Page 59 of Crimson Promises
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The ride to Saddle Mountain was quiet. I’d been here twice in the last twenty-four hours—a record for me. I’d have to find another place to go. This place was tainted now. It didn’t feel like a reprieve from my responsibilities anymore. Now, it would just serve as a reminder that someone was always watching. Living in Arch Cape was like living in a gilded cage; I still had freedom, but Michael liked to remind me that it was a cage nonetheless.
I parked my bike in its usual spot and waited outside the willow tree. Michael didn’t specify where to meet, but he was an archangel. He could figure it out.
The conservation area was filled with a concert of nighttime sounds of the forest: a mix of chirps, screams, squeals, grunts, and growls. I marched up and down the dirt path, trying to figure out what exactly I wanted to share with the Original and what would strategically be better to leave unmentioned. Would he know what I kept from him? He selected this place for a reason. Anything I kept from him was risky, but what else did I have to lose? Heaven had taken everything that ever meant anything to me.
My pacing left footprints in the dirt. When I reached the end of my route, I rotated to go back the other way and halted. There he was, staring at me like I was the one who had kept him waiting for thirty minutes. Again.
I bowed. “Fancy seeing you here on such a fine evening, sir.”
He grunted his acknowledgment.I should greet him like this more often. For once, he isn’t immediately ordering me around.
“Disclose,” he commanded.
I stood corrected.
“Don’t you want to hear about how ACU’s football team is doing this season?” I bantered.
He furrowed his brows together.
“Exactly. That is the crap that I’ve been dealing with ever since she decided to attend university. All anyone cares about around here is football. It’s ridiculous. All they do is smash into each other. It lacks the skill of true European football or hockey even.”
He flicked something imaginary off his shoulder. “Whatever you just spewed is none of my concern.”
“It should be,” I mumbled. That was how most of our conversations went—one-sided. You’d think he would have more to say to me after twenty-ish years. Nope. Zip. He took the information I gave and left. He used me. It wouldn’t kill him to say good job or well done every once in a while. Fallen angels need validation, too.
“Why am I here, Bennett?”
Fun and games were over. Time to get down to business.
“As I’m sure you’re aware, Aurora was in a car accident a few weeks ago. I made it in time. She was lucky her wounds weren’t too bad.” I swallowed the bile rising in my throat. Hopefully, he thought any nerves I showed were because he knew about my history with the archangels and not because I was hiding something from him. “There was a creature that wasn’t highly intelligent. It looked like it was composed of human ligaments and muscles but without skin. Its saliva was acidic. It burned holes in the asphalt. I’d never seen anything like that near Aurora and figured it was some coincidence. Harrowing creatures lived in the crevices between worlds. I had assumed it was one of them. Until…”
Michael just nodded at me to continue, so I did. His face remained as hard as stone, giving nothing away.
“I followed Aurora to a party. She was on a date with a frat boy. Aurora could do much better.”
Michael’s eyes flashed.
I held up both hands. “Sorry, I digress. Anyway, she headed away from the party with said boy. It was far enough that they could be alone. I intercepted another creature. Behemoth—The Watcher—was intentionally seeking Aurora.”
Michael didn’t move a muscle.
“You know who Behemoth is, right?”
“Of course, I know who Behemoth is. Going forward, assume that I always know more than you.”
“Well then, you know demons are interested in Aurora.”
Michael’s hand went to the pommel of his famed sword,Iustitia. Justice. The twin to the Morningstar. His knuckles whitened.
I resumed my pacing that Michael had previously interrupted. “My question is, why would demons be interested in Aurora? She’s just a woman going to university. What’s so special about her? For Behemoth to come to Arch Cape for Aurora meant that the directive would have had to come from Lucifer himself.”
“He’ll pay,” Michael vowed.
“What is your interest in Aurora? I’ve been watching her for almost twenty-one years on your directive.” Spinning around, I shot him a pointed look. “Michael, I need all the information I can to do this job effectively. If there are things you are purposefully leaving out, I urge you to reconsider.”
Flames lit in the depths of Michael’s eyes. “Are you threatening her, Caelum?”
