Her Guardian Angel

Suriel pushes him aside. "What can we do to please you, Sarathel?"

"I would love it if you two cleaned this place up a bit. Also, get rid of the statue of our brother and replace it with one of me looking all heroic and what not. Also, get loads of food to feed as many people as you can. I've decided I'm going to make my own city down here on this dirt planet. It's going to be way better than our old home. Michael can kiss my holy ass. He's not allowed in my city. Oh, also, I'm going to build a following of these mortals. I've already got a high priest picked out. Now I just need some disciples. I only want the good ones. I don't want anyone with bad attitudes. My city's going to be one of fun and whatnot. No prudes. So don't take anyone in with a stick up their ass," I say.

"Yes, Sarathel. We're on it. We'll make you proud," Sariel says.

"Good, well, I'm off. I've got business to attend to. If you could get this cleaned up by the day after tomorrow, that'd be great. Apparently, it's a holiday called Christmas which is celebrated after our brother. Can you believe that? He's got his own holiday! What kind of dick juice have these mortals been drinking? Although, Amelial also has her own holiday too. I want my own holiday, but I don't want it anywhere near their holidays. Besides, who wants to have a holiday in the middle of a freezing winter? Mine will be in the middle of the warm summer. I think I'll call it Sarath and people will give out gifts and drink themselves drunk. Yeah, it'll be way better than Christmas," I say as I head out. More to myself than anyone else. I make a quick jump to grab some of that good holy grass before heading back to the dirt world.

Chapter 6 - Isabel Morillo

I wake up in my bed alone. Sarathel is nowhere to be found. God, I hope he's not out there getting into trouble. Can you imagine if people found out that Angels exist? Do you think the government would get involved? What could they possibly do against an angel?

I stumble out of bed when I realize what day it is. Great... It's Christmas Eve. I sigh. My least favorite holiday. I know, I'm such a scrooge. But nothing good has ever happened to me during this holiday. I like to soon forget about it even though I know what I must do today as much as I dread it. I change into clothes, put on my makeup and some deodorant before pulling on my winter gear and getting an uber ready. I grab a hand broom before heading to the uber.

I have him take me into town to get a Christmas reef before heading to the cemetery. I trudge through the snow before I find my parents' gravestone. I clean off all the snow from it and place the reef down upon it. I can't help but wonder if my parents would accept who I am. My eyes start to water as I think about them. They were amazing people, unlike my uncle. My dad was nothing like his brother. It's hard to believe they were related. He was a kind man. He treated everyone with respect and compassion. Same with my mother. They were so good together. Fighting the tears is impossible. I can't help but cry. I miss them so much.

"Are you okay?" I nearly jump as I turn to find Sarathel standing behind me.

I quickly wipe away the tears. "Yeah, I'm alright."

"Your friend told me what happened during your past Christmases. I'm sorry. I can't imagine what it's like to lose people you love. Well, I can, I once lost a mortal I loved very dearly, but that's not the point. The point is... I'm very bad at this. Comforting people when they're in pain. Not my strongest feat. I never know quite what to say... So I'll just do this," he stops talking and walks up to the gravestone. He takes the reef and places it on top of the gravestone like a halo and suddenly the reef and the gravestone turn to pure, luminescent gold. I gasp out at the sudden shock. He looks at me as the color drains from his face. "You don't like it, do you? I'm sorry. I can undo it if you like."

"No! I like it very much. Thank you," I say as more tears fall from my eyes. Before I realize what I'm doing, I launch into his chest and wrap my arms tightly around his waist. He pats my back and his hand wanders up to my head, holding me tight to his chest. I've never felt so warm in my left as I do now in his arms.

"Come on. Let's go have some jolly good fun. I'm not letting you spend this holiday in sadness," he says, picking me up in his arms as he takes off in the air. "I've decided the other night to make my own holiday. It'll be way better than Christmas. It'll be in the summer where it's warm. People will give each other gifts and get wicked drunk. They'll sing songs and dance. Everyone will have lots of fun. It'll be your favorite holiday, I promise."

I laugh as he drops down in front of Olivia's apartment. I follow him inside as we knock on Olivia's door. She opens it, looking as if she just woke up. "Morning."

"Good morning. We're here to have some jolly fun," Sarathel says.

"Oh goodie," Olivia yawns. "Come in, make yourself at home."

Sarathel walks right in and relaxes on the couch. "So are you two... like dating or something?"

I can feel my face instantly heat up as I look over at Sarathel. He doesn't look at all phased by it. "I mean, I don't really do monogamy like you lot, but I wouldn't mind having her as one of my consorts," he says nonchalantly.

Olivia looks at me with an eyebrow raised, before she turns back to Sarathel. "Are you like one of those men who take multiple wives?"

Sarathel laughs. "I don't do marriage. I'm a free bird. Although, I occasionally find someone I enjoy spending time around, and keep them as one of my consorts or a companion would be a better term. Especially if the sex is good."

"So you just sleep with whoever you want?" Olivia asks, her eyes narrowing.

"Well, yeah," Sarathel says.

"What a pig," Olivia says.

Sarathel's eyes go wide. "Hey! Don't compare me to an animal. I have my standards. Besides, I don't just sleep with anyone. I only sleep with people I really like and obviously, they have to like me back. I don't want to have sex with someone who doesn't want to have sex with me as well. But let's face it, I haven't met anyone who doesn't want to have sex with me."

"You are such a..."

"Olivia, drop it," I interrupt, giving her a stern look. If she only knew what he really was. I really don't want to upset him. There's no telling what a being like him is capable of. Not that I'm afraid of him doing something bad to her. He's been nothing but nice to us.

"You can't be serious?" she says. "He just admitted to being a player who'll sleep with anyone he pleases and you're sticking up for him? I bet he's a tranny chaser. Probably intends to sleep with us all before ditching us."

"Olivia! He's nothing like that. Trust me. He's really sweet. Just give him a chance," I say.

"Are you deft? He literally just said he'd like to make you one of his consorts? How many other consorts do you think he has? Do you want to be just another hole for him to fuck?" she asks.

"You know I can hear you, right?" he asks, glaring at her. "Besides, I think you misunderstood me. That's not at all what I meant when I said consort. It's more like a person I care deeply for and would be willing to do anything for and who I also just happen to have sex with. Does that make any sense? It's much more than just a hole to fuck. I can't just fuck a hole. That wouldn't be any fun. I need some kind of emotional attachment to the hole. You know. I don't just have sex with things just to get off. That's just meaningless and hollow. Although, when I was drunk the other week I did give two nymphs I had just met my blessing, but that was different. We had a connection. You see, I saved them from a..."

"Okay, we get the point," I say, interrupting him before he can say anymore.

I can already see Olivia's face contorting in a mix of confusion and what could only be revulsion. She turns to me in a look of disbelief. "Isabel, where did you find him?"

"Olivia, please. You just need to get to know him," I say. Giving her the look you give someone when you're running out of patience. "Besides, he saved my life. If it weren't for him, I'd probably be in the hospital or dead."

"What are you talking about?" she asks.

"When we were at the club the other night, I went to leave and ran into some assholes. They clocked me and were going to beat the shit out of me before he stepped in," I say as I head over to the couch and plop down next to him. He wraps his big muscle arm around me. "I've never felt safer than I do when I'm with him."

"I'll be honest, I don't remember any of that. I must've been hammered that night," he says. I slap my head.

She rolls her eyes before she gets a text. She opens her phone and smiles. "Looks like Jaclynn and Vance are coming over."

"Where's Mercedes?" I ask.

"She's still sleeping. We stayed long after you two left and she got wasted. We practically had to carry her back. Thank god she's so skinny and small."

It's not long after when Vance and Jaclynn show up. Jaclynn and Vance are wearing matching ugly holiday sweaters as they walk in. "Merry Christmas Eve you all."

"Merry Christmas Eve," Olivia says. They plop down on the other couch.

"So, who's down for a Christmas joint?"

Sarathel raises his hand. "I'd love a Christmas Joint. I've actually got some good holy divine grass for you all. It's a gift from me to you."

I raise an eyebrow as he pulls out what looks like weed. He places it on the table. Vance's eyes widen as he bolts up. "Mind if I take a look?"

"Sure, go ahead. How about you pack that up in whatever you like to smoke it with. It'll get you really feeling good."

"You don't have to tell me twice," Vance says as he grabs the weed and starts to grind it up. Of course, he brought his own grinder. He has an entire kit of papers, bowls, and blunt wraps.

"So... What sort of fun are we going to do today? Also, I'd like to invite you all to a party I'm throwing tomorrow. It'll be so much fun. I promise," he says, with a smile. How is he going to throw a party? He's got no place to throw it at.

"Really? Like a Christmas party?" Vance asks.

"Yeah, but we could call it something else if you want," he says. Vance, Jaclynn, and Olivia trade looks before they look over at me. I just shrug.

"We'd love to go," Vance says with a smile. "It's not like we had anything else planned."

Olivia throws me a narrowed glance. Mercedes finally crawls out of bed. She looks terrible. Vance finished rolling a blunt with whatever in God's name Sarathel gave him. I'm a bit worried about that. There's no telling what kind of effects that so-called holy divine grass has. He sparks it up.

"You look terrible," Vance says as he looks at Mercedes.

She just gives him a face of revulsion, sticking her tongue out. Vance takes a hit of the blunt and immediately goes into a coughing fit. He hands it to Sarathel who takes two rather large hits from it before handing it to me. He looks up at Mercedes. "Try a hit of this, it'll make you feel loads better."

Sarathel relaxes on the couch, wrapping an arm around me. I take a hit and then start coughing profusely before handing it to Mercedes. I then lean up and rest my head on Sarathel's arm. I'll admit that being in his big strong arms does make me feel warm and giddy inside.

Mercedes takes a hit and also can't help but cough before she hands it to Olivia. By the time the blunt gets around, we've all spent some time coughing. I look at Jaclynn as she goes to hit the blunt and see bruises on her wrists. "Oh my god, Jaclynn. Is that from a client?"

She hits the weed, passes it back to Vance, and goes to hide her wrists. "No, it's nothing."

"This has to stop. Surely there's something we can do. You have no idea how much I worry about you," I say.

"I agree," Olivia says. "You can't keep going on like this."

"That's easy for both of you to say. You both have scholarship money and student loans. I don't and no matter how hard I try, I can't find anyone to hire me," she says, glaring at the both of us. "No one wants to hire a black tranny."

"I'll hire you," Sarathel says. We all turn to stare at him.

"And what money are you going to pay her with?" I ask.

He puts his hand in his pocket and pulls out a vibrant gold coin and flips it at her. "Take that. It's worth like a bajillion mortal coins."

I just slap my hand to my forehead and let out a long exaggerated sigh. I'm sure there's probably a permanent handprint on my face from all the times I've palmed it. "That's not quite how it works. She's not going to be able to trade that in anywhere. We need American money."

"What's American money look like?" Sarathel asks in a very annoyed tone.

I pull out a crumpled up dollar from my pocket and hand it to him. He takes it and exams it closely. "This... This is paper. What on this dirt world are you going to buy with that?"

"It can buy just about anything. Well, not this one in particular because it is only 1 dollar, but if we have enough of them, we can buy lots of stuff," I say.

"Don't you know how money works?" Mercedes asks.

"Pfff. Yes," Sarathel says, as he looks down at her. "Of course I know how money works. What kind of question is that?"

Mercedes just shrugs. "You don't sound like you do."

"What the fuck kind of weed did we just smoke?" Vance asks as he stares at his hands.

"The divine kind," Sarathel says. "Now let's go have some fun, I'm getting bored."

"What do you want to do?" Mercedes asks.

"I don't know. What do you normally do on Christmas Eve?" he asks.

"We do all sorts of things," Jaclynn says, playing with her hair. "Caroling, playing out in the snow, baking cookies, eating cookies and all sorts of things."

"We don't actually do any of those things besides playing out in the snow," Mercedes says.

"Well, I think it'd be fun," Jaclynn says.

"Ehhh, none of that sounds particularly fun," Sarathel says as he looks at his nails. "What is caroling anyway?"

"It's when you go door to door singing," Jaclynn explains.

"That could be fun. I do have an amazing voice. It's angelic," Sarathel says with a grin as he elbows me and gives me a wink. I let out a long sigh.

"Let's do it then!" Jaclynn says.

After much convincing, she finally gets us out. We go down the street and try caroling door to door. We sounded terrible. Sarathel didn't know any of the words to any of the songs so he just sang whatever he felt like. Everyone else was offbeat. Vance kept licking his hands. I started to really trip balls and see vibrant colors everywhere. It's safe to say we didn't sing for very long.

Once we got back, it seemed like everyone was tripping balls. Jaclynn and Olivia started baking cookies in the kitchen but mostly made a giant mess. Vance started groping Olivia's under-watered plants. Mercedes fell asleep on the couch while Sarathel talked my ear off about all the things that he didn't like about planet dirt.

"What's with cellphones? I feel like every human has one and they're always putting their face in them. I also don't like the whole car thing. Using fossil fuels is so primitive. I still can't believe you people can't harness the power of the sun yet," he says.

"Yeah, tell me about it," I say with a sigh.

"My city won't use fossil fuels, it will all be powered by divine energy," he says. However, my attention was pulled by the stranger walking through Olivia's apartment. Apparently, I'm not the only person who saw him. Olivia gasps as she turns and nearly runs into him. He literally just walked right through her. Jaclynn screams out as if she's looking at a ghost.

"What the fuck?" I ask.

Sarathel finally stops rambling and looks up. "Oh look at that, a lost soul. Poor bastard must've died here and now is lingering around going about the same routine before he died."

I look at Sarathel wide-eyed. "You mean to tell me that he's a ghost?"

"I suppose you can call him that. Yeah," Sarathel says.

"What the fuck?" I say.

"Technically you shouldn't be able to see him, but the weed we smoked temporarily gave you the ability," he explains as Olivia starts to call the police. I quickly get up and take the phone from her.

"What are you doing? We've got some fucking evolve in my apartment!"

"It's much more complicated than that," I say as Sarathel gets up and goes over to the ghost. He puts his hand on him and a bright blinding light shines out. As the light fades the man disappears.

'What the fuck just happened?" Olivia shouts.

"I think you smoked too much weed," I try to convince her it's the weed she smoked, but she's not buying it.

"Seriously? What the fuck did Sarathel just do?" she asks. At this point, I'm way too high to explain things.

Chapter 7 - Sarathel

Singing was terrible. It's bad enough we sang songs that I don't know, we couldn't even keep a consistent tone. I hope we can find something to do that'll be remotely fun. I need something to distract me from the ruins of my existence.

"What do you say we head home and watch a Christmas movie?" Olivia asks. Everyone agrees besides me. That sounds like the opposite of fun. Sitting and watching something, how can that be fun?

"I'll meet you all back at Olivia's quarters. I'm in desperate need of some strong drink," I grumble as I head off. I just need to find a good place to... ah, there's one. A dark alley. I suppose it's a good idea to keep my divine presence hidden from these mortals. I don't really need the attention. It might be fun for the short run to have all these mortals worship me, but it gets old fast. As soon as I walk out of sight, I shoot through time and space, traveling faster than the light of the sun. I arrive at my destination, The Galaxie's Pub. The finest bar around. And one of the only ones that serves the divine firewater. As I zap down, I walk in and see some familiar faces.

"Ahh, Sarathel, welcome back. Usual?" Dargathor asks as he pours a drink and serves it to a being at the bar.

"I'll need at least a keg. I'm on that planet called Dirt out in the outer rim, a very primitive sort. Not the brightest bunch. But they do have a beautiful female species called humans. One's really got my eye," I say.

"Is that so? Sagging with mortals, eh? I've been there. Too fragile. They die too easy." He pours me a glass and passes it to me. I take a long swig.

"Yeah, but I envy them. They know what the fear of death feels like. How can you truly appreciate life if you don't fear death? I've lost all fears long ago. Now I feel like I'm losing my joy lately. I used to love the battlefield. Now it just seems like a chore. What's the point of it all? Not one of us can truly die," I cry, taking a long swig.

"Who said that?" Dargathor asks.

"Well, no one's said otherwise, right?" I ask.

"I suppose," he says. "But life isn't always about fighting. Have you actually tried living it? Like truly living. While you're on this Dirt world, you should try seeing things from their eyes and understanding them."

"I suppose I could. I got nothing else to do. Did you hear Michael kicked me out of the divine city?" I ask.

"Wow, first me, then Lucifer, and now you, huh?" he asks.

"Yeah, I bet Raphael's next. He's been at Michael's throat ever since he kicked out Lucifer. Michael has become a tyrant. Ridiculing every little thing he doesn't approve of. He walked in on me blessing two Nymphs and the bastard was in fumes about it. Blew up over nothing. He's reached a new level of holier than thou," I complain.

"Yeah, that's Michael for you. He's above the rest of us. Say, speaking of Lucifer, you talked to him since you left?" he asks.

"Now, but I was considering going to see him. However, I think I might see Amaliel first. She's about to have her little holiday. By the way, what's with everyone having a holiday in their name? Amaliel's not the only one who made a holiday around themselves. Jesus has these mortals so far up his ass they're getting daily doses of his shit. I've decided I'm having my own holiday. Did I tell you I've decided to make my own city?"