by Lisa Hughey
“Yeah.” Uri paced around the lab. “This is how you get rid of her?”
Angelina stiffened. But thankfully, she still didn’t speak.
“You bring her to the realm and, and, and....” Uri waved his hands wildly in the air.
“I just--”
“Don’t.” Uri covered his eyes with his hand. “Don’t tell me any more. I don’t hear, I don’t see, and I don’t know anything, so therefore I don’t have to turn you in.”
“Fine.” With a wave of his hand, Rafe dressed Angelina in her workout clothes from earlier, and then confessed, “I have a problem.”
Uri turned around to face Rafe, his face a mask of frustration. “You have more than one.”
“Is there a way to control our subconscious?”
Uri raised his blond eyebrows. “What do you mean?”
“I didn’t bring her here consciously.”
“You have a serious problem.”
“I know. It’s getting worse.” Rafe hesitated. He should feel badly, but instead he was fiercely happy that she was here. With him. As if the fog cleared, he could finally see her greater purpose. Angelina wasn’t just a healer. She was un ange avec le pouvoir déviant. “She needs to go with me to Poland.”
“What?” Angelina finally spoke.
“That’s not a good idea.” Uri shook his head.
“No shit. But I need her help.” Rafe gestured to the microscope. “Between the two of us we should be able to see if this virus is infecting the human population.”
“Virus?” Her voice rose.
“We can go snoop around the village near the farm. See if we can find any more occurrences of the virus. Maybe get some answers.”
Angelina protested, “I can’t go to Poland.”
“You seriously want to dangle that temptation in front of yourself?” Uri asked.
Angelina looked back and forth between the two of them. Probably deciding who to slap first. Angelina’s natural exuberance had reasserted itself.
“She should leave,” Uri said at the exact same time Angelina said, “She’s standing right here.”
“I think we...need her,” Rafe said.
“That is suicide.” Uri stepped closer to Rafe as if trying to impress on him his worry. His expression chilled Rafe. “You’ll be banished.”
He held very still. “Are you threatening me?”
“No, you idiot.” Uri was vehement. “But if she hangs around, someone else will figure out what I don’t know and didn’t see. You feel me?”
“Why are you here?” Rafe asked suddenly. Uri never came into the lab.
Uri strode over to the refrigerator unit with the virus samples. “I have a question about the dead chickens.”
“There were dead people, too,” Angelina said. She straightened her shoulders and pressed her mouth together. “There weren’t just dead chickens.”
“You’re right,” Uri said thoughtfully.
Uri’s sudden interest in Angelina made Rafe uncomfortable. Among the laboratory instruments and specimens, she should have looked delicate, out of place and fragile. Instead, her shoulders went back and her chin came out as if she owned the whole damn place.
Rafe said, “True. Which means there might be more sick.”
Uri remained silent.
“I cannot heal humans.” Rafe wanted to make the point even though Uri already knew it.
Uri studied Angelina as if he’d never seen her before, his expression speculative. “So she might be able to heal this?”
“Heal what?” Angelina crossed her arms over her stomach and hunched her shoulders slightly.
Uri gestured to the microscope and pad. “That disease.”
Angelina stared at the notes on the pad next to the microscope. “Bird flu?”
“Wait, seriously. You can read that?” Uri’s demeanor took on an assessing quality. “That’s great. But how?”
“I helped my husband study for his Boards,” Angelina replied absently. “Is that why someone burned the farm?”
“Maybe.” Rafe hesitated.
“What about the threat to Angels?” Uri asked softly as he glanced between Rafe and Angelina.
“I will protect her.” Rafe inhaled, his body readied for a fight. They’d have to go through him to get to Angelina and failure wasn’t an option. “I need her.”
He flushed at the double meaning but hoped Uri hadn’t caught that slip.
No luck.
Uri gave him the evil eye. “I can go, too.”
Rafe nodded. “That’s probably a good idea.” Someone needed to save him.
Of course, going to Poland to look at a decimated chicken ranch, to search for the elusive virus that may or may not be infecting humans, should be distraction enough to forget his attraction to Angelina.
He hoped.
***
“What the hell am I doing?” Planning on going to another continent with Rafe. Leaving her children, her sister, her responsibilities back in this house that no longer seemed to fit her.
“Is everything okay honey?” Janine called from the hallway.
“Fine, thanks.” Her sister had jumped all over the idea of taking the kids for a few days. And the kids had defected to Auntie’s camp without a fight.
“Have I been that difficult lately?” she wondered, since they had jumped on the idea to leave her.
“You look...incredible,” Janine said with awe, after stopping in the doorway of Angelina’s bedroom.
Angelina looked down at the simple blue jeans and white cotton shirt. An outfit that would normally garner a lecture on always looking your best when leaving the house. “Thanks, Sis.”
Odd.
“We’re just finishing up the last bit of packing then we’ll be out of your hair.” Janine traipsed out to supervise Lina and Brandt.
Angelina looked in the mirror. She was practically glowing. Her skin gleamed clear and translucent. Her streaked hair was glossy and silky looking. An attractive flush pinked her cheeks and her eyes were bright. But she hadn’t put on any makeup. None.
What was going on?
Could there be some sort of residual effect of the healing gifts that she instinctively healed herself without knowing it?
“We’re off,” Janine called from downstairs.
“Bye Mom,” Lina and Brandt singsonged from the steps.
“Wait!” She ran down the stairs. She wrapped her arms around Brandt hugging him to her, her face smashed against his thin teenage chest. Lina circled her arms around both of them. Lifting her right arm, she snuck underneath so they were entwined together.
“Group hug.” They both giggled.
Love balled and exploded in her chest like a hot comet bursting through space.
“C’mere, Auntie.” Lina beckoned.
And shock of all shocks, her sister joined their little group.
“I love you so much,” Angelina said fiercely.
“Jeez, Mom. We’re only going to be gone for the weekend,” Brandt teased. “It’s not like we’re leaving forever.”
The lump congealed in her throat. “Take care of my babies.” Angelina’s voice trembled.
“Don’t worry about a thing.” Her sister’s palm was soft and gentle on her hair. “We’ll be fine.”
“Yeah. Auntie and I are going shopping,” Lina boasted.
Brandt put in. “And we’re going to Nike Town.”
“And we’re having tea at the St. Francis,” Janine said triumphantly. To which both kids groaned. “Now come on it’s good for you to learn these things.”
“Yes, ma’am,” they chorused and clambered out the door.
The house was silent and morose without them. What had she done? What had she agreed to? Was she crazy? She couldn’t go to Poland on a whim. She couldn’t leave her children. She wanted to run after them except her feet were stuck to the floor, held in place by a sudden inability to move.
She needed to be staying away from Rafe, not going away with him. This was her
life. Her children were her priority. What was she thinking to even consider going to Poland with Rafe and Uri? What if something happened?
TWENTY-SIX
Rafe surveyed the destruction.
Even the soil was scorched. Little piles still steamed, lazy trails of gray smoke slithered up to the sky like a snake from a charmer’s basket. The stench of charred carcasses, wood, grass, and some indefinable odor clogged air still thick with smoke and ash.
Someone had not wanted anything to survive. But why?
“Do you smell that?” Rafe scented out the unusual odor.
“Death,” Uri said starkly.
Angelina gagged and bent over. She pulled a scarf from a giant hobo bag and held the vibrant pink fabric to her nose and mouth.
“Are you okay?” Rafe hesitantly pulled her hair back from her face.
“I’ll be fine.”
Rafe searched for energy patterns. All the buildings had been destroyed. The burn area covered miles, with the farm dead center of the destruction. Past the burnt area, rolling hills, green and lush from spring rain, spread for miles. The farm was isolated and remote.
“Do you sense any evidence of the virus here?” Uri banged his palm against his thigh.
“How could we see anything?” Angelina remarked.
“You need to use your other senses.” Rafe walked closer to the remains of large-scale chicken operation. Scattered through the yard, tangles of melted chicken wire lay in twisted metal sculptures. Angelina and Uri followed behind him.
He paused when they reached the place where Lev and Stas had perished. “Rest in peace, old friends.”
Uri knelt down and scraped the scorched dirt with a stick. He sniffed. “Smell it?”
Rafe finally identified the smell. “Ethanol.” The chemical residue from ethanol floated in the air.
Angelina frowned. “I thought ethanol didn’t have an odor.”
“For humans.”
“Your senses should be slightly more enhanced now,” Rafe said. “See if you can smell it.”
Angelina tentatively removed the scarf from her nose and mouth and tried to inhale but the stench was too much and she jammed the cloth back over her face. Gah, it stunk.
“While the gas burned you wouldn’t even see the flames until it hit the wood and animals,” Uri said absently as he studied the soil. “This confirms our original conclusion. This fire was deliberate. But we only have assumptions as to why.”
“And no idea who?” Angelina said with a heavy heart, “What senseless destruction.”
“Not all fire is destructive,” Uri countered.
“What does that mean?” Because this seemed pretty damn destructive to her.
“I am the Archangel of the resurrection flame. I bring renewal, rebirth and rejuvenation.”
Suspicion took root her thoughts. Uri could have set this fire. Although, why? “So this is the kind of fire you approve of?”
“Yes,” Uri spoke softly. “This is a perfect example of a fire that could be my handiwork. After all, fire is both destroyer and creator.”
“Yeah. But we know you didn’t set this. And we have to figure out who did.” Rafe dismissed the unspoken accusation.
“Your girlfriend here isn’t sure,” Uri sneered.
Angelina confronted him. “You said yourself that this looks like your handiwork.”
“Children.” Rafe stepped between the two of them. By the Cosmos, this did not make him happy. “Don’t fight. She’s got a point.”
“Great, thanks.” Uri puffed up his chest, as fists clenched and muscles readied for an attack. “You prick.”
Angelina stepped in front of Rafe as if to protect him. Which was silly. These two Archangels could probably crush her with little more than a thought. Uri could incinerate her where she stood, but she couldn’t let them degenerate into squabbling.
“Shut up and listen.” Rafe gestured to the destruction. “Look around you. If you weren’t you, who would you think set this fire?”
Uri turned in a circle to check all the ignition points. “No burn pattern–that’s a significant factor from an Angel burn, rather than an accelerant-based pattern. She is right, dammit.”
“Someone purposely set this so that we would suspect you.” Rafe snapped his fingers. “Zach. That’s why he was so pissed. He thought you set the damn fire.”
“Why didn’t he talk to me?”
“Uh, maybe it’s your ultra approachable personality,” Angelina said sweetly.
Rafe let out a bark of laughter. And then, he stopped and held still.
Uri looked as if Rafe had birthed a chicken. “I haven’t heard you laugh in....”
Forever. They left the word unspoken.
“Yeah,” Rafe said quietly. “Let’s focus on the site again. Someone tried to set you up. We need to reverse engineer the crime so we can figure out how they torched the place. And then we need to figure out why they wanted to implicate you.”
Angelina tiptoed gingerly over to the far side of the decimated coop. “So the chickens had bird flu?” So it made sense that they burned the chickens.
“Yes. But why torch the entire farm and a dozen people?” Rafe kicked at a pile of embers. “Exactly why I’m sick of mankind.”
Angelina persisted. “Except that whoever did this wasn’t just human.” Because they had known to implicate Uri in a way that most humans wouldn’t even recognize. She hadn’t understood the significance of the burned area.
“She’s right,” Uri agreed. “Plus a regular human wouldn’t know about the Angel’s mark.”
“What about it?” Angelina rubbed at the mark that signified she was an Angel.
Uri and Rafe shared a look.
“Tell me,” she demanded. A sliver of fear pricked her. “What does the Angel mark have to do with this fire?”
“The night we were here. You saw the two Angels?” Rafe traced her Angel’s mark with a light finger. “Someone stabbed them in their mark.”
He was leaving something out. Something big. “And?”
“It killed them,” Uri said shortly.
Rafe exuded anger as he snarled at Uri, “That’s enough.”
“She needed to be told.”
Angelina shivered. “So, they killed the chicken, the humans and your Angels.” Nausea roiled in her stomach. She had agreed to be a simple healer like her Grammy. No one had mentioned bird flu and fire and death through Angel marks.
“This feels like more than a simple fire,” she whispered as fear slithered through her. As if a catastrophe of epic proportions was bearing down on her like a tidal wave. “I have children to raise.”
Rafe rubbed her back. “I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
As she thought of her children, she thought of the evil offspring wiped out by the flood. Or so everyone thought. “What if the Nephilim are back?”
Uri was incredulous. “You told her about the Nephilim?”
“It was supposed to be a deterrent.”
“Yeah, that’s working real well for you.” Uri shook his head.
“Let’s just focus on the problem at hand,” Angelina said calmly. “What do you think?”
“There haven’t been Nephilim for thousands of years,” Rafe refuted.
“They could have been dormant,” Uri said thoughtfully. “Waiting for the right time to make their move.”
Angelina talked through the scarf. “But how would they know about Uri? And why make this look like he set the fire?”
“To distract the Archangel Council,” Rafe speculated. “If we were concentrating on a tribunal to judge you we wouldn’t spend time worrying about why you set the chickens on fire.”
“It couldn’t just be about implicating me,” Uri said. “Could it?”
“This would be considered a deliberate and aggressive act against the human race.” Rafe said softly, “Punishable by banishment.”
“Looks like we could be going together,” Uri quipped.
The sick pit in Angeli
na’s stomach revolted again. She couldn’t be responsible for Rafe’s downfall. She refused.
“Something else bothers me,” Rafe said.
“What’s that?”
“How did we learn about the fire?”
“I got the news late.”
“From Lev?”
“No.” Uri frowned. “Not Lev. And by the time I arrived, the fire was already too far gone. It was hopeless. Containment was the only response.”
“Who told you about the fire?”
“Zach.”
“Who is Zach?” Uri sure didn’t sound pleased about him whoever he was.
“He’s the Archangel of Forgiveness whose weapon is water. The exact opposite of Uri and the one most likely to go after Uri because of their acrimonious relationship.”
Uri sifted through a pile of ash, oblivious to the heat. “That can’t be a coincidence.”
“You think he set the fire?” Angelina asked.
“I’ll bind him,” Uri said furiously.
“Calm down. It doesn’t make any sense,” Rafe argued.
“Not only does he hate my guts but he was supposed to help put out the fire and he disappeared,” Uri growled.
“But what if they purposely used the two of you to play off one another?” Angelina theorized. “My kids try that all the time.”
“Is there any reason Zach would have killed the Angels?” Rafe wondered aloud.
“Zach doesn’t have a reason to kill them. He has enough guilt over the deaths in the Caribbean,” Uri said softly. “I can’t believe I just defended him. As much as part of me would like to think so, I don’t see it.”
And finally reason took over. “Let’s focus on the virus for now,” Rafe said.
“Should we check out the town, you know, investigate?” Angelina asked slowly. The puzzle of the fire and the virus had sparked her imagination. The feud between Uri and Zach only escalated the growing questions about this fire. Nothing about it was simple. And maybe she could help.
“There have been some reports of illness,” Uri said thoughtfully. “Maybe we can find out about that and hear if any strangers have been hanging around.”
“I had planned to observe the townspeople to see if any had the virus.” They needed all the evidence they could get to support their idea. Rafe surveyed the barren earth.