by West, S. J.
“I think when Rafe healed you it made new skin,” I tell him.
“Aww, man, you mean I don’t have any killer scars to impress the ladies with? I thought I would at least get that out of the deal.”
I laugh. “No. In fact, your back is as smooth as a baby’s bottom.”
“And how is our patient?” Rafe asks, walking into the room with my dad following in behind him.
Chandler sits up. I stand and walk over to my dad and Mason so Rafe can check Chandler out for himself.
After his examination, Rafe says, “You look fine physically, but what about mentally, any lingering shock or feelings of terror?”
“Honestly, Chamuel helped me during the worst of the torture. He mentally took me somewhere else while it was happening. So, no, I’m not mentally scarred if that’s what you’re asking.”
Rafe nods. “Good.”
My dad turns to me and says, “Now that Chandler’s well, I should really be getting back to the Guf.”
I give him a big hug. “Thanks for everything.”
He hugs me back. “Anytime, Jessi. You know that.”
After my dad leaves, I tell Rafe and Chandler, “I want us all to gather again when Leah wakes up. If things go well, we should be able to find the last vessel today. Rafe, you’ll need to start the process of connecting to your archangel afterwards. The sooner we get that done the better.”
“After we find the last archangel, then what do we do?” Chandler asks.
I shrug “Then we wait I guess.”
“Wait for Lucifer to do something?” Rafe asks me.
“Yes.” I look at Chandler. “I need to tell you what happened between me and him last night too.”
I tell Chandler everything from me offering Lucifer his crown to his death threat if he ever saw me again.
“Are you ok?” Chandler asks, knowing the deep impact my confrontation with Lucifer would have on me.
“I would be lying if I said I was fine,” I tell him, not seeing any reason to lie or hide my pain from Chandler. “But I’ll find a way to deal with it.”
I look over at Mason.
“Could you take me to see Zack? We should make sure we can get him out of the hospital today.”
Mason phases us to the Ronald Reagan Medical Center where Zack is. When we knock on his hospital door, a woman answers it.
She’s a young, petite brunette with delicate features. She’s dressed in a dark blue skirt and jacket opened in front revealing a white shirt with vertical ruffles on the front. She looks like someone who might be a lawyer or business professional of some sort.
“Jess?” She asks me.
“Maggie?” I ask in return, assuming she has to be Zack’s sister.
Maggie holds her hand out to me with a friendly smile. I shake her offered hand and find her handshake firm and confident.
“Come on in. He’s been waiting for you to return,” Maggie says. “I was just going down to get some coffee. Would either of you like some?”
Mason and I thank her but decline her generous offer.
After Maggie leaves, we walk into the room and find Zack sitting up in his bed looking at me expectantly.
The bandage around his head is gone and I see that he has short brown hair. His youthful, handsome face holds an easy smile when he sees me and his green eyes dance with happiness.
“Did you find Chandler?” He asks.
“Yes,” I tell him, coming to sit beside him on the bed. “A lot happened last night, actually.”
I go on to tell Zack everything that happened the day and night before.
The sharp stings from my losses are still too fresh. I try to stop the tears which reveal the misery I feel but am helpless to stem their flow, physically manifesting my sorrow and heartbreak.
Zack places one of his hands on top of mine folded in my lap.
“I wish I could take away your pain,” Zack tells me, his voice filled with heartfelt compassion.
I feel comforting warmth emanate from Zack’s hand and pass throughout my body like a fire chasing away the coldness of my misery. I instantly stop crying. The sharp ache in my chest which felt like a knife piercing the deepest recesses of my heart eases into a dull, manageable throb.
“What did you do?” I ask Zack, wiping the tears from my cheeks, feeling clear headed for the first time since the upheaval of the night before.
Zack looks confused and lifts his hand from mine.
“I…I don’t know,” he stammers.
“I think I do,” Mason says from his spot at the end of Zack’s bed.
We both look at Mason waiting for his explanation.
“Zadkiel had the gift of easing emotional wounds by giving counsel. After the war with Lucifer, he was sought after by many of us to ease the pain of our loss and make it bearable to go on. I believe that’s your gift from him.”
“Your crown should be giving off its beacon now then,” I tell Zack. I look over my shoulder at Mason. “What do you think his talisman is?”
Mason’s pretty much known what everyone’s talisman should be so far. I have to assume he’s given some thought to what Zack’s is since his hunch about his gift proved to be true.
“Zadkiel was the angel of mercy. He was the one sent to stop Abraham from sacrificing his son to God. I’m assuming it’s probably the dagger Abraham was going to use.”
“Which is where now?” I ask.
“I’m not sure where Zadkiel would have put the dagger after taking it from Abraham. As soon as Zack is ready, we should go to Mount Moriah where the sacrifice was to take place and see if he senses a clue there to point us in the right direction.”
“When do we go?” Zack asks enthusiastically.
“Why don’t we handle one thing at a time?” I suggest. “As soon as Leah wakes up, the six of us need to gather and try to find the last vessel. That’s our top priority right now.”
“My doctor said he wouldn’t let me out until tomorrow,” Zack tells us.
“I’ll get Nick to handle an early release,” Mason says. “I should probably let Joshua know he needs to start looking for your crown too.” Mason digs his phone out of his pocket to make the call.
“What did you tell your sister about what’s going on?” I ask.
“Not a lot,” Zack sighs. “I know I can’t tell her much but I didn’t want to lie to her either. So, I told her you guys were with the government and needed my expertise.”
“She didn’t ask any probing questions?” I ask. “Like why the government would need the skills of a child psychologist?”
Even though I just met Maggie, she didn’t seem like someone who would simply accept such an explanation so readily. She looked smarter than that.
“I don’t think she completely bought it, but she didn’t question me about it either.”
It takes a couple of hours for Nick to work his magic but Zack’s doctor agrees to give him an early release from the hospital. I can tell Zack’s sister is suspicious about this development but she doesn’t say anything, at least not until Zack says he needs to go out of town with us for a while.
“How long will you be gone?” She asks.
“A few days at most,” Zack tells her as he packs up his few belongings in the room into a duffle bag. “I’ll call you to let you know I’m still alive. Just tell Mom and Dad I’ll call them later to explain everything.”
“I don’t understand the rush,” Maggie says, becoming annoyed. “We thought we lost you, Zack. And now you’re suddenly all better and going with, and excuse me if I’m being rude, but complete strangers to God only knows where!”
Zack turns to his sister and brings her into his arms. I visibly see Maggie’s body lose its tension as he holds her and know Zack is using his new found power to ease his sister’s concerns over his departure.
“Don’t worry about me,” he tells her. “I’ll be fine. I promise.”
Maggie sighs in defeat. “All right but call me when you get settled so I don’t wo
rry.”
As soon as Maggie leaves the room, we phase to my house.
When we get there, Leah and Remy are sitting at my kitchen table with Chandler, Rafe and JoJo. Aiden, the new Watcher of the Southern section of the United States is standing in my kitchen leaned up against a wall watching over my friends with his intense gaze.
I know Leah has made contact with Uriel because she now glows a bright red to my eyes. Not the same red as tearers or changelings like Owen but red nonetheless.
“Thank you for gathering everyone, Aiden,” Mason says.
Aiden pushes away from the wall at his back to stand straighter in Mason’s presence.
“I wasn’t sure if there was anything else you needed me to do,” Aiden says.
“Not at the moment. You can return to your duties.”
Aiden nods and phases. I assume he’s going back to the Memphis Watcher headquarters since he’s taken on the responsibilities of Isaiah’s job.
JoJo and Leah stand from the table and walk over to me, enveloping me in their arms.
“Chandler told us all about last night,” JoJo says. “Oh cherie, I am so sorry. I know you had high hopes of changing that devil. And poor dear Isaiah…”
I sigh. “Like Mason told me, Isaiah is in Heaven so it’s not like we won’t ever see him again. Hopefully, he’s up there watching over us now.”
I couldn’t say anything about Lucifer. It’s still too hard to think about his self-imposed torment. I pity him for holding on so tightly to his hate and allowing it to rule his life, but, I also know I can’t allow that same hate to corrupt the world I live in or damage the lives of the people I love. I have to stop him and the only way to do that is to prepare my group of archangels for whatever might lay ahead of us.
Since Zack had only met me and Rafe so far, I make the introductions to the others although it really isn’t necessary. Our connection to one another does more than formal human introductions ever could. We are all one cohesive unit now and all we need to make us whole is our final missing member.
As we all begin to walk into the living room from the kitchen, Mason casually takes my hand, and I suddenly find us standing in my bedroom.
“Is something wrong?” I ask him.
“Yes, something is very wrong,” he tells me, bringing my body in closer to his. “I haven’t kissed you in almost three hours.”
I smile shyly and feel my blood begin to rush with a need only Mason can satisfy.
“Well, I guess you better fix that immediately, Mr. Collier.”
Mason buries his right hand in the hair at the nape of my neck and lowers his head. The first touch of his lips against mine makes my whole body tingle with anticipation. I melt against him in a languid pool of bliss, wanting only him. I know we don’t have time to go get matches so I simply enjoy the sweetness of his mouth and the soft tease of his tongue against mine while I can. When he pulls away, I whimper in want of more.
“I have something special planned for us to do tomorrow,” Mason tells me, planting a small kiss at each corner of my mouth.
“Will we have time?”
Mason pulls away and looks at me. “By tomorrow, Leah, Rafe and hopefully Zack will all be sleeping to complete the connections to their archangels. So, yes, we should have time.”
“What about the vessel we find today?”
“This one should be Gabriel,” Mason tells me. “I haven’t been able to think what his talisman will be. Until his power is awoken we won’t know where his crown is either. I can always get Joshua, Nick and Aiden to handle that for us, if need be. I need some time alone with you, Jess. So, please don’t say no.”
“I’m not even sure ‘no’ is in my vocabulary when it comes to you,” I tell him.
Mason smiles. “That’s the kind of answer I like to hear.”
When we walk back into the living room, Leah is standing in front of the fireplace and flicks her finger towards the four quarters of wood sitting inside it. In an instant, she has a blazing fire going for us.
“So how do we do this?” Zack asks, looking to me for the answer.
“We hold hands, close our eyes and concentrate on trying to find the seventh vessel. We also listen to the sounds of the fire. It helps to block out everything else,” I tell him. “With six of us now, I’m hoping this will be almost instantaneous.”
We gather in a circle in front of the fire around the coffee table in the room and begin to clasp hands. Chandler and Leah are standing on either side of me. As I close the circle by clasping Chandler’s hand, I realize we don’t have to close our eyes to see the seventh vessel because he’s standing right in front of us. Not physically, more like a see through projected image of him.
He’s a tall black man with short cropped hair and dazzling copper tone eyes. He has a neatly trimmed mustache and goatee. He’s dressed in the type of khaki colored clothing you usually see on people who live in arid climates. He’s holding a microphone in one hand and is adjusting an ear bud in his left ear with the other. He’s standing in front of a sand colored military tank with United States markings on the side.
“Can everybody see him?” I ask, just to make sure I’m not hallucinating.
Everyone nods, seeming afraid to say anything in case it might break the spell.
“All right, Gabe,” we hear someone near the seventh vessel say. “We’re live in 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1.”
“Good evening,” the seventh vessel says into the microphone. “Gabe Kinlan here reporting from the front near Kandahar, Afghanistan…”
A high pitched whine interrupts Gabe’s report and a bomb goes off less than a hundred yards behind the tank. As we watch, Gabe drops to his knees, crouching on the sandy ground at his feet.
Chandler and Leah both tighten their grasp on my hands as we watch our last member cover his head with both his arms and begin to pray.
“Our father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name…”
Another high pitched whine can be heard and we watch as Gabe lowers his arms enough to look straight up into the sky.
“Oh my God,” he says, hands trembling and falling to his sides in complete despair.
I can feel my heart racing inside my chest because I know what he sees, his death. Just as Gabe bows his head and closes his eyes, accepting his fate, he continues his prayer, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done…
The whistling of the bomb fills my ears as it mingles with the rushing of my blood. I can’t think. I can hardly breathe, but I know one thing. We have to save him.
I whisper, “Come to us.”
The image of Gabe in front of us begins to solidify. Over my own ragged breathing, I hear Gabe’s continued prayer. None of us say anything. We just stare at the seventh vessel kneeling on my coffee table.
Chapter 3
Gabe finally seems to realize that something is different. Cautiously, he opens his eyes and we stare at each other, both of us breathing hard. His eyes are the same color and brightness as shiny new pennies. He looks down and sees that he’s kneeling on my coffee table instead of the sands of Afghanistan. Slowly, he gets off of it to stand in front of us.
“What just happened?” He asks, his voice tinged with a cultured British accent. “Am I dead? Is this Heaven?”
I shake my head. “No, you’re not dead. And you’re in a small town called Cypress Hollow, which is nice but it’s not Heaven.”
Gabe looks at all of us in complete confusion. He returns his eyes to me.
“Do I know you?” he asks me, his eyes squinting like he’s trying to think back over all the people he’s ever met in his life, attempting to place me. He turns his head and looks at all of us again. “I’ve got the strangest feeling of déjà vu. I feel like I know all of you from somewhere but I can’t quite place where.”
I let go of Chandler and Leah’s hands and step closer to Gabe. Slowly, so as not to frighten him, I place my hand on his chest and feel the rapid beats of his heart beneath the palm of my hand. With my touch, his tense
ness begins to fade and I know he realizes he’s among friends.
He stares down at me not in confusion anymore but certainty. “We know each other. Don’t we?”
I lift my hand from his chest and take one of his hands into mine.
“Let us tell you who you are.”
We spend the next hour in my living room explaining to Gabe who we are, who he is, and what we were sent to do.
“So I have a power?” Gabe asks, completely intrigued by the notion. “Do you know what it is?”
I look up and see Mason standing by the opening to the kitchen. I haven’t told him about God’s warning that there would have to be a sacrifice made in the final battle with Lucifer because I didn’t want to cause him undue worry. But now that we have Gabe, I have a feeling I won’t be able to hide that information from him much longer.
“I think I might actually know the answer to that question,” I say, turning my attention back to Gabe. “God told me that one of us would be able to provide us with a warning about something that will happen in our final confrontation with Lucifer. I have to assume that means your power will allow us to see into the future.” I look over at Mason. “Does that sound like a power Gabriel had?”
“He was the angel of revelations,” Mason says, walking from his spot by the kitchen entrance to the chair I’m sitting in. “He was instrumental in the fight against Lucifer because he was able to show Michael the major battles ahead of time, but his power was limited. It didn’t just show what would happen. It also showed what might happen. So, it wasn’t exact, but once Michael saw all of the variations, he was able to tell which version was the one playing out and how it was supposed to end.”
“Then we will know ahead of time what our jobs are in the fight to come?” JoJo asks.
“You’ll have a good idea,” Mason answers hesitantly. “We just need to find a way to awaken Gabe’s power.”
“So, how do I do that exactly?” Gabe asks.
“There’s really no one way to do it,” I tell Gabe. “We’ve all had it happen to us differently. Leah and Chandler fought off Watchers, JoJo made me a dress which made me invisible, Rafe healed Zack and Zack helped me heal an emotional burden.”