Angel Exalted

by C. L. Coffey

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  Mental Battles

  I glanced back at Lucifer. He had been watching at us with contempt, until I looked at him, and then he rolled his eyes. “You don’t have to get a room. I’m okay to watch.”

  I sent him a scathing glare. “The only thing you’re going to be watching is this barely-out-of-my-diapers angel with absolutely no shred of intelligence or skill, send you to a place which you’re going to wish was Hell.” I turned back to Joshua, moving my hands back to his injury. This time, he didn’t fight me.

  Chewing at my lip in concentration, I healed him. I could feel the sweat bead on my forehead, before it ran down my nose, dripping off onto the back of my hand as I focused.

  But I wasn’t just focused on restoring Joshua again.

  I opened my mind, feeling out into his subconscious, until I found the part of Lucifer that was attached him. Like a leech, it was hanging on, sucking the energy from him as fast as I was replenishing it. I reached for it, trying to pull it free, but when I did, Joshua writhed in pain beneath me. I let go.

  “I told you we were connected,” Lucifer cackled at me. I could feel him growing stronger too.

  My eyes flicked to Joshua. There really was no way to defeat Lucifer without Joshua paying the ultimate price. “It’s okay,” he told me, quietly. “I was expecting this moment from when he joined me in here.”

  “You’re prepared to die?” I asked.

  Joshua nodded. “What’s the sacrifice of one when it means I can protect all?”

  “What if you didn’t have to die?” I asked, slowly, as the tendrils of a plan teased at my tiring mind.

  “There really isn’t any way for that to happen!” Lucifer called over.

  I ignored him. “I mean it, Joshua. I have an idea.” I frowned. “I think it will work, but it’s crazy, and you’re the one who’s going to be paying the price for it.”

  “If it stops him, do it,” Joshua told me, he struggled to a sitting position, reaching for my hand again. This time, he wrapped his around it and squeezed.

  In that moment, I knew that both he and Lucifer had worked out what I was going to do.

  “You can’t do that!” Lucifer cried out as Joshua and I stood.

  I held onto Joshua as I narrowed my eyes at the fallen angel. “Watch me.”

  Around Lucifer, a wall began to build. Brick by imaginary brick. All the while, Lucifer was cursing me out. I continued to ignore him, building the prison around him. Once the walls were up, and the ceiling in place, I surrounded all four sides – as well as the roof and ceiling – with thick bars. Then, as an extra measure, I encased it in lead.

  In a final gesture of pity or petty spite, the ground around the prison started to recede until a vast trench was formed around the circumference. Once it was sufficiently deep, I used up the last of my energy to fill it with lava.

  “There…You finally got your moat!” I spat bitterly in the direction of the depressing looking, grey tomb.

  And just like that, the last shred of energy I had disappeared, and I fell backwards. Before I could hit the floor, Joshua’s strong arms caught me. “Angel!” he cried, lowering us back to the ground.

  “I’m okay,” I mumbled, fighting the exhaustion that was threatening to push me out of there. “I’m going to need to leave soon, but I’m okay.”

  “How long will that keep him prisoner?” Joshua asked me. We both looked to the lead tomb.

  “How long are you prepared to let him stay prisoner here?” I asked. I sighed, looking away. “I’m sorry. This is unfair on you. I just couldn’t see any other way to stop him.”

  Joshua pulled me closer to him, wrapping his arms around me. “I will keep him trapped here, until I breathe my last breath.” He rested his cheek against mine. “But darlin’, I’m not immortal. That’s only going to be for however long I get to grace this earth. What happens after that?”

  I shut my eyes as a new type of guilt flooded me. “Oh god, what did I do?” I mumbled.

  “You stopped Lucifer,” Joshua said.

  I did more than that. I sentenced Joshua to a lifetime with Lucifer trapped in his head, with the sole job of being his prison guard. And what happened if Joshua wasn’t able to keep him imprisoned? What if Lucifer escaped? Would anyone know before it was too late? If I was Lucifer, the first thing I would do would be to kill Joshua, and then find myself a new vessel.

  My brain was going foggy. I was struggling to stay here now. “Joshua, I need to go,” I told him, quietly. “I need to wake up and make sure the others know it’s you.” I looked up at him and smiled, hoping I was hiding my fears from him well enough. “You’ve been through a lot, so take your time waking up.”

  Joshua leaned down to kiss me. His lips we soft and gentle, but it was enough for me to know he was going to be okay. He pulled away, looking down at me as he brushed some of my hair to the side. “I love you, Angel. Don’t worry about me: I will be fine.”

  I nodded, wanting to believe him, but struggling. That was a lot of responsibility I had given him, and I wasn’t sure he was aware of the consequences of that yet.

  I relaxed back into him. As the sensation of me leaving his dream hit me, all I could do was pray that everything was going to turn out well.

  My eyes opened to the bright fluorescent light strip above my head. I also awoke feeling like I had the one time I’d come down with the flu in high school. I was exhausted, hungry, and everything felt weak and useless. I closed my eyes again, bringing my hand to my pounding head. “You’re awake?” I heard Michael say.

  I turned my head, cracking my eyes open to look at him. His face was a picture of worry – something I had never seen on the archangel. Thoughts battled their way through my foggy mind, and then I realized why he looked so concerned. “I did it!” I cried, urgently as I made myself sit upright.

  The action sent my head spinning, and I tilted to the side. Michael caught me before I fell off the gurney. “Slow down,” he said.

  “Joshua,” I muttered, trying to scramble off the bed and towards him. Once again, Michael caught me. He kept his hands on my waist as I stumbled over to Joshua’s bedside. “You can lower that,” I snapped at Veronica.

  She was standing on the other side of Joshua, her sword aimed at his heart. She looked up at me with a glower. “Not a chance.”

  “I did it,” I gasped at her, still trying to get my body to function properly, while equally trying to get her to accept what I was saying. “Lucifer is not a problem.”

  “You really did it?” Cupid asked in surprise.

  I nodded as another wave of dizziness washed over me. “Sit down,” Henry barked at me. He strode over to me, offering me a bottle of Gatorade and a bag of marshmallows. I took them off him in confusion. “You need a sugar boost. I’ve also just ordered pizza, but that will be a short time before it arrives.”

  “Not until Veronica lowers that weapon,” I disagreed, fully prepared to use that bottle as a weapon if I needed to.

  “Let us all take a moment,” Michael commanded. Before I could stop him, he had scooped me up, ignored my objections, and settled me back on the gurney. “Joshua is still sleeping, and I understand Veronica’s hesitation. Tell us what happened.”

  “Eat first,” Henry disagreed. “Your body is weak. It needs nourishment, and until that arrives, you need to give yourself a sugar boost.”

  I ripped open the bag of marshmallows, eating a few of them to appease the Angel of Death. Annoyingly, after a few, they perked me up. I washed them down with the Gatorade before setting them to the side, then I told the room what had happened.

  “Then Lucifer is not dead,” Veronica said, angrily.

  “He’s better than dead,” I disagreed. “He is trapped, and he won’t get out.”

  “You locked him in a human’s head,” she scoffed. “At least when Michael killed Lucifer, he was gone for millennia.”

  When Veronica refused to lower her weapon, I was back on my feet again. �
�He didn’t kill him!” I snapped.

  “Wherever Lucifer went, he was there for a lot longer than this human’s meager life!” Veronica snapped back. “We should be taking this opportunity to kill Lucifer now!”

  “Veronica, no!” Cupid yelled. Before I could turn to look at him, an arrow had shot across the room. It hit Veronica’s sword, sending it flying away from her. “You cannot kill a human!”

  “Cupid!” Veronica screamed in rage.

  “ENOUGH!” Michael bellowed. Before the room descended into chaos, it fell silent. “Cupid is right: you cannot sacrifice a human for this.”

  “Not even when his death saves them all?”

  “It’s not worth losing you over,” Cupid told her. He looked heartbroken at that prospect.

  “Clearly, Lucifer being trapped in Joshua is not the solution that we wanted.” It was Henry who spoke, his voice calm and clear. “But what it has bought us is time. It has also bought him time. Until a few hours ago, he had a clock ticking above his head with a time that was close to running out. That’s been reset, and for now, we should be celebrating that.”

  Veronica looked around the room at all of us, disgust painted on her face. “You all really believe that the best thing to do is let him live?” she asked in amazement.

  Michael shook his head. “No,” he said, simply. “But I do believe it is the right thing, and if we take any other route, that will not make us any better than Lucifer.”

  Veronica continued to stare at him, her nose wrinkled, and then she shook her head. “I am not sticking around for this,” she muttered. Without another word, she picked up her sword and transported herself out of the morgue.

  “Let her be,” Cupid sighed, wearily. He sank into a plastic seat and finally set his bow down so he could rub at his face. “She’ll come around.”

  I mimicked Cupid, sinking back on the gurney. Now that the tension in the room had dropped several points, I was aware of just how terrible I was feeling. Although it felt like a million years ago, my shoulder and back were still hurting from where Paddy had thrown me across the room. My throat felt like someone had shoved barbed wire down it from when Lucifer had choked me. The still healing wounds on my wrists were back to throbbing… beneath it all, the ever-present thrum from Lilah continued to pulse.

  In short, I wanted to eat and then sleep for maybe a month. I reached for the marshmallows and started eating more of them, appreciating the sugar. “We’re not done though,” I sighed into the bag.

  “No,” Michael agreed, quietly.

  “The whole reason we did that was because Zachary and Paddy knew Lucifer was possessing Joshua. He’s safe now, but somehow, we’ve got to convince them of that,” I said, wearily. “We need to move Joshua somewhere safe.”

  “Not tonight,” Henry disagreed. “Both you and he have been through enough. You both need to rest, and I will not feel comfortable until Joshua has awoken.” I was relieved to hear that. I wasn’t sure I would be able to stay awake for much longer, much less pick a battle with Zachary and Paddy. From somewhere outside the room, a bell rang. “That will be the pizza.” Henry disappeared from room, but returned soon after with a large pizza box. He set it down in front of me. “Eat.”

  I didn’t need telling twice. I opened the box, taking the largest slice and folding it in half so I could devour it as quickly as possible. Midway through my third slice, when I could feel the food doing wonders for my energy levels, I finally spoke. “I think we need to move Joshua somewhere safe, as soon as he wakes up,” I said. Despite everything, I had a feeling of unease I couldn’t shake.

  “If Joshua is going to wake up, I expect it will happen within the next twelve hours or so,” Henry said.

  The pizza hovered in front of me. “If?” I repeated. I set the pizza down. “What do you mean by that?” I demanded.

  Henry sucked in a deep breath. “Joshua has been living with Lucifer inside his head for some time now. Combined with the fact his mind still has Lucifer held prisoner there, there is a possibility that it is too much for his mind to cope with. If I had a way to do a scan of his brain, I would,” he explained, calmly.

  “Joshua’s brain is working just fine, and he will be up and back to normal,” I retorted. I wasn’t even going to contemplate anything otherwise – not after what we’d just been through.

  “We can worry about that tomorrow,” Cupid interrupted us. “There’s no point stressing over what ifs.”

  Henry sighed, and then shrugged. “Very well. I suggest Cupid and Michael leave soon so you can all get some rest.”

  I frowned. “Leave?”

  “We can stay if you prefer,” Michael suggested.

  “I would rather we all leave,” I hurried to tell them. “And go rest in an actual bed instead of on something autopsies take place on.”

  “They are clean,” Henry responded.

  “That’s not the point-”

  “If you’re going to leave here, the only other place you are going with Joshua is to a hospital,” Henry cut me off. “Right now, he is attached to those machines to keep an eye on him.”

  I looked over at Joshua and to the machines he was hooked up to, bleeping reassuringly in the background. “I’m not going to risk Joshua’s safety,” I relented. If I had to sleep on a morgue table for a night, so be it.

  “We shall be outside if you need us,” Michael said, as Cupid rose to his feet. “Rest well.”

  The three angels left the room, leaving me alone with Joshua. I ate some of the pizza before pushing it to the side. Although I could have eaten more, all I wanted to do was sleep, and I wasn’t doing that alone. Moving like I was eighty years older than I was, I got off the gurney and shuffled over to Joshua’s. The gurneys were too small for both of us, and tempted as I was to ignore that fact, if would have meant curling up around him. Given that he was still hooked up to all the machines, I didn’t want to pull anything free.

  Instead, I pulled one of the plastic chairs over to his bedside and sat on that. With my arms on the gurney under my head, it was possibly the most uncomfortable position I had ever slept in, but at that point, I didn’t care. Sleep was winning.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  Traitor

  I thought that was it.

  I thought that the next time I woke up, it would be in the morgue again.

  It wasn’t.

  I wasn’t even back in Joshua’s dream.

  Instead, I went to a place I didn’t recognize. There wasn’t a lot of scenery to be going on for me to work out where I was. It was warm and bright. The sand beneath my toes was pleasant to stand on, and the cool waves of the tropical looking turquoise ocean lapped over the tops of my bare feet.

  I was on a beach in a white summer dress which was fluttering around me. Other than palm trees and tropical looking undergrowth at the edge of the white sands, the beach in front of me was deserted.

  Well, given everything that had happened, I wasn’t going to deny I needed a holiday, but now wasn’t the time. There was still too much to do, starting with making sure Joshua was still okay.

  “Angel?”

  I turned, surprised at Joshua’s voice behind me. “Joshua?” I returned. “What are you doing here?”

  “Where is here?” Joshua asked as he looked around. He was wearing a pair of white cut off trousers, and a white shirt with only a handful of buttons being used.

  “I have no idea.”

  “You’re right where you need to be.”

  The new voice had us both turning towards the water in confusion. Standing a little deeper in the water, where there certainly hadn’t been anyone before, was a pudgy little black girl. At most, she was maybe eight years old, but she had eyes that made me think she had either seen a lot in those eight years, or she was older than I suspected.

  She looked familiar.

  She also wasn’t alone. “Metatron?” I said, surprised to see the blond angel with the manbun. As always, he was with his book, the pen already scribblin
g away.

  “You’re the girl that led us to Mama Laveau,” Joshua said, recognizing her quicker than I could. I gave her another look: he was right.

  “Where are we?” I asked them.

  “Somewhere safe… So that we could talk,” the girl said.

  Because that wasn’t vaguely threatening. “And why would we need to be somewhere safe?” I asked, slowly. “What’s wrong with the morgue?”

  “I know what you did,” the girl continued, ignoring my questions. “There are many in Heaven who would not believe it possible, and many more who will not believe that you are capable of keeping Lucifer locked up.”

  “I can do it,” Joshua assured her.

  The girl shook her head. “They are right.”

  I blinked. “I will do everything that I can to keep Lucifer locked up – I will do everything I can to keep Joshua safe.”

  This time the girl looked at me. “You are in love with him.”

  I froze. I didn’t know who she was, but with Metatron beside her, I was absolutely, positively, certain, she was one of the highest-ranking angels… if not higher… I chewed at my lip, not sure if I wanted to answer her question.

  She gave me a bright smile. “Relax. That was not a question: I know everything. You cannot be in trouble for falling in love, even with a human.”

  “I took the covenant,” I whispered.

  “You have not broken it yet,” she shrugged.

  “The reason I am here is to talk to you, without anyone else around. I have a question to ask you,” she looked at Joshua. “But it is a question where the answer will have an impact on Angel too. It is a question where the only people affected are you two, and therefore I do not want anyone else to have any input on your answer.”

  “Because that doesn’t sound ominous,” I muttered under my breath.