Archangel Rafe (A Novel of The Seven Book 1) (19 page)

Angelina hoped Rafe was listening. She splintered her attention between Uri at the bar, Rafe beside her, and this guy Kaz. But Kaz was her immediate focus. That made it difficult to listen to the other conversations.

“So what kind of farming do you do, Kaz?”

“Soybeans, mostly.” Kaz gulped down a giant swallow of beer. “The crop of the future. I raise chickens, too.”

“Oh, we drove by a farm with a giant burnt patch, I hope that wasn’t yours,” she flirted lightly.

Rafe shifted next to her, and then lifted his mug to his mouth and swallowed long and hard, the strong column of his throat momentarily stealing her attention. Rafe set down his mug on the edge of the table and smiled tightly at her.

“No, no.” Kaz drew her attention back to him. “That was sad, very sad.”

“What happened?”

There was a slight hesitation as he looked away and coughed.

“The owner, he went, how do you say, cuckoo?” Kaz twirled a finger around by his ear. “And pfft, he burned the whole thing.”

“That’s terrible.”

“Yes.” His gazed sidled away and then he focused his solemn brown eyes back on her. “But let us not talk of sad things. What brings you to our little village?”

“Uri offered to show us the local sights while we’re visiting the country.”

“And what do you think?”

“It’s beautiful,” she told him honestly. “I am very happy that we were able to see this area.”

“Will you be here long?”

“No,” she made a little pouty moue, “unfortunately we are leaving.”

Although nothing moved on his face, she sensed a sudden tiredness within him. As if he’d used up all his energy to be charming. “Ah, this is too bad. I would show you around our little town.” His smile was just on the edge of exhausted.

“Maybe next time.”

He put one scraped and nicked hand to his chest. There were red, recent cuts. “Ah, I hold hope in my heart.”

Rafe scowled at Kaz.

“Your Rafe, he is not happy with me.”

“Don’t be silly, he and I have no future together,” she said the words to remind herself as much as Rafe. And with that proclamation, her mood turned glum. She dropped the mug on the scarred wooden table.

“Well, you will forgive me, I must depart.” Kaz shoved back his chair, and exhaustion fairly oozed from him. He wasn’t just tired. He was sick. “
Cześé
. Good bye.”

Rafe wasn’t paying attention to either of them. Suddenly Angelina didn’t want to let Kaz leave without a touch to find out what was wrong with him. The compulsion was too strong to ignore. And Rafe was right by her side. She nudged Rafe under the table with her foot and hoped he got the message. She wished they had thought ahead and come up with a signal.

“It was a pleasure.” Before he could stand, Angelina grabbed his hand and began to shake it.

She free-fell into the healing and leaned against Rafe. Vaguely she felt his heat at her back. Thick coagulated blood slugged through her. Cholesterol choked her veins even further. And something else, a virus, mutated and changed his chemistry as she sat there. Poison chugged through Kaz’s veins. Luckily, Rafe mitigated the absolute devastation of the illnesses clamoring for her healing touch.

Her power was working on three levels. She had to limit the flow of her energy so she didn’t take too much of his negative into her body so she blocked the urge to clean the cholesterol from his blood. Sickly blobs clogged his bloodstream, but she ignored them. She couldn’t heal everything.

She poured energy into his body to stop the virus from mutating further. By visualizing the reproducing cells moving backwards, she returned his chemistry to a healthy state. Then she imagined his blood thinning, flowing more freely through his veins.

Finally, Angelina concentrated on severing their connection. She’d stopped the mutation. It was too risky to pull that poison into her bloodstream, but the effort to avoid it was debilitating. She pushed back the energy as hard as she could, and finally broke free. Her hand dropped weakly to the table.

Rafe was behind her, his arms around her middle. His body absorbed the sickly energy and pumped fresh energy back into her. With each rotation, her body calmed and strengthened. “Honey, you know you shouldn’t drink beer. Knocks you right on your butt.”

With effort she raised her eyelids to smile weakly at Kaz. “Goes straight to my head.” She fluttered her hand rather than use the energy to speak. Kaz’s focus zeroed in on her Angel’s mark.

“I--I--” he stuttered to a halt and stretched out his arm to reveal a strange tattoo, like a stylized N on the inside of his elbow. “My thanks.”

TWENTY-EIGHT

“That went well.” Rafe wanted to punch someone. Preferably Kaz. Angelina could barely walk.

Uri shrugged as he opened the door to the truck. “I had a hunch about Kaz when I saw him.”

“You could have freaking shared it with us.”

“Yeah, but if you’d known, you’d have reacted differently when he approached you.” Uri hopped into the ancient truck and slammed his door shut. “Instead you just had the pissed off boyfriend thing working.”

“Even before I touched him, I knew he was off,” Angelina said weakly. Rafe had wedged her in the cab of the truck, her entire body pressed up against his.

“How?” Rafe had thought so too, but he wondered what Angelina had picked up.

“Everyone else just waved and said hello.” Her body trembled with the excess of energy. “He sat down to find out why we were there and how long we were staying.”

“If there is a pretty woman anywhere around, Kaz follows.”

“It didn’t have anything to do with me.”

“You don’t give yourself enough credit.” Rafe ogled her amply displayed cleavage, then shifted closer.

Angelina shivered. Rafe circled his arm around her and tried to warm her up. She moved so that her head rested against his shoulder, her nose buried in his neck. He’d be content if she stayed just like that for the rest of eternity.

Whoa. Where had that thought come from?

“So what happened?” Uri demanded, breaking up Rafe’s bizarre little fantasy where he and Angelina stayed entwined forever.

“His blood was swimming with a virus. He also had the same cholesterol problem as my acupuncturist.”

“What?” Rafe knew he should move. They shouldn’t get comfortable in this position. They’d have to sleep soon. Unless he took a stay-awake aid so that he didn’t summon her in his dreams. Shit. That was a pretty damn big problem.

“Is it coincidence that Kaz and Peter had the same goopy cholesterol chugging through their blood?”

“Explain.” Uri gripped the steering wheel.

“The first time I healed someone it was my local TCM and acupuncturist. He had a boatload of cholesterol in his blood.”

“Just so we’re clear, chronic conditions like that are the most difficult, and she cleaned his by touching his wrist. She doesn’t even need contact with the heart nadis.”

“This is unusual?”

“It’s an anomaly.” Rafe hesitated.

“I don’t have much control. I was pretty sure I couldn’t stop the virus and clean Kaz’s blood. The last time I cleared up the cholesterol I passed out. Thanks to Rafe I was able to work on the virus and ignore the cholesterol.” Her hand trembled as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “He knew I was a healer.”

“You really think so?”

“Or he suspected.” Angelina said, “I saw him stare at the mark on my wrist before I healed him. I healed him!”

He could hear her excitement and visibly see the animation on her face. He had the insane urge to lean over and press his mouth to hers. When was the last time he’d seen such enthusiasm for healing?

“You did,” Rafe responded, doing none of the physical acts that flit through his mind.

“Did you see that tattoo he had?”

“What tattoo?” Uri asked.

“No, I was looking at you.” Rafe said, “What did it look like?”

“You know tattoos, they’re all different. This looked a little like an N written in cursive.”

Rafe and Uri exchanged a glance. The symbol. “Jed was right.” Rafe felt a moment of guilt. Jed had known and they’d brushed off his prediction because he could only see part of the puzzle. Just like Rafe and Uri struggled to make sense of the events in this town.

“You guys know what it means?”

“No. But we’re going to find out,” Uri said grimly.

Angelina said, “You think it’s significant.”

“We need to talk to Kaz.” Rafe said, “But we’ve got bigger problems right now.”

Angelina asked softly, “You heard the talk in the bar, too?”

“Yeah. Half the village is sick.”

“When you drew away the energy from my body did you see the virus in his blood?”

Concern swelled through him. He’d seen the virus, worried that she was attempting too much, and then did everything he could to make sure she was okay. No one needed to know that for one second, he’d panicked. “Yes.”

“So?” Uri asked urgently.

Taking a level breath and focusing on what had happened, instead of Angelina, he replayed the draw down of energy from her body. The virus was the same as the chicken.

“It’s the same.”

They had torched an entire farm to get rid of the virus. People had potentially been infected too. But the strain shouldn’t kill humans. The protein strain wasn’t right.

“What do we do now?” Angelina asked.

Rafe and Uri looked at each other, then glanced away.

“It’s risky,” Rafe finally said.

Angelina asked, “What?”

“World Health Organization,” Uri said slowly.

“What about them?” She frowned.

Uri spread his arms wide. “Meet the new super-secret branch.”

“We need to clear it through the council first. We also need to tell them about that tattoo.”

“Yeah. I would have liked to gather more evidence but we have a problem.”

“What?” Angelina asked.

Rafe said grimly, “We’re out of time.”

“We’re being summoned.” Uri held out his palm in a classic stop gesture. “And she needs to come too, although you will have to get rid of the protective boyfriend shit.”

“You’re sure.” Rafe didn’t want her anywhere near the Council.

“She’s the only one who understands this virus besides you.” Uri said urgently, “And she healed it.”

Rafe stared at Angelina. He needed to get away from her, not spend more time with her. On the other hand, that virus was centered where two Angels had been harmed. That couldn’t be a coincidence.

“We need to go now.” Rafe still wasn’t totally on board with the plan but at this point, he didn’t have a choice.

Uri looked away from the two of them. “You haven’t uh, ahem.” He cleared his throat. “Done the deed have you?”

“No!” they both practically shouted.

“Good. ‘Cause Sam the Lover would know,” Uri said drily.

Great. One more thing to worry about.

TWENTY-NINE

Angelina stood outside massive mahogany doors carved with cherubs and banners and weapons, spears, swords, fire, a bow and arrow, divining rod, waterfall, and--a whip? Her life had certainly spiraled in a new and crazy direction. Sometimes she wondered if she’d actually had a nervous breakdown and was in a padded cell somewhere. The only reason she didn’t run with that was because of her children.

Muted masculine laughter rang out from behind the oiled and polished doors. Angelina straightened her shoulders as the doors swung open without the touch of a hand. No one opened the door?

Oh yeah, she should remember, immortal beings with matter-shifting powers.

Opening a door was nothing.

Angelina took a deep breath and inhaled Rafe’s comforting scent. She relaxed before walking into the large room.

A giant conference table dominated the room. Eight throne-like chairs, each with a different colored back, were turned toward the head of the table. There a massive man sat in the blue-backed chair. She’d thought Uri was big but this Archangel at the head of the table was huge. Even his blue chair loomed just a little larger than all the rest.

The giant chair barely contained his shoulders. He had a shocking mane of silvery white hair and eyes a blue so pale that they were almost clear. He stood slowly and she nearly gasped. He must be at least six-foot-seven.

Her gaze skimmed around the room, and tripped over Rafe. Determined not to betray her feelings for him, she didn’t want to get him in trouble, she drew in a deep breath and studied the other Archangels.

The Archangel Council didn’t intimidate her. Much.

Rafe had requested she wear this white robe. But it was just a little long for her, so she had to walk carefully into the room and make extra sure not to trip.

“I am Michael, Guardian and leader of the Archangels.” The giant man put his fist between his eyebrows and bowed. “Welcome.”

As one, the rest of the men stood. Then, fist to their forehead, they bowed and murmured, “Welcome.”

With a flick of Michael’s hand, the black chair slid out from the table. “Have a seat.”

Angelina sank into the chair, as seven very intense, very masculine men focused on her.

All men. Before she could get irate about it, a tall, ethereal woman with a waterfall of stunning blond hair materialized behind Michael’s chair. Every male in the room straightened in his chair but no one said a word. Her white robe accented her features, and the large bell sleeves hid her hands, crossed at her waist.

“Hello, guardians.” Melodious and smoother than clear, crisp water, the sound filled the room effortlessly.

“Nora,” Uri murmured.

Who was this woman? Angelina dared a glance at Rafe for a clue. The skin around Rafe’s eyes tightened. It was his only gesture, but the small movement indicated his displeasure. Why? Was Nora dangerous? She so serene and beautiful that it was hard to imagine she posed a threat, but Rafe’s signal was clear. Angelina stiffened her spine, and prepared for the worst. Whatever that might be.

The man who sat in the purple chair shoved back with an angry push. “I’d like to initiate the challenge.”

“Patience, Zachariel.”

So that was Zach. The guy was handsome, if a girl liked that bad boy image with a three-day beard and hair unkempt as if he’d just rolled out of bed and off a woman.