The Angel
Craig and Josh are looking at me like I have two heads. Jason rubs his hands through his hair, then locks the fingers behind his head and looks up at the ceiling. Heather is tapping her fingernails on the glass coffee table and giving me the "What AREN'T you telling me?" look. Ralph, well…
"When we kill it, can I bring home anything that's left to run some experiments?"
"Ralph, there won't be anything left. The Angel is a couple hundred years old. He'll turn to a pile of ash," I say.
"Oh, in that case," he turns to Craig. "Can I use your car vac? I can probably modify a special filter and---"
"Quiet, Ralph," says Heather. "I want to see if I'm understanding this. This gargoyle thinks he's the Archangel Michael. He goes around destroying vampires, Lasombra in particular, because they corrupted the Church. So the Lasombra that are trying to destroy you want you to destroy it so it doesn't destroy them."
"The whole clan isn't hunting me down, just my sire."
"And apparently the clan is upset with him for trying to kill you? What makes you so special?" I can hear distain in Craig's voice.
"There are rules that are suppose to be followed. The clan is big on protocols. You don't go after a clan mate without the O.K. of the Courts. It's almost an act of treason."
"Yeah, and from what Heather said, you went after him, so why don't they hold you to the same rules?" Craig really isn't trying to understand, he just wants to argue. "And you killed Carlos without permission. And there was---"
"Listen, when I went after Belzitane, it was an attack on the Sabbat, not the clan. Carlos challenged me without getting approval from the Court as well. That's no a reflection on me. And if you want to get into a play-by-play of every damn kill I've made, I never went out specifically looking for my own. The Sabbat would sent them after me."
"So why the sudden clan loyalty?" asks Jason without looking away from the ceiling.
"It's not about loyalty, it's about survival. The Angel is hunting ALL Lasombra, and considering my last run in with him, you can bet he's coming for me."
The Angel hit Philadelphia the year before I skipped out on the Sabbat. Made his presence known at a popular club that was used as a feeding ground by two packs. When it was over, both packs had been destroyed, 13 civilians were dead, the club's deck collapsed into the river, and way too many favors had to be called in to get a lid on the whole fiasco. The Bishop enlisted a special "task force" to hunt down and eliminate it. There were ten of us; three survived. Draco got what we thought was the killing blow when he shot the thing with an exploding tip crossbolt and sent it crashing into the Delaware River.
I remember this weird vibe that came off the Angel, like you really didn't want to get close to him. Or you couldn't. It bothered Draco more than me, which was why he resorted to his crossbow instead of trying to move in to stake it and diablerize it. Poor Fiddle got the worst of it. The kook went wackier than he already was in the aftermath. One morning he waited on the steps of a Catholic church for the sun to come up, and just before bursting into flames in front of the early morning parishioners exclaimed, "I have seen the will of Heaven! I go to join the Angel."
Many more favors were called in that day to bury that story as well.
"Besides, Father Miguel is a friend and I'm sure he's at the top of the Angel's list. And I AM loyal to my friends."
"I don't like being used as a weapon by leeches," says Craig. "I come across this thing, I'll take it out. But I ain't going looking for it just because your clan mates say so."
"Alex, something stinks here," says Heather. "How do you know this isn't just some set up? How do you know we're not ALL being set up? None of us are exactly on the Sabbat's Christmas card list."
"This isn't about the Sabbat."
"Yeah, you keep saying that," says Craig.
"I'm not asking you guys to help me. I just wanted everyone to know what the hell was going on in case it decided to crash through the roof or something."
Jason stands up and walks over to me. He puts a hand on my shoulder. "Alex, let's just say my spidey-senses are tingling on this one."
"Stan Lee's gonna sue you."
"I think we should help Alex," says Ralph. "I mean maybe Josh should stay out of this because he might fall into a claw or something."
"You just want to experiment on the leftovers," says Craig.
Ralph glared at Craig. "You know what, Craig. I don't care if you are Heather's mentor. You're an ass."
"Ralph!" screams Heather. Even I'm a little shocked. He's actually mad.
"You got a lot of nerve talking to my Alex the way you do, 'cause if it wasn't for her your daughter would be dead and probably you to. She's done more to fight evil that your overbearing, obnoxious, self-centered, pompous, patronizing sorry excuse for a human being has ever done. So you need to shut the hell up!"
Craig stands up and takes a step toward Ralph. I step in front of him. Heather gets between the two of us. "We don't have time for this. Both of you put your tempers away."
"Craig, you ever make a threatening move toward Ralph again, I will hurt you."
"Josh, grab your coat. I'm taking you home." Craig turns and grabs his jacket. He slams the door as they leave.
"Alex, there was no reason---"
"Heather, you're my friend and I love you like a sister. But I WILL kill him if he ever does anything to Ralph."
"Alex---"
"I'm going for a walk. I need some air."
I leave as Ralph starts apologizing to Heather. He's rambling too fast and all I can make out is Heather saying "It's O.K., It's O.K." I start walking and after a couple of hours I realize I've walked into Sabbat territory, but I don't care. I need to beat up on something anyway.
Most of the buildings on the block are burnt out or abandoned, but the street is still too quiet. I really should have been accosted by now. Then I come across a leg missing its body. A single clean cut, like a large bladed weapon wielded by someone with a lot of strength. I dip my fingertip in the pool of blood next to it and taste. Vampire blood, a young vampire since it didn't decompose right away. There's a pile of dirt about five feet away. But I know it's not dirt. Down an alley I find a headless torso. It's too big to belong to the leg on the street. It's a different victim.
Then I look up.
He's standing on a rooftop, looking down at me. He unravels his leathery wings and does a nosedive toward me. I just tumble out of the way as he connects with the concrete and melds into it.
I hate when he does that.
I jump up and grab on to a broken streetlight as two clawed hands come up through the sidewalk grabbing at my ankles. He melts up though the sidewalk as I jump away from him. He draws the greatsword strapped to his back as I pull out my two Anacondas. I nail him with a series of exploding rounds square in the chest, enough to make him pause for a moment. Then I whip up some shadows to smother him in and back up out of sword's reach.
He lets out a wail of pain then screams, "God Our Father defend me!" Next thing I now the sword becomes engulfed in flames, dissipating my shadows. I jump back several more paces. I've seen Heather charge items with blue flames and walk through the shadow stuff unaffected. Craig can ignore the shadows as well. I guess I expect Hunters to receive a little divine intervention.
But this is another vampire. This just isn't fair.
"How come you guys never do that shit for me?" I scream at the sky as I dart out of the way of a wicked slash through the air. I can feel the heat coming off the blade. It is real fire. Why isn't it bothering HIM? The flames go all the way up the hilt, lapping around his clawed hand and wrist. Yet it doesn't even faze him.
"When the hell did you learn that trick?" I scream as I fire two more shots into him.
"The Lord does not deal in tricks, demon," he says as he swings at me again. This time I can't get completely out of the way, and the blade cuts through my leather jacket and into my back. The Beast starts bellowing for release as I struggle to keep IT under control while getting out of the now burning leather jacket and away from the flaming blade.
Two out of three ain't bad.
Just as I get the jacket off I get stabbed in the hip by a lunging attack. I wrap shadows around myself to smother the flames. He swings to bring the sword down on me, but I manage to kick his forearm to prevent the attack. Then he shows me his second new trick when the concrete gets soft beneath me and I partially sink into it. Before I can crawl completely out, it hardens again. So now one arm and both legs are stuck in cement.
Now with enough time, I can break free easily enough. But the Angel isn't inclined to give me enough time. With my free hand, I fire directly at the swinging arm, causing him to overcompensate and miss me. I fire again, but nothing comes out. Out of ammo.
I gotta get Ralph to make me a blaster pistol.
He swings again, but just before I get decapitated a big black blur crashes into the Angel. The Angel drops the sword from the impact and finds himself beneath a VW size spider. From my vantage point, all I see is a flurry of attacks from the front two legs. Then the Angel melds into the cement.
"Jason, jump!"
Jason jumps out of the way as the Angel reappears from a different location. I start pulling myself out of the sidewalk as Jason transforms into his freaky half-spider, half human form. Not that the giant spider isn't freaky in it's own right, but this is 1960's B-movie nuclear mutant freaky.
The Angel uses his melting concrete trick on Jason, but my freakish friend is too quick and jumps over the Angel's head and webs him.
"Dude, you just shot web out of your ass. That's sick," I say as I break loose my legs.
"Don't tell Ralph. I told him I can't do that."
The Angel suddenly bursts out of the webbing and becomes engulfed in flames.
"Now that's just not right," exclaims Jason.
The Angel lunges at Jason. Jason barely escapes his fiery embrace. I pick up the now flameless sword and throw it to Jason as I finally get myself free. Jason catches it and moves to attack, but stops mid-swing and jumps backwards. His mutant face twists as if in pain.
"What's wrong?" I scream while fumbling for my spare stash of bullets. Then I feel that weird vibe getting stronger. He turns his back to me and starts stalking toward Jason, who keeps backing away from him.
"ALEX! What's he doing?" he asks.
"Being stupid," I reply as I carefully aim my gun.
"I rebuke you in the name of God," says the Angel as he reaches out toward Jason.
"Rebuke this!"
Six phosphorous rounds straight to the cranium. The flames go out, and a moment later there's a pile of ash when the Angel use to be. I sit down next to the pile of ash and pick up a handful of it. Jason sits down next to me and reverts to human form.
"You know you're naked?"
"Nah, really?" he smirks at me. "Not like you haven't seen me naked before."
"How the hell did you know where I was? And how'd you get here so fast."
"I planted a spider on you. And I jumped through the umbra."
"You what and you what?"
He holds his hand out. A small spider emerges from his palm and scurries up his arm, disappearing into his neck. He must have planted a spider on me earlier during the argument.
Jason puts his arm around my shoulder and I rest my head on his.
"One of these nights, the bad guys will learn not to turn their back on you."
"Was he the bad guy? Seems the forces of good were siding with him."
"Don't start. You'll just make yourself more miserable than you normally are."
"You gonna make a little web basket to take the ashes back to Ralph?"
"What, you think I do arts and crafts with this stuff? Besides, it's too sticky."
I start looking around for my still smoldering jacket. Maybe I can salvage some of it to carry the ashes in.
"I'm gonna jump outta here before somebody comes along and reports a streaker. You gonna be O.K.?"
I nod as I pick up the sword. "Can you take this back for me? I'll get some weird looks walking down the street with it."
Jason takes the blade from me. Then he rubs my cheek with the back of his free hand. "Be more careful," he says. "If there was snow on the ground I'd be really upset with you right now."
I can't help it. I look down.
"Apparently, your happy with me now."
A rather embarrassed Jason steps backwards and disappears into that umbra thing he mentioned. I pack up some angel ashes and start walking home.
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