by Laurie Lyons
"What am I going to do about Anastasia?" Lucy asked in worry.
"There isn't much you can do I'm afraid. She wouldn't believe you if you told her the truth. Anastasia doesn't seem the type to blindly follow orders if you told her to stay away from him. She would want more information."
"You're right," Lucy conceded. "But what if he hurts her? As you said, he could be dangerous." She imagined Dr. Hannon's face and shuddered.
"Roman isn't all bad Lucy, you yourself have seen him charming and funny," he said.
"But, I've also seen him be horrible," Lucy thought of the sinister grin on Roman's face when he caused that tray to tip and she shuddered.
"He still has a soul Lucy and it is screaming at his behavior. He is in a constant battle with himself. This is increased by the fact that he is a young Demon, he hasn't lost all his humanity yet. He hasn't forgotten what's right. Did you notice how quickly his mood changed?" Lucy nodded remembering the erratic behavior. "That is the behavior of a deeply torn person. My presence also makes it worse. I am the opposite of him and a Heavenly presence only reminds him of all his mistakes."
"What would he have had to do to become a Demon?" Lucy asked.
"I have no idea," Nathaniel shook his head. "He was a very bad person when he lived on this Earth and he will pay for those mistakes until the end of time."
"How does his job actually work? I understand the Angel side of things but I am having a hard time imagining the opposite." Lucy pressed trying to comprehend.
"For example," he said picking up her hand and tracing her fingers with this own absentmindedly. "A man drops his wallet outside of a convenience store, he doesn't see it drop and keeps walking. There is a teenage boy standing nearby. Roman makes him look at the wallet."
"And then he waits to see what decision the boy will make."
"Exactly, Demons, like Angels can only give options and it's up to the person to make the choice. He can take the wallet and spend the money or he can call the man and give him his wallet back. It's up to him. But, like the other side of it, evil breeds evil. The kid that steals the wallet may then steal something else or learn to pick pocket. Each Guild has to work diligently to maintain the balance."
"Why do you use the term Guilds?" Lucy asked.
"What we do is a craft, an art if you will, and I know the Angels who perform this line of work take a lot of pride in what they do. It is a great honor to be a Guardian. I can only assume that it is the same for Demons." Nathaniel replied, "I didn't anticipate my presence here would change anything for the resident Demon but obviously, people are choosing to do the right thing more often making Roman's craft harder. It also doesn't help that he has a higher Demon putting pressure on him. It makes things very dangerous indeed."
Lucy thought for a moment. "But did God kind of shoot himself in the foot here?" she asked.
Nathaniel laughed a little. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, he could just make all the bad guys go away. He could make it so that everyone always does the right thing and no one is ever bad."
"God tried that Lucy, have you ever heard of a little place called the Garden of Eden?" he said with a smile. "It doesn't work that way. We have to have free will so we can make mistakes and grow and learn. What kind of life would we have if we couldn't make decisions for ourselves? Could you be happy if your entire life was planned for you? You would never make mistakes but you would never become a better person. Wouldn't that feel like a prison to you?"
"Yes," Lucy admitted, "it would."
"And that's not ok with God. If we only did the right thing all the time we would be just as bad as Roman who does the wrong thing all the time. God loves us too much to hinder us in any way."
"Ok," Lucy said nodding. "I get it, he's necessary."
"Sadly, yes."
"Will you have to fight him?" Lucy asked nervously.
"I hope not," Nathaniel replied sighing.
"Are you afraid of him?" Lucy wondered hoping he would be honest with her.
"Not half as afraid as he is of me," Nathaniel said smirking.
"Would you win?"
"Of course I would," Nathaniel said as if this was obvious. "But I don't want to fight them. I think if we go to Kansas, it will give Roman and Bael a little break from me. When we get back, I will lay low and try to figure out what to do. No more wandering around town. I'm sure I will come up with something."
Lucy noticed that he didn't sound totally sure of anything.
Chapter Nine
Travel
"Close your eyes I'll be on my way."
~John Denver
Upon check in the next morning, Lucy had requested a seat in the back and a row to herself. Since the plane wasn't full, she and Nathaniel sat comfortably, quietly talking under the roar of the engines and out of sight from the other passengers. The flight attendant dropped off their drinks not questioning why Lucy wanted two of everything. Within a few moments, both Lucy and Nathaniel felt the tension that had held them so tightly wound release slightly. They both sighed in unison.
Lucy sat back and smiled at Nathaniel, "I'm glad you came."
"So am I," he smiled back. "I don't know if I could have survived almost a week without you. I am so attached to you Lucy it's a little scary at times. I crave you when you are not around."
"I feel the same way," Lucy said with relief. "Do you think it's normal?"
"A girl with a photographic memory and a boy who is an Angel from Heaven and you ask me if we are normal? I don't think so," he said with a grin.
"Good point," Lucy nodded. "So about the Angel thing."
"Yes?" he smirked suspecting more questions from an ever-curious Lucy.
"How powerful are you?" Lucy asked. "That thing yesterday with the tray was awesome, I didn't know you could do that."
"I can do that," he said as if this was sufficient.
"Can you move bigger things?" Lucy asked enthralled.
"Not people, I'm not allowed to move people," he said casually. "But I can move bigger things."
"Like a car?"
"Yes," again he was relaxed about it.
"Like this plane?"
"Yes, if I wanted to," he said looking uncomfortable with all the attention on him.
"Stop being so calm about this!" Lucy demanded. "You can move stuff with your mind!"
"No I can't," he corrected. "I move things with my hand."
"Big difference," Lucy rolled her eyes. "Why didn't you tell me you could do that?"
"Because I don't need to move things," he said. "I can get up and get stuff."
"What else can you do?" she asked excitedly.
"Nothing, that's it," he said curtly.
"Liar," Lucy laughed. "You have to tell me everything."
Nathaniel laughed, "Fine. Well, I can move stuff if I need to and I am really funny and smart…" Lucy raised her eyebrows in warning. He sighed and relented, "Well you know about the flowers right?"
"Yes, so are your powers mostly nature based then?"
"Yes, those are the things I can control. I can make those things pop out of no where but I can't make money appear, that's why I have to wish for that stuff."
"So Heaven gives you man made stuff for moving around but you can do stuff with nature anytime you want," Lucy concluded.
"Right, exactly."
"Show me."
"Nope," he said. "No way."
"Then show me one thing, just one thing."
"If I do will you drop it?" he asked smiling.
"Probably not but it would certainly shut me up for a while," she said grinning.
He sighed and looked at her, "the things I do for you Lucy…." He lifted up his hand and it was in a tight fist. He slowly opened his hand and Lucy gasped. Sitting in the middle of his palm was a perfect, tiny tornado spinning and swerving on his hand. He smiled at her reaction and closed his fist again making it disappear. Lucy stared at him for a moment stunned.
"Can you make a full sized one?" sh
e asked with awe.
"I can," he said plainly.
"Can Roman?" she asked fearfully.
"He most likely has power to but doesn't need to," he said reassuring her.
"Then who causes the natural disasters and all that?"
He shook his head, "that's something else entirely, not Demons or Angels."
Lucy looked at him and grinned, "You are wonderful."
"It's no big deal," he said shrugging.
"Do it again," Lucy said sounding like a toddler. Nathaniel laughed and raised his fist again, when he opened it, there was a rainbow hovering on his palm. Lucy grinned.
Suddenly the plane dropped slightly. Everyone gave a small cry of surprize, followed quickly by a twitter of laughter. The flight attendants moved slowly but with urgency to each end of the plane. The seat belt sign came on. Lucy focused on putting on her own seatbelt and it wasn't until she was all secured in that she realized that Nathaniel wasn't sitting beside her anymore. He was standing a few feet away in the aisle of the plane, his hands were flexed tightly and his jaw was strained and he was looking at the ceiling of the aircraft.
The plane dropped again, farther, harder and with far less control. There was another cry this time from the passengers but this time without any giggles. An overhead bin opened and a few items trickled to the ground. No one moved to pick them up. Lucy noted that Nathaniel barely moved. The cabin was silent, somewhere further up in the plane, a baby started crying. This was quickly becoming a situation of worry. The plane dropped again, and swept to the side sharply. The cries turned into screams and Nathaniel vanished.
Lucy cried out but no one noticed because at this point everyone was screaming. Where could he have gone? Was he in the flight deck trying to see what was going on? Was he hanging onto the outside of the plane? Lucy craned her neck to try to see out the window but all she saw was blue sky. The plane was jerking violently now, dropping and bucking severely. This wasn't normal turbulence and Lucy could only hang on to her seat and brace against the fierce movement.
Against her will, her brain provided her with every image of a plane crash she had ever seen. She grunted as she tried to ignore the pictures flying through her consciousness. The passengers started panicking, yelling out and crying openly, someone was saying the rosary. It was clear to everyone, that nothing could take this kind of abuse for long. It was only a matter of time.
The turbulence stopped as quickly as it had started and the cabin went silent. It felt too good to be true. The captain's tense voice came over the speakers. "Folks, we seem to have passed through a deep turbulence area. I apologise that we didn't give you any warning on that. We have had no reports on bumps in this area."
"Bumps?" Someone said out loud. "More like craters."
"Please notify the flight attendants of any injuries. It will be a hopefully smooth next hour to Wichita."
Lucy leaned out to the window again. Where was Nathaniel? Panic surged through her as she pictured Dr. Hannon's mangled face.
"Nathaniel?" she whispered. "Please come."
Nothing.
She scanned the cabin searching for him but there was no sign of him. He could be anywhere on the planet. Or he could be dead. Lucy stifled a sob as she sat helplessly waiting. It seemed like hours. She snapped at the Flight Attendant when she came through to check on everyone. Suddenly, someone grabbed her arm. Lucy yelped in terror as she whipped around to look at her assailant. Relief swept through her as Nathaniel's dark face was within inches of her own. Not caring that no one could see him and she looked like a lunatic, Lucy threw her arms around his neck and kissed him hard. He kissed her back and wove his hands through her hair.
She sat back and sighed with relief. "Where have you been?"
Nathaniel shook his head, "I went up to the flight deck to make sure the pilots stayed safe."
"That wasn't normal turbulence was it?"
Nathaniel laughed ruefully, "No, no it wasn't."
"Did you see anything?" Lucy swallowed, "Was it Bael?"
"I didn't see him, but that wasn't natural." He looked out the window.
"Are you sure?" Lucy hoped, "Maybe it was just turbulence."
"Lucy," Nathaniel said calmly, "I don't want you to freak out but it was nothing common. The captain called in a possible SOS as a result of a foreign bogey."
Lucy's memory scanned the terminology and she gasped when she realized that this is the wording used for UFOs. The pilots thought that something was after them as well and it was something they could not identify. She shuddered.
"Now what?" she almost whimpered. She had never felt so vulnerable in her whole life. They were trapped on this plane and at the mercy of a Demon.
"Pray?" Nathaniel offered and wrapped his arms around her.
They arrived at the airport on time and the passengers could not wait to get off that plane. Lucy's hands were stiff from gripping onto the armrests the whole way. Lucy and Nathaniel left the secured area carrying their bags. As they descended the escalators, Lucy scanned the waiting crowd for her Mom.
"There she is," Nathaniel pointed out a well-dressed brunette standing in the crowd.
"How did you know?" Lucy muttered.
"She's beautiful," he replied. Lucy smiled at the compliment and waved at her Mom who waved back excitedly.
Sandra Bower stood five foot four inches tall with chestnut brown hair styled in a sweeping bouffant that looked like Jackie O hair but still modern and smart. She was shapely and wore a purple suit under a beige dress coat. Lucy ran into her mother's open arms and clutched her tightly.
"Oh my Lucy, my Lucy, you're home baby," Sandra's voice was full of emotion as she held her daughter tight.
Lucy felt her throat constrict as she choked out, "I missed you Mom."
Sandra gave Lucy another squeeze and let her go. Holding her at arms length she looked Lucy over, "Let me look at you," she sniffed. "Oh you look gorgeous. Was it hot on the plane? You're flushed honey." Lucy had no intention of telling her mother about the trouble on the plane. She couldn't tell her much of anything that had happened to her lately. Sandra was a pretty cool mom but she was still a mom and her worrying would become tiresome.
"Yes," Lucy mumbled awkwardly, "It was ….um…hot on the plane." Behind her Nathaniel chuckled. Lucy had to stop herself from introducing the two of them.
As if he could read her mind, Nathaniel leaned forward respectfully and said, "It's a pleasure to finally meet you Mrs. Bower, Lucy has told me so much about you." Lucy grinned, that would have to do.
"Common," Sandra linked her arm through Lucy's and started heading for the large glass doors, "lets get out of here, I need some lunch and we have so much to talk about."
Sandra talked the entire time in the car on the way out of town. Lucy was pleased to hear her mother sounding so happy. She was concerned about Sandra in September when she left for Mulbridge. It had been only six months after her father's death and although the two had been divorced for five years Lucy's mom had been devastated by her father's death. It was good to see that her mother had bounced back.
Sandra Bower was the best realtor in Stonecreek and gave Lucy a detailed description of every deal she had made in the last six months since Lucy had been home. She told her every bit of gossip she could think of. Lucy's mom knew who was pregnant, getting married, getting a divorce or having an affair because all of these things needed a new home. If a husband was leaving his wife, Sandra Bower was the first to know because he'd always call for a confidential appraisal on the house.
She still had not run out of information when they sat down at the restaurant for lunch and prattled on about extended family and long lost friends.
"Are you hungry honey?" Sandra asked looking over the menu. Lucy nodded eagerly.
"This honey is starving, get extra Lucy," Nathaniel replied beside her. Lucy stifled a laugh as she ordered an appetizer, salad and the biggest plate of pasta she could see on the menu. Lucy's mom was so busy talking that she didn't ev
en notice that the majority of Lucy's meal literally disappeared. When they were done, her mother looked at Lucy in shock.
"Lucy, you were hungry," she exclaimed. "I have never seen you eat that much. Aren't they feeding you there?"
Lucy laughed, "I haven't eaten all day Mom."
"Well, you should be eating regular meals," her mother chided. "Boys like a girl with a little meat on their bones."
Nathaniel laughed.
"Speaking of boys, are there any contenders honey?" she asked propping her elbows on the table. Lucy was about to lie and say that there were no prospects in her life but then she thought better of it. There was no reason to not tell her mother some of the truth. Lucy had never gotten to gush about Nathaniel like other girls did. There was no way her mom would ever find out the truth, she lived far enough away that Lucy was immune from normal parental inquiries. If she worded it right, she could gush about Nathaniel and still protect the truth.
"Well, there is one boy," she said already starting to blush at the prospect of discussing Nathaniel out loud.
"Do tell," her mother leaned forward intrigued.
"Lucy," Nathaniel said in a warning tone but Lucy ignored him.
"His name is Nathaniel, and mom he is absolutely gorgeous!" Lucy beamed.
Nathaniel sat back in his chair and rolled his eyes, "Oh no, Lucy please don't make me sit here and listen to this."
Lucy grinned and kept going, "He's tall, dark and handsome. He is the most gorgeous guy I have ever seen!"
"That's enough," Nathaniel said starting to blush.
Lucy couldn't stop now even if she wanted to. "And his eyes mom. Oh his eyes are unbelievable! They are this crystal grey color I have never seen before and they change shades. He looks like a movie star!" Beside her, Nathaniel groaned. "And he's so funny and so smart and kind and he's just the best guy I have ever met. I am just crazy about him."
"Oh my goodness Lucy," Sandra exclaimed, "he sounds wonderful! How long have you two been seeing each other?" Now sadly, Lucy had to lie because she couldn't have her mother asking for pictures of him or calling Dr. Hannon about him.