Alex shook his head. “Dad, no, we’ve already become too involved in too many lives in this city these last few weeks. Besides, he would never agree to it.”
“We can only ask. I feel responsible for what has befallen John and his mother. She would not be here if it were not for Gabriel.”
“I know but there’s nothing we can do to change that now.”
“Excuse me,” Gordon said, getting their attention, “but why can’t one of you do it?” He nodded at Andrew. “You seem to have managed to fix yourself up as good as new.”
The old angel raised his chin. “We can heal ourselves, yes, but very few of us can heal others.”
“I used to be able to do it,” Alex said, holding up his hands, “but I can’t anymore.”
“Then why can’t your pal do it, this…Michael?” Gordon asked, impatiently.
Alex scratched his chin and sighed. “Because we’re not supposed to get so involved with your world, we are meant to watch and guide, from a distance.”
Gordon’s brow furrowed. “Well, from what I’ve seen you’ve been doing anything but. You said so yourself that you’ve already got involved,” he said, jabbing a finger at Alex.
“Never intentionally but that…”
“Alex, Gordon, please,” Hayley interrupted, raising her voice. “We don’t have time for this. We need to catch Gabriel.”
“How? I saw the state he left your friend in,” Gordon said nodding at Andrew. “I don’t want to begin to imagine what he would do to us. The very thought gives me the jeebies.”
“Mr Sloan is right,” Andrew agreed, “you are only human. At risk of sounding rude, there is not much you can do.”
Hayley groaned and threw her hands up. They came down over her face and she shook her head. When she looked up, she said, “We are not having this conversation again. I want to help. Hiding doesn’t work. Gabriel always knows where we are.” She looked at Alex for back-up.
The angel stared at her grimly. “I’m sorry but Father is right. You know your safety is my first priority.”
Hayley’s eyes narrowed. “You know what? Fine. We’ll do it your way,” she said bitterly, folding her arms. She turned away.
“Hayley.”
“Just leave me alone, Alex,” she said, waving a hand over her shoulder at him. Hayley glanced at Gordon on the way out. The constable gave her a resigned look. Glancing once more at the angels, he followed her out the door.
Alex made to follow but his father stopped him. “No, give her a minute.” Alex looked at him, then longingly at the door. “She will calm down.”
******
The mug slipped from Gordon Sloan’s fingers when he saw them standing before his fireplace. It shattered loudly as it struck the laminated flooring, sending shards and tea everywhere. The officer looked down at the mess grimly then to the embarrassed face of Alexander.
“I’m sorry,” the angel apologised.
Gordon sighed, wiping his tired eyes. It had been a long night and the officer had only managed to return home at the witching hour to a cold and empty bed and four hours fitful rest. “You really have to learn how to knock.” He sighed. “What are you doing here? I thought you had gone back to see your friend?”
“We did return to Michael’s but I thought we might be safer staying with you for a while, if you’ll have us.”
Gordon blinked at him. “What makes you think I can keep you safe?” he asked, a little blunter than he would have liked.
“Gabriel doesn’t know you or where you live.”
Gordon let out a long sigh, his gaze drifting to the ceiling. “What will I tell my wife?” he said, reluctantly relenting.
A smile peeled across Alex’s face. “Thank you Gordon, you’re a good man.” Alex held his hand out. The hot tea retreated back to the impact site of the cup. Then, piece by piece, the mug reassembled itself. When it was finished, it flew into the angel’s hand. With a grin, Alex held it out to the policeman.
Gordon eyed it suspiciously. “Don’t push your luck,” he said, turning away and heading back to the fridge.
Alex glanced at the cup and sat it down on the kitchen table.
“You might want to put your wings away. My wife would have a fit if she saw them,” Gordon shouted to him as he delved into the fridge.
Hayley smiled at the angel but said nothing.
“I will. Thank you for putting up with us,” Alex said.
“I just hope I don’t end up regretting it,” Gordon said, looking up with a forced smile as he returned with a glass of orange juice.
“Where is your wife?” Hayley asked, taking a seat at the long, oaken breakfast table.
“Helen? Oh, she’s a carer. Works all sort of strange shifts.” He glanced at the clock on the wall. “She’s not due back for another two hours.” He shrugged. “Not unless Mrs McGoldrick has to go back into hospital again.”
Seeing the grim expression on Alex’s face as he sat, Hayley reached across the table and took his hand. But she paused when she felt the electricity coming from it. The hairs on the back of her hand began to tingle and her palm itched. Alexander turned his gaze on her and snatched her hand into his. He looked at her with penetrating eyes - a look that bore into the depths of her soul. Her instinct was to turn away but she couldn’t. Frozen in place, she sensed Alex’s reassurance as he delved into her. She shuddered as something went dark inside. Alex released her and smiled in that charming, lopsided way of his. Trying to wake again, he said inside her mind.
Hayley nodded. She was going to say something when Gordon asked, “Can I get you something to eat or drink?”
“No, I’m fine thank you,” she said with a tired smile.
Gordon looked to Alex. “No thanks,” the angel said.
The constable shrugged and sat down to enjoy his orange juice.
“We would not have come here if I had known you had a family,” Alex said.
What he said gave the policeman pause. Eventually he shrugged. “You didn’t know.”
“I know but I’ve also put her in danger now.”
Gordon glanced into his orange juice for a long moment. “Helen has been threatened before. Being the wife of a policeman has not always been easy for her.”
“This is different.”
“I have no doubt it is but we’re here now, aren’t we?” Gordon said, trying his best to hide his fear behind his smile and his glass.
“We can go if you want,” Alex offered.
“It is fine,” Gordon insisted, waving away the offer.
Alex inclined his head. “Thank you. You’re a good man, Mr Sloan.”
He smiled. “Please, call me Gordon.” He noticed Hayley has dozed off. “Miss Foster?”
Her eyes snapped open and she grabbed the table in panic.
Alex grabbed her hand. “Hayley?”
She stared at him wide-eyed. “Sorry, I…I…”
“Are you all right?” Gordon asked, coming to her side.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” she sighed, wiping a hand down her tired face. Her head throbbed.
“You look tired. I take it you got no sleep at all last night? I wouldn’t be surprised.”
“Not much.”
“If you need to lie down, we have a spare bedroom.”
“Thanks but I’m ok,” Hayley replied, forcing a smile. I don’t look that bad, do I? She thought out loud.
You look absolutely fine, Alex replied without looking at her.
“Ok,” Gordon replied, raising his glass. “But it’s just down the hall if you change your mind.” He sipped his cold drink, filling his mouth with the tangy taste of citrus. “What do you intend to do then about your brother?” he asked, turning his attention back to Alex.
Alex took a long time to answer. “I don’t know.”
Chapter Twelve
Alex considered his next move carefully. They had retired for the evening to the spare bedroom and were playing draughts. To Alex’s frustration, however, his human counterpart had been winning all nig
ht. Alex fidgeted in his seat. The skin at the base of his right wing itched and he reached round to scratch it. At the same moment he sensed the scars on Hayley’s back burning and she twisted round to scratch them as well. Alex felt her nails too - digging into her skin. It felt as if she was doing it to his back rather than her own. It was a relief when the itching finally stopped, but the sensation had left Alex deeply unsettled. She can feel me but does not even know it. What am I going to do? He moved his next draught without comment.
Hayley smiled as she moved her red piece, claiming yet another of Alex’s wooden warriors. “You’re losing again,” she said.
Alex forced a smile and folded his arms. “Maybe I’m letting you win, have you ever considered that?”
Hayley laughed and shook her head. She sat the black, exiled draught to one side - company for the other five fallen, circular soldiers. “You’ve never been good at board games.”
“I am,” he said, sitting forward and resting his arms on the table as he examined the remaining pieces. His wings twitched behind the chair. “You just don’t know it. Like I said, I always let you win.”
“Come off it! This is the first thing I’ve ever found you’re bad at and you can’t even let me have it.”
Alex looked back up at her and his smile broadened. “I just didn’t want to make you feel…”
The windows exploded.
******
Gabriel hit the car like a boulder. The 4x4 crumpled beneath him, sending shards of glass raining in all directions. The car alarm screamed in protest as heavy rain bounced off its crushed remains. The black winged angel wrenched himself free of the wreckage; his movements sluggish from the blows he had received to the back and the front of the head. Alexander had not been kind with his attacks. After busting Gabriel’s nose open and punching him into disorientation, the fallen angel had found himself being bombed from a great height towards the awaiting vehicle. He had struggled against his brother but Alex had always managed to deflect Gabriel’s strikes. Finally the black angel had become locked in an iron grip he could not break from and the world came rushing up to meet them. Alexander had disappeared at the last possible moment to avoid collision with the ground - much to Gabriel’s disappointment.
Gabriel staggered upright. Regaining his feet also helped him regain his clarity. A leap sent him sailing ten foot forward, landing just shy of the back door to Gordon Sloan’s house. Something made him stop. He reached for his hip - to find his sword gone. He gritted his teeth. The dark angel hesitated. It was clear now - Alexander had only resorted to fists and dropping him from the sky because he could not best Gabriel in their sword fight. The guardian had closed on him with a swing of the blade before head butting him. In his dazed state, Alex had then laid into him with unrelenting punches.
Backing away from the door, Gabriel focused on the building. The walls began to shake and the foundations began to groan. The house was ripped from the ground - a storm of twisting broken wood and bricks hurtling skyward at a terrible speed. A bolt of white lightning struck him, sending Gabriel flying across the patio. Having lost his focus the house came raining back to earth in a shower of deadly splinters and masonry missiles. Gabriel picked himself up, eyes darting in all directions looking for the next attack. He twisted round as he sensed something. Alex stood thirty feet from him, two blades in hand. Gabriel smiled. “So much for your sense of decency, Alexander, you never used to fight this dirty.”
Alex stared at him with hard, cold eyes. He spun the swords, making them sing as they sliced through the air in two impressive silver arcs.
Gabriel placed a hand softly over his chest and smirked. “Going to try and get me through the heart again?”
Alexander disappeared. Gabriel spun on his heels and threw out his right hand. Alex reappeared in mid air - frozen in space - two blades swinging in downward arcs only feet away from Gabriel’s head. Fear crossed Alex’s face when he realised he could not complete the death blows and he vanished again - narrowly avoiding an electrical jolt from Gabriel’s free palm. A blast of hot air repelled the fallen angel as Alex made his escape. He staggered back before loosening lightning in every direction in a frenzied, desperate bid to strike his enemy.
******
Hayley was kicking against Gordon’s chest. The plump policeman was running with her slung over one shoulder. He was gasping heavily and falling behind his wife, who was constantly screaming at him to keep up. Helen was terrified and he could not blame her; so was he.
They had been dragged from their bed in the dead of night by a winged man and abandoned just as quickly in a cold, dark, wild landscape. Alex had told them to run and vanished. The next thing they heard was the house exploding some distance away. That’s when they had dashed headlong for the nearest road.
Despite how many steps he seemed to take however, the reassuring glow of the racing lights on the M8 never seemed to get any closer. Gordon felt like the very earth itself was trying to stop them from reaching its sanctuary. The sodden earth sucked at his bare feet at every footfall. He was cold and he was frightened and his fingers had frozen. Having Hayley slung over one shoulder kicking at him did nothing to help. If anything it made him sink that little bit deeper in the mud at every step and made him take just that little bit longer at moving. But he had picked her up for her own good. Hayley had refused to abandon her guardian angel and after dragging her had failed, Gordon had been forced to bundle her over his right shoulder.
“Gordon!” Helen screamed again, following another slip and stagger. Stumbling to a halt he dared look up. Finally, the road was beginning to get closer. With renewed hope he started at a trot again, but this time just that little bit faster. Helen waited for him this time and when he caught up they ran through the dark and the cold rain together. “We’re almost there, Hayley! It’s all going to be ok!” he shouted - although he had no idea how it would be.
******
Alexander hit the ground back first - sending an explosion of pain racing up his spine. He heard a sickening crack at the same moment. One of the joints in his right wing screamed in protest. He winced and his feathers shivered. Alex tasted copper in his mouth - something he had not done so for a very long time. Instinct kicked in and abandoning his corporeal form, the guardian returned to his energy state. Relieved from the pains of his flesh, he struck at Gabriel with all his might - only to find himself restrained once again by the overwhelming force of the fallen one’s consciousness. It frightened Alexander how strong he had become. He tried to flee but Gabriel held fast, like he was chaining him with a mental lasso. Alex escaped the only way he could - by returning to his injured body. Gabriel was upon him at that point, with a blade in each hand.
The archangel suddenly screamed, dropping one of the blades. Dark eyes flashed at the guardian as Gabriel watched Alex’s sword fly back to his hand; reclaimed.
“Is that the best you can do? A silly hot pommel trick?” Gabriel shouted through the lashing rain. He twirled his own blade. “You’re no match for me now, Alexander, not parted from the girl.”
“Last time we killed you easily enough. I will do it again on my own if I have to,” Alex shouted, staggering to his feet. His broken wing throbbed and he winced.
Gabriel took a step closer and Alex took one away. “I do not think so. Trying to hide her is only weakening you further. You’re not focused on the task, you cannot even heal properly.” He took another step closer.
Alex raised his blade but he conceded more ground. “You’re the one who is weak, brother. The Gabriel I used to know used to always be able to beat me in a sword fight.”
Gabriel lowered his weapon. “Let me kill the girl and this will end. We will call it even, an eye for an eye,” he said, pointing to his face.
Alex shook his head. “She had a mission here and you’ve ruined it. You were never supposed to interfere.”
“She should never have been created in the first place!” Gabriel spat, his words dripping with venom. “She is
the War Child! She would have spent a lifetime here and returned to the Creator telling him of the horrors of the human race!” He shook his head. Rain trickled down his face but he did not care. “We both know how that would have ended. He would not have been happy with what she found. He would have set her forth to start the end of days. She will slaughter thousands, millions in his name!”
“You don’t know that. You do not know what the Creator would have decided.”
Gabriel laughed. “Are you mad, brother? Look at them!” he shouted, waving his sword in the direction of the buzzing amber ribbon of the motorway. “You’ve been here long enough to know how evil and twisted mankind has become. They don’t care for one another anymore, nor do they care for their planet or their faith. What do you think the Creator would decide?”
“I don’t understand why you care so much. How many did you kill when it rained fire over this city?”
A sombre look crossed Gabriel’s features. “They were just in the way,” he muttered. “Hayley was the intended target, no one else. If Marli had killed her and destroyed her soul as she was meant to, we would have saved millions!” he hissed through gritted teeth.
“I’m not so easily pulled by crocodile tears, brother. You did not answer my question. Why would you care about mankind? You stopped caring about them years ago.”
Gabriel stared at him as if it needed explaining. “I’m an archangel, Alexander. I was created to protect them. I have always loved them. I never agreed with this course of action the Creator decided to take. I never wanted to see the creation of the War Children.”
Alex shook his head. He winced as his broken wing smarted again. “I don’t understand. Why were you sent to protect the first War Child, then?” Gabriel smiled, the first genuine one Alexander had seen in a very long time.
“Punishment. For disagreeing with Him. There was slightly more to it than that of course but basically that is what happened. I flat out refused to help and that was my punishment, lest I be cast out, stripped of my powers.”
Alex stared at him. “I didn’t know…”