Chapter 22
Lazarus~
As soon as I met Elisabeth in the lobby, I asked, “How are you holding up?”
“I’m tired,” she answered honestly. “I’m tired, confused, and...and tired.”
“Baby...” I whispered softly, wishing that there was some way to help her with all this.
Letting out an exhausted sigh, she said, “Let’s get this over with.”
Neither of us said anything as we hit the elevators, then made our way to the same observation room that we had used before.
When Elisabeth had texted me that she was on her way, I had immediately made the arrangements to set Ramiel up in the room for questioning, and it had taken me a second to remember the name that he’d been originally using, creating a bit of confusion at first.
When we finally reached the room, Ramiel was waiting patiently, a knowing smile on his lips, and it was crazy how these Archangel’s had personalities that could be easily identified.
For some reason, I’d been under the impression that angels had been mindless soldiers whose only substance was spiritual.
I hadn’t ever imagined that they could be condescending assholes.
“Ramiel,” Elisabeth greeted as she took the seat that I was holding out for her.
“Elisheva,” he greeted back as I sat down next to Elisabeth, the both of us watching Ramiel from across the table.
“Why did you mention free will last night?” she asked him, getting straight to the point.
“Because I knew that Pytho would offer you a trade,” he answered, naming the demon from last night.
“So, it wasn’t Abaddon,” she remarked absently, thinking out loud.
“No,” Ramiel replied. “It was Pytho. God would never allow Abaddon to interfere, as he has always had conflicting loyalties.”
“What is so important about her free will?” I asked. “Why does that matter so much?”
Ramiel cocked his head a bit. “Which would you prefer, Lazarus? That Elisheva love you because she wants to or is forced to?” He leaned back in his chair, shrugging. “God is of the same mind. He wants His children to choose Him willingly, or else it’s not a pure love.”
“I spoke with Luther again today,” she informed us both. “He said that you visited them all, explaining how they all need to be ready for what is to come.”
“I did,” he confirmed easily. “The time will soon be upon us.”
“He also said that Lazarus will be the one to signal the start of the war,” she went on, surprising the fuck out of me.
I looked over at her. “Wait, what?”
Instead of answering me, Ramiel spoke for her. “It’s true. It will be you that starts the war.”
I looked back over at him, still in stunned disbelief. “Why in the fuck would I do that?”
Elisabeth let out a quiet sigh as Ramiel said, “They will be coming for her, Lazarus. They will be coming for her, and they will succeed in taking her.”
I immediately began shaking my head. “The fuck they will,” I spat. “No way am I letting anyone get their hands on her.”
Done with the riddles, Elisabeth leaned forward, her arms on the table. “You said that you would tell me how to defeat them once I believed in all this...well, I believe. So, tell me what you know.”
“First tell me what you believe that you are fighting for.”
“Humanity,” I bit out, still very irritated by his earlier premonition.
“Which is what, Lazarus?” he taunted, treating me like a tourist, which I supposed that I was.
“People, mankind...civilization as we know it,” I answered.
Ramiel gave me a terse nod before looking over at Elisabeth. “And what is it that you believe we are fighting for?”
“Our souls,” she answered confidently. “After all, it’s not our bodies that continue to live after death, it’s our souls. It’s not our bodies that are let into Heaven or are banished to Hell.”
I really was a fucking tourist.
“And our biggest mistake will be confusing the two,” she went on. “If we get too wrapped up in trying to save our corporeal selves, then we’re going to miss the bigger picture. It’s our souls that Hell is after, not our bodies.”
“Very good, Elisheva,” Ramiel praised. “What you two will need to remember is that it’s not your human forms that will be battling the forces of evil. It will be your souls.”
“But that doesn’t make any fucking sense when our human forms can die during this battle,” I argued. “How will our souls carry on if we’re dead?”
The problem with being the dumbest one in the room was that it fostered insecurity.
How in the fuck was I supposed to save Elisabeth if I had no idea what in the hell they were talking about?
How was I supposed to keep them from coming for her when I had no idea how to separate my soul from my body?
However, before I could go into a full-blown panic, Elisabeth said, “I’m done with the bullshit, Ramiel. I need to know when, where, and how.”
Mimicking Elisabeth’s movements, Ramiel leaned forward, placing his arms on the table. “I cannot give you a definitive timeline, but know that it will be soon, and when I say soon, I mean within weeks of today.”
Weeks?
“The where will be where you stand,” Ramiel went on. “There is no one place designated for the battle, especially when you consider the absence of the seven stages of Revelations."
“The seven stages?”
Without looking at me, Elisabeth answered, “The Seven Seals, the Seven Trumpets, the Seven Bowls of Wrath, the Return of Christ, the Millennium, the Final Judgement, and the New Heaven and Earth, be praised.”
“The Seven Plagues,” I muttered, the old teachings coming back to me. “So...we have to go through all that before...before we go to war?”
“No,” Elisabeth answered. “No, because this isn’t Revelations. This is something else.”
Ramiel’s grin sent a dark chill down my spine, and I really was the stupidest person in this room right now. “You are correct, Elisheva. This is not Revelations. At least, not yet.”
“It’s a test,” she announced. “It’s a test to see if they’re strong enough to go to war with God. They’ve been slowly pulling God’s children away from Him, and they can feel that He is close to ending it all, leaving only the truly repentant to survive.”
“You are the gateway, Elisheva,” Ramiel said. “You have always been the gateway that has allowed Hell to see more than what Heaven would like to grant.”
“What happens when they take me?” she asked, sending my blood spiking again.
“No one is taking you, Elisa,” I snapped, but she and Ramiel just ignored me.
“Lazarus will lead the charge to get you back, and we will join him, of course,” he answered.
Then it hit me. “This isn’t happening here on earth, is it? Since they don’t care about her body and want only her soul, then it’s going to happen wherever it is that she takes us in her dreams, right?”
“The man is finally catching on,” Ramiel quipped, and I didn’t appreciate it.
“Is it inevitable that they get me?” she asked. “Can it be prevented?”
“It can,” Ramiel replied carefully. “But you’ve already made it clear that you will not entertain that as an option.”
“What option?” I asked, looking between the both of them. “If there’s another way, then we have to consider it.”
Neither of them said anything, leaving me out of their inside joke, and instead, Elisabeth said, “I’m ready.”
“No,” I argued. “We still have so much-”
“Stop,” she ordered as she looked over at me. “Lazarus, I’m ready. I am.”
“Baby-”
“I’m ready,” she repeated. “With or without you, I’m ready.”
That immediately got my back up. “Without me?”
She nodded, not backing down. “Even without you.”
“You’ll die without me,” I reminded her. “He said so.”
“Yes, I will,” she replied, not flinching one bit.
Both Elisabeth and I turned when we heard Ramiel stand from his chair, and looking at me, he said, “Elisheva has made her choice, so I suggest that you hurry up and make yours, Lazarus.”
Then, before I could say anything to that, three pairs of magnificent wings emerged from Ramiel’s back, and his clothing disintegrated as his seraphim form took shape, something that took my breath away.
While it’d been a shock to see him in Elisabeth’s dream, we weren’t in a dream right now.
We were in real-life, and my guess was that the cameras in the building were no longer working right now.
I mean, Jesus fucking Christ.