I had to get her to repeat it a couple times before I wrapped my head around it, and even then I felt dazed.

"Me, I'm Sloan's replacement?"

"Yes."

"Sloan is God?"

"Yes, you people call it that."

"I'm supposed to be God's replacement?"

"Yes, you were chosen as the Benevolent's replacement by Abbadon. I wouldn't be here otherwise." She picked a chip of rock off the ground, examined it, sent it skittering over the pavement. "They may choose anyone they wish. The contract just says "to the best of your ability, choose"."

"Contract?"

"Yes." She laid her head back against the wall with a sigh. "The contract between the three fates."

"Malevolence, Benevolence and Neutrality." I recited, and Aden nodded."Who's Neutrality? Do they change too?"

Aden shrugged. "No one has ever seen Neutrality, at least, not in my lifetime. Some people think he's a myth, a tale to holds the fates to their contract. Sloan is finding loop holes in the contract, just like Morgan said. It states that no fate may physically harm a human being, so Sloan uses other humans, or a natural disaster." Her gaze swept the ruined landscape.

"It doesn't sound like a solid contract." I frowned.

"He shouldn't even know who you are. We don't know how the name got out."

"My name," I muttered. I slid back against the wall with a groan. "I think my brain might explode."

Aden cracked a smile. "That would make Sloan very happy."

I made a face at her. " I'm still having difficulty believing this. You're telling me I'm God's replacement!"

"For the next thousand years, yes."

I blinked. Here she was, calm as could be, telling me I was going to live to be a thousand years old.

 "What happens when the time is up?" I said. "What's Sloan so scared of?"

Aden scoffed. "Sloan is scared to give up his power. Abbadon only wishes for an end. He says ferrying souls to the beyond for hundreds of years has made him tired. The contract allows you to return to your previous human years and live out your life, but he will choose not to."

"Ferrying souls?" I gaped at her. "So you mean, Malevolence is actually Death?"

"That's what he deals with." Aden raised a brow at me. "Did you not get the angel of death thing?"

"It's a bit much to take in at once," I snapped.

We were silent for a moment, and I regretted losing my temper. Aden studied her sneakers. Finally I cleared my throat. "So, what if I don't want to be the replacement?"

She stared at me like I'd just asked if she would shove a banana up her nose and dance the tango with me. "Why wouldn't you want to have nearly unlimited power and live for a thousand years?"

I shook my head. "It sounds creepy. And I don't want to be in charge of everything. I house sat for my aunt last month and let all her plants die! You want to put me in charge of the planet? Bad idea! I play War Hammer and Call of Duty, not create life! I'm seventeen years old for crying out loud!"

"Not a problem, when the switch takes place the knowledge transfers, you'll know everything."

"Everything?" My eyes must have bulged, because she laughed.

"All the knowledge of the previous Benevolents."

"Holy shit!"

"I guess you could call it that." Aden actually smiled, and it made a huge difference when she did. Her eyes actually sparkled and turned warm. For the first time I really wondered about her. Maybe she wasn't as snarky and tough as she seemed.

"Look, I'm sorry you got saddled with me." I hesitated. "It can't be fun, keeping the new guy from getting killed."

She rolled her eyes, but I was rewarded with another flash of a smile. "Well that dumb Malake has been doing most of the work for me." She shot me a sideways glance. "But it isn't so bad, I mean, you're alright."

I chuckled. "High praise from you."

Aden smirked, letting one of her knees drop sideways and bump mine, sending an electric shiver through me when she regarded me from under her lashes."You were kinda cute, all flustered last night."

My cheeks flushed immediately, and I hated myself for it. "Well, you were sitting on me."

Again, a look from under her lashes, seductive, predatory. It was enough to make me want a cold shower."I'm sorry," she said, "I didn't think you minded that much though..."

I swallowed, looking away first, "Well you came on a little strong for a first date."

Her laugh was low and smoky. I opened my mouth to say something else, anything to make her laugh like that again, but her hand suddenly flew to my knee."Shit, we have a problem."

She was staring at something across the street, and when I looked over I saw a man standing on the cracked sidewalk in front of the pizza shop. His immaculate suit and neatly combed hair looked wrong against the back drop of crumpled buildings. He was staring right at us, and it was hard to tell, since he was far away and a haze of dust still hung in the air between us, but I could have sworn he was smiling. 

He would have looked perfectly normal, a business man on his way to work, briefcase in hand, if it hadn't been for the shower of white sparks jumping off his skin. Like a crackle of power was running through his body like an electric charge.

I realized Aden was on her phone now, talking low and urgently."Sloan is here, yeah here. Yes, I know the earthquake is keeping you busy, that's probably his plan," she paused, and I could hear the deep murmur on the other end, the frosty English voice of Abbadon. I wondered idly if he had a cell phone, or if he was old school and used a pay phone. I enjoyed the picture of a hunched over cloaked figure lurking in the phone booth, his scythe leaning against the glass.

Aden said, "Send some back up. No, not here, we're gonna make a break for it as soon as I hang up. Tell them to meet us at his house."

That made me sit up. I shook my head and made slashing gestures in the air. "No, no way. My mom with have a heart attack." She shot me an annoyed look and said into the phone, "Fine. Yes. Goodbye."

"No," I hissed. "Not fine! Do you know what my mom will do if a bunch of people tramp through her house claiming to be angels?"

"Malake ha-Mawet," Aden stood up. "Angels of death, not angels."

I let her drag me to my feet. "Oh that's just so much better. Why, my mother will just invite them in for tea!"

"Sarcasm isn't needed. Let's go, hurry up. I think he's just scoping you out, he might not attack yet."

"Might not?" I glanced across the street nervously as she led us around the side of the building. Sloan was following at a leisurely pace, as if he were out for a stroll in the park instead of stalking a scared seventeen year old through an urban waste land. "So he caused the earth quake?" I asked. "To keep Abbadon busy?"

"Yes," Aden glanced back at him and quickened her stride, heading for the main street,

"But that's just an added bonus. It would have happened either way, since it looks like he's ascended. It's a bonus for him though, with a disaster this big Abbadon will have no choice but to oversee some of the soul catching, they'll be a lot to deal with."

"I don't think I want to know about soul catching. It sounds really creepy. What's dissention? And why can't we just go through the same doorway Morgan did? Can't we lose him that way?"

"No, you can't get through a doorway. You're human." Aden said.

We stopped at the corner and glanced back, Sloan was a couple hundred yards behind us, still walking with his casual pace, as if he couldn't' imagine why anyone would be in a hurry. From here I could see his features a little better, and he looked just like any other man. Somehow I'd been expecting him to look evil, or ugly. He was surprisingly nondescript.

"He doesn't look so scary," I said.

"Keep walking," Aden gritted out through her teeth.

"You still didn't tell me what dissention is."

Aden cursed and sped up. "Fine, but keep up the pace. We'll head into town and try to lose him." She panted a little between words, trying to explain while we kept up the speed walking. "There's a reason that the fates are only allowed to take on human form once in the thousand year period, it disrupts the balance so badly that there's almost always a huge disaster. This one happened to be an earth quake. There'll be another one if the idiot gets himself killed."

"Wait, he can be killed? I thought he was God."

"Technically he's a human right now. That's how he know our Mawet can't touch him, the contract will be broken if he tries to physically hurt him." She arched one perfect black brow at me. "But that also means he bleeds just like any other human."

"Well," I glanced back over my shoulder, dismayed to see that he had quickened his pace. "I haven't exactly got any experience killing people, aside from video games, and he's catching up."

I wasn't really scared until I saw Aden look back and go pale."Maybe he does intend to attack right now."

"You'll just go all angel-of-death on his ass, right?" I said, anxiously. "No problem, right? Aden?"

She broke into a sprint then, and I followed suit, cursing and panting. I glanced back at Sloan, wishing he would trip on his polished suede shoes and fall on his face. Instead he put a burst of speed on, the pant legs of his suite flapping as he chased us further into the ruins of what had once been down town Victoria.

"Once we get ahead of him we can hide in the rubble," Aden panted.

We rounded the corner of the side street we were on, heading down the main road, and I nearly tripped and fell on my face gawking at our surroundings. Victoria had always been pretty. Brick buildings designed to look old, neat sidewalks and tidy little potted flowers. The regal parliament buildings and green grass. Now the same parliament buildings had crumbled in on themselves, reminding me of the ruins of some ancient temple. Huge chunks of stone had tumbled down, leaving deep ruts in the lawn. A mixed smog of dust and smoke hung in the streets, and Aden and I covered our mouths as we ran. Garbage littered the road, pieces of crushed cars, large sections of buildings that had slid off the roofs or collapsed onto the street. I found myself running through ankle deep water, splashing frantically, my soaks soaked through and my feet freezing. The first sign of people up ahead. A crowd of confused, dazed humanity wandering through the streets, some bloody and limping, some wailing and crying. I nearly stopped when I saw them, wondering if we should help. How could I help? It's not like I could whip out my cell phone and call the police. The police already knew. Everyone knew.

"Perfect," Aden panted. "The more confusion the better to lose him in."

We ran past a dazed woman clutching her purse to her chest, a man with a bloody forehead, a woman and a man hugging and crying. A woman, wild eyed and bloody ran up to me and clutched my shirt before I could stumble back. "Have you seen my cat?" She croaked, and I jerked out of her grip and ran around her. "Sorry!"

"Keep going," Aden glanced over at me, "We can't do anything for them." She looked back. "I don't see him anymore, let's hide around the corner here, wait till we're sure he's gone." She pulled me down a side street and we crouched between two smashed cars. A bright orange light flickered a couple blocks up, a fire starting in the wreckage of one of the buildings.

"How are they going to get fire trucks in here?" I grasped the hem of my dirt covered sweatshirt tightly, hands shaking.

"They won't," Aden said simply. "Most likely the city will burn."

I stared at her, and she gave me an apologetic shrug. For some reason I thought about Carly. What did Kamloops look like right now? Had she and her family survived? My stomach turned, sour. The crumpled door of the Chevy hiding us was the nearest inanimate object, so I gave it an angry kick with my damp sneaker. It rocked open with a creaky protest, and something tumbled out of the passenger seat and hit the ground with a thump. My throat closed as I stared down at the body of a young woman in a purple dress. She'd obviously hit her head pretty hard, her blonde hair was matted, sticky with blood and what looked like grey lumps of...

Oh dear God.

I turned abruptly, my breakfast splattering onto the ground between my shoes, and Aden jumped back with a grunt of disgust. Coughing, I wiped my mouth with one of my sleeves and staggered to my feet. "Let's go, I can't stay here."

Aden stood up, peering over the roof of the car, in the direction we'd come. "Okay, I think we lost him anyways, I swear he wasn't even trying though."

"He did this," I rasped.

"What?" Aden looked back at me, and I gestured at the ruined cars, and the dead girl lying between them. "He did all of this. He killed people, because he's trying to kill me."

She glared. "If he hadn't been trying to kill you, it would have been someone else. He's gone off the deep end, Lucas. Come on, let's head for your house."

I stumbled after her, still dazed and angry. "It's a long walk."

"Maybe we can find a car that hasn't been squished."

I was about to make some form of sarcastic remark when the aftershock hit. I yelled in panic as the street lurched beneath me- the ground came up and slammed into me and I was suddenly on my stomach embracing the cement, shaking to pieces. Buildings tilted as the thunderous sound continued and I had the panicked thought that it was happening all over again, and this time we would be crushed. Debris crashed down around me, and a block down I could see an already unsteady building tumbling further in on itself, pieces of it being torn away by the giant tremors. Finally it stopped.

For a second I stayed frozen where I was. Beside me Aden groaned, and I heard her shuffling around. Turning, supporting myself on one shaking hand, I surveyed her.

Aden was sitting upright, clutching the side of her face.

My voice was croaky, "You okay?"

"Fine," she winced, brought her hand down to reveal a long, dirty scrape by her eye, "hit my face when I fell down. I'm alright."

"Shit, that was nearly as scary as the first time." I struggled to get to my feet, but my legs refused to work properly. They felt rubbery.

Aden stood up, took an unsteady step towards me, "we should get going. Can you walk? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." I made a more valiant effort and stood this time, more firmly then before. "Just need to get my sea legs back...or, something like that."

"Earthquake legs?" Aden said.

"Wow, was that a joke?" I raised my eyebrows at her and she gave me a tight smile, "Come on, let's go."