Lucifer's Angel

‘’So,” Lucienne started, leaning against the gold car as she took in the view of my house.

‘’This is where you live,” she asked finally. Her demeanor was obviously relaxed, but something told me that her guard was up. She was a trained soldier, trained to expect the unexpected.

‘’Yeah, this is it. I guess now, with what’s going on, we’ll be here a while. I don’t know I should be happy about that, or not,” I replied.

‘’You have the power of a god around your neck,” Lucienne replied, referring to the jewel on my necklace. This jewel… Lucifer’s jewel, Lucifer’s angel… I sighed. What would become of all this? That was a question that no one seemed to be able to answer.

‘’People would kill to possess something that’s even remotely close to it, so that’s got to count for something, right?” Gee, that makes me feel a whole lot better. People are willing to kill me for this thing. People will probably kill me for this jewel—the Cor Omnium, the heart of the world… of everything.

‘’You know,” Lucienne continued as we walked across the yard covered in thin, yellowing grass that was scattered with grey rocks. ‘’The military really set you up this time, didn’t they?”

‘’Excuse me?” I questioned, sending Captain Monaco a confused look.

‘’Oh, that’s right, you don’t know,” she stated absentmindedly.

‘’Know what? What else don’t I know?” I asked, my voice sounding rather bitter.

‘’Every time you, Katherine and Miles moved, the military paid for it. They even found Katherine and Miles jobs,” Lucienne clarified. I let out a sigh, running a hand through my long, dark blonde hair. I looked down, my eyes trailing along the ground. In my peripheral vision, I could see my hair hanging down about my shoulders against the black shirt that I wore, slightly wavy from the wind. Also, I could see the dim glow of the jewel on my necklace, the necklace that I’d always considered a gift. In a way, it still was a gift, but it was one that I no longer wanted. Who wants to be a god? Or at the least, have the power of one? I certainly didn’t, but here I was, stuck with it. If I said that to Lieutenant Colonel Michaels, he’d probably look at me like I was crazy. Who would want to have some kind of superhuman power? The very concept of having something like that has been a subject of envy for years. People always want to be stronger, to be better, but power only satisfies greedy people, and even then, it’s not enough. To have an unlimited source of such a thing and to not want it was madness. Not to want even a fraction of it was madness in the eyes of everyone else.

‘’Right,’’ I said softly, looking up again. ‘’That explains a lot. I’m sorry, the whole ‘you’ve been watched and guarded by the military since you were six’ thing hasn’t quite sunk in yet.”

‘’Give it time. I’m sure when we get to Central Command, it’ll seem a little more normal,” Lucienne smiled. Right. I thought to myself. And pigs will fly.

’’You never know, they might.”

I stopped in my tracks, my eyes widening. Lucienne automatically went on alert. That only proved my earlier conclusion.

‘’What? What is it?” she asked.

‘’N-nothing. Don’t worry about it,” I replied.

‘’Are you sure?” Captain Monaco question, hand on her gun.

‘’I’m sure,” I smiled, pushing whatever the hell had just happened out of my mind. For a second there, I thought I’d heard Jean’s voice replying back to my inner thoughts, but that was impossible. As we neared the front door, loud barking could clearly be heard. Lucienne sent me a questioning look.

‘’That’s my dog, Jericho. He probably thinks Miles and Katherine are home. Speaking of them, they should be here. I wonder where they are.” I spoke somewhat absentmindedly as I turned the key in the door. Turning the handle, I turned back to the dark haired woman standing behind me.

‘’He may or may not jump,” I stated with a laugh. Lucienne smiled.

‘’That’s okay,” she answered. ‘’I love dogs.” Before I could even get the door completely open, Jericho shot forward, barking. He ran from the porch, across the yard to the tree line. Something in the shadows seemed to catch his eye and Lucienne’s too. Whatever it was, I couldn’t see it. Suddenly a loud crack sounded and Lucienne had her gun drawn, ready to fire before I could even blink. Something was definitely wrong, but what it was, I didn’t know. Just as suddenly as Jericho had shot forward, everything seemed to calm. My puppy simply sat there as some other sound came from the trees and Lucienne relaxed slightly, putting her gun away.

‘’What’s going on,” I asked, my eyes wide. It was only when I spoke did I realized that my body had locked up, frozen in place.

‘’It was nothing,” Lucienne replied, putting her gun away. That still didn’t set me at ease. In fact, my limbs were slightly shaking. I did my best to control, but it was no use. I was at a loss for why I was shaking, Jericho chased after stuff all the time. Captain Monaco was just on high guard, ready to spring into action at the slightest mishap.

‘’He probably just saw a squirrel, or something,” Lucienne spoke flatly.

‘’Let’s just get some of your stuff and get out of here. The Chief will be expecting us back soon. We don’t need him to send a whole squad out here because we’re taking so long.” The Captain’s tone was straightforward and very blunt. She’d gone from relaxed back to the normal, disciplined, rigid soldier mode in a split second. That was definitely not just a squirrel…

‘’Jericho,” I called for my puppy. Without hesitation, my loyal companion came running for me.

‘’Is it okay if I bring him with me?” I asked quietly.

‘’Sure, Colonel Michaels loves dogs,’’ Lucienne answered with a small smile. I smiled back, fighting away my uneasiness. If I wasn’t fighting it, then I was doing my best to hide it, at least.

‘’Good, I could never leave him behind,’’ I replied, scratching behind Jericho’s ears.

‘’I wouldn’t expect you to.’’

~~

‘’Welcome back,” Jean greeted as I poked my head into the office. Jean sat at the table, working on paperwork. He didn’t even look up to see who it was.

‘’How’d you know it was me,” I asked curiously.

‘’I can tell by your footfall pattern. Each person has a distinct one and that I involuntarily seem to memorize,” he replied, signing another paper. At that, Jean looked up and over at me. I was still only sticking my head through the door.

‘’You know you can come in right? I don’t bite. That’s Major Monaco, especially when he’s in the form of a dog. Or a cat… or—well, you get the picture,” Jean laughed easily. I smiled back at him, trying to keep my grip on Jericho’s leather leash, the one that the guy from the canine unit had given me when Lucienne and I returned back to the base.

‘’Speaking of do—“ At that moment, just as I was about to say ‘dog’, Jericho broke from my grip, blowing past the door towards Jean where he sat in a chair. Jean’s eyes widened in surprise just as Jericho jumped on him in a licking frenzy. I dashed forward, calling for the puppy to get down.

‘’Jericho, no!” I called. ‘’Get off of him!” Hearing this, Jericho jumped down from Jean’s lap and sat on the floor at his feet, head drooped. I couldn’t help but let out a quiet laugh, especially when I saw that Jean was smiling. I was relieved, he wasn’t mad.

‘’Who’s this little guy,” Jean asked, petting the puppy sitting on the floor in front of him. Jericho looked back at Jean; letting out a bark of what we both assumed was contentment.

‘’That’s Jericho. Sorry that he mobbed you, he loves new people and he really seems to like you,’’ I explained, sitting at the table next to him.

‘’Jericho, huh? Jericho, as in the tank that North American troops used to bring down the walls of fort Blitz in Europe during the Great Civil War after being shot at by the fort’s heavy infantry for seven days?” Jean asked. I nodded, smiling.

‘’That’s right. They called it fort Blitz because when all the guns were being fired, or even just half of them, it looked like lightning,” I added.

‘’You really know you history, don’t you?’’ Jean asked, signing more papers. I watched as the pen in his hand curved and moved, forming his signature in blue ink.

‘’It’s just common knowledge to me,’’ I answered. Jean smiled.

‘’What else are you good at?”

‘’Everything, I guess. I once aced a test that my science teacher intended for everyone to fail,’’ I laughed. ‘’He still doesn’t believe me when I tell him I didn’t cheat.”

‘’When I was little, my father was an instructor at one of the flight schools out on the west coast of North America. He did the same thing to one of his groups,” Jean replied.

‘’Every single one of them failed it,” he added flatly. I smiled, hearing that there was still some humor hidden within his tone.

‘’Ah, that’s cruel,” I laughed.

‘’The men in that class would agree with you,” Jean grinned, signing the last paper that lay before him.

‘’Where’s Colonel Michaels,” I asked finally.

‘’He’s working out the details of the trip to Central command. It’s nothing for you to worry about,” Jean answered.

‘’Right,” I chimed. ‘’Lucienne said that when I got there, this whole… Lucifer’s Angel thing would be more normal, but I don’t think it ever will be.”

‘’Did you tell here that,” Jean asked, tossing his pen aside as he pulled the black and red uniform jacket back on over his white shirt.

‘’No,” I said shortly as Jean buttoned up the jacket.

’’You should’ve.”

‘’I know I should’ve,” I replied absentmindedly, focusing on the patterns in the wood of the table. Jean shot up from his chair, a wide grin on his face.

‘’YES!” I looked at him like he was insane.

‘’What’s gotten into you all of sudden, Lafayette,” I questioned.

‘’So you did hear me,” he replied, ecstatic. I sent him a confused look, and then, realization hit me. ’’You never know, they might.”

‘’Whoa, you mean you can hear what I’m thinking?” I asked frantically.

‘’Well, I could always do that, I just chose not to. No, I’m happy because you heard me when I replied back, so that means you’ve picked up on the telekinesis power that the superhuman mentality brings. I figured you would eventually, considering the fact that you’ve already shown that you have my ability through your knowledge. You have the ability to access in you brain anything and everything you’ve ever learned and then some. That’s how you aced that test that your science teacher gave you,” Jean explained.

‘’So we can have conversations mentally? I can hear your thoughts and you can hear mine?”

‘’And others,’’ Jean clarified. ‘’Eventually, you’ll be able to hear the thoughts of anyone you want, but that takes a long while.”

‘’Great,” I grumbled, much less enthusiastic about this than Jean was.

‘’Don’t worry, I’ll be there to help you, It’s a miserable time when you don’t have someone to help you with this. Hopefully, for you, you’ll be able to think of this as a gift for as long as possible,” Jean replied, smiling at me.

‘’What is that supposed to mean?” I questioned, feeling slightly sick.

‘’Don’t worry about it for right now. You’ve got enough to deal with right now. Just relax for now. I’m just thrilled that you could actually hear me, though. You see, the only other person I’ve ever had a… mental conversation with, if you can call it that, was with my dad.’’

‘’How did that go,’’ I questioned.

‘’Terrible,’’ Jean replied bluntly. ‘’My father was a terrible conversationalist.” I let out a laugh.

‘’Well, that certainly didn’t pass to you, Jean,” I smiled. Jean sent me a wide grin.

‘’I’m glad you think so, Mary.”