Angel of Wisdom
by
Julia McKnight
Angel of Wisdom
Copyright © 2018, Julia McKnight
ISBN: 9781949300055
Publisher: Beachwalk Press, Inc.
Electronic Publication: July 2018
Editor: Pamela Tyner
Cover: Fantasia Frog Designs
eBooks are not transferable. No part of this book may be used or reproduced without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations in articles and reviews.
This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.
Back Cover Copy
To love and protect always.
Uriel, the Archangel of Wisdom, is in Rome taking in the sights when he becomes embroiled in a battle with demons. He gets overpowered and out of nowhere a mysterious, red-haired woman suddenly appears and rescues him.
Aileen, a librarian who is also a Druid priestess, has the ability to astral travel. When she sees a man being beaten by demons on the banks of the Tiber River she travels there to save him. Somehow, she brings both of them back to Ireland, and now her quiet life is about to be turned upside down.
Unbeknownst to them, the demons have tracked them down, and they kidnap Aileen’s niece. Time is running out, and as Aileen and Uriel work together to find the little girl, they start to fall for one another. However, it is forbidden for an Archangel to love a human. Will Uriel defy his Heavenly Father for this quiet, intelligent woman, and can they locate Aileen’s niece in time to save her?
Content Warning: contains strong sexual content and violence
Dedication
To all my teachers who helped shape and mold me into the intellectual that I am today. Especially Mrs. V, my English 9 teacher who encouraged me to write. Thank you.
Chapter 1
Archangel Uriel walked the halls of the Vatican. He treaded among the bishops running around in their robes and carrying on with their duties. No one noticed him. As one of God’s highest ordained warriors, he came and went as he pleased between the realms of Earth and Heaven, doing his Father’s bidding.
Demons feared him and quaked at the mention of his name. None of them survived in his presence. As the leader of his archangel brothers and warriors, Uriel was a force to be reckoned with. He was tall at six feet, seven inches—the tallest of his seven brothers—and although he was lean, he was muscular. His lips were rarely seen in a smile since he was always serious and usually deep in thought.
Uriel favored the interests of the mind and intellect over all other pursuits. A lot of his free time was spent studying the world and learning. He would fly down to Earth and study at different libraries, churches, and universities. His brothers would often find him buried in a book or poring over a map. Since he loved learning so much, he was known as the Archangel of Wisdom.
Uriel stopped when he reached the Sistine Chapel. He paused to admire the beautiful artwork painted by the late, great Michelangelo. He marveled at Michelangelo’s use of color and textures. It was pure genius to paint scenes from the Bible on the uneven ceiling.
Uriel thought back to when Michelangelo was alive and actually painting it. He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again it was 1508 and Michelangelo was standing on his wooden scaffold, painting in angry strokes across the wet plaster. He was muttering in Italian and dissatisfied with the painting.
An apprentice came running with different designs and paint mixtures. The young man placed the items on a different scaffold and pulled on ropes to haul them up to the famed artist for him to review. After much mumbling, Michelangelo nodded at the paint mixture but threw the designs back down at the apprentice. As the papers scattered all over the floor, the lad ran around trying to collect them.
Uriel watched in detached amusement. Then he closed his eyes again, and when he opened them he was back in present day. Leaving the Sistine Chapel, he walked outside into the fresh sunlight.
Uriel flew to the remains of the Colosseum and watched the wind sifting the dirt back and forth. As he walked the grounds he thought back on the many years of bloodshed at the hands of the Romans. He could still hear the crowds chanting for death as the gladiators fought each other for their life and freedom. Bending down, he picked up some dirt and watched it sift through his fingers. Human life was like these grains of dirt—easily turned and easily extinguished.
Just as Uriel was about to close his eyes and teleport back to the times of the gladiators fighting, he heard a woman scream. Turning in the direction of the noise, he instantly sensed demonic presence. He teleported to the woman and saw three demons bent over her twitching body. He drew out his battle axe, and it gleamed a turquoise blue.
Uriel launched at the nearest demon and brought the axe down on its skull. He heard a satisfying crack, and the demon fell to the ground, his body lifeless. The other two demons ran away as soon as they saw their comrade dead on the ground.
Uriel went over to the woman and saw that her body was twitching in a seizure. Sometimes a demon would try to entrance or hypnotize a human into doing their will, and if the human resisted, it could cause seizures, heart attacks, or even death, depending on the strength of the demon doing the entrancement.
Taking a handkerchief out of his pocket, Uriel rolled it up, then gently pried the woman’s mouth open to insert it. He stayed with her until her seizure passed. Then he took out his cellphone and dialed for an ambulance to come pick her up.
He took the handkerchief out of the woman’s mouth, rolled her to her side, and made himself invisible to the human eye when he heard the sirens of an ambulance. When the paramedics arrived, they quickly assessed the unconscious woman, then they placed her on a stretcher and put her in the ambulance. The moment the ambulance sped off, Uriel turned his attention to the demons.
Closing his eyes, he concentrated on the auras of the demons. He saw them convening by the banks of the Tiber River. They had grabbed more recruitments and were together in a circle. Uriel teleported there to join them.
He materialized soundlessly with his battle axe in hand, ready to kill the demons. He approached a demon kneeling down and was about to strike him when the sound of chants filled the air. Uriel looked around and realized the demons were all on their knees, chanting in unison.
“Oh, Goddess of the Waters, Queen of Darkness. Hear us as we call your name. Your children need you. Come and guide us.”
To Uriel’s surprise, a mist began to rise from the river. His psychic senses told him the chanting was encouraging a powerful force to rise from within the depths of the water. He needed to break the spell, so he swung his battle axe and took off the demon’s head in front of him.
The rest of the demons jumped up and blasted him with a powerful psychic energy. He blocked it with his energy shield and then sent his own psychic energy back at them, which caused them to fly off. Some ran away and scattered after the blast. The bolder ones came back and engaged him in combat.
Uriel tried to hit the nearest demon, but the demon jumped back and drew out his daggers. He threw them at Uriel, but Uriel blocked them with his axe. The demon hissed in frustration, then another demon ran to engage Uriel in combat with a broken beer bottle. Uriel sliced off his hand, and the demon screamed in pain.
Another demon attacked him from behind, and Uriel swung around to defend himself. The demon who threw the daggers hit him with a powerful psychic blast, and Uriel crouched down in pain. The other demon kicked his axe out of his hand and began to punch and kick him.
Uriel drew out a dagger from his boot and threw it at the demon hitting him. It caught him in
the shoulder and he stumbled back in pain. Unfortunately, three other demons took his place and continued the brutal beating.
Uriel used his psychic strength to bring his axe back into his hand and hacked off a few legs. He kneeled and tried to catch his breath. When he looked up he saw the head rising from the surface of the river. Instead of hair on the scalp of the water demon, there were serpents, wriggling every which way.
Her skin was a bluish-gray hue, and her eyes glowed a deep red. Uriel was frozen and unable to move. It surprised him since he rarely got entranced. Panic set in as the water demon smiled and bared her sharp teeth. She moved closer to the banks and opened her mouth. Her tongue was a serpent, and it swam toward him.
Uriel couldn’t move to strike it no matter how hard he tried. The serpent was coming straight for him, and for the first time that he could remember, he felt fear. He prayed to his Holy Father to help him break the spell of this evil water demon.
Suddenly, a bright light appeared and a woman in a white robe with red hair walked toward him. She put her arms around him in a protective embrace. There was a buzzing noise around them and everything was spinning. Uriel closed his eyes to block out the whirling. He heard the water demon scream at him. When the buzzing noise stopped, he opened his eyes and found himself lying in a sunny, green field.
Uriel sat up and looked around. In front of him was a large, stone structure standing straight out of the earth. The stone looked like a giant phallus with small, rectangular bricks surrounding the base of it. He studied the monument and searched his memory for a recollection of it.
He recognized it as the Stone of Destiny from his books. He got up and walked around the stone, trying to get his bearings. According to his texts and maps, the Stone of Destiny was located at the Hill of Tara in the County of Meath in Ireland. How he got to Ireland, he had no idea.
There was no sign of the red-haired woman. Uriel was completely alone except for some wandering sheep in a nearby field. He walked down the hill, looking for any sign of civilization.
Chapter 2
Aileen opened her eyes and calmed herself by taking deep, slow breaths. In and out, in and out. When her heartbeat returned to normal, she slowly moved to a sitting position, and then got up. She went over to her backpack and grabbed a bottle of water. The taste of the cold liquid replenished her and brought her back to herself.
Aileen changed from her white, flowy robes into everyday street clothing. She looked around her stone chambers to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything. When she was satisfied that everything was exactly as it should be, she walked out of Loughcrew Cairns or the Hills of the Witches.
She got into her car, which was parked at a small, dirt road out of sight, and headed toward Dublin. As her car sped past the beautiful green scenery of County Meath, Ireland, she thought about her out-of-body experience.
Aileen recalled sitting cross-legged in the stone chambers. The light from the sun was coming through and flooding the sacred chambers since it was the summer equinox. On that day, once a year, the chamber became completely filled with sunlight. She had bathed in the warmth and felt joy at such a connection to the Heavens.
A vision had occurred right in front of her. Her bright chambers changed into a scene where demons were attacking a man. As she watched the fight she realized that there was something different about the man. He was incredibly strong, much stronger than a normal man.
She noticed he was wielding a weapon that looked like a very big axe, and it had a turquoise blue glow to it. In fact, the man also had the same glow all around him. That glow seemed to protect him and repel the energy of the demons.
Aileen watched in horror as the demons brought him to his knees in pain. She wanted to protect him and keep the demons from harming him. She walked toward him but stopped when she felt another evil presence.
Turning, she gasped at the sight before her. There, rising from the depths of the river, was a demon her people had feared since the beginning of their existence. She had seen pictures of it but never thought it actually existed.
She stared in shock as the water demon known as Gorgoneia opened her mouth and sent forth a serpent to bite the man who kneeled frozen on the riverbank. According to the stories and legends, any mortal man who stared into the eyes of this female demon immediately turned to stone.
Aileen didn’t know why this man was not yet stone, but then again, she didn’t believe everything she heard. She just knew she had to protect him from the stare of this female demon and her serpent. Running over to him, she threw her arms around him in a protective embrace.
She thought of home, back in Ireland, where the land was green and the sun was shiny and bright. The next thing she knew, she was back in her stone chambers at Loughcrew Cairns. The sunlight was dwindling from her chambers, leaving only shafts when once it was flooded with light.
As Aileen rounded the bend in her car, her mind occupied with thoughts of what she’d just experienced, she saw the man she’d saved strolling down the road. A feeling of surprise replaced her thoughts. She had no idea she teleported him to Ireland! As she came closer to him, she rolled down her window. The man turned when he saw her car approaching. She stopped next to him, and recognition flared in his eyes.
“Do you need a ride into town?” she inquired politely.
He looked around and then back at her and nodded. She unlocked the door for him, and he got in.
“Where would you like to be dropped off?” she asked.
“Any place where there’s a good library,” he answered.
Aileen turned and stared at him. “Well, I work in a library.”
He returned her stare, and she was taken aback by how good-looking he was. His skin was a beautiful cocoa color, smooth and brown all over. He was clean-shaven, and there was no hair on his head either. His liquid gold eyes stared back at her with such intensity that she looked back at the road and started driving again.
“Your library will suffice,” he muttered.
Aileen cleared her throat. “Don’t you want to know what it’s called?”
“Of course,” he replied.
Aileen had the sneaking suspicion that he had somehow uncovered her innermost secrets with that penetrating stare.
“I’m a librarian at Trinity College Library. Is there anything specific you’re looking for that I can help you find?” she asked.
The man thought for a while and then asked quietly, “How did you manage to bring me from Rome to Ireland?”
Aileen shifted uncomfortably in her seat and stated, “I don’t know.”
The man turned to gaze at her with that intense look again.
“Stop that!” she snapped.
He turned back to look at the road. “You really don’t know how you did it?” he asked.
“No. I also don’t know why I was even brought to you,” Aileen answered.
“I prayed to my Father to save me from that water demon. Then you came out of nowhere, and I ended up at the Stone of Destiny. This has never happened to me before,” the man informed her, and then mumbled, as if speaking to himself, “What could be my Father’s will in all of this?”
“I don’t know, however, we’re only twenty minutes away from the library now, so not much further,” she stated just to change the subject.
The man didn’t say anything, and an awkward silence ensued between the two strangers.
“I’m Aileen, by the way,” she said, trying to fill the silence.
“Uriel,” the stranger clipped out.
“Pleasure to meet you, Uriel. What were you doing in Rome?”
“Looking at architecture and art,” he answered.
“Really? What buildings were you looking at?”
“I was at the Sistine Chapel, and then I went to the Coliseum.”
“Hmm…I didn’t see you at any of those places. I saw you at a river where the demons were attacking you in a group.”
“You were spying on me?” Uriel asked in disbelief.<
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“No! I was meditating back here in Ireland. I must have astral traveled to Rome and saw you being attacked.”
“You astral traveled? You mean you can teleport?” Uriel questioned her.
“Not exactly. My soul is able to travel through space and time. However, my physical body stays here in the present time and space. It cannot travel.”
“I have read about that. Though I don’t understand how your soul is able to teleport me through space and time,” he pondered, sounding quite puzzled.
“I don’t know either. I’ve never done that before,” Aileen responded.
“I will try to find that in your library then.”
“Well, you should be able to find it. Our library is the most extensive in all of Ireland,” Aileen declared proudly.
Uriel nodded and turned to look out the window at the buildings lining the streets as they entered Dublin. Ireland boasted some of the most beautiful structures and buildings.
They stopped in front of the famed Library of Trinity College. Aileen grabbed her backpack and got out of the car. Uriel also got out and walked beside her into the library.
“I’ll set my things down in my office, and then I can look up the section or a specific book for you,” Aileen offered.
“No need. I’ll find my own way around,” he informed her.
“Very well,” Aileen responded uncertainly.
Uriel smiled at her concern. “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me.”
“If you need anything, I’m at the front desk.”
“Thank you for the ride and for saving me,” Uriel said with warmth.
Aileen smiled at him. “Of course, no problem. Have a good day, and I wish you well in your search, Uriel.”
She headed to her office as Uriel walked down the hallway gazing at the rows of books.
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