Angel's Messiah (40 page)

“You toured the place Gina was murdered?” Danny asked as he twirled me around.

“It was very …
therapeutic
. I saw the interview with Natalie, up to a minute or so before Gina was killed. Then we went into the studio itself.”

Danny pulled me back to him and dipped me towards the floor before pulling me upright and hanging onto my hips.

“There’s a lot of energy in the studio, like an echo of the past, both good and bad. I think it will fade with time, and then it will just be a place, like any other. I could still
see
the blood on the set, even though to the naked eye there was no blood there. The stain was quite clear. I know I was the only one to see it because no one else commented on it.”

“Touring the studio wouldn’t have taken the whole day. What else did you do?” he asked.

I told Danny more about Gina and Dan, and how Dan had known who I was. This did not surprise him — mother and daughter were so alike. I talked about the street art, and he laughed at the thought of people kissing Gina’s butt —
I’m glad he isn’t offended by it
. I told him of meeting John, and how he and Gina would have made a lovely couple. He nodded thoughtfully throughout, allowing me to talk without interruption, listening to the passion in my voice, the sadness and happiness. He listened to how I’d gone to the refuge with John and helped serve meals to the homeless and less fortunate, and how so many people commented on my resemblance to Gina. She was a saint, they said, and they wished she was still here.

The music had ended, though we continued to sway. I leaned my head on Danny’s shoulder, enjoying the moment. I was glad to share my day with him, and to show him that apart from a few tears I was fine.

“Where do you plan to go tomorrow?” he asked.

“I’m not sure yet. Why, do you want to come along?”

Since returning to the cottage we had rarely ventured out together. I longed to spend more time with him. I loved being at the cottage with him, yet I would also have loved to share new experiences — new to me at least — out in the world with him.

Danny shook his head. “I’m sorry, Helena, I can’t. Duty calls. There’s to be an angelic summit to discuss the increase in demonic activity over the past few years. Some angels are getting anxious that the apocalypse may be approaching.”

I pulled away from Danny. I didn’t know what upset me more — that he would be gone for some time, or that this was the first I’d heard about it. The prejudice against
my
kind was not lost on me, intentional or not.

“Why wasn’t I afforded an invitation? Did it get lost in the mail?” I asked sarcastically. “If we’re heading towards the apocalypse, and hundreds of thousands of earth-bound angels are going to be activated, surely
our
kind should be represented. Even if it means I’m the only earth-bound angel that attends.”

“Unfortunately you know the bias against earth-bound angels firsthand,” Danny said softly, trying to soothe me. “While most would be happy to have you along for the ride, as it were, there are still some that feel it should be up to the heavenly host to take care of things on judgement day.”

“I’d never in a million years have thought bigotry and hatred could infect heaven as much as it has earth,” I said coolly. “Just goes to show how alike mortals and immortals really are, deep down.”

“If you have a message you’d like me to relay I’ll happily be your voice,” Danny said with such sincerity that I smiled. He really would do anything for me.

I stroked his cheek and looked into his eyes. “I know, but how can I give my opinion when I don’t know what’s being said? I trust your judgement, Danny.”

“I’ll be gone for most of the day,” he said.

I rolled my eyes and groaned. “Are you talking mortal or heavenly days?”

“Heavenly.”

“Aw, that’s not fair,” I pouted. “You’ll be gone four weeks, give or take. What am I meant to do at night?”

Danny chuckled and I sulked as we continued to shuffle around the dance floor to non-existent music. I could put up with him visiting Michael for an hour or so — days down here on earth. Four weeks though … that was a bit extreme.

“If I can come back earlier I will, and I’ll find you wherever you are.”

“What time do you have to leave?” I asked.

“At first light.”

That meant we had less than eight hours together. I wished he’d come and found me earlier, selfish though it may be. I could have gone back to the refuge to help out another time.

“We’d better get busy then,” I said, pulling him by the arm. “I’m going to work you to the bone. If I have to abstain for four weeks I want to drink my share tonight.”

Danny faked a groan, smiling all the way to the bedroom. I’d work him all right. He’d be glad of a four-week rest.

Bloody angels and their summits I’m not invited to. If he’s not aching in the morning I’m doing something wrong,
I thought smugly.

We didn’t get any sleep, though it was not surprising. I figured that if I really needed to, I could sleep when Danny was gone. He didn’t need to sleep at all. Rather he
chose
to sleep when I did, to share in my dreams, which he could tap into. It was another experience that brought us closer together.

When the sky began to lighten I sulked yet again. To make me feel better, Danny whispered about all the things he’d be thinking of while he was at the summit, and what we’d do when he came back. In the end I couldn’t help laughing. If any of the heavenly angels could read minds, like Gina could, they were in for a rude shock about how perverted Danny was. It was certainly not becoming of an angel. If he’d had wings I’m sure they would have stripped him of them.

Danny left and I was alone. Not much new there. Even in the mortal world, when I was with people, I was alone. At least I knew Danny would always come back to me, or for me. He was a part of me as much as I was a part of him. As long as we were together I would never truly be alone.

I decided I wouldn’t continue on my pilgrimage until Danny returned. There was a small part of me — hiding in the dark recesses of my mind — that feared I would lose my way again. I knew perfectly well what horrors I was capable of if Danny wasn’t there to stop me. Sometimes I questioned if I was undergoing a subconscious internal struggle with the evil that most assuredly was inside me. My soul may be pure, yet the rest of me was not. It was possible that one day I might be battered so badly that evil would have an opportunity to take a hold over me. If that happened I would be irretrievably lost.

You sound like you’re lost already,
I chided myself.
You’re not a victim anymore, unless you want to be.

I pushed my fears aside and pulled myself together. Moping about at the cottage and worrying about things that may or may not happen wasn’t going to get me anywhere. What I wanted to do more than anything else at this very moment was to live a little dangerously — to feel that rush of adrenaline surging through my veins. There was one place I hadn’t been to that might actually be dangerous, if the rumours were true — the Amazon. The only reason this place came to mind as a potential danger zone was that Satan’s weapons master, Rahab, who had trained me in the use of staff and sword the first time I’d visited hell, had advised against going there. He’d cited that even vampires and werewolves steered clear of that part of the world. Apart from other immortals, I couldn’t fathom what might possibly scare them.

I looked up maps and satellite images of the Amazon to help me determine where I should travel to, and settled for the river itself, in Brazil. From there I could branch out in any direction, looking for whatever it was I sought. I had absolutely no idea what
it
was, but that just served to fuel my curiosity.

I blinked as I left the cottage. I didn’t want to find myself in a situation where I arrived in front of locals or tourists, to be the cause of any hysteria. When I stepped out of the lights — the phenomenon that accompanied my way of transporting from one place to another — I scanned the area, letting my vision lose focus so I could see in all directions, and found the area to be free of mortals.

I closed my eyes and listened to the sounds of the rainforest — all the animals, birds and insects, the rustling of leaves in trees, and the steady flow of the lifeblood of the forest, the river. It was a rich, harmonic symphony that was primitively alien, yet soothing to the soul.

I breathed in the many aromas assailing my nostrils, trying to identify each individual scent and found there were hundreds — far too many for me to make out. I opened my eyes and smiled at the beauty of it all — the sights, sounds and smells that all made this a truly unique place.

There were enormous lily pads in the river, easily two metres across, and their edges were turned up. They reminded me of very large, albeit green, pastry cases. I was curious as to whether or not they could support my weight, and jumped from lily pad to lily pad at speed, parallel to the bank of the river. As I looked back I saw the lily pads slowly resurfacing. Apparently I
was
too heavy for them, but as I was moving so fast I didn’t have time to sink with the giant pads, or even get my feet wet. As I ran I saw a number of frogs sitting happily on the smaller lily pads that I avoided, not a care in the world. Were they not afraid of me, or were they simply too lazy to hop away? Perhaps they realised I would be long gone before they made their first leap.

Ahead of me was the largest otter I’d ever seen — it must have been one and a half metres long,
almost
as long as I was tall — and wondered if everything in the Amazon was bigger than in the ordinary world. The otter swam through the water using its tail to propel itself as fast as it could in the opposite direction to where I was headed. Whether or not that was because of me I couldn’t tell.

Back on the banks of the river I headed inland. I found a lot of the trees were seemingly being strangled by what could only be described as a parasitic plant twisting its way up their trunks. I could
feel
the strangling plant sucking the life out of its host, seeking to dominate and crush it. It amazed me that even in the rainforest parasites thrived. God, or nature, had deemed parasites to be necessary, for whatever reason. The mortal variety of parasite was just as prolific, and just as deadly. As far as I was concerned, parasites were too lazy to try and make it on their own, therefore they lived off others. Of course this was not a scientific observation — I was no genius — purely a personal opinion.

Most of the animals were afraid of me, as they were in most places. The monkeys made horrible noises, presumably in an attempt to scare me away. A capybara, which looked like a giant guinea pig with longer legs and a bigger butt —
yep, everything is bigger in the Amazon
— ran straight towards an anaconda. The poor thing should have taken its chances with me.

Apart from what was actually natural for this region, but unusual to me, as I’d never seen it before, I wasn’t picking up on anything. Not knowing what I was looking for made it all the more difficult. With roughly four weeks to explore, and no desire to return to the empty cottage, I figured I had plenty of time to uncover the mystery of the Amazon, if there was one.

The deeper I ventured into the rainforest, the stranger things became. I heard whispering voices, I was sure of it, but couldn’t locate the source. The leaves rustled and moved when there was no breeze. I was certain there was something there, yet I couldn’t smell it or catch a glimpse of it.

At times the growth was so thick — above and below me — that I had to climb or crawl to keep moving. Running was definitely out of the question. The sun barely filtered down through the canopy to the forest floor. There was a rich earthy smell to the place, and myself, courtesy of crawling on my stomach to get under branches or roots, when I was too lazy to climb. It wasn’t as if I had to worry about offending anyone with my smell. There was
no one
to impress out here. I doubted if more than a handful of people had ventured into this part of the Amazon over the last fifty years.

A warm breeze began to pick up and the leaves made a chorus of sound as they rustled together.

I was seventeen days into my trek and becoming increasingly frustrated at my own inability to find
anything
. With the tracking skills I’d inherited from Danny I should have found something by now.

Perhaps Rahab was playing a joke on me when he’d advised me to keep clear of the Amazon — reflecting on the conversation, I doubted it very much. He didn’t seem capable of that type of humour. Maybe, just maybe, it was the difficult terrain that kept others away. After all, not everyone could transport themselves out of this situation if they wanted to. A long trek in meant a long trek back.

“What am I meant to find?” I yelled out in frustration. My words were drowned out by the noise of the leaves, calling back to me with one word —
us
.

“I must be getting jungle fever,” I mumbled. “Even the trees are talking to me now.”

I sighed and plodded on. I’d give it another three days. If I found nothing I would go on a quick hunting trip then head home for a soak in a hot tub, some sleep and a little relaxation.