Unnatural Souls (7 page)

Hopefully before any more
demons found me. Because I still didn’t know what they could
actually
want
.

“
In the meantime, I will
help you learn how to control your powers,” he told me. “However,
you will help me in return—as payment.”

“
With what?” I asked, not
sure I wanted to know the answer. “And why me?”

“
You will help me because
without my assistance, you will be stuck as you are, and in
terrible danger. How long do you think you will survive with
monsters after you? If I hadn’t helped today, you would have
perished. And with your soul stuck between Heaven and Hell, you
would be left to roam Earth for all eternity as a spirit. You’ve
seen those, haven’t you? You don’t want that fate. I can teach you
to control your powers while you are still on Earth, protect you
from the demons who are after you until you are capable of
protecting yourself, and, when the time comes, allow your soul back
into Heaven. Without me, you will be doomed.”

Well, that changed things.
And not in a fair way. He was going to leave me for nine months to
fend for myself, then suddenly show up—by accident!—save my life,
and then demand that I help him, with a really insane list of
repercussions if I didn’t? When it really seemed to me that
he
—and his sort—were the
ones who had made the mistake in the first place?

Michael, being my only interaction
with an angel, definitely wasn’t what I’d expected. Not that I had
put much thought into it, but they were always depicted as loving
creatures, protective of humans. He seemed to have moments of
passion and empathy, but he also seemed—an instant later—to be
rather cold.

And looking into his eyes, I could
tell there was no question that he was demanding, not requesting,
my help. It made me uneasy, to say the least.

I hadn’t thought it was possible, but
it felt like things had gone from bad to worse. And I was having
trouble processing the things he’d just listed.

But in the end, did I really have a
choice?

He was right—that demon would have
ended my life, and I hadn’t exactly been proving myself capable of
fighting it. I’d have been dead meat if Michael hadn’t shown up.
And I was willing to bet that the next demon was going to be just
as bad. Maybe even worse.

If demons were truly hunting me, for
whatever reason, more would come. And there was no question that
I’d be dead before the end of the week. Before I could save
Ash.

BUT IF MICHAEL
was willing to teach me how to use my powers …
and I became strong enough … then I could learn how to kill a
demon. I’d be able to stay alive long enough to find a way to save
Ash, and save myself in the process.

And with that, my mind was made up.
Three months. I had three months to get along with this Michael,
figure out how to use my powers, and find a way to rescue my
brother from his fate. I just had to survive the demon assassins
currently hunting me. And help Michael with whatever it was he
needed me for.

Three months. It wasn’t a lot of time.
But it was all I had. It was better than nothing, and I would take
any help I could get.

I nodded.

“
Good choice.”

Now the moment of truth: finding out
what I’d just signed up for.

“
So what do you need help
with?” I asked quietly. “What do I have to do for you to teach me
how to use my powers?”

“
Grace, there’s a war
brewing between Heaven and Hell,” he said. “Each side has been
building their armies since the fall of Adrian, the king of Hell.
He’s going to try to overthrow Heaven. The terms are simple: any
human soul that goes in either direction tips the scales in favor
of either Heaven or Hell. Too many in one direction and the other
side could be easily overpowered. And recently, the scales have
been tipping in their favor. We don’t know how they’ve collected so
many more souls, but we know that the repercussions could be
extremely serious. Should Hell win this war between our nation and
theirs … it would be very bad.

“
I’ve been charged with
finding a solution. Adrian’s demons seem to be working overtime,
and we’re losing souls fast. There’s no telling when Adrian plans
to launch his attack, but if he were to do it soon, when we are at
such a serious disadvantage, we could lose, and Adrian could take
our home. We have to turn the scales in our favor—as soon as
possible.”

He paused and glanced at me, and I
abruptly realized that my mouth was hanging open. I snapped it
shut, overwhelmed by what he was telling me. And I still didn’t
understand. Say I believed all of this, about angels and demons and
Heaven and Hell and a war coming down—what could I possibly do to
help him with a war between Heaven and Hell? I couldn’t even
control a craznado.

“
What does this have to do
with me?” I asked, feeling like I was missing something.

“
We must find a way to
recover our losses. And I’ve come up with a new plan to gain an
advantage.” He paused, as if he was either very proud of this idea
or just waiting for me to catch on to what he was saying. Then, in
a booming voice that told me he was giving me the mission
statement: “I’ve decided to rehabilitate lost souls.”

I stared at him, even more confused
than I had been before. “Am I a lost soul?” I asked. Was that what
he meant? Was I the first project for him? I had no idea what
exactly a lost soul was, or how he expected to rehabilitate them,
but he’d said I was stuck on Earth. Maybe I needed rehabilitating
to get back into Heaven? To be saved and help him with this crazy
war thing?

He laughed earnestly, but shook his
head. “In a sense, but not like the ones I’m hoping to save. I’m
trying to get demons to earn their way back into
Heaven.”

“
Are you insane?” I
laughed. Oh goodness, I didn’t mean to, but it came out and I felt
bad. Come on, though. This was like watching some evangelist on
TV—only cheesier. “You want to put demons back in Heaven? Monsters
like the one who—only minutes ago—tried to gut me from head to toe?
How is that a viable plan on any level?”

“
My brothers and sisters
had that same reaction,” he told me with a small smile. It had pain
behind it, though, and I doubted a being like him showed emotions
often. He was too intense for that. Suddenly I was sad for him, and
it made me want to help him. Human instinct to help someone in
pain, maybe.

“
Desperate times call for
desperate measures,” he continued. “I know mistakes have been made
by the demons—things for which they were removed from Heaven in the
first place. But I have faith in a select group. I have faith that
they can make amends for their sins, that they deserve a chance to
earn redemption. If other demons know it can be done, then those
who are worthy could follow as well. There are many who are not
happy with their situations. Many who long for Heaven. And the
amount of change that even one demon might make could mean winning
the war. It’s a move that could tip the scales back in our
favor—and deliver a devastating blow to Adrian.”

“
Okay,” I said, rubbing my
temples. “I can understand your reasoning. My feelings over the
craziness of your plan aside, what do you want me to
do?”

“
I need someone I can
trust, a person who hasn’t already proven willing to switch sides,”
he told me, holding eye contact this time. “I have pressure on me,
and right now I’m doing this alone. Failure isn’t an option. Adrian
could unleash war on Heaven at any time, so I need to work quickly,
and mistakes can’t be made. The other Archangels will give my plan
only one chance. I can’t keep tabs on the lost souls all the time,
so I need someone I can trust. You, mistake that you are, are the
perfect answer. Someone who isn’t a demon, but is not yet an angel.
Someone who will by my ally. I want to believe this group is
capable of reform, that they can be saved, but I can’t rely on them
blindly.”

“
You want me to team up
with your demon reform students?” My voiced cracked on the word
‘demon’ and I backed away. No. Just no. That was beyond nuts. And
aside from that, how the hell was I going to do that without being
killed? He’d just promised to keep me safe from those creatures,
and now he was asking me to go after them
with
him?

If one of them decided it wanted to
cash in on my life, I’d be done for. “One almost killed
me.”

“
I don’t know why,
though,” he argued. “Which is strange. Demons go after souls. They
don’t go around murdering random humans, which means they know
there is something different about you. I intend to find out what
that is and why they feel they need to kill you because of it. In
the meantime, you can make sure the demons coming to our side stay
in line, keep me updated on their progress. I need someone I can
trust to tell me the truth. If one demon tried to foil these plans
by coming to our side and turning coat, the result could be
disastrous.” He paused to let me digest that.

Effectively, then, I would be a spy
for him in the group of demons. I would be in charge of making sure
they stayed in line. I still didn’t know why he thought I could
handle that, though, and I frowned at him. Putting me with a bunch
of demons sounded like an insane idea—even if they were supposedly
“good” demons.

“
You will learn to use
your powers,” he told me with a smile. “You will discover
everything you can do, learn defense. Learn to fight the demons
that hunt you. And I have the perfect teacher in mind. She can
protect you until you can take care of yourself. Until we find out
why Adrian wants you dead.”

I eyed him, feeling uneasy. Learning
to control my powers. I was going to need that to survive. And to
save Ash.

“
Who?” I asked. An angel
trainer would be helpful, but if he trusted this girl so much why
wasn’t he putting
her
in charge of these demons?

“
She was one of the
strongest angels I knew,” he told me with a half smile. “She was
resilient, and incredibly powerful.”

“
Was?” Did he think that
was going to slip by me? I wasn’t that stupid. She
was
a strong angel,
meaning she wasn’t one anymore. She could be dead, a ghost, but I
doubted that was the case here. Could angels even die? Could they
become ghosts?

Then I realized. If she wasn’t an
angel, there was really only one other possibility. My teacher
would be a lost freaking soul, which meant I was going to be taught
how to be an angel by a demon. Every time I thought this situation
couldn’t get any worse, it did. I stared blankly at him, hoping
this was a sick joke.

“
Her name is Kali,”
Michael replied.

Okay, not a joke then, if she had a
name and everything.

“
She stopped the last war
in Heaven before becoming a demon.”

I let out a shaky laugh, knowing that
was meant to comfort me. “Redeeming qualities aside, the girl is
still a demon. How do you know she’s not one of the assassins sent
to kill me?”

“
She is important,”
Michael replied passionately. “She was a friend, and she is
capable. I taught her myself. She knows everything you will need to
learn. She can protect you better than anyone else, and while you
study, you can keep an eye on her.”

Ah, he trusted her with my life, but
not with being a well-behaved demon?

This wasn’t good. I didn’t feel
confident about the situation, and I definitely wasn’t happy about
being taught by an angel-turned-demon who may or may not want to
kill me and trade my life for whatever bounty the ruler of Hell was
offering.

In fact, I couldn’t even believe I’d
had that thought at all. This was definitely more than I’d counted
on when I woke up this morning.

But this was the best shot I had at
saving Ash and myself from the fates we were stuck with. I
desperately needed to learn to use my powers. Not only so that I
could protect myself, but so that I could focus on the only other
thing that mattered. Ash. I still had no idea how to help him, but
maybe Michael…