Seirs, Soul Guardians Book 5 by Kim Richardson Page A

Unintentional
mortal killing
    Door # 2 - Mortal killing
in angel-defense
    Door # 3 - Intentional
mortal killing
    Door # 4 -
Other
     
    It all came back to her
then. The Seirs’ attack on the Sensitives  the missing
children  Lilith’s
weapon  the
infected mortals  the cabin fire  Elder Otis.
    Ranab—she had killed a
mortal.
    Kara’s head fell to her hands. What
had she done? Had she ended her own angel career by executing
Ranab? This was by far the worst thing she’d ever done as an angel.
It was a Tartarus offence, ‘a lock her up and throw away the key’
kind of violation. She knew this was worse than a trip to the angel
prison—it was the end of the road for her.
    Gathering herself, Kara
raised her head slowly. She read the signs over and over, for what
seemed like hours, not sure which door to open. Ranab had died as
result of her strike, but she had killed him in order to protect
the elder. He was going to kill him. Was it intentional mortal killing or mortal killing in
angel-defense ? It couldn’t be an
angel-defense since Elder Otis was a mortal. She had fought to save
his life—not another angel’s. Perhaps it was intentional mortal killing , since
she had struck out at Ranab willingly. She had wanted to kill
him.
    She remembered the darkness she had
felt inside her. Was it to blame?
    She had enjoyed the sensation of the
new cool energy flowing through her. It had revitalized her. In
those seconds she had forgotten who she was and had lost control of
herself and her mission. The darkness had compelled her. Deep down,
she had always wanted to kill him—she had always been
bad.
    One thing was for sure; it was all
over for her now. The elder had been wrong. She was no savior of
the mortal world—she was nothing special—just an angel with bad
blood.
    Reluctantly, Kara stepped
forward and wrapped her hand around the golden handle of door
number three, Intentional Mortal
Killing . She could feel the coolness of
the metal. She pushed open the door and stepped through the
threshold.
    She walked into a giant
bathroom.
    Rows of stand-alone glass showers
lined the back wall of the massive rectangular room. A single
chrome shower head sprouted from the top of the showers, like long
elongated arms. All the stalls were empty, but cherubs stood next
to the showers, waiting. Their blue-forget-me-not robes shimmered
in the light. Three oracles occupied a long wooden desk on the
right side of the room and busied themselves with paperwork. Water
dripped into each stall and an earsplitting suction noise rose from
the drains. With determined faces, the oracles stamped documents
loudly. They mumbled among themselves, but Kara couldn’t hear what
they were saying. Halogen lights flickered and buzzed, and added an
eerie melody to the gloomy place.
    Twelve grim-faced angels filed in and
stood in line, waiting to use the showers. Shame and regret painted
their faces. Suppressing her feeling of awkwardness, Kara stepped
closer for a better look. A plump woman with blond curly hair
stepped slowly into an empty shower. She reached out and pulled a
chrome lever. Immediately, sparkling water sprouted from the
shower-head. The woman sobbed. Water trickled down her cheeks like
tears. Within moments, her body was covered in brilliant lights
like a coat of diamonds. Her body sizzled, popped, and then
disintegrated. Her clothes floated to the bottom of the shower in a
crumbled wet mess. The water receded and her dazzling soul hovered
in the shower like a lonely firefly. A cherub holding a large glass
jar stepped into the shower. He grabbed the soul gently and placed
it carefully into the jar. Another cherub with broom twice his size
swept the clothes into a mountain-high pile of clothes at the back
of the room.
    Kara frowned. At least the souls were
kept alive. It was better than she had imagined.
    This would be her fate. She felt the
same humiliation that reflected in the eyes of the other angels—she
had broken the