Strange Bedfellows

Stone, Ghost, and I all decided to head back to base to plan out our next move. How we would find Neomaria, neutralize her without harming her, and keep the Martyrs from capturing her first. The thing is, when we got back, there were people waiting for us.

Not Martyrs. Worse.

The first sign of trouble was that none of the agents who were supposed to be guarding the apartment building were there. Stone and I had our guns out in an instant as we entered the building, Ghost following behind us, my bodyguard/captors just behind him.

We headed upstairs, to the room we'd decided as base. An old, empty apartment that always gave me the creeps. As soon as we opened the door, a young, attractive dark-haired woman in a white t-shirt and tight blue jeans turned away from the window and smiled at us.

"Woah," I said, pushing Stone's gun down as she took aim. She gave me an irritated look. I tried to ignore her and addressed the intruder. "Jorma."

Jorma smiled at me. "Matthias, you remember my name! Mother will be so pleased." Her eyes flickered and focused behind me, and for a brief instant they turned gold. "And you must be the famous Ghost, of the Old Guy's cult. It's a pleasure."

"What are you doing here, Lilim?" Stone asked.

"My name is Jorma, and I'm here because the one you're hunting is a nuisance that Mother has, until this point, ignored. But since a valuable piece has decided to get involved with her, we might as well remove the nuisance, yes?"

Ghost pushed past me, and I swear that man is insane. He actually walked right up to the snake lady with clenched fists like he was gonna strike her. "If you try to harm her in any way--"

The thing about standing in the doorway is that you don't see what's behind the corner. In this case, there was suddenly a gun pointed at Ghost's head at point blank rage. A man in a black cloak and gas mask stepped out from behind the corner.

"One should not fear death," he said. "It is merely a transition. Ending the girl would be a gift."

I was dumbfounded. "Ophilim?"

Jorma threw her head back and laughed. "I told you, Matty, the Archangel's gotten interested in you. It's something it and Mother agree on."

"Regrettably, we must work together," Ophilim said. "That threat of the-- of Neomaria is too great."

Ghost took a step away from Jorma, and frowned at Ophilim. "What do you want?"

"I want to kill that possessed failure of a cop over there and get out of this apartment," he turned his masked head and looked around. "My kind isn't welcome here. But what I want even more is to serve the will of the Archangel, and the Archangel desires me to aid you in capturing the girl."

With that, Jorma clapped her hands and smiled. "Come in, everyone!" she said. "We have much to discuss! And don't worry, your friends who were guarding the place are safe and sleeping. Oh, and Matty? Be a doll and don't go blabbing about this on your blog, OK? We wouldn't want the Martyrs to know what we're up to."

As I stepped inside, I heard Judas mumble in the back of my mind Wheels within wheels. That's the phrase, right? This is going to be fun...