The Death Angel

Dakota goes missing and Sumaria must enlist help to find her.

    As the war against Azazel ended and the sun began to set, Sumaria looked down from his spot on the roof of Aerie, watching the ash clear and the debris settle.  He’d watched Lucifer defeat Azazel again with one final blow from his spear.  Azazel had been brought to his knees again by that same exact weapon this time.  The demon had been beaten to the point of death.  Any mortal or Nephilim that had received that kind of beating would’ve been dead and possibly unrecognizable.  Azazel couldn’t have been at his full strength though.  If he had been, he’d have begun healing almost the instant after each injury had been inflicted, same as Lucifer.  Another advantage of being one of the oldest angels alive; God gave you greater power and healing abilities while the other angels get whatever He chose for their rank.

   

   Kassiel landed beside him a moment later, folding his black wings to his back.  Sumaria’s parabatai looked only slightly injured compared to him.  Kassiel only had a few cuts and gashes while Sumaria had so much dried blood all over him, he didn’t know how major his injuries were, never mind the amount of pain he felt from his head to his lower back.  I hope I didn’t break anything, he thought.

    “How is your mortal girl?  The one you brought here not too long ago.” Kassiel asked. 

    “I don’t know.  I haven’t seen her since I left her with Lazerous.  I bet she’s doing well among the Nephs.  It’s not like she doesn’t have a stroke of strength and resolve in her that will get her through.”  Sumaria replied almost thoughtfully. 

  Kassiel looked at him as if he knew something that he didn’t. 

  “What’re you looking at me like that for?” Sumaria’s brows furrowed.  “Don’t you dare say something ridiculous like I love her or some BS like that.  If you do I will throw you off this roof so hard you will leave an imprint where you land.”

   Kassiel’s lips twitched a little as he fought down a smile.  “You apparently lost your bondage with her.  You don’t know.”

   “What do you mean?  I burned my link to her when I found my new assignment.  Why?” Sumaria’s gaze locked on Kassiel’s face.

   “I heard that no one has seen her since the battle begun.  She had been with her friend Noah but, Lazerous found him nearly unconscious without a sign of her.” Kassiel explained.  “She’s missing.  We have no scent of her, only demons, angels, Nephilim, and Hybrids.  No sign of a mortal’s scent.”

  Sumaria’s heart dropped.  He’d almost forgotten all about Dakota, now she’s gone and no one knows what happened to her.  He put his head in his hand and sighed.  

   “Never burn your link with an assignment until you’re absolutely sure that they are saved.” Kassiel mumbled.  “That was the first lesson when we were training to become Guardians.  How can you forget it?”

   “I never forgot it, Kassiel.  I thought she was safe here.  No one told me Azazel was coming and bringing an army to destroy Aerie. No one told me that.  You just told me to bring her here because she wasn’t safe at her old home with the stepfather.  I don’t have foresight.  If I had known that danger would come to this place so soon I would’ve stayed here with her and protected her.” Sumaria replied.  

   Kassiel sighed.  “It’s not going to do her any good standing here arguing about leaving her here without her Guardian.  You know who to go to for help in this sort of problem.”

   “Is he here?” Sumaria asked, his purple eyes searching Kassiel’s iridescent blue ones.

   Kassiel thought for a moment.  “I doubt it.  He’s likely out somewhere avoiding this situation.  You know he doesn’t like to take part in the Nephilim issues much.”

  “Do you have any ideas as to how I can find him?” Sumaria asked.

   “You and I both know the simplest answer to that question.  There is only one option that’s one of the simplest when it comes to finding angels.  He’s right in front of your face.” Kassiel looked at Sumaria his eyes lazy like he was seconds from rolling them.  

 

    Sumaria’s anger boiled inside him at Kassiel’s calm, yet frustrating attitude about the situation.  The angel they were looking for wasn’t right in front of them.  He was somewhere below them.  That is…if he was still there.  Instead of punching Kassiel like he wanted to, he leaped off the roof, spreading his wings to slow his fall.  He focused on sniffing the angel out, finding the scent of angels among the rest of the scents among the debris.  Then, he searched through them for the specific angel’s scent.  He found him, lying on the ground in torn Nephilim gear.  His eyes were closed, his face pale from using so much power.  Sumaria could almost believe he was dead if not for the rise and fall of his chest. 

 

    “Lucifer,” Sumaria said. 

 

    The angel woke, his jade green eyes looking more like pale green with his exhaustion. 

    “Can I help you?” he said tiredly.

    “I’m looking for a girl.  She used to be one of the humans I was guarding.”

    “Did you fall for one of your subjects, Sumaria?  You know you’re not allowed to do that.” Lucifer sighed.

    “I didn’t.  I’m simply trying to find her.  Kassiel told me she went missing without a trace during the war.” Sumaria explained.

    “I’m sorry but, I can’t find a simple human.  I don’t even know if I have all of the powers I used to have.  Never mind the fact that I’m not your bloodhound.” Lucifer smiled slightly. 

    Sumaria pressed his lips together tightly, cursing mentally. “So, you’re saying that I should seek out an angel of death or start searching on my own?”

    Lucifer nodded weakly.  “She couldn’t get that far on her own without running into a Hybrid or demon.”

    “She’s been training, Lucifer.  She could get far.” Sumaria, rubbed his forehead, sighing.

    “It won’t be hard to find an angel of death among us, Sumaria, don’t forget that.  There is always death among the Nephilim.”  Lucifer reminded him.

    “There is more death among the humans than the Nephilim, Lucifer.” Sumaria snapped.

    “That too is true, but I would take a look first before denying the fact that there are angels of death here.  Did you not notice that we have just been through a battle against an army of demons led by Azazel?” Lucifer asked, tilting his head, smiling.

    Sumaria looked up and an angel of death stood at Lucifer’s shoulder. He could tell just by the scent of the angel; it was different from the fiery magical scent of normal angels.

 

Angels of death were like the Gothic angels.  They spoke very little and were very rarely seen.  Most of them just went from one dying person to the next casting their spirits from their bodies so the Lord could have them. It was like they only knew of one way to be; silent and invisible so that humans could never see them and accidentally learn about the world of angels.  Because of this, it’s rare to find that one of them had a Nephilim child. 

 

    Sumaria guessed that Lucifer must’ve called to this one while they’d been speaking.The first thing that Sumaria noticed about the angel was his eyes.  They were like opals only with a lighter shade of blue, a blue like oceans of the Caribbean. His black wings that shimmered dark blue in the sunlight were tucked to his back loosely.  There was no evidence to show that the angel had taken part in the war; no blood or filth on him whatsoever.  Nor did he wear armor.  He was shirtless, showing off all his black Marks across his arms, chest, and sides. 

 

     “He’s a friend of mine.  He was one of the first Death Angels.  He’ll help you find your human.”  Lucifer said, finally making it to his feet, groaning with effort.

    “What’s your name?” Sumaria quirked an eyebrow.

 

    For a Guardian Angel, meeting an angel of death is strange.  It’s rare that an angel deals with death because of their immortality.  But, now that Sumaria was face to face with one, he was intrigued.  The angel gave of a sort of chilling feeling, like something was terribly wrong.  The feeling crawled up Sumaria’s spine slowly, reaching his neck and curling around his spine tightly.  It turned to ice in one quick second and made him shiver.  The Death Angel merely stared him dead in the eye as if he didn’t know what sort of effect he had on people, even angels. 

    “You don’t need to know that.  He’s just going to find your human and bring her to you then, return to his work.” Lucifer said coolly.

    “A friend of yours, you say?” Sumaria said, looking away from the Death Angel, hoping to stop the icy feeling gripping his spine so tightly he thought it would snap.

    “For a few years, yes.” Lucifer replied.

"How will he find her?” Sumaria asked, focusing on Lucifer’s jade green eyes.

  

    The icy feeling didn’t go away.  It actually intensified and spread throughout Sumaria’s body and began to burn.  The feeling spread across his shoulders and down his chest like icy hands on the coldest day imaginable.  The kind of cold that burns.  The ice dug into his past wounds and his present wounds and burned.  

    “It’s a similar way to how he finds all the spirits God sends him to take.  He receives an image of them and usually something extra to help him find the person.  In this case, he digs into your mind and finds what he needs and sort of copies and pastes it into his own mind.” Lucifer explained.

    “Is that why there’s an icy feeling going through me?” Sumaria snapped.

    “No.  That’s the effect most Death Angels have on people.  Every angel has some sort of effect.  We just don’t notice it.  Death Angels are rare to come by so, you’re not used to it.” Lucifer replied.

   Sumaria bit his lip against the pain.  He wished the angel would find what he needs in his head and get away but, the angel must be struggling.  Sumaria summoned up all he remembered about Dakota in hopes of helping the angel along.

    Then, the most disturbing thing happened.  The angel’s lips curled into an agonizingly slow grin, as if it was a pleasure to disturb a Guardian Angel just by standing there without a word.

 

     Angelus qui timet mortem. Tam rarus.  Quare quum mors immortalis Si non cura nobis nunc veniam ad te in nocte illa et miseris spiritum Domini? The angel whispered to his mind.

    The angel flew away then, taking the icy burn with him as he flew toward the forest behind Aerie.  Sumaria watched him go, partly fascinated by the blue-black glittering of the Death Angel’s wings and partly relieved to feel the ice melting away from his spine.  The angel’s words still echoed off the walls of his mind.

    Angelus qui timet mortem. Tam rarus.  Quare quum mors immortalis Si non cura nobis nunc veniam ad te in nocte illa et miseris spiritum Domini?

    Angelus qui timet mortem. Tam rarus.  Quare quum mors immortalis Si non cura nobis nunc veniam ad te in nocte illa et miseris spiritum Domini?

An angel that fears death. So rare. Why fear death when you are immortal?  When you need not worry that one of us will come to you in the night and send your spirit to the Lord? 

Reviews

[Inject Positivity]

Superbly done Tessa... The reaction of Sumaria at first was very interesting... I loved the conversational way of describing the scenes, I think it gives an extra power to the story... I just learned about this today and it's great to find an example of this technique... Amazingly done...

Sincerely
Dhiman

[Tessa Melendez]

Thank you so much. :)