49
Joan leaned against an ancient Virginian tobacco barn with folded arms. The warm sun above ended its western journey across the sky and settled beyond the many oak trees on the old battlefield. The horizon exploded in orange light, the wind swept up from the east and brought a pine and honeysuckle aroma through the air.
Jehovah and His angels doubted her ability to win the battle. Their concerns about her leadership skills solidified once Michael revealed to her the sights in Heaven. Angels by the millions training for a battle God assumed would happen at His beautiful gates. This stiffened her resolve to succeed. Yet the more she played the beautiful scene in her mind, the more anger worked its way into her.
Questioning her ability to lead a military action motivated her to seek victory. She volunteered for the mission to protect the back gate.
Besides, God gave her command over the Guardians, simple mortals who never fought against the terrors from Hell. Below the earth, lay horrors powerful enough to make an average angel cringe in fear. How much so would a human respond against their deepest nightmares come true? Those horrors in Hell lived off fear. They thrived on fear, and yellow fear made them stronger. Her intuition sensed a setup, but her rational mind refused to believe God capable of using her in such a way.
A golden light appeared in the fresh evening sky. Heaven opened and the archangel Michael came down upon his golden chariot led by two powerful black horses. He steered his car and landed upon the loamy green earth. Seconds later another chariot pulled by two warhorses and steered by a powerful angel hauled up next to Michael’s chariot.
“Joan,” the archangel called. He stepped from the chariot and stroked the thick necks on his steeds. They snorted and stamped the ground and dipped their large heads to munch on the sweet grass. The large and muscled angel who landed next to Michael stepped from his chariot and strode up to the two.
Joan eased from the barn. She gave Michael a nod and glanced over at the new angel. “Hello, Michael. Owen?”
Owen ran a big hand over his bald, dark-brown head. “Who else? Do you think I would send such gifts without being here?”
“Look inside, Joan,” Michael said.
Joan blinked. “Gifts?”
Michael and Owen smiled.
Joan shook her head and turned to face the huge barn. She approached the doors, grabbed the rough wooden handles and swung them open. The silver gleam blinded her. She gazed at the Roman armor and weapons hung on several racks. Old tobacco dust played within the beautiful metal glow.
Elation and wonder filled her heart. The armor shone so bright the angel narrowed her eyes against the glare. Each armored set came with a gold hilted-sheathed sword, a polished round shield decorated with the Judea Lion embossed upon the front center, and silver greaves for both shins and forearms.
Three golden horns, six feet long each, and silk pennants, silver and trimmed with golden edges accompanied the ten thousand sets. Each pennant came embroidered with various designs. One, a lion, another, a sword and shield, joined by others decorated with various flowers or scenes from Heaven, from the glorious gates, to God’s Palace.
The angel stepped further into the barn filled with armor. “These are beautiful, Michael. Thank you.” She turned to the two angels.
Michael placed a hand on Owens bulky shoulder. “Thank Owen. He worked hard in making this armor.”
Joan grasped the six-foot eight angel’s big hand. “Thank you, Owen.”
“You’re welcome, Joan. Anytime.”
“Also,” Michael added. “He will be joining you in the fight.”
Joan pressed her lips together for a second. “You’re aware of Okura?”
“Yes. I believe Heaven’s armorer will be an excellent addition to your team. You can always turn him down.”
“No. Owen is perfect.” Joan hated Michael’s stoic face, like confronting an impenetrable titanium door. What secrets did he hide about the war?
Michael gave Joan a slight bow. “I’ll be leaving so you two can reacquaint yourselves.”
Joan turned to the armor. A shiver ran down her back. Her eyes glanced over the precious metal. “We will be ready, Michael.” She swung her head to face him. The archangel and his chariot no longer graced her presence.
Owen folded his large arms. He swept his eyes over the bright armor. “What are your orders, Joan?”
Joan blew air from between her soft lips. She wanted the battle over. Her shoulder muscles tightened. “Nothing yet, Owen. How are your training skills?”
“They’re good.”
“You’ll lead the archers into battle since Okura is out.”
The strong angel approached a rack. He pulled a blade from a scabbard and studied the fine edge. “I’m also here to follow Daisy Lane.”
“I figured,” Joan said. “I still think Daisy is good. Is Okura ok?”
Owen hunched his shoulders. “Satan released Okura from Hell a few hours ago. And he’s not talking to you yet.”
“We’ll wait for Okura. Maybe he brought a little Hell with him.”
“Yup,” the big angel said and twirled the blade around. “Joan, dangerous parts unseen are moving against you.”
Joan gazed at a silver helmet and ran her fingers over the smooth finish. The choir from Heaven began to sing above their heads. “Well I hope they do move against me, Owen. I’m eager to find out the real reason Temeculs attacked earth.”
50
General Temeculus, in his fury, re-stretched the dead Marine general across the table. He drove four rusty nails at each end with a calloused bare hand. Upon the map he drew the Rocky Mountains and Denver with blood collected from Okura. He studied the map in silence with Lord Wrath, Black Angel, and several other Hell borne officers. He trailed a finger along a road from the Rockies and towards the city center.
A soldier in black armor marched towards the general and held out his hand with a rolled parchment made from human skin. “For you, sir.”
Temeculus waved the soldier away. “Lord Goth failed in his trial to take San Francisco.” He gave Black Angel a cold stare and returned to the map.
Black Angel lowered her head.
Temeculus analyzed the drawn road, a single highway cut through the mountains and into Denver. The road split the city almost in half. He passed his hand over the dead skin and caused the map to bump and bulge from his dark power. The mountain ranges rose to scale along the dead skin.
“Highway 70 comes from the Rocky Mountains, spilling out on Denver’s front doorstep,” Temeculus said.
“No trouble for you, sir,” an officer said.
“Not for us. My human force must get through those mountains and attack the city from the ground.”
Black Angel leaned over the skin etched with lines, hills, and miniaturized mountain ranges. “Can we split our forces? Some of the undead soldiers can fight along with the humans and help breach any defenses around the city.” She rubbed her stomach. Her belly swelled soon after she mounted the angel Okura.
Wrath nodded. “Good point, Black Angel. Sir, we can take a small cavalry force and strike them. The maneuver will give our ground forces a stronger chance at taking the city.”
“Joan and her rabble,” Black Angel said.
Temeculus glared at Black Angel, his eyes blazed with fire. “Her rabble is busy proving themselves. Are they not?” His voice came out in a low growl.
Black Angel lifted her chin. “I can lead the cavalry into the city…and burn it down.”
Temeculus grunted. “I want the troops ready. I want fuel and food for the mortals. Leave some of the Screamers here to guard Hell’s Cathedral. I want to be prepared for war within three days time.” He swept his dark eyes over the ghoulish faces at the table. “Do you all understand me?”
“Yes sir,” they said in unison.
He waved them away. The officers bowed and departed from the war room. The general turned from the table and visited the balcony to clear his head. The battered city stretched out before him. H
is keen ears picked up the sweet sounds from Heaven. He remembered those voices as they floated down to him.
The songs brought back faded memories. The voices reminded him of the day when he, along with the other disgruntled angels, gathered to plot the catastrophic event and their eventual downfall.
Temeculus talked to the angels back then, suggesting God relinquish his throne. God denied the angels freewill, consolidating his power in Heaven. As an experiment he desired to find out what his soon to be mortals would accomplish with freewill on earth. Like using mice to test some scientific theory.
Temeculus raged. Why not rule Heaven with two gods? Divide the kingdom and gift the angels freewill. The realm expanded into infinite.
Temeculus brought up Lucifer’s name, the one God favored in rank beneath the Holy Spirit. Lucifer also itched for his own kingdom in Heaven, and possessed the intelligence and bravery to make the coup successful. He needed enough followers to back his plan.
The disgruntled posed their questions to Lucifer. Lucifer, with a head thick with black hair, a strong chin, and dark eyes filled with knowledge, contemplated the questions. At first he feigned outrage at such a thought, yet soon asked God about freewill and power. God consented to Lucifer’s request to travel between Heaven and the yet created earth. He also allowed the angels to exercise freewill in both realms.
God, however, maintained His supremacy in the universe.
At first the new planet seethed with fire and violence until God finished his finest work. A few angels decided to stay in Heaven. Others went below to exercise their freewill on earth.
Lucifer burned with jealousy at God’s mortal creations. He encouraged Eve to take part in the Tree of Knowledge through a serpent. God blamed the beast for the volatile transgression, and cursed the serpent to crawl amongst the dust for eternity. In addition, Adam and Eve’s mistake drew a harsh penalty when they exercised their freewill.
Their banishment from the Garden of Eden planted the seed for future chaos in Heaven. Lucifer made his first gamble at power.
General Temeculus enjoyed earth and his new freedom. He took advantage of the earth women, luring them to his bed. His sons grew into giants. He enjoyed how the regular men feared his boys.
This went on for a good while. Angels traveled from Heaven to earth uninterrupted. Soon Lucifer grew tired of his weak position, desiring more power, striving to be equals with God and create a kingdom beyond Heaven and above God’s throne. God, without warning, decided to end the deal. He ordered all angels to remain in Heaven unless authorized to go to earth. God also reasserted his sovereignty.
He chose to save Noah and his family, and flooded the entire planet with rains.
Temeculus’s sons and women died within the waters caused by the abundant rains. His heart broke along with the other angels. Their families below cried out for forgiveness before the cold dark waters swallowed them. His entire seed upon the earth erased from one pointed finger on God’s right hand. Somehow, though, one soul other than Noah’s family escaped the floods alive.
Joan.
No one understood why. To insult the angels further, she arrived to Heaven in secret, and God formed her into an angel with incredible powers. This occurred while he flooded the earth. As if He foresaw in advance the terrible act He planned.
Lucifer became enraged and rallied the angels who lived on earth and in Heaven, who fathered sons below. Millions gathered before God’s Palace and asked why didn’t Joan suffer the flood and die with the others?
Lucifer held a volatile argument with God who sat high upon His throne. The angels took sides within the grand hall and palace steps. Lucifer drew his sword against God and the battle erupted at the palace front door. The fierce war stretched across the vast Eternal Kingdom.
The war exploded with warhorses and chariots. The horns terrific blare, the lightening, the screams and the tears filled with rage and sadness still reverberated in his memory. Above all, he remembered the intense hate.
He remembered Lucifer swirling away from Heaven’s gates. His armies in the millions fell like a meteor shower to the earth. God stripped their immortal beauty and turned them all into distorted horrors. They fell to the earth and found their place in Hell.
And in Hell Lucifer reigned.
The general studied the bleak Los Angeles. His strong hands griped the balcony rail built from human thighbones etched with archaic inscriptions meant for the Hell born to read. Billions lived upon the planet, their souls waited for true salvation.
Temeculus turned his focus to the weapon he created. A monster built to raise Hell upon earth and a key to Heaven’s gate and Lucifer’s freedom. Within a few hours the spawn would grow strong in its mother’s womb.
General Temeculus returned to his empty war room, his eyes gazed at the map etched into the skin. “Conqueror,” he said. His voice echoed within the dark cathedral. “Conqueror of worlds.”
51
Black Angel entered her private chambers within Hell’s Cathedral. Five minutes later, from war room to bedchambers, her belly swelled into its third trimester. She placed her hands against her stomach, taut as a melon, and gave herself a massage with cold fingers. A spot bulged underneath her skin. Pain rippled from navel to sternum.
Black Angel sucked icy air into her lungs. She did this for General Temeculus. He wanted a weapon, a secondary device if the battle in Denver failed. She leaned against her empress-sized bed made from human bones. Thick blankets dyed red with blood and heavy pillows stuffed fat with crow feathers covered the bed.
Pain flashed in a red shock from her lower belly and lodged underneath her ribcage. She groaned and slumped upon the rough blankets. Three nursemaids appeared from the shadows within the room. The two thin ones adorned with red horns stood next to the bed, the fat one, with a navel so huge tiny human headed worms crawled within the crevices, placed a calm hand on Black Angel’s shoulder.
“Lay back,” Tud said, her voice raspy. She stroked Black Angel’s swollen belly with a calloused hand. “The baby is ready to come out.”
Black Angel stretched out on the bed and pushed herself further on the crimson blankets. Her stomach bulged, a hoofed foot and clawed hand pushed against her swollen stomach. Red pain flared in hot spasms along her spine as if the little beast wanted to rip itself from the confined space.
General Temeculus entered the room. “I’ll kill you three if you lose this baby,” he said. The three bowed their heads low.
The big one leaned in. “Push.”
Black Angel never birthed a child. She pushed and tried to relax her muscles. Her fingers dug deep into the red blankets. Fire burned in her belly and between her legs, pain rolled in unbearable waves throughout her body. She screamed until she thought her head would split open.
General Temeculus leaned forward, his eyes brightening. “Push, Black Angel, push.”
Black Angel’s back arched. Tud thrust both her huge hands between Black Angel’s spread legs. “Push, push. The head is coming out.”
Black Angel sensed a frigid wetness splatter between her thighs as if someone doused her with ice-cold water. Blood splashed over the big one’s face. A huge creature forced its way from between her legs, the pain doubled. The mad world around her narrowed into a tunnel, darkness began to swallow her consciousness.
The beast did not cry, it fought and clawed at the gore and bloody afterbirth. The baby growled like some tortured animal. Complete darkness closed in on her vision and she fell into blackness.
General Temeculus smiled as Black Angel fainted. Blood and gore soaked the wrinkled blankets. Tud lifted the baby with her blood-slicked hands. The pale form strained and trembled. Its tiny hands bald into fists flowered open to reveal little wicked claws.
“Good…good,” the general said.
Temeculus seized and yanked the meaty cheek on Tud’s horrible face with a thumb and forefinger. “Tud, take the baby to San Francisco. Change your ugly face to fit in with the other mortals and protect
the child as he grows. We will need him later.”
He shoved the fat demon away. She held tight to the larvae pale monster in her hands. The spawn opened its mouth to reveal tiny white incisors. Wings, one black and one white, slick with bloody fluid, wiggled out from its back. Tud bundled the newborn in black towels and fled the room.
General Temeculus approached Black Angel sprawled on the bed naked and unconscious. “Thank you.”
52
Joan and Daisy Lane stood under a clear blue sky clad in armor. The Guardians, in formation, waited in silence. Their polished armor gleamed from the sun. The two angels moved along the first rank and studied the soldiers. They insured the Guardians armor fit and their souls worthy enough to wear the blessed metal against their flesh.
The ranks, opened for inspection, allowed the two warriors easy clearance to the troops. Calm hung upon the afternoon air. Even the local wildlife gave pause to enjoy the scene. The angels completed the inspection within an hour. The five battalions stood ready to train in full battle dress.
Joan leaped upon the wooden training platform. She seized her jeweled sword, drew the silver blade, and pointed its sharp tip towards the air. “This is the gladius,” she said and lowered the weapon. “Do not be afraid of the enemy, make them fear you. Take this blade, with its edge so sharp, and slice off your enemy’s head.”
Joan cut the air, her blade sung with a high musical pitch. A few gasps rippled throughout the army. “Don’t be alarmed, for that is the sound of victory. Angels, prepare for training.”
Daisy Lane drew her sword. “First and Second Battalions of infantry follow me.” She jogged off to another field with four thousand troops close behind her, their armor rung into the morning air.
Joan circled her blade overhead. “First and Second Cavalry Battalion, follow me. Owen, take the archers.”
Owen nodded. The angel drew his sword. “Archers stand fast.”
Angels of War (Angels of War Trilogy Book 1) Page 21