Elliott Kay - Good Intentions

As Alex followed, he felt Lorelei tremble and tense. She walked with much the same stiffness as she had the night before. He saw no boils upon her, nor burns on her skin as Rob Gorge had suffered, but she clearly endured significant pain.

They passed through the foyer. Alex saw that it was full of angels, most of them talking amongst themselves until Rachel walked through. Conversation ceased as she passed. When Alex and Lorelei followed, however, there were open gasps of disbelief.

The main chamber of the cathedral took Alex’s breath away. As he followed Rachel inside, he found the entire space awash in the bright white light of several hundred angels. There were so many of them on the floor that dozens more hovered above in the space offered by the vaulted ceiling. Part of him wanted to run away and hide. Part of him felt small and insignificant. Part of him wanted to sink to his knees and beg forgiveness for every misdeed in this life and anything he could remember from the scattered pieces of his former lives.

The part of him that would not let down Rachel or Lorelei kept him walking.

As in the lobby, conversations hushed in a ripple of silence with Rachel’s entrance. Angels in the aisle parted for her. Rachel walked slowly toward the altar, where half a dozen angels stood like some sort of committee. They all looked up at her gravely.

Then they saw the mortal and the demon at his side.

“Blasphemy!” shouted one of them. Vincent’s face twisted in rage. He immediately drew his sword. It was larger than Rachel’s, burning with greater intensity. An orb of light glowed brightly in the pommel. “That wretched thing does not belong here!”

“She comes in peace,” Hannah replied as Vincent strode forward, “and in love. She is also under my protection here. You will not harm her, Vincent. Put away your sword.”

“You go too far, Hannah,” Vincent growled.

“Hello, Vincent,” Lorelei said coolly. It cut off the retort that Rachel was about to throw out. She turned to the succubus with her eyes wide. Alex felt a bit surprised, too, but he didn’t exactly know why this seemed any stranger than anything else that was happening.

“You know him?” Rachel blinked.

“Yes. Not in a Biblical sense,” Lorelei added with a small grin made all the more enigmatic by her sunglasses. “But we have met.” She looked calmly at Vincent, whose face remained gripped with anger. “I am unsurprised he never mentioned this to anyone. His advances were rather oafish.”

Vincent shook with even greater indignation and rage. “One more word from your foul mouth in this space and I will-!”

“Stop this!” shouted Lawrence. He stood at the altar, looking on with disapproval. “Hannah,” he said calmly, “why have you brought us to the sight of this mortal? Why have you brought this demon among us?”

Hannah did not answer until Vincent lowered his blade. She walked with him to the altar. Rachel followed, standing before the steps. Alex and Lorelei followed Rachel in turn, but stopped between the first pews.

Once she stood among the rest of the council of angels, Hannah answered Lawrence’s question. “You might ask them that yourself, Lawrence.”

The bald angel’s eyes narrowed. He looked to the pair standing in the aisle and asked, “Why have you come?”

“We love her,” Alex answered. Once more, he heard assorted gasps and murmurs of disbelief. “She’s apparently in trouble with you guys. We wanted to be here for her.”

“Your love for Rachel and for the succubus is as plain as day to us, Alexander,” Lawrence replied. “It is also much of the reason why Rachel stands here today. You should not know Rachel at all, but that was beyond her control. To be loved is not a crime; your feelings toward her are not at issue. Yet her feelings for you are inappropriate to a guardian angel, and her actions in following those emotions are a transgression of the practices of Heaven.”

Alex frowned. “I’m told I’m gonna have to take your word for that.”

“You will,” Lawrence replied flatly.

Alex paused. He was, after all, standing in a cathedral packed with angels. “Okay,” he gulped.

“To hear this claim of love from a succubus, though, is curious.”

“It may be curious, but it is true,” Lorelei said. “Our time together has been limited, yet I find myself falling in love with Rachel as I have with Alex.”

Rachel’s chest rose and sank with a heavy breath. She kept her silence.

“What would you know of love?” Vincent scowled.

“As much as anyone might through observation and self-education,” Lorelei answered, more for the assembly than for Vincent. “I have gone through the motions of love many times in my past. I have worn it as a mask. I have used it as a weapon. Yet in recent days I have come to find love in my heart for Alex, and for Rachel. He has taught me so much, and would never have had the chance but for Rachel’s decisions as his guardian.”

“Demons lie,” Vincent sneered.

“Not on holy ground, they do not,” Hannah noted. “Not this one.”

Lawrence and the other angels looked at Lorelei for a long, silent moment. Finally he turned to his fellows at the altar. There was nothing said, merely nods-from all except Vincent, who seemed somehow left out. “Let us dispense with the matter of the prisoner first,” Lawrence said.

Alex sighed. He would have rather had them move on with Rachel’s issue first instead of dragging things out. She looked to him and Lorelei, seeming a bit sad, then back down at her feet.

Another aisle cleared. Murmurs and grumbles filled the air as two angels brought Lydia toward the altar. Each of them held one of her arms. She walked without being dragged or pushed. Lydia wore the same tattered dress as from the night before, but this time she did nothing to conceal her demonic features. Her tail whipped about irritably, much like that of a cat ready to lash out in anger. As she walked, she frequently winced and grunted in pain.

“Lydia, servant of Baal,” Vincent called out. “You have entered my dominion and plied your trade as is your kind’s purpose. Yet you turned your activities toward a mortal who walked under the protection of Heaven’s light. You brought him torment and intended his death. You also plotted the furtherance of darkness and evil in my dominion.”

Lydia growled and spat black bile at the altar. As the blob sailed through the air, Vincent whipped out his sword and flashed it in an arc to block her spittle, causing it to burn away with a hiss before it landed.

“A lesser demon than you was recently destroyed when brought to holy ground against his will,” Vincent continued coldly, “but that was brought about by mortal hands. You are here by the will of the Hosts.”

He strode down from the altar to stand in front of Lydia. Again she spat, this time directly at him. Again, he blocked it with his sword. “Despite the viciousness of your deeds, no mortal under the protection of Heaven perished, nor did the Pit claim any soul that was not already destined for damnation. To destroy you here would not be in keeping with Heaven’s mercy.”

“Get on with it,” Lydia fumed.

“You are banished to the Pit for the remainder of this century,” Vincent said. As he spoke, he tilted his blade down to her feet. Flames licked out from the tip, wrapping around one ankle until they formed a ring. The flames around her ankle then spread out in a short, winding line, eventually rolling up into a sphere. Before long, Alex could make out a ball and chain of tight flames. “You will not come to the mortal plane until your sentence has been served.”

“That’s a punishment?” Alex asked Lorelei quietly. “Sending her home?”