Angel Evolution (22 page)

“I don’t care if you think it’s a good idea, that’s what we’re doing!” Taylor raised her voice again.

Gabriel shouted back, “It doesn’t matter what you think, Taylor! You are going to help destroy the demons either way!”

Taylor threw herself to the side, lying in the fetal position on the bed, her arms covering her face. The uncharacteristic sound of weeping arose from Taylor’s balled up form.

As soon as he had shouted the awful words, he knew he shouldn’t have. The funny thing though, was that it was probably the truest thing he had ever said to her. Their entire relationship had been based on lies and half-truths. He realized that he hated it, and had hated it for some time. Because he loved her. He really, truly loved her.

Fearing the damage he had just caused, Gabriel shifted towards her, placed his hand on her back and said, “Taylor, please, I swear I didn’t mean it the way it sounded. I am so sorry. I truly love you with all my heart. Please, Taylor. Please…” He trailed off. He continued to rub her back, tracing the curves of her slithering tattoo with the tips of his fingers.

Her crying began to lessen and eventually stopped completely, her breathing slowing to a gentle rhythm. She seemed so peaceful that Gabriel began to wonder if she had cried herself to sleep.

Suddenly Taylor sat up and looked at him, her tearstained face clenched with anger. “Has it all been a lie? You say you love me and yet you are willing to let them put me in harm’s way? You’ve been using me the entire time. My mom would not have approved of you.” Taylor spat out the last few words, spit bubbles flying from her lips.

Gabriel knew that the last sentence was the most terrible of all. Taylor had told him all about her mother and the relationship that they had before she died. To not have her mother’s approval was equal to not having Taylor’s approval. The pain of her words ripped through his chest. “No, Taylor, I swear that’s not true. I do love you, with all my heart, and I will do everything in my power to protect you.”

“Okay, then take me away from this damn place,” Taylor demanded.

Gabriel’s mind spun, as he tried to solve a problem with no solution. There were an endless number of potential methods of escaping from the complex; however, each of them would result in a dead end or capture. Getting out of angel headquarters without proper clearance was just as difficult as getting in. And as much clearance as he had
within
the mountain, the one type of clearance he needed—Exit Clearance—he did not have. The only way out would be with the army, when they marched out onto the battlefield.

“I can’t do that. If there was any way I could, I would,” Gabriel said, “but there is no way out now. We have no choice but to follow the Council’s plan.”

“I’m going to die,” she said.

“I promise you, Taylor, I will die to protect you if I have to. I will prove to you that I actually do love you.”

Evidently, Taylor was not in a forgiving mood. “If you loved me you would never have brought me here,” she said accusingly.

On hearing Taylor’s words, Gabriel’s thoughts darkened. Even if he was able to protect her, and the angels defeated the demons, she would never love him again, especially considering that Dionysus’s next move would be to enslave the human race. She would hate him forever, even if he was able to negotiate a relatively normal life for her family in the New World. What was stronger, his devotion to the cause of his people or his commitment to the one he loved? But was it really the cause of his people or just the cause of a few madmen who wanted to dominate the earth? Yes, he had been taught that humans were inferior to angels and maybe they were in some ways, but in other ways they were equal or even superior to angels. They had an incredible capacity to love and to forgive, as well as a willingness to help each other in times of need. Wasn’t it worth reconsidering whether angels could live alongside humans like the demons suggested? Why had he been so
stupid
, so blinded by his own ambition? What kind of monster had he become? His parents had surely not raised him this way. They were kind, loving people, who only supported the supposed “angel cause” because they believed they were protecting the world from the evil demons, the gangsters of the underworld.

Gabriel knew the Council would never change their plans, so he had a decision to make. Sacrifice love and rededicate himself to The Plan, or follow his heart and find another way out of this mess. Seeing Taylor’s anger towards him solidified his decision. He couldn’t live without her and more specifically, he couldn’t live in a world without her love.

This meant three things: he needed to protect her, he needed to prevent her aura from being used to destroy the demons, and he needed to get her the hell out of there.

All of these thoughts spilled through his mind in less than a minute with Taylor staring at the wall, unable to even look at him. He finally said, “Well, I did bring you here and now we at least have a chance to help mankind by winning a war that is being fought on their behalf. I’ll do what I can to protect you and then I will return you to school once it is over. I’ll go check in with the Council to finalize the plans and then I’ll bring some food back for us. We can go through the plans together and then get some sleep. I’m sorry that I let you down, I hope someday you’ll forgive me.”

He said all of this with as little emotion as possible, afraid that his shaky voice would betray him. Gabriel thought it was best if he told one final lie for her own good; it was better if she didn’t know what he was planning. Later, once they had escaped, he would tell her everything, the full truth. If he was lucky, she would forgive him and take him back.

B
ack in the Lair, the Elders had finalized a strategy. Of course a lot was dependent on whether Taylor was already on the angel front lines and when the attack would eventually come. The Elders agreed that the strategy would have to be in place for every battle going forward, as the angels could decide to use Taylor’s power any day they chose. Given his knowledge of Dionysus, Clifford believed the attack would likely come sooner rather than later.

The plan was to first locate Taylor’s position using an infrared scanner—due to the strength of her aura she would show up as a brighter image on the map. Once located, the demons would send all of their troops to her location. The troops would teleport as close to her as they could and draw the attention of any angels defending her. They expected her to have the strongest angels protecting her, including Gabriel.

With the defending angels in front of her distracted by the ferocity of the demon attack, Chris and Sam would attempt to teleport in behind Taylor and get her attention. Ideally, they hoped that if Sam called to her, Taylor would be more willing to come to them without raising an alarm. Chris would then teleport them all back to the Lair.

In the event that Taylor refused to run to them, Chris would do everything in his power to get to her. If he was just able to touch her, he could teleport her to where Sam was waiting and then get them all out safely.

A condition of the entire plan was that Taylor could not be harmed in the process. The attacking demons would be given the strictest instructions to not lay a hand on her and to merely act as a diversion for Chris and Sam.

The meeting adjourned and Chris grabbed Sam’s hand. “You were great in there, I think Clifford really likes you. From now on, if I tell you to let me do the talking, just ignore me. You handled yourself far better than I ever could have.”

Sam smiled at the compliment. “Thanks, I was a bit nervous when I walked in and all those old people were looking at me, but for some reason I always feel the most comfortable when my mouth starts moving.”

“I haven’t noticed,” Chris joked.

“Very funny. Now how ‘bout you give a girl a tour of this crazy place?”

“I would love to, but aren’t you tired yet? It’s nearly midnight.”

“Midnight? Geez, I guess I lost track of time being underground. What time do we need to get up tomorrow?” Sam asked, hoping for a chance to sleep in.

“The good news is that the battles are generally scheduled at around two o’clock in the afternoon, but the bad news is that those participating have to start prepping at nine o’clock in the morning, so if you want time to shower and eat breakfast we’ll need to get up pretty early.”

“Ugh. I guess I can sacrifice some of my beauty sleep to help save Taylor. Wake me up at seven because I definitely want enough time to get ready. A girl’s got to look good if she’s going to be out there saving the world!”

Chris laughed and said, “Sam, you would look good if you rolled from bed and walked straight out the door.”

“Why thank you, Mr. Lyon, you are such a gentleman. Would you mind escorting me to my room?”

“Sure, but once we get there I hope you’ll allow me to stay for a few minutes, just to make sure you’re okay,” he said mischievously.

“I was hoping you would say that,” Sam replied with a sly grin.

G
abriel had been busy. He left Taylor in her room after warning her not to do anything stupid, because there would be guards stationed outside her door for “protection”. Then he left and went back to the War Room. Everyone was gone except for Dionysus and Commander Lewis. They were deep in conversation when he entered unannounced. Dionysus motioned for him to join them.

“Ahh, Gabriel. We’ve been worried about the girl, she seemed quite upset when you left.”

Gabriel knew better than to lie too much to the Head of the Council, so he ensured his response had at least some truth to it. “To be honest, my lord, she didn’t appreciate the fact that her safety was being given second priority in the plan. She feels like she’s being used by the Council. I was able to calm her down and she has still agreed to help us, but we need to be a bit careful how we speak about her when she’s around.”

“I guess I see her point although it doesn’t change the fact that our primary objective will be to use her power to destroy the demons. Anything regretful that happens as a consequence of us trying to achieve that goal will just have to be considered necessary collateral damage.

“However, I think we can easily calm her fears by apologizing and simply lying to her when she is around—perhaps tell her that our primary goal has changed to keeping her safe. How does that sound?”

“I think that could work,” Gabriel said, although he wasn’t sure it would. He didn’t really care either way as he was going to formulate a different plan. “Why don’t you come back with me when I bring her dinner and you can apologize on behalf of the Council.”

Dionysus smiled wickedly. “Excellent. Commander, are we done here?”

“Yessir, we can finish the briefing in the morning.”

“Very good, let’s go pay the girl a visit.”

On the way out, Dionysus pulled Gabriel aside to explain the strategy that had been approved by the Council. Gabriel seemed satisfied with it, although Dionysus left out some of the key points. He didn’t need to know.

After collecting some food from the kitchen, Dionysus and Gabriel knocked gently on Taylor’s door. When there was no answer, Gabriel pushed the door open and said, “Taylor—Dionysus and I are coming in.”

Dionysus glanced around the room. Everything appeared to be in order. As they approached the bed, he could see a slight bump about the size of her body. The sound of heavy breathing came from the bump.

Gabriel got to his knees and touched her shoulder. “Taylor, we’ve brought some food.”

Taylor rolled over and took the food. She began eating greedily, ignoring them completely.

When she finally looked up, she frowned at Dionysus, her eyes narrow and piercing. “How is it?” Dionysus asked.

“Delicious,” she mumbled, her mouth still full.

“Good, we have a fine chef indeed. Taylor, I am here because Gabriel told me you were somewhat distressed earlier.” Taylor’s face was like stone. “He also told me why you were upset and I’ve had a long think about it. I’ve realized how terrible we must have sounded and it really pains me that it has caused you any emotional distress. I want to apologize on behalf of the Council. We were out of line and we have since changed our objectives for the mission, with your safety being our number one priority. Will you please forgive us?” He made his voice as gentle as he could muster, saturated with kindness and caring.

Taylor looked at him thoughtfully and then asked, “That depends, are you only saying all of this because you are afraid that I won’t cooperate?”

Dionysus’s face went white. How dare this
human
girl accuse him of lying? He counted to ten, allowing his blood pressure to return to normal before responding. “My dear, we have been trying to save humankind from the demons for decades and now that we are so close we are just afraid that something will go wrong. However, my apology
is
sincere, because if we don’t protect you, then everything we are working for will be for naught.”

Taylor stared at Dionysus emotionlessly for so long that even the Head of the Council began to feel uncomfortable. Then she suddenly broke eye contact and said, “Okay, I forgive you, please don’t let it happen again. I’ll do whatever you think is necessary to win this war.” She put down the empty plate and said, “I’m pretty tired now so I may just have Gabriel explain the strategy to me in the morning if that’s okay?”

Dionysus replied, “Of course, my dear…and thank you. Sweet dreams.” He turned on his heel and walked out the door, an evil smile forming on his beautiful face.

When Dionysus was gone, Gabriel looked at her curiously and asked, “Am I forgiven, too?”

“I’m not there yet, Gabriel. How can you expect this to work when we only met because you were on a mission to recruit me to your cause?”

“Because I love you,” Gabriel replied simply.

“That might not be enough. We can talk about that after this is all over. Now tell me the plan.”

Wondering how she had figured out that he was making plans of his own, he stammered, “The…the plan? But how? What do you mean?”

Taylor looked at him like he was mad and said, “What is wrong with you tonight, you sound crazy? You know, the big plan, how we are going to defeat the demons?”

Gabriel was relieved that she hadn’t guessed his thoughts and the blood rushed back into his face. “Oh yeah,
the plan
. But you told Dionysus that you wanted to sleep.”

“That was just to get rid of
him
,” she said, motioning to the door that Dionysus had just recently passed through.

Now Gabriel was truly amazed. She had just out-lied one of the world’s best liars. He wondered what else she might have lied about. “Okay, no problem.”

Over the next hour Gabriel took her through the detailed strategy. She wouldn’t have to do much at all, except to act as the conduit for her aura to be used by four specially chosen angel attackers. These attackers were the most powerful in the army and were also considered to be the best marksmen, able to destroy targets from great distances. The four angels would be elevated on platforms so that they would always have a clear line of sight to draw on Taylor’s aura.

The remaining angel forces would be spread out on the field to avoid drawing attention to Taylor’s location. However, as Dionysus promised, Taylor’s safety would be a major concern and the twelve largest angels would be responsible for creating a wall around her. On Gabriel’s recommendation, he was charged with standing next to Taylor as the last line of defense, just in case the main protectors were killed.

When Gabriel had finished, Taylor gave no indication as to whether she approved of the plan. Instead, she just thanked him and wished him a goodnight. Gabriel considered asking her whether she would like him to sleep on the couch, but he already knew the answer, so he just left, promising to wake her for breakfast in the morning.

He went to bed, drifting into a restless sleep filled with dreams about what might happen the next day, the day that would prove to be one of the most important in his life.