Angel's Messiah (35 page)

Danny said nothing. Technically it wasn’t a question, and he didn’t feel obliged to answer. Michael realised this would not be an easy thing, extracting information from Danizriel about his wife. If he needed to assert his authority, he would. After all, Danizriel had declined his wings. He was still just a regular soldier, albeit a very skilled one.

“
Do
you know what she’s doing, Danizriel?”

“She is making the mortal world a better place,” Danny replied.

“Are they her words? Do you truly believe that?” Michael asked.

“They are
my
thoughts. We do too little, Michael,” Danny said in frustration. “Even our attempts to purge the world of demons seem half-hearted at best. Helena, with all her passion, is more driven than we’ll ever be.”

“Then you condone her actions?” Michael asked in disbelief.

“She does what she does to prevent others from being hurt needlessly, to stop the hate from spreading. Is that so wrong?”

“And the killing of children does not bother you?”

Danny was confused. Were they talking about the same thing?

“Helena only seeks to purge the world of those responsible for Gina’s death.”

“Perhaps at first,” Michael said sadly, “but now she has decided their sons must die.”

“
What?
” Danny asked.

“She will kill the sons of the fathers,” Michael repeated.

“That was
not
part of her plan.”

“Women are fickle creatures, so I have heard, prone to chopping and changing,” Michael offered as way of explanation.

Danny shook his head. “This is not something Helena would do if she were of sound mind. Something must have happened to push her to this.”

“Surely the death of your daughter is enough provocation,” Michael said.

“No, it was not her intent to harm children,” Danny said firmly.

Michael turned to look at Danny and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Danizriel, if you want to save her soul, you must stop her. If you cannot, we will.”

“Then send me to her, Michael, and I shall save her or die by her hand,” Danny said emphatically.

“So be it,” Michael said, and Danizriel was gone.

Michael wondered if Danizriel’s life was destined to be taken by the same woman twice.
He
had a strange sense of humour at times. Anything was possible.

26.
Time to Stop

Mike glanced in Rod’s direction, and as one they moved towards Helena. Before they reached her someone else appeared in front of them, blocking their path. They took a few steps backward, not knowing exactly what was going on.

“Danny,” Helena said, peeking around him to see where the boys were. “What are you doing here? Have you changed your mind about helping me?”

Danny held his arms out protectively behind him, trying to shield the boys.

“I’m here to help you, Helena, but not by murdering children. It’s time to stop. You accomplished what you set out to achieve,” Danny said.

The boys had gone quiet. They didn’t feel in control of the situation anymore and sensed danger. Helena looked at the door briefly and locked it. The boys were trapped now, unless she or Danny let them out.

“If you’d heard what they’ve been saying you’d agree the world would be a better place without them,” Helena said, trying to convince Danny she was doing the right thing.

“They’re only children, Helena.”

“And what was Gina?” she asked. “Move out of the way, Danny. I’ll send you away if I must.”

Danny shook his head. “Not today, Helena. You can try all you like, but a higher authority has sent me here, and either we leave together, or I die here. There’s no in-between.”

The fire in Helena’s eyes flared brighter. She felt like she was being backed into a corner, and would either have to fight or submit. It was submitting that had brought her here in the first place. She would not submit to another Dallas, no matter their name.

“Step aside, Danny. If I can’t send you away I
will
hurt you,” Helena warned him.

Danny stood firm. Was the Helena he loved truly lost to him? Had she been so badly warped that she would not be able to see reason? What weapon could he possibly use that would stop her, but not kill her, and save these children?

Helena lifted her hands and Danny saw the whirling eddy of angel fire brewing in her palms.

“I’ve killed you once. I can do it again,” she said calmly. “For Gina I’ll do anything.”

“If you want to live, get down,” Danny whispered to the boys.

Rod and Mike had seen the red glow in Helena’s palms. The eyes they had discounted as fancy contact lenses, but the glow they could not explain. They dropped to the floor and covered their heads with their hands.

Danny raised his hands. Angel ice swirled in his palms in response to the threat of angel fire. He said a quick prayer, hoping he would be strong enough to hold out long enough to make Helena see reason. He did not want Michael’s army, or Michael himself, to descend and take care of her.

“Don’t do this, Helena,” Danny begged.

“Then step aside. I don’t want to hurt you, Danny. Please don’t make me hurt you,” Helena whispered.

“I can’t let you kill these children.”

“They deserve to die,” Helena protested.

“Not by your hand,” Danny replied.

Helena raised her hands higher, and Danny flexed his fingers, waiting for her to make her move. A man cannot share a woman’s mind and touch her soul without learning a little about her. By the same token, Helena knew Danny just as well. If he were to stop her, he would need to think irrationally. He would need to try to think like a mortal. When the moment came, he didn’t face her head-on as she had expected him to do. He dropped to a crouch, and sent his ice in the direction of her hands, counteracting the fire at its nexus.

“No,” she yelled.

Danny heard the boys sobbing. He would need to help them forget, if he and they survived, for this was the stuff that drove mortals to madness.

“Helena,” Danny called out. “You say you’re doing this for Gina. I say you’re not.”

“Liar,” Helena yelled.

“You know that’s
not
true,” Danny called out softly, “I can’t lie. Gina would not want this. She would tell you that all children are precious. These boys are as much victims as Gina was. They’re still young enough to change. You have to give them the chance to make the right choices.”

Helena faltered. Gina had never hurt anyone — she had only
helped
people. Would she really want Helena to let these bastard children live? Would she really want them to have the second chance she should have had? Gina’s smiling face appeared before Helena, as if in a vision. Helena knew it was her own mind that conjured up the image.

“I love you, Little Mother. I trust you to do the right thing,” the vision of Gina said.

Helena dropped her hands to her side and Danny’s angel ice enveloped her torso and arms. She screamed as though her heart had been ripped from her body, and fell to her knees. The noise made the boys cry even louder.

“I love you, Gina,” she whispered.

Helena’s eyes rolled back in her head. She fell sideways from her knees to the floor. Her body convulsed rapidly, her arms and legs jerking.

Danny quickly touched each boy on the forehead and whispered a message into their ears. They closed their eyes and slept. They would wake not knowing what had happened since Sam had left them. They would learn of their father’s death once again, though this time from the police. Hopefully in the care of others they would be placed on a new path, different to the one their father had chosen.

Danny picked up Helena and cradled her body to him. He kissed her forehead and walked towards the door. As their bodies faded he let out a cry and wondered how it had come to this — that husband and wife were pitted against one another, neither wanting to hurt the other, but both refusing to give in.

27.
Dead Inside

Helena had been addicted to the feeling killing gave her — the rush of power and being in control — and after she returned to Eden with Danny she felt empty, withdrawn and in pain. It was like she’d suddenly been made aware she was dead inside. Though he tried, Danny couldn’t reach the spark that had been there, only a month before. He wondered, for the briefest of moments, if it were possible for a person to undergo such a dramatic transformation in such a short time, and knew it was. After all, hadn’t he undergone a transformation of his own not long after he’d met Helena? What had Helena encountered to undergo such a change? She would not talk about it and he could not gain access to her memories, though he tried. She was blocking him out so effectively that nothing could get in, and nothing could get out.

Every day saw the same thing. Danny would take Helena to sit on the garden swing, to enjoy the sunshine, the brightness of the sky and the garden itself. Every night they would return to the cottage and she would lie on the bed and stare blankly at the ceiling.

On this day Danny decided the garden needed to
call
to Helena. He thought of freesias, Helena’s favourite flower, and as far as the eye could see became a huge field of freesias. Danny hoped their perfume would uplift her, yet she sat there with the same blank look on her face, not registering anything.

The sky was so blue it was almost painful to look at. Danny stared into it and wondered what else he could do to try to reach her. He noticed something small and white flutter down from the heights to land in the garden, some distance away. Soon there were more of the small white things, drifting gently down to the ground. It was snowing. He looked towards Helena to tell her what was happening.

Helena was crying silently. Her body was not shaking or trembling as one would expect, and her expression had not changed, but she was crying all the same. This was
something
at least. It was then he realised she was the cause of the snow, which continued to fall for as long as she cried. She was projecting her sadness out into the world around her.

The freesias bent over under the weight of the snow and were eventually buried in a blanket of white. Danny thought that maybe Helena was trying to smother everything that had ever given her pleasure. Already he felt he would suffer the same fate as the freesias. Helena did not respond to his touch, his kiss or even his words of comfort and love. He led her from place to place and guided her to sit, stand and lie, but she was empty — a body that housed nothing.

Helena’s eyes were no longer a fiery red. The fire had gone out when he’d brought her back to Eden, yet they had not returned to their previous colour. They were now a dull and lifeless grey. It seemed that every time the fire in her eyes went out, they were destined to change colour. Perhaps the colour was a reflection of what she was feeling when it happened. Danny thought about the hazel colour Helena’s eyes had been after he’d returned from the dead — it was a lovely warm colour. He remembered the joy she’d been feeling at that time, having him back. Now they were grey, and reflected the emptiness within her — the life that had gone.

Danny took Helena up to the ballroom and played music he’d heard her listen to before. She stood still, hearing the music, yet not caring about it.

When Gina had still been alive — living with them in Eden — Danny had taken the time to seriously study dance, something he took great pains to hide from the women in his life. Both Helena and Gina were passionate about dancing. He’d wanted to surprise them with the dances he’d learned when they were busy doing other things, and he was left to his own devices. He’d never had the opportunity to show them, as Gina had left all too soon. Now he decided that Helena may benefit from his dancing.

Music and singing with a distinctly Spanish flavour filled the ballroom. Danny stood in the middle, raised his hands to the right of his shoulder and started clapping in time to the music. He alternated between rapidly stomping his feet on the floor and tapping them, in the style of a gypsy flamenco. He waved his arms about his body and over his head in sharp movements and danced around the floor, tapping or stomping. He stopped a couple of metres in front of Helena and put both his hands on the one hip and tapped, his feet moving faster and faster, on the same spot. When he moved his hands to the other hip he slowly moved around the floor again, in ever decreasing circles until his hip touched Helena’s. He clapped his hands to the side and continued to tap, standing against Helena, until the music came to an end.

Helena had not moved once during the display. She had not laughed at his amateur performance, though it was infinitely better than when he’d first attempted the flamenco. She had shown no interest whatsoever in what was going on around her.

In a later attempt to coax a response from Helena, while in the garden, Danny sang. He’d never sung to Helena before, so she wouldn’t have known what a wonderful voice he had. He sang an angelic song in his native tongue. He knew she would understand it. When the animals and birds closest to the cottage heard Danny singing, they came to him. They’d never heard a sound so beautiful. It brought to mind the sound of a waterfall to a man lost in the desert and dying of thirst, or the moan of a lover at the height of pleasure — it was euphoric, blissful and had been known to bring on a state of rapture. It was not something Danny did often.