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?”
“With her master dead and his lands in chaos it will surely not be pleasant,” Lorelei murmured. “I went to great lengths to spend as little time in Hell as possible.”
Vincent held his blade over Lydia’s head. Her body began to glow with a white light. She looked to Rachel and then to Lorelei and Alex, staring hatefully before she faded away.
“Though I fear,” Lorelei added, “that one such as Lydia may be ruthless enough to turn all that time to her advantage.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Alex asked.
“This city is under his jurisdiction, at least as far as the Hosts are concerned,” Lorelei explained, nodding a bit toward Vincent. “He is in no mood to listen to anything we have to say.”
As they spoke, they became aware of an awkward hush in the cathedral. Vincent paused after the last light of Lydia’s banishment faded, gazing around the chamber. Alex thought he looked like someone who expected applause and heard only crickets. “He’s Rachel’s ex, by the way,” he said while Vincent returned to his spot by the altar.
“Yes,” Lorelei nodded. “I can tell. Poor girl.”
“Can we get on with the rest of this?” Vincent asked irritably. “We all have much to do. The balance between Heaven and Hell has not been so tenuous in an age. All of the chaos sown by Rachel and these others has resulted in untold turmoil among our foe to an end that we cannot predict.”
“Y’know, dude,” Alex dared to speak up, “if you’ve got a problem with the mess we made, you could always go to Hell and do something about it yourself.”
Scattered, choking laughter followed. Vincent’s face reddened once more. Rachel turned to look at Alex, grinning in spite of her apprehension. “I love you,” she admitted.
“Then you do not contest or deny the nature of your feelings for your mortal charge?” Lawrence asked her.
Rachel looked back at him and shook her head. “Hell no, sir. I’m in love with him.”
“And of Lorelei?”
She opened her mouth to answer, then paused. She looked back to Lorelei. “Her, too.”
Lorelei’s expression softened. Her hand squeezed Alex’s. Rachel turned back to face the council above her and shrugged. “That’s all,” she said.
There was another round of glances and nods at the altar. “Alexander has significant awareness of and connection to the supernatural. The protection of the Hosts is no longer warranted,” Lawrence said. “He has the succubus, Lorelei. He has wit and courage, which have repeatedly withstood the forces of the Pit. Our numbers are stretched too thinly to spare protection for those who have such resources. Alexander will no longer walk under the watchful eye of a formal and dedicated guardian angel.”
Rachel’s eyes fell shut. She stood very still. When she looked up again, she pointedly gazed at the altar, ignoring Vincent’s inevitably smug expression.
“Though each guardian angel inevitably comes to love her charge, that love must never become romantic,” Lawrence went on. “Further, it must never be pursued as such. The nature of Heaven is kept a mystery to mortal man and woman for a great many reasons. A guardian angel is a companion, but a silent and unknown one. A guardian angel’s heart is full of love, but it is as the love of a protector and guide, not a husband or wife.
“The revelation of Rachel’s existence to Alexander was beyond her control. To have direct and open contact with him after that revelation was understandable and even wise. Yet to take up such a relationship as the two now share crosses the necessary distance between protector and protected, as well as that between Heaven and Earth.” He looked to Rachel gravely. “Rachel, as a result of your actions, you are removed from the ranks of the guardian angels.”
She looked down at the floor at her feet. Alex wanted to shout out in protest, to call them all out for being just plain shitty, but Lorelei’s grasp on his hand kept him quiet. Rachel’s head hung low. The cathedral fell silent enough to hear the angel sniffle.