by Alexie Aaron
“Maybe you could scoot over. I don’t think Ted would like us sitting that close.”
“Why? Oh, damn. I’m sorry. This is why I get into trouble. Murph pointed some things out to me while we were in the past.”
“How are you dealing with all of that?”
“Honestly, not well. I keep slipping into memories that overwhelm me.”
“Me too,” Burt admitted.
“Does the physical stuff come with the memories?”
“I don’t understand?”
“When I got here, I had a vision of my compulsive behavior with salt rings. I felt the panic. When the storm started, I was looking for demons, and instead of just being on guard, I was terrified. Thank God you were here. I felt so safe. I’m sorry if I was too, um, intrusive.”
“It felt good to be able to protect you for once,” Burt said. “Normally, you’re so capable it’s emasculating.”
“One of the many talents I have, emasculating loved ones. Back to the memories. Brian and I were in an old schoolmate’s art shop before we came here. Brian was trying out pencils and colors, so Acalan asked, no, ordered, me to sit for him. He’s an award-winning artist and used to fight the Howell twins on my behalf. I think he just liked fighting. Anyway, I thought what the hell and sat down. The sketch didn’t take but a few minutes, and when I saw it, I was gobsmacked. He not only captured me but my wings too. I was in a panic and offered to buy the sketch, which insulted him. All I could think about was not letting anyone else see me with wings.”
“Did you show him your wings?”
“No. I asked him about the wings, and he said something about his grandmother liking angels. I got the impression he didn’t know why he did it himself.”
“Perhaps he was letting the muse take him,” Burt offered.
“Anyway, I couldn’t convince him to sell me the sketch. He said he was going to use it for a painting, and then I could have it. He also mentioned he used to draw pictures of me in school.”
“Ah, a suitor.”
“He’s gay. I think I was just a subject. Anyway, I started to remember the valentines we got in school. I got so few because of being a freak. Mostly they were pity ones or mean ones. But every year we were together in grade school, Acalan gave me a handmade one that he drew. I know I kept them. I wanted to see them again, and that’s why I’m here.”
“Open the folder, and let’s see them,” Burt said.
Mia unwound the string and opened the big brown envelope. She poured the contents out. “He always used a handmade envelope. Look for ones like this,” she said, holding up a faded pink construction paper envelope.
Together they found eight of them.
“How many years were you in grade school?”
“I forgot. He put a few in my high school locker later on.”
Burt noticed that Mia had put a little note on each envelope noting the year. “Let’s see them in order,” Burt suggested.
Each valentine was composed of a small picture glued in the middle of a paper doily. The subject of the picture was Mia.
“I wonder if he drew pictures of all the kids?” she mused.
“Look at this one,” Burt said, laying it atop the others.
Mia looked and gasped. “There are wings, my old wings,” she said.
“You two are in fifth grade. His drawing is astonishing. He’s caught your aloneness. He’s amazing,” Burt said.
Mia opened the last two. She was a bit different in each one, but the wings were the same.
Burt tapped the seventh-grade valentine. “This is the girl who saved me,” he said.
Mia held out the last valentine picture. “This is my OOB persona. This is how Murphy and people bilocating see me.”
“Mia, there is such pain in your eyes.”
“He really is a good artist,” Mia said.
“No, right now.”
“It’s because I’m slipping into the past, Burt. I’ve been sliding ever since we came back.”
“Me too, Bebe,” Burt said, getting up. “I’m going to sit over there.”
Mia was grateful he had some self-control. “We were very good when we were together. We just don’t do well outside the bedroom.”
“I know. I can’t take care of you the way Ted can. He not only can financially support you but emotionally too. He takes on every change that comes over you with relish. You’re his superhero, Mia. I couldn’t do that. I think fate knew that too. That’s why that kiss with Murphy happened. I think Mother Nature used him to move you in a different direction.”
“Gee, another puppeteer, great. For what it’s worth, you were my savior, not Murph. Remember that.”
Burt smiled. “I think his friendship saved you more than our brief affair.”
“Don’t ever discount what we had. Why do you think I fought so hard with the flitch? I wanted that Burt back.”
Mia’s phone rang. It was Ted. She reluctantly answered it. “Hello, Ted.”
“I just got your text. I think the phone service is crapping out in this storm.”
“I love it when you talk technical,” Mia teased.
“How is it on the peninsula?”
“Pretty stormy. Your son is sleeping through it.”
“He takes after my dad. He could sleep through anything. It’s how I was able to sneak out at night. Care to tell me why you went over to see Burt in the first place?”
“Actually, I came to get a box of my stuff from the garage when the storm broke. I’ll explain more fully when we get back,” Mia promised. “Right now, I’m trying to seduce Burt, but he’s not having any of it.”
“Don’t torture the man, pumpkin.”
“K. I’ll be good.”
“Unless you want to have a beautiful daughter. One without my nose,” Ted offered.
“I love your nose. Stop tempting me. I may have brought the demon Mia back with me.”
“Now, I’m going to pace the floor until you get back,” Ted said.
Mia laughed. “It will do you good. Once the storm breaks and Brian wakes up, we’ll be headed home. I’ll call before we leave.”
“Please do. I love you.”
“Of course you do,” Mia responded and hung up. “Where were we?”
“Evidently you were seducing me?” Burt asked, amused.
“Ted seems to think we’d make a beautiful baby together.”
Burt laughed and shook his head. “You and Mike would, or so he says.”
“Oh him,” Mia dismissed. “He’s got to back off.”
“He seems to always know how to get under Ted’s skin,” Burt observed.
“He was like that in the past.”
“What was Mike like?”
“Young, handsome, vulnerable, he hadn’t gotten into full ego mode yet.”
“He didn’t hit on you?”
“NO! I was twelve. He’s a good guy, just not the guy. Can we change the subject?”
“Sure, what are you going to do about Acalan?”
“I think I may discuss it with Michael.”
“You don’t look too happy about that.”
“I was hoping to avoid Michael. I’ve got a lot going on that I don’t want him interfering with.”
“Don’t put yourself in any more danger,” Burt advised.
“I’m trying to make sure nothing like this happens again. No volo candles or wishing wells, poisoned apples or whatever. I lost you and Ted once. I’ll not survive it again.”
Burt’s eyes softened. “I won’t ask you which one of us you’d miss the most. Let me think it’s me. Let me live in the delusion that I matter that much,” he pleaded.
“As you wish,” Mia said.
Chapter Twenty-eight
Mia slid out of bed confident Ted was asleep. She walked through the kitchen and out the back door. She dropped her robe, exposed her wings, and with one mighty pump, shot upwards.
Lazar, who was puzzled by the late-night activity in the kitchen, caught Mia’s exit. He
opened his door, walked with his crutch out into the yard, and picked her robe off the rain-soaked ground. He brought it inside. He hobbled down the hall and left it on the kitchen counter. What was she up to alone at this hour? It must have something to do with the argument she and Ted had when she came home from Burt Hicks’s house.
“Mia, you have to see Michael now.”
“No. Let me enjoy an evening with my family before I get my wings ripped off.”
“He’s not going to do that.”
“Wanna bet?” Mia spat back. “There’s not only me to think of when it comes to Michael’s loss of control.”
“Go and talk with Sariel first. Have him weigh in,” Ted insisted.
“I’ll think about it,” Mia said and stomped off.
Ted turned around, surprised to see Cid and Lazar standing there. “What are you guys doing here? Find another show to watch,” he said and followed Mia upstairs.
“We were just doing dishes, minding our own business,” Cid said under his breath.
“Tense times. He doesn’t mean it,” Lazar pointed out.
“I know, but sometimes he’s his own worst enemy,” Cid said.
Lazar pushed these thoughts away. He dropped his crutch and hopped back into bed. He’d better get some sleep so he could be alert if there was trouble.
~
Mia headed to where she knew Sariel patrolled. She called out with her mind, knowing that the angels were as cautious with Mia as the fallen were after her fight with Ruax. “Kill one fallen, and they all get their feathers in a twist,” she vocalized too soon after she called for Sariel.
“Hey, Mia, hello to you too,” Sariel said, hurt.
“I’m sorry, I’m in a bad mood.”
“Then go home,” he advised.
“I think I need to see Michael, but I know it’s not going to go well.”
“Then go home.”
“But there is some information he needs to know that I just found out about.”
“That shouldn’t raise his ire,” Sariel said. “Besides, these days it’s Altair in the doghouse not you.”
“Great. Maybe I should go home.”
Sariel came up quickly and held on to her and looked her in the eyes. “I can tell you’re in turmoil. You haven’t even dressed to see him. How can I help?”
“First, can you tell if the demon is back?”
“Why would you suspect it was back?” he asked, moving his hands over Mia, reading her cellular structure. He stopped and pulled her into a tight embrace before pushing away from her just as quickly.
“That’s why.”
“Lucifer’s spawn! How did this happen?”
“Short story, I was pulled back in time into my body of twenty years ago. There was a demon residing with me, if you remember. Well, it may or may not have hitched a ride back.”
“Or you could be fertile,” Sariel said. “You’re sending off signals that are positively primal. Let’s get out of the between before you attract your uncle.”
“Ew.”
“He’s not a direct relative,” Sariel said. “You would make mighty children together.”
“Stop, please stop.”
Sariel started laughing. “So you’ve been fighting them off, have you?”
“No, not really, but my own actions and thoughts are very disturbing.”
“Mia Cooper Martin, have you been thinking naughty things?”
“I don’t know why I look up to you?” Mia said, shaking her head.
“We’re going to stop someplace before I take you to Michael. You have to put on something less sexy.”
“It’s a Bears jersey?” Mia questioned. “I only wore it because I was mad at Ted.”
“Why?”
Because he’s a Chiefs fan.”
“No, why were you mad at Ted?”
“Because he told me to come and talk to you.”
Sariel turned sideways and studied Mia’s face. “I’m not a monster, Mia.”
“No, you’re not, but I didn’t want to get you involved.”
“I’m a big boy, Mia. Tell me about Altair.”
Mia’s eyes opened wide, but she said nothing.
“Work on your poker face,” he advised. “Here we are. It’s kind of a celestial truck stop. Grab something off the rack that is as prim as you can find.”
Mia did as she was told. All that was offered to her was very Greek in style. She flipped the dress around so the vee was in the back She tied the sides together with her gold chain. “Shit. Abigor’s chain,” she realized. “Well, it’s too late now. Great, when will you think before you fly?” she scolded herself.
Mia sat in the corner of a busy lobby waiting for Sariel to return after he explained what he knew to Michael. He came back down and nodded for her to follow him. Mia lifted the long garment and did her best to keep up with the long-legged archangel. He led her to a room with a spectacular view of an ocean. Mia frowned. She had no idea which ocean that was or where she was for that matter.
“I’m going to leave you now. My advice is to hold nothing back.”
“Will you let Ted know how I died?”
“Mia, you have to have a little faith,” Sariel scolded. He walked out and shut the door behind him.
Mia walked over to the window and calculated how long the drop was to the sea.
“What are you doing?” Michael asked.
“Right now, holding my breath,” she said, turning around.
Michael was dressed in armor so luminous it brought tears to Mia’s eyes. “Whoa, where are my sunglasses when I need them?”
Michael tried not to smile. He found Mia hilarious but would never admit it to anyone living or dead. “It’s good to see you. It’s been a long time,” he said and strode over to a table laden with wine and food. “Wine?”
Mia looked around, thinking someone had come in behind her.
“Yes, you.”
“Please,” she said. She walked over and accepted the chalice from Michael, being very careful not to touch him.
He noticed that. He noticed everything. “Mia, what is it I can help you with?”
“First, I wanted to tell you about a man I’ve known since childhood. I think he can see angels or their wings but doesn’t realize he can do this. It comes out in his art. Yesterday, he sketched me with my present wings. After I left, I realized that maybe he’d done that before in our childhood, so I looked up other pictures he had given me in school. He used to draw pictures of me, and yes, he did draw wings on me, but they were my old wings.”
“So you came to the correct assumption that part of him could sense wings, maybe even angel wings.”
“I know it’s trivial since you have Mark, but Acalan’s at a fork in the road, and I didn’t want the other side to get to him first.”
“Who is he?”
“Acalan Cabello. His husband was killed in a fight probably brought on by intolerance, but I wasn’t there; I only have his grandmother, Zarita Cabello’s, word for it.”
“Zarita is a good woman. I would believe her. Let me put someone on this. I have a kind guardian angel in mind. I want to see if I can find her. Excuse me a moment.”
Mia drank the wine down. She needed the courage for part two of the conversation.
Michael walked back in and studied Mia a moment. He felt fear mixed with respect roll off her in waves. He tapped her on the shoulder, and she all but fainted.
“Sorry, I was thinking,” she said.
“Would you like to tell me why you’re so wound up?”
“Wouldn’t you rather just read me?” Mia said. “This way I don’t leave anything out.”
“That bad?” he asked, concerned.
“No, maybe not. But please understand the only reason I didn’t come to you right away with it was because I didn’t know how to get to you.”
“Come on, Mia.”
“No, it’s the truth. Twenty years ago, would you have known who I was?” she asked.
“May
be not,” he said and approached her. “Try to keep your hands off me while I read you.”
Mia turned bright red. “If I survive your censure, I’m going to kill Sariel,” Mia vowed.
Michael moved into Mia’s mind.
Sariel looked at the closed door and worried. Mia had been with Michael a long time. He knew better than to interrupt his general. He worried how Mia was going to react to Michael in his armor. Maybe his cruel treatment of her in the past would keep her from reacting to his magnificence. Whatever happened, he knew he would have to clean up the mess. He insisted she see Michael.
Michael had pulled away from Mia a while ago. He laid her on one of the settees while he ran through the ramifications of what he had seen. He had the two alternate timelines to sort out. He felt the emotional attachment she had to Altair and wasn’t pleased, but Mia was always looking for a father, wasn’t she? This explained why Altair was again AWOL as he was trying to sort all of this out for his friend.
And then there was the Mia and Abigor connection. If she had been promised the dead general’s forty legions and had convinced Abigor to loan her his armies, the Council of Women and all their followers didn’t stand a chance. Mia was very dangerous. He should kill her now, but she had sought out and taken the good counsel of Altair and Roumain. Stephen Murphy had squelched her thirst for vengeance. She was still looking for advantages for Michael, even though he felt her heart resided with Abigor. But he couldn’t be sure. He couldn’t read her heart. All he could do was seek out the information she stored in her head. Unless he just asked her.
“Mia, wake up.”
Mia’s eyes fluttered open. Michael waited until she sat up before sitting down beside her. His wings brushed her skin as he adjusted them.
Mia cleared her throat and said, “I’m sorry. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry for my sinful thoughts of vengeance, for coveting Roumain, and maybe Burt…”
He ignored what she was saying and spoke, “Mia, one thing I’m not very good at is reading someone’s heart. It’s an organ that seems at times to have its own mind. Why do you wear Abigor’s chain?”