“I know,” Abaddon acknowledged. “I hope you will not live to regret it.”
“I already regret it.” Angelina looked into the Archangel’s eyes.
Abaddon laughed in unsuppressed joy, spinning the delighted Angelina around in circles.
* * *
“Another Armageddon avoided.” Raphael cradled the sleeping child in one arm while assisting Catherine to her feet with the other.
“Trappings of décor aside,” Catherine replied, watching the cavorting Archangel of the Abyss clutching the naked Sister Angelina in his arms. “We do make a good team.”
“We better. That was a close one.”
“You mean the demon was nearly a match for Abaddon?”
“No, Sister, I mean I felt Lucifer’s death right down to my toes. We need to keep my brother clear of Lucy at all costs. His original purpose obliterates everything when he reverts to true form.”
“It seems we have a secret weapon for just that purpose, Raphael.”
The two figures of Abaddon and Angelina were no longer visible.
“Oh boy.” Raphael witnessed what was left of the child’s demon burning up in the black flames of the lost. “Let’s return to the café and see if we can get this child something to eat and drink. I will wait a couple of hours and project our whereabouts to Sister Angelina. Perhaps she will be done with the Angel of the Abyss by then.”
“You could transport us to where Abaddon is. They are probably at the small dwelling you took us to last night.”
“I believe I will give my brother his privacy for now.” Raphael held out his hand to Catherine. “Come, I would like another cup of coffee.”
“What of payment for our innkeeper friends, Raphael? They would bear the financial loss gladly, but I am not comfortable with taking advantage of their generosity.”
Raphael reached into his pocket. He removed a small number of diamonds, holding them out for Catherine to see.
“I thought of payment. I picked these up on the way over here. Of course they were black pieces of coal at that time,” Raphael explained.
“We will be most welcome with payment like this. You cannot create things from nothing so how is it you can create clothing for us?”
“Actually, it is an illusion, Sister. You can see, feel, and even rend it. In reality, your robes are but an illusion.”
“You mean I’m naked?” Catherine gasped, her arms automatically trying to cover herself.
Raphael laughed. “No, you are clothed in illusion, but you are still clothed. I do not believe we can simply walk into a market around here and buy nun’s apparel. Did you not notice the fact your robes were not getting dirty?”
“I…I didn’t even consider it.” Catherine let her hands fall to her sides. “I will buy some real clothing as soon as I can.”
“Why do that?” Raphael appeared confused. “We would have to clean real clothing. I will not jokingly remove the illusion if that is what worries you, Sister.”
Catherine blushed. “I am sorry I thought such a thing, Raphael. Of course you are right. It would be easier if we didn’t have to worry about everyday issues like laundry.”
“You and Sister Angelina deserve a few advantages. Come, let us go have some refreshment.”
* * *
Raphael straightened suddenly, with a grin. He had his back to the street.
“They’re here, Sister Mary Catherine.”
Abaddon strode across the street with Sister Angelina trailing him to his right, her hands clasped in front of her. They were both dressed as they had been before the battle.
“Hello, my brother,” Raphael greeted Abaddon. “How are you and Sister Angelina? I see you have mastered the clothes illusion adequately.”
“Yes,” Abaddon said proudly. “I was hoping you would notice, Raph. It took a couple of tries. Sister Angelina held my hand. With our thoughts joined, I was able to visualize well enough to accomplish the task. We are both well, thank you.”
“You must be hungry, Sister Angelina.” Raphael tried to lean down far enough to peer at Angelina’s face. “I believe you are blushing, Sister. Speak to us.”
Catherine stood up. She reached across the table, taking Angelina’s hand and pulling her toward the table. “Pay no attention to Raphael. Sit down. Have something to eat and drink.”
Angelina glanced up furtively at Raphael, her face flushed. “I…I didn’t mean to ignore you, my Lord Raphael. I feel very well. I am hungry.”
“Call me Raph, Sister,” Raphael directed as the café owner rushed over.
“Sister Angelina and my Lord Abaddon,” the café owner exclaimed. “May I bring you coffee and prepare a meal for you?”
“I would very much like some of your coffee, Ahmed,” Abaddon answered. “What of you Sister Angelina?”
Angelina looked at Abaddon for the first time since they had rejoined Raphael and Catherine. Raphael grinned appreciatively at the unqualified adoration lighting Angelina’s countenance. He noticed Catherine’s awareness of the subtle change. Catherine smiled and looked away.
“Coffee would be fine, Sir. Anything Sister Mary Catherine ordered to eat would be wonderful.”
Ahmed bowed. He hurried off in the direction of the kitchen. His wife came out immediately with coffee for the new arrivals. She placed the coffee in front of Abaddon and Angelina with a flourish before grasping Raphael’s hand momentarily.
“Thank you so much, my Lord.” Ahmed’s wife then retraced her way inside the restaurant.
“You are very popular today, Raphael,” Abaddon noted, sipping his coffee with relish.
“As you see, the child is no longer with us. When the café owner and his wife realized the evil was gone from the little boy they immediately wanted to adopt him. They are childless. The boy’s parents were killed right after his possession.”
“I think the diamonds you gave them had a little to do with it, Raphael,” Catherine observed. “I hope you saved some to reward our innkeeper.”
“Of course, Sister,” Raphael replied. “I will endeavor to acquire currency so we are not singled out in our travels. We will also establish banking connections so we may attain some of your plastic card money. We must travel whenever possible by human means. Our missions will attract enough attention without the added flying Archangel sightings.”
“If all our battles are as the one today, it will be difficult to hide what is going on,” Catherine noted.
Ahmed approached with Angelina’s meal, arranging it in front of her.
“Please let me know if there is anything else you wish.”
“We will, Ahmed, my friend,” Raphael assured him. “The inn you sent us to is very nice.”
“I am glad.” Ahmed gave Raphael a little bow.
Angelina ate hungrily, while Abaddon, Raphael, and Catherine enjoyed their coffee and tea. Angelina looked up apologetically.
“Sorry, I was just so hungry. I…I guess we should talk of what happened this morning.”
“It would be a good idea to go over what went right and what went wrong,” Raphael agreed.
“The child didn’t look possessed at all,” Angelina said.
“Lucifer cannot gather power by sending these demons out into the world and then not have them interact,” Raphael explained. “Sister Mary Catherine has mentioned the popular version of possession amongst humans. I have seen the Exorcist movie. While very entertaining, the possessed child in the movie would have difficulty gathering anything resembling influence or power in such a state. The child you freed from Lucifer’s demon had already attracted a small army around him. He would have grown in stature, wrecking havoc in this area.”
“And somehow harvesting the evil he created in others?” Catherine asked.
“Exactly, Sister,” Raphael confirmed. “These demons survive perfectly in the midst of any society. They will say or do anything to ingratiate themselves into a position of influence using the tantalizing attraction humans have for the dark side of their p
syche.”
“They sound like our politicians back home.” Angelina moved closer to Abaddon. She covered his hand where it lay on the table with both of hers.
“I would imagine we will have to liberate a number of those in our work, Sister Angelina. Now, let’s discuss this morning.”
“We won,” Abaddon stated, knowing with certainty Raphael would make him the target of any criticism about their successful mission.
Raphael leaned forward attentively toward Abaddon. “May I ask brother why you felt it necessary to drop both shield and sword before attacking the creature with your bare hands? Was this a new strategy of yours I am unfamiliar with?”
Abaddon looked around at his three companions uneasily.
“I…I was excited.”
Raphael laughed appreciatively. “Sister Angelina, perhaps you may enlighten me on why after your brave intervention between the demon and Sister Mary Catherine you chose to run directly into danger after the erstwhile Abaddon.”
“I…I was excited.”
This time everyone laughed except for Angelina, who blushed and looked down at her coffee cup. After a moment she met Raphael’s gaze with an air of confidence.
“I needed to be in a position to save all reality when my Lord Abaddon decided to end it by hacking Lucifer apart?” Angelina offered.
“Well said, Sister,” Raphael complimented her, turning back to Abaddon. The Archangel of the Abyss leaned away from the table. “This brings me to the next point of confusion, brother Abaddon. You did remember we are supposed to preserve Lucy for future balance in this particular thread of reality, right?”
“I was caught up in the moment.” Abaddon shrugged. Angelina embraced the Archangel and rested her head against his chest in solidarity.
“You were excited and in the moment before the gates of heaven long ago,” Raphael reasoned seriously, “yet you managed to retain your sword and shield.”
“I…I was created for battle,” Abaddon replied hesitantly, trying to come up with a reasonable explanation for his actions. “For eons, I was unable to fulfill any part of my purpose. You helped me through it, Raph, making me realize I could control my nature. When the demon appeared this morning I…I just lost it.”
“Well, on the bright side, you ripped Lucy right out of his hiding place. That should give him pause in the future. When I contacted you psychically, Sister Angelina, I meant for you to intercede on Lucifer’s behalf by oh… I don’t know… maybe yelling hey, Abaddon, ease up… or shouting don’t kill him. Ripping your clothes off was imaginative but we must keep up appearances.”
Angelina sat up straight, her face red right to the roots of her hair. Raphael, who had been giving her a serious look of admonition, began laughing uproariously at the startled nun. Raphael shook his head finally, gesturing with his hand in a calming motion.
“I was only kidding, Sister Angelina. You and Sister Mary Catherine were wonderful. I think once we harness the Archangel of the Abyss we may make a nearly invincible team.”
“Sorry, Raph,” Abaddon said.
“Hey, like you said, we won. There will always be room for improvement. Did you two leave our room at the inn relatively in one piece?”
“Raphael!” Catherine exclaimed accusingly. “I think you’re taking your humor a little too far.”
“Yes, Sister, if I don’t ease up, Sister Angelina’s face will never attain her natural coloring again.”
“Where do we go from here, Raphael?” Angelina realized Raphael had still been kidding her.
“A very astute question, Sister Angelina, I don’t know,” Raphael replied honestly. The nuns exchanged looks of confusion. “I assumed Sister Mary Catherine would receive a vision of our next mission. Did you two think Abaddon and I had a list?”
“Yes… I guess we did,” Catherine admitted. “I never had a vision about the little boy we freed today. Do we just wait for a sign?”
“This was never going to be one continuous battle, Sister. We need to allow our adjustments to ripple across reality for a time before we gallop off to slay the next dragon. When our Lord thinks we should proceed we will receive word in some way. It may not come through you as I surmised, Sister Mary Catherine, but it will come. In the meantime we must attain what we need to move unimpeded to our next destination.”
“If we are to travel anywhere in the world we will need a vast amount of paperwork.” Catherine sat back in her chair tiredly. “My full name is Mary Catherine Deering. Angelina’s last name is Simmons. They took all our visas, passports, and paperwork when we were imprisoned. It will be nearly impossible to travel without them.”
Chapter 6
Accouterments for Battle
The four sat silently sipping their beverages. Catherine’s comment went unanswered.
“Raphael could create an illusion of proper paperwork,” Angelina suggested.
“I would first have to know what illusion I was creating.”
“Could you not create an illusion which would reflect whatever the one checking it needed for verification?” Catherine asked. “Abaddon gave us the ability to be understood by anyone and decipher any language spoken to us. Could we not have an illusion capable of producing the same effect when asked for identification?”
“Very good, Sister,” Raphael said, rubbing his chin. “I will think it through. We will need hard currency and banking connections though. Our transactions with people will not be an illusion.”
“Those diamonds you produced will draw much attention to us here,” Catherine said. “We need a base of operations. Can you produce gold as well as diamonds, Raphael?”
“I can draw what already exists to me in whatever quantity I wish. Where should we set up this base of operations you speak of?”
“I think the United States is the best choice,” Angelina answered. “We can travel anywhere from America very quickly if we’re near an airport.”
“Yes, and we can find whatever we need there too,” Catherine agreed. “There were many gold mines in Northern California. We could set up operations from somewhere in that area. There are banks all over America.”
“Sister Mary Catherine and I have been in San Francisco before while traveling to see the old missions. My Lord Abaddon and you would be much less conspicuous around there, Raphael,” Angelina added. “There is much evil there too.”
“I know of this San Francisco. The movie hero Dirty Harry was a detective with their police force, right?”
“The very same, Raph,” Catherine laughed.
“I made the mistake of watching all the Dirty Harry movies with Gabriel. Every time I saw him afterwards for years he would squint his face up and say, ‘go ahead, make my day’. I doubt we would get even a second look there, brother.”
“Those movies were very violent,” Angelina commented.
“Why did you not watch such movies with me, Raph?” Abaddon asked. “All you ever let me see were love stories and comedies.”
“You were much too violent already. I didn’t want you getting any bad ideas. Besides, this movie thing has only been going on for a century. Those human scenarios I created for you to interact in were as entertaining as a movie anyway and much more realistic.”
“I liked Romeo and Juliet. It had violence, romance, and sadness. I would have changed the ending though.”
Raphael sighed. “The ending was the moral of the story.”
“I too would have changed the ending,” Angelina spoke up. “I cried at the finish and every time I thought of it afterwards.”
“But as Raphael pointed out, the moral of Romeo and Juliet depends on its ending,” Catherine interjected with passion.
“Could the lovers not have taught the moral message and still lived?” Abaddon asked.
“The story would have lost its poignancy without the sadness of the ending,” Raphael replied.
“Why must there be sadness in a fictional story?” Abaddon persisted. “Is there not enough sadness in real life?”
Abaddon laughed sheepishly at Raphael’s dig. Angelina clung even closer to the Archangel, her eyes never moving from his face.
“I love sitting here sipping coffee and talking about movies,” Angelina whispered. “It is so wonderful after our time in prison.”
She looked over suddenly at Raphael. “If we have a space of time between these battles, can we not seek some happiness in the moments we share? Would such thoughts be sinful, my Lord Raphael?”
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