Eternity (8 page)

Chapter Seventeen

Ruth and I left the familiar warmth of the Daily Grind and stepped outside. It was dark, and the near emptiness of downtown Tillinghast surprised me at first. Then I realized it was almost eleven. Most high school kids headed home after the football game, and most college students probably stuck to parties on campus. It seemed like only Ruth and I braved the Tillinghast streets.

We had parked in opposite directions. The autumn cold was bracing, so Ruth and I gave each other a quick hug before racing off to our cars. Even though we promised to talk through our strategy in the morning, I felt entirely alone. How would I make it through the long night hours ahead of me, thinking about Ruth’s news, without knowing Michael’s whereabouts?

He hadn’t returned my calls. Was he still mad about that morning? We had been through so much together—had been intimate in ways others could never imagine—and I found it unfathomable that he would harbor so silly a grudge. Especially now. After all, I wasn’t mad anymore, even though I had a lot to be angry about. Like his having used his powers on the football field.

Serious concerns over his welfare started to creep into my mind. Was Michael okay? Had someone hurt him, on the field or off? Like one of the fallen?

I’d been so angry with him that I hadn’t considered the possibility that he
couldn’t
pick up my calls. I thought about my parting words to Ruth about Michael and me standing together, and I suddenly felt incredibly guilty. If I was truly standing by him, I would be making sure that he was safe, above all else.

Grabbing my bag off my shoulder, I rummaged for my phone. My hand shook with nerves as I hit the speed dial for Michael. While I listened to his cell ring, praying that he’d pick up, the distant thud of footsteps penetrated my consciousness. They sounded far away at first. Yet very quickly, they grew closer.

I spun around, ready to confront my pursuer. Or fly away. I was part angel, after all.

But the street was empty.

It was probably someone running to his car in the cold. I was acting as paranoid as I had last night with Rafe. Not that I didn’t have just cause these days. As I turned down the side street where I’d parked my car, I kept thinking that Ruth and I should’ve walked together to one of our cars and then driven to the other.

My thoughts returned to Michael, and I tried him another time. Once again, he didn’t pick up. It was too late to call his house, but I had to risk angering his parents. I had to find out if he was all right. At the same moment that I dialed the final digit of his home number, I heard a voice behind me.

“Spare any change, miss?”

I turned around to see a grubby-looking man on the stoop of a closed stationery store. He was holding out a can and a small, hand-lettered sign, and he was shivering visibly in the cold night air. I hadn’t noticed him before. Then again, he certainly wasn’t seated at eye level.

I started to recoil from his appearance, from my own fears about strangers, from the unknown end-day dangers that threatened us. Then the word “hypocrite” passed through my mind. How could I beg for donations to help out some faraway earthquake victims, when I wouldn’t even give some money to a poor, downtrodden guy right in my own town? How could I accuse Michael of lacking compassion, when I wouldn’t show any myself?

Quickly, I stuck my hand back into my purse. As I rooted around for my wallet, he said, “Thanks, miss. Anything you can give will help.”

“Good luck to you,” I said, as I deposited a handful of change and a few stray dollar bills into his can. Then I backed away and headed toward my car. Fast. Even without the end days looming and supernatural creatures abounding, the scene was a little creepy.

“Would you like to help even more, Ellspeth?” he called out behind me.

I spun around. He was no man. Even from this distance, I could see his eyes had changed. There was an intensity there that was otherworldly. He was a fallen angel.

How could I be so stupid? So gullible?

I started running. As I rounded the bend to my car, I bumped right into him. The fallen loomed before me. He was much faster than me, so fast I hadn’t even seen him move ahead of me.

He no longer looked grubby, even though he still wore his costume of a homeless person. In fact, he was breathtaking. Dark golden curls framed his flawless face, and his fair skin looked like porcelain. He was beautiful, uncannily evocative of a Michelangelo angel. Perhaps he had served as the inspiration centuries ago. I’d certainly never seen his like walking an earthly street.

His finger reached out to stroke my cheek. Even though his touch was gentle, I writhed away in trepidation. Fallen angels were notorious for their ability to sway others through touch and voice, and I’d been lured in before by the wiles of the fallen. Regardless, when he next spoke, his tone so intoxicated me that I had to submit to his caress. And his words.

“Please listen to me, Ellspeth. My name is Kael. I know you’re scared, but you have nothing to fear from me. The fallen are not the malicious creatures that you think. In fact, with you at our side, we could do so much to help humankind. We could spare humankind so much suffering—disease, hunger, the very kinds of anguish you are trying to alleviate in the earthquake victims. We’ve been waiting for you.”

I started to pull away, until I heard him speak again. His persuasive powers were out in full force.

“For long, long centuries—for millennia, even—we tried to hasten the prophecy that a Nephilim would return. Despite His explicit prohibition, we attempted to create you, our beloved child. Endlessly it seemed, we searched for you among the newborn humans, hoping that one of our kind had been successful. Time and time again, we found nothing. We began to lose hope.

“Then we began to sense you. Feel the emergence of your wondrous powers—flight, insights, the call of the blood. Yet your so-called parents masked you well. So well that our hunt proved fruitless for many years. It took the surfacing of your dear friend Michael, with his tie to my lost brother Ezekiel, to lead us to you.”

Kael paused. It seemed that he had reached his ultimate supplication. I was under his power, and all I could do was listen.

“Ellspeth, we have been waiting for you so that we—fallen and Nephilim alike—can win back our place on earth and in heaven. And take our place as benevolent rulers of humanity.” The fallen touched my cheek once again. “Come, my child. You belong with us. Don’t leave humankind to the despair of its own devices, to the suffering that surely awaits without us.”

His words, his touch, and his beauty enthralled. Even the compassion of his message. Instead of fighting back, as I knew I should, I found myself listening and succumbing. It sounded enticing to stand at the side of powerful beings and free humankind from pain and suffering. Even though a distant part of me knew that this play on my empathy must be part of his game.

The fallen stretched out his free hand for mine. I lifted my hand. As my fingers grazed his, I felt a whoosh over my head. It broke the spell, and instinctively, I ducked. Kael was left standing alone. Until he was plucked from the sky.

I didn’t pause to see who had taken Kael or what had become of him. I dashed down the street toward my car. For a split second, I couldn’t decide whether to drive or fly away. The car might be too slow, but I didn’t want to risk running into any of the fallen in the skies. As I fumbled in my bag for the keys, I heard a terrible fight break out over my head.

I looked upward. Although I could hear an unnatural shrieking and the crash of bodies, I couldn’t tell who was fighting with Kael in the darkness. So I turned my attention back to more important things, like finding my keys, opening my car door, and getting away.

Finally, finally, I felt my keys, grabbed them, and turned the car lock. The moment I did, the skies grew silent. As I slid into the car, I glanced upward once last time. No one was there. Where had Kael and the other being gone? I couldn’t hesitate long enough to find out. This was my chance to escape.

I started to close my car door, but then I felt a hand on my arm. Despite my efforts to wrench it free, the hand held me fast and pulled me out of the dark car into the dimly lit streets.

A familiar voice said, “Ellie, don’t be scared. It’s me.”

I thought Michael had finally surfaced. Just in time.

I was wrong.

It was Rafe.

Chapter Eighteen

“What on earth are you doing here?”

Those were the first words that popped out of my mouth. The second I blurted them out, I wanted to reel them back in. I didn’t want to sound accusatory when, in fact, I was incredibly grateful to see a friendly human face, after the scare I’d had.

I took a good, hard look at Rafe. Inexplicably, he was calm and smiling. What had happened? When had he stumbled onto this scene? I assumed that he’d seen something of the aerial fight, so why wasn’t he freaked out by what he’d observed?

His tone tranquil and his face composed, he answered me. “I could tell you that it was coincidence. That I happened to be strolling down the streets of Tillinghast in the hopes of bumping into you after the game and found you under attack.”

Even though his expression didn’t look ominous, there was something unnerving in his even-keeled tone. Something I recognized enough to make me scared. He hadn’t stumbled onto the scene. What role had he played in it?

“That wouldn’t be true, would it?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer.

“No, Ellspeth. That wouldn’t be true. It would be a lie. And I think you know how I feel about lies.”

Ellspeth. Why was Rafe calling me Ellspeth? He only knew me as Ellie. I rarely shared my full name with anyone.

The pieces were starting to come together, and my fears were mounting. Had I escaped one threat only to land smack-dab in the middle of another? I started to back away from him. Slowly.

“Are you one of them?” Silently, I prayed that Rafe was not another fallen, that he was a regular, run-of-the-mill stalker. A stalker, I could handle.

“One of who?” he answered.

Rafe moved toward me, just as slowly.

“One of the fallen,” I said, as I continued my backward progress.

“I’m not fallen, Ellspeth.”

Unexpectedly, Rafe stopped walking toward me. Ever so slightly, he shook himself. The action was so unusual and startling that I stopped my retreat to watch. What on earth was he doing?

A cloud of luminous particles were emitted from him. When it cleared, I saw a very different Rafe. It was as if he’d shaken all the scruffiness and roughness—all the humanity, really—off him. His hair was still chestnut brown, his features remained the same, and his eyes were still near black, but I almost didn’t recognize him. His face had become even more beautiful than before, nearly exquisite. He looked ageless, even divine.

Then he gave me his disarming smile, and I saw the Rafe I knew.

“Who are you? What are you?” I asked, after I shut my gaping mouth.

“I’m an angel. My full name is Raphael.”

“You’re a regular angel? From heaven?” I felt ridiculous even saying the words aloud.

“Yes. An angel of His presence, to be more specific,” he answered, as if my question amused him. “That makes me one of the few angels permitted to stand before Him.”

My head was spinning way too fast to pose more questions about the lofty-sounding “angel of His presence.” But I definitely needed to know one thing for certain. “What happened to Kael?”

“He’s gone, Ellie.”

“Gone for the moment, or gone forever?”

“Gone forever.”

“You killed him?” I asked slowly. While I was disgusted with myself for almost believing Kael’s line about joining forces so we could help save humankind, and loathed Kael for it, it felt wrong that he should be killed on my behalf.

“No, Ellie. But he won’t come back for you again. I made sure of that.”

Before I could ask Rafe exactly how he “made sure of that,” a very, very troubling thought occurred to me. “How can I be certain that
you
are not one of the fallen?”

Rafe, or Raphael—I didn’t know what to call him, even in my own mind—stuck out his arm. “There’s only one way to be certain.”

“Your blood?”

“Yes.” He said very matter-of-factly.

“Angels have blood?”

He smiled. “We are all made in His image.”

“You want me to drink your blood?” I was dumbfounded.

“Only through my blood can you be certain of who I am.”

“I don’t know, Rafe. I stole some flashes off you, and you seemed pretty normal in them. Maybe you can fake your blood too.”

“It’s not possible, Ellspeth. Surely you know that.”

I looked down at his muscled forearm, knowing he was right. Blood was too pure to fake, you couldn’t make blood lie.

I shivered at the very thought of tasting his blood. What if he was fallen? Would he have some control over me if I ingested his blood? There were too many unknowns, plus I’d never bitten anyone other than Michael. The whole prospect felt like cheating on Michael.

I knew that I had to do it. How else could I be certain that Rafe was an angel and not a fallen?

Taking his arm in my hands, I closed my eyes and brought my lips to his skin. I bared my teeth and tried to bite down, but couldn’t. It felt all wrong.

“Go ahead, Ellspeth. It’s okay,” Rafe said gently.

Forcing myself to push past my fears, my teeth pierced his skin. The warm liquid rushed into my mouth. It tasted unlike anything I’d ever experienced. It transmitted a sensation unlike anything I’d ever felt. As his blood coursed through me, warmth and light pulsed through my body and mind and spirit. And peace. It felt like I’d tumbled down onto the softest feather bed in the world, and then fallen into the deepest, loveliest sleep. Sleep that I never, ever wanted to awaken from. I knew—without question—that I was experiencing divine peace.

“Do you believe me?”

“Yes, I do,” I answered groggily, as if waking from a dream. The sense of the divine lingered.

“Good.”

“Although, your blood didn’t tell me why you’re here.”

“He gave me this job.”

“Who’s he?”

“The Maker, God, Yahweh, the Creator—whatever name you’d like to give to Him.” Rafe’s smile turned wry. For all his otherworldliness, he still bore that intangible, slightly mischievous quality that I first saw in the Tillinghast gymnasium, the quality I really liked.

When I didn’t respond, he continued. “Although, until you meet Him in person, it’s hard to come up with the right name for Him. I see why humans have struggled with that. Anyway, He’s very different than He’s been described.”

“What do you do for Him?”

“I look after the earth and the spirits of all humankind.”

“By participating in high school fund-raisers?” I blurted out, and then covered my mouth. I had forgotten I was speaking to an angel.

Rafe did not take offense at my question. In fact, he seemed downright entertained by it.

Then he reassembled his face into a serious expression and answered my question quite gravely. He clearly had a message to impart. “By making sure that you understand the importance of your role as the Elect One.”

“That’s why you came here? For me?”

“Yes, Ellspeth. I’ve been watching you since the day you were born, waiting to see if you would rise to your role. That’s probably why it’s so hard for me to call you by anything other than your birth name of Ellspeth. I’ve always thought of you by your full name. When the end days began, I decided to come to earth. To help you. Even though I haven’t walked on ground myself since the time of Noah.”

My jaw dropped at his words. Again. “Since the time of Noah?”

The amused smile disappeared from Rafe’s face, as he said, “Yes, Ellspeth. I was here when the first angels fell and when the first Nephilim were created. I was here in the beginning.”