CHAPTER 40 - What Betrayal Tastes Like
“They are coming!” Aze shouted as if we weren’t all aware of that.
It almost felt like we were standing on an underground platform with an express train approaching. The sounds and the feel of the air moving all felt so similar.
My stomach knotted with fear. Was I doing the right thing?
Natalie I will support you but you must support me too. If they threaten anyone of us you must judge with me.
Fine, but let’s try to avoid it first.
We braced ourselves as they reached the top of the stairs. There was now only the short landing between them and the door.
Damn, this wasn’t going to work. Please make it work, please...
Suddenly the door flew up from where it was lying and slammed itself back into the frame. It glowed with light as it seemed to remake itself, re-hang itself and then seal itself tight.
“Aze did you do that?” I asked quickly the words all coming out at once.
Aze swore, loudly. I took that to mean, no.
“Language Ramiel, there is a lady present,” the matter-of-fact voice came from behind us.
We all spun around to meet this new threat or at least my body pivoted. My eyes were torn, the vampires seemed to be more of a threat. If this voice was a danger he would have attacked us rather than chastising Aze.
However the question was - why didn’t we feel the presence of someone else before? Why couldn’t I detect him now, our eyes of night was working well enough? Something was different.
I swung my eyes from the now harmless looking door which, given the screams of frustration coming from behind it, was holding the vampires in. Instead I turned to look towards the other side of the car park.
Standing casually in the open was a man, just a solitary man in a crisp white suit, white shirt and tie. He almost glowed in the moonlight.
Scott moved closer to me and our hands lifted up and found each other, we prepared ourselves. We were ready should this strange man attack. But even as I thought this I acknowledged how it silly it sounded, I mean he was wearing a white suit!
“I can’t begin to tell you how ridiculous you look,” he said dryly. “What are you going to do? Give me a tan?”
Aze swore loudly, again, and then relaxed his stance. Adam cursed too but under his breath. His shoulders slumped and he took several steps away from the man in the white-suit. I could just see him out of the corner of my eye as he leant against the car. Jari was still lying on in the asphalt, still unconscious. And Tur and his boys were gone, disappeared.
“Aze, Adam, what’s going on?” my voice quivered.
I glanced back to Aze who was looking away from me. I caught the small shrug before I turned back to the suited man who looked partly amused, partly bemused and partly annoyed.
“So who called you? Come on Rag, what are you doing here?”
He knew him? And this wasn’t a friendly greeting, this couldn’t be good.
Aze still wasn’t looking at us but he was scowling at the ‘man’ in the white suit, and he was obviously furious. Yet he slumped against the car next to Adam and jammed his fists in his pockets.
I looked at Scott who looked at me. We were the only ones still prepared for an attack. Scott shrugged at me before he straightened up, drawing me up too. He held me and he shielded me at the same time. He obviously didn’t trust this situation any more than I did.
“Evening,” the man still spoke like he was bored. He calmly pushed up his white sleeve to look at a wristwatch, “or maybe I should say morning, Ramiel,” he said to Aze then he looked down at Jari. “What the hell are you doing Sariel?” he scoffed with clear impatience, “You two never learn do you?”
He was obviously an Angel of some variety. Even in the moonlight you could tell that he was beautiful, perfect, and well angelic. His hair was dark and tied up into a neat knot at the back of his head. His face was stunning, as I now expected, but he was cleanly shaven unlike Jari and Aze.
Ramiel? Sariel?
The other’s call Azazel: Ramiel and Jariel: Sariel. Adams voice was flat and emotionless but yet he sounded scared too.
Others? Adam who are the Others?
Adam didn’t answer me. I glanced over to him but his eyes were making a detailed inspection of his shoes.
“Get up Sariel, this farce is over. Unbelievable, even for you Egregore this is really pushing the envelope!” He was looking Scott over and he shook his head, “Irin, I am Raguel Archangel for Justice.”
“Archangel for Justice? You are an Egregore?”
He laughed, “Please! No, I am a legitimate Archangel not one of these...” he seemed to be searching for the right word, “Rejects.”
I heard Aze sneer and knew that he would been glaring at this man. But I didn’t turn my head to see. My eyes were fixed on Raguel. I had a very bad feeling about this.
He looked around us and shook his head slowly again. “What a mess,” he muttered then his eyes dropped and he looked confused then he ground his teeth and shut his eyes tightly as if he was trying to control his frustration, "Sariel if you aren’t off the asphalt in five I am going to kick your arse and then report you to Mike. And you know what Mike will do!”
“I am sorry, but you don’t understand,” I stepped up to him. “I don’t know who you are but we don’t have time for this. Jari has been held hostage by vampires and is almost dead. We aren’t even sure if he has been infected. So If you are quite finished I want to get him home and see what I can do for him.”
Raguel looked me up and down then laughed heartily, “Where do you get them from? Were they having a sale at ‘Fools 4 U’ – buy one get the second free?”
Scott straightened, pulled me back away from the laughing man, and turned to face Raguel his face fierce.
“Damn Rag, do you have to be such a...” a low voice growled from behind us.
“Angel, yes that’s because that’s what I am,” Raguel interrupted, “Unlike you Egregore. Unbelievable what lengths you will go to prove your inferiority!”
I turned to find Jari standing next to me.
“Jari...?”
I stumbled back against Scott unprepared and unwilling to accept what I was seeing. He was whole and completely unaffected. His skin was unmarked, gone were all the open wounds and bites, gone was all the red swollen flesh, and gone was all evidence of any torture. His skin and body were pure, clean and beautiful again. Even his face was perfect with just the right amount of stubble on it and his hair neat.
Jari stood naked in the moonlight with absolutely no visible sign of what just happened.
I stood gapping in disbelief as Aze took off his T-shirt and handed it to Jari, who ripped it and wrapped it around his waist to form a makeshift loin cloth.
He didn’t look at me. He just glared at Raguel.
I couldn’t quite get any words out my mouth. My heart and chest ached and my throat burn as I swallowed something bitter and fowl tasting.
So that’s what betrayal tastes like, I thought.
I closed my eyes and my mind as I tried to control the feeling of panic. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe this wasn’t happening. Maybe this was all a big misunderstanding.
“Jari... I don’t understand?” I finally forced out.
“Of course you don’t, if you did I would hope that you wouldn’t be in this situation,” Raguel interceded, he was still frowning.
“Sariel this is really stupid. Even for you two.” He rolled his eyes, “Seriously, did you honestly think you could get away with this? When are you two going to grow up? You can’t keep going around inciting wars, natural disasters, political scandals and all the other shady stuff you two do for fun. And what were you thinking getting the Irin and Qaddis involved? Is there nothing left in your heads?”
No one answered him. I stood frozen, still hoping against hope that this wasn’t as bad as it sounded.
Raguel looked back at Scott and cringed, “Are you going to fix this or do you need me to fix up all your messes?” He waved his hand up and down in the direction of Scott’s torso.
“Fine,” Jari said through his teeth then he leaned past me to touch Scott. Scott gasped a quick intake of breath. His eyes widened and he looked at Jari as he lifted his long sleeved t-shirt. All his scars were gone. His skin was just as perfect as Jari’s. All evidence of what happened to him was gone.
All the evidence was gone. Evidence? Ohh hell!
I shut my eyes and ground my teeth. This was getting harder and harder to ignore. Yes, something was very wrong, very wrong indeed.
“Jari,” I growled through my clenched teeth, “If you don’t tell me what is going on right now I will... I will think of something really bad to do to you!”
Raguel laughed, “Let me know what you think up Qaddis, I might want to come and watch. Although I expect that I would be disappointed, he deserves far worse than ‘bad’. Speaking of which, it is time we got down to business,” he sighed loudly and looked at Scott and I.
“Rag, don’t do this. Come on Rag. It’s not a big deal - we had it under control,” Jari said in an offhand way but I caught the edge in his words. This brought tears to my eyes.
“Jari...” I whispered as I felt the tears. “You lied to me?”
“Sariel, you knew what you were doing. You knew the risks you were taking. And you know very well the consequences.”
“Rag... Just this once, be a decent guy...”
“Jari, what’s going on?”
“Scott Cox and Natalie Bovie, I have been officially sent to escort you to a formal inquiry into your conduct as Irin and Qaddis of the Third Tower, with special regard to your breach of the Treaty between Vampire and Egregore.”
“Jari, please tell me what is going on?”
“Sorry Natalie,” Jari mumbled and looked away uncomfortably. “Just plead ignorant, that should work.”
“Sorry? Plead ignorant? Should work? You lied, you lied to me? You used me and manipulated me, why? Why would you do this to me Jari?”
“It is time. Accused please accompany me to your hearing.” Raguel said dispassionately.
I desperately looked at the three faces of the men I loved and trusted. My searching and pleading look went unanswered. Jari, Aze and Adam both looked guilty as... well as guilty as hell really.
Damn. Trust your instincts next time Natalie. If there was ever going to be a next time.
Scott took my hand and I looked up into his face. His eyes flicked once back to his Father before they came back to mine. He looked scared and he looked cut. His scars were gone but these wounds were deeper. My father had lied to me, deceived me, tormented me and used me for some reason I didn’t understand. But Scott, well it was fair to say that both his parents were in on this. Both Adam and Samy knew what we still didn’t know. They had both betrayed their son.
Scott and I looked into each other’s eyes. We could recognise the agony in each other.
“Natalie,” Jari reached for me as Raguel motioned for us to come with him. “This wasn’t what I wanted. I never meant for this to happen.”
“Aze wanted us to Judge them all Jari. Were we supposed to kill them all? Is that what was meant to happen?”
“It’s a war Natalie! Please understand that we had no choice!”
“Well Jari, no, I don’t understand and I doubt I will ever understand. And remember Jari, I was in your office when the decision was made. You made your 'choice'. You chose wrong, Jari.” I turned away from him and together Scott and I stepped towards Archangel Raguel.
Raguel touched us and suddenly everything was whisked away from us. The light moved around us as we seemed to be moving upwards very quickly.
I ignored everything else and concentrated on Scott. He was all I had left.
We have each other. I would never betray you Scott. Please tell me if you had any hand in this. If you did I will find out so it would be better for me to I hear it now.
My Natalie, you have full access to my thoughts and memories. Go look.
I don’t want to look. I want you to tell me. I won’t look. If you say no then I will trust you. I have to trust you.
Natalie I believed my parents. I went to Dad and asked him about your fears and he advised me to encourage you to trust the Egregore. He assured me that this was the only way. So I tried to get you to conform to what they wanted because I trusted my father. So maybe I did play a part in this. But Natalie I didn’t know. I am sorry. I didn’t know what they were doing. What have they done Natalie, I still don’t understand?
They have played us. They have manipulated events to use us to take the fall over some war between the vampires and the Egregore.
No, Natalie, it wasn’t like that. We didn’t think you would be caught. Jari’s voice was pained and clear in my head, no more fake pain nor screams of agony.
“Scott do you remember how we evicted Beatrice from your head? Well I have two squatters who have overstayed their welcome. Give me a hand will you?”
Natalie you might need us in this inquiry, Jari sounded worried.
Yeah I can see that working, I laughed, Exactly how gullible do you think we are Jari? Or should I be calling you Sariel? So, are you even my Father or was that another lie? Was that another way to get me to do your bidding? Scott, are you ready?
Natalie, I am your father. Don’t shut me out please...
Scott looked into my eyes and nodded. Together we swept up all traces of Jari then, while ignoring his pleading voice, we kicked him out of my head. We did the same for Adam however he stayed silent through the whole procedure and only uttered a very soft ‘I’m sorry’ just before we pushed him out. Scott then carefully inspected my mind for any lingering trace. He smiled into my face when he was satisfied that I was clean.
It’s just you and me now. No audience. No one else.
I smiled at him but it wasn’t a happy smile. I had the feeling that we were in well over our heads. This was serious, all too serious.
The light started to slow down and it felt like we were nearing the end of our journey. Raguel had stayed silent throughout the trip. Now he sighed and looked at us.
“You will have to wait until your hearing then everything will be explained to you. We must follow procedure, you understand, but I will present evidence in your favour. Those... fallen used you to achieve their own ends. Tell me one thing, what happened to our representative?”
“What representative?”
“We allocate a guide who is with the marked watcher from birth. They guide them and give moral and spiritual direction. Only when the watcher starts to wake does the Egregore representative have access.”
“I had no one... other than... Ohh, other than Eveline?”
“Yes Eveline.”
I laughed a short laugh, “You guys need to do performance reviews or at least check up on your workers every now and then.” And I told him of my childhood and the direction that Eveline gave me.
Raguel jaw clenched and he eyes hardened, “I will investigate prior to your hearing.”
He opened a door and we found ourselves in a stark room with lots of plastic chairs. It reminded me of a hospital waiting room. I turned to ask what we were meant to do but he was gone. The door was closed and we were alone.
Alone and in trouble.