Angels Rising Page 2

  “We don’t know what to believe, not yet. That’s why we need you.” Julia’s green eyes widened. “When you have something to report, you come here, to the observation deck, no matter the time. Remember, we must always speak in person.”

  “I will do my duty, Lady Michaels.”

  Uriel stepped out onto the ledge, leaving the network filter field behind. His connection snapped into place in the time it took him to release and unfold his wings….

  Only to be welcomed by the blaring alert blasting on every single angel account.

  Chapter Two

  RAPHAEL WAITED a heartbeat after Uriel had flown out of sight. He couldn’t risk checking Saphiel’s vitals again. It would be another record he’d have to delete later. If he moved fast, he could get the injured angel to safety in time. Luckily, they’d built angels to be durable, to survive things they couldn’t before the transformation.

  Uriel had to know that. He shouldn’t have been convinced that a single blast had killed the glitching angel. But he trusted Raphael. And why not? Raphael hadn’t ever given him any reason to think otherwise. They were partners.

  He should be grateful that Uriel hadn’t picked up on anything being dodgy, instead of worrying about what Uriel might be contemplating. If Raphael kept second-guessing himself, he would never get anything accomplished.

  Right now he needed to get Saphiel some medical attention if there was any hope of him surviving. Raphael would take his usual precautions and trust that his own paranoia would keep him safe. No one would look twice at an angel carrying a body bag through the city. It was a grim duty, but not an unusual one. Bodies didn’t get buried in Heaven—they, like everything, were recycled.

  He had to make a stop first, one not on the designated way to the recycling station. It would add time to his journey, but he couldn’t skip this step without risking everything.

  Raphael ducked under the walkways to a building, running beneath the sewage lines. Carting the body made maneuvering in such a closed space difficult. He had to set Saphiel down to reach the shielded box he’d hidden, tucked away in the corner joist. Raphael removed his halo and placed it inside, locking the device with his thumbprint. Now, time became even more precious. Without his halo, he couldn’t access Heaven’s network. He’d be flying blind.

  Raphael got back in the air as quickly as he could, towing the hovering bag behind him. He forced his wings into a burst of extra speed as he made for the thirteenth Circle. Yael greeted him at the entrance, beyond the hologram that shielded the level from prying eyes. “Another?”

  “I think Flint can save him.” Raphael hoped.

  “He’s got Eva in the medical center. Go.”

  The thirteenth Circle’s medical center was nothing more than the area they’d set aside for treatment. It boasted no more than two rooms, with the second intended for private examinations or surgeries. As Raphael coasted through the entrance, he spotted Eva coming out of that room, her hands over her swollen belly. She took one look at him and her eyes widened. “Flint! Come quick! Bring the triage cart!”

  Flint charged out of the back room and skidded to a halt. “Eva, I thought something happened to you.”

  Raphael had already gotten to work unzipping the hover bag. “No. She saw I had a new delivery.”

  She came to his side to help, and he gently slapped her hands away. Raphael didn’t want her to try doing something so foolish as lifting the angel. Not in her condition. “Staff blast to the chest. Heart is still beating but weakly. And of course there’s his brain to worry about.”

  Flint plugged a diagnostic reader into one of the empty halo ports around Saphiel’s forehead. “The good news is that the healing system has kicked in and is already repairing the damage.”

  “I assume there’s bad news?” Raphael asked.

  “His brain is a mess. The old overlay is degrading badly, and I’m not sure there’s enough left to save….” Flint looked grim. “Let’s get him into stasis.”

  That worried Raphael. They had a limited number of stasis pods, and they’d been lucky to steal those outdated models before they went to recycling. “How many are left?” he asked as he helped Flint move Saphiel into the back room.

  “After this? One.” Flint’s lips thinned as he set the controls on the pod. It took both of them to lift the deadweight and place him inside while Eva watched on worriedly.

  “I’ll be on the lookout for more.”

  “Raphael, you be careful,” Eva lectured. “If we lose you, we’ll lose contact with the outside.”

  More and more awakened angels like Raphael had come to live on the thirteenth Circle. He brought as many of the glitching as he could, but Raphael was only one angel fighting against a tide. Things had to change, and fast.

  Maybe it was time to bring Uriel in. He could use the help, and they needed it more than ever, especially with Eva close to her time.

  She gasped and reached for Raphael’s arm. “Would you like to feel her kick?”

  Raphael nodded and let her guide his palm to her abdomen. A tiny bump greeted him, as if the child inside her was saying hello. With a grin, he looked up at Eva, only to see her eyes fill with tears. “Eva? Are you all right? Do I need to get Yael?”

  She laughed through the tears. “Oh no. I’m fine. I cry at anything these days.” Eva rubbed her belly again. “I never thought I’d get to have this.”

  None of them had even thought this was possible. They’d been changed when they’d become angels, their bodies twisted and shaped into another man’s dreams. But Eva had proved them all wrong. Raphael needed to protect her and the others. He was the only one who could.

  Decision made, he said his goodbyes to Eva and Flint before heading down to the gardens to find Samael. The flowers he’d helped plant around the borders had bloomed. Raphael smiled as he landed on the path between the cultivated “dirt” beds that they used to grow everything. The smell of hyacinth reached his nostrils and it made him think of Eva. She’d put so much work into this garden—into everything they’d built here. It was starting to feel like a home.

  He made his way to the center of the gardens, where he found Samael sitting on his bench. The most striking thing about the other angel was how he lacked any of the artificial beauty that marked many of them, Raphael himself included. He’d long suspected Samael’d had some kind of surgery to correct what had been done to him but did not dare ask if that were true.

  “Sir?” Raphael said hesitantly as he stepped into the clearing between two midheight trees.

  “Raphael. Please, have a seat.” Samael gestured beside him, but Raphael couldn’t quite bring himself to join him.

  “I’m afraid I don’t have time to stay.” No, he needed to get to the recycling station and hack the receiving logs posthaste. “Though I wish I could visit longer.”

  “You are doing important work for us.” Samael leveled that intense gaze on him. Those eyes were deep, as if they collected all of his wisdom. “Someday, because of you, we all will be free to live as we wish.”

  “May it be,” Raphael repeated the refrain many of the others intoned. He cleared his throat. “I’ve spoken of my partner, Uriel, many times. I think… perhaps now might be the time to bring him in.”

  “You believe he’s ready?”

  Raphael opened his mouth to respond. The problem was—he wasn’t sure exactly. What did he have to go on? An odd-timed question from Uriel? A look in his eyes? “If not now, then soon.”

  “You must be sure.” Samael got to his feet and put his hand on Raphael’s shoulder. “If you have the slightest of doubts, you cannot risk everything to bring him in. Do you understand?”

  Raphael nodded. He would never put anyone here at risk. Somehow he’d make Uriel understand.

  He thought about it on his way to retrieve his halo. There was no way he would put the others in danger. He had to carefully consider Samael’s words. Was Uriel ready? Or did Raphael merely want him to be ready? He’d longed to share this burden with his partner, desperate to have someone else backing him up on the outside.

  Maybe it was more than that. He was too self-aware—he had to be, as a free angel—not to acknowledge his attraction to Uriel. No, more than mere attraction. What bloomed inside him for Uriel was something more, an extension of the bond that had grown between them over the years. And while he was still under the yoke of the halo, Uriel could never feel the same.

  Raphael wanted to give him the chance to feel.

  He’d made it halfway to the recycling center when the alarm started to blare across the network. Raphael had to make a decision about Uriel, but he needed to head to the recycling center first; otherwise he’d risk getting caught out. There needed to be a record of him bringing a body there, and he could only modify the systems in person. They’d come too far for him to be discovered now. He’d have to respond late and hope no one noticed. At least with the Angel Network out of commission, they’d have a hard time tracking him.

  He ducked his head and caught the fastest wind he could.

  Chapter Three

  ANGELS REPORT!

  The coordinates transmitted along with the alarm led to a very busy shopping district in the higher levels. Uriel banked to the left. He wasn’t precisely close, since the Michaels’s estate hovered so high up, but whatever situation called for all nearby angels had to be serious.

  Uriel rode the winds, darting between pillars and under bridges, swooping down, down, down, into the lower levels of Heaven. He emerged on the scene to a swarm of media bots surrounding what should have been a bustling shopping area—walkways converged over a square with high-end stores along the border.

  The streets were mostly deserted, with frightened faces looking out the shop windows. Broken glass and shards of concrete littered the ground, and it looked like a huge chunk of a bridge had been broken off. A group of angels had a struggling angel subdued between them. Uriel realized that for the first time members of the public were witnessing an angel glitching and causing quite a bit of property damage in the process.

  Some of the media bots noticed Uriel’s arrival and began to swarm him.

  “What happened here?”

  “What are the angels trying to conceal?”

  “Would you give us an interview?”

  Uriel knew better than to reply. He reached for the staff weapon buckled to his belt. It would give him great pleasure to shoot the pesky bots out of the sky.

  Anael descended from above, her eyes glowing as her presence created a hush. “Enough. Be gone. This is an angel matter, and we will discuss it with you when we are ready.” She made a gesture and the bots dispersed into the air. “Anyone not given a task, return to the barracks.”

  Too many angels hovered around doing nothing. The last time many of their kind had been gathered, it had been for battle. It had been senseless to send the alarm to every angel instead of finding those closest. Another problem with their lack of a proper network.

  “Uriel.” Raphael emerged from the chaos and hovered by his side.

  “Raphael, what happened?”

  “An angel glitched in a crowd and nearly killed some innocents when he took out the footpath.” Raphael pressed his lips together so tightly they were nearly white. “This one they can’t kill. There will have to be a trial.”

  “A public trial.” To save face. If Heaven started to fear its angels—

  “Yes.” Raphael looked down at the chaos and seemed to make a decision. “Don’t you wonder why this is happening? Even after they’ve shut down the Network? If the problem was the Angel Network, we should all be safe from glitching.”

  Uriel had taught himself not to wonder, to listen to what he was told. But now that Raphael had said the words, the traitorous thoughts circled. “What are you saying?”

  “Not here. Come with me.”

  URIEL FOLLOWED Raphael, his mind filling with more questions the farther they flew. Raphael ducked and closed his wings, diving beneath the waterfall of the Fountain of Grace. Uriel held his breath and then followed. The water surrounded him for a moment, and then he was clear, truly beneath the massive waterfall. He hovered for a moment, trying to spot Raphael.

  Raphael had found a tiny alcove carved into the walls, with enough room for the two of them to perch. Uriel flapped his wings once, twice, then settled next to Raphael in the small space.

  “Why here?” What could be so horrible that Raphael had to drag them to what was probably the most secluded place in all of Heaven?

  “I come here sometimes.” Raphael withdrew his wings and curled up his legs until his knees touched his chest. “It’s quiet.”

  Here they were completely surrounded by the water, its rushing sound louder even than Uriel’s own heartbeat. There were no flashing holo ads, no buzz of gondolas, no voices.

  Uriel retracted his own wings. His legs hung down, and he curled his fingers over the edge. “Safe from spying ears?”

  “No place is safe from that.”

  “Tell me, Raphael, what you think is wrong with the glitching angels. That’s why you brought me here, isn’t it?” What did Raphael know? And had it anything to do with Uriel’s mission for Lady Julia? His heart raced in anticipation. Uriel should be able to stop his body’s reaction. He should be in control. But he couldn’t deny that Raphael’s actions were suspect.

  “The angels are glitching because there’s something wrong inside of us,” Raphael blurted. “They forced us to forget everything, everything we were. When Gabriel 1089 burst into the network, he set something loose. It’s starting with the older angels. They can’t deal with hundreds of years of memories all at once.”

  Uriel frowned. “This is not our concern. Anael is looking for the solution.” They had their assigned roles, and while, yes, most angels had been shifted off their rotations in order to root out the glitching angels, they were still bound by Anael’s orders.

  Raphael shook his head and snorted. “You think Anael isn’t part of the problem?”

  Uriel drew back, unable to comprehend such a human reaction. Raphael followed, moving close in the enclosed space, backing Uriel against the wall. He’d been foolish to let Raphael corner him like this, when Lady Julia told him that he’d be a target.

  Raphael loomed closer, and still Uriel did not reach for his weapon. For the briefest of moments, he had the strangest thought—that Raphael meant only to kiss him. But when Raphael raised his hands, it was not to cup Uriel’s face between them. Instead, he took hold of Uriel’s halo and pulled it from his forehead. The network connection disengaged with a snap.

  “Remember, my friend.”

  Uriel fell backward, catching himself on the wall of the alcove. His blood thrummed in his ears, and for a moment he could not speak. What Raphael had done was unheard of. One did not touch another angel’s halo, never mind remove it.

  He glared at the smiling Raphael. “Are you insane?”

  “I’m not glitching, Uriel. Do not fear.”

  “If you were, then at least there would be some sort of explanation for this.”

  Raphael had the gall to laugh. “Give it a moment. Tell me what you see.”

  He bit back a retort, because the edges of his vision went gray. Uriel found himself somewhere else. He looked up, somehow now flat on his back, though the surface wasn’t entirely hard. Someone had tucked a musty blanket under his shoulder blades.

  It might’ve been the man standing above him. He’d forsaken a shirt, and his pants were still open at the waist, giving Uriel a tantalizing hint of what was hidden beneath. Uriel’s eyes trailed up the man’s torso, gazing with appreciation on the taut abs, the dusky pink nipples, and the hollow of his throat.

  The face, oh, it was familiar. Dark eyes, serious brow, and pink lips that quirked with mischief. His dark hair was already mussed, and Uriel knew that somehow he himself was responsible. The man held out a hand, palm up, ready to help Uriel to his feet. Uriel reached out, his fingertips inches from the other man’s—his lover, he knew now with an earth-shattering certainty.

  “Uriel, what do you see?” Raphael’s voice broke through the illusion.

  No, not illusion. Memory.

  “Ian,” Uriel whispered. “I see Ian.”

  Raphael looked delighted and all but clapped. “Very good. Who’s Ian?”

  Uriel snapped back to himself, conscious of the hard concrete beneath his ass and the water rushing in front of them. He shivered, though not from the cold. Angels didn’t feel cold. “Ian Caldwell. The man we interrogated and sentenced three years ago.”

  Raphael’s eyes widened in recognition. “Ah, didn’t he have something to do with the Abraham boy?”

  Of course Raphael barely remembered. They had rounded up and interrogated countless people on suspicion of breaking the morality laws. To him Ian had been one of many.

  Uriel had known, at the time, who Ian was. He’d had access to his own records. Ian Caldwell was a name on a list of known associates. He’d used that friendship to twist Ian into revealing every sordid thing about his and Henry Abraham’s relationship.

  But during the interrogation, Uriel hadn’t had the feelings, the memories of who Ian was. Ian had been his first lover, and now the taste of him was thick on Uriel’s tongue.

  Abruptly, anger filled him. Raphael was his partner. Uriel trusted him. How dare he do this? “Raphael, what have you done?”

  Raphael held out Uriel’s halo, and it looked dull and lifeless in his hands, like all of the halos they’d collected from glitched angels. “Our lives were stolen, Uriel. I’ve freed you. It was only a matter of time, anyway. I just accelerated the process.”

  “You call this freedom?” Uriel snatched his halo back and cradled it to his chest. Before he hadn’t ached, sore with the memory of what he’d done to Ian.

  “It’s a gift, Uriel.” Raphael let his head fall back against the wall of the alcove. Uriel found himself noticing the line of his throat, how it worked as he swallowed.