Total pages in book: 45
Estimated words: 40901 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 205(@200wpm)___ 164(@250wpm)___ 136(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40901 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 205(@200wpm)___ 164(@250wpm)___ 136(@300wpm)
Starlight’s cell is small and simple. Not a lot of room to move. He doesn’t need room to move. What he needs is time to think.
I pause just before I open the door to his cell. He can’t see out the one-way glass window. On his side there’s just a mirrored pane in the upper middle part of the door. I can see him, though. And what I see makes the corners of my lips curl up at the edges. He is sitting on what passes for a bed, head in his hands, brooding. Good. That is what I want. I want him to feel this experience deeply.
“Hello, Keith,” I say, stepping into the room. Of course, there are several armed guards behind me. Unlike Starlight, I look after my people rather than summarily executing them when I make a mistake. Our differences in management styles are quite stark in that respect.
“Katie,” he says, sitting up straight, then immediately wishing he hadn’t. Doctor Champion tells me that his wound is healing slowly. Some facet of the devil’s projectile seems to be inhibiting healing. “Giving me a dose of my own medicine?”
I smile as he immediately, and I suppose, inevitably accuses me of cruelty.
“I’m being merciful,” I tell him. “By all rights, you should be in a cage right now. That’s what you did to me, isn’t it. Caged me like an animal for thirty days? Made me confront the very real possibility of losing my sanity all because you were convinced you had the right to deprive me of my freedom and take possession of me.”
“Probably a little late to apologize,” he drawls.
“Far too late,” I agree.
There is softness between us. Tenderness, even. But that doesn’t mean he is getting away with what he did to me. I am going to make him suffer. I want to see what the great and powerful Sheriff Starlight does when deprived of his power.
“This is shielded,” I explain. “That means there are no angelic powers possible here. It’s also the first time in a decade you’ve had the opportunity to think without demonic influence.”
“So you’re telling me to sit here and think about what I’ve done?”
He looks so adorable in this plain white room in his white jumpsuit. His eyes are so blue under fluorescent light, and the dark mane of his hair and beard are more impressive than ever. I have caged a lion, and I better know how to tame him.
Starlight
Katie smirks at me. “That’s exactly what I’m telling you.”
I’d be furious about finding myself in this predicament if it was not for the fact that Katie saved my life. As far as I am concerned, the rest of it belongs to her. Every breath I take, I take because she was prepared to deny the devil his due.
I’m definitely getting a dose of my own medicine, and I can’t say I like it. The revelation that I was in league with the devil shouldn’t shock me, but it does. I always felt so justified in all my actions, even the worst ones seemed to make more than sense. They seemed to be right. I stretch out on the thin foam that passes as a bed in my cell.
“I’ll check in on you later,” she says. “I have some business to attend to. A few matters that ended up on the back burner during my unfortunate hiatus.”
She leaves, the faint smell of her perfume lingering behind her. I am not ashamed to admit I get up as fast as I can, walk over to where she stood and take deep breaths, drawing her in. She is quite the creature, my Katie. Her angelhood might actually be the least interesting thing about her. It is her mind that fascinates, her resilience, and perhaps even her cruelty — though I have to admit to myself she is not doing anything to me I didn’t do worse to her.
Over days in what Doctor Champion describes to me as rehabilitative captivity, I discover that her facility bustles with scientists, and yes, security. That seems to have been redoubled since I captured her in her last facility. We set much of the place on fire having raided its most prized artifacts. I arrived here as an invader, and I have returned as a prisoner.
Occasionally I am taken out for a walk by a team of guards headed by Doctor Champion. They allow me to walk a circuitous route through the halls, but not until all the doors are locked. I get to glimpse inside a few rooms through glass windowed doors and see scientific industry taking place. If she has stayed true to her original plan, this will essentially be a research and development facility with the ability to hold those of angelic blood either with their permission or against their will. I am struck by the loyalty of the people and the momentum of the machine. I thought we had destroyed them, but her abduction barely caused a hitch in their industry.