Think, angel, think. It all seemed like a lifetime ago, buried in the twilight of the past. Gabriel had left his office minutes before I went in at his request. Headquarters had been pretty empty; most angels had gone home already, I remembered. What was I missing? Someone must’ve been lurking around, but I couldn’t think of anyone.
Desperate, I pulled up the directory Gabriel had so kindly—or out of guilt, most likely—given me access to.
The screen filled with names and faces of every angel who worked at headquarters. I filtered the information by departments, isolating it to the main lobby, where I worked, and the boss’s floor. As I scrolled down the list, I grew disheartened. I couldn’t recall any of them being around at that time. It was a long list, organized alphabetically.
Toward the end of the list, Cranky Amy’s name appeared. Amy Zephyr. I chuckled quietly. Zephyr, indeed. The name meant “a gentle breeze,” which was ironic considering there was nothing gentle about her. The breeze part I could understand since she was full of hot air most of the time.
Wait! Wasn’t Amy in the office when I left that day? I closed my eyes, trying to remember. Was she there? I remember thinking it was weird that she was gone earlier than usual. Shit, I don’t know. My brain just hadn’t been the same since Samael and his not-so-tender ministrations. Swiss cheese seemed to have replaced a great part of my memory of late. Gabriel claimed it was the side effects of angel fire, much like chemo on humans. “It’s temporary, Sky. Don’t worry.” I hoped he was right.
I shook my head and buried my face in my arms crossed over the keyboard. Hell, was she there or not? The computer pinged, and I snapped my head up. On the screen there was a picture of a video camera. “Are you trying to tell me something, Father?”
Of course, the video monitors! Headquarters didn’t have much need of video surveillance, but there was a camera pointed at the main entrance for security purposes. Legend had it that a few disgruntled fallen angels had once tried to besiege headquarters in protest of their condemnation. I was of the opinion that the camera was there so Gabriel could “escape” when someone he didn’t want to talk to walked in.
Typing away like a secretary on crack, I pulled up the recordings for that day and fast-forwarded them to just before Gabriel left the office. I watched as the archangel came to tell me to make the call to Michael, then left. For the next ten minutes or so, there was nothing happening while I went upstairs to Gabriel’s office, but suddenly I saw her, Cranky Amy, entering the room from a back office and crossing ways with me on my way out. She was there after all! And she had free access to Gabriel’s office.
Could she be the one? What motivation could she have for doing something like that? Amy had never liked me very much, but neither did a lot of other angels. Not a strong enough motive to make a pact with the dark side. For once I wished I had been a little more observant of those around me at work; I lived in my own little bubble, and that wasn’t helping me much right now. I closed my eyes and went through a million memories. Not the important ones, for something told me the heart of the problem was probably something I dismissed as banal or negligible.
The door cracked open and Caleb’s handsome face peeked through. “Fancy a break?”
Do I ever! “What exactly do you have in mind?” My eyebrow arched all the way up, and I tilted my head while scanning him from head to toe.
Caleb laughed and shook his head. “You have a dirty mind, sweet angel. I meant going for a walk.”
I glanced at the laptop screen wistfully and then, stretching my arms above my head, I stood. “Yes, I think a walk would do me a world of good. Maybe it’ll help me organize my thoughts.” I slipped an arm around Caleb’s waist and pulled him against my side. “Although, with you by my side, it’s impossible to keep a clear head.” He looked at me and gave me one of his heart-melting smiles. “See? I have no idea what I was thinking about a second ago. You’re dangerous.”
Surprises
____________
EUREKA
“Can I open my eyes now?” Caleb had dragged me to a nearby town and made me walk with my eyes closed for at least a block. I had repeatedly crashed into walls and even people a couple of times. “I’m getting bruised all over.”
“Stop whining. You can open them now.” I opened my eyes to a nondescript gray door. This is the surprise? “It’s what’s inside, Sky, not the door.”
Inside it was dark, and even my angelic eyes had trouble adjusting to the change from the sunshine outside. The walls were lined with drawings, sketches of many different types and colors. A rice paper wall separated a smaller room from the main one. Classical music wafted through the air as a tall, older woman came from behind the screen. “Good morning, Caleb. Is this the friend you told me about?”
I looked at Caleb and then back at the woman. “Am I the only one who doesn’t know what’s going on?”
“This is Celeste.” Caleb put a hand behind my shoulders and pulled me gently closer to the woman. “She’s an old friend of the family, and she’s also the most amazing tattoo artist in the world.”
Celeste laughed. I liked her laugh, open and honest. “Well, I don’t know about the world, but I am pretty good.”
Confused, I wrinkled my nose and combed my hair with my fingers. “I don’t understand.” Was this my swiss cheese brain playing tricks on me again?
Caleb slipped his arm around my shoulders. “I wanted to give you something special, and I thought you would like a tattoo.” Now I was truly lost. What could I have ever said that made him believe I wanted a tattoo of all things? “Show him, Celeste.”
The dark-haired woman stretched her arm and offered me a piece of paper. It was a drawing like the ones on the wall. My heart somersaulted when I realized what it depicted—a pair of beautiful wings. “They would be tattooed starting on your shoulder blades, moving into your upper arm, ending right before your elbow. I understand you have a special love for angel wings.”
The sting of tears burned in my eyes. They weren’t tears of sadness but of happiness. The knowledge that Caleb loved me enough to have thought of such an amazingly touching gift flooded me with a sense of joy. What had I done to deserve such love? I wiped the tears with the back of my hand.
“Do you hate it?” Caleb seemed worried, his face turning into a mask of doubt. “I’m sorry. I’m so stupid. What made me think this would be a good thing?”
I cupped his chin and kissed him, interrupting the stream of self-doubt coming from his mouth. “I don’t hate it, Caleb. I love it. I absolutely love it. Thank you.” I hoped he knew I was thanking him for more than just the idea.
Celeste laughed. “I’m guessing you’ll do it?”
By the time we went home a few hours later, I had the preliminary sketch of the wings drawn on my shoulders and arms. Celeste didn’t act surprised or ask about the thin scars I had over my spine, what was left of my burned roots. I could no longer retract them, so they were both visible. Joan insisted on rubbing a scar ointment on it every day in hopes they would at least fade away. I liked them in a rather morbid way, a painful reminder of what had happened, but also a memorial of sorts for a part of me that I would never recover.
“How do you know Celeste?” I asked Caleb as we sat at the dinner table that night.
Joan perked up her ears. “Celeste? She’s awesome.” She took a large bite off the dinner roll. “I want her to give me a tattoo.”
“You’re not going to get a tattoo.” Caleb gave her the don’t-you-dare look.
“I’ll be eighteen in less than a month. I’ll get one if I so desire.” Amusingly enough, Joan was picking up a lot of my language. “And if I want a fucking tattoo, I’ll get the fucking thing.” Then again, she hadn’t lost any of her old language either.
“Oh my God, Joan.” Caleb slammed his fork down on the plate. “Why can’t you clean your filthy mouth? You talk like a sailor.”
Joan took another bite of the buttered roll and mumbled, “Maybe I should join the N
avy.” I laughed quietly, afraid of pissing off Caleb. “Anyway, Sky, Celeste is an old family friend. She was one of my mom’s patients.”
Caleb’s mom had been a therapist in Maine before her death. I had read it all in the files I had absconded from headquarters. “Isn’t it unusual for a patient to get involved personally with the family of her therapist?”
“They were friends before their professional relationship.” Caleb leaned back in his chair, hands behind his head. “She had a breakdown after she saw her husband of twenty years with another woman. She lost it and my mom came to her rescue.”
Something in my brain clicked. Another woman. Remember, remember. Amy had always had a strange attachment to Gabriel, being the first one in the office and the last one to leave, always available for his every need and every request. Why did I never see it? Amy was in love with Gabriel. And he—
“I know why she did it!” I jumped out of my chair. Joan and Caleb looked at me as if I had grown a second head.
“Why she did what? And who’s she?”
“I know why Cranky Amy made a pact with Samael.” Of course! A woman scorned. Angels were no different. She had been “replaced” by whoever Gabriel had been dating. Amy must’ve snapped and decided to get back at him by framing him for a truly heinous crime. The fact that Caleb and I got caught in the crossfire was a bonus.
Both Caleb and Joan had stopped eating and exchanged looks that clearly read “Oh crap! He’s lost it!” I smiled, stupidly relieved for having figured out the mystery. I had told them the story from the beginning, about the note and my frustration at not having any idea who had planted it on Gabriel’s desk for me to find it.
“But how did she achieve her goal by having you find the note? No one else knows about it, and the only people who got in trouble were you and me.” Caleb had a point. If Amy’s ultimate goal was to get back at Gabriel by disgracing him in the seraphic society, having me find it first wasn’t the most brilliant move. “There has to be something else.”
Silence fell as we all retreated into our own thoughts. “Who says she meant for you to find the note?” Joan’s dark eyes shone as they always did when she had an idea.
I reached out and wrapped my arms around her neck. “You are brilliant, my elfin friend.” She laughed and pretended to shoo me away. “She didn’t know that Gabriel was going to send me to his desk to make a call. Amy fully expected the cleaning crew to find the note and report it to the upper echelon.” I let go of her neck and pulled my phone from my pocket. “Gotta let Gabriel know.”
He was beside himself with shock. At first he didn’t want to believe me, but as I related everything I remembered, plus my findings on the surveillance video, he had no choice but to accept that he had been royally screwed by his most trusted.
“What I don’t understand is why the cleaning crew or somebody else didn’t find the note the next morning.” I was baffled. “I left it in the same spot I had found it, in plain sight.”
“I found it, you idiot.” Well, the friendliness hadn’t lasted long. “I came to work a lot earlier the next morning because I had left so early the day before and found the compromising note on the desk.”
I was even more confused. “Then why ask me for help with the investigation? Couldn’t you have done it more efficiently from headquarters?”
“Probably, but I wanted to have it done discreetly and distance myself from it as much as possible so as not to raise any suspicions.” Gabriel sounded irritated. Admitting he had needed my help seemed to be as painful to him as swallowing shards of glass.
I couldn’t resist. “I was the only one who could do it without being detected.”
“Don’t be cocky! It’s very unbecoming.”
Laughing under my breath, I winked at Joan, who was watching me with her big brown eyes opened wide. Gabriel thanked me in his usual dour manner, told me he would contact me later, and hung up on me.
“He’s not coming over again, is he?” Joan placed the dirty dishes in the sink and put the kettle on for tea. “I just made another batch of cookies that I’ll have to hide if he comes.”
“Maybe he’ll offer you a job baking cookies in Arcadia.” I chuckled, pushing the chair in.
Caleb weaved his fingers on mine and pulled me to the couch. “Don’t encourage her. She already has a giant head on those tiny shoulders of hers.”
Joan stuck her tongue out at him from the kitchen.
The electric kettle began whistling. While the elfin girl busied herself brewing lavender tea for all of us, Caleb had nestled against me, his head on my shoulder. Our thighs were smashed together and our joined hands were lying on my lap. It felt like home, a feeling I didn’t remember ever having throughout my very long life before I met the siblings.
My parents weren’t exactly the warm kind. They had their jobs in different angelic squads, and when they came home at the end of their shifts, they didn’t spend much time cuddling me in any way. Angels rarely did. I had always thought it strange that creatures who were made of love and whose mission was one of altruism and empathy could be so cold toward their own families and friends. It was almost as if love itself had lost its meaning amongst the seraphic beings and had become purely a job. Even as a tiny cherub, I’d wanted more. I wanted to experience the same kind of love I witnessed humans feeling toward each other. As a young one, I had often escaped unnoticed to watch couples sitting in the park, hand in hand, kissing or merely talking. The look in their eyes when they stared at each other was overwhelmingly beautiful. I wanted that.
Joan was the first one to go to bed. “I have a stupid algebra test tomorrow. Sky, what fucking angel decided that algebra was something all educated humans should learn? Or did that come from God himself?”
“Shit, Joan, you just uttered ‘fucking’ and ‘God’ in the same breath. Can you be any more blasphemous?” Caleb leaned forward, his elbows on his knees.
Ignoring her brother, Joan wiggled her fingers in a goodbye and slammed her bedroom door behind her. “And for fuck’s sake, can you guys please go do it in your room, not in the living room?” Her voice came loud and clear through the door. Caleb choked and I laughed.
“She has no sense whatsoever.” He seemed divided between being mad and amused. “If I didn’t care so much for her, I would’ve throttled her a long time ago.” He twisted around to look at me and I swear my insides liquefied. Those eyes had power.
“Thank you.” It came out of nowhere and was one hundred percent sincere. I owed Caleb a debt I would never be able to repay. I owed him feelings and experiences I had only dreamed about. My angel heart had expanded with my love for him—and his sister as well. And my life… well, I may have lost my power to fly, but my life had a much richer texture now. Before Caleb, my days were a soft, beautiful, and shiny but rather uninteresting satin. Now my life was a richly colored brocade, full of intricate stitches and details, soft and rough all at the same time. I regretted nothing.
Caleb leaned back again, his side against mine and his hand resting across my middle. “What are you thanking me for? You’re the one who rescued me from that evil angel.” He lowered his voice an octave.
“But you, Caleb, saved me from a meaningless life.” When had I become so cheesy? Who cares? I had this amazingly beautiful creature—inside and out—who loved me. I could afford to be as cheesy as I wanted. I doubted if Caleb cared either.
Straightening up on the couch, Caleb scooted a little and began pulling on the edges of my shirt. “Too many clothes.”
I happened to agree. I suddenly had the overwhelming need to feel his skin against mine, every inch of his hard body touching mine. I helped him remove my shirt, and his followed. Our mouths met in a hungry, urgent kiss, but I couldn’t help being scared. Now that the mystery had been solved, I would soon be recalled to Arcadia and away from my new family. Without my wings, I wouldn’t be able to fly to Earth and visit. It may be a small eternity before I saw Caleb again, before I enjoyed his lovemaking—or it
could be forever.
We got up and stumbled our way to the room, bodies entangled, arms in a frenzy, pulling and tugging. I didn’t think I would survive without this anymore. This was my Heaven, in Caleb’s arms. The door closed behind us and we fell noisily on the bed, our lips still connected, Caleb’s hands behind my neck pressing my face against his. I wanted to swallow him whole, make him a part of me so no matter where I went, he would be with me always.
Caleb flipped me on my stomach and slowly, in a maddening caress, he studied the skin and muscles on my back with his hand. His fingers lingered first over my shriveled wings and then over the gorgeous lines of my future tattoo. “These are going to be beautiful, Sky. But not as beautiful as your real ones.” The small circles he drew over my skin ignited a roaring fire, one I wasn’t scared of, one I welcomed with open arms.
I turned onto my back. Caleb was kneeling at my side, all lean muscle and sinew. I reached up and hooked my hands on his strong thighs, besieging him to come closer. He complied, the intensity in his eyes inducing a mad thumping in my heart. Grabbing hold of the elastic waist of my joggers, he began to peel them off me. Slowly, deliberately, and oh so arousing. When he followed his hands with his lips, I threw my head back in ecstasy and arched my hips against his mouth. My body tingled as if the stars in the heavens had all moved inside me. I wanted him to feel that too.
Swollen with desire, I pulled away just long enough to rid him of his pants. I sat at the edge of the bed with Caleb on my lap as I reached around his waist and began caressing him. He moaned and rubbed himself against my arousal. We sat like that for a while, touching each other, reveling in the other’s reaction until we couldn’t do it anymore. Caleb grabbed a condom, rolled it on himself, turned me around, and made me his again. We exploded in each other’s arms, hysterically exhausted and happy, riding the waves of our mutual pleasure.
Later we lay side by side on his bed, a sheet over our lower halves and our sides still touching. Caleb turned suddenly and kissed my lips. “I love you, Sky. Say you’ll stay forever.”
Lavender Fields Page 14