The morning was brisk, with a slight breeze, and a mist hanging in the air. It hadn’t stopped Raziel from taking a morning walk, though. In fact, the angel quite liked this kind of weather, and was happy when Katha said she didn’t mind either. They’d spent the last four days going for morning walks, sometimes chatting about life or the Guild, sometimes not saying anything. They usually walked further away from town, on a hilly road leading out to green pastures and little villages. That morning, on their way back, they topped the hill that led to the mansion’s driveway, and noticed someone was waiting for them.
“David!” Katha called and ran over to him.
He laughed and put an arm around her. The other hand was carrying a tray full of coffees, which he hesitantly thrust in Raziel’s direction when the angel walked up.
“Thank you,” Raziel said, trying not to sound too uncomfortable.
“I heard you might be out here, enjoying the fresh air. It looks good on you...both of you,” David quickly added, and winced at Raziel’s raised eyebrow. “Look...”
“Don’t,” the angel said, shaking their head. “Let’s just...put it behind us, alright?”
“Sounds great,” David said with a nod and a sigh of relief. “So, what have I missed?”
“We were right; this all has something to do with Loki, but not in the way we thought. Enjoy your morning, and then we’re all going to meet up in the library after lunch. We have a trip to Skye to plan.” The angel nodded at Katha, and then gave David a brief glance before heading back into the mansion.
“Are they going to be alright?” David asked as he watched the angel walk away.
“I think so, just...give them some time. They were in love with your symbiote’s last host.”
David thought for a moment, and then nodded before taking a sip of coffee. “I think a part of me always knew that.”
Katha slapped him on the chest and said, “Well, why didn’t you say anything? Why is it so hard for you people to communicate?”
David chuckled and then the two of them turned back down the lane for their own morning walk.
Raziel headed straight for the library, using their key to get through the safeguards. To the angel’s surprise, someone was already there. “David’s out,” they announced to Jack, who was lounging at one of the reading tables, his feet crossed on the edge of it. He smiled at the angel’s disapproving frown.
“I know,” he said. “I left him the key. What about Loki? I haven’t seen His Mischievousness lately.”
“Hopefully still in his room. He seems to be pouting about something.”
Jack took his feet down and leaned across the table. “Maybe it’s his turn to pine.”
Raziel gave him a sarcastic look and then walked into their office. The angel found themselves alone for the next few hours and took the time to think about what they’d learned before David’s untimely transformation. Raziel had been on the verge of remembering something that might be useful when they’d been interrupted. It had been a whirlwind few days, but they tried their best to figure out what it had been. Something about this case was starting to feel familiar. As the angel sat behind the desk, wracking their brain, something suddenly came to them, and they hopped up to check their files.
“We missed you at lunch,” Katha said from the doorway a few hours later.
Raziel started and whipped around from where they’d been hastily shoving files into an ancient looking leather messenger bag. The angel had completely forgotten about lunch, absorbed in their personal case files.
“Those files again,” Katha said and pointed to the bag as the last of the papers were shoved in.
“Yes,” was all Raziel replied.
“You said those weren’t case files.”
“They’re not. They’re personal files.”
“But you think they might have something to do with what’s going on?”
“Maybe. I think the others are waiting for us,” the angel pointed out, nodding toward the window, where they could see the rest of the team sitting around one of the reading tables. As they were about to walk out of the office, Raziel noticed Loki wander in. The god turned their way, and the angel found themselves giving him a welcoming smile. Loki raised a curious eyebrow, smiled back, and then joined the others at the table.
When David saw Katha and Raziel, he immediately jumped in. “Do we know what’s going on here or not, Raz?”
The angel winced at the nickname but had long ago grown tired of trying to correct his friends. “I think we know the how’s but I’m not sure of the why’s.”
“Apparently, someone is trying to lure out our new friend, Loki, here,” Jack said casually.
“And it’s been working,” Loki added, not sounding very happy about being duped.
“But why?” Katha demanded, her uneasy truce with the Norse god starting to fray around the edges.
“Well, that’s the question,” Raziel said, waiting for Loki to move his feet from a chair so they could sit. Once they were seated next to the Trickster, the angel added, “Loki hasn’t noticed any other gods or ethereal beings, so this seems to be targeted specifically at him. Yet, every time he saves someone, that’s it, nothing else happens. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason as to why they keep luring Loki to these locations.”
“So, why the trip to Skye, then?” David asked.
“Well, it seems Loki has adopted it as his new favourite place,” Raziel replied.
“That explains the accent,” David quipped.
“Yes,” Loki said with a smirk and a sarcastic nod.
“If he goes to Skye, out in the open, just maybe we can turn predator into prey and lure whoever’s been doing this to follow us.” After a pause, Raziel said, “Look over the case again, pack a bag, we leave first thing in the morning for Skye.”
“We could just magic ourselves there,” Loki pointed out.
“No, we can’t,” Raziel countered.
“Well, some of us could.” He gave the angel a mischievous grin as the group dispersed, and then smirked at Jack, who gave him a scolding look as he walked by.
That evening, David and Katha got together to go over the case, and what they’d learned while he was sequestered. Jack decided it was best to work on what wardrobe to take, knowing everything Raziel knew, front and back. As for the angel, they sat in their living room study, sipping at a glass of wine, and looking over the historical reports they’d taken from their office. Before long, the angel’s eyes grew weary though, and they put them away. As they set the old leather messenger bag back down on the desk, and was just contemplating going to bed, there was a knock at the door.
Raziel rubbed their eyes and groaned, and for a moment, considered ignoring it until there was another knock. “Coming,” the angel grumbled. Then they opened the door, and to their surprise, there stood Loki, with a bottle of the same ancient wine in his hands.
“It looked like you were getting low, so I brought you another,” he said, with a grin.
Raziel looked into his icy blue eyes and narrowed their own amber ones. “How did you get that?”
“I have my ways,” Loki replied with a wink.
“I don’t want to know,” Raziel commented and then turned away from the door.
Loki took it as an invitation and came in, shutting the door behind him. “Probably for the best. Here, lets toast it though,” he said, handing the angel the bottle.
Raziel shrugged and pulled off the stopper, and then went into the kitchen to fetch some glasses. When they returned though, a few things in the room had changed. Candles had been lit here and there, and a ballad from the 1960’s was coming out of his old gramophone, even though there was no record on the turntable. The angel paused, surprised, and let Loki take the glasses from their hands.
“Wouldn’t want to spill any of it,” the god said and set them down on the desk. Then he slid back to Raziel as dramatically as he could on the carpet. “A little birdy told me you don’t dance.”
/>
“No.” Raziel eyed the god suspiciously.
“I don’t believe that.”
The angel’s eyebrows shot up. “You don’t?”
Loki reached out and gently took Raziel’s hand. “Please tell me you aren’t still sulking over the young lycan?”
Raziel had the urge to pull their hand away but for some reason they didn’t. “I wasn’t sulking over him. There was someone else...Look, it’s a long story, and it was a long time ago.”
“Good,” Loki muttered, his voice low and suggestive. Then he pulled Raziel further into the living room, where there was a bit more open space. By then, the short ballad was over, but it miraculously repeated on the empty turntable.
“Loki, I don’t think...”
“You think too much,” the god cut in, pulling Raziel close and whispering in their ear.
The angel’s breath caught in their throat, and they closed their eyes as Loki began to sway with the music, taking Raziel with him. They had a penchant for the style of music and didn’t know whether Loki had figured it out or just loved it too, but the angel didn’t care. They simply folded into the music, lost in the feeling of the Norse god’s body pressed against their own. The two of them flowed in perfect rhythm, and after a while Raziel wasn’t sure where their body ended and Loki’s began. All of their worries, the case, the decades of loneliness seemed to disappear in the space of one dance. Raziel felt hot tears spilling down their cheeks, but the angel ignored them and kept dancing. When the song ended again, another started up. It seemed the god had an entire playlist planned for the evening.
The song was slower, and a little sadder, and warned of falling in love with those who were already damaged. Raziel smirked and pushed back from Loki. Those icy blue eyes were piercing and staring right into the angel’s own.
Raziel stopped for a moment, but still held the god’s hand in his. “What do you want, Loki?”
“Just you,” Loki answered, and the answer was so sincere that Raziel knew it was true. “No games, no motives...just you.” Then he moved close again. Instead of dancing, though, he leaned in and took the angel’s face in his hands. Gently, he pressed his lips against Raziel’s, feeling the angel’s hesitant tremble, and hot tears through his hands. After an eternity, or perhaps just a few moments, they pulled apart, and Loki smiled, his mouth widening into a grin when the angel returned the expression.
Raziel had no idea what was going on, if it was a trick the Trickster had somehow managed to pull off, but at the moment, they didn’t care. The angel placed their head on Loki’s shoulder, and put their arms around his waist. Feeling Loki do the same, they began to move to the rhythm of the music again, letting the world disappear. The song was now so slow and beautiful that, after a moment, Raziel wasn’t sure if they were moving at all. They breathed in the Norse god’s scent, a mixture of earthy wood smoke, musk, and something flowery they couldn’t quite put their finger on, and suddenly the angel felt things they hadn’t felt in decades, things they’d felt so seldom, that now and then, millennia would pass between, things angels weren’t meant to feel.
As the song picked up, Loki pressed him back, and tried a few traditional dance steps. Before long, the two of them were taking up the entire living room, and sometimes the kitchen. Raziel laughed as Loki spinned him back into the hallway leading to the bedroom. When they stopped, the angel’s face fell in confusion.
“What is it?” they whispered.
“You’re beautiful,” Loki whispered back. “It’s been a long time since I’ve met anyone like you.”
They stared at one another as the song ended and the room grew quiet. Then they slowly made their way back to Raziel’s bedroom.
Chapter Nine
The next morning, the team took the early train to Inverness. It was a long journey from York, and when they got there, they’d still have to drive to the Isle of Skye. Sadly, the transportation options were limited in northern Scotland compared to England, with much of the land still being wilderness. Still, the beauty was incomparable, and at least one of the group was happy to sit and stare out it through the window.
“Raziel?” Katha said again, realising that they hadn’t heard her the first time.
“Hmm?” they said, turning their head from where it had been resting on their fist. The angel’s brow furrowed when they saw Katha and Jack, who were sitting across from them, staring at them like something was wrong.
“I just mentioned that you’d been quiet all morning, deep in thought from the looks of it,” the Valkyrie added.
“Yes,” the angel answered, though didn’t elaborate. “It’s just beautiful here, though, isn’t it?”
“If you like trees,” Jack said, unconvinced.
“I do like trees,” Raziel countered, as if their feelings were hurt by the idea that there were people who didn’t.
Katha and Jack glanced at one another covertly, curious of this newfound sentimentality. Before anyone could say anything else about it, though, Loki appeared through the compartment door, and slid into the seat next to Raziel.
“Morning,” he said to the group, his voice light and playful, but with a hint of added meaning behind the word. “Where’s the wolf?” he asked, and then picked up Raziel’s cup of neglected coffee and took a drink from it.
Katha and Jack looked surprised at the god’s brazenness, and even more surprised that Raziel didn’t say anything about it. It was the angel that finally answered his question, though. “He was feeling cooped up so went to explore the train. I don’t blame him. He did just get out after four days in a tiny cell.”
“Ah, yes, my fellow gods tied me to a rock once...it wasn’t pleasant.” Then he downed the coffee, turned to Raziel and said, “Breakfast?”
“Oh, yes, that sounds like a great idea,” the angel agreed and then slid out of their chair after Loki. They turned back at the last moment, more as an afterthought, and looked at Katha and Jack. “Would you two...?” their lips invited, but it was clear from Raziel’s expression that they’d prefer if the two of them stayed put.
Jack waved them on, and then he and Katha stared after the two of them as they headed to the dining car. “Do you think they’re...you know?” Katha said, pointing in their direction, and giving Jack an incredulous look. When Jack only smirked and waggled an eyebrow, she shook her head in disbelief. She had something more pressing on her mind, though, so she let it go. When she looked back up at Jack, he was still staring at the compartment door, shaking his head slightly. “Um, does Raziel have private cases?”
Jack was torn from his reverie and glanced down at the young Valkyrie curiously. “Not that I’m aware of. The Conclave doesn’t generally condone that kind of thing. Why?”
“They have private case files. It seems to have something to do with an ancient book. I saw them the first day, before I knew that their office was...kind of off limits,” she added sheepishly.
Jack lifted his head in a slow nod, but before he could answer, David appeared again, and sat down where Loki had been. “What did I miss? Anything interesting?” he asked with a good-natured grin.
“The Sefer Raziel HaMalach,” Jack answered.
David’s face fell, and Katha looked between them, puzzled. “The what?”
“The book you speak of is the Sefer Raziel HaMalach or The Book of Raziel the Angel,” Jack said cautiously. “They rarely speak of it.”
“Yeah, I’ve only heard them mention it once, and I’ve been here thirty years,” David said. “Even then, they seemed to regret it immediately and clammed up. Did Raziel tell you about it?”
“No,” Katha replied. “I just saw the files in the office. They have some of them with them now. What is this book?”
Jack looked concerned, but he shook his head at her question. “I’m afraid I don’t feel comfortable telling you anymore, though I do find it curious that they have the files with them.”
In the dining car, Raziel and Loki had sat down at an empty table. The early train was
practically empty, especially on a weekday, and there was only one other couple having breakfast. The small white haired lady and man gave them the once over and nodded over soft boiled eggs and the morning paper. Loki and Raziel chose the table on the other side of the car, hoping not to seem rude, but having some very strange, and very private things to discuss.
They sat down across from one another and made a huge fuss of looking over the menu. Now and then Raziel would peek over the top of theirs, feeling self-conscious. Unfortunately, after doing this a couple of times, the angel notice that Loki was simply staring at him, his eyes shifting between their normal icy blue and green.
“Something on your mind?” Raziel finally said, lowering the menu.
“Oh no, nothing at all. I certainly don’t want to talk about what your plan is for when we get to Skye, and I’d never think of talking about last night.”
Raziel sighed and dropped the menu on the table. Then they glanced around to see what the old couple were up to before leaning closer to the god, and saying, “Look, last night...”
Loki didn’t let them get any further. “Oh, no. No ‘oh, it was some kind of mistake’s or ‘it can’t happen again’s or any of that shit. Okay? Life’s too short.”
Raziel was taken aback but then the angel chuckled. “We’re immortals.”
“I don’t care. Last night was...” Loki shook his head and twirled a hand.
“Special?”
“Well, that sounds kinda silly too, but...I mean, I thought it was definitely something. I’d never been with an angel before.” Loki grinned a very proud grin, seeing if he could get Raziel to smile again. When the angel did, his grin widened and he cocked his head. “Come on, angel. You’ve got to admit.”
The Veritas Guild Page 8