Angel Evolution (8 page)

T
aylor had just finished reading through the results of another internet search, for
gargoyles
, when Sam came back from the gym. Taylor’s last piece of research didn’t ease her mind:

“
A French legend that sprang up around the time of St. Romanus ("Romain") (AD 631–641), the former chancellor of the Merovingian king Clotaire II who was made bishop of Rouen, relates how he delivered the country around Rouen from a monster called Gargouille or Goji. La Gargouille is said to have been the typical dragon with batlike wings, a long neck, and the ability to breathe fire from its mouth. There are multiple versions of the story, either that St. Romanus subdued the creature with a crucifix, or he captured the creature with the help of the only volunteer, a condemned man. In each, the monster is led back to Rouen and burned, but its head and neck would not, due to being tempered by its own fire breath. The head was then mounted on the walls of the newly built church to scare off evil spirits, and used for protection. In commemoration of St. Romain the Archbishops of Rouen were granted the right to set a prisoner free on the day that the reliquary of the saint was carried in procession.”

The passage was consistent with what Gabriel had told her about gargoyles. If the demons really did want her dead, she truly hoped that they wouldn’t use a gargoyle to perform the task.

She was brought back to reality when Sam said, “The fitness center is awesome, Tay! You should come with me next time.”

Taylor cringed. “Of course, Sam, you know how I
love
those places,” she replied, her words dripping with sarcasm.

“C’mon, Tay, it’s a great place to meet boys.”

“That is exactly why I hate it. It’s nothing more than a meat market. Everyone gets dressed up in their cute little gym outfits and tries to get noticed. I would much rather exercise on my own in my comfy sweatpants and t-shirt.”

Sam pretended to look crushed. “I guess you don’t need as much help as I do to attract the boys here at college. You’ve already got the hottest one chasing you!”

“Quite a change from our high school days, huh? I can give you some tips if you want,” Taylor joked.

Sam laughed. “That would be great. Seriously though, do you think you’ll meet up with him again tonight?”

“I’m not sure yet.” Taylor tried to be non-committal so that Sam didn’t make too big of a deal of it, but in her mind she knew that she would see Gabriel. Her questions demanded it.

“Well I think you should. This could turn out to be a really good thing for you.”

“I’ll think about it.” Changing the subject, she said, “Are you ready for dinner?”

After a quick shower, Sam was ready. Marla and Jennings joined them on the way out. The group headed to the Commons. Upon arrival, Taylor heaped food onto her plate. Not having breakfast made her hungry for the rest of the day. She ate hurriedly, forgetting that a shorter dinner meant more time to kill before her rendezvous with Gabriel. When they left the dining hall it was seven o’clock; she wished it was eight.

Sam, Marla and Jennings decided to go to the pool hall, but Taylor begged off. She needed some time to clear her head. After a few minutes of walking, she found herself sitting on the bench at the north end of the Commons, where she would meet Gabriel later on.

Her thoughts were muddled as she tried to make sense of everything that had happened in the last two days. She had so many questions and she struggled to put them in a logical order. She liked feeling organized to the point where she thought she might be a little bit OCD, but every answer seemed to lead to ten other questions, leaving her feeling like the situation was in disarray, completely out of her control.

While Taylor waited, the sun went down and the campus security lamps were illuminated. The north end of the Commons was deserted, as it seemed to always be. The entrance faced away from the dorms towards empty fields, and therefore, no one really had any reason to use this side. Perhaps that was why the angel liked to meet her here.

Taylor peered to the right, where a path angled in the direction of the lonely grasslands. Suddenly, she was acutely aware of a presence approaching from the path. Her intuition was proven true when a shadowy figure appeared, ambling towards her. She couldn’t quite make out any of its features, as the presence seemed to create its own darkness, despite walking on the lighted pathway.

Without even thinking about it, she knew it was the demon.

Not just any demon, but the one from her dream. She also knew that her life was over. She was defenseless, a sitting duck waiting to be picked off. Her eyes darted to the entrance to the Commons. It was too far to run, especially given what Gabriel had told her about the lightning-quick speed that demons possessed.

The demon was close now and although it was partially veiled in darkness, she could see its handsome face, which was wearing of all things, a huge smile. If she wasn’t so damn scared she wouldn’t have been able to help but to smile too.

The creature spoke enthusiastically, “Hi there!”

Taylor was stunned momentarily; she had forgotten that demons could speak just like humans. She was more expecting it to snarl and snap at her and then eat her for dinner, but instead its voice was low and pleasant and even soothing. She didn’t answer.

“Are you a freshman at UT, too?” the demon asked.

Now that it was speaking to her, Taylor realized there was a tiny ray of hope that she could survive this encounter. If she could just keep it talking until eight, then Gabriel would arrive to rescue her.

“Uh, yeah,” Taylor said, trying to keep her voice from trembling.

“That’s great, me too,” it said. “My name’s Christopher Lyon.” It extended its hand and she looked at the fingers like they were the hairy legs of a dead tarantula. However, when she saw that it did not have scaly skin, sharp claws, missing fingers, warts, or any other undesirable features, she took its hand and shook it. As it turned out, he had quite nice hands—they were tanned, soft and smooth. Looking over the rest of him again, she saw that his entire body had an even tan, and the tank top he wore showed off a lean, hard body. He had short, dark facial hair that projected a rugged handsomeness usually reserved for tough heroes or cunning villains in the movies. She already knew which category he fell in to.

Taylor realized that she was no longer thinking about
it
as an
it
, and had transitioned to using
he
and
his
in her mind.
That’s dangerous
, she thought.
Don’t trust him….it
.

“I’m Taylor. It’s nice to meet you, Christopher.” She was feeling bolder and decided to try leading the conversation. If nothing else, she would feel more in control. “What are you majoring in?” she asked. “I’m doing Psych.”

“Pre-Med, but I don’t know if I will stay in it. I’ve heard that Bio 4 is a killer,” he said with a slight groan.

“Wow, so you want to be a doctor?” she asked. Taylor noticed she wasn’t feeling particularly scared anymore. The handsome, soft-spoken demon had actually managed to put her at ease. Probably one of his abilities.

“An emergency room surgeon, to be precise,” he said. “You know, like the ones on
ER
and
Grey’s Anatomy
.”

Taylor didn’t know what to think. He seemed so genuine, with an honest face and honest eyes, but Gabriel had warned her that demons were fantastic liars. If he was telling the truth, then she was baffled. Why would a demon want to become a surgeon and save human lives when, according to Gabriel, their ultimate goal was to wipe out the human existence entirely?

“Wow, that’s cool,” she said genuinely. “It sounds like it would be really hard though.”

His beautiful lips parted into a smile as he said, “Yeah, about fifty percent of the students drop out in less than a semester. I think I will be okay though, my best classes were all math and science ones in high school.”

Taylor smiled back at him almost flirtatiously.
What am I doing?
she thought. She never acted this way around anyone, and yet, she was feeling a strange connection with this boy…demon…whatever he was. Not an attraction, but a good feeling. She felt happy and at ease with him. If he wasn’t trying to kill her, she might actually want to be friends with him.

He continued: “Anyway, I have to get going, but we should hang out sometime, if you are interested?”

Two guys asking me out in two days, now that is a record
, Taylor thought.
But neither of them human
, she laughed to herself. Just her luck. “Sure, that would be great, what’s your number?” She saved his cell number in her phone, didn’t offer her own, and watched as he turned and walked away.

What had just happened? Wasn’t
he
the one that was supposed to kill her? You know, the sand down the throat causing a painful death by suffocation? She glanced at her watch; she had ten minutes to go before Gabriel would arrive. She hoped he would come early.

C
hristopher was surprised at how well his first contact with Taylor had gone. She seemed tentative at first, but he
was
a mysterious, dark-looking guy, so that wasn’t really surprising. Maybe Gabriel hadn’t yet told her as many lies as he thought. Maybe there was still a chance. Christopher was glad he had trusted his instincts and approached her. He would continue to be patient and wait for her to contact him on his cell phone.

Lost in his thoughts, he didn’t notice the streak of light overhead. As he continued to puzzle over his conversation with the strange girl, the light came closer and closer, eventually blinding him as it smashed into him.
Damn angels
, he thought, as he was thrown backwards. Christopher was angry with himself for getting so distracted by the girl.

He managed to rip the strong, bright arms off of his shoulders, recovering neatly into a somersault. His demon instincts made this part of his life easy. Fighting angels came naturally to him and he truly enjoyed it. In less than a second, he recognized that it was an overcast night with no trace of the moon’s light and very few stars. That was good for him. The angel’s strength and power must be coming from the lighted pathway and nearby buildings.

With a quick flick of his hand, the campus lamps were covered with webs of darkness, their bright lights extinguished. When he raised his arms above his head for his next maneuver, he was hit from behind by what felt like a freight train.
It was just the angel
, he thought. He could tell that the attack wasn’t nearly as powerful as the initial one, so his trick with the lamps must be working.

Suddenly he was airborne, the angel’s powerful wings propelling them both skyward. He didn’t struggle, knowing that his iron body could easily sustain a fall from this height. At about 100 feet, the angel released him and let him fall like a rock towards the earth. Christopher contorted his body during the free fall, like a skydiver with a disabled parachute, trying to find the best angle to land. Just before hitting the ground, he felt a massive weight on top of him, accelerating him into the earth. He hit head first with a heavy thump that sent mind-numbing shockwaves through every part of his body.

Dazed for a moment, Christopher looked up to find he was in a crater, several feet beneath the surface.
What a clever angel
, he thought to himself. This one was born to be a fighter, it had to be Gabriel. Above him, a bright figure stepped into view, silhouetted against the dark sky.

“Stay away from the girl,” Gabriel said.

“Ahh, Gabriel, it has been too long since our paths have crossed,” Christopher said. “We should really do this more often.”

“Stay away from the girl,” Gabriel repeated, more forcefully this time.

“Now, you know I can’t do that. Not with you spinning all sorts of ridiculous lies in her ear.” Christopher opened his mouth to speak again, another sarcastic comment planned. Instead, all he got was a mouthful of dirt as Gabriel buried him alive.

Despite his super strength, it took a few minutes for the demon to dig his way out of the deep grave that Gabriel had prepared for him. While holding his breath for that long wasn’t difficult for him, it wasn’t very fun with clumps of dirt in his mouth; he nearly gagged two or three times. When he finally escaped the earthy prison, the angel was long gone.

As he spat the remaining filth from his lips, his teeth, and under his tongue, he vowed to get revenge.

S
hortly after Christopher left, Taylor noticed a bright light in the distance, shining from the direction that the demon had left. She thought it might be the angel approaching, but when he didn’t appear after a few minutes, she assumed the light had come from a passing plane or falling star. When her digital watch read ten minutes past eight, she became concerned that Gabriel had stood her up.

Two minutes later, a friendly, “Hey, Taylor, I’m glad you got the message,” startled her from behind.

As she turned and saw the angel she said, “Could you please stop doing that? Arriving from the direction I am facing will be fine. Anyway, you’re late, I almost left.”

He smiled, flashing his brilliant teeth. “Sorry, Taylor, I will try not to let it happen again. I was delayed when I ran into an old friend.” He laughed at this as if it was an inside joke and he was the only one on the inside.

Quickly getting over her initial spat of anger, Taylor tried to lighten things up. “Thanks for the ride home last night.” She smirked. “I am shocked that I didn’t wake up. It’s a bit disappointing that I didn’t get to experience another trip on the greatest amusement park ride around.”

“Oh you liked that, did you? You are my first passenger so it’s nice to hear such positive feedback,” he said. “Would you like another ride tonight?”

“Hmm, tempting,” she said, “but I think I’ll pass. After everything that happened last night, I wouldn’t mind keeping tonight as normal as possible so that I know for sure it’s not just some weird dream caused by the meatloaf I ate for dinner last night.”

“Fine by me. Why don’t we just find a quiet corner in the Commons to chat for a while?”

Taylor agreed and a minute later they found a spot in the empty study hall; students wouldn’t start using this space much until later in the semester when mid-year exams were scheduled.

Taylor said, “I have more questions.” She wanted to control the conversation this time as she didn’t want to be sitting in class the next day, unable to concentrate because of unanswered questions from her conversations with the angel.

“Fair enough. I also want to thank you for not overreacting when you saw me yesterday,” Gabriel said.

If he only knew what I was thinking when I first saw him, he might not be thanking me
, Taylor thought to herself. In any case, she was glad that she was able to appear relatively unfazed upon seeing a real living, breathing angel. “No problem,” she said casually. “That leads to my first question: Why the hell did you show me what you are? You told me a couple of times that I was the first person…I mean, the first human, to see you as an angel. So…why me?”

“You are special,” he replied. “As I alluded to yesterday, you observe certain details about me that most people don’t, or can’t, see. For example, the glow that you noticed is something that I have to control. Around most humans I can keep it sufficiently dim that they can’t even see it. However, to your eyes, I am never able to decrease the brightness enough; it seems you will always be aware of it….which makes you special.” He paused to let her take it in.

“So you showed your
angelness
to me because you knew I could tell there was something different about you? That sounds ridiculous, you could have just stayed away from me or transferred to a different school and I never would have known a thing about angels and demons.”

Gabriel’s face lit up with excitement. “Now you are getting to the heart of my reasoning. It is not
because
you could see my light, rather
why
you were able to see my light. That’s what makes you special.

“We, as angels, refer to it as your aura. Each human has an aura, and as far as we know, it has always been that way. An aura is a light that comes from within you. In humans, that light is generally very dim, as opposed to angels, who have extremely bright auras. Because there is such a contrast, we refer to humans as having an aura and angels as having an inner light.

He continued, “Your aura is much stronger than
all
other humans.”

Taylor’s eyes widened. “Why?” she asked.

“We have no idea,” Gabriel said.

“Okay, so I have this big aura which allows me to see who you really are. Big freakin’ deal. That still doesn’t explain why you revealed yourself to me.” Taylor’s eyebrows were tensed into a scowl; she was getting frustrated upon hearing so much new information, but still not getting an answer to her basic question:
Why me?

“Sorry,” Gabriel said. “I’m still getting to that. Because angels have the ability to harness the power of light, we are also able to harness the aura of humans. With most humans, however, the aura is so small that the incremental power gained from them is of no real use to us. Even if we were to try to harness the power of a hundred humans, or a thousand, for some reason the power gained is not cumulative. In other words, we can only use the power of the strongest aura amongst the group.”

“Are you saying that I am some kind of an angel weapon?”

Gabriel’s eyebrows arched in surprise. “Very perceptive, but I wouldn’t exactly phrase it that way. You are not the weapon; more precisely, you are a potential power source for our angel fighters.”

“Yeah, but how many could I power? Two or three angels?”

Gabriel laughed. “Taylor, when I say you are special, I mean you are
really
special. You could actually power the entire angel army.”

Now it was Taylor’s turn to laugh. This was getting absurd. She was just a rather average girl that had never done anything particularly amazing in her whole life and now she was supposed to believe that she was the secret weapon for a clandestine army of angels fighting a secret war against a vicious band of demons? She laughed again.

“What’s so funny?” Gabriel asked curiously.

“Oh, nothing. I just didn’t realize that whenever I stumbled over my words or said something stupid or tripped over my own feet that it was really just my incredible aura doing it all.” Taylor smirked.

“Very funny. Your aura doesn’t affect your daily life and as far as we know, angels are the only beings that have any use for it. If you don’t believe me, we could do a simple test?”

“What sort of test?”

“I can harness your power and verify its strength.”

Taylor tried to look nonchalant. “Will it hurt?”

Gabriel said, “Nah, it may actually make you feel good, almost like a drug.” Gabriel knew from the human testing that occurred in the ‘60s that the short-term effects on a human were, in fact, kind of like a buzz and that eventually the human subjects would crave the angels’ use of their auras to the point of addiction. He certainly wasn’t going to mention the known effects of prolonged use of her aura; namely, deterioration of her vital organs, decreased lung capacity, various forms of cancer, and ultimately, death.

“Okay fine, but only one test and just for a short amount of time.”

Trying to hide his excitement, he said, “Let’s go.”

So much for tonight being normal
, Taylor thought, as they left the Commons.

Twenty minutes later, they were deep in the grassy field past the north end of the Commons. Along the way, Gabriel had answered her many questions about what other kinds of powers angels had and what effect her aura would have on them.

He described the many abilities that he had at his disposal, including complete control of the power of light, extraordinary senses, and super strength. Not to mention the ability to fly at impressive speeds and with perfect precision. He also compared his standard angel powers to a Volkswagen Bug. He said that by using her aura, he should become more like a red Ferrari.

In her mind she thought how funny it was that someone as perfect as he was thought they needed improvement. It made her feel even more average than usual.

“Okay,” he said. “I’m going to start with one of my simple powers with no help from you.”

“Go for it,” she said, thinking she would have no idea how to
help
when the time came.

Gabriel backed away a few paces and aimed his arm in the direction of one of the many hay bales that dotted the field. Without warning, an orb of light was discharged from his hand. The ball of energy collided with the target less than a second later, creating a circle of blinding light.

Taylor looked away, shielding her eyes. When she turned back, the hay was gone and in its place was a single, thin wisp of smoke and a fist-sized hole in the ground. She looked up at the dark sky, seeing only a handful of stars between the large clouds. Then she did a full three hundred and sixty degree turn. She could barely make out the lights from the campus in one direction. Looking back at Gabriel she could see that he was, by far, the brightest object in their near vicinity.

“Pretty impressive,” she said, “but it was only hay.”

“I can show you later, but the impact would have been nearly the same had it been a brick wall. However, on a demon’s flesh, a weak attack like that would have been easily repelled,” he explained.

“I thought you said you needed light to use your powers? It’s a dark night and we aren’t even near artificial lighting,” Taylor asked.

“My sensitivity to light is so high that I can draw enough power from the few stars in the sky to do what you just saw.”

Now she really was impressed, although she wouldn’t admit it. The stars were millions or even billions of miles away, but somehow this angel was able to tap into their energy.

Ready for more, she asked, “What’s next?”

“Ahh, now for the real fun. Let’s see what we can do between the two of us.” He rubbed his hands together.

“What do I need to do anyway?”

“That’s the cool part,” Gabriel explained, “you don’t actually have to do anything. You just stand there looking pretty the way that you do.”

Taylor’s heart skipped a beat upon hearing the beautiful angel refer to her as pretty, but she hid it by snapping, “Well on with it then!”

Gabriel seemed immune to her abruptness. “As you wish, my queen,” he said.

He looked at her intently, as if he was studying a piece of modern art at a trendy gallery, and then forcefully extended one arm towards her and the other towards a large rock outcropping on the edge of the field.

Before Taylor saw the light, she felt her stomach drop, like she was in a free fall on a wild amusement park ride. She felt a warm tingling throughout her body; the feeling extended to her outermost extremities, from her fingernails to her toes to the tip of her nose, and everywhere in between. The sensation was not unpleasant like a foot falling asleep or hitting a funny bone; rather, it was like the bubbles from a sauna, kneading and massaging sore parts of her body. She noticed that she was now glowing similarly to Gabriel, her aura manifesting itself visibly. At that moment, for the first time in her life, she experienced complete, unchained, irresponsible, beautiful, pure happiness.

All of these feelings and emotions poured through Taylor’s body in less than five seconds, and then a massive beam of light was projected from Gabriel’s outstretched arm. Gabriel roared; it didn’t sound like a cry of pain or fear, but rather a bellow of sheer physical effort. The beam charged through the large rocks as if they were made of recycled paper, and continued on a destructive course, tearing a wide path through the night-cloaked forest.