Angel Incarnate: Second Sight (37 page)

Chapter 60

 

Aura decided to drive
her own car to Ryan’s cottage, so Ella could go home with her fiancée, Jasper,
and his twin brother, Jayden, afterwards.

The one-story bungalow
had only five rooms – a kitchen, living room, dining room, bathroom, and one
bedroom. Though it was small in comparison to the houses the Guild and their
family lived in, it was more than enough room for Ryan.

He had just returned
from England a few weeks ago, where he was ordained as a priest at the Westminster
Cathedral. Aura wished she could have been there, but Ryan didn’t even let her
know about the ceremony until after the fact. Maybe he thought he would
embarrass himself.

What a silly thing to think.
Despite being born a transgender,
Aura thought her best friend was perfect. Sometimes, she wondered if their
relationship would have been different, if he had been a normal male. There was
no sense worrying about that now – he was gone.

As she opened the front
door, she saw everything was arranged neatly around the small house. Ryan was a
stickler for having things in their place. Not that he was
obsessive-compulsive; he was just a neat freak.

“Cleanliness is next to
Godliness,” he used to remind her.

There was a small sofa and
loveseat in the living room. The round, wooden table in the kitchen had four
chairs.

Each of the walls was
covered with pictures. A few were of his parents and Ella, but most of the
photographs were of Ryan and Aura. A wave of sadness came over her as she
looked from one to the next. His entire life was in those frames.

While Jasper and Jayden
stayed in the living room, Aura followed Ella to the bedroom. She opened the
closet and Aura stared at the clothing, all arranged neatly on hangers.

Her hand brushed
against his vestments. Though he had promised to wear them when he delivered
the sermon, he never got around to it. Her fingers grazed the white starched
collar, and a tear slipped down her cheek.

Ella reached for a
wooden box on the top shelf. She plopped on the bed, beckoning Aura to join her
before she opened the lid. Inside, every card Aura sent him was wrapped with a
lavender satin ribbon. Beneath the stack was a letter – a letter that was
addressed to her.

“He told me to give
this to you, if anything ever happened to him,” Ella sniffled.

Aura’s hands were
trembling as she took the letter.
 
As
soon as she opened it, hers eyes welled up with tears. She had seen death
before, but nothing hit as close to home as seeing Ryan lying in a coffin.

Wiping her eyes with
the sleeve of her dress, Aura began to read the text silently. It was only one
page, and she hoped the ink wouldn’t run as she continued to sob.

“What did he say?” Ella
asked.

“He knew – all this
time I was worried about keeping my family’s secret, but Ryan knew we were
angel-bloods. Did you tell him?”

“No – maybe he sensed
there was something special about you. I don’t mean to sound insensitive, but
your eyes are violet, and your hair hangs down to your knees. You don’t look
like a typical seventeen-year-old girl. And your sister, Bren – how could you
not know she was different? She can recite every book in that massive library
of yours.”

Aura nodded. “I wish he
would have told me. I hated keeping secrets from your brother. It would have
made my life so much easier, if I didn’t always have to keep my guard up.

She took in a deep
breath and grabbed Ella’s hand. “Have you thought about accepting Jasper’s
blood?”

“I’ve thought about it,
but we’ve decided to wait until after the wedding.”

“Don’t you think it
would be wise to do the blood exchange now? There have already been five deaths
in the last few days. I can’t help thinking this is just a distraction and
Lucifer is planning something really big.”

“I know you worry about
me, but you don’t have to. Jasper hardly ever leaves me alone and we don’t want
to change our lifestyle because Lucifer might do something. Whatever happens,
will happen. I doubt my having the angel’s blood will make a difference. It
didn’t save Gregory Godwin, or the Crestwells, or even Shanna. I’m not going to
live my life being afraid.”

A faint smile crossed
Aura’s face. “No – you shouldn’t have to do that, but just be careful. I know
you’ve been traveling a lot, and we may not always be able to get to you if
something happened. It’s odd that the dark wings are using poison. I think
someone else is helping them.”

“Your visions will help
you figure it out.”

She stared at Ryan’s
vestments hanging in the closet. “Do you want to take them home? I don’t have a
use for them now. I’m not planning on getting rid of the cottage. You never
know when someone might need a place to stay.”

Aura grabbed the suit
and held the white collar in her hand. She could almost feel Ryan standing next
to her. “Thanks, I’ll put these in a safe place.”

“Well, if there isn’t
anything else you want to see, I’m going to head out. We’re supposed to go
shopping tomorrow. Jasper wants to take me skiing in Vermont. Maybe you should
come with us?”

“I don’t know how to
ski, and I wouldn’t feel comfortable leaving the little ones right now.”

“I wasn’t asking you to
go to Vermont. I thought you might like to join us at the mall. I’ll call you
later this evening, and you can let me know then.”

The girls walked out of
the bedroom and Aura hugged Ella and the boys. She hung Ryan’s vestments in the
rear seat over the driver’s side door, and waved as she backed out of the
driveway.

By the time Aura got
home, it was dusk. Everyone else was gone, and the house echoed at the sound of
her shoes clip-clopping across the wooden floor.

She hung Ryan’s
vestments over the back of one of the chairs in the living room, and went into
the dining room to clean up.

Thankfully, her mother
had already taken care of clearing the table and washing the dishes, so there
was nothing left to do.

She stretched out on
the couch and closed her eyes. Whether it was from everything else that
happened over the last few days, or the sorrow of losing her best friend, Aura
soon fell into a deep slumber, and that’s when the visions started.

Chapter 61

 

At first, Aura was
disoriented by the scenes in her vision, and didn’t know what she was seeing.
After a few moments, the sounds of deafening screams, and the sight of angels
falling to earth -- their wings ablaze -- confirmed her worst fears; she was witnessing
the Great War in Heaven.

The landscape was
breathtaking -- as her mind moved from one beautiful meadow to the next, she
realized the attack had been exactly as her father described it. She watched
the child angels frolicking in the vale, clueless to the horrible assault which
would soon take most of their lives.

Though there were a
great deal of angels she didn’t know, Aura recognized most of the archangels –
Gabriel, Michael, Ariel, Raphael, and her grandfather, Uriel.

The members of the
Guild -- her father among them -- had their weapons drawn, as they tried to
keep Lucifer’s followers at bay.

Aura could feel her
body shudder and spasm each time one of the angels died. In a deep sleep, and
unable to control the jerking, she watched as a river of gold continued to rise
as the battle raged on.

Her sight took her from
one clash to the next until she came upon… No -- there had to be a mistake.
Bren and Tracy couldn’t have been involved in the war.
 
Yet there they stood, clear as day, playing
with the same little girl Aura had seen at Ryan’s funeral.

She heard the child beg
them to protect themselves when one of the Dark Wings approached and demanded
that they move away. They refused to leave, and used their tiny bodies to
shield the small blonde angel.

Aura couldn’t make out
everything they were saying, but she heard something about an Eternal Child,
and the girl – Alannah was her name – needed to be protected.

Aura could feel the
tears slipping down her cheeks as she watched the ebony eyed angel stab Bren
and Tracy repeatedly. They tried to use their wings for protection, but each
blow brought another stream of liquid gold until finally they were still.

Before the dark wing
could grab the child, Gabriel appeared.

Angels were not given
to showing emotion, but Aura saw the archangel’s muscles and veins pulsing
against his skin. A guttural roar escaped his lips, and Aura watched as her
uncle twirled both of his swords before casting the fallen angel into the
abyss.

Afterwards, he walked
over to Bren and Tracy, and pulled them into his arms. Burying his head into
their tiny chests, Aura could hear him whimpering softly.

Her visions didn’t stop
there; they took her to another scene. This one showed her father, Paul,
fighting with a female. He was begging her to reconsider her choice, but she
just laughed at him. Every syllable that escaped her mouth was like a blade to
Paul’s heart.

Aura stared at the
mound of dead bodies littering the glen. Some of the angels were no older than
her little sister Reaghan. Why was her father hesitant to kill this woman?

Kill her, Dad! She doesn’t deserve to live after what she’s
done.

Finally, the light from
his sword intensified and he ran her through the heart.

Aura watched her father
drop to his knees. Bending over the woman’s body, she looked at him and smiled.
“Lucifer will avenge me, Brother.” Those were her last words.

The grandfather clock
in the corner chimed and Aura shot up. She was drenched in sweat, and the room
was dark except for a night light next to the front door.

How long have I been asleep?

Flipping on one of the
table lamps, Aura looked at a starburst clock over the fireplace mantle.
Midnight – I’ve been out of it for hours.

She walked to the door.
It was unusual for the angel-bloods to lock their doors, but with everything
that had happened over the last couple of weeks, she wasn’t going to take any
risks.

Lucifer had somehow
managed to bypass the protective wards in Aeden, and if he could do it, she was
certain some of his friends would have the same ability.

After she checked all
of the locks on the porch and backdoor, she started towards the stairs. Even
though she had been asleep for hours, she was still exhausted.

Bren would have stories
to tell about their Trick or Treat adventure.
 
Bren – how could you and Tracy
have been in Heaven when Lucifer attacked?

Aura was beginning to
think her visions might have been the future instead of the past. She had so
many questions for her mother, but Eve wouldn’t be returning until tomorrow.

When she was certain the
house was secure, Aura began to climb the spiral staircase. When she was on the
last step, a new voice entered her mind – a voice Aura wasn’t familiar with.

Mommy, I miss you. Can I come home soon?

Aura looked around, and
she thought she saw the little girl Bren called Alannah, standing near the
fireplace in the living room.

She stumbled down the
stairs, but by the time she reached the bottom, the little girl was gone. After
turning on all of the lights and checking the other rooms, she concluded the child
wasn’t there; Aura was still alone.

Again, the voice came
into her head.
Your friend is in Heaven,
Mommy. You’ll see him another time. Please, can I come home now?

Aura heard such sad
sobbing it broke her heart. Then a second child’s voice came into her head.

I told you it was a bad idea to come here. You have to give
her time to remember.

“Who are you?” Aura whispered.

Coming in 2015:

Angel Incarnate: A Test of Faith

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