Genesis of a Hero (3 page)

Chapter 3: Wanted and Unwanted

“People like him are going to make us lose the war,” John fumed after Xavier’s departure.

“He’s just doing what he thinks is best,” Denise said. “A lot of angels agree with him. Aaron does.”

John stewed on her words as visions of his days at school raced through his head. Xavier’s teams at the angel tournaments had been tough matches to win in those days. Xavier’s time there had been filled with masterful strategy and guile. Pure cunning and a fevered lust for winning at all costs had driven his team to great success. But John’s team at Whispering Trees had always managed to beat them – if only barely.

“He used to be one
of the first people to jump onto the front lines and get his hands dirty,” Harold piped in echoing John’s thoughts.

Denise breathed softly as she pondered the words with her eyes roaming the airy classroom. “I’m proud of him,” she said and her gaze locked on John. “With everything that’s happened to him in the last year, it’s a testament to his faith.
Him and Sherry had only been married for six months when she got killed. And I heard she was pregnant.”

“
Yeah, it was a tragedy,” John cleared his throat uncomfortably. He remembered hearing Xavier’s moans and cries when the devastating news was delivered. “But if I was him, I’d hate demons for the rest of my life if they took away-” He stopped and swallowed as Denise watched him expectantly. “I mean, if I had a wife and they killed her, I wouldn’t stop until every single one of them was sent back to hell and I’d found the fallen angels who raised them. I’d hold their feet to the fire until they repented and found their faith; or-” He shrugged and didn’t finish the sentence.

“Or what?”
Denise questioned with her eyebrows arching enough to make her normally straight angel marks crease in a zig-zag. “You’d kill them? Send them to hell? Lose another soul in the war? Is that what you’re saying?”

Harold’s eyes found John’s and an exaggerated frown that would be comical in a
ny other setting marred his dark face.

“That’s… not… what I meant,” John stuttered. “Well, about the demons it is, but I’d do everything I could to help fallen angels find their fait
h. I’m just saying that if I had just gotten married; and had my wife snatched away from me, I know I’d be really proactive in making sure demons were kept under control. I wouldn’t run away from them like he seems to be doing.”

Denise stared at him for several long seconds. Finally, her features softened into their normally, wonderful places and she sighed. “I think he’s doing what he feels is best for the war. He sees his duty as an angel a little differently than you. I couldn’t ever picture him joining the Justice Ministers like you did. He’s more of a planner than a fighter.”

“He has skills as a fighter,” Harold shuddered. “He knocked me out of the tournament two years in a row back when we were all still in school.”

“I got him back for you though,” John winked and elbowed his friend.

“It’s tough to put ourselves in his position,” Denise said not letting John and Harold draw the conversation into wild tales from their school days. “Have you ever lost anyone you loved?”

John studied her. He’d watched her from the corner of his eyes for as long as he could remember. He recalled the first time he saw her walking past
him in the hallways of Whispering Trees. Her light steps, and the small smile she’d sent him when she caught him staring at her, had made his heart rev into overdrive.  It had been years since he’d drawn the courage to truly get to know her. And just as long to build the nerve to ask her on a date – only two weeks before. So far, that one event remained as one of the brightest memories of his life. Only dinner and a quick stroll in a small park, but John relived it as often as he could.

“
No, I haven’t,” he answered her question and glanced at Harold. “But if demons came after you, I wouldn’t stop until I knew they were all back in hell where they belong.”

Her jaw worked and made the smooth skin of her cheeks dance. John wasn’t sure if it was agitation or embarrassed discomfort.

Before she could answer, Harold gave a slight cough with his hand covering his mouth. “I need to go call my brother, James,” he said cryptically and bounced his dark eyebrows at John with the tiniest of grins. “See you at the meeting in an hour.” With that, he left without even the briefest looks backwards.

“Why would you care so much about demons coming after me?” Denise asked with her nose scrunching as though she was trying to connect invisible dots.

“You know why,” John replied and couldn’t stop his feet from shifting uncomfortably on the spot.

She laughed and shook her head. “I don’t, really. I’ve never been able to figure you out. Ever since I’ve known you, you’ve confused me with everything you’ve said or done. You ask me out on a date, we go out and have
a good time, but it’s been two weeks and you haven’t mentioned it once.”

“I…” John started but stopped as he tried to
compress all the thoughts swirling through his head into one coherent message. All the years his eyes had followed her every move came storming into his mind. The countless times, during their angel academy days, he’d teetered on the verge of asking her out on a date; but chickened out. Harold’s constant teasing of his “dancing feet” when Denise was in their presence. He set his teeth and shook away the distracting thoughts. “Sorry,” he continued. “There’s been a lot going on. I… had a really good time, but I wasn’t sure if you did or not.”

“You could have asked,” she snorted, but instead of continuing
with any more statements, she only watched him struggle with his knuckles popping as they flexed of their own accord.

“Okay, so did you have a good time?”

She nodded with a sly smile lifting the edges of her mouth. “I had a very good time,” she offered.

“So, would you want to do something again?” he asked
making sure his feet weren’t shuffling as the nerves down his back spiked in sheer joy. “I know we have a lot going on with Aaron’s stuff, but maybe we could fit something in?”

“Like what?” This time a true smile arched her stunning face. John got the feeling that she was messing with him, but he’d never been remotely good at reading her moods. And he’d never dared to use any of the numerous angel abilities he’d learned in his time at Whispering Trees to try to
delve into her thoughts – even though there were so many times when it had been very tempting to take a peek.

“I saw on the news that they’re doing some type of foster kid
’s day at the Sacramento Zoo tomorrow,” John said hoping the butterfly jitters in his stomach weren’t carrying in the words. “Aaron is constantly telling us to get out there and help people. I thought it might be a good place to watch for people who need help with their faith; and who have a lot of influence on young kids. Maybe we could make it kind of a working date?”

For twenty seconds she didn’t say anything. Her bright eyes stayed locked on his with a
mesmerizing twinkle. John knew he’d fight through an ocean of demons for the chance to look into them for the rest of his life. “Sounds like a good plan to me,” she finally offered. “What time are you leaving?”

“
So, how did it go?” Harold asked forty-five minutes later.

“Pretty good,” John said
with a bounce in his step. He could hear the relief in his own voice. “We’re going to the zoo tomorrow to that foster kid’s fundraising thing I told you about. I thought she would be more willing to say yes if there was a mix of angel duties involved.”

Harold chuckled in his deep voiced way. “Man, you have no clue at all when it comes to Denise,” he said and slapped John on the back. “Never have. I’ve told you forever that she likes you.
You can read everyone else like they’re a wide open book, but can’t see anything with her.”

“Like you’re an expert when it comes
to women,” John shot back and began walking through the south hallway of Whispering Trees. The angel school was sprawled through the giant redwoods outside the window. John had always thought it looked like one of the coolest log cabin-churches on the planet. The bell towers sent echoing tolls throughout the forest towards the angel students practicing mock battles in the forest.

The inside walls
of the Cathedral were dotted with paintings. David’s armies rushing forward to crush the Philistines was one of John’s favorites. But a stunning mural of the Golgotha hilltop where Jesus was crucified dominated the ceiling of the main entry. Every time John walked under it, he wanted to fall to his knees in prayer.

“At least I’ve had
girlfriends before,” Harold teased and trotted to keep up with John’s long strides. With his slightly rotund frame, he’d always had trouble keeping step. But in a fight, there weren’t many angels John would substitute in place of his best friend.

“Only because you ask
out every other girl we pass,” John countered but supplied a friendly nudge to go with the taunt.

“Better than waiting until I’m twenty before having my first date,” Harold quipped.

John nodded sadly. “Denise has been the only girl I’ve wanted to ask out. She’s just… kind of-”

“Difficult?” Harold supplied when John couldn’t find the correct word.

“That’s about right,” John laughed and stepped into the dining hall. To his right, at a long, mahogany table, Aaron was having a whispered conversation with Denise. John’s teeth clamped together, but he immediately pushed away the idea of pummeling the leader of the angel group. He’d requested the Justice Ministers assign him to his home area. But only one true reason had driven his request.

His eyes landed on Denise.
Her slender frame and long legs. The unbending angel marks that accented the smooth lines of her face. She shook her head and shrugged her shoulders at Aaron then looked at John and Harold.

“I’m not saying going to the zoo is a bad idea,” Aaron explained casually with his hands folded on top of each other. “I just thought you might enjoy going to the homeless shelter in San Francisco. There will be a lot of people to help. Many of them should find their faith easy.”

“There
will be lots of people at the zoo as well,” Denise said and patted him on the hand. She smiled at John then turned to Xavier who was sitting quietly beside her. Four other angels were also sitting at the table already. Isaac Tennison was a gangly man in his mid-thirties. Round glasses sat high on a large, crooked nose. John had met him over a year ago; and his first impression was to think he was a pompous, know-it-all; but he’d found – much to his pleasure – that wasn’t the case. Isaac’s easy laugh, quick wit, and eagerness to charge into a fight had made him one of John’s favorite angels to work beside in the War for Sins.

Sitting on Isaac’s left was Ashley Morrison. Her nose pointed in a sharp angle wherever she looked, and John was sure she used it to help her target demons. Spiraling, grey angel marks weaved from high on her forehead, down her temples, and under her ears.
Speckles of the same grey mixed into her auburn hair. Right now, she was studying a stack of stapled papers with numbers and figures diagrammed in tables. She didn’t look up when John sat across from her.

He didn’t recognize the two other angels, but they both smiled at him politely.

“Well, this meeting was supposed to be about our mission to the homeless shelter tomorrow,” Xavier started and his eyes landed on John. “But some of us have already made other plans.”

John produced a small grin but didn’t say anything.

“Which is fine,” Aaron added. “As long as you are out there trying to help people find and maintain their faith, I’m okay with anything you do.” He glanced regally around the room before continuing. “The rest of us will be going to a homeless shelter in San Francisco tomorrow. Everyone else will be joining us except for John and Denise.”

“Count me in with them too,” Harold said jovially.

John’s head snapped to his friend. A yelling denial instantly wanted to scream from his mouth, but it froze in his throat when he noticed everyone looking. Instead, a frustrated breath forced itself out of his nose. Harold had been a good friend for a long time… but sometimes, he didn’t know when to stay out of John’s way. He’d have to talk to him about his plans – after the meeting.

“Alright,” Aaron said and scratched something on the piece of paper in front of him. “That will leave nine of us going to the shelter. We can meet on top of the Golden Gate Bridge at 8:00 in the morning. Make sure to wear your rain jackets.
And keep your eyes open. There does seem to be a slight rise in the number of demons around lately, but it’s nothing to be alarmed about.”

“We’
re sure it’s just them breeding,” Xavier jumped in. “Perhaps we can put together a team to hunt out their dens in the next few weeks.”

Nobody said anything for several seconds after Xavier’s statement. Finally, Aaron swept his intense eyes over the table. “Anyone have anything else?” When no one said anything, he stood. “Pray for our success tomorrow then.”

With that, there was a scraping of chairs and everyone got up to leave.