Harbinger in the Mist (Arms of Serendipity) (28 page)

“Didn’t Sadie say that he was angry that we opened some kind of gate that sucked him back into the house?”

“I understand that he’s angry, that he blames you. But have you thought about that? Why would he associate just you with his return? Why isn’t he after Maddie or Michelle? Didn’t you say that they were there that night, too? Why just you? And why is he following you?”

Lindsey dropped the sandwich on the plate and stared at him wide-eyed. He was right. The Robbins’ girls hadn’t been harmed by him. But her? The stairs, the fire, the snake, the horse, … the water park. How many times had he done something to her that could have ended tragically?

“It seems that the presence is not only haunting you here at home… Why would he have attached himself to you in such a way?” Eli paced the room, deep in thought, for a couple of moments. Then, without warning, he stopped and turned to face Lindsey.

“Lindsey, do you remember the night that you said that you and your friends used that oracle? The night that the vortex was opened?”

“Huh? You mean the wudu board?” Lindsey asked, confused.

“Yes, it matters not what you call it, do you remember?” Eli asked.

“Yeah. I thought that it was a load of baloney. I kept accusing Michelle of moving the pointer, why? What does that have to do with this man, this thing – ”

“What did you do with it when you were done that night?”

Lindsey walked over and sat down on the sofa, frustrated. “We boxed it back up and threw it in my bedroom closet, why? What does that have to do with this, this, thing following me around?”

He turned and started toward the stairs.

“Eli! Where are you going? What's wrong?” She struggled to catch up with him.

“Did you sign off? Did you say ‘Goodbye’ to close the door you opened?”

She thought back to that night. “Michelle started to, but that’s when the windows flew open and everything went haywire. We ran from the house.”

Eli continued up the stairs. “I need to examine the thing and see if there is a way to reverse this damage because if Milton is this angry, things could be very bad tonight. As much as I disagree with these items, we need to try to signoff right now. We’ll do it together.” He didn’t look back at her.

“You can’t, Eli! The damned board is gone!” she said, exasperated, as she reached the foot of stairs.

“Gone? What do you mean ‘gone?’” He asked, whirling around to face her.

“Well, when all these weird things started happening I got scared. Then the damned board flew out of my closet one evening and I got all spooked and I burned it!” she pointed back toward the fireplace.

Eli ran back into the living room, his mouth flying open in horror as he zeroed in on the minute pile of ashes left in the bottom of the fireplace. Lindsey could see that something was very, very wrong. Why was he so worried?

“Eli, what’s wrong?” she asked when he didn’t respond.

“You shouldn’t have burned the board, Lindsey! That's the worst possible thing that you could have done. This won’t be as cut and dry as any of us thought. I've got to talk to the others, we have to ready ourselves for battle.”

“What do you mean? I thought we were just going to let them cleanse and bless the house. I don’t remember Sadie saying anything about a ‘battle!’”

“Lindsey, I am not talking about the people coming here tonight.”

She was utterly confused. Who else could he be talking about it not the group that would be here in a matter of hours? He was pacing in front of the fireplace, his face contorted as he had a whispered argument with himself.

“Lindsey, I … I am not who you think I am.”

Lindsey knew that Eli was hiding something. His arrival, his knowledge of the spirit in the house, his sheer ability to be there by her side the minute she needed him …  There was no way it could all be coincidental. 

“You’re not a seminarian, are you?”

“No, I am not. Nor am I Darby’s nephew.  I am here for one reason and one reason alone. I am here because you used that board and opened that portal. I am here to close it.”

Lindsey stood frozen to the spot. This was more than she had suspected. What in the hell was he talking about? Why would Darby lie for him?

Eli took a couple of steps toward her, thought twice about it, and returned to the fireplace. He didn’t look at her as he continued.

“It is my job to expel the entity back through that portal and then seal the hole. I remember wondering why the hole looked more like a rip instead of a door and why it seemed to deteriorate even after the guard was first stationed there. Now I understand. You destroyed the board, and thus the doorway. I should have taken care of it immediately, but I lost myself. I saw you and had to know you. I got so caught up in … this,” he motioned between the two of them as he spoke. “I was so worried about protecting you firsthand that I didn’t see what was right in front of my face! Yes, this spirit blames you for calling him back here. And he is angry the doorway is destroyed … he fears that he’s now stuck here forever. He wants to punish you for tormenting him in such a way. But it has become so much worse because I didn’t do my damned job in the first place.”

He then began to speak feverishly in Latin.

Lindsey walked over to where he stood. Although everything she’d known about him was apparently a lie, she still trusted him, still wanted to be near him, to touch him.

When he finally looked up, tears were glistening in his eyes. He pleaded silently for Lindsey to understand. His gaze softened and he reached out to touch her cheek. She felt a bolt of electricity run from his fingertips across her skin. There was something odd going on here. Who, no
what
, was this man standing in front of her?

“What are you?” Lindsey asked quietly.

Eli turned his eyes to the windows and the view of the estuary beyond where a heavy mist hung a few feet above the water.  She took his hand and placed it back on her check. He cupped her jaw so gently and stroked her cheek with his thumb.

“Why won’t you answer me?” Lindsey stepped forward and placed her hands on either side of his face. “I know that there is something odd going on with you. I’m not scared, Eli, but I need to know.”

“I am a Harbinger,” he said quietly, still not looking at her.

“A what?”

“A Harbinger.”

“You’re an, an
omen
? That doesn’t make sense, Eli.” Lindsey dropped her hands to her sides, took a step back, and looked at him skeptically.

“Humankind sees us as omens, yes. You see, we are generally only seen just before something big happens. It takes a lot of concentration to prevent detection. But we have been known to let our guard down before a battle because our attention is divided. Then, and only then, are we ever visible. But even then, we gather our senses before your kind gets more than a glimpse.”

Lindsey was speechless. She had known that he was more than a mere man. But what he was saying didn’t make sense. She thought back to what she knew about the word but the only thing that she could come up with was the story about the conversion of Constantine. Wasn’t the cross that he’d seen in the sky a harbinger? That was a sign, certainly not a living, breathing person … or whatever Eli was. And Eli was certainly a warm, breathing being.

“I … I don’t believe you,” Lindsey stammered.

Eli took a deep breath, stepped back, and disappeared in a burst of white mist. The mist floated up to the ceiling, hovered for a moment, and then wrapped itself around Lindsey like a foggy embrace. When it moved back to its original location, Eli reappeared. Lindsey’s legs wanted to run, but her feet were planted to the floor.

“Let me see if I can put this into terms that you can understand,” Eli said, taking a tentative step towards Lindsey. “Are you familiar with the nine choirs of angels?”

“You mean like archangels and stuff? You expect me to believe that?”

“Lindsey, what reason would I have to lie to you? After what you’ve just seen, you know I’m not a normal human being. I think you’ve actually suspected something for a while now.”

He turned and walked out of the living room, beckoning her to come with him. She followed him through the great room, up the stairs, and into the home office. They stopped in front of the row of bookcases. He scanned the books on each shelf before settling on two dusty volumes from her mom’s side of the study – one an old, leather-bound art book and the other an encyclopedia.

He flipped to the index of the art book, scanned a page, and then flipped to a large, colorful painting depicting several men in first century garb standing over what looked like an open white tomb. Above them in the air was a seated gallery of angels with both Jesus and His mother in the center. Lindsey looked up at Eli, her brow bunched in confusion.

“Botticini’s ‘L’ elezione della Vergine’,” he said, as if she should know what that meant.

“I’m sorry, what? And what does this have to do with you and what is going on in my house?”

“The Assumption of the Virgin. This painting gives a rudimentary idea of three of the nine choirs of celestial beings, angels if you will, that exist.”

“Aren’t angels just, well, angels?”

Eli didn’t answer. He flipped the encyclopedia open, thumbed quickly through the pages, and turned the book around so that she could see. Without looking at the pages, he recited the entry to her, “
Angel – a bodiless, immortal spirit. It has limited knowledge and power. Angels appear in the belief systems of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, being mentioned in the Old Testament as visitor to both Abraham and Lot, wrestling with Jacob, guiding Tobit, and even as guardians. In the New Testament, angels play pivotal roles. They are protectors and bearers of great news. Angels announced the incarnation to the Blessed Virgin Mary and proclaimed the rise of Christ at the empty tomb. Most religions have no fixed ordering of angels, but Christianity has a very specific hierarchy.

“Codified in its classic form in the fifth century by St. Dionysius the Areopagite in The Celestial Hierarchy, the Nine Choirs of Angels are, in descending order, as follows: seraphim, cherubim, thrones, dominations, virtues, powers, principalities, archangels, and angels.

“Protestant Christians have, for the most part, abandoned the choir of angels and give them no special mention. Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians, however, venerate angels the way members of the early church did. Christianity has also classified the angels of Hell, angels that have fallen away and are the evil counterpart of the heavenly host. They are often viewed as the initiator of evil temptations.The leader of the fallen angels is Satan, also known as Lucifer. He was cast out of heaven for leading a revolt against God.
”

“I’m sorry, Eli. I still don’t understand. You certainly aren’t ‘bodiless.’ And I don’t see any wings sprouting out of your back.” Lindsey rubbed her temple with her right hand as she shook her head disbelievingly.

“Lindsey, you see a body because I have the ability to appear in one. I could disappear in an instant. As this book says, there are nine choirs of us that do the Creator’s bidding, that protect this world. Wings, aye we can appear with wings, but they are strictly for battle purposes only.  They are more for protection than flight. And, they add to the dramatic effect when we have to show ourselves to humankind. On the ground, we have no need for them.”

Lindsey was close to hyperventilating. He was lying. He had to be … right? The look on his face and the feeling in her heart told her that he was telling her the truth no matter how outlandish it seemed. Her breathing began to calm as the sorrow slowly gripped her soul because while she was glad that she finally had an answer, she was utterly heartbroken at what this meant. There was no way they could be together. It had seemed hopeless, even sacrilegious to try to win over a priest. But that paled in comparison to what she now faced.

Eli was an angel. And there was no way, really, that he could even feel about her the way she felt about him. He was ageless, timeless. She was just Lindsey. Nothing special.

“The first choir,” Eli continued, “is made up of those closest to God. They’re the Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones. They spend their time in His service alone. In the second choir are your angelic managers, if you will. The Dominions regulate the duties of the lower angels, the Virtues govern nature, and those like me, the Powers, are warriors. Our job is to defend His creation, to defend mankind. The third choir are the archangels, principalities, and regular old angels. They are the farthest removed from Him, and spend a vast amount of their time in your world.”

“But you said you were a Harbinger. Now you’re saying you’re a, a warrior angel. I don’t get it.”

“All Powers are warriors, yes. But the Harbingers are the front line of defense. When an issue arises, we are the first to attack. Once we know exactly what we’re dealing with, we send for the others. I was sent here when you opened the portal. It was my job to find a way to banish the spirit that escaped here and then close the opening. It should have been an easy job. I was right on top of Milton the evening you came home from the water park. You walked into the room … and my focus shifted.”

Eli ran his fingers through his hair and looked away for Lindsey. “In my many eons I have never been seen by a human. This is the first time I’ve ever been inclined to show myself. I had brothers who showed themselves and I thought them crazy. ‘
They’re just humans, they come and go like the tide,
’ I’ve said more than once. Precious, yes. Worth losing it all for? Never. Because that is always what happens, Lindsey. Appear first, descend second. Not one of my brothers has come back from an appearance.”

Lindsey lowered herself down into her mom’s leather office chair. Her head was spinning. What was he saying? Could he possibly be telling the truth? Shouldn’t she be railing and reeling right now? Why was she so calm? Because she knew deep down in her heart that he spoke the truth.

“So, you have damned yourself by letting me see you?” She wanted to say “love you” but she decided that it wasn’t prudent to let him know how deeply she felt about him. “My knowledge of you and the other world is a death sentence for you?”