Angel Eclipsed (The Louisiangel Series Book 2) (16 page)

“You died officially?” I repeated.

Paddy nodded, the grin disappearing. “I defeated the Plague of Snakes, but obtained mortal injuries. Back then, there wasn’t a hospital to treat me. There wasn’t even a doctor. I died a very unglamorous death, with only Raphael by my side, but was reborn as a saint. I spent another fifty years living as St. Patrick, but after that, it was time to move on. I was alive in a time where staying alive into your seventies was something verging on a miracle. That and the fact I wasn’t aging. But going back to your initial surprise, I have been alive now to see so many advances in technology and science. It’s amazing. I have a laptop, I have an e-book reader. I might not have a real profile, but I use Facebook.”

“You think the Fallen are online?” I asked her.

“If I know how to use the internet, it wouldn’t surprise me if they did too,” Paddy shrugged. “I use it to see trends, and seek out the extraordinary. I’m a saint, not an archangel. I don’t have that direct connection to the Choirs. Don’t forget, the reason you’re here is because Heaven is struggling to keep up with how many people there are.”

A year ago, had you told me there would be a day where I didn’t think about checking my Facebook newsfeed, I would have laughed at you. With everything that had happened since I had died, I had forgotten about Facebook and Twitter. Feeling the urge to download the apps to the phone Joshua had given me, I decided to wait until I was back in the convent, so I could delete my profile. The last thing I needed to do was like someone’s status. The Twitter account would have to go too, along with my Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr accounts.

There was something in Paddy’s expression which bugged me. Then it hit me: she was trying to distract me. “Beelzebub?” I prompted her, firmly.

Paddy gave me a sheepish grin, knowing she had been caught out. “You can’t blame a girl for trying,” she said with a shrug. “When Lucifer died, Beelzebub vowed vengeance. He and six other Fallen came together as the Princes of Darkness. Leviathan, Levi, was one of these Princes. He was the one who formed the Plague of Snakes.”

“He thought he could raise Lucifer?” I asked.

“He convinced others it was possible,” Paddy responded.

I shifted around on the bench, bringing my legs up so I could face her. “I don’t get it. I mean, everything I’ve ever heard or read about Lucifer is that he was evil. So why would anyone want to raise him.”

Paddy shifted her gaze up at the sky. “I didn’t think it’s as simple as that, Angel, but in this instance Levi was stating that the evil in the world was created by the one who had also created good. Levi claimed that the only one who had truly been strong enough to stand up to God was Lucifer, and that God had cast him to Hell because he stood up for mankind.” Paddy looked back to me and took a deep breath. “As someone who had been sold as a slave, I can appreciate how easy it would be to follow that line of thinking.”

“But you didn’t,” I pointed out.

“No,” she agreed. “But that didn’t stop others from believing.”

I got to my feet and folded my arms. “So what were they doing? What was their plan and how did you stop it?”

“I didn’t stop to ask many questions back then,” Paddy admitted. “What drew me there to start with were the killings. Their bodies were being positioned into a pentacle. There were three bodies murdered and positioned around a small town before I managed to track the group down.”

“How did you stop them?”

“The men involved were caught in the act and hanged,” Paddy told me, refusing to look in my direction.

“And what about Levi?” I asked, deciding not to press that matter further. If her expression was anything like the one I wore when I thought about Lilah, she didn’t need that bringing up. “How did you stop him?” I asked, the arms folded across my body tightened as I hugged myself.

“I didn’t know it was Levi until later, when Raphael found me,” Paddy told me, finally looking in my direction. “I chopped his head off with his own sword,” she said.

My eyes widened. Paddy was so petite and girly that it was hard to imagine her wielding a sword, much less managing to decapitate a human – never mind one of the Fallen. This woman was kickass!

“Levi thought the same as you,” Paddy added. “He thought I was too small to do any damage.” She let out a dry laugh. “I guess I showed him.”

“Wow,” I exhaled, softly. I sat back down and slumped back. “You couldn’t tell he was one of the Fallen?”

“Looking back now, yes,” Paddy nodded. “He was tall, exceptionally good looking, and had ridiculously white teeth. At the time, no. Raphael told me later that he was still in the original vessel given to him when he was an angel.”

“He was?” I asked. “Veronica said that the Fallen possess humans.”

“Oh, they do now,” Paddy agreed. “But you have to remember that this was at a time when there was no social media and it was easier to hide. That and the fact that Levi was a vain angel: he had every girl in the villages chasing after him and the men wanted to be him. Actually, some of the men were chasing after him too.”

We sat in silence for a while. This was the reason Paddy and Raphael were as adamant as Michael that Lucifer wouldn’t rise. “You stopped Levi,” I said. She arched an eyebrow at me. Quickly I shook my head. “You were certain that Lucifer couldn’t rise because you stopped Leviathan. I get that. But you’re here investigating the Plague of Snakes. So does that mean-”

“Lucifer is dead, Angel,” Paddy said, firmly. “I do not think, in
any
way, that he will be resurrected. I do, however, think that there are people that will try to raise him anyway. However, the reason I’m here is because I found a group online, who call themselves the Plague of Snakes, and they’re based here in New Orleans. It turns out that they’re a fan group for a metal band called the Snakes.”

“Oh,” I sighed. “Sorry.”

“Now, can you let this lie? I appreciate that you want to help, and you want to keep your charge safe, but there really is nothing here,” Paddy requested. I nodded. Enough was enough. “Let’s head back. Raphael will be wondering where I am.”

We walked back to the convent in silence. It wasn’t until we got to the main entrance that Paddy paused and turned back to me. “You need to learn to trust Michael.” She disappeared inside, leaving me staring after her.

A Petulance of Cherubim

Her words repeated in my head until I was in my bedroom. I did trust Michael, didn’t I? My hand hovered over the door handle. Or maybe that was the problem – I didn’t trust Michael. He hadn’t given me reason not to trust him. As far as I knew, there was only one thing that he’d ever misled me over, and that was his feelings for me. I sank onto my bed and stared up at the ceiling. No, it was time to put this idea of Lucifer rising to rest.

I had laid there a while, and was contemplating getting changed when there was a knock at the door. “Hello,” I called out.

Veronica walked in and closed the door behind her. She stared at me, arms folded under her breasts. “How are things looking inside of Bee’s?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted, swinging myself around so that my feet hung over the edge of the bed.

“Well did you go back and see that cute human?” Veronica demanded. “And I mean, to see him about the ID, not to actually flirt with him.”

“You know I don’t actually think of him like that, don’t you?” I asked her. When Veronica’s eyebrows narrowed into a glare, I sighed. “I went to see him, yes,” I assured her. “He said the ID would be ready this weekend.”

“Good,” Veronica said, her moody expression was replaced so quickly by a beaming smile, I faltered over my next words.

I cleared my throat. “You know, I’ve been thinking,” I started again, carefully. “Maybe we’re reading too much into this. Maybe Lilah was just crazy.” I glanced up at Veronica, but her expression was blank. She stared back at me for a long time and I ended up waving my hand awkwardly at her. “Veronica? Did you hear what I just said?”

As quick as lightning, Veronica's hand shot out and grabbed mine. “Come with me,” she said.

“Where-” The next thing I knew, I wasn’t in my bedroom anymore. I stumbled as Veronica let go of my hand. Before I could question her, she had disappeared. I brought my attention to the room long enough to realize I was in a commercial style kitchen. Other than that I had no idea where I was. I spotted a door and leaped at it, thankful that it opened to the outside. I had managed to get three steps away from the kitchen when I heard Veronica.

“Angel?” Veronica called from inside, a few moments later. “Angel?” she repeated, her voice louder as she stepped out behind me. “What are you doing out here?”

“Trying to work out where I am,” I snapped at her. I looked around: I was in the convent grounds still. I stepped past her and marched back into the convent, determined to find a bottle of water in the kitchen and head back to my bedroom, but stopped short when I discovered that the room was now full of teenagers.

My mouth fell open as I stared in surprise at the sixteen cherubs standing in front of me. Like Veronica, I wouldn’t have put any of them older than sixteen. Every one of them had varying styles of black hair, though they all shared the similar theme of hair dangling over their eyes – even the guys. “Ronnie, she’s judging us,” one of them called – one of the guys closest to me. He had piercing blue eyes, surrounded with eyeliner, and a scowl. “You said she wouldn’t judge us.”

“She’s not judging you, Garret,” Veronica assured him. “Are you?” she asked me, offering me a bottle of water.

“No, I’m not,” I agreed, taking the bottle. “Just give me a moment,” I added with a sigh. I hurriedly took a swig of the water, aware that seventeen pairs of eyes were watching me. Once my throat no longer felt dry and like I was going to stumble over my words, I took a deep breath and turned back to them. Not that it was something I had ever considered, but any smidgeon of desire I had to become a teacher vanished as I faced the room of teenagers. “You startled me,” I explained to Garret. He seemed slightly appeased by that. I looked over at Veronica. “What am I doing in the kitchen?”

“I wanted you to meet the other cherubs,” Veronica explained cheerfully. She joined my side and draped an arm over my shoulder, before proceeding to introduce me to each individual angel.

“Hi,” I muttered, finally. I’d wanted to get to know who I was living with – it seemed rude that they all knew who I was, when I didn’t know any of their names – but there was one of me, and nearly fifty other occupants in the convent. I half turned to Veronica, ready to ask her a question in a whisper, and then remembered something Cupid had once told me about archangels and their amazing hearing. Figuring the same would apply to the cherubim, who were already rather paranoid, I shrugged. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to meet you and put names to faces, but why am I here in the kitchen? I’m guessing it’s not because you’ve got a crawfish boil on.”

“We’re here to talk about Lucifer,” Veronica told me.

My mouth parted at the blasé tone. “In the kitchen?” I asked in disbelief.

“We’re cherubim,” Garret pointed out. “It’s exactly where Michael would expect us to be and the last place he would ever step foot is the kitchen.”

He seemed to take some pleasure at my surprise and I narrowed my eyes at him. “And you decided the kitchen was the safest place to have this conversation?”

“We have all our conversations in the kitchen,” another cherub, Whitney, declared, earning herself an elbow to her ribs by Garret.

“Will you relax,” Veronica glowered at him. “Angel is the one who told Michael that Lucifer was back. She’s on our side.”

“The last thing we need is Michael throwing us out of the convent, or worse,” Garret said, glowering back at Veronica. “So if she’s on our side, like you say she is, she won’t have a problem swearing an oath to that effect.”

“She’s not going to say anything,” Veronica snapped.

“So make her prove it,” Garret shot back at her.

There were murmurs of agreement around the room and I turned to Veronica with a shake of my head. “Look, this is a waste of time. I don’t even care. I told you, I made a mistake anyway.”

“Angel!” Veronica exclaimed, stamping her foot in frustration. “You were certain that Lucifer had returned.”

“And now I’m certain I was wrong,” I told her, keeping calm. “Michael showed me what happened. I watched Lucifer’s final moments, Veronica. I’ve seen the pain in Michael’s eyes every time I’ve brought it up and I know exactly how he feels. It’s time I trusted Michael.” I made my way to the door to the canteen and turned back, pausing. “I appreciate the support, but I was wrong, and for what it’s worth, I won’t say anything about this.”

I left them then, and returned to my bedroom. I felt bad. Bad for it taking this long to believe what Michael had been saying, and bad for leading Veronica along.

* * *

I didn’t sleep well at all. Somewhere between getting in bed, and finally falling into a restless and broken doze, it dawned on me that if I was accepting the fact Lucifer didn’t rise, then I was also accepting two other facts. The first was that Lilah and Paige’s death, as well as the two people the Fallen had been possessing, had been for nothing. The second was that there was a very good chance that Lilah had fallen, as Michael had said, and had done so by sleeping with her charge.

When the sun started to peek through my curtains, despite the early hour, I gave up at attempting to get some rest. I pulled my workout gear on and headed to the canteen. It was early enough that the room was empty of diners – only the cherubim were present, setting up. To say the reception I received was frosty would be an understatement. I have yet to experience a temperature other than pleasantly warm, but the welcome I received had a shiver running down my back.

I grabbed a muffin and a bottle of water, and quickly vacated the canteen. I suppose I probably should have stayed. It wasn’t like I had done anything wrong. I just figured eating somewhere else would be an easier option. I headed to the gym, nibbling at the muffin as I went.

Cupid didn’t mention anything during our training, so I assumed that Veronica hadn’t said anything to him. “You’re getting better,” he announced as we wrapped things up. “But you’re nowhere near as good as me.”

“Nowhere near to having an ego the same size as yours, either,” I joked. Annoyingly, he was good enough that he could brag. Admittedly he had supernatural strength and agility, but there wasn’t a human on earth who could come close to matching his skills. I had improved enough that all my arrows were hitting the target – I hadn’t had any bounce off for days – but I was only just starting to get them consistently hitting the inner circles.

We returned the weapons to the armory where we found Raphael waiting for us. “Michael and I are swapping today,” he told me.

“That’s fine,” I sighed.

“That’s enthusiasm,” Cupid commented, dryly.

It was hard to be enthusiastic for the two hours a day I spent being thrown around a gym. Literally. Every day I would end the session thinking there were no more ways of falling left, and then the next day, somehow, Raphael would find something new. I had been thrown, pushed, tripped and shoved. Backwards, forwards, sideways and over his shoulder. From a trip standing, to being pushed off varying heights of gymnastic blocks… At this point, I was certain the only thing left was to be pushed off the roof.

How could anyone be enthusiastic about that?

“You can bring your sword,” Raphael added.

I suspected he was attempting to stir up some eagerness for our session, and it worked fractionally. Any alteration to our training which would allow for me to leave the gym without a bruise (even if it healed quickly) should have been a plus. Yet, as my eyes fell on my blackened sword, the only thing it stirred up was the guilt. I took a breath and reached out for my sword, still in its dagger length.

“Wait,” Cupid instructed, before I could wrap my hands around the grip.

I turned and looked up at Cupid with an arched eyebrow.

“We need to get you used to wearing the correct equipment for your weapon.” Raphael answered for him. I sent a questioning look in his direction. “You’re going to be using your sword today.”

“While keeping that on,” Cupid added, pointing to the quiver that I was still wearing on my right thigh.

“I need to wear both?” I asked him, sucking in a quick breath.

“Yes,” Raphael answered.

My attention was fixed on Cupid as he pulled two black leather items from a cupboard. He wrapped one around the opposite thigh to the quiver, hooking it to my belt. The other he wrapped around the shin below the quiver. “Is all this really necessary?” I asked them both, staring down at the numerous pieces of leather woven around my legs. None of it was restrictive or felt uncomfortable, but I honestly felt ridiculous.

Cupid reached over and took my sword from the side, slipping it into the dagger length sheath on my thigh. “You tell me?” he shrugged.

I glanced over his shoulder, catching my reflection in the window. I still had the gloves and arm guard on, but it wasn’t the equipment that was the problem. It wasn’t even the fact I was wearing white gym gear. Even the bright red hair wasn’t the issue. Sure, combined, it was a pretty amusing sight, and I would probably be the first to snicker at someone who walked past looking like I did.

The problem was the fact that I felt like a fraud. Listening to Paddy tell me all about the Plague of Snakes and how she had stopped a fallen angel, well, that was impressive. She may have been tiny, but she was a force to be reckoned with.

I felt like an imposter: an imposter who had already allowed her charge to be injured because she couldn’t do her job and live up to the many expectations there were of her. If I wanted to keep Joshua safe – if I wanted to keep anyone I cared about safe – then not only did I need to trust in Michael, but I needed to trust in myself. I had been given a second chance, and I’d been given extra abilities to help me succeed. I also had three archangels who were prepared to teach me what they knew to help me.

I inhaled deeply, through my nose, and then exhaled through my mouth. I straightened my back and turned to Raphael, meeting his gaze. “Let’s do this.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the surprise on Cupid’s face change to one of pride. I kept my head high and returned to the gym, Raphael behind me.

I did my best to keep my confidence at the same level throughout the training, but it was hard work. Raphael moved with his sword like they were one liquid-like mass. Every moment, though calculated, appeared effortless. My reactions, by comparison, were slow and clumsy.

We weren’t even using the swords to duel.

For another three hours, my training session consisted of me being thrown around the room to land correctly. The only difference was that I had to learn to draw my sword either as I landed, or as I was being tossed through the air.

“Angel, you’re supposed to be drawing your sword, not your dagger,” Raphael called in exasperation, after what felt like the four hundredth fall of the afternoon.

“I know,” I grunted to myself, as I stuck the dagger back in the sheath, sending death glares at the black metal.

The blade didn’t automatically grow. Instead, I was supposed to will the metal into its longer form. Stationary, it wasn’t a problem, but trying to accomplish this while not face-planting wasn’t as easy.

I turned back to Raphael and braced myself, but he shook his head. “Why don’t we call it a day?” he suggested.