Company of Angels 02 - The Demoness of Waking Dreams

I’d like to talk to you in private.”
    “You two boys run on back and play in the yard, now,” he told the children warily. To Luciana, he said, “You here selling somethin’?” His leering gaze swept over her body.
    “Not exactly. You have an object that belongs to someone else. I want it back.”
    Jude’s face went ash white. He did not ask what the item was.
    He simply reached into his pocket and pulled out a watch.
    “Jude Everett, you’re a sick bastard.”
    “Who are you?”
    “Never mind,” she said, easily overpowering his weak human mind. “That’s of no matter to you. Just give me the watch.”
    She held it in her hand, the same watch she had seen Brandon reach for a dozen times. In his pocket, in his dreams. While awake, to make sure he was in the real world. On the back of the watch, as she flipped it over, she saw the engraving there of the Archangel Michael.
    “Why did you steal this, you twisted, pathetic excuse for a man?” she said. “And don’t lie to me.”
    “Because I like to remind myself of what I’m capable of doing,” Jude said.
    Of what he had done to his friend.
    An image entered her mind, of Brandon’s body lying on the ground.
    Of Jude reaching down and taking the watch out of Brandon’s bloodied hand.
    “You did it because evil people do evil things,” Luciana said, more to herself than to him. “That was why you did not simply throw the watch into the garbage. Even though you threw away Brandon’s life.”
    He stared at her, his body pulling back in shock at the name. “How do you know about Brandon?”
    “Never mind that now. Come with me,” she said, staring deep into his eyes. “You will not resist.”
    In that instant, she knew she would make her sacrifice to the devil this year, after all.
    Better late than never.
    * * *
     
    One step behind the demoness was one step too late. When Brandon arrived at his old house, Luciana was long gone. He could feel the dark pull of her, heading away from him. And he knew where she had gone.
    Back to Venice.
    But there was still unfinished business here. Brandon pulled into the driveway that he had driven up thousands of times before. Tammy was sitting outside, watching her children play in the yard. At first, he only saw the side of her familiar light brown hair, shining in the summer sun. As he approached, she turned her face toward him.
    “Go in the house,” she told the boys quietly, her eyes widening slightly.
    “Where’s Jude?” he asked.
    “Went with the black-haired lady!” one of the boys shouted through the screen door.
    “Stay inside!” Tammy told them.
    “Oh, my God,” she said, her dark brown eyes clearly revealing her confusion. She reached out her hand to touch Brandon’s chest, as if expecting it would go right through him. “It really is you.”
    “I’m not a ghost,” he said.
    “What are you?” she asked.
    “I’m something else,” he said, not bothering to explain. “It’s complicated.”
    “My God, it’s like you haven’t aged,” she breathed, reaching out to stroke his face. “Like time has stood still.”
    “Trust me, time has passed,” he said.
    How odd. Seeing her for the first time in a decade…he had always assumed it would be different. He had stayed away all this time. Some angels didn’t, he knew. Some of them were allowed to visit their loved ones, to watch over them. And some of them broke the rules and let themselves be seen.
    But Brandon had always followed instructions.
    Had resisted the urge to go back home and visit. Partly because he had thought that Jude, his best friend, would be there to take good care of her. Would console her.
    Well.
    “Did you know?” was all he said to her.
    She didn’t bother to ask what he meant. Merely shook her head.
    “Not until after,” she said. “I had no idea. I wasn’t even really sure until…”
    Now. The word hung between them as she stared up at him.
    “Can you forgive me?” she said. “There are things I did. Things that happened before you died. I have thought for the past ten years, if only…”
    “You can’t think like that. What’s done is done.” He smiled. “Forget about all of this. Forget I ever came.”
    He kissed her cheek, the feeling of it so familiar and yet so strange, the skin he had once known, now striated with fine lines at the corners of her eyes and mouth. And he left her standing there, his first love, pressing her hand to her cheek in the place where he had kissed