The Nephelim
Chapter 2
animus and Staine

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Act II

She watched him sleep as she had done countless nights before.

For the umpteenth time that night, she checked his vital signs again, knowing even as her probes raced between two realms what the results would be. The tests were more for her sake than for his - she needed to reassure herself that he was perfectly healthy. Drawing on a faction of the Void’s limitless energy, she wove one of her stronger spells, one designed to reveal the outcome of things yet to happen. A window of flickering light appeared before her, an arcane portal into the future. Absently holding the strands of the incomplete construct firmly to prevent the spell from unravelling, she added the necessary variables, mental images of boy, herself and the actions she was about to undertake.

As she expected, the window exploded in a riot of shifting colours that quickly formed images. Images that flashed by so fast no lesser being would be able to make any sense of them. She sighed to herself. There were too many possibilities, each about as likely to occur as the next. It made sense because the boy was an anomaly, a Nephelim. His was a life of no natural root, the product of union between two realms divided by mortality. His was a life utterly unsanctioned by the Creator, a life that, simply, shouldn’t have been. She expected to find that his future would be clouded with uncertainty, for no magic she commanded could reveal future of one, that by rights, should never have been. Reaching into the heart of her spell, she cleared her variables and replaced the image of the boy with one of his father. Unlike the son, the seraphim had a natural root and his future was not nearly as uncluttered.

“Always the loyal son...” She murmured fondly as she traced the path of Menthayel’s most probable future. “Always willing to sacrifice all for the One Above All.” With an idle wave of her hand, she dispelled the shimmering window and turned her attention back to the sleeping boy. “While I may approve to your motives beloved, your means leave a lot to be desired. I will not allow you to recklessly gamble our son’s life!”

Pushing everything else out of her mind, she let the limitless power of the Void flow into her and focused her might on the sleeping boy.

Alec wasn’t quite sure where he was.

It was someplace, but at the same time it wasn’t really any place. He might have been in one of the many parks scattered around Turnam or in the middle of the city, surrounded by tall buildings, or even the all too familiar halls of Turnam State. There simply wasn’t any sure way to know. It should have felt odd, not knowing where he was, but for some strange reason, it just made sense. It didn’t matter where he was exactly because he really didn’t need to be anywhere. Just about anywhere would have done and anywhere didn’t necessarily have to be somewhere.

It just had to be a place.

So it was.

He felt pleasantly bemused as he examined his non-surroundings. There wasn’t really anything that caught the eye, no colours or shapes that really stood out and screamed ‘hey look at me!’ so pinpointing his location was a guaranteed way to procrastinate. He loved procrastinating so in the spirit of things, actively tried to work out where this nowhere was. The lack of discernable colour and shape, however, was making the task quite a chore and soon it started to feel like he was doing something more akin to work than honest procrastinating. That wasn’t nearly as pleasing, so he abandoned the task immediately. Work was bad. He didn’t want to do any of that yet. Not until Lindsey and Steve cut off his allowance at least.

The attempt at work was draining, so he decided to take a seat. Never stand when you can sit down, he always said. He looked around for a moment before shrugging to himself and sitting cross-legged right where he was. In this nowhere, one place was as good as any other, and since there didn’t seem to be any way to tell one place from the next, he saw no reason why he shouldn’t just sit right where he was standing. That beat walking to another section of nowhere just to sit on his arse, anyway.

From the ground, everything looked much as it did when he was standing. He couldn’t even be sure that there was even a perspective change to account for his lower elevation. In fact, there was no definitive line of horizon to show the joining of ground and sky. He snorted, suddenly feeling less than amused. Wherever this nowhere was, it sucked!

Time passed, although it was remarkably hard to measure time in a place that didn’t really change, but he was sure some time had to have passed because that was what time did. It passed. He had no idea how long he’d been sitting there, but his right foot was starting to go numb due to the lack of circulation so he figured he must have been in this nowhere for at least ten minutes. But again, it was hard to be certain. He stood up and absently brushed non-existent dust off the back of his jeans before reaching for his cigarettes. Cigarettes, he reasoned brightly, where the perfect time wasting devices. People always smoked when waiting for something to happen, so it seemed only right he have a smoke while waiting. He had no idea what was supposed to happen, but it really didn’t matter. Just waiting for something to happen meant something was going to happen.

Unless, of course, this was a loopy Samuel Beckett play! He chose not to follow that train of thought, and decided to focus his attention on something a little less disturbing.

He lit his cigarette and took a deep drag, holding the smoke down in his lungs for a moment before going ‘fish-mouthed’ to blow big smoke rings.

“Cute. Could you teach me how to do that?” a feminine voice called out cheerfully.

Alec spun around to see the most beautiful girl he could ever imagine standing not half a dozen paces away watching him with an amused expression on her perfect face. And it was a flawless, oddly ethereal face too, he thought to himself. She possessed a rare beauty that would have seemed completely out of place on anyone else but her. He wasn’t sure what made her perfect exactly, because all things considered, the only things that seemed truly exotic was her curly silver hair and her enormous violet eyes. Her cheekbones were high and her chin narrow, giving her a somewhat heart-shaped face, but in and of itself, was nothing ground-breakingly spectacular. Her slightly upturned nose was also on the narrow side, but non-descript enough to be just about anyone else’s nose and while her lips gave her an ever so cute pout that would drive most males crazy, so what? If not of the stunning violet eyes and the long silver hair that tumbled down her back like a shimmering waterfall, she could have been just a pretty someone else, but the second all of that came together, she was perfect. Her age was hard to determine, she didn’t look old despite her hair colour, and there was a certain youthfulness about her which meant she could have been anything between fifteen and twenty-five.

“Do you really have to do that?” the girl asked, looking somewhat put out.

“Do what?”

“Stare at me like I farted or I’m a talking monkey or something. It’s kinda rude, Aleck.”

He blinked. Not only did she know his name, she pronounced it the same way his father did, aspirating the ‘k’ almost to the point of a glottal stop at the end. No one else ever pronounced his name that way, so it was kinda unnerving that she did. He was also quite sure he’d never laid eyes on her before, because he couldn’t see how he could manage to misplace such a unique memory.

The girl exhaled peevishly, shaking her head in irritation as he continued to stare at her. Alec wasn’t really perving, just getting an idea of who he was dealing with. She was shorter than him by a head, making her about 5’5 or 5’6 and she was kinda petite, but petite in a cute, really sexy sort of way. He knew she was clothed, but he couldn’t really make out what she was wearing. Like his surroundings, her garments were oddly colourless, but they were by no means transparent. He could make out the shapes of her breasts as well as the curves of her hips but she had to be wearing something, because his view didn’t get any more intimate. Odd, but then again, considering where he was, maybe not so odd. What was really odd, however, was that he didn’t find himself remotely attracted to her in spite of how good she looked. By rights, he should have wanted to tumble her in an instant but there was simply… no drive.

“Okay, you done checking me out?”

“Yeah.” He nodded without the slightest trace of embarrassment. He wasn’t really ‘checking her out’, just looking at her. The silver-haired girl was undoubtedly attractive, it was just that he was more curious about who she was than anything else. Nothing more, nothing less, and so there was no reason to feel embarrassed as he would have felt had he actually been checking her out.

“So how do you know me?” he asked in a neutral voice.

The girl smiled. “You really don’t know who I am, do you?”

“Nope.” He shook his head. “Should I?”

“No, probably not. I mean, its not like we’ve ever actually met or anything…” she said simply.

Alec began to feel slightly annoyed. “Okay, so now I find myself repeating myself: How do you know me?”

The girl smiled again, “Oh, from around, you know…”

“No, actually I don’t know. Mind explaining?”

“Not really. It’s a long story.”

He made no attempt to conceal his frown. “Well humour me. Its not like I’ve got anything better to do.”

“You don’t, but then again, you’re not me and I have plenty of stuff to do.”

“So go do it then,” he snapped curtly. The girl was starting to get on his nerves with her evasive answers. Regardless of how pretty she was, he found himself wishing she’d just bugger off and let him waste time in nowhere-ville by himself. He wasn’t sexually attracted to her and he had no particular want to make new friends so as far as he was concerned, he didn’t need her for anything, and if he didn’t need her for anything, then she may as well just bugger off.

The girl began shuffling her feet and looking coy. “Yeah well, see I would, but…”

“But what?”

“But there’s a couple things I wanna talk to you about first.”

Alec finished what was left of his cigarette and lit the next one with the butt of the first before stubbing the butt out. He glanced at the one on the ground, struck suddenly by how much it stood out against the grey nothing ness of nowhere. “So talk,” he mumbled, blowing out a cloud of smoke in her general direction.

She suddenly dropped the cute little girl act and now, by the tone of her voice and the firm set of her lips, was all business. “I know what’s happening to you, Aleck.”

That got his attention. Alec straightened up sharply and stared at her. “What’s been happening to me?” he asked, trying to concede nothing.

“You’re the son of an angel,” she told him flatly. “That’s never meant anything to you until just recently, because you’ve always been kinda normal,” here she suddenly grinned impishly, “if a bit of a punching-bag, but that all changed when you beat up a kid at your school. See, you’re different now, Aleck.”

“I have no idea what the fuck you’re talking about,” he lied calmly. “Yeah, so I did send some prick to the hospital. So what? Happens often enough in our public schools. The Australian working classes aren’t known for their delightful pacifism.”

The girl sighed loudly, her expression ever so slightly irritated. “Nice try, but like I said, I know all about you. Now you can try to rationalise it all you want with me, but it’s not gonna do you any good. You can’t deny that a part of you is angelic, Aleck. Not in the Christian harps and halos and feathered wings nonsense, angelic as in the blood of the firstborn runs through your veins.”

Blood of the Firstborn. Something in that rang true. “I have no idea what the-”

“Oh, cut it out!” she snapped. “I’m sure Menthayel would be pleased to know his pride and joy currently disowns him.”

Alec’s jaw dropped. “What did you just say?”

“Menthayel,” the girl repeated. “He is your father and I know he’s your father, so drop the act and stop trying to pretend I’m some sort of simpleton before I come over there and thump you!”

“W-who… who are you?” Alec stammered nervously. That this girl knew of his father, specifically, that she knew who his father was in relation to him, was definitely grounds for concern. She didn’t look like she could physically harm him, but then again, he was visited by the ugly realisation that he didn’t know who, or what, she was. He knew that his reality was not confined to a single plane of existence so he understood that there were beings out there that were more than he was. It suddenly occurred to him that this nowhere he found himself in could very well be another plane of existence and if that was true, then in all likeliness, she could probably kick his butt back to earth in a heartbeat if she felt that way inclined. It wasn’t a pleasant thought.

“Let’s just say I’m a friend.” The girl grinned disarmingly. “A friend with a vested interest in your well-being.”

“Right.” Alec snorted, all bluster. Her grin, as pretty as it was, only served to put him more on edge. Pretty girls just didn’t tend to smile at him as a rule. “And I’m supposed to believe that why exactly?”

She seemed to resent his tone. “Because I just said it, didn’t I?”

“So? For all I know, you’re some evil she-bitch from hell out to eat my soul or something.”

At that, she actually laughed. It was a beautiful, musical laugh that scared him more than an evil, diabolic-sounding laugh would have because of how good it sounded. His mind was filled with thoughts concerning succubi and she certainly seemed to fit the requirements. Having his life essence literally sucked out of him wasn’t an attractive prospect.

“I can see your point,” she said, still chuckling, “but you have my word that I’m not an evil she-bitch from hell out to eat your soul.”

“Just an evil she-bitch from hell, then?”

“No, I’m not that either.”

“How about just evil?”

The girl’s expression darkened, causing his to cringe involuntarily. “Okay, enough with the word games. I’m not here to hurt you, okay? Just deal with it!”

“Why should I?” he demanded indignantly. “You claim you’re a friend but you won’t even tell me your name. Why in the name of Shakira’s lush ass should I believe a word you say?”

The girl stared at him silently for a long drawn out moment and Alec felt that maybe he’d pushed her a bit too far. He was about to offer an apology when she suddenly grinned. It was a different grin from the ones she’d offered him thus far. This one, while it still carried her amusement, was warm and strangely comforting in a vaguely familiar sense. Buried just under the surface was also a deep sense of pride he could feel over the distance that separated them.

“You’re a credit to your foster parents and your bloodline Aleck.” She nodded approvingly. “I know you fear me, but you’re still not cowered. That takes a certain amount of intestinal fortitude and I can respect that.” A cheeky grin appeared. “Even if it really makes me wanna slap you hard.”

Alec relaxed slightly. He still didn’t trust her, but true to her word, she hadn’t made any offensive moves against him yet. The praise also did a lot to calm him down. He knew she could have been attacking his mind to subvert his will or worse, but he didn’t feel anything untoward, and even if he did, there was absolutely nothing he could do about it anyway, so that was a moot point. The one thing he was sure about, now, was that this nowhere had to be another plane of existence and the very fact that he wasn’t concerned about that, reinforced the idea. It made perfect sense that another plane of existence would have, for the lack of a better term, enchantments to put a visitor at ease. His human mind would have rebelled against such an incomprehensible environment otherwise.

“So what do we do now?” Alec asked.

The girl looked around critically and made a face. “A change of scenery first. This is no place to talk. I don’t know about you, but I find the lack of colour annoying on occasion.”

Alec could only nod as she gestured and suddenly found himself in the middle of a garden, only the most lush, most perfect garden he’d ever seen. There was so much colour here that it was almost blinding. The immaculately tended grass was such a rich hue of green that it seemed almost unreal. Flowers, blues and purples predominantly, but broken up here and there by reds and yellows, lit the garden in a soft soothing glow that washed away in an instant all the worries Alec had of his strange companion. It was perfection truly worthy of Heaven, and this time the concept of Heaven actually felt plausible. If only because he must be standing in it.

“My God…” Alec whispered breathlessly as he fell to his knees and drank in the splendour around him. There was a rightness here so sublime he felt his eyes watering up. Awe was a gross understatement. He felt so insignificant, so unworthy to be here that he was sure he’d be struck down for simply laying eyes on this place. It seemed quite blasphemous that he should even be allowed to see it, much let set foot in it.

“Enough of that shit!” he heard the girl hiss commandingly from behind him. He spun around to find her glaring at him. Catching the mix of horror and awe on his face, her frown slowly faded away to be replaced with the same sort of smile that had filled him with warmth earlier. He wiped his eyes and stared at her in wonder.

She’d been amazing to look at before, but now with colour around her, she was simply magnificent. Her hair was held back by a silver circlet adorned with a trio of purple gems and her silver locks flowed down her back in a single uniform stream not more than six inches wide. A peach toned garment hung off one shoulder and flowed down over her slender form to trail along behind her. It was a rather simple gown that accented her curves and left very little to the imagination but at the same time, it seemed so right on her that no one could consider it indecent. Her clothing served to bring her femineity onto a whole new level of flawlessness.

“No one will harm you here Aleck.” She whispered softly. “No one.”

He believed her.

“Where am I? Is this heaven?” he asked reverently.

Her smile continued to fill him with the gentle warmth of the garden. It was if she was drawing in the overwhelming sense of rightness around them and then infusing him with minute doses of it. “Not really. But let’s just say the image most people associate heaven with the term is a myth.” She waved idly. “This, here, is about as good as it gets.”

“Why did you bring me here?” he whispered.

“To talk. Come.” She held out her hand to him and after a moment of hesitation he took it. Her skin was unbelievably soft and while cool, Alec felt odd tingles running up his arm. It was hardly unpleasant, just… odd. She led him through the garden along what seemed like natural paths to a stone bench set at the edge of a small clearing. Here she allowed him to seat her before indicating he should take a seat as well.

“There are things you’ll need to know about your life Aleck,” she began in her soft, honeyed voice. “For starters, my role in it.” He opened his mouth to again ask her who she was but found a slender finger pressed gently against his lips. “No, I can’t answer that, at least not yet. Now don’t ask me to explain myself because we haven’t much time.”

He didn’t know why she found time constraining but he bit back his curiosity and nodded.

“Good,” she took his hand in hers and gave him a little squeeze. There was nothing sexual in the gesture, but he felt a little more of her glorious warmth flow into him. “Now a couple of days ago, something distinctly odd happened to you at your mother’s grave.” She smiled at him again, pleased that she had his complete attention. “I’m going to explain to you what actually happened and what that means to you…”

“Liam!”

The shorter man looked up from his place at the round slate grey marble table to find a dark clothed figure across the room from him, floating a foot above the immaculately polished floor of the Sigurdian Council chambers. “Yes Master?” He asked politely, closing his laptop and setting aside the ancient text he’d been studying.

The flickering light from the dozen wall mounted torches – more for show than anything else as each place at the table had its own reading lamp - scattered throughout the hall made Menthayel’s face appear gaunt, haggard almost. Gliding across the floor to the table, the angel pulled out the polished mahogany chair closest to him and sat down pointedly ignoring the gold lettering etched into the table before him.

The angel got straight to the point. “How goes our project?”

“As to be expected,” Liam answered carefully. “Though the signs of corruption grow increasingly more evident each time she calls upon the Star.”

Menthayel nodded. “I can feel Rachel’s thoughts intermittently. When she draws upon the Star in particular, our minds are pulled that much closer together.” He sighed loudly. “And yes, she is becoming more… tainted as the days go by. Are your people still forced to clean up after her?”

“Yes, but its becoming increasingly more difficult. Two days ago she created a scene in the mall. Very…” the vulture-like Watcher fumbled for the right word, “unpleasant. We’re still in the process of erasing memories from the witnesses but there were so many that I cannot guarantee we’ll get them all. Of course, no one will be able to prove a thing, but she’s now making it much harder for us to conceal her activities. A month ago we were stretched to the limit just trying to minimise her collateral damage. Now…” he left the sentence unfinished.

Menthayel’s expression was patient, but with the barest hint of disappointment in the mix. “I see. Your recommendations?”

Liam’s face darkened as he brought his thumbs up under his chin, his fingers steepling under his nose. “Master, while I would never presume to advise without invitation, it is my view that our best course is to terminate the project and start afresh. While Rachel Linton may have seemed like the one we’re searching for a year ago when she was first selected, she now seems like a more capable, infinitely more destructive, female version of Alistair Crowley. Her mind is so far gone that she now believes those B-grade satanic movie rites she practices actually strengthen her. The girl even considers herself God’s superior.”

Menthayel’s smile did not carry a grain of amusement. “Unfortunately for all concerned, she IS NOT God. If she had been, this would have all been much easier…”

“Master?” Liam prompted questioningly. The angel’s eyes were locked on his subordinate’s, but Liam could plainly see Menthayel’s attention was elsewhere. The Watcher waited, trying not to flinch uncomfortably as the sensation of being stared at, but not seen, grew more acute. A minute later he prompted his superior again. “Master, what do we do?”

The emerald green eyes that had been there to witness the birth of the world suddenly snapped into focus. “How many candidates do we have left?” Then, without waiting for the answer he already knew, asked another question. “Loren Russell is next in line is he not?”

Liam nodded. “After him, we have two other potentials but Loren does seem to be the most likely based on the criteria you’ve set.”

“Amongst the candidates, who’s the least likely to be the one?”

“It’s hard to tell, but at the moment, I’d say the decision was roughly a draw between that friend of your son and Blaise De Angelo.”

“Blaise De Angelo...” Menthayel pictured the tall fiery redhead. Her name was a good description for her temper. Blaise was simply too much trouble gathered up in the one place. Like many pretty girls, she thought quite a lot about herself and it was the reason why she was on the bottom of the list. In all likeliness, she would not be the One, and giving her the talisman would surely destroy her.

Menthayel allowed a cruel smile to spread over his face. Perfect.

Blaise would be the testing ground. They would give her far more power than any mortal had any right to. The talisman that would fall into her hands would supercharge her goddess-complex to heights even she’d never dreamed of. For a moment, just before her inevitable… demise, she would come very close to the God-hood she desired. That would make her the ideal subject for Aleck to cut his teeth on. After all, the angel reasoned, who better to hone your skills on than a virtual god?

“So what do we do about Rachel Linton?” the Watcher asked.

Menthayel did not move a muscle and displayed no outward indication he’d even heard the question. Liam waited a minute and was about to repeat himself when the angel looked up, his face completely expressionless.

“Destroy her.” Menthayel said flatly. “We may have erred, but she must pay for that folly. Rachel was NOT the one we’re searching for. That much is clear to me now. Destroy her and pass the Star onto Blaise as soon as possible.”

Liam inclined his head slightly. While he could not see the logic behind the move, he knew better than to gainsay the angel. “At once, Master. I shall see to it myself.”

The angel nodded slowly, his penetrating eyes burning into his subordinate. His voice was a low vehement hiss. “And when you’re done, it shall be as if Rachel had never even existed, do you understand me Liam, never… existed! Take the best of your Sigurdians and wipe her from the minds of everyone that has ever come across her. By the time Blaise gets her greedy little paws on my Star, Rachel won’t even be a distant memory. THAT, is the price of failure.”

Liam swallowed. “It will be done.” He whispered meekly.

“Remember this,” Menthayel murmured in a voice made deceptively gentle, “what most humans fail to comprehend, is that there is no good or evil. God and the Devil are one and the same and the universe as you know it is but a fragment of its Creator. Whatever ‘evil’ already exists down here, it is but a shadow of the ‘evil’ that lurks within the One we seek.” He gave Liam time to digest that before adding, “And now that the One walks unchecked and almost undetectable among us, we have all the more to fear.”

“I… I understand… Master.”

“No, I don’t think you do.” Menthayel’s chilling smile sent yet another shiver up Liam’s spine. “If you did, you’d be nothing more than ash and I would never have owned your soul…”

A moment later, the Watcher found himself alone, his knees trembling uncontrollably.

Alec’s eyes snapped open as he sucked in a lungful of air. His chest hurt like he’d been holding his breath for an unhealthily long time and he was freezing! Blowing into his cupped hands to warm them, his eyes drifted to his alarm clock. It was just past four in the morning. He looked down at his trembling hands and noticed the blue tinge around his nails.

“Brrrr, what the fuck?” he muttered nervously. It was the middle of summer!

Throwing the thin, utterly ineffective summer blanket off himself, he dashed to his wardrobe and fanatically dug through his clothes for something warm. A few minutes later, clad in a sweater, old track pants and the thickest pair of socks he could find on short notice, he climbed back into bed and pulled the thin sheet up to his chin. He was feeling a lot warmer now and was almost comfortable.

He stared at the ceiling and tried to work out why he’d suddenly felt so cold. Turnam City summers were akin to Turkish Baths or devil’s arseholes and the summer nights were uniformly humid and sticky. But he felt like he’d been sitting in the freezer! He was still trying to understand the temperature glitch when sleep again claimed him.

From the greyness, she watched, a pleased expression on her perfect face. It had gone better than she’d expected. An uncomfortable chill and the shortness of breath were minor prices to pay for what he’d been through. She’d kept him out of his body for longer than she’d intended, thanks to his stubborn nature, and had he been just another human, he’d be dead, not wondering why it was so damn cold.

There was another reason for her to smile. Now that she’d finally made contact, finding him in Turnam would now be exponentially easier and she could now make direct contact whenever she needed to. Her years of passive observation were finally over. Now she could actually play a pivotal role in his life.

She did feel a vague tinge of guilt for not telling him who she was, but she consoled herself with the notion that it simply wasn’t in his best interests to know too much about her yet. When the time was right, she’d tell him all he wanted to know and more, but he wasn’t ready for that just yet. And until then, she would just have to get to know Aleck… as a friend.

A cheeky grin appeared at the corner of her mouth as she remembered an old human phrase, “mother knows best...”

For both their sakes, she sincerely hoped that was true.

<…Not worthy…>

The words weren’t audible in that he didn’t hear them. Not in the conventional conversational sense anyway. His ears had nothing to do with this. The words weren’t spoken; they were heard, inside his head. Uncalled for, not unlike a random thought, but at the same time, clearly not a thought that belonged to him.

Alec Roth blinked, his expression more startled than anything else. Deep green eyes slowly examined every square foot of his room, but seeing nothing obviously out of place, he slowly relaxed with a sigh of relief.

“I need to lay off munching on coffee grounds!” he declared solemnly. “Because people speak words, and they can hear spoken words, but what they don’t do, is frigging FEEL THEM!”

No, but that’s not right, he said to himself. I think with words just like I’m doing now. It’s probably just how the brain is constructed, words enable concepts… or is it concepts require words? Either way, words are necessary for this brain at any rate, to think… he nodded to himself. It was making twisted sense so far. Okay, thoughts can be heard, or felt since there’s no sound, from the mind that generates them, cool, I get that bit. So what’s wrong with this one?

“I didn’t think it.” Alec said aloud. His eyes narrowed slightly and he shook his head.

How the fuck do I know what I’m thinking?

“Because you’re thinking it, dumbarse!”

He shook his head again. This was so maddening! “Okay, run a tangent, why does that iddy biddy thought stand out?” from the multitudes of crap flowing though my brain every second? He added silently.

It doesn’t feel right. Came the answer.

“What does ‘feel right’ mean anyway?”

I dunno.

“So what the hell am I trying to say?”

I dunno.

“You’re really helpful,” he grumbled acidly to himself.

You’re pretty useless yourself. Tell you what, just chalk it down to something that didn’t FEEL, for the lack of a more fitting word, like it belonged to you and leave things there okay?

He shrugged. “Okay, but only because I don’t have a more convincing explanation yet.”

Do you really what an explanation? Can you HANDLE the explanation?

“You’re not Jack Nicholson, smartarse!” he smiled a little at that but the smile was only skin deep. Inwardly, he was more than a little worried. The ‘not worthy’ thought had come out of nowhere and there was something… an odd tinge? to the words. There’d been other sensations too, a sense of contempt bordering on rage had been carried along with the words and he couldn’t understand where that contempt had come from. It was like he’d just gotten a peek at something going on in someone else’s head. It… an ‘impression’ seemed like a good term, felt decidedly second hand. An observation of something distinctly apart, yet, something also within, himself.

“But of course, that’s bullshit!” Alec declared flatly. Why would someone else’s thoughts be in MY head?

But this wasn’t the first time.

Over the last couple of weeks he’d begun to ‘hear’ what sounded like snatches of conversation when no one appeared to be talking. The words, barely intelligible most of the time, were little more than faint whispers, so at first he hadn’t paid too much attention to them. He’d subconsciously been using the random-thought concept to pass them off, but now he was beginning to hear the odd thoughts with a lot more clarity - if still only in snippets - when no-one was around him.

Alec continued to discuss the phenomena aloud with himself. “Maybe I’m going mad?” he ventured before shaking his head in the negative. “No, scratch that thought, if I was going mad, I wouldn’t know I’m sane, would I? Because then I’d be like half mad and therefore completely convinced I was perfectly sane. Crazy people never think they’re crazy, they think its everyone else who’s crazy.”

He cleared his throat loudly and addressed himself in the third person. “In conclusion, the very act of questioning your mental state can only mean you’re completely sane.” A slight grin appeared at the corners of his mouth. “Ah, but Alec me lad, the post script reads: talking to yourself is usually seen as the first sign of madness…”

With a tired shrug, he returned his attention to the open textbook on his desk. For the umpteenth time since enrolling in the course, Alec cursed the temporary bout of actual insanity that led him into taking physics. It wasn’t so much that the work was beyond him, because it wasn’t – if he worked at it - but therein lay the problem. He’d had been hanging around Allen and Marc for perhaps too long and was picking up that irritating condition of theirs, namely, the underachiever’s bliss.

A couple of minutes worth of half-hearted attempts to solve the unholy equation set for the day’s homework was enough to tell him he wasn’t going to get anything of substance done. Snapping the textbook shut, Alec left his desk and headed down the stairs to the garage.

He picked his way across the boxes of junk and his foster father’s numerous unfinished handyman projects to the work bench in the far corner. There, with its blade wrapped in soft felt lining and held upright in a clamp, was his current project. He tentatively touched the leather grips to ensure the sealer had dried properly before loosening the clamp and withdrawing the blade.

It had originally been a diving knife with a fluorescent green handle. The blade was what had initially attracted him. Six and a half inches long, it had a single straight cutting edge instead of the more usual straight / serrated combination and ended in what was almost a spade tip. If not for the unusual thickness which gave it a somewhat chunky appearance, it could easily have passed for a bayonet. The weapon’s only flaw, as far as he was concerned, was the disgusting fluoro-plastic handle.

Alec had spent the last couple of days painstakingly carving, sanding and staining a flat mahogany replacement for the offending component. Once the new handle was done, he’d sunk a three-inch strip of ordinary fishing lead into the grooves he’d cut into each side of the grip to help counterbalance the weight of blade itself. Four rivets held the blade, handle and lead firmly together. The final touch was tightly wrapping, then shrinking and sealing the grip with a long, half-inch strip of treated leather.

The end effect, while not terribly pretty, was comfortable, but more importantly, functional. He tried a few practise slashes, deftly changing his grip on the fly with each new slash and smiled, satisfied with the weight and feel of the weapon. Almost reluctantly, he slipped the knife into its new hand-stitched leather sheath.

<…child’s toys…>

Alec spun around, the knife slipping out of its sheath with a smooth hiss as he searched for the origin of the words whispered into his head. Despite the fact that the garage was littered with junk, barring the workbench and the tool cabinets, the bulk of it was about knee-high and there wasn’t any place a person could hide in. A single glance was all Alec needed to know he was alone in the garage.

“Right, now this is really starting to freak me the fuck out,” he said in a low voice.

<…pathetic… weak…>

Alec’s eyes narrowed slightly. Not only was he hearing something, he could also feel something. Goosebumps broke out along his arms. The contempt was back with a vengeance and now it was clearly directed at him.

While his human senses told him he was alone, something deep inside him, something clearly not human, told him there was another nearby. Digging his knuckles into his eyes, he blinked and examined the room again but he still couldn’t see anyone there with him.

Alec didn’t know what was there and he wasn’t sure he particularly wanted to find out, but he didn’t see it as being a choice he had to like.

Whatever that something was, it wasn’t friendly. A shiver ran through his body as he felt the contempt blossom out into pure hatred. He could also feel fear.

His own.

From the greyness, the woman watched, her violet eyes narrowed in anger. “The blocks you place on your own mind might have been enough to keep my beloved out of your head, Sigurdian, but I am another case entirely.” A contemptuous smile slowly crept up across her perfect features. “Still, you do have a use and you shall be an objective lesson. Not the lesson I would have chosen, but for the moment, you will have to do.”

Her eyes turned to regard the dark-haired boy who could barely keep from trembling outright. Reaching out in complete defiance to the human rules that governed time, space and the communication between, she slipped into his mind and unlocked the knowledge that had been denied to both of them until only recently. Not all of it, for that would have overwhelmed him completely and put him in more danger than this petty intruder ever could, but just enough of a taste to give him a nudge in the right direction.

It was knowledge that was always there.

Alec’s eyes widened in alarm.

Something… he touched his head, feeling dizzy and slightly nauseous. There was something… it was as if… No! He shook his head. It couldn’t be. Could it? He’d had some crazy ideas in the past but this was something else entirely. He closed his eyes and tried to make sense of the suggestion that had popped up out of nowhere. At first, it made no sense. He didn’t know what it meant, what it was supposed to do, or how to do it.

Then just as suddenly as the idea had hit him, he understood. It was a procedure, a set of instructions that made perfect sense! He shook his head again. It was so obvious he wondered why he’d never thought to try this out before! A slight smile was followed a moment later by a faint itching sensation that crept up his neck as he focused his thoughts. It felt like his brain was expanding outward through his skull. Pulsing? Yes, pulsing out like, like some sort of sonar or something. There was a definite tidal pattern to it. Pulses went out… searching? …and returned with… with a picture?

There was a room… the seconds dragged by in silence… it was so maddening! Alec knew this place, the layout, the junk strewn all over the floor, the workbench in the corner… workbench? He was feeling the fucking garage he was standing in! Not seeing it with his eyes, seeing it with his mind!

But it wasn’t really seeing because his eyes were closed, and it wasn’t stored memory because he could… touch? everything around him. This was no memory recall technique, this was more than that because while he could feel the room and everything in it, he could feel everything at the same time!

It was as if he had a radar dish hardwired into his brain. But where radar dishes rotate, his pulses seemed to be moving out in all directions simultaneously. A panoramic sense of touch.

The end result was that things got ‘mapped’ out by the pulses and his brain provided the corresponding mental imagery. It couldn’t be put it into words that did it justice because here was something never intended for human description. There were no colours, just shapes and textures. How he was able to draw a mental picture without colour baffled him. Maybe there was a colour, but did there really have to be? He wasn’t seeing anything, he was feeling it.

Touch doesn’t require colour does it?

Resigning himself to the fact he didn’t have an answer to that one, he pushed the train of thought away for the moment and concentrated on the translations his brain was making out of the return pulses.

He could feel the heavy steel clamp on the workbench at his side, he could feel the wall behind it and the irregular bumps on the wall caused by uneven paint coverage. The colourless picture forming in his head also provided a sense of depth and distance. He turned his head a fraction to the left and bending his knees, reached out to touch the wrought iron CD rack Steve was in the process of completing. He hadn’t needed to open his eyes to find it, it was right where his pulses told him it was.

He could also ‘feel’ where his hand was and for a moment he couldn’t understand why that felt so odd until he realised his brain was receiving two separate signals. One from his arm travelling through his nerves back up to his brain and the other reaching his brain directly from the pulses. He tilted his head down to ‘look’ at himself and was almost swept of his feet by the barrage of sensations that simple act caused. It felt like he was standing in a pool of water up to his neck but the water was merely another one of his senses so he felt both his mass and his displacement at the same time!

His brain couldn’t handle the double sensations and his head spun like he’d been running around in circles. Alec instinctively opened his eyes as he reached out to steady himself and was alarmed to find his vision blurry. Panicking, he rubbed his eyes and was relieved to find, a moment later, that his vision had returned to normal. It was one thing to gain a new ‘sense’, it was another thing entirely to lose one he relied so heavily on.

He leaned against the bench, breathing heavily and it was an effort to reach into his hip pocket for his cigarettes. His hands were shaking so badly that it took him four tries before he finally got the Griffin lit.

The cigarette began to work after a dozen successive drags and Alec felt his heart rate finally return to normal. Only then did he notice something was different. Whatever that other presence had been, it was gone. He was truly alone in the garage now.

Alec didn’t know whether he should be relieved or be even more worried.

Had the ‘other’ fled when he switched his ‘radar’ on? Maybe it had, maybe it hadn’t.

Maybe it was never even there.

“Damnit, I’m definitely turning into a basket case,” he muttered aloud. “But then what about that new thing… that idea? Where the fuck did THAT come from?”

Alec dug his knuckles into his temples and rubbed hard. “No!” he told himself firmly. “Something was here.” Without moving, he scanned the garage with his eyes again. Empty.

Exhaling another long cloud of smoke, he gingerly touched his forehead. “Even if it isn’t here now…”

He closed his eyes and concentrated. There wasn’t any itching this time but the pulses returned and the ‘picture’ of the garage was redrawn, again without colours, in his mind. Satisfied his new sense was still working, Alec relaxed and let the pulses fade away. “And whatever this is,” he said slowly. “I’ve still got it.”

Again, he didn’t know whether to be relieved or worried. Always the pessimist, he decided it was safer in the long run to be worried. He’d been so busy playing with his new radar thingy that he had totally forgotten about whoever had been in the garage with him.

That was careless.

Whatever the ‘other’ had been, it hadn’t felt terribly friendly and he couldn’t help worrying about what it might have done to him.

“Fucking fantastic!” he muttered shakily.

He sat cross-legged in his swivel chair, his eyes staring blankly at the burning end of a cigarette in the ashtray before him. Beside the ashtray lay an open book with neat handwritten scrawl filling out the margins. The book was Raymond Buckland’s latest work and while Alec would never call himself a Wiccan, he did have a fleeting, if caustically sceptical interest in what he deemed ‘tree-hugging witchy magick’.

He’d been idling away the wee hours of the morning at his desk, adding his personal observations to Buckland’s text, but no matter how much he tried to distract himself with what he considered a purely inane task, he couldn’t get the events of the previous afternoon out of his head. His mind constantly replayed and examined everything that had occurred in anally retentive detail to no avail. The three driving questions: ‘whose thoughts have I been feeling’, ‘where did the radar thingy come from’, and ‘why is this shit happening to me’ remained largely unanswered.

He was still looking for answers when he felt the all too familiar displacement of air behind him. It was late, or early, depending on one’s perspective. Almost two o’clock in the morning, about the time he could expect a visit. “Hi, dad,” he said without turning around. He heard his father chuckle.

“Hmmm, can’t sneak up on you anymore I see.”

“You haven’t been able to sneak up on me for years,” Alec answered. He pushed his chair away from his desk, uncrossing his legs as he spun his seat around to face his father. “I’ve got a couple of questions, the trivial first. You keep saying you’re an angel, but then why do you always wear black?”

“You finally noticed?” Menthayel smiled, the gesture almost totally obscured by the darkness. The light from his table lamp left much of the room filled with shadows and Menthayel had chosen the darkest one to stand in. Any other time might see Alec crack a joke about his father’s need to hide in the dark but the events of the last few hours had strained his patience leaving him paranoid and irritable.

“An answer before I get grey hair would be nice.”

Menthayel cleared his throat. “Let me start by pointing out that the notion of good being white and evil being black is a Western concept. Take the Chinese for example, to them, white is the colour of death and the Chinese were writing morbid philosophy while the rest of the civilised Western world was just discovering that the friction generated by rubbing two sticks together makes for a potential fire hazard. Now as for me, I’m older than even the oldest of Chinese philosophy and anyway, I’m merely wearing the colour of my beginning.”

“Explain?”

“Have you ever bothered to read a bible?”

Alec grinned. “A little bit. We do have a quasi-religious class once a week. Thought you said the book was basically filled with crap.”

Menthayel shook his head. “I never said that. What I said was that there are more than a couple of serious errors and a lot of inaccuracies. There’s a difference.”

“And the point of telling me this? Do you want to turn me into, heaven forbid, a Christian?”

At that, Menthayel laughed. “Hardly! My point was that if you’d read a little of Genesis, the book that incidentally mentions you, you’d have noticed that in the beginning, there was nothing. Just the darkness. That’s where we, the first of the angels were born. Black, to God’s firstborn, is not the colour of evil. It’s merely what the universe looked like when we became conscious. I could wear any colour I liked, I just prefer black. A tribute to my beginning, if you will.”

“Well then if black’s your colour, why are you, and me for that matter, so pale?”

The corners of Menthayel’s mouth curled upwards into a cynical smile. “And God said, let there be light?”

“Funny.”

“What was your other question?”

Alec was silent for a long moment. “I felt something yesterday. Something weird…”

Menthayel finished tying the blindfold and took a step back to admire his handiwork. “Can you see anything?” he asked.

Alec shook his head. “No, but is this really necessary? It’s nearly three in the morning and I doubt I could see much anyway with all the backyard lights off.”

He had told his father everything he remembered about his little set to the day before and Menthayel, not interrupting at all during the narrative, had lead him outside once he was done with his recounting.

“It is necessary. Now that you’re one sense down, use your other senses, where am I?”

“Err, there.” Alec pointed.

Menthayel’s voice carried the barest hint of impatience. “You’re using your human senses and locating me by the sound of my voice. I want you to use your ‘new’ sense.”

Alec’s jaw dropped. “How…? Never mind.”

“Now concentrate. I’m going to move now. Count to three and then tell me where I am.”

Alec counted aloud. “One… Two… Three…” and then slowed his breathing until all he could hear was the sound of crickets chirping in the background. While he couldn’t be sure his father had moved at all, he wouldn’t have been surprised to find Menthayel could move without noise. His father was, after all, an angel.

So I can’t hear him and I definitely can’t see him. Taste, smell and touch are also out… Touch…? He took a deep breath and sent his pulses out. Fence, four feet behind me… patio table and chairs to the right… garden shed to the left… big human-ish lump dead ahead… He laughed aloud, “You’re in front of me, about ten feet away.”

“Good, now where am I looking?”

Just as the initial instructions on the procedure he was using had come out of thin air, the way to produce an answer to his father’s question just popped into his brain, but Alec couldn’t help feeling the information was always there, buried just beyond his reach until now.

Until the time he needed it.

He fine-tuned his pulses somewhat, upping the rate they moved outward and increasing the amount of pulses, so as to get more detail sent back to him. His answer came a moment later. “You’re staring over my left shoulder… and you’re grinning like an idiot.”

Alec felt his father’s smile widen. “Very good, Aleck. I’m impressed, more than you can ever know. Now, catch!”

His body acted before he was even aware of what he was doing. The fingers of his left hand closed around the leather grips of his knife, halting its flight with the sharpened spade tip a scant inch away from his nose!

“What the fuck!” he shouted, tearing the blindfold off furiously.

Menthayel’s voice was soft. “There was no real danger.”

“No real danger!” Alec retorted, his expression livid. “You threw my fucking knife at my face! What the fuck do you mean there was no goddamn danger? You could have frigging killed me, you damn psycho!”

“I would have stopped it before it hit you if you were unable to do it yourself,” his father replied calmly. “I just wanted to see if you were capable. You are.”

Alec’s pulse was racing as his brain finally came to grips with what he’d done. He’d snatched a knife in full flight an inch away from his face! Whilst wearing a blindfold and catching it with his left hand! His anger fled in the face of his amazement. “Holy fuck!” he whispered.

Menthayel winced. “Kindly refrain from using that expression.”

“Sorry, dad.” Alec blinked. “Its just so… I mean, shit!”

“You think that was impressive?” Menthayel asked coyly.

Alec nodded. “Oh, fuck yeah! I mean, I snatched it out of the air with my left while wearing a frigging blindfold! I find that very fucking impressive, thank you very much!”

“Okay, then throw it back at me.”

“What?!?” Alec stared at his father.

“Throw it back at me,” Menthayel repeated.

“You’re serious, aren’t you?” Alec whispered.

“Very. Now throw it as hard as you can. Do it now!” There was a brittle edge to his father’s voice that Alec found more than a little unnerving.

“Your funeral…” Alec flicked the knife into the air and caught it an inch behind the point between his thumb and forefinger. Drawing it back behind his ear, he hurled it as hard as he could at his father. The ex-diving knife wasn’t balanced for throwing, so Alec’s cast wasn’t accurate and the blade spun end over to hit the grass to the right and a dozen paces behind his father.

“Now that was decidedly less than impressive,” Menthayel remarked as he retrieved the blade and casually tossed it back to his son. Again Alec caught the weapon by the grip. “Now try it again and this time, actually aim to hit me.”

Alec shrugged and threw the knife again. He did better this time but the cast still wasn’t perfect and Menthayel snatched the blade out of the air by the handle. “Had I not caught that, all you’d have done is bruise me with the pommel and annoy me,” his father snapped coldly. He tossed the weapon back to Alec. “You’re supposed to be trying to kill me! Again.”

“This is stupid!” Alec grumbled. “It’s a diving knife, not a properly balanced throwing blade! How the hell do you expect me to be able to hit anything without giving me a chance to get used to compensating for the uneven weight distribution?”

Menthayel shook his head in resignation. “Aleck, I’ve never handled your knife until today and my first cast was perfectly on target. Do you know why it was?”

“Because you’re an angel?” his son grumbled sourly.

“Yes. But after a fashion, so are you.”

“What’s your point?”

“When you had the blindfold on, how did you know I’d thrown the knife at you? You couldn’t see it and I doubt you could have heard it coming. How did you know it was there and where to grab to stop it?”

Alec frowned. “I… I don’t know. I felt it, I guess, and just reacted. It wasn’t a conscious decision… I mean I didn’t stop to think about what I was doing really, I just did it.”

“Now when you say you ‘felt’ it coming, what do you mean? You didn’t physically touch it until you grabbed it.”

“It’s this new thing,” Alec began as he tried to organise his thoughts in a semi-coherent fashion. “Well, to me, there’s something like sonar in my head… like waves moving outwards and I can feel everything they pass over… I just felt it coming and I caught it.”

“Good, now these pulses, these waves you speak of, do you get the impression they’re actually touching everything they pass over in a physical sense?”

“I guess, but they can’t can they? I mean they’re just coming out of my head. They can’t be real… can they?”

Menthayel sighed loudly. “What’s real? How many times have you seen me appear and disappear? Was that real?”

Alec shrugged. “I imagine it was.”

“My point is that your human half always tries to rationalise things in a human fashion. That’s to be expected because you are, after all, half human and you’ve lived your entire life around humans. But on the same token, you’re also more than human. You need to start thinking beyond human rules.”

“Okay…” Alec mumbled, his tone non-committal.

“This is not working. Let me try it again. Now with those waves of yours, if you had to label them as a variation of a standard human sense, would you say they were allowing you to see things or touch them?”

“A bit of both. I mean, I had the blindfold on, so I clearly wasn’t seeing anything in a conventional sense, but I could ‘see’ something like a 3D layout in my head, only without colour...”

“Let’s try it from a slightly different angle. If you were wearing a blindfold and someone handed you a coffee mug and told you to identify it, how would you do that if you were unable to see it?”

“Well I’d just touch it and…” Alec’s eyes widened as understanding hit him.

Menthayel smiled. “Exactly. This new ‘sense’ of yours isn’t a new sense at all. It’s just the angelic upgrade of your old human one. You feel, and you visualise, but you don’t see. Now you can touch things with more than just your physical self.”

It made sense! That’s why his images didn’t have colour. He couldn’t feel colours, he could only feel shapes. “So that’s how you threw the knife!” Alec narrowed his accusingly.

Menthayel nodded. “The balance would need to be compensated if the thrower was merely human because their control over where the knife goes ends once the blade leaves their fingers. Angels on the other hand, can touch beyond our physical forms so we can still control where the knife goes after it leaves our fingers.”

“Like telekinesis?”

“That’s a human art form,” Menthayel said. “But not far off. Telekinesis is focused specifically. A human with the gift can move an object through direct and intense concentration on that specific object. Angels can do it more efficiently simply because their control isn’t limited in the same fashion. It’s hard to explain the differences properly but a very simplified, though not quite correct, analogy would be to use the idea of sight. To see something, you’d have to look at it so you can’t see something that you’re not looking at even if you knew its there. That’s telekinesis for humans. Now assume angels on the other hand, have 360 degree vision. If I wanted to, I could stand in a room with a dozen PC’s arranged in a circle around me and simultaneously type a different message into each one without physically moving or looking over my shoulder. What I’m trying to say is that I needn’t see something to focus my attention on it.”

“I think I geddit. You rely instead on the mental visualisation and use that as the blueprint to manipulate the stuff around you.”

Menthayel nodded. “Good. Now I want you to throw the knife again. This time guide it with your pulses. Keep the point aimed at me and supplement your initial physical effort with your upgraded one.”

“Right, here it comes!” Alec drew his arm back and hurled his knife again, this time encasing it within his pulses to create, in effect a ‘tunnel’ for the knife’s flight path so he could correct its velocity and direction in flight. It was surprisingly easy to do now that he had an understanding of what he was doing and this time his aim was perfect but the sharpened point stopped a fraction on an inch before Menthayel’s face. Menthayel’s hands were by his sides and the knife hung in mid air, suspended without visual support.

“What the fuck?!?” Alec’s eyes bugged out. “How the hell did you do that?”

“Pay attention to your waves.”

Alec did and found the knife embedded in what felt like, for the lack of a better description, a much denser layer of air around his father. The ‘layer’, a gold-flecked, aura-like thing seemed alive, moving slowly, rhythmically like it was breathing.

“It’s the same thing, only much more closely spaced!” Alec declared.

Menthayel nodded and sent the knife floating slowly back to his son. “Humans capable of a similar gift would consider this a telekinetic shield but this is the angelic version. Of course, there are humans who could achieve simular results, but this is still a different method.”

“So by altering the pulse frequency, compressing them much closer together or something like that, I could use my pulses as a shield of sorts if I wanted?” Alec asked.

“With sufficient practice, you can make a field so dense it’ll stop almost any physical attack.”

“Including bullets?”

Menthayel’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Including bullets.”

Alec couldn’t help grinning. “Cool! My own invisible bullet-proof vest!”

The angel’s dour expression showed he did not find the notion of a bullet-proof vest in any way amusing, but Alec was too pleased with himself to notice. “I must go,” his father said quietly. “I want you to practice with this whenever you get the chance, but at the same time, I don’t want you drawing unnecessary attention to yourself either. Practise, but do it quietly and keep this to yourself. Understand?”

“Err… okay,” Alec muttered in a tone that plainly said he didn’t mean it.

“One more thing Aleck, this is just the tip of the iceberg.”

“What do you mean?” Alec demanded, but by the time the words came out, he was talking to himself. The angel was already gone. “Bugger!”

Alec opened his eyes and found himself in a garden.

No! He corrected himself as a sense of déjà vu passed over him. This wasn’t merely a garden. The grass was way too healthy and the flowers seemed to be in a state of perpetual bloom, none showing any signs of discolouration or wilting. No mere garden could exist indefinitely in such a state. This wasn’t any garden, this was THE Garden. He’d been here before… at least, he could swear that he’d been.

He blinked and shook his head but there was no denying it, there couldn’t be two places that simply defined this sort of perfection. He had somehow been pulled back here but this time, without the transition in… nowhere? The lack of any definite impression about that place made him remember the nowhere now, a place filled with nothing, and as he was standing in the splendour of this Garden, that meant that… he groaned in frustration. The memory was there! Just… not. Something was stopping him from accessing information that, by rights, should have been his!

“Don’t fight it,” a voice called out.

Alec spun around and took in the sight of the most beautiful girl he’d ever laid eyes on. His eyes widened as he noticed her lustrous silver hair. Hair that, for some strange reason, did not make her appear old. It was like a personal choice or a racial quirk rather than an indication of age. Then it was if the floodgates burst in his head. He HAD been here before! She was the one that brought him here!

“What…?”

“You’re more or less right,” she said, crossing the clearing to take a seat on a stone bench he hadn’t noticed before. No, he had seen that bench! It’d been here the first time he’d come here, he just hadn’t noticed it until she appeared. The girl patted the slab next to her indicating she wanted him to sit down too. “C’mon, I won’t bite.” She grinned mischievously. “Promise.”

Alec tepidly took the offered seat. “I was right?” he asked quizzically.

“In that there were blocks on your mind.”

“I see,” he muttered, his expression making it clear he wasn’t seeing at all. “Err, if you don’t mind me asking, why were there blocks on my mind?”

“Do you remember not wanting your father to hear your thoughts?”

He nodded. The idea of his father knowing what was going on in his head had been disturbingly uncomfortable. Alec liked to think he was a realist so he’d come to the conclusion that there was very little he could do to prevent his father snooping around in his head because he had no plausible way to keep his father out. But that didn’t change the simple fact he didn’t want anyone intruding on his private thoughts. But on Menthayel’s last visit, Alec hadn’t experienced that sense of discomfort around his father. Specifically, he wasn’t worried about what his father might find in his head. That meant…

The silver-haired girl, looking very pleased with herself, nodded. “Yup, your mind is closed off to him now. It was in the best interests of both of us that you didn’t remember I’d done that because what you didn’t know, you couldn’t tell anyone.”

Alec’s eyes narrowed. “So my mind’s closed off to him, but not to you.”

The girl nodded approvingly. “You’re sharp, and yes, again you’re right, not to me.”

Alec grunted. “So I trade one evil for another?”

The girl bit her bottom lip. “You could look at it that way, but before you jump to conclusions, I want you to zip it and listen. When I’m done, you’ll have a better idea of things. Are you gonna gimme a chance to explain myself without interrupting?”

He shot her a long, loaded glare before nodding. “But just so you know, I’m not a happy panda at the moment.”

“Objection duly noted,” she grinned. “Now, let’s start from a beginning of sorts, who I am.”

“Yeah, if I recall, you were rather evasive about that little issue.”

She glared at him.

“Okay, sorry, I’ll shut up.”

“Now as I was saying. You know that there are layers, different states of existence that exist simultaneously.” Alec nodded but kept his mouth shut. “Now it should be fairly apparent that I don’t exist on your layer.”

She flipped her hair over her shoulder and ran her fingers through her shimmering silver locks. “This oughta give me away if nothing else does, but anyway, yeah, I’m from somewhere else. Now forget about just where I’m from at the moment, because that’s not terribly important, but I want you to understand that there are rules that govern the different layers. Generally speaking, a sentient life form can’t jump between layers because the rules of one layer are rarely the same as the rules of another. In fact, most beings aren’t even aware that there are other layers to visit, but I digress. Like most rules, this one can be broken.”

Alec leaned forward interestedly because HE was one of those beings that had broken that rule. He was breaking it again right now.

Her next words seemed to spell his doom. “But while that rule can be broken, there are consequences.”

Alec swallowed nervously but the girl reached out and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry too much. I’ve seen to it that you’ll return to your own world with little more than an unpleasant chill and a noticeable shortage of breath. If I were to pull a regular human here, the end result could be fatal if they remained too long, but because you’re half angel, you have a natural tolerance to this kind of shift and the side effects are just merely unpleasant.”

Alec wasn’t totally convinced but he’d come here and returned before, and in retrospect, he had woke up freezing, but it hadn’t been that bad…

The girl frowned. “But again, I’ve shifted slightly from my point. Back to the consequences. Now while you specifically might not be adversely affected, others are. Me, for example.” She gave him a second to digest that before continuing. “See for immortals, venturing into the mortal world is extremely draining. The energy that keeps us immortal doesn’t exist in the mortal world, so while we’re down there, we’re basically living off our internal batteries.” She giggled. “Up here, it’s like we’re plugged into a power socket.”

Alec found the electricity analogy rather amusing, but it did make sense in a warped fashion. This energy thing she was talking about didn’t need to be where mortals existed because mortals couldn’t, or didn’t use it, and of course, if it wasn’t there, immortals that did need it would find themselves in a bit of trouble…

“The same thing applies to others like your father.” The girl told him. “That’s why he’s never really played much of a part in your life. It’s simply too hard for him to remain in human form very long. Oh, don’t get me wrong, he’s a tough seraphim and he could probably stay down there for a couple of years if he wanted to, but after a couple of days he’d be more or less comatose. Of course he gets over that little restriction by switching back to his considerably stronger angelic form but,” she suddenly grinned as if remembering something, “the angelic form causes its own set of problems.”

“Sorry, but I’m gonna have to butt in here, what sort of problems?”

“I let you get away with it this once, but no more interruptions you hear?” she said sternly.

Alec nodded.

“Well for starters, there’s no way he could pass for a human in his natural form. It makes walking around and interacting with the general populace a rather difficult experience. I suppose he could do it on a person to person basis and use a mind spell to convince them they’re seeing something completely normal, but he doesn’t draw energy down there and with the bulk of his power cut off from him, well it makes things complicated.”

She sat up straight, jutted out her chin and frowned like a petulant little girl too used to having her own way. “But this is MY story and it’s supposed to be about ME! Your father can tell you his story in his own damn time!”

Alec found that amusing for some reason and couldn’t resist laughing. She joined him.

When the moment died, she steered them back to the discussion. “Anyway, like your father, my power base is not earth and while I can pop by, I can’t really maintain a presence there for very long. You remember that grey place, the one you’ve dubbed ‘nowhere’?”

Alec nodded. “It kinda sucked.”

“Well it’s my home, thank you very much!” She snapped, trying – and failing – to look outraged.

“Whoops,” Alec said insincerely.

She shrugged. “But you’re right, it does kinda suck. That’s what makes earth so much more fun! There’s so many things to do down there!”

“Like what?”

Without warning, she made a fist and slugged him in the shoulder, hard.

“Oww! What was that for?” he demanded, rubbing his shoulder.

“I told you not to interrupt me, didn’t I? But to answer your question, I’m a girl and I-”

“Yeah I kinda noticed THAT fact…” Alec mumbled.

The girl raised her fist threateningly and he immediately decided to shut up. Her petite appearance was indeed deceiving and the punch had carried enough force to numb his arm down to the elbow, but even then, he could instinctively tell that she’d used but a faction of her strength. Alec had no doubt that if she wanted to, she could effortlessly twist his arm off and belt him to death with it.

“Good, you learn fast,” she smirked.

Alec glared at her but kept his mouth shut.

“As I was saying, I happen to like the boys. The Void, what you think of as ‘nowhere’ becomes insanely boring after a couple of thousand years and as Cyndi Lauper said, ‘girls just wanna have fun’. I’m no exception and your world is where the most fun can be found. Getting there, however, is the problem. See, while I’m close to being an angel, I’m not actually an angel and the consequences for getting to earth are much harder for me. My realm is separated by a greater distance than the angelic, or to put it another way, my home is more different to yours then the angelic realm is. I can go down there whenever I want, but I can’t just appear how I want to appear.”

Alec was dying to get some clarification but knew better than to ask verbally. The numbness was beginning to fade and he was uncomfortably aware of the fact that he was going to sport a whooping great bruise for the next couple of days. But he didn’t have to voice his query - the girl could, after all, read his mind. Something that became very apparent a moment later.

“While I can get there in a physical form, I’m just invisible.” She sighed sadly. “I have a physical body and all, its just that people can’t see me. And the only way for me to be seen by a mortal is for me to give that specific mortal something he or she really wants.” She stared into his eyes and nodded sheepishly. “Yeah, again you’re right, for guys it tends to mean a whole load of mind-blowing sex.” She allowed herself a small shrug. “And if that’s what it takes to get people to stop seeing through me…”

It was Alec’s turn to blush. He inwardly cursed himself and issued a standing order to keep his mind above his belt buckle.

“Don’t bother,” the girl said sympathetically. “The more you try not to think about something, the more you’re gonna think about something. If it makes you feel any better, I don’t mind.”

“That doesn’t make it any easier,” he complained.

“I know, but there’s nothing you can do about it is there?”

He nodded, not bothering to conceal his irritation.

“But obviously, I wasn’t about to sleep with every guy on the planet,” she huffed. “I mean, a girl has to have standards! And even if I was a total slag, most people wet themselves when they suddenly hear a voice talking to them out of nowhere. Petrified people make for bad conversational partners and ‘please don’t hurt me, oh God please don’t…’ endlessly repeated pisses me off more than you can ever know!”

Alec chuckled shamelessly. He was already picturing her trying to get someone’s attention. People running away screaming would be the reaction she’d receive much more often than not.

The girl wasn’t impressed and her irritated expression only made him giggle more. “I’m glad my plight amuses you!” she snapped.

“Sorry, go on.” He waved, trying desperately to keep a straight face.

“I swear I’m gonna slug you so much harder this time!” She glared. That was all he needed. Alec collapsed off the bench and laughed till his sides hurt. She didn’t hit him as promised, and contented herself with glaring at him from above until he was done. “You finished?”

“Um, yeah,” he giggled, getting back on the bench. “But you have to admit, it would be rather funny watching someone wet themselves in abject terror.”

“It was,” she assured him in a completely sober tone. “But it tends to stop being funny and start getting really bloody annoying around the four hundredth time, trust me! Now I just get pissed off and throw things. Now, where were we?”

“You have trouble interacting with people cuz they can’t see ya.”

“Oh, right. But because of the way things are organised, I can use the people who know about me to draw energy when I’m down there. The rules that govern that are pretty hard to explain so I’m not going to bother with them just yet, but let’s just say, the more, uh, fans I get, the stronger I become down there. This is where you come in.”

Alec raised an eyebrow questioningly.

“See, randomly shagging guys only goes so far…”

I wouldn’t know,” Alec blurted and earned himself a slap on the head.

“I’m gonna get really miffed and hurt you soon,” she warned. “But as I was saying, it’s gained me enough power to establish a foothold. Just enough power to find you.”

“Me? Why?”

“Simply put, you’re a Nephelim. You’re not supposed to exist. See, humans all have more or less the same, uh, spiritual energy for the lack of a better term. One human is much the same as any other on a base level. You, on the other hand, are half angel and because you were born down there, your energy IS down there. What that means is that while you have half the power of an angel, you draw your energy from the mortal realm so you have a lot more energy than most people down there. Energy I need.”

One word flashed through Alec’s brain: Succubus!

The girl shot him an irritated look. “No, for the last damn time, I’m not a frigging succubus, you stupid twit! If I wanted to suck you dry, I’d have done it by now! All I need is just need to coast off your energy.”

“Coast off my energy?” he repeated. “I don’t get it.”

She threw up her hands. “Mortals! Look, all I need is a link to earth. You’re that link. Think of yourself as an anchor. Whenever I want to go play with the silly humans, I lock onto your energy source and use it like a lodestone to pull myself down to the mortal realm.”

“And how does this affect me?”

“It doesn’t. Hell, you won’t even feel it.”

Alec frowned. “But if it doesn’t affect me, why bother to bring me here and explain all this stuff? Why not just use me, err, my spirit or whatever without me knowing? You said it yourself, it’s not like I’d be able to tell you were doing it.”

“Where there’s rules, there’s usually conditions,” the girl explained patiently. “See, I can’t just go about hijacking entry points into earth. In other words, I can’t use you as a ticket into earth without you knowing and agreeing to let me.”

“So let me get this straight, you need my permission?”

The girl exhaled slowly. “In a word, yes.”

A calculating gleam entered Alec’s eyes. “And what’s in it for me?”

She frowned suspiciously. “Whaddaya want?”

“You can read my mind, whaddaya think a horny, keyword here - horny, teenage guy wants?” Alec replied evenly.

“Na-huh, you can’t pull that one on me,” the girl declared, adamantly shaking her head. “And anyway, I know you’re not attracted to me.”

It was Alec’s turn to look suspicious. “Did YOU have anything to do with that?”

“Maybe…” she whispered in a soft little girl voice. “You’re not going to hold it against me are you?” She bit her bottom lip and stared into his eyes soulfully.

“Oh, cut the shit!” Alec snapped. She looked so damn cute when she turned those big violet eyes on him. “Of course I’m gonna hold it against you! You’re gorgeous and I wanna get laid, damnit! Turn me back right now!”

“Look, I’ll make it up to you, I promise!” she said quickly, “Just not… not like that. I can’t…”

His eyes narrowed. “Can’t, or won’t?”

“Both.” She gently took his hand in hers. “Look, trust me on this, okay? I can be a lot more useful to you in other ways.”

“Oh yeah? Like what?”

Her eyes narrowed mischievously. “See, you’re part angel. That means you’re gonna come into a lot of your angelic heritage soon. Your father isn’t going to have the time to teach you everything you need to know about being a Nephelim for ages given his already tight schedule. He does have other things to do, you know.”

“Your point?”

“Well, having you as a window into the world means I’m gonna be around a bit longer than he is because I don’t have to waste energy fighting through the wards that keep me out. While I’m down there, I can speed up your learning.”

Her voice turned plaintive. “Look, all I’m asking for is a ticket to earth. It’s not even gonna cost you anything. And besides, I’ve already taken the liberty of blocking your mind off to him. Isn’t that worth anything to you?”

Alec thought about it. All things considered, it didn’t sound like too bad a deal, especially if it didn’t cost him anything…

“One more question; these things you’re gonna teach me…?”

She caught on immediately. “Yeah! They can get you laid if you used them the right, err, wrong way…” she grinned and poked him in the chest. “Just not with me.”

“Cool. Then I have two conditions, agree to them and we have a deal.”

“Done!” She grinned plucking the thoughts out of his head. “Starting from now, I swear to stay out of your head and I won’t use any more mind blocks. You’ll remember everything that happens around me.”

He returned her grin. “Cheater!”

“Ah, well…” she smiled bashfully. “Sometimes a girl just can’t help herself. Admittedly, I wasn’t sure if my attempt to keep your father out of your head would work and blocking your knowledge of me was just my way of covering my own ass. Now that we know it works, I was gonna get rid of the blocks anyway so when you see me down there, you’ll know straight away who I am.” She fingered her silver hair regretfully. “Of course, this will have to go, but you’ll still know it’s me even if I don’t look like I do now.”

“Let’s seal this deal then.” Alec declared. “And since you’re not gonna throw me a root, gimme a kiss.”

“A chaste kiss, but why not?” She shrugged. Leaning over, she gave him a light peck on the cheek. “Okay, you’d better get back now. See you in a couple of days, then!”

“All I’m saying is,” Allen mumbled around a mouthful of sausage roll, “that if you had to turn up in person to register a domain name, people would think twice before making something like ‘drooling-cunts.org’.”

“Okay, genius, firstly,” stated Marc over the top of steepled fingers, “the .org suffix is reserved for non-profit organisations. Are you saying that there is a registered non-profit organisation called ‘drooling cunts’?”

“Well, if your mother was president.”

“Fuck you,” Marc replied mildly. “Secondly, if there wasn’t a drooling-cunts.org, you wouldn’t have a sex life.”

“Fuck you.”

“And thirdly… bleargh! Drooling cunts? That’s just fuckin’ gross!”

Oblivious to the exchange, Alec sat ramrod straight, his eyes flitting back and forth as he tracked the progress of a fly that was buzzing around their area.

“Fucking thing!” Allen swore, swatting at the insect. “Die!”

The fly had other ideas, however. It happily flew back and forth between the two, setting down every once in awhile on a sweaty patch of exposed skin before dodging the inevitable – and inaccurate – swipe that sent it on its way again. Amused, Alec closed his eyes and concentrated on his new sense. It was active all the time now, constantly sending out small, weak pulses into the air and feeding him little bits and pieces of information about his surroundings. Now that he was focussed on it, the random pulses became stronger and more frequent, once more giving him the 3D panorama view. He noted the lack of sky, presumably due to the fact that there was nothing close or dense enough for his ‘radar’ to bounce back from, and the peculiar mix of sight and touch the colourless, tactile landscape held. He increased the strength and watched the world expand from the immediate area to the fence surrounding the football oval, then the year eleven students playing a rough game of touch football inside. Still further, he could sense groups of students lounging on the grass in the shade of some trees on the other side. It took Alec a moment to realise that he was ‘seeing’ in only one direction now, rather than the full three-sixty-degree he’d enjoyed before. Widening his scope and using his current focus as the radius of his power, he let it flow outward… and was flooded with images and sensations.

Kids near the science block playing handball, basketball going through the hoop on the court behind him, a fight between two year eight kids in the quad, line up at the tuckshop, car whizzing past on the street a hundred metres to his left, a magpie chasing a crow overhead, an ant crawling up his boot. All happening in every direction, without boundary, without obstruction, and all… at… once… SHIT!

He opened his eyes and took a breath, his mind reeling from the sudden assault. Marc and Allen hadn’t noticed anything odd and were still arguing, so he decided it was safe to go back to practising with his new sense.

Just a small area, he told himself sternly. Don’t want to go overloading the old brain just yet.

Alec closed his eyes again and let the pulses rise in strength. He could handle this small area at once. Immediately, his attention was grabbed by the insistent buzz of the ever-present fly.

Fuckin’ thing,” Allen grunted, swatting at the insect. It buzzed off and took a lap of the area before finding a suitable stretch of flesh on Marc’s neck. He shrugged his shoulders and it took off again. Alec smiled briefly and concentrated on the now-constant drone of his new sense. The waves, previously muted and easy to ignore, increased in tempo and volume accordingly. He ‘saw’ the insect with more detail than he would with his eyes, noting the texture of its back and the staccato whine of its wings in a quasi-visual representation of the buzzing sound. Fascinated, he focussed harder, looking with finer detail at the tiny hairs on its legs and the multi-faceted eyes that seemed to stare in all directions at once. It landed with a smack on Allen’s forearm and took a gulp of the liquid nutrients slathering his skin. Alec wrinkled his nose in distaste as it was dislodged and took off in his direction. With the benefit of his new sense, he saw that the fly was no longer a tiny, buzzing annoyance. It was a creepy, ugly, sweat-sucking monster… and it was coming right at him!

Just as the creature came within a foot of him, he concentrated the waves into a curve starting at its face and sweeping upward. Like a matchbox racer, the fly followed the curve and zoomed straight up. Alec’s eyes opened in surprise. When he closed them again, the airborne curve was beginning to fade and disperse. Fascinated, he focussed his attention on the construct and strengthened it. He saw this little use of power a little differently than he had the night before. Rather than radio waves that floated through the air, they seemed to be ripples IN the air, or something like air that was filling the space around him. The curve looked like a dense section of air, completely separate to him, but under his control. Just then, the fly decided to make another appearance, streaking at Marc’s face.

It came within a few inches of his nose before hitting Alec’s new construct. The momentum of its flight was enough to take it through the curved pipe-shape, which dwindled quickly in size until the poor bug couldn’t move. With a satisfied grin, Alec opened his eyes and let the fly drop to the ground. That was the end of that. Of course, now he had nothing to do.

“You going to contribute to the conversation, or just sit there grinning like a cunt?” Marc enquired.

“I’m going to sit here grinning like your mother,” Alec replied with a grin.

“Wonderful. He’s starting to sound like you.” Marc elbowed Allen in the ribs.

“Well, of course he is. What alternative does he have? Emulating you?”

“Actually, I thought I’d emulate the pair of you and spend the rest of the day elsewhere,” Alec said, catching a mental glimpse of a pretty young redhead hiking up her skirt to jump the fence only twenty or so feet away. He grinned inwardly as he came up with a more interesting use for his talent. A ‘gust of wind’ blew her skirt up a little – just enough for a quick peek without her looking around to see if anyone was staring. Of course, he had the luxury of checking out her peach-print knickers with his back to her, but he figured one couldn’t be too careful in such a situation. His composure was wrecked a second later when he felt his little puff of mental wind brush up against her pussy. He could feel it! No fucking way!

“Then again,” Alec considered, his small grin replaced by a much wider one. “I might just spend the rest of the day in class.” Copping a feel of every girl in the room! he added mentally.

“Turning pussy, are we?” Marc enquired.

“No, just feeling like one.”

Despite his father’s warning, Alec was still a fifteen year old and warnings were only heeded when to obey them meant no loss of fun. He’d spent the rest of the day messing around in school, and as a direct consequence of using his pulses to cop sneaky invisible ‘feels’ from his female classmates, had a perpetually raging boner. He knew, of course, that what he was doing was wrong in some vague moral sense, but the thrill of being able to get away with something that by rights, should have earned him a prompt slap and later, a stern lecture from the Principal, was insanely arousing. Even if his nervousness restricted him to little more than occasional kinetic wave ‘brushes’ against some girl’s breasts or ass, it was still a major blood donor to the principal organ of male thought just to be able to do something he shouldn’t be doing and get away with it.

But classes had ended for the day so instead of going home, he got the outbound train into the city for a little more fun. Amongst the uncountable masses of the city proper, he felt his anonymity would allow him much more room to play. Now, wandering through the Myer Centre, the massive multi-storeyed mall-ish monstrosity across the road from Larkin Park in the heart of the city, he searched for his next plaything. As it was almost four o’clock, he had no problem selecting targets for the girls of Saint Bridget’s, a Catholic all-girls school nearby, were out in numbers.

He selected a pretty brunette and was about to launch a much bolder, but still sneaky pinch-her-ass mission when he felt someone tap him on the shoulder. He spun around and caught his breath. She was simply magnificent!

Decked out in the white shirt, pleated royal blue skirt, tie, blazer and beret, her outfit was identical to the ones worn by the Saint Bridget’s girls around him, but Alec had no doubt it was her. Her hair was blonde this time, her chin slightly more pointed and she was a couple of inches taller, but there was absolutely no doubt it was her.

“Hey you!” he grinned.

“Hey you too,” she giggled. Her voice was different too. Still soft, but with the youth was much more apparent. Still smiling, she snaked her arm around his. “C’mon, I bet you’ve got a couple of questions and it’ll be better if we find a seat and talk there instead of cluttering up an aisle.”

Menthayel’s frown deepened as he watched the girl lead his son off. They appeared to know each other but the angel had never seen her before and had no idea who she was. He sent out a probe intending to draw the information he wanted out of his son’s head and found… nothing!

There was a dead zone around Aleck. A distinct barrier that prevented anyone peeking into his head. Menthayel pulled his probes back quickly, expecting some sort of backlash but none was forthcoming. Still frowning, he willed his probes forward again, only more cautiously this time. The barrier was still there. Menthayel made contact with it, testing it to discern its nature. A moment later he breathed a discrete sigh of relief, it was merely a latent shell of protection, one that once established, didn’t require conscious maintenance. Nothing more, nothing less.

Exerting his will, he slammed against the barrier with as much force as his human form could muster, fully intending to shatter it with a single massive blast. No-one else saw anything untoward, but a violent splash of colour exploded around Aleck as his barrier effortlessly shrugged off his father’s attempt to gain entry into his mind.

Menthayel staggered, his hand shooting out to grab a nearby railing to prevent him from falling. It was so powerful! He blinked to clear the white spots from his vision. He didn’t have enough left within him to make another attempt at breaking the barrier so he focused instead on the girl. They were almost a hundred metres away but he could manage that distance with his reserves. This time, he was successful and his probes slipped effortlessly into the girl’s mind. He quickly sifted through the myriad of things dancing around in head and found a name. Eliza Rockley. He dug a little deeper. She was an 11th grader at Saint Bridget’s and she’d met his son a week ago on a train. She was currently ‘on the prowl’ and thought Aleck was rather cute.

Menthayel withdrew his probes. There was nothing special about the girl other than the fact she was extraordinarily attractive. His thoughts were on his son. The barrier that had repulsed him was an angelic construct. Menthayel had spent enough time studying simular wards to know it drew its power off his son. That, in and of itself wasn’t worrying. What was, was the fact that Alec seemed to be the one that had put the barrier up.

The boy had the natural power to do so. That wasn’t the issue. The problem was he just wasn’t supposed to know how.

They copped more than a few stares, most of them from decidedly envious males. Alec had the distinct impression the girl had more to do with that then he did.

He patiently waited for her to decide - when they were finally at the counter - what she wanted to eat and graciously paid for her meal when she turned her big – blue this time – eyes on him pleadingly. He got a medium Coke for himself and they moved to the nearest available table.

“How can you eat that crap?” Alec asked watching her unwrap her cheeseburger.

“Easily.” She grinned at him before taking a bite. When she was done swallowing the synthetic mess MacDonald’s mass-markets as food, she said, “I actually like the taste of this stuff and anyway, it’s not like I need to worry about my weight. I can just snap my fingers and presto! No more cellulite!”

“I’ll say.”

“Speaking of which,” she glanced down at herself, “whaddaya think?”

Alec, wearing his sleaziest grin, took the chance to again look her over with the professional eye of a horny fifteen year old. She’d upped her bra size to go with the extra height and as a result, she filled out the top half of the uniform very nicely indeed. Even her uniform jacket couldn’t quite conceal that fact and her chest was a guaranteed head turner. If she decided to shrug of the jacket and wander around in her thin summer blouse, she’d cause a veritable stampede.

“Seeing as every guy here looks like he wants to stab me repeatedly, I’d say you’re hot. Unfortunately, you fixed it so that I don’t find you attractive and personally, I think you look kinda deformed.”

“Liar!” she hissed.

Alec playfully lowered his head in submission. “Yeah okay, you look great.”

“It’s so good to be human again!” She smiled and took another bite of her grease-burger, closing her eyes as if in incomparable rapture.

Alec groaned and wondered whether he should introduce her to Allen and Marc. She’d get along with them in an instant, he decided. All three of them believed Macca’s food was some sort of culinary delight. Retards!

“Hey, ah, now that you’re here, what do I call you?” he asked. “I mean, calling you ‘you’ doesn’t work for me, and when I’m thinking about you, I wind up having to use ‘her’. Can you just give me a name?”

She kicked his foot under the table and smirked, “you think of me? How sweet!”

“Oh drop it! You know I can’t think of you THAT way, you filthy little gutter-skank. C’mon just gimme a name.”

“Okay. Eliza, then,” she answered. “It’ll work because that’s who I am when I look like this.” She pulled out a Velcro wallet and showed him her student ID card. It was the standard Saint Bridget’s issue and underneath her photo was the name Eliza Rockley. She was supposed to be sixteen.

“Nice trick.” Alec nodded approvingly as he mentally replaced ‘her’ with ‘Eliza’. It was as good a name as any and he had no problems using it as her new label. “But out of idle curiosity, did you steal someone’s identity?”‘Eliza’ shook her head. “Nope, I just created a new one. As long as I’m here, looking like this, Eliza Rockley actually exists. She’s got a class timetable in school, a student profile on the school database, a tax file number and even a residential address. Of course, no one really remembers her, but hey, a girl can’t have everything right?”

“Yeah, but you came pretty damn close.” Alec grinned. “I’m impressed.”

‘Eliza’ graced him with a beautiful, self-indulgent smile. “So you should, boyo. So you should. I am, all things considered, a rather impressive girl.”

Alec snorted playfully. “Visually maybe, but you know what they say about Barbie’s intellect...” - and earned himself a significantly harder kick under the table - “But if I recall, you were supposed to be teaching me stuff. What’s on today’s schedule?”

She popped the last of her burger into her mouth and grinned cheekily at him as she chewed with deliberate slowness. Finally, she wiped her mouth with a napkin and leaned back into her chair. “Wanna learn how to read someone’s mind?” She grinned evilly.

Alec’s jaw dropped.

Liam looked up in irritation as the door to his private study swung open. His irritation prudently vanished as Menthayel strode into the small room and unceremoniously seated himself on the elegant high-backed leather chair before the desk.

“There’s something wrong with Aleck.”

Up close, Liam could see the fine tremors of exhaustion running through that great angelic frame. “Master, are you hurt?” he asked cautiously.

Menthayel shook his head. “No, just tired. More so than I have been in a decade.”

“You said something was wrong with your son…?”

“Yes…” Menthayel’s voice was much lower and Liam had to strain to hear him. “He has something growing within him. Something that, by rights, he should not have…”

“He can feel with his mind.” Liam nodded thoughtfully. “I was going to ask you about…”

Menthayel looked up sharply, all traces of fatigue gone. His expression was hard and Liam flinched under the angelic stare. “You knew?”

Liam took a step back fearfully. “Y-yes master… I-I noticed that a few days ago when I was-”

“When you were what?” An icy edge appeared in Menthayel’s voice.

“You did tell me to check in on him from time to time.” Liam said quickly to avoid the angel’s wrath. “I was watching him from the shadows and then, out of nowhere, he just closed his eyes and let the power flow out of him.”

Menthayel sank back into his chair and was silent for a moment. “With my blood flowing through his veins, the ability to manipulate objects with his mind would naturally be his to command, but it should have been years before he worked out how to use it on his own. Yet there he was, using it without any guidance from me. And on top of that, he’s managed to erect a shield over his mind!” The angel’s green eyes sought those of his subordinate. “How can this be? Who could have taught him?”

“Not I, master.”

“No, not you,” Menthayel agreed after a moment of consideration. “You couldn’t have taught him without my knowledge even if you knew how to...” he took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “Not only does he know how to use his angelic senses, he has more power than he has any right to. There’s more than just my blood in him! It was much more of a drain that I imagined just to attempt to breach that mental ward. And yet his mind still remains closed off to me.”

Liam visibly blanched. The very thought that the boy could become impervious to an archangel of Menthayel’s calibre was hard for him to comprehend. As a master of the Sigurdian Inner Circle, he was one of the few within Order commonly referred to as the Watchers who had an inkling of what true power was. If Menthayel was worried about the boy, then Liam knew he had even more reason to be worried.

He, too, had plans for Alec Roth.

“Still, what power he has is but a shadow to that which was once mine. If not for that accursed totem I labour over…” Menthayel left the rest of the sentence unfinished.

“His mother, perhaps?” Liam suggested, pointedly changing the subject.

Menthayel slowly shook his head as he stared blankly at the red banners that hung against the far wall. “No…” he muttered, his mind moving to another place as he sought out old memories of a beautiful violet-eyed girl he’d loved more than life itself. The angel closed his tired eyes, and when they finally opened again, they were filled with what could only be construed as pain as the wounds of yesterday reopened.

“Emily was… special.” Menthayel whispered before the edge returned to his voice. “But this is NOT her doing. She was, at the end of her life, far too mortal for her own good! No, there’s the hand of another at play here.”

“Who could it be?”

The angel’s deep voice deceptively gentle. “I don’t know, Liam.”

Liam shuddered involuntarily. He’d heard the angel use that tone before and while he wouldn’t term Menthayel ‘the devil incarnate,’ he knew the angel was far from being a saint. Like many from the layers above who had come into the mortal world, Menthayel’s hands were far from clean. The angel had taken lives before and Liam saw nothing to indicate Menthayel had any plans to turn over a new leaf.

As if to confirm his suspicions, Menthayel added, “But for the moment we shall do nothing. We shall wait as we have always done, in the shadows, watching, waiting… Eventually, whoever hides behind my son shall make a mistake...”

“And when they do?”

The angel seemed to flow gracefully out of seat in a single fluid motion no human could mimic. Then, without warning, the subordinate Watcher was suddenly aware of a prickly fey sensation that swept through the room like a live current. It was something that set his teeth on edge and sapped both his strength and his will. It took all everything he had to resist his natural urge to fall to his knees and whimper like a terrified child.

Liam watched through fear-lidded eyes as a dull golden glow seemed to suffuse Menthayel’s frame. The glow brightened until Liam could no longer look at it directly. It didn’t matter though, because he was one of the few born of the earth who knew what to expect. Abruptly, the glow faded and Liam opened his eyes to see something new before him. Had any human been there to witness the sight, they would have sworn they were looking at a demon. The pale skin, still perfectly unlined, remained, but the angel’s hands were now half as big as they’d been a moment ago, each finger now ending in a long, slightly curved talon. Gleaming as if made of polished obsidian, Menthayel’s talons, each a long as a human index finger, made his hands a grotesque parody of reptilian claws. His fingers retained their slenderness, but without any hint of frailty. Those claws were not merely decoration. They could literally rip things apart.

The black tunic was gone, revealing a powerfully sculpted torso body builders would kill for, while the trousers the angel always wore seemed to have shrunk until they resembled leggings more than anything else. His face was still vaguely recognisable, but now it had a strange genderless tint to it. Not male, not female, but at the same not, not a disturbing combination of the two. It was something so distinctly apart that did not fit into the human concept of gender.

While his human form had always hinted at his power, this new ‘demonic’ form simply screamed it. Bigger, more muscular, clawed, and yet, still beautiful beyond mere words. In a word, majestic! And that beauty, impossible to loathe, made his appearance all the more fearful to behold. Here was a being that could hold anyone in incomparable rapture as those terrible claws eviscerated them.

Liam knew he was looking at Menthayel’s true form.

“Then I shall destroy them! Completely, utterly, and without mercy! Aleck is my son and with Emily gone, he’s mine alone! None may interfere with that which is mine!”