Free Reapers by Kim Richardson

You’re sick,” she hissed.
“I don’t care what you say, but the legion was wrong. They should
never have made you the overall commander. They must have been
mad.”
    Metatron smiled as if she
had just paid him a giant compliment.
    “ Kara Nightingale, are you
a traitor?”
    He raised the chain higher, taunting
her with it.
    Kara set jaw. “No, of
course not. I’m not a traitor. Never was…never will be.”
    “ How do
you explain your ghost-like appearance? Who do you really work
for?”
    At first Kara was stunned
by the comment, but she recovered quickly and said, “I work for the
legion. What are you implying, exactly?”
    She eyed the black chain
in his big hands apprehensively like a poisonous snake that was
about to strike her.
    Metatron measured her for
a moment. “Not good enough, I’m afraid.”
    “ But
I’m not a
traitor—”
    In an instant he wrapped
the black chain around David’s neck.
    David cried out in agony
and fell to his knees. Black mist curled around his head as the
chain burned deep into his neck and chest. He tried desperately to
pull it off, but the chain melted the skin from his fingers. They
fell apart like a pair of old rubber gloves. He shivered and cried
out again and again as the black chain burned his body. The black
poison made its way through him like a virus. Kara knew that it
would eat away at his soul until it consumed him
entirely.
    White-hot fury blazed
inside Kara as she fell to her knees next to David.
    His face was pale, his
skin translucent and paper-thin. He trembled as the poison from the
chain paralyzed him. He was suffering needlessly. He was suffering
because of her. She wanted to kill Metatron.
    “ Now
that I have your attention, and cooperation,” Metatron pressed,
“again, tell me, why are you transparent? And don’t even try to
lie, because I can always tell when angels lie. As a master liar myself, I
can always tell when an angel is lying to me. It is one of my
special gifts.”
    Kara’s lips trembled. “I—I
don’t know. I don’t know,” she said.
    Her anger surged and she
screamed in a rage. “I don’t remember, and that’s the honest truth!
I don’t remember what happened to me. Raphael tried to get me to
remember, but I just can’t! I’m telling you the truth. I’m not a
traitor. I don’t know what’s happening to me! Please, I’m telling
you the truth!”
    Metatron raised his brows
and leaned forward more closely, his big, ugly grinning face inches
from Kara’s.
    “ I believe you are telling
me the truth,” said Metatron after a moment. His breath was
surprisingly sweet, like peppermint, and not sour as Kara would
have thought.
    “ Thank God! So will you
let David go?” Kara felt a surge of relief and hope.
    Metatron shrugged. “I
haven’t decided yet.”
    Kara wanted to scream at
the top of her lungs. She wanted to grab a soul blade from one of
the women and gouge out the hateful eyes that hid behind those
stupid sunglasses. The only person in all the worlds that she loved
more than herself was withering away before her eyes. And Metatron
was deciding .
    Kara stood up. And in a
moment of desperation, she jumped up and waved frantically at
Raphael on the screen, in an attempt to get her attention. But she
realized foolishly that she couldn’t see her. No one
could.
    “ I could let Davy here
wither away into nothingness,” began Metatron, and he took a long
drag from his cigar “Or, you and I can make a deal.”
    The word deal rang in Kara’s
head. David had specifically said not to make a deal with him, but
right now what other choice did she have? She could feel her
resolve weaken.
    Her voice faltered as she
said, “Just, please stop. I’ll do anything you ask. Just don’t kill
him.”
    Kara felt a sudden tug on
her pants. David stared up at her, his face drawn as the poison
moved though his body.
    “ No…” he breathed,
“Kara…don’t…”
    “ I have to.” She answered
in a whisper.
    She didn’t care