The Phantoms started this war. Now it was up to those who remained in His favor to end it.
It's what Seekers did. They sought out the evil in the world that threatened to destroy everything pure and good.
All I knew was that until the Phantoms were burning in Hell, my entire existence was spent saving the weak human race from being destroyed by their own stupidity.
After taking a deep breath, I realized I only had two options: call for reinforcements or clean up the mess myself. I decided against the latter. I didn't feel the need to get dirty. After all, a girl hates to get messy, and I was dressed in all white, the typical uniform of the Seeker.
I whistled to bring my partner Adonis around the corner, where he was most likely basking in the glow of our victory. Not that he was any help. Well, I mean he had his uses. Each of the Seekers did. Mine was to fight, his was to… entice. And I mean that in the literal sense of the word. He could get anyone to do anything. Case in point: the young woman whose corpse I was stepping over had been so entranced by Adonis's face she didn't even feel the sting of my knife in her back. One twist and she was done for.
He blew her a parting kiss, his way of keeping it classy. And voila, case closed, mission complete. His job was easy; mine was hard. Adonis never got his hands dirty, or his clothes for that matter.
His dark, curly hair and crystal blue eyes almost made a person uncomfortable, not that I would ever admit that to him. It would make living with him absolute torture. Being his partner was hard enough without having to live with a man whose ego was larger than that of the entire cast of Jersey Shore. "So we cleaning this up, or are you calling in Headquarters?"
I rolled my eyes in disgust at his mention of Headquarters. Too much red tape. "Don't do this, Athena, don't do that…"
I could tell Adonis thought I was about to do my usual "I hate everything about the rules in our society" speech. He took out our card and made the decision for me. The card immediately melted into the body, leaving a giant gold S in the middle of the corpse.
"I've sent the signal. Let's go." He wrapped his arm around me, pulling me in close to his body. All six feet five inches of him was covered with thick corded muscles that made any ultimate fighter look like a pansy.
I sighed into his shoulder, thankful that at least I'm one of the few Seekers whose partner was still living, and followed his lead into the elevator.
"It's getting harder for you, Thena." Adonis pushed the illuminated lobby button and ran his fingers through his hair. "I never thought I'd say this, but you're losing your touch."
I bit my lip to keep from causing him physical harm. "Me? I'm losing my touch?"
He shrugged in a totally Adonis way, which infuriated me even more. "I just killed her. I took her down in less than five seconds. How on earth am I losing my touch?"
"It used to be less than three seconds." He sighed.
"You're kidding, right?"
He stopped the elevator and pulled me closer. "You've been doing this too long. Maybe my concern for you gets in the way, maybe…"
The words were left unspoken, but I knew they were there. Behind the cool mask of indifference and cockiness was a heart. He didn't want me to become like so many other Seekers who ended up losing their minds and being sent back to Headquarters. They were sentenced to live a life being hand-fed bottles of medicine that made them forget all the horrible things they'd done in the name of saving a few measly human lives.
"It's not them I mind killing," I said.
"I know."
And he did. Phantoms weren't meant to be walking among us. They were half-breeds: half fallen angel, half human. Many of them still possessed powers nobody on planet Earth should know about, let alone possess.
The humans had a word for our kind: Nephilim. We were also half-breeds — all of us. It's what made us different, what made us almost immortal, considering we were basically demi-gods.
It was the humans. The informants. The ones who mindlessly worked for the Phantoms, thinking they have some sort of use, when really they were pawns in a much bigger game than they'd ever imagined. Those were the ones I hated killing. Even if they were idiotic enough to think they had any say in this war.
I stared at Adonis as his eyes searched mine. He brought his hand up to my face. I shuddered as his touch brought me reeling back from the darkness that plagued me.
Touch.
It was what saved Seekers from turning into their worst fear: evil itself. A person could only see so much evil, and commit so much in the name of a cause, before they truly forgot which side they were fighting for.
The touch of another being, another energy source, was what kept Seekers balanced, and what kept us alive. It was one of the main reasons Seekers were partnered up. We needed one another in order to stay strong.
God help me, but Adonis was my strength.
His lips touched mine for a brief second before he pulled back and traced the outside of my jaw with his finger. I leaned into him, nearly swaying on my feet as I did so.
"Better?" he asked, kissing the top of my forehead.