Page 60 of Far From Center
“Oh we wouldn’t kill you. If you didn’t give up the Tear to torture, then we’ll ransom you back to the Iblis. You mean quite a lot to her, far more than an artifact. She’d turn the world over to ensure you came back to her alive.”
He was right about that. “You do realize that I’m a human with a very short lifespan and the world is a big place. Who’s to say the Iblis even knows where the Tear is? It could take her centuries to find it, and we both know even with tender loving care I’ll probably live no more than another sixty or seventy years at best.”
“You’ll break before then. I’m willing to bet you’ll break before morning.”
She probably would, but hopefully it wouldn’t come to that. The angel put a hand on her shoulder, and Nyalla turned, stabbing him in the side with a knife. He gasped, his hand tightening painfully, but it had given Nyalla a chance to nick herself on the knife and grab something from her pocket, smearing it with blood before tossing it to the ground.
“Hwilsticceth.”
The air undulated with heat, then the angel gasped, taking a step back and swatting the air before him. “Summoning wasps will do you no good.” The angel’s eyes flashed, then he blinked in surprise, continuing to swat at the air.
She had no idea how long the hallucination would last, but it gave her time to run. She dashed through the gardens, past the front desk, with the angel chasing her, hindered by the illusion he was trying to bat out of her way. Rounding a corner, she ducked into the laundry room and waited.
She slammed the door as the angel ran in and both Snip and Terrelle jumped from their hiding spot behind the ice machine.
“Got him!” Snip squeaked tossing a net over the angel.
It was a good thing she’d been over-prepared for this trip and had packed every magical item she could find. The wand had been broken. She’d given up the collar. There had been only one of the hallucination globes. Which left her with the net — the elven-made net that was so useful in rendering demons, and angels, helpless as long as they were confined inside. Hopefully nothing would happen to it, because out of the four magical items she’d arrived with, it was the only one left.
“How are we going to drag him up to our room?” she asked, remembering how difficult it had been to drag Gabriel the short distance from the door to the bedroom. “We don’t want any of the guests or staff thinking we’ve kidnapped someone.”
“We use this.” Terrelle waved her hand over to where a luggage cart stood, loaded with linens. “We put him on it, cover him with a bunch of sheets, then take the service elevator up to our room. We might get a few weird looks, but with the net in place, no one will hear him screaming or see him thrashing around.”
It was a genius idea. The three of them hauled the heavy angel over and managed to drag him onto the cart. On the way to the elevators, Snip stopped by the bar and ordered several drinks in to-go cups, stating that a good interrogation required vodka.
Up in the room, Nyalla eyed their captive, wishing that she still had the wand, or at least the collar. If she took the net off, she wouldn’t be able to control the angel, but all she had was the net.
Maybe she could bluff.
“Remember how you said Gabriel was no longer immortal? I’ve got a wand that turns angels into humans, and I’d have no problem doing the same to you. I’ll remove the net, but if you so much as lift a finger in a threatening manner, I’ll hit you with that spell. Got it?”
Of course she couldn’t hear him respond, so she took a steadying breath and nodded for Snip to loosen the net.
She waited to speak until again the angel’s head was free of the net. “Now I’m not one for torture, although I have killed on occasion, and I do believe that sometimes force is necessary to achieve something of importance to a large number of innocent people. But Snip here is a demon. And although he is a Low, he is very creative and resourceful, and I believe he also has a score to settle since he was nearly killed by you and still is missing half of his fingers and toes. So why don’t you tell us where you have Gabriel, and maybe we won’t kill you.”
His expression was still blank, but Nyalla felt something through her gift. He was nervous, almost afraid…of her.
“I brought down an archangel, made him human. Can you imagine? You’d only live another fifty years or so, and that’s if you didn’t get hit by a bus, or eat bad shellfish, or get shot by a human. You’d need to get a job, to pay for food and shelter. Your angel friends would abandon you. You’d have to learn to live as a human, or die in a few weeks through hunger or accident.”
Fear flickered through his eyes. “I’ll tell you where Gabriel is being held. I don’t want that Tear anyway. It’s dangerous. Sidriel and Tura are fools for trying to use it. Just let me go. I’ll say you used magic to get away from me, or something. Just don’t turn me into a human.”
How sad that being turned into a human was the angel’s worst fear. “Where is he? The moment I bring him back safely, we’ll let you go unharmed.”
He hesitated. “He’s at the lighthouse. There’s a locked room at the base used for storage and Sidriel has him chained up there. It’s thick, and with all the wind and surf noise, no one would hear him or find him. He’s got a keep-away charm he got from the demon on the door, so none of the humans will go in.”
She eyed the two demons and once more placed the net over the angel’s head. Then she picked up her phone and made a call. When she got the recorded message, she hung up and made another call. And another.
“Wyatt, where’s Sam?”
“Nyalla!” Her brother sounded so cheerful. She could hear the noise of people talking, of some sort of shooting video game in the background. “How’s Aruba? Were you able to go on the dive and see the shipwreck?”
“No, not yet. Maybe tomorrow.” She hadn’t told him the other reason she was on the island, knowing that Wyatt would disapprove of her sidekick activities. “Where’s Sam? She didn’t pick up her phone, and you know how bad she is at checking messages.”
“She’s in Hel for something or another. I think she’ll be back next week, although with her it’s hard to tell. Can I do something besides the fake IDs? Do you need me to wire you money?”
“No, I’m good. Thanks, though. What about her angel? He’s not picking up either.” And she knew he wasn’t up in Aaru.
“His phone took a swim in the Monocacy River a few days ago and he hasn’t replaced it yet. He’s not usually around when Sam’s away, so I haven’t seen him since Monday. Why? Nyalla are you in trouble?”
