt like she was going to hurl with her sudden embarrassment at having put her foot in her mouth. It was a good thing they hadn’t eaten yet, or her dinner would be on the floor at their feet right now.

“It’s ok,” he said, his face suddenly returning to the kind expression that typically radiated from him. “I know the owner. Costs me practically nothing.”

“Oh,” Gabrielle said, both relieved and even more embarrassed to have called him out like that now.

“Our table is already waiting for us,” he said, motioning for her to follow him. She did, her eyes scanning over the other patrons as they made their way through the restaurant. She noticed they were looking very strangely at them and she didn’t quite know why.

“Everyone is staring at us,” she said softly as he pulled a chair out for her. He looked up at the other patrons as if he hadn’t noticed them staring. They instantly looked away from his gaze. It registered as an odd thing to Gabrielle, but she brushed it off. She wouldn’t do anything else to ruin this date.

“It is unusual for someone from the Dark Ranks to be seen with someone from the Light,” he said in a soft whisper as he came around the table to sit across from her. “They’re curious is all.”

###

Kasen didn’t like lying to Gabrielle. Part of him wanted to scream out the truth to her. Everyone was staring because he was a General. They were gawking at him because there were only six Generals in the whole of the Death Angel Society and they weren’t often seen out and about. Much less on a date. He had at least been partially honest with her. It was unusual for the two ranks to mingle with each other. This only made the patrons more curious to see a Light General with someone from the Dark Ranks. He thought he was caught only a moment ago when she mentioned how expensive this restaurant must be. In fact, she was spot on. This place was way out of the budget of someone that was the rank he had claimed to be. He hadn’t thought about that when he planned his date. He only wanted to show her a nice evening and let her into his world a little bit. Gabrielle was new and there was a lot she still didn’t know, like who exactly he was, but she was smart and she was observant. He liked that about her quite a lot, but he would have to be more careful, until he was ready to reveal his true identity to her.