"Am I missing something?" Toni whispered. "I don't remember hearing about an archangel named Alfred."
"Yeah, and what's with the obnoxious wings?" I whispered back.
"Yeah, I could totally hear all of that. Super-archangel hearing. Still getting used to being an angelic superhero. It's a pretty sweet gig," Alfred said. "And I know you're just jealous 'bout the wings. Everyone is."
Angelic superhero? Oh please, someone get this guy off his high horse.
I was a bit more than wary as we were "escorted" into heaven. I gripped Antonio's hand tight. We were in heaven, true, but something made me think we weren't quite off the hook. I guess I couldn't really expect to sneak back into heaven after taking a day trip to hell and pretend everything was fine and dandy. Well, if they wanted to get to Toni, they were going to have to go through me first.
Toni gave me a smile and squeezed my hand back. He must know how much trouble we were in, yet he smiled. I tried my best to fight the sinking feeling that we just might not make it.
"Were you not always an archangel, Alfred?" Veni asked. Leave it to her to try to keep things light hearted. She and Ludwig were a couple paces ahead of us and a couple behind Alfred, hand in hand.
"Nope. I lived, died, became an angel, then got turned into an archangel," Alfred summarized.
"Wow, really? How did you get turned into an archangel?" she asked.
"I killed a demon," Alfred said simply.
"Shit," I said under my breath. I knew this wouldn't be good.
I was about to make a break for it with Toni when Alfred turned around and sent me an icy-blazing stare that stopped me dead in my tracks.
After a moment, he closed his eyes, smiled slightly, and turned back around. "Don't worry. I haven't decided what I'm going to do about him yet."
I didn't like how he said him. I didn't like how far we were getting into the center of heaven. I didn't like how of all people he didn't know what was going to happen. Archangel, my ass.
I couldn't possibly squeeze Toni's hand any tighter. He started to trace little patterns into the back of my hand to try to get me to relax.
"Angel 101 is that angels and demons should never touch," Alfred explained. "Due to special circumstances, I chose to ignore that little rule to off a demon, in the process offing myself. I wouldn't recommend it, hurts like hell. God decided that was pretty heroic of me and brought me back as the newest addition in his army of archangels."
"What were the 'special circumstances?'" I asked with caution.
Alfred whipped around and beamed at me. "Hurry up, and I'll show you."
He picked up the pace ahead of us. Before long, Alfred stopped and pointed out a figure in the distance immersed in a sea of blinking lights. We apparently had to "sneak closer" from there. As we approached, we could see her more clearly.
A beautiful angel was sitting gracefully in the clouds. Her golden curly-wavy cascaded to the middle of her back. The color was just a few shades lighter than the halo that hovered over her head. One of the bright white lights levitated between her palms. Her eyes were closed. She looked like she was in an otherworldly serene state. Her eyelids opened slowly, revealing smoldering purple-blue irises. She blinked a few times as she tried to recognize our faces.
Alfred swooped in behind her. I guess the wings really did work. His arms wrapped around her.
"Hey there, hot stuff," he said with a cheeky smile. "Didja miss me?"
She rolled her eyes. "Immensely."
He grinned. "Knew it." He planted a lightening quick kiss on her cheek. She blushed lightly. "Where's the little guy? Did you find out anything new?"
"He didn't know who this soul was." She indicated to the light between her palms. "I keep searching through its experiences, but it's really difficult to place an ID. I sent the little guy to get Roderich back. Maybe he knows somebody who knows somebody," she said. She flipped through a couple of pages in the giant book by her side. It looked sort of familiar. Was that the Book of Life?
"Mmm. And you still can't tell who the little guy is and how he knows so much?" Alfred said.
"No," she said. "It's like his slate has been wiped clean. I take it your mission went successfully?" She looked at us, waiting for an explanation.
"Oh right, intro." Alfred released her to point at us. "Madeline, that's Ludwig and Venetia, fellow angels, and Christina and Antonio, my fugitives."
Fugitives? Even worse...
"Nice to meet you all. Please excuse Alfred," Madeline said. "He's more obnoxious and self-righteous than he thinks he is. Still, he's my other half, so what can I do?"
"Nothing. You're stuck with me for the rest of eternity, baby," he teased. "Hey Maddie, could you do a run up on this guy? Want to do a quick double check before I cast judgement and all that jazz."
Double check. What did he mean by double check?
"Sure, just let me finish up this soul first..." Maddie said, building up her concentration again.
"Her name is Maria Gonzalez," Toni spoke up. "She died the fourteenth of June, 1913 just outside of Mexico City."
Everybody looked at him incredulously.
"She used to be mine," Toni revealed. "I mean, I carried her soul for a while. She was part of the souls I released."
"Do you recognize any more of the souls?" Madeline indicated to the lights surrounding us.
Toni looked around and nodded. "Most of them, actually."
"That's a relief," Alfred said. "Maybe we can finally get heaven back in order."
Toni grinned at me. He just might be able to work his way over to their good side. Things might actually be starting to look up.
"Master Archangel Alfred!" A blond child appeared in a puff of white smoke. I recognized him instantly. Even at his strange young age, his face had been scorched in my mind.
"Holy shit!" I screamed. This couldn't be happening. Flashbacks of torture raced through my mind. I could feel my legs turning to jelly in fear. I couldn't even run away.
Toni roped his arms around me protectively and kept me upright and pressed to him. "What the hell is he doing here?!" Toni yelled. "How could you let him in here?!"
Everyone was extremely concerned by our response.
"Kill him! You're an archangel, right? Kill the little bastard!" Toni yelled.
"Dude, calm down..." Alfred started.
"Don't tell me to calm down! That demon killed and tortured Christina! He's killed me and countless others even when he was alive," Toni continued.
"He's not a demon," Alfred said.
"The hell he isn't!" Toni fought.
The icy blaze was back in Alfred's eyes as he stared down Toni. Toni started to tremble around me. He sunk to his knees, bringing me with him.
"Whoever that guy is, he's not a demon." In that moment, Alfred held all the power and terror of an archangel. His eyes were practically bursting with that electric icy blue. "He's not human or angel either. He's only a shell of a soul, like he was burned in holy fire or something. I can't condemn him because there's nothing to condemn. Besides, he's useful. These souls are all over the place, so we need all the help we can get. Now, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. Trust me, you don't want the hard way."
This was bad. This was really bad. I could feel the resistance in Toni. I did my best to relax. We were okay. For now. We would be okay if we didn't get on the archangel's bad side. I wriggled my arms free. Toni squeezed me tighter. I placed my arms over his, taking in his embrace.
"His name...is Arthur Kirkland," Toni spit through his teeth. "Former pirate and privateer to the Queen of England. Former favorite lackey of the King of Hell. And the only reason why he knew the other souls is because he killed them himself."
"Hmmm, interesting. Arthur, huh?" The light illuminating from Alfred's eyes faded. Maddie lifted the giant book up to him. He fingered through a few pages until he got to the spot he was looking for. He patted his pockets. "Anybody have a pen?"
Roderich showed up then without a word, pen in hand. Alfred took it and jotted something in the book of life. "Thanks. This book has everything except the afterlife. If anything changes, it's really annoying to add it manually. Maddie, take Antonio to ID the other souls. Arthur, you can escort the souls to some other archangel so they can be personified again. Get Gabriel to do it or something. Roderich I'm going to need you to gather some witnesses."
Roderich nodded and was gone again. He must have been running all heaven today. To think someone like Alfred was his boss.
Toni reluctantly started to loosen his grip on me. "You going to be okay?" he asked, seething.
"Stop babying me. Go take care of those souls you took," I said.
He kissed the curve of my neck and got up, leaving me alone on the clouds. Toni went with Maddie to the epicenter of the lights. Little Arthur kept his distance on the other side of Maddie. He took the identified soul within his arms and disappeared in another tiny cloud of smoke.
Once they were gone I glared up at Alfred. "What the hell do you mean by a double check?"
"Please, will you tell us what's going on? What's going to happen to my sister?" Veni pleaded. Ludwig wrapped an arm around her.
Alfred rubbed the back of his neck. "Ya see, it's kind of complicated..."
"Then, spit it out already," I said. My patience was waning.
"It has to do with soul-binding..." he started.
"Soul-binding?" I said.
"Yeah, it's..." He was starting to look embarrassed. "It's sort of like marriage, but ya know, stronger, permanent, and only with actual soul mates. Your souls actually get bound together."
Marriage? Oh god...I had a feeling I knew where all this trouble started.
"So, Tina's going to get married. What's so complicated about that? I thought that would be a good thing," Veni said.
Alfred shook his head. "Like I said, it's more complicated than that. You see, finding your soulmate is already difficult in and of itself. Usually, people give up. There are rare occasions where soul mates don't even exist in the same time frame. That's what happened to Maddie and me. I've only been dead for about ten years, and she had to be alone up here a lot longer than that before we figured out we were meant for each other. It's pretty miserable, but Christina and Antonio are even worse. I've never heard of soul mates being separated by heaven and hell."
"Wait, you're saying that Toni and I are soul mates?" I asked.
Alfred nodded. "It's the only thing that would make sense. I mean, you are able to touch each other, right? That should burn you to bits, but since your souls have the same essences, they can't hurt each other. It's impossible. You've actually already started the binding process which is where the trouble comes in."
"So, if you officially bind our souls or whatever, everything will be okay?" I asked.
He shook his head gravely. "No. In order to fully bind souls, the two souls in question have to be on the same plane. I need the double check to see where exactly Toni's soul lies. He was sent to hell, but he was still able to retain a blessing. It's promising, but still not that great. Even if I bind your souls, there might not be enough heavenly credit between the bond for both of you to gain admittance into heaven."
"But...but Tina already made it into heaven! She should be able to come back!" Veni said.
"If she tries to come in again like this, she'd only be committing double jeopardy. There's only one ticket to heaven per life..." Alfred explained.
"And what happens if we aren't on the same plane," I interrupted without much emotion.
I could tell Alfred had been avoiding this topic. "I...I can't very well send him back. The strain of separation would be too much on both of your souls. It'd be much more merciful if I just..." He couldn't finish. It didn't need to be said. Archangels were warriors, soldiers in demon killing and ending all things evil.
I nodded. "If you destroy him, you're going to have to destroy me too," I decided.