THE CHALDEAN ORACLE

Freeing Ishtar

Chapter 11

“Do I need to repeat the question, or maybe shout it, or write it down,” the Fallen Angel laughed.

            I just kept staring at him. How could he not realized how crazy what he had just said sounded? “More explanation wouldn’t be frowned upon.”

            “Fine,” he shrugged and started to rant. “So, the principle behind catching evil is that you track down the bad guy and then you kill him. The catch is finding the bad guy, and once you do find him it’s to convince him that killing him really is the best alternative for all of us. Oh and not getting killed in the process, that’s very important. Well at least for me. If you don’t want to make it a priority of yours, I have nothing against it, but again, you’d affect that ginger population count, so you might want to think about that.”

            I narrowed my eyes at him. “I’m not an idiot, you know.”

            He grinned. “Hey, it’s safer to never assume anything.”

            I felt the urge to slap him a bit, I didn’t know if it was because of what he was and what I was, or only because of how arrogant he sounded. “And what exactly do you gain from killing people of your kind,” I asked him, raising my eyebrow.

            It was as good a question as any. Actually it was an important one. Why the flap would he want to kill evil creatures?

            “I get to stay the badest muthafucka in town,” he answered me, proudly.

            Okay, yes that kind of made sense. It didn’t make me feel all warm and fuzzy though. “Even if I agreed, and I’m not saying I am, I might not be the fittest person for the job. I’m not saying I’m not completely kickass and could kill you with my brain, but huh… my training is very basic.”

            And I really shouldn’t have admitted to that. It seemed to amuse him greatly.

            “How about this, you be my partner in crime and help me figure this mystery out and I help you with your basic training,” he offered.

            Huh, what? “What are you suggesting?”

            “Basic training. Everyone needs it, and with what I’ve seen you do in that dark alley, you especially need it.”

            I wanted to glare at him but there was no point. He was right. And for some insane reason I liked that idea. Maybe it was the underground illegal fighting that sort of fitted into this scenario that allured me, nevertheless I realize I was actually going to agree to this.

            “You’re sure you really want to do this,” I almost challenged him.

            “What harm could it do? Seems like a nice way to spend time. Plus, if you are really going to help me, I’d rather you know what you’re doing. And know your limits and capacities too.”

            He had a point.

            “I can’t believe I’m agreeing to this…” I admitted out loud.

            “Is that a yes,” he grinned, appearing happier than he ever had.

            I groaned. “Yes.”

            I swear he would have broken into a happy dance if it wouldn’t have been for all the people already looking our way. I didn’t know exactly why though. Maybe it was because the Fallen Angel was hot and I was the new redhead in town.

            “Can I get that name now?”

            I sighed, shaking my head. “No.”

            “I have a very developed imagination, trust me, you rather I don’t come up with your name.”

            “Clea, my name’s Clea,” I answered in a hurry. With what I knew of him, he definitely had a point.

            “No last name?”

            “None that should matter to you.” Giving him my first name was good enough. And I was a little bit touching on the whole last name thing, even since I had acquired the ones of my biological parents…

            “Fair enough,” Levi accepted and then scribbled an address on a napkin and handed it to me. “Can you get there?”

            I frowned, trying to place it in my mind. “That’s borderline out of town…” I trailed.

            “Can you,” he pressed.

            “Sure.” I wondered what he would have said or done if I had said no.

            “Perfect, I’ll be waiting. Tomorrow morning. 6 o’clock sharp.” And then he stood up and with a smirk left, leaving his tray with his food untouched on the table.

            I’m soooo screwed…

            I survived through the rest of my day. I had one more class with Joseph in the afternoon, but again, he wasn’t exactly a chatty class partner to have. I saw Dominic too but decided to ask him about participating in the extra school stuff tomorrow. I wasn’t exactly in a hurry after all.

            I went home after school, and ate quickly because I had to get to my real school at half past six. I barely had the time to chat with my parents and brother. Not that it really mattered. Actually, it was a good thing because I didn’t have to try to lie about my day and who I had seen.

            So I left to go to school, again, for the second time in the day, just to a different one. We all had to gather in the gymnasium. It was like some sort of huge group therapy. A follow up of our first day.

            I sat at the highest seat in the gradin and waited until my friend arrived.

            Few minutes later, Gotzone and Florence made their wait to me—of course Gotzone tripped about a dozen times and made a girl drop her soda on another guy.

            I smiled at them, happy to see their faces. With everything that was happening lately, I hadn’t seen them a lot and I had to admit I missed them.

            “So, how did it go,” I asked my two friends before they could sit.

            Florence huffed in annoyance. “I’ve been asked out by seven guys so far. Oh and Gotz punched a guy in the face,” she grinned at the last thing.

            “I thought he was a Demon…” Gotzone mumbled, his gaze down.

            “Keep telling yourself that,” she rolled her eyes.

            Oh, how had I missed them…

            “What happened,” I inquired.

            Flo smiled, a mischievous smile. “The guy asked me out and Gotz punched him.”

            Gotzone threw his arms up in exasperation. “He was standing very close to her and I didn’t like the vibe he was giving off. And I didn’t mean to punch him, I sort of tripped. Other Ishims backed me up on this.”

            “I’ll tell you what the real problem is. The real problem is you’re an over-reacting little bitch,” Flo kept smirking. and you’re in love with her. I didn’t say it out loud though. It was their job to figure their relationship out on their own. “You? Anything interesting,” my little blonde friend asked.

            Could I tell her? Could I tell my best friends about this? Part of me wanted to share what had happened with someone, anyone. But another part of me, a much bigger one told me it was much wiser to keep it to myself. “Naw, very boring stuff. No one asked me out,” I teased. Unless you counted an invitation to track down Demons as asking someone out.

            The headmistress stood at the podium, clearing her throat before starting to speak.

            Flo whispered quickly as the headmistress started her pep talk, “I was prepared for a lot of action. Honestly, aside from Gotzone punching a dude, I think this is going to be a boring two months.”

            I kept my gaze in front. Speak for yourself.

            The next morning, I woke up earlier than I ever did and got ready for training with a Fallen Angel, and to go to school too, that was also very important. Seeing as I woke up at five in the morning, I wasn’t exactly interrupted by anyone. It was seriously discouraging to get up this early but if I wanted to be able to get to the building Levi had asked, I needed to leave early.

            I quickly took a shower, tied my hair in a French braid, put on a long sleeve shirt over a tank top, loose pants and boots I would wear if I was on Ishim duty chasing Demons, grabbed my backpack and hurriedly left the quiet house.

            During the half an hour of subway and bus I pondered on my stupidity.  

            I didn’t even know why I was doing this. It was crazy. Who had heard of a Fallen Angel teaching an Ishim how to fight? No one had, because oh yes right, that didn’t happen! I must have been out of my flapping mind when I had agreed to this.

            Nonetheless, I had to admit I was very curious as to what I was going to learn here.

            Though when I saw what here was I kind of had a change of heart. The building the Fallen Angel had asked me to meet him at was, well the perfect set up to a horror movie. Old, abandoned and probably on the verge of collapsing. Would that be my training? Running around that building without killing myself? How was I even supposed to get in? It looked like there was a big “do not cross” sign that should have covered it.

            And maybe this was just a set up? Maybe that was just the Fallen Angel’s way to lure me alone in an abandoned building and kill me or something. It had been silly of me to think I could actually trust a Fallen Angel. I mean, honestly, the whole killing evil thing, it didn’t make sense. But killing me in that building, it did.

            But in the end, curiosity and my lack of better judgement got the best of me.

            I circled the building a couple of times, until I found what looked like a door. The hinges were rusted but I managed to pull it open. Dust fell in my face and on my hair. I coughed a few times, covering my mouth with my arm, grateful for the long sleeve shirt.

            This was a bad idea.

            Still, I slowly stepped in. The place was dark and it took my eyes a few seconds to adapt. It smelled like creosote and humidity. Surprisingly, it was a lot sturdier than it had appeared. Looking down, careful to where I stepped, I saw light emerging from between the plank of wood. So, obviously, I had to find a way to get down.

            After a few minutes of exploring, a lot of cobwebs and one bat, I found stairs that lead in the basement. Or at least I hoped they did. I couldn’t see the bottom of them though because they turned a few times.  

            I hadn’t expected what I saw when I reached the end. Obviously, with the nice entrance I had received, I had assumed the rest of the place would be the same and I would be training in an unstable dump.

            I hadn’t expected an actual modern training room, a huge training room. It was bigger than the building that stood over it. Much, much bigger. And I could guess that it was probably even bigger than what I could see right now.

            How in hell had the Fallen Angel gotten a place like this?

            Speaking of him, he was sitting on a couch—what the flap was a couch doing here—book in hand, laughing his ass off.

            This wasn’t a sight I had anticipated either.

            I walked his way. “Why are you laughing so much?”

            Levi didn’t look up from his book. He didn’t seem surprise to see me either. I guess he had already heard me arrive. “Because if I don’t laugh I might cry?”

            I frowned, confused. This was all way too confusing. “What?”

            “This book!” he motioned to what he was holding, shaking it at me. “Oh god, it’s horrible. I can’t believe it.” He laughed, shaking his head.

            I looked at him like he was a crazy person. He was a crazy person. Well, the word person was used loosely. “Then stop reading,” I pointed out.

            “But it’s just like a car accident, I want to look away but I just can’t.”

            “The cover looks nice,” I admitted. If I had sent the book on a shelf I might have actually bought it because of the nice cover.

            “Trust me, it’s the only nice thing about it… oh god,” he laughed again, but it was a weird laugh, like an almost desperate one. “I can’t believe it got publish. Angels sound like idiot forgiving assholes. And I know Gabriel…” he groaned, “annoying prick. If Gabriel was actually that way, I might not have humiliated him publicly countless times.”

            My eyes widened at the revelation. “You know Gabriel?”

            “Fallen Angel implies the concept of being an Angel before you know,” he snorted.

            “Yes but, isn’t Gabriel sort of… high in Angel ranks? I mean he’s known! He’s like quoted in the Bible.” I could see Levi humiliating publicly people, and I had already admitted that the only time I had seen the angel Gabriel I had sort of seen him as a bit of a wuss, but nevertheless… it was weird to imagine the Fallen Angel in front of me in the Khaos, with other angels, being an angel. With the way he talked and was arrogant all the time it was hard to believe he could have been an angel before. It wasn’t really hard to guess how he could have not fitted in there.

            He rolled his eyes. “Only because all the cool Angels are busy somewhere else. And trust me,” he added, “you don’t want to be quoted in the Bible.”

            I was only half listening. The whole Levi-being-an-angel-thing had me wondering… “What was your rank,” I asked. Levi just looked at me, snorted and looked back down at his book. “You were god’s little poser boy, weren’t you,” I teased and smirked.

            Levi tut-tuted me, shaking his index at me, but never raising his eyes. “Careful Miss Ishim, that’s blasphemy.”

            I couldn’t help it, I smiled a little. “But honestly, what rank were you?”

            This time he looked up. “That’s a secret I’ll to my tomb,” he whispered.

            “Exousies? Like Gabriel?”

            He snorted and rolled his eyes again. “Please.”

            “Higher?” He wasn’t answering so I tried another thing. “Were you a Cherubim?”

            “Do I look like a babysitter with curly hair,” he asked, almost annoyed.

            “Were you—”

            The sharp sound of a book closing stopped me from speaking more, and Levi didn’t seem amused. “Are you here to learn to fight or to ask me useless question? I’m not an angel anymore so who cares about what rank I was? I was an angel, I fell, that’s all you need to know.”

            Oh, touchy subject, now was it?

            “I just want to know who I’m up against.”

            And the smirk was back on. “Lovely mental picture you just conjured here, moro mou.”

            “This was a bad idea,” I trailed. I shouldn’t have come here…

            “You won’t be thinking that when you’ll be in a dark alley against five Demons again and I won’t be there to protect you.”

            He had a point…

            “So, are you going to teach me how to fight or what,” I pressed. He didn’t want to talk about his rank, and I could respect that. So, wasn’t it time to fight? We needed to get to school in a couple of hours or so, after all.

            “First I want to know what I’m working with,” Levi trailed, putting his book on the ground and circled around me, like he was inspecting his merchandise, tapping his bottom lip with his index.

            “A red headed Ishim,” I offered.

            “I’m going to need a little more than that.” For some reason it felt like he was talking about more than just the present situation…

            Before I could say anything though, the Fallen Angel hand snapped to my arm lifting it up, looking at my wrist who wasn’t covered by my long sleeve shirt since I had pulled it back a bit.

            I tried to pry it out of his hand but there was really no point. If he wasn’t letting go, I wasn’t going anywhere.

            “Can I get my hand back please or is this just some sort of strength test?” For some reason I was happy that there was a layer of cotton between his skin and mine. Just the warm contact over my sleeve almost made me blush. Almost.

            “Didn’t you have a mark here,” he frowned, ignoring me, pointing to the inside of my wrist.

            “A mark?”

            “Yes, two loops, kind of like an eight, but with a little curved over it, like a half crescent,” he trailed softly, frowning.

            I tried to pull my arm again and this time he let go of me. “I think you have me confused with someone else.” I pulled my sleeves back over my wrist, feeling a bit unnerved. “How many girls did you ask to come into your Batcave?”

            “Don’t be jealous moro mou, you’re the only one I invited,” he smiled and held my gaze. I held his too. There was something about the way he was looking at me. I couldn’t put my finger on it. It was weird… He was looking at me the same way he had looked at me the first time I had seen him, when a thick wall of glass had separated us, like he was concentrating on something, but it was even more then that…

            For a second, I actually forgot out to breathe.

            And just like that, Levi blinked and his concentrated stare turned into a playful smirk. “Now, run!”