by Sammi Cee
“It’s our job, Ophi. Remember? This is why we’re here, why we were even created.”
He instantly snorts, and I turn from Denny to look at him. “Az, it’s been generations since anyone took any of that seriously. Hell, it’s been centuries, and yet, you still hold onto the old ways. I’m surprised you even keep up with the times.”
Raising one brow at him, I say, “Of course, I keep up. How am I supposed to make friends with my charges if I don’t talk like them or dress like them?”
Laughing, he asks, “And do you tell them that they’re your charges? You sound like you’re one hundred.” This makes him laugh harder. “Az, do you even remember how old you are?”
He knows this is a sore subject for me, rolling my eyes, I turn away from him to watch Denny. However, he’s no longer behind the pillar. “Well, shit. Where the hell did he go?”
Clasping my shoulder now, Ophi leans into me. “In human terms, if you’re here, I’d say he’s probably on his way to Hell, old friend.”
Shaking him off, I start nonchalantly looking around the room. “You know that’s not true. My success rate is the highest in the world.”
“Probably because you’re about the only fallen angel in the world still wasting his time on humans. They’re lost, Az. Face it. You running from assignment to assignment trying to save them is ultimately a waste of your time.”
Since I don’t see Denny, anyway, I turn to face Ophi and call him out on his bullshit. “What about you? Did you not just say that you’ve already had to help Denny multiple times? Why’d you even bother?”
“Ah, it was no bother.” He waves me off. “I was in the right spot at the right time for the kid. No point in letting him hurt himself if I’m right there.”
“Ophaniel, you may be able to fool most, but not me. To have even helped him, you must have been in your angel form.” When he opens his mouth to speak, I rush on. “There’s no reason for you to be in your angel form in this realm unless you were planning on doing your job.” When he opens his mouth again, I hold my hand up in his face to silence him. “Don’t go there. I’m not going to believe for a minute that you were hanging out or wanting to get around without being noticed. You have no problem wandering around like a human. That’s when you can drink and man hunt. So, if you were in angel form, you were looking for someone to help.”
We’re talking quietly in our own little spot, so I’m not worried about anyone hearing us. Chances are, if someone heard us, they wouldn’t take anything I’m saying to heart, anyway. So few humans even believe in the presence of angels anymore. Which is unfortunate since they really are the last of our kind still trying to make a difference. No matter what Ophaniel says, he takes protecting humans from harm very seriously.
“You know what, Az? You’re being a downer. You lost the kid, let’s go have some fun.”
Pivoting around slowly, I sweep the room with my eyes to make sure I don’t see Denny. But Ophi’s right, he’s gone. With a sigh, I say, “Alright, I’ll come with you. But I’m not drinking or looking to hook up. We haven’t spent time together in ages. That’s the only reason I’m going with you.”
“Good, come on.” Ophi immediately starts toward the back of the room we’re in. It’s filled with slot machines, so we pass person after person sitting at whatever machine they’ve claimed hitting button after button, every now and then I hear a cry of triumph. For the most part, it’s like a sea of drones all doing the same thing mindlessly. Personally, I’d never seen the appeal of slot machines, not enough action for me. But to each his own.
Once we hit the back of the room, Ophi veers to the right, following him, he leads me to a little side hall in the back that says, employees only. Before I can argue with him about going in a restricted area while we’re visible, I see the door at the end of the hall that leads outside. Ophi shoots me a cocky grin over his shoulder. “I know how much you hate being stuck in places like this, and I come here a lot. I figured I’d bring you to the quickest exit possible.”
The minute we’re walking out the back exit into the night, I take a nice deep breath. There’s nothing like the smell of the ocean air, and the sound of the waves hitting the shore to calm me. The moon giving off light overhead and the twinkling of the stars further bolster my mood. Spots like this remind me of our realm. The urge to transform is almost overpowering, but I don’t want to be invisible tonight. I’d say I want to stay visible so I can hang out with Ophi, but that would be a lie. We could easily transform and spend time together in our angel forms without anyone being aware of our presence. Therein being my problem, I don’t want to be invisible, just in case I happen to find Denny again.
Usually this early into an assignment I would follow him for a while in angel form so that I could go everywhere he goes. There wouldn’t be anywhere he could go without me that way, including his room. But when I’d first found him earlier in the day when I’d arrived, he was at lunch with a group of men. He’d looked so uncomfortable sitting at the table. The other men were all in suits; the way they held themselves commanded attention and respect. And then there was Denny in his wrinkled khaki pants and a button-down shirt that had seen better days. He didn’t speak unless he was spoken to. He kept his head down and focused on his salad in front of him, not really eating but using his fork to move the lettuce around. Whenever he looked up, he’d quickly avert his eyes from the men he was sitting with.
As soon as lunch was over, the men headed for the casino floor, but Denny scurried for the elevator. Since I was in angel form and invisible to the human eye, I didn’t have to worry about looking creepy when I quickly moved across the room and entered the elevator with him. The poor kid was trembling and muttering to himself the whole ride up to the fifteenth floor. His agitation was concerning, worried that he’d been about to have a panic attack, I regretted not being in human form so that I could talk to him and try to ease him. Unlike Ophaniel who can radiate peace if that’s what a person needs, covering them with his large wings and isolating them from the world for minutes of time so that they could catch their breath, I cannot.
In my angel form, I’m the opposite side of the same coin. Where Ophaniel’s covering brings peace, and blocks out the world, I’m here to keep man from falling, making choices that would fail them. If I’d covered Denny in that state, all I’d have done is lock in the troubling thoughts swirling in his mind. Without having discovered his dilemma, yet, or having given him ways to alter whatever destructive path his life is set on, covering him with my wings may have locked his mind into madness.
Upon arriving at his floor, he hit the open-door button to peer around the corners of the elevator into the hall. I waited for him to decide the coast was clear and scamper down the hall before I followed him. He already had his key card out, clutched in his left hand and ready to swipe. The minute his door was open he quickly looked from side to side down the hall before hastily entering his room and slamming the door.
Based on his low mutterings in the elevator, there’s no question that entering his room would have given me answers why I was here to save him, but I paused before passing through the door. It suddenly felt invasive to enter his room without permission. It was the most unnerving feeling to want to respect this man’s privacy. My duty was to get answers, however possible. I’d never been concerned with anyone’s privacy before. And yet I’d walked away, allowing myself to transform into my human form as I moved down the deserted hall. And instead of snooping around, investigating his lunch companions or exploring the casino for anything unusual, I’d entered the same elevator back down to the main floor and sat down at a little cafe’ outside the bank of elevators and waited for Denny to reappear.
“Az? Azorath?”
Startling out of my musings, I follow the sound of Ophi’s voice and find him a few feet to my right walking backward down the boardwalk. “Where are you going?”
“You tell me, my friend. I’ve been here for weeks, so I’ve done it all.” His dark c
huckle makes me smile. If I’d never seen him in angel action, no one would ever be able to convince me that perhaps he isn’t a touch evil. “Come on, pick.”
Spinning in a circle, I take in the bright lights and blinking signs on the casinos behind me, and then continue until I’m once again facing the peacefulness of the ocean. The boardwalk itself has people strolling down it, some moving from casino to casino, other couples spending time together. It’s not crowded like during the day. A perfect blend of being near the water and possibly running into Denny. “I know I’m lame, Ophi, but do you think we could walk the boardwalk for a while?” I call out to him as he keeps moving farther away.
“There’s a shock,” he calls back. “Come on, then. Catch up.”
2
Denny
Thankfully, the moon is bright tonight, so I can see across the surface of the water. The vastness of the ocean before me as I stand right here on the edge of the water almost makes what’s behind me seem insignificant. Almost. Shaking my head like the action alone can stifle the pressing thoughts of my uncle and his business associates from my mind, I settle my eyes back on the water. It’s beautiful the way the light shimmers off the surface. Standing here in the same place that yesterday I watched surfers running out to ride the waves, it’s amazing tonight how gently the water is rolling in. There isn’t the loud chorus as the waves crash to shore around each other, but a soothing lapping sound.
I wonder what it’s like to live out there. Do the minnows feel like I do here on land? Wary of bigger fish and sharks, cautious of darkness and what it hides. Do they have thoughts like that or do they live their lives based solely on doing what they need to survive, unaware of how easily the other fish that move around them could swallow them whole? Without thought, I wade farther into the water, feeling the chill surround me; I’m conscious of the way my pants are now clinging uncomfortably to my skin, but it doesn’t really matter. It occurs to me how much easier it would be to move forward if I’d taken my shoes off, then I’d be able to feel the wet sand beneath my feet, too. Oh, well, too late now. I keep moving forward, now feeling the way my shirt is starting to attach to my body.
Suddenly, I’m propelled backward toward dry land, almost as if I’ve been picked up and tossed. Before I can figure out what’s happening, I’m flying backward. Ready to fall on my ass and hurt myself, yet again, I startle when two arms wrap snugly around my waist from behind and haul me farther away from the edge of the ocean and firmly up onto dry land. “What are you doing out there, little man?” The whisper of the unknown man behind me instantly calms me. I’m not sure why, since it’s deep and gravely, but he sounds… concerned? About me? That can’t be right, no one’s ever concerned about me.
Holding myself as rigidly as possible now that my brain is working again, I stammer, “Nothing. Walking. You can let me go now.”
“You’re shaking.”
And the gravelly-voiced man is right. The slight tremors as I left the water have morphed into shaking, working quickly toward full-on body quaking. My skin is freezing from being exposed to the water, and my arms are covered in goosebumps. “I… well, if you let me go, I’ll run back to my hotel so I can dry off and change.”
“I don’t think so, little man.”
Fear shoots through me as Mr. Gravelly bends, placing one arm under my knee, leaving the other around my waist and swoops me up off the ground into his arms. Not daring to look up into his face—you know, because maybe if I can’t identify him later, he won’t kill me when he’s done doing god knows what to me—I ask, “What are you doing? Where are you taking me?” Of course, the tremor in my voice is from being cold, not scared.
My possible captor doesn’t answer me, but treks across the sand, up the steps to the boardwalk, and then down the block until he walks through the doors into the same hotel I’m staying at. Instantly, my fear of being seen by my uncle or one of his associates, half-soaking wet while being carried through the hotel, is much worse than what the stranger holding me intends to do to me. Ducking my head into his chest and under his chin, not caring about seeing his face, but to make sure no one else can see mine, I tighten the hold of my arm around Mr. Gravelly’s neck. Wait… when did I put my arm around this guy’s neck?
Sighing, I relax into him, ready to accept my fate. Be it Mr. Gravelly now, the ocean earlier, or my uncle at some point down the road—my fate is sealed. It has been since my parents died in a house fire while I was away at college five years ago.
“What was that sigh for?” Mr. Gravelly rumbles over the top of my head softly.
“Nothing. It doesn’t matter, anyway.” Feeling the movement of his body, I try to concentrate on the years before my parents’ death instead of wondering where this stranger’s taking me. I actually have to bite back a laugh recalling my mom’s voice as she taught me the words, stranger danger, when I was a little boy, and she was preparing me to go ride my bike with my friends without her for the first time, anxiously watching as I rode away. My laughter quickly morphs to tears as I stifle the sob in my throat at the thought if my parents were alive, I wouldn’t be in this situation now. I’d still barely know my uncle, and I’d be living my dreams out there on my own with the unwavering support my parents always offered me.
Vaguely I recognize the sound of the elevator doors closing, and then I hear, “Az, what are you doing? Where you taking him?” Ass, my kidnapper’s name is Ass? That’s odd. It occurs to me that I should be more concerned with the fact there are now two of them instead of one, but I really can’t get past his name being Ass. “Just leave him here in the elevator,” the other voice continues. It’s soft, almost melodic, but unlike Mr. Gravelly, he sounds annoyed and not at all concerned about my welfare.
“Ophi, go away,” Mr. Gravelly demands, sounding pissed off. Ophi? What’s with these guys’ names?
“I’ll go away once you come to your senses and put him down. Leave him here in the elevator. Someone will find him before long.”
“I’m not just gonna leave him here. He’s freezing to death and damn near drowned himself. If you’re not going to help, then go away,” Mr. Gravelly demands, again.
“What do you mean if I’m not going to help?” the angelic voice asks. “I’m the one who pushed him out of the water. I already helped.” The sound of a foot stomping echoes through the elevator right as the doors glide open. Did this man really stomp his foot? And what does he mean he saved me? There was no one out there with me in the ocean. The waves weren’t even close to rough, so I have no idea how I flew backward, but I would’ve noticed another person out there with me.
“Please, Ophi. Get the key card out of my pocket, open the door for me, and go away. I’ve got this.”
Daring to lift my head a smidgeon so I can peek at the man currently muttering as he opens the door, I involuntarily gasp. He’s gorgeous. His muscular body and perfectly symmetrical face match his melodic voice. And his eyes, are they even real? They’re such a pale, luminous blue they almost look like he has diamond orbs for eyeballs with the way they sparkle. But he looks angry, and at my gasp, he looks over and sneers at me. “Oh, so you are awake? Good, then you can go to your own room.”
Closing my eyes, I dart my head back under the chin of Mr. Gravelly as he says, “Ophaniel, out. Now. Thank you for your help, but I’ll handle it from here. I’ll call you later.”
The room is silent for several seconds before I hear the slam of the hotel room door, and I’m left alone with… my savior; my kidnapper; my killer; I’m not sure who I’m with.
“I need to set you down for a minute, little man. I’m going to need you to sit up for me,” he says at normal volume before gently depositing me on a toilet seat. By the time I open my eyes all the way and look up from the ground, he’s bent over the bathtub turning on the water. As soon as he starts to turn, I immediately bend my neck so I’m staring at the ground. “I set the water temperature nice and hot. I’m going to run down so I can buy you a large coffee, and I’ll g
et some whiskey from somewhere.” I see his hands flutter out of my periphery. “We have to get you warmed back up. Will you be okay if I leave you? Will you stay here until I get back?” he ends softly.
Finally deciding to take a chance on this man who carried me through the hotel, kicked out his own friend, is running me a bath, and is now concerned I’ll leave while he’s gone, I lift my head to meet the almost coal black eyes focused on me. Mr. Gravelly is not all perfect like his friend. He’s rugged with a thick body and a scar down his face. His hair is longish, giving him a rougher vibe. But what I feel radiating from him isn’t scary or bad boy at all. His eyes search my eyes before dropping and taking in every detail of my face and body as I do the same with him.
Struggling to not show fear, I say, “Your eyes, they’re like your friends, but opposite. Where his are like a freshly polished diamonds, yours are like a black coal. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“You can see how black my eyes are?”
“Of course,” I say, unsure why I wouldn’t be able to. He again begins his perusal of my body. Taking it all in slowly.
A look of confusion crosses his features, making me question what’s wrong. It’s probably how little and frail I am. Disappointed that even my kidnapper seems to find me lacking, I drop my gaze back to the tiled floor. I hear him rustle around for a minute over the sounds of the water, but I don’t look up again.
Right before the bathroom door closes, Mr. Gravelly murmurs, “Please don’t leave. I’ll be right back. I promise. You have to let me take care of you.” Then he closes the door, within seconds I hear the main door to the room open and close, as well.
Looking back on this later, I hope I’ll be able to pretend to myself that I had no options. But right now I know that I do. He left me alone. I can run to my own room now. I can find my uncle and tell him I’m not safe. There are so many things I can do right now to get away and protect myself; instead, I rise off the toilet and begin peeling off my soaking wet clothes to sink into the hot bath Mr. Gravelly was kind enough to run for me.
