Garden of the Gods (The Immortals Series Book 3) (15 page)

Chapter 19

Dylan had pages of notes spread out on the table in his apartment in Devil’s Thumb. Colin and Anna sat next to him as he offered what he’d learned from the theology professor at CU.

“I needed an excuse to meet with him and talk about this shit, so I told him I was a blogger for a Seventh Day Adventist website,” Dylan smiled, “and I was trying to form theories as to who this fifth angel might be, because we suspected it wasn’t really Abaddon.”

Anna shuffled some of the sheets of paper in front of her, but she couldn’t read most of Dylan’s scrawling handwriting.

“And?” she asked excitedly.

Dylan’s smile broadened. “Y’all aren’t going to believe this. The dude’s currently in my fridge.”

Colin arched an eyebrow at him. “How did you trap a fallen angel in your refrigerator?” But he was just messing with him.

Dylan snickered and shook his head. “The professor agreed with me, and he’s pretty sure he’s right about this based on Talmudic folklore. He thinks that angel is Samael.”

“Holy shit,” Anna exclaimed.

Colin’s mind raced with doubt and uncertainty, which told Anna they were getting far too close to the truth, and that was making some asshole demon
really
uncomfortable. She told Dylan that, and Colin bit his lip. Anna grabbed his hand and brought it to her lips, kissing his strong hands and silently telling him how amazed she was by his strength and willpower. Colin kissed her hand too and told her the Devil himself couldn’t make him question her love for him again.

Dylan coughed and asked if they were finished yet, but he was smiling. He knew what they’d both endured recently.

“Alright, so we might know
who
we’re dealing with now, but how do we draw him out?” Dylan asked.

Colin’s hand gripped Anna’s tighter, but this time, it wasn’t because of his doubts. He didn’t want her trying to fight this powerful angel on her own, and that’s exactly what she was planning on doing.

“We go back to Garden of the Gods and instead of waiting for Samael to show up, I go looking for
him
,” Anna announced.

Colin wanted to argue with her, but it had nothing to do with the mind games his own demon stalker was playing; he didn’t want Anna hunting one of the most powerful angels ever created.

“I’ll be with her, of course,” Colin clarified. “I don’t know how well this shield thing will work against an angel like Samael, but it’s all I can do to try to protect her.”

Dylan sighed and threw his pencil on the table. “This would be a lot easier if Andrew weren’t being such an asshole and would go along with y’all to at least try to keep
you
alive while Anna tries to kill Samael.”

“True,” Colin acknowledged. “But you can’t be too hard on them. You have no idea how strong this force is in my head. It convinced me Anna wanted me to leave her. I
never
would have thought that was possible. But there are some forces stronger than anything Hell can conjure, and it won’t make me question her love for me again. Luca and Andrew don’t have that to help keep them grounded. So Anna and I will have to go alone.”

Dylan crossed his arms and glared at him. “Alone? What the hell? I’m still sane, remember?”

“Dylan, if you come with us, then I have to try to keep you
and
Colin alive. And I don’t even know how I’m supposed to target this power yet.”

Dylan shook his head stubbornly. “I’m Immortal. Mostly. Besides, if it kills me, I know who’s waiting on the other side for me. Not exactly a huge loss.”

Anna squinted at him, not because she didn’t agree with him – she knew he’d be happy with Jas – but they
needed
him here now. And she selfishly wasn’t ready to say goodbye to him yet. But Dylan just smiled at her again.

“Hey, Jas has figured out how to stalk your dreams. Maybe we could both visit you and then you wouldn’t have to really say goodbye.”

“You sound like you’re counting on this,” Anna said.

Dylan raised a shoulder at her and scooped the papers up from his table. “Not yet. I want to help you end this war with these bastards. But if it happens, I just don’t want you to feel guilty about it. I’ll be fine either way.”

A knock on Dylan’s door stopped them from arguing about it anymore. Amanda had just left Luca’s apartment where she’d been talking to him and she had news about his stalker.

“Definitely a different marking than Anna’s or Colin’s. Or whatever you’ve decided to call them. Andrew was at the store, so I’ll check him out when he gets back. But you must be dealing with more than three of these demons now.”

Dylan sighed loudly and muttered a few epithets at demons and fallen angels and Hell all rolled into one.

“And has Jas figured out how I’m supposed to control this superpower she’s so convinced I’m wielding?” Anna asked.

Dylan stopped muttering and moved closer to her, seeming to remember Jas was always with Anna and Amanda could actually hear her.

“No,” Amanda answered after a brief pause. “And she says to stop being so damn lazy and figure it out yourself.”

Dylan snorted and Anna shot him a don’t-be-an-asshole glare. Amanda seemed to be listening again, so everyone waited silently.

“She also said to remember everything Andrew was trying to teach you out in those prairies. It will work, but she thinks part of your problem is that you were expecting to fail. Your self-doubt may be making this far more difficult than it needs to be.”

Anna was about to counter that there was no way it could be
that
simple, but Colin stopped her.

“I don’t know, Anna. Jas may be onto something. We’ve been concentrating on trying to make this thing work, but the only time I’ve ever been able to get it to do what I wanted was when I wasn’t even thinking about it. You were in danger and I just acted, and it
worked
. There was no planning or forethought involved.”

“But Andrew said it was like learning to play an instrument and would take practice!” Anna protested.

Colin nodded but still thought Jas was right about this. “You have no idea what you’re capable of. Andrew doesn’t even know how I’m able to put that barrier around you. I think the possibilities with this kind of gift are so vast, it does take a lot of practice to figure them all out. And that’s why Luca’s angel wanted him here to help us. But you can do this, Anna. I have faith in you.”

Anna’s throat burned with that familiar warning sensation that her body wanted to cry, but she refused to look so weak in front of Dylan and Amanda. Of everyone she was terrified of letting down, the thought of disappointing her husband was the worst.

Colin lifted her hand and brought it to his lips again and promised her, “
You could never disappoint me. You could never fail me. Even if you hadn’t shown up that July day to say yes and become my wife, I could have only blamed myself. Not you. Never you, Anna.”

Anna swallowed again, that burning pain in her throat worsening, and she leaned her forehead against his chest to hide her face from the others.

“
Oh, God, Colin, Max was so sure… and I believed him because I knew you weren’t in control of yourself anymore. And I wondered how I could ever survive in this world let alone an eternity. I didn’t want to exist anymore. How could I?”

Colin closed his eyes and buried his face in her dark hair and heard the sound of the door closing. They were in Dylan’s apartment, but that’s just the kind of friend he was. He gave the O’Conners this private moment alone.

Anna felt Colin’s ragged breaths; even without the telepathy, she would have known he was crying now, too.

“
If I ever did something like that to you, I don’t know how I could exist anymore, either. God, my love, I’m so sorry.”

Anna lifted her head and looked into his eyes, brushing the tears away as they leaked down his cheeks. “
He was trying to do it, you know. Make you cheat on me. He knew it would destroy us. And she was so persistent. Do you think she was even human?”

Colin inhaled sharply. They knew these fallen angels could mask the presence of demons, but it had never occurred to him that Olivia had been sent to destroy him through a temptation that these demons only thought would actually tempt him.

Even their failed attempts to control his mind couldn’t break his loyalty to his wife. But demons were always underestimating what a powerful force love was, because it was a force they’d never understood to begin with. No angel that had experienced love – whether it was for God or Heaven or humans – could ever fall.

Colin blinked and his brow creased in confusion again, and Anna felt him wrestling with those demons inside; he
knew
the truth of this thought that had occurred to him about angels and love, but why wasn’t it making any sense to him? Anna smiled up at him and kissed him.

“
But you know the truth, Colin. A few days ago, you couldn’t recognize it. You will see. Our love will save you. They can’t defeat us.”

Colin smiled back at her and was about to kiss her again when they felt her. Anna spun around and looked for her, but wherever she was, she was hidden to them still. Colin’s hand slid down her arm and found her fingers, as he wrestled with an entirely new problem: the excitement he always had when The Angel appeared, but this time, it was mixed with apprehension and fear.

The Angel appeared at the table, sitting in front of the stack of papers Dylan had reorganized. She began sifting through them, and Anna immediately tried to move to the table, but Colin didn’t budge. He didn’t want to get any closer to The Angel. She lifted her pale gray eyes and studied Colin closely.

“Don’t worry, Anna. You and Amanda were able to find him in time. He’ll come back to you.”

Anna clapped a hand over her mouth and stifled the sob that erupted. She didn’t know when or how Colin would be freed from this prison, but her faith in The Angel was complete. If she promised Anna that Colin would be saved, would be released from this Hell somehow, then she believed her. The Angel reached for Anna’s hand and Anna reluctantly let go of Colin’s to join The Angel at the table.

“You’re both right, my Anna. They failed because they don’t understand what a powerful force love is. If you hadn’t gone after him or if you hadn’t been able to find him, maybe he would have lost himself over time, but your love is one of the most powerful tools you have in this fight against them. I will always believe that Hell will fail when it’s confronted with people like you.”

Anna resisted the urge to fall to the ground in front of The Angel and bury her face in her lap and cry, begging for her comfort like a child to her mother. The Angel clasped her hand and pulled her closer to her then kissed her forehead.

“You are so brave, my Anna. One day, I will give you whatever you ask for if I can. But now, I can’t stay long. This,” she pointed to the stack of notes Dylan had collected, “is what I need to talk to you about and it couldn’t wait to come through Jas.”

Anna’s stomach flipped and she took a deep breath.

“Ok,” she said nervously.

The Angel still held her hand and Anna sensed she had no intention of letting go until she had to leave. Colin kept a safe distance from The Angel, sharing Anna’s adoration and devotion and wanting to fall at her feet and let her comfort him like the hurting child he felt like as well, but it was muddled with this fear and
hatred
that he
knew
didn’t belong to him. Because as he stared at the beautiful woman sitting at Dylan’s table with his wife, he knew his own feelings. He loved this creature. He adored her. He owed his life to her.

Anna tried to keep her focus on The Angel but she was aware of Colin’s feelings, and they excited her, because Colin was recognizing what
he
was feeling and what this demon inside of him was trying to make him feel. The Angel was right, as usual. This demon wouldn’t defeat him. Colin’s love for her, and even for The Angel, was far too strong.

The Angel’s pale gray eyes had never left Anna but she heard all of these thoughts, too, and she smiled at her and squeezed her hand to reassure her. She tapped the stack of papers again.

“Dylan did well. Luca’s angel and I have been discussing this, and we agree with him and this professor. But I need to warn you: Samael is an extremely powerful angel, Anna. He was the archangel of death and ruled over the Fifth Heaven.”

“That’s why he’s in Revelations as the fifth trumpeter? Then why is he named as Abaddon?” Anna asked.

The Angel shrugged. “Whoever wrote Revelations got a lot of things wrong. Do you really think God would bring that sort of punishment on humans? No matter what they were doing?”

“No, but…” Anna looked at the stack of papers in front of The Angel. One of them included Luca’s sketches of the markings on the demons’ backs. “Is Samael using the descriptions from the Bible or were they right about those describing him?”

The Angel glanced at the sketches but didn’t seem overly concerned by them. “Men make up most of these things, Anna. Including these. Samael may have chosen them to try to make hunters and even Heaven think it was Abaddon responsible for wreaking havoc on Earth.”