Angel Warriors

by Stephani Hecht

  The six oldest brothers were famous for getting into fights and all eight of them were known for blurting out the most inappropriate things. Camael was the second to youngest and as such, one of family’s babies.

  To make matters worse, he and his younger brother, Barakiel, were empaths like their parents. So Ana watched them like a hawk while their six older brothers protected them fiercely. Their greatest fear was losing them like they had lost their parents. The only reason they had let Cam leave home was because Michael had insisted it was time to let their young brother grow up.

  “Your sister speaks highly of you, Camael,” Abdiel said. This seemed to shock the younger angel.

  “Really, she usually calls me a pain in her…” he drawled out the last bit deliberately.

  “Yes, she said that as well.”

  As they both laughed, Abdiel was shocked that he found himself at ease around this young angel. Camael had not acted like he was disgusted by his presence. Even better, the empath seemed not to fear him.

  “Come on, I’ll give you a tour, and call me Cam,” the empath said good-naturedly.

  “Okay, just don’t call me Ab.”

  Cam laughed again before he led Abdiel around the house.

  As the kid showed him all the rooms, including his bedroom and the big gym for training, Abdiel was relieved to see how large the house was. He was used to having his own space and he valued his privacy. When they walked back into the kitchen, Cam opened the door to something he called a fridge and tossed him a cold metal object.

  “It’s a can of Coke.” He laughed when Abdiel looked at it strangely. “When we live on Earth, we eat as humans. Try it.”

  “Not bad,” Abdiel said after taking a cautious sip.

  “Human food is awesome,” Cam told him. “There are so many different flavors and textures. I can never get enough of it.”

  “That good, huh?” Abdiel chuckled at his enthusiasm.

  “Just don’t drink any alcohol. For some reason it makes us puke our guts up. One time I just took one drink of beer, and I was kissing the can all night.”

  “Kissing the can?” asked Abdiel, having no idea what he was talking about.

  “Yeah, and Gabi was yelling at me the whole time, which made things even more fun. She can yell louder than Ana.”

  “Gabi?” He was shocked. He hadn’t heard that name for years.

  “Oh yeah, that’s right, you haven’t met Gabi yet. She’s our healer. She’s the most skilled one ever,” Cam said with pride in his voice.

  Abdiel was shaking his head, trying to take in all of Cam’s rambling when she walked in. Actually she glided more than walked. His jaw almost dropped when he saw her for the first time in centuries.

  Her long, black hair was tied in a thick braid that ran down her back. The raven locks were so dark they almost appeared blue. Her bright green eyes were wide and surrounded by long lashes that brushed almost down to her rosy cheeks. She was dressed in all black. Tight leather pants hugged her curves, accenting her softly rounded bottom. The jacket she wore was also leather. It was short, ending at her tiny waist. Her crossbow was slung on her back along with several arrows.

  Abdiel tried not to stare, but it was hard. Her parents were seraphim, the highest order of angels, so that made her royalty and she sure carried herself like it.

  She was the most beautiful angel he had ever seen. He found himself wanting to pull her in his arms and kiss her so he could taste those full lips. More than that, he wanted to see if she still wore hot pink panties. He breathed in several deep breaths to steady himself. It had been nearly forever since a female had made him feel this way.

  He remembered her from when they had gone to school. She had been a shy, little mousy thing, cute as a kitten but skittish as one too. She had certainly outgrown that. She was a full grown female angel and her tall, curvy body screamed that fact to him.

  “Hey Gabi,” Cam said. “This is Abdiel.”

  “I pretty much figured that,” she replied. Her voice was soft and hypnotic.

  “He said not to call him Ab. Since he’s pretty big and he is the Dark Angel, I guess we better listen.”

  Abdiel did not know if he should laugh or box the kid’s ears. He could not help it. He was actually beginning to like the little brat. Nobody had ever dared say such things in front of him before. They had always whispered it behind his back. Cam’s blunt honesty was refreshing.

  “You’re all grown up, Gabrielle.” He turned to look at her and was instantly lost in her green eyes.

  “You remember me?”

  “Sure I do. You kicked me in the shins the first day of school. How could I forget you after that?”

  Cam laughed. Gabi reached up and smacked him on the back of the head. Abdiel could tell that this was not the first time she had cold cocked the empath.

  “Sorry to interrupt the introductions,” she said. Dear God, her voice was so mesmerizing Abdiel felt himself hanging on her every word. “But we have work to do.”

  “Something wicked this way comes?” Cam asked her as he reached for his backpack.

  “You tell me. You’re the empath,” she replied with a small smile curving her lips.

  Cam closed his eyes and sent himself outside his body searching. When he touched the evil minds, he shuddered. It was always hard for an empath to touch an unclean mind. Coming back he slowly opened his eyes.

  “There are four of them, and they mean to kill. They don’t care who. They just want to have someone suffer so they can enjoy the pain.” Cam screwed up his face as if he smelled something bad. “You know Survivor is on tonight? Can’t they take one night off?”

  “So you can feel demon’s nearby too?” Abdiel asked Gabi. Confused. He had not felt a thing. He did not know what the empath had meant when he had talked about Survivor but decided not to display his ignorance by asking.

  “Not nearly as well as an empath. We can all feel little twinges. Don’t worry. When you get adjusted to being on Earth you will be able to feel them too.”

  “Is that normal?” he asked.

  “It takes some weaker archangels weeks to adjust to being around so many demons,” she said haughtily. “Do you think you can handle a fight tonight? I know it has been a long time since you have had a real battle.”

  Cam’s mouth dropped open in shock as he turned to see how Abdiel would react. Gabi didn’t show any weakness. She met him eye to eye, waiting for an answer.

  He should not have been surprised by the way she acted around him. Most angels treated him with disdain and distrust. They assumed since all the other angel’s in his league had turned, so would he. Suddenly, he was reminded why he had stayed away from everybody all these long years.

  He was an idiot to assume she would think any different. Gone was the shy, little teenager he had remembered. A hellcat had replaced her. It felt like she had kicked him in the shins all over again.

  “Well, I guess there is only one way to find out.” He grabbed his sword and scabbard and headed for the door.

  When he got there, he opened it and stopped. “You two coming or what?” His voice had taken on its hard edge again as his anger built.

  “You just dissed the Dark Angel. Great way to make friends,” Cam hissed under his breath before he headed for the door.

  With a growl of frustration, she followed them.

  Gabi was still mad at the little traitor, better known as Cam, an hour later while they walked deep into the city streets as night fell, unseen to human eyes. Angels always made sure to cloak the battles from human sight. The human race was never to know the many battles that took place every day between good and evil. The angels all felt it was their sacred duty to protect them from this horror.

  “Does he know where he’s going?” Abdiel asked. Cam had taken the lead, mentally seeking out the demons.

  “Yes, he’s better than OnStar,” Gabi spoke quietly not wanting to distract Cam.

  “OnStar?” Abdiel gave her a confused look.
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  She rolled her eyes at him. “You really need to watch some TV, read some books, you know, catch up with the rest of us.”

  “What’s TV?” He looked at her like she was speaking a foreign language.

  “Michael sent us a dinosaur. When was the last time you were on Earth?”

  “Around the Civil War,” he admitted. “It was just to round up a rogue angel.”

  “So you’ve never fought a true demon?” Her mouth dropped open with shock.

  “No, the council was too afraid of me running into my family.”

  She instantly felt like an idiot. Of course they had been. “Right, sorry. Didn’t think of that.”

  At that moment, something came swooping from the sky and hit Cam knocking him to the ground. He gave out a small yelp of surprise as he slammed onto the wet pavement. It was a female demon and she proceeded to pin him down and beat him about the face and body. She paused long enough to look up at Abdiel and Gabi with her glowing red eyes. While her body had curves in all the right places, that was the only normal thing about her. Her skin and long ratty hair were both as dark as midnight. She wore a black dress that was torn and ripped up both sides, showing off her longs legs, which were tightly squeezing Cam’s hips, pinning him into place.

  The young angel tried to fight back, but his skills were undisciplined and weak at best. The female quickly detected this and gave whoop of delight. She used her long claws to gouge deep scratches into his chest. Cam tried to buck her off of him, but he was a small, scrawny thing and the demon had at least fifty pounds on him.

  Abdiel drew his sword and ran forward to help him, but two more demons materialized and blocked his way. The smell of decaying flesh filled the air and Gabi heard him gag. It was common knowledge that all demons smelled like death, but this was probably the first time that he was experiencing the stench for real.

  If that threw him for a loop, the Gabi could only imagine how shocked Abdiel must be at the demons hideous appearance. Once they had been beautiful angels, but sin had twisted their appearances and turned them into monsters.

  One was red with bright yellow eyes. He did not have a nose, just two jagged slits. His mouth was distorted with several rows of razor sharp teeth. The demon’s legs looked like a goat’s, but much larger and muscular.

  Red demon bore a kris, the uneven edge of the sword’s blade glinted in the moonlight. Gabi could see dried blood on the weapon. Now that’s no way to take care of a weapon. It never ceased to amaze her at how slovenly demons could be.

  The second demon was no beauty queen, either. He was dark blue with blood red eyes. His body was long and angular, and poised for battle. A forked, blood red tongue kept darting out of his mouth making him look like a lizard.

  Blue wielded a chain whip, which he was slowly swinging around. Although it was no sword, the whip was a deadly weapon. The metal links could easily take a limb. Gabi could see that this demon did not take any better care of its weapon than the other one. Hunks of flesh were embedded in the chain along with old blood.

  Abdiel did not wait around for introductions. He pulled out his longsword and charged the demons. He ducked so that Blue’s chain whip missed him and matched swords with Red. The blades from the two swords flashed as the two warriors battled.

  Blue used the distraction to hit Abdiel fully on the back with his chain whip. Abdiel hissed with pain as it cut deeply into his body. Blue quickly hit him in the back again, laughing with glee when he saw the archangel’s blood.

  Pushing Red forward when they next crossed swords, Abdiel spun to Blue kicking him full in the throat. As the demon fell to the ground gagging, the archangel turned around just in time to deflect another thrust from Red’s kris.

  However, Blue recovered and started hitting Abdiel’s back again. The demon swung its whip again and again. The healer in Gabi could feel Abdiel’s strength draining with each blow; in fact, she could feel both the males in her archangel team weakening. Gabi raised her bow, but was unable to get a clear shot at the demons that were attacking Cam and Abdiel. She was afraid of missing and hitting one of the angels with her arrows.

  Cam was still on the ground, struggling with the she-demon. Finally, he managed to push her off him. He scrambled on all fours on the ground toward his backpack. Before he got to it, the demon grabbed his ankle and dragged him back pinning him to the ground once more.

  “You are a cute little empath.” She stroked his cheek with a claw.

  “Sorry, I don’t do demon,” Cam rasped out, trying to pull back.

  “Too bad for you, I am going to have me some angel tonight.” The she-demon licked Cam’s face. Gabi’s stomach rolled at the sickening sight of demon drool on her empath.

  “Agh, that is so wrong.” Cam fought to get away from her wandering hands. He tried to hit her, but the demon pinned his hands down and hissed in his face.

  Gabi almost let out a triumphant yell when she finally had a clear shot at the female demon. Just as she got ready to shoot however, the fourth demon swooped down from the ground. The she-demon slammed right on top of Gabi and her head smacked painfully on the ground.

  Damn it, I forgot Cam said there were four demons. How could I have so stupid and let my guard down? Yeah, the two of us must be making a wonderful first impression for Abdiel. He’s probably going to go running for the hills because he is saddled with Sir I Dunno How to Fight and Lady Can’t Count.

  Since her head hurt already, Gabi head butted the she-demon as hard as she could. When the demon staggered back stunned, Gabi grabbed her crossbow again. She shot three arrows into the demon’s heart. The she-demon crawled a little ways before she disappeared in a flash, sent back to Hell.

  Gabi turned and shot two more arrows at the blue demon that was attacking Abdiel’s back. It did not disable the demon, but it gave Abdiel enough time to put his sword through the red demon’s heart before he turned to the blue demon and stabbed him as well. Both of the demons vanished.

  Gabi ran to help Cam who was being molested by the she-demon. Before she could get there, however, Abdiel was already pulling the beastette off of Cam. He stabbed it too, dispatching the demon back to Hell.

  Abdiel knelt down and examined Cam’s face. He had a swollen right eye, and his face was bleeding in several places. On his chest were deep cuts where the demon’s claws had dug in.

  “Cam, who was your last archangel?” Abdiel demanded softly. Gabi saw the anger on his face and shared it. The poor kid had been defenseless.

  “Charoum,” Cam gritted out before he rolled over and vomited blood.

  “Why didn’t he train him?” Abdiel asked Gabi as she knelt down and rubbed Cam on the back.

  “He did not appreciate Cam’s unorthodox way of living,” she spat out. There had been no love lost between her and their old archangel, and she wasn’t going to hide it.

  “That doesn’t surprise me,” Abdiel grunted out. He gave a sympathetic look as the empath started to vomit even more. “Charoum has always been an ass. It still does not excuse from him sending Cam out totally unprepared. I’ll make sure I knock some sense into your ex-archangel the next time I see him”

  “Sorry I keep puking.” Cam wiped his mouth. “Us empaths up-chuck more than super models.”

  “That’s okay, kid. You don’t ever need to apologize to me for something like that. You can’t help it.”

  Gabi was shocked at the compassion she heard in his voice. She was even more shocked when the archangel reached down and pulled Cam to his feet. He shouldered the other angel’s weight even though she could see the blood soaking through his shirt on his back from his own injuries.

  “Are you okay?” he asked her, his dark eyes looking over her body for injuries.

  “Just a little knock on the noggin, nothing like you two,” she murmured, trying to ignore the little skip of her heart.

  “Come on, Cam, let’s get home. We have a lot of training ahead of us.” Abdiel flashed away with Cam.

  Standing there alone,
Gabi tried to make sense of everything. She had thought all these years that Abdiel was some cold, unfeeling angel. Yet, he had instantly seen that Cam was a good kid and was going to take him under his wing. He was going to train him to fight when every other archangel had refused.

  She thought back to the way Abdiel had fought. She had never seen anyone fight so well. He had been so quick and powerful. She felt awed at how cool and efficient he had been. Even though he had been wounded she had never doubted he would beat the demons.

  Afterwards he had been so gentle and caring. His first thought had been for his angels. He had not yelled at Cam for messing up he had comforted the young empath. She recalled the way he looked over her for injuries, concerned for her too.

  She blushed when she remembered the way she had treated him earlier. Even though she had acted like he was garbage, he still had worried about her and wanted to protect her. She had been a jerk and she knew it.

  As she thought of those dark liquid eyes and how that lock of hair still fell over them, even after all these years, she licked her lips. He had gotten even better looking over the years. When she had first seen him in the kitchen, she had an insane urge to run her hands over his arms, just to feel if those muscles were as hard as they looked.

  No, she could not afford to let herself feel for him again. He was just a good looking angel, okay a good looking angel with an amazing bod, but that was it. She was not going to set herself up to be hurt again. She had been down that road and had the tee shirt to prove it.

  She flashed herself back to the house. She needed to heal both Cam and Abdiel. But, knowing her luck Mr. Super Hero Dark Angel could do that too.

  Chapter Three

  She flashed into Cam’s room, fully expecting him to be in there waiting for her to heal him, only to find his room empty. She went to Abdiel’s room and discovered that room was empty as well. She huffed with irritation. Those two stubborn males probably did not think they needed healing.