Loving Angels Instead

By Stormwolf Dawn

Loving Angels Instead

by Stormwolf

The swamp was dark and muggy. Small waves surfed over the top of the water as a large creature swam beneath its surface. A peacock called from a distance, and a large water python entered the Louisiana swamp from the trunk of a cypress tree. A quick snap and a splash of water, and the python disappeared down the gullet of the largest predator roaming the swamp.

The creature continued its movements through the muddy waters until it reached a marshland covered in watercress and cattails. The creature, a large alligator more than twice the size of even the largest gator ever seen in the Bayou, moved cautiously onto the land. It moved slowly through the marshland to the drier land further along. A sewer drainage ditch came into view. Polluted waters poured from it in a trickle that eventually led to the waters of the surrounding bayou. The gator slipped into the sewer tunnel and followed it down its long winding length.

Eventually the tunnel widened into a large room where the gator was again swimming, its tail moving back and forth giving it the momentum needed to propel its self forward. A movement to its right turned the gator's attention to the black jaguar that had moved to his paws upon the gator's entrance. The gator, satisfied that the chained jaguar was no threat, ignored the beast and continued on its journey. The jaguar, attached to the cement wall by a heavy chain attached to a
metal collar around its throat, watched the gator wearily. So far, the two beasts had an uneasy truce, but the jaguar knew that if the truce ever ended the gator would gladly eat him.

The gator continued its journey until it came to the cement landing where two lamps illuminated the woman who stood drawing pictures on the wall using a brush made of human hair and paint made of blood. From the scent, the gator knew it to be human.

The woman turned at the movement behind her and looked at the large gator that crawled its way onto the landing. Her silver eyes glinted in the lamplight, and the gator felt fear enter his heart.

"Report, Simon," the woman said to the gator.

The gator stopped his forward advance and looked at his mistress. "The child is growing healthy and strong. Each day his power grows, and the angels continue to protect him. I cannot steal him yet."

"That is unfortunate," the woman said, placing the human-hair brush in the silver goblet that held the human blood. The blood, if the gator knew his mistress at all, would be a virgin's blood spilled seconds before death. Simon shivered inwardly as he thought of the method his mistress used to procure the blood.

"You are a fool!" the jaguar called from his place on the landing.

The woman turned to look at the jaguar. The beast was lean, almost skeletal, since the mistress rarely fed the immortal beast. Her face grew angry. She resented the fact that she couldn't kill the jaguar, but enjoyed watching its pain. "I suggest you don't speak in that manner, or I'll have Simon eat you. You're immortal body might survive that, but it wouldn't be pleasant, I assure you."

"What is more torture to me? I have lived a thousand times a thousand years. The child is safe and protected, and all your scheming for the past five thousand years has been for naught," the jaguar said smugly.

"The child will be mine. I will destroy his soul, and he will never be reborn."

The jaguar laughed. "The child will live, be loved and protected until the day he destroys you. I will laugh on that day."

"You will die on that day, as well," the woman said.

"Perhaps. But then so will you." The jaguar didn't seem concerned about his fate.

"Enough, I weary of speaking to you, Jaime. You speak the same words day after day. I tire of it. Perhaps a muzzle is in order."

Jaime said nothing. The witch had already used that threat, but, because there were times when the jaguar would speak prophetic words, she never would muzzle him. She needed to hear the words of prophecy, hoping against hope that she would hear the words that would allow her to win.

The immortal jaguar laid down on the cement landing and looked into the polluted waters that flowed past him. With an elegant paw he waved at the water, and it began to spin slowly until a miniature whirlpool appeared.

An image appeared in the whirlpool, one only Jaime could see. A boy, no more than seven or eight years old, played in the park. A Siberian Husky puppy ran at the boy's side. Jaime smiled as the blue eyes laughed, as the wind blew through soft chestnut curls. Jaime's eyes saw what the boy could not see: the angels that swarmed around the boy, guarding him, protecting him from harm, from the evil that sought to destroy him.

Jaime smiled and thought, "Soon, my brothers. Soon the boy shall grow into his power, and She Who Sleeps With Evil shall be destroyed. And, perhaps, I will be forgiven and allowed to return home with you, my brothers." He moved his paw through the whirlpool, and the image disappeared and the water flowed away once more. A single tear fell into the water.

The witch picked up her brush and continued to paint upon the walls. "Go," She told Simon. "The spell isn't yet complete, but I must have the boy. You will continue to try and take him. Bring him to me."

"Yes my mistress," Simon said, then turned and crawled into the water.

Simon swam back in the direction he had come. As he swam by Jaime, the jaguar said, "How can you continue to work the evil she does? She does not care for you."

"Shut up, jaguar. Or I'll eat you, even if you are just a bag of bones. And you know perfectly well why I do." With that, Simon continued out of the tunnel.

Jaime watched him leave. He turned to look at the witch who continued to write symbols on the wall. He shivered as he read the words written on the walls. Written in the language of evil, the words were a spell that would damn a soul into the depths of hell forever. The spell was not yet complete. It still needed the seed of an unfallen angel and the blood of a fallen angel as well as other ingredients. Jaime knew the spell and knew the witch had several years to go before it was completed.

The witch stepped back for a moment to study the spell. The virgin blood dripped from the brush. She had had Simon bring her a virgin woman, alive and reasonably unharmed. A knife had been used to cut the hymen allowing the virginal blood to flow, then that same knife had continued inward until the woman's screams had cut off when the woman had died from massive internal hemorrhaging. She tsked to herself, knowing that she couldn't continue the spell until she retrieved more ingredients.

Sighing, she replaced the brush back into the silver goblet, wiped her hands on a soft towel, then turned and walked across the top of the water until she reached the landing were Jaime was. Jaime stood on all four paws and looked at her with his blue eyes. She walked past him to the wall that held the implements she had hung there herself. Grasping the spelled cat o' nine tails, she walked back over to Jaime. The jaguar, knowing what was about to happen, huddled on the round.
The witch smiled as she raised the cat o' nine tails. She brought the whip down with all the force she could muster, and the nine knotted strands lashed full across the jaguar's back.

Jaime didn't make a sound as the dark spell in the whip caused a searing pain across his body, more than the whip itself could ever hope to generate. But Jaime endured the whipping as he had endured all his tortures. No sound emerged from him. He lay on the ground and took the punishment. The punishment he himself had foretold that he would endure thousands of years ago. His punishment for falling. The punishment that would deliver his forgiveness and allow him once
more to ascend to heaven to be with his brothers, to bask once more in the grace of Light.

The beating continued for what seemed like hours, the witch frustrated by Jaime's lack of response. Eventually, the blows stopped, and the witch let the whip drop from her hand. "One day, la' ange, you will cry out. And that day, I will triumph."

Jaime said nothing, and the witch picked up the whip and replaced it on the wall. She then walked across the top of the water and entered a side tunnel that led into her chambers. Jaime watched her leave, and then placed his head on his paws. The spell on the whip slowed his body's natural healing, but eventually his body did heal.

And Jaime closed his eyes and slept.

Naomi sat on a park bench and watched as her son played on the jungle gym not more than a few yards away from her. She smiled when Blair climbed to the very top and announced loudly to the other children that he had won. Naomi clapped at her son, laughing and smiling. Blair flashed her a mischievous grin, and then the other children managed to get to the top. Naomi couldn't help smiling when she saw Blair help a little girl climb to the top. Naomi looked at her watch and realized that it was time to go. When she told Blair, the boy didn't complain. Instead, he happily climbed down from the jungle gym, waved goodbye to the other children, and grasped Naomi's hand. The seven-year-old boy followed his mother as they left the park.

A man, tall and dark-skinned, stood against a tree, a newspaper in his hands. He watched the pair leave and followed, stuffing the paper into a nearby trashcan. He followed the woman as she walked over to the bus stop just in time to catch a bus. The man waited till the other passengers boarded before he, too, got on the bus. He paid the exact change and went to the very back where he stood holding on to one of the hand straps, his eyes watching the boy and his mother. A
brush of feathers across the back of his neck had him shivering.

"Leave." A voice whispered into his ear. Simon didn't bother to turn around. He knew he would see nothing. "Leave. The boy is protected," the voice said.

"Fuck you. You can't harm me," Simon said beneath his breath. A woman seated to his right gave him a strange look. Simon glared at her, and she quickly turned her head.

"Leave. The witch will not win. Turn away from the Dark and embrace the Light."

"Yeah, fuck you. Where was the Light when I needed it? There were no angels protecting my son when he was sold. No angel there to protect my wife when she was raped and hanged. Fuck you and your Light," Simon growled.

"We were there," the voice said. "We sheltered the boy with our wings when the lash came across his back. We sang to your wife, comforted her as she died. We escorted her soul home."

"We were there when your son escaped and made his way north. We were there when he died upon the battlefield, giving his life so that more men, women, and children could be free. We were there when mother embraced son."

Simon wiped away tears that had formed in his eyes. "Thank you," he whispered.

"Then, leave, Simon. Leave this path before it's too late."

Simon straightened up. "Its already too late." And with those words he followed Naomi and the boy as they exited the bus.

The angel, Rafe, lowered his head, eyes filled with tears as he watched his brothers follow the lost soul. Opening his wings, Rafe flew into the air, his body passing through the hull of the bus. Sure
that his brothers would watch the boy; Rafe flew on alone until he reached the bayou. He glided down into the sewers until he was standing before his fallen brother.

Jaime lifted his head, and for a moment, he was no longer a jaguar. Standing before his brother, wings torn and ragged, Jaime looked into his brother's soft brown eyes.

"I could not dissuade him brother," Rafe said.

"I'm not surprised," Jaime said. "He carries a heavy grief. That grief weighs him down and blocks him from the Light."

"And how is it with you brother?" Rafe asked.

"I live, I hope, and I continue to pray," Jaime answered.

Rafe reached out and placed a hand on Jaime's face. Jaime closed his eyes and leaned into the touch. Tears fell from his closed eyes. Rafe's eyes, too, were wet with tears.

"Soon, my brother, you will be forgiven. We will sing, with our hearts filled with joy, upon that day. May it not be another five thousand years before we do."

"I pray it will be so, brother. There is nothing you can do for me. I deserve my punishment, and I accept it. Go. Don't let the boy fall into Simon's hands. Please continue to try and reach his heart. He was a good man once and can be so again. He has only to reject the Darkness and embrace the Light once more."

"It hurts to see you suffer, Je T'aime, but I will go. Continue to pray; the Light listens to our prayers." With that Rafe leaned over and brushed his lips across Jaime's lips. The fallen angel's lips parted and the kiss deepened as Rafe's tongue entered Jaime's mouth. The kiss lasted an eternity and a moment, and Rafe was too soon and too late in pulling back. Tears fell freely down the angel's face and his wings opened wide. Jaime looked upon his brother once again with jaguar eyes as Rafe flew into the air. Rafe disappeared through the cement ceiling and flew into the sky, sun warm upon his wings.

Rafe found his brothers. They had trailed Simon to Naomi's apartment home. Simon lingered outside the building, leaning against the wall of a store across the street from the apartments. Rafe landed beside Simon. The shapeshifter felt the brush of feathers across his cheek and growled. "Go away."

"I shall not," Rafe whispered into Simon's ear.

Simon waved his hand as if to ward off a fly. "Look if you want to save someone, then go save your fallen brother. Leave me alone."

"I cannot save nor condemn a soul. It's not within my power to do so."

"Then why are you hassling me?" Simon growled.

"I'm here to guide you and protect the boy."

"Look, angel boy, I'm not here to listen to you. I have a job to do. If I don't get the boy and bring him to my mistress, she will skin me and make me into a new purse and a pair of shoes. Leave me alone."

"You have only to deny her, and her power will hold no sway over you. Your soul will be free," Rafe answered.

"Yeah, right. She kills me, and then what?" Simon shook his head. "I don't think so."

With that, Simon pushed off the wall and walked across the street. The angels followed him, their feathers brushing against his body, but Simon ignored the strange sensation. Simon walked into the shop that sat at the bottom of the building.

The old woman who worked the shop eyed Simon appreciatively, but then stepped back and made a warding sign with her fingers. "Leave now, devil spirit. You have no power here."

"Back off, woman. Your weak powers hold no sway over me."

"You come for the boy. His aura shines like a sun, and you wish to destroy such light. I will stop you." The woman pulled out a cross and a bundle of rosemary.

Simon laughed at the woman's attempts. If a priestess of great power were to do the same, Simon would have backed off, but the woman had no such powers. She only dabbled in the occult. Simon by passed the old woman, pushing her to the ground. The woman fell, and Simon headed up the stairs in the back of the store.

The angels followed, trying desperately to stop him, their wings pushing against Simon. But, their wings no longer frightened Simon, nor had any power over him, and Rafe realized his mistake in telling Simon of his son and wife.

Simon burst into the room where Naomi meditated in the center of a prayer rug. She screamed at Simon's abrupt entrance, and Blair came running from his room. The boy stopped beside his mother, and Simon moved to take the boy. Naomi gathered her courage and stood, trying to stop him, but he merely pushed her to the side and reached down to grasp the boy's arm. Blair looked up at Simon, his blue eyes holding a few unshed tears, but they didn't fall, nor did he make a sound.

Simon looked down at the boy; one large hand grasped the boy's arm in a tight but not crushing grip. The boy looked up at him, and Simon was suddenly transported back in time, memory surging forth, and another set of eyes looked up at him filled with unshed tears. Brown eyes replaced blue, and a stoic face full of courage and fear looked up at him. Simon let go of the boy's arm and stepped back. The boy before him flickered from Blair his own son, Daryl, and Simon was suddenly uncertain. The woman, Naomi, lay unconscious on the floor, but the boy only looked at him with eyes that were now blue, now brown, and flickered back and forth.

"What are you doing to me?!?" Simon cried out to the angels who surround them.

"We do nothing," Rafe whispered in his ear, feathers brushing Simon's tear streaked cheek.

"You lie. What magic do you work upon me!"

"We do not lie. There is no magic performed here. None but the power of love and innocence."

"No I don't believe you! Stop, please stop!" Simon cried, falling to his knees. As he sobbed into his hands, Simon felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up into the blue eyes of the boy called Blair.

"Are you alright?" Blair asked in a sweet, angelic voice.

"I am damned," Simon whispered.

"Mommy said that there is nothing that we can do that God would not forgive us for," Blair said his voice full of innocence and sureness. "Maybe if you just ask him, then you can go to heaven."

Simon looked into the eyes of the innocent and nodded, knowing the boys words to be true. "You're right," he said, standing.

"Where are you going?" Blair asked.

"To beg for forgiveness," Simon said, and the boy smiled. Simon left the apartment. As he did, he used his cell phone to call for am ambulance. As he left he felt the soft brush of feathers against his back hurrying him to his destination.

Rafe watched as his brothers escorted Simon from the apartment then he turned his attention to Blair, who looked back at him. "That was well done," Rafe said to the boy.

Blair shrugged, " I did what I was told to do." Rafe nodded in understanding. The boy's own inner voice had given him the knowledge and the courage to do what he had done. The Light had directed the inner voice, and Rafe knew this battle had been won.

Simon transformed at the edge of the bayou into the powerful gator and dipped into the murky waters of the swap. Using his tail, Simon swam through the swamp toward the witch's lair. An angel rode his back; the only awareness Simon had of the being was the slight brush of feathers against his scaly face. Fear filed his heart with each stroke of his tail and was wiped away by the slight brush of feathers. The witch's lair came ever closer, and Simon eventually crawled onto the land. He made his way to the entrance of the sewer and moved with a steady purpose inside.

Rafe made his way to the lair, as well, and landed beside his fallen brother who remained in the jaguar form.

"How did it go?" Jaime asked.

"The boy convinced Simon to break his dark bonds. We had little to do with it."

The jaguar smiled. "Then Simon is free, and Blair is safe."

"Simon comes here to confront the witch and to help you," Rafe said.

Jaime leapt to his paws. "No! You must stop him, Rafe. The time is not yet right. The witch will destroy him!"

"I believe it is beyond us now, brother. Simon feels he must do this, just as you feel you must suffer for your sin."

"But the price of human sins has already been paid. There is no need for him to pay for his sins. Unlike me who disobeyed the Light and threw down my sword."

"Yes, you committed that sin. When the Light told you to go into the city of Egypt and bring back the souls of the firstborn sons of Egypt, you refused, throwing down the sword of Death that the Light himself gave you as part of your duties. Soon, though, my brother, you will be forgiven and brought back into the fold."

They were interrupted when Simon swam into the room. The gator crawled up onto the landing where Jaime was chained. "I will free you, and then you must leave this place," Simon said.

"I cannot leave you here to face her alone," Jaime replied.

"You must. You must go to the boy and protect him. The witch is not the only one who works for She who Sleeps with Evil. She is one of many, and the boy must be protected."

"You don't stand a chance against the witch. Let me help you," Jaime said.

"No, this is what I must do. I failed my son and wife. I must make up for that."

"You did not fail them. You did all that you could." Jaime said.

"No, I failed them when I gave up hope."

Jaime looked into the gator's eyes and saw the determination within and nodded his head. Just as he felt he must suffer for his sin, then Simon, too, felt that he should make up for the sin he committed.

With one snap of his jaws, Simon broke the chain that had held Jaime prisoner for five hundred years. Jaime followed Rafe a little ways down the watery tunnel, then stopped and looked back at the gator. With all his heart, he wished the gator good luck silently, but Simon nodded as if Jaime had spoken out loud, and Jaime followed Rafe the rest of the way to freedom. The boy was in danger, and Jaime knew the boy would be needed in the war that was on the horizon.

He did not look back again as he left the sewer, nor did he ever expect to see Simon on this plane of existence ever again.

Simon watched the jaguar leave then turned his attention further down the waterway, knowing his mistress waited. The gator continued forward, prepared for the final confrontation.

The witch did not expect Simon to betray her. The angels had used their power to cover Simon's betrayal; therefore the witch had her back to Simon when he entered.

Simon took the opportunity and moved quickly. His jaws closed over the witch's torso, but did not kill her instantly, her power sustaining her life-force. She screamed and brought her power to hand and sent it straight into Simon's body. The gator closed his jaws completely, and as the witch died, so, too, did Simon.

The host of angels gathered around the soul of the former slave and embraced him. With lighted wings they carried him from the place of death into the Light.

In the sewer, the rats came and ate the bodies, and the witch's soul was torn from her body by demons using their claws and teeth. And as they took her soul down to Hell, they took turns raping what was left of it and torturing it with their claws and fire. She screamed, and it echoed throughout the fiery halls of Hell.

Jaime ran on four paws as fast as he could, ignoring the screams of those who saw him. Rafe had flown ahead to be with the boy and had sent another angel back to him to report that the boy was in the hands of She Who Sleeps With Evil. Jaime tried his best to move faster.

Already, the New Orleans police department was converging on the site where Jaime was running, along with Animal Control. Jaime had no time to deal with them. Instead, he continued to run, fear in his heart as he thought of the boy in the hands of She Who Sleeps With Evil.

His brother, Gregorius, led him to the place where the boy was.

Inside the warehouse, Jaime followed Gregorius up the stairs into the office. She Who Sleeps With Evil stood over the boy who sat in a chair. She held a silver dagger to the boy's throat.

Jaime growled, but the woman looked at the fallen angel calmly. "Do not come closer, or I will slit his throat."

"Then you would have to wait another hundred years before his return to send him to the depths of Hell," Jaime said.

"You are right, but the war is coming soon. Can you afford to wait another hundred years, or will the horn sound tomorrow to herald the battle between us?"

Jaime growled again but did not move closer. "For the spell that my servant had begun to work, I must have the seed of an angel and the blood of a fallen angel, and lucky me, I have both before me."

"I will not give you what you seek," Jaime said.

"You will, or you will watch the boy die here and now." She ignored the brush of feathers against her body. She had no fear of the servants of Light.

Blair reached out and grasped a feather, and Rafe released the feather into the boy's keeping. The feather appeared in his hand and glowed with a pure light. Blair smiled and placed the feather against the knife at his throat, and the knife melted into the feather until the boy held a silver, metal feather.

The metal feather then melted, and a pure white dove flew from the boy's hand, and Blair laughed at the sight, giggling in pure delight at what he had done.

She Who Sleeps With Evil was so startled by the display of the boy's powers that she forgot the dangerous creature before her. When she turned her attention to the jaguar, it was almost too late. Jaime leapt, and his claws swiped across the daemon's face leaving four parallel marks across her cheek. The once beautiful face was marred forever by a fallen angel.

Before Jaime could finish her off, a dark portal appeared, and she slipped through. Jaime knew better than to follow her into Hell, and he cursed at himself for being too slow. The portal closed.

Blair stood up, slipping out of the chair, smiling, the dove perched upon his shoulder peering out from beneath his curly hair.

Jaime turned to look at the boy, and Blair reached out and touched the jaguar's furry face. Within the next instant, Jaime was in human form, his once tattered wings gone, his thin and starving body back to pure health, muscles and flesh renewed. Jaime could still feel his wings and knew that he was still a fallen angel, but that he was no longer cursed to live within the jaguar's body.

Rafe appeared beside him, placing a hand on Jaime's cheek. "My brother, you still have work to do on this plane. The boy is growing into his powers, and eventually the horn will sound, and the war between Heaven and Hell will begin. We shall fight the war on our plane of existence, and the boy will be the Champion for Light on Earth. Your task is to protect him and ready him for the coming battle."

Jaime leaned into the hand, feeling the angel's touch upon his cheek, reveling in the feel of the warm hand. "I understand, Rafe."

"Farewell, Je T'aime. We shall be together again, you shall see," Rafe said. With one last stroke of his hand against his lover's cheek, Rafe opened his wings and flew into the sky.

A brush of feathers against his chest, and clothes appeared on Jaime's nude hermaphroditic form. His body lacked wings only to make him complete angel. Jaime could still feel the torn and tattered wings, but knew that they were healing, albeit slowly, and when they fully healed, Jaime knew, he would be fully forgiven his sins. He watched Rafe and the other angels fly into the heavens to join the flocks of the thousands of his brethren. A single tear fell down his face.

A hand touched his arm, and brought Jaime's attention to the ground. He looked down to see Blair smiling up at him, the boy's small hand on his arm.

"You will be home soon," Blair said.

Jaime looked into the depths of the boy's eyes, and saw the confirmation in his reflection. Then, smiling, he lifted Blair into his arms and walked out of the warehouse into the bright sunshine.

~~~~~~~~

The End