Purely Fallen, D. Richardson [books to read fiction .txt] 📗

both the pure and the fallen.” My mom gave me a radiant smile. Actually now that I thought about it, it kind of made sense.

“I’m not fallen, I still make trips up to heaven every now and then.” Well, that explained her periodical business trips, even though she ran a company that organized charities.

“I’m confused. If fallen angels are considered tainted wouldn’t it be, I don’t know, taboo to marry one?”

“Oh it is. Caused quite a bit of a stir when the council found out about us. But there wasn’t a rule against it. Like your father said, love between angels is rare. So rare that it’s coveted. So they allowed me to live here with him, and do my work in the mortal world. A couple of years after we married I became pregnant with you. We didn’t even know it was possible. Again, like he said, it changes the genetics of the fallen. We had assumed he was sterile, and even considered adopting, but then you showed up. It had never happened before. A fallen and pure not only marrying, but conceiving. You are one of a kind.” I took a moment to take that in, then continued with my questions.

“You said that their were different kinds. What kinds are there?”

“Just about any kind you can think of really. I’m an angel of prosperity, and your father was a guardian.” I looked at Brett.

“What are you? Are you fallen or…?”

“No, I’m pure. But I’m a guardian. Your guardian actually.”

“Do angels get assigned a guardian when they’re born?” He shook his head.

“No, but you were born on earth. And every soul born to earth is assigned a guardian. Normally we remain incorporeal. But it became obvious that you needed a more physical influence, so I petitioned the council and they allowed me to become your friend instead of just your guardian.”

“Why now?” My suddenness took them all by surprise. I didn’t know why, the majority of the people in the room had known me since birth. And should have been used to me by now.

“What do you mean?”

“Why are you telling me this now?”

“We wanted you to have a normal life for as long as possible. But your eighteenth birthday is in a few weeks. We had to tell you soon. But when Gabriyel and Sara showed up to monitor you, it kind of sped things along.” I decided to take the answer one part at a time.

“Okay, why do I need to be monitored?”

“There has never been anyone like you… ever. You have both fallen and pure angel blood. But you were also born on earth, which means you don’t have the same limitations as the rest of us. You have true free will. Even fallen angels only have an imitation of that. We choose to do what we want but it still feels wrong to us. For you it is natural, you are human, fallen, and pure angel all rolled into one. And since that is the case, each side has sent an ambassador of sorts to watch you. To see who you will make an enemy and who will be an ally.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Fallen angels and pure angels are on opposite sides. The pure angels believe that we should stay where we are and only act out our purpose, while taking the other things where we can get them. But fallen angels believe that we should have our own free will, not just be forced to watch the humans squander theirs. You could go either way, and so they want to watch you closely to see which side you will lean towards.”

“Well, what kind of angel am I? Mom’s prosperity and you were a guardian, what does that make me?”

“We don’t know. Ordinarily when an angel is born of parents they wait to see what dictates their personality to name them. Their personality is always linked to their specific type. But you were born here, and society dictates naming at birth. So we improvised.”

“Improvised?”

“You have a dark complexion and hair color, your hair never changed from birth. Angels are born with the same physical attributes that they will keep throughout their existence. So we named you Raven, meaning dark. Abraxos is another word for angel.”

“What about my middle name?”

“Nitika is a native American term. It means angel of the precious.” I nodded.

“So what’s so special about my birthday?” Again my dad cleared his throat before answering. I learned when I was young that it was a nervous tick of his. Anytime he felt uncomfortable he cleared his throat.

“When an angel reaches their eighteenth birthday, they gain their wings.” I’m fairly certain my jaw touched the floor.

“I’m going to grow wings?!” They all nodded.

“Yes, at the precise time of your birth, 2:37 pm, your wings will develop.” A sudden thought hit me.

“Wait, so all of you have wings too?” They all nodded and I couldn’t help but smile.

“Can I see them?” A moment of silence answered me, but then they all started to move at once.

The most space they had was on my side of the table, and I stood in anticipation. Well, anticipation and surprise, as they all removed articles of clothing. My dad, Brett, and Gabriyel all took their shirts off. While my mom and Sara just took off the over shirts that they were wearing. Underneath they both had on tank tops that left the space between their shoulder blades bare.

Now I had seen both Brett and my dad without shirts on. Brett was a close friend and we had known each other for years, so it wasn’t weird. And of course I grew up with my dad, so it was only natural to have seen him shirtless. But Gabriyel was new. And to say that he looked impressive would be a major understatement.

His shoulders were wide, and if I wrapped both of my hands around his biceps they wouldn’t be able to touch. His chest was sculpted as was his abdomen. I was just glad that I didn’t have to stare to take it all in. It might have gotten awkward.

With all of them showing so much skin at one time, I noticed things that I hadn’t before. Or things that I had forgotten about. But they all had almost identical tattoos, placed in separate parts of their body.

Sara’s was on the inside of her left wrist. Brett’s was on his right bicep, my dad’s sat at the base of his back. As my mom lifted her hair to rearrange it I noticed hers just under her hair line at the back of her neck. Gabriyel’s was on his right shoulder blade.

They all varied in size, but it was always the same thing. A pair of wings. Most of them were small to medium sized, which explained why I never noticed them. My mom’s was hidden by her hair, and Brett’s sat high enough that any shirt he wore would cover it. It was at the back so even without his shirt it would have been hard to spot, as I didn’t spend much time behind him. Sara’s was tiny, but Gabriyel’s was the largest and the most noticeable.

When they were all spaced with ample room between them, I watched as they all tensed and relaxed their shoulders. Then out of nowhere each one of them grew wings. It was slow at first but once the tip of the wings were visible from behind their shoulders it sped up. Until they all stood with big feathery wings.

They all flexed and stretched their wings, giving a simultaneous look of relief. All of them were different sizes and colors but all of them were beautiful in their own unique way. Sara’s and my mom’s were smaller than the guys, but Gabriyel’s were the largest.

My mom’s were a pure gold, that missed her hair by just a few shades. My dad’s on the other hand were a bright blue with turquoise tips, that matched his eyes. Brett’s were a deeper blue with green streaks running all through the feathers. Sara was a bright purple with magenta bursts all over them. But Gabriyel’s were the ones that made my breath catch.

His feathers were a solid black, but had a deep red in the center of each feather. Going from the base all the way to the tips. It was breath taking. I stepped closer to all of them slowly, inspecting all of them one at a time. When I made it to Gabriyel, he stiffened.

His wings just looked so soft and inviting. I reached a hand towards them, but pulled back quickly. I didn’t know how personal an angel’s wings were. It might be a major taboo to try to touch them.

“May I?” I asked, and he looked like he was in deep consideration before he nodded. I reached forward again, but didn’t have to reach far. His wings curved over his shoulders and around his sides, almost making a cocoon around us, and met my hand.

They were just as soft as they looked. I ran my hands down the spine on the top, then let them trail down slowly along the insides. Heat radiated both from him and his wings, it felt oddly, intimate. Brett cleared his throat softly.

It wasn’t something to bring attention to himself. To anyone else it would have sounded natural, but I had a tendency to get overly fixated on certain things. Something would catch my attention and I would study it to a point of climbing intensity. It made people feel a little awkward sometimes.

So he came up with this subtle, private way to let me know when I was beginning to go too far. It was just soft enough to catch my attention and pull me back from myself. When I focused on something and I went too far, the people around me would get weird. Like they would stare at me or become mildly obsessed for a short time. Not just guys but girls as well. It was like I was a soft warm blanket in the middle of a frigid winter, and they couldn’t get enough of it. It would always pass eventually, but they never acted the same around me. I loved the times when I was alone and could let go without worrying about the people around me.

So when he gave me that signal, I let my hands linger on the feathers for a moment longer, before stepping back out of the cocoon he had made. It didn’t occur to me until later that Brett had never been effected by my intensity. Maybe the strange effect didn’t work on angels. I hoped so. It would be nice to have a group of people that I could just be myself around.

“What are mine going to look like?”

“We don’t know. Your wings reflect your personality, and in turn your purpose.” Gabriyel answered. He drew his wings back like he was going to flap them at me, but instead they shrank, and disappeared.

“So you guys are going to stick around until then?” They gave me uneasy looks.

“Well, until we know which side you lean in.” Sara was the one that answered.

“In other words you’re here until I pick either the fallen or the pure.” She nodded and I turned to my parents.

“I’m babysitting Jake and Sam tomorrow night. I think I’m gonna go to bed.” They both nodded and I turned to go upstairs to my room.

 

 

 

Gabriyel

 

 

 

I watched as she rounded the corner, then listened as she made her way up the steps. Every angel had their own magnetism. Something that gave others the desire to be close to them. But she had it in abundance.

Where as most wore that magnetism as a cloak, she kept hers buried so it came out in bursts. And when it did show she almost glowed with it. Regardless of what side she chose, of what purpose she had, she was going to be very powerful once she came to her full