ANGEL’S UPRISING
Also by the Author:
In the Aron Angels Series:
Before the Fall
A World Without Angels
Other Books:
Ashes to Ashes
Gifted
Dark Eyes: Cursed
A Hairy Tail Series
Cinderella is Evil
Saving Rapunzel
Killing Snow White
ANGEL’S UPRISING
JAMIE CAMPBELL
Copyright © 2013 Jamie Campbell
Smashwords Edition
Jamie Campbell asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the author.
CHAPTER 1
‘She is so beautiful, my God she is just so beautiful’. No matter how many times Jerome thought the words, they never seemed to be enough to describe her. She was everything to him, perfect in every way. He wanted to hold her in his arms until their bodies melded together for eternity and even then it wouldn’t be long enough.
He didn’t guard his thoughts anymore. The council could forbid him from showing himself to the human but they couldn’t stop him dreaming about her. There was nothing they could do about that.
She was only an arm’s length away from him. If Jerome reached over, he could feel the softness of her skin and the way it made his own skin tingle. He could do it, it would take no effort. Yet the pain of knowing she couldn’t feel it too would make his arm recoil. Just like it had done before.
He would be able to handle the invisible barrier between them better if she didn’t look so sad all the time. She had been returned to Earth six months earlier with her memory wiped. She didn’t know he existed, she had forgotten about the incredible three weeks they had spent together fighting to save the angels, and had no idea she had been the one to save the world.
Sometimes she smiled at the other humans but it wasn’t a real smile, it never translated to her eyes and made them shine. Jerome knew what her real smile looked like and he hadn’t seen it in the entire six months. She wasn’t happy and neither was he. It was exactly how the council wanted it to be.
“You need to stop beating yourself up over it,” Alexander’s voice filtered through Jerome’s ears, bringing him back to reality. They stood in the small room, now both watching her as she repaired a child’s toy with a needle and thread. She was hopeless at it.
“It’s my fault.”
“It’s not, you know that.”
“I fell to Earth, I involved her.” Jerome shook his head, refusing to be talked out of it.
Alexander placed a hand on his shoulder. “You saved us, we would all be dead if it wasn’t for you and that human.”
“Leila. Her name is Leila.” He shrugged the hand away, not wanting his friend’s comfort and suddenly angry with him. “She’s not just a human.”
“Come on, buddy, you can’t go on like this,” Alexander continued, just like all the times he had done so before. “You did what you could with the council. Leila made the decision to have her memory wiped so she could return to Earth, you couldn’t have done anything more.”
“I should have found a way.”
They stood there in silence, Jerome unable to tear his eyes away from her. She pricked her finger on the needle and he felt her pain. He wanted to take the toy from her and repair it so she didn’t have to struggle with it anymore. He knew how to sew, he could have done it – if he was allowed to by the council.
Ever since Leila had been banished back to Earth and Jerome assigned as her guardian angel, the council had been keeping extra tabs on them both. They didn’t trust Jerome to follow orders, not when he had broken the golden rule and fallen to Earth in the first place. Humans were never supposed to know of the existence of the guardian angels, he had no right to expose them like that. To spend three weeks with a human was a sin, a crime unimaginable to the council. He would spend the rest of his life paying penance.
“We need to get to the council meeting,” Alexander prompted, hating seeing his best friend in such a depression. Every moment was spent worrying about him. They had survived the demon war, they should be celebrating but all Jerome could do was grieve for the human he lost.
“I don’t want to go.”
“We have to. They’re discussing the number of angels we have left and the recovery effort. We have to go and see if we are being assigned elsewhere.”
Jerome almost laughed. “They’re not going to assign me elsewhere. I’m here protecting Leila as punishment, they’ll never let me leave.”
“Well, do it for me then. I don’t want to have to make small talk with Gabriella, you know she corners me whenever she can.” Alexander gave him the best poor me look he could muster. Jerome softened slightly.
“Fine,” he mumbled before taking one last look at Leila and flashing back to the angel village.
Leila finally finished with the toy, examining it to make sure it was fixed. “Good enough,” she shrugged to herself. She left the room she had called home for the past six months and went outside.
There were a group of children playing in the quiet cul-de-sac. She knew all of them by name. “Charlotte, I’ve fixed your bunny rabbit.”
A little girl of six hopped over to her on one leg, taking the toy and wrapping her arms around it in a hug. “Thank you, Leila.”
“You’re welcome. How’s your leg today?”
“Good.”
“Does it hurt?” She always had to play twenty questions with the kid to get information out of her. She wasn’t exactly the talkative type.
“Not really.”
It was as good a conversation as she was going to have. “Okay. Have fun playing.”
“I will.”
She watched as the girl hopped away and rejoined her group of friends. Seeing them play in the street was a world away from the horrors she had witnessed over the past two years. She remembered all the pain and suffering, the way her family was killed, and the endless hopelessness the evil had spread. But that was all, her memory was still foggy on the finer details.
While most of the survivor’s hopes had been lifted, she still felt the dark cloud hovering over her. She didn’t know why, couldn’t even describe it to anyone else. All she knew was that she was sad, missing something she never knew she had.
Rebuilding the city of Aron was a good distraction. It allowed her to funnel her energy into doing something positive. If she didn’t have that, she thought for sure she would crumble into a thousand pieces and never get up again.
Something had shifted in the world six months ago, she didn’t know what but she had awoken one morning and everything just felt… different. She couldn’t put her finger on exactly what it was but everyone felt happier and more hopeful. The violence subsided and people started emerging from their hiding places. People even spoke to each other in the streets again.
Toby and Maree Sinclair, the family friends she had been staying with, helped to lead the rebuild. The three of them would spend their days talking to people in the neighborhood and providing assistance where they could. The park on the corner of the street was now a community vegetable garden instead of a place to avoid, it was built first to signal the start of a new era.
Every day Leila was out in the community, it was all that was keeping
her going. If she focused on other people’s problems then she could push her own to the back of her mind. She knew how to plant a garden or repair a child’s toy, she didn’t know how to fix herself.
“Leila, would you mind giving me a hand?” The female voice startled her back to reality. Sometimes she would get lost in her thoughts and almost drown in the darkness, forgetting where she was.
“Sure, Mrs. Stewart, I’m coming,” she replied, crossing the road to reach the elderly woman. She was standing outside her home, trying to repair the awning as it hung limply over the window. The old lady had kept it firmly closed for the past two years, now she was ready to open it up and let some light and air back into the house. Leila took one side.
“Oh, thank you, luv. I can’t wait to let my house breathe again,” she said, smiling. “How is everything going at your house?”
“Everything is fine.” The Sinclairs had done a wonderful job of maintaining normality while the violence was everywhere. They had set up their house as a self-sufficient world, rarely needing to leave it. It was one of the reasons why they had survived.
“Leila, do you think we could get this working again?” A teenage boy stopped just outside Mrs. Stewart’s front gate, holding up what appeared to be a radio. Slightly smashed in on one corner, it didn’t seem hopeful.
“Maybe leave it for Toby to have a look at, he might be able to fix it,” she suggested, returning his smile. “He’s in the house now if you want to go visit.”
“Thanks, I will,” he replied, taking off with a spring in his step. Everyone in the neighborhood turned to Leila for help or advice, they knew she would be willing to assist. In a world without any real leadership, she was a hero amongst them. It wasn’t something she went looking for, it just somehow found her.
“That’s perfect,” Mrs. Stewart exclaimed, nodding her approval at the straightened awning. “Hold it there while I get some nails. I’ve got some in the kitchen.”
Leila nodded, hoping she wouldn’t be too long. It was awkward holding the heavy awning above her head while she waited. She wished there were more men around to help with the heavy lifting. Unfortunately, they had lost more men than women in the violence and the ones left were pitching in wherever they could.
Suddenly, the opposite side of the awning started to break free. The whole structure was about to come down right on top of her, crushing her to the wall. She stared at the awning, her mind racing with thoughts of what she should do. It appeared to be moving in slow motion, her brain fuzzy without a decision. Her mind screamed to do something but her body wouldn’t obey.
Hands wrapped around her waist and pulled her backwards, making her fall to the ground. It was a soft landing, far less painful than being squished by the awning. The bang from the structure hitting the wall boomed large in the quiet garden.
The wind was knocked out of her lungs, she lay there for a few moments to recover. “Thank you,” she muttered as she turned around to face her savior.
There was nobody there. She sat up, looking around. She knew she had felt the hands, they had tugged her out of the way. The outline of the fingers were still lingering around her waist. Why would they take off so quickly? They practically saved her life, they didn’t have a reason to run away. She wanted to thank them.
“Are you okay, dear?” Mrs. Stewart hurried back with a hammer in her hand, startled by the noise.
“I’m fine, Mrs. Stewart, I guess my hand slipped or something.”
“I shouldn’t have left you out here alone.” Her face was a picture of sympathy, her mouth set in a grimace.
Leila didn’t want her making a fuss, not when she was still so confused herself and her heart was racing with the shock of it all. She couldn’t even fathom a reason why all the hairs on the back of her neck were standing on end. She changed the subject, deflecting the attention. “Did you find the nails?”
“No, only the hammer. I’ll keep looking if you’re sure you’re alright?”
“Really, I’m fine.”
The elderly woman nodded and returned back inside. Leila stood and looked around again, searching for the person that had saved her from a painful injury. The street was empty no matter where she looked. She stood in the middle of the garden, completely baffled.
Jerome watched her, so close he could feel the warmth from her skin. He had arrived just in time to pull her out of harm’s way, just like he had promised her so long ago. He would never let anything hurt her, he had done enough of that himself.
Despite his good senses telling him not to, he moved to stand directly in front of the human. He could see the confusion in her eyes, her beautiful eyes that used to burn as she watched him. He yearned to speak with her, to have a conversation about everything that had happened. He wanted it so much it hurt.
Before he could stop himself, Jerome’s hand caressed her cheek. Ever so gently, he slid his fingers down the side of her face. His skin tingled with the touch, just like it used to. It filled him with warmth and happiness he knew he should feel guilty about. But he couldn’t. The council could take away everything except his thoughts.
Leila’s hand shot up to her face. He had to pull his own back quickly to stop her colliding with him. He didn’t expect her to react that way, surely she couldn’t have felt his touch? It was impossible. Humans didn’t feel angels, they never knew of their presence. If Leila had known he was touching her, even if as gently as a feather, he was doing something wrong.
She cupped her cheek as a smile spread across her lips. The confusion was gone, and only happiness remained. She didn’t know what had touched her but she knew something was there with her.
“Who’s there?” She asked, barely more than a whisper. She looked around, trying to see even a glimpse of the thing that had touched her. But there was nothing there, nothing she could see anyway.
Jerome panicked, he couldn’t be discovered. Even if she had her memory wiped, he knew she was smart. Leila might not think it was an angel standing with her, but she would know it was something. That would be enough for the council to intervene. He had to get out of there.
He flashed away, his heart pounding with panic. He shouldn’t have touched her. He should have stood away from her, far away. He was impetuous and reckless and he could have just made the biggest mistake of his life.
CHAPTER 2
The door to the hostel slammed shut as Jerome stomped through. He started pacing in the living room, unable to make his mind think straight and concentrate on one thing. He needed to have a plan, he needed to fix what he just broke.
“Hey, you’re going to wear out the carpet.” Alexander entered the room and was confronted with the hysterical angel. “What’s wrong?”
“I touched her.” There was no way to keep the truth from his best friend. Jerome trusted him with everything, he wouldn’t go running to the council to tell on him.
“You touched her? You can’t do that, the council will have your wings for something like that. They’ll banish you.”
“I know. Don’t you think I know that?” He stopped pacing, throwing his hands up in frustration. He couldn’t get anything right these days. Everything he got involved in he managed to stuff up. He couldn’t remember the last time he had got something right. “What am I going to do?”
Alexander took a seat on the sofa, shaking his head. “Don’t tell anyone. Did she even notice?”
“I think she did.”
“Buddy, you have to move on. Find someone else to be in love with, there are still a few women in the village, you might get lucky. I think Lucia’s still single.”
“I don’t want anyone else.”
Now it was Alexander’s turn to be frustrated. “Well you can’t have the human. She’s a human, you are an angel, they don’t go together.”
“Her name is Leila.”
“We have bigger problems than your human,” he continued, purposefully not calling her by her name. Jerome needed to start thinking of her as just a human again. He
had met the girl and she was nice and all, but she didn’t belong in the angel world. Seeing his friend spiral downwards was proof of that. “We need to talk about what happened at the council meeting today.”
Jerome grunted and sat on the sofa opposite. “The council are useless. They don’t care about rebuilding the village, they just want to sit in their office and pretend nothing is going on.”
“I agree. So what are we going to do about it?”
“There’s nothing we can do.” Jerome was defeated, the council already proved they held almighty power over them. Any respect he held for the members was gone the moment they punished Leila for saving the world. “At least they didn’t assign you a human yet, you can still finish your schooling.”
“I don’t need any more education, I need to be out there and helping the humans. Like you are. Every available angel should be put into action.”
Jerome couldn’t disagree. He hadn’t finishing his schooling when he was assigned to protect Leila, but then again that was a punishment. They weren’t exactly thinking sensibly, just out of revenge.
A knock on the door interrupted their conversation. Alexander got himself up to answer it, fearing Jerome was in no state to be sociable.
Standing on the stoop of the hostel was Ambrosia, one of the members of the Grand Council of Guardian Angels. He was one of the members in on the meeting when Jerome and Leila had received their punishment. He had been a part of the decision to keep them apart forever.
“Ambrosia, what I can do for you?” Alexander asked politely. They may have spoken badly of the council behind their back but nobody dared do it to their face. Showing them respect was the only way to get anything done. And stay out of trouble.
The councilor clasped his hands in front of him, holding on tight. He appeared nervous as he alternated his weight between both feet. “May I come in?”
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