Hell's Angel: Guardian Angel Book 2
Chapter 10

It was my own personal hell, not knowing what happened to my sister once she died. I was this divine goddess, but I’d gotten the most important person to me killed. The guilt gnawed at me until I thought I would go insane. Sadness and anger mixed within me to create a bitter emotion. Something had to be done.

Loki sat with me in my room at Randall and Cassi’s while Michael took a quick trip to Arcadia to rally the troops. He knew, even better than me, that once I got out of this paralyzing despair, there’d be hell to pay. He knew that we were on the brink of war and it was his job to make sure everything was in place for the inevitable. Although, some part of me wished that he were with me in my darkest hour.

“Hit me,” Loki said suddenly. He’d been pacing around the room and shooting me worried glances while I stared blankly at the opposite wall. I furrowed my brows at him.

“What?”

“You just have this look on your face like you need to let out some steam. So hit me. It’ll make you feel better.”

I rolled my eyes at him. “I’m not going to hit you.”

He shrugged and flopped down on my bed. He was cute, and the hormonal part of me that had barely even been kissed since before all of this stuff with Vega started imagined what it’d be like to get intimate with him, but seeing him in the spot where Michael had slept so close to me just a few nights ago made my anger flare up. “I mean, I’ve see you fight, Princess. I don’t think you’d do much damage.”

My eyes narrowed at him, the blue irises turning icy. “Oh please. I’ve spent six months training with Michael and while you’re a great teacher with magic, he’s the ultimate warrior. You don’t want to see what I can actually do.”

“I’m not scared of you. You’ll always be just the princess who needs a bodyguard. Thesis’s favorite daughter can’t afford to risk that pretty face.”

My hands balled into fists and my jaw clenched tightly. I sprang up to my feet and glowered at Loki. “Get off of my bed.”

With his mouth twisted into a smirk, he did and faced me. “Now what? You really think you’re going to-”

I didn’t let him finish. My fist jolted forward and connected soundly with his eye. I heard a crunch and it sounded like something broke, but instead of feeling bad, I felt pretty damn proud of myself. I wasn’t any less depressed over Maxine’s death or angry at Vega, but that nervous energy from not doing anything about it had subsided a little bit. I could think a tiny bit more clearly. “Hmm, I guess your theory wasn’t completely delusional.”

He laughed and for a second I was worried I might have broken more than his cheek. The left eye was a little swollen and purple, but his glittering onyx right one radiated pure pleasure. “Nice hit, Lyra. Maybe your angel is actually a decent teacher.”

I let out a slow breath and absently rubbed my knuckles. My hand felt a little tender but my dad had taught me throw a proper punch without hurting myself too much when I was thirteen and boys started to notice me as more than just an ex-football player’s daughter. It was a skill that had come in handy on more than one unfortunate date. I’d regrettably kissed a few frogs in my high school and college years.

I brushed my hair back from my face and cocked my head at Loki. He squirmed just a bit and ran his fingers through his midnight black hair. “I think I have an idea.”

“Anything I can do to help?”

“I need you to take me to Freya.” I hardly noticed that I called the goddess of love by different names depending on who I was talking to.

Loki paled at my request to speak to his mistress. “I don’t think your guardian will be cool with that idea.”

I cocked one light red eyebrow. “Since when do you care what Michael thinks?” I challenged.

He didn’t have a proper comeback for that so I shooed him out of my room while I changed from my navy Victoria’s Secret PINK sweats and lavender long-sleeve T-shirt into a yellow sundress made of soft cotton that hugged my frame nicely and a pair of gold sandals that strapped around my ankles. I let my hair out of the braid I’d worn to bed and arranged the waves down my shoulders. I added a touch of eye shadow and liner because I figured I should be presentable when I went to meet with another goddess. I left a quick note for Michael in case he was back before we were.

“Are you sure about this? There’s no problem with backing out.” I didn’t know why Loki was so against me talking to Aphrodite, I mean Freya, and I didn’t have time to drag the answer out of him. I just held out my hand for him and he took it with a sigh. My golden-orange light made a quick path from that hand up to the rest of my body in the smallest fraction of a second, devouring my entire body, and we were out of the room the next instant.

I was dizzy and it took a long second for my eyes to adjust. The light here was brighter than even the sun, more white and gave off the feeling of being sterile, like a hospital. It looked like we were on the corner of a street with large buildings around us that only went up to three or four stories. Everything was absolutely spotless with alabaster marble columns on every building and domed roofs. It took me a minute, but I recognized the place form some of my memories. We were in the City, the home of the gods.

I sucked in my bottom lip and was glad I hadn’t bothered with lip gloss. “Okay, where is she?”

Loki nodded to a giant temple a few buildings down. We slowly made our way down the vacant street and he hesitated at the double wood doors with silver knockers shaped like Valentine hearts. I huffed and pushed past him to pound on the door with the heavy knocker. The door opened a second later of its own accord and we cautiously entered the goddess’s temple. I was expecting something like a church, but it reminded me of my mom’s mansion. The main floor was like a parlor with pictures and statues of the goddess from different cultures all over the world. The Venus de Milo took center stage in the large room devoted to the goddess of love. I really hoped that my ego never got big enough to have a room dedicated to how people honored me. Although, given I’d spent most of human history on earth, I didn’t think I was in any danger of that.

Sharp heels clicked on the white marble flooring and Aphrodite/Freya entered a second later. She still had the Marilyn Monroe hair going, but she wore a black dress that clung to her body and had a pencil skirt, cap sleeves and a plunging neckline that showed a generous amount of cleavage. Black peek-toe Christian Louboutins contrasted with the pristine floor. She smiled, but it was still cold and calculating. “Lyra, Loki, to what do I owe this pleasure?”

I combed my fingers through a strand of my strawberry hair. “I want you to take me to meet everyone that’s going to even possibly support me in this war. I’m not waiting any longer for her to strike and I need to know who’s on my side.”

She frowned. “Princess Lyra, I do not know if that is a good idea. You would not want to challenge your sister prematurely.”

A muscle in my jaw clicked. “I’m doing this for my sister, my real sister, Maxine Dawson Miller. Vega is nothing to me but a bitch that needs to be taken down. Now are you going to help me, or not? Because I’m doing this with or without you.”

She sighed like it was some big burden to tell us who I could trust. Scarlet painted nails brushed back a strand of hair that dared to not be in the perfect spot and her eyes narrowed at Loki like my coming to her was his fault. He fidgeted just a little, but I crossed my arms over my chest in impatience, drawing her focus back. “You have already met Anubis. He and his first in command, Thanatos, are on your side. Virgo, she is the goddess of the harvest. She likes you, so she’s in. There are a few minor gods like Mixcoatl, god of war. The Aztecs worshiped him. Then of course you have your heroes. And Gabriel’s guardians.”

“Who’s what now?”

“My old boss, Gabriel. He is the commander of your mother’s army.”

I jumped a mile high and spun in a quick circle to watch Michael stroll into the temple. His expression stayed neutral and I worried that he was angry at us for coming into the City in the first place. He came to a halt several feet away and didn’t even look at me. I flushed pink at his brusqueness. Even when he was mad at me, he usually didn’t ignore me like this. “So does that mean that the angels are on my side?”

My angel shot me a sideways glance. “It would appear so, but most do not do anything but follow orders and I do not see why Gabriel would take any side in this coming war.”

“He would not.”

I jumped again at the newest voice popping in from nowhere. I looked behind me to see a woman glowing like she radiated sunlight from the inside out. She glided along so silently that I doubted her high heeled feet even touched the ground. She moved gracefully to the center of the room and it was then that I noticed that everyone was kneeling down to her but me. They stood as she sat and the glow dimmed from blindingly bright to bearable and it was then that I could actually see what she looked like.

She looked like a porcelain doll with glassy perfection. Long hair styled up and pulled back with a headband was a deep red, like wine. Almond-shaped lilac eyes coolly swept around the room before settling firmly on me. She was pale with rosy blush on her high cheekbones and full red lips. She sat regally with her legs crossed under her long, white tunic dress.

I held her gaze steadily. “So I can’t trust Gabriel’s guardians to help me?”

Her eyes narrowed at me in a death stare and I realized where I got my own glare from. “Still so disrespectful.”

“Sorry. I have more important matters on my mind than your pride, Queen Thesis.”

Loki made a small sound of protest and slipped his hand in mine, squeezing hard. Her eyes rolled slightly in annoyance, but she didn’t seem surprised by my outburst. “You may want to rethink that statement, Daughter. I can just as easily send Gabriel and my army to wipe out your humans and end this whole ordeal. As it is, I have charged them with keeping you safe against your sister, as your own disgraced guardian is not worthy.”

Heat rushed through my veins and my mouth pressed into a tight line. “Michael’s been doing just fine watching over me, thank you very much. I’m not exactly an easy person to look after because I’m stubborn. Ask my mother.”

Her lips pursed but she didn’t argue my self-assessment. “Michael was tasked with bringing you home long ago and he failed. Given that your sister also failed in that task and has now declared war against you, I will give him one more chance to prove himself a decent warrior. Gabriel has his orders to send a small contingent to keep you safe while the rest stay here to guard my City. Keep in mind that he and the others are not there to help you beat Vega’s titans and protect your humans. If things go wrong, your life is more important than your people’s.”

I rolled my eyes. I remembered from thousands of lifetimes ago how much she didn’t care for humans. Fine. I’d use her small squadron of soldiers to help against Vega, and send them packing if they started to get in my way. I dipped my head once in acknowledgement and she smiled. She still looked like a living doll without too much real emotion, but at least she seemed to understand that I wasn’t just going to give up against Vega.

“There is one other thing I need,” I said as she started to rise from the throne-like chair.

Thesis cocked her head at me. “What is it, Daughter?”

I wasn’t totally comfortable with the Goddess of Creation calling me that, but I had enough of the original me inside my head to not be totally weirded out. “Maxine Miller. Vega killed her because she was protecting me. What happened to her soul if she’s not in Arcadia and Anubis has no record of where she’s gone?”

She made an annoyed face kind of like the one I’d seen on my human mom too many times to count. “That is not my job to know. But since you asked, I shall tell you. Vega is keeping the human’s consciousness in the titan realm, what your humans would describe as Hell.”

I felt breaking down into tears again and my knees wobbled. A strong arm wrapped around my waist to keep me upright. Apparently bored with my reaction, Thesis got up and simply walked out of Aphrodite’s home. Whoever was keeping me standing led me to the couch and it took a minute to clear the fuzziness in my brain. My sister was in Hell and it was my fault.

“You know, Princess,” Aphrodite said smoothly, “I may have an idea.”

I blinked until I could make out the serene expression on her too-perfect face. “And what is that?”

“I may be able to replace a way to get your sister’s soul out of the titan realm. Going in is very dangerous, but getting Maxine here or to the valley might give my dear Loki here a way to help her escape Vega. You will probably need Michael and Thor as well.”

I was wary of her motives to help me. She wasn’t exactly the caring type and I didn’t think she’d do anything that might be risky for her. “You’re sure?”

Her fake smile was too innocent. “Of course. Just, you probably should not tell my son or his wife. I know that Randall also cares for Maxine and I don’t want to get his hopes up in case this does not work. I would have kept it a secret from you as well for the same reason, but I will need your cooperation and you need to know that we will try to get her soul back.”

I sucked my bottom lip between my teeth and bit down hard. Her reasoning for keeping this to as few people as possible kind of made sense. Besides, the fewer people that knew her plan, the less likely that it could get back to Vega. I still didn’t fully trust the love goddess, but if she had a way to possibly get Max back, I’d risk anything. I had to believe that she had something up her sleeve here.

I nodded slowly. “Okay, I’m in. What do I have to do?”

Her smile widened just a little. “Perfect. Go home for now with Michael and send Thor back to me. The Gemini twins and I will start getting everything into motion and then I will retrieve you when the time comes to get your sister back. Trust me, Lyra-Rose.”

Famous last words.