Star of Bethlehem
The night was so incredibly beautiful, but all I saw were the ruby drops in the snow and the broken wings of the murdered angel.
Gabriel knelt on the other side of the body, across from me.
"It's a Seraphim."
"I know, what's it doing here?"
"Looks like it fell from on high."
"That's just wrong, Gabriel."
Gabriel rolled the dead angel over, "I don't see any holes or gashes..."
"Well, we have to get it somewhere safe," I grabbed the body by the shoulders and began to drag it toward the jeep parked a few feet away.
"And on Christmas Eve, too. What rotten luck for an angel. What do you suppose it was doing out here?" Gabriel took hold of the feet and lifted. A station wagon full of last minute holiday shoppers drove by, it must have looked as though we were carrying a mannequin, or one of those big plastic angels with a light bulb inside for the front lawn.
The snow began to fall faster, and the parking lot was all but deserted, save for three or four cars parked near the entrance to the mall. The angel was stiff, and it was hard to bend it into the back seat of the jeep.
"What do you suppose it was doing out here? Don't you have some hotline on these things?" I shoved the front seat into position; there was a sickly snap from the body.
"No, not really, He keeps most information on a need to know basis."
"So I noticed."
Gabriel shrugged and got into the passenger side of the jeep. I started it and headed for the nearest hilltop, a little viewpoint overlooking mall valley. If we could get the body there before complete rigor passed, we'd have a chance of resurrecting it and possibly finding out what had happened. Gabriel reached back and touched the angel.
"Pretty stiff, I'd say it was lying there a few hours before we found it."
"Couldn't've been, someone would've seen. Probably killed somewhere else then dumped in the parking lot."
I turned onto the road leading to the hill. Snow, ice, and rocks were going to make this tricky. I switched to four wheel drive and hit a rock. The jeep bounced and we heard another snap from the back seat.
"Jesus, Ruth, be careful."
"I'm doing the best I can under the circumstances, Gabriel, how often do you think I find myself in the middle of a snowstorm with one blaspheming angel and one dead one?"
"Point taken," there was a pause, "so what do you think happened?"
"We'll know soon enough, I guess," I pulled into the turnaround at the viewpoint.
We shoved both front seats as far forward as possible, and began to tug on the body. Gabriel tried to pull it out from his side and I tried to pull it out from mine. The result was another snap from around the midsection.
"Oh Christ, head first, head first!" Gabriel's voice was shrill and it was clear that he was beginning to panic. He began to wrench the body through the passenger door.
"Okay, okay, calm down," I pushed at the feet and lower body. With one last shove, the body popped through the opening between the seats and catapulted Gabriel backward, he landed flat in the snow with the dead angel on top of him. Gabriel rolled it off onto its back and got up.
"Okay, let's drag it over there," said Gabriel, motioning to the viewpoint rock wall. The angel's eyes were still open, and the falling snow filled the sockets and the slightly parted lips. A bone stuck out of the left leg where we had slammed the seat on it.
Dead, stiff angels are heavy, and it took us awhile to position it just so, then Gabriel and I stood there, in the freezing temperature, snow whipping around us, and waited. We leaned against the jeep, me with my hands in my pockets against the cold, and Gabriel staring up into the sky, unaware of the storm.
Presently the angels hands clenched and unclenched. The eyes opened and its head turned. It reached up to wiped the snow from its face and then tried to sit down. Rays of light pierced the clouds above us and cut into the angels' body, sparks flying. It was warm all around us. The angel jerked and sputtered, lifting several feet in the air with the impact of the ray of light. It thudded back to the earth and lay still.
Then the angel crawled several feet and threw up.
Just past him a shadow stepped out into the light left from the sparks. It was taller than a human and as it came closer I realized that it wasn't so much a shadow as it was entirely black to begin with. It stopped just short of the angel and spread huge, black wings.
"Hi, Grig," Gabriel looked over at me, "that's not a name, that's what it does. Grigori, a watcher angel. Fallen, you know."
"Gabriel, still interfering, I see," The dark angel pulled back its hood, "every year on Christmas eve there is a war between the fallen and the watching angels. You know that. The resulting light is a memory of the star of Bethlehem. What were you doing?"
The resurrected angel crawled a few more feet, and then threw up again.
"That wasn't supposed to take place here this year," said Gabriel.
"You didn't get the memo, spending your time down here hanging out in coffee shops with mortals," the Grigori sniffed in my direction, "too many bombs going off where we had originally planned. No one would've noticed."
"So now what?" Gabriel walked over to the resurrected angel and tried to help it up. It waved him away and rolled into the fetal position, holding its stomach.
"You'll have to substitute, I guess, that ones not going to be able to serve," said the Grigori, tipping its thumb in the direction of the resurrected angel, who was now trying to look over its shoulder at the damage that had been done to its wings.
"I can do that," Gabriel turned and saw that I was worried, "try not to break my neck or drag me around too much, we're already on a hilltop, just leave me to resurrect."
The Grigori came at Gabriel with no further conversation. They struggled, rising into the air and crashing to the ground. The light from their bodies radiated out, bright yellow and gold, and was blinding. The heat was intense, and the snow in the area started to melt.
As they connected, I stood and watched the brilliant dance before me. Dark and light, fallen and chosen, dancing as they had every Christmas Eve since the first night when humans looking to the heavens and thought they saw only a star.
