Chapter 29

A brilliant light swept through the gloomy, grieving village. And when it drifted off into the wind, the whole land fell silent as the winged creature sprung out from the hole he made in this world. But as he floated over the frozen crimson ground, his ancient robes transformed into his priestly disguise.

The tiny hospital was nearly a ghost-town now, without a single doctor to take call for as much as a stubbed toe or sore throat. And at the nurse's station near the Emergency Department entrance, Neville rocked a young nurse in his arms as she cried against his chest.

But as his hand came down, it stopped mid-pat like someone pressed pause on the horror movie of their lives. Though they appeared frozen in time, they moved at a pace even an old snail would take offense to. Their world turned too slow to notice that the doors parted, or the black patent leather-clad foot cross over the threshold.

Beautifully bronzed hands brushed the fresh wispy snow from the shoulders of his black cassock. The lights above him flickered as he borrowed their power, and he raised his palm to the staff who comforted each other. "Bless you, children."

His black eyelashes wove together, and he took a deep breath of the air scented in iron and sadness. When he opened his dark eyes, they pulled left to the long hallway that passed the trauma room. His fingers wiggled until a toothy smile came to his face. "Pancakes." A finger gun pointed down the hall. "There you are."

Every door that kept Michael from Mory swung open before him instantly. His lips twisted as he came to the electric lock of the freezer door, and he clicked his tongue for just a moment before he waved the back of his hand at it, and it popped open.

He rubbed the cold from his arms as he stepped back, and the metal wheels of the stretcher creaked as it backed out and presented its sheet-covered self to the angel. His fingertips slid under the seam of the sheet and folded it until Mory's lifeless, dusky face was free of it. The backs of his fingers swept over her cheek as he searched for signs of the life he once saved. "Look what they did to you." A finger wagged back and forth before her nose. "But not to worry, little one."

For the second time in his existence, Michael tasted the lips of a human. An army of trumpets blared from someplace above them, and as he blew his breath into her body, they grew louder until every window and lightbulb around them shattered. Like the night Haldir misted her to the glacier, Mory's eyes snapped open, and she gasped at the beauty before her. "Michael?" Though he looked different than the painting in her father's den, he was still the same kind face that pulled her from the burning house so long ago. "Is that you?"

He hovered over her face, and as her father promised, a familiar smile greeted her. "Hello again, Morana."

The white sheet shifted, and her trembling fingers fought their way free to touch Michael's face. "I remember you. You kept me warm and sang songs to me on the church steps until my parents came for me."

His hand gripped her cool fingers inside them, and he brought her to the side of the metal cart. "And now I've come to take you home once more."

In the warm, bright space where she lingered between then and now, the only face that she saw was Haldir's. "Is he going to be alright without me?"

He pulled her arm around his neck, then the other went under her knees, and when he lifted her from the trolly, his perfect teeth smiled at her. "Oh, yes. My old friend is as solid as an oak, I assure you."

The halls were cold, and she curled up against him as she pulled the thin sheet a little tighter around her. "Can we go get my things? I'm freezing."

The crinkles at the corners of his eyes smiled down at her as Michael nodded. "Yes, of course. You'll be needing them where you're going."

As he carried her through the town square, Mory looked down to the place she laid on the bloody snow-covered ground. "I sure made a mess, didn't I?"

There was amusement in the way he rolled his eyes at her morbid humor, and he understood immediately why she was meant for Haldir. "Yes. You did."

Mory shivered as she tried to wiggle deeper into Michael's arm pit. "Shit. I'm going to freeze to death out here."

The pads of his fingers patted at her shoulder, and his chest jerked against her as he chuckled. "No, I can promise you, that won't be a problem for you anymore."

Even though he'd let the fire die, Haldir's home was warmer than the frigid arctic evening. And while Michael shoved another block of wood into the stove, Mory hopped from the bathroom as she put on her boot. "Can I leave him a note?"

He shut the little door and wiped his hands off as he peeked over the side of the bed. "Yes, of course. Tell him to come to see me when he is through here so I can explain."

She sat on the bedside and pulled her book bag with her. "I understand he's the magic man and all, but even he's not going to believe this shit."

His blood-caked clothes still laid on the floor beside her nightstand, and she fingered the sutured wound in the center of her chest. "He must be a mess right now. I can't even imagine." Teary eyes rose up to meet her old friend. "Promise me he's alright."

Michael's hand waited for her, and even though she understood she had no choice at all, she hesitated. But his kind eyes smiled back at her as he shook his head. "He is taking care of things the best way a man like him knows how."

It was pitch black outside already, but when his master’s command came into his ears, the whole room was awash in warm white light. "I wish there was more time, but we really must go now. The way will shut soon."

The note she wrote laid on his pillow, and she buried her face beside it to take one last breath of him. "I love you."

Mory wrapped the straps of her bags across her, and her fingers went to Michael's palm. "So, where are we off to now?"

Michael's face shined with a golden light as he grinned down at Mory. The bright glow engulfed them, and as they walked the path that led into it, Michael looked down at her. "You had quite a few people up there that were quick to ask for an indulgence for you." His finger poked into her arm. "Most especially one little boy who likes candy very, very much."

"Awe." Her hand covered her heart, and she licked the tear from her lip. "You tell my little buddy that Miss Mory says thank you."