Wish for Santa: Average Angel

by Felicity Green

  She moved her head and sat upright. “My parents were religious and didn’t want to have anything to do with me. But their voices stayed in my head. I couldn't bring myself to get rid of it. So I had him—Sam—and was contemplating giving him up for adoption when he came back.” Her bitter laugh almost stuck in her throat. “He was different. Still beautiful, but cool. So cool. His light wasn’t warm, yellow, and red, like on the day we’d made love, but blue like the flame of a candle at its core, you know?”

  For the first time since she had started telling her story, she looked directly at me. She looked so… beaten down.

  I swallowed hard and nodded, forcing myself to continue. “What did he tell you? Did he help?”

  “He helped, all right. He said he would give me money if I looked after the kid myself, so he would always be able to keep an eye on him. And of course, I had been chosen.” She spat out the last word.

  “But I sold my soul to the devil. That’s what he is,” she said earnestly. “The devil. Yes, he gives me money. But I can’t have a life. Sam is not supposed to have another father. Once, when Sam was three, I dated a real nice guy for a while. An accountant. Could have set us up nicely, you know, house in the suburbs and all. And I really liked him. He died. Unexplained causes, but he was burned all over. Happened to two more guys since.”

  I didn’t even know what to say to that. “But… how do you know? It could just be coincidence.”

  “I know because he told me. He sometimes turns up, gives me cash, and tells me the rules to keep me in line.” She gave another bitter laugh. “Had to go to the hospital with a couple of burn injuries myself in the first few years.”

  She paused, and I was too stunned to come up with more questions. Her story had really shaken me. She continued in a small but defiant voice. “I don’t even know why he wants me to be a mother to Sam. I’m a bad mother. I don’t know why he doesn’t want someone to look after him properly, someone who could do it right.”

  I couldn’t help but think that—consciously or not—her bad parenting was a method. Maybe she hoped Sam’s father would take him away if she didn’t look after him properly and she could have her life back. On the one hand, I could even understand that. But on the other, there was this little kid, Sam, and he was her life now, her responsibility. He hadn’t asked for it, either. He was the one who suffered. So I couldn’t really be sympathetic with Irene Sullivan.

  “You can’t contact him?” I asked with a last ounce of hopefulness that I could make this happen for Sam somehow.

  She shook her head. “He just turns up.”

  “I guess he didn’t tell you a name.” That was my last desperate attempt to get any information out of her.

  “Oh, I know his name.”

  Her statement knocked the breath out of my lungs, and my eyes widened. My heart was beating wildly when I leaned forward. “What is it?”

  “Raphael.”

  16

  It was a miracle I got back to Average in one piece. I didn’t pay any attention to traffic, and I drove home on autopilot. Just one word went round and round in my head. Raphael. Raphael. Raphael.

  It all made sense now—why Zack hadn’t wanted me to find out who Sam’s father was. It wasn’t a demon at all; it was an angel. An archangel at that. Zack hadn’t been concerned about my safety; he had been concerned about hiding the transgression of one of his own. Maybe Raphael was someone he took orders from. Deep disappointment was starting to seep in when my brain puzzled a couple of pieces together and something occurred to me.

  I had gotten the impression that for whatever reason, I needed to do Vitrella’s job, and some of the big shots up there weren’t supposed to know I was doing it. Zack was helping me fulfill wishes under their radar. If that was true, Vitrella came to Earth as a shooting star to hide and do her job in secret. So maybe it wasn’t just a fantasy of mine that Zack worried about me. He was worried, probably about what would happen if the archangels found out about me… or maybe just one archangel. Raphael had been Vitrella’s boss. If my assumptions were correct, Zack would most likely get into trouble for helping Vitrella and me. So he was also protecting himself.

  Of course, this was all just pure conjecture. I really needed to talk to Zack.

  I looked at the clock on the dashboard and saw that it was half past twelve. If I would have worked my shift as usual, I would have taken a lunch break at one. Zack and I hadn’t arranged to meet up, but there was a slim chance that he would come to the bench by the river during my lunch hour. Instead of waiting for tonight and putting a candle in the window, I decided to take my chances.

  As I approached Average, I got the distinct feeling that something in my theory wasn’t adding up. The hunch started off as a dark, tense knot in my stomach. Then my brain caught up. Everything in my theory made sense, even the dream I’d had. If Raphael had been Vitrella’s boss, then maybe somewhere in my subconscious, there was a connection to Raphael’s part-human son.

  But there was one thing that didn’t seem right. Why had Zack gone to Becca and told her to go ahead and help me find out who Sam’s father was? More importantly, why had he gone to Becca in the first place? Why had he not come to me or let me know directly in some way that Sam’s father was an archangel? The knot in my stomach grew and grew until I felt really sick.

  I parked the car on the shoulder of a road near the river and rushed to the bench. I didn’t even know if Zack would be there, but I ran through the strip of trees that separated the street from the riverbank.

  The bench was empty, but I waited. I was too nervous to sit down, so I just stood there, staring at the river.

  I didn’t even hear Zack approach me.

  “Stella,” a velvety voice said.

  I flinched and spun around. “Hey, I’m so glad… you’re here,” I stuttered, lifting my arms to hug him but then checking myself.

  Zack took my elbow—electricity bolts shot up my arm, confusing me even more—and led me to sit down on the bench.

  Beautifully arched eyebrows drew together as he sat down next to me. “What’s wrong?”

  I didn’t even know where to start. “I’m sorry that I insisted on fulfilling this wish, but I had to, you know? I picked it. I committed to it. Anyway, I know now that you were just concerned about me, that I would ruffle some feathers, so to speak.” I laughed nervously.

  Zack shook his head in confusion.

  “So thank you for understanding and helping me figure out who Sam’s father is, but now I really need your help. I mean, wow, an archangel. How can we set up this meeting between Sam and him, preferably without him knowing that it was me who set it up?” I just blurted stuff out because I didn’t know what to ask him first. My stomach cramped when I saw the dread in Zack’s face.

  “Slow down,” he said, interrupting my stream of consciousness. “You know who Sam’s father is?”

  I nodded. “Raphael.”

  Zack’s chocolate-brown eyes widened. “How did you find out?”

  My throat tightened. “From Irene Sullivan, Sam’s mom.” My voice sounded strangled. “After you encouraged Becca to help me—”

  “Who’s Becca?” he nearly hissed.

  My hand went to my throat. “The witch. The witch you visited last night.”

  Dead silence.

  “I didn’t visit any witch.”

  Somewhere deep down, I must have known. But I hadn’t exactly had time to think. Now, it made sense that Becca had pressured me to follow through with the plan immediately—so I wouldn’t meet Zack beforehand or have any contemplation time. My confused feelings for Zack and my lack of self-confidence when it came to him had further clouded my judgment.

  I put my head between my legs, desperately trying to get some air into my lungs. I felt Zack’s hand on my back. “Slowly. Breathe slowly.”

  I forced myself to concentrate on counting down my breaths. After a while, I was okay to speak.

  Head still down, eyes on the ground, I whispered, “
It was Mal.”

  “I’m afraid we have to assume that.”

  “But”—I sat up—“what does he get out of this?”

  “The same thing you did.” Zack’s eyes went dark. “To find out who Sam’s father is.”

  I frowned. “How? He didn’t possess Becca, did he? It wasn’t the same as with Marie. I definitely would have recognized that again. But she did seem different. I just thought it was her… you know… witch persona.” I quickly summarized Becca’s phone call this morning and our visit to Irene’s.

  “Mal didn’t possess the witch,” Zack explained after I’d finished. “He didn’t need to. She agreed to do his bidding, and now he has her under his spell. He will find out everything you both learned from Irene Sullivan. And then he will continue to use her until he gets what he’s after.”

  “What?” I cried. “What is he after?”

  Zack gave me a sad look. “Sam.”

  I just stared at him until he sighed.

  “This is not something you ought to know. Personally, I don’t think you’re ready for this, and I would much rather have left you out of this for now. But someone”—he gave me a sharp look—“gave you Metatron’s book as an initiation in angel lore, and you already know far too much. So I might as well tell you more.”

  “Please do,” I urged him. I didn’t want to point out that this might not have happened if he hadn’t kept me in the dark. Now that he seemed willing to answer my questions, I didn’t want to antagonize him.

  “You already read in the book that there is a… feud going on between the angels and the demons.”

  I nodded.

  “There is a very real threat that this feud will turn into a full-blown battle and that Earth and humans will be caught in the crossfire.”

  I remembered the prophecy but let him talk.

  “I’m trying to prevent that because, well, as you can imagine, that would be the end of days.” Zack stared at the river, and a very sad, almost desperate look darkened his eyes, as if he was seeing the apocalypse before his inner eye. He probably was having a memory of a trip to the future.

  He shook himself. “There’s a very delicate balance of power that keeps angels and demons from declaring war. Both sides are constantly trying to get the upper hand. One way for demons to do that is to corrupt Nephilim, the children of humans and angels. If demons succeed in corrupting a Nephilim, they have an enormous amount of power at their disposal. You can compare it to a nuclear bomb.”

  “And Sam is a Nephilim,” I said slowly. “Hang on… Sam is Raphael’s son? Didn’t I read that angels who mated with humans were cast out of Heaven for that very act? Aren’t a bunch of demons in the underworld demons for that reason? Now Raphael supposedly did the dirty himself? Shouldn’t he be cast out?”

  Zack averted my gaze. “Many, many years ago, that would have been the case. But now, there are hardly any archangels left. They can’t really afford to lose one of their own. But I have my suspicions that the others know about this and condoned it, maybe even planned it.” He shrugged. “As I said, Sam’s a powerful weapon.”

  He sounded a bit embarrassed, like a child who’d discovered that his parents weren’t above moral reproach.

  “Hmm. Doesn’t sound very… I don’t know… angelic to me.”

  Zack gave a short laugh. I detected a faint note of bitterness.

  I had so many questions, like what I had to do with all of that. But there wasn’t time. I couldn’t even think about me.

  “That means”—I jumped up—“Sam is in danger, and we need to get to him before Mal does.”

  Zack looked at me with an unreadable expression in his eyes. “It may already be too late.”

  17

  On the road to Sam’s foster parents, I spared a thought for my aunt. There was no way I would make it to work any time soon. I asked Zack to call her on my cell, which he managed to do after I explained to him exactly how the phone worked.

  Zack was very polite, but I could tell that my aunt wasn’t pleased at all. And I couldn’t blame her. She probably thought that I had blown her off for some guy and didn’t even have the guts to make the call myself.

  We drove the last few minutes to the Fishers’ house in silence.

  Zack and I had both agreed that we might as well skip driving all the way to Concord to find Becca. When I had tried to convince her to help me, I had mentioned Louise as well as Donna and Grant. Even though I hadn’t told her any last names, it would have been fairly easy for her to figure out where Sam was from the information I had given her. All she had to do was visit Louise at the DHHS office and work some magic.

  If she hadn’t managed to do that by now or if she hadn’t told Mal yet, we would still be better off getting to Sam straight away so Zack could protect him.

  When we got there, I jumped out of the car, not even bothering to lock it, and ran to the front door. Zack caught up with me just as Donna opened the door.

  “Hi,” I said, out of breath.

  Donna looked surprised. “Oh, hi, Stella. I hope you didn’t get your wires crossed and you’re here to pick up Anna. Louise’s colleague already picked her up.”

  My heart skipped more than one beat. “A-A-Anna?” I stuttered. “She was here?”

  “Are you okay, honey? Do come in and sit down. I’ll make you a cup of tea.” She looked at Zack, probably expecting an introduction. “You too, Mr.…”

  I grabbed her arm. “Was Anna here?” Donna’s expression changed from puzzled to disconcerted. “Yes. She had a play date with Sam. What’s going on?”

  Zack took my hand from Donna’s arm. “We’ll come in for a moment, thank you,” he said soothingly.

  Donna took a step back and let us in.

  We declined her offer of a beverage, and I struggled not to be impatient with her.

  She explained to us that Louise had called her earlier and let her know that a colleague of hers would come by to pick up Sam. They had tracked down Sam’s father and were taking the boy to meet him.

  “When I told her Anna was here, Louise said she was already aware. She had already spoken to Anna’s mother, who I knew was a friend of hers, and this woman was supposed to drop Anna off in Average, seeing that it was on the way.”

  When she saw my horrified face, she asked, “What? Was that not okay? Louise said… so I didn’t question—”

  “You did nothing wrong,” Zack assured her.

  Donna frowned. “Did something happen? Did Anna not make it home?”

  “When was this?” I asked.

  “Half an hour ago.”

  We asked Donna to describe the woman, and I had no doubt it was Becca. I didn’t know how she had gotten Louise to make that phone call, but she was a witch after all. Still, I asked Donna if she was sure that it had been Louise on the phone.

  “Of course. I have dealt with her many times before. What’s going on? Is Sam okay?” She grabbed her necklace and tugged it nervously.

  “I’m sure he’s fine,” Zack said in his most reassuring voice. He carefully nudged me.

  I did my best to pull myself together. “You know what, Donna? I’m sorry if I scared you. It’s only that Anna has… sneaked off before, and I didn’t even know she was here. But if my mom said to drop her off at home, it’s all good.” I got up. “We’re going home straight away.”

  “Oh… okay.” Donna was clearly very confused by our visit. “I’ll give you a ring when Sam is back or tomorrow, to let you know about his father and what’s going to happen next.”

  “That would be great.”

  I got out of there as soon as it was politely possible, and Zack was hot on my trail.

  In the car, I started driving, even though I had no idea where to go. But I had to feel like I was moving toward Sam and Anna, toward… something.

  “Where did Becca take them? And why Anna? Do you think she actually did drop her off at home?” I was more talking to myself and didn’t expect Zack to answer, but he did.

  �
��I’m pretty certain she took Anna along. There is a…” He rubbed his chin and looked at me. “Sorry, I don’t know how I can say this without shocking you. But maybe you shouldn’t drive. Can you pull over?”

  My heart was beating quickly when I turned onto a dirt road and stopped the car. I looked at Zack. “Tell me.”

  “There’s a human sacrifice involved in the corruption. I’m afraid they’ll be using Anna for this.”

  I stared at him. Marie’s possession had to have been the worst thing I’d ever experienced. And I would never forget the image of Mal emerging from her. It was the stuff my nightmares were made of. “Human sacrifice? Please tell me you’re joking.” That might have sounded glib, but I really had difficulties accepting such a cliché was the reality for my sister.

  Zack studied me but didn’t answer. “I think I know where they went,” he finally said.

  “Where?”

  “The most powerful corruption happens at the place the Nephilim was conceived. It’s a sacred place. Irene told you where Sam was conceived, so Becca knows this too. It is very likely that they went there.”

  “Lake Winnisquam,” I exclaimed and started the car. The lake was almost an hour’s drive from where we were. “Damn, I hope we won’t be too late. Can’t you do something? Time travel to the lake, to where they are? Or even before that? So they can be stopped?”

  I had started the engine, my hands poised on the steering wheel, ready to turn around and drive to Lake Winnisquam as fast as the car would take me. But Zack could do more than me, and I pleaded with him to break the rules for me just this once.

  The golden specks in his eyes seemed to sparkle when he looked at me. A hint of a sad smile appeared on his face, and he nodded. “I will. I will at least try.”

  With that, Zack was gone.

  18

  Before I sped to the lake, I made two phone calls. The first one was to our house. Allison picked up.

  “Is Anna home?” I asked.