Ivory Guard (2 page)

She struggled between relief and dismay. Relief that her mother was here and showed her she
hadn’t gone completely insane yet, but she was also shocked to find out that her parents weren’t who and what they were supposed to be – a nosy and yet ignorant, opinionated, but honest pain in the ass.

Her mother made a step towards her then stopped herself, unsure of how her daughter would react.
Unsure whether her daughter wanted her mother’s arms around her.

“Does he know?” It was important, the most important question of all,
at least for Lillian.

Her mother nodded, and
for now that was all that mattered, and Lillian ran into the waiting arms.

She drew away
to look at the angels. “How much time do I have?”

Her eyes filled with sympathy
Amber softly replied, “We’ll be back the day after tomorrow. If you need us, just call out our names.”

Both
took a step back, apparently ready to leave, when Raz suddenly added, “Oh, and don’t tell anyone outside of this family about any of this.”

For a moment Lillian only stared at him, absolutely speechless. But of course, it was only logical that discretion was his most important concern since it wasn’t his life that had just been blown to smithereens.
Without another word and only the rustling of spreading wings they vanished, leaving Lillian with her world turned upside down and a future unknown to her.

T
WO

After the angels had gone
she sat with her mother in the kitchen, drinking hot chocolate. Neither of them saying a word at first. Her mother probably out of guilt and Lillian because she just didn’t know where to begin with all the questions she was suddenly forced to ask. The silence was thick around them, until both of them faced each other and started talking at the same time, which ended with the both of them flashing a brief, shaky smile before catching themselves.

Her mother cleared her throat and demanded, “Let me start.
Just…listen.”

At first the
conversation was slow and awkward, both of them feeling unsure and uncomfortable around the person they thought they knew so well, but it quickly vanished when it became clear that this issue was just too important to be watchful of hurt toes. Then like an unstoppable flood of words everything poured out of her mother and Lillian realized how wrong she had been to condemn her mother with hasty assumptions. Of course she had presumed an affair behind her father’s back. But she couldn’t have been farther from the truth.

Her parents had tried to have a child
for some years without success when a stranger had come promising to make their wish come true. At first both of them had thought him to be insane - until he had revealed his wings. However, it had soon become clear that his offer didn’t come without some strings attached – what in life ever really did? They could have the child they so desperately wanted to love, but once eighteen years passed they had to give it up.

Her mother shrugged, looking at her through the
glittering veil of tears. “Eighteen years. It seemed so far away. We couldn’t have been more wrong. Time flies, that much I know now.” She took Lillian’s hand across the table, squeezing it. “But we don’t regret a single moment. Because we had those moments. We had you in our lives. Our decisions might seem selfish to you now…” her voice trailed of and her eyes seemed to plead with Lillian, as if searching for absolution.

Lillian’s mind and heart were racing. Had her parents done anything wrong? Her heart said, ‘No’. Had they been selfish?
No…well. Maybe, she admitted, acknowledging for the first time that small flame of anger licking inside of her ever since the angels had dropped the truth on her. Her parents had gotten the child they always wanted, and she? No one had asked her how she would feel about having to give up the life she had always known for something so unbelievable as fighting demons or something. Why give her the delusion of choosing a nice college and classes, of preparing a future they had
known
she wouldn’t be able to live anyway? God, everything inside of her felt as if being ripped apart.

Without saying a word and
too confused to offer what her mother needed she stood and moved to look out the window. Not seeing anything.

H
er father came home then and after one look at them he knew. He said nothing, just took Lillian into his arms and locked them tight around her as if she might vanish at any moment.

At that instance, as her nose filled with his familiar scent of soap and that one cigarette he allowed himself thinking nobody noticed,
Lillian came to realize one thing. It didn’t matter who fathered her. She only had one father and that was the modest man standing in front of her. The man who was so calm in the middle of the storm that had blown into their lives. Her Dad was the one she would always remember, who had kissed her bruised knees when she’d been a child, who shared her love for words, who listened to her joys and doubts, who was
there
. He was her father, and not some winged stranger.

At night Lillian lay in her bed, exhausted from the day’s revelations and emotions but not able to sleep, and sighed. Besides the shock something else mattered and needed to be dealt with - the feeling of betrayal inside of her. She felt betrayed and robbed of the future they had let her believe in.

Lillian
rolled onto her side and looked out her window. Under the cover of darkness lay a garden sweetened by summer and she could see softly flickering light coming from the neighbor’s house as they watched TV.

She had planned to go to college
, had loved talking and dreaming about all the possibilities like the rest of her friends. Even though she had no clear idea of what to study exactly, she had wanted to learn, to try psychology or even archeology or even journalism. Everything and anything. Get a job, maybe a house and family one day. The usual.

But now, it all meant nothing.

Now she had not much of an idea how her life would look like. Training, fighting they had said. But what did it mean? Guarding holes to hell, she suddenly remembered Amber saying. Was that true, or just some kind of saying among angels?

There she was, the daughter of an angel, about to be trained as an
Ivory guard or some such, and Lillian didn’t even know whether she believed in God. It almost made her laugh. Or cry. She wasn’t really sure which would burst out first.

In the blink of an eye her world had changed from one where she knew most of the answers into one full of questions.
A situation she really wasn’t comfortable with and needed to get control of.

Starting now.

Sitting up in her bed she whispered, so as not to alert her parents, “Amber?”

For a heartbeat she didn’t know what she would do if the angel didn’t turn up. What she would think. She
couldn’t even say whether she wished for it or not. But then the air around her seemed to move with a soft breeze and then Amber stood in the middle of her room. This time without the wings and gloriole, what made her look even more human. Well, that and the flips flops she was wearing now.

“Is everything alright?”
She grimaced. “Well, as much as it can be, given the circumstances I mean.”

“Yeah.
I just couldn’t sleep. Too many questions in my head. I thought maybe you could help me find the answers to some of them.”

“Sure.” The blonde angel moved to the edge of the bed. “Do you mind?”

“Not at all.”

Amber sat down
, putting one foot under her and relaxed against the headboard beside Lillian. “So, what do you want to know?”

“Everything.”

“Then you probably should talk to Raz. With me you need to narrow it down a bit.” When Lillian frowned, the angel laughed and explained. “Raz, his real name is Raziel. He’s the angel of mysteries. Secrets, universal knowledge and all that stuff.”

“
Ah.” The angel of mysteries. No wonder he seemed so dark in contrast to Amber. “Well, that’s a start. So you two work together?”

“At the moment, yes.
It changes constantly so we don’t get bored you could say, but for the time being we both are on Ivory Duty.”

“Which means?”

“Automatically we tune in on the Ivorys we’re assigned to protect. The moment you guys turn eighteen, you’re on our radar, so to speak. We locate you, watch you for awhile, making sure you finish school and then we wait for the moment to show ourselves. Then we bring you in and start your training. Two months ago you rang our bell. We’ve been watching you ever since.”

“Why wait until I finish school and I’m eighteen? Why not keep me and simply train me right from the start?” 

“I knew you would ask that one.” She sighed, looking up as if searching for words before finally facing Lillian. “We wait because you need to know what you’re fighting for. If we had trained you from childhood on, you might not put your whole heart into saving the world and your loved ones from the evil that can walk the earth as you would now.”

Lillian snorted, more than a little appalled.
“Sorry, but that seems rather harsh and calculated.”

“
Yeah probably…but given the choice what would you rather, to grow up with or without your parents? Isn’t it better to know their love and the life they have given you even if you have to leave them than not knowing it at all?”

That was what it came down to, wasn’t it?
So what if she felt cheated. She loved her parents. Sure they could be a pain in the ass but that was part of the job description. Lillian suspected she would have chosen a life with her parents no matter how a life among angels might have looked like.

As if reading
her mind Amber added, “Living and training among angels would have been hard. Not bad, but hard. Let’s say it wouldn’t have been as colorful as the life you have known. We’re more black and white.”

After a moment of silence
Lillian asked, “So what will happen to me when I go with you?”

“We’ll bring you to a safe house and start with the training.
Ivorys are strong beings, believe me, and demons will do anything to get to you before we do.”

Her eyes were serious and honest and she really didn’t need to elaborate on the last bit. Demons wanted her dead before she learned how to off t
hem. Figured. Basic food chain. When Lillian realized with what an ease she started to think about demons she rubbed a hand over her face.

“And then, after the training, my life will be just…fighting demons?
For the rest of my life? For the good of the world?”

“Yes.
But you won’t be alone. You will have a team. I have seen teams connect with each other and fight for each other….” She shook her head. “They’ve been a family. And we’ll be there too. Checking on you guys.”

“I’ll come with you
, but… I just wanted to know…do I even have a choice here?”

“You do
have a choice. But I can tell you that those who didn’t go with us didn’t live the life they’ve dreamed of before. Once you turn eighteen there’s like a switch going off in you. Angel blood flows through your veins and with it the need to do…good stuff.” She grimaced and shrugged, “It’s your calling, your purpose, whatever you want to call it. And an Ivory will feel incomplete with time if not fulfilling it.” 

Lillian absorbed that for a few moments, surprised how the words rang true inside of her. It was a weird sensation of apprehension of some sort. Making her decision, she looked back at the angel.

“Can you do me a favor?”

“What?”

“Pick me up in an hour.”

Amber’s
green eyes smiled sadly with understanding before she got up off the bed. “Sure.” The blonde angel seemed hesitant and turned to look at Lillian. “For what it’s worth, I always hate this part. Ripping you guys away, as you said.”

Lillian
nodded, one corner of her mouth lifting in a small smile. “It’s okay. Not your fault.”

“
See you.”

Soundlessly the angel disappeared and
silence settled over the room.

After a few more minutes of staring off into the
darkness Lillian got up as well. Moving silently, she pulled a bag out of a corner of her closet and began filling it. Clothes, her journal. She hesitated when her hand went for her MP3 player and e-book reader. Would she be able to use them? Where did Ivorys go? Heaven? Damn it. Stuffing them inside she cursed herself for not having thought of asking where exactly they would take her.

Going into her adjoining bathroom she combed and braided her hair and got ready, dropping one item after another into her bag before zipping it shut and throwing it onto her bed. Then she dressed in
tight black jeans and a gray top before pulling on a light sweater against the cool night breeze.

Now it was time for the really hard part. Expelling a deep breath she walked over to her desk and sat down on the chair in front of it. One she had sat so often in, leaning over her books. Lillian got out a pen and sheet of paper and stared down at it.
The written word had always been her favored means for communicating her emotions. She kept a diary for God’s sake. But then there were other times when she wondered how as small a thing as a piece of paper could possibly hold, much less convey, the churning turmoil within her. This was one of those times.

This
wasn’t just a teary but natural ‘Goodbye and I’ll come back whenever I need my laundry done’. She guessed it was more likely that she would never see her parents again.