Angel in Training (The Louisiangel Series, Book One) (12 page)

I chewed on my lip, thinking it through. It
did actually make a lot of sense to me. “And how do the Cherubim
become the spanner in the works?” I asked, actually bracing myself
for the mind melt that was coming.

“A difference of opinion,” Veronica said.

At the same time, Cupid pulled a face.
“Something which was so close to being considered another
rebellion.”

I looked between the two who were suddenly
glaring at each other.

“We didn’t rebel, and we were never going
to!” Veronica snapped at him.

“Oh puh-lease,” Cupid sniped. “You all but
called God an idiot.”

My mouth fell open. Perhaps there was hope
for me yet. “What?” I demanded.

Cupid shot Veronica a silencing look and then
turned to me. “They think there will be another uprising.”

“And apparently we’re idiots for thinking
that the Fallen and the Nephilim will want revenge for being denied
entry into Heaven. Puh-lease yourself,” she shot at Cupid. “You’re
just naive,” she turned to me. “When it happens, mankind is going
to need all the help it can get and that’s what we said – we
requested to be put on earth.”

“And screwed up the system in the process.
Now the Thrones are trying to do the work of the Cherubim while
they are stuck doing the work the Angels should be doing,” Cupid
said, although at this point, I was beginning to think he had
forgotten I was there. “You are so lucky you didn’t fall in the
process.”

Somehow, the good natured bickering the two
frequently shared had suddenly become a little vicious. I didn’t
like it. “So how does being gay work?” I blurted out.

Cupid and Veronica froze and then turned
their heads in slow motion to gape at me. “Seriously?” Cupid asked.
“Please tell me I don’t have to draw a diagram.”

I quickly shook my head. “That’s not what
I meant,” I quickly told them, flushing in embarrassment. “It’s
just, you’re saying we can’t have relations with humans, and yet
you both like human guys. On top of that, you’ve only just told me
it’s like a different species. I’m sorry, but I don’t stare at a
cat as it walks past me and think ‘
phwoar
’.”

There was a moment of bewildered silence, and
then the pair burst out laughing. I tried to keep a straight face,
but then I was laughing too.

“Do you want to know the real difference
between angels and humans?” Cupid asked, as the laughter finally
died down.

“It might help,” I nodded, my tone somewhat
dry.

“
Okay, man was created in His image,” Cupid
indicated to his vessel. “For us, our true form is, well, I suppose
the only thing it can be compared to is a big ball of energy. We
don’t really have a shape. We use vessels because it enables us to
be around humans, but we cannot invade a living human. They have to
be dead. That’s a difference too. Humans are born, they grow and
then they die. We don’t. We just
are.
If it wasn’t for the Fallen, we wouldn’t die either. We
could just remain the same for eternity. Finally, we don’t need
faith. We know.”

“We’ve never known anything different,”
Veronica sighed, reaching for her drink. “Plus I haven’t exactly
had much interaction with humans until the last few centuries.”

“Okay, this is depressing,” Cupid sighed. “Do
you have any other questions, or can we dance?”

I thought about it. I really wanted to ask
about the Nephilim, but neither Cupid nor Veronica seemed to want
to discuss that topic further. Asking about the Cherubim was likely
to bring about another argument they already seemed to have
forgotten about. I shook my head and allowed Cupid and Veronica to
pull me onto the empty dance floor, unable to keep the smile from
my face. Finally, things were making sense to me.

For the first hour or so, we were the only
ones dancing, and for once, I really didn’t care. When I was alive,
I would never have gone out onto an empty dance floor. Yet here I
was happily dancing like there was no one else in the room. By
happily dancing, the three of us were doing everything from a bad
Moonwalk to the Macarena.

I was feeling the happiest I had since dying,
and possibly for some time before that too. I had been so stressed
with my upcoming senior year and what was happening next that I
hadn’t just relaxed for a night. It was strange. I now had no
control over my future – I had one option: to become an angel. Of
course, I was going to try to become an archangel because it
sounded a damn sight more interesting than playing errand boy, but
right at that moment, the only thing I was interested in was
dancing with my friends.

We were in high spirits on the way home,
singing along to the radio, dancing on the spot in our seats. It
earned us a few stares off the few passers-by, but it just made us
laugh even more.

It wasn’t until we were pulling onto the
interstate to avoid the traffic when the ringing started. “And he
beckons,” I sighed to my friends. “It would have been nice to have
an uninterrupted night, but never mind.”

“At least you had some fun first,” Veronica
pointed out, swiveling around to face me from her position in the
passenger seat. “And you could always show him the steps to the
Macarena – that might scare him off.”

“The guy defeated Lucifer. I’m fairly certain
that even Angel’s dancing isn’t as scary as that,” Cupid mused
thoughtfully.

“I don’t know,” Veronica teased, though I
caught her winking at Cupid.

“Maybe I should just let you sing at him,” I
teased back.

The ringing didn’t stop until I was standing
outside Michael’s door. I took it as a cue to enter and stepped
into his office. “You rang?” I asked him cheerfully.

I was greeted by a stony glare as he stepped
out from behind his desk. He pointed to the chair in front of it
and I quickly sat down. He was glowering at me now, his arms
folded, and I couldn’t for the life of me work out what I had
done.

“Angel, please repeat the rules back to me,”
he said slowly.

“Don’t tell anyone I’m an angel, don’t tell
anyone I’m at the convent, don’t drink, don’t do drugs, don’t have
sex,” I quickly recited. “Oh,” I exclaimed, working out what he was
angry about. “I didn’t drink. We were on non-alcoholic drinks all
night.”

A small vein in his hairline started to
pulse. “Wrong rule,” he told me, struggling to keep his voice
level.

I was confused – I didn’t know which other
rule I had broken, and told him as such. “I don’t know what you’re
talking about.”

“Would you care to tell me how it was your
aunt came calling while you were out?”

I blinked. Well that wasn’t possible. I
hadn’t spoken to my aunt, unless you counted that dream, and let’s
face it – dreams aren’t exactly like phone calls. They’re your
subconscious helping you to deal with something that is bothering
you. “But-” I tried to explain, but Michael was having none of
it.

“It appears that you have too much free time
on your hands, Angel. As such, I am increasing your training
sessions and you will undertake additional duties as a
messenger.”

“But-” I tried to explain again.

Again, he cut me off, holding his hand up. “I
don’t want excuses.” He leaned behind him and picked a cream
envelope off his desk, handing it to me. “You can start with this
one.”

“Baton Rouge?” I exclaimed as I read the
address. “That’s over an hour away.”

“You’d best get driving then,” he informed
me. “And change into something appropriate before you go.”

I stalked out of the room, not caring if I
slammed the door behind me. Stupid archangel. I knew for a fact
that the only time I had spoken to my aunt since I’d died was in
that dream and that didn’t really happen. Which meant someone else
had spoken to her, not me. He wouldn’t even hear me out. I may have
thought that the rules sucked, but I wasn’t going to go out of my
way to break them, three days into being an angel.

I contemplated ignoring his request to change
but thought better of it, although I didn’t remove the makeup. I
grabbed a set of car keys and began my journey to Baton Rouge.

I’d only visited Baton Rouge a couple of
times, but I recognized the address that was given to me. It was
hard not to really – it was one of the riverboat casinos which sat
on the Mississippi. I had no idea what business angels have with a
casino and because I was still in a bad mood when I got there, I
didn’t even question it. I just marched up to the security guy at
the door and told him I had a message for somebody called
Mr.
Cajetan
 .
As soon as the guard saw the envelope, he waved a hostess over and
she led me to an office in the upper levels of the boat where the
man was waiting for me.

He resembled a bird with his long neck and
beaked nose, but he didn’t seem surprised that I was delivering a
message at two in the morning. He simply took it off me, read it,
made a scrawling on it, and gave it back to me.

Wordlessly, I stalked back to the car,
throwing the paper on the passenger seat before turning the
ignition on. I drove back to the convent in silence, trying to work
out who could have possibly spoken to my aunt, or who seemed to
have it out for me.

The only people I knew were Cupid and
Veronica, and of course Michael. The first two were my friends, and
the last, well I couldn’t understand why he would make something
like that up. The only other person who knew I was dead was Josh –
but he didn’t know I was at the convent.

Being dead was more confusing than being
alive. My confusion, however, had turned to anger by the time I
pulled back my covers and slipped into my bed. All I really wanted
to do was give Michael a piece of my mind – how dare he accuse me
of something without any proof? I rolled onto my side, yanked the
covers over my head and forced myself to get some sleep.

Dream Walking

I was dreaming again. I had to be, because I
could walk on clouds. That’s where I was – up in the sky, wandering
around on clouds. They felt solid enough that I wasn’t worried that
I would fall through, but at the same time, they felt squishy
underneath my feet.

It was also pleasantly warm with a soft
breeze on my naked arms. I glanced down at myself. Tonight I was
wearing a barely-there strappy black top with a pair of fitted
jeans, although my feet were bare, and my hair was still,
unfortunately, red.

I kept walking, taking in the wonderful
views. Then I came across a figure, his back to me. I recognized
him straight away. Michael. Perfect. If I couldn’t rant at him when
I was awake, I was damn well going to do it in my dreams, and there
was nothing he could do about it.

I marched right up to him and jabbed him in
the shoulder, causing him to whirl around in alarm. “Angel?”

“Damn straight,” I growled at him. “And I
have a bone to pick with you.” I held my hand up, silencing him
from whatever comment he was going to make – this was my dream, not
his.

“
How
dare
you accuse me of breaking rules?” I asked him, my temper
already bubbling. “Yes, I think half of the damn things are
completely ridiculous, but they’re rules and I would
never
go out of my way to break
them.” He opened his mouth again, but I jumped in quickly. “You
tricked me into being an angel – maybe not intentionally, but I
would never have signed on if I knew you were going to be my Nazi
slave driver for all of eternity,” I ranted. The dam had burst and
I couldn’t hold back. “I am trying. I am trying so hard and even
then I can’t keep up with what you want me to do. I have been dead
three days.
Three
. And you
know what I mean,” I added, seeing his expression.

“And to top it all off, you brought me back
to the city I have been living in for the past seven years. I have
friends here – family – and I’m not allowed to tell them? Fine, I
won’t, and I haven’t, but what happens when I bump into them? It’s
not that big a city for it to be an impossibility. So are you
saying that I should spend all my time in that stupid convent?

“Yes, I have issues with that convent too.
Would it kill anybody to have some color on the walls? Or a
television, or computers – if I have to spend my life confined to
those four walls, wouldn’t it be nice to have something to occupy
my time with other than a stupid Bible?”

“Angel!” Michael snapped, finally cutting me
off. “I want you in my room immediately.” And then he
disappeared.

* * *

I awoke with a start to the familiar sound of
bells ringing in my head. That rant had been exceedingly cathartic,
although now the incessant ringing had started up again, I was
beginning to realize it hadn’t been enough.

I stomped upstairs to his rooms refusing to
get changed. If he was going to summon me at ridiculous hours in
the morning, well I was going to appear in whatever the hell I
wanted. As usual, the ringing stopped as soon as I approached the
door – not that they would have stopped me from marching in like I
did. “What?” I demanded, crossing my arms over my chest. “What the
hell is so important that you couldn’t possibly wait for me to get
more than an hour’s sleep?”

I glared at him, trying to remain angry, but
he was very distracting. He was wearing a pair of green silken
pajama bottoms, and those alone. His bare chest was staring at me
with its naked glory, and boy was it glorious. Like the rest of
him, it was perfectly sculptured, and it was perfectly
distracting.

He was also watching me in bewilderment,
like somehow
I
had solved the
greatest mystery on earth. I sighed. “What have I done
now?”