Angel in Training (The Louisiangel Series, Book One) (37 page)

It flew across the room and landed in my
hands. Ignoring the fact every inch of my body was screaming in
pain at my movement, I forced myself to my feet and launched myself
across the short distance.

Before I knew what I had done, I was looking
down at Lilah. She was on her knees. The dagger had at some point
turned into a sword and was protruding from the centre of her
chest, a red patch slowly growing out around it.

I looked up, meeting her green eyes, only to
find she was smiling at me. “Thank you,” she told me, her voice
quiet.

I let go of the sword, stumbling back away
from her in horror as what I had done began to register with me.
“Thank you?” I repeated, more in shock than trying to work out what
she was doing.

“This was the plan all along,” she told me.
“I would never have killed Joshua. I couldn’t for this to
work.”

“What to work?” I demanded.

“For you to unlock the door to release
Lucifer,” she grinned at me.

I shook my head. “Lucifer is dead. Michael
killed him millennia ago.”

“Michael stopped him,” she corrected me. “He
didn’t kill him. He got locked away in Hell, and the only way to
release him was to get an angel to kill another angel and a
human.”

My legs wobbled beneath me and I could feel
my hairline prickling as all the blood rushed from my head. I
collapse to the ground. “What?” I asked, in a hoarse whisper.

My hand suddenly felt warm and I glanced down
to find Joshua had slipped his into mine, squeezing it tightly.
“Ignore her,” he told me, his voice weak and croaky. “She’s trying
to psych you out.”

Lilah laughed. “Hardly,” she scoffed. “An
angel killing an angel and a human – it was decided so long ago, at
a time when it was thought to be impossible.” She coughed, and a
trickle of blood appeared at the side of her mouth. “An angel was
never going to kill. Even if they could, they would only be able to
kill one – an angel can only be killed by a certain weapon, and if
you managed to succeed, they would have fallen before they could
kill a human. And then the population of the world exploded and
suddenly there was a need to create new angels.”

I clutched at Joshua’s hand. “I don’t believe
you,” I whispered.

“Believe what you want,” she shrugged. “The
fallen angels realized that there was a giant loophole in that
protection. An angel would never kill a human, but an angel who had
once been human might, especially if it were to protect someone
they loved.”

I could feel my face heating up and I refused
to look at Joshua. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I
mumbled.

“Oh please,” she muttered, before coughing up
a lot of blood. “Whether or not you want to admit it, when you saw
he was going to die, you jumped in and saved his life. As I said,
the irony is, he could never die, or this would never work. I
really thought I had kicked you across that room a little too hard
– that’s why I decided to choke him, because, let’s be honest, you
can really drag that out. That and the fact you still needed to
earn your wings.” There was another spluttering cough. “Look, it’s
working,” she said, gesturing to the sword.

The blade was slowly darkening.

“But you fell,” I told her, practically
begging her to jump up and say, ‘yeah – got’cha. I fell’.

‘Please,” she muttered, rolling her eyes.
“Despite what that archangel will tell you, the only thing that
will actually cause an angel to fall is to disobey God, and I never
disobeyed Him.”

“But all those murders-”

“Seriously? Were you not paying any
attention?” she asked, her tone scathing. “I never killed anyone. I
never even orchestrated it. All I did was tell the boss if anyone
came into the bar with the right kind of aura, and then followed
after them with that guy,” she pointed to the fallen angel I had
killed.

“But why so many?” I asked. “Why keep
killing?”

Lilah rolled her eyes. “Because the plan was
to get a Potential to agree to become an angel before an archangel
appeared, and then Michael turned up and kept getting there too
quickly. That and the fact that only you and I were stupid enough
to pick eternal life,” she added with a dry laugh. It was followed
by a lot of spluttering and coughing, and then I watched the life
die in her eyes. She slumped to the floor, still smiling up at
me.

The last thing I remembered was an almighty
explosion of light and being thrown backwards, still clutching at
Joshua’s hand.

I could sense myself rousing from sleep
before I opened my eyes. For a brief moment I was at peace. Nothing
was wrong, nothing was bothering me, and I didn’t have anything to
worry about. For the moment, at least.

Then it came rushing back faster than the
speed of light. My eyes shot open and I couldn’t help but shoot
upright, ready to find Joshua, to fight my way out to safety, but I
found myself chained to the spot, a hand pressing me back down, and
another clamped across my mouth. In blind panic I tried to free
myself, fighting against all my bonds, but whatever I did – it
wasn’t working.

“Stop fighting before you attract attention!”
a voice hissed at me.

I looked down at the hand over my mouth,
following it up the arm covered in a white doctor’s coat, and to
the face of a beautiful woman. A woman who was far too strong to be
human. It took a second for me to realize I knew her and as soon as
I did, I relaxed back into something soft.

As she carefully removed her hand, leaving it
hovering inches from me, I glanced around the room. This wasn’t an
abandoned attraction in the middle of an abandoned theme park, in
the middle of a hurricane. For starters, I was lying in a bed with
a pale blue blanket that tickled the skin on my bare-arms. My legs
were feeling the warmth from the bright sunlight that was filtering
between the blinds into the room: the room of a hospital.

“Josh-”

The hand was clamped back over my mouth
before I could finish crying his name. “You need to be quiet!”
Lilly hissed at me again. “We don’t have much time before the
police return as it is.” Again, she slowly removed her hand.

“What?” I whispered, confused. Lilly pointed
down at my arm, handcuffed to the bed. “What the heck?” I asked,
giving the handcuff a tug.

“Stop that, before you snap it,” Lilly told
me, scowling.

“What happened?” I demanded, returning her
scowl.

“We were hoping you could tell us that,”
Michael said, suddenly materializing next to my bed. Lilly’s hand
was back over my mouth before I could let out my startled
scream.

Using my free arm, I pulled my hand away from
her. “I have to be quiet,” I told her through gritted teeth. “I get
it.” I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath, trying to calm
myself.

That was when I felt it. Or rather, felt two
things. The first, the most important in my mind, was that not only
was Joshua alive and safe, he was rooms away from me.

The second... it was hard to explain. It was
like a connection... to Michael. I knew that if I opened my eyes to
look at him, I would see an expression which would allow him to
kick ass at poker. But even with my eyes closed, I knew with an
utmost certainty that he was worried (about me), concerned about
what had happened, that there was an, almost hidden, deep-rooted
fear of something I couldn’t quite tell, and on top of all that, a
smidgen of pride (again, bizarrely, directed towards me).

This time, I did open my eyes and look up at
him. The moment our eyes met, the guarded look changed for one of
understanding. “You earned you wings,” he explained. As I started
to turn to look behind me and see if I could see them, he stopped
me, shaking his head. “Not here,” he told me. “For now, they are
hidden. When you get released and return to the convent, then you
can see them. But not here.”

“Why am I handcuffed to the bed?” I asked
him. “My experience of beds and handcuffs doesn’t exactly go like
this,” I added, trying to add some humor to the situation.

It fell on deaf ears. “You have been arrested
for the attempted murder of Joshua Walsh,” Michael began to
explain.

“I didn’t-” Lilly’s hand was clamped back on
my mouth. I pulled it away in frustration. “I swear to God, if you
don’t stop doing that, I am going to grant you your own personal
visit from an Angel of Death,” I hissed at her.

There was a loud sigh from Michael, as Lilly
took two steps back from me, and I looked back to him. “Angel,
you’re a full-fledged angel now. If you make an oath to God like
that, you have to keep it.”

My mouth fell open. “Seriously?” I blinked.
“Hang on. I’m an angel? You mean I earned my wings?” Michael
nodded, finally looking proud. “But how?” I asked.

“You acknowledged what you are,” he said,
simply.

Simple was not going to cut it. “And what
does that mean?” I demanded. “How exactly did I achieve that?”

“You acknowledged what you are,” Michael
repeated. “You accepted the fact you are an angel”

“Then I’ve had my wings for a while,” I told
him. “Transporting a girl across the city in the blink of an eye is
proof enough for me.”

“Proof enough for you, or proof enough that I
am an angel?” Michael asked. As I stared mutely at him, he gave me
a small smile. “Despite everything, you did not believe you were an
angel.”

He was right. Deep down I believed in
angels almost from the beginning, even if I wasn’t willing to
acknowledge it. The moment I knew I had the ability to save Joshua,
when I asked for help – when I asked God to give me the strength –
that’s when I
knew
I was an
angel. Michael nodded. “We will discuss this later, but right now,
I don’t have time. Currently you are under arrest for the attempted
murder of Joshua,” he held up his hand before I could get further
than opening my mouth to object. “As well as the murders of Paige
Kenworth and two others.”

“Who the heck is Paige Kenworth?” I asked,
blinking at the fact that despite my attempt to say ‘hell’, heck
had come out instead.

He gave me a disapproving glare, as though
knowing my desired choice of words. “Paige Kenworth was the human
Lilah was possessing.”

The other two must have been her Fallen
sidekicks. The pain that hit me then was immense. It was like there
was suddenly a gaping hole in my stomach and I couldn’t do much
more than gasp in pain as I brought my knees up to my chest and
wrapped my arms around them, all the warmth sucked from me.

Michael’s hand was on my shoulder and I could
feel the waves of comfort sent my way. “It will get easier.”

“Easier?” I gasped, looking up at him but
only seeing his blurry outline through my tears. “I killed an angel
– I killed a human... how the heck am I still... how... how the
heck did I earn my wings?”

“You saved Joshua’s life,” Michael explained,
simply.

“Then why do I feel like someone ripped my
insides out,” I gasped.

“That’s your punishment,” he told me, sadly.
His hand slipped into his pocket and pulled something out.

I glanced down at it as he laid it in front
of my feet, and I had to wipe my eyes to see what it was. It was
Lilah’s blade, now completely black. “I don’t want it,” I told
him.

“You have no choice,” Michael sighed. “The
most important rule is to protect your charge. You did. But equally
important is not to kill a human. You did. As such, you have to
live with it. The pain, the guilt – it will get easier, but it will
never go away.” He gave me a sad smile. “Trust me.”

My eyes widen in horror as I realized I had
forgotten the most crucial thing. “Lucifer,” I choked out. “Joshua
was a key... he... I released Lucifer!”

“Lucifer is dead,” Michael told me calmly. “I
know, because he is the reason my own sword is black.”

“But you don’t understand,” I told him, but
he shook his head, scooping the dagger back up.

“Right now Joshua has finished telling his
partner a version of what happened two nights ago, the highlights
of which are that he was taken by Paige and her accomplices and you
managed to save his life. In a few moments they will come here and
question you. I don’t condone lying, but in this instance, Angel, I
think it would be for the best if you conveniently don’t remember
anything. The sword is in my possession and they have no evidence
that you did anything, other than save Joshua’s life.”

“But Lucifer-”

Michael nodded at Lilly and she left us
alone. As soon as she had vanished he carefully wrapped his hands
around mine and looked straight at me.
“Angel, Lucifer is dead. He cannot
rise.”
The words were as
loud and clear as though he had said them aloud. But his lips had
never moved.

I screwed my eyes up, wondering what kind of
drugs I was on.

“
You’re not
hallucinating,”
Michael’s voice told me.
“You earned your wings, Angel. You
are
an angel now, and with that comes a
psychic connection with the archangel of your House –
me.”

My eyes flew open. “You can read my mind?” I
asked in horror.

Michael shook his head. “Think of it more as
being able to communicate telepathically. But no, I cannot read
your mind, although sometimes I admit it would be easier to know
what you are thinking rather than trying to decipher your aura.” He
let go of one of my hands and in a motion surprisingly tender,
stroked my cheek, giving me a sad smile.

I blinked a few times and swallowed a lump
away. “But if you can communicate telepathically with your angels,
how come you’ve never spoken to Lilah? Lucifer-”

“Angel,” Michael interrupted me, firmly.
“Lucifer is dead. He cannot rise. As for Lilah, as soon as an angel
becomes an archangel, they lose that connection so they might share
it with their own angels, or the angels which would reside in their
House. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t have foreseen what she had
planned for Joshua.”