Forgotten Souls (The Saving Angels 2)

"You will not be going in."

"What? What do you mean we're not going in?" Shawn asked incredulously.

"You are untrained and unprepared for dealing with a situation such as this."

"That's crazy. Mark and I faced worse than this less than a month ago and you didn't care how untrained or unprepared we were then. Why the sudden concern now?" I asked angrily.

"Krista, we cannot interfere in matters that concern The Dark One. This law was written thousands of years ago. We had no control over that situation, but this one we do. You are not ready to use your gifts," he said, turning on a heel and leaving us abruptly.

No one said anything for a few minutes after his departure.

"What are you thinking?" Mark finally asked me while I paced back and forth.

"I think it's crap. We were created for a reason. Sure we've just started training and its tough filtering a soul appropriately, but are we supposed to just abandon that poor girl?" I said, still pacing restlessly in front of them.

"Then let's go do something about it," Shawn said, jumping to his feet.

"What?" I asked, looking at him surprised.

"You're right. You and Mark managed to outwit Mark's dad a couple weeks ago which makes me believe that you both have mad skills. Who's to say Haniel is right about this?"

I looked at my brother incredulously. Was he joking? Defying Haniel just didn't seem like the best idea. It wasn’t like we would be able to hide it from him after all since he had access to our every thought.

"No, but we could avoid him before we go and he wouldn't know until after the fact," Mark said, picking my doubts thoughts out of my head as he stood up to join Shawn. "I don't see why we can't go to the revival tomorrow night and try to find that girl. You guys can work your magic on her and we can be out of there before anyone knows. We can deal with Haniel when we get back. Besides what's he going to do? We're just trying to do our job here," he added defiantly.

"I'm in," Lynn said, still sitting on the couch.

"Me too," Sam piped in.

I sat back down on the couch, astonished at how quickly all my friends had jumped on board. "What do you think?" I asked Robert who had remained quiet during the whole conversation.

"Well, I agree with Haniel that we're probably not ready for a mission. You're the only Guide so far that has been able to filter the emotions somewhat," he said.

"That's true," I said, agreeing with him.

"But…," he continued on. "I do think if all three of you work together, you should be able to filter one girl's emotions. You three won't be going up against a powerful Archangel like you do during training."

"So we're going to do this?" Shawn asked, sounding excited. I shouldn’t have been surprised at his enthusiasm. I knew he had been itching for some action since Mark and I had been held captive. The training with Haniel had only intensified it and I knew he was ready to go out and prove his worth.

I perched on the couch, listening to my friends as they hatched out a plan for the next day. It was decided that we would head to the farmer's market first thing in the morning to avoid Haniel and maybe, if luck was with us, we would run into the girl also.

"If we don't run into her, we can hang out at the market until the revival thing starts at four," Sam said.

We discussed our plans during dinner and by the time I headed to bed I was convinced we could do it. The guys were right. With three Guides filtering her emotions, it would be a piece of cake. I felt relieved that by this time the next day we would be able to give the poor girl some relief from her torment. Not to mention the fact that there would be one less forgotten soul that The Dark One could prey on. Chapter 8

The next morning rolled around bright and early, and my doubts reared their ugly head once again. In the light of day it seemed crazy to doubt Haniel, who had been doing his job for so many years. Who were we to doubt an Archangel? As quickly as the doubts filled me, another, more disturbing, image took over of a young girl cowering in fear. Even if we were going to fail, could I really live with myself if didn't at least try?

Finally reaching a decision, I climbed out of bed and got dressed with determination. We could do this. Sure, we might not do it with as much finesse as more experienced Guides, but we could manage to save one forgotten soul, I thought to myself. Besides, I had bigger fish to fry this morning, and it started with waking the beast on the other bed in my room.

I had been given the unfortunate and dangerous task of waking Lynn up.

I glanced over at her and saw she was still buried in her comforter, snoring lightly, looking all sweet and innocent, but I knew it was all a ploy. Lynn was the heaviest sleeper I had ever seen, and for whatever reason she always came up swinging when you tried to wake her. The guys liked to tease her about it, saying she must be channeling her inner "Protector" when she was sleeping, but I had my own theory. I believed Lynn submerged herself so firmly into her shared dreams with Robert that she resented any interference.

Reluctantly, I walked to her bed, pausing long enough to pick up an empty hanger off my bed. I had learned the hard way that a hanger was the easiest way to wake her. Using the rounded curve of the plastic hanger, I gently poked her in the arm hoping for the best. My hopes were dashed when she didn’t even flinch.

Great, this was going to be tough morning. I sighed and prepared myself to poke her again, only harder. This time I was unprepared for the swinging arm that seemed to come out of nowhere.

The plastic hanger flew out of my hand from the impact and crashed into the wall behind me. Sighing, I used my own hand to shake her once, jumping back before my hand was threatened. "Lynn, it's time to get up," I said, finally resorting to an annoyingly loud, bossy voice that I knew drove her nuts. I hated for her to wake up cranky, but seriously, enough was enough.