Angel Evolution (12 page)

“I ask for a mere four or five months, until the end of the school semester, to convince her to join our cause. Thank you again for your consideration.” Gabriel finished with a flourish of energy and was pleased to see at least a few nodding heads and smiling faces.

Dionysus reclaimed center stage. “Well, I never expected such a strong performance from my counterpart, and after that speech I am half-tempted to switch sides myself!” Most of the members laughed heartily at his joke, although Gabriel couldn’t help but feel proud of the accolades poured out upon him by the Head of the Council.

“While I think there is definite merit to Gabriel’s opinion and I admire his confidence in his ability to carry out this plan, I wholeheartedly disagree with his proposed approach. I have a number of concerns, the first of which is that I think it is hard to believe that a human being would forsake her own race, no matter how much of a charmer Gabriel is.” Dionysus winked at Gabriel as he said this.

“Secondly, I fear that with a weapon of this magnitude nearly in our hands, we would be foolish if we did not grab it and take advantage of it. The demons are as cunning as they are deadly and I do not believe that they will wait on the sidelines as we slowly brainwash the girl.

“Lastly, I agree with Gabriel that the girl could prove to be of use to us even after the demons are eradicated, but as foretold, her main purpose is to help us win the War. While possible, there is no guarantee that she will die in that cause, regardless of whether she joins us willingly. Please consider these points as you vote.” He ended succinctly, looking each member in the eyes as he formulated the words.

The members began looking around, some of them whispering to each other. Then there was a brief span of silence which allowed them to think about what they had just heard and frame any questions.

Gabriel was bothered by the silence and tried to distract himself by looking at each of the Council members in turn. Each of them was beyond four decades in age and, although their bodies were beginning to show some wear, each was stunningly beautiful by human standards. From what they told him, none of them had used the power of immortality to take on a new body. To Gabriel’s knowledge, Dionysus was the only angel that had ever moved to a new body.

There were seven males, including Dionysus, and five females on the Council. Since the creation of the Council, only three members had ever needed to be replaced, all of them killed in battle by the demons.

Generally the members would not participate in actual fighting and were instead responsible for the overall strategy. However, during one particularly pivotal battle, half of the Council had elected to join the army ranks as they always had the option to do. The battle was fierce and many angels and demons were destroyed, leaving less protection for the six Council members who were fighting. According to the stories that Gabriel had heard, they fought valiantly, killing many demons before all six were struck down, three dead and three seriously wounded. The three that had died were replaced and the three that were wounded remained on the Council to this day, although they had never elected to return to battle.

When it seemed that Gabriel could endure the silence no longer, Michael, who was Dionysus’s second in command, said, “I’m not sure what else there is to think about, we are so close to finishing this war, let’s bring the girl in and end it now.”

Gabriel’s heart sank. With both Dionysus and Michael recommending the aggressive course of action, it would likely be ratified unanimously by the remaining members. Gabriel’s shoulders slumped and his head dropped, ready for the defeat that was sure to come.

“I disagree. I don’t think it is that simple.” Gabriel heard the words, but couldn’t comprehend them. Who had spoken? He raised his head and saw that it was the angel who had complimented him on the success of his mission. His name was Andrew. Gabriel’s eyebrows lifted in surprise and he looked around, curious to see if any of the other angels would agree with Andrew.

“I, for one, would vote with Gabriel at this juncture,” said another angel. Gabriel remembered that her name was Johanna. He held his breath. Did he have a chance?

Michael said, “Okay then, it seems it will not be unanimous, so why don’t we take a preliminary vote to determine whether we need to discuss the details of the situation further. All those in favor of Dionysus’s plan…” Five hands went up, including Michael’s and Dionysus’s. Gabriel’s heart skipped a beat. They only needed one more vote to win, but they didn’t have it yet.

“All those in favor of Gabriel’s plan…” To Gabriel’s shock, five hands went up in his favor, completely based on the magnitude of his short speech. Gabriel had to do everything in his power to control the urge to raise his own arm in support of his proposal.

Michael continued: “So we have two undecided at this point, Thomas and Sarah, if my memory serves me correctly.” The two undecided angels nodded once to confirm.

“As always, the angels that have chosen one side or the other in the preliminary vote have the right to change their vote at any time in the process before the final vote. As Dionysus explained earlier, Gabriel will need both of the undecided votes in his favor in order to have his plan win. Now, Thomas and Sarah, what questions do you have to help you make your decision?” Throughout the voting and Michael’s speaking, there was no reaction from Dionysus, his poker face hiding his thoughts well.

Thomas began with, “Gabriel, my biggest concern is one that Dionysus stated. I am worried that the demons will be able to disarm the girl before we are able to use her. How big of a risk do you think that is?”

Gabriel was ready for the question. “Based on what I have seen on the ground thus far, I believe it to be a very low risk. Currently, the demons only have one resource in place at the university, Christopher Lyon—who is merely a fly on the wall—to watch what I am doing. He has had multiple opportunities to abduct the girl, but has made no attempt. I had one minor clash with him and I easily defeated him. I could have probably killed him had I wanted to, but I didn’t want to stir things up with the demons before I had a chance to fulfill my mission in its entirety.

“I would also like to add that if you select my plan, I will certainly continue to report to the Council regularly regarding my progress as well as any demon activity in the area, and if anything changes we can always reconvene and decide to modify the plan.”

“Thank you, Gabriel, that satisfies my question,” Thomas replied. “You now have my vote as well.”

Gabriel tried to look calm and collected, but inside he was jumping for joy. The vote was even now with just Sarah to convince. She took the floor.

She said, “My concern is more about your ability to turn the girl. If you are unable to do this in the next few months, it will have been a complete waste of time and may jeopardize the entire operation. How confident are you that you can do what you say you can?”

Gabriel had also expected Sarah’s question and answered it boldly. “While it is impossible to be certain of anything these days, I am highly confident that I will be successful. From our research we know that this is a girl who has never been in love before and we all know the power of a human’s first love. In a matter of a few days, I have already stolen her heart, and while at this time I am not in a position to bend her to our every will, I know that by cultivating her love for me I will soon be able to attract her to our cause. With her as a willing partner, we will reap much more value from her, thus guaranteeing our future success.”

Sarah smiled. She was clearly impressed with the young angel’s ability to move an audience with words. She also seemed to admire his confidence. “I, too, am satisfied and will vote in your favor. I call for a final vote if no one has any other questions?” Gabriel felt like he was out of his body and floating through the room as he realized that, just like that, he had won.

No one had any additional questions and Michael asked whether anyone had changed their vote from their preliminary position. No one had. Michael concluded: “In that case, there is no need for a final vote as the two votes needed by Gabriel have been pledged and his plan has been approved by the Council. Good luck to you and we look forward to hearing continued reports of your success with the girl.”

Dionysus added, “Congratulations, son, you are a worthy adversary. I think we have all seen great leadership potential in you today.”

Gabriel tried to act cool as he said, “Thank you, my lord, I will not let the Council down.” Not wanting to show them how truly happy he was, Gabriel turned and walked through the twin doors, which were already opening, as if by magic.

Once outside the building, he took a deep breath and yelled, “Woohoo!” He sprinted for the angel take-off circle and then sprang into the air, wings already extended as he sped off into the dark night sky.

T
aylor had looked for Gabriel at dinner, but didn’t see him anywhere. She had wrongly assumed that they would go together. She wondered where he could be. Christopher had met Sam, Taylor, Marla and Jennings at the Commons and they had all gone to one of the cafés together. This time, Taylor was the odd one out.

Taylor had planned to give Gabriel an earful: about how childish he had acted at lunch; about how Sam was her best friend and she would support her in anything, even dating a demon; about how maybe Christopher was an exception to the rule that all demons are evil. But now, Taylor was worried that something had happened to him. She hadn’t seen him since…well, since he had confronted the demon.

Christopher had asked her whether Gabriel was coming and she honestly didn’t know so that’s what she said. As she answered Chris, Taylor tried to read his face to see if he was hiding anything with his question; however, he seemed to have no idea where Gabriel might be. Taylor was somewhat surprised by the strength of her disappointment when dinner was over, and Gabriel had not yet made an appearance.

As they were walking out of the Commons, her phone vibrated. It was a text from Gabriel. She couldn’t have been happier with what it said:

Hey beautiful, so sorry i missed dinner. I went 2 my guidance counselor 2 change 1 of my classes and then i wanted 2 start reading the assignment 4 my new class. lost track of time at the library. still here, prob have another hr of reading. I really want 2 see u tonight tho, do u have time?

Taylor was giddy at the thought of seeing him, but played it cool when she replied:

No probs, had dinner with the usual gang. Have a couple of things planned, but could prob catch up with u at 9ish?

He answered straight away:

Perfect, see u at 9 at our spot.

Despite her relief at hearing from him, she had to swallow a bite of anger. Not only had he acted like an idiot during lunch, but he had also completely forgotten about her all day. His excuse was just an excuse—it wouldn’t have taken more than thirty seconds to send a text message to her earlier, letting her know he would miss dinner. She took a deep breath, intent on controlling her anger.

Only two hours to kill
, Taylor thought. The time would crawl by as those “things” she said she had to do amounted to walking back to her room and laying on her bed. That would take up about five minutes.

“Who are you texting?” Christopher asked.

She had forgotten the demon was walking with them. She had actually forgotten that she was walking with anyone. “Gabriel. He’s in the library and forgot about dinner.”

“He forgot about
youuuu
, you mean,” Christopher joked.

Taylor didn’t find it funny. “No, Sherlock, he was being responsible and studying and lost track of time. For your information, I
am
meeting up with him soon.”

Sam grinned. “That’s great, Tay, I was getting worried about you. I thought you were going to kill someone at dinner, you looked so miserable.”

Taylor’s face showed genuine surprise. “I…I did? Sorry, I didn’t even realize it. I guess I wasn’t very good company.”

“That’s okay,
Tay
. We had fun anyway,” Christopher said, continuing to joke with her.

Not in a bad mood anymore, Taylor smiled and went on the offensive. “I saw that you were way too busy stuffing your face to have said much either. After the 13 pieces of pizza at lunch today, I thought you wouldn’t need to eat for the next few days. Be honest, Chris, are you eating for two?”

Christopher found this really funny and started laughing so hard that his sides were shaking. Inadvertently, he snorted as he was laughing, which made the whole group crack up.

They all went back to Taylor and Sam’s room to hang out before bed. Already, Taylor really liked this part of college. Making friends and having the time and freedom to get to know them was really cool. Eating, talking, laughing: those were her main responsibilities now. Oh, and a little bit of homework and school on the side, of course.

The two hours or so went by really quickly. Marla and Jennings left after about an hour to do some homework, but Chris stayed the entire time. He and Sam were really hitting it off and Taylor had to grudgingly admit that he was fun to be around. Demon or no demon, he had a good sense of humor and seemed to be a pretty nice guy.
I’d better not tell Gabriel that though
, she thought.

When it was five minutes before nine o’clock, she told Sam and Chris that she had to go meet Gabriel.

“I’d better get going, too,” Chris said.

“Oh c’mon, it’s still early, stay for a little while,” Sam said. There was a gleam in her eyes. Taylor had seen that look before.

Anxious to avoid walking out of the building with Chris, Taylor said, “Yeah, you guys stay and have fun, I’ll be back soon.”

Chris agreed to stay for a while, although Taylor could tell he wanted to follow her. She wondered what he would have done. Would he have picked a fight with Gabriel? Would he have tried to hurt her? She couldn’t really imagine him being violent; he just seemed to be so good-natured.

She left the room, closing the door on the way out.