Angels of War Battle of Archangels (Book 3) (Angels of War Trilogy) Read online

35

  Joan stood on the back balcony to Michael’s mansion. She shifted her eyes from the bright lights held in the sky above Heaven and the dark grounds outside Heaven’s illustrious walls. The once green and radiant land, now churned up into a thick sludge by Satan’s Hell Force, reminded her the effort she needed to exercise in stopping the hateful demons.

  Joan allowed the word Oblivion to play in her mind. So what if God tossed them all into the universal trash bin and started over? To her it meant a lot. Good people didn’t deserve to be cast away in such a flippant manner. Humans held memories, patchworks in their lives collected to make life on earth bearable and richer.

  She knew the good suffered with the bad on earth, but the good lived an afterlife in joyful ecstasy, while the bad be damned to Hell.

  Joan mulled over the consequences her actions created. God seemed to approach his work like a frustrated artist, quick to destroy a rare piece created by an insane genius. But what could prevent the genius from such an irrational act? Joan knew her mission. Her sandaled feet needed to be in two realms at once and both worlds meant everything to her. How could she save Heaven and not earth? She needed help in the most desperate way.

  The angels of war found themselves at a terrible impasse. And she knew sacrifices needed to be made so the weak could live.

  She made a sacrifice when Satan emerged from the pit. Jesus asked Jehovah to grant her a second chance. For a moment Joan wanted to melt away into the kingdom, avoid the bloodletting and turn her back on the war. One caveat kept her motivated in the battle. God refused to initiate the Second Coming. He adhered to rules when Lucifer didn’t. He believed in her while she considered her own failure legendary.

  Joan could not allow Oblivion and at the same time she needed to absolve some mysterious trespass either she or Michael committed so long ago.

  In her hands she held her gold archangel clasp. She turned it over in her slender fingers and traced a nail along the eagle etched into Leviathan’s scale polished to a magnificent luster. Light from the scale reflected against her forehead and brown eyes. Her lips turned down into a frown, yet stress lines did not grace her angelic face.

  Joan leaned against a white column, allowing her mind to drift wherever it wanted. The pressure she faced on earth squeezed her until her heart hardened and she realized her necessary actions appeared cruel and heartless to others. They did not know the responsibilities and guilt built up upon her shoulders. She thought about the mythic Atlas with the globe held up by him alone on strong shoulders. Her experiences brought the myth to life. She tried to hold both Heaven and earth on her shoulders. Earth slipped.

  Death ruled the planet. People always died, but now they died in the millions. She placed the clasp to her tongue. The sea echoed its saltiness within the scale. With eyes closed she inhaled and remembered pristine beaches with white sands and crystal blue oceans, margaritas and laughter. Good things.

  If she could not have her own family, she would ensure others enjoyed the gift God granted them. She resigned herself to her fate before Satan escaped Hell with his army. Her life as an archangel called to something higher. Yet the higher mission God presented her with came with a price. A price she needed to buckle down and understand.

  “What happen?”

  Joan turned around. Michael stood in the kitchen dressed in armor. She searched his brown eyes and saw neither sorrow nor anger in them. “Everything happened.”

  Michael nodded as if he understood. “Come here and have a seat, Joan.”

  Joan moved to the soft white couch and sat. Michael sat next to her. She stared at his golden armor and how it gleamed from the bright light filtering through the balcony. “I have a question to ask you.”

  Michael’s lips turned up into a slight smile. “Ask.”

  “How did I come about?”

  Michael cleared his throat, his eyes unfocused for a second. Brief enough for a long checked emotion to flash through them. “I met your mother,” he said. “I met her in a place soon to be known as Africa.”

  Joan remained silent. She held her eyes upon him and saw his inner struggle to remain composed. “But how did you meet her?”

  Michael’s jaw muscles twitched. “God said it was ok for the angels to visit earth. So I, along with others went to earth,” he said. “Earth was untainted, wild and filled with men, women, and beasts of all kinds.

  “I went to the dark land, just after Jehovah broke the land into continents and peopled earth. Adam and Eve came first, a sort of test trial after he experimented with human like creatures, what the earth scientists called cave men.” Michael chuckled and shook his head.

  “I thought it took seven days to create earth?”

  “Seven days or seven million years. Jehovah’s inner time clock is perfectly off.”

  “Keep going.”

  “Jehovah finally decided to make man look like us, like the angels in Heaven and they lived up to two hundred years, never growing old. Back then they would just sit down and die.”

  Michael stood and removed his armor, hanging the metal on a rack. He returned to the sofa dressed in a blue silk toga. “Those were exciting times, Joan. Earth’s newness excited us. After God and Lucifer’s conversation on freewill we were allowed to venture to this new planet, and do almost whatever we wanted.”

  Joan canted her head to the side. “Do I have brothers and sisters?”

  “No,” Michael said. “I fell in love with your mother the moment I met her.”

  Joan closed her eyes and listened.

  “Your mother was next to a river, fishing. She looked up and her brown eyes, large brown eyes, gazed up at me. Those eyes, filled with an innocent fierceness captivated me. We talked a long time on the riverbank. She didn’t know I was an angel. The others flaunted their Heaven borne prowess. Some of us didn’t. We knew we were powerful, so frightening the mortals did not interest me.”

  Joan nodded. She wanted to see her mother’s face and experience what Michael must have felt so many centuries ago. Her stomach fluttered at the thought. “Show me, Michael.”

  Michael’s large Adam’s apple bobbled, he cleared his throat again and lifted his right hand, and it trembled. “Is that what you want?”

  “That is what I want. I want to see her. I want to see what happened.”

  “Why?”

  “I want to know where I came from and what really happened. I want to know what led us here, to this.”

  Michael leaned forward and held his hand inches from her forehead. “Do not be angry with me.”

  “Just show me.”

  Michael laid his hand on Joan’s forehead.

  And showed her.

  36

  Joan’s head went slack. Bright sky scented with roses and peaches filled her mind. White porticos and columns rose along golden avenues to support magnificent architecture. Figures dressed in white tunics made from silk moved light on their feet like graceful dancers. They came by the millions from the eternal city and gathered just beyond God’s pearlescent palace.

  Michael stood on the pearl steps to God’s palace. Beneath him, stretched out in the millions came the angels who dwelled in Heaven. A great golden city sat beyond the expectant crowd, their voices mingling into a sweet hum, gentle music played and a few groups danced to celebrate God’s most imaginative creation.

  The mortals.

  Lucifer stood next to Michael, his brown eyes beaming with joy, his chin lifted in pride. “Michael, my argument won over. We get to go to earth,” he said.

  Michael swept his eyes over the great crowd. “We all do, Lucifer. I will enjoy what God has created.”

  Lucifer placed a strong hand on Michael’s muscled shoulder. “Of all the worlds He has created, this is the finest one yet. The beings will look just like us. We are their masters, Michael.”

  “Jehovah is their master, Lucifer,” Michael said. “Remember He created them.”

  Lucifer laughed. His bright smile a balm against any perceived anta
gonism. “He did create them, Michael.”

  “And I’m glad He has allowed us some free will.”

  Lucifer’s smile tightened. “But the leash is still around our necks, He just lengthened our chains a little. The mortals will have complete free will. Can you imagine the glory they will achieve?”

  Michael clicked his tongue. “Always the pessimist, Lucifer.”

  “I thought myself a realist, Michael,” he said. “Heaven expands so far out it boggles the mind. It’s always expanding into infinite, yet He rules it all and alone.”

  Seven powerful angels stepped out onto the portico, each carrying an eight-foot long golden horn. They rested the instruments on the portico’s ivory surface with open flutes turned up to the sky. The angels blew the horns. A tenor blast erupted from the musical instruments. The millions who stood before the pearl steps fell silent.

  The archangel Gabriel, dressed in armor and silk robes, walked from the palace great door with a rolled parchment in hand. He turned to Lucifer and Michael, gave them a slight nod and gentle smile. He faced the crowd and unrolled the parchment before his face.

  “To all the angels and archangels who live within God’s great glory, we have been granted access to Earth.”

  The crowd cheered, their jubilant din rose into the peach scented air in one explosive roar and shook God’s palace. Angel’s danced in the streets. More horns blared, spreading throughout the kingdom as the revelers celebrated.

  Michael’s smile broadened. “Are you going to visit earth, Lucifer?”

  Lucifer waved at someone in the crowd. “Not yet. And besides I already have a love interest. She awaits me. This is a tiny victory for freewill.”

  Michael remained silent. “Freewill? I serve Jehovah, not myself, Lucifer.”

  Lucifer gave a deep-throated laugh. “Michael, I love you. And within a few months you will thank me for talking Jehovah into allowing us this much freedom.”

  “I love you too, Lucifer. But now I’m off to earth. I want to see God’s greatest creation. Man and woman.”

  “Enjoy them, Michael. Enjoy it all while it lasts.”

  Michael swept down from Heaven along with over a million angels. They broke through the white clouds like doves. Earth sat below, bright with blue and green swirls, and swollen with life.

  Michael soared from the clouds and over green mountains dusted with white snow and bright ice. He came to a jade green ocean laced with pearl white foam. Soon an emerald land mass stretched out to the far horizon underneath his pumping wings. He breathed in air almost as fresh as Heaven.

  The angels spread themselves across the earth to partake in its beauty and wonders. To him it seemed God made earth as an angel’s playground. Heaven’s beauty could never be touched, yet earth provided an escape where the angels could dwell and raise families if they wished.

  The sky above him shown with such a brilliant cerulean tears of joy fell from his eyes. Heaven’s skies did not look blue, but a gold-white light powered by God’s eternal love. On earth the various colors amazed Michael. The greens, purples, the pink and red flowers, it all dazzled his senses making him heady.

  The archangel continued to sweep across the earth. He flew over an area covered in thick green grass. Elephants roamed in herds, giraffes paused near crystal clear waterholes. Lions journeyed in prides across the lush landscape.

  Michael flew over a silver river where a village sat. He folded in his wings and landed amongst the thick brush, composed himself, and stepped out towards the river. “The Nile,” he said and moved towards its sandy shore.

  Michael squatted and dipped his cupped hands into the cool water and brought it up to his lips and drank. The water refreshed him, its sweet taste making him smile. His eyes took in the scene. Birds shaded in pink and yellow sang and hopped along the far bank, a lion’s distant roar rumbled across the plains and a woman’s musical laughter reached his ears.

  Michael rose from the river and gazed a few feet up its steady waters. He discovered where the laughter came from. She held a net in one hand and a spear in the other. She jabbed at the water, the spear held for a few seconds and she pulled it out with her catch on the end. A large silver skinned fish jerked on the spear point. She tossed the thrashing fish onto the shoreline and went for another.

  Michael watched her spear another fish, throwing it onto the shore.

  “You can stop looking now and come over to talk,” the woman said, her light voice dancing towards his ears.

  Michael dove into the river and swam to the other side. He emerged from the water. Droplets glinted off his athletic frame. He climbed the steep muddy bank and stopped a few feet from her. “Who are you?”

  The brown skinned woman smiled, her teeth shown white and brilliant. “My name is Naomi. What is your name?”

  “Michael,” he said and decided not to tell her where he came from. “I’m from a village far away from here.”

  “Well hello, Michael. What brings you to this area?”

  Michael strode forward, he placed a hand on his chest, his heart thumped hard inside and he took a breath. He admired her short frame and strong body. Her thick black hair, combed back and braided, held tiny pink flowers. Her lips and large bright eyes drew him in.

  “Hello, Michael,” she said and laughed.

  Michael smiled. “Hello, Naomi.” He realized God’s ability to create knew no bonds. “Can I show you an easier way to fish?”

  Naomi handed Michael the spear. “Go ahead.”

  Michael hefted the ash spear in hand. He approached the water’s edge, his brown eyes raked back and forth until he caught a large silver glint from the sunlight. With deft movements he slid the spear into the water and brought up the prize. The fish heavy weight bent the spear shaft and drew infectious laughter from Naomi.

  Michael brought the fish ashore and shook it off the spear. It flapped and fought until settling. “Another?”

  Naomi shook her head. A strong smile graced her face. “I have to go now, I have enough for dinner. Will you join us at the village?”

  “Yes I will. How long have you been here?”

  Naomi paused, her huge eyes blinking. “I don’t know. It seemed like we just got here,” she said and picked up her fish and tossed them into a wicker basket.

  Michael bent over and hauled the fish filled basket onto his shoulders. A broader smile spread across his face. Warm sunlight kissed Naomi’s brown skin, turning her flesh into a flawless mahogany glow. He wanted to have a child with her. A flutter shot through his stomach at the thought. Could he love a mortal? His heart pounded in his chest, his lips dried and he became thirsty again.

  “How far is your village, Naomi?”

  “Two miles away.”

  “Let’s talk along the way.”

  “What else are we going to do, Michael?”

  Michael followed Naomi from the Nile River towards her village. He believed he could raise a family with Naomi. Lucifer’s ambition made no sense. Why should he desire more when Jehovah already blessed them with so much?

  37

  Michael emerged from the wilderness with a boar he killed. He spent the past two years between Heaven and earth, his love for Naomi growing beyond what he expected.

  The village they once lived in exploded into a large and violent city. He moved Naomi, her parents, brothers and sisters, from the city and into the hill country. Far from the madness and false gods the mortals turned to.

  The angels birthed incredible giants who thrived on unprecedented violence. The giant’s children did likewise and he could not understand why the angels did not correct their deviant spawns.

  Naomi came out their mud brick home, her stomach swollen and round like a gourd. He smiled at her as he cleaned the boar on a stone table. “I see you’re up early.”

  Naomi placed an arm around Michael’s waist. “It’s hard to sleep. I want to eat everything I see, Michael, even this entire pig.”

  “A few more days and the baby will be here. Hav
e you picked a name?”

  “My mother wants to pick a name.”

  “We’ll let her pick two names, one for a boy and one for a girl.”

  “That’s a good idea.”

  Michael put down his knife and washed the pig’s blood from his hands and dried them on a cloth. He pulled Naomi to him and crushed his lips against hers, both their eyes closed. He tasted cinnamon on her breath. He inhaled honeysuckle in her hair. “I love you.”

  “I love you too, Michael,” she said.

  He rested a large hand on her stomach and bent down to kiss the hump just below her full breasts. “I’m almost finished with the boar, I’ll be inside soon. Go rest in the shade.”

  Naomi touched Michaels chin and slipped into the mud brick home. “I’m going to take a nap then,” she said.

  Michael turned to the pig and found Gabriel standing near the strung up animal. “Gabriel,” he said. “I’m surprised you’re down here visiting.”

  Gabriel sat on a wooden stump. “Michael, there is a problem in Heaven.”

  Michael continued to dress down the boar. “I was there last week, everything seemed fine then.”

  “It’s Lucifer, Michael,” Gabriel said.

  “What is my friend up to now?”

  “Lucifer and Jehovah got into an argument yesterday.”

  Michael stopped his work and put down the knife. “What do you mean they got into an argument yesterday, Gabriel?”

  “Lucifer admitted to tempting Adam and Eve.”

  “That happened years ago. God knew what Lucifer did and forgave him.”

  Gabriel picked up a tiny stone from the ground. “Does Naomi know?”

  Michael pursed his lips and turned back to the open doorway. “No. I haven’t told her.”

  Gabriel leaned back on the stool. He opened his large hands. “Michael, why not?”

  “I don’t want to frighten her. You see the monstrosities the other angels have created.”

  “But you’re a divine archangel, Michael. Your child will be blessed. Is that what you’re worried about, having some uncontrolled giant in the house?”