Love is Always Write Anthology Volume 1

challenge, but he finally managed to choke out, "Who are you?"
    The wings around him twitched, and he froze in place as the angel frowned and pushed himself up onto his outstretched arms. Their eyes met, and he stared, feeling as if he could drown in the depths of those eyes if he allowed himself. "You can see me?"
    The angel's voice was musical, and Cole's heart trembled oddly at the sound of it. He nodded in answer to the question. "You're an angel." That was stating the obvious. He shook his head and tried again. "Why are you here?"
    A smile as bright as the sun itself unfurled on the angel's face. "You're alive."
    Cole couldn't look away from that smile. "Am... I not supposed to be?"
    The angel slowly sat up, his wings fluttering, and the smile faded, replaced by such sadness that Cole's heart ached to see it. "How could you be so careless?" the angel asked. "Drinking, smoking, and then drugs? I've been at your side since you were born, and the one time I needed you to hear me, you were deaf to my voice." Tears gathered in the bright eyes. "Daniel isn't worth your life."
    The reminder of Daniel brought up every angry and heartbroken emotion in Cole. "Daniel was my life. Everything I did was to give him anything... everything."
    "But he wanted you . He didn't need a highrise apartment and limitless credit cards and expensive clothes. He needed you , and you weren't here for him." The angel reached out, grabbed Cole's bleeding hand, and worked the glass out of his palm. "Daniel has found someone who needs him as much as he needs them. It's time for you to find a new purpose."
    Cole blinked and looked down at his hand, the pain gone. He stared at his palm. The glass was out and the wound healed, only a sliver of a scar left. He eyes sought the angel's. "Who are you?" he whispered.
    "I'm your guardian angel." The angel's wings shivered. "My name is Raziel, and I am going to be in such trouble for saving you."
    "If you're my guardian angel, aren't you supposed to save me?"
    That sadness returned to Raziel's eyes. "I'm not supposed to upset the balance of life and death. But I couldn't let you die. I couldn't ."
    "So... you broke the rules. For me." Cole tilted his head, the flesh of his wrist where Raziel touched tingling. "Why?"
    Raziel withdrew his touch, a light flush coloring his alabaster cheeks. "I love you."
    That took a moment to sink in, and Cole shifted awkwardly. An angel loved him? This was like some crazy dream, waking up from a really bad hit on the head and an O.D. to be greeted by his own personal angel. It didn't make sense. Except for the part where he really did take too much of everything and had probably needed help. There was glass everywhere from a shattered bottle, and a quick glance over showed that he had snorted all those lines of cocaine. He didn't feel as though he had any alcohol or drugs in his system at all. It was unsettling to say the least, but it did make sense, and that scared him. Was he supposed to keep talking to the angel or admit that he was having some kind of psychotic break?
    "You have a lot of questions," Raziel murmured, "but it's real. I'm real."
    The angel had at least one thing right: the questions probably wouldn't stop anytime soon. He had to get his bearings, get a grip! He ran his hands through his hair, not feeling any pain from the scar where he'd just cut himself. He had to start somewhere, and with every other option sounding ridiculous to his mind, he let himself just believe it was all real. If all Raziel said was true, then it made his first question simple. "Is that... normal for guardian angels? To love their humans?"
    Raziel curled one wing in closer and picked at a couple of the feathers, looking up bashfully through blond hair. "Not the way I love you. What I feel is deeper than what most angels feel for their charges."
    Cole wasn't sure why satisfaction rolled through him, making his gut feel warm and settled instead of twisted in knots. It loosened his tongue, made it easier to organize his thoughts. "Why am I not freaking out? I should be losing it, seeing an angel on my office floor, but I feel... better."
    Raziel chirped and let go of his wing so it could flutter. "Because you know who I am. Somewhere inside, you already know me. You've heard my voice inside you sometimes, that little voice that tells you to turn away from darkness and take a different path, even if it isn't the easy road to follow."
    It was Cole's turn to flush. He knew that