Your Guardian Angel

“You suck as a nurse.”

When Isabel had brought her to Caleb’s house, Adam had placed Caleb in his room. Immediately, she had cleaned him up, cleaning all of his wounds to help them heal faster. She’d left the room as Adam changed his clothes, but come back in afterwards. Adam and Isabel had left a couple of hours ago to check on their own charges and other injured Angels. Natasha had taken that time to be completely nosy, looking around his room. She didn’t open any drawers or anything, but looking at the posters and paintings on the wall, she got more of a sense about him. She wasn’t sure why he hadn’t wanted her to come into the room, before. There was nothing out of the ordinary in here. Now, she was sitting at a desk with her back to him on the bed. She had managed to grab her laptop before she left her house and was working on homework when he made her jump from talking.

“Oh my God, you’re awake!” she said, whirling around to face him with a smile.

His eyes were open barely, and he was moving his right hand around. He sighed deeply and pushed himself up to a sitting position, wincing. Natasha got up from her seat and walked to the bed. He moved over slowly to make room for her and she reached up to look at the cut on his forehead. He winced as her fingers grazed the cut, but he didn’t pull away. She pulled the cover back a little bit so she could press down on his ribs. He didn’t move at all, meaning that he was healing.

“How do you feel?” Natasha asked, looking up to his face.

“I’ve felt worse, trust me,” he said, pulling the cover fully away from him. He moved like he was going to stand-up, and Natasha moved. She watched him head towards the bathroom, and she sat back down at her computer.

Coming out of the bathroom, Caleb saw her concentrating on homework. He knew that finals were coming up in a couple of weeks and he didn’t interrupt her studying. What he really wanted to do, was to go back to sleep. He got underneath the covers again, and turning to face Natasha, he laid his head down on the pillow. He could see her profile; her left knee was drawn up to her chin, with her left arm resting on it. Her right arm was bent, and the pen she was holding in that hand she was chewing. He watched her for a few minutes before falling asleep.

Natasha listened as Caleb’s breathing turned to deep, even breaths, and she knew he was asleep. She turned and looked at him again, watching him sleep. She couldn’t imagine being a Guardian Angel; all the responsibility, the knowledge, the dangerous nature of it… she didn’t see how he did it. She fingered the necklace around her neck and couldn’t help but think about Caleb’s tattoo. It had to mean something that they were exactly alike. She wondered if all charges had something like that from their Guardian Angel, then she remembered what Caleb said about her being different from the rest.

She finished her paper in record time, and spent another hour looking over her books. Her English exam was two weeks away, and she had no idea what was going to be on it. Her Religion professor had given them a study guide to fill out and make sure they memorized for their exam next week, and her Calculus professor had done the same thing. She’d already finished her Biology exam the previous week, so that was one less that she had to worry about.

Finally, she got tired of looking at the books, and rubbed her eyes. Looking out the window, she saw that night had fallen and she looked back at Caleb. He was lying on his back, arms stretched out on either side of him and his mouth was open. He wasn’t snoring, but almost. His head was turned towards her and the covers were down to his waist. She couldn’t help but look at his chest. The bruising on his ribs was almost completely gone. The cuts on his face were as well.

Her thoughts were immediately drawn to this “Devil” guy that she was supposed to be staying away from. She wondered what he looked like, and how she would know him if she saw him. She made a mental note to ask Caleb when he woke up. She stood up, stretched and walked around his room again. Nothing was out of the ordinary, here. She wondered why he’d been so adamant that she didn’t come in here. Assuming it was just out of privacy, she continued to look at the different pictures on the wall. Closing in on a painting of a battlefield, she read the corner of it. “Caleb Michael Danvers ~ 1772” was painted in a golden script. She raised her hand and ran her fingers over it, inspecting the painting more.
It was a huge field with two hills meeting in a ravine in the middle. Blue uniforms were on one side, grey on the other. She was able to recognize the Confederate flag and the Union flag. Moving on from the painting, she moved to his closet. One of the double doors was opened slightly and she pulled it open. All of his t-shirts were either dark blue, black, or grey and hanging on hangers. The jeans were all dark-washed and hanging on hangers as well. He had four pairs of shoes and they were neatly lined on the bottom of the closet. She turned to leave and saw knives and daggers on the inside of the closet door. Curious, she opened the other door expecting more weapons, but there were just pictures of little girls. At a second glance, she realized they were all the same girl.

Leaning closer to the pictures, she realized they were all her at different ages. One of her at school on the playground in elementary school, one of her in a pageant when she was six; she had won that pageant, she remembered with a smile. There were enough pictures to cover the entire closet door, from her as young as she could imagine, up until a couple months ago. She recognized one picture of her and Callie walking out of school, another walking out of a bar. She smiled at the pictures before shutting the closet again. She moved to sit back down at her desk when Caleb woke up.

“What time is it?” he asked groggily.

“A little after six,” she replied, looking at her laptop again.

Slowly, Caleb sat up in bed, and stretched. He looked around his room and saw everything was in order. He looked back at Natasha and saw her browsing through something on her computer. He’d underestimated her. He figured she’d have gone snooping through his things. Suddenly, he was very self-conscious about all the things he had that involved her. It wasn’t that he had a secret obsession with her, he was just curious as to her lifestyle. From the first moment he’d clapped eyes on her when she was two he’d been drawn to her. She was a gorgeous child and flourished into a beautiful woman. In high school, she hadn’t flaunted the fact she had money. She’d been nice to everyone, helping anyone she could. She worked her way to the top of her sports teams, and helped them win. She worked hard on her grades and it paid off.

“So what does he look like?”

“Who?” Caleb asked, confused. She wasn’t even looking at him.

“The ‘Devil’.”

“Dante? He’s got dark hair, dark skin… kind of like me, I guess.”

“So how do I know you’re not him?” Natasha asked, turning around to face him with a smile.

“You’d know by now.”

“So are there any other distinguishing marks?”

“Not that I know of.”

“Wait a second,” Natasha said, her eyes rapidly moving around as she thought. “Is his hair kind of shaggy?”

“Yes.”

“I saw him,” she breathed out.

“What?” Caleb said, moving from the bed to stand in front of her.

“I saw him,” she said louder, lifting her face to his. “He was at my school staring at me after I got out of class. He was also at the club the night of my birthday.”

“What!?” Caleb said with more emphasis. “He was near you?”

“Well, yeah, but I didn’t know who he… What are you doing?”

Natasha watched as Caleb moved around his room, picking clothes off their hangers, stuffing them into a bag before moving to the bathroom.

“I’m packing a bag. I’m staying with you until your finals and then you’re moving in with me. I don’t like this. I don’t like the fact he knows where you go and where you go to school and different things about you. I don’t like any of it. I’m going to keep you as close as possible.”
“What the hell am I supposed to tell my parents?”

“I’ll think of something. Just pack your stuff away so we can get you home.”



If Natasha thought having a Guardian Angel was weird, she wasn’t prepared for sharing a room with one. Not only was he there all the time, day and night, but he was there when her parents were. He couldn’t sleep in the guest room, seeing as how her parents would know, so he had to sleep in bed with Natasha. At first, they’d been awkward about it, staying on opposite sides of the bed. Now, they were waking up with Natasha on top of Caleb, and it became even more awkward. Each morning brought a new position, and Natasha was more embarrassed when she woke up one morning in only her sports bra and shorts. She had apparently taken her t-shirt off during the night, and she was wrapped in Caleb’s arms, he wasn’t wearing a shirt.

Now, she was getting ready for her last exam of the semester. She was literally four hours away from her summer break and she couldn’t be more excited. She pulled on her black jeans, cream drape top, and her cream and black lace heels. With her bow ring on her finger, she tied the black ribbon around her wrist and made sure her pearl earrings were in place. She added a pearl bracelet and a ribbon necklace to her neck for a finishing touch. Wiping away excess eyeliner, she left her bathroom and smiled at Caleb who was sitting on her bed.

Callie had finished her exams two days before, so Natasha was left with Caleb riding with her to the school. She was just about to leave the car when she realized she wasn’t wearing her wing necklace. Caleb assured her everything would be fine after she had cried it was her good luck charm. Somewhat calm, she made her way to her English class for her last exam.
Caleb strode around campus, lazily walking, just watching the people as he passed them. When it was almost time for Natasha to be finished with her exam, he felt a tingling consume his body, and he realized someone was beside him.

“Is something wrong?” He asked, glancing to his left, looking at Gabriel.

“He’s in the area,” Gabriel said with no preamble.

“What do you mean?”

“He’s getting closer to her. You need to keep a closer eye on her.”

“She’s in an exam right now. If I was to show up in her class, it would distract her. For some reason she can see me even with my powers.”

“She can?” Gabriel said, curiously surprised.

“Yes, none of our powers have an effect on her. I can’t control her moods, I can’t get into her mind, and she can see me when I’m supposed to be invisible.”

“I wonder what that means for Dante,” Gabriel said, rubbing his chin.

They made their way to a bench of a building that was in clear sight of Natasha’s building. Caleb could see people exiting the doors and looked for Natasha.

“Just make sure you keep a clear watch on her,” Gabriel said, noticing the people, too. He stood up and with a blink of an eye, he was gone. Caleb sat on the bench, watching everyone’s face. He was so distracted he didn’t see Natasha exit the building.

“Caleb!”

His head whipped to the huge sidewalk in front of him and saw Natasha making her way toward him. He smiled, but then a shiver rolled up his spine, making the hair at the nape of his neck stand up. Turning his head to the left and right, he looked for the threat. Natasha was still smiling, heading toward him and his eyes lifted heaven-ward. It took him a few seconds to see them, due to the trees, but then they were in his vision. Demons were flying quickly toward Natasha.

“Natasha, run!” he hollered and stood up running from the bench. He watched the smile fade from her face as she turned around to the two demons flying at her.

She tried running, but with the heels on, she couldn’t go fast. She saw Caleb running toward her as fast as he could, but he wasn’t quick enough. Her things went sprawling to the ground as she was lifted from both of her arms into the air. She tried struggling, hoping to wiggle her way from their grip, but it was too tight. They lifted her high into the sky, and she was able to turn her head enough to see Caleb flying after them. She screamed his name as tears fell from her eyes.

Caleb’s wings were pumping as fast as he could get them, but he still wasn’t able to keep up. He watched as more and more distance came between him and Natasha. He could faintly hear her broken, frightened cry for him and he’d never felt more helpless in his life. With more energy, he tried to catch up, but he watched brokenly as the trio disappeared. He screamed her name as loud as he could, and faintly heard her scream back. Alone in the sky, his charge taken, he let tears fall from his eyes.