The Guardian

by Elicia Hyder

  Shannon got up, and Reese stepped out of her way. She came over and dug her fingernails into my arm. “Did you just say my baby is an Angel of Death?”

  My head tilted. “Technically I said he’s not an Angel of Death.”

  “Oh no!” She pointed a red fingernail at the tip of my nose. “Sloan tried to feed me this angel nonsense before. It didn’t work then, and it won’t work now.”

  I pushed her finger away from my face. “It isn’t nonsense, and if you know what’s good for you and your son, you’ll listen to me.”

  “You might want to sit back down,” Nathan said, taking her arm gently. He guided her backward toward Reese again. Together, they sat on the sofa.

  “I want them gone,” Shannon said to Reese.

  “Let’s hear them out,” he replied gently. Reese looked at me. “Please have a seat.”

  I walked to the kitchen—where the sink was piled high with dishes—and picked up a dining chair. I carried it back to the living room, put it facing the worried couple, and sat down.

  “Warren, you’re scaring me,” Shannon admitted.

  “I don’t mean to scare you. And I’m sorry this is all very hard to understand. I promise you, everything Sloan told you, and everything I’m about to tell you, is true.”

  “He’s right. I can vouch for him,” Nathan said.

  “Like your word means anything at all to me, Nathan McNamara,” Shannon fired back at her ex-boyfriend.

  “Fair enough. But Reese, you trust me, don’t you?” Nathan asked.

  “With my life,” Reese said.

  “How do you two know each other?” Fury asked behind me.

  “We were on the police force together in Raleigh for several years before he moved here,” Reese answered.

  “And you married his ex-girlfriend? Geez, this group is like a living episode of Wife Swap.” Fury’s tone was full of derision.

  “Moving on.” I shook my head. “Bottom line is, we need you to keep an open mind if you want what’s best for Nico.”

  “Start explaining,” Reese said skeptically.

  I leaned forward and balanced my elbows on my knees, clasping my hands together. “Shannon, do you remember when you went with me and Sloan and Nathan to San Antonio?”

  “Of course. You guys stumbled onto that sex-trafficking business and busted it up.”

  “Yes, but we didn’t exactly stumble onto it. I mean, we weren’t out looking for it, but the woman who ran it was Sloan’s biological mother.”

  Her face twisted with confusion. “What? But she was our age.”

  “I know. Her body didn’t age normally because she was an Angel of Life.”

  “Here we go,” Shannon said, rolling her eyes as she flopped back against the sofa.

  “Do you remember the conversation we had at that Irish bar when Sloan was asking you about angels?”

  “No.”

  That wasn’t surprising. Shannon was shitfaced that night.

  “You told us you’d known about angels all your life,” I said.

  “So?”

  “You told us about them. You believed in them before we ever did.”

  She scowled.

  “You were right. Angels are real. As real as you are.”

  She opened her mouth to object, but Nathan spoke first. “Come on. You were preaching at us that night about how they’re real. What did your church teach you?”

  She huffed. “The Bible says to be nice to strangers because you might be entertaining angels.”

  “Correct. I didn’t know it then, but…” I took a deep breath. “Shannon, I’m the Archangel of Death.”

  Silence. Dead silence.

  Shannon and Reese both seemed frozen. I looked at Nate, who was standing beside me. His eyes were wide, so was his smile, waiting for Shannon’s reaction.

  After a moment of staring, Shannon burst out laughing. Hysterical laughter. “Oh wow, did Sloan put you up to this? Did Adrianne?” She fanned her eyes.

  We all waited for her to finish.

  Nathan cupped his hand around his mouth. “Do the light-ball thing,” he said in a loud whisper.

  “This isn’t a joke. What Sloan told you was the truth,” I said instead.

  Reese rubbed his hands down his face, pulling his mouth into a deep frown. “What does this have to do with our son?”

  I cleared my throat. “Your son is an angel as well.”

  Shannon’s giggles finally faded. And her face was suddenly caught somewhere between hilarity and terror. “You’re insane! All of you! Completely crazy!” She stood and marched past me. I turned and watched her rip the baby from Fury’s arms. “Get out! Get out of my house now!”

  I stood. “We really need to talk about this.”

  “Shannon, you’re going to scare the baby,” Reese added, approaching her cautiously.

  Tears streamed down Shannon’s cheeks. “This is crazy talk! I want you all out of my house right now.”

  Reese turned toward me. “Maybe you should go.”

  I nodded.

  Nathan stepped between us. “But that baby will start screaming again once Warren leaves town. He’s having migraines for which there is no medical cure. Mark my words. You’ll want to call us.”

  Reese didn’t look convinced, but he nodded.

  I looked over at Fury and Chimera. “Let’s go.”

  Shannon stayed behind in the living room with the baby as the three of us walked to the front door with Reese. “I’m really sorry,” he said to me. “She’s just been—”

  I held up a hand to stop him. “No apologies necessary. It’s a lot to take in for anyone. Just know I’m telling you the truth, and we can make the next eighteen years of your life much easier if you’ll let us.”

  He looked like he wanted to ask us to stay, but just then, his wife called his name.

  “Nathan knows how to reach me,” I said.

  He nodded, and we walked back out into the bright sunshine. The door closed behind us.

  “That went well,” Fury said with a smile as we walked back to my car.

  I used the key fob to unlock the doors. “It went as well as we expected it to.”

  “What will you do now?” Nathan asked. “Get Reuel to come meet the kid?”

  “Probably not. It won’t do us much good to know the kid’s lineage yet. Certainly not worth the added stress.” Before getting in the car, I stopped and looked across the hood at him. “Have you heard from Sloan?”

  He pulled out his cell phone. “Yeah.” He read the screen. “Iliana’s fine. No migraine symptoms at all.”

  I let my face drop back toward the sky. “Yes!”

  “Did you doubt me?” Chimera asked behind Nathan.

  I pulled open my door. “Hey, when you’ve had as shitty luck in life as I have, you begin to doubt everything.”

  Fury put her hand on the small of my back. “I’m really happy for you.”

  “I’m really happy for myself,” I said, moving aside to let her get in first.

  Inside, through the walls and the distance, I heard the baby cry. Everyone else must have heard it too because they all stopped and looked back at the house.

  “You’re still here. Think he’s got a migraine already?” Nathan asked.

  Fury angled to get in the back behind my driver’s seat. “The kid’s probably freaking out because his mother’s batshit crazy.”

  I tried not to laugh, but failed.

  As I pushed my seat back into place, the front door swung open again. Reese was standing in the doorway with his hand up. “Wait!”

  “That didn’t take long,” Chimera said inside the car.

  Reese came out onto the porch. “He’s crying again. Please wait.”

  Chimera and I were still too close for the kid’s migraine to have returned so quickly. Fury was probably right; Shannon had probably scared the shit out of him. Whatever the reason, I was glad for the invitation back inside.

  I pulled the seat lever again to let Fury get ba
ck out. Then I started toward the house.

  Reese was shaking his head. “I can’t take any more of the screaming…from either of them. I want to hear what you have to say.”

  “All right.” I said, and we followed him back inside. Shannon was bouncing Nico in her arms. He was still crying. So was she. I held out my hands. “May I?”

  Shannon pulled him away from me.

  “Give him the baby, Shannon. Please,” Reese begged.

  Poor guy. He looked like his ears might start bleeding.

  Shannon hesitated again and looked at my outstretched hands. Finally, she huffed, and passed me the baby.

  Nico instantly hushed as I laid him against my chest. He was so tiny. Barely bigger than my hands.

  “How do you do that?” Shannon asked with a whimper.

  “He cries because of the absence of the power of the spirit world. Fury was correct when she said it was a form of withdrawal. Has he had seizures?” I asked.

  Her head jerked. “How did you know that?”

  “Because Sloan and I have both had them before with the migraines,” I said.

  “Warren had one this morning,” Fury added.

  “Iliana’s had them too,” Nathan said.

  Shannon’s face whipped toward him. “Iliana is an angel?”

  He nodded. “Remember the record-breaking rainstorms last year? It rains when Iliana cries.”

  “Really?” Chimera asked.

  “Oh yeah. Monsoon,” Nathan said.

  She smiled. “That’s awesome.”

  Shannon pressed her fingertips against her temples and walked back to the couch. “This is too much.”

  I eased the baby onto his back, cradling him against my forearm. He was smiling again. “I didn’t believe it when I first found out either. I meant it when I said you believed in angels before we ever did.”

  “Maybe I don’t believe in them as much as I thought I did,” Shannon admitted.

  I smiled. That may have been the most genuine thing I’d ever heard her say. “As my father says, that doesn’t make it any less true.”

  “Your father?” Reese asked.

  “His name’s Azrael.”

  “His name is Damon Claymore,” Fury corrected me from where she was leaning in the living-room doorway.

  “Yeah. You’re right.”

  “Damon Claymore? The guy Adrianne is having the baby with?” Shannon asked.

  I nodded.

  “He’s your father?” she asked.

  I nodded again.

  “But you look like brothers!”

  Reese looked at her. “He already told you they don’t age the same as us.”

  “Azrael, or Damon, will age normally now,” I said. “He’s no longer an angel. His job passed to me.”

  “An Angel of Death?” Reese asked.

  “Yes.”

  Reese blew out a sigh that puffed out his cheeks. “But Nico isn’t an Angel of Death?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “So you’re telling us he’s like Sloan?” Shannon asked. “An Angel of…what did you say? Of Life?”

  “He could be, but there are seven choirs of angels in Eden—”

  “What’s Eden?” Shannon asked.

  “Heaven,” Nathan and Fury answered together.

  “Correct, but we call it Eden,” I said. “Nico could have the powers of any one of the choirs in Heaven.”

  “What is Iliana?” Shannon’s voice had lost its cynical edge.

  “Iliana is both Angel of Life and Death because of Sloan and Warren.” Nathan smiled with pride. “She’s the most powerful angel that’s ever existed.”

  “Does she have a weird blood type?” Reese asked.

  “Yes. Rh-null. All angels have it. Did Nico have a blood test?” I asked.

  Reese and Shannon were looking at each other. “Yes,” Reese said. “We took him back in after we brought him home from the hospital because he wouldn’t stop crying. The doctors freaked out about it. Said that blood type is really rare.”

  “They call it golden blood,” Nathan said.

  “Is it dangerous?” Shannon asked.

  Fury laughed. “Not for your kid. He’s immortal.”

  There was an odd squeak. I was pretty sure it was from Shannon’s throat.

  “Immortal?” she asked.

  “He’s existed from the beginning of time. They aren’t easy to kill,” Fury said.

  “Hold up. From the beginning of time?” Reese asked.

  “She’s right,” I said. “New angels are exceedingly rare. I guess there have only been three since creation.”

  “Four,” Fury said.

  We all looked at her.

  “My sister.”

  “Correct. Four new angels that we know of,” I said.

  “Five,” Nathan said. He pointed at me. “You.”

  “Shit. You’re right.” I turned back to Shannon and Reese, who looked thoroughly bewildered. “I was born part-angel, part-human.”

  Nathan jumped in. “But then he was shot to death back in—”

  “Will you two shut up?” Fury asked. “Information overload. Bottom line, new angels usually aren’t created.”

  “Yes. But angels from Eden can choose to be born on Earth into human bodies. That’s what my father did several millennia ago. It makes them incredibly powerful,” I said.

  Shannon’s face wilted. “So my baby isn’t my baby?”

  I grimaced. “Well…”

  “He will have your DNA,” Chimera said.

  “Both of them?” Nathan asked.

  Chimera shook her head. “Only the mother’s.”

  Reese rubbed both hands down his face.

  Chimera continued. “Other than that, the only difference right now is he has an angelic spirit instead of a human one.”

  “That, and he’s lived for millions of years,” Nathan mumbled.

  I looked over at him. “Not helping.”

  Nathan folded his arms. “Helping isn’t why I came today. I’m here for the show.”

  I probably would have laughed had the threat of more tears not been so very real in the room. After a second of resetting my composure, I returned my attention to the worried couple. “Think of it this way. You’ve been given a huge honor. Out of all the families in this world”—I lifted the baby slightly—“one supreme being chose you.”

  That seemed to comfort Shannon, even if only a little. I stood and carried the baby over to her. His eyes were open, and when she took him, he was smiling.

  “Let’s say we believe you.” Reese took a deep breath. “How do we raise an angel?”

  “Nate, wanna take this one?” I asked.

  Nathan thought for a moment. “I’m probably the last person to ask for parenting advice. Any day I put Illy to bed with all ten fingers and toes still intact, I consider a win.”

  Shannon turned to face her husband and flung her hand toward Nate. “If he can do it, anyone can.”

  “She has a valid point,” Nathan said out of the corner of his mouth.

  “Fury, Chimera, do you have anything more helpful to add?” I asked. “Fury, you said Jett is pretty normal.”

  Fury straightened in the door. “He is. Once the migraines pass—”

  “They go away?” Reese asked.

  “Yeah. And as long as other angels stay away”—she pointed at me—“he shouldn’t have them anymore.”

  “But the migraines have stopped since Warren has been here,” Shannon said, a bit reluctantly.

  “And they’ll start again whenever I leave town.” They would start again for me too, but I really didn’t want to think about that now. “If he starts having them again, please let Nathan know.”

  “Why?” Reese asked.

  Nathan and I exchanged a glance. I knew we were thinking the same thing. Migraines could mean other angels were present in the area. Unwelcome angels. Dangerous angels.

  “We might need to adjust Iliana’s and Nico’s proximity to each other. Prolonged
exposure to other angels can be unhealthy when they’re children,” Nathan said.

  I was impressed. Nathan’s reasoning was both evasive and factual. Azrael was rubbing off on him.

  “We also have resources to help you guys going forward,” he continued. “Information, security, medical personnel…whatever you need.”

  “Why would we need help?” Reese asked.

  Nathan shrugged. “Hopefully, you won’t, but as you’ve probably already learned, medical care, in particular, is tricky when your child is different.”

  Reese pinched the bridge of his nose and pressed his eyes closed.

  Nathan walked over and put his hand on Reese’s shoulder. “I know it’s a lot to stomach, but I’m here, man.”

  Reese nodded and smiled up at his old friend.

  “He is a cute kid,” Chimera said, looking at the baby.

  “Yeah, he is.” Reese slipped his arm around Shannon’s shoulders and kissed the side of her head. For a long, quiet moment, they both stared at their son.

  “Warren?” Shannon cut her eyes up at me. They were still sparkling with confused and frightened tears. “Why us?”

  For that, I didn’t have an answer.

  Chapter Twelve

  “So when are we going to talk about Adrianne?” Nathan asked on our way back to my father’s. We’d stopped at a sporting-goods store to replace the gear and clothes Fury and I had lost in the crash.

  I stared straight ahead. “What are you talking about?”

  Nathan scowled. “You’ve always been a shit liar, Warren Parish. You know what I’m talking about.”

  I rested my wrist across the top of the steering wheel. “What makes you think there’s something with Adrianne?”

  “Iliana knows that baby is different, and she’s starting to get headaches whenever Adrianne leaves. Not quite migraines yet, but definitely headaches.”

  My heart twisted.

  “I’ve not been around many kids before,” Chimera said. “How do you tell when a baby has a headache?”

  “She cries a lot, holds her head, and pulls at her ears. Sometimes, she bangs her head on the bars of her crib or on our chests if we’re holding her. It’s really pitiful.”

  I gripped the steering wheel. “God, I hate that.”

  “Me too, so tell me why it’s happening.”

  I laid my head against the headrest and focused on the road ahead. The sharp curves of the mountains. The steep cliffs off the roadside. I wanted to tell him. But I couldn’t.