Archangel Zach

by Lisa Hughey

Shasa jolted and whirled around.

  “It’s started,” Michael bit out sharply. “The first quake hit about a minute ago. I need you,” he pointed to Zach, “and you,” he pointed to Shasa, “on the ground and ready to stop the water from breaching the shores.”

  “I don’t want her hurt.” Zach stepped in front of Shasa as if to shield her.

  “Zachariel. We must protect the humans on Earth. We cannot pick and choose who we wish to protect.” Michael shook his head, his gaze full of pity. “That is not how the Universe works. You know this.”

  Zach wanted to rage to the First Sphere. They had taken her from him once, he couldn’t bear it if it happened again.

  “She will be with you.” Michael decreed. “She will be safe.”

  Shasa stepped beside Zach. He loved that she had no fear of Michael, but he hated that she was tough enough to take a stand. Because tough only went so far. “What about my mother?”

  “Gabriel will use his divine influence to convince the newscasters and weather forecasters to warn coastal residents of a tsunami. You may warn your mother ahead of time.” Michael shared. “But I need you both there, ready to push the water back if the tides do indeed crest and break over the shorelines.”

  “She isn’t ready,” Zach argued. And he didn’t want to use her. Yes, she’d started to get more comfortable with water, but there was a big damn difference between the still waters of the Realm pool and the might and furor of a tsunami.

  “Make her ready.” Michael’s hard tone brooked no argument. “Quickly. Many humans are at risk of perishing unless we stop this, or at the very least, mitigate the damaging wave.”

  Shasa blinked. Her surprise and shock morphed into determination and Zach knew he was lost. She firmed her resolve before his eyes. “I can do it.”

  Her spirit and her indomitable determination pushed her to this point. How had they come to this place where he wasn’t ready and she was raring to go?

  Michael nodded solemnly. “We are counting on you both.”

  But no pressure.

  “Gabriel is on his way.” Before Michael could finish speaking, the Archangel Gabe was back in the conference room.

  “Let’s do this.”

  “Where are we going?” Shasa asked. Zach heard the slight tremor in her voice, that small glimmer of worry, which actually made him feel better. She was determined but not acting invincible. A little fear would go a long way. He was so fucking proud of her.

  “That depends on you,” Zach said. His gut told him that the attack wouldn’t be anywhere typical. The Grigori would strike for maximum damage and where people wouldn’t expect the tsunami to hit.

  “I want you to dowse the location,” Zach requested. Don’t give her time to think. Don’t give her time to worry.

  Shasa blinked. “You want me to figure it out? You don’t think your super angel powers would be better?”

  “You’ve got this.”

  Shasa paused then nodded. “Okay.”

  They set up the equipment, a map of the western North America and the same pendulum she had used before. The room was quiet. Gabe and Michael watched expectantly, ready to spring into action as soon as Shasa determined where they were going to go.

  Gabe watched curiously as Shasa closed her eyes and let the pendulum swing over the detailed topographic map of the West Coast.

  “What if we’re wrong about the location?” Gabe asked.

  “We aren’t wrong.” Zach knew it in his bones. “They’re using history against us.”

  Michael looked at him sharply. He knew what that meant for Zach.

  Zach was talking about the attack on Jamaica. The one that had killed Shasa and a good portion of the Jamaican population in 1692. Nausea spread in the pit of his stomach like a lava flow burning everything in its path.

  Hopefully Shasa was too busy concentrating to hear what he’d just said. She didn’t remember how she’d died and he hoped she never did.

  She shouldn’t. It was supposed to be impossible. The soul retained its purity, and only changed slightly with each incarnation in a new body. Memories were not supposed to transfer from vessel to vessel. Her dreams of their time in Jamaica were an aberration. She should have no recollection of Zach at all.

  “This is it.” She pointed to the map.

  Gabe and Zach leaned over and peered at the spot under her finger.

  “San Francisco?” Gabe frowned. “But historically that area hasn’t been prone to a tsunami. Typically they hit further above or below the city. You’re sure it isn’t north? Alaska, Seattle, or maybe the northern coast of California up near Crescent City.”

  All places hit by tsunamis before.

  “No,” she said resolutely.

  Michael lifted one striking dark eye brow. “Further south?”

  Shasa shook her head and jabbed her finger at the same spot. “It’s here.”

  “But—”

  Zach knew what Gabe and Michael were getting at, but he still believed Shasa was correct. “While the property damage on those tsunamis was bad, the loss of life was minimal. The Grigori are going to go for maximum loss of life.”

  Gabe still didn’t look convinced.

  “You heard her. It’s San Francisco.” They didn’t have time to argue, and Zach knew in his heart that Shasa was right. Even if he didn’t want her to be. Damn the Cosmos.

  “The population of the greater San Francisco Bay Area is close to seven million people,” Gabe said in disbelief.

  “Maximum casualties.” Zach reiterated. “What fault was the first quake on?”

  “Hayward,” Michael said. “There’s been another, stronger quake in the last fifteen minutes.”

  Zach pulled up a map of the San Francisco Bay area and traced the fault lines. “That would make sense. This fault connects to the Calaveras and the San Andreas. They could maximize the damage easily. Depending on the depth and severity of the seismic shock, the ripple effects could echo up and down the coast and cause a massive tsunami. Residual waves could reach all the way to Asia.”

  Michael studied the map. “The potential for loss of life is devastating.”

  Zach was studying the map of the coast for a different reason, trying to figure out the best place for Shasa and him to set up to stop the coming disaster but also stay safe. He didn’t want Shasa anywhere near the devastating wall of water if at all possible.

  They might be able to manage the tsunami from a distance. He wasn’t sure how much she would be able to handle.

  Zach had hoped that they’d find the Grigori and stop them before the seismic events triggered the destructive waters. But since the first foreshock already hit, they had to get ready for the repercussions, and the mainshock. They couldn’t afford to spend time looking for the Grigori.

  “Ideas?” Michael bit out.

  Zach brought up a birds-eye view of the shore and the buildings, studying the bay and the coastline. Trying to determine where the wave would hit first.

  “My guess is the wave will reach this landmass first.” Zach jabbed his finger at the map indicating the main piers near downtown San Francisco.

  Zach contemplated the best position for him and Shasa to stop the water. The best initial vantage point was as high as they could go in the area. “Here.”

  The very top of the local mountain, Mount Diablo. The ranger station at the top had a three hundred and sixty degree view of the San Francisco Bay area.

  “I’ll do my thing.” Gabe gave them a chin lift. “Stay in touch.”

  “Good luck to you both,” Michael balled his fingers, pressed his fist to his forehead, and bowed. “I will position in Monterey to help with the tail end of the wave.”

  “I’ll keep you apprised of our progress.” Zach grabbed Shasa’s hand. “Time to go.”

  His stomach roiled at how close Shasa was going to have to get to the water to be effective and hoped she could do it.

  Zach translocated them to the very top of Mt. Diablo, the highest peak in the are
a. From this vantage point, thirty-eight hundred feet above sea level, the vista was breathtaking. The Pacific Ocean was a hazy seething mass in the distance. Shasa and Zach were silent as they contemplated the sheer number of houses and buildings between here and the coast. Every single one of those dwellings and their inhabitants were in grave danger. Now all they could do was wait.

  As he surveyed the mass of humanity, a strange exhilaration filled him. The disaster was coming. But this time, he knew in advance that the tsunami was going to make land. This time he could do something to save all those people. This time he wouldn’t be too late to do more than mourn the tragic loss of life.

  Another quake rocked the mountain, lifting the tectonic plates and dropping them down with a massive thud. The aftereffect rolled through the vista spread out before them. The Grigori were stepping up the intensity of the quakes.

  After the last boom, the ocean was already starting to froth and roil. The seas sloshed like liquid in a bobbled cup creating swells so high even from here he could see they were cresting the piers and threatening the city.

  Fortunately, a long line of cars headed out of the city and away from the coming disaster. The gridlock was approaching critical and as Zach watched he realized that there was no way that all those people were going to be able to get out of the city and away from the epicenter of the destruction in time.

  Fuck.

  Frustration dried Zach’s throat. They were going to have to move closer to the water.

  “They aren’t going to make it.” Shasa’s violet eyes were wide with dismay. “Unless we can completely stop it.”

  He needed to move her in baby steps to the seething mass of water.

  “Look at that.” The water had begun to recede far out into the ocean and when the water came roaring back in to land, the wave would bring decimation. They had an hour, perhaps a little more, before the shelf of water was going to start racing back toward the shore. She grabbed on to his sleeve. Her grip was tight, wild, intense. “Can we be effective from here?”

  He studied the area, searching his brain desperately for any type of alternative to what he knew they would need to do.

  “Zach?!”

  There was no hope for it. “We have to get closer.”

  “Closer.” Her eyes rounded, and her throat tightened as she gulped. “Crap. I liked this distance.”

  There was no time to waste. Zach grabbed her hand. “I’m sorry.”

  Zach translocated them to Shoreline Drive in the Berkeley hills. Closer to the bay but far enough away that the water was only a dull roar. They hovered on the rim trail, and stared out at the Pacific Ocean. The water continued to recede from the shore at a rapid pace even though it looked like it was going in slow motion. “This still isn’t close enough.”

  Shasa shuddered and didn’t speak. She stared for one more moment, squared her shoulders and nodded. “Let’s do it.”

  Zach translocated them to Treasure Island. The small manmade island bisected the Bay Bridge and consisted of leased townhomes and sports fields. An unnatural quiet surrounded them. Nothing stirred in the dry brush that kept the hills from crumbling into the surrounding ocean.

  The sea crashed and rolled all around them, swirling like a tempest with white froth and angry waves. As the receding tide made an unearthly sucking roar, the water swept far out, baring the girders that anchored the Bay Bridge to the bay floor. In the port of Oakland, the shipping tankers were suddenly grounded and tipping over.

  Zach knew they had to act fast, before the water came hurtling back toward land and completely decimated the San Francisco piers, wiping out all the infrastructure built since the 1906 fire.

  “What do we have to do?” Shasa whispered. Her fear was palpable. A sheen of sweat coated her forehead and her eyes were wide, wild.

  “A tsunami can last for a period between ten minutes to two hours. Luckily this one is going to take a while.”

  What he didn’t say was that they could also have a wavelength in excess of three hundred miles and based on the currently retreating water, this one was going to push the limits of that number. The Universe only knew how high the resultant wall of water would be.

  Zach had no choice but to push Shasa.

  Because as Zach watched the water recede, he knew that this was going to be too powerful for him to defeat on his own. She’d been ready to tackle this. But faced with the reality of mile high waves was different than a resolution made far away from the action.

  “You…really need my help?” She twisted her hands, her need to help clearly at war with her residual fear.

  “Yes. I cannot do this myself.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because I failed once before.” Failed her. Failed the very charges he was supposed to protect. Yes, some of Port Royal had been immoral and deserved to die, but not all. Yet they had all paid the price.

  His greatest fear would be a reality. He was going to have to put Shasa in harm’s way once more.

  “It upset you?” she asked softly.

  “It destroyed me,” Zach confessed. The truth burned deep in his chest, in the gaping hole where his heart once lived. Her death had fundamentally changed him.

  But as he looked at Shasa, her beautiful soul so similar to the woman he remembered, he couldn’t help but be brutally honest. Because perhaps if he’d been so all those years ago, she would not have perished.

  Even if she never understood that he was talking about destroying her, the confession was like a cleansing breath of forgiving air, a balm to his tortured soul.

  Shasa saw the pure grief in Zach’s gaze when he’d blurted out the confession as if he were reciting all his sins for a priest. He seemed to be waiting, as if expecting something from her. As if he wanted her wrath for his failure. As if he’d welcome her anger. She couldn’t figure out why.

  “If you could go back and change things would you?” she asked. Curious. Wanting to know more about this enigmatic Archangel who had somehow captured her heart. She felt as if she’d known him, connected with him, the moment he appeared in her dreams. And while the flesh and blood man was far more gruff and tormented than her dream man, that feeling of connection had irrationally grown over the past day.

  He stopped, considered her question. “If I could go back and fix things, I would.”

  “I’m a firm believer that everything happens for a reason,” Shasa said. “Even if we can’t see the why right away.”

  Zach snorted.

  “Forgive yourself.” She wanted to grab him by the shoulders, shake him and comfort him, smack some sense into him and shelter him all at the same time. But she knew that her overture would be rebuffed. He was the most closed off man she’d ever met.

  He refused to answer. Refused to speak.

  Shasa’s heart broke for this man who’d wiggled his way in between the cracks in her hardened demeanor. He’d shown her the way to overcome her fears, and she wanted to give that back to him.

  “Was there someone you personally wronged?” Whenever he talked about what he’d done, there was an intimate anguish in his voice. As if he’d hurt someone who was important to him.

  Zach blinked. Looked at her as if he’d never seen her before. “Yes,” he ground out.

  “They would forgive you.” She was sure of it. She wanted him to know how much she meant those sincere words. She brushed back the lock of dark hair that had fallen over his deep rum gaze and concealed his eyes from hers. “If I could absolve you, I would.”

  Love, affection, tenderness overwhelmed her. Shasa leaned closer and brushed her lips against his.

  Zach bent his head. His lips clung to hers as he closed his eyes, the curve of his dark lashes fanned against his cheek. The kiss was pure. A tender benediction for him. To let go. To release the guilt that haunted him.

  “Well, what do we have here? Isn’t this sweet?”

  At the caustic words, she jumped away from Zach and whipped around searching for the threat. But there wa
s no one there.

  The disembodied voice echoed in the air. “So this is your dirty little secret, eh Zachariel?”

  Zach frowned, his grip on her bicep tight, almost painful.

  “Pretty sure the powers that be frown upon fraternization with humans.” The voice had gotten progressively louder, until she could feel the vibrations rumbling around and through her with particular menace.

  Zach stiffened. The moment had been ruined. Shasa’s unwitting dismissal of the guilt that haunted him was a gift. He thanked the Universe that she had bestowed her forgiveness on him. Even if she didn’t realized that it was far more personal than she realized.

  But now he had to deal with the more immediate threat. Because he recognized the energy, even if he couldn’t see the Fallen. Remiel was here.

  “What do you want?” Zach’s body sparked with restrained fury, and he was ready to launch into battle, fists flying at their unseen enemy.

  “Freedom, Zachariel,” Remiel said silkily.

  “You are free,” he replied, his voice steady, anger now firmly in check. He couldn’t attack until he could visually see the Archangel.

  “Lie!” The roar shook the bushes and trees around them, the sound trembled on the wind. “We are still trapped by antiquated laws and held hostage for unforgiven transgressions.”

  “Then what do you expect from me?” Zach asked.

  “You are the Archangel of Forgiveness, are you not?”

  “I cannot forgive the harm you’re about to cause here,” Zach countered. “Even if I wanted to.”

  Which he didn’t. But he understood Remiel’s need, his longing for forgiveness. And he hated that he had something in common with their enemy. “However, if you stop before it is too late, we can talk.”

  “I thought of all the Realm, that perhaps you would be the one who would extend a commiserating hand in empathy.”

  Zach was slowly maneuvering Shasa away from the voice. He’d figured out that Remiel was hiding beneath the surface of the island, positioned to facilitate the coming tsunami.

  Zach’s mandate was to protect all the humans but his purpose right now was to protect Shasa. Michael’s edict be damned. His only goal at this moment was to save her from Remiel’s wrath.