Inception (The Reaping Chronicles, 1) (7 page)

Chapter Seven

Gabrielle ~ That Other Side

When her last class was over, Gabrielle made her way to her car as fast as she could without looking like a lunatic. All she wanted to do was get out of that place and away from examining eyes. When she finally slid into the leather seat of her car, behind the dark tint of the windows, and drove out of the school’s lot, she began to feel better. But real relief came when she pulled into the driveway of her brick townhouse.

It wasn’t the safe-haven Heaven was, but she didn’t have to hide who she was when she was there. It was really only for appearances and to have a place for her human body to rest. It was cozy, and Gabrielle felt her tension leaving as she looked at the red front door. She placed her forehead on the steering wheel, filled her lungs with air, and pushed out a heavy sigh.

“What a day.”

She hadn’t been so tired since she began this pursuit two months ago and was looking forward to not being a teenager for the rest of the day—to just being herself. In the years prior to this decision being made, she would have never suspected being human was this taxing. She had sorely underestimated the difficulties she would face daily, and today had been the most exhausting so far.

Gabrielle needed to talk to Amaziah about the way she was feeling toward Lucas, but she was more than a little worried about his reaction. She knew she wouldn’t want to do what he would surely suggest even if leaving Lucas alone was the right thing to do. Gabrielle had known Lucas for less than a day though all the visions she’d had made it feel like much longer. It was the only explanation for why she already found herself wanting to be around him more. And that desire was going to present a
huge
dilemma.

“I don’t need this distraction.
He’s
not why I’m here
.”

Something tugged at her thoughts after she said those words, though. Something that made her wonder, even if it was only for a brief moment, if he
was
the reason she had been allowed to come here, after all. That maybe, he was the reason Amaziah and Yahuwah had allowed her to come and take on this task.

Gabrielle didn’t fight her brows pulling together as the tension came back. The longer she considered it, the more the thought turned into an insistence that Lucas played a larger role in the decision than she knew.

Going over it again and again in her mind didn’t seem to help. All that came of her contemplation as she sat silently in her car, heating rapidly in the afternoon sun, was frustration and another sweaty back. Gabrielle decided to let the possibilities simmer.

After gathering her things and getting out of her car, she made her way up the front steps, entered her temporary residence, and gladly shut the door behind her—locking out the rest of the world for just a few moments. Standing there, leaning against the door, she let the cool air in her home bring her body temperature down, letting her mind drift. She’d have to check in with Amaziah, Sheridan, and her troops soon.

I need to try to clear my mind so I can focus on my job.

Reluctantly moving her body off the door, she put her things down on the round table that sat in the middle of her large foyer and made her way into her human home.

The townhouse was decorated erratically. Some would phrase the description more diplomatically and call it eclectic, but Gabrielle was well aware it was nothing more than a hodge-podge of all the things she had found herself fancying while seeing the world for thousands of years. She’d spent a lot of her time, while learning to be human, picking these things up all over the world.

The walls were painted in a soft yellow so she would always feel like she was outside in the warmth of the sun and to remind her of the warm, soft glow that continuously came off everything in her eternal home. The color also set off the wide array of craziness that was her furniture, pictures, rugs, and especially, art. Gabrielle was accumulating too much, particularly since she discovered black and white photography. She’d even picked up a DSLR camera and several lenses so she could take some pictures herself. She had no idea what she was going to do with all of it when she had to leave in four months.

“Just four more months,” she said through a sigh.

She felt a pull at her chest with the thought. She wasn’t going to like leaving even though she loved her eternal home. She loved it here, too. A different kind of love, for different reasons, but she loved it just the same. Maybe it was harder to think about leaving this place because, unlike leaving Heaven, the departure would be forever. She’d still have to come to Earth from time to time but not like this—not
living
like this. When she left Heaven, she always knew she’d be going back, sooner rather than later.

She stared at her things, thumbing through images of people, flowers, and random things she had found beautiful or compelling in some way and taken pictures of. She loved knowing that, even though these were subjects many people looked at every day, she saw them in a way someone else may not have. She smiled as she looked at her walls since she intended to add a frame to some of her images to hang them.

“I don’t know where I’ll find a place for all of you. The wall’s real estate is pretty sparse.”

Gabrielle put the photos back down on the ottoman and headed upstairs to take a quick shower in hopes of re-energizing herself. After shedding her clothes and climbing into the steaming stall, she let the liquid heat flow over her tense muscles. Her body reacted right away, and every second she spent there, she relaxed more. After washing her hair, she stood under the water again and let it take as much stress down the drain with it that she could, picturing Lucas’s face to make the peace really set in. It worked, for a moment. Then, another face flashed through her mind, and she sighed. Amaziah had arrived, early as usual.

‘Just once, I wish he could be a little late.’

Of course, even if he was, Sheridan would show up early. As soon as she thought this, Sheridan’s face made an appearance behind her closed eyes, as well.

She grudgingly turned the shower off, quickly dried, and grabbed sweat pants and a t-shirt from her closet—happy that with her brethren she didn’t have to worry about her human appearance.

When Gabrielle made it downstairs, she found Amaziah and Sheridan in their human forms, sitting at the kitchen counter’s bar. They were debating something, as was normal for them.

“Ahh, Gabrielle. So nice of you to join us,” Amaziah greeted her, doing so without glancing away from Sheridan.

Sheridan simply looked up at her, then the debate resumed. They were always trying to convince the other one that they were right if they found their opinions at odds—which was often. Gabrielle chose to stay out of it most of the time.

It was interesting to see them in human form. She especially liked the body Amaziah created for himself. He was fairly tall with short, dark hair, blue eyes, and quite handsome. Sheridan had a petite frame with green eyes and long, strawberry-blond hair. They were supposed to pass for her parents if the situation ever called for it, but both barely looked old enough to have a child of seventeen.

She plopped herself on a stool on the other side of the counter and rested her chin in her hands. Patiently waiting for the eventual result of the debate—an impasse. It’s how it always ended, and Gabrielle learned a
long
time ago to not interrupt them. This was one area of angel lore humans had all wrong—they weren’t always peaceful creatures.

Gabrielle certainly wasn’t. Today had been a perfect example in that regard. When she was waiting to start her day, sitting in the school’s parking lot, she felt so frustrated from the feeling that they were losing the war and there was something …
coming
, that she thought she might come unglued. Though it didn’t turn out as bad as she’d started out thinking it would be.

Come to think of it, as soon as I met Lucas, I felt better.

And that feeling seemed to carry on throughout the day. With one exception—Mara. But the anger she had felt from being caught off-guard and the demon having her hands on Lucas left quickly, too.

I’ve never had a mood like that just
lift
off of me before.

But if she couldn’t give out more good karma than bad today, she may not be so lucky tomorrow. Her mood could be rather unpleasant.

Gabrielle loved her job. Though it was sometimes difficult, it’d been the most important part of her life since Yahuwah appointed her to the position thousands of years ago even if it sometimes had a nasty effect on her personality. Unfortunately, being in an edgy mood had been increasingly common for her over the last one hundred and fifty years.

She was the one that gave herself the title The Angel of Karma. The belief in karma’s cause and effect of past and present actions, and Yahuwah’s rewards and punishments, were pretty much the same. It was a lot easier than The Angel of You Reap What You Sow.

Gabrielle made her way to the refrigerator to get some sweet tea—some
very sweet
tea. She looked over her shoulder at her brethren as she did. “Hate to interrupt, but anyone want something to drink?”

All she got in response were two shaking heads, then they were back at it, causing her to smile. They were always going to argue, but she knew they respected each other. After filling her glass with iced southern sweetness, she let one cold sip slip down her throat and sat back down to continue to wait.

Thoughts about her job consumed her own mind, and the thing she wondered about most was how she could have done it better all these years. If she had been more efficient,
maybe
the war being fought would be leaning more toward their side instead of Darkness gaining more of a stronghold on humanity.

Maybe I wouldn’t have seen so many human souls lost and so very many Asarers die with them.

She didn’t know most of the Asarers personally, but it didn’t make the cut any less deep or painful. Asarers were a huge step above a typical guardian angel—a sometimes deadly step. They could be from any of the Choirs. They were those of her brethren who chose, on top of their regular duties, to bind themselves to one human in particular. They didn’t have to be humans who were important or influential, just someone the angel was drawn to for any reason. It could be that they’d watched them grow from a child and had become attached, had seen them suffer a great loss, or any other reason. They put their own lives on the line, literally, as they try to keep that person they bound themselves to from becoming one of the Fallen’s, and thus Ramai’s, victims. If they failed to keep their human from Darkness, they would lose their own souls—their Divine lives—to Ramai, as well. Now, more than ever, performing her duties appropriately was vital to the outcome of the battle.

To keep as few Divine lives from being lost as possible.

Her daily task was to take the orders from Yahuwah concerning who He wanted to either reward or punish, along with the level of action He wanted taken. Then she decided in what form it would be dispensed. Once her decision was made, she gave the orders to Sheridan, her second in command, to give to the troops. At times, if it was someone she was particularly interested in seeing karma come back to, whether good or bad, she would take care of it herself.

She wondered, again, what this day’s lot would have in store for her, how she’d feel tomorrow, and hoped to be able to cover up her crabbiness on her worst days when she was around the other teenagers.

Especially Lucas.

After several moments of thinking about Lucas, the debate between Amaziah and Sheridan abruptly stopped, and Gabrielle felt eyes on her. When she glanced at her brethren, Amaziah was looking at her. She hadn’t realized it, but she had slipped deep into thought about Lucas again. Maybe too deep.

“Who is this
Lucas
, Gabrielle?” Amaziah inquired. “Is there reason for me to be concerned for you?” He waited for her answer.

Amaziah was the closest thing Gabrielle had to a father. He’d been the one to recommend her to Yahuwah for the task of handling His rewards and punishments. Ever since, he made it a personal mission to make sure that Gabrielle not only did her job well but was also happy—knowing the latter could be difficult for The Angel of Karma.

“No, Amaziah. Of course you don’t need to be concerned about me,” Gabrielle answered, trying to figure out how to explain. “I don’t know why I was thinking of him so much, really. He is someone I’ve had visions of, and I met him today. I suspect I’ll have to help in some way in the future, and that’s why he’s on my mind.” Gabrielle hoped the explanation would appease her superior. She was surprised, and uncomfortable, at her attempt at deception. That was new for her, at least verbally, since she had been keeping Lucas to herself for quite some time.

That’s deception in its own way, I suppose.

“I see,” Amaziah said simply. To her relief, he seemed to let it go. He immediately turned his attention back to Sheridan.

Gabrielle was happy he didn’t push the subject further. Sheridan, on the other hand, seemed to be leery of Gabrielle’s response. Her gaze lingered on Gabrielle for several moments, and her eyes held questions. Sheridan knew her place, however, and Gabrielle was sure she’d get no inquisition from her. At least not in front of anyone.

Sheridan had been assigned to Gabrielle from the beginning. They’d been through thousands of years of working together, and even though Gabrielle had no proof, she’d always felt that Sheridan didn’t approve of her. It was just an instinct, really. But angels rarely, if ever, doubt their intuition. More often than not, it was accurate—and life-saving.

Still, Gabrielle had no cause to doubt Sheridan’s loyalty to her directly, and especially no cause to doubt her loyalty to Yahuwah. If she ever went against the orders Gabrielle gave, it would be a transgression against Him. To oppose Yahuwah or his instructions in any way, most often, would mean punishment. Depending on the betrayal, it could even mean being cast out of their home forever.

Javan had rebelled against Yahuwah. Of course, his actions, the most unforgivable from what she had been told, resulted in him becoming one of the Fallen. Gabrielle’s chest caught as her heart was gripped by the emptiness the loss left. A rush of emotions forced themselves through her human body. For the first time, tears began to pool in her human eyes, and she shut their lids forcefully to try to keep her sorrow contained.