Angelfire (10 page)

“I knew him?” I repeated, my mind juggling a thousand questions and thoughts. “He must have been about twenty, right? Why didn't he ever say anything to me? He went on pretending like I was just another student. He fought with us once? Of all the people in the world to run into in another life—Mr. Meyer?” I wished I could remember his younger self, but I couldn't, and it broke my heart a little.

“True psychics are rare,” Nathaniel explained. “Especially ones who
want
to find reapers. And kill them. But these
mortals who hunt reapers want to stop this as much as we do. It's an amazing loss we've suffered, losing Frank.”

He and Will were quiet for a moment. Nathaniel seemed lost in thought. I wondered what Kate would think of Mr. Meyer's being so cool, but I could never tell her anything about my new life. She could never know. Dragging her or any of my friends and family into this would get them killed. Just like Mr. Meyer.

“I had no idea,” I said. Things that I should have said and done haunted me.

Will's hand covered mine. “It's all right. He always said the only thing that would ever take him out in the end was a reaper. He never regretted any of it.”

The warmth of his hand on mine made me jarringly aware of how cold I'd become since learning of Mr. Meyer's true identity. I thought back to the news reporter's description of his murder, and it made me sick to my stomach. I'd died that way countless times, but Mr. Meyer would never come back the way I did.

Desperate to talk about something else, I looked down at the book Nathaniel had out on the desk. “What is this place? These books look ancient.”

“They are,” he said.

“Nathaniel is in charge of the rare books here,” Will explained.

“Correct,” Nathaniel added. “I can basically bring in any books I want and keep them here. I have a few volumes
documenting reapers throughout history. I'm also a collector of antiquities, and that's how I make my money, since I only volunteer here. I like old things, probably because I am very old myself. You'd be surprised how lucrative it is to buy a few ugly paintings and sell them to billionaires a hundred years later. Tens of millions of dollars for an original Picasso are nothing to sneeze at.”

I nodded, imagining what I'd do with tens of millions of dollars. Oh, God—the
shoes
I could get with that. “So you've known us for a long time? Then you're immortal like Will? He told me there were no other Guardians. Not now, at least. Didn't I have other Guardians before him?”

Nathaniel gave Will an odd look. Will only stared intently back and said nothing. “Yes…I am an immortal, and you have had other Guardians before. They have protected you until their deaths. The duty is for life.”

He left me speechless. I stared at Will, who avoided my gaze, and had to force myself to look away from him. Those people had died for me? How many?

Will spoke suddenly, but I didn't hate him for changing the subject. “We fought a reaper who mentioned something about the Enshi. Does that ring a bell?”

Nathaniel pursed his lips tight. “An Enshi? Lord of life—of what
makes
life, to be more correct; of souls.”

“
The
Enshi,” I corrected. “The reaper made it sound like there was only one.”

“Only one, you say? Perhaps that's what Lauren sensed.”

“Sounds likely,” Will said. “This might be big, Nathaniel. Do you think Bastian might have something to do with this?”

“Who is Bastian?” I asked.

When Will didn't answer, Nathaniel spoke, flashing him another strange look. “Bastian is a very, very powerful vir, a humanlike reaper. A vir may appear as an ordinary man or woman, but they possess the shape-shifting power of reapers and often have strange eyes, claws, scales, tails, horns, wings…you name it. They can choose to hide these aspects or to reveal them at any moment. Some of them can shape-shift their entire bodies to look like someone completely different. The vir are also more powerful than any other reapers, and they will often choose to control reapers like the one you killed at the school, as Bastian does. He is cruel and cunning and has been trying to figure out a way to destroy you for the better part of a millennium, Ellie. He and his reapers have killed and taken the souls of more humans than can be counted.”

Nathaniel's expression let me know he was serious. “That's why it's our job to help you protect human souls from them. Bastian and his followers may very well be on the hunt for this Enshi.”

“We need to borrow a few books and see if we can find anything out about it,” Will said.

“Go ahead,” Nathaniel said, standing. “The good stuff is behind my desk.”

Will examined each book on the shelf Nathaniel had
pointed to, running his fingers down each spine, reading the inscriptions, and finally choosing three books. He laid them across the desk, and I tried to read the titles. Nathaniel chose a clean but old leather-bound volume and began thumbing through it.

“This is in Latin,” I said, taking a seat next to him. “I can't read Latin.”

Will sat and flipped the pages to skim over something I could only guess was an index of sorts.

“Can
you
?” I asked when he didn't respond.

“Of course.”

I looked at the two others books. One was also in Latin and the other was in a language I didn't immediately recognize. “What is this language?”

“Hebrew,” he answered without looking at me.

“You can read Latin
and
Hebrew?”

“As can you.”

“Ah,” I said. “Another one of my mystery skills I can't seem to remember. I really hope cooking is on that list, because I'd like to be able to make cupcakes without turning them into cement.”

He rewarded me with a little smile. “Cooking well was never something you worried about in the past.”

AN HOUR LATER WILL AND NATHANIEL HAD VERY little to show for their efforts. I amused myself by watching the two of them, particularly fascinated with the intensity in Will's eyes as he read the ancient languages, and with the fine muscles as his forearms tensed with each page he turned. He finally closed the first Latin book and took up the one about ancient Sumerian lore. After a little while, he slapped the open page he was reading, making me jump.

“I found it!” Will chirped. He stared at me with an excited expression, but I only shrugged. He frowned and continued. “Enshi, the Lord of Souls. The giver and taker of the breath of life.”

“Breath of life?” I mumbled. “That sounds a little too philosophical for a Saturday.”

“Whatever this Enshi is, it's as big as we thought,” he said as he read further.

Nathaniel peeked over his shoulder. “What is it?”

“It says the Enshi is a dormant being who is the god of life under the command of Enki, the supreme god of Earth, according to Sumerian mythology. Many ancient civilizations mistook powerful reapers for their gods, so that's one possibility for its origin. It's associated with this symbol.”

He flipped the book around to show the page to Nathaniel and me. The image was of three open circles arranged like a dartboard, with four small solid dots arranged horizontally across the center and two crescents facing each other vertically.

“This is the seal of Azrael,” Nathaniel explained. “Could the text mean that the Enshi serves the Destroyer?”

“That's definitely the impression I'm getting,” Will said in a dark voice. “Azrael is the angel of death, but not an archangel—at least not anymore. Archangels are the highest ranking and most powerful of the angels. If the Enshi is a reaper, then this has to mean that the Enshi is actually an angelic reaper. There's no way a demonic reaper would serve an angel. It goes against the nature of reapers and everything they are taught to believe.”

My head spun trying to make sense of what they were saying. “Angelic reaper? The Destroyer? Angels? What are you talking about?”

Will glanced at Nathaniel, who stared back intently, as
if he didn't want to answer the question. I hated it when they exchanged glances. It made me feel like I was a naughty child listening in on the grownups' conversation.

“Yes, angels,” Will explained. “The counterpart to the Fallen.”

I studied his face, shocked by what he was telling me. “Do you mean that real angels exist? The Fallen are demons, aren't they? Does that mean that God exists? Satan, too?”

He took a breath. “Yes. Lucifer rebelled against God and lost the First War, as you have probably learned at some point in your life. God banished Lucifer from Heaven, and he fell into Hell, but his war fell to Earth. The angels who joined Lucifer's cause fell with him and became demons—the Fallen. Two of the Fallen bore horrible children, whose descendents are the creatures we know today as the demonic reapers. In desperation for more soldiers to fuel his army of the damned, Lucifer uses the reapers to collect human souls.”

I was thoroughly fascinated. “And the angelic reapers? What are they?”

“The descendents of the Grigori,” Will explained. “Not all the Fallen who fought for Lucifer were truly wicked. God believed the Grigori could be rehabilitated, and so they were imprisoned in the mortal world. In order to make amends for their betrayal, they were ordered to watch over humanity. They're the keepers of angelic magic and medicine and the gateways into Heaven and Hell. They bore children between
them, but these children weren't created out of wicked spirit and savagery. They became the angelic reapers, the earth-bound soldiers of God who destroy the demonic reapers and stop them from taking human souls. The Grigori have four lords, the Elemental Watchers, who rule over the quadrant points of Earth. They are Fomalhaut of the northern winter, Regulus of the southern summer, Aldebaran of the eastern spring, and Antares of the western autumn. They represent the spirit of their quadrant's element.”

“Have you ever met one of the Grigori?” I asked. “Do they fight the demonic reapers too?”

“No, sightings of them are very rare,” he said. “But Antares, Watcher of the West, does live in America. Colorado, I think. And I don't think any of them fight. They are peaceful for the most part, but that doesn't mean they're weak.”

“So I'm not descended from them, then,” I concluded. “Where do I come in?”

“The most powerful of the demonic reapers outnumber the most powerful angelic reapers, and God needed help,” Will said. “You and the angelic reapers are fated to prevent Lucifer's Second War, the Apocalypse. If this war happens, that's the End of Days. Your job is to stop as many of the demonic reapers as you can. The best way to kill a demonic reaper is with angelfire, but the angelic reapers can't wield that power, because their ancestors are fallen angels. We don't know
what
you are. You aren't a reaper and your body is human. You just kind of appeared, and we all accepted
you. But when a reaper kills you, it can't do anything to your soul. You're reincarnated and you fight again, as if your soul is immune.”

I chewed on my lip, forcing myself to believe him, but the what-if? still lurked in the back of my mind. I remembered Friday, in the bathroom, when the strange black things were crawling on my face and suddenly disappeared. I couldn't forget my horrible nightmares. Was I one of the Fallen? No. Not if I could use angelfire. But I couldn't escape the fear that something dark lurked inside me, something more frightening than the thought of Lucifer's Second War and the end of the world.

“What if you're wrong?” I asked. “What if I'm a reaper?”

“You're not,” Will assured me. “You're something different. Trust me.”

I looked back at the strange symbol of Azrael. “So there are good reapers and bad reapers? The good serve the angels and the bad serve the Fallen?”

Nathaniel nodded. “Simply put, yes.”

“I kill the bad ones, right?” I asked. “The demonic reapers.” What if I killed the good ones? A heavy pit grew in the bottom of my stomach.

Will's firm gaze locked on mine. “We fight only the demonic reapers.”

“You are like the angels' secret weapon,” Nathaniel added. “Your presence in this war makes things balanced.”

“Don't I make things
un
balanced, then?” I hated playing
the devil's advocate—no pun intended—but I needed to fully understand who and what I was.

Nathaniel said, “No, because there are too many demonic reapers for the angels to destroy them all on their own.”

“Do the Fallen have a Preliator?”

“No,” he said with a twitch of his nose.

“Could the Enshi be another Preliator?” I asked. “Maybe a demonic one?”

Will exchanged a look with Nathaniel. “While it's unlikely, it is something to think about. We can't rule it out.”

“Will,” I began, “the night of my birthday, you told that reaper he couldn't touch me until you woke me or he'd have to face the consequences. Were you talking about the angels?”

“Yes,” Will said. “The demonic reapers strive for chaos, but there are rules very few of them will dare to break, especially if it means they will have to face a soldier angel as a result—a kind of angel below the rank of archangel, Heaven's law enforcement officers, if you will. You can't be touched until you've regained your powers, and the soldier angels enforce that law.”

I frowned. “So the demonic reapers are just
made
to be evil? It sounds so Disney villain–ish. Can't they choose to be good? It feels like genocide or something to me, just wiping them out the way I'm supposed to do.”

Will's eyes drilled into mine intently. “If a human is devoured by a demonic reaper, it's a one-way ticket to Hell.
The reapers gain complete control over the soul. It's much like the way the people of some cultures eat the flesh of their enemies or powerful predators to gain their strength through magic. The angelic reapers protect human souls but can't manipulate them. Only God should have the right to decide if a soul should end up in Heaven or Hell.”

“They can't all be that way,” I said. “There must be some of them who have chosen not to steal souls for the Fallen.”

He shook his head. “The only demonic reapers you have ever fought have also tried to kill you. They've only ever been monsters. They're
demon
spawn. I've never heard of one changing his ways. Every single person they have ever killed will burn in Hell for eternity. They kill innocent people, they kill you, and
we
kill them.”

“I don't know,” I said sadly. “It seems like there should be more to it.”

“What do you mean?”

My shoulders sank. I didn't like being put on the spot like that. “I don't know. I just don't believe in absolute evil…or absolute
good
. No one's perfectly one or the other. Why can't some demonic reapers turn good or some angelic reapers turn bad? If the Enshi is an angelic reaper, then why would it help the demonic reapers? Maybe it went bad.”

“Ellie, we aren't—” Will's mouth snapped shut and his expression filled with pain. His gaze fell away.

“What's wrong?” I asked.

He waved a hand dismissively, but he didn't look at me. “Never mind.”

I watched him for a moment, wondering about whatever it was that he wouldn't say.

“We should get back to the Enshi,” Nathaniel said.

I didn't object. “So, the Enshi serves an angel?” I asked. “The one whose seal is in that book. Azrael. The angel of death.”

“Well, one of them,” Nathaniel said.

“There's more than one?” For the first time in my life I wished I'd gone to at least one day of Sunday school just so I could get the basic gist of what they were trying to explain.

He nodded. “The other true angel of death is Sammael, but he fell.”

“Why did he fall?” I asked.

“Sammael committed an unforgivable disobedience to God when he became the lover of Lilith, queen of the Fallen. Together in Hell, they are Lucifer's left and right hand, though Sammael is sometimes misidentified as Lucifer. Sammael and Lilith are the forebears of the demonic reapers.”

I gaped in surprise. “
Their
children are the demonic reapers?”

“Yes.”

“So these demonic reapers want a creature that serves Azrael,” I said.

Nathaniel shrugged. “If the Enshi does indeed serve Azrael, then I don't know why Bastian would want it, or why
the demonic reapers think it will help them.”

That made me feel a little hopeful. “If it's on our side, can't we get it to help us? Who says it has to be evil?”

“The reaper sounded pretty clear that they would use the Enshi against you,” Will said. “That's not something that I'm willing to risk.”

“I apologize in advance for being so blunt in your presence, Ellie,” Nathaniel said. “But it's a fact that no matter how many times they kill the Preliator, she will be reborn and kill a hundred more of them for every one of her deaths.”

I cringed. He was a little more blunt than I had been prepared for.

“Exactly,” Will said, leaning forward. “So what does it matter if this Enshi wakes up? Maybe it has the strength to kill Ellie, but she'll just be back a few years later. The cycle will never end.”

Nathaniel sighed. “I don't know. Maybe they know something we don't.”

“I don't like this,” Will confessed. “Could this have anything to do with how long it took Ellie to be reborn?”

“I hope not.”

“Nathaniel,” said a tinny voice from an intercom above our heads.

“Yes, Louise?” he replied.

“We have another shipment in if you'd like to come up and sign for it.”

“Be there in a minute.” He stood. “I'll be back in a little
bit. If you need to leave, feel free to go. Swing by upstairs and say good-bye if you do.” He left the room quickly, leaving Will and me alone.

After a brief, awkward silence, I spoke. “It's getting really late and I still have to set up for tonight. Is it okay if we call it quits with the researching for now?”

“Yeah,” he said with a nod. “Let's go.”

We found Nathaniel in a room on the second floor of the library, examining delicate documents inside protective sleeves. We said good-bye, and he promised to keep an eye out for anything that could lead us to more information about the Enshi. Outside, I paused before getting into my car.

“What are your plans after this?” I asked.

He looked up at the sky. “It'll be dark soon.”

I nodded knowingly. That was when his watchdog duties began. “Well, if you'd rather not sit on my roof like a wall-flower, you're very welcome to help us set up for the party. Or at least hang out. You don't have to be by yourself all the time.”

“No, thank you,” he said. “That's not the best idea.”

“Okay, Batman,” I said with a smile. “But if you're going to claim to be my bodyguard, you might as well hang out with me.”

His expression was thoughtful. “It's better this way.”

“Why?”

“Because when I'm around you, instead of looking out
for you, I let down my guard.”

“Well, don't do that.”

He smiled brilliantly, his first genuine smile of the day, and my gut did a flip. “I can't help it.”

“You said it yourself—the reapers don't come out during broad daylight.”

“That doesn't mean they
can't
. They're still opportunistic. An easy kill is an easy kill.”

“But don't you think they'd be less inclined to attack me if you're standing next to me than if you aren't?”

“It doesn't matter.”