In The Arms of an Angel - 45. Chapter 45

“I’ve been so frightened for you.” Uzzy rested his cheek on Gabri’el’s chest and kissed Pasha’s hair. “Ari swore you would be safe but that’s not how it seemed.”

“Who’s Ari?”

“I am.”

All three turned to the boy. He was no longer adolescent, although still young. The top hat had vanished and he was dressed in tight leather pants and poet’s shirt. Lounging on the chair, with one leg hooked over the arm and his shining white hair tumbling over his shoulders, he looked more like an angel than any of them, albeit a fallen one.

“Who the hell are you?” Gabri’el demanded, keeping his arms firmly around Uzzy’s waist and Pasha’s shoulders.

“Why don’t you sit down and we can talk.”

“Give me one good reason why we should,” Gabri’el growled.

“Because I ask you to?” Uzzy said softly. Both Gabri’el and Pasha stared at him.

Pasha stared into Uzzy’s eyes, searching for some sign that he was being forced, or brainwashed, into encouraging them to comply. All he saw was Uzzy’s bright blue eyes, sparkling with love and sincerity.

“What did they do to you?”

“Nothing. Nothing but educate me. You really need to listen, both of you.”

Gabri’el glared at Uzzy for a moment. “They didn’t hurt you?”

Uzzy smiled and shook his head. “Only by making me watch what you were going through. I begged Ari to find another way but I think, in the end, he was right. With me there, you were never going to embrace your own connection. You’d have fought it, and each other. There’s nothing I could have done to help, not even walking away. It had to be something drastic, something to force you to work and grow together. I didn’t like it. I don’t like it. But I see the necessity of it.”

The truth settled over Pasha, like a cloak of feathers. Even while he still felt angry at everything they’d been through, he realised Uzzy was completely right. He glanced up and met Gabri’el’s eye. The taller angel smiled softly and the last resistance he may have had to their three way union dissolved. A sense of completeness lightened his heart and he laid his head on Gabri’el’s shoulder. Gabri’el’s eyes filled with tears, which he blinked back angrily.

“This is all very nice, but we still don’t know what the hell’s going on. You’ve put us through the mill and I, personally, want to knock that smug smile off your face.”

Ari’s smile widened. He looked delighted. Unhooking his leg, he sat up and clapped his hands. A silver tray appeared on the table in front of him and he plucked one of the crystal glasses and raised it to his lips. Ruby wine swirled in the glass, although it had seemed to be empty until the moment it touched his lips.

“Please, sit.” He clapped his hands again and two of the large chairs merged into a large sofa where they could all sit together.

Not seeing anything else they could reasonably do, they sat down. Gabri’el, in the middle, kept tight hold of both his mates. Pasha could feel the tension in his muscles and knew full well that he was on high alert and, at the first hint of trouble; he’d be on his feet in moment, sword drawn to protect them both. Warmth spread through him and he raised his hand to squeeze Gabri’el’s. Gabri’el looked down and smiled.

“Please drink. The glasses will contain whatever you wish.”

Uzzy leaned forward, but Gabri’el pulled him back, “We won’t accept any food or drink from you until we know who you are and what you want.”

“I’ve already told you who I am. I am God. As for what I want… I want you, together, to take over my job.”

“What…? What do you mean, God? What do you mean, take over your job?”

“Maybe I should begin at the beginning.” Ari put down his glass and stood. He walked over to the fireplace and touched the large oil painting that hung over it. The painting dissolved to reveal an enormous screen on which was displayed an image of space. The pink and gold spiral galaxy seemed unreal. The specks of gold and purple that were planets, resembled seed pearls in a beautiful applique.

“You’ve probably realised I’m not human. I come from a planet that is…inconceivably far away.” He touched the screen gently over a golden globe near the centre of the spiral. We are a civilization of scientists and explorers, far too curious for our own good. Many millions of years ago, we discovered a race of beings who showed amazing resilience and the ability to adapt to almost any environment. We decided on an experiment, to seed words with the dna of this particular race and see how their development changed according to the different planetary environments they were exposed to.

“I was young and idealistic. I volunteered for the experiment right at the very beginning and I was eventually put in charge of one of the planetary seedings. I came here, to Earth, and watched over the birth of humanity. I guided its growth until it reached a stage where it was well enough established to secure its own survival, then withdrew direct contact.

“There were a few…unfortunate incident as humanity struggled to get a foothold in the world and I had to interfere more than I would have liked. More, really, than the experiment allowed.”

“What do you mean ‘interfered’?”

Despite finding the whole thing somewhat unbelievable, Pasha was fascinated and wanted to know more.

“Humanity seeded well , but its development stalled, just before the first real leap toward civilization. The environment was simply too hostile to allow them to prosper well enough to progress. I should have left them alone but I knew the experiment would fail and I didn’t want to have to go home and report failure. I’m the youngest scientist in the program and I didn’t want to be the first to fail.

“What did you do?”

“Well, I didn’t mean to. I just wanted to give them a bit of a helping hand but I overstepped a bit. Instead of reducing some of the danger in their environment allowing them to develop more quickly, I wiped out most of the predators and caused their level of civilization to leap forward.”

“You are the missing link?”

“You wiped out the dinosaurs?”

Ari bit his lip.