Earth Angel (Angels and Seers: Book One)

by Stephanie Woods

Chapter 13

  The bags we packed and sent here earlier today via angel teleportation (a super handy thing) are still in the bushes at the edge of the meadow, where we left them. This is our new, temporary home. Well, at least it’s the general area where we hope it will be. We still have to find out if the seer family Sam once knew is still here, and if they’ll assist us.

  I check us into a hotel under my name, since Sam has no ID. Jonathan doesn’t know my name yet, so using an assumed one isn’t necessary. I get only one room to save money, as we’ll need all the cash we can get, living away from home and with me not working. I still have a significant amount in savings, along with the remainder of Harry’s life insurance money, which named me as beneficiary. However, it won’t last forever. If this Jonathan issue drags on and makes me have to sit out the upcoming school year, we’ll need to conserve every cent and find ways to make more money without drawing attention to ourselves.

  The hotel room has two queen-sized beds in it, much to my delight, so there won’t be any awkwardness regarding who sleeps where.

  Another good reason to have one room is we can keep each other within sight. Jonathan may not know where we are right now, since Sam’s vibration is still lowered, but that doesn’t mean he won’t find us. Being close to each other at all times is just good sense. It’s better for our mutual protection. We are quite clear with each other on where we stand regarding the coming war….we have each other’s backs. There’s no question about it. We’ve been through enough now that we both know we can totally rely on each other.

  We sleep the whole first day, exhausted from our ordeal in stealing the blade. The exhaustion is as much emotional as it is physical. The next day, we eat. Room service probably thinks we’re a couple on our honeymoon, because we call them up for literally every meal, and liberal snacks in between. Some of it, we eat right away. The rest, we save for provisions if we need them later.

  Sam is getting an enormous amount of pleasure out of human food. Each new taste and texture is like a miracle on his tongue, or so he says each time he takes a bite of some previously undiscovered delicacy. Granted, the last time he ate with humans, everything was boiled and salted for preservation, with very little flavoring like we know today. Other than raving over the food, though, he isn’t saying much. Then again, neither am I. We are both keeping our own counsel for now, thinking of how we can best approach the tasks at hand.

  Sam, I’m sure, is thinking of recruiting strategies. Jonathan has been incredibly successful at getting angels of all castes on his side. The question of whether he is recruiting human seers is still unanswered. All we have so far are the refugees from Sam’s home at their training base behind the moon, and we haven’t made contact with them yet. We both know it is going to take a lot more than that small army to keep Jonathan from taking the Earth. We need angels from neighboring planets and galaxies on our side, and some archangels of our own on our team would be enormously helpful.

  I’m more concerned with making contact with other seers. Having never met or heard of any other than my own family, I have no idea how to find them, or to approach them if we do find them. And if we find them, will they remember their family’s past with Sam? Will the seeing ability be bred out of their family, and their ancestors’ abilities forgotten? Most importantly of all, if they are still seers and still remember any family stories about Sam, will they be willing to help us defeat Jonathan and protect the planet? So many questions. I wish I had the answers. It would make this all a lot easier to plan.

  After a day of mostly silent pondering, and plenty of eating, I decide to take a shower. I don’t know when I’ll get another chance to clean up, and Sam seems to stay clean naturally, the dust and grime falling off of him of its own accord. No matter what goes on, he is perpetually glowing and always smelling sweet. Unfortunately, the same isn’t true for me (and every other human on the planet), so the opportunity to wash seems like one I should take while I can get it.

  Sam is dozing in the big chair next to the table by the window, so he doesn’t even notice me leave the room. I undress as quietly as I can so as not to disturb him, then hop in the shower. The hot water feels glorious, like a real treat I never fully appreciated until now. I scrub and shampoo my scalp and rinse until my hair squeaks, then apply the washcloth vigorously, removing every trace of dirt that may be lurking anywhere on me. I feel like a whole new person when I step out, drying my feet on the soft rug just outside the shower door, and wrap the impossibly fluffy hotel towel around me just above my breasts.

  I go to the mirror above the pedestal sink and wipe off the steam with the back of my arm, intending to brush the tangles out of my hair. Kira is there, just above my left shoulder as always; I’m so used to seeing her there, it’s almost like she’s an extension of me. I pick up the brush and start to pull it through my hair, and almost ignore her completely. I do talk to her quite often, but it’s not as if I feel like I have to say something every time I look in the mirror. This time, though, I catch a brief glimpse of her expression as I un-knot another tangle, and stop brushing, taken aback. She looks sad.

  I’ve never seen Kira looking sad. Guardians are generally cheerful angels; it’s in their nature. That’s why this can’t be good. Jonathan isn’t supposed to be able to see or communicate with the guardians. Did he manage to find a way? Is he pressuring them to join him and abandon their charges? Or has she received another unpleasant message from the archangels? Either way, I’m concerned.

  “Kira, what’s wrong?” I whisper, still trying to avoid disturbing Sam, in case he’s getting some much needed sleep in the other room.

  “It’s nothing,” she replies quietly in her feminine chipmunk voice, her head bowed low, heavy chestnut bangs nearly covering her eyes as she stares at her miniature bare toes sticking out from under her shimmery white guardian-style dress.

  Hmmm. Not buying it.

  “Say, Kira, do you know how to get in touch with the guardian angels of the seer family up here? The one Sam stayed with a couple hundred years ago?” I ask, changing the question to get her to lower her guard. Oh, she’ll tell me what’s wrong. I know her too well to fall for her denial.

  She looks up, a plainly fake smile plastered on her delicate face. “I don’t know any of them personally. However, I can send out a telepathic message and see if any respond. If they do, I can have them talk to their humans and see if they’ll meet you.”

  “Excellent. Can you do it now?”

  “Certainly.”

  Kira closes her eyes and lets her face go totally blank and expressionless. She’s concentrating, sending a message only other guardian angels can hear. She remains that way only a moment, then opens her eyes again.

  “They have responded.”

  “That was fast!”

  “Telepathic communication is almost instant. It is a very efficient way to send messages.”

  “Why doesn’t Sam use it to check in on his father, then?”

  “Only guardians and archangels have the ability. We wouldn’t be able to perform our jobs as well without it. Other classes of angels don’t require it as we do.”

  “Makes sense. So, will their people talk to us?”

  “They will.” She smiles again, and once more, I can see it’s put on for my benefit. In fact, I kind of think I see tiny, diamond-like tears sparkling in the corners of her eyes, but she’s so small it’s hard to tell if it’s that or just the sunlight reflecting off her shimmery skin.

  “Great! When do we do it?”

  “Tomorrow at lunch at the diner in town. They said it’s the only one, so you can’t miss it. It’s really old and looks like a prop from a movie from the 1940’s. You will be meeting with a man named John London and his sister, Linda. They are both seers from the family Sam stayed with during the War of 1812, and they do still have family lore of him. They have also heard some talk of the issue with Jonathan through angelic channels, but aren’t aware it has progressed to the point of full s
cale war to protect the Earth. They are most interested in meeting and talking to you.”

  “That’s great, Kira!” I exclaim, thrilled that the issue has been taken care of so easily. Now, I’ve got to get her to spill her secret. I know from experience the best way to do it is to catch her off guard.

  “So, why are you so sad?” I ask, abruptly shifting gears in the conversation. I look her directly in the eyes in the mirror. This time, she doesn’t look away.

  Her pretty little face drops into a mask of sorrow. Those are definitely tears, I’m sure of it.

  “I must leave you,” she says, her voice full of emotion. In fact, she sounds like she’s about to cry. I’ve never seen an angel cry. I’m not sure I want to.

  In fact, I’m not sure I heard her correctly. Every human has a guardian. In fact, all sentient beings directly created by God have them. I’ve never met a person without a guardian angel. Many animals have them, too, though their guardians are a different caste of angel from ours.

  “Why?” I ask, genuinely confused. “I thought you had to stay with me through every lifetime, or you would lose your position to another guardian.”

  “I already have,” she whispers, choking back the sobs I know now are just below the surface.

  “The guardian council replaced you? But you’ve done nothing wrong.”

  I’m already gearing up to go to bat with the council to insist on keeping Kira as my guardian. They won’t take her from me. I will not allow it.

  “It’s not that, Lucy,” she says, and my righteous indignation on her behalf evaporates. “It’s just that you have another angel to protect you now. You don’t need me.”

  “What other angel is protecting me?”

  I know the answer as soon as the question leaves my lips.

  “Sam isn’t my guardian angel,” I protest before she can answer me.

  “No, he isn’t a guardian angel, nor is he trained to be one. But he has taken responsibility for your welfare above his own. That means he takes my place. Each person only needs one angel looking out for them, trained or not. You no longer have need of me, at least for now.”

  Now I feel like I’m going to cry. Kira has been with me my whole life. I’ve never known a time when she wasn’t right there above my shoulder. In fact, she’s been with me in all of my past lives, even though I don’t remember them.

  “Will you be back in my future lives?” I ask. There’s got to be a way we can be together again.

  “Oh yes!” she is quick to reassure me. “You’re not getting rid of me that easily, Lucy McDonald. I may even be back in this one if Sam leaves you, or if, God forbid, anything happens to him. This is a war you two are entering, after all. You never know what’s going to happen. In the meantime, I get to take some time off, like Aaron.”

  “Is there a big break room in the sky for you all somewhere?” I ask, forcing myself to laugh.

  Kira giggles in spite of herself. “Something like that.”

  “But what about the war? Won’t the guardian angels be drawn into it? Aren’t you concerned about protecting the universe?”

  “We are primarily concerned with protecting our charges and our own kind. That doesn’t mean we don’t care about the universe. We all live in it, you know. But our jobs are very well defined. And the war hasn’t even come close to making its way to our realm…the break room, as you called it. It may not. We are not like other angels, as you know. It will be far more difficult for Jonathan to affect us and what we do than it will be with angels of other castes. We have nothing to fear from him yet. However, the guardians who are with humans on Earth will do what they can to protect them if it comes to it.”

  “What if I say I don’t want you to go?”

  “I don’t have a choice, Lucy, and neither do you. I already have my orders. I can’t disobey them, or I’ll never be assigned to you again. I’ve been with you since your first life, billions of years ago. I want to be with you for all of them. That means I have to do what the guardian council tells me, if I want to be sent back to you again, and I do.”

  “I’ll miss you,” I say, honestly. “It’ll be weird to not see your little outline just behind me everywhere I go, or full on when I look in the mirror. You’ve been a good friend.”

  “We’ve always been friends in thousands of lives, Lucy. You just don’t remember it right now. We will meet again, make no mistake about it. I’ve got to go. The council is calling me. I’ve already stayed longer than I was supposed to. I just didn’t know how to tell you, and didn’t want to leave without saying goodbye. They won’t let me stay here any longer. We have to say our goodbyes now.”

  I have to make this easy for her, even though it’s pretty damn hard on me, too. It’s the least I can do for her, after all she’s done for me.

  “Goodbye, Kira,” I say, sadly, reaching out my finger to stroke the side of her face. It feels like silk.

  Then, I smile my own fake smile. “Tell Aaron I said hello, and that all is forgiven. I love you, tiny angel. Enjoy your vacation. And try to stay safe. You don’t know how this is going to go.”

  “Don’t worry about me, Lucy. That’s not your job. It’s my job to look out for you. At least, it was. And it will be again. You be the one who stays safe. Promise me.”

  “I promise. At least, I promise I’ll do my best.”

  “I know. And I know you will be brilliant.”

  With that, she is gone. I am without a guardian angel on my shoulder for the first time in all of my lives. It’s weird to suddenly feel so alone. I guess that’s the way most people feel all the time, not knowing the always have an angel friend with them. Maybe the human race would be happier and less lonely if they knew.

  I turn away from the mirror and finish brushing my hair, not wanting to look at my reflection without Kira in it. Her absence will take some time to get used to.

  Once my hair is tangle-free, I dress. Form-fitting jeans, white socks and sneakers, and a bright yellow tie-dyed t-shirt boasting a white peace sign on the front. A casual, yet put together look that is an excellent expression of my personality and beliefs. The new seers may as well know exactly who I am from the start.

  I walk back out into the main room of our hotel suite where my new guardian lays, still sleeping.

  I don’t wake him. Tomorrow will be busy enough. I want him to stay at his peak strength for everyone, especially me.

  Instead, I prop myself up on some pillows and turn on the TV, keeping the sound down low so as not to disturb Sam. Losing myself in the silly pleasure of some mindless sitcoms from my youth, I soon drift off into a sleep full of pleasant dreams, visions of tiny guardian angels frolicking in the sun behind my eyelids.