Northern Lights

by Debra Dunbar

  The angel shook his head. “That’s what I’m afraid of,” he muttered.

  Chapter 4

  Raphael

  There were worse things in the universe then being sent to Alaska. Ruling Council meetings. Guarding the gateways to Hel. Chasing down demons. Dealing with the stupid pig-headed rebels in Aaru. I kept trying to tell myself that as I stood up on top of this isolated, snow and ice encrusted mountaintop, trying to keep myself from being blown into Canada by the powerful wind gusts. Why couldn’t this have been going down at a nude beach in Cannes? Why?

  Although it was breathtakingly beautiful up here in Alaska. Cold — even in April with spring flowers breaking through the remaining patches of snow, but beautiful. The best thing about this area was that the vast expanse of uninhabited land meant I could fly without freaking out the humans. That wasn’t something I could do on a nude beach in Cannes. See? Always looking on the bright side, that was me.

  Actually I didn’t mind freaking out the humans by flying around in front of them, but then word would get back to Micha and Gabe and they’d chew me out, subjecting me to some mind-numbing lectures about responsibility and positive evolution or some crap like that. Here…I got the feeling that Alaska was a place that kept her secrets, that if I flew through downtown Juneau, or dive-bombed a cruise ship with spitballs, the locals wouldn’t say a word. Okay, yeah, the place had its appeal. Add in nude sunbathing on a glacier and a beer bong and I’d be completely sold.

  “Where is the demon?” The gate guardian asked me, breaking me out of my plans to liven things up here a bit. Nisroc. That was his name. Guardians might be at the very bottom of the rung in the angelic hierarchy, but watching one of the seven major gates to Hel was a critical job. It was also a tedious and boring job that no angel wanted to do. The humans had built cities around some of the gates, providing those guardians with some form of entertainment beyond killing the occasional demon trespasser, but this particular guy had the worst of a bad assignment.

  Devil’s Paw. Only Gabriel would think it a good idea to locate an angelic gate at the top of a remote mountain that separated Alaska and Canada. Aesthetics were paramount to my brother, even if the poor guardian that spent a century watching the gate got to see nothing but swirling snowstorms and jagged white-capped rocks.

  No wonder this guy snuck off to go to town. I didn’t blame him one bit. I’d have done the same, probably abandoning my post with far more regularity than this Nisroc did. And nobody would have said a word, either. Well, except for Micha and Gabe, but only if they found out. It was good to be an archangel.

  Sometimes.

  “I don’t have a demon yet. Micha wasn’t able to get the one he had in mind and there don’t seem to be any others available right now. I tried six that were hanging out at the Iblis’ house and none of them could sense the rifts. The one Low who can is dealing with a unicorn issue. There just aren’t enough demons to go around.”

  It was a funny dilemma. Five years ago we’d slaughtered every demon that came through the gateways, but now we needed them. Hopefully we needed them enough to help soften the hatred and animosity still simmering almost three million years after the war fractured the angelic host in two.

  “No demon? But how are you going to find the rifts to close them?”

  I gave the guardian my best knowing look. Either I wasn’t very good, or he was clueless. I was assuming the former.

  “You sent for me. You told the Grigori that there were rifts opening up at an alarming rate across Alaska, that one was dangerously close to the gateway. Clearly you have a demon here who saw these rifts and told you about them. I’ll just use him.”

  The gate guardian shook his head, gold curls bouncing from side to side. “There is no demon here. None. I can’t sense the rifts, but there are chimeras, drop bears, yeti, a hydra — all appearing within the last few weeks. It doesn’t take a demon to connect the dots.”

  I watched Nisroc intently, pushing through the words into the tangle of thoughts and emotions behind them. He wasn’t lying that I could tell, although admittedly sensing falsehood wasn’t my strength. Perhaps I’d been wrong. And if that was the case, we were both screwed. I had no demon. I probably wouldn’t be able to get one for months. All I could do in the meantime was fly around the state, killing creatures that came through the rifts and hoping I was lucky enough to stumble upon one on my own.

  “Humans are missing,” Nisroc continued, as though I needed further convincing. “Just ‘poof’ missing. A hunting party of twenty vanished last Monday. If the appearance of chimera and a hydra doesn’t prove we have a problem, then these disappearances do.”

  This wasn’t Nisroc’s job, and he’d been far away from his post if he’d been checking on missing humans, but I wasn’t about to report him. There were rules to bend and rules to follow. This whole gate guardian job was one giant rule to bend as far as I was concerned. Although Nisroc would probably never realize how lucky he was that the Ruling Council had sent me here instead of one of my brothers. Gabe would have had a fit that Nisroc had wandered more than five feet from the gate to Hel.

  But the whole speech gave me a weird feeling. He wasn’t lying, but I’d spent billions of years in Ruling Council meetings, and I knew how easy it was to skirt around an answer with half-truths. Maybe if I pushed this guy a bit, he’d reveal more.

  “Are you sure?” My head turned to follow the guardian as he walked back and forth across the frozen snow. “Humans go missing all the time. Maybe they fell into a crevasse, or got lost, or a bear ate them. Maybe these chimera came from some other location and migrated here. I don’t want to waste time blindly wandering around Alaska looking for rifts that are halfway across Canada or down in Washington State.”

  Nisroc snorted. “You’re joking. Twenty humans went missing in that hunting party. That many aren’t going to fall into a crevasse, and any bear who can eat that many humans in one sitting isn’t a being native to this realm. They’re gone. And the rifts are here, not over in Canada or down in the lower forty-eight.”

  Honestly, twenty humans was a pretty big meal for a bear. But the part of Nisroc’s speech that got my attention was that he was positive the rifts were here. And then there was one other part of this tale that made me wonder.

  “I was told there was a rift that opened close to the gateway. Where is it?”

  The angel fidgeted, his gaze sliding off to the side. “It’s closed. It was only open for a few hours, but I was concerned. Because, you know, a rift opening near the gateway might blow the whole state up.”

  It closed. How very convenient. “Were the monsters that came through a threat to the gateway? Did they damage it at all?”

  He eyed the gateway, obviously knowing that I could check its structure and tell that no one but possibly a demon had used it in the last fifty years.

  “No monsters came through that one,” he admitted.

  Bingo. “How did you know the rift was here? You can’t see them, and there were no monsters appearing from nowhere to clue you in. How did you know?”

  “I heard…saw…humans vanished right in front of my eyes. I was sitting here, guarding the gateway, and a whole group of rock climbers vanished.”

  Such a lie. And I got the impression the lie wasn’t actually about who pointed out the rift to him. There never had been a rift near the gateway. He’d lied to get an angel here sooner rather than later, and he had to have lied about not having a demon in the neighborhood. It was time for me to do some lying of my own.

  “I wish I could help you, but without a demon to assist, I’d be wasting my time.” I stretched my wings, as though I was getting ready to leave. “If you figure out exactly where the rifts are, let me know. Otherwise I’ll be back in a few months with a demon.”

  “No!” The angel twisted his hands together. “What about the hydra? It’s in Martin Lake. At least take out the hydra for me. And if…if I get maps with exact coordinates for the rifts, can you close them without a de
mon?”

  I sighed dramatically. “The hydra is a two-angel job. And the coordinates have to be exact. I’m not walking around a twenty square foot area, feeling the air like some idiotic mime. If you’ve got exact coordinates, then I’ll stay. Otherwise, I’ll see you in a few months.”

  “We don’t have a few months.”

  The gate guardian was clearly distraught. Poor guy. I had no intention of leaving a hydra or abandoning these humans. Besides, looking like an idiotic mime and trying to take out a hydra single-handedly was better than dealing with the shit-storm in Aaru right now or how much grief Micha would give me if I came back without finishing the job. I also got the feeling Nisroc was covering for this demon due to some romantic feelings on his part. I’m a sucker for romance. If the gate guardian wanted to impress his demon lover by showing him how quickly the Ruling Council responded to his call for help, I’d play along. But first I had to get the dunderhead to actually admit he had a demon tucked away somewhere.

  “I’ll get the coordinates,” Nisroc added. “Tomorrow morning, I’ll have them. They’ll be accurate within a few feet, I promise.”

  I created a watch on my wrist, just so I could look at it. “That’s too late. I need to start tomorrow morning. If you don’t have the maps in the next few hours, I’m outta here.”

  Nisroc shot me a panicked look. “I will. I’ll do that. I’ll get them. Meet me here in two hours, and I swear by the Creator I’ll have the maps for you.”

  I frowned, as if contemplating whether or not that fit into my amazingly busy schedule. “I can do that. I’ll see you in two hours.” Actually I planned on seeing him before that. Nisroc was obviously getting these coordinates from someone who could see the rifts — a demon, his demon. And whether he knew it or not, this demon was about to be mine on loan for the duration of this project.

  Chapter 5

  Ahia

  “I need the maps now. Right now. Detailed coordinates.”

  I’d never seen Nisroc so anxious. He’d appeared unannounced in the middle of my living room, nearly giving me a heart attack and making me spill my glass of wine.

  “What happened to tomorrow morning? And how detailed?”

  “The Ruling Council sent an angel, but they didn’t have a demon available. He was going to leave and come back in a few months. I convinced him to stay and try to close the rifts by himself, but he needs locations within a foot or two, and he needs them now. I’m meeting him in two hours, and if I don’t have the maps, he’ll leave!”

  Crap. My locations consisted of “A mile north of Elfin Cove and a few yards past the glacier tip,” which should have been enough if the angel had a demon that could sense and see the gateways. But GPS locations down to a few feet, and within a few hours? Impossible. Impossible, but I’d somehow have to make it happen. I couldn’t wait two months for this dickhead angel to find a demon and mosey his way back to Alaska.

  “I’ve got it.” No, I didn’t have it, but I’d fake it. I’d get as close as I could on three or four of them, then get the rest to Nisroc tomorrow once I had the time to pull it all together. There was no way this angel could close four rifts by tomorrow afternoon. And if I worked all night, I could get the rest done before lunch.

  Eyeing the puddle of merlot on my floor, I grabbed a notepad and fired up the computer, zooming in on a map of Alaska. If I used satellite view to recognize the spot, then did an overlay with a GPS map, I should be able to get coordinates close enough to satisfy this angel.

  Nisroc paced while I typed and wrote in the notebook. “Hurry. Can’t you go faster than this? I thought you knew where these gateways were?”

  “I do know where they are. I can fly you right to them. I just don’t know coordinates.” Duh. As if I used coordinates to fly anywhere. Like the birds, I used landscape markers and a nifty magnetic sense even most werewolves didn’t have.

  “Well, maybe you need to start taking note of these things,” Nisroc snapped.

  Not many beings had the guts to chasten me, but in spite of knowing this angel only fifty years, he commanded the same respect as the werewolf Alpha and the local tribal elders. Part of it came from the fact that he was the only thing beyond the mountains and sea that was older than me. Way older. The angel might look young with his gold ringlets and soft features, but I could tell his creation was somewhere close to the birth of multi-celled organisms.

  “I’m sorry,” he said in a more modulated tone. Then he paused and came over to me, putting his hands on my shoulders. “It’s just that I wanted to do this for you. I wanted to show you that I care, that I take your wishes and desires to heart. I know how important this is to you.”

  “It’s okay.” I turned to smile up at him. “I really appreciate that you went out on a limb for me. I can’t imagine how difficult it was to get your request heard by the Ruling Council, let alone convince them of its importance. Thank you.”

  He beamed and I felt something odd, like a warmth against me even though he was only touching my shoulders. It wasn’t unpleasant but I didn’t particularly want it to continue. The angel looked at me intently, a shadow of longing in his eyes. The warmth increased, as if it were trying to become a part of me.

  “Is it hot in here?” I asked. “Do I have the heat up too far or something?”

  Nisroc sighed and took his hands from my shoulders. The weird feeling of warmth went away. “Hot in here. Creator grant me patience,” he mumbled. Then he shook his head and took a few steps away from my chair. “Can you get this done in time?”

  “I’ve written down two so far. I figure by the time he’s done with three or four, I’ll have the rest done and you can swing by to pick them up.”

  He started to pace again. “I’m worried if the angel leaves, we won’t ever get him to come back, not even in a few months.”

  I blinked in surprise. “Is he such an asshole that he’d go off in a huff and refuse to come back? It’s not our fault he can’t manage to score himself a demon. What a dickhead.”

  Nisroc nodded in agreement. “I wish they’d have sent someone else. This one…he can do it. He’s capable, it’s just that he isn’t very serious about anything. He’ll be likely to close one rift, then spend the rest of the afternoon bowling with drop bear heads or doing free-falls from the mountain cliffs.”

  Sounded like my kind of guy. “So? Encourage him to do some drop bear bowling tomorrow morning and by the time he’s done I’ll have all the coordinates for the rifts.”

  The angel stopped again by my chair. “No, I won’t encourage such frivolous and unseemly behavior. For an angel of his status, he should have a much higher vibration pattern. He should be concerned with the enforcement of rules. He should fill his time with his considerable duties and responsibilities as well as striving to obtain a centered state.”

  Ugh, that sounded horrible. “I don’t concern myself with those things, Nisroc. Do you think so poorly of me too?” I was partially teasing, but this angel did have an annoying habit of trying to improve me. Not that he was succeeding.

  “No, not at all,” he hastily reassured me. “You’re young. In time you’ll come to realize the importance of these things. With the proper guidance from someone who only wants what’s best for you, you’ll be able to bring your vibration pattern into a higher state.”

  Over my dead body. That was so not going to happen. If Nisroc saw himself in the role of my tutor/lover, he needed to take an icy bath in a glacier lake. But before I could argue, the angel tilted his head, a look of dismay coming over his face. Then he picked me up right out of my chair and threw me into my coat closet. I landed in a heap on top of shoes and boots, a cascade of jackets coming off their hangers to fall onto my head. The angel tried to close the door on me, but it jammed against the top of a snow boot.

  Through the two inches of open door I saw a flash of light. Shrugging off the parka that had fallen on my head, I leaned close to peek through the opening and saw a second angel in my house, right in front of Nisro
c.

  Chapter 6

  My heart thudded with a weird combination of fear and excitement. I’d gotten used to Nisroc and had begun to believe that maybe there wasn’t any threat from angels. But old habits die hard and thousands of years of ingrained caution kept me firmly in the closet, hoping that this guy left without discovering my presence.

  I’d also become a bit cocky about my abilities and strength over the years. Seeing this angel brought home to me how much of a big-fish-tiny-pond world I lived in. The energy rolling off him was unlike anything I’d ever felt in my life. It reminded me of films of nuclear bombs, where the trees were bent sideways and stripped with the force of the blast. Every hair on my body raised, every cell vibrated. I was acutely aware that this was a being that could kill me with a snap of his fingers. That turned me on as much as it scared me, because yes, I’m that crazy.

  Was this the angel that the Ruling Council sent? The minor angel who was capable, but irreverent and easily distracted? If this was a minor angel, then I didn’t want to know what an archangel was like. Against all common sense, I pressed as close to the opening in the door as possible. I couldn’t see the angel’s wings right now since he’d hidden them. Actually, I kind of could see his wings. They were like tracings of gold from his back — there but not there.

  As I got a good look at him, I realized something. Wings or no wings, this guy was gorgeous. He had the kind of face that graced advertisements in all the high-fashion magazines. Dark, shoulder-length wavy hair, high cheekbones, angular jaw, defined chin, eyelashes I’d give my right arm for. And his eyes were an odd purple-blue, almost violet. His shoulders, arms, even his chest stretched the fabric of his shirt, and his faded, low-slung jeans did nothing to hide the strength in his thighs and hips. In spite of the very muscular physique that I could clearly make out under the clothing, his face was almost too beautiful. He had to be gay. No guy that stunning could possibly be straight.