Love is Always Write Anthology Volume 1

least that's what he told himself as he waited out another silence with yet another swallow of alcohol.
    "It'll take me a few days, boss, but I'll get you what you want."
    The words were careful and hushed, and he wondered for a moment if Rob's wife had woken up next to him and started listening in. He wondered if she knew her husband had connections with drug dealers. Or was she completely clueless, just like he'd been about Daniel's cheating? He almost laughed. Let her keep her delusion. Better to see what one wanted to see rather than the ugly truth. "Good," he finally said into the phone. "Call me when you have it."
    He hung up after another gulp of vodka, not even bothering to set the phone back into its charger. He let it fall to the floor as he tipped the bottle higher, and the sound of it clattering against the expensive hardwood panels seemed to echo as his head swam, all his problems drowning in a sea of booze and drunken forgetfulness.
    ****
    "Cole, stop this!" Raziel paced back and forth in front of Cole's desk in his home office. "It's crazy. Crazy! You'll kill yourself. You don't want to die." He stopped and turned to face Cole, who was intently cutting cocaine and setting it into neat lines. "You don't even know what you're doing! Couldn't you have at least asked Rob to show you how to use the stuff?"
    But Cole couldn't hear him. Cole had never heard him. The alcohol, the cigarettes, and now cocaine. He growled and slammed his hands down on the polished surface of Cole's desk. "Daniel isn't worth this! Cole..." Cole rolled up a fifty-dollar bill, took a swig from the whiskey bottle, and then set the edge of the rolled up bill to one of the lines of white powder. Raziel thought he would weep as he whispered, "Please, Cole."
    Cole ran the bill up the line, inhaling sharply, and then sat back, sniffling, rubbing his nose with his fingers. Suddenly, Cole laughed, staring up at the ceiling, and flailed for the whiskey. He missed the bottle, and it fell, crashing onto the floor, the glass shattering, the booze spattering everywhere. Cole blinked and leaned forward, putting the rolled up bill against the next line... and the next... and the next. After a moment, he stood up, stumbled, and fell onto the rug over the hardwood floor. His laughter broke Raziel's heart.
    Raziel knelt on the floor beside Cole, stroking his hair back from his sweaty face. His wings fluttered, and he chirped softly, worry twisting his stomach. Cole didn't look well, and the glassy expression in his eyes pulled at Raziel. Something wasn't right. Cocaine and alcohol, he was almost certain, shouldn't be mixed. This wasn't his precious charge. Cole was intelligent, beautiful, kind... not an embittered alcoholic ready to piss away his money on drugs!
    "Cole!" Raziel had never wanted to be visible like he did now. He could feel something tenuous in Cole fluttering, the connection between them fading in and out. Cole was dying. Raziel's wings fluttered again as panic set in. "Cole! Don't! I can't... there's no one I can call! No one can see me! Cole, please... you're... you aren't supposed to die yet..."
    Cole wasn't listening, though, and that connection started growing dimmer. Raziel looked up to the heavens through the ceiling, whispering a prayer. He couldn't do anything to help Cole. Interfering with life and death was strictly forbidden. When a charge refused to follow the direction of their guardian angel, the angel was never allowed to take matters into their own hands. God had granted the humans free will, and while they could work their influence, whisper advice into their minds, they couldn't force their own wills or the will of the Divine onto them.
    The connection flickered like a flame, growing dimmer and dimmer. Oh, God, it was almost out! Raziel chirped again, his wings extending. He couldn't let this happen. He couldn't! Cole was the only charge he had ever felt so much for. From beginning to end, he'd loved Cole. Loved him! It went beyond any ward before. That love was deep, terrible, and now Cole's life flickered. He couldn't lose all he felt, couldn't lose Cole. If he only had time, only had the chance to speak to Cole, to be heard by him. But there was no chance for him to speak to ears that would listen. If he didn't act... In a split second, he made up his mind. He was out of time.
    He squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his hands to Cole's chest. He'd do anything to save Cole. He'd endure any punishment the archangels