“Good morning,“ Kaliel greeted them. “I trust you slept well. Please help yourself to the meal.”
“Your table is lovely,” Kari said. She sat down near Tehmuel, who had a plate heaped with food.
Kari was pleased to find fruit and bread. There was a creamy white substance that she thought might be whipped cream or butter, so she avoided it. Rahmiel ate some type of meat, ham maybe, cut in fancy shapes. She refused that.
“You need to eat something besides fruit and bread,” he said.
Kari popped a grape into her mouth and looked at him through her lashes. “You don’t get to tell me what to eat.”
“Be reasonable, Kari. You need meat.” He placed a large scoop of the shaped food onto her plate.
He was right, she did need protein, but now she was mad.
“That’s too much,” she protested. “I have no idea what that stuff is, so I don’t know how much of it I can eat.”
“It will not make you fat,” he said.
She scowled at him, furious that he treated her like a child in front of his friends.
She popped another grape into her mouth and chewed fast.
Rahmiel rolled his eyes and sighed. “Fine. Here, I will take most of it.” He scraped most of the serving onto his own plate, leaving her with just a few pieces.
Kari noticed the others watching them with interest and blushed. “Thank you, Rahmiel. I’m sure it is delicious. I just don’t want to eat too much.” She took a bite of the shaped food and found it tasted somewhat like eggs with ham. She ate while Rahmiel and Tehmuel talked.
“I talked to some of the Guardians last night. Many are very tired of the way Lemuel has been leading this group. Several who would like to help are coming over this morning.” Tehmuel spoke as he added another helping of food to his plate.
“I want to see if I can teach you how to get to Ether, Tehmuel. If we could utilize the Ether, it would give us a surprise option against Kaphawn. Perhaps we could teach these other Guardians, if they desire to fight with us.”
“Rahmiel, I have persuaded the High Council to allow you to hunt for Kaphawn unimpeded. Lemuel answers to the Council. I don’t know what the Assembly will decide to do with you in the future, but considering you’ve bound the girl…” Kaliel shrugged.
It occurred to Kari that when Kaphawn was gone, they might decide to put Rahmiel back into the ice prison. The thought of Rahmiel wrapped in ice horrified her. He needed to be warm. He needed to be touched.
She suddenly felt close to tears. “Rahmiel?” She gripped his arm.
Kaliel and Tehmuel were both talking about the men who would join them this morning, but Rahmiel immediately focused on her.
“Could we go back to our room?” She suddenly didn’t feel like being on this beautiful terrace full of people.
“Certainly. Kaliel, Tehmuel, I’ll be back in a short while.”
Kari and Rahmiel left the dining room. Rahmiel grabbed her hand.
“Are you all right?” He took her to a sitting room furnished in cool colors, but rich textures.
“Do you think they will really send you back to ice?”
“No, I don’t. But if they try, well, I know how to navigate the Ether now. They can’t keep me in ice.”
“But if you go to Earth, they will find you.”
“Yes. But there are different dimensions.”
“Oh.” He sounded like checking out different dimensions might be fun. Better than ice, she guessed.
“I will be fine, little one.”
Kari touched his face. She wanted him safe, but she wanted to be with him, too. But for now, she needed to focus on keeping her mother safe. “I need to get back home. I don’t want to be late picking up Mom. She is going to freak when I bring her here.”
“It will only be for a short time. We have a good chance against Kaphawn, because he is still weak.” He paused. “I wish we didn’t have to use you as bait. I wish there was another way.”
“There isn’t, is there?”
“No.”
She kissed him, gently.
“I must go,” he said after a few moments of kissing. “The Guardians who wish to fight with us will be here. Do you want to be with me for this meeting?”
“No. You’re going to try to teach them to get to the Ether, right?”
He nodded.
“I think I’ll spend the morning with Amber and Tressa. But I have no idea how to get to her room.”
Rahmiel chuckled. “I will get you to her room. Then, after the midday meal we will go get your mother.”
Kari groaned. “My mother. Do you have any idea how hard it’s going to be to explain this to her?”
“One more thing to worry about, hmm? Come on, let’s get you to Amber.” He grabbed her under the arms, but one of his hands deliberately cupped her breast, making her squeal and giggle as he flew her through the corridors to Amber’s room. At the door he gave her a hard kiss before he hurried away.
* * * *
Amber was sitting up in a bed with a breakfast tray on her lap. Auriel and Tressa sat on a couch nearby, also eating. She looked healthy.
Kari embraced Amber. “You look terrific. I saw you last night, but Kaliel had you in a restorative sleep.“
“I feel well, a little sore. But I can eat some food.” Her tray held some type of mashed fruit and a mushy type of cereal.
“Kari, look.” Amber pulled up her shirt to show a long red scar that sliced diagonally across her abdomen. “Kaliel says that by tomorrow I won’t even have a mark. But I will still be tired and need to rest for a few days.”
Kari swallowed hard as her breakfast lurched in her stomach. That was a mortal wound. Didn’t Amber realize that?
“You could have died.”
“Yes. If we hadn’t come to the Overland, I would have died. All my internal organs
—” She paused as Kari pressed a hand to her lips. “Are you all right?”
“Too much excitement, I think.” She sat down in a chair next to the bed and took a few deep breaths. “And I just realized that my mom’s living room probably looks like a slaughter house. My blood, along with yours, Auriel’s and Rahmiel’s all over it.”
“There’s some broken furniture, too, “Auriel said.
“Great.”
“Rahmiel was hurt?” Amber asked.
“Not bad. Just some cuts on his arm. Kaliel healed them by running something over them. Immediately, too. You can’t even see them, today.”
“Kari, I’ll help you clean up the living room,” Tressa said. “I’m a whiz with a rug doctor.”
“Thanks, but there’s no use doing it until we get rid of the demon. It could get messed up again.”
Tressa nodded. “Let me know. I wouldn’t mind driving up and helping out.”
“Thanks.” Kari appreciated her kindness. It sounded like she and Mom were going to need all the help they could get.
“Where’s Rahmiel?” Auriel asked.
“He’s meeting with some Guardians who want to help. He’s going to teach them how to get to Ether.”
Auriel frowned and tossed his bread onto his tray. “I’m inviting myself.” He left the room with a hard flap of wings.
“We are going to bring my mom here, to keep her safe.” Kari told Amber and Tressa.
“Well, I guess she’ll know about Rahmiel then,” Amber said.
Kari nodded. “He’s going with me to meet her at the airport. He’s going to bring her here. So she’ll know he’s an Angel.”
“You probably don’t want to mention anything about the binding. Or the sex.”
Tressa said with a smile.
Kari could just see trying to explain that to her mother. “Right.”
“But you’ll have to explain a lot to your mom, if you plan to keep staying with Rahmiel at night,” Amber said.
“Oh, I hadn’t even thought about that,” Kari wailed. “Do you think Mom will like him?”
Tressa laughed. “What’s not to l
ike?”
Amber grinned. “You are not thinking like Kari’s mom, Tressa. Remember, Kari is the precious only child. Her mom is looking at earning potential in her baby’s dates.
Not muscles and gorgeous cheekbones.”
“But if he’s going with you to the airport he’ll have to do more than phase his wings. He’s going to need clothes,” Amber continued.
“Right. And he has no money. And my purse is back at Tressa’s.” Kari slumped back on the couch with a sigh.
Amber giggled. “Dating an Angel who flies you around everywhere sounds complicated.”
Tressa got up and returned with a purse. She handed Kari several bills. “Here. I had time to pack a few things, unlike you girls.”
Kari was touched. “Thanks, Tressa. I’ll pay you back.”
“Didn’t I hear something about Auriel binding you?” Kari asked a moment later.
“I’m sure I heard something about that last night.”
Amber’s eyes got huge. “Really? But you are going to kill the demon tonight, or stop it, right?”
“I hope so.” Kari was trying hard not to think about her part in the upcoming confrontation.
“Well, if it’s dead or defeated, then I don’t really need to go through the whole binding thing, right? No offense, but it seems pretty intense. And I’m not sure I want to get that intense with Auriel. He’s really nice, and he’s, you know, great looking. But I don’t think he is ready for a bond woman. Or that he would want me to be the one.”
“I don’t know about that, Amber. Rahmiel told me that Angels find humans really attractive. Something to do with scent. Oh, and that humans and Angels tend to have lots of children.”
Amber’s eyes opened wide. “You don’t think you’re—”
“No, I’m not pregnant. I’m on the shot. Just in case.”
“Oh.”
“I don’t want to have sex with Auriel,” Amber said. “I know me. I’d fall in love with him. Remember how I was with Travis?”
Kari nodded. Amber had been crazy about Travis, and he broke her heart.
“Auriel is much hotter than Travis. Nicer, too. I wouldn’t stand a chance,” Amber continued.
Kari felt gloomy all of a sudden. She sighed. “I know exactly what you mean.”
* * * *
It worked. Rahmiel could hardly contain his excitement. All the Guardians could get in and out of the Ether at will now. It had been hard to explain, so he eventually just dragged each one there. Once there, they were able to return to Kaliel’s conference room, and with concentration they were able to get into the Ether. Auriel was the first to move in and out of the Ether, which didn’t surprise Rahmiel. The boy had abilities, though he was untrained.
Three Guardians—two who had worked under Rahmiel and had since retired, and one current Guardian—had chosen to help. It was good to work with his old friends, though seeing them aged, while the ice had kept him a young man, was a little odd.
“Thank you for choosing to fight Kaphawn. It is likely you will get no official recognition for your service, though you should, because this is why the Angeli created the Guardian Force. Have any of you fought a demon before? I know Joriel and Hadriel have, because we fought together long ago. Have any others fought a demon?”
Auriel waved his hand with a smirk.
“Yes, Auriel I know about you.”
One of the retired Guardians spoke. “We haven’t seen any demon activity since we moved to the Overland. Current Guardians have never seen one.”
The active Guardian nodded. “Demons only frequent the Earth, and we no longer traverse the Earth.“
Rahmiel nodded. “Demons cause a certain dissonance. You feel it in your ears, but also in your chest. A strange pressure. It makes you feel sluggish, but you can overcome it and move normally. So don’t panic and think something is happening to your heart.
It just means the demon is present. Handy when you’re dealing with a demon that is invisible or uses camouflage.”
He dismissed the men until the appointed time and then stood in the empty room for a moment. He missed being a Guardian. He missed fighting alongside men who were closer than brothers. He missed planning strategy, planning to win.
“You advanced the ability of the Guardian Force to fight and win immeasurably.
The ability to go to Ether is on par with learning to phase,“ Tehmuel said when they were alone. Angels had learned to phase in past ages, but they had not always had that ability.
“I hope it proves valuable tonight.”
“I hope I can keep Kari safe.”
* * * *
Kari stared in horror at her living room. The coffee table was in splinters, one of the lamps next to the couch was shattered, and there were crushed pottery shards everywhere. But worst of all was the large splotch of dried blood on the carpet in front of the couch and the blood splatters all around the room.
A wave of nausea welled up, and Kari was glad she’d had a light lunch. She closed her eyes and a memory of motion—sick, dizzying motion as Kaphawn flung her around the room, nearly bashing her into the walls, gored on his hand. The blood on the walls was hers. The large pool of blood in front of the couch was Amber’s.
“Kari?” Rahmiel stood at her side.
“Amber almost died,” she stated, as she shuddered at the amount of the dried blood on her carpet.
“Yes, she was mortally wounded. But she is all right now. She will be well in a few days.”
“I was well in just a few hours or so. And I didn’t even see a Healer.”
“Yes, but the nature of your wounds wasn’t mortal. He planned to kill you by draining your life force. Amber—well, he was going for Auriel, and sliced her by accident. She’s lucky, though. I’ve seen him slice through the spine. Even our healers can’t repair injuries like that.”
Kari looked at the room again. “I don’t even know how to begin cleaning this. Mom is going to freak.”
Rahmiel had phased out his wings and was wearing slacks and a knit shirt, courtesy of Tressa. He still looked inhumanly good, Kari thought.
“Let’s go,” she said. “Mom’s flight is on time.” She was wearing a new outfit, also courtesy of Tressa.
Auriel suddenly phased into the living room. He was holding Tressa’s cat.
“The Council wants your book. The one that has the summoning ritual in it. Old Samuel wants to look at it. He thinks that it is impossible for any translation to have existed since the demon’s last time on Earth. At that time there were no summoning rituals for the famine demon, he moved on his own. Samuel thinks there is something strange about the whole ritual.”
Kari picked the book up off the coffee table and flipped through it to the ritual.
“Here it is. Hope it helps.” She gave Fluffy a scratch under the chin. “Hope you like Angel land, cat.”
“Tressa was worried the cat wouldn’t have enough to eat before she could return to her home.” Auriel tucked the book into a pouch slung over his chest and disappeared.
They took her mother’s SUV and Rahmiel was fascinated with driving.
“I want to learn how to do this. How fast does it go? Can I try?”
“Not right now. It’s not as easy as it looks. And not in my mother’s car. I’m already in enough trouble with Mom without adding a fender bender to her car.”
She then had to explain fender benders, police and licenses, all of which Rahmiel dismissed.
He was equally fascinated with the airport, and she had to hurry him along to her mother’s waiting area. Mom came past security looking tanned and relaxed in a gauze turquoise pant suit. Her hair was a new golden blonde color, and she had several carry on bags on her arm.
She dropped them when she saw Kari. “Kari? Oh my God! Kari, what happened?
Why didn’t you call? What happened? Is it cancer?” Tears filled her mother’s eyes, and Kari felt like crap.
“No, Mom, I’m all right. Healthy even. But I have something important to
tell you.”
“Honey, how could you lose that much weight in two weeks? Have you been hiding your weight loss? Are you anorexic?” People were beginning to turn and look.
“Mom, this is my friend, Rahmiel.” Kari hauled Rahmiel forward, noticing he had a deer in the headlights expression on his face, which would be funny in different circumstances. “Rahmiel, this is my mom, Mary Ellen.”
“You are a friend of my daughter’s? A new friend? Because I’m certain I would remember your name. Or your description.” Mom did not sound pleased to meet him.
“Mom, let’s head over to baggage.” Kari tried not to sound desperate. “We’ll tell you everything in the car. All right? Not here.”
Mom nodded, lips tight, her tan face now a little pale.
Once in the vehicle, Kari tried to explain everything—the ritual, the demon, the Angels, the binding to Rahmiel, which she went over quickly minus any details about the sex, and the Angels that would come to help fight the demon.
“Oh, Kari, honey! I had no idea you were so ill. As soon as we’re home I’m calling Doctor Greyson. He’ll know just who to call for this type of health problem. They have wonderful medications now, and of course we’ll get you into the best facility.”
“Mom, I’m not mentally ill. You have to believe me. Besides, we can’t go home. The living room is a mess. Remember I told you there was a big battle? Things got broken and there is…Well, never mind. Tonight we are going to try to get the demon.”
“Kari,” Rahmiel interrupted her this time. “She isn’t going to understand. We’ll just take her to the Overland.”
“Is it a cult?” Mom screeched. “Have you seduced my baby into some evil cult?
Can’t you see she’s ill, she needs treatment?”
Kari pulled into the driveway. Rahmiel hooked Mom’s luggage over one arm, then grabbed them both around the waist as Mom went to unlock the door, Kari trying to talk her out of it.
In an instant they were in Kaliel’s large living room, which was full of Angels.
“Oh, Kari,” Mom swayed and Rahmiel caught her as she fell.
Chapter Twelve
Her Accidental Angel Page 10