Devils and Angels

Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Three days.

Three days of pain, anguish, torture and misery.

There were no nights, because I did not sleep.

I stayed in my room, no one was allowed in, not even my brothers.

Nothing numbed the pain. Not movies or television. Not cigarettes, which had always worked for me in the past.

I cried. I screamed. The few moments I did sleep were haunted by nightmares of Angelo. Glowing with the terrifying radiance of Allah.

On the third night I couldn't take it anymore. I left my room, barefoot, clad in a silky black slip that reached my knees and a black cashmere robe, the ties hanging loose.

I wrapped my robe around me and walked down the halls of the palace.

The heat of Hell...usually I loved it, mostly it didn't bother me. But today I would have given anything to be numbed by the cold. By rain.

I walked to the Great room with the portal stone. I turned the ring and said, "Show me a place with rain. I want it dark and I want it cold."

The portal shimmered and showed a dark, empty street, a couple orange lamps lit the sidewalks near old darkened houses. Houses half built or empty with a "For Sale" sign stuck in the lawn.

I stepped through and looked around. An abandoned truck sat rusting near the sidewalk. It had a Washington license plate and was missing a back wheel.

The black asphalt of the street was icy cold on my bare feet, it shimmered with water as bullet-like raindrops poured down, soaking me in seconds.

It was cold. Already my feet were burning from the ground. I dropped my arms from their position crossed over my chest. I closed my eyes and tilted my head back. Letting the rain beat my face. My body slowly numbed, and with it the pain seemed irrelevant, almost gone.

I knelt on the ground, laying down on my back so I could feel the cold better. The ground was hard, and unyielding. Nothing like my soft bed at home.

I almost felt better. Almost normal.

Isn't it funny how that word "almost" can bite you in the ass?

Suddenly, the night lit up, making my closed eyelids turn red.

I recognized that presence, that feeling.

Angels.

I sprang up from the ground and threw a circle of fire around me, a scream of fury bursting from my throat. It sent my flames roaring higher and speeding toward the two angels that had landed near me.

"Leave me alone!" I screamed, berating them with a barrage of flames and fire that hissed and spat as the rain hissed on their orange flames.

"By Heaven, is that-?" A voiced asked.

"It is." Said another. "It's one of His daughters."

"We're gonna need back up."

"Roger that." And they both flew up into the sky, their wings and halos so bright that I couldn't see their evil, lying faces.

One vanished into thin air and the other held out his hand, a bow made of light appearing in it.

"Fight me you cowards!" I roared.

The angel drew back the bow and a volley of arrows appeared as he pulled back the glittering string. "Not likely." He said and fired.

The arrows flew around me in a circle, landing in the ground, circling me and entrapping me, they grew straight and tall, too tall for me to go over.

An energy radiated from these arrows. It sapped the strength from me, I gasped and my fires went out, I sank to the ground and vomited. My head was vibrating from the energies coming from these arrows. My vision darkening.

"Now a very strong one is she?" A voiced mused.

"Guess not. The males can usually last a few minutes in this thing. She must have been the runt."

"Should we kill her?"

"No. If Lucifer were capable of compassion, it would be reserved for his daughters, and them alone. She can be used."

What's screwed up about this is that as I lost consciousness, all I could think about was Angelo, and how he would have saved me.

Oh, the irony.