To Fall (The To Fall Trilogy Book 1)

by Donna AnnMarie Smith

  I grabbed the cap and mask from him. “Thanks,” I grumbled.

  Caleb’s eyes brightened like aquamarine stones. “I gotta know. Did Hannah kick your ass?”

  “Shut up.”

  Laughing, he left and I remained with my back to her. I heard the whoosh of the toilet and slapped the mask on first. As the door opened, the cap went on, and I adjusted the fake identity badge over my scrubs. Margaret yawned and rubbed her eyes before sitting back down beside Abigail’s bed.

  Dr. Joseph Fredrickson entered the room and placed his laptop on the table. “Hey, Margaret. How is she doing?”

  “She’s cranky. Fought me the entire ambulance ride, but the pneumonia silenced her.”

  Joseph chuckled. Leaning over the bed, he shook Abigail’s shoulder and I still couldn’t bring myself to see her face. “You’re not here to sleep, lazybones, we have things to do.”

  The worn white sheets rustled and Abigail rasped, “You think I want to be here?” Her voice caught my attention, and though she was hoarse from illness, underlying there was a sweetness to her tone that was pleasing.

  My heart increased its pace and I lifted my gaze to see her. My breath stalled.

  “Come on, Abby Gabby.” Joe motioned to her ears. “Take the plugs out.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Abigail tugged the earbuds out, frowning. “Instead of bugging me, why don’t you go get new glasses? You’ve had those things for too long. They make you look old.”

  His thin fingers ruffled salt and pepper hairs. “Here’s a shocker, I am old.”

  “You don’t have to look it. Gold-rimmed aviators were best left in the nineties.” She tapped his wedding ring. “Maybe it’s time I met Charlie.”

  Joseph groaned. “It’s bad enough he’s always on my case, I wouldn’t stand a chance against both of you in the same room.” He crossed his arms in admonishment. “Speaking of, why does it take you so long to come to the hospital every time? Why did the paramedics have to haul you down here?”

  “Prepare yourself, Doc. I’ve been seeing another hospital on the side, didn’t want to hurt your feelings.” Full lips quirked up, fighting a smile, and I found my lips mirroring hers.

  Grinning, Joseph pulled a stethoscope from his front pocket. “All right, let’s get this over with. Evidently, I have an optometrist and a stylist to go see.”

  A sound came from her that caused me to pause. She laughed. Not at all what I expected. Her laugh was more of a giggle from a child, an innocent and pure song. A laugh that I wouldn’t mind hearing again.

  Margaret excused herself to the cafeteria. While Abigail shifted up in bed, Joseph acknowledged me with a nod. He continued his exam and I remained busy organizing drawers that were in perfect order.

  We had known Dr. Fredrickson since he came to Phoenix for his internship in cardiology. Abigail needed a doctor and he could be trusted with our secret. If possible, Abigail’s story had touched him as much as it had us.

  Joseph pulled down Abigail’s gown to examine her. I should have looked away. It was inappropriate for me to see her exposed like this, but I was curious. The first thing I saw was the top half of the pink scar running down the middle of her chest. Odd that it still appeared so fresh, even after all this time. Her skin was delicate, smooth with an olive tone, only blemished by her scar. As she breathed in one harsh breath after another for him, my eyes drifted up to the curvature of her neck, soft contours of her face, and over her petite frame lost to the hospital gown.

  Deep coughing snapped me out of my stare and Abigail struggled to take a breath. Joseph slipped the oxygen mask back on her, patted her on the head, and gave her a smile.

  Once he cleared the door, she yanked the mask off with a grimace, put her earbuds back in, and mouthed lyrics. I wondered what she was listening to, what had the power to bring her comfort, made her eyes close, and allow a peaceful veil to fall over her features.

  Watching her sleep, the ache that had been growing since I agreed to come here had taken up my entire chest. Abigail Miller. She looked just like Anne. Abigail would never know her mother. If only…

  My mind wandered back to that night. The first night we were too late.

  Almost twenty-one years ago…

  Flying over our jurisdiction in downtown Phoenix, Calista spotted a car in the middle of an abandoned lot. Everything was wrong about that black Mercedes. It was too nice for the area and the lights inside were on. When the car rocked on its wheels, the four of us pinned our wings back and sliced through the air. Nearing it, the familiar tingling crept into my spine and down my wing bones, knowing my siblings sensed it, too. A demon was inside, defiling the human it possessed.

  Reaching the car first, the sight inside had blood roaring in my ears. I tore the door off and the metal slammed down behind me. Black eyes snapped up and squinted at my angelic light, gritting his teeth at the pain it caused him. Before the demon’s soul could disjoin from the human’s, my hand cinched around his neck and trapped him inside.

  Yanking him out, his shirt was torn and his pants were undone, his lower half exposed. Dangling before me, he threw his head back, laughing, knowing I would not hurt the human he possessed. His eye line collided with mine and spit in my face.

  Unflinching, I scowled at him, letting my wings unfurl, brightening my light to inflict more pain on his tainted soul. His laugh came louder and I clenched my free fist, reigning in my revulsion for him, for what he had become. I let the knowledge of his soul fill me; Cresil’s sins were vast and vile, a lord in Prince Astaroth’s realm. A rapist. A killer.

  My siblings rushed past me to pull out the woman’s limp body from the backseat and knelt beside her to begin their healing.

  “Go ahead,” Cresil hissed. “I’m done with her, rat. Why don’t you have a taste? You know you want to.”

  My lips curled back over my teeth. “You foul demon!”

  He whispered, “You’re a few minutes too late, by the way. She was a virgin. You may want to consider that while you’re healing her, rat. Put her back the way she was.” He cackled louder into the desolate night.

  Caleb called, “Alexander, he will just taunt you!”

  “Yeah, Alexander,” Cresil sneered, “you should listen to your fellow rat over there and get this over with.”

  “With pleasure, filth.” His smile faltered at my promise.

  With my next words, the light exploded out of me and the demon howled and writhed. “Demon Cresil, with the Light of God, I cast you back to Hell!” I sensed the demon’s soul had departed to Hell and laid the man on the ground.

  Reaching into the cab, the woman’s clothes were in shreds, but the man’s folded jacket and tie sat on the console. My stomach churned for what he had done to her. I covered her bare body with the coat, seeing the blood between her legs and the clump of dark brown curls sticking to her temple.

  Then, I detected it and my head spun to find the other human I sensed. We would need to find them, wipe their memory if they saw us, but the soul was close, very close. I would have seen it. It was only the woman and us.

  Two human souls in one body. That could not be.

  Calista was the first one of us to gasp. “She is to have a child!”

  “Impossible.” Caleb shook his head. “You heard Cresil. He said she was a virgin.”

  Calista’s eyes became slits of sapphire. “I have not suddenly lost the ability to sense souls, Brother!”

  Hannah’s hands went to the woman’s temples to read her mind and wrenched away. “She was. How can this be? The laws of Heaven forbid Lucifer or his demons to call a soul to Earth.”

  “What do we do?” Calista asked.

  “We finish healing her and take her home.” Caleb’s voice sounded distant and unsure. “We will guard her until we can consult the Archangels. For a child to be born from this was an act of God. There is no other explanation.”

  I looked down at the man lying on the cracked asphalt. “And him?”

  Hannah offered, “Wipe him
and her. Let her remember…enough.”

  The silence seemed eternal, waiting for another option, but we knew there was not one. For us to stay hidden, it had to be this way, as cruel as it was to allow the woman, Anne, to remember this night.

  Lord Cresil was with her long enough to sense the child’s soul and he would know how important it was to God’s Design. He must kill Anne to return the soul to Heaven. A new course of events would be constructed for the soul to be sent to Earth again, which could take decades, if not centuries.

  Had Cresil succeeded tonight, Hell would have revered him as the demon to claim victory over Heaven. Lucifer would have granted Cresil the title of prince and gifted him with greater dominion and subjects. But Cresil failed tonight, and he must keep this secret from Lucifer or he would meet his death rather than receive a crown.

  Without question, Cresil would return to claim the child’s life.

  We called upon the Second Choir, but the Archangels never answered us and the child’s purpose remained unknown. Without the guidance of Heaven, the four of us did what we believed He would ask of us and became Anne and her unborn baby’s Guardians.

  Nine months into our self-imposed detail, Hannah sensed a cluster of demons a mile from Anne’s home. We split up and hunted them. I caught my first demon and realized it was a drone from Cresil’s province. It could not be a coincidence. Ice flowed through my veins at what this meant. Cresil would never trust a drone to do anything other than wreak havoc. Drones were new demons and careless; they made too many mistakes and defied their masters. They were a diversion. Cresil’s attack would be tonight.

  Caleb and Calista’s lights bolted after a dark form in the street. Hannah ran ahead of me into the house. The door was missing, blasted off its hinges and my chest constricted.

  We were too late. Again.

  Hannah huddled over Anne’s roommate, Margaret, in the living room, pushing her splayed body over from a pool of blood. When our eyes met, I knew she sensed what I did—two souls were present when there should be three.

  Tearing through the home, I called for Anne and stopped at her lifeless body slumped on the carpet of a light pink nursery. “Anne, no!” Picking her up, my gift flowed from within me and into her, willing her body to heal, but her soul was gone. I placed a hand over her swollen belly; the life within her was alive. “Hannah, the baby is dying!”

  “I cannot help you yet, Brother, get the baby out! You do not have much time!”

  Get the baby out? How? Oh no…

  Shaking, my hands hovered over Anne’s stomach. I had never done anything like this before. I had never inflicted injury to a human, and though she had passed, it seemed so wrong. But if I did nothing, the infant’s soul would return to Heaven. I had faith that God placed me here for this. He needed me to save the child.

  Closing my eyes, I prayed to receive strength. With my fingers, I opened Anne’s belly and removed her child, desperate to block out this horrific scene and focus on saving God’s Ordained Soul. After healing the umbilical cord, I grabbed towels to clean the baby. A shock of dark brown curls crowned her head. Her eyes had a blue haze, but they would turn brown like her mother’s.

  Gazing at her, I felt a strange tug within me as though an invisible bond had linked between us. Her soul was unique, somehow different from any other human I had known. The baby’s hand wrapped around my right ring finger and I drew in a sharp inhale. My heart felt bigger in my chest and the corners of my mouth tugged up. The touch of this child made me…happy. How odd. Angels only felt a modicum of human emotion, and this feeling was much stronger than anything I had experienced before.

  My joy was shattered with the awareness of her heartbeat: erratic and weak. With her cries, her breaths grew ragged, skin paled, and extremities turned a purplish hue. There was something wrong with her heart. I placed my fingers over her tiny chest to heal her. Her heart was just a damaged, frail thing. I could control its contractions, relax her lungs, and take away her pain, but her heart did not strengthen as I had believed it would. This made no sense. “Hannah! There is something wrong with the baby. I cannot heal her heart.”

  “What? I will be right there!”

  When Hannah appeared in the doorframe, I noticed we were both covered in blood, she in Margaret’s and me in Anne’s. The air was thick enough with the metallic scent I could taste it. The scarlet color tainted the innocence of the room, evidence of our failure painted on our hands. A memory that would forever haunt me.

  Hannah knelt by me. “What do you mean you cannot heal her heart?” Leaving the baby in my arms, she placed her bloodied hand over the child’s chest and drew back. “What is going on?”

  I shook my head, bewildered as she was.

  Margaret stumbled into the room, gripping the wall. Hannah bounced up to shield her of this horror, but she was too late. Her best friend lay torn apart on the floor, and two winged creatures held an infant who should still be in her mother’s womb. Margaret’s scream could splinter a soul, the kind that embedded into my brain and I prayed to forget.

  Putting her hands on Margaret’s temples, Hannah placed her in a dream state. “Call the Archangels, Alexander. They will heal the child.”

  “They have not helped us yet!” I objected. “They have just ignored us.”

  Closing her eyes, she knew it was true. “It is beyond us to question their reason. We have to try, Brother.”

  I nodded, having forgotten my place.

  With the baby, Hannah and I stepped outside. Our wings unfurled behind us and extended our angel light toward the Heavens, praying they would not deny us answers again. Archangels only came to Earth when called upon; the circumstances were dire when we did. Perhaps they were waiting for the child to be born before they answered our plea.

  We breathed out a sigh of relief as the Heavenly light returned to Earth, making the night appear as day. Hannah and I waited for the Archangel’s descent, not knowing which of the seven would answer. Encased within his light, Gabriel appeared. The Archangel’s glory and presence humbled us; his light shone brighter than ours ever could, filling us with warmth and God’s Love.

  The light from Heaven vanished, but Gabriel’s remained as he kept his wings furled to his body. The Archangel’s immense frame surged with muscles as he moved toward us, smashing down the gravel beneath his feet. The lone sapling in the yard fell over from the aftershocks of his steps. The white gossamer angel garb covering his middle swayed and gold embroidery shimmered. We angled our heads back to greet him and Gabriel’s cold silver eyes met mine.

  “Thank you, Brother Gabriel, for answering our call,” I said. “We require guidance for this child. Lucifer’s spawn conceived her. The baby’s heart is weak and we cannot heal her.”

  He did not speak, possibly reading my thoughts to understand what evils we had seen. Then he considered the child, gazing upon her with indifference. Gabriel’s long, pale fingers reached out to touch her, heal her. As their skin met, his fingers recoiled, almost imperceptibly.

  Gabriel’s gaze locked onto me. “This soul has been affected by evil. This is the reason for her weak heart. The First Choir cannot heal her, only the angels of the Upper Echelons can. Brother Alexander, the Throne commands that you, Hannah, Calista, and Caleb be her Guardians, henceforth. If Cresil should return to Earth and find her alive, he will finish what he started. More than likely, he believes he succeeded here tonight.”

  I shook my head, confused. Gabriel was of the Second Choir—a higher echelon than the First, the Guardians. “Brother Gabriel, you mean this child shall remain unhealed?” Disbelief colored my tone.

  “Yes. As is everything, her creation may be of God, but as you stated, a demon is responsible for her conception.” His massive hand gestured toward the Heavens with such grace that one would never guess its owner was a brutal soldier. “We cannot be certain what kind of soul hers will be. Let us first see what she does with this life, with this gift she has been given, if she is worthy of His Design. We wil
l afford her the same opportunity as any other of His Creations and judge her when the time is prudent. If she has proven hers a pure soul, we will heal her heart. If she proves hers a soul best fitted for evil, we will deny her. Hell can have the child.”

  I implored him, “Gabriel, she exists because God wills it. He meant for her to live. We must reason He alone know her soul to be pure. He would not want a life of suffering for her.”

  Hannah jerked on my arm to warn me.

  Crouching down to meet my stare, Gabriel’s white-blond hair brushed up against me like the clouds. “No error has been made here, Guardian. If He meant the child to have a healthy heart, He would have given her one. Fate dictated you to be present on the night of her conception. Fate dictated you were here for her birth. And the Throne dictates the four of you remain with her until judgment. It is beyond me to have knowledge of His plans for this soul, only to deliver His message. You question me, you question His Throne!”

  My head bowed to him. “Brother, my apologies. My intent was never insolence, merely understanding.”

  With a nod, Gabriel rose to his full height. “Yes, her existence is quite extraordinary. You will hide the child, protect her.”

  Hannah cut me off before I could argue any further. “Yes, Brother Gabriel.”

  “For God’s Throne.”

  We repeated the vow without an angels’ salute, and then he was gone with a bright flash of light beaming back into the sky.

  Hannah swiveled on me. “What is wrong with you? Have you snapped your wings?”

  “Hannah, as far as we know, Cresil is the one demon to know of her existence. If Gabriel destroyed Cresil, the child would be safe.”

  Hannah’s brows knitted together. “And what reason can Gabriel give Astaroth and Lucifer for Cresil’s sudden destruction? You want to demand that a lord from the realm of a prince in the High Court be sent to Oblivion? The matter would be brought to the Council of Angels and Gabriel would be forced to expose the truth. Lucifer will flood the Earth with demons searching for her. Gabriel is right. Cresil more than likely believes her soul is in Heaven. He will go to Hell and sing his own praises. Lucifer will rejoice they have won a battle tonight. She is safer this way.”