Unfaithful (58 page)

It would be dangerous. I had scrupulously evaluated every possibility and in the end I’d reached the right conclusion: if she ate of the tree, her soul would be forever barred from entering Eden. It would make her immortal. It would make her mine for always—if she wanted it.

It didn’t matter whether or not the rest of the family approved. It didn’t matter if I had to leave them all behind. My mind was made up.

I wished I could control time, bend it to my will so I could return to her. The thought that Drake might take advantage of my absence and visit Gemma made me frantic. Today might have been the longest day of my life, and my frustration rose every second as I bore the slow passing of the hours that separated me from her. But it wouldn’t be long now. I just had to hold out and bear the torment a little while longer.

I could already feel the tension in the air—the kind I felt on my skin just before it was time to move into action. Looking up, I met the eyes of one of the others who was crouched on the roof a few yards away, staring at me with a puzzled look on his face as if he wanted to understand my secrets and frustrations.

He didn’t understand, nor would he ever be able to—I realized that now. Our race had been created solely to kill, to liberate the soul from the shell that protected it during its brief stay on earth. Not to give up everything, like Simon had. Or me. We had a different objective: Redemption. Driven by such a motive, no Subterranean would give up everything to look for love among the extremely rare cases of women who bore the gene of the Subterraneans. And bonding with a mortal soul was inconceivable. No one could understand the devastating power of love until they had personally been swept away. None of these Angels could imagine the nature of my frustration.

There were lots of us today, maybe more than forty, scattered over a five-hundred-yard radius. I could sense them all around me. We were all there for the same reason, and for many of them it was their sole purpose in life—but not for me. Whereas they were eagerly awaiting the moment to carry out their orders and second the hand of Fate, I was longing for everything to be finished so I could return to Gemma. It was the only thing that mattered to me. But by now the worst was over.

We had spent most of the first hours making sure each of these people would end up in the right place at the right time. That was usually the hardest part. My ability to control people’s unconscious minds gave me an advantage over the others; once I’d tracked down the mortal soul entrusted to me, making it go where I wanted it to had never been a problem. I could bend anyone’s mind to my will with a simple glance. They all obeyed.

Sometimes a minor decision was enough to change someone’s destiny. Missing a train, running a red light, going back for something left behind—trivial actions that determined their fates, mere seconds that decided everything, whether someone lived or died. All I had to do was look them in the eye to get them under my control. They couldn’t see me, but their spirits would obey.

A high-rise. Today a high-rise would collapse, consumed by flames. We also had to take care of the people who weren’t supposed to end up trapped in the fire, because there was no such thing as coincidence. Or better said, if it did exist, we were the ones who acted behind its mask, hidden in the fuse that started a fire, the breeze that fanned the flames, the first gust of wind that whipped up a storm capable of wiping out entire populations.

Our intervention was subtle and no one ever noticed us. The preparation in cases like this one took a long time. In these hours I’d discovered that the woman entrusted to me was a thirty-eight-year-old American named Jodelle with a successful career in Bolivia. She’d started at the bottom and had worked her way up, assuring her two children a good future.

That morning she’d dropped her kids off at school. Still in her car, she’d been about to leave for work when a strange instinct had made me suggest she call them back. They’d spent the whole morning together enjoying La Paz while I prepared the others. It was a gift I wanted to give her and her children. I couldn’t do anything more. I was just Death’s Soldier, a slave to its will. I didn’t have the power to defy fate.

Death itself was a part of life, like the due date on a contract for eternal freedom. Because no matter how unfair it might seem, it actually wasn’t. Humans had always feared death, mistakenly considering it a punishment, overlooking in their blindness the true key to happiness on earth: enjoying the journey. No one ever realized that death was only a new beginning. I was convinced that if we revealed this secret to mankind, the world would be a better place; once the awareness that life was transitory had rid them of their oblivious skepticism, every mortal soul would be more careful of their actions. You needed to know evil to be able to choose which side you were on.

We were ready, each of us in our place. Within seconds the fire would be kindled and no one would be able to determine the cause. Still I couldn’t concentrate.

Gemma. She was the only thing on my mind. The more time that passed, the more agitated I became about not being there with her. I tried to focus on the building in front of me before the fire consumed it. Jodelle had just gotten back. The mirror she was looking into had to be the one in the bathroom. No one else was home; her husband had offered to take the children to their karate lesson that had been rescheduled for today. Once again, the delay had nothing to do with coincidence.

Everything was ready. Death was poised to engulf the building and we, its Soldiers, were ready to assist destiny. I didn’t need to look at a clock to see what time it was. Jodelle would be waiting for me at ten to six, twenty minutes after the fire had trapped her in her home like a mouse in a deadly cage.

Suddenly, the air went silent. An instant later, I felt warmth dispersing from the bodies of my companions as a golden flicker in the building told me the device had been triggered.

It was the beginning of the end. The end of my wait to be with Gemma.

It took only minutes for the spark to become an inferno. The wind fanned the flames, driving them higher and hotter, and the building was soon engulfed in an impenetrable wall of fire.

I stood perfectly still, watching their eyes fill with the fear of death. But no one could escape, not if one of us was there waiting for them. Panic filled the streets. People ran from every direction and helplessly watched the building go up in flames. Some of the ones inside jumped out the windows and clung to the scaffolding outside the building. Though they didn’t realize it, they would be the survivors that day. None of us were there for them.

Then I sensed her. Jodelle. She exhaled her last breath, drawing me to her like a magnet. Before I knew it I was in the thick of the blaze, surrounded by flames that whipped all around me, threatening to devour me. They couldn’t, of course, because I was the one who controlled them.

Jodelle was facing me, looking down at her hands. I took a step toward her and her bewildered eyes locked onto mine for a long moment. Some instinct made her begin to turn around, but I reached out my hand just in time to stop her. I wanted to spare her the tragic sight of her body being consumed by the raging fire.

Though Jodelle was lost and disoriented, I could tell that somehow my presence was comforting to her. I could read her every thought, her every fear. Her lips moved slightly in the deafening crackle that surrounded us. “Who are you?” she whispered, terrified.

“I’m here to help you.” I spoke reassuringly, my voice low and cautious, as I gave her a kind smile so she would trust me.

“Help me,” she repeated to herself as if she didn’t understand what I’d just said. Her expression changed abruptly and her eyes widened at the sight of something behind me. I didn’t need to turn around to understand her sudden look of terror. She’d seen her body reflected in what was left of the broken mirror on the wall behind me. Her head began to waver, moving almost imperceptibly from left to right.

“Jodelle,” I said.

“I—I can’t,” she whispered, in shock. “I can’t leave them. I need to go back.” She broke off, falling into a stupor, her unseeing eyes still locked on mine.

“There’s no need. Your time is up, Jodelle. You did it. You can come with me now,” I reassured her, my voice soft as I slowly held out my hand. “Everything’s fine. You’re going home.” At my words, her eyes lit up and she finally seemed to see me for the first time. She stared at my hand, hesitating. “Give me your hand, Jodelle,” I said, “and all this will be over.”

Inside her I sensed a new emotion: hope. She looked at me again, but her face was calmer now, like she’d finally understood why I was there. Reluctantly, she began to extend her hand to me but then stopped. I waited without moving. I didn’t want to pressure her. Each soul reacted differently and it was only fair for me to respect her personal need for time. It was the least I could do.

I sensed her intentions before she moved. Her hand drew closer and touched mine as I smiled at her warmly to let her know everything would be fine. The moment my fingers grasped hers, her silhouette changed shape like a cloud of smoke moved by the wind. She disappeared before my eyes, her gratified murmur echoing in my ears:
“Thank you.”

I smiled to myself before disappearing. My ethereal body was automatically pulled back to the last place it had been before Jodelle’s soul had asked to be saved—the rooftop of the building across the street. The sweet awareness that my tormenting wait was about to end warmed me. I checked my phone. It was a few minutes to six in Lake Placid.

Bitterness unexpectedly filled my mouth, wiping away my joy like the swipe of a sponge.
“Goddamn it!”
I growled ferociously, my eyes stinging with disappointment. “No! No! No! Not now! Not now . . .” I raised my hands to my head, consumed with desperation, shaking with indecision. What was the right thing to do?

I wasn’t sure any more. I’d been counting down the seconds waiting for this moment to arrive. They couldn’t do this to me—not now, of all times.

“Another order.” I sighed, my energy draining away. I felt powerless. Gemma was expecting me at six and I didn’t want to break my promise. I had to explain my absence somehow, let her know I’d be late so she wouldn’t worry.

Resigned, I picked up my phone and called her. Since I expected her to answer right away each new ring sent my mind racing to a thousand thoughts, a thousand dangers.

I tried again and again with no results and began to fall into a panic verging on madness. “Damn it, pick up!” I hissed. What had happened to her? What was keeping her from answering? When I tried to contact Simon and Ginevra all I heard from their minds was silence. There was no time, but I had to make sure she was all right before I went to carry out my next mission. Why the hell had they waited until the last minute to let me know I had another one?

A thought struck me and I went cold: it was a trap. They wanted to keep me away from her so Drake could work undisturbed. I cursed again, blaming myself for not realizing it sooner. They’d lured me into leaving her on her own and I’d fallen for their dirty trick hook, line, and sinker.

A shudder of desperation gripped me, making my skin crawl. I might already be too late and it would be all my fault because I hadn’t been there to protect her. I was the only one who could prevent it. A sudden flash of certainty illuminated my mind: if anything had happened to her, I would turn heaven upside down, tear it apart. Because of their deception, no one would survive.
No one
.

Seething, I glared at the flames roaring up from the building across the street as a fire that was even more violent and consuming rose inside me. I concentrated on Gemma in order to reach her, wherever she was, and vanished.

The relief I felt was so overpowering it made my body ache: she was asleep. My legs shook from my misplaced rage. There had been no trick, no deception. I dropped my head into my hands, undone by my fear. Unfounded suspicion had blinded me completely and made my entire world collapse.

Gemma was right there, lying on the sofa in a deep, peaceful slumber. I couldn’t stop staring at her. My whole life was enclosed in that single delicate being. I moved toward the sofa, noticing her phone on the coffee table. I’d imagined the worst, but she was just sleeping so deeply she hadn’t heard it ring.

I reproached myself for how impulsive I’d been—I might have woken her. Who knew how long it had been since she’d last slept? I forced myself to take a deep breath, filling my lungs with air though I had no need of it. The fear of losing her had driven me to imagine some sort of conspiracy when the truth was that Drake and I were the only two in this battle. Soon, only one would be left. And there was no way I was going to lose to him, because I had something more important to go back to. Never again to see her adorable face that I couldn’t take my eyes from now was out of the question.

I went to her. Stroking her cheek, I pushed a stray lock of hair out of her face. The touch of her warm skin sent a jolt through my entire body. It had always been like that with her. There was some sort of magnetism between us. Even back when I hadn’t known her and sworn I would keep my distance, I could never fight my urge to touch her. Physical contact with her felt essential. It was an indispensable need for me. Even though I knew it was physically impossible, it felt like my heart started beating inside me again every time I gave in to my instinctive craving to touch her. Pressing my lips against hers, feeling the warmth of her body, sliding my mouth across her skin until I was kissing her belly . . . all it took for me to feel alive was simple contact with her. For me to feel my heart throbbing in my throat, beating so hard it almost hurt.