Part 28 (1/2)
Rafe and I explain who and what we are. Zack seems to take it all in stride and doesn't seem surprised to hear any of it even if it all sounds completely far fetched.
”So you're Micheal's vessel,” Zack says looking at me, ”and you're which angel?” He asks Rafe.
”I'm not sure yet,” Rafe admits. ”But from what Jess has told me, I should be able to find my crown now, right?” Rafe asks, looking to me for confirmation.
”Yes, you've awoken some of your power which means it should be giving off a radiation signature we can track. We'll have Joshua do a search for it as soon as possible.”
”I think I already know who Rafe's archangel is,” Mason says. ”Yours too Zack.”
This is news to me.
”How?” I ask.
”All of you have variations on the names of your archangels. I had my suspicions when JoJo's angel ended up being Jophiel but now I feel more confident in my a.s.sumption.”
”Who do you think we are?” Rafe asks.
”I believe you are Raphael,” Mason tells him before looking at Zack. ”And you would have to be Zadkiel. That only leaves one archangel left to find, Gabriel.”
Mason's phone buzzes. He answers it and looks over at me with his eyes wide.
”We'll be right there,” Mason tells the person on the other end of the line.
”What's wrong?” I ask.
”The Tear is open,” he tells me.
Chapter 18.
We decide Rafe should stay with Zack. Mason takes me and Nick to our new headquarters. It's pretty much identical to the old one.
Joshua, Angela and Allen are standing in front of a holographic display of the Tear. Through the Tear, I see a green planet. The Tear closes but immediately opens again revealing a red planet surrounded by a series of white moons. The Tear closes and opens a third time revealing a s.p.a.ce constellation.
”What's going on?” I ask Mason. ”I've never seen it do that before.”
”Show me the Antarctica site,” Mason tells Joshua urgently.
Joshua works his magic on the control panel.
”Do you know what he's doing?” Angela asks Mason.
”I have an idea.” Mason says and I don't like the foreboding way he makes this statement.
”He's searching, isn't he?” Allen asks.
”That's my guess,” Mason says.
”Searching for the one prince he has left to find?” I ask.
”Yes. He must have enough of them to open and close the Tear at will now.”
An image of Lucifer standing in the middle of a circle of five of the princes of h.e.l.l with his arms raised to the sky appears on the holographic display. Lucifer spreads his hands wide of each other and then brings them together matching the opening and closing of the Tear.
As I look at the five princes of h.e.l.l, I breathe a sigh of relief. He doesn't have all of them yet. He needs one more just like us. However, I notice something oddly different about two of the princes.
”Why do Mammon and Asmodeus look like they just crawled out of a grave?” I ask.
The once cruelly handsome face of Asmodeus and the craggy face of Mammon are ashen white with small red pock looking marks dotting both their faces.
”Didn't Lucifer tell you how he punished them for trying to kill you?” Mason asks.
”No,” I say, realizing Lucifer and I never even talked about them after I told him about their a.s.sa.s.sination attempt. ”What did he do?”
”He trapped their souls in the bodies they inhabit and then killed them.”
”So they're dead?”
”Just the bodies they're in. They can't jump to a new body until he releases them.”
”What's the point of making them stay in dead bodies?”
”They have to feel the pain of a decaying corpse. I'm sure the smell isn't very pleasant either.”
I s.h.i.+ver at the thought. It's the first physical evidence I've seen of Lucifer's cruelty to those who cross him. I suppose I knew he wouldn't let them off easily but to make them live in rotting corpses seemed beyond any punishment I could have imagined.
”Is what Lucifer's doing dangerous?” I ask. ”To open and close a wormhole so many times in a row must be damaging something, right?”
It makes me wonder if doing such a thing with a wormhole is a.n.a.logous to phasing a human too many times. The night Asmodeous phased me so much he almost killed me made my body feel like a bowl of jelly afterwards. Could Lucifer be doing the same thing to the universe?
”I'm not completely sure what the effects will be,” Mason admits. ”I would have to consult with some of the Watchers who are more adept in the field of astrophysics to give you an answer. But, it's not good. I know that much.”
I watch as Lucifer opens and closes the Tear two more times and decide something needs to be done.
”Take me there,” I tell Mason.
Mason looks at me, his eyebrows lowered. ”I don't think there's anything you can do.”
”Take me there,” I say more stridently, ”unless you have a better idea on how to stop him?”
”There are six of them there, Jess. I am not going to take you somewhere where everyone present wants to kill you!”
”Lucifer won't let them hurt me,” I say, fully confident about my security. ”Plus, all of our lives might be in danger. We should at least try to do something to stop him! It's what we were sent here to do, Mason. Put your feelings for me aside for now and let's do our job.”
Mason's eyes tell me he knows I'm right but that he still doesn't want me in harms way.
”I can go myself,” Mason says. ”I'll try to stop them.”