Serena knelt, smoothed a hand over his forehead. “What’s wrong with him?”
“Typhus,” Gabriel said. “Before mankind invented antibiotics, it was an illness spread by body lice.”
“So it’s treatable?” she asked.
Gabriel nodded. “With modern medicine, it is completely curable.”
Julian opened his eyes, the crack of a fevered gaze showing through his encrusted lids. “You shouldn’t have come here. I can no longer protect you—I’ve been stripped of my powers. Please go. Before he gets back.”
A chill ran up the back of her neck, and she sensed the approach of something ominous, the way a cat might sense a coming storm. Her back was turned toward the door, and she whirled to protect it from the approach of evil. As she did, she saw that Corbin stood in the doorway. Not a Corbin she had ever seen before, but she recognized immediately that it was the essence of the demon uncovered, stripped down to the bone. Remnants of flesh, veins, arteries clung to his skeletal limbs and head, but he moved like no living thing she’d ever seen. Serena drew herself up, standing tall even though her entire body trembled. “Speak of the devil.”
Corbin slammed the door shut behind him, closing the space of the small room. The walls seemed to constrict, the four of them cloistered in the enclosure, steeping in the rot of illness. “Why, this is an unexpected visitation. Angels in hell. And not yet fallen, I see,” Corbin roared. “You’ve pushed your luck a bit too far, I’m afraid. Now that you’ve come, you’re here to stay.”
“We’ve come for Julian,” Serena announced, knees buckling under her as she spoke. If she failed here, there would be three souls lost, not just one. She had known it, trusted that Gabriel, her guide, would protect them from the heinous forces that dwelled here.
And Gabriel towered beside her, glorious even in this pestilent squalor. Hell did not diminish the glow of his luminous down wings, nor could it dull the gentle beauty of his face. He stood silently, but Serena drew courage from his presence.
Corbin sneered as he regarded them. “Julian’s not going anywhere. He’s going to rot down here in hell for the rest of time. And you’ll rot with him.”
She took a deep breath and said, “You have no power over me, Corbin. You may have been able to best me once, but I don’t fear you anymore.”
That bony grin answered her. In a blur of shadow, the demon whipped forward and grasped her arm. “I’m going to give you a taste of what your life is going to be like from now on. We’re going on a little tour of your own personal hell.”
She felt her body dissolving, wavering in the small cottage bedroom, transported out of it. Dematerializing. Remember that you are a fully enlightened being, Arielle had said. Serena stared hard into Corbin’s eyes and concentrated on that thought: You are a fully enlightened being.
He fought against her, his willpower outstripping hers. Around them, a different scene started to materialize: that of a rainy, cold day one year ago. She stood on the side of the road, soaked to the skin. Fifteen feet away, two cars had collided, their windows fogged, obscuring the occupants. But Serena knew who was in those cars. In one, a mother and her two preschoolers. In the other, Meredith. The scent of gasoline hung in the air, omen of the explosion that fate had ordained.
But when she tried to run to save the trapped family, she was unable to move. Corbin stood beside her, gripping her arm. “Welcome to hell,” he said.
“I’m not afraid,” she shouted, against the breathlessness of cold that rushed into her mouth as she opened it. “Even if I can’t save them, that family will be with the angels. Even if they pass to the other side, they are safe.”
Around them, the rain began to beat down harder, setting a chill in her bones. Thunder boomed like an amplified timpani, and Corbin laughed to its accompaniment. “Not here. Not in hell. You and your loved ones will stay here in my domain. You. Julian. Your father. You will dwell in the principalities of the lost forever.”
“How dare you speak of my father. You have no power over any of us. We have done nothing to deserve being caught here with you.” She looked Corbin in the eyes again, unafraid. “I’ve already been through hell with you, and I’m not doing it again.” Again and again, she thought, You are a fully enlightened being. You are a fully enlightened being.
He grabbed her and spun around beneath the downpour. “Do you think it’s that easy? That you can just wish hell away? It doesn’t work that way. You’re playing by my rules now.”
“I’m not playing at anything, Corbin,” she said, her voice rising. “The time for games is over.”
She willed harder. You are a fully enlightened being. You are a fully enlightened being.
The scene shifted yet again. This time, as it materialized, Serena stood at the front door of her childhood home in Carmel. She looked down at herself, saw her old favorite pink hooded sweatshirt on her adolescent body.
Oh, God, no. She knew what lay inside the house. She did not want to go in. But something compelled her to reach forward and push open the door. Time slowed to a crawl. A team of paramedics knelt on the floor, performing chest compressions on a man whose blue eyes, the same eyes she had inherited, stared blankly at the ceiling.
One of the paramedics turned to look up at her. His amber gaze burned into hers. The rest of the figures froze, their movements suspended in midair. Corbin stood and walked toward her. “He made a deal with me,” said the demon, latching on to her arm with a grip that was terrifyingly strong. “You’d never guess what kinds of things he traded away.”
“That’s not true!” Serena shouted. “My father was a good man. You have no hold over him, and no hold over me!”
“You’re close to becoming a demon yourself, girl,” he snarled.
“You couldn’t be further from the truth.” She stared right back into his eyes, concentrating on the phrase Arielle had said to her. You are a fully enlightened being.
You are a fully enlightened being.
She thought of all things good. Of waves crashing on Carmel Beach. Of the mother and the little girls she’d saved, safe and happy together. Of Meredith’s crazy potions and late-night advice. Of lying in Julian’s arms, the synchronized rise and fall of breathing, their bodies twining in divine union. She imagined light pouring from her heart, into the dark abyss of this hell to which Corbin had brought her, willing happiness to every being that existed inside of it and out. The scene around them flickered, shimmering like a background image projected onto a life-size screen.
Words tumbled from her lips, the most powerful invocation she knew: Lumen de lumine. Deum de deo. Deum verum de deo vero. She chanted the words again, in Latin and English both: Lumen de lumine. Deum de deo. Deum verum de deo vero. Light of light. God of God. True God of true God.
It was then that she truly realized that Corbin had no power over her. His demonic abilities extended exactly as far as her willingness to believe that he could harm her. She had always known that nothing was as powerful as the divine light—that the balance between good and evil was the biggest misunderstanding plaguing mankind. But she had never understood that more fully than now.
“Hell can’t hold me. I don’t believe in it,” she said, shaking off the demon’s hold for the last time.
Summoning white light to herself, she concentrated hard, willing the energy into a compact ball that she directed straight toward the demon. That radiance flashed in the space between them, elongating and wavering for an instant before she streamed it right into the center of his forehead. He stumbled away, clutching his head and uttering a high-pitched shriek that threatened to pierce her eardrums. His bony body seemed to shrivel before her eyes, wilting into a heap of decomposing remains.
Over the horrible noise of his screaming, Serena shouted, “You stay here and rot, Corbin. I’m going back for Julian.”
She gathered the bright shield of light around her once again, protecting herself. Held in her heart the knowledge that nothing and no one could harm her. That she truly was a fully enlightened
being. Then she set the scene in her mind, willing herself back into the sickroom of Julian’s nightmare.
Gabriel blinked, smiling. “You’ve come into your power, little Guardian. And you’ve learned to dematerialize.”
So she had. She had no idea what had become of Corbin. Wherever he had gone, he wasn’t here. She knew, beyond all sign of a doubt, that if she ever met him again, she would prevail. She was strong enough now that she could overcome him through the sheer power of her faith, the strength of her hope, her belief in love.
But there was no time to waste. They must get Julian out of this place immediately, she knew. She knelt by Julian’s bed, untying the bonds that held his wrists to the decaying wood. She spoke quietly as she worked at the knots. “Hell only exists because you believe it exists. It’s an illusion. Julian, you have the ability to walk out of here. The demons have no authority over you. All you have to do is believe.”
He looked up at her with such suffering in his eyes that she almost stopped right then, weighed down by the pain of it. “Believe in what?” he asked.
She forced herself to hold the thought in her mind, You are a fully enlightened being. You are a fully enlightened being. “Believe in love, my dearest.”
He shut his eyes, turned his head away. “But I need to atone for the things I’ve done. For the lives I’ve ruined. I deserve to suffer.”
“What’s done is in the past. Your suffering isn’t going to help anyone, not even those people whose lives you ruined. The only thing you can do is let go of the past, and go forward with a pure heart. You’ve learned your lesson. Repair what you’ve done, if possible, and start helping others instead of hurting them.”
“I deserve to suffer for what I did to you.”
“You did nothing to me. I learned the true nature of love. And I’m not giving up on you. The only one holding you here is yourself.”
“I’m beyond redemption,” he said. His voice was so mournful that for an instant, she wavered, wondering if he really was lost.
Behind her, she felt the radiance of Gabriel’s energy, emanating into her and through her, the force of him so powerful it illuminated this place that seemed forsaken by God. She looked deep into Julian’s eyes, sapphire shot with emerald, beautiful even in his suffering. And she said, “Nobody is beyond redemption. Divine love is universal and unconditional. I love you, Julian. All you have to do is believe.”
I love you. Since his mother had died, countless women had said that to him. Most of them in the throes of sex. He had heard it thousands of times, but never once had it rung true before. It did now, coming from the lips of this little angel who had braved hell to rescue him.
How could she be right? It was not possible to end suffering just by believing it could end. Was it? And if so, what exactly was he supposed to believe? Believe that he was worthy of being released? That some good might come out of his existence if he tried to help others? The thought was ridiculous. Impossible.
There was a rustling of wings. Archangel. Julian had never seen him before, but through his feverish stupor, he knew what he saw. In the dank room, the magnificent angel shone. It seemed as though Serena, too, had grown brighter. She was no longer a frightened little fledgling. She had learned to fly.
Chapter Eighteen
Back to earth. Back to the safety of Serena’s comfortable apartment. Back to something Julian had not experienced in centuries.
Peace.
“What am I, if not a demon?” Julian asked Gabriel, once they had finally returned.
The Archangel smiled, benevolence shining from his face, brighter even than the sunlight streaming into Serena’s living room. “Perhaps you never realized it, but your true nature is angelic. That’s what demons are. Fallen angels. Redemption is within the reach of every last one of you.”
“But I don’t know how to be…good,” Julian protested, glumly thinking about the weight of his past, its temptations, its transgressions. Its sins.
“You have Serena to guide you. And you’ve already been protecting her. From now on, that will be your task. You are each other’s Guardians. You must also know that your mother is always keeping vigil for you,” the Archangel said. “Your father, too, will one day find his way back to enlightenment and remember his soul’s true nature. You will all be reunited. I promise you that.”
Julian realized that, even when he’d been in the depths of damnation, some small part of that had always known that his mother had always been watching over him. He’d never truly been alone. “What about my father?” Serena asked, her forehead creasing into a worry as deep as Julian had ever seen it. “I saw him in hell. Corbin said…he told me my father had made a pact with him.”
“All will be revealed in time, child,” the Archangel answered.
“I will help you find the truth,” Julian vowed. “There must be some way to uncover what really happened to your father. Corbin isn’t to be trusted. He’s full of lies.”
“I know.”
“And you’ve got to help me, too.”
“With what?”
“I’m going to live the life I wanted to live two hundred years ago. I’m going to use my power for good instead of evil. The profits from the clubs will be used to help the poor. I’m going to bring joy into people’s lives, instead of misery.”
In the end, even Julian himself was stunned at how quickly that happened, and how easily it was to accomplish. He appointed Harry to redesign the clubs, and in the weeks that followed, Angel’s Ecstasy was a bigger success than Julian ever imagined. The new Vegas club was an instant hit, even though its doors had remained closed for a week before reopening under the new name.
On the night of its second debut, Julian and Serena stood on the upper level, looking down over the dance floor, the masses of sinewy limbs below moving with joyous abandon. “This is how it should be,” he shouted over the surging beat of the music. “No crime, no drugs, no prostitution.”
Next to him, she grooved to the rhythm, her blond hair shining under the disco lights. “But pure fun. Even angels are entitled to a bit of that,” she called back, winding her arms around his neck and pulling him into the beat.
He had no idea what the future would hold. He had no idea whether he could live up to the expectations she had of him, or that he had set for himself. He had no idea whether he would be able to resist life’s temptations for the rest of his days. The only thing he knew was that he wanted to be with her forever.
Taking her hand, he descended the stairs to merge onto the dance floor. Together, they found the pulse of the music, their bodies moving in sync as they danced late into the night among the crowd of exuberant souls.
Exactly one year had passed since Serena’s human death, and on that day, she brought Julian back to her hometown. Back to Carmel. Results of her subsequent attempts to dematerialize had proven unpredictable, so they opted to take the Maserati. This time, she drove.
They cruised along the Cabrillo Freeway, curving their way up the winding coastline with its dramatic crash of waves. “One year ago today, I was driving home on this very road. I stopped to help at the scene of an accident and I died.”
As she drove, she reminded herself of the differences. That day last year had not been a day like today, clear and sunny. Toward evening, the colors of the sunset had not blended into amber and pink, as they did right now. But as they veered along the highway, emotions warred within her. Sorrow. Fear. Doubt.
The sun disappeared into the ocean, vanishing out of view by the time she finally worked through the lump in her throat. “I saw a part of your human life that was very personal. I brought you here because I wanted to show you a part of my human life, too,” she said, reminding herself of the reason they’d come. “I want you to know me as intimately as I know you, Julian.”
As they neared the crash site, worry washed over her thoughts and panic threatened to capsize her. She wanted to turn the car around. To drive back to L.A. She had not counted on the feelings that
flooded through her as she traveled this stretch of road again.
Mercifully, they arrived.
Without the rain and the crush of metal, it was simply a spot on the road, unremarkable but for the small wooden plaque that bore her name and Meredith’s, along with a few bouquets of flowers to mark the occasion of their passing.
Yet, this was not what Serena had brought him here to see. She took Julian’s hand and guided him into the forest, lighting their way with a flashlight. She knew where they were headed, the ground beneath her as familiar as her own backyard. They walked in silence, all the familiar scents and sounds from childhood coming back to her. The fresh, pungent smell of the pines and cypress trees around them. The rhythm of any waves growing louder as they hiked toward the ocean. Overhead, stars cluttered the night sky, their shine unhindered by the competing glow of city lights.
She lifted a finger to her lips. Led him clambering up a large rock, pulled him to peer over its edge. She whispered, “Look.”
They stood on a cliff, looking down at a crowd that had gathered on the craggy shoreline of Point Lobos. Where a hundred points of light illuminated the shoreline, sending light back to the stars above.
She had brought him home to witness her one-year memorial. She had brought him to help her say goodbye. She had brought him with her, willed here by the silent wishes of her family and friends. By their hopes and their tears, beneath the glitter of stars and the flicker of candles. The group gathered was small in comparison to the thousands Nick’s death had drawn. But during her life, they had loved her well. She pitied Nick, wherever he was, closed her eyes and said a silent prayer for his soul. One day, she would find him.
Just as one day she would find her father.
Tonight, she was here. Watching over the people who had come to pay tribute to her human life. Her mother stood at the front of the crowd. In the warm breeze, Serena stood absolutely still, quiet as possible to hear the faint resonance of Muriel’s words rising up to reach Serena.
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