“I’m going to miss you.”

The words were spoken so soft and low that at first Colin thought he had imagined them. But as he turned to look at Angie, her eyes were locked on him and filled with unspeakable sorrow.

He reached over and took her hand, interlocking his fingers with hers. Torn between being careful with his words and revealing everything in order to save her, he struggled with the limitations of being a mere human.

“My mates won’t miss me if I don’t show up right away. I want to make sure you’re okay.”

Angie looked away, her expression blank as she watched the road ahead of them. “That’s sweet of you, but you don’t owe me anything, Colin. We had our agreement.”

At least she was talking to him. For the past several hours she’d been near catatonic, but if he pushed her in just the right way, maybe he could keep her talking and buy more time.

“True, but we’ve become mates and I guess I need to know you’ll be all right.”

Angie sighed. “Do you really? You’ll forget all about me once you hook up with your friends and that girl you mentioned.”

Colin chewed the inside of his lip as he considered his next words. “There isn’t any girl. Never was.”

Angie frowned, still staring straight ahead. “Then why did you say there was?”

Uh oh, think quick.  “Because I’m a man and we sometimes say stupid things.”

Angie turned to look at him again, her eyes dark and full of despair. “You just didn’t want to hurt my feelings.”

Up ahead Colin spotted the turn off for the campgrounds. “You’re right, but is that so terrible? It’s obvious that you’re being chased by demons, love, but I guess we all are. I’ve gotten to know you and I like you.”

Angie rewarded him with a small smile and he squeezed her hand. “It can end or begin here; I’ll leave it up to you.”

***

 Angie wasn’t quite prepared for Colin’s sudden confession, but this entire trip had been a wrench on her emotions so why should things suddenly become any different? If she’d been a normal girl under normal circumstances, she’d have flung herself into his arms and taken a leap of faith. But the reality of what she left behind in New York was a permanent deterrent to any dreams of having a normal life. Fate was indeed cruel.

Colin squeezing her hand again brought her thoughts back to the present. “You know, I’ve never pressured you for details, but why is it so important for you to get here? You don’t have any camping equipment and yet this place is obviously important.”

Angie shrugged. Should she tell him the real reason? She’d mentioned once before that her father had brought her here as a child, but she didn’t elaborate. It probably didn’t make any difference, but would it really hurt to tell him the truth?

“You’ll probably think it’s kinda stupid, but my dad used to love to watch the stars. He brought me out here once when I was very small and showed me the Star of Bethlehem.”

She recalled her father’s eyes and the smoothness of his skin when he pressed his cheek against hers. His hands were sure and strong and his voice deep and kind.

Colin’s voice broke her concentration. “Here’s the campgrounds. Doesn’t look like many visitors. Are we just going in to visit or do you want me to pay for a campsite?”

“Colin, you really don’t need to do this.”

He let go of her hand and reached for his back pocket. “I want to. I haven’t really looked at the stars in a long time and maybe we can find the Star of Bethlehem together.”

In truth, Angie hadn’t ever really thought about what would happen once she arrived at the campground. She only knew that she hadn’t planned on leaving it alive. She hadn’t planned on an audience either, but did it really make a difference? She felt herself growing angry with Colin for giving her a moment of false hope. No matter what he thought about her, she knew she was poison.

Colin pulled the car up to the registration booth and nodded in greeting to the old man standing inside. They exchanged a few pleasantries as Colin paid for the campsite.

“Yer lucky,” the man told him. “We’re booked up after tomorrow, so you’ll need to clear your campsite by noon.”

Colin nodded, reaching back to return his wallet to his back pocket. “No worries, mate. We’re just enjoying a little break.”

The man leaned down to look through the window at Angie and she was unexpectedly startled when his eyes met hers. She shuddered and turned away.

“She okay?” The man asked. “I don’t need no one getting sick out here in the middle of nowhere. Damned cell phones don’t work and sometimes the sheriff can’t respond for a couple hours.”

Colin smiled. “We’re both tired. We’ve been driving for a while and just need some rest.”

The old man seemed satisfied with the answer waved them in. After locating their campsite, Colin parked the car facing away from the sun and turned to look at Angie.

“Why don’t you lie down in back and get some rest before nightfall?”   

The suggestion made sense. Unbuckling her seatbelt she got out of the car and climbed into the back seat. The air was warm, but she grabbed Colin’s leather jacket and draped it over her shoulders as he climbed out to have a smoke.

She fell asleep, her dreams full of darkness and sorrow.

***

Colin scouted out the campsite, his thoughts deep with doubt and questions. If he let his mind go blank, he could feel Lucifer’s presence in the distance, waiting like a snake to strike.

Much would be determined this evening, and despite millenniums of experience, he was limited only to the resources this human body allowed. He’d always relied on action over words and scholarship to settle the matters he’d been assigned to attend, but he’d come to realize that once again his ambitions were driven more by ego than charity. He was unaccustomed to losing, and it was at that moment that he realized this particular assignment, just as his last one, had become too personal. Interacting as human on the human plane was proving again to be far more challenging than expected.

He went back to check on Angie only to discover to his horror that she was gone; the car was abandoned. He called out her name, his heart racing as he waited for her to answer. Thinking perhaps she simply left to use the restrooms back near the entrance, he jogged along the pathway only to find the facilities empty.

This can’t be happening! Tearing at his hair in his moment of panic he let out a silent cry of frustration. Not again!

Quick, think …where would she go?

Forcing himself to remain calm he went back to the car to get his jacket. He knew how important it was for her to see the stars this evening, and figured he had at least a couple hours until nightfall. If he could get to her before then, he still had a chance.

***

Angie sat on a steep ledge overlooking a deep ravine. She wasn’t certain she’d found the right spot, but as the sky began to darken she decided she was close enough. Gazing across the rocky vista, she watched a small airplane fly overhead, the sound of its engines a distant, musical hum in the silence. It was at that moment when she noticed the radio tower in the hills across the ravine and the light flashing brightly at its top.

Her heart dropped. As the darkness settled in, the radio tower disappeared from view and all that was left, was the warning light shining like a brilliant evening star.

***

Colin found her, sobbing quietly in the darkness, perched precariously close to the ravine’s dangerous edge. As her came closer, Angie started and bolted upright, inching even closer to the edge.

“Angie, it’s only me. I’ve been looking all over for you.”

She backed more and Colin stopped where he stood. “Careful, love. It’s a long way down and I’ll just have to go after ya.”

She turned her back to him, her arms hugging her chest as sobs of grief echoed through the night air. “It was all a lie,” she wailed. “Colin, I’ve been such a fool. There never was a Star of Bethlehem – it was just something my father told me, nothing but a lie.”

He cautiously stepped closer, his eyes on the encroaching drop and Angie’s feet.

“My whole life’s been nothing but a lie, did you know that?” She turned to him suddenly, her eyes wild and unpredictable. “Do you wanna know what I’ve been running away from? Do you?”

Colin reached out for her, trying not to make any sudden moves that might alarm her. “Angie, come over here and we’ll go back to the car and talk about it.”

She seemed not to hear him. “I’m a murderer. Did you know that? I’ll bet you thought I was just some poor little junkie chick, all fucked up from all the drugs, but I’m worse than that. I killed my boyfriend, Colin. I shot him in the fucking head! That’s why I’ve been running. I wanted to kill myself then but I just couldn’t do it!”

Colin edged closer.

“I have no one, you know? No family, no friends … so I decided that I’d come back here to the only place I remember ever feeling truly happy. My father would take me stargazing when I was a little girl and one night he brought me here to show me the Star of Bethlehem, but look! It was nothing but a stupid radio tower!”

Colin held his breath; she’d turned her back to him again and was looking down into the blackness of the ravine. He made his move and grabbed her.

“Colin, just let me go!” She tried to wiggle free but there was no way he was going to do any such thing. He pulled her close and held her tight.

“Oh dear Angie, oh, love, you don’t remember anything. You didn’t kill Jimmy; he killed himself right after he killed you.”

Angie stopped struggling, the absurdity of his words made some strange kind of sense. But …“No.” Her voice was barely a whisper. “It can’t be.”

“Angelina Benedicti. You accepted an assignment to further your training and become an Angel of Death. You were required to take this human form as part of your assignment and you succeeded; only you did it too well. We’ve been trying to bring you back for weeks now and you’ve thwarted the attempts of two highly trained Guardians.”

Angie grew calm in Colin’s arms. “But why the star? Why was it so important for me to come here? ” She looked up at him, searching his eyes for an answer.

Colin smiled. “Angie, it’s a memory from two thousand years ago. You were with your Father that evening when Christ was born. He wanted you to witness it. We all were there.”

She pulled away, her memory suddenly becoming whole again. Then another realization took hold and it was almost more than she could absorb.

“And you … oh, all along and it was you …”

She stepped away back, her hands to her mouth in embarrassment and horror. Colin’s eyes grew wide with alarm as the ground give way beneath her feet. The sensation of falling, and just as quickly the sound of great wings beating. Suddenly Angie found herself firmly on her feet, the ledge far above.

She looked up at the man who had just saved her. The rush of emotion at knowing his true identity was so overwhelming, she fell to her knees before him.

“Raphael …”   

Yes, the Raphael, one of the Archangels, and the one who stands before God. Only he was having none of it. Kneeling down in with her, he took her hands in his. “They’re all waiting on us.”

Angie squeezed his fingers and gasped. “I’m scared.”

The Archangel helped her stand and kissed her gently on the forehead. “I’ll be right there with you.”

He tucked Angie’s arm in his and gave her a delighted grin and a wink. “You do realize that you just punked Lucifer, don’t you?”

***

Out at the entrance of the campgrounds, Lucifer leaned against the fender of his polished late model red Mustang and glanced at his watch. Off in the distance he heard a rumble of thunder, yet the sky was clear. Then the realization of its significance hit him.

“Fuck.”