Free 'Tween Heaven and Hell by Sam Cheever

I
paused to convey my frown around the entire room before I set it down on the
haughty angel at the center of the long table. “Did it ever occur to any of you
that I might have something to say about any of this, since it is my life we’re talking about here?”
    His highjerkiness gave me a long, penetrating stare, which
left me with the impression that he was considering how best to dismember me
and dispose of the body. Then he turned back to Myra as if I hadn’t spoken.
    “She will need to be trained for this mission.”
    Myra nodded, apparently she hadn’t heard me either. “I have
already taken care of that. She will meet with several members of the council
over the next couple of days to learn all she needs to learn.”
    I looked from one to the other and decided they had lost
their frunkin’ minds. “I’m out of here!” I said to no one in particular, which
was appropriate because I knew no one was listening anyway. As I turned, I came
up against my angel, who put her hand on my forehead before I could pull away.
Immediately I heard that whoosh of air that told me I was about to take
celestial flight. “Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit.” I wasn’t even going to be
allowed the satisfaction of huffing out of there under my own steam, with my
ruffled feathers and my disjointed nose. Apparently I was to be “escorted” out.
    I landed in my office without Myra. My hand still hovered
above the door panel where it had been when I’d been shimmered away in the
first place. With a scream of frustration I opened the door and slammed it shut
about five times. Then, realizing that slamming the door was seriously juvenile
behavior, I slammed it about five more times and then forced myself to calm
down so I could use my brain. What I decided was that I wasn’t going to feel
better until I kicked some serious butt.
    I stalked across my office and grabbed my purse and coat, checking
to make sure my demon laser was in my purse. I also strapped a very large
silver knife to my thigh. I wasn’t taking any chances that this little demon
jerk would get away from me.
    Glancing at my watch, I left the office, descended to the
parking floor and stepped into the Viper. I mashed the buttons on my poor
Viper’s directional information unit mercilessly until I’d programmed in the
location of the spot where my new client had told me there was a nasty little
demon that needed to be taught some manners. The way I was feeling at that
moment, I was just the totally pissed off, small but mean, half angel half
devil critter to teach him those manners. And teach him I would do. Sitting
back with a sigh, I tried to calm down enough that I could breathe. It only
took a few minutes to get there. Then I turned to gaze out at the other traffic
roaring by me in the sky.
    Since traffic had taken to the air, about ten years
previous, the skies had become increasingly congested. Where, at first, most
people didn’t have the guts or the desire to take to the sky in a flying car,
over the last couple of years more and more of Earth’s creatures had found out
what an exhilarating experience it was to ride with the winged things above the
stale, overused air of domestic habitation below.
    When I had first taken to the sky, right after the world
government passed the Right to Fly law of 2079, the sky had been wide open and
free. Now it was so filled with flying vehicles and floating advertisement
blimps that I had to put my repelling shields up just to travel a couple of
miles to the corner store.
    I flicked a passing Air Bus the winged salute as it roared
by so close that its shield thudded into the Viper’s shield and blew us
sideways to skim against a colorless, little air booger on the other side. The
driver of the sad little booger cringed away from the window and looked at me
with a pale, pinched face and huge, terrified eyes. She looked about sixteen.
Must be new to the air. By gross contrast, the driver of the bus grinned
manically at me,