Mercy for the Fallen (21 page)

“I think my time here is long past.”  Michael drew himself up, but Adam blocked his path. 

“There’s only one place you can take her to keep her absolutely safe until we can figure something out, and you know it.”

“It is not a place for the living.”  Michael moved to step around him, but Adam shifted, keeping himself between Michael and the door.

“You go there, you’re alive.”

“Thou knowest of what I speak.”

“What are we talking about?” I interrupted, feeling lost. 

“We’re talking about Mikey taking Eve to Heaven.”

Chapter Twenty

I found myself on the archangel’s side for a change.  “No.  There has to be a way to keep her out of danger here.  Some kind of a spell or a shield to hide her Grace.  We haven’t even begun to search for something like that yet.  I’m not ready to stick her away in another realm again.  I already lost her for two years of her life.”

“Mercy, it’s the safest place for her,” Adam insisted.  “The Fallen can’t enter Ma’on.”

“What is Ma’on?  I’ve never heard of it.”

Eve perked up.  “I know this one!  It’s the fourth level of Heaven, ruled by the archangel Michael,” she answered, turning to Michael.  “Oh, you’re
that
Michael.  I thought you were just a story.”

“Where did you hear that?” I asked.

“Isobel read to me about it.  She read to me a lot at first before I started reading on my own.  I liked
Jungle Book
better.”

My head swiveled back to Michael.  “Is that true?  You have your own level of Heaven all to yourself?”  No wonder he was so cut off from humanity. 

“It is my domain,” he nodded.  “Many a soul passes there on their path to absolution.”

“Well, you’re not taking her there without me.”  Maybe it was stubborn of me, but I wanted to keep Evie by my side.  Otherwise, what was I fighting for?

“She’d be safe.”  Adam didn’t want to let it go and I started to lose my temper.

“I’m not letting her out of my sight again!”

“Then you can go with her.”

“What kind of a life would that be?  Even if it’s all sunshine and rainbows up there, she’ll be apart from everyone and everything.  I might as well take her to Eden.”

“Lucifer can get into Eden.”

He had me there.

“As much as it pains me to admit, Adamiel speaks the truth,” Michael said, after a few moments of silence.  “Eve would be safe there – as a temporary solution, until another is conceived.”

“A temporary thing.”  It didn’t sit right with me, but what else could we do?  “So, we take her there for safekeeping and try to figure out how to fix this?”

“Right, you keep her there safe and sound, and I’ll find you a solution down here, I promise.”  Adam laid a hand on my shoulder, his thumb rubbing over the strip of skin available to him near my collarbone in what was meant to be a comforting gesture, I’m sure.  All I could think was how wrong this felt.  I wanted Parker there in the worst way to help me make the decision.

“I need to talk to Parker about this.  I might as well call him since Lucifer knows exactly where we are.

“No, there isn’t time.” Adam squeezed my shoulder gently.  “You can’t tell him where you’re going anyway.”

“Why not?  Lucifer can’t follow us there, what difference does it make if he knows where we take her?”

“That doesn’t mean he can’t get to her.  He’s made of sneak.  How hard would it be for him to sweet talk his way past one of my more gullible brothers and talk him into going there for him?”

“I am loathe to say it, but there is truth in that as well,” Michael admitted.  “Lucifer may yet find a way to convince one of my brethren to tread where he may not.  It hath ever been his way to corrupt the innocent.”

“I get it,” I sighed, none too happy with it.  “We’ll go there and I won’t say a word to Parker about it.  But you have to promise to fill him in so that he knows we’re safe at least.  And explain to him why I couldn’t call him myself.”

“I’ll do it as soon as I get back,” Adam promised. 

“What do you mean?  Get back from where?”

“I’ll come with, just to the gate.”

“I will conduct her safely through.  She is more than capable of making the journey on her own, and I will carry the child.”  Michael stood firm on that point, much to my surprise.  He held his arms out to Eve, who obediently climbed into them, her cowboy booted feet wrapping around him like a monkey. 

It bothered me to think he might bolt and take her somewhere I couldn’t follow, but I decided I had to learn to believe in Michael.  If I couldn’t trust an archangel, who could I trust?     

“I guess this is it then.” I wiped the palms of my hands on my jeans, leaning forward to give Adam a small peck on the cheek.  “I’m coming right back as soon as she’s settled in.  A few days at the most until I’m sure she’s adjusted, and then I’ll be back to hash things out.”

“Right.” 

“And make sure Parker understands what’s going on.  Even if you don’t tell him every minute detail about where we’re going.  Make sure he…”

“I’ll handle it, you just take care of our girl.”

“I will.  Bye.”  I gave him an awkward smile, wanting… feeling… everything was all jumbled inside as I thought about saying goodbye.  I looked over to see Eve sitting comfortably in Michael’s arms, her head lying on his shoulder.  His arms were settled protectively around her, despite his earlier reluctance at playing babysitter.  It was obvious my daughter’s charms had gotten through to him on some level.

“I guess I’ll see you then.” Adam pulled on his leather jacket and s
omething flashed over his face, too fast for me to decipher it.  His eyes swept over my features, as if committing them to memory.  “Don’t worry, you’ll be fine.  You’re strong enough to do whatever it takes to keep her safe.” 

How did he know that about me when I wasn’t sure about it myself?  I watched him pick up his black bag (I never did get a chance to ask him what was in it), not knowing what else to say but feeling like something was ending, despite my promise to return in a few days time.  “Take care of yourself,” I mumbled.

“Always,” he grinned, pausing by the door with an almost wistful look, before the familiar hunger descended over his face and he dropped the bag on the floor.  “Ah, fuck it,” he muttered.  Closing the distance between us, he swept me up in his arms, lips descending over mine in a kiss that stole my breath away.  On and on the kiss went, until I though my heart might burst.  When he finally tore his mouth away, he pressed his lips against the curve of my ear.  “There, now you have something to remember me by,” he whispered. 

Before I could say anything, he turned to Eve, giving her a noisy kiss to the forehead and a quick tickle under the chin.  “Be good for your mom, squirt.  I’ll catch you on the flip side.”  And then he was gone, whistling a jaunty tune.

“He said a bad word,” Eve tittered.

The corners of Michael’s mouth turned down in a frown.  “That is not all he did.” 

“It’s time to go,” I said, not wanting to hear Michael’s moral judgment.  My own guilt trip was already well underway for how I kept betraying Parker whenever Adam’s lips came to call. 

“I want Nelo to go with us,” Eve complained when we stepped out under the night sky. 

“We can’t wait for Remy to get back with him.  I promise you will see Nelo again soon, but he can’t come with us anyway, can he?”

Michael shook his head.  “No demon may trespass in my realm.”

“There you go.  Don’t worry, I’m sure we’ll all be back together before you know it.”  I offered her the brightest smile I could manage, bringing my wings out with a rustle to distract her.  The move worked and I could tell she was trying it again from the way her shoulders wiggled.  Michael’s wings emerged, slightly larger than mine and just as white, if not whiter. 

“Shall we go?” he said, holding out his hand to me. 

“I’m not sure how to get there, you know.  I’m assuming it’s up there somewhere?”  My eyes turned skyward.   

“Trust in me, I shall be thy guide.”

“I like it when we fly.  I wish we could fly all the times,” Eve’s tone was plainly envious as we took to the sky.  Her energy had returned with a vengeance, and I could see her bouncing in Michael’s embrace.  The mom in me winced every time I thought she bounced a bit too hard and I was scared to death he might drop her.  But I forced myself to relax as we whizzed through the night sky.  Michael wouldn’t let her fall.  And if he did, I’d just zoom down and snatch her back up again. 

Higher and higher we flew, until I started to
feel
the path before us.  Despite the darkness of the hour, the air around us grew perceptibly brighter as we got closer to the heavens.  Once we pierced the cloud level high above, the air felt different – it felt thinner.  No, that’s wrong.  I mean, you expect the air to get thinner, the higher your altitude is.  This felt almost like gravity had shifted.  It took less effort to propel myself higher and higher, almost like the air wanted me to cut through it faster. 

And then we were in the middle of a tunnel of white light, and I didn’t have to do anything but ride the current like one of those old fashioned pneumatic tubes.  Just like in
Tommy Boy
, where the pressure sucks off that guy’s shirt and sends it up the tube fast as anything.  That’s how I felt, like there was a tremendous flow of air sucking me straight to Heaven. 

I felt it when we reached the first level.  I could have stopped there, but the urge to go higher trumped any curiosity I had for what it was like.  Besides, Eve had mentioned the fourth level, it was much too early to jump out of the heavenly tunnel of light.  All I could think was how much more pleasant a trip it was to ascend than it was to descend, and I marveled that I’d never tried it before.

We passed the second level, and the third, going faster now, anticipation growing.  The fourth level approached, and still I wanted to climb higher.  Michael’s tug at my hand nearly yanked my arm out of the socket, I’d been so bent on ascending. 

“We have arrived,” he said gently, and on some level, I knew that was our destination, but more than anything I wanted to keep going. 

“Can’t we take a quick peek at what’s up there?”

“No, we may not.”

The urge grew stronger, until a sweat broke out across my scalp and I started to feel wrong for staying in place and not flying higher.  “I’ll come right back, I just want to go check it out.”

“Merceline…”

My fingers slid out of his grasp as I let go.  I felt Michael reach for me, but I was faster, already shooting up higher into the light.  I’d come right back, I just needed to see what the next level held. 

“Momma?”

That voice alone cut through the clamoring instincts egging me on, and I froze, fighting to think through the haze.  What was I doing?  Where did I think I was going?  “I’m coming,” I called down to Eve, her upturned face impossibly far below me. 

It wasn’t like the fight to fly my way out of Githa, my wings cut through the air like normal, but the horrible sinking feeling that I was flying away from true happiness made it almost as hard to make my way back to her. 

Michael held his hand out to me again as I got closer.  Instead of the disapproval I expected to see there, his face held no judgment, only a serene smile as I closed my fingers around his.       

“Sorry,” I offered, glad that he’d waited, or I might not have had the strength to come back. 

“It is natural to want to convene with Him, but now is not thy time.”

I reached for Eve’s cheek, giving it a brief stroke before I faced the fourth gate.  “Let’s see your world.” 

Chapter Twenty-One

We emerged from the tunnel of light into a murky, cloud filled sky.  The land below looked normal enough, a lush valley of densely packed trees, surrounded by majestic snow capped mountains.  No purple sky or weird flying creatures.  At least… I didn’t think so.  I spent a good minute or two craning my neck to take a better look, but I didn’t spot anything in the air besides us.   

I didn’t see any structures, no sign of any people, no animals… it pretty much looked deserted and I wondered if the whole place was like this or if he’d taken us to a non populated area on purpose.  As we got closer, I started to understand that the trees themselves were unusual, at least not like anything I’d seen on Earth before.  They were enormous, hundreds of feet tall, wide enough to park a box truck in. 

The cloud cover was extremely dense, a drizzle of rain gradually picking up to a steady rainfall that threatened to soak us to the bone.  Not having any clue as to where in particular Michael was taking us, especially since I didn’t spot any buildings, I tugged on his hand when we showed no signs of stopping. 

“C
an’t we take shelter and wait for the rain to pass?”

“It doth always rain in this place.”

Which made it exactly like Seattle… 
Swell
.  It wasn’t cold like it was in the city this time of year, and the rain itself wasn’t unpleasant at all, just… wet.  But it went on and on, never slowing as we flew above the tree line.  After a while it started to get to me. 

“No offense, but this is kind of depressing.  Please tell me there’s something better on the other side of those mountains.”

“How do you mean?”  Michael blinked.

“I don’t know, it’s so desolate.  There are no people, no animals… it’s even more lonely than Eden.”