Earth Angel (Angels and Seers: Book One) Read online

Chapter 10

  It’s going to be me. I know it as soon as I see the unfamiliar, bloodied Earth Angel materialize in front of us. Something bad has happened. The injured angel’s anguished face makes it absolutely clear.

  “Luther!” Sam cries, jumping to his feet, Ella quickly following. “What are you doing here? What’s happened?”

  “Mother and Father?” Ella whimpers slightly, wringing her hands.

  I stand between them to show my solidarity, taking one of their hands in each of mine for comfort. I have a feeling they’re going to need it.

  “My prince,” Luther says, bowing low to Sam, then turns to Ella and bows again. “Princess. I know my appearance here is probably surprising to you. Do not be concerned. Your energy signature is virtually untraceable at your current vibration level, Your Highness. I followed the signature of the Princess to find you.”

  Ella looks horrified. “Oh no! I should have thought of it when I got here. My energy signature is available for anyone to follow. If Jonathan or one of his minions picks up on it, they’ll find you. I’m sorry, Sam. I was just so happy to see you, it didn’t cross my mind. I’ll lower my vibration now, to prevent anyone else from tracking me.”

  Ella doesn’t really do anything I can see. She is still for a moment, and the feel of her hand in mine becomes just a tiny bit more solid, kind of like wood turning into iron. That’s all. It only takes a second, and then she looks up at Luther again, her eyes wide with concern.

  “You didn’t need to do that, Ella,” Sam says. “Only people from the dome know you’ve come looking for me. The enemy would have to be looking for you specifically to trace you. But I appreciate it, nonetheless. It’s probably better to be careful.”

  “Exactly. Now, Luther, about your presence here?” Ella asks, eager to hear her parents are safe and sound.

  Luther slowly shakes his head, the blood that was covering it quickly disappearing back inside him through his skin. Before he even speaks again, he is fully healed of whatever injured him.

  “It is my sorrowful duty to inform you that Jonathan sent his second in command, Jasper, to the dome earlier today to question our people about your whereabouts, Your Highness,” he says, nodding slightly in Sam’s direction.

  “The dome was locked!” Ella insists. “He couldn’t have gotten in.”

  “Jasper brought a new tool with him,” Luther continues, obviously not enjoying the conversation, but determined to do his duty. “It was something new to us, large and square, metallic, and emanating a lot of light. Jonathan must have obtained it from one of the other races he encountered during his travels. It lit up like the sun, my lady, and he used it to break the lock and get inside.”

  “My God!” Sam whispers fervently. “Jasper is Jonathan’s most brutal follower, a Planet Angel he met guarding a planet far away, in another part of the galaxy. Jasper’s atrocities are becoming legendary in this solar system. It’s why Jonathan chose him as his top commander.”

  He’s saying this mainly for my benefit, so I understand just how serious this situation is. There was no need. Luther’s battered appearance when he first materialized in my living room clued me in.

  “What happened, Luther?” Sam continues. “Spare us no details. We need to know.”

  Luther nods obediently, used to doing whatever the royal family asks of him. “When your father denied Jasper voluntary entry to the dome, and saw he was going to get inside anyway, he sent everyone but a few of the guards and messengers away. He used the dome’s secret back passage. Only your parents and the most trusted members of the guard knew it was there. It’s a secret you were meant to learn when you took the crown, Sire. Your father sent nearly every resident of the dome to the secret training base the two of you readied behind the moon. When Jasper came in to question us, there were only a handful of us left. He was enraged, naturally. The first thing he did to demonstrate his displeasure was to kill your mother using a starstone blade. I am so sorry to have to be the one to tell you, Your Highnesses.”

  Sam and Ella just stare at him, stunned. Their mother is gone, and their kingdom has no queen. I squeeze their hands a little bit tighter in sympathy. I know what it’s like to lose a mother.

  Ella starts to cry. I only know it because I feel her shaking and turn to see a stream of tears running silently down her lovely rose-colored cheeks. Each tear glistens in the light like a diamond, so beautiful it’s hard to believe they represent such sadness.

  Sam squeezes my hand back, but continues looking straight ahead. “Go on, Luther,” he says, hoarsely. He’s trying to be brave for Ella and to act the part of the prince. That means being in control, but he’s giving off all kinds of subtle clues that scream otherwise. Behind that stoic front is someone who wants to break down in a cascade of sorrow and guilt. I know Sam pretty well now, and I know he feels like what happened to his mother is his fault. Nothing anyone tells him and no degree of logic will ever completely make him feel otherwise.

  “Jasper then asked your whereabouts, Highness,” Luther continues. “We all refused to say anything, of course. None of us actually knew where you were, as it was. All we knew was the princess was on a mission to find you. After Jasper’s swift move on your mother, we all gathered in front of the king to protect him, but our enemy was far stronger, especially with that new weapon. He gave us all one last chance to tell him what he wanted to know, and when we didn’t, he finished off everyone else with little effort. The weapon seemed to vaporize the ones he used it on. He only left the king and me alive. The king was spared to maintain his watch over the Earth, at least for the time being. I was tortured, but most of the blood you saw on me was the blood of my comrades. I was spared on the condition I deliver the message to you about your parents, and tell you Jonathan demands you show yourself or he will start killing the other angels who protect the Earth. He will start with the Nature Angels, the Animal Guardians, Elemental Angels, Oceanic Angels, and the rest. He will also start searching for the rest of our people and kill them when he finds them. Sire, you must face him.”

  “No, Sam, you can’t!” Ella immediately protests, whipping her head around to show him how horrified she is at the suggestion. “Mother’s death and the deaths of those poor guards and messengers will be in vain if you do, and everyone on the moon base will be in danger with no one to protect or lead them.”

  “She’s right,” I say, speaking up for the first time. “You know you can’t engage Jonathan again. Even if you were at full strength, he’s declared war, officially this time. You need to lead an army against him, not fight him again on your own and possibly get killed. Remember what the archangels said.”

  “What did the archangels say, and who is this human?” Luther asks derisively, glaring at me.

  “She’s a seer, so show some respect,” Sam says evenly, carefully avoiding using my name. “And what the archangels said is of no concern to you. Tell me, Luther. Why did Jasper not merely follow you here to find me? He could have brought you as a hostage and used you as a bargaining chip to get me to go out and face Jonathan. And how do we know he won’t follow you back to the moon base, assuming that’s where you’re going?”

  “Those are all excellent questions,” I agree. “How do we know we can trust you? It seems awfully convenient that you were spared and allowed to come here without leading our enemies to us.”

  “That’s right,” Ella says, the reality of it all dawning on her. “You’ve always been one of Father’s most trusted advisors. You would know there was a chance of being followed when you came to us. There’s no way you would take that chance if you were still on our side. You would know you could be leading Jonathan right to us.”

  Luther’s anguished look melts into one of cold, steely defiance, and he fixes us with a chilling smile. “That’s the idea. There is no other way than Jonathan’s. I should have seen that from the beginning. After the massacre in the dome, Jasper showed me the truth of it all. In exchange for delivering you to Jonathan, I get a t
op place in his army, and a leadership position over the Earth continent of my choice once Jonathan takes control.”

  He pulls out a blade I can only assume is one of those rare starstone ones, and points it menacingly at Sam. “If you come quietly, Sire, I promise to give the two women quick deaths.”

  Sam looks at Luther sadly. “Luther, my good man, you were always a loyal soldier for my father, and I hoped you would be one for me, too. You were kind and indulgent to my siblings and me when we were children, and you always cared so much about the Earth and the beings on it we are entrusted to protect. I admired you and respected you. I’m so sorry it’s come to this.”

  “So am I, Sire. But you surely see there can be no other way.”

  “I do, Luther. I see what must be done,” Sam agrees.

  I’m never concerned for Ella and me during this exchange, because I know Sam won’t let us be harmed. Sam still manages to surprise me, though.

  In one swift move, he lunges forward, twists Luther’s arm sideways and back until he drops the blade, then throws him to the floor. He’s kneeling on top of him before Luther can even think of getting up. Then, he grabs the blade and brings it down swiftly into Luther’s chest, killing him instantly. A small trickle of blood oozes out of the wound, staining his tunic.

  There’s a dead angel on my living room floor. It’s kind of weird to realize that if any regular person were to walk in here right now, they would see none of it. No body, no blood, no Sam or Ella, just me standing there looking down at the carpet with wide, stunned eyes.

  Sam shakes his head sadly and closes the soldier’s still angry eyes. “I’m sorry, old friend. Godspeed on your journey. May you find the truth on the next plane of being that you lost sight of on this one.”

  He stands up and faces us. “I didn’t want you ladies to see that, but I had no other choice.”

  “I know,” I say, still holding Ella’s hand. She’s gripping mine pretty tightly, needing my comfort more than I need hers. I don’t think she’s ever seen an angel killed. That makes two of us.

  “You did what you had to do,” she whispers, looking down at Luther with eyes round as saucers.

  “We have to get out of here now,” Sam says, pointing to Luther. “Jonathan doesn’t need my blood on his blade to find me anymore, and my lower vibration doesn’t matter. He just needs to follow Luther’s energy signature. He may be on his way here already.”

  “Does Luther’s energy signature last forever?” I ask.

  “No, it will fade after a while.”

  “So, if we move him, it may throw off Jonathan for a little bit?”

  “It could.”

  “Then clean his blood off the blade and keep it. We may need the weapon. We’ll move him down to the basement. No regular human will ever know he’s there, and Jonathan will start looking for you where the body is. It may take him some time to work his way back up here, and by that time, we can have things set up to take his blade from him. We still need it, Sam. If he keeps it, it will just lead him right back to you, no matter where we go.”

  Sam only hesitates for a moment, then realizes I’m right.

  “Fine, but we need to do it quickly. I still need to teach you to shift, and our time to get it done is extremely limited now. Jonathan has to know I’m in this building. He’ll pinpoint my exact location sooner rather than later. And I want Ella away from here. It’s bad enough I have no choice but to put you in danger. I won’t have her anywhere near that bastard.”

  “But I want to stay and help,” Ella protests.

  “No. You are to go straight to the moon base with the rest of our people. Do you understand? Jonathan doesn’t know where it is, and I’m sure Father took great pains to hide it. He wouldn’t have sent most of our kingdom there if he wasn’t sure it was secure. You’ll be safe there, and the ones who are training as soldiers will protect you until Lucy and I get this situation resolved. I won’t risk your life over this, Ella. Jasper killed Mother without a second thought. Jonathan would do the same to you.”

  Ella only hesitates for a moment before nodding her agreement. Then, she quickly hugs me, pulling me tightly to her so she can whisper in my ear.

  “Keep him safe,” she says softly. “He can be stubborn sometimes, but he means well. Just don’t let him talk you into letting him put himself in danger. We need him. And we need you. The archangels were right. The two of you will set us free. Just keep him safe so you can defeat Jonathan and put an end to this madness without any more bloodshed. Promise you will.”

  “I promise,” I say automatically. There’s no question. This is my job, and I’m going to do it to the best of my ability, and part of that job involves protecting Sam. “I don’t know how, but I’ll do my best to protect him, Ella. You can count on it.”

  “You’ll figure it out when the time comes,” she assures me, just as Kira did. “And he’ll protect you, too. You’ll protect each other. And together, you’ll defeat Jonathan and end this war.”

  “You seem pretty sure.”

  “I get feelings about things. I’m almost never wrong. Sam will tell you. I see now that it does have to be the two of you together. Together, you’re stronger. Remember that. And Lucy?”

  “Yes?” I hold her at arm’s length and look into her earnest, almost babyish face.

  “I meant it about you being family now. Call on me anytime and I will come to you. You don’t need to ask Sam.”

  “Yes, she does,” Sam insists, letting me know there’s nothing wrong with his hearing. Or maybe we weren’t whispering as quietly as we thought.

  “No, you don’t,” she says firmly. “Any time, Lucy. Remember, any time.”

  She winks at me so Sam can’t see, and kisses me quickly on the cheek. Then, she goes over and hugs Sam, who holds her closely for a long moment. When he lets her go, she disappears.

  With Ella dispatched to safety, Sam and I have a lot of work to do, and we need to do it now. Wordlessly, we drag Luther down to the basement, hiding him behind some boxes to make him harder for any angels or unsuspecting seers to find.

  Back in my apartment, Sam teaches me to shift in between dimensions, a skill that comes surprisingly easily to me. He says anyone can do it, but my seer powers probably make it come a little more naturally to me than it might to other people. It’s a simple matter of concentrating on my energetic vibration, which I can readily feel when I focus on it. Once I feel it, I can change it. Higher vibrations will make me invisible to Jonathan, like a guardian angel. Most angels can’t access that high of a vibration, but it’s available to humans. Somewhere between the invisible vibration and the regular one is the shifting one. That vibration gives me the form I need to cross dimensional barriers. Having a destination in mind when I do it will take me right there, so all I have to do to get to the mansion where I will rendezvous with Sam is to imagine it. The lesson takes all of ten minutes to complete, and I have a new skill that will come in quite handy in the coming war. I can’t wait to teach it to the rest of my family. They need to know how to do this, too.

  I call my grandmother to let her know Sam is bringing the cats to her, which he does while I’m still on the phone, and reappears in minutes. Grandma is only too happy to look after them for me, and wishes us luck while eliciting promises from me to be careful before we hang up.

  All that’s left to do is wait for Jonathan to find us.

  In the meantime, Sam tells me again how much he hates this and tries to talk me into letting him go for the blade. He’s not quite at full strength yet, but he’s healed enough he thinks he might have a good chance of succeeding. It’s that knight in shining armor complex again. I can’t help but smile.

  Harry was a would-be knight himself. Whenever I told him it was dangerous to go walking through a bad neighborhood at night with this charity group he joined that handed out blankets and soup to the homeless, he wouldn’t hear of not going. Even when I showed him solidly researched crime statistics for the area, he insisted on
doing it. He had a practical fit when I suggested coming with him to make sure he was safe, though. This, in spite of the fact that I’m a black belt in karate and the graduate of numerous self-defense courses, and never once got hurt in any scrape we found ourselves in during the Peace Corps. On the other hand, I once saw him get mugged in a public park and beaten up pretty badly in the process. I was approaching from the other end of the park at the time and couldn’t get to him in time to help him, but I was able to identify the muggers later in a lineup. Yet, he always worried more about my safety than his own.

  Hmm…it seems strange to think of Harry now. That fact in itself is strange. It’s only two days past our missed wedding, only two days since I met Sam. Yet it seems like a million years since Harry was part of my life. How is that possible?

  I never thought I’d be able to let go of his memory or look back on our time together without crying. Now, I’m doing it as a distant observer, almost as if I’m someone else, watching our relationship from afar. My emotional stake in those memories is simply disappearing. Is that the work of Harry in his mansion, helping me get past him so I can do what I need to do? Or has he reincarnated already and it’s the universe pushing me to this new state of being? Of course, the most obvious answer, and the one I’m the least ready to face, is that I’m simply moving on, and Sam’s appearance in my life is the push I needed to start doing it.

  While we wait, I ask a question that’s been on my mind for a while.

  “I know angels have warred with each other in the past. But, has there ever been a war between angels and other beings?”

  “There have been a handful of angel wars over the billions of years since this universe was created,” Sam replies, still kind of grumpy that I’m going to be the one going after the blade. If he could think of a better alternative, he would. “I’m sure other universes have had their own. But no, I’ve just never heard of one that involved other beings. We angels fight once in a while, just like any other imperfect beings. But, angel wars are rare because they are so destructive. We do what we can to avoid them. That is why we have councils and elders and other mechanisms in place to avoid this type of thing. We’re better at peace than humans. Yet, we’re less good at it than some of the other intelligent races of this universe. There hasn’t been a war among my kind that I’ve heard of since long before my birth. I had hoped there would not be another one while this universe exists, and certainly not one that threatens all the creatures in it.”

  “Yeah,” I agree softly. “Avoiding that would have been nice.”

  We sit in quiet companionship together for a little while. I’m not sure how long, exactly. Then, the building starts to shake a little, as if there’s an earthquake…something unheard of in Florida. Except, I know Sam and I are the only ones in the building who notice it.

  Sam looks at me and his pained expression tells me what I already know.

  The game is on.

  Jonathan is here.