“Don’t talk, just rest,” I said.
He nodded his head and his eyes slowly closed. Angels didn’t need to sleep, but I knew Danny sometimes did when he’d killed a demon, to escape what he’d done. Perhaps when he expended his energy, such as when he kept us hidden, his body needed to retreat into sleep to recover.
I rested my hand on his chest and my head on my hand, listening to the steady rhythm of his breathing. A feeling of dread swept over me. I felt our days were numbered…
Danny woke before the hour was up.
“We need to flee,” I said to him.
He kissed my head and closed his eyes again.
“Danny, we need to go,” I said more urgently.
“We stay,” he said, and drifted into a dreamless sleep.
When the sound of thunder filled the air a short time later, Danny woke again.
“Help me outside. I want to get a better view.”
I pulled his arm over my shoulder and we walked to the garden, the perfume of hundreds of different flowers and fruits greeting us.
The thunder continued, louder and closer now. Lightning flashes numbering in the thousands filled the air, striking the ground and trees — and yet there was not a cloud in the sky. The angels were making good on their promise to destroy the entire area.
Thick dark clouds of smoke rose into the sky and blocked out the sunlight, an acrid smell being carried to us on the breeze.
“Let’s go back inside,” Danny said, saddened by what was happening to his forest. “I’ve seen enough.”
We turned around and I helped Danny back to the couch. Strangely I was no longer scared. Danny seemed peaceful enough about our situation and in some way it calmed me. I lay in his arms and listened not only to his breathing as he slept again, but the violent sounds that ripped through the air. The sounds seemed at odds with each other — the violent crashing outside and the calming steady breathing inside. This was a fight on a different level — one noise versus the other — and I knew which noise I was barracking for.
While I lay there, waiting for Danny to wake, I had a lot of time to think about all sorts of things. I wondered what the date was. I tried to work out how long it had been since I met Danny, but without a calendar it was an impossible task. I wondered how different my life would have been if my parents were still alive. I wondered if I’d be married with a child or two. Ah, children! My heart ached for the children I would never have and I turned my thoughts to other things, to dull the pain.
I hadn’t known angels could be so cruel, ruthless and savage. In some ways they seemed no better than the monsters and demons they fought. Who was right and who was wrong? It’s all a matter of perspective. I’m sure Satan had his reasons for what he did and that he thought they were right and just. Who was I to pass judgement without knowing all the facts? The only facts I was clear on were that Danny was to be cast out and I was to die, because of a misunderstanding. How many others, throughout angelic history — throughout mortal history — had died because of a simple misunderstanding, or worse, just for being born?
Darkness was descending when Danny roused from his deep sleep. He gently stroked my hair and deeply breathed in the light scent of soap that my hair retained. Had he wondered if I would still be here when he woke?
I lifted my head to look into his eyes. They were clear and bright. His face had regained some of its usual colour, though the dark circles under his eyes still remained. I smiled at him and he smiled back.
“How do you feel?”
“Well-rested,” he said. “Almost as good as new.”
“Danny,” I began hesitantly. “I had a lot of time to think while you were resting.”
He shifted his position so our faces were level, to try and read anything in my face that might betray what I wanted to say.
“Helena, you owe me no debt. I think I owe you more than you will ever owe me. You’ve opened up my eyes to an entirely different world. An entirely different point of view.” He sighed and continued on. “If you wish to leave, I understand. I won’t stop you.”
I snorted. What a stupid thing to say! Hadn’t I shown him how I felt about him? Did he think my love such a fickle thing that in difficult times it would be rescinded so casually, so callously?
“Don’t be stupid,” I chided him. “I belong here,” I poked him in the chest, “with you.”
“Then what did you think about?” he asked.
“Lots of things, but the thing that concerned me most,” and this was a small lie on my part, for he could do nothing about my sudden thoughts of children, “was what the angels were doing.”
“It’s been our way since the fall, to rain down destruction in order to kill particularly worrisome demonic threats.”
“No, no, that’s not what worries me. I kind of get that. It was the torture.” I shivered as I remembered the pleasure some of the angels seemed to get out of what they were doing to enemies that couldn’t defend themselves. “If the angels knew they weren’t going to give us up — not that the vamps and wolves knew where we were anyway — why do it? Why not just make their announcement and leave it at that? I’m sure the destruction being rained down on the forest would have been sufficient punishment for those who couldn’t escape in time.”
Danny shook his head sadly. “Times are changing. It appears I am stuck in the past — a dinosaur amongst angels. It used to be that torture was undertaken by those on the side of evil, not those on the side of good.”
“Some of them seemed to be enjoying it,” I said.
“I know,” Danny agreed, and his eyes became clouded, “and it concerns me also.”
He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and opened them again, all trace of consternation gone.
Do not dwell on what you cannot change.
“What else were you thinking about?” he asked.
“How different my life would have been if my parents hadn’t died.” My voice took on a wistful note and my eyes lost focus as I remembered the image I’d conjured in my mind. “I imagined myself growing up in a middle-class home in suburbia, with middle-class friends. My first kiss, my first love, getting married and having children, growing old and being content.”
“You can never grow old and you can never have children, yet I hoped that with me you would be content,” Danny whispered.
“I am,” I said earnestly. “I’ve found with you peace and contentment I never would have thought possible. Knowing my life — as sordid as it’s been — has led me here, to you, is a wondrous thing. But haven’t you ever wondered how different things would be if at some point during your long life some event had or hadn’t occurred?”
Danny brushed my cheek with his fingertips. “Yes, but I would wish for you that you could have all you desired.”
I clasped his hand to my cheek, enjoying the warmth of his touch.
“I was also thinking about how long it’s been since we first met. I have no idea how much time has passed. What’s today’s date?”
“Does it matter?”
“Maybe after a few hundred years of being immortal — if I survive that long — it won’t matter. For now it does. I like to keep track of time.”
“By the mortal calendar it’s September eleven.”
I sagged against Danny’s body, burying my face in his chest. I thought it might have been late August, but not September already. Certainly still far away from the eleventh. I had no idea it was today.
“Oh,” I mumbled into his chest, dejected.
Even though Danny was still fatigued from keeping us hidden he managed to worry about me and the things that would upset me. He reached out and ran his fingers through my hair.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
His capacity for caring, for kindness and compassion — his capacity for loving — knew no limits. It was these things that were at the core of his very being. When the world was going to hell it was these things that acted like a beacon in a dark place. As long as Danny liv
ed there would be good in the world, in my world.
I lifted my head to look at him, pouting. I could feel the sadness on my face.
“It’s my birthday. Today I’m twenty-three.”
I stood up and paced around, wringing my hands and generally feeling nervy, a sense of dread washing over me. I ended up behind the couch, leaning over the back, patting the cushions in an agitated manner and looking at Danny.
“I never really thought I’d see twenty-three, and twenty-four looks just as doubtful.”
Danny grabbed my hands to still them and kissed the palms.
“What do mortals do to mark the passing of another year?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “It depends on the individual. Most people celebrate.”
He kissed my palms again. “I’m sorry, Helena. Unfortunately we need to keep a low profile for a while. I promise that if we’re both still alive on your next birthday we’ll hold a celebration to rival all others.”
I kicked a leg in the air and flipped over the couch, to land seated next to Danny. I turned towards him and rested my hands on his legs.
“September eleven is a day when bad things happen. I wish I’d been born on a different date,” I complained. “If it wasn’t bad enough that my father was murdered on this day and my mother changed, acts of terrorism against freedom were committed on this day in the year two thousand and one. Now I have to live with immortals wreaking havoc and destruction on my birthday as well. What else could possibly happen to rival that… the apocalypse?”
“The apocalypse is no laughing matter, Helena.”
I slid off the couch onto the floor, hugged my knees to my chest and mumbled, not caring if Danny heard or not, “Was I laughing?”
All around us thunder continued to boom — an ominous sound — and I shivered.
25. Blind Spot
The trees at the edge of the garden were burning. We stood outside and watched embers float up into the sky. Danny’s resolve to stay remained unwavering. I was at a loss to explain why, when all around us the forest burned. Wildfire was raging, flames licking at our door.
We stayed and watched the trees around us burn, until there was no more fuel to burn, yet the garden and cottage remained untouched. It was nothing short of miraculous.
“How can this be happening?” I marvelled. “We should have been burnt to a crisp.”
“Apparently He, in His infinite wisdom, created what I refer to as blind spots. These are safe havens. From above they cannot be seen and from the ground they can only be found when stumbled upon. To all eyes outside the boundary of this blind spot the area appears to have been consumed by fire. No cottage or garden exists. We do not exist.”
“That’s amazing,” I said, “but how did you find it if it’s a blind spot?”
“A few centuries ago I was in pursuit of a lesser demon through this area. When he vanished I knew something wasn’t right. In my haste to catch him I transported to where I had last seen him, and started running again. I caught him here, in this very clearing. It was unfamiliar territory to me, which was strange, for I’d been patrolling these lands for thousands of years.”
Danny showed me a demon running, with him following close behind, and the clearing. It was an image that would have been familiar, if the cottage and garden had sat upon it.
“When I had turned him to ash I sought the skies, to see what this area looked like from above,” the image changed to an aerial view, “and found I could not see the clearing, or the pile of ash. It baffled me and I returned to the ground, some distance away. Still I could not see the clearing. I knew I had not imagined it though.
“I covered the area using a spiral search from my starting point, until I came upon it again. For days I looked at it from all angles — in different light and conditions, and at different times of the day. I wanted to see if there was a window of opportunity for discovery, yet there was none.
“In the last century two more blind spots were revealed to me, though the most recent one is not like this one. Anyone can find it, anyone can see it, but no one can detect what type of being — angel, monster, demon or mortal, resides within it. The blind spot has been secured and is available should this one become compromised. Of the other, I discovered that to call the name of an angel out loud acted as a summons, allowing them access to the blind spot. Luckily the angel I called did not realise what he had been called to.”
“So that’s why you won’t let me say your superior’s name out loud, why I can’t say any angel’s name except yours.” I felt a sudden dread. “What about Amrael?” I whispered. “We’ve both said his name out loud.”
“Only after Amrael was dead did we speak his name. The dead cannot be summoned here,” Danny said.
“And demons? We discussed Satan often enough.”
“It doesn’t work that way either, though I don’t know why. Perhaps I can only summon other angels because I’m an angel.”
“Then what about me? I’m part angel, part Satan-created monster. Surely if I called a demon by their name they’d come?”
“I’d rather not take the chance. We’ve spoke of Satan, true enough and he hasn’t appeared, but neither has He whom we have also talked about.”
“What, God?”
“Yes, Him.”
I shrugged my shoulders. “Maybe we’re not important enough in the scheme of things.”
“All of His creations are important,” Danny lectured me. “You just don’t realise your own worth.”
Yeah, right. God afforded me the same importance He gave angels and those who dedicated their lives to Him. Even Mary Magdalene was a saint compared to me.
“Okay, if this is a blind spot, how did the cottage come to be here? You said yourself this was a clearing. The cottage wasn’t here in the beginning.”
“You should know the answer to that already,” he replied.
“Right,” I thought about it for a moment, “and that would be because you made it so?” He nodded. “Why a cottage though?”
“It had to do with something from my past, a long time ago, that was once important to me. At the time, I think I needed to hold onto it. I couldn’t let it go.”
“And it’s not important anymore?”
“No.”
“So are you going to elaborate?” I asked.
“No, let’s just leave it at that.”
“What if I asked you to make it more like the type of home I always dreamed of living in?”
“I would change it, for you. What would you like me to do?”
“Not a thing,” I replied. “I just wondered if you were really ready to move on and leave the cottage behind.”
Danny laughed and pulled me to him, nuzzling my hair.
I knew now that provided someone didn’t stumble upon us we’d be safe. We could spend eternity here if we had to, making the odd hunting trip when my hunger became too much for me. If the angels thought we were dead — killed in their fire — we could live in peace, just the two of us, without a care in the world.
“I have made some changes,” Danny said. “Nothing major, but I think you’ll enjoy them.”
“What?” I asked.
“Why don’t we start in the bathroom,” he replied. His smile said it all.
Epilogue
If an earth-bound angel can be corrupted by evil, would it not stand to reason that heavenly angels could also be corrupted, were there demons powerful enough?
Is it possible Michael was warning me of corruption within the ranks? More angels will fall, I think, before this is done.
When I take everything that has happened into consideration — the hunting and killing of earth-bound angels — and weigh up the facts, I believe that to be the case. This is not meant to be our way and He would surely be weeping for His children who have lost their way, yet again.
Helena and I can only hope, and pray, that Michael will rally the other angels, for the two of us alone are no match for the might of heaven — the heavenly h
ost. We must have faith, for He is always with us, though Helena, on some level, does not believe this. Instead she places her faith in us — that we will endure.
Until He performs the miracle I know in my heart and soul will occur — for our stories cannot end here — we will wait, content to be together for as long as He allows it, and plan for the time when we are free to walk on His earth, and do His work, again.
— Danizriel
A Little Bit More ...
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Also by Melanie Tomlin
For adults
Angel’s Curse
Angel’s Messiah
Angel’s Body
Angel’s Demon
Angel Series Books 1-3 Boxed Set
The Sands of Time
Twisted Poems of a Warped Mind
For children
Lucy Vampoosy: The Little Vampire Dog
‘Angel’s Curse’ is the second book in the ‘Angel Series’. Read on for an excerpt.
Dreams
It was strange looking through the window of the cottage — our home — and seeing past the garden to the dead and barren forest beyond.
Danizriel — Danny to me — the angel I loved above everything and everyone else, stood behind me and rubbed my arms. He kissed the top of my head, his eyes forever watching for the horrors that awaited us out there.
Danny was holding out for a miracle. I wasn’t so sure. If God meddled in the lives of His creations, then possibly He’d done two things for me already — led Danny to me, and allowed us to live. Wasn’t that enough? Could we really ask for another miracle? It’s not like God was a genie and we’d been granted three wishes. We were lucky to be alive, and for that I was grateful.
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