Angel Exalted

by C. L. Coffey

  It didn’t take as long as I thought, even though I focused on each limb and joint. When I finished, dropping my hands, Joshua let out a sigh of relief. It might not have taken long, but it had taken effort. I collapsed to my knees beside the bed, panting. Joshua leaped up and over, dropping down beside me. “Are you okay, darlin’?” he asked me.

  My eyes shot open, and despite the exhaustion, I threw myself at him. We fell backwards into an ungraceful heap, but I didn’t care. Instead, I rained kisses down over his face. “You have no idea how much I wanted to hear you say that,” I proclaimed, between each kiss.

  Joshua caught my face in his hands, bringing my lips to his. The kiss was deep and desperate. We had gone so long without each other and I was hungry for him. It didn’t help that he tasted exactly as I remembered, without a trace of a cigarette.

  The kissing also seemed to reenergize me, and when I finally pulled away, I felt much better myself. I stared at his face, drinking it in. “I missed you,” I told him. “I’m so sorry it took me so long to get here.”

  “No apologies,” Joshua told me, using my own words on me. “You’re here now, and it’s time to get out of here.”

  I sat back, my hands seeking out his as I shook my head. “It’s not going to be as simple as that, Joshua,” I sighed. “This is your dream; your subconscious. Even if you wake, then you’re still going to have Lucifer in here with you, and he’s just as powerful as he was in reality.” I chewed at my lip. “I need to defeat him, and I think the only place we can accomplish that is here.”

  Joshua stared at me, his navy eyes weighing each word carefully, but he still looked confused. “Here?”

  I slowly nodded. “Lucifer has been killed twice now. Both times he has come back.”

  “Then he wasn’t really killed, was he?” Joshua frowned.

  “Exactly,” I agreed. I crossed my legs beneath me. “Michael, who is literally the best fighter there is, was unable to stop him physically. I think I can do it, but my strength is here.”

  “In my head?” he asked, pulling a face.

  I nodded again. “I’m stronger in a dream than I am when I’m awake, and I have an ability that means I can manipulate dreams.”

  Joshua’s eyes widened in understanding. “You were able to conjure a newspaper.”

  “Joshua,” I nodded behind him at the unicorn that was standing in my bedroom.

  “Holy crap,” he mumbled, getting up and cautiously approaching the unicorn. Just like a real horse, it eyed him warily, snorting loudly, but it didn’t flinch away from him, even when he reached out to touch its muzzle. “Angel, it’s solid,” he cried. “It feels like a horse.”

  I stood and then made the unicorn disappear. Joshua turned back to me, regarding me with a look of awe that I had never seen before. “I’m going to stop you right there before you put me on some pedestal, Joshua Walsh,” I told him firmly, hands on my hips. “We had an agreement where you promised not to start worshiping me.”

  “I broke that promise ages ago,” he admitted. “Only I accepted that the parts I were worshiping weren’t the angelic parts.” He moved over to me, placing a hand on each shoulder. “Besides, the more important thing is that you don’t start deciding that you’re more important than me or any of mankind, and judging from the fact you’re here on some crazy rescue mission, I don’t think that’s the case. So, for now, we’re safe.”

  “Maybe not in the way I want us to be safe,” I sighed as I raked a hand through my hair. “But you will be,” I promised him.

  “So, what’s the plan?” he asked.

  “I need you to hide,” I told him.

  That earned me a shake of the head and a scoff as he folded his arms at me. “Dream on, darlin’,” he snorted.

  “That’s kind of my intention,” I said. I reached up to take his hands off my shoulders, so that I could hold onto them again. Even if it was just a dream, it was a relief to be able to do that. “If you’re here, you are a target for Lucifer. He will use you as a shield – and that’s the best-case scenario. In all honesty, I fully expect him to kill you,” I told him with full disclosure. I wasn’t going to withhold anything from him.

  “If he defeats you, am I not dead anyway?”

  “Right now, you’re hooked up to a machine in the morgue where Henry is monitoring you. If your heart stops, if you die, Michael, Cupid, and Veronica are there to kill Lucifer. I’m right next to you, also hooked up to a machine. If I die, and you’re alive, they might be able to exorcise Lucifer from you.”

  “Might?” he repeated, his lips disappearing into thin lines.

  I nodded. Okay, so maybe not full disclosure. Veronica was in that room. There was also the question of how much of a hold Lucifer had taken.

  “I don’t like this idea,” he said, gruffly. “I don’t like the idea of you going up against Lucifer alone. I get what you’re saying, but you’re also missing the fact that this is my dream. Maybe I could help?”

  “If you had any control over your subconscious or your dreams, do you think I would have found you bound and gagged in a shower?” I asked him, bluntly. Joshua sighed and looked away. I squeezed his hand. “It’s Lucifer, Joshua. I don’t think any human has the ability to stand against him – awake or asleep.”

  “But you can?” he asked, softly.

  “I think I have a better chance than most,” I agreed. “But my chances will be even greater if I’m not worrying about you.”

  Joshua closed his eyes, taking in a few deep breaths before he opened then and faced me. He looked me in the eyes, searching for something, but I didn’t look away. I met his gaze head on. Slowly, his hands left mine, gently cupping each cheek. “Do you really think you can defeat Lucifer, Angel?” he asked, softly. “If this is your last shot and you don’t think you stand any chance, I’d rather stay and help you.”

  “This is the last shot,” I admitted. My hands reached up for his wrists. “But I do think I can defeat him. I just know I can’t do it if I’m worrying about you, and if you’re there, that’s exactly what I’ll do.”

  Joshua slowly released me, then wrapped his arms around me, holding me to him tightly. “If that’s what you need, that’s what I’ll do. I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all, and I’m not going to stop worrying about you the whole time.”

  “It will only be for a few more hours,” I assured him, glad he couldn’t see my face. It wasn’t a lie. It would only be for a few more hours: that was all I had in me.

  He couldn’t hear my thoughts, but as if he knew what I was thinking, he stepped back enough to be able to lean down and kiss me. It was long and deep, like this was the last time we were going to see each other. I almost wanted to stop it, to promise him that it wasn’t going to be.

  But I didn’t, because I wasn’t sure myself.

  When we did finally step apart from each other, the words remained unspoken. Joshua fixed me a determined look. “Where do you think is best to hide?”

  That was a good question. I’d been thinking about that myself. “I don’t know,” I admitted. “Where would you go that you feel safe, that he wouldn’t know about?”

  “Lucifer seems to have full access to my dreams – my consciousness, so if we go to a new area, it’s going to draw his suspicion,” he said, thoughtfully. “But if he knows me well enough, then the places I think are safe aren’t.”

  My eyes widened. “What did you say?”

  “Basically that, what I think would be a good place to hide probably isn’t,” Joshua shrugged.

  I shook my head. “No, the first bit. About a new area.”

  Joshua shrugged. “I guess that a place I would find safe would probably be in something like Fort Knox, but I’ve never been there, and if Fort Knox suddenly appeared in the middle of my downtown New Orleans, it’s going to have the opposite effect.”

  “Joshua, that’s genius,” I breathed.

  Joshua folded his arms as he tilted his head to look at me. “Please tell me you are n
ot about to create a replica of Fort Knox from scratch.”

  “I wish,” I said with a shake of my head. “I’ve never been either, and honestly, I have no idea what it looks like, but, if I create something – something big like that – then I can get Lucifer to come to me.”

  “I’m not sure I like that idea,” he said, frowning.

  “I’d be bringing Lucifer somewhere on my terms,” I shrugged. “Or at least as much on my own terms as I can get considering I’m in your head.” I paced the room, thinking it through. “Are you aware of what Lucifer is doing with your body?” I asked him. Joshua cast his eyes to the floor, his breath catching as he nodded. His reaction had me confused for a few seconds before I realized. “Maggie,” I whispered. “Oh, Joshua, I’m sorry.”

  “Is she okay?” he asked, quietly.

  I stared up at him, biting at my lip, unable to answer him. That was answer enough. He shuddered, closing his eyes. This time it was my turn to wrap my arms around him. “I know it won’t bring you much comfort, but we don’t think she knew what happened.”

  “If you don’t stop him, Angel,” he murmured into my hair. “I will.”

  I pulled away and nodded. “It ends today.”

  “One way or another,” he agreed.

  There wasn’t going to be ‘another’. It was going to end with me. “I think the best place for you to be is here, in the convent,” I told him.

  “This is going to be the first place he checks,” Joshua disagreed.

  “Exactly,” I nodded. I turned, focusing my attention on the shower through the open door. Slowly, a second Joshua appeared, tied up and abandoned in the shower, just like I had found him. For good measure, I made him unconscious too. I wasn’t sure what the range on this ability was, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to have that Joshua wake up and have a conversation with Lucifer. This wasn’t going to last too long either.

  “Lucifer has no chance,” Joshua muttered behind me.

  “Not today,” I agreed. “And now for you.” This one was harder. I wasn’t sure if I could physically change Joshua, and if I could, I wasn’t sure if it would hurt him, so I imagined dressing him a disguise. Minutes later, a very creepy Joshua was standing in front of me. I couldn’t help but shudder.

  “What did you do?” Joshua asked, sounding suspicious as he looked down at his hands. After that, conjuring a mirror was easy. Joshua stared at his reflection, but I couldn’t tell his reaction: I’d turned him into one of the faceless shadow men, and that meant his features had gone. Joshua looked at me. “Lucifer really has no chance.”

  “I hope not,” I said, chewing at my lip. I was starting to feel like I had a chance, but at the same time, I was terrified that I was getting overconfident with my abilities. Conjuring up things and masquerading others was certainly exceptional, but would it be enough?

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Façade

  “I don’t know how convincing that disguise is,” I hurried to warn Joshua. “You might get away with a passing glance, but nothing more than that. I don’t know if churches are as holy in your head as they are in real life, seeing as it’s not real,” I frowned then decided not to worry too much about that. “But I think if you were to lurk about in St. Mary’s Church, they might not go in there, but you’re still on the grounds so hopefully it won’t draw any unnecessary attention to you. Just, whatever you do, don’t leave the grounds unless you absolutely have to.”

  Joshua cocked his head. “Why?”

  “There’s a weird forcefield around it. The shadow men, or whatever they are, they can pass through it, but anything else seems to sound the alarm,” I explained.

  “But you didn’t set it off?”

  “I got up to the roof of the building opposite to jump on to the roof of the church,” I said, leaving out the part where I had to jump across the street to do so. “I was able to go over it and drop into the convent through the burned-out roof. If we were together, I could probably get us out of here that way, but you’ll be here alone. You won’t make the jump, and if you leave the grounds through the gates, you will set that alarm off.”

  Joshua nodded. “Understood.” He walked over to the window and looked out, though keeping to the side to do so. “How do we get to the church?”

  I walked to the opposite side of the window, keeping my body behind the wall as much as possible, and peered out. The shadow men were everywhere. “That is one paranoid fallen angel,” I muttered. From up here, it looked like the convent had a really bad ant infestation.

  “You know this is my head we’re stood inside, right?” Joshua asked, sounding unimpressed.

  I glanced over as he shuddered. “That’s all the more reason to get this done,” I informed him. “Outside would use less energy, but it’s too risky, and I don’t want to have to test my cloaking abilities unless I really have to.” I sucked in a deep breath and nodded. “We will need to get to the armory.”

  “There’s a door to a church through an armory?” Joshua questioned in surprise.

  “There will be,” I shrugged.

  I made my way over to the door, sucking in a deep breath before I opened it a crack to peer out into the corridor. Empty. I let my breath out and pulled the door open, beckoning Joshua to follow me. Together, we carefully made our way down the stairs and back to the armory. Luck was on our side: although the shadow men were swarming all over the grounds of the convent, we didn’t meet a single one on our way through the building.

  That being said, I didn’t drop my guard even when we stepped into the burned-out shell of a room. I peered around, making sure there was no one looking down through the hole in the ceiling above us, then made my way through the remains in the room to the wall adjoining the church. I pressed my hand against one of the old bricks and focused my efforts on removing a single brick. I didn’t want to waste what energy I had in creating a smaller hole, but on the off chance there were those creepy guards in the church, I also didn’t want to create a massive hole in the wall. I might as well stick a neon sign over our heads.

  The brick disappeared and I peered through. Like the corridors, the church was empty. Once more, relief flooded me. I made a bigger hole in the wall and climbed through. Joshua was right behind me. Inside, I turned, startling myself at Joshua’s appearance. He tilted his head. “What?”

  “I’m just too good,” I shivered. I walked further into the church, looking around. It was missing a lot of detail. In fact, as I moved around, I realized it was missing the fact the fire had spread in here too. In some ways, maybe that was a good thing – perhaps it had retained its holiness? I turned back to Joshua. “Okay, unless you feel you really have to, I need you to stay hidden in here.” I glanced around again.

  There were only two doors leading directly outside, and one of them led into the convent grounds. “What are you looking for?” Joshua asked as I walked over to the wall opposite. This one had a small alley running alongside it. I chewed at my lip for a few moments, before summoning up an emergency exit. Joshua joined my side. “Angel, you’ve got to stop using your energy up like this.”

  “I’m fine,” I said, dismissing his concern. “If they come in, you need to be able to get out. I’m not sure if the perimeter ward goes through walls, so I don’t want to test it, but if you need to, you can get out this way.”

  “What are you going to do now?” Joshua asked.

  I sucked in a deep breath. “Get out of here and get Lucifer to come to me.” I stood there, staring at his featureless face, then gave him a determined smile. “Stay safe, and I will see you soon.” I was not saying goodbye. I was not giving him a goodbye kiss – not that there was currently a mouth to kiss. This was the most unromantic parting I’d ever had, but I was not walking out of there acting like it was going to be the last time I would see him.

  Before I could change my mind, I hurried back through the hole into the armory and sealed it back up behind me. It wasn’t until I glanced up at the floor above me, that the dizzy
spell hit me. My hand shot out to the wall to steady myself while I waited a long time for the sensation to pass. Just finding Joshua and getting him safe had taken away more of my energy than I wanted to admit. A little bit of time to rest would help, but that was the one thing I didn’t have.

  What I could do, however, was conserve my energy in other ways. First up was a plan as simple as using the stairs. I would need to concentrate to jump across the street. I didn’t need to waste further energy jumping up a floor when there were perfectly good stairs already there.

  I carefully left the armory, taking my time in case I ran into one of the shadow men, but once again, this wing of convent was empty. That made no sense to me, I realized, as I creeped up the stairs to the attic rooms which would’ve held the cherub’s dorms if it hadn’t been for the fire (or the saddening lack of cherubs); keeping to the edges of the stairs to they wouldn’t creak beneath me.

  It made no sense at all. If you were keeping someone as a prisoner, even if you had two dozen of those things keeping guard outside, you would still put a couple outside the door the prisoner was being held behind, surely? What if they managed to escape, unaided? I’d lost count of the shadow men I’d come across, so it wasn’t like Lucifer was lacking in them. Was he really that arrogant?

  I shook my head. If he was, that arrogance would only help me.

  With the steep sloping roof of the convent, it was easy to climb out from the cherub’s room. trying to use as little of my depleted energy levels as possible, I kept low, moving slowly so as to keep my balance. I made my way around the roof until I reached a point where the building next to St. Mary’s Church was in leaping distance.

  The jump from this side was easy enough, and I landed on the rooftop next door smoothly. I hurried over to the edge overlooking Chartres Street and glanced up and down it. The shadow men were still in front of the main gate to the convent, and there was another just below me, by the door to the church.