Ascend (Celestial Academy Book 1)

by Maya Nicole

  "Two boyfriends. Is that normal?" Olly stood and stretched, a small sliver of skin showing between his pants and shirt. I licked my lips because, good lord, was he attractive. It's like heaven decided to create the most beautiful male specimen to illicit impure thoughts.

  "Normal depends on who you ask. It's not conventional, but I'm not a conventional gal now, am I?"

  "Oliver, you were included in that conversation too." Tobias smirked as he watched me pick at a loose string on his quilt. It was old; I probably shouldn't have been picking at it.

  "I was?" He sounded very excited over the prospect. I could feel his eyes on me. "You want to go on a date with me?"

  I shrugged. "I'm drawn to you for whatever reason. There has to be some weird supernatural phenomenon going on, right? Or I'm just one horny woman. Makes sense considering my dad's the devil."

  Tobias laughed at my joke, but the reference to the devil having horns went straight over Oliver's head, at least I think it did because he didn't laugh.

  "I would have asked about it when we were in heaven, but your dad was right there and I really didn't want to get on his bad side. Remember, he likes me." Tobias almost sounded childish as he made reference to the breakfast from hell.

  "At least I'm not her teacher." Olly mumbled it so quietly that I barely heard it, but it was out there nonetheless.

  Tobias practically flew across the room, grabbed him by the throat, and shoved him against the door. "Listen, you little fucker, you don't get to judge people after the shit you've pulled. Or have you forgotten the reason you're here in the first place?" Tobias shoved into him one last time and then let him go. He dropped like a sack of flour to the floor.

  "Care to elaborate on that?" I was standing now, ready to separate the two from ripping each other apart if necessary.

  "Oliver, do you want to tell her or shall I?"

  Olly sat against the wall and put his head in his hands looking dejected. It couldn't have been worse than the shit I'd pulled over the years, but then again, it probably did take a lot to get kicked out of heaven.

  "It can't be that bad, can it? Just tell me. Remember who you’re talking to here. No judgement from me."

  "Oh, but this is so much more epic than any of the crap you got in trouble for," Tobias said.

  "Shut up, Tobias. Olly, what is it?" I squatted next to him and tried to pull his hands away from his face.

  He sighed and dropped his hands. "I broke into the artifact room and took the Holy Grail."

  I bit my lip to keep from laughing. I didn't know much about religious artifacts, but I was pretty sure the Holy Grail was a big deal. "And why would you do that Olly?"

  He looked at the floor and mumbled something.

  "What was that?" I felt like I was a mother talking to her four-year old who just broke a vase and wanted to blame it on the cat.

  "I was bored and there was this rumor that it turned water to wine and I just wanted to test it out. I was tired of just flitting around up there doing nothing. So I took it, snuck to Earth to get some water and it slipped out of my grasp. I couldn't find it." He let out a shaky sigh. "They told me I was such an idiot and needed to wise up, so they sent me here to teach me a lesson."

  "Wait, wait, wait." I stood from my squat and looked down at him. "You're telling me you lost the Holy Grail? How does that even happen?" Tobias was laughing now but was trying to cover it by covering his mouth. "Where were you trying to get water from?"

  He looked to Tobias with a pleading look in his eyes, which only made him laugh harder. He rubbed his hands over his eyes and then looked at me again. "The Pacific Ocean."

  "Don't stop there, Olly boy. Tell her the whole thing," Tobias choked out between laughs. I had never seen him laugh so hard. He had clearly heard this story before, but probably never heard it from Oliver's lips.

  "Near Hawaii, I swooped down to scoop and a wave knocked me in. I dove after it but it sank so quickly and none of us could find it. It's lost forever. I don't know why they got so mad about it. I told them they can just go to the store and buy wine now. They don't need a cup that makes it."

  I joined in the laughing now. "There are probably a lot of people that would love to get ahold of a cup that turns water into wine. I wonder if the ocean will eventually turn to wine."

  "There is a bright side to my punishment though. At least here I get to talk to people and have fun. Plus, I get to talk about sex with you." He looked at me and then at Tobias and smirked. Maybe Olly wasn't completely oblivious after all.

  Tobias stopped laughing. "You probably don't even know what hole to stick it in."

  "Tobias! Seriously, how old are you, twelve?" I stood and pulled out my phone. "I'm calling Asher. He, at least, doesn't act like a child."

  Tobias snorted. "Hate to break it to you, but Asher is ten times worse. You think his foul mouth is bad, wait until all three of us are vying for your attention at once."

  I raised my eyebrows and then shrugged. If they wanted to act like petulant children around each other that was their own business.

  We pulled up outside of Asher's place and I really just wanted to get out of the car. Maybe it was the stress of everything over the past several weeks, but my irritation was at an all-time high. Their bickering started the second we got to my car and Olly called shotgun. The entire drive I wanted to throttle them both. But then I also kept imagining myself ripping their clothes off and letting them both have their way with me.

  I should have taken them up on their offer to fly me to Asher's, but considering I was scared of heights, I declined. Instead, I was stuck in a not-so-large car with two testosterone filled males who were displaying their feathers like damn peacocks. Although, I suppose I was more of the peacock since I essentially had a harem and they were territorial like peahens.

  "Is it safe to be here? It looks like one of those creepy buildings in a movie just before the heroine gets murdered with a giant knife," Olly commented as he slid out of the car. "Don't worry, Dani. I will protect you."

  "What the hell have you been watching? You know all that crap is only partially based on reality, don't you?" Tobias retorted, slamming the door of my car shut which made me scowl at him. "You can't protect her. You'd probably slip and drop her."

  "Can you two just knock it off?" I stomped up the stairs and banged on the door with my fist. I would normally find their banter funny and join in, but Brooklyn was missing and who knew how many other angels we hadn't been told about.

  Asher opened the door with a confused look, probably at why I was banging instead of knocking. He looked behind me and then seemed to comprehend the reason and pulled me to him, kissing me on the lips. I let out a surprised squeal and leaned into his chest. Tobias cleared his throat.

  "Oh, hey guys. Didn't see you there. Come on in," Asher said, moving out of the way. Great. This was a really great idea.

  Olly walked in behind me and looked around wide-eyed like a kid in a candy store. I wondered if he had ever been in a candy store. We needed to start a list. "This place is awesome!"

  There was an awkward moment between Asher and Tobias as Tobias entered. They hesitated before Asher stuck out his hand and they shook. They were totally thinking about hugging.

  "You brought the idiot from the other night?" Asher asked, watching Olly move into the place like he owned it. He picked up a wood carving off an accent table and examined it before Asher snatched it from his hands and put it back.

  "Asher, be nice," Tobias warned. Funny words coming from someone who hadn't been so nice himself.

  Olly took a step away from Asher and held up his hands in mock surrender before angling his body towards me. "Great, now both of your boyfriends are going to gang up on me. Maybe you and I should just ditch them and ride off into the sunset together. What do you say?"

  "You can all either get along with each other or-" I bit my cheek to stop myself.

  "Or what, Danica?" Tobias raised his eyebrows.

  What I really wanted to
say was that I would spank them, but held it in. For once I didn't want to add fuel to the fire. We had shit to do, and saying something about spanking probably would not help. Instead, I said, "Let's just get this over with. Where are we going to start?"

  "The Fallen have been operating in places where there aren't a lot of people around. Park after nightfall, empty parking garage, empty alley. I doubt they'll go to the same place twice, at least not so soon afterward," Asher said, moving across the room and grabbing a laptop off his desk. He moved to the kitchen table with it. While it powered on he stood and went to the refrigerator to offer us drinks.

  After pouring himself a glass of whiskey, he sat back down at his laptop and paused his fingers over his keyboard. He looked over his shoulder at Tobias, then turned to face him. "So, I need to tell you about something I did a few years ago before you see my background."

  Tobias looked confused, but it was Olly who spoke. "It's okay if you have naked girls on your background, or hey, even naked men. You do you. You should see my computer background."

  Asher's eyes snapped to Olly and narrowed slightly before moving back to Tobias. "As you know, as a Fallen no one really keeps an eye on what I do if I stay out of trouble, so I took a little trip to Philly when I heard that Margie died."

  Tobias's hand gripped his beer bottle tighter, his knuckles turning white, and I hoped it wasn't going to break. Or that he wasn't about to hit Asher over the head with it. I looked between the two men, wondering if they were going to come to blows again. Olly noticed the tension radiating off of Tobias too and backed up a few steps. Tobias always had an air of calmness about him, so to see his hackles bristling was off-putting. It had become more and more frequent lately.

  "She was ninety-nine, died in her sleep. Anyway, I approached Jeffrey and told him my great grandfather served with you."

  Tobias took a really long gulp of beer, at least half the bottle. "Why are you just now telling me all of this?"

  "Didn't quite know how to tell you. We got to talking and he said that Margie had given them a box of pictures shortly before she passed. He let me borrow them and I got them scanned. I have been waiting for a good time to contact you about them."

  "You had no right to do that," Tobias ground out between gritted teeth. He walked to the kitchen window and looked out. "So what, you have my family plastered as your background?"

  Asher typed in his password and logged in. "There were quite a few pictures of our platoon in the box. I did scan all of the photos though. I'll share the folder if you want."

  Tobias walked back over to the table and I pulled Olly away to sit on the couch to give them privacy. There would be time later for us to look at pictures, but the two men needed a moment. Tobias was visibly tense, but then his shoulders dropped as Asher said something and they both laughed. After a few minutes of hushed talking, Tobias turned with shining eyes and waved us over.

  We gathered around Asher and watched as he pulled up a map. He zoomed in so that a mile radius was showing and pointed to the three known points of abduction.

  "Why are the Fallen even taking angels?" Olly asked, then turned to me. "We should ask your dad. Maybe he might know something."

  "You think my dad has something to do with this?"

  "Well.. he is the OG fallen angel."

  If he hadn't been talking about my father, I would have laughed.

  "I think what Olly is trying to say is that at one point in time the Fallen thought they were meant to be his army, and since they are using demon blood, maybe there's something he might shed light on," Tobias said. "It's worth a try."

  I stepped away from them and pulled up FaceTime on my phone. If I was going to ask him if he was kidnapping angels or supplying demon blood to the Fallen, I would at least do it to his face.

  He answered without video and the first thing we heard was screaming. "Just a second." He put us on hold, the phone going silent.

  "Was that seriously just a scream?" Olly looked at me with wide eyes. "Is he in hell right now torturing someone?"

  "Don't freak out so much. He usually still answers even if he's in the middle of something." I shrugged because it wasn't that big of a deal. Well, maybe it was a little bit of a big deal.

  "And you're okay with him torturing souls?" Olly seemed really concerned so I put a hand on his forearm. He looked down at it and then back at me.

  "It's his job."

  "His job was to let the souls exist in the afterworld in isolation, not torture them."

  "Not entirely my fault, boy," my father said. He must have come back on the line mid-conversation. "Danica, please tell me you aren't in trouble again. I'm getting too old for this."

  I snorted back a laugh. "I'm not. My friend Brooklyn is missing and we are trying to figure out what the Fallen would want with angels and how they are getting demon blood."

  "Who is there with you?" he asked and I told him. "So there are three men now? Is there a fourth? Figures Michael was only seventy-five percent accurate. The archangels are investigating this. You need to stay out of it, especially if Oliver is involved."

  What. Did. He. Mean.

  "Wait, a fourth? What do you mean Michael was right? You hate Michael. And what about Oliver?"

  "Hate is a strong word. It's more of a strong aversion to him. Oliver isn't just a regular angel. He didn't ascend, he just is. Like me, Han, Ham, Michael. Any of us would probably be a major win for whatever they are up to. If they get their hands on him, that probably wouldn't go very well for him."

  We all looked at each other. They almost had gotten their hands on him.

  "What are they doing with angels, Dad?"

  "We can't be sure, but we think they’re using their blood. It only makes sense that's what they're doing. An angel's blood is a powerful catalyst for creation."

  "What do you think they’re creating?" Tobias asked.

  "Whatever it is, it isn't good. I’m still interrogating all of my surface demons to see if they know where the demon blood is coming from. Demon blood has the opposite effect as angel blood."

  "Wait, you have demons here on Earth? Isn't that against some kind of law?" Olly said, not realizing that he was continuing to dig himself into a hole with my father. If he wasn't careful he was going to end up at the same level of disdain as Michael.

  My father laughed. "Son, if I didn't have demons dealing punishments on Earth, I'd end up with a whole hell of a lot more souls down here. When the guardians can't help the soul, I step in. I'm assuming they don't teach you that now, do they?"

  "You don't have anything to do with this, do you?" I asked slowly, cautiously.

  "Danica, I have angel blood myself. If I needed angel blood, I'd just use my own. Please, just... be careful. You have always had a faint angel aura about you and we don't know the composition of your blood, but it has to have some angel quality to it. If they took you and then found out you were mine..."

  We ended the call after that, saying our goodbyes, and I stared at the phone for a moment before looking at three sets of inquiring eyes. "We've never had my blood tested and I've never been to a regular doctor. He's paranoid they'd somehow find a way to take me and experiment. My dad pays for a private doctor or he just heals me himself."

  We turned back to our map.

  "There are way too many places to look," Asher said.

  "What if we should be looking for where they’re taking them," I piped in. "Where do the Fallen like to live?"

  "Well, if they are off the rails, then abandoned buildings. That's how I found this place. Not far from here there are some empty warehouses." He looked back at the map, not seeming to notice that he just told us he was 'off the rails' at some point. Whatever that meant.

  "We have to start somewhere. How are we getting there?" I asked, not sure if I wanted to be stuck in my car with three men.

  "Flying would be faster but someone is scared of heights. Funny considering she’s half angel," Tobias joked, nudging me in the side with his elbow. />
  "Even if I did agree to fly, won't someone see us?"

  "No. It's a short distance. It will be a good way to break you in. You can fly with me," Olly said.

  Asher went to his closet and disappeared. He popped his head back out a few seconds later. "Toby, come get a gun." Asher disappeared again and Tobias went into the closet with him. They came back out, but both had bulges in their front pockets, and it wasn't from them being happy to see me.

  "Do we not get guns?" Olly asked. I highly doubted Olly had even seen a gun up close before. He'd probably shoot his eye out.

  "Do you know how to shoot a gun?" Asher asked.

  "Well, no, but how hard can it be?" Olly replied, shrugging as if handling a firearm was no big deal. If he couldn't keep his grasp on a magical goblet, I would hate to see what happened if he fired a gun.

  Flying, even if just for a minute, was much different than I expected. I thought I'd feel dread at the thought of plummeting to my death, but instead felt weightless and free. It also helped that I was wrapped in Olly's strong arms and could bury my face against his chest, the smell of cookies filling my nose. I was grateful he wasn't addicted to something like broccoli or asparagus.

  We landed at the edge of a field filled with dead weeds and littered with trash. We quickly followed Asher and Tobias who had landed before us. I wished I had gotten a picture of Asher being carried by Tobias, but I heard that pictures of an angel with wings out came out blank.

  "Won't they sense us or something if we get too close?" I whispered as we scooted along the side of a brick building with half of its windows busted out. My boots crunched on the broken shards of glass and debris littering the ground.

  "Not with me here," Tobias said glancing back at me. He didn't elaborate and the look on his face told me he would tell me later. Knowing me, I'd probably forget to ask. I needed to spend some time in the library reading about angels because there was way more to them than just having a pair of wings.

  As we walked, we looked in the windows of the building. It showed signs that, at some point, people had squatted in it, but it was currently lifeless besides the faint sound of scuttling feet on the concrete floor I could hear through the broken windows. Gross.