Chapter Nine

When she finally picked up the knife, it felt uncomfortably cool, as if it had recently been in a freezer. Gabriela could feel her hands chilling, but she didn't let go. After all, it was the best weapon she'd found so far. It could burn her hand, and she would still hold on long enough to see this fight to the end.

When she came up and spun towards the demon, she shifted the knife into her other hand and stretched the fingers of her first. Gabriela had never held a demon's weapon before in her life, but she could guess that was exactly what she had in her hand, and the cold she felt was due to the fact that she was an angel.

Interesting, but not enough for her to think on it any further at the moment.

Gabriela didn't notice the police as they forced their way through the crowd, her attention having been solely focused on the demon in front of her, but then a voice called out, the demon went still, and then grinned at her in a challenge. For a second, she considered taking her chances, though one evaluating look at the figures closing in on them stopped her. Guns. They were something angels didn't use, though she knew about them, and there was no way she would be able to dodge all of them. There was also the admonishment she'd heard so many times over the years that humans weren't her enemy.

"Put the weapon down!" another voice commanded.

Her eyes narrowing on the demon, Gabriela's grip on the knife tightened. Then she sighed and released it, hearing it clatter to the ground mere seconds later. She stopped moving after that, adopting the same harmless position as the demon, pressing her lips together.

She would cooperate for now, but as soon as the opportunity presented itself, she planned on finishing what she had started.

As some officers attempted to disperse the crowd, the angel and demon were instructed to put their hands behind their heads and move off a ways, and another officer collected the knife that Gabriela had been holding. Within minutes, the two were handcuffed, read their rights, and put into the back of a police cruiser. Together.

Gabriela remained on her side in the back of the car, stoically silent though it felt as if her stomach were upside down. Her thoughts of how she had essentially failed this test her mentors had set for her weren't bad enough it seemed; on top of it, the movement of the vehicle made her physically nauseous. And while she refused to complain about it, Gabriela was thankful when the car finally stopped at their destination.