Angelfire
Page 29

"Have you ever met one of the Grigori?" I asked. "Do they fight the demonic reapers too?"
"No, they 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,"
Wil 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 are you can. The best way to kil a demonic reaper is with angelfire, but the angelic reapers can't wield that power, because their ancestors are fal en 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 al accepted you. But when a reaper kil s 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? stil 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 Fal en? 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," Wil 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 Fal en?"
Nathaniel nodded. "Simply put, yes."
"I kil the bad ones, right?" I asked. "The demonic reapers." What if I kil ed the good ones? A heavy pit grew in the bottom of my stomach.
Wil '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 ful y understand who and what I was.
Nathaniel said, "No, because there are too many demonic reapers for the angels to destroy them al on their own."
"Do the Fal en have a Preliator?"
"No," he said with a twitch of his nose.
"Could the Enshi be another Preliator?" I asked. "Maybe a demonic one?"
Wil exchanged a look with Nathaniel. "While it's unlikely, it is something to think about. We can't rule it out."
"Wil ," 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," Wil said. "The demonic reapers strive for chaos, but there are rules very few of them wil dare to break, especial y if it means they wil 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 wil . 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 vil ain--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."
Wil 's eyes dril ed into mine intently. "If a human is devoured by a demonic reaper, it's a one-way ticket to Hel . 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 to right to decide if a soul should end up in Heaven or Hel ."
"They can't al be that way," I said. "There must be some of them who have chosen not to steal souls for the Fal en."
He shook his head. "The only demonic reapers you have ever fought have also tried to kil 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 kil ed wil burn in Hel for eternity. They kil innocent people, they kil you, and we kil 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."
"El ie, we aren't--" Wil 's mouth snapped shut and his expression fil ed with pain. His gaze fel 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.