Page 11 of Far From Center
Chapter 6
The woman sighed, gathering her long hair into a knot as she stood. “My name is Nyalla. No titles. No last name. Just Nyalla. Come here. We’ll sit, have a beer, and figure out what we’re going to do about this.”
Gabriel stood and followed her into the main room where she pulled two bottles from the fridge and set them on the table, popping the caps from them.
“I don’t eat or drink. Such sensory experiences reduce my vibration levels and hinder my quest to achieve a centered, balanced life and eventually enlightenment.”
She paused. “Such sensory experiences are going to keep you alive. I don’t know how long this spell is going to take to wear off. You can’t exactly expect to starve and dehydrate in the meantime.”
His midsection twisted painfully again. This was horrible. He might be without his wings, but he wasn’t about to lower himself to such base behaviors. “I’ll be fine. I’m an angel.”
She muttered something about him being a total fool, and how long would he live if he tried to hold his breath for a few days, then she took a drink from one of the bottles. “Fine. Your funeral. Well, hopefully not because I don’t want to be the one to explain that to your eldest brother. Actually, can you call him? I know he has a cell phone, and I’m hoping he might have some angel power that can reverse the wand’s effect.”
His brother had a cell phone? That’s right, he had seen him talking into a small device a few times. How the mighty had fallen. “I doubt he can reverse the effect. I’ll just need to ride it out.”
“Are you positive? He seems pretty powerful. I’m sure if I called Sam, she could get ahold of him and–”
“No!” Gabriel took a few breaths to calm himself. He didn’t want any of his siblings to know. He most definitely didn’t want that imp of an Iblis to know. And besides, the idea that his eldest brother could easily negate a spell that had brought him down was insulting. Micha wasn’tthatmuch more powerful than he was. “I assure you there is nothing any angel can do to help. Eventually the spell will wear off. The timing of this is particularly unfortunate, but patience is a virtue. I’ll simply need to be vigilant and wait, and another opportunity will eventually arise.”
Nyalla’s eyebrows furrowed. “What are you talking about? Were you here on some Ruling Council business? Something you needed to do for your choir? Maybe I can help you. Well, after I finish up with my own project, that is.”
“It was a personal project.” And the idea that this human woman could help him catch and punish an angel was ludicrous.
“And this personal project involved my underwear?”
“Yes–I mean, no. I was…” he might as well be honest about this. “I was searching your room for something.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “In my underwear drawer?”
Why was his face hot? “I didn’t know where you’d put it, so I was searching everywhere. But your room is such a filthy mess that it was impeding my search. I got distracted.”
“You got distracted in my underwear drawer?”
“I got distracted everywhere. You had dirty dishes, opened food containers. Your books weren’t alphabetized or arranged in an aesthetically pleasing manner. And those tiny pants were all balled up and shoved in the drawer. They’re wrinkled. I was going to iron them, but I didn’t think I’d have time for that.”
Nyalla stared at Gabe for a few moments then began to laugh. “Ironthem? Never mind. What did you think I had in my underwear drawer?”
“The scroll. The one you received on the beach. The one from the Gormand.”
She sucked in a breath. “I knew there was another demon nearby — I mean angel. Sorry, but you guys both read the same energy-wise. I can never tell the difference between angels and demons. How did you hide from me? Invisibility? Did you turn yourself into a rock or a grain of sand?”
“I was the water,” he told her, uncertain why she was more concerned about what form he’d taken than the fact that he had been spying on her.
“You were thewater? As in you were holding your breath underwater because you were an angel at that time? Or you were a fish?”
Where was she going with this? “No, I was the water. I have an affinity for the element. If I need to manifest a physical form, I’d far rather become the ocean itself than a creature or a rock. There’s a sense of eternity in the sea, a feeling of infinity, of cosmic balance. Outside of Aaru, it’s the place I feel most at home.”
Her mouth made an ‘O’. “I would give anything to be able to do that. Anything. To become the water itself…” She shook her head. “Back to the scroll, if you wanted to know what was on it, why didn’t you ask? All you would have had to do was come to me and tell me that you were the Archangel Gabriel and you wanted to read the scroll.”
One of his eyebrows lifted. He wasn’t sure why, but it felt like an appropriate expression in response to her statement. “I cannot believe you would have willingly handed over the scroll to a stranger who came up to you claiming to be an archangel. You hit me in the head with a frying pan.”
“Because you were in my room going through my underwear drawer,” she shot back. “And yes, I would have handed it over because I can see your heart.”
Gabe looked down at his chest, even pulling the neck of his shirt out. “You have X-ray vision? And what does my circulatory organ have to do with being trustworthy?”
“It’s a metaphor. Or a simile. I always get them mixed up. I have a gift. I can see your intentions. Walking up and introducing yourself, perhaps even using that magic word ‘please’ would have gotten you cooperation. Breaking into my room and being angry with me, wanting to punish me, gets you hit in the head with a frying pan.”
“I wasn’t angry when I was going through your underwear drawer,” he argued.
