Taking Angels (The Angel Crusades)

by CS Yelle

  I pulled the car up to the curb in front of Trish’s house and she sat on her front steps waiting. Gabe began to get out, but I put a hand on his arm to stop him. He looked at me questioningly.

  “I need to do this alone,” I said.

  He nodded and took his hand from the door handle with a nod.

  I stepped out, took a deep breath, and walked around the car not looking at Trish but down at the ground. I didn’t look up, walking with my head down, following the sidewalk until I saw her feet before me. I looked up and she stared at me, the streaks of wet from her tears already leaving red marks and lines down her face.

  My tears, I’d thought my ducts had dried up by now, streamed down my face, dripping from my chin as I looked at her. Trish was the first friend I ever had. She stood beside me through everything; giving me comfort, support, and a kick in the ass if I needed one. Now I needed to say goodbye, possibly for the last time, and the thought of it wrenched my insides apart.

  “I hear you’re leaving,” she said when I didn’t speak.

  “Uh huh.”

  “Playing the martyr again?”

  “Guess so.”

  “Shit, why do you always step in it like this?”

  “I don’t do it on purpose.”

  “I never met anyone who has such god-awful luck, Britt.”

  “Not my fault,” I said, getting a little pissed.

  “I know, I know.” She nodded her head. “I just wish it didn’t happen like this.”

  “Me too.” I looked at her as we shared our miserable moment together.

  “Could you do me a favor?”

  “Yeah, sure, anything,” I said, confused by the request.

  “Could you kick this Bastion in the balls for me when you finally get the chance?”

  “You got it.”

  “They do have balls, don’t they, I mean, I guess I never really thought about it, but they must if they have kids, right?” She looked up at me, her tears mixing with her confusion.

  “I’m pretty sure they do,” I said, forcing back a snicker.

  She stood abruptly and gave me a big hug, turning her head to kiss me for a long moment on the cheek.

  “I love you Britt girl,” she whispered in my ear. “You come back to me. Damn it, you’d better come back to me.”

  “I will,” I lied. “I promise.” I resolved to try. To keep my promise and at least try. I kissed her cheek and stepped back as she reluctantly released me.

  “Bye Britt,” she said, her eyes overflowing with her sadness.

  “Bye Trish.” I turned to walk away. I got two steps and her arms surrounded me again as she lay her head against my back.

  “I believe in you,” she whispered and let go.

  I wanted to look back, but my strength was fading fast and I held onto what resolve I still had. To leave before it evaporated completely. I strode purposefully to the car, got in and squealed away, putting as much distance between me and my overwhelming sorrow standing on that sidewalk.

  Chapter 29 We motored out of town, heading north to Nashwauk. We didn’t speak, my words used up earlier and my desire to form others distant.

  It didn’t take long to arrive. I took the lone highway heading north through the small mining town. As we approached the motel, I slowed to get my bearings and then stopped just out of sight of the motel.

  “I’ll travel back to the car once you get their attention and start heading for Canada,” he said.

  “We can do that?”

  He smiled and then disappeared.

  I put the car in first and let out the clutch, easing it into motion, confident Bastion would remember the distinctive vehicle on sight. I pulled into the parking lot and cruised through, actively looking at the room numbers, but keeping a watchful eye on the black Mercedes.

  As I pulled even with the first one, a man walked out of the room and lit a cigarette. I let my foot off the gas and the engine rumbled as it slowed down. His eyes met mine and Bastion recognized me at once. His mouth opened to shout out orders as his silver tooth glittered. I didn’t wait, gunning the Camaro and squealing out of the parking lot, spraying the black cars with rocks as I went. Not part of the plan, but gravy, I thought.

  I raced by the parking lot on the road heading north as men scrambled to their cars and the black German beasts lurched into motion. I shifted and punched the gas, spinning the tires again and rocketing out of sight.

  “Easy, you don’t want to lose them,” Gabe said. I jumped at his silent, sudden arrival.

  I slowed, watching my rearview mirror until I spotted the first pursuit car and then punched it again. Shifting smoothly, my memory of Dad teaching me to drive stick in the field just outside of town coming unbidden to me. We raced towards the border, hoping to stay ahead of them until we hit the patrol checkpoint.

  We hurtled towards International Falls some 120 miles away, pushing our speed close to 100 mph to keep ahead of our pursuers. I slowed as we approached the border. Pulling up to the guard station, I rolled down my window.

  “Passports please,” the guard asked.

  I handed mine over and then Gabe reached across to hand his to the agent.

  “What’s the purpose of your visit?” The guard asked.

  I wanted to scream, “escape” or “To get away from the guys following us,” but I pushed the urge down and smiled. “Just heading up so we can sightsee in the morning.”

  “Thank you,” he said benignly. He handed the passports back and stepped away from the car.

  I saw the headlights move closer as our pursuers eased in behind us. The agent waved us to move along and I put the car in first, slowly pulling away. As soon as I turned a bend in the road, I punched the accelerator and shifted rapidly, speeding down the road.

  Gabe reached over, putting a hand on my arm and I glanced over. “We can slow down now.” He turned to look out the back window.

  “We want them to think we headed deeper into Canada. If we lose them, they might think we doubled back.”

  I nodded at the logic.

  “We need to keep them after us for some time in order to assure they feel we, or should I say you, are on the run permanently.”

  The reality of this life hit me hard. This plan meant I’d be running from them until the council sentenced Allister. How long it would take, I didn’t have a clue.

  “Pull in here,” Gabe directed. He motioned to a small roadside diner as we approached and then vanished.

  I shook my head. I didn’t think I’d ever get used to that. I pulled into a parking spot and turned the car off. Getting out, I stretched, feeling the kinks from the other night. I waited for a moment and prepared to go inside when the car shook and Gabe stepped out of the passenger seat.

  “Well?”

  “They stopped just inside the border,” he said.

  “Why would they do that?”

  “I think they suspect we’ll try to double back. Remember, they have all the time in the world. Allister is in custody; he won’t be going anywhere. They can take their time and present you anytime they catch you.”

  “What?” I cried. “No, if they sentence Allister to life they can’t come back and sentence him to death if Bastion brings me in. That’s double jeopardy, they can’t do that.”

  “Britt, you’re thinking human still. The Eternal Council can do anything they want.

  “Now you tell me,” I shouted, the injustice making my head hurt.

  “I thought you knew.”

  “No, I didn’t.” I turned and stormed away from him, folding my arms in disgust.

  I strode behind the diner, walking down a path into the woods that flanked the property. I walked in the dark, following the light colored path and mulling it all over in my head. On the run forever? And I mean, forever. Being immortal definitely had its down side. If I wanted Allister to live I needed to stay away from Bastion or anyone else the council sent after me forever.

  I sat down on a stump next to the trail, the frustrat
ion pushing to the surface in the form of tears. I leaned down, setting my head in my hands and sobbed. This sucked. I already lost Allister, now I lost everything I loved for good. As if on cue, Gabe appeared next to me.

  “Would you quit that.”

  “Sorry.”

  “No.” I took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. You’ve done nothing but help me.”

  “I understand your pain. I wish I could make it better, but I can’t.”

  “Then what good is being an angel?” I asked, more of myself than of him.

  “We get to help people. There is that.” He shrugged.

  “Maybe you, but I’m some freaky hybrid between an Eternal and an angel. I’m not good for anything.”

  “Not true.”

  I stared at him. In the darkness he gave off a glow when I let myself see it. His beauty undeniable. I sighed at my shortcomings compared to his radiance.

  “I will never be anything like you, or like Allister.” I closed my eyes and images of Allister’s perfect face, his amazing smile flickered into focus. The memory of his easy laugh brought more tears to my eyes.

  “But you already are, Britt. You have the best of both.”

  “No, the Eternals are damned to walk the earth forever, never to know the wonder of the afterlife.”

  “What are you talking about?” Gabe stepped in front of me, his eyes staring at me in horror.

  “Eternals don’t have souls and are damned to walk the earth forever,” I repeated what I’d been told.

  “Britt, Eternals don’t need souls.” Gabe leaned closer to me. “Where did you get this nonsense?”

  “Allister and his family.”

  “Their kind might feel that way, but somewhere they went astray of what they are. They have already gotten their salvation.”

  “They don’t have guardian angels,” I pointed out.

  “True, that is very true, but it isn’t because they’re damned or not going to heaven. They don’t have angels because they don’t need angels. They can find their way to heaven on their own.”

  “Even though they never die?” Gabe had me spinning in circles. I didn’t know what to believe anymore.

  “None have, so far.”

  “How is that possible?”

  “Eternals are here for a specific purpose; a specific event. And that event hasn’t happened yet.”

  “What event?” I asked, not sure I wanted to know.

  “That isn’t for me to say, but I do know that Eternals have been created perfectly to defend mankind when this foretold event comes.”

  I glared at him, pissed he’d told me just enough to get my mind running wild with crazy images of Armageddon and all the biblical stuff drilled into my head over the years.

  “Hey, don’t shoot the messenger,” he said raising his hands defensively.

  “Then why tell me this?” I began.

  “To make you realize you’re special and have a purpose. We all do, and you may be destined for something bigger than any of us.”

  “Yeah, right.” I rolled my eyes. “I’m the one.”

  “Let’s go get something to eat, I’m starving.” He flashed his brilliant smile, visible even in the dim lighting, and extended a hand.

  I grinned in spite of my bad mood, taking his hand, and walked back to the diner.

  We took a booth next to the high bank of windows facing the road. The décor was right out of the sixties, from the checkered tile flooring to the vintage jukebox spinning records in the corner. We ordered from the waitress dressed in a poodle skirt and a big bouffant hairdo and then contemplated our next move.

  “Where do we go now?”

  “The closest major city is Winnipeg,” he answered. “If we lead them there, we might be able to keep them busy for a while.”

  The plan sounded like a good one. I nodded my approval. Then, a question lingering in my mind for a while pushed itself to the surface, and I looked at Gabe.

  “Are you the Archangel Gabriel?” Six years of Catholic school and I couldn’t help but wonder if he was the same angel who came to Mary two thousand years ago.

  “I go by many titles.” He stared at me flatly.

  “Nice try. Quit dodging, answer the question.”

  “Yes, I’ve been known as an Archangel, though my role now is as an Avenging Angel.”

  “And what does that entail?”

  “Kendal isn’t the only problem I need to find. There are others out there interfering with the natural order. My job is to ensure they stop.”

  “Stop by killing them?”

  “Stop one way or another.” He didn’t elaborate.

  A thought came to me. One I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the truth about. I looked up at Gabe again and hesitated a moment, biting my lower lip.

  “Britt, if you want to ask me something, just ask.”

  “You say there’s no one else like me; that I’m unique, a hybrid. Would you consider me someone interfering with the natural order?”

  I expected him to laugh, to tell me I thought too much, worried too much. He didn’t. Instead, he stared at me hard for a moment, his deep green eyes holding my gaze. They softened and he turned away, looking out the window.

  I gasped, still staring at him. His lack of an answer said it all. He came along because he felt I could interfere with the natural order of things. He came along in case I caused problems and he needed to take me out.

  “Why don’t you just kill me now and be done with it, like I asked back in Grand Rapids?” I whispered heavily.

  He turned back to me, his eyes glossy with tears as he searched for the right words.

  “I don’t see anything about you indicating you could ever do anything I need to kill you for.”

  “But?” I waited for the but, there was always a but.

  “You’re one of a kind. Angel and Eternal. I can’t be sure what abilities you might have and what you might do with them. I needed to come to be sure it was… safe.”

  “It was safe?”

  “The world, Britt. I have a responsibility to the world.”

  “So now I’m a threat not only to my hometown, my friends and family, to the Eternals I care about, but the entire world?”

  “Don’t put words in my mouth.”

  “They may not be in your mouth, but they are in your head.” I glared at him, using my anger to mask the pain and hurt I felt.

  Gabe dropped his eyes.

  The perky waitress in the poodle skirt delivered our meals, eyeing us nervously. Sensing our moods, she hurried away after setting the plates in front of us.

  “You’re taking my words out of context,” Gabe spoke soothingly.

  “I don’t know. It seems to suck no matter what context it’s in. So you’re not here to help me, just to chaperone me and make sure I don’t turn into some crazed monster out to destroy the world?”

  “Britt,” he sighed.

  I looked down at my food and began to eat. I didn’t look at him the rest of the meal. I still seethed when we were walking to the car, refusing to make eye contact.

  “We could head to a motel down the road a ways and wait for them to come looking for us in the morning,” Gabe said.

  “Whatever.” I still didn’t look at him as I ducked into the car.

  He got in as the engine turned over. I felt his eyes on me, even though I stared straight ahead. We drove the few miles in silence and pulled into the gravel parking lot of the Moonlight Motel.

  The clerk checked us in, raising an eyebrow as I gave the name of Mr. and Mrs. Anderson and showed him my ID. He nodded and gave me a key. Gabe and I walked along the sidewalk to the room’s door. I opened the door, swinging it inward as he collected my bag from the car. He walked past me and tossed the bag down on the bed. Turning, he walked back out and I finally looked at him.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “I’ll sleep in the car,” he said, a little sharp. He took a few more steps towards the Camaro.

  “There are
two beds in here.”

  “I wouldn’t want you to misunderstand my intentions,” he said, the sarcasm heavy in his voice.

  “Don’t be a jerk.” I folded my arms across my chest.

  “Oh, it’s fine for you to overreact and get all snippy about my intentions, which might I remind you, you took out of context, but I can’t get upset you don’t trust me enough to listen to my reasons for being here?” He threw up his arms in disgust. “I’ll sleep in the car.”

  I stared at him, my mouth going dry as I tried to say something. The right words wouldn’t come.

  “Britt, I care about you. You. I’m not here out of fear of what you might become. I’m here because of what might become of you. I want you to live. I don’t think I’ve wanted anything so much in my entire existence.”

  “You want me to live?”

  “Very much.”

  I walked over to sit on the bumper of the car, at a loss. How could someone like Gabe, Gabriel, the Archangel Gabriel, care so much about me when he barely knew me?

  Gabe sat next to me, placing his arm over my shoulder and pulling me into his chest. It was warm and felt comfortable being in his arms. The arms of an angel, I laughed softly to myself.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “Uh, nothing.” I grinned into his chest.

  “Can we get past all this?”

  I leaned back to look at him as he concentrated on my reaction. I liked Gabe a lot, and he also scared me to death. The way he’d destroyed Kendal…

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered. I stood and took a few steps towards the room, stopping to turn back to him. “Now come in here and use the other bed.”

  “Okay.” He shrugged and walked over next to me.

  “Good.” I grinned.

  “Ladies first.” He motioned with a flamboyant bow.

  “Does that actually work with the ladies?” I asked.

  “Don’t know.” He smirked. “You’re the first I’ve tried it on. Did it?”

  “Not really.” I gave him a playful shove and strode past him into the room.

  “I’ll make a note of that.” He laughed, closing the door behind him.

  Chapter 30 Gabe woke me the next morning with a start, his eyes wide and his face pale with anguish. I’d never seen him that way before.