Chapter Seven

A heaviness overcame Sera as she drew closer to her hotel. There on the seventh floor, she felt more than saw a darkness, an absence of light, an absence of joy. Like a black hole that could suck one in and crush the life out of a person. He had found her. But before she could reach the hotel, she felt the women from the library surround her.

“Follow us.” The hooked-nose librarian beckoned with her finger.

Sera stared at the group and noticed wings tightly folded around their torsos, making them appear like middle-aged women. Should she go with them or should she abandon this city and fly to another? How long could she last by running from him? She’d never done this before. What was it about this creature that frightened her so? But scanning the women around her, she felt their goodness deep in her bones. “Who are you?”

The hooked-nosed librarian whispered. “Not here.” Turning, they led her through the city. The six women needed Sera’s north power point to complete their circle of energy, of devotion. They had lost something through the centuries. They had to evolve. Without her, they might burn out and become fog dispersed throughout the air. Who better to help them than a Seraphim.

Walking through the twilight city streets, the group headed nearer the lake until they came upon an entrance covered in brambles and overgrown ivy near the waterfront. The entrance led to a tunnel, long unused, that snaked downward below the lakebed. For underneath the lake within the miles of salt mines, they had hidden pieces of their power when they felt their power waning. They had had found the salt crystal caves here in the Western Reserve. During the past three hundred years, something had happened to their influence. So much disappointment. Failure. They couldn’t seem to find their way back.

Some of them had worked downtown, some in Bay Village and Lakewood exclusively. But each one had found her way here to the library, The Cleveland Public Library, drawn by an inexplicable energy, a voice humming in the ether. They found the old mine shaft long unused and forgotten. Their crystals hidden still in the salt. Safe. Gleaming clear and tuned to the singular vibration of the angels. Some of the crystals were beginning to turn colors that reflected the energy of each member of the group. The hooked nosed librarian’s was becoming light blue. She was the peacemaker, the calm influence among the guardians.

Once in the cavern, Sera stopped. “I think it’s time we met properly. My name is Sera. Yours?”

The librarian spoke first. “We are nameless, guardian angels of the first order.” Pointing to a tall woman with golden hair and piercing gray eyes, she added. “she is justice.”  Another stepped forward, her wings unfolded, her eyes piercing green. “I am protection.”  Each angel stepped forward, “forgiveness, spiritual well-being, harmony until all had proclaimed themselves.

“We need help and we believe we can help you in turn.” The gray-eyed angel spoke.

Sera turned to her. “I am a fallen angel.”

“You are a Seraphim, the highest of angels, the few who sit with God personally,” the librarian interjected.

“How can I help?”

Justice spoke with a heavy heart and a deep contralto voice, “you’re of the world now. You can understand that we’re becoming sadder. “

“We’ll need to be changing now, don’t you know.”  Forgiveness spoke with an Irish lilt to her voice.

Closing her eyes, Sera breathed them in and knew their colors. Blue for protection, clear for justice, red for protection. She felt vibrations emanating from the crystals. As she opened her eyes, she noted the energy of the guardians glowing as she concentrated on each.  Forgiveness glowed a delicate lilac while Spirit vibrated green, deep like the forest on a summer evening. Harmony glowed mauve and light, dusty pink.

The guardians felt the shift in themselves but before they could acknowledge it, Protection interrupted, “Something is here.”

Sera slowly gazed around the area. No one appeared close yet she smelled a pungent odor, old, crusted blood and death and malevolence, a pervasive and ugly odor. It was not far from them, crouched on the ground. The creature resembled a cross between a dog and a human, a grotesque caricature of both. Its eyes black holes in its face. Its teeth exposed, drooling, angry. Sera felt its core, hurt, horror, pain, hunger.

She turned to the guardians. “Circle, slowly, grasp hands.” The six followed. Sera held the hand of the angels on each side of her. Her wings unwound from her body, gloriously rising a dusty white with patches of gray throughout. Scanning each of the women, she began to glow, a devotional glow like only a Seraphim could, encompassing each in the circle.  The glow became light, pure and blinding.

Caliban tried to hunch away but was caught in the light. He groveled to the ground trying to shun the light, but it seared into him. He didn’t understand it. It felt like peace, like connection, like belonging.  He folded into a ball trying to remove as much of himself from the light as he could. It terrified him. It felt glorious. It confused him. It hurt.

After a moment or an hour, the guardians were not sure of the time, Sera lowered her wings. The glowing ended yet the after affects glittered over the women. Peaceful, connected. “A new mission,” Sera whispered.

The women gazed at each other. “Peacemaker spoke first. “We work as a group from now on.
“Helping at gatherings by holding the light, calming people down,” Harmony added.

As they talked, Caliban crawled away. When he was far enough from the Seraphim to stand, he stared at her. She still glowed though it was fainter, and her eyes once blue gray were now purely golden. As if she knew he was there, she turned to smile at him. He ran out of the tunnel, whining and frightened, seeking Jack.

 TO BE CONTINUED