Purgatory

Chapter One- Steel Smiles

"Damn you, Uriel."

"You won't get hurt." He said.

Thanks for the reminder. It wasn't like she had forgotten the bane of her existence or she wasn't reminded of it every breath she didn't take. She was dead.

Vessels are the bodies for the Etherals. They are, more or less, the armour for them in their war. Vessels were once humans, with lives and families and futures, that died. Not just any human can become one though, they must be sought out by an Etheral for an ability or trait they have and they have to give their life to the Etheral. Most Etherals went to their human right before they die, when they are the most fearful, and the human promises to give themselves to this angel just to live. Idiots.

She sighed and looked down the alley at the man leaning against the paint chipped dumpster with his arms crossed in front of him and his hood over his eyes. He didn't look like much, more pathetic than menacing, but she knew better. The Malignant tended to choose the most inconspicuous characters to do their dirty work.

The man tilted his head up to the sky where the sun was setting and she saw his face. He was about thirty or so, a smattering of stubble across his chin, sleep-depraved deep set eyes and a straight nose. He wore a stained jacket that sat loosely around his shoulders and black jeans. A bottle peeked out of his jacket pocket.

She turned to Uriel, "this is a test run, isn't it? You want me to fight a low level Malignant just for me to see what this stupid thing does?"

He nodded eagerly.

She shot him an annoyed look. "You could always just tell me what the talisman does."

Uriel smiled at this. "It does various things, Kisos. It's best if you experience it yourself."

She sighed and turned to face the man. Fingering the talisman, Kisos reached for the knife in her boot. A hand shot out and stopped her.

"Only use the talisman when I tell you to."

Uriel pulled his hand back and gestured at the talisman. "It will begin to warm the closer you get to the demon and it should work on its own."

"Should?" Kisos glared at him, already slipping the talisman into the back of her jean pocket.

He smiled back at her frown. Damn was he ever gorgeous when he smiled. It turned his otherwise cold stone features warm enough for him to almost look like a human with human emotions. He was the statue of a greek god, beautiful but dull and now he was what she had thought an angel should look like; A divine being filled with empathy, mercy, and goodness. If only all of that were true.

He waved his hand, his eyes ushering her forward.

Eyeing the possessed man again, Kisos knew she had become visible to his human eyes as they widened and a crooked grin that was too wide, folding his cheeks inward, stretched his lips into a toothy grimace.

That was the thing, angels couldn't really even fight their own battles, using their prospective mortals to kill their demons instead. They were divine beings made out of aether, the stuff that had created the universe and could form stars, the little veins on leaves, and the flesh she walked around in, and there was no place for them to occupy a physical form in this dimension. It was the same for the damned but they at least died with their human host. At least, that's what Uriel told her.

She had learnt not to believe him. She trusted his judgement however. But not the words he spoke.

He would never let her know more about the battle she was fighting for him. She knew just enough to kill the demons and just enough to resist their thrall.