Love Bites Then it Sucks, Julie Steimle [top 50 books to read .TXT] 📗

vampires who killed and ate hikers regularly? The ones who murdered my birthfather?”

His eyes fixed determinedly on me as he nodded and said, “And that man whose heart you ripped out?”

My face flushed as I replied, “He had already been on a killing spree, and he was going to kill my friend Matthew.”

The gray angel then looked to the other two death angels who were still holding me back from going to Hanz. “See? I told you it was not a mistake. The last vimp would have killed just for the fun of it.”

The pair of death angels huffed. The one at my right, the monk, said, “Alright. So it wasn’t a mistake. Was that why you sent George?”

There was an angel named George?

But I did not have time for this. I needed to see Hanz. I knew he could hear me if I shouted loud enough. And he would listen for me. We could contact our friends and find a cure for whatever these kooks had done to me.

I kicked the monk in the crotch, shrank my wings and dropped free fall toward the ground. With no wind resistance, I plummeted fast.

“I told you she was tricky!” the gray angel shouted from up above.

But even my free fall was not faster than their lightning flight. All three death angels grabbed me and quickly flew out of the area. We went faster than I had ever gone, and I think I had passed out before we arrived atop the Ordway Building.

“Not fair!” I groaned when I woke up. It was dark now.

“Life is not fair,” said a familiar voice.

I opened my eyes and looked up. That biker was sitting atop one of those air-conditioning vent structures on the roof. Around me were several so-called angels, each one as different as the next. All of them gazed at me like one would a new recruit for some kind of nasty fraternity. Most of them appeared human in some way, but I saw what looked like elves with pointed ears and sharp angular features. There also seemed to be demons among them with horns and tails. There were a number of people in the group who looked battered, scarred, and some even bloody. And there was one vampire who gazed off in the distance as if bored.

I sat up then rose to my feet. “What is the big idea bringing me here? I had a life.”

“As did we all, my dear,” one demon said with a smirk. “But this is the path to redemption.”

I stared at him. “What?”

“Did no one explain it to her?” that demon called out with a groan.

The biker lifted up his toothpick from his mouth. “I did.”

“No, you didn’t!” I snapped, rounding on him. “You stole me from my life! I was going to get married!”

“That marriage is not allowed.” The gray angel showed up.

All the other death angels hushed at his presence. Apparently he was a big wig. But didn’t care. I rounded on him. “How dare you—!”

He held up a hand.

I halted, not because I thought he could hurt me, but that I had the feeling the crowd would. I was outnumbered, and clearly outclassed—which was funny to me. All my life I had been the most dangerous thing out there. But death—even I could not outrun death.

“What is going on?” I demanded. “Why am I here? Why did you steal me from my life?”

“You were going to ruin that man’s life,” the gray angel said.

Tears came to my eyes. Really? Was that all this was about? I was not allowed to marry Hanz? Even though I had never pressured him to? Even though he was the one who had repeatedly proposed to me after all those years? Even though we were as in love as a couple could be? It was not fair. Why couldn’t I be happy? Why was that not allowed?

“Why?” I breathed out.

The gray angel said, “You are a demon. And his is a sincerely good soul.”

I closed my eyes and lowered my head. Sorrow wracked through me. It was not fair. I had done no wrong. Why was I not allowed this one happiness?

“You need to leave him for his own good,” the gray angel said.

Choking on tears, I sobbed.

“That’s not the only reason,” the biker spoke up.

The crowd shushed him.

Lifting my head, my red eyes on the biker angel who had started it all, I growled out, “Oh, there’s another reason I’m not allowed to be happy?”

That biker man leaned back. He looked to the gray angel who dryly gazed back at him. The biker said, “Who said you can’t be happy? You’re here for redemption.”

“Stop saying that!” I shouted. “What does that even mean?”

“You didn’t tell her!” The biker rose from his seat, his eyes on the gray angel. “No wonder she is losing it. You gotta tell her the whole of it.”

“I was enjoying her moment of humility,” the gray angel dryly replied.

“You mean humiliation,” the biker said. He then looked at me and said, “You’re getting a second chance. As of now, you can gain an eternal soul.”

I stared. What did he mean by that? I thought everyone had an eternal soul already. They were just in different states of being.

One of the angels nudged him. “She don’t get it. Explain, George.”

This biker was George? I rolled my eyes.

George, the bearded biker man, exhaled heavily and said, “You are in limbo land, lady. Your soul, which as a demon would have been dammed, is slated for reevaluation.”

“What?” This all sounded like nonsense. And I protested. “What in the blazes are you saying? I can’t help the way I was born! I think it is very unjust for God to punish someone simply by an accident of birth!”

“Your birth was no accident,” the biker, George, said.

I stared at him. What did he mean by that?

He nodded, seeing I was listening now. “Every soul comes into this life to be tested. Human beings are those that properly came into the world for a regular life test. Those affected by the supernatural have a different life test. For example: elves came into this world with a special duty and knowledge of the pre-world.” I glanced over to those elvish death angels who appeared bored with me. He continued, “But demons are those souls who had rebelled against God before this life—mostly elves—but then hurried back to God and begged for a second chance, just so they could have a body. And He granted it to them on the condition that they prove their worth. Any body would do, they said.”

Chills went down my arms. Somehow this felt real. I had wondered about the souls of all the previous vimps before me. I wondered if they were truly evil, or if their passions had overwhelmed them and had driven them to be the monsters that they were. I struggled with mine all the time. And I had wondered about my soul. I had wondered that in being part imp as well as part vampire, if I had any human in me at all. Vampires, after all, were once humans. They had chosen the lifestyle to drink blood. It was not something thrust upon them. Thus their eternal reward or punishment would be just.

“Your soul is a particularly hard case,” George said. “And to redeem it, you have to end your curse in whatever way possible. But in the meantime you must serve as a reaper, shepherding spirits to the other side.”

I lifted my eyes to his face. “I have to what?”

“You’re grim reaper, lady,” one of the other death angels said.

I looked to him. “You’re kidding me.”

He shook his head, smirking at me. He looked like a dude who had been a loan shark at one time. His clothes were the sort one would expect from that sort of fellow.

So I said, “Were you once human?”

He nodded to me. “Deathbed repentance. Special case. This is my second chance after a life of, you know, gangster stuff. I didn’t know any better, I grew up in it, and I had a hard deal. I didn’t learn right from wrong until too late. By the time I was ready to make a change I was dyin’. I saved a stupid kid’s life, and that saved me. But God don’t reward deathbed repentance. He needs sincerity and a true change of heart. You can’t convert in a casket.”

I leaned back and looked at the others. My eyes set on the biker again. “Is that your story?”

George the biker smirked. “Yeah. Kinda. You’ve ever seen that movie Raising Arizona?”

I shook my head.

He cackled. “You missed out. Great flick.”

I didn’t get it.

But then I looked to the demons who were reapers. “So… you changed sides?”

The demon shook his head. “No. And yes. Like you, I did not want my fate determined for me as an ‘accident of birth’. I would have been a lord over a forest or a mountain had I not joined the other side in the first battle of the war. It was a big mistake. Most fleshy demons are elves, you know—just corrupted. I am just waiting to be purged by Heaven.”

“What war?” I asked.

They all gave me an appraising look. Their eyes said volumes. I just could not read them. None of them had imps. In fact, the silence around us was disturbing for me, as since I was fourteen I had been overwhelmed by the noise of imp chatter no matter where I went.

“Has your fiancée Hanz never told you about the war in Heaven?” the gray angel asked me.

I turned and blinked at him. Thinking on it, I recalled that Hanz might have said something about it. I just never really took it seriously. Admittedly, I never exactly paid attention in his church, though I attended with Hanz and frequently as I could. I just enjoyed the feeling there. It was peaceful there. Less imp chatter.

“You,” the angel said, poking me in the chest, “were a turncoat.”

I stared at him. “What?”

He nodded with tight teeth. “You were a traitor. I remember you. You betrayed friends and misled a number of souls to the adversary.”

My hands were shaking. I didn’t remember any of that. I had no recollection of any past before this life. Would I actually do that? Was I that kind of person?

“But you turned sides again—a double agent, you said—with the intent to go among the adversary’s people to lead more back to God.” He glared at me. “I did not believe you then, even though many souls did come back to God with you. And I do not believe you now.”

I stared even more.

“Double agent,” he muttered through his teeth. “Hah. Sent to work for the adversary as this generation’s vimp. And now brought up to be a reaper where you truly can wreak havoc. This is where you will prove what you really are.”

This gray angel was insane, if that was possible. I had no recollection of any past. But even if what he was saying were real, it didn’t sound at all like me. Hanz told me the ‘adversary’—which is what people in Hanz’s faith called the devil—was set to destroy the Free Will of all mankind and had been trying to do it since before the creation of the earth. But I was a huge advocate for Free Will. I hated the very idea of fate or destiny, as well as scientific version of the same thing—genetic determinism.

“But God wills it that you are the one to end your own curse,” the gray angel said. “You are being rewarded for your compassion and clean life. But you will not be allowed to damn the life of that mortal man. He is a good man and needs to move on and associate with humans and not demons. So you are being taken out of the picture.”

My body shuddered. My mouth felt dry, but I said, “Is there some way I can let Hanz know?”

The