Page 42 of Revelations

He waved a hand in front of her face. For a second, she saw an image of a couple floating in the air. The woman was petite, with curly black hair cascading to her hips. Her eyes were green as the emeralds that matched her velvet dress and cloak. She was smiling up at an incredibly tall and handsome man. His eyes were green as well, his blonde hair closely cropped. Across his chest, etched into his armor, was the crest from her dagger. Embedded in the symbol appeared to be the image of a white opal. Greylyn narrowed her eyes to get a clearer view.

Is that the hilt of my dagger sheathed to his side?

“Their consummated marriage led to you—the last and truest Nephilim. You see…your father was Nephilim, but his ancestor was not a fallen angel. He was an angel, earth-bound for a time to help Joshua wage war on Canaan and Jericho. He was the one who instructed Joshua how to bring down the city walls.”

He waved his hand again in front of Greylyn to reveal the image of crumbling stone walls. She could almost hear the blast of Joshua’s horn in the distance.

The imaged dissolved like water thrown on a fresh coat of paint. Gabriel strolled around the corridor, seeming to take interest in the artwork and sculptures. “Your mother was also Nephilim, but her ancestor was one of Lucifer’s own inner circle. Lucifer destroyed him shortly upon learning of his indiscretion. Despite his more perverse tendencies, he can be quite close-minded when it comes to mixing divine blood with—what did he call it?—hairless apes.” He turned back to her, striding over to capture her hands in his again. “Over a millennia later, generations of Nephilim were hunted and murdered, but somehow…some way… your parents found each other.”

Gabriel sighed deeply. “You, in essence, were born of both Heaven and Hell.”

Whoa! Seriously?

“Yes, seriously. That is what makes you so unique.”

Special. Unique. These were words that did not belong to her. She was messed up in more ways than one. For starters, she was half in lust with a dark guardian. Okay, maybe more than half.

Understanding registered in Gabriel’s eyes. “Greylyn, you truly are one of a kind; the last line of Nephilim, a combined lineage. You alone have the blood of both good and evil running in your veins. Being a guardian does not wipe that away. It makes you more vulnerable, more empathetic to those you work so hard to help, more in touch with all aspects of humanity. You feel both the good and the bad impulses that churn through every human being.”

Honestly, I’d prefer a little less of the bad impulses. Any way to tune those out?

She pulled her hand away from his grasp. “And how do you know all of this? Why have no other angels stepped up to tell me anything? It’s not like I haven’t been around a while. It’s not like you guys didn’t know about the prophecy.” Resentment boiled up in her chest. They had left her wandering around in circles without a clue all this time.

“For the most part, we simply could not.”

She raised her eyebrows at him in disbelief.

“During your normal life, you were made anonymous by your parents, cloaked from all supernatural beings. They knew what a child of theirs meant. So you were hidden away, even from them.”

Hidden from her own parents? Tears brimmed again in her eyes. The need to punch something hard reared up. For a moment, she imagined smacking Gabriel with a right jab to the jaw.

The archangel stepped close to her, so close that the radiant waves of his angelic energy penetrated her auric field. Calm and peace surged through her body.

“Dear Greylyn, they protected you by giving you up so that you could live in the world without fear of Lucifer striking you down. Being anonymous was the greatest gift they could have given you.”

Fantastic! Her parents had given her away. Even though she did not remember her human life, the news still stung. She was not sure that she wanted to hear the rest, but Gabriel continued anyway.

“Shortly after your birth, a servant woman also gave birth to a stillborn child. The infant was buried in a family plot with your name etched in the stone, while the servant woman returned to her home village with you swaddled in a worn rag. She raised you as her own, and never had another child. When she died, the secret died with her. Or so we believed.”

“What about my real parents? What happened to them?” After centuries of denying her own yearning to recall her life, desperation for answers gnawed at her heart.

A cloud came over Gabriel’s eyes. “I am sorry. They died shortly afterward. We believe Lucifer had them killed in his quest to find you. Your father’s own dagger, the one passed down from his ancestors, and the one you hold now, was used to end both their lives.”

A vice squeezed her heart like an archaic machine extracting juice from a tomato. Her beloved dagger, the one constant in her existence since becoming a guardian angel…the one item that gave her any sense of peace and fueled her strength…was the weapon that had killed her parents.

Gabriel raised a hand to caress her cheek. “As to why you have no memory of your human existence, I am afraid I simply do not know the answer.”

He wrapped her in his arms again, the material of his robe silky against her face. A sense of calm rushed through her body, like a soft breeze off a lake during the onset of autumn.

“Greylyn, I go against many of my brethren who believe we should stay out of this situation completely, but I will do all that I can to help you. Sadly, I am afraid that it will be too little.”

In a soft tone, he whispered conspiratorially, “I have told you what I know. I regret that it is not as much as you need. However, there is an oracle who can help guide you. She can give you the insight into your past. The next steps to unravel the prophecy are yours to take.” Gabriel hugged her closely. “Find a way to forsake Olivier, if you can.”

Greylyn opened her mouth to object, but Gabriel stepped away. His visage faded into sparkling orbs that danced in a shimmer of sunlight from a stained glass window and then simply winked out.

He has got to show me how to do that trick.

She shouted out the window, not caring who heard her. “You didn’t even give me a name!”

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