The Taking (19 page)

When finished, the training continues. Despite Ben’s annoyance or jealousy — I am not sure which — I must avenge Ethan. Even if he is never to become an angel he deserves to live a normal life as a human. Not only is this important, but when it comes to Separus, I need to defeat him for my own safety, as well as avenge Zacharias.
 

From my last mission, I have learnt my lesson. Now, as soon as I feel a threat coming, the first thing I do is make sure I put up my protective barrier. I am not going to make that mistake again. If I hadn't been so weak in the first place, I possibly could have fought the demons off. I could have done the large white light dome like I did back in Somalia when we went to retrieve Orange. Maybe those junior demons would have been wiped out the same as the ones controlling the dead humans, or maybe they would have weakened enough for us to defeat them. I kick myself for my error, as I look at Ben and Cindy and remember Ethan locked away in the room. I must make things better.
 

With Ben and Cindy watching, I face Zacharias, and my guard is already up even before we bow.
 

“Good to see you have learnt,” Zacharias says. “Now remember, it is weapons included.”
 

I grimace at the memory of him puncturing my heart with my dagger just as Archangel Gabriel arrived. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling, and I do not want any more pain today. As soon as he straightens from the bow, he begins to pick up my barrier with me inside like he did the first time we fought each other with Archangel Michael watching. This time, I instantly force the barrier toward the floor keeping it grounded. While concentrating on this we fight. Hands raised and ready to strike. His green eyes provoke me to come and get him. He balks, and I move; a sneer forms on his face every time. After a while, I have had enough and the next time he raises his foot to taunt me I reach for my dagger and throw it.
 

An evil smile crosses his face as he reaches up with both hands and catches the dagger between his two flattened palms. I inhale briskly, instantly realising my mistake. Now, I am a sitting duck.

“Good throw,” he taunts.
 

It was a good throw. It would have landed right in his upper chest just missing his heart. I am confident he knows this, but now he has the weapon.

“Good catch.” I try to make a joke out of the situation but know I am in trouble.
 

He holds the dagger menacingly as he steps my way. His eyes never leave mine as he waves it in front of me and jabs in particular directions. As he continues this, he says, “Remember, you can use your power. Focus on your white light and pulsate it toward the danger.”

The dagger is getting closer and closer with each strike, and I block it with my martial arts training.
 

“Come on!” Zacharias jeers. “Use your powers. If you don’t use it soon, I will hit you.” He strikes again, this time coming dangerously close to my left eye. “Surely you remember what happened last time,” he says as he leaves it dangling over my eye for a moment.
 

A deep grunt expels from my gut before I gather enough strength to fight it away. I grab the blocked arm, flicking it over my shoulder and listen to the bone break next to my ear as I slam his upside down elbow over my shoulder. Right after I hear the bones breaking accompanied by the ripping tendons, he groans in agony, but being an angel and not a human he pulls for additional strength. Quickly he grasps the dagger with his spare hand before I manage to grab it back from him and slams it into my side.
 

I hear Cindy gasp loudly and my vision caves. I would love to black out, but I don’t. Focussing, I reach for the handle, to claim it as my own again, but I am too late. A soaring pain runs up my side and shoots to my brain as Zacharias removes the dagger. I clasp my wound and feel the warm blood cover my hands. He really does have a rough way of training.
 

“Now that should have your attention,” he says as he steps out of reach. “You always have the knack of pulling from your real powers when you or your friends are in the deepest trouble.” Through hazy eyes, I see him brace his elbow that hangs in an odd direction. I know it must be excruciating, yet he continues. “Now, if you don’t want to be stabbed again; embrace your power. You must learn to pull from it even when your friends are not in danger.”

Blinking, striving to focus on him, I watch his eyes and where he plans his next move. His green eyes remain hard and focussed as he plots his next move. With the pain soaring in my side, I am determined to not have a similar injury or worse, so I mentally gather my energy inside. Slowly it whirls and gathers waiting for the moment to be set loose.
 

Zacharias’ eyes twitch and in an instant reflex, my legs stand firm and I hold out my hand, aiming my palm at the dagger. White light pulsates out of my hand, knocking the dagger flying out of his hand and directly to the wall behind him. It clatters hard against the wall narrowly missing Cindy who shrieks in surprise.
 

A grin spreads across Zacharias’ face. He turns and rapidly chases the fallen dagger. Instincts within me scream out and the power within stirs strong. Remaining with my feet firmly planted, I reach out my palm, mentally beckoning the dagger to return to me. My vision returns clearly as I see the dagger fly past Zacharias’ side narrowly missing him and flying handle first into my hand. Instantly, I clasp my fingers around it and slam it in the sheath against my thigh. I have had enough playing for now, and there are injuries to heal.
 

Zacharias spins around and looks at me.
Is that pride I see?
I wonder.
 

“You finally did it! You finally let the pulse fly.” The gruffness was still present in his voice, but there was a definite change in attitude. “Not only that you learnt to use it to retrieve the dagger.”

My eyes pass over Ben and Cindy as I place a hand on my side and let the healing begin. They looked in as much shock as I felt. “Sorry, Cindy.”

“Yeah! You nearly hit me. If I could get up right now, I would come slap you.” She smiles showing off her straight white teeth. It seems like an eternity since the last time I saw them.
 

I continue healing myself while I approach Zacharias. “Let me heal that for you,” I say pointing at the misshaped elbow.
 

He turns his injured side to me and mutters, “Thanks.”
 

“There you have it.” I smile. “You finally said it.”
 

A sheepish look passes over his face. “Well, it’s not like healing me is annoying.”

It was a far cry from the last time I went to heal him, and he even said thanks. I feel the bones and muscles move back into place. As much as I enjoy the healing part, feeling the movement of the bones and body parts under the skin still made me cringe. When done, I go to Cindy and then Ben inserting more healing energy into their bodies. “It is going to be so great to see you two walking again.”

“You’re telling me,” Cindy says while shaking her head.
 

“Do you think I enjoy relying on you to make me better?” Ben says. I am not sure if he means it as a harsh statement, and I am a little stunned by the sudden interaction. I stare into his eyes. Some of the hardness has dissolved.
 

I smile. “Oh, you poor thing. I’m sure you will be back to full health soon and be the strong man of the group again.” I lightly rough up his short, dark brown hair. “Why don’t you try to get up now? I reach down to give him a hand. He looks at it contemplating if he is going to take it. “What’s the matter fireman? Don’t you like relying on other people? Always got to be the helper.”

His eyes cast upward, and I see it — the harshness is evaporating. He is returning to the Ben I know. I am so relieved that I breathe out a sigh louder than intended. “Actually, I was wondering if you would be able to hold my weight,” he says then grabs my hand and pulls down hard on it pulling me off balance onto his lap. I can’t help but laugh.
 

“Fireman?” I hear Cindy’s voice has risen.
 

Oops!
I think. I was slightly distracted and let it slip. “Ah, yeah.” My eyes dash from Cindy to Zacharias. I am not sure how rigid the old angel is with following the angelic laws. His face is set firmly like the day we met him. “I was curious one day why Ben was always so keen to help everyone and always rushing to protect people and angels.”

“Ah! That’s our job,” Cindy says making it sound like I was dumb.
 

I ignore the rudeness as I know again I have stepped on ground that she would class as breaking the rules. “Yes, but Ben does it more,” I say patiently. “So, the day that you were upset with us and stormed off while we waited for our mission to save Orange, we filled in time by me visiting how he died.” I raise my hands in defence to Cindy’s glare. “And before you go getting all upset with us that it is breaking the rules, it is actually ‘grey area’. Even Archangel Gabriel knows we did it and stated that this is correct.”
 

“If you were just visiting him to see how he died, how did you know he was a fireman?” She raises an eyebrow.
 

“Because he was killed in a fire created by an arsonist.”

She sits with her legs and arms crossed and glares at me with her golden brown eyes burning embers. I am not sure if she is going to yell at us or just sit in silence. Finally, her eyes focus on Ben, and she says, “Fireman, hey?”

He nods and smiles.
 

“Actually, it suits you.” Her face lightens its mood. “You two really seem to know a lot about each other’s past lives when you shouldn’t.”

Zacharias remains silent and just watches the discussion. Either he completely disagrees and is ready to tell the archangels about us or he doesn’t have an opinion.

“As I said, it is ‘grey area’. You would be surprised just how connected you feel after you find out a little about someone’s past.” I turn and look at Zacharias, his face is still not showing any emotion, so I continue talking with Cindy. “I would love to find out a little about you if you would let me? I promise you will not get into trouble by the archangels.”
 

Her button nose crinkles on her flawless face. She turns to Zacharias and asks, “Is that correct Zacharias?”

He scoops his hands behind his back under his wings and paces slightly. “Sounds plausible. I don’t see what the big deal is if the owner of the information is willing to give it up.”

Her blonde eyebrows push together. “Oh, I don’t know.” She begins to bite her bottom lip.

“Come on Cindy. Don’t you think it would be nice to connect on a deeper level and friendship? I don’t like not knowing about my friend’s lives they've lived. Didn’t you feel slightly closer to me when you found out about Ethan? How much better would it have been if I were able to tell you myself instead of on a mission where we are going to protect him.”

“Yeah,” she says hesitantly. “But
—
”

“But what?” I ask.

“But I am not exactly proud of the way I died. It makes me seem like a naïve idiot.”

A half snort sounds from the side. Turning to the sound, I find Zacharias smiling. “Now that’s a shock,” he says.
 

Cindy glares at him and crosses her arms.

I flip over from sitting position to kneeling, dying to find out more about her. “Don’t worry about him Cindy. He would have said that anyway. He loves getting under your skin.”

Her eyes look worried as she studies me.
 

“I won’t tell him if you don’t want him to know,” I say waving a hand dismissively at the cranky angel.
 

Zacharias shrugs and continues light pacing in front of us.

“O—kay,” she says hesitantly. “But I don’t want you to tell him.” She points to our trainer.

Excited, I make myself comfortable. It is not that I want to see her die, just as it was with Ben, it would be nice to know a little about my friend's past. I see her shoulders stiffen as I raise my hand to her forehead. “Relax. It’s just me, one of your best angel friends.” I smile trying to reinforce to her that we are all friends here, well except for Zacharias sometimes. With everyone watching, my finger touches, and it illuminates shining into her memory.
 

I rewind past all the time I have known her as an angel. When I have the feeling of being close to the right place, I pause and take a slower look. Yes, I am pretty sure I have found it, and I let the memory play.
 

Suddenly, an overwhelming sense of jealousy and anger engulfs me. I am a little stunned by this sensation; it was not what I was expecting, and the emotions are so raw. My eyes gaze around the room. It is dark with flashing neon lights, alcohol is potent in the air and music is pumping so loudly that I don’t know if I will be able to hear when I leave this place. I am leaning up against a bench and drinks of all different alcoholic mixtures line the counter behind me, either in glasses or bottles or splashed carelessly across the top. As I lean back avoiding the puddles of alcohol I notice that I am sitting on a tall bar stool. Looking down at my lap, I see long tanned legs cut off at the upper thigh with a tight, summer yellow dress. I cross my legs admiring their toned muscles and firm skin. I didn’t think Cindy would wear something so skimpy, but I have to admit, what I can see looks good.
 

Reaching back to the bench, she grabs a large cocktail glass with her elegant hands. Bringing the salt-rimmed glass to her lips, she takes a large sip of the green fluid. The Margarita hits her with the perfect balance of sweet and sour matching the mood she feels as she gazes around the room. With the glass firmly in her hand, her eyes travel to the expansive dance floor, stopping at a tall, handsome man. His short blond hair changes colour with the lights. I feel her heart drop to the floor as she watches him from the distance and witnesses her fallen heart being trampled by the scantily dressed women around him. She brings the glass up to her lips and takes another large sip while the beautiful brunette with the crisscross front dress that barely covers her nipples, rubs herself up and down the man. His eyes do not leave her bare skin, unmistakably hoping for a slip of material.