Angel Warriors

by Stephani Hecht

  “Hey, Ramiel.” Cam lifted one hand in a nervous half wave.

  “Don’t beat him yet, Ana. I get first dibs,” Ramiel growled out. His lip was bleeding, and he sported a nice shiner on his left eye.

  “What did I do to you?” Cam asked, rolling his eyes in exasperation.

  “I just had a little chat with Charoum,” Ramiel informed him, ignoring Ana’s snort of disgust. It was no secret that she hated it when her brothers got into brawls. “That bastard was boasting to his buddies about how he treated you. You should have told me he was treating you like dirt.”

  “Why, so my big brother could come in and save the day for me once again? It’s time I learned how to stand on my own two feet.”

  “Come on Cam, we all know you can’t fight your way out of a paper bag. It’s time you went home with Ana. Everybody knows you tried. There’s no reason to be ashamed. You just aren’t up to fighting demons.”

  “Cam,” Abdiel yelled, interrupting the stream of curses the empath was directing at Ramiel. “Why don’t you show your brother what you’ve learned?”

  Cam caught the bo staff Abdiel threw him. Ramiel shook his head in disgust before he caught his. The two brothers went to the center of the gym and faced off.

  They moved in a slow circle. Ramiel jabbed at his brother a few times with his staff. Cam easily deflected each thrust, but made no move to attack. The older brother started to lash out harder with his weapon. It was obvious that Ramiel was becoming annoyed at his brother.

  However, Cam just kept calm. Finally, when Ramiel ran at him, he caught his older brother in the stomach and threw him over his head. Cam was not even winded.

  Ramiel jumped to his feet and attacked Cam again, only this time he did not hold back. “Okay you little snot, if you want a real fight I’ll give it to you.” He snarled at his little brother.

  Unfortunately for Ramiel, not matter how fast he came at Cam, the empath deflected his blows before knocking him on his butt again and again and again.

  “Ouch, he’s down. That’s what, five times?” Gabi asked Ana.

  “Seven. This is more entertaining than a Red Wings game.” Ana took another bite of cookie before muttering under her breath. “So much better than manna. Those humans sure know their food.”

  Abdiel looked down at Ana in shock. He could not decide which one in their family was more crazy. The two brothers who had started laughing, even while they were trying to destroy each other, or their older sister who just sat there acting like they were all at an ice cream social.

  “Okay, I cry uncle,” Ramiel said after Cam knocked him on his humiliated toosh one last time.

  Cam helped his brother to his feet. Ramiel crushed his younger brother in a hug. They thumped each other’s backs roughly. The two laughing like idiots despite the fact Ramiel was bleeding even more now.

  “I don’t get it.” Abdiel shook his head. “Your brothers are a bunch of morons.”

  “Don’t try to understand them,” Ana told Abdiel. “After a couple hundred years, I just gave up. Now if you two will excuse me, I need to have a little talk with my brother.”

  She marched over to Cam and jerked him by the ear. He instantly turned compliant letting her drag him out of the room. She still held his grades in her hand.

  “Can I have a word with you in private, Abdiel?” Ramiel whispered.

  “Sure.” He responded.

  “Thank you for helping, Camael. All of us have been so worried about him,” Ramiel said once they had walked to the other side of the gym.

  Abdiel looked at Ramiel and could see the love he held for his brother. Abdiel wondered for a moment how it must feel to have a family that actually cared for you.

  Even before they had left Heaven, neither one of his older brothers would have gotten in a fight for him. In fact, his brothers had used him as a punching bag. Until he had learned to fight back. The twins had adored him, but he did not even have them anymore.

  “It was nothing. He’s a good kid,” he responded gruffly.

  “I just don’t understand how you did it all in just three weeks. Not to diss my brother, but, he was pathetic.” Ramiel looked a little nervous. “You know that five of us brothers are archangels and we all tried to train Cam without any luck. The kid could just never seem to get it before now.

  “It wasn’t too hard. He’s a natural. I’ve never seen anyone catch on that fast. If I didn’t know better, I would have pegged him as archangel materiel. He must just be a late bloomer, that’s all.”

  At his words Ramiel actually turned green.

  “What are you hiding from me?” Abdiel snapped, irritated at the way the other angel was beating around the bush.

  “Look, Cam doesn’t even know this. He’s different than other empaths.”

  “I know he’s got a mouth and the uncanny knack for using it at the wrong times. But, I have a feeling you don’t mean that, so just spit it out.”

  “He does not just feel emotions like other empaths. He goes inside other’s heads and reads their thoughts, their past and sometimes their future. Not only that, but he can touch objects and know things about the people that have held them before him. Lately, he’s been talking to us in our minds, although I don’t think he realized he’s doing it.”

  “The only angels that can do that are shifters,” Abdiel argued.

  Shifters were angels that took the form of animals. Almost every day there was a story about how dogs had led some lost child from the wilderness or that a dolphin had saved a swimmer from drowning. That was all the work of shifter angels. Since talking animals tended to freak people out, they all communicated with each other telepathically.

  Suddenly, it all made sense to Abdiel. He remembered on his first night how Cam had known what the demons were going to do. They mean to kill. They don’t care who. They just want to have someone suffer so they can enjoy their pain. No normal empath could have known that. Cam had to have read the demon’s minds in order to find out their intentions.

  “We always told Cam that all empaths could do what he did,” Ramiel continued guiltily. “We thought that after what happened with Mom and Dad, the last thing he needed to find out was that he is different. Not a lot people know it, but our mother was a very powerful telepath. That was probably the reason why she was attacked in the first place. For some reason physic angels attracted demons. We are afraid that if all of this comes out about Cam, there will be a huge target on his back.”

  “You have to tell him. It’s not fair to keep him in the dark.” Abdiel tried not to get angry at the Lehors. They had thought they were protecting their little brother, but this was a huge thing to hide from him.

  Ramiel nodded. “I’m really concerned about him, Abdiel. All of a sudden Cam is some super fighter, and now his physic abilities have exploded. I don’t believe it’s a coincidence. There has to be a reason, and it can’t be good.

  “Michael did say that there was going to be some serious crap going down. Maybe a part of Cam senses it too and is getting ready.”

  “There’s more you need to know. Cam can…”

  Before he could finish, however, an angel flashed into the room. It was, yet, another Lehor brother. This angel was small and thin like Cam. His blond hair was longer than Ramiel’s, but was still in a neat, clean-cut fashion.

  Abdiel actually looked around for the clown car, before he realized the angel was injured. The brother’s face was covered in blood and his clothes were ripped and streaked with mud. Several weeping wounds were visible on his body.

  “Derel, what happened?” Ana screamed from the door before she ran to her brother.

  “They attacked us, and we didn’t even know they were coming. There were so many of them.” Derel was hurt so bad, he could only whisper out the words. Ana held him in her arms, tears in her eyes.

  “Where is your archangel and empath, Brother?” Ramiel asked in a strained voice as he and Cam knelt down on the ground next to him.

  “Gone. My archa
ngel, Haniel tried to fight them, but they outnumbered us. I tried to stop them, but I’m just a healer. When the demons took the others, I came for help.”

  “Why didn’t your empath warn you?” Cam inquired. “He should have felt them coming.”

  “Beliel didn’t feel anything until it was too late.”

  Cam looked up and met Abdiel’s eyes. Abdiel nodded at Cam to let him know he had the same thought.

  “Cam, I came to you because Abdiel’s your archangel. I have heard all the rumors about him. I know he can help.” Derel grabbed Cam’s shirt so he could bring him down and look him the eyes.

  “Of course we’ll help.” Cam grabbed his brother’s hand and held it tightly.

  Derel looked over at Abdiel. “We were guarding an orphanage that is run by missionaries. For some reason, the demons want their hands on one of the kids in there. You have to stop them.”

  “We’ll stop them healer, I promise,” Abdiel vowed.

  “You did good, Derel. You managed to get away and go for help. Mom and Dad would be so proud of you,” Ana reassured him tears falling down her face.

  She flashed both herself and Derel out of the house. She would take him to the healing rooms up in Heaven, where some of the strongest healers could help him.

  “I’ll round up my crew and meet you there,” Ramiel said grimly. “From the sounds of it, you guys are going to need some help.”

  He, too, flashed away.

  “Come on, Cam, let’s get ready.” Gabi laid a reassuring hand on Cam.

  “The empath turned rogue. There is no way that he did not feel that many demons nearby,” Cam growled out between clenched teeth.

  “I agree,” Abdiel looked over at Gabi as he spoke. “The empath betrayed them.”

  Cam looked down at his shirt that was covered with his brother’s blood. Letting out a roar of rage, he turned and punched a hole in the wall.

  Thousands of miles away in Columbia a small group of rebel guerrillas lay sleeping. Slowly several demons slithered to them, looking like a disgusting mixture of snakes and wisps of smoke. As they reached the humans, they started whispering in the human’s ears.

  “Kill the children. The children are bad. They must die. Kill them. Rip them apart. Kill the children. Leave no one alive.”

  Chapter Five

  The three of them flashed to the sight of Derel’s ambush, deep in the jungle of Columbia. The hot, heavy air reeked both of blood and the lingering stench of death that always clung to demons. Abdiel braced, waiting for attack, but there didn’t appear to be any demons in the immediate area. All he saw was the violent evidence that was left from the earlier battle.

  Blood was everywhere, great pools of it soaked into the ground, and it was splattered on the nearby plants. In the dirt he could see deeps gouges where someone had tried to claw into the earth as they had been dragged away. Weapons were scattered around, left by the angels when they had been taken prisoner. Haniel’s sword was among them. That alone showed how desperate the situation was. You just don’t separate an archangel from his sword without one hell of a fight.

  The angels stood in a circle, weapons at the ready, as Cam mentally scanned the jungle. He finally signaled that no demons were nearby and that it was clear. He knelt down on the ground and picked up the sword. As soon as he touched it, he let out a loud breath, like he had just been punched in the stomach. Abdiel instantly knew that the empath was becoming connected with Haniel simply by holding the archangel’s sword. Damn, Ramiel had been right about the young angel’s unique skills. He stole a glace over at Gabi and saw that she had a confused frown on her face as she watched Cam.

  Cam looked over at them, his blue eyes that were normally full of life flashed with anger. “We were right. Beliel has turned rogue. He just led his own crew here to be cut down like sheep. Haniel and Derel were taken completely by surprise and didn’t stand a chance. The demons have Haniel down in Hell. They are torturing him right now even as we speak. My God, Derel just barely got away. They almost got him too.”

  “I’m sorry, Cam,” Gabi said. “But you need to remember that Derel was able to get help and he’s going to be all right.”

  “They trusted Beliel, and he used that against them,” Cam spit out between gritted teeth. “How could he do that to his own crew?’

  “I want everybody on alert,” Abdiel ordered. “If they were able to take down an archangel as strong as Haniel, then we are dealing with some pretty dangerous demons.”

  Abdiel looked down at Cam. The empath was breathing hard and starting to shake from head to foot. The anger he was feeling in addition to the emotions that the two ambushed angels had left behind was beginning to overwhelm the kid. Abdiel knew that he needed to bring his empath back into focus and quick before Cam got so sick that he was no good to anyone.

  “Cam, you don’t even have your weapons out yet,” he spoke loudly in order to get the angel’s attention.

  Cam looked down at the pair of tonfa in his hand with a “duh” expression on his face.

  “Have you been doing ‘shrooms? They’re right here.” He spun them in his hands to prove his point.

  “Just look in your backpack,” Abdiel replied, rolling his eyes in exasperation. Why couldn’t he have an empath that followed orders?

  With a confused shrug at Gabi, Cam finally complied. When he looked inside his bag he stopped, his mouth in an “O” of surprise. After glancing up at Abdiel with a smile, he slowly pulled out a new pair of tonfa. His blue eyes were wide as he drank in the sight of them.

  The new weapons were almost like his old set. The big difference was that the ones Abdiel had given him had a blade outfitted on the outside of each shaft. The blades were razor sharp and deadly. They would easily cut through an enemy, but could accidentally injure the one wielding them. Only someone who was highly skilled with the tonfa would dare use them.

  It was obvious that Abdiel had custom-made them for Cam. The weight and length were set with his measurements in mind. No other angel would be able to wield them as efficiently as him.

  The fact that Abdiel thought he was ready and skilled enough for such weapons was a high compliment.

  “Wicked,” Cam breathed out. His face looked like a child’s on Christmas morning. “Thanks Abdiel, they’re awesome.”

  “I figured it was time to let you run with scissors.”

  Abdiel was glad that he was able to cheer Cam up. It was more than just needing him battle ready. For the first time since Appolion, another male angel looked up to him. In fact, he cared for the empath like he was a brother. It was easy to see why Gabi had stuck by Cam for so long. He wondered if Ana really knew what a good job she had done in raising her brother.

  Six more angels flashed in and joined them in the clearing. Ramiel had brought along his angel warrior crew. His empath was a female with long, red hair. It was so curly that it appeared to be a wild mass of flames. Her bright turquoise eyes stood out in contrast to her milky white skin. Her black leather top just barely covered her breasts leaving her toned stomach exposed. Her skin-tight pants hung low on her hip bones making Abdiel wonder how the empath managed to bend over let alone fight. She had a long whip coiled at her waist. The healer of the crew was a young male with light brown hair. He stood behind Ramiel, casting fearful glances at Abdiel.

  “Don’t be afraid Daniel,” Cam snickered to the healer. “Mr. Dark Angel only eats one stupid angel a day and he had one for breakfast already.”

  “Is he … he’s not serious is he?” the healer asked.

  “Yes, I’m sure Michael would let an archangel snack on other angels. Don’t be such an idiot,” Ramiel snapped, rolling his eyes.

  “You’re still the same punk that you were in school,” Daniel snarled at Cam. “Everything is just one big joke to you. Well, you can just bite me, Cam.”

  “Ya know that’s what your sister said to me last night.”

  Ramiel pulled back his healer as he tried to attack his brother. Cam just stood h
is ground, a smirk on his face. He laughed as the healer cursed at him in several different languages.

  “Now, now, children. Let’s save the fighting for the demons,” the archangel from the other group of warriors said.

  As soon as Abdiel looked at the other archangel, he let out a groan. His blue eyes and blond eyes were unmistakable. It looked like the clown car had just delivered another one of Cam’s brothers. Like Ramiel, he had brought his healer and empath. They stood close to their archangel showing that they were a tight crew.

  “Heads up everybody,” Cam growled as he spun his tonfa. “We have company coming.”

  “How many, Cam?” Gabi called, her crossbow aimed at the sky, as she scanned the area with her eyes.

  “I can’t tell. There are too many. All I know is that they are mad and bad.”

  “Are you sure?” Ramiel’s female empath cried out. “I don’t feel anything.”

  “If Cam says they’re coming, then they’re coming,” Ramiel said as he pulled out his sword. “My little brother is never wrong.”

  “But … The female continued to argue, before her eyes widened. “Okay, he’s right. I feel them now. Wow, he’s good.”

  All of the sudden, the trees and plant life that surrounded them began to shake violently. It was like a thousand hands had grabbed the earth and were jerking it beneath their feet. They had to spread out their feet or else they would have tumbled to the ground.

  Around them disembodied voices whispered. The language of demons swirled around them. Mixed in were human voices that screamed and begged for help. The three empaths began to shake as the suffering t mortals crying out started to overwhelm them.

  A strong wind started blowing through the clearing, bringing with it the death scent. It kicked up dirt and leaves. The debris blew into their eyes and made it difficult to see. The wind grew stronger and stronger until it was almost impossible to breathe.“Where are they Cam?” Ramiel had to yell to be heard.