Lavender Fields

by Natalina Reis

“That she got to spend all that time with you while I was unconscious.”

  I tried to say something, anything, but my voice caught in my throat. I leaned over to kiss him. My eyes couldn’t leave his. My brain was fighting my heart but losing. I needed to taste him again, make sure he was real. Make sure he was really there, flesh and bone, that I hadn’t dreamed this whole thing.

  My lips never made it to their target as Joan walked in, juggling three cups of coffee. “Mercy. I leave for a second and you guys start making out?” Heat swept through my face and neck, and I dropped my eyes to the floor. “I’m kidding, Sky.”

  Caleb sought my hand with his. “You’re cute when you blush,” he said in a barely audible whisper. I stole a glance at him from the corner of my eye and smiled. The corner of his mouth was turned into a wicked little curl. “Joan has a gift to embarrass every guy who dares come close.” His voice was audible again, and Joan turned to frown at him. “I think she’s jealous that I seem to attract better-looking guys than she does.”

  Putting the coffee cups down abruptly, she grabbed an empty Styrofoam cup and threw it at him. Her aim was impeccable, hitting Caleb right between the eyes.

  “Ouch. Is this how you treat your invalid brother?” His laughter was contagious. Before I realized, I was laughing along. Joan fought it, trying to look angry without much success.

  Forgetting for a moment the fear from just an hour or so before, I allowed myself to be lulled by the warm feeling of belonging. Both brother and sister seemed to welcome me as an old friend, and I found that I loved it. We sat, talked, and joked around for a couple hours, sipping on the strong coffee Joan magically produced periodically. After a while, I noticed Caleb getting tired. His eyes were heavy with sleep and his voice became slightly slurred. I had seen it many times before. Dying wasn’t that different from falling asleep, after all.

  “Caleb needs to sleep for a while,” I whispered to Joan as I coaxed her out the door, closing it behind us. “Let’s go into the waiting room and let him be for a while.”

  She and I sat on the comfortable chairs in the waiting room, talking in whispers and getting to know each other better. She had a lot of questions about angels, and I wasn’t sure whether to be amazed, scared, or plain amused that she truly believed in my angelic origins without question. I answered what I could and skirted around what I couldn’t. Soon, her eyes began to close as well. I stood and helped her stretch on top of the couch, then covered her with the blanket we had dragged with us from Caleb’s room and watched her for a few minutes while she drifted off to sleep. She was so tiny it was easy to think of her as a child, even though technically she was an adult. That Caleb felt he still needed to sacrifice his own life to take care of her was suddenly totally understandable to me. And also perfectly endearing.

  Missing the sight of Caleb already, I left Joan to sleep and padded back to his room. The door was ajar and a little red alarm went off in my head. Cautiously I opened it and peeked inside. The dark silhouette of an angel was leaning over Caleb, doing something with his IV.

  “Samael!” The yell came out unwarranted.

  The fallen angel turned his perfect face to me, surprised at first, but then a malicious, dangerous smile stretched over his lips and worked its way to his black eyes. “Sky, I presume.” His voice was melodious, strangely entrancing like the call of the sirens. “Came to save your charge? A little late, I’m afraid.”

  Terror filled my veins and without thinking, I ran toward the dark angel.

  With a shimmer, he was gone before I reached him.

  I stared at Caleb, not knowing what to do. Everything seemed to be okay. Quickly, I surveyed the tubes coming in and out from him, the IV, and the bag with the fluids Caleb needed to sustain his body. A reddish tint caught my eye. The liquid in the lower part of the IV tube had a different color from the one in the bag. It was very subtle; a human eye would probably miss it, but my celestial eyes could see it clearly.

  Faster than I had ever moved, I pulled the needle from Caleb’s arm just as the alarm on his heart monitor went off.

  I’m too late!

  ____________

  A KISS

  I’m not sure when I made the decision. Maybe it was the moment I saw life fleeing from Caleb’s broken body. Maybe it was when I heard the agonizing scream that escaped Joan’s throat when she walked in the room a few seconds later. Maybe I had already decided. Whatever it was, I was done. I wasn’t going back to being Gabriel’s lackey.

  I held the elfin girl in my arms while she cried tears of unmeasurable pain. My eyes were dry. Inside there was anger, swelling like a malevolent balloon, filling me with its noxious fumes and making me gag. Angels weren’t built to handle the ills of wrath. Within the room, behind closed doors, an army of doctors and nurses struggled to save Caleb’s life. I hated myself for not knowing what kind of poison had been injected into his bloodstream, but one of the doctors had quickly identified it after I mentioned the reddish tint I noticed in the IV fluid. We were removed from the room and kept outside, closely watched by a ward nurse with sympathetic eyes.

  Time seemed to have lost its contours. We were either waiting for hours or mere seconds—I couldn’t tell the difference anymore. When a doctor finally emerged from Caleb’s room, wiping his brow, I found I had lost my power of speech. That growing balloon had swelled inside of me until I was suffocating. Joan looked up from my shirt where she had buried her face. “How’s…?” She couldn’t finish the question.

  The young doctor offered us a tired smile. “He’s going to be okay.” A great flood of emotion went through me and left me weak in the knees. Unable to control it, I dropped to the floor, bringing Joan with me. From the tightness of my chest, a wail of relief—or perhaps grief—rose and escaped.

  It was Joan’s turn to comfort me, her arms encircling my neck as she pulled me against her. “It’s okay, Sky. He’s going to be okay.”

  After allowing us a few moments of silence, the doctor spoke again. “We were able to stop the toxin in his bloodstream just in time. He won’t suffer any side effects from it.”

  Tears burned my skin as they rolled down my cheeks and pooled around my mouth. I was relieved, happy, but also so very angry at myself. This was all happening because of what I had done. If I had let Caleb meet his maker when he was supposed to, he wouldn’t be in danger now. He’d be in a good, happy place where he’d be cherished and rewarded for the way he led his life on Earth. Instead, he was being sought out by a cruel dark angel and in danger of being carried to rot in Hell.

  Amid my grief, I almost missed it. “He’s awake and asking for both of you.”

  Did he say “both of you”? Is Caleb really asking me to his side? I swallowed the tears, wiped my face with my sleeve, and got back on my feet. My legs still felt wobbly and I leaned all my weight on tiny Joan, who supported me like a champion.

  Caleb was half sitting, propped up by a couple pillows. He was a little paler but didn’t seem any worse than before the incident. His face opened up in a beautiful smile as soon as he set eyes on us. My legs were suddenly rejuvenated, as if those eyes had some kind of healing power. Good thing too, for Joan left me suddenly to run into the arms of her brother. I was tongue-tied. What was there to say to the guy you loved, who had just been poisoned by an evil angel? Not that he was aware of that, but still.

  “It’s been an interesting few days, hasn’t it?” Caleb was actually chuckling as if he had been told a great joke rather than almost killed. Joan was gesturing me to come closer. “I’ll have a lot of great stories to tell my nieces and nephews when this one decides to give me some.”

  How can he be so cavalier about it? Or is he only being strong for Joan’s sake?

  The young woman was busy making sure her brother was comfortable, fluffing pillows and tucking in blankets. “For God’s sake, sis,” Caleb exclaimed, “will you stop fussing over me? I’m alive and have no intention of dying any time soon.” I swallowed hard, still unable to say anythin
g. “Be a sweetheart and get me some of that awesome coffee you can ferret out of this hospital, will you?”

  I could see the hesitation in Joan’s posture and stepped forward to volunteer to go in her place, but Caleb’s warning glare stopped me in my tracks. He wanted her to go. “Please, sis.” Joan shrugged in resignation and walked out, mumbling something under her breath.

  As soon as she was out of the room, Caleb gestured for me to close the door and approach the bed. Curious and more than a little nervous, I did as requested. Much to my surprise, he held my hand and pulled me forward until I was sitting so close to him I could feel his body heat. My heart began the frantic drumming it always did when in close proximity to Caleb. I was still unable to speak.

  “The doctors told me you were the one who sounded the alarm.”

  Hell, what do I say? “There was an evil angel over your bed?” Would he even believe me? Maybe before, when he still remembered me as an angel, but now?

  He pulled me closer until I could feel the warmth of his breath on my face. My own breathing accelerated as if I had run a marathon. My hand, still cocooned in his, was hot and tingly, and my gut—well, I wasn’t even sure what my insides were doing. “Yes, it was me.” I had finally found my voice, shaky and hoarse as it was.

  Caleb’s tantalizing lips curved in a smile. The handsome devil was enjoying my panic. His left hand gripped the front of my T-shirt and pulled me even closer. Our lips were mere nanometers apart, our breaths mingling in an intoxicating dance.

  “Are you going to kiss me? Or do I have to get a doctor’s note first?”

  I lost it. My mouth came crushing down on his, hungrily tasting the lips I had been dreaming of for weeks now. He tasted like I remembered—ambrosia that went straight to my head. I felt drunk, my body quickly responding to the touch of his tongue inside my mouth, the suckling of my thirsty lips. His hand, flattened against my chest, burned my skin through the thin fabric of my shirt. I forgot where I was, who I was. The stars stopped shimmering and the world came to a halt. For a few seconds, all that existed was Caleb and me entangled in that kiss.

  “Hell and tarnation!” Joan was quickly picking up some of my colorful angelic vernacular. “You’re worse than teenagers in heat. You just came back from the dead, Caleb. Again! Can’t you wait until you’re on your feet?”

  We disconnected and, dazed and flushed, stared at Joan who had entered the room unnoticed. She set the coffees on the tray at the bottom of the bed and placed her hands on her hips. “And you, Sky Heavensent, you should be ashamed of yourself. My brother needs his rest, not to be aroused to an inch of his life.”

  Heat once again covered me from head to toe. The little elf had a gift to make me blush. I stole a glance at my conspirator and was met with the most brilliant of smiles and a squeeze of the hand.

  “Thank you,” he mouthed as he caressed my hand with his thumb. I wasn’t sure whether he was thanking me for saving his life again or for the epic kiss we had exchanged. Maybe both.

  I smiled back, happiness replacing the mire of my previous anger. I had this sudden, ridiculous urge to run around like a crazed teenager, yelling, “OMG, he kissed me!” I licked my lips instead and was immediately rewarded, Caleb following the movement of my tongue and inhaling sharply. My smile widened to the point that I’m sure I looked like an idiot, but I couldn’t help it. For the time being, I was filled with a new and exciting sense of hope.

  Later, when it was time to go, I was torn. I knew I was no longer going to do Gabriel’s bidding, but I was also smart enough to understand that as long as I was working at headquarters and the archangel was unaware of my dealings with Caleb—which may not have been the case anymore since Samael had recognized me—I was in the optimum position to get intel on what was going on. And hopefully stay one step ahead.

  That knowledge didn’t make my departure any easier though. I wanted to stay with Caleb and Joan, but I knew I couldn’t.

  “I have to go. My boss doesn’t take me being late lightly.” I threw a longing glance at Caleb, who smiled back at me.

  “You’re coming back, aren’t you?” Joan seemed agitated at the thought that I might not. “I like you, and you bring a smile to my stupid brother’s face.”

  Caleb’s eyes wrinkled as he shook his head and frowned.

  “I’ll come back as soon as I can,” I promised. “I’ve grown to like you as well, squirt.”

  A smile stretched across her lips.

  “Yeah, she does grow on you eventually—kind of like mold.” Caleb’s remark was answered with a glare. He laughed and turned his eyes to me. “Do come back. We have some… unfinished business.” He winked and my insides melted.

  I flew as slow as I could on my way back to Arcadia. The sun was rising, its bright rays piercing through the clouds in an awe-inspiring shower of light reflecting what I felt deep inside. As an angel, I carried joy within me at all times, but the sad side of my job had been creeping in and settling sourly into my heart of late. Little tendrils of doubt and sadness that had grown like ivy and encircled my soul to the point of suffocation.

  Deep in thought, I didn’t notice the small group of angels waiting for me at my door. They all carried the fiery swords of the angelic police, and as soon as my eyes met their hard and cold stares, I knew I was in big trouble.

  Punished

  ____________

  IMPRISONED

  “I haven’t done anything wrong.” Technically that wasn’t true. I had indeed broken one golden rule—or two—of my angelic duty. But speaking in terms of morality, I really hadn’t done anything wrong. “Gabriel, you know that, as much as I’m clumsy and impulsive, I always do what’s right. Isn’t our seraphic duty to protect and love the humans in our charge?”

  Gabriel wiped his face with a big hand and sighed deeply. He was annoyed. Seriously and dangerously annoyed. “Not if your duty is to harvest his soul.” He paced on the other side of the rectangular table separating us. The angel cops had chained my wrists to the table, so my movement was limited. “You not only revealed yourself to and saved someone whose time on Earth was up, but then you proceeded to visit that same individual and are now standing between him and the forces of Heaven.”

  “Don’t you mean Hell?” Beyond angry, I had lost my common sense. “You sent Samael to kill him. You’re an angel. You’re incapable of killing, of causing human suffering, so how can you justify such a cowardly and evil move?”

  Gabriel leaned across the table. “I did not send a dark angel to kill anyone.” He spoke through his clenched teeth, his normally even-colored face scarlet. “I don’t know where you get your information, but I would never do something like that.”

  “Oh really? So who sent Samael to Caleb’s hospital bed?” Spittle flew out of my mouth. “I was there, Gabriel. I saw him. I saw him injecting poison into Caleb’s veins. I saw the note on your desk. I know it was you who commissioned him to kill the human.”

  Gabriel flinched at my last words. Was it possible he didn’t know about it?

  The archangel straightened up, pulled down on his shirt, and licked his lips. There was a momentary hesitation, as if he were trying to decide what would be the best thing to do, but before I knew it he had called two of the guards into the room. “Clip his wings and take him to isolation. No one—I repeat, no one—is to visit him, feed him, or talk to him other than me. Understood?”

  Hyperventilating now that the words “clip his wings” had been uttered, I tried in vain to free myself from the chains holding me to that table. The guards came from behind me and coaxed my wings to retract and then—much to my horror—clamped them with a seraphic lock. The lock didn’t cause any pain beyond being uncomfortable, but I was unable to unfurl and use my wings. Crushed, I was unchained from the table and dragged forcibly into the isolation chamber of Arcadia’s police station.

  Crime was virtually nonexistent, so the prison cells were mostly small rooms used to keep angels guilty of minor trespasses with barely any sec
urity at all. The isolation chamber was a different matter. It was reserved for those of us who had fallen and served as a kind of waiting room between Heaven and the other side. Wings were clipped to prevent the fallen angels from fleeing until such time as emissaries of darkness came to get them. It didn’t happen often, and I had never expected it to happen to me.

  The guards left me by myself in the small, all white room and locked the door behind them. I sat on the floor, leaning against the wall in disbelief. Was Gabriel really going to turn me into a dark angel because I did something good? Yes, I had broken a rule, but it wasn’t the same as a mortal sin. I had done nothing evil, nothing that would warrant my change of status.

  Tears burned behind my eyes, but I refused to free them. Gabriel wouldn’t get the satisfaction of seeing me terrified out of my wits and heartbroken. I was never going to see Caleb again. Even worse, I would be doing the bidding of evil instead of good. For the first time in my very long life, I entertained thoughts of self-destruction, although I wasn’t even sure if it were possible for an angel to commit suicide. Nothing scared me more than the idea of becoming a dark one.

  Something startled me. A noise. A soft scratching sound at first, soon growing in crescendo to the point that I realized it was the screeching of a human being. A sound like that could mean only one thing—pain, and lots of it.

  I jumped to my feet, my wings sore from the restrictive lock, and looked around me. I couldn’t see much other than the bland walls of my prison staring back at me like bored ghosts. Another loud, heartrending screech filled the empty space and bounced off the walls. Where was it coming from?

  As if from the edges of a dream, a figure appeared. No, two figures. One walking erect and with wings proudly unfurled behind him, the other slumped, nearly dragging across the floor. My heart stuttered like the faulty exhaust in a car.

  “Caleb!” It can’t be. How could Caleb be in Arcadia? In this isolation booth? And why?